Reflections on Working With the Preparations
Originally published 2025-04-30. By JPI Biodynamics.
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.
Take, for example, the dandelion preparation. We begin it at dandelion blossom picking time. Already it starts to get complicated. We feel uneasy about picking just any blossoms at any time. We want the blossoms from buds that have opened for the first time and have been picked on flower days (based on the Maria Thun calendar) on biodynamically treated fields away from the harmful effects of civilization. We try to develop similar criteria for the cattle that are to yield the bovine mesentery that will eventually surround the blossoms in the soil once the preparation has been “made.”
Many stimulating (and thorny) questions arise all along the process of making this or any preparation. Once the finished dandelion preparation is dug up in Spring, we have, so to speak, an end product that could be compared to some physical object. We have the resultant BD 506 (dandelion preparation). Now, however, we have to ask ourselves if the preparation that we hold in our hands had indeed transformed itself properly while in the earth and if we are at all satisfied with it. Then we want to store and use it wisely. Suppose we get mediocre compost from a pile prepped with our product. Is the preparation impotent? Or did we not get our compost pile-building down right? Supposing we get decent looking compost, is this stuff really better now that it has had the preparations?
Last of all, perhaps most importantly, we want to recognize the footprint of our preparation, the impression that it leaves on the finished compost and then in the soil, plant, and animal life of our farm. When we can begin to answer these questions for ourselves then we begin to work with preparations objectively. That is a useful goal, because then we can communicate what we know to anyone else who wants to learn more.
It is not the aim of such questions to sow doubts in the reader. There are certainly many wonderful answers and possibilities for all these questions, which other biodynamic people have worked out. Rather, the point is to show that for me, in my direct experience of the preparations, I have not yet learned these answers. So far, I can only sense that preparations can be understood as living, dynamic processes over time as well as physical substances. I have thus far been allowed only tiny, fleeting glimpses into the nature of the biodynamic preparations. These glimpses are the moments, all too few, when the impression is there that something delicate and vitally healing is at work. I have to resign myself gratefully to these few moments of grace, as they are the thin thread that connects me to the workings of the preparations.
Here is an example of one such tenuous glimpse, and from my description, it ought to be clear how slight and tender is my knowledge. I visited Rick Walker, a market gardener in Mooresville, NC, in the Fall of 1994. In that part of North Carolina, the soil has been farmed out as a result of years of intensive cotton and tobacco growing. Often, the soil is either a white sand with hardly any organic matter, or a harsh, bright red clay. After a long spring and summer, the plant growth in the Piedmont (that is the name for this particular area) usually looks tired, pale, and lackluster. When we rounded the bend to Rick Walker’s garden, however, it was as if we had just crossed into another space. The grass around the beds was of a lustrous, vibrant green that seemed to glow quietly in the warm midday sun. The green I am trying to describe is not the lush, rich, green of a fertile meadow, nor is it the blue green of a hay field where inorganic nitrogen has been applied. It appeared a bit like the luminous glow of a meadow in early Spring in the evening sun. At that moment, I felt that with the help of the stark contrast offered by the poorly treated land nearby, I had glimpsed something of the biodynamic preparations at work. Such encounters with the biodynamic influences are valuable, I believe, but they are not yet useful in conveying the essence of the biodynamic work to the “man in the street.”
Some of the people who work with the biodynamic preparations have a much more conscious, steady relationship to them than I do. Clearly, some people have applied themselves much more effectively to learning the secrets of the preparations than I have. I know people who have a healthy, intuitive knowledge of preparations, based on practical experience as well as a strong, enthusiastic faith in the operative qualities of these substances. These people are not stopped by “the paralysis of analysis” from doing the work that needs to be done. Then, there are the few, like Alex Podolinsky, who have been able to make a distinct success story out of practical biodynamic work, while at the same time bringing the biodynamic principles to the public in fully conscious, modern, accessible terms.
What follows are some of what I’ve learned from working with the preparations.
Preparations have to be struggled for. A lot of work, and a lot of thought go into producing and using the preparations. Diane Gonthier has developed a kind of meditative illustration of the preparations during a whole year’s cycle. It is worth a look. At JPI, a big task is keeping an active overview of all that goes into making preparations. Many other compelling jobs compete for our attention. In my case, I have always had to struggle to make so-called quality time for the preparations. Even here, at JPI.
Preparations need a professional attitude. Although anybody should be allowed to apply them, and everybody must be given time to make mistakes and to learn, preparations must be used effectively. Otherwise, why are we bothering? If we don’t have a professional attitude, even towards our occasional backyard garden plot, biodynamics will become a plaything, and I don’t see that we will arrive at the essential task of healing, regenerating, and enhancing agriculture.
Preparations belong with biologically sound farming and gardening practices. We need to get our places “in shape,” so that we have them in a condition worthy of receiving the preparations. A lot of Steiner’s lectures on agriculture consists of hints, broad or subtle, that point toward regulating and strengthening biological activity (this is often overlooked). Biological enhancement is not necessarily some miraculous side effect of using preparations. Biological work is often good farming, good stewardship, and creative action. Any good grower needs to spend a lot of time creating the physical conditions that make it possible for nature to thrive and be healthy (e.g. building compost piles, applying compost, rotational grazing). The natural conditions in which agriculture is carried out are in many places far worse than they were at the time Steiner gave his indications on farming. One way to make this point would be to say, “We need to pull a drowning man out of water before we can offer him some oxygen.” There is plenty of know-how out there, plenty of supportive technology, and good success stories to build on if we want to get things into shape biologically. But it is still lots of hard work.
Preparations demand growth. Hugh Courtney liked to say that using preparations will change the spiritual atmosphere of the place where they’re used, hence they will change the user. Here is how I look at it: Because, in my experience, the effects of preparations are subtle to begin with, any one with an ounce of natural curiosity will start research to better understand and will, sooner or later, become aware of some of the remarkable background out of which these substances spring. More or less directly, preparations often tug us along a kind of inner path, which we can either stray off of or stay on for the steeper sections, but it seems hard to stand still on it. By the way, climbing on steep paths can be quite strenuous, painful, and certainly not entirely safe. (So what else is new?)
Preparations build community. Of course, people build communities. The point here is that if you stay with the patients, and it can be a lonely stay at first, sooner or later you will meet VIPs connected with this work. Certainly that has been true for me at JPI. In five short years, we have joined with a strong regional group of dedicated biodynamic growers to form a loose, but reliable, network of individuals. For example, I count two JPI board members I hadn’t even heard of before I came here as among my most respected and trusted friends. Words fail to express the admiration I have for these people.
Preparations give the opportunity to serve. JPI’s mission is to serve growers. It is easy for me to talk about serving, especially working here at a comfortable salary. Yet, anyone who uses the preparations effectively is serving—at least trying to, if nothing else. Bringing healing and vitality back to the land is an urgent task. If we can begin to do it, it can be a source of enjoyment and satisfaction. It is a job that benefits everyone, costs very little, and pulls us out into Nature, into field and garden, with the intent of giving something back. Read Steiner’s Agriculture Course for yourself; please don’t take it from me.
It would surprise me to hear that no one else had come to similar thoughts and conclusions. Being this close to preparation work certainly keeps me wondering about it. I probably will be wondering about the preparations for a long time to come, even if I am not quite as near to the center of activity in the future.
Nick Franceschelli worked at JPI for six years, from 1989 to 1995.
