Healing the land healing ourselves

6 • issue 72 CADUCEUS

path of healing both for oneself and forthe world.

So, what is the healing nature ofGoethe’s and Steiner’s approach? In hisintroduction to Goethe’s scientific works(Goethean Science) Rudolf Steinerdescribes how, when we approach theworld around us, that which is presentedto our senses is only one part of a greaterwhole that includes the spiritual essenceof things, their soul expression and thelife, developmental and evolutionary pro-cesses that have led to their coming intobeing. We cannot always comprehend allthese levels of existence immediately but,through research, study and inner medi-tation, the outer phenomena and innerpicture can come together in understand-ing. We then experience something like a‘Eureka’ moment, which lights up ourinner world.

Science is a journey of discovery, ajourney of getting to know, of uncover-ing the essential nature or essence ofthings, a journey toward ‘becoming onewith’ an other, the object of our study.Albert Einstein said that the experienceof ‘oneness’ that scientists have in theEureka moment when they finally ‘getit’, they have in common with all greatartists and all great lovers! RudolfSteiner describes this moment as ‘TheTrue Communion of Man’. In the

For the past 17 years a group ofpeople at the Life Science Trusthave been practising a kind of

healing on a site known as PishwantonWood – a tiny piece of neglected landnestling at the foot of the LammermuirHills in southeast Scotland. Pishwanton,whose name means ‘abundant water’,was left after the Ice Age as a diverse mixof marsh, steeply glaciated valleys, sandyhill tops and a glacial lake now filledwith regenerating birches, all fed by acomplex spring system. Right in theheart of it is an ancient burial mound.

The healing method practised atPishwanton is based on GoetheanScience, so called after the scientificwork of the German poet/scientist,Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Goethe’smethod was further developed byRudolf Steiner, the Austrian philoso-pher, who spent 14 years editingGoethe’s scientific works in his earlyyears and then the rest of his life trans-forming Goethe’s approach to Natureinto an inner and an outer journey thatinvolves the transformation of thinking,feeling and doing. This, in essence, is a

Healingthe land,

healingourselves

Margaret Colquhoun describes 14 years ofwork on a unique project – an attempt at a

conscious communion with and unfolding ofthe spirit of the cosmos in the landscape

Fig. 1 Looking North across the Forth Rift Valley from the Lammermuir Hills above Pishwanton Wood.

issue 72 CADUCEUS • 7

moment of ‘becoming one with some-thing’, the spiritual within oneselfunites with the spiritual essence ofanother in such a way that ‘I’ and ‘You’disappear and there is a oneness - awholeness within a healing or holymoment. This is the aim of Goethe’s sci-ence (see top box).

How is it possible to access the ‘singleorganising principle’ so that a healing‘oneness’ can come about? At the sametime as Goethe began to put his scienceof oneness into practice, in BritainWilliam Wordsworth wrote these wordsafter a walk along the river Wye aboveTintern Abbey:

For I have learnedTo look on nature, not as in the hour of

thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes

The still sad music of humanity; Nor harsh,nor grating though of ample power,

To chasten and subdue. And I have felt apresence that disturbs me with the joy,

Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime; Ofsomething far more deeply interfused,

Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,And round ocean, and the living air,

And the blue sky, and in the mind of man:A motion and a spirit, that impels all

thinking things, all of all thought,And rolls through all things.

In the beginning – a OnenessAt the beginning of St John’s Gospel weare told that in the beginning exists aOneness (the Word) or Logos, whichenlightens the soul of every man. ThisLight, shining into the darkness, has cre-ated all living beings through the longages of time. We also hear that the Lightof the Logos is shining into darkness –into matter (including us) and it is ‘notcomprehended’. ‘Comprehension’ – doesthis not mean becoming aware of andunderstanding something? If it is truethat the Logos indwells all that is, thenit should be possible to come to anexperience of this Oneness, Word orLogos by entering imaginatively intoany living being of the Earth – indeedinto anything that has ever been alive –the rocks, Gaia, the earth itself.

Goethe’s approach to Nature involvesa disciplined, scientific procedure – agentle empiricism, which allows theuncovering of Spirit in Matter andacknowledges the fact that the Logosindwells ‘all that has ever been made’. Inhis own words:

‘The Theory (or comprehension) liesin the phenomena themselves’ – not out-side or behind them.

Goethe had been led into this experi-ence of the world through a severeillness in his late teens. His mother

Therefore I am still a lover of the meadowsand the woods,

And mountains; and of all that we behold.From this green earth; of all the mighty

worldOf eye and ear, both what they half create,And what perceive; well pleased to recog-

nise in nature and the language of thesense,

The anchor of my purest thoughts, thenurse,

The guide, the guardian of my heart andsoul of all my moral being.

What is this ‘motion and spirit thatrolls through all things … and is theguide, the guardian of my heart and soulof all my moral being’?

In times gone by we took our moralguide from our parents, the school orguild, or the church. Even earlier theDruid priests steered their people toworking in harmony with the world andthe cosmos as a whole, through tuninginto the stars and the Being of the Earthherself.

Nowadays we have lost this connec-tion to the oneness, to the source, whichprovided the divine inspiration andguide for our ancestors. We can tracethe severance back at least 2,000 years,probably further. But that is anotherstory!

‘Goethe assumed that a singleorganising principle holds sway inthe world, and that this principle canbe inwardly reproduced by suffi-ciently active and versatile thinking.In doing so he ascribed to humanknowledge the capacity not merelyto observe the world externally, butto become one with the world.’

Rudolf Steiner

‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and

the Word was God.The same was in the beginning

with God.All things were made by Him; and

without Him was not any thingmade that was made.

In Him was Life; and the Life wasthe Light of men.

And the Light shineth in the dark-ness; and the darknesscomprehended it not.’

St John’s Gospel, Chapter 1.

Fig. 2 View south to the Lammermuir Hills across Pishwanton’s Central Bowl.


nursed him through a near-death experience where ‘theHeiland’ (the Christ) pulled him back from the threshold ofdeath, lifting him up by the back of his neck and setting himfirmly on his feet. This was so profound, it steered himthrough the rest of his life, scientific seeking and artisticexpression (see left).

During his period of recovery Goethe became very influ-enced by the writings and cosmology of Paracelsus, the Swissphysician whose life spanned the middle of the last millen-nium. He describes a primal substance, the ‘Yliaster’, which inthe course of time has been separated (severed) in our compre-hension into two realms – ‘the Stars’, or realm of ideas, andthe ‘Forests’, or realm of things. It was Goethe’s striving tofind the Stars in the Forest again – to unite the Forest with thesource in the Stars, the ‘Primal Source of all Existence’(Goethe) or ‘Word’ (St John's Gospel).

We are now in a new age, where we are striving to findmeaning, to be able to call things by their true ‘names’ again.We struggle to find words to express what we experience whengraced with a glimpse of the spiritual essence of another being.We strive to purge or purify ourselves in order to be able to‘hear’ the other speak its own essence within us. This very actof working on oneself to be able to ‘tune into’ another being isdeeply healing for both ourselves and the world we encounter.

Enabling the Genius Loci to speakSince 1991 members, friends, students and volunteers of theLife Science Trust have been trying to practise Goethe’smethod with plants, animals, landscape and people inPishwanton Wood.

The buildings, the architecture, style of agriculture, fenc-ing, garden design and the Biodynamic land management allarise from the attempt to let this place, the ‘Genius Loci’ of

Fig. 3 Map of Pishwanton Wood.

The layers of landscape

We meet the world in its outer manifestation with theouter part of ourselves – our skin and sense organs.

Hovering around and weaving through this purelyfactual encounter is the changing, transforming natureof the day, of the year, of everything which grows anddevelops.

Colouring this are our own likes and dislikes, oursoul moods and the moods emanating from whateverwe meet.

Hidden deep under all these layers lies the ‘essentialbeing’ of a plant or a place or a person – that by whichwe ‘know’ and name it.

All of these, woven together are what we recognisewith the different levels of our own being as ‘landscape’.

Using the four elements as a ‘way of seeing’We begin with rock, the earth, that which we meet out-wardly with our senses. Then we move on to connect ourselves with the fluidityof a place in its time process, its becoming – that whichweaves in and between all the component parts.

Hidden in all this, like a soft breath, the true nature ofthe place reveals itself – we glimpse the Genius Loci.

Going on this journey thus far has the effect of unit-ing us intimately with a place such that we have‘intuitively become one with it’ while, at the same time,still having our feet firmly on the ground.

We have then touched something so profound thatour lives can be changed and our creativity transformed– for whatever we subsequently do there.


Pishwanton, speak within each group and individual whopractises this.

Our journey of the first 14 years in planning the buildings,a few of which are now built, is perhaps best documented todate in Christopher Day’s book Consensus Design (ElsevierPress, 2003).

When we first began to explore Pishwanton Wood wemapped its moods through ‘Silent walking’ and ‘Listeningwith the heart’. It was like falling in love and slowly getting toknow a place described variously as ‘a haven’ and ‘an oasis in asea of modern agriculture’. The map took on physical form aswe experienced the thresholds between the ‘rooms’ in this verydiverse landscape. They were eventually given names as theircharacters spoke to us (see Fig. 3).

We had now landed at the first step of Goethe’s scientificmethod, in which we describe exactly what is there. 'Exactsense perception’ is like trying to describe someone you love toanother person. Everyone sees the physical form from aslightly different point of view, but together you can build avery clear picture in a group by viewing something from alldirections of space. This takes a long time and often involvesseveral days of exploration, drawing and describing. It helps tooverlap places in studying landscape so that each person canview another ‘room’ from outside (see box).

The next step, once the physical is clearly described, is touncover something of the biography of the place. This can bedone in many ways – if you know it well by imagining itunfolding through the seasons of the year, looking at old pho-tographs or maps, talking to previous owners or local people,reading geology books and so on. The important thing is that,through all the facts, we are able to synthesize an inner, mov-ing picture of the life journey of the place that has consistencyfrom all points of view.

Goethe calls this process ‘Exacte sinnliche Fantasie’ (exactsensorial imagination), the key tool being not to fantasizebeyond that which is sense-perceptible. If you have doneenough basic research and are on the right track, so to speak, ofthe time process of a place (or a plant), it seems to ‘grow itself ’before your mind’s eye. And, if several people can describe thesame journey, from another point of view, this is tremendouslyaffirming and enlightening for one’s own experience.

Envisioning the time processes, certain patterns or realiza-tions start to appear; the character of Pishwanton or one of itsrooms is beginning to speak. We get a glimpse of a mood oratmosphere that belongs to this specific place; the Genius Locistarts to shine.

Spinoza, the Italian/Dutch philosopher, whose philosophyGoethe found closest to his own way of being, described thisway of knowing the world as that when ‘certain attributes ofGod make themselves known within the things’. Goethecalled it, ‘The power to judge in Beholding.’

These are moments of Grace when one ‘sees’ as if for thefirst time – ‘I realize’ or ‘recognize’ something already knownfrom another time or place. Taking this further again andagain affirms the meeting and allows a ‘Becoming one with’ ortrue ‘knowing’ to become the basis of one’s deeds. That ‘spirit,which rolls through all things’, has become truly ‘the guide,the guardian of all my moral being’ (Wordsworth).

Such moments are experienced as deeply humbling andvery near to a religious revelation. What is truly wonderful isthat anyone can have such an experience and when they hap-pen for or within a group of people it is like a consciouscommunion – a common union – with the deepest Being ofthe living Earth. This forms the basis of ‘Consensus’, when werealise we are experiencing a common picture from differentperspectives. In this moment the individual, ordinary egos dis-

‘Goethe’s great historical significance lies in the factthat his art flows directly from the primal wellsprings ofexistence, that there is nothing illusory, nothing subjec-tive about it, but that it appears rather as the heralds ofthe lawfulness apprehended by the poet as he listensto the world spirit deep in nature’s working. On thislevel art becomes the interpretation of the world’ssecrets, just as science is in a different sense.’

Rudolf Steiner

Anti-clockwise from top left: Fig. 4 The craft workshop at design stage. Fig. 5 The workshop completed. Fig. 6 Interior of the workshop.


Figs. 7, 8 and 9 The planning process for the Goethean Science Building, the initial plans and the state of construction at the time of writing.

the reverence found in the Celtic Christianity of our ancestors(see Celtic prayer).

After working for many years with the four elements asmodes of observation through which to view the world, itbecame clear there was a mirror of this journey in reverse orderin every artistic process moving from divine inspirationthrough fluid creation to practical fact. Realizing this andpractising the journeys together, Christopher Day, our archi-tect and fellow founder of the Life Science Trust, and ourcolleagues found the experience to be remarkably similar tothe journey portrayed within the Celtic Prayer. There is a spi-ralling into the heart of the matter (from earth to fire) andthen out again (from fire to earth), having taken on our per-sonal responsibility, ie. two halves of a whole (in seven steps).

All our buildings and landscape features at PishwantonWood have been studied and then designed in this way out ofa journey of attempted ‘conscious communion’, an act of‘unfolding the spirit of the cosmos in landscape’. The archi-tectural planning process is described in better detail than Iam able and space will allow in Consensus Design byChristopher Day. The accompanying pictures show the endresult of the architectural planning process and then the con-struction process for two buildings, in which a spiritual ideastarts to speak in a new way in harmony with the given.

It is our intention that we manage to show, in howeverinadequate a way, something of the healing journey of growingthese buildings out of the renewal of a Celtic way and that thismay be experienced in all aspects of the buildings – buildingsgrowing out of the landscape, fitting to what is there, express-ing something of the specific essence of the place in an uniqueway and at the same time being a totally new creationdesigned for a highly specific purpose! The intention to buildis coming from the future and meets the past of the givenlandscape harmoniously in a marriage between science and art.

Archetypal human form in landscapeWhen we first studied Pishwanton Wood in the early 1990’s wefound, to our surprise, something of the gesture of the archety-pal, human form in the landscape. There was a peaceful,dome-shaped place in the north with a wide view, contrastingwith an area to the south, humming with activity and work

appear; resultant acts are energised by a sense of service to thehighest Ego or Self, which is common to all of humanity –‘Not I, but Christ in me’.

Early Celtic perceptionsWhen the Celtic people of our land experienced the Sun spiritapproaching the Earth in the time before the birth of Christand then ‘saw’ the body of the Earth change on Good Fridayat Easter 33 years later as His blood and then His body unitedwith the Earth itself, they laid a foundation in human experi-ence for deeds of self-sacrifice and a new morality to grow outof the Earth herself and her needs. Before each deed or activ-ity on the land, they called upon the Holy Triune of Father,Son and Holy Spirit to bless the space, themselves and theirdeeds in the world.

The Celtic invocation to Christ, King of the Elements (seebox), shows this deep devotion to the Primal Source of allexistence in every daily deed. I believe that Goethe’s science inpractise today is very near to a modern, conscious revival of

Christ King of the Elements

Christ! King of the Elements Hear Me!

Earth, Bear meWater, Quicken meAir, Lift meFire, Cleanse me

Christ! King of the Elements Hear me!

I will cleanse my desire through love of TheeI will lift my heart through the air to TheeI will offer my life renewed to TheeI will bear the burden of earth with Thee

Christ! King of the ElementsFire, Water, Air and EarthWeave within my heart this dayA cradle for Thy birth.

A Celtic Prayer


next to the road. In between lay a man-made ridge leading to a burial ground.The former came to be known as thespinal ridge and in front of and below itlay the Central Bowl (Fig 2), a kind ofbreathing heart space.

Once the first sketch designs andmodels for the buildings were complete,we realised that the one at the south endwas, in its massivity, rather like thepelvic girdle (the craft workshop, Figs4–6, is also planned for active limbwork). In contrast, the building plannedfor the top of the hill to serve the con-templative activities of Goethean sciencehas something of a skull character and isfull of light, south-facing windows (Figs7–9). It floats on top of the ground.These correspondences were notplanned deliberately, but rather grew outof the study and design processes. Inbetween these two buildings we are nowconstructing a community herb garden,integrated within the community wood-land and intimately connected to oursmall farm (see Fig. 10).

Pishwanton’s herb garden lies at theheart of the Central Bowl on the shoreof what was once a glacial lake. It is awarm, sheltered, peaceful, breathingcontainer, which also contains thearchetypal human organism in gesturewithin it. It is ‘growing out of theground’ using the same method asdescribed for the architecture.

It is our endeavour that all who comehere will experience something of thehealing qualities of this harmonious,heart space, whether they are working,studying or simply sitting in the garden.You are welcome to join in this processto meet the spiritual essence of the placeand help bring the future into manifes-tation. It is our intention that everyonewho comes to Pishwanton might experi-ence something of a healing journey tothe spiritual essence of the place in thephysical details as well as in its atmo-sphere and development.

We are an educational charity thatwas established expressly for this pur-pose – to create a centre for thedemonstration and practice of Goetheanscience and art. This year we have aseries of courses on landscape study,design and construction, medicinalplants and some science with art courses(see website at end). The process, studyand creation of new forms for elementsof the garden and buildings needs agreat deal of research as does the furtherdevelopment of the therapeutic educa-tion practised at Pishwanton. Thededicated building for Goethean Scienceand Art will provide a much-neededspace for research activity as well as for

Top: Fig. 10 The herb garden under construction. Bottom: Fig. 11 The Seed Building.

the processing of plant products and forteaching seminars. We still need fundsto complete this building.

Finally, if you would like to enablethe first people to live at Pishwanton,Fig. 11 shows the Seed Building – astone, clay and wooden building, forwhich we are still seeking funding, tohouse clients, a farmer family and theanimals as well.

So far no one lives in Pishwantonand the place badly needs a caretakerfarming family and simple accommoda-tion for students and volunteers to sleepand eat. If any reader feels inspired tohelp us either practically or financially,please get in touch. You would be help-ing one place on the Earth to developwith inner integrity and a remarkablequality of shining. ✪

The Pishwanton Project (charity no.SCO20705) is part of Petrarca, a EuropeanAcademy for the Culture of Landscape, whosework arises out of the Natural Science Sectionof the School of Spiritual Science at theGoetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland.A list of 2007 courses and further informationis at www.pishwanton.com or contact thePishwanton Project of The Life Science Trust,c/o Pedlars Way, Haddington Road, Gifford,East Lothian, EH41 4JD. Tel. 01620 810259;email: [email protected]. Bank account:Bank of Scotland; sort code: 80 08 23;a/c 00559417.

This article is based on a talk given at the 30thAnniversary Mystics and Scientists Conferencein Winchester in April, 2007.Photographs and drawings by: MargaretColquhoun, Christopher Day, Axel Ewald,Richard Shorter, Ulrike Stabe volunteers andstudents at Pishwanton.

Dr Margaret Colquhoun studiedagriculture, genetics and zoology atEdinburgh University, where shecompleted a PhD on EvolutionaryBiology. She retrained in midlife inGoethean Science at the Carl GustavCarus Institute in Germany and theNatural Science Section at theGoetheanum, Switzerland. Now she works as a freelanceGoethean scientist, often as a consul-tant to communities trying to findtheir way forward in their own land-scape, eg. Findhorn, Forres SteinerSchool, Camphill communitiesthroughout the UK and Ireland, andPark Attwood Clinic. She lecturesand runs seminars all over Europeand is committed to developingPishwanton Wood as a demonstrationand educational resource for teachingGoethean methodology.

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Healing the land healing ourselves