An actionable guide for aspiring regenerative village builders looking to create habitats with planet positive externalities. How to build a regenerative village by TreeHouse DAO About this Book regeneration: Interacting with people and places to make them better than before. This book is an emergent archive weaving lineages of wisdom and practical experience from a worldwide tribe of regenerative village builders. Each page is an invitation to reflect and take action. Hopefully, reading this will encourage you to embark on the journey of becoming regenerative, both as an individual and as an interconnected network of living beings on a planetary scale. This is a chance to choose an adventure and shape the reality you would like to see in the world. The present wants to play — are you game? 2 Welcome to version 0.9! It all started with a dream – to bring together a group of village builders to share knowledge and co-reflect on how to build regenerative villages. A few months later, we sat down for the opening ceremony, embarking on a journey to create an open-source guide for aspiring village builders. During an 11-day process of playful co-creation, we weaved together multidisciplinary threads from the vast regen ecosystem and consolidated them into version 0.7 – 200 pages showcased to our network for initial feedback. The version 0.9 of the book is now in your hands. It is not perfect, nor is it finished. We embrace that as a possibility to work in public and invite you to participate in the process, if you choose to. Feel free to add missing information to our references and resources document, and / or join our telegram group if you want to hear about / suggest other opportunities to get involved. You can also reach us via twitter @DAOtreehouse. It is our dream for this book to find its way into print and pop up in regenerative villages, co-living spaces, accelerator hubs etc around the world, serving as one of the entry points into a constantly evolving ecosystem of knowledge – inspiring a transition towards regenerative way of living as a planetary goal. Thank you for being a part of this movement! Resources and References Telegram Group 3 Authors Production Michał Korzonek Daneel Minev Illustrations Silvia Bastos Nico Shi Traditional Dream Factory Treehouse DAO CC BY-SA 4.0 Contributors Jeremy Agnew Ani Anca Juliana Andrade Richard Bartlett Christoff Brockhoff Samuel Delesque Charlotte Fradet Beatriz Fonseca Vesta Gheibi Joshua Glass Florijn de Graaf Rim Guermazi Lennart Henning Bart Hoorweg Jillian Hovey Mathilda Isaksson Cedric Mainguy Konrad Rauscher Jip de Ridder Laura van Wijngaarden Roberto Valenti Kyle Schutter Gustavo Segovia Raissa Teles re:build Solve Earth 4 A Wave Of Gratitude Looking through the pages of this book, I can feel a powerful wave of gratitude rolling through. Thank you, dearest Village Builders, Regen Pirates, and Friends, for answering the call to show up at the Traditional Dream Factory to play and co-create these pages together. It’s been an honour and so much fun! Thank you, all the TDF Sheepy Crew, for providing the most magickal space to dream up this book, and then make it come to life. A massive thanks to the Summer Stewards (Rim, Sam and Jip), our Space Host Juliana, and all the volunteers, for all the support. Thank you everyone who contributed their time and energy for this book to come to life. And a massive wholehearted thank you to everyone who held me while facilitating the process. I couldn’t have done that without you. Finally, thank you, the entire Regenerative Community and its long Lineage, for all the inspiring work and care put into actively co-creating a beautiful world where all Beings can thrive. As you might suspect, this book draws upon and weaves together an ever-expanding ecosystem of knowledge. You’ll find the resources and references here: Feel free to contribute with missing pieces! Sending you a big hug along with wholehearted wishes of a fulfilling journey building regenerative culture on a planetary scale. You are an essential part of it. On behalf of the entire book crew, Michał Pico Island, 28 Nov 2022 5 Table of Contents 1. Personal Regeneration 1.1. Self 1.2. Self And Community 1.3. Community 2. Legal and Governance 2.1 How To Make Decisions Together 2.2 Building Decentralised Autonomous Villages 3. Funds and Capital 4. Infrastructure 4.1 Vision 4.2 Planning 4.3 Build 5. Regenerating Nature 5.1 We Are Part Of Nature 5.2 How To Regenerate Nature 6. Beyond Your Village 6.1 Past Artificial Boarders 6.2 Culture Shift 6.3 Regenerative Economics 6.4 Towards Connected Networks Epilogue Core Aspects Of Regenerative Paradigm Regeneration At Sea Find The Others Resources and References Page Index 6 Chapter 1 Personal Regeneration 7 Part 1 Self 8 Define Your Future Vision “Let him who would move the world, first move himself” – Socrates Envision yourself reflecting back on your life… What experiences did you have? What areas did you grow in? Who did you become? What gifts did you share with the world? Who did you enjoy adventures with? What next step Could you take to move towards this vision? Translate your life vision into a ten, five, and three year intention. What are the blocks and beliefs preventing you from realizing this life vision? Which tools, rituals, and practices are going to support you in your journey? 9 Start Where You Are What I Love What I can be paid for What the World Needs Ikigai What I’m good at Friends Health Career Love Family Spirituality Fun Money Wheel Of Life In order to build a strategy to manifest your vision, you need to know where you are standing right now. Use these tools as your personal GPS to conduct an honest assessment. Things to consider for each area: – What are your needs? – What are the gifts you bring? – What are the things and who are the people supporting your growth? – What makes you feel alive? – How does a pleasant day look like for you? – What are your biggest bottlenecks? Pro Tip: Share your findings with other people (family, collegues, and friends) to get another perspective. Other Frameworks For Assessment: LifeBook Categories / Max Neef Framework / Radical Self Enquiry Framework 10 Choose Your Dogmas We are all religious. Your shrine can be a mosque, a dancefloor, or the Natural History Museum. Your sacred symbol; a cross or an iPhone. Your special day might be Sabbath or Independence Day. Your “religiousness” can show up in so many different ways. We’re not here to judge. However… If You don’t choose Your religion consciously, perhaps one will be chosen for You. What are your: Rituals * Shrines * Symbols * Special days * Dietary restrictions * Demigods (people you look up to) * Means of forgiveness * Holy books How can you design what you believe in to embody who you want to become? “We wear our dogmas lightly” – Esalen Institute 11 Have A Tea With Your Personal Moloch Moloch is the demon of coordination failure When a group of people (such as a family, community, or society) fails to cooperate effectively, you can hear the Moloch laughing in the shadows. But what about our personal Moloch? We all carry different parts that shape our personality and lives, including experiences, motivations, needs, desires, traumas, and fears. Somewhere along the way a behaviour or trait might have been rejected by our caregivers, culture, religious norms, or societal beliefs. We start repressing that part of ourselves to fit in, to be accepted, and to be validated. The more we repress a side of ourselves the more distant we get, so that we even forget about it. The more we ignore these parts, the more they grow in the unconscious mind to form a ‘monster’ operating in the shadows. A monster which has power over us. This is our personal Moloch. Say hello! 12 Having a tea with our Personal Moloch is an invitation to de-demonise lost and forgotten parts of ourself This is a process to shine some light on the parts of us which dismiss and affect our behaviours, to help us move towards healing and integration. Here is a suggestion to proceedD 7 Place two chairs facing each other, and sit in one of the$ 7 Tune in and connect to a shadow aspect and imagine it sitting in front of you (this could be a behaviour, situation, recurrent emotion, challenge, or blockage( 7 For every question you ask, move to the opposite chair and answer as your Moloch. Take time to embody each role as you sit in the chair. Start withD 7 Who are you?> 7 What do you want from me?> 7 How old are you?> 7 What do I need to learn from you?> 7 How can I process you?> 7 How can I release what is trapped in my body?> 7 How can I integrate you?> 7 What can I let go of?> 7 What is not serving me here?> 7 Is there anything else I’m not seeing? Allow yourself to tune in and let this process flow. 13 Part 2 Self + Community 14 Everything that lives, grows inside something else Your context matters. You are more effective when immersed in an encouraging context. You are less effective when immersed in a discouraging context. Sometimes all you need to thrive is to change your context. 15 Microsolidarity A community building practice focused on creating structures for belonging and enabling people to do meaningful work. five scales of groups Self as a group (1) Dyad (2) Crew (3-6) Congregation (>150) Network of congregations Different group scales serve different purposes. Find your crew Magic happens at the crew level High coordination with minimal rule Synergy, enhanced impact, shared resources, and networks A congregation is a “dating pool” where you find people to form your crew(s) how to start 1) Join a congregation — eventually you will find your crew 2) Start a practice crew(s) — reach out to people you’d like to practice with 16 Tools For Cultivating Intimacy Intimacy is the feeling of being close, emotionally connected, and supported. As the group size grows, you have more tools at your disposal. Here are some of them: J Radical self inquirS J Internal family systeF J Shadow worB J Journaling J Authentic relating J Nonviolent communicatioj J Relationship co-designing J Expressing needu J Setting boundarieu J Conflict transformation J Gatheringu J Sharing circleu J ForuF J Counci J Liberating structures Self Dyad Family Crew Congregation Network J Group coaching J Mastermindu J Support pods 17 Orientation and Cycles Poverty trap Birth Growth Maturity Rigidity trap Destruction The ‘Me/We’ OODA loop is where we move from personal development to communal development using the process of Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act. Start here with the realisation something has to change Observe Decide Act PERSONAL JOURNEY COMMUNITY JOURNEY 18 How To Embody the Superorganisms Imagine our human tribe as one superorganism, connected to all other forms of life on earth. Imagine feeling open to communicating with others, not from reactive patterns, but with transparency and heartfelt connection. This collective intelligence is natural to us, but it can get overshadowed by individual and collective trauma induced amnesia. If we’re experiencing internal dissonance, we cannot freely connect with our environment. Dissonance between the hemispheres of our mind, and all other organs, and between the immature parts that reside in our psyche. Most of us get out of game A, feeling completely disconnected from our bodies. Thankfully, we’re finding our way to a wonderful palette of different techniques to reconnect with our bodies and mindfully recognise our unconscious patterns, allowing them to integrate and resolve. As a consequence, we can expand our ability to share emotional, intuitive, and other intelligences with everyone around us and increase our combined potential to evolve as an ecosystem. How do you explore the feelings and sensations that you experience in your body? Can you use words and symbols to describe them? 19 Artful Participation and Celebrating Boundaries Maintaining a healthy balance between interpersonal interactions and selftime is an art. It’s always ok to say no Sometimes the most effective contribution you can make is to take time out. 20 The Downward Spiral of Degenerative Behaviour Everyone has hidden triggers inside created by traumas; bad experiences, education, relations, environment, and more. It’s the interplay between these personal traumas which continuously happens and can slowly erode and even destroy communities. It’s important to detect these triggers as soon as they arise, and to openly talk about them without focusing on the action or the person that caused it. It’s also a way to understand where we can do some personal development, find our growing edge, becoming aware of our coping mechanisms, and eventually heal them. 21 Reenacting Old Patterns From The Collective Shadow What if we unconsciously repeat some of the same patterns we’re trying to get away from? How do we make sure our regenerative actions contain the necessary shift in consciousness to really manifest the change we want to see in the world? How do we shed light on our collective blindspots? There is a valid reason why we tend to filter our perceived reality. We can’t notice everything, otherwise we would be constantly experiencing sensory overload. Our filter heavily depends on our past experiences and on what we need for survival. Growing up, every decision we took that confirmed our worldview in that moment reinforced those specific neurological pathways. The more we have those ingrained beliefs, the harder it becomes for the collective to wake up. Luckily, there are always a few black sheep swimming against the stream. Let’s welcome them with open arms and take time to reflect on what they’re bleating and grunting about! 22 Part 3 Community 23 people before projects As a village builder you have two jobs” Build excellent relationship / Keep iterating What you prioritise impacts everything you do. Prioritise people and beautiful projects will sprout naturally. Excellent relationships create a layer of deep trust, allowing you to iterate in a safe environment. We all need to practice. 24 Define the DNA of Your Village What are the core components of your village? For example: Traditional Dream Factor> < Land regeneratio9 < Playfulnes- < Web3 Liminal Villagh < Balancing personal/ local/global regeneratio9 < Intrinsic motivation & empowermenW < Forward to nature – tech aided communities Piratas do Amo < Educatio9 < ArW < Impact at sea The possibilities are endless. You can decide to focus on personal development tools, education, art, games, land or city regeneration, or all of the above. We can be freaking pirates sailing the seven seas if we choose to! Whatever DNA you decide upon, make it explicit. 25 Turn Culture Into An Object Objects have explicit qualities and characteristics. Once a characteristic is made explicit you can modify it. Ask your group: How do we want to be together? Create explicit culture by naming behaviours, rituals, and practices. Tweak the characteristics to fit the needs of the group. Everything is adjustable. 26 How permeable is your community’s membrane? Some communities are extremely selective in their onboarding process, others keep their doors wide open. There’s no judgment here, decide on whatever works for you and make it transparent. Let’s look at the cells in our body. They need to interact with their environment, but they also need boundaries to prevent them from falling apart and dissolving into their surroundings. They absorb what they need, generally excluding what is toxic or irrelevant. Cells contain some very specific receptors on their surface for this filtering process. Nature knows best. Like a cell, we can use our membranes very efficiently and consciously design according to the needs of our village DNA. 27 Find Commonalities, Respect Differences If the community membrane is too strong, we might run the risk of surrounding ourselves with copies of ourselves. How does diversity affect our growth? Biodiversity -> Thriving Nature Monoculture -> Dying Nature The conscious understanding and respect of what makes us different creates profound opportunities for growth. Yet, while diversity is vital for growth, it requires patience, empathy, and deliberate practicey l How ‘hard’ are the membrane rules in your village| l How can you bring diversity into your village, while maintaining alignment with its DNA? Hard rule Vegan ONLY Any diet No rule 28 Make space for Privacy and Self time What is the right balance between privacy and community? Here are the few things to consider that will help you accommodate for different needs. Architectural Design [ Micro spaceZ [ Private rooms and bathroomZ [ Drinking water in roomsQ [ Circular flow of people Social Design [ Optional activitieZ [ Self time in the schedule (eg. early nights, siestas, etcl [ Not all meals shared Consent is permission for something to happen or an agreement to do something. Apart from verbal, explicit consent it’s also important to be sensitive to signals that can express certain boundaries, for example wearing a hat for “don’t distract me, I’m focused right now”. Consent All meals shared Some shared meals Private cooking Private Lot Common space + private house Communal Housing 29 How to address conflict Addressing Conflict Embracing conflict as a tool for growth Sharing Circles Mediators Guiding Principles Regular workshops to Nurture intimacy One of the most important things you can do within your community is to cultivate a culture of embracing conflict instead of seeing it as a negative thing. Conflict is inevitable, and if handled well it can be a wonderful opportunity for growth and bonding within the community. Prepare for conflict in advance. Agree on guiding principles, such as radical honesty and transparency or the principles of nonviolent communication. Facilitate intimacy-building activities and practice in groups of different sizes. Consider having regular sharing circles to create space for everyone to be heard, surface any tensions, and to address conflicts early. And if despite all efforts you end up in deep sh*t anyway, fear not. Embrace the conflict and consider appointing a mediator to bring clashing parties into a fruitful resoultion. 30 The Intangible Art of Holding Space Holding space is providing a safe and non judgmental container for a person to be witnessed and held.
