can you address why Steiner suggests that the hair of a horse might make a suitable substitute for the horn?
In particular: “Question: Does it matter what kind of manure you use — cow- or horse- or sheep-manure?
Answer: Undoubtedly cow-manure is best for this procedure. Still, it might also be well to investigate whether or no horse-manure could be used. lf you want to treat horse-manure in this way, you will probably find that you need to wrap the horn up to some extent in horse-hair taken from the horse’s mane. You will thus make effective the forces which in the horse — as it has no horns — are situated in the mane.”
He does not say the mane hair will replace the function of the horn. Also the 1938 translation is slightly different ‘ “The horse has no horns, but the force that resides in the mane could be bought into activity in this way”.
So it does not suggest that the mane is a direct replacement for the horns as strongly as the Gardner edition says. Its saying forces that are there, can be bought to bear to help the activity of the horn. The question is what are those forces and how do they interact with the horn. I have never come across an answer to this question so…………
The make up of the horse is almost polar opposite to the cow. It is more of the ‘deer’ quality and has indications of a stronger nerve sense activity. It is a ruminant but has the limbs developed more, than the digestion. The horse digestion is very quick and hot compared to the well broken down cow manure. The nitrogen is ‘very loose’ in horse manure. It also develops the incisor teeth, (like rodents) whereas the cow does not. It does not chew its cud. It has a single hoof as opposed to the ‘metabolic division’ of the cloven hoof. So quite different animals.
I wonder how much the added nerve sense activity of the mane is needed to make up for the lack of digestive forces in the horse. An important part of the cowhorn and cow manure discussion is the strong interaction of the Astral / Cosmic Substance and Etheric / Earthly Forces activity in the metabolic region. Digestion is maintained by a healthy interaction of these two activities within the metabolic region, and where one or other gets ‘out of action’ digestion and digestive organs fail. The Equisetum and the kidneys ‘conversation’ is most interesting in this regard (article on this is being cooked). The basic story is that the metabolic internal etheric has to be kept in motion by the metabolic internal astral. Stop the int. astral and the expansive activities of the int etheric stops, which leads to shrunken kidneys, but also all sorts of sluggish digestion and sluggish circulation that leads to all sorts of inflammation problems. The answer is to keep the metabolic int astral engaged, and RS suggest Equisetum does this.
We have the story throughout the Ag course of how the Cosmic Substance / Astral is drawn in through the senses and focused down into the digestion to join with the Earthly Forces / Etheric to maintain the digestion. It is the Cosmic Substance that we cut off as nails and hair. So the Cosmic Substance / astral activity comes from the front of the animal, stimulates the etheric activity in the back of the animal to build the digestion. The digestion naturally works forward to the front of the animal, and is met by the NS activity coming backwards to build and maintain the rhythmic system in the middle. If the metabolic forces are too strong it will upset the nerve sense, which in us is firstly seen as migraine headaches, right through to dementia. The cow , with its horns , cycle this compound metabolic activity back to itself, which allows such a complex and thorough digestion of manure to occur. In the horse this is not so. So ‘I wonder’ if the mane hair is added around the horn, more of the Cosmic Substance process is added to strengthen the weak metabolic activity of the horse manure. Thus lifting it up to be closer to cow manure? RS might have also suggested adding equisetum into the horse manure.
If we stop at the ‘polarity model’ the astral ALWAYS has to work from the front of the animal, whereas with the lecture 8 pictures , and the medical lectures, it is clear that while some of the astrality comes from the front of the cow, as it enters more deeply into the physical organism, the metabolic astrally, also connected strongly through the kidneys, sets up its own relationship with the metabolic etheric activity, and they work together. Indeed the metabolism can only cope with a certain amount of Nerve Sense Astrality, as the NS Astrality and the Metabolic Astrality are of a polar character. (see RS lectures april 11& 12 1921) If the NS astrally becomes too strong it displaces the metabolic astrality and thus the metabolic etheric slows. ‘Luckily’ for us RS simplifies this story by calling the metabolic astrality, cosmic substance and metabolic etheric, earthly forces. However in the cowhorn section he ‘slipped into medical lecture mode’ and talked in the language of Astral and Etheric.
So in summary, the mane is not replacing the horns activity of reflecting the metabolic forces, but is adding cosmic substance forces to activate the earthly forces, to strengthen the initial metabolic processes, missing in horse manure.
It would be good to do experiments to see the difference in the final 500 from these two processes, especially horse 500 without hair and with it.