Biodynamic Soil Development: the Dynamics of Creation

a journey to Mexico

It had been a long time coming. Jose, Alejo, and I have been talking for years, and we’ve been nurturing the idea of a new intensive retreat in Mexico. As with anything that is born, there is a prolonged gestation period before the newborn impulse arrives. We want to express our special thanks to Ricardo, who hosted us at his ranch, and to his team for managing hospitality and attentively filming the entire event (thank you, Maria and Aguirre!). Recordings will be made available after a lot more work editing and refining the work. Numerous people joined us during our livestream from as far as Malaysia, Turkey, Australia — and more!

Our seminar commenced on December 12th. During our drive from Mexico City, we witnessed countless pilgrims for the Feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Many traveled to see her sacred image while we gathered to honor the sacred earth.

Setting up soil chromatography to develop during the pre-seminar day.

Our seminar was a spiritual retreat. Each morning, the wake-up bell sounded at 6 a.m. We all gathered at 7 a.m. in relative silence, and each morning, we watched the sun rise over the active volcano Popocatepetl. I’m so glad Jose and Alejo persisted in involving me. It wasn’t just a pleasant visit; it was a revelatory experience. The group assembled brought no hostility, no skepticism — instead, everyone spoke with honest trust in the other person’s experience. Questions were sincere, never cutting. It’s hard to articulate what that’s like, to be somewhere where discursive disagreements were set aside. There is an innocence to this gathering, but not one of naïvete — a conscious openness to trusting the truth of the other’s experience and the suspension of hair-splitting judgment. Criticism only breaks things into pieces; it cannot build anything positive. There is no neutral gaze. Consciousness is either hostile, indifferent, or loving — and only love can truly understand something.

The mood of our retreat was, to put it simply, one of Love. This was not a mood of empty emotive affection but one where each participant was actively willing the good of the other. “Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”¹

Before each lecture, we had a hands-on artistic activity led by our new friend Daniela. Following the artistic exercise, we had an imaginative exercise. Then we would have a lecture given by different presenters. The art, imagination, and lecture each belonged to a specific element. Throughout the seminar, we worked intensively with our hands, hearts, and heads through each element: Earth, Water, Air, Fire, and Spirit. And we cannot forget to thank Christian, a Waldorf teacher who made lovely chalk drawings for each presentation’s theme. Many conferences can be so heavily weighted to the head that the hands are left idle and the heart is left feeling unwarmed. Not so in Mexico! Every session involved the entire person in community: body, soul, and spirit.

Daniela led us in a collective artistic experiment using the dry Earth.

Working with the earth and painting our hands onto the canvas reminded me of The Cave of Forgotten Dreams (Werner Herzog’s magnificent documentary). If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it. The older worlds are not gone. As Owen Barfield says, “Pan [the god] has shut up shop. But he has not retired from business; he has merely gone indoors.”

Stewart Lundy leads us in a discussion about the Earth element in farming.

Daniela led us in a further exploration of the effects of Water on the Earth element.

Daniela led us in an exercise, taking Earth and combining it with Water.

Jose Aviña led us in a discussion about the Water element in plant life.

Mixing Barrel Compound (front), and horn manure (back). I was only able to help for a short time, because the altitude made me out of breath very quickly. Fortunately, everyone else picked up the slack. JPI’s own horn manure traveled from the USA and is integrated with this mixture.

Martha distributing valerian through the layers of Barrel Compound (Fladen). JPI donated compost preparations to this project. We used both preparations from the USA for the lower wetter part of the pit and local Mexican preparations for the upper dryer part of the pit.

Together, we weeded and broadforked the garden, sprayed horn manure, and transplanted plants.

Natalie McGill gave a talk about air, astrality, feeling, and animal husbandry.

We dried the clay that we had moistened in the warm Air.

Stewart Lundy presented on the Fire element — living warmth within the human organism and plants, the driving force of biodynamics and spiritual regeneration.

Stuffing horns with manure

Biodynamic horn manure, preparation “500”

Burying horns

We placed our clay sculptures into the fire, having worked with the dry earth, the moistened earth, and the aeriform earth. Here, the four elements culminate and crystallize into coherent forms.

We held the art we had been making over the flames of the fire, illuminated from below. It felt like an ancient cave painting. Here is the visible incarnation of the spiritual being of our shared event. Photo credit: Ricardo.

Alejandro Altimirano walks us through the fifth element of the human spirit.

For the fifth element, we colored our pottery — or our pottery fragments. Even what is broken can be beautiful.

Our friends made a surprise makeshift lightboard and covered the windows, so we could do a lovely chromatography session.

This area has nearly miraculous soil conditions. Thanks to the volcanic soil and the generosity of volcanic ash, the pH is stable at 6.5. While water is relatively scarce, with a bit of moisture and organic matter, the soil in Tepetlixpa has virtually everything plants need for healthy growth. While Steiner says, “The truth is that Mother Nature will abandon us without mercy, if we do not pay proper regard to potash, limestone or phosphoric acid. We can, however, with comparative impunity disregard her silicic acid, lead, mercury, arsenic, etc. The heavens give us the silicic acid, lead, mercury and arsenic we need; they give them freely whenever the rain falls. In order, however, to have the right amount of phosphoric acid, potash and limestone in the soil, it must be worked upon and manured in the right way.”² But wherever there is a rule, there are exceptions. In the case of this volcanic area in Mexico, we find Nature’s generosity to be even more abundant, where these elements can largely be disregarded, but she is all the more stingy when it comes to supplying moist organic matter.

Steiner continues, describing a scenario similar to the one we encounter in this area of Mexico: “In many parts of the earth we cannot rely on Nature herself to supply a sufficient quantity of waste organic matter to enable the soil adequately to revivify itself by decomposition of such matter. In those places, therefore, we must assist the growth of plants with manure. This necessity, however, arises least of all in districts containing so-called ‘black soil,’ for here Nature herself has seen to it that the soil is sufficiently alive.”³ While the “black soils” of places like Ukraine are such that they seem to spontaneously regenerative, the situation in Mexico is the polar opposite: an abundance of trace minerals, balanced pH are supplied, but the tendency is towards desertification. Revivifying soils and tending their moisture is the task here, whereas in Ukraine, balancing the lime pole (and its associated carbonates) is more significant.

This visit is the first of many, a seed planted in the soul world. I hope to see some of you there with us in the future.

On behalf of those friendships we nurtured and new ones we forged, thank you all for your own work where you are. Our spiritual work makes us so close, no matter how far apart we are physically.

Thanks to the cooks for the delicious meals!

1. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

2. R. Steiner, Agriculture Course, Lecture V (GA327, 13 June 1924, Koberwitz)

3. R. Steiner, Agriculture Course, Lecture IV (GA327, 12 June 1924, Koberwitz)