Reflections on Working With the Preparations

AB #11, Spring 1995

by Nick Franceschelli

Fifteen years after Rudolf Steiner gave the Agriculture Course, Lilly Kolisko published her Agriculture of Tomorrow. It summarizes a staggering amount of research. Kolisko set out to show that the content of Steiner’s lectures could indeed be demonstrated scientifically through   research. She carried out thousands upon thousands of controlled experiments in order to make visible the regenerative and healing forces at work in nature, as well as those in the biodynamic preparations. Insofar as these forces can leave a certain lawful imprint on matter, this remarkable scientist was able to give us a “handle” on the invisible etheric, or life forces, that bring about and maintain the world of visible nature. Her contribution to biodynamics cannot be overstated. The amount of work accomplished in so short a time is simply uncanny.

In contrast to L. Kolisko, I began my “career” in biodynamics twenty years ago, in 1975. It has taken me almost that long to figure out that BD 503 refers to the chamomile preparation and that BD 506 is dandelion! Over time, biodynamic agriculture, especially the preparations, have become more and more of a mystery to me. From my experience I have decided that this form of agriculture, above all, requires patience, a virtue that has not always blessed me abundantly. During the last five years, I have been helping to make and distribute preparations here at the Josephine Porter Institute, a position I shall soon leave but not without some regret, though certainly with some degree of relief. I have spent many hours here trying to puzzle out a number of critical questions about preparations, and I have come to the conclusion that I really don’t understand them yet.

Understanding preparations requires an outlook of the kind that is able to know a living plant. In fact, my understanding of the preparations actually grows and dies in plant-like fashion. The knowing we use to learn about some static, physical object like a hammer or even to learn a mechanical process like raking hay is not sufficient to understand the preparations. The biodynamic preparations are, in a sense, a living, dynamic process, a system that extends through time.