The earliest lunar-gardening calendar on record has to be Hesiod's ‘Works and Days' composed in the time of Homer (1). From that ancient Greek tradition there developed the detailed lunar traditions of farmers around the Roman empure, as described in Pliny's Historia Naturalis (Volume VII) composed in abut AD 60. These ancient traditions splintered into diverse traditions of folk-belief. The astronomer Kepler composed almanacs each year, on an astrological basis, in which he predicted such things as wine quality, harvests and climate.
A new beginning appeared in the twentieth century with the founding of the Biodynamic farming movement in Germany. A brief outline of its development here follows. It is also very relevant that the star-zodiac as used in the ancient world was rediscovered, in the first half of the twentieth century (2).
1912 In Berlin, Rudolf Steiner recommended a new approach to the experience of the twelve constellations of the zodiac, and presented his Kalendar 1912/13. It gave positions for sidereal divisions of the twelve constellations, and ‘not only was the moon's quarter given, but also the constellation occupied by the moon each day'(3).
1924 Dr Steiner's Agriculture lectures led to the founding of Bio-Dynamic farming movement. It described ‘how the stars work in plants', and made the categorical statement that:
‘we shall never understand plant life unless we bear in mind that everything which happens on the Earth is but a reflection of what is taking place in the cosmos' (4).
1932 Steiner died in 1926. A book by Guenther Wachsmuth about the 'four ethers' appeared in 1932, as formative processes that worked throughout the realm of nature. It did not however link these ‘four ethers' as Steiner had described them with the Moon's passage around the zodiac.
1935 An article entitled ‘The Significance for Seed-germination of the Passage of the Moon through the constellations of the Zodiac' appeared in a British Biodynamic magazine (5). Its authoress Maria Hachez alluded to ongoing experiments showing the effect of lunar phase on seed germination, clearly referring to the work of Kolisko though without mentioning her name, and continued:
‘...in addition to the effects of the lunar phases, the influences of Cosmic forces having their origin in the passage of the Moon from one constellation of the Zodiac to another, could also be investigated.
‘These further experiments have been carried out during the years 1930-1935, at the Observatory of the Mathematical-Astronomical Section of the Goetheanum, under the direction of Dr E. Vreede, and with the help of Herr Joachim Schultz. As they were followed up these Cosmic forces of the constellations could be discovered active in the building up of all matter, in the nature of the structural substances, and in all that brings about the finer differentiations of form, quality and taste.'
The experimental procedure was outlined:
‘Carefully selected seed of various plants was sown at intervals of two to three days, in long experimental beds in the open... We recommend others who may wish to try similar experiments, to sow the seed at the same hour in the morning or evening and at intervals of 2-3 days...'
Four decades elapsed before anyone in the UK conducted such experiments.
1939 Frau Dr Kolisko, an anthroposophist who emigrated to England due somewhat to the Nazi threat, wrote her pioneering work, ‘Agriculture for Tomorrow' (6). It dealt with lunar phase rhythms in the realm of nature. Graphs indicated maximal seed germination on the days before Full Moon. Years of results (alas, unrepeatable) were shown, of maximal crop yields for Full Moon sowings (7).
1948 Franz Rulni produced the first Bio-Dynamic calendar, due to last into the late 1970s. It contained advice on the mating of livestock and made predictions concerning gender of offspring. The Rulni calendar introduced the ‘obsi' and ‘nidsi' moons, from the Emmenthal valley in Switzerland. These are equivalent to what later became known as the ascending and descending moons. For example, a 1978 Rulni calendar advised for the month of June:
With the beginning of ‘Nidsi' Moon, prepared compost should be spread on all mown meadows and pastures... Good planting-out time'.
For November:
‘The nidsi moon period should be used for winter cultivation for seed beds for rye and wheat in order to enhance good root formation and tillering...
‘Moon becomes nidsi: use next fortnight for cultivating fallow fields which will then keep clean and weed-free until spring.'
The fortnight of ‘nidsi' is thus more important in the B.D. calendar than the obsi period, which is the other half of the (tropical) month. Of a May Full Moon in 1978, Rulni's calendar advised:
‘Full and New Moon times are detrimental owing to the after-working of the eclipses in April. Especially inhibiting due to the node, Full Moon and Perigee occurring so close together. Once these are over and the ground has been well-prepared get on with all important sowings.'
1956 Maria Thun in Germany had her idea about the four ethers/elements. While Maria Hachez had described supposed effects of individual constellations, Thun perceived the primary effect as emanating from the zodiacal elements. Thun started sowing rows of radish, then other annual crops, and at first it appeared to her that root growth began when the Moon reached its descending node. Then her attention shifted to the waning moon:
‘Over and over again, the waning moon proved itself to be the main factor, which is reinforced when the descending day forces are active at the same time. Thus it was frequently noticed that plants which were transplanted in the afternoon at the time of the waning moon only needed watering at transplanting time and then grew without check.'
From observing her radish, Thun came to realise that the plant should be viewed as a fourfold being:
‘I suddenly found that I had discovered a law of life that governs plant growth. Had the first breeders of our cultivated plants an insight into this law? The discovery of this fourfold nature of the plant was an undreamed-of reward for the work of many years' (8).
She envisaged these four stages as energised by the sidereal lunar orbit, and then realised, she said, that a lecture by Dr Wachsmuth had made the same claim. We may compare this with Robert Powell's version of events:
‘It was Guenther Wachsmuth who first postulated (in a lecture) that since a certain element predominated in each of the four types, then the signs of the zodiac are likely to exert a corresponding influence. For example, the watery element is predominant in cabbages, therefore the growth of cabbages should be enhanced by the signs of Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces. Thun proceeded to test this hypothesis' (9).
She then investigated this pattern with a variety of crops: carrots, parsnips and scorzonera were tested as representatives of root-types; lettuce, spinach, corn salad, cress and a few brassicas as leaf types; zinnia, snapdragon and aster as flower types; beans, peas, cucumber and some tomatoes as fruit-seed types. Cucumbers sown on leaf days showed lush leaf growth but a reluctance to flower. Leo, she concluded, was especially beneficial for seed formation. Of what constituted good soil, she observed:
‘It is evident that it is a soil which though good cultivation with adequate dressings of compost has the power of receiving cosmic influences and transmuting them into processes necessary for growth, of being able to bring star-forces to activity within the plant whereby new qualitative relationships are brought about, producing food fit for man.
Once Thun had decided to use the constellations, she turned to the ‘Sternkalendar' of the Anthroposophists which used unequal constellation boundaries. These had been derived from boundaries fixed by the International Astronomical Union in 1928. The I.A.U. had there ruled that thirteen constellations lay across the ecliptic. Anthroposophists modified these boundaries somewhat and changed the number of constellations back to twelve.
1963 Thun published her first lunar gardening calendar. There were two main differences between Franz Rulni's calendar and the Thun calendar which became its successor: Thun removed the synodic or phase cycle, inserting in its place the four-element sidereal rhythm. Both calendars were built upon four monthly cycles, but differed in their choice thereof. Rulni placed more emphasis upon the adverse effects of eclipses, as shown by the above quotation, while Thun only avoided the day of an eclipse. Rulni set great store on the usually favourable influences of the monthly Moon/Saturn oppositions, while in the 1970s the Thun calendar used no planetary aspects; they have however become incorporated into her calendar in the 1980s.
Over seven years from 1963 to 1970, Thun performed systematic trials chiefly using potatoes and these were later written up jointly with statistician Hans Heinze. Her experiments continue to this day, made on field plots in her large garden.
1973 The 1970s were a decade when independent corroboration of the Thun effect started to appear. In 1973 Dr Ulf Abele presented his research findings from growing barley, as part of a PhD on Bio-Dynamic farming methods, finding that yields were increased significantly on ‘seed-day' sowings (10). Later in 1977, Graf reported some fairly positive results with root crops and different soils (41). Experiments in Britain (organised by this writer) were first reported in 1977 (12).
1978 The US Kimberton Hills Agricultural Calendar began, which has grown to a circulation of 7000 annual sales, with recommendations very similar to the Thun calendar (13). It gives the various celestial events, conjunctions and oppositions, lunar and planetary each month which the Thun calendar does not.
1980 Two new cycles appeared in the Thun calendar: that of apogee/perigee, then in 1981 the nodal cycle (14). These transferred over from Rulni's calendar, but I don't know how Rulni came by them as their use was not traditional. Up till then the Thun calendar had comprised solely the sidereal and tropical cycles, these having the same 27.3 day period (Ch.3). Two components of the Rulni calendar which Thun never adopted were the phase cycle and the monthly Moon-Saturn oppositions. Planetary trine aspects made their appearance in 1982.
Also in 1980 the British 'Gardening and Planting By The Moon' first appeared by Best and Kollerstrom, using the sidereal- i.e. star-zodiac rather than the unequal constellations, as Biodynamic farmers had used hitherto. It was produced through the 1980s.
1984 Dr Spiess began publishing his (very negative) reports describing his results from the late ‘70s and early 1980s. He carried out sequential sowing experiments with winter rye and radish, claiming to find synodic and perigee effects but no sidereal pattern in final yield.
1993 The American Llewellyn Moon Sign Book, which enjoys a larger annual sale than any other publication in this area, and has been going since 1904, changed its name to the Lunar Organic Gardener, and featured major discussions about on the Biodynamic sowing calendar. It referred chiefly to the Kimberton Hills calendar, and summarised parts of Maria Thun's book, ‘Work on the Land and the Constellations' in a fairly sympathetic manner. Concerning the irreconcilable differences in theory and practice, it struck an optimistic note:
‘Even though the two systems differ so drastically (one system's fruitful dates may be the other system's barren dates) the reasons and basic tenets are the same' (15).
On this, we may demur.
1) Hesiod, ‘Works and Days' Loeb Classical Library, Heinemann, 1977.
2) For a recent account, see Michael Baigent, ‘From the Omens of Babylon' 1993.
3) Robert Powell has argued (Mercury Star Journal, ‘On the Divisions of the Firmament' Easter and Summer 1976) that Rudolf Steiner's indications concerning where the boundaries between the constellations should be drawn corresponded more closely to the Babylonian equal-interval sidereal zodiac than to the divisions nowadays embodied in the BD sowing calendar.
4) Rudolf Steiner's 'Agriculture' (a series of lectures), 1927, 1991 Edn. Kimberton, PA, p.27. The sole monthly cycle to which these alluded was the synodic (p.23), however they also referred to the ‘ascending period' of Saturn (p.26, note 10 p.266) and by analogy, this has led to the Bio-dynamic adoption of the tropical month.
5) Maria Hachez, Anthroposophical Ag. Foundan, Nov. 1935, 283-9.
6) Kolisko, 'Agriculture for Tomorrow', 1953, reprinted 1978, Ch.2. Her three-volume, ‘Mitteilung des Biologischen Instituts am Goetheanum' (Stuttgart, 1934-5) forms a fine introduction to her work, integrating the several aspects of her researches. In 1936 she moved to Bray-on-Thames, London, then in 1939 to Stroud, Gloucester.
7) Replications of this effect in the 1930s by others were reported in: Kolisko, 1933, and in the June 1931 issue of the UK Bio-dynamics journal, pp.55-56.
8) Thun 'Nine years' observation of cosmic influences on annual plants' Star an Furrow Spring 1964, p.5.
9) Robert Powell, Lunar Calendar for Farmers and Gardeners, Mercury Star Journal summer 1977, p.55 (The Mercury Star Journal appeared as a quarterly for five nine years, 1975-9).
10) Abele, PhD 1973 Geissen, Lebendige Erde 1975,6,223-225;
11) Graf, PhD 1977 Zurich ETH.
12) Kollerstrom, ‘Zodiac Rhythms in Plant Growth - Potatoes' Mercury Star Journal, Summer 1977.
13) The Kimberton Hills Agricultural Calendar is available from: P.O. Box 550, Kimberton, PA 19442, USA.
14) Thun's 1977 publication ‘Work on the Land and the Constellations' had described the effect of these two cycles, indeed her very first essay on the subject (1963) described how she experienced the growth-inhibiting effect of perigee upon radish.
15) LLewellyn's 1993 Lunar Organic Gardener, p.217.