Ritual, Rhythm, Reverence

Originally published 2025-11-27. By Teresa O'Shaughnessy, JPI Biodynamics.

An update from the president

Dear Friends,

I am so excited to celebrate Thanksgiving with you! I am even sipping hot tea while we chat. That’s right, even in Texas, it’s slowly cooling off, and I am encouraging it to get cold by drinking hot tea.

This is the time of year, as we say goodbye to Autumn and turn toward Advent, when I take time to remember all the blessings I have received and all the challenges I have faced. 2025 has been quite a year! JPI has hosted workshops on Chromatography, Spring Preparations, and Fall Preparations. We have a new logo!

We have streamlined our website so that it is easier for you to access it no matter where you live, even with slow internet connections. We have even translated our website into six languages, with more to come. JPI continues to sponsor other biodynamic organizations. Everything we do is with you in mind. What excites you about biodynamics?

Donate

For me, biodynamics is a movement towards the Light. The Earth needs us now more than ever. She needs you and me. We are cultivating a community that isn’t afraid to get its heads, hearts, and hands deep into the work of healing the Earth. I see this courage at every workshop, meeting, conference, Board meeting, and gathering I attend.

It’s the ritual, rhythm, and reverence in biodynamics that speak to my soul. Participants in our Fall workshop consistently expressed wonder about the process: the ritual of harvesting and preparing the specific plants and sheaths, the rhythm of burying and waiting for the cosmic and earthly forces to imbue and transform the preparations, and the reverence for the work done by the individual with community support. Together, we spent our time singing, chatting, sharing meals, unearthing and then burying 2,000 horns, and learning about biodynamics all weekend long. All of us felt closer to the essence of the preparations and to each other. This community of Light and warmth lasted all four days and traveled home with each of us. The Light shines forth now in new places.

This sense of community draws me in. No matter what is going on in my personal life or the broader political world, I can always find my grounding in biodynamics. I spray my preparations for my land and for me. When we make these precious biodynamic preparations together, who we are is transformed by what we do. I am the preparations, and they are me. There is no other way I can explain it.

In this season of Thanksgiving, I am deeply grateful for each of you. Without you, JPI would not have accomplished all that we did this year. You are an essential member of our JPI team.

With my deepest gratitude,