Beckoning the Dawn
The genesis and the revelation of Cantobria
The dawn is a miraculous daily event that most ignore.
A dawn becomes “new” when you give it all your attention.
The new dawn begets a new day with its promise of new beginnings.
The dawn is the same, but something about you has changed.
A light has penetrated deeper into your being.
You have been lit up like a lantern, to lead the way,
for yourself, and perhaps for others too.
Some twenty years ago I first read the words:
“Be the change you want to see in the world”
A management consultant colleague had included it in his email signature. As a slogan, it sounded spot on. Yet, nothing changed in my life, and nothing changed in the world.
“Be the change”. I did not even know where to start.
Fast forward to the next decade. The doomsday clock was ticking and I had accumulated more wreckage in my life than I had ever bargained for.
Then I awakened to a new dawn.
I saw that our own thoughts are the true source of our human experience.
And so I set out to change my thoughts…and failed.
A yogi suggested that the body was an easier thing to tame than the mind, so I started with the body. I practiced ashtanga yoga, then Kriya yoga. I gleaned energy-cultivation practices from Tantra and Taoism. I jumped into the coldest of water and decided to make that a habit. I radically changed my diet in favor of fresh food. I cut out alcohol. I increased my resistance training. I made meditation a daily practice. And I kept playing the violon.
These things changed my body, but did they change my mind? Changes in the mind are far more subtle. The body’s well-being fosters a better state of mind. A calmness sets in, from which the elixir of joy can be distilled. It doesn’t mean that joy becomes an open bar.
To truly change one’s state of mind is the work of a lifetime, and would be sufficient unto itself, but I also had the desire to create something greater than myself.
What was the change I wanted to see in the world?
What a boundless question!
I wanted to re-enchant the world with beauty.
I wanted human beings to reclaim their hearts and souls.
I wanted all living beings, in balance, to thrive.
Most urgently, I wanted to preserve life on Earth in all its diversity.
The requisite change was nothing less than an overhaul of our system of global production and consumption, moving from exploitation and extraction to cultivation and preservation.
I had wearily observed over a period of twenty years how our political and economic system was incapable of dealing with the challenge. The system that is the very cause of a problem cannot remedy that same problem. The political system treats “ecology” as a problem among so many others, when it is in fact the nexus of a systemic crisis.
It’s one thing for a system to run out of the very money that it creates, and quite another to run out of fertile soil, fresh water, and other life-sustaining natural resources.
For too long a time, I felt a quiet despair over our collective incapacity for change. Most people just seemed to bury their heads in the sand, or at best focused on a few feel-good actions, such as recycling or buying organic foods. There was no worse topic for conversation, given that nobody knew what to do. The movie "Don't Look Up" was direly funny.
This led me on a mostly solitary quest to learn how to solve the problem. All of the answers, surprisingly simple and intuitive, lay in the ancient and recent practices of permaculture, regenerative agriculture, and food forests. All of these are but slightly different approaches based on the same ecological principles.
Here is the rub: these principles challenge the foundations of the existing economic system. Their widespread adoption would threaten many of the interests on which that system depends. Stated otherwise, the system that is killing us has its own will to survive, and will therefore kill what is required to save us.
The system cannot be defeated, yet it is inexorably doomed.
Now, if the system cannot be defeated, what would it mean for me to become the change I wanted to see in the world?
I already noted that we can and must take hold of our minds, to put an end to the suffering we inflict upon ourselves and others. There is no way to measure the effect that a person's transformation can have on those around them. It may appear that our actions are but a drop in the bucket, but that is incorrect on all counts. Instead, maybe everything counts, even down to the song you sing when you rise at dawn.
Beyond this never-ending work of personal transformation, I wanted to extend the same endeavour to a place of my own: to make the changes I wished to see in the world tangible in a particular corner of it. Once we reclaim sovereignty over our minds and bodies, we can extend that sovereignty to a place, be it a room or a territory.
I decided to trade the fabricated pleasures and comforts that money can buy, for my own "kingdom": a land in which I could manifest the change I want to see in the world.
To this end, I purchased thirty acres in a wild region of southern France, bordered by two rivers that carved a heart-shaped valley from its surrounding canyons.
I called it Cantobria, a slight alteration from the overlooking village of Cantobre, derived from the Celtic “Canto Briga” (shining citadel).
Cantobria is but a minuscule “kingdom”, yet large enough for an ecosystem that can sustain a small community. Large enough also to serve as a template for other communities, and therefore large enough to become the change I want to see in the world. Here is my vision for how that will unfold.
Cantobria and its beauty to behold
The land lies within a vast nature preserve of 12 000 km2 covering the Parc national des Cévennes, the Parc régional des Grands Causses, the Parc régional de l’Aubrac, and the Parc Région du Haut Languedoc. Even within the modest 30 acres of Cantobria, there is so much spectacular beauty to preserve. Sharing the abundance is indeed the first of Cantobria’s missions.
- Plentiful fresh water, offered by two rivers springing out from the rock.
- Fresh air that billows through the canyons, sometimes warm, usually cool.
- Fertile soil yielding nutritious and untreated vegetables, true to their subtle earthy sweetness.
- Abundant fruits that ripen on the tree and fall into your hand.
- The buzz and frenzy of bountiful life. Wildflowers everywhere, and birds, and bees.
- A diverse ecosystem with prairies and forest, highlands and lowlands.
- Room to roam in the wilderness. Space to be alone on the Earth, sweetly kissed by the sun.
To be fully immersed in this experience of preserved nature, my vision includes several well-placed eco-lodges, blending into their surroundings and leaving no footprint. Prior to purchasing the land, I had designed with an architect the concept of “the light house”, intended to be a tiny but perfect habitation, floating in spectacular natural surroundings.
The land came with an existing stone farmhouse and outbuildings, half of which I have so far renovated. These will accommodate a maximum of 20 persons.
For a glimpse of Cantobria’s natural environment, have a look through these collections of photos and videos:
Cantobria, a place for retreats
A community cannot be decreed and may require years to emerge. Meanwhile, the trees will mature and bear fruit.
The second stage is to become a place for retreats, in service of human development and of life. Retreats are moments when people can be regenerated and inspired. New ideas can emerge. Experiments made. Bonds created. New dawns can be witnessed.
The field of exploration is vast. It is something of a paradox that even as the dominant system has become all-encompassing, it has also fostered an unprecedented proliferation of “alternative” movements, pursuits, and practices. There is an equal measure of nonsense to counter the omnipresent propaganda. Still, those once persecuted as “witches”, including traditional healers, midwives of birth and death, and keepers of ancestral knowledge, deserve to have their wisdom reconsidered and their place in our history restored. It is better to tolerate some silly magic here and there than to eradicate supposed falsehoods. Sometimes what we call magic may be a profound intuition into workings of the world that science has yet to explain. The history of scientific discovery, in particular quantum physics, reminds us how much remains beyond our present understanding.
Retreats In service of human development:
A reckless race towards artificial superintelligence promises material abundance while ignoring dire risks. Short of our destruction, we risk losing sight of what makes us human. The machine was not manufactured by yogis, but by men with purely materialistic concerns. That machine therefore mirrors our own spiritual bankruptcy. Now, if ever, is the time to recognize that. Intelligence is only a tool, just as easily used for evil as for good. It is not the endgame.
To be human is to feel a beating heart and the beauty of love. It is to know the limits of a body and also the boundlessness of consciousness. It is to hold a place of wonder, ecstasy, sadness, and sometimes terror, midway between the infinitely small and the unfathomably vast.
Retreats in service of human development will explore all the ways in which human life can be enriched and human consciousness expanded. Music and architecture are of the greatest personal significance.
Retreats in service of life:
These will explore how we as humans can live abundantly within the limits of the Earth’s resources through the practices of regenerative agriculture, the cultivation of biodiversity, natural health and healing. Such retreats can be designed for teaching, experimentation, or healing.
Energy production and eco-construction are major subsidiary concerns.
See this page for details regarding the organization of retreats.
Cantobria, a place for active cooperation
Is money the only basis on which people will cultivate land? If that is the case, the system holds its tight grip. I envision people gradually devoting some of their time to cooperative work, finding rewards in human connection, immersion in nature, and healthy sustenance. Not because their work deserves no financial reward, but because some of life's greatest rewards cannot be measured in money. One vehicle for such cooperation is in fact a cooperative: a company with shareholder-members holding the same participative rights, regardless of their monetary investments.
Read here for more details about the Co-Op.
Who will show up for this work? Beyond the work itself lies the subtle and complex matter of group cohesion and cooperation. If the current economic system were to collapse, cooperation within communities will become one of the most important factors of resilience. I would like to believe that if people are willing to give their lives on a batttefield in defence of their nation, surely they can also learn to sacrifice something of their own needs and wants for the greater good of a community. It is a bet worth taking.
Cantobria is a land I would have dreamed of as a child, always keen to climb trees and explore. It is also a land that I would have wanted my children to know. Those times now past, it is my wish that this land will enchant and inspire the children of today and tomorrow. They are, in a sense, all our own, and they deserve a better world than the one we are leaving for them.
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