Spiritual considerations

In the 20's of the last century, when Dr Rudolf Steiner was teaching his spiritual science of Anthroposophy, some members of the anthroposophical society asked him why it seemed so hard for many people to understand and accept what Steiner was teaching. 

Steiner's answer was that this had a lot to do with the inner quality of the food people where eating.

Artificial fertilizer and chemical pest and disease control where new tools in the hand of farmers at the time.

This led to a series of lectures, later dubbed 'The agriculture course', which is the basis of Bio-dynamic farming.

The way our food is grown is very important for how open we are to new thoughts about spirituality, and perhaps even to how well we can think and reason.

We still have a lot of work to do, to find out how best to care for our soil, our crops and animals, so that the food they provide will best nourish us. But the most important 'tool' we have in this quest is our loving attention, and our respect for nature and how she works.

We need to learn to work with the nature of the soil, plants and animals, and combine it with our own ingenuity, to build the best possible ecosystems on our land. And we need to really get to know, respect and love all that lives and works there.

Then the plants and animals will, from the love that made them grow healthy and strong, make the food that we need, and be happy for us to take our share of it.

Of course, the intention is not purely to benefit mankind, and to grow the best food for us.

And, after having come across the idea of gardens of love in a series of books called 'The Ringing Cedars of Russia' by Vladimir Meģré, and having felt very strongly compelled to work with it, I found a mention of the following in some lectures of Steiner:

In the far future, the new earth will be permeated by love, in the same way as in our time we can find wisdom in all of nature (think for example about the complicated working together in ecosystems, where apparently unrelated creatures turn out to be essential for each other’s existence). And it is mankind's task, from our time on, to work that love in to the fabric of the earth.

The Gardens of Love project is a real and hands on way to make a start on this, to build love in to the Earth.