The Word of St. John

Angus Hawkins – 2010

Anthroposphy challenges many conceptions considered by modern day science to be the truth. This is not the same as saying it disputes the facts on which much of the scientific world view is based. As Steiner points out numerous times in his over 6000 lectures, it is modern day science’s interpretation of the facts that are lacking and it is Anthroposophy’s mission to view these facts from a spiritual science perspective and thereby arrive at a more complete truth. This spiritual science perspective when exercised properly gives a deeper understanding of human life and the surrounding world and as such is more truthful than a natural science which only concerns itself with physical phenomena. What is more it makes us feel truly human.

The Gospel of John is a work of great spiritual depth and even though it is one of the four gospels in the New Testament it is not uncontroversial. This is amongst other things due to apparent similarities with Gnostic teachings, which are considered heretical by many Christian thinkers. There are also questions concerning authorship which are not unproblematic. Despite these reservations John is still generally considered by Christians to be the most profound of all the gospels. This presentiment of immense spiritual depth that many people have concerning the gospel of John is a feeling that is fully justified from an anthroposophical world view. Here I will attempt to awaken both a feeling for and understanding of some of the profound concepts, in particular the concept of the logos,  which if taken to heart can have a deeply transformative effect on a person’s life. The transformative powers of the first 14 verses of John’s gospel were known to the Rosicrucian schools of the middle ages. Consequently those training to attain initiation for direct vision of the spiritual world were instructed to meditate on these 14 verses at the same time of day every over a long period of time. This was part of the process of cleansing the soul bodies so that then spiritual world could reveal itself to the pupil. By developing our thoughts in this area we will be able to better understand why it is no exaggeration to state John’s gospel is one of the most magnificent and significant pieces of writing in the history of mankind.

John 1:1: In the beginning was the word (logos), and the word was with God, and the word was God.

When trying to fathom the meaning of this sentence much is made of the fact that “logos” comes from the  Greek meaning “word”, “wisdom”, or “reason”. Whilst there is no need to dispute the meaning of the word “logos” itself  the concept can be deepened immeasurably. So that it is possible to read this one sentence and feel a connection with the whole development of the human race past, present and future. A bold claim, yet reasonable if we truly begin to understand the deeper meaning of the word “logos”. What then lies behind this word “logos” that justifies its importance for John at the beginning of the gospel?

Let’s try to recreate a feeling for the depth of this word so that we as readers might also utter these words and feel a deep sense of holy awe rather than them sounding like an abstract thought chain that does not even begin to move us or stir up deep feelings of connection and purpose.

It is important to start with a thought experiment that will be the basis of some later far reaching conclusions. Consider how a person who sees a house, especially if it is not his own, seldom reflects on the fact that before the house existed there were builders who built according to building plans and that prior to the plans there must have been the thought of a house. That is to say first there was a thought, this thought then required several phases (discussions, plans, building phases in appropriate order, decorating etc etc) before the final desired outcome could be achieved, namely the house to live in. If we are reminded of these facts we have no problem in accepting the fact that a thought or combination of thoughts (idea) always precedes a house. These thoughts are continually referred to during the process and adaptations are made according to need. This truth, that a thought precedes a product, is true for cars, computers, chairs indeed for all manmade products without exception. Even non-functional products, poor performing products and not yet existing products obey this law. Namely that before a product can come into the world it must be preceded by a thought, it must first exist as a thought. In this sense all manmade products are concrete evidence of thoughts, they are thoughts materialised, thoughts with physical clothes on. The objects created in this way then over varying lengths of time succumb to nature’s forces and decay and crumble leaving no trace of the thought. All manmade objects are thus transitory, they come into being from an invisible source and ultimately return there. Thus far I doubt if there is any straight thinker who would disagree with the thrust of this description.

This perspective on thoughts is very different in character to the popular scientific conception that thoughts are not real, but simply the human interpretation on the firing of neurons in the brain. Instead we are establishing that thoughts indeed are very real as they are the foundation of every manmade object. For completeness’s sake it should pointed out that the author sees this firing of neurons as the means by which we can gain consciousness of thoughts, thoughts reflect themselves in our brains. Mainly the source for these thoughts is internal, but it can also be external.  Thoughts exist independently of the physical brain in the same way that a radio or television does not produce its content, but are required to make the content visible and audible. More of this later as I am already jumping ahead of myself.

 

What then of the natural world around us, does it have the same relationship to thoughts that we established for manmade thoughts? Can we draw the same conclusions when we look at the living world of plants around us? Here it is more difficult accept the truth that we established for manmade objects. In this not knowing the origins of these plants it is no longer obvious that everything was preceded by a thought. Indeed it is far from obvious that a (living) thought (idea) preceded the living trees, flowers and grasses that we see spread out before our eyes as we walk through the countryside. It is here that we as human beings meet with the boundaries of our knowledge. We no longer have a clear answer as to the principles involved.  Furthermore because we have come up against the boundaries of our knowledge we also find that people can no longer agree 100% as to the origin of trees, flowers and grasses. The clear insight that we arrived at for manmade thoughts is not as obvious. Consequently we have essentially two models to explain what we see in the living world around us.

• Trees, flowers and grasses are a product of randomness (random genetic mutation in Darwinism terms) which after coming into being are then governed by the laws of evolution (no mentioned is ever made as to the origin of this intelligible law).
• Trees, flowers and grasses were like our manmade products preceded by thoughts (the origin of these thoughts is then attributed to other non-incarnate thinking beings).

 

The randomness solution above (1) which dominates the western scientific mind is in character identical to the theological concept of the “Unknowability of God” that was so prevalent in the Middle Ages  or to the Kantian concept of the impossibility of knowing “das ding an sich” (the thing itself). By hiding behind the word “chance” natural science liberates itself from the need to find deeper lying origins of the physical world. It states simply that we cannot know what is behind normal sense perception. Instead it contents itself with the belief that all that is knowable is to be found in the physical world and can be measured. From this standpoint anything not visibly perceptible is not real, it is merely speculation or fantasy. This guard against fantasies of the mind is of course a valid objection, however, there is still little understanding for how this safety guard bars science knowledge of deeper underlying causes and origins.  In the word’s of Ernst Lehrs scientific inquiry is a one eyed colour blind observation. From this standpoint only physically observable phenomena have validity. Scientific critical thinking has achieved many amazing insights into how the world works to give us a technical superiority that is breath taking. Many praises could be sung about the value of natural science, but that is not the purpose of this article. We can call this randomness point of departure the “outer stand point”. (I have not forgotten the logos here, I am laying the groundwork for an understanding of it that might be believable and logically consistent)

The thought solution above (2) proposes that what is true for the manmade world is also true for the natural world around us. It clearly identifies that behind every natural phenomena there is a thought or string of thoughts which then form an idea (Platonic). These thoughts exist independently of the physical world, but nevertheless we find evidence for them in the sense world. People who have undergone extensive spiritual training are able perceive such thoughts directly without needing the medium of the physical world. From this point of view thoughts are real and sometimes these thoughts materialise so that there is a sensory perception left as evidence. Is there any evidence then that can support this notion that behind all trees, flowers and grasses exist different thoughts. Can we find a point of departure that convinces us that thoughts lie behind the living natural world? And can this conviction feel as strong as when we deduced the rule that all manmade object presuppose a thought as seen with the “thought-building plans-builders-house” chain? We can call this the “inner stand point”.

This author proposes a definite yes to the above questions. Yes such a point of departure can be found and yes (with training) we can have the same certainty.  However, like the incremental process of becoming a mathematician, musician or biologist there are certain foundational abilities that have to be in place before this insight can be directly experienced. Neither the mathematician, musician nor biologist can excel in their respective fields without extensive training. There are many such processes (of varying quality) for getting behind physical perceptions. One such process for gaining these foundational abilities is described in Steiner’s “How to achieve knowledge of the higher worlds”. There are indeed many other exercises which have been taught for millennia in initiation centres, East and West throughout the world which could lead to such foundational abilities  . The seed exercise given in Steiner’s book is, however, particularly instructional as it directly linked to our pursuit of experiencing the living thoughts behind the natural world. It is also this seed exercise which can bring us closer to both an understanding and rudimentary experience of what John meant with the logos at the beginning of his gospel.

In the exercise we shall allow a seed to grow in our mind. For this to be effective we must be scientific, truly scientific, in our observations and actually study the unfolding of life from a seed in normal everyday life, with our normal day senses, particularly eyesight. We are then to use these pictures to make a mental film of this process of development. This requires practise as we are usually not used to determining the content of our thoughts without the crutches of the physical world and it is consequently a lot more difficult to remain focused. If we persist in this exercise many many times (feeding ourselves time and time again with the evidence of our senses) so that eventually it has become relatively easy to play this mental film in our minds then new experiences add themselves to this film. These new experiences seldom add themselves without effort from the thinker. Instead a feeling of mystery or simply not understanding seems to give the best results. Asking how something that has been observed can happen is a good start. For example how must the sap flow so that a small bud can grow into a full sized leaf. How must it flow so that it builts on the existing. How must it flow so that the definite pattern of a leaf is retained. How must it flow when a bit is destroyed. How does it know when to stop growing and form its final edge. What is happening when a leaf starts to wilt. What system of forces must exist within the plant to make all the observed growth possible. By starting with such questions and letting the leaf unfurl in your mind new living pictures come to mind about how this is possible. It should be noted these are not ones deliberately induced, but instead by-products of the exercises and as such should regarded as perceptions in the same way that objects, music or atmosphere can induce feelings. One of these perceptions is a feeling that can only be described as growth and it fills the body. Words describing the accompanying sensation include for the author expansion, tension, movement, forceful, restricted amongst others.  This is a very definite sensation and is as intimately connected to the experience as for example coldness is to ice or taste is to a strawberry. This sensation, feeling of growth can continue to ebb and flow even when the mind is slightly distracted. This feeling also is then more readily experienced when observing using eyesight. Further deepening in the process leads to awareness of some system of forces that must exist to enable the plant to increase in size. This system of forces also has to create a form of anti-gravitational force, levity, for otherwise the plant would not be able to grow upwards (critical thinking shows that capillary action is insufficient as an explanation for what is observed, nor either are genetics as they are merely the information but what is it in the plant that processes this information) These forces allow the sap to make its way to the extremities of the plant where growth is most obvious, the experience is such that it feels like the sap is being sucked to the extremities, as opposed to blown from the centre. A further observation is that within this system of forces something must also be responsible for the regularity of the growth. This force body directs growth into certain patterns and structures, sometimes stems, sometimes, flowers, sometimes roots and most magically of all seeds. This seed when planted in fertile ground will then develop in exactly the same way as the plant it came from. This process can be further deepened so that it is possible to see the force body (etheric/life body,) but even prior to this stage of direct vision it has become clear to the observer that some form of life body must exist.  Another accompanying insight is that the only reason that we did not see it before was that we have been more focused on the product of the life body, namely the flower that is perceivable to the senses. In this sense this life body has the same characteristics of a thought, namely it is invisible until it dons material clothes. By going through this process (not just theoretically but in practise) of deeper reflection we have arrived at the same conclusion we arrived at concerning the house, namely that it was preceded by thoughts. This means that we also favour explanation number 2 , namely the thought solution rather than randomness.

By means of a similar deepening process we can also arrive at the conclusion that animals and human beings were preceded by a complex array of many thoughts that similarly unfurl themselves over periods of time.  We might even deduce the existence of non-physical beings, beings without a physical presence. In John’s gospel we meet with the thought, logos, that underlies the whole evolution of planet earth and mankind. In the word “logos” John by identifying it at the beginning of the gospel he is also telling us that he has experienced the thought that was the seed to the earth’s existence and all the life that exists upon it. If as John, the author of the book of revelations’, claims he has witnessed this original thought then it would also be reasonable to expect that he can reveal things about the future in the same way that anyone can predict how a process will develop if he knows the underlying laws (thoughts). If we believe John then he knows this logos and therefore his predictions have validity, just as a full understanding of the constellation of thoughts (idea) of the plant enable us to make predictions about how it will grow in different environments. Before we look at the content of this thought as it reveals itself in the gospel and other parts of the Bible let us consider it in relationship to our seed experiment.

In the seed we identified the life body which contains all the information and forces necessary to transform a thought into visible reality. That is, all the information and forces that can turn something normally invisible into something visible. John has this same relationship in mind when talking about the logos. The logos (Jahveh  Elohim  ) is the mighty seed which created the earth. Christ is the most complete expression of what that seed wanted to mature into. Each and every one of us can be as gods (Genesis 3:5 & John 10:34 – 35), we have the divine spark within us, the seed like ability to become a true fruit of the logos. So now let us look at what it is that the logos would have us be if we choose that destiny of our own free will?

Let us then try in very broad strokes to create an image of what this logos has been historically. First a quick analogy then in more detail to the question of what was the master plan of this logos? We will look at this from 3 vantage points. Judaism, Christianity and Spiritual Science.

The Analogy: Imagine you are speaking to someone. When you do this your vocal chords, mouth, tongue and teeth set air in motion in certain patterns, technically speaking the air oscillates like a wave.  This is the information that our ears then convert back into sound and that sound is processed so that we extract meaning from it. If there were no air we would not be able to hear each other because the medium is missing. We might not be able to hear people screaming in the vacuum of space but we can hear each other on air filled earth.  If we were able to freeze that air instantly we would actually be able to see the wave forms, the physical expression of our very words, our words incarnate. Our thoughts, which shaped our speech have thus been made visible. Theodore Schwenk has some wonderful pictures in his book “Sensitive Chaos” which shows tones captured in smoke which also capture the formative nature of sound. The shaping force of sound is also beautifully captured in Chladni figures. Many video have been uploaded on youtube.com. Try putting “chladni patterns” or figures in the search box to view some amazing results

The Master Plan: Going back to 4100 thousand years to ca. 2100 B.C Abr(ah)am the father of the Jewish people was after meeting Melchizedek entrusted with the Abrahamic convenant. In this covenant God/YHWH determined to call out a special people for Himself through whom He would bring blessing to all the nations and Abraham was to be the father of this bloodline. This blessing to all nations was the promise of the Messiah (anointed one). Circa 600 years later this covenant was updated when Moses led the Jews out of Egypt. The four last books of the Torah, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are a detailed account of this covenant and the resultant law of Moses. A central moment in this drama spanning 600 years is when Moses speaks with God/YHWH on Mount Sinai. It is here that YHWH reveals his name. God calls himself the “I AM”.

But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” 13Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” 14God said to Moses, “I AM THE/THAT/WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.'” 15God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers-the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob-has sent me to you!’ This is my name forever!”

On the surface this might seem an unremarkable name and the fact that translators cannot make up their mind about whether the correct translation is I AM THE I AM, I AM THAT  I AM or  I AM WHO I AM further muddies the waters. However, a significant truth is hidden in this sentence that brings us a step closer to characterizing an element of the nature of the logos. We can sum up the picture so far for ancient Jews. YHWH is going to send a saviour to heal mankind and YHWH means I AM. We could re-word this to say that YHWH is the principle that gives us individual consciousness, the ability to experience I AM, consequently he calls himself  I AM. Combining these aspects we get the idea that the saviour of the world is intimately tied up with individual consciousness and therefore self-awareness.

For the Jews YHWH was the unutterable name of god. Merely saying the word YHWH in those distant times would have shaken a soul in a way that we no longer experience today. To understand why this was the case we need to consider two issues which are both related to blood. That is the Jewish blood which is the means by which the Jews experienced their God.  First we shall look at memory and secondly the feeling of belonging that is so dominant in a Jewish soul. Looking at the memory issue first. Our memory is intimately linked to our blood. In societies where interbreeding is the norm there is a lot stronger feeling of a memory that goes beyond what was personally experienced. In earlier societies interbreeding was the norm and the further you go back in time the stronger was this tendency to marry within the blood. This is predominantly due to the general nomadic way of living that was so widespread then and meant moving around in smaller clusters of people. The  early Jews especially were nomadic and hence the tribes kept generally to themselves with little inter marriage. This is very different  from the cosmopolitan world we live in and consequently difficult to imagine. The modern day expectance especially in the Western world is that you marry outside the blood/family. This was a very foreign concept to earlier mankind. Whilst Judaism does not allow the marriage of certain close blood relatives it does expect Jews to marry within the blood. Why is this? One very important reason was because of memory. Modern day man believes that memory has always worked in the same way that we experience it today. That is to say, memory generally starts to appear when we are 2-3 years old and is linked to being able to speak. However, the facts are very different. In earlier times, Steiner tells us in various lectures, human beings experienced their forefathers through the blood. In those times an individual could experience memories  of things that never happened to that individual, that is to say they could know of things that had happened to the blood, to the forefathers going back many generations. This was a true living family memory that makes much sense of the deep reverence that all ancient peoples had for their forefathers. This type of memory also enables us to give a plausible explanation for the extreme old ages of some of the Jewish patriarchs. The old testament tells us that Methuselah lived until he was 969, Jared 962, Noah 950, Adam 930, Seth 912, Kenan 910, Enos 905, Mahalalel 895, Lamech 777, Shem 600, Eber 464, Cainan — 460, Arpachshad 438, Salah 433, Enoch 365, Peleg 239, Reu 239, Serug 230, Job 210, Terah 205, Isaac 180, Abraham 175 etc. etc. What the Torah is trying to tell us is that it took 950 years before direct memory of Noah disappeared from his lineage, from his bloodline. One piece of evidence supporting this fact is that the longest ages are in general from the earliest patriarchs, i.e. from a time when marriage with close blood relatives was more common as was the close nomadic lifestyle. This also gives us a premise for understanding why marriage outside of Judaism is considered wrong. Thus blood was vital, from a Jewish perspective, for maintaining contact with forefathers and the Jewish mission of being the bloodline for the saviour of the world. A mission that had been given to them by the highest god, YHWH. This is also the reason for the two genealogies in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew tracing the blood back to Abraham and Adam respectively. This blood connection was clearly connected with a direct experience of God and therefore a sense of both purpose and belonging for Jews. This brings us to the second issue mentioned above concerning blood, namely belonging or unity.

A sense of brotherhood and belonging exists in all religions and it is particularly strong within Judaism. The memory of shared forefathers and the reverence which is given to the patriarchs created a strong feeling of belonging within Judaism. The Jewish feeling of spiritual continuity within Father Abraham went to a depth few can experience today. This strong sense of blood belonging whilst it furthered the purpose of unity was also fundamentally in conflict with the god YHWH (I AM). The Jews from the beginning have worshipped the highest god, yet this god is the impulse of self-awareness a god of individuality. I use the word impulse in the same sense that Greek or Norse gods were perceived as the givers to mankind of the gift of music, art, speech, fire etc. Although this perspective is regarded as naive from a modern standpoint it is fully in line with how ancients experienced the development of new human skills and faculties. Modern godless science can of course not accept such a position and therefore creates its own fantasy accusing the ancients of being anthropomorphic and overly imaginative. If, however, we take the ancients at their words then they experienced that they received these gifts from higher beings. I will return to this issue when looking the logos and Spiritual Science.  The Jews had a similar perspective and forbade the worship of lower gods or idols. For the Jews YHWH was an spiritual impulse for the betterment of mankind which stood above all these other gift giving gods because YHWH was to impart on mankind amongst of things the gift of self-awareness, consciousness of self, the highest gift that could be bestowed on mankind. This is why the term “highest god” is used in Genesis when Abraham receives his godly mission from Melchizedek. However, YHWH the “unutterable” name of god is both the sense of purpose yet also fundamentally in conflict with the Jewish sense of belonging.  How is this so? Essentially we have a blood principle trying to maintain strong bonds between the members of the Jewish folk yet the god they worship is the god of individual awareness. Seen in this light it is also understandable why god’s name was used so sparingly, indeed in earliest times it was only allowed to be uttered by high priest on particularly holy occasions and blasphemy was punishable by death . To utter the name of god was similar to an act of driving a wedge between people, tantamount to advocating social disintegration or destruction of the “Father Abraham and I” feeling. It is counterintuitive to believe that if somebody has identified the highest god then s/he will refrain from using that knowledge to invoke him in times of need, unless of course it is forbidden by society. So why should such a potent force’s name be forbidden. Certainly social disintegration would seem like a very powerful argument for restricting the use of this powerful word. We can compare this to the very common practise in pre-Christian times and later when the invocation of different gods or spiritual forces was very common place in all societies and the naming of the respective god was a prerequisite for gaining those spiritual powers.

The mystery of blood is intimately linked to revelations of the intent of the logos, the godly plan from a Christian perspective. Christ replaces the law of Moses with the commandment Mathew 22:36 “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Summarizing what has been said so far the picture becomes: The Jews united by blood were to bring the impulse of self-awareness and individual freedom to the world. This was a pre-condition for love to enter the world. However, true love cannot be limited by blood relations. Christ as the highest embodiment of the logos had the mission of developing the impulse of love for all people irrespective of ethnicity, a love outside the shackles of blood. The spiritual medicine that Christ wanted to administer to the world was the message of love for one another. Here again most readers will intuitively understand that if we all truly loved one another then all that is bad in the world would soon be corrected. In this sense Christ would be the saviour of mankind.

Christianity asserts that this message of love is at the centre of the Christian message. However, we only have to look at how split the Christian churches are, how much hate of foreign religions exists within those churches and of course all the wars, massacres and murders carried out in the name of Christianity to understand that not all those professing Christ have drunk of his medicine or they have drunk so little that is has yet to have any effect.

Returning again to the logos. What has happened over the last 2,000 years since the word (logos) became flesh.   According to Christian’s the saviour has come. Whilst the author also holds this to be true what many Christian’s fail to understand is that the Christ impulse must continue to work for many more thousands of years before we can say we have truly reaped the fruits of the coming of this impulse. Christ was the logos made flesh and this seed like impulse planted 2,000 years ago still has a long way to go before civilization can truly experience just how the saviour has saved.  How has this logos, this divine idea, continued to move humanity on in its development. Let us look briefly at two areas of significant development that were predominantly born out of cultures with a long Christian heritage. When looking at spiritual science we will see why this was not a precondition, but nevertheless a significant factor in the development of the areas  of equality and science.

Whether you are a Christian, of another religious persuasion or even an atheistic humanist then one of the healthiest developments towards a more humane humanity is the idea of equality, that we are all of equal value and are equal in front of the law. Without reading the history books it is easy to miss how different we are from our earlier ancestors. Let us look briefly at 2 examples: Freedom to a fair trial and slavery.

The principle of freedom to a fair trial was first established in Britain with the Magna Carter of 1215, although for many centuries it remained legally impotent.  In the 13th century people decided and formulated in a charter that they were no longer prepared to accept the old ways, namely that a king had absolute power and was not accountable to his subjects. On paper for the first time people did not simply have to obey, they also had a right to a fair trial (if they were citizens of London). The king or his men no longer should be allowed to simply seize corn , wood or land without due compensation. The kings officers now (in theory) had to have moral standards to be eligible for the post they were to fill. All undoubtedly significant improvements.  As noted the signing of this charter did not instantly make people equal. However, this process of becoming equal has become stronger and stronger. It has grown from a seed like thought into something truly marvellous compared to the historical backdrop. Clearly true equality still has many more areas to grow into, but just like the house at the beginning of this article, certain building blocks have to be in place before the next step can be taken.
Another area where the impulse of equality has been stark is slavery. It was only in 1807 that the Atlantic slave trade was abolished in the UK. The Vikings stopped their slave trade in the 14th century and the Catholic church spent 7 centuries arguing about whether slavery was morally permissible. Finally, well almost, in 1537 a papal bull made a clear statement forbidding it. This was generally only accepted as valid for Christians and it was first in 1839 that the Catholic church issued the unequivocal papal bull outlawing slavery, long after America, UK and France had abolished the practise. It is certainly a tragic irony that God’s interpreter seemed to have more difficulty than most understanding the Word (logos). Today the slave trade in the form of workers or prostitutes is considered by most as morally wrong and by many governments as illegal. How long will it take before the political will and the will of the people is so strong that even this form of slavery no longer exists? From this articles presentation of what the logos is this question could be worded like this: How long will it take for us humans to make visible what the logos planned many aeons ago as a healthy development for mankind? What is it that stops people from allowing this impulse to work ever stronger in society and the world?

The logos and science.  It might seem strange to use science as evidence for the further development of the logos. After all are not science and religion 2 irreconcilably opposite world views. For most people they are with science usually stating that the physical world is the only world and all talk of spirits and gods is puerile fantasy. Religion, on the other hand, usually stating that we are God’s children and we should simply believe to be redeemed and then life will be perfect in the afterlife. It is, however, possible to see scientific critical thinking as in intermediary step on a development curve.  Most people educated in the Western world perceive this curve as starting with ignorance and then suddenly within 400 short years since the inset of the scientific enlightenment arriving at the highpoint at which it is now. We will consider another curve later on. What is clear, however, is that the scientific way of viewing the world has the goal of leading us to ever greater understanding of the world. The scientific method leads us closer to true picture of the world. The scientific mind looks at the evidence, uses this evidence to create models which explain the behaviour. These models are refined further over time moving us closer and closer to a true representation of the world and all its phenomena. Honest science is all about searching for the truth. And this is the link to religion as it also claims to be able to tell us the truth. The logos has according to John a clear impulse to lead people to the truth. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. This common striving will naturally bring science into ever closer contact with religious content when the scientific establishment eventually relinquishes the ever more untenable position that only the material world exists and instead affirms that the spiritual side of reality is a real world that has a direct impact on the physical world. The thought experiment we performed earlier with the plant is an indication of the way in which future scientists will have to re-skill themselves if scientific thinking is to continue to be healthy impulse in society.  Science itself has undergone many evolutions.  A particularly noteworthy one was the shift from a Newtonian world view to the Quantum world view. In layman’s terms science learned from observation that the world was a lot more complex than the clockwork model supposed by Newton’s observations. Indeed it realised that the timeless and spaceless quality of the world of quantum mechanics, which has always existed, was completely unknown to them and required totally new models to make sense of the observed data. Just using the words “timeless and spaceless” already make it sound religious in character. In biblical speak these words would probably have been something like “eternal and oneness in God”. With such immediate similarities it is no wonder then that few materialist scientists take the full ramifications of quantum theory to heart, for it challenges the materialistic world to the core. It is also for this reason that  literature on this subject is popular with New Agers. Science knows at its core, but not at its many extremities, that the atomic world view is only a model for understanding and consequently that other models are needed to fully describe observations in the physical world. Science as it is understood today still has a lot of evolving to do and in the final part we will look at how the logos will continue to deliver its impulse and help humankind gain ever deeper truths about the world around us.

 

The Logos and spiritual science (Gnosticism).  Every impulse in history has to have its forerunners.  It is an unfortunate but nevertheless accurate statement to say that truthfulness is no guarantee for acceptance. Indeed the more shocking the truth the more vehemently it is usually fought by those that are not able to understand and by the powers of establishment.  Consequently the first scientists, scientists with revolutionary breakthroughs, anti-slave traders and human rights activists were vilified. Sometimes it took decades and other times centuries before the forerunners of these impulses gained popular acceptance. Spiritual science is similarly predestined to suffer the same type of attacks that all forerunners do, most especially so because its precepts are so radically different from the prevailing truths of most people’s way of viewing the world.

What is it then that is so shocking? In a nutshell a spiritual scientist wants to bring the scientific rigour to the world that religion tries to describe. This creates 2 clear types of potential detractors. First there is the average natural scientist who gets incensed at the idea that the spiritual world (world of living active thoughts) even exists let alone that one should try to describe and research it. From the other side there is the average believer that does not want critical thinking brought bear on his or her faith either for fear it will be destroyed or because s/he  already believes s/he possesses the whole truth. The spiritual scientist sits in the middle of these two might pillars with unshakeable belief that the invisible world behind the physical world is knowable and should be known. A truthful knowledge of this world requires a scientific approach to gaining knowledge. Furthermore any spiritual scientist that is on the same level of development as another spiritual scientist will concur completely when describing this world. This happens  in exactly the same way that there are levels of understanding in all fields of learning and especially the sciences. The 33 degrees of freemasonry (this number can vary) are actually a reflection of this truth though in a corrupted form as the degree now predominantly describes the status or wealth of a freemason in a particular order rather than his level of spiritual development on a global scale. Freemasons are indeed in a very loose interpretation of the word spiritual scientists. They believe in a supreme being, have metaphysical ideals, use rituals to try to invoke higher powers and try to gain a better understanding of this other world. It is also interesting to note that freemasonry attracts people of all religions but especially Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, and Buddhists. This ability to disregard religion yet still believe in a supreme being  with its many helpers is part of the reason why organized religion discourages membership.

 

In the beginning of this essay we looked at the “inner stand point”. The majority of people understand their religion from the “outer stand point”, from the documents regarded as sacred by that religion and these people penetrate the texts with varying levels of understanding. However, within every religion there is an “inner stand point”, the esoteric church. That is to say that through intense spiritual training, praying, meditating and fasting individuals can have direct experience of the truths of their holy documents in the form of visions, audio revelations and dreams. Referring back to our thought experiment with the plant and how we discovered a body of forces that must exist to explain what the eye sees so also does a spiritual scientist through meditation on the content of religious documents break through to an underlying reality. The spiritual scientist no longer sees the documents but the forces responsible for the origin of the documents. So just as the plant is evidence of an invisible force so also are the holy texts evidence of invisible forces. However, for the advanced spiritual scientist these invisible forces are no longer invisible instead they are directly perceivable and s/he talks about them in terms of spiritual facts. These spiritual facts then express themselves in the outer world. And in this sense it also is a direct experience that powerful spiritual beings are the forces behind the individual’s and society’s development or decay. John’s gift to mankind as the first initiate of Christ was to identify that the gods (YHWH Elohim) that created earth and life in the first chapter of the old testament had, by incarnating as Christ in the body of Jesus at the baptism in the Jordan, given the impulse for the full meaning or purpose of earth: namely to develop mankind into a world of individuals possessing free will and capable of true love for one another and full insight into the spiritual world.

Together we have over many pages tried to gain a small grasp of what the logos meant for John. If we weigh each word in gold and take them absolutely literally but with a more complete understanding of the background John is working from then it is possible to read John 1:1-14 and feel a sense of holy awe, a sense of connection with the most powerful healthy forces in human development. This feeling can be intensified through repeated meditation and then it really can begin to have a transformative effect on our lives.

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. 5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. 6 There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light. 9 There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

 

The Bonde Praktika in an Esoteric Light

By: Angus Hawkins. April 1995

 

 

 

Introduction

 

Microcosm and Macrocosm

 

Bloodletting

 

The Moon

 

Conclusion

 

Bibliography

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction

The Bonde-Practica is the Swedish farmer’s almanac and has existed in various different forms since 1508 when it consisted of just twelve pages. These original pages correspond to observations made by the English monk Beda even further back in the eighth century. The first edition was in German and soon translated to Danish, but the translation to Swedish had to wait until 1662. The Swedish translation still maintains some of its Danish origins, especially where the rhyming element has been maintained. The modern day version has hardly changed in content from its three hundred year old counterpart except that it has been expanded on. The extra length has been achieved mainly by repeating the same information in different forms. We also learn from Sigrid Svensson’s Bondens År[1] that this book had its own place on almost all Swedish bookshelves at the turn of this century.

 

I am convinced, as a result of personal research, that the world of the ‘Bonde-Practica’ corresponds to an esoteric way of viewing the world. It is the aim of my essay to show how the rules and recommendations in the ‘Bonde-Practica’ are steeped in an esoteric appreciation of the world. Indeed I shall seek to illustrate that this forms the backbone of the book. First we shall take a look at what it means to see the world esoterically. Then we shall look in more detail at bloodletting and the idea of good and less-good times for doing things and then the ideas behind weather prediction. Where it is possible I will seek to also present contemporary scientific findings in a manner that makes the ‘Bonde-Practica’ an even more interesting book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Microcosm and Macrocosm

 

 

So first let us look at what esoteric thought is. Esoteric thinking is amongst other things the perennial philosophy that Aldous Huxley[2] refers to. It is the common denominator that all religions have evolved from. It pronounces that there is most definitely a God and that there is more to life than that which our standard five sense perceive. It ascertains that there is a spiritual reality that runs parallel with the physical reality and that this spiritual reality is in actual fact life itself. Life for the esoterist is about integrating awareness of the spiritual reality into the physical world.

 

By looking at some of the cornerstones of esoteric thinking we will also be able to see the link with the world’s religions. We find that the physical reality is a reflection of the spiritual reality and that both are inextricably linked. The spiritual gives the impulses and these are then acted out on the physical plane. The spiritual can be seen as a finer or more rarefied form of the physical. An analogy would be like the differences and similarities between ice and water vapour. Both are made up of the same atoms but react differently in the environment. If we blow on some water vapour then this will disperse and completely change its structure. However, if we add the same small amount of energy to a block of ice it will have little if any perceivable effect though of course it will cause a change. Following the same line of thought we can say that the physical reality around us is essentially a condensed form of the spiritual reality. However, it is always, according to esoteric philosophy, the spiritual that gives rise to the physical. If we look at any man made object around us we can understand that first this was a thought before it became a physical fact. The computer I’m using to help me write this essay could not have existed if someone had not thought about it previously. The esoterist maintains that what is valid for man made objects is also valid for living things. This means that we existed spiritually before we did physically. Any physicist will tell you that energy is neither created nor destroyed it is merely transformed. This corresponds exactly to the esoteric idea of a birthless and deathless soul. The idea that we are immortal is backed up by sciences laws but it is our beliefs or faulty reasoning that can, if they will, maintain otherwise. As our souls are immortal so this also means that we can reincarnate on the Earth many times so that we can evolve spiritually. Be it God, Brahma or The Jade Emperor every religion’s Godhead is of infinite intelligence and love and it is this that we are supposedly all aspiring to. The infiniteness of the Godheads means that there is no such thing as chance in the universe. Everything has its place and in compliance with the Bible the very hairs of your head are all numbered.[3]

 

As we can see this esoteric version of life is both beautiful and inspiring. It is also contrary to the scientific belief about the world. When I talk of the scientific belief it means, for the sake of this essay, a belief that the world can be explained in purely physical terms, like the atomists of ancient Greece. So why is not life also this wonderful picture painted by esoterists. Put simplistically esoteric philosophy tells us that our misery stems directly from the fact that we have lost our spiritual links. Whilst this sounds cliché it is nevertheless plausible if we can escape the restricive scientific world view. In the modern secular society we have forgotten that we are all linked spiritually, we have forgotten that at a deeper level there is just oneness of being. Having forgotten that we are one it also makes it easier for us to commit whatever atrocities we will against other human beings. If everyone was aware of how we are all spiritually connected then it would mean that everybody would see the sense of living in harmony as opposed to perhaps feeling forced. This must be so because once we become aware of the spiritual nature of things we also realise that whenever we mistreat or abuse a fellow human being (and indeed anything living) we are essentially harming ourselves because at a deeper level we are all connected. Seen thus we can also understand that for example Christianity, as an example of a world religion with an esoteric basis, holds the same ideas, the unity of God, but differs as to the reasons. However, Christianity coerces its followers to a pure life by threatening the alternative of fires of hell and eternal damnation as the consequence of a sinful life as opposed to using more positvie reasoning to clarify the spiritual side of life. Whilst there is no room to expand this idea in this essay it has been of considerable importance in the development of the Western secular world.

 

Another key aspect of any form of esoteric thinking that will help us better understand the ‘Bonde-Practica’ is the idea of the microcosm and macrocosm. This is a development of the idea that the physical is a reflection of the spiritual. Consequently it follows that the reverse is also true. This is also expressed in the idea ‘as above so below’ which originates from the father of hermetic thinking, Hermes Trismegstus. Later when looking at weather in the ‘Bonde-Practica’ we shall find that scientific evidence is amassing to back up this idea. For now we will try to understand this abstract idea by means of a fairly new scientific phenomenon, namely that of holography. Incidentally Edgar Cayce predicted long before it was discovered in 1960 that science would make a discovery that would reveal the nature of the soul. I intentionally use the word discover because the phenomenon has always existed. The discovery was that of a hologram.[4] We are familiar with the fact that a hologram is a three dimensional picture. However it also has another very interesting property. If we take a hologram and cut it into small pieces then we find that each piece contains a picture of the whole. So if we had a picture of a horse and cut out its nostril and then expanded the cut-out to the original size of the whole picture then we will see a complete picture of the horse. This secondary picture will be less perfect or fuzzier than the original, but it is nevertheless complete. This paradox is very useful for illustrating the spiritual ideas of microcosm and macrocosm and other ideas that are familiar to esoteric thinkers. Some scientists like Karl Pribram[5] are using this phenomenon to illustrate the complex nature of the brain and how it might be a microcosm of the intelligent universe. This is very similar to Galen’s idea of the universe which we will discuss in chapter two. Pribram’s ideas are on the front-line of science and hence is not given much attention by more conservative thinkers. Meanwhile for our purposes it shows that science is gaining the means by which it can vicariously understand the spiritual reality of micro and macrocosm, or at least begin to think on the same wavelength as mystics have done since the year dot.

 

I must point out that I have barely scratched the surface of esoteric thinking in this introduction, yet it will serve as base from which we might begin to understand and give credit to some of the insights in the ‘Bonde-Practica’.

 

Let us look at some examples and see how the ‘Bonde Practica’ implies an esoteric understanding of the world. On page 71 of the ‘Bonde-Practica’ we have a table so that we can derive which planet is ruling which hour of the day. The concept that a planet has a certain quality is esoteric. We might be familiar with this idea through astrology which is one of the four esoteric sciences. The others are theology, alchemy and magic. So by trying to find out which planet is ruling, using this table, we also see how Bonde-Practica thinking is directly related to the astrological concepts of time having a quality. According to esoteric tradition the day, like our modern day, is split into 2 x 12 hours. However, these are not regular 60 minute periods. Instead they are calculated by reference to sunrise and sunset. On page 91 of the ‘Bonde-Practica’ we find that time for sunrise and sunset is given for the twelve months of the year so that the apprentice can work out when which influence is ruling. If the ‘Bonde-Practica’ subscribes to esoteric thought then this would be a very good reason for including such information. These figures are incidentally inaccurate as can be checked in any astronomical calendar. Nevertheless they are there for the right reason, that is calculation. Let us now look at how the day is split up. After we have found the length of day we divide this by twelve to find out how long each sign rules. So if there are 15 hours of sunlight then each planetary hour will be 1 hour and 15 minutes. The first ruling planet of the day is determined by the day itself and is as follows:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ruling

Planet Day Jour (French) Dag Gud

Sun Sunday Dimanche Söndag

Moon Monday Lundi Måndag (Månen)

Mars Tuesday Mardi Tisdag Tyr

Mercury Wednesday Mercredi Onsdag Odin

Jupiter Thusday Jeudi Torsdag Thor

Venus Friday Vendredi Fredag Freya

Saturn Saturday Samedi Lördag

 

Using the above information we can see how it is a simple matter of calculation to find out which planetary influence is ruling at any given time.

 

In the table I have also included the French days of the week to illustrate further the deep running parallels that our calendars that have with esoteric origin. Remembering that Tyr is the fieriest of the Nordic Gods we can see a direct parallel with Mars which the fiery, aggressive iron planet and both rule the third day of the week. Parallels between Mercury and Odin are also striking for both are the ‘all seeing’ Gods in their respective mythologies. Mercury has his winged helmet whilst Odin has his two crows; Hugin and Mugin and both Gods begin the fourth day. Jupiter is paralleled with Thor and they are both the mightiest of all the Gods and both rule the fifth day. Venus and Freya are both Goddesses of love and beauty and share the sixth day. As we can see the similarities are so striking that one must assume their is some type of pattern. We have identified this pattern as being that known to esoteric thinking and it is obvious that this way of thinking was in some distant history very important. This is confirmed by its inclusion in the ‘Bonde-Practica’. That the Germanic, Nordic and Romantic civilisations all came to the same conclusions is both striking and most interesting. Looking further we find that according to esoteric tradition and the ‘Bonde Practica’ the sequence for these planetary hours is always the same:

 

Sun – Venus – Mercury – Moon – Saturn – Jupiter – Mars – Sun…….

 

On page 72 – 75 of the ‘Bonde-Practica’ we find that the planets natures are described so that the apprentice can know the effects of the different planets, having already calculated which is ruling. We can also note that they are set out in the correct order, again implying that these are not written by chance. They read:

 

Saturnus Gammal, kåld, lat är jag utan skämt

Om flyktig, hätsk, all lämpa förglömt

Mine barn nitiske, och hatfulle äre

Metall och bly min handel månd’ vara

 

Jupiter Förnuftig är jag, lärd och tjänlig därtill,

Likaså jag mine barn hava vill,

Långvarande och dråpelig ting rättar an.

Med köpenskap jag väl vinna kan.

 

Mars En vågekåpa, man känna väl mig,

Häst, harnesk och krig brukar jag,

Allt annat jag begynner, tillbaka går,

Med mitt ganska liv efter olycka står.

 

Solen Jag är brännande och hett kreatur,

Min barn äre av ädel natur,

Vad jag begynner, ej långvarigt månd’ vara,

Jag handlar och umgås med stora herrar

 

Venus Till fröjd och kärlek står allt mitt sinn:

Till musicam haver jag viljan min,

Till bröllops och kläder ny:

Kärlighetsspegel brukar jag fri

 

Merkurius Välskickad är jag, och sinnrik,

Uti mäktige konster är mig ingen lik,

Vältalande och viso äro barnen mine,

Subtilge, lärde, fromme och fine.

 

Luna Långvandrande mitt sinne ej månd’ vara.

Jag och mine barn ingen hörsamme äre.

Vårt eget sinn have vi också,

Skulle vi än dubbel skada därav få.

 

The night is also divided up into twelve planetary hours, in both esoteric thinking and in the ‘Bonde-Practica’[6], so that we find that the same planet always rules at a particular time of the week and is independent of the month or year. At the equinoxes where daylight hours equal night hours we would find the following for say Wednesday. The day begins in Mercury at 6 o’clock and ends in the Sun at 18 o’clock.

 

6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Mercury Moon Saturn Jupiter Mars Sun Venus Mercury Moon Saturn Jupiter Mars Sun

0 1 2 3 4 5 & 19 20 21 22 23 24

 

According to esoteric tradition the planets correspond to the different signs of the zodiac. Hence on page 88 of the ‘Bonde-Practica’ we find a table of when it is good, indifferent or bad to walk, buy and sell, build a marriage, build house, move house, have a wedding, send messages, work with fire and to hunt. All these times are based on which sign is ruling. so for example it is good to buy and sell, build a house, move house, marry, work with fire and hunt when Leo is ruling. Also we find rules on p88-89 of the ‘Bonde-Practica’ which tell us when which element is ruling.

 

Från morgon intill middagen regerar det elementet elden.

Från middagen intill solens nedergång regerar vädret.

Fran aftonen till midnatt regerar vattnet.

Från midnatt intill morgonen regerar jorden.

 

These refer to the four esoteric elements fire, air, water and earth. These are used in conjunction with the new moon to determine what the coming months weather will be like and so:

At Equinox

Om månen nu tändes i element elden, då bliver den månaden varm och torr. (6-12)

Tändes han uti elementet vädret, då bliver han blåsande och våt. (12-18)

Tändes han uti det elementet vattnet, då bliver han våt och kall. (18-24)

Tändes han uti det elementet jorden, då bliver han kall och torr (0-6)

 

The fact that both esoteric thought and the guidelines in the Bonde Practica are so similar gives rise to questions. The first is how did they arrive at the same conclusions as the mystical philosophers of Greece and Egypt. It is very doubtful that they got hold of a Greek text some time some place. However, there must have been a common source from which two totally divorced cultures could come to the same conclusion. Even if we knew how they came to these ideas I think it would be wrong to assume that they just accepted them because someone says nature is so and so. Farmers are practical people and if a system is useful then it is remembered otherwise it must be forgotten to find a better explanation for things. The fact that this book has been around in some form or other since the sixteenth century, and the ideas are even older, indicates that it has some practical value. This is tantamount to saying that astrology is more than fanciful thinking, or put another way we are directly affected by cosmic happenings. Obviously this flies in the face of contemporary scientific belief, but scientifically orientated publications have appeared that intimate that perhaps this notion is not so crazy after all. We will look at two books Beyond the Jupiter Effect and later Måneffekten: Biologiska Tidvatten och Mänskliga Emotioner, to see how closely the microcosmic man is linked to the macrocosmic solar system.

 

In ‘Beyond the Jupiter Effect’ we learn how seismic activity coincides with different types of solar activity and that this is of a rhythmic nature. First we learn to appreciate with our own understandings of the world what is happening on a global level. If we are in a car which suddenly brakes or accelerates then we can feel the difference. It is not the speed of the car that is important when experiencing this change in energy, but the rate of acceleration. So if we decelerate from 100 km/h to 0 km/h in 1 hour we will hardly notice any difference. However, if we perform the same deceleration in 1 second, as we might do in a crash, then we can not avoid feeling the effects. It is also in terms of acceleration and deceleration that seismic activity becomes expliquable. So that when some accelerating force acts on the earth the earth’s tectonic plates, they are jolted causing landslides and earthquakes. Scientists have also discovered that solar wind is largely responsible for cause these changes in velocity. When the earth is buffeted by this solar wind it has an effect on the length of day (L.O.D.) which we all take to be 24 hours. These changes are measured in milli- or micro seconds over a year and so are not perceptible to us. However, when these tiny accelerations happen it must be the result of a huge energy impulse when we take into account the enormous quantities of energy required to cause a change in the rotation of the earth. Below we shall learn how and when these changes in L.O.D come about, but this example will serve to illustrate the huge energies involved. In August 1972 it was calculated that due excess solar activity the L.O.D. was reduced by 16 milliseconds. The energy required to bring about such a change was equivalent to the U.S.A.’s energy consumption for the next 5700 years. Remembering the laws of physics that say that energy does not disappear we can safely say that this energy will find somother means of expression.

 

We also learn that these solar winds are not random events and can indeed be predicted according to the position of the planets. In industry, where correct results matter more than the scientific methods used, we find that good and bad times are calculated for sending radio signals. These can be predicted because the solar activity affects the ionosphere off of which radio signals are bounced. John Nelson who works for RCA uses planetary alignments to determine these good and bad times. These correspond with the esoteric concepts of trines and squares which determine whether or not it is a good time to do something. Mr. Nelson has held his job for thirty years so we can assume his methods do work, even if they do not comply with latest scientific thinking. The parallel with the Bonde-Practica is that if it were useless in its predictive nature then it would have been got rid of just like Mr. Nelson would have been got rid of if he did not perform as required.

 

It is believed that the gravitational forces of the planets are responsible for the changes in solar activity. So if we find groupings of planets in a certain sector of the solar system then their combined gravitational forces can bring about a change in the centre of gravity in the solar system. When all the planets are spread around the solar system then the centre of gravity is quite close to the centre of the sun because it is so massive and different gravitational forces negate one another. However, when we have a grouping or synod we find that the centre of gravity can shift by as much as one and a half million kilometres. This causes a significant change to the amount of solar energy being received and thus has a huge impact on the climate. From observation scientists have found that the sun’s high activity has a cyclical nature which comes every eleven or so years. This corresponds fairly closely to the 11.9 years cycle for the planet Jupiter. With these fluctuations in the sun’s activity we find that the cosmic rays that normally shower the earth are interrupted by solar winds. As we can see earthquakes are caused by solar winds which are caused by planetary positions. As you can see we are a small step from saying that planetary influences have a direct bearing on our life. This is the same idea that is one of the main ways of predicting weather according to the ‘Bonde-Practica.

 

Other cycles have also been identified as concurring with planetary positions. There is a 179 year cycle which depending on the closeness, angle subtended, of the grouping of the planets is directly related to the mini ice ages of this millenium. The smaller the subtended angle the more severe the weather appears to be.

 

Date of synods Angle subtended

September 21, 1126 69′

October 21, 1304 59′

November 16, 1483 58′

January 6, 1665 45′

January 24, 1844 86′

November 2, 1982 64′ [7]

 

 

Analysis of tree rings, references to Chinese historical document that span the past 3000 years and the analysis of oxygen isotopes in ice cores from Greenland indicate that this 179 year cycle is a permanent feature of earth weather. There are some exceptions, so that sometimes the period is 140 years, but reasons as to the cause of these is not given. Finally, the 18.6 years cycle of the lunar nodal seems also to correspond to the so called ‘twenty year’ drought cycle that affect the U.S. Midwest. All these findings point to a cyclical nature in the weather which is exactly the same world view depicted in the ‘Bonde-Practica’. It follows that if the weather is reflected in the planetary positions, then it must also be of a cyclical nature like the planets orbits around the sun.

 

As we have learnt from this chapter their seems to be amounting scientific evidence to support the idea that man must not only think global, but also cosmic. Long term weather forecasts according to natural phenomon begin to look more plausible. Of course this is in full sympathy with esoteric thought because observation of the macrocosm must also lead to knowledge about the microcosm. If reality is so that we can truly say that ‘as above so below’, so must we also realise that scientific thought must always serve to strengthen this axiom rather than weaken it. Science is an investigation of the physical reality and because this is a reflection of the spiritual reality it means that science will never contradict esoteric thought if the esoteric thought represents an ultimate truth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bloodletting

 

In this chapter I will investigate the relationship to the rules on when it is advisable to let blood, as given in the Bonde Practica, and ideas that shape hermetic thinking. I shall also look at bloodletting in respect to contemporary scientific knowledge.

 

Even in 1963, France was supposed to have over 40,000 faith healers (but only 38,000 doctors) and 50,000 consulting rooms belonging to unorthodox practises.[8] This direct quote reflects how all pervading traditional or folk medicine continues to be even in a modern industrialized country like France. Why has this unscientific approach continued to thrive? Bloodletting or venesection is another old form of medicine that has survived the test of time and as we shall see is not always, as is might commonly be believed, useless quackery.

 

We know that according to esoteric thinking the body is a microcosm of the universe. The concept of micro and macrocosm is also believed to repeat itself within the body. Many traditional prophylactic traditions have this as the cornerstone from which it becomes possible to treat ailments. In Chinese acupuncture, kinesiology and reflexology we find that the foot, hand and ear are all microcosms of the body itself. Hence because of the holistic nature of the system it is for example possible to stimulate a poorly performing organ by means of sticking a needle in the corresponding place or by applying pressure to the necessary zone on the foot. According to esoteric traditions it is the spiritual forces, residing within the physical stellar constellations, that are responsible for the way the human body is shaped. It is in this sense that an esoteric thinker can truly understand that he is made in the image of God because his body is a microcosm and contains all the wisdom of the Gods.

 

So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God created he him; male

and female created he them.

Genesis 1, 27

 

Consequently we find that the esoteric science of astrology also reveals that the signs of the zodiac correspond to features of the human body. This means that by determining the positions of the planets and constellations it is also possible to know when it is propitious or dangerous to let blood. The idea that time not only has a quantity, but also a quality is far removed from contemporary scientific thought. However, this has not always been the case. With both the Egyptian and Roman civilisations we find that the concept of quality of time was critical in determining when wars should be waged or major constructions initiated. In Egypt pyramids were constructed and aligned so that a most precise observation of the skies could be undertaken so that accurate forecasts could be given. The knowledge they and other civilizations had outstripped that of modern astronomy in some respects until late into the twentieth century. For example some primitive South American cultures have long known, without aid of a telescope, that the Sirius Dogstar is in fact a double star, a fact that was only discovered scientifically thirty years ago (1960s). The Egyptians sought to know the will of the Gods by reading it in the heavens. Of course this was not limited to Egypt for we find that the Japanese and Chinese also meticulously plotted the heavens to determine whether the time was right or not. South American traditions of amongst others, the Aztecs, reveal that a great interest was also paid towards the heavens. Indeed we find that Europe appears to be the odd one out when it comes to tracing back the roots of astronomy into ancient times. With the Romans we find that they seek to find out the quality of time by other means. The principle of micro and macrocosm is still the basis of their science and we find that this is brought down to a more earthly level. They have neither the ancient knowledge of the Egyptians nor the observatories to support such a esoteric science and instead use animals to determine the will of the Gods. The Roman augurers studied the movement of birds and gave their counsel according to their behaviour. In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar we find this idea beautifully illustrated when the augurers warn Caesar not to venture forth from the palace on what turns out to be the day of his murder.

 

Caesar What say the augurers?

 

Servant They would not have you stir forth to-day

Plucking the entrails of an offering forth,

They could not find a heart within the beast.

Caesar The Gods do this in the shame of cowardice:

Caesar should be a beast without a heart,

If he should stay home to-day for fear.

No, Caesar shall not: danger knows full well

That Caesar is more dangerous than he:

 

Julius Caesar Act II, scene II

 

We can compare this to the observation that have been made by the Swedish farmer. On pages 41-43 of the ‘Bonde-Practica’ we find that by observing frogs, swallows, waterfowl, dogs or horses we can predict the weather. This relates directly to the Roman way of using the idea of micro and macrocosm for prediction. By studying animals we can know what is happening at another level of the microcosm. Thus, again we find the link with esoteric thinking and the ‘Bonde-Practica’.

 

 

När hundens buk mycket knurrar,

Äter mycket gräs, grinar och murrar,

Då vill det gärna så tillgå

Att vi snart därefter regn få.

 

I do not know whether this method of divination was common currency in Shakespearean England. Nevertheless it offers evidence for the idea that such forms of divination were widespread. We also find that both these methods of divination assume the idea of micro and macrocosm to be true and are also consistent with the esoteric theory.

 

Now that we have a better understanding of the concept of ‘as above so below’, we also learn that according to esoteric philosophy the different zodiacal signs control the different parts of the body. From the following rhyme from the ‘Bonde Practica’ we find that the Swedish farmer subscribes to the idea that different parts of the body are ruled by different signs. So we find again that the ‘Bonde-Practica’ reflects most accurately the esoteric way of thinking.

 

 

Huvudet haver väduren i sitt våld,

I halsen haver oxen sitt innehåll,

Tvillingarne regera armar och händer,

Kräftans regement till bröstet länder,

Om hjärtat haver lejonet omsorg och akt,

Lever och lungor stå i jungfruns makt;

Inälvornes herre vågen alltid är

Om hemlig ting skorpion bär,

Skyttens våld i länderna står

Stenbocken regerar knä och lår

Vattumanen styrer benkalven och skenben,

Över fötterna råder fisken allen.

Vem läkedom tager sig till

Och icke tiden akta vill

Och ej flitelig vill sig förvara

Han giver sig själv i stor fara

Vakta dig, att du ej låter en åder slå

När det tecken regerar henne peka på

Som denna figur månd’ dig uppenbara

Så kan du dig länge sund och karsk bevara;

Vill du leva sund i natulig tid,

Märk de tolv tecken på människors liv

Synnerligen med koppor och åderslag,

Då löper blodet i sitt rätta lag.[9]

 

In the second part of this rhyme we find that the apprentice is told to observe which star sign is ruling and so to determine whether it is a good time to let blood. This can be done by referring to the table on page 71 of the ‘Bonde-Practica’. This idea also falls in line with astrological investigations to determine good or not so good times to perform operations. Scientific investigations have for example found that bleeding is far heavier around the time of a full moon and that bleeding is easiest to control five days before and five days after the new moon.[10]

 

There are many superstitions pertaining to the moon, like for example if a robbery is committed on the third day of a new moon then it will fail[11]. Or a child born at the full moon will be strong. New projects started when the moon is waning are supposed to be more likely to fail and many others. Thus in the folklore we can see that there is an element of quality of time and that it can also be calculated by regarding for example the planets. Incidentally the word lunatic (French lune = moon) means mad or crazy and is derived from the fact that people believed that the moon has this effect on people. As we shall see in third chapter this does have some truth in it.

 

Bloodletting as a form of preventative medicine also finds its roots in an esoteric understanding of the human body. The idea that people used to randomly slit each other open as a form of prophylactic medicine is as absurd as the idea that traditional folk remedies are a result of random testing which might or might not have resulted in the death of the patient. Whilst this haphazard nature might be the practise with modern medicine companies and its test animals, I am inclined to assume that earlier mankind was more humane. I believe that they applied their herbal remedies or bloodletting according to a most definite system and that this system was grounded in esoteric thought. Of course there would have been a certain amount of trial and error, but I believe based on a system of thought. Such a system could have been the same as the Greek philosopher Galen describes. We shall look at his three works[12] on the virtues of venesection which includes numerous references to Hippocrates, the Greek physician recognised as the father of medicine.

 

In these works we find that Galen subscribes entirely to an esoteric understanding of the body. Let us now look at the esoteric make up of the body. Firstly we find that Galen subscribes to the view of a craftsmanslike nature. This view holds that everything is subjugated to a higher order and that everything has its purpose. There is according to Galen no such thing as chance and hence he could never agree with his contemporary’s ideas that the human body just happened to fall into shape. He saw bodies of living things as works of art, put together by an intelligent nature with a purpose in mind. Galen alleges of the atomists, for example, that they thought that the mouth had been formed by pneuma or breath bursting out at that place. But why, he asks, if this is so, did it not burst out of the top of the head, since it is characteristic of pneuma to rise to the highest point?. And why is the mouth fitted with teeth, beautifully arranged in order like a chorus, and perfectly adapted to perform their function, if it came about by chance? After all no other cavity in the body has teeth; there are none for instance, in the rectum or vagina. It seems, says Galen, that the atoms, which according to the materialist school move at random to form such structures, are behaving more intelligently here than the philosophers who postulate them.[13]

 

In Galen’s purposive view of nature we also find that disease is seen from a more constructive perspective than that of modern science. Health is seen as the natural state of the body whilst disease is unnatural. We might say that diease has been brought into the body to make it aware some kind of spiritual, in modern terms psychological, imbalance. Obviously this doesn’t apply to physical injuries though it could be argued that we created a physical situation to make us aware of something. Again this is the idea of the spirit ruling the physical as well as the micro and macrocosmic nature of the human body. Galen illustrates the idea of a purposive nature versus a materialist’s rejection of final causes with the following example: A man is going to market. If we asked why he was going he would scarcely reply that it was because he had two legs that supported his body and conveyed it over the ground. This is certainly one cause of his actions, an instrumental cause, but the important cause, where a purposive being is involved is the final one, the man’s purpose in going: to buy something or meet his friends.[14]

 

According to Galen the body contains four humours; yellow bile, which is hot and dry; blood, hot and damp; phlegm, cold and damp; and black bile, cold and dry. This is a parallel to Aristotles four elements, fire, air, water and earth which have the qualitites, the Hot, the Cold, the Damp, the Dry. A body is healthy when the mixture of the humours is in balance, this is called a eucrasia (crasis = mixture). When the mixture is unbalanced, when there is a dyscrasia, the body is in an unhealthly state. The cure for a diseased body is found in treatment by opposites. If the patient is too hot then he is cooled and if too dry then dampened. Galen differentiated between two types of fever. The one was of an ephermal nature caused by overheating of the body by sun, anger, exertion, heat-producing foods or drinks, or to reduction of heat loss through insufficient transpiration when the pores of the skin are obstructed.. Other fevers are the result of inflammation, with or without putrefaction of the blood. Inflammation and putrefaction originate from residues in the body and are thus extremely important to Galen’s pathology (scientific study of the nature of diseases). Residues accumulate when more nourishment is taken than the body requires and because each food has different humours in it it will lead to excess of humours in the body. An excess of the yellow bile, black bile or phlegm is called a cacochymia whilst a abundance of blood is called a plethos or plethora.[15] Obviously by treatment based on the philosophy of opposites this means that in the case of a plethora blood must be evacuated so that the body can return to a natural healthy balance. Another function of venesection is to divert blood from one part to another by a process called revulsion or derivation. If the patient is bledding to death from one part of the body, open a vein in another, and the bleeding from the first will stop. Peter Brian sums up the Galen’s system of pathology saying that, ‘although somtimes complicated in its details, is in principle very simple …. at first sight it is logical and no one can accuse him of a reductionist approach. Galen’s one grand unified theory will account for everything in medicine.’[16]

 

Let us now turn our attention to modern day investigations to see what scientific findings there are to back up this system of thought. There are two areas of interest; resistance to infection and rheology. In the first we learn[17] that being anaemic (lacking in blood) does seem to entail less of a likelihood of suffering from heart or artearial diease. Impaired nutrition has the effect that the body is made more susceptible to infectious diseases. Thus we find the 23 century old council of Hippocrates to keep thin and weak during epidemics to be in line with modern thought. Also he rather interestingly claims that the condition of a well trained athlete is both abnormal and dangerous. Science knows that all life requires iron to sustain it and so if the plasma ferritin level (amount of iron in blood) is kept low then bacteria have nothing to live from. Through bleeding it is possible to create a lower plasma ferritin level because the fluid is replaced quicker than the iron and so thins out the blood. Therefore because the plasma ferritin level is lower the patient is also less likely to suffer from an infectious disease. It has also been found that high plasma ferritin levels lead to a greater susceptibility to Hepatitis B. Other results from tests on Somali Nomads have revealed that iron deficiency probably plays a part in surpressing the clinical manifestations of certain infections.[18] Tests have also revealed that women of reproductive age are less susceptible to being infected with Tuberculosis than men. This is because the menstrual cycle makes sure that plasma ferritin levels are kept low. This does not mean that all women are less susceptible to infection because disease is always a combination of factors. However in many populations women have less of a propensity to be infected with Tuberculosis.. The author concludes that ‘a few years ago no one would have argued that these evacuations might be beneficial.’[19]

 

Let us now look at the rheological (rheo = flow) argument. In Peter Brain’s book[20] we find he he cites an editorial from 1979 from the British medical magazine, The Lancet, which says ‘Arguably , the most important property of blood is that it should actually flow.’ To oxygenate the tissues in every part of the body the blood must flow freely, through vessels, in the capillary bed, that are of very small calibre. Because the vessels are so small the viscosity of the blood is also going to play a very important role in determining how effective the blood will be in giving the body oxygen. Given that the viscosity is related, though not linearly, to the PCV (packed cell volume) it has been noted in a large British survey that there is a distinct increase in mortality for women with PCV levels above 46%, where a little over 40% is the norm.[21] One archaic remedy is to dilute the blood with a little wine. We can also ask ourselves if this is why Catholics receive wine at communion. Venesection also has the same effect of diluting the blood so that it can flow more freely, for the same reason as was pointed out above.

 

Looking at the text on page 43-44 of the ‘Bonde-Practica’ we find:

 

Att människan kan behålla sin sundhet och naturliga karkhet, görs det väl behov, att vi stundom utrensa det orena och överflödiga blodet. Ty får det överhanden, då är det befruktandes, att de begynner visserligen bliva fullt och ruttna, och förorsakar många slags sjukdomar och krankheter i människan, därföre är det av nöden att veta, när och på vad lem, och vad tid man skall låta sina ådror på.

Först är att märka, att ingen skall låta sig för mycket, och att purgants eller blodens renselse skall, efter naturligt råd, gå före åderlåtningen. Och är bäst att låta sig om våren, och om hösten, dock (som tillförene sagt är) nöden förer alltid sin tid med sig. Man skulle icke låta sig i mycken köld eller het tid. Den, som haver en ond mage, eller lever, honom är det icke gott att låta sig, desslikes, när det onda blod är utlåtet, så skall man icke snart låta sig åder igen. Också är det bättre, att man låter blodet för litet löpa, än för mycket. Item den, som mycket svettas, han må väl låta sig. Men det är icke gott låtande i ny fullmånad. Item de ådror på knän, händerne, benen och fötterne, dem skall man låter efter måltid, och man skall icke låta sig åder på någon ledamot, när månen går i det tecken, som samma ledamot tillhörer.

 

This is clearly a discourse on the importance of bloodletting. On page 53 of the ‘Bonde-Practica’ we find further refernce to how one should behave after letting blood. In both these texts we find many statements that are in complete accord with Galen’s and therefore esoteric pathology. So again we find evidence for a underlying esoterical system in the ‘Bonde-Practica’

 

In this chapter we have looked at the reasoning behind venesection and seen scientific evidence to backup this prophylactic form of medicine. The link between the ‘Bonde Practica’ and esoteric thinking has also been firmly established. Therefore I can conclude this chapter as I did the previous by saying. Science is an investigation of the physical reality and because this is a reflection of the spiritual reality it means that science will never contradict esoteric thought if the esoteric thought represents an ultimate truth.

The Moon

 

 

It is the very error of the moon;

She comes more near the earth than she was wont,

And makes men mad

Othello Act V, scene II

 

Shakespeare’s recognition of the weird and wonderful influences of the moon crops up often in his play Othello which is about a melancholic noble who is ruled more by his emotions than by reason. Medieval texts will often refer to the moon as being the cause of madness. We have already seen in the previous chapter how the ‘Bonde Practica’ tells us that we can predict the future months general weather according to when the new moon first appears. It will also become clear that there is reason to believe that human behaviour might also be able to be predicted according to moon phases. This could be one of the many reasons why the Swedish farmer felt it was important to know whether the moon was waxing or waning. This was done by means of the following passage from page 89 of the ‘Bonde-Practica’.

 

När månan är så vänd, att du med din vänstra hand kan taga in uti månan’s bukt, då är det tecken at det är ny, och månan växer. Men om du kan med din högra hand gripa däruti, då är det nedan, och månan tager av.

 

We find that according to esoteric thinking the moon represents the female and emotional nature of mankind whilst the sun represents the rational and male principle. We can extend this to say that whilst the sun shines we are affected by the rational influences of the sun. This essentially coincides with consciousness. When the sun is not shining, at night, the moon principle is said to be operating. This is when nature lets us sleep and when we have lost consciousness and are dreaming. This is a generalization and not a rule because there are people who can maintain consciousness in their dreams. The point is to show how we balance out the two energies that affect our daily lifes. The moon also reflects the changeability of our natures and is again generally associated with the female side of nature. These are gross simplifications of the esoteric nature of the sun and the moon, but will serve to show later that the growing scientific awareness of the importance of the sun and moon is moving towards the same understanding as esoteric thinking has always maintained. The following medieval text is indicative of an earlier understanding of the moon.

 

 

 

 

DAY I

The fyrste day off the moone Adam

Our forme fader, to this world came,

That day ys gude, wiþouten synne,

All thyng to begynne.

The child that ys borne that day,

He shall be good and noble, parfay,

Of long lyf wiþouten faile

Bot often tyme haue greet trauaile,

Sad of face and of hewe fad.

That same day was Adam made

To grete woo and to greet trauaile,

To greet stryffe and greet perayle.

Whoso that day fall in sykenes,

He shall soone ben hoile, j gesse,

And wiþ greet peyne scapen he shall.

And what þou dremyst in thy slepe, all

Yt shall torne to joie and blisse.

But that day ys not good, j wisse,

To lettyn blod on no veyne

Who so will be wiþout peyne

Robert Wyer 1547[22]

 

We have also learnt that the moon and its state is held to be critical for the timing of blood letting. The above passages last two lines tell us not to let blood on the first day of the new moon if we want to remain without pain, again like in the Bonde Practica. In a passage that we have met before we can remember the importance of the moon when letting blood.

 

Också är det bättre, att man låter blodet för litet löpa, än för mycket. Item den, som mycket svettas, han må väl låta sig. Men det är icke gott låtande i ny fullmånad. Item de ådror på knän, händerne, benen och fötterne, dem skall man låter efter måltid, och man skall icke låta sig åder på någon ledamot, när månen går i det tecken, som samma ledamot tillhörer.

 

Let us now look at some more findings that also serve as evidence for the case of an esoteric world view and also the type of world depicted in the ‘Bonde Practica’. My evidence comes from the book ‘Måneffekten’ which itself is already 13 years old. I have not found any more recent publications and I am not sure whether this is due to the library or due to the fact that anything having a smack of astrology is not likely to go down well with the scientific establishment.

 

Apparently in police departments and emergency stations at hospitals there is a commonly held belief as to the reason why there are sudden leaps in the number of intakes in hospital and inmates of the police cell. It is that it is either new or full moon. A first reaction might be to laugh at this seemingly preposterous idea and say they are mad themselves, but years of experience has taught them that there appears to be a definite correlation. Using data from Dade County’s police department, which had noted when the act of murder or suicide was commited, it was found that there seemed to be a direct correlation with the moon’s phase and periods of an increased number of murders or suicides. This type of analysis was repeated in Cuyahoga County which had also kept records on the time of perpetration of the act as well as the actual time of death of the person involved. However, the results for Cuyahoga County did not give the same graph as that for Dade County. The pattern was exactly the same, but it seemed to have been shifted or translated. So whilst there was definitely a relationship to the moon’s phase it was not the same as had been found in Dade County. It was later found that the latitude also plays an important role in determining when the maximum effect of the moon will be. Similar relationships were established for the metabolic activity of hamsters in Evanston, Illinois and also for the number of intakes to emergency and psychiatric wards in hospitals. There were also interesting findings for the farmers which coincide with the American equivalent of the ‘Bonde Practica’, The Farmers Almanac. It was established that root vegatables thrived better when planted with a waning moon whilst corn and plants that grow towards the sun thrived better when the moon was waxing.

 

There is a psychological disorder called lycanthropy where those affected believe that they become werewolves. We might assume this to be the fanciful idea of some movie writer who wanted to shoot a film in London, but it is a serious disorder. Again a direct relationship between the moon’s phase and attacks of this disorder was established as was an accelerated rate of facial hair growth. Also psychiatric wards established a link between the timing of menstruation, which has long been believed to be associated with the moon, and the number of intakes. It found that a disproportionate number of female intakes were soon to menstruate. Psychic ability is also believed to fluctuate according to the moon’s phase and be at its strongest at a new and full moon. These effects were not measured, but it would be interesting to see how these vary according to latitude.

 

The study of animals has also produced many interesting results which strenghen the arguement for a definite relationship. In a study on oysters it was found that up to two weeks after being removed from their home environment they were still opening and closing according to their home ebb and flow. This pattern then changed so that they open and closed according to what the tide would be doing if it were in the part of the world where the laboratory was. It is assumed that by somehow being sensitive to the fluctuations of the moon the oysters were able to assume the correct rhythm for that part of the world.The investigation of cockroaches blood has also come up with some astounding conclusions. It was found that the composition of their blood changed according to the moon’s phase. The activity of the cockraoches also changed accordingly so that those that were stressed produced a substance in the blood that accelerated the heart. The unstressed cockroaches, which had the same level of accelerating substance otherwise, showed a total lack of of this substance immediately after a new or full moon. Taking this a stage further we might say that this may be the same type of influence that makes people moon mad.

 

We are now getting a clear picture of the fact that the moon has a greater effect than the average person might expect. However, scientists are unsure as to the cause of these effects. One theory is that it is gravity related, the same as the assumption made in ‘Beyond the Jupiter Effect. Our body is 80% water and 20% mineral. There are three areas of bodily water; intravascular (in blood), extracellular (moves around freely in body) and intracellular (in cells). The theory says that it is the balance of these types of water is critical to changes in our personality. Tensions in bodily fibres are caused by an inbalance in our bodies and a surplus of water also causes stress or tension which leads to nervous irratability. It is said that the moon affect our inner water balance. An example of this is premenstrual tension caused by an excess of water and its known effects on the nerve system and behaviour. However, this does not mean to say that ‘high tide’ in the body is the cause of irratabilty, violence or psychological abnormalities. It merely means that somebody predisposed to a certain type of abnormal behaviour is more likely to behave antisocially in accordance with the moon’s phase. This was exemplified by the prediction of stranger than usual happenings on January 1 1974. On this date the moon came unusually close to the earth. The average orbit of the moon around the earth is 384,000 km, but on this day it was only 347,000 km away from the earth so its gravitatonal effect was stronger than usual, although it is only about one ten millionth of the strength of the earth gravitational field on us. The number of crimes did not increase dramatically but the nature of the crimes were even more bizarre than usual. The book gives graphic examples of various totally inexplicable acts of madness that do not need to be repeated here. This also strengthens the arguement for the idea that the moon is not the cause of things, but instead seems to act as an amplifier to conditions already present in the human body. The fact that the gravitational effect of the moon is so miniscule compared to the earth is a major minus against this theory. There is also what is known as the Piccardi effect which describes how the nature of water changes according to the phase of the moon. Piccardi found that colloids, water solutions, change in their viscosity in harmony with the position of the moon in the heavens. This adds a new dimension to the theory that the balance of the three kinds of body water are responsible for psychological changes in people.

 

Another theory suggests that the moon somehow effects the earth’s, as well as the human’s, electromagnetic field. This is a very vague theory and its workings are not well understood, but it is the best that science can offer us at the moment. There is nevertheless evidence to support this theory. Kirilian photography is a method of taking pictures of the electromagnetic field that surrounds all living creations. Using this method it has been found that the body has what can be termed as amplifiers in the body. These strengthen impulses travelling through the nervous system. That these point exactly coincide with the points described in books about acupuncture is interesting for us because practisers of acupunture also talk in terms of a spiritual reality. This directly relates them to an esoteric view on life and therefore to this essay. How the Chinese knew that these points existed all those thousands of years ago is something that contemporary science cannot explain. However, this does not mean that there is not a very plausible explanation, which there is. It would be far to large a digression to give an explanation here. Kirilian photography has also been used to take pictures of faith healers hands and has revealed that they have dramatically altered fields around the fingers tips. This suggest that faith healing is not just about faith.

 

In a larger sphere we also find evidence to support this electromagnetic field theory. The Fön and Scirroco winds that blow across Southern Europe and the Rockies respectively are blasts with a large positive ion content. These and other similar winds are known for the unusual effects that they have on people such as increased irratability or changes in hormone balances. It may be that the positively charged winds change the electromagnetic field around the human body gives rise to chemical changes within the body. Conversely it has been found that a surplus of negative ions seems to have a beneficial effect on the body. A surplus is created for example around running water. Perhaps it is this magical quality that makes us stop and feel good when we are near a waterfall. Indoor shopping centres also make use of this knowledge so that the ion balance is kept healthy by means of incongruent waterfalls and fountains (look at the fish in ‘Femman’). Ionisers are also available from health shops, these emit a constant stream of negative ions and help one sleep a lot better.

 

Man has been described as a symphony of rhythms and the evidence that I have offered seems to go along way towards strenghening this line of thought. Research into circadian rhythms or Biorhythms has not been looked at here, but there is a wealth of evidence to show there are many different cycles in our bodies that come and go as regular as clockwork or the heavens. And now we return to the esoteric axiom of ‘as above so below’. Man is a microcosm of the solar system as is the Earth so just as man has his high and low tides so does the Earth. Consequently we can also follow the logic that perhaps man can determine how the weather is going to be for the whole year by looking at certain days in the year. I think an esoterist might argue that the same amplifying effect that we notice in human behaviour might also be valid for certain days of the year. So if an ‘amplifier’ day is hot then this effect might last for say a month. This are vague ideas, but follow the esoteric logic of micro and macrocosm. On page 17 of the ‘Bonde-Practica’ we have the following:

 

Märk framdeles de visas lärdom här,

Varav vädret kännande är,

Av efterföljande tecken märk nu mer,

Därtill hava de gamla haft stort begär,

Av vilket de i grund kunde förstå,

Vad vädret det hela år skall gå.

Från Juledag till den tolfte dag, vi mena,

Lika som vädret var dag mån ske,

Så skall det bliva, det skall du se.

Uti den månad, som honom hörer till,

Som jag härnäst lära vill,

Juledag Torsmånad tillfogad är,

Annan dag Göjemånad märk nu här,

Den tredje mars månad, den fjärde april,

Den femte maj månad hava vill:

Den sjätte ville vi midsommarsmånan giva,

Hömånan vill oss den sjunde bliva,

Skördemånan hos den åttonde står,

Höstmånan till den nionde går.

Den tionde med slaktmånad tillfoga,

Den ellofte med vintermånad låter sig nöja.

Julemånad tillägges den siste dag,

Så lära de gamla visa i denna dag.

 

As we can see this rhyme is based on the idea of certain days as being determinative for the following month’s weather. So again we can use this as evidence for the idea that esoteric thinking serves as the backbone of the ‘Bonde-Practica’.

 

Whether or not this rhyme holds one ounce of truth I would not like to say. It would be most interesting to examine this, but such extensive field work is PhD work. I have merely used it to illustrate that the rules that the old Swedish farmer held to be true concur with the esoteric or perennial philosophy’s understanding of the world.

 

Finally my last piece of evidence for an esoteric backbone in the ‘Bonde-Practica’ is the timetable given on page 90 which allows the reader to calculate exactly how long the moon shines on a given day. Or from the other direction to know how old the moon is if it shines for x amount of time. These go far beyond using the moon to determine when to plant seeds or whatever. However, by associating the moon with earthly phenomenon it becomes important to know how long this influence will last. As this is the case with esoteric thinking I think it is justified to say the reason why it appears in the ‘Bonde-Practica’ is an esoteric reason.

 

 

Conclusion

 

I think I have shown that their are a lot of reasons for looking at the ‘Bonde-Practica’ in an esoteric light. By using scientific evidence we have found a lot of evidence to suggest that esoteric thinking is a good starting point for trying to understand ideas that are quite foreign to our modern scientific world view. For me this means science should be used to investigate the validity of other esoteric ideas. Unfortunately this is rarely the case at the moment because anything with a hint of a spiritual explanation is likely to be frowned upon. I think this is because a scientist feels threatened by something that has been disregarded for so long in the scientific establishment. If they knew how many scientific ideas reflect an esoteric understanding of the nature of things then I believe that they might not feel so antipathetic towards these spiritual ideas. Science and esoteric thought should be working together to increase man’s understanding of his environment because ultimately both must strengthen each others arguement because they are both concerned with investigating the true nature of reality. Using esoteric thinking to explain the ‘Bonde-Practica’ worked and I believe that this is a not unique case.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography

The Holy Bible. King James Edition

 

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Wordsworth Poetry Library 1994.

 

Brain, Peter, Galen on Bloodletting: A study of the origins, development and validity of his opinions, with a translation of the three works. Cambridge University Press 1986.

 

Delvin, Judith: The Superstitious Mind: French peasants and the supernatural in the Nineteenth century. Yale University Press 1987.

 

Bonde-Practica eller Wädher Book. Christofers Bokförlag 1961.

 

Gribbin, John, & Plageman, Stephen: Beyond the Jupiter Effect, Macdonald & Co 1983.

 

Hartzell Bro, Harmon, Edgar Cayce: A Seer out of Season, Aquarian 1990

 

Huxley, Aldous: Heaven & HellI. Perennial Library 1971

 

Lieber A.L. & Agel, Jerome Måneffecten: Biologiska Tidvatten och Mänskliga Emotioner, Berghs Förlag AB 1982.

 

Means, Laurel (edited), Medieval Lunar Astrology: A Collection of Representative Middle English Texts. The Edwin Mellen Press 1993.

 

Stearn, Jess, Der Schlafende Profet. Knaur 1991

 

Svensson, Sigrid, Bondens År, LTs förlag 1972.

 

Wilber, Ken (red): Det Holografiska Paradigmet och andra Paradoxer. Bokförlaget Korpen 1986.

 

 

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