Imagine you’re driving in an unknown area, and you realise you are lost. This terrain is newly discovered: there are no maps or satnav, and you have no mobile signal. You don’t know where to head for, or how long your fuel will last.
This is my take on what we humans are facing in 2025, although most of us stay ‘distracted from distraction by distraction’, as T. S. Eliot put it. Is there some positive purpose which could explain this lostness?
What has helped me in recent years is a belief that my soul has chosen a life in these crisis times for a good reason: to learn and be of service. I still feel lost pretty often, but at least I know broadly what I’m looking for. And one line of exploration is community: a word so over-used that it’s worth unpacking.
In the 2000’s I led a dozen retreats in the Tunisian Sahara with Bedouin guides: men who had grown up as nomads, and had kept what I’d call an indigenous sense of community. They clearly acted and felt more as a collective, a tribe, than as individuals. And they had a profound sense of connection beyond the human: with their camels, their land, and with Allah, the divine unity which embraces all forms of life.
Alan with Ali, one of our Bedouin guidesAnother community which inspires me is the Ricostruttori di Pace (Reconstructors of Peace) in Italy. These are a modern take on the monastery: aimed at young people, living simply and devotionally, growing their own food, sharing worship through meditation, movement, and Mass.
In Italy I learned how crucial the monasteries were in the chaos of medieval times: they were a source of food, healthcare, and refuge, crucial sanctuaries of stability and integrity. So one of my recent areas of exploration is whether we can re-invent the monastery.
Re-inventing the monastery?
As I’ve pondered this quite deeply, I’ve concluded that a re-invention would need to be so different that the word monastery would mislead people. My vision would not involve people taking fixed vows, conforming to a single creed, or deferring to a patriarchal head.
Over the past year, I’ve had some fascinating conversations on this topic, including a couple with Jessica Bockler and others at Alef Trust. Slowly a project and the start of a core group have evolved. We’re calling the project The Raft: wisdom for stormy times: you can see details at www.soulresilience.net. The key people in the core group so far are Liam Kavanagh and Jadzia Tedeschi, who have a lot of relevant experience with the Climate Majority Project and elsewhere. Our aim is to gather a core group of 6-8 people by the end of 2025.
The vision within 2-3 years is to establish a residential centre and spiritual community in mid-Wales: we have chosen this area because it is relatively empty, unspoiled, and affordable, and because its links with Celtic spirituality are still accessible. We see connection to the divine through food growing and Nature contact as key to the alchemy of this centre.
Our first steps include a series of monthly online events, called Rising Tide: we hope that these will build connections which encourage people to book for the residential groups which we’re already organising: see more here.
Making the path as we walk it
Apple pressing at Threshold Centre, the spiritual cohousing community which Alan co-foundedAlthough we have hopes, we have many big questions to navigate. This article is an invitation to others who’d like to join our exploration. Here are a few of the questions ahead:
Evolving community: this has to be shaped by the people who want to live in it. We imagine it drawing on the cohousing model, where residents have their own living space alongside shared facilities, and with inclusive spiritual practices like silent meditation, rather than a single faith framework.
- Using the s-word: many people, especially young ones, are understandably suspicious of organised religion, but also of anything called spiritual. We believe there’s a widespread thirst for spiritual meaning and support in these crisis times, but finding the right language is a major and delicate quest.
- Evolving community: this has to be shaped by the people who want to live in it. We imagine it drawing on the cohousing model, where residents have their own living space alongside shared facilities, and with inclusive spiritual practices like silent meditation, rather than a single faith framework.
- Shared values: another paradox for this project is that we don’t want to focus it on a named path, such as Christianity or Buddhism, but we hope to enable people to experience several paths as part of their search. Do we risk making things too diffuse? One role model is the Findhorn Foundation, whose key values I’d sum up as connection (of all kinds) through silent meditation, and engaging with Nature as a spiritual partner.
- What about the money? One of my learnings from setting up two educational charities with residential centres is that buying a property is only half the financial story: you need significant funds for startup costs and ongoing activity. For this project, we are considering renting premises by the year, not buying them. And we are exploring with a few partner organisations which might use us as a congenial venue, and bring in a revenue stream.
Stepping in
If you’re interested in joining the adventure, here are some possible next steps:
- Check out our vision statement at soulresilience.net.
- Join me for my session on May 20, 3-5pm, as part of Alef’s Nurturing the Fields of Change: use this link.
- Email me and we can explore further together: alanheeks@gmail.com.
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