“We weave ideas, scribe forward, align with life and create connection.”
— Dr Demeter | Emily Samuels-Ballantyne
Covering topics on Foundational Economics, Convivial Governance, Anthroposophic Philosophy & Everyday Regeneration in Tasmania
Overview
The Island Almanac is a living compendium of stories, tools and place-based examples that weave together foundational economics, anthroposophic wisdom and the rhythms of everyday life. Rooted in the soils of Tasmania and flowering from Magical Farm Tasmania. Across its pages you’ll find:
Practical essays on redirecting public and private wealth into community resilience
Anthroposophical reflections on seasonal rhythms, ritual and soul-led innovation
Tasmanian case studies from coastal hamlets to mountain valleys
Project spotlights on island-wide initiatives, from seed libraries to solar co-ops.
Living Architecture: A dynamic framework of interconnected practices, food, housing, energy, governance, culture, activism and economics that grows, adapts and breathes like an ecosystem, rather than standing as static policy or infrastructure. These seven pillars form the Living Architecture of Regen Era Design Studio & The Island Almanac: integrating heart, head & hands to power a truly regenerative future.
Food
Housing
Energy
Community Life, Learning & Culture
Sacred Activism
Convivial Governance
Regenerative Economic Design.
Imagining Healing: The Third Path for Tasmania
Tasmania’s debates over aquaculture, forestry, and energy are framed in binaries: jobs versus environment, growth versus preservation. These divisions fracture not only politics but also communities and inner life.
Drawing on Rudolf Steiner’s idea of the hardening of the soul and Carl Jung’s call for the Third, this article argues for a new orientation beyond opposites. The Third space is not neutral but generative, where ideas compost into gardens, strategies translate into action, and governance is rooted in transparency and practice.
Through threefold social theory, cultural freedom, political equity, and economic mutuality the piece highlights how projects like food hubs, biodynamic farms, and cooperatives act as acupuncture points in the social body. Supported by eco-feminist perspectives and the symbolic guidance of yarrow, rosemary, and nettle, these initiatives show how imagination can become infrastructure.
This is not a time for mediocrity, so Tasmania has the scale and creativity to pioneer a regenerative future, reweaving narrative, soul, and community into politics, economics, and culture.
Holding Paradox, Healing Wounds, and Bridging Inner and Outer Worlds
In a world fractured by war and ideology, this essay explores the psychological, spiritual and manifested cost of binary thinking, especially in relation to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Drawing from Jung’s concept of the transcendent function, Marx’s critique of alienation, Levinas’ ethics of eye contact, Escobar’s pluriversal design is not about flattening difference, but about making room for many worlds to co-exist and the symbolism of Chiron and Venus, it calls for the restoration of the “Third”, a space where paradox and pain can coexist without annihilation. Dr Demeter weaves personal reflection with collective insight, highlighting how language itself can wound or heal, and how imagination, as described by Steiner and Einstein, is a vital organ for integration and transformation. Yarrow, specifically Achillea millefolium, is offered as both a literal and symbolic remedy for those seeking to hold complexity, bridging intellect and embodiment, activism and reverence.
Ultimately, the essay invites a shift from slogans to soul, from splitting to staying, and from conclusion to container, where a new, reconciliatory future might take root.