Stirring or "dynamising" in biodynamics - Monty Waldin
Posted: 29 May 2013, 11:38
http://montysbiodynamicbasecamp.blogspo ... amics.html
The following is an extract from my book, Biodynamic Wine-Growing: Theory & Practice, which is published as an e-book on Amazon Kindle, and as a paperback via http://www.lulu.com (http://tinyurl.com/q52j2fr).
The underlying principle of the nine biodynamic preparations 500-508 is that they are physical substances which carry intangible etheric formative forces. Carrying the forces contained in the six compost preparations 502-507 over large areas of farmland is made possible by the act of spreading biodynamic compost. The compost brings these forces as well as valuable substances to the soil. However for the forces contained in the three biodynamic field spray preparations horn manure 500, horn silica 501 and common horsetail 508 to reach the farm it is first necessary to dilute them in water and then stir or “dynamise” them. The same dynamising process is also used for the only liquid compost preparation, valerian 507, before it is applied to the compost.
On one level the stirring or dynamising process allows both the forces contained within the preparations as well as those from the wider celestial sphere to reach the land. The theory is that water keeps the memory of the dissolved biodynamic preparation[1] and that this “information” can be transferred.[2] On a practical level stirring helps the substances to be thoroughly mixed in the water. The oxygenating effect the stirring has brings a substantial increase of oxygen in the water, up to 75% after one hour of manual stirring according to Pfeiffer.[3] This helps microbes present in for example the horn manure 500 or Maria Thun’s barrel compost 502-507 sprays to multiply rapidly.
The Significance of the Vortex
Steiner[4] described the stirring or dynamising process he intended when discussing horn manure 500: “You must make sure…that the entire contents of the horn have been thoroughly exposed to the water. To do this, you have to start stirring it quickly around the edge of the bucket, on the periphery, until a crater forms that reaches nearly to the bottom, so that everything is rotating rapidly. Then you reverse the direction quickly, so that everything seethes and starts to swirl in the opposite direction. If you continue doing this for an hour, you will get it thoroughly mixed.”
When stirring a biodynamic preparation in water in a vertical container a whirlpool effect is created by the wall of water which forms at the centre. Steiner described this as a “crater”, but this is now more commonly referred to as the vortex. Jennifer Greene calls the vortex the water’s sense organ.[5] This recalls the idea of how six of the nine biodynamic preparations are sensitised to formative forces by being enclosed in sense organs (animal sheaths). The vortex is the water’s way of rhythmically ensheathing the forces contained in the preparations. When the direction of the stirring changes from one way to another the vortex is lost as the water seethes and undergoes chaos. This moment of chaos is when the preparation being stirred is said to receive the imprint of the cosmos, whose forces stream into the earth leaving their imprint on all living things.
Greene worked with Theodor Schwenk, a German hydro-engineer and pioneer in water flow research whose book on the subject Sensitive Chaos[6] was described by Commandant Jacques Cousteau as the first phenomenological treatise on water. Schwenk identified the vortex as the living pulse which allowed water to take in air in such a way that the water could regenerate itself just as it did in natural springs to stay cleaner and fresher, not simply to purify it but to revitalize it as well so that it could then support living processes. Hence Greene[7] says that while we happily think of water in terms of pollution or its use as a mechanical or engineering (hydraulics) aid, water as an element for the purveyor of life has not generally been the modern focus. Joly[8] reminds us that the latent forces underlying life are often manifested in physical matter in the form of spirals: calving rings on vortical shaped female cow horns are the prime biodynamic example (see Chapter 2, Horn Manure 500). Another might be our universe, a spiral in which our planets constantly swirl. Spirals of water are what form or create the vortex.
Greene[9] describes how Schwenk noticed that movement at the centre of a funnel or vertical vortex is faster than the movement on the periphery, and that this exemplifies Kepler's Laws of Movement observed with the planets: those closest to the sun move more quickly than those furthest away. However if one takes a small rectangular piece of paper, puts a dot at one end, and places this piece of paper midway between the periphery and the centre of the water and air surface, the paper will move in a such a way that it maintains the same orientation. As Schwenk describes it, it retains its orientation to a fixed star. The conclusion drawn is "that water moves pertains to earthly forces" but "how water moves" pertains to cosmic laws.
West[10] argues that spraying herb teas and liquid manures like those described above without first dynamising them encourages plants to feed directly off the substances they contain through their water roots, exactly as if inorganic water-soluble or “chemical” fertilizer was being applied. The act of dynamising and the vortex the process of stirring creates allow nutrients suspended in the water to carry an electrical charge. This renders them colloidal and, says West, for a plant to feed naturally nutrients must be colloidally bonded to an organic molecule. Plants fed with the organic colloidal rather than inorganic water-soluble system have more feeder root hairs and thus stronger, healthier root systems because this is exactly how nutrients pass from soil solids to plants anyway. Through the chelating action of the aerobic bacteria, nutrients are in the perfect form for a plant to utilise and have become part of a living organism, namely the soil. Plants stay healthier when they have more food to chose from because nutrients held as liquid colloids do not leach from the soil when it rains as water-soluble fertilizers do. By implication colloidally held nutrients will provide greater health and vitality to humans hoping to assimilate nutrients from crops they consume. Biodynamic wine-growers who extol the healthful virtues of wine drinking (in moderation) but who fail to aerate their liquid manures could be accused of hubris.
The Container for Dynamising
It is no surprise that the most common container used by wine-growers for stirring is an old barrel with one of the ends removed. The barrel can be cleaned naturally by weathering it outside rather than scrubbing it with detergent or charcoal. Those who favour containers made of inert materials should try to avoid galavanised vessels, and if there is no alternative to plastic one of the hard, dense types should be chosen[11], presumably to reduce the risk of off-gassing. Guy Bussière of Domaine du Val de Saône in Burgundy hand stirs his biodynamic sprays in a clay pot once used for salting meat. For stainless steel containers, non-magnetic forms should be used. Courtney[12] says the main thing to keep in mind is to get the biodynamic preparations stirred and sprayed onto the farm; worrying about the perfect stirring vessel should be an afterthought. At the very least though the stirring vessel should be sited in a place which makes use of gravity both for filling it with water and draining dynamised liquids ready for spraying.
Dynamising by Hand
Ideally all biodynamic farms would be of a size which permitted all tasks to be carried out manually, even stirring, although even Steiner[13] said that for large farms mechanisation would be necessary. However Steiner[14] did also say “there’s no question that stirring by hand has a quite different significance than mechanical stirring, although of course someone with a mechanistic world-view would never admit it. Just consider what a huge difference there really is: when you stir by hand, all the fine movements of your hand go into the stirring, and quite possibly all kinds of other things do too, including the feelings you have as you stir. People nowadays don’t think that makes any difference, but in the field of medicine, for instance, the difference is quite noticeable. Believe me, it is really not a matter of indifference whether a certain medication is prepared by hand or by machine. Something is imparted to the things that are produced by hand.”
For this reason it is recommended: that only one person should stir any given preparation, rather than have several people take turns stirring the same preparation for short periods; that once started a dynamisation should never be interrupted; and that a dynamised solution should never be mixed, either with another dynamised solution (see Chapter 2, Horn Silica 501) or a non-dynamised one. Germany’s Institute for Biodynamic Research (IBDF) has changed its advice on the application of biodynamic spray preparations in recent years through its research into formative forces, recommending hand rather than machine stirring.[15]
Storch makes an observation few involved in biodynamics would disagree with: “Anyone who has done a serious amount of hand stirring will have noticed a point in the stirring process where there is a transformation in the liquid. The stirring gets easier and there is a noticeble difference in the ease with which the vortex forms and there is something in the stirred liquid that changes that I cannot put my finger on.” [16] The likely answer is the oxygenating effect the stirring has; or perhaps the water’s change in texture arises because dynamising splits clusters of water molecules, energising them via the action the vortex has on quarks, suggests Rhône-based winemaker Michel Chapoutier, quarks being hypothetical elementary particles at sub-atomic level.[17]
Peter Proctor[18] says that when the water becomes more slippery and viscous and easier to stir “the water has become enlivened by a similar process to that of the growing plant, the rhythm of the expansion to leaf and contraction to seed. In this process you have increased the oxygen content of the water. At the same time you have introduced the cosmic forces that enable the water to become a dynamic carrier of the life energy of the [biodynamic preparation] as it is spread over the land.”
Hand stirring can involve either placing one’s hand directly in the water-filled recipient, or using one’s hands to move an implement, such as a pole suspended in the water from above (attached to an overhead beam, for example) which makes stirring larger volumes of water less tiring.
Dynamising by Machine
The number of companies supplying stirring machines aimed at the biodynamic market is small but increasing. Suppliers I am aware of include Matthieu Bouchet’s Terres en Devenir in Montreuil-Bellay (Maine et Loire), France for dynamisers made from wood (see photo) and latterly from clay-lime (and thus metal-free) mortar. Gian Zefferino Montanari of Bio-Meccanica (biomeccanica.com) in Scandiano (RE), Italy produces cleverly designed and mechanically robust copper stirring machines and sprayers framed in stainless steel. The electric motor is insulated and moveable and so can be sited away from the machine when a dynamisation is taking place. Unframed alternatives also from copper are made by the Swiss Ulrich Schreier of Eco-Dyn (eco-dyn.com) in Becon Les Granits (Maine et Loire), France, now by far France’s leading supplier of copper dynamisers to wine estates. Steve Storch (naturalscienceorganics.com) in Water Mill (NY), USA designs and produces barrel-shaped copper stirring machines which are hydraulically rather than electrically powered. As he says it makes no sense going to the trouble of storing and keeping the biodynamic preparations away from electricity if at the most intense moment they experience when being stirred in water they are blasted with electromagnetic fields from electrical machinery.[19]
There are two schools of thought on when the reversal in direction of the movement of stirring which creates chaos should take place. One school argues it should be decided by the height the water reaches as the central vortex pushes the water up around the side of the stirring container. This takes account of the suppleness of the water, and how it changes during stirring (see Storch’s comments above). The other school maintains that the motor should be deliberately pre-programmed to change direction every twenty to thirty seconds or so, with a short pause. Placing the drive mechanism which turns the stirring paddles beneath the chamber holding the water, rather than above it, may allow even better penetration of celestial forces. Biodynamic growers are encouraged to remain near mechanical stirring machines when they are being used so that “the intention of the farmer [remains] fully involved with the stirring”[20], meaning that even if the machine is a money saving device it should not be seen as merely a time saving device as well. This echoes Steiner[21] who said that “you may say that enthusiasm cannot be weighed or measured, but an enthusiastic doctor is an inspired doctor, and the doctor’s enthusiasm supports the effect of the medicine.” One can use the word “farmer” instead of “doctor” and “farm spray” instead of “medicine” for his point to have an agricultural resonance.
Flowforms
The traditional way of dynamising using a bucket, tub or tank results in a single central vertical vortex or whirl forming in the water. At most around 200 litres can be stirred by hand in this way, with volumes of around 600 litres possible in the largest mechanically powered vertical dynamisers. Much larger quantities of water of upto several thousand litres can be dynamised by using what are called flowforms. The first flowforms were designed in the early 1970s when the above-mentioned Theodor Schwenk asked John Wilkes (1930-2011), an English potter-turned-sculptor and graduate of the Royal College of Art, to make a model over which water could flow.
Wilkes wanted to work on the subject of resistance in streaming water and the resulting rhythms. During his experiments Wilkes found that by creating a certain resistance to the water flow in a vessel with defined proportions, a pulsing figure-of-eight pattern would arise. Thus the flowform principle was discovered. The work into what became known as flowforms took place at Herrischreid in Germany at Schwenk’s fledgling Institut für Strömungswissenschaften (Institute for Flow Sciences). Wilkes installed his first flowform in 1971 in Järna, Sweden (this prototype was later commercialised as the Järna model).[22]
A flowform consists of a series of between three and up to a dozen or more small and symmetrical sculpted vessels or basins through which water is channelled. Rates vary between 1,000 litres per hour for a three basin flowform upto 2,800 litres per hour for a seven basin flowform. Each basin has an inlet and an outlet. Water is channelled to cascade and stream through these sculpted forms in a way which replicates certain archetypal forms found in water's movement in its natural state, such as if it were eddying and flowing over pebbles in a stream. The proportions of the basins create and maintain a rhythmical pulsing figure-of-eight or lemniscatory movement in the water which replicates how blood moves in living organisms. Wilkes[23] said this figure-of-eight was fundamental to organic processes. The water undergoes chaos when it falls in a collecting tank and can then be returned to the top of the cascade for the cycle to begin again.
Flowforms create layers in the water because streams of water are moving in the same direction in the basins, but at differing speeds. This allows multiple vortices to develop. This contrasts to the single, vertical vortex produced in a vertical container. When two layers of water flow past each other creating resistance, planes of vortices form between these layers. This dramatically increases oxygen levels in the water and does so in a rhythmical way which is said to enhance the water’s vitality. As well as being used in biodynamics, flowforms are also used to treat industrial and agricultural effluent because, as initial research at the Rudolf Steiner Seminariat wastewater treatment ponds in Sweden showed, they can oxygenate large volumes of water while also stimulating biological activity. Some wineries such as Frey in California pass waste water from the winery through a flowform to clean and re-vitalize it (see photo). The visual and aural effect flowforms have mean they also have a role in therapeutics.
Germany’s Institut für Strömungswissenschaften (stroemungsinstitut.de) is researching how stirring affects the biodynamic preparations. Research into flowforms is also being undertaken in America at the Michael Fields Research Institute (michaelfields.org) in Wisconsin.
The Water
Tap water is deemed too hard and alkaline for the kind of sprays used by biodynamic growers, and anyway may have been chlorinated or had flouride added. One alternative, rain water, is softer and more acidic than tap water. Saverio Petrilli uses rain water rather than water from streams running through Tuscany’s Tenuta di Valgiano which he manages. “Biodynamic experts tell me one of our streams has water with a better pH than the other one,” he says “but that the water from either stream has better pH than that from the sky. However obtaining water from the stream means finding pumps, a power supply, tractors and trailers whereas water from the sky arrives by gravity.”
Those who collect rain water should wait twenty minutes before placing a recipient under say a roof gutter to avoid harvesting the earliest fraction of rain water which is the most polluted, and contains mineral impurities which may inhibit the fermentation process for liquid manures. It is also likely to contain dust and other dirt from the roof itself.
Françoise Bedel in Champagne uses water from her own well. Dominique Derain in the Côte de Beaune uses water from his local stream in St-Aubin. Melted snow may also be used.
Spraying Dynamised Liquids by Machine
When Steiner was asked, in the discussion after the fourth lecture of his 1924 Agriculture course, whether the etheric and astral forces carried by a dynamised liquid would be lost by using a machine that breaks the liquid up into a very fine spray he replied “Not at all. They are very firmly bound. In general, you don’t have to be nearly as afraid that spiritual things will run away from you as you do with material things.”[24]
[1] See Schiff, Michel., The Memory of Water: Homoeopathy and the Battle of Ideas in the New Science (Thorsons, 1995)
[2] See Schwenk, Theodor., Sensitive Chaos (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1996) trans. by O. Whicher & J. Weigley
[3] Pfeiffer, Ehrenfried., Biodynamics: three introductory articles (Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association USA, 1956)
[4] Steiner, op. cit., p.73
[5] Dagostino, Kathryn., ‘A new way of looking at water: an interview with Jennifer Greene’, Applied Biodynamics 16/1996, p.6
[6] See Schwenk, op. cit.
[7] Greene, Jennifer., 'The vortex in water and flowforms', Stella Natura Calendar 2000 (Kimberton Hills USA, 1999), p.30
[8] Joly, Nicolas., What is Biodynamic Wine (Clairview, 2007) trans. by M. Barton, p.62
[9] Greene, ibid., p.30
[10] West, Lynette., ‘Using Liquid Manures’, Star & Furrow 109/2008, p.15-16
[11] Soper, John., Bio-Dynamic Gardening (Souvenir Press, 1996), eds. B. Saunders-Davies & K. Castelliz, p.40
[12] Courtney, Hugh., ‘Stirring vessels and sprayers (part 2)’, Applied Biodynamics 20/1997, p.4
[13] Steiner, op. cit., p.74
[14] Steiner, ibid., p.76-77
[15] Baars, Ton., and Pfirmann, Dorothee., ‘On the effect of horn manure, discussion on evidence in accurate trials’, Star & Furrow 115 (Summer 2011), p.32 trans. by John Weedon
[16] Storch, Stephen., ‘Developing a hydraulic stirring machine’, Applied Biodynamics 20/1997, p.8
[17] See Beckett, Neil., ‘Biodynamo’, Harpers Wine & Spirit Weekly, 25 October 2002, p.31
[18] Proctor, op. cit., p.46
[19] Storch, op. cit., p.7
[20] Courtney, op. cit., p.5
[21] Steiner, op. cit., p.77
[22] Wilkes, Thomas., & Schwuchow, Jochen., ‘John Wilkes 1930-2011’, Star and Furrow 116/2012, p.48-49
[23] Wilkes, John., Flowforms - The Rhythmic Power of Water (Floris, 2003)
[24] Steiner, op. cit., p.83
The following is an extract from my book, Biodynamic Wine-Growing: Theory & Practice, which is published as an e-book on Amazon Kindle, and as a paperback via http://www.lulu.com (http://tinyurl.com/q52j2fr).
The underlying principle of the nine biodynamic preparations 500-508 is that they are physical substances which carry intangible etheric formative forces. Carrying the forces contained in the six compost preparations 502-507 over large areas of farmland is made possible by the act of spreading biodynamic compost. The compost brings these forces as well as valuable substances to the soil. However for the forces contained in the three biodynamic field spray preparations horn manure 500, horn silica 501 and common horsetail 508 to reach the farm it is first necessary to dilute them in water and then stir or “dynamise” them. The same dynamising process is also used for the only liquid compost preparation, valerian 507, before it is applied to the compost.
On one level the stirring or dynamising process allows both the forces contained within the preparations as well as those from the wider celestial sphere to reach the land. The theory is that water keeps the memory of the dissolved biodynamic preparation[1] and that this “information” can be transferred.[2] On a practical level stirring helps the substances to be thoroughly mixed in the water. The oxygenating effect the stirring has brings a substantial increase of oxygen in the water, up to 75% after one hour of manual stirring according to Pfeiffer.[3] This helps microbes present in for example the horn manure 500 or Maria Thun’s barrel compost 502-507 sprays to multiply rapidly.
The Significance of the Vortex
Steiner[4] described the stirring or dynamising process he intended when discussing horn manure 500: “You must make sure…that the entire contents of the horn have been thoroughly exposed to the water. To do this, you have to start stirring it quickly around the edge of the bucket, on the periphery, until a crater forms that reaches nearly to the bottom, so that everything is rotating rapidly. Then you reverse the direction quickly, so that everything seethes and starts to swirl in the opposite direction. If you continue doing this for an hour, you will get it thoroughly mixed.”
When stirring a biodynamic preparation in water in a vertical container a whirlpool effect is created by the wall of water which forms at the centre. Steiner described this as a “crater”, but this is now more commonly referred to as the vortex. Jennifer Greene calls the vortex the water’s sense organ.[5] This recalls the idea of how six of the nine biodynamic preparations are sensitised to formative forces by being enclosed in sense organs (animal sheaths). The vortex is the water’s way of rhythmically ensheathing the forces contained in the preparations. When the direction of the stirring changes from one way to another the vortex is lost as the water seethes and undergoes chaos. This moment of chaos is when the preparation being stirred is said to receive the imprint of the cosmos, whose forces stream into the earth leaving their imprint on all living things.
Greene worked with Theodor Schwenk, a German hydro-engineer and pioneer in water flow research whose book on the subject Sensitive Chaos[6] was described by Commandant Jacques Cousteau as the first phenomenological treatise on water. Schwenk identified the vortex as the living pulse which allowed water to take in air in such a way that the water could regenerate itself just as it did in natural springs to stay cleaner and fresher, not simply to purify it but to revitalize it as well so that it could then support living processes. Hence Greene[7] says that while we happily think of water in terms of pollution or its use as a mechanical or engineering (hydraulics) aid, water as an element for the purveyor of life has not generally been the modern focus. Joly[8] reminds us that the latent forces underlying life are often manifested in physical matter in the form of spirals: calving rings on vortical shaped female cow horns are the prime biodynamic example (see Chapter 2, Horn Manure 500). Another might be our universe, a spiral in which our planets constantly swirl. Spirals of water are what form or create the vortex.
Greene[9] describes how Schwenk noticed that movement at the centre of a funnel or vertical vortex is faster than the movement on the periphery, and that this exemplifies Kepler's Laws of Movement observed with the planets: those closest to the sun move more quickly than those furthest away. However if one takes a small rectangular piece of paper, puts a dot at one end, and places this piece of paper midway between the periphery and the centre of the water and air surface, the paper will move in a such a way that it maintains the same orientation. As Schwenk describes it, it retains its orientation to a fixed star. The conclusion drawn is "that water moves pertains to earthly forces" but "how water moves" pertains to cosmic laws.
West[10] argues that spraying herb teas and liquid manures like those described above without first dynamising them encourages plants to feed directly off the substances they contain through their water roots, exactly as if inorganic water-soluble or “chemical” fertilizer was being applied. The act of dynamising and the vortex the process of stirring creates allow nutrients suspended in the water to carry an electrical charge. This renders them colloidal and, says West, for a plant to feed naturally nutrients must be colloidally bonded to an organic molecule. Plants fed with the organic colloidal rather than inorganic water-soluble system have more feeder root hairs and thus stronger, healthier root systems because this is exactly how nutrients pass from soil solids to plants anyway. Through the chelating action of the aerobic bacteria, nutrients are in the perfect form for a plant to utilise and have become part of a living organism, namely the soil. Plants stay healthier when they have more food to chose from because nutrients held as liquid colloids do not leach from the soil when it rains as water-soluble fertilizers do. By implication colloidally held nutrients will provide greater health and vitality to humans hoping to assimilate nutrients from crops they consume. Biodynamic wine-growers who extol the healthful virtues of wine drinking (in moderation) but who fail to aerate their liquid manures could be accused of hubris.
The Container for Dynamising
It is no surprise that the most common container used by wine-growers for stirring is an old barrel with one of the ends removed. The barrel can be cleaned naturally by weathering it outside rather than scrubbing it with detergent or charcoal. Those who favour containers made of inert materials should try to avoid galavanised vessels, and if there is no alternative to plastic one of the hard, dense types should be chosen[11], presumably to reduce the risk of off-gassing. Guy Bussière of Domaine du Val de Saône in Burgundy hand stirs his biodynamic sprays in a clay pot once used for salting meat. For stainless steel containers, non-magnetic forms should be used. Courtney[12] says the main thing to keep in mind is to get the biodynamic preparations stirred and sprayed onto the farm; worrying about the perfect stirring vessel should be an afterthought. At the very least though the stirring vessel should be sited in a place which makes use of gravity both for filling it with water and draining dynamised liquids ready for spraying.
Dynamising by Hand
Ideally all biodynamic farms would be of a size which permitted all tasks to be carried out manually, even stirring, although even Steiner[13] said that for large farms mechanisation would be necessary. However Steiner[14] did also say “there’s no question that stirring by hand has a quite different significance than mechanical stirring, although of course someone with a mechanistic world-view would never admit it. Just consider what a huge difference there really is: when you stir by hand, all the fine movements of your hand go into the stirring, and quite possibly all kinds of other things do too, including the feelings you have as you stir. People nowadays don’t think that makes any difference, but in the field of medicine, for instance, the difference is quite noticeable. Believe me, it is really not a matter of indifference whether a certain medication is prepared by hand or by machine. Something is imparted to the things that are produced by hand.”
For this reason it is recommended: that only one person should stir any given preparation, rather than have several people take turns stirring the same preparation for short periods; that once started a dynamisation should never be interrupted; and that a dynamised solution should never be mixed, either with another dynamised solution (see Chapter 2, Horn Silica 501) or a non-dynamised one. Germany’s Institute for Biodynamic Research (IBDF) has changed its advice on the application of biodynamic spray preparations in recent years through its research into formative forces, recommending hand rather than machine stirring.[15]
Storch makes an observation few involved in biodynamics would disagree with: “Anyone who has done a serious amount of hand stirring will have noticed a point in the stirring process where there is a transformation in the liquid. The stirring gets easier and there is a noticeble difference in the ease with which the vortex forms and there is something in the stirred liquid that changes that I cannot put my finger on.” [16] The likely answer is the oxygenating effect the stirring has; or perhaps the water’s change in texture arises because dynamising splits clusters of water molecules, energising them via the action the vortex has on quarks, suggests Rhône-based winemaker Michel Chapoutier, quarks being hypothetical elementary particles at sub-atomic level.[17]
Peter Proctor[18] says that when the water becomes more slippery and viscous and easier to stir “the water has become enlivened by a similar process to that of the growing plant, the rhythm of the expansion to leaf and contraction to seed. In this process you have increased the oxygen content of the water. At the same time you have introduced the cosmic forces that enable the water to become a dynamic carrier of the life energy of the [biodynamic preparation] as it is spread over the land.”
Hand stirring can involve either placing one’s hand directly in the water-filled recipient, or using one’s hands to move an implement, such as a pole suspended in the water from above (attached to an overhead beam, for example) which makes stirring larger volumes of water less tiring.
Dynamising by Machine
The number of companies supplying stirring machines aimed at the biodynamic market is small but increasing. Suppliers I am aware of include Matthieu Bouchet’s Terres en Devenir in Montreuil-Bellay (Maine et Loire), France for dynamisers made from wood (see photo) and latterly from clay-lime (and thus metal-free) mortar. Gian Zefferino Montanari of Bio-Meccanica (biomeccanica.com) in Scandiano (RE), Italy produces cleverly designed and mechanically robust copper stirring machines and sprayers framed in stainless steel. The electric motor is insulated and moveable and so can be sited away from the machine when a dynamisation is taking place. Unframed alternatives also from copper are made by the Swiss Ulrich Schreier of Eco-Dyn (eco-dyn.com) in Becon Les Granits (Maine et Loire), France, now by far France’s leading supplier of copper dynamisers to wine estates. Steve Storch (naturalscienceorganics.com) in Water Mill (NY), USA designs and produces barrel-shaped copper stirring machines which are hydraulically rather than electrically powered. As he says it makes no sense going to the trouble of storing and keeping the biodynamic preparations away from electricity if at the most intense moment they experience when being stirred in water they are blasted with electromagnetic fields from electrical machinery.[19]
There are two schools of thought on when the reversal in direction of the movement of stirring which creates chaos should take place. One school argues it should be decided by the height the water reaches as the central vortex pushes the water up around the side of the stirring container. This takes account of the suppleness of the water, and how it changes during stirring (see Storch’s comments above). The other school maintains that the motor should be deliberately pre-programmed to change direction every twenty to thirty seconds or so, with a short pause. Placing the drive mechanism which turns the stirring paddles beneath the chamber holding the water, rather than above it, may allow even better penetration of celestial forces. Biodynamic growers are encouraged to remain near mechanical stirring machines when they are being used so that “the intention of the farmer [remains] fully involved with the stirring”[20], meaning that even if the machine is a money saving device it should not be seen as merely a time saving device as well. This echoes Steiner[21] who said that “you may say that enthusiasm cannot be weighed or measured, but an enthusiastic doctor is an inspired doctor, and the doctor’s enthusiasm supports the effect of the medicine.” One can use the word “farmer” instead of “doctor” and “farm spray” instead of “medicine” for his point to have an agricultural resonance.
Flowforms
The traditional way of dynamising using a bucket, tub or tank results in a single central vertical vortex or whirl forming in the water. At most around 200 litres can be stirred by hand in this way, with volumes of around 600 litres possible in the largest mechanically powered vertical dynamisers. Much larger quantities of water of upto several thousand litres can be dynamised by using what are called flowforms. The first flowforms were designed in the early 1970s when the above-mentioned Theodor Schwenk asked John Wilkes (1930-2011), an English potter-turned-sculptor and graduate of the Royal College of Art, to make a model over which water could flow.
Wilkes wanted to work on the subject of resistance in streaming water and the resulting rhythms. During his experiments Wilkes found that by creating a certain resistance to the water flow in a vessel with defined proportions, a pulsing figure-of-eight pattern would arise. Thus the flowform principle was discovered. The work into what became known as flowforms took place at Herrischreid in Germany at Schwenk’s fledgling Institut für Strömungswissenschaften (Institute for Flow Sciences). Wilkes installed his first flowform in 1971 in Järna, Sweden (this prototype was later commercialised as the Järna model).[22]
A flowform consists of a series of between three and up to a dozen or more small and symmetrical sculpted vessels or basins through which water is channelled. Rates vary between 1,000 litres per hour for a three basin flowform upto 2,800 litres per hour for a seven basin flowform. Each basin has an inlet and an outlet. Water is channelled to cascade and stream through these sculpted forms in a way which replicates certain archetypal forms found in water's movement in its natural state, such as if it were eddying and flowing over pebbles in a stream. The proportions of the basins create and maintain a rhythmical pulsing figure-of-eight or lemniscatory movement in the water which replicates how blood moves in living organisms. Wilkes[23] said this figure-of-eight was fundamental to organic processes. The water undergoes chaos when it falls in a collecting tank and can then be returned to the top of the cascade for the cycle to begin again.
Flowforms create layers in the water because streams of water are moving in the same direction in the basins, but at differing speeds. This allows multiple vortices to develop. This contrasts to the single, vertical vortex produced in a vertical container. When two layers of water flow past each other creating resistance, planes of vortices form between these layers. This dramatically increases oxygen levels in the water and does so in a rhythmical way which is said to enhance the water’s vitality. As well as being used in biodynamics, flowforms are also used to treat industrial and agricultural effluent because, as initial research at the Rudolf Steiner Seminariat wastewater treatment ponds in Sweden showed, they can oxygenate large volumes of water while also stimulating biological activity. Some wineries such as Frey in California pass waste water from the winery through a flowform to clean and re-vitalize it (see photo). The visual and aural effect flowforms have mean they also have a role in therapeutics.
Germany’s Institut für Strömungswissenschaften (stroemungsinstitut.de) is researching how stirring affects the biodynamic preparations. Research into flowforms is also being undertaken in America at the Michael Fields Research Institute (michaelfields.org) in Wisconsin.
The Water
Tap water is deemed too hard and alkaline for the kind of sprays used by biodynamic growers, and anyway may have been chlorinated or had flouride added. One alternative, rain water, is softer and more acidic than tap water. Saverio Petrilli uses rain water rather than water from streams running through Tuscany’s Tenuta di Valgiano which he manages. “Biodynamic experts tell me one of our streams has water with a better pH than the other one,” he says “but that the water from either stream has better pH than that from the sky. However obtaining water from the stream means finding pumps, a power supply, tractors and trailers whereas water from the sky arrives by gravity.”
Those who collect rain water should wait twenty minutes before placing a recipient under say a roof gutter to avoid harvesting the earliest fraction of rain water which is the most polluted, and contains mineral impurities which may inhibit the fermentation process for liquid manures. It is also likely to contain dust and other dirt from the roof itself.
Françoise Bedel in Champagne uses water from her own well. Dominique Derain in the Côte de Beaune uses water from his local stream in St-Aubin. Melted snow may also be used.
Spraying Dynamised Liquids by Machine
When Steiner was asked, in the discussion after the fourth lecture of his 1924 Agriculture course, whether the etheric and astral forces carried by a dynamised liquid would be lost by using a machine that breaks the liquid up into a very fine spray he replied “Not at all. They are very firmly bound. In general, you don’t have to be nearly as afraid that spiritual things will run away from you as you do with material things.”[24]
[1] See Schiff, Michel., The Memory of Water: Homoeopathy and the Battle of Ideas in the New Science (Thorsons, 1995)
[2] See Schwenk, Theodor., Sensitive Chaos (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1996) trans. by O. Whicher & J. Weigley
[3] Pfeiffer, Ehrenfried., Biodynamics: three introductory articles (Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association USA, 1956)
[4] Steiner, op. cit., p.73
[5] Dagostino, Kathryn., ‘A new way of looking at water: an interview with Jennifer Greene’, Applied Biodynamics 16/1996, p.6
[6] See Schwenk, op. cit.
[7] Greene, Jennifer., 'The vortex in water and flowforms', Stella Natura Calendar 2000 (Kimberton Hills USA, 1999), p.30
[8] Joly, Nicolas., What is Biodynamic Wine (Clairview, 2007) trans. by M. Barton, p.62
[9] Greene, ibid., p.30
[10] West, Lynette., ‘Using Liquid Manures’, Star & Furrow 109/2008, p.15-16
[11] Soper, John., Bio-Dynamic Gardening (Souvenir Press, 1996), eds. B. Saunders-Davies & K. Castelliz, p.40
[12] Courtney, Hugh., ‘Stirring vessels and sprayers (part 2)’, Applied Biodynamics 20/1997, p.4
[13] Steiner, op. cit., p.74
[14] Steiner, ibid., p.76-77
[15] Baars, Ton., and Pfirmann, Dorothee., ‘On the effect of horn manure, discussion on evidence in accurate trials’, Star & Furrow 115 (Summer 2011), p.32 trans. by John Weedon
[16] Storch, Stephen., ‘Developing a hydraulic stirring machine’, Applied Biodynamics 20/1997, p.8
[17] See Beckett, Neil., ‘Biodynamo’, Harpers Wine & Spirit Weekly, 25 October 2002, p.31
[18] Proctor, op. cit., p.46
[19] Storch, op. cit., p.7
[20] Courtney, op. cit., p.5
[21] Steiner, op. cit., p.77
[22] Wilkes, Thomas., & Schwuchow, Jochen., ‘John Wilkes 1930-2011’, Star and Furrow 116/2012, p.48-49
[23] Wilkes, John., Flowforms - The Rhythmic Power of Water (Floris, 2003)
[24] Steiner, op. cit., p.83