About Us
Our vision is grand! It is in the process of being put into words that really do it justice. Meanwhile, here is a brief version of the mission and vision we orient towards.
Our Mission
To explore routes to regenerative and affordable living, cooperative self-employment, and consensual self-governance through intentional community.
Our Vision
Earthseed Ecovillage supports the emergence of intentional communities that provide radical solutions to the myriad crises our planet and society currently face by going to the root of our coordination issues.
Earthseed Ecovillage is establishing a center for cultivating a consent-based and wisdom-based culture that fosters effective relationships and regeneration at all levels. We apply the principles of evolutionary behavioral psychology to inform the design of social agreements that promote cooperation and prosocial behavior. Our goal is to nurture compassionate, capable leaders who can revitalize communal living through a blend of modern and traditional practices in psychology, spirituality, nature connection, land stewardship, arts, apprenticeship education, and more. Although the specific residents of our initial communities are yet to be determined, we are actively seeking socially and emotionally skilled individuals to lay the foundation for the culture we envision. As resources allow, we aim to include individuals facing greater personal challenges in living and working within highly attuned small social groups.
Our grand pie-in-the-sky vision is to create 5 or more interdependent intentional communities on the land, each with 5 neighborhoods composed of roughly 5 pods, with about 5 adults in each pod, thus around 125 adults max per community. Regardless of the particular subculture within each, they will be supported in remaining in alignment first and foremost with the overall mission of supporting the rapid emergence of the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.
We hold deep respect for the practices and cultural traditions of local and non-local indigenous peoples, such as cultivating gratitude and respect for all that is, living in reciprocal relationship with the earth, building a hand-crafted relationship with our shelters and clothing, and training in essential archaic life skills, first and foremost of those being: learning to live and work together in beauty and harmony.
We are humbly holding the intention to develop a relationship with our local indigenous communities and find aligned ways to be of service, particularly to the Elnu-Abenaki tribe and other nearby Abenaki bands like possibly the Nolka clan and other clans of the Ko’asek band.
our Co-Founders & Core Members
Co-Founders: Bob & Marissa
BOB’S BRIEF (PROFESSIONAL-ISH) BIO
Looking for a liberatory way of being of the greatest service to life on Earth, Bob started out on the path of becoming a mechanical engineer and inventor with an eye towards gaining some of the resources and skills that would enable him to have a broader impact.
He has became something of a jack of all trades, intentional community member/founder, forager, forest alchemist, rewilder, animist, psychonaut, student of indigenous traditions, kitchen-table-poly sort of relationship anarchist, and voluntarist activist before being catapulted into the next daunting chapter with the birth of his son in 2012, the force of nature known as Keya. What followed was a messy deep dive into empathic and indigenous parenting practices leading to a new phase of intentional community building and exploration that would take them around the world before somewhat re-entering the system as the buildings and grounds manager at Earthdance, an arts and contact improvisational dance retreat center in Western Massachusetts. From there, he was led to the founding an ecovillage within a short radius of Brattleboro Vermont, resulting in the miraculous “purchase” of the land for Earthseed in 2022. Since then, with the help of other founding members, he has been purchasing, transporting, repairing, and operating the heavy equipment needed to build the roads, bridges, and make the lumber for the ecovillage while getting a crash course in navigating the regulatory regime for development in Vermont. In 2023 he met the cat sage known as Gravy, and her human, Marissa, both of whom quickly assumed possession of his home and leadership of the revolution.
MARISSA’S BRIEF (PROFESSIONAL-ISH) BIO
Driven by the desire to be of service, Marissa worked for almost a decade at a nonprofit in upstate NY that works in healthy food access and the local food economy. It was there she connected deeply with the plants in her community garden and discovered her love for circus. She moved to Vermont in 2022 and works part-time at the circus school in Brattleboro and is plating a garden at Earthseed, setting down roots and exploring connection to ancestral plants and seeds. Marissa practices Contact Improvisation and is connected with the dance community in the region.
Motivated by radical rest and cooking nourishing foraged and locally grown foods, Marissa is heading up the food and nutrient management at Earthseed, from gardens to composting. Marissa joined the Earthseed Ecovillage Project in 2023 and became a co-founder in spring 2024.
founding members:
AURORE, SAUL, ALIONA
Stay tuned for their bios.