Lecture by Alan Chadwick in Saratoga, May 9, 1972

Lecture 2, Part 2.5

An Introduction to Alan Chadwick's Lectures and a Glossary of Terms

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Contents of this Segment:

Planetary cycles and their effects on plant germination and growth; Inclination and declination; Polarities; Sun cycle; Spring equinox; Fall equinox; Annuals and Perennials.

Full Text of this Lecture:

Villa Montalvo Lecture Series

Saratoga, California, 1972, Lecture 2,

Propagation, Part 5

It is the study of the planets and their effect upon growth and atmosphere and tides and oceans of the world. And indeed it brings about an enormous comprehension, which generally isn’t accepted or known of at all. And so, let us just start in this way.

Summer and Winter. Now the majority of people immediately jump just to a perfectly assumed statement, “Oh yes. Summer is because it’s nice and warm and the sun is shining and it’s hot. And winter, of course, it’s cold and things don’t grow." Of course, it’s got nothing to do with it at all. It’s all to do with an opening and closing, a growth and a death. That’s the whole reason of what summer and winter is. And the astonishing thing, of course, is that summer ends when everybody thinks it begins.

The total declination is in full swing on December the twenty-first. And on June the twenty-first, only about a month away [from this lecture], is the height, the end, of the inclination of the sun. From that moment, the whole world starts to go to sleep again. And those two six months, from December to June, is one of total expansion. And in that word expansion is exactly the meaning of what one is talking about. It is an opening out. It's a sense and an atmosphere sense and effect in the whole world of all growth: of fish, animals, birds, insects, plants, everything, trees. And that in all cases there are, just as there are day plants and night plants, so there are inclination plants and declination plants. This is the whole vision of Biodynamics. Male and female, love and hate, black and white, hot and cold.

Now, every day after December the twenty-first, it’s a little lighter in the morning and a little lighter later in the evening. And it’s an excitement taking place a sense of, “Something’s happening. I like it. I can’t resist it.” But it’s more. This is wonderful. It’s opening all the time. It’s growth; it’s indication. And on June the twenty-first, the whole of that ends; and it starts to go back and close up. And every evening is dark a little bit earlier, and every morning it’s dark until a little bit later. And even the arc in the air of the riding of the sun is beginning a change. And it’s an infusion of a sense. And plants and trees and insects and birds are influenced by this hourly and daily. And it is this that makes winter and summer. And that in winter, you could say, throughout, is a huge dormancy of, just as we were talking of, the moon and the sun in inclination and declination with sleeping at night or living at night and day as well.

There is a huge period where the whole atmosphere of the earth is sleeping. Death and sleep. And then, in January, this gradually begins to creep out of it very slowly. And buds do curious things of changing color and beginning to puff and swell. And February is quite a marked sense of this inclination, where it's become noticeable to everything, and there’s an excitement. And in March, the huge matter of “Equinoctial.” Equal day, and equal night. The whole matter that mankind loves totally to live in, is adaptable to his farm and garden lands: maritime, equinoctial, even. Neither too hot nor too cold. And the equinox is, of course, another matter entirely.

It invaded Botticelli. He thought, “The Primavera. This is the epitome of what the equinox of Spring is.” It is total birth, when everything sees everything with different eyes, with love of creation, of excitement, of the sensitivity of vibration, of this huge thing of blossoming coming—of fruiting, later—but of blossoming. And it’s a whole sense of quivering, which birds all see each other differently, and fall in love, and mate, and sing differently, and sing more. And as the nest is built they suddenly begin to sing and when the eggs are laid they’re singing totally.

And after that, it’s all finished. The equinox is over. The primavera has gone. And it’s a huge dormancy of blooming, of family life. It all happened. And this is May, June, into July and August. July and August where the declination has started to drop and is beginning to say in the atmosphere to the world, “Get ready now. It’s soon coming. It will be time to go to sleep, to die. To get ready for birth again later.”

And so it falls into the September equinox, the very opposite to the March equinox. The March equinox is all an excitement of opening out. The gales sweep the world. The ocean tides are the biggest and the lowest that ever happen. It’s one huge excitement of exhilaration, of expansion. But, the Fall equinox is the opposite. It’s the huge warning of total sleep and death, and closing down of everything, relaxation, pulsation, attack—Biodynamics. And, of course, all the summer flowers of the annuals love to come to life in the equinox of the Spring. And all the perennials love to come to life in the equinox of Fall, and winter over and then start…

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