A Transition in Totnes

I  have been engaged in reducing my carbon footprints in this world in recent years. I have clipped off around 10 or 12 weeks a year of departing Totnes for elsewhere.

I now teach in three continents a year not four continents, one country in continental Europe, one trip to Israel per year, not two year and the annual trip to Bodh Gaya and Sarnath. I’ve also cut down considerably on my egg, cheese, butter, milk input for the usual inner factors and outer values.

I am now spending almost an extra week per month at home in Totnes for reflection and writing, time with my grandchildren and participating in a remarkably thoughtful Totnes culture.

In the past few months, I have had the opportunity to attend in Totnes various programmes, films and lectures including

Systems Theory with Fritjof Capra,

The Hidden Promise of our Age with Joana Macy, a beloved Buddhist eco-philospher,

Beautiful documentary of Werner Herzog’s Encounters at the End of the World,

Transition Totnes Movie on the world wide involvement of the Totnes initiative to make the transition around peak oil and climate change,

Prof Max Velmans, professor emeritus of psychology at London University on The Unconscious Ground of Being

Prof David Fontana ‘On the Borders of Consciousness and Life after Death. Some Evidence for the Extended Nature of Consciousness’

Coleman Barks and friends in an evening o af Rumi poems, folktales,  poetry and music.

From my observation and having the opportunity to spend more time in listening and discussing, it seems  to me and others that Totnes, itself, is currently undergoing a significant transition, a rebirth with a new mandate for change through a collective inspiration and vision.

I first moved to Totnes in 1982 with Gwanwyn Williams and our year old daughter, Nshorna.  I have lived in the same terraced house since 1983. Nshorna, 28, lives with her three children,Kye, nine next January, Dnae aged three next month and Milan, 18months in nearby Torquay and works three days a week  giving support to families in need.

During the 1980’s the media branded Totnes Britain’s new age capital due to the country’s first ever major natural health centre, Gaia House, Sharpham House, Rudolf Steiner School, Dartington College and countless numbers working in the  mind-body field, spirituality, Buddhist practices and a rather anarchic sense of  community life. One Sunday newspaper described Totnes as a town where only therapists and their clients lived. Under the road sign “Totnes” an art student had written “Twinned with Narnia.” In the 1990s, British Airways voted Totnes as one of the world’s “Top Ten funkiest towns.”

Inspired by Dartington College, founded by Rabindranath Tagore and the Elmhursts, Totnes hosted numerous events for the arts – music, dance, theatre, poetry and song. The trustees of Dartington decided to close the celebrated art college and move the 500 students to Falmouth, Cornwall, the next door county. It led to a year of protest in the town – to no avail. Dartington students opposed the move as well. They painted out the word art in D-ART – ington on all the road signs to the college.

As one beloved institution began to fade in prominence in Totnes, another network began to take formation through the Transition Town Project, inspired by Rob Hopkins, who travelled to India in the early 1990s, including Bodh Gaya and became inspired to develop the Permaculture concept developed in the 1970s by Bill Mollison of Australia to local comunity situations.  In 2006 Rob came to Totnes from Kindsdale, Ireland, to set up a network for sustainability and explore ways to learn to live without such dependency on oil . ( I plan to interview Rob Hopkins for the Dharma eNews in the near future).

Totnes took on the challenge wholeheartedly. Within a year working groups formed together on the arts, building, economics, livelihood, energy, food, health, heart and soul, transport and the creation of the Totnes pound, now a local currency. Transition Town Totnes set up training programmes with citizens coming from different parts of the world. Google “transition town Totnes.”

Having stood for Parliament for the Green Party in 1986 and 1992, I delight to see this immense development.  The Totnes Green Party has also grown significantly in recent years. The Green Party in June, 2009, won its first ever Devon seat. When the Totnes Member of Parliament decided stand down at the next general election, the Totnes Conservative Party adopted for the first time ever in the United Kingdom an open primary selection process for the next candidate  – employing a similar model in the USA. It meant that anyone on the electroral role in the constituency could vote for the candidate on the Conservative Party shortlist. It was a major news item throughout the country. All in all, it has been ground breaking stuff all year in Totnes.

Transition Town Totnes has inspired around 1500 different cities, towns and villages (yes, 1500) around the world, though mostly in the UK, to develop or mull over the development of their own version of the Transition Town Totnes process. Totnes, itself, has made a transition from the new age capital of Britain to becoming hailed as the Green capital of the world. There is now a meeting point in Totnes of the spiritual, creative, sustainable, business and political. You can google transition town and see the long list of places around the world developing a similar programme.

Totnes raises the questions about human values, digs deep into the inner and outer resources, and comes up with solutions.  Mind you, the local newspaper reported this month that war veterans giving out the red poppy to local residents in Totnes to pay respect to all those who died in battle were dismissed with “words of abuse”  by a number of passers by. There is still a ways to go yet.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Scroll to Top