How to be an alchemist at Elkenmist

Questions about building a place based community

What could it be like to live in community with other humans and in community with a very specific place, a very specific land and the myriad of more-than-human beings who live there?

(Thank you to David Abram for "more-than-human" and making animism an accessible experience for this particular human)

How can we learn to listen to the land, honor our duty as stewards, custodians and at the same time help generate abundance for other humans to thrive there ?

(Thank you to Tyson Yunkaporta for the reminder we are meant to be a custodial species)

Is it possible to imagine and realize a more beautiful world our hearts know is possible where the relationships between us humans and between us and the earth are not just transactional and the economy is more sacred than profane?

(Thank you to Charles Eisenstein for modeling how it’s ok be nerdy and spiritual at the same time)

How can we humans learn to belong together, sitting in the fire of our conflicts, finding again a sense of devotion and connections with our ancestors, and braving the traumas and wilderness of the forest within and with-out. ( Thank you Arnold Mindell and Josh Schrei)

Is it possible for us raised in alienation and capitalism to re-discover how to belong to land, how to tend to a specific place, how to find that in our bones even if we have to go back 1000 years through our ancestry to find it ?

These are the kinds of questions we are trying to ponder at Elkenmist, a place where the grass is literally greener and the trees never stop growing and dying.

Elkenmist is a place of Elks and mist, on the ancient unceded lands of the Chinook people. We also believe there are mythical creatures living on the land which are half Elk and half Mist and who can shape-shift at will from being an Elk to being a creature of mist. We also hope to learn to shape-shift ourselves into the beings we are meant to be through the alchemical process of working on and with the land.

After almost 3 years of dreaming, yarning around camp fires, weeding, exploring, tractoring, weaving, building, along with lots of conflicts we are ready to share more of our questions and our tentative living answers. Just like this little slug in our woods took his time to come out of the protective embrace of this mushroom:

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Living and building together with other people is really hard, even when people have a high degree of autonomy and separate living spaces. It is also hard despite seeming to have a lot of alignment on values and purpose

It really helps to start with a small crew and to be able to rely at the beginning on the goodwill developed through long term friendships rather than start with people who don't know each other.

It really helps when everyone is willing to have and develop a sense of "interior curiosity" to get through the difficult and vulnerable times. (Thank you Rich Bartlett)

Even when you have a lot of conceptual alignment and common aspirations you will also discover you have a lot of differences and these differences get amplified in close quarters. This can feel excruciating and hopeless at times but it also eventually makes for a more resilient community.

It helps to have models of how people can communicate with each other and build things together despite having very different political or spiritual views or different kinds of personalities. (Thank you to Ashley Colby and the Doomer optimism community for showing that in public).

One straightforward way to embody the dedication to the land is to grow and gather food, while also improving the soil and noticing signs of increasing biodiversity. This takes a lot of work, knowledge, love and perseverance. It also takes a lot of resources.

On our land at this time we are experimenting with various regenerative practices like rotational grazing for sheep, cows, pigs, horses, chickens and turkeys. The animals help us explore the land, as we get to experience the land through their feet and mouths and they help fertilize the soil and turn "invasive species" into meat, milk and eggs.

We also forage for mushrooms and nettles in the woods, grow mushrooms on alder logs, harvest apples, pears, plums, kiwi berries, raspberries, blackberries, aronia berries, blueberries and grapes. We are pickling giant volunteer radishes who thrive in our garden despite whatever else we might want to grow there.

Ultimately, we imagine being a beautiful retreat center, where people can gather, share healing experiences, enjoy the wilderness, beautiful art but also learn practical skills, whether farming, building or surviving in the wild.

We hope to build a community you feel you can belong to and contribute to whether you live on the land full time, part time, or come join a work party on a full moon weekend, a solstice ceremony or just join us online.

We would like people who come visit to have the kind of inspiration, peak experiences and sense of belonging they might have at BurningMan or Beloved or other beautiful festivals while doing. meaningful work to build something that is meant to last and keep growing for generations.

Imagine BarningMan or SeedlingWoman, a place where whatever you build or plant will be there when you come back and you get to see it grow over the years.

Most people are embedded in city life in such a way that they can't leave and live on land in a rural place full time. If you are one of those people we can give you a place to come to again and again and slowly develop a relationship with the land over time without giving up your other life. We definitely need your support, whether that might be financial, creative, or labor.

If you are a digital nomad who wants to be closer to nature we could use a lot of help from you. You can bring the bounty of the ethereal abundance and compost it here with us and give it meaning, shape and permanence. We are hoping to eventually re-discover our ancestral roots as physical nomads as well and be able to wander the land following the seasons, hopefully visiting a network of places like ours.

We are hoping to focus on practical skills, beauty, embodied practices and resist the lure of philosophical debates. We also believe meditation and sharing vulnerably are practical skills.