visit to the Biodynamic Agriculture College

Hi everyone,

I haven't checked the blog in a while and I was suprised to see so few new coments!

I always enjoy reading what other people put up and what they are up to, but never write anything myself so here it is.

I just came back from a short visit to Emerson, where I joined in with a few lessons the 2nd years had on Arable with Jurgen, Fruit production with Auke and the BD-preps with guest teacher Ferdinad Vondruska (an Austrian farmer living and farming in Canada and producing high cuantyties of high quality preps).

The atmosphere at the Rachel Carson Centre was amazing. The building has been painted so now all the classrooms have a colour (light blueish/green- Horticulture year 1; golden yellow- Agriculture year 1; light purple- BD year 2) and the entrance is a huge display of flowers, animals, fields, minerals and stars! One has to see it for him/her self.

The garden has also come to life and is highly productive. Three indian runner ducks bring some astrality (and a lot of character) to the place and Rob runs back and forth between this garden and the Tablehurst polytunnels, working working working, followed by a gorgouse happy girl called Flow.

I didn't have much contact with the first years, but they seem like a colourfull bunch that have made the course come out of the dark a bit. Like every year there's a wide range of cultures and ages mixed in one, evenyone with it's own reason to be there.

It was also great to see a few of my old classmates again and catch up a bit.

And what about me? well, I'm back in Holland and I started in September with a physiotherapy study, but it did not work out as I thought and I decided to stop a few weeks ago. I'm finding it very difficult to live in the city and I really miss the Emerson life. I'm working hard at the moment and in the mean time looking for new things I can do/want to do/ should do with my life. Any ideas?

I would love to hear about everyone and keep in touch better, also I would like more people to join this blog and keep it thriving.

All the best to you all and keep spreading the bd-love!

ps. pictures of my visit are still to come!

Welcome students!

Hello first year students!!
I hope you all recovered from the goodbey party and from the 6 months at Emerson... And I hope you're all happily working on your farms. Please use this blog to be in contact with your colleagues and with me as well, to let us know how you are doing and what you've been wrecking so far ;)

Here things are pretty smooth - Nina has been working very hard and the flower garden looks gorgeous. Today I picked the first bunch of sweet peas from the greenhouse. We have been having two weeks without rain - I know, now you all wished you'd staid in good old Blighty! Probably pouring with rain in Italy now, and thunderstorms in the US! Ha! But we have been lucky to get on with planting - the spuds are in, and lots of our flower crops too.

The college has been taken over by the Emerson Village guys - and tehy have agreed to donate the BDbuilding and the farm land to St Anthony's Trust, so that is wonderfully good news. Everything looks smooth for September.

OK need to get cracking again - do stay in touch and write something nice!

Cheers - Arjen

8.8 - Another earthquake, another disaster, another chance

“I came here to count the bells,
live upon the surface of the sea,
that sound over the sea,
within the sea.

So, here I live.”

- Pablo Neruda (Chilean poet - Poem written overlooking the pacific from the coastline of Chile)

The Earth speaks, and we don’t listen. The Earth belts and we think we may have heard a faint noise. It happens again and again and few things change, very little is done to dialogue with the Earth. Last night, an 8.8 earthquake hit Chile, a country that i just came home from three weeks ago. Yes, the event is a disaster, it is a shocking societal event that has changed many lives from one moment to the next. And, like Haiti, it represents something besides the obvious, it represents something more than just the disastrous reality upon these places.
An earthquake is a physical manifestation of “the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves.” But, as we are coming to understand and investigate, not everything can simply be measured and dealt with through the sometimes limiting ‘eye’ of materialistic facts and realities. And yes, “Earthquakes are caused mostly by rupture of geological faults”, but again, this is only physical. So if the Earth does quake, and humanity is threatened, if societies are displaced, and infrastructures destroyed, what are other lessons to be learned besides the simple - ‘preparing better for the next one!’?
The Earth is more than ignored, it is more than forgotten, it is misused and abused. It is intentionally exploited and destroyed. And then this happens, another disaster, and we scramble to rescue our brothers and sisters, and rightly so, we fret over rebuilding the infrastructures that make it all seemingly smooth running, and we try to get back to the ‘norm’ again, with a little more caution of our own vulnerability. Of course, we have a duty to tend to the present moments of crisis, to give ourselves fully to harnessing the wildness of a disaster, but then, what is next? What comes after the dramatic storms of natural disasters have settled?
Maybe, a real change is needed. Maybe, things aren’t just Ok. Maybe we need to raise New questions and give attention to New possibilities, New callings. ‘Gaia’ is loudly trying to dialogue with us. Mother Earth is bellowing out for our tending, for our attention and care. How is the language of ‘Gaia’ meant to be understood? What is the meaning of these ambiguous events of our time? Chief Seattle said: “Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.” And similarly, “Carl Gustav Jung suggested that the archetypal mother was a part of the collective unconscious of all humans”. Maybe the web is the collective unconscious. Maybe ‘Gaia’ is an integral manifestation of our collective unconscious. I would suggest that there is a part of us deep inside that is trying to make us aware of what lies outside, but also more deeply at the center of, the mass of constructs of civilization, the manifest Mind. By neglecting our interface with the Earth, we are actually neglecting a deep and authentic part of ourselves that needs to be recognized - and more so, begun ‘acting’ from.
The Earth has an intention. We can have an intention. We can dialogue with the Earth to create shared intentions. We can continue our patterns of aggressiveness, of living somewhat ignorantly and disconnected, and of constantly facing despair, or we can take an active role in rebuilding and becoming the ‘healthy’ inhabitants of an Earth that doesn’t lie. Biodynamic Agriculture is an example of a practice - a discipline in living - that co-intends and co-creates a new Earth and Humanity out of the experience of Gaia’s Community. The Biodynamic preparations are medicinal remedies for Mother Earth (and all her years through indignity) that not only strengthen and sharpen her true maternal forces but also clarify and activate our Human Will to Create. Biodynamic agriculture is just one example of a practice that is engaging with Gaia in a new way, but there are many ways, simple and complex. A daily prayer of gratitude for the Earth - or a walk into nature, where we can again meet our spiritual resourcefulness, the source of creation, is all it takes in our beginning to authentically co-exist and Unify. And so I end with a poem of rilke.

Archaic Torso of Apollo

We cannot know his legendary head
with eyes like ripening fruit. And yet his torso
is still suffused with brilliance from inside,
like a lamp, in which his gaze, now turned to low,

gleams in all its power. Otherwise
the curved breast could not dazzle you so, nor could
a smile run through the placid hips and thighs
to that dark center where procreation flared.

Otherwise this stone would seem defaced
beneath the translucent cascade of the shoulders
and would not glisten like a wild beast's fur:

would not, from all the borders of itself,
burst like a star: for here there is no place
that does not see you. You must change your life.

Illusions

"In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself."

-Jiddu Krishnamurti

http://www.fmotl.com/
http://lawfulrebellion.org/
http://www.tpuc.org/
http://worldfreemansociety.org/
http://www.freedom-school.com/mary_elizabeth_croft.pdf

Recreating Heaven on Earth

By Marina Findlay

To understand a properly functioning society, one must know a bit about metaphysics and a bit about spiritual re-evolution. The kundalini channel which goes up through your spine and head is supposed to direct more soul energy than is presently typical in the average person. When your kundalini is used to its maximum potential and your personal astrological energy and Natures energy is flowing through you, you become more creative and have increased awareness and are therefore able to perceive more dimensions of Natural and psychic reality.

Everyone has an individual creative centre – something which you are good at and that is fulfilling because it contributes to society. To spiritually evolve to find your creative centre, you must complete internal alchemy. This involves dealing with any karma or trauma you may have from this or a past life, working on your personality and having a free, satisfactory life. When you have completed internal alchemy, you will function through your heart chakra which makes you compassionate and altruistic, your personal energy is unblocked so your natural psychic abilities are activated. This is everybody’s birthright, to use all our senses and abilities and internal alchemy should be taught at school.

The next stage of re-evolution is reconnection with Nature. Natures energy is supposed to be flowing through your kundalini giving you yet further increased perceptory awareness, sensitivity, health, morality and vitality. It is not until you have connected with Nature that you can perceive real beauty. All you have to do is appreciate and love Nature directly, forming a relationship with her. Humans are supposed to be able to communicate with Dryads (tree spirits) and Genii Loci (spirits of places) – this you redevelop the ability to do. Once you can communicate with Nature you can ask her permission before effecting her, and, if you took Natures advice, society would be different with more forests, more wildlife and people living in forest gardens. Equal rights for all spirits ('equal rights' obviously imply the right to exist), Nature spirits included. If an animal is eaten, it must have lived in the wild and come from a stable population, if the population has given humans permission to take out the weak to keep them well evolved.

The reason we exist is to appreciate and contribute to creation. We should never have taken over from the more connected spirits we once consulted about important decisions. Equal rights to all spirits obviously implies their right to exist. All our relations who should be sharing the planet with us must be reintroduced to the wild. Natural habitats recreated, aiming ultimately for maximum manifestation of soul. Natures creations are alive and work together in very delicate and sophisticated ways. Nature is always evolving so there are always new discoveries to learn from.

So, maximum manifestation of soul through our kundalini and through Nature. A society in which there is no disease or crime. Everyone is fulfilled and glad to be alive. We just need to recognise the spiritual needs of humans and respect that different spirits have valid existences too – you will have this opinion once you have reconnected with Nature since all the psychic pollution which stagnated in your subconscious leaves as it is pushed out by Natures energy, and as each disease leaves, it teaches you about an injustice. These injustices include unethical treatment of the Earth and her spirits.

Presently we are moving up the tree of life past Hod and Netzach to tipareth on a planetary level, so what you have just read will come to pass when the forces of good triumph over the forces of evil and our destinies will be fulfilled. We are moving between Hod, the house of the freemasons, and Netzach, the house of the Witches. They are having a battle, and the forces of good are winning. This is possible according to a 3000 year cycle. We move up to the heart chakra – Tipareth. It expresses your creative centre and is altruistic. You want to contribute your talent to society. Society should be built around people’s creative centres. At this time, all joyful workers will have natural psychic abilities and therefore explore and work on and with other dimensions.

Internal alchemy must be taught at school, everyone encouraged to get into their interests, and the Witches, their symbolism. Witches should work with the police when they initiate, because they encounter social disease thus it can be identified and dealt with.

The raison d’etre to appreciate and contribute. Appreciate creation as her self consciousness. We must take responsibility to protect her and she rewards us. All spirits can experience life from infinite perspectives and eternally be joyful and fascinated. There is always more to learn from when connected to Nature. New dimensions connecting, creating new forms and webs.

Animals have chemicals that blot out pain when they are killed by predators. In a whole ecosystem, rebirth of this fashion is quick. It is the weak and the injured that are taken out and the species as a whole benefits because it is strengthened and stays beautiful. In Heaven, spirits are glad for whatever is for the greater good. This comes from inner knowing through connection to the Earth and Heavenly Energy.