Seminary: Path of Crow
The Vision: We are all called.
Some hear and hesitate. Some hear yet turn away unable to imagine the possibility. Sadly, some never hear. And then, there are the few who hear and answer, “Yes!” This program is for you!
Here you will be invited to join a select group of Lovers, found across faith traditions, who have entered into the portals of religious experience, the Love, in search of their Beloved, to experience moments of mystical unity with their God. On the way, by engaging in practices from across faith traditions, you will discover for yourself, “Many are the ways we pray to one God” for each portal opens us to the same mystery, deeply personal and intimate yet graciously, beyond all understanding.
But, this is not a journey you will take alone or without support. Our program is unique in that you are offered both concrete instruction as well as a personal guide to accompany you from beginning to end. The instruction takes the form of The Path of Crow, a 26-Module core curriculum; additional books from our founder, Rev. Dr. Stephanie Rutt, detailing how to navigate the inner sanctuary and create the conditions for mystical unity with God; and the key part of our program which is one that you and your personal Seminary Guide will design together in response to your specific interests.
The Tree of Life Interfaith Seminary program is designed to be completed in two years, accommodating most people’s life circumstances. However, in the event of extenuating circumstances, seminarians are given the option to complete the program in three years.
Join others who have answered, “Yes!” You will become part of our vibrant Tree of Life community. Allow Love to have its way with you. It will not leave you where you began.
An Invitation
“It is my belief that in the Presence of God there is neither male nor female,white nor black,Gentile nor Jew, Protestant nor Catholic, Hindu, Buddhist, nor Moslem,but a human spiritstripped to the literal substance of itself before God.”~
Howard Thurman
Prior to written history, humanity has looked to the stars searching and yearning for some greater connection to Creation and the Creator. Since ancient times, mystics and sages have sprung from various cultures and traditions to unearth symbols and words that might express the universality of these sacred experiences and knowing. The mystery springs from the same Source; from Love itself, God, Goddess, Spirit.
“Here you will be invited to join a select group of Lovers, found across faith traditions, who have entered into the portals of religious experience, the Love, in search of their Beloved, to experience moments of mystical unity with their God. On the way, by engaging in practices from across faith traditions, you will discover for yourself, 'Many are the ways we pray to one God' for each portal opens us to the same mystery, deeply personal and intimate, yet graciously beyond all understanding.”
Seminary Class of 2013
Your only pre-requisite is to step forward with your authentic self, inviting your past, your inherited traditions, your ancestral beliefs, your questions, your angst, your troubles, your Love, and your willingness to glimpse into the timelessness of the Divine.
Patiently waiting within you as you explore the mystical traditions of various faith traditions is something yet to be fully known. There is a spark of the Divine within. It’s yours, and it’s worthy, and it waits.
Rev Ahjan Grossman
Current Seminary Director
In today’s world, we seek with a heightened urgency the knowledge of this very same sacred connection. Some, in frustration with religious structures, have set down the relationship with the Holy all together. And yet, even in the most chaotic times an inward nudge suggests that there must be something more beyond this battle of material life. In 1897, artist Paul Gauguin had scrawled this ongoing contemplation across the top of one of his paintings; “Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?”The Tree of Life Interfaith Temple Seminary allows for a safe and inner-exploratory pathway to our sacred connection and union with this Creative Source of Love. As our Temple Founder, Rev. Dr. Stephanie Rutt has written: