A permaculture course is a life changing experience,
and it can also feel like drinking from a firehose.

Creative Mapping for PDCs helps your students metabolize the information they’re receiving and focus on their unique role in the movement.

You taught them amazing regenerative land stewardship tools. Chris will train your students to use those same tools to design a regenerative life and focused career.

The Teacher

The 2026 Pilot Program

When I took my first PDC, each day was mind-blowing– one day I was sure I’d dedicate my life to mapping water systems, the next day I was enchanted by the alchemy of mushroom bioremediation, then rocket stoves...the list went on. 

Towards the end of the two-week intensive, I had the overwhelming realization that I wanted to do everything, but didn't know where to focus.

We were split into groups for our final design project. Most of the groups got a conventional mapping prompt. I chose the (least popular) one, "make a business plan for the ecovillage." Instead of water flow and catchment, I imagined flows of attention and finances.

And a seed was planted: I didn't have to be a land designer to be a permaculturalist, I could use the same principles, ethics, and mapping tools to design careers and lives. That seed has grown over 12 years into my Creative Mapping curriculum.

While I’ve mostly done this work with musicians and creative organizations, I started sharing it with PDC students 3 years ago, and they were absolutely hungry for more. 

Before I offer this more widely, I’m looking for five PDCs to invite me to teach alongside them in 2026. The final vital ingredient is community collaboration and I’m excited for all the stories and new knowledge that will emerge from cross-pollinating with your PDC! 

The Curriculum

Invite Chris to teach at your in-person PDC.

These modular sessions are designed to fit seamlessly with your existing Permaculture Design curriculum, and can be added throughout the course, or consolidated into the final days to help your students integrate what they’ve learned as they prepare to take what you taught them home.

1. The 8 Forms of Capital

Beyond financial wealth, inventory all the abundance you have access to, get clear on areas of need. Have the information you need to steward your personal capacity ecosystem and easily make impactful decisions.

2. SYMBIOSIS MAPPING

Use this simple, powerful tool in your life design practice to check if a project or relationship is healthy and abundance-giving or unsustainably depleting. In business terms, they’d call this a holistic cost-value analysis. 

3. ZONES OF ATTENTION MAP

Use zones and sectors to design your days, clarify how you spend your time, and get focus so that everything you say ‘yes’ to is in alignment with a healthy whole.

further curriculum

While the above maps cover the core Creative Mapping for PDCs curriculum, I’ve spent over a decade developing life and career design tools inspired by permaculture.

If you have time and space to go deeper, we can do everything from Relational Landscape Mapping, which brings consciousness to your role in tending community, to my reworking of Yeoman’s Scale of Permanence to help us name what areas are within our control, and work smarter with what energy we have.

Let’s talk

I’d love to connect about which of these tools make the most for your PDC. Let’s stack functions by using your amazing land stewardship training to empower your students to design and steward a regenerative life and healthy career.

If you would like your PDC to be part of my pilot program this year, answer these questions and we can make a plan!

Frequently Asked Questions

+ How much of our PDC’s teaching time would be dedicated to these Creative Mapping sessions?

The full standard curriculum fits nicely into six 60-min sessions. These can be spread out over multiple days, or consolidated into a full-day intensive. That said, I can create a custom offering that fits into something as short as a single 90-minute session. And if you’d like to go deeper, I have curriculum that can fill an entire 24-hour course.

+ Our PDC doesn’t have space for all of these sessions. Is it possible to pick and choose from the above tools?

Yes. You can choose anything from a single session to 6+ sessions. Please note that the five topics listed above build on each other and therefore must be completed in order. So, for example, if you’re only booking two teaching sessions, we’d start with The 8 Forms of Capital, and then session two would be Symbiosis Mapping.

+ How much does this cost?

When I make this offering public, I’ll value it at $1,500 plus expenses. But during this pilot program, I’m focused on a mostly non-financial symbiotic exchange.

While I am asking for my hosts to cover room and board, and a contribution towards my travel costs, here’s the trade I’m proposing:

You offer me:
- a guest teacher role at your PDC, which is a venue for me to share my work with the exact folks it’s designed to serve
- your feedback and optionally a few sentences of recommendation I can use when I share this publicly
- room + board during my stay
- travel support (this could include a travel stipend, rideshare support if applicable, or airline miles-
though I only fly if there are no other options)

I offer you:
- my teaching time and curriculum, to help complete your students’ transformative experience
- the opportunity of being some of the first PDCs to offer this to your community
- support with marketing resources leading up to your PDC to help you communicate the value this Career Design curriculum for your prospective students.
- Q&A support for your students during my stay (I love being present for them during the days I’m at your PDC, lunch chats, etc)
- A complimentary 60- min Creative Mapping session for your own organization

Or in 8 Forms of Capital terms, I’m offering intellectual, experiential, and cultural capital, and you’re offering material, experiential, and social capital, hopefully yielding fulfillment for all in the form of spiritual capital for! (And yes, I could draw you a map of this trade if you’d like :)

I am open to your additional trade proposals, and I do gratefully accept additional donations towards my work where available, but I’m mainly looking to share this important information far and wide, and connect with collaborators and like-minded communities.

+ Who’s the teacher?

Hi, I’m Chris Faroe, a musician, educator, and creative career designer based in the Hudson (Muhikanituk) Valley of New York on Esopus land. When I’m not living in my semi-off-grid tiny house on a 5.5 acre homestead, I travel between various community land stewardship projects sharing Creative Mapping tools, music, and magical times. I first studied Permaculture with Starhawk and Charles Williams at O.U.R. Ecovillage in 2014, and have been retrofitting Permaculture maps ever since in service of art, play, and liberation. I founded the Creative Mapping Project in 2017.

+ Is this curriculum available online?

Currently I’m offering these teaching sessions as a live, in-person supplement to your existing PDC curriculum. I’m trying to visit as many PDCs as possible to share this work in collaboration with existing PDCs, build community, and connect with students. If your PDC is already taught entirely online, I’ll consider teaching remotely.