Meeting the Earth's Changing Needs Through Growing Consciousness and Practices

Conference Presenters

• More details about Rod Tomlinson

  Rod Tomlinson

  Rod Tomlinson encountered Rudolf Steiner’s work in his late teens while studying at the University of Tasmania through close friends who had determined on establishing a Steiner school in Tasmania for their children. One of these friends and Rod established New Life Bakery to supply Hobart with its first commercially available Biodynamic range of, ferment breads, to fund the beginnings of Tarremah Steiner School in Tasmania. This initiated forty five years of involvement in diverse roles in Steiner schools and Steiner education in Australia. About Rod's Lectures 1. What Ails Me, Only You Can Heal - The Foundation Stone Meditation – A Source Of True Soul Nourishment And Remedy In Our Time Who are the ‘Elementals’, how do we experience them and how do we get to know them? The whole material reality is made up of four ‘states’ of matter; matter in a fluid, liquid, state, matter in a gaseous, airy state, matter in a state of warmth or heat and matter in a consolidated state. We can observe the phenomena of their interactions with one another and their transformations into and out of one another – water vapour precipitating into rain, forming rivers, lakes, seas etc., freezing into solid ice, warming up and vapourising again into clouds etc. But we no longer notice that all these phenomena are the material manifestations of spiritual beings. All of the varied states of matter are due to the presence and activity of these beings, who Steiner calls Elemental Beings. Goethe once noted that “Nature is the cloak of the Divine”. The Elemental Beings and their activity is ‘cloaked’ by the fluidity, warmth, gaseous and solid ‘states’ of the material reality around us. But these beings are intimately involved with the human being and serve the human being and acutely suffer our lack of acknowledgement of them, in fact they ail from the lack of human acknowledgement and suffer from our neglect! Goethe’s description of their healing Faust at the beginning of Part Two of his Faust, wonderfully draws European humanity’s attention to the selfless remedial activity of these beings on whom we all depend, may human beings hear it. “Diminutive elves, great in spirit, Hasten to where they are able to help… You who encircling, weave above this head, Now display your true elven worth – Compose anger’s strife within this heart, Remove the burning brands of his remorse, And calm in him, all sense of dismay! … First rest his head on cushioning coolness, Then bathe him in the dew of Lethe’s waters; His body will recover quickly from its numbness If sleep gives him the strength to face the coming day; Perform your elven duty And grant him restoration to its sacred light!” Goethe, Faust Part II, Act I, ‘A Pleasant Landscape’. 2. A Wisdom-Imbued Grail Filled With The Wine Of Love - The Radiant Presence of the Foundation Stone beneath the Goetheanum And The Mission Of Love (One hour on Saturday night from 7:00-8:00pm) It is the destiny of humanity to all become bearers of conscious, spiritual perceiving and understanding, imbued with creative, life-giving, universal love. When we arrive at that humbling destination, we will realise that to be fully human is to be fully divine and wisdom and love will be fully realised in every human being. “This is the secret of all future evolution… To the extent that spiritual knowledge flows into the evolution of humankind and of the earth, there will be viable and fertile seeds for the cosmic future. For it is the very nature of true spiritual knowledge to be transmuted into love… Wisdom is the premiss, the forerunner of love; love is the outcome of wisdom reborn in the ‘I’ of the human being.” “Love and light are, indeed, in some way interwoven in all the phenomena of our earth existence... Love and light are the two elements, the two component parts of all earthly existence: love as the soul part, and light as the outer material part... In some form or other all soul healing depends on a stream of love, which we pour into another person as a balsam. All that is done in this domain must finally be traced back to love; and this can be done. Even if we set simple psychic factors in action; if we assist another, perhaps, only to overcome depression, this can be traced back to love... Matter is in reality woven light, and that which belongs to the soul is in some way or other refined love.”

• More details about Tim Dunn

  Tim Dunn

  Tim Dunn (PhD) transitioned from bio-medical research into Waldorf high school teaching. He has been a researcher and educator for most of his life, and taught in Steiner upper schools for 20 years, he now works to share his passion for phenomenology and science as a mentor, teacher trainer and consultant in Australia and overseas. About Tim's Lecture Hiding in plain sight - spirit and matter not as a duality but as a whole. In many respects, I feel fortunate that I began seeking knowledge within the bounds of materialistic science. As a research scientist I became painfully conscious of how contemporary thinking cleaves spirit from matter, dismissing the former. This antipathy nudged me to ask scientific questions that "scientists" do not ask (if they want to keep their career on track). Rudolf Steiner applied a sound scientific approach to the interaction of spirit and matter, and went on to found the School of Spiritual Science. In this presentation, I hope to share some places to look, where we can find objective evidence of the spiritual: in the life cycle of the butterfly, in the germination of a seed, even in the experience of colour. Who would study and describe the living starts By driving the spirit out of its parts: In the palm of his hand he holds all the sections, Lacks nothing, except the spirit’s connections. (Goethe's Faust, lines 1936–1939)

• More details about Hamish Mackay

  Hamish Mackay

  I was introduced to biodynamics and the work of Rudolf Steiner by my brother, Andrew, and Alex Podolinsky on our family farm at Braidwood on the NSW Southern Tablelands in April 1972. It was the life event I had been awaiting: at last I met something that “makes sense”. Since then I have been involved in the biodynamic movement in various capacities on different parts of the planet. It has been a journey of learning; passion, folly, dogma, error and surprising outcomes – all of which encourage me to accept the invitation to participate in this conference. Hamish Mackay is Executive director of Biodynamics2024. About Hamish's Lecture Meeting the earth’s changing needs through growing consciousness and practices What consciousness for what practices? In lecture 2 of Rudolf Steiner’s course on The spiritual Foundations for the Development of Agriculture he refers to the ending of Kali Yuga and “a great inner transformation of nature.” In Australia in recent years, we have seen an exciting growth in the uptake of regenerative agriculture. This signals a broad awakening to the necessity of change if we are to continue with agriculture in this land. The question I wish to explore with participants in this conference concerns how we might conceive and address the “Great inner transformation of nature” Steiner refers to. What consciousness and practices will we, the biodynamic movement, be called upon to develop so humanity can fruitfully accompany this transformation?

  • Hamish Mackay's website
• More details about Hendrik Dierich

  Hendrik Dierich

  Hendrik Dierich: B.Sc, M.Sc (prelim), MSSc, University tutor & lecturer, IT consultant, network administrator, business consultant, Goetheanum Science Study year, Waldorf HS teacher, Permaculture and BD consultant, martial arts instructor & manager, philosophy & spirituality consultant and poet laurikeet. About Hendrick's presentation In Faust’s Study - with the Earth Spirit “In flood of life In action’s storm I ply on my wave with weaving motion, Birth and the grave a boundless ocean, A changing weave a glowing life that seethes So work I on the whirling loom of time to fashion the Godhead’s living clothes sublime”. Faust Part 1, Act 4 - Night The seathing, surging dynamic of the etheric formative forces are brought to display in this interaction between Faust and the Earth Spirit - which he has conjoured up with his spells. Faust is vastly overmatched, he cannot bear to look on this manifestation of life force, he lacks the consciousness to hold his own being in the face of this force onslaught. Faust is seeking to break free of the mind, the intellect, the brain-bound knowledge but he bites off more than he can chew. This rejection by the Earth Spirit thrusts him towards suicide but he is saved by the Easter church bells. His subconscious saves him from his alchemical over-reach. Throughout my working life I too have sought to ‘surf this wave of etheric dynamic’ in diverse ways. It is our time, our task to do this - Steiner left us in no doubt about this, nor the consequences if we do not do so. How can we understand the scientific work of Goethe, and the impulse of Rudolf Steiner which builds on that foundation? My work with Etheric Constructs seeks to give people tangible, hands-on tools with which to help the etheric life of Gaia, and ourselves, and to build protection from the EMR electromagnetic radiation that surrounds us like a soup. The debilitating effect of EMR undermines our efforts to enact a new social life and to express our individual will and freedom. Hopefully these first steps are a pathway to etheric machines, driven by human moral forces, that Steiner pointed the way to.

• More details about Brian Keats

  Brian Keats

  Brian Keats has had an interest in naked eye astronomy for over 50 years and 40 years of producing calendars for BD and astronomy. He produced the first BD calendar for the southern hemisphere and the first in Mandarin. He has taught Astronomy, Biodynamics and Projective Geometry in Waldorf Schools and to adults Australia wide and overseas. About Brian's presentations Countering the Deep Dive Down into Matter Times are a changing … very rapidly … indeed patently visible at an exponential rate in the technology arena! In the arena of agriculture “We do not farm alone” is a growing mantra. How can we experience this and bring it into its full expresssion? Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings. 9.30 onwards is quite late and cold! It also might involve some driving time to get to a dark area Star Stories written in the night sky Brian will be telling cross cultural stories

• More details about Peter Kearney

  Peter Kearney

  Peter Kearney is a biodynamic adviser and educator, organic/biodynamic gardener and small scale farmer, practitioner of Goethean Science and 30 year student of Anthroposophy. Peter is also a director of Biodynamic Agriculture Australia and Australian delegate for Biodynamic Federation Demeter International. Peter and his family live in Brisbane, Australia. His biodynamic garden of vegetables, herbs and fruits are a picture of health and vitality. About Peter's Workshop - Goethean observation Peter's workshop on Goethean science enables participants to experience the key methods of Goethean observation. This opens a deeper connection to nature and develops capacities of living, active thinking. Such capacities are at the core of Steiner's work on raising human consciousness.

• More details about Trevor Crowe

  Trevor Crowe

  I first encountered Rudolf Steiner’s work when I worked as Senior Lecturer and Course Director in the professional programmes in the School of Psychology at the University of Wollongong NSW. I landed in Biodynamics following my lifelong interest in consciousness and spiritual development. With hindsight I consider visiting Goethe’s former residence in Weimar Germany in 2003 while presenting at a psychotherapy research conference as a nudge towards the Spiritual Science pathway. BD surfaced at the time I was moved to leave academia, to focus on my spiritual journey and find new expressions for this more directly within the natural world. It felt quite providential when invited to an Anthroposophical meditation retreat in Byron Bay about 12 years ago. A couple of these retreats later and participating in study groups exploring some of Steiner’s work, whilst also studying Permaculture, eventually Biodynamics surfaced in a practical way. I subsequently completed a BD foundation course run via the Biodynamic Education Centre in Moruya on the NSW south coast before moving to Tasmania in early 2017 to build a small farm using permaculture design principles and biodynamic enlivenment practices. I continued to devour a range of Steiner’s and associated works and joined BDTas not long after arriving in Tasmania. It wasn’t long before I joined the BDTas Council and became actively involved in developing and facilitating the BDTas foundation education course, research initiatives, community engagement, study groups and overall coordination of BDTas. Talk One Sat 3:30-5:30 (which will include a 30 video recorded interview with Ueli - ag section bigger picture and Eduardo research update etc) - title - Consciousness in research - an aperture approach This presentation/workshop outlines a number of key challenges for doing research in BD, including consciousness research generally and more specifically in relation to BD practice. The presentation is introduced (via video recording) by the co-leads of the Section for Agriculture in the Goetheanum in Switzerland, Ueli Hurter and Eduardo Ricon, outlining how the development and work of ABAS can align with the Section for Agriculture’s vision and mission, and key international BD research themes. Trevor will then outline a research picture that aims to integrate the dominant conventional western science approach (a type of reductionism) with an approach favouring wholism (and expansionism). This will explore the advantages and limitation of the conventional approach which uses focused attention on the objects of interest in specific research projects, involving the rigorous control of the effects of other variables (including the researcher as observer themself), when compared to wholism based on accessing more context in the broadest sense. This involves a dance between contraction and expansion, order and chaos, and other polarities, with the aim to occupy the “middle road” between these opposing forces or preferences. A camera analogy is used to explore this dance, with the “focussing” being necessary to “sharpen the image or figure” and consciously regulating the “aperture” to access more “ground/context” so that “meaning” might be better derived. Although focussing alone brings clarity to the figure (i.e., the point of attention drawn out from the “ground” or ocean of potentiality), it does not provide meaning or existential re-orientation. Meaning emerges from the relationship, the contrast, the dynamics between figure and ground. Ground here does not just mean the physical context but also includes one’s own biography, worldview, social context, other realms, etc. This requires more than just focussing. It requires regulating our access to more and/or deeper ground. So, with the camera analogy, this involves adjusting the aperture. That is, by adjusting the aperture we change the range of the focus. It is an expansion or increased opening of the lens, or a tightening, constricting or closing of the lens. It regulates the amount of light coming in. Opening the aperture might be more than accessing more phenomenal, social or biographical ground. It might represent opening to the noumena, the spiritual, the imaginal, the cosmic - that which is beyond the grasp of the physical senses. Small group work will be used to explore this approach in terms of the design of specific research projects that starts from a more expansive creative orientation rather than starting from, and ending with, a reductionistic focus upon apparently isolated relationships between specific variables and “separating out” the researcher effects. The former represents an “expanded aperture” the latter a “constricted aperture”. Overall, the aim is to find the optimal, relational place between conventional scientific methods and the less constricted implications of quantum and Goethean phenomenal and noumenal orientations. Talk Two Sunday 4:30-5:30 – Weaving research and training This presentation/workshop describes the importance of exploring training/support options to become “local researchers”. This includes conducting research in your own region or with others. It also explores the advantages of BD education and training programmes being informed and evolved based on existing and new discoveries in BD research, and incorporating “action research” components, through which students become active learners rather than passive recipients. Different BD education/training modalities will be explored and discussed in terms of meeting the needs of BD practitioners in Australia, with reference to the Biodynamic Federation Demeter International trainer handbook “Learning Biodynamics as a path of self-discovery”.

• More details about Alan Drysdale

  Alan Drysdale

  Alan Drysdale has been a student of Anthroposophy for the past 45 years. In the 1970's, already a mainstream teacher, but highly disillusioned with that system, destiny opened my eyes to Steiner Education, my future life's vocation, and led me to Emerson College in the UK [1982-85]. There the riches of Steiner Education commenced their revelations for me. Also, significantly, at that time a vibrant engagement with Steiner's approach to the arts of Speech and Drama arose; working with Dawn Langman another destiny impulse was activated in my life. Class teaching in Steiner schools has predominated in my spiritual, professional life ever since: a couple of years at Michael Hall, Sussex, UK; three seven-year cycles at Samford Valley, and more recently, stimulating stints at Milkwood, Darwin, and Goora Gan, Agnes Water. Fortunately, I'm still delivering regular main lessons to a vibrant group of children in a local, homeschooling initiative. Speech and Drama has proved to be my, 'O so potent art' and an avid point of connection between the students with whom I have worked in these schools. Recently, much to my satisfaction, I have reconnected with Dawn who has revitalised for me an even deeper plunge into the transformative spiritual art of sprachgestaltung. About Alan's workshop - To speak consciously is to incarnate the Ego more deeply into the soul; to move and speak is to commence the Ego’s transformation of Soul forces; so is the aim of our workshop: to kindle a beginning of a new path to self knowledge through the Rhythms of the Foundation Stone Meditation.

• More details about Rob Birse

  Rob Birse

  Rob’s biodynamic story begins in Sydney in 1979, stirring a bucket of Horn Manure to apply to his back yard vegetable garden, after being captivated by a series of lectures by Bob Williams he’d attended. This has led to a life-long commitment to studying, working practically with, and passing on knowledge of Biodynamics. Returning to Qld in the 1980’s, he was able to take on the role of Groundsman at the fledgling Samford Valley Steiner School in 1993 and began using the preparations on it’s terribly degraded soils. He organised several workshops by Terry Forman and Alan Johnstone at the school which led to a number of the participants maintaining long term connections to Biodynamics. These excellent teachers were early members of what has now evolved into B.A.A. Under the mentorship of Evette Sunset, the wonderful founding gardening teacher at Mt. Barker Steiner School, Rob went on to realise his true passion for teaching gardening to the students at SVSS, which he did from 1998 until 2002, returning in 2007 for another three years to now include the High School students. In 2008, along with the class teacher, Rob took the first group of Yr.9 students for their three week Farm camp at the property of BD cattle grazier and pioneer in Regenerative Agriculture, Shane Joyce. This has been a fruitful partnership, with the camps still on-going and now encompassing the three S.E. Qld.Steiner schools, Samford, Noosa and Birali, the latest to reach high school stage. For over 25 years Rob has been giving hands-on one and two day workshops and talks, hoping to inspire others with the wonders of Biodynamics and a better way of doing agriculture. Since 2005, he and wife Lorraine have hosted horn burial and retrieval days at their Montville property, principally making Horn Manure and initially Cow Pat Pit, but in more recent years Soil Activator. On a number of occasions a number of the Compost Preps have been successfully made, when the required ingredients have been available. It’s always a joy to see how the participants, often from the various school communities, are enlivened after sharing in these activities. Rob has just finished two years of gardening classes with the Birali high school students and is currently still involved with a parent gardening group at the Noosa Pengari Steiner school, as well as maintaining his own gardens which have been a constant over the years.