Spiritual Foundations for the Renewal of Agriculture: Life Based on Love

A Study Series Co-led by Spikenard Farm Honeybee Sanctuary and the Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Biodynamics

You are warmly invited to celebrate 100 years of biodynamic practice and wisdom with friends from Spikenard Honeybee Sanctuary and the Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Biodynamics. Alex Tuchman, Ines Kinchen, Stewart Lundy, M. Mueller, and other friends will lead a year-long study series of Steiner’s 1924 lectures known as “Spiritual Foundations for the Renewal of Agriculture.” Join us for 11 webinars that share insights and experiences drawn from the Agriculture Lectures, including presentations from experienced biodynamic farmers, beekeepers, prepmakers, and land stewards, with discussions and spiritual communion.

Please mark your calendars for the following online meetings, all at 7:30 pm – 9 pm EST:

Tuesday, February 13, 2024
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
Wednesday, May 8 2024
Wednesday, June 12, 2024
Wednesday, July 10, 2024
Wednesday, August 14, 2024
Wednesday, September 11, 2024
Wednesday, October 9, 2024
Wednesday, November 13, 2024
Wednesday, December 11, 2024

The 8 lectures given by Steiner in Kobierzyce during the last year of his life provide a foundational understanding of the elemental and cosmic forces affecting living things on earth. With both practical indications on farming and observations on the workings of the cosmos, the lectures constitute the first ever organic agriculture course and give each of us a path to heal the soil beneath our feet. Our aspiration is to read deeply into this foundational text to unlock the mysteries of the relation of plants, animals, and humans to the earth and cosmos, so that, as Dr. Steiner said, “the earth may be healed.” Indeed, as we know from studying the Bee Lectures given by Steiner immediately before this, the body of the bee is the entire earthly landscape, and her health is intimately tied to our own.

Spikenard & JPI invite you to study the texts with us collaboratively, to deepen our knowledge of the forces, cosmic and spiritual, that work alongside biological ones in nature. The indications given at this culminating time in Steiner’s life offer a way of co-creating with the earth and cosmos to make a place where the honey bee–and all our relations in the living world–may thrive and flourish.

For the readings, we welcome the use of multiple translations to deepen our understanding, including the Creeger & Gardner translation, Agriculture: The Spiritual Foundations for the Renewal of Agriculture, available online at the JPI Bookstore at jpibiodynamics.org.

Explore the lectures for the first time or deepen your understanding of the spiritual forces needed for the regeneration of cultivated ground. Our shared devotion is to healing the earth for all beings: how do biodynamic practices and inspirations help us meet the challenges of the future?

Register online at spikenardfarm.org/products/agcourse. The study is offered freely so that it may be shared far and wide.

Donations are warmly accepted and shared equally to support the ongoing work of Spikenard Farm Honeybee Sanctuary and JPI. Donations are tax-deductible.