Applied Biodynamics — Issue 055 (Winter 2006–2007)

Applied Biodynamics Issue 055 (Winter 2006–2007) presents Hugh J. Courtney’s spiritual-scientific and ethical account of the cow, JPI’s reverent sheath-harvesting practice, and a reported Maria Thun multi-generation seed comparison whose exact original calendar issue was not located.

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Honoring the cow

JPI’s annual sheath harvest begins the evening before slaughter. Participants gather to read passages from Rudolf Steiner’s lectures on the animal kingdom and Christian Morgenstern’s poem The Washing of the Feet. They visit the chosen animal, offer a silent blessing and thanks, and may begin the following morning with a smudging ceremony.

This practice names the relationship honestly: the animal’s gift makes several preparations possible, and gratitude must be as real as technical skill. The solemn gathering, the spoken words, the attention to the animal, and the careful use of what is harvested establish a standard of reverence for the entire process.

Eagle, lion, and cow

Courtney draws from Steiner’s 1923 lecture cycle published as Man as Symphony of the Creative Word and Harmony of the Creative Word. Steiner presents eagle, lion, and cow as three archetypal expressions of the animal kingdom and as images of three human systems:

• The eagle expresses the head and the formative activity of the sun.
• The lion expresses the rhythmic balance of breathing and circulation.
• The cow expresses metabolism, digestion, gravity, and the transformation of substance.

Within this picture, the cow is the consummate animal of digestion. Her whole organism transforms earthly plant substance within a powerful spiritual and cosmic process. This is why cow manure occupies such a central place in compost, humus formation, soil renewal, and BD 500 horn manure.

The cow and the life of the earth

Steiner describes a grazing herd as enlivening the earth beneath it. Ruminant digestion and the cow’s astral organization carry cosmic activity into the sphere of gravity; the resulting manure is more than discarded material. It becomes a mediator between animal, plant, soil, and cosmos.

The issue also highlights Steiner’s image of elemental beings rejoicing beneath grazing cattle. The cow’s presence, digestion, manure, and death all serve the future mobility and vitality of the earth. In biodynamic farming, this relationship becomes practical through managed grazing, compost, horn manure, and the animal sheaths that guide plant substances through their seasonal transformation.

Preparation making as sacramental work

Alex Podolinsky called preparation making “the only true sacrament” of the present age. Courtney uses that phrase to emphasize responsibility: the maker receives animal and plant materials, brings them into exact relationships, places them in earth through the proper season, and returns a newly transformed substance to farm and garden.

For the practitioner, this means quality begins before burial. It begins with the life of the animal, the integrity of the sheath, the condition of the plant material, the timing of harvest, the attention of the people doing the work, and the gratitude carried through every stage.

Animal life within a complete fertility system

In On the Harvesting of the Preparation Sheaths, Courtney presents animal influence as essential to long-term agricultural vitality. A complete biodynamic system does not isolate plants from animals; it brings manure, compost, grazing, preparations, and seed renewal into one organism.

The BD 502–507 compost preparations embody this interdependence. Some plant preparations develop within animal sheaths; others—BD 504 stinging nettle and BD 507 valerian—do not, while BD 508 horsetail supports the wider spray program. Together with BD 500 and BD 501, all nine form a balanced whole.

Maria Thun’s multi-generation seed comparison

Courtney recounts a side-by-side experiment attributed to Maria Thun. One area received plant-based compost without manure and only the preparations that do not require animal sheaths: BD 504, BD 507, and BD 508. An adjacent area growing comparable crops received the full biodynamic program. Seed from each plot was saved and returned to the same treatment through successive generations.

By the end of the third year, some seed from the animal-free plot had lost viability. By the fifth year, most of that seed could no longer produce a crop, while the full biodynamic plot continued carrying seed forward. The design looks beyond a single harvest to the farm’s capacity to reproduce life through time.

A repeatable five-year study

A present-day grower group can build directly on that structure:

1. Establish randomized, replicated plots from one seed lot.
2. Use the same crop, soil type, planting density, irrigation, and cultivation in every plot.
3. Compare a complete biodynamic fertility program with a defined plant-only compost and preparation program.
4. Save seed separately from each plot and return it only to its original treatment for five generations.
5. Measure germination, days to emergence, seedling vigor, survival, flowering, yield, marketable quality, seed weight, storage life, and nutrient density every year.
6. Retain seed samples and soil samples from every generation for later comparison.

This method honors the issue’s central insight: agricultural vitality is measured not only in what grows today, but in the power carried into future seed, soil, animals, and community.

JPI continuity

Courtney’s opening notes record a period of rapid staff change followed by renewal. Jeremiah Courtney and Mark Proctor restored many gallons of Barrel Compound and buried several thousand BD 500 horns; Cindi Courter supported fundraising; and Joey Brinkley and Natalie Coles arrived to deepen their preparation-making work after experience at Grgich Hills Cellar. The institute’s response mirrors the issue’s theme: living systems reorganize, receive new participants, and continue.

Key Topics Covered

JPI’s ritual of gratitude, readings, blessing, and careful work before harvesting bovine preparation sheaths.

Eagle, lion, and cow as spiritual-scientific images of the human head, rhythmic system, and metabolism.

The cow’s digestion, grazing, elemental beings, and gift to soil renewal within Courtney’s interpretation of Rudolf Steiner.

Preparation making presented as ethical, agricultural, and sacramental work rather than a demonstrated biological mechanism.

Animal and plant processes within a complete fertility system and the practical need for legal sourcing, sanitation, and biosecurity.

Maria Thun’s reported five-generation seed comparison, with the exact original issue unavailable and the claim therefore requiring independent replication.

Repeatable Practice

1. For sheath work, record animal species and source, legal traceability, health status, organ identity and condition, sanitation, storage, processing, batch, burial, recovery, yield, and disposal.
2. For a seed-vitality study, establish replicated animal-input, plant-only, and standard organic fertility systems with matched soil, crop, cultivar, water, cultivation, and harvest management.
3. Save seed separately from every plot and generation; test germination, emergence, vigor, disease, flowering, yield, seed mass, and viability under coded conditions for at least five generations.
4. Predeclare methods, retain seed samples, document nutrient and soil differences, and publish null and adverse results so spiritual interpretation remains distinct from measured reproductive performance.

Explore Related Resources

• BD 500 Horn Manure, guide, and instructions
• Complete Set of Biodynamic Compost Preparations and instructions
• BD 504 Stinging Nettle and guide
• BD 507 Valerian and guide
• BD 508 Horsetail, guide, and instructions
• Barrel Compound, guide, and instructions
• Rudolf Steiner’s Agriculture Course

Articles

• Honoring the Cow (H. J. Courtney) 
• On the Harvesting of the Preparation Sheaths (H. J. Courtney) 
• JPI Notes on Preparation Making, Staff Renewal, and Organizational Continuity 

Citation

Source: Applied Biodynamics, Issue No. 55, Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Bio-Dynamics, Winter 2006–2007.