The Ecovillage movement was born in the early 1990’ies and in no small degree brought to life due to the visions of my mother (Hildur Jackson) and the willingness of my father (Ross Jackson) to support her visions and fund the movement, through Gaia Trust, for about 30 years.

I therefore grew up alongside the movement and have borne witness to many of the discussions, decisions and also disagreements that shaped the early years of the movement.

Today the movement has grown into a global gameworld with hundreds of communities all over the world, a well-established Ecovillage Design Education (EDE) and an annual European gathering of around 800 people.

This is a tremendous achievement.

But…and there is a but, that deserves to be named: Throughout the movements 30-year history, not a single community, that started out as an Ecovillage, has risen to become a beacon of light and inspiration that compares to the “big three”, the communities that originally inspired my mother: Auroville, Damanhur and Findhorn.

My mother’s original vision of the Ecovillage was to create a synthesis of the Social, Ecological and Spiritual dimensions of community – something that was more than the sum of the parts. She saw how existing communities had either a social, ecological or spiritual orientation, and she dreamt of something new: A community where all three aspects were in harmony and empowering each other.

There were several reasons for this.

• When looking at the spiritual communities, she observed how the children often suffered due to the adult’s focus on spiritual practice and discipline.
• When looking at the socially oriented communities, like our own co-housing project of 20 years (1971-1991), she saw how the lack of a spiritual purpose caused them to become self-absorbed and lose their drive and creativity.
• And when looking at the ecological communities, she saw how the dream of a greener life was not enough to nourish the souls of the people involved.

To Hildur the answer was the Ecovillage: A synthesis of the three domains: Social, Ecological and Spiritual.

Permaculture Rules the Day

My parents were not always in 100% agreement about how to proceed with their visions. Hildur was very heart centered, and my father more practically oriented. My mother was a great visionary, but she also struggled with certain unresolved childhood trauma, that sometimes led her to be self-contradictory and unpredictable. This was at time exciting and fun, and at other times causing complicated disturbances to delicate processes.

As a result, my father’s business-like attitude often prevailed over the more heart-centered focus in relation to the direction of the project and the people chosen to run it. One result of this, was that during the first ten years of GEN’s existence it was five permaculture men (Hamish Stewart, Declan Kennedy, Albert Bates, Max Lindegger and Philip Snyder) who were put in charge of developing the fledgling organization. Because of this, the social and ecological dimensions took the front seat and the spiritual dimension became the “cultural” dimension and “worldview”.

What was forgotten in that process is that a spiritual community does not live because of its beliefs, or world views, but through its practices. And because there was not spiritual practice at the heart of the organization, the spiritual dimension became a fuzzy pillow of appreciation of all spiritual views: Nice and sympathetic but toothless.

In 2005, both frustrated over, and appreciative of, what GEN had evolved into, my mother decided to start another venture: Gaia education. The purpose of Gaia Education was to create an educational branch of GEN, and to do it in a way that would bring the spiritual dimension more in focus. This time she chose two women based in Findhorn to be at the helm (May East and Kousha Joubert). In addition to this, Hildur co-edited four books that would become the core curriculum of the education: The four keys.

Gaia Education is by most metrics a great success. Recognized by the UN and offered in over 40 countries, the 4-week EDE (Ecovillage Design Education) training, covering the 4 Ecovillage-keys, has trained hundreds, if not thousands, of Ecovillage Designers, through its 20 years of existence.

However… there is one thing it has not done: And that is to create initiation-centered villages, that are not only nice to live in and ecologically minded, but also centers of spiritual transformation and regeneration.

The need for Initiation-centered Cultures

At the heart of every person’s spiritual struggle lies a conflict between their lower material nature and their higher spiritual nature. This struggle can take many forms, but it is important to recognize that the material orientation of a person may just as well be towards “the right ecological lifestyle” as towards “driving the right car” or “having the right image”. There is no essential difference between the two, except for its mode of expression.

Whether a community is really a spiritual community or not, is not about ceremonies or meditation, but whether or not the individuals of the community, and the community as a whole, is expanding their spiritual matrix, taking a stand in the world, are cleaning up their underworld and shadow behaviors and trusting their spiritual impulses to guide them towards that which has no name: The ineffable mysteries or “The Nothing”.

How much does this dimension of being live in the Ecovillage Network?

In my experience, not very much, and where it does live it is usually due to other influences than the Ecovillage vision. In most cases where a community is strong in the spiritual dimension, it is because it was already a spiritual community before it became an Ecovillage.

I do not want to be overly critical of the Ecovillage movement though, because it has one outstanding quality: Its broad appeal and the success with which it has brought a wide variety of communities into a coherent whole. That is no small feat, and there is little doubt that some of the qualities that makes its spiritual foundation weak, makes its social appeal strong.

The question is though: Can we create a bridge between the broad appeal and warm social quality of the network (a horizontal quality), with the need for clarity and taking a more powerful stand in the world (a vertical quality)?

2025 and Beyond: The vision for Gaian Villages

2025 marks the 30-year anniversary of GEN and the 20-year anniversary of Gaia Education. Perhaps it is time to uplevel the Ecovillage thoughtware and articulate a vision for creating “Gaian Villages”.

To me a “Gaian Village” is an Ecovillage that truly pursue a synthesis of the social, ecological and spiritual and therefore has an initiation-centered training center at its heart.

What does this mean in practice?

To me it means that the community as a minimum:

• Is founded on a conscious-centered worldview that honors and recognizes Gaia as a living being.
• Has a clearly articulated context that outlines the distinctions that define the community and the practices of the community.
• Has a spiritual practice based in the context which include ownership of both the upperworld (spiritual purpose), middle-world (honoring time, resources and commitments) and underworld (shadow principles, victim stories and irresponsibility).
• Guards the context with clarity and understanding that you cannot be part of the community if you do not practice the context. If you are there, but do not practice, then you are in essence consuming the spiritual essence of the community without contributing, and any community that allows that, is doomed to fail.
• Has a non-hierarchical structure that is reflected in organization, ownership and decision-making processes, making a genuine community of co-creation and spiritual practice.
• Pursues Extraordinary Creation by having a purpose that goes beyond the community itself. By invoking and serving a clearly articulated higher purpose, the community becomes as place of interest to the worlds of light, and the spiritual body of the community is nourished by the higher energies channeled through it.

These six dimensions of community are necessary for a community to be a Gaian Village.

Any Ecovillage, that want to, can chose to become a Gaian Village. However, it might generate resistance from the existing villagers, saying: This is not what we agreed to!

And they would be right.

This was probably not what they agreed upon, when the community was created.

However: the parts of them that do not want to agree, are the most likely the same parts that are limiting the community’s possibilities. It is the underworld. It is the bad habits. It is the irresponsible parts that do not want to be held accountable for what is really being created, and why.

You can try to remove any of the six criteria above and you will get:

• Communities that do not honor Gaia or has a material-centered worldview.
• Communities that are based un unclarity, mixed contexts and confusion.
• Communities with no common practice and no real ownership of underworld and shadows.
• Communities that do not guard their own principles and therefore allow energetic zombies to feast on their essence.
• Communities where everyone is giving their centers away to hierarchical leadership.
• Communities that are mundane and ordinary because they have no real stand or purpose.

Do you recognize any of these behaviors in your own community?

If so, this article has hopefully given you some clarity about what to do about it.

Welcome to the age of the Gaian Villages.