{"id":71867,"date":"2026-04-16T14:41:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T12:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/?p=71867"},"modified":"2026-04-16T14:41:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T12:41:21","slug":"together-of-our-own-free-will","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/together-of-our-own-free-will\/","title":{"rendered":"Together of Our Own Free Will"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Earth\u2019s elliptical orbit has two focal points: the Sun as a physical center, and the other as a spiritual center. Two focal points, one earthly and one cosmic, also sustain a community. The common will arises when everyone in the community wills it together.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The title of the Agriculture Conference was \u201cYou Never Farm Alone.\u201d But often, out of courage or perhaps overconfidence, people still say, \u201cI can do it alone.\u201d Then another voice warns, \u201cNo, a biodynamic farm is too large and too complex a project. You can\u2019t do that alone; you have to do it together with others.\u201d Humility begins to sprout and grow. Voluntary collaboration oscillates between courage and humility. Both are needed. When speaking specifically about the initiative group\u2014the people who really take the project in hand and lead it forward\u2014how does collaboration work there? My experiences come from working with the L\u2019Aubier initiative as a farmer for 30 years, and from 16 years of working at the Goetheanum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heart of the Community<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The inner core of every initiative is its field of actual collaboration. When those carrying out the activity cooperate out of their own free will, the surrounding community resonates in that same spirit. Such an initiative or working group can be four to seven people, but it can also be a married couple or as many as seventeen people, as is currently the case with the Goetheanum leadership. Where is such a community put to the test, to see whether free will succeeds or not? In the group meetings. These gatherings are the real heart of a community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything from the periphery comes together here and gains new momentum, so that it can then pulsate through the coming week or month. These sessions, which are often repetitive, orchestrate the free will of all. A free person is someone who is capable of thinking independently. \u201cI think, therefore I am,\u201d said Ren\u00e9 Descartes. We could also say: I plow, therefore I am. I cook, therefore I am. In short: I am because I am. The \u2018I\u2019, a being grounded in itself, does not need the world to lend it something for its own foundation; it stands upon itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his Table Talk<\/em>, Martin Luther says that he fears his own heart more than he fears the Pope and all the cardinals. This means: I carry the Pope within me. This personality stands at its peak. Sociologically speaking, with the advent of modernity, this marks the emergence of the self-founded personality in the social context. This is something new. This individualization is the driving force behind social development. Is there anything that could slow us down from driving this individualization ever further? I believe that anything that seeks to oppose this trend will, sooner or later, be pushed aside. There is something very deep that expresses itself in this individualization. It is part of our very nature that we possess this autonomy on a normal experiential level and are also proud of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To Be the Sun on the Earth<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

But this pride is accompanied by a subtle feeling\u2014a hint of loneliness, of isolation. The thought arises: I am, after all, entirely on my own! And so we swing back and forth between the proud and the lonely, abandoned self, which asks: Do I still have any connection to anything or anyone? This underlying question springs from what Rudolf Steiner calls the \u201cconsciousness soul\u201d within the personality. By this, he means the youngest, third stage of the evolution of the soul, which began during the Renaissance. The first stage, the sentient soul, refers to a soul landscape that still resonated directly with nature and the course of the sun, and was carried by a natural sense of belonging within nature. With the second stage, the intellectual soul [Gem\u00fctseele<\/em>], it is no longer immediate sensation but the intellect (as the name suggests) that confronts the world and grasps its laws. Calculating the course of the sun and planets, conceiving a model of the planetary orbits: these are expressions of an intellectual relationship to the world. We can understand that the sun, in its course through the zodiac, within the context of the entire starry sky, is an \u201cambassador\u201d of the whole firmament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the third step: What happened outwardly with the Copernican revolution\u2014placing the sun at the center\u2014corresponds inwardly to the step toward the conscious soul. The sun now rests fixed in the center, just as the human \u2018I\u2019 is grounded in itself. Because I can ground myself within this new constitution, I can conceive of the sun as cosmologically fixed. I am sun-like, on the moving Earth. I have a part within me that is sun-like, and at the same time, I am a part of earthly existence: this is the soul constitution that Rudolf Steiner called \u201cthe consciousness soul.\u201d We are not a social being by nature, but rather an individual being and perhaps even a being of solitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael as Spirit of the Times<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This individualization is the driving force. It brings freedom but at a price: our sense of belonging to the community of stars has been shattered, our kinship with the beings of Earth has become objectified, and we\u2019ve lost the brotherly and sisterly connection to our fellow human beings. Amidst all this loss, what remains is free will. Through this, we can make a new resolve to work together with others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are various stages in the development of consciousness soul culture, as first formulated by the Renaissance church scholar Johannes Trithemius. According to Christian tradition, the seven archangels take turns reigning as spirit of the time for approximately 350 years each. Rudolf Steiner took up this idea and noted how the transition from Gabriel to Michael occurred during the last third of the 19th century. Steiner was not merely a personal witness to this turning of the ages; in a sense, he was schooled by the new spirit of the age, by Michael. Just as Gabriel represents the moon in Christian tradition, Michael is the archangel of the sun and is associated with a striving for freedom. To reposition the free human being within society and to place him in relation to the Earth and the spiritual world is part of the essence of this archangel. This, Rudolf Steiner called anthroposophy, a spiritual science, a science of the \u2018I\u2019. Anthroposophy takes this concept of the \u2018I\u2019 seriously and understands the \u2018I\u2019 as the culmination of a long psychological and sociological development, much like a seed. The \u2018I\u2019, as a seed and result of an old cultural cycle, now becomes the starting point for a new development and evolution.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Panel painting by Ueli Hurter<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Farming as \u2018I\u2019-Activity<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The science of the \u2018I\u2019 as a spiritual seed\u2014that is anthroposophy in all its fullness. In June 1924, this culminated in the Agriculture Course in Koberwitz. It is a course rooted in this science of the \u2018I\u2019. For example, Steiner says that we humans, as \u2018I\u2019-beings, are the foundation of agriculture. Quite the opposite of the chemist Justus Liebig (1803\u201373), who laid the scientific foundation for the industrialization of agriculture with his nutrient-substitution theory. Steiner takes the highest concept from the cultural-scientific view of the human being and turns it into an agronomic concept. This is not merely poetic\u2014it conveys that the agricultural individuality can be a self-grounded being, one that acts productively out of itself. The biodynamic farm is capable of generating a sufficient harvest\u2014and thus an income\u2014every year, while at the same time ensuring that soil fertility, as the foundation for future harvests, is not depleted but is actually built up within the production process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breakthrough Becomes Inversion<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In the fourth and fifth lectures, Steiner describes the biodynamic preparations\u2014briefly, concisely, and practically. This breakthrough becomes an inversion. Nature is the foundation of co-creative work. Emancipation becomes participation, especially through the compost preparations. From within the closed agricultural organism, the biodynamic preparations invite this individuality to open toward the cosmos. Rudolf Steiner\u2019s verse \u201cHuman beings speak to the stars\u201d becomes reality. I believe Michael stood behind him in the Agriculture Course, transforming this breakthrough into an inversion, to describe a sustainable form of agriculture that is future-oriented\u2014that even arises from out of the future itself. It seems evident that such an inverted agriculture requires corresponding social forms that are not merely based on traditional social structures but also emerge from the future. How does community arise from free will? In particular, how does collaboration work? We do not want to give up personal freedom, and so we have to make our way from an emancipatory to a participatory social approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since today, the \u2018I\u2019 rests within itself, we can now develop a cosmology in which the sun is also at rest. Using Tycho Brahe\u2019s observational data, Johannes Kepler realized that the sun is not the center of planetary orbits after all. There are two centers, or rather, two foci around which the planets orbit in an ellipse. The sun stands at one of them. Isn\u2019t this cosmological image the basic design, the archetype for cooperation based on free will? I have my own will, and I am in one of the centers. And who stands in the other center\u2014who helps me to be the person I want to be? Who is my guide in this development?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three Steps to Common Will<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s go back to group meetings and get-togethers. There are two types of gatherings. First, there are work meetings. We come together from all branches of the organization to discuss how everything fits into the bigger picture. Two prerequisites are that I have autonomy and that I lay all my cards on the table during the meeting. Transparency matters here, especially regarding financial figures, but also regarding my intentions. Then comes the actual willing of the common good. Those are the three steps: From our autonomous positions in regard to individual tasks, we come together as a group; we are transparent about our situation; and we coordinate future activities because we want to will a common good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This kind of meeting requires a counterpart\u2014a complementary gathering where we do research together or work through a text together. Here, the quality of listening counts. Not what the other person says, but what they mean\u2014an empathetic listening. It is an art of listening that invites us to speak differently. It leads to what Steiner calls the awakening to the soul-spiritual in the other. So here, the first step is the mutual agreement; the second is the listening; and the third is the awakening to the other\u2014not to oneself\u2014to the other!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The earthly gathering, the earthly heart, needs a cosmic, exploratory gathering that opens things up. Of course, these can be combined, artistically interwoven, but they still stand as a polarity. When a community comes under stress, there are many \u201cearthly\u201d meetings, and the cosmic ones tend to fall by the wayside. In my experience, this doesn\u2019t work. The two gatherings are like the horn manure and the horn silica\u2014Earth and cosmos. We need both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Add to this, the accompanying community. And here, too, are three qualities. Surrounding the initiative group are many who accompany it with trust. Then, there are those who finance it\u2014the periphery supports the initiative. As a third element, I suggest openness. The periphery actually represents the whole world and breathes between being within and without. The periphery says: we also bring you questions and impulses that you may not be able to see so well at your place in the center. It\u2019s a double heart formed by free people, and it has a beating pulse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two years ago, I visited a farm. It was a time when the overall situation for Demeter in Central Europe was very difficult. Sales of organic and Demeter products had plummeted. \u201cHow are things in general and financially?\u201d I asked the farmer. He replied, \u201cGood.\u201d I was astonished and asked for clarification. \u201cWe have this big store; it supports everything.\u201d So, I went to the store and asked the owner: \u201cMy friend, how are things? Do you have enough customers?\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s going great,\u201d he replied. \u201cWhy?\u201d \u201cPeople come to our store because we\u2019re a farm store.\u201d So the farmer says: I\u2019m doing well because I have the store; and from the store, we hear: I\u2019m doing well because I have the farm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another example. One of my colleagues from the Goetheanum leadership said that the esoteric, the spiritual, is distant, is in heaven. I replied: \u201cBut you can\u2019t say that. The spiritual is precisely there when you do something practical on the Earth, such as plowing or driving a tractor. That\u2019s esotericism.\u201d He objected, saying I couldn\u2019t say driving a tractor was esotericism. But I wouldn\u2019t let up\u2014and neither would he. My question was: Where is this esoteric-spiritual core? Finally, another colleague stepped in and said: \u201cIf, for you, esotericism\u2014this point of the spirit\u2014goes all the way up and keeps going higher and higher until it disappears into infinity, then it re-enters the earthly realm from below. It\u2019s the same point.\u201d And that was the solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rising Up When Hitting a Snag<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Human dignity as a whole rests on the recognition of free will. This is sacred. Gatherings must be structured in a way that respects this. Awakening to the spiritual and emotional nature of another person is a painful process. Over the years, I have made the following a bit of a rule for myself: If you can\u2019t resolve something at the level where you encounter the other person, then you have to pull yourself up higher. Pulling yourself up means trying to find the next higher level, initially through an inner dialogue regarding the encounter. If you hit a snag at the earthly focal point, then it\u2019s worth turning to the cosmic. There, something may shine through what\u2019s rooted in this life on Earth. Something can stream through there, a karmic intuition. There, where the free will of the other as well as my own is grounded, there, in the \u2018I\u2019, is something that is not confined between birth and death. Rather, it uses the gates of birth and death to breathe between earthly life and spiritual life over a succession of several earthly lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We pull ourselves up by our own hair. It is a mutual awakening. There are moments when this can be experienced briefly by the entire group, the entire community, when something resonates from a new kind of communal being that carries the future within itself. Such possibilities can be created through collaboration based on free will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is a lightly edited version of the talk given at the 2026 Agriculture Conference at the Goetheanum. The full talk is available for viewing on GoetheanumTV<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

More<\/strong> Agriculture Conference at the Goetheanum: You Never Farm Alone<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translation <\/strong>Joshua Kelberman
Title image<\/strong> Scenes from the 2026 Annual Agriculture Conference at the Goetheanum, Photo: Xue Li<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Earth\u2019s elliptical orbit has two focal points: the Sun as a physical center, and the other as a spiritual center. Two focal points, one earthly and one cosmic, also sustain a community. The common will arises when everyone in the community wills it together. The title of the Agriculture Conference was \u201cYou Never Farm Alone.\u201d But often, out of courage or perhaps overconfidence, people still say, \u201cI can do it alone.\u201d Then another voice warns, \u201cNo, a biodynamic farm […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9317,"featured_media":71246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11784],"tags":[11777,8798,11785],"class_list":["post-71867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-you-never-farm-alone-en","tag-ausgabe-12-2026-en","tag-deepening","tag-english-issue-17-2026"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9317"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71867"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71910,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71867\/revisions\/71910"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}