Design Pathways

Sharing
 Permaculture
Diploma Design
Principles Deck
 Pretro

Permaculture shares a collection of

regenerative teachings from the worlds
wisdom traditions and modern
understandings of how nature is
designed in order to be a regenerative
system.

This design is one of 10 being done for

a Permaculture Diploma through the
Permaculture Association UK under the
wise mentorship of Looby Macnamara.
Combining photos and text in a simple
way, I hope to inspire others to create
simple yet beautiful designs for their
projects as well and Get Creative.

The art and design done for

thepermaculture principles design deck
comes from a collaboration with
amazing artist and visionary designer
Unity Life Avatar whose gave new life to
my text. Deep thanks also to Charlie
Durrant and Imasel Moreno for the
permaculture photography and to Ben
Tour for the urban style sketches.

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 Dedication

This Diploma is dedicated to one of the

most profound and uplifting humans,
teachers, guides and souls that I have
been able to meet in this life: Looby
Macnamara. Her wisdom and creativity
bring inspiration and passion for the
Work. I have been vastly upgraded by
her brilliant articulation of permaculture
design and visionary exploration of
social permaculture. Her work has taken
me and countless others into a whole
new territory and provided us with
evolution, transformation and healing.
This is the second shap in a 10 design
journey as a Diploma Apprentice and I
intentionally dedicate any merit
generated by this work to the benefit
and liberation of all beings. All my work
and designs are freely available at
printable resolution at
www.gaiacraft.com

Learn more about Looby Macnamara at

www.loobymacnamara.com
www.thrivingways.org

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 Pattern Level
Design

Looby Macnamara has taught me that :

We often start with details, like what to

plant in June. Then we may move to
patterns and begin to notice when to
plant things or when things need
harvesting. To teach, we move from the
details of our experience to the patterns
and processes that will help other
people to learn a something that they to
can apply in a variety of circumstances.
The Diploma Designs can take ones
awareness to a detail level with specific
information about a project or site. It can
also reflect on the process in order to
take it to a pattern level. This yields a
meta view, a holistic sense of the design
patterns at play. From this perspective
we can gain insights into positive
patterns to repeat or anchor in, and
negative patterns to redesign.

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Source Inspiration

Inspired by the permaculture pioneer Robin Clayfield, innovating the creative edge of permaculture since the
beginning. She has taken learning from a lecture format and brought it into the multiple intelligences with
dynamic, interactive and fun activities, games and rituals. Her work anticipates the future of education. To learn
more and access her many teaching tools including deck that was a source inspiration for me, go to
www.dynamicgroups.com.au Another core mentor and inspirator was David Holmgren whose teachings, classes
and Melliodora site had a profound influence on me and my process. He too created a permaculture principles
deck which precedeed my own and which inspired me about the possibilities of creating learning tools. See his
foundation articulation of 12 of the core principles www.holmgren.com.au www.permacultureprinciples.com
Source Contribution

Ultra gratitude and profound acknowledgement goes to Unity Life Avatar whose creative prowess, incredible
artistic talent and visionary design skills have given my principles text an amazing dimension as part of a card
deck. She has done all the art and design for the first three editions of the card decks and been a primary
support for the projects development over the past 13 years. You can see more of her brilliant work here
www.unitylifeavatar.ca. She is also working on creating her own permaculture principles deck which can be
seen here www.permacultureprincipleseducation.ca
 Intro

“Know when you are too old to stop

teaching” - Bill Mollison

For 13 years I have been travelling and

collecting core concepts direct from key
masters and maestras of the moment in
order to build my permaculture toolkit.
My goal is to articulate these principles,
strategies, design methods, attitudes,
and ethics with my own words and get
images to accompany them so they can
be artfully shared as an accessible set
of cards freely available on the web.

By organizing the concepts and using

my own words to express them, I am
learning them alot deeper.

I want to share these freely with people

now and in the future, helping
permaculture leave a legacy of learning.

My goal is to Make the Least Change

for the Greatest Effect.

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Seed
Essence

The design plan is to assemble and

organize all the key core concepts from
the different PDC’s, advanced courses
and trainings I have taken from elders
including Bill Mollison, David Holmgren,
Robin Clayfield, Rowe Morrow, Toby
Hemenway, Scott Pittman, Larry
Santoyo, Patricia Michael, Geoff
Lawton, Robyn Francis, Michael Becker,
Tom Ward, Jude Hobbs, Starhawk,
Mark Lakeman, Looby Macnamara and
Geoff Lawton.

My hope is to get figurative images or

icons that match each bit of text for all
the concepts I have collected. I also
hope to get some translated editions
that honor different languages groups.

A goal is to figure out how to share

these widely through the permaculture
movement without having funds to print
and mail or pay for advertising. My hope
is that the free downloable cards will be
reproduced to support learners and
teachers around the world.

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 Design

I have a selection of different principles

cards already made and a host of
concepts not yet articulated or matched
with art and design. Building a global
network of people interested in this
work, I have been collecting email
addresses and sharing new cards as
they are released. I have also been
working on social media to be able to
share and promote this project
throughout the planetary permaculture
community. On my travels I have
learned core concepts from many elders
while also sharing different editions of
the project with them to get guidance
and feedback. Rosemary Morrow has
given great mentorship on this project
when I had the chance to study with her
in Australia, Wales and Greece. Her
advice has been to keep it clear, simple
and accessible. I received mentorship
on the project from Robin Clayfield,
Looby Macnamara, Bill Mollison, Toby
Hemenway, Larry Santoyo, Michael
Becker and numerous other teachers.

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 Play Testing

Taking many permaculture courses,

teacher trainings and advanced
programs have enabled me to play test
the principles cards in a wide variety of
formats with feedback and input from an
array of permaculture pioneers and
elders. Experimenting with curriculum
development and seeing what ideas
other people had for interacting with the
card set was fulfilling. I also learned that
principles have different successes
when used in different cultures. The UK
permaculture community seemed to get
a big laugh out of the one of the original
principles of Bill Mollison ‘Stay out of the
Bush’. The brilliant ‘Shoot the Hostage’
principle from Larry Santoyo also has
raised some eye brows too.. I have
learned from Larry how important it is as
a teacher to be extraordinary, radical
and funny. Class can be such a bore
and a few controversial statements,
jokes or cussing appropriately placed,
can really pirk up the class :)

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Needs and
Functions

The project needs art and design as this

is beyond my capability to provide.
Money is needed to hire a designer to
make art and do layout. Time is also
needed to work with the designer in this
process to make it collaborative and fit
with my vision.

The principles cards need given life by

being known about so teachers and
students can download it or order copies
from the printer and use it in their
practice. The world is so saturated with
media, its tricky to imagine how to
promote this globally in a way that will
reach the most people.

The cards function to communicate core

concepts of permaculture in a Clear and
Accessible way. By adding images and
design elements, the cards are more
engaging and fun to play with. The card
deck can function to help people learn
permaculture as well as teach it. By
sharing all the core concepts together in
one place, the deck can also support
people who are in a design process or
doing consulting by reminding them of
principles that may support the creativity
and diversity of their designs.

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 Development

The first independent PDC I taught in

2004 began this project that has
travelled over the last 13 years. I did a
trade with visionary artist and designer,
Unity Life Avatar, to illustrate my
essentialized articulation of
permaculture core concepts into super
short ‘right sized bites’. With her
amazing skill set together we were able
to to create meaningful and appropriate
figurative icons and images to represent
some core concepts. This project was
completed with 64 of the core concepts.
It was tough because it took so much
time to do this, but what an amazing
trade for teaching my first independently
taught PDC! These were shared at
festivals, conferences and gatherings of
all kinds including classes and
workshops over the years to come.

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Many years later in 2010, intent on
upgrading what I began to call the
Permaculture Principles Design Deck, I
was able to work again with Unity Life
Avatar who took the art and design to
the next level using photographs from
another participant in my permaculture
programs: the talented ‘contemplative
photographer’ Roland Rickus. Over a
two year period the project reached 101
cards in size and I began to work on a
French and Spanish edition which were
never fully completed.

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 In 2016, excited to integrate many more
core concepts that I had collected in my
studies, particularlya PDC with Toby
Hemenway in Portland, a PDC in
Greece with Rosemary Morrow, a
teacher training with Larry Santoyo and
and Advanced courses with Looby
Macnamara, Robin Clayfield and
Starhawk, I began again with the
project. Unity Life Avatar was hired to
do the design and suggested starting
the project anew instead of continuing
where we left off. I agreed and began to
take on advanced students in my APDC
program to raise funds to hire her to do
art and design. This time we would
simplify the process and not use
photographs but have single designs for
each suite of the cards. We also were
able to reuse some of the brilliant icons
that were developed in previous
editions. We were able to do the
strategic and attitudinal principles but
did not complete the core design
principles, methods and ethics.

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23
 Essence

The third edition of the Permaculture

Principles Design Deck has been
released in a series of 8 card booster
packs.

The first of these was a collaboration

with the epic level awesome Looby
Macnamara to express her brilliantly
profound and inspiring guild of core
permaculture concepts.

This essentializes permaculture into 7

lenses or evolutionary frameworks
through which permaculture design
looks at relationships. It is a short and
concise articulation of the patterns found
within the principles.

This set has been a great vehicle for the

project to fulfill its mandate to reach
more people of different language
groups and share these uniquely
creative, free open source learning and
teaching tools with a wider ring of the
World Community.

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 Global Accessibility

Developing a new level of tech literacy

and thanks to the support and teaching
of Unity Life Avatar, I was able to input
translations of the text into other
languages into the card files. In this way
some of the cards in this project have
been able to be shared freely with
people of languages other than English
including French, Spanish, Portuguese,
Greek, Hebrew, Serbian, Icelandic,
Italian, and Romanian.

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27
Exploring Edges

The new principles deck principles gleaned from the epic level permaculture teacher and designer, Larry
Santoyo.

His visionary intelligence has been a profound boost and upgrade to my permaculture practice and life in
general. I am super excited to take a Teacher Training and full PDC with Larry Santoyo PDC in 2017 and expect
to glean and share many more of his unique permaculture principles, design methods and core concepts.

I could not ask for a more inspiring or meta mentor for my graduate work.
 Design Framework

Exploring the new edge of

permaculture, I want to share strategies
for approaching the challenges and
opportunities of modern life. At the
heart of this toolkit is Permaculture
Extraordinaire and World Adventurer
Michael Becker’s 4 four-step plan for
success :
“1. Start small – we know we’re going
to make mistakes at first, make small
ones! Making mistakes is called
learning, be careful of your scale when
beginning.
2. Obtain a yield – people need to feel
like they are getting somewhere and
that the work is moving in the right
direction. Yield can be excitement or
information or salad greens, but design
for short-term yield.
3. Celebrate with community – Find
your tribe! This is hard work as it is, and
not a path to walk solo. Find your
support team and schedule celebration
amongst the reality of the troubles we
face.
4. Get back to work! – There is still a
tremendous amount of work to get
done.”

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Start Small

This is such a large project that it has

been hard to grasp how to approach it.

The three design iterations all took a

huge amount of time and resources to
accomplish.

Using this brilliant design method I am

trying to break it up into small chunks.
In 2016 the project was released as a
series of 8 card booster sets every
month or two. This enabled the costs of
time, money and energy to be spread
out. Each design session and booster
set was funded by taking on a new
student into my 2 1/2 year advanced
program. Breaking up the project into
small achievable steps was a great
evolution.

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Obtain a Yield

Each time a new booster set was

produced, I was able to print copies out
to send to some key mentors as well as
the production team. I also got copies
of the cards to put on a display in my
classroom, and set to use in my
teaching practice.

During this time I have been steadily

upgrading my PDC curriculum and
joyed to have some of my text
illustrated with such wonderful symbols.
The cards have given my curriculum
some creative and interactive methods,
dynamic games and activities to do with
the students when exploring these core
concepts instead of just lecturing about
them.

It so empowering to have been able to

hold these cards in my hand after
spending the time producing them.

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Celebrate

Using a template provided by Unity Life

Avatar, I was able to put the cards into
a promotional format showing the front
and back together for easy sharing on
social media. With these graphic tools I
have been able to share the cards
individually on Facebook and Instagram
so allow them to be seen and enjoyed
by people around the planet. This
strategy has helped to promote the
project and give it a wider audience,
more dynamic functioning and make
sense of the large investment needed to
produce it.

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Get Back to Work

Its been an amazing to move forward

with this touchstone of my graduate
work. Being able to have my text
illustrated so wonderfully definitely has
motivated me to do the writing. Also
having a yield that I can hold and see,
as well as something that I can share
with others has really helped to
motivate me to continue on with this
enormous task.

The project is on hiatus now as I have

run out of the money and time to
continue it. In this light, although there
is lots for me to still do, the expansion
part of project is on pause. Part of this
diploma design is figuring out how I can
revive and continue this work on my
own, or with a designer and artist, so I
can complete the free open source
sharing of my writing in a beautifully
designed format.

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Ethics

The principles cards have been an

expression of the ethics on a number of
levels.

They are Caring for the Earth by

helping to communicate nature’s design
principles and instill a respect and love
for planet Earth that will inspire caring
and compassion by more of its citizens.

The cards are Caring for People by

providing free access to the core toolkit
of permaculture. People can download
the files freely and print them using their
own home printer.

The project is also Caring for the

Future by helping to share a legacy of
learning and teaching from many of the
Permaculture Pioneers. Others may
take inspiration from this project and
make up their own creative expressions
of permaculture that perhaps also will be
shared freely.

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Observation
Principle

One of the original principles from Bill

Mollison was about the potential of
every system to have theoretically
Unlimited Yields.

So much investment has gone into this

project but it keeps giving and giving in
meaningful ways. Seeing how this
project may continue to offer many
different yields for many different
people, I am thinking creatively about
new ways to promote the project to a
wider audience, and allow it to ‘do its
work’ out in the world.

This project is dedicated to the benefit of

all beings, and my dearest hope is that it
is able to help people learn, grow and
evolve.

I will continue to consider this principle

as I too evaluate ways I can bring in
enough of a yield to complete this
project in some form.

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Germinate
Anchor Points

The Design Web is a brilliant new

permaculture design methodology
developed by Looby Macnamara with
feedback from countless teachers and
leaders of the permaculture movement.
This is the focus of her game changing
book People and Permaculture and a
core study of my Diploma so will be
included in all 10 of my Designs.

The Design web contains 12

archetypes, or anchor points, which can
be thought of as stages, sections, or
steps in a design process. These anchor
points are like nodes in a web. Together
this holistic design method can support
people to create clear, coherent and
connected designs based in careful
integrated observations and intentional
reflections.

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 Vision

Allow yourself to dream and create

goals.

What is my ideal?

I would so love to complete a 222 card

deck expressing all the ethics, design
methods, principles, strategies and
attitudes that I have discovered in my
world travels and leearning journeys
with elders of the permaculture
movement. This would serve as a core
support for my teaching practice with
intro days, permaculture design
courses, advanced programs and
diploma mentorship. Eventually, when I
am much older, I will run teacher
trainings which will also benefit from
having this whole system. This will leave
a legacy of learning and benefit many
people, serving as one of my primary
contributions to the permaculture
movement.

46
Helps

Identify the things that are going to help.

What are my motivations for changing?

I am on a quest to make a meaningful

contribution to the lives of others. I have
found that the creation of media which is
shared freely through on the web helps
me to leave a regenerative footprint on
the planet. My feeling of gratitude and
awe for the life that I have been given,
helps motivate me to face challenges
and strive to create an uplifting
articulation of core concepts of
permaculture with this ongoing card
project.

The helps for this project include

expanding the network of teachers and
media creators who get cards in
exchange for helping share and promote
them. The cards seek to get out and
fulfill their purpose, doing work in the
world by initiating people into
permaculture and strengthening peoples
permaculture practice.

47
 Limits

Identify the things that might block your

path or keep it small or slow it down.

What are my limiting factors?

Over the years, many many thousands

of dollars and countless hours have
been invested in this project. Now, 13
years in, I am still holding space for
debts of money and time that I have
accumulated. This year I have run out of
time and money to invest but I so want
to continue and see this project into
completion.

My limiting belief is that I won’t attract

enough students this year to manifest
funds to invest in this project. I also
have a limiting belief that I won’t be able
to create time to do this project, and that
it will take many more years to
complete.

Since I am not an artist or a designer,

the biggest limit to this project is my
wish to have this text illustrated with
awesome art and laid out into a
professional design.

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Patterns

Identify the helpful and unhelpful

patterns.

What are the current patterns of

thinking, behaving and interacting?

The cards have been used by me most

often in my classes as a way to
stimulate design dialogues between
students. Usually I ask about the
application to natural and social systems
and have the students report back in,
not by reading the card, but by
describing the principle and how it may
be applied.

So far I have been sharing about the

cards on Facebook and in person at my
classes as well as mailing to some of
my mentors around the world.

Last year I took on advanced students,

giving them a 2 1/2 year program for
$222 which I invested into the artful
design of the cards. I now have a class
of people to support for two years to pay
off the work that was done last year on
this project. In this way the project has
created a pattern of debt for me.

49
 Principles

Look through the lens of each one.

If I look through the lens of each

principle, what do I see?

The principles present possibilities for

overcoming any challenges, obstacles
or limits. They represent the
regenerative intelligence and power of
the natural world to care for itself and
create increasing amounts of life,
diversity and resilient stability.

Knowing that the principles upon which

this project is focussed, can provide the
wisdom to drive this project forward is
an interesting meta level to the process.

Since the project is on a hiatus right

now, this book is part of a manifestation
rite to figure out how to move forward
beyond the limiting factors.

The lens I am looking through here is

with the principle Everything is
Solvable.

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Ideas

Gather inspirations.

What creative, adventurous, wild and

wacky ideas do I have?

As a core part of my graduate work, I

imagine this card set is like a creative
version of the book that most graduate
students write. Currently it is just self
published and the files given away
freely. Perhaps one of the permaculture
publishing houses that produces books
and magazines will take this on and
republish it, sharing it much wider
though the world community.

Perhaps the cards could be put into an

online digital ap that allow one at
random to flash up each day as a kind
of oracular permaculture learning
system.

It would be fantastic to manifest the

funds, not only to complete this project,
but to be able to print and mail them to
all the elders whose work helped create
the source curriculum included within it.

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 Integration

Bring it all together.

How can I integrate the information

already gathered?

This report is a huge help in gaining an

integrative perspective of all the pieces
and parts and how they work together.
By putting together this report I am able
to organize the design into an insightful
and sharable form.

The Design Web is a unique tool for

structuring integrative mapping and
design exercises. This report, matching
images with some text, is a simple form
of the potential of the design web.
Expressing this process through
interactive group works will be another
level. At a the FiT Training in September
on the border of Wales, I will have the
opportunity to learn more about the
design web as well as expand this
‘integration’ phase of the card deck
design by sharing it with some epic
creative thinkers.

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Action

Make a plan for getting things done.

What am I going to do and when?

I will continue to make the different

language editions for the 7 Ways to
Think Differently Booster set. The text is
short so its able to get translated freely
and is an easy read for people even on
their smart phones. The 8 cards are light
weight so very inexpensive to print and
mail internationally. These have served
as a wonderful vehicle for the project.

Proceeding to get the rest of the

principles written up and put into a
design with art will be a focus of my
efforts. With the basic skills I have and
the array of art and photos from past
projects, I may be able to get a single
simple design thats inexpensive to
create and easy for me to just pop in
text and images. It wont be as
impressive as the current set but still be
clean and professional.

Considering writing an article about

Permaculture Principles for global
magazines to help promote this may
also be a good call to action.

53
 Momentum

How to keep things going.

How am I going to maintain momentum?

The is the 14th year of the project and it

so far it has happened in small bursts
resulting in incomplete sets then being
put on hiatus and rebirthed with a fresh
new design later.

This diploma design is inspiring some

momentum and the drive to continue
this project, despite current limits of time
and money, and find a way to get the
rest of the principles expressed in fully
designed format.

Using the format of Michael Becker’s

design method from earlier in this report;
by doing the project in small booster
sets of cards which can be printed to
obtain a yield and shared in printed
and web format with others to celebrate
the completion of the small step. The
organization of the project into small,
achievable steps rewards my work at
every turn and instills a passion for
permaculture and momentum to keep
moving forward with this offering to the
permaculture movement

54
Appreciation

Focus on things to be thankful for.

What can I appreciate about myself?

I am joyed to have so many cards

already created and shared with many.
Its been such a great way to learn more
about the principles and a wonderful
support for my teaching practice.

I appreciate to have found a way to give

back in gratitude for all I have
experienced and learned these past 15
years with permaculture. Its also
profoundly meaningful that I am able to
share what I have learned with others
and not just keep the experience as
memories in my own head.

I appreciate Robin Clayfield, David

Holmgren, Larry Santoyo, Looby
Macnamara and countless others who
served as a core inspiration for this
journey. I also appreciate Unity Life
Avatar whose amazing art and design
has helped to illustrate my text and give
it a creative and visionary context.

55
 Reflection

Evaluate progress.

What is the current situation?

I am at a turning point in the project. The

cards produced in 2016 are all
completed and available online as free
open source files as well as easily
sharable web files.

I would like to continue to completion,

however I have mounting debts and
some large expenses to take 3 courses
this year as the climax to my graduate
work.

I am about half way through the project

and am seeking ways to make it happen
without a dependence upon money, time
or having to hire of an artist or designer
to continue this work. I am also
considering how to raise the money to
hire an artist or designer to continue this
work, perhaps in a low impact way from
a distance.

56
Pause

Incorporate times of rest and

rejuvenation.

How can I recharge my batteries?

Life is happening at light speed and a

great balancing act. I have 7 trips to
New York this year on top of trips to St.
Louis, Little Fort, Hawaii and the UK to
study permaculture. I am trying to keep
up with paid work in the gardens and
cleaning to address minor and
increasing debts in a number of
directions. I am also offering many free
introduction to permaculture days all
over my bioregion, running three
permaculture design courses and
promoting three more to start this year.

My garden work is restful in some ways.

I also take time to watch some media
before bed some nights to give me time
to relax. The trip to the UK in the late
summer will include some time visiting
sacred sites and provide a great place
to pause and recharge.

57
Harvest
Design Principle

This project is close to my heart and

represents my higher intentions to
contribute something freely to the
permaculture movement. In alignment
with the principle Invest in Things You
Believe In, I am putting my time and
income that comes from my teaching
advanced permaculture programs into
this.

I believe in permaculture and in my path

as a permaculture teacher. It may not
have supported me much financially so
far in the field, however I love this path
and will continue to believe in
permaculture’s ability to be sustainable
in the long term.

The permaculture principles deck

encourages people to invest in their life
and land, health and relationships and
into learning permaculture design as a
method to live in deeper alignment with
their values.

59
 Integration Anchor
Point

The principles deck functions to help me

learn permaculture, support my teaching
practice with permaculture, and offer
something practical and free to
contribute in a meaningful way to the
permaculture community for the gift of
this path.

Since the core limits to this project

include time and money, perhaps there
is a way I can Make the Least Change
for the Greatest Effect offering courses
that focus on sharing these
permaculture principles and ways to use
the toolkit that can give me resources so
can have more time to develop the
project and funds to pay for design and
printing.

Another possibility is to find a way to

Obtain a Yield by printing many sets of
the cards and sell them for profit at my
permaculture courses or permaculture
events to help bring in the resources
needed to take the project to the next
level.

60
Golden Key

The creation of this folio is inspiring me

to be more trusting of the process and
have faith that with hard work will come
a yield. Here the principle Spend More
to Get More applies. I know I can find
more creative ways to generate and
share time and money with this project
so it can reach its completion and fulfill
its highest function.

Assembling sets that can be set up as

displays, micro galleries, or simple
decks for people to play with may be
one of the best ways to promote the
project ‘heart to heart and hand to
hand’. Building the network of
permaculture allies that I mail cards to
as they come out is also a part of the
principle Build Connections, a
touchstone to my process with the ability
to unlock the global future this project
has the potential to manifest.

61
 Unlocks

Through this process I have unlocked

countless yields of understanding. The
guidance and brilliant design
methodologies from Looby Macnamara
have merged with these permaculture
principle to help me understand the
natural world and my own nature in a
more holistic and symbiotic way.

Perhaps the principles cards will help

me to network, connecting with other
teachers, organizations and institutes
who may have future opportunities for
me or the card project.

My hope is these cards will join forces

with all the other new edge
permaculture media and educational
projects around the world to uplift
permaculture from the margins to the
mainstream.

Truly the Potential Yields of any

project are Unlimited

62
Golden Pattern

I have been reflecting more on Michael

Becker’s pattern; start small, obtain a
yield, celebrate and get back to work
and how it’s a super beneficial way to
organize any project or design process.

I have tried to Embrace Mistakes,

seeing them as opportunities for
learning and that each new success has
only been possible because of
everything that has come before.
Working to embrace my process with
this project and trust that it will come
together into completion, I am pouring
more creativity and dedication into the
process.

Perhaps with promotion and networking

this project may simply attract in the
resources, including the people, which
could make the next level possible in a
more easeful and effortless way than
previously imagined.

63
 Design Evaluation

This was the second design using

Looby Macnamara’s Design Web and
my whole world is opened up. It will be
really interesting to replicate a remixed
version of this presentation pattern and
apply it to my gardens, teaching practice
and non-profit arts organization.

The design has been a success already

by helping me learn more about how to
design. I have benefited from
understanding more about how to
organize the permaculture design
process into a series of stages or steps,
each of which gets special attention and
intention. This includes reflecting in a
holistic way through the creation of the
design, seeing how these stages and
steps inter-relate, inform each other and
create guilds of information to guide the
process forward in an ever evolving way.

It will be interesting to revise and revisit

this section later in the Diploma process
when I can reflect on what I have
learned and how successful this design
will have been in supporting the
manifestation of an upgraded next level
for the permaculture principles design
deck.

64
Reflection Principle

The principles were used on many

levels in this design. I am understanding
more and more, as Michael Becker and
Looby Macnamara have been teaching
me, that the principles work together
and form Guilds. These working
relationships enhance their functioning
and allow them to play meta functions
and glean meta yields that neither
principle could accomplish on its own.

When I reflect on this permaculture

principles design deck in the uniquely
creative way provided by this Diploma
process, it is both inspiring and
grounding, giving me the ability to Be
Realistic while still dreaming large.

65
 Assessment

It was rewarding to articulate a summary

and survey of the principles deck as a
‘design territory’, get feedback from with
key Permaculture Pioneer mentors on
the project, and apply design methods.

The design analysis is ongoing and I am

sure there are more conclusions I will
glean when I come back to this later in
the Diploma program.

Designs have maintenance costs and

remind me of the principle Work
Creates Work. I will proceed with an
awareness of what resources I have, in
order to complete this core project of the
Diploma while also balancing the costs
of taking classes. I will also figure in the
time involved in maintaining my other
lives including gardening job, family
care, down time, creative projects and
large amount of volunteer work. This
design is helping me figure out how to
do it all!

66
Future

“When we design, we are always

building for future floods, future fires,
future droughts, and planting a tree a
few inches tall that will be future forest
giants, throw future shadows. Future
populations will need future soils and
forest resources, shelter, security. So
somebody needs to range ahead in
time, scout out the next century. We are
not daydreaming. We are time scouts.
Finding places now for what will be
needed then.”
- Bill Mollison, Travels in Dreams

This project, and the design process it

is supporting, have become travels
through time, connecting the past,
present and future. It’s been fantastic to
see the succession process thus far
and now looking for places to fasttrack
succession and bring this project into
completion as part of the momentum
generated by this evolutionary
Permaculture Diploma process.

67
68
 Outro

Lately the principles project felt like it

was on hiatus but doing this design has
given it new life and a realistic action
plan.

The challenges of time and money still

remain but the motivation to integrate
these into my life design is stronger than
ever.

My long term goal over the next 1-2

years will be to find a way to publish the
rest of the principles text I have next to
beautiful art and design, if even in a
simple form.

The next achievable steps include

promoting the project deeper and writing
the the text for the remaining principles.

I recommend readers of this design

consider the Diploma process and see
how valuable it is for my practice.

Bows also go to Larry Santoyo and Bill

Mollison for lifting me up onto the
permaculture path.

Endless gratitude to Looby Macnamara,

a true visionary and gifted mentor.

70
Bio

Delvin Solkinson is community gardener and

plant poet dedicated to bringing creativity to the
permaculture movement by creating free open
source learning and teaching tools. He has
completed a PDC, Diploma and Masters Degree
with Bill Mollison and has done advanced
courses with Rosemary Morrow, Toby
Hemenway, Larry Santoyo, Looby Macnamara,
David Holmgren, Geoff Lawton, Patricia
Michael, Robyn Francis, the Bullock Brothers,
Tom Ward, Scott Pittman, Robin Wheeler,
Robina McCurdy, Starhawk, Robin Clayfield,
Michael Becker and Jude Hobbs. He is an
accredited teacher through the Permaculture
Research Institute (Australia) the Permaculture
Academy (UK) and a the Permaculture Institute
(USA) through which he is also a Field Mentor.
He completed a PDC in Portland with Toby
Hemenway, one in Greece with Rosemary
Morrow and a second Diploma through the
Permaculture Institute. Currently he is doing
graduate work under the mentorship of Larry
Santoyo. Delvin is profoundly grateful to be
doing a Diploma Apprenticeship with Looby
Macnamara. www.gaiacraft.com

71
 Credits

Visionary Permaculture Photography

Profound Gratitude to the Visionary Dana

Wilson for the stunning photographs from
Greece, UK and the Bullocks Homestead on
Orcas Island
Dana Wilson
www.mortalcoilmedia.com :
Dedication, Pattern Level Design, Design,
Start Small, Observation Principle, Play
Testing, Germinate

Awesome thanks goes to Charlie Durrant

whose photos of an entire year long PDC
have helped inspire my path and media :
Charlie Durrant
www.regenerativedevelopments.ca
Pretro, Intro, Essence, Needs and
Functions, Design Framework, Obtain a
Yield, Celebrate, Get Back to Work, Ethics,
Vision, Patterns, Principles, Integration and
Action, Appreciation, Reflection, Harvests,
Design Evaluation, Assessment, Credits

72
Visionary Permaculture Art

Epic level gratitude to Unity Life Avatar for

the art and design on all the Permaculture
Principles Cards shown in this folio. This
foundational work is a treasure and
shimmering reflection of our time together.
Unity Life Avatar
www.unitylifeavatar.ca
www.permacultureprincipleseducation.ca

Ultra gratitude to Ben Tour for the sweet

urban permaculture elements sketches.
Ben Tour
www.thetourshow.com

Ever thanks to Xavi and Phong for the

Gaiacraft and Dew Logo
Xavi
www.xavidesigns.com
Phong
www.phong.com

73
Deepest respect and thanks to the epic level permaculture jedi Larry Santoyo whose insights, wisdom and
incredible intelligence have kept me on the permaculture path.
Larry Santoyo
www.permacultureacademy.com www.earthflowpermaculture.wordpress.com

Endless gratitude goes to the profoundly inspiring Looby Macnamara for her mentorship, guidance and direction.
I am so evolved and upgraded from this Diploma Process and my time with this divine human.
Looby Macnamara
www.loobymacnamara.com www.thrivingways.org