Biodynamic Digest # 9

Originally published 2025-09-21. By Lloyd Nelson, Stewart Kahn Lundy, JPI Biodynamics.

Michaelmas is here. You should

With your friends Lloyd Nelson and Stewart Lundy

These digests are in a nine-part series. With this ninth addition, we have the completion of the first cycle as we prepare for the next series.

Let us begin with nine lines by Harry Stefanakis

Nine: Promises

We are not commonplace folk who journeyed through nine
years instead of months to Raven’s feral cauldron
stirring wildly while the world pot thunders
promises that we vowed to keep
and truth mixes with the
kind of madness that
brings forth the
union of
Us

Nine: Unbreakable

We
are a
union of a
kind of sanity with
truth that blend together in
promises that are kept even when
made difficult from being stirred inside the
primordial world pot and that long expedition to
Raven’s cauldron that took nine years. Nine is Unbreakable!

Biodynamic preparation making season begins!

Autumn is in the air, and that means it is the preparation making season across the country. We can look at this as our “window” of opportunity during this Michaelmas season. This is the time of year that we as biodynamic practitioners ensure that biodynamics has a fertile future. You have an opportunity to help contribute and continue the spread and evolution of biodynamic agriculture. Autumn is the season to make many of the biodynamic preparations, and one of the very best times to apply them! By using the preparations, you can contribute towards Steiner’s quest of “healing the Earth.” And by Earth, we always mean the realm of free human activity and that which supports that possibility. Wherever spiritual freedom is championed, there is the renewed earth. As Gary Lachman writes in Caretakers of the Cosmos, “Save the planet? Yes, assuredly. But why stop there? Why not save the universe while we’re at it?”

The biodynamic preparation making season will start where winter will be first, and that is high in the Rocky Mountains. In fact, as last week's digest came out, the first snow stuck to the peaks of the high elevations over 12,000 feet. Stewart is way down at barely 32ft above the ocean! Winter is on the way here, and Stewart still has a glut of tomatoes they’re harvesting every day – but you can feel autumn in the air there too, grass turning golden in the shortening daylight, cows putting on their thick winter coats, and the smell of sweet moldering decay in the air.

Steiner talks about how wherever there are formerly living things in an ongoing state of decomposition, they radiate the forces that went into building them. He provides an example of mummies in ancient Egyptian tombs. He claims that the seeds in those tombs remained viable for only so long because of the gradually radiating formative forces emanating from the mummies. Similarly, Steiner says that seeds are “charged” over winter by burial during a time when organic matter radiates as it decomposes. Similarly, you can “charge” your seeds by placing them in sealed jars and burying them in an active compost pile provided the conditions are right. Some biodynamic practitioners even go as far as to bury their seeds in the Earth during the receptive time of the twelve Holy nights of deep winter to “charge” seeds with new spiritualized forces. Have you ever been really cold and then tried to warm yourself with an electric heater versus a wood fire? Quickly, you can feel and experience a clear qualitative difference. Warmth from wood is enlivening, while warmth from electricity is merely a kind of dead mineral-warmth with no nutritive value. It will still warm you, but other than heat, it adds nothing directly nourishing.

Who’s cooking?

The same goes for cooking: you can cook with electricity or a microwave, but it only warms the food. By contrast, if you cook with wood, it adds nourishing forces. Sun forces radiate through the combustion process as warmth is liberated from wood. Just imagine the warmth of a roaring fire or the sun on your skin versus the tepid warmth of an electric heater.

In old houses in autumn, we can experience the scent of moldering leaves and the slow decay of centuries-old wood. Being in the presence of such gentle ongoing decomposition has an enlivening effect, much like the smell of old books has on lovers of learning. When we place our preparations in the ground during this time of year, they can absorb the sweet, moldering scent of decomposition, particularly the etheric-formative forces radiating in the soil during the cosmic inhalation. The preparation can absorb radiant benefits from the summer that will be digested through the winter.

If the decomposition process ever goes too far out of balance and turns harsh instead of sweet and mellow, the appearance of mildew or molds might tell us we need to use some nice freshly prepared Equisetum tea to bring things back to balance. We can even drink a little of this warm tea to help us encourage equilibrium at this beautiful time of balance with the Autumnal Equinox upon us.

Getting Regional

We will start the Michaelmas biodynamic preparation making season up in the colder high elevations of the Rocky Mountains before making our way down several thousand feet to the eastern and western mountain slopes and beyond. We will then finally finish making biodynamic preparations for use next year in warmer climates such as inland from North America's largest estuary in Virginia's Chesapeake Bay, and one of planet Earth's most productive agricultural regions, the fruitful San Joaquin Valley of California, where the weather permits making preps later in the season, even into November. We are excited to be able to make biodynamic preparations in these diverse ecosystems, and we have some excellent farms to be able to do this important work!

Conversely, next spring, the first biodynamic preps that will be ready first and need to be unearthed are those in the warm valleys and coastal regions of California and Florida. Then we make our way back up to the high elevations of the Rockies, where we still find some snow year-round on the peaks, and only eventually unearth preparations that have remained in the ground the longest.

Different bioregions have specific needs, and the preparations can be adapted to address some of those needs. Every area, with few exceptions, has a natural one-sidedness that gives it its distinct character. In a desert, we have to care for water more, but in the tropics, we might have to concern ourselves more with drainage and ventilation. Suppose we were to take Steiner’s Geographic Medicine indications seriously. In that case, we might begin to recognize that some areas have a natural tendency to produce specific preparations: wetland areas and the oak bark preparation, the high opportunities of siliceous mountains, the balanced soils of the Midwest and nettles, the long winters of the north and horn manure, etc. Imagine medicines made in the four corners of this continent and redistributed to each other's region, giving what one area is best at to the others.

Interestingly, we can also find where the biodynamic preparation plants grow in nature. Here in the high elevations of Colorado, we have all the preparation plants growing naturally in the wild, with one exception—chamomile. Chamomile is the most delicate and prefers disturbed soil. Nettles love growing near human settlements, but chamomile has a relationship to upturned soil. Of all the biodynamic herbs, chamomile loves to be surface sown.

Opportunities

Biodynamic agriculture is oriented towards the future. A treatment with a biodynamic preparation continues to work after the application is finished. In order for biodynamics to continue, much work has to be done ahead of time. Think about all the preparation makers this fall, they will do something now that will give them the possibility to do something in the future. It is similar to a cook who prepares dinner ahead of time because she knows everyone will be hungry. As we mentioned in our previous digest, “When you buy preparations, you aren’t paying for the preparations themselves; you are investing so that preparations will continue to be made in the future.”

How many seasons or opportunities to make the preparations? Every autumn, we have an opportunity to make biodynamic preparations to be used on our future gardens. We can actively prepare ourselves and our gardens for the future. After the initial production process, the preparations take at least half a year or more to transform. What we do this autumn will determine what we will be able to do next autumn.

When a farm successfully produces an abundance of a biodynamic preparation, that is a wonderful thing that can now be used as a valuable resource in building soil and plant health. Next, we hope the agricultural enterprise recognises the importance of continuing production of the BD preparations, simply because your future gardens are going to need them. Since it takes about half a year or more to produce Barrel Compound or Horn Manure, it is a good idea to front-load some of the work.

No time to rest

Hugh Courtney was adamant that a preparation maker should not take a season off, even if they thought they had plenty of preparations. The insights we gain from continued seasons of making biodynamic preparations can be enormous. The process of producing and using the preparations can awaken dormant spiritual capacities. Steiner proclaimed, “There slumber in every human being faculties by means of which he can acquire for himself a knowledge of higher worlds. Mystics, Gnostics, Theosophists — all speak of a world of soul and spirit which for them is just as real as the world we see with our physical eyes and touch with our physical hands.” There is a ritual process at work in making the preparations. We weave ourselves into them, and they weave themselves into us. If you knew what these really were, you'd both be a little bit afraid to make them and would do everything in your power to make them each year.

Hugh would ask us how many opportunities we had to make the biodynamic preparations. It is similar to Thanksgiving or Christmas, which only come around once a year. If you miss the holidays with your families, you will never get that same opportunity. Maybe next year you can spend Christmas with grandma… By next year, things will have evolved and changed already, so a unique opportunity is lost if one skips making the preparations for even one season. Think about how many times you get to grow tomatoes – a few dozen times in a single life? To become an expert in such things requires lifetimes of experience. In any given lifetime, we will all remain beginners.

This is not meant to criticize, only to encourage more people to get out there and do biodynamics. By our actions, we can make biodynamics come to life. The good news as we have reported before, is that biodynamics continues to work even after the application has been completed and we are on to other tasks.

Steiner reminds us “That which secures life from exhaustion lies in the unseen world, deep at the roots of things.”

Love Potion Number Nine

This is the Ninth biodynamic Digest; we are at the completion of a cycle and a new beginning.

Hugh Courtney had numerous skills that he would apply towards the making and using of the biodynamic preparations. He studied astrology long before he found biodynamics. He was a big proponent of exploring and using astronomy to apply preparations at the very best time for the most outstanding results.

Hugh was quite knowledgeable when it came to numerology. He applied numerology and biodynamics for an energetic enhancement. The number nine held particular significance for Hugh, especially regarding the nine biodynamic preparations. Sayings such as ‘The Whole Nine Yards’ and ‘Dressed to the Nines’ or ‘A Stitch in Time Saves Nine’ can remind us of the commonly held significance of the last single digit number.

Steiner tells us, “numbers and numerical proportions have a certain meaning for the cosmos and the world. It is in numbers, we might say, that the harmony that wells through space is expressed.” We can see this in Venus, whose five-fold pattern is reflected in the entire rose family of plants.

The author of the nonet Nine: Promises and Nine: Unbreakable, shares “the value of all multiples of nine when its digits are added together equal nine (18, 1+8=9; 27, 2+7=9 and so on). Numerologically, Nine is seen as unbreakable. Together, the poems create an Unbreakable Promise!”

The Oxford definition of Numerology is the branch of Knowledge that deals with the occult significance of numbers. Wikipedia tells us that Numerology is the belief in an occult, divine or mystical relationship between a number and one or more coinciding events. What is “occult”? Hidden, nothing more. Anything that is now considered science was, without exception once considered part of the “occult.” As Arthur C Clarke wrote, any technology sufficiently advanced appears as magic. What is hidden comes to light progressively, through time.

Seeking hidden patterns dates back to the church fathers and the rabbinical tradition preceding them, who incorporated hermeneutics of gematria and subtle patterns to uncover additional layers of meaning in texts. Hebrew itself is simultaneously letters and numbers and even musical notes that can be intoned. All sorts of subtle numerical patterns appear in such a text.

The early church father Origen — probably the most influential Christian theologian after Paul — borrowed from rabbinical tradition (from whom he learned far more than just Hebrew) a literal reading, a moral reading, and a spiritual meaning. Beyond this, there are extended esoteric layers, none of which contradict the literal meaning any more than the red skin of an apple “contradicts” the vitality that permeates the entire fruit.

When we read Steiner, there’s the literal level, and there are also additional layers of meaning – some not consciously intended in the text. For example, a cow becomes at home with a new piece of land after four years, but there is another cycle of four generations at another octave. While mammals are gestating, they have no digestive bacteria at all – their guts are sterile. Upon being born, their digestive tract becomes populated with indigenous microbial life from their mothers and the greater environment around them. An animal that grows up eating grass from this place belongs to it more than any animal that was moved there. Steiner hints at this kind of improvement when he says that a cow fed the right food might not show it right away, but her offspring will show the improvements.

After four successive generations of cows living in one spot, they acclimate surprisingly, particularly if they are eating primarily off that land. Is that in the Agriculture Course? Does it tie together several ideas in the Agriculture Course? Yes! No, not if you stick to the literal words. Does it contradict anything in the Agriculture Course? Of course not! Steiner tells us, “The time has come to realize that supersensible knowledge has now to arise from the materialistic grave.” In fact, it had to be this way. We had to be deprived of spiritual vision in order to wander the horizontal world in our prodigality, to sample everything and realize that none of that will satisfy us and thus, finally, look heavenward again.

Seriously?

To get beyond the literal and into the figurative, you first have to know the literal level so well you can find new hidden interconnections. Hugh Courtney would read passages from the Agriculture Course every night – he kept it on his nightstand by his bed. How often does anyone give this close attention to something?

Taking Hugh seriously, some of us have taken up reading and rereading the Agriculture Course, using a different color pen each time through, so our notes and underlines became geological, almost tectonic. You can see what confused us before, where we disagree with ourselves during a later reread, and what we go back to time and time again. Those who believe they have it all figured out simply stop learning and lock biodynamics up in a tiny little coffin. Hugh Courtney understood more than most people about biodynamics, and he was still evolving his understanding of it to the very end. Learning is never over for the seeker.

The number nine had particular importance for biodynamics, according to Courtney. Nine is the last single-digit number, representing the completion, closure, and culmination of a cycle. In Kabbalah, nine is considered the fullness, while ten is too much. For example, the nine of swords is experienced as the “Cruelty” of healthy skepticism, but when the rational mind becomes overextended, it becomes ten: “Ruin” or cynicism, rationality turned against itself. The nine of pentacles, “Gain” becomes bloated “Wealth” at ten, growth turned against itself. The nine of wands, “Strength” becomes “Oppression” at ten, strength meant to serve turned against itself. Similarly, the nine of cups, “Happiness” becomes “Satiety”, bloated complacency with no inner warmth – after all, happiness only remains happiness as long as you still want more of the same. The 10s are like eating too much food like when even one more bite will make you sick! The nines are meant to become ones again, not fall to the excess of the tens.

Nine times Nine

In planetary associations, Saturn is an “octave” of the moon. Saturn = 3, Sun = 6, Moon = 9 (3x3). Saturn is to the solar system what the Moon is to the Earth. This bears much contemplation. As the Moon focuses in the effects of the solar system, Saturn focuses in the effects of the wider galaxy. Saturn is the “moon” of our solar system while the Moon is the “Saturn” of the Earth.

There are Nine Traditional or classic planets in astronomy and astrology. Notably, even though it was still a “geocentric” model, the alchemical arrangement of the planets always places the Sun in the center. People knew long ago the “objective” ordering, just as they associated the heart with the Sun. In Vedic astrology the nine “planets” are known as the Navagraha. According to many practitioners there are nine biodynamic preparations.

Some may propose that adding things like dowsing or numerology to understanding biodynamics may not go well together because “Steiner didn't say it.” Steiner didn’t say most things worth knowing or doing! How could he have? He once suggested that when a clairvoyant is asked a question about something he hasn't studied it feels like being stabbed. Clairvoyance is not spontaneously knowing things without intense study, it is like a telescope, but even the Hubble telescope, for all its power, has only mapped a fraction of a percent of the sky. Clairvoyance is the same: we can only make inner connections about things we know in the normal way. If we lack experience farming, we will never be clairvoyant about farming. The task is always doing, and learning from doing, and only then will grounded epiphanies emerge, those early intimations of an appendage waking to life, like a foot fallen asleep waking up again.

However, we applaud those with a scientific background when applied to biodynamics, as they may be able to add scientific legitimacy to the work. A Waldorf teacher may bring a lovely song to a biodynamic stir, and that makes a great addition. What we can bring to biodynamics through our own unique experiences is of utmost importance. We should always be cautious of denying the significance of something because of a lack of awareness and understanding. Just because I may not know Chinese does not mean there is nothing significant there to learn! And the same goes for all subjective experience. This is why we should respect elders in all fields: they have more experience than we do. Anyone who has spent more time doing a particular task is our elder in that particular field. It doesn't mean their conclusions from their experiences are always right — far from it! — but they have more real experiences which gives them a greater chance of having more correct conclusions. People who try to formulate new opinions before they have years of practical experience are merely jumping to conclusions, and rarely exhibit meaningful respect to those who came before them.

Equisetum as the Ninth biodynamic preparation.

One such grain from decades of experience both from Hugh Courtney and Ehrenfried Pfeiffer concerns the role of Equisetum. Traditionally, from the European viewpoint, equisetum is not counted as one of the preparations and is treated merely as an antifungal remedy. In many books (can we name a few citations)

However, if we study the Agriculture course, we can find that one medicinal herb was talked about more than the rest – equisetum. Even Ehrenfried Pfeiffer lists Equisetum arvense as being numbered with 500-508, making Equisetum the ninth preparation.

Big Three

Alan Chadwick describes the “Big Three” in French gardening, namely, ferns, nettles, and equisetum. Stewart takes this image as a model based on Gerbert Grohman’s thoughts in The Plant, that ferns are “all leaf” – a single branch and all its segments are actually all one fractal leaf that is not separate. Nettles are “all flower” in the sense that the external flowering process is inhibited, and instead is withheld in the center as radiating spines. By contrast, Equisetum has no true leaves, no true flowers, not even proper roots – it is “all stem.” If we wish to draw on the powers of the outer planets, Equisetum brings the power to overcome wet conditions and resilience against fungus. The “Big Three” combined give nearly complete plant nourishment: leaf, flower, and stem. If you wished for more “inner planets” (e.g., “moon forces”), you would want to draw on ferns. If you are in a wet area and wish to mitigate excessive wetness, you would, by contrast, draw on equisetum.

An important reminder: don't leave the Ninth BD preparation, equisetum out of your biodynamic program!

We would like to wish you all a wonderful and productive biodynamic preparation making Michaelmas season.

Go Biodynamic! For Life