An article about transmuting the weight of the unspoken….
By Dr. Demeter (Emily Samuels Ballantyne), Magical Farm Tasmania

This reflective essay explores the emotional and somatic toll of speaking truth in environments that resist it. Drawing on anthroposophical perspectives and embodied awareness, Dr. Demeter examines how soul-level dissonance manifests physically when our reverence is met with rejection. She introduces the concept of “composting the day” as a healing ritual transforming pain into insight through tea, earth connection, and quiet ceremony. With poetic power and a regenerative lens, the piece offers a gentle yet radical invitation to transmute the residue of moral injury into nourishment for personal and collective becoming. It closes with a prayer and the Ho‘oponopono practice as pathways for inner reconciliation and energetic release.

In On Being Told Not to See, Dr. Emily Samuels Ballantyne reflects on a moment of institutional dismissal being told that drawing on First Nations knowledge systems was “romantic” and even “damaging.” in relation to the reforms we need to make to policy and our society. In response, she gently but firmly shares how these systems of law, astronomy, fire, design, and kinship are not only intellectually rigorous but vital to reimagining our futures.

Through the lens of the First Knowledges series and her own place-based practice at Magical Farm Tasmania, Emily explores how listening to these ontologies has shaped her seasonal rhythms, ecological design, and regenerative community work.

This is not an attempt to replicate or appropriate, but to honour, to learn, and to unlearn. The article asks: what might shift if we stopped seeing these knowledges as peripheral, and instead treated them as central to how we build, grow, and govern?

Written with reverence and responsibility, this piece invites deeper listening, to land, to story, and to those who have cared for this continent far longer than most of us can imagine.

Wayfinding Patterns Through the Eras is a reflective Solstice piece by Dr. Emily Samuels Ballantyne that draws on ancient cosmologies, particularly Chinese Feng Shui to make sense of our current global moment. Exploring two full 180-year cycles, Emily reveals how the final fire phase we are now in (Period 9) offers not only cultural reckoning but the opportunity to compost 360 years of modernity. With love, courage, and cosmic guidance, this article invites us to dream forward a new Period 1 rooted in life systems remembered from ancient, land-connected cultures across the globe.

This article proposes a bold, community-led alternative to Tasmania’s energy future. Instead of pursuing extractive, investor-driven projects, Dr. Emily Samuels Ballantyne calls for the creation of a Tasmanian Foundational Fund, a $1 billion public interest fund sourced voluntarily from local superannuation. This fund would invest in regenerative infrastructure: locally governed renewable energy, affordable housing, regional food systems, and care hubs.

Grounded in economic data and inspired by Tasmania’s history of public ownership, the piece argues that care, place, and energy must form the core of a just economy. Island Almanac invites Tasmanians to reclaim their agency and transform the island into the Living Heart of a Regenerative Commonwealth, not the Battery of the Nation.

Artwork: Regen Era Design Studio

Synopsis:
This article explores why Dr. Emily Samuels Ballantyne (Dr Demeter) writes the Island Almanac as a living design journal, a poetic manifesto, and a tool for transition. Drawing on the wisdom of Rudolf Steiner, Arturo Escobar, and Tyson Yunkaporta, Emily outlines how scenario-based thinking and design-led prototypes can help regenerate our core systems: food, housing, energy, sacred activism, convivial governance, community life, and economics. Writing becomes a spiritual and strategic act rooted in land, rigour, and imagination inviting others to co-create a pluriversal future aligned with life.

Synopsis:
This article offers a grounded response to the Australian Universities Accord Final Report, exploring how its promises of equity, Indigenous leadership, and structural reform might take root in practice. Drawing on decades of work across academic and community systems, it argues that true transformation will require more than policy it calls for place-based investment, relational governance, and a living-systems approach to knowledge.

Influenced by thinkers such as Tyson Yunkaporta, Arturo Escobar, bell hooks, Leanne Simpson, and Vandana Shiva, the piece outlines a framework of sixteen university futures and proposes an emergent vision of regenerative education. Written from the perspective of a designer-activist and farm-based educator, the article closes with a quiet call to begin prototyping a new kind of university one rooted in soil, story, and seasonal rhythm.

By Dr. Emily Samuels Ballantyne

This open letter to Naomi Klein invites a deepening of activism, beyond critique and toward connection, sacredness, and embodied care. Drawing on thinkers like Joanna Macy, Tyson Yunkaporta, Rudolf Steiner, and Levinas, the piece calls for a new wave of peace activism rooted in relational ethics, seasonal rhythm, and cultural healing and renewal. Rather than resisting harder, it urges us to feel more fully, act with integrity, and belong to each other and the Earth.

By Dr. Emily Samuels Ballantyne

This article explores the limitations of contemporary Green politics, highlighting its tendency toward urgency, reaction, and spectacle, which often disconnects it from the ecological wisdom it seeks to uphold. Drawing on Arturo Escobar's concept of the pluriverse, it advocates for design practices rooted in autonomy, emergence, and care, emphasising the importance of Indigenous knowledge systems in shaping sustainable futures.

The discussion delves into the physiological and spiritual significance of breath, referencing Rudolf Steiner's view of imagination as a spiritual organ of perception and the role of the vagus nerve in fostering relational awareness. It critiques the commodification of crisis, as analysed by Naomi Klein, and highlights the necessity of addressing the underlying spiritual wounds that fuel societal polarisation.

By integrating insights from thinkers like Vandana Shiva, Tyson Yunkaporta, David Abram, and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, the article calls for a reimagining of activism and governance one that prioritises soil over slogans, ceremonies over campaigns, and listening to life itself. It culminates in a series of regenerative scenarios that envision systems designed for reciprocity, relationality, and belonging.

By Dr. Emily Samuels Ballantyne

Right now, Tasmania’s future is being shaped by a single, homogenous energy narrative “Battery of the Nation” designed and decided by a small group of stakeholders. This narrow vision risks sidelining the diverse voices, knowledge systems, and community-led solutions that are essential for a truly resilient future. In such a defining moment, we must ask: Who gets to imagine the future? A thriving Tasmania requires many scenarios, not just one. Scenario Two is an invitation to co-create not dictate what regeneration looks like, place by place.