being human Spring 2014

11th Grade Portrait Sketches from Drawing with Hand, Head, and Heart by Van James

with Dennis Klocek, author of Sacred Agriculture

SteinerBooks is pleased to present two seminars this Spring: Nature and the Human Spirit with Dennis Klocek, March 28 and 29; and The Mystery of the Human Heart with Branko Furst, Armin Husemann, and John Takacs, May 9, 10, and 11. Both seminars will be held in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts at the Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School: 35 West Plain Road, Gt. Barrington, MA 01230. For more information or to register, please visit our website or contact Marsha Post at 413.528.8233.

Nature and the Human Spirit From Ancient Nature Religion to Spiritual Science

2014

New Location: Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School

Seminar Fee: $100

THE MYSTERY OF THE HUMAN HEART

with Branko Furst, MD | Armin J. Husemann, MD | John Takacs, DO

May 9–11, 2014 | Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School, Great Barrington, MA

The mechanistic and materialistic theory of life sees the heart as a sort of pumping apparatus that drives the blood through the body in a persistent, regulated way. from this point of view, the heart is the cause of the movement of the blood... Spiritual science sees the pulsing of the blood, and all of its inner movement, as an expression and effect of that which takes place in the life of the soul. The connection between the pulsing of the blood and the impulses of the soul is deeply secret. The movements of the heart are not the cause of the pulsing of the blood, but rather the result of that pulsing.

Rudolf Steiner, Cosmic Memory

This seminar will explore in a wide-ranging way the spiritual-physical nature of the heart as a cognitive-perceptual organ and the blood as the bearer of the I. For Rudolf Steiner the recovery and scientific confirmation of the heart’s true function is pivotal in overcoming humanity’s continuing descent into materialism. He spoke of the heart’s transformation and of a new kind of thinking: a thinking with the heart, “a sensing-heart-eye-organ”; and even of the heart as “an organ of karma.” Seminar Fee: $150

35 West Plain Road, Great Barrington, MA 01230 www.steinerbooks.org

ANTHROPOSOPHY NYC

the New York Branch of the Anthroposophical Society in America 138 West 15th Street, NY, NY 10011 (212) 242-8945

“The word ‘anthroposophy’ should be interpreted as ‘the consciousness of our humanity.’” – Rudolf Steiner

RUDOLF STEINER BOOKSTORE

Browse dozens of works by Steiner & others on education , biodynamics, science, health, art, spirit. Open Tues 3-5:30pm, Wed-Sat, 1-5pm.

TALKS

spirituality, health, education, social action, esoteric research, human & cosmic evolution

WORKSHOPS

self-development, biography, therapies, rhythms & cycles, threefolding, economics

VISUAL ARTS

exhibits, workshops, talks, museum walks

EURYTHMY

Rudolf Steiner’s therapeutic art of sacred movement

EVENTS

music, theater, festivals, films, community celebrations

STUDY GROUPS

weekly and monthly, exploring transformative insights of Rudolf Steiner, Georg Kühlewind, Owen Barfield and others

SOME UPCOMING PROGRAMS

at 7pm except as noted; details at www.asnyc.org

Sat, 4/5, 7pm: Eugene Schwartz – Understanding Death in Our Time, pt 3–Life Against Death (pt 4, May 24)

Sun, 4/6, 2–5pm: Phoebe Alexander – Tissue Blossom Workshop (+ 4/13 1-4pm Easter Eggs, 6/1 1-4pm Painting the Seasons)

Mon, 4/7: Linda Larson – Monthly Eurythmy Workshop (+ 5/12, 6/9)

Wed, 4/9: David Anderson–Spiritual Beings & Their Work (+ 5/14, 6/11)

Sat, 4/12, 3-5pm: Penny Carter – “City,” paintings; opening

Sun, 4/13, 1–5pm: Phoebe Alexander – Easter Egg Workshop

Thu, 4/17: Easter-Passover The Last Supper Seder Transformed

Sun, 4/20, 4–7pm: Easter Festival Celebration & Pot-luck

Fri-Sat, 4/25-26: Gail Langstroth – “en el fondo del aire / in the depths of air” — life & poetry of Juan Ramón Jiménez

Wed, 4/30: David Lowe – The Face of Christ: Giotto & the Renaissance

www. asnyc .org centerpoint gallery

spiritual, therapeutic, world, & ‘outsider’ art

Spacial Dynamics® was born out of the study of mastery. Mastery in movement results from the harmonious interaction of one’s body and one’s awareness in the surrounding space. This training in the dynamics of mastery is for all who wish to enliven and enlarge their attentiveness, intention, effectiveness, and influence. This course gives space to learn how to learn.

More than ever before, the future will depend upon our ability to change.

26 arts & ideas

49 news for members & friends

The Anthroposophical Society in America

General Council Members

Torin Finser (General Secretary)

Virginia McWilliam (at large)

Carla Beebe Comey (at large)

John Michael (at large, Treasurer)

Regional Council Representatives

Linda Evans (Eastern Region)

Dennis Dietzel (Central Region)

Joan Treadaway (Western Region)

Marian León, Director of Administration & Member Services

being human

is published four times a year by the Anthroposophical Society in America

1923 Geddes Avenue

Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1797

Tel. 734.662.9355

Fax 734.662.1727

www.anthroposophy.org

Editor: John H. Beck

Associate Editors:

Fred Dennehy, Elaine Upton

Cover design and layout:

John Beck, Seiko Semones (S2 Design)

Please send submissions, questions, and comments to: editor@anthroposophy.org or to the postal address above, for our Summer 2014 issue by 4/10/2014.

©2014 The Anthroposophical Society in America. Responsibility for the content of articles is the authors’.

from the editors

There is no end. There is no them.

Pop musicians have a long habit of playing with their listeners, in a friendly way. When I first watched and listened to the new music video from U2 and Bono, “Invisible (RED) Edit Version,” I was sure it was saying toward the end, “There is no end...only us.” Another version is clearly “There is no them...only us.”

In either case I am reminded that human awareness about the human condition is evolving very rapidly, and much is presented to us in art which conditions and enlarges our feelings about being human even as “hard science” keeps telling us what fine, meaningless machines we are.

Rudolf Steiner’s mystery dramas of 1910-13 are much on our minds, as a first English-language festival of all of them is prepared for next August. The mystery drama called “The Great War” was inserted where a fifth Steiner play was to have unfolded, and history continues to unfold almost inscrutably. Where are the hierophants of today? The leaders of the initiatory, awakening processes?

Musicians like Bono are likely among them. This “Invisible” song opens like another relationship song, post-love affair, but the words (and the images in this particular video version) are too strong for trivial regrets about something that didn’t click. Bono and his partners move with authority, the scene is black and white with sprays of light bursting out around a dark human form in the background. And the words tells us that “I finally found my real name. I won’t be me when you see me again.” And “I’m more than you know. I’m more than you see here. I’m more than you let me be.”

And then—is it “no end”—an assertion of immortality? Or “no them”— a call for universal human sister-brotherhood? Or both?!

This issue brings a new section, research & reviews, which further reminds us this time that the human becoming which Rudolf Steiner revealed in so many ways is being seen, in mosaic-like fragments, in all departments of culture. It’s not safe for your career yet, not in the sciences. It isn’t showing up at the power level of global trade or force projection; but it’s bursting out in human hearts. Anthroposophy is meant to meet these shoots of heart-felt will and to inform them with a thought-picture which can support them in the harsh cultural climate of our times.

This issue has a new feature also on the last inside page, a first essay on basic questions of anthroposophy, this time by yours truly. Submissions are welcome, ideally a single page length. If this first runs to two pages it

HOW TO: receive being human, contribute, and advertise

Copies of being human are free to members of the Anthroposophical Society in America (visit anthroposophy.org/membership.html or call 734.662.9355).

Sample copies are also sent to friends who contact us (address below).

To contribute articles or art please email editor@anthroposophy.org or write Editor, 1923 Geddes Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48104.

To advertise contact Margaret Wessel Walker at 734-662-9355 or email advertising@anthroposophy.org

is because it takes up the challenging question of what anthroposophy is.

Each issue has one or several obituaries. This reflects our interest in human being and becoming, human biography. It also responds to Rudolf Steiner’s observation that the “so-called dead” are persistently interested in the furthering of the goals they carried “on Earth,” but that only we, the “so-called living,” can acknowledge and work with them. (Steiner’s mystery dramas, for example, were the dream of an early colleague, and it was after her death that the first play was written “through Rudolf Steiner.”)

This time we have a lengthy essay in place of an obituary for the teacher Harry Kretz. Michael Ronall learned, as many Waldorf students seem to do, from the whole way of being of his teacher. Fortunately for us Michael has the skill to express the experiences and their unfolding meaning for him as he found his own way in a time not friendly to deeper life and insights.

Each of our sections has its own short introduction now, except for the news for members and friends… This section leads off with a report of questions and goals for 2014 from the Society’s General Council. It introduces the Society’s new development director, Deb AbrahamsDematte, and our interim librarian Judith Kiely. It lists the extensive travels of General Secretary Torin Finser and reports on a meeting in his home area of New England. And there is also a report of a sister communications initiative, the three-year-old Deepening Anthroposophy journal launched by Thomas O’Keefe and now associated with the Ita Wegman Institute in Switzerland.

Finally, we have an relative abundance of poetry in this issue. Mark Haberstroh reappears after a quarter century or so.

Daisy Aldan is brought to mind by fellow poet R.Z. Balchowsky.

I contribute a short translation, Paster-

nak’s “Hamlet.” And Christiane Marks takes up one of Rilke’s Sonnets to Orpheus on the inside back cover, about how something invisible and unreal is welcomed into being.

John Beck

There are two reviews from the Rudolf Steiner Library in this edition of being human

The first is the monumental undertaking by Bruce Donehower to review the three volume, 2,000 page biography Rudolf Steiner 1861-1925; Lebens und Werkgeshichte, which is yet to be translated into English. Mr. Donehower, a novelist whose own work has been reviewed in a previous edition of being human, emphasizes Selg’s ability to place the moments of Rudolf Steiner’s life in a clear historical context, particularly the period after World War I. Mr. Donehower also sees Selg’s work as an in depth answer to the continuing charge by opponents of anthroposophy that it is an eclectic synthesis of Steiner’s own readings, systematically distorted to meet the varying needs of his audiences. Selg makes it clear that the work of Rudolf Steiner arose from Steiner’s own original vision.

Also in this edition is a review of Erasing Death by Sam Parnia, MD. Dr. Parnia addresses two “cutting edge” issues: the advancing science of resuscitation; and the challenge of near death experiences (“NDEs”) to prevailing scientific paradigms. Our reviewer Walter Alexander is a longtime anthroposophist and an experienced professional medical writer, and so is particularly qualified to comment on them.

He notes that the phenomenon of NDEs resonates deeply with the contemporary reading public, as attested by the enormous popularity of the 2012 recounting of a personal NDE by Dr. Evan Alexander (no relation to our reviewer) in Proof of Heaven. In addition to his penetrating dissection of Dr. Parnia’s approach, Walter Alexander issues a call to anthroposophists generally to engage in the discussion on the meaning of NDEs and similar phenomenon in the context of anthroposophy. Why, he asks, should the responses to such crucial and widely engaging questions be left to speculations grounded on the tired and one dimensional paradigms that flood the cultural field today?

Frederick Dennehy

being human digest

This digest offers brief notes, news, and ideas from a range of holistic and human-centered initiatives. E-mail suggestions to editor@anthroposophy. org or write to “Editor, 1923 Geddes Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104.”

WALDORF EDUCATION

AWSNA Conference: Cultivating Humanness

The AWSNA Summer Conference will be held from June 23 through June 26, 2014 at Hartsbrook School, in Hadley, Massachusetts. The theme for this year is “Cultivating Humanness within a Technological World,” featuring keynote speaker, Craig Holdrege, PhD, Director and Senior Researcher at the Nature Institute.

“While the technological world we live in is created by human beings, it has the potential to alienate and even separate us from the very roots of human existence and from our larger connection to the earth and cosmos. How can we help young people become rooted in the world through their own experience and gain the forces they need to fruitfully navigate the waters of technological culture and contribute to its ongoing evolution?”

Link: www.whywaldorfworks.org

NUTRITION – BIODYNAMIC AGRICULTURE

BD Whole Wheat Flour

A New Line of Anthroposophic Remedies! Unique Quality Control: Is your poten�zed product more than “just sugar pills”!?

We introduce a reproducible, sta�s�cally validated, laboratory test to prove that the ac�vity of the potency is significantly greater than that of the water control. This test is based on the work of R. Steiner and L. Kolisko.

The remedies you need for your daily health now have a New Level of Reliability:

• Potency Validated™

• All products started from fresh substances

For more informa�on go to the Why True Botanica sec�on of our website www.truebotanica.com

Isis Biodynamic/Rockwell Organic is introducing a Biodynamic Whole Wheat Flour in Whole Foods Markets in March, available also in bulk to communities. “Isis Biodynamic® is a mother daughter company. Lynda has been serving the organic industry for over 30 years and Jessica is a recent college graduate with a passion for health and organic food. Lynda has a longstanding relationship with our farmer Fred Kirschenmann who has been a certified Biodynamic farmer for more than 30 years. Upon graduating college and joining forces with her mother the duo realized that not many Biodynamic products were readily available for the U.S. national market, and thought they should be. We feel better when eating real, whole foods and think everyone should have the choice to fully nourish their whole body with biodynamic products. We want to offer people a way to nourish the human body through nature, while reflecting ancient principles of sustainability. After realizing this, we made the big decision to purchase a stone-grinding flour mill and make certified Biodynamic Whole Wheat flour! We transported our mill to Minnesota and had it certified by The Demeter® Association. Stone grinding insures that the wheat will not heat to

New First-Year Full-time Course

Begins September 2014

First Fifth-Year Course

October 2014 to April 2015

being human digest

high temperatures or lose its nutrients or energetic properties during the milling process. We are thrilled to introduce ourselves, and our Whole Wheat Flour to the Biodynamic community, and look forward to what lies ahead!”

Contact:

Jessica Rockwell: jessicalynrockwell@gmail.com

ART – PAINTING – SOCIAL ART

Free Columbia

The Free Columbia Art Courses are intensive explorations into art. Currently an eight month painting course, (October 2014-May 2015), is open for applications March 1 – May 1.

During these eight months students will dedicate themselves to exploring the elements of the two dimensional world, working with color mood, color perspective, dark and light drawing, layering techniques with watercolor and oil and drawing both from observation and imagination. They will explore the processes through which form, composition and motif arise out of color, and learn to facilitate teaching art by assisting in classes in the community. The course will include weekly eurythmy, study of anthroposophy, history of art through observation and an investigation of the effects of culture and creativity on social change. In 2014/15 the course will be carried by Laura Summer with the help of many other contributing artists. Free Columbia will choose full-time students who show strong commitment and determination, as well as a background in pursuing artistic questions. The course takes place in Columbia County, New

York, in a rural part of the Hudson River Valley. Columbia County is 2 hours north of NYC.

As a “social art” initiative, Free Columbia is based on an understanding of the importance of creating independent and accessible educational and artistic opportunities. There are no set tuitions. Everyone is encouraged to donate to make this work possible. Suggested donation amounts based on what it costs to run courses are provided. It is possible to make a monthly pledge to support Free Columbia as well.

“Art is the only revolutionary energy, in other words the situation will only be changed by human creativity.”

— Joseph Beuys Contacts: www.freecolumbia.org

Laura Summer: 518-672-7302

ART – PAINTING

Tommi Parzinger

Sonia Saldarriaga is interested in knowing more about the anthroposophicallyinspired artist Tommi Parzinger. Born in Munich in 1903, Parzinger was well-known in the USA for decades as a “high-design” designer of silverware, furni-

being human digest

ture, and household accessories. He also devoted many of the years before his death in 1981 to painting. Sonia would like to make his painting better known, and is especially interested in the painting “Golgotha” shown above at right.

Contact:

Sonia Saldarriaga: ssbochica@gmail.com

SOCIETY

Martin, the Dream is Happening

Nancy Jewel Poer shared some thoughts from her hospital room by e-mail with friends on Martin Luther King Day. We happily posted it at anthroposophy.org.

Nancy is a person of many deeds and concerns— teacher, historian of the spirit of America, social activist, lecturer and filmmaker, advocate for conscious dying, and her website is well worth a visit. At this moment her attention was drawn to the cosmopolitan life of a San Francisco hospital, where she found herself passing along some history around Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous speech on the Washington Mall in 1963, including the little-known role played by the great gospel singer Mahalia Jackson in his speaking forth, “I have a dream…”

“Now mid way through his speech on that fateful

day, Mahalia Jackson rose up in the crowd and called out to Martin Luther King. And everything changes. She brought about a seminal moment in the spiritual truth of America… When Mahalia took charge in that lightning bolt moment in American history as she rose and shouted out from the crowd, ‘Tell them about the Dream, Martin!’ she passed a spark of inspiration directly to him. The organizers of the march had not been able to agree on a black woman to speak that day. Mahalia would in fact, be that ‘speaker’ history remembers. At that moment, Martin put down the prepared speech (a speech that had contained no mention of the Dream) and began the inspired words. King would later say, ‘It just came to me.’”

Links: www.anthroposophy.org/articles/ nancyjewelpoer.com/

SPIRITUALITY

Camino De Crestone: Inter-faith Pilgrimage

Jennifer Thomson, painter and teacher based in Crestone, Colorado, sent us word of “the world’s first interfaith pilgrimage.” William Howell shared details:

“A solid look at Crestone requires a double-take. This quaint town at the foot of sacred mountains reveals a pronounced community to complement the obvious lofting beauty of the Sangre de Cristos, eastern guardians of the San Luis Valley—so gloriously Colorado.

“To behold the uniqueness of this hamlet at the deadend of County Road-T demands a second look. Within walking distance are stupas and zendos, ashrams, a Carmelite monastery, a Sufi tekke, retreats and centers for sa-

“All creation, everything we see has condensed out of life rhythms.” Rhythmical Massage Therapy listens to and touches into the life rhythms that shape and maintain function in the human being.

A new training for Rhythmical Massage Therapy

as indicated by Ita Wegman MD and Margarethe Hauschka MD will begin May 9-30, 2014 at Rudolf Steiner College in Fair Oaks CA For more information visit www.rhythmicalmassagetherapy.org or contact Marlies

being human digest

cred dance and voice, not to mention medicine wheels and sweat lodges, plus the labyrinth of Chartres in its exact dimensions. The holiest mountains in the world—Crestone Peak (14,294’) for the Hopi and Mt. Blanca (14,345’) for the Navajo—overlook the Camino de Crestone. Here is a true place of power. One Native elder sighted as proof the fact that heaven (wind) and earth (sand) merge in the Great Sand Dunes visible to the south…

“In 2013, the Camino de Crestone was inaugurated. On this 36-mile circuit pilgrims walk in groups to visit 15 spiritual centers in a week’s time. Along with audiotour segments, participants experience meditations, labyrinths, dharma talks, yoga of the voice, a shamanic journey, a sweat lodge, sacred dance, spiritual healings, not to mention fine food and meetings with adepts in a number of traditions. Experience (not dogma) is key.”

Link: www.caminodecrestone.com/

LIFE SCIENCE – GOETHEAN OBSERVATION

Who Are You and Who Am I and Who Are We?

If you are “into” serious thinking, Steve Talbott’s work at the Nature Institute offers regular and vigorous

See Christ Differently

workouts. He’s tackling the hidden assumptions about what’s what that allow contemporary biology and genetics to think sloppily about life, evolution, and identity. It’s the same sort of effort that Rudolf Steiner made in his first book, Truth & Science (a kind of prologue to the better-known The Philosophy of Freedom). It’s at the very foundation of our cultural structures of ideas that erroneous concepts can undermine our humanity.

Steve’s full post with the above title is available online (combine both lines of the link below in one line). Here’s how it begins:

“In every sphere of knowledge it’s easy to put out of mind those questions that are so fundamental and yet so seemingly impenetrable that they leave everything we think we understand woefully ungrounded. Biology is no exception.

“Who, or what, is the organism, and what guarantees the remarkable unity of character, the distinctive and recognizable way of being, consistently achieved by the developing individuals of a species? Where do we look for the guarantor of this unity if we are unwilling to commit the obvious error of making a particular part of the organism—or an ever-varying collection of parts—an explanation for the integral performance of the whole?

“And what is such a whole? Is every organism an unambiguous and definable unity, so that we can precisely delineate the boundary separating it from other organisms and from the larger environment? Surely this boundary becomes blurred in numerous ways, ranging from obligate symbiosis (where neither of two organisms can live except in intimate relation to the other) to natural cloning (where, for example, the quaking aspen trees covering entire hillsides may arise from a single, shared root system).

“Or again: what do we mean when, regarding ourselves, we speak, as so many do, of a psychosomatic unity? Who will specify exactly what is meant by the psychological half of “psychosomatic”? And whatever is meant by it, how and in what sense do psyche and soma become a unity? — a question neither biologists nor cognitive scientists nor philosophers have been able to resolve with any hint of consensus, despite centuries of effort…

Link: natureinstitute.org/txt/st/org/comm/

thechristiancommunity.org

The Christian Community is a world-wide movement for religious renewal that seeks to open the path to the living, healing presence of Christ in the age of the free individual. Learn more at

IN THIS SECTION:

Eurythmy is a new art, just over a century old, and its story is told in our Spring issue of 2012. It has antecedents, but its future is far more important, and mysterious. Its plays a key role in schooling and in therapeutic work, but as an art of its own, revealing the inner life of sound and word in human movement and light and veils, it holds a key of some sort to human futures. Starting a school for eurythmists is a major initiative, and we are happy to share here the story of David-Michael and Glenda Monasch. New Form Technology reveals creative secrets quite differently. Frank Chester found his way beyond the lawful shapes of traditional geometry, and a small research center in the heart of Silicon Valley is now stepping through the doors opened by his freed imagination.

The Sophia Project’s story continues, attending to the small children whose lives it has changed. And River Parker tells us about an upcoming conference and a recent meeting where youthful intentions strengthen each other.

Sound Circle Eurythmy

by David-Michael and Glenda Monasch

Five years ago, among the many things we wrote to describe our initiative for a new eurythmy training in Boulder, Colorado, we said: a particular feature will be a solid grounding in an understanding of the evolution of consciousness and its reflection in child development. As the absolute bedrock of Waldorf education, we believe a working knowledge of how these live in and through eurythmy will be the best possible preparation for our graduates to become vital contributors toward a renewal and strengthening of the pivotal role eurythmy is meant to play in Waldorf schools worldwide, but most especially on this continent. Toward this end, ...comprehensive artistic, theoretical and practical courses in all aspects of Waldorf pedagogy will be an essential feature of the Training from the very beginning.... Another unique feature will be the focus on comparative movement studies... The students will attend a variety of dance and movement performances and workshops to enable them to clearly perceive and understand eurythmy’s unique place in the contemporary artistic, pedagogical, and therapeutic scene.... We envision an exciting four-year curriculum [to] address the needs of students at this time, preparing them to meet their future tasks with consciousness, capacity, and joy... T he mission of Sound Circle Eurythmy is to increase understanding and appreciation for the artistic, educational, therapeutic, and social benefits of eurythmy and its unique role in the modern world by actively contributing to the cultural life of the Rocky Mountain region and beyond.

With such intentions we founded the SCE Training to bring eurythmists into the world who would be discerning, responsive, and capable of meeting the great need for eurythmy in North America and in our time. Approaching now our first graduation, we would like to share something of the process of these last intensive years: the work of the SCE Training itself, as well as that of the SCE Ensemble. The latter needs to be included because we recognized even before beginning the Training, that in order for it to succeed, its students would have to be given the opportunity to see eurythmy, as well as to do it! So the work of the Ensemble, which was already active before the Training, needed to be expanded and enhanced.

SCE Training

When Dorothea Mier came from New York to help inaugurate the new Train-

4th-Year students (Audrey Wiebe, center) perform at recital Dec 2013

Above: moving in for our opening day, Sept 2010

Below: moving again, Sept 2012

ing (only the second to be approved in North America) the first cohort consisted of fourteen women, about two thirds of whom had been living in Colorado, with the rest moving here to take up the Training. We later discovered this was the largest First-Year group of that year anywhere in the world! As with eurythmy trainings everywhere, the winnowing process soon began. For some, the first year was a welcome immersion into anthroposophy and an artistic experience. For others, the strenuous challenges of becoming a eurythmist helped make clear that eurythmy and/or anthroposophy were not their path. Still others left for health or family issues. Now in their final year, the four women remaining have all made huge sacrifices to make it through the challenges inherent in such a life-changing process! They will have their Graduation Performance and Ceremony on May 31, before travelling to Dornach, Switzerland where they will join students from eurythmy trainings around the world for the annual Graduation Meeting at the Goetheanum.

So what have the students actually been doing for four years? For four hours every morning of the school year, they moved together, delving deeply into the mysteries of music theory, poetry, Apollonian and Dionysian qualities, “soul gestures,” the rich world of color, the unique and profound eurythmic expression of the planets and zodiac, musical tones and intervals, and (always and again) the manifold universe of the sounds of speech. First and foremost, Rudolf Steiner wanted eurythmy to be the visible expression of the WORD, in all its variety, and as manifest in different cultures and languages.

Year by year, the students have be-

come evermore expressive instruments, transforming themselves into vessels for “visible speech” and “visible song.” Friends and families who have attended their recitals over the past four years have been consistently amazed to see how these beloved spouses/mothers/sisters/colleagues have grown and changed, becoming ever more fluid, supple, and harmonious. Many times, audience members at these recitals have been more able to see students’ enormous growth than have the students themselves! This was also true for our Goetheanumappointed Training-in-Development mentor Shaina Stoehr, from West Midlands Eurythmy Training in the UK; her annual three-week visits have been invaluable to the development of our whole program.

While clearly a uniquely focused specialization, a eurythmy training at the same time exposes students to an all-encompassing and comprehensive development of one’s human capacities. Accompanying the purely eurythmic work for four years are specialty classes, which enhance, deepen, and widen the students’ sense of all that can live in eurythmy, while preparing them to carry it into the world. These classes, on afternoons and evenings, included Anatomy-Physiology, Form Drawing, Sculpture, Astronomy, Poetics (Parzival , Faust, Goethe and Schiller, epiclyric-dramatic, Rudolf Steiner’s Mystery Plays), Speech Formation, Painting, Art History, Anthroposophy, Threefolding, etc. The festival life of the year has also been an ongoing thread throughout the training.

As the students became increasingly adept and confident, they also

4th-Year students Audrey Wiebe, Mary Elizabeth Lenahan

2nd-Year students perform at Recital in December 2013

2nd and 4th-Year students perform in December 2013

4th-Year students at the end of a long day

began participating in local events in the wider community. This has included working into the life of the local Waldorf schools (performing for the regional Pentathlon, helping with festival programs, appearing at assemblies) and especially serving as apprentices in SCE Ensemble presentations. While keenly aware of all they don’t know, and with a certain trepidation about the future, each is also growing into competent, creative, and uniquely individual artists-teachers, increasingly eager to face the tasks for which they have been so diligently preparing!

How far this inaugural group has come is readily apparent to the Second Year students, who began in September 2012. This delightful and lively group brings a whole new sense of future possibilities to our efforts and they have made great progress over their first two years of training. Many had some Waldorf background before arriving in Boulder and they bring a powerful social initiative to bear on all our work!

SCE Ensemble

With a somewhat changing roster of eurythmists, musicians, speakers and lighters, the SCE Ensemble has begun making itself known across Colorado. While often performing for Waldorf school audiences, we have made a point of appearing in as many public venues as possible, including the University of Colorado, Boulder; Cleo Parker Robinson Theatre, Denver; Bas Bleu Theatre, Fort Collins; Lakewood Cultural Center, Lakewood. Since 2010, the full evening programs Chiaroscuro and What the Bee Knows were presented, as well as the chil-

dren’s programs Winged Wonders and Farmyard Fables. In addition to the inclusion of SCE Training students as apprentices, a special feature of many of these performances, provides an opportunity for Waldorf school children to perform with us, another measure of our service to our community. In this regard the Ensemble also regularly contributes to the annual All Souls’ Celebration, the regional Waldorf Fifth Grade Pentathlon, the Boulder Public Library’s Dance is for Every Body weekend, as well as smaller inhouse Waldorf school festivals and events. We are currently rehearsing Celtic Treasures, our newest children’s program, which will tour in March and April 2014.

Toward the Future

It is our intention and hope to begin a new First-Year group in September 2014. If you or someone you know is considering eurythmy as a life path, we invite you/them to visit us in Boulder to explore whether SCE might be the place to take the next steps. We are also planning to offer our first Fifth-Year Artistic Post-Graduate Course, from October 2014 to April 2015, for those already holding a certified eurythmy diploma. They will help create the Ensemble’s 2015 performances, including a full evening program exploring the theme of Water, for which we are negotiating collaborations with public venues in Boulder as well as artists from across the country. See soundcircleeurythmy.org for information about both courses, as well as further details about eurythmy and SCE. Please consider adding your name to our monthly

SCE co-director Glenda Monasch as Queen Bee in What the Bee Knows, 2012

SCE Ensemble performs in What the Bee Knows

email update list and to becoming a donor to help SCE move into the future.

David-Michael Monasch dmm@soundcircleeurythmy.org and Glenda Monasch gem@soundcircleeurythmy.org

are the co-founders and directors of Sound Circle Eurythmy. Between them they have over 65 years’ experience teaching and performing eurythmy!

Student Reflections

“My first semester of Eurythmy Training was so rich and full... So many thoughts brought to our tone eurythmy lessons spoke very deeply to me. For example, that we human beings were created out of a kind of weaving~work of other great spiritual beings, and that we can see in different parts of our physical structure (such as the shape of our collar bones) a kind of imprint or “writing” of those great beings’ movements; that their breathing, their dancing, their singing, can be traced in our being! How beautiful to view the shape of our head as relating to the sun, our torso to the moon, our limbs as gifts from the stars. As one who loves life and music, I cannot think of a more compelling task to take up than learning how to tune my being as an instrument through which I can sing back out to the cosmos from which I came!”

— Andréa Moreno-Beals, Second-Year student

“I am in love, love, love with tone eurythmy! I am overjoyed with what the interval brings to a musical piece, how it allows us to express our soul and what is occurring in the music. I am continually striving with my ear training. I would like to be stronger in identifying tones, intervals, major, minor, and dissonance. I may

not be able to clearly tell an interval from just my ear but when I listen with my entire being I can sense where I feel it in my body and gestalt. I am learning a different way to hear and feel the music.” — Chelaine Kokos, Second-Year student

“[This term] we worked on the Zodiac. I would put this in the great big bin marked ‘things I had no clue I would touch when I entered the eurythmy training.’ What a beautiful gem it has turned out to be. I know the eurythmic zodiac is not astrology, but both are kinds of spiritual map. I love maps! Sometimes when we are doing the sequence of eights with the zodiacal gestures and their corresponding sounds, I feel like we have passed through 20 years of life. I guess it could be part of the nature of those constellations.” — Amanda Leonard, Fourth-Year student

“This semester, I am finding myself delving into what it means to be fully with the speech sounds. With our discussion about being ‘artistic,’ I realize there is more than one definition or interpretation of what artistic means. I want to find that place in myself that can fully access the speech sounds...” — Mary Elizabeth Lenahan, Fourth-Year student

“Fourth year training poses both a great challenge and a great opportunity. I am acutely aware that there is still so much I do not know, understand, or cannot embody within my instrument and I am wanting to engage, explore, and attempt to embody as much as possible..... I need to overcome any selfdoubt and self-consciousness that inhibits my capacity to allow the eurythmy, tone or speech, to unfold.” - Terryann Stilwell Masotti, FourthYear student

SCE Ensemble (Cristina Geck, Isabella Guardia, David-Michael Monasch)

SCE Ensemble performs in What the Bee Knows

New Form Technology Research Center: First Anniversary

by Faith Moore

New Form Technology Research Center is a new design school for the study of the lawful phenomena of non-natural forms. It is a schooling for the unseen. The NFTRC is located in the heart of Silicon Valley, in a warehouse in the industrial district of San Carlos, California. It will celebrate its first anniversary there (971 Terminal

about the moral tasks that the human being performs, which can be described according to the laws of morality. However, every moral deed and every physical action in a human life are connected in the human heart. We will find the true fusion of these two parallel and independent phenomena, moral events, and physical events, only when we truly learn to understand the configuration of the human heart.”

(Selg, Peter, The Mystery of the Heart: The Sacramental Physiology of the Heart in Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, and Rudolf Steiner, Steinerbooks, 2012; Pg. IX, Introduction)

Way, San Carlos, CA 94070 - a twelve minute drive south of the San Francisco Airport.) on Saturday, March 29th from 11am–3pm.

We are a small group of people enthusiastically studying, researching and developing a variety of useful applications; both aesthetic and practical, based on geometric polyhedrons and the unseen. We are also keenly aware of the importance of Frank Chester’s work on the human heart, and how his discovery and subsequent work is leading the way to greater understanding at this time. The following statement by Rudolf Steiner is made available from Dr. Ita Wegman’s notes for the first time by Dr. Peter Selg, Director of the Ita Wegman Institute:

“With matters as they are, one could state emphatically that we know ‘heartily little’ about what takes place inside the human being. Everything that we do not know or understand concerns the human heart. We still know only ‘heartily little’ about it. We know about what takes place in the physical world and what can be described using the laws of nature. We also know

Everyone is welcome to visit NFT. Wednesday’s are particularly lively. Volunteers bring many varied interests and skills; conversation is always inspiring. We are also grateful for our volunteers who travel from far distances to participate for several weeks while staying at the Center. Please feel free to contact us or check the website for events and updates. Our website and newsletter “New Form Connections” will soon be available.

Why was New Form Technology started? For NFT the Chestahedron is behind the impulse to study unseen phenomena. The Chestahedron is a lawful new form not previously discovered. It is more than a thing; a something which when studied further reveals the “more than something.” Discovered in the year 2000, this form has 7 points, 7 faces of equal area (4 equilateral triangles and

Two views of the Chestahedron

3 quadrilaterals) and 12 edges forming a hexagon in the center when viewed from above.

“7, the number of the universe with the 3 of the heavens and the soul, and the 4 of the earth and the body; it is the first number which contains both the spiritual and the temporal.”

(Cooper, JC, An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols, 1979, Thanes & Hudson, London; Pg. 117)

This new form is leading us to a way to lawfully study non-natural phenomena—phenomena that do not appear in nature. By studying this form we learn to apprehend further new forms. This is a quest for a universal order concealed in the non-natural phenomena of “more than something.”

The work of understanding the Chestahedron led, for example, to the study of the relationship between formative forces and the geometry, structure and physiology of the human heart. The Chestahedron is found to be the inner and outer geometry of the human heart, and it is able to unveil that fifth chamber of the heart indicated by Rudolf Steiner (The Human Heart, Dornach, May 26, 1922, GA 212, Mercury Press, Chestnut Ridge, NY ) and further elaborated upon by Ehrenfried Pfeiffer (Heart Lectures, December 17, 24, and 31, 1950, Mercury Press, Chestnut Ridge, NY). The name Chestahedron is derived from the discovery of the heart’s geometry and its location in the chest of the human being. Also of great interest that is

when set spinning the Chestahedron reveals the geometry of a bell.

“The swinging of the bell represents the extremes of good and evil, death and immortality; its shape is the vault of heaven.” (Cooper, pg. 20)

The Chestahedron can show an internal transformation moving in two opposite directions at the same time. These motions, when related to physiology, provide a picture of how the human heart is formed out of two opposite moving vortexes. There is a design concept behind the geometry connected with the human heart. The heart is working not simply through the utilization of pressure (pumping the blood) but by suction (breaking) arising when two vortexes entwine together from opposite directions (Miller, Seth T., A New Sacred Geometry: The Art and Science of Frank Chester, 2013, Spirit Alchemy Design; frankchester.com text by Seth Miller). There is much more and we refer you to Frank’s online lectures at frankchester.com

A year after the Chestahedron was discovered one was sent to the laboratory of Masaru Emoto of Japan where water molecules are analyzed under a microscope after freezing them. Pictures are taken to document and observe the integrity of the visible patterns from water treated or gathered under certain conditions and compared to

water not treated the same way. Results of this approach showed the Chestahedron form to be enlivening, and this led to further study and research and the Chesta Vortex Organizer (CVO) design for enlivening bodies of water.

At New Form Technology Research Center we work together to find the form’s potential, applied use, and possible effects in everyday life. That includes some projects conceived before NFT began and now taken further. After one year we have the following practical applications:

A Heart Building was designed two and a half years ago while Frank was preparing to exhibit the Chestahedron in Dornach, Switzerland for the 100th anniversary

Inner forms of the Chestahedron

Interior hexagon of the Chestahedron

Frank Chester demonstrating forms created by the Chestahedron in rotation

Inner forms of the Chestahedron

Water (ice) crystal pattern testing

of the Goetheanum building impulse. Because of this anniversary and the invitation to be part of an art exhibition at the Goetheanum, Frank was inspired to design a new building based on the geometry of the Chestahedron and the first Goetheanum. Then the opportunity followed to lecture at the Goetheanum, on the Heart Building’s healing geometry and multi-faceted purpose.

During this lecture Frank demonstrated the rotation of the seven-sided Chestahedron forming the shape of the left ventricle of the human heart and explained why the right ventricle vortexes in and out of the heart. Current cardiology research articles illustrate the healthy shape of the human heart. The rotated shape of the Chestahedron shows this healthy form of the heart, its archetypal

research healing through art and science. Preliminary and presentational architectural drawings will soon be commissioned for this building that already has its Capstone, designed and built to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Goetheanum’s Foundation Stone celebration.

The Chesta Vortex Organizer or CVO, among many uses, is a mixer for gardening and agricultural compost teas. This mixer is no ordinary mixing device. The CVO form for our current research mixing purposes is suspended in a large 3-foot plastic sphere encased in a metal framework of the Chestahedron where the CVO spins in the center of the sphere, thereby enlivening and structuring water and anything else in it through its dynamic geometric design and motion. The water and its added solutions, whether invisibly soluble or materially visible, are charged and alive. The end result substance in the mixer inoculates and enhances soil microbiology and plant life. There is no magnetization or use of electricity in this work, other than an electric motor to drive the CVO.

shape. As previously mentioned, when the Chestahedron is in motion it forms a vortex and also the bell shape. In the past sick people were sometimes placed under a bell because, when it rang, its vibration brought them into a state of health through resonance. Frank further explained there is a hexagram in the middle of the building, which is in alignment with the ancient geometry of the heart chakra. His building design will have nylon strings forming a 13-sided polygon called Dekatria surrounding the outside of the building. It will resemble a wind harp because it can generate music when the wind blows into nylon strings (resonance). Or the strings can be played by special bows. The outside will have three triangle stain glasses designed after tourmaline crystals, which will provide different colors to the outside and inside of the building during the day. Humankind is in need of healing architecture and The Heart Building’s purpose is to

A prototype is complete and we are now producing what we term a Geometric Still Point Pyramid made

out of the framework of the Chestahedron where one sits in a chair to meditate, be quiet and potentially experience centering. The level of the human heart corresponds to

Frank Chester design for The Heart Building

The Heart Building’s Capstone

Chesta Vortex Organizer

the six-pointed star geometry found within the Chestahedron’s center point. One way we are testing this pyramid is with a device from the HeartMath Institute where “heart intelligence and stress management” are tested.

“The number 7, the number of ascent and of ascending to the highest and obtaining the center.” (Cooper, pg. 117)

“The heart, the center of being, both physical and spiritual; the divine presence at the center.” (Cooper, pg. 82)

Currently, the “New Form Collections” catalog is being produced based on the Chestahedron and its inversion in the form of jewelry and sculpture made out of a variety of materials. The catalog is organized digitally to providing blueprints for production using newest technology.

There is another water and food related project currently underway that we call The Restructuring Bell for drinking water, beverages and food. Orgonite technology is currently researched and developed within the Chestahedron form. A new surfboard is in the design process for a prototype based on the geometry inherent in the Flower of Life and squaring the circle. This is combined in a manner that gives rise to new thought on a geometrically lawful surfboard template. Another project is developing Chestahedron flying kites for children and adults. Sculptured bells based on the geometry of the Chestahedron are being made with different materials.

We were invited to a TEDx event to present the Chestahedron on December 5, 2013 in Vail, Colorado.

The presentation was a 6-minute two-person act of the Chestahedron visually with no words. (All lectures including the TEDx presentation are at frankchester.com under Site Map—Videos.)

Community life at New Form Technology has another important aspect in Frank’s Lectures and Workshops. These occur usually quarterly and include a potluck. The lecture titles have been: “The Metamorphosis of the Icosahedron,” “Pyramids: The Ancient to Future History of Pyramids and How They Relate to Human Development,” and the “100 Year Celebration of the Laying of the First Goetheanum Foundation Stone” coupled with “New Design for the Future Building: The Capstone.” All have been well received and we look forward to the anniversary lecture, “The Metamorphosis of Form and The Human Heart,” and other future lectures such as “Inversions and Reversals.”

The Research Center is grateful to Raphael Medical Foundation for a seed grant that kick-started the work,

particularly medicine-related aspects, and to our sponsor Richard Traverso of ADCO Advertising for his financial support and for making available over 2000 sq.ft. of warehouse space.

Faith Moore (faithm1879@yahoo.com) is Director of the New Form Technology Research Center. She met anthroposophy at age 21 and for over 30 years has volunteered in anthroposophical initiatives in Los Angeles and Fair Oaks, CA. Websites for this work include: frankchester.com, heartisticscience.org , and under construction newformtechnology.org

Examining the Geometric Still Point Pyramid

The pointed star at the center of the Chestahedron

Rehearsing for the TEDx event in Vail

Watching a demonstration of the Chesta Vortex Organizer

Sophia Project

by Carol Cole and Robert McDermott

December 18, 2013 – second of three essays

The previous essay on the Sophia Project in being human, 1 appropriately included in the initiative! section, describes the structures through which, over the past 13 years, Sophia Project has “brought deep and remarkable transformation to 50 families and 140 children.”

A dramatically successful story, “the Sophia Project required unfailing dedication, a profound ideal of a livein community, an equally profound approach to early childhood education and transformation specifically adapted for inner city children, Camphill ideals of community, and a loyal network of donors and supporters.” The children and their mothers who had been homeless and had suffered from toxic levels of stress, alienation, poverty, fear, and violence are now well. “To date not one of these families has returned to homelessness, all but one of the mothers are employed and live with their children in their own apartments, and all of the children are performing successfully in school.”

The present essay, the second of three on Sophia Project, is focused on the work with the children, ages birth to five, in the daily programs. The final essay will focus on the work with the mothers, all of whom participated in the daily programs, and will describe the family support program which serves the children and mothers after completion of the 3-year daily program.

The mothers who have

1 “Sophia Project,” being human, Autumn 2013

brought their children to Sophia Project were struggling to hold together their own lives and the lives of their children who have been homeless and have been repeatedly moved from place to place, always feeling that they do not belong anywhere. Having witnessed or experienced violence and abuse, they live in constant fear. Their lives are chaotic and their experiences fragmented beyond the point at which it is possible to make ordered impressions of their environment. Their relationships to people, nature, color, and story are wounded or non-existent.

Myrtle House

The infant toddler program serves children from birth to three years old and takes place at Myrtle House, from 6am-6pm, Monday through Friday. When the children first join us, the trauma they have experienced is often expressed through numbed passivity or a painful silence. Their trauma typically stems from frequent moving from place to place, an extremely stressed mother, broken rhythms of sleeping, eating and playing, poor nutrition, and exposure to violence. Each child is warmed inwardly and outwardly, and each child comes back to life. Monica, now two, was very somber both at home and with us, but now, slowly, she is changing. As her life be-comes more predictable and full of warmth we see her smile many times a day—and what a smile it is! Monica’s smile brightens her entire face and sends sunshine deep into the hearts of everyone around her.

When such negative circumstances persist (as they typically do in similarly dire circumstances), children inevitably build their lives on a broken, unreliable foundation. It should come as no surprise if, as an adult, they would be unable to relate with respect or kindness to others, care for the environment, imagine and envision a fulfilling life, or take the necessary steps to attain life goals. If no experiences transform the child’s pain, alienation, and fear, these will seep like a poison into his or her later life, often preventing positive experiences. In time, adults who have experienced such a painful childhood will perhaps self medicate in order to feel something/ anything or to lessen their pain. As chemical toxins prevent a plant from healthy growth, destruction of early childhood, when children are to build their earthly and spiritual substance for later life, will insure that adversarial forces will exercise negative influence.

From the Newsletter 2006

At Sophia Project the children

were met first with a garden of colorful flowers, plentiful enough for everyone to pick. This made a deep impression upon children who were accustomed to the gray and grime of their apartment buildings. Although Sophia House was located within their troubled neighborhood, their new play area was entwined with sweetly scented flowering vines.2 The house was brightly painted and the door easily opened into a welcoming warm, harmonious, light filled room of toys, beautiful children’s books, and artistic activities.

Through a curriculum that fosters kindness, rhythm, play, imagination, imitation, and loving relationships to all the kingdoms of nature and to the arts, each child has been able to develop healthy physical, emotional, social, and mental capacities.

Where they had experienced fragmentation they found wholeness; where they had experienced chaos they found order, harmony, and predictable rhythm; where they had experienced fear they found safety and love; where they had experienced harshness and violence they found gentleness and kindness. And where they had experienced alienation they found positive relationship to song, color, form, story, earth, stars, moon, sun, as well as healing relationships to people.

Meeting Individual Needs

Waldorf and Camphill early childhood programs worldwide work, as we did, with the seasons, festivals, and health-giving daily

Sophia House

One of the privileges of working with small children is the gift of witnessing the wisdom the young child embodies, as in the following story.

On a recent morning Sarah placed several stuffed animals in a semicircle on the floor in front of her. She looked at each one tenderly. Then, looking at one older dog whose head flops due to many years of being carried around by his neck, she said quietly to herself, “This one is poor. I love all of these but I am going to love this one a little bit more and then he won’t be poor.”

Sarah knows what is needed to bring healing to both outer and inner poverty. At some level she knows that those who have been wounded can be healed by love. Through the deep care our children and mothers experience while at Sophia Project, they build the inner and outer resources necessary to face the challenges in their lives and to transform themselves and the world in which they live. For Sarah, this has been achieved through two years of intensive therapeutic education and care in the daily programs. Before coming to us, she lived, for almost two years, in a car with her mother and four siblings.

From the Spring 2009 newsletter

and weekly rhythms of inside and outdoor play, circle time stories, eurythmy, simple artistic activity, and handwork.

Some aspects of the program were unique to Sophia Project. Children and families were a part of daily programs for approximately three years. After three years of receiving intensive services the children and families were more stable and self-sufficient. At that point they became part of the family support program, which includes overnight respite care, and weekend programs.

Especially in the first year, when they were beginning to emerge from homelessness and had few, if any resources, families needed a lot of support. During the weekdays, the children were with us from as early as 5am until 6pm. Children in the daily programs sometimes required overnight weekend programs and emergency care in response to urgent situations such as domestic violence, hospitalization of one of our mothers, an unexpected night shift at a new job, or myriad other circumstances in which other families would rely on a partner, extended family, friends, or others in the community. For our families we were their extended family; typically there wasn’t anyone else.

Weekdays also included a before and after school program for the older siblings of children in the early childhood program as well as for all the children who had graduated from our early childhood program and had begun attending public school kindergarten.

Because it is expensive and difficult, transportation to and from work, daycare, and school is

2 The gardens were made lush through devoted care and biodynamic prepa rations.

a major obstacle for low-income families. For many of our families commuting any distance is simply impossible. We provided regular transportation for many children and emergency transportation whenever needed. We regularly met a mother and the children at the bus and train stops in order to take the children to the program and enable the mother to continue her journey to work without the added hour needed to get back and forth from Sophia House.

Most of the families in the daily programs faced food shortages at home. The children received a full cooked breakfast, lunch, and several substantial snacks each day including a late snack in which the mothers would join before taking the child, or children, home. The main meal of the day for the children and coworkers was at lunch when we had a full dinner. Change of clothes, outside clothes, slippers, and boots were provided to all children in the program. The children took great delight in their individual cubby spaces where their clothes and nap blankets were kept.

The Neighborhood Children

From the beginning the neighborhood children have been a part of Sophia Project. They come to play inside and outside on weekends and on as many evenings as we have the strength to watch them and play with them. They love to pick a small bunch of flowers from the garden, learn to make a puppet, paint, or just play with the “cool” toys. — One day the eight-year-old boy who lives next door was on our step. “My mom told me to come over here so I could be safe.” We went next door to see what was happening. No one was home so we returned to our house. Hours later he saw his dad walking down the street and he ran to him. His dad listened to his son, looked up at us, and gave us a world-weary wave. The child’s mother has not returned. Understandably, the child does not smile very often now. So it is great to see him beaming when he comes over to build things with his favorite big pal Paul, one of our interns. — One afternoon, as we were leaving, a little girl came to the gate from across the street. “When you come home can we do that thing when everyone sits at the table real quiet and sings and we all get a cup and napkin?” That “thing” is snack time. Her little face is so hopeful. It is little enough to ask. — We wish to thank you for making it possible to say yes to so many faces filled with hope, so many faces with a trace of hope beginning to return.

From the 2002 newsletter

Because most of our parents read either not at all or minimally, the children were at a high risk of illiteracy. Usually the children’s homes did not contain a single book. The Sophia classrooms had many good quality books. The teachers and interns told the children stories and often read to them.

Our children lived in dangerous neighborhoods. Their dream life was full of violent images and nightmares. Many of the children were afraid to go to sleep at night and even, initially, at naptime. Eventually, naptime at Sophia Project became a comforting time. Each child had his or her own nap cot (or crib for the Myrtle House children). Each child had his or her own blanket and a handmade quilt which they took with them when they left the daily program. Each was read a story and had their back gently rubbed as they drifted off to sleep to the sound of singing or the lyre. Every coworker was needed at naptime!

All programs were created to meet the specific needs of each child. The infants and toddlers, for example, each had their own

individualized rhythm. While usually participating in some part of the day in a small group, each infant and toddler had both a primary and secondary caregiver to ensure protection of their privacy and consistent, sustained relationships, vital to healthy early development.

The children were very generous with one another. At a birthday celebration they delighted in choosing a gift to give to their friend and clapped enthusiastically as each gift was opened. As the program nurtured their inner and outer being, each one came more fully to life. Hesitantly at first, and then with great enthusiasm, they began to experience nature and use their imagination for deep and wonderful play. Each child found their way into the joy of life in unique ways. It was the work of the teachers and all the coworkers to assist them in finding their way and supporting their development. By drawing upon the curative work and the deep aspects of the early childhood work, and by long hours of study, reading, meeting, and contemplative work, the staff developed an understanding of each child and a plan for his or her development. By the time the children left the daily program they had acquired age appropriate development and were enthusiastically engaged with life and, as attested to by many teachers and neighbors, truly able to bring light and joy into their new environments.

Carol Cole (carolfrancescole@gmail.com) co-founded and directs Sophia Project. Robert McDermott (rmcdermott@ciis.edu) is board chair of Sophia Project and president emeritus of the California Institute for Integral Studies.

InPower by River E.

Parker

“The new generation should not just be made to become what society wants it to become...Our highest endeavor must be to develop free human beings who are able to impart purpose and direction to their lives.” —

Rudolf Steiner

In a time inundated with external stimuli—computers, smart phones, movies, billboards, advertisements, and social media sites—the voices and minds of the younger generation are rapidly losing space for our own ideas and words to shine. Expectations of popularity and social networking pressure individuals to create online “personalities,” supposed representations of the self, to be easily accessible to any potential friend, boss, or partner. But what is lost when our previously robust, dynamic, strong voices and creative, engaging, tangible persons are reduced to two-dimensional, fabricated renditions of a human being?

At InPower this June, we will focus on our abilities to access, hear, and act from a truly human area in ourselves, one freed from the information flooding in on us from all sides. It is not easy to block out the sources of all this information, but with practice and intention it is possible to regain a sense of ourselves and our thoughts. InPower is a conference for young people to forge leadership capacities through developing clear voices for spiritual evolution. Over the course of this conference, we will engage with ideas that originate in the spiritual world and work to build capacities so these truths can speak through our individual voices and activities in the world. This event will be co-sponsored by the Christian Community and Threefold Education Foundation. Many questions are being asked about the younger generation, where we are and what we are doing. InPower is one of many opportunities for the younger generation to

gather and build capacities together for creating a world we stand behind.

From June 24-28, 2014, young adults will gather in Spring Valley, NY to exercise our gifts in three particular areas of self-development: Hearing the Still, Small Voice ; Speaking with the Authority of Truth; and Becoming Courageous. Through work with Richard Dancey, Shelley Tochluk, and Rodrigo Ventre, participants will dive into questions and conversations about how individuals can exercise their inner and outer voices and be heard in society.

This conference is important for expanding the unique, powerful, bright voices of the younger generation. It is also important because of the way we’re fundraising. The economic conversation still always feels like a burden, but we want it to be new. With our fundraising model, we will broaden the accessibility of this conference to the younger generation, as they are finding their way in the world, but may not have the means to attend. Our wish is for money not to deter an individual from coming. How does this work? A beautiful rejuvenation of the importance of community is arising in Community Supported Agriculture, Community Supported Kitchens, etc. This approach is simple in its efficacy and brilliant in its intention. Drawing from these models, the InPower organizing team was inspired to implement Community Supported Conferences, a new way to finance conferences and make them more widely accessible.

Our rough budget is $45,000, subject to change. With ideally 100 participants and a registration fee of $350/person, this leaves about $10,000 to be raised beyond registration cost. As fundraising goes, that is a reachable number. Here’s the twist. Rather than expecting each participant to come up with $350 on their

own, potentially limiting some individuals from attending, we are facilitating a movement in crowdfunding. Not familiar with crowdfunding?

Platforms such as Kickstarter, CrowdRise, and IndieGoGo are examples of crowdfunding sites, designed to support individuals in realizing artistic, community-oriented, entrepreneurial, and other initiatives. This happens by many people donating small amounts, rather than a few people donating large amounts. The InPower team is currently in the process of finding the perfect crowdfunding platform to meet our needs.

Consider all the ways in which money can speak. Every time we buy clothing we say with our money, “I support this product and the company that makes it.” When we buy music, paintings, and photographs, we say, “I like this art.” When we buy food, we say, “I agree with the way in which this food is produced.” Keep in mind, we may not actually be saying these things with our mouths, but what we say with our money speaks louder than our words, at least as far as supporting the existing paradigm goes. We, the members of the organizing team, are opening the opportunity for people to support InPower because we believe in putting our money where our mouth is. We believe young adult conferences like InPower should not be prohibitive because of cost, but open and welcoming to many because of the community that stands behind it. Don’t give to InPower because it’s just another fundraiser. Give because you believe InPower is an important destination for the younger generation and you want to be part of making it possible for someone or a few someones to be part of this exciting opportunity.

To find out more about InPower, visit www.facebook.com/2014inpower

To register for InPower, visit www.inpower2014.eventbrite.com And please keep your eyes peeled for info on supporting InPower through crowdfunding!

River Parker (riverfarmsrealfood@gmail.com) is a biodynamic farmer, avid reader, and inquisitive writer. She is a member of the North American Youth Section, involved in work with the Finance Committee and youth conference planning over the past few years.

How To Be Super!

by River E. Parker

As children, our superpowers remain intact. We can fly, see fairies, read every book in the world, and paint pictures that come alive, until a point in time when we are told these powers are only in our imaginations. If you consider what it means to be super, you too will know that in adulthood we still have our superpowers. To see for yourself, here’s what you have to do: Open your eyes. Believe it. Do something brave. Tell no one.

On a Friday evening in Charlotte, VT, two dozen superheroes materialized before my eyes. I knew a magical weekend was ahead of me. The event, a youth conference called “How To Be Super,” was organized and facilitated by members of the Youth Section, the Green Mountain Branch of the Society, and friends from Heartbeet Lifesharing Community. Thanks to 18-month-old Evan, 14-year-old Zak, and Kaylin and Patrick’s almost-born child, we had the pleasure of seeing and interacting with powers that we have mostly lost touch with in adulthood. Want to know how you are super? Come with me on a journey toward Superhero-dom.

Open Your Eyes

Our first step together took us to our childhood, before limitations and labels, before the veil of skepticism fell before our eyes. With our young super-powered participants as inspiration, we shared stories from our superhero days, traveling back to a time before we stopped believing in our powers. In stories ranging from building faerie towns to loving unconditionally to changing color, we remembered when what we saw, heard, smelled, or touched was real, regardless of whether others sensed it or not. At this gathering, we encouraged each other to believe in what we do not see, to know it is as real as the falling snow or blooming flower. We began pulling back the veil, striving to see the world again without limitations.

Believe It

Searching for the source of our superpowers, we looked deeply into ourselves, our heredity, and our karmic streams through the lens of biography work and the temperaments. Practicing deep interest and radical compassion, we exercised inward flexibility and openness, allowing our inner dialogues to become free of judgments.

“Don’t judge the judgments. Let them come and roll right off you, like water off an oily surface,” Seneca encouraged us. In judgment, we cannot believe.

Do Something Brave

If you believe you are super, you are already committing an act of bravery. Use your powers and bring them into your everyday. To practice inciting our bravery, a fellow superhero led us on a journey using one of his powers: storytelling. With David as our guide, we stepped into the role of storyteller, preparing our senses and our minds to be vulnerable, thus freeing our powers to move actively through us. “At its core, conscious storytelling is casting spells,” says David. With open minds and hearts, any of us can make magic.

Tell No One

A superhero who uses her powers for the betterment of herself alone is known as a rogue. To be a true superhero, you must have the right reasons for using your powers. In Vermont, only true superheroes showed up, no rogues. Each individual meeting in that candle-lit classroom, safe from the swiftly falling snow, was verily brimming with superpowers. We never boasted about our powers. We supported, listened, and urged our fellow heroes into the realization of our powers. The heroes I met? They are modern-day superheroes, just as modest and well-hidden as the ones we read about in comic books and fairy tales, not visible to the unsearching eye, but always waiting, peeking around the corner, watching out the window, ready to swoop to your aid at a moment’s notice.

“This was an amazing weekend, packed with creativity, warmth, lively conversation, and learning. As I drove back home in a New England snow storm I was filled with optimism for our future. We simply need to connect more with like-minded people and support the forces of change that are wanting to become manifest in the world.” —

Torin Finser

“I left Charlotte feeling empowered, uplifted, and awake. Weeks later, I’m still walking around with eyes and ears wide open, ready for any stories that come my way. The four steps toward how to be super left this beautiful process alive in me, and the conference left me thinking I had a whole batch of new friends and an ever-growing support network. I so look forward to upcoming youth section meetings.”

— Amber Dahlin

IN THIS SECTION:

Eugene Schwartz writes reviews as well as he lectures, and he finds a new font of inspiration, for art and for teaching, in the latest book of artist and teacher Van James. Artist Deborah Lothrop works out of the Steinerand Goethe-exploring insights about color, light, and darkness of Liane Collot d’Herbois. Her short note awakens the vibrant threshold between art and science. Maria Ver Eecke shares experiences of participating in Rudolf Steiner’s mystery dramas, much on our minds with a festival of all four plays coming in August.

Herbert O. Hagens provides a guide to working with Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul in the year ahead, fitting 52 verses into 50 weeks from Easter to Easter 2014-2015.

Joseph Rubano reports on biography work, specifically on how Steiner’s Foundation Stone Mantra comes to life. And we recall the great poetry of Daisy Aldan, inspired by a French cathedral.

Drawing with Hand, Head, and Heart A review

by Eugene Schwartz

Drawing with Hand, Head, and Heart: A Natural Approach to Learning the Art of Drawing, by Van James; Steiner Books, 2013; 312 pages, 576 illustrations in color and black & white

During the course of my thirty-five years as a Waldorf consultant, I have observed hundreds of class teachers at work. Most were trained Waldorf practitioners, and a good number were experienced, capable teachers who were comfortable with the Waldorf curriculum and methodology. Yet out of those hundreds, fewer than fifty were at all confident about their own drawing skills, and only half of those fifty were self-assured about teaching drawing to their students. As many young teachers have told me, their art instructors at the training centers were hard-pressed to even begin awakening an artistic sensibility in trainees who had never drawn, painted, or sculpted before—no less to turn these trainees into artists who could then teach children how to draw, paint, and sculpt.

The more I visit Waldorf classrooms, the more I have witnessed a decline in the drawing standards set by teachers, which has, in time, lowered the expectations of entire schools. Most children in most Waldorf classes are not given enough guidance in the primary grades, and— paradoxically—they are not given enough creative freedom in the middle and upper grades. Fewer and fewer students are progressing much beyond a fourth grade level of drawing—the age at which a child’s inborn artistic gifts fade—because their teachers do not know how to take them to the next step. When combined with ever-greater pressure from parents (via school administrators) to focus more on academic subjects and less on “pretty pictures,” the ongoing decline of drawing in the Waldorf school seems inevitable.

But lest we forget: “Teachers should love art so much that they do not want this experience to be lost to children,” Rudolf Steiner said in 1923. “...When children engage in [art] they feel their inner nature uplifted to the ideal plane. They acquire a second level of humanity alongside the first.”

Those words are among the scores of inspiring quotes by Steiner and others to be found in the remarkable new book by Van James, Drawing with the Hand, Head, and Heart. Just when all seems so muddled in the realm of Waldorf drawing, James has created a volume that (as its title would suggest) brings a wealth of technical advice concerning the Hand’s role in drawing, clarity and common sense about the “why” of drawing that speaks to the Head, and an abundance of work by children, student teachers, and accomplished artists that touches the “emotional intelligence” of the Heart.

In compiling such a book, James has set himself a daunting task. In only 300 pages, he has actually created two books: the first

is a drawing manual specifically for teachers, and the second is an instruction manual for anyone learning to draw.

It is a testament to James’ organizational skills that the volume never feels like two manuals that have been cobbled together. The sections complement one another, and, in fact, the reader can begin with either Part One or Part Two; James’ creative cross-referencing will invariably draw you to want to read the other section, as well.

Part One is at once an exemplary collection of Waldorf student art from the N/K through Grade Twelve, a clear description of the Waldorf curriculum in those grades, a concise overview of the child’s psychological and physiological development from birth to age eighteen, and a guide to teaching children to draw. From the outset, James indicates that he will be showing student work that is mostly “middle range,” an approach that is meant to be unintimidating for teachers and children alike (almost all of the work is well-done, and all of it is impressive). It would be easy enough to present these four streams in a formulaic manner, but James’ penetration of his material never lapses into pedantry, and he moves with grace from the scholarly to the artistic, from psychology to pedagogy.

Before we are drawn into the specifics of the grades, however, James takes up work with the young child in a chapter entitled “Growing the Picture,” which I would urge any and all class teachers to read; indeed, this section alone is worth the price of the book. Under headings such as “Straight and Curved Lines,” “Blackboard Drawing,” “Visual Intelligence,” etc., James goes to the heart of any number of issues that have, over the years, grown stale, dogmatic, steeped in controversy, or ignored— and sometimes all of the above. Among the questions that James approaches in his straightforward way are: How often should new blackboard drawings appear? Block or stick crayons for younger children? What about black crayons? When are pencils appropriate? What about “slant drawing”? Should children draw with the right hand only?

James cites the many points

of view that have attached themselves to all of these issues, acknowledges their virtues, and usually concludes with a surprising quote from Rudolf Steiner that is probably the opposite of what generations of mentors may have claimed that “Steiner said.” I have watched scores of teachers agonizing over some, or all of these issues, and I wish that James’ dispassionate and reasonable answers had been available to them then, as they are now.

Countless blackboard drawings by Van James himself lay out the simple and systematic “growing” of the picture that characterizes his approach. These, in turn, lead to examples of teacher-drawn blackboard art and student work that emphasize the variety of children’s responses elicited by the teacher’s model. This threefold interplay of 1) the steps the teacher can take to create a drawing, 2) the steps taken by the children as they imitate their teacher, and 3) the actual results on the blackboard and main lesson book page makes James’ book exceptionally helpful for the novice Waldorf instructor.

With each succeeding grade, James’ text ranges more broadly over and deeply into the growing complexity of the subject matter. His discussion of Grade Four, for instance, leads James to an insightful and practical digression on Geography and map-making that brings to light the artistic and cognitive value of this often neglected skill. As he leads the reader through the challenges of puberty in Grade Six, James takes the time and space necessary to reveal the important role played by Geometry as it melds drawing and mathematics, balancing the subjective and objective forces of the twelve-year-old. “Euclid alone has looked on beauty bare...”

James is so at home in the Waldorf curriculum that he rarely touches upon any subject in any single grade without being able to cross-reference its recurrence or metamorphosis in a number of other grades. Like all Waldorf practitioners, James is emphatic about the primacy of process over product, but this is that rare book whose narrative flow and “theme and variations” structure actually

allow the reader to experience a process-driven approach to education.

In “A New Perspective,” James’ survey of the Waldorf High School, many of the pages overflow with the vitality and complexity of the high schoolers’ work. Now we see how the deceptively simple exercises of “growing the picture” and the austere structures of Form Drawing have laid a foundation for self-expression and creativity on the one hand and dispassionate observation and objectivity on the other. In these High School sections James’ style changes as we are led into stimulating discussions of, among other things, color theory, the principle of metamorphosis, and the dynamic relationship of the ever-changing currents of modern art to the soul and spirit of the adolescent. Throughout this section we can sense that we are in the presence of a master teacher who leads his high school students through the example of his own openness to the world and his artistic sensibility.

In the second “book” within this book, “Drawing for Students/Artists of All Ages,” James once again works with all of the elements he approached in Part One, e.g., “growing the picture,” Form Drawing, portraiture, color and line, etc. In Part One, these elements served as vehicles through which the teacher could begin to awaken the artistic capacities of the child. In Part Two, James reveals that these elements are double-edged swords, capable of awakening very different capacities in the adult. An anecdote shared by the author illuminates the wisdom of this approach: James describes a portraiture workshop he once gave at an international arts conference:

...a German architect taking part in the class grew impatient with having to do the childlike drawing exercises that we started with on the first day. He complained that he was an adult professional and wanted to draw like an adult professional and so he dropped out of the class.

At the week’s end, the architect is astonished at the quality of “advanced portraits” created by workshop participants. James comments:

...It is just this process of going through the developmental stages of portraiture that can provide the background and resources for entering into and unfolding the ability to capture something of the essence of the adult professional portrait. (p 265)

James’ phrase: “this process of going through the developmental stages” could serve as the motto of his book. The child goes forward through these stages; the adult must swim in a different current of time and replay the stages in reverse. In this respect, Part One concerns itself with artistic activity as a means of helping the child to incarnate, while Part Two presents the same activity as a path through which the adult can healthily excarnate, i.e., spiritualize her relationship to the sensory world. The effect of this book, in its entirety, is to help us breathe. Anyone familiar with Van James’ earlier books, particularly The Secret Language of Form and Spirit and Art, will know that he draws not only on a deep store of anthroposophical knowledge, but also on the insights gleaned from a wide range of hierophants, artists, philosophers, and contemporary scholars. The same eclectic spirit pervades this book, and it is one of its most salient features. This book appears at a time in which many anthroposophical writers are urging that we “de-historicize” Rudolf Steiner and stress the unique spiritual inspiration of his ideas, eliding their connection to the times in which he lived and taught. Although Steiner quotes play a central role in this book, as befits a volume so interwoven with Waldorf education, James’ scholarly integrity necessitates an approach that is heterogeneous rather than hagiographic. The lapidary quotes that begin chapters and embellish sidebars are drawn from a rich store of perennial, and not exclusively anthroposophical, wisdom. Rarely is Rudolf Steiner quoted in a vacuum; the artists and psychologists, scholars and teachers whose words appear alongside those of Steiner allow for healthy contextualization and conversation —qualities that in no way diminish Steiner’s insights but rather serve to strengthen our convictions about Waldorf methodology. Van James’ ease in hosting this meeting of minds and hearts belies the courage

it takes to bring anthroposophy to the world—and to bring the world to anthroposophy.

Apart from the sterling quality of the art work and the clarity of the art instruction, it is the eclecticism and true modernity of this book that places it head and shoulders above the many specialized guides to Waldorf art education that have preceded it. I would go so far as to say that this could be a real “breakthrough” volume, one that could reach an audience exponentially larger than most books arising out of anthroposophical inspiration. There is nothing in this book that should prevent it from appearing in art museum and university bookstores, in the libraries of art schools, and even on the display racks of art supply stores, rotating right alongside the wonderful Walter Foster “how to draw” books.

However, there is an obstacle to the level of growth and success that this book merits, and it rests not with the author, but with the publisher. As I have noted several times above, even the “medium-range” student work that appears throughout this book is interesting and often beautiful, while the work of stronger students is worthy of studious perusal. The many instructional drawings that Van James has contributed form a no-less valuable guide and accompaniment to the text. But, as they say, “God lives in the details,” and the details are too often what are missing from James’ book. The all-important drawings in which the author meticulously takes us step-by-step through an artistic process are often hard to follow— even with a magnifying glass—because of their minuscule level of detail.

To do justice to the quality and size of the artwork the publisher would have to produce a book that is three or four times the length of this already substantial (300 page) volume. Unfortunately, it is very expensive to print colored images in a bound book, and even the outsourcing of this volume to a Chinese printing house can only mitigate, but not solve this problem. Fortunately,

in the year 2013 there is a solution, one that is widely available and utilized by publishers worldwide—including James’ publisher, SteinerBooks. That solution is digitalization. Make all of the book’s illustrations available in digital form, either on a CD that is sold with the book or on a dedicated website whose password is made available only to those who purchase the book. This would make it possible for readers to view every illustration full-size on the screen of a computer or mobile device (and even an iPhone screen could provide greater detail than is generally found in this book). SteinerBooks already has a substantial number of its Rudolf Steiner volumes available as eBooks via Amazon and the Apple iBooks Library; why can’t the same be done for Van James’ important work?

A second “value-adding” suggestion is that Van James create a number of short videos in which he demonstrates such basic techniques as “growing a picture,” working with Form Drawing, applying pastels, etc. Waldorf teachers (among many others) are hungry for the kind of simple, confident, and thoroughly artistic instruction that James so uniquely can bring—and he can only visit a finite number of schools and training centers in the course of any year. To take the digitalization process one step further, the entire book could be re-envisioned as an eBook that in itself incorporates both large-scale illustrations as well as instructional videos.

But so much for the future. In its paper form, this remarkable book is available now, a gift to the hundreds of Waldorf schools opening their doors worldwide, and a boon to anyone seeking to reawaken or hone their artistic capacities. I recommend it highly.

Eugene Schwartz, a graduate of Columbia University, has worked with all stages of life, from the young child to the elderly and the dying. He now works worldwide as an educational consultant and lecturer and serves as a Fellow of the Research Institute for Waldorf Education. For more on his work see www.millennialchild.com

Truth and Color

by Deborah Lothrop

The book, Light, Darkness and Colour in PaintingTherapy, by Liane Collot d’Herbois begins with a remarkable statement of purpose which can be easily overlooked in the initial rush for intellectual gratification. She says:

When I was young and studied painting I heard many different things about how one was supposed to paint… I thought that there ought to be something that people could have in common. The fact that colors exist is an objective truth but people paint them in many different, subjective ways.

It is important to know that the socalled “therapy” book was not actually written by Collot. Instead, it is transcriptions of her courses for doctors and therapists and has been edited. Some of her remarks are in response to specific questions. Some are more general. However, that first sentence resounds throughout the therapy book as well as her other book, Colour, and expresses her perspective on both color and the human organism.

How do we paint, do anything artistic, following rules? If we carefully examine the physical world around us, we find ourselves surrounded by rules. Goethe dedicated many years of his life to describing the rules. When we practice observation, we are quite simply looking for the rules. The human being in ill-health has fallen away from the rules. Currently, our planet is falling away from the rules, the natural order, the breathing ecological balance.

How do we know what are the rules? We study what is outside of us, watching from the inside. We look out through the windows. The separation lends objectivity,

as much as possible. We study what is inside us, watching from the outside, from a place we can inhabit once we begin to know it, peering in through the windows.

The I longs to be on the earth; only then can an individual take up his karma. The soul may not long for the earth, but the I develops a yearning, an idea, an ideal; and then, like a fruit that is ripe, it begins its journey earthward, gathering astral substance as it descends. In concert with living forces, matter is laid down, veil upon living veil, gradually increasing in complexity, myriad variations on the enormous central theme of the human being. With what love the I plunges into matter. With what love do the spiritual beings witness. Do they think, in some angelic way, “Maybe this will be one who will be able to fully share all it is to descend into matter?”

There is a turning point. Embryonic development involves the meeting of pure, undifferentiated living material with an idea, a human being, all-at-the-same-time. The non-material gathers further, less-rarified non-material as it moves towards incarnation. At physical conception, what is material gradually becomes a chalice, bearing the possibility of repeated birth of higher members, like an opening flower, spirit borne by matter. The approach to painting developed by Liane Collot d’Herbois is a means by which one can observe this meeting of the material and the spiritual in the human individual, in oneself, in the other. One may find another way to experience the meeting of the earth and the cosmos, of day and night, of inbreath and outbreath, of systole and diastole, in life-filled movement.

Deborah Lothrop ( lcdinmaine@hotmail.com) is a graduate of the Formation Thérapeutique Lumière-Ténèbres-Couleur, Paris, France, and is fully certified by the Medical Section of the School for Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum as a practitioner of Light Darkness Color Therapeutic Painting.

Liane Collot d’Herbois Easter, by Liane Collot d’Herbois

Performing as Actors and Eurythmists in the Mystery Dramas

by Maria Ver Eecke

Working on the Mystery Dramas is a bit like an active participation in Karmic Relationships, a Who’s Who of many characters in relationship to each other and to different life times! Rudolf Steiner’s depictions of human karma and life’s challenges come alive with these characters. And then there are the soul and spiritual beings to represent, which is best done in eurythmy. Rudolf Steiner portrays these as pure, living archetypes, who speak a spiritual truth:

“Neither the spiritual and soul events nor the spirit beings are intended to be mere symbols or allegories. To anyone interpreting them as such, the real character and being of the spirit world will remain closed.”

— Rudolf Steiner, The Souls’ Awakening, August 1913

Listening to the dialogue of the many human characters in their very human encounters with each other, trying to follow such deep content, and being a witness to what comes to life dramatically on stage, is an intense activity for the audience. Eurythmy enhances the experience, lifting, breathing, moving those who behold it. In the Mystery Drama productions I have seen, when eurythmists move onstage, the eurythmy creates breath for my feeling. It is the best way I can think to express it. What impresses me most in being a part of these productions of the Threefold Mystery Drama Group is how Director Barbara Renold leaves one free to find one’s character. She knows the dramas so very well, having seen them for the first time at the impressionable age of 18 at the Goetheanum. Actors and eurythmists alike have long discussions as to the development of these characters. Questions are asked as to how a spiritual entity appears for the first time, in a landscape or out of an individual’s imagination? As archetypes, are they only two-dimensional imaginations, “active as soul,” when first perceived? How do these great spiritual beings progress through the plays? What is their development, especially in relation

to the humans who actually see (or hear) them and then come to know them?

How is it possible that Maria can conquer Ahriman, but Lucifer continues to battle it out, with more unexpected tricks? And what a mighty battle it is! Professor Capesius loses his mind due to the Luciferic tendency; Maria leaves her body following her loved one and curses her teacher Benedictus; the artist Johannes Thomasius (his very name is an indication of his double nature, knowing, yet doubting) is foiled by his double who desires the seeress Theodora, which results in her death; Doctor Strader visits Ahriman’s Kingdom and later faces his own abyss. (This is a common theme, how does one face one’s own abyss?) Not only does Johannes meet and recognize his double, but he encounters the Spirit of his Youth, as well, “…a karmically enchanted part of his being that he has to liberate from its spellbound existence.” How comforting it is to read that “…Benedictus should not be considered as merely standing above his students, but as interwoven with his own soul destiny in the inner experiences of his students.”

Thankfully the retrospects give us something out of history to hold onto, scenes in Medieval and Egyptian ages. And then the twelve peasants reincarnate in the next play, appearing as spiritual entities, as ‘realities’ in Ahriman’s Kingdom. We witness how this Prince of Darkness influences our business meetings, mostly unconsciously, of course. Temple scenes of the Occult Brotherhood may be on or in the earth, hidden as a mystery place. Realms of Sun and Saturn spheres appear as spiritual tableau.

How are we able to attempt to portray such lofty imaginations? As the players come to know their characters, we invite them onto the stage and step into the roles, with intention. The demands on one’s personal self (even one’s health) would be great, if we did not then take leave of these characters after the play. It is intense, to say the least. And yet, it is with great joy we create the plays together, as we play our parts. It is all about the How. That is the Art. And it is real. When Barbara came backstage (after the second play) to tell me, “Maria, that was the direction to go—only ten times greater—for Lucifer in his kingdom” (in the third play), I was thrown back on myself, suddenly it was just me, a mere mortal, deflated

Maria Ver Eecke performing in a Mystery Drama

from the largeness of playing an other-worldly spiritual force. Barbara always asks her players for more, stretching us far beyond the comfort zone.

To further live into the part, we have fun calling each other by our stage names (Call me Luci; Lory answers to Maria , my real name; I no longer notice when it is called). Stepping into character becomes real, no matter how grand, how huge, or how incomprehensible, because a true archetype stands behind you or plays through you, as though demanding to be realized. The soul forces are best portrayed in eurythmy: Astrid, as thinking; Philia, as feeling; Luna, as will; the Other Philia, a cohort of Lucifer’s, who hinders our ability to unite with the cosmos. What is new, is that eurythmists are playing Lucifer and Ahriman (since the fourth play) and we are reworking this into the previous plays, as well. I cannot imagine how we could present ‘thought-forms’ without eurythmy! And elemental beings, gnomes and sylphs. Thankfully, Rudolf Steiner created eurythmy forms for many of the scenes. And we are so blessed to have Dorothea Mier present at many rehearsals giving her expert advice, with an untiring dedication to artistry, to eurythmy. Last fall, Dorothea gave six well-attended sessions open to the public on an “Exploration of Eurythmy in the Mystery Dramas.”

This is indeed (and in deeds) a labor of love; the Mystery Drama is the catalyst. It is amazing to witness this group of actors developing their roles over the four plays. Some are professional actors; most of us rehearse in our free time amidst a fullwork schedule. Some cast members travel from other countries to join the summer productions. We are fortunate to have many glorious costumes created by Anne Bingham. Lighting by Matthew Messner and music directed by Laura Langford Schnur add the magic! [You

can hear some of the music, along with an interesting interview of Laura about creating music for the dramas, posted on YouTube. Other actors and friends contribute to the question: How do young people find their destiny?]

Yes, we are working throughout this year to do the impossible, to prepare all four Mystery Dramas for production next summer. It takes great courage and insight to lead us, as Barbara is able and willing to do; Barbara lives these plays. It would not be possible without the support from anonymous donors and the Threefold Educational Foundation. Green Meadow Waldorf School’s new air conditioned auditorium, Rose Hall, provides the perfect venue with comfortable seating and temperature. Suggestions may be honored, from those who wish to view the productions more than once, in open dress rehearsals to the public. And from the cast: We hope to see you there!

Mystery Dramas

In closing, what makes the plays seems so revolutionary, is that karma is resolved and these examples of human beings face and stand up to the adversarial forces. And most importantly, as seekers of spiritual truth, can one aspire to Maria’s “holy, solemn vow” to be loyal to the light? Maria and Benedictus speak the name of Christ three times in the last scene of the third play, The Guardian of the Threshold. Her statement is in the Pauline sense: “Not I, but Christ lives in my life and being.” This is followed by Benedictus acknowledging Earth’s salvation as “… Christ will warmingly shine forth a spirit sense of love in wisdom’s hallowed place.” And thirdly, Christ is named as the dissolver of karmic blood-ties.

August 8-17

It seems apparent that the Mystery Dramas must be close to Rudolf Steiner’s heart. When laying the Foundation Stone for the Goetheanum, as part of his speech for the festive occasion, he speaks of the unconscious fear of the Spirit

A Festival & Performance

Registration is open at www.threefold.org for the Threefold Mystery Drama Group’s festival and conference co-sponsored by the Anthroposophical Society in America, performing Rudolf Steiner’s four mystery dramas in English and exploring the future of the anthroposophical movement.

“buried in the human soul” by the forces of darkness. And then, he includes the last lines of Benedictus, who remains standing alone on stage in the closing scene from the fourth play, The Souls’ Awakening. In The Gospel of Knowledge and its Prayer: The Laying of the Foundation Stone, Rudolf Steiner speaks the words of Benedictus (here in italics): “Feel this, and you will be able to arm yourselves for your spiritual task and as revealers of the Spirit-Light will prove endowed with power of thought, at such times, too, when the fierce, dark Ahriman, suppressing wisdom, attempts to spread Chaos’ gloomy night over fullyawakened spiritual sight.”

It has been an amazing experience for me to work on these dramas over the past seven years, learning to know them more deeply: actually living anthroposophy. It has been an honor to work with the artists drawn to this work. Many of the twenty-three actors, eleven eurythmists, six musicians, and lighting technician, who came together for this play last summer, expressed that it is a most harmonious experience. Rehearsals continue this year, our goal set on the festival next August, presenting all four dramas together, with the greatest anticipation!

Maria Ver Eecke (editor@eana.org ) is a eurythmist and editor for the Eurythmy Association of North America (www.eana.org ) and for the Association for Therapeutic Eurythmy in North America (www.therapeuticeurythmy.org ).

Mystery Drama Notes

by John Beck

Conceived as a series of seven, four of Rudolf Steiner’s mystery dramas were performed in August, in Munich, from 1910 to 1913. In 2012 Karl Frederickson, long-time Waldorf history teacher and mystery drama performer in an earlier round, shared this description with Threefold Mystery Drama Group director Barbara Renold.

August 20 1912 in Munich 800 people from many nations gathered to watch the cycle of the first three Mystery Dramas, which took place over the ensuing four days. Gunther Wachsmuth cites a report of that time which stated, “Probably never before has it happened, as on August 24, that a worldly place of entertainment such as the Gartnerplatz Theater was emptied of its audience in such complete silence.” Wachsmuth goes on to give his account of the significance of this event: “Once more it is astonishing to observe how a group of persons relatively so small succeeded in releasing themselves from their ordinary occupations and duties for a brief

time in order to devote themselves during this festival period with all the powers of soul and will to an activity of such an utterly different character: an extraordinary contribution in concentration, will power, and unselfishness in order that this work of art might be presented in its objective greatness.… Just as true meditation is effective only when it has to be gained with difficulty for a few moments of the day from the utterly unlike duties of daily life, but then fills a reservoir of forces from which can always be drawn, so also such an event as that of the presentation of these Mysteries, brought about through the will power of persons schooled for this, will become a practice in meditation and concentration at a higher level and intensified, which fortifies the inner sources of strength in those participating and those experiencing the undertaking. And the knowledge of the Guardian of the Threshold, awakened in these Mystery Dramas, renders so clear the way upon which once must enter, its dangers and hindrances, that the person thus aroused and armed goes forward differently into the battle of life.” (Guenther Wachsmuth, The Life and Work of Rudolf Steiner, p. 178)

The fifth drama would have come in August 1914, but that month became infamous in another way when Europe’s leaders failed to prevent a slide into The Great War. In the extraordinary cultural vortex of the previous decades, Rudolf Steiner’s work rose like a scaffolding for a global cultural breakthrough. Europe had conquered the world, unexpectedly, over the previous four centuries, and had finally begun to appreciate and integrate the ancient and traditional cultures it supplanted and largely destroyed. The wealth of trade and industry had allowed for a great increase in cultural work among Europeans. An astonishing group of artists, scientists, and thinkers were reaching toward new goals.

But the war was fought for wealth and power and imperial advantage. “World karma” seems a fitting phrase, seeing that supreme Europe, unleashing terrible destruction in its own heartlands in pursuit of unworthy goals, should now substantially destroy its own cultural legacy and authority and confidence, so that cultural leadership would pass to the wings, Russia and America.

So in August 1914 “another drama was in production” and Rudolf Steiner wrote no fifth mystery play. How fitting that in 2014 we have the August festival to look forward to at Threefold Educational Center, as well as an initiative to bring forth that fifth drama in the near future, as described by Marke Levene in our summer 2013 issue.

Calendar of the Soul

Dates: Easter 2014 to Easter 2015

by Herbert

O. Hagens

April 20, 2014: #1 Easter Mood

April 27: #2

May 4: #3

May 11: #4

May 18: # 5 Light from Spirit Depths

May 25: # 6

June 1: #7 Luciferic Temptation

June 8: verses # 8/9 Whitsun

June 15: verses # 10/11

June 22: # 12 St. John’s Mood

June 29: #13

July 6: # 14

July 13: #15

July 20: #16

July 27: #17

Aug. 3: #18

Aug. 10: #19

Aug. 17: #20 Luciferic Temptation

Aug. 24: #21

Aug. 31: # 22 Light from Cosmic Widths

Sept. 7: #23

Sept. 14: #24

Sept. 21: #25

Oct. 5: # 27

Oct. 12: #28

Oct. 19: #29

Oct. 26: # 30

Nov. 2: #31 Light from Spirit Depths

Nov. 9: #32

Nov: 16: #33: Ahrimanic Deception

Nov. 23: #34

Nov. 30: #35

Dec. 7: #36

Dec 14: #37

Dec. 21: #38 Christmas Mood

Dec. 28: #39

Jan. 4, 2015: #40 Epiphany

Jan. 11: # 41

Jan. 18: #42

Jan. 25: #43

Feb. 1: #44

Feb. 8: #45

Feb. 15: #46 Ahrimanic Deception

Feb. 22: #47

Mar. 1: #48 Light from Cosmic Heights

Mar. 8: #49

Mar. 15: #50

Mar. 22: #51

Sept. 28: #26: Michaelmas Mood Mar. 29: #52 Palm Sunday

April 5: #1 Easter Mood

Notes: Rudolf Steiner first published the 52 verses we know as the “Calendar of The Soul” in 1912. The adjusted dates listed here for 2014-2015 are intended as a guide for those who follow the practice of beginning a new verse on the Sunday of each week. In keeping with Rudolf Steiner’s instruction, we start with Verse 1 at Easter (April 20, 2014). This format matches the way in which the 52 verses appeared in the original 1912-13 edition and it adheres to the seven-day astral rhythm of the soul. In addition, this approach takes into account the seven preparatory verses (Lent) leading up to Easter, and the seven “mirror” verses that continue after Easter,

leading up to Whitsun.

There are only 50 weeks from Easter 2014 through to Easter 2015, but we have 52 verses. This calls for an adjustment, especially if we wish to keep in sync with the times of the major Christian festivals. The solution being proposed here is to double up certain verses between Whitsun and St. John’s. This results in working with two verses during the course of one week as we try to preserve the organic flow from one verse to the next.

The cosmic dating of Easter requires the meditant to reset the course through the Soul Calendar each year, since there are never exactly 52 weeks between one Easter and the next. It becomes an exercise in self-renewal as we trace all the subtle threads that weave in and out of these mantric-like verses. They become sign posts along the path of initiation.

Herbert O. Hagens ( hohagens@aol.com

) has lectured extensively on the Calendar of the Soul and other topics. He has been active for many years in Princeton, NJ, Group, and has served on the Eastern Region and General Councils of the Anthroposophical Society in America.

Seventh Worldwide Biography Conference

by Joseph Rubano

Since 1990 individuals dedicated to the development of biography work based on anthroposophic research have been meeting regularly. After meeting nine times, a rhythm of every two years was established in 2001 and the gathering began attracting biography counselors and biography workers from all over the world. It then began being called the Worldwide Biography Conference.

The conference is an opportunity for individuals engaged in biography work to meet colleagues from around the world to share questions and discoveries and to deepen their connection to the work by experiencing different methods and styles of working. Here friendships and collaborative relations are formed and strengthened and inspiration and support for the work is received.

In June 2013, the Seventh Worldwide Biography Conference was held at Emerson College in East Sussex, England. About 120 people came from 18 different countries; of eight of us from the States, all save one are connected with the Center for Biography and Social Art.

The theme of the conference was “I on the Thresh-

old” and the focus of our group work was the Foundation Stone Mantra. We worked with it in the whole group, heard it spoken in the different languages of all the people there, spoke it all together in English, moved it with Spacial Dynamic movements, and worked in smaller groups where the conversations could move more freely, open new windows, and yield fresh insights and understandings. On the last day Rinke Visser from Holland invited everyone to take the internal substance from our working together into the night and to listen for any echoes or after images which might arise in us the next morning. The following is what arose for me.

Some thoughts on the Foundation Stone

June 30, 2013

The Foundation Stone Meditation is a Spiritual Transmission given as a riddle, a koan. It is a transmission of the Enlightened Consciousness. It is a carrier of Enlightened Consciousness. Within the words and the rhythms of the words is the Enlightened Consciousness of the one who brought it. It is a gift from the Spiritual World given to a specific group of people, planting the seed of Enlightened Consciousness in their hearts.

It gives three gateways to the spirit—three gateways from individual consciousness to Cosmic Consciousness, from the separate, individual “I” organization, the sense of self, to an expanded sense of Self that is united to All. The Enlightened One has all three gateways open and therefore lives, senses, and thinks as the I Am for the good of all; the Will of God is done through him or her. This koan, the riddle of the Foundation Stone, was given to a community of people. It occurred to me this morning that perhaps the key to this riddle, the unlocking of the riddle was not meant to be done by any one person, and perhaps it cannot be. Perhaps it is the engaging with it by many people working together that can set something, some invisible substance, in motion in each of us that can create or reveal the necessary heart thinking understanding, heart thinking beingness that allows it to come alive in us.

The Foundation Stone is a living force that can live in us as we work with it, move it, feel it, think it. It works in us as a feeling sense below and above normal day Consciousness; it cannot be understood from normal day consciousness just as our intimate connection to each other cannot be understood in day consciousness. Just as we are most intimately connected in sleep, in the spiritual world, in the etheric world, so the spiritual forces imbedded in

the Foundation Stone work in us invisibly and are sensed as moving, life giving forces within us.

During the conference we all worked together in the large group and in smaller groups. We met, spoke together, thought together, sang, danced, moved, looked into each other’s eyes, embraced our own beauty, gave thanks for each other, created a space for each to be seen and heard. The Foundation Stone now for me, includes all of you—the sounds of your voices, the movement of your soul as you spoke. This was the revelation for me this morning—that it is our working together, it is how we live in each other, the love that moves between us that unlocks the essence of the Foundation Stone, that is the living essence of the Foundation Stone, because the Foundation Stone can only be understood by the Heart.

Perhaps it is Steiner’s Heart Sutra . It is not simply my heart that is opened, but Our Heart—the Heart of connection. Enlightened consciousness without the blossoming of love, without the lived connectedness of all of life, is impossible, makes no sense. The Elementals hear it, the Hierarchies know and carry it. The Human Beings have choice and the possibility, by working together, to hear, know and live it.

Because you cannot understand the Foundation Stone with normal day consciousness, one has to be changed, one has to be able to open to a softer, dreamier consciousness with a clarity of wakefulness—to be awake in the dream. When we find that our hearts are warmed, that we sense an inner light burning, that for a moment we experience a free clarity, a relaxed openness of being, a sort of emptiness where a fresh alive thought can come, a fullness and sense that I can do with confidence, that I must share this with others, that I am supported and held by many, then that is the radiation of the Foundation Stone, the seed of the Foundation Stone planted in our heart growing. Then the world rhythm can somehow be sensed in our breast, and we can know that we live in the heights and in the depths, that what we do and think matters, that we are co-creators with the gods, that we are weaving ourselves back into the world.

For more information on Biography and Social Art go to www.biographysocialart.org

Joseph Rubano ( josrubano@hotmail.com) is a Biographical Counselor certified by the Biography & Social Development Trust in Forest Row, England, a Spacial Dynamic movement educator certified by the Spacial Dynamics Institute in New York, and on the faculty of the Biography & Social Art Certificate Program at Sunbridge Institute and Threefold Educational Center, Chestnut Ridge, NY.

From Contemplations:

Columns in the Romanesque Cathedral of Autun

1.

Roots of trees are dragons from which the bark, drawn by light, ascends, bears branches, leaves, flowers, fruit, evolves to invisible being.

out of the invisible into the visible into the invisible.

2.

In human being, similar rhythms, directions, in inner process. Roots are barely joined to Earth: Through the breath the 'I' may thrust upward but only after infinite striving, the upright head, the haloed hair, and all enveloped in invisible being.

From invisible to visible to invisible.

Here is more difficult creation wrought in anguish, in conscious disciplined unwavering endurance at every moment a trial of the 'I' to transform weakness, fear, passion, pain, —the ravaging demons, into the light-filled vertical.

3.

Thus, dragons at the base of Romanesque columns: Then the thrust upward in rhythmic phases: leaves entwining demons human being angels columns crowned by the CHRIST.

Bodied forth struggle and insight in image.

All freedoms are wrung from confrontation with conflict which engraves itself on the physical: EN—GRAVE: having to do with death —and resurrection.

Daisy Aldan (1923-2001) was poet, teacher, translator, editor, anthroposophist, and more. In Passage was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Thinking of Easter, R.Z. Balchowsky submitted this poem by Daisy. Images are from the Cathedral at Autun, France; above, left and right, from “The Last Judgment,” and below, right, “Eve.”

Creating a Listening Space

by Maria ver Eecke

Christine Gruwez has written on the contemporary relevance of Manichaeism and she travels the world working with this theme in training centers and anthroposophical groups. Christine recently gave a workshop at Threefold Educational Center in Chestnut Ridge, NY. Beyond the presentation of Mani’s life and work and Manichean art was the remarkable manner in which Christine fosters a group process of holding questions. We are each invited to “place a question in the basket,” to voice a question and place it in the center of the circle. This is done out of a moment of “silence”—an active listening space which opens on the realm of inspiration. Then Christine leads us into an imagination out of the wisdom of anthroposophy.

Mani, prophet, artist, founder of communities and the gnostic stream Manichaeism, lived (216-274 A.D.) in the land of the ancient Persians (now Iran and Iraq). Rudolf Steiner describes this stream as important for the Cathars, the Templars, and modern-day Freemasonry. The Journal for Anthroposophy published a booklet, Mani and Service (Number 78, Spring 2008), as the act of selfless service has its roots in and flows out of the spiritual stream of Mani. One can find many references to Mani and Manichaeism in Steiner’s work, for example: “Mani is the one who prepares that stage in man’s soul development when he will seek for his own soulspirit light.” (Rudolf Steiner, Temple Legend, Lecture 6: Manichaeism, Berlin, November 11, 1904, GA93)

During the first session, one’s question had the weightiness of a burning life question. By the second or third session, the questions were more about understanding ideas and concepts of Manichaeism, through related anthroposophical content. Christine seemed to intuit when to share the Manichaean path of initiation, as relevant for our times, or the Creation Story, as told through Mani, and she gives us just enough time to process this, usually with more questions. This Socratic method of working together is quite liberating; one learns to value the act of questioning rather than relaxing into the comforting, satisfying ‘know-it-all’ mood of having the answers. Throughout life, holding a question allows the spirit to speak and, over time, the answers come on many different levels.

Christine has followed the history of Mani and his communities throughout the Far and Near East, from the Balkans to North Africa, Iran, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, along the Silk Road to Japan. Her book, Walking with Your Time: A Manichaean Journey, addresses the question of good and evil in our time. Her latest book, Meditations on Powerlessness, is being translated into English. Since 2012, Christine has been a member of the Council of the Anthroposophical Society in Belgium. Details on Christine’s next workshop at Threefold are online at www.threefold.org under Events or call 845-352-5020, ext. 18. Walking with Your Time: A Manichaean Journey is available at www.lulu.com

Towards More Humanity by Christiane Haid

In 1788, the German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder declared that the study of the humanities (the “beautiful sciences”) served to educate our minds and hearts “in the interest of humanness and humanity”. Looking at the history of the twentieth century and events that bring so much suffering to people and cultures also today makes the idea of such an education towards greater humanity seem more relevant than ever.

Development of the consciousness soul

The humanities use as their means of education the literary arts, history, the history of consciousness, aesthetics and philosophy. These fields can be seen as speaking each their individual language or as independent disciplines that contribute to education in that they help us develop our humanity if they understand their task in the way outlined above. The Literary Arts and Humanities Section puts this idea into practice by offering conferences, colloquia, lectures, publications and research projects on the various disciplines.

The research into concentration camp literature, for instance, is important for the development of the consciousness soul; I only mention the works of Jorge Semprun and Imre Kertesz. Or the questions of the consciousness soul in connection with the Grail motif in the works of Chretien de Troyes, Wolfram von Eschenbach and Richard Wagner.

Christiane Haid is leader of the Literary Arts and Humanities Section of the School for Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum. This note is reprinted from Anthroposophy Worldwide No. 12/2013.

research & reviews

IN THIS SECTION:

From 2009 we have enjoyed the book reviews originally presented in the Rudolf Steiner Library Newsletter. We now include these reviews in a section devoted also to research. It is active, contemporary research which makes anthroposophy distinct from what are generally called “spiritual paths.”

Whether there is any mind or spirit which can be distinguished from the physical organism of a human being is a question of the greatest importance. We inaugurate this section with Walter Alexander’s review of a physician’s book which makes the reality of that distinction inescapable. An advance report of Dr. Peter Selg’s threevolume biography of Rudolf Steiner follows, and then a review of an important new book on “biography work” as such, a field which anthroposophy seeks to strengthen. Finally there is a review of a wide-ranging book of cultural studies by Yeshayahu Ben-Aharon— which finds the free and active human spirit at work in all human affairs.

A View from the Ceiling

A review by Walter Alexander

Erasing Death by Sam Parnia, MD, (HarperOne, 2013).

The patient may hear the medical team pronouncing her/his own demise, may see the doctors and nurses working frantically to restart the stalled heart, reactivate the flatlined brain. The view is from above, looking down onto the tops of heads. The experience may be of being tenuously tethered to the body below, may include encounters with luminous, wise and loving beings, dead relatives, peace, joy, life review, tunnels with lights at the end, a sense of a barrier beyond which return to their body is impossible and a sense that the time to go there is not yet. Among various published studies of such near-death experiences (NDEs), the stories are remarkably similar in their features regardless of the cultures and traditions of those having them, and generally quite independent of their prior religious and philosophical leanings. Generally, as well, they share features consistent with Rudolf Steiner’s descriptions of the period soon after death, with a spatially spread out life review and the presence of a guiding being.

Two remarkable books authored by physicians have been published in the last two years (Eben Alexander’s Proof of Heaven , [2012, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks]; Sam Parnia’s Erasing Death, 2013) on this important topic. In the former, Dr. Alexander, a neurosurgeon, survived a week-long meningitisinduced flatline coma. He recounts his out-of-body experiences (OBEs) during that period, calling them “realer than real.” Dr. Parnia, while not reporting his own personal experience, has impressive credentials supporting his authority to go public with his views. Beyond his MD and PhD (in cell biology), his fellowship training in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of London and the Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York, he is director of Resuscitation Research at the State University of New York in Stony Brook, New York, and directs international studies focusing on the quality of brain resuscitation and on the cognitive processes that occur during cardiac arrest. Add in a list of publications in leading scientific and medical peer-reviewed journals.

Erasing Death clearly and engagingly addresses two “cutting edge” issues: the expanding stretch of time during which it is possible to bring cardiac arrest patients back to life without permanent brain damage and the conventional scientific paradigm-challenging catalogue of NDEs.

The advancing science of resuscitation

Dr. Parnia’s job and intent regarding the first of these pertains not to death, but to the history of advances in resuscitation research and know-how. For the first part, the opening story goes like this: A man had the good fortune of suffering a cardiac arrest in a hospital when a specially trained resuscitation team was on duty (thank God not a July weekend when the new interns have just arrived!). CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation), defibrillators (shock-delivering machines for restarting and correcting faulty heart rhythms), bags of ice and injections of chilled saline for reducing body temperature to ranges where destructive cellular breakdown processes are slowed, and injections of adrenaline were all brought to bear. Ten minutes of chest compressions passed without a heartbeat and medical staff hope waned. Conventional wisdom had long been that ten minutes was a dividing line after which oxygen deprivation led

to permanent brain damage. But the team literally “pressed on”—and after 4500 chest compressions, eight defibrillator shocks, countless vials of adrenaline and 47 minutes, his heart started up again. He was rushed to the cardiac catheterization laboratory where, while blocked cardiac arteries were being opened, his heart stopped for another 15 minutes before being successfully re-kickstarted. Doctors maintained cooling for another 24 hours and placed him on a ventilator in a medically-induced coma for four days.

The ultimate and wonderful result was a man returned to his full capacities and employment and personal life. TV and news reports called it a miracle, but truly it was the complete engagement of twenty-plus highly trained individuals applying the latest in medical science that prevented him from being left dead or as “a living husk—his body present, his mind gone.”

Dr. Parnia points out that most people still think that resuscitation science is as it was in the 1960s, consisting of CPR, doctors with paddles shouting “clear!” and delivering shocks, and mechanical ventilators. But now the new frontier is about prolonging the viability of brain and other organ cells, delaying their death to buy time to correct the underlying cause of cardiac arrest. Also, important discoveries about vulnerabilities in the brain and body after successful resuscitation (such as reperfusion injury damage to already traumatized cells and tissues caused by too sudden return to full blood flow) are helping to push further out the line after which return to normalcy is unlikely—from three-to-four hours today to perhaps twelve-to-twenty-four hours tomorrow.

In a rather flabbergasting speculation, Dr. Parnia suggests that, had the current knowledge, skills, and technology been available when the Titanic went down in 1912, many among the 1,514 persons thrown into the frigid 28 degree waters of the North Atlantic could have been revived successfully without compromised function. In that speculation, the vessel Carpathia arriving at the scene two hours later could somehow have been populated with highly trained resuscitation teams. Hypothermia in the dark ocean would have ideally preserved the viability of cells and brains.

Enlarging that window of reversibility is not the only boundary-extension that medical science is dangling in front of us. Dr. Parnia raises the specter of medical science combining its interdiction of the processes of age-related bodily wearing-out with fast-progressing capacities to create viable synthetic organs—allowing life extension to 150 to 200 years.

The general availability of the wondrously improved resuscitation techniques is another story, with national survival-to-discharge rates overall for out-of-hospital ambulance-delivered cases at about 2-3 percent, and at about 17 percent for in-hospital cardiac arrest (30-40 percent at the best of the best hospitals). Zip code, Dr. Parnia points out, may be destiny. Making available the specialized, expert care and enormous resources that revived patients require poses a set of challenges we won’t touch on here.

NDEs and mind/self/brain

To bring perspective to the NDE (which he prefers to call ADE, actual death experience), Dr. Parnia wades forthrightly into the risky waters of the mind-self-brain debate. In the chapter exploring implications of his ADE research, “Understanding the Self,” he traces Western culture’s divided lineages of thought around the “hard problem of consciousness.” That lineage of mind/body-chicken/ egg debates descends from Plato and Aristotle all the way to current and inevitable termination in the fraternal twin-like Nobel Prize-winning opposing pair of neuroscientist Sir John Eccles and DNA codiscoverer Francis Crick. While for Crick, when the brain dies so does the delusion we have of self, for Eccles “the human psyche or soul continues as a different type of matter much like an electromagnetic wave…” Regarding that wave, Dr. Parnia speculates it too may eventually be rendered visible by as-yet-undiscovered technologies. “I would not be surprised if scientists do eventually manage to discover a type of scanner that can detect and measure what we call human consciousness.”

In examining the NDE itself, Erasing Death reviews the numerous existing reports, their common features and the attempts by serious skeptics to come up with physiological explanations such as brain effects of oxygen deprivation or excess carbon dioxide—which Dr. Parnia discounts, mainly because wide experience with these phenomena outside of cardiac arrest fails to produce anything like the widely described OBEs and NDEs.

What does it mean?

For Dr. Parnia, the impressive volume of cardiac arrest reports with NDEs/ADEs (estimated to occur in 1018 percent of resuscitated patients) upholds the notion that some part of our identity persists at a minimum for the reported few hours documented after cardiac death. “At the very least, today we realize the experience of death does not seem to be unpleasant for the vast majority of people… For now, though, we can be certain that we humans no longer need to fear death.”

The depth of Dr. Parnia’s scientific quest is reflected in his ongoing AWARE (AWAreness during REsuscitation) study, a highly sophisticated attempt at 25 major medical centers throughout Europe, Canada, and the United States to get clear scientific proof that the perceptions of individuals having OBEs after cardiac arrest are veridical. Collaborating teams are placing randomly generated images on tops of cabinets or other locations visible only from the upper regions of hospital spaces where cardiac arrest is likely to occur. “If we can objectively verify these claims, the results would bear profound implications not only for the scientific community, but for the way in which we understand and relate to life and death as a society.”

OBEs and NDEs or ADEs represent very serious challenges to prevailing scientific paradigms. They posit the reality of brain-free experience and tear radically at the foundations of current scientific assumptions about how our senses and memory work. It seems to me that Dr. Parnia devotes surprisingly little space to this question—which to me is quite central. Given their brains’ flatlined states, how are the NDE patients who are having OBEs looking down on their bodies? How are they hearing? In one case the woman’s eyes were taped shut, in another the patient was completely blind but saw the room and her body below, and in still one more a patient later accurately reported the thoughts of the new intern who had stayed with him through eight hours of intermittent cardiac shocks for atrial fibrillation. And adding one more enigma to the litany of puzzlements, how do they remember them?

Dr. Parnia does makes some allusion to speculative quantum theory-based explanations for NDEs; he is cognizant, though, that they fail, too, to prove how such experiences are generated—which has given rise to the potentially satisfying notion that, as Dr. Parnia states it, “human consciousness or the soul may in fact be an

irreducible scientific entity in its own right” (like other fundamental concepts of physics such as mass and gravity). But giving voice to the possibility that the soul may be a “scientific entity” on the order of gravity is still a less trenchant thought than acknowledging outright that the cosmos, at its core, is about beings—not indifferent forces. To even tiptoe onto the verges of this great and unspoken taboo is to risk a one-way ride to the graveyard of ruined reputations where the watchdogs of scientific materialism prowl.

Judicious caution?

But whether Dr. Parnia is being judiciously cautious or fearfully so, or is simply exercising scientific due diligence, or is just loath to push the credulity of his readers too far—in the end doesn’t matter much. He and the author of Proof of Heaven may well have been sent by the good gods at this time to stand bravely in the bright beams of the public forum to trumpet the call for more complete and balanced understanding of who we are and why we’re here. Could not some of these cardiac arrest survivors having NDEs be among the increasing numbers Rudolf Steiner predicted would be experiencing the etheric Christ at this time? Their radically transformed post-resuscitation lives suggest so.

The other big question

And that underscores the next big, unavoidable question. Speaking of that brightly lit public forum, while the two physician-authors named here have some “skin in the game” so to speak, where are the anthroposophists? Rudolf Steiner wrote and spoke extensively about post-death experience. So they have a vast trove of inherited knowledge, and in the West, they have certainly had plenty of time in protected shadows of obscurity to fathom at least some of its depths, to cultivate some of its practices and experiences. Then why are we not out there in force—in the thick of this good fight?

True, the ranks of biodynamic farmers and vintners swell and generally prosper and likewise the Waldorf teachers and schools grow in numbers and recognition. But what about infusions from anthroposophy directed straight to the soul realm? To that marketplace of ideas where the heart-sense of what it is to be a human being is sounded? Where the written, spoken, dramatic, movement and visual arts and crafts play so central a role? Are too many of us who feel called to those disciplines tragically diverted and self-focused, too busy weaving esoteric tapestries for the walls of our own enclaves? Should we

rather sift our knowledge-inheritance and what we have personally gathered from it, and with fresh, contemporary language and images send out our own creations? The appetite for these physicians’ books and lecture tours affirms the existence of a considerable and waiting population desperate to look into the mirror and plausibly see something other than a “dying animal.”1 We do admire these pioneering physicians, and hope ourselves not to stand idly by.

One more essential item

A clue to the source of Dr. Parnia’s sensibilities appears suddenly on page 288 of the 292-page book. There Dr. Parnia mentions his personal connection to the “inspiring and revealing viewpoints” of the philosopher and jurist Ostad Elahi (1895-1974). He inserts a short Elahi quote to the effect that after the heart has stopped functioning, the organs can keep the organism alive for up to three days. A footnote points to Elahi’s spiritual writings.

An internet search quickly yields interesting results. Ostad Elahi combined aspects of Persian and Kurdish mysticism (Ahl-e Haqq) into a moral, ethical, and spiritual vision that included an understanding of reincarnation as a perfecting process of the higher self, according to descriptions by his son, an Iranian professor emeritus of pediatric surgery.2 Dr. Parnia, in the acknowledgements, thanks another Elahi family member connected with the foundation devoted to Ostad’s work.

Some speculations as to why Dr. Parnia may have avoided any mention of reincarnation in Erasing Death have already been listed. We can’t discount the possibility that by mentioning Ostad Elahi, he was pointing to a door for someone else to nudge open, nonetheless. Still, nowhere in Erasing Death is there any suggestion that death may have an integral, necessary, and meaningful role within a cosmic order. We’re left with the usual medical assumption that death is the enemy.

What is lost through leaving reincarnation out of the discussion? Rudolf Steiner reportedly had no patience for mere curiosity or lurid fascination with reincarnation and life after death. When tiresome supplicants begged him for details about their former lives, he was known to respond, “What good would it do you if I told you who you were in the last life, when you don’t know who you are in this one?” On the other hand, there is no doubt that

1 Thank you, W.B. Yeats, “Sailing to Byzantium.”

2 Bahram Elahi, Spirituality is a Science: Foundations of Natural Spirituality, 1999.

transmitting a down-to-earth perspective on karma and reincarnation was central to his mission. In Occult Science he wrote (after citing Goethe’s “Nature herself created death to have abundant life”) that “…without insight into the supersensible there can be no true knowledge even of the visible world.”

A new marriage?

Owen Barfield marveled at the lack of the insight outside of Steiner’s anthroposophy to combine Darwinian evolution with a concurrent evolution of consciousness (“The Time Philosophy of Rudolf Steiner” in Romanticism Comes of Age, Wesleyan University Press, originally in The Golden Blade, [1955]). Steiner had gone a step further by adding successive earth lives to his picture of a transformative evolutionary process. In 1979, also in The Golden Blade (“Why Reincarnation” www.owenbarfield.org/why-reincarnation/ ), Barfield offered that convincing a majority of people of the truth of Steiner’s general depiction of reincarnation would make “an enormous difference… to many of the discords that are at present threatening to tear our civilization to pieces!” He included among those menacing stressors issues of gender, race, nationality, and generational dissonance.

Couldn’t the heavy evidence of these truly numerous NDE reports serve to create a new receptivity to so sensible a gesture as to think of evolution and reincarnation working together? Between the time of Barfield’s marveling and today’s mindset, there have been real shifts. We can see some stubborn habits of materialistic understanding being loosened if not dislodged, in part by the spread of principles of relativity and quantum physics pertaining to the necessity of taking the observer into account —to which has been added the weight of OBE/NDE reports of apparently brain-free experience. All of this contributes to a gradual awakening to the illogic of world conceptions (such as Crick’s) in which conscious intelligence is an accidental, dispensable feature—conceptions which have been created by this same unnecessary conscious intelligence.

Is this finally the time when a forthright narrative about reincarnation can gain a wider hearing? One born out of anthroposophy but not stuffed with specialized terminology and immoderate detail? A depiction showing repeated earth lives simply as an integral part of a purposeful evolutionary course, with periodic interchange between earthly and spiritual worlds as a practical means for working through development, relationships, and consequences on personal and cosmic scales? One set out

not as a belief system, but as a conception worthy of being weighed and pondered?

Without something like this, we are left with the damagingly simplistic (and materialistic) heaven/hell-carrot/ stick moralistic world stories of conventional and fundamentalist religion. Or we are left with wishful thinking’s focus on the benign being/unconditional love aspects of the NDEs that gave us Dr. Alexander’s book title, Proof of Heaven —a title he reportedly protested, and a heaven which his experience and that of numerous others did not really suggest.3 As already mentioned, the reports of NDEs indicate existence extending for a few hours after heart/brain death and never go beyond a perceived point of no return. They are nothing like the many hundreds of years described by Rudolf Steiner, nor do they likewise tell of rhythmic sojourns to the reaches of the cosmos in the cause of purification and renewal, sojourns full of meaning-imbued exchanges between orders of beings, between the living and the dead—and they are not hallowed by the clear implication, as promised by scripture, that human beings carry the cosmos and are its and the Creator’s reflection. In addition, they miss the balancing and essential notion (as expressed by anthroposophist Eugene Schwartz in a talk on life between death and rebirth at Anthroposophy NYC in January of this year) that for all its wonders, the spiritual world is more or less bureaucratric in function in that the only place where the rubber figuratively meets the road—the field of action where change is actually possible for us—is where the rubber literally meets the road—here on earth!

The public discourse truly needs a rescue. We should not doubt that there are significant portions of it where the participants are mature and desperate enough in the flood of excesses and evils to listen with unprejudiced, unspoiled ears. We need to get closer to the gathering places of that discourse than the good pages of the likes of being human and Lilipoh. Fortunately, opportunities are everywhere in today’s interconnected environment if we make the commitment. Will the balancing, positive forces come to meet those who make their move? If it is a question of turning death into life, they are interested.

Walter Alexander (walter@wawrite.com) is a medical writer, a writer and contributing editor for Lilipoh, and a former public and Waldorf school teacher. He has long been active at Anthroposophy NYC, for a number of recent years as co-president of its Council.

3 There was a recent strong attack on Dr. Alexander’s claims and reputation in Esquire (www.esquire.com/features/the-prophet) and a sharp rebuttal of the attack, as well, at www.selfconsciousmind.com

Peter Selg’s Rudolf Steiner A review by Bruce Donehower

Rudolf Steiner 1861–1925; Lebens und Werkgeshichte, by Peter Selg; Verlag des Ita Wegman Institut, 2012; three volumes, 2,148 pages.

By the time this particular book review appears, most anthroposophists already will be aware of the publication of Peter Selg’s monumental biography of Rudolf Steiner. The book appeared in 2012, published by Verlag des Ita Wegman Instituts. Written in German, of course, the three-volume hardcover edition of slightly more than 2000 pages has been discussed and reviewed in several publications, and an English language summary of the existing reviews has appeared on the Internet (follow this shortened URL: goo.gl/5pZxH). Understandably, readers in the English-speaking world are confronted here with the odd situation of reading another review of a book written in a foreign language. I have been told that a translation of the work is planned or is in process; however, even assuming that funds are available to pay for translation and publication of a work of this heft and magnitude, it will no doubt be some little time before a full community of English readers can independently assess the work.

Thus having noted the Quixotic nature of this assignment, I feel that it is important nonetheless to shine the spotlight of attention brightly on Peter Selg’s work, for this is a biography I would hand to any person who approached me with the question: “Who was Rudolf Steiner?” The comprehensiveness of the biography (its scope and attention to detail, its inclusion of relevant and illuminating texts from Steiner’s autobiography and Gesamtausgabe (Collected Works, or GA), the specificity with which it details the chronology of Steiner’s development) makes it an important touchstone for anyone who desires a thorough overview of Steiner’s life and accomplishment.

I am grateful that Peter Selg assumed the challenge of this project and that he has risen to that challenge with such devoted attention and intelligence. In addition to offering a comprehensive overview of Steiner’s life, the book also

sheds light on many details of biography that are not so readily accessible in one location: events during the years leading up to the beginning of Steiner’s work with the Theosophical Society, for example, and the conflicts and forces of opposition that beset Steiner and anthroposophy after World War One, among others. I have devoted a considerable portion of my time and scholarly energy over the years to an attempt to understand the karma of the Society—and I mean this in a specific historical/social context: that is, to better understand the events that led to the Christmas Foundation Conference and from there to the sundering of the Society in the 1930s. For those readers with similar interest, Peter Selg’s edition makes available within the sweep of one compelling narrative many of the facts, anecdotes, and historical aperçus that formerly lay scattered and which will help a student better understand the background and dynamics of the forces and personalities at play. This is excellent. In addition, the frequent inclusion of relevant lecture passages from the Gesamtausgabe, keyed to particular historical moments and audiences, is a most helpful guide and resource.

The text is clearly written and readable. German prose style can often be, as Mark Twain once put it, daunting. I’m happy to say that I found Selg’s German prose quite accessible. The book’s division into three volumes is helpful. Volume One covers the years 1861—1914, 1914 being, of course, the year of a defining catastrophe in European history, the beginning of World War One. Volume Two spans the years 1914—1922, which leads us through the time of the building of the First Goetheanum and into the volatile social/cultural/political situation in Europe (and most especially Germany) following World War One. Volume Three surveys the concluding years of Steiner’s life, 1923—1925. These years are in many respects the most awe-inspiring in terms of sheer creativity and output. Readers may be tempted to dip into the book according to their thematic interests. If this is the case, I suspect that many readers will find the third volume especially compelling, with its narrative of the events and conflicts that led to the decision to re-found the Society in 1923, and the subsequent annus mirabilis, culminating with a full rendering of Steiner’s last months on earth. As an anthroposophist familiar with other biographies, anecdotal collections, reminiscences, and essays concerning Steiner’s life, I would unhesitatingly place Selg’s biography at the top of the reading list for anyone who desired immersion into this literature. Of course, as Selg points out, such a study should always occur with Steiner’s un-

completed autobiography, The Course of My Life, at one’s side.

As noted, I found Volumes Two and Three to be especially compelling, particularly in regard to the conflicts and oppositions that beset Rudolf Steiner. It is enlightening to read about the strenuous criticism and outright hostility that confronted anthroposophy after World War One. Selg’s account of this time is detailed and inclusive, and it gives one a stronger appreciation for the dedication and commitment with which Steiner attempted time and again to meet the often mean-spirited and distorted criticisms of his opponents with an unflagging dedication to his mission. Another important point that emerges from the narrative, at least for this reader, is the extent to which

Rudolf Steiner felt the need for students of anthroposophy to rise to the challenge of collaboration, to take the step to spiritual maturity and responsibility. For example, on page 1790 Selg cites, following Willem Zeylmans von Emmichoven, Steiner’s reported misgivings spoken in Den Haag on the evening of November 17, 1923, only a few weeks prior to the Christmas Conference, regarding the conditions prevalent within the individual national societies: “whether further work with the Society was in any way possible.” Steiner complained that “there appeared to be nowhere the slightest understanding for what he desired to accomplish and that it might perhaps be necessary to continue work in alliance with only a very few individuals.”

Of course, Rudolf Steiner chose a different path, and Selg’s narrative helps us better to understand this fateful decision.

In his preface to the biography, Selg makes the following comment: “Rudolf Steiner gave decisive forces of his life to the Anthroposophical Society as a spiritual community, and much in the future will depend upon whether this community carries the true picture of his being in its heart, and from that picture undertakes initiatives.” I feel that this comment deserves emphasis in respect to the nature and purpose of Peter Selg’s project. Students of anthroposophy, and those who are involved in the various enterprises of the movement, need to occupy themselves with the question “Who was Rudolf Steiner?” and create for themselves a “true picture,” such as Selg suggests in the above cited words from his preface. Through contemplation of Steiner’s biography, we are led to many of the central problems and crises that continue to define our world and spiritual destinies. Steiner lived during years of shattering transformation and upheaval. When we view the course of Steiner’s life, we see him moving decisively toward the center of the defining controversies of his time. We also see an impressive flexibility as he attempted to span the gulf between the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. For example, an appreciation of the significance of World War One and its aftermath adds much to an understanding of the conflicts leading up to the Christmas Foundation Conference in respect to the tensions between the older and younger generations of anthroposophists. Selg’s narrative helps us to understand the challenges that beset Rudolf Steiner as he met the new century—and the defining catastrophe of his life, the burning of the First Goetheanum, emerges with dramatic intensity against this background.

One of the benefits of Selg’s narrative, in its entirety, is the help that it gives to readers who are interested in seeing the moments of Steiner’s life in historical context. It is sometimes a temptation to read anthroposophy outside its historical location, but to appreciate it within that particular historical moment empowers our understanding of Steiner and anthroposophy. The question “Who was Rudolf Steiner?” then becomes, for a student of anthroposophy, a central meditation on one’s own destiny and one’s placement in respect to the karma of European civilization. A challenge may be to hold that question clearly in view while at the same time fully engaging with the vicissitudes of one’s world and one’s current historical/cultural moment. This is something Steiner himself practiced. Even during the weeks of his final sickness he was engaged with the world in which he had incarnated; he did not retreat. Selg mentions, for example, how dur-

ing the six months of his terminal illness, Steiner read “innumerable books” in an effort to remain engaged and conversant with the spirit of his time. “Steiner’s world horizon was as always wide and encompassing, and his interests were manifold. [Gunther] Wachsmuth brought to him in his studio [where he lay ill] new editions concerning a variety of themes: arts, science, philosophy, and history.” Selg reports Wachsmuth saying that it was always an absorbing moment to behold how Steiner sifted through those offerings and sorted them on his sick bed into two piles: on the right, those he wanted to read closely, on the left, those for which he had little interest. Selg further includes Wachsmuth’s comment that Wachsmuth felt proud when the pile of books on the right stood higher than the pile on the left, since it meant that Wachsmuth had hit the mark with his selections. This inclusion, for example, of materials from Gunther Wachsmuth’s book Rudolf Steiners Erdenleben und Wirken is again, as I have noted, symptomatic of Selg’s attempt to make accessible within a single encompassing narrative sources that readers otherwise might not have had opportunity to appreciate. Selg’s project also goes far to answer objections that Steiner merely synthesized anthroposophy from an eclectic assortment of readings, tuning his message to the shifting requirements of particular audiences. Instead, Selg in his preface dedicates his opus to the opposite conclusion: that in the life work of Rudolf Steiner we find “a monumental work of research, which arises completely from Steiner himself, from the powers of his being.”

Dr. Selg has received criticism in other reviews in regard to his work’s lack of index, lack of adequate scholarly apparatus, over reliance on citations from the Gesamtausgabe, and lack of professional placement of the work in respect to the norms of scholarship and biographical editions. He has been faulted for placing Steiner on a pedestal. This may be placing emphasis on features that the book is not meant to present. The world may benefit from a close and in-depth scholarly attempt to contextualize Steiner and his life with the full rigor that professional scholars trained in a variety of literary or historical methods can bring to such a task; however, this is work for the future. The book by Peter Selg, as it is written, is an invaluable addition to the literature and an important foundation for inspiration and research. We will need more biographies—and perhaps novels and dramas! The appearance of Selg’s impressive biography of Rudolf Steiner in addition to other works that have examined Steiner’s biography in recent years is for me a sign of health at the present

time. Selg’s volumes will certainly inspire many readers and will contribute to the enhancement of those capacities of heartfelt-thinking and critical inquiry, which, if I am not mistaken, was one important element of Rudolf Steiner’s Michaelic mission.

Bruce Donehower (bdonehower@yahoo.com) is Lecturer in the University Writing Program, University of California at Davis, as well as a novelist (SancXtuary: A Novel; Ice: A Novel of Initiation; Miko, Little Hunter of the North), editor and translator (The Birth of Novalis, The Consolations of Philosophy and Other Tales). He is a member of the collegium of the Section for the Literary Arts & Humanities of the School for Spiritual Science in North America.

Why On Earth?

Biography and the Practice of Human Becoming

A review by Sarah E. Putnam, PhD

Anyone seeking to follow the Delphic injunction to “know thyself” will benefit greatly from this lyrical, practical book by Signe Schaefer. In a tone that is conversational, compassionate, and deeply personal, Schaefer poses far-reaching and difficult questions, and provides experienced guidance on the path to self and higher Self discovery. She references the well-known texts on biography by the O’Neils, Burkhard, Lievegoed, and SturgeonDay, among others, and goes beyond them in this integrative and inspiring work.

Out of his research, Rudolf Steiner, described the human individuality as a being with continuing existence, extending before birth and beyond death. Each person comes into earthly conditions and situations with unique gifts and burdens, the effects of which are observable in his or her biography. Each of us also comes into life with certain intentions, created by our higher Self in order to further our development toward wholeness.

Schaefer addresses these issues, ever mindful of the freedom of the individual while speaking of destiny, gender, temperament, the seven-year phases, and life stages. Along the way, she takes insightful excursions through wide-ranging topics. She discusses the women’s movement and the fourfold human being, works with questions such as “why seven (years)?”, takes a whirlwind tour through the planetary types, and awakens and deepens her read-

ers’ involvement with a topic through practical exercises. Readers familiar with literature on the senses, drawing in nature, Waldorf education, the foundation books, and human development will appreciate her big-picture vision and ability to integrate ideas from diverse approaches. She makes thoughtful and incisive use of poetry and literature to capture a feeling, an image, or a life stage. Throughout, the author is true to her central question of what it means to be “on a long journey of becoming”, a human being in the active sense of the verb, a “human becoming” (p.12). Indeed, she is leading the reader, through exercises and questions that prompt personal reflections, to answer the question posed by her title Why On Earth? : “Why am I here, in this place, in this family, at this time?”

The structure of the book reflects these questions about incarnation and becoming and honors the complexity of human existence as a gradual process of transformation from the inherited body, characteristics and talents with which we were born into a self-created, free being. Schaefer begins with the most generic and archetypal aspects of incarnation: gender, temperament, and the phases of life. Then, using the imagery of the four seasons of the year, she devotes a chapter to each: spring (birth to twenty-one), summer (twentyone to forty-two), autumn (forty-two to sixty-three), and winter (sixty-three and beyond). As she takes us through each of these stages, she makes clear how development becomes more and more individual, less predictable, and more free.

The penultimate chapter is a crescendo of this progression toward individuation, a call to the reader to grow in self-knowledge by pursuing an inner path of meditation. Organized around the Foundation Stone Meditation’s three mantric calls to the human soul—to the inner practices of spirit recalling, spirit sensing, and spirit beholding,—the author describes the six basic exercises from Steiner’s Outline of Esoteric Science with a clarity that comes from personal experience. She ends the chapter with a powerful example of an activity that she shared

research & reviews

with a loved one, a moving lesson in how we can support each other on the inner path. I predict that this chapter will be copied and disseminated widely.

The final chapter is on the Myth of the New Isis. In our materialistic and cyber-saturated time, when the push is ever stronger for the mechanization and computerization of the human being, this story carries powerful messages about threats to the human spirit. The telling and discussion of this tale are a skillful consummation of this book on human becoming, warning and awakening us to the call of the spirit within and around each of us.

Schaefer’s profound understanding of Steiner’s work, her years of teaching foundation studies and leading the biography and social art program, and her experience teaching workshops around the globe give her a unique capacity to draw from and integrate a broad spectrum of knowledge, personal interactions, and observations. Eminently readable, the book is an enjoyable conversation with a trusted, deeply thoughtful, and caring friend. The wisdom she brings, her practical, step-by-step approach, and her warm-hearted, expressive writing voice make this book a potentially transformative experience for her readers.

Sarah Putnam (sputnam01@att.net) received her doctorate in cultural psychology from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and has taught in both the university setting and in business. She is an experienced educator and trainer and enjoys discovering the richness and beauty of the inner life with her clients.

Toolbox for Transformation by Torbjørn Eftestøl, Aksel

is a very relevant point when it comes to Ben-Aharon’s 2011 publication The Event in Science, History, Philosophy & Art. It is structured in four parts, each focusing around the discoveries and creations that the 20th century has brought in each of the four areas. It seems to us that a unique characteristic of this book is the combination of these arenas to create a map, or a time-picture of the 20th century, as well as tools for transformation that emerge from such a broad overview. In other words, Ben-Aharon is able to use his fully individualized anthroposophical method (presented in his 1995 The New Experience of the Supersensible 2) to find elements in contemporary culture that through his creative synthesis together compose a fully updated language and picture of the metamorphosis and becoming of man.

The first chapter on “The Event in Science” is composed to give the reader a contemporary picture of how this new language develops along a renewed forefront of contemporary mainstream science.

Already coined in 1983 by the Noble Prize winner in chemistry Ilya Prigogine, it is the shift “from Being to Becoming.” A new synthesis is emerging between chemistry and biology, genetics and theory of evolution, neurology and the cognitive sciences where a picture of the human as a growing edge of cosmic evolution is emerging. It is an image to feel more at home with, and also challenged by, as creative human beings. And most importantly, it can support and be supported by contemporary history and philosophy (as presented in chapters two and three)—and hence bridge the gap between science and the humanities. A life science coming alive becomes a human science.

Hugo

A review of The Event in Science, History, Philosophy and Art , by Yeshayahu Ben-Aharon; VBW Publishing, 2011. Review reprinted from Research on Steiner Education (www.rosejourn.com).

In a conversation between Foucault and Deleuze in 1975, Deleuze, by reference to Proust, affirms all his writing as tools: “It must be useful. It must function. And not for itself.”1 To write a book is to create a toolbox for transformation, for change and for combat, Deleuze says. This

In chapter two the story of human individuation (Burkhardt 2012) is taken one step further, now into history; i.e., our Western cultural biography. What is the relation between the history of ideas and the history of their realization in social reality? Through a very original and precise concept of “reversal,” Ben-Aharon discovers a new social law that applies to this particular field of relations. It is the law of how every new social idea (as for example the ideas of the French revolution: freedom, liberty, and “brotherhood” or solidarity) through the process of appropriation is captured into exact opposite actualizations. Looking back at social tragedies of the 19th and 20th cultural history (nazism, communism, commercialism or capitalism) there is no moral excuse for these reversals.

2 Jesaiah (Yeshayahu) Ben-Aharon, The New Experience of the Supersensible: The Anthroposophical Knowledge Drama of Our Time (London: Temple Lodge Publishing, 1995).

1 Michel Foucault, «Intellectuals and Power: A Conversation between Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze», in Language, Counter-Memory, Practice: Selected Essays and Interviews (New York: Cornell University Press, 1977), 205–217.

There is however a relief, when we understand that the social tragedies appear as a result of the same process that has given our sense of self its cultural momentum and gravity. The moment we understand this historical law of reversal as unavoidable is the moment we see the possibility of its re-reversal. Ben-Aharon’s point is that we can understand the wound by going into it, and that this is also the path to resurrect culturally—in and through the same wounds. When we see that the genesis of these social sufferings is connected to one and the same law of reversal, we are led to the question of a possible cure or healing impulse. The philosophical and epistemological counterforce Ben Aharon spots is the wound-seekers of 20th century philosophy: the great transformers of 20th century instrumental knowing.

In the third chapter, “The Event in Philosophy,” five philosophical authorships are brought together to compose that healing counterforce, which includes diverse and very disparate elements. The five are Gilles Deleuze together with Felix Guattari, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Alain Badiou, and Emmanuel Levinas. Each of these thinkers brings fuel that will help to transform thinking and, as Ben-Aharon quotes Deleuze/Guattari, make philosophy reach its sole purpose: to be worthy of the event. The five thinkers together compose a double movement of virtualization of thinking, which releases it from the body and its psychological habits, and a re-entry into the world of actualities where the encounter with the other takes place in an enhanced consciousness. The central tool that the chapter explains is the process of de-actualization, virtual actualization, and re-actualization. These concepts are taken from Deleuze and Deleuze/Guattari’s writings, and are explained as a process that can be said to be a conscious excarnation and incarnation of thinking. One of the significant aspects of the book is that this process as a whole is said to create a new body. Here Ben-Aharon takes what Deleuze/Guattari calls a Body without Organs (BwO) and uses this concept as designating a new human-cosmic creation. This is what enables a conscious exploration of life itself in its virtual state, but also what secures a safe connection with and re-entry into the physical world of actualities. Ben-Aharon presents this process without too much quotation from the works by Deleuze/Guattari, thus giving the reader the task of translation between the texts. This is in itself a rewarding experience, and anyone who will study, for example, the book What is Philosophy? or the third chapter of Difference and Repetition, will find very interesting material for such

a comparative study. This should be of utmost interest both to those who are well versed in Deleuze/Guattari as well as those who have read the philosophical and spiritual scientific works by Rudolf Steiner.

We cannot go through all the philosophers that BenAharon deals with, but in addition to Foucault and Derrida who in the book are presented mainly as contributing to the spiritualization of thinking, Badiou and Levinas are two thinkers who bring the necessary counterbalance in their focus of the encounter with the Other. If Badiou is the one who reminds us of the necessary split in us between our human-animal nature, and the subject of truth that this ordinary person must be penetrated by and then remain faithful to by directing daily goals and habits towards supporting this truth, then Levinas helps to think the encounter with the Other as the most fundamental constitutive event of our being. In this way the event in philosophy is balanced both cognitively and morally: the more cosmic we become, the deeper we penetrate into social life and the earth.

If the chapter on philosophy helps us to grasp the process of transformation of thinking and consciousness by means of contemporary thinkers and the inspiration that they embody, then the chapter on art brings this one step further into concretizing the creation of a virtual body, a BwO. In “The Event in Art” seven stages of artistic becoming are depicted. These are Ben-Aharon’s own creations, but in each of them he applies statements and works by artists who reflect the different intensive levels of artistic becoming. The first stage presents the problem of creating a Threshold Identity, which has to do with the mutual and reciprocal shifting between activity and receptivity, between artistic will and the given material, and the problem of self-consciousness related to this. From this all-important discovery, the artistic process is deepened. The question of an articulation or expression that will support and induce such a Threshold Identity is brought forth in the next stage: Initiation Language. This new language is sourced in a remember-

ing (not-forgetting) of threshold identity through the act of expressing. For each new stage, which does not follow in linear fashion but belongs with the others in a nonorganic wholeness, a more hidden aspect of the creative process is revealed. Together this intensification of conscious creativity will contribute with what Ben-Aharon calls a virtual heart and blood organ. The artist offers his or her forces of life and attention in the process of creating a work of art, but is at the same time infused by cosmic inspiration. In such an exchange, which belongs to the fourth stage called Vortex (Metamorphosis), a mutual reversal of life and death in and through each other takes place. The individual grows into the cosmic and vice versa. In this way the artistic process continues, but also builds on the foundation that the philosophical transformation of thinking has laid. The last stage of artistic becoming is called History (Resurrection), and leads back to the beginning. Here it is reflected how the whole process, both the artistic process per se, and the whole project of giving expression to the Event, is one which weaves together life and death.

Through the chapter on art, Ben-Aharon shows how cosmic life and human life is exchanged in a mutual lifedeath and resurrection process, and it is through such a realization that a new virtual body will be created. In this way The Event in Science, History, Philosophy & Art can be seen as a preparation for the next book that Ben-Aharon has announced, and which will go into detail on the creation of a new virtual body.

This summer both a German and Spanish translation of the book has been published, making Ben-Aharon’s research available also for German and Spanish readers. An interesting question to raise is how Ben-Aharon’s book relates to and extends Herbert Witzenmann’s phenomenology of cognition in his Strukturphänomenologie (Witzenmann 1983). In any case, there is now a vast field of work to be done in connecting new anthroposophical research with new developments in science, philosophy, and art. For this purpose, the way consciousness studies and phenomenology of becoming are linked to art and science in Ben Aharon’s work, creates a new canvas—not a space of representation but a space of performance where renewal of science implies renewal of history.

We hope his book will be received and eagerly studied as an important element in creating this new beginning.

References:

Ben-Aharon, Jesaiah (Yeshayahu). The New Experience of the Supersensible: The Anthroposophical Knowledge Drama of Our Time. London: Temple Lodge Publishing, 1995.

Burkhardt, Jacob. Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien, Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 2012

Deleuze, Gilles. Difference and Repetition. Translated by Paul Patton. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.

Deleuze, Gilles, & Félix Guattari. What Is Philosophy?

Translated by Hugh Tomlinson and Graham Burchell. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996.

Foucault, Michel. «Intellectuals and Power: A Conversation between Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze». In Language, Counter-Memory, Practice: Selected Essays and Interviews, 205–217. New York: Cornell University Press, 1977.

Prigogine, Y. From Being to Becoming: Time and Complexity in the Physical Sciences. W.H Freeman & Company, 1980.

Witzenmann, Herbert. Strukturphänomenologie vorbewusstes Gestaltbilden im erkennenden Wirklichkeitsenthüllen, Gideon Spicker Verlag, 1983.

Hamlet

The crowd is stilled as I come on the stage. Leaning against a door frame now, I sift the distant echoes that presage the happenings of my hour of life.

Aimed through a thousand opera glasses

The gloom of night stares back at me. If there’s another way, then Abba, Father, Allow this cup to pass from me.

I love Thy obstinate conception

And I am spoken for the role. But now another drama’s in production; Excuse me if this time I let it go.

But the moves have been thought through. Journey’s end cannot be turned aside. I am the one; all else drowns in denial. “To live out life is not to stroll a field.”

by Boris Pasternak, English by John Beck

of the Anthroposophical Society in America

Update on the work of the General Council

What are members asking of us?

What are initiatives asking of us?

What is the world asking of us?

When the General Council met in January 2014 in Ann Arbor we asked ourselves three questions from the point of view of members, initiatives, and the world. Of course, we cannot purport to represent all members, initiatives, or the world; but we do represent a small cross section of all these. Following are the questions and some of the answers we came up with:

What are members asking of us?

Community—opportunities to meet each other

Transparency of process

Connecting to resources and services

Central source of information

Help with group / branch / local services

Inspiration from leadership—Society leadership that takes initiative

New ideas of how to work together—getting unstuck

Leading imagination for relevance of anthroposophy in the world

Integrity of purpose

Integrity of truly trying to live what we speak

Financial transparency—funds spent responsibly

True service—authentically making a difference in the world

What are the anthroposophical initiatives asking of us?

A source for deepening a connection with anthroposophy

Start-up / sustainability funds / distribution of funds

Connection among like-minded people and initiatives/organizations/networking

Common forum, broader group of people connected

Help people outside of anthroposophy understand importance of work

Want us to have our act together

–effective systems/leadership

–modern

Authenticity, honesty

Equal playing field—we don’t have all the answers

Visibility of the Society

Open gesture—welcoming

Meet real world

What is the World asking of us as an a nthroposophical society?

Truth—real answers to old problems

New forms of leadership

Peace, equality, compassion

Sharing of everything—brotherhood/sisterhood

Inspiration

Practical solutions, examples, tools

Caring for/recognizing the earth and threats to the natural world

Openness—meet as equals

Accessible language

Starting points—entry points

Show us your diversity—break through conformity

Not condescending—warmth of shared experience—humility and integrity

Create a vision that meets longing

Show hearts, what you love, not just what you think

Clear concise definition of who we are and what we do

Asking us to be transforming human beings. To create substance for a vehicle for change.

In response to these questions the Council enunciated the following goals for 2014. These goals will be filled out in more detail in the coming months.

• To transition the library and form partnerships in this project in order to:

◊ Preserve the collection

◊ Help anthroposophy incarnate in this continent as a benefit to members and friends

◊ Be a resource for research

◊ Build communities of learning

• Launching Development

• Enhance engagement with members

• Leadership selection and empowerment in order to:

◊ Have healthy administrative staff able to take initiative

◊ Meet the membership

◊ Create an understandable administrative structure

◊ Have professional strength in carrying our mission forward

• Managing change in order to:

◊ Effectively meet the unknowns

◊ Bridge the present with the future

In relation to leadership the Council has also asked the question: “How can our leadership structure better serve members, initiatives, and anthroposophy in the world?” Following is a quick picture of our current leadership structure.

For several years we have had an Administrative Director, ably filled by Marian Leon, who works closely with the Leadership Team to implement strategic initiatives of the Council. The leadership team is comprised of Marian Leon, Torin Finser, and Dennis Dietzel (Council Chair). The Administrative Director has been a key person in the Society, keeping the day-to-day pulse of all Society activities, managing staff, assisting with members’ needs, and a list of duties much too long to write here. There are a number of support staff in the Ann Arbor office who report to the Administrative Director, including Cynthia Chelius, Linda Leonard, and John Price. John Beck, a consultant who works as Communications Director, also reports to the Administrative Director. Our General Secretary, Torin Finser, works out of his home office in Keene, NH and travels extensively to branches and initiatives around the country, makes semi-annual week-long visits to the Goetheanum to meet with other General Secretaries and the Executive Council, and makes presentations at our AGM and conferences co-sponsored by the Society (such as the recent AWSNA conference in Austin, TX). The Anthroposophical Prison Outreach program, also working out of the Ann Arbor office, operates fairly independently under the direction of Kathy Serafin.

In order to better serve anthroposophy the Council has undertaken a review of our leadership structure and is committed to a study of collaborative leadership. We are working closely with our Administrative Director and staff to further this process. We recognize that many individuals drawn to anthroposophy are filled with enthusiastic initiative to serve the earth, humanity, and the spiritual world.

In a collaborative leadership structure a group of such individuals would be charged, each with specific areas of responsibility, to work as a team to fulfill the mission of the Anthroposophical Society, furthering the work of Rudolf Steiner. One might imagine a progression of our work together in the Society as moving from co-existence to cooperation to collaboration, with our leaders collaborating with partners in the membership, in the initiatives and in the world. Each individual on the leadership team will be chosen both for their ability and experience in a particular area as well as their willingness to collaborate. What we

seek to address with this leadership change is how do we encourage initiative throughout the movement and at the same time support collaborative community through our organizational structure?

We are pleased that we have been able to take a first step towards a collaborative leadership team in January 2014 with the hiring of Deb Abrahams-Dematte as Director of Development. Deb is working closely with Torin Finser, our General Secretary, as she moves into this new position and brings development into the forefront of our work.

The Council looks forward to sharing more with the members as we move forward with our goals for 2014 and this leadership initiative on behalf of anthroposophy.

Dennis Dietzel for the General Council

ASA Development Director

Deb Abrahams-Dematte (deb@anthroposophy.org ) has joined the Anthroposophical Society in America as Director of Development. She is a consultant to Waldorf schools and non-profit organizations, most recently Accreditation Coordinator and Assistant Director of Admissions for High Mowing School in Wilton, NH. For ten years she served Pine Hill Waldorf School as Director of Development, then as Director of Outreach & Enrollment. “Creating community and building relationships is a passion of mine, particularly in service to generating positive social change.”

Deb grew up in New York, “outside of Manhattan and near the beach.” She has two amazing daughters who went all the way through Waldorf schools, beginning at Meadowbrook in Rhode Island and then Pine Hill WS and High Mowing in Wilton. She loves being in nature, cross-country skiing, yoga, music, reading, gardening, cooking and spending time with friends and family. For the past 14 years she has lived with her husband, dog, cats, and chickens in Wilton, NH.

Her first development update follows!

Deb Abrahams-Dematte in her favorite season

Development Update

Dear Friends,

I am excited and honored to have joined the staff of the Anthroposophical Society in America as the first-ever director of development. It has been a whirlwind first few weeks of learning about the various aspects of the organization and the people. I look forward to getting to know you all better!

I recently met with the staff and General Council in Ann Arbor to get acquainted and plan for the growth of development efforts in support of the society. Your gifts and membership contributions provide essential support for community building, research, study, and action. The development effort will focus on increasing this support so that the society is a sustainable and effective organization, meeting your needs and serving the world, now and into the future.

Priorities for my first few months of development work are increasing participation and activity by the Michael Support Circle, developing a planned giving program, and asking you, our membership, about what’s most important to you. A short survey will be released soon, and I hope you will take the time to participate. This is your society and we want to hear from you!

If you’ve contributed to the annual appeal, please accept our heartfelt thanks! As a reminder, it’s not too late to make a gift. This year, the theme focus is the move and preservation of the collection of the Rudolf Steiner Library. As members, you have had and will have free access to this collection, the largest English language collection of Steiner’s works in the world. Funds raised will protect, repair and catalog this essential resource for research and learning, now and into the future. Learn more and make a gift at www.anthroposophy.org/membership/donate.

Rudolf Steiner has advised us, “To truly know the world, look deeply within your own being; to truly know yourself, take real interest in the world.” Working together, we are able to bring anthroposophy into thought and deed, to make the world a better place. Thank you, members and donors, for your generosity, vision, and action.

In service, Deb

Abrahams-Dematte deb@anthroposophy.org

RSL Interim Librarian

Judith Kiely has assumed the responsibilities of Interim Librarian at the Society’s Rudolf Steiner Library where she has worked since 2001. She earned her Masters from Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science in January 2011, and has a B.A. in psychology magna cum laude from Boston University. She began to study anthroposophy in 1980, and has been a member of the Society since 1989. Before coming to the library, she worked for six years in the business office at the Great Barrington (MA) Rudolf Steiner School as bookkeeper and financial operations manager.

“My association with the Library began in 1981 when it was still located at 211 Madison Avenue, New York City, and I started borrowing books by mail. In those days Fred Paddock included a short note with every order he sent out, and I have saved a few of my favorites. When my family moved to the Berkshire-Taconic area in 1994, I was able to visit the library in Harlemville for the first time. What a treasure! And Fred Paddock was nothing like the ascetic I had pictured him to be. Little did I imagine that seven years later Fred would hire me as a library assistant.

“I have now had the privilege of working at the library for the past twelve years; and under the directorship of Judith Soleil, assisted in the accomplishment of several “firsts” including: our first preservation assessment in 2007, funded by the Conservation and Preservation Discretionary Grant program of the New York State Department of Education; our first membership in a library consortium, the Capital District Library Council in Albany, and the installation of our first computerized circulation system and online catalog, both beginning in 2008; and our first digitization project in 2011-2013. Look for all past issues of the Journal for Anthroposophy online at the New York Heritage Digital Collections (which is linked from www.anthroposophy.org/rudolf-steiner-library)

“During this coming year, along with transition manager Seth Jordan, I am grateful to take part in the largescale preservation project envisioned by project manager Maurice York, as the library moves forward into the next phase of its life.”

Judith Kiely with RSL transition manager Seth Jordan

General Secretary Travel: 2013 and Immediate Future

Members Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona

Heartbeet Camphill Community in Hardwick, Vermont

Triform Campill Community in Hudson, New York

General Secretaries Meeting & AGM, Goetheanum, Dornach, Switzerland

Leadership Team meeting in St. Paul, Minnesota

Faculty Meeting at Monadnock Waldorf School to prepare for AGM in Keene, NH

AWSNA Conference and workshop on the inner life of the teacher; Austin, Texas

Meetings at the Waldorf School in New Amsterdam, NY

Colleagium, GC, & branch meetings; Spring Valley, NY

Faust Branch, Fair Oaks, CA

AGM and conference in Keene, NH (240 attended)

General Secretaries meetings in Dornach, Switzerland

Branch meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio

Members meeting in Blue Hill, Maine

Youth Section meeting/workshop in Burlington, Vermont

Branch meeting in Cuernavaca, Mexico

Branch meeting in Portland, Oregon

Members’ meeting of area initiatives in region of VT, NH, northern MA

Members meeting in Carbondale, Colorado

Torin Finser is also scheduled in late winter and spring:

Members meeting in Deerfield Beach, Florida

Members meeting in Seattle, Washington

Members meeting in St Paul, Minnesota

Fall 2014: AGM and conference in Fair Oaks and possible tour of Bay Area, California groups and branches. If interested in a General Secretary visit, contact Cynthia Chelius (cynthia@anthroposophy.org ) at our Ann Arbor office.

A Gathering of Initiative!

An open invitation was extended to those working out of anthroposophy and living in the greater Wilton/ Keene (NH) area to come together for a special evening on January 31, 2014. Graciously hosted by Monadnock Waldorf School in Keene, the purpose of the gathering was to bring together individual and group initiatives within the area so that we could hear from one another, inform one another of what is going on within the area, and open up to any possibilities for connection and interest. All were welcome to attend, whether one was coming to speak or simply to listen.

Coordinated by artist and educator Marcy Schepker from Harrisville, NH and co-facilitated with Torin Finser, the gathering was attended by close to 50 people. Those venturing out on a clear, cold winter’s night included classroom teachers, parents, farmers, artists, school administrators, music therapists, authors, and eurythmists, as well as those working in other capacities such as in life sharing communities, residential therapeutic communities, homeschooling communities, social threefolding organizations, day care programs, and study groups. It was quite a diverse and lively group!

Each person in the circle was given three minutes to share, with the gentle wave of a silk scarf signaling when one’s time had concluded. As we wound our way around the circle—whether one was sharing information from an initiative or simply listening deeply—it became clear that many people were already connected to one another in some way, many from past work together. As the evening continued, a larger spiritual connection within the group also seemed to arise within the group as a whole. Someone remarked that along with the physical beings in the room, there might be arger forces at work as well, with a second set of beings in spiritual form there in accompaniment.

At the end of the individual sharing, there was some discussion regarding the possibility of creating a regionally-based resource directory of initiatives. The question of how to create a more cohesive network among all of the pockets of anthroposophical communities within the New England area was also raised. Torin then offered a brief report on developments in anthroposophical work in America and worldwide. The report provided a bridge from our regionally-based efforts to the work going on in the larger community, and was a nice way to tie all of the

At branch meeting in Cuernavaca, Mexico; Torin Finser at center

sharing together.

The evening concluded with a verse by Rudolf Steiner in which he calls us to be mindful of what lies at the very heart of community:

The healthy social life is found

When in the mirror of each human soul

The whole community is shaped

And when in community

Lives the strength of each human soul.

While what was accomplished in the room might possibly have been accomplished online somehow, participants clearly found it important to come together in a warm-body way on a cold winter’s night instead. May the gathering serve as inspiration for continued initiative in our own area and beyond!

Brenda Armstrong-Champ Michaelmas Farm, Ashby, MA

Brenda is a community-based educator and the founder of Waldorf Family Network, a grassroots initiative serving homeschooling parents inspired by the work of Rudolf Steiner. She lives on Michaelmas Farm, a homestead and learning center in Massachusetts which serves as home base to new initiatives related to farmbased education, homeschooling, the arts, adult education, and community life. www.MichaelmasFarm.com

Speaking with the Stars Project

The Central Regional Council is very excited to be embarking on this new impulse in our regional work toward strengthening our relationship to the heavens while standing firmly on the earth. To this end, we will not be meeting at the beginning of May as we have in recent years. The form of our annual gathering is metamorphosing as we engage in a region-wide series of activities leading to a collaborative Speaking with the Stars event during the Easter season of 2015. We are in collaboration with

regional member, Mary Stewart Adams. We are being guided and informed by her years of research and experiences as an astrosopher, star-lore historian, and member of the School for Spiritual Science. During 2014 we will actively work on preparing ourselves and those interested members and friends within our region by coming to greater familiarity with the heavens and cosmic events; the night sky, the phases of the moon, the celestial dance of planetary bodies and how we may engage in a more conscious conversation.

Pan-American Congress

The Anthroposophical Society in Brazil and Gru po Pindorama recently sent out the invita tion for the VI Pan-American Congress, which will take place from July 22 to 27, 2014 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The overarching theme will be “The Mission of the Americas in the XXI Century”, consisting of four main pillars:

• Sacred Geography: What is revealed by the interaction between the people and the place they inhabit?

• History and Culture: What does our ancestral heritage indicate about our future?

• Mythology: What are the common archetypes that live in the mythologies of the various peoples of the Americas?

• Spirituality: What is the mission of the Americas in re-enlivening contemporary spirituality?

The Pan-American Congress attempts to bring together different sectors that use anthroposophy as a foundation for their actions, with particular characteristics representing their “group soul” and leveraging their unique capabilities towards the betterment of humanity.

The first Pan-American Congress took place in San Diego, California in 1999, followed by Quito, Ecuador in 2002, Patcuaro, Mexico in 2005, Medellin, Colombia in 2008 and Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2011.

For more information please visit www.sab.org.br or email panamericano@sab.org.br

The above painting is part of a series created by Laura Summer in 2010 while studying the Philosophy of Freedom. You may view other paintings in her series at laurasummerrecentwork.blogspot.com/2010/

Deepening Anthroposophy

Thomas O’Keefe

In April of 2012, I began producing the free email journal Deepening Anthroposophy as an independent newsletter by and for English-speaking members of the Anthroposophical Society worldwide. At the time, I had been inspired to translate (with the generous help of Simon Blaxland-de Lange) reports of two lectures given by Sergei Prokofieff and Peter Selg on March 30, 2012, Rudolf Steiner’s deathday, during the Annual General Meeting of the Anthroposophical Society in Dornach, Switzerland.

I developed and sent out the first issue of Deepening Anthroposophy because I felt that English-speaking members of the Anthroposophical Society should be given the opportunity to know what was expressed on March 30, 2012. Whether or not one agrees with Prokofieff and Selg, the day was a milestone in the history of the Anthroposophical Society. These lectures have been translated into English and are now also published as Crisis in the Anthroposophical Society and Pathways to the Future (Temple Lodge 2013).

What was said on this occasion can best be summarized by a phrase Peter Selg used in his talk, and with which Sergei Prokofieff also titled his publication: “How do we stand before Rudolf Steiner today?” That means, in a spiritual sense: How would we feel about ourselves and our activities for anthroposophy if we were honestly to stand before Rudolf Steiner and the beings of the spiritual world that support the intentions of anthroposophy? How would we judge our own truthfulness, integrity, and courage to stand in the earthly world as colleagues of Rudolf Steiner and in service to anthroposophy?

Pondering this question with inner sincerity may give us a feeling for the state of soul with which the beings

guiding anthroposophy currently look upon our activity on behalf of it—and equally, it may bring us closer to our own higher intentions. To my view, essential questions like these can help us maintain a close connection with the spiritual roots of our tasks, whereas much in our world today has the powerful effect of pulling us away from what is most essential, and robbing us of our sensitivity to moralspiritual qualities and ideals—resulting, for example, in a growing indifference about the distinction between truth and untruth. March 30, 2012, was an intensified call to reflect on our history as a movement and on our most vital goals for the future.

In this spirit, I felt that there was need for a publication in which members could exchange ideas about anthroposophy; a way to deepen our work with anthroposophy together, so that the questions raised by Prokofieff and Selg on March 30, 2012, as well as other essential questions, might find room for expression, discussion, and evolution.

Seven issues of Deepening Anthroposophy were produced in 2012, and four larger issues in 2013. The early issues focused on the tasks of the Anthroposophical Society and the inherent challenge of balancing esoteric deepening with breadth of activity; the themes raised on March 30, 2012, were often revisited. Another subject addressed in 2013 was Sergei Prokofieff’s important study ‘Time-Journeys’—A Counter-image to Anthroposophical Spiritual Research, in which Prokofieff expressed the need for discernment regarding the source and quality of spiritual perceptions and experiences.

The first issue of 2014 was sent out in early January, with a focus on Auschwitz, including reports from the conference held there in November by SteinerBooks and the Ita Wegman Institute. In the written summary of his lecture, Peter Selg developed a comprehensive overview of the various forces of evil that were at work during the Holocaust, and he characterized the life-paths of a few exemplary individuals who undertook a Michaelic confrontation with these different qualities of evil.

The format of Deepening Anthroposophy was inspired by the work of Roland Tüscher and Kirsten Juel, whose email newsletter Initiative Entwicklungsrichtung Anthroposophie [Initiative for the focused development of anthroposophy] (initiative.e.a@gmail.com) contained the original reports of the lectures of March 30, 2012. I.E.A. is a German-language newsletter for members of the Anthroposophical Society; the newsletter has been active since February 6, 2011, following the official discontinuation of the “members insert” in the weekly Das Goetheanum magazine. Roland Tüscher and Kirsten Juel were not content to see the possibility for members’ correspondence fade away; thanks to their work, substantive reports and perspectives about developments in the Anthroposophical Society can quickly reach members around the world. Roland Tüscher’s and Kirsten Juel’s activity in service to anthroposophy provided me with the context to create something similar for the Englishspeaking world. At Michaelmas 2012, Tatiana GarciaCuerva founded a third such newsletter, Realizando Antroposofia [Bringing anthroposophy to realization], for Spanish-speaking members of the Society worldwide (realizando.a@gmail.com).

From the outset, Michael Ronall of Spring Valley, NY, felt that Deepening Anthroposophy was a needed impulse and has contributed his editing expertise to all eleven issues. Simon Blaxland-de Lange, Daniel Hafner, Anna Meuss, and others have contributed their translating skills to various issues. There are currently approximately 560 subscribers, mostly in the US and UK.

Since March 2013, Deepening Anthroposophy has been produced in association with the Ita Wegman Institute for Basic Research into Anthroposophy, in Arlesheim, Switzerland. The Ita Wegman Institute, founded in 2002, is a research institution directed by Peter Selg with the aim of producing studies on the life and work of Rudolf Steiner, the lives of his close colleagues, and on related themes. For several years now SteinerBooks has been translating and publishing a number of Selg’s books.

With Deepening Anthroposophy I hope to create a forum for regular and substantive discussion on the essential themes of anthroposophy and the tasks of the Anthroposophical Society. The newsletter is sent as an emailed PDF about 4-7 times per year, and is also available in paper copy. Those interested in subscribing and/ or receiving back issues are invited to contact me at deepening@wegmaninstitut.ch.

A Boy’s-Eye View of Mr. Kretz

Harry Kretz: June 7, 1928–December 5, 2013

There are children who look up with religious awe to those whom they venerate. …It is a blessing for every human being in process of development to have such feelings upon which to build.

—Rudolf Steiner, Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment

Counterculture Kampf

Although he was likely unaware of it, Harry Kretz served as one of the luminaries of my childhood at Camp Glen Brook, where I spent three summers as a middle-school pupil in the latter 1960s. At the Rudolf Steiner School in New York City, Mr. Kretz taught the class three years younger than mine, but as there was little fraternizing between the grades except among siblings, I glimpsed him there only in passing, across the border that enclosed my classmates. At camp, though, where socializing among age-groups and their supervising staff was less strictly demarcated, he hovered as a mysterious, even Sphinx-like influence whose bearing awed me; harvesting this impression back to school for the rest of the year, I always wondered what it would have been like to have him as a teacher and, on behalf of any such student, adjudged it should signal immense good fortune.

For children exposed to, and in some cases immersed in, the popular trends of that day, the typical teacher at the Rudolf Steiner School cut an odd figure. The impression we received was that of contrast with, and even stolid opposition to, the nascent counterculture, whose idealism, baptized in defiance, tangled in hedonism, and sprinkled with vulgarity, was inexorably sucked into the very commercialism from which it was virulently but vainly trying to dissent. The adults at the Steiner School strove to combat these lures to illusory liberation by maintaining uninterrupted self-possession. But because they rarely and barely explained to us what they were doing, at least one student wondered why—when the contemporary air was redolent with uninhibited possibility and rang with the signature of available delight in immediate, uncritical, perpetual self-discovery and the supposed recovery of primal innocence through surrender to instinct—did these intelligent people seem deliberately and systematically to hold themselves back from spontaneity, when they too could have been having a good time with us? While we were incongruously urged, by the zeitgeist delivered through the mass media, into a purportedly noble savagery through the perpetual production of mindlessly repeated chord progressions stapled to electronically amplified beat, the clash of synthetic garish colors, and other simulations of, accessories for, and invitations to psychotropic adventuring, from what motive did our mentors at school cryptically suspend their endorsement of this refreshing new ethos of living-in-the-moment without reference to prior rules or future consequences? 1 Why was this release of passion not obvious to

1 Tom Wolfe summarized the motif in his instructive 1987 retrospective essay “The Great Relearning.” “The hippies, as they became known, sought nothing less than

them as the way to go, the crowning culmination of the romantic era, finally, apocalyptically, casting off its civilization’s discontents? Why their doggedly sober, cramped, even dour generic disapproval, signaled through aloofness as an anodyne for their mildly disgusted contempt with all that was cool?

Balancing the Effort to Maintain Balance

When I saw Mr. Kretz, however, I viewed a man facing this efflorescent pride of appetitive life with an equanimity that many of his discomfited colleagues were trying, not all as successfully, to present to their wards. Of course, I did not know at the time that they were struggling to implement an idealism far more radical than that of the hippies, yippies, and wannabes that we mechanical imitators were. Only much later did I come to appreciate the dilemma that the spurious cultural revolution had thrust upon self-identified Michaelites, and the difficulties that it posed responsible caregivers aiming to present us with something more constructive than just principled, but inchoate and churlish, opposition. Perhaps Mr. Kretz simply understood the importance of deliberately practicing Positivity 2 as an imperative to (paradoxically) balance the practice of Equanimity.3 Only much later, when attempting to implement

to sweep aside all codes and restraints of the past and start out from zero.”

2 Rudolf Steiner: “The spiritually experienced know how much they owe to the circumstance that in face of all things they ever again turn to the good, and withhold adverse judgment.”

3 In his book about anthroposophical self-development, Enlivening the Chakra of the Heart, Florin Lowndes points out that Rudolf Steiner surprisingly paraphrased the fourth “accompanying exercise,” Positivity, as “freedom from bias,” because of, in Lowndes’ words, the “primal negativity and its effects which Lucifer has woven into the astral body”—i.e., that negativity is the perverted “default” posture of fallen human perception and its attendant opinions. “The third exercise [Equanimity] related to the inner aspect of the luciferic temptation; the fourth [Positivity] to the outer aspect; a polarity arises between them: in the third exercise our perception is focused directly upon ourselves, while in the fourth it is directed towards the world.” Hence, aiming for emotional balance without sufficiently cultivating positivity will consign the well intended esoteric student to playing killjoy, a role to which, for all his sobriety, Mr. Kretz seemed never to succumb.

the same set of spiritual calisthenics, have I come to realize the challenge of pursuing inner balance in the face of a world hostile, not only to one’s ideals, but to any attempt at sustainedly characterizing reality; if the attempt does not stop at surface appearances, as it should not, avoiding the generation of an oppressive atmospheric disapproval becomes a virtuosic accomplishment. And even as the subsequent generation of anthroposophists, embedded as we have been in a much larger and nominally supportive New Age movement with which to cross-pollinate, have been tempted to err in the opposite, i.e., sanguine, direction, I know that I have not succeeded in approaching that stately man’s achievement.

I eventually came to doubt how much better any generation might have met the tidal onslaught of decadence—mingled though it was with some confused but intuitively informed objections to the complacent, intolerant, opportunity-restricted rat-race of the status quo ante—seeping through our ragtag sedentary children’s army, in its own way driven by conformity at least as much as was the bourgeois ancien régime. The cookie-cutter dissent of aspiring 1960s hipster teens, and tweens avant la lettre, was succinctly captured in a film of the previous decade,  The Wild Ones (Mildred: “What are you rebelling against, Johnny?”; Johnny: “Whaddaya got? ”); our teachers’ specific dissent from our generic dissent seemed to us but conventional puritanism as H. L. Mencken had unsympathetically defined it: “The haunting fear that someone, somewhere is having a good time.” Flattered by the cult of youth, and more particularly by its anti-

rational (and hence anti-mental-effort) fetish of immediacy, generating the illusion of instantaneous egalitarian community, and indeed blanket communion with the cosmos-as-a-whole, our seduction by the [not very] “underground” subculture’s crude substitution of luciferic materialism, glazing our nigh invincibly ignorant assurance that we were the vanguard of curing the civilization’s ahrimanic materialism, must have appeared to our contemplative elders as pathetically crippling.

But We’re the Ones!

That generation of Waldorf School teachers had come to recognize that their century, despite prophetic warnings from the supersensible scientist of the age, had indeed failed to restore the cosmic dimension to the constituent elements of civilization. This exposed an affluent but spiritually vulnerable society to the sudden and bewitching onslaught from the sophistic and demagogic trivializers, degraders, corrupters of the Pepsi Generation and its guides; to take but one example, a high-school freshman at Steiner, incited by the national controversy raging over mandated prayer in (public) schools, initiated a brief but unpleasant rebellion against reciting the Morning Verse. Shocked by such depredations of our nascent self-awareness, which our pioneering Waldorf teachers knew that, if prudently cultivated, would become the only reliable guide for our dawning liberty, and realizing the profound redemptive value of an inspired pedagogy that they were eager to share with us, they must silently, woundedly have been pleading, “Hey, we’re the rebels!” Ambushed by a caricature of the cultural potential that they were seeking to unlock both in themselves and for us by modeling self-discipline, sacrificial service, and a striving for religious appreciation of their natural, social, and divine surroundings, they must have been appalled and bewildered by the prospect of the next generation’s sensibilities being ravished in broad daylight, and they must have been lamenting: But we are the ones who have turned away from egotism, from self-seeking ambition, from materialism, from ecological blindness, in order to renew the broader culture! Yet, their approach, through gentle veneration for the delicate faculties of childhood and adolescence that they felt obliged

to shelter against jeopardy by premature awakenings, was no immediate match in seductive power for the violent intrusions that the fashionable mass-leadership of the Pied Piper variety achieved. The latter appealed in fact to the very spiritual organs that could, if protected, provide true initiation into mysteries that the counterculture, at least in its popularized versions that were alone accessible to schoolchildren, mimicked. As James Agee (one of our assigned authors at Steiner) detected, writing in the previous generation about his contemporaries who were unwittingly conscripted as emissaries of the dragon of materialism into perpetuating subtle attacks on the human ideal:  “You have distilled of your deliverers the most ruinous of your poisons.”

How exasperating must have been the experience of those attempting to rescue us from our own willing enchantment to powers offering us the ease of unmediated communion with our own shadows! And yet our teachers were restricted, as their opponents in the struggle for our souls were not, by a respect for our nascent freedom, however usurped by misguidance it might have been at any extended moment. Encountering young people engulfed by a societal wave that fostered our alternations between the listless apathy of resolutely dropping out, and the zealous if hypothetical pursuit of chimerical utopias at best and crypto-totalitarianisms at worst, they sadly witnessed our native aspirations, not transformed and sublimated, but rather introjected in pursuit of our own sensations—all in the service of retaining us in perpetual immaturity.  How could a wiser perspective assess without dismay the subliminal betrayals of our capacities that it was precisely their mission to protect from premature awakening? Whence their vicarious defense of our threatened human dignity could be deployed only obliquely, and in Mr. Kretz’s case, at least to my exposure, silently. Painful irony lay in the fact that these very authorities against whom our “thundering herd of independent minds” dutifully rebelled were actually the custodians of the gateway to the spiritual world toward which we were groping with fatally skewed maps. Far in advance of the popular trend that vulgarized into clichés a retrograde retrieval of primeval spirituality, and

undistracted by their epiphenomena that the counterculture dangled before a transfixed public, our teachers had discovered the value of an inner path appropriate to the technological age, arising from an appreciation of the feature most intimate to the consciousness of human beings: human thinking and its determinative influence on our feeling and willing.

As much as some of his colleagues appeared offended, Mr. Kretz seemed detached from the commotion of the day, but hardly unreflective; rather, he seemed definitively, regally, to have pierced to the meaning of things. And all this was conveyed merely in his glance, through his tone, by his very restraint, centered in his self-contained presence. At any rate, whether instinctively or laboriously worked through, Mr. Kretz did exhibit a rare degree of emotional balance, that commodity whose authentic display might be the most salutary gift that growing children can receive. Only once ever did I see him angry, his forbearing nature having been tested past the brink by the final irruption of some exceptionally recalcitrant preadolescent delinquency—happily not mine, since I had imagined correctly that if it were ever on display, his temper would be formidable. But in that moment it was clear from his patently righteous indignation that he was in possession of his wrath, rather than, as in the cases children most fear from adults, in its possession. Hence, in place of some of his peers’ perplexing attempts at stoicism— which only later I could retrospectively and sympathetically identify as efforts to modulate their understandable misgivings about our subjection to a moral pandemic, but whose concerted apathy capsized into irritated coldness—came through him as ethical substance, the true elixir for which the followers of the counterculture, with its more and its less accurate critiques of civilization, were actually yearning.

“I” of the Storm

None of this was ever explicit; Mr. Kretz carried himself like the Oracle at Delphi in Heraclitus’ characterization: “It does not reveal; it does not conceal; but it gives a sign.” Inwardly remediating the noises of both the dominant materialism and its lame materialistic opposition, he seemed ready to wait out the restoration of our innocence,

knowing that, en route to initiation into our destiny, we each must “pass through a host of tempters of his soul [that] would all harden his ego and imprison it within itself.”4 This creative restraint came recurrently through the yarns that Mr. Kretz, himself a legendary storyteller, periodically offered to Glen Brook’s campers, spinning cascades of absurdity in masterly deadpan, with perhaps only the occasional microscopic lift of an eyebrow to indicate that he too was in on the jokes he was recounting, of which, regrettably, the only one I still recall5 was that of Mr. and Mrs. Cohen and their lovely daughter Ice-Cream. I did not abstract the principle at the time, but it was mastery by the ego, or I, over his emotional life that—with no consequent loss of empathy, but rather an abundance of available, unintrusive yet commanding attention— enchanted us through a series of whimsical adventures featuring a hero named Little (for each mention of the protagonist’s surname, Mr. Kretz would whistle a quick descending two-tone major fourth). These surreal episodes were delivered in a tone that was sober, matter-of-fact, but at once sophisticated and naive, and that homeopathically leavened with freshness—as did our narrator’s very presence—the attending youth increasingly exposed to the dominant coarse, cynical, jaded timbre of popular discourse as the dark underbelly of its exulting sensuality.

On a daytrip, while the population of the camp as a whole hiked up nearby Mt. Monadnock and was resting at the summit to picnic, gather blueberries, and admire the views, one of the more adventurous older kitchen-boys and I, in search of novelty, decided to wander away from the assemblage in order to investigate the surrounding wilderness. As it happened, the two of us, well out of sight of the rest

4 Rudolf Steiner, Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment.

5 ”Education is what remains when we have forgotten all that we have been taught.”

of the campers and staff, came upon a clearing and were exploring its borders to the woods; we stationed ourselves a short distance apart with our backs to each other, enjoying the silence as well as the sneaky triumph of achieving undetected, unauthorized autonomy. When a loud snort suddenly rang out from the bush surrounding the little meadow of which we had taken possession, we simultaneously turned to each other, both wanting to be sure that the other had made the noise. As if scripted, I urgently asked my older friend, “Was that you?” “No,” he replied, with mounting apprehension, “Was that you? ” “No,” I replied in turn, and mirroring each other’s look of horror as we vividly pictured a large wild boar poised to attack and rend us, we both raced fearfully back to the calm picnic of campers and counselors and tried desperately and unsuccessfully to gain attention, credibility, alarm for our discovery…only to spot Mr. Kretz bemusedly lounging at the sideline of the spread-out seated crowd, regarding us with a disarming, inquisitive twinkle. His demeanor suggested fluency in the idiom of our recently discovered local species, but no verbal admission of the authorship of this prank was either forthcoming or necessary.

Looking Forward

Characterizing the mysterious but organized roots of human affection, C.S. Lewis discerned in The Four Loves that “The child will love a crusty old gardener who has hardly ever taken any notice of it and shrink from the visitor who is making every effort to win its regard. But it must be an old gardener, one who has ‘always’ been there—the short but seemingly immemorial ‘always’ of childhood.” In the case of the influence that Mr. Kretz exerted, the requirements of this archetypal structure underwent a variation, perhaps peculiar to a postmodern childhood invaded by the instabilities of contemporary social life. The redemptive nature of Waldorf teaching, whether in or out of the classroom, can be signaled as much by the exceptionality of its appearance in a given young person’s circumstances as when it forms the dominant tenor for those who will encounter competing values only gradually in subsequent maturity. In the case of one child (whom another perceptive counselor at

Glen Brook later described as “the oldest little boy I had ever met”), the effect achieved lay precisely in that Mr. Kretz had not always been there, and, because of our agesegregation during the school-year, seemed for this observer barely there even when I knew he was around. But just through the enforced compromise of its availability, Mr. Kretz’s gallant but mild comportment stirred a longing in his part-time pupil for what one someday might attain, for what one might someday hope to become.

It is not too much to say that this teacher presented to at least one growing child the face of a deeper aspect of humanity than that commonly in evidence, disclosing a prescient outlook subsisting steadily and faithfully beneath the overpoweringly crass and noisy allures of sensationalism. Almost certainly, Mr. Kretz was unaware that in quietly following his own spiritual practice, he powerfully instantiated for at least one observer the spirit of present-mindedness, who behind the glare of materialism operates quietly, subtly, compassionately, as in fact the true spirit of our time.

Michael Ronall, Chestnut Ridge, NY

David James Blair

October 3, 1952–November 3, 2013

(Editor’s Note from the Sophia Sun: We were deeply saddened to hear of the death of David Blair, a well-renowned and beloved Waldorf teacher. He was my son John’s Class teacher at the Green Meadow Waldorf School. It was David’s first assignment as a Waldorf teacher. My son adored him and tried to emulate David’s teaching methods when he himself became a Waldorf teacher. Below follows David’s biography as it appeared on the Shining Mountain Waldorf School’s website where he was the Faculty Chair, and the Obituary that appeared in the newspaper following his death.)

David Blair joined the Shining Mountain Waldorf High School faculty in 2004 after serving for 22 years as class teacher and in the high school at the Green Meadow Waldorf School in Spring Valley, NY. Born in Philadelphia, David grew up with dreams of pitching for the Phillies. After graduating in 1976 with a BA in Political Science from Rutgers University, David completed the Waldorf teacher training at Rudolf Steiner College in Sacramento in 1982. He has

Members Who Have Died

Mary J. Anderson, Orange, CA; died 12/22/2013

Margaret Barnetson, North Hills, CA; died 6/10/2013

Adeline Bianchi, Berkeley, CA; died 11/23/2013

David Brewster, Chatham, NY; died 12/25/2013

Alicia S. Busser, Chestertown, NY; died 4/28/2013

Lotte K. Emde, Milwaukee, WI; died 2/23/2013

Odessa M. Ferris, Valley Village, CA; died 12/17/2013

Ilse Kolbuszowski, Eugene, OR; died 1/2/2014

Barbara E Levene, Nanuet, NY; died 9/7/2013

Anne Mendenhall, Lansing, NY; died 5/8/2013

Sally M. Smith, West Nyack, NY; died 7/19/2013

Uwe H. Sohnrey, Spring Valley, NY; died 2/1/2013

directed high school plays at GMWS and SMWS, and has written plays for grades 1-8. He also has had teacher training and mentoring experience. David enjoys sports and has coached baseball, softball and basketball in Waldorf high schools. He completed the Spatial Dynamics training and participated in the Olympic Peace Project in Greece in 2001.

Obituary

David Blair, beloved Waldorf teacher, died November 3, 2013 at True Community Care Hospice Center in Louisville, Colorado from melanoma. He was 61 years old. David was born October 3, 1952 in Philadelphia, PA to John Thompson Blair and Margaret (Peggy) Patterson Blair, and grew up in Cinnaminson, New Jersey, a suburb of Philadelphia where his father worked. He graduated from Cinnaminson High School in 1970 and continued on to Rutgers University, where he majored in political science and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1974. A good athlete and avid baseball fan, David pitched his way to a summer in the semi-pros. Discovering that baseball at this level was not as much fun as he had imagined, he changed course and went to work in sales for Libby Glass, first in Philadelphia and later in Los Angeles. During that time, David began to study anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner’s philosophy of human development and spirituality. Anthroposophy supports a wellrounded, dynamic school curriculum (Waldorf Education) based on Steiner’s insights into human development and an artistically imbued approach to living. This quest led him to a training at Rudolf Steiner College in Fair Oaks, CA, where he discovered his life’s vocation - teaching. David taught for 22 years at the Green Meadow Waldorf School in Chestnut Ridge, NY. David was also a trainer of Waldorf teachers, an anthroposophical adult educator and a curriculum presenter. He possessed a gift as a public speaker and brought warmth, humor and understanding through his eloquence. In 2004, David moved to Boulder, CO to continue his career as a Waldorf teacher at the Shining Mountain Waldorf School. On June 29, 2013, after a decade of intimate involvement, David married the

love of his life, Thyria Ogletree, a Waldorf Eurythmy teacher.

Two previous marriages to Susan Tew and Marjorie Rossiter ended in divorce. David had no biological children but considered all of his students his children. He said, “What perhaps strikes me more than anything is what an unusual path it is in life to accompany children for so many years who do not happen to be my own relatives. But in a certain way they live as deeply within me as relatives might in my life.” In addition to loving Waldorf Education, David had a lifelong passion for the Philadelphia baseball team. He figured out many ways to incorporate the Phillies into his lesson plans, from American History to life lessons for his students about winning graciously as well as dealing with multiple losses. He loved riding his motorcycle and the feeling of freedom it afforded him. He was a rock music aficionado and a fan of the Grateful Dead in particular. David’s spiritual depth and his warm sense of humor made him, and what he had to share, accessible to everyone lucky enough to cross his path. He was a balanced man, with great depth and humility and a sense of mischief that attracted people of all ages. He had high standards, yet he was forgiving of himself and others. His students adored him, as did their parents. His colleagues respected and depended on him. The followers of the website that informed his friends of his condition while he was ill numbered over 800, but the effect he had on his students and friends is unquantifiable, immense, and everlasting. His parents, Jack and Peggy, preceded David in death. He is survived by his wife Thyria Ogletree and step children Kyra and Nyal McGee; brother and sisterin-law John and Anne Blair; and nieces Katie Oksenvaag and her husband Erik and Wendy Stephan, her husband Andrejko and their daughters Caitlin and Zoë.

New Members of the Anthroposophical Society in America, recorded 11/23/2013 to

2/18/2014

Antonia Marina Aguilar, Pacific Palisades, CA

Christopher Anderson, Cheltenham, PA

Jason Child, Chapel Hill, NC

Donna Distefano, Philadelphia, PA

Sheila Donohue, Chicago, IL

Neah Bay Douglas, Manitou Springs, CO

Julie Fish, Tustin, CA

James Gossett, Seattle, WA

Muriel Hess, Clear Lake, IA

William Kelly, Stamford, CT

Barbara Lawrence, Chicago, IL

Ted Lemon, Sebastopol, CA

Cameron MacArthur, Chestnut Ridge, NY

Gina Marrujo, La Mesa, CA

Marshal McDonald, Philadelphia, PA

Jane Mealey-Reed, Whitmore Lake, MI

Bruce Ness, Whitefish, MT

Margaret Leslie Paul, Mount Clemens, MI

Christopher Quintanar, Wahiawa, HI

Janine Schroeder, Mount Clemens, MI

Clint Stevens, Houston, TX

Mia Terziev, Woodacre, CA

Kathleen Vallejos, Clinton, OH

Basia Valva, Jamul, CA

Jessica Claire Vanlandingham, Haiku, HI

Marla Witcher, Santa Barbara, CA

From “Lessons Along the Way“

by Mark Haberstroh Cross of Light

A line in the sand a finger through the water it presses in as it inscribes the vertical from brow to below, drawing with light upon the dark field of the soul. Shoulder to shoulder, secret heart transfixed, a searing from the cross of light, slowly fading until next time. ••• Center

Our moments grind to a halt without love. Every moment freezes without love. We can overcome these jolted stops in two ways. We can embrace Illusion and thereby experience the flow of seemingly seamless contiguity… (a nice covering, like digital overlaying analog. Those digits still saw with jagged teeth through the soul). Or we can search for the truth of love, whose power inexorably bonds one moment to the next, like chains of radiant atoms building multi-directional structures of light in winter's cold, indigo night. These spirit- snowflakes softly descend and then melt to become the warm golden blood of the heart within the heart.

(In gratefulness to Hal Clark) •••

Thought

Like the falcon aloft fly with your thought streaking to its destination. Ride the radiant flaming ethers until far-flown over sand or sea your wing-ed creation finds its kin. Spiraling down to earth to ground, it builds through affinity an impulse within another soul, and newly clothed in dark or light or murky or clear waters, binds you both in liquid spirit. Was your thought-deed “the last straw,” a quiet revelation, or simply love? What thought now leaps from your brow to a new journey, a new home? How do you swim the vast ocean of universal thought, as shark or dolphin or true man?

Mark Haberstroh was published many years ago in the Journal for Anthroposophy and more recently in Anthroposophical Journal of Australia .

These three poems begin a series which may be found at lessonsalongtheway.weebly.com/poems.html

basic questions of anthroposophy

Anthroposophy: what? why? how? who? when?

by John Beck

Our colleague John Price (ASA finance guy and Waldorf parent), suggested some time ago that we ought to have something “for beginners” in each issue of being human. This seems the natural—if not simple—place to start. Please comment, suggest topics you would like to see addressed, and offer short essays (500 words is ideal) of your own.

“What is anthroposophy?” That question has stirred anxiety in generations of students of the work of Rudolf Steiner. It is just not easy to answer! Why so, after a hundred years? On one hand anthroposophy is so large that sensible people get shy of speaking. On the other hand, almost everything, when touched by anthroposophy, becomes so interesting one could talk long into the night.

Then what is anthroposophy for? What is it trying to accomplish? How does it further its goals? Who does it come from—and perhaps we can also ask, who is it? And when did it surface—and how long will it last?

What? This little magazine, published by the Anthroposophical Society in America, attempts to give the very shortest answer in its title: being human. Anthroposophy is about being human. Rudolf Steiner said in 1923 that the word should be taken to mean “the consciousness of one’s humanity”—or perhaps of the human condition, the human situation, the human place.

Why? Why is anthroposophy? What for? What’s its mission? The word coexisted for a while with “anthropology”; then anthropology became a standard academic field, one among many, and anthroposophy was taken up by Rudolf Steiner as nothing less than a new foundation and centering point for a more humane civilization. That role was long played by religious doctrines and/or philosophy, and then for more than a century by natural science. So in the past it was either God or gods who were fundamental and central, or else the experience of thought and reasoning, or in our times the objectification and abstraction of our experience of the world according to the “scientific method.”

Anthroposophy, as Steiner formed it, proposes that human qualities, beginning with how we know what we know, must now be placed again in the center of our concerns. This is to be done not naively, passively, but out of a new self-disciplined engagement with our human capacities. Why does this matter now? Because modern culture has become destructive—of human relationships,

of individual capacities and development, of our natural world. This destruction comes because we have excluded ourselves from the central place we actually occupy, and in so doing, we allow ourselves to evade our responsibilities, to shirk our role in nature, society, the cosmos.

How? Is anthroposophy an abandonment of that clarity and independence of thought that science brought? A relapse into a personal, subjective, egotistical relationship to everything? Not at all. It is a recognition of the objective fact that everything we are able to experience can emerge for us only out of our individual human consciousnesses. Science itself is a human activity; knowledge is a human product. And so the individual human being (beginning with myself) must be met and understood before anything else can be considered certain.

What about values and standards? Anthroposophy’s reframing of culture begins with a strict search for truth, but then invites us to introduce a free moral element. How is that? If the individual human consciousness is fundamental and indeed inescapable, the question soon arises, “How good and reliable is my consciousness?” And then, “How do I raise my consciousness to a higher level?” How do I become clearer, more perceptive, more discerning, more receptive, more appreciative, more loving even—in the powers of attention through which every thing and every other person comes to life in my awareness? We can follow out the implications of this ethical shift at any length we want; they are quite radical, and perhaps most radical is asking us to employ moral imagination and create our own higher standards.

It’s enough perhaps just to add that Rudolf Steiner developed his own powers of consciousness to such a degree that he felt able to report on the widest and most farreaching researches. In the course of these researches he could place humanity in a flow of evolution which originates with the cosmos—and is now offering us a return to a creative participation with beings whose consciousness is developed very differently from our own. These beings stand back to allow us our freedom and uniqueness; to start on this path we have only to ask. We sense this subliminally in our modern loneliness. From such insights comes Steiner’s statement in 1924 that anthroposophy is a path of knowledge which arises from a need of the heart and leads from the human mind and spirit to the mind and spirit of the cosmos.

Hard to talk about all this? Yes, indeed. The specific initiatives, the “applied anthroposophies,” illuminate the bigger goal in specific areas. If human consciousness has continued on page 62

basic questions of anthroposophy

Anthroposophy: what? why?... continued from page 61

still-evolving potentials which are differentiated among us individually, then each human person should be met as well as possible, and supported in developing their fullest potentials, in their most formative years. So the Waldorf school and early childhood and special needs movements. If nutrition and wellness are essential supports to our life experience, and if modern ideas have been breaking down the integrity of natural systems, then individuals drawn to work on the land need ways to restore the harmonious relationships that produce really nourishing food and heal the Earth in the process. So Biodynamic farms.

Eurythmy supports education and healing processes and as an art begins to reintegrate human beings into living cosmic creative patternings. Biography work informed by anthroposophy helps us to engage archetypal development patterns that underpin each human lifetime, and to work with them in healing and strengthening ourselves. And the cognitive studies and exercises in Steiner’s basic books lead us to a stronger, broader, deeper awareness of our selfhood and the meaningfulness of our existence.

Note that anthroposophy is properly quite open. Steiner spread research insights like seeds to be cultivated, tested, and nourished by others. He did not dogmatize, asking only for deep seriousness and honesty.

All this “how” of anthroposophy culminates in the question of repeated lifetimes. It is an old question—does human consciousness and identity have an enduring existence, apart from the body? Religious traditions affirm this—even Judaism and Christianity which both largely conceal such knowledge. Plato described reincarnation in some detail. Ben Franklin as a young printer wrote himself an epitaph in which he looked forward to being reissued in a new and more perfect edition.

Developing confidence in our ongoing existence is a powerful antidote to the fear and anxiety which arise, and are even promoted, in contemporary culture. Technology’s physical power exposes us to ever new reasons to feel vulnerable, and mass culture suggests we are each quite expendable. Pondering anthroposophical insights and examining our own inner life we can develop a sense of having a second self. This being accompanies the personality we identify with, the little self which strives and suffers and loves and grows in this lifetime, and will harvest what we have gained in this lifetime. Considering how disparate our individual fortunes are, it is only in a picture like this that “justice” begins to seem possible in the cosmos, and every life a chance to grow.

Who? Who, then, is anthroposophy? Can we ask that? Who? The word combines anthropos —the upwardfacing human, not merely andros, the male person—with sophia , wisdom, not mere information but insight out of actual experience. Perhaps anthroposophy-as-a-being encompasses all of us as we work to become more consciously human. If we take our consciousness as something enduring, this includes both “the so-called living” and “the socalled dead.” More than that, this inclusive higher human consciousness may be, as the ancients thought, a being in itself, as Sophia was a goddess to the Greeks.

Finally, is there a “when?” to anthroposophy? Is it specially appropriate now ? A student of world history sees that the great ancient civilizations have all been destroyed. Even Europe, conqueror of the world, destroyed itself in the 20th century. “God is dead, and we have killed him.” Now on offer is a human merger with the rapidly advancing technology of machines. Is this an advance? A retreat? Can we tell whether genetic engineering and artificial intelligence can be used to make us into better humans? Or just long-lived, super-intelligent, anthropoid insects?

We can’t tell that unless we really know ourselves as we have been and are now. It may be that the human beings that have emerged from nature embody higher sciences and higher technologies than the most sophisticated mechanization we can currently conceive—and that we have higher possibilities that would actually be blocked by implanting robotics and artificial intelligence. Anthroposophy, said Steiner, is urgently needed now; it can help us release powers of disciplined imagination, inspiration, intuition. Longer lifespans and super-computer powers of calculation don’t point to such capacities, but they do make clear the reason for urgency: as human beings, we are now choosing our paths into the future. Our choices may be irrevocable.

Rudolf Steiner’s work is part of a great flow of human development. In ancient Greek times the philosopher Protagoras asserted that “of all things the measure is truly human(ity).” He also taught arete, virtue, excellence, the German idealists’ Bildung, Emerson’s Self-Reliance, the individual’s quest to fulfill her or his potential, to become authentically human. This human measure, then, was something active and evolving. In Protagoras’ circle the word kairos also took on its meaning of “the opportune moment.” Anthroposophy, by any name, is here, now, to help us know ourselves, our human situation, and to help us seize this present moment by making better choices and living fuller lives out of that wisdom.

Sonnet to Orpheus 2:4

English: Christiane Marks

rainer maria rilke

O dieses ist das Tier, das es nicht giebt. Sie wusstens nicht und habens jeden Falls — sein Wandeln, seine Haltung, seinen Hals bis in des stillen Blickes Licht — geliebt.

Zwar war es nicht, doch weil sie’s liebten, ward ein reines Tier. Sie liessen immer Raum. Und in dem Raume, klar und ausgespart, erhob es leicht sein Haupt und brauchte kaum

zu sein. Sie naehrten es mit keinem Korn, nur immer mit der Moeglichkeit, es sei. Und die gab solche Staerke an das Tier,

dass es aus sich heraus ein Stirnhorn trieb. Ein Horn. Zu einer Jungfrau kam es weiss herbei — und war im Silberspiegel und in ihr.

Rainer Maria Rilke’s fifty-five “Sonnets to Orpheus” came to him in a storm of inspiration in February of 1922, while he was actually finishing his ten “Duino Elegies.” Written three years before his death, these two poem cycles make up his best-known and most highly acclaimed mature work. The themes of the Sonnets range widely, from childhood memories to plants and flowers, from the dangers of technology to music and dance—music and dance not surprisingly, since Orpheus, to whom they are dedicated, was a musician, and Wera Oukama Knoop, whose “grave monument” they are intended to be, was a young dancer who died at the age of nineteen. Every artist, whether poet, musician, or dancer, creates what has never existed before—and such creation is the theme of this sonnet. On reading it, we are at first merely amused at the paradox of being introduced to the “nonexistent,” but then soon delighted at the way people of warmth and faith are bringing it to life. An opportunity for all of

This is the nonexistent beast. They did not know that it did not exist, and so they loved it anyway — its posture, gait, and crest. They loved the very light of its calm gaze.

True, it did not exist. But since they loved it, a pure beast came to be. They left it space. In this clear space they set aside for it, it raised its head a little, scarcely needing to be. They did not nourish it with grain — just with the possibility of being, from which it gained the strength to grow a horn — a frontal horn. When, in its whiteness, the beast approached a virgin, it became, it was — within the mirror, within her.

us—sensing the beautiful “unicorns” out there that we could be nurturing into reality. The final lines of the sonnet allude to an old folk belief—that a unicorn will achieve full reality on looking at its image in a mirror held up to it by a virgin. How can we gain and maintain that virginal inner purity that will enable us to hold the magic mirror and allow it to work?

Christiane Marks came to America from Germany at the age of nine, and German continued to be the family language. She majored in Comparative Literature in college and earned an MA in German Literature from the University of Cincinnati; her dissertation dealt with translating Kafka. She was a member of the American Translators’ Association and the Anthroposophical Translators’ and Editors’ Association (ATEA) for years. She has translated two books: Anthroposophie. Von der Dramatik eines Jahrhunderts ( Anthroposophy: Movement and Society, 1902 - 1999. Account of a Dramatic Century) by Karl Buchleitner, and Das dreifache Mariengeheimnis (Threefold Mary) by Emil Bock. She has also translated numerous articles and the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke.

Christiane Marks

Rilke by Paula Modersohn-Becker (1906)

The Mystic Capture of the Unicorn, fragment circa 1500, now in The Cloisters, New York City

Week 1:

June 22rd to June 27th

After More than a Hundred Years: Christ, Sophia, and Anthroposophy

“after Auschwitz”

With Christopher Bamford

The Riddle of Destiny: A Study of the Biographies of Key Characters in Rudolf Steiner’s Mystery Dramas With Marke Levene

The Joy inTeaching: Managing Time, Managing the Classroom With Christof Wiechert

Getting off on the Right Foot: Teaching Grades 1 & 2

With Christopher Sblendorio

Finding our Feet–the Earth is our Home!: Teaching Grades 3 & 4

With Elizabeth Auer

The Turning Point of Childhood: Teaching Grades 5 & 6 With Patrice Maynard

Discovery and Enlightenment: Teaching Grades 7 & 8

With David Gable

Social Inclusion and Restorative Discipline: Exclusion, Teasing, and Difficult Behavior in Children and Adolescents

With Kim John Payne

Wet-Method Painting through the Eight Grades of the Waldorf Curriculum: Find the Artist within You With Ted Mahle

Working With Adults in Organizations, Schools, Businesses, and Non-Profits: Introduction to Eurythmy in the Workplace With Leonore Russell

Liane Collot d’Herbois - Out of Darkness into Light: Chalk Pastel and Veilpainting Exercises With Charles Andrade and Iris Sullivan

Encountering the Self: Foreign Languages in Grades 6, 7, and 8 With Kati Manning and Lorey Johnson

Welcome to Renewal 2014!

For Waldorf teachers and administrators - along with parents, trustees, artists, and thinkers seeking to deepen their lives through Anthroposophy

Week 2:

June 29th to July 4th

The Incarnating Child: Medical and Pedagogical Support in the First Seven Years. An inaugural training module for Medical Doctors, Health Professionals, Healing Educators and Practitioners, Therapeutically Engaged Teachers and Parents

With Michaela Gloeckler, MD

Crossing the Threshold: Are We There Yet?

With Eugene Schwartz

Space is Alive!

With Jaimen McMillan and Katie Moran

Art History: The Evolution of Consciousness through the Visual Arts

With Ted Mahle

Projective Geometry

With Jamie York

Self-Education through Intuitive Thinking and Artistic Perception: With Signe Motter, Elizabeth Auer, Douglas Gerwin, and Hugh Renwick

Personal and Organizational

Renewal:

From Survival to Success

With Leonore Russell and Torin Finser

Inspiring and Rejuvenating our Lives: Goethe’s Italian Journey, the Italian Renaissance, and Rudolf Steiner’s Art History Lectures

With David Lowe

Register online at: www.centerforanthroposophy.org

Renewal Courses sponsored by Center for Anthroposophy Wilton, New Hampshire

Karine Munk Finser, Coordinator 603-654-2566 • info@centerforanthroposophy.org

Visit us online for details of our part-time Foundation Studies in Anthroposophy and the Arts

Barbara Richardson, Coordinator Clusters available on demand around the U.S. www.centerforanthroposophy.org

June 29th to July 26th

Waldorf High School Teacher Education Program

Douglas Gerwin, Director Three-summers program specializing in Arts/Art History

Math

Biology

English

History

Physics & Chemistry • Pedagogical Eurythmy

Painting by Karine Munk Finser