hi Prim .. just sprinted over to the bookshelves to find the book
Title is
'Secrets of the Soil' by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird
From the back cover:
'
Secrets of the Soil tells the fascinating story of the innovative, nontraditional, often surprising things that certain scientists, farmers and mystics are doing to save our planet from self-destruction -- such as using the techniques of Rudolf Steiner's biodynamic agriculture with its reliance on ethereal forces from the planets, Don Carlson's growth-stimulating Sonic Bloom, and rock dust as fertilizer to revitalise depleted soils; or gardening with teh help of devas and nature spirits, and applying psychic skills to reverse serious agricultural problems.'
Here's another commendation from the back cover:
'
Truly revolutionary ... a fascinating, mutidisciplinary investigation of the secret of life itself. Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird go to the source of all plant (and animal) life: the living soil. They probe the primal mysteries of the soil, an organism resonating with cosmic, terrestrial and spiritual energies. And they find amazing cause for hope and action'Now, that might sound a little bit new-agey and off-putting to some, so here's an exerpt from Page One:
'
One warm December morning, solstitial sun sparkling on the wooded hills of southern Virginia, six of us sat in a circle looking, no doubt, like a coven of warlocks and witches, stuffing freshly gathered cow-manure into desiccated cow horns.
We were on the hundred acre farm of U.S naval officer, Hugh J. Courtney, grey-bearded and easy-going in his blue denim coveralls. For almost ten years, Hugh has been devoting his retirement to producing the various biodynamic preparations recommended over half a century before by the clairvoyant Austrian scientist Rudolph Steiner as a prime remedy for our planet's sickening soil.
By three o'clock, as the sun slanted deeper through the pine groves, we had stuffed 850 horns bought by our host, over a period of years, from a cooperative slaughterhouse at fifty cents apiece. No longer foul smelling as when first collected, the horns had been processed by curing and drying, then slapped hard together until the bone core popped. The manure, fresh from a small herd of Angus-Guernseys leisurely browsing the biodynamically fertilized meadows that ran down to a meandering creek -- was surprisingly sweet to the nostrils. Some fifty gallons of it filled various crocks and pails, awaiting processing.
Scooping up a spoonful of mushy cow manure and packing it into a firmly held cow horn, our host explained how he'd first gotten into biodynamic farming in College Park, Maryland, when he chanced to find on the shelved of the Beautiful Day Trading Company a hard-to-find volume on agriculture written by Rudolph Steiner. It was just one phrase, he explained, one short phrase in this tin but explosive little book which had spurred him into action. Steiner's injunction that the earth could only be healed and the nutritive quality of its produce be made healthy again if the benefits of his extraordinary agricultural preparations were made available to the largest possible areas over the entire earth.'
Ok, it may still not have whetted your appetite.
So, to skip to the chase, the cow manure is packed into the cow horns and 'planted' in the earth at a certain phase of the moon. Approx. six months later (from memory) .. again at a certain phase of the moon and seasons, the cow horns are dug up.
The cow manure has been transformed. It is now a sweet smelling magical element which, when stirred in minute amounts into water, becomes an 'elixir of life'. It's commercial name is Biodynamic Solution 401 (I think .. been a while since I read the book). I've seen advertisements for it in alternative magazines. Of course, it would be much better to make your own, using the above manure and cow-horn method. Just a few drops added to a watering can or other dispenser has the power to boost growth, produce richer and sweeter crops and restore the soil.
Some folk have a special 'stirring' ritual and this is touched upon in the book and doubtless in other sources. They create a vortex by using a long flat paddle to stir. And while they stir, some of them hum or sing, particularly in Europe where alternative farming methods aren't viewed with as much suspicion as in the fertilizer-seduced US, for example.
When the vortex has spun X-number of times, some swiftly reverse the vortex and stir anti-clockwise, alternating between clockwise and anti-clockwise for the number of rotations and reversals that they personally feel to be best.
It allows people to put a lot of themselves, particularly spiritually and instinctively, into the process of creating the final solution.
But there's more. You have to read this book, because it will change the way you think about lots of things. For example, rock dust. Well, we've all heard from our parents, I think, about Fuller's Earth. But these days, we hardly ever hear about the many uses for rock and it's side products. 'They' (commercial enterprises) want us to forget our connection with Nature in order to persuade us to pay a fortune for lab-created chemical products.
Back to the rock-dust though. I'll jot down what little I remember from my original reading of the book. For example, the Black Forest, in Europe, is dying at horrifying rate, even at the time the book was published (1989). Acid rain and other man-caused blights were/are killing that magnificent forest. Well, not long before the book was published, a local man who passed a section of the dying forest on regular basis, noted that on the drive, there were large piles of rock-dust sitting on the side of the road .. a side-effect of local mining or quarry work. So, he took some and distributed it around a few dozen trees in the forest. Six months later, the treated trees showed astonishing regrowth and repair, whilst the untreated trees nearby continued to die.
The man continued with his private experiments and his instincts were confirmed .. the rock dust had definite restorative qualities and had succeeded in creating new and re growth where modern techniques had failed. Excited by the results of the rock dust, he purchased the piles of dust for next to nothing from the local quarry or whatever and contacted local bureaucrats, offering to donate the dust to the forest if the local authorities would supply labour to help in spreading the dust around a large area of dying trees. Can't remember the ins and outs of it, but the authorities pulled the plug on the guy. The book contains other amazing true stories about the restorative qualities of simple rock dust, this time in the United States. Rock dust ! I love rocks anyway and was thrilled to learn that even in powdered form, they are alive and give life.
It's a hefty read .. close to 400 pages of sheer fascination, plus Appendices and Index. Your local library may have it, or you could probably pick up a used copy online for a few dollars. It's an investment, really. This is lost 'technology' .. suppressed information really. We don't know what lies ahead, but this book could bridge the gap between your great-
grandchildren and your great-
grandparents ! In between is that big chunk of lost knowledge as the world's soil and plants etc. have been ravaged by the likes of chemical fertilizers and Monsanto seeds, etc. The older generations knew so much that never made it down to us. So, if you buy the book and don't get around to reading it, you could seal it in bag or tin box and bequeath it to your descendents .. possibly save their lives, foodwise, and enrich their souls
The book contains information about 'tuning into Nature' .. into the cycles of the moon, into insect life and the rhythms of the seasons and applying these to farming, yes, but in the process, your own health (mental, spiritual and physical) are also improved. It teaches about the way soil should be .. sweet, rich, lifegiving .. instead of the rank, exhausted, chemically poisoned stuff of today. Most of all, it takes us back to harmony with Nature, which is vital to us all and via which we restore our natural instincts and spirituality. But the book's written in plain speak, contains photos and true case histories and appeals to the practical gardener and scientist as well. If you run a search for the authors or the book's title, there will probably be links and you could read those .. and be amazed
