Grisha will answer this one: I have been actively chewing on the next phase of my contributions to the world. A moment of clarity came from a lucid dream. I realized I was dreaming and that I could fly, but I kept getting dragged down by people who insisted that I couldn’t.

To remember I could fly, I needed to be alone or around people who believed it was possible.

When I woke up, I realized the beautiful metaphor of this dream. I realized it was time to expand my school, so that visionaries for a kinder world could collaborate and learn from one another online. I am bringing my very favorite kinship tending visionaries to the school to teach their skills.

In 2016, I saved the website StellarVillage.com, awaiting the day when I had a project big enough for the name. The time has come! All beings are made of stardust, and we humans are ready to learn the skills of being in village together. I have a butterfly in the logo because I think of kinship tenders as folks who are like butterflies, transforming themselves and also pollinating the world. So this school is part of an answer to the question, "What can I do to grow butterfly food?" in the metaphorical and real sense. (Fun fact: that's also a line from one of my songs).

Grisha will answer this one too:

The core office team that's been behind the success of the Grisha Stewart Academy since 2020 is now supporting Stellar Village, along with some additional folks.

For the dog school, I have been the main visionary, and I've brought in many talented speakers for webinars and events (here's my bio. Stellar Village includes the dog school, and is all about community, so it’s essential that I’m not the only person at the root level of this project. As a neurosparkly (autistic), pansexual, middle-aged woman from the US, white-bodied and of European descent, I have a certain perspective, and I don't necessarily even yet know what I don't know.

The Butterfly Council, Stellar Village's diverse advisory team, brings their collective wisdom to bring presenters to teach lessons we never got in school - what dreamers really need to help bring this vision of cross-cultural, cross-species, intergenerational kinship and joy to fruition. We're still working on getting all the photos and bios to go on this site, so stay tuned, but their names are above on this page.

Together, we are continuing the sacred work of our most visionary ancestors, for all beings and all future ones.

We are working on that right now. The current plan is to have a new membership called Butterfly for Stellar Village, where most classes, song circles, and grief circles are included. There may be special events that Butterflies get discounts for, like grief circles with special guest grief tenders.

Diamond members of the GSA dog school get access to the same classes as Butterflies, as well as a listing in the Dog Pro directory
Sign up for the mailing list on this page to learn more as we know more about Stellar Village.

We have a big FAQ for the school here. Or please contact our office if you have specific questions about Stellar Village or want to suggest a topic or collaborator.

There's a reason that harmony from singing also means peace. Singing together is one of the most amazing things we do as humans.

It's behavioral synchrony and it can soothe the nervous system and remind us we are not alone

We may be afraid of singing, but singing is not afraid of us. Fear of singing is a culturally conditioned problem, and we can turn it around just like we address dog reactivity.

You literally get your voice back when you sing. I'm so excited to share this with you. And good news - because our song circles are in Zoom, your microphone will be off unless there's a time when you want to share a song. So it's less scary.

We're hoping you'll have the confidence to sing with other people in your community at some point, and/or invite others into our song circles in Zoom. We have a class in December about Mindful Singing with Heather Houston that is a great on ramp for singing, and will help you fall in love with your voice.

With everything at Stellar Village, people are at choice. We're big on that. ❤

In community singing, the songleader role is to teach a song that they've written or learned. We will bring in professional songleaders/songwriters for a monthly session, and we'll also have separate open-share sessions, where attendees teach their own songs to each other.

People who aren't leading (teaching) a song will be singing with their microphones off, so the singing itself won't be heard by others. You can have people in your physical space if you want to sing together. It's great to have cameras on, so we can all see each other and it's playful. But anyone is welcome to have their camera off if even that is too much.

This is a soft introduction to community singing because of how we do it in Zoom. 🙂 These sessions are also recorded so you can sing along without time pressure or rewind to your heart's delight.

Another opportunity to participate is in the breakout groups where there are discussion prompts. People can always choose to not be in the rooms by either raising a hand or putting a comment about that in the chat (public or private to the host). For folks who might feel safer with specific people or identities due to marginalization, etc., we have options. Breakout groups are not recorded.

We plan to have discussions after most webinars and song circles, and people can also opt out by signing off before the "dessert" of the discussions.

Yet another opportunity is the Facebook group, and people can choose to participate at that or not.

Grief circles are participatory, and you're at choice still, but the general expectation is that you'll feel comfortable enough with the container we create (confidentiality, etc.) to share within that group in response to prompts. Only attend them if you're feeling comfortable sharing your grief experience with others. We will have some group shares and some breakout rooms. We'll explain more about those on the event page for grief circles. Grief circles are not recorded.

A final way is our Collaboration Zoom sessions, which, again, are optional. Basically those are chances to talk together about a specific topic or with a certain theme, like crochet/knitting while talking (mostly community-led discussions) or to just simply be in a space and doing something separate like organizing your kitchen, training your dog, or doing taxes, with occasional pauses to talk (Parallel Play). These will all be community led events, meaning they're initiated by people in Stellar Village who want to connect. Collaboration Sessions may or may not be recorded, at the choice of the person/people leading the group.

Grief is a human experience that bonds us all together and it's part of the core of Stellar Village. It's a shared life experience. We carry grief from the loss of our dogs and other family members, and we also have grief when we lose a job, or get a job, or have a baby, or get married, or get divorced. We also carry intergenerational grief, sorrow in empathy with the world, and grief from things we never received in our life, but should have (Francis Weller).

The work of liberation and equity is not possible without delving into grief. And also life can be wayyy more fun and authentic when you get the skills to grieve.