Dead Warmth & Living Warmth (part 3 of 5)

in the dynamics of plants and gardens

Read Part 1 here. Read Part 2 here.

“Confront a corpse at least once... The unmitigated absence of life is the most disturbing and challenging confrontation you will ever have.”¹ - David Bowie

In gardening, we are always balancing warmth and coldth, dryness and wetness. This is so ordinary that we forget how miraculous it is. We can take what would go downhill and bring it up to the top of a mountain, and we can take organic materials that would just disintegrate in the sun and turn them into compost, giving to the soil far more than it would normally receive left to itself.

We irrigate, cultivate, and tend the soil. Yes, plants need water and fertilizing compost for growth, but they also require warmth, air, and light to sweeten into nutritive foods for us. Too much of the dark, heavy elements causes a plant to fail to produce sweet fruits, but too much warmth and light causes the plant to simply perish.

In Steiner’s terminology, the inner planets facilitate growth and reproduction while the “outer planets” provide us with nutrition. What “descends” by a detour through the earth concerns the inner planets and procreation. What “issues from below” is the so-called upward cosmic stream associated with the outer planets, which contributes to nutrition. Cycles, unfolding over time, make great spiral motions through space, which is the basis of development at all. One might say: that which wishes to return to the cosmos arrived from the cosmos. Concretely, this cosmic upward stream can be seen in the upwelling nectar that provides honey for bees, concentrates into burgeoning figs, and ripens sweet fruits due to air, light, and warmth. We all know that such sugars rising up weren’t solely created “below” but rather from forces that streamed in from above. In an absolutely real sense — which no one can dare deny — the power in sugar streams in from the cosmos.

“Everything that lives in the silicious nature contains forces which comes not from the Earth but from the so-called distant planets, the planets beyond the Sun—Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. That which proceeds from these distant planets influences the life of plants via the silicious and kindred substances into the plant and also into the animal life of the Earth. On the other hand, from all that is represented by the planets near the Earth—Moon, Mercury and Venus—forces work via the limestone and kindred substances.”²

This is an esoteric rendering of an idea already contained in Goethe’s splendid little booklet, The Metamorphosis of Plants. Limestone and “kindred substances” include the realm of soluble fertilizers, remineralization, and balancing pH. This aspect of biodynamics is often neglected, even though Steiner is quite explicit: “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. These elements are not supplied freely by the heavens.”³ Many trace minerals that are essential to life are not considered important — because they arrive in adequate amounts in our rain. But just because we don’t think about them doesn’t make them insignificant. However, the balancing of P, K, and Ca does not occur spontaneously. No, Steiner insists that we ourselves must manage phosphorus, potassium, and calcium (pH) levels.

I would even go so far as to say that without Goethe’s Metamorphosis, biodynamics is almost inconceivable. If every biodynamic gardener and farmer were to study this humble book devotedly, what splendid results would arise! Goethe writes:

“It has been found that frequent nourishment hampers the flowering of a plant, whereas scant nourishment accelerates it. This is an even clearer indication of the effect of the stem leaves discussed above. As long as it remains necessary to draw off coarser juices, the potential organs of the plant must continue to develop as instruments for this need. With excessive nourishment this process must be repeated over and over; flowering is rendered impossible, as it were. When the plant is deprived of nourishment, nature can affect it more quickly and easily: the organs of the nodes are refined, the uncontaminated juices work with greater purity and strength, the transformation of the parts becomes possible, and the process takes place unhindered.”⁴

When we supply plants with “coarser liquids,” such as raw manure, fish emulsion, and other soluble fertilizers, we inhibit flowering and instead encourage leafing out. If we apply this to growing cabbage, enormous heads can be developed because the plant becomes unable to refine its sap enough to produce clear nectar and so continues to discharge the “coarser liquids” as leaves. Goethe does not have a suggestion for stimulating a plant to grow upward towards the flower other than the restriction of soluble nourishment, but in biodynamics, we are able to use horn silica (501) to draw a plant up and out of the endless cycle of leaf-after-leaf. “Were only the etheric body to work, then the plant would unfold endlessly leaf by leaf; this is brought to a conclusion by the astral body. The etheric body is muted by the astral.”⁵ Quartz crystals are a sort of “flowering” out of the mineral realm and symbolize a transition out of the primordial chaos of formless matter into patterned forms. “In crystals we find the transition from the formless mineral world to the living capacity of the plant kingdom to produce forms.”⁶ Introducing a willful (“astral”) impulse encourages the plant to crystallize into form. When a plant feels like it is running out, it begins to rush towards fruit and seed. Alan Chadwick calls this “the law of the vision of the end” — but, put simply, it is recognizing one’s mortality. If a plant is kept overnourished, it never feels any particular reason to reproduce and stays in the leafy stage.

Plants experience nitrogenous fertilizers as a kind of mild “poison” — one could say that what gnomes despise and try to expel from the soil, nymphs delight in and unfold luxuriant leaves. Lest this sound shocking, we should remember that Steiner says that the first step in eating is a kind of “poisoning,” which provokes a response to discharge what does not belong in our organism while retaining what is useful. Anything displaced from above — and Nitrogen in the soil is air brought down below its level as a mineral salt — intensely wishes to return to its natural state. Nitrogen from the atmosphere brought into plant-available soluble form forces plants plants to send this outward and they do so by discharging “coarser fluids” in bigger leafy growth. Paradoxically, in response to the additional astral “salt” — or rather, solubilized astrality — more animated etheric formative expression is stimulated as a sort of equal and opposite reaction. Synthetic fertilizers can, at best, amount to such agitated, watery growth. Nitrogen fertilizers tend to accelerate the consumption of organic matter in the soil, the reserve of ethericity. To an extent, nitrogen fertilizer is helpful in making produce larger, but it also has an accelerated tendency to deplete the soil of its organic reserve. If you were to imagine this in terms of machines, nitrous oxide is a way to provide a boost to horsepower in an automobile, though it also accelerates the consumption of fuel. Real nourishment comes not from the soluble mineral realm but from above — viz., humus is more than half carbohydrates. Yes, humus embodies a sort of “lightless” working, and yet its latent energy is the product of cosmic forces working on terrestrial materials.

“All fruit ripens from acid to sugar—this is what we are talking about all the time, this change—at a certain time when the light—which after all is sunlight, literally—it is a certain degree, and gives it. Therefore, for correct ripening, fruit must be in the full light and Sun. These are beautifully sweet and sugared. Just go and take an apple on the south side of the tree, and go take an apple on the north side of the tree; go and take a peach, a plum, a prune, a fig, and what do you find? This very matter.”⁷

Such a process occurs naturally in aged balsamic vinegar, where acids break down through a careful “breathing” process until they are as sweet as molasses.

If we consider the idea “that only which tends upward is life-giving,” then we catch a glimpse at some of the meaning behind the biodynamic preparations, which are drawn primarily from aspects of plants striving upwards — namely, flowers.⁸ We take from the upwelling cosmic stream that would naturally disperse itself and take it down to the root, enhancing the nutritive stream. In Steiner’s terminology, the forces that descend from above include the inner planetary forces (described as Moon, Mercury, Venus). These do rise again, but if they are too strong, they cannot rise properly because you could almost say the inner planets are too “heavy,” if you will.

These “inner planetary” qualities (or forces) must enter the soil to be used by a plant — they must descend into the earth to become useful, as compost, fertilizers, and rain must enter the earth to be useful, and all stimulate generative force. “It is through a too strong working of the moon that forces working upward from the earth are prevented from reaching their proper height.”⁹ If too much manure is used on crops, seeds do not properly cure and instead become a soil-like substrate ideal for feeding fungus and producing rotten seeds; such a case is an example of “excessive Moon forces.”

Moon, Mercury, and Venus forces must descend into the Earth to be made useful. Rain, soluble fertilizers, and organic matter must be added primarily into the Earth to be made useful to plants. Too much of these compromise the seed-forming process by “weighing down” the cosmic upward stream.

By contrast, the outer planetary forces do not require entry into the soil. “Everything which is present in the warm air, which is irradiated with light, is Saturn-Sun.”¹⁰ Warm air does its Saturnine work whether or not it is above the soil or within the earth. Its effect is radiant and does not require a detour into the earth to be useful. In fact, if too much warm air (“Saturn”) enters the earth, you end up with problems like beet nematodes. In the case of nematodes, the soil becomes too cosmic — too warm, airy, and dry — when the atmosphere enters too deeply. Conversely, if there is a surplus of wet earth (“Moon”), the opposite happens: healthy fungi that live in the middle zone between plant and mineral worlds move up onto the stem and leaves of plants because the plant is too watery and its form is not properly dried (not “cosmic” enough). In the case of beet nematodes, the atmosphere enters the soil too deeply. In the case of fungus on plants, the earth has risen too high.

The radiant effects of warm air (“Saturn”) can work from above or below the earth. In general, I think of the outer planets (Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) as they pertain to practical gardening as the dynamics of moving air, light, and warmth. Saturn works on many planes, and its working on one level in no way contradicts or precludes its working on another level.

For plants to grow properly, they generally require air above them that is warmer and drier than the soil. We require that the atmosphere is more “cosmic” than the soil. In a heat wave combined with a drought, the inner temperature of the earth rises too high, and beet nematodes have a favorable environment: a warm and dry but shaded atmosphere within the earth. In a way, this is like the earth having a “heat stroke.” It is always the task of the farmer or gardener to help balance these forces in a dynamic way, and every decent gardener does this instinctually already. When the soil warms and dries, that helps our alliums form a papery husk, but similar conditions might lead to beet nematodes. The conditions that help cure onions or garlic in the field produce beet nematodes for beets because alliums they are not true “root” crops but rather enlarged stems. It is relatively easy to see that beets would not be an ideal crop to follow behind onions that are allowed to cure in the field.

When we fertilize with Saturn, we open a plant to greater warmth and light. It is not without reason that Saturn is typically depicted as a crippled old man (see below). To “fertilize with Saturn” is not only to bring warmth contained in Valerian but also all the methods that improve access to “warm air” for “Everything which is present in the warm air, which is irradiated with light, is Saturn-Sun.”¹¹ Saturn is wherever this dynamic is experienced, not merely the marker of its former activity in the sky — not merely the planet. Moreover, “if you wish to plant coniferous forests, where the Saturn-forces play so great a part, the result will be different if you plant the forest in a so-called ascending period of Saturn¹², or in some other Saturn period.”¹³ If we are not aware of where the effects of “Saturn rising” are at work here on this plane of existence, then reaching the dead planets will have far less lasting effects. Such indications can be considered in a literal astronomical sense but also must be considered in a microcosmic sense right here on Earth. Like nested Russian dolls, what is holistically true on one plane of existence has applications all the way down — and up.¹⁴

If we transplant conifers, we must pay attention to which side faces the sun and which side is shaded because they have a very specific orientation. Without considering this, trees suffer enormously. Likewise, if we consider transplanting oaks, we must know something about Mars and its relationship to leafing out. “[I]t is well for anyone who wants to plant an oak tree to know something of the periodicity of Mars, for an oak tree planted during the appropriate period of Mars will thrive much better than one planted unthinkingly.”¹⁵ We must heed the fact that deciduous trees prefer to be transplanted when they are dormant and not leafing out. “[U]nder the influence of the forces which proceed from Mars, the leaf arises, creeping upwards in spiral formation.”¹⁶ If we tend to think of green leaves emerging as a solar (or even Venusian) quality, consider that what governs a watery process is the opposite — and as astrologer Gary Caton pointed out to me, Mars traditionally governs the water triplicity (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces). One of Steiner’s more perplexing departures from classical astrology is a statement about Mars: “Mars consists primarily of a more or less fluid mass, not as fluid as our water but, shall we say, more like the consistency of jelly, or something of that kind.”¹⁷ But given that Steiner is primarily speaking of the activities of Mars — and not the corpse of the planet we know today — its prehistoric fluidic state is where its activities can still be seen today: e.g., in leafing out. While we can extend our imagination to include the actual positions of the wandering markers of the condensed corpses — the visible planets — of the former centers of these great powers, it will do us very little good if we do not engage how Saturn and Mars are still at work right here. Just because there is a planet we call Saturn does not mean we should lose sight of Saturn’s living dynamics of differentiation and warmth right here on earth and even in our own bodies.

Yes, we can enhance their working by reaching into the distant past — and the planets in space are ancient rhythms from the distant past — but the planetary powers that died out of those planets are alive and working all around us in our ecosystems. If we are insensitive to the north-south orientation (Saturn) of plants or to their dormancy (Mars), considering the distant planets in space will not compensate for such an oversight. Every tree has an “ascending Saturn” side, which can clearly be seen by how Saturn really is only “visible half the year.” On one side of the tree, the effects of Saturn-Sun in warm air are clearly visible. On the shaded side of the tree, these effects are not visibly active. But if we pay attention to what is active here and add what is active in outer space as a memory of the distant past, the former can only be further enhanced.

A tree is not symmetrical. One side always has the bulk of branches, and that side is invariably closer to the Sun. In the northern hemisphere, the sunny side is the South where Saturn’s effects in “warm air” are most active. Here, fruits sweeten readily. However, given local conditions, sometimes the orientation of the tree varies if it is surrounded by hills or trees. Observe how the tree leans and what side has the bulk of branches: that tends to be the Saturn-rising side or was when the tree was growing. This side should remain oriented toward the Sun when transplanting. The side facing the Sun is invariably the side in which Saturn expresses its fullest effects.

Properly understood, we are always already working with the entire cosmos in microcosm in every single plant. Each plant is an iconographic window into the mysteries of the entire cosmos. Annual crops are more flexible than perennials, so they can grow a new set of roots reoriented to their new placement. Still, the roots of perennials have a more rigidly set north-south orientation. The roots can strangle themselves by growing over each other towards their preferred cardinal direction if this is not considered properly. When we prune tomatoes or an orchard, we fertilize with Saturn by letting the effects of warm air and light reach parts of the plant that would normally be in darkness.

Fertilizing with Saturn. Image from Michael Maier’s Symbola aureae mensae. In the background (right) is a dense, overgrown tree with sour “Moon” fruits. In the middle is a tree with thinned branches with sweet “Sun” fruits. On the right is Saturn “fertilizing” a young tree — which is to say, pruning it, just as Saturn is depicted as a “pruned” man. By pruning tomatoes or fruit trees, we allow the activity of the Sun together with Saturn to permeate more evenly through the entire crop, ripening fruits and preventing disease.

You are always working with the cosmos in microcosm — whether or not you realize it! The aim of biodynamics is to recognize our activities as microcosmic images of what also occurs in another way out in the cosmos — to make them consciously so. If we don’t see how our actions rhyme with the cosmos, it’s not that we are truly alienated from the universe, but we’ve simply lost sight of our poetic participation with the world.

1. As quoted in Always Crashing in the Same Car by Lance Olsen, pg.102

2. R. Steiner, Agriculture, Lecture I (GA327, 7 June 1924, Koberwitz)

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

4. Goethe, Metamorphosis of Plants

5. R. Steiner, Stuttgart, February 8, 1909, GA98

6. R. Steiner, Theosophy, pg. 151

7. Alan Chadwick https://chadwickarchive.org/audio/ca1050/

8. And, arguably, even quartz crystals are a kind of flowering within the mineral realm). While stinging nettles itself has withdrawn the flowering impulse into its entire being, not as a primitive plant such as Equisetum arvense but as a glimpse of the future.

9. R. Steiner, Agriculture Course, Lecture VI (GA327, 14 June 1924, Koberwitz)

10. R. Steiner, Man as Symphony of the Creative Word, Lecture IV, October 26, 1923, pg. 72.

11. Ibid.

12. sogenannten Aufgangsperiode des Saturn

13. R. Steiner, Agriculture Course, Lecture I (GA327, 7 June 1924, Koberwitz)

14. Sometimes described as the great “chain of being” or the analogia entis.

15. Ibid.

16. R. Steiner, Man as Symphony of the Creative Word, Lecture IV, October 26, 1923

17. R. Steiner, The Evolution of the Earth and Man and The Influence of the Stars
GA 354 https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/EvoMan_foreword.html