Marilyn Hamilton's Blog, page 7

Patterns of Purpose – 5 Themes for Findhorn Community

From the 5 Inspirations and 8 Potential Purpose Statements the Findhorn Community discovered 5 Key Themes.Exploring how they resonated with the expressions of those themes revealed where was most energy for Patterns of Purpose.We are a Spiritual Community.We connect with the Intelligences of Nature.We Evolve and Support One Another.We are a Regenerative and Resilient Community.We are in Service to the World.

Findhorn: Work in Progresss – Draft Purpose Statements

As Ecovillage Findhorn Community explored 5 Inspirations for its Community Purpose, it drafted 8 potent and potential Purpose Statements.(Inspired by Strategic Framework): We are an inclusive, vibrant spiritual community exploring co-creation with all life, seen and unseen. We are a caring community here for the benefit of all.We take personal and collective responsibility for our own spiritual practice and from this place of deep connection we are of service to the world.Evolving, developing and co-creating in harmony with one another, with nature, spirit and the planet, whilst fostering a kind, caring and vibrant community.

 

(Inspired by Dorothy MacLean): We intend to cultivate a personal relationship with the sacred mystery and the capacity to co-operate with the intelligence of nature and all beings, seen and unseen, and to encourage awareness of spiritual laws and develop ways of living in harmony with them.

 

(Inspired by Patrick Lewington): In the spirit of community we continue to evolve and support each other to live in alignment with our roots of inner listening, recognising all action as an opportunity to be present with love in co-creation with all, in recognition of our interdependence.

 

(Inspired by Global Ecovillage Network (GEN)): We aspire to live a life of applied spirituality, creating a regenerative, resilient and loving community of interconnectedness with all life.(Inspired by Whole community purpose): To live together as an intentional community in harmony with nature, putting our shared values and principles into practice in our daily lives, to support each other on our spiritual paths and enhance the quality of our lives.

8. To demonstrate practical spirituality, finding unity through inspiration and diversity, creating a safe environment to expand compassionate consciousness, to grow mature humans who naturally and unavoidably demonstrate and inspire transformation for themselves and others, and aspire to embody a multi-dimensional practical spirituality.

Inspirations for Community Purpose: Findhorn

The Community of Findhorn has been journeying on a Purpose Quest.We started by contemplating 5 Inspirations.

Working in small clusters of 5 people, for each inspiration we asked ourselves:

In what way does this Inspiration express Community Purpose? 

(Circle 3 phrases) what do you resonate with – affirm, want to retain? (Strikethrough 2 phrases) What would you like to let go of, delete, re-phrase? What (1 phrase) would you like to add, expand, deepen?

Inspiration 1: A Whole Community Purpose

An invitation to a conversation –

Co-Creating a Thriving and Loving World

As a conscious community we strive to demonstrate a practical spirituality in harmony with Nature and play our part to positively transform humanity and the earth.

The purpose of the whole Community is to be a place of inspiration and transformation – a centre of love and light, a centre of fiery hope. We hold a positive vision for humanity and the Earth, a commitment to deep and practical spirituality and to true ecology – caring for each other and caring for our planet. We seek to raise awareness individually and collectively in our day-to-day activities and radiate this out into the world. We hold a deep longing for humanity to live in peace and with gratitude and respect for the natural world.

We are a living, dynamic, practical experiment, building and seeking to demonstrate in physical form what is possible by working together as an intentional Community. We seek to create and hold spaces that are caring for the soul – places of beauty where we learn and practice the healing power of love. We seek to be visionary, vital, vibrant and viable on this Earth.

Part of our history and spiritual architecture has been three guiding principles for how to live and work in our Community. These principle are: inner listening, work is love in action, and co-creation with the intelligence of Nature. They continue to guide us today as articulated in our Common Ground statement. Individually we respond in different ways to the call of this centre. We welcome this diversity. Together we aspire to respond to the call of the world, to call of our time.

(Source: Inquiry Circle, 2018)

Inspiration 2: Strategic FrameworkEvolving, developing and co-creating in harmony with each other and with nature, including all beings both seen and unseen;Honouring our purpose in the world: fostering a caring community and living in spirit with each other;Accessibility to all through affordable housing, prioritising people over vehicles, inclusive design, and space to make a living;Living in harmony with planet: carbon neutrality, growing our own food, planting and caring for nature, and nurturing wildlife;Reaching out to the world: being an example of how to live, educating, welcoming visitors to live and learn with us and going out into the world as advocates.

(Source: Strategic Framework, Findhorn Foundation, Collective Architecture, 2024)

Inspiration 3: Global Ecovillage Network Vision/Mission/Goals

Vision: The  Global Ecovillage Network envisions a world of empowered citizens and communities, designing and implementing their own pathways to a sustainable future, and building bridges of hope and international solidarity.

Mission: To innovate, catalyze, educate and advocate in global partnership with ecovillages and all those dedicated to the shift to a regenerative world.GoalsTo advance the education of individuals from all walks of life by sharing the experience and best practices gained from the networks of ecovillages and sustainable communities worldwide.To advance human rights, conflict resolution, and reconciliation by empowering local communities to interact globally, while promoting a culture of mutual acceptance and respect, effective communications, and cross-cultural outreach.To advance environmental protection globally by serving as a think tank, incubator, international partner organization, and catalyst for projects that expedite the shift to sustainable and resilient lifestyles.To advance citizen and community participation in local decision-making, influencing policy-makers, and educating the public, to accelerate the transition to sustainable living.

(Source: Global Ecovillage Network Website)

Inspiration 4: Patrick Lewington

Let’s express the 3 founding principles  in more contemporary language…

Inner listening/Outer Action…it is not just listening to a higher power but doing the next right action

Work as love in action… being present with whatever we are doing

Cocreation with nature/Gaia …is developing an intimate connection with Gaia

Our collective purpose is already clear….it is to achieve work towards mastery and maturity in all 4 realms…the physical, the emotional, the mental and spiritual, and we are together in fellowship to support each other in this endeavour.

  (Source: Patrick Lewington, Personal Communication)

Inspiration 5: Dorothy MacLean

Throughout the many years of doing workshops with Dorothy two questions always were asked of her – ‘What is God?’ and some version of  “What is the purpose of Findhorn?’.

To the first she would always reply – “God is love’.

To the second she would recount the time of being told by a deva ‘that an idea, once in human consciousness, spreads around and does its work’.

Findhorn’s job is to put two ideas or notions into human consciousness. One – that we can all have a direct and personal relationship with the Divine, no intermediary required. And two – that we all have the capacity to co-operate with the intelligence of nature.”  She would go on to underline her knowing that we all have the capacity to do both of these things.

( Her willingness to continue to travel and teach until she was nearly 90 came from understanding that her workshops helped to put these ideas into human consciousness and helped/supported people to find their own connections to both.)

(Source: Judy McAllister, personal communication )

What’s the Purpose of Purpose for Ecovillage?

This clutch of blogs explores the thinking and background that goes into developing an Ecovillage as it matures from teenager to young adult:

How to re-think the stewardship of Commons?How to transfer land holdings from a founding organization to the community?How to design Governance for a community of organizations?How to develop a Local Place Plan with the Community?How to think about the Purpose of our Park Ecovillage Findhorn?

This blog continues the unfolding importance of exploring and explicating Purpose in the ecovillage.

Findhorn Foundation (FF) – the founding organization of the Park Ecovillage Findhorn – has, in the last 3 years, survived a series of polycrisis (from Brexit, to Covid, to Lockdown, to arson of Sanctuary and Community Centre, to global financial challenges, to energy cost increases, to global market disruptions). So in order to survive and focus on its core calling of spiritual education, FF has chosen to divest itself of land and amenities that are not needed to serve that purpose.

And the Community of the Park Ecovillage Findhorn (PEF) that has grown up around FF and become a thriving human settlement (aka human hive) has responded by negotiating a 3-stage agreement to buy significant lands and amenities from FF. By stepping into this decision, the Community is attuning to a statement of Purpose that resonates with and serves Planet, Place, People and Person.

As the implications of the changes altering FF have become apparent in the last year individuals, associations and organisations have inquired into different aspects of community life in PEF. We have seen these groups emerge – each with a critical intention:

Commons Inquiry – a subgroup of ColCi to identify and explore how common land and infrastructure can reconsider how it may be co-owned by the community.Governance Working Group – a self-organising informal group that has explored how governance could be defined and implemented in PEFConflict Resilience Group – an informal group that has examined how to resolve conflicts that arise in the community amongst individuals and/or organisations/associations.Local Place Plan Group – a community participative body formed of constituted organisations and informal associations to develop a Local Plan to submit to Moray Council in September/December 2024. (This group took on many of the FF DevCom activities but formed a Working Group and Feedback Group to include and communicate LPP framework to the community as a whole.)

The emergence of these groups has co-existed with the continuation of a number of constituted organizations: New Findhorn Association (NFA), Title Holders Association (THA), Park Ecovillage Trust (PET), Ekopia, Findhorn Foundation (FF),  New Findhorn Directions (NFD) and the creation of Ecovillage Findhorn BenCom (EF) and the collection of Organizations, that meets as the Collaboration Circle (ColCi).

During the last year and half other manifestations have called forth coherence and purpose in PEF.

Designing the New Sanctuary through a co-creative charrette process and funding it through FF funding appeals and successful grant applications.Just Transition Feasibility Studies: 4 Research projects explored the advancement of ecovillage infrastructure for energy, heating, housing, food.Call for Ideas: This started with the Call for Ideas first summarised by Collective Architecture (CAL)/FF and then expanded by community contributions of approximately 20 Ideas that were submitted to Moray Council as preparation for Local Place Plans and Local Development Plans.Day of Silence – November 17, 2023What Next? Process (from Game of Transformation) – January 2024Community Game of Transformation – March 2024EF-FF Buyout Proposal – April 2024NFA/EF/LPP Visioning with Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) Dimensions

Through all this organisational emergence and community exploration we have involved Leaders, Residents, Contributors, Policy Setter, Neighbours, Fellows, Friends – and a community Purpose has been implicit in all our actions.

It is now time to renew our community Purpose and to make what has been implicity, now explicit.

So we are planning to gather to engage anew with a Purpose that has been flowing through the community since it began as a spiritual intentional community that manifested the qualities of an ecovillage that inspired a whole Global Network of Ecovillages (GEN).

Purpose can be explored and revealed in many ways – most of our organisations here have used some method to identify their Purpose.

Many PEF residents as individuals have a Personal Purpose.

The Purpose we will now explore will build on the intention threaded through our many activities and outreaches to take on expanded responsibilities as PEF. Let’s seek to create a Community Purpose that is cohesive and purposeful, inclusive and inspiring, spiritual and caring. Let’s anchor our renewed Purpose into our Local Place Plan and regenerate our Caring Capacities for all our spiritual, ecological, artistic and Nature/Subtle Realm relationships.

Ecovillage Findhorn Catch Up: On Purpose

Where has the Blogger in Chief been for the last couple of months?

True confessions – I have been contributing in various ways to the life of Park Ecovillage Findhorn (and assisting Learning Cities. Earth to expand into a Swiss Association (Verein) and Community Interest Company (CIC in Scotland – but those are another series of stories).

It might interest the reader to know some of the thinking and background that goes into developing an Ecovillage as it matures from teenager to young adult:

How to re-think the stewardship of Commons?How to transfer land holdings from a founding organization to the community?How to design Governance for a community of organizations?How to develop a Local Place Plan with the Community?How to think about the Purpose of our Park Ecovillage Findhorn?

Let’s start by sharing some thoughts about Purpose in the ecovillage.

Purpose is the DNA of any living organism.

What is essence of Purpose?

Humans are Gaia’s Reflective Organs. (James Lovelock). I believe human settlements/cities/towns/villages are the Organs, Organizations are like organelles and Individuals are like Cells in the Organs.

Park Ecovillage Findhorn (PEF) has a Purpose in service to Gaia. Gaia has evolved this place, people persons to be in service to her. I/We/It/Its are the expressions of her reality.

We live this Purpose through our emotions, relationships, behaviours and systems. Purpose flows through our Mind, Spirit, Organs, Body. Purpose is fractal – turning up in repeated patterns at different scales. Purpose is holographic – expressed as a whole, representing Oneness, Unity.

Purpose is holonic and social holonic – unique to each person and revealed in each group/organisation and human settlement.

PEF is a human settlement which contains the holons and social holons of individuals, families, groups, associations, organisations, sectors, neighbourhoods, communities and settlements like villages, towns, cities.

As a human settlement PEF has had a statement of Whole Community Purpose that served it as the community has evolved in its relationship with the Findhorn Foundation (FF).

As a conscious community we strive to demonstrate a practical spirituality in harmony with Nature and play our part to positively transform humanity and the earth.

FF has had its own purpose which has also evolved over time – particularly in the last year FF has changed almost everything about itself. But FF has continued to affirm its allegiance to its 3 founding principles:

Work is Love in Action Deep Inner Listening Co-creating with the Intelligences of Nature

And FF has chosen to focus its Purpose on Spiritual Education.

For that reason FF has also chosen to divest itself of land and amenities that are not needed to serve that purpose. And the Community has responded by negotiating a 3-stage agreement to buy significant lands and amenities from FF. By stepping into this decision, the Community is attuning to a statement of Purpose that resonates with and serves Planet, Place, People and Person.

The Story Continues Here …

March 2024 Equinotes: Surviving Shadow, Trauma, Loss

Equinotes are published periodically drawing on the Archives of Integral City’s Reflective Organ Newsletter, Blogs, Books and Website. The perspectives of Equinotes weave across: Planet, People, Place and Power. The theme of this issue is: Surviving in Integral City : Shadow, Trauma, Loss.

March 2024 Equinotes are drawn from these publications:

Waking, Growing, Cleaning, Wholing to Adapt, Transform and Regenerate, December 15th, 2021|A. Contexting Intelligences, Building – Structures, D. Strategic Intelligences, E. Evolutionary Intelligences, Emergence, Integral Maps, Uncategorized

On 9/11/01 What Did the Future Show Us? Ask Us? September 9th, 2021|A. Contexting Intelligences, Book 3, Building – Structures, C. Collective Intelligences, Capacity Building, Caring, Complex Challenges, Emergence, Storytelling – Cultures

Ecovillage Youth & Elders Explore 6 Questions July 25th, 2018|A. Contexting Intelligences, B. Individual Intelligences, C. Collective Intelligences, Ecosphere, Inner, Inquiry, Lifecycle, Navigating – IVSM, Outer, Storytelling – Cultures

Surviving Identity Crisis with Buoyancy of Care March 5th, 2017|Inner, Lifecycle, Master Intelligence

Scroll to end of Equi-Notes to access Free Resources, MetaBlogs 2013-2023.

Waking, Growing, Cleaning, Wholing to Adapt, Transform and Regenerate

On the day that I write this … I have learned that Auroville is being attacked from within and without by political forces that are actually using JCB’s to destroy forests planted by humans to restore the desertified land.

I have heard from teams working on Education and Transformation that the teams themselves are being undermined by hierarchical structures who demand and control rather than create the life conditions for co-creativity to flourish.

On the other hand, I have been gifted healing technologies that enable me to send healing energies to others.

I have been reminded by wise elders that when political fragmentation seems to be destroying hard-won resources and capacities that the roots of these actions are probably informed by trauma and the solutions are likely to emerge through healing and strengthening relationships.

Another Integral evolutionary admires an article that appreciates two apparently conflicting points of view for their individual merits and searches for the possibility that they may both be able to serve a greater good/context without tearing each other apart.

And I have been asked to contribute integrally informed frameworks, modes and ideas about living the transformative learning in a community that wants to teach others.

All of this leads me to be curious about the need for us to practice deep awareness, meditation, and compassion, to resolve our own shadows and trauma.

Witnessing all this turbulence (both positive and negative) within communities wanting to practise the most intelligent behaviors for global wellbeing, suggests to me that with such a VUCA world we will have to adapt to many life conditions. And those life conditions arising from consciousness and culture will be exacerbated by life conditions arising from floods, fire and climate change. We are on a journey to control ourselves even as we realize that we cannot control the environmental contexts in which we find ourselves.

Is the lesson that in order to adapt with any degree of wisdom we will need to transform our worldviews, perspectives and capacities to meet the levels of complexity that we have created for ourselves? Perhaps, by investing in the transformation processes we know are calling us, we may then be positioned so that we can actually regenerate from the inside out – self/ others/place/planet?

Click here to read the full Thought Piece.

On 9/11/01 What Did the Future Show Us? Ask Us?On the 11th of September 2001, when three planes not only crashed but destroyed the lives of thousands of people, they also woke up the world to our profound interconnectedness. The Future that day brought both deep shadow and unexpected light.

I didn’t realize how intently the Future was calling me as I watched reality TV be invented at an unimaginable scale. I sat staring at the screen confounded by hours of replays, horror and global consternation. I imagined years and decades of disastrous fallout from this event.

I imagined economic meltdown, global depression and dis-ease everywhere. I felt the negative effects ripple out from NYC to the rest of the world. What would happen to world trade? How would fear pollute relationships? What would blame do to international agreements?

But the Future had many ideas much more powerful than my fearful contractions. Within hours of viewing the twin tours implode, I was reminded about all that I had learned about community, preparing for a disaster we had called the Y2K bug – a computer malfunction that predicted the failure of global energy systems and the dimming of lights and energy utilities worldwide.

But that disaster taught us about a key paradox embedded in the laws of complexity – that if you change 10-15% of a system, then the rest of it “changes for free”.  Along with many other technology service providers who attended to overcoming this human-made Y2K problem,  I watched 99% of the world’s lights turned on for the celebrations of the Year 2000. It turned out that so much mitigation was successfully programmed into our global technology infrastructure, that we prevented the feared outcomes.

But it wasn’t just technological upgrading that the Y2K phenomenon precipitated – it was also the capacity for being in community with one another.

Click here to read the full article.

Ecovillage Youth & Elders Explore 6 QuestionsOne of the tensions most cities face is how to create the conditions for multiple generations to speak together. In an Ecovillage which is at a smaller scale of “human hive” than a city, the generational tensions can seem even more intense, because people are closer together in time and space on an everyday basis.

During the Global Ecovillage Network Europe 2018 Conference, The Wisdom of Conscious Communities, a circle of 5 Elders and 5 Youth (from different ecovillages) dialogued about each other’s perspectives and relationships living in an Ecovillage. Each generation alternated with questions and answers. What follows are some of the “call and response” inquiries that emerged, as each generation engaged respectfully but passionately with the inquiry.

Readers should know this report comes from my personal notes as well as my personal interpretations. Some responses may have been combined from several speakers to provide a flow and flavour of the narrative but where possible the sequencing of responses has been retained.

This was one of the most powerful engagements at the conference, demonstrating the Integral City Inquiry and Living Intelligences in dynamic interaction within the contexts of Ecosphere, Individual (Inner and Outer) and Collective (Cultural/Storytelling and Structural/Social) Intelligences.

Marilyn Hamilton, Scribe

Youth / Elder Listening CircleYouth Question1: What view does your ecovillage have for youth to vision and integrate into your approaches to sustainability?Elder Responses:In Damenhur youth and elders work together.At The Farm we are now 47 years old and have 4 generations living together. We started with a generation of 20 somethings, whose parents noticed their kids had a good thing going – so the parents moved in. That made 2 generations. Then our younger generation had kids and they in turn are now having kids. So, I get to be with my parents, my kids and my grandchildren.We have a Council of Elders who hold a mature vision. But we also teach meeting skills to young children, so they are facilitating meetings from a very young age.Elder Question 2: These days it seems difficult to have hope. What keeps you going?Youth Responses:I am full of hope.The old age ended in 2012.I feel the astrology of the times.There is post-war healing.[These days] babies’ eyes seem to be warrior eyes.I look inside and make a choice.I am pessimistic but hold on to values.I have hope in every day actions.I live next to a forest-system and that system is inside of me.I don’t want to “dance the last dance on the Titanic”.

Click here to link to read about the rest of the inquiry.

Surviving Identity Crisis with Buoyancy of CareWhen we lose a companion from our lives, the shock or grief can disconnect us from our very sense of self. My husband’s recent passing, raised many questions. Who am I without this person? How do I fill this “spouse-shaped” space within me? How does daily life continue without him? How do I survive without this partner?

There I have it. My own identity and perhaps my very survival is in question. That is a shadow of change I somehow didn’t see coming.

Perhaps this blindness to such shifts in my fundamental sense of self arose because his survival of chronic illness had become intertwined over a long time with my own survival and evolving identity as a caregiver? Caregiver was an identity that I assumed reluctantly and only came to appreciate as an “ashram of compassion” that could expand my very underdeveloped capacities for compassion. That was an unexpected gift to me who so deeply desires to honour and live by the Master Code: To care for self, others, place and planet.

Now I remember that this kind of deep caring is intimately bound with our very sense of aliveness. And I recall the first quality of “aliveness” is the ability to survive. With my partner over 40 years, I had figured that out – both in health and in sickness. I had a life. He had a life. And we had a life together.

But now that he is gone, two parts of that equation have disappeared – his life and our life together.

I wasn’t prepared for the impact that would have on the first part of that equation – my life, and my identity.  These profoundly personal losses of relationship call me to redefine my very identity – and in doing so ripple through my every capacity to live the Master Code.

Click here to read the full article.

Explore Integral City Archive of Newsletters, Blogs, MetaBlogs:Reflective Organ Newsletter December Solstice 2023: Gaia Breathes, Learns, FruitsSeptember 2023 Equinotes: Amplified Intelligences, Wisdom, PrinciplesMarch 2023 Equi-Notes: Roots of City Peace in Joy, Happiness and CareIntegral City Meta Blog 2023Integral City Meta Blog 2022Integral City Meta Blog 2021Integral City Meta Blog 2020Integral City Meta Blog 2019 Integral City Meta Blog 2018 Integral City Meta Blog 2017 Integral City Meta Blog 2016 Integral City Meta Blog 2015 Integral City Meta Blog 2014 Integral City Meta Blog 2013 Integral City Meta Blog 2021Integral City Meta Blog 2020Integral City Meta Blog 2019 Integral City Meta Blog 2018 Integral City Meta Blog 2017 Integral City Meta Blog 2016 Integral City Meta Blog 2015 Integral City Meta Blog 2014 Integral City Meta Blog 2013 .fusion-fullwidth.fusion-builder-row-1 { overflow:visible; }

True Professionalism: A Spirituality of Integral Service, Creativity, Care

by Marilyn Hamilton, PhD

This is the transcript for the Edinburgh International Centre for Sustainability and Peace, Online Zoom Forum 21 February 2024: True Professionalism: A Spirituality of Service, Creativity, and Caring

When I think of myself as a Professional I can look back over my life and point to being at least three kinds of Professional.

My first official designation as a Professional was as a Professional Numerati – I became qualified as a professional Accountant. That is considered a profession that is vital for the operation of most organizations – whether they be profit, not for profit or government. The Accounting Profession is known for its generally accepted accounting principles, formats, guidelines and standardization of recording, reporting, analysing and assessing.

I chose to become an Accountant so that I could learn how organizations operated. What is the spirituality of True Professionalism for an Accountant? How do I serve, create and care?

Another version of being a Professional is my life as a Professional Literati – acting as an author, editor and curator of the written and spoken word. I have authored non-fiction books, articles, peer-reviewed papers. I have edited integrally informed Reviews on Leadership and curated graphic books on urban wellbeing. I have crafted novels, novellas and poetry.

I choose to write because it is a deep primal – probably spiritual –  impulse that runs through my energy field. What is the spirituality of true professionalism for an author/editor? How do I serve, create and care?

Yet another experience of being a Professional is my life as a Professional Integralati  – designing, teaching, training, educating, facilitating, coaching, learning integrally informed bio/psycho/cultural/social ways of being in the world: related to techno-computer-intelligence skills, life skills, collective consciousness, community capacity building, the praxis of praxis.

I choose to engage with Integrally informed realities because I am called as a Gaian Being to share my gifts, talents, perspectives for the well-being of persons, people, place and planet. What is the spirituality of true professionalism for an Integralati? How do I serve, create, care?

Is it possible that multiple manifestations of Spirituality as True Professionalism co-exist and are expressed differently for different purposes?

What different nuances of Spirituality arise for Service, Creativity and Care when one considers the intentions and perspectives of these 3 professions?

I consider that each of the professions draws on a different spiritual quality or expertise – Accountants require numeracy; Authors require literacy; and Integralists require wholism.

Table 1: Different Professions; Different Meanings

ProfessionExpertiseServiceCreativityCareAccountantNumerateGAAPDiscouragedPrecisionAuthorLiterateCommunicationEncouragedFlowIntegral WholisticAQALEvolutionaryHeart+Head+ Hara

So I might ask: “Are any one of these expressions more or less Spiritually True”? Or could the only way to differentiate the relative truth of each profession be to recognize they have different standards – even spiritual standards – by which they are judged?

Perhaps it is also possible that the qualities of Service, Creativity and Care within each Profession also have a spectrum of expression that would differentiate each Professional practise by the degree or depth to which spiritual qualities are expressed?

In Integral City , we have identified 12 Intelligences for Cities as complex adaptive human systems. (See Figure 1) And we have clustered them together into 5 sets of intelligences on a GPS. The very core of those Intelligences is Evolutionary Intelligence which I always sensed was the Spiritual Impulse that energizes all the other 11 Intelligences. (See Figure 1)

When we are taking a Discovery Tour of a city or human habitat (see Figure 2) we have a scoring system that measures the evidence and expression of each intelligence on a 4 point scale from:  latent to aware to active to advanced.

This is an integral practice that enables us to use Service (applying the framework), Creativity (inquiring with curiosity) and Care (collaborating with the people who live in the City of Interest) to notice how the Spiritual qualities of  Service, Creativity and Care exist in any particular place.

I would say this process is also integrating (at least) the three expertises I have pointed to in my life work history: numeracy, literacy and wholism. Thus I am using a multi-perspectival and trans-disciplinary approach to this professional and spiritual Discovery practice.

Does this mean that the Spirituality of True Professionalism can’t be found as an Accountant or an Author?

If I may quote Ken Wilber, one of the world’s great experts on Integralism: “each of these professions and practices are true – but partial.”

Which is why my life journey through professions, reveals that the spirituality of true professionalism is most wholly captured by an Integral Approach – I am always attempting to combine partial truths into a greater whole.

And for me the Spirituality of True Professionalism calls for the integral approaches of subjective ways of knowing – often expressed as Literati; objective ways of knowing – often expressed through Numerati; and Intersubjective and interobjective ways of knowing through Wholistic culture and social discovery tours.

Finally, I would add, beyond all those ways of knowing, the Spirituality of True Professionalism calls for the courage to “not know” – to enter the Spiritual Cloud of Not Knowing – and be curious how to meet people where they are at – no matter how they experience Spirituality, so our relationships invite the creative weaving of spiritual expertises, qualities and practices into something greater – and more beautiful, good and true than we can ever profess as mere individuals.

That is why in Living Cities.Earth we say … we are humaning well TOGETHER for aliveness … with Love . And I propose that is how we translate the spirituality of our professional practice into Service, Creativity and Care.

A spiritual practice that we ultimately express as Gaia’s Code of Care for Self, Others, Place and Planet (see Figure 3).

Web link: www.livingcities.earth

Figure 1: GPS 12 Intelligences

Figure 2: Due Diligence Page 1 and 2

Figure 3: Gaia Code of Care

Metablog 2023

Here is the Integral City 2023 Meta Blog. It connects the 4 Voices of the Integral City to the Planet, People, Place and Power that energized us in 2023.

It follows the traditions of:

Integral City Meta Blog 2022Integral City Meta Blog 2021Integral City Meta Blog 2020Integral City Meta Blog 2019 Integral City Meta Blog 2018 Integral City Meta Blog 2017 Integral City Meta Blog 2016 Integral City Meta Blog 2015 Integral City Meta Blog 2014 Integral City Meta Blog 2013 1. Equinotes/Solstice Reflective Organ Newsletters – Integral City 2023 Reflective Organ Newsletter December Solstice 2023: Gaia Breathes, Learns, Fruits

September 2023 Equinotes: Amplified Intelligences, Wisdom, Principles

Reflective Organ Newsletter June Solstice 2023: We-Space, Ecologies, Holobionts

March 2023 Equi-Notes: Roots of City Peace in Joy, Happiness and Care

Reflective Organ Newsletter December Solstice 2022: Recalibrating (Re)connecting Transitioning

2. City Network of the Year 2023: GEN Global Ecovillage Network

Read about the City Network of the Year award here.

3. Meshworker of the Year 2023: Gail Taylor, Sacred Scaffolding Artist

Read the full story of Meshworker of the Year 2023 here.

 

 4. Integral City Blogs 2023Contemplation / Spiritual IntelligenceBeing in the World in 2023Archipelagos of CalmIntegral City Islands of Calm 2023 Subtle Activism for Ukrainian CitiesBeyond Cracks, Breaks, Collapses: The Light of Divine FireConnecting to CommunityConnecting Integrally to Community in the 21C: Spiritually, Socially, PoliticallyConnecting in Community in 21stC: InterestsConnecting in Community in 21stC: LivingConnecting in Community in 21stC: CultureConnecting in Community in 21stC: PractiseConnecting in Community in 21stC: NatureConnecting in Community in 21stC: Gaia’s Reflective OrgansIntegral Europe Conference 2023I Am Addicted to IECIEC 2023 Presences on Change CurveIEC KeynotesIEC23 Ken Wilber Keynote – Planetary AwakeningIEC23 Robert Kegan Keynote – Shadow & Light in Adult DevelopmentIEC23 Vivian Dittmar Keynote – Awakening to Unity in Fragmented WorldIEC23 Mariana Bozesan Keynote – The Future, AI & ConsciousnessIEC23 Bence Ganti Keynote – How do We Support the Health of the Global Integral Movement?IEC23 Nomali Perera Keynote – Integral Let’s not Vanish into Thin Air!IEC Gabor Mate Keynote – It’s All One: Awakening to Reality Within and WithoutIEC Gail Hochachka Keynote – Finding One’s Own Soul-Centric Climate ChangeIEC23 Terri O’Fallon Keynote – The Evolution of Planetary AwakeningSolstice World Unity Invitation to Integral City Global Family GatheringLiving Cities Earth: Global Happy Cities SummitLiving Cities Earth: Global Happy Cities Marathon

 

 Infographic Cool Blocks & Carbon Neutral Ecovillage FindhornCollaboration, FemmeQ, Where are the Women? Collaborating In the World: Thoughts on Collaboration as an Evolutionary Act, 1Collaborating With the World: Thoughts on Collaboration as an Evolutionary Act, 2Collaborating As the World: Thoughts on Collaboration as an Evolutionary Act, 3Where are the Women? Saging the Invisible into the Visible – Radical Collaboration Thoughts, 4Apple Tree Valentine: Inter-Being Dream Comes TrueMeshworker of Year 2023: Gail Taylor, Sacred Scaffolding ArtistIntegral City Network of Year 2023: Global Ecovillage NetworkGaia Learns – Start With a BreathGaia Learns – Mycelial Morphic Fields.fusion-fullwidth.fusion-builder-row-2 { overflow:visible; }

Reflective Organ Newsletter December Solstice 2023: Gaia Breathes, Learns, Fruits

This newsletter is published quarterly using a cycle of perspectives on the Integral City viewed from: Planet, People, Place and Power. The theme of this issue is Power.

As the prime author, Spirit was a guiding energy that revealed the 12 Integral City Intelligences, 4 Voices, Master/Gaia Code and made the astonishing connections between the living systems of the species homo sapiens sapiens with the species apis mellifera that suggested the reality of the “human hive”. Spirit was behind every idea, each word and all the chapters of Books 1 and 2. Yet, as many readers pointed out, although Spirit was a major actor in Book 2’s first chapters describing the “Knowing Field”, Spirit was not explicitly honored with its own chapter So, in this third book I share my thoughts on how Spirit is waking up the human hive through the involutionary and evolutionary cycle that manifests care in our cities through beauty, goodness and truth.

Hamilton, M. 2018. Integral City 3.7: Reframing Complex Challenges for Gaia’s Human Hives. Minneapolis, MN: Amaranth Press,LLC p.1

Scroll to end of newsletter to access Free Resources.

Gaia Breathes, Gaia Learns, Gaia FruitsOur universe started with a Big Breath (not a Big Bang) – so affirms cosmologist, Jude Currivan, author of The Story of Gaia.And from that breath released over 14 billion years ago, in-formation has guided matter and energy to manifest all life – including this planet and all she has created.

Gaia has ancestors in all the cosmic beings who have birthed the circumstances (life conditions) and elements that have enabled life on our planet to emerge. From the elements of Fire, Water, Earth and Air we enjoy the blessings of microbiota, mycelial webs, plants, insects, animals. Indigenous narratives tell also of the unseen beings who populate the energetic fields of all the elements – beings who have not incarnated but exist in dimensions long available to spiritual adepts and now being glimpsed through the micro and macro technologies of science.

As a child of the Universe, Gaia has learned from the rhythms of breathing in and breathing out, expanding and converging, discovering across eons of time patterns that we admire as Beauty, Truth and Goodness.

How do humans discern and appreciate the grand patterns that have birthed our species? (Click to read more here.)

Might we change our assumptions that cities have been created by humans?  Perhaps they have they been evolved by Gaia as organs to enable consciousness at a scale that upshifts Gaia’s intelligence?Humans as a relatively young species have imagined that we control the world. If we are in service to Gaia, it must be we who create capacities that have value. But what if we reversed this story of origination and manifestation and considered that Gaia herself has evolved us and all our human artefacts?

James Lovelock proposed that humans were Gaia’s Reflective Organs. And I have suggested that cities are her organs, organizations organelles and humans like cells. Each of these is a fractal design with a symbiotic relationship within an organic holarchy.

With human delusions of separation and control, is it possible we are missing the Nature of our nature as children of Gaia – that she is our Mother and our grand Ancestor. It is trite to say that we wouldn’t exist without the planet from which our life has evolved. But perhaps it is dangerous to deny that we are not only dependent on our Mother but are being progressively shaped by her to be effective reflective organs, organelles and cells?

The explorations of Integral City have offered maps, voices, intelligences as patterns that cities reveal when viewed through a complex, adaptive, living, integral, evolutionary lens.

But let us try a new thought experiment – what if cities are “fruiting bodies” – evidence of two fields running parallel to one another – one spreading below the horizon like mycelial webs and the other accumulating above the horizon in morphic fields.

The metaphors for cities have often related to their vast complexes of infrastructures for water, sewage, food, transportation, communications – the movement and manifestation of all the resources necessary for collectives of human systems to co-exist with one another within a bounded space (visible from satellites as the light energy emitted from human activities.) Mechanical metaphors calling forth bricks and mortar, street corners, people moving systems, financial hubs, trading markets, etc.

However what happens if one steps away from the mechanistic human centric metaphors of cities into the realm of energetic fields? (Click to read full article here.)

Gaia Amplifies Intelligences in the Integral City

… the qualities of the amplified intelligences we see emerging in the city are tetra+-arising with impacts in all the AQAL quadrants regardless of how you parse them – integral mindsets: subjective, intersubjective, objective, interobjective;  or Gaia’s reflective organs: person, people, place, planet; or City Voices: Citizen, Civil Society/3rd Sector, Civic Managers, Business/Innovators.

These intelligence capacities may be manifesting the qualities of the Kosmic Mind – and call us to not only consider the trajectory of capacity development from ego to ethno to regional to planet, but to consider the quantum leap from Patrick Geddes’ Think Local/Act Global to Currivan’s proposition Think Cosmic, Feel Global, Act Local – a more wholistic evolutionary reframing. …

As the VUCA world has demanded that we gain capacities that enable cities (and all their sub-wholes of individuals, families, neighbourhoods, workplaces, communities (Map 2)) as complex adaptive living systems to expand their intelligences, it is natural – not artificial – that the GPS of city intelligences evolutionarily matures….

Whatever name we give it, this intelligence is ALIVE and it calls us to be more of who we have been in an AQAL way. Clare Graves would point to our life conditions and the dissonance they are causing in our lives – necessitating learning on a scale and at a speed that has never been necessary or possible before….

I first wrote about the 12 Intelligences for cities in Book 1: Integral City, Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive (described on the website here ) . They are embedded in the Integral City Global Positioning System (GPS) – clustered into 5 Sets of intelligences that are pictured as bezels on the GPS Finder: Contexting, Strategic, Individual, Collective, Evolutionary.   …

By examining the Integral City Intelligences in syntony with other open system analyses, like the Chopra Artificial Intelligence Set we create a scaffold for applauding, nourishing and encouraging the amplification of all Intelligences. We also open an inquiry into how Integral City Intelligences will be amplified by many other expansive living intelligences that are arriving from the discoveries of the Intergalactic Telescopes, Hadron Collider and Deep Evolutionary Cosmologies (like Jude Currivan’s The Story of Gaia).

As we use the GPS tool/metaphor in this expanded way, we are essentially recalibrating it from an analogue through a digital to a quantum GPS.

And this gives us Power way beyond domination of self/other/places/planet or even expressed as co-creating with self/other/places/planet. It gives us Power to co-exist AS self/other/places/planet. We learn deeply we are part of Nature. And  Life asks us to continue to Evolve and Amplify so that Aliveness is a benefit for all Life, seen and unseen.

(Click here to read the full article.)

Integral City Network of Year 2023: Global Ecovillage NetworkGlobal Ecovillage Network (GEN) is Integral City Network of the Year 2023.The Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) catalyzes communities for a regenerative world. GEN is a growing network of regenerative communities and initiatives that bridge cultures, countries, and continents.GEN builds bridges between the 4+1 Voices of the City – that GEN names as policy-makers, governments, NGOs, academics, entrepreneurs, activists, community networks and ecologically-minded individuals across the globe in order to develop strategies for a global transition to resilient communities and cultures.GEN International Purpose is to link and support ecovillages, educate the world about them, and grow the regenerative movement – to inspire, scale and facilitate communities and people from all walks of life to become active participants in the transition to a resilient and regenerative human presence on Earth.

GEN International’s role is to provide global platforms, voice and coordination to help the network achieve its vision and mission.

Vision

The  Global Ecovillage Network envisions a world of empowered citizens and communities, designing and implementing their own pathways to a sustainable future, and building bridges of hope and international solidarity.

Mission

To innovate, catalyze, educate and advocate in global partnership with ecovillages and all those dedicated to the shift to a regenerative world.

GoalsTo advance the education of individuals from all walks of life by sharing the experience and best practices gained from the networks of ecovillages and sustainable communities worldwide.To advance human rights, conflict resolution, and reconciliation by empowering local communities to interact globally, while promoting a culture of mutual acceptance and respect, effective communications, and cross-cultural outreach.To advance environmental protection globally by serving as a think tank, incubator, international partner organization, and catalyst for projects that expedite the shift to sustainable and resilient lifestyles.To advance citizen and community participation in local decision-making, influencing policy-makers, and educating the public, to accelerate the transition to sustainable living.GEN’s Last Decade of Service to Local Communities

Over the past ten years the Global Ecovillage Network has developed a transformative package or suite of programmes, tools and resources that assists local communities in transitioning to a fully sustainable, regenerative and climate resilient future that will be presented. This includes a range of courses and webinars focusing on:

GEN’s Climate Resiliency Community of Practice. For the past year and a half the Global Ecovillage Network has been engaged in a global process, with 20 participating ecovillage communities, from all of the continents to determine what we can do to prepare for and create Climate Resiliency as humanity moves ever closer to planetary breakdown and faces an increasing frequency and severity of multiple climate disasters – many of which are already impacting our communities and people all over the planet. We have developed a full set of tools, resources, and planning processes that can be used by all local communities to transition rapidly towards climate resiliency at: www.ecovillage.org/resilienceA set of Regenerative Development Aims or Goals. These are based upon the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals but focus more specifically on community based approaches going beyond sustainability to transitioning to regenerative development. This set of targets and goals can be used with GEN’s Ecovillage Impact Assessment for addressing climate change.  at: https://ecovillage.org/sustainable-development-the-ecovillage-wayCongratulations to Global Ecovillage Network, Integral City Network of the Year 2023.Read more about GEN Global Ecovillage Network – click here. Integral City Meshworker of Year 2023: Gail Taylor

Gail Taylor was xxx

Gail Taylor was one of the first quintessential Meshworkers that Marilyn Hamilton met, back in the days of her PhD research, connecting through the Berkana Community of Conversations and then the Art of Hosting and Integral Theory Conferences.

Meshworking was a practice that came naturally to Gail and she and Marilyn had a natural affinity because she so clearly saw the benefits of coalescing self-organizing systems with structuring systems to produce a whole new operating system – one that had a fractalizing pattern that could apply at every scale of human endeavour – from the individual, through teams, organizations, sectors, communities and cities.

“I think I was lucky to be a teacher of very young children as my first career. They taught me so much. We had wonderful fun together growing with and for each other. I asked myself, ‘Can adults still learn?’” That was the first sentence Gail used to introduce herself as a Co-Founder of Living Cities.Earth.

 Gail explored human learning through founding The Learning Exchange (1972) for learners of all ages. She discovered that  yes! adults could indeed learn. She later created with her husband and design partner Matt Taylor, MG Taylor Corporation (1981) . They  learned that CEO’s and other upper management took great joy in working with their employees at all levels of the organization.

Tomorrow Makers (2002) was founded on Gail’s continual coming-to-knowing how starved people were to work and play together. Gail believed, if we are to create new healthy cultures, it will be with all of us intertwined, meshworking our way forward.

We are proud to award (posthumously) Gail Taylor, Meshworker of Year, 2023.

Click here for Details.

Integral City Constellation Events with PowerIntegral City Meshworks’ Team Leader, Ellen van Dongen will be offering to our WhatsApp Group 4+1 Voices a monthly gathering to (re)connect our global family to share, inquire and celebrate. “Family are the relationships that lie at the centre and connect across our Human Hives. We recognize one another because we resonate with shared purpose and intention and we love to gather so we can share stories from all our 4+1 Voices.” Send an email to info@integralcity.com if you’d like to join.Integral City Meshworks as a Partner with Living Cities.Earth in 2024 will be designing and delivering new trainings.In the Design Room we have the following resources and courses emerging shape:ALIVE series of courses that explore the fractal patterns of Person, People, Place and Planet – including:Lead ALIVEOrganize ALIVEPlace ALIVEPlanet ALIVEPROFILES for Assessing, Connecting and Collaborating with the 4+1 Voices:12 Intelligence Discovery Tour – assessing emergence of 12 Intelligences in your CityMeshSCAN – revealing 4 Quadrant Perspectives of your CityInner Key – (developed by Dr. Marina Demchenko/Panorama Studio) revealing Subjective/Intersubjective Profile of your City

For inquiries send an email to info@integralcity.com – and stay tuned through www.livingcities.earth

Celebrating Our Cities as Places of Evolutionary Power in 2023-24

“[Let us rebuild] the world as a work of art for all life.”

~ Matt and Gail Taylor

December 21 marks the start of what Integral City calls the Power Quarter (from December 21 to March 20 ). This has been a turbulent year – marked by the great promises (and threats) of artificial intelligence and the insanity of a new war in the Middle East. We marvel at the discoveries of science and spirituality that heal diseases and recoil at the dis-ease that our disconnections from Nature forbode. We almost gave up on COP28’s capacity for a workable result and celebrate the ironic agreement signed in the nation who is the biggest producer of fossil fuels, to “lessen our dependence on fossil fuels”. We cringe at the increasing prevalence of fake news in many channels, while we finally open the doors to sharing the evidence of our ET moment that extraterrestrials have landed. It is easy to focus only on the dark forces that threaten our lives as Gaia’s Reflective Organs – because the traditional media and politicians control those messages. But in the natural emerging connections of mycelial in-formation webs across the planet and practices that release the traumas locked in our morphic fields, we have a duty to share stories – continuously with each other – about the Goodness, Truth and Beauty that surround us, as evolutionary acts of care. The Power of Stories may be even greater than the Power of Truth to lift us up in service to Gaia’s wellbeing – because humans need stories more than food to stay alive (Barry Lopez).

Meshful Blessings of this Sacred Season Celebrating Power in our Planet of Cities …Marilyn Hamilton 

Founder Integral City Meshworks

PS Here are some FREE resources for uplifting Integral City Power:COP28 Visual https://sustainabilityunlocked.com/discover/insights/COP28-visual-guideFindhorn Ecovillage EcoTour www.communityecotour.net Ecovillages as Spaces of Place-Based Transformative Learning  Ecosystems as Infrastructure – a New Way of Looking at Resilience – Kate Orff https://e360.yale.edu/features/kate-o...Re-imagining London City Hall as Human Hive? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-london-67665286Bees – Water Collection Intelligence    https://www.beelistener.co.uk/water-collection-by-bees/controlling-water-collection/King Charles – the Earth does not belong to us https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/science-environment-67588259 Global Silent Minute December 21, 9 pm GMT – Information:Global Silent Minute website: www.globalsilentminute.org For the story of the Global Silent Minute: https://www.globalsilentminute.org/hi...Flyers, bookmarks and social media banners for Global Silent Minute https://www.globalsilentminute.org/re...Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/72604...Twitter: https://twitter.com/SilenceAsActionInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/silenceasaction/

9. Integral City Blogs

Beyond Cracks, Breaks, Collapses: The Light of Divine Fire

Collaborating In the World: Thoughts on Collaboration as an Evolutionary Act, 1

Collaborating With the World: Thoughts on Collaboration as an Evolutionary Act, 2Collaborating As the World: Thoughts on Collaboration as an Evolutionary Act, 3

Where are the Women? Saging the Invisible into the Visible – Radical Collaboration Thoughts, 4

Apple Tree Valentine: Inter-Being Dream Comes True

Meshworker of Year 2023: Gail Taylor, Sacred Scaffolding Artist

Integral City Network of Year 2023: Global Ecovillage Network

Gaia Learns – Start With a Breath

Gaia Learns – Mycelial Morphic Fields

10. Newsletters Past Issues 2023 and 2022September 2023 Equinotes: Amplified Intelligences, Wisdom, PrinciplesReflective Organ Newsletter June Solstice 2023: We-Space, Ecologies, HolobiontsMarch 2023 Equi-Notes: Roots of City Peace in Joy, Happiness and CareReflective Organ Newsletter December Solstice 2022: Recalibrating (Re)connecting Transitioning11. Explore Integral City Archive of Newsletters and Blogs in our MetaBlogs:Integral City Meta Blog 2023Integral City Meta Blog 2022Integral City Meta Blog 2020Integral City Meta Blog 2019 Integral City Meta Blog 2018 Integral City Meta Blog 2017 Integral City Meta Blog 2016 Integral City Meta Blog 2015 Integral City Meta Blog 2014 Integral City Meta Blog 2013 Integral City Meta Blog 2021Integral City Meta Blog 2020Integral City Meta Blog 2019 Integral City Meta Blog 2018 Integral City Meta Blog 2017 Integral City Meta Blog 2016 Integral City Meta Blog 2015 Integral City Meta Blog 2014 Integral City Meta Blog 2013 .fusion-fullwidth.fusion-builder-row-3 { overflow:visible; }

Integral City Network of Year 2023: Global Ecovillage Network

Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) isIntegral City Network of the Year 2023.The Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) catalyzes communities for a regenerative world. GEN is a growing network of regenerative communities and initiatives that bridge cultures, countries, and continents.GEN builds bridges between the 4+1 Voices of the City – that GEN names as policy-makers, governments, NGOs, academics, entrepreneurs, activists, community networks and ecologically-minded individuals across the globe in order to develop strategies for a global transition to resilient communities and cultures.What is an Ecovillage?

GEN’s definition of an ecovillage aligns with Integral City’s 5 Maps – revealing their inner, outer, individual and collective intelligences. GEN defines an ecovillage is an intentional, traditional or urban community that is consciously designing its pathway through locally owned, participatory processes, and aims to address the Ecovillage Principles in the 4 Areas of Regeneration (social, culture, ecology, economy into a whole systems design).

GEN sees Ecovillages as living laboratories pioneering beautiful alternatives and innovative solutions. They are rural or urban settlements with vibrant social structures, vastly diverse, yet united in their actions towards low-impact, high-quality lifestyles.

Who is in the GEN Network?GEN is composed of 5 global spanning regional networks plus the youth arm: NextGEN Latin America North America Africa Oceania & Asia Europe

The network is made up of approximately 10,000 communities and related projects where people are living together in greater ecological harmony.

Some network members include large networks like Sarvodaya (2,000 active sustainable villages in Sri Lanka); the Federation of Damanhur in Italy and REDES in Senegal; as well as small rural ecovillages like Gaia Asociación in Argentina and Huehuecoyotl in Mexico.

It also includes urban rejuvenation projects – based on the Map of Regeneration (see below) –  like Los Angeles EcoVillage and Christiania in Copenhagen; permaculture design sites such as Crystal Waters, Australia, Cochabamba, Bolivia and Barus, Brazil; and educational centres such as Findhorn in Scotland, Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales, Earthlands in Massachusetts and many more.

Map of Regeneration OverviewSocial

Ecovillagers tend to actively work to build trust, collaboration and openness between people, and to make sure they feel empowered, seen and heard. Ecovillages often provide a sense of belonging through community relationships, common projects, shared goals, and social processes, but do not demand that everyone is the same – unity and strength through diversity is important to the ecovillage movement.

Nurture diversity and cohesion for thriving communitiesDevelop fair, effective and accountable institutionsPractice conflict facilitation, communication and peacebuilding skillsEmpower collaborative leadership and participatory decision makingEnsure equal and lifelong access to education for sustainabilityPromote health, healing and wellbeing for allCulture

Ecovillages aim to build or regenerate diverse cultures that support people to empower and care for each other, their communities and the planet. Many actively engage with practices that encourage people to feel deeply connected to each other, to the planet, and to themselves. Celebration, art, dance and other forms of creative expression are often embraced as central to thriving human life and communities. Most ecovillages find their own ways to talk about, connect with, respect and support life and the beings and systems that sustain it.

Clarify vision and higher purposeNurture mindfulness and self-reflectionEnrich life with art and celebrationHonour indigenous wisdom and welcome positive innovationEngage actively to protect communities and natureReconnect to nature and embrace low-impact lifestylesEcology

Ecovillages aim to access food, shelter, water and energy in ways that respect the cycles of nature. They aim to integrate humans with the rest of nature in ways that increase biodiversity and regenerate ecosystems, and that give people a chance to experience their interdependence with systems and cycles of life on a direct and daily basis.

Grow seeds, food and soil through regenerative agricultureClean and replenish sources and cycles of waterMove towards 100% renewable energy and transportInnovate and spread green building technologiesWork with waste as a valuable resourceIncrease biodiversity and restore ecosystemsEconomy

Ecovillages aim to build economic practices and systems that contribute to sharing of resources, mutual support, and strong local economies and networks that serve the needs of local people and ecosystems. Most ecovillages actively work to provide sustainable alternatives to the mainstream economy and monetary system, and reclaim ways of thinking about wealth and progress that include all aspects of life. Local currencies, sharing, social entrepreneurship, circular economy and collaborative forms of ownership are central to many ecovillages.

Reconstruct the concepts of wealth, work and progressCommit to responsible production, consumption and tradeCultivate social entrepreneurship for local regenerationIncrease economic justice through sharing and collaborationEnsure equitable access to land and resources​Use banks and currencies that strengthen communitiesIntegral Design

Some principles apply to all Areas of Regeneration, and help bring them together in holistic designs for resilient communities and systems. In GEN, the integral design approach to design and regeneration is paired with a strong focus on collaboration and participation. This means that the principles of integral design are put into practice in ways that actively include everyone concerned and encourage transparency at every level.

Learn from nature and practise whole systems thinkingIdentify assets, needs and leverage pointsAdapt solutions to scale and contextBe aware of privilege and use it for the benefit of allBuild alliances across all dividesEngage all stakeholders in designs for the futureSpread core patterns of regenerationListen to the feedback of the worldGEN International Purpose

GEN’s shared purpose is to link and support ecovillages, educate the world about them, and grow the regenerative movement – to inspire, scale and facilitate communities and people from all walks of life to become active participants in the transition to a resilient and regenerative human presence on Earth.

GEN International’s role is to provide global platforms, voice and coordination to help the network achieve its vision and mission.

GEN NetworkVision

The  Global Ecovillage Network envisions a world of empowered citizens and communities, designing and implementing their own pathways to a sustainable future, and building bridges of hope and international solidarity.

Mission

To innovate, catalyze, educate and advocate in global partnership with ecovillages and all those dedicated to the shift to a regenerative world.

GoalsTo advance the education of individuals from all walks of life by sharing the experience and best practices gained from the networks of ecovillages and sustainable communities worldwide.To advance human rights, conflict resolution, and reconciliation by empowering local communities to interact globally, while promoting a culture of mutual acceptance and respect, effective communications, and cross-cultural outreach.To advance environmental protection globally by serving as a think tank, incubator, international partner organization, and catalyst for projects that expedite the shift to sustainable and resilient lifestyles.To advance citizen and community participation in local decision-making, influencing policy-makers, and educating the public, to accelerate the transition to sustainable living.Congratulations to Global Ecovillage Network, Integral City Network of the Year 2023.

===

Learn More About GEN

Read more about the Global Ecovillage Network:

Organisational Structure

Our Work

Brand Story

Regions

===

For prior Integral City of the Year Awards see:

Global City Collaboration – City Collaboration of the Year 2022

Urban Arena for Just & Sustainable Cities – City Region of the Year 2021

Edmonton – City of the Year 2020

Amsterdam – City of the Year 2019

6AIKA Finland – Cities of the Year 2018

Russia’s 3 City Associations – City of the Year 2017

Fort McMurray – City of the Year 2016.

Paris – City of the Year 2015 .