“The question is not what you look at, but how you look and whether you see.”
— HENRY DAVID THOREAU
Painted Trillium (Trillium undulatum), Columbia County, NY; May 2024
The spring 2024 issue (#51) of our biannual publication, In Context, has just been published in print and online. New writings by our staff include an exploration of our understanding of agency at the molecular level; a feature surveying current and possible views of plant intelligence; and a review of a new book, The Properties of Life. You’ll also find a special piece by one of our recent fellowship researchers on early spring coloring in oaks and maples.
In this recorded live talk at the institute, entitled “The Wisdom of Plants,” Craig Holdrege honors Earth Day with a presentation revealing some of the remarkable qualities of the plant world, the “mantle of the earth.” In his talk, Craig shared several images to make his point about the contextual nature of plants. Though not necessary for appreciating the talk, you can download them at our podcast page. Or you can listen to the audio synced with a slide show of the images here.
In addition to publishing our staff’s work relating to Goethean Science and Phenomenology on this site, we also periodically showcase the work of others in the field. A new such addition to our Writings By Author section is the work of Mark Riegner PhD, who taught Ecology and Evolution for 35 years at Prescott College in Arizona, and has authored two insightful articles that you can link to from here.
About the work of The Nature Institute — In a rare interview, recorded in Brazil, Henrike and Craig Holdrege speak of their transformative work and the Goethean perspective that has long inspired it. This Q & A followed a two-week course, “Seeing Nature Whole,” that the Holdrege’s have frequently taught each December in Florianópolis.
~Featured~
Springing Into Color
In early spring, I arrived in a landscape I thought I knew and yet felt I was seeing for the first time. Stripped of color and lacking contrast in the overcast light, the wooded hillsides held a quiet permeability, allowing my gaze an unobstructed view through clusters of gray trunks and interwoven branches that extended deep into the forest. My experience of distance across the landscape, between objects within the landscape and my proximity to them felt stretched and distorted in this canvas of gray and muted tones. I felt unsettled and restless, my eyes hungrily scanning for signs of color. . . read more
News From The Institute
Read here about recent staff activities at the institute as well as abroad. Among other things, our work in the past months has explored leadership and curriculum development in schools; a Math Alive! workshop; and introducing Goethean Phenomenology to healthcare workers in Brazil.
We recently expanded and redesigned our online Bookstore to better serve you and to offer titles from other Goethean authors whose work we value. We encourage you to browse or contact us with any questions.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Drawing into Nature, Spring 2024
A 6-session course with artist/educator Ella Lapointe
Tuesdays, May 7 - June 11 4:30 - 6:00 pm
Encountering Nature and the Nature of Things
First Residential Intensive in Goethean Science Foundation Course, Cohort V
June 24 — July 6, 2024
From a Reader…
Dear Craig,
Once again I’m introducing papers from The Nature Institute website, this time for a HS botany course, and I’m just so grateful for your work (and Steve’s) and that a resource like yours exists. …I appreciate so much those who approach science thoughtfully, with open minds and hearts. It has lit a fire in several students over the years, and helped to humanize even those who are not especially otherwise interested in science.
- Executive Director, Waldorf High School