Preparations as a bridge between medicine and agriculture
Georg Soldner
Brain and horn
It has only been during the course of the last 10 years that conventional medicine has become aware of the importance of the intestinal flora through articles in various publications - even though Rudolf Steiner drew attention to it in a very precise way as early as 1920. The link which Steiner indicated is also gaining attention namely that life in our intestines has got something to do with our consciousness.
A new axis - the microbiome-gut-brain axis - is referred to. It has been recognised that the evolutionary development of the brain has depended to a very great extent on the intestines and their intestinal flora. It follows that food substances exist in the first place, to sustain and enliven our digestive processes, which in turn form the basis of our conscious life. This however depends primarily on the pro-cess, the composition of the intestinal flora, their inner vitality and - most importantly for the brain - the substances which the human being can create through these digestive processes and which are not the same as those which have been consumed. Finally, we develop our consciousness using the same forces that originally enabled our organism to grow, with living, etheric forces. This transformation of growth forces into forces of consciousness was described by Rudolf Steiner as being of the "greatest importance" for both medicine and education. It is however equally important for agriculture and to understand the basis of nutrition. The forces of growth are being continually changed by the human being into the inner light of consciousness.
We draw light out of our inner 'manure pile', we want to develop light from it. While food is being destroyed in our digestive tract, a new, enriched inner life is being born.Nothing is being simply burned here, substances are being changed into living forces.And human nutrition must be approached in such a way that people are no longer stuffed full of substances which they are increasingly unable to absorb - think of how pervasive diabetes and obesity has become - but instead food that stimulates inner activity, independent thinking and individual initiative, food that does not cause lethargy but fires up the will.
While the human being unlike all animals has developed a fore brain and a characteristic forehead that rises above the eyes (our frontal bone also has a hollow space in it), the cow develops horns in the area of the frontal bone.
On the one hand, they grow out of the skin and on the other, they are formed with a partially air-filled bony core. The cow's sinus cavities extend into the horn and receive the gases as they stream out from the rumen. They alo checharge gases and are intensively permeated with blood.
We know that in grass feeding ruminants the process of horn formation is closely connected with that of the digestive tract which reflects the remarkable metabolic capacity of the cow. We also know that her horns and brain represent the mirror image of the digestive tract which she must continually master with all its mighty gaseous tensions and inner movements. And if it is our fore brain that enables the human I to gain a foothold and to take control of the metabolic-limb system thereby achieving full consciousness and freedom, then it is perhaps the horns which enable the cow to breathe, smell, experience and control her inner metabolic life. We can then be justified in believing that the cow's soul life is intimately connected with her horns. We also know that a cow with horns requires significantly more soul space than one that is horn-less. The horns have as much significance for the cow as the fore brain has for the human being.
Potentisation using the example of silica
Rudolf Steiner described the process of potentisation in the following way: "If / were to say a substance has certain properties and were to reduce the amount of it down to ever smaller quantities, then as it approached the point of zero, it would take on the other characteristic, its earlier capacity for radiating out into its surroundings and begin to stimulate the material that I am treating (the solvent) in the corresponding way!" These words touch in a deep way the law of 'dying and becoming'. Rudolf Steiner originally observed this potentising process in the human organism where substances like silicic acid are made effective in a finely diluted form. This occurs most strongly during embryonic development when a transparent 'silicic acid skin grows around the amnion - its ash is 22% silicic acid. The younger the growing organism, the more important is the silicic acid. The organ sheaths and especially those of the embryo, are able to release the radiant qualities of these finely diluted substances, each sheath in its own way. The organism can itself potentise substances - homeopathy has been learnt from the organism - and the aim of the potentising process (such as the stirring of horn silca to thoroughly permeate the medium in which the substance is to be dissolved using a suitably intense process of movement so that the dissolved substance can radiate through it.
The human and animal organism is suffused with substances of a highly refined nature with a strong effect - like that of the thyroid glands. Our sense of smell is specially responsive to the finest of traces. We need to stop thinking in terms of a substance that must 'do' something like an antibiotic that kills bacteria) and instead of a substance that can unleash a response within a living context like the effect of a mother's smell on her baby. We are all familiar with how a fine and delicate smell can change our life processes and so perhaps we can now understand how a fine mist of horn silica can speak to the growing plant.
The warmth mantle of the earth
"We can readily understand that if the earth is conceived of as a living organism - which it must be - then it will be subject to a breathing process..." Rudolf Steiner speaks about the formation of light in the earth's atmosphere, its importance for the biochemical processes on the earth and finally about the 'earth's warmth mantle'. The statements made in 1920 about the warmth conditions of the earth's outer atmosphere have since been fully confirmed.And we know today that the optimum temperatures in the history of the earth have over the last few millennia been linked with agriculture. The clearing of many forests, the creation of agricultural land, the metabolism of animals have already for thousands of years had an influence on the warmth of the earth, initially as a stabilisation of warmth.
We know as a result of modern scientific thinking and the industrialisation that has arisen from it and which has ultimately led to the industrialisation of pharmacies, agriculture and medicine, that there has been a seismic shift which has put this warmth mantle of the earth in danger.We also know that we as human beings, as mankind are responsible for the future life of the earth. The earth is no longer young and has a fever today. And if we don't change the way we do things, we could face a catastrophe, a mass extinction, a collapse of the earth's atmosphere and as a consequence, life threatening extremes. We are responsible for the atmosphere on every farm, in every meeting And we ourselves are responsible for it. Rudolf Steiner taught us to take physiological facts far more seriously and deeply. For it cannot be denied that maintaining for the human organism the regulation of warmth is the highest level of physiological regulation. We are able to regulate our warmth very precisely so that we can live and act consciously in our body. The surface of our body is quite different from that of all the animals - no fur, no feathers, no scales. With this naked skin we are able to regulate warmth to quite an exceptional degree and keep it steady even when running a marathon. Our brain as the most warmth sensitive organ, depends on this.
Rudolf Steiner draws our attention to the deep connection between this warmth and our spiritual nature. We are now not only called upon to know our own body but the whole earth as well. The wonderful, life-sustaining mantle of the earth that grants us life is dependent on us and most particularly on the way we work, the way we farm. And only when we can really grasp that the earth is a living being with its own mantle, is transparent to sun and cosmos and protects and shields at the same time, keeps us warm - the earth is 33° warmer than it would be without an atmosphere - and distributes the warmth; only when we can understand all this like the sheath around an unborn child, like our skin; only when we are understanding that everything that lives can only develop within a suitable mantle, only then will we be able to overcome our environmental crisis. This environmental crisis is fundamentally a crisis of our own self-knowledge. Only when we can meet the earth as a big 'you', as a being, and we acknowledge its life and all its layers with conscious rev-erence, can we as mankind proceed along the path of our own development.
We need a completely new spirit, a completely new way of thinking, one that inspires and gives us direction if the earth is not to die and humanity is to complete its evolution on the earth. Rudolf Steiner clearly had this in his mind and today all of us will become increasingly conscious of it. At this moment in time, we are in need of a healing spirit for the earth has grown very sick and ever larger numbers of people are getting chronically ill. We need the spirit known among Christians as the Holy Spirit, the one who gives each one of us the possibility of working together in brotherhood for the community in a healing way.
There is no doubt that with these preparations Rudolf Steiner wanted to set in train a mighty therapeutic deed namely to work on the healing of the earth which today is so severely threatened by industrial agriculture and the way we think and act. It is about enabling a healing spirit to connect itself with the earth through the preparations in a very concrete and practical way.
Stag and cow
Human beings and animals process and retain nitrogen - which comes originally from the air - in far greater quantities than plants in order to produce for example muscular protein. Protein is made up of 16% nitrogen. The inner mobility of the animal is connected with nitrogen and therefore also to the activity of kidney and bladder. Without the processes of kidney and bladder we would not be able to manage the nitrogen, our astral body could not exist and be active within us. When an animal like the stag engages so intensively and sensitively with its environment and the cosmos beyond, and its antlers extend out into it like antennae, inner sensations are called forth in the both that mould the character of the organs. The stag as an antler bearing ruminant lives outwardly far more strongly in these sense impressions and movements than the cow.
The antlers are given form from outside and are discarded each year; the horn of a cow is penetrated from inside with blood and it breathes, the cow lives much more in its grazing and ruminating activity, at peace and inwardly orientated. In comparison to the cow we may even refer to a 'nervous stag', as Rudolf Steiner describes it. Inner soul movements - such as the way that we take in food - the world of emotions and our sensations, mirror themselves in an organ like the bladder. We know from our own experience that the bladder reacts more strongly to our soul mood than the liver. And if an animal is bound up with its environment in such an intense and far reaching way as is the case with the stag, its bladder will almost become 'an image of the cosmos'. This demonstrates that the bladder is an organ which is very closely connected with the astral body and that a corresponding different dynamic delvelops with the stag and the cow. We can see how closely Rudolf Steiner observes an organ or a plant, what process it is engaged in, what process it is serving and yes, what spiritual impulse is living in this organ, this plant and also in the humus of the earth. In principle, the same thing applies to the small intestine and to the nerve fibre and blood cell rich mesentery or alternatively the encasing, mobile, metabolically active and liquid absorbing omentum. Rudolf Steiner makes it clear from the outset in relation to the cow horn that it must be a female animal. The secret of the female organism is that it can bring about internal order, take back strength from the limbs and - have the power to produce milk and be the foundation for new life. The cow therefore has a very special place. We are impressed by the cow's enormous vitality and astrality and the way she can produce the highly effective microbial culture in her rumen and stomachs - if we let her to do so. Impressive too is her mastery of her inner atmosphere, her control of gases and her rumination of foodstuffs as a form of organic concentration, reflection and meditation. She who seeks peace in the sunshine, is not disturbed by rain and who can spring surprisingly lightly across a meadow if given the opportunity. She who lives in her metabolism, provides milk and manure and furthers life, who gives far more than she takes.
If we meditate on and can understand the cow in this way, if we can once again respect our cows as animals through whom the spirit of creation speaks, the true spirit of healing speaks, if we learn to respect her in the same way as we must learn to respect the earth as a whole then we will be able from the organs of the cow, to obtain the sheaths for making a medicine needed in agriculture and gain access to a form of astrality which is wholly dedicated to the processes of life. It is the specific astral quality of the cow that concerns us here as well as the powerful etheric forces that develop in her organism and which manifest most strongly in her excretions, in the milk that we directly consume on the one hand as well as the cow's manure. In Koberwitz, Rudolf Steiner then described the way in which this powerful force can be yet further enhanced by potentising it. He also referred to it as form of additional manuring. We can, from an anthroposophical-medical point of view, describe it as a typical medicine.
The preparations as a generic remedy
In the foundational book on anthroposophical medicine published in 1925, Rudolf Steiner and Ita Wegman said that a medicine should not only address the illness, but must also "give support to the declining vitality". "In cases of more serious illness, the organism is not able to gener-we sufficient vitality from the food it is processing. It will then be necessary to arrange the therapeutic treatment insuch a way that the organism receives support in this regard. This is certainly the case with the remedies typically given out by clinics and therapeutic institutions." (GA 27, XIX, 99) And that is the problem we start out with today namely that we are not working with a normal living and responsive soil but one which has lost much of its vitality.
Rudolf Steiner developed generic medicines for the anthroposophical pharmacy. To give an organism the vitality it needs it is often necessary to create compounds that bring together two polar opposite qualities. This is the case with Hepadoron, the liver remedy which is made from vine leaves and wild strawberry leaves. Here we meet a similar polarity to that between horn manure and horn silica. This concept of the generic remedy is precisely what we find applied in the agricultural preparations - remedies which can be used on virtually every farm.
To sum up, in the Agriculture Course Rudolf Steiner sought a connection to the future, to the healing spirit that comes from the future. He created the picture of an agriculture that would no longer exploit the earth ever more ruthlessly, but instead would contribute positively towards its protection and further development. It is an image of agriculture that is oriented towards life, the living and ultimately the nutrition of human beings. He was concerned to create protected habitats, he saw great value in the farm's internal cycle. He saw it as a living being and emphasised how important it is that nothing - the soil, waste materials, manure - falls out of the living realm but that on the contrary, the whole farm area is revitalised and surrounded with a skin that is open to the cosmos.
It was for a healing, living agriculture that he developed this new approach to fertilisation and created the prepa-rations. The principles from which he developed his 'sup-plementary manure' - horn manure and especially horn silica - and from which the preparations arose, were originally developed for the anthroposophical pharmacy. What Pierre Masson described is therefore correct namely that in making the preparations the farmer becomes a phar-macist. The main objective of anthroposophical pharmacy is to stimulate the organism's own activity and not to replace or suppress it. The preparations also have this aim and mode of operation. Their effectiveness is enhanced through various potentising techniques that enable them to 'radiate' their qualities ever more strongly as inner light working to support and bring order to life in its surround-ings, just as the sun does in combination with the forces of the planets.
Georg Soldner (Germany), Pediatric doctor, since 2016 co-director of the Medical Section at the Goetheanum