Lecture by Alan Chadwick in New Market, Virginia, 1979
Lecture 8: Fertility, Part 3
An Introduction to Alan Chadwick's Lectures and a Glossary of Terms
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Ridiculous tendency to resort to poisons whenever problems arise. Remarkable adaptation of Tansy. A higher intelligence governs nature and creation. The tyranny of the machine. The misguided directions of modern society. The destructive is celebrated and the essential is slighted. But by the gardener's perseverance transformation is possible. The holy grail and the knights of the round table. A protection that comes from a correct attitude of approach. From the cosmic to the garden, and back again. The great battle for fertility and beauty. Egotism leads to a diminished physical and spiritual outcome. A sacred attitude produces an incalculable abundance. (10:29)
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New Market, Virginia, 1979, Lecture 8
Fertility, Part 3
... you see there is always this re-connection, with rushing to the store for a powder, because something is happening that’s got up your petticoat.
Now perceive you, that where I’m speaking of a French Intensive Biodynamic bed, I am only focusing into one fraction of the whole progress of the garden. That therefore it includes all of those insects that you do not comprehend that appear as enemies. And here is a little statement about, for instance, the seed of Tansy, burr marigold. This plant, wild, grows beside water but not in water, and cannot grow away from water. It cannot exist on dry land, and it cannot exist in a bog. And so it grows on the edge of little ponds and pools, and round the edges of lakes and streams. And in the Fall when it goes to seed, those seeds fall on the dry land and cannot germinate. And when the winds of winter come, they blow it into the pond. And oh, dear, now what’s going to happen. Those seeds have four horns on the other end like floats. And the seed floats upwards with the germinative point in the air, so that the seed sits in the water at an angle facing up.
And along comes Mr. Carp, and you think, "Oh, dear, here we go again." But those four horns are made like fish-hooks, and every fish is aware, by relationship of what those four horns will do. And many fish have had this stuck in their gills for several hours to get rid of it, and wouldn’t dream of going near that seed, knowing very well what it would do. And so eventually the late Winter winds, the early Spring winds come, and they blow this towards the edge of the pond. And then the heavy rains come and they lift the whole water of the pond six inches or a foot above its normal level. And the seed then is blown over the edge, and is now over plants again but in water. And as the water descends, as Spring begins to decline, so the seed is deposited back on the soil and is covered by dust, and germinates.
Now that little performance, which happens annually with this plant, is a very clear insight into the vagaries of our minds. And in all of these things that look like trouble and worry, but when you perceive the great law, the total law behind them, you realize that they’ve all become gifts, and are resolved. And that the whole approaches of these energies, nothing is too small, nothing in the whole world is too small that you will not go into every detail to its perseverance and “perseverance.”
Therefore one trusts that you must begin to perceive through your own deep inner self, your own great huge important ego, individuality, that all of the things of creation are created, and not by us, and that they are there for comprehension. And that most of all, this is a lesson, is an import, that those things that appear to us most oppositive, that today are all eradicated… Everything is swept off the tarred road. If any snow falls, “Oh, gracious, get the machine, and get the snow off!” Get everything off the tarred road so that that “box” can tear along. Next year it’s got to go so many, so many “omp, omp, omp, widdle-waddle, widdle-waddle, widdle-waddles faster. And so you’ve got it composing in a different mineral, and that no longer is that metal any use, and so it goes on ad infinitum.
Oh, Sirs, Dear Children. If half of the whole of that in America had been put into gardens. The concept, the thought, the incredible depth of what all of that has taken. If it had been put into gardens, what a continent would this be, as an exhibition for the world, a performance. But do you now see, that all of those things that appear most oppositive―and I’m not only of course, talking about us―are the most important things of all that must be faced, and met, and looked at. And then, like the seed, what appears to be a huge sorrow disappears, as a gift, and you break through it. This is this elevé of fertility, that you will rise through those oppositions.
“Oh, what should we do about the ants? Oh, what should we do about the slugs? Oh, what should we do about the crows?” Go on, just go on. Proceed. Attitudes that in your deep deep conscious and your great individuality, that lead you into what you perceive. Proceed. Why? Was it not the knights that came to the roundtable for their apprenticeship in the search for truth? The Holy Grail? They did not come there to fulfil the orders of Arthur. They did not come at the command of Arthur. They came secretly, through the forest, over the mountains. And when they had taken their seat of apprenticeship, and a period of obedience, remember this: That each one of them was individually protected against the oppositive great evils of the world. They were protected totally, and they had that awareness. This is the whole sense of Michael, and of the sword, and armor. It is none other that protective against.
Therefore, all of those things—I go back you see, out of, reappearing out of the cosmic, back into the garden and back again. Now do you see that all of those things that look so oppositive in the garden… Realize that this doesn’t only apply to us. We’re not the only ones concerned in this “battle,” if you like. As a Seventh Day Adventist once said to me, who just finished his twentieth child being born: “Life is a battle, isn’t it?” I said, "No, I don’t agree with you." But the whole of this matter, which you might refer to Michael as being a contest, you see, it’s just the same for the soil.
You are not feeding a crop with what it wants, or that because you want the crop. Don’t ever go into the garden because you want something! Because that’s what you’ll get, and that will be very sad. That’s just what you’ll get. That’s exactly what everybody’s getting today:
“Burr, bang. Buzz, bang. Telephone! Write me a letter. What’s this, what’s that? Bang, bang, bang! Oh, my God, get the insurance, will you?"
You are placing in the soil because you are following a secret mystical edict that was given. And through it, enters your will and desire, which are your individual, delicious exponents of idée, and you are portraying that by building fertility in the atmosphere and the soil.