More information about the Holy Nights ritual: stirring soil : 26-12-23
I got several requests to provide more info about the topic of 'stirring soil' during the Holy Nights, which I posted a few days ago. I learned about this practice during an anthroposophical retreat a few years ago, from one of the main people in the biodynamic movement in The Netherlands. I looked online in the last few days but could not find any information. Except for a book written by a Dutch lady who was working in biodynamics for many years and meditated a lot on/with her experiences. Today I took the time to translate the part of her book which is about soil stirring. I hope you will find the information useful and inspiring. And even though the Holy Nights have already started, you are not too late to join in in my opinion! For me personally it feels very rewarding. I will share my findings of my practice in another post.
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About ‘stirring earth’ during the thirteen Holy Nights
Source: the book ‘Dertien Heilige Nachten’ by Guurtje Kieft
Published by Adventum, 2020
Stirring earth is an age old ritual from Eastern Europe that in the last years has been getting more attention in our country.
On the first Advent Sunday you should collect a portion of moist soil from your garden or your farm land and put it in a bowl: preferable made of wood or stone. People who own a farm can do this activity collectively with their employees: each will then work with a bowl of his own.
Make sure the soil is as mineral as possible: remove roots, twigs, pebbles, stones etc from the soil. Put the bowl near a source of heat so that it can dry well, stirring occasionally to help the drying process. Clay type soils will toughen a lot during the drying process: crush the clay with your hands to make it finer. Do not make any large movements yet, just crush the drying clay between your fingers. A sandy soil will dry much quicker. The soil you’re about to use for the ritual must be dry through and through.
It does not matter at which time of the day you do the stirring ritual. The most important thing is the intention and the attunement from which you stir. Stirring is pure meditation! Are you distracted during stirring by movements and sounds around you? Are your thoughts somewhere else? Then it will be hard to for the Spiritual Forces to do their work on your bowl with the soil. These forces only work through you, through your focused and directed consciousness.
Choose a moment in the day that works best for you, a quiet spot, where you will stir each day from the first day of Advent, i.e. the night from 24 to 25 December. Stir with your bare hands alternating between the left and right hand, alternating in a clockwise and the anti-clockwise direction. Do this in a rhythmic fashion. Repeat this procedure every day, preferably always a the same time, set by yourself. It’s best to do this for one hour. Try not to look at the clock! But ‘stir your own hour’. The first days the soil seems to be feeling the same. But change will occur from the sixth day: the soil will feel warmer and softer to the touch, almost silky. Stirring earth really combines well with other rituals performed during the Holy Nights (* see below for suggestions). The ‘space’ that you create through the stirring with your hands can be filled with spiritual substance from the angelic hierarchies out of the planetary spheres: if you really attune yourself to this from a place of purity.
You can can sprinkle the soil on your land on the 6th of January, the day after the last holy night ( 5 to 6 January). Ideally your soil should have become as thin as pepper. Or even better, the day of Candlemas, the 2nd of February, the day on which in our country the life stream of the Earth, the saps in the trees, are being awakened. Areas that lie below the 52th degree (The Netherlands) this date will be earlier. And for areas north of the Netherlands, this day will be later.
At organic and biodynamic enterprises the employees can combine all their individual bowls with stirred soil into one bigger bowl or box. It can be sprinkled on the land as a collective activity with the minds of the participating people directed to the angels of Christ. In this way, a connection can be reestablished between the ‘enterprise individuality’, the spirit that guides your enterprise, and the spiritual worlds.
*Suggestions for other activities during the Holy Nights:
1. Keeping a Dream Journal
2. Reading fairy tales, especially the ones by Grimm.
3. Painting or drawing.
4. Sculpting platonic bodies with clay.
5. Meditating on the Angelic hierarchies.
Working with/meditating on:
The Twelve Zodiac signs
The Twelve moods
The twelve Sun qualities
The Twelve Virtues
The Twelve Senses
The Twelve directions of thinking
The Twelve messages from the elemental beings.