279
DOI: 10.1201/9780429440939-29
25
Exploring a Dynamic Role
for Water in Agriculture
Simon Charter
UK branch of the Natural Science Section at the Goetheanum, Switzerland
Ebb and Flow Ltd, UK
INTRODUCTION
This chapter is concerned with the healthy ‘ forming’ of living organisms ( their form development
to maturity) and the ways this may be enhanced with methods that involve water. Few can really
claim to have the full picture when it comes to understanding how plants and animals emerge into
life, form themselves, grow and develop healthily. Within many traditional worldviews as well as
some modern ones, there are believed to be subtle forces at work which organise life’s functions,
and these are variously termed pranha, chi or the etheric. In my own practice with reed bed systems,
water cleaning ecologies and landscapes with moving water, I noticed plants, and especially, flowers
have better-developed forms when growing in certain situations rather than others. Having heard
about life’s formative forces through working on a biodynamic farm and having learnt how projective geometry reveals principles found in natural forms, I found myself researching the relationships between qualities of form in water flow and the forming of life. Such work was pioneered by
Theodor Schwenk ( 2014) in the 1950s. This chapter provides aspects of the results of that research,
much of which has been collaborative.
The chapter explores the principles of form that are found in geometry, in the realm of pure idea
and relates these to the observed flow movements, or gestures, in the realm of pure perception. It
does not seek to justify any particular worldview, but the intention is to allow the relationships
between the ideas and the observations to reveal what is at work.
Biodynamic agriculturalists and others are interested in strengthening the working of the forming principles, the formative forces within living organisms, in order to engender health in the farm
ecology. Such forces are associated with the moon, the sun and the planets, and their positions and
movements in relation to the earth and the stars. Water is seen to mediate these forces and influences, so one may enhance them by working with water. This chapter aims to build an understanding of water by examining the way water flows naturally and seeking the inherent principles in this.
It begins by discussing the epistemological basis for this work, how, through taking a Goethean
CONTENTS
Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 279
Phenomenological and Epistemological Background: The Union of Sense Experience
( Percepts) and Ideas ( Concepts) as the Basis of Knowledge ................................................280
Geometry and Gestures in Flow: Spiral and Ring Vortices ...........................................................280
Rhythm – Another Gesture of Flow ............................................................................................... 282
The Dynamisation of Water ........................................................................................................... 286
Flowform Movement: An Alternative Method of Dynamisation ................................................... 287
Homeopathic Potentisation ............................................................................................................ 289
Concluding Discussion: Research with the Life-Forming Forces ................................................. 290
References ...................................................................................................................................... 290
DOI: 10.1201/9780429440939-29
25
Exploring a Dynamic Role
for Water in Agriculture
Simon Charter
UK branch of the Natural Science Section at the Goetheanum, Switzerland
Ebb and Flow Ltd, UK
INTRODUCTION
This chapter is concerned with the healthy ‘ forming’ of living organisms ( their form development
to maturity) and the ways this may be enhanced with methods that involve water. Few can really
claim to have the full picture when it comes to understanding how plants and animals emerge into
life, form themselves, grow and develop healthily. Within many traditional worldviews as well as
some modern ones, there are believed to be subtle forces at work which organise life’s functions,
and these are variously termed pranha, chi or the etheric. In my own practice with reed bed systems,
water cleaning ecologies and landscapes with moving water, I noticed plants, and especially, flowers
have better-developed forms when growing in certain situations rather than others. Having heard
about life’s formative forces through working on a biodynamic farm and having learnt how projective geometry reveals principles found in natural forms, I found myself researching the relationships between qualities of form in water flow and the forming of life. Such work was pioneered by
Theodor Schwenk ( 2014) in the 1950s. This chapter provides aspects of the results of that research,
much of which has been collaborative.
The chapter explores the principles of form that are found in geometry, in the realm of pure idea
and relates these to the observed flow movements, or gestures, in the realm of pure perception. It
does not seek to justify any particular worldview, but the intention is to allow the relationships
between the ideas and the observations to reveal what is at work.
Biodynamic agriculturalists and others are interested in strengthening the working of the forming principles, the formative forces within living organisms, in order to engender health in the farm
ecology. Such forces are associated with the moon, the sun and the planets, and their positions and
movements in relation to the earth and the stars. Water is seen to mediate these forces and influences, so one may enhance them by working with water. This chapter aims to build an understanding of water by examining the way water flows naturally and seeking the inherent principles in this.
It begins by discussing the epistemological basis for this work, how, through taking a Goethean
CONTENTS
Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 279
Phenomenological and Epistemological Background: The Union of Sense Experience
( Percepts) and Ideas ( Concepts) as the Basis of Knowledge ................................................280
Geometry and Gestures in Flow: Spiral and Ring Vortices ...........................................................280
Rhythm – Another Gesture of Flow ............................................................................................... 282
The Dynamisation of Water ........................................................................................................... 286
Flowform Movement: An Alternative Method of Dynamisation ................................................... 287
Homeopathic Potentisation ............................................................................................................ 289
Concluding Discussion: Research with the Life-Forming Forces ................................................. 290
References ...................................................................................................................................... 290