Biodynamic agriculture can seem confusing or even impractical. In spite of everything, I still find myself rereading Rudolf Steiner's Agriculture Course and realizing, "Oh! He's actually talking about farming here!" This experience has grown from farming since 2010 and from reading Steiner's work almost the entire time.
I don't know about you, but epiphanies tend to arrive to me in small pieces, with the rest left for me to work out the hard way. So I read, read, and reread, patiently awaiting little revelations of nitrogen in the winter months.
Beginning January 7, 2027, we will be facilitating a monthly study of Rudolf Steiner’s Agriculture Course through JPI. The aim is simple: to understand what Steiner actually says well enough to put it to work on our farms and in our gardens.
The group will meet on Zoom on the first Thursday of each month, 6:30–8:00 p.m. Eastern, with Stewart Lundy as the facilitator. We’ll read the eight lectures over twelve months, giving two months apiece to Lectures 2, 3, 4, and 5. After Lecture 8, the reading cycle begins again.
Sign up for free listening or paid participation · Read the syllabus and monthly assignments
Doing your repetitions
I would like to invite you to this for several reasons: our last session for the centennial with Spikenard Honeybee Sanctuary was quite successful, and, secondly, this foundational work can so easily be misunderstood. In spite of all appearances, this really is a work about agriculture. But it is a kind of agriculture that attempts to see everything down here on earth as a microcosmic image of the macrocosm.
Diagram by Stewart Lundy
The process of intuition is like fumbling around in the dark seeking a light switch: intuition is a vague stumbling where you often stub your toe or trip and fall. What we tend to notice is the result of this blind, felt fumbling: the epiphany when the light switch illuminates the room. With a new concept discovered by intuitive bumbling, it lights up the whole room, and suddenly you can see things and avoid tripping over them. Every new concept is like another light that dispels shadows and allows us greater freedom. Anyone can turn on the light switch for us, certainly, but we don't merely want to see, we want to develop that intuitive feeling that empowers us to find even more epiphanies.
What this study group seeks to do is to add weights and repetition, so that each of us, from our own striving, begins to develop the inner capacity that Steiner intends with his circuitous and often evasive style. He does not tell us what to think or lead us by the nose, but leaves us free: and freedom is not something most of us are truly acclimated to.
What these lectures ask of us, I realize, is not easy. Steiner wants us to put in the effort and transform ourselves in the process. Just as resistance from heavy weights builds muscles in a gym, Steiner's difficult prose develops the capacities ("organs") he wants in his readers.
But only if you do your repetitions! It does no good to go to a gym and watch other people work out. It does little good to show up to a study group and listen to other people's explanations. The point of this is your own individual work.
Even if you don't understand what you're reading, continue. Note what is confusing, reread it, and then move on. I recommend reading in advance of our sessions; when you review what you read the day before we meet, you'll be surprised by how much more clearly it shines.
Any shortcut to the truth is a lie.
Diagram by Stewart Lundy
We can understand why Steiner's works are difficult. He often doesn't explain himself. Instead, he expects the reader to put in the work. I'm reminded of how our vegetable CSA at the farm has always had a high attrition rate: a CSA is a romantic idea to customers, but CSA farmers are really selling people more work because they have to go cook for themselves after paying for vegetables! If people prefer fast food to cooking their own fresh meals, how much more so for reading? People often prefer spiritual fast food, with all the work done except the savoring, but Steiner only gives you raw vegetables you have to cook yourself! Steiner expects you to take the raw ingredients of his indications (Andeuten) and prepare a meal with them!
So I invite you into something deliberately difficult, where we learn to trust what is uncomfortable and develop new muscles together.
Reading Before Speaking
The first rule of initiation is to keep silent. With a text, this means setting ourselves aside to read, read, and reread. Reading is deep listening.
Anyone who wishes to speak must have read the assigned passage that month. Having read it years ago does not count. This applies to everyone on the panel, including the facilitator and JPI staff. If you haven’t done the reading, you’re welcome to attend and listen.
Participants will take turns introducing portions of the text. You don’t need to be an expert. Say what you understand in your own words, be honest about what you don’t, and bring a concise question. The facilitator will develop the discussion from what participants bring.
This isn't to exclude anyone, but to hold a space where only those who have given their full attention to the lecture this month are centered. Those listening will benefit from the refined discussion that comes from that purest form of generosity: attention.
Diagram by Stewart Lundy
Two ways to take part
Free listening: Choose the $0 Listening Only subscription on Zeffy. You’ll receive the syllabus and the public Zoom invitation. Public attendees watch and listen, with cameras unavailable, microphones muted, and chat closed unless the facilitator opens participation.
Paid participation: Monthly subscriptions begin at $15, with suggested amounts of $20, $25, or $30, or a higher amount of your choosing. All paid subscribers have the same panelist access. Zoom sends each subscriber a personal panelist invitation. Keep that invitation for the monthly meetings and do not share its link.
The Biodynamic Agriculture Study Group carries the discussion between meetings. Anyone may read it; invited paid subscribers may post.
These are live discussions. There will be no video recordings or replays.
The book
We’ll use Agriculture: Spiritual-Scientific Foundations for Agricultural Renewal, the definitive centenary edition translated by Simon Blaxland-de Lange (paperback ISBN 9781855846661). Please purchase your copy through JPI. The separate question-and-answer sessions and appendices are optional reading.
2027 dates
January 7 · February 4 · March 4 · April 1 · May 6 · June 3 · July 1 · August 5 · September 2 · October 7 · November 4 · December 2.
Each meeting is 6:30–8:00 p.m. Eastern. January’s assignment is Lecture 1 in full. The syllabus gives the full reading schedule and the divisions of the longer lectures.
Join the public Zoom webinar (watch and listen). Webinar ID: 852 2684 5502. Passcode: 520129. Paid subscribers should use the personal panelist link in their Zoom invitation.
Subscribe to JPI’s events calendar to keep the dates in your calendar. Questions can go to jpiadmin@jpibiodynamics.org.