Many of the crises we are facing are to do with our misalignment with the living Earth and its cycles. Permaculture is a philosophy and a design methodology to create generative human systems using the principles of nature.
Many are attracted to permaculture because working from the knowledge that we are intrinsically embedded in, interwoven with and dependent on the natural world feels right and true on a fundamental level. But even though on an intellectual level we know we are one with nature, how often do we have a felt sense and an embodied experience of that?
Permaculture works with nature rather than against it, but it still suggests a subtle sense of separation. Humans working with nature. How would we relate to our planet, how would we take part in changemaking if we had an ongoing embodied sense of being nature through and through, working as nature?
Our sense of separation is a long-standing cultural wound with psychological implications. Those of us brought up in the Western industrial cultures may bring the industrial mindset into our permaculture work in the invisible guise of conditioning, defences and unhelpful beliefs and behaviour patterns, which reinforce our sense of separation and stand in the way of experiencing wholeness and interbeing.
The Embodied Permaculture Project set out to explore what impact embodied transpersonal practices might have on permaculture. Enabled and funded through the Conscious Communities Initiative by Alef Trust, the project partnered with the Permaculture Association and was facilitated by Earthbound. It brought together 20 permaculture practitioners across Europe for 18 months to engage in embodied inner work.
The participants reported such positive transformative experiences, we decided to share the work as an immersive 9-week introductory self-study course.
The Embodied Permaculture Course is now available at the Permaculture Community Hub in Mighty Networks.
[More information and registration here]
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