Vision and principles of Ecolonie

Introduction

Since its founding in 1989, Ecolonie has evolved along with the knowledge and insights gained both internally and from external sources. Its supporting sub-names—residential and working community, ecological centre, and eco-village—reflect this growth. Much inspiration came from the Findhorn community, as well as philosophers such as Zoeteman, Laszlo, Sloterdijk, Moore, Stiekema, and others. Earlier publications (“Vision and Principles” – 2003 and “Ecolonie – Forge Neuve in the Future” – 2011, especially Part 2) explore these contributions in detail.

Currently, we are developing a concept note titled “Let a Thousand Gaia Collectives Bloom in the European Countryside”, aimed at securing EU funding through the Green Deal to establish an Information and Knowledge Centre for those who wish to start their own Gaia Collective.

The content of these notes forms an integral part of the vision of what we now call Gaia Collective Ecolonie. Yet, despite the insights from these ‘allies’—as we call them in our fight against climate change—some fundamental questions remained unanswered, such as “Why is humanity so intent on destroying its own environment?” The French philosopher Bruno Latour, through his 2019 publications (Where to Land? and Face to Face with Gaia, Octavo editions), provided the missing pieces that inspired our choice of the sub-name Gaia Collective.

The name is centered on two concepts: Gaia and Collective. Gaia is described as: “the membrane, the layer, barely a few kilometres thick from the surface of the Earth, the fragile envelope of the critical zones, the true lifeline for all life on Earth”—referring to the part of the Earth over which humans have influence. Collective refers to a group of people living and working together, sharing the vision and concept, including the political thinking and action necessary to positively impact Gaia in all her forms.

To summarize the 2003 and 2011 publications and Latour’s philosophy, the following characteristics of Gaia Collective Ecolonie have been formulated. This description distinguishes between the features of the vision of Gaia Collective Ecolonie and the practical implementation of a Gaia Collective. The vision acts as the guiding principle, offering insight into a new reality full of utopian possibilities. The concept represents the realization of that vision in the present. The characteristics and distinction between vision and concept are a first step—they continue to take shape and gain substance through our thinking and actions.

1. Characteristics of the vision of Gaia Collective Ecolonie

• Gaia Collective takes responsibility for the place where its members live and work and its immediate surroundings (the “Local Plus” orientation), and inherently for Gaia itself (the “Global Plus” orientation). This contrasts with the current paradigm of “Local Minus” and “Global Minus” orientations, which lead to a bottomless or hopeless future (Latour, 2017).

• Members of the Collective see themselves as Earth-dwellers who also represent all other non-human visible and invisible beings, also considered Earth-dwellers.

• The phrase “taking responsibility for” means that members of a Gaia Collective act with the awareness that they are part of Gaia and, together with all other Earth-dwellers, depend on a fully functioning Gaia for their survival.

• The Gaia Collective holds a holistic vision that recognizes the unity (material and immaterial) of life. Through advancing (scientific) insight, this vision gains a necessary focus on the severe climate mutation taking place, which threatens all Earth-dwellers.

• Gaia Collective Ecolonie serves as an accessible practice, experimental, and meeting place for Earth-dwellers who want to engage in the transition process both inwardly (spiritually: from having/achieving to being) and outwardly (materially: reducing consumption and creating a low ecological footprint).

• The Collective assumes that living and working are inextricably linked.

• Fundamental to the Gaia Collective is embracing the principle of “slow time,” exemplified by the construction of cathedrals in the Middle Ages—centuries-long projects whose final outcome was never seen by the architects and builders.

• Motivation to be a member of a Gaia Collective is intrinsic; essentially, it means putting the vision into practice within the framework of the concept as described here. Through surrender, trust, and understanding, this service to Gaia is expressed as a commitment. This may require a “leap” from a mindset dominated by the myth of self-actualization and ego-centered living toward a new mode of being, where the question is not whether one benefits personally or grows individually, but about serving Gaia collectively.

• Residents value a creative approach to life, where building a livable future plays a central role.

• This contrasts with a reactive approach, which responds to undesired circumstances.

• The variety of artisanal work (small-scale craftsmanship) concretizes the vision that Earth-dwellers benefit from a diverse working environment.

• Residents recognize a transcendent reality (beyond sensory perception) and refer to it as mysticism. Dorothee Sölle (1929–2003) defined mysticism as “the experience of the unity and wholeness of life,” which is a key characteristic of Gaia Collective Ecolonie.

2. Characteristics of the basic concept

The following characteristics can be distinguished as material and non-material aspects of the basic concept.

Material characteristics

• Shared rules that serve the life and development of the community, also referred to as the GaiaZeN worldview and way of life. An example is the communal household regulations.

• A diverse artisanal project organization, where students and teachers develop forms of education on an equal basis, with the understanding that practical living is nothing other than artisanal living, and vice versa.

• Organic food production (vegetables and dairy) and processing, aiming for optimal self-sufficiency. Dairy production implies that animals no longer suitable for milk production are sent for slaughter, and the meat must be responsibly processed.

• An internal and external economy that ensures residents not only receive a basic income but also allows the collective to be socially and economically meaningful to the surrounding area (Local Plus).

• Sustainable energy supply, based on renewable sources.

• An organizational and legal structure that reflects shared responsibilities (association, cooperative). A distinction is made between “drivers” and “supporters.” Drivers are those who embrace, understand, and can convey the vision and concept, and who hold steering capacity within the internal organization. Supporters are those who, driven by the same love and passion, carry out artisanal and operational work. Together, they enable the development of Gaia Collective Ecolonie.

 Non-material characteristics

Whenever we enter areas of life connected to the deeper layers of our existence, we encounter the problem that words are entirely inadequate. This is especially true in the spiritual domain, where any attempt to define basic concepts inevitably falls short of the meaning we wish to convey. This is hardly surprising: we are entering a realm that transcends our thinking, and language is part of that thinking, so it can never fully cross these boundaries. With this in mind, the following points outline the characteristics of the non-material reality.

• Members of Gaia Collective Ecolonie live according to the principle they call EcoZeN. Eco represents ecological awareness, and ZeN signifies the spiritual attitude toward life. Together, they express a vision of unity. ZeN unfolds in life at the present moment, when one is momentarily freed from all the mental conditioning ingrained in the mind. The path of ZeN involves gradually peeling away layers of pre-programmed judgments, reactions, and ideas.

• The vision of the Gaia Collective is inseparably linked to the development of a consciousness that recognizes a holistic view also encompasses the unseen world. It was Han Stiekema who advocated for the return of the “Great Mother” into our consciousness, into our hearts, as the overarching principle. This concept refers to the source from which life emerges and to which it returns. The idea of the Great Mother provides a framework for thinking about the unfathomable universe without becoming equivalent to traditional notions of God.

• Members of the Gaia Collective acknowledge the “energy of the dark nights of the soul.” An example of describing this abstract reality is found in Dorothee Sölle, who states that it finds its ground in a “dark night of the world” and that the mystical place “has no place.” Nevertheless—the paradox of life—it remains attentive to what she calls natural, “non-artificially created places”: nature, eroticism, suffering, community, and joy. The underlying tone of her thought and work is reflected in the following quotation: “Among which I suffer, and for which I ask forgiveness, are the current catastrophic things our society inflicts on the poor and our Mother Earth.” (from Mysticism and Resistance, 1998, pp. 58–59).