Archan Permaculture in action
Growing Radicles & Inner Permaculture Game
Another kind of Permaculture is growing from within, inwardly, from the inside: the inner ecosystem, named the Being, that every human is in relation to, yet use differently, depending on which thought system they operate with.
Human being are not destructive by nature, they do if they have not been initiated to Adulthood. Another culture, radically responsible is possible right now.
In this article, two actions leading both to the synergy of inner and outer permaculture.
One apparently birthing from outside, the permanent food forest and syntropic agroforestry system leading to more connections and distinctions (including low drama triangle and the place given by people to it in their life), in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
The other one apparently taking its source from within: the feelings of people with a Possibility Menu named ‘Inner Permaculture Intimacy Game’ that sprouted with an original question “what is your path with the way you feed yourself?” an experiment going along with a Possibility Menu in the market town of the Pyrenees, France.
Two moves, that describes what is really happening in Archan Permaculture Gameworld: from outer to inner and from inner to outer. Like a moebius ring doubled with infinity matching each other around a tree full of life.
Let’s now move from the first action to the other. Let me know what moves you when you read it.
Growing Radicles, by James Samuel
Syntropic Agroforestry is a unique expression of a natural system evolving conscious, intentional human interventions, from a place where humans recognise themselves as part of, not apart from nature.
“The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.”
— Masanobu Fukuoka (One Straw Revolution)
Legends are the stories a community chooses consciously, in order to build matrix for change. This is my telling of the legends of this event, to celebrate the changes I notice, in a way you can pick up and share.
On Friday 22nd of March 2024, 30 people gathered at a beautiful location in Golden Bay (NZ), for Growing Radicles, a three day exchange of ideas, knowledge, experience and wisdom on the topic of Syntropic food and social systems.
A radicle, is the embryonic stage of a plant root. The first organ to appear and anchor the plant so it can absorb water and nutrients from the soil, and in this event people came together to put down roots for a different way of sourcing food.
Village Happening
This event was made possible by the contributions of many people!
Firstly, Gabriel Millinger coached me and held space artfully for all my feelings, and over many months, so I could discover the gameworld I want to co-create with others. He helped me re-find what I care about: Embracing diversity and ways of sourcing food so nature (including humans) can flourish.
Reggie Luedtke is Kaitiaki (guardian) of the land, and had a big yes for hosting this training on this land. It would be the first event there, and how appropriate.
Janet Redmond, reminded me of the passion I have held for this life work, and supported me at every step, by holding space as fear, anger, sadness and joy would bubble up along the way. The human social systems spaces that were woven through the event, carried the growing radicles village to another place.
I found an email address for Byron (Grows) Birss, and sent a message with the subject: Syntropic Food and Social Systems — Are you in? and the poster (but no other words) in the body of the message. His yes! came within hours, even though we’d had no previous contact. His space holding and landing of the principles of Syntropic Agroforestry was combined with gently holding back those of us, including me, who were itching from the start to get tools in hand and begin the physical work.
“Fast gets all our attention, but slow has all the power” — Stewart Brand
Joel Briffault from Crafted Earth brought so much to this event. The abundance of plants was astounding, and his propagation and soil knowledge and experience shared with passion, humour and humility, was pure gold. After some apprehension about presenting to a larger group, Joel realised “I’m made for this!”. Many people expressed looking forward to learning more from this community treasure.
“I was taken back by just how fast we were able to plant out the food forest with all these beauties! And with a community who had only been brought together days earlier. Sharing resources skills and knowledge, together we achieved so much in so little time. I can only imagine how much a community could achieve if they were able to do this every weekend.” — Duncan Mackintosh
Saci Reilly-Jasper showed up unexpectedly to the first face to face meeting, like an angel from heaven. She had recently returned from Brazil, where she’d been learning about Syntropic Agroforestry. Her persistence in the planning and sourcing of fruit and support species trees was crucial. She will be key in the ongoing maintenance of this experimental installation.
The wider village stepped up and had a yes for helping with food to sustain us, for promoting the event to their networks, and to providing plants, seeds, equipment and tools we would need. In the closing days before the event, the sadness often leaked from my eyes as I opened to receive the abundance of support.
Irene Hubers’ steady and unwavering attention to keeping the food flowing, out of a makeshift camp kitchen, belied her fears of being able to cater for such a group, and resulted in her discovering joy for this role.
Process based vs input based
While it took several hours of discovery, when the principle landed it was not about to be forgotten. Without machinery, fertilisers, pesticides, insecticides, water, and more, most of the conventional or industrial agriculture would simply grind to a halt. These inputs are required to counter nature’s inherent impulse to return (albeit slowly) to a diverse forest ecosystem.
In contrast Syntropic Agroforestry’s primary input is human, that support natural processes. By applying conscious interventions, we can fast track and support nature’s ability to heal, through succession, and create a diverse and abundant ecosystem.
The Drama Triangle
Saturday night, following the late afternoon physical work and dinner, Janet delivered an exploration into the drama triangle, or how we get into the swamp and how to get out of it. There was much laughter as people recognised how it went in their lives, and then respect and stillness as one person after another let their vulnerability be present. When we broke into groups, eight year old Sylvanis articulated very clearly how he moves from victim to persecutor to rescuer.
Establishing the radicle
Finally on the last day, we got down and dirty.
Some mulched material that kept getting cut from around the edges of the area we had defined. Others started to clear away the grass. A lot of chainsaw work resulted in volumes of logs that were subsequently buried under mulch that formed the paths.
The plants were put in and the wood and mulch applied all in the last three hours!
A radicle for Syntropic Agroforestry in Golden Bay is now established.
It is in the ground, it has a place, people can come and see it, can watch it grow, and go away and make their own experiments to Syntropic Agroforestry can scale from here through replication, tapping into the experience and knowledge, and by propagating plant material from this one to feed the next.
Inner Permaculture Intimacy Game, by Gabriel Lechemin and Ludivine Thiburs
From the start, and still now, we both don’t know what is happening with this game and how fast it has been shared amongts people from our local town. We both don’t know what is our next move, yet, an ecstasy happen with fear each time we hold space for this game inspired by the Possibility Menu and “How does the potatoes feel” experiment. A sense of simplicity and a joy of finding gold into human interaction, letting space for the Extraordinary to happen.
A legend is a summary of something that happen and is many time to complex to be shared linearly, otherwise it will take ages to transmit. The form it takes is generally linked to a mystery, taking shape in poetry, actual myth that depict what happen like a metaphor. Ideas therefore spread like a fire, waiting to be spread like a cultural virus.
We both witness that fire in action.
After holding space for a couple of Possibility Menus in our local town of Bagnères de Bigorre, since the start of Art’chiarchy Bridge-House we blended that experiment with “how does the potatoes feel” experiment: Inner Permaculture Intimacy Game was born.
The purpose of this game is to connect people to their feelings. 4 cards with 4 different topics are represented: Connection, Important, Unknown, and Opening. This 4 directions are thought to open the 4 feelings from Possibility Management, a Gameworld that originated Archan Permaculture.
At first sight, some questions arise like, “Ow, inner gardening, yes I love it! And, what am I supposed to do?”
The pannel is attracting many people, yes it works, first feedback: “go!”. One of the first question we ask is “do you want to pick up a card and play this game?”
- Yes, what is it about?
-It’s an initmate game about Inner Permaculture, do you want to play? (In that gameword)
As the person generally jump in with fear, she’s asking:
“Am I supposed to read it to myself and then anwser?”
-I propose you to read you the question and then you answer, do you agree?”
And on and on…
I feel joy that people are curious and that the cards creates a bridge to non-material value. After many atemps, we found out that the Possibility Menu requires such a leap in the Unknown that many are not ready (because of the fears) to jump in. With the cards the idea of having Possibilities becomes accessible, visible, touchable.
Are you willing to take part of that game?
The invitation is sent and spread.
A 4 hands writing article, Gabriel Lechemin and James Samuel, with the support of Ludivine Thiburs.
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