Doing Intentional Community: Expanded 2023 Edition

By Cristina Salat

What exactly is "intentional community?" And how does one go about co-creating it? Are there typical hurdles to overcome?

 

In the Green/Sustainable Living Movement, the term "community" often means folks coming together to create some form of shared home space: from co-housing co-ops in cities, to permaculture or off-the-grid nature-based country retreats...from separatist women's or people of color lands, to communities aimed at unplugging from the wider world's repressive "systems" as much as humanly possible. The illustrated, creative non-fiction account DOING INTENTIONAL COMMUNITY: Expanded 2023 Edition follows building a certain type of artistic/spiritual co-home adventure on the Big Island of Hawaii from the ground up...and how this particular, now-worldwide sense of community continues to transform today.

 

Like a prismatic drop in the ocean, beyond just being a collection of individuals, global "intentional community" can also equate to entire villages, cities, and nations in the process of cultivating a common history and shared economic/political/spiritual goals.

 

What is "world peace," if not that?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Green Flame Omnimedia
• Release date: Jul 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223707974

Cristina Salat

As a woman of the wind, I have enjoyed years navigating the urban jungles and deep blue seas I call home.Website: https://cristinasalat.wixsite.com/website Eclectic e-store: https://livefromthevolcano.ecrater.com/

Book preview

Doing Intentional Community:

Expanded 2023 Edition

––––––––

Cristina Salat

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Green Flame Omnimedia

We exist at a time when every choice matters

Copyright

This is one person's perspective on the creation of a certain type of community, in a certain location, over a certain period years.

Doing Intentional Community:

Expanded 2023 Edition/Cristina Salat

Salat, Cristina — 2nd Green Flame Omnimedia edition

(Original edition published as Community: The COMPLETE Missing Manual, Stages 1 - 13)

Summary: What exactly is intentional community? And how does one go about co-creating it? Are there typical hurdles to overcome? In the Green/Sustainable Living paradigm, the term community often equates to folks coming together to create some form of shared home space: from co-housing co-ops in cities, to permaculture or off-the-grid nature-based country retreats...from separatist women's or people of color lands, to communities aimed at unplugging from the wider world's repressive systems as much as humanly possible. This creative non-fiction account DOING INTENTIONAL COMMUNITY (the Expanded 2023 Edition) follows the adventures of building a certain type of intentional artistic/spiritual community on the Big Island of Hawaii from the ground up...and how our particular, now-worldwide sense of community continues to transform today. For, like a prismatic drop of ocean, globally intentional community can also mean a collection of individuals or entire nations cultivating a common history and sharing common economic/political/spiritual interests. What is world peace, if not that?

Available in color hardcover, paperback, & e-editions, + black/white trade paperback.

UBL: https://books2read.com/u/breABE

e-ISBN: 9798223707974

B/W Paperback ISBN: 9798223106777

1. Hawaii  2. Big Island  3. Intentional Community  4. Artist Retreat

5. Spiritual Community  6. Magic  7. Spirit of Aloha

8. Business -vs- Service  9. Utopia  10. Sustainability

11. Cultivating Harmonious Relationships  12. Co-Creation

13. Drama-free Communication  14. Practical Operations

© 2016, 2023 Cristina Salat

Contact the author: http://cristinasalat.wixsite.com/website/contact

All Rights Reserved.

Your support is appreciated. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, without prior written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles or reviews.

Green Flame Omnimedia

Postal Suite 783

Volcano, HI 96785

BOOKS BY CRISTINA SALAT

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Gathering The Dreamcatchers

Companion Novels/Novellas:

LIVING IN SECRET 25th Anniversary Edition

THE SKIN OF WATER:

Defending The Dreamcatchers

ESOTERICA

PARADISE FOUND

ACTION: The Future Is Here

LIVING IN LIGHT

(forthcoming) PIPSQUEAK: What Would The Waltons Do?

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The World Is Beautiful

International Illustrated

Non-Fiction Series:

THE WORLD IS BEAUTIFUL:

Illustrated Inspiration

(available in English & French, for example)

BODY BEAUTIFUL: Photo Essay Ruminations

on the Art of Being Nakedly Human

NEW WORLD NUDES: Pictorial Ruminations

on the New Earth Underway

BRAND NEW EARTH NUDE:

Envisioning the Birth

of a Naked New World

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Literary & Screen Novels:

ROBIN, ROMEO, & JULIETTE THE NOVEL:

Not Your Typical Love Story

ALIAS DIAMOND JONES

ELEVEN-ELEVEN/Huck Finn:

Girl Pirates Extraordinaire

SWIMMING LESSONS

W.A.R.P.

(forthcoming) LIKE A MOTHER

IRRESISTIBLY YOURS

Illustrated Picture Books

for Young People:

STEP-WHALES

PEANUT'S EMERGENCY Deluxe Edition

WITZEL'S WISH

FROGDEMONA: PRECIOUS PEST

THE BLUE HOUSE

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Creative Non-Fiction/Memoirs/

Collections & Compilations:

HOME IS WHERE YOU'RE HAPPY

UNDINE INTELLIGENCE:

A Truer Tale of Ancient Elemental Water Beings

AKA Mermaid Love Spells

HOME TOO: Secret Springs

HOME IN THE THIRD DIMENSION

DOING INTENTIONAL COMMUNITY:

Expanded 2023 Edition

HAWAII TRIPTYCH

TOGETHER ALONE: When The Going Gets Tough,

Aliveness Keeps Growing

SLICE OF LIFE

MUSICAL MUSINGS OF A MAGNIFICENT EX-MALCONTENT:

aka Lessons Learned from Andy Gibb & John Denver

2017: A Collection of Stories & Life Snippets

THE BIG PICTURE

BELOVED EX-FRIENDS & EX-LOVERS:

Sticking Together Through Thick & Thin -vs- Letting Go

ORDINARY/EXTRAORDINARY: A Compilation Combo

LIVING IN HAWAII: A Five Act Adventure (so far!)

2022 Update

CREATIVE LIVING:

From Starving Artist to Self-Employed Bliss

MAZE MAGIC

FEEDING FRENZY:

HOW TO BE FREE

(When the World Seems Anything But): 2023 Update

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Plus Green Flame Omnimedia Slims

(Life's defining moments in slender packages, including:)

* After Titanic

* America The Beautiful

* Summer Friends

* Together With Stars

* Black Holes

* When To Say When

* Time of The Bear

* The B.I.G.

* Rabonchone

* This Ship Called Earth

* Say Goodbye To Dana

* Hungry Wolf & The Three Capable Femmes

* Stentor

* User Friendly

* Going Home

Dedication

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For all who have shared with me

new ways of creating community

in-person together over the years...

...and all who do so globally

all across this grand shared home

we call Earth.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Copyright

Books By

Dedication

Preface

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Stage 4

Stage 5

Stage 6

Stage 7

Stage 8

Stage 9

Stage 10

Stage 11

Stage 12

Stage 13

Conclusion

About The Author

DOING INTENTIONAL COMMUNITY

PREFACE: 2023

"Creative people are the visionaries of this planet.

This home for artists & spiritual folk was created

as a simple, sacred place for us visionaries to do our thang!"

Cristina, Kulana's Founder

(many, many years ago)

What exactly is intentional community?

And precisely how does one go about co-creating it?

The term is often defined as a group of people who all live in the same area, or it can be used to categorize a specific area in which certain people gather together & live. It can also mean a group of people with common backgrounds or shared interests within human society at large.

Globally, it can refer to the public or homo sapien civilization in general. And alternatively, the word community can include all plants and animals that live in the same area and interact with one another.

In the Green/Sustainable Living movement, the term usually equates to individuals coming together in order to create some form of shared home space, yet like a prismatic drop of ocean water, intentional community can also mean not just a collection of individuals but also entire nations cultivating a common history while sharing common economic/political/spiritual interests.

What is world peace, if not that?

As the 2023 Ka'u High School valedictorian recently said here on the Big Island of Hawai'i in a speech to 73 graduating seniors: As a rural district, we are underserved by our county, we are often lacking in opportunities and resources, and we are forgotten....There are not many places you can find so much culture, scenery, community, persistence, or pigs....Nothing comes easy, and that is especially true here. However, do not view it as a restriction....There is no definite or omnipotent passage somewhere hidden in the rocks that reads 'You can not because you are from Ka'u.' There is only me telling you right now that I know that all of you are entirely capable of anything you desire to do, but only if you contribute continuous time, perseverance, and raw devotion to your goal....Nothing is ever gained through passiveness, through waiting for that change that should have already been granted...your only choice of action that induces progress is to fight for what you want and more importantly what you deserve.

I couldn't have said it better.

Having long been both a dream catcher and a dream maker with Big Aspirations — and someone who wanted to help make it more possible for others to achieve their dreams as well — it was easy to see how challenging certain aspects of just being a regular human are in any location. So many folks are completely overwhelmed just trying to survive the manner in which society is currently set up, never mind finding time to achieve their wildest and most heartfelt dreams.

Addressing this dilemma was the main reason for originally birthing what eventually became Kulana Artist Sanctuary; a multi-faceted home base that later transitioned into Kulana Goddess Sanctuary...and then later still into an intimate 5-D Mystery School.

However, had I and my version of intentional community not already begun transitioning to new realities by the time the original volume of these thoughts (then entitled Community: The COMPLETE Missing Manual) were put forth, we certainly would have — and would have had to — by now.

What with the volcanic disruptions of 2018 & 2022 that significantly curtailed travel to this tropical locale, along with covid lockdown disruptions of 2020 - 2021 with the impact that had on people's ability to joyfully gather...and then, of course, 2023 finding locations around the globe in dire economic distress/freefall due to inflation, food supply chain issues, + other devastations.

Really, things were never going to be quite the same — here in Hawaii, & also maybe anywhere — as they'd once been in the early years when those participating in various Kulana Sanctuary eras were busy learning how to build & do our particular version of creative, cooperative, intentional, in-person community.

Yet, as Ka'u valedictorian Tayler Rasmussen noted in her speech, even without all of the challenges above, in hindsight I could never say that the adventures of doing community were easy. It all did most certainly require persistence, effort, perseverance, raw devotion...and dealing with wandering porcine wildlife.

Yet, co-creating intentional, in-person community was at least possible during the years that we lived that reality.

We did eventually succeed in co-creating an amazing flow of total strangers coming together in order to live in ongoing harmony (short & longer-term) for years and years, as we each also endeavored to make significant progress on our own creative/spiritual Life Dreams as well.

Yay for us. :D

This was certainly no small feat, when one considers just how divisive (& in many ways outright combative) society in general has become since then.

Apparently humanity has been harboring a number of ills in need of significant healing for quite some time?

But back when we were first planting seeds for the 'Kulana Artist (later: Goddess) Sanctuary' version of intentional community, things like computers, the internet, and cell phones existed...yet hardly anyone in our creative/spiritual circles was using them. So people, overall, seemed to get along better.

In those early years, our comings & goings were arranged by landlines & postal mail. Any amount of spreading the word was accomplished by actually talking about with people we met out in the world, and by posting flyers or passing out home-printed brochures.

No one was spending any amount of time addictively tapping out messages on social media platforms.

Once such activities/obsessions did take hold the world over, we quickly noticed how that did not necessarily influence many aspects of doing community for the better.

Whereas at one time dialogs between kindred spirits ran the gamut from how to most effectively make one's living as an artist to the correct amount of hours weekly grounds & building maintenance 'Care Projects' should be expected to take, as soon as things like Facebook insinuated itself into people's lives, we quickly noticed certain community participants going around muttering beneath dark, agitated mental clouds about whatever negative comments they'd received from 'friends' & 'followers' regarding posts put up on one online community platform or another.

On the other hand, some of us were quite excited when WIFI finally arrived in this rural neck of the woods, thus making it more doable for entrepreneurs to work directly from their little jungle abode.

So I really can't imply that every harmful, unconstructive effect in our community's later eras of this ever-changing, small collection of people who were trying to co-create a sense of harmonious home together can be blamed entirely on technological influences.

Whereas once Kulana's dialogs explored notions such as wondering if our island may have been part of a larger continental landmass called Mu, by the year 2018 — for example — the focus of not just us but everyone on the Big Island shifted to whether or not molten lava Goddess Pele planned to volcanically swallow us whole...!

...and by 2020, conversations everywhere in the USA shifted to discussions over possible longstanding fraudulent election practices, a troubling escalation of censorship on free speech, and whether or not anyone trying to mandate experimental new medical modalities was really a healthy turn of events.

These were all transitions in Reality none of us anticipated.

Isn't it funny how when you're in the heyday of something, you can often be so busy laughing (or grousing) about ongoing projects while sharing animated potluck meals and making vision boards towards pre-paving the future, you can sometimes forget to really steep in the presence of the particular era of a vision you're currently in?

One you'd once long been aiming to achieve, but now should perhaps be recognizing more that it had finally arrived!

Rather than daily acknowledging that a time you've been earnestly aiming for is finally here and has now become the Reality you are actually living day to day, it is often too easy to almost ignore that fact in favor of all that still needs tending...along with a whole bunch of other new dreams-for-the-future that now beckon enthusiastically in the distance.

Yet there we were, during certain timeframes, actually living intentional community sometimes in ways that felt even better than we'd originally planned or expected! :D

Whereas once I'd inhaled nuggets of wisdom from works like Ilona Selke's Journey to the Center of Creation: Entering the World of Dolphins and the Dimensions of Dreamtime, completely agreeing with the ancient wise ones who believe a person's dreams can fashion &/or hold this whole 3-D human world together, it's one thing to agree with something like that intellectually...and quite another thing to adjust the way one operates in real life in order to practice co-creating tangible shared Realities with the rest of humanity.

By subsequent Kulana eras, I came to realize that perhaps I'd/we'd been focusing a bit too heavily on my & everyone else's efforts in the 3-D realm, which could be awfully exhausting...and maybe not the best way to go about creating or sustaining long term goals?

Especially not big, shared, community goals.

As author Ilona Selke noted in her seminal dolphin-dreamtime book back when I was first fashioning the Kulana Dream out of thin air, As the human race, we stand a crossroads. We have the option of making the necessary evolutionary adjustments and survive as a race, or not make them and perish....Yet, just as we stand at the brink of bringing on self-destruction because of our rational ability, many humans are starting to feel a yearning for a deeper knowledge, one that comes from the depth of our souls.

Being of indigenous (mixed race) descent & always somewhat spiritually, mystically-inclined, I was thrilled — after re-home-ing myself on the Big Island of Hawaii — to eventually begin carving out more time for delving into ancient alchemy & the like. Rather than having all my/our community's accomplishments dependent upon our own muscles or brain power, I had always wanted to be empowered & evolved enough to do creative projects along with important world-peace