ZEGG, Center for Experimental Culture Design...

The Campus at ZEGG, Bad Belzig, Germany

 “Love is the home of the divine on earth and the quality that makes us human beings. We want to create ways of living that integrate these sources in a conscious and positive way. Consciousness in Love’ is in this sense, an all-encompassing cultural work to heal these sources of our life. A peaceful culture is rooted in solidarity among men and women.”

This is how the ZEGG community introduce themselves on their website. I had the privilege of holding my first tantric weekend retreat in Germany at ZEGG last month. It was my first visit to ZEGG, a community that fascinated me from the moment I first heard about them some years ago. A number of my German friends have attended seminars there or been on their annual Summer Camp. Some had even spent time there on extended working retreats.

Situated on 15 hectares of light woodland in in the Rosa-Luxemburg-Strasse in Bad Belzig, a beautiful country town about a 2 hour drive south-west of Berlin, ZEGG - Centre for Experimental Culture Design, been going for 20 years now, so one could say that the original vision has been tried and tested. They understand themselves as an international community and conference centre whose aim it is to develop and implement practical models for a socially and ecologically sustainable way of living.

Today ZEGG is an 100 strong tantric community committed to developing new ways of harmonious living in a community. The process of finding this harmonious living in a community, necessitates the individual members being on a journey with each other. It takes dedicated individuals to make this work and am not surprised that men and women who are drawn to drawn to Tantra, who are willing to confront their conditioning about relationships, sexuality and life in general, are the ones who have the dedication it takes to do this.

“Our community is a living organism, 
constantly changing according to the needs of its members.

 Our visitors too are a part of this organism.”

Over the years, ZEGG has experimented with different ways of organisation and management, today the community is organised into independent working areas: the kitchen, conference business, children's house, garden and site crew. For financial decisions with a wider impact, there is a management circle embedded within a sociocratic structure. The management circle is made up of two representatives from each of the working areas who meet regularly to reflect on current developments and prepare for strategic decisions.

The project has been developed into a totally self-sufficient ecological system. One hectare of farmland has been dedicated to an organic garden from which almost all the food including fruit and herbs for dining room is grown. For heating and hot water needs, they have environmentally friendly wood chip- and log-fired heating plants and several co-generation (CHP) plants. Electricity is produced by a photovoltaic system on the roofs different buildings and waste water is treated in their own constructed wetland sewage treatment plant.

For me, the most interesting part is their tantric understanding of sexuality and relationships. They also experiment with and develop different ways of relating on a personal level. Thus different forms of relationships are being lived in the community, with various interest groups supporting individuals in the process.

“Many people see the issues of love and sexuality as exclusively personal affairs and try to solve them in private or within the framework of therapy. We see love as a political issue because social and cultural changes are needed for love to grow.”

Needless to say, many of the seminars held there are based on or around tantric and spiritual themes.  There is even a dedicated oil room, consisting of a very large square 60 cm high oil bath for the special hot oil ritual that certain schools offer. In fact, while I was facilitating there, I was delighted to meet the lovely Mara Fricke-Wirth of the Secret of Tantra school, who was facilitating a woman's retreat for this ritual.  

Before I tell you what my favourite discovery was, I’d like to share with you the extent of this community which is essentially a village.


The ZEGG village layout

Centrally situated is a large round paved area called the Campus, used for gatherings of all kinds as well as being the gathering place in case of a fire.  There is also a fire pond which can be swam in, a volleyball court, an almost Olympic sized swimming pool which has been turned into a huge eco pool and there are wonderful walks in the wood where there is also a stream.

The three storied guesthouse, called the Hotel, houses the dining hall and kitchen as well as accommodation for seminar participants and visitors. Further accommodation is available for campers or in two dormitories connected to a couple of the seminar rooms.

An extremely large central building called the Uni (short for university) houses a variety of seminar rooms and the Aula, a beautiful hall with a semi-circle stage for concerts and other large indoor events. The Children’s House is a separate building close by. Businesses in the ZEGG village, include an internet shop, a bicycle rental shop and a gift shop selling self-made ceramics, textiles, jewellery and other gifts. A variety of workshops and various commercial premises, a media and office centre and two art studios are also situated in various buildings.

Of course there are a variety of small and larger houses for the community members, most are in the form of collectives or communes with a number of people sharing a house.
 

The Village Square

One of the sweetest places is the village square with its quaint village pup, open till late, where I enjoyed a drink and a chat at the end of my working day which was usually around 11pm. Of course it being summer, I was able to sit outside sharing the space with a community of mosquitoes. Thank goodness for mosquito repellent!


Being a spiritual tantric community, there are also special outdoor places for rituals: a beautiful Place of Gratefulness with a “ceiling” of colourful ribbons tied from tree to tree, and a special space in the woods for women and another for men.

So you may now ask, is there still more? Yes, my favourite discovery, making this community really special to me, is the fact that they have three separate and individual “love houses” for the sole purpose of love-making. There is a notice on the door saying discussions need to stay outside, the space is solely for lovemaking. Sexuality is an integral part of life. That is the way it should be. And because it is sacred, it requires a dedicated space. Something I teach the couples I work with. The bedroom is for going to sleep. If you don't have the space, you need to transform your bedroom into a sacred space for your lovemaking is what I preach! It does make a difference. 

Mulched fields

The aims of these people are high. They still have many plans, for example to extend the Uni building, creating more living space for community members for example. Will they achieve it all? Probably, going by what they have achieved already. So far 3million EUROS has been put into the project. They have a very large support community from all over the world who come on working visits, helping to keep the grounds in shape, or supporting the harvesting and cooking, cleaning and other practical things.

The entry process for those wanting to become community members, is quite stringent. One has to show dedication and commitment over quite a period of time in order to be taken in as a permanent member. It starts off with working visits to get to know the community and ends with a 6-week course on community living and organisation. I have a number of friends who would consider joining, but the logistics of organising the time away from work to do all that is quite daunting. As for me, I really like having my own place and navigating my life on my own, but I can't deny that it does attract and inspire me and I certainly will go back and I hope to be able to facilitate there again. It is such a wonderful place to be.

 “Community is a lifestyle in which the healing of love can take place in a stable surrounding.”

On paper things sound so much easier that they really are. I do not doubt for a minute that this takes very hard on the part of the individuals that make up this community. It requires a huge portion of willingness to be on such an intensive journey with each other. It takes dedicated individuals to carry through such a vision. I don’t wonder for one moment that this would be the result of people on the path of Tantra.

Zen garden at the Uni

I was only there for not quite three days and really busy facilitating my Tantric Fire Couple’s Retreat, however the special atmosphere and energy of the place is impossible to avoid. Just spending time
in the atmosphere of these people who have worked so hard at creating a sustainable version of their collective and individual dreams, is rewarding…and healing. It just goes to show what we
humans are capable of when we try, when we give our best trying to create something new and different.

I will be writing more about  my time and the facilitating I did last month in Berlin. I met such interesting people and had wonderful experiences with some of the fabulous tantric community there. Watch this space.

I close this article with one of the most beautiful pieces of text I found on the ZEGG website. Take it to heart, it is true, it does work exactly like that. This is how I transformed after being initiated into Tantra. I underline every word below...and add to that: 

Not only will we have more to give, we will also have more joy to experience and share.

Namaste
Leandra

"If communication about love is cultivated, love can
become free of the fear of abandonment, lies and pretence.
The bigger the social and mental/spiritual context for love is,
the more we are able to handle difficulties in a playful and unattached way,
the less we depend on this one moment of fulfilment,
the less we tend to accusations,
the more truth we will risk, and
the more power and love we have to give to the world.”

ZEGG Website: http://www.zegg.de/en/ (English & German)
Secret of Tantra  - School of Integral Tantra: http://www.secret-of-tantra.de/ (German only)