Thanks Russell. It hit me in a flash on Sunday. It took me a few hours to find suitable images and supporting quotes. The thing is, this is something I was already doing: gypsum in spring. Valerian in spring. The only modification was seeing a cosmic context in archetypal symbols giving me a story in which it can already be seen
What a soul stirring complement to my meditative reading during this Holy Week. Although I am not a farmer and barely garden, your understanding of the natural world and ability to beautifully communicate it celebrates the marriage of heaven and earth in just the way to proclaim that Christ Is Risen! How wonderfully apparent you make that, how practically important to human life. The light in your words, your descriptions, is a revelation and provides strength to do the work that comes with all of these gifts as a responsibility to the essence of existence.
I am curious about something which I feel is important to the BD work, and have been for years, and that is why do Anthroposophy and biodynamics STILL have to be sooooo Jesus/Christian/religion based? We live in SUCH a different world from the one that Steiner and his contemporaries evolved in...why can't we leave all of that behind and move into something like divine EARTH consciousness and say goodbye to Jesus and all that ancient baggage which is completely meaningless to GAIA and to so many people on this planet who don't even know who Jesus was or care? I just want to enjoy being an informed, wise, ecological, caring BD farmer without the heaviness of all the rest, which seems to me to belong to a completely different consciousness. I have been mildly influenced by Steiner, and consider myself to be a BD farmer for 30 years, but when I hear/read all the hallelujah stuff, I just shut down. Every week for me is holy because I am gifted with life...the rest is simply human-constructed mumbo jumbo. It means nothing in reality - except in our minds. But the natural world persists in its own way and gives us life, not Jesus, not Christianity, not Steiner, and it has its own wisdom, and that is worthy of our study and devotion because it keeps us all alive. The rest is what humans do with ideas...and it makes me very curious about why it all persists.
Thank you for your comment. I used to have quite similar feelings because of the fundamentalist trauma of my childhood. But at a certain point I realized that, no, they got it wrong. That's the whole reason it was traumatizing! So I reclaim what should have been about peace, harmony, tolerance, and the cycles of ever-new life.
I have to disagree on one key point: weeks are NOT homogenous. The Sun itself isn't the same when it changes zodiacal signs. This isn't about belief, but about the spiritual life of the Earth throughout the year.
What is often taken in a literalistic manner by materialists (=fundamentalists) is often taken the same way by their opponents! Fundamentalists are materialists. But their opponents, who believe the fundamentalists are wrong, fall into a corresponding error by believing the fundamentalists were somehow correct -- namely, both fundamentalists and their opponents believe wrongly that the "true" representation of an impulse is their boogeyman in the sky. Try reading everything with the terms "as if" and see if that softens the images. Think it, don't believe it.
The cycles of the seasons are themselves an embodiment of an eternal theme of incarnation, life, death, and resurrection. These were agricultural seasons, with Persephone being taken down to the underworld by Hades, but rising again each spring. Or an effigy Adonis submerged in water for three days before being raised up again. The fact that there are narrative structures that express the seasons is not dogma, but rather framing it in a way that human beings *as human beings* can participate and remember the meanings of each week of the year. If we are not conscious of the meaning of each season *for Gaia* then we cannot aid her in those rhythms nor benefit from them. These are mnemonic devices, so we can follow Gaia's journey through every year.
You say: "The natural world persists in its own way and gives us life" -- what one calls Life another calls Christ, but it's the same thing in which we all live and move and have our being. Whether one person calls it Gaia or not is beside the point, ESPECIALLY if it's "simply human-constructed mumbo jumbo." Insisting on one vocabulary at the expense of another is the problem itself. Greek myths don't invalidate Christian ones, nor does Vedanta negate Rosicrucianism, nor does yoga mean art doesn't exist. Meaning that is understood is language, and we are first and foremost story-telling creatures. This is one story among many. If it's not useful, I'd be open to you telling one about Persephone going through the exact same cycles.
One thing I must absolutely disagree with is that fundamentalists get the Bible and the meaning of its imagery right. No, these are about the transformation of the soul and a path of initiation, not about doctrinaire beliefs. Anyone attentive to the earth's life through the year can see this story of renewal regardless of the clothes it wears.
This is such an important conversation and something myself have struggled with. I think this will look different for each person and as described in one of Stewart’s earlier (personal) pieces, there are many paths along the mountain and we have the opportunity to choose whether to ascend or descend along these courses. I’ve been a BD farmer for ~12 years and for almost all of it held a similar perspective to what you describe. I also found anarchism early on in college which encouraged me to fully reject religion, specifically God/Jesus, while placing faith in the Earth herself which now I believe is actually very complementary to the true teaching of Christ. For me, the focus on Christ / Mary is important because it symbolizes our own personal transformation that can occur as we evolve as humans. The lessons and sacrifices of Jesus (universal, conscious masculinity) teach us how to fully embody the Earth and her guidance (the feminine Will of all creation, Mary) - this unified symbolism is important in our Western world since our culture has been stripped of these relationships while at the same time these are words and concepts that might be understood by the general “Christian” communities of the West. These same concepts could be formatted with Buddhist, Hindu or other religious teachings (which in most cases is even more foreign to us in the English speaking West). Either way, no matter the words used, the processes of death/rebirth (evolution) remain important in all contexts, and everyday is a truly a gift given to us (and created by) this union of masculine and feminine. I’m also in the process of deepening my devotion to all of these aspects of life and have found support in the teachings of Christ (which would have been shocking to me earlier self 😂) - blessings to you all this week and the growing season ahead. ✨✨
Anarchism, eh? Then we have even more in common than I realized. I assume you've seen Steiner's letter to an anarchist fanboy of his? Bakunin, Kropotkin, and especially Gustav Landauer (Martin Buber resurrected his work).
Mysticism is a kind of spiritual anarchism which emphasizes direct experience over belief. There's a world of differencing "believing" there is a God and TRUSTING God. Martin Buber would say the key distinction between Judaism and Christianity is that the Jew believes God, the Christian has a creed and believes "in" God: a list of propositional claims.
But the cycle of the seasons is a perennial theme. Whether we name it one thing of another depends on the culture.
The first act of Creation was, in Kabbalah, a contraction (or withdrawal) called tzimtxum in which God creates a void. Why? Because omnipresent omniscience has to be withdrawn for anything else to exist. Step one was creating the womb of creation, which is Sophia, previously called Isis and personified in Mary. Into this void a single ray of divine light (enough to create the entire world and sustain all life) entered, and this is this world -- one among countless and endlessly unfolding worlds out of that infinite blossoming lotus.
Even with the biodynamic preparations, an astral (animal) void must be established which can contain the etheric (plant). There is one story, told different ways, and it is always happening all the time.
A beautiful and quite meaningful image. I am curious about performing this practice on my selenium drenched soils here in the west. Perhaps the homeopathic alchemy of gypsum infused with the warmth of valerian preparation would turn a certain key ?? It’s also significant that I normally avoid all seeding and planting during Good Friday through Easter in deference to the “tears of the Earth” being spilled upon the ground at Golgatha. Perhaps a gesture on the Jupiter day of grandeur- Thursday. I coincidentally have a clay stirring vessel … not gyp but symbolic. ❤️
This is a beautiful illustration of the created Earth responding to the suffering, death, and resurrection of its Creator…it couldn’t have been done better.
I agree that the biodynamic part of Steiner’s teaching make sense in every earth-based indigenous culture. All the rest is to me finally is just story and of course, story has its valuable place at the human table, but it’s also constrictive, controlling, destructive, and divisive, as we have seen throughout the centuries . Personally, I’ve loved ALL the stories I’ve learned, from the lullabies and fairy tales I was raised on, to all the multi-cultural indigenous spirit paths I’ve studied, including my own SLAVIC roots. My Polish culture in its pagan roots has great gods and goddesses I didn’t know about until I searched because they were all snuffed out by Christianity and it’s world dominant stories. I guess my query today is how can BD live freely or be liberated from this Christian story you share in your posts and Steiner’s Christian- laden rhetoric and teachings, and finally just be the story of the EARTH, the moon, our cosmos and not weigh it down with all the rest? I think your weekly observations are meaningful and helpful, and that’s why I support your Substack. But you lose me completely with the injection of Christian language and stories. And of course, it’s entirely my choice to be here, or go away and do my own thing, but I hate to throw out the baby with the bath water. I follow Maria THUN’s yearly calendar but she/they keep it very separate, clean, devoid of the story. There is no intrusion. Maybe I’m just finally over Steiner and Anthroposophy…maybe I no longer want someone interpreting the story for me. Maybe I just want to live in a new world, free from all the hocus pocus. I guess the garden became ensnared in all of this with the myth of Adam and Eve, and people are somehow still hanging out there. Thanks for your thoughtful work. Eve
What you're describing is an "egregore" -- the shadow of collective egotism that stalks every moment. As individuals, we each have one too: who have been is not all we are nor who we are becoming. If I am only my past, then yes, it's pretty bleak. Moreover, if my reality is my worst actions, then we're all terrible people. Steiner wasn't endorsing organized religion whatsoever. In fact, he has quite a lot of criticism to offer against it for the very reasons you're giving.
Pagan (which means "rural") is often more intimately connected with the cultivation of Life than many who espouse the language around Christianity. But it is the work of some people, including my own, to reclaim that language and spread tolerance from within its stories, to offer resistance precisely to the elements you describe.
Do you comply with Maria Thun's "blackout" time during Holy Week (Maundy Thursday until Easter at dawn)? No one else has been able to verify that blackout period, but it is entirely Christological. But no matter, it's one post out of dozens. Most have nothing to do with such terminology. I suspect there's something else at work here.
In Kabbalah, Adam is still asleep in the garden. And we are his dream.
I don't have a problem with any one being anything they wish to be. I can quote the Bible as well as the Qu'ran or the Torah or the Upanishads. Or scientific literature. But the idea that a narrative has to be erased for the sake of any other I take exception with. Prejudice and distortion of healthy stories does not justify discarding the stories.
There's a Hasidic rabbi who was asked, "Rabbi, aren't all religions equally true?" to which he replied, "No! They are all equally false!"
Just because many people have misused Jesus to justify torture, murder, and their own bigotry isn't a criticism of Jesus. "Love your neighbor as yourself" is impossible to mangle into a justification for war. Not all who say "Lord, Lord" will enter the kingdom of heaven. Moreover, just because Christianity has a troubled history doesn't mean we should discard Jesus OR the principle of "Love your neighbor as yourself." Quite the contrary!
Beautiful offerings to be made this week, thank you for putting this all into words ❤️🙏🏼✨
Thanks Russell. It hit me in a flash on Sunday. It took me a few hours to find suitable images and supporting quotes. The thing is, this is something I was already doing: gypsum in spring. Valerian in spring. The only modification was seeing a cosmic context in archetypal symbols giving me a story in which it can already be seen
What a soul stirring complement to my meditative reading during this Holy Week. Although I am not a farmer and barely garden, your understanding of the natural world and ability to beautifully communicate it celebrates the marriage of heaven and earth in just the way to proclaim that Christ Is Risen! How wonderfully apparent you make that, how practically important to human life. The light in your words, your descriptions, is a revelation and provides strength to do the work that comes with all of these gifts as a responsibility to the essence of existence.
While some of us tend external gardens, all of us have interior gardens. And we, like Mary, can easily mistake the risen Christ for the gardener!
I am curious about something which I feel is important to the BD work, and have been for years, and that is why do Anthroposophy and biodynamics STILL have to be sooooo Jesus/Christian/religion based? We live in SUCH a different world from the one that Steiner and his contemporaries evolved in...why can't we leave all of that behind and move into something like divine EARTH consciousness and say goodbye to Jesus and all that ancient baggage which is completely meaningless to GAIA and to so many people on this planet who don't even know who Jesus was or care? I just want to enjoy being an informed, wise, ecological, caring BD farmer without the heaviness of all the rest, which seems to me to belong to a completely different consciousness. I have been mildly influenced by Steiner, and consider myself to be a BD farmer for 30 years, but when I hear/read all the hallelujah stuff, I just shut down. Every week for me is holy because I am gifted with life...the rest is simply human-constructed mumbo jumbo. It means nothing in reality - except in our minds. But the natural world persists in its own way and gives us life, not Jesus, not Christianity, not Steiner, and it has its own wisdom, and that is worthy of our study and devotion because it keeps us all alive. The rest is what humans do with ideas...and it makes me very curious about why it all persists.
Thank you for your comment. I used to have quite similar feelings because of the fundamentalist trauma of my childhood. But at a certain point I realized that, no, they got it wrong. That's the whole reason it was traumatizing! So I reclaim what should have been about peace, harmony, tolerance, and the cycles of ever-new life.
I have to disagree on one key point: weeks are NOT homogenous. The Sun itself isn't the same when it changes zodiacal signs. This isn't about belief, but about the spiritual life of the Earth throughout the year.
What is often taken in a literalistic manner by materialists (=fundamentalists) is often taken the same way by their opponents! Fundamentalists are materialists. But their opponents, who believe the fundamentalists are wrong, fall into a corresponding error by believing the fundamentalists were somehow correct -- namely, both fundamentalists and their opponents believe wrongly that the "true" representation of an impulse is their boogeyman in the sky. Try reading everything with the terms "as if" and see if that softens the images. Think it, don't believe it.
The cycles of the seasons are themselves an embodiment of an eternal theme of incarnation, life, death, and resurrection. These were agricultural seasons, with Persephone being taken down to the underworld by Hades, but rising again each spring. Or an effigy Adonis submerged in water for three days before being raised up again. The fact that there are narrative structures that express the seasons is not dogma, but rather framing it in a way that human beings *as human beings* can participate and remember the meanings of each week of the year. If we are not conscious of the meaning of each season *for Gaia* then we cannot aid her in those rhythms nor benefit from them. These are mnemonic devices, so we can follow Gaia's journey through every year.
You say: "The natural world persists in its own way and gives us life" -- what one calls Life another calls Christ, but it's the same thing in which we all live and move and have our being. Whether one person calls it Gaia or not is beside the point, ESPECIALLY if it's "simply human-constructed mumbo jumbo." Insisting on one vocabulary at the expense of another is the problem itself. Greek myths don't invalidate Christian ones, nor does Vedanta negate Rosicrucianism, nor does yoga mean art doesn't exist. Meaning that is understood is language, and we are first and foremost story-telling creatures. This is one story among many. If it's not useful, I'd be open to you telling one about Persephone going through the exact same cycles.
One thing I must absolutely disagree with is that fundamentalists get the Bible and the meaning of its imagery right. No, these are about the transformation of the soul and a path of initiation, not about doctrinaire beliefs. Anyone attentive to the earth's life through the year can see this story of renewal regardless of the clothes it wears.
This is such an important conversation and something myself have struggled with. I think this will look different for each person and as described in one of Stewart’s earlier (personal) pieces, there are many paths along the mountain and we have the opportunity to choose whether to ascend or descend along these courses. I’ve been a BD farmer for ~12 years and for almost all of it held a similar perspective to what you describe. I also found anarchism early on in college which encouraged me to fully reject religion, specifically God/Jesus, while placing faith in the Earth herself which now I believe is actually very complementary to the true teaching of Christ. For me, the focus on Christ / Mary is important because it symbolizes our own personal transformation that can occur as we evolve as humans. The lessons and sacrifices of Jesus (universal, conscious masculinity) teach us how to fully embody the Earth and her guidance (the feminine Will of all creation, Mary) - this unified symbolism is important in our Western world since our culture has been stripped of these relationships while at the same time these are words and concepts that might be understood by the general “Christian” communities of the West. These same concepts could be formatted with Buddhist, Hindu or other religious teachings (which in most cases is even more foreign to us in the English speaking West). Either way, no matter the words used, the processes of death/rebirth (evolution) remain important in all contexts, and everyday is a truly a gift given to us (and created by) this union of masculine and feminine. I’m also in the process of deepening my devotion to all of these aspects of life and have found support in the teachings of Christ (which would have been shocking to me earlier self 😂) - blessings to you all this week and the growing season ahead. ✨✨
Anarchism, eh? Then we have even more in common than I realized. I assume you've seen Steiner's letter to an anarchist fanboy of his? Bakunin, Kropotkin, and especially Gustav Landauer (Martin Buber resurrected his work).
Mysticism is a kind of spiritual anarchism which emphasizes direct experience over belief. There's a world of differencing "believing" there is a God and TRUSTING God. Martin Buber would say the key distinction between Judaism and Christianity is that the Jew believes God, the Christian has a creed and believes "in" God: a list of propositional claims.
But the cycle of the seasons is a perennial theme. Whether we name it one thing of another depends on the culture.
The first act of Creation was, in Kabbalah, a contraction (or withdrawal) called tzimtxum in which God creates a void. Why? Because omnipresent omniscience has to be withdrawn for anything else to exist. Step one was creating the womb of creation, which is Sophia, previously called Isis and personified in Mary. Into this void a single ray of divine light (enough to create the entire world and sustain all life) entered, and this is this world -- one among countless and endlessly unfolding worlds out of that infinite blossoming lotus.
Even with the biodynamic preparations, an astral (animal) void must be established which can contain the etheric (plant). There is one story, told different ways, and it is always happening all the time.
A beautiful and quite meaningful image. I am curious about performing this practice on my selenium drenched soils here in the west. Perhaps the homeopathic alchemy of gypsum infused with the warmth of valerian preparation would turn a certain key ?? It’s also significant that I normally avoid all seeding and planting during Good Friday through Easter in deference to the “tears of the Earth” being spilled upon the ground at Golgatha. Perhaps a gesture on the Jupiter day of grandeur- Thursday. I coincidentally have a clay stirring vessel … not gyp but symbolic. ❤️
A topic for another piece perhaps, but dandelions are known as Mary's Bitter Tears. They tend to flower in full during Lent, leading up to Easter.
Mary's name comes from the Hebrew root MR which means bitter. The bitter bud contains the sweet flower. The Virginal soil conceives the Christ within.
Gypsum tends to bind sulfur with excess cations and allows for more balance. Might be useful if there's an excess
Let the quickening begin.
🙏
Thank you for this wonderful Holy Week offering for our preparation, nourishing the Body of Christ!
Thank you for your words. May we all continue to make way for one whose sandals we are not even worthy to untie
Thank you, Stewart…🙏
This is a beautiful illustration of the created Earth responding to the suffering, death, and resurrection of its Creator…it couldn’t have been done better.
I appreciate you…
I agree that the biodynamic part of Steiner’s teaching make sense in every earth-based indigenous culture. All the rest is to me finally is just story and of course, story has its valuable place at the human table, but it’s also constrictive, controlling, destructive, and divisive, as we have seen throughout the centuries . Personally, I’ve loved ALL the stories I’ve learned, from the lullabies and fairy tales I was raised on, to all the multi-cultural indigenous spirit paths I’ve studied, including my own SLAVIC roots. My Polish culture in its pagan roots has great gods and goddesses I didn’t know about until I searched because they were all snuffed out by Christianity and it’s world dominant stories. I guess my query today is how can BD live freely or be liberated from this Christian story you share in your posts and Steiner’s Christian- laden rhetoric and teachings, and finally just be the story of the EARTH, the moon, our cosmos and not weigh it down with all the rest? I think your weekly observations are meaningful and helpful, and that’s why I support your Substack. But you lose me completely with the injection of Christian language and stories. And of course, it’s entirely my choice to be here, or go away and do my own thing, but I hate to throw out the baby with the bath water. I follow Maria THUN’s yearly calendar but she/they keep it very separate, clean, devoid of the story. There is no intrusion. Maybe I’m just finally over Steiner and Anthroposophy…maybe I no longer want someone interpreting the story for me. Maybe I just want to live in a new world, free from all the hocus pocus. I guess the garden became ensnared in all of this with the myth of Adam and Eve, and people are somehow still hanging out there. Thanks for your thoughtful work. Eve
What you're describing is an "egregore" -- the shadow of collective egotism that stalks every moment. As individuals, we each have one too: who have been is not all we are nor who we are becoming. If I am only my past, then yes, it's pretty bleak. Moreover, if my reality is my worst actions, then we're all terrible people. Steiner wasn't endorsing organized religion whatsoever. In fact, he has quite a lot of criticism to offer against it for the very reasons you're giving.
Pagan (which means "rural") is often more intimately connected with the cultivation of Life than many who espouse the language around Christianity. But it is the work of some people, including my own, to reclaim that language and spread tolerance from within its stories, to offer resistance precisely to the elements you describe.
Do you comply with Maria Thun's "blackout" time during Holy Week (Maundy Thursday until Easter at dawn)? No one else has been able to verify that blackout period, but it is entirely Christological. But no matter, it's one post out of dozens. Most have nothing to do with such terminology. I suspect there's something else at work here.
In Kabbalah, Adam is still asleep in the garden. And we are his dream.
I don't have a problem with any one being anything they wish to be. I can quote the Bible as well as the Qu'ran or the Torah or the Upanishads. Or scientific literature. But the idea that a narrative has to be erased for the sake of any other I take exception with. Prejudice and distortion of healthy stories does not justify discarding the stories.
There's a Hasidic rabbi who was asked, "Rabbi, aren't all religions equally true?" to which he replied, "No! They are all equally false!"
Just because many people have misused Jesus to justify torture, murder, and their own bigotry isn't a criticism of Jesus. "Love your neighbor as yourself" is impossible to mangle into a justification for war. Not all who say "Lord, Lord" will enter the kingdom of heaven. Moreover, just because Christianity has a troubled history doesn't mean we should discard Jesus OR the principle of "Love your neighbor as yourself." Quite the contrary!