Translations:Benutzer:Arian/Klett-Mini-Test/794/en

The Winter Process and Soil Cultivation

In winter, the world of appearances is reduced to the merely physical. Outer life has largely gone out; it has withdrawn into the resting state of spores, seeds, buds, and into the cambium and the storage organs — tubers, beet. The growth of the leaves of winter grain sown in autumn comes to a standstill. With the onset of cold the leaves press themselves, in a rosette, star-shaped, like an image of the starry heavens, flat against the earth. Only the roots go on growing slowly down into the depth. Nature is clothed in bright and dark, in white and black. Out of the white blanket of snow the darkness of the branching of trees and shrubs stands out in contrast. From November onward the soil shows a darker colouring than at other times of the year. It is a consequence of the saturation of all soil pores with water. This phenomenon points to the central winter process — to the far-reaching separation of the four elements from one another. The warmth that otherwise permeates everything withdraws, leaving its three siblings to their own physical being. In its place, as its counterpole, cold steps in. The air is pure and clear and opens the gaze into the distance, or upward into the starry sky. Water ceases to evaporate; it grows denser, heavier, and seeps down into the depth. The earthy-solid contracts and forms itself into its strictly geometrical crystal nature.