Fifth World Cultural Collective

Join our movement today!

A global community for sharing and preserving culture, art, music, language, and nature.Promoting our shared heritage of culture, curiosity, and oneness.

Subscribe to our free newsletter/blog
[coming soon]We'll send you a monthly email with global and local news from around the world, cultural and linguistic insights, submitted messages and art from 5th World members, upcoming projects and events, and what's new on the 5th World Market!We are open to collaboration requests and submissions of art, music, poetry/writing, etc.
Get in touch by e-mail or Instagram to learn more about joining the Collective.

About Us

Welcome to the Fifth World Cultural Collective. We are a community dedicated to sustainably sharing and creating cultural products and knowledge. United by a common goal of bringing people together from around the world in a spirit of peace and creative collaboration. Our goal is to create networks of local and global artists, craftspeople, musicians, writers, teachers, learners, farmers, architects, builders, dreamers, and all beings.The Fifth World Collective is part of our vision for a more peaceful, sustainable, and interconnected planet. We are starting this organization because we know that our differences should unite us, not separate us. We must take individual and collective action every day to spread this message. Join us as messengers of the Fifth World!Our mission and values:
1. To promote societal, ecological, and technological re-balance and development along moral and spiritual lines.
2. Acknowledgement of the fundamental unity of humanity and our natural universe, and a celebration of unity through diversity.
3. The promotion of indigenous cultures and acknowledgement of indigenous sovereignty.
4. To create a hub for cultural and linguistic education, intercultural artisanal collaboration, as well as a monthly newsletter, shop, and site.
5. Global and local community building and the promotion of cultural arts, events, artisanal/farmer's markets, community-based projects (Free Library and Garden Boxes), etc.
6. Reintegration of nature in society, support for solar and other renewable energies, and environmental restoration. We must be socio-ecological stewards of our landscape, rather than seeing humanity as above or separate from nature.
7. The promotion of agroforestry, permaculture, and rewilding practices; a transformation of the "American Lawn" grass monoculture into food forests, gardens, and green spaces.
8. Reevaluation of human geopolitical and social systems.
9. Establish discussion groups to understand different perspectives, concepts, and attachments.
10. Acceptance of the natural cycle of birth, life, death, and transformation.

Selection from September's Newsletter

Day: 13, Ollin (Movement) / 13-Day Cycle: Coatl (Snake) / Solar Year: 13, Calli (house) - September 1st, 2025.

The scene above is from the Codex Cihuacoat, or "Borbonicus", created in the 1520s by Aztec priests in the Mexico Valley.Today is Labor Day in the United States, a restful holiday commemorating the Labor Movement, but on the traditional Aztec Calendar today is 13-Ollin (Movement)."The significance of this day:
Day Ollin (Movement, known as Caban in Maya) is governed by Xolotl as its provider of tonalli (Shadow Soul) life energy. This is an auspicious day for the active principle, a bad day for the passive principle. Ollin is a day of the purified heart, signifying those moments where human beings may perceive what they are becoming. A good day for transmutation, which arrives like an earthquake that leaves in its wake the ruins of rationality, order and the preconceived." (Aztec Calendar).Let's consider labor politics in the indigenous altepetl of Mexico-Tenochtitlan. Nobles controlled all the land, worked by commoners, serfs, and slaves. Tribute was paid to the ruling elites, and commonfolk were obligated to perform labor service for the state. While this may sound like a huge step back from the post-Industrial age "progress" of the Labor Movement, it may contain the seeds of some ideas worth replanting, such as the principles of collective ownership and organization.Calpullalli (Communal land ownership): Commoners, known as macehualtin, were organized into smaller units called calpulli(neighborhoods or wards). Each calpulli collectively owned and distributed land (calpullalli) to its member families for cultivation. While families could use the land and pass on the right of use to their heirs, they could not sell it as private property.Tequitl (Collective labor): Members of the calpulli were collectively responsible for agricultural production, construction and maintenance of public works. Even today in Mexico, the practice of 'tequio' is common, the collective voluntary service that each person owes to their community. Mink'a (from Quechua minccacuni, meaning "asking for help by promising something") is a similar such concept in South America.Returning to the work of the Aztec priests, or teopixqui, the monumental central figure [left] depicted in the act of childbirth, is the great earth mother Tlazolteotl, a complex deity of fertility, sin, and purification. The avian figure to her right, is actually Tezcatlipoca "Smoking Mirror", shapeshifting wizard and master of fate, in his nagual, or animal disguise as Cozcacuauhtli, "Crested Caracara", a vulture-like scavenger. His usual nagual is Jaguar, Ocelotl (Nahatul), or Ix (Maya language). He is associated with a variety of concepts, including the night sky, hurricanes, obsidian, and conflict. He is one of the four sons of Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl, the primordial dual deity.The symbol of Nahua Ollin (Movement) is also a symbol of the Fifth World in Nahua cosmology, as the ruling sign of this World/Sun Cycle of Creation and Destruction; destined to end in world-shaking earthquakes, leading to the destruction of the Fifth World, and the inevitable rebirth into a new cycle.Indigenous writer and activist Tupac Enrique Acosta repurposed the Nahui Ollin symbol for positive social change, saying it is: "a reflection, a moment of reconciliation of the past with the possibilities of the future... It is the 'Smoking Mirror' into which the individual, the family, the clan, the barrio, the tribe and the nation must gaze to acquire the sense of history that calls for liberation."

Music

Tierra Etérea is the exploratory music of Fifth World Collective founders Chris Ver Voort and Francys Luis-Ravelo. The music blends folk, ambient soundscapes, psychedelic rock, bossa nova, and other traditional music from around the world.Available for streaming on all major platforms.Contact us to book a performance!

art

Explore our collection of enchanting original artwork! Inquire for pricing and availability.Scroll down to see our first digital gallery, featuring art by Francys Luis-Ravelo.Join the Collective to get your own art featured!

Language Learning

Interested in learning English, Spanish, or other languages? How about Mandinka, Haitian Creole, or Wolof?Check out our free language learning resources, or contact us to schedule a private online language tutor!Languages currently available for tutoring:
• English: All Levels
• Spanish: A1-A2 (Beginner)
• French: A1-A2 (Beginner)
• Mandinka: A1-A2 (Beginner)
• Wolof: A1 (Basics)[coming soon]

FIFTH WORLD MARKET

Shop our online world market, a carefully curated selection of imported and domestic cultural goods. Find new books, musical instruments, art, and more!

Our Philosophy

Why "5th World" ?
The terms First World, Second World, and Third World were born out of the Cold War—dividing humanity into rigid categories based on political alliances and economic status. The term Fourth World was later added to describe Indigenous and stateless peoples/nations. We believe that it's time to go beyond these four worlds. Humanity must be reevaluated for who we truly are: One people, living on one interconnected world, sharing and sustaining a balanced life in harmony with nature and with one another.The name honors indigenous American traditions, which speak of the Earth and humanity progressing through great eras or worlds. Among the Hopi, stories tell of the transition from the Fourth to the Fifth World—a time of great change, and a return to harmony with nature, which some say has already begun. The Zuni also speak of emergence through previous worlds, arriving in the Daylight World where humans must live in right relationship with all beings. The Diné (Navajo) recount four earlier worlds, each left behind through hardship or imbalance, with the Fifth World representing our present time, an era in which humans must learn, heal, and create beauty and balance, to live in accordance with Hózhó, or Hózhǫ́ǫ́jí The Blessing Way.Nahua/Aztec cosmology also describes five successive eras, culminating in our current age, the Sun of Nahui Ollin, "Four-Motion", or "Universal Movement of the Four Quarters" (all directions). The first four Suns ended in catastrophic destruction (jaguars, hurricane winds, fiery rain, and a flood), after which each age was reborn anew. Now, under the Fifth Sun of Nahui Ollin, the world is sustained in a delicate balance, and humanity must maintain Teōtl - a Nahuatl term referencing the powerful, dynamic, and ever-present force that permeates all of existence.Many societies have parallel concepts, such as Tao 道, the ineffable - prana, mana, orenda, manitou, and so many others - all terms for the all-encompassing and transformational energy or force connecting all things.In modern scientific terms, this may be akin to Systems or Process Theories, which describe reality as a series of self-replicating processes and interconnected systems, rather than a universe made up of concrete "things", and/or Quantum Field Theory, which no longer sees the universe as an empty space with particles moving through it. Rather, that all particles are excitations or disturbances within a set of pervasive, vibrating fields that permeate the totality of time and space. Each fundamental particle—like an electron or a photon—is a manifestation of a deeper, underlying field.In Buddhist traditions this formless and interconnected ground of being is called the Dharmakāya धर्म काय - "Dharma Body", which can be understood through the Indra's Net metaphor, of an endless cosmic net with a jewel at each intersection reflecting within itself all the other jewels infinitely. This illustrates the principle of pratītyasamutpāda (interdependent co-arising), affirming that the ground of being is Śūnyatā—"Emptiness", often misinterpreted as "Nothingness". This actually means all things are empty of an independently arising self that exists without dependence on or relation to its environment.This is the heart of the Fifth World philosophy. We are all interconnected and interdependent on everything else. To our fellow brothers and sisters we are connected by music, language, art, culture, and so much more. To live in a more harmonious balance with our environments and with each other.

FEATURED ARTIST
Francys Luis-Ravelo

गते गते पारगते पारसंगते बोधि स्वाहा
Gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā
Gone, gone, all gone, passed over to the shore of wisdom, awakening, amen
- The Heart Sutra

Content & Attribution: This website may contain copyrighted material, the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We make use of such material, including content from the Public Domain and under Creative Commons licenses, for educational, research, and informational purposes. We believe this constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material. All third-party content is attributed to its original creator to the best of our ability.Fifth World Cultural Collective, 2025.