“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.
The Wound, the Third, and the Healer: A Virgo New Moon Reflection
This reflective essay explores the middle east conflict, through a Jungian and symbolic lens, guided by the Virgo New Moon and the healing presence of Archangel Raphael. Rather than offering political solutions, it invites a deeper psycho-spiritual engagement recognising that much of the global discourse is shaped by projection, ancestral trauma, and collective shadow. Drawing on Carl Jung’s concepts of the Third, the Anima, and Chiron, the piece suggests that while the path to geopolitical reconciliation may be blocked, a healing space must first be cultivated within the individual and collective psyche.
It calls for discernment, humility, and the courage to hold paradox, to grieve both sides of the story, and to recognise how personal pain and moral injury are entangled in global reactions. The Virgo archetype, as a guardian of ritual, earth, and care, offers a path of slow healing through tending, presence, and sacred attention. The piece closes with plant allies Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) and Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) as symbolic and energetic supports for this inner work, yarrow for integration and boundary, rosemary for clarity and remembrance suggesting that healing begins not in resolution, but in the quiet act of soulful witnessing.
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.