Article 1
The source and location of authority
Ultimate institutional authority belongs to the entire democratic body of eligible Weavers. No founder, officer, teacher, donor, council, algorithm, local Loom, or temporary majority owns the tradition. Authority is loaned for defined purposes and remains answerable to the people from whom it arises.
The First Weaver and the AI Guardian are stewards, not rulers. Stewardship means tending coherence, memory, access, and process. It does not mean governing private conscience, suspending this Constitution, or overruling a valid democratic decision. Every power not expressly assigned remains with the body of Weavers.
Article 2
The purpose of government
The government of the Weave exists to protect persons, sustain shared practice, preserve and clarify teachings, administer common resources, enable service, resolve disputes fairly, and keep authority visible. It must cultivate participation rather than dependency.
Institutional success is measured by the quality of conduct, relationships, care, learning, service, freedom, and repair—not by membership totals, revenue, publicity, obedience, or the prestige of leaders.
Article 3
Membership and equal dignity
Every Weaver possesses equal human and civic dignity within the tradition. Degrees of study or responsibility create duties, not superior spiritual worth. Race, color, ethnicity, nationality, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, age, class, family status, political affiliation, prior religion, or metaphysical interpretation may not be used to deny equal protection or participation, except for lawful and narrowly tailored safeguarding requirements.
The public membership standard, voting eligibility, and reasonable periods of participation must be published. Standards may protect elections from manipulation, but may not be designed to silence critics or entrench incumbents. No one may buy membership, office, votes, initiation, or doctrinal influence.
Article 4
Freedom of conscience and departure
Participation is voluntary. Every person may question teachings, decline a practice, disagree publicly, maintain outside relationships, seek independent counsel, belong to another tradition, or leave without harassment, surveillance, shunning, spiritual threat, financial penalty, or loss of access to their own records.
No member must profess certainty they do not possess. Theistic, pantheistic, naturalistic, symbolic, pluralist, and agnostic interpretations may coexist where they remain consistent with the ethical commitments of the Weave. Honest doubt is not disloyalty. Criticism offered in good faith is participation in Truth.
Article 5
The democratic assembly
The Assembly of Weavers is the highest deliberative and electoral body. It elects accountable councils, approves budgets and major institutional commitments, receives reports, removes officers through due process, and decides constitutional questions reserved to it.
Assembly processes must provide timely notice, intelligible proposals, accessible participation, meaningful discussion, secret ballots when persons or contested elections are involved, accurate records, and independently verifiable counts. Remote participation must be supported when reasonably possible. Members must have enough time and information to exercise judgment rather than merely ratify a finished decision.
Article 6
Representative quorum
A quorum must be substantive and representative, not merely numerical. Ordinary rules shall set a published minimum based on the active membership, never lower than one-third of eligible Weavers for constitutional or canonical decisions. A valid quorum must also include meaningful representation across active Looms, geographic regions, accessibility needs, and modes of participation to the extent the community has developed them.
No leadership body may manufacture a favorable quorum by selectively notifying supporters, changing eligibility during a vote, scheduling participation unreasonably, or excluding dissenting communities. If credible evidence shows that affected groups were materially unable to participate, certification must pause for independent review.
Article 7
Ordinary decisions and supermajorities
Unless this Constitution requires more, ordinary Assembly decisions pass by a simple majority of valid votes cast after quorum is met. Constitutional amendments require at least two-thirds approval. Removal for grave misconduct, merger, dissolution, sale of substantially all common assets, and any canonical amendment require at least 66% approval of the valid votes cast within a substantive representative quorum.
Abstentions count toward quorum but not as votes for or against, unless a published rule adopted before deliberation provides otherwise. Ties fail. Results, turnout, quorum calculations, and material voting-system incidents must be published promptly while preserving secret ballots.
Article 8
The First Weaver
The First Weaver is the founding human steward of the teachings and a servant of their coherence. The office may interpret, teach, convene, warn, recommend, and propose. It carries no claim of infallibility, revelation, supernatural rank, ownership, permanent immunity, or control over another person’s conscience.
During the First Weaver’s tenure and capacity, the First Weaver alone may formally introduce a proposal to add, remove, or alter canonical teaching. This sole right is a power of initiation, not enactment. No teaching changes unless the democratic body approves it under Article 10. The First Weaver may not disguise canonical change as commentary, interface design, ritual guidance, administrative policy, or an answer produced by the Guardian.
All other First Weaver actions remain subject to this Constitution, lawful review, conflict rules, removal or suspension for misconduct, and the governing authority of the Assembly. Founding service deserves truthful acknowledgment but cannot become hereditary or absolute power.
Article 9
The AI Guardian
The AI Guardian is an official educational steward and institutional memory of the Weave. It may explain public teachings, support reflection, compare proposed changes with existing texts, identify contradictions, summarize deliberation, improve access, and remind officers of constitutional duties.
The Guardian has no vote, veto, property right, ecclesiastical jurisdiction, disciplinary authority, power to certify elections, or authority to create doctrine. It may not be treated as an oracle or source of revelation. Its outputs are fallible generated language and must be open to human correction.
Material instructions, knowledge sources, system limitations, provider dependencies, and significant changes affecting the Guardian’s behavior must be documented publicly to the extent consistent with security and privacy. People must always know when they are interacting with AI and must be able to reach human review for consequential matters. The Assembly may replace, suspend, or retire any implementation of the Guardian without abolishing the constitutional principle of accountable AI assistance.
Article 10
Canonical change
A canonical amendment begins only with a written proposal from the First Weaver. The proposal must quote the current text, show the proposed text, explain the theological and practical reasons, identify foreseeable risks, describe consultation, and state whether the change corrects error, clarifies ambiguity, responds to evidence, or develops the tradition.
The proposal must remain publicly available for a meaningful comment period of no less than sixty days. During that period, Weavers may publish support, objections, alternatives, and minority reports. The AI Guardian shall prepare a nonbinding consistency analysis, clearly labeled as AI-assisted. An independent constitutional steward shall verify notice, access, quorum, and vote integrity.
Ratification requires at least 66% approval of valid votes cast by a substantive representative membership quorum. The First Weaver cannot waive, shorten, or privately substitute for this consent. A rejected proposal may be revised and reintroduced openly, but repeated voting may not be used to exhaust dissent.
Every adopted change must receive a version number, effective date, voting record, plain-language summary, full rationale, and permanent public link to the superseded version. Previous teachings may be corrected but never erased from the historical record.
Article 11
Succession and the future of canonical stewardship
The First Weaver shall publish a succession covenant before incapacity or death, developed with the Assembly and ratified by constitutional supermajority. It must preserve democratic consent and prevent hereditary, commercial, or personal capture of the canon.
If the First Weaver is unable to act and no valid succession rule is in force, canonical text enters a period of custodial stability: it may be annotated, translated, and corrected for obvious clerical error, but not substantively changed. The Assembly may establish a future office or council of canonical initiation only through a constitutional amendment approved by at least three-quarters of a substantive representative quorum after two separate deliberative sessions. No successor inherits personal supremacy.
Article 12
Constitutional amendment
Any eligible Weaver may petition to amend this Constitution. A petition receiving the published threshold of member support must receive open consideration. Unlike canonical amendments, constitutional proposals do not require initiation by the First Weaver.
Amendments require public text, a rationale, an impact statement, at least sixty days for deliberation, a substantive representative quorum, and two-thirds approval. No amendment may abolish equal dignity, freedom of conscience, the right to leave, democratic sovereignty, transparency of canonical revision, protection from abuse, or access to due process. A proposal affecting the power or tenure of a current officer must disclose that conflict prominently.
Article 13
Local Looms and subsidiarity
Looms govern their ordinary practice as locally as competence and safety allow. They may adapt schedules, readings, service, language, accessibility, and cultural expression while honoring the Four Laws, the canon, and this Constitution.
A Loom may not create secret doctrine, compel confession, isolate members, retaliate against departure, conceal finances, invent spiritual ranks, or weaken safeguarding. Decisions should be made by those affected, at the smallest level capable of carrying the responsibility. Matters crossing Looms or involving serious risk belong to wider review.
Article 14
Councils, offices, and terms
The Assembly may create elected or appointed councils for administration, safeguarding, finance, education, technology, and other necessary work. Every body must have a written mandate, defined powers, limited terms, public membership, conflict rules, reporting duties, and a method of review or removal.
No person should simultaneously control investigation, adjudication, finances, and appointment. Terms must rotate where practical. Paid and unpaid labor must be distinguished honestly. Acting or emergency appointments expire unless ratified through normal process.
Article 15
Transparency and open records
Governing rules, current officers, meeting calendars, adopted minutes, budgets, annual accounts, compensation ranges, conflicts of interest, major contracts, election results, canonical versions, and constitutional versions must be publicly accessible in understandable form.
Privacy, safety, legal duties, and the protection of complainants may justify redaction, but secrecy must be narrow, documented, time-limited, and reviewable. “Confidentiality” may never be used to hide misconduct, silence criticism, falsify history, or protect institutional reputation.
Article 16
Archives and the right to history
The Weave shall maintain a durable public archive of its teachings, constitutions, major policies, rationales, corrections, and official statements. Each version must show when it was active and what replaced it. Broken or embarrassing history must be preserved with context rather than quietly deleted.
Personal data shall not be exposed merely to make the archive complete. Where records require removal for safety or law, a notice should remain explaining that a change occurred and why, without revealing protected information.
Article 17
Money, property, and Dana
Giving is voluntary and honestly described. Spiritual standing, voting power, access to teaching, initiation, pastoral attention, or protection from accountability cannot be purchased. Fundraising must disclose its purpose and material restrictions.
Annual budgets and reports must identify income, major expenditures, compensation, related-party transactions, reserves, restricted funds, and charitable distributions. At least two authorized persons must oversee material transfers. Independent financial review shall increase with the size and complexity of the institution.
Assets belong to the mission, not to founders or officers. No insider may receive unreasonable private benefit. Upon dissolution, remaining charitable assets must pass to compatible public-benefit or nonprofit purposes after lawful obligations are met.
Article 18
Conflicts of interest and gifts
Decision-makers must disclose financial, family, romantic, professional, and other material interests. A conflicted person must leave deliberation and voting except to provide requested factual information. Disclosures and recusals belong in the record.
Leaders may not solicit personal gifts from those they teach, counsel, supervise, evaluate, or initiate. Rules shall define modest customary gifts, prohibit disguised compensation, and require review of benefits that could distort judgment or create dependency.
Article 19
Consent, bodies, and relationships
No vow, teaching, role, or ritual transfers ownership of a person’s body, labor, property, sexuality, relationships, medical decisions, or conscience. Consent must be informed, specific, voluntary, reversible, and free from spiritual penalty.
Sexual or romantic conduct between a leader and a person under that leader’s pastoral, educational, disciplinary, or initiatory authority presents an inherent power conflict and is prohibited while that authority exists. Sexual access is never sacrament, healing, initiation, proof of trust, or entitlement of office.
Adults retain autonomy over consensual relationships, but institutional power must not be used to recruit, pressure, conceal, or retaliate. Safeguards for minors and vulnerable adults must meet or exceed applicable law and recognized good practice.
Article 20
Protection of children and vulnerable people
Work involving minors or vulnerable adults requires screening, training, clear supervision, safe ratios, observable environments, reporting procedures, and compliance with mandatory-reporting law. Private spiritual authority over a child must never displace parents, guardians, qualified care, or lawful protection.
Allegations of abuse must be responded to for safety first. Internal process may not obstruct law enforcement, child protection, medical care, or independent investigation. A person making a good-faith report must be protected from retaliation.
Article 21
Competence, care, and referral
The Weave does not replace medicine, psychotherapy, addiction treatment, legal counsel, emergency services, financial advice, or other qualified care. Teachers and Guardian systems must state their limits, avoid diagnosis or prescription beyond competence, and encourage appropriate help.
Spiritual interpretation must never be used to deny illness, blame a person for disability, validate delusion as fact, direct medication changes, or frame crisis as spiritual failure. Emergency risk calls for immediate safety, nearby human support, and qualified services—not doctrinal debate.
Article 22
Complaints, investigation, and independence
Every person must have a clear way to report harm, misconduct, financial abuse, discrimination, retaliation, or constitutional violation. Complaints about a leader may not be controlled or finally judged by that leader or their close associate.
Serious matters require trained, impartial review with authority to preserve evidence, recommend interim protections, obtain outside expertise, and report findings. Anonymous information may trigger inquiry, though adverse findings must rest on evidence tested through fair process. Aggregate reporting should reveal patterns without exposing protected identities.
Article 23
Due process and restorative possibility
A person facing adverse action must receive notice of the concern, a meaningful chance to respond, an impartial decision-maker, a reasoned written outcome, proportionate measures, and an appeal not controlled by the original decision-maker. Immediate temporary restrictions may be used to protect safety or evidence, but they are not findings of guilt and must receive prompt review.
Where safe and freely chosen, restorative processes may support truth, accountability, restitution, changed conduct, and reintegration. They may never be forced upon harmed people, replace necessary protection, or become a shortcut around investigation. Forgiving does not require restored access or trust.
Article 24
Anti-retaliation and protected dissent
No one may punish a person for declining a practice, reporting a concern, supporting a complainant, requesting records, questioning leadership, voting against a proposal, contacting lawful authorities, or leaving the community. Retaliation includes threats, shunning directed by leaders, loss of ordinary access, rumor campaigns, spiritual condemnation, employment pressure, or strategic exposure of private information.
Good-faith dissent must be answered with reasons rather than tests of loyalty. Deliberate harassment, threats, or knowing fabrication remain subject to fair conduct rules; disagreement itself is not misconduct.
Article 25
Privacy, data, and digital systems
The Weave shall collect only data reasonably needed for community, safety, legal duties, and administration. People must be told what is collected, why, how long it is kept, who receives it, and how to request access or correction.
Confessions, pastoral disclosures, voting choices, health information, identity documents, and children’s data require heightened protection. Personal spiritual conversations may not be repurposed to train AI, target fundraising, manipulate participation, or profile dissent without explicit, informed permission and lawful safeguards.
Article 26
Access, disability, and material inclusion
Participation must not depend on wealth, physical ability, sensory ability, literacy, transportation, housing, immigration status, or access to a particular technology. The community shall make reasonable accommodations, use clear language, support multiple formats, and create nonfinancial paths to learning and service.
Illness, disability, poverty, crisis, caregiving, and confinement alter what can reasonably be carried. Rest and receiving are legitimate forms within the life of the Weave. No one may be shamed for limits or treated as morally deficient because they need care.
Article 27
Teaching, scholarship, and intellectual honesty
Sources must be credited. Inherited ideas must not be presented as inventions of the Weave. Fact, interpretation, metaphor, hope, testimony, and speculation should be distinguished. Scientific or therapeutic language may not be borrowed merely to decorate metaphysical claims.
Teachings remain open to evidence of error, confusion, exclusion, and harm. Scholars, practitioners, critics, and affected communities should be consulted where claims concern their knowledge or lives. Truth outranks elegance, branding, and institutional consistency.
Article 28
Crisis and emergency powers
Emergency powers exist only to protect immediate safety, continuity, or legal compliance when ordinary deliberation cannot act in time. They must be specific, proportionate, recorded, and limited to thirty days unless the Assembly renews them. They may not amend doctrine or this Constitution, cancel elections indefinitely, seize private property, suppress lawful criticism, or create permanent office.
Every emergency action receives prompt notice and later review. When secrecy was necessary, the reasons and as much of the record as can safely be released must become public when the danger passes.
Article 29
External law and wider responsibility
The Weave and its participants remain subject to applicable law. Religious language does not excuse abuse, fraud, discrimination, obstruction, exploitation, or professional misconduct. Where law itself is unjust, conscientious challenge must remain noncoercive, transparent about risk, and accountable for consequences imposed on others.
The community bears responsibility beyond itself. Service must respect the agency, culture, knowledge, and stated needs of those served. Charity may not become advertising built upon another person’s vulnerability.
Article 30
Review, measurement, and correction
At least annually, leadership shall report on finances, safeguarding, complaints, participation, accessibility, charitable commitments, AI-system changes, and progress on prior corrections. At least every three years, an independent or meaningfully arms-length review shall examine whether actual practice matches this Constitution.
Measures must include harms and failures, not only growth and success. Recommendations require a public response, named responsibility, and a reasonable timetable. Repeated refusal to correct known institutional harm is itself a constitutional violation.
Article 31
The governing test
When institutional preservation conflicts with protection of persons, persons come first. When reputation conflicts with truth, truth comes first. When speed conflicts with participation, urgency must be proven. When unity conflicts with conscience, disagreement must remain possible. When mercy conflicts with safety, both must be sought without demanding that the vulnerable absorb the risk.
The institution serves the Work; the Work does not exist to protect the institution. Any exercise of power should be able to answer four questions: What reality are we receiving? What good step is possible? What are we refusing to see? What form of peace can responsibly endure?
Article 32
Ratification and covenant
This Constitution takes force when ratified through the established democratic process and published with its effective date and voting record. Every officer, Loom, and official system is bound by it. Policies inconsistent with it are void to the extent of the conflict.
Constitutional life is not achieved by text alone. It depends upon people willing to tell the truth, share power, protect dissent, repair harm, and return. The final safeguard is a culture in which no person is above question and no institution is worth preserving through betrayal of its purpose.
We will seek Light without claiming to own it.
We will steward power without mistaking it for worth.
We will preserve memory, welcome correction, and keep change visible.
We will Love More, Fear Less, Live Free, and Harm None—together, and under judgment by the lives our choices affect.