PM 033: Living With The Moon with Jutta Russell

#033 Hi there, my name is Ann Théato and I am here to teach you proven techniques for spiritual and psychic development from the comfort of your own home. I’m also here to investigate the teachings of experts across the globe, to bring you their wisdom, their advice and their spiritual wealth.

My special guest this week is Jutta Russell, Founder of the company Living With The Moon. Jutta lives her life in harmony with the lunar cycle. She believes that our real power lies in our connection to nature and its rhythms and encourages you to see the world in a more holistic way.

As the seasons change, so do our moods, goals and behaviours and although we may be aware of the moon’s gravitational pull, we may not be aware that the moon phases itself have got qualities and that certain phases of the moon are very beneficial for doing certain activities. 

Settle in for this incredible episode, which draws on thousands of years of observations and ancient philosophy from the Sumerians, Babylonians and Ancient Greeks - keen astronomers and astrologers whose knowledge and beliefs are now beginning to be proven by science.

DEAF FRIENDLY: If you'd like to get the links & show notes, including a complete transcription, head to www.anntheato.com

Transcript

Hello everybody! My name is Ann Théato and welcome to the Psychic Matters Podcast – episode number 33.  

Spring has sprung here in the UK, there are tulips and little crocus and narcissi peeping out, the banks of the fields in the countryside are full of beautiful pale-yellow primroses, delicate pink and white apple blossoms are appearing on the trees, the Forsythia in the garden has burst into life with a stunning array of yellow flowers.  The sun has shone, the warmth is coming back to the days and our clocks have sprung forward here, meaning there is a fabulous stretch in the evenings.  It feels as if there is new life and new breezes blowing through everything, and it feels fantastic.  New things are happening and new opportunities are presenting themselves to us all.  It’s time to come out of hibernation and consider how best we might walk in this world over the coming months.

Today’s episode Living With The Moon, reconnects you to nature & its rhythms, encouraging you to see the world in a more holistic way.  As the seasons change, so do our moods, goals and behaviours and although we may be aware of the moon’s gravitational pull, we may not be aware that the moon phases itself have got qualities and that certain phases of the moon are very beneficial for doing certain activities.  

Settle in for this incredible episode, which draws on thousands of years of observations and ancient philosophy from the Sumerians, Babylonians and Ancient Greeks.  Keen astronomers and astrologers whose knowledge and beliefs are now beginning to be proven by science.

Enjoy!  

And do let me know!  If you could take just 3 minutes to leave an honest review for this podcast on iTunes or Stitcher, I would be so grateful. It would be like a little thank you from you to me. Just scribble down quickly on a little scrap of paper “leave review for psychic matters”.

Meanwhile, settle back, and enjoy this incredible episode.

Ann

My guest today lives her life in harmony with the lunar cycle. She believes that our real power lies in our connection to nature and its rhythms.  This lady is founder of the company Living With The Moon and I'm delighted to say she's joining us today in the studio, Jutta Russell, welcome to Psychic Matters!

Jutta

Hello nice to be here.

Ann

Hey, it's such a pleasure Jutta, it is great to see you and thanks so much for coming in. So tell us a little bit about the history of Living With The Moon and how it came to be?

Jutta

Well I grew up with Living With The Moon and it's actually, it is based on the biodynamic knowledge which I got from my grandmother.  The first time I remember coming across it was when I was about 4-5 years old, and I remember my grandma had loads of little herb jars and she was mixing herb and she explaining to me how, you know this herb is good for this, and this herb is good for that, and then she was also explaining a little bit about the moon cycle, you know?  I was fascinated always by the moon and she explained to me how the phases work, very basic, you know, and so for me, I always grew up with this. It is not something I had to kind of dig in a lot, it's just been around me really, and I suppose that's how people, I’m originally from Austria so my accent maybe it’s a give-away, and so that's how people or not all of people but many people live there.  And so when then I became a makeup artist, I moved away, you know as a teenager, you are not so interested in this subject matter anymore because it's a lot to do with, you know, harmonic lifestyle and house, garden and living in in harmony with the nature and I think as a teenager you sometimes rebel against this a bit, and then so I kind of completely forgot about it, and it was only when I was working on a TV show in my 20’s by that time, I came across this beauty expert.  It was like I did lots of films, but I also worked on this recurring TV show.  And, started talking about lunar beauty, you know, like that the moon phases influences us, and this woman said, it was fascinating you really need to write a book and I thought well I forgot loads of things.  So, I started connecting and I asked my mum is there anything left, and so she says well there is this book, read that up again, and then she came back with loads of stuff from my grandmother still, and I thought well that is really fascinating, I should really rediscover that and so I’ve been tinkering about with this this for ages I kind of give people snippets of wisdom here and there.  And then eventually my husband actually said, why don't you just start a website?  And that's what I did, just in the very small, it is still quite small. It is very altruistic I would say, I have for me, it's really a homage to my grandmother, to keep all this alive, that's what I really want to achieve with it.

Ann

What a wonderful thing to have a grandmother who was so knowledgeable about     and the moon.  It must have been, I can just see you as a little girl in Austria and looking up at the Sky and her talking to you.

Jutta

Yeah it's quite romantic, but it was really kind of, and I look back now, you know, for me it seemed completely normal, but now the older I get I realise what kind of knowledge I've been given and I really I'm keen to keep it alive.  So, basically what www.LivingWithTheMoon.com really is, it’s about biodynamics.  And lots of people know a little bit about biodynamics now, but it basically comes from Rudolph Steiner, and he sort of coined the phrase in the 1920s, so it is almost 100 years old.  And it comes from the Greek word bio which is life and dunamis which is energy or life force, so the whole thing is about life force.  And what really is interesting about the world he describes is that life itself is like a massive macroorganism.  Like, if you think that the stars, the sun, the moon, the planets, and then loads of little microorganisms sitting on it.  And all that has to work in harmony.  So if you think any living creature is a microorganism in itself, and if you can see it maybe as a big clockwork.  If you think of a big clockwork, there's loads, there’s a big clock face and then there's loads of little wheels and clocks turning and everything has to be in harmony for all this to work.  So if we kind of destroy part of this, the whole thing will probably fall apart eventually.  And we are seeing this already, we are losing a lot of the species, the human’s layer is going, so I think this is really a good time to bring this knowledge back and that's what I'm trying to do with this.

Ann

So how can people bring this into their lives, Jutta, how does it affect us you know, on our everyday, in our everyday.

Jutta

So the whole philosophy I think, is really important, to come from a very different mindset. Because we all see it from, we see life as a very linear thing and we don't really take a nature that much into consideration in planning activities I would say.  But if you look at it is, actually everything is cyclic.  So if you look at the year, a year has like, you know, starts always in winter, it is a rebirth in the spring, summer, autumn, winter, and then it kind of gets reborn into it and then there's obviously the sun cycle, sorry the Earth moving around the Sun, the moon cycle, everything is really cyclic. And, well I think what happened, and the reason why biodynamics was founded straight after the First World War, is not really a coincidence because what happened was during this First World War, they had chemical warfare for the very first time.  And for this very short period, for four years, they started building this massive, building of factories, which then build all this kind of chemical warfare up, and when this war ended, all these plants were idle, so somebody came up with his amazing idea saying well how about we dilute this and put it on the fields, so instead of killing people, we just kill the insects and pests, so we use it as a pesticide.  And that, and they told the farmers, yes use that, the miracle cure and then you don't have to do any reading anymore, and that's what they did.  But after three or four years, the soil quality was going downhill so much, so they actually, the biodynamics came out of a need from farmers that they said, well the soil is so destroyed now that we need to do something.  And Rudolph Steiner was known at the time for his kind of holistic speeches and and so they came to him and he prepared this lecture series, about 10 lectures, I can’t remember how many, and that was all about how to reinvigorate the soil, how to bring the life force back in the soil, because only if there's life force in the soil, the food you grow has got this in it and that's what we eat.  So if you eat bad food, which has being lying around in plastic bags, and is virtually dead, then what you gonna eat?  You gonna get ill.  So if you think it's a completely different way of thinking, so obviously if you grow your own food, if I know it's not very practical, but I'm just saying theoretically, but if you eat very clean food, try to eat really as fresh and organic as possible.  And it's really not like a fad, it is we are what we eat and it is really important.  And also the funny thing is, it doesn't actually, it initially costs a little bit more because, but actually on the long term it doesn't cost that much more, even if you want to grow up few things to yourself, even on the windowsill, a few herbs at least you know, and you know, just learn again to reconnect, and to do a few things yourself.  And that's what I'm trying to do, with Living With The Moon, is give little recipes, give little lifestyle advice, and make it easy and practical. Because I'm not really into kind of going back to the stone ages, I'm completely not about that, in fact, I’m very forward thinking, I'm very much into completely new technologies, because I'm really believing that we have a unique chance right now with loads of really innovative things coming on the market.  Like you know, they're talking about the battery which can be charged very quickly and it's going to be a complete revolution in the car industry, that will also affect the aeroplanes, I'm really forward thinking but I really do think we really have to wake up now and we need to kind of look at the planet and do our bit you know.  We all, you can't really, can you, it’s like the butterfly effect, you can infect a little bit the natural organism but what you can affect 100% is the microorganism i.e. you.  So you can say, I will drive a more efficient car, I will kind of eat more organically sourced food, or I can just try to do a lot myself, you know, try not to wrap everything in plastic and stuff, and I think it's a little step in the right direction but if everybody was thinking that and everybody had a little bit of a different attitude to it, I think we can go quite far, and I think it is a joint approach.  It needs really everybody, and we want our children, our grandchildren, and generations afterwards, to have a good planet still you know?

Ann

Yeah that's all really, really interesting and I mean going back to the food, I've noticed, well certainly for the last seven or eight years, that the fresh, so called fresh, sweet Peppers and lettuce and tomatoes and cucumber that you buy from a supermarket, doesn't have the same taste that it used to have years ago. It's just that it  almost tastes of nothing, so I don't know what they're growing it in, but it doesn't taste right, and I know when I've come round to your house a few years ago, there was this lovely smell of fresh bread in the air and you always baked your own bread for your family and I was really inspired by that.

Jutta

Yeah, I still bake, I mean I have got a bread maker as well because I'm a busy person, but actually my son has taken that over now, he's doing the bread making now, so it's yeah, it's been in the family.  My kids can, I've got two boys and they are teenagers, and they are both fantastic cooks.  I mean they can really cook from scratch.  You know we get fantastic, I get organic meat, I get organic vegetable from the farms, delivered here although I'm living in London you know it's possible, and they make the most amazing food with this.  And we are having, it is amazing, it's really like going to a really top restaurant, when they cook, I’m not kidding, and it tastes fantastic, we all cook together, it is a family activity, but the food tastes good, and it is coming from them as well because now they've been growing up with really good food they don't want to go back to rubbish food anyway.

Ann

Yeah it's nice, that is so lovely to think that they're all cooking, and it does make a big difference, and I know that I live in a very small flat in London, but I have been able to grow my own spinach in pots and things like that, very successfully.  So although I might not have a big garden to be able to grow lots and lots of vegetables, you can grow a few things on, on the windowsill and it makes a big difference.

Jutta

Yeah and just herbs for example, herbs is a very good thing and you can make a herb tea like mint, you can, mint is so easy to grow, just a couple of pots of mint and then you can just come pick it up there and just put it in some water and you have you fresh mint tea.  Things like that, little things like that you can start with, you know, and then as I said these box schemes are, if you actually my household bill has not changed that dramatically since I'm eating really healthily.  In fact I think you eat, my weight certainly has dropped slightly because when you eat good food, you don't eat as much, because your body is satisfied quite quickly.  Cos when you're hungry, when you eat something empty, your body is still hungry, and you have to eat more, so you put more weight on so.  if so it has really an all-round benefit for everything, you know? But what I'm so this is my one side is obviously nature with biodynamics, but I also my calendar, maybe I should talk a little bit about my calendar because that is sort of the crux of it.  Because I mean the biodynamic movement was more about the gardening side, and in the household, but I have sort of built it out a little bit more, and I've been, more recently actually, I've gone more and read a lot of Plato and Aristoteles you know, gone back to the ancient Greeks and Babylonians, as well part of the stuff I've been reading, and because my calendar, which I live by is, and that's how I grew up with, that’s the biodynamic calendar is like, it is not a solar calendar that all live by, its lunisolar calendar, hence Living With The Moon.  And basically what it comes from, is the notion that that you have got obviously the year, the 12 months and that is still there with the solar component, but also that there is a moon cycle component, so it basically takes the path, the Earth around the sun, and the lunar cycle together into consideration.  And it comes all from that the days have not just dates, which the date is the solar system is the time measuring element, but they have also got qualities and that's where the moon cycle comes in. And then if you know about that, it is kind of very easy to live in a certain rhythm.  So that's maybe the second component of that system I would say.  So when you sort of look at just at the year and the moon cycle, it is true, it doesn't really fit very well.  But then when you step back and you look at it from a very distant of point of view, from an overview, it's actually quite, the ancient Greeks already knew that 19 years equals 235 lunations, like moon cycles, and line up perfectly.  So every 19 years, we are sort of resetting and that's basically the system I am using really, and so it does all work together but just not in a yearly cycle.  So I've got on my side, I just do a lot of holistic lifestyle planning as well, with the system, and I think that that works really well and people really enjoyed that.

Ann

And so you talk about individual days having qualities, can you talk to us about that?

Jutta

Yeah, I mean in, that is where biodynamics comes from.  It's like the moon phases itself have got qualities, so even in the old days, that certain phases were connected with certain activities.  For example, the moon cycle always starts at new moon, when there's no moon that means that the moon lies between the earth and the sun, and there's no sunlight can be reflected back, and that is the beginning of the cycle and that's usually a very quiet time.  That's the time to reset, to kind of check, I use it for goal planning and I have also my website, if anybody is interested, there is a free download, it is all free and there's no advertising anything so you can just go and have a look at it, and then you can get a free goal planner which explains a little bit more then what I can say here.  And so, and then as the moon grows, it’s first seven days the first quarter, then we call that the, well actually the growing phase between the new moon and the full moon is called the waxing moon and that can be subdivided into two quarters, the first quarter is the first seven days or called the Waxing Crescent Moon and then it goes further into the Waxing Gibbous Moon, it is called.  And that is basically it, the more the moon grows or that is the theory anyway, the more we absorb.  And I use that for kind of, the waxing phase, I used it for skin care, anything which nourishes, a very good time for planting, it's a very good time for making plans, creativities, mood board, anything to do with creativity, communication, that's what I use that time for.  And on a full moon, traditionally, it's always been a time for celebrating, and I think this comes possibly from a practical point of view, because if you think about it thousands of years ago, there was no streetlights, so you would have, say, you know, if you want to do a festival, you do it when they have a bit of light at night and loads of festivals, certain Pagan festivals were evening festivals, so they needed the moonlight as a practical tool to see.  But also it was really easy to say to somebody, you know, that didn't have a precise watch, say well we just meet at full moon and everybody says Oh yeah it's full moon today so we can meet up, so it's a time measuring tool.  But the moon cycle was the very first, time measuring tool anyway, way before the sun cycle.  And then from the full moon it is another 14 days, or two quarters when it goes down into the new moon, and we called that waning moon and the waning moon is like it shrinks, it is a good time for   , losing weight, cleaning, skin care, or like exfoliations and n   digging, preparing the soil, reading, all that kind of activities.  So it's like, an old, or like a compost heap, it is a good time for starting a compost heap.  So it is the eternal cycle of two weeks waxing, two weeks waning, so this is 2 weeks, 2 weeks, 2 weeks, you know.  And what I find really interesting is, that only occurred to me not so long ago actually, the 28-day cycle, we are sort of programmed to that. Because if you think about it, the sun cycle is way too long if you want to do like activities or you plan something, I mean on the big brush strokes that’s fine but on a small scale it is too far, by if you don't have, if you have all these predictions in January, or the yeah I'm going to do this, I'm going do that but by March, most people can't even remember what they had started in January.  Whereas the moon cycle, that two weeks on, 2 weeks off, it is very easy to achieve that, you know?  So it should be every recurring cycle and the funny thing is, we are so programmed to it because if you look at the female fertility cycle, I mean it is not 28 days on the dot for most people, but it is around that time, some people are 27 days some are 29 days, but it is, yeah, we are programmed in that cycle.  And it's not even our fertility it is like our skin, our skin sheds in about 28 day cycle, if you think about it, so that's why it totally makes sense, it's not just like some random fact, it totally makes sense  that you would kind of exfoliate every 28 days and that would be the sort of I do this in the waning cycle, then you know, that's once a month then anyway, and then do more kind of nourishing skin care during the waxing cycle and if you know, that's what the beauty of this system is.  You don't just constantly have to say, what do you have to do today? What do I have to do today?  You just look at the calendar and it doesn't mean it’s set in stone, but it gives you some ideas.  And so for me I'm a busy person, so for me I just look at the calendar, what should I do today, and then obviously not everything is possible but it just says that today would be great day for cutting hair, or would be good for a manicure, would be good today for like skin care which is nourishing or is good for like a pedicure, or something.  I just have structured it in a way that it, kind of, in a very holistic way, kind of all comes together, and it's a very easy way to measure your time, it is quality based because I’m going to talk in a second about why that is, so it's very easy way to manage your life in a holistic way.

Ann

What I find really fascinating is, I used to have an allotment years ago when I had energy, and there were old boys or men on that allotment who used to laugh at me if I planted my seeds.  You know, you read a seed packet and it says plant in March or plant in April, so I would just go up there and plant and they would laugh at me and say you should wait - wait for the moon - don't plant it yet.  Talk to us a little bit about that, because don't plants thrive if you plant them at the right time?

Jutta

Yeah, I mean, there is definitely because I think it comes from the water tables. If you think of an energy, it is energy and water, really, that's really, it comes from a physical side, because this knowledge, what these men are referring to, is really the old structure of agricultural systems of all around the world and it is based on observation mainly, but it's also like, there are for example with wood, wood is a very good example.  In Austria, we have bridges standing in water for hundreds of years and they were, it is just that the wood was cut on a certain time when the wood is already full of water. Because if you think about it, it is the tide goes, you know, you can see it in the sea really well, but we have also earth tides.  The earth moves up every day like about 30 cm like a foot up and down every day, and we are not aware of that, and so does the water table.  And so, if you kind of have wood when it is soaked, it just goes in and out, in and out, everything is a cycle, anything is like breathing in, breathing out, the waxing, waning, you know, this is our life, and once you cannot get your head round that, so biodynamics really makes sense. It is not something wishy washy which has no connection to us, it is us, that's how we live, that our life.  That's, I mean, it is everything really if you think about it.  And it's also so if you kind of look at the wood, the bridges, they have been so soaked into water that they don't rot.  And they have just been sitting in water for hundreds of years and they don't rot.  Or when firewood on certain days fire, if you cut wood, it doesn't burn, it does char but it doesn't really burn, and everybody who's got a stove will probably know that.  You get a batch and it just doesn't work very well and that is wood being cut at the wrong time.  And there is Christmas trees, for example, does the, you know, if cut on certain days and if you do that, they last for so much longer.  If you paint windows on a certain time, usually the raining time, you can prolong the cycle for very long time, the right the technique is obviously important if you do a really bad job painting a window properly it is not working but it's a combination of right timing and the right skills, and then you get much better results. But there are certain days when you plant things, they just, the plants grow up sturdier, they just kind of don't lose so much, you know, sometimes you lose a lot of crops, sometimes, you lose much less crop, it does obviously connect with the rainfall and all that as well, of course it is not in isolation, the moon cycle is not everything, but it is a part of it.

Ann

And you spoke also about a good time to weed, when you pull weeds from the garden as well.

Jutta

Yes, when I explained, I said about the lunar solar calendar it does come, the initial concept of the lunar solar calendar comes from the Sumerians and then the Babylonians.  We are talking here about 800 BC, possibly earlier but really the high time was the Babylonian time around 500 BC and the Babylonians were keen astronomers and astrologers.  And they just kind of looked up and they just were really connecting some directions, you know, how the patterns of the stars, the moon forms, and did practical applications and it comes all from there.  And that's been, and the Greeks took it on, there are poems like work and days is one of the very first Greek, ancient Greek poems, and which talks about that when you should kind of plant, then when you should, in the Bible you know, ecclesiast, there is a good time to plant, there’s a good time to die, you know, there's, there's loads of, if you go through forensically throughout history, the verses it's been with us all the time and that's what I said at the very beginning, we only use the time measuring tool of the calendar, but we've lost the quality time.  There is a today's a good day to do x,y,z  it is not the same every day, it is not.  If you think about it yourself, do you feel the same everyday 100%?  No you don't, you have got days where you could, you got days where you focussed, you have days where you are not so focussed, but you will find if you look deeply into it there's a pattern to it.  We are all part of patterns, and I mean obviously you know, science is very interesting and it's funny, because science said like a few years ago, oh this is all rubbish you know with the soil and that's not kind of work and dah, dah, dah, but now very recently, scientists have discovered microbes, they have the microbial in your body and in your gut and the same in the soil and they know there is the cycling, the biodynamics they’ve been talking about for years and obviously is going back to the ancient Greeks, so I mean it's been around for so long I can't see how this can be so rubbish if it stays around for thousands of years.  But so there's now a scientific explanation for not everything, but for some things and I think that's the problem I have a little bit with everything with, I like science I really am interested in science, but you cannot often explain everything with science because what all at this point, I mean look for example at the gravitational pull.  The Greeks already knew that the moon and the tides were completely connected they knew, the Babylonians knew but could they really define it scientifically at the time?  No they couldn't they just had to believe that's why it works and it only took until Newton 1648 or something it was, that he really saw the law of gravitation and put it as a firm physical law.  Does that mean between 2000 BC to 1600 AD this didn't happen? Of course it happened but we just couldn't define it and are we saying right now we have to answer for everything, for every force, for every little thing? I don't think so, I mean I would be crazy to suggest that, no?  There will be lots of, you know in 100, 200, 300 years if we take care of the planet and we are still here, there will be people finding out all of a sudden, certain things we now say is just astrology yes of course it was, because there's a certain force which connects it all possibly, you know?  That’s what I think.

Ann

Yeah I think so too, and it will be very exciting when it is all proven by science things that we and people that have gone before us have known for centuries.  Your fabulous website, people can go to and they can download a calendar Living With The Moon and what's so beautiful about that calendar is the simple way that you've laid it out with symbols.  Can you explain a little bit about that 

calendar with the symbols and the colours, so people can know when to plant, know when to do certain tasks around the house?

Jutta

Yes so basically what I have done, it is such a vast topic I would say, but I've been, I've been doing this long time and what I found so hard initially, was how to take this massive knowledge, because it touches on everything from your beauty, your relationships, and you know the planting, everything, the moon cycle science… how to put this all in a very simple format so that you can just kind of take it and plan it very effectively.  And so I came up with this, it is the second system, so is based obviously on biodynamics but it's also based on this holistic thing, you know, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and I'm thinking, and so I just put out there recently, I just thought how can I make it a little bit more applicable?  And I came up with that pyramid, which I haven't talked much about on my website yet, because this is what I’m doing more for the future actually.  It is like, I have got these five areas of life, I called it The Pyramid of Life because I can't find a better title at the moment

Ann

It is a great title; I think it is wonderful.

Jutta

And the first step and it's by symbols, I've got five different colours of symbols.  The 1st, the turquoise symbols, is all about you, the body, it is about beauty, you know it's like you're being, like your microcosm as I said earlier, health would go in that as well.  And then so that's like what would be the symbols about when you have a manicure, body brushing, cutting hair, and talking about that, I have got people who've been following me for quite a long time, I've got a really nice little list together, like a newsletter sent out once a month, and people being calling because I have forgotten to put the hair cutting symbols in at one point, saying when should I cut my hair, because I only cut the hair with the calendar because since I do that my hair is so much better -  I've had limp and thinning hair for so long and since I cut it with the right timing I just did the hair just falls better and it is so much thicker.  So, you know, if it helps just with some people, then my job is done, I'm really happy, you know?  Anyway, so that's the first sort of type of symbols.  And the next symbols I call Happy Houses is like the green symbols.  It is all to do with the garden, the household, when good day for washing, good day for cleaning, good day for, you know, like it is again the waxing, when things you should, say for example, do a decoration job is are very good way of explaining it,  so like the waxing cycle you put the mood put together, and you just kind of create things, and then the waning time, is the time when you're just going to get the colour and paint the thing, and I think that's why it's really important, because to get things done if you think about it you need to plan it really well, but you also need to execute it.  And lots of people get either stuck, they don't plan enough or they don't execute enough and with this little system you get 50/50 and that works really well and you get a 28 window and then if you haven't achieved what you wanted to achieve, we just got another cycle where you can do it.  So it's a very gentle way of bringing your life in balance that's what it's all about okay? So the next level is like the relationships, it is all do with how we interact, if it is your lover, your children, your wider community, charity work would fall into that, even your pets would fall into that, so that is the third level and then the fourth level is what I call location and career and I don't mean scrambling money for living I mean being fulfilled, reaching your potential and that has helped me enormously in my makeup career which I think, you know, O have achieved something with it, and just be really fulfilled.  And it doesn't matter however small, and however big you are, you don't have to be the biggest Hollywood star, whatever, you know if you just kind of set out a goal and you achieve it, that really creates, in my view, true happiness.  It is what you set out in your life and then in the 5th and the final stage, it is what I call spirituality.  That's probably where your readers will fall into a lot, that's why I'm kind of very interested in your podcast, and it's yeah, it's I would call it less religious but more kind of spiritual, it is like about the energy, you know, which connects us all, and which is some people more susceptible while some people are less susceptible, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.  It is like you know, the radio waves around us all the time, but cannot just, I haven’t got the radio on me right now, can I listen to the radio?  No I can’t, because I haven't got radio with me, but some people have a radio in built some people haven't and they need a transistor there to listen to it, you know, it's just some people are more susceptible is what I'm saying and some people are less.  And Living With The Moon, I think is for everybody, because some people already say to me oh, I feel this anyway, I know this, it is intuitive to me.  Well actually to me it is not, I'm not kind of wired in that way and for me the calendar is quite important, I need to have that as a guidance in its for everybody else who might not have that skill either, so they have got a bit of crutch to look it up and say oh well, and also it is a very good tool of planning your life and it all fits together because that's why I have this Holistic Lifestyle Planner, as I call it, so at the new moon, just kind of set your intentions and then you just follow it through and as I said, grow and then, what you have created in your head, that's what you just going to get done, and then you just evaluate.  And that system keeps going and keeps going you know and eventually, occasionally on the yearly basis, we are just going to take a bit of the overview and say what have I really done?  You know, I have got some some bigger goals which I want to achieve and check that off and that's what most people do, they have that system in place but they haven't got the little mechanism to get it done and I think that is really useful, that's really where the lunar element comes in.   The solar element most people know.  Everybody knows today is Monday whatever date, but they don't know is it a water day is it a  fire day, is it an Earth Day? They don't know that.

Ann

Gosh it is so fascinating and what a lot of work that must be to put that together, so do you put a year in advance together for people so it's available every year, or how often does it become a thing?

Jutta

Well I think that's why I’m a little struggling at the moment, I mean, I get it all done. I was having a newsletter and it is always in the newsletter and I have now an updated, I've got a little calendar which I put on my website which I'm going to update now a bit further ahead, because I think initially I thought I would just give the months ahead but I've been told by lots of people, oh, we want to plan ahead and I just do that now, but it's gonna, it's very basic in this form, but I'm gonna bring out eventually a book and which kind of explains it a bit more and makes it a little more formal the whole thing.  Because I think it's really, people really like to use it, so I know there, loads of people find it as useful as me.  And I know if I don't have my calendar in that one month I will be fairly lost.  I say, oh, what day is it today and I always look up and even in my job, I'm a makeup artist, I do TV shows, I don't really say to many people, but you know I look at the new calendar, I just know, if I have a continuity hair cut for an actor to do, and I have got a choice of Monday or Friday, Friday is a really good hair cutting day, Monday is not, because bad hair days do exist, I can tell you that as a makeup artist, then I just obviously will sneak it in on Friday, you know?  I'm not gonna say it to anybody, but that’s what I do, you know, and I so, I do live it, it bleeds into everything in my life really and I have got, some people are really loving it, especially in the film industry, some people are loving it but others not, and you know I don't want to bother anybody with it, it is up to them if they want to use it or not I think, you know, a good way of using an analogy always is like rowing a boat. You can row the boat anytime but you can ride against big waves coming and you can blow it against the waves you get there but you be absolute exhausted and it takes you much longer or you can turn your boat around and you go with the waves with the force and you be there rested and in no time, you be there much quicker with much less trouble, and you know, it's up to you and you want to row on how you want to row.  It's just I prefer to go the easy way.

Ann

That is such a good analogy, I'm going to be thinking about that

Jutta

And it works better I can tell you, that if you work with nature this works better.  So it's like, it's like nature gives you so much already, and just kind of working with your natural immune system for example, you know, there's so many plants you can have, you don't have to constantly go and get some antibiotics, there are so many healing plants which you can use or teas and to keep your health, I think the most important thing is to keep it, rather than smash it all and then try to glue it together. I mean obviously if you are really ill that's when you want to have an operation, and I'm very happy to live in the 21st century there, and want to have an operation like in ancient Greece, but you know there are lots of things we have dismissed and we can, why not have a holistic approach and do it both? Then it's the best of both worlds. Try not to get ill, keep your health by eating well, by looking after yourself, by being nice, it is also mental health is a lot affected, you know, because obviously, you know, our brain is a computer and when you constantly think destructive thoughts, and you constantly are in a very awkward way, you are living against your belief system, I think that eventually has got a direct connection to your body as well, I really do believe that.

Ann

Yeah, gosh, you're so full of information and wisdom, it's beautiful talking to you, your grandmother must be looking down on you feeling very, very proud.

Jutta

Yeah, I think she's still around somehow, I don't, I feel like her influence is still over me, and I have got this ability now sometimes I think things and I'm a very positive person, I think, and things happen, I can see things, and I can make, and I don't know why, I just kind of have a bit of an ability there I suppose, yeah it's I think it's positive thinking, you know, so for so many years people rubbished all this, but I think we are coming to stage now finally, that thanks to your podcast and other really interesting places, that people can educate themselves about this, and I think that's really important, because self-education I think it is really, really important, you know, and it's not what you just all get in schooling is obviously very important but there's so much more to life.  And if you think about it, we only use a very small proportion of our brain, so what are we doing with the rest?  And they said oh, the subconscious things, is being branched in and all being part of the same cosmos and I definitely believe there is something in it and we'll probably find out scientifically much later why that all happens, I don't think we are there just yet.

Ann

And you've lived a really interesting life Jutta, I know you have mentioned there that you’re a makeup artist and worked in TV and film but you've worked on some astonishing film sets. Tell us about some of those, just for interest for people. 

Jutta

Yes, it's really interesting coz I think living Living With The Moon for me is so important and so, thing, but when I then say I worked on Harry Potter and Star Wars and Saving Private Ryan or whatever or other films, Fifth Element and  other films I’ve worked on, it’s oh my God, it’s amazing but I think, it is, it is amazing, and I'm very proud of the, the that I’ve been given the opportunity to work on all these fantastic projects and the people I met and worked with, but I think the, you know this holistic life style, so I think this is even much more amazing.

Ann

yeah do you think it is helped you, you know, you say about alignment and waiting for the right time do you think it's helped you land some of these wonderful jobs?  Apart from your obviously, your incredible talent - you are BAFTA nominated, let's face it!

Jutta

Well yeah I mean talent has something to do with it and obviously hard work has got something to do it, because it's a very hard job in the sense from the hours and everything, and I'm still at it, as I’m in the middle of a job at the moment, yeah, it's I think it's the positive outlook, and it is literally positive lifestyle planning, it is.  They say where focus goes energy flows and that's true if you focus on something, it works and if it's something positive and life affirming, it works as well, as if it is destructive.  If you think oh God I must lose weight and I mustn’t do this and I mustn’t do that, that works too, but if you say wow I want to do this film, I want to do whatever it is, you know, in a very positive way, and that's why I think holistic life style planning honestly for me has been, that has been really important to me, because everything works together ,and it's so important that you actually know what you want, because the most important thing is, yeah, that you know, you go on a journey, you go up a mountain, and you need to know which mountain you want to go up on, you know, you need to in the valley when you look up at all the 10 mountains which ones you want to go up to.  It is a lot of effort to go up there, you don't want to go up and then find out, oh actually, I don't want to be here, I want to be on that mountain. So it's really important, that you really, before you go on the journey, you really do some soul searching, and I think loads of people don't do that.  They don't say, what do I really want, what I'm really aligned with and not just what my parents told me to do, what my partner tells me to do, what society tells me to do. What do I really want to do?  Anything is possible with something which is holistic and working with the environment and then you have to find your own way, your own path, and I think this kind of lunisolar calendar for me is very good way of achieving this, you know, the planning cycle and the day qualities, I find it like a little crutch, actually.

Ann

That is so beautifully put Jutta, thank you.  And so, people who want to come, they want to download your calendar, tell us your website again so that people can know where to go.

Jutta,

Yes, it’s quite simple, I've got just a simple website at the moment and it's called www.livingwiththemoon.com and there you can, there's a freebie section and you just kind of you know, sign up to the newsletter, you get a monthly newsletter, that's all I do at the moment, all I've got time for, and then there's a calendar attached to it, all there is also as a web page called the months ahead and then just see what's on there.  I'm actually updating it today again.

Ann

So there you go, get yourselves on the newsletter subscription, for Jutta’s wonderful - is it a monthly newsletter that comes out Jutta?

Jutta

Just monthly at the moment, it is always in the beginning of month at the moment yes.  Timescale of the month but it obviously the calendar has a solar and a lunar element and is structured in that way with the five colours as I said, and then on top it gives you the moon phase.  And the thing is, what is really important to say, it takes a little while to get into this as well, because we're kind of creatures of habit, so if you never lived like something like this, what I suggest don't put too much at first, just pick up one or two symbols and just do that.  Say, for example skin care, do the waxing moon where you kind of put more oils or kind of anti-ageing, plumping up your skin for example, and the waning moon where you do more exfoliating, body brushing, just start with one tiny little routine and once you think oh, that is working for me, then add another one.  Maybe you're a keen gardener, maybe then you want to kind of do more of the planting in the waxing cycle and then in the waning cycle you do more kind of reading and digging over, the earth and pruning and little things like that you know, just build it slowly up, and then eventually the calendar which looks very complex at first, you look at it and I just so, I can really see in instant, oh today's this and I can do that, you know, it's very simple afterwards, but initially can be a bit overwhelming, with all the symbols because you know, don't do everything that first time, it doesn't work. 

Ann

That's good advice is just one thing at a time and build it up slowly. Jutta, it's been so lovely talking to you, thank you so much for coming on and sharing all your incredible knowledge and the knowledge of your beautiful grandmother and more than likely, her grandmother before her.

Jutta

Possibly yeah, I’m sure.  I’m not, I mean I wish I could say, Oh my God I invented it, or my grandmother invented it, but unfortunately, this is, this is a knowledge which goes back to thousands and thousands of years, and I mean, and that's in itself amazing.  If you look, how many amazing brains have worked on this and have been working with this from Paracelsus is to Hippocrates, I mean the list goes on and on.  I mean how many astronomers you know, you know, Aristoteles, everybody has been somehow affected by this so it's good, it is actually bizarre that it's only like since the 20th century that we don't notice any more.  People just before would always have lived like th at.

Ann

That is quite a frightening thought isn't it actually, so we have a lot to thank you for.

Jutta

And since when is our nature really suffering?

Ann

Yeah right now.

Jutta

The last 50 years really, if you think about the damage we have done in the last 50, 60, 70 years, say after since the Second World War and how long the world has been around and how long this knowledge has been around, and how much, how many plant species we have lost just in the last 30 years, incredible, so I think we should really change something here.  I think it's time to wake up.

Ann

Time to wake up. And as you said at the beginning of our interview everybody can do their bit.

Jutta

I think so, it's like there was this commercial a few years ago you know, when they said, oh why should I switch the light off, why should I do this and then you zoom out and the whole world says the same thing.  And then you think, if if you can only start with yourself, you can only start with your own little micro, if you just kind of say no, I buy from a farm, I know it is sourced well, I know the animals don't suffer.  Well obviously if you eat, if you are not vegetarian or vegan, obviously an animal will suffer if you eat meat, but, but make it as humane as possible, and make it as friendly as possible and give them a really good life, you know, and support the farm at the same time and just be a bit more open-minded when you shop, and also, you do yourself good, because if you eat an animal which has been super distressed when at the time it was killed, and you eat all these stress hormones, that's not going to be good for you, then the meat has been ferried around from miles away so it’s partly a selfish thing also, you want to eat well, you want to look after yourself too, you know?

Ann

Jutta Russell, thank you so much for coming on and sharing all your fabulous wisdom with the Psychic Matters listeners, we’re so grateful to you, thanks again and really good luck with putting the next year together for us, and we will be following to see what other exciting things you may be producing from your website for our delight.

Jutta

Thanks so much for having me. I hope somebody finds it interesting and kind of has given them a bit of extra inspiration about what biodynamics is and how the world hangs together, that would be really useful, I think, thank you very much.

Ann

Thank you very much.

Ann: Well, that was Jutta Russell from Living With The Moon, what an incredible lady, so talented and passing on ancient wisdom to help us, live our best lives.  Don’t forget to sign up to her newsletter and get your freebies.

A full transcript of this episode is available on my website, along with links and resources mentioned by Jutta, including links to her website living with the moon, her Instagram handle & Facebook page, so do head to www.anntheato.com and you can pick everything up.

It just remains for me to say a very big thank you to all of you, Psychic Matters Listeners, as ever, I really appreciate you and thank you so very much for listening.

Please make sure to hit the subscribe button, if you haven’t already done so, so that you don’t miss out on any of the upcoming episodes and I have some incredible guests and some fascinating content coming up for you this year.

Have a fantastic couple of weeks everybody.  Until next time… my name is Ann Théato and thank you for listening to PSYCHIC MATTERS!