Why a Public Formation Process?
We invite you to join us as we discern what the moment is calling us to offer as we step in more intentional community stewardship.
In this time of crisis, we need a spirituality that is simultaneously a wisdom tradition - a path towards wholeness and a collective journey to end suffering. That means our spiritual community has to be place of collective meaning-making, healing and trauma stewardship as well as a place for building the social conditions for joy and dignity for everyone.
We often need an aligned community to support our integration of the truths we witness while on retreat, after ritual or during deep study. Just as importantly, we need people who can witness our growth and narrate our transformation when we feel we are going in circles. We need people who can call us higher and remind us of the tools we are learning when we get triggered or stumble into rupture.
Because of this, the WildSeed Society is attempting to prototype a new kind of spiritual community. We seek a spiritual community at the intersection of movements for spiritual liberation, social transformation and economic revolution. This means that our spirituality should be as democratic as our politics, it should be rooted in liberation and emancipation and it should feed us spiritually, socially and physically.
To this end, we plan to host a Community Discernment Process, which is a series of 5 open formation conversations. The first three will be an opportunity for people to understand who the Sacred Warren is and what we are about, as stewarding team of the WildSeed Society. The last two sessions will be focused discussing with you what kind of community do we need and what kind of offerings can this emerging community support.
How To RSVP
The schedule for the Community Discernment Process is:
- Session 1 - May 5th: Who are we? (Watch the video recording below)
- Session 2 - May 17th: What do we believe? (Watch the video recording below)
- Session 3 - May 26th: How do we turn our jam into an infinite game?
- Session 4 - June 2nd: What do we think our existing communities need?
- Session 5 - June 7th: What offerings does our emerging WildSeed community have the capacity to support?
- Session 6 - June 21st: What offering does our community have the capacity to support? Pt 2 (RSVP here)
These conversations are an invitation to you, our fellow travelers who are interested in being in community with us, to faithfully witness, lovingly question and compassionately challenge us as we work toward alignment around key questions.
We hope to dive into who we are, what we believe, and how we put these beliefs into practice. Our goal is to co-create a temporary container with you all to support our discernment around how to structure our offerings within the Liberating Retreat, which we hope to be an ongoing container for much of our future work.
Recordings of Past Sessions
Session 1: Who Are We?
In this session, we introduced the WildSeed stewarding team - the Sacred Warren and its members.
Attendees learned more about the WildSeed and its stewardship - while having an opportunity to ask our questions about our lives, our calling and why we started WildSeed Society in the first place.
Please note that we're having technical difficulties with getting the closed captions to show properly as the video is going. The whole text is available if you click on "CC" button and select "search video".
Session 2: What Do We Believe?
In this session, we try to come into alignment about the beliefs and practices that we want to be the foundation of the community we would like to steward together.
At this second session we focused on the personal and collective beliefs that animate our work. Attendees learned more about the WildSeed Society’s Philosophy, our Vision and The WildSeed Way.
Please note that we're having technical difficulties with getting the closed captions to show properly as the video is going. The whole text is available if you click on "CC" button and select "search video".
Session 3: How To Turn Our Jam Into Infinite Game?
In this session, we look at the work that makes our spirit sing and how to create the conditions to offer the work with joy, fun and willingness.
At this third session, we focused on the concept of the infinite game: an anti-coercion, anti-work credo of being based on play, consent, flow and embracing mystery. Specifically, the Sacred Warren talked about the work that makes their spirit sing and the conditions they need to be able to offer that work with joy, dignity and open-hearted willingness. Attendees learned more about the WildSeed Society’s Philosophy, our Vision and The WildSeed Way.
Please note that we're having technical difficulties with getting the closed captions to show properly as the video is going. The whole text is available if you click on "CC" button and select "search video".
Session 4: What Do Our Communities Need?
We had our fourth session on Thursday where we both shared our thoughts and listened to yours about the unmet needs in our existing communities and how we can meet them. While we started off with some initial thoughts from the Sacred Warren, most of this session was about hearing from our participants on what needs they have and how they want them to be met.Attendees learned more about the WildSeed Society’s Philosophy, our Vision and The WildSeed Way.
Please note that because we asked folks to share out openly throughout the session we chose not to record it. However you can review the various answers folks shared on our Easy Retros below:
1. Imagining Community Easy Retro >>
2. Collecting Our Needs Easy Retro >>
Lastly, please feel free to fill our Typeform below!
Session 5: What Offerings Can Our Community Support?
We focused on what it will take to actually sustain the kinds of offering that we have been exploring. We started with being real about what it costs to do this work. Then we explored why the fee-for-service or foundation funding model wouldn’t work for us. The rest of time we reviewed our Capitalism Adjustment Quiz to discern how moving in capitalism effects each of us differently. Attendees learned more about the WildSeed Society’s Philosophy, our Vision and The WildSeed Way.
Please note that we're having technical difficulties with getting the closed captions to show properly as the video is going. The whole text is available if you click on "CC" button and select "search video".
Lastly, please feel free to fill our Typeform below!
Help Grow Our Resource Commons
We walk to pool resources to make sure our community is place where people can get their needs met with dignity. To do that, we are going to need your help!
