This past week Sabrina and Olivia got to visit the Pfeiffer Center again on Friday. Unfortunately I was not able to join them because I had to go to work. However, I decided that while they were soaking in information about the process of Biodynamics and the facilities around the center, I could look into the biodynamic calendar. The first thing I really learned is that, there so much to learn! The calendar itself is jam-packed with symbols and pictures and times that all correlate to relevant information. For this week I concentrated on looking at the symbols that are seen by each of the dates. I used pictures of the 2018 calendar that Wanda gave us as well as other online resources that helped to explain what was being shown.
In particular I took a look at the calendar for February that Mac showed us the last time we visited the center. The picture that I used can be seen in this post below, and I will reference it
when I tell you about the things that I have learned. I started by looking at the dates and the AM/PM chart that can be seen, because these seemed to be the easiest to understand.
We can see on the calendar that there are some notes that Mac added to the paper and I will reference those as well. When you look down one on the columns on the chart you can see that the calendar makes reference to the moon phases. This is important and does play a role in what is being planted and at what time. With that in mind when we look over at the AM/PM section of the chart you can see that many of the hours on the day of the full moon are colored in. I wish I could tell you why, and had noticed this before Liv and Sabrina went to see Mac, I would have told them to ask him why they are colored in. When I was researching the calendar online I didn't see anything else like that, so it could have been something related specifically to the Pfeiffer Center.
This takes us the the words that are written in the AM/PM section of the chart, in the picture shown some of the words that we see are; fruit, root, flower, and leaf. For this information I also referenced Rhythm of Nature and Stella Natura, these two web sources both address what the symbols in the calendar mean. Overall, I learned that the names written in on the dates are naming the types of plants that are going to do best during these times. For example on the first of February in 2018 we can see that it is a prosperous time for fruit plants, as well as on the 2nd. We can also see on the 3rd that it is a prosperous time for fruit plants as well as root plants.
In the end, there is a lot to learn about the biodynamic calendar and I didn't even make a dent in the symbols that are seen, however, I think that with the information I gained I understand a little more about what the calendar shows. Next I want to look into why the zodiac signs are displayed on the calendar.