A Transformative Learning Journey as a Relational Being

A perspective piece and check-in as I embark on becoming the Training and Development (HEaRT) Coordinator at Emerson College/Ashdown Garden School and the MA in Transformative Learning Ambassador.

Hello this is Joe, co-founder of the Institute of Relational Being. As I write these words as part of the Southern California Coastal Bioregion, it is the morning hours of Monday, the 23rd of February, the year 2026 (in the Gregorian Calendar system). The picture above is from Friday, at Chavez Ridge at Elysian Disc Golf Course, here in Los Angeles, California. If you’re curious about what disc golf even is, you can learn about it here. That is a Coyote in the picture above, we had a nice interaction on the first hole. I’ll share a video later in this post from that shared experience. Anyways, Friday was mighty potent, the whole week was to be fair, wasn’t it? Friday was the Saturn-Neptune conjunction for those of you who follow the astrological phenomenology of the cosmos, and then that last Sunday was the New Moon in Aquarius and a Solar Eclipse. Perhaps the vibrations and energies of your direct experiences have been noticeably different recently. Mine certainly have.

Back to the present, did you know there are currently 1,292 folks following this Substack, that is wonderful. Deep gratitude to you all. Almost daily more are following which is great, though admittedly this is an organic incoming stream that is not due to any particular feeding of the algorithms of late, far from it. There hasn’t been a post here or in any of the social spheres for a couple of months. I guess I mention this because it is nice to see that more people are still tuning in, or stumbling upon Relational Being and are perhaps merely curious as to what this multispecies collaborative exploration is all about.

Today’s words are coming as something of a check in, announcement, and continuation of the last post from late November (which invited collaboration for those interested in being a part of the future of the Institute of Relational Being).

You see, on the last day of February, I’ll be flying out of LAX and landing in London, which will be the 1st of March. That will be the day before I officially begin a new role as the Training and Development (HEaRT) Coordinator for Emerson College and Ashdown Garden School in Forest Row, East Sussex. This beautiful campus is just an hour train ride South of London. My role is through the Ruskin Mill Centre for Practice, and in addition to this role I’ll be working in a contractor position as an Ambassador of the MA in Transformative Learning. This new masters degree, which I will also be enrolled in, is the evolution of the Holistic Science masters degree that was born at Schumacher College. If you’re curious what this program was all about, there’s an excellent article by the alumnus, Daniel Christian Wahl called: Holistic Science: a participatory science of qualities that is well worth reading.

And if you have an hour and you’re curious to learn about this exciting new MA in Transformative Learning, above is a link to a conversation I recently had with Dr Troy Vine. Together we primarily explored the journey towards this fresh transformation of the Holistic Science degree. Troy Vine is a colleague and friend who, with the help of the Ruskin Mill Centre for Practice, has revived this important learning journey, though this time offered as a 3-year, part time masters program.

That makes me think of the above video, perhaps you’ve come across this recent talk by Indy Johar, Founder of Dark Matter Labs, which was titled Civilizational Optioneering. The talk is dense, even daunting in some of Indy’s complex language, though I felt it is a very important talk to take in, perhaps even worth giving it a couple of viewings. One of the many lines I jotted into my notes came from him expressing how placing learning as a means of coordination was vital in these uncertain times, and that “In a complex environment, learning opens up and expands the surface area of our ability to operate in complexity.” and that we need to ‘Focus on the challenges of mass multi-action coordination and innovation’ and concluding this segment by declaring that 21st century organizing is going to be rooted in learning. That in the future we will not place our importance on a CEO, a Chief Executive Officer, but rather a Chief Learning Officer. Early in the talk he references James Lovelock, founder of Gaia Theory, and his book Novacene: The Coming Age of Hyperintelligence. Gaia Theory and James Lovelock were very influential in the formulation of the Holistic Science masters and Dr Stephan Harding collaborated with Lovelock on the Gaia Hypothesis/Theory. Indy also refers to our multispecies reality on many occasions in the talk which of course feels relevant to Relational Being, but also to this new MA in Transformative Learning. And I feel compelled to share one more quote from Indy, primarily for the context of how this all points to the importance of this new MA in Transformative Learning, which again is based in Holistic Science, he states:

‘The thing that we have to preserve is something far more precious than the idea of our civilization, but actually of a planet that is becoming self aware, to which we are party of that intelligence’

~ Indy Johar

I am realizing I haven’t mentioned yet that there are a series of ongoing Holistic Science Short Courses being held at Emerson College, which I will be attending, and that I’d love to see you at. You can learn more about them and sign up via this link. The next one is The Plant Between Sun and Earth, Dates: 21–22 March 2026 and the next one after that is Plant Alchemy as Self-Transformation, Dates: 25–26 April 2026. These weekend workshops are glimpses from within this upcoming MA in Transformative Learning which I might add, there is still space for you to join if this sounds like something you’d like to be a part of. It kicks off at the end of October and as mentioned already, this is a 3-year part time masters degree that allows for you to continue in your career path, or have the ability to take this while pursuing and/or creating meaningful work as we try and find ways to navigate these precarious and often scary times. After all, hope, inspiration, and a sense of purpose and belonging can be found in this new MA and these short courses. Below is from the last short course, which focused on Archetypal Geometry:

I have a great deal more to share about all of this but I’ll keep this as short and sweet as I can here (too late? 😅). What is to become of the Institute of Relational Being is a mystery and I am personally in surrender to that still emerging process and vision. There is the ReBe App that I believe still has great relevance at this time and deserves to be completed, and the value of integrating Relational Resource Departments (RRDs) into organizations of all kinds feels as important as ever, here’s one more piece to reference about the potential of RRD’s.

What I am grateful for at this moment is that the Ruskin Mill Trust, and all of its many related organizations across the UK is doing work that I value immensely and I consider it one of the most encouraging institutions for learning available for humans of all kind at this time. It grew organically in tandem though entirely separately from Schumacher College while similarly holding an ethos of Heart, Hands, and Head, though importantly, it also brings in its own Practical Skills Therapeutic Education (PSTE) that I absolutely love. These practically applied principles, known as the Seven Fields of Practice, underpin PSTE and guide each student’s journey. These are: genius loci (spirit of place), practical skills (craft), biodynamic ecology (farming), therapeutic education, holistic support and care, holistic medicine, and transformative leadership. Ruskin Mill’s greater role(s) in consciousness studies, biodynamic farming, and holistic education that stems from Rudolf Steiner, John Ruskin, and William Morris (among many others) is something I am honored and thrilled to be involved with, learn more about, train others in, and be of service to the ongoing evolution of this organizations work.

And while Schumacher College finds a new home and has limited offerings, it is great to know there is an alternative place for folks to study at the masters level who are hungry for this kind of holistic and transformative learning.

I did not have a plan for today’s writing as such, just the desire to utilize this platform and network of human beings who I believe are of the opinion that ‘caring is cool’ and that we human beings are but one of many multispecies beings, who collectively are in relationship with the rest of nature and this living world, and cosmos beyond. And if what you are reading about is interesting or compelling, please do feel free to leave a comment or get in touch with me personally. I welcome that. And as for Relational Being, if you are at all interested in being a part of this greater project and wish to be of service to IRB in any capacity, please let me know! I’ll be dedicating the majority of my energy now to these new endeavors though I fully wish to keep the embers stoked for Relational Being as well.

Here’s to loving life and being in surrender to the unknown.

I’ll leave you with the video of the interaction I had with the Coyote ;)