Earthaven Ecovillage

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Earthaven Ecovillage An aspiring ecovillage near Asheville, learning, living, and demonstrating a holistic, sustainable culture. www.earthaven.org. [email protected].

Home of schoolofintegratedliving.org Founded in 1994, Earthaven is located on 329 acres in culturally rich, biologically diverse western North Carolina, about 45 minutes southeast of Asheville. We are dedicated to caring for people and the Earth by learning and demonstrating a holistic, sustainable culture. Earthaven Ecovillage is located on the traditional lands of the Catawba and Cherokee (Tsala

gi) people, who have stewarded this land since time immemorial. Living within our mission and vision statement is the goal of working “towards partnership culture, towards racial and gender equity, and against oppression in all its forms.” In support of this goal, and for our collective liberation, we are in the early stages of healing and being in right relationship with the local Catawba and Cherokee people. Varying between 2000 and 2600 feet in elevation, our forested mountain land consists of three converging valleys with abundant streams and springs, flood plains, bottom land, and steeper ridge slopes. In recent years, our community has consisted of about 75 adult residents and 25 children. We intend to become a village of at least 150 people on 56 homesites. As the village grows, we would like it to become more racially and culturally diverse. Our permaculture site plan includes residential neighborhoods and compact business sites, as well as areas suitable for farms, orchards, market gardens, and wetlands. Much of Earthaven is still under construction. Physical infrastructure so far includes roads, footpaths, bridges, campgrounds, ponds, constructed wetlands, off-grid power systems, farms and gardens, our Council Hall, a kitchen-dining room, many small dwellings, and a growing number of free-standing and commonwall homes. We govern ourselves with a consensus decision-making process and a Council and committee structure, with a Homeowners Association board. The HOA owns title to our common land, which we financed with private loans from members. We value sustainable ecological systems, permaculture design, elegant simplicity, right livelihood, and healthy social relations. We are spiritually diverse. We have both vegetarians and omnivores; some members raise livestock. Our small ecologically sound businesses include a permaculture plant nursery; carpentry and home construction; tool rental; solar system installation; plumbing and electrical installation; and consultants and courses in permaculture design, natural building, creating new ecovillages, herbal medicine, and women’s health. Mission and Vision
To create a village which is a living laboratory and educational seed bank for a sustainable human future. In the midst of planetary change the Earthaven experiment helps inform and inspire a global flowering of bio-regionally appropriate cultures. Goals:

Goal 1: To catalyze local and global change through learning, teaching, and networking. Goal 2: To shift from wasteful to regenerative use of resources. Goal 3: To develop and support a thriving local economy. Goal 4: To grow, raise, trade, and use our own food, fiber, medicines, and forestry products in an ecologically regenerative, bioregional culture and network. Goal 5: To tend the land in a way that optimizes for diverse ecosystem health, food and resource production, and soil and water quality. Goal 6: To practice fair, participatory, and effective self-governance. Goal 7: To encourage diverse spiritual practices and awareness of our interconnection with all beings. Goal 8: To work towards partnership culture, towards racial and gender equity, and against oppression in all its forms. [See our Statement of Transparency]

Goal 9: To nurture personal growth, interpersonal understanding, and mutual trust, as the foundation for a deeply connected human community. Goal 10: To practice healthy, holistic lifestyles that balance self-care with care for others. Goal 11: To create a culture of celebration, beauty, and pleasure. Goal 12: To attract, cultivate, and inspire residents and members whose presence contributes to vitality and functionality in our community. Goal 13: We recognize elders as the trunk and children as the fruit of our village tree, and collectively prioritize what all parts of our “tree” need to thrive.

Earthaven is featured on NPR for Climate Solutions Week, starting June 10.NPR sent a reporter and a photographer to Eart...
10/06/2025

Earthaven is featured on NPR for Climate Solutions Week, starting June 10.

NPR sent a reporter and a photographer to Earthaven for a two-day immersion this April. They came to find out how the resilience our community has developed over the years — through our self-governance and conflict resolution skills, farms and gardens, off-grid infrastructure, mutual aid, and other areas — helped us through Hurricane Helene. What that means for climate resilience. How we’re learning, rebuilding, and sharing what we learn with others. Tune in or log in to find out what they gleaned from their two-day visit.

Read it: https://www.npr.org/2025/06/10/nx-s1-5340713/north-carolina-climate-change-solutions

Hear it: https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2025/06/10/ecovillage-hurricane-helene

We're harvesting what we're learning from Hurricane Helene about climate resilience to share it in hopes of supporting others. If you're curious what we're learning, you can download our first offering: Rooted In Resilience: 6 Simple Tips for Climate Resilience → www.earthaven.org

Earthaven Ecovillage fared remarkably well after Hurricane Helene. The community had backup power and water systems, as well as food supplies, but members also knew how to work together in a crisis.

Embrace the enoughness of summer’s light. Surrender to the balancing power of the dark. Here, in the height of summer, w...
09/06/2025

Embrace the enoughness of summer’s light. Surrender to the balancing power of the dark.

Here, in the height of summer, we will savor the fullness of the season. Letting the light remind us what it means to be, feel and have enough, we will also welcome the release of the returning dark. Together, through a ritual space and an invitational presence, we aim to deepen intimacy and align our inner natures with the outer Nature of the living world.

This ceremonial space is for anyone who wants to pause with presence and connect with the rhythms of the Earth. May being together in this ceremonial space offer nourishment for our souls, support our commitments to staying connected with the source of life, and foster a greater sense of shared and collective resilience.

This program is offered by donation because we want this ritual experience to be widely accessible to any and all who are longing to traverse into deeper territories of themselves, tending the threads that are weaving our collective basket. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Registration is required to receive the Zoom link. https://www.schoolofintegratedliving.org/apex-summer-solstice-ritual/

Reopening June 27!
07/06/2025

Reopening June 27!

We’ve got some exciting news… we’re back!

After exactly nine months of recovery since Hurricane Helene, Chimney Rock at Chimney Rock State Park is officially reopening to the public on Friday, June 27.

Thank you for all your love and support during our closure. We’re incredibly grateful to everyone who has worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make this reopening possible. It’s been a long road, but we’re excited to have you back on the trails with us soon.

🎫 HEADS UP: Reservations will be required for all guests, including Annual Passholders. Initially, we’ll be open Friday–Monday and space will be limited as we get back up and running. Reservations go live in the coming weeks at chimneyrockpark.com.

Follow us for more important travel updates and info to help plan your visit. We’ve missed you and can’t wait to see you soon!

Relational skills that deepen connection and foster a sense of belonging can be learned and practiced.Join us for Compas...
05/06/2025

Relational skills that deepen connection and foster a sense of belonging can be learned and practiced.

Join us for Compassion Camp, where we are playful yet deeply held, joyous yet honoring grief, light and easy as well as deeply attuned, while practicing the skills of authentic relating, NVC, social justice, and at its core, belonging.

Register @ https://www.schoolofintegratedliving.org/compassion-camp/

The best way to get a sense of a place is to walk the land and meet the people. If you're short on time, an ecovillage t...
05/06/2025

The best way to get a sense of a place is to walk the land and meet the people. If you're short on time, an ecovillage tour is a window into off-grid village life that will engage all of your senses!

Along the way, learn about our history, process, successes and failures, to inform YOUR community journey!

https://www.schoolofintegratedliving.org/in-person-ecovillage-tours/

Curious about our Extraordinary Realities program? Have some questions?Join instructor, Peter Clark, for a description o...
01/06/2025

Curious about our Extraordinary Realities program? Have some questions?

Join instructor, Peter Clark, for a description of the course. He will also answer your questions about the course while SOIL staff will answer questions about the facilities.

Interested but can’t make it to the info session? Register to receive a link to the recording.

https://www.schoolofintegratedliving.org/er-live-info-session/

Our constant companion. Giver of life. Searing in its purity, soft and warming through the haze. How intentionally do yo...
01/06/2025

Our constant companion. Giver of life. Searing in its purity, soft and warming through the haze. How intentionally do you greet the sun each day? Are you watching the clock or assessing the quality of sunlight that marks each day? Do you feel this source of abundance in your life? Can you be as the sun in its stillness?

Join us for Apex: an online ritual meditation for the summer solstice.

June 20 at noon eastern standard time.

Our gift to you, this online gathering is by donation without expectation.

Sign up here: https://www.schoolofintegratedliving.org/apex-summer-solstice-ritual/

There are many ways to be a part of our Earthaven community. Not everyone can be here with us in person as a part of our...
31/05/2025

There are many ways to be a part of our Earthaven community. Not everyone can be here with us in person as a part of our ecovillage experiment. Many choose to settle as close neighbors, or farther away friends and neighbors in Asheville. Some attend tours and stay for the weekend, others participate in programs like Experience Week.

Sometimes our modern lives require us to watch from further afield and support in more remote ways. That can look like subscribing to our newsletter or YT channel to keep in touch, or engaging with us on social media by liking and sharing posts that inspire or educate.

We have also formalized a path for remote support in a program we call Friends of Earthaven. A little like a patreon, one can make a small monthly donation (starting at $5/mo) to receive more intimate correspondence from our about life in the village. Meeting new members, and inside looks at life here that we don't share in more public spaces. It is our invitation to engage in the next level of growing intimacy with our living experiment.

Thank you for all the ways you have supported us. Especially if that is by the sacred longing in your heart, the curiosity you feel about ecovillage life, and the good thoughts you send our way. We feel that!

If you'd like to become a Friend: https://www.schoolofintegratedliving.org/friends-of-earthaven-ecovillage/

Sign up for our newsletter: https://www.schoolofintegratedliving.org/newsletter-signup/

Subscribe to our youtube: https://www.youtube.com/

Blessings on the lives we all tend, wherever we find ourselves.

"The community concept is based on the fact that each person is invaluable and truly irreplaceable. Each person has a gi...
29/05/2025

"The community concept is based on the fact that each person is invaluable and truly irreplaceable. Each person has a gift to give, a contribution to make to the whole. The kind of gift a person brings, the kind of being a person is, is very unique to them and is valued by the community. The community is constantly affirming each person, and that constant affirmation is why people are always in the community. We sleep together. We work together. We walk together. When we are 'separate' we are vulnerable and are more likely to underestimate the self. This way of life may sound like an invasion of privacy to a lot of people, but not in my village. Being in community forces us to cultivate a deeper sense of intimacy with one another, to notice one another and value one another's gifts."

— Sobonfu Somé, Welcoming Spirit Home: Ancient African Teachings to Celebrate Children and Community

So much gratitude for Sobonfu and the teachings she brought to so many of us at Earthaven and the world. Her beautiful spirit and imparted wisdom is woven throughout the experiences we'll be sharing together at The Re-membering Retreat this fall.

This is an invocation, your invitation to join us as we re-member ourselves home Oct 23-26.

https://www.schoolofintegratedliving.org/re-membering-retreat/

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