About Us
“To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete”
Buckminster Fuller
An Tearman, the place of sanctuary, is at the heart of a community spreading across Scotland and beyond. We are dedicated to empowering people to take charge of their own lives, creating viable and wise alternatives to our current system of social organisation.
Our aim is to develop another way of life, replacing growth and greed with a life-sustaining model, networking with others to develop a system that promotes health, happiness and abundance for ourselves and for future generations. We are developing a Wisdom Economy as a means of managing resources in a way that respects the earth's ability to renew itself in order to continue to provide the abundance that supports our rich tapestry of life. Guided by permaculture principles of Earth Care – People Care – Fair Share, we are exploring ways of exchange that support our needs on several levels, from basic needs of sustenance, through interpersonal needs of community, to nurturing individual creativity and self-actualisation. Whilst the exchange of money is not always necessary to meet these needs, we recognise that money can also be a useful tool of exchange, and indeed a necessity in our current social system.
Right now we are faced with problems without precedent, beyond the capability of existing institutions to resolve. For many years global scientific consensus has warned that continuous destruction of the natural world, rapidly depletion of resources, and a fossil-fuel driven economic system, that depends on endless growth and consumption, can only lead to a total collapse of social, economic and environmental systems. For the most part, humanity’s response has been collective denial. Why? Because, when faced with change but no roadmap, we tend to cling ever tighter to what we know, even when we know it no longer serves us.
An Tearman seeks to solve this impasse by constructing a credible new economic model from scratch: one which acknowledges and addresses the destructive dynamics of the current system, inspires co-operation and collective wisdom at a local level, promotes social learning supported by a wide range of expertise and works with, rather than against, natural systems. This is a serious vision that will weave together the practical knowledge and skills developed over millennia with the best of modern insight and technology to develop the richest learning experience and the highest quality of life.
We gather here to learn, to share, to develop creative solutions to current challenges and to work towards bringing these solutions into being. Our focus is on healing through re-balancing, our goal a society that recognises our interdependence, puts people before profit, children at the forefront, empowering all to reach beyond dependency to their full potential.
"Be the change you wish to see in the world"
Mahatma Gandhi
