12 minute read
Bringing New Consciousness to Anthroposophical Remedies
Ross Rentea M.D., Mark Kamsler M.D., Andrea Rentea M.D., founders of True Botanica, LLC
First Steps, First Intentions
When we started the True Botanica Company five years ago (in 2004) it was clear to us that what we wanted to accomplish was more than just to make anthroposophical health products. (The question of what transforms simple ingredients into an anthroposophical formula is difficult in itself and we struggle with it every day. We will tackle it, at least in broad strokes, later in this article.)
Certainly we hoped that our efforts would contribute in some measure to the well being of people using our products, and we are gratified to say that they did, and increasingly do. But we also hoped that our activities would make an awareness of anthroposophical medicine more central to general anthroposophical life. How many of our anthroposophical friends are regularly using anthroposophical remedies—to name just one of the pillars of anthroposophical medicine? How often is anthroposophical medicine, for that matter, even discussed in our regular anthroposophical branch work? Most members who routinely deepen themselves through Rudolf Steiner’s lectures; practice their meditations (many of us three times daily); and perhaps do some eurythmy on a regular basis, and so on, are only peripherally concerned with or take anthroposophical medications. From among the many health-related activities we will concentrate here on the work with substances, arguably one of the hardest anthroposophical areas to penetrate both from a purely spiritual point of view as well as from a legal-regulatory stand. Should one bother to at least be informed about the work with anthroposophical remedies, let alone consider it an absolutely essential part of one’s anthroposophical life? How can one support this part of the anthroposophical movement if one is not convinced through and through of its cardinal importance in one’s personal and “societal” life?
The causes for this current situation are many, but perhaps among them could be mentioned the lack of practicing anthroposophical doctors and the resulting difficulties in getting prescriptions for even the most basic anthroposophical remedies (or for curative eurythmy, for that matter). Another reason may be the failure of doctors to convey the message that anthroposophical medicines, of whatever nature, do not just satisfy an immediate need to improve various physical symptoms—“make the pain go away, doctor”—but that they also help, when properly designed, to significantly assist our spiritual and meditative life even when physically “there is nothing wrong.”
Lightroot, Dioscorea batatas, tubers
Rudolf Steiner placed health as a first requirement for higher development in his fundamental book How to Know Higher Worlds. The health that will allow a higher spiritual development simply cannot be achieved without remedies (the word should be understood here in the broadest possible way) that are designed to assist the spiritual person beyond affecting chemical processes in the physical body.
This separation of central anthroposophy and the medical movement was not always so. In the original sketches and building plans for the first Goetheanum, a medical clinic was envisioned standing as a “next-door neighbor” to the Goetheanum. This never came to be, though physician Ita Wegman later built one in the next town and played a large role as Rudolf Steiner refounded the Anthroposophical Society and formed the School for Spiritual Science.
When one looks at the original imagination that Rudolf Steiner had for the Anthroposophical Society it emerges as an entity formed of four sections: the School of Spiritual Science; the Anthroposophic Press; the Goetheanum building; and finally, the Clinical Therapeutic (medical) Institute. If we compare the living organism of the society to the configuration of a human being, then the fourfold organization of the society as originally conceived can be likened to an organism resting on the four major organs in the human body, four organs without which the human being cannot live: the lungs, the heart, the liver, and the kidneys. Which section corresponds to which organ require an analysis that would go beyond the scope of this article. But it can be said that at least in the United States our anthroposophical organism is missing “the medical organ” as Rudolf Steiner had once conceived it.
Kevin, our production manager, with the Inversina® mixer.
In a conversation in the early 1920s Ehrenfried Pfeiffer asked Rudolf Steiner the following question (loosely translated and edited here for clarity and brevity): “Why is it that in spite of their best and earnest efforts more anthroposophists are not clairvoyant? Why is it that one does not see in their lives more evidence for spiritual deeds done in the physical world?” Rudolf Steiner’s succinct yet clear answer was that this is a nutritional problem. He explained that food no longer contains the spiritual forces needed to support the physical organization such that our spiritual life naturally leads from thought to will impulses.
Dhondup, our tinctures and creams specialist, preparing a lotion with frankincense and chrysolith gemstones
This led ultimately to the birth of biodynamic agriculture, where the attempt is being made to cultivate plants in such a way that they again store more of the cosmic etheric forces. Do we, however, eat enough—or even any—of those biodynamically grown foods? Do we even discuss in our circles the general lack of availability of these foods? And what if health problems have gotten even worse over the intervening decades? What if today not even “good foods” alone would be enough to support us? What if the cultural attacks, the environmental toxins, and so on are having such a devastating effect on our physical body and our higher members that we need “nutritional supplementation,” not just “nutrition”? What if intensely active work is needed to obtain the necessary health we require for an anthroposophical life rather than a passive “maintenance of the status quo”? What if pretending that we have satisfactory health is only an illusion? It is absolutely crucial that we develop the will in the Anthroposophical Society to tackle these practical problems together! Maybe the time has come when exchanging ideas at a meeting is no longer enough, but rather we need to develop those associations Rudolf Steiner spoke of as being necessary in economic life in order to support and ensure the existence of products essential to our anthroposophical spiritual life.
With these and other considerations in mind we decided at True Botanica to create many anthroposophical remedies that would be formulated as “nutritional supplements” that can be obtained by anybody, mostly without prescription. These formulas would support physical health and have recognizable practical utility (for example, to “stop a cough” and so on) but would also have to have a specific spiritual quality. These are complicated formulations, since they must contain ingredients that we can understand anthroposophically and then must be worked upon in such a way that the processes they are subjected to will make them suitable to help the etheric or astral bodies or the Ego:
It is important that besides making remedies based solely on the currently accepted materialistic chemical forces one should also produce those remedies of which it can be said:
Into those remedies the spirituality of the world has been inserted in a particular manner.
(Rudolf Steiner, 8.29.24, free translation)
Crucially important are the processes themselves to which the individual ingredients have been subjected, and one must stop thinking that the substance in itself is the actual healing factor.
(Rudolf Steiner, 9.3.23, free translation)
In the manufacture of our remedies we use special centrifuge devices, dilution or ashing processes, harmonic potentizing, alcohol-free extraction, and other processes.
In fall 2009 we will host an intensive, full-weekend conference entitled “What Are Anthroposophical Supplements?” For now, here are some brief examples of our work.
Lightroot comp™ (Dioscorea batatas)
Rudolf Steiner observed that the root (tuber) of the wild yam (Dioscorea batatas) is the only plant capable of storing light ether in its sub-terrestrial parts. This light ether would be very significant to the people of the future. After much searching we have been able to secure special biodynamically grown dioscorea plants. These have been hand harvested with great care by our farmer friends in conditions that excluded as much as possible the influence of electricity. (We know from Steiner that electricity is “fallen light” and thus adversary to the light ether.) These aspects have been considered even in regard to how the plants are transported: they are wrapped in protective peatmoss cloth. After arrival at our facility the dioscorea is prepared with rhythmical processes in the morning and evening; ashes are obtained from the root and potencies are made.
Trellises being constructed by Steve, a BD farmer, in order to help the light ether connection of Lightroot, Dioscorea batatas, a climbing vine.
These ingredients make up our remedy Lightroot Comp™. On a physiological level, taking this nutritional supplement helps to increase health wherever the “light metabolism” is active: eyesight; bone strength; helping to restore the circadian rhythm that may disturbed by shift work, travel across time zones; and more. On a more spiritual level, it is helpful with improving mood and helps support meditative life (we have had excellent reports in this respect). Most importantly, it has a crucial role in the restoration and maintenance of memory, which depends on the light ether.
Stannum Complex™
Rudolf Steiner was consulted in 1924 about a “delicate and sensitive” patient who had abdominal bloating, various other stomach complaints, insomnia, and headaches—probably in today’s language an irritable bowel syndrome. Other factors seemed to point also to a kidney problem. Steiner recommended a remedy made from stannum (tin) that was to be combined through a series of steps with nitric acid, copper, and alum. The formula as given is very cryptic, and demanded a lot of study and work on our part to refine it, but ultimately it was extremely rewarding. Eventually, following that path one could actually observe how the grey color of the tin transforms itself to white and finally to a delicate azure blue. (Incidentally, Steiner once elucidated that it is precisely these color changes that demonstrate the presence of spiritual-elemental forces at work.) Ultimately, over thirty different potentizing and chemical steps were required to obtain the final result!
Tin (stannum), natural grey color
Stannum, in a white gelatinous form, after beginning reaction with nitric acid
How do we understand some of the spiritual significance of this remedy? The principal element here is stannum, the Jupiter mineral that governs the whole astral body. To strengthen this effect the indication here is to combine it with nitric acid, which in itself anchors the forces of the astral body into the metabolism. Tin appears here in a particular gelatinous form (not easy to create) that extends the effect of stannum to the “gelatinous” areas in the body like the connective tissues, the joints, and so on. Finally, the union with copper and the sulfate group of the alum solution also direct the effects of stannum to the kidney.
Stannum, after reacting with copper and alum solution, toward the end of the process
Stannum is governed by the Jupiter forces. On a soul level the “royal Jupiter” functions are manifested in clear, concentrated, and measured thinking. But the Jupiter forces connected to the spiritual kidney functions have yet another role: they contribute to fighting the “kidney dullness” of our time.
Rudolf Steiner commented in more than one of his lectures on the apathy, senselessness, and aggression of our culture. He reveals that, ultimately, the organic cause of these phenomena rests in a kidney “dullness.” This kidney dullness results from the fact that while other organs in the body can receive direct spiritual life without our assistance, the kidneys need our own conscious support. If we ourselves do not feed the kidneys with spiritual material, they lag in their function and lead to an abnormality that finally becomes the cause for further spiritual pathology. In other words, the lack of spirituality starts the cycle and weakens the kidneys so that after a while the diseased kidneys themselves become the cause that leads to the person’s further spiritual decay, even opposes spiritual development.
Rudolf Steiner goes so far as to say that, for example, the First World War was to be considered “a manifestation of the huge kidney disease of mankind.” Does this description of inertia, lack of inner spark and inquisitiveness, even the all-too-often encountered acceptance of “simple” drug therapy even if it is ultimately harmful, denote the same process? We think so. It is wonderful to have now such a remedy that can begin to correct this widespread cultural problem.
Hope for the Future
As we have seen, we can look at anthroposophic medicine—and within it specifically at anthroposophically prepared substances—as an essential component of our earnest spiritual strivings. Starting from a real need, be it a physical pain or illness, a spiritual crisis, or our genuine wish to advance our spiritual work, we can look to the world of substances to support us. Building a relationship with these substances and the beings that stand with them we can approach the ideal of having, as Rudolf Steiner formulates it, our human soul truly live in the limbs, the heart, and the lungs, and in the “resting head.”
Several immediate challenges lie ahead of us. The more external ones we will discuss on another occasion. Our parting hope here is that we anthroposophists would begin to cultivate awareness of the anthroposophical medical aspects of our spiritual life and initiate a conscious discussion on how to support and improve it. The first step that must be taken is a step. We have nothing to fear but doing nothing.
