“Matter is energy. In the universe there are many energy fields which we cannot normally perceive. Some energies have a spiritual source which act upon a person’s soul. However, this “soul” does not exist ab initio as orthodox Christianity teaches; it has to be brought into existence by a process of guided self-observation. However, this is rarely achieved owing to man’s unique ability to be distracted from spiritual matters by everyday trivia,” Monty’s Python’s Meaning of Life.

Attention. Observation. These were the skills that kept you alive in the time before television, the Internet, and electric lights. The rhythm of the Solar System was the rhythm of life. Generational observation of those rhythms built a foundation to guide you as to the best time to plant and harvest and the work you had to do.

Then we lost it all.

Regaining this knowledge with all the noise surrounding us today is a struggle. Attention and observation must be connected to science and an open mind. It is connecting these dots that biodynamics struggles with today.

Having recently returned from the National Biodynamic Conference in Westminster, Colorado, these struggles were only highlighted. As Rudolf Steiner proposed in his Agricultural Course almost one hundred years ago, Biodynamics was spiritual science — an extension of the Anthroposophy, the movement he founded in the early 20th century.

Today’s split is whether biodynamics is spirituality with science or science with spirituality. There is a difference. In Anthroposophy, spirituality comes first. Today, many practitioners of biodynamics follow science, which leads to discovering spirituality. Guided by your observations and discoveries, you find the energies that make you and every part of your farm — one. There is a logic in biodynamics that modern science is discovering. Biodynamics provided a foundation based on folk wisdom, knowledge attained in an era of focused observation that is now being integrated with modern science, this era’s method of focused attention. The difference is that the old knowledge was not polluted by the commercialism that has led agricultural science down the path of chemicals and patents instead of natural systems and respect for how life has evolved on this planet.

The program at the recent National Biodynamic Conference was heavy on the spiritual and light on the science. The problem with that is that the science, the how-to of biodynamic farming, is something we can learn. Spirituality is something we attain by practicing biodynamics. One is a technique, and the other is a personal voyage. Teach us how to farm, and the inner energies of our farms will reveal themselves to us. You don’t have to follow Anthroposophy to be a biodynamic farmer — you need to connect with the energies that evolved to create the natural system we call Earth — and the science that opens these secrets to us.

At the end of the Monty Python skit quoted above, instead of the spiritual answer, they decided that the actual problem was that people don’t wear enough hats. Even in comedy skits, the debate is between heaven and Earth. In biodynamic agriculture, there should be no such debate — as heaven and Earth are one in the same.