CHAPTER FIFTEEN

WHAT ARE THE BIODYNAMIC PREPARATIONS?

For many people, the Biodynamic preparations are incomprehensible. When I first came across them, I did not question whether they worked, although I have now studied them in depth. For me, they were simply remedies to strengthen the life forces of the land. Maybe I felt so comfortable because I had gone to a Waldorf school for a few years and had had such a good experience there. Maybe it was because I was already comfortable with Steiner’s ideas. In any case, I want very much to explain their potency to others so that your farms and gardens will thrive.First, I will describe the six compost preparations and then the field sprays. The compost preps are made from plants, the energies of which are further enhanced by putting them in animal sheaths and then burying them. Virtually all these elements may sound very foreign to you but their effectiveness has been so well validated over the years that scientists consider them proven. The plants and sheaths are:· The flowers of the Yarrow plant stuffed into a stag’s bladder, which are then hung in the summer sun and buried for the winter· Chamomile flowers made into sausages from the intestines of the cow and buried in the ground for the winter· Stinging nettle is compacted into a bunch and placed in the ground for a whole year, starting in the fall.· Oak bark is ground to a fine consistency and placed where the brain used to be in the skull of a cow and then placed in a wet place like a stream for the winter.· Dandelion flowers are stuffed into the mesentery (stomach lining) of a cow and placed in the ground for the winter.· The Valerian flower is pressed for its juice, which is then diluted with water and stored until it is needed.The above preparations, except the Valerian juice, are placed in the compost pile in separate holes as the pile is completed. I like to put the Stinging Nettle in the middle, the Oak Bark and Chamomile opposite each other at one end and the Yarrow and Dandelion opposite each other at the other end. The holes go about three to four feet apart and only a teaspoon of each prep is needed. The valerian juice is diluted and stirred and sprayed on the pile with a watering can.There are two other preparations that are used as sprays for the fields. One is made from cow manure which is stuffed into a cow horn and buried for the winter. The other is made from quartz crystals that are ground very fine and then put into a cow horn and put in the ground for the summer. When used, both these preps are diluted with water, stirred for one hour and then sprayed on the ground.Over the years, my relationship to the preps has deepened but it is not a very intellectual connection. I think that most farmers who come across them for the first time just sort of accept them because they know from others that they work.

You can buy them but they are pricey so there are regional groups that make them. Michaelmas, which falls around the autumn equinox, is the time to make most of the preps. In East Troy, Dick and Ruth Zinnaker host such a gathering every year. They have the oldest working Biodynamic farm in the States, started in the forties and now run by the third generation. They have a lovely old stanchion barn that is set up to make the preps. Ruth gathers and prepares all the ingredients beforehand and everything is ready to go. Usually about thirty people turn up to help and it is a real special fall festival. For my farm, I needed about four hundred cow horns filled, so I would bring my own horns and cow manure. About twenty of us at a time could sit on straw bales and stuff horns with spoons. Conversation was good, as many of the people knew each other but only met once per year, so it was catch-up time. In another part of the barn, the flowers and sheaths would be waiting to be worked on. When working with the preps, they don’t seem weird or esoteric. The experience is closer to alchemy, working with plant and animal energies which are then given over to the earth to be further strengthened and transformed. It all seems quite normal and possible…..futuristic, rather than old fashioned. After the preps were buried, there would be a pot luck dinner, a bonfire and music, deeply enjoyed by everyone.Trying to make rational sense of the preps is difficult, so I have made my own relationship to them. I am not much of a chemist, so looking at them from that point of view has not been very interesting for me. Studying the planets and the energies that radiate from them has given me a door through which I can relate to the preps. Many of these ideas come from a series of lectures that Dr. Lievegoed gave to farmers in 1951 and, of course, Steiner’s
“Agriculture” lectures. I have had to accept certain statements and build on those. I will try to describe these as best I can but it will be more of a picture then a rational explanation.I have to say one more time, when working with the preparations, a whole new mind set is needed. Regular farm science thinks that for every pound of nutrient you take out of the soil, you have to find a way to replace it. In Biodynamics, we have to think as Alchemists, that transmutation of substance can take place and that by potansizing a substances there is an effect from the energy.Transmutation of substances, when one mineral turns into another, does take place in the living realm, in plants and animals. When the soil is living and working well, then substances can transmute. For instance, Potash, even lime, can transform into nitrogen.Potensizing works when you take one part of an extract and dilute it with nine parts water and shake it for one minute. You then take one part of this solution and add nine parts of water and shake it for one minute. This would be called D2 potency. In homeopathic medicine, the same medicine can have varying effects depending on the potency. Eugene Kolisko has done experiments showing that the number of times a substance is potencised has a rhythmical effect, even into the D sixties. Although science cannot detect the original substance, the energy or blueprint of that substance is still there.As I have said before, behind matter stands spirit, but for spirit to manifest materially it needs something to anchor it. The Preps work as that anchor. They work medicinally so that the plant can attract the substances that it needs for growth or when necessary, to balance the etheric and astral in the right way so that the plant can be healthy.YARROW PREPARATIONThe yarrow plant is very rich in Sulfur. In the agriculture lectures, Steiner states that “Sulfur is the element in protein that plays the role of mediator between the physical world and the omnipresent spirit with its formative power.” It is this Sulfur process or energy that is strengthened by placing it in a stag’s bladder to be hung in a sunny spot and then buried. Steiner says that by using this preparation “the manure once again becomes able to enliven the soil so that it can absorb the fine doses of silicic acid and lead and so on that comes towards the earth.” The Yarrow plant is closely related to the planet Venus which is the planet of copper. Copper was used in the telegraph wires that were strung across the continents to carry information. The old copper pennies and cents, that had more value in the past, were the main form of commerce and helped goods move around. A copper arm band can help blood circulation. In the Middle Ages. yarrow was also called Venus’s Eyebrows, which shows that there was an old wisdom about these things.The animal sheath for this preparation is made from the stag’s bladder. The stag is an animal that is closely connected to the cosmos. The antlers are made of bone which is usually only found inside the body, covered by flesh and skin. When observing a stag you can see how it is totally in tune with what is going on around it - its antlers are like antennas into the cosmos.This preparation reminds me of Botticelli’s painting of Venus rising out of the ocean. In the same way matter is able to rise out of spirit. By spreading compost that has been enlivened with this energy, plants are better able to attract elements from the cosmos for healthier nutrition.CHAMOMILE PREPARATIONSteiner states that by using this preparation “You will find that your manure not only has a more stable nitrogen content than other manures, but that it also has the ability to enliven the soil so that plant growth is extraordinarily stimulated. Above all, you will get healthier plants.”Chamomile has well-known healing properties. A tea will sooth a stomach ache and drinking chamomile tea before going to bed will make for a better sleep. If meat starts to go putrid, you can soak it in Chamomile tea and it will be good again. Chamomile likes to strengthen and bring forces into movement. It creates a proper balance between the etheric and astral forces.We use the intestines of a cow as the sheath because it is through the intestinal wall that the digestive juices are secreted into the substances moving through the digestive tract. It is where the astral forces of the cow (remember the cow has very strong astral forces) are given over to the manure.In traditional medicine, the intestines are often connected to the planet Mercury which has the same tendency of flowing and moving. In Roman times Mercury was the God of thieves and merchants which ensured that goods move from one person to the next.It is past the scope of this book to explain everything but Steiner states that the carrier of astrality is nitrogen. Therefore when we place this prep in the compost pile, we create an organ that has the ability to create stable nitrogen and also make a right balance between the etheric and astral forces so that the plants growing in a Biodynamic garden or farm are healthy.STINGING NETTLEYarrow, Chamomile and Stinging Nettle all have sulfur to a high degree and so help spiritual energies be incorporated and assimilated into the compost heap and then the soil and plant. Steiner says of this preparation that “the effect will be to make the manure inwardly sensitive and receptive, so that it acts as if it were intelligent and does not allow decomposition to take place in the wrong way or let nitrogen escape or anything like that. This addition not only makes the manure intelligent, it also makes the soil more intelligent, so that it individualizes itself and conforms to the particular plants that you grow in it.”This is possible because Stinging Nettle has lots of iron in it, which relates it to the planet of iron, Mars. Lievegoed says that the gesture of Mars is the Javelin thrower just as he is about to let go of the javelin. It is very directed and forceful. A person who is anemic lacks iron in their blood. It is the force that allows the spiritual archetype of the plant to incarnate into the world. When you use this prep, it allows the soil to become intelligent so that it knows what the plant needs. Again, this prep helps in the health of the plant.OAK BARKThis prep, made from the bark of an oak tree and put into the skull of the cow where the brain was, works under the influence of the Moon. It controls growth in the endless division of cells, and in reproduction it controls inheritance, which ensures the continuation of type. If these Moon forces become too strong, if the earth is over stimulated and growth becomes rampant as can happen during a wet warm spring then we start to have unhealthy plants that are prone to attacks from parasites and other harmful effects such as fungus. The calcium from the Oak Bark dampens down the too-strong life forces and balance is restored. Steiner says “It restores order when the etheric body is working too strongly, that is, when the astral cannot gain access to the organic entity…..Then we must use the calcium in the very structure in which we find it in the bark of the oak.” This prep allows the Moon forces of growth and reproduction to unfold in a healthy way.DANDELIONThe Dandelion plant is under the influence of Jupiter. Jupiter takes hold of the archetypes that Saturn has brought to the plant and moulds and fills out the form. It fills out the skeleton. The Dandelion also a high content of silica, which attracts substances that provide for good nutritive forces in plants. The flowers of the Dandelion are wrapped in the mesentery of a cow. The mesentery is a fine membrane that surrounds the organs of the stomach. It is the mesentery that is sensitive to pain and it becomes a kind of membrane of consciousness of what’s going on in the lower organs of the cow. When this prep is placed in the ground during the winter, it becomes saturated with the forces of silica. Steiner says of this preparation” it will give the soil the ability to attract just as much silicic acid from the atmosphere and the cosmos as is needed by the plants. In this way, the plants will become sensitive to everything at work in the environment and then be able to draw in whatever else they need.” In fact, they become so in tune with their surroundings that they know what is available in the surrounding fields and woods and attract it to themselves. VALERIANit is through the spiritual formative forces of Valerian that Saturn works. Saturn is the most distant planet and is the gateway to the spiritual world. It works like a spiritual sheath and encloses the workings of the cosmos. Further, Steiner says that this prep “will stimulate the manure to relate in the right way to the substance we call phosphorus.” In homeopathic medicine, phosphorus is used to strengthen the spiritual “I” of a person. For plants, it is the spiritual archetype that is strengthened by Valerian. This preparation needs no animal sheath, nor does it need to be buried in the ground. The juice from the flowers can be extracted and stored until needed. When the manure pile is made, then the Valerian is diluted and sprayed all over the pile to work as a protective covering.