Thomas Berry:

“Through human beings, the Universe has begun to remember and tell its own story of being born and growing up…We can experience the Universe in its full grandeur, and deeply sense the numinous presence that pervades the entire world around us. To awaken to the wonder of the Universe is to appreciate life in its full excitement. We might also develop a new capacity to relate to each other. A reverence for the Universe is the beginning of true reverence for the divine and for each other.

Nowhere is the telling of this story more important than to children. Human life will be very different if our children learn the story. The first obligation of one generation to the next is to bring together Universe and child so that the Universe is fulfilled in the child and the child is fulfilled in the Universe.

We need to hear the story from our cradle days through all stages of our lives, for we refer to the Universe for our origin and ultimate destiny. It’s time to reshape our thinking inside of this context. Indeed, our future depends on it."

The New Cosmology, the New Story and the Cosmic Story

These terms refer to the story of the emerging evolutionary universe. The universe story is our story. Thomas Berry says we are in trouble now because we do not have a good story. We are between stories. The old story of how the world came to be is not functioning properly, we are destroying Earth and we need a new story to help to live in right relationship with Earth and Cosmos. Learning this story places us in relationship to all of the more than human. “We cannot know ourselves in any adequate manner except through an account of the transformations of the universe and of the planet Earth through which we came into being. This new story of the universe is our personal story as well as our community story. [Source: Earth Literacy site]

Earth Literacies (per their website: https://www.earthliteracies.org/betsey-crawford-the-cosmos-within-us)

We humans have brought ourselves to a fascinating and challenging point. By our numbers and our choices, particularly in the last 200 years, we’ve grown into an equivalent of the geological forces that have shaped our planet over its 4.5 billion year life.

Our effect on the thin layer of atmosphere blanketing the earth means that we are potentially altering the ability of every living thing to prosper, or even exist. Our use of resources is far outstripping the earth’s ability to replenish them. Millions of people worldwide are grappling with these challenges, which represent not just things to do but require new ways to think.

Where do we look for inspiration? To the universe itself, suggests cosmologist Brian Swimme. In 2005, Brian recorded a series of talks on the powers of the universe, the modes the cosmos itself operates by. There are eleven of them: seamlessness, centration, allurement, emergence, homeostasis, cataclysm, synergy, transmutation, transformation, interrelatedness, and radiance.

These energies have been operating for 13.7 billion years. They are still the forces forming the cosmos, operating every moment through all its manifestations, including us. By opening ourselves to these energies, we become the universe becoming itself. We reengage with the planet we live on. We reimagine the future we can create.

Universe Stories...

VIDEOS (public)

• BEST SHORT Video (Youtube) 2024 “A Radical Guide to Reality” Dr. Jude Currivan (16-17 minutes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GkLM8o4RXc

• Video (YouTube): 2013 Brian Swimme “Journey of the Universe” (56 + minutes). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulXfIv3wHvg

• Video (Youtube) 2007 Brian Swimme 10 part series, short (2-11 min.each) https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEAE66D74118D75D5

• Videos (Center for the Story of the Universe) Brian Swimme 11 videos (45 min. each)

• “Powers of the Universe” . https://storyoftheuniverse.org/power-the-universe/

• Powers of the Universe, Betsey Crawford. https://thesouloftheearth.com/powers-of-the-universe/

• Center for the Story of the Universe: https://storyoftheuniverse.org

BOOKS (Children)

• Born with a Bang: The Universe Tells Our Cosmic Story (48 pages) + From Lava to Life + Mammals Who Morphed (Trilogy by Jennifer Morgan), hard cover and paperback (Ages 9 to adult)

• The Seamless Universe, 2015, author/illustrator Donna Gibbs, CJS, 62 pages, soft cover (Ages 5 to adult), Outskirts Press.com

• Great Ball of Fire! A Poetic Telling of the Universe Story BettyAnn Kissilove, 89 pages softcover, (Ages 10 to adult), greatballoffirebk@gmail.com

BOOKS (Adults)

• 2023 Cosmogenesis, An Unveiling of the Expanding Universe Brian Thomas Swimme,Available hardcover/paperback/audio, 336 pages

• 1996, 2019 Hidden Heart of the Universe, Brian Thomas Swimme, paperback, 144 pages

• 1994 Universe Story, From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era, Brian Swimme & Thomas Berry (science-based autobiographical fiction of the Universe), paperback and hardcover, 320 pages

• 1984 The Universe is a Green Dragon, A Cosmic Creation Story, Brian Swimme, paperback, 168 pages https://storyoftheuniverse.org/books/the-universe-is-a-green-dragon

ORGANIZATIONS

• Journey of the Universe: www.journeyoftheuniverse.org

  • Journey of the Universe Conversations

    Journey of the Universe: 10 Years Later

• The Human Energy Project: www.humanenergy.io

• Deep Time Network: www.dtnetwork.org

PUBLIC BROADCASTING SYSTEM (PBS)

• Our Knowledge of the Universe | PBS LearningMedia. Jun 10, 2016

• Galaxies and the History of the Universe | Lesson Plan PBS LearningMedia. Mar 18, 2021

• What is the Universe? Explore the Cosmos. - Lesson Boosters YouTube · Lesson Boosters - Kids Science and History Videos. Nov 20, 2023

• Origin and Evolution of the Universe. PBS LearningMedia. https://www.pbslearningmedia.org › subjects › science. Find lessons on Origin and Evolution of the Universe for all grades. Free interactive resources and activities for the classroom and home.