Click here for the full experience: the original pdf-formatted version of this article.

Biodynamic in Vino Veritas

What if Biodynamics was just a great imposture of modern times?

Book of Bertil. 30.

Prelude:

Fashions scare me, especially when such a fundamental word as "Biodynamics" is used to describe a style of wine without the consumer really understanding its meaning. and when I ask them to define what that means to them, the most common answer is: "A natural wine, without sulfite, without chemicals, without inputs and that uses the moon and cow horns". So, this is what Rudolph Steiner's Anthroposophy, his vision of Epistemology, his personal development of Theosophy through the research of Goethe's theses on the foundations of the "Metamorphoses of Plants", and all his writings on spiritualism and occultism, have been reduced to. For more than thirty years, I have been trying to understand what Biodynamics is in viticulture and why winemakers adhere to it. I am not a member or practitioner of the Anthroposophical Society, nor a member of a Demeter organization.  I have never tried to quantify or analyze this method and its result through a scientific aspect, because as a sommelier I must have to remain curious and without judgment other than that of wine, the drink "of the Gods".

Introduction:

My objective in this presentation is therefore to remain as neutral as possible, and to explain to you as concisely as possible, all the factors that make a wine "a biodynamic wine". Because to consume a biodynamic wine is to accept that you adhere to and support much more than a winemaker, but also a certain form of ethological belief, occultism, and wine esotericism, and that you consider wine anthroposophy as a sect, a cult ... or a religion.

"There is no Biodynamics without anthroposophy" Rudolf Steiner 1923

To understand Biodynamics, one must first understand Theosophy and Anthroposophy, and to understand Anthroposophy one must understand who Rudolf Steiner is. (RS)

Chapter 1 Verse 30.1.01:

Rudolf Steiner, the man

The son of proletarian blue-collar workers, Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was born on 27 February 1861 in what is now Croatia in Kraljevec (Kingdom of Hungary) and emigrated with his parents in 1869 to Neudörfl in what is now Austria. He was therefore born in the world of the Enlightenment, the industrial revolution, the revival of romantic philosophy (Neoromanticism), and the philosophy of freethinkers. At a young age he declared to have had occult visions, this extra-metaphasic and intangible part of his identity was an inseparable complement to his intellectual exercise and his search for a new Christian theology. His superior intelligence and great curiosity led him to be admitted to the Modern and Technical College (Realschule) where he began to take an interest in philosophy and in the work of Kant. Then he was later admitted to the Technical University of Vienna, where he developed an admiration for his literature teacher Karl Schröer, a great connoisseur of Goethe's work. At the same time, he took courses in literature, psychology and medicine at the university, and he obtained a doctorate in philosophy. He became passionate about Goethe's work and co-published the complete edition of his works in Weimar, whose scientific writings had particularly interested him, in particular "The Theory of Colors", but above all "The Metamorphosis of Plants" which was the basis of "Anthroposophy and Biodynamics”. 

Verse 30.1.02:

At the age of 19

He met Felix Kogutzki, the gatherer of "simple" (medicinal or aromatic herbs) who introduced him to traditional occultism and is said to have introduced him to an eminent "spiritual master”, an important part of Steiner's occult beliefs and visions throughout his life. In addition, he encountered Samuel Hahnemann's new unconventional medicine, Homeopathy, which he would apply to biodynamic practices. In 1888, Steiner was introduced to Theosophical literature by his meeting with Marie Lang. He then found himself in the very exclusive circle of the new Idealist thinkers and studied the work of Arthur Schopenhauer, who treated the world alternately as representation and the world as will, but who was also a fervent opponent of eudaemonism (a system of ethics that bases moral value on the likelihood that good actions will produce happiness.) Steiner was also influenced Schopenhauer’s treatises on Hindu and Buddhist beliefs in the spiritual concept of monotheism. This was the basis for Steiner's membership of the Theosophical Society, of which he later became Secretary General of the German section in 1902.

Chapter 2 Verse 30.2.01:

Theosophy, the foundation of Anthroposophy.

Theosophy is conceived as a religion encompassing all religions. It was created in 1875 in New York, then transferred to India in 1900. Its influence was considerable in cultivated circles around 1900-1920. Its main spiritual representative, Jiddu Krishnamurti, gradually became an emblem of personal development, and was an icon of American campuses after the Second World War. Theosophy holds a monistic position that there is only one divine Absolute and articulates an emanationist cosmology in which the universe is perceived as an outward reflection of that Absolute. Instead of believing the Christian religion, which claims that God is the explanation for everything that happens on Earth, some people will develop their own vision of the Universe, these individuals are called humanists. They consider that human beings are not at the mercy of the divine will, but that they are in control of their destiny. In addition, they believe that through critical thinking, reasoning, and experimentation, it is possible to understand the world in which we live. It is important to understand that at the base that humanism is a belief in Secularism. The three points according to Antoine Faivre that can define the fundamentals of theosophy are: "God, man and nature are associated to be the object of a speculation based on phenomena of enlightenment"; "The mythical aspects of Christian revelation are privileged by the Theosophist, who stages Adam, Lucifer, the angels, but also the Sophia or the primitive androgyne"; and finally: "The human being possesses the ability to have immediate access to the divine world, so that he can hope, with an interpenetration of the divine and the human, to associate his spirit with a body of light in order to experience a second birth." The German Theosophical Society, like all cults, was torn apart by different leaders, visions and beliefs. This instability, and Rudolf Steiner's personal vision to unify this thinking of the world and of men not towards Hinduism and Buddhism, with Christianity and the natural sciences, would definitively fracture his relationship in 1909 with the Theosophical Society. It was at this time that Steiner took up the concept of Anthroposophy on his own.

Chapter 3 Verse 30.3.01:

Anthroposophy, an inseparable foundation of Biodynamics

It is a spiritual movement that has its roots in the philosophy and theosophy of German idealism and encourages the individual to see the body, mind and soul as inseparable from our world and as part of a global system.

"The processes of initiation make man evolve from the normal form of daytime consciousness to a psychic activity in which he has special organs for his spiritual perceptions" RS

Rudolf Steiner was a man of his time, as I explained before, he came from a working-class world and therefore remained very close to the philosophy of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, based on the dissensions of a new economic and political world order. He was also very much influenced by the social and human impact of the new industrial-capitalist economy. He thus found himself a spectator of the social, ideological and political upheavals of the conflict of alliances, with the Triple Alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy from 1882, and the Triple Entente between France, the United Kingdom and Russia from 1892, which were the primary sources of the First World War and the cradle of Nazism. This is why anthroposophy seems to be in tune with the times, born of a reaction to modernity.

Verse 30.3.02:

Steiner redefined the foundations of this ancient philosophy

Which had been brought to light in 1804 by Friedrich Wilhelm J. Schelling, who wrote that "the construction of the human organism, seen as a pure image of pure identity, would be the object of a science of its own, which does not yet exist, and which should be called 'anthroposophy', something quite different from what has been called anthropology up to this day." This "science" is therefore the study of man by man. But Rudolf Steiner claims another meaning to this term, by affirming that anthroposophy is not "the wisdom of the human being" but "the consciousness of his humanity", that is: to develop one's will, to link knowledge and experience, to live the destiny of one's time in order to give one's soul an orientation of consciousness, which in esoteric Christianity is the essential virtue of the ruler allowing him to see the essences. In order to justify his deception, he also adheres to a (modern) current of thought, the claim of scientificity, which uses, knowingly or not, terms and approaches that seem scientific or logical in order to claim the credit that science possesses, and which sometimes use scientific language and axioms, but which do not respect the criteria of the (scientific) method. The third part is that it exalts the nature and medieval roots of an organic, rural, and immutable Volk ("people") as well as völkisch paganism (populated by gods from the Norse pantheon, among them Thor, Odin, and Loki). If for Steiner mathematical rationality and modern science explain only the material, "visible" part of the world, for him spirits and supernatural forces act in an invisible world. "We must not imagine that this supersensible world is distant and diffuse. So, according to Steiner, anthroposophy is "the science" that pierce, through the spiritual path, the mysteries of the occult world. "The processes of initiation make man evolve from the normal form of daytime consciousness to a psychic activity in which he has special organs for his spiritual perceptions," and he affirmed that it is possible to communicate with the dead. With a better understanding of these basic concepts, it is easy to savor the last phase of his esoteric approach, astrology in astronomy, and druidism, with its elves, gnomes, and other creatures.

Verse 30.3.03:

Mars

For Steiner, Mars would be a liquid planet, the Earth a giant skull, the Moon a vitrified pile of horn; islands and continents would float on the sea, held in place by the force of the stars; the planets would have a soul; minerals would come from plants; clairvoyant beings could detect atheists, because they would necessarily be sick; initially immobile, the Earth would have been rotated by the human "I". "It will be good to discover how, from two sides of the cosmos, the forces of the morning and the forces of the evening can be put at the service of humanity: on the one hand from Pisces, on the other from Virgo." The concepts of microcosm and macrocosm are essential to anthroposophy in explaining the physical, etheric, and astral body. These are the foundations that Steiner laid in order to create a new society.  

"The physical body began its development in an earlier incarnation of the earth called 'Ancient Saturn', a celestial body made of pure heat. The etheric body, which the human being shares with the plants, has its origin in the subsequent, aerial phase: the ‘Old Sun’. The astral body, made up of emotions, sensitivity and dreams, which humans share with animals, developed on the ‘Old Moon’, the fluidic state which constitutes the stage immediately preceding the ‘present mineral Earth’”. Rudolf Steiner

Verse 30.3.04:

Goetheanum

Steiner understood that the societal structure of anthroposophy had to be established on groups and institutions, so he elaborated and applied his approach in various forms. First, theology with its "Vatican" by designing and building the Goetheanum (Switzerland), the building housing the headquarters of the Universal Anthroposophical Society. Then a medical system based on homeopathy and alternative medicine.

"The premise is the same in health: we must adapt medicine — perceived as materialistic — to the spiritual body and therefore not interfere with our karma. This is why alternative medicine should be favored over vaccines.” Yves Casgrain

"Diseases are sent by the Gods to help us overcome our sins, as part of Reincarnation. Thus, a vaccine or a laboratory drug, will prevent a disease that you must have in this life, and it will be a handicap in a future incarnation, because it hinders a karmic process."

Verse 30.3.04:

Money..Money

As the group must be organized on a contributory income system, in addition to the annual membership contribution, everyone must give a part monthly revenue to the community. The establishment of a financial system is based on the structure of an ethical bank, now known as Triodos, GLS or the Nef.  As for the school structure, Steiner developed a special education at the request of the Waldorf-Astoria company, known today as the Waldorf schools. According to Steiner, access to full inner spirituality can also be developed through art, and so with the collaboration of his wife Marie, they created "Eurythmy" which is a form of danced esoteric rite, which they call "art of movement". As for curative eurythmy, it appeared in the context of anthroposophical medicine as an art therapy, but also in agricultural treatment.

Finally, the last main part of the structure is agriculture. Many farmers and winemakers are supporters of Anthroposophy as a solution to industrial agriculture, the misuse of chemicals to treat new forms of disease, and the overuse of modern machinery in the fields.

Chapter 4 Verse 30.4.01:

Biodynamic

Rudolf Steiner: a Steve Jobs on steroids

Prelude:

This "science" is based on a premise: the ultimate nature of reality rests on the mind. "Behind this flower, before this flower, there was the idea of the flower,"

It is interesting to consider this phase of the evolution of anthroposophy, because previously Steiner was only interested in the evolution of the human being and his place in the macrocosm and the microcosm, and how man in the singular can evolve to reach the ultimate stage of the plural immaterial. With biodynamics, Steiner wanted to bring concrete actions to intervene on the problems that man had caused to the plant and animal cycle through the industrialization of agriculture, and the capitalist action of overproduction. In a simple and orderly reflection, he provides solutions to reorder the organic with the cosmic. So I will try to explain to you how Rudolph Steiner transferred his anthroposophical concept from the human to the plant and to domestic and wild animals. To do this, let us start from the principle that we accept the fundamental that: Unity is one all, and that all are unity, but also, that the disordered comes from the orderly.

It is also important to know that Steiner never wrote or published on Biodynamics, and that the concept is only based on a set of lectures he gave in 1924 to 111 anthroposophist, only 1/3 of whom were farmers. In addition, Steiner did not use the word biodynamics at any time, but instead presented all of his lectures under the title "Organic Fertilization" as part of the course for farmers. The principles and practices of organic fertilization are justified by the anthroposophical view of nature. This approach to natural phenomena, including the development of minerals, soil, plants, and animals, are not only the product of physical or biological phenomena (solid state), but are also influenced by supersensible forces of a "living" (etheric), "psychic" (astral) and "spiritual" (I forces) nature, or of "cosmic forces" and "earthly forces". It is also important to know that Steiner constantly reiterates during his lectures the importance of testing, modifying, organizing one's reflections, and the importance of evolving in a vision of agricultural individuality.

Verse 30.4.02:

The concept of agricultural individuality

In order to respect the biorhythm of the farm, it is essential to understand that each of them has their own cosmic personalities, on the principle of unity in The All. 

"Based on the principle that, like an individual, each estate has its own specific character and personality, (biodynamics) pays special attention both to the search for symbioses between soil, plants, animals and human beings as well as to social perspectives and the integration of the farm into the ecological, economic and cultural fabric of its environment" RS.

It is therefore important to Steiner that the farm is able to produce all the resources it needs independently, from animal feed to soil fertilization. Since the etheric of man, animals and plants must be unified in their own cosmic geographical space.

Verse 30.4.03:

Earth forces and cosmic forces

Steiner spent a lot of time developing and explaining the influence of the different stars on the "Earth" and "Astral" forces, which are distributed among the forces of the planets according to whether they are positioned in the macrocosm or the microcosm. So, the biggest difference between organic and biodynamic agriculture lies in the idea (and practice) of "energizing" soils, plants, and various living things through the "Cosmic" forces that are at the origin of various phenomena such as the development and growth of agricultural crops, the formation of humus, the presence of pests and weeds (which for Steiner are not bad). He also introduces the concept of energies influencing the non-aerial (the subterranean) and the aerial. Thus, he affirms that there is an essential difference between the vectors of "earth forces" such as lime and nitrogen, and the "cosmic forces" such as silica, sulfur, phosphorus, which are ferrous (metallic) trace elements. He therefore explains how humans can intervene during specific astral periods in order to influence the biological phenomena observed in crops, and how they can be captured, stopped or delayed. This control of "cosmic forces" is based on the use of "preparations" of organic, mineral or animal bases.

Verse 30.4.04:

Preparations

Before going into the details of the different preparations, I think it is essential to know that Rudolf Steiner looked to ancestral agriculture (post-industrial revolution) based on empirical practices. His sources are extracted from old agricultural documents, and they are also based on the science of minerals, medical knowledge, trace elements, homeopathy which he applies to soil and plant treatments, and Louis Pasteur's treatises on microbiology and bacteriology. All the preparations, called herbal teas or concoctions, are based on very specific plants, minerals, and/or animal manure.

Soil and crop preparation:

- Preparation 500 "Horn dung"

- Preparation 501 "Horn Silica"

Preparation for the Compost:

-Preparation 502, 503, 504, 505, 506, 507

30.4.04-01

500

The 500 preparations are the cow horn that is so emblematic of the practice of Biodynamics.

Steiner considers the horn of the animal to be the part most exposed to astral energies, this allows the manure to be energized in the soil during the period of the earth's winter forces, where the horn must remain buried for six months. Then in the spring the horns are dug up and the inside of the horn is diluted in water. The amount of horn for the volume of water used (counted in buckets) is very accurate because it is based on the principles of homeopathy, microdose treatment. The stirring must be done by hand according to the astral rules in order to energize the solution.

Verse 30.4.06:

Preparation by incineration

In the case of an invasion of weeds, insects, or rodents, Steiner proposes to treat by spreading combustion powders identical to the source of the problem. So, examples would be burning field mouse skin for the treatment of mice in crops, or the burning of insect powder for an insect infestation, or for weeds, the spreading of burned seeds of the plants to be combated. In the method, incineration must be carried out with “the force of fire” in the moon, and as well as spreading.

Important Note:

Verse 30.4.07:

Work with lunar, planetary and zodiacal rhythms

Steiner fully applies the ancient sciences of astrology to establish agricultural actions in time and space. The two largest astral reference points are the moon and the sun. The lunation, also known as the "lunar cycle", is of major importance. Its cycle is defined in two distinct phases: the waxing moon (i.e. the "young moon"), and the waning moon (i.e. the "old moon"), with a lunar cycle of 27 days.  The lunar nodes correspond to the point in the moon's orbit when it crosses the plane of the earth's orbit around the sun. In a cycle, the moon passes a lunar node about every 2 weeks.  To understand the lunar calendar, we must therefore understand the waxing moon, the waning moon, and the lunar nodes during the rising moon and during the waning moon. In fruit farming (such as vines), these different periods define the work, which must be oriented preferably on "roots", "leaves" or "fruit" aspects.

The cycle of the year is linked to the twelve months and the twelve signs of the zodiac that correspond to it. The current calendar is based on the passage of the sun through the zodiac. Since the sun is the celestial body that determines the course of the day and the seasons, its influence on terrestrial life is undisputed, and so Steiner proposes to look at the effect of celestial bodies by considering the planets from a geocentric and not a heliocentric point of view, which takes the earth, not the sun, as a point of reference.

Rudolf Steiner never wrote or established an agricultural calendar during his life. It was not until the work of Maria Thun that we advocated the use of a cosmic agenda to govern agricultural work. This calendar is published each year is based on four elements: Fire, Air, Water, Earth which is linked to the four plant elements: Fruit, Flower, Leaf, Root (the trunk is considered by Steiner to be an aerial extension of the roots, a plant part that is not very etheric). Thun believed that "these elements are related to the organs of plants", which allowed him to "divide the year into dates favorable to these different organs according to the position of the moon while adding a connection with the twelve zodiacal constellations". It is on this basis that it establishes periods that are more favorable than others according to "oppositions" or "planetary nodes"

Conclusion

Yes, Rudolf Steiner is a Steve Jobs on steroids. For he is the visionary precursor of the product "anthroposophy", which brings together all the human beliefs of prehistory, from the foundations of the first funerary rituals of the Neolithic, to the cults of ancestors, from the Mother Goddess to the foundations of ancient polytheism. He drifted with talent towards the beliefs of the axial turn of Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Greek philosophies, Chinese wisdom, Hinduism and Buddhism. But he will also put witchcraft, white and black magic, exorcism and adorcism into it. To complete his overall vision, he incorporated the new philosophers of the Enlightenment, who advocated an individuality of critical thinking and the autonomy of the subject. But also, it will seek its roots in the mythological beliefs and practices of ancient paganism, as well as Druidry. So, like Steve Jobs with the iPhone, Steiner has created a modern-day product that responds to a social demand that brings people together; Cult: "Apple-Anthroposophy", and the utility: "iPhone-Biodynamics".

I don't have an opinion as to whether to believe in anthroposophy, and its interrelationship with biodynamics. Like Steiner, I believe that philosophy, its evolution and its questioning, are the tools of man's spiritual and social progress. All studies and scientific research show that biodynamic products are harmless to humans and that their quality is no different from that of organic farming products. Many writings define biodynamic practice as an organic practice with astral spiritualism. I must inform you, so that you can decide which practice you want to adhere to when buying your wines, that the whole difference can only be understood in the comparison on a quantifiable and rigid basis of the established rules of Organic or Demeter (biodynamic) certifications.  The organic (non-spiritual) certification allows the use of motorized machines and the use of biochemical products (pesticides, insecticides or fungicides) in the vineyards and in the winery. While the pure practice of Demeter certification does not allow all forms of magnetic interference and only uses very limited and specific plants and minerals inputs. The most comical thing is that the Organic certification does not allow the addition of potassium bi-sulfite, and that the Demeter certification allows it.

To admit all of you of my personal beliefs, all forms of agricultural and wine-growing eco-responsibility, regardless of the spiritual or metaphysical beliefs with which they may be associated, is a step forward in respecting our health and the health of the environment. And then a true craftsman does not need commercial certifications to justify it, because never forget "a wine does not lie".

Mr.B