I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.
Henry David Thoreau, “The Dispersion of Seeds”

As the farmer casts into the ground the finest ears of his grain, the time will come when we too shall hold nothing back, but shall eagerly convert more than we now possess into means and powers, when we shall be willing to sow the sun and the moon for seeds.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Man the Reformer”

INNERMOST HOUSE
Faith in a Seed

PLAIN LIVING • HIGH THINKING • FELLOW FEELING

Growing a new world begins with planting a seed in the soil that underlies and unites and justifies all aspects of society: the fact of the individual human being as one, indivisible, and whole. As an unpaid, voluntary association of friends, we return to the origins of ancient philanthropia to plant a seed at the heart of life, reaching inward beyond social problems and solutions to the unified beginnings of society in the individual soul. We are a world-wide fellowship of like-minded people seeking to reclaim the conditions of the soul in Plain Living, High Thinking, and Fellow Feeling. We believe in the sanctity of individual life, whether lived in the woods or in the world.

Innermost House is a radical idea which defies by nature all conventional categories. We are part environmental and part historical preservation project. We are part transcendental research center and part experimental archaeology project. We are part art patronage program, part longitudinal study, part educational institution. We are part symposium circle and part monastic fellowship. We seek to reclaim territory at once universal and almost wholly lost to modern life. We are one thing and we are nothing, a dimensionless point at the intersection of all the many things. We work to restore the broken link between old and new, nature and culture, rich and poor, North and South, East and West, feminine and masculine, art and science, Black and White, Native and Colonist. We are digging for common ground beneath all categories of fragmentation and alienated identity.

Society consists in masses today, alienated from the material and spiritual foundations of the embodied soul. Our mission as a philanthropic organization is simply this: to reclaim the territory of the soul to individual life. We welcome as friends all who would live in that spirit. A commitment to original Nature, traditional Craft, individual Culture, and spiritual Worship is our way home. Whether you bring your experience, expertise, or time, your means or materials, we welcome your participation. We are many different kinds of people with one purpose. Engage with us to preserve and restore the landscape of the living Spirit within us. Begin where you are. Plant a seed. Prepare to expect wonders.