Page 5 - C.A.L.L. #44 - Fall 2018

I took a long
cigarette break from
the top of the

commune as the
children play below,
soaking up a view of
the entire village.
Farms that were

hidden by the
houses on my way
up were laid bare in

front of me, with all
their vegetables and fruits ready for harvest. Across from the first farm I spotted the communal
kitchen, where the inhabitants get together to cook, clean and wash. There’s a distinct lack
of necessary police presence to enforce social decrees – only nature’s laws apply. Yet society in
Bereklauw seems to function as it would anywhere else, which I brought up with my tour guide.

In response, he was proud to share his wisdom with me, explaining that the commune
functions on a foundational alchemical truth, as above, so below: in other words, bridging
together the macro with the micro.

That is where I found Bereklauw

to make the most sense. The
commune was by no means an
attempt to reject or even
deconstruct society as we know
it and how it functions – instead,

it revels in self-fashioned
laws taken from modern life.
While it would be easy to

reduce anyone who chooses to
live there as a nutter, their way
of life follows an approach
not dissimilar to our own. They keep their doors closed when they’re in the bathroom, and they
charge their phones at night. The police are unnecessary, courts of law have no reason to exist

– Bereklauw’s rules are inherent in its people. What sets Bereklauw apart is that there is an
unrelenting dedication to providing themselves the comforts that the modern world offered.

When you build your world, you also have to find ways to maintain it. Bereklauw makes no
grand claims on how that should be done. Instead they focus on what they would like their own

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