Pretty well everyone in this community except those very recently joined should know by now that I operate by intuition and not logic. This does not mean, however, that logical processes do not have meaning for me.
Just as a reminder, the first questions I asked in the Brain Teaser series were:
1. Did Steiner really intend BD502-507 to be used solely in compost manufacture?
2. Did he identify equisetum as BD508 or was it someone else?
3. Is there a 'missing' BD509? If so, what might it and its purpose be?
RS was a scientist, a philosopher, a writer, a researcher. To achieve accomplishments in any of these (indeed, I would say any 'thing') he would have to have had a record system of some kind. He was also an Austrian and therefore a member of the Germanic branch of the Celtic race. The Germans are recognised as being amongst the most logical-thinking of Earth's peoples, and quite rightly so. Therefore one would expect that his record-keeping would have been second to none and that it would have met at least two essential criteria - one (as a scientist) to enable him to find things quickly and in their right order, and another (as a researcher) to assist those who came after him.
RS was also personally 'compartmentalised' (a crude description but not meant to be insulting) - how else might I interpret the fact that in his book 'The Story of My Life' the word 'agriculture' does not appear once, let alone 'preparation', 'dandelion' or 'chamomile'? My interpretation in fact is that very little of what he wrote in 350 books, MSS and papers on a wide range of subjects gets a mention in his 'Story'. That said, I imagine he thought those writings (eg his Agriculture Lectures) to contain enough on each subject to enable later researchers to follow on.
I think it can be taken as read that when the farmers of 1924 asked for his advice (perhaps I should say 'hounded' considering his reluctance), he set about preparing an answer that would be satisfactory to them not just as farmers but also as people - logical Germanic people. Whether he had the research 'under his belt' so to speak (probably from his researches into the oracle-sanctuaries of the Atlantean Era) or whether he received visionary insights is as irrelevant as determining who numbered the preps. The fact is that he would have had to begin somewhere in fashioning that answer and, leaving the cosmos and/or spirituality aside, there is only one logical starting point. The Soil. Following on from that, logically, the Plant. In each of its growth stages, from Mature Seed to Immature Seed. After that, again, the Soil.
How can I conjecture thus? I was a cabinet maker for 20 years during which I crafted furniture to traditional standards, mostly individual pieces that I designed from scratch, and all using recycled timbers. First, however, I had to research and plan and construct the 'set-up' which would allow me to research and design, make and finish the furniture; one does not make a two-metre high triangular wall unit out of ten different and mostly antique timbers without having a detailed plan of action and the tools to go with it.
Steiner would not have - nay, could not have - been any less exacting. He would have had the laboratory or trial set-up already and set his own criteria for the necessary actions. How must the Soil be constituted? What would restore it to that constitution? What was needed to germinate the seed? What would nurture the seedling and encourage it to grow? And so on - what, when, what with and how.
Think about this. I mean really think. In his agriculture course lectures he spoke of the herbal preps in a specific order, do you imagine he just pulled the order out of the cosmos or spoke of them as they came to mind? Of course not, no more than I would have finely sanded a piece of wood before it was ready for that to happen. No, they would all have fitted into a pattern, a pattern for life, for survival.
Often when analysing events it helps to 'go' into the future and look back.
In my hand I have some agapanthus seeds; I plucked them off a flowerhead at the ANU an hour or so ago. In their present state they're green and fresh and have a nice aroma and soon I'll put them somewhere dark and cool to mature and dry out, losing their smell in the process, until the season is ready for them to be planted.
When I do that, as far as the plant is concerned its one determination or purpose will be to produce more seed but the soil will have other reasons for encouraging or allowing its growth. This is important because the two are in a symbiotic relationship, each giving to and taking from the other. There are other symbiotic relationships involved - soil/air and plant/air - and whatever we do must fit in with all three, not just one in isolation as, for example, does the usage of chemical fertilisers.
So. This seed I hold has within it everything that is needed to produce more seeds provided it has the right sort of help from the soil, the atmosphere and me. It is the peak development of the plant it came off. It stands to reason then that to encapsulate the power and genetic pattern of the several stages of growth including root, stem and flower within a naturally-manufactured casing would require a lot of energy, more than the previous growth stage. Indeed, each stage would require more energy than the one preceding it.
Let us now look at the preps in relation to the above. Backwards. Prepared as teas, energised where necessary, and sprayed out.
501 quartz silica. Maturation mechanism during later development, 'hardens' plant off after seeding, prepares soil for winter sleep during which it releases locked up nutrients.
509 Alfalfa. Contains all known minerals & vitamins. Assists seed content generation, puts life elements back into soil to help cellular breakdown and next season growth.
508 Valerian and 507 Dandelion mixed. Next most powerful elements. Calyx, flowers & seed casing.
506 Oak Bark for leaf generation
505 Nettle for buds
504 Equisetum. Growth control mechanism during early development.
503 Chamomile for cotyledons.
502 Yarrow for seed germination
500 Balances and enlivens soil
As can be seen the numbers are different. If (as has been suggested by one respondent) they were only allocated to confuse the Nazis, this would be unlikely to have happened much before 1935 when the early Steiner schools were initially banned by the regime. By then the mindset had become established that the original 502-507 were only for use in preparing compost. Steiner's words in a meditation prayer drafted in 1924 belie that interpretation:
May I have given you seeds that you can turn into roots that will bear fruit in the future.In other words, his message of the preparations was to be a starting point, not the be-all and end-all. One of the few that I know of who has interpreted his words as a starting point is a tomato grower named Janet Giordano:
I believe I know what happened to our biodynamic tomatoes. The combinations of biodynamic preparations I used and the way I used them, changed the laws of physical nature as they are taught in the 20th century. Their spiritual etheric forces created a strange intermingling between two tomato plants 25 feet apart. These spiritual etheric forces manifested, impregnated and sculpted physical substance in a way thought not to be possible.How true that is. For the record, the combination she used was Thun Barrel Compost and horn silica (501) mixed with juice of valerian flowers (507), and the information came from www.biodynamic.com
I believe Rudolf Steiner knew the preparations had this potential when he gave them to us. The problem has been we have not been creative enough in experimenting with them.
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When I first joined BDNOW! and discovered all the Great Names in BD who are members I thought "You beauty!" and settled back ready to learn all about how biodynamic agriculture had developed in just under a century. How disappointed I was to be!
In my own researches, spasmodic because I don't have a regular income stream, I had already discovered and downloaded David Robison's 'Introduction to Biodynamics', Class of 2001. In my opinion this is the finest and easiest to read and understand book about BD in existence today. That it has not been published is a real shame because it means it's only available to people with an internet connection.
to be continued
roger
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What we knows, we knows, and what we don't know, we don't want to know!
(Elliot, Robert Henry, 1898)
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