Ethics
Learn abouth Bwiti ethics and Basé Root Code of Ethics
Bwiti ethics, morals, and teachings
Ethics — from the Ancient Greek ethos — literally means “morals.”
So it couldn’t be clearer — as an organization providing traditional Bwiti experiences — how to conceptualize the ethical backbone of our organization.
The Bwiti teachings themselves — the same teachings that have been passed down by the Bwiti in ceremony for thousands of years, — and now us at Bassé Root — light the way to the ethical standards we uphold.
“Just Be”
The purest form of honesty — if you are truly inhabiting this teaching, you will operate effortlessly from a place of authenticity and transparency that feeds perfectly into the co-creation of a medically and spiritually safe container for our visitors.
“The Art of Knowing”
There is a crucial difference between what we know, and what we believe.
Check your assumptions and ask one another direct questions.
Clarify everything you’re unsure about, no matter how trivial-seeming, with one another and our leadership team.
Tell each other what you’ve noticed; support each other in gravitating towards the truth of every situation your collaborative provision of Bassé Root retreats involves.
The Art of Knowing also plays into interpersonal relationships — none of us are psychic (officially speaking!) — ask yourself and tell each other what’s going on for you in a given moment, and what support you need from the rest of the assembled collective.
“Care not to care”
The extent to which following this teaching can prevent the kinds of workplace dynamics that drive people to leave offices is impossible to overstate.
It is true to the nature of the way the Bwiti teachings are passed on to us by our teachers in Gabon that each and every one of our visitors will have their own personal take on the Bwiti teachings, and ways of doing things.
Celebrating diversity of expression (while remaining true to the essence of each teaching!) is living absolutely in the spirit of the “care not to care” teaching.
We encourage each of you to focus on living in line with your personal truth as supported by the Bwiti teachings you embody — and to respect others doing the same.
“Love yourself”
Listen to your heart, eat well, rest deeply.
Tell yourself what a brilliant job you’re doing and tell us immediately if there is anything you need in order to keep doing such a brilliant job.
Code of ethics:
simple member guidelines
As a member of Bassé Root, we ask that you uphold the following values.
Safety
All our members receive full training when joining the Bassé Root team to ensure you will be able to work effectively as leaders of this organization and representations of the Bwiti tradition.
This means you will be fully able to play your part in ensuring we never deviate from delivering the consistent standard of care we offer to support the safe experiences of all our members and visitors.
Protecting the Missoko Bwiti teachings
We set up Bassé Root with reverence for our teachers in Gabon — in order to pass on intact the teachings from the Missoko Bwiti tradition — one of the oldest forms of Bwiti and the only form to focus on healing. Bassé Root is the one of a few of purely traditional Missoko Bwiti branches outside of Gabon and for their preservation it is of paramount importance that we pass on the teachings in an unaltered form.
The Bwiti have followed the tradition we practice at Bassé Root for thousands of years, and have only recently begun sharing it with the outside world again.
We will honor this by ensuring it remains true and intact in our Church.
Reciprocity & sustainability
Bassé Root maintains strong links with our village in Gabon, where we source the traditions and materials that you will share with our members.
The relationship we have with our teachers and their community in the village is one that we nurture year-round. While we do not expect our members to get involved with the volunteering activities that we do to support our Bwiti community, we encourage you to stay informed about our reciprocity activities.
This is so that you can easily help us share Bwiti perspectives wherever openings come up naturally to do so — and ensure our friends in Gabon have a voice in discussions about how we operate.
Respect
Embody respect always — for your co-members, for all other Bassé Root staff, for your guests, for yourselves.
Online, offline and in person. Everybody comes to the Bwiti tradition with their own backstory, including a unique set of spiritual and psychological experiences, memories, traumas and coping strategies incurred over the course of their lifetime so far.
Exercise your expert judgment and err on the side of holding back on sharing your own experience or personal perspectives when in a leadership context — to hold an unslanted, safe space for each individual among us.
Clear boundaries
Due to the healing nature of Bwiti, you will encounter visitors at their most delicate and/or vulnerable — and, on occasion, expressive and potentially aggressive in their external expression of what they are experiencing internally.
It is vital that you act from a standpoint of clarity about your personal boundaries in relation to the behavior of our visitors — and ensure that you seek support from your co-members in mitigating all situations where these may be transgressed.
This will help you in cultivating an atmosphere in which everybody — visitors and members — respects one another’s boundaries and feels confident that theirs will be respected in turn.
Zero intimacy
We are dedicated to integrity-led management of the finances to make the most use of funds towards the advancement of our mission.
We ask that members respect the financial structures that underpin the organization absolutely — and always follow procedural guidelines for collecting payments from visitors.
Above all, we believe finances should never be a barrier to connecting with the Bwiti tradition, so we operate our non-profit model with full financial transparency in the service of increasing equitable access.