The Living Earth: The Organic Origin of Rocks and Minerals

An increasing number of enthusiasts are attracted by the rich variety of rocks and mineral around us, and new ways of looking at them. In this book, Walther Cloos views the Earth as a living organism, with different kingdoms of nature - mineral, plant and animal - as stages left behind as the earth develops. He argues that everything currently inert and static was once dynamic and living. The author considers many different aspects of geology, including chapters on oil, sedimentary rocks, radioactivity, volcanoes and metals. Throughout, it is informed by Rudolf Steiner's spiritual science. This book is a useful companion to Grohmann's "The Plant", and should be of interest to all those concerned with the soil and biodynamic agriculture.

Walther Cloos (1900-1985) grew up in Darmstadt. He studied pharmacy at Stuttgart Technical University, where he also attended lectures on mineralogy and geology, doing his practical training and working as an assistant in pharmacies in the Spessart region, near Hamburg and in the southern Black Forest. Having heard Rudolf Steiner at the independent academic course in Stuttgart in March 1921, he attended a second course held in Darmstadt in July that year. Later he would say that he had not been as impressed by Rudolf Steiner as others were, and that it was only the study of Steiner's written works that he came to appreciate him. Cloos took great interest in the plant world, and especially in the medicinal plants he was growing himself at Weleda Schwaebisch Gmuend. He also closely studied alchemical writings.