Blog – Tagged "bioenergetic"– The Josephine Porter Institute

Jul 29, 2023

Mice: A Farmer's Best Friend

When we consider Steiner's indications on "pest peppers" (remedies made to combat pests and weeds), you take the weed seed and destroy them either by fire or by rotting. Consider the rodent: the rodent lives primarily off seeds and yet, due to its incredibly inefficient digestive system, the rodent must consume its own feces to extract nourishment. What this really means is that rodents leave behind much of the vital potential of seeds when they eat them. The manure of rodents in the garden are nature's pest peppers.

Jun 26, 2023

Fungus & Threefolding

When Jesus drives the moneylenders and animals out of the temple, this is analogous to using Equisetum arvense to bring a healthy asceticism to plants, to starve out (so to speak) excessive inner planetary forces or lower animal impulses.

Jun 24, 2023

Cows Create Meadows

In Karl König's fascinating work Earth and Man he proposes that specific animals create landscapes like themselves. In particular, one that stands out for biodynamic practitioners is the cow, which, König suggests, creates meadows.

Jun 12, 2023

First Rule of Intitiation

If we don't first accept there's a problem we also can't fix it. So the first step is not hiding in denial but accepting the exact conditions as they are and looking within those for hidden possibilities. This is the very basis of fertility for the farm organism and even the emergence of the biodynamic preparations from latent potential in manure and humble weeds.

May 1, 2023

Gifts for the Soil

With biodynamics we are gifting to the soil a concentration of forces and a kind of "sweetness" that naturally wouldn't occur by chance in nature. And that is the secret of alchemy: taking things to their fulfillment when Nature, left to herself, could not do so.

Apr 24, 2023

Rudolf Steiner

How do we restore healthy life to the soil? We do this with responsible common sense farming, incorporating the latest scientific research plus biodynamic preparations. We don't have to exclude anything that works.

Apr 17, 2023

Build Soil Rapidly

“In the early days we ran trials. Depleted soil was deep ripped. We sowed the right species and applied 500 and had the well known results. In six years we raised the organic matter levels from 0.9% in the top 4” to approximately 12% and, varyingly, to 2.4% at 40” depth. Ripping exactly the same way etc, but without 500, the soil biology developed to 20 cm depth, no further. In modern farming the right soil treatment and the Bio-Dynamic preparations must be applied together."

Apr 14, 2023

Common Sense & The Biodynamic Planting Calendar

If we plow when the soil is completely saturated, we will just create a horrible mess even if we make such a mistake on the "ideal" calendar time. Common sense must prevail when it comes to using the planting calendar.

Apr 12, 2023

Spiritual Farming

In biodynamics, we collect what would normally disperse to the universe, particularly the reproductive energy of innocent flowers. We collect this outward moving desire, contain it, and then introduce this energy to the roots of plants. How often do essential oils diffuse down into the soil? Not often!

Apr 10, 2023

As If

One of the most useful ways to think of something is as if. We don't have to accept that the farm literally is an "o...

Apr 3, 2023

Love & Farming

Do you need biodynamics? Not if you really love your land. I don't mean loving your land in a mere affectionate way. ...

Mar 27, 2023

Character of the Cosmos

As the Kyoto School philosopher Kitaro Nishida writes, when we discover a law of nature using the scientific method, this is actually the Universe, though us, discovering an element of its own character.