Animals and the Farm individuality by Rudolf Steiner with Journaling Prompts

A farm is true to its essential nature, in the best sense of the word, if it is conceived as a kind of individual entity in itself— a self-contained individuality.  Every farm should approximate to this condition.  This ideal cannot be absolutely attained, but it should be observed as far as possible.  Whatever you need for agricultural production you should try to possess it within the farm itself (including in the farm, needless to say, the due amount of cattle).

“This excerpt is presented in its original form to preserve the depth and nuance of Rudolf Steiner’s language.  While some phrasing may differ from modern conventions, its meaning and essence remain intact.”

We shall see presently why this is the natural thing.  So long as one does not regard things in their true essence but only in their outer material aspect, the question may justifiably arise: is it not a matter of indifference whether we get our dung from the vicinity or from our own farm?

But it is not so.  Although these things may not be able to be strictly carried out, we do, nevertheless need to have this ideal concept of the necessary self-contained nature of any farm if we wish to do things in a proper and natural way. 

You will recognize the justice of this statement if, on the one hand, you consider the earth from which our farm arises, and, on the other hand, what works down into our earth from the universe beyond.  Nowadays, people speak very abstractly of the influences which work on the earth from the surrounding universe.

 

They are aware no doubt, that the sun’s light and warmth and all the meteorological processes connected with it are in a way related to the form and development of the vegetation that covers the soil.  But present-day ideas can give no real information as to the exact relationships because they do not penetrate to the realities involved.  Let us consider, to begin with, the soil, which is the foundation of all agriculture.

The surface of the earth is generally regarded as mere mineral matter which might best include some organic elements to the extent that there is formation of humus or that manure is added.  In reality, however, the soil as such not only contains a certain life—a vegetative nature of its own—but an effective astral principal as well, a fact which not only fails to be taken into account today but is not even admitted.  But we can go still further.  We must observe that this inner life of the soil is different in summer and in winter.  Here we are coming to a realm of knowledge, immensely significant for practical life, that is not even conceived in our time.

Taking our start from a study of the soil, we must indeed observe that the surface of the earth is a kind of organ in that organism which reveals itself throughout the growth of nature.  The earth’s surface is a real organ, which may be compared to the human diaphragm.  We gain a right idea of these facts if we say: above the human diaphragm there are certain organs, notably, the head and the processes of breathing and circulation which work up into the head. Beneath it there are other organs.

If from this point of view we now compare the earth’s surface with the human diaphragm, then we must say: in the entity with which we are here concerned, the head is beneath the surface of the earth, while we with all the animals, are living in the creature’s belly.  Whatever is above the earth belongs in truth to the intestines of the ‘agricultural individuality’, to coin the phrase.  We, in our farm, are going about in the belly of our farm, and the plants themselves grow upwards in the belly of the farm.  Indeed, we are dealing with an entity standing on its head.  We only regard it rightly if we imagine it as standing on its head in comparison with the human being.

And now, to localize these influences, please observe the following.  The activities above the earth are directly dependent on the moon, Mercury and Venus supplementing and modifying the influences of the sun.  The planets near the earth extend their influences to all that is above the earth’s surface.  On the other hand, the distant planets work upon all that is beneath the earth’s surface, assisting those influences which the sun exercises from below the earth.  Thus, so far as plant growth is concerned, we must look for the influences of the distant heavens beneath, and of the earth’s immediate cosmic environment above the earth’s surface.

All that works inwards from the far spaces of the cosmos to influence the growth of the plants works not directly—not by direct radiation—but is first received by the earth; and the earth then rays it upwards again.  We are talking not only about direct sunlight; we are also talking about the sunlight reflected by the moon.  This sunlight reflected by the moon is quite ineffective when it shines onto the head of an animal.  There it has no influence.  (What I am now saying applies especially, however, to the embryonic life.)

 

The light that is rayed back from the moon developed its greatest influence when it falls on the hind parts of the animal.   Look at the skeleton formation of the hind parts; observe its peculiar relation to the head formation.  Cultivate a sense of form to perceive this contrast—the attachment of the thighs, the formation of the outgoing parts of the digestive tract, in contrast to that which is formed as the opposite pole, from the head inwards.  There, in the fore and hind parts of the animal, you have the true contrast of sun and moon.

Moreover you will find that the sun’s influence goes as far as the heart and stops short just before the heart.  Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are at work in the head and the blood-forming process.  Then, from the heart backwards, the moon influence is supported by the Mercury and Venus forces.  If therefore you turn the animal and stand it on its head, with the head stuck into the earth and the hind parts upwards, you have the position which the ‘agricultural individuality’ has invisibly.

Specific animals belong to specific regions of the earth.  For the peculiar fact is that if you have the right amount of horses, cows and other animals in any given farm, these animals taken together will give just the amount of manure which you need for the farm itself, in order to add something more to what has already turned into chaos.

Indeed, if you have the right number of cows, horses, pigs and so on, the individual proportion of the admixture in the manure will also be correct.  This is due to the fact that the animals will eat the right measure of that is provided for them by the growth of the plants.  They eat the right quantity of what the earth is able to provide.  Hence in the course of their organic processes they bring forth just the amount of manure which needs to be given back again to the earth.

The following therefore applies.  We cannot implement it in absolute terms, but in the ideal sense it is correct.  If we are obliged to bring in manure from outside the farm, we should, properly speaking, only use it as a remedy—as medication for a farm that has already grown ill.  The farm is only healthy inasmuch as it provides its own manure from its own stock. Naturally, this will necessitate our developing a proper science of the number of animals of a given sort that we need for a given kind of farm.

In the human being, as much as possible of the belly-manure is transformed into brain-manure, for the human being as you know carries his ego down onto the earth; in the animal, less so.  Therefore, more remains behind in the belly-manure in the animal and this is what we use for the manuring.  Just because the animal itself does not reach up to the ego, more ego remains there potentially.  Hence, animal and human manure are altogether different things.  Animal manure still contains the ego in potential.

Picture how we manure the plant.  We bring the manure from the outside to the plant root.  That is to say, we bring ego to the root of the plant.  Down here you have the root; up there, the unfolding leaves and blossoms.  There, through the intercourse with air, astrality—the  astral principle is added—whereas down here, through intercourse with the manure, the ego potential of the plant develops.

Truly, the farm is a living organism.  Above, in the air, it evolves its astrality.  Fruit trees and woods by their very presence develop such astrality.  And now when the animals feed on what is there above the earth, they in their turn develop the real ego forces.  These they give off in the dung, and the same ego forces will cause the plant in turn to grow from the root in the direction of the force of gravity.  Truly a wonderful interplay, but we must understand it stage by stage, progressively, increasingly.

To this extent your farm is a kind of individuality, and you will gain the insight that you ought to keep your animals as much as possible within this mutual interaction. 

There is an inner kinship of mammals to all that does not become tree and yet does not remain herblike—in other words, to the shrubs and bushes—the hazelnut, for instance.  To improve our stock of mammals on a farm, we would do well to plant bushed or shrubs.  By their presence they have a beneficial effect.  See how they love the shrubs and bushes.  They soon begin to take what they need.  This has a wonderful regulating effect on their remaining fodder. 

You must know that the cosmic influences that are effective in a plant rise upwards from the interior of the earth.  They are led upwards.  Suppose a plant is especially rich in such cosmic influences.  The animal that eats the plant will in its turn provide manure out of its whole organism on the basis of this fodder.  Thereby it will provide the very manure that is most suited for the soil on which the plant is growing.  Thus if you can read nature’s language of forms, you will perceive all that is needed by the ‘self-contained individuality’ which is a true farm or agriculture unit should be.  However, the animal stock must be included in it.

~ Excerpt from ‘Farms and the Realms of Nature,' Chapter 4 of Agriculture: An Introductory Reader by Rudolf Steiner. Original texts compiled, with introduction, commentary, and notes by Richard Thornton Smith.

Note: This excerpt is from Rudolf Steiner's original text and does not include commentary or notes from the editor.

Spirit Nourished Earth created the image in this post in collaboration with DALL·E 3

 

 

Journaling Prompts for Self-Reflection

Living Organism

Do you view your home, land, or daily environment as a living being with its own presence? What might shift if you treated it as an interconnected, evolving whole?

Inner Composting

Where in your life are you relying on external inputs that could instead be created or regenerated from within? What would self-sufficiency look like for your body, mind, or spirit?

 

Seasonal Rhythm

How attuned are you to the natural cycles of growth and rest? Are you allowing yourself time to lie fallow, or are you always in “production mode”?

Cosmic Influence

Have you ever sensed the influence of cosmic forces—sunlight, moon phases, planetary energies—in your personal life? How might you deepen your connection to these wider rhythms?

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