Making the Three Kings Preparation
Originally published 2025-09-19. By Stewart Kahn Lundy, JPI Biodynamics.
and how to make your own D2 potentized 24k gold
The Three Kings Preparation, developed by Hugo Erbe, uses real 24k gold, diluted in the right way. The idea behind it is as a “protection against opposing forces,” but I also like to imagine it as something of a promise to the elemental world.
The Three Kings Preparation is not a preparation to be used lightly. Imagine you are sending out a golden invitation to the entire elemental world, inviting them to a banquet in your garden. Well, if you send such an invitation, you must first make sure there is plenty to eat for your guests. Even usually gracious guests can become disgruntled if there’s not enough food. Mischief may ensue, or at least they won’t likely answer any subsequent invitation. If you wish to invite the protection of such shy beings, they must first be provided for. For this reason, it is sensible to use all the biodynamic preparations first, for at least three to four years, before using the Three Kings Preparation. As Steiner suggests, “If the cow has fed on a particular soil for three or four years, i.e. has lived in it, it belongs to that soil”1 and elsewhere “the workings of these forces have a four-year rhythm.”2 If it takes a cow four years to adapt to belonging to a farm, it takes just as many years for the entire farm to adjust to the biodynamic remedies.
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Additionally, the Three Kings Preparation is a pledge to continue to work with the elemental world and support it to the best of our abilities. It is ideal for people who fully intend to remain in one particular place and work with that specific piece of land as a sanctuary for life. Practical life may intervene and send us elsewhere against our wills, but the commitment on our parts is of most significance.
Giving Gifts to the Elemental World
With the arrival of advent in the northern hemisphere, we focus strongly inward. Leaves fall, their vitality drained. They leave behind colorful signatures of their mineral composition. The sun continues to rise a little lower every day, appearing as if it might slip away forever.
The ingredients of the Three Kings Preparation, perhaps unsurprisingly, are based on the gifts of the magi: gold, frankincense, and myrrh:
3 parts aurum metallicum D2 (Weleda)
3 parts frankincense (olibanum)
3 parts gummi resina Myrrha
5 parts glycerin from organic fats
4 parts rainwater
The trouble is not so much making this preparation as it is sourcing its ingredients. Organic frankincense and myrrh (powder or resin work just as well) may be found online from various sources, as can organic glycerin. Rainwater can be collected locally. But when it comes to the D2 gold, this can either be difficult to obtain or seem intimidating to make when it’s really quite simple.
In the not-too-distant past, we (JPI) encountered a problem with Weleda’s D2 gold’s prices, which had increased significantly — and this was before the new wave of tariffs and suspension of the de minimis exemption. So, I decided it was time to make our own homeopathic dilution of gold.
For those unfamiliar with either homeopathy or the process of dilution, each D indicates the movement of one decimal point. D0 is the pure 100%. D1 moves a pure 100% solution to a 10% solution, and D2 moves that 10% down to a 1% solution. What is sprayed out as D2 gold in the Three Kings Preparation is 99% lactose potentized with 1% 24k gold.
Not counting the costs of organic frankincense, myrrh, glycerin, lactose, or labor, there is more than $13 of 99.8% pure 24k gold in each set of Three Kings Preparation. If one were to prepare a single unit of this preparation for stage one, one would need a mere 0.05g of gold plus 0.45g of organic lactose for the D1 dilution, which should be mixed for an hour in a porcelain mortar and pestle. You would need to take that combined 0.5g D1 mixture of gold and lactose and add 4.5g additional lactose and mix again for an hour, resulting in 5.0g of D2 gold.
Directions for making enough D2 gold for one unit of Three Kings Preparation:
Mix 0.05g food-grade 24k gold plus 0.45g organic lactose in a porcelain mortar and pestle for one hour. Continue until zero reflective flakes of gold can be seen at all.
Add to the above mixture 4.5g lactose and mix for an hour.
The final results are 5.0g of D2 gold, which should be stored in a cool, dry place in an airtight jar. A moisture-absorbing packet may be advisable depending on your climate.
Making Three Kings Preparation
The half-hour before midnight on New Year’s Eve, one combines:
In a porcelain mortar, combine 5.0g D2 gold, 5.0g myrrh, and 5.0g frankincense and mix thoroughly for an hour (from 11:30 pm to 12:30 am on New Year’s Eve). If you live in a cold area, you will want a warmed space so the substances do not coagulate too much to mix.
After mixing for a full hour, add to the mixture 8.33g organic vegetable glycerin and 8.33g rainwater and mix thoroughly.
The resulting paste will store in a small container for years.
Using the Three Kings Preparation
One takes 5mL of the mixture made on New Year’s Eve and adds it to about 2 gallons of warmed water. Stir this on January 6th (Epiphany) around 3:00 pm, making a vigorous vortex, reversing directions rhythmically, and continuing stirring for one full hour. The stirred preparation should be sprayed out immediately. To quote Hugo Erbe’s New Bio-Dynamic Preparations directly, “In order to create a ‘magic circle’, the person carrying out the spraying follows the boundary of the property, pausing every 5 metres [~16 feet] or so to spray outwards in the direction of the neighboring land (a small hand-brush is useful here). For each kilometer [3280 feet], about 2 litres [~0.5 gal] are required.” For those interested in reading more context on this particular preparation, consider obtaining the PDF of Hugo Erbe’s book, which can be found at Considera.org.
You have here all you need to make your own if you wish, because that is what we’re about. Now, not everyone will have the time or energy to go through these steps or source these materials. For this reason, we offer a limited run of this special Three Kings Preparation for purchase on our website every year. Prices have increased due to material costs, and look like they will all be going up more, so now is as good a time as any to buy the 3K for future use: one set is enough for multiple years, even on the perimeter of my 40-acre farm.
Remember that this begins as a gift, as a sacrifice of my own time and energy, the cost of these organic ingredients, and the intention of you also sacrificing your time and energy in gratitude to the elemental world. These are beings that do not feed on bread or wine, but on our own gratitude, and these beings turn sour when deprived of proper appreciation. We are reminded of what inviting the spiritual world into our lives really means: it is not vague love and light, it is Michael slaying the serpent.
“Aslan is a lion—the Lion, the great Lion.”
“Ooh" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he—quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”
“Safe?” said Mr Beaver, "Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he's good.”― C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Of course, it isn’t safe. This is not a cause for trepidation, but for reverence: a holy fear that we might misuse such mysteries. Only someone who works with these things with trembling hands can treat them rightly. As Hölderlin says, “But where the danger is, also grows the saving power.”
We must remember to treat them as honored guests if we wish to have the protection of these mildest of dæmons.
It must cost us something, and the Three Kings Preparation is an example of one such sacrifice. It isn’t even sprayed on our land! Instead, it is sprayed out and away, but as we all know, what we send forth greatly influences what returns to us. May this gratuitous gesture bring each of us healthy crops, safety from extreme weather, and the friendliest fairies.
The Josephine Porter Institute - Applied Biodynamics is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
R. Steiner, Agriculture Course, Lecture IV (GA327, 12 June 1924, Koberwitz)
R. Steiner, Agriculture Course, Lecture IV (GA327, 12 June 1924, Koberwitz)
