đ Shedding Wisely
transmutations and incantations at tail of the snake
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Weâre celebrating 10 years of the DIY PhD, 6 years of School for the Ecocene, and 3 years of our Cooperative! This solstice loveletter, like our recent community forum, highlights accomplishments and reflections after Year Two and shares the transformations yet to come.
If you have any funds to nurture our school with as you close out the year, a tax-deductible gift will offer us a deep breathe as we retool for the formations ahead.
We have been boot-strapping, or surviving as a school thanks to some generous community donations and countless hours of sweat equity from our worker-owners. This past year offered our co-op invaluable mentorship and understanding of whatâs not working with a turning toward emergent and sustainable form. Whatâs clear is that we thrive in reciprocity with our community and will continue fine-tuning our model until we reach a sustainable flow. Sapito and ink have been dormant this season, and Quetza is coming on as our new Ecocene Coordinator this Spring!
We are entering a research phase for transitioning from a worker-cooperative into a producer-cooperative, which functions as a professional organization. In a farmerâs producer model, for example, autonomous farmers come together to share tools, resources, and market to customers.
Weâve realized that rather than working as administrators, we are called to focus on our art, offerings, and Earth spirit callings. We want to collectivize our community and share responsibilities more. We know the Earthworkers in our network have the skills and knowledge our world needs at this time. Our co-op is still here to uplift, amplify, and resource this work.
We connected in two virtual community gatherings this Fall that tethered us to our extended mycelium. We had 100 people attend our 2025 Confluence, and 24 DIY PhDers participating in our School. Entering Year Three of the cooperative has us asking: what have we learned, what can we let go of, and how can we tune in deeper to meeting the needs of our community?
Our greatest source of joy is seeing our community members stepping into vibrant world-building careers, cocreating movements, and inspiring with their creative paths.
We see folks creating classes, writing books, opening to consulting gigs, blooming small businesses, linking with the land, and courageously stepping into connected leadership. Our eldersâ work has received grants and accolades, and our childrenâs communities are thriving.
Last week at our community forum with DIY PhD alumni, Olivia Chumacero, and worker-owners shared whatâs been on our hearts, whatâs felt heavy, and what seeds have been germinating in our lives. We had 18 folks attend from 8 cohorts!
Weâre shedding what we were, who we thought weâd be, and where we thought weâd go. We attune to the voices and power present. We are excited for the unfurling yet to come.
We will be conducting a DIY PhD survey in the Spring to better understand the current realities and needs of planetary scholars. We hope more community classes, creations, and offerings come through!
If you have time, skills, energy, excitement, and/or connections to resources to share, please reach out to us! We canât hold all this alone. Your unique node in the mycelium uplifts us all. Message us here or email us at hello@ecocene.school with your desire to stay connected.
There is excitement around shifting to a producerâs model, to focus on strengthening our collective economies, interpersonal connections, and creative world-building with planetary liberators in our network. We see your medicine and envision a world in which you are fully supported and resourced in your being, expressing your callings.
Love,
Sarita, Dongyi, Jo, Chayo & Quetza
đż Prosperity Portal
For Earthworkers seeking a self-guided course to uplift their energetic receptivity to abundance this Winter season, Prosperity Portal is now available for 55% off with six modules to uplift you in receiving the resources you need and deserve for your path.
Leyanne Oliveira and Sarita Doe guide you with videos, meditations, and somatic practices to reclaim sovereignty from capitalismâs scarcity over the meaning and channels of wealth in your life.
Propserity Portal is free and included for members (memberships start at $22/month, sliding scale). Otherwise itâs now available for $33, a one-time investment or broken into two payments to infuse your spirit, body, and economy with currents of abundance.
đ DIY PhD Alumni
Sarita is offering a DIY PhD Facilitator Training in 2026. This four-month course is for folks who have been through our DIY PhD Year One Program. Her intention is to decentralize the DIY PhD, offer a path of income-generation to DIY PhDers, and prepare them to the best of her ability to host their own in-person, hybrid, and/or virtual cohorts. It will begin Thursday Jan 15th, 2026 12noon-2pm PST and take place biweekly through May 7th.
For DIY PhDers wanting to continue their research or reconnect with their projects, our ongoing Dissertation Integration sessions will resume in January 2026. Sign up below and let us know when your availability will be. Dissertation Integration is free for members.
𫶠More offerings from Stewards
In the new year, please join us for an in-person community exploration and ritual inquiry in cross-cultural, cross-class, and cross-racial ancestral recovery, truth-telling, and collective repair. In this long weekend together, we will explore a holistic way of being with our ancestors and lineages, tending to the earth-cherishing traditions of our ancestors, the harm our ancestors endured, the harm our ancestors caused, and the ways our ancestors resisted and persisted along the way. Through story, song, ceremony, dreaming, and time on the land, we will reconnect with the folk traditions of our ancestors - stories of resistance, resilience, and relationship that predate colonial systems and can help us untangle the multiplicity of our identities.
In 2026 we're welcoming in a very firey, yang Year of the Horse. The year begins on February 17th, 2026 (Lunar New Year) and ends after the full moon on January 22nd, 2027. The calendar deepens into the relationships between moon cycles, corresponding organs according to Traditional Chinese Medicine, the 12 zodiac animals, and the 24 solar terms of the Chinese lunisolar, an agrarian time keeping system in which farmers kept track of planting and harvest times as well as celebrations.
âžď¸ Support for the Ecocene
If youâre in a position to give before the end of the year, please consider contributing a tax-deductible gift to our Zeffy! Weâve received a generous donation from Earth Angel Forest, and give many thanks to them and our Ecocene members for sustaining our fledging and emergent cooperative. Every donation makes a big impact on us continuing to nurture education for planetary liberation! Thank you for being here.
Collab with us via Ecocene Press
Are you Ecocene alumni or a member with a Substack? We are looking forward to sharing more on Substack as a cooperative and collective and would love to share your piece, art, and musings about your latest offering here.
Let us know if you would like to share any upcoming work within the Ecocene network by emailing us or messaging us in-platform: Chat with us!
 | A guest post by
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This piece really made me think about the nuanced evolution of cooperative structures and how essental "retooling" is for achieving true systems sustainability.