What I love most about life, is the alchemical process of transformation.  What is the secret of our rubbish becoming rich and fertile soil again?

I salute the village and residents of Darabkola in Northern Iran for initiating the village-wide movement to turn their kitchen waste into compost.  Our project, Soil Alchemy, started in December 2017.  It has been a beautiful start with the village folk bringing their kitchen rubbish along with their love and labour to make the community compost.  The village municipality supplied us with gloves, straw, cow manure, lime, and water.  Trees for Hope invested in the forks needed to turn the compost.  A third local NGO, Children of the Good Earth, informed and gathered the local residents.  This project ran for six months and fell asleep for the time being.

I think the Soil Alchemy project needs to wake up at a nation-wide scale.  Why?  When the Soil Alchemy project is awake and operating, it not only helps to transform our waste to rich soil, the base of our true wealth and health, it transforms our social and mental diseases to pure cultural gold.  Compost making then becomes a sacred act.  An activity worthy of our lives, of every hour we dedicate to this transformation.  This is why I think the Soil Alchemy needs to wake us up, all over the place 🥰. 

​© Pupak Haghighi

My workshop, Chrystal, is situated right next to the Original Garden, here in the Findhorn Community.  

We are at 57˚N latitude, which means 'At this latitude the sun is visible for 17 hours, 53 minutes during the summer solstice and 6 hours, 43 minutes during the winter solstice' (wikipedia). It also means it can get quite cold, practically any time of the year, except for a few days when I could wear a light summer dress.  

In our cold climatic conditions it takes me considerable time and energy to heat up Chrystal to work there.  I therefore need to prepare myself and the space, warming up inside, as I warm up Chrystal to make a work of art, singing with the colours of the soul.

On this cold autumn day, I had an appointment to speak with one of my Soil Alchemy partners in Northern Iran.  Soil Alchemy is our village compost project, the aim of it being transforming all the kitchen waste of the entire village of about 3000 residents to rich and fertile compost.  I switched off the heater, brought my work to completion for the day, turned off the light, and left Chrystal for my contact with Aref.  By the time I reached my home, Chrystal was resting back in the autumn cold and darkness.

What is the essence of compost?  A handful of compost might contain the very secrets of universe : infinite space/time, the heart of the mystery of life/death/life.  

In a loving relationship, I visualise the other and myself in the infinity symbol, our relationship going through the creative source of the universe.  In this way both myself and the other are free to be true to our essence.  I release all that is dead back to the source.  I wait for the miracle of life to show me signs of love, beauty, and hope.  And when I receive the signal in my heart, I make soul compost, a work of art, in Chrystal, my beloved workshop right next to the Original Garden, here in the Findhorn Community.

​© Pupak Haghighi

A year has passed since we begun our Soil Alchemy project in Northern Iran, in Darabkola, a village in Mazandaran.  

Soil Alchemy is a project to transform the kitchen waste of the entire village, a population of 3000 residents to rich and fertile compost.

I am proud and grateful to our Soil-Focalisers in Darabkola, Parvin and Faeze.  Also grateful to our Soil-Alchemy partner, Aref.  They are doing one of the most loving acts for the land, their village, and our country.

​May their weekly compost making acts grow and blossom year on year.