ExpO N&C

• Introduction

Michael letter: Future of Mankind and Michael’s Activity: Barbara Saunders Davies intro to Druidic sanctuaries and Penmaenmawr in particular.

• Gunter Wachsmuth on the Penmaenmawr in 1923

From “The Life and work of Rudolf Steiner” by Gunther Wachsmuth:

“It was a unique and strange picture as Rudolf Steiner now in the loneliness of this lofty plateau entered into the midst of the Druid Circle….. He described to me with an intensity as if the event were occurring at that moment, how the Druid priests. through viewing the signs of the zodiac passing along the horizon in the course of the year experienced the spiritual cosmos, the beings working within it, and their mandates to humanity …… When we left the Druid circle and the still plateau, to return to Penmaenmawr at the foot of the mountains, there was within me a certitude that within the sphere of this place something real, above the temporal, has happened through the fact that a seer personality such as Rudolf Steiner has once lingered here, has read the spiritual occurrences of the past in such a place, and could now communicate to human beings what he had seen – to those who in our time desired to take the path of schooling for the future.

Upon our descent to the shore of the sea, we met the friends once more, and they were astonished to see that Rudolf Steiner, after the steep ascent and descent, regarding which he now talked in an animated manner, was entirely unwearied. Indeed, during days filled with lectures, artistic programs, discussions, and trips into the surrounding country, he showed a freshness and vigour in which only a few of the younger persons could equal him.”

• Steiner’s words at Penmaenmawr

From the lectures given at Penmaenmawr 19th-31st/8/23

“In these elementals of the mountains, the rocks and the soil, there lives what we can discover in ourselves when we are waiting for something with justified expectation. The weaving and creating of soul and spirit in the seemingly lifeless rocks is permeated by this same expectant mood. In fact, these beings are waiting to awake from deep sleep into a state of dreaming. …..Here in Penmaenmawr we find that the particular configuration of the Earth, and the historical character of the rocks, enable these sleeping beings to rise to the aeriform to interweave even with the light, while in other parts of the Earth this has long ceased to be so ……whatever the spiritual world has to say in this place streams down with – one might say – greater intensity, but in words which are weightier and more difficult ……. For the prevailing character of soul-atmosphere here, we should need a particularly strong colour – a sparkling, shining colour, full of life. Hence I fully believe that those taking part in this lecture course will be able to perceive here something of what I would call the esoteric mood of the elementals. It looks in at the windows, meets us on our walks, in fact is present everywhere in a quite special way……it is a spot where the esoteric may be said to meet one at every turn. It does so indeed in other places, but not with the same ease and directness”

The concluding words from the lecture of 31/8/23

“When here we climb the hills and come upon the Druid stones which are monuments of the spiritual aspirations of those ancient times, it can be a warning to us that the longings of these people of old, who strove after the spirit, and looked in their own way for the coming Christ, will meet with fulfilment only when we, once again, have knowledge of the spirit, through the spiritual vision that is our way of looking for His coming. Christ must come again. Only then can mankind learn to know Him in His spiritual form, as once, in bodily form, He went through the Mystery of Golgotha.”

• Christian ways of Farming

Christian Ways of Farming

Contribution from K. Castelliz

What do Christ’s words “I am with you every day even to the end of the world.” signify? For us who in childhood have had religious tuition it meant you need not fear but trust in Him, He will always be near at hand. This childish interpretation melts away under Rudolf Steiner’s words explaining how epoch follows epoch to the end of the world and in every epoch the message is new.

In ancient Persia when wild plants could no longer serve as food, food plants were bred from them, to support the changing and advancing soul qualities. Then the plough was used to open up the soil for the sun rays to shine into it and with them the influence of the Christ for Whom the Earth thirsted, and Who was still with the Sun. Here we can speak of a pre-Christian Christian ritual.

After the Mystery of Golgotha the sowing of the seed, submitting it to the care of the Earth – now the body of Christ – became the christian ritual.

Our time has again a new message. Without the Koberwitz impulse we should have gone back to organic farming. “Conventional” farming went astray. Organic farming is going back into the past. Bio-dynamic farming is the christian way for the modern farmer. It is the way forward. Do not, however, let us rest on our (or rather Rudolf Steiner’s) laurels. We have to endeavour to fully comprehend the preparations and their working, only then could we see through the processes in the wrought work of the Gods and it’s needs now and into the future. (Into the Future: see R. Steiner “Man and the World of Stars”)

Look at the oak bark Preparation 505. Everything we use in it’s making stands at the border between life and not-life. Bark, skull, water, decaying plant matter.

We read in the Agriculture Course: “We take oak bark, the resin of which is still pretty active.” This can only mean that it is then still involved with the cambium, which reaches out to the stars, the whole heaven, and works into the seed development. (See Workmans’ Lecture of 10/11/23 * This is important as before I read it I saw in the bark a dying away into a flowing process, and involvement with the astral, the world of the stars, in this way.)

We put the bark into a skull which is part of the skeleton, and as such under Saturn influence. In the brain we see the workings of the Moon. While still in the skull, the brain swims in the cerebral fluid, which, according to Dr. Karl Konig is a direct daughter of the mother ammonion water. So the brain is in an etheric space. The “oak bark brain” takes on the same position and “inherits” the influences which linger on. We have the influence of the skeletal part of the skull as well as that of the brain cavity. It seems to me that etheric and astral are in perfect balance.

The whole is put into the living water with the decaying plant substances. A new ammonion fluid. So everything has again the emphasis on perfect balance of etheric life and astral influence.

505 can now act on plants which are unable to hold fast their etheric spiritual archetype. The living lime of the bark can now restore order “where the astral was not able to gain access to the organic processes”, and now can impress an image into the substance of the growing plant.

505 is just one of the preparations. Can we imagine a time when we would have to live without them? If we had to do it, we would return to the past. If Rudolf Steiner had not lived and taught when he did, the Christian way of farming belonging to our time would not have been born. However, we cannot rest where we stand. We have a long way to go until we really understand and can develop it further. Beware of the adverse powers!

• Helen Cole paper
• 505
• Bio-technology