7 Spheres Template

...and between these...

A Land trust, as well as our purpose, and the businesses, all have their own sovereign function. It is important to allow these all to function separately from each other for the same reason we say, "don't put all you eggs in one basket." It may even be best to organize them as individual entities with the IRS. This provides more stability when unforeseen scenarios come up in the future. However, There's still really only one "basket". Let's look at the parts in detail...

The Land:

Having the land belong to everyone, and having no one person or group have control over it is an easy enough concept to understand. Really, if you think about it...there is only one piece of "land".

Probably the most decentralized method of land management is called a Community Land Trust (CLT). Some trusts hold land for conservation, or for future inheritance, the CLT has been designed specifically to hold land in common to it's community members indefinitely.

Next is the People:

This is the part of the community that really expresses the deepest desires of it's members. This sort of identity will give definition and purpose to the community. The non-profit upholds the intention and vision of it's members and it is through this entity that they are able to give practical expression to the community's philosophy.

Up to now, i'm sure we all understand how the land and the people can work together for a better life, and still, many of us are not living in thriving co-owned communities. Why? Part of the reason this is, is because we still have 2 topics to mention that many of us community builders try ardently to avoid;

Government and Money

Money and the business:

In theory, a land trust itself may be able to take care of the communities financial needs. If we live light and don't need much more than food and shelter, we can build a house, grow food and once the land is paid for...we're on easy street right?

Most of us realize that things are not always that simple, and some of us enjoy having some modern comforts. Even if the land is paid for, other costs will inevitably come up:

• taxes
• what if somebody needs a surgery? do we support them?
• will the community ever need a new vehicle?
• a new roof after a wild storm? ...even without a storm!
• college fund for the kids
• insurance can be incredibly expensive

The aim of the business then, is financial security, (a.k.a., Economic Sustainability):

As mentioned before, the business may be related to the NFP of not related. For example, if the not-for-profit plants fruit trees around the state or county as a service to the larger community, Perhaps the For Profit would sell juice or dehydrated fruit products. The Profit business is separate from the NFP because, if it were to fail, the NFP would not go down with the ship, and if it is successful, the Community will not only thrive, but be able to share as well.

Community members can work or hire workers and 100% of profits go to the community or charities chosen by the community.

Looking at the image, this system might look complicated,

As Peter Block says in his book, Community,

"The question, ’what do we want to create together?’,

is deceptively complicated.”

...However, what this "vision board" actually does, is it simplifies things so they are not complex.

First of all, i will explain how this vision board serves as a map...

This map's purpose is not just to organize, but to Organize with intention. Having this structure should help the meetings in their efficiency.

it is also a file cabinet for organizing our brains.

We have 7 basic ideas that can apply to anything

Here's a closer look at how this map can help in better understanding community.

Each of the Circles represent one part of what ever it is we are discussing and can also be divided into 7 circles.

so we might have;

-7 aspects of sustainability

-7 aspects of consciousness

-7 areas of permaculture

-7 principles of the FEC

-7 teams for creating an event

...and so on

Governance

for example...

Here in the

Noosphere

We need a map that best suits everyone's needs. It seems the number seven could be best because there are other familiar systems that use the number seven. For example;

I explained the map's design in this

sphere here for a reason.

This sphere is the Technosphere, design.

It seems to best represent things like architecture, landscaping, energy grids and laylines, sacred geometry...all things associated with design.

A

Communisphere

sounds like something that would be about sharing. This is a place reserved for issue of common ground, common place, common law, and the commons.

Water issues, Land management, shared solar power, shared income...

A

Sociosphere

might cover healthcare and education. perhaps labor issues, vounteers, and public events. anything related to people in the greater society.

I call this one the

Econosphere

and as you might imagine, it deals with energy exchange of all kinds, from alt. currency, business, and charity to ecological nutrient flow.

....speaking of nutrientflow, let's take things a bit deeper.

Down here we have the Biosphere. Each of the spheres could organize information in a more complex way as you can see here. 7s within 7s within 7s!

Where would you put nutrient flow?

I would put it in the

'Econosphere of the Biosphere'.

(The 'Economy of Nature'...does that make sense to you?)

So then,

what are 7 aspects of nutrient flow?

There is no right way or wrong way to organize ideas...

...as long as everyone is on the same page

...as long as we are all speaking the same language

...we're all in the same boat working together

Finally we have arrived at the Holosphere

Shall we see how deep this rabbit hole goes?

Whole Systems theory

I guess you get the picture....

so now let's go to...

Our Community as a full functioning living economy

now that we are beginning to understand our map of 7 holographic parts of sustainability, let's learn a bit about how to apply our decision making process to it.

We can have many consensus circles making decisions all at once. If we used democracy or any other method it would be the same.

There are seven aspects of community. We can have a team for each, and each of those teams can have the same 7 aspects as the whole. if we need more teams, we can divide one or more of the seven.

Chaos theory and Fractal mathmatics

Ecodynamics and nonlinear economics

Spiral Dynamics

Holographic Universe Theory

Non-dual whole systems thinking

Fractal Geometry and Toroidal configuration

Von Bertallanfy

Talcott Parsons

Jay Forrester

Erwin Lazlo

Niklas Luhmann

Bela Banathy

Maturana

Bateson

Frijtof Capra

Norbert Weiner

Cybernetics

and Quantum

computing

Fully participatory distributed and decentralized decision making

and budgeting

Sociocracy, Holacracy, Synarchy

Distributed and decentralized currency; Crypto currencies

Environmentalism

Open and participatory platforms for civic development and management of the commons

Free and opensource software

peer reviewed and public regulated FDA and education

Rights of Nature

2nd Ray

Money-free society

Blockchain

Digital exchange platforms for all forms of money

Science

Many-monies: new forms of currency

Non-Scarcity

Basic Income

Barter

Ascended Masters

Religions

Koot Hoomi

Warrior

Tribal

Hunter gatherers

5th Ray

Hilarion

1st Ray

El Moyra

3rd Ray

Supreme God Consciousness

Paul the Venetian

6th Ray

Master Jesus

Primary Gods,

7th Ray

Saint Germain

Archangels

4th Ray

Sarapis Bey

...from the

Holon...

Lesser

The Third Eye:

visions of form

Gods

Angels,

Spirit speaks!

Extra-terestrials

Buddhas,

The individual soul

Ascended Masters

Living Buddhas

Independence and power

Gurus

Humans

Emotional body

Some Animals

Violet

Tall Trees

Canopy

7 Layer of a Food Forest

Love

Earthcare, Peoplecare and Fairshare

Land owns the people

Care for others as for ourselves

Heaven on Earth

Nature

Principles of natural systems, from a cell to an ecosystem

Purpose - Every system has a unifying focus or purpose, for example: survival, thrival, etc.

Nested systems - “holarchy” - Each system is a “holon” - a “whole” system and also a “part” (“on”, as in proton or neutron) of the larger system. The Living Universe has a holarchy structure. Every system contains systems, which contain systems, etc.. A Holographic Universe: fractals within fractals.

Mutually negotiated self-interest - Each piece of a system exists because its needs are met while meeting the needs of the other pieces of the system.

Balance of yin/yang

Centralization/Decentralization - Central control balanced with control from the parts.

Integration/Diversity - Maximize diversity, but it all must be integrated.

Chaos/Order - Flexibility/spontaneity balanced with structure.

Positive feedback/ negative feedback - Negative feedback keeps homeostasis. Positive feedback creates change.

Redundancy/Synergy - Synergy creates efficiency; redundant systems create back-ups for stability.

Change

Comes from outside or from within - It's less disruptive to create the change from within, but disequilibrium from outside is the most common catalyst for change.

Principles of exchange?

Low trees

Abundance; Sharing

Always possible solutions - The Problem is the Solution

Design Principles?

Animals

Learning

Become a learning community

Emulate children: curious, open-minded, exploratory, sociate.

Continuous learning causes continual evolution and improvement

Co-creation; collaborative decision-making: group intelligence is greater than any individual.

Shared responsibility – learners take responsibility for their own learning.

Communication – creates a networked learning system

Simple rules create complex behaviors; complex rules create simple behaviors.

Sustainability:

Spiritual, Ecological, Social and Financial

Plan for the long-term

Align with Spirit

Model our vision for the world

Grow our own food

Keep our heads in the clouds; feet on the ground

Shrubs

Indigo

Herbaceous

Rhizosphere

Ground cover

Vertical vines

Blue

Plants

Physical body and earth energy

Green

Yellow

...all the way...

Orange

Sustainable Communities and eco-villages

Sustainable Governance

Economic sustainability

Red

The Commons

Harmonic Design

...Down...

Sociological Sustainability

Consensus

Models

Fundraising

for-profit business

investments

The Commons

Ecological sustainability

...the the very land

we walk on...

Design:

Layout,

architecture,

landscape

Social groups and organisations such as NFPs, schools, healing centers, etc

The Earth herself

7 Spheres of Sustainability

The Land

The People

...if, divided into 7 categories it may look something like this:

With

Dynamic self-governance

between them

• Consensus
• Facilitation Methods
• How circles communicate
• Meeting Times
• Board Members
• Local Ordinances
• Member Organizations

The

Business

An Experiment

in Social Design

Communisphere

Econosphere

Does

this

make

sense?

{This is what the WHOLE System looks like}

A

Bird's-eye-veiw

of community

governance

The Pink dots are

our consensus circles

Dynamic

Holosphere:

board of trustees

Open:

Technosphere

Noosphere

The green Arrows are

the flow of information

participatory,

noone left out

Flexible,

can always adapt to change

The Future's Recipe for

Living Economies

Biosphere

Sociosphere

Biosphere:

food production

Communisphere: The

Hearth

Does this Still make sense?

{This is what the individual Systems look like}

Scalable

A

birds-eye-view of

each organization within the community should look similar.

Every part of our community should have these qualities

Each of these parts has 3 qualities;

openess

dynamism

scalability (fractal/hologram)

The pink dots are now the different aspects of the organization

has the ability to expand to be used by larger community and to the world

Holosphere:

Main governing body of the organization

Sociosphere:

Events

Technosphere: Architcture

The green Arrows are

still

information flow

Money power and decision making power centralized in one place is patriarchy

...same same, but different

When separated can be balanced

Econosphere:

Budgeting

Noosphere:

Meetings

Option 1

Option 2

Decision

making

power

money power

Desicion making

Money

this governing system allows all needs to be met and is more efficient than consensus alone.

We have a holographic 'map' to use as an organizing tool in our meetings. This map divides all aspects of society into 7 parts.

This system can be used by all organizations and will be useful to communicate within them as well as between them.

Power

In conclusion, we have 3 parts to our community that function together to create a healthy living community;

• Community Land Trust
• Not-for-Profit
• for profit business

All organizations are governed through, and communicate through, a dynamic system (sometimes called sociocracy).

Both money and Decision making power

A brief history of communing

In the begining, we used organized governance only for the larger community...

"Anu the Sublime, King of the Anunaki, and Bel, the lord of Heaven and earth, ...called me by name, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, who feared God, to bring about the rule of righteousness in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil-doers; so that the strong should not harm the weak; so that I should rule over the ... people like Shamash, and enlighten the land, to further the well-being of mankind."

-Code of Hammurabi, oldest known governmental text, around 1770 BC

Then we have the Rule of St. Benedict written by St. Benedict of Nursia (c.480–547) for monks living communally. One of these comunity rules is as follows:

"The vice of personal ownership must by all means be cut out in the monastery by the very root,... Let all things be common to all, as it is written. And let no one call or take to himself anything as his own."

Then we learned to apply it to smaller organizations. The Community Rule Document of perhaps the worlds first intentional community, the Essene community at Qumran, suggested around 70 BC that "[we] ‘shall guide [each other] with knowledge and instruct[ion] in the mysteries of wonder and truth in the midst of the members of the community, so that [we] shall behave decently with one another in all that has been revealed to [us]."

Different forms of Democracy served us well on large and small scales for many centuries.

Eventually we learned that equality was important and we tried to give equal voice to each member through concensus untill we realized that

“Consensus...allows each person complete power over the group.”

And now we have sociacracy...

Sociacracy’s developers contemplated the question, How can we all "make decisions together as partners without paralyzing the decision-making process?”

Holosphere

Noosphere

Econosphere

Communisphere

Technosphere

Co-Creating Conscious Community:

Sociosphere

Biosphere

Now things get a little more demanding...

Governance:

The land and businesses, if all using the same method of decision making, would be able to communicate more efficiently. As Democracy only meets the needs of the majority and not everyone, we might like to choose consensus which aims to meet everyone's needs. With three different groups though, we need a way to allow multiple consensus circles to make decisions together...

This is called Sociocracy, or Dynamic Self-Governance.

This presentation aims to demystify the complexity of building communities where many unrelated people or multiple families can live together with the land in a supportive and caring environment.

...and of course, the chakras system for the yoginis and the 7 colors of the rainbow.

World cafe

Dialogue method

Noosphere

(governance)

Spiral dynamics

David Holmgren's 7 layers of a food forest

The

7

Principles

of

a

COOP

If we could see what dynamic self-governance looks like, it might look something like this...

Gandhi's

"7 things that will destroy us"

SriAurobindo

This Model for community is comprised of 3 fundamental parts and 1 governing process.

Creating community is perhaps better understood as a process. It is a doing that is never done. Here we will discuss creating a container in which this process can happen.

Lets create a vision board to better understand our community and what it's made of.

The People:

and their Purpose

Business:

Economic Sustainability

The Land:

Community Land Trust (CLT)

Dynamic self-governance:

governing with multiple consensus circles

Biosphere>

Holosphere

Biosphere>Noosphere

Water

(in general)

?

Biosphere>Econosphere

Waste water management?

If nutrient flow

is the energy exchange

(econosphere)

of the Biosphere,

what would be the

energy exchange of Nutrient flow? We could put it here, in this Econosphere of the fractal of 7s.

Biosphere>

Econosphere>

Econosphere

Is this clear?

?

This is a consensus based decision making process that allows everyone to be heard and it values the accountability of the hardest working members.

As the Earth is a birthright, We feel that the land should be held in perpetuity for all forever. Ownership of land is sometimes necessary, and always unsustainable.

?

For several reasons, number 7 has been chosen as a base system to organize our thoughts and vision.

It could be a school, a spiritual retreat, a research center, permaculture design courses, Making goat cheese, etc. This purpose represents common goals and interests. A common vision that community members strive to co-create together.

?

The business creates monetary abundance for the community and it's members. It could be related to the NFP or completely unrelated. It serves the other two and the three work together to create social value and a high quality of life.

?

Biosphere>Communisphere

Biosphere>Technosphere

Biosphere>Sociosphere

Holosphere:

(The whole system)

Noosphere:

(Governance)

Econosphere:

(Energy Exchange)

Communisphere:

(The Heart of the system)

Technosphere:

(Harmonic Design)

Sociosphere:

(Working together)

Biosphere:

(Ecological or physical)

Biosphere>Biosphere