Laying the Foundation for
Inner & Outer Architecture
Sometimes I struggle writing about what we do because what I’m trying to evoke is the ineffable, which one cannot describe with words. Similar to the Tao, when you speak of it—you’ve already lost it. However, this energetic underpinning that we all sense is actually the source of how we architect our inner and outer worlds.
In entelechy’s latest collaboration, I worked with Veronica Anderson of Studio Sanadora to build a unique process for community master planning that architects the emotional and energetic planes as well as the physical. As an architect schooled in Geodesign and having explored substantially the emotional plane, Veronica’s ability to manifest the physical was a natural complement to our ability at entelechy to work with the invisible. We took this process to Diamante Luz, a collective in Tinamaste, Costa Rica, that is creating a regenerative community but is still defining themselves as a family and what they will create on the land.
One of the caveats of creating together is that oftentimes we ignore the energy between us. We are actually not operating in the present moment. Slights, wrongdoings, and resentments from the past cause us to project fear into the future. Instead of grounding ourselves in the present, we create from those time horizons. This leads to long, drawn-out debates on where to put a fence when really what we’re arguing about is the resentment we feel for the time the other person didn’t show up. We are trapped in devitalizing conversations and cycles. This process sought to interrupt this pattern by working with the past’s influence on the future and grounding us in an energetically clean present moment.
The Journey
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![Group of people sitting cross-legged indoors in a circle on natural dirt floor, engaged in discussion or presentation. The space is open with green tropical plants outside, covered with a makeshift roof. A whiteboard with writing and hanging decorations are visible, along with bags and personal items.]()
1. Catharsis
We started by going through a process of Catharsis, which wiped the energetic slate clean by clearing stuck energy from the past. Community members took inventory of their own behaviors from a place of radical responsibility and made amends where they were needed to themselves and others. We connected to our Inner Children to see where we were injured and become familiar with how that energy was influencing our present. By emptying our vessels of these blockages, we were ready to receive the messages the land wanted to share.
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![Group of people outdoors in a lush, hilly, and cloudy landscape. One person stands shirtless, holding a paper, with others sitting and standing around him, some with paper or in casual attire, in a natural setting with green plants and dry grass.]()
2. Creation
In creation, we continued to work with our energies to build a clear, common purpose. We dove into specificity and emerged seeing how beautiful it was when we worked by leveraging our and the land’s unique potential into an intentional creative process. We saw that Diamante Luz’s potential goals are to be a role model of authentic imperfection, a landing place to nest and expand potential, and to create enduring benefit for the land and the humans that pass through.
We then deeply sensed the land herself —walking with contemplative footsteps across her, we felt into what she was calling for in each of her contours and crevices. We shaped ourselves and our dreams to her, rather than shaping her to us. We ultimately co-created an interdependent map of invisible and visible architecture that contained the aim of the community to remember oneness.
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![People gathered around a small outdoor fire in a rustic, open-air space with bamboo and fabric roofing. Some individuals are squatting or standing, observing or participating in an activity involving papers or objects on the ground. The scene appears casual and relaxed, with various items and supplies on tables and shelves around the area.]()
3. Detachment
As they say:
Want to make God laugh? Tell it your plans.
Like any good living system, the nature of nature is constant change. Humans try to grab for something stable by making processes and tools that allow us to feel safe—if something happens in the future we will have a rule or protocol that will protect us. However, we often forget the emotional basis for all emergent action: trust. When we trust ourselves, each other, and the Universe itself, we know that we will be able to figure out the best next step at the moment. In detachment, we focused on letting go of our lofty plans, knowing that they are our dreams in this present moment and they will change. We instead focused on creating practices that build trust on multiple levels. We cannot trust others if we don’t first trust ourselves, and to trust ourselves we must know we will prioritize and take care of ourselves. Each person created a daily practice of self-care and self-connection that allowed them to remain more open to others. Then, we created a practice that acted as a continued container of trust-building for the community. Through having this space, there is less of a need for future planning as they will have the emotional foundation to make decisions at the moment as a functional family.
By letting go, we let in.
When we let in, we operate from a place of connection and oneness where we are guided to align to what the greater whole needs from us. When we actualize ourselves and our ideas in alignment with that quiet knowing we are on the path. Where the path goes, we don’t know. What the path is? We don’t know, but it feels really good to be on it - and that’s all we need to know.