Author: eFocalizer

Present: Bianca, RJ, Chelsea, Saturn, Michael at the Spoon House

Serving: Sho pu-erh – Deeper than the Deepest Hole

Agenda

• Reconsidering “living naturally” 
• Opal St. – (D)NA, i(M)provisation, (T)heatre Collaborations
• Non-profit/club
• Next vision circle

Reconsidering “Living Naturally” 

Due to green washing efforts of the industrial complex there’s a misplaced use of the word “natural” we are reconsidering our phrasing of that which we are envisioning in a considerate manner of word choice (spell-ing)

Rearranging our approach to work: sharing tools, facilitating sustainable learning processes

Mutual exchange of resources (re-sourcing?)

Honest and connected (Chelsea): connected to each other and to places (honest = transparency)

Finding INspiration is being honest with ourselves (simmering on what are we really wanting)

Feelings are honest, multidirectionality, what do we do everyday?

*simple language: approach-ability and spaciousness

Empowering others without telling them what to do while being available to provide guidance

How would a project approach collective rising? 

no need or interest “owning” projects, non-possession

ecstatic dance, wood shop are examples of places/projects of collective 

crowd sourcing: we would show up to support projects

formatting/organizing: create a help forum (ex. community resource map), mutual learning

Tapping into records: consciousness of other collectives (forests, constellations) “work”/creating a living together through our projects (direct experiences) 

**Together: to gather consciousness to learn how to make an honest living together

playful approach: subtle and simple

Opal St. 

changes appearance, fluctuating, not definitive 

projects that are approachable, street orientation 

ethereal dance company

Non-profit/Club for Collective

There is paperwork that we can fill out at HSU, and there’s a non-profit committee in Humboldt County that meets with groups interested in becoming a non-profit project

Broader than ecstatic dance? expanding space for dancing

Relationship with community yoga center, approach cautiously and hesitantly 

Star/Brennan: reaching out to their project at Humbrews, get feedback

Opal St. projects in motion

Next Vision Circle

Do what we are saying!

show up to each other’s projects

go on an adventure together where we make it up as we go! (firewood harvest?)

generating so much resource that it attracts community by modeling that resources occur in different ways including but not limited to money

Bianca & RJ > club of meaning and empowerment – generating performance art, expanding club idea

Dance Your Own Adventure @ Community Yoga Center T/TH 7-9:30 PM

Open source legislation, surrealism manifesto

rotating focalizers of council gatherings (as a project itself) “it’s not their project, breaking mold of leadership” 

each moon: quest/council 

{1:00 pm at the Spoon House. Present were Timothy, Jacob, Michael, and Mario}

Some of the things talked about in vision circle were:

• Conceptualizing a framework with which we draw our network of inter-relation and exchange between projects, individuals, and the community.
  • There is a great bridge to cross between the visualization of this framework and the communication of it, especially since we are driven by a desire to create something that does not just appear different, but something that is actually built on an entirely different paradigm of experience and perception from that which informs the current state of consumer culture in colonial countries.
  • We wish to approach this concept with patience and longevitycontinually evolving and adapting to the emergence of the collective dream.
• The cycles of winter/summer and our own internal cycles
  • embracing the the times of darkness, quietness, sadness of winter as a natural rhythm providing necessary contrast to the bright and lively summer.
  • nurturing compassion

Discussions from the agenda:

• Arcata Saturday Market Table!!
  • First necessity: Business licence
    • being researched by Michael and Hannah
    • this will allow us to market our products across a large variety of markets
    • can provide a great service to local creators who would join the collective
  • Next: apply for a table
    • Maybe Sara M has a connection?
    • Maybe there’s a waiting list??
    • Maybe someone who already has a table wants to collaborate?
    • Maybe the Arcata Saturday Market should expand to allow the community greater access to the products of its local creators?!
  • Confirm all of the products to sell at the table
    • Things that are ready for sale now:
      • Whale Tail kneeling stools
      • Curiosity Cubes
      • Live edge furniture
      • Cutting boards
      • Raw Pies
      • Spoons
      • Art Prints
      • Veggies/fruit
      • Herbs
      • Honey
      • Ceramics bliss ware
      • Tea ware
      • Ceramic lanterns
      • Custom textiles & leather work
    • Things that may be ready later:
      • Shakers
      • Frame drums
      • Cajóns
      • Other instruments
      • Miniature fairy temple houses
      • Lanterns – metal and wood
      • Tinctures
      • Knives
      • Beeswax products
      • Spirulina
    • Things that we could sell if we had a certified kitchen to prepare foods:
      • Kombucha
      • Cacao
      • Apple Sauce
      • Kimchi
      • Great Scott Fermented foods
      • Fire Cider
  • Tea circle in the grass in front of our table?

• Community Music Space:
  • Harmonic Resonance Lounge?!?!
  • A space to store musical instruments where they will be played and cared for rather than being left idle.
  • Instruments want to be played and make music!
  • Appropriate space to make lots of noise!
  • Temperature control would be necessary for many instruments
    • The proposed space in the Spoon House workshop building would require insulation and heating elements for temperature control
      • Combined insulation & sound proofing
      • Green house passive solar heating
      • Compost shitter heating
      • Veggie compost heating
      • Solar electric heating
      • Solar water heating
    • People must be vouched for
    • Owner of each instrument gets to decide whether the instrument is totally open, whether the people using them must have an orientation with the owner first, or whether only specific people can play it.
    • How do people contribute?
      • costs:
        • heating/ electricity
        • time/energy creating space
        • time/energy maintaining space
        • strings and such for instruments
  • Moving forward:
    • Cleaning/Refreshing the space
    • Clearing energetically
    • finding flooring
      • Carpet, foam square, wood?
    • Acquire Paint
    • The barn where Nicholas is moving his recording equipment has a leaky roof. They need to wait until the rain stops for it to get fixed and for the equipment to get moved. i.e. it might be a month or two before we can move forward on this :/

• Weaving the collective vision of how we want to create this world together, and how the Collective Rising can support our efforts.
  • We are trying a thought experiment which is attempting at a form of open sourced organizational structuring.
    • The idea is that a collection of thoughts are transcribed onto paper, with spacing between each thought.
    • The paper is copied and passed out to whoever is interested in contributing to the vision.
    • Each person can add their perspective to each thought in the space provided.
    • They can also add any new thoughts to that back of the paper
    • Before each vision circle, the copies are recollected and someone takes the role of refining all of the thoughts into something cohesive, resembling a sort of collective dialog or a sort of collaborative essay, where noone in particular needs to be associated with any of the statements made and needs no attetchement to harbor defenciveness and argumentation.
    • The refined collaborations can be copied again and redistributed, which will give everyone a chance to reflect on the thoughts of other contributors and then respond.
    • The idea is to discover an ever more refined and accurate representation of the collective dream and have something tangible to present to ourselves and to the world.
  • To contribute to the collective vision, please email become@collectiverising.life or contact Michael Rrhizae

(A conversation which took place AT THE OMSTEAD after a Tendril Tea Circle – PRESENT IN THE CONVERSATION WERE JACOB, JOEL, SARA M, TREE LIGHT, MICHAEL, SHANON…)

• Much inspiration flowing with the spirit of pu-erh, lapsang sochang, and nettles 🙂
• We talked about the incredible number of skilled creators in Humboldt and how we could help to support each other in our efforts to make a living doing what we love.
• We talked about tapping into an inner source of guidance that seems to lead us in a direction that fulfills our dreams and and brings harmony to our environment.
• Using the Collective Rising website to host a portfolio page for members of our community who would like to showcase their work.
• What would it take to have a collective table at the Arcata Saturday Farmers Market!?
  • Business licence for The Collective Rising
  • Applying for a table
  • Having enough people with inventory to sell
• Tea House in downtown Arcata!
  • Yes!

(First formal Collective Vision Circle – IN THE CREATION STUDIO WOOD SHOP – PRESENT WERE CHELSEA, JACOB, HANNAH, LIZ, SHANON, AND MICHAEL)

• We talked about the basic intentions of The Collective Rising – which are recognized as being a vision which is emerging from the collective conscious, something no one of us can understand on our own. Some of the things we touched on are:
  • Living our inspiration is living naturally
  • Re-conceptualizing what it means to make a living as being the act of working directly for ourselves and our community to provide sustenance and co-create an environment that truly supports and nurtures our well-being and that of our ecosystems.
  • The Collective Rising being something that can nurture creativity in all of us
  • Discovering ways to unite people and projects so that we can facilitate mutually beneficial exchanges of resources, skills, labor, and products as a way of supporting  one another’s dreams and livelihood.

(PRESENT WERE CHELSEA, HANNAH, SARA, MICHAEL SCOTT, KIM, NOAH…)

The name “Collective Rising” emerged from a brainstorming session in the Spoon House kitchen during a meeting to discuss our permaculture farm and how it relates to the greater community and other projects such as the creation studio wood shop, the recording studio, Food not Bombs, and the Spoon House itself. We had been previously referring to the concept of The Collective Rising as The Real Life Paradigm, which was a name that described our desire to return to and innovate a lifestyle that actually makes sense in the scope of the world, our natural environment and our community, but the name didn’t quite fit because of the flawed concept of anything in particular actually being ‘real’. The Collective Rising was officially inaugurated with a toast of home-brewed kombucha.