Returning Light · Our shared life
A life shared with others.
The Virginia estate and our city communities give belief an ordinary setting: a kitchen, a working day, a relationship and a place to gather.
The daily rhythm
Useful work. Shared responsibility.
Farms, orchards, gardens, kitchens and workshops sustain the estate and support the city houses. Residents share the work that keeps a community fed and its rooms cared for.
The Foundation’s outreach grows from this same life. The Open Table carries the estate’s produce into meals shared beyond its grounds.
Love & companionship
A place for embodied life.
Affection, sexual expression and spiritual devotion are part of community life. Relationships and monogamy are encouraged; the intimacy of a couple also has a place in the community’s ritual practice.
Women lead the Order’s sexual and ritual life. In Compassion, women choose their partners, and the couple’s intimacy is received as a sacred act witnessed by the community.
Identity
A name within the house.
At Identity, a house name marks reception into the Light. Members use these names in the Order’s daily and ceremonial life; legal names remain in use beyond the community.
A name is spoken at a kitchen table as readily as in assembly. Belonging takes shape through familiar people, shared tasks and the rhythm of the household.
Women’s leadership
Teaching and stewardship.
Rue and Selene direct the Order’s institutional and spiritual life. Edna’s founding contribution of land and community connections helped give that work a home.
Women’s authority runs through the community’s teaching and embodied practices. Responsibilities within the household accompany the stages of the path.