www.permaculture.co.uk No. 35 15Permaculture Magazine

Jane Cobbald offers a taster of the ideas and work of the Austrian inventor and visionary, Viktor Schauberger.

iktor Schauberger had many ideas which are of direct relevance for today.

As a boy and young man at the turn of the 20th century, he was able to roam in almost untouched forests, and from the experiences he had there, he developed a huge respect and reverence for Nature. He envisaged a future in which humans would work with Nature on principle, rather than being employed for a money wage. This is a world in which ‘instead of work (in its present sense) a sense of service will evolve for which humanity was destined since the beginning of time; service to Nature’. [Nature as Teacher, p32]

From his observations and understandings of the way that

Nature works, he also developed a whole system of thinking. He used this paradigm to invent practical applications which would be of benefit to humans and Nature alike. We will now take you on a whistle-stop tour of his ideas as they apply to one of these applications, agri-cultural tools.

IMPLOSIVE ENERGY & AGRICULTUREHe designed a plough of a very specific shape and material, and declared that the principle could be extended to other agri-cultural implements. The shape must be curved, spiralling; and if made of metal, it must be copper or bronze.

Viktor Schauberger believed

RECHARGING THE SOIL

that western industrial technology is based on an understanding of only one half of reality. For example, energy can move in one of two directions, spiralling inwards or outwards. Humans know about the hot, noisy, outward-spiralling, explosive motion. It is used in all of our machines. Unfortunately, it is also destructive and can only be used in the short-term.

Viktor Schauberger saw the opposite process in the darting of a trout upstream and the dive of the fish-eagle into the lake. They spiral inwards, quietly, concentra-ting the power to the centre of the spiral. He described this motion as planetary, as it reflects the movement of the planet through the heavens. Planetary motion is centripetal, concentrating towards the centre, while modern indust-rial technology tends to use centrifugal motion, outwards from a drive-shaft. Relating this observation to the design of agricultural tools such as a ploughshare, the correct spiral-ling motion removes the pressure from the walls and focuses it on the centre. This reduces heat-inducing friction.

T h r o u g h these same observations of Nature, he realised that the force of gravity is part of a duality. The other half

Left: Farmland like this may well be subtly depleted.

Below:Rapid ploughing with metal implements can have an adverse electrolitic effect on the water held in the soil.

VLliam Rooney

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is levity, which he saw in the movement of the trout as it defies the conventional laws of physics when it leaps up a waterfall. By spiralling inwards, the resulting motion allows levitating forces to be concentrated at the centre of the spiral. At a waterfall, the trout finds the point at the centre of the spiralling downward stream, and leaps up inside it. With the plough, the inward-spiralling motion that is encouraged allows the increased concentration of qualigens (to be explained later) which themselves enhance the levitational quality of the groundwater. This encourages growth and helps to prevent the soil from drying out. Gravity originates from the atmosphere, levity from within the Earth.

Qualigens exist as an electrical potential in the water. Electricity, in his view, is generated and discharged by the interaction of levitation and gravitation. The existence of this electrical potential in the soil is ‘responsible for the quality of the soil, for all growth and the overcoming of physical weight’ [The Fertile Earth, p130].

HEALING WATERAnd this brings us to the next duality, a crucial one. Water, the living blood of a living Earth, can have a masculine or feminine potential. “If this aqueous fluid

is created inside the Earth, then the isotrope [virgin water] will develop a feminine or negative potential (maternal, ovigenous water). On the other hand, if it evolves in the atmosphere, then it will be endowed with a masculine or positive potential (fertilising water).” [The Fertile Earth, p130, author’s italics].

the maternal earth and the paternal atmosphere, as the zone where a hymen can be caused to come into existence, allowing the productive marriage of these two influences. The hymen exists naturally on the forest floor, in the leaf-litter and other rotting matter. In cultivated land, it can be encouraged to come into existence, for instance, by ensuring that bare soil is not exposed to direct sunlight, by spreading a layer of high-quality compost, and by spraying the land-surface with appropriately treated water. (What constitutes an appropriate treatment is a subject of its own, which is described in detail in Living Energies).

Water which comes into contact with iron, however, has neither of these qualities. It is demagnetised, and in Viktor Schauberger’s view, becomes carcinogenic. “In the same way that steel, machine-drawn ploughs progressively discharge the soil... the various species of plant also begin to degenerate, if their roots are systematically loosened and discharged by steel hoes. Iron and steel, which have been polarised by fire, are very dangerous to forest and field alike, because these discharged substances attract the valuable soil-energies like a magnet.” [The Fertile Earth, p124]. Discharging the soil can be understood as draining it of the natural electrical charge which, as described above, is what carries the beneficial qualities to the plants.

Not only that, he believed that an iron plough has an electro-lytic effect on the water in the soil, breaking it down into its constituent hydrogen and oxygen, particularly if the plough is drawn rapidly through the soil, causing frictional heat. From observing Nature, he concluded that copper-bearing minerals have a water-retentive quality. He also believed that ‘the use of copper replaced the destructive ferro-electromagnetic effects with beneficial bio-electromagnetic ones which through processes

Above: Prolific beds which are tended using only copper tools.

Right:Bare soil exposed to direct sunlight degrades much faster than it would if covered.

Below:A copper trowel.

If there is a preponderance of the masculine influence, as for example, when the land is cleared and directly exposed to the sun’s rays, then gravity predominates and the water-table sinks. With the balance towards the feminine influence, the water-table rises. This is why springs at high altitudes have a healing quality and often have a female deity associated with them.

HYMEN AS EDGESchauberger refers to the surface of the soil, the interface between

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of bio-electromagnetic ionisa-tion enhanced growth and soil fertility’ [Living Energies, p256], and so he recommended copper as the metal for agricultural implements.

Incidentally, given Viktor Schauberger’s view that heat is associated with explosive, destructive forces, and that the Earth is most fruitful when cooled, it is interesting to note that copper and bronze are hardened by cold-working, whereas iron and steel are hardened by heat.

In the late 1940s, he conducted field trials with rye, barley, winter wheat, maize, carrots and potatoes. He ploughed different portions of the same fields with iron and copper-plated ploughs, but in all other respects the crops grown in each portion of these fields were treated in an identical manner. He reported a c o n s i s t e n t l y higher yield in the portions ploughed with the copper-plated plough. There were also fewer pests and healthier, greener plants. (Full details of the trials are in The Fertile Earth, pp185-192).

SCHAUBERGER IN THE GARDENMy own experience is more limited, but fully confirms the results of those trials. I have a small garden in north Warwickshire, and love the idea of growing my own food, but until two years ago it never quite came to reality. With low yields and slugs and snails to contend with, vegetable growing was a demoralising experience. This trend has now been quite reversed. I don’t have to water the garden so much, the yields are good, and I have also found that slugs and snails are not attracted to plants which have been cultivated with copper implements. We are now able

to eat something home-grown every day.

However, I am sure that we have only just started and that more can be done. Viktor Schauberger himself says, in the same way that a gigantic tree can arise from the minutest seed, ‘a properly planted potato can produce up to 20kg of high-quality potatoes within half a year’ [Nature as Teacher, p97]. He believed that for the land to produce consistently high crop yields, three ingredients are necessary. These are: cultivation using only copper or wooden tools, compost that is the result of cold decomposition, and energised water. In this way, humans can start to work with Mother Nature rather than in competition with her, for

the benefit of both

Jane Cobbald supplies hand-crafted copper garden tools and can be contacted at: PO Box 2568, N u n e a t o n CV10 9YR. Tel: 024 7639 2497.

Web: www.implementations.co.uk

RESOURCESThe Energy Evolutionby Viktor SchaubergerDescribes different kinds of energy machines based on the principles of implosion. 254pp. £14.99.

The Fertile Earthby Viktor SchaubergerLooks at the complex intercon-nected web of life and contains writings on trees, biodynamic agriculture and subtle energies. 224pp. £12.99

Living Energiesby Callum CoatesA detailed presentation of his scientific work in relation to farming, horticulture, forestry and aircraft propulsion. 352pp. £16.99

Living Waterby Olof AlexanderssonExamining the properties of ‘natural’ water, revitalisation of dead water and fuel from air and water. 162pp. £8.99

Nature As Teacherby Viktor SchaubergerLooks with a scientist’s eye at a host of forces in the modern world, and through specific examples provides insights and practical solutions on how to save our planet. 192pp. £12.99

The Water Wizardby Viktor SchaubergerAll about water. Water conser-vation, how to regulate rivers without damaging their vitality, the natural conversion of sea to fresh water and the effects of sterilisation and chlorination. 222pp. £11.99

All the above books are available from Permaculture Magazine’s Earth Repair Catalogue and are offered p&p free until 1st May 2003 to readers in the UK & Eire. Please quote PM35/Schauberger Special Offer. Normal rates apply elsewhere.

Above: Healthy beans.

Left:Non-ferrous implements may produce beneficial bio-electro-magnetic effects on soil fertility.

Below:Spade with copper blade.