Eco-Alchemy

For the past century, initiatives inspired by Rudolf Steiner’s anthroposophy have contributed to the evolution of environmental activism. Steiner’s 1924 course of lectures on agriculture initiated biodynamics, which became the first organized form of organic agriculture. Farmers and activists inspired by Steiner helped prepare the way for Rachel Carson’s campaign against pesticides, anticipated the major themes of Gaian spirituality, invented community-supported agriculture, and founded many of the world’s largest green banks. Waldorf schools and Camphill intentional communities, also inspired by Steiner, integrate concern for the environment into their practices of education and care for persons with special needs. Eco-Alchemy tells all these stories, with special attention to the ways anthroposophical initiatives have interacted with impulses rooted in other spiritual traditions. By placing anthroposophy within the broader history of environmentalism, Dan McKanan demonstrates that the environmental movement itself has a complex ecology and would not be as diverse or transformative without the contributions of anthroposophy. Anthroposophy’s greatest contribution has been its emphasis on the balancing of polarities, drawn from alchemy. By refusing the dichotomies of matter and spirit, nature and humanity, and science and spirituality, students of Rudolf Steiner help environmentalism evolve in new and creative ways.