VITAL CYCLES 2023
Our Signature Permaculture Design & Human Ecology Course
Our Vital Cycles Permaculture Design & Human Ecology course offers an integrative perspective along with practical skills for creating regenerative designs for your soul and the soil you tend
Become Part of a Community! Join our Vital Cycles 2024 Cohort!
In 2024 we will be introducing a new rhythm! Stay tuned for more info and dates coming soon! Can’t wait? Connect with us at [email protected].
The Vital Cycles Permaculture Design Course (PDC) is like no other! This internationally recognized course deepens your understanding of self, place & planet.
Vital Cycles offers a broadened, deepened approach to the traditional Permaculture Curriculum, designed to encompass a multiplicity of regenerative design patterns and practices. Our course format includes material on and integration of Human Ecology, the exploration of how our human bodies and consciousness reflect the natural world. We highlight emergent and less well-known authors, researchers and project planners working in varied facets of human and planetary health and healing. Our cohorts are small (maximum 25) which facilitates an intimate group with time for folks to share, connect and learn from each other, as well as physical space and opportunity for gaining practical hands-on skills.
Assess, design & tend integrated systems for rehydrating, revegetating & re-habitating our homes & communities; feed microbes, wildlife & yourself. Step into awe, slow down, create a wild vision for a future you want to be part of. Start where you are – join us for this deep journey over 10, 2-day weekends from February to November 2023, amidst the rolling hills of Watsonville, CA.
Class sessions will take place one weekend per month in Watsonville, California. Saturdays 9am – 7pm, and Sundays 9am – 5pm. Each weekend expect a deep weaving together of cycle restoration and healing through hands-on practice, singing, potluck, fire, and time to connect with yourself, the land, the critters and other humans.
We keep each cohort to 25 humans, so join early.
Want to find out more? Email us at [email protected] to set up a time to connect, get to know us and our approach to Permaculture, Human Ecology, and Regenerative Design.
Come to our next weekend, “Fruitful Harvest” September 23-24 where we will be joined by our friend and natural builder extraordinaire Jill Kunishiga to learn about cob and natural building, as well as designing for resilience, ancestors, seeds, and more!
Sign-up HERE for this or any of our other individual weekends. See below for more information.
VITAL CYCLES 2023 – Course Outline
BREAKING GROUND – February 25-26, 2023
breath, ecotones & edges, principles & patterns, design science and stories, alchemical mandala, invisible structures, climate
BREATHING SEEDS – March 18-19, 2023
soil, seeds, nourishment, microbiomes, microbes, inoculants, compost strategies, fertility, biodynamics intro, soil building practices, intro to riverscape restoration
RADICAL ROOTS – April 22-23, 2023
sleep, water, earthworks, rainwater roof catchment, swales and berms, riparian planting for restoration
EMERGENCE – May 20-21, 2023
movement, agroforestry, trees, plant guilds, awe, botany and pollination
EXPANSION – June 24-25, 2023
pollinators, personal energy flow, bioremediation, grey(t!) water design
EXHALE! – July 14-16 at Venture Retreat Center, Pescadero
Group campout and skill sharing with with Vital Cycles class, family and alumni!
FULL FLOWER – August 26-27, 2023
creativity, regenerative economics, urban permaculture, energy
FRUITFUL HARVEST – September 23-24, 2023
connection, ancestors, design for resilience, animals, land access and policy
CYCLE PROPAGATION – October 21-22, 2023
healing, homesteading, fermentation, food as medicine, seed saving
WILD VISIONS – November 4-5, 2023
design project presentations, regenerative practitioners panel, permaculture networks & pathways, graduation & going forth
TESTIMONIALS
“Anne and Lydia have been my guides on a journey to a deeper relationship with the extraordinary beauty and complexity of the earth. They are wonderful, warm, gifted teachers and create a great learning environment. I send everyone I know to their classes.”
“Vital Cycles has transformed the way I see the world around me! Mind you, I felt I knew a lot about the environment and self care – and yet, after taking Vital Cycles I absorbed a way of seeing and living well with interconnectedness that I have used daily ever since! I think it is no accident that so much of what was taught stayed with me; Anne and Lydia’s skill at teaching complex material to living, interesting human beings is bar none; I was deeply touched by the way they met everyone right where they were at. Taking their class was one of the best self-care choices I’ve made, it’s still taking care of me two years later! Lately I’ve been really into what I learned about the water cycle and how my back yard fits in! Greywater reuse is happening!”
“I could not be more grateful to have had the opportunity to participate in the Vital Cycle’s Signature Permaculture Design & Human Ecology Course. The course brought such joy and depth to my year. The journey of the course is very intentional and helped me move through cycles of learning, reflecting, and connecting in such an authentic and easeful way. The course material was consistently fresh, interesting, inspiring, and helpful both personally as well as professionally. And Lydia and Anne are such a gift to be around, their knowledge is awe-inspiring and their enthusiasm contagious. I wish for all to have the container of the course in their life to learn and grow this year and every year!”
What makes Vital Cycles PDC unique
- We offer a broadened and deepened approach to the traditional Permaculture Curriculum that encompasses a multiplicity of regenerative design patterns and practices
- Spacious course format that integrates and includes material on Human Ecology, the exploration of how our human bodies and consciousness reflect the natural world
- Emphasis on ancient and emergent authors, thought-leaders, researchers and project planners working towards human and planetary health and regeneration
- Small intimate class size (max 25)
- Time for folks to share, connect and learn from each other. Singing, poetry and artistic expression is encouraged!
- Physical space and opportunity for gaining practical hands-on skills
- Start creating personal and planetary resilience with practical tools you can start using from our first day together.
- All this, in the company of humans, plants, and other beings that will inspire and bring on your laughter!
PDC TUITION AND REGISTRATION
This is a PINA recognized 72 hour Permaculture Design Course (PDC) and includes over 40 additional hours dedicated to materials and practice on Human Ecology through Vital Life Skills.
Sliding Scale tuition for this 20-day certificate program is $2295 – $1495
Register here for more information about upcoming workshops, introductory session or the complete Vital Cycles program. You can also contact Anne and Lydia directly at [email protected] or (831) 288-2090
ABOUT ANNE & LYDIA
Vital Cycles is an education and design partnership between Anne Friewald and Lydia Neilsen in Santa Cruz, CA, focused on engaging with and understanding ourselves as nature and how we can enact practices and functional systems towards planetary and personal regeneration.
They bring together extensive backgrounds in community health and permaculture education and activism. Their deep curiosity about the interconnectivity of the planet and her people inspires an integration of the health of the land and the health of the individual through their teaching. Anne and Lydia bring a positive action-based perspective that highlights skills, practices and resources necessary for growth, creativity, and vitality in person and place.
Anne Freiwald, MPH: Community health and earth activist, permaculture educator and regenerative life and landscape designer, with 29+ years focusing on human ecology & community resilience.
Lydia Neilsen: PINA certified permaculture educator, landscape and habitat designer, specializing in water cycle restoration and passionate polyculture.
In addition to this signature course, Anne and Lydia also offer regenerative landscape design consultations as well as custom educational courses. Contact [email protected] for more information.
QUESTIONS
We are happy to set up a time to meet and discuss our program.
Contact us at [email protected] or 831-288-2090
How do we intentionally design our lives and landscapes in balance with natural and human cycles to create thriving selves, families, and communities in a vibrant, natural world?
