Embodied Earth Movement Permaculture Design Course (PDC)

Join in a global movement of repairing the connections between mind, body, spirit, and planet. Permaculture, also referred to as "Ecological Design", observes and adapts lessons learned from flourishing natural ecosystems to design more regenerative human systems. It combines thinking from myriad backgrounds, including indigenous wisdom, complex systems, regenerative agriculture, architecture, ecology, horticulture, intersectional environmentalism, community organizing, and more. It provides practitioners a lens with which to view the world and an expansive set of tools and techniques with which to make lasting change in their lives and, subsequently, the world.  

This course will be taught in accordance with Permaculture Institute of North America (PINA) Core Curriculum required to certify students in Permaculture Design. A skeletal outline of what each day will bring is included at the end of this description. In order to receive certification, all students must complete 72 hours of coursework (9 8-hour days) and present a final design project. If a student doesn't want to receive certification, they are more than welcome to join and attend for all other class time. For the purposes of this course and the revitalization of Stonehedge Gardens, instructors are encouraging students to center their designs around Stonehedge-related projects unless they have a burning passion to focus on something else right from the start. 

This course will be simultaneously rigorous in its academic-oriented teaching and its emphasis on the need for mind-body-spirit integration through play, movement, hands-on projects, self-expression, and curiosity-led time. Embodied Earth Movement Permaculture is about grounded optimism, honing intuition, taking responsibility for one's own actions and behaviors, moving through the world with a sense of wonder, and self-empowerment to immediately begin applying what you learn in your every day life.

Register now! Space is limited to 30 students. The earth and your body need you to tune in. 

Early-bird registration discount is available until 12/31/23. Payment plans are also available, and lodging/meal fee isn't due until 3/31/24. See ticketing page for plans and pricing. 

THE TEACHERS

The Host Landscape, Stonehedge Gardens is a beautiful, 21.5 acre sanctuary with walking trails, ponds and perennial gardens founded by 2 local artists in the mid 60’s and currently being developed as a holistic learning center with a focus on art, wellness and permaculture.  When learning permaculture design, the land is our greatest teacher, and the ability to learn from Stonehedge is a blessing. The space provides a healing, sacred, inclusive environment for the cultivation of community and personal transformation through wellness, art, holistic education, and connection with nature. More information on the history and current programming of Stonehedge can be found at https://www.stonehedge.us/ 

The Lead Facilitator, Robyn Mello (edenspore), is a multifaceted, multidimensional explorer who’s soul purpose is to assist others in remembering that we are not separate from the natural world in which we find ourselves, and we are all wondrously connected in ways that most humans can only begin to perceive with their 5 senses. Her Earth reintegration journey has taken her all over Sub-Saharan Africa and The Caribbean, North America, and to her ancestral Azores Islands. Primarily, her fire has been forged in Lenapehoking--The Pine Barrens of South Jersey and the open spaces peppered throughout inner-city Philadelphia.

Robyn graduated Summa Cum Laude with Honors degrees in Sociology and Africana Studies from The University of Delaware, and she was a finalist in both the Rhodes and Marshall Scholarship Competitions. She conducted research on global migration patterns and helped to pilot a return-migration program with The International Organization for Migration in both Sierra Leone and Ghana. Other research assistantships involved working on quantitative traditional corn breeding experiments and qualitative Environmental Sociology work with a historically Black community in Wilmington, Delaware threatened by environmental racism and sea-level rise.

In Philadelphia, Mello truly began walking the plant path. She started a volunteer group called Philly Food Forests that assisted communities in starting gardens and orchards in a dozen vacant spaces to reclaim and bring health to their neighborhoods. She then joined the Philadelphia Orchard Project (POP) as Orchard Director, contributing to the design and planting of over 60 orchards with community throughout the city. She also worked very closely with the farmers at Mycopolitan Mushroom Company in Philadelphia and spent a season starting a biointensive organic farm in Bucks County, PA. She has spent the past decade organizing education for Beardfest music festival in South Jersey, performing original music, and inspiring others to start similar transformation-focused education and musical events in the region.

Edenspore is Robyn's catch-all business for combining herbalism, education, integrative health, eco-design, and music. She's been weaving the web of her passions together more and more over time, with sound therapy, yin yoga, and triathlon training currently amongst the newest well-fitting threads. She also has experience in complete home rehabilitation and renovation, is a habitual dream journaler, and is mother to 2- and 4-year old wonderchildren.

This will be her 4th time teaching a PDC course, and she has taught workshops and short courses at dozens of venues around the region, including past Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) conferences and myriad outdoor arboreta, public gardens, retreats, and music festivals. She earned a Permaculture Design Certification from Melissa Miles (of The Permanent Future Institute), an Advanced Permaculture Certification from Peter Bane (author of The Permaculture Handbook and Executive Director of PINA), a Permaculture Teaching Certification from Pandora Thomas (of EarthSeed Permaculture Center and Black Permaculture Network), and co-taught courses with Benjamin Weiss (of Susquehanna Sustainable Enterprises).

She is doing all this work in hopes that she will return in her next life as a healthy, strong, productive, and delicious American Persimmon tree living in a protected forest.

Guest Facilitators and Presenters:

Monica Ibacache, a native of Chile, has been a New York City–based organizer, sustainability educator, and ecological designer since 2007. She became an avid gardener as a small child with her grandparents then rekindled her passion for growing food as an adult while living in Southeast Alaska. A bite of her first homegrown lettuce and understanding why it was so delicious, unlike the store-bought variety, led Monica down the rabbit hole, irrevocably altering her life path. 

She is committed to improving food systems and advancing environmental justice globally. Monica has dedicated her life to working with diverse and marginalized communities in education and local development in the U.S. and abroad. She has advanced certifications in Permaculture Design and Teaching, specializing in Teaching Permaculture to Children, and serves on the Board of Directors for the Permaculture Institute of North America (PINA) and the Northeast Biogas Advisory Council.

Kelsey McWilliams is the CEO and founder of Point of Shift. Point of Shift is circular sanitation design consultancy that designs and builds circular sanitation systems for home owners. Circular sanitation refers to any system that takes human waste (our poop and pee) and converts it into a useable resource such as fertilizer, water and heat. Kelsey has worked in the sanitation sector for 10 years throughout India, east Africa, and the Americas. Kelsey managed sanitation projects that focused on implementing innovative sanitation within agricultural systems to demonstrate their environmental, social, and economic benefits. Kelsey has also worked with sanitation entrepreneurs and companies to develop market entry strategies for new technologies. She was the first full-time hire of a startup, Wasted*, that is transforming portapotty waste into fertilizer products. Kelsey created a workshop called "The Art of the Compost Toilet" connecting participants to the beauty, and functionality within compost toilets can connect us to our waste and the earth. Kelsey has also led a fem bodied weekend workshop teaching building techniques and how to utilize power tools. 

Tom Moroz is the current steward, trustee, and nonprofit coordinator for Stonehedge Gardens.  Tom has been connected with the Stonehedge vision since he was a teenager and was a close friend of both of the original founders. He has studied permaculture design with Scott Mann of the Permaculture Podcast and Alexis Campbell of Horn Farm Center as well as with other talented practitioners. He has extensive experience in both the non-profit and for-profit sectors, most recently working as the head of regional finance for the Open Society Foundation, a large international human rights foundation. 

Hyperion Çacaztin Yvaire is an Atakapa Ishak and Sea Kréyòl father, Field Cosmologist, sovereign poet, and kinmaker. His sculptural and sonic work explores the afterlives and aftershocks of collision through investigating administrative, legislative, and wave phenomena. As a territorial researcher, he is interested in the matter resulting from the collision of materials, practices, and claims. When this matter is spatial and tangible, he refers to it as a ruin, when it is spatial and intangible, he refers to it as an afterlife. As a {forensic performance} artist, he is interested in what material effect is possible when a collective practice of alternative claim making is brought to a planetary scale. His practice is aimed at the eradication of Indigenous-settler divisions, White Supremacy, and Christian personhood’s grip over humans and nonhumans alike. He currently serves as the Community Conservation Co-Director at Northeast Farmers of Color, is an Artistic Associate at the Meaning Institute, is the founder of the Lak Yapùhne Center for Multispecies Jurisprudence, and co-founder of the Fyrthyr Institute for Unsettling Technologies. Hyperion holds an MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University.  www.ruinkraft.co

Sara Fishkin has been building with cob and other earthen materials since 2005, when she first learned from Michael G. Smith while living and working at the Emerald Earth Sanctuary in Boonville, CA. Since then she has built small cottages, garden sheds, benches and numerous bread/pizza ovens from scratch, while simultaneously teaching both children and adults the ancient practice of earthen construction. Sara is very passionate about teaching people how to optimally work with the creative process so that they can live prosperous and fulfilling lives in harmony with each other and with Nature. In addition to being a natural builder, she is a mindset and peak performance coach at Inner Vision Coaching, as well as a certified consultant with the Proctor Gallagher Institute.

Mary "Mare Bear" DiMeglio is founder and director of Mishana Yoga & Wellness in Philadelphia, and curator at Stonehedge Gardens Holistic Learning Center in PA. She shares Yoga, Dance, Meditation, Sound Healing, Goal Guidance Life & Wellness Coaching, Spiritual Counseling and Reiki Relaxation energy healing, with training in trauma-sensitive Yoga for Recovery. She is honored to guide you to wellness through the world's oldest spiritual healing practices.

Carly Brand is a John Barnes Myofascial Release enthusiast and practitioner currently serving in Philly, New Jersey and at Stonehedge Gardens. She also makes music and uses vocal toning for healing. She teaches and creates wizard events through @_magicbody_ . All of her offerings come through the understanding that we are multidimensional beings that are here to have a joyful, grounded experience of life, and she wishes to serve humanity toward this direction. 

Bri Barton is an artist and educator, committed to our planetary collective healing. Bri is a queer adopted witch and mama. They have been creating and teaching in educational gardens for over a decade.

They are the writer and illustrator of Everything Dies! A Coloring Book About Life! The book explores death cultures from around the world, grief, loss, soil biology, decomposition, and the legacies of social and environmental justice leaders. They are the co-creator of Water Ways, a large-scale drawing and role-play game that tells the story of our region’s fight against fracking. Bri was a lead artist on a 140’ mural installed in the Philadelphia Museum of Art as part of Philadelphia Assembled, an expansive project that told the stories of radical community building and active resistance throughout Philadelphia’s changing urban fabric. 

They also co-illustrated Aqua Marooned!, a free nature-based card game designed to build connections between players and the more-than-human world. 
Follow the adventure: @everybodycolors and everybodycolors.com

Kendra Hoffman is owner of Ladybug Earthcare, a permaculture-designed ecological landscaping business (complete bio forthcoming)

Registration gets you:

72 hours of course time + a full day of project presentations (10 full days)

5 weekends of camping in a glorious permaculture-designed green space (Friday night through Monday morning with Saturday the only necessary overnight)

Learning, moving, and doing with 10 visionary instructors

30 nourishing plant-based meals (3 each Saturday and 3 each Sunday)

Movement classes, hands-on demonstrations and improvements at Stonehedge, skillshares, dance parties, and more

Embodied Earth Movement T-shirt

Permaculture Design Certificate (upon successful project completion)

Live Q&A Sessions for Interested Students will be held on:

Monday, September 18th 6pm

Monday, October 9th 6pm

Monday, November 13th 6pm 

Monday, December 18th 6pm

Email edensporedesign@gmail.com to get the meeting information.

COURSE CURRICULUM OUTLINE

*Instructors and topics may shift

May 4 - Robyn Mello & Tom Moroz

Crystal Bowl Attunement

Land Acknowledgment

Introduction to Stonehedge Gardens

Ice Breaker

Community Agreements

History of Permaculture

Eco-Heroes

Permaculture Ethics

Permaculture Principles Part 1

Systems Thinking

(Counter)Culture Creation & Pleasure Activism

Systems Games

Energy & Emergy

After Dinner: Fire and Tea Ceremony

May 5 - Robyn Mello

Yoga 

Permaculture Principles Part 2

Pattern Languages

Macrofauna, Apex Predators, and Keystone Species

Climatic Zones, Climatic Shifts, and Bioregions

Local Food System and Ecosystems

Reading the Landscape

The Inner Landscape & Conflict Transformation

Sit Spotting

Microclimates

Observation/Sensory Expansion Games 

May 11 - Robyn Mello & Bri Barton

Water Blessing

Ecotones - Edge Strategies

Design Methods and Processes

Introduction of Final Design Project

Home Systems - From Consumer to Producer Households

Zone mapping

Sector and Vector Analysis

Mind-mapping

The Hydrologic Cycle and Shifting Rain Patterns

Water, Riparian Buffers, and Wetlands

Viktor Schauberger Project

Aquaculture

Chinampas

After Dinner: Grief Ceremony

May 12 - Robyn Mello & Sara Fishkin

Yoga 

Earthworks, Soils, And The Built Environment

Tour of Nearby Earthship and Earthship Greenhouse

Appropriate Technology

Cob Construction Project

Waste and Bioremediation

Stropharia Bed Inoculation

Fungi in the Ecosystem, Mushroom Cultivation, and Mycomedicines

May 18 - Robyn Mello & Hyperion Çacaztin Yvaire 

Mobility Routine for Hip, Pelvis, and Back 

Trees, Forests, Plants, and Cultivated Ecologies

Food Forests and Forest Gardening

Silvopasture

Swidden Agriculture

Biodynamics & Rudolph Steiner

More-Than-Human Personhood

Biodiversity and Mass Extinction

Access to Land - Land-based racism and speciesism

After Dinner: Open Mic and Skillshare Night

May 19 - Robyn Mello, Kelsey McWilliams, & Hyperion Çacaztin Yvaire

Yoga

Designing for Catastrophe

Homesteading projects for resilience

Soil Quaity & Soil Testing

Food Waste Composting

Composting Toilets

Large Scale Waste Systems and Bioremediation

Threats of Human-Accelerated Climate Change

Q&A Time for Design Project & Facilitator Feedback

Optional: Field Trip Hike to Hawk Mountain Sanctuary

May 25 - Robyn Mello & Monica Ibacache

Before Class: Plant Walk

Myofascial Release with Carly Brand

Urban Permaculture

Fitting Permaculture Inside Existing Systems

Design for Invisible Structures 

Social Permaculture

The Inner Landscape

Nourishment - Nutrition, Hydration, Herbs, and Toxins

Bioregional Herbalism

After Dinner: Permaculture-Themed Movie Night

May 26 - Robyn Mello & Monica Ibacache

Yoga

Broadscale Landscape Design

Alternative Economic Systems

Permaculture Institute of North America

Review of Design Tools and Rubric for Final Project

In-Class Time for Project Work and Facilitator Feedback

June 1 - Robyn Mello & Kendra Hoffman

TBD Morning Movement

Ecovillage and Landscape Design

Design Charette based on Stonehedge as Ecovillage

Running a Permaculture-based Business

The Local, National, and International Permaculture “Scene”

Community Networking

Evening Activity: Dance Party

June 2 - Robyn Mello

Yoga

Final Design Presentations

Presentation of Certificates