Today we will discuss group living, its advantages/disadvantages, whether it would be right for you, and how you could put together a group house if that is your desire.

Penfield House (about 3500 sq. feet) has been a group house since 2003. It actually got its start from an unintentional group house, bursting at the seams in 1100 square feet, consisting of Terry and Paul (a married couple) adding a third (Marcus) to make a triad, with Water Brother Carl Dietz, and (sometimes) Terry’s Dad. I raised my two children there, but it was not big enough for 5 adults! The move to a bigger place was made possible by the addition of Will Jarvis (still a household member today, May of 2024, after caring for my best friend Glen’s father for a few years until his passing at age 103). The 2003 move happened as a result of one of those exercises we will be doing at this meeting in which everyone writes down where they want to live and what they could come up with financially to do that. The exercise is used to show the kind of wonderful upper-scale home a group can buy when they do not have to pay for 4 hot tubs, 4 kitchens, 4 living rooms, etc. Sometimes the exercise results in a real group house getting together, as ours did.

In the 21st century, it is becoming more and more common for those of retirement age to put together intentional communities of like-minded people, some of which are poly.

Burning Man is an excellent example of an intentional community. Though it exists as a physical community only temporarily, for about 10 days a year, many of those involved in it attend events and interact with other Burners year-round. Lots of Polyamory in this group. One of the camps is called Poly Paradise. The kids of Burners are growing up in this environment. How does that affect their future lives and personalities? Some Burners and their kids have formed group houses of their own inspired by Burning Man philosophy.

The May Moon Magick Festival which we attended for Oberon and Rhiannan’s wedding was held on the grounds of a multigenerational intentional Pagan community, Cerren Ered, which we had the pleasure to be part of during our few days at the festival. Many of the Cerren Ered members are poly, since the neopagan community is much affected by the philosophy of Stranger in a Strange Land (the inspiration for Church of All Worlds, the first legally recognized neo-pagan religion in the USA), and by the example of CAW’s founder, Oberon Zell, who has been in group marriage with up to eight people at a time and is a firm believer in Polyamory. We may have some of the members of that Pagan group who hosted the Festival speaking to us during the Zoom part of this meeting—working on it as of this writing.