Madre Grande Monastery
A Sacred site for healing, teaching, ceremony, and celebration
Madre Grande Monastery was founded December, 1975 by a group of young theosophists, philosophers, spiritual seekers, teachers, healers, and assorted hippies and cool people. Their primary goals included establishing a permanent site for healing, retreat, ceremony and celebration, and the creation of a community of loving kindness devoted to physical health and spiritual growth.
Monasteries do not have to be the drab and somber institutions that most people have in mind, places of rigid worship, austerity, and celibacy. At Madre Grande you do not have to lose yourself in prayer to the eternal. You do not even have to worship or hold the same beliefs as your brothers and sisters in the monastery. There are monasteries where all these things can be found, but they are not the practices and characteristics that make our community a monastery.
To us, a monastery is a community of monks, friars, and aspirants, male and female, single or coupled, who share a desire for social and spiritual growth and evolution. We are consciously seeking to improve ourselves and our world, and work together to achieve these goals. We encourage each person to find their own positive path to spiritual freedom through whatever belief system or methods work best for them. We live and work together to achieve our individual and communal goals. The "monas" in monastery is Greek meaning unity or "one". The unity is the group mind of the Monks, manifested in our open, honest, and loving relationship with each other.
Our monastery is located in the boulder covered hills near Dulzura, CA, not far from San Diego, in an isolated valley of great natural beauty and sacred power. We invite you to contact us and arrange a visit or attend a retreat.
The Paracelsian Order is a theosophical monastic order for men and women of all faiths and cultural traditions. It is a religious corporation expressly established to make religion more theosophical. Monks are not required to believe anything in particular. It is only necessary that they follow a positive path to spiritual fulfillment. This is an Order for healers, teachers, and beings with a deep connection and reverence for Nature.
Members of the Order are either Monks or Friars. Monks reside in and belong to monasteries. Friars of monasteries belong to a monastery, but are not residents of them. Friars of the Order are not attached to monasteries. All members, men and women, are called Monks or Friars and no distinction is made regarding gender. The Paracelsian Order is the parenting body for theosophical monasteries.They are Madre Grande Monastery in San Diego County, California, and the seed Live Oak Monastery in San Luis Obispo County, California. The Paracelsian Order is a California Church Corporation with 501(c)3 tax-exempt status.
The monastery is located on traditional Kumeyaay land, and the earlier residents left ample signs of their presence. We hold this land as sacred to the feminine principle, Madre Grande, the Great Mother, Kwan Yin, Gaia, Mother Earth.... It is the sister mountain and right eye of Cuchama, one of the Sacred Mountains discussed in the book "Sacred Mountains" by Evans-Wentz. It is the home of the Monks and a place of retreat for its members and friends.