⚕

Asclepius
Asclepias
Ophiuchus
Parasitoid

Asclepias. (21-VI-2022). ⚕. Star Wisdom, Vol. 5.

Embody Asclepius archetypes to become healthy. Diagnose, prescribe, and administer treatments to cocreate healing landscapes. Help nature by thinking like an insect. Cultivate care with compounded, segmented, and diversified actions.

Medicinal plants and parasitoid wasps cocompose hygienic farmscape immune systems. Biodynamic farmscaping restores habitats, prevents pests, and eliminates pesticides. Work with Ophiuchus rhythms to heal, defend, and beautify environments.

Contents

  1. Intro
    2.
  2. Asclepius
    3.
  3. Organics
    4.
  4. Asclepiades
    5.
  5. Biodynamics
    6.
  6. Rhythmics
    7.
  7. Outro
    8.
  8. Thanks
    9.
  9. References
    10.

Intro

Asclepius mythology offers methods for diagnosing health, prescribing treatments, and administering cures. Asclepius rhythms can be tracked with biodynamic calendars to practice auspicious habitat restoration. Biodynamic restorationists are healers who pledge to beautify landscapes and maintain healthy environments. Biodynamic farmscapes are healing temples and living pharmacies.

We have achieved successes during years spent practicing biodynamic restoration with Asclepius rhythms: Acres of habitats that restore populations of native plants and wildlife were established; Rare and vulnerable species of pollinators were hosted; Environmental quality was improved; Harvestable goods were yielded; Pesticides were eliminated.

First we will introduce the Greek demigod Asclepius, his daughters the Asclepiades: Iaso, Panacea, Hygieia, Aceso, Aglaea, his teacher: Chiron the centaur, and his zodiac constellation: Ophiuchus. Second, we will introduce insects and link Ophiuchus to parasitoid wasps. Third, we will define farm anatomy and connect the Asclepiades to landscape features.

Fourth, we will define farmscaping, present biodynamic farmscaping, provide pest prevention practices, and profile Asclepias, Milkweed. Fifth, we will present astro-ecological calendrics and offer recommendations for how and when to work with Ophiuchus rhythms to beautify landscapes and defend healthy environments. Sixth, we will conclude, offer thanks, and provide references.

Asclepius

Asclepius ("to cut open") is the Greek demigod of health and medicine, son of sun god Apollo and human Coronis. One legend tells that Artemis killed Coronis because she was unfaithful to Apollo, while another tradition says she died in labor. Apollo rescued his son by cutting open (cesarean, scalpel) the womb of Coronis. Coronis was immortalized as the constellation of Corvus, the crow.

Asclepius first learned medicine from Apollo before being mentored by Chiron the centaur. Chiron was a renowned healer and teacher who was accidentally wounded by his student Hercules during battle. Chiron could not cure himself despite his supernatural healing powers, so he was immortalized as the constellation Sagittarius.

Asclepius learned the secret arts of healing from observing or saving wounded serpents. The single snake-entwined rod of Asclepius (⚕ , the asklepian) continues to signify the medical arts to this day. The asklepian represents healing processes: the snake symbolizes medication and regeneration, while the rod symbolizes recuperation and sanitation.

Epione ("soothing") and Asclepius had five daughters, the Asclepiades: Iaso ("recuperation"), Panacea ("all-curing"), Hygieia ("health"), Aceso ("inflamed"), and Aglaea ("glow"), and three sons: Machaon (medic, herbalist, surgeon), Podalirius (medic), and Telesphorus ("completion", child care). Asclepius and his lover Aristodama had one son, Aratus (poet).

Zeus killed Asclepius with a thunderbolt when the physician’s supernatural ability to revive the dead threatened the balance between mortals and immortals. The body of Asclepius was immortalized as the constellation Ophiuchus ("serpent-bearer") and the spirit of Asclepius was resurrected as a god of Mount Olympus. Asclepius was worshiped in Greece as the god of healing, medicine, and doctors.

The cult of Asclepius was most popular in Greece during the 6th century BC. Over 300 healing temples (Asclepieia) are known, including the largest in Epidaurus on the Argolid Peninsula. Asclepieia are often mountain temples or spas where "forest bathing" and social medicine was practiced by physicians, priests, and therapists. Both the physical and spiritual health of patients were treated.

Asclepieia healthcare practices included incubation: sleeping in sacred spaces to receive curative dreams or experience meditative consciousness; purgation of food, art, and offerings; medication; dietary nutrition; internal surgery; cleansing in baths; physical fitness in gymnasia. Asclepieia mascots were often Aesculapian Snakes [Zamenis longissimus (Laurenti, 1768)], dogs, and roosters.

Asclepiad was an honorary title bestowed on generations of Greek physicians who followed the healing arts of Asclepius. One notable Asclepiad was Hippocrates of Kos, the "father of modern medicine". The Hippocratic Oath was sworn to uphold medical ethics. The oath begins:

"I swear by Apollo Healer, by Asclepius, by Hygieia, by Panacea, and by all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will carry out, according to my ability and judgment, this oath and this indenture."

The Asclepiades each represent components of health and healing, here linked with sacred elements:

  1. Iaso = Recuperation = Earth
  2. Panacea = Medication = Water
  3. Hygieia = Sanitation = Air
  4. Aceso = Regeneration = Fire
  5. Aglaea = Beautification = Spirit
Health occurs when the five Asclepiades are balanced and unified as one polyrhythmic system.

The Asclepiades can inspire observations that indicate health diagnoses and treatments. When diagnosing health ask: Which of five Asclepiades processes are present? What features show such health processes? Which of the five processes are balanced? What degree of balance is present in a health system? How can systems become unhealthily imbalanced? Which of five health processes are absent? How can absent processes become present through treatments?

The principles of healing represented by Asclepius and the Asclepiades are not restricted to the health of human beings alone. Asclepius is a demigod who is connected to the nonhuman world through his teachers: the god Apollo, the centaur Chiron, and the wounded serpents. The mythology of Asclepius can inspire us to diagnose and treat not only human bodies, but the bodies of societies and environments.

Ophiuchus

Ophiuchus or Serpentarius ("The Serpent Bearer") is a constellation who represented Asclepius and his snake-entwined rod to the Romans. Ophiuchus represents the paradoxical concept of pharmakon (remedy/poison, healer/destroyer), a unified duality that forms the basis for contemporary pharmacology: lightness and darkness; composition and decomposition; fertilization and putrefaction.

Ophiuchus is aligned with the Galactic Center, the dark heart of the Milky Way, and rests between 5º Scorpio and 11º Sagittarius (~November 29th to December 21st). Ophiuchus is excluded from dominant 12-sign zodiacs due to odd indivisibility or superstitious fear of the "unlucky" number 13. Ophiuchus has similar yet distinct attributes of both stinging Scorpio and six-limbed Sagittarius.

Scorpio is a fixed water sign represented by the scorpion. Scorpio was traditionally ruled by the planet Mars and is now also ruled by Pluto. Greek myth recounts how Orion the hunter bragged that he could kill any animal. When Orion then threatened to kill every animal, Earth goddess Gaia sent the scorpion to challenge Orion. Scorpio cautions against human arrogance towards the nonhuman world.

Sagittarius is mutable fire, associated with the transformational power of the ember. Sagittarius recalls the earthly and cosmic wisdom of Chiron through its rulership by the benefic planet Jupiter. The Centaur is a sign of duality and the fusion of opposites. Sagittarius appears at the darkest time of the year in the northern hemisphere, signifying the warmth generated by inspired creativity.

Ophiuchus is ruled by both heavenly Jupiter and underworldly Pluto and is no more fixed-water (ice) than mutable-fire (ember). The constellation contradictorily represents the dark-light occurring at the death-birth time of Solstice. Ophiuchus no more rests than changes between archetypes of stinging Scorpion and six-limbed and arrow-shooting Centaur.

Ophiuchus is both shrewd terrestrial hunter and rebellious cosmic predator; an autonomous and dangerous regulator of nonconformity and self-authority. The constellation becomes archetypally element-fluid by simultaneously phasing from water to fire and fire to water through air and earth. Ophiuchus expands-contracts both from outside-to-inside and from inside-to-outside.

Ophiuchus represents the outsiders and outcasts of society: heretics, pirates, or witches. Ophiuchus challenges the harmonious structure of the twelvefold zodiac, reminding astrologers to remain fluid, non-dogmatic, and open to new elements in their practice. Scorpio shows the antagonism between human and insect, while Sagittarius represents the possibility for human and non-human collaborations. Ophiuchus shows ways for humans to heal environments.

Organics

Organics is a living science of metamorphosis, here defined as the synergy of two disciplines: anthoposophy and arthroposophy. Anthoposophy (ánthos = "flower") is a method of cognitive transformation wherein human becomes plant. Such plant wisdom is learned through feeling, thinking, and willing the stages of plant metamorphosis. Arthroposophy (árthron = "joint") is a method of cognitive transformation wherein human becomes insect. Insect wisdom is synchronized and syncopated with plant wisdom.

Organics observes from compound perspectives and articulated stances, interlinking humans and plants through insects. Plants and insects form one unity, the plant-insect, here defined according to organics as antho-arthroposophy: wisdom from plant-insects. Plants mutually share life with insects, which reciprocally distribute spirit for plants. The following sections describe insects, plant-insects, and insect-humans from the polyrhythmic stance of organics.

Insects

Arthropods (Phylum: Arthropoda) are invertebrate animals (multicellular eukaryotes that are motile, consume organic matter, and reproduce sexually) with exoskeletons, segmented bodies, and jointed appendages. Insect wisdom is practiced from the becoming-process "arthro-pod". "Arthro" are articulated, jointed, or limbed bodies connected to turn and flex as fulcrums. "Pods" are bodies that expand-contract between inside and outside, beings grounded with bases that provide movement.

Arthropods with six legs belong to subphylum: Hexapoda. Hexapods constitute the largest number of species of arthropods. Hexapod heads [roots] are composed of six fused segments, affixing antennae and mouthparts: mandibles, maxillae, labium, and labrum; thoraxes [leaves] are composed of three fixed segments, affixing three pairs of legs and variably two pairs of wings; abdomens [flowers] are variably composed of four to eleven segments bearing reproductive and sensory appendages.

Hexapods with chitinous exoskeletons, threefold physical body of head-thorax-abdomen, six legs, compound eyes, and two antennae belong to class: Insecta (éntomos, "cut into pieces"). Insects are the most speciose class of life on Earth. Insect exoskeletons are sclerotized polysaccharide crystals composed of chitin = plant cellulose [earth-carbon + water-oxygen + fire-hydrogen] + [air] nitrogen. Plants and insects exist in synchrony, syncopation, and supplementation through coevolution.

Insect eyes are composed of multifaceted and tessellated ommatidia, independent photoreceptors that are sensitive to light and movement. The compound vision of insect wisdom expands human cognition and transforms our feelings, thoughts, and perceptions for and from the composite perspective and flexible stance of insects. Our experiential observation can cultivate conscientious practical-spiritual contemplation, externalized as environmental restoration. Human sight inspired by insects informs articulated and compound habitat observation, creation, and restoration.

Plant-Insects

Plant and insect morphology is comparative yet nonlinear. Insects exhibit complete or incomplete metamorphosis, which synchronizes and syncopates with plant metamorphosis. While plants sustain polyphonic chords, insects arpeggiate monophonic melodies. Plant stages can be seen at once; insect stages are hidden through time. Plants drone while insects melodize.

Organics proceeds with fully conscious, intentional imaginations of metamorphological stages. Transpositions from Earth-Water-Air-Fire, Mineral-Plant-Animal-Human, Root-Leaf-Flower-Fruit, and Egg-Larva-Pupa-Imago tetrads are thought in chorus:

  1. Earth-Mineral-Root-Egg
  2. Water-Plant-Leaf-Larva
  3. Air-Animal-Flower-Pupa
  4. Fire-Human-Fruit-Imago
Involution coils from earth to water, air, fire, and back to earth; Evolution spirals from fire to air, water, earth, and back to fire. Involution is becoming self, while evolution is becoming other. Thereby, organics is an evolutionary theory of humans becoming animals and plants through cognitive metamorphosis. Human minds blend patterns and processes obscured to our senses. One imagines juvenile and senile rhythms at once, life flowing no more backward than forward. Continuous and discontinuous sequences cycle together and are observable in both patterns and processes.

The pattern of spherical Earth-Root-Egg becoming radial Air-Flower-Pupa is one unified process mediated by polyrhythmic Water-Leaf-Larva and Fire-Fruit-Imago. Spherical centers expand and distort as amplified roots or eggs. Radial peripheries contract and compress as condensed flowers or pupae. Water-Leaf-Larva and Fire-Fruit-Imago flow together to form midpoints of lemniscates. Metamorphosis is a panarchy of complex adaptive cycles among linked systems.

Insect-Humans

Internal duplets of imaginal discs grow within larvae and transform during pupation to form external duplets of "pods", such as antennae, legs, or wings. Thus, imaginal discs are inner larval ghosts masking outer imago selves. Belowground, the larvae dream of aboveground eclosions. From the maggoty solum through the wormy subsoil, agents of putrefaction grow intestinal and parasitical, sacrificing sunlight and resigning mutation, but retaining formative forces. The suppression of larva-force secretes invaluable soil health and a corresponding larva-imago hybrid: the human brain.

Humankind is a puzzle of all taxa, one subscendent organism less than the sum of organs, each unique being-in-becoming. Vertebrae contract to skulls, which expand to brains. Without contraction, the torso would interminably radiate. Instead, rhythmic forces condense the swelling brain, fluids folded over-in-around themselves, compressing tessellated hemispheres as unfurled wings. The brain swells in a well of damp darkness, bound within bone, excluded from eclosion. Our brain-larva compresses forces of imagination that eclose and echoes as imagos: living thought butterflies.

Solum is soil ensouled by sun. Inner-solum rests within the terrestrial; outer-solum cycles within the celestial. The soil-larva hatches with inner-solum nutrition assimilated from respiration and digestion; the brain-larva hatches with outer-solum perception digested from thinking and feeling. Imagine our brain-roots within mobile skull-containers, inverted towards astral terroir. Humans and insects are plants inverted in form and function:

Imagine a threefold plant-insect-human-system lemniscate: Amplifications and compressions phase-synchronize-syncopate at once among two morphological fields. Perception amplifies from root-egg-head, reproduction compresses from flower-pupa-abdomen, and locomotion filters and echoes from leaf-larva/imago-thorax at the crossing point. Locomotion is the rhythmic element that phases perception with reproduction in synchrony and syncopation. Humans can imagine transformation from one organism into another through cognitive metamorphosis as one locomotive plant-insect self.

Imagine insect metamorphosis in reverse: larval involution flowing to evolution, inverted during pupation. Such motion is an inversion of the involutionary enactment of imaginal reproduction. Pupal countermovement puppets larval and eggy ingress. Inward folding flows from pupae to gastrulae: concave buds forming larval mouths. Evolutionary drive from pupae effects imaginal egress. Outward folding flows from the pupae to blastulae: convex buds forming potentiated embryos. The first insect embryonic fold becomes input, while the first human fold becomes output, defining body cavities.

Pupal inversions illuminate how embryonic germ layers contract ambience: endoderms and ectoderms with intermediate mesoderms sequester outer worlds and reproduce interior environments through invagination. The ambient embryonic fold is illuminated with inner light, an internalized projection of nature as consciousness. Protostomes fold spirit inside-out, while deuterostomes fold spirit outside in. Thus, arthropod, mollusk, and nematode consciousness is externalized as an environmental soul, while chordate and echinoderm consciousness is internalized as an organismal soul.

Environmental soul is continuously transforming, encompassing all species and individuals. Insect souls are from outside at one with inside; human souls are from inside at one with outside. The outer souls of insects include our inner human souls, while our inner human souls are nested in the outer souls of insects. Humans are the habitats and souls of insects. Thus, naive entomophobia not only threatens, but kills our environmental consciousness. Why are we afraid of our environmental souls?

We are afraid to sacrifice our egos for our environments. Our entomophobia disables our physical and spiritual growth. We worsen our abilities to establish healthy soul habits and habitats with our persistent, irrational fears of insects. Our unreasonable and uncontrollable anxieties negatively affect Earth. We estrange ourselves from nature and exacerbate extinctions by avoiding insects. We must systematically desensitize ourselves through collaboration with insects to help restore our planet.

Parasitoid Wasps

Parasitoid wasps are the most speciose animals on Earth. Mated female parasitoid wasps hunt and sting prey with syringe-like ovipositors to lay eggs either inside or outside hosts. Internal parasitoid wasp eggs are often injected with secretions including venoms and viruses, which help protect wasp larvae and avoid detection by hosts. Hatched wasp larvae feed inside or outside of hosts who are either immediately immobilized or gradually killed. Hosts include eggs, larvae, pupae, or adults of various arthropods, including crop pest beetles, bugs, flies, and moths, and other parasitoids (hyperparasitoids).

Wasp larvae selectively feed on inessential host organs during growth until spinning cocoons and pupating either inside or outside of dying hosts. Eclosed adult wasps feed mostly on nectar and mate. Sexes of wasp offspring are actively determined by mothers in a process known as haplodiploidy: daughters hatch from fertilized eggs (mother + father chromosomes = diploid sisters); sons hatch from unfertilized eggs (mother chromosomes = haploid brothers). Sisters are often more genetically similar to each other than to their mothers; sons are fatherless clones of their mothers.

We posit that parasitoid wasps symbolize Asclepius: Six-limbed hunters who kill with venomous yet life-giving stings; queer reproducers and strange selves who grow inside/outside others; odd carnivores/vegetarians who are no more guests than hosts; and wounded healers who are vilified by entomophobes. We can feed, shelter, and sustain populations of parasitoid wasps with annual and perennial insectaries, sources or alternate prey, and diverse and pesticide-free landscapes. Overall, abundance, richness, and diversity of parasitoid wasps indicates healthy landscapes.

Asclepiades

The fivefold path of healing represented by Asclepius and the Asclepiades can be applied to landscapes through an understanding of occult anatomy and physiology. Occult physiology posits: Organ systems are internalized for organisms and externalized for environments; Internal organ systems correspond with external environments. Farms are living multicellular organisms composed of complex relations of specialized tissues and organs. Farm tissues are assemblages of similar biological, structural, or functional units; Farm organs are composed of tissues that collaborate to perform similar functions.

If farm anatomy is classified and described according to occult physiology, then farm organs can be identified, conserved, and enhanced to address and prevent farm disorders. Our model environments-organisms will be habitat features that host insects, the most abundant and diverse class of life on earth. Articulated and compound observations from insect wisdom can inform therapeutic practices for farm restoration via conservation biocontrol and biodynamic farmscaping.

Farm anatomy will be classified and described according to the physiology of ten insect organ systems. First, each insect organ system will be briefly explained. Second, insect organ systems will be related with insect habitat features to identify farm organ systems. Third, farm organ systems will be described in form and function. The resulting ten farm organ systems combined constitute a biodynamic farm organism or farmscape. Farmscapes are enhanced for the benefit of basic life processes: breathing, warming, nourishing, secreting, maintaining, growing, and generating.

Farm Anatomy

The Asclepiades and associated health processes are linked to insect organ systems as follows:
  1. Iaso = Recuperation = Exoskeletons + Muscular Systems + Respiratory Systems
    Exoskeletons are external shells that protect and support arthropods as living vessels. The internal body cavity (haemocoel) sequesters life and secretes spirit. Thereby, arthropods are living vivariums, microcosmic presentations of macrocosmic nature that transport habitats across and within environments. Farm skeletal systems are both invisible boundaries and visible parent materials. Farmscape exoskeletons welcome wildlife from exterior to interior, balancing temporary-permanent exclusion-inclusion for privacy-publicity, while supporting organisms with physical structure-texture.

    Muscular systems provide flexibility and strength for digestion and locomotion, allowing for dispersion and colonization. Appendages such as legs and wings are powered by striated muscles that run through the exoskeleton and control motion. Farm muscular systems are beetle banks and hedgerows. Beetle banks (apodemes) and hedgerows are linear structures composed of earthen mounds and native grasses or dense woody vegetation that provide foods, nests, and shelters for wildlife. Farmscape muscles work with exoskeletons to delineate field boundaries, while improving soil, water, and air quality.

    Respiratory systems actively or passively transport oxygen and carbon dioxide to and from tissues. Air is inhaled and exhaled through spiracles, pairs of apertures on the thorax and abdomen, which open to tracheae and tracheoles that aerate internal organs via diffusion. Farm respiratory systems are windbreaks. Windbreaks are composed of permanent dense yet porous vegetation that filters airborne sediments. Farmscape respiratory systems protect crops and wildlife, while improving soil, water, and air quality by reducing erosion, trapping sediment, and screening pollutants.

  2. Panacea = Medication = Digestive Systems + Endocrine Systems + Circulatory Systems
    Digestive systems extract nutrients from foods, which are ingested, metabolized, and assimilated for energy, growth, and reproduction. One-way closed systems or alimentary canals process food from the head and salivary glands to the storing-grinding foregut, secreting-absorbing midgut, storing-excreting fat body, and absorbing-excreting hindgut. Farm digestive systems are cover crops. Farmscape digestive systems composed of grasses and forbs planted for seasonal vegetative cover identically improve soil and water health, while regulating crop pests and enhancing wildlife.

    Circulatory systems cycle hemolymph (blood) openly and freely within exoskeletons, bathing substances among tissues and organs, while protecting against disease or predation, and facilitating motion and reproduction. Farm circulatory systems are rivers, streams, and water bodies. Farm circulatory systems can be conserved by enhancing areas adjacent to watercourses or water bodies with native trees and shrubs that create shade and habitat, while reducing pollution. Farmscape wetlands can be created, restored, and maintained for improved circulation of nutrients and wildlife.

    Endocrine systems transport hormones within the haemocoel and throughout the hemolymph. Hormones carry messages secreted from specialized glands to direct processes of growth, molting, metamorphosis, and reproduction. Farm endocrine systems are field borders and paths. Field borders interconnect farm organ systems with trails of permanent herbaceous buffer strips, filter strips, wind barriers, or other strips of vegetation established at edges or around perimeters of fields. Farmscape endocrine systems can protect crops and wildlife, while improving soil, water, and air health.

  3. Hygieia = Sanitation = Immune Systems
    Immune systems innately fight infections with physical barriers and immune responses. Physical barriers include the outer cuticle of the integument and inner peritrophic membrane of the midgut. Immune responses against haemocoel infections include humoral production of antimicrobials and cellular encapsulation, nodulation, and phagocytosis by hemocytes. Farm immune systems are insectaries and meadows. Annual or perennial insectaries are composed of abundant and diverse communities of companion plants and wild beneficial insects that prevent or regulate crop pests.

    Farmscape immune systems link farm organs, from outer exoskeleton to inner circulatory, digestive, and endocrine systems. Thus, conservation or restoration of annual-perennial insectaries is of fundamental importance for healthy farm anatomy and physiology. The foundation of harmonized disease regulation must be grounded from prevention rather than medication. Therefore, preventive enhancement of annual or perennial insectaries should be of primary concern when planning balanced farmscapes.

  4. Aceso = Regeneration = Reproductive Systems + Excretory Systems
    Reproductive systems sexually produce offspring via eggs from females that are fertilized by males and oviposited by females or asexually produce offspring without males via parthenogenesis. Eggs are oviposited near, on, or within foods for neonate larvae or nymphs. High reproductive rates and short generation times afford rapid adjustment to environmental changes. Farm reproductive systems are croplands or greenhouses. Farmscape reproductive systems can be enhanced with crop rotations that improve soil health, regulate weed pressure, provide forage wildlife, and improve crop vigor.

    Excretory systems expel toxic metabolic waste products while conserving water. Malphighian tubules, a system of branching ducts, extract waste products from the hemolymph to the hindgut, where excrement is voided primarily as solid nitrogenous compounds. Farm excretory systems are pastures and compost. Pastures established to process and eliminate wastes for fertility can improve both livestock and wildlife nutrition and health, while protecting soil and water. Silvopasture systems of integrated trees, shrubs, wildflowers, and grasses provide diverse forage for enhanced farmscape excretion and fertility.

  5. Aglaea = Beautification = Nervous Systems
    Nervous systems embody internal and external sensory information. Central nervous systems coordinate body functions, while peripheral nervous systems sense stimuli from environments. External senses of taste, smell, sight, warmth, and hearing are detected by sensory organs including antennae, compound and simple eyes, hairs (setae), and tympana. Farm nervous systems are farmers. Farmers remain attentive with internal senses of life, self-movement, and balance that are deepened with external senses of speech-tone and concept. Farm nervous system health can be enhanced through mindful practices and studies that assess, inventory, and monitor internal and external farmscape features. Farms become beautified when farmers themselves embody Aglaea by farmscaping with Iaso, Panacea, Hygieia, and Aceso features.
The five Asclepiades with equivalent health processes and features are summarized as follows:
  1. Iaso = Recuperation = Beetle Banks + Boundaries + Parent Materials + Windbreaks
  2. Panacea = Medication = Cover Crops + Field Borders + Rivers + Streams + Water Bodies
  3. Hygieia = Sanitation = Hedgerows + Insectaries + Meadows
  4. Aceso = Regeneration = Croplands + Greenhouses + Pastures
  5. Aglaea = Beautification = Farmers

Habitat-Humans

Humankind can enrich habitats from expanded cognition when we collaborate with nature, antho-arthropomorphized. Insect-humans sense with compound perspective, move with segmented articulation, breathe rhythmically with environments, and reproduce with abundance, richness, and diversity. Thereby, insect-human observation becomes one with observable habitats through living polyrhythmic collaborations: planned, prepared, installed, and maintained together.

The process of insect habitat restoration or enhancement is mutually dynamic: The human is becoming a habitat and the habitat is becoming a human through interconnected actions. Becoming habitat helps humans integrate patterns and processes from nature. Integration pauses anthropocentrism, cycles empathy, and flows from observation towards health. We imagine habitat with plants, we inspire habitat through insects, and we intend habitat as humans.

Insects show humankind that habitats subscend (are less than the sum of their parts), metamorphose, and are one. A plurality of perspectives plus free mobility of thought affords humans the expanded capacity to help nature heal. Practices modeled after such polyrhythms include habitat observations, creations, and restorations, together transforming the practice and spirit of habitat restoration. Humankind manages and supervises habitats from within as the nervous systems of our eco-selves.

Humans must learn to reciprocate the inescapable soul embrace from insects to decelerate anthropogenic extinctions. Conscious reciprocation proceeds through restoration. The process includes internal integration of our external soul as intelligible by mind. Once integrated, our external souls eclose as insect-humans, with the plant and mineral worlds as grounds for presentation. Thus, willful inhabitation of our environment-soul can inspire imaginative habitat-human performances via rhythmics.

Habitat-humans become one through rhythmics. Farmscaping performed in time, self-metamorphosing from humans to animals, plants, and soils. Equalizing the heard and heard, human and non-human, celestial and terrestrial - cycling between soils and stars. Ourselves becoming-gardened through seasonal festivities: ritual practices perennially performed according to prescriptions of nature. Sharing aesthetics flowing between Earth and Cosmos, human-habitats live in concert: one audience-stage-venue, producer-consumer-decomposer, composer-performer-listener.

Biodynamics

Farmscaping

Farmscaping is an ecological pest management strategy that enhances habitats for wild beneficial organisms who prey on crop pests, thus eliminating any needs for pesticides. Farmscaping aka conservation biocontrol is the sum of conservation biology and integrated pest management (IPM). Conservation biology is the study of nature for the protection of biodiversity. IPM monitors and suppresses pests with coordinated methods for environmental, social, and economic sustainability.

Quantitative farmscaping prevents pests with predator-specific habitats that host pest-specific predators who prey on crop-specific pests. In North America there are > 200 species of parasitoids, predators, and pathogens who prey on ~70 species of injurious pests. Natural enemies of crop pests are most often parasitoid wasps, predatory beetles, and predatory bugs. Parasitoid flies, entomopathogens, lacewings, lady beetles, ground beetles, and spiders also contribute crucial pest regulation services.

Farmscape features offer natural enemies foods such as nectar, pollen, and alternate prey, while providing places to build nests, take rests, or be sheltered from disturbances. Rock piles, stone walls, brush piles, dead wood, and snags, living groundcovers, bark mulches, leaf litters, or windbreaks provide shelters. Sandy soils with sparse vegetation offer nesting opportunities. Field borders, hedgerows, beetle banks, cover crops, or pastures conserve, support, and sustain natural enemies.

Insectaries of native flowering plants with year-long blooms feed parasitoid wasps and other natural enemies. Sources of alternate prey can sustain predators when crop pests are absent. Increased crop diversity, reduced tillage, and organic soil amendments and mulches reduce pest outbreaks and preserve natural enemy populations. Pesticide-free crop fields are crucial for the conservation of all beneficial farm organisms. Farmers must divest from pesticides to perform farmscaping.

Biodynamic Farmscaping

Qualitative biodynamic farmscaping heals farms according to therapeutic spiritual ecology. Such curative practice intuitively diagnoses from occult physiology to harmonize mixtures of elemental substances for the restoration of vitality. Illnesses meaningfully indicate imbalances, which are themselves opportunities for physical-spiritual growth. Practitioners assess farm organism biography, including: farm history or age, ecoregion or stature, soils/flora/fauna or build; mission or behavior; farming practices or personality; crops or farm preferences; and disturbances, imbalances, or symptoms.

Farm biographies help diagnose chronic illnesses, while ephemeral conditions assist in the diagnosis of acute illnesses. The resulting consultations inform curative treatments, which must remain living to help nature heal. Farmscape cures heal in situ and in vivo: site-specific dynamic potencies remain embodied within and flow from living medicinal plants. Balanced mixtures of aboveground celestial-air, surface biological-water/fire, and belowground terrestrial-earth forces-substances are prescribed to regulate farm organisms and support present and future conditions for farmscape health.

Aboveground, surface, and belowground cures balance farmscape instabilities. Aboveground cures, such as leaves, flowers, or fruits can create light and exposed habitat conditions for organisms to feed. Surface cures such as leaves or stems can create a continuum of moist-dry habitat conditions for organisms to rest. Belowground cures such as bulbs, rhizomes, or roots can create dark and sheltered habitat conditions for organisms to nest. Such threefold rhythmic treatments produce qualities of lightness, wetness, dryness, or darkness from the living bodies of aromatic and flavorful herbs.

Aromatic herbs treat internal farmscape disparities, while flavorful herbs treat external farmscape imbalances. For example, aromatic Apiaceae (Carrots), Asteraceae (Asters), and Lamiaceae (Mints) cure farm interiors, while flavorful Ericaceae (Heaths), Rosaceae (Roses), and Salicaceae (Willows) cure farm exteriors. Both internal and external farmscape symptoms are treated with mixtures of aromatic and flavorful herbs, including Brassicaceae (Mustards) and Fabaceae (Peas). Medicinal plant families are multisensory and multifunctional, thereby combinations of aromatic and flavorful herbs work together to balance overall farm organism health.

Medicinal herbs heal amongst environments and organisms through formative, rhythmic life forces. Life forces similarly flow throughout mineral, plant, animal, and human worlds. Dearth or surplus life forces are expressed as either compressions or distortions in physical-spiritual bodies. Phasing qualities, similar throughout life worlds, constitute curative substances when synchronized or syncopated in concert. External and internal formative forces can be willed as therapies, which phase, synchronize, and syncopate together to heal symptoms of farm imbalances with medicinal herbs.

Farm organism imbalances are mainly depression, stagnation, excitation, or desiccation. Such tissue states are respectively synchronized with surplus forces of earth-Iaso, water-Panacea, air-Hygieia, and fire-Aceso. These four complexes are respectively synchronized with qualities of aromatic and flavorful herbs: decayed-minty-pungent essential oils, chemical-bitter-tannic tonics, citrus-floral-sour flavonoids, and fruity-nutty-sweet polysaccharides. Such qualities of aromatic-flavorful herbs respectively provide therapeutic properties of sedation, digestion, stimulation, and circulation.

  1. Earth = Iaso = Recuperation = Depression / Sedation = Decayed-Minty-Pungent Essential Oils
  2. Water = Panacea = Medication = Stagnation / Digestion = Chemical-Tannic-Bitter Tonics
  3. Air = Hygieia = Sanitation = Excitation / Stimulation = Citrus-Floral-Sour Flavonoids
  4. Fire = Aceso = Regeneration = Desiccation / Circulation = Fruity-Nutty-Sweet Polysaccharides
Farmscape depression is balanced with stimulation from citrus-floral-sour herbs, while stagnation is balanced with circulation from fruity-nutty-sweet herbs, excitation is balanced with sedation from decayed-minty-pungent herbs, and desiccation is balanced with digestion from chemical-tannic-bitter herbs. Such herbal remedies can be administered alone or in combination with each other in farm organisms through the creation and conservation of abundant and rich farmscape features. Biodiverse farm organ systems are living pharmacies that treat a wide range of afflictions.

Beetle banks of decayed-minty-pungent Apiaceae, Lamiaceae, and Poaceae (Grasses) cultivate sedation for healthy farm exoskeletons-muscular systems. Cover crops of chemical-bitter-tannic Asteraceae and Brassicaceae encourage metabolization for healthy farm digestive systems. Hedgerows or insectaries of citrus-floral-sour Apiaceae, Asteraceae, Ericaceae, Rosaceae, and Salicaceae foster excitation for healthy farm immune-muscular systems. Cover crops composed of fruity-nutty-sweet Asteraceae, Fabaceae, Poaceae, and Polygonaceae (Buckwheats) nurture circulation for healthy farm digestive-excretory systems.

Pests

Pests are symptoms of farm imbalances, which are remediated with medicinal herbs administered as farmscape features. Insect metamorphosis is synchronized with plant metamorphosis and elemental forces. Holometabolous insects experience complete metamorphosis from egg to larva, pupa, and imago, while hemimetabolous insects experience incomplete metamorphosis from egg to nymph and imago. Egg is to earth-mineral-root as larva/nymph is to water-plant-leaf, pupa is to air-animal-flower, and imago is to fire-human-fruit. Such compound polyrhythmics inform three phases of treatments:
  1. Eggs are regulated with aboveground cures that create lightness, larvae/nymphs and imagos are managed with surface cures that create wetness or dryness, and pupae are balanced with belowground cures that create darkness.
  2. Eggs are regulated with insectaries, meadows, and hedgerows of citrus-floral-sour herbs, while larvae/nymphs are managed with cover crops of fruity-nutty-sweet herbs, pupae are balanced with beetle banks of decayed-minty-pungent herbs, and imagos are regulated with cover crops of chemical-tannic-bitter herbs.
  3. Insect orders are associated with elements and sages. Regulate pests with targeted cures and features:
    • Diptera (Flies) = Earth-Root-Egg = Aboveground = Insectaries, Meadows, Hedgerows = Citrus-Floral-Sour
    • Hemiptera (Bugs) and Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths) = Water-Leaf-Nymph/Larva = Surface = Cover Crops = Fruity-Nutty-Sweet
    • Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees, Wasps) = Air-Flower-Pupa = Belowground = Beetle Banks = Decayed-Minty-Pungent
    • Coleoptera (Beetles) = Fire-fruit-Imago = Surface = Cover Crops = Chemical-Tannic-Bitter

Prevention of pests is basic for balanced farmscapes. The eight most recurrent pests of North American farms are mostly Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, and Hemiptera:

  1. True Armyworm, Mythimna unipuncta (Haworth, 1809) [Lepidoptera: Noctuidae]
  2. Wireworm, Melanotus spp. or Limonius spp. Eschscholtz, 1829 [Coleoptera: Elateridae]
  3. Saltmarsh Caterpillar, Estigmene acrea (Drury, 1773) [Lepidoptera: Erebidae]
  4. Corn Earworm or Tomato fruitworm, Helicoverpa zea (Boddie, 1850) [Lepidoptera: Noctuidae]
  5. Tarnished Plant Bug, Lygus lineolaris (Palisot de Beauvois, 1818) [Hemiptera: Miridae]
  6. Aster Leafhopper, Macrosteles quadrilineatus (Forbes 1885) [Hemiptera: Cicadellidae]
  7. Harlequin Bug, Murgantia histrionica (Hahn 1834) [Hemiptera: Pentatomidae]
  8. Variegated Cutworm, Peridroma saucia (Hübner, [1808]) [Lepidoptera: Noctuidae]
Lepidoptera and Hemiptera pests indicate imbalanced wet or stagnated farmscapes, which can be balanced with dryness from cover crops of fruity-nutty-sweet buckwheat, clover, pea, safflower, and sunflower. Coleoptera pests indicate imbalanced dry and dessicated farmscapes, which can be balanced with wetness from cover crops of chemical-bitter-tannic chicory, mustard, and radish. Therefore, you can prevent the most recurrent pests with cover crops who feed parasitoid wasps and other predators.

Quantitative conservation biocontrol and qualitative biodynamic farmscaping can mutually reciprocate in theory and practice to help nature heal. Therapeutic physical-spiritual ecology diagnoses and administers living herbal treatments that cure illnesses for the restoration of vitality. Illnesses meaningfully indicate imbalances, which are themselves opportunities for physical-spiritual growth. Thus, qualitative-quantitative studies of nature can help humans protect biodiversity with coordinated methods that enhance habitats for wild beneficial organisms who prey on crop pests.

Asclepias

Medicative herbs are panaceas that produce poisons for the protection of self and others. Specialized herbal curing-poisoning compounds both attract and repel herbivores.The dose makes the poison: Palatable herbs can nourish and protect herbivores after consumption; Unpalatable herbs protect plants and can harm herbivores once eaten. Protective poisons often regulate plant-insect specializations.

Milkweed, genus Asclepias L. (Apocynaceae), was named after Asclepius. North America hosts 72 native species of Milkweed, each perennial, mostly deciduous. Milkweed roots are rhizomes or taproots, stems are upright or branching and often contain milky latex sap, flowers are often pink-purple, green, or orange umbels that bloom during summer, pollen grains are enclosed in ochre-umber pollinaria, and fruits are spindle-shaped follicles with tufted seeds.

Asclepias bodies contain protective medicinal/toxic metabolites called cardenolides (steroid cardiac glycosides). Cardenolides are unpalatable and potentially toxic to livestock. Cardenolides drive specialization by some herbivores such as Monarchs, Danaus plexippus (Linnaeus, 1758) and Queens, Danaus gilippus (Cramer, [1775]). Milkweed butterflies sequester cardenolides from foliage as caterpillars and maintain the medicines through metamorphosis to adulthood for self-defense.

Butterfly Milkweed, Asclepias tuberosa L., is an upright and branching perennial that grows from taproots and has hairy stems with alternate, light to dark green, lance-shaped, and fuzzy leaves, orange umbels of 8–25 flowers with five petals, hoods, and horns, and spindle-shaped follicles with tufted seeds. Butterfly Milkweed grows in full sun, dry–moist, and well-drained, acid, sand, or gravel soils, in glades, canyons, fields, grasslands, prairies, roadsides, and savannas across North America. Asclepias tuberosa has benefits including: biocontrol, butterflies, ceremony, clothing, compaction, and medicine.

Butterfly Milkweed has the following medical indications:

Asclepias is a living remedy that helps restore, recover, soothe, and clean landscapes with nectar. Milkweed depends on insects for reproduction and produces surplus nectar that is highly attractive to parasitoid wasps and other pollinators. Asclepias hosts specialist herbivores who often feed generalist predators and parasitoids as sources of alternate prey. Milkweed eases landscape inflammation and pain caused by herbivores through increasing the circulation of predators who detoxify and digest pests.

Plant native Milkweeds in sun–part shade conditions in dry–moist or wet soils within field borders, hedgerows, insectaries, and meadows to enhance both Panacea and Hygieia rhythms. Grow Asclepias to help reduce compaction and erosion while yielding harvestable medicines, fibers, foods, and seeds.

Propagate local, sustainably collected Milkweeds by dividing or sowing. Expose seeds to cold and moist stratification and/or sow milkweed at ¼ inch in soil or containers during fall. Asclepias seeds germinate following winter dormancy. Protect young Milkweeds from competition, herbivory, and pollution. Asclepius and Asclepias together help humans restore health.

Rhythmics

Calendrics

Yearly, monthly, and daily celestial rhythms interact to influence the lives of all Earthlings. Sun, moon, planets, and stars radiate or reflect descending intensities of light energy. Seasonal sunlight cycles interact with monthly moonlight phases and daily planetlight and starlight patterns. Light intensities are variable and have both lurid and subtle effects on plant and animal growth and metamorphosis.

Lunar cycles can be followed to schedule gardening activities. Biodynamic gardeners and farmers enhance crop growth with geocentric calendars composed of Sun, moon, planet, and star rhythms. Gardening habituated from biodynamic calendars connects gardens with environments, humans with (non-)humans, and earthlings with cosmos.

Biodynamic calendars track rhythms of the sun, moon, and planets cycling through 12 constellations of the zodiac. Zodiac signs activate archetypal images or symbols rooted in our collective unconscious that inspire collective conscious gardening impulses. Astronomy and astrology become applied astro-ecology through the spiritual consciousness and active mediation of biodynamic practitioners.

Biodynamic farmers and gardeners grow plants according to place/space-based and plant stage-specific astrological conditions. Cosmic rhythms can also guide the restoration of healthy habitats for beneficial insects who pollinate crops, regulate pests, and recycle wastes. Standard 12 sign biodynamic calendars can be supplemented with a 13th sign that symbolizes "health" and "medicine": Ophiuchus.

Local apparent astrology affects auspicious or inauspicious conditions for farmscaping. Transits, phases, and cycles focus, magnify, push, pull, shine, or symbolize with different degrees of force, luminance, or meaning. Lunar cycles and courses interact with patterns of planetary events, including nodes, eclipses, and trines. Moon phases transit new constellations every 2–3 days and return to constellations every ~27 days.

Gardening according to lunar cycles and courses during plant-specific times can enhance establishment, growth, and yield. Moon in constellations are linked with elements, stages of plant-insect metamorphosis, and the healing actions of the Asclepiades as follows:

Consult existing calendars including Maria Thun, Stella Natura, or various apps to track daily, monthly, and yearly celestial rhythms. Mark the Rod of Asclepius symbol (⚕) on biodynamic calendars between Scorpio and Sagittarius.

Adapt monthly lunar Ophiuchus actions according to annual solar cycles. Yearly (±1–4 days) times with thirteen signs, modes, elements-stages, and actions are presented below. Three modalities are associated with each zodiac sign: cardinal signs begin, fixed signs continue, and mutable signs change:

  1. Aries
    • 19-April–13-May
    • Cardinal Fire-Fruit-Imago
    • Cultivate soils and begin maintaining croplands, greenhouses, and pastures.

  2. Taurus
    • 14-May–19-June
    • Fixed Earth-Root-Egg
    • Transplant annuals, perennials, and woody plants and avoid preparing and maintaining beetle banks, boundaries, and windbreaks.

  3. Gemini
    • 20-June–20-July
    • Mutable Air-Flower-Pupa
    • Prepare hedgerows, insectaries, and meadows.

  4. Cancer
    • 21-July–9-August
    • Cardinal Water-Leaf-Larva
    • Begin preparing, propagating, installing, maintaining, and monitoring cover crops, field borders, rivers, streams, and water bodies.

  5. Leo
    • 10-August–15-September
    • Fixed Fire-Fruit-Imago
    • Continue preparing, propagating, installing, maintaining, and monitoring croplands, greenhouses, and pastures.

  6. Virgo
    • 16-September–30-October
    • Mutable Earth-Root-Egg
    • Transplant annuals, perennials, and woody plants and avoid maintaining beetle banks, boundaries, and windbreaks.

  7. Libra
    • 31-October–22-November
    • Cardinal Air-Flower-Pupa
    • Begin preparing, propagating, installing, maintaining, and monitoring hedgerows, insectaries, and meadows.

  8. Scorpio
    • 23-November–29-November
    • Fixed Water-Leaf-Larva
    • Continue preparing, propagating, installing, maintaining, and monitoring cover crops, field borders, rivers, streams, and water bodies.

  9. Ophiuchus
    • 30-November–17-December
    • Mode Spirit-Stage
    • Reflect on and adapt assessing, designing, and evaluating; begin preparing, propagating, installing, maintaining, and monitoring;, continue preparing, propagating, installing, maintaining, and monitoring all habitats.

  10. Sagittarius
    • 18-December–18-January
    • Mutable Fire-Fruit-Imago
    • Cultivate and avoid installing croplands, greenhouses, and pastures.

  11. Capricorn
    • 19-January–15-February
    • Cardinal Earth-Root-Egg
    • Transplant and avoid maintaining beetle banks, boundaries, and windbreaks.

  12. Aquarius
    • 16-February–11-March
    • Fixed Air-Flower-Pupa
    • Sow and prune perennial hedgerows, insectaries, and meadows.

  13. Pisces
    • 12-March–18-April
    • Mutable Water-Leaf-Larva
    • Reflect on and adapt assessing, designing, and evaluating or sow annual cover crops, field borders, rivers, streams, and water bodies.
Gardening during adverse conditions can diminish results. Constellations have unequal sizes and shapes that often overlap: Avoid farmscaping 4 hours around moon transits between constellations. Eclipses cause chaos: Avoid farmscaping 24 hrs around lunar and solar eclipses. Nodes cause stress for seeds: Avoid sowing 4 hrs around moon nodes and 24 hrs around Mercury and Venus nodes. Apogee (moon farthest from Earth) causes bolting: Root-Recuperation Time and Leaf-Medication Time become Flower-Sanitation Time. Perigee (moon nearest to Earth) causes stunting: Avoid sowing seeds 24 hrs around perigee.

Recommendations

Schedule and perform farmscaping during *Auspicious* lunar and solar times:

Outro

You can work with Ophiuchus rhythms to heal, defend, and beautify landscapes. Biodynamic farmscaping restores habitats, prevents pests, and eliminates pesticides. Medicinal plants and parasitoid wasps cocompose hygienic farmscape immune systems.

You can help nature heal with insectile thinking. Cultivate care by perfoming compounded, segmented, and diversified actions. Diagnose, prescribe, and administer treatments to cocreate healing landscapes. Embody Asclepius archetypes to become healthy.

Thanks

Natalie Adams, Donat Bey and Plowshare Farm, Eric Buteyn, Alice Groh and Temple-Wilton Community Farm, Craig Holdrege and The Nature Center, Robert Karbelnikoff, Don Keirstead, Eric Lee-Mäder, Ian McSweeny and Agrarian Trust, Mac Mead and The Pfeiffer Center, Brad Miller, Joel Park and Star Wisdom, Dan Pratt and Astarte Farm, Erika Rosenfeld, Nicole and Jeremiah Vernon and Vernon Family Farm, Claudia and Conrad Vispo and The Hawthorne Valley Farmscape Ecology Program, Severine von Tscharner Fleming and Greenhorns, Sherry Wildfeuer and Stella Natura ...

References

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