About Us

I received my Master’s in Social Work from the University of Texas in 1972 and then worked in the social service fields of mental health, drug and alcohol treatment, domestic violence and child abuse. During that time I began my post-graduate training in Jungian theory and practice and in 1978 began working in private practice as a therapist, specializing in the counseling of individuals and couples.

From the beginning I found that working in groups had many advantages as the group process could assist people in profound ways. Later, I began to see that it could also help people enormously as they worked towards transformational and spiritual growth. While I was a professional therapist, I entered my Saturn return and my life changed radically. It was hard not to throw the baby out with the bath water. I began to study astrology, but this only served as the doorway to the limitless world of metaphysical and transformational Work. I never desired to approach astrology as a tool for describing what a person is like or predicting what might happen to them. I simply went back and forth between studying astrology and working with clients and began to discover how astrology could assist people to grow and become more self-aware. This is what began to bridge the gap between traditional therapy and transpersonal and depth psychology.

I was like a sponge as I absorbed all the works of Carl Jung, who saw the psyche as a play of archetypes, which doesn’t just form us and make us who we are, but points us in the direction of what we can do to evolve and become whole or complete. He called this evolutionary process ‘individuation.’ My metaphysical research grew from there to include the works of G.I. Gurdjieff, and Carlos Castaneda, but my love of philosophy also took me to the study of many of the world’s religions, with special emphasis on their esoteric traditions, including Gnosticism, Sufism, Kabbalah, and Buddhism. I was greatly influenced by the works of Alan Watts, Krishnamurti, and several writers on the Kabbalah and especially loved the Golden Dawn system, with its beautiful and potent rituals and an elegant philosophical system that combined the Tree of Life, Tarot, numerology, astrology, and the Hebrew alphabet, into one system. I was especially entranced by ‘Sacred geometry,’ because it delved into the mysteries of why the numbers mean what they do. I felt the need to develop the mind, heart and body so they can integrate and function together harmoniously.

From the beginning, my motivation has been to make transformation possible and understandable for myself and others. I wanted to find a practical, experience-oriented approach to the Mysteries. Of course, it is important to talk about the many ideas, theories, and imaginings that have been written, but it remains limited unless it can lead a person to direct experience. Although astrology can help us learn about the ‘Soul’ and karmic needs of a person, what is even more helpful is for a person to cognite on these things for themselves. So, I wanted to discover how we can go deeper. How can we experience ‘Soul’ with a knowingness that is so clear that a person can and will act on what they’ve discovered?  How can the reality of evolution become so substantial that a person will then want to devote themselves to that Work.

This School of Wisdom is the result of all that I’ve picked up on the way, with a special emphasis on direct experience. To me one’s birth chart is a map of our possible evolution. But in order for us to evolve to a higher level of functioning, that path can only be travelled consciously. Helena Blavatsky, the founder of the Theosophical Society, expressed this by suggesting that evolution, to be true evolution, must be conscious. If it’s automatic, we can call it change, but it’s not evolution. Ultimately the human being’s true and greatest destiny is to evolve, and for that to occur, one must find out ‘Who’ they are and to then operate in life from that place. This is means that our Path is a personal one and the most central part of our Journey is to discover “What” that is. My life has been and is to travel this path and to do my best to assist others to learn to do the same. My aim is to empower people so they are able to find the clarity to discover their own unique path and the strength to travel it.

 

 

Carol had certain life-changing experiences at an early age which have become a light on her path that guides her through life. She writes, “I remember vividly the moment when I experienced simultaneously being in/out of my body, empty/full, being all that was around me without separation. It was the first time that I had experienced what I now have come to know as the state of non-duality.” This propelled her on a life-long journey to discover what that spontaneous experience really meant and to answer the question of how that incredible state could be attained and made more permanent. This, in turn, led her to question the nature of existence and to deeply inquire into questions such as, “Is there a purpose to Life and if so, what is it?” and “How and where do I fit?” 

She writes further that “Over the years I have discovered that the answers are and have always been within me and that my task is to find ways to access these. Some answers have come through a direct experience of Grace, while many others have been through my experiences with the many people who have taught me so much throughout my life. I am grateful and humbled to be traveling this journey. It is because the Sher School of Wisdom supports and encourages this type of inquiry that I have become involved.” 

Carol’s current role in the Sher School of Wisdom is to promote the purpose and philosophy of the school and manage the website.  She also provides administrative and monitoring support during the Enlightenment Intensives.