Translations:Benutzer:Arian/Klett-Mini-Test/1121/en

4. The Earthing Phase

After the losses of substance in the first and second phases and the substance-transformation in the third, the volume of the heap gradually diminishes. It passes over into the condition of the earthy-solid; it consolidates and structures itself uniformly in a kind of material new-formation, the stable humus (Figure 16, p. 292). This process shows itself not only in the darkening of colour and the loosely crumbling structure, but also in qualities of smell and taste — perceptions, therefore, that bring one closer to the essential nature of what is material. The heap fills itself inwardly with a mild, earthy scent. The qualitative of taste is immanent to the processual activity itself: the compost heap has now been brought into a condition in which a small-animal world multiplying in masses determines what comes to pass. It is evolutively of a lower kind, lives in the darkness and in the moisture