Polestar Gardens

Global Ecovillage Network logo with a turtle and leaf design.
  • Communities

About the Communities

Founding year

  • 1999

What we do

Polestar is an intentional, spiritual community on the Big Island of Hawaii.
We offer year-round, hands-on experience in cooperative living based on the universal teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda, author of the spiritual classic, ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’. We also offer opportunities for personal retreat and vacation, as well as many dynamic programs for families and youths.
Our core values are spirit, community and life-long learning.
As we often say, we try to ‘eat, pray, work and play’ together. We have found these elements to be the fundamental glue that sustains a thriving, vibrant community.
We strive to ‘keep the main thing, the main thing’. That is to say, to keep our focus on spirit – maintaining our connection to our deeper Selves – at the center of our lives.
We are mostly vegetarian, with a drug and alcohol-free lifestyle. Among various educational and inspirational programs, we offer internship and work trade programs for those who are interested in yoga, building, permaculture, organic gardening, sacred music, art & creativity, alternative healing, and many other skills for living. We are on 20 beautiful acres on the Big Island of Hawaii with deep soil and a year-round growing season.
We aspire to Yogananda’s ideal of simple living and high thinking and see meditation and service as our path to living fulfilled lives. We invite those who share these values to join us in creating a community that supports continuous physical, mental, and spiritual development.
You can find more information about us on our website. Also, you can check out the link below to our Apprenticeship Application.
(http://polestarcommunity.org/apprentice.html)
Mahalo (thank you) for your interest!

Commemorative dates

  • January 1, 1999
  • Started living together
Total
10

How to join

Non-working Guests welcome, Work Exchange welcome, Volunteers welcome,

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Promoted Needs and Offers

  • Events
10 years ago

Gaia Ashram Internship

The Gaia Ashram Internship is a one month program on Ecovillage Design, Permaculture and Deep Ecology. The internship will be a holistic participatory learning experience & process. Interns will experience being part of the Gaia Ashram Community and we will live together for one month at– Gaia Ashram-. At Gaia Ashram we belief in holistic learning that balances the head, hands & heart. Gaia Ashram encourages participatory learning & values the power of community in holding the learning space. We design the daily & weekly structure of the internship and of our lives here based on these values and principles. Theoretical learning (Head) The theoretical sessions will be participatory and interactive. It will cover the 4 keys of Ecovillage Design Education (Social, Economical, Ecological and Worldview inspired by Gaia Education). Each week will cover one of the Ecovillage Design Keys and integrated into this we will be introduced to Permaculture Design & Deep Ecology in terms of philosophy, movement and personal experiences. Overall, We will have a maximum of 2-3 hours of theory per day on the session days, to also create lots of space for practical experiential learning. See more details of the key content below. Practical learning (Hands – on) For the hands – on practical learning we will be developing the Gaia Ashram’s farm and restoring nature on the Gaia Ashram land using permaculture strategies & techniques that are appropriate for the Rainy Season & the land and its local context. The hands-on work will focus on Gardening work i.e. developing the vegetable gardens, planting seeds & seedlings, transplanting, propagation of plants, making composts, growing and maintaining a Food Forest, planting green manures, planting lots of trees, planting seasonal crops. Apart from the Gardening we will also will be doing some natural building which mostly will focus on creating natural finishes using mud plasters and art works on
  • Events
10 years ago

Deep Ecology and Mindful Gardening

Deepen our connection with nature through our head, heart, hands and spirit. Join us for this two weeks contemplative learning where we will learn together What is Deep Ecology as a philosophy, as a way to see and interpret life, as an approach to deepen our connection with nature and as a way of living. This two weeks program is designed to have balance of the learning through different channel of our being: Head: Theoretical learning, critical thinking, debate, discussion, deep reflection & deep questioning. The learning through the head help us to understand deeply of what is happening around us and in the world. Understanding and deeply questioning the reality presented to us is a way to liberate ourselves from it. Heart: listening to what we are feeling when we engage ourselves in nature and her stories. Allowing the heart to feel the love, joy, compassion or the feeling of sadness & fear allowing ourselves to feel the pain ourselves, the world & Mother Earth. We will use the activities of The Work That Reconnect of Joanna Macy and other practices to help our heart to learn deeply. We need the learning through our heart to bring about transformation at a deep level. Hand: Mindfully working with nature in the garden. When we are mindful we love, respect and connect as we are physically engaged. Practical work help us to ground our believes, philosophy and vision. It empowers us and assures us that the new reality we wish for is possible. It makes what’s in our head and heart become real and tangible. Spirit : Spirituality, Meaning & purpose. Learning at this level is about being conscious of our values and purpose, seeing ourselves as part of a greater universe and realizing our connection, relationship and responsibility in that picture. a learning at this level helps us to stay connected with our core and bring meaning to life.

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Communities

A residential project: people live here as their primary home.

Organizations

An institution, business, network, or project that isn’t a residence (e.g. a learning center, farm, or network with no one living there full-time).

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