Rudolf Steiners agricultural course, blackboard drawings - a presentation by Ueli Hurter, 2024

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Introduction 00:00:04

So, hello, we are at the Goetheanum, and we have here the 100 years celebration of the biodynamic impulse. And we did a very big conference with more than thousand people, and from more than 50 countries, so really a world gathering. And part of this conference has been like an exhibition of the original blackboard drawings from the agricultural course in Koberwitz.

It means they have been really drawn by Rudolf Steiner when he gave the eight lectures. And now I will show you how this can be a kind of introduction to the all over contents of the agricultural course. My name is Ueli Hurter, and I'm co-leader of the section of agriculture since 2010. So, please follow me to the exhibition.

Exhibition overview 00:01:32

So, we have eight pictures, eight blackboards, and this is from each of the lectures one. And they just did a black paper on a wood, and in this way he painted, he did his drawings, and at the end of the lecture they took it down and made a new one on for the next day.

Lecture 1: 7th June, The first blackboard drawing 00:02:07

And here we have the 1st of these blackboard drawings, and it's from the 1st of these lectures. And this has been the 7th of June 1924. And Steiner arrived at Koberwitz the 6th in the evening. And he was ill, and it has been a huge journey from Dornach to Koberwitz. It's more than 1.000 kilometers by train.

And in this way people then, seeing him arriving, have been shocked in which, let's say, critical mood and health state he is. And the morning of the 7th, 11 o'clock, first gathering in this building of Koberwitz, which is an estate. It's not a farm, it's an estate big, and he started.

And what can we see on this drawing which indicates the first lecture? We see a small circle in the middle and then a bigger circle around. And here we see the sign of Saturn. And he started to indicate that the earth here in the middle is just in the cosmos, and when we look to Saturn, which takes 30 years for his orbit around the sun, we can see that he widened extremely the focus of the people.

So, don't look, he said, in a very narrow way to what we have as nature on the earth when we would like to farm the nature. But let's open our perspective and really look with a cosmic perspective to what happens on our earth when we farm. And we see also that he has been not well, because it's very thin, and it's not sure how he designed.

So we see here, let's say, this old man, and in a healthy situation which is not stable.

Lecture 2: 10th June, The second drawing 00:04:38

Then we go to the second drawing and second lecture. And here we are already the 10th of June, because the 8th and the 9th, there hasn't been lectures. It has been Pentecost and so free. And we see now he is arrived. So, what we can see, what is drawn is with a strong, with a strong way, and we can see that he is arrived, and now it's also colored, it's very diverse, and I will just indicate one or two of the subjects.

First, he draw this line indicating we have to start somewhere, and this is the soil. And of course, it's the soil. And for all over the indications throughout eight lectures, soil is central. And to build up soil fertility is, let's say, a central mission of biodynamics. Not to grow plants out of, let's say, artificial fertilizers, but to enliven the soil in a way that, out of this soil fertility, the healthy plants can grow.

So, this is, let's say, very practical, very farming like. But then again we have here, above the soil, the sign for the sun and then for moon and mercury and venus, indicating that above the soil we have this nearer planets working in this air and moisture, which we have just above the soil where the plants grow. And we have underneath the soil, here: Mars, jupiter and saturn, indicating that underneath the soil, and mirrored by the rocks, we have the lower [...] the planets which are above the sun.

So, again, a very earthly situation combined with a cosmic perspective. This is what it is, the language of the agricultural curse, and always it's the question: "What is earthly and what is cosmic?"

Another painting here, it's about the animals, and we see that the polarity between sun and moon, which is here indicated, then turns in a horizontal structure when it came to the animals. And the sun is, let's say, active from the front, and the moon forces, they are more active from behind. And this indicates then how the animals integrate in the overall individuality of the farm, which is, let's say, the term which is firstly named in this second lecture: Farm individuality. A completely new concept, much more than farm organism, and until nowadays it's a kind of, let's say, question what is meant with this farm individuality when we make the link to what is individuality for the human when Steiner speaks about it.

Lecture 3: 11th June, The substances 00:08:42

Okay, we go to the 3rd lecture. And the 3rd lecture is considered as the most difficult one. And in fact, it's about the substances. It means about carbon, about oxygen, about nitrogen, about hydrogen, and about sulfur. And this five, he names them sisters and brothers; they together are the ones who form the proteins. And the proteins are the substances on earth which are built out of the cosmic forces in order that, let's say, life can incarnate. And how do they work together? This is the question which is worked on in this lecture.

And you see here a kind of structure which indicates ... , in a kind of ... this structure, the carbon base; then came a little bit more in a free way, what indicates the oxygen, life goes to what has become a structure with the carbon, and then we have these yellow lines, and this is nitrogen which brings life to the structure in a way which is not abstract as when we fertilize with artificial fertilizer, but which is fully out of life, because nitrogen is this very sensible substance which can feel what's going on on the farm, and in the weather, and in the seasons, and how now I can bring, let's say, life to the structure in order that the plants can grow in a way which is in relation with all what happens around.

Lecture 4: 12th June, The Turning point and preparations 00:11:02

Next. Now we have the 4th lecture, and here we have a turning point in the evolvement of the course, because now it becomes practical.

This has been more theoretical, let's say, basis, and it continues a little bit; this is compost type, and it's compared with, with a tree, and so on, but then here we have the indication of a horn, and it means that, at the end of the fourth lecture, we start with the explanation of the preparations, and here it becomes very practical.

The biodynamic preparations, they are not at all theoretical; they are fully practical, even they are special, and here we find the horn, and we find other drawings which indicate that now what we have learned, how, let's say, cosmic and terrestrial forces and substances, they interlink themselves in order to create life; now we can create ourselves substances which can attack forces in order to help the overall production in our farms.

And to bring horn and the manure of the cows in the horns, to dig them in the ground for the winter time. To take them out, to stir them in water, and to bring them out on the field when we are preparing a field for sow. This is, I would say, what we are known for and what is this kind of agriculture when we speak about biodynamic agriculture, and we have also the silica horn preparation, the both of them.

Lecture 5: 13th June, Compost preparations 00:13:14

Then we go to the fifth lecture, and here we learn about the six other preparations which are the ones which we give in our compost.

So, we have the two feed preparations which we stir in water; this has been with the fourth lecture, and now we have the six preparations, and they are even more complicated, and all of them, they help to create throughout the compost, which then goes to the fields, and in this sense, to the whole surface of our farm organism, let's say faculties; it's not a manuring in the sense of bringing substances, it's more manuring in the sense of bringing faculties. It's a kind of education we do with our farm when we work with the preparations.

The drawing here shows us that we have the shape of a compost high, and then we have this red bullet which indicates a preparation which has been brought in, and it's just very, very small quantity, just what I can take between my three fingers, and I make a hole and I do it in.

And Steiner says here, and this is okay because this will radiate the forces, this dynamic forces, they will radiate in a compost high which can be big as a house, and we see here how he indicates these forces, these dynamic forces, which bring this, what is, let's say, yeah, created with by doing, by making the preparation, and then can be brought to the compost, and via the compost to the surface, and with the surface we have this quality stand in, let's say, the metabolism of our farm individuality, and it's taken up by the crops we grow, and when we then harvest the crops, it goes to the people who eat this. This is what we mean with Demeter-quality.

Lecture 6: 14th June, Pests 00:15:50

Next is the 6th lecture, and it's about pests. It's about what ... is difficult when we farm, because we have pests on the plants, and we have, let's say, organisms which are not the ones we would like to have, and here we see how Steiner indicates how we can handle this. It means a health performance of the farm is in the hands of the biodynamic farmer, in order that he has not to buy from outside pesticides and so on.

And here we see a drawing: we have the full moon, and he radiates, and we have here a soil which is full of water, because it's springtime, there has been a lot of rain and snow, and it makes that this full moon forces, which in normal, let's say, normal quantities, they are healthy, but now they are too strong, and they create above the normal level of the soil, they create a second one, and this makes that then we have fungus as a disease which can develop on our plant.

So the plant grows in the soil, and this is the health situation, and then, because there are too much full moon forces, the plant itself became a new soil for other organisms, and these are pests, and this can be fungus, and now he indicates how, for example, with a spray of, of the one or the other plant, we can try to bring this level again down, and in this way, create out of, let's say, this interrelationship with all organisms on a farm, a healthy situation for the crops.

Lecture 7: 15th June, Landscaping and biodiversity 00:18:19

And here we have a very colorful drawing for the 7th lecture, and the 7th lecture is about landscaping; it's about diversity we have to create on our farms. And as biodiversity is a hot issue today, I mean, this is an indication which is absolutely for now and for the future, and Stein explains that the one of the organisms, they are more giving in for a certain substance or situation, and the others are more taking.

And this very colorful drawing here, you see this form, and it's an indication here, that's, ... "Eigenwesen in Luft und Wärme", so a being for itself in air and warmth. And this means these are the animals; they shape themselves and have their own warmth, and with the breathing, their own air situation for themselves. And the counterpart, or the plants, and they have their own being here in earth and water, in the moisture, and they are giving organisms.

So the giving organisms of the plants and the more inside taking organisms of the animals, they need the one, the other one. And here we see in which way this intimate interrelational relations between all the organisms is here the theme, and when we strive in our days on our farms to have diversity all over on our ground, it goes back to this, because this is building up, let's say, strength in a way to be resilient, and this is much important actually with the very weak situation we have with the weather and the climate, and it builds up this health potential which is so important.

Lecture 8: 16th June, Feeding of the Animals 00:20:50

Then we go to the last one; It's very practical again, in a sense that Steiner now says, "I would like to speak about the feeding of the animals. How can we feed the animals?" Because we have seen now they are absolutely part of our farm organism, and the integration, the obligation to have animals on Demeter certified farms is something which is other with Demeter than, for example, with other organic labels.

And so he indicates how we can feed the animals; and to give you an example, he says, "roots and, for example, carrots, what they do when they are eaten, they work in the head, and from the head, inform forces towards the other part of the organism."

And when we have a young animal, let's say a calf, which has to form its organism, its body for the future life, then we give carrots in order that this can be done properly; and when this calf then became a cow and has to give milk, then we change the feeding of the animal, and we go much more to, let's say, clover and alfalfa, which is known, but now we can understand how it works, and so on.

And then we have another drawing here, which is a kind of summary of the all over now agricultural course. And it shows here a plant which grows and has a kind of red indication, and this means it's accompanied with the flower and the insects, with an astral umbrella in some way; and now we see here the root, and the root is accompanied around with a force which came by the manuring, and the manuring, meaning what is left by the cows, by the ruminants.

And we have seen, we did even the preparations in, but now this brings the eye forces, a kind of prototype eye forces, which came from the cow to the roots of the plant, and then let grow the plants in the verticality which goes up to the sun. And from the sun to the earth, for man, that man can become sun for the earth, has deemed the title of our conference, and this exhibition has been part of our conference from the 100 years of biodynamics.

And in this sense I greet all the people who are somehow and somewhere engaged with this biodynamic impulse in the various countries, and I hope that we can celebrate together this 100 years and take new forces in order then to be innovative and inspired for the next hundred years.

Thank you.