The Moon reflects light and has a gravitational effect on the Earth. This is when it all gets complicated and somewhat mystical. To follow the Biodynamic method a number of principles have to be taken on board. ' all seeds bestowed in the garden, for the use and the benefit of the kitchen or the pot, ought rather to be in the increase of the Moon, as from the first, unto the sixth day forasmuch as all seeds committed to the earth, in the decrease or wane of the Moon, either slowly break and shoot up, or else so weakly increase, that these after serve to smal (sic.) purpose' AD 70), and Marcus Terentius Varro (116 BC – 27 BC). He referred to earlier Roman writings by Lucius Iunius Moderatus Columella (AD 4 - ca. In The Gardener's Labyrinth, the first popular gardening book published around 1577, Thomas Hill who was an astrologer as well as a gardener, laid out complex schemes linked to the Zodiac for planting and harvesting. Steiner was not the first to link good cultural practice with celestial influence. This healthy, living soil provides food which has greater quality than that produced by chemical farming which has the emphasis on quantity. The soil is alive and is kept in its most vital state by the build-up of stable humus through composting.

In the garden we can recycle all of the vegetable waste and food scraps through composting to keep the soil 'alive'. This is not to far from the concepts proposed by the Permaculture movement. Rudolph Steiner proposed that the ideal farm should be self-contained with the animals providing enough manure for fertility, and the crops produced would feed them.

A holistic approach is needed that includes spiritual and cosmic forces along with the use of Preparations to enhance the growing conditions. They believe that the Earth is ailing and requires more than just organic means to be healed. Since a series of lectures he gave in 1924 the work has continued and the Biodynamic movement has followers around the world. He concluded that disease problems, pests and a reduction in soil fertility were due to the use of artificial fertilizers and pesticides.

The Austrian philosopher Rudolph Steiner came up with the term Biodynamics when he said that there was more to growing productively than planting and harvesting.

The Gardener's Labyrinth by Thomas Hill