Waking up the I Equinox 2026
Spirits of water, spirits of air,
Weave in the world full of nurture and care.
Sons of bright fire and gnomes of quick gait -
All of them speak to me whilst they create:
“O, we work within the world for purest joyfulness alone,
But remember please the deeds we do - they must not pass unknown,
For you free us from enchantment
When you make our life your own."
Happy spring!
Happy spring!
Blessings to you at this time on the wheel of the year.
I hope you enjoyed your Spring Equinox this past Friday, and the beautiful weekend here in Santa Barbara county, or wherever you find yourself as you read this today.
In the northern hemisphere we are experiencing rebirth and moving upward again towards the light.
“Every little seed has a forest inside, every living being grows towards the light." ~ Medicine Rising
The earth altar in the photo above was created on spring equinox in gardening class at the SB Waldorf School with two of my sweet 2nd grade students. Several classes made earth altars in the garden to celebrate the equinox. Sacred offerings, offered in a sacred way, by sacred beings. In Quechua, the ancient language of indigenous Peru, children are ‘wawa', or, ‘double sacred'.
We built the altars on equinox last Friday, and on Saturday morning, I arrived in the school garden early, put the chickens out in the grass in the shade, admired the profusion of cherry blossoms in the morning sun against the blue sky, and set up to receive a small group of lovely humans to exhume a Biodynamic earth medicine, or preparation, created based on the teachings of Rudolph Steiner.
We buried the preparation last year on the Autumn Equinox with master Biodynamic farmer and teacher, Harald Hoven, during his workshop Toward Healing the Earth; Cosmic Rhythms and Practical Applications in the Garden.
You can read a little bit about that here in my 2025 Autumn Equinox newsletter.
We opened our gathering this Saturday with verse 50 from Steiner's Calendar of the Soul (translation pictured above), and commenced our stirring with a second translation/interpretation from In the Light of a Child, by Michael Hedley Burton which begins this newsletter.
We dug up the cow horns, which we had buried back in the fall, and all but one horn, packed with manure, had turned into a dark, loamy, ‘sweet' smelling medicine, filled with a living microbiome of worms (who are good friends with the gnomes) and other evidence of soil vitality.
We stirred 110 grams of BD500, or horn manure preparation, in 3 gallons of rainwater which I harvested during our spring rains. City water is not recommended for preparations due to the chemicals in public water that would destroy the subtle and powerful microbiome created through the process of the preparation's alchemical birth.
We took turns stirring by hand for 1 hour, and added the barrel compost we made with Harald last fall, which had been harvested earlier with the 8th grade students, for the final 20 minutes of the stir.
The barrel compost is a combination of fresh cow manure, egg shells, basalt dust, and the Biodynamic compost preparations (yarrow, chamomile, oak bark, stinging nettle, and valerian) buried in a brick 'barrel' dug into the earth. Two months after autumn equinox, we dug the barrel compost out of the ground, mixed it again with the 5 compost preparations, and replaced it in the earthen barrel. We finally exhumed it again, two months after that, to find a profusion of black, fluffy, life filled soil-medicine which has been dispersed in our own garden and among others who participated in our fall workshop.
Stirring is a delicious process, which I fully enjoy. It entails creating vortexes in the water stirring by hand, and then breaking the vortex and beginning again in the opposite direction (vortex/chaos/vortex).
I find it highly satisfying.
It is a somatically delightful act that teaches me about the beauty and power of a vortex (form) and the process of moving through chaos between forms...
Steiner taught that it was important to involve the “I" in the process of stirring and to stir by hand and not by mechanical means. Stirring changes the structure of the water, Steiner taught, making it more viscous and enlivening it through mimicking natural water flows, as a creek or river might vortex and eddy as it moves towards the ocean, creating crystalline structures of wisdom (according to many teachers on wild water).
We applied the preparation with small brooms and boughs gathered from a nearby tree, sprinkling the potentized mixture over the spring morning garden and around campus.
All participants took some of the two preparations, BD 500 and barrel compost, home to their own land and gardens to revitalize and feed the earth.
Several others who participated in our Fall workshop with Harald Hoven and in the school community will also come and take some of the preparations from the garden into their homes and neighborhoods.
One of our participants the past two years with Harald at WSSB, Oscar Carmona, is an instructor at Santa Barbara City College in the Environmental Horticulture program, and has been spreading the teachings of Rudolph Steiner's Biodynamics far and wide with his students, using the preps we made together both in the CC gardens and his own.
It feels meaningful to be a part of supporting the creation of wealth in the local body of wisdom in the human community and in the community of the soil, to build a better future in relation with the earth and the cosmos as ourselves.
“We all together share our life as one."
It was a beautiful morning and a very sweet, celebratory gathering.
Ayurveda, the science of life, which I study and practice alongside my study in Steiner's traditions, is the science of living in harmony with the days (dinucharya/daily rituals) , the seasons (ritucharya/seasonal rituals), and the longer cycles of the earth and cosmos, Kalpas and Yugas.
Both Ayurveda and Biodynamics teach about the importance of the microbiome (our own and that of the soil), and our harmonious participation in the turning of the wheel of the year. In Ayurveda, this is the time for seasonal cleansing to heal and replenish the microbiome of the gut and re-boot agni, digestive fire, for increased health and vitality.
I love ways to be in touch with the turning of the wheel of the year. I love making alchemical creations with plants, in harmony with the moon and planets, finding my place in the universe and remembering how to be in good relationship.
You can jump back to my Autumn Equinox 2024 newsletter to read about some of Steiner's teachings on the wheel of the year.
I am so grateful for the teachings of Rudolph Steiner, and for the Helen Hecker group, a local Anthroposophical group who deeply support the local Waldorf School. I profoundly appreciate their work in bringing Harald here to teach in Santa Barbara at the Waldorf School garden where I have been the steward for the past 10 years.
I am grateful to my friend Dr. Brett Wyatt, who drove all the way from Riverside to help exhume the preparation, which he had been present to prepare and bury back in the fall.
Dr. Wyatt made a podcast about both our gatherings at Pages and Pods with Dr. Brett Wyatt.
In addition to digging in the garden, I've been up to some great things in my clinical practice as well.
If you're still with me, see below for a few updates.
Namaste,
~Liz
Herbal Alchemy in my Tiny Apothecary
Some of you already know about some of the fabulous herbal alchemy I have been quietly providing to my clients through my office tiny apothecary.
Some of you also know that I have had my own apothecary in the past, before I started running a garden program and a clinical practice, which I called Baba Yaga Botanicals, named after Baba Yaga, the dangerous wisdom giver of Russian fairy tales who rides in a mortar, steers with a pestle, is hundreds of years old, and can make herself as small as a thimble or as big as a house by mixing up a few leaves and berries.
Please keep your eyes peeled for new items available in my office from Baba Yaga Botanicals and in our local Heritage Goods and Supply.
In the meantime, help yourself to Zheng Gu Shui, or ‘upright bone water', from the Traditional Chinese Medicine pharmacopoeia.
This is a wonderful liniment that helps to relieve pain, decrease inflammation, increase circulation, and it smells fabulous!
It is made by Dr. Patricia Tenyer at Hara Healing Center and Modern Alchemy Apothecary.
I met Patricia years ago when I was giving a presentation on Ayurveda and seasonal cleansing at the Carpinteria Women's Club alongside Dr Kendall Hassemer. We connected as fellow plant geeks and healers and have stayed in touch ever since, sharing plants and medicine, acupuncture and bodywork. I'm so grateful the plants brought us together all those years ago.
I use Zheng Gu Shui liniment every day, at home on myself and with many of my clients in the office. Numerous clients have quickly caught on to the power and efficacy of Patricia's Zheng Gu Shui and it usually flies off the shelves as quickly as I can stock it.
I was recently introduced to a new plant geek friend, Cass at Goat Barn Apothecary, through my dear and longtime friend Jan Smith, founding member of Quail Springs Permaculture Farm and musical diva of Cuyama Mama and the Hot Flashes.
I have been selling items from Cass's beautiful offerings at The Goat Barn, including local sheep's wool felted handmade soap, lovingly grown and wildcrafted teas, delicious and well formulated tinctures, and a heavenly rose water (and I'm a connoisseur).
As always, I have copper oil warmers for at home self massage, and if you can catch them before they go, handmade Ayurvedic body oils and botanicals from Baba Yaga Botanicals.
I hope to see you soon for herbs, massage, private yoga instruction, or gardening and nature wisdom.
Stay tuned for big growth at Anahata Healing Arts in late 2026 and 2027!!
Much Love,
Liz
Happy Chaitra Navaratri!