Founded in 2010, Sacred Mountain Sanctuary is comprised of an educational environment for children and adults, a retreat/hermitage facility, biodynamic educational farm, hundreds of acres of conserved land, and neighboring residential community. Conveniently located only 13 miles from Asheville, our Sanctuary is surrounded by Pisgah National forest and the greater Hominy Valley.
SMS is home to a 90 acre learning environment, SOLA School of Living Arts. SOLA offers learning for grades pre-K through grade 12, hosts farm and forest based homeschool enrichment programs, summer camps and classes for all ages, infant to elder. Our many classroom structures and areas of activity function together much like an 'educational ecology', supporting meaningful work, study, and skills that are essential to the lives and wellbeing of our own, and the greater community. A learning experience at Sacred Mountain Sanctuary welcomes participants of any age to share an intimate, immersive experience with nature, and encourages an abiding reverence and respect for all life.
Our Sanctuary hosts medicinal and food gardens, and is home to chickens, sheep, horses, rabbits, bees, children, adults and abundant wildlife, all of whom are essential participants in the stewardship of this sacred place. Our farms, fields, orchards and forests are a living context for our educational programs and our community, and are integral to any learning experience at SMS. As a Sanctuary, we hold all life as sacred, and offer the land and its resources as a place of safety and sustenance for all living things.
Sacred Mountain Sanctuary is nestled on hundreds of acres of pristine mountain land, surrounded by Pisgah National Forest. The property encompasses 2 mountain coves and neighbors a 3600ft elevated mountain bald with breathtaking views of Mount Pisgah and the surrounding areas. The coves are abundant with crystalline springs and important native plant species. Much of the property is blessed with a centuries-old mixed deciduous forest, making it an important species repository of the Southern Appalachian biome.
It is our hope that each individual who experiences Sacred Mountain Sanctuary will take with them an abiding sense of wonder that will permeate everyday life and inspire a sense of profound inter-being. Click below for an evolving history of SMS, written by co-founder, Septimbor Lim.