Principles of Presence:

Permaculture Womens Guild

Applying Permaculture Design and Integral Theory to Personal Development By Jennifer English Morgan The image of a woman wearing a golden straw hat with a basket of colorful goodies from tending her summer kitchen garden and herb spiral may come to mind when I say the word Permaculture. This image may elicit the taste of a fresh ripe heirloom tomato on your lips, or the smell of handpicked dill and basil wafting through the kitchen. Those sensory observations might expand out to a larger scale, with a picture of a mother and father hoisting shovels and pickaxes, drenched in sweat,…

Emergent Design ~ Finding the White Tiger

Permaculture Womens Guild

By Jennifer English Morgan “Design creates culture. Culture shapes values. Values determine the future.” ~ Robert L. Peters During the 2016 election cycle in the USA, I experienced an upheaval of my emotional stability, as anger, elation, and fear arose during and after the November election. Shifting to see what was behind the emotions, I recognized the presence of a collective force. The feelings were not mine to hold. I am an empath. The emotions were arising out of my link to the state of the world around me. I had already once been verbally assaulted by a Trump supporter in…

The Elephant at the Front Door: A Designers Approach to Shadow Work

Permaculture Womens Guild

By Jennifer English Morgan Crash, clatter, smash, tink, tink. A careless boy’s ball shatters the front window pane. A scorned lover flings a picture frame into the brick fireplace. A glass slipping through nervous fingers falls to the floor. All adrenaline rushes of fear, anger, and surprise. Moments of exhilaration turned sour if left to ferment. When trauma goes unresolved, fragments of the soul get imprisoned. The glass is a broken mirror. The shards and cracks remind us of suffering. Painful memories lodge into our psyche. Eckhart Tolle named this tenant, the pain body. It’s that little voice in our…

Decolonizing Permaculture: Bridging the gap between privilege and oppression

Permaculture Womens Guild

by Heather Jo Flores As Published in issue #98 of Permaculture Design Magazine, November 2015 First of all, I want to say that I do not represent anyone but myself, and though I have vetted this article with several peers and mentors, I do not presume to know the needs and desires of anyone else. However, it seems to me that there are ripples of injustice coursing through the permaculture community, manifesting as a pattern of landowners and/or self-proclaimed leaders doing things that hurt, offend, oppress, and devalue others. These behaviors discredit the permaculture movement at large, and unless we…