OAK

Oak Bark: Quercus Robur…………


Agricultural Lectures by Rudolf Steiner:
We must bring calcium into the soil by our manure. To have a healing effect the calcium must be in the living sphere. There is a plant containing plenty of calcium, 77% of the plant substance. The Oak is referred to here, notably the rind. The rind represents an intermediate product between plant -nature and the living earthly nature, in the way of kinship of the living earth with the bark.
Calcium as a state restores order where the etheric is working to strongly., that is when the astral cannot gain access to the organic entity. It kills or damps down the ether- body and there by makes free the influences of the astral body (that is with ‘dead‘ calcium). So it is with all limestone. If we take the living calcium from the Oak we have a beautiful regular shrinking back which draws off the rampant ethereal development. This does not give rise to shocks in the organic life.
We collect oak bark chop it up a little, till it has a crumble like consistency. Then we take the skull of any of our domestic animals. We put it in the skull and close it up with bony material and lower it into the earth, not to deep we cover it with peat moss and introduce some type of water flow, we should let as much rain water as possible flow into he place. Take a barrel where rain water is constantly flowing in and out and add some vegetable material so as to bring about the presence of vegetable slime. Let the skull lie in the slime in the water. It must pass over Autumn and winter in this way.
The result of this process is a substance which will lend the manure the forces prophylactic ally to combat or to arrest any harmful plant diseases.
The bark should come from a living tree.
An Oak planted in the proper Mars period will thrive differently to one that is planted in the earth thoughtlessly.




Personal connections:
The wise Oak, with its consistency and security. Upon the landscape like a watcher, some have a terrifying first look with there gnarled bent look. Others have a gently roundness which is immediately receiving. From further reading I have understood its most nurturing caring side which accommodates all beings animal insect bird man pig etc. this is a marvel of a tree. Like a wale of the land they are now dotted across the landscape in hedges along roads, in places where they watch over the movements of man and other beings. There is an amazing warmth even in the winter which the Oak does offer. That big trunk with its creased cracked skin. The oak has consistency.

The Biodynamic compost preparations, Manfred Klett:
The Oak bark is characteristic of the quantity of calcium distributed in it. It has passed through the life processes and been excreted in the bark. This signifies its special quality. It is a different to that which is below the earth.
The skull could be considered a sensory pole of the animal. Can we go further? The mesentery is a further step.
Why do we take the skull of a domesticated animal? Compared to a wild one. It is held back in a more embryonic state. It does not develop right into the wild. Their being is open to our guiding egos and there group soul. In former times people were able to keep an animal back in its evolutionary development. Thus to open its soul being to the group soul and to the guiding consciousness of man.
The interior of the skull is lined with a bony skin. A sensory membrane. IT encloses the brain and reflects and concentrates it all the forces of the inner and outer perception that constitutes the specific animal consciousness. We put this oak bark filled skull into the water. The abundance of disordered etheric forces which are released by this water decaying organic matter have an affinity to lime. They are absorbed by this well structured calcium skull , sensed by the bone skin and then reflected inwards to the unique plant born calcium structure of the Oak bark.
Moon forces are absorbed by atmospheric water and permeate the organic matter. This is transmitted to the Oak bark by the skin and skull bone.




Extraordinary Plant Qualities for Biodynamics, Jochen Bockemuhl & Karl Jarvinen:
Due to Oaks openness it allow other shrubs and trees like hornbeam to develop under it. Butterflies, gall forming insects, stag beetles, Jays, Wild boar deer all find nourishment and shelter with the Oak.
The Oak roots more firmly in the ground each year. The Acorns germinate underground. The thick Cotyledons provide all the food the young plant needs.
The Oak only flowers and fruits when it has reached its complete form.
Its round lobed leaves develop late in Spring.
It encloses a space which is permeable to light and water.
The branches are rigid and brittle, they do not have elasticity. The tree drives a tap root deep into the ground. /then starting at the top lateral main roots grow down wards at a slant. At a later stage the roots grow horizontally in all directions and send down sinker roots below the sub soil below any other tree looking for water.
The aging process is particularly interesting in the bark. It moves from a shinny olive brown to green to whitish-gray reflective bark. Grey-brown to blackish then the tears form and it is transformed into thick deep creviced bark. This is a cumulative mineral process.
In fruit formation it is in the reverse the minerals are deposited inwardly.
Death and rebirth is very characteristic of the Oak. Of the broad leaved trees it lives the longest.

The BD spray and compost Preps production methods: Tannic acid had insecticidal properties while calcium protects against. fungal growth. The preparation protects against excessive growth which may lead to fungal infections.

The Common, or British Oak, for many centuries the chief forest tree of England, is intimately bound up with the history of these islands from Druid time
There are two principal varieties of Q. robur, often regarded as separate species: Q. pedunculata, the Common Oak, which is distinguished by having acorns in ones and twos attached to the twigs by long stems, the leaves having scarcely any stalk at all; and Q. sessiliflora, the Durmast Oak, often included with the former, but distinct, the leaves being borne on long stalks, while the acorns 'sit' on the bough. This variety of oak is more generally found in the lower parts of Britain and in North Wales. It is not so long-lived as the Common Oak, and the wood, which has a straighter fiber and a finer grain, is generally thought less tough and less resisting.
After the Oak has passed its century, it increases by less than an inch a year, but the wood matured in this leisurely fashion is practically indestructible. Edward the Confessor's shrine in Westminster Abbey is of oak that has outlasted the changes of 800 years. Logs have been dug from peat bogs, in good preservation and fit for rough building purposes, that were submerged a thousand years ago. In the Severn, breakwaters are still used as casual landing-places, where piles of oak are said to have been driven by the Romans.
The bark is universally used to tan leather, and for this purpose strips easily in April and May. An infusion of it, with a small quantity of copperas, yields a dye which was formerly used in the country to dye woolen of a purplish color, which, though not very bright, was said to be durable. The Scotch Highlanders used it to dye their yarn. Oak sawdust used also to be the principal indigenous vegetable used in dyeing fustian, and may also be used for tanning, but is much inferior to the bark for that purpose.
In Brittany, tan compressed into cakes is used as fuel. Oak-bark is employed for dyeing black, in conjunction with salts of iron. With alum, oak-bark yields a brown dye; with a salt of tin, a yellow color; with a salt of zinc, Isabella yellow. Q. tinctoria, a North American species, yields Quercitron Bark, employed for dyeing yellow; the American Indians are said to dye their skins red with the bark of Q. prinus. After the oak bark has been used for leather-tanning, it is still serviceable to gardeners for the-warmth it generates and is largely used by them under the name of Tan; it sometimes, however, favors the growth of certain fungi, which are harmful to plants. Refuse tan is also employed in the adulteration of chicory and coffee.
The analysis of the Acorn given by the Lancet is: water, 6.3 per cent; protein, 5.2 per cent; fat, 43 per cent; carbohydrates, 45 per cent.
---Medicinal Action and Uses---The astringent effects of the Oak were well known to the Ancients, by whom different parts of the tree were used, but it is the bark which is now employed in medicine. Its action is slightly tonic, strongly astringent and antiseptic. It has a strong astringent bitter taste, and its qualities are extracted both by water and spirit. The odor is slightly aromatic.
Like other astringents, it has been recommended in agues and hemorrhages, and is a good substitute for Quinine in intermittent fever, especially when given with Chamomile flowers.
It is useful in chronic diarrhea and dysentery, either alone or in conjunction with aromatics. A decoction is made from 1 OZ. of bark in a quart of water, boiled down to a pint and taken in wineglassful doses. Externally, this decoction has been advantageously employed as a gargle in chronic sore throat with relaxed uvula, and also as a fomentation. It is also serviceable as an injection for leucorrhoea, and applied locally to bleeding gums and piles.

Dr. Peter Gasson - Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Specific gravity -- a good indicator of the density and strength of wood -- ranges from 0.67 to 0.72.The acidic nature of the wood will corrode metal nails, so non-ferrous or galvanized nails must be used.
The three-dimensional reconstruction shown below is in the transverse plane (i.e., a cross-section). It shows the outer nine annual rings of wood (secondary xylem), with the bark (periderm - corky layers on the left, phloem on the right adjacent to the wood) on the outside (i.e., left). Little detail can be seen in the bark, but the growth rings are clearly visible in the wood and range from 6 to 11 mm in width. This variation is related to differences in climate from one growing season to the next, and ring patterns are used as the basis of dendrochronology. At the beginning of each growth ring are very wide vessels up to about 400 microns in diameter, which appear as black holes. These early wood vessels are clearly visible and are much more efficient conductors of water up the tree than the narrower latewood vessels.



Cell divisions take place in the cambium to produce secondary xylem (wood) towards the inside of the stem (i.e., right), and secondary phloem (the tissue that transports sugars from the leaves to all other parts of the plant) towards the outside (i.e., left).



Folk Lore Of Plants, Margaret Baker:
The tree of Jupiter (and Mars), Zeus, Thunor and Thor. All Gods high in the Pantheon venerated by Greeks, Romans, Druids, Celts, Anglo Saxons, Germans and Norsemen, One of the seven Noble trees of Irish Tradition, is ‘Jove ‘s tree’. Often struck and his by lightning it is also warn to protect people from thunderstorms.
Many sacred have existed in ancient societies. All Oak is lightning revering but that with mistletoe is doubly useful.
Even ship builders linked Oak with protection from lightning strikes at sea.
Many sacred fires used Oak wood. German mountain folk would put a block of Oak in the fire at mid summer so that it burned for the whole year, at the end the ash is mixed with seed corn. At a time in(29th May) England people needed to wear oak leaves or have them above there door ways, if they did not they were threatened with nettle.
Children would sing:
It’s the 29th May,
Oak Apple Day!
If you don’t give us a holiday,
We’ll run away!

If the oaks before the ash,
We shall only get a splash,
If the ash precedes the oak,
We shall surely get a soak!

Many Oaks in England are linked to death and haunting. Due to them being used to hang people. An Oak stood in Windsor Herne’s Oak was where an Elizabethan Forester who dabbled in witchcraft hung himself in remorse. He is believed to haunt the tree.

Tampering with these great trees was not deemed a good idea. A Lord in 1824 had the famous mile Oak felled . A Local balladeer expressed the publics consternation:
To break a branch was deemed a sin,
A bad luck Job for neighbors,
For fire, sickness or the like,
Would mar their honest labors!
When the Oak of Kenmore blew down none dare use the wood save a tanner who made shoes from the leather. He was stricken with Leprosy.
An Acorn in the bridegrooms pocket gave him long life and the necessary energy to take up his new responsibilities.
Couples would get married under the Oak and when they were not allowed they would come out the church and run for the Oak tree and dance around it, place an x on it, drink acorn beverage .
People used to gather during cross day and go around beating the boundaries, they would gather under Oaks and read Gospels to each other and blessings to the crops.



Interesting stuff:
Work by Laurence Edwards showed leaf buds expanding slightly at each moon mars alignment ( conjunctions and oppositions alike).
This shows a connection to Mars which the Oak has.
The leaves feed the tree and are therefore a part of the process by which the bark is built.
The cherry tree contracts its buds at new and full moon.
Geranium is opposite in Oak in that its buds contract.
The oaks contractive principal is manifest in its Tannic acid.

Plants have been seen to Pre-empt Astronomical aspects or Interstellar Rhythms. A reaction in the first year to an alignment will happen a day earlier in the second year and two days earlier in second year, this continues to the seventh then it reverts to being on the same day and so on.