There is a place that plays a special role in my card journey, and it's the Traditional Dream Factory.
That's where I first came out as a Card Wizard, which climaxed in writing a book about regeneration in 11 days by playing cards. I had a hunch that Cards are the Real Deal, and that event was the proof.
TDF is more than a regenerative project pioneering a new way of co-living, and more than a playground for deep personal transformation. To me, TDF is first and foremost a tribe - a group of incredible people (or Sheep, as we call ourselves, because Baaaaah! 🐑), each with their powerful story to tell and a role to play in the interconnected mycelium building a world where all beings can thrive.
I spontaneously hosted three Sheep in Amsterdam last week, which (apart from making cards ofc) resulted in a trip to Aardehuizen - claiming to be the most sustainable neighbourhood in the Netherlands. If you've been around the regenerative space, you most likely have seen the picture of how it looks like:
This was my first visit inside of an Earthship - "a type of house built with natural and recycled materials with energy conservation in mind, (...) designed to produce water, electricity, and food for its own use".
The original design was adapted for the climate. Our host, Walter, blew my mind by sharing that their earthship needs 5 cubic meters of wood per year to stay warm in a miserable Dutch winter, all thanks to thermal mass and super efficient rocket stove (which we're now also building at TDF 🔥).
I won't go into other details of the neighbourhood. Go visit, they do tours. Instead, I'll look at my visit through the lens of Cards. And it all starts, yet again at TDF...
So we had this crazy plan to write a book (we did!) about the gargantuan topic of regeneration in 11 days. One of the first steps was to create a deck of the most important questions we wanted the book to explore. We used them to build the table of contents.
And then I kinda never used that deck again. Until the visit to Aardehuizen.
Our host kept repeating two things:
a) one day you will build a project like this
b) ask me anything
Damn. He sees right through me. And I do have a million questions. Where do I even begin?
And then I remembered that I have a deck for it. So I placed the Village Questions on the table and asked Walter to pull a few.
Here are a few pro-tips that came out:
have someone on the council / municipality on your side
radically simplify the design to speed up the construction process
everyone will experience burnout - have a pool of people to rotate
keep inspiring the next generation of regenerators
This last piece of wisdom felt particularly alive in Aardehuizen - as for their mission:
Building, working and living in harmony with nature, in connection with each other and to inspire the world.
I felt inspired indeed, so I brought the Village Questions Deck to the second weekly card meetup in Amsterdam (I host card meetups every Wednesday, ping me for details if you want to join).
I had the perfect company - Sarah, my friend from Sheepy Ship 🐑⛵️ camp at Nowhere - a badass builder, maker, creator and generally amazing human being, with a big interest in all-things-low-tech and DIY.
We yarned about living in ugly cardboard boxes that will self destruct, while there are amazing alternatives, like Earthships and clay houses - available, functional, and comfortable. All it takes is a moment of pattern-breaking - to notice, connect the dots, and shift from the path of convenience to taking responsibility for creating the world we want to live in.
A few beautiful cards came out of that conversation.
I love how Sarah turned the question about limitation of materials into what seems to be a more fundamental issue:
Limitations of Imagination.
Places like Ardehuizen, Traditional Dream Factory, and so many other projects popping up all around the world are the beautiful gateway into this world.
🌳
There are many reasons why I love cards. One that stands out from this little journey is the interweaving of people. Cards have a beautiful tendency to appear at the right moment, spark imagination, and catalyse intention into action.
Isn't that what Spells are all about?
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