Look up to the Universe!

Into the highest heights

the sun is rising.

Glowing summer warmth,

blessing tbe lands,

streams down upon us.

Awaken to the life of the earth!

Feel how in the nightly depths

the longing for the heights is living.

Beings strive to meet with other beings

high in the air, up in the light,

want to wander with the planets

in the halls of golden stars.

Feel yourself a part of the weaving:

Feel the breath of earth,

feel the blessings of the light!

We spirits of elements, we are weaving the summer,

as they have ordained it, they, the ones we pursue,

the creator spirits of the heights, the great and wise ones,

those full of kindness, who lead us and guide us

with their protection.

Excerpted from Uriel: St. John's Hymn for Speech Chorus and Eurythmyby Wilfricd Hammacher, translated from the German by Truus Gcractspublished by Vcrlag am Goetheanum.

LILIPOH SUMMER 2006 13

the enctiantecl

CALENDULA, ^WHO ART. THOU?Discovering the Secrets^bf NgtqThrough Artistic

Twice a year, a plant s tu^s course takes place at Camphill Camlffhities Caltfornia, a community near SantoCruz, California that inclo^^s adults with developmental disabiliti^.-The workshops were first introduced tothe community in 2000 b y ^ j ^ ^ Evans, M.D., an anthroposophical medical doctar and his wife Marah,

a Hauschka Art therapist in c h o r ^ ^ P ^ t o g at the Hibernip School of Artistic Therapy in England. The processinvolves intense observation ofn speciHc plant species, qrtwork, and reflection of one's ovvn thoughts andfeelings in association with the'pinfe!^ do it in a group, where peoples gifts cometogether^^i l their i | l ^ranging diversity, is an enriching experience; a fui [pictureoft t^dnt emerges. Self-knowledge ^ ^participants as each one places their oKs|rvntin^^yrriwinq alongside each other's. One..person concenfrafeson the overall form in light quick s k e t c h y ^ l i i ^ ^ S p t h e r - . ^ i g h t d v ^ l on conaete defeiTrin all exactness.

Over a number of sessions a conversation becomes disce^Pe in which W ^ n t itself is the one speakingand we became intensely active in listening and occasionally, we may be able to ask a humble question. Theexperience becomes deeper when our thoughts, feelings and images are taken into sleep and brought back toconsciousness when we meet the next day. This process has been used to heighten our experience of a festival

at Easter or Michaelmas, or to lift our spirits during a low time of the year, say, February.

What follows is a description of one such process undertaken in Spring. As the CourseLeader i decided which plant species we would study by walking out into the surrounding

area and seeing what was thriving and bountiful. This time I chose calendula. -Elizabeth Howe

Step One

We all assembled indoors in high an-

ticipation, and I asked everyone to be

quiet and still. We were going to meet

our plant and first impressions were

important. In silence we moved outside

to encounter the big healthy specimen

I had chosen. As we stood around it, I

asked for impressions. This is what came:

Warm, raggedy, dense, friendly, colorful,

rising sun, bright, cheerful.

Step Two

We gently dug up one or two plants of

calendula at various stages, kept them

moist, and took them inside. The next

step was a very dry, physical, almost

clinical description documenting num-

ber, shape, size: five ridges around the

stem, milk inside the stem, dense, heavy,

hollow stem, four-five leaf repeat (five

leaves spiralling round the stem before a

leaf is directly ahove the first leaOi spin-

ning-top-shaped flower bud. leaves and

flower bud form a ragged five-pointed

star, looking from above, sticky.

Step Three

This was a black and white drawing wirh

charcoal. In our group there was a great

range of skill and confidence in drawing.

The endeavor was to achieve a physical

•LILIPOH SUiWViEl? 2006

the enchanted earth

likeness, going into detail but no colorat this time. Some young co-workerswho were rightly proud of their artisticgift did not work alone because someoneless confident had asked for their help.Together they produced one drawing,sometimes two, as they worked sideby side. It was not the art product thatwas important here but the process andexperience of connecting with the plant.At the end we stood back and observedthe drawings together and spoke of howit had felt for each one or what they sawin the drawings.

Step FourReturning the next day we each did afree-rendering of our plant from mem-ory. Ideally the picture would be done(with charcoal) with the eyes closed. Noteveryone was willing to do this, but thosewho did experienced that something dif-ferent was at work.

Step FiveThis was a color pastel drawing of adetail. The group now broke up andinstead of sitting around the table wirhour sketchpads, each pair decided whereto work and what to look at. One pairtook the root system, another a smallyoung plant, another the bud, or leafystems, another the seed head. It wasgreat that all these different stages wereavailable at one time. (It derives its namefrom the Latin because it is in bloomon the calends o^every month). For me,conducting the workshop, 1 found itheartwarming to watch how much de-votion and joy accompanied this stage.Holding back from going into color tooquickly enhanced the experience of nowbeing allowed to dive into the richness ofdetailed and manifold sense impressions.Afterwards, as before, we looked at thedrawings, side by side and shared our

impressions ofthis part of the process.

Step SixA week elapsed and we had to recreate

our experiences to date before continu-ing. Always there are different thoughtsthat emerge, after a few days "sleeping"on the events, that are not consciouslyavailable at the time. Now our nextexercise was "Exact Sensorial Observa-tions," including as many differentsenses as possible: touch and texture,smell, taste {only for those who can beresponsible for their own judgement ofsafety) and yes, why not hearing? This iswhat people observed: sticky, aromatic,sweetish, pungetit, bitter root, leaf tasteslike dirt, bitter aftertaste, flower bud hasintense perfume, leaf fuzzy, leaves flex-ible, flabby, soft stem makes a crunchynoise like rhubarb.

When everyone had spoken andwe had all shared in and explored theindividual contrihutions we went on tothe next step.

Step SevenThis was an attempt at observing our-selves in relation to the plant. Eachperson was asked to capture the feelingthat the plant aroused in them as theybeheld it.

This is quite a challenge, especially ifyou have been trained that only ohjectivethings count and personal feelings arebetter left out of any serious undertaking.I have a particular friendship with Carrie;she has short term memory loss, butmakes up for it in the most abundantvocabulary and expressions for feelings.With her love of art and nature herpresence is a real asset to these studies.I am aware that she has an intuitiveunderstanding of the plant world, albeitunconscious and untrained. Remarkablethough it may seem there is often

one person in the group, sometimes anewcomer, who comes up with a startlingunique expression at this stage thatproves to be spot on, down to the exactwording. We all have intuitions that havenever been noticed. Now is the time tostart accessing them. It is scary, but withthe support of the group where everycontribution is part of building up thewhole picture, each one finds validationas together we fumble to express semi-conscious experiences.

This is what was said; hope, warmheart, sensitive, plant asks to reflectwhole, penetrating glowing coal, lion,mother, full fleshy, satisfying, erotic,leaves tongue-like, strong overgrowth,abundance, open, full, watery.

Step EightWe returned to our drawing boards.This time we were indoors togetheragain, and the plants were left outside togrow peacefully. Each person was askedto try and express the essential beingand gesture of the plant as they felt it.Where people were working in pairs theydecided for themselves whether to dotwo separate pictures or a combined one.When we came to put them together norwo were alike and yet placing them sideby side a quality emerged which we allexperienced. There was an over-archingprinciple that linked them all into a total-ity, which was beyond words.

Step NineThis involved taking the various herbalsand healing plant manuals off the shelfand sharing from them the entries on ourcalendula plant. After our long struggleand involvement with calendula thiseasy-access info seemed trite, simplistic,a cheating way to know something. Yetit was a great revelation that we, in ourhumble collective endeavor, could come

LILIPOH SUMMER 2006- 15

the enchanted earth

so close to the accredited properties:Mrs. Grieve in her Modem Herbalquotesfrom Fuller, "The dried flowers are stillused among the peasantry to strengthenand comfort the hart." (1699)"It hath pleasant, bright and shiningyellow flowers the which do close withthe setting downe of the sunne and dospread and open again at sunrising." (ANiewe Herball\57S)Culpeppet says it is an "herb of the Sunand under Leo. They strengthen theheart exceedingly and are very expulsive... A plaster made from dried flowers... applied to the breast strengthens theheart infinitely in fevers.""The flowets are in demand for childrensailments."

"An infusion of the flowers promotesperspiration and throws out any erup-tion.""To iook on it will draw evil humoursout of the head and strengthen theeyesight."

Maybe it does not emerge through thisreport, or maybe we deluded ourselves,but this was (and is repeatedly so) avery empowering experience, individu-ally, for everyone involved. We sat backin our seats, looked at each other, andfelt "Wow, we did that." This sort ofexperience is available to anyone willingto look closely at any plant in their backyard. It was this type of experience thatGoethe spoke about in his writings onPlant Metamorphosis, calling it "TheOpen Secret."

I conclude by saying that workingin groups allows qualities other than theintellect and memory ro shme through.The wider the spectrum of gifts amongthe participants the greater the potentialfor the whole picture to be experiencedcollectively that goes beyond what theindividual can find on his or her own. It isvery liberating, while also strengtheningthe bonds between people and buildinga stronger sense of community.

UUPOH's Recommended Reading

whaf Is Biodynamics? A Way to Heal andRevitalize the Earth. Seven Lectures vtrith anIntroduction by Hugh J. Courtney By Rudolf SteinerISteinerBooks, 2005)Seven lectures by Steiner are brought together in this newcollection. Four center on developing a spiritual perceptionof nature, and three ore from his Agriculture Course. A 43-poge introduction by biodynamic visionary Hugh Courtney,the director of the Josephine Portei Institute for AppliedBiodynamics, the center for the making of biodynamicpreparations in North America, introduces us to the ninebiodynamic preparations and the cosmology out af which theycome. More than just substances for healing the earth, theseunique soil and plant foods create a vibratory environment forhumans to have a new experience of Christ consciousness thatis available to us.

Turned Upside Down: A Workbook on EarthChanges and Personal Transformation,by Marko Pogacnik(Lindisfarne Books, 2004)As an lithopuncturist, a person who heals the earth through akind of planetary acupuncture, Marko Pogocnik has a specialwoy of communicating with spiritual beings who inhobitthe earth. Different elementol beings communicate with himthrough his dreams. From them he has learned thot our planetis changing, not only physically, but energetically. Pogacnikperceives that human beings are changing too, and that toa certain extent, we are already existing on a new spiritualplane if we are awake to it. hie outlines several exercises thatstrengthen aur heart region, the new center of our thoughts,and align our etheric body [life force) with this new earthvibrotion. Spiritual beings are also evolving and Pogacnikshores his insights into how they are changing as a result af theevolution af the earth and earth changes.

Stars of fhe Meadow, Medicinal Herbs as FlowerEssences, by David Dalton(Lindisfarne Books, 2006)A new book by David Dalton represents almost 20 years afresearch into the liquid energetic remedies derived from livingflowers commonly known as flower essences. He introduces anoriginal repertory of 4 0 medicinal herbs os flower essences.He speaks of "the power and potential of these simpleremedies - a power and potential to heal a sick and woundedworld." The chakra system, the shapes and colors of theflowers and the observations of the effects of the essences arethe context in which the flower essences con be understood,particularly to help balance the human emotions.

16 •LILIPOH SUMMER 2006