Designing Ecological Habitats - Gaia Education

ebuilDing cornucopia : How to create a community garDen 117
recognized and respected as intelligent life-forces.
Respect towards all living beings translates into diverse and conscious
farming methods. With the common denominator of ‘organic agriculture’,
a variety of methods for growing have been explored within the community.
This research includes permaculture, biodynamic agriculture, radionics,
and hydroponic cultures. Beyond our collaboration with nature to sustain
ourselves physically we have also engaged in fascinating and completely
experiential contacts with nature, like playing music to plants and then
creating the means for the plants to express themselves musically. There also
exists, within Damanhur, a unique field of research involving metal devices
which direct vital, intelligent energy, called Selfica.
An ideal of self-sufficiency is to create an unbroken chain, where there
is not only vital production but also little waste: In addition to meat and
milk, cows produce manure, which is in turn used to fertilize the fields of
hay and grain, which then is used to feed the cows, who again provide our
meat and milk.
In the history of humankind, many rituals have been practiced around the
time of planting and harvest. As a community, we echo and reinforce those
ancient and universal rituals of gratitude and harmonious collaboration with
the energies and intelligences of the plant and animal kingdoms. In addition
to our rituals for planting and harvest, each day, when Damanhurians sit
down to eat, we offer a very old and beautiful prayer, thanking the fruits of
the earth, of the air, water, and beneath the earth, the animals and all of the
elements — alchemical nourishment for our bodies and our essence. And
we ask that our behavior be conscious and worthy.
Noi ringraziamo i frutti di terra, di aria di acqua e di sottoterra, gli animali e
tutte gli elementi nutrimento alchemico al nostro corpo e alla nostra essenza.
Sia il nostro comportamento consapevole e dignitoso.
This article is the result of a joint effort of many people. I wish to thank Fauno,
Gracchio, Sciacallo, Quaglia and Betsy for their precious contributions.
Christine Schneider was born in 1968 in Northern Germany and has lived since 2001 in
Damanhur, where she chose the name Capra Carruba. She has studied political science and
has worked as a consultant in Organization Development and training, presently in her
own company SOLIOS. Capra teaches metaphysics and community building in the University
of Damanhur. Her great research interest is what makes communities work and how
transformation can be realized. Capra is Secretary of GEN in the twin office of Damanhur.