Applied Biodynamics — Issue 045 (Summer 2004)

Applied Biodynamics Issue 045 (Summer 2004) pairs Manfred Klett’s spiritual-scientific account of compost preparations and their sheaths as “sense organs” with Hugh J. Courtney’s repeatable Barrel Compound and BD 500 soil demonstration, including an equal-water comparison.

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The Biodynamic Preparations as Sense Organs

Klett’s 1994 lecture begins with thinking, feeling, and willing. He argues that preparation making is a freely chosen, attentive human activity in which study, perception, manual skill, and moral responsibility remain joined. His contrast with “onlooker consciousness” is philosophical: the maker should not substitute belief for observation, but should participate carefully enough to recognize what was done, under what conditions, and with what result.

The dandelion preparation provides his main process example. Klett moves from studying the Agriculture Course to observing the living plant, collecting blossoms, preparing the mesentery sheath, burying the material, recovering it, and applying the finished preparation. The practical sequence is observable and recordable. His claims about spiritual realities, astrality, etheric activity, and cosmic forces are the lecture’s spiritual-scientific interpretation rather than measured anatomical or agronomic mechanisms.

Klett then considers the six compost preparations as a sequence of plant materials and sheaths:

• BD 502 yarrow in a stag bladder
• BD 503 chamomile in bovine intestine
• BD 504 stinging nettle, described as providing its own sheath
• BD 505 oak bark in an animal skull
• BD 506 dandelion in bovine mesentery
• BD 507 valerian, whose diluted juice is described as forming a warmth sheath around compost

His organ descriptions connect anatomy and function with a metaphysical account of receiving, concentrating, and preserving influences. For present-day work, anatomy and process should be documented independently from interpretation. Animal material must be legally and traceably sourced, handled under current veterinary and biosecurity rules, and recorded by species, organ, condition, storage, date, weight, burial, recovery, yield, and sanitation procedure.

Preparations “Not As Substance But As Forces”

Courtney reports a technique learned from Maria Thun. One unit of Barrel Compound was stirred in three gallons of water and sprayed on three approximately 100-foot garden beds. The beds were cultivated three to four inches deep. The spray-and-cultivation sequence was repeated three times, followed by three applications of BD 500 horn manure, each followed by cultivation.

Courtney perceived the final tillage as markedly smoother than the first. He repeated the experience with a garden rake. In a 1990 workshop, participants raked assigned sections of treated and untreated beds after each application and reported easier movement in the treated soil. When participants requested a water control, a second group compared the six preparation sprays with six equal water sprays and again reported greater ease in the preparation-treated bed.

This is stronger than a single anecdote because the procedure was repeated and an active water control was added. It is not yet a blinded or instrumented experiment: participants knew which bed was treated, “smoothness” was subjective, and baseline moisture, compaction, and aggregation were not reported. A rigorous version randomizes coded beds, standardizes cultivation and water volume, blinds operators where possible, and measures soil moisture, penetration resistance, bulk density, aggregate stability, and rake-pull force before and after treatment.

Root architecture as a measurable observation

Courtney also describes lamb’s-quarters roots from biodynamically treated soil as more taprooted or “carrot-like,” while roots from untreated soil appeared more laterally branched. The spiritual labels “cosmic” and “earthly” belong to his interpretation; the root forms themselves can be quantified. Sample plants at the same stage, code the specimens, scan washed roots, and measure depth, total length, diameter distribution, branching, taproot mass, and root-to-shoot ratio while recording soil moisture and compaction.

Key Topics Covered

Thinking, feeling, willing, attentive participation, and the human element in preparation making.

Preparation plants, animal sheaths, observable process steps, and spiritual-scientific interpretation.

Legal sourcing, veterinary and biosecurity requirements, sanitation, traceability, and complete batch records.

Three Barrel Compound and three BD 500 spray-and-cultivation cycles, plus untreated and equal-water comparisons.

Blinded ratings, soil moisture, penetration resistance, bulk density, aggregate stability, and rake-pull force.

Root architecture measured through coded sampling, washed-root scanning, depth, length, branching, diameter, and mass.

Repeatable Practice

1. Record plant and sheath species, source, legal traceability, condition, storage, date, weight, filling, burial, recovery, yield, and sanitation independently from spiritual interpretation.
2. Randomize coded garden beds among preparation, equal-water, and untreated groups while standardizing spray volume, cultivation depth, operator passes, and timing.
3. Measure baseline and follow-up soil moisture, penetration resistance, bulk density, aggregate stability, and instrumented rake-pull force; blind operators and scorers where possible.
4. Sample plants at the same growth stage, code and scan washed roots, and measure depth, total length, branching, diameter distribution, taproot mass, and root-to-shoot ratio.

Explore Related Resources

• Complete Set of Biodynamic Compost Preparations and instructions
• Barrel Compound and instructions
• BD 500 Horn Manure and instructions
• Agriculture: Spiritual-Scientific Foundations for Agricultural Renewal

Articles

• The Biodynamic Preparations as Sense Organs (M. Klett) 
• Preparations “Not As Substance But As Forces” (H. J. Courtney) 

Citation

Source: Applied Biodynamics, Issue No. 45, Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Bio-Dynamics, Summer 2004.