Schloss Glarisegg

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Since 3 days we are in the area around Schloss Glarisegg,
a community in an old castle nearby the lake of Konstanz.

When we left at Antonios (humanshope) place in Keswill
we knew that we would get a whole house (in exchange for helping the owner with his project) in Steckborn nearby Glarisegg from Sunday 19th on.

But in our decentralized organisation chaos we had made a date with Kathrin (a Glarisegg community member) to show us around the place on the 17th,
why we had to come 2 days earlier
and so there was another 2 nights to spent somewhere else than in the house...





We thought that it propably wouldn't be a problem to stay somewhere in Glarisegg for those 2 nights,
as it is such a huge area: really beautiful nature with the lake and a forest, several houses (like living houses, guest houses, seminary spaces) and a campside with tents, a yurt and a tipi...

But first answers we came across in "the community" (when asking if it would be possible to stay for low)
was that it would at least cost 10 Swiss Franks per person
just using the toilets and showers (even staying in an our tent/bus)
and the excuse "if you would have asked earlier maybe it would have been fine
but I cannot decide to let you stay without asking the community".

So we -dissapointedly- decided to spend the first 2 nights on the beach that belongs to the Glarisegg community
and felt a little bit strange among those rich "yuppie-hippies"
living in a big castle with own beach and not wanting to share with us poor idealistic travellers... ;-)

But when we came to talk to Kathrin about the project and community
we also learned to understand about the financial and commercial situation of Glarisegg (I will tell more later on)
and when we joined a celebration taking place in the yurt in the first evening
we saw that there still are lots of open, helpful people around there - and we were allowed to stay in the yurt in the end.

The community exists since 5 years and is based on 5 main ideas/projects:
a) an own school (GasserSchule, flow-pedagogy)
b) seminaries and guests
c) therapies
d) arts and culture (Kulturlabor) and
c) the community itself.

There is no common "religion" /... , but everybody can live however and believe whatever (s)he wants. Also, like Kathrin said, they are always trying new methods and structures of organisation.
(For such a young community it seems to be quite well organised anyhow... )

The community consists of around 30 members and some children, there are always lots of guests and guest workers around. Most of the people living there are around 40, there are only few young people and children there.
The community members meet 3 times a week to talk about organisational and emotional stuff, which is the main communication plattforms and keeps information circling.

Kathrin told us that there shouldn't be any destructive talks in the circles
and that people would try to talk only about their own feelings without accusing each other,
whereas Marianne Fischer of the Gasser school (who is not a community member any more)
told us that she stopped going to these circles
as she felt depressed about the way of communicating and complaining about each other in there and that it was too tiring for her and just taking too much energy.

Some of the community members rent workshops or seminary spaces within the community and work there, some work "outside".
The community is financed mostly by renting space out to guests. There is also a shareholding society to finance the place, in which people can invest their money directly in sustainible living and culture by supporting the community.

The people in Glarisegg are not self-sustaining, there isn't even a vegetable garden at the moment, but interacting and trading with local organic farmers.

It seems there are a lot of spiritual/"esoteric" people there and so are the workshops, seminaries and therapies offered there (e.g. schamanic healing, spiritual sexuality, Tai Chi, Tibetan Tantra, coaching in relationships, family therapies, contact improvisation, trance dance, ...)

To become a community member you have to live in Glarisegg for three months as a guest worker, which means you pay 15 Swiss Franks a day (including organic food) and work 5 hours for the community. After this time the community decides if you can stay longer, after half a year they decide if you can come to their circles/meetings.
After one year you have to start to invest into the community, which is 21.000 Swiss Franks within 3 years (500 Swiss Franks a month) - payable in work, goods that the community needs or in money. Plus you have to rent your room and any other rooms like workshops etc.

This prices and strict conditions are only understandable if you know that this beautiful peace of land with all the houses costed 3,3 million Swiss Franks to buy (which is actually cheap for the region!)
and that e.g. heating the old buildings (which is mostly not living space but guest and community space!) is 600 Swiss Franks a day!!

Even though deciding to move to this mega-project seems to be an expensive decision for live there is at the moment lots of change going on. Many new people are interested in becoming a community member and some of the people who started the project are moving out for different reasons...

Some more impressions and pictures in my mind:
People still seem to have time to talk while working...
people walk slowly...
people do Yoga at the beach...
many of them seem to be amazingly passionate with their work...
and they are open towards you if you are open as well...

To come to an end: in general Glarisegg seems to be a quiet and spiritual place,
that -in it's own quiet, slowly and spiritual way- brings inspiration, healing vibes and changes to the people of the regional area...
at least to those who can afford...

---Anja