Permaculture Design Course FAQs
What is permaculture?
Permaculture is an elegant design system offering a series of accessible, affordable and achievable strategies for living as kin to the elements of the world—earth air, fire and water—in respectful, reverent, reciprocal relationship. Permaculture helps us live within the natural order of things, at peace with creation. Our practice is rooted in three ethics: Earth Care, People Care, Fair Share. As we learn to align our choices with these ethics, we experience a radical transformation in how we live with the earth and all her inhabitants.
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What is somatics?
The word somatics comes from the Greek soma, which means "the living organism in its wholeness." Our best—if awkward—word for understanding human beings as integrated mind/body/spirit, and as social, relational beings. Somatics supports us to embody individual and collective transformation, working through the body to engage our thinking, emotions, commitments, vision and actions. Somatics encourages an alignment of our values and actions, and helps us develop the capacity to deeply feel ourselves, each other and all of life. In this way, somatics move us toward individual, community and collective liberation.
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Why do we teach them together?
The 13 Moon CoLab teaches somatics and permaculture in the same course because we see them as wholly aligned practices of repair, with somatics tending to the inner landscape and permaculture tending to the outer. Both practices encourage us to explore the questions: “What are you practicing”? and “Is what you are practicing aligned with what you care about”?
When we realize that there is no environment out there, that the body and the land are fractals of one another, we see that how we are inside ourselves is utterly connected to how we are in the world. The good news is that permaculture and somatics help us repattern towards health, reconnection and regeneration. We are creatures designed for change. We compost consciousness while we compost kitchen scraps. As we enter into the profundity of the ethics and the mystery of creation unfolding in our own beings, we embody healing within ourselves which extends outward to the people we contact, and the places we call home. |
What is the outcome I can expect?
You can expect to come away from the PDC with an embodied experience of ecology and a positive role for human beings within the larger earth ecosystem. Expect to feel more deeply embedded in the world, rather than experiencing it as an observer. Expect to gain a practical and strategic toolbox filled with a range of skills to help you align your actions with your values in being part of the cultural change that is underway. Can you expect to make a living as a permaculture designer after taking a 72-hour introductory permaculture course? Not necessarily. But if you come away super inspired by this course, you can easily take the skills you’ve learned and put them into practice, which will put you on the path of making permaculture a career track. If retraining yourself as a permaculture designer is your ultimate goal, this is the first step.
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Why is this PDC different from other PDC’s?This PDC offers the “traditional” 72-hour curriculum as designed and promoted by the international permaculture community, but adds to it a number of additional layers of learning, including skills for tracking the inner landscape, technologies for working with people and groups (perhaps our most persistent problem as humans), and village and community-building skills which support relationships and deepen our capacity to more effectively respond to what is happening in the places we call home. Permaculture from the Inside Out offers an approach to permaculture that recognizes this essential fact: what we do to the earth, we do to ourselves, and the way we treat ourselves is reflected in how we live on earth. Expect to learn powerful ways to heal yourself, the land where you live, and the people who share it with you.
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What kind of learning community will I be part of?Permaculture from the Inside Out is evolutionary, experiential education. We present didactic material as needed, and make sure you have a strong foundation in land observation, water, waste and energy management, heirloom skills, and natural building, but our primary focus is on providing hands-on activities to bring the material to life. We care deeply about creating a community within the learning cohort, and so time is spent in dialogue and interaction with one another, as well as with an ongoing inquiry into our own inner organization, obstacles, and inspirations. Expect to move and be moved. If you’re looking for a PDC that’s PowerPoint heavy, this is not the place to be. If you’re looking to get your hands dirty, make friends with some of your own dysfunctional patterns, and to challenge yourself in your capacity to work with others, this is the PDC for you.
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What is the out-of-class workload?Every student will be expected to be part of an extended out-of-class design project where you will put into practice your capacity to see through a permaculture lens, design a land-based project, and work effectively with others. Over the course of nine months, you will have numerous opportunities to work with your collaborators on this project. We also fill out in-class time with readings and our course book Urban Homesteading, and you will be asked to keep up with these readings throughout the year.
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