Torsten Arncken
Since 2006, I have been conducting experiments in which I grow plants in soil that has been mixed with various substances. I started with sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium chloride. Then I added the classic planetary metals and finally substances such as quartz, carbon, nitrogen compounds, sulphur and phosphorus.
Here I would like to describe an aspect of the project that was only clarified conceptually in 2023. One methodological approach that I use is the symbolization of pure scent perception. This involves smelling a part of a plant and then depicting the impression of the scent in colorful images. Through the activity of the will, the consciousness moves from the sensory world into the world of the imagination.
«It is possible to pursue this path in a way consonant with Western life if we attempt to surrender ourselves completely to the world of outer phenomena, so that we allow them to work upon us without thinking about them but still perceiving them.»
Rudolf Steiner: The Boundaries of Natural Science, GA 322, October 3, 1920,
Lecture VIII
«If one desires to do real research concerning human physiology, thinking must be excluded and the picture-forming activity sent inward, so that the physical organism reacts by creating Imaginations.»
Rudolf Steiner: The Boundaries of Natural Science, GA 322, October 2, 1920,
Lecture VII
I have used this method to make intensive observations with many people in working groups and workshops. In comparison with an untreated plant, the addition of metals to the soil always reveals the following phenomenon in the fragrance: the fragrance becomes more concentrated, less light and more varied. It contracts, becomes denser and more specific. Different qualities are exhibited depending on the metal, but this compression and tightening is evident with all metals.
We have always spoken here about the fact that this is where the earthly is revealed – the earthly manifests itself in fragrance. This gave us a concept to capture the experience.
Until now, I have assumed that the vegetative, or material, aspect of the plant, is primarily promoted in the ascending stream and that the form aspect comes to the plant from outside, through light and heat, in the descending stream. However, it has now become clear that form impulses are also conveyed in the ascending stream, namely through the qualities of the minerals in the soil. The forming quality of the minerals is transferred to the plant via the roots. Since the minerals are of cosmic origin, it can be said that the cosmic quality of the soil is transmitted to the plant in the ascending stream.
In the scent of plants that grow in soil that has been mixed with metals, we perceive what the plants perceive in the metals. This is very different with copper, for example, than with iron. With copper, the scent tends to be soft, warm and rounded. With iron, the scent is cooler and more powerful. Through the scent, we listen to the formative influence of the minerals on the plant substance.
Forming impulses are not only transmitted to the plants in the descending stream but also in the ascending stream.
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