Pierre Masson
In 2005, along with my son Vincent and other partners, I established a business to support the biodynamic movement. “Biodynamie Services” produces and distributes biodynamic preparations in large quantities. It does so because many farmers new to biodynamics are not yet able to make them for themselves. We currently use 70,000 horns each year.
We decided to make the preparations in the same way as the pharmacists prepare medicines for Weleda and Wala. I am aware of course that this will seem strange to those committed to the principle of a completely self-contained farm organism. For me however the preparations leave the spatial domain as soon as they have undergone their transformation. They then become universal substances.
Our approach is to take great care in executing the work, pay close attention to the anthroposophical background and make the effects visible and of immediate value to the farmer. This also corresponds with our own reading of the Agriculture Course. In his report about his stay in Breslau, Rudolf Steiner writes: “It is really an issue which I would like to call a cosmic-earthly question of the highest order. It is quite clear that forces of a spiritual origin will need to be found for agriculture, forces which are as yet completely unknown and which will have significance not only for the improvement of agriculture but to enable humanity to continue living on the earth at all – the human being must after all live from what the earth produces – also in a physical sense.” We must therefore draw on spiritual scientific insights and produce visible results in the material world.
How should we understand this verse which Rudolf Steiner gave to Marie Steiner on 25th December 1922 (GA40)?
What does it mean that the stars are silent? Can we learn to speak to the stars and can they speak to us again?“The Stars once spoke to Man
It is World Destiny that they are silent now.
To become aware of this Silence Can become Pain for Earthly Man;
But in the deepening Silence There grows and ripens what the Human Being speaks to the stars.
To become aware of this Speaking
Can become Strength for Spirit Humanity.”
The relationship between earth and cosmos and the significance of the preparations
Rudolf Steiner's spiritual scientific insights provide us with a working hypothesis: The earth is a living being which develops. It grows old. As a living being the earth is subject to the laws of all living organisms. It has a birth, a youth, a period of adulthood, old age and death. The whole being of the earth is embedded in the cycles of successive incarnations. The earth had its youth long ago during the geological epochs that produced the sedimentary rocks, coal, oil and also limestone – a time of exuberant vitality. The amazing activity of the primeval plant and animal worlds bears witness to this. In the current age human beings have been entrusted with unique responsibility for as well as being creatures of nature they also possess the spiritual seed force of the Self. They share responsibility for the future evolution of the earth.
Rudolf Steiner describes this in the following way:
It is up to us. How should this be done in relation to agriculture and human nutrition? How can we work with substances in such a way that they become part of a new evolutionary process and connect with the forces from the cosmos?“Our task today is to take hold of the more or less dead substances of nature and lead them back to the spirit.”
Christian von Wistinghausen brought me to the work with the preparations. For his father Almar who took part in the Koberwitz course, the preparations were cosmic substances. Please allow me to present my understanding of the relationships described in the Agriculture Course between cosmos, earth, plants, animals and human beings, with the help of a blackboard drawing and then point to the significant role that the biodynamic preparations can play in our time.
Let us first of all draw a human being standing upright, in a vertical direction with the head pole of the organism – the location of the neuro-sensory system and of our thinking activity. Then the metabolic pole with the functions of metabolism, reproduction and the limbs. Between the two is the rhythmic, circulation and breathing system which supports our capacity to feel and have sensations.
We can see in the case of the animal that there is a different orientation with the backbone running horizontally and parallel to the ground. The intermediate pole is less defined than in the human being. With a ruminant such as the cow for example metabolic functions extend into the nerve-sense pole. The animal is able to sift through the cosmic forces, but is not able to make use of them for itself. Instead they are excreted to produce their valuable manure.
The plant is like an inverted human being. Its nerve-sense pole is in the soil which Steiner describes as being akin to a diaphragm. The leaves can be compared to a kind of large intestine which thanks to the sunlight, is able to absorb carbon dioxide. Leaves, flowers, fruits and grains are all part of the metabolic system in the same way as the human being has metabolic and reproductive organs.
Plants do not have their own rhythmic system. For the sun and the whole cosmos works upon them from outside. We can now draw in the zodiac with the constellations we know so well – Aries, Taurus, Gemini etc. Then we can bring in the solar system with the sun and planets as seen from the earth. In the first and second lectures of the Agriculture Course, Rudolf Steiner describes how the sun does not work alone. Its effect is influenced and accompanied by forces from each of the planets. The sun works together with the more distant outer planets Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. To have full effect, silica and warmth needs to be present. These are the true 'cosmic' forces. This activity leads to the formation of nutritive substances as well as everything of a qualitative nature – flavour, scent, colour. The sun also has an effect when it is supported by the inner planets Moon, Mercury and Venus. This has a more terrestrial quality as can be seen for example in the rich greenness of the leaves. To be effective, limestone substances and water must be present. This more earthly stream supports the plant's reproductive capacity.
What has been described here is an ideal situation. Besides growing older the earth is also affected by various forms of chemical, electromagnetic and radioactive pollution as well as the ambient immorality of our culture. All these prevent the cosmic forces from becoming fully effective in nature, our soils and our crops. This has reinforced the barrier between the earth, nature and the cosmos and it grows stronger by the day. The ageing of the universe means we are currently undergoing an extreme densification of matter. The compaction and salinisation of soil are both symptoms of this development.
How can we assist the physical body of this ageing star so that it may continue to support us in our present and future tasks and ensure that humanity and the whole of creation can evolve further? In the Agriculture Course Rudolf Steiner gives no clear indication of the relationship between the cosmic forces of the past which are gradually being extinguished and the biodynamic preparations which have the power to restore these forces. In what follows I will try to describe this relationship based on what Rudolf Steiner has said on other occasions, most notably in the medical lectures.
With the horn manure (500) and horn silica (501) preparations we have to do with the direct influence of the sun and its structuring, uprightness-forming and individualising forces. These enable both plant and soil to develop their true forms. They are connected with forces of the Self, the 'ego potentiality' that Rudolf Steiner describes in the 8th lecture.
Having connected ourselves with the forces of the sun by applying the horn manure and horn silica preparations, we will now consider the organs which the six other plant-based preparations form and their connections to the planets. To awaken these new forces we must create something entirely new. We bring substances together in a way that could not happen in nature. A stag's bladder filled with yarrow flowers has never been seen out in nature. We can nonetheless try to think through this process.
Yarrow in the stag's bladder can be brought into connection with the Goddess Venus as she is described in ancient Greek and Roman myths. If we carefully observe the effect of chamomile growing on the fields we can begin to recognise its capacity for bringing about balance, for enabling wet and compacted soil to breathe again. Its therapeutic qualities reveal its connection with the sphere of Mercury – the God of change, merchants and physicians. In the stinging nettle preparation we find the forces of Mars which are connected to iron and the gall bladder. It brings activity and energy but also a certain balance. Using the skull of a domestic animal we make the oak bark preparation which stands in connection with the Moon, living calcium and reproduction. With it we try to contain excessive etheric forces. The dandelion preparation in the mesentery is connected with the activity of Jupiter and the liver. With it we influence the absorption and redistribution of elements like calcium and silica. The valerian preparation is connected to Saturn and in the human organism, with the bone marrow where the red blood corpuscles are formed.
Creating these completely new biodynamic preparations demonstrates the genius of Rudolf Steiner. They involve substances capable of building a new bridge between the cosmos and the earth. They are forces that really do come from the future. They were completely unknown before as was mentioned in Rudolf Steiner's previously quoted report.
What can be expected of the biodynamic preparations?
The stable organic matter content of the soil increases. Soil structure rapidly improves and the roots penetrate more deeply. Within six months of a vineyard being treated (18th April – 11th December) with preparation 500P (horn manure to which the six compost preparations have been added), the soil became darker, more crumbly, was less sticky and held water better. Our results have been steady and reliable.
We have a very simple approach. Every year we run 2–3 days introductory courses into biodynamic agriculture and viticul- ture. We reach hundreds of people in this way (almost 1,000 in 2017). We encourage everyone who is new to biodynamics and wants to start working with it, to set up systematic trials comparing organic and biodynamic. This means that one part of a plot will receive the preparations and the other none. The results are nearly always amazing and it seems to us that changes occur ever more quickly.
The appearance of the plants changes. The root system develops; the plants adopt a more typical form, become more upright and have more glowing colours. They are less susceptible to disease. The leaves of plants that have received the preparations appear more airy and have a glow to them.
We have found in our own comparative trials that quality of the product improves, especially its flavour. It contains more polyphenols and its physical resilience is also better. There is for example less need for sulphur on the vines.
Some key principles of our work with the preparations
Plant cultivation, harvesting time and storage are all very important. We try to bring all the preparations to a colloidal state, because this is the model towards which the soil should develop. It also makes them particularly effective. Regarding the colloidal state we can say: The colloidal state is the foundation upon which all evolution, transformation and metamorphosis occurs. It is a condition that is open to receive the formative forces streaming in from the cosmos, it is a state that is receptive to life. All the preparations including the horn manure progress to this colloidal state during storage.
Good quality water and a temperature of 35°–37°C seems crucial when it comes to stirring. The quality of the stirring vessel (its form and type of material) and that of the energetic stirring determine whether the full potential of the preparation can be developed. Working with the rhythms of morning and evening is of vital importance for the stirring and spraying of the preparations. We are not yet finished with our research. For example when is the right time to harvest the stinging nettle – in spring or in autumn when the meteoric iron comes to earth? Do they have the same value?
An anecdote on the effectiveness of the preparations: It is known that one or two applications of 500P per ha have a strong effect on soil activity and on the behaviour of plants. As has been mentioned there is a measurable increase in organic matter and an improvement in soil structure and porosity. It does not replace manure but increases fertility. It was several years ago and we were burying 30,000 horns in the same place and we knew exactly how much manure was needed to fill them. It troubled me to think that the farm from which we collected the cow pats might suffer a loss of fertility. I realised however when I calculated the amount of manure needed for 30,000 horns that it works out at less than the amount of manure produced by one cow in a year. With 30,000 horns 30,000 ha of land can be made fertile. If this manure was used direct or as compost, only one hectare could be enriched. By making preparations we increase the manuring power by a factor of 1: 30,000.
Sacrament for the earth?
It is possible to see the preparations as cosmetics for the face of the earth. Cosmos in Greek means firstly 'the good order', secondly and more exactly 'the order of the universe'. The third meaning is 'ornament, a woman's beauty'. The word 'cosmetic' originates from the word cosmos. Cosmetics, creams and balsams can be used to refresh and bring order to the hair or tired skin. Mother earth in the state she is in today, has real need of such care especially the surfaces used for agriculture. Could there be a better cosmetic for the face of mother earth than the biodynamic preparations? They are demonstrably able to give this star with its tired, polluted, ageing, sclerotic body, the opportunity to regenerate itself and even to be the germ of a future universe.
Could one go even further and characterise the preparations as a sacrament for the earth? I do believe that the biodynamic preparations can be seen as a medicine, as a cosmetic and even as a sacrament for the earth. With the idea of creating 'a new earth' we change a hardened mineralised earth to a humus rich, soft, pliable, living earth formed of a kind of spiritualised substance.
Applying the preparations also brings a significant change to the plants and with it the regeneration of human nutrition. The human constitution then becomes more balanced. With a more harmonious connection between the physical, etheric and astral bodies the human 'I' can improve the link between the forces of thinking and willing and the harmonising sphere of feeling. This in turn can lead to a new path of development for mankind.
All these things make it possible in our time to respond to the 'silence of the stars' referred to above. The biodynamic preparations are indeed a new language through which human beings may speak to the stars, and send a signal to the Gods.
In the painting of the Crucifiction by Matthias Grünewald we see at the foot of the cross next to Mary Magdelene a vessel containing the healing ointments. When reflecting on Mary Magdalene and how she anoints the body of Christ, we can also think of the painting “Noli me tangere” (do not touch me) by Fra Angelico in the monastery of San Marco in Florence where the risen Christ appears to Mary Magdalene as the gardener. The mysterious pot of ointments is nearly always found at the centre of these paintings, clearly visible beneath a tree, a symbol of the plant world and of the etheric. It is placed in the centre between Mary Magdalene and Christ. It always stands directly on the earth, on this earth which has become the body of Christ through the Mystery of Golgatha. Do not these images of the vessel containing healing ointments which are depicted in these paintings point towards our duty of care towards the body of the earth? The biodynamic preparations can certainly be of help to us in this direction regardless of our cultural or religious background.
Pierre Masson (France): Founder of “Bio- dynamie Services”: Consultancy, training, publishing, preparation making.