Yarrow

[Mark]

MICHAEL BATE
Michael Bate is former head gardener at the Weleda gardens in Ilkeston. He is also a member of BDA Certification Standards Committee.

To practise biodynamics, Rudolf Steiner indicated that it is not enough to use only the horn preparations, but the manure must be treated to revitalise the soil and replenish the forces that are used up in the course of growing. Of the six plants he suggested to be used in very small quantities to achieve this, three are from the Composite family. This is not surprising for the members of this family take their flowering to the highest development. Each flower is an inflorescence made up of many individual ray and tube flowers where the five petals are not united but grown together and the five stamens are likewise together and grown with the petals. They are an example of the individual growing in harmony with the community, as a pointer to the harmony of all the elements of the farm, or of the farm in its total environment.
Rudolf Steiner begins with Yarrow, Achillea millefolium. He commends it as a model for bringing sulphur and potassium into relationship with the elements of protein and also for how beneficial it is merely by its presence.

When we first come across Yarrow, we are amazed at how humble but steadfast it is, how down to earth it is, getting on with growing at its own measured pace It does not flaunt itself or draw attention to itself but just remains firm and solid, needing a closer inspection to reveal its true nature. It is like the person at a party that we do not really notice but replenishes everyone's drinks and nibbles to keep things flowing!

It is spread throughout Europe, in Asia as far as the western Himalayas and has thrived when introduced in the Americas, Australia and New Zealand. It is very adaptable, growing in all kinds of soil; even pure clay, waysides, railway embankments, nearly everywhere inhabited by man. It climbs mountains, and does not mind drought, heat, cold, or snow but does not tolerate waterlogged conditions, and avoids the tropics. The seeds are achenes, typical of the Compositae; they are small dry thin-walled fruits. They need light to germinate and retain good germination capacity for three years. They stay on the plant for a long time surrounded by the involucre and drop now and again or when disturbed by animals and sheep.

A small rosette of deeply incised leaves forms by the autumn but the flowering stem does not shoot up until the following summer, growing up to 80cm. The main root is not long or wide and there are many long thin adventitious roots. These do not have hairs, and the plant relies on symbiotic mycorrhizae for the absorption of water and minerals- thus belonging to a network also benefiting other plants by its presence. From the rootstock, which is only a few centimetres tall, Yarrow forms stolons that grow horizontally and make rooting flowering shoots from the nodes.

The dark red to violet colouring at the base of these stolons shows the flowering impulse going right down into the root sphere.
The leaves, with their subdivisions, immediately show the influence of warm air and light by almost completely bypassing the stemming and spreading phases - the petioles rapidly diminishing and the leaflets tightly clasped to the central vein. They come alternately and sparsely up the rigid stem. The leaves then form a regular metamorphosis ending in a point. The stems remain strongly lignified with very fibrous tissue right up to beneath the flowers and mean that if you try to pull the flowers off, the whole plant may come with them! They do not branch much but separate out at the top to make a slightly curved corymb that makes a lot of people confuse Yarrow with the umbellifers.

The flower bud is surrounded by dark green to dark grey edged bracts, covered in fine silver hairs; these remain closed, hiding the transitions to fruiting. Each flower has five round small female white to carmine red ray flowers that open first, followed in the middle by approximately ten-pointed yellowish tube flowers. Clustered together, these composite heads form a "super flower."

After the fruits are formed the plant turns brown and the stems and seed capsules often persist intact right through the winter. If we eat our way from the roots to the flowers, we find that every part is salty and bitter with an aromatic and herby scent. No nectar is produced so insects are attracted by the scent, although the plant can pollinate itself.

The ash contains silica and an extraordinary amount of potassium. A blueish essential oil, oleum millefolii, richest in the inflorescence is one of the main constituents of the plant, along with resins, bitters, achillein-a tannin, salicylic acid and a light sensitive material.
Anthocyanin is a flower colouring whose red appearance pervades the whole plant-rootstock, stolons, stem, leaf midrib, and ray flowers; it is known that this substance can transform light into warmth - providing yarrow with a kind of coat allowing it to survive in colder environments.

Medicinally, Yarrow is used to stimulate the metabolism, the appetite, strengthen the stomach and enhance liver function. However, Yarrow gets its Latin name from the fact that Achilles used it to staunch the wounds of his soldiers in battle and stop haemorrhages.
It has always been known for its wound healing properties. Rudolf Steiner made it part of the Weleda medicine called Menodoron for regulating menstruation, He also indicated it for weaknesses of the astral body, exhibited by cramps Sulphur is always together with other substances; the sulphur process is found wherever substances are refined until they become an image of something spiritual; indicating e spiritual formative principle at work, especially obvious in the flowering very much associated with warmth and volatilising. We see this strongly in Yarrow in the super flowering, the colour that permeates the whole plant right down to the stolons, the oils with taste and scent, and in the deeply incised leaves.

The potassium process, always associated with vegetative renewal (the tendency to create mass concentrated into sturdy forms, predominantly apparent in early growth of stems and leaves where plant substances are built up and densified), we see here accentuated in the rigidity of the stems right into the spreading out of the inflorescence structure; the sprouting from the stolons, the holding back of development until midsummer, and the persistence of the plant skeleton These two processes are very much intertwined in Yarrow The plant also shows its remarkable adaptability in the way it copes with its environment.

How to preserve and enhance these qualities for the compost/ manure? By putting the flowers into a stag's bladder! But that is another story...

1. Principles of Biodynamic Spray and Compost Preparations, Manfred Klett 2006 Floris

[Mark]

What is the role of the yarrow preparation?

In the Ag course piece (Lecture 5) – for me the main line in this text is “it can set right all troubles which are caused by any weakness in the astral body, “…… The real question that arises from all of RS statements about the preps energetic activities is ‘How is this achieved?’ Does it strengthen the Astral body, or does it effect the relationship between the Astral body and the Etheric? ………..

The medical lectures give a good picture of the kidney bladder system, as the place the World Astrality is received and processed into our metabolic / physical being. If this process is malfunctioning then all manner of psychological problems will arise for the individual, not to mention the physical problems such as stones, shrunken kidney, and nitrate poisoning.

My ‘Equisetum and Fungus’ article gives a RS look at the kidney, but in this case RS is suggesting Equisetum (Eq Av) rather than Yarrow. In this exploration we can see Eq Av is used to stimulate the Internal Astral activity against the ‘World” Astral. So we can say of Eq Av “it can set right all troubles which are caused by any weakness in the astral body,”. Also, however this is done in a very different way by Yarrow than that done by Eq Av……. Lievegoed – gives a very good image of the Yarrow prep, with the outcome being that 502 ‘opens up the Etheric to the inward moving Astrality’.

In the medical lectures RS talks in several places of how the Physical and Etheric bodies block off the Astral and Spirit from combining with them. It is Yarrow that opens up the Etheric body, so that the Astrality can be received. This is a Venus gesture, where the Venus creates environments and situations for people to interact. Observe your Libran and to a lesser degree your Taurus friends. 502 is creating space for something to occur, rather than strengthening the Astrality to push through the barrier, which is more of a Eq Av activity.

Nettle comes into this play, as well, by harmonising an overly active Astrality that is too strong and over powering / pushing the Etheric. I see it as pulling the Astral off, while Yarrow is opening from below, to receive the ‘fructifying’ astrality.

These three preps ‘harmonise the middle’……The role of the stag in particular, as the polar complement to the cow, has the metabolic processes, created by the interplay of the metabolic Astral \ Cosmic Substance and the metabolic etheric / Earthly Forces, that work forwards and are then reflected back to the metabolism by the cow horns – in the stag, flow outwards via the antlers, providing it with a sensitive metabolic clairvoyance.

This is also true of a source of clairvoyance in humans. Hence the stag has a particularly fine relationship to the integration of the astrality, and this is concentrated in its kidney bladder system.

I could go on how Potassium and Sulphur are elements of the Etheric / Astral interplay from my chemistry, but that is a more complicated story.

So with 502: “it can set right all troubles which are caused by any weakness in the astral body,” by opening the Etheric from below, to receive the astrality when it is too weak to penetrate deeply enough to combine with the Etheric.This action will influence all manner of insect attacks, pollination problems, as well as fruit sizing and flavour issues.

Regarding Potassium (K) and Sulphur (S) – see AllinOne Periodic
We find K as an electrolyte in the inner cellular fluids, as well as part of the electrical conductivity in the nerve synapse. As an alkali element it is also functional in the flowing of water within a living system. So it is an element that controls the energetic movement (astrality) within the water sphere (etheric).

We see this imaged in the Energetic Periodic Table in two ways. At the second stage of the organisation we see K as helping the Cosmic Etheric work into the World Etheric, imaging its water controlling activity, and suggesting a very good point to activate if one wishes to ‘make rain’. While at the third ‘Manifest’ stage of the Periodic organisation, it is on the positive cation side of the Astral arm. This emphasises its role in the conveyance of the life energy – EM – within living organisms, both within cells and nerve synapse .

In both cases we see K working with the Etheric Astral interface.

Sulphur on the other hand is found as a chemical catalyst in many biochemical functions within living systems. RS characterises it as the ‘oil’ that allows the elements of protein to function together or not. Too much S and we have Hysteria – too loose interaction of the bodies – and too little S, and we have autism – the bodies become stuck. S is a facilitator of living processes within the physical sphere.

In the Energetic Periodic Table (EPT) , at level two, it is the element of how the Internal Astrality incorporates into the Cosmic Physical sphere. Hence this is the Astral stimulus for ‘things’ to integrate into matter. What ‘things’? At level three of the EPT Sulphur is on the Negative Anion side of the Etheric arm. This brings its Astral / movement active of level two into the ‘Manifest’ Etheric sphere, hence the ‘things’ it is moving is the Etheric, meaning S helps the life processes work into the Physical sphere.

Yarrow by working with these two elements, helps the Etheric and Astral work together, but from the Etheric side of the equation.

[Mark]

"In the animal and human worlds, yarrow is able to improve everything that stems from a weakness of astral body. This ability derives from its connection with Venus and with the Virgin. Let us not forget that our astral body has a point of connection with the physical body in the kidneys which are the bearers of the forces of Venus within us." Commentary p175

"In this drawing is the whole history of humanity and in the middle is the 502, the preparation that opens the door between Heaven and Earth, between macrocosm and microcosm... When we put a seed in the soil the yarrow preparation allows the ancestral archetypal force (spiritual principle) and the idea (soul force) to approach fully and to manifest completely in the plant that will emerge. The yarrow, in other words, is the door of life from the point of view both of the substance and the form. ... A full understanding of this preparation requires, however, a grasp of at least four points of view. The preparation of yarrow, seen in its connection with potassium, acts on the physical level on the roots and supporting tissues bringing a vertical impulse in the woody part of the plant. From this point of view all the plants that are unable to carry themselves such as the vine and cucurbits betray a lack of these forces. We have said that yarrow is linked to Venus that acts on the physical level in cellular nutrition and maximising the impact of food. On the etheric level 502 favours the whole cosmic nutrition of the soil. In this sense it is more associated to Mercury II, the formative forces of vortices. On the astral plane it promotes flowering. 502 is the basis of the homeodynamic product that we called ‘Pro Flowering’. On this level the descent of the idea into the seed is also favored. On the spiritual level 502 connects the plant with its Ego Group." Commentary p178-9

[Mark]

Compost preparations

Today I would like to deal with the yarrow preparation, using it as an example to show some of the principle of the preparations, of their makeup and usage. Rudolf Steiner prepares our understanding of the yarrow preparation, and indeed all the other preparations, already in the third lecture of the Agriculture Course, This is when he speaks about the archetypal substance of life altogether: protein. The life of the animal and human kingdoms would not be possible without this archetypal substance of protein in the plant kingdom. As human beings we need to have this in order to take it in as a constituent of our food. We break it down completely in our intestinal digestion. This active breakdown of well-structured protein from outside enables us to build up our own protein. It is not the substance of the protein that is of any value, but its pattern. Its specific structure delivers a kind of model, which we perceive especially with the liver while the protein is broken down. In fact there are four organ systems that are involved in perceiving the protein pattern and they are able, in so doing, to build up our individual human protein. These are the kidney system, the lung system, the liver system and the heart system. All four are able to build up substantiality as it were, out of nothing, yet with the basis of the form pattern, this highly individualised protein. This is the reason why this archetypal creation has to take place first in the outside world, in the plant kingdom. Four elements correspond to these four organ systems within us: carbon (kidney), oxygen (lung), nitrogen (liver) and hydrogen (heart). These four elements, together with sulphur, constitute protein. In the Agriculture course Rudolf Steiner calls them four (respectively five) sisters. They are also broadly distributed in the outer world. We breath nitrogen (79% of the air is nitrogen); we breath oxygen; we find carbon in coal, sulphur in an elemental state, and hydrogen is everywhere. All these elements are carriers of forces. Carbon is the carrier of formative forces, oxygen of life forces, nitrogen of astral or sentient forces, hydrogen is close to the physical and relates at the same time to the spiritual world. It is the carrier of the forces that are released from the physical world into the cosmos. In contrast to hydrogen, sulphur is the mediator of the spiritual within the earthly realm. In the outer world these elements are more or less separate from one another. So it is a mystery how to combine especially the four elements, carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen. In the plant kingdom this involves two substances that are polar opposites: sulphur and potassium. Thus we see that protein is formed when the three principles that were once well known in alchemy are equally at work: the salt principle potassium and related elements- the sulphur principle, and in between the mediating mercury principle the basic constituents of protein. Sulphur and potassium being representatives and carriers of cosmic and earthly influences help the mercurial archetype, the proteins, to come into being.

Whilst speaking about protein Rudolf Steiner introduces the compost preparations and refers to the mystery of how protein comes about in the right way in the outside world. He says there is one most miraculous plant which can be seen as a model for all the other plants, in the way it handles the sulphur and potassium process with regard to the formation of the archetypal creation of protein. He characterises this miraculous plant, the yarrow (Achillea millefolium), from the point of view of spiritual research and I would like to read his description [1]. He says of arrow:

" Take a plant which is generally obtainable. If there is none in the district, you can use the dried herb just as well. Yarrow is indeed miraculous creation. No doubt every plant is so; but if you afterwards look at any other plant, you will take it to heart all the more, what a marvel this yarrow is. It contains that of which I told you that the spirit always moistens its fingers therewith when it wants to carry the different constituents as carbon, nitrogen, etc. to their several organic places. Yarrow stands out in nature as though some creator of the plant world had had it before him as a model, to show him how to bring the sulphur into a right relation to the remaining substances of the plant.

"One would fain say, 'In no other plant do the nature spirits attain such perfection in the use of sulphur as they do in yarrow." (It is very interesting that Rudolf Steiner mentions the nature spirits at this point, and it is the only place in the Agriculture course where he does so). "And if you also know of the working of yarrow in the animal or human organism if you know how well it can make good all that is due to weaknesses of the astral body (provided it is rightly carried into the biological sphere) - then you will trace it still farther, in its yarrow-nature, throughout the entire process of plant growth."

Spiritual Science widens our view and so first of all we should look at whether the yarrow reveals some of its miraculous nature in its outer form. When looking for yarrow, we see that its natural environment follows human civilisation. It appears in the open plains where sun and earth meet directly, in meadows which are only cut once -not so much in permanently grazed pastures along the roadsides and field borders; in an open area where sun and earth meet directly. We find yarrow more in dry than wet areas, more in loamy than sandy soils, and more in sunny than shady places. When we observe the plant itself, we see that the yarrow germinates in spring time and first forms a rosette. The leaves are pressed flat to the ground. All of a sudden, usually around the middle of June -this depends on the region of course - it shoots up very quickly and forms the first flower buds. Normally the yarrow blossoms during June, July and August, when the earth-cosmos relationship is at its utmost. But we can often see the yarrow flowering in September, October and even into November. When it wilts in late autumn or winter, what is left? We see the ligneous, solidified stems gathered in clumps all over the meadows which give the image of very sturdy plants.

Looking at the leaves, a real metamorphosis is visible. Although the leaves split up from a midrib and almost disperse towards the periphery into a range of leaf stems that fan out into tiny little spears, they show a complete leaf blade. The manifold pinnation ending up in points and spears very much relates to a strong sulphur activity. If we observe these points and spears in greater detail with magnifying glass we find astonishingly an almost succulent shape. This points to a strong potassium activity. The bottom leaves show a fairly long stalk and a well-developed longish stretched blade. Further upwards the stalk becomes shorter and shorter, the blade broadens into an oval shape. Coming nearer to the flower the stalk disappears, the leaf reaches towards the stem. In the end the stalk becomes more lanceolate. It envelops the stem with its finely formed spears. So the leaves show a real metamorphosis. They are quite astonishingly dark green and very smooth, which in a certain sense contradicts the extremely pinnate form. If you taste the yarrow leaves they are very sharp and bitter at the base, and become more aromatic the higher you go towards the blossom.

Looking at the blossom we see the stem splitting into the umbrella shaped flower. It does not have a very distinctive, out-raying face as some other flowers do. It is rather more concentrated in itself and gives the impression almost of dried flower. It is white, sometimes pink, in a colour, but not very shiny, as if it would hold back some of its powerful force. The whole umbrella is composed of many flower baskets (umbels), which are formed of tiny little blossoms (pedicles). So the yarrow is truly a typical manifestation of the compositae family; its nature reveals an enormous differentiation (sulphur) and concentration (potassium). at the same time a great

One could say we have defined a polarity in the yarrow. On the one hand we have this sturdiness of the stem, with a strong lignifying tendency which causes them to last so long (one can often see them standing in the meadows the following year) and at the same time soft, dark green velvety and apparently succulent leaves. On the other hand there is a very highly developed flower and enormous segmentation of the leaves. This polarity of an earthly and cosmic influence can also be observed if we look at the roots. Of course they normally cannot be seen, belonging as they do in the darkness of the earth. But in the last decades much emphasis has been laid on root morphology. The yarrow roots are quite extraordinary, with many thin threads going down very deeply into the earth, like a stream. Again there is an inner activity, a motion, like in the leaves, but at the same time they are so firmly bound in the soil that it is almost impossible to pull up a yarrow plant. So there is the movement of the roots flowing down into the earth, but at the same time a steadfastness like in the stem. In autumn and winter, just below the surface, the stolons form runners which then produce new shoots early in the spring. Therefore we often find patches of these stoloniferous yarrows in open pastures.

The yarrow reveals the polarity of earthly and cosmic forces in a very distinct way. Its outer appearance is remarkable manifestation of the forces which its own being sends into the earthly realm in order to build up, supported by earthly forces and substances, this image of its being. What we perceive is not a reality, it is an image. The forces that build up this image are real, but imperceptible. They originate in the cosmic and earthly realm and are directed by the true being of the yarrow, which remains in the spiritual sphere. It is important to realise that what we see is an image, an illusion. But it points to a spiritual reality which works through two principles. One can be described as shaping the yarrow according to its cosmic archetypal form, causing that which brings about differentiation of the leaves and flowers, the scent, taste and colour of any of its organs and also its fragrance. We may call this the sulphur principle. On the other hand we have pointed to a diversified root system, the sturdy stem, the strong turgor pressure causing succulence of the pinnate leaves very similar to the round shape of the growing point. All these phenomena are caused by what we call the salt or rather the potassium principle. The latter gives the plant its outer earthly appearance, the sulphur principle governs the cosmic archetype they manifest. Affirming this polarity we may better understand why Rudolf Steiner, when speaking about the herbs that particular herbs are used for the preparations, speaks about in relation to certain earthly elements. In the case of the yarrow he speaks about the potassium and the wonderful, quantitative relationship between potassium and sulphur with regard to protein formation. He refers to this unique content of sulphur in yarrow in relationship to its ability to work with potassium as being an ideal model within the plant kingdom. We must therefore now ask, what is the nature of potassium, where does it occur? We find potassium as an essential constituent all over the mineral kingdom, especially in mica, feldspar and therefore in great quantities in granite but also widely distributed as a salt. It is quite interesting that the quantity of potassium relates strongly to the quantity of silica in the earth's crust. The more silica there is, normally the more potassium can also be found there. Potassium is really an earthly element. I would call it the representative of the earthly realm altogether. It is, as all physical substances, submitted to physical, calculable laws which we can study in physics and chemistry. If we make an experiment and dissolve a potassium salt, for example potassium chloride, in water it will completely disappear in its crystallised state and dissolve. The property of the water will have changed according to the quantity of dissolved salt. When we then heat the water until it evaporates the salt is again formed, in exactly the same quantity and crystal structure. The laws of the physical realm finite and liable to are calculability. From this point of view it is justified to say the physical earthly realm is dead. It is highly disconnected from its spiritual origin. But potassium stands out through yet another property. It is 0.001% radioactive as it occurs in the earth's crust: it underlies a decay. What does this signify? Potassium is a physical substance at the border of the sub-natural world, the sub-sensory world. From beyond the border there are beings actively exposing the forces of electricity, magnetism and nuclear energy to nature. The nature of potassium as the representative of the salt-forming elements can be understood to be a link to sub-nature, marking the border, as it were. In contrast to it is sulphur substance the spirit “moistens its fingers with" the representative of those elements that are the link with the supersensory, the supernatural world, with the cosmos. So we find yarrow is a revelation of a very strong interaction of an extreme polarity. The interacting poles of sulphur and potassium as they occur in yarrow seem to be the fundamental basis for the ideal formation of protein.

The yarrow, like any other plant, takes in potassium by the roots. There the potassium as an earthly substance, with all its properties we have described above disappears. It leaves its physical environment and enters a living one. Of course we may find potassium to a certain extent still in a salty state in the roots. But in the process of growing and developing in the first still watery leaves and all the more in the successive ones, the potassium becomes estranged from its physical properties and instead takes on properties step by step that relate to the living. Within the living sphere it become a carrier of Living forces: the result of these work in the formation of tissue, the scaffolding of the plant culminating in the lignifying tendency, and on the other hand in the swelling, succulent appearance. If you have a deficiency of potassium in soil and plant, on a very hot day the leaves tend to hang down. Evaporation in even increased because the stomata do not close properly. Their regulation and likewise the pressure of the juice in the calls, the so-called turgor pressure, is a function of potassium in the living context. Down in the roots the potassium still has salty properties: The further it comes up in the stem participating in the formation of the sequence of the leaves, it begins to be under the guidance of the sulphur, and is step by step potentized towards the blossom in the sense of a continuous estrangement tram its physical properties, its being bound in space. A real potentization takes place in the process of time, that is in life as I described yesterday. The metamorphosis of the plant is an outer image of the potentization of potassium and its related earthly elements within the course of the full unfolding of the plant. The further up we look in the plant from stage to stage, the more the potassium loses its definable physical properties and becomes a carrier of living cosmic forces, which are unquantifiable.

It no longer marke the border to the sub-natural world, it has been lifted towards the border of the supersensory world by the sulphur process. This is the mystery that takes place within the plant, in each different species in a highly specialised way. Yarrow is specially qualified to master the potassium-sulphur process in favour of an ideal formation of protein, the mercurial result of this functional polarity.
Here potassium is no longer detectable in the plant by means of chemical analysis. Of course we can find potassium again if we burn the plant to ashes, but then the plant is dead and what we obtain is salt. We cannot detect the potassium in the very state to which it is raised in the living sphere. The possibility of detecting radioactively marked elements in the living plant is not a counter-proof. It only shows that plant life is submitted to the conditions of its environment, as becomes manifest in the dangerous pesticide residues and other contamination frequently found.

Plant-life can either be weakened - it is then less able to estrange elements from their physically bound properties, especially the sub-natural properties - or it can be strengthened. This is a matter of appropriate manuring: a matter of dealing with the yarrow preparation for instance. It is impossible to detect the gradual transformation of potassium by the sulphur process through analysis. It comes to the utmost of dilution and potentisation, where the plant ceases to grow, where the flower develops. The question is, how are we able to give permanence to this culmination of plant growth, the flowering stage? Because the very moment the flower appears, it fades away. It cannot perpetuate itself, it just lasts a moment: it is a kind of status nascendi, the full opening of the flower towards the cosmos. Looking at the flowering stage of the plant we can make two observations. One is that the being of the yarrow appears as an image in its perfection in the flower, in the shape, colour and fragrance, but in the unfolding of the flower it comes to an end. The plant dies into the flower. There it is touched from outside by its higher being, which was at work all the time throughout the growing process. On the other hand we
can observe this gesture of the flower opening towards the cosmos. We must learn to inwardly follow this gesture with our thinking and feeling: we might approach it with an expression of total openness, devotion and willingness. Observing the flower we again meet a polarity. On the one hand the sulphur process, supported by the potassium process coming to an end in space and time in the blossom, leads to a perfect image of the true plant being. On the other hand if we follow the potassium process from the earth upwards, supported by the sulphur process, it begins in the dead state of salt, ending up in this infinite openness and a gesture of willingless will. This gesture of willingless will signifies an embryonic state to which, in my opinion, Rudolf Steiner is referring when he speaks about the plant releasing germinal forces into the etheric world [2].

The blossom fades away. Therefore the question arises, how can we preserve that which has come to an end and that which hides the potential of a new beginning in the blossom? How can we preserve that very moment before it fades away? There are three possible transformations to which the blossom may be submitted. One ends in seed formation. All the processes in the blossom are yet undetermined. It rays out its shining colour, its fragrance and aromatic substances, but the very moment seed formation takes place, all processes are determined to serve the newly formed germ. The seed has just to fall to earth and the new plant will shoot up. The second transformation of the fading flower is when it falls to the ground and underlies humus formation. Rudolf Steiner points to the third transformation, as mentioned above. It is the surplus germinal forces which vanish from the flower into the etheric world and become the substance for a future macrocosm. Our question is, how to give permanence flowering stage before these transformations take place? to the I think that Rudolf Steiner had this question in mind when he indicates the first step of making the yarrow preparation. The answer cannot be found in the plant kingdom. We must search for an answer in the higher, animal kingdom. We must find a technique, as it were, to lift the flower beyond its natural limitation, over a threshold onto a higher level, onto the level of astral effectiveness, which is present in the animal kingdom. The soul being of the animal has incarnated into space and time. All its organs are formed out of forces which work into the physical and living realm from beyond space and time. The plant is merely touched by such forces from outside; " the spirit moistened its fingers with the sulphur" and shapes the plant from the outside, while the animal is inwardly permeated by its astral being. Astral forces of the animal sculpt its organs into the stream of life and endow it with the ability to function in permanence. So we must seek on a higher level to find an answer to our question. We must look for an organisation to which the yarrow, as a medicinal plant, has a healing relationship. Rudolf Steiner says the yarrow "can make good all that is due to weaknesses of the astral body". Its healing force is very much related to all processes that take place in the renal system. In order to preserve the very moment of the unfolding of the yarrow flower, Rudolf Steiner recommends us to take the bladder of a Red deerstag. We will see why later. The first step of making the preparation is to gather the flowers and stuff them into the sheath, this spherical stag's bladder. This step is one of inversion for the yarrow. Previously the yarrow flower was open to the farthest cosmos. Now it is exposed to the astral forces that are working into and within this sphere of the animal sheath. Before the yarrow flower exposed itself in a willing gesture, the potassium process was potentised upwards into a germinal state. Now, within the stag's bladder, this substantial germ becomes the carrier of the astral forces which are transmitted and concentrated in the flower by the bladder. A complete inversion is performed. An outside process, which cannot proceed out of itself, becomes an inner process, the beginning of something quite new. But what about the bladder? It is an organ of concentration, of substances which derive from the inner ensouled life of the animal. It is impregnated with the experiences which the animal had in its soul. They are drawn out of the blood stream by the kidneys and are released and concentrated in the bladder. It is an organ of excretion, very much aligned to the kidneys. The renal/bladder system is related to the most alert of the sense organs, to the eye. This fact can easily be observed, for instance, if you enter a cowhouse a bit abruptly. The cows, slightly shocked out of their dreaming perception, stare at you and within a very short time you hear a rush and a 'pat, pat pat' as they excrete their manure. The cow perceives you, but her response is not an intellectual one. She does not recognise you and respond to you with her head but with her metabolism. Her consciousness is in the rear, where the response from her soul being appears not as a spiritual recognition, because the animal has no ego, but as a physical excretion. Now we see how closely related the kidney/bladder system is to what we perceive with our eyes. The eye is the polar opposite to the kidney in its function. The bladder concentrates substances from the wide range of the inner life of the animal and excretes it to the outside world. The eye concentrates the content of unlimited perception from the outside world and then excretes it, as it were as a picture, into the inner life of the soul.

We take the bladder and the yarrow blossoms, both of which are completely disjointed from their origins. The blossoms are disjointed from
the relationship earth-cosmos, from the natural life of the plant, and the bladder is disjointed from the reality of the organism of the animal. The blossoms are internalised, and the bladder, having been inside the animal, now becomes an object in the outer world. They are inverted.

Why do we use the bladder of the stag? Studying the Agriculture Course in this respect we may discover two aspects between which we have to distinguish. The bladder, especially of the stag, is an image of the whole cosmos, in its spherical form. So firstly we have to consider the form principle. The other aspect is that Rudolf Steiner refers to the special material substance of the bladder. It is formed out of the inner activity of this very sensory-active animal. A powerful stream of perceptions of the present effective cosmic-earthly environment enters its head and condenses to the material substance of the opposite pole, the metabolic region. Observe a stag or any deer. Its nervous alert eyes, its mighty antlers stretching out and growing as long bones through the skull, it is as if the whole being of this animal expands far beyond its head into the bright surrounding world. So secondly we have to consider the substance principle. The form is a replica of achievements from the past. All animals are a replica of the wisdom of the past, but in contrast the material substance is formed and built up by forces at work in the present. What happens when we put the yarrow blossoms into the stag's bladder and expose it to the spherical form and substance of the sheath? My personal answer is that the bladder, having been emancipated from its metabolic function in the animal organism, from the substantial aspect now becomes a sense organ itself, a kind of eye which perceives, transmits and concentrates into the yarrow flowers the astral forces working in the cosmic surroundings. Whilst the spherical form of the sheath enveloping the yarrow flowers and endowed with astral forces, preserves them and gives them permanence.

Proceeding to the second step of making the preparation, we take the spheres and hang them up above the earth, in the air and warmth, so to speak into the belly of the agricultural individuality where the expansion forces are at their strongest. We do this at the time when the elements of air and warmth and the light and warmth ethers are at their most active, in the summer. In the third step we bury the spheres in the soil in the elements of water and earth. We do this during wintertime when the greatest contraction forces are at work in the head of our agricultural individuality and when the chemical and life ether are active, independent of being bound up in plant growth. The present cosmos works vertically above and below the earth in the elements of warmth, air, water and the solid earth, that is in space, and it works in time, as it were horizontally, during the seasons. So by exposing the bladder to these elements vertically in space and horizontally in time, it and its ingredients are endowed with etheric and astral forces of the present activity and revelations of the spiritual world. The flower of the yarrow, having been without will, is now raised beyond its natural limitation and ability to become the carrier of the will forces.

What happens during this second and third step of preparation making, whilst they are exposed to the elements? I already mentioned that, in the first stage, the potassium is taken up by the root and potentised right up to the blossom. This process cannot proceed any further. The blossom fades away and ends up in seed and humus formation. The first step of preparation-making has been to lift the potassium process, which has entered into a kind of germinal state in the flower, reflected in its willing gesture, beyond the threshold onto a higher stage. That happened enveloped in the stag's bladder. It created the potential to proceed to a new beginning. In the second and third steps of making the preparation this mere potential is being fulfilled by the spiritual forces working within the elements throughout the seasons in space and time. This means that the potassium is not only estranged from its physical properties and enlivened by the plant, but it is now open to be endowed with inwardness. This is my understanding of the aim of all the preparations; that physical substances are enlivened. Rudolf Steiner speaks about the aim of manuring: that it is to enliven the solid earthly itself. This can only be achieved if the physical substance is permanently enlivened. This is not the case in the plant. It dies continuously into form. The plant keeps the substantial process alive by growing on and on and by forming leaf after leaf. This cannot proceed in the blossom. In order to give the life process permanence it must be endowed with inwardness. This is what the animal can teach it. Its soul being keeps its life process streaming. when it was

Looking at the three processes of preparation making we can say that the potassium is lifted through three stages of estrangement of its physical properties, from the border of the sub-natural, via the life process of the yarrow, to being endowed with forces of inwardness. If we try to follow this thought we might discover what Rudolf Steiner actually means when he discusses the work of the first group of compost preparations, the yarrow, camomile and stinging nettle preparations. He mentions that they are related to one another in generating nitrogen of a yet unknown, completely new quality in the soil. Together they are able to transform the representation of real earthly substances, calcium, potassium, and related elements step by step, into something similar to nitrogen, and finally into real nitrogen.

What is nitrogen? Rudolf Steiner points to it being the carrier of the astral forces. In whatever context nitrogen occurs in nature it is related to some astral event, to forces of inwardness. That nitrogen is an essential element of protein only goes to show that astral forces are already involved in building up the fundamental living substance. Normally nitrogen appears in the atmosphere (79%) above the earth, being the main constituent of the

This nitrogen is an evolutionarily completed, dead physical substance. It derives from the past, being the carrier of the Old Moon wisdom. All revelations of nature and the wisdom in it are due to the existence of nitrogen. One could say that it is a physical representation of what comes to us from the past. But with our yarrow, camomile and stinging nettle preparations we are producing a new kind of nitrogen, out of substances marking the border to the sub-natural world. We lift them out of their physical dead state to become permanently enlivened and thus transformed into a new substance which we may call nitrogen because it is a carrier of a new kind of inwardness, of an astrality that works from the future into the present. A new nitrogen is formed which does not relate to the past but to the future. I would say that the goal of all the preparation work is to enliven physical substances to become receptive to forces working from the future into the present. This opens the gate to a new evolution, or shall we say involution, into the future. The only being on earth that is able to have an active relationship to the future is the human being. All other beings represent an evolutionary end. They can no longer evolve out of themselves. I don't want to enter the debate at this point about the present materialistic concept of evolution and its reflection in the theory and technique of gene engineering. The soul body of the animal is more or less body bound. It lives out its past. The plant derives from the past, but appears in the present as a true image of the present earthly cosmic relationship. The mineral kingdom has already fallen out of evolution in the past. From this point of view it is up to us, up to our freedom, what kind of future development we will give to the earth. But when we guide a substance from the mineral kingdom through the plant kingdom into the astral realm, we enable it to become a carrier of future forces. Calcium, potassium and similar elements acquire an inwardness which, according to my understanding, is what Rudolf Steiner means when he indicates that they are transformed into this new substance of nitrogen. So biodynamic farming actually means that we take over the responsibility for the earth, not by just working in such a way that we continue what is there. This happens in ecological farming. But we need to endow what is there with future forces, so the earth itself can participate in the future development of mankind.

These aspects relate very much to what we eat. If we just eat what is there, the finished process in seed and fruit formation no longer provides adequate human nutrition. Our task is to change the inner quality of protein, this arch-creation of nature, together with our own development into the future. In order to do so we need to have such preparations, the summit of manuring, by which a new kind of nitrogen participates in protein formation. Therefore quite a new quality of food will come about. This is of great significance, but it is secondary. As a precondition it is more important that we endow nature with evolutionary processes as such.

I am very glad that we have the opportunity to talk about these far-reaching aspects here, seeking for a spiritual understanding of what we are aiming at with the preparations, although it is not an easy approach. I believe that to make such an attempt is justifiable due to the close proximity of the end of the century. It is almost 70 years after the Agriculture course was held. If we at the same time work with the preparations practically, then we have another sphere of experience. Being involved willingly we create within ourselves the 'soil' wherein these Images that we are trying to develop by thinking can germinate. I think it is through this inner relationship that a deeper understanding will increasingly come about. What we urgently need is such an understanding. It is the only source of renewal for the biodynamic work and movement.

References.

[1] Agriculture, a Course of lectures by Rudolf Steiner, 1924. Pub. BDAA London 1977. See lecture 5.

[2] Steiner, R., Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts 1924-25. Pub. Rudolf Steiner Press, London 1985. Also see Lecture 1.

[Mark]

The first compost preparation that Steiner describes is the yarrow preparation. This is connected especially with sulphur and potassium, which work together to form protein and thereby build up the structure of the plant. Sulphur can be seen as the bearer of the creative spiritual principle that comes to expression in the form of the plant, whereas potassium, as a salt, is the bearer of material substance and is representative of what is earthly. Through each stage of development, the potassium is increasingly released from its terrestrial nature, becoming more refined and rarefied as it is dissolved. This process culminates in the flower: the part of the plant that opens up to the influences streaming in from the cosmos. The yarrow preparation seeks to preserve this moment of flowering and the forces that underlie it. It revitalises soil that has been exhausted through over-cultivation.

Yarrow’s characteristics

Yarrow is described by Rudolf Steiner as a ‘miraculous creation’. He said, ‘Yarrow stands out in Nature as though some creator of the plant world had had it before them as a model to show them how to bring sulphur into a right relation to the remaining substances of the plant.’1 Then, later: ‘Yarrow mainly develops its sulphur-force in the potassium-formative process. Hence it has sulphur in the precise proportions which are necessary to assimilate the potassium.’2 In yarrow the sulphur works on the potassium content so that ‘it relates itself rightly, within the organic process, to that which really constitutes the body of the plant.’3

Sulphur is the mediator of cosmic-spiritual forces in earthly substances, which organise those substances according to their spiritual archetypes. In the case of yarrow, these forces come to manifestation in the form of the plant. Through the working of sulphur and potassium, two opposite principles, protein is formed in the plant. At each stage of this development, from seed through to the flower, the plant is an image of this polarity, and this is especially true of yarrow.

This can be seen quite objectively when a seed is placed into the earth. The plant’s archetype is concentrated in the seed; the cosmic element lives within it as the form of the plant. The seed is then surrounded by humus, the formative principle within the earth, and by the mineral constituents of the soil: silica, calcium, clay and dissolved salts.4 The seed is thus surrounded by matter whose terrestrial nature diminishes the more strongly its mineral components crystallise and become insoluble in water, as is the case with silica for instance. This is because in crystals the form of the cosmic archetype of the mineral appears, whereas in dissolved substances physical/terrestrial laws prevail.

As the seed swells, water is taken up from the soil along with dissolved salts, and the cosmic form of the plant forms a relationship with earthly substance. What lives as cosmic form within the seed transforms itself, manifesting as earthly form in what we see as the physically perceptible plant. When an earthly substance such as potassium is absorbed, it takes the first step away from its terrestrial nature. In this field of tension between the plant form becoming earthly and the potassium increasingly losing its terrestrial quality, protein is created; cosmic form and earthly substance interpenetrate one another in this fundamental substance of life. For example, when protein is created in the growing shoot, potassium processes rise up and exert pressure from below. This enables the spirit, with sulphur as its mediator, to use the protein to build up the structure of the plant. The forming of plant protein can be seen as the moment when the plant’s cosmic form enters the earthly realm and when potassium, as the representative of terrestrial forces, reveals its cosmic-archetypal nature. Hence the more the physical form of yarrow comes to expression the more is potassium released from the constricts of its physical properties.

At every stage of this changing interrelationship of form and substance, of becoming terrestrial or cosmic, the protein has a different form and constitution. In the young plant and towards the root, the structure of the protein is simpler and more related to potassium, to nitrates and free amino acids; whereas in the fully grown plant, towards flowering and the ripened fruits, it grows more complex and is related more to sulphur and to form.

In the flower, the full expression of what once lived in the seed as cosmic form now appears in earthly form. The being of the plant cannot reveal more of itself than what is manifested in the flower. Potassium on the other hand, as an earthly substance, is furthest from its earthly nature in the flower. From a substance with clearly defined physical properties it has dissolved into the organic process. It has imprinted on this process certain characteristics that allow it, as it ascends from leaf to leaf, to achieve a seed-like state in the flower.

This relationship between the cosmic and terrestrial qualities, expressed in the flower in terms of form and substance, mirrors that of the original seed germinating in the soil, but this time in a polar opposite way. The plant reveals its archetypal nature by dying into form while, at the same time, the earthly substances that permeate it enter into a kind of ‘cosmic seed state’. As closed and complete in itself as the flower may appear, it is also open and germ-like at the same time. This condition of openness and devotion towards the cosmos lasts for only a moment. Then comes the impulse that leads to the forming of individual seeds and the fading away of the plant form after flowering, causing it to decay and become humus, the ‘universal seed’.

How can this process of seed and humus formation be led beyond the limits set by the laws of nature? How may the moment of flowering be given permanence?

Stages of the preparation

Answers to these questions cannot be found merely by observing the yarrow plant. Rather, we must look at the effect that yarrow has on animals and humans. There we find that it has a healing effect on weaknesses in the astral body. This is because animals and humans have an inner life that corresponds to the flowering of plants. When used as a remedy for warmblooded animals and human beings the flowering process of the yarrow continues beyond the realm of external phenomena and there unfolds its healing properties. This is the effect we are striving to achieve with the yarrow preparation.

According to Rudolf Steiner, the organ process that is best able to conserve what is present in the yarrow is ‘the process which takes place between the kidneys and the bladder’.4 What makes the bladder of the stag eminently suitable for the yarrow preparation as compared with other ruminants, is its two functional aspects.

The first functional aspect is what connects the bladder with the outside world. In the bladder, the metabolising of fluids reaches a conclusion. It draws in, concentrates and then excretes what has been processed by the kidneys. This activity has as its counter pole the outwardly focused nerve-sense activity. In the case of the stag this applies not just to the eyes but also to the antlers. They serve as a kind of feeler or sense organ, and grow out like limb bones above the head and then die off as an external object of the world.

The red deer lives with its proud antlers and ever watchful eyes observing its surroundings in a state of continuous low- level nervousness. The eyes behave in an opposite way to the bladder. While the latter captures material substances from the internal, ensouled world, so in the opposite way the eye captures spiritual impressions in the outer world and concentrates them as perceptions. And just as the bladder opens itself towards the external world through the act of excretion, so the eye transmits the content of its images to the world within.

What the stag experiences as the current cosmic reality influences not just the particular configuration of the bladder but also the makeup of substances in its fine membrane. Through the imprinting of these forces, the round and ball-like bladder almost becomes an ‘image of the cosmos’.

The second functional aspect has to do with how the balllike form of the bladder encloses an inner space. Within this space the ongoing activity of the processes taking place there are preserved.

In the first stage of the preparation, the yarrow flowers are placed, lightly pressed together, into the bladder of a stag so that they are completely surrounded by it.

The flowers that had previously been open to the cosmos now fill an inner space, while the bladder, which was once wholly at the service of inner, organic life, has now become an object of the external world. The astral body of the stag, which formed the bladder, is now replaced by the world astrality of the cosmos, which streams in from the periphery when the preparation is exposed to the outside world. During this first stage of the preparation, we see an initial transformation of the bladder’s function taking place: from an organ of metabolism, it becomes a kind of sense organ for sensing the cosmos. The flowers on the other hand, which are naturally open to the outside world, now find themselves enclosed within an animal organ that is thoroughly permeated by conserving forces.

In the second stage of the preparation, the stag’s bladder with its content of blossoms is hung up ‘in a place exposed as far as possible to the sunshine’.6 There it is exposed to the forces of the earth’s physical body in the elements of air and warmth and all that works through the vertical axis running between the centre of the earth and the sun. The configuration of substances bestowed on it by the stag’s experience of the cosmos has made the bladder membrane receptive to these forces. This signature of the sun-filled space of air and warmth is imparted by the bladder to the flowers contained within it, and the form of the bladder envelope ensures that what has been taken up by the yarrow flowers is retained and preserved.

In the third stage of the preparation the balls of yarrow are buried ‘not very deep in the Earth’, so that they are exposed to the forces of the earth’s physical body in the elements of earth and water and that which is working in a vertical direction. Again, it is the configuration of substances in the bladder, which mediates what is living physically in the earth and the water, and it is the enveloping form of the bladder itself, that gives a lasting quality to the germ-like condition of the substances in the blossoms.

In the second and third stages of preparation, the yarrow flowers are exposed to the forces of the physical earth. This consists of and is built upon the four elements, which in nature are continually mixing and separating out into the air and warmth above and in the fluid and solid elements beneath the earth. The balls of yarrow are submersed as seeds in both of the spatial qualities of ‘above’ and ‘below’, and in light and darkness. These spatial qualities are preserved in them, and that which is preserved above permeates that which is below and vice versa.

Besides the physical and spatial context, time also plays a role in this second stage. The balls of yarrow spend summer through to autumn suspended above the earth, exposed to the forces of warmth and air as well as to the light of the sun. During this period, the airy, warm and moist spheres of the earth are permeated by the etheric and astral forces that stream in directly from the sun and also from the planetary surroundings, especially from the inner planets. What is living spiritually in these forces enables the plants to grow and develop in an endless variety of forms. These forces are received by the blossoms inside the sheath. Again, it is the bladder’s configuration of substances that imparts to them what lives in the succession of time, and it is the bladder’s form that preserves the imprint of each moment.

In the third stage of the preparation, the balls of yarrow lie in the soil from autumn through the winter until spring. The moist earth is permeated by etheric and astral forces from the sun and the planets, but especially the outer planets this time, that work indirectly on plant growth. What lives spiritually in these forces enters into connection with substances representing the mineral, crystalline nature of the earth: quartz (silica), limestone and clay. It works on the plant world indirectly as an upward cosmic stream mediated by the clay, and it manifests itself in the colour of the leaves and flowers and in the refined substances of the ripening fruit. The balls of yarrow lie immersed within these active forces beneath the earth during the winter. Once more it is through a kind of sensory capacity within the substances of the bladder that this cyclic, germinal quality is imparted to the mass of blossom material, and the form of the bladder that preserves this germinal quality.

Summer and winter cannot occur simultaneously in one place, they must follow each other in time. But by being subjected to the forces of light and warmth during the summer and then those of water and earth during the winter, the germinal quality in the flower (mediated and preserved by the stag’s bladder) has an entire annual cycle imprinted upon it. All the qualities of the successive seasons of the year permeate the flower substance simultaneously. It preserves within it the summer half of the year permeated by the winter half of the year and vice versa. When yarrow is prepared in this way, the influences of an entire annual cycle become concentrated in it, and this gives rise to potentially new developmental possibilities.

During the course of preparing the yarrow, the stream of substances that end in seed formation in the flower are led beyond the restrictions normally imposed upon them by time and space. We intervene in the processes of nature and, as a result, what lives briefly in the flower as an open gesture, and in the seed as mere potential, becomes an active force on a higher level. The germinal-substance quality does not revert back to the natural processes of seed and humus formation, but instead germinates and is fertilised by the forces of the physical, etheric and astral bodies of the earth.

Effects of the preparation
The finished preparation, when measured against the quantities of ordinary manure used on a farm, is a seemingly negligible amount. What it contains, however, is not a finished work but a seed. Outwardly, it looks like humus and yet, by its nature and activity, it is precisely the opposite. Humus ‘gives rise to a “lightless” working’. The purpose of the yarrow preparation and, in a modified way, the other compost preparations too, is to bring a ‘light effect’ to the decaying organic materials arising on the farm. This enables these farm manures to become sensitive to the cosmic archetypes that exist beyond space and time.

The nature and meaning of the yarrow preparation is connected with the nature and meaning of potassium. In the living processes of the plant – and with yarrow this is archetypal – potassium increasingly liberates itself from the determinism of nature. It is able to rise a step closer towards its true cosmic nature because of the special sulphur configuration in the yarrow flowers. This may be called the level of ‘active working’. In the field of tension that exists between sulphur and potassium in the living realm, potassium is active in the process that leads to the formation of leaf protein. This protein formation ceases almost entirely in the flower before continuing with the forming of seeds. In the flower, therefore, the potassium process is released from its living activity of protein formation. It refines itself in this germ-like state, expressed in the open gesture of the flower, and then begins to mineralise as the plant dies back, coming under the influence once more of the determinism of its physical properties.

It is this moment of flowering that the preparation seeks to preserve.

Through having been encased in the stag’s bladder and undergone the further stages of preparation, the transformed potassium process that culminates in the flower continues to be active. The earthly substance of potassium is therefore not only raised into the living realm but into the sphere of sensationbearing life. This vitalising and sensitising of substance also takes place in animals through their astral or soul nature. This is expressed by the remarkable fertilising power of ruminant manure, especially that of cattle. Cow manure is a good example of this.

The completed yarrow preparation represents the third stage of manuring. It becomes effective when homeopathically small amounts are added to compost and manure piles. The compost is then spread on the land at the appropriate time. The soil itself is only a very thin skin, forming a kind of ‘diaphragm’ between what is above. If the compost preparation is worked into it, this membrane-like ‘middle zone’ will be fertilised by this new substance. This manuring agent, which in essence consists of an inter-relationship between mineral, plant and animal elements, the rhythms of the solar year and the creative strength of the human spirit, enhances and exceeds the way the three kingdoms of nature work. It not only balances out what has been removed by the exploitation of the earth, but it gives the earth – the finished work of nature – the capacity to bring life to what is lifeless, enables what is living to bear sensations, and to become more individual through the spirit streaming into it from the future. Wherever it is carried out, the significance of this third step in the manuring process can be understood as being to lead nature beyond the threshold of space and time in order to reconnect it with the ongoing development of the human soul and spirit, and hence with the cosmos.