The Vision

The Seminary exists, at this stage, as a proposal and an invitation. I am one person with a vision, seeking 3-5 others to build something together through experimentation and organic growth guided by clear principles. Here, I offer my own thinking on some of the possibilities—these are not prescriptive.

The Practical Foundation

Land

Acquire land somewhere in Europe—my preference is Portugal or Italy, though this remains open. We're looking for rural land as large as our collective resources allow, while balancing size against essential criteria: reliable water sources, mixed forest and clearing areas, access to semi-wild spaces, reasonable proximity to basic services. We need land that grants genuine freedom—space for food production, foraging, and wilderness. Not a manicured garden plot, but land where ecological processes unfold without constant human intervention.

Legal Structure

An association (associação in Portuguese, associazione di promozione sociale in Italian) would own the land and hold it in perpetual stewardship for the project's educational and cultural mission. This removes individual speculation motives while providing legal clarity.

Portugal requires only 2-3 founding members to establish an association (versus 7 for Italy's APS), making it easier to start small. Italy offers superior tax treatment—educational activities are fully exempt. The choice depends partly on where we find ideal land and partly on the composition of founding companions.

Who Belongs, and How

Companions

The core stewards living on the land most of the time, sharing collective food, shelter, tools, and daily work. Their contribution is primarily their presence and effort—the flows of energy and care that sustain the whole system. The Seminary is their primary commitment. Companions may have outside work or leave for periods, but such commitments must be coherent with the ecological principles practised here.

Members

Supporters who believe in the project and contribute financially even if they rarely visit. They receive updates, attend assemblies, and participate in some activities. This supporting membership helps sustain the project's legal and material foundation.

Apprentices

Join for a season to learn traditional skills and contribute labour, either through modest financial contribution or through exchange of work for room and board in the traditional apprenticeship model.

Journeyers

Come for knowledge exchanges and seasonal gatherings. These are not workshops with expert instructors and student participants, but genuine reciprocal exchanges—each person simultaneously teacher and student. Contributions are made on a genuine donation basis.

Financial Model

Companions and founding members contribute what they can toward land acquisition. Some may have more cash available, others less—this is natural and acceptable. What matters is shared commitment to the project and its principles, and that collectively we can secure land without debt.

This is not an investment. It's a commitment to building something we want to see exist in the world. The land would be held collectively by the association—not owned for individual profit, not speculated upon, not treated as tradeable equity.

Joining The Seminary as a companion requires true commitment—accepting genuine risk that your financial contribution might not be recoverable, that the experiment might fail, that living this way will be harder than you imagine.

The target: purchase land outright—no loans, no debt, no growth imperative. We'd build resilience through simplicity and limits, not through expansion.

Ongoing Budget

Beyond land acquisition, the association's ongoing budget would cover: collective food purchases, shelter materials, seeds and livestock, shared tools and infrastructure, professional accounting (required in Portugal; optional in Italy), land taxes and insurance, and modest reserves.

Funding for these operational costs might come from multiple sources, reflecting the Law of Flow—resources circulating rather than accumulating. Supporting members contribute financially. Knowledge exchanges and seasonal gatherings might generate income through genuine donation. Apprentices contribute through work or modest fees. Occasional sales of surplus produce or crafts provide additional income.

Cultural Propagation

Knowledge exchanges, seasonal gatherings, and apprenticeship opportunities exist not for education provision or revenue generation, but to create connections between people and communities, and between different forms of knowledge. The Seminary becomes a node where ways of knowing outside the dominant culture can meet and cross-pollinate.

Another way we may propagate new cultures is by documenting and sharing the process of what we are doing so that we may inform similar initiatives, wherever they may be. It might even be possible to imagine many seminaries across the world, each working in its own unique way but with a common core. We must be careful not to get too far ahead of ourselves, though.

We are sowing seeds of new cultures—ones that take a humble and coherent stance with nature rather than challenging it. Some seeds take root in the people and communities who pass through, some don't. Success isn't measured by how many people we 'educate,' but by whether new cultural patterns emerge from these connections.

Shelter and Infrastructure

We'd likely begin simply—canvas tents, perhaps Sibley-style with wood stoves—keeping initial costs minimal and our commitment to rustic living clear. This recognition that the Law of Evolution requires exposure to challenge, not retreat into climate-controlled isolation, forms part of what we call 'the pedagogical use of discomfort.'

As skills develop and resources allow, we might build more permanent structures using natural materials and traditional techniques. We'd grow our infrastructure organically through the rhythm of challenge, response, and reintegration—learning as we go, adapting to what the land and our capacity reveal.

Economic Approach

We'd focus on developing living skills—natural building, food cultivation and preservation, hunting, foraging, traditional crafts, primitive technologies—adapted to whatever local ecology we inhabit. We are not following any single approach as 'the solution.' Not permaculture alone, not Fukuoka-style natural farming, not any one system. We're willing to adopt methods that prove useful in our specific context, but we won't treat any approach as universal truth or permanent doctrine.

We'd aim toward meeting our material needs through diverse sources—some from wild harvest, some from cultivation, some from animal tending, some from handcrafts. We might barter surplus produce or crafted goods with neighbours, or occasionally sell excess harvests when there's genuine surplus beyond our needs. We'd build relationships of mutual aid—trading labour, sharing tools, exchanging skills.

This diversity itself is ecological law in practice, honouring the Law of Balance by seeking neither deprivation nor excess, but the art of self-correcting movement between extremes.

Governance and Decision-Making

Dissensus principles might guide us: individual sovereignty within shared ecological commitments, with the Seven Laws as foundational guidance. Stewardship roles could emerge from demonstrated care rather than election or appointment—another expression of the Law of Wholes.

The association would require formal governance bodies to satisfy legal requirements, but we'd aim to keep these minimal. We'd hold required meetings, maintain basic records, but invest our real energy in the living culture of the community rather than bureaucratic formality.

The specific forms this takes—how we make decisions, handle conflict, welcome new members, mark thresholds—would evolve through living them. Cultural solutions cannot be designed in advance but must grow through continuous adaptation.

Daily Rhythm and Culture

We might follow ecological and seasonal patterns rather than industrial time. Work when work needs doing, rest when bodies require it, mark the cycles that matter. Create ceremonies that feel authentic to us. Stay open to what emerges.

Timeline

The timeline is flexible but has rough contours: gather founding companions through 2026, form the association and scout and purchase land in early/mid 2027, begin living there by autumn 2027. This allows time for the crucial work that happens before any legal structure or land purchase: building trust, clarifying principles, and ensuring we're walking in the same direction even if we can't see the destination clearly.