Eleusis Project

Category: Communities (forming)

Vision statement

We are a community dedicated to thriving in life through the integration of traditional wisdom and innovative practices. Our values are centered around outreach, education, and the growth of body, mind and spirit. We nurture the mysteries of life through creativity rooted in the context of ecological, social and spiritual evolution.

Inspiration

Eleusis was the site of the Eleusinian mysteries, the secret initiation ritual that was celebrated regularly for over two thousand years until the fourth century A.D.

The Eleusis Project has as its mission the reempowerment of ritual and the rediscovery of ancient techniques for living in harmony with the Earth.

Goals

To provide a space for spiritual retreat, vision quests, a healing center, and wilderness sanctuary.

To foster interdisciplinary research and development in such fields as human potential, consciousness, clean energy technologies, and sustainable futures.

To disseminate this research to the public through the Internet, film and new media projects, festivals, fairs and performances.

To design architectual systems that are aesthetically exquisite, energy-efficient, and environmentally sound.

To provide fertile ground for cross-disciplinary and exploratory work in visual, musical, new media and experiential art.

To offer artists, musicians, writers and performers a setting of great natural beauty where they can generate new work and stage events.

Community

Imagine living in a beautiful nature preserve with like-minded friends. Instead of fighting traffic and spending 10 hours in front of a computer screen, you could spend a few hours working on a computer project, a few hours planting trees, a few hours in celebration playing, dancing or appreciating music. This weekend a circus might perform, or there may be a play, conference, fair or ritual.

We wish to create an oasis of peace, harmony and healing for those who need it, living as we do in an increasingly challenging world. This community will be a link in a chain of such communities all around the world.

The Bay Area is at the forefront of creativity and technology. Despite that, the alternative community of cultural creatives have almost no place to gather. There is a notable lack of affordable space in northern California for festivals, dance celebrations and performances.The artists, computer and multimedia wizards, event producers, musicians, and performers on the cutting-edge of technology and awareness need an incubator where they can develop new work and exchange ideas across cultures and professional disciplines.

Every year, a group of artists and urban planners move to the deserted playa of Nevada and create the festival called Burning Man. In only 6 months they are able to build Black Rock City completely from scratch: a thriving community with a newspaper, radio station, a café and over 20,000 citizens. People dedicate enormous amounts of time and money to build this temporary installation. Many of these talented builders want to create something new -- a green and sustainable city.