Setting the stage for this enquiry: What is a wisdom School fit for metamodernity?

An inquiry into the ecologies and architectures essential for transformation and becoming in the age of metamodernity.

We are living in a time between worlds—a seismic shift where old paradigms crumble and new ones remain embryonic. In such transitions, humanity often revisits the foundational questions: What does it mean to be human? How do we cultivate the capacities to endure uncertainty and emerge as trustworthy beings of the next horizon?

Today, we lack a shared cultural artifact that can cultivate the types of beings we want to be, a vessel to hold and cultivate the faculties necessary for both navigating the in-between and stewarding the new. What might such a vessel look like? What does it look like to design something fit for purpose? What can be reused, and what needs to be created?

The Call for Wisdom Schools

This inquiry feels as ancient as it is urgent. It offers a reimagined lens for how we live, learn, and relate. I use the term "wisdom school" as a container for this exploration, not because it is fixed or final but because it evokes two essential principles:

• Wisdom: The cultivation of phronesis, or practical wisdom, integrates the ways of knowing—propositional, procedural, perspectival, and participatory—into a seamless whole. It is not merely the accumulation of knowledge but the embodied art of discerning what is most salient and true in each moment. Wisdom aligns the intellect with the heart and the body, guiding us into right relationship with ourselves, others, and the world. It is the capacity to navigate complexity with humility and care, transcending the fragmented grasp for control and inviting us into a deeper dance of understanding and becoming.

• School: Not simply a repository of instruction, but a living ecosystem for transformation. A school, in this sense, fosters the integration of body, mind, heart, and soul, aligning the inner landscape with the greater patterns of life. It is a space where learning transcends the rote and transactional, becoming a process of attunement—a harmonization of the subsystems we inhabit with the larger rhythms of being. Here, education is not the transfer of information but the cultivation of wisdom, inviting each participant into a co-creative journey of growth and flourishing.

This Substack—and the podcast to follow—represents my ongoing exploration of this terrain. My interest lies not only in the individual transformations wisdom traditions inspire but also in their systemic potential to reshape the structures that bind us.

Central to this inquiry are questions both practical and profound:

• What is a wisdom school in the context of our time?

• Why, despite the richness of wisdom traditions, does it feel as though something essential is still missing?

• What are the building blocks of a wisdom school, and can we craft blueprints that transcend specific traditions?

• How might we enable wisdom schools to flourish, forming a global network of regenerative hubs?

• What does it mean to design spaces—both physical and virtual—that nurture integration across body, mind, and community?

Ecologies of Wisdom: Cultivating the Conditions for Transformation

Wisdom schools are not relics of a bygone era or quaint alternatives to failing institutions. They are crucibles of transformation, spaces where the very act of teaching becomes a co-creative inquiry, where communities are forged through shared exploration, and where the sacred finds expression in the rhythm of everyday life. To me, these schools are not just places—they are living systems designed to cultivate beings who embody wisdom in their actions, their relationships, and their presence.

When I consider what makes this possible—what constitutes the architecture of transformation that can bring about wisdom—I think of it as an ecology of interwoven elements. Each plays a vital role in creating the conditions for wisdom to emerge, not as an abstract ideal but as a lived reality. These elements include:

• Spaces

  • Intentional containers, physical or virtual, where the possibility of transformation is not only held but actively invited. These are not merely places; they are thresholds, designed to dissolve the boundaries between what is and what could be.

• Teachers

  • Not as prescriptive authorities but as guides, companions in inquiry who offer frameworks rather than answers. Their role is catalytic, sparking inner and outer growth by holding the tension between knowing and unknowing.

• Practices

  • An ecology of practices—movement, attinement, stillness, inquiry, creation—integrated to harmonize body, mind, heart, and soul. These practices are not separate threads but a woven tapestry fostering coherence and wholeness.

• Meaning and Myth

  • A shared narrative scaffolding, drawn from the deep well of archetypal stories and myths. These narratives orient the individual and the collective, cultivating a sense of shared purpose and anchoring the work in something larger than the self.

• Community

  • A dynamic collective of beings, each committed to their own growth while holding a shared responsibility for the whole. Community, in this sense, is not incidental but essential—a mirror, a container, and a co-creator of wisdom.

In essence, this is what I mean by an ecology of wisdom: an interconnected web of conditions that allow for the cultivation of wisdom.

The Being Stack: Layers of Integration

Beneath this architecture lies what I think of as the "being stack"—the layers of human experience that must be cultivated into coherence for wisdom to emerge as a harmonic state:

• Body: The physical foundation, the vessel through which all other layers are expressed. It grounds us in the world and opens the gateway to presence.

• Heart: The attunement of our relational capacities, the bridge between self and other, where connection and compassion are cultivated.

• Mind: The locus of meaning-making, where understanding is woven into coherence and clarity.

• Soul: The emergent property of an integrated life, where the parts coalesce into a unified whole, allowing the ineffable to find expression.

These layers are not separate but interdependent, each informing and enriching the others. Together, they form the groundwork for transformation—a fertile soil in which wisdom can grow.

In the coming reflections, I’ll dive deeper into these elements and layers, exploring their nuances and interconnections. My aim is to articulate a more technical, yet resonant, vision of how we might design and inhabit these ecologies of wisdom.

Why Now and why metamodern?

The urgency of this work lies in the cascading crises of our time—ecological collapse, social fragmentation, spiritual dislocation. The brittle scaffolding of institutional education and the isolating ethos of individualism can no longer hold the weight of our collective needs.

Wisdom schools offer an alternative: relational sanctuaries where people cultivate not just survival skills but the art of weaving a fractured world back together. These spaces are not retreats from chaos but responses to it—places where the work of integration and renewal becomes a shared, sacred practice.

Metamodernity is a cultural paradigm that emerges in response to the limitations of both modernism’s rigid progress-oriented logic and postmodernism’s deconstruction of meaning. It embraces the oscillation between opposites—hope and doubt, sincerity and irony, tradition and innovation—providing a framework for navigating complexity without collapsing into despair or oversimplification. In contemporary use, metamodernity informs fields as diverse as art, philosophy, education, and systems design, serving as a lens to make sense of an increasingly fragmented world.

It allows us to weave the wisdom of the past with the possibilities of the future, offering the conceptual scaffolding for new cultural artifacts, such as wisdom schools. These schools, as transformation vessels, are anchored in ancient wisdom yet agile enough to hold the paradoxes of our time, guiding us toward deeper integration and renewal in an era of profound uncertainty.

A cultural renaissance for our current context and what comes next

This work feels like an act of cultural reimagining—a chance to rethink how we gather, learn, and grow in an era of profound transition. Wisdom schools are not merely antidotes to fragmentation; they are seedbeds for a reimagined wholeness, integrating the individual, the local community, and the broader culture.