Lessons From Living In A Spiritual Commune.
I lived in one room from 17 to 20 years old, sharing it with three other girls. We had everything we needed, and we shared everything we had.
(photo of me at 17, just arriving at the commune.)
These were some of the happiest years of my young adult life.
We earned our room and board by working; in addition to the full school load, we each had a job on campus (physical labor), community responsibilities, and dedicated service hours. It was a full-on life. My young vitality could handle that huge amount of work.
It was a very monastic type of life. All women wore long skirts, no makeup, and cultivated a natural look (not to ignite sexual desire or too much attraction from the men in the seminary.) We had dedicated hours to meet our spiritual brothers on a weekend for tea. Every hour was filled with studying, attending to your spiritual life, or community service.
I learned many powerful lessons from living in the commune.
Even though I left that particular religion more than 25 years ago, I am grateful for everything I’ve learned through the three years of immersive living on the self-sustained commune. What inspired this writing is a documentary I watched last night called The Village of Lovers. It is about an intentional community in Portugal that has thrived for over 50 years. I loved the message of it, and I’ve been yearning for community living lately. A deep re-orientation in my value system has unfolded for the last two years.
So, here are my key lessons from living in a religious commune as a 17-year-old girl:
Lesson 1: Radical Reliance on the Divine.
Having no money and no access to money and only trading my physical labor for food and shelter, I received many surprise gifts of money from all the places I never expected. This is what made it so valuable as a lesson. The little money that I needed for my basic needs, such as soap products or stuff like that, that money would just show up at the precise moment I needed it. Someone would spot me volunteering on campus and feel inspired to leave me an envelope with a few dollars. Things like that kept happening. The joy of being magically supported by the Divine when you needed it most would outweigh the worry and fear of lack. The Divine never failed me.
Lesson 2. Immense power of prayer
I prayed every day as a part of my then religion. Prayer always came naturally to me as a way of conversation with God. My first prayer was when I was 5 years old when I prayed myself to sleep, talking to the Universe and asking what would happen after death. My mom was not spiritual at all, so I sought to fill the void of spirit since I was a child. I found myself a church at 12 and joined it with all my passion. All the courageous steps in my life had been infused with unceasing prayer. Only now do I understand the energetic mechanics of how the heart-based prayer shifts the universe.
Lesson 3. The beauty of simplicity
Living in the commune, you would share everything. You had to become creative with the little resources you had. One of the girls I lived with was brilliant in creating the most magical experiences to celebrate birthdays. Having so little money ignited the richness of creativity.
Lesson 4 The power of service
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Service was the heartbeat of the commune. There were always more opportunities to give of yourself. The more you serve, the more energy to serve will open up to you.
Lesson 5 Strangers Becoming Family
No community is without its challenges and human dramas. We had our moments, of course. But what I remember is that feeling of belonging. We shared an ideal. We were all studying to become the future spiritual leaders of Russia and Ukraine just a few years after the collapse of Communism. Our country's spirit was starved for spirituality, and we stood on the threshold of a religious revival. It was electrifying to be a part of this.
Lesson 6 Leadership
We had one main president of the commune, one of the most charismatic leaders I’ve ever met. He was Ukrainian, and he was religiously persecuted during communism, including time in prison for not stopping serving his church. Imagine those times…you could be sent to prison for spiritual leadership! His storytelling, his visionary capacity, and his aura of natural authority were all wildly compelling when you were listening to him. I saw many examples of visionary leadership in that commune. It was all built on immense faith. Donations supported the commune, and everything was held by faith in the leaders in their vision and higher power.
Aww, memories…
Every chapter taught me so much. I am grateful for those years living in Ukraine.
It was a part of my evolutionary growth to leave religion behind when I turned 23 to follow the path of my Inner Guidance: to experience life directly, outside of holy books and sermons. It was my time to follow my own path. And it brought me to the most fascinating places. One thing is for sure: I am grateful for the lessons from living in the commune, as a monk or nun, you’d say, and learning those powerful lessons I’ve learned.
At this stage of my life, I keep contemplating what truly makes a community life work and what the intentional villages that thrive are. If you know of one or a few, please share with me in the comments or DM me. I would love to continue my research in this area. I am very curious to visit Damanhur in Italy and Tamera in Portugal. Both are not religious but deeply embodied spiritual communities that cultivate respect for life, individuality, nature, life, eros, authentic relating, creativity, and solidarity.
Katerina Satori
#community