The Eco-Institute at Sanctuary Farm

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✨ Winter Solstice Spiral of Light ✨

Join us on the longest night of the year as we gather to honor darkness, welcome the returning light, and renew our hopes for the world.

Through candlelight, music, warm drinks, and ceremony, we walk the Spiral of Light together… each person carrying a flame from the center and placing it along the spiral, spreading light outward in a living mandala of community and prayer.

This beautiful, Earth-honoring ritual has become a cherished annual tradition, offering space for reflection, connection, and quiet wonder.

🕯 Bring a candle-lit lantern if you have one
🧣 Dress warmly — this gathering is outdoors

📅 Sunday, December 21 | 6–7:30pm
✨ Register to join us ✨

Have you been thinking of joining the Eco-Institute’s Garden Cooperative? The Fall Season starts THIS WEEK, and a few spots are still open!

✨ Sessions with space:
🌙 Monday Evening
🌞 Wednesday Morning
🌙 Wednesday Evening

Fall is the season of abundant herbs, vibrant flowers, healing roots, and lush leafy greens… and this has been a legendary year for green beans!

🌱 Don’t miss out on the magic. Sign up today!
🔗 Link in profile.

🌿 The Circle is Forming... 🌍

Folks from all over the Southeast are signing up for Regenerative Permaculture Week… a transformational week of deep connection, hands-in-the-soil learning, and reconnection with Earth-based wisdom.

We’re honored to welcome back Ojibwe Elder Dan Wahpepah, who calls this “one of his favorite gatherings of the year.” This year, we may even be joined by his sister… bringing even more richness to the circle of teachings.

If you’ve been feeling the pull to root deeper, learn in community, and participate in regenerative healing for yourself and the planet… this is your invitation.

🌱 Join us: https://eco-institute.org/permaculture-foundations-certificate

Let’s grow something beautiful together. 💚

Permaculture Foundations with Dan Wahpepah & Meg Toben at The Eco-Institute — The Eco-Institute With the hope that Permaculture can be taught in a decolonialist way that honors indigenous wisdom, we sent out a call for indigenous permaculture teachers who might be willing to collaborate with us. Dan Wahpepah answered this call, and we look forward to this 5-day course as our first in-person co

Retreat with Lama Rod at Sanctuary Farm! ☀️July 31st-August 3rd 🌿

We’re so excited to be collaborating with .gates and for a four-day retreat in Chapel Hill, North Carolina later this month 💜 Like all Dharma Gates programs, this retreat is offered by-donation ✨

Space is limited, so we recommend registering soon! 🦋

In a world struggling through injustice, uncertainty, and collective grief, the time has come for a new kind of spiritual warrior—one who leads with love, stands in their truth, and walks with compassion. “Each of us can be a new saint,” says Lama Rod Owens. “In our pain, our trauma, and all our complexity, we all can (and must) awaken the virtue of our compassion for the benefit of our communities, our planet, and our own souls.”

Inspired by Lama Rod’s book The New Saints, this retreat invites us to reimagine sainthood not as beings of stained glass or carved stone, but through a lived presence and deep commitment to awakening amid the chaos of modern life. Through spiritual teachings, contemplative and somatic practices, ritual, and honest community, we’ll explore how to show up for ourselves and each other with courage, accountability, and radical presence.��This retreat is for anyone ready to reclaim their power and live into their calling—not as saviors, but as sacred disruptors rooted in love. We’ll ask: What does it mean to be a new saint in the midst of it all? How do we become sanctuaries for others while not abandoning ourselves? This work reinforces the truth of our interdependency, allowing us to be of service to the collective well-being, and to call on the support and strength of the countless beings who share our struggles and hopes.

☀️This retreat is commuter-style, which means it’s daytime only and does *not* include overnight accommodation. Accommodation must be independently arranged by participants.

🪴 Our sessions will be held 9am-5pm and lunch will be provided to the group daily.

✍️To register, tap the link in the .gates bio! 🔗

Sanctuary Farm is honored to be hosting inspiring teacher Lama Rod Owens at the end of July! Pass along this beautiful pay-what-you-can invitation to a four day mediation retreat for young adults (ages 18-35) 🤲 Link in comments 🔗

Retreat with Lama Rod in North Carolina! ☀️July 31st-August 3rd 🌿

We’re so excited to be collaborating with for a four-day retreat in Chapel Hill, North Carolina later this month 💜 Like all Dharma Gates programs, this retreat is offered by-donation ✨

Space is limited, so we recommend registering soon! 🦋

In a world struggling through injustice, uncertainty, and collective grief, the time has come for a new kind of spiritual warrior—one who leads with love, stands in their truth, and walks with compassion. “Each of us can be a new saint,” says Lama Rod Owens. “In our pain, our trauma, and all our complexity, we all can—and must—awaken the virtue of our compassion for the benefit of our communities, our planet, and our own souls.”

Inspired by Lama Rod’s book The New Saints, this retreat invites us to reimagine sainthood not as beings of stained glass or carved stone, but through a lived presence and deep commitment to awakening amid the chaos of modern life. Through spiritual teachings, contemplative and somatic practices, ritual, and honest community, we’ll explore how to show up for ourselves and each other with courage, accountability, and radical presence.

This retreat is for anyone ready to reclaim their power and live into their calling—not as saviors, but as sacred disruptors rooted in love. We’ll ask: What does it mean to be a new saint in the midst of it all? How do we become sanctuaries for others while not abandoning ourselves? This work reinforces the truth of our interdependency—allowing us to be of service to the collective well-being, and to call on the support and strength of the countless beings who share our struggles and hopes. 

☀️This retreat is commuter-style, which means it’s daytime only and does *not* include overnight accommodation. Accommodation must be independently arranged by participants.

🪴 Our sessions will be held 9am-5pm and lunch will be provided to the group daily.

✍️To register, tap the link in our bio! 🔗

Summer Garden Cooperative still has a few spaces available for returning members!! The plump blackberries & juicy sweet blueberries are ROCKING and so are the tender squash, cucumbers and herbs! Did we mention there are fresh cut flower bouquets for days?! 💐 ✌🏼

✨🌱 COMMUNITY HARVEST CELEBRATION 🌱✨
This week, the Eco-Institute’s Community Garden Cooperative at Sanctuary Farm gathered for our end-of-season potluck — and it was pure magic.

All spring, we’ve been tending not just the land, but each other — growing food, growing courage, growing connection in a time when so much around us feels like it’s unraveling. As we witness the harms of fascism, end-stage capitalism, and deep systemic injustice, this garden has been our refuge, our place of grounded resistance, and our source of hope.

Through rain and sun, we’ve shown up weekly to share gratitude, speak truth, and take collective action in support of Life. At the End-of-Season Potluck, joy overflowed. Music filled the air, plates were overflowing with the freshest harvest (shout out to carrots, kale, lettuce, fresh herbs, garlic, and the first black raspberries of the season!) The love was palpable. 💚🌼

As we move into Summer, the Cooperative is now in a closed session for returning members — but we’re thrilled to open registration for new members this Fall!

Come join us in this sacred, grounded, and joyful work of growing food and community resilience ✊🏽🌍



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Spring Garden Cooperative Begins! Monday Evening Session was soggy but happy to be back in the dirt! How many years is this?! 16? 18? 🌱

You are invited to join Meg Toben & Dan Wahpepah for an Interest Call TOMORROW, Sunday January 19th at 4pm EST.

Here is the Google Meet info:

Permaculture Week Interest Call
Sunday, January 19 · 4:00 – 5:00pm Eastern Standard Time
Video call link: https://meet.google.com/vva-ypys-jyc

Can't make it tomorrow? We'll have another Interest Call on February 9th!

Permaculture Week Interest Call
Sunday, February 9 · 4:00 – 5:00pm Eastern Standard Time
Video call link: https://meet.google.com/ohe-vomu-yxa

RSVP by commenting here or send us a message!

Calling all Grief & Death Workers!

Please RSVP to [email protected] and bring a potluck dish. We will gather at 3pm on Sunday February 2, hold an introduction & sharing circle, and then enjoy a potluck meal together. All those working or interested in working with Grief & Death are welcome.

A bit about your hosts:

Katherine Savage is a death midwife in Celo, NC whose purpose is building a culture in which people live in accordance with the planet’s regenerative cycles. She offers ways and means for people to attune their lives to the universal forces of creation and dissolution, so that death can become their teacher. With skill and care, she guides individuals on their personal journey to open to the wisdom of this teacher, and supports communities in building practices that dignify the dying process and honor the earth that will receive us. Through thoughtfully tending the vision of death as the foundation of our awareness, Katherine plants the seeds for a culture that embodies a way of living harmoniously with the earth that conjured us.

Meg Toben of Sanctuary Farm is in an exploration of reclaiming Community-held Grief & Death Culture, and how Sanctuary Farm might be of service to this vision as one of many local hubs across NC.

Special thanks to co-sponsors Heart2HeartNC & Heartward Sanctuary. 🙏🏽