Eating Capitalism
Decay, detox, and making new soil in our lives
Your Wild Nature Doesn’t Want to Work
What This Is:
A series of workshops exploring the origins of capitalism and how you can make new soil out of the mess we find ourselves in
When: Wednesdays, 11am - 12:30pm PST, May 1st - 29th
Where: Online
Cost: $50 (no one will be turned away for lack of funds*)
To register: https://awildnewwork.as.me/eating-capitalism
Do you ever wonder how to navigate this world as someone who is forced to earn an income in order to live?
Maybe you have a steady job but are hungry for more ease and depth in your life, or you have a larger vision for yourself.
Maybe you do work that’s meaningful to you but you aren’t able to cover your living costs.
Perhaps you’re somewhere in-between, balancing your desire for autonomy and spaciousness with your need to earn a living.
It wasn’t always this complicated, and it won’t stay this way forever. Like an ancient fungus, we can be exactly where we are and transmute the toxicity of what’s here into something new.
Understand the History and Make New Freedom for Yourself
In this weekend workshop series, you’ll learn about the true story of capitalism’s emergence and how it has always been met with courageous resistance. Our wild natures know that having to exchange your life force for a wage so that you can buy what you need to live is wrong.
Over five sessions together, we’ll explore the incredible work of Silvia Federici, who wrote a book in 2004 titled Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation.
This book connects the emergence of capitalism in the 15th century to the destruction of common land, community, and the body, eventually leading to the European witch hunts and to colonization and the Atlantic slave trade.
We’ll explore this material in a gentle, embodied way as we metabolize this history and turn it into new vitality and energy for our modern lives.
“Capitalism was the counter-revolution that destroyed the possibilities that had emerged from the anti-feudal struggle–possibilities which, if realized, might have spared us the immense destruction of lives and the natural environment that has marked the advance of capitalist relations worldwide.”
How the Workshop Series Will Flow:
Our 90-minute sessions will be a blend of teaching from Federici’s material, grounding exercises, guided visualization, discussion, ritual, and space for questions. An outline of our time together is below:
Session 1: Introducing this work, creating the container for it, clarifying why we’re undertaking this material together
Session 2: Life before capitalism and what we wish to pull forward from it
Session 3: Rebel bodies, rebel communities, and how we can expand the care we put into ourselves and others
Session 4: Honoring those who were silenced in the advent of capitalism and discerning how we continue to silence ourselves
Session 5: Weaving a new, postcapitalist vision together that can reshape our day to day choices about work, money, and life
This is For You If:
You’re feeling tired of trying to optimize your working life and want to understand why this is so hard
You’re attempting to make a living and/or build a business in ways that align with your values of care and need some reinspiration
You want more freedom to live in a way that’s connected to your animist, folk, or pagan traditions from way back when
Who I Am:
Hi there! My name is Megan (she/her), and when I first read Caliban and the Witch years ago, it was so clarifying and empowering.
I felt inspired by all of the heretics, workers, indigenous people, and wise women who resisted the advent of capitalism, and I was emboldened to claim my connection to the natural world and honor my desire to live in a good way. As the descendant of Europeans who were both harmed by capitalism and then perpetrated more harm through capitalism, I attempt to hold the complexity of that in a grounded, visionary way.
This is an ongoing, imperfect process. I’m a very average person who is trying to balance my body’s needs, my children’s needs, my community’s needs, and my love for the animals, plants, elements and fungi of this world with the reality of having to earn a wage. This complicated balancing act is something I help others move through in my one on one work, on my podcast, in my weekly newsletter, in my classes, and now, I hope, in this weekend workshop series.
“Magic was also an obstacle to the rationalization of the work process, and a threat to the establishment of the principle of individual responsibility. Above all, magic seemed a form of refusal of work, of insubordination, and an instrument of grassroots resistance to power. The world has to be ‘disenchanted’ in order to be dominated.”
Series Details:
When: 11am - 12:30pm PST on Wednesdays in May
Session 1: Wednesday, May 1st, 11am - 12:30pm PST
Session 2: Wednesday, May 8th, 11am - 12:30pm PST
Session 3: Wednesday, May 15th, 11am - 12:30pm PST
Session 4: Wednesday, May 22nd, 11am - 12:30pm PST
Session 5: Wednesday, May 29th, 11am - 12:30pm PST
Where: Online via Zoom
Cost: $50 (no one will be turned away for lack of funds*)
To register: https://awildnewwork.as.me/eating-capitalism
To access the book, Caliban and the Witch: you can purchase it here, download a free PDF of it here, or look for it in your local library. If reading isn’t really your thing, I encourage you to listen to the book via a site like Audible, or check out an excellent podcast series called The Book on Fire, which summarizes the book and includes commentary from the hosts.
*if you can’t afford the registration cost, please don’t fret! You can simply sign up using one of the coupon codes on the scheduling page. If you’d still like to contribute something that’s not monetary, I’d be honored if you shared this workshop with your community so that others who are interested might sign up.
Other Things to Know:
A note about the term “women” in this book: Published in 2004, this book is limited in its exploration of queer experiences and focuses primarily on those who identified as women or who were categorized as women by those in power. We know that rigid gender binaries imposed by the dominant religion in Europe at the time (Catholicism) were necessary in order for capitalism to gain a foothold, and I will do my best in this workshop series to help expand our view and be inclusive of all gender expressions and identities.
You don’t have to read the book to benefit from the sessions. While I highly recommend the book or the exploration of it on The Book on Fire podcast, you’ll still be oriented to the material in our sessions and then invited to work with it in your own way.
You don’t have to attend every live session. Sessions will be recorded, and you can attend as many as you’d like to.
This material is heavy at times, and this section of history can be quite gruesome. I encourage you to honor your nervous system and take care of yourself by either not attending or by setting up lots of care throughout the weekend. While I won’t be available to provide individualized support, I will approach our sessions gently and plan to include spaces to ground and orient ourselves.
Refunds and cancellations: You’re entitled to a full refund so long as you cancel your registration prior to the first session on Wednesday, May 1st. Refunds won’t be granted after then, as I will already have started delivering the materials.