Wisdom seekers

Looking at history through a long-focus lens, you can pinpoint moments where human evolution strikes out in a new direction. I experienced a manifestation of this kind of evolutionary shift when I visited Ecotopia, the sustainability gathering that took place in Co Clare for three weeks during August.

Ecotopia is an international festival that’s been held annually in different countries throughout eastern and western Europe for the last 13 years. This year the Irish organisation Gluaiseacht for Global Justice, a national green and social issues umbrella group, hosted Ecotopia on 86 acres of privately-owned, beautifully managed deciduous woodland situated right on the shore of stunning Lough Derg. It was the biggest Ecotopia so far, with the registration book recording the names of over 1,200 people who passed through.

Ecotopia’s mission is to find answers to the pressing social and environmental problems that threaten our future existence on the planet. Problem-solving is achieved through practical means and experimentation. At Ecotopia gatherings, there are no bosses; whilst adhering to set principles like equality, recycling and low-impact shelter building, participants organise themselves through direct democracy at daily circle meetings, taking responsibility for setting their own agenda and sharing out important tasks. So you want to give a workshop on herbal preparations? Well, organise a time and place and announce it. How about building a clay oven or a tree-house? Just gather some people and do it. Solar panels to heat the water? Why not?

A typical day at Ecotopia might go something like this:

A gentle birdsong-awakening in your tent or giant communal tee-pee. A hot sauna in the specially constructed sweat-lodge, followed by a skinny-dip wash in the lake. Then breakfast and the circle meeting, where participants agree on rules and principles for the day, and volunteers come forward for tasks like cleaning and cooking for hundreds of people. Next a glance at the workshops noticeboard. What an amazing choice of skill-sharing and discussion, healing and art, music and dance – and all for free!

Here’s a brief sampler of the workshops range: implementing alternative energy systems; making fire; woodwork skills; healthy hedgerows; storytelling; mixed martial arts; holy wells; HIV in Africa; the Nice Treaty; keening; mural art therapy; climate change; blacksmithing and metal-work with a bike-powered foundry; love; ‘Neurotic Fairy’: socialising women’s bodies in the way of myth (!); theatre of the oppressed; hurling; compost toilets; and (perhaps most important of all) vision circle: networking for the future.

Information exchange is the name of the game. After a long day of learning, both from workshops and from all the amazing people that you meet, Ecotopians line up for the evening meal. Then the partying begins. Dotted through the forest and along the lake a dozen fires are lit, using renewable resources from the sustainably managed forest. Some are small and intimate, inspiring traditional song and folklore tales; others are big and raucous, with improvisational jam-sessions that oscillate wildly between tribal and dance. My first ever acoustic rave in the woods! And when I want electric, there’s always the big tent with the bike-powered sound system…

I spent much of my three days in Ecotopia laughing. The place put me in such a good mood. My imagination and enthusiasm were re-born. I met funny, interesting, inspiring people everywhere I went.

I left Ecotopia and the community spirit fostered there with a renewed sense of openness, trust and hope in my outward relationships. Meanwhile, nature had done the inner work of restoring my soul.