Listen to this on the ‘I Think Speech‘ Podcast
As we ramp up toward the solar eclipse, let’s tune into the power of our Day-Star Sun – to lubricate our imagination – Ever listening to that little birdy, or the iridescent insect that has lighted on the fragrant flower of the neighbors catalpa tree. Are you weaving in the wave with the cicadas yet? The Elemental world invites you to be inspired into. The fixed & wandering stars radiate rampant probabilities into the intuition of our willing will. Will we – think the liquid lightning of invocation – Meet the many ambrosial realities available to our warmth of feeling, to receive the luscious healing balms flowing forth from the beginning of time – as we reclaim the NOW…!?!
Let’s dare to become intimate with the primal pool of possibilities – Ready, set, go – Engage – Draw up Michael’s majestic mojo to transcend our personal habits thru our communal intention to serve.
In the sliver of the Crescent Moon, as she wanes into New, & waits to comes in between the Earth & the Sun, blocking the light – casting shadows on the Earth from the Underworld – it’s an excellent time to communicate with our own alien shadows – those unknown inner-species that unconsciously drive us to the fallen angels. Let’s take this time to search for our misplaced teddy bears, & throw gluten free bread crumbs to the odd ducks in our life – our faithful karmic goads & co-creators – & maybe even call up some empathy for a well-meaning zombie or 2 – & those that don’t share your worldview…
Stay in Love
~hag
Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day(RSarchives)
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (Rudolf Steiner’s orginal Calendar of the Soul, Anthrowiki, Wikipedia Commons)
7 June 1924 – Beginning of the “Agricultural Course” on the Koberwitz estate of Count & Countess Keyserlingk – Founding of bio-dynamic agriculture by Rudolf Steiner.
By the time Rudolf Steiner was cajoled into presenting the Agriculture Course, he was well experienced in planting an ‘impulse’- the seeds of an idea, & witnessing the ensuing manifestation. Steiner’s Agriculture Course comprised just 8 lectures presented over a 10 day period in the Whitsun-tide of 1924, 7 to 16 June, at the small village of Koberwitz, Silesia (now Kobierzyce, Poland).
Count Carl Keyserlingk was an anthroposophist, & the estate manager of 18,500 acres at Koberwitz. He managed 18 farms, with more than 1000 workers. So Keyserlingk was keen for Steiner to present a course for farmers. There was some disquiet among the farmers because of the rapid change in agricultural practices in the wake of the supply of cheap synthetic nitrogenous fertilizer flowing from the adoption of the Haber-Bosch process for the ‘fixing’ of gaseous nitrogen which was first demonstrated in 1909 & which was then rapidly industrialized on a grand scale for explosives, & after WWI, for fertilizer.
Ehrenfried Pfeiffer’s account relates that: “Count Keyserlingk set to work in dead earnest to persuade Dr. Steiner to give an agricultural course. As Dr. Steiner was already overwhelmed with work, tours & lectures, he put off his decision from week to week. The undaunted Count then dispatched his nephew to Dornach, with orders to camp on Dr. Seiner’s doorstep & refuse to leave without a definite commitment for the course. This was finally given.”
Keyserlingk was the driving force behind the agriculture course. He was described by Elisabeth Vreede, who was at the course, as “one to whom farming itself was a priestly office” According to the Astrosopher: “Count Keyserlingk had realised the dire need for a complete revival of cultural methods”.
Steiner described his Agriculture Course as: “A course of lectures containing what there is to be said about agriculture from an anthroposophical point of view.” Steiner stated that “the contents of these lectures were to serve, in the first place, as working material for the Association of farmers which had just been founded in the Anthroposophical Society”. Steiner stressed the importance of practical demonstrations: “As to the farmers – well, if they hear of these things from a fellow-farmer, they will say, “What a pity he has suddenly gone crazy!” … But eventually when he sees a really good result, he will not feel a very easy conscience in rejecting it outright”. He empowered the Agricultural Experimental Circle (AEC): “enhance it and develop it by actual experiments and tests. The farmers’ society – the “Experimental Circle” that has been formed – will fix the point of time when in its judgment the tests and experiments are far enough advanced to allow these things to be published”. He stressed the importance of confidentiality: “No kind of communication was to be made about the contents of the Course until such time as the members of the Association felt impelled to speak out of the results of their own experimental work”. It was critical that a project development plan was set in place at Koberwitz for two reasons, firstly, because the Agriculture Course was never repeated &, secondly, although up to this point Steiner had engaged in a comprehensive schedule of travelling & lecturing, he was seriously unwell, & his public life & life itself were drawing to a close. The continuing vitality of Steiner’s agricultural ‘impulse’ was dependent on Steiner successfully passing the baton to others. The AEC began with 60 members of the Koberwitz Course (out of the course’s total enrollment of 111), with Ernst Stegemann & Carl Keyserlingk appointed by Steiner as chairmen.
By 1929, the Natural Science Section of the Goetheanum reported the positive news that the work of translating Steiner’s ‘hints’ was by then a global enterprise: “Dr. Steiner’s new methods for Agriculture have been investigated and applied on a practical and on an experimental basis.
Steiner was prophetic in much of what he taught. He presented the farm as “a living organism”. He spoke against a purely chemical view & a chemical reductionist view, & he insisted on the criticality of provenance. Long before the costs of nitrogen pollution were monetized, Steiner, with great vision, put it in a nutshell: “There is a big difference between nitrogen and nitrogen. He spoke of “the degradation of the products of agriculture” & observed that: “Nowadays people simply think that a certain amount of nitrogen is needed for plant growth, and they imagine it makes no difference how it’s prepared or where it comes from. Where it comes from, however, is not a matter of indifference.” Steiner urged the adoption of a holistic view, & he stated that “we’ve lost the knowledge of what it takes to continue to care for the natural world.” He urged his listeners to take “the macrocosmic approach”& to “see individual plants as parts of a single whole.” He was critical of the approach where living things are “neatly pigeonholed into separate species & genera”, adding: “But that is not how things are in nature. In nature, and actually throughout the universe, everything is in mutual interaction with everything else.”
“The most important thing is to make the benefits of our agricultural preparations available to the largest possible areas over the entire earth, so that the earth may be healed and the nutritive quality of its produce improved in every respect. That should be our first objective.” ~Rudolf Steiner
‘Preparing the Way’ an experiential St. John’s-Tide Festival
23 June 2021, Doors open at 5:30 pm with a Potluck -Program from 7-8:30 pm
In-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch 4248 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago, 60618
The program is evolving – There is a possibility that world-renowned eurythmist Jan Ranck from the Jerusalem Academy of Eurythmy will lead us in group eurythmy (TBA)
Other activities may include:
Art – Mary Spalding
Spacial Dynamics – Deborah Rogers
Singing – Elizabeth Kelly
Group discussion – Hazel Archer
Further contributions welcome.
Other activities may include:
Art – Mary Spalding
Spacial Dynamics – Deborah Rogers
Singing – Elizabeth Kelly
Group discussion – Hazel Archer
$20 pre-pay online or $30 at the door (no one turned away for lack of funds)
For more info. contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer
St. John the Baptist and Uriel the Archangel of Summer –
An Experiential Festival with Geoff Norris, Elizabeth Carlson, Lisa Dalton, Hazel Archer
Sunday 27 June 2021 on Zoom: Noon – 1:30 pm PT / 1 – 2:30 pm MT / 2 pm – 3:30 pm CT / 3 – 4:30 pm ET / 8 – 9:30 pm London Time / 9 – 10:30 pm CET
Metanoia – Can you hear the voice of conscience? – Make straight the path, for at the fullness of Summer, the light is so bright that it leaves no room for the shadow, a time to remember what St. John said “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Musicial Performance by Lucien Dante Lazar
Speech – Geoffrey Norris
Eurythmy- Elizabeth Carlson
Living into St. John’s-Tide – Lisa Dalton
Leading Thoughts – Hazel Archer
Hazel Archer is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: St. John’s
Time: Jun 27, 2021 02:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/7052931041?pwd=TkMwcGVVdk5GTVJmVzVJS2s5YVFtQT09
Meeting ID: 705 293 1041
Passcode: Uriel
Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/a961qZZhF
For more info. contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer Hazel@reverseritual.com
Interesting book here, Kyle, “Farms of Tomorrow”. Much of it is readable online:
https://books.google.com/books/about/Farms_of_Tomorrow_Revisited.html?hl=fr&id=r99R4V_l0K8C
Thanks for this, Steve. I’ve never heard of this book, or the authors before. Definitely worth a read! An interesting side note on this, I see the author Steven McFadden, has written a book ‘Legend of the Rainbow Warriors.’ I’m sure you’ve heard of the Rainbow Gatherings which started in the States? I actually participated in one, but it was in Indonesia and more of an international crowd. It’s definitely a movement with much heart. But I’d have to say, I have a hard time seeing it progress past the experimental phase. It’s too far off into the Luciferic stream. Beautiful idea and intention, and many lovely people in which some I would still consider as friends, but no grounding.
Kyle, I am familiar with the harmonic convergence of 1987, which seems to have been a catalyst for folks like McFadden and Powell. The prophesied end of the Mayan short calendar on December, 21, 2012, was prepared with this event, and its occurrence took place the day after my 37th birthday on August 15, 1987.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_Convergence
Yet, as you seem to indicate, unless these gatherings imbue themselves with spiritual-scientific thinking and knowledge, they will suffer the consequences of Luciferism. This is a very important observation, kind sir. The main wiki article on ‘Rainbow Gatherings’ is rife with this kind of result.
Steiner gave a course, right before “The Karma of Vocation”, which dealt specifically with the Mexican and Mayan mysteries of the west, c. GA 171, and it is interesting how much of this course seems to have percolated to the surface by the 1970’s and 1980’s here in the west, and yet, Steiner’s name and power remains below their threshold of conscious contact. How can that be? Very paradoxical, don’t you think?
Yet, there are other parameters, equally compelling. In looking at the demographics of Thailand, it is interesting that 94.5% of the population is Buddhist, and only 0.03% is Hindu, and yet, Siddhartha Gautama studied the work of his predecessor, Krishna, before finding his own unique variation on the four noble truths and the Eightfold Path of Righteousness. This is what has stuck in a country that still suffers today. The Path of Righteousness was even acknowledged in the 23rd Psalm of David, some 500 years before Buddha’s Enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree.
What interests me when we consider the Koberwitz lectures is that just four days before going to Koberwitz, Steiner gave a lecture in which he speaks of Pentecost. It is quite a kind of crystallization, which I suspect he intended to use in the fine descriptions of earthly compounds for a new agriculture.
https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/AscenPent/19240604p01.html
In this lecture, in which Steiner wants to hold true to the intent of the first half of the Christian Festivals, he surmises what the Event of Pentecost really means. Of course, it means regeneration, and why going to Koberwitz enables an exact scientific experiment. He apologizes for the pause in the second volume of KR, but promises to return for the completion, and direct entry in to the third volume.
Apologies for the many comments here. But the Agriculture Course had really hit home for me, among others that is.
One thing I find extraordinarily relevant with this course, was that it was addressing a body of people “farmers” at a time during great economic hardships (1924). If my history is correct, that wasn’t exactly the most happy time to be in this part of the world.
This is something I would love to see happen in the near future. Someone with the means like Keyserlingk, to fund these types of agricultural enterprises. These are worthy deeds! As you for sure know, there is a certain alchemy one experiences when working with the land, and in turn, experience the abundance as a result. You heal the land, the land heals you. I’m bringing this up, because we can easily see how fragile an economy can be. With more connection to the land, we have less dependancy to whatever cigar-chomping-number-crunchers in wall street decide to do – forgive the expression, but you know what mean! But I’m very much surprised that the connection between economy and agriculture are not brought up much.
dear Hazel, Today’s ‘I think speech’ was beautiful , -as are many.
Your multi-talented genius is wonderful, incredible really.
Quite amazing!, sincerely, Alicia
Hi Alicia – Thanks for tuning in. It’s always interesting to do research & write up thoughts, but then to speak them adds a powerful dimension that brings in the word.
Hi Hazel, If my memory serves me, doesn’t the Chicagoland area get a huge cicada party every 14 years? I went there as a child and remember they were literally everywhere, but within the decade I lived there during my college years I didn’t remember experiencing that as such. Nevertheless, here in northern Thailand, it’s the beginning of the rainy season and all kinds of beautiful critters are coming out and about. The sounds are just too surreal that sometimes they sound like futuristic plasma lasers from Star Trek or something. “That’s nature?” I ask myself. Incredible, and beautiful.
On another note, is there any literature on biodynamic practice in tropical areas?
Hi Kyle – Yes we have had the dear cicadas in the past, but so far they have not arrived. I remember 7 years ago officating a Wedding outside by the lake & I had to shout to be heard over their soug!
I’m sure there must be folks doing biodynamics in the tropics, don’t know any one to point you toward…although Rand carter works in Florida…
That’s great, does Rand Carter have a site or a book where he discusses his methods?
I would be most interested if anyone has taken the pains to accommodate biodynamic principles to a tropical region. Meaning, where appropriate substitutions would take place – as in, flora/fauna described in Steiner’s works that are found more in temperate zones, to something which serves the same function/spirit. I just find this fascinating.
I heard a story from a friend, a permaculture practitioner – if you will – in Australia, where he did an experiment with another fellow in his community. Both applied the permacultre methods, same conditions and all, except one guy added the biodynamic ‘touch.’ Surely enough, he said that the biodynamic method made the crop that much more fuller and livelier. Some ‘wizardry’ he said. Permaculture sure is great and all, but adding the ‘spirit’ to the equation, especially when working with plants and nature, seems vital!
Rand is on the road right now, but always willing to have a conversation randcar54@aol.com
Thank you for contact, much appreciated!