Travelling Greenhearts: Day 20

After breakfasting at our van, our day in the community begins with a speech held in the common room called the "Aula". It is a beautiful, warm, welcoming wooden construction which holds over 350 people. We are amazed to find out that it is a straw-bale build! It turns out that Sabine Lichtenfels went on a pilgrimage to raise the 40.000 € they needed to build it - and here it is.

What a structure, and what a space!

Nice big solar cooker too!

Since we know this project is mainly run by Germans, we wonder if we will be able to understand much. Ana is particularly impressed to find that a third of the room's seating offers headphones for foreigners, with interpreting into English and Spanish! And they have two proper interpreting cabins at the back of the room! Swoon! I find out later that they built them especially in time for the Summer University.

We are fortunate to be here on Day 7 of the University, just when the theme of the day's speech is... Ecology! Totally up our street, of course - synchronicity in action! Allow me to explain some of what was said - I will not add photos as there are many on their site...

Given by Silke Paulick, the Director of Ecology at Tamera, the speech is entitled "S.O.S. Planet Earth: The Ecological Aspect". Silke talks about Planet Earth as one organism, not separate from others, and how, to experience peace and have capacity to co-create, we need to reconnect with the whole. Humans nowadays are in conflict with ourselves and with nature - reflected in the conflict with nature (animal experiments, pesticides and chemicals, forest fires...). Planet Earth needs a new ecology, and human beings need a new concept of ecology. We need to experience love and compassion when walking over the Earth. From the awareness that we are part of Planet Earth, and that we have a cellular memory that can help us take care of Mother Earth, can rise a new concept of ecology.

Silke goes on to remind us that people who are busy with survival, because they suffer war and hunger, have no space in their lives to work on this. It is those of us who are not struggling to survive who need to be working on it.

She explains that sexual flow must also be allowed, not controlled like the rivers and their healing powers have been (dams, canals). She says that love should be irrespective of gender and should be love for all creatures, and that places where these connections can happen are necessary, to achieve changes of consciousness.

Wondering where this is all going, we are glad to hear her explain next the concrete actions that are taking place in Tamera. It seems that there is a huge focus here on the spiritual and humanist side, but that now those areas are steadily developing they are wanting to concentrate more and more on the ecology of their space.

Tamera is in an area that suffers from the threats of desertification and pollution of water and earth. They wish to "read from the book of nature" and rediscover nature as a huge source of inspiration. Their main action is to build up a water landscape, and under the leadership of expert Sepp Holzer they have embarked on an ambitious plan to build five lakes as retention spaces in which to collect and cleanse rain water - what we can see here today with the lakes is work in progress, but it already looks great.

They also recognise the need for an autonomous food supply for all their members, independent from the big supply system, and have begun work in that direction, creating edible landscapes around the water areas.

Tamera wish to develop a globally applicable model to which interested visitors can come to learn and exchange, and apply the knowledge back home. They wish to help develop a new ecology in touch with new technology. They wish to study and improve the information that water carries out into the world.

They propose cooperation with all beings, and Silke explains that they carried out an experiment with rats: they told the rats they did not want to share their living space, and that each should have their own. They built them a Rat Temple and told them to go there instead. Apparently they do. (It has to be said, we did not investigate this claim...;)

Silke spoke of a spiritual ecology, in which we recognise that Earth, like us, has organs, power lines, meridians, energies... and that we need to rediscover these, to create conditions to fully re-unite and re-connect with this living organism that is Planet Earth.

The speech was reinforced by a song, sung by the community choir, called "We are born from the connection between Heaven and Earth".

After a break, participants go off to work in one of the workgroups that have been created for the week. Danny decides to join the Solar Village group, while Ana goes for the Social Activism group.