In Correspondence #31

Parisian conferences, Berlin spas and the Age of Mythic Powers

Dear friends,

Welcome to another edition of In Correspondence! I’ve had an exciting few weeks in Paris, Berlin and Portugal that I’m looking forward to sharing with you.

Several people have let me know recently how much they enjoy this newsletter. I plan to keep all the content free, but I’ve re-enabled paid subscriptions as a way you can express your appreciation 🙏

What I’ve been up to

Sunset over Cabo da Roca, Sintra Mountains, Portugal

• I was at Selgars Mill for Enchanted, and in Paris for Funding the Commons and Autonomous Ecologies. I particularly appreciated hearing from/meeting:

  • Chris Hardy from Embodied Relating

  • Jarrell James from the Internet Defense Alliance

  • Ethan Buchman from Informal Systems

  • Christopher Goes and Awa Sun Yin from Anoma

  • Stellar Magnet from Black Sky Society

  • Scott Moore on ‘The moral character of cryptographic work: revisiting values in the post-web’

  • Rachel Rose O’Leary on ‘Lunarpunk and memetic warfare’

  • Julio Linares on Circles Entropy

  • Pia Mancini from Open Collective

  • Andy Tudhope from Kernel

  • Felix Fritsch from Crypto Commons

  • Leen, Xavier and Jeremy from Regens Unite

  • Carl Cervone and Kevin Olsen from Gitcoin

  • David Casey from Funding the Commons

• I attended the Microsolidarity EU Summer Camp outside of Berlin where I had the pleasure of hanging out with Jonas, Jocelyn, Nicki, Diana, Rich, Nati, Bilal, Anne-Lorraine Selke and Joe Edelman from the School for Social Design, Nathan Vanderpool from Respond Network and many other fine folks

• I stuck around in Berlin and spent some time at Imago Space, the Lazy Lake co-living house, the Moos community dinner and Vabali Spa, and also saw the incredible Fanna-Fi-Allah Sufi ensemble. Thanks for your hospitality Caro, Claudia, Anja, Laurine, Andre, Alex R, Ann-Chris, Adam and Liza!

• I helped co-create the fabulous wedding of two of my best friends, Gaia and Ronan

• I sat a 6-day medicine retreat with Maestras Laura and Lila from Niwe Rao Xobo at Madreselva in the Sintra Mountains 🌿✨

Intro to AI

The next online course I’m teaching is Introduction to AI, a highly practical, four-week deep dive into the promise and pitfalls of artificial intelligence and machine learning 🦾 It’s 2 hours live per week + pre-reading and homework, from 28th Sep – 19th Oct. Read more and book your place

Plans for the future

• Medicine Festival, Aug 17-21. I’ll be co-facilitating a session on Medicine Circles, Medicine Festival's 216 new local groups spanning the UK. Come along to start the conversation on how you can be the medicine for the place you live, including clean-ups of rivers and green spaces, tree-planting, song circles, potluck meals and more

• The Eye of the Heart: Tracing a Path to Soulfulness at Gaia House, Sep 2-10

• Planet Local Summit, Bristol, 29 Sep - 1 Oct

• Hosting the next Futurecraft Residency at Brave Earth in Costa Rica, Dec 12-19 (sneak peek, dedicated email soon!)

A few other great events I unfortunately don’t think I’ll be able to make it to:

• Regens Unite London, Aug 25-26

• MetaFest, Croatia, Aug 11-24

• Crypto Commons Gathering, Austria, 26 Aug - 1 Sep

I also hope to read Blockchain Radicals: How Capitalism Ruined Crypto and How to Fix It and The Bigger Picture: How Psychedelics Can Help Us Make Sense of the World.

Knowledgegraph

Since last time, I’ve shared 22 items to my knowledgegraph. Some highlights:

• So You Want to Be a Sorcerer in the Age of Mythic Powers: another incredible episode of The Emerald, this time on AI

• Reforge the Ring #1: Accumulation, Extraction & Abstraction: Andrea Farias, Sam Hall and me on some of Daniel Schmachtenberger’s early work on a new economic system

• Discovering Harry Mack For The 1st Time: incredible freestyle rapper

• The Swimmers: based on a true story, from war-torn Syria to the 2016 Rio Olympics

• GPT in 60 Lines of NumPy

• 3 BS Traps when Working with Hipsters, Hippies and Hackers

• jokerace v3: welcome to the post-token future

Offerings from friends

Over £2m worth of tickets have now been sold via Dandelion, the platform for regenerative events and co-created gatherings, of which I’m the lead developer. Here are some of upcoming events there I can recommend:

• The Metamodern Academy: A Masterclass in Metamodernism: a new, graduate-level course on metamodernism with ‘Hanzi Freinacht’ (Emil Ejner Friis and Daniel Görtz)

Women’s work with True Nature:

• Awakening the Wild Woman: Summer Retreat 2023

• The Wild Woman's Way: A Week Initiation On Dartmoor

• EMPOWER: Women's Facilitation Training 2024

• Voice of the Womb Retreat: Cae Mabon

• Waking the Wild Ones Retreat: Dartmoor (all genders)

Men’s work with Conor Cregg:

• Magician, Warrior, Lover, King: Men's Weekend Retreat London

• The Call: Meaning, Purpose and Direction Weekend Men's Retreat

The Body Knows with Dani Tonks:

• The Body Knows: Taster Workshop

• The Body Knows: Weekend Workshop Bristol

• The Body Knows A Six Week Immersion: The Gift of Somatic Resource

Soulful Leadership with Bonny Tydeman:

• Soulful Leadership Workshop

• Soulful Leadership: 6 Week Coaching Journey

Adventures in Awareness:

• Zen Meditation Colive: A Month of Coliving By The Coast of Portugal

• Headless Way Retreat with Richard Lang Oct 26–30

• Bernardo Kastrup: With Reality in Mind

And the best of the rest:

• Slow Dating Bristol

• The Return: Rose Immersion & Mary Magdalene Pilgrimage

• Deep Dive into Nature and Self: A four week online journey through individual wholing and radical reconnection

With love,
Stephen

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