Agriculture, Spiritual-Scientific Foundations E-Book

Rudolf Steiner

• Herausgeber: Rudolf Steiner Press
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Seitenzahl: 731

Beschreibung

One hundred years after Rudolf Steiner presented his lectures on agriculture in 1924, the impact of his words are self-evident. Around the world, biodynamic principles are practised in thousands of thriving farms, vineyards and gardens, and Demeter certification for biodynamic produce is recognized internationally as a mark of quality. Speaking to a modest audience of farmers in a village in modern-day Poland, Steiner launched the first organic agricultural movement. But what has come to be known as 'biodynamics' is distinguished by many unique aspects, including the use of herbal and mineral 'preparations' (which serve as dynamizing applications for compost and field sprays) and the concept of the farm or garden as a single living organism, encompassing animals, crops, soil and community.This definitive, centenary edition of the influential Agriculture Course has been reedited from primary sources to be as faithful as possible to Steiner's original meaning. Shorthand reports have been freshly transcribed, archival discoveries added, and fresh commentary and notes inserted. In addition to the original eight lectures and four discussions, this volume features a wealth of new texts, including notes, addresses and resolutions relating to the Experimental Circle – founded contemporaneously to bridge research and practice – comprehensive facsimiles of Rudolf Steiner's preparatory notes for the course; original programmes and attendee lists; questions sent in advance; written and verbal reports by Steiner, including his address to young people; photos of Koberwitz, and high-quality colour plates of his original blackboard drawings. Eight lectures, four question-and-answer sessions, Koberwitz, June 1924, GA 327

Leseprobe

AGRICULTURE

AGRICULTURE

spiritual-scientific foundations for agricultural renewal

PART I: AGRICULTURE COURSEEight lectures and four question-and-answer sessionsheld in Koberwitz near Breslau, 7 to 16 June 1924

PART II: THE FOUNDING OF THE AGRICULTURALEXPERIMENTAL CIRCLENotes from Conversations before 11 June 1924The Reading of the ResolutionAddress by Rudolf Steiner, 11 June 1924

translated by simon blaxland-de langeintroduction by ueli hurter

RUDOLF STEINER

RUDOLF STEINER PRESS

CW 327

The Publishers gratefully acknowledge support of the translation of this edition by the Agriculture Section of the School of Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum, Dornach

Rudolf Steiner Press

Hillside House, The Square

Forest Row, RH18 5ES

www.rudolfsteinerpress.com

Published by Rudolf Steiner Press 2024

Originally published in German under the title Landwirtschaftlicher Kurs, Geisteswissenschaftliche Grundlagen zum Gedeihen der Landwirtschaft (volume 327 in the Rudolf Steiner Gesamtausgabe or Collected Works) by Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach. Based on shorthand notes that were not reviewed or revised by the speaker. This authorized translation is based on the ninth German edition (2022), edited by Hans-Christian Zehnter in collaboration with Rudolf Isler, Ueli Hurter, Martin von Mackensen and Albrecht Römer

The translator wishes to acknowledge the high quality of the previous translations by George Adams (1958) and Catherine E. Creeger and Malcolm Gardner (1993)

Published by permission of the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach

© Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach, Rudolf Steiner Verlag 2022

This translation © Rudolf Steiner Press 2024

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 85584 666 1

ebook ISBN 978 1 85584 652 4

Cover by Morgan Creative

Typeset by Symbiosys Technologies, Visakhapatnam, India

Printed and bound by 4Edge Ltd., Essex

Contents

Introduction, by Ueli Hurter

Part I:The Agriculture Course

First LectureKoberwitz, Saturday, 7 June 1924

Preliminary words and introduction. Some words about the home of the Keyserlingks and Koberwitz. All of life’s interests have a connection with agriculture. Economics and agriculture. Extension of the scope of research to include the cosmic aspect. Emancipation from rhythms in man and animal. The unobserved substance of silica. Silica and limestone in life-processes. Inner and outer planets (planets near to the Earth and distant planets). Reproduction and nutrition. Trees and distant planets.

Second LectureTuesday, 10 June 1924

The agricultural individuality. A farm as a self-contained individuality. Comparison of the soil with the human diaphragm. The agricultural individuality stands on its head. The living alternation between what is above and what is below the Earth’s surface. Cosmic and terrestrial forces and substances (limestone, silica, clay). Chaos in the formation of seeds. Seeds as the reflection of the universe. Humus as interrupted chaos, an organic substance that has remained earthly. The colours of plants in relation to the planets. The ABC of plant growth. The living together of plants and animals as a cosmic quantitative analysis. Animal form. Reading the language of form in agriculture.

Third LectureWednesday, 11 June 1924

Protein as the basic substance of life. Forces work through substances. The question of nitrogen. Nitrogen is active in protein together with the four sisters of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and sulphur. The activity of sulphur as the mediator between the spiritual and the physical domain. Carbon as the bearer of all formative processes in nature. Oxygen as the bearer of life, of the etheric. Nitrogen as the sentient bearer of the astral. Mediation between life (oxygen) and the spirit that has taken on form (carbon) through nitrogen. Dissolution of organic forms into the undefined realms of the universe through hydrogen. The manifestations of nitrogen. The peasant-farmer as a meditant. Chaos in the seed. Earthly formative power in limestone, cosmic formative power in silica. In-breathing of nitrogen in the organism of the plant world through the legumes. Limestone as a greedy fellow, silica as an aristocratic gentleman. Clay as a mediator. Nitrogen is at work between the limestone, clay and silica elements.

Fourth LectureThursday, 12 June 1924

Manuring, compost, spray preparations. Cosmic and earthly nourishment. Manuring as an enlivening of the Earth. Piled up earth and the living mantle of the tree. Personal relationship to manures through smell. Placing oneself within nature. Enlivening of the solid, earthly element. Compost. Horn and antlers. Farmyard manure. Astralization of the Earth. The horn-manure preparation. The stirring of the preparations. The horn-silica preparation. Distribution. Results. Man himself is made the foundation.

First Question-And-Answer SessionThursday, 12 June 1924

Questions relating to stirring and distributing the preparations. Stirring by hand or mechanical stirring. Quality and size of the cow horns. Winter sowings and reproductive power, spring sowings and nutritive power in cereal plants. Distributing horn-manure with sand. Storing horn-manure and horn-silica. Inducing chaos within the seed. Burying horns in soil rich in humus. Use of machines in agriculture. Cow-manure and horse-manure. Counteracting pest-infestation through meditation. Peasant philosophy. Calculations and tables for the use of the preparations. Quicklime and compost heaps. Potassium and magnesium sulphate.

Fifth LectureFriday, 13 June 1924

The compost preparations. Exhaustion of the soil in agriculture. Compensation through manuring. Enlivening the manuring process through preparations. Bacteria not a cause but a symptom. Mineral fertilizer works on the watery element. Direct enlivening of the earth. Influence of spiritual science from the macrocosmic domain. Heavenly substances and earthly substances. Radiating forces through the smallest quantities. The yarrow preparation (achillea millefolium) for calcium processes, yarrow flowers in the bladder of a stag, in the sunshine in summer and beneath the earth in winter. The chamomile preparation (matricaria chamomilla or matricaria recutita) for calcium processes, chamomile flowers in the small intestine beneath the earth in winter. The stinging nettle preparation (urtica dioica), with iron and nitrogen processes for permeating the soil with reason and intelligence, somewhat wilted plants for a whole year in the earth. Oak bark preparation (quercus robur) for healthy calcium processes. Oak bark in the skull of a domestic animal in slimy soil over winter. Transformation of the elements, newly arising nitrogen through the preparations. Dandelion preparation (taraxacum officinale) for silicic acid processes, dandelion flowers in a bovine mesentery, beneath the earth in winter. The valerian preparation (valeriana officinalis) for phosphorous processes, juice from valerian flowers.

Second Question-And-Answer SessionFriday, 13 June 1924

Bladder from the male stag. Stinging nettle (urtica dioica). Spontaneous generation of warmth in manure heaps. Contact of the manure heap with the earth. Manure and rain. Yarrow (achillea millefolium) and dandelion (taraxacum officinale) in cattle fodder. Difference between the germinal aspect of an animal and the seed of a plant. The place for burying the preparations. Use of the preparations in a manure heap. The forces radiating from the preparations. Bark of the common oak (quercus robur). Burying the preparations in the fertile layer of the soil. Grinding quartz into a really fine, mealy consistency. Preconditions for cosmic nourishment.

Sixth LectureSaturday, 14 June 1924

Weeds and pests. Cosmic influences from the inner and outer planets. Influence of the Moon and reproduction. Intensification of the power of growth into the power of reproduction. Burning of weed seeds to obtain ash. Spiritual-scientific truths. Higher animals and Venus in the Scorpion. Insects, lower animals; the Sun in the Bull and in the ascending constellations of the zodiac. So-called plant diseases. Fungal parasites on plants through too strong a lunar influence. Distribution of diluted tea of horse-tail (equisetum arvense) as a liquid manure. Understanding life on Earth through the whole universe.

Third Question-And-Answer SessionSaturday, 14 June 1924

Combating pests and morality. Animals with an abdominal marrow and animals with a spinal marrow. Chamomile (matricaria chamomilla or matricaria recutita). Water-weeds and weeds from a swamp. The sequence in the zodiac from the Waterman to the Crab. Specifying the position of Venus in the Scorpion. Bovine mesentery and peritoneum. Effect of sheep manure and pig manure. Use of mineral fertilizers. Making an ash from insect larvae.

Seventh LectureSunday, 15 June 1924

The intimate relationships of nature, shaping of the countryside. A tree as a living-space. Cambium. The farmer can become clair-sentient. Earthworms as safety valves for over-intense vitality. Birds and coniferous forests. Mammals and shrubs. The usefulness of fungus-rich meadows. Animals are direct assimilators of air and warmth. Plants have a direct connection with earth and water. The plant gives and the animal takes in the world of nature.

Eighth LectureMonday, 16 June 1924

Manuring and ego-potentiality, the nature of feeding. The twofold nature of the animal organization. Head organization: earthly substances and cosmic forces. Limb organization: cosmic substances and earthly forces. Keeping animals in stables and in pastures. The substance of the brain is intestinal substance taken to its ultimate end. Ego-potentiality in animal manure. Absorption of ego-forces through plant roots. The farm individuality developing over the course of time. The need for a self-contained cycle regarding feeding, manuring and soil as a guiding principle. Carrots, linseed and hay for calves. Vegetable leaves and foliage for milk production. Flower and fruit parts of the plant matured and cooked for draught animals and animals to be fattened. Salt. Tomatoes. Potatoes. Agriculture and social life. Concluding observations and thanks.

Fourth Question-And-Answer SessionMonday, 16 June 1924

Liquid manure. Full Moon and new Moon. Time for burning weed seeds. Sprinkling insect pepper. Influence of electricity. Souring processes. Attitude of mind. Faeces. Swine erysipelas epidemics.

Part II:The Founding Of The Agricultural Experimental Circle

On The Path To The Resolution—Notes From ConversationsBefore 11 June 1924

Dispute between Ernst Stegemann and Carl von Keyserlingk; resolve to form an experimental circle; suggestion by Keyserlingk to want to end the conference prematurely, mediation through Moritz Bartsch.

READING OF THE RESOLUTION by Carl von Keyserlingk, Wednesday, 11 June 1924 in the morning

Reading of the resolution to form an experimental circle; naming of those participating; relationship to the School of Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum.

ADDRESS by Rudolf Steiner Wednesday, 11 June 1924 in the morning

Dornach and the experimental circle as twins who shall grow increasingly together. The task of the circle: not as an executive organ but as the most active collaboration. Thoughts and experiences of peasant-farmers as a necessary first step. Experiences from farming practice as the foundation for scientific work.

Appendix

Subsequent Verbal Report by Rudolf Steiner, Dornach, 20 June 1924

Extracts from Rudolf Steiner’s Written Reports

Extracts from Rudolf Steiner’s Address to Young People of 17 June 1924

Programme for the Whitsun Conference in Breslau and the Course at Koberwitz

Photos of Koberwitz

Questions Sent in Advance

List of Participants in the Agriculture Course 1924

Rudolf Steiner’s Notes in the Context of the Agriculture Course

Regarding this Edition

Notes

Rudolf Steiner’s Collected Works

Significant Events in the Life of Rudolf Steiner

Index

Rudolf Steiner’s blackboard drawings (Plate Section)

Introduction

The centenary of the Agriculture Course in 2024 provided the stimulus for the Section for Agriculture to take the initiative to bring out a new edition. The publisher, the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung (Literary Estate), has made this possible; and so this fully revised ninth edition has been undertaken on a collaborative basis. The aim was to make an edition available that is as faithful as possible to the original sources. To this end, all previous editions have been carefully reviewed, the extant shorthand reports freshly transcribed, relevant discoveries from the archives inserted, the structure of the volume revised and the notes section updated and expanded. Fuller indications regarding this editorial work can be found in the following section entitled Regarding this Edition.

As we are approaching a hundred years after the Agriculture Course, it can be said of these days from 7 until 16 June in Koberwitz with around 130 participants that a powerful influence has emanated from them. Even today the biodynamic movement that has grown out of this conference is in a healthy state of development. When one holds volume 327 of the Collected Works in one’s hands, one may well ask how this is possible; for the body of the text consisting of eight lectures, four discussions and accompanying textual material appears superficially to be modest when compared to its lasting influence. On the one hand there is the actual content, while on the other hand there is the characteristic style in which Rudolf Steiner presented it. This can be recognized for example in that wide perspectives from anthroposophical spiritual science and practical discussions regarding the work involved in field and stable are interwoven in the most intimate of ways. He characterizes this particular approach in the address to young people on 17 June 1924 as follows: ‘I have therefore tried in this course to find words that emanate from actual experience. The spirit cannot be found today unless one is enabled to clothe it in words that have been given by nature; and one’s feelings will thereby also be strengthened.’ (See the present volume, p. 223.)

Rudolf Steiner did not lecture over people’s heads but spoke to the hearts and hands of the farmers. This can be an experience in one’s relationship to the course even today. The expression ‘the Koberwitz impulse’ has arisen for this in the biodynamic movement. An impulse goes deeper than a course of instruction. From the historical distance of one hundred years, it can accordingly be said that the Agriculture Course represents a ‘cultural impulse in the realm of agriculture out of anthroposophy’.

The first objective of these prefatory remarks is to explore a few examples with respect to the content of the first part of the present volume. A second aspect to consider is the particular relationship between research and practice that is evident in connection with the founding of the Experimental Circle, which as Part Two of this new edition is viewed as an intrinsic part of the course. Thirdly, an attempt will be made to outline a brief history of the legacy of the Agriculture Course.

Substances as bearers of the spirit, nitrogen and silica

The Agriculture Course contains a unique science of substances. Already in the first lecture, silica and lime are presented as distinct polarities. They are the material representatives of the upper and lower forces between which agricultural life is enacted. The third lecture is then essentially about the substances that form protein as the basis of life. Rudolf Steiner enters in detail into nitrogen, sulphur, carbon, oxygen and hydrogen and describes their interaction. In this way Rudolf Steiner was fully with his listeners, who as experienced farmers were well familiar with the agro-chemical knowledge of their time. He now describes these substances rather as personalities, each of which has its task in the household of nature, and how they work together. Thus, for example, nitrogen is characterized as the mediating force that brings life (oxygen) to the forms in the organic world (carbon), while at the same time working within the agricultural organism out of a fine sensitivity for all the various shades of living activity. It is described as a clever, sensitive fellow who knows which forces are active in the life of the farm. The farmer can approach nitrogen, learn from it, open himself to its knowledge of relationships as he meditatively connects himself with his farm through his inner experience.

In the manner in which substances are described in the third lecture as bearers of the spirit, lime appears as the greedy fellow who wants to draw everything towards itself, and silica as the aristocratic gentleman who wants nothing for itself. It is not so much the siliceous substance in minerals and stones that is of crucial significance but, rather, the siliceous element that is present everywhere in nature in fine, homeopathic dilution. Even in this form it makes no claims. By way of a comparison Rudolf Steiner refers to our sensory organs, which do not perceive themselves but are selflessly open to the world. ‘The silica element is the general outward sense in the earthly world’ (p. 52). At the end of the fourth lecture Rudolf Steiner passes from this more contemplative characterization of silica to practical activity with the silica preparation. Following on from what he says about the horn-manure preparation, Rudolf Steiner speaks with extreme brevity about how the silica preparation is made and applied. Regarding its influence he merely says: ‘and then you would see how the horn manure thrusts up from below and the other draws down from above, neither too weakly nor too strongly’ (p. 67).

It is astonishing how central a position Rudolf Steiner ascribes to silica. Neither before nor after him has silica been regarded as having any relevance to agronomy. Silica, i.e. silicon, has, however, become very important elsewhere in recent decades, namely in the semi-conductor industry. Computer technology and artificial intelligence in general are—apart from electricity—largely based in a material sense on the raw material of silicon. In so far as intelligence needs a physical bearer, silicon is highly suited to this purpose. Rudolf Steiner discovered this fact in his spiritual research of nature. Silica is not a life substance but a substance of consciousness. What one can speak of as outward consciousness or as cosmic intelligence in the macrocosm, especially what emanates from the outer planets, is reflected by silica and therefore works formatively on life, even if it does not participate directly in biological, physiological processes. By means of this example it can become clear what applies throughout biodynamic agriculture: material substances are important from a spiritual perspective precisely because spiritual or cosmic forces can be active in the earthly world only through substances. They are the bearers of life-forces, forces of perception and forces of consciousness.

Regarding the Preparations

The preparations can be regarded as the heart of biodynamics. They do indeed have their place in the middle of the course, in the fourth and fifth lectures. What is radically new about them is their capacity to work directly with life—in this sense to ‘master’ it—and thereby to ensure that manuring is not confined solely to mineral principles. They are based on the breadth and depth of the knowledge of nature inherent in the first lectures of the course, where under the aspect ‘What is cosmic, what is earthly?’ an agricultural perspective on nature is taught. At the same time they impart a wholly practical approach to agriculture, they are directly accessible to someone who is actively involved in gardening or farming. Understanding follows from doing instead of preceding it. Rudolf Steiner did not consciously provide a kind of theoretical approach to the preparations but he gave what was necessary ‘in order to draw the practical conclusions that need immediately to be applied and which have significance only through such immediate application’ (p. 18).

One can live with the preparations practically, artistically, scientifically and meditatively. The actual making of the preparations is no mystery, but knowledge is actively passed on through courses. The preparations would not exist without being made; they do not have a natural origin. They are cultural creations. In doing something with one’s own hands one is active in a co-creational way.

In using the preparations an artistic element can enter in if one fixes the time of application with a delicate musical feeling, be it in relation to the development of plants, to the course of the seasons or to the star constellations. From a scientific point of view one can discover the effectiveness of the preparations by means of simple or more complex experiments with comparisons. The inner relationship with the preparations can be a path from the sight of the earthly material reality to a glimpse of the potential that is awakened through them in the whole life of the farm.

Although they have their significance in their immediate application, the significance of the preparations should not remain confined to agricultural uses. When the preparations have been worked with in a particular place for some years, it can become an experience that the farm or garden increasingly enters into accord with the wider context of the whole Earth. Out of such an experience one can ask the question: What significance do the preparations have for the evolution of the whole of earthly nature? Are they not also effective in promoting the Earth’s potential as a living being in its evolution? Elements of an answer to this question can be found in the Michael letter ‘What is the Earth in reality within the Macrocosm?’ (in Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts, GA 26), a text that Rudolf Steiner composed a few months after the Agricultural Course. There it is described how the originally living macrocosm gradually died in order that man could develop clear thinking and self-consciousness. The Earth is now the seed-like end-product of this evolution. At the same time it is also a seed for the future. It has already begun to geminate as a seed of the future. Rudolf Steiner indicates that an excess of germinal forces from the plant kingdom is streaming forth into a future form of the cosmos. These germinal forces deriving from the plants would be given form by excess forces from the animal kingdom and given their rightful place by corresponding excess forces from the mineral kingdom. Thus a new macrocosm is in process of arising. Man can participate in this not with his thinking alone but with his will. This description may be seen as a great imagination of the earthly future in connection with the preparations of the Agriculture Course.

Thinking and Manuring, and the Question of Nutrition

The question of nutrition runs through the whole of the course. Rudolf Steiner is clear: the purpose of agriculture is to produce means of nutrition. As a producer, the farmer is responsible for the quality of the products that he provides. The articulation of the concern that a degeneration of the quality of produce is happening was one of the reasons why the course came about. However, the physiology of nutrition in the classical sense is not the subject of the course. The perspective whereby the question of nutrition sounds implicitly through all the lectures is one that can be further formulated: How must the life and ripening processes on the farm be conducted so that the means of nutrition deriving from them give the people who consume them the foundation for their earthly life?

Artificial fertilizer is rejected because ‘mineral fertilizers are the very things that contribute most... to this impoverishment of agricultural products’ (p. 209). Rudolf Steiner accordingly develops a different kind of manuring in the course. After an extensive discussion of composting, the fourth lecture culminates in the introduction of the horn manure and horn silica preparations. This new way of manuring is essentially related to the quality of the nutrition arising from it: ‘The most important thing is that when these fruits of the field reach human beings, they should be most beneficial for their lives. You may cultivate fruit that looks absolutely splendid whether in the field or orchard, but it may perhaps only fill a person’s stomach and not organically further his inner life... Indeed, in all our spiritual-scientific studies, man is both our foundation and our starting point’ (p. 68).

The last sentence can also be read from a point of view that does not focus directly upon nutrition but which places man as the foundation of the study and establishing of a biodynamic agriculture. Agriculture is indeed spoken of in terms of an individuality with an ego component, thus with concepts that come not from the natural sciences but from the cultural sciences. In the eighth lecture the digestive process is described in such a way that it incorporates the substance of the food that has been received in the stomach especially in the brain. ‘The substance of the brain is simply intestinal substance taken to its ultimate end’ (p. 155). Rudolf Steiner is very aware that this sounds somewhat grotesque, but it is for him simply a fact; and it has been confirmed in our time through current research. The biome in our digestive tract works in a strongly formative and constitutional way upon the substance of the brain and nerves.* The neuro-physiological functions are correspondingly adapted as the foundations for our thinking, feeling and will.

According to Rudolf Steiner, the brain is the physical foundation of the ego or—as one can also say—of self-consciousness, which in man is fully developed. This is possible because the material basis for it is given in the human brain, because correspondingly everything for this is drawn forth from the substance of what is eaten. This is now compared with animals. Animals also eat, digest and have a brain. But they have no self-consciousness, at least not to the extent of a human being. The potential of its ego, its ego tendency, remains in the digestive substance and this becomes manure. The manure with its ego tendency comes to the plant roots, the head pole of the plant. Since in a closed agricultural organism the food comes from one’s own farm and the manure is again used on the same farm, a self-encounter is repeated on an annual basis and the farming organism awakens to its ego and can be addressed as an individuality. It is like an outward human being that encompasses the whole of nature. The food that is produced in such a context is food that is appropriate for present-day human beings.

From a modern point of view we can say that Rudolf Steiner did not enter in the least degree into some kind of theory of health. But from the statement that on the one hand the life-forces that were naturally given to the Earth are in the process of disappearing and that on the other hand present-day human beings are becoming ever more individualized, there arises the insight that ‘forces must be derived from the spirit which are totally unknown today; and they are of significance not only in order that agriculture may in some small way be improved but in order that human life—for human beings do, after all, live from what the Earth provides—can continue on Earth even in a purely physical sense’ (pp. 2011–12).

Spiritual Research and Practice

That a powerful impulse emerged from the Agriculture Course is strongly associated with the founding of the ‘Agricultural Experimental Circle’ immediately at Koberwitz. The founding was a difficult process, for there were arguments. The documents now published in the second part of this edition provide information about this. Ernst Stegemann, who pursued a more inward, esoteric approach, and Carl von Keyserlingk, who was more driven by an economic rationalism, were not able to come to an understanding. A third group of younger people (the brothers Hellmut and Erhard Bartsch, Almar von Wistinghausen, Franz Dreidax and Immanuel Voegele) had the primary aim of obtaining practical information relating to their everyday work. In spite of these differences, the step was taken to establish the common Experimental Circle. Three things were thereby achieved. Firstly, there was a formal unity and, hence, the capacity to act as an organization and as a newly emerging movement. Secondly, the practical work could be started immediately after the conclusion of the course. Thirdly, with the Experimental Circle an independent partner was given to the School of Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum.

Rudolf Steiner spoke about this partnership in the address of 11 June 1924 that he gave after the founding of the Experimental Circle. Count Keyserlingk, as the spokesman for the farmers, expressed the wish for the ‘stupid farmers’ merely to carry out what they receive from the ‘knowledgeable Section leaders’ of the School in Dornach. Rudolf Steiner was not in agreement with this. ‘Thus from the outset we need really active colleagues, not merely people who implement what is proposed’ (p. 191). Rudolf Steiner then refers to the high respect that he has for traditional farming knowledge, for this penetrates deeply into the quite specific cosmic-earthly circumstances that prevail in the place where the farmer is active. The scientific approach, on the other hand, is very easily in danger of generating abstract and dead knowledge. The emphasis upon the nature of knowledge and research that arises from practice for fruitful activity on the foundation of ‘spiritual-scientific indications for agricultural renewal’ belongs in a very genuine way to biodynamic agriculture. It is not a theory that merely needs to be applied. Only a practical implementation, that is, in the existential situation in the yearly cycle and also in the economic, social and cultural circumstances in any particular place, can enable what is said in the course to be gradually understood. Rudolf Steiner even goes as far as wishing Dornach a share of peasant wisdom. ‘We must, as it were, grow far more together, and in Dornach there must be as much peasant wisdom as can prevail there in spite of its scientific spirit; while the science that goes forth from Dornach must be of such a nature that it enlightens the most conservative farmer’ (p. 194).

If one separates the attitude that comes explicitly to expression here from the historical situation, one can recognize how thoroughly modern it is; for the question of how the scientist and the practitioner work together in agriculture is currently a burning issue. It is frequently a relationship that is full of tension. New knowledge, for example about ecological relationships, does not find its way into the practical situation; farmers do not want to be taught and carry on as before. What the practitioners know from their activity does not count as real knowledge for the scientists. It is not recognized and remains an individual experience. And yet for the challenges that present themselves in the agricultural and nutrition sectors, a mutual recognition and furtherance of practice and science is indispensable. It can be viewed as a challenge for the biodynamic movement to develop this combination of practice and research on which it is based more systematically.

The history of the legacy of the course and a perspective of the future

The Experimental Circle took up its work immediately after the Koberwitz course, and an association of people and farms rapidly arose who concerned themselves practically, consultatively and also through simple experiments with indications from the course. There existed an active exchange with the Natural Science Section at the Goetheanum, whose leader, Guenther Wachsmuth, was able to make the course that had been recorded in shorthand by Kurt Walter available as a printed book already in 1924. The name ‘biodynamic’ arose among the leading figures of the movement as a compromise between or a combination of two views, which wanted to emphasize more the ‘biological’ or the ‘dynamic’ aspect.

The trademark Demeter was then registered in 1928 as a way of labelling products from biodynamic farms for customers. In the 1930s Erhard Bartsch, who managed the farm of Marienhöhe to the east of Berlin, became a prominent figure. From the time of the National Socialists’ seizure of power in 1933, together with some comrades-in-arms he also sought some kind of collaboration with those in power in the endeavour to keep the young biodynamic impulse alive; but in 1941 all biodynamic organizations were finally banned.

The first farms and estates also in other countries were at an early stage converted by individual pioneers to biodynamic management. The agricultural holdings of Loverendale in Holland (1926), of Oswaldhof in Switzerland (1926) and Wurzerhof in Austria (1926) may be mentioned here. In other countries such as Norway, England and the USA, a biodynamic pioneer movement emerged prompted by some charismatic advisers in the 1930s.

After the Second World War the work had to be built up afresh. Family farming businesses now became the backbone. In the 1970s a generation of farms established by young idealistic town-dwellers emerged in many countries. They came not from the countryside but from the towns or cities; good farming practice often had to be learnt through many mistakes. The social bonds of traditional agriculture were therefore not effectual on such farms, and a variety of new social forms arose in farming communities and around the farms. In a third wave, which is still in process today, it is above all highly specialized concerns—mainly vineyards, and fruit growing operations and market gardens—that have been integrating biodynamic methods into their practice. The strong development in the case of wine growing is driven by quality, for biodynamic wines often do very well with obligatory tasting. It is similar with newly emerging coffee- and tea-growing initiatives. In other specialized areas such as vegetables, fruit and currently especially bananas it is the trademark for Demeter products that is a driving factor for conversion. There additionally exist many thousands of small businesses, especially in India, which are instructed in biodynamics within community projects and thereby achieve a better quality of life for the whole family. Also worthy of mention is biodynamic cotton-growing in Egypt, India and Tanzania, where there has been success in bringing about complex value-creation chains from seeds and cultivation to ready-made articles of clothing. The biodynamic movement today is very international; there are biodynamic activities in all cultural realms and in all climate zones. Every type of operation, whether big or small, whether poor or rich, whether mixed or specialized, whether certified or not, is welcome and contributes to the richness of the world-wide movement. In general terms one can say that the biodynamic impulse is universal, with the distinctive quality that its central principle is the individualizing of the operation concerned.

However, the movement out of which the Agriculture Course arose did not remain confined to agricultural concerns; and a whole variety of scientific and more generally cultural, legal and economic initiatives arose. The ‘Research Institute at the Goetheanum’ under the leadership of Guenther Wachsmuth and Ehrenfried Pfeiffer may be regarded as the first institute for organic agriculture. Intensive research institutes have also been established in other countries. In the 1970s the first dissertations with biodynamic themes were written. The so-called ‘DOK experiment’ may be given as an example of the many experiments. This is an experiment in Switzerland conducted over a long period in which the three agronomic systems referred to as ‘dynamic’, ‘organic’ and ‘conventional’ are compared with one another. After what is now forty years of experiments, it is clear that the biodynamic method is at the forefront both in terms of sustainability and climate balance.*

In the legal sphere, new forms of property with respect to the land have been developed and introduced; this is an area where there has been intensive collaboration with anthroposophical circles engaged with the social sciences. Likewise with the development of the trademark for organic products, which has been strongly promoted from Demeter circles, associative economics as presented by Rudolf Steiner has been the inspiring idea. In some countries today, the organic component of the food market is at any rate around ten per cent. Additionally, the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) movement, in which a direct mutually supportive agricultural basis for the farm is formed by the customers, has its roots in the movement that has emanated from the course at Koberwitz. This also applies to the broad ecological movement, which received a powerful impetus through the publication in the USA of the book Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (1907–1964), for which she had received considerable inspiration from the Agriculture Course through her two friends Marjorie Spock (1904–2008) and Mary Richards (1908–1990), both of whom were eurythmists as well as gardeners.* The broad range of areas of activity belonging to the biodynamic impulse also include an independent plant-breeding project, a veterinary medical initiative, many forms of inclusive social-pedagogical work, political lobbying, a great variety of training initiatives and a world-wide network of activities. The extensive nature of this movement is in a sense a confirmation of Rudolf Steiner’s observation in the course of ‘how the concerns of agriculture are bound up in every way with the widest dimensions of human life and that there is hardly a realm of life that is untouched by that of agriculture. From whatever perspective one looks, all interests of human life have their place within agriculture’ (p. 5).

In his address to young people on the morning of 17 June 1924, thus after the conclusion of the Agriculture Course, included in an abbreviated form in the Appendix to the present volume, Rudolf Steiner speaks impressively to the hearts of the future generation. He fully affirms their longing to want to immerse themselves in nature with deep sensitivity. However, he also says that the Earth needs a spirited engagement from active people. He speaks imaginatively of the sword of Michael which is to be sought and found beneath the Earth’s surface. ‘As young people,’ he said to them, ‘you must have the strong and yet modest self-confidence’ (p. 225) to take hold of their earthly task both for their own biography and also for the life of the Earth.

A hundred years since then, several generations have followed this generation that was being addressed; and there is every reason to suppose that further generations of young people will follow who will be inspired in their deepest hearts to engage thus with life by the Agriculture Course. Many other generations will follow that of the present, the power of the course is by no means exhausted; it demands and makes possible ever new approaches. Further generations of young people in all parts of the world will be inspired through the wellspring of this course to help to develop an agriculture of the future.

Ueli Hurter

Ninth German Edition, 2022

Section for Agriculture

School of Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum

*See regarding this, for example, Thomas Hardmuth: Mikrobiom und Mensch. Die Bedeutung der Mikroorganismen und Viren in Medizin, Evolution und Ökologie. Wege zu einer systematischen Perspektiv, Berlin 2021.

*Paul Mäder and others: ‘Erkenntnisse aus 21 Jahren DOK-Versuch’. FiBL Dossier: Bio fördert Bodenfruchtbarkeit und Artenvielfalt (Insights from 21 years of DOK experiments. The organic approach promotes soil fertility and diversity of species), Frick 2000, 16 pages; and Colin Skinner, Andreas Gattinger, Maile Krauss, Hans-Martin Krause, Jochen Mayer, Maercel G.A. van der Heijden, Paul Mäder: ‘The Impact of Longterm Organic Farming on Soil-derived Greenhouse Gas Emissions’ in: www.nature.com. Scientific reports, 9/2019: 1702/https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-38207-w.

*See, for example, John Paul, The Rachel Carson Letters and the Making of ‘Silent Spring’, Sage Open, July–September 2013, p. 1–12; see also Dieter Steiner, Rachel Carson, Pionerin der Ökologiebewegung—eine Biographie, Munich 2014.

Part One:

THE AGRICULTURE COURSE

First Lecture1

KOBERWITZ2, SATURDAY, 7 JUNE 1924

My dear friends!3

It is with deep gratitude that I note the words that Count Keyserlingk4 has just spoken5. For a mood of gratitude is not merely called for on the part of those who can receive something from anthroposophy; the gratitude of anthroposophy itself, which in our present difficult times must be accorded to all who share in anthroposophical interests, is also one that one can deeply feel. And so I should like to express the most heartfelt thanks out of the spirit of anthroposophy for the words that have just been spoken.

It is a matter of deep satisfaction that it is possible to be able to hold this course for agriculture here in the home of Count and Countess Keyserlingk6. I know from my previous visits7 what a wonderfully vibrant social and cultural atmosphere there is here in Koberwitz, and how such an atmosphere as lives here is the best precondition for what is to be presented in this course.

While the Count has made us aware that for certain of those present—he specifically mentioned the eurythmists, but it might also apply to some other visitors—there may be some discomforts to be experienced,8 it should on the other hand be said with regard to what has brought us together that I believe that we could not be better accommodated for this Agriculture Course than in the midst of such a splendid and so exemplary a farm. Everything that is presented in the realm of anthroposophy requires the necessary environment for it to be received with the appropriate feelings, and this can certainly be said in the case of this farm.

All this gives me reason to express the most heartfelt gratitude to the household of Count Keyserlingk, a gratitude which Frau Doctor Steiner9 will surely share, that we shall be able to experience these festive—and also working—days in this place. Precisely because we are here in Koberwitz, I am convinced that a true farming10 spirit linked with the anthroposophical movement will hold sway in the course of these festive days.11 It was after all Count Keyserlingk who from the outset supported with his advice, assistance and sacrificial work the initiatives that we have been developing for agriculture in Stuttgart (beginning with the Kommende Tag12), who has devoted his spirit—which is so thoroughly in tune with agriculture and its needs—to what we have been enabled to do with respect to agriculture. And I may say that there were forces deriving from the very heart of our movement which drew us here to Koberwitz with a certain inevitability at the moment when the Count wanted to have us here. I can therefore also feel assured that each one of you has been really pleased to have come here to Koberwitz for the duration of this course. This is why those of us who have come are very glad to express our thanks that the Keyserlingk home has made its willingness to receive us and the intentions that we bring over these days so readily apparent.

For my part, this gratitude is deeply heartfelt; and I ask the Keyserlingk household to accept it from me in a quite particular way. I know what it means to receive so many visitors over the course of many days in the way that I feel it will happen here and can, I believe, therefore also add the necessary emphasis to this gratitude—which I beg you also to accept—in that I am thoroughly conscious of the difficulties involved in hosting such a gathering in a house that lies at some distance from the town. I am convinced that—whatever may be the inconveniences arising from external circumstances of which Count Keyserlingk has spoken13—each of us will go away contented with the hospitality and reception that we have been granted.

Whether you will go away equally satisfied with the course itself is, of course, a question that remains open for consideration, although we shall do all we can to bring clarity to what is said here in discussions during the days that follow. You do, after all, need to be aware that although it has from many points of view been a long-cherished wish that such a course as this should take place, this is the first time that I have undertaken a course of this nature out of the very essence of our anthroposophical aspirations. Such a course makes many demands; for it will show us how the concerns of agriculture are bound up in every way with the widest dimensions of human life and that there is hardly a realm of life that is untouched by that of agriculture. From whatever perspective one looks, all interests of human life 14 have their place within agriculture. We can of course only touch here upon the central domain of agriculture itself. Even this will inevitably lead us along many a side-track,15 as must be the case since what is said here will arise out of the soil of anthroposophy itself. You will in particular have to forgive me if my introductory words today have to extend into regions where perhaps16 not everyone may immediately see the connection between the introduction and the particular concerns of agriculture. Nevertheless, what I shall go on to say will need to be based on the seemingly somewhat more remote things that I shall be saying today.

Agriculture in particular has been seriously affected by the whole trend of modern intellectual and cultural life. You see, this present-day thinking has taken on especially destructive forms where agriculture is concerned, the destructive significance of which has barely even dawned upon many people today; and the intentions of the economic enterprises deriving from our anthroposophical movement have been to counteract such things. These economic enterprises have been started by industrialists and businessmen; but they have been unable to bring their original intentions fully to fruition, because there are in our present time all too many opposing forces that prevent any real understanding for such endeavours.17 Individual human beings are largely powerless in the face of the forces at work;18 and so the source and essence of these economic initiatives arising from the anthroposophical movement have not even come up for discussion. What did this mean in practical terms?

I shall explain this by means of an example from agriculture, so that we are speaking not in a general but in a specific way. There are, for example, all sorts of books and lectures about economics today that also have chapters about agriculture from the social-economic standpoint.19 People have given thought to how agriculture should be shaped in accordance with social-economic principles. All of this, both the giving of lectures based on economics and the writing of such books, is palpable nonsense. But such utter nonsense is being practised nowadays in the widest circles. For of course everyone should know that one can only speak about agriculture together with its social manifestation if one first has a proper foundation in agriculture itself, if one really knows how to grow turnips or beetroot, potatoes and cereals. Without this one cannot speak about the economic principles involved. Such things must be established from the matter at hand, not from theoretical considerations of whatever kind. If one says something of this sort to those people who have heard several university lectures about economics in relation to agriculture, this appears to them to be totally absurd; because to them all this is cut and dried. However, this is not so; the only person who can pass judgements about agriculture is one who derives his judgement from field and forest and the breeding of animals. All talk of economics that is not derived from the actual task should simply cease.20 So long as people are unable to see that all the unpractical things that are said in relation to economics are mere talk, there is no prospect of anything better emerging either in the realm of agriculture or in any other realm.

The reason that people think that they can talk about things from all sorts of different viewpoints...21 is simply that they are unable to go back to the foundations within the various domains of life. Anyone can say that a beetroot looks like a beetroot; it has its particular appearance, it is easier or harder to cut, it has its particular colour and constituents. But with this one is far from understanding the beetroot and specifically the inter-relationship of the beetroot with the soil, with the season when it is ready to harvest and so on. Moreover, there needs to be some understanding of what I shall outline in the following way.

I have often used a comparison to bring clarity to other spheres of life.22 I said that when looking at a compass needle one end of this needle always points roughly to the north and the other to the south. In pondering why this is so, one seeks the cause not in the compass needle but in the whole Earth, in that the magnetic North Pole is at one end of the Earth and the magnetic South Pole at the other. Were someone to seek the cause in the compass needle itself, he would be talking nonsense; for one can only understand why the compass needle insists on adopting a particular position23 if one knows what relationship it has to the whole of the Earth.

What appears as nonsense when applied to a compass needle is regarded by many people as perfectly good sense when applied to other things. And yet to take a beetroot growing in the earth merely for what it is in its narrow limits makes the beetroot into a non-entity24 if its growth is dependent upon countless circumstances prevailing not on the Earth but in its cosmic surroundings. Thus people today give lots of explanations and arrange many things in practical life as if they merely had to do with things of a very limited nature and not with influences coming from the whole universe. The various realms of life25 have suffered terribly from this and would manifest this suffering far more were it not for the fact that, in spite of all that modern science dictates, there is still a certain instinct from that time when people worked out of instinct and not out of scientific instruction. If there are people whose doctors have prescribed how many grammes or ounces of meat they should eat and how much cabbage is appropriate for their physiological needs26 (and many people even have weighing-scales beside them and weigh everything that they put on their plate), that is all very well, they should of course know something of this kind; but I cannot help thinking that it is good that they also feel hunger if what is weighed out for them is insufficient, that they still have this instinct.

Thus it was instinct that underlay everything that people had to do before science became involved in this realm; and these instincts sometimes worked with great authority, to the extent that one can even today be highly surprised when reading the rules in such old peasant calendars27 at the immense wisdom and understanding that they display. Moreover, someone who trusts in his instincts is well able to avoid superstition in such matters. In addition to remarkably insightful sayings concerning sowing and harvest one finds nonsense-rhymes such as ‘Kräht der Hahn auf dem Mist,/ so regnet es, oder es bleibt, wie es ist’ [If the cock crows on the dung heap it will rain, or maybe it won’t]. The necessary humour is mingled with the instinctive insight in order to ward off any superstition.

In speaking here from an anthroposophical point of view, it is really important not to revert to the old instincts but to find, out of a deeper spiritual insight, that which instincts that have become unsure can provide to an ever lesser degree. For this it is necessary that we devote ourselves to extending our studies of the life of plants, of animals and also of the life of the Earth itself to encompass the cosmic dimension.

From a certain aspect it is perfectly right not superficially to associate rainy weather with the phases of the Moon, but on the other hand there is also a reality in what did once occur. I have often related in other circles that there were two professors in Leipzig, one of whom, Gustav Theodor Fechner,28 was someone who was endowed with many sure insights into spiritual matters. From his outward observations and by no means only out of superstition he was able to see that certain periods of rain and no rain were associated with the Moon and its orbit around the Earth. He arrived at this as a necessary conclusion from statistical investigations. But his colleague, the famous Professor Schleiden,29 at a time when such things were already overlooked, dismissed all thought of this for scientific reasons. Now these two professors at Leipzig University also had wives, and Gustav Theodor Fechner, who had a humorous side to his nature, said: Let our wives decide. There was at the time in Leipzig a certain custom. The water that was needed for washing clothes was not so easy to obtain and had to be fetched from some way away. As a result, people put out pails and tubs to collect the rainwater. Both Frau Professor Schleiden and Frau Professor Fechner did just this. But they did not have enough room to put out their tubs or buckets at the same time. Then Professor Fechner said: If my respected colleague is right that this will be a matter of indifference, Frau Professor Schleiden should put out her tub at a time when, according to my indications from the phases of the Moon, there will be less rain, and my wife will put out her tub when according to my calculations there will be more rainwater. If this is all nonsense, Frau Professor Schleiden will be quite happy to do what I propose. However, Frau Professor Schleiden was not pleased about this suggestion but preferred to go by Professor Fechner’s indications than those of her own husband.

This is the way of things. Science may well be right, but what actually happens cannot solely depend on the correctness of science. But we do not want to speak only in this vein; we have some serious things to say. The point of relating this is to indicate that it is necessary to look beyond what people are accustomed to see today when they study what alone makes physical life on Earth possible for human beings, namely agriculture.

I do not know whether what can be said in the present circumstances out of anthroposophy will prove satisfactory from every point of view, but I shall try to impart to you what anthroposophy is able to offer to agriculture.

I should like by way of an introduction to indicate what is of the greatest importance for agriculture in our earthly existence. When we speak about something today, we are very used to attaching the greatest value to its physical and chemical constituents. Our present intention is not to begin from physical and chemical constituents but from something that lies behind them and is nevertheless of a quite particular importance for the life of plants on the one hand and animals on the other. You see, when we study the life of man (and to a certain extent also the life of animals), we find that there is a considerable degree of emancipation from the outer world.30 The more we approach man, the greater this emancipation becomes. We find phenomena in human and animal life which initially seem today to be completely independent from influences emanating from beyond the Earth or even from the atmospheric and other influences that immediately surround it. Not only does this appear to be so but it is also absolutely true when it comes to much in human life. To be sure, we know that the pains associated with certain illnesses are intensified through particular atmospheric influences; but we are less aware that the course of certain illnesses or of other phenomena in human life is such that it reflects outer processes of nature in its temporal rhythms, while their beginning and end do not coincide with these processes. We need only to recall that one of the most important of phenomena, that of female menstruation, is in its course a temporal reflection of the course of the Moon’s phases, but it does not coincide with them in its beginning and end. There are many other phenomena both in the male and in the female organism which are the reflections of natural rhythms.

If one were to study things more closely, one would for example have a better understanding of what goes on in social life if one were to have a proper understanding of the periodicity of sunspots. However, one does not consider such things because that in human social life which corresponds to the periodicity of sunspots does not begin with the appearance of sunspots and does not cease when the sunspots go away. This is because it has emancipated itself from this. It manifests the same periodicity and the same rhythm but not the temporal congruence. While strictly adhering to the same periodicity and rhythm, it does so independently, it has emancipated itself from them. Now anyone to whom one says that human life is a microcosm, that it is a reflection of the macrocosm, may say that this is nonsense. If one maintains that there is a seven-day fever period for certain illnesses, such a person could object that when certain external phenomena occur the fever would also have to appear and run parallel to the external phenomena and then cease together with the external phenomena.31 The fever does not do this; it firmly maintains its inner rhythm even if its temporal beginning and temporal end do not coincide with the outward phenomena.

This emancipation is almost complete in the cosmos for human life, and for animal life somewhat less so. But plant life is to a large extent still thoroughly immersed in the general life of nature including the extraterrestrial world.32 Thus there can be no understanding of the life of plants unless there is an awareness that everything that is on the Earth is really only a reflection of what is occurring in the cosmos. This is concealed in the case of man only because he has emancipated himself. It is only the inner rhythm that he bears within himself. But where plants are concerned this situation still fully applies; and it is this that I should like to point out in today’s introductory lecture.

You see, the Earth is surrounded in the heavens firstly by the Moon and then the other planets of our planetary system. In an old instinctive science where the Sun was regarded as one of the planets, there was this sequence33: Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Without dwelling upon astronomical details, I should now like to speak about planetary life, about that in this planetary world which is connected with the Earth. If we consider earthly life on a broad scale, we need to take into account the greatest conceivable part played by everything that I should like to refer to as the life of the substance of silica in the world.34 You find silica in, for example, the beautiful mineral quartz that takes the form of the prism and pyramid. You find this siliceous substance combined with oxygen in our quartz crystals; if one thinks away the oxygen that exists in combination in the quartz, what is left is the so-called silicon. Thus we have these substances which chemistry today regards as elements—oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, sulphur and so on; and silicon is a chemical element which combines with oxygen to form silica.35 But we should not forget that what lives in quartz as silicon constitutes between twenty-seven and twenty-eight per cent of the Earth’s surface. All other substances are present to a lesser degree except for oxygen, with between forty-seven and forty-eight per cent. Thus there is an enormous amount of silicon.36 Now it is true that this silicon, when it occurs in rocks such as quartz, manifests itself in such a form that if one is considering the outward material aspect, the soil with its plant growth37 does not seem very important (and it can easily be forgotten)38. For quartz is not soluble in water—water trickles around it, it is impermeable by water.39 Thus at first sight it seems to have little to do with the ordinary, familiar conditions of life. But if you consider the horse-tail, equisetum, you will find that it contains something approaching ninety per cent silicic acid,40 the same that is in quartz, but very finely distributed. From all this you can see what an immense significance silicon must have. Virtually half of what we encounter on the Earth consists of silica.

Now what is remarkable is that so little notice is taken of this silica, that it is even to some extent excluded from those areas of life where it has the potential to work very beneficially. In anthroposophical