Crew News: Inspiration in Service to Life
Growing connection, creativity and service to regenerate the world around us - September issue
Greetings Earthling,
The Seasons are cycling into Autumn here in the UK, the Harvest Full Moon has just passed and the Autumn Equinox is just ahead. The rains are returning, hard and fast.
We are at the threshold of a significant shift in the Earth cycle, a time of harvest, to acknowledge and celebrate the abundance of the Earth and to honour the shift toward slower darker times, times for letting go.
The contradictions of being alive on Spaceship Earth right now are so extreme, the miracle, joy and possibilities of life along with the growing oppression, fear and atrocities.
And yet here we all are.
For us when the overwhelm is intensifying we try to always come back to connection and relationships, pausing and listening, connecting with land, with other beings, with ourselves, with each other.
Deepening our relationality with all that is alive - human and more than human.
The more attention we give to tending things that centre Earth, life, care, love, community - growing practices that cultivate aliveness, connection, creativity and service - the faster life-sustaining cultures will emerge.
But it needs the attention of all of us.
As we’re saying around here…
We are learning to dance — with complexity, contradiction, grief, beauty, horror, mystery and surprise —without abandoning the dance floor.
I hope you enjoy these offerings and invitations.
Thank you for your support.
With love and courage
Dan and the basecamp crew
WATCH
What do humans who aren't consumers look like?
What happens when we find ways of feeding ourselves and each other without buying or selling food?
Sand River Community Farm in upstate New York is an experiment in gift economy and community building. The food from this place is now offered as a gift to the neighbours and strangers who find their way here.
Welcome to the farm where nothing is for sale.
READ
Mark Sears, Becoming Crew guide, writes about some of the core practices we work with on the land to ground, deepen and navigate the mystery together in communities of practice.
LISTEN
I’ve been slowly getting back into the podcast recording, my intention is to record where possible out on the land at Ghostwood Down, as with this latest Episode 107 with Citizens Author Jon Alexander and to commit to creating more of my own sonic rambling productions like this one Episode 104 - Composting Spoiled Maps
Available on all podcast platforms.
Thanks for those listeners who continue to share episodes, message me about what they receive and those who flip to paid subscriptions to support the production costs. We are hugely grateful for your support.
PRACTICE
Forage and Make - Hawberry Tincture
If you’re in the UK the hedgerows are heaving with wild fruit, although they are turning fast. Tis a time for foraging, the practice of reciprocity in the abundance of Autumn.
Haw berries are everywhere - the fruit of the Hawthorn - a tree of the heart.
Packed full of Vitamin C they also contain properties that have long been known to have benefits for the heart and circulation.
You can make them into jam with other fruit, create a Hawthorn syrup or try a tincture.
Simply find some Hawthorn trees, ask them if you can pick some berries. Don’t take too many from one tree, say thank you after - wash the berries, fill a jar (or two), pour over brandy, whiskey or vodka to use an alcohol extraction process, screw on a lid, put in a dark cool place for 4 weeks. Then strain the liquid into tincture bottles. Squeeze the occasional drop onto your tongue to receive Haw Power for the Heart
PARTICIPATE
Our friends at Earthed are gathering folks for their summit in London on the 18th September, this will be an absolute inspiration fest of a day, with the leading practitioners in land and place based regeneration forming a stella line up of talks, panels and more alongside performances from Earth-centered Artists and musicians way into the night.
But it’s also about connecting with the community, folks who show up to Earthed gigs, beautiful humans who are out on the land across our Spaceship Earth, getting on with bringing life back.
I spotted 7 folks in the speaker line-up who we have hosted on the Spaceship Earth Podcast - which is a good sign! And my brother Simon is also speaking about his regenerative farming project in Italy - Radici .
If you make it, come and say hello.
CONNECT
We have just posted dates for three new action learning experiences and monthly events through the Autumn/Winter with Becoming Crew.
First up is Becoming Fridays a monthly gathering on the second Friday of each month on-land at Ghostwood Down nr Bath.
A day of connection, practice and community with a small crew, to sit around the fire in council, have solo time on the land, tend to the land, eat together. A day of spaciousness, deep listening and contemplating the mystery of these times
Info and register here for Oct, Nov and Dec
Into the Dark - a 5 week online action learning journey with a self-placed nature based rite of passage is back for the 4th year and we are hoping to host two crews, one at the end of this year and the other beginning of 2026.
Into the Dark is an invitation to slow down, to pay attention to the roots, to let go of what is no longer useful and to nurture the seeds of intention within you.
And we are also experimenting with the ancient practice of Sitting in Council, at Folly Wood in Stroud 24th September 7-9pm and Bath in November - details here
We hope to make these regular gatherings.
SUPPORT
Meander is a magazine for bioregional culture, slow living, and regenerative futures.
Regeneration starts with reconnecting to the land, the seasons, and cultural rhythms of place. Meander curates stories, practical guides, and creative insights that inspire personal and community transformation.
This feels right up our street, a physical magazine that we want to see.
Support the launch of this new magazine by pre-ordering the first edition - Returning to place.
DANCE
A 6 hour mix from two DJ legends, the late and so great Andrew Weatherall playing back 2 back with DJ Harvey. Recorded in 2012 at Trouw club in Amsterdam and released as part of the RA 1000 mixes.
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