FAQ

Having had the dreams and noticing how insistent they were, Peter decided to take action and “called” together the very first circle of thirteen souls at the property of a friend at Natural Bridge in the Numinbah Valley in the hinterland of the Gold Coast. Those thirteen met underneath a tarpaulin in sun and rain across a weekend in October 2014 and determined to reach out to their circles of friends to call for The Village One to occur at that same property several months later. The decision was taken at that time to gather people in a “contributionist” manner, providing nothing much more than the land and asking all and any who came to fend for themselves and fend for each other. So it was that in early 2015, The Village One was held. Seventy Eight people attended the first village, coming together under a peace treaty and called into adult self responsibility.

The Call, Book Zero of The Village Series is much more recent as a creation yet is intended to reflect the story that happened and continues to happen in real life. Some added drama fashions an epic tale upon which to hang the legend of The Village. It is this legend that will guide the future unfolding of The Village and everything that spawns from its creation.

These were the motives identified when Peter Walker began his epic walk across nine countries, beginning on December 21st, 2012. They were the motives for his walk and for The Village – identified as the holding pillars of what Peter always described as the “movement” known as The Village. Not a festival, not a gathering – a movement transitioning humanity into the future. Balance in self and in ones approach to living life (ie use of a resource that supports ones life is different to abuse of a resource that damages the lives of others and drains that life source for the future. Thus always having an intention to seek balance and adjust into that balance with as much ease and grace as possible). Peace – not to diminish the value of confrontation and conflict as a way to determine outcomes, but always with an intention of returning to peace, doing no harm, being in awe of this life we have to live. Freedom, because it is the primary motivator for life. Without freedom we become automatons to someone or something else’s whims or desires and all the colour and excitement of living life is lost. Underpinned by Love is recognising that the pillars also need a foundation and that foundation is LOVE, underpinning everything and all of us at all times. Not that fleeting romantic love we are so often sold, but the basis of love, the meaning of love which is the glory of the experience of life itself, for ourselves, for all of the living things on earth (from rocks and stones to water, air, fire, animals, plants and those living beings we know are present even though we cannot see them) to everyone else, all these other humans that are on this tour with us.

The opening ceremony at every gathering of The Village is to set the container for the experience. In some ways this gathering of people is the fashioning of a giant workshop or playshop, putting each villager into the hands, hearts and influence of the other attendees at the gathering. By bringing all together in an opening ceremony, the crucible is set for each of the attendees to be able to fully express themselves, knowing that they will be held by the other attendees and every other influence that has been called into attendance at the opening ceremony.

All attendees, but in particular those who attend for the first time are informed of the experience they have entered, become somewhat versed in how to engage in the experience and reminded that all of their thoughts, words and actions effect the experience of everyone else in the space. Over the years of presenting “The Village” gatherings, it was noted that the major disturbances to balance, peace and freedom underpinned by love occurred was when random people “dropped in”  with no real understanding of the intentions of the collective.  Too often this sent damaging ripples through the people and the experience. Thus over time, decisions were taken to ensure all attendees came with the spirit of the experience and with knowledge that all other attendees had been informed of that intent.

When we began, there was no charge for anyone to attend The Village. After Village Two, we realised that no-one paying anything simply meant that the land caretakers became responsible for every cost, rather than all sharing that responsibility. For Village Three, a small attendance membership was charged to spread the financial responsibility. It remains the intention to keep entry memberships to the lowest possible price, both in order to remain inclusive and to reiterate that the gatherings known as The Village are not designed to make “profit” but to gather people and share the expenses.

Early in 2015 The Village One was held at the private property in Natural Bridge where the call had also happened.

From the outset it was intended to conduct The Village every three months. When we first began, we stretched out to six months, but soon came on course with our intent. Village gatherings are now occurring in both Northern NSW and in South East Queensland so sometimes it’s even more regular than each quarter. The website is now the place to locate all the information about The Village and the plans for upcoming gatherings.

The purpose if the gatherings is to bring people together to learn about each other and what it might be like to engage with one another more frequently. In our modern society there is significant disconnection as we all find individual homes in which to live and frequently do not socialise or know our nearest neighbours. The first step in creating “community” creating a “movement” is to ensure we meet and know one another, warts and all, so that we might learn how to negotiate disagreement, minimise conflict and genuinely “know” other villagers and become each others support networks. From there, genuine friendships occur as do community networks and interactions. In some ways, The Village gatherings have been the “funnel” that has driven growing numbers of people attending and becoming “villagers”.

The dream of The Village was not specifically about creating an alternative community on land, though it has grown into that place with a group of dedicated ‘Villagers” moving in that direction, designing rules of association, codes of conduct and so on to facilitate land and property that can become “common ground” for villagers and friends. Additionally, it has become plain that many such alternative communities falter without learning the necessary procedures and skills to co-home on land. Our effort is to bring villagers to a place where they have sufficient social skills to navigate sharing lives together.

The Village is themed on a Shamanic numbering system or lore known as the “energy movement”. It begins at zero (the womb of endless possibility in which “something happens”. The numbering follows as such, One = FOCUS

Two = SUBSTANCE

Three = FORM

Four = DETERMINING

Five = UNDERSTANDING

Six = IMAGINATION (MAGIC)

Seven = FREEDOM

Eight = PATTERN

Nine = CHAOS

and the return to Zero, both completion of the energy movement and the formation of another womb of endless possibility in which something can happen.

So for example, if we are at The Village 3-5, we are in the count of FORM and the gathering will automatically navigate the UNDERSTANDING of FORM during the experience of The Village. Villagers are asked to bring their attention to how the theme interacts with their experience over the course of “the Village”.

There is always another Village gathering in the planning. Keep an eye on the website, www.villagematrix.org

Anyone can call a Village into being. In time there will be village gatherings all over the place and there is no restriction as to who can add the energy to get village gatherings started. The people who have been calling village gatherings for the past many years will be happy to help you seed a new village. Similarly, if you want a village gathering to ahppen in our usual pattern, just talk with us about being the person who puts the few things together that formulate a village gathering. It’s mostly about coming together in Peace with one another, seeking community and understanding community and a willingness to meet one another in a place of adult self responsibility.

Village Matrix is intended to be the broad community of all the village gatherings and all the communities that come alongside The Village in creating and forming community with agreement that we move forward in Balance, Peace and Freedom underpinned by love. It is a matrix of villages that form a flower of life , a different way to live on this earth.

Village Matrix Inc has been formed to create a tool by which The Village and the Village Matrix can interact with the “old world”. Primarily it was formed to put our intentions clearly stated for reference and to be able to create financial accounts to purchase land that we will all become stewards of. It is a handy container of out intentions as a group of people and the documents are a very worthwhile read to understand how the village approaches the development of community and how we intend to operate our governance systems

It is simply the name for the communities we first form. When we get our first parcel of land that will be our first 247Village, not necessarily because we are living on it all the time (247) but because we will then be 100% responsible at all times.

Yes. Anyone who embraces the codes of conduct and genuinely wants to live in such a manner. This is not some sort of exclusive club, rather the beginnings of a different way of life.

To bring people together in community, to learn again how to be in community with one another and to forge a different way of living life than the mechanistic, transhuman and industrial path that seems to be the major narrative at this time. Balance, Peace, Freedom with self, life and others, underpinned by Love. Re-establishing communities that care for one another and remove the “individualist” focus of our current systems

The Call happened in Wales in 2016. One instance of The Village has occurred near Melbourne and one in Canada. More will come.

The Village seeks land that can house up to 169 people for the duration of the gathering. Sometimes this is private property and sometimes campgrounds. With the recent disturbance of border closures and other restriction, we have had to become more creative about locations to ensure the gatherings continued to occur.

Not yet. Watch this space. In saying that of course there are a lot of Villagers who do own land and property and part of our community linkage is that we find ourselves offering members of the community places to be in times of difficulty or when we want to share some time together.

Anyone who has attended one Village Gathering can consider themselves a “social” member of The Village and Village Matrix Inc.

An active member of The Village and Village Matrix Inc is a person who has attended at least three village gatherings and has taken an active interest in The Village and Village Matrix and pays a small annual membership fee so that they can become engaged in the operation of Village Matrix Inc including annual general meetings, decision making for the organisation and more.

Yes. Attend three village gatherings and pay your annual membership to become and active member.

Any funds that remain from Village gatherings are deposited into an account held by Village Matrix Inc and those proceeds are used to both maintain any office requirements and to improve the experience of the village, under the auspice of the leadership circle of Village Matrix Inc

A new world. A new way of living for any who wish to engage.

Peter Walker dreamed it in, called together twelve others (The Call) and from there, those people began to bring energy to Village gatherings.

The rules of association originate from government documents that provide a basis or template. From there, a large group of people met over the course of two years, including some five day gatherings where the major codes of conduct and other documents were compiled, by a community of interested and dedicated people (villagers) for all villagers.

The Call, Book Zero of The Village is the first book of a series designed to rewrite our stories so that they are in alignment with the vision of The Village and Village Matrix Inc. The first book emulates “The Call” made by Peter Walker when first calling The Village into being. The dream of the village is being woven into an epic tale with all the components of the community and of being human wound into a new story where art imitates life and life imitates art. Please procure yourself a copy asap and read this incredible story. The next book is currently being written by Peter Walker.