Our re:nature vision
At first we only dreamed of a re:nature place in Switzerland.
Now the vision is expanding towards a network of many locations -
Where you are is re:nature.
Committed to Europe's nature and indigenous heritage.
On the grand vision of a re:nature movement with its four stances of co-creation
The centrepiece of the re:nature approach is the re:nature Compass — a seasonal model that makes the four qualities of the year's wheel accessible as a guide for change.
If we place the vision of a re:nature movement into this orientation wheel, four positions emerge with a common alignment:
⚫ WINTER — Source
The re:nature Vision
The vision is the Revitalising Europe through its indigenous heritage, the 5 indigenous living principles and the re:nature compass as a map of the Natural Order. For our turbulent times need more-than-human orientation.
⚪ SPRING — Curiosity
Research and Training
The re:nature institute conducts research and provides education at the re:nature Campus – an acupuncture needle for European indigenous knowledge, nature-connected economics and a think and feel tank for the future. At the moment, this place is our current location in northern Germany. Further/other locations remain open.
🔴 SUMMER — Manifestation
Application and Public
At many decentrally organised re:nature sites, human renaturation is manifesting itselforganisations, initiatives, users, re:nature partner organisations. That’s what we are passionate about.
Autumn — Thank you
Value creation and compensation
New forms of support yet to be created will make much more possible in the future the connection of value creators, enablers, funders, supporters with the vision (winter) and the diverse manifestations of lived re:nature (summer).
Join in
Grand plans are made when the right people come together. Everyone can become part of the re:nature vision:
- As a funder, or those who can contribute knowledge on how funding could be organised in a nature-cyclical and community-supported way
- As a Network Ambassador (Places, Contacts, Opportunities)
- As a partner (business, education, communities, initiatives)
- as an implementer locally with one's own ideas
- and of course as natural beings of all landscapes. The fellow creatures of nature are the most important players in envisioning a connected future.
We look forward to ideas, exchange, contact, networking
Contact: vision@renature-institut.org
An infectious inspiration
Our Vision Paper
History of a nature-co-creative emergence process
How is a vision created according to re:nature?
Everything that arises anew arises according to natural laws.
The Wheel of Unfolding
What does nature tell us about spring and creativity and becoming? How does the map of the re:nature compass guide a project with the wheel of unfolding?
Part 1: How It All Began
Caught off guard and off you go
Projects never materialise out of thin air, just as no spring could exist without a preceding winter and autumn.
That's why the start of a project idea is always interesting: is a desire the starting point? Or a shock? In our case, the latter. We have been building up the re:nature institute with our own house and seminar operations in Northern Germany since 2013, and we’ve finally finished all the renovation work. Then, in September 2025, „autumnal things“ suddenly happen. Ursula visits her two adult daughters in Switzerland, full of love, gratitude, and sadness at living so far away from them. At the same time, the neighbour's notice, with the consequence that all three mobile homes on the Northern German property must be removed, hits like a bomb. Autumn relentlessly says: things cannot stay as we have built them here. What do we do, we ask Autumn? Look honestly.
We do this with a friend who, as a geomancer, uncovers the connections and themes of people in a place through a setup and moves them in a healing direction. Many of our issues and fears are literally brought to light using all sorts of little animal proxies. New energies would then move in if the residents gave a clear yes to the place. Ursula raises a finger and says that for the sake of completeness, she would have to set up Switzerland too. That was the beginning of the end... Many tears, with a jumble of homesickness, relief and longing, break free. And David also feels a lot of spaciousness and openness at Schweizer Platz.
It's no use. If such perceptions are present, they are simply present. It took us a full three months to even acknowledge that these feelings were there. To even broaden our thinking enough for a move to be possible. To allow ourselves to see how foolish and nonsensical it would be to move away from this paradise... The space of winter, of absolute openness, of infinite wisdom, of „thy will be done, if it is to be“, the space of all spiritual potential opened up. The whole load of not knowing and surrender. Literally speechless.
Part 2: The First Beer
Unexpected assembly of the core team - Switzerland is calling
In winter, the seeds germinate. Circumstances align. Roots are formed. Ideas come to light on 01.02. So at the beginning it was just a feeling and a wish, not yet a project.
Ursula works in Zurich at Transa and is having an after-work beer with Daniel Humbel, CEO of Transa. And the two confide their feelings and desires to each other. Somehow they are connected. Further conversations follow, as a threesome with David, and then as a foursome with Rapha. During the first beer in the small circle, it becomes clear: the germinating idea of a re:nature campus concerns all four of us. Nobody understands why the two of them are suddenly involved. Least of all themselves. But when a spark flashes, you follow its glow.
And so many conversations follow, initial internal formulations regarding a possible project. And the question becomes ever clearer: is this not just about Ursula's homesickness, but is Switzerland calling and offering re:nature more and different possibilities than northern Germany? Could a campus here become like an acupuncture needle for Europe, a place of inspiration for many more re:nature locations in various landscapes? With its still accessible customs, is Switzerland and the Alpine region after all the research origin for the re:nature approach (Ursula lived and researched in Central Switzerland from 1995 to 2013), and thus fertile ground for bringing the indigenous European heritage back to life? Is the long-standing collaboration with Transa Backpacking AG the starting point for further networking and development?
Over the New Year holiday during a ski trip, Ursula and David tell their friend Susanne Ilg (also trained in re:nature) about the vision of a campus – in the form of a short improvised play. Susa lies awake at night, takes a pencil and draws a picture with houses, and a barn, and a well, mountains, a scattered fruit meadow… The first picture emerges. And if it's to be a new form, then let it be different from before. Community-driven, for example. We can't quite grasp it yet. But Susa's picture moves us. Because in this transition from 1 February, from the spiritual winter to the early spring, pictures are stronger than words. Poetry is the foundation of projects.
Part 3: a first place - was it not
Acceleration and deceleration
Spring plays its own game. Warm days alternate with winter spells Ab. What approaches harmlessly can suddenly take shape. One never knows where one is...
When a vision is truly „right“, things can suddenly move fast in the spring. That happens. But you only know afterwards, once you have followed the signs. And so, right on cue for 1 February 2026, a property appeared on Lake Biel that seemed to have everything we had dreamed of. Unlike in Susa’s drawing, not an old farmhouse, but a watch manufacturer’s villa. Yet secluded, at the edge of the forest, overlooking the lake, large enough for a small guesthouse and a few residential units. So let's go. Could it be that the campus might also be a statement? To withdraw land from the capitalist system, to acquire it collectively and then gift it back to itself? As a foursome, we experienced ourselves as a team for the first time, recognising our strengths in discussions with the estate agent and the head of the local building authority. Ursula had to explain publicly for the first time to the Bernese cantonal lawyer what wisdom lies within our European indigenous heritage. If he didn't understand very much, he is forgiven; Ursula sweated and stammered brilliantly too... At that point it was unclear whether this first property already marked the spring threshold and we had landed bang in the realisation phase? Or whether this first concrete property was merely hoisting us over the threshold of 1 February.
The excitement was followed by disillusionment. And with that, it was clear: we were „only“ at step 1.2 of our project process. Switzerland has a detailed zoning system that is disadvantageous for our vision. Landscape zone is not an option; for that, you have to be a farmer. Residential zone is not an option; you are not allowed to run a business here (as is the case with the property on Lake Biel). And mixed residential and working zones are located in the core zones of settlements, which are of no use for our work in the forest... Exhausted and downcast, we therefore left Biel again. But we knew spring: it always has a gift ready, even if usually different than expected: the four of us knew more about ourselves and our idea afterwards. Biel cut our gemstone for the first time and welded us together. Many more were to follow. In addition, Céline Fitzé helped us with childcare (also trained in re:nature), many inspiring conversations sharpened our vision of the campus community and what should or should not sustain a team on site. And for the viewing in Biel, Dani enlisted Pascal Angehrn. He is a member of the Executive Board and the Board of Directors at the well-known Swiss architecture and planning firm Building office on site.
Whether the re:nature Campus could also be an architectural statement? Sustainability in construction and renovation, alongside research into the interplay of humans and landscape, and ritual community design...?
Part 4: CAN VISIONARIES ALSO WORK TOGETHER?
Online meeting with 60 people and their landscapes
On the cusp of 1 February, the plants take on their first form. One should not pull at them then. It is the same with visions.
Normally, the early spring phase of a project is very intimate and very vulnerable. This is because imagination needs a lot of room to manoeuvre at this stage. The reality check comes later, around the threshold of the spring equinox. One should share their initial ideas with select people who have an understanding of visioning and who tend to open up space rather than closing it down too soon. At the same time, our vision involved travelling together with a community of many people who have been accompanying our work for a long time – as participants in our seminars, trainees, book readers, or newsletter subscribers. A community that is not yet aware of itself as a community, because it has never been addressed or networked as such. Normally, this community is only approached once the vision has been formulated and it's about funding the project. But we didn't want that. Re:nature always means breaking new ground. And what if many people in our circle were already familiar with visioning? What if not only David and I sought support from nature and the spiritual dimension through rituals, but many people did? What if the landscapes and the season of early spring itself were part of our creation process? We could simply try it out...
In a training module, we taught collective nature walks for a project by venturing out into nature on campus. The shared image was poetic and symbolically meaningful: the campus is small, fine, simple, aesthetically pleasing; there is a lot of open space; the essential is not visible or tangible, but happens as sound in between; it is important to tend the fire, keep the water clean, and at the centre of it all stands the vibrant passing on of the European indigenous tradition.
Then we widened the circle and, with the newsletter of 1st February, invited everyone interested to an online exchange evening with a preceding nature walk. The response was overwhelming. 60 people logged on. We split into break-out groups so that everyone could share their nature walk experience. Some graduates led the small groups and brought the insights back to the plenary session. Ursula wove these into a collective story. Poetry in clarity – completely different people and landscapes, and yet very similar insights to those in the training group two weeks previously... Long before a project becomes manifest, the soil of meaning is laid in this way, the guardrails of important values and sometimes concrete ideas become visible. Early spring: not shooting up into the height, but doing mental groundwork!
Those who wish to read the collective history are welcome to read up.
Part 5: Initial Development Crisis
If things get difficult, stick your finger right in the wound...
Spring is wild. It's warm in February and March and the flowers start to sprout, then suddenly frost seizes everything in its clutches again and forces a pause and strengthens roots. That's how spring teaches us in projects too.
After recovering from the excitement and effort surrounding Biel, we continued our discussions as a foursome. It was clear that David and Ursula, as the originators of the campus idea, had to formulate the concept. This was so that Dani and Rapha could speak to specific people in Switzerland. We always wanted to get back to it. And everything else was more important and necessary. At some point, it becomes noticeable: aha, spring is playing its game. Even though there is enough knowledge and the pressure for concept formulation is increasing, somehow nothing is moving forward. The exclamation marks in the image signal an appeal to discipline. But the energy curve was going down. In a good team, you don't feel guilty about that, but rather share this fact. And the others react with understanding or are even glad that winter conditions still prevail, because they also have so much else to do. Life is demanding us all at the moment. Well, if things aren't looking up, then let's really have one more go at „doing winter“.
This meant that Rapha, as a „native Swiss,“ set off on a natural walk and made very touching observations from his encounter with his ancestors and his landscape. Being in flow, by the river. A mill appeared. Signs that we were simply collecting at that point. And meditating on. At some point, they will become important.
David and Ursula took a week for visioning. They sat together, sharing joys and sorrows, grief and love, alignment and wishes, needs and traumas. Initially, they only spoke about themselves personally. And very quietly, as if in passing, the thread wove itself back to the openness of the winter phase, where everything first dissolved before the seed of the idea formed. Perhaps we shouldn't leave at all? But instead enjoy what we have created here? Is the vision more of an illusion? Are we succumbing to our patterns with it and repeating what actually hinders us from living fully? Or with which part of the vision do we rise above previous patterns? Is our place on the edge of things, holding everything (our hearts grew heavy then)? Or is our position right in the middle of the vision (which would take quite a lot of courage)? Allowing questions made the spring space wide again…
If it doesn't go smoothly, then a pause loop. Slow down, deep conversations.
Part 6: Concept Formulation - Coming Out
Shivering and pride – and it doesn't have to be perfect by a long shot
The threshold of the spring equinox brings the energy from the spiritual lower half into the upper half of manifestation. What formulates itself when we truly formulate what is already there?
Meanwhile, another two months had passed. In our 1 May newsletter, we announced a special newsletter for June and invited people to another online discussion evening on 17 June. But work on the concept was progressing only slowly. On the surface, at least. Beneath the surface, things were literally in full swing. Firstly, we were diligently working through our own issues. Secondly, formulating the concept also meant refining our re:nature approach and clarifying what we’d always wanted to say but had never quite managed to put into words (so that even the cantonal lawyer in Bern could understand it). And thirdly, we needed peace and a connection to natural and spiritual forces, which isn’t exactly easy in the midst of a hectic daily routine with young children. But it became possible whilst I was leading my own vision quest. For four days and nights, we ourselves are at the edge of the forest, looking after the base camp for the participants who are staying in the forest alone and fasting. If all goes well, there isn’t much to do. And so, little by little, the forest, the ritual and the facilitators draw us into an intimate space of connection with the more-than-human world. The concept takes shape as David and Ursula take turns, amidst the song of the golden oriole in the tree above the tent and the astute questions from the AI, which is struggling to reach us in the woods with just a single bar of internet signal. But collective wisdom on all levels helps. And on the threshold, all hell finally breaks loose. With his drum, he stands beneath the trees and drums for life and for the visions of a future that serves life – for the participants and all the processes that are set to become reality this year. Anyone who celebrates rituals themselves – and especially ones as significant as the Vision Quest – knows the impact rituals can have. And how they suddenly open up spaces from within that were previously inaccessible. So we, too, returned from the forest with a pearl. In our bag, a concept. And a great deal of humility, and a bow to the great forces that guide our lives.
And then it wants to be shared, first within the team. Dani was relentless. He demanded that we not only write about our vision, but also show what has already been researched, published, formulated and tried and tested. After all, the radically new has already been tested for more than 20 years... This was followed by a pleasant, friendly exchange with the visionary and entrepreneur Daniel Freitag, who in 1993, together with his brother Markus, pioneered upcycling by making bags from old truck tarpaulins. Mutual inspiration left us with the freedom of not yet having to know exactly what our project should be like. But that every conversation serves to cut the gemstone further.
Late at night after that, Dani, David and Ursula were standing at a crossroads in the middle of Zurich. A new depth of exchange regarding crazy future ideas opened up. Perhaps in the next few years everything will turn out completely differently than we can anticipate right now. The conversation goes down in our memory as the legendary „conversation at the crossroads“. On the night after that, the project is refined once more and the morning brings wisdom: it is genuinely not a transfer of our work from Germany to Switzerland, but a radical transformation. Regardless of where we end up operating.
As the project progresses, we have now reached the spring equinox and are showing what has ripened and grown in the meantime. We are still shivering considerably, because visions have to be megalomaniacal by definition. Reality will soon enough grind them down. But revealing oneself with them is quite another matter; that takes a good deal of courage. What if there is no resonance? What if everyone thinks we're mad? What if we trigger a wave of inspiration and give others courage? We won't know unless we move on from stammering to the first clear formulations.
We've managed it now. The first project draft is ready. You can [do something with it] here read.
He is allowed to fly out into the world with the birds. Because he doesn't have to be perfect. On the contrary. Through all the resonances and feedback, the project will continue to grow. Whether it makes it out into the world is both uncertain and irrelevant. The joy alone is what counts.
Part 7: PAUSING AND SURPRISING TWIST
The threshold tests what is valid and what is not, what matters and what does not... Returning to the origin brings clarity
The summer of 2026 was rich – rich in conversations that we At the beginning of July in Zurich with various people. We showed our concept to different people and listened to their feedback. And it was rich in distancing ourselves through our summer holiday. Four weeks of cycling along the coast of Brittany. And we returned with surprising clarity: the grand vision has fire, but the location in Switzerland (still?) does not. We are reminding ourselves that we already have a campus location where the envisioned already lives! And which gives us the freedom to try out many ideas first.
Entry from early September 2026:
In a self-selected „conversation marathon“ in Zurich at the beginning of July with very diverse creative people from economic research, sustainable entrepreneurship, alternative education, and the nature-based hospice movement, we received a great deal of resonance for our vision paper. Only when presenting our vision paper did we truly understand that our vision actually has two parts: once the grand vision of a re:nature movement: many people are implementing the renaturisation of people and organisations in THEIR place. An inspiring network is emerging (see the graphic above with the different positions in the wheel). The re:nature institute serves as a source, research space and training institute.
The second part of the vision concerns a very specific place in Switzerland as a re:nature campus, a place to live and learn, connected to the origins of our indigenous European research in Switzerland. However, this part of the vision did not receive as much resonance in the discussions: Do you really want to put so much energy into „concrete“, raise and tie up so many resources (including financial ones)? The report on a similar project showed that it would take patience, overcoming many bureaucratic hurdles, and confronting strict Swiss zoning laws. Yes, it could work if the vision is right and very clear. But wouldn't re:nature rather need an office in downtown Zurich? Wouldn't re:nature rather have to go to the people than the people into a remote seminar house, of which there are already so many? Isn't re:nature rather a ProcessAren't you actually already living everything in your place in Beseland/Northern Germany?
With all these questions in our luggage, we then went on holiday very openly – and initially didn't think about them at all for two weeks. Afterwards, during meditative cycling (the landscape sinks into your heart so magically when you're cycling...), there was space to go right back to the very beginning internally once again. For the law of the wheel of life states: if a vision in the process of creation does not soar past the spring equinox with momentum, one must descend once more, right down to the primal impulse.
Yes, right at the very beginning of the impulse to return to Switzerland, for Ursula there was a longing for closer family ties with her daughters and perhaps future grandchildren. Only afterwards, in conversations with Dani and Rapha, did the professional envisioning for working at a re:nature campus in Switzerland really gain momentum. If we take this sequence seriously, it stands to reason that no new location can (yet) be found or even firmly secured until this part of the family's longing for connection has been processed with the two adult daughters! In August, the family council met with great openness and honesty, a shared path of exchange emerged at a deeper level, the outcome is open and above all: the pressure is off!
What has now become clear as the direction for the next re:nature phase:
- The grand vision of a re:nature movement with diverse locations and partner organisations and a re:nature community is catching fire. The network is taking shape. We are dedicating time and passion to this.
- The specific search for a location in Switzerland is being paused (not entirely dropped, but energy is not to be put into it at the moment). The timing is not right yet. Other steps are needed beforehand.
- Instead, at our rather paradisiacal spot in Beseland, we will implement the ideas we had devised for a re:nature Campus Switzerland and try out many things: forming a ritual group from those who look after the place (meaning all „employees“) and exploring what changes as a result in the place and within ourselves. Individual offerings like the vision quest will no longer be advertised as services to be booked, but financed collectively with their impact being explored. We will understand the place entirely as a place for learning and living—as a campus, precisely, with those who live here long-term and those who enrich the place for a time with their life's time. Accommodation payments will then no longer be services like in a hotel, but a shared sustaining of the fact that this place exists in this way. So, a shift in understanding from our current location as our „own seminar house“ towards a re:nature Campus as a shared place of learning and living, as a special think and feel tank for the present day.
- The special relationship with Switzerland remains. Our core team with Dani and Rapha will continue to exist in order to further develop our professional ideas in Switzerland (initially independently of having our own location in Switzerland). Perhaps we should actually organise a re:nature event right in the centre of Zurich first?
- And at the same time, the view broadens to encompass all initiatives in Germany and Austria inspired by re:nature. Because quite a lot is happening here too...
- And last but not least: It must not even anything arise at all. For the most important thing is BEING. Thus we want to arrange our everyday life more in relaxed being. Have spaces for retreat. Take part in rituals ourselves that bring our true tasks even more clearly before our eyes. For these are turbulent times. A depth Grounding and alignment are necessary in order not to burn out on your own fire.
And so, with this new direction, a lovely calm settles in. Nothing is required, everything is allowed, in its own time, in the right place. Which is first of all wherever one happens to be right now.
And the conclusion as a process reflection: No path is in vain. Every detour increases one's local knowledge. During the initial visioning, you cannot tease out the meaning; instead, you have to walk the path in one direction for long enough until the inner logic and arrangement of the complex picture becomes clear. The vision of a re:nature Campus Switzerland is therefore not immediately (or perhaps even never?) realisable, but it has served as a boost to a) allow the grand re:nature vision to emerge, b) muster the courage to co-vision and thus enable the beginnings of a re:nature community to be formed, c) made it clear to us that the location does not lie in the future, but that much of it is already in the present. Our house now finally has a nameplate: re:nature Campus Beseland;-) And finally d) that relationships and yearnings should always be given space, even if you are initially reluctant to voice them. Especially within the immediate family context.
Nothing is ever in vain.
And then the female bear appears
At the beginning of September, Ursula retreated for a nine-day stay – deeply spiritual, healing days involving ceremonies and plant medicine, very close to the bear energy that has accompanied Ursula for a long time. And in this retreat, among many other things, she examines her deep relationship with the Swiss mountains, specifically Graubünden, where the bear actually lives and roams. This is the deep inner sense of belonging to the landscape from which she operates, no matter where she is. So, rather than living outwardly at first, she is entirely inwardly rooted. Thus, the circle closes with her near-death experience 5 years ago, and a new living space opens up. And her name shifts from Ursula to the Swiss variant of the female bear – Ursina. An expression of this deep connection. And of great joy for life.
A new look at our location in Northern Germany as the current re:nature Campus
Sometimes you realise that what you are envisaging is actually already right at your feet. Then the process shows that this must first be fully appreciated and lived. As things stand, whether a relocation to Switzerland will take place after that is still up in the air. A path can only be walked step by step... But when we read what we formulated for the Switzerland campus in spring 2026, much of that already applies quite nicely to Beseland:
A gem with great charisma – because the vision is complex enough: Guest house with seminar room, living area for the site guardians, nature and garden areas, close to the forest.
Research & Education Research into the contemporary application of the 5 indigenous principles of living, training in re:nature facilitation and ritual design.
Think and Feel Tank - Events on organisational development, education, community-led economics, collective trauma
Ritual site — deep nature processes such as the vision quest, seasonal rituals and rituals for climate change
Interconnection point — Meeting for the re:nature community and partners
Place of residence — a small community cares for the space practically, energetically and ritually. Those who bring the place to life for a time belong to this living space for that time.
Who is behind the vision?
Visions need embodiment
People who are passionate about turning an idea into manifest reality. The vision of a re:nature movement is radically new on the one hand. At the same time, it also grows organically out of the preceding nearly 25 years of the re:nature institute (formerly uma institut).
Sources for the nature-based „rewilding project“ rooted in indigenous European wisdom are Ursula and David Seghezzi and their re:nature institute.
Besides the pioneers, it also takes those who believe that a vision is important and have already helped implement it in their own place.
For the further development of the re:nature visions in Switzerland, the core team is supported by Daniel Humbel and Raphael Baumann – linked by the collaboration in applying the re:nature approach at Transa Backpacking AG.
Ursina Seghezzi (55) - Founder and spiritual architect
Religious studies scholar, ethnologist, myth researcher, ritual expert, author
In 2003, Ursina founded the uma institut in Lucerne – the origin of today's re:nature institut. Her decades of fieldwork on the indigenous roots of European cultural history form the intellectual foundation of the approach. Ursina has developed the re:nature compass and embodies the Natural Order in everything she thinks and does. Ursula grew up in Switzerland and therefore has a special connection and longing for her homeland; two of her four children currently live in Switzerland.
David Seghezzi (46) - Transformation Expert and Organisation Developer
Cultural Scientists, Facilitator, Organisational Consultant, Author
David developed the re:nature approach for organisational and transformation work, and has tested it over more than a decade in companies, networks and educational institutions. He is currently writing a book on the application of the re:nature approach in business. He is a passionate visionary for what has not yet been thought of, but is entirely possible. Ursina and David have run the re:nature institute together since 2013, with its own seminar and training centre in Northern Germany, and are the parents of two sons.
Daniel Humbel (60) - Entrepreneur
long-standing CEO of Transa Backpacking AG
In a world where religion and politics are losing their significance as guiding systems, work carries a great existential resonance. The economy must transform accordingly.
The nature-cyclical approach of re:nature enables companies to have an organic form of organisation and communication, allowing them to navigate everyday processes efficiently and transparently.
As an entrepreneur and a visionary, I support the re:nature vision in finding fertile ground in Switzerland.
Raphael Baumann (42) - Organisational Developer
Business IT Specialist, Musician, People & Culture at Transa Backpacking AG
Many try to rescue themselves into the future using New Work models, wanting to jump from their old culture to a new one, while giving too little importance to the path, the process. The re:nature approach is a tool to make precisely this space tangible and communicable. Raphael combines systemic thinking with cultural creativity and supports the re:nature vision in connecting with further interested partners in Switzerland.
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