Another way of making intimate contact with the earth is to walk around barefoot
as much as possible. If you live in a place where you can’t walk around barefoot, maybe
it would be worthwhile to move to a place where you can – it is that important. Wearing
shoes cuts off most of the healing energy and sense of rootedness which the earth would
otherwise give us through our feet.
These rituals aren’t immutable – you can alter them at will to suit your own taste
and convenience. What is important is your seriousness of purpose, the strength of your
desire to communicate with the earth, and your willingness to pursue this intent in a
deliberate fashion – to make it one of the high priorities in your life. Then your success
is assured: you will find a true sense of worth and belonging in the world which doesn’t
depend on what other people think of you.
I then asked (Dr. Steiner), “How can it happen that the spiritual impulse, and
especially the inner schooling, for which you are constantly providing stimulus and
guidance bear so little fruit? Why do the people concerned give so little evidence of
spiritual experience, in spite of all their efforts? Why, worst of all, is the will for
action, for the carrying out of these spiritual impulses, so weak?”
Then came the thought-provoking and surprising answer: “This is a problem of
nutrition. Nutrition as it is today does not supply the strength necessary for manifesting
the spirit in physical life. A bridge can no longer be built from thinking to will and
action.”
–– Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, from the introduction to Agriculture – Eight Lectures by
Rudolf Steiner
We all know that “you are what you eat”; and many of us are becoming aware that
this maxim has a spiritual as well as a physical dimension. We know we simply feel
better when we eat well – when our bodies, rather than our minds, dictate what we should
eat or not eat. Many of us have experienced a complete change in attitude and outlook on
life by simply changing our diets. Whole bodies of thought, such as the Jewish kosher
laws and macrobiotics, have evolved to stress the spirituality of food, to emphasize its
sacredness.
The “spiritual quality of food” is not a metaphor: food contains a light fiber
energy which is as important to our sustenance as vitamins and proteins, but which is not
susceptible to chemical analysis. And just as the vitamin and protein content of food can
be diminished by processing or overcooking, so too can the light fiber content of food be
diminished by disrespect.
