Sirens.

Kristina Bennett Interviews Willi Paul from Planetshifter.com Magazine & permaculturexchange.com

You started PlanetShifter.com Magazine in 2009 as a platform for articles about innovation, creativity, and the green sector.  Did your work on that magazine significantly affect your life and career path?

Most assuredly. Exploring the future – and collaborating with others on strategic solutions – soon became my full-time focus as corporations found others to wash their windows.   With over 475 interviews with thought leaders and 1970 posts, Planetshifter.com Magazine is now an unbelievable database. Sharing; teaching; reaching. My “career path” is more like a boiling caldron, welding together many Light forces including my new alchemies, new myths, permaculture and our global Spirit.

Will you talk about your own training and direct experience with Permaculture?

One of the ways that I shared the experience of my PDC is through my Network of sites, blogs and listservs. You can find these journal entries on Planetshifter.com Magazine. Another to couple learning and sharing was to interview my teachers and dig a bit deeper into their experiences and perspectives. Thirdly, I founded the San Mateo Country Permaculture Guild with a great crew and have enjoyed a Hillsborough, CA training site called Skyfarm Permaculture Project. I hope to take a follow-up course for teachers soon. Permaculture schools are very good at basic instruction but get failing marks when assisting their graduates with employment. This is why I created permaculturexchange.com.

You recently launched a new website, PermaculturExchange.com, a new sustainability-focused employment & innovation model, which uses permaculture principles.  How can permaculture principles support job creation within more localized, interdependent communities?

The vision for permaculturexchange.com is to build a community that works together to create employment. The Pacific Northwest and the Bay Area are the first two service sectors as we test the model. The site is a profile-driven model that goes beyond land design to include business plans and inventions, non-profit development and web design / writing. permaculturexchange.com is projected to be both online and sited in a neighborhood building (or two!) in 2012. We are a new example of a localized, interdependent community of teachers, business owners and interns supporting job and experience creation for our members. There is no charge to join.

I’m from Oregon so I love that this website targets the Pacific NW, as well as the Bay Area.  Why did you decide to broaden your target area farther up the coast?

I love to create synergies! Having lived in Oregon, I am familiar with its landscape and cultures. Many permaculture events draw folks from all three regions so getting the word out is less daunting than a national launch. I want to get a solid footing with a model that is not “download a job announcement and upload your resume.” I see shared hearts and minds in our members and hope to attract a total of 200 passionate jobbers by 12/31/11.

What kind of RFPs are coming in to the site so far?  If I’m a local sustainability-minded business or project innovator, why should I submit an RFP?  And from the other side of the equation, as someone looking to contribute my skills locally, how can the site benefit me?

The RFP process is a second way that members can find employment. The most direct way is to search the other members and create friendships, business connections and work. The RFPs to date are good examples of jobs that many members can do and connect to our permaculture mandate. The RFP is a transitional tool that many owners and consultants use monthly to get contract work done. Obviously we need many more! Your skills are terrific and just need an proactive strategy to find members with projects to design and implement.

Will you talk about your work with the Open Myth Source (openmythsource.com) and how the idea of the Oneness of all and creating new cultural mythologies supports sustainable communities and work systems?  Do you see this site having a complementary relationship to PermacultureExchange.com?

My work in mythology has astounding me. This was never my focus until PlanetShifter.com Magazine evolved. We need new stories and songs for what I call the Permaculture Age. Raising consciousness is both a personal and global process and the new alchemies that I have developed support this lift. So, it follows that with new inspirations and tools, new human beings can emerge. Sustainable work is a big driver in our Transition to a better Planet.

Now I’d like to ask you a few questions to help readers know a little more about you personally. What motivates you most in doing the work that you do?

I strive to learn and live in the future. Rob Joyce and run a free open studio session twice a month called community alchemy. While this may sound implausible, this is where I am most comfortable. Anticipation, visioning, dreaming – testing – are the norm.  where we vision with each others projects.

How would people you’ve worked with describe your work style or personality?

I can be incredibly impatient, often super-charged and emotional. I have far too high expectations, starting with myself, for most.

Was there a particular role model you found inspiring in your personal and career development?

Most recently, my PDC teacher Kevin Bayuk. He continues to be available to help me grow.

What accomplishment are you most proud of so far and why?

Planetshifter.com Magazine. It is the best of all my work, my ever evolving home base – cosmic quilt – and a road map for anyone seeking to walk the future with me.

What is one cultural change or innovation that you see happening right now that gives you hope?

That’s a tough one. In the near term the democratic revolutions in the Middle East really inspire. In the long run, the promise of the Permaculture Age.

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Willi Bio -

As a green certified business and sustainability consultant, Willi Paul launched PlanetShifter.com Magazine on Earth Day 2009 to build a database of interviews and articles about innovation, sustainability, and the mystic arts. His bliss renewed in 2011 when he designed openmythsource.com to produce new mythic stories with modern alchemies. His work now focuses on what is sacred is to us, the community building power of permaculture and the transformative energy in the new alchemy (ex: soil, sound, digital) and global mythologies. His online sacredpermaculture.net course is also offered to all at no charge.

Please see his cutting-edge article at the Joseph Campbell Foundation and his pioneering videos on YouTube.

Willi earned his permaculture design certification in August 2011 at the Urban Permaculture Institute, SF. He is the founder of the Permaculture Guild – San Mateo County.

Please experience his Mythic Map: A Transition Tool for Creating Culture, Chrysalis Songs for The Permaculture Age: Transmuting the New Myth, Alchemy, Symbols & Sacred, his collection of new mythology and Mythic Mandate: online workshop & documentary.

Mr. Paul launched his new job creation & innovation portal called the PermaculturExchange.com in late October 2011.

Contact –

Willi Paul

willipaul1 at gmail.com

Planetshifter.com Magazine
permaculturexchange.com
openmythsource.com
sacredpermaculture.net
communityalchemy.com
san mateo county permaculture guild + training videos

About the interviewer: