Scenic view of rolling green hills and mountains in a rural landscape.

Southwest Sufi Community

  • Communities

About the Communities

  • Established
  • Spiritual
  • Rural

Founding year

  • 1995

What we do

The Southwest Sufi Community (SSC), located near Silver City, New Mexico, is first and foremost a spiritually oriented community, promoting understanding of the Sufi message, but welcoming to students of inclusive spiritual paths. We deepen our spiritual path through direct experience and eat, dance, and pray together. The community, begun in June 1995, is a retreat center, a nature preserve, and a residential village on 1,500 acres along year-round Bear Creek. We host group and individual retreats with inclusive spiritual themes.
People interested in residency at the Southwest Sufi Community want to have the pioneer spirit, be financially self-sufficient or resourceful, and in good health. Since the land is remote from town, it is not practical to commute. People will need to support themselves in creative ways. Those interested in establishing cottage industries on the land are especially encouraged to come and check us out.
The best way to get to know the community is to come for a visit, or attend one of our camps or retreats We offer limited indoor accommodations, camping, vegetarian meals, classes, and time in nature. We welcome visitors at other times, too, especially on weekends. Please write or email before planning a visit and tell us you saw this listing in the Communities Directory.

Our Mission

Spiritual retreat & inclusive spiritual community.

  • Purpose
  • Spiritual
  • Community type
  • Spiritual Retreat Centers
  • Sustainability practices
  • Renewable energy systems
  • Permaculture design
  • Activities
  • Experiences

Commemorative dates

  • January 1, 1995
  • Started planning
  • January 1, 1998
  • Started living together
  • 16 Total members
  • Open to new members
  • Open to visitors
Total
16

How to join

Request information from our Host/Coordinator at: ss****@***il.com
We are seeking emotionally mature, cooperative people to join us in creating inclusive spiritual community – including organic growers, people with mechanical and engineering skills, artists, entrepreneurs, families with children.

Basic expectations or agreements for members

Start with an email, letter. We’ll arrange a time for a visit that suits you and us. We also have a variety of accommodations available for individual retreats, including a secluded retreat cabin. See our website for more information:
southwestsuficommunity.org

Decision-making process

  • Modified Consensus

Generally seek agreement, but have backup methods when consensus isn’t reached.

Governance structure

  • Collaborative/Horizontal

Power and responsibility are shared relatively equally among members.

Conflict resolution approach

We take turns as facilitator of the weekly community meeting. One volunteer acts as Host/Coordinator for visitors. phone, email requests..
The Participants Weekly Meeting and the Board of Directors Meetings.
Our Community Participants meet weekly to conduct community business.
Our Community strives for consensus, but it is not a rigid standard. Our Board of Directors works by consensus minus one.

Economic model

  • Independent Finances

Members maintain separate personal finances with minimal sharing.

Economic scenarios for this community

  • Members need to pay fees, dues, or similar to live there on a per month or per year basis
  • There is a labor obligation
  • Members typically need to have their own job or other personal source of income to cover their expenses while living in the community?

Additional economic information

Regular fees: Yes
Labor: Encouraged or suggested
Members with pre-existing debt: allowed
Any debts are an individual responsibility.
There is no specific requirement. Participants volunteer to help with the work of the community.
Participants pay a $125 participation fee monthly and $100 to $200per month rent depending upon the accomodations.

Shared resources and amenities that are accessible to everyone in the community

Common House, Garden(s), Greenhouse(s), Library, Workshop, Outbuilding(s), Swimming pond or pool, Outdoor Kitchen, Large Scale Kitchen, Tractor & Farm Equipment, Internet

Frequency of communal meals

  • About once a week

Dietary type

  • Vegetarian Only

Dietary restriction

  • People can cook and eat what they want in their own residence

Community activities and engagement

  • Volunteer, Internship, or Apprenticeship, or WWOOF’ing
  • Festivals, Conferences, Events

Substance use culture

  • Substance use appears in public spaces but no pressure
  • Religions
  • Sufi

Gender composition

  • Roughly balanced (no group over 60%)

Age demographics

  • Mixed adults (few or no children)

Property status

  • Privately owned

Property owner

  • By a Community Land Trust or some other kind of nonprofit

Setting

  • Rural

Countryside locations with significant distance from urban centers.

Community type

  • Spiritual Retreat Centers

    Residential communities focused on providing space for meditation, spiritual practice, and personal growth retreats.

Sustainability approach

  • Renewable energy systems
  • Permaculture design

Land practices in our community

  • The community practices permaculture

Self-produced energy

  • 33 - 66%

Energy sources used

  • Photovoltaic Solar

Self-produced food

  • Up to 33%

Local, organic, or fair trade food

  • 33 - 66%

Food systems

  • Community garden
  • Greenhouse / aquaponics

Guest Book

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Location

  • New Mexico, United States

Southwest Sufi Community

Needs and Offers

Connecting people and communities through an intentional online marketplace

Need
  • Promoted
  • Events
3 weeks ago

Healing Love Healing Money: Trust As The Foundation For A New Culture

Money, love and power are among the hardest things any community works with, and many of us carry the same fears into both: not having enough, losing what we have, and the sense that if someone else gets money or love, we won’t. Healing Love, Healing Money: Trust as the Foundation for a New Culture is taught by two intentional communities. Karen McAllister and Duncan Cryle are from Clear Sky Meditation and Retreat Center, a Buddhist-lineage community in the BC Rockies. Monika Alleweldt and Benjamin von Mendelssohn from Tamera Healing Biotope, a community of about 160 people in southern Portugal that has spent decades studying love, trust and relationship. Clear Sky has spent years working on its relationship with money, and our two communities found surprising parallels in the fears beneath both. Over four sessions we explore the roots of fear around money and belonging, love, possession and power, trust as infrastructure (community as a container for healing), and ethical livelihood. We use short meditations, body-based practices, reflection and small-group conversation. You do not need to be in a romantic relationship or live in community. When: October 27, Nov 3, 10, 17. All four sessions: 12–2pm Vancouver, 1–3pm Alberta, 7–9pm UK and Portugal, 8–10pm Central Europe. Note: US and some Canadian provinces change clocks on November 1, so the US west coast is 12–2pm on October 27, then 11am–1pm for the remaining sessions, and Eastern is 3–5pm on October 27, then 2–4pm for the rest. Cost: sliding scale Details and registration: https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/healing-love-healing-money-online/  
October 27, 2026 13:00 – November 17, 2026 15:00
  • Promoted
Offer
  • Promoted
Offer
  • Events
6 days ago

Womens Tiny Mud House Workshop

I’m Na, a regenerative designer, earthen builder and educator with the Global Ecovillage Network. I’m passionate about helping people step into action, however big or small. A women’s build I joined back in 2015 was a much needed transformational experience that set me on this path. Offering this workshop is a way of coming full circle and passing that same spark on. Sat 16 to Fri 22 January 2027 This is a hands-on workshop where you’ll learn earthen building techniques and build a tiny house from the earth up, with your own hands. Why tiny? A tiny house requires careful, creative design and asks – what space do we actually need to live? It uses far less material and takes less time to build, so it’s practical and economical. This also allows us to experience all stages of a house build, from design and brick-making to building and finishing. You’ll get your hands into every part of the build. We’ll work with mud brick (adobe), cob and bamboo, then earth plasters and finishes. This workshop is open to women of all ages and abilities are welcome. Come if you’re new and curious, if you want more practice on specific parts of a build, or simply to play in the mud with wonderful people. It’s genuinely good fun. We’ll be in my little forest, a small house on the edge of a village and national park, 20 km south of Chiang Mai, Thailand. You can stay on site in simple earthen dorms or tents, and we’ll share home-cooked Thai food in the cool, bright days of Thai winter. Read more and register here 
January 16, 2027 00:00 – January 22, 2027 23:59
Offer
  • Real Estate For Sale
2 weeks ago

Breathe the Magic

Set in Sea Elephant, Tasmania, within a remarkable conservation landscape, this contemporary home offers genuine privacy with the assurance that the surrounding native environment is protected for the future.  With its cool King Island climate and abundant rain and water supply, your lifetyle is secure in a climate future that is becoming unsettling. Experience the unique community lifestyle that only King Island can offer.  Sleep with the peace of knowing you live in a place where everyone looks out for everyone else, and someone will always have your back. 1675 Reekara Road offers slightly more than 51 hectares of protected King Island wilderness, of which approximately 48.84 hectares are protected under a conservation covenant encompassing King Island scrub, blue gum forest, remarkable wildlife. The property is surrounded by the Lavinia State Reserve and Council Hill Conservation Area. A 2 hectare residential entitlement provides ample space for planting vegetables, fruit trees,  keeping chickens, or creating other sustainable living infrastructure.  Already included are: – A well-maintained house built in 2023 with upstairs en-suite bedroom and deck with gorgeous views, including forest/ocean outlook. – A spacious downstairs bathroom provides options for guest accommodation – Just include a sleeper couch or 2 in the ample living area. – A large pristine kitchen, including pantry and laundry. – Small wood shed – Large shed or double garage built in 2024 – Enclosed garden – 40,000 litre water storage tank – large dam An existing approved DA means you have the option of further development.  Buy the property furnighed, unfurnished, or with a 2015 Jeep Wrangler thrown in.
Offer

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