Venus behind the Sun in Scorpio

[Mark]

There has been a lot said about this in BD circles. What did Dr Steiner mean when he said Venus is behind the sun in scorpio. Some have said that this means that as we look from the Earth, Sun and Venus must be in Scorpio with the Sun closer to us than Venus. This casts 'behind' in a spatial light. This means we would have to have all our skins ready when this happens - every few hundred years or so.

Malcolm Gardner, who translated the course most recently with Catherine Creeger wrote a paper for applied Biodynamics but I have not be granted permission to post it here due to issues at JPI. It is not now JPI's view that this was an accurate description of the facts.

However, the third view is that this simply means when Venus is the evening star. When the sun has just gone down, if Venus is 'behind' in a temporal sense, it will still be above the horizon. So when Venus is the evening star and is in Scorpio we might have the right idea. Malcolm Gardner seems to concur with this in his notes to his translation, and it is also clear in the earliest translations of the course. It also means we have an opportunity to make animal peppers every two years or so.

Sorted? Perhaps not ... if we listen to the stories of what happened at Koberwitz the picture gets interesting again. It is said that Dr Steiner got rid of the rabbits on the estate there using the peppering technique. What was the constellation when he burned the skins? (And did he use the skins &/or the testes?) Venus was not in Scorpio according to Enzo Nastati of the Homeodynamic method. Hmmm, does anyone know when the rabbit parts were burned? We could look at that chart with interest.

[Mark]

I had a look at Trevor Ravenscroft's Spear book in which he is of the opinion that Dr Steiner asked for a buck rabbit to be shot as he arrived at Koberwitz. He used the testes, spleen and part of the skin and the effects were noticed in three days. I will do the chart when I have a little more time.

Does anyone know why this book is viewed with such suspicion amongst Anthroposophical circles?

[Mark]

I would point people to this article in which the issues above are discussed in some detail.