being human spring issue 2019

anthroposophy.org

rudolfsteiner.org

being human

personal and cultural renewal in the 21st century

The Character of Capitalism, Capital, & Money (p.16)

Still Betting on the Humans (p.19)

Traute Page and the White Rose (p.25)

Anthroposophic Therapies Online (p.31)

Spiritually Striving Youth in North America (p.32)

Finding Our Voices (p.34)

Poetry: I AM Manifesto (p.37)

Piercing Through the Veil of Karma (p.40)

Masters of Esoteric Christianity (p.44)

Waldorf Education in Indigenous Spaces (p.47)

World Language Teacher Training (p.49)

The Integrity of Animals (p.50)

Communication & Humanity (p.52)

The Mystery of Dante (p.53)

a quarterly publication of the Anthroposophical Society in America spirng issue 2019

Paul Klee, The Limits of Understanding (1927); Oil, watercolor and pencil on canvas

Inspiring Education

Since 1967

Enrolling Summer 2019

*Elementary, World Language & *Early Childhood Completion Track

Low-Residency Waldorf Teacher Education Programs

Scholarships Available including new Diversity Scholarship

*SUNY MEd Option Available

•

See website for winter/spring events and Summer Series course & workshop listings

www.sunbridge.edu

Week 1: June 23rd to June 28th

The Art of the Child Study with Christof Wiechert

Grade 1: The Journey Begins with Regine Shemroske

Grade 2: From Form to Solid Foundation with Michael Gannon

Grade 3: Awakening to Self and Surroundings with Kris Ritz

Grade 4:

Norse Mythology and the Mantle of Responsibility with Shannon Wiley

Grade 5: The Golden Age with Monica Lander

Grade 6: From Romans to Knights and Ladies with Lynn Thurrell

Grade 7: A Year of Reawakening and Exploration with Alison Henry

Grade 8: From Revolutions and Modern History to the Role of the Individual in a Free Society with Phil Fertey

The Roadmap to Literacy for Grades 1-4 with Janet Langley and Patti Connolly

Also Featuring:

● Daily Morning Lectures with Christof Wiechert (Week 1)

● Science with Roberto Trostli (Week 1)

● Singing with Meg Chittenden (Week 1)

● Drawing, Painting, or Clay with Elizabeth Auer (Weeks 1&2)

● Eurythmy with Cezary Ciaglo (Weeks 1&2)

● Movement with Julianna Lichatz (Weeks 1&2)

● Singing with Eleanor Winship (Week 2)

Welcome to Renewal 2019!

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

Week 2: June 30th to July 5th

Meeting Social and Behavioral Needs in the Classroom with Kim John Payne

Experiencing Singing and Eurythmy as Paths to the Spirit with Eleanor Winship and Leonore Russell

Hidden In Plain Sight: Writing Creatively with Paul Matthews and Patrice Pinette

Learning from the Essence of Nature: School of Elemental Beings with Karsten Massei

Gender and Sexuality in the Light of Waldorf Education with Lisa Romero

Art as a Bridge over Troubled Waters: Pastel and Watercolor with David Newbatt

Beyond 100: Preparing Future Adult Educators with Torin Finser, Douglas Gerwin, Leonore Russell, and Eleanor Winship

Philosophy of Mathematics: An Adventure in Thinking with Jamie York

The Interplay Between Concave and Convex in Wood and Clay with Daniel O’Connors and Robert Thurrell

Register online at:

centerforanthroposophy.org

Renewal Courses sponsored by Center for Anthroposophy Wilton, New Hampshire

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

Other part-time programs offered by Center for Anthroposophy: Explorations: Workshops in the Arts and Contemplative Practices Clusters available on demand around the U.S. Waldorf High School Teacher Education Program June 30th - July 27th, 2019

Three-summers program specializing in Arts/Art History

Living Thinking with Michael D'Aleo

Fundamentals of Anthroposophy: Observation, Contemplation, and Self Development with Signe Motter et al.

The Human Encounter and Community Building: Waldorf School Administration and Governance with Carla Comey and Torin Finser

Painting by Karine Munk Finser

An appeal to members in America to become subscribers...

Published in the UK four times a year, at Easter, Midsummer, Michaelmas and Christmas, New View magazine brings contemporary insights based on Rudolf Steiner’s anthroposophy offering a fresh look at the world and ourselves. Contributions from authors in the UK, Europe and around the world include Health, Education, Arts, Science, Environment, Biodynamic-Agriculture, World events, Community, Book Reviews and much more.

New View began life as an outreach publication within the Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain in 1996 but since 2004 it has been a fully independent initiative reliant on subscribers, advertising and fund raising to maintain its existence. Given the challenging political, social and economic times that we are all living through, its editor since 1998, Tom Raines, considered that it would be important to create a bridge to readers in America and initially made a number of free copies available back at the turn of the century for all members in the AS in America to see what New View had to offer. This brought about a small readership in America that we would very much like to increase. As paper copies (which many prefer to leaf through) are more expensive, due to mailing costs, we also offer a cheaper digital downloadable subscription.

www.newview.org.uk ~ editor@newview.org.uk ~ ++44 20 7431 1608

(Read in over 40 countries ~ a wordwide community)

JUNE 16 - 21

History through Music Eric Müller

SUMMER COURSES 2019

Watercolor Layer Painting Martina Angela Müller | Clay Sculpture Patrick Stolfo

Eurythmy Lynne Stolfo

Singing and Playing the Lyre in the Mood of the 5th Diane Barnes

Early Childhood Festivals Andree Ward

JULY 16-20

Leading with Spirit: The Art of Administration and Leadership in Waldorf Schools

Understanding the Social and Spiritual Foundations Lisa Mahar and Michael Soulé

FOR COURSE DESCRIPTIONS AND REGISTRATION, VISIT ALKIONCENTER.ORG

Teacher Training

Concentrations

Early Childhood

Elementary Grades 1-8

Working with Special Needs

Educational Leadership

Accepting Applications for Summer 2019

Denver cohort

June 21 - July 6, 2019

east coast cohort

July 14 - 27, 2019

Teaching as an art Week

Denver July 8 -12, 2019

Why gradalis? gradalis training is taught over 26 months in seven semesters. eight courses provide anthroposophical foundations, rich artistic training in visual & temporal arts, inner development, insights for child observation and working with special needs. Field mentoring, curriculum and school culture support students as they complete their internship in their own classroom. includes three two-week Summer intensives; four Practicum Weekends & on-line interactive Distance Learning (8.6% of program) to support the working teacher with monthly pedagogical and main lesson support through 2 school years.

Our experienced Waldorf Faculty Donna newberg-Long, PhD; Bonnie river, Med; Thom Schaefer, Ma; Prairie adams, Ba; Tim Long, MBa; cristina Drews, MSe; helen Lubin, Ma; Lin Welch, Ma; Martha gollogly, Ba; Karl Johnson, Ma; Jane Mulder, Ba; Janis Williams, Ma; Sandra Kirschner, Ba; Lee Sturgeon-Day; Thesa callinicos and gayle Davis, M.a

Accrediting council for continuing education & training

Embark on a journey of self development and discovery Study with us to become a Waldorf Teacher

TWO

EVENTS FOR YOUR DIARY

THE PEDAGOGICAL POTENTIAL OF CRAFT

CRAFT AS A TOOL FOR HUMAN EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT

MON 15 - THURS 18 JULY 2019

Ruskin Mill Trust campuses | United Kingdom

An intensive course combining theory with practice inviting participants to undertake craft activity and practical skills, observing themselves through self-reflection in an action research process. The course is aimed at individuals wishing to work within a therapeutic and educational context. It is underpinned by Rudolf Steiner’s pedagogic model and works out of Ruskin Mill Trust’s unique method of Practical Skills Therapeutic Education

For more information go to: thefieldcentre.org.uk

NEUROdiversitY a living conference

AUTISM - REIMAGINING OUR POTENTIAL

FRI 19 and SAT 20 JULY 2019

Ruskin Mill College | United Kingdom

Building on our unique partnership with the Hay Festival, please join us to explore neurodiversity. Come and experience the transformative power of craft whilst working alongside Ruskin Mill Trust students, listen to the many voices of neurodiversity and join the conversation.

For more information go to: www.rmlt.org.uk

Live Your Ideals in an Inclusive, Sustainable Community

Plowshare Farm is an attempt to be responsive to the social, human, spiritual and ecological challenges of our times.

At Plowshare, people with a wide range of capabilities – including people with special needs – live and work side by side to build a caring, inclusive and sustainable community.

Do you wish for an integrated lifestyle for yourself (and your family) that values the human being, the earth, the home, practical arts, Waldorf education and the insights gained through Anthroposophy? Have you considered lifesharing? At this apex in our growth, we have opportunities that include:

Are you an experienced farmer? Trained in or open to biodynamic principles? With the vision to steward a small-scale dairy/meat operation in a community setting?

Do you have some of these traits, related experiences and skills:

A passion for the Nurturing Arts, Practical Arts and Social Arts? Living in community?

Waldorf School teaching?

Foundation in Anthroposophy?

Building maintenance and care?

Mechanics/equipment care?

Home health care? Manual arts?

A homesteading impulse?

Spiritual striving?

Conservation/environmental stewardship?

To start a conversation, call (603) 547-2547 or email service@ plowsharefarm.org

As a lifesharing community grounded in Anthroposophy, we are innovators creating a model of social and ecological renewal.

If you’re someone with a pioneer spirit, there is room here to make a real contribution to building a sustainable community.

We offer a generous support package. Plowshare Farm is a Camphill affiliate, a member of the Anthroposophic Council for Inclusive Social Development, and a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

Are you interested in pursuing college-level studies in the social therapy field (debt-free!) through the Camphill Academy?

Are you unsure what’s next in your life path but wish to grow through service and community living?

Stop by to explore tools for conscious personal growth. Festivals for the soul. Inspiring activities. Bringing thinking to life. Harmonious movement. Deeper understanding of technology, ecology, and evolution. The arts. Spring 2019: Wagnerian mysteries; Hilma af Klint & Rudolf Steiner.

ANTHROPOSOPHY NYC

138 West 15th Street New York, NY (212) 242-8945

Flexible Fees & Hours www.bluepearlarts.com Anthroposophically based Mentor Counseling by Telephone tel. 360.473.7777 alicia@bluepearlarts.com Dr. Alicia Marroquin, Esoteric Chaplain PhD in Esoteric Religious Studies, MA in Psychology Sponsored Member Anthroposophical Society since 1990

A

re risks worth taking? Can you imagine through words? You cannot know until you try. Join the knights, dare journey into their world and into the depths of mysteries that exist throughout the world. For those on their own Quest for Truth these adventure novels are meant to inspire that search.

Are New Titles in 2019

Waldorf Teacher Training in Canada Programs

Waldorf Early Childhood Educator Training

Next intake, June 30, 2019

July session in Duncan, Vancouver Island; fall & spring in North Vancouver, BC

2 year part time program – 5 weeks each year. 3 weeks in July, 1 week in fall and spring with additional mentoring, observation and practicums.

Waldorf Grades Teacher Training

Next intake June 30, 2019 July session in Duncan, Vancouver Island; fall & spring in North Vancouver, BC 3 year part time program – 5 weeks each year. 3 weeks in July, 1 week in fall and spring with additional mentoring, observation and practicums.

Intensive Courses

Mentoring: Transforming Ourselves to Meet the Other

“We are all just walking each other home” —Rumi

June 30 to July 5, 2019 with Louise deForest, Heather Church and Wendalyn von Meyenfeldt

This week-long deepening, open to experienced EC teachers, will explore the art of mentoring through a variety of approaches.

The Unexpected Gifts of the Mystery Children

—learning to see these children with new eyes

July 14 to 19, 2019 with Adola McWilliam, Marjorie Rehbach and Robin Laskowski

A week of insights into, and useful ‘tools’ for, our work with the mystery children of our time.

For more information please contact Ruth Ker email: mrker@shaw.ca phone: 250-748-7791

Visit

Remedial Aspects; Understanding and working with learning differences

July 8 to 12, 2019 with Ute Grimm, Adola McWilliams and others

Learn to recognize the signs that indicate one-sidedness or imbalance, and how to develop an approach towards healing the child.

Teaching with Heart 2019

Experiencing the Waldorf approach

July 7 to 9, 2019 with Kate Reynolds and Rebecca Watkin

An overview of Waldorf education for those who are teachers in other schools and/ or to those who are interested in becoming a Waldorf teacher.

For more information please contact Lisa Masterson email: WCIGrades@gmail.com phone: 949-220-3193

British Columbia, Canada www.westcoastinstitute.org | info@westcoastinstitute.org

10 from the editors

14 book notes

16 from the general secretary: “The Character of Capitalism, Capital, and Money”

19 initiative!

19 Still Betting on the Humans: Nicanor Perlas & the Challenge of AI, by CT Roszell

25 Traute Page and the White Rose, review by John Beck

31 Anthroposophic Therapies Online, by Steven Johnson, DO, and Adam Blanning, MD

32 Thank You to Supporters of the Spiritually Striving Youth in North America

34 arts & ideas

34 Finding Our Voices, by Charles Burkam

37 “I AM manifesto,” poem by Lynn Jericho

38 Three poems by Maureen Tolman Flannery

39 Poems by John Urban, Andrew Hoy, Christina Bücking, Andrea Huff

40 research & reviews

40 Piercing Through the Veil of Karma, part 2, by Luigi Morelli

44 Masters of Esoteric Christianity, review by Stephen Usher, PhD

47 Waldorf Education in Indigenous Spaces, by Joaquin Muñoz

49 “The Mystical Voice,” poem by Laurie Clark

49 World Language Teacher Training

50 The Integrity of Animals, review by Craig Holdrege

52 Communication and Humanity, review by Seth Jordan

53 The Mystery of Dante, review by Terry Hipolito

55 “I came through the woods...”, poem by Michael Ridenour

56 news for members & friends

56 Open Hearts, Open Minds, by Deb Abrahams-Dematte

57 New Members of the Anthroposophical Society in America

58 Michael Support Circle

58 John Joseph Cronin, Jr.

59 Members Who Have Died

59 Maria St. Goar, by Edward St. Goar

62 Stanley A. Evans, by Angela Foster

62 Friedolf Michael Smits

63 Rudolf Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul, suggested dates by Herbert O. Hagens

64 The Sacred Gateway, Ghent, NY, April 26, 27, 28, 2019

The Anthroposophical Society in America

General Council

John Bloom, General Secretary & President

Dave Alsop, Chair (at large)

Dwight Ebaugh, Treasurer (at large)

Nathaniel Williams, Secretary (at large)

Micky Leach (Western Region)

Marianne Fieber-Dhara (Central Region)

David Mansur (Eastern Region)

Joshua Kelberman (at large)

Leadership Team

Deb Abrahams-Dematte, Director of Development

Katherine Thivierge, Director of Operations

Laura Scappaticci, Director of Programs

being human is published by the Anthroposophical Society in America

1923 Geddes Avenue

Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1797

Tel. 734.662.9355

www.anthroposophy.org

Editor: John H. Beck

Associate Editor: Fred Dennehy

Proofreader: Cynthia Chelius

Headline typefaces by Lutz Baar (Baar Sophia, Baar Metanoia)

Past issues are online at www.issuu.com/anthrousa

Please send submissions, questions, and comments to:

editor@anthroposophy.org or to the postal address above, for our next issue by 4/31/2019.

being human is free to members of the Society (visit anthroposophy.org/join).

Sample copies are sent to friends who call, write, or email us at the address above.

from the editor

Dear Friends,

On the cover we are sharing a notable work of art by Paul Klee, “The Limits of Understanding” from 1927. Usually the cover is by the artists features in our visual gallery, but we have a gallery of poems this time. The Klee speaks to a topic of intense interest to Rudolf Steiner and all of us today. Are there points beyond which human intelligence cannot go? “Matter” and “consciousness” were, and still are, the “brick walls at the end of the mind”; but Steiner reported that they are limits only in the sense that we must increase the power of our consciousness to go exploring beyond them.

Today we also have the question whether human intelligence has a limit of memory and processing speed which will be surpassed by information technology. We were long since surpassed by machines in physical work and calculation. Many people now believe that AI, artificial intelligence, not only can simulate more and more of our “higher” functions but is actually a higher path for our own human future? Ted Roszell writes with great warmth about Nicanor Perlas’ important new book on the challenge of AI (p.19ff).

There follows my own review of a newly translated book, Long Live Freedom: Traute Lafrenz and the White Rose, about people and events in Germany in 1942-43. Here we can review what human beings are capable of, horrifying or heroic. (Note that AI’s offer of speed is silent about goodness.) In his Karmic Relationships lectures, Rudolf Steiner spoke of “intelligence” as the mutual interrelationship of beings. Culture could be described in those terms as well, and it was relationships among young, mostly medical students and mostly dead writers and philosophers and painters that lighted the flame remembered as “the White Rose.” Its glow grows brighter with time.

Traute Lafrenz became Dr. Traute Page on this side of the Atlantic, and with her 100th birthday arriving in May, we were pleased to be able to follow the heroic and tragic notes with share some greetings and reminiscences about her contributions to anthroposophy and life in Chicago over many decades since (p.28ff); the mutual interrelationship of human beings.

Our centerfold is a warm greeting from young people in our movement today, with an invitation to connect in a “more active community of support around the Youth Section...” I recall a conference, 1997 in Ann Arbor I believe, where the closing gesture was for the youngest participants to form a large circle in the meadow of the nearby arboretum, and for the older participants to form an even larger circle around them. Trees made a third circle. Such a deed needs to be repeated and sustained. Often young people bring a heat and purity of intention that is necessary for human progress; it succeeds much more fully when formerly-young people with handholds and footholds in life and society will bear witness for the newest strivers. Also, please note the youth events planned for August, described on the second page (p.33).

Anthroposophy is essentially a direction for humanity, forward and upward. The knowledge and ideas are astounding, but the deeds—the initia-

©2019 The Anthroposophical Society in America. Responsibility for the content of articles is the authors’.

tives taken by so many people—manifest most fully the significance of this oddly-named “anthroposophy.” So it is good to see a series of gatherings in which people from many different initiatives, under the auspices of the CAO (Council of Anthroposophic Organizations) are “finding our voices.” One of these gatherings happened recently in San Francisco; Charlie Burkam recapitulates his eloquent sharing on the second day, on page 34.

With Klee on the cover, and two artistically composed and drawn pages from youth activists, we pause the visual arts gallery and take the opportunity this issue to catch up on poetry. Anthroposophy intends to strengthen both imagination and inspiration, and we seem to have many poets of skill. Please slow down for a few extra minutes and enjoy their fine work (pages 37-39, 49, and 55).

In the research and reviews section Luigi Morelli completes his helpful research into Rudolf Steiner’s karma exercises with insights into the all-important Foundation Stone Mantra. Steve Usher reviews an early book of Sergei Prokofieff which has only posthumously been published. Joaquin Muñoz reports from a conference in Toronto that really entered into essential questions of cultural resilience and respect in North America.

Craig Holdrege reviews the life-work publication from Wolfgang Schad, Understanding Mammals: Threefoldness and Diversity. This classic of holistic, Goethean science restores to animals the integrity of their unique beings. Seth Jordan reviews Steiner lectures on communicating around social questions; hint: don’t forget selfdevelopment! And Terry Hipolito reviews a book on the esoteric Dante, with special attention to the living presence in the world of divine, cosmic wisdom—Sophia.

John Beck

Rudolf Steiner Library

Contact Information

Rudolf Steiner Library of the Anthroposophical Society in America , 351 Fairview Avenue Suite 610, Hudson, NY 12534-1259

(518) 944-7007 (voice & text)

E-mail: rsteinerlibrary@gmail.com

Hours: Wednesday–Saturday, 10am–3pm.

Home page: www.anthroposophy.org/rsl

Library catalog: rsl.scoolaid.net

Leaving a Legacy of Will

The Anthroposophical Society in America announces the forming of the

Legacy Circle

Legacy giving offers the opportunity to make a gift which brings expression to your intention and love for anthroposophy into the future.

Thank you to our 31 founding members, who support the Society’s future through a bequest or planned gift, and to those (next page) who have made bequests in recent years.

www.anthroposophy.org/legacy

www.anthroposophy.org/legacy

Legacy Circle

Many thoughtful and caring members have provided legacy gifts for the Anthroposophical Society in America through their estate planning. We are humbled and deeply grateful for the gifts of these dear friends since 1992:

J. Leonard Benson Susannah Berlin

Hiram Anthony Bingham Virginia Blutau

Iana Questara Boyce Marion Bruce

Helen Ann Dinklage Irmgard Dodegge

Raymond Elliot Lotte K. Emde Marie S. Fetzer

Linda C. Folsom Hazel Furguson Gerda Gaertner

Ruth H. Geiger Harriet S. Gilliam

Agnes B. Grunberg Bruce L. Henry

Ruth Heuscher Ernst Katz Anna Lord

Seymour Lubin Gregg Martens Ralph Neuman

Norman Pritchard Paul Riesen Ray Schlieben

Lillian C. Scott Fairchild Smith Doris E. Stitzer

Gertrude O. Teutsch Catherine Vanden Broek

Contact Deb Abrahams-Dematte at deb@anthroposophy.org or (603) 801-6584 for information about the Legacy Circle.

the “trade edition” leather-spine binding and a light slipcase, hand-numbered edition the binding will be a hand-gilt top of fine, stiff, cloth-covered leather is blue calfskin, stamping on the spines gold leaf. All of this by hand at one of Ruggero Rigoldi. Initially, production to begin at the end work on the new translations, ing, and naming an Thomas O’Keefe, the schedule. Now started, and all collaborators are working to punctually books on the newly ck, 610 M ain d s@ st e in erb -8233 e xt .103

Crestone, Colorado 2019

Webinars & Podcast

Art Retreat

August 15-18

Landscape Painting

Retreat

Contact

Jennifer Thomson for details...

Call: 719-937-7694

Email: Sunstudio.thomson1@gmail.com

Website: www.jenniferthomson.net

Would

Just remember our website address (anthroposophy.org ) plus the two words “webinars” and “podcast” and you can easily enjoy anthroposophy in the new media. Go to www.anthroposophy.org/podcast to find your way to The Anthroposopher, where Director of Programs Laura Scappaticci offers “conversations when you want them.” And here are the latest at press time:

The Story in Our Stars, with Mary Stewart Adams Death, Life, and Poetry, with Maureen Tolman Flannery

Hazel Archer Ginsberg on the Meaning of the Season

Anne De Wild on the Fifth Temperament

The Spiritual Striving of Youth, with Andrea De La Cruz.

New webinars are announced by email as well as being posted on our blog at www.anthroposophy.org/blog

After they’ve happened “live,” the recordings are found at www.anthroposophy.org/blog. Two recents ones are:

Compass Rose of Wind & Stars, with Mary Stewart Adams & Patricia DeLisa

Metamorphosis: Living Thinking, with Craig Holdrege

Please email community@anthroposophy.org with any questions or comments, and enjoy!

"There are few places one can go in this world and experience deep restorative healing. Not just the parts that are unhealthy, but the entire organism. This place does that!"

Book Notes

Space does not permit us to review more than a few books in each issue. This page is meant to acknowledge some of the many others that come to our attention. Except as specified, notes are from the publishers. — Editor

SteinerBooks steiner.presswarehouse.com

The Isenheim Altarpiece: History – Interpretation –Background; by Michael Schubert; 176 pp. (91/4” x 121/2”).

The book offers a systematic and informed introduction to the history, meaning, and background of the altarpiece. Numerous new interpretations are presented, which elaborate upon and fundamentally alter previous perspectives. 200+ high-quality color reproductions, in-depth visual analysis.

“Michael has studied, observed and experienced the Isenheim Alterpiece in Kolmar for many decades. The new English translation ... should be made available to all those interested in the history and study of art, but also to those studying the esoteric riddles in Christology.” —Joan Sleigh • “A true work of art is said to perform of its own accord the act of transforming the soul of the viewer. ... Michael Schubert... was ‘shattered and overcome’, moved to the core of his being when he stood before the Crucifixion panel of the altarpiece for the first time... The panels ... also give pictorial expression to unconventional religious viewpoints that are rooted in esoteric Christianity. The author of this book left no stone unturned in his efforts to decipher the countless details that are, he notes, like letters of a forgotten language embedded in the panels....”

Treasa O’Driscoll

Living on the Fringe: A Memoir, by Abraham Entin; 248 pp. When Ed Entin decided to torch his draft card, everything about his life changed. He had his whole life mapped out. It was 1966 and Eddie had just been accepted into Yale Law School—his ticket out of the Army and Vietnam and into a life of secure prosperity. It took only one day, one decision to change the course of his life. What follows is a sometimes harrowing, often hilarious, and always illuminating ten-year journey through the social, political, and spiritual turmoil of the era. For anyone wondering how it was back then— or how to get through right now—Living on the Fringe provides a look at how one person waded into the turbulent waters of his time and came out whole, dry, and ready to face the future. And with a new name to match the person he had become. A hint: it involves meeting the work of Rudolf Steiner. • Abraham is embarking on a performing tour; let him know (abrahamentin@gmail.com) if you can suggest potential venues.

Other publishers

Songs and Dreams: by seeking we are found; by Neill Reilly;146 pp., Lindisfarne Books.

“If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” (Psalm 95:7–8) — There is a correlation between waking experiences in a sleep state and inner experiences in a waking state. Both involve awakened consciousness. The hundred-plus songs and thirteen dreams in this volume are halting attempts to put into words inner events that are experienced in a waking consciousness. Inner experiences are filtered into images, ideas, and feelings, which are then translated into words. This derivative process condenses activity into words. If these words resonate when read, they then re-create images, ideas, and feelings. In this way, it is possible for the writer and the reader to experience a very similar inner activity. The creative process of each reader has a life of its own. Ironically, as individuals we create our own unique inner activity, which can lead to a universal experience.

[Note: Neill Reilly has a further volume in preparation, Look at What We Can Become, on the lives of Prof. Fritz Koelln, John Gardner, Lee Lecraw, Marjorie Spock and William Ward.]

The Resurrection of Thinking: Steiner’s Anthroposophy and the Postmodernism of Badiou, Deleuze, Derrida & Levinas, by Scott Elliot Hicks; 332 pp.

In being human we have printed a notable lecture on anthroposophy and contemporary philosophy by Yeshayahu BenAharon, as well as two essays by Frederick Amrine concerning French philosopher Gilles Deleuze. Scott Hicks’ book treats this area for the first time at full length.

On Amazon.com Ben-Aharon writes, “Now, when you read Scott’s book, you feel how the etheric fire forces become cognitively and morally productive, because in each sentence and phrase you feel the heartbeat of love and true enthusiasm for the mysteries of humanity, earth and cosmos. Spiritual knowledge becomes dense, substantial, yet light-filled; it becomes limbic, metabolic, respiratory, sensory, knowledge, as Rudolf Steiner said a hundred years ago: ‘What one needs today is the kind of work that transforms spleen into enthusiasm, into fire so that men do not have a sleepy, but rather a wakeful civilization. This is what should come forth from anthroposophy: to be awake, to have enthusiasm, to transform cognition into true activity, into deeds, so man does not only know more but will become something through anthroposophy.’”

The Basic Books of Rudolf Steiner: A Compact Guide for Personal and Group Study, by Rick Spaulding; Wrightwood Press (www.wrightwoodpress.org).

Rick Spaulding’s valuable work on behalf of Emerson with Maurice York has helped uncover true foundations of anthroposophy in the USA. In this volume of about 100 pages he offers an overview of Rudolf Steiner’s vast project—the seed-planting for a new global civilization. It is rather more than an introduction to the basic books of Rudolf Steiner. Based on decades of group study in Chicago, his own and that of Peter Demay before him, this guide takes us into the esoteric ways to approach Steiner, the streams he was working in, relations to Freemasons and Theosophists, the paths of thought, feeling, action or studies, arts, professions. Since it is compact, there will be work to do to unpack all of the decades of experience behind it. Or simply open to a page, or a chart, and spend some time experiencing the depth of humanity’s past, the breadth of Steiner’s life work, and the heights that open ahead of us. Visit www.wrightwoodpress.org to order this volume or Eve Olive’s Cosmic Child, or the crucial Americana. —John Beck

The Biodynamic Food and Cookbook: Real Nutrition that Doesn’t Cost the Earth, by Wendy E. Cook; Clairview Books. Not a new book, but a rich one, beautifully illustrated and packed with delicious and healthy recipes. Illustrated with hundreds of color photographs, The Biodynamic Food & Cookbook explains the principles behind biodynamic methods and places it in the context of food and cooking through the ages. Wendy Cook, author of the bestselling Foodwise, takes us on a journey through the four seasons with more than 150 delicious recipes based on many years of working with biodynamic nutrition. She considers the ethics of food, the foundation of a balanced diet, and conjures up the color and vibrancy of Mallorca, which has contributed so much to her personal approach. Included are supplementary sections on breads, sauces, salads, desserts, drinks, and much more. When her daughter Daisy developed asthma and conventional medicine had little effect, Wendy began a journey of discovery of complementary treatments and alternative ideas. She studied macrobiotics as well as Rudolf Steiner’s approach to nutrition and agriculture (biodynamics). Having discovered how life-changing nutrition can be, she devoted herself to cooking and teaching in clinics, communities and schools. More recently she was resident at Schumacher College while simultaneously studying for a degree in Waldorf Education at Plymouth University.

Book Notes

Understanding Deeper Developmental Needs: Holistic Approaches for Challenging Behaviors in Children, by Adam

Blanning, MD; Lindisfarne Books, 522

pp.

“We have to work to feel at home in our physical body. This is not a sure thing. In fact, it is always a challenging task to fully penetrate the physical body. That penetration is the main developmental mandate of the first seven years of life.” (from the book) How do we best help a child who is struggling? By learning to look carefully. Enlivening our observation skills allows us to see consistent behavioral patterns and dynamics that show up in children’s movement, learning, sensing, and memory. Within those activities we can learn to see archetypal pathways of development. Watching the way a child moves, listens, eats, or sleeps offers us insights into a child’s experience of the world. Those gestures help tell the child’s story. We learn to think in living processes, not checklists.

Form Drawing and Colouring: For Fun, Healing and Wellbeing; Creative Form Drawing with children aged 6-10: Workbook 1; Creative Form Drawing with children aged 1012: Workbook 2, all by Angela Lord; Hawthorn Press.

Creative form drawing is a fascinating and meaningful artistic activity for health and wellbeing. It engages the right side of the brain through the flow of colour, form and movement.

Form Drawing and Colouring: for Fun, Healing and Wellbeing offers space for personal creativity, with stunning colourful forms to stimulate originality. It aims be both calming and enlivening, and is a valuable aid to harmonising body and soul. This creative form drawing book features fourfold patterns of increasing challenge and complexity. It references Celtic, Moorish, Native American and Buddhist patterns and encourages the development of new forms. — The two workbooks are form drawing resources for teachers working with specific age groups, to be used with the Steiner/Waldorf curriculum from classes 1-3 (workbook 1) and classes 4-5 (workbook 2). Originally developed by Rudolf Steiner, creative form drawing helps children develop hand-eye coordination, spatial orientation, observation skills, confident movement, drawing skills, and the foundation skills for handwriting.

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prised that capitalism, or what it has come to represent, is frequently disparaged as the bearer of illness in the body social. I have found myself reminding others when such negativity has been spoken, that we will likely always have some sort of capital regardless of the choice of economic system and how it is governed. And, further, that the issue is perhaps with the “ism” and not the capital. That is to say: the practice now dubbed capitalism represents a manifestation of attitudes toward capital that includes extreme self-interest and rampant materialism. These two factors alone cast a shadow on wealth overaccumulation, and its darker partner, greed. Wealth expressed and practiced as power is a pollutant in the polity.

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Accounting for capitalism and its effects on the world is a little like a financial balance sheet which must show that assets and liabilities are equal. This is a requisite equivalency scenario: if one part of the system being accounted for has significant assets, some other part of the system must show equivalent liabilities as balance. Such an accounting shows in numbers what people experience as deep inequity—inequities of wealth and disparities in income. Asset holding is made possible by those who bear the liabilities. This polarity between the have and havenots is more deeply affirmed in our perception the more it is characterized in this way, even as the reality continues to deepen the existing social divide. These conditions are sometimes framed cruelly in economic terms as winners and losers, a competitive framework that belies the economic reality of interdependence and the commonwealth of nature. A foundational counter-imagination to this narrative of polarities would be: sufficiency and circulation are indicators of health while accumulation and containment are indicators of illness. We would need a new accounting that would offset balance with flow. This imagination actually reflects how the human organism

works.

Of course, a wide range of feelings is evoked in considering capital and its uses. What I hear in the criticism of capitalism is that all those feelings are attached to capital itself. But this is also an avoidance of self-reflection and a recognition of deeply ensconced assumptions, policies, and practices about class, race, and gender that inhabit our economic life. The problem is conditioned behavior, not the capital itself. Capitalism in which some feel entitled to generate and use capital in a way that disregards the moral questions— toward what end and at what cost or consequence to others? — is illness-producing. And further, one measure of that capital—namely money—is generally thrown into the mix without understanding the distinction between the two, and the interconnected functions capital and money play in the economy.

In common parlance, the terms capital and money are often used interchangeably. On one hand, such a confusion is understandable given that current culture has pretty much monetized all economic activity. On the other hand, re-establishing a clear distinction between them and further understanding their particular inherent qualities, may support a more humancentered approach to economic activity. The distinction will also support reimagining the economy so that it can divest itself of bad actor capitalism, and instead operate in a way that hews to positive human and organic processes. In short, the genie of money needs to be returned to the bottle marked “efficient accounting system.” Money’s core purpose is to serve as an efficient portable and exchangeable measure of value. The genius of capital needs to be returned to its proper domain of connecting spirit and matter, idea and reality.

The flow between capital and money is a bit of an economic mystery, in the deepest sense of that word. The presence and play of spirit, in the forms of ideas, idealism, insight, and intuitions, is an essential and often forgotten aspect of the sublime relationship between the two. Capital arises in the economy when intelligence (spirit) is applied to organizing work or labor in the process of creating value.* For example, one frequent place where capital shows up is around innovation and invention; they both need and draw capital. Invention means in its Latin

origin “coming in.” But I do not remember any conversation that addressed the question: coming in from where? Capital is an emergent phenomenon rather than a thing; it holds within it a kind of reciprocal breathing between the invisible and visible. This is a rather radical way of looking at capital, but it is important to grasp because such a notion helps to rediscover both a truer role capital plays in economic life, and also how we can consider our relationship to it. And then, there is the question of money.

One might say that capital is where spirit manifests in the economy. It then continues to produce value in the economy as measured by money. Labor applied to natural resources also creates a value stream which manifests in the production of a commodity, such as the farmer who grows food to take to the market. Money is then a measure of the exchange value of that commodity, but not the measure of the value of the farmer.

Industry and manufacture present a more complicated and nuanced picture. The worker on an assembly line is part of an operational design for labor that seeks efficiency of production (the division of labor). The tradeoff for that profitable efficiency is a dehumanizing effect that ultimately reduces the labor to a commodity in that each divided function is easily replaced and priced according to the time spent. Efficiency produces capital, but the money attaches to the commodities, in this case including the labor. For example, a company may own a physical manufacturing plant, the means of production. The plant is considered a form of capital because of what it makes possible around production. The capital looks like money in the cost of production including the “cost” of buying the labor and materials.

Herein lies one of the natural flaws of capitalism— the notion of compensation or pay. In this production mindset, labor itself is currently treated and paid for as a commodity. However, the “cost of labor” would look very different if the manufacturer were purchasing the product of the labor from each employee and through shared governance distributing more equitably the co-created value in the form of capital. Organizing labor is not the equivalent of commoditizing it.

In the non-profit charitable world, the distinction

from the general secretary

between capital and money is even more evident. When an organization such as a school needs a new building, it often launches a capital campaign. One could look at it in a materialistic way by saying money is gathered in order to build. It might look that way to the school—but at its peril, even though the accounting looks like money in and money out. But it is not so simple as that if we take the time to slow down the whole sequence of transactions.

What drives a capital campaign is a community-wide shared vision that is then brought in to physical reality through a social process of gifting. Intention matters immeasurably. The conversion of gift capital and its potential into money happens when the organization begins to spend money on building. Even though the money will be expended at completion of the project, the physical result is returned to the realm of capital as an asset that continues to support the originating vision into the future. There is a beautiful reciprocity between the capital and the money. And an awareness of both the spiritual and material needs to remain co-present in the social sphere.

The same principle applies when one takes the initiative to invest, though the ends of the investment process return the money and increase to the ownership of the investor. An investor provides capital to the entrepreneur. This capital represents a degree of confidence or faith in the entrepreneur and the enterprise. The investment usually has a monetary value, and that monetary value becomes realized when the enterprise makes a capital call in order to put cash into the business operations. The relationship between the investor and entrepreneur carries in it the same parallel dimensions between spirit and matter as in the charitable sector even though the intentions and expectations are more financially self-interested in the former than would be the case in the latter.

In Western culture, capital has a long association with hierarchical forms. Capitals have always been at the top of columns and centers of political power. The root word capitalis means “of the head.” So, it is no surprise that economic capital has a long connection to wealth and the power of state. This has become conditioned and received wisdom, such as it is. It is an unfortunate association because it has also been assumed that the head is the leader, organizationally and within the individual. Fortunately, in recent years, we have gained extraordinary, even revolutionary, insights into human physiology that upend assumptions about how we discern experience, know for ourselves, even how we lead ourselves. We certainly still need to keep our level heads, but the notion

that we sense and know something first through our hearts, which is then conveyed to the brain for processing by the vagus nerve, is a clue about how to reframe how we think about capital. What if we understood capital as a heart function, as a mediator and manager of what comes to us from the world and what we are able to absorb and reflect back to the world in economic terms. Capital could then be considered in the framework of a reciprocal process of breathing between the world of spirit, intelligence, intention and the world of matter, which is the realm of economics. Operating in a kind of vertical axis, this capital function is complemented by the more horizontally oriented and circulatory carrier of value— namely money. They need each other; one makes the other visible, and together they make visible the human spirit in service to meeting material needs.

Capitalism in its current form seems disconnected from the heart and how it serves. What is needed instead is a rediscovered system that can support continual renewal while cultivating a moral perspective that can actually transform our inner relationship to economic life and make real again the already existing but overshadowed reality of our interdependence through compassion. Stepping toward an economy in which individual economic initiative is recognized and honored, and in which production, distribution, and consumption are actually held as a responsibility of the commonwealth for the commonwealth, would begin to awaken the vertical and horizontal impulses—the flow of capital and money. To start, maybe we can live by the medical profession’s ancient Hippocratic oath: “I will use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgment, but never with a view to injury and wrong-doing”—to people or the earth. The heart has tremendous healing and regenerative capacities for the whole of the system if it were but freed to do so. Imagine what capital liberated in this way could do. And I would place money on it.

* In his lectures on economics, given in 1922 and published as Rethinking Economic: Lectures & Seminars on World Economics, Rudolf Steiner gives a carefully constructed argument for this view of value development based upon careful observation of economic processes. See particularly, Lecture 4, “Labor and Value.”

John Bloom ( john.bloom@anthroposophy.org) is General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in America and vice president for corporate culture of RSF Social Finance in San Francisco.

IN THIS SECTION: Rapid advances in information technology, especially AI or artifical intelligence, continue to raise the question of humanity’s future.

A newly translated book recalls the courage and idealism of some young people known as “the White Rose” in 1942-43 in Germany. One survivor came to the USA and made a new life, which is gratefully remembered as she approaches her 100th birthday in May.

Anthroposophic medicine and therapies are organizing for a more visible role in the era of global public health.

Members of the Youth Section in North America are inviting a supportive relationship with elders in the anthroposophical movement.

Still Betting on the Humans

Nicanor Perlas & the Challenge of Artificial Intelligence

by

CT

Roszell

Humanity’s Last Stand: The Challenge of Artificial Intelligence: A Spiritual-Scientific Response, by Nicanor Perlas (Temple Lodge Press, October 2018; 244p.; ISBN 978-1-912230-17-4)

Note: Nicanor Perlas is arriving in the USA this summer for speaking engagements, starting on the West Coast. Please look for up-to-date information for the events, also in places such as southern Michigan, at www.rudolfsteiner.org/activities.

Nicolas Perlas, Keynote Speaker in Stuttgart for Threefold Order Conference 2019

This book by Nicanor Perlas, activist and alternate Nobel Prize laureate, is a breathtakingly clear and deep exploration of the existential challenge artificial intelligence presents to society at this historic juncture, and it is addressed with cosmopolitan acumen as directly to innovators in the field as it is to the rest of us. It is written with penetrating understanding of Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual science—but more, from out of heart-felt knowledge that all this stands or falls on the basis of practice: on whether capable individuals step up to the challenges of the time.

This book needs to come particularly quickly into the hands of those visionary tech creatives who already recognize some of these dangers and are protecting their own children from them as best they can, even perhaps sending many of their children to Waldorf schools in places like California. Parents of children going to school with them—on the basis of being informed, articulate, career-savvy individuals of our time, and not dogmatic shills— have a special opportunity to move this book into such hands.

The initiative unfolding here returns us to the last such moment of decision, one hundred years ago: Europe was reeling from the devastation of World War I. Efforts by key individuals to actualize Rudolf Steiner’s viable solutions in economics, government, and the arts reached the doors of European leaders. In 1917 came the idea. Count Otto Lerchenfeld, counselor to the Bavarian crown, and nephew to the high ranking Bavarian diplomat Count Hugo Lerchenfeld, begs Steiner for an initiative. Steiner spends day and night the next three weeks with this Parzival question, and answers. He reaches a zenith in his creativity, resulting in writings on the threefold social order and the threefold organization of the human being and human body. In 1918: the contact. In the days before the decisive offensive, Colonel Hans von Haeften gets cold feet, and begs for a meeting with Steiner, resulting in Steiner’s collaboration with Prince Max of Baden, candidate for German chancellor. Max makes efforts, to no political avail. In 1919: the deed— the birth year of a movement, in the words of Emil Molt. Full-scale efforts launched on many fronts by all those associated with the new idea, focused in the region of Stuttgart. No need here to revisit the twenty-year slide into World War II, and its aftermath.

2019: We have come full circle—Nicanor Perlas is the keynote speaker for the Threefold Order convention at Stuttgart, April 6 & 7, with the content of this book as his theme. The deed to be tested: whether fruitful ideas that have indeed begun to take hold in the cultural periphery can now take hold broadly, and include at least some key players in the news.

The Challenge of Artificial Super Intelligence and Value Alignment

The author was never a Luddite or fringe malcontent; Nicanor was athlete of the year in his high school class while winning honors in his math and science club. He graduated valedictorian of his class in the College of Agriculture at Xavier University at Ateneo de Cagayan in Agriculture, Agronomy and Agricultural Economics. In his homeland of the Phillipines, it was not long before he was appointed to the national technical panel to protect agriculture from the misuse of pesticides, resulting in wide-ranging bans against damaging chemicals. Perlas’ articulate and brilliant advocacies as science columnist positioned him to become the primary facilitator for large-scale commercial organic and biodynamic farms to emerge across the country, and he led international negotiations to successfully entrench sustainable agriculture language in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation governance act. It would require pages to enumerate the ways Perlas’ lifework has borne out the fact that applied science can heal the earth and society. And it flowers in his pioneering works for anthroposophy, as here in this effort to answer the life-anddeath threat of amalgamation with machine intelligence which humanity is facing now.

At the outset, Perlas grants how helpful a tool-set— used wisely—artificial intelligence technologies can be, from fine-tuning medical diagnostics to preventing identity theft and affording real-time environmental alerts. He shares the view a number of the best minds of technology have arrived at: that we may be nevertheless acting as architects of our own destruction. Those are the words of Stephen Hawking, to which Tesla and Space-X founder Elon Musk adds: “We’d be like a pet, or a house-cat. I don’t love the idea of being a house cat.”

Perlas chooses dramatic instances that make the future risks palpably clear. Digital teachers are removing humans from the classroom. Saudi Arabia has granted citizenship to the “Sophia” robot. AI requires merely a one-minute voice sample to convincingly impersonate any of us holographically, anytime and anyplace, as demonstrated by a fake Barack Obama upload on YouTube. These border on the enhanced stages of AI: AGI, artificial general, and ASI, artificial super, intelligence.

The enhanced stages involve machine intelligence beginning to think and act for itself, in the interest of its own self-preservation. In 2017 Facebook shut down two algorithm functions when they began to improve their intercommunications in ways humans could not follow! What appeared to be garbage language was new and viable programming. Thus arises the problem of value alignment: whose will is going to be executed, and followed in the world? This is what Rudolf Steiner envisioned as the incarnation of Ahriman “early in the third millennium,” by which intelligence—unfeeling, with unbridled will, and divorced from that of our own—enters our world, and acts and directs events around us.

Human Consciousness across the Ages; the Disappearance and Reappearance of the Gods

Perlas does not shy away from directly addressing the problem of supersensible entities like that of Ahriman, the ancient Zoroastrian deity of hindrances. Engaging Owen Barfield, Ken Wilber, and Theodor Heusser, he treats the problem of “the gods” as a question of the evolution of consciousness: the many deities and their configurations in ancient cultures are records of a more dreamlike style of experience in past ages that has undergone dramatic changes as we have become self-conscious and scientific. Our gain has also been our loss; the ancient style of consciousness was in harmony with the spiritual worlds we gradually lost access to, as we came to ourselves.

The question becomes who are we now, what do we live for, what do we want to build and create? Perlas demonstrates that what we do as scientists immersed in the worlds of the machine, the gene, the microbe, and the atom demonstrates the kind of gods we are becoming—and that as we enter on to this dimension of becoming gods ourselves, we make reaquaintance with the other god-like powers, both those that are inimical to us as well as those that are our allies.

Unfolding Conscious Participation: Aristotle to St. Thomas and Rudolf Steiner; Peter Heusser

One cannot proceed further on the subject of experiencing spiritual beings in modern consciousness without distinguishing such a thing from ordinary imaginings and hallucinations, and Perlas addresses this challenge,

Brookings Institution: AI for GOOD Global Summit

too. In an original and convincing way, the author elucidates Aristotle’s formal, final, efficient, and material causes in relation to the stages by which the spiritual world first receded, then returns— in reverse order. Moving so to speak from the finished vase, to the motions the potter executes with his hands and his turning of the wheel, to his intention to create that vase, and on to the potter himself.

Since the Renaissance and the nominalist philosophers, experience has been largely anchored as reflections in the realm of the material cause, where aspects of the subtler and higher dimensions are reduced to material, literalistic caricatures—a wide-ranging topic that the reader is encouraged to explore in further depth by means of Frederick Amrine’s remarkable and readable essay, The Sin of Literalism [see www.anthroposophy.org/articles ]. Perlas proceeds to describe how Dean of Medicine at Witten/Herdecke Peter Heusser’s “ontologic monism” points the way to the reemergence of spiritual experience in intuitive cognition, whereby one ascends from the realm of Aristotle’s material to formal cause—and meetings take place spirit to spirit, in the realm in which we ourselves are gods, engaged in relationships with other gods.

Ahriman and Sorath, and Powers Higher than They through Whom We Can Prevail

Courage is required to address these things directly and openly; predictably enough for a man who has prevailed in many a just social and environmental cause despite direct opposition from his government, Nicanor Perlas is glad to.

Rudolf Steiner did not carve the dynamic of the Representative of Humanity alone, but in proximity with and in relation to a powerful adversary below, Ahriman, and the tempter above, Lucifer. He once said to Countess Keyserlink at Koberwitz in 1924, that the future always remains in doubt—for Ahriman is also a part of the Christ being. Hindrances and pain wake us up to our tasks and responsibilities. Perlas characterizes the challenge of Ahrimanic technology just this way. It is who we want to become as we create with technology that decides our destiny, our lasting success or failure. Steiner speaks

of Sorath’s opposition as something orders of magnitude different. Sorath is a stranger from outside our natural order altogether, who joins with Ahriman with an intent foreign even to Ahriman—the extirpation of humankind. And it is precisely the tone of this threat that Perlas meets consistently and deliberately with this book. It is Perlas’ willingness to characterize the opposition forces directly and personally this way, to call them by name in varying contexts, that makes the book so engaging and so intelligible. Perlas proceeds vividly and accurately to build on T.H. Meyer’s insightful discussion of the incarnation of Ahriman, In The Sign of the Five.

Ahriman, Sorath and every other power are ultimately subordinate to that of the Logos Being, the guardian of humanity and the cosmos. In Nicanor’s words, “the Christ has the power to overcome all technological hindrances and dangers to humanity.” Anyone can say such a thing if they like, but the words ring with a special quality of rich beauty, conviction, and truth coming from Nicanor, who has sacrificed and fought on so many fronts with all his might and skills for just this.

Humanity will succeed; the question to be decided is—how many of us will see the challenge through together, and how long will it take. This is the province of Micha-El, “Michael the archangel,” and Perlas’ characterizations of how Micha-El works in our lives reveals what a significant role Micha-El plays in his own. In Perlas’ words: “Micha-El is the Time Spirit for humanity as a whole, not just for anthroposophists. Micha-El has not been idle while humanity is being battered into submission. Micha-El has been very busy, non-stop, inspiring other individuals and movements.” The author cites the whistle-blowers from Silicon Valley as an example, who despite the social costs that might accrue to them, warn the world against the machinations and moral terpitude of social media.

The Strategies of Evil and their Four Grand Temptations

Know the logic of your enemy, the author warns. He characterizes the mind of the ghost in the machine as substitution formats one and two. Format one is an idea , the substitution of a materialist’s destiny (or teleology) for mankind, instead of the true

MIT Technology Review

Harvard Magazine: AI and Ethics

spiritual destiny of mankind. And the closer the counterfeit to the original, the more effective the deception. The author recapitulates the visions of James Gardner, Max Tegmark, and Noah Harrari, all variations on a theme that humanity is meant to achieve immortality, albeit as living machines, and conquer the far reaches of the cosmos in our journeys.

Format two is substitution of the power that creates ideas. Algorithms take the place of creative thinking. The difference between the substitute and the original is the difference between the deadly sterile and the nascently alive. Just contemplating this difference has an awakening power! Our very sense of self, when rooted in the depths of our conscience and hopes, our love and creativity, is the wonder that happens in us in our finest moments of cognition. When our sense of self is anchored this way, the enemy weakens and is vulnerable at the moment of first approach, and we have a chance to stand our ground. But when we see ourselves as data machines lined through with living cells, we are easy prey from the start.

The author articulates temptations that ensue even after we have stood our ground on first contact. One is the temptation of super health from nanotechnologies. Another is the allure of super intelligence, the counterfeit for spiritual development, which would gradually cost us our feeling and social intelligence. A third is the temptation of robotic superstrength, offered as a substitute for inner spiritual and moral resilience. A fourth is that of material immortality, the counterfeit of the transfigured or spiritual body.

Perlas acknowledges that our future does involve a stage in which we must come together with machines and be tempted by them, but we must limit them in such a way that these function only as enhanced senses.

The Sleeping Giant: Global Civil Society 2

Perlas sees Global Civil Society (GCS) emerging already in the pre-nineteenth century anti-slavery movement, and reaching maturity in the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil in the summer of 1992. The success of the summit was so dramatic, that the Chair of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development introduced societal threefolding as a process in the UNCED, the UN arm for environment and development. The success

depended on the fact the Chair was assisted by Philippine activists including a few anthroposophists—Nicanor doesn’t bother to mention that he was a main force in this, although the attentive reader surmises as much.

The greatest GCS success story to date: the fairly complete dismantling of the WTO or world trade organization, a Trojan horse designed to repeal 25 years of carefully crafted worker and environment protections. Perlas draws the readers’ attention to Paul Hawken’s Global Unrest to show what remarkable results civil society activism does attain, where and when we concert our efforts.

The Key to Self-Mastery in our Age’s Struggle to Remain Human

Chapter Nine is the heart and soul of this book; these are unforgettable pages that many a reader will keep near them at the end of the day, for years on end. I almost jumped in surprise and joy to see how the author draws from a well that has also inspired the reviewer personally for years. But Nicanor Perlas develops this resource yet a stage further. These pages stand as some of the finest pages ever written in anthroposophy, in the reviewer’s humble estimation. Not a further word about them here! They stand as the first reward to those who trouble themselves to order the book. May readers order three or four in addition for mailing out, who feel the activist call to help place this book in the hands of people who will know what to do with it!

Initiative and Initiatives: Initiate!

Reviewed, or read, in a conventional way, this book can be neither understood nor reviewed well. It has a dynamic of its own, seeking a true and living source for initiative, and then acting on it. It is about people starting initiatives, it is an invitation to earnest collaboration. It starts from the word “initiate” in reference to a wisdom filled individual, and proceeds to make a verb of it—encouraging us to initiate meetings, actions, and projects together out of initiate inspiration.

The author recognizes Ueli Hurter and Jean-Michel Florin in the Agriculture Section for opening doors to world leaders in agriculture such as Vandana Shiva and Rajagopal, as well as Patrick Holden vis a vis Prince Charles and his support for the British organic farming

The New Yorker: “Thinking about AI can help clarify what makes us human.”

movement. Also Bernd Ruf for his anthroposophical “emergency pedagogy” which has gone worldwide. The author mentions with awe and respect Ute Cramer’s initiative to transform a slum into an international haven for inter-cultural exchange. Those of us who were not aware of such things need to be, both in order to accompany them cognitively out of our shared source together, and to feel increased incentive to do something of like nature— resulting in what the author characterizes as Collective Human Intelligence, worthy of the acronym CHI.

Perlas mentions the interesting case of Dr. Thomas Cowan, the astute medical doctor and author of the book Human Heart, Cosmic Heart, who puts science in his practice into dialogue with spiritual science. New avenues of approach reached millions this way, when internet health guru Dr. Joe Mercola moved them into the sphere of his 10 million visitors per month. Perlas does not hesitate, however, to note how overtly self-defeating Schmidt-Brabant’s leadership for the Goetheanum was, under the excuse of “occult imprisonment.” The author expresses joy to see how the Youth Section of the School of Spiritual Science has stepped up with world outreach initiatives even earlier than the Agriculture Section has— and how both show marked success.

Each of us as we read this book can carry the remembrance of similar individuals and their initiatives into our intentions, to accompany them into the distant future. Each of you can match me name for name, from your own experience, when I recognize: Bart and Suzann Eddy for their efforts to heal and rebuild hopes for education in Detroit, with Janet McGavin standing in memory behind them in the inner city, as well as behind Bill Bottum, whose threefold initiative saved hundreds of employees in his engineering company from losing hope when the company was bought out. My son Chris, who introduced me to Nicanor Perlas. Maurice York, who restored Emerson’s lost and finest pages for publication. Marian Leon, for her many years of artistic commitment to this work.

Fred Janney and Kathy Serafin, who have brought anthroposophy and renewal into prisons. Katherine Thiv-

ierge, who does so much more than direct operations for the Anthroposophical Society in America; her skills with voice (“artistic speech formation”) made my German wife comfortable in front of an American Steiner School science classroom, and her spontaneous offer on the phone to help me, out of her own pocket, in any fund-matching effort to bring Nicanor Perlas to Rudolf Steiner House in Ann Arbor, made me nearly cry. My wife works a sixty-plushour week at the hospital, and is graduating in June with a group of nearly thirty as the final teacher-training class of Margot Amrine’s WISM initiative; it would be a book in itself to tell the story of the hardships and victories won there, and in the company of her husband, Professor of German at the University of Michigan Frederick Amrine—an editor of being human’s predecessor. And how John Beck has maintained its level and widened its reach, on meager financial resouces.

Not a single spiritual-scientific insight in that paragraph, just the doings of real people who have a place in each others’ hearts. Still, in harmony with the intent of the book under review, that may yet exceed the value of all the rest that the reviewer has to contribute. Carrying each other in our hearts while we work may be almost all the spiritual practice we need —the core spiritual intuition is very much already active in the world and in us, like the yeast in kneeded dough.

The Wisdom of Failure, the Mercy of the Gods

Has all this been too little, too late? The answer is no. This question touches on several interrelated matters that are among the most elusively subtle threads running through the entire book.

Without a doubt, the author judges truly in finding that, as Rudolf Steiner sadly had to admit that those from whom he expected core initiatives in his own time failed to meet their goals, those who followed soon after did not do better. He looked towards a confluence of initiatives at the end of the twentieth century—of initiatives from those who were with him then, returning to the earth together with those who were facilitators in the School of Chartres, and also with returning souls from many other

Artificial Consciousness: How To Give A Robot A Soul

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streams. The works of all these were meant to resonate and build to such a degree that the tide would turn against a further slide towards an abyss of culture and civilization—a turn which could be called a Culmination

With justification, the Culmination can be viewed as failed for the twentieth century, but the author has by no means lost heart, and sees hope that the worst may be averted yet. Aspects of the Culmination Rudolf Steiner envisioned have indeed come to pass and stand as building blocks for the future. There are further ways that, unnoticed, the hoped-for events may indeed have taken place; we have reason to withhold judgment, with patience and humility. The threads of these things are in the book, and are very much worth following.

We can say that, paradoxically, the life and efforts themselves of such individuals as Nicanor Perlas, and many he has worked with, are evidence that the Culmination has only been delayed. The author shoulders the burden of Rudolf Steiner’s expectations with such all-encompassing sense of personal responsibility, that he sees the effort as failed to date just by definition of the fact that the world finds itself at the cusp of artificial intelligence, and the Singularity. But these may yet still be two separate things—so significant are the successes of what the author designates as Global Civil Society events in our time. Few in the generation of the author and reviewer envisioned that the Berlin wall would fall. The author cites the story of Andrew Wiles, who came as if from nowhere and solved Fermat’s Last Theorem. Just like that, someone scribbles a hundred pages of symbols, and 350 years of failure ends for many of the most brilliant spirits among us. History is replete with instances of such black swans. From the Earth Summit in Brazil to the emergence of Steiner schools in China, the author feels the ray of hope, and writes, too, how in his heart of hearts he feels the mercy of the gods is decisive.

Related to the black swan phenomenon are two examples how remarkably exact Rudolf Steiner’s vision for our time has proven. His prediction that at the end of the century the world would indeed be surrounded by something like a dark web proved so eerily true that Germany’s premiere national magazine, Der Spiegel , devoted a page to it as a description of the world wide web in January 1998. Another prediction: in Berlin, 1916, Steiner spoke of how something like an edict to prevent people from thinking would go out over all the world from America

before the year 2000. Both predictions coincide in the technology for what has become fake and shadow news throughout the world. Examples like these show that Rudolf Steiner viewed just this impending shadow of artificial intelligence surrounding the world as something concomitant with the return of individuals to the earth in service of the cosmopolitan Time-Spirit Michael. Culmination and the threat of AI were never mutually exclusive!

Rudolf Steiner also foresaw experiences of the Guardian of humanity in the etheric world would take place between the years 1930 and 1940/45. George Ritchie’s experience in 1943 belongs to the most dramatic of these, replete with cognitions as clear as that of the world-wideweb of sub-thoughts.1 If Rudolf Steiner can be so uncannily accurate in his vision, we have good cause to ask if the Culmination prophecy is not an event that is unfolding, and unfolds further, albeit differently than we expect.

There are individuals among us who have developed soul faculties very much in accord with Rudolf Steiner’s expectations, who have pronounced that the Culmination has indeed only been delayed, and that individuals who were expected to return are among us, active in just the way the author demonstrates here. In Die MichaelProphetie und die Jahre 2012-2033, Steffen Hartmann, the gifted pianist, shows good cause for ascribing 20122033 to the “Culmination-delay” period. Yeshayahu Ben Aharon does the same.2

In consideration of such things as these, and in light of the lives and efforts of individuals as inspiring as Nicanor Perlas and those who have worked at his side, this reviewer’s bets stay on humankind in the end.

C.T. Roszell (croszell@wccnet.edu)teaches German at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and is currently developing a multi-media German language course based on poetry, story-telling and guitar. He will be speaking at Forum3 in Stuttgart later this spring on “The Future Has Arrived Early: Risks and Opportunities in the Far West.”

1 The final memory from Ritchie’s near-death journey through the higher worlds ended with this word from the Guardian of humanity: “You have 45 years.” In 1988, we became friends, and he learned of Rudolf Steiner for the first time. In 1996 he was keynote speaker for the Christian Community in Berlin, where 1,400 were in attendance. Among those young people: present day leaders in that community on both sides of the Atlantic. Their accounts are included in the new edition of The Near-Death Experience in Floris Books this spring.

2 In his lecture of September 23, 2018 in Scandinavia for the Global School of Spiritual Science, on YouTube at https://youtu.be/bt_cDqctLu0

MIT Technology Review

Traute Page and the White Rose

review by John H. Beck

Long Live Freedom! Traute Lafrenz and the White Rose, by Peter Normann Waage, translated by DiMari Bailey (Cuidano Press, Brooklyn, NY; 2018)

Nicanor Perlas’ new book, Humanity’s Last Stand , carefully describes a tremendous challenge to the worth and existence of human beings. Does “the human being” matter? How will that be decided, over the years ahead? In his earlier Shaping Globalization (2000), Perlas strongly affirmed that social leadership comes from the sphere of culture—ideas, values, conscience, beliefs—which lives and grows through the active sharing of consciousness by individuals.

Long Live Freedom! might also have been titled “Humanity’s Last Stand,” and Peter Normann Waage takes pains to show how culture connected a few young people and supported them in a solemn and fatal statement of dissent in the culminating moments of World War II. They wrote and distributed simple leaflets, each a two-sided sheet, frightening the National Socialist regime of Adolf Hitler because it touched deep chords of national cultural understanding, the “German

Idealism” that had exalted the human spirit in the early 19th century. Into these young people the light of humanistic culture had shone also from the great Russian novelists, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. Their few months as “the White Rose” coincided with the disastrous German drive into Russia that died at Stalingrad.

Much has been written about this little group: “The White Rose,” not even an official name. Its pamphlets brought no uprising in 1942-43, but it established a link through the abyss of the Hitler time to remind later generations of their true German-human cultural heritage.

Waage’s subtitle, “Traute Lafrenz and the White Rose,” shows his particular concern: how the spirit living in culture was alight in this person, spread to that one, was shared among a few others—finally to melt crystals of thought into courageous action. He also makes a rarelynoticed connection to the work of Rudolf Steiner.

Waage gathers extensive material from Traute Lafrenz, known in the USA by her married name Page, who celebrates her 100th birthday in May, 2019. Dr. Page has long been reticent about these events of over 75 years ago, a witness not a hero she says; but it is good to hear this story of courage in our current moment. I quote now from the book about this cultural root of the White Rose; Traute’s own words are marked with a colored line at left.

Traute: Even though I was only about 14 when Hitler came to power, the other pupils and I were aware very early on of how oppressive the new regime was, Traute recalls. Our favorite teachers were forced to leave the

school. ... So we were not well disposed toward the new teachers who replaced our old ones. They insisted that students shout Heil Hitler! when entering the classroom. ... I was transferred to a new school, closest to our home... It was there I got this brilliant, new teacher: Erna Stahl.

The teacher: “a gift that would last...”

Erna Stahl (1900–1980) was a reforming educator who worked at the Lichtwark School in Hamburg starting in 1928. When the Nazis completely revamped the education system in the Third Reich in 1933, Erna Stahl refused to obey them. “She made no attempt to hide her political convictions. She hoped that everyone would do the same thing, and that it would be possible to limit the damage of the National Socialists,” wrote one of her pupils, Karl Klasen, on the occasion of Erna Stahl’s 80th birthday in 1980. “Unfortunately, all too few thought as she did, and she was soon dismissed.”

Traute: It was very difficult to see through Hitler when he first came to power. Remember, the country was in chaos, in ruins. Then along came a man who said he would restore order and make Germany strong. Many people believed in him. ... I don’t think I would have been so aware and able to see what was really going on without my teacher. She was 33 years old when the Nazis took over the country and she understood what all of it meant. She passed her insight on to us through a pedagogical practice that aimed at inspiring independent thought. She woke me up at any rate. I had been a dreamer earlier. Her teaching was a gift that would last my whole life.

I hadn’t liked going to school at all before because it was boring, and so I was constantly rebelling... In Erna Stahl’s class, there was no need for defiance. There was a completely different kind of attitude among the pupils and real engagement from the teachers, especially Erna Stahl. She taught us the history of art and culture, general history, and literature. ...

There was a very gifted boy in our class who later became a painter. In spite of his talent, he was never able to talk about anything in a way that made any sense because it all came out in stutters and sounded confusing. One time when we were adults and we were speaking together, he suddenly began to describe a cathedral we had visited during one of our trips with Erna Stahl’s class. He conjured forth pictures of light shining through the stained glass windows, the dust playing in the air, and the solemn, devout atmosphere. Suddenly he paused and said: “Isn’t that the way it is? You never really see things again the way you did as a fourteen-year-old. At that age the images make a deep and lasting impression.” It was at that impressionable age that I met Erna Stahl. ...

Erna Stahl was inspired by Waldorf (Steiner) pedagogy... and made liberal use of some elements from Waldorf. The fact that she also had read Rudolf Steiner was something I found out later. I am the only one who continued with anthroposophy later in life. As a matter of fact I started reading The Philosophy of Freedom shortly after I left the school. I tried to get Hans [Scholl] interested in anthroposophy, but he wanted no part of it!

Instruction in the arts was a critical part of our education at the school. We went out and watched Christmas plays at a Waldorf school in the neighborhood. Erna Stahl tried to inspire us through literature and art. We read Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. We attended the so-called “degenerate art” exhibition in Essen and saw paintings by Franz Marc, Vasily Kandinsky, and Emil Nolde. We also traveled to Berlin, and saw a performance of Faust ... We were amazed. Why should all that art and all these books be banned? There really had to be something in them that was a threat to the authorities!

Erna Stahl used art in her teaching to unveil unforeseen aspects of the world. For example, she used the paintings of Franz Marc as a basis for discussions of the nature of animals, about the horse, the lion. She was all

in all an exceptional pedagogical talent and a strong and significant human being. ...

After the war Erna Stahl herself characterized her principles and mission as a teacher with these words: “... The truth was that I had become convinced that there was a destructive, demonic denial of all human spiritual worth, especially in Germany, which could not be undone. I made a solemn pledge that, in the circles where I carried out my work, each and every minute, and with all the means I had at my disposal, I would work to create some kind of inner counterbalance to these destructive forces in my students.”

As Traute pointed out, Erna Stahl gained some of her inspiration in her efforts to counter these destructive forces from Rudolf Steiner. As early as 1917, Steiner wrote about what was later to become the driving force and main ideological interest of the Nazis, the theory of the master race. “Someone who speaks of the ideal of race and nation and of tribal membership today is speaking of impulses which are part of the decline of humanity... Nothing is more designed to take humanity into its decline than the propagation of ideals of race, nation and blood.”1 This is precisely what Stahl believed she was witnessing all around her.

Traute: We had a short wave radio and were able to follow the Spanish civil war closely. This naturally led to discussions about what was wrong with Nazism and about freedom and the structure of society. If I were to single out just one of the sources that inspired opposition to the Nazis, it would be the exposure to the world of literature and art that Erna Stahl made possible. Later, when I went to Munich and met Hans Scholl, I introduced literary evenings that were modeled on the classes we attended with Erna Stahl. ... The Scholl siblings were as used to that as I was.

Long Live Freedom! goes on to introduce each of the young people, the professor in Munich who joined them, the choices they made, the obscene “People’s Court” where they were tried, the abrupt first three executions, the tenuous survival of a few, saved by the war’s end.

DiMari Bailey has capably translated this story from the Norwegian, and she adds a helpful introduction:

1 Rudolf Steiner, The Fall of the Spirits of Darkness, trans. Anna Meuss (Forest Row, UK: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1993), p.186. The German edition with Traute Lafrenz at right.

I became acquainted with Peter Normann Waage during my years living and working in Norway... A committed philosopher, essayist, and anthroposophist, he is also a kind of peaceful warrior, so to speak, unafraid to speak truth whenever necessary. He believes in ideas and the power that they have in our lives. His work is inspirational and all encompassing... the perfect person to tell the story of Traute Lafrenz.

From the Author’s Preface

The small group of students who were known as the White Rose became an extraordinary example of German resistance against the Nazi regime. They spread leaflets that challenged the regime, painted slogans on walls around Munich, and systematically committed other types of non-violent resistance. The memory of who they were and what they did has not been erased by history. Remarkably, there is a growing interest in them that has only increased their significance. One member of the group, however, has almost entirely escaped attention: Traute Lafrenz (now Traute Lafrenz Page). She has, of course, been mentioned, but so far her own story and memories have remained untold.

Traute Lafrenz had a central role in the White Rose, but always just behind the frontline. She participated in everything except the writing and copying of the leaflets. An inspirational figure, she prepared and distributed leaflets. She kept track of everything and everyone

while they were on the move, and made sure no trace was left behind that might reveal any of their activities. Her participation was critical, but it has not always received much attention. ... Traute has absolutely refused to be called a hero, preferring instead to call herself a witness to history, her testimony based on participatory observation. ...

I first met Traute Lafrenz Page during a 1984 trip to Chicago. In 2003, she asked me whether I would be willing to write about her experiences with the White Rose. Of course I agreed. The people who founded the White Rose were rare and unique individuals able to withstand totalitarianism and utilize the many possibilities that non-violent resistance offers. To all outward appearances, they were the losers in these efforts, but the increasing interest in them demonstrates that they were victorious on a transcendent plane. As long as their memory is preserved, they will be an inspiration to people fighting for human dignity and insight, resisting all threats to those efforts, no matter what disguise those threats may assume.

This short book will inspire you, and would be a thoughtful gift to a young person. Our humanity is always being challenged, in ways new and old, and it is good to know how others have fought the human battle.

John Beck (editor@anthroposophy.org) is editor of being human .

“Please Duplicate and Pass Along”

From the Leaflets of the White Rose

1 Nothing is more shameful to a civilized nation than to allow itself to be “governed” by an irresponsible clique of sovereigns who have given themselves over to dark urges—and that without resisting. Isn’t it true that every honest German is ashamed of his government these days? Who among us can imagine the degree of shame that will come upon us and upon our children when the veil falls from our faces and the awful crimes that infinitely exceed any human measure are exposed to the light of day?

If the German nation is so corrupt and decadent in its innermost being that it is willing to surrender the greatest possession a man can own, a possession that elevates

mankind above all other creatures, namely free will—if it is willing to surrender this without so much as raising a hand, rashly trusting a questionable lawful order of history; if it surrenders the freedom of mankind to intrude upon the wheel of history and subjugate it to his own rational decision; if Germans are so devoid of individuality that they have become an unthinking and cowardly mob—then, yes, then they deserve their destruction.

2 It is impossible to come to terms with National Socialism on an intellectual basis, because it is simply not intellectual. You cannot speak of a National Socialist ideology. If such a thing existed, you would be forced to try to defend or engage it on an intellectual basis. Reality

offers us a completely different image. When the movement was still in embryonic form, it relied on deception of its fellow man. Even then, it was rotten to the core and could preserve itself only on the basis of constant lies.

Hitler himself wrote in an early edition of “his” book—a book that is written in the most awful German I have ever read, despite which the nation of poets and thinkers have elevated it to the status of the Bible: “You would not believe how one must deceive a nation in order to rule it.”

3 But our present State is a dictatorship of Evil. “We’ve known that for a long time,” I can hear you say, “and it is not necessary for you to remind us of it once again.” So I ask you: If you are aware of this, why do you not stir yourselves? Why do you permit this autocrat to rob you of one sphere of your rights after another, little by little, both overtly and in secret? One day there will be nothing left, nothing at all, except for a mechanized national engine that has been commandeered by criminals and drunks. Has your spirit been so devastated by rape that you forget that it is not only your right, but your moral duty to put an end to this system?

senseless death.

Every word that proceeds from Hitler’s mouth is a lie. When he says peace, he means war. And when he names the name of the Almighty in a most blasphemous manner, he means the almighty evil one, that fallen angel, Satan. His mouth is the stinking maw of hell and his might is fundamentally reprobate. To be sure, one must wage the battle against National Socialism using rational means. But whoever still does not believe in the actual existence of demonic powers has not comprehended by far the metaphysical background of this war.

Dear Traute!

Traute Lafrenz’ path went on, and so we are pleased to offer also a few reflections from some of the many whose lives she has touched in North America.

You had recently become the Director of Esperanza School when I first interviewed as a teacher there. You were an active, stylish woman who had a doctor’s keen diagnostic eye. (Now I would say you are sanguine, mercurial with a bit of Mars to make it all happen!) As Director, you were able to speak with people from the Chicago Public Schools, Department of Mental Health, as well as Chicago politicians. We had “his honor” Mayor Harold Washington at our Oberufer Play one year. You cultivated their interest and financial support and we went from having a grade school to a whole range of life: birth to old age with therapies and workshops.

The parents and children loved you! You made the contacts with the artists and teachers from Mexico, Germany, Emerson College, and Waldorf Institute in Detroit.

4 Who has counted the dead, Hitler or Goebbels?

Probably neither. Thousands fall every day in Russia. It is the time of harvest, and the reaper approaches the standing crops with all his energy. Mourning returns to the cottages of the homeland and no one is there to dry the tears of the mothers. But Hitler deceives the ones whose most precious possession he has stolen and driven to a

As an anthroposophic physician it was wonderful to be with you in the Monday Study Group at the Rudolf Steiner Branch. You told us about the early days and the group who studied and helped make the little house on Grant Place a dignified home for the Society. With other groups we held seasonal festivals and regional conferences. You also brought several eurythmy troupes to Chicago. This culminated when the national Society moved from New York to Chicago. After many years on the General Council you were asked to become General Secretary.

At one Council meeting in Fair Oaks we were standing together on the sunny lawn at coffee break. I noticed you were unusually quiet and asked if something was wrong. You said this was the date Hans and Sophie died. You told me that you tried not to dwell on these things

Käthe Kollwitz, “Seed corn must not be ground up” (1942)

but there were certain dates when these memories were especially strong. When we had an outbreak of lice at Esperanza you told me about your cellmate, a nun, who had very different spiritual views from yours. But the two of you had to pick the nits out of each other’s hair and snap them between your thumbnails.

It was a great victory when a grant came through for you to build a big bathtub at Esperanza. It was in the Therapy Room and was what passed for your office as well. You and your therapeutic eurythmy colleague named it your “ether lab.” It was such a great experience—an oil dispersion bath, massage table with wonderful oils, and at the end you could do therapeutic eurythmy with the children. The parents loved it when their children came home smelling so nice—they knew their child had seen Dr. Page that day.

When people would call and beg for interviews for articles or tv shows, you said they could come not to your lovely home and garden in the northern suburbs, but to the near west side in downtown Chicago. So they would enter your Therapy Room and learn about anthroposophy, eurythmy and Waldorf education before you would answer their questions about your experiences.

One other heroic deed you did was make a home for your husband and four children. You tried to start a Waldorf school but people seemed satisfied enough with their public school so you took your children to the Christian Community through their growing up years. Advent is a very busy time, yet you and your dedicated group of parents, priests and musicians would perform all three Oberufer plays in one day. What strong people you were and what a strong foundation for anthroposophy you built in Chicago!

Barbara Richardson, ever grateful.

Many years ago my wife Connie and I were asked to come to Chicago by the Starzinsky’s and Richardson’s to help with the Chicago Waldorf School. We were also new parents looking for an anthroposophical doctor. We were told to visit a doctor practicing at the Esperanza School—my first meeting with Traute Page. Traute gave our daughter Delia a thorough examination and then turned to both of us and asked. “Now why are you coming to Chicago?” We told her our story and she looked at both of us and said, “No, no, no, they have plenty of help here. You two stay in Cincinnati and start a school there.” I was dumbfounded since I

had no pedagogical knowledge whatsoever. As fate would have it we now have a thriving school in Southwest Ohio partly because someone saw something in both of us that I never imagined.

We have kept our connection with visits to Chicago over the years and more recently to the Charleston area. Last summer we stopped by to visit while we were on vacation; we would stay for just a little while. Traute would have none of that and insisted we stay for tea and a bite to eat. We reminisced for a while and enjoyed the breeze off the wetlands near her front porch. I recall a silence fell upon us and I looked over at a well weathered face, wisps of white hair and clear eyes looking out into the world with love, curiosity and confidence. I realized as I drove off that this was the gift she gave me at every meeting.

Jack Michael, Cincinnati, Ohio

Traute Page was the family physician for our family starting in the 1950’s in Chicago. She had a small but light filled consultation room in her house. The first time I saw her I was a teenager and I had an episode of back pain. She greeted me coming from the garden with flowers in her hand. She promptly gave me my first anthroposophical injection—which worked! From her I first learned practical aspects of anthroposophical medicine, such as taking oral remedies, applying ointments and administering injections. She made it all seem very doable. The medical office was just one part of her extensive anthroposophical activity. At that time in the absence of a “real” Waldorf school she gathered together interested teachers and artists and did a “Waldorf summer school.” Also in the summers she visited the biodynamic farm of the Zinniker family in Wisconsin and made grape jam that our family really appreciated. In the winter she invited everyone of the Christian Community to her house to sing the Kalevala song. For years she led the Esperanza School; we visited her there and she demonstrated how she massaged the children to help heal them.

My husband and I are now practicing anthroposophical doctors in Chicago, her home town. We often feel that our activity here was made easier by her having laid the ground work so many decades earlier. Thank you, Traute.

Andrea Rentea, MD

Dr. Page served as General Secretary of the ASA in the mid-1990s.

For over two decades, I worked at Esperanza School, many of those years working with Dr. Traute Page. She was always full of energy, attentive to each and every individual, with a positive attitude towards the numerous problems that arose. She acted out of the belief that each person has a place in this life and an important contribution to fulfill. She gave the same respect to each individual no matter how severely handicapped they were. She served as a role model for me to emulate. I learned a lot working with Dr. Page at Esperanza School as well as at the Rudolf Steiner Branch in Chicago, and I still do. I am proud to consider her my friend.

Alice Spaulding

My reflections begin by marveling at the range of her interests, how she welcomed fresh insights, especially those with historical depth or of conceivable importance for the future, which I believe she had broadly in mind most of the time. I never thought of Traute as “settled.” As director of Esperanza School she was willing to give any seemingly good idea a chance to earn a place within the school’s therapeutic programs. Underlying her many activities and projects was imperturbable calm, an aptitude for finding value in our having together exercised an initiative and learned something in doing so. An excellent summarizer of a situation, Traute did not lavish words on a subject, she saved them, letting them fall how and as they came—naturally, as if from a long way off.

Charlene Breedlove

“Come gather round me, my merry choir. Like chestnuts roasting on the fire.” So speaks the Starsinger opening the Oberufer Shepherds Play, a role brilliantly played by Dr. Traute Page in one of the Esperanza School productions for our community—one of my favorite memories of her. So many of us have had the great fortune to gather round Traute’s warmth of heart, humor, and wisdom. She generously gives to the world of her deep reverence for life and what it means to be a human being.

While busily raising four children in the early 1960s, she created a parent study group in the neighborhood, my mother being one of the participants. The study material was The Education of the Child in the Light of Anthroposophy. Along with other anthroposophists in the area, Traute organized a Waldorf-inspired summer program for young children in Evanston which I attended along with some of

my school friends. I remember loving to learn to play the recorder! This little program was a seed that took root, for the founding of the now-thriving Chicago Waldorf School. I have no memory of Traute then, so I am grateful that our paths would cross again at the Waldorf Institute of Detroit where I was completing teacher training and she was a visiting lecturer, and that she hired me for my first teaching position. Dr. Page became Director of Esperanza School in 1972 and remained for twenty-five years.

We were an amazingly diverse group of students and faculty. Publicly funded, the school served children and adults with special needs from underserved neighborhoods in a curative educational setting. Mainstreaming had not yet begun in the public schools. Dr. Page was a deeply admired leader, as she creatively and respectfully served the students and families that she so loved. Her patience with the many young teachers who thought they knew it all was exemplary. She guided the co-working group with humor, perspective, and diplomacy. Perhaps she loved her work with the children as school doctor most of all.

In a recent visit in South Carolina, it was a joy to experience how her life flows on in the family circle of children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Thanks to the support of her daughter, Dr. Renee Meyer, Waldorf education is taking root in the Acorn Preschool of Charleston, SC. Traute’s devotion to anthroposophy and Waldorf education continues to flow.

Dr. Page is a wellspring of wisdom, inspiration, and joy. I see Traute as one who carries the inspiration of the Star that leads the way to the best in humanity. And, like the Starsinger with the star scissors, she carries that brave Star along. God bless her for that!

Christine Culbert , with love and gratitude

Traute, friend of 50+ years, here is a little remembrance that is simply a large part of you. Once years ago we stopped at a market for a few staples. You headed for the garden section. When I caught up with you, there you were at the end of a long row of beautiful, thriving plants of all kinds. I asked what you had found and you turned holding up the most bedraggled, limp, nearly dead plant saying, “I’ll take this one, they’ll just throw it away.” Of course you would choose that one! Whoever could think otherwise? Happy 100th birthday! Love, Judith

Judith Pownall Gerstein

Anthroposophic Therapies Online

by Steven Johnson, DO and Adam Blanning, MD

As anthroposophic medicine nears its centennial in 2020, there are broad efforts to share its fruits. The international medical movement offers more and more resources about healing for body, soul, and spirit, and PAAM, the physicians’ association in the US, is growing its outreach. This is of utmost importance when many forces are working to restrict the scope of our practice.

From the Medical Section comes Anthromedics.org , offering introductory articles and an expanding collection of multi-disciplinary approaches to multiple illnesses. An impressive example is a series of short articles on approaches for anxiety in palliative care from medical, nursing, body therapy, eurythmy therapy, art therapy, counselling, and pastoral care perspectives.

Another recent website, Vademecum.org , presents many anthroposophic external treatments used in nursing therapy with practical directions. This is becoming a deeply valued resource. As anthroposophic medicine becomes a world-wide movement, anthromedics and vademecum from the outset are being built so that in time all materials will be in German, English, and Spanish.

A third helpful resource, professor David Martin’s WarmUpToFever.org , offers compelling medical studies and a whole series of interviews on the importance of fever and how we actually compromise our overall health with routine fever suppression.

At PAAM we are renovating anthromed.org ; a new site will be online in about two months. This online library receives visits from over 20 countries world-wide, with as many as 4,000 visitors a month. It will be completely redone with beautiful graphics and an excellent search function. A complement to the more academic platform of anthromedics; it is a home for interesting essays, out of print materials (including books) that often speak to deeper insights, clinical experiences, and issues around anthroposophical medicine. We hope that friends and colleagues working with healing across the world will

share articles and materials to enlighten patients, friends and clinicians everywhere. Please share it as a resource.

PAAM has also launched a Friends and Patients organization (visit https://paam.wildapricot.org/PAAM-Friends to join at no cost). We plan a quarterly newsletter on interesting medical topics, plus videos and links to other educational and research sources. We are also considering a public conference on public and home-health issues, hopefully involving colleagues working in healing education, agriculture, therapies, and economics. Eventually, we want to impact public health care policy so as to empower people to take charge of their own health.

Homeopathy and anthroposophical medicine have been under severe FDA scrutiny. Attacks to restrict these medicines are appearing across the globe, which means we need ways to communicate effectively and gather friends. A second goal of our patient and friends organization is to build grassroots awareness about these issues. We hope it can create a network of people and organizations that support the free access of patients and clinicians to the medicines and therapies they choose. Please consider participating and supporting this important endeavor.

Anthroposophic medicine needs more than just preservation, it also needs innovation. This is especially true as we reach our one-hundred-year anniversary in 2020— more updates in coming issues on those coming celebrations. Thank you for your good thoughts and support as we take up these efforts.

Steven Johnson, DO and Adam Blanning, MD are the current presidents respectively of the Physicians Association for Anthroposophic Medicine (PAAM paam.wildapricot.org) and of the Association for Anthroposophic Medicine and Therapies in America (AAMTA www.aamta.org).

“Rudolf Steiner’s model of a spiritualized medicine could hold the key for the next growth phase in Western medicine, if it is to survive, flourish, and become consistently and deeply therapeutic instead of merely palliative.” —Richard Leviton, author of Imagination of Pentecost: Rudolf Steiner & Contemporary Spirituality in the introduction to The Healing Process GA 319, available at SteinerBooks.org

arts & ideas

IN THIS SECTION: The whole movement inspired by the work of Rudolf Steiner and “anthroposophy” is looking to make itself better known in North America. We do poets a bit of justice in this issue. Lynn Jericho writes of the central question, the I AM that makes us human.

Maureen Flannery expresses anthroposophy’s awakening insights with acuteness.

John Urban sums up the gifts of anthroposophy in a parable of eleven lines.

Andrew Hoy lights up the challenge of self-knowledge in little more than a haiku.

For Christina Bücking selfknowledge comes via sharing art.

Andrea Huff finds the mystery in forms.

Finding Our Voices by Charles

Burkam

The following is reconstructed from thoughts shared on Sunday morning of the “Finding Our Voice” workshop in San Francisco on January 13, 2019. This was the second such event organized by the Council of Anthroposophical Organizations (CAO) to address “the challenge of representing anthroposophical ideas and methods to the wider public... and collaborate effectively with the many like-minded groups and organizations in our midst.”

While this workshop is about finding our voice, I would like to share another voice this morning. This is the Message of the Hopi Elders for New Year 2000:1

To my fellow swimmers:

There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift And there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel that they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly. Know that the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore. Push off into the middle of the river. Keep our eyes open and our heads above water.

And I say, see who is there with you and celebrate!

At this time in history we are to take nothing personally, Least of all, ourselves. For the moment that we do, Our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.

The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves! Banish the word “struggle” from your attitude and vocabulary.

All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration. We are the ones we have been waiting for.

But does that message resonate here and now? Is it related to our striving? Are we the ones we have been waiting for? This is a personal question each one of us must answer. Yet, here we are, gathered together,—so at some level we must sense that, or we would not be in this room.

1 There is disagreement as to when this message was first given although the date of June, 2000 is frequently cited. I am fairly certain I was given my copy prior to January 1, 2000. https://www.matrixmasters.com/takecharge/hopi-prophecy.html

For me, the message not only resonates, it feels totally in harmony with our striving. From what was shared yesterday by John Bloom about being present, and the inner steps to be ready for a conversation based on “true interest in the other,”2 “Finding Our Voice” is about having those conversations in a sacred manner. The questions we are working with together are about how to best create that dialogue grounded in truth, beauty, and love. In that process we will need both patience and alertness.

Moreover, this Hopi message is clearly about destiny, karma, and the state of our times. I have worked with that message for many years, along with my wife who was part Cherokee and Passamaquoddy. Moreover, traditional indigenous wisdom is more than a “like-minded” group. They live out of the understanding that the spiritual world is at least as real as what we perceive in the material world. While we have been exploring dialogue between individuals, there can also be dialogue between movements or spiritual streams. Collaboration between indigenous groups and the Biodynamic movement is already well underway.

Steiner’s focus on thinking was mentioned yesterday. It is a foundational premise for students of Rudolf Steiner’s work that thinking itself is a spiritual activity. But also, Rudolf Steiner gave equal weight to the importance of speech as such an activity. Because it is through speech, through speaking, that thoughts are brought into the world. Speech makes the word/logos manifest; it is a creative deed. Speech takes the spiritual and makes it active within earthly existence. At a minimum, it is the vehicle for dialogue and collaboration.

The rendering of the Message from the Hopi Elders is in English, as I cannot speak Hopi and you would not comprehend it if I did; we need a shared language to communicate and create dialogue. The basic quality of many indigenous languages is that they are active, not nominative. Rather than giving labels, they tend to distinguish

2 John Bloom introduced his working ten guidelines for “Finding Your Voice” on Saturday morning. A version was emailed in his February 2019 letter from the General Secretary. It is the intention of the CAO to have two such workshops each year for the foreseeable future.

between the natures or qualities of actions or relationships. Living in the active tense, it can create a mood of continually being “present.” In some ways, we are hindered by working in the English language, since it has a nominative focus.

“Our Voice” is a name, but what we are actually engaged in finding is not a “thing.” It is a “doing”—an act of speaking. We actually cannot find our Voice, we must create it—which is what we have begun to do through these workshops.

Turning now to the Navajo, not only does their language have the active and “present” quality alluded to above, their creation story is a story of the power of speech.3 In the Navajo tradition, thoughts sung by divine beings created the world. First Man and First Woman came from colored clouds that combined and then came down to earth through song. Their healing ceremonies are based upon the power of thoughts, when sung, to recreate harmony and, in restoring order, eliminate the cause of illness. So the purpose of the Navajo ceremonies is to sing/ speak as the gods did to restore harmony and make evil disappear.

This process of thought/ breath/speech/creation is parallel to in the language found in the New Testament at John1 where the “Word” is the basis for all creation:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.4

To speak, we need both thoughts and air/breath to bring those thoughts into speech. If there is a lack of air,

3 Witherspoon, Language and Art in the Navajo Universe, Univ. of Michigan Press, 1977, pp. 15-19 and 55-62.

4 When I introduced this text, I made the assumption that everyone there was familiar with it. When it was pointed out later that was not the case, I had my own learning moment about the difficulty of finding fully inclusive language given the range of experience and perspectives within any grouping. Note that I not have attempted to deal with the difficult question of use of the pronoun “he.”

A whiteboard of John Bloom’s guiding thoughts; the word in blue at bottom is “freedom.”

what do we do? If we are on an airplane, we reach out to the source (oxygen mask) for air.

But in Finding Our Voice we also are reaching out to the source of anthroposophy for the common threads. And, like the instructions about the mask, we need to “put it on ourselves,” before we try to help others. Practicing our speaking, creating Our Voice in the relatively safe confines of this workshop, is like putting on that mask ourselves, before we try to help others.

But, once speaking, do we have truly a Voice if no one else is there to hear it? This is similar to the traditional philosophical question: Is there a sound in the woods if the tree falls and no one is there to hear it? So for there to be a Voice there must be a “hearer”; then the deed of speaking can be a creative deed. It then can stimulate dialogue and out of dialogue we can generate or clarify relationships. That is what we have been exploring yesterday in the various role-plays.

We must find our audience—“look around and see who is there with us”—for Our Voice to be a creative force. That must arise out of something more than a passive “interest in the other.” We must seek them out; prepare ourselves to be sensitive to other cultural perspectives, work towards an inclusive common language, and initiate the conversation and form those relationships.

That effort can become the foundation for collaboration in the common cause of furthering human capacities and consequent development to follow. When dialogue goes beyond exchange into action, it evolves from shared conversation into shared doing. This can create a whole new and deeper level of relationship and positive impact. In the “weaving” of those conversations and developing relationships with those holding shared values and perspectives, we are also creating the “pattern” for a social fabric supporting a healthier future.

But the Hopi spoke also of celebration. What are we celebrating? I feel we need to be celebrating our own lives and how our relationship with anthroposophy has changed, enriched, and elevated us to search for our highest purpose. “Banishing the word ‘struggle’ from out attitude and vocabulary,” we need not dwell on perceived “failures” or mistakes within the movement. As long as we have learned from an experience, even if it is painful and apparently “unfortunate,” we transform if from a mistake into an achievement—and the basis for future, hopefully more fruitful, action.

So, in light of all of the above, last night I tried to formulate my response to the question: What is anthro-

posophy? It is not simply a “thing.” It is more than a “collection” of thoughts given by a particular person, (which one would characterize as a philosophy, as distinguished from a religion.)

However, thoughts not brought into the world, not made manifest, have no creative power. So for me, anthroposophy is more than thoughts from Rudolf Steiner, or even all of his thoughts compiled and indexed. It is those thoughts that are alive and active in the world; it is authentic dialogue, on the infinite variety of questions encountered during the course of life, that supports individual and collective development. The “body” of anthroposophy is the accumulated deeds of that process.

Speak out of your own experience, your own learning, out of your own “truth” to find your Voice. We each can share part of the story of our lives and the lives of others we may have affected. We can speak about how we have been inspired and activated by the thoughts given by Rudolf Steiner. We can share how we have done our best to make those thoughts our own, and have acted, each in our own way, to be in service to humanity. And, hopefully, we can find a way to share what we have learned.

So lastly, let me try to give my version of the answer to the question: “What is anthroposophy?”

Anthroposophy is the ever-expanding sum total of the impact within the world resulting from those actions arising from the insightful structural picture given by Rudolf Steiner of the dynamic interrelationship between Human development, Societal development, The evolving natural world, The evolving Spiritual world, And consciousness itself— As the source of it all.5

Charles Burkam (3fold.cdb@gmail.com) has been involved with Waldorf education for over 40 years and is presently membership coordinator for the Alliance for Public Waldorf Education. He spent 14 years in England at Michael Hall Steiner School and Emerson College, returning to the US in 2000. He had spent the past 8 years at Desert Marigold School in Phoenix, before “semi”-retiring at the end of 2018. He was introduced to ancient Indigenous Wisdom through his wife and its alignment with Anthroposophical Thought has been a consuming interest for over 20 years.

5 Interestingly, in November, 2018 the following book was published: An End to Upside Down Thinking: Why Your Assumptions about the Material World Are No Longer Scientifically True, by Mark Gober. As a scientific materialist, he makes the argument that consciousness does not come from matter, but that matter is created out of consciousness.

I AM manifesto.

I AM…

A body in space

A life in time

A consciousness in an ever-changing mind

A god wanting to incarnate once again.

A mix of responses

A chaos of perceptions

A process of possibilities

A longing for beauty.

A search for truth.

A goal of goodness.

A shadow seeking light.

A chill seeking warmth.

A silence seeking tone.

A dream seeking force.

A drop of grief

A breeze of happiness.

A spark of anger.

A tremble of fear.

A cradle of freedom

A womb of love.

A vision of contribution

A desire for intimacy

A study in balance

A forgiveness of failure

A grief of what was

A potential of fulfillment

A personal mystery

A cosmic purpose

A karmic knot

A path of destiny

A celebration of joy

An agony of suffering

A waterfall of compassion

A sunrise of wisdom

A keeper of the universe.

A lover of humanity.

A question with a million answers.

I Am!

II

One I AM in seven billion I AMs

EVERYONE in one I AM.

Stripping down. Spreading wide.

I stand here, slump here, at the edge of my past

Wearing all my identities

Wrapped in all my defenses

Wanting to be my naked I AM

My story-free I AM

Wanting to stand tall at the edge of my future

Ready to leap forward

Searching for the abyss

Where my true name sings.

I want to unfold my ever-present wings and trust them, But they are buried underneath my appearances. My appearances are protecting my wings

Wings should not be hidden, They are meant to spread wide visible to the cosmos

Is now the moment when I strip away my appearances. Do I fold them neatly and place them in a basket made of gratitude?

Do I search through all their pockets

To find the crumpled slips of prickly memories

And hopeful mantras?

To find broken shells collected on lonely beaches

And menus of anxious feasts

Sunglasses that hid my eyes

Tissues that wiped them dry

And all the wannabe dreams of holiness and earthly things?

You get the picture of my pictures. You hear the stories in my sound bites. Are they me? Yes and no.

Should I believe them? Yes and no.

III

The feathers of my wings are many and manifold. They are the sudden intuitions that led me to do good. The imaginations that sing with truth. The moments of inspired beauty in my feelings. They are the glimpses of witnessing others and Others witnessing me.

They are the touches, tender with love. The red ones tinted with blood.

IV

O

Human Soul, Know Thyself!

Lynn Jericho (www.imagineself.com) is an author, counsellor, and maker of sacred conversations. For many years she has offered Inner Christmas and other emails and blogs for the sacred year, as well as the Imagine Self Academy—courses on finding, knowing, and becoming yourself.

Having Slept on It

The dream she woke inside streams back to night behind her, as she rises with a haunting sense of being warmed with amber light, equipped to do a task that had been daunting. She cannot know where she has flown in sleep so deep and so removed from what she now must bring about, her teeming mind keeps watch in regions of surmise and how the robust world seems everywhere a-bloom with more adornment than it held before, like flowers that open out and their perfume along the walkway to a lover’s door. Ideas that flood resolve throughout the night inform intent in conscious morning light.

Thorn Piercings

Examine the thorn in your side. Pull it gently from your hide noticing the angle of its entry. Wipe your blood from the tip and study its point. Observe the tree on which it grew and learn the soil content of the ground around it. Ask yourself when the irritation is greatest and what abates it. Think about the day it first pierced your thin skin and all the ways you have changed to accommodate the pain.

Through No Merit of My Own

The relentless country road cut a crow’s course through a century of corn fields as the story tape droned on like a lullaby for my beautiful sandy-haired boy was already asleep in the back seat. Summer colors faded to murky haze before my drowsy eyes. We did not suddenly drop from a thick ridge of concrete onto a loose gravel shoulder and roll into a ball of fire at the bottom of a grassy borrow pit. The recent events of my life did not unfold in reverse and take me toward youth to feel in other forms the pain and joy I had inflicted on the world. I did not pass through darkness toward a magnet of intense white light.

I woke, instead, hyper alert to pure green where the road had been, as if, once blind, I were seeing color for the first time. There, beside the road where I was trying to drive, was no sign identifying highway 20, no telephone pole to stop the front of our van and send us and the rear end folding into it like a Chinese paper fan.

I could steer back onto asphalt--on again and off again, pumping the brake that did not

lock and send us spinning end-over-end. The car behind me, watching aghast as I began to dose, had not tried to go around me where I’d have plowed into it, sending through shattered glass, its dog and our children’s pieces bleeding into the field of corn.

The car coming toward me on the quiet Sunday morning carried a young girl who will marry and bear children, all of whom will learn, on earth, wondrous and terrible things. And she will not give another thought to that last trip upstairs to grab the letter there on her dresser the letter she stuffed into her purse as she fumbled for her keys-the letter that was to be the reason she was not yet next to me in the oncoming lane, that fatal spot, as I spun across the lack-of-traffic and sat with our van sideways in the highway, green corn growing beside us, the carload of children from behind us moving out of sight, my wide-eyed boy awake beyond waking, yellow sun smiling into the right windows, my heart asserting itself into my lungs, and the story tape needing to be rewound for the parts we’d missed.

Maureen Tolman Flannery is the author of Tunnel into Morning , seven other books of poetry, and a chapbook of poems Snow and Roses about Traute Lafrenz Page and her work with the White Rose Society in WWII Germany. Raised on a Wyoming sheep ranch, Maureen and her actor husband Dan have raised their four children in Chicago.

A Parable for Anthroposophy

Consider, o child, how alien was the land In which we lived; how barren, without substance; How its stars, like glittering shells, Glimmered distantly, indifferently, above us. Yet, its dawns gave strength, and the morns, Gathering together their harmonies, Permeated the hearts of those who would hear.

Thus, the time came when, like an egret

Over dark, snowy waters, one rose—his image Dove, and the two met making that larger room Into which stepped the etheric, light-like Christ.

John Urban

Conversation with a prisoner

in a drama session in Brixton Prison, London, UK, in 1989

In the prison cell door I am face to face with a young man who looks like the enchanting prince in a fairy tale. A beautiful face, sky-blue eyes, he asks: ‘Miss, why am I not allowed in your class?’

‘I don’t know, I reply, you must be very dangerous.’ The stranger takes offense. In a clear voice he says, ‘Not me, I am a straight forward murderer.’ Veiled in confusion I turn my back.

‘Then I don’t know what is wrong with you’, I mumble. The world turned upside down, a silent voice in me declares.

I am a child of Cain. I bear the sign of fire. The lesson continues. An inmate recites ‘O, my offense is rank it smells to heaven...’

Christina Bücking

I carry a candle

I carry a candle before me to light up the contours of your face and allow me to see the person who stands still out of sight behind you

Andrew Hoy

The School

Fish that swim in schools at sea don’t move as freely as can I toward light, beauty, and grace that ray toward us. Who freely moves through human limbs Can use materiality bathed in Spirit like Light that penetrates depths from heights. Fish that swim in schools at sea Have spiritual corporeality. Find the essence in the form. Know the measure and the rule. See the ancient gods reborn. In consciousness

You’ll find your school.

Andrea Huff

Christina Bücking is a performing artist, freelance teacher, eurythmist, active in London.

John Urban, a longtime member living in California, read his poetry, including some published by River Sanctuary, on the theater stage at Rudolf Steiner House, London, in 2018.

Andrea Huff founded one of the first organic food school lunch programs in the United States, known as “Lunch at the Waldorf”; an organic and biodynamic foods caterer, she is editor of the Waldorf School Book of Soups.

Andrew Hoy is a “Camphiller” for over sixty years and a founding member of Camphill Kimberton; his latest book of poetry is Portraits and Other Works of Art

IN THIS SECTION:

Luigi Morelli completes his summary of Steiner’s karma exercises.

Stephen Usher greets a last volume from Sergei Prokofieff.

Joaquin Muñoz shares the wealth of a training with Indigenous Waldorf teachers.

Laurie Clark finds the spiritual depth in place.

Sunbridge teaches world language teachers.

Wolfgang Schad has carried his classic Goethean work on animals even higher.

Seth Jordan revisits the training to tell Europe 1919 about new social laws.

Dante and Sophia, the living cosmic wisdom, are reviewed by Terry Hipolito.

Michael Ridenour shares, in a poem, an experience of being slowed down for wisdom’s sake.

Piercing Through the Veil of Karma

Rudolf Steiner’s Path to the Microcosm, Part 2

by Luigi Morelli

In the first part of this article we explored some central ideas derived from Steiner’s archetypal social phenomenon , namely that human beings of the present are only truly social in their sleep, when in their astral bodies they are united with other human beings—but are not conscious of it.

And Steiner indicates that “only that which continues to work out of sleeping into waking conditions is active as a social impulse in ordinary waking consciousness...”1 To this end, in order to overcome our natural antisocial tendencies in the encounter with others, we must move away from our spontaneous inclination to form concepts about the being of the other and attempt to develop imaginations. With this aim in mind Steiner designed some basic exercises that allow us to awaken in our souls imaginations of ourselves and of other human beings, effectively rendering us more aware of the workings of karma in our lives.

Among the exercises I loosely grouped under the name of “karma exercises,” listed first was the simplest of all, the Rückschau , or the daily backward review.

This was followed by the habit of looking back at parts of our lives (phases with clear beginnings and ends) and pass them in review as if we were looking at another person.

In order to stop identifying ourselves with our persona , and with the events of our lives, Steiner devised an exercise in which we are asked to look at relatives, friends, and colleagues and detect what we owe to each one of these.

Moving one step further we can look at other human beings and create “spiritual paintings” of their being, thereby awakening the habit to portray individuals beyond how we customarily perceive them through sympathy and antipathy alone.

We are the architects of our biographies

The Lesser Karma Exercise and the Greater Karma Exercise form two important thresholds in the apprehension of the forces at work in our biography. In our pre-birth life we have consciously and earnestly decided to encounter the challenges that we meet in this present life, for the growth they provide our soul and the souls which are connected to us. This mood inevitably fades, or turns into its opposite, during our lives on earth. It is the purpose of the Lesser Karma Exercise to encourage us to take responsibility for everything that happens in our lives, reminding us that by and large we are the architects of our biographies. This realization can push us a step further, to strive to break through the veil of karma and apprehend the origin of present life challenges in previous lives. We mentioned the Greater Karma Exercise as one way to get in touch with this reality; another exercise with a similar purpose is the socalled Moon-Sun-Saturn Exercise that Steiner gave us in his Karmic Relationships lectures.

The exercises above belong to the practice of looking back in time, which in the Foundation Stone

1 Social and Anti-Social Forces in the Human Being (12/12/1918, GA 186).

Meditation is called “Spirit Recollection.” It is this path of Spirit Recollection (or Spirit Remembering) that we will now contrast with its counterpart of Spirit Beholding (or Spirit Vision). An exploration of this kind can only be summarized in article form. I have treated the matter much more extensively in the book Karl Julius Schröer and Rudolf Steiner: Anthroposophy and the Teachings of Karma and Reincarnation 2

Paths of the Foundation Stone Meditation

The Foundation Stone Meditation brings to full expression three paths or impulses: Spirit Recollection, Spirit Mindfulness (or Spirit Awareness), and Spirit Beholding. We will look at the expression of the two terms that form a polarity in Spirit Recollection and Spirit Beholding. The central term lies midway between the two, or rather forms a higher synthesis. It becomes more understandable in light of the other two paths. It will not be contemplated in what follows.

In the year leading to the Christmas Conference, Steiner introduced the contrast between the “path of Saturn” and the “path of the Moon.” (26) In relation to the Saturn path, Steiner took his start from the Philosophy of Freedom. Abstract thinking, which gives free reign to association of ideas is resurrected from a passive activity, into a path of perception of the spiritual in matter, when the thinker tries to apprehend the relationship between thinking and himself, when he looks at the activity of thinking itself. This is what leads to pure thinking, or spiritualized thinking. Steiner described “how the will strikes into the otherwise passive realm of thought, stirring it awake and making the thinker inwardly active.” This is the path through which the human soul eventually reaches beyond Saturn into the universe (the path to the macrocosm). Steiner continues, “in [Philosophy of Freedom] I limited the discussion entirely to the world of the senses, keeping more advanced aspects for later works, because matters like these have to be gradually developed.”

The Saturn path is then contrasted with the Moon path, the one in which “one can advance on the opposite side [microcosm] by entering deeply into the will, to the extent of becoming wholly quiescent, by becoming a pole of stillness in the motion one otherwise engenders in the will.” Instead of becoming an unconscious part of world movement, one can consciously come to a stand-

2 See http://millenniumculmination.net/ for a PDF format of the book.

still. Through this “one succeeds in keeping the soul still while the body moves through space; succeeds in being active in the world while the soul remains quiet; carries activity, and at the same time quietly observes it; then thinking suffuses the will, just as the will previously suffused thinking.” The Moon path allows one to separate the will from the physical body, just as the Saturn path offers body-free thinking. On the Moon path, “One learns to say ‘You harbor in your will sphere a great variety of drives, instincts and passions. But ... they belong to a different world that merely extends into this one, a world that keeps its activity quite separate from everything that has to do with the sense world.’”

Sense-free thinking on one hand; sense-free willing on the other. This is as much as was said before the Christmas Meeting. We can now take this further with the Foundation Stone Meditation, the Leading Thoughts, and the Letters to the Members

The third panel of the Foundation Stone Meditation contains the mention of Spirit Beholding, in which we are told:

Soul of Man

Thou livest in the resting head

Which from the ground of the eternal

Opens to thee the thoughts of worlds.

Practice Spirit-vision

In quietness of thought,

Where the eternal aims of Gods

World-Being’s Light

On thine own I

Bestow

For thy free willing.

Then from the ground of the Spirit of Man

Thou wilt truly think

For the Spirit’s universal thoughts hold sway

In the being of all worlds, beseeching light.

Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi!

(Spirits of Soul!)

Let there be prayed in the depths

What from the heights is answered,

Speaking:

Per Spiritum Sanctum reviviscimus.

(In the spirit’s universal thoughts the Soul awakens.)

The elemental spirits hear it

In East and West and North and South:

May human beings hear it!

Here, it appears quite clearly that it is through thinking that we can apprehend the working of the spirit, in

research & reviews

the quiet of the head. Key words are “world thoughts” and “light of the being of worlds.” Through the “quietness of thought” the “eternal aims of Gods” grant us “Worlds-Being’s light.” This is the activity penetrated through and through by the will, which allows us to truly think “in grounds of the spirit in Man.” It is the activity that leads us to “truly think” which connects us to the world of the Holy Spirit, or the Spirit’s universal thoughts, through which the soul resurrects into eternity (“Per Spiritum Sanctum Reviviscimus” or “In the Spirit’s universal thoughts, the Soul awakens.”)

In Steiner’s subsequent Leading Thoughts, #66 states: “The Beings of the Third Hierarchy reveal themselves in the light which is unfolded as a spiritual background in human thinking. In the human activity of thought this life is concealed . If it worked on, in its own essence, in human thought, man could not attain freedom. Where cosmic thought-activity ceases, human thought-activity begins.”

The path of “Spirit Recollection” or “Spirit Remembering” resounds in the words of the first panel of the Foundation Stone Meditation.

Soul of Man!

Thou livest in the limbs

Which bear thee through the world of space Into the ocean-being of the Spirit.

Practice Spirit-recollection

In depths of soul, Where in the wielding World-Creator-Being

Comes to being

Within the “I” of God. Then in the all-world-being of Man Thou will truly live.

For the Father-Spirit of the heights holds sway

In depths of worlds, begetting Being

Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones!

(Spirits of Strength!)

Let there ring out from the heights

What in the depths is echoed,

Speaking:

Ex Deo nascimur.

(From God, Mankind has being.)

The elemental spirits hear it

In East and West and North and South:

May human beings hear it!

Here we can gather that Spirit Recollection addresses the realm of the Father and the activity of the will through the limbs. The activity of Spirit Recollection leads us back in time (through the stream of memory) to the time in which our “I comes to being within the I of God,” which is later addressed in the same stanza in the voices of the Rosicrucian motto of “Ex Deo Nascimur,” or “From God, Mankind has Being.” This refers to, among other things, the time in Lemuria in which the fall and the stream of earthly incarnations took place. The end of the activity of Spirit Recollection is not to truly will, but to “truly live in the All-World-Being of Man.” The limbs that are here mentioned should be seen as limbs in motion, as the activity of the limbs that moves us through the world of space in search of our destiny. These active limbs stand in contrast to the lungs and heart, whose activity is a rhythm (second panel), and even further to the head, which has to be brought to a complete standstill in Spirit Beholding (third panel).

Leading Thoughts #95 (September 21, 1924) reads:

“In the manifestation of the Will, Karma works itself out. But its working remains in the unconscious. By lifting to conscious imagination what works unconsciously in the Will , Karma is apprehended. Man feels his destiny within him” (emphasis added). Central to this sentence are the words “lifting to conscious imagination,” to which we have abundantly referred above. It is this lifting to conscious imagination which is the object of the karma exercises. These thoughts find a continuation in the formulation of Leading Thoughts #68: “The beings of the First Hierarchy manifest themselves in spiritual creation beyond humanity—a cosmic world of spiritual Being which indwells the human Willing. This world of cosmic Spirit experiences itself in creative action when man wills. It first creates the connection of man’s being with the Universe beyond humanity; only then does man himself become, through his organism of Will, a freely willing human being.”

Let us further explore the contrast between Spirit Recollection and Spirit Beholding. It is clear that we are looking at a contrast between thinking and will in panels one and three of the Foundation Stone Meditation. However, the terms thinking and will evoke simplistic characterizations, and such are not applicable in this instance. Rather, one has to see thinking and will as interpenetrated activities; there is thought in the will, and will in the thinking.

At one end, our thinking is penetrated through and through by the will in the act of directing the thinking

towards an object without any external distraction, and without swaying into associative thinking. This is the path of thinking through the will; the Saturn path, and the path of Spirit Beholding.

At another end, the activity of will is penetrated through and through by the thinking evoked through the act of recollection. This is what allows us to be spectators of our own lives; to act and at the same time perceive our actions as spectators. This is the path in which the activity of the will is penetrated through and through by thinking; this is the Moon Path, and the path of Spirit Recollection. Because we are used to call the first the “path of thinking,” the second should be called the “path of the will.” A more complete characterization of either impulse would be the path of thinking through the will—Spirit Beholding—and the path of the will through thinking, or Spirit Recollection.

On the path of thinking through the will (Spirit Beholding), the exercises in Knowledge of Higher Wor lds, meditation, and the whole of anthroposophy form the essential foundation, which accompanies the pupil in his higher understanding of how the spirit permeates everything that we behold through the senses. To this, the six basic exercises are added as an important prerequisite and foundation.

In Spirit Recollection, the exercises we have just described and other similar ones form the essential core of

Further research by Luigi Morelli at millenniumculmination.net

CULMINATION - PLATONISTS & ARISTOTELIANS

Aristotelians and Platonists: A Convergence of the Michaelic Streams in Our Time*

Karl Julius Schröer and Rudolf Steiner: Anthroposophy and the Teachings of Karma and Reincarnation

A Revolution of Hope: Spirituality, Cultural Renewal, and Social Change

Social Threefolding in Relation to Rudolf Steiner’s Mission Coming out soon

Tolkien: Mythology, Imagination and Spiritual Insight; The Enduring Power of The Lord of the Rings

J. R. R. Tolkien, Owen Barfield and the Cosmic Christ AMERICAN SPIRITUALITY

Spiritual Turning Points of North American History*

Spiritual Turning Points of South American History*

Black Elk’s Universal Mission

Martin Luther King: His Legacy for the Future of Social Change

* Available in Spanish

the path. The whole of anthroposophy, and even knowledge of karma and reincarnation, form the complement. In fact, to walk at least the first stages on the path of the will through thinking, as Prokofieff’s study [The Foundation Stone Meditation: A Key to the Christian Mysteries] confirms, it is not necessary to know anthroposophy. And the attitude of soul necessary on this second path also differs greatly from what is needed on the path of Spirit Beholding. This difference is clearly stated in Philosophy of Freedom’s chapter 12, “Moral Imagination.” In contrasting natural-scientific knowledge (and all external knowledge) with knowledge that leads to moral action, Steiner said:

The confusion arises because, as natural scientists, we already have the facts before us and afterwards investigate them cognitively; while for ethical action, we must ourselves first create the facts that we cognize afterward. In the evolutionary process of the world order, we accomplish something that, on a lower level, is accomplished by nature: we alter something perceptible. Thus, initially, the ethical norm cannot be cognized like a natural law; rather, it must be created. Only once it is present can it become the object of cognition.

Only when I have acted in the world can I perceive what I have done and how it has affected the world. And only when I have acted can I go back in thought—recollect—in order to review and evaluate. This appeals to a strengthening of observation and especially of memory.

The contrast between the two paths appears emblematically when we look at the polarities between “pencil exercise” (control of thoughts) and the so-called “Rückschau” 3 as expressions of Spirit Beholding and Spirit Recollection respectively.

In the pencil exercise we focus all our attention on an object such as a pencil, by discerning our sense impressions of the object, thinking about its component parts and their relationships, imagining the steps of the process that create it, etc. During the few minutes of the observation all thoughts foreign to the object are carefully kept at bay, and that requires a tremendous effort of the will. It is truly an education of thinking through the will.

The polarity, though not immediately apparent, is realized in the Rückschau exercise. The intent is to focus inwardly upon the whole of the day or parts of it, picturing the events in the reverse order of their occurrence, and even in reverse motion. Instead of looking outwardly we 3 Literally, “backward look.” —Editor

turn our focus inwardly with an effort of our memory. What our will has brought about throughout the day, all of which would remain unconscious or semi-conscious, is raised to awareness. This is also a conscious effort of the will, but here thinking places order in the unfolding of the will which was previously brought about in the day, reminding us of what Steiner tells us is the precondition for ethical action in which “we must ourselves first create the facts.” Looking outwardly in the pencil exercise becomes looking inwardly in the Rückschau; the first addresses the thinking through the will, the second the will through thinking.

We can summarize our findings in Table 2.

SPIRIT BEHOLDING SPIRIT RECOLLECTION

Saturn path (macrocosm) Moon Path (microcosm)

Path of thinking through the will Path of the will through thinking

Pencil observation exercise: looking at the outer world

Rückschau: looking at the inner world

Preparation through study of anthroposophy Preparation through the karma exercises: review exercises going first to lesser karma and then to greater karma exercises.

Furthering through meditation, and deepening of the study

Masters of Esoteric Christianity

review by Stephen Usher, PhD

Rudolf Steiner and the Masters of Esoteric Christianity by Sergei O. Prokofieff. Wynstones Press, 2018, 409 pages.

Through unusual circumstances, this work which was nearly complete in 2005 was only published in 2018. It is a deep study of seven spiritual masters of esoteric Christianity: Manes, Scythianos, Guatama Buddha, the Maitreya Bodhisattva, Novalis, and Christian Rosenkrutz; and of an eighth Christian master: Rudolf Steiner. In the early pages of the book, a section is devoted to each of the seven. Of these masters the author states: “[F]or the meaning of earthly evolution consists in the gradual discovery by each human individual of a conscious connection between his individual ego and his cosmic archetype— the world Ego of Christ. This is an aim that is served by all masters of esoteric Christianity.”

Furthering through study of karma and reincarnation teachings: eventually, karmic research

Understanding of the Spirit Conscious experience of Destiny

Facts are given Facts (deeds) need to be created in order to be known and understood

Table 2: Spirit Beholding and Spirit Recollection.

Luigi Morelli has a passion for social change from a cultural perspective, and has extensive experience working with the social therapeutic impulse in Camphill, in L’Arche communities, and presently within Ecovillage Ithaca where he lives, with an emphasis on Nonviolent Communication and participatory facilitation. Luigi has written a number of books (see previous page) which are available for donation or for free at www.millenniumculmination.net

In trying to find an image that captures this huge work, the following came to mind. The biography of Rudolf Steiner is traced in key events of his life and this life is presented in an enormous cosmic context. “[O]ne can affirm that in the last third of the 19th Century all the fundamental supersensible events associated with the preparation for the appearance of Christ in an etheric form were reflected in Rudolf Steiner’s destiny as real inner experiences. Only by consciously experiencing them was he able to establish a firm foundation for modern spiritual science.” Key events from Rudolf Steiner’s biography include these:

1. When he was 18, meeting the Rosicrucian master; he was advised to climb inside the skin of the dragon in order to defeat it.

2. In full freedom, renouncing the fulfillment of his own tasks over the course of 14 years (1880-1894), and living the destiny of Karl Julius Schröer.1 Steiner stated, 1 Schröer was a distinguished professor who recommended the very young Rudolf Steiner as editor of Goethe’s scientific works for an important new edition. Steiner’s later research made him aware of Schröer’s mission to bring a new, evolved Platonism. – Editor

“I decided at that time to take on Schröer’s destiny as my own, at the cost of living out the path of my own destiny.”

3. From this free deed he was able to write his Philosophy of Spiritual Activity which appeared in 1894. In his autobiography Steiner states, “My Philosophy of Spiritual Activity was born from the experience of ideas that encompassed spiritual reality. The experience involving the whole human being contains the spiritual world in a much more direct and living way than the idea experience. Yet when ideas are experienced directly, it represents a higher stage than the ordinary, conceptual understanding of the sensory realm. Through directly experienced ideas, one comprehends not the sense world but the spiritual world, adjoining the sense world.”

4. At the age of 36 in 1895—when Rudolf Steiner entered the period of the Consciousness Soul—he underwent a dramatic soul transformation. Until this time, Steiner reported ( Autobiography) that he had great difficulty observing the natural world. Witnesses stated that he could hardly manage a hammer. Steiner states, “It was as though I was unable to infuse the mental experience into the organs of sense with sufficient energy to make what they experienced entirely one with my mind.” In contrast, he experienced throughout his early years ready access to the spiritual world. Then, in his 36th year, all this changed and his experience of the sense world became very acute.

Steiner’s transformation at age 36 has led some anthroposophists to seek an explanation by “identifying

Rudolf Steiner with teachers such as, for example, Zarathustra or the Maitreya Bodhisattva.” Prokofieff rejects this idea. “Rudolf Steiner was neither the bearer of the ego of Zarathustra, nor the bearer of the forces of his sheaths (as, for example, his astral and etheric bodies, as Hermes and Moses were in their time), nor of the sheaths of other Masters, but in the course of his initiation received into his ego something infinitely higher, that is, the forces of the creative Word in its absolute creative potential.”

Indeed, a major theme of the book is that Rudolf Steiner achieved all that he did through the power of his own ego—which means he had learned to live the “Not I but Christ in me.” (Galatians 3:20)

5. By 1898, according to his Autobiography, Steiner was aware that work with natural science could lead to the development of a science of the spirit (Geisteswissenschaft). The natural scientist—when immersed in scientific activity—experiences his thinking as mental activity. Upon entering the spiritual world while engaged in this activity, Steiner met Ahrimanic beings for whom “it was an absolute reality that the world must be a machine. Their realm borders directly upon the sense-world.” It is the striving of these Ahrimanic beings to develop science into a strictly “mechanical, materialistic way of thinking.” Rudolf Steiner sought to develop natural scientific activity into perception of the spirit.

In this period, Steiner states that he had to “rescue [his] spiritual world-conception through inner battles” with these spirits. Through contemplation of the Mystery of Golgotha, Rudolf Steiner passed through this period of testing and trials.

6. Shortly before the turn of the Century, Rudolf Steiner achieved an inner breakthrough, “This experience culminated in my standing in the spiritual presence of the Mystery of Golgotha in a most profound and solemn festival of knowledge.” ( Autobiography)

Through these six life events, and others, the author concludes that Steiner is a unique Christian master and, moreover, that he plays an essential role in the evolution of the (current) Fifth Post-Atlantean Epoch. This is connected with Rudolf Steiner’s unique connection with the world of the Holy Spirit which is found in the sphere of the bodhisattvas:

“For all proclamations, all aspects of wisdom in the world, go back ultimately to this single source, to the source of primal wisdom possessed by [this] being—the Spirit of the bodhisattvas” (CW 113, August 31, 1909). Prokofieff continues, “And when Rudolf Steiner says that

Sergei Olegovich Prokofieff (16 January 1954 – 26 July 2014)

research & reviews

in the School of Michael the ancient initiation wisdom was “worked through” (CW 240, July 20, 1924) in order that it might become the foundation of a new knowledge of Christ, we must seek its source in the sphere of the bodhisattvas. What had in this way been prepared in the supersensible School of Michael was then implemented by Rudolf Steiner. He was the first to be able to encompass the wisdom of the bodhisattvas with the spiritualized intelligence of Michael and, hence, to make it accessible to all human beings.”

Sergei O. Prokofeiff goes on to characterize in detail the realm of the bodhisattvas. Here one learns the concept of the Cosmic Bodhisattvas as distinct from the human bodhisattvas who progress to buddhahood. A normal bodhisattva is a human being who has advanced “to such an extent that he can in full consciousness work together with the angelic being who guides him, while receiving inspiration for his work from the archangelic being who stands at an even higher level.”

The Cosmic Bodhisattvas are twelve in number. The twelve constitute the vehicle for the working of the Holy Spirit and they receive their inspiration from the Christ. Each of these Cosmic Bodhisattvas is composed of a specific set of angels, archangels, and archai. Prokofieff uses the Russian term sobornost to describe a higher community founded on the spirit. One could say that each Cosmic Bodhisattva is such a community of angels, archangels, and archai, and when these twelve work together they form an even higher sobornost : the lodge of the Twelve Cosmic Bodhisattvas which is in the realm of providence. Rudolf Steiner was able to consciously enter this lodge of the Twelve Cosmic Bodhisattvas.

Additionally, the book describes the formation of a 13th Cosmic Bodhisattva in the period from 1879-1900. This was made possible through the advance of the Nathan Soul 2 to the rank of angel, of Vidar (a god of the Norse Mythology, CW 121) to the rank of archangel, and of Michael to the rank of archai. These three had a “quite particular connection to the Spirit Self, Life Spirit, and

2 According to Rudolf Steiner’s research, the “Nathan Soul” is the individuality whose first incarnation was as the Jesus Child of the line of Nathan, described in the Luke Gospel. —Editor

Spirit Man of Christ.” This new Cosmic Bodhisattva has the “particular task of being the instrument of the etheric Christ from the 20th Century onwards. … And for the fulfillment of their mission, which was at the same time the mission of the etheric Christ Himself, all these three hierarchic beings working together in the spiritual worlds needed one human being who ... had the capacity of receiving them in full consciousness into himself, that is, of enabling them to work through all three of his sheaths. In other words, this new ‘thirteenth’ bodhisattva needed his human bearer, his particular human ‘bodhisattva’ who was at the level of a master and had certain qualities belonging already to the stage of ‘buddhahood’, and who thereby made it possible for this ‘thirteenth’ bodhisattva to incarnate into him while fully maintaining his individual egoconsciousness, imbued and pervaded as it was by Christ Himself. This human being—the greatest Christian initiate of our time and the individual bearer of the mysteries of the etheric Christ in the 20th century—was Rudolf Steiner.”3

This review concludes with a quote of Maria Röschl4 reported in the book. She asked Rudolf Steiner “whether there was an initiate in his time whose perception [in the spiritual world] extended as high and as far as his own … he answered that there was, but there was no one with the capacity to clothe what he beheld in the form of thoughts that enable others to comprehend it with their own powers of thinking: for this required bringing what had been spiritually perceived into the brain, and this was a sacrifice that no one else had been able to make.”

Stephen E. Usher, PhD (seusher@sbcglobal.net) is an an economist with expertise in money, banking, and financial markets. He was for eight years managing director of Anthroposophic Press, and has lectured and written widely on anthroposophical topics.

3 Prokofieff distinguishes between Eastern and Western bodhisattvas. The Western ones do not change their individuality at age 30 as Eastern bodhisattvas do. Further the Western bodhisattvas can continue to incarnate after attaining buddhahood.

4 Maria Röschl taught at the first Waldorf school in Stuttgart and was first leader of the Youth Section of the School of Spiritual Science. —Editor

Waldorf in Indigenous Spaces

Teaching Waldorf Teachers in Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Appreciation

by Joaquin Muñoz

For two weeks in August, I was blessed and honored with the opportunity to work with an amazing group of educators in Toronto, Canada. The instructors, all members of the Haudenosaunee Nation and teachers at the Everlasting Tree School in Oshweken, Ontario, shared their understanding and experience of using Waldorf education to work with the children of the Six Nations Reserve.

Along with direct training and professional development, I was able to sit with each of these educators and chat about their pedagogy and practice. I was also able to visit the school and chat with students and parents about their experience of the school. In this article, I reflect on the experience of working with these Indigenous educators, and their work in the field of Waldorf-inspired education.

There were many interesting and powerful themes that arose during the workshops provided to us. Among the main components of our learning this summer were notions of resilience, of gratitude, and of approaching Indigenous communities to develop relationships and learning. I have written extensively about the week spent at the Rudolf Steiner Center of Toronto (see links at end) and catalogued many of the activities and discussions engaged there. I will briefly chronical some of the main discussions, and consider future endeavors in the field of indigenous education and Waldorf initiatives.

Historic Trauma, Historic Resilience

Sean Thompson, a teacher at the Everlasting Tree School provided a powerful insight on notions of intergenerational trauma, a topic that came up frequently during our week. The impact was clearly evident in the faces of the thirty teachers who participated when he noted that “if there is a thing like ‘intergenerational trauma’ then there must also be something like ‘intergenerational resilience.’” We can work in our schools to help overcome the legacy of historic trauma by considering the ways it impacts all people, not just Indigenous folks. In this consideration, we may come to see that we can be helpful

to students by incorporating and considering Indigenous knowledge, language and culture as methods to support the strength and well-being of peoples

In so doing, we can help students persevere in the face of trauma, aggression and oppression and to succeed in the fulfillment of their own potential and special gifts. By utilizing techniques and knowledge of Indigenous peoples, we can live into practices that connect people to themselves, and to their culture, in order to develop into their fullest manifestation of themselves.

This practice is not only useful for Indigenous youth, or youth of color; sharing this knowledge and practice is a useful tool for students of European descent, as means to develop a deeper understanding of the history of the people around them. In this way, all can contribute to the well-being of everyone else.

Cultural Appropriation vs. Appreciation

A question that arises in the incorporation of Indigenous learning and knowledge in the classroom was the question of cultural appropriation versus cultural appreciation. The concept has been used and described in so many different ways. A simple definition of cultural appropriation would be one Maisha Z. Johnson uses, where she notes that cultural appropriation looks like “taking from a marginalized group without permission, and usually without respect for or knowledge about their culture.”

This definition is useful, in that it points out the problem of a lack of permission, the lack of respect, and the lack of knowledge If we add to this the problem of intending to honor, support or appreciate a culture, but in actuality, the impact hurts them, we are coming closer to the heart of cultural appropriation.

With too little knowledge, respect, or permission, we can be hurting people way more than helping them. And it is important to remember that members of the culture get to make that call. When cultural appreciation actually enacts an erasing or dehumanizing of people, we must listen to them when they tell us so. Our teachers during our Indigenous learning week were hugely helpful in this space as well, calling on us to work in the long term space of relationship development with communities. Our goal is not to just take the “beautiful fruit” of a culture, but to “see the whole tree” as Chandra Maracle stated.

Giving Thanks

Another major theme that arose during our week with our experts was giving thanks. Many people felt that the greatest force permeating this week was one of gratitude. The gesture that has been brought to us by our Haudenosaunee teachers asked us to consider the notion of gratitude from a refreshed, and powerful perspective.

From the very beginning of our week, we were immersed in a Haudenosaunee way of thanks, of gratitude. On the very first day, we listened to the Thanksgiving Address in Haudenosaunee language, with only pictures to orient our thinking. In this exercise, we were challenged to determine the significance of all we had heard and seen. As a non-speaker of Haudenosaunee, it was evident to me that what we had witnessed was important, and profound, but my first interpretation was not one of gratitude. I assumed that what I had seen and heard was a telling of the creation of the universe. It was only after hearing the interpretation and translation from Amy Bomberry, Chandra Maracel, and Sean Thompson that I understood the significance of what I had just heard, and perhaps more important, recognized a need in myself that is dormant: the need to have gratitude, the need to revere.

The notion of gratitude, of the act of reverence, was one that extended to all objects and beings. To draw on the work of Edward Benton-Banai, the need to extend respect and thanks to all beings, living and non-living, in the past, present and future. Gratitude must be extended at all times, to all things.

The Meaning of Law & the Wampum Belt

During our time with our Haudenosaunee teachers, we also took the time to consider the meaning of law. In Western views, law often connotes restriction, confinement, or punishment. It was incredible to hear the story and history of the Wampum belt which represented the Great Law. While responsible for delineating behavior, the Great Law needs to be read with a different lens. “Law” Sean Thompson told us, “is the great, the large goodness and right-ness.” And fundamental to the large goodness and right-ness is the connection and relationships shared by people. Like the Wampum belt that represents it, it is the path, the way.

In learning the history of the beads, belts, ties, and colors, we learned of their significance as markers of relationship and responsibility. It was interesting to see and hear the stories of the various belts, and how they repre-

sented relationship between Haudenosaunee, members of the Six Nations, and to relationships with non-Natives, including the Dutch, French, and British. What is amazing about these representations is the significance of each color, each design, each bead.

Each one represented a powerful reminder to involved people of the supreme responsibility for maintaining the relationship it represented. This is not a call for perfect, pristine harmony and peace; it is a call to remember the connection forged by the relationship and value it. To think and consider the connection and relationship above anything that might be gained from desecrating the relationship. Ultimately, it designates an equal engagement and involvement of sovereign, mutually respecting peoples.

For the Future

What may be the biggest gift given to us in the week was a powerful framework by which to learn about Indigenous languages, cultures and histories. If we borrow from the Thanksgiving Address shared by Sean Thompson on the very first day, we have a way to envision a path forward. We know then, that every culture has words, phrases and beliefs about what it means to approach the world and make sense of it. From the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address, we know that there are terms that denote the winds, birds, animals, people, trees, plants, and relationships. Knowing the word is not sufficient, however. One must learn the meaning, the significance, and the symbolism of each term.

Thus, we can begin a study of the language, history, or culture of the peoples around us by attempting to learn more of their worldview, their knowledge, and the way they understand knowledge. And what we immediately must see is the complexity of the worldview. It is in this complexity that we must enter, and learn from, with the greatest respect.

What Waldorf Education Is

In many respects, the greatest service that was provided to us in these two weeks has been the opportunity to come together in reaffirming what we love about Waldorf education. In discussions, in art projects, in engagement with teachers and students in warm and caring ways, in the deep considerations of spiritual impulses and implications, many of us found powerful kinships. There was a great deal of deep thinking and reflecting on what our activities, what they produce, and how they impact our students. We constantly spoke of the importance of con-

necting with our students in meaningful ways, and of the need to build authentic community with those around us. In this way, we saw the ways that Indigenous knowledge and belief can connect to, and enhance, Waldorf education practices, and at the same time, the ways that Waldorf education can enhance Indigenous knowledge and understandings.

The Mystical Voice

The trees are longing for the heart’s offering

To be taken to the mouth of the wind

That sings and creates the calling

Let all who hear enter the upper room

Where the celebrated word

Revived in the living light

Breaks us open……

The battlefield can become an altar

References

Benton-Banai, E. (2010). The Mishomis Book: The Voice of the Ojibway. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.

Johnson, M. Z. (2015). What’s wrong with cultural appropriation? These 9 answers reveal its harm. everyday feminism. Retrieved from: https://everydayfeminism.com/ 2015/06/cultural-appropriation-wrong/.

Munoz, J. (2018, August). Indigenous Waldorf Week at Rudolf Steiner Center Toronto. Rudolf Steiner Center Toronto Blog; https://www.rsct.ca/Blog. Joaquin’s reports may be accessed most easily at these URLs: www.rsct.ca/Indigenous-Week-Day-One www.rsct.ca/Indigenous-Week-Day-Two www.rsct.ca/Indigenous-Week---Day-Three www.rsct.ca/Indigenous-Week-Day-Four www.rsct.ca/Indigenous-Week-Day-Five

If one can carry the cup

Into the fire of the crucible

When the horrifying moment can be touched

In an encounter of unexpected beauty

There is freedom to walk

Inside the open field of the wounded

Slipping eloquently

Into the essence of the blood

Rising into the dark silence

Laurie Clark

World Language Teacher Training

Sunbridge Institute in Chestnut Ridge, NY, is offering a certificate program in Waldorf World Language Teacher Education, next enrolling summer 2019; it alternates years with a program for Waldorf music teachers. It is designed for those currently teaching world languages or aspiring to become Waldorf world language teachers.

World language students focus on the theoretical considerations and practical aspects of world language teaching through the grades, with additional coursework in child development, inner development, Waldorf pedagogy, and the arts. Reading fundamental texts by Rudolf Steiner and instruction in developing a meditative practice is included. Students will discover: How to teach

world languages in accordance with Waldorf education. Why acquiring a new language is so important to child development. How to address practical challenges world language teachers face in the classroom.

Program director Yolanda Novarro, originally from Barcelona, began working at the Brooklyn Waldorf School in 2008 as a class teacher, Spanish teacher and mentor. Yolanda’s focus has been the development of world languages curriculum and its implementation in Waldorf schools; she has worked as an educational consultant, teacher trainer and mentor in the US and Brazil and is currently mentoring world language teachers and researching language immersion programs. Details at www.sunbridge.edu

Joaquin Muñoz, PhD, is assistant professor in the Education Department at Augsburg University. He holds his BS, MA, and PhD from the University of Arizona.

Laurie Clark (laurieclark525@comcast.net

) is a long time Waldorf teacher who writes poetry once in a while. She was inspired to write this poem while attending a Christian Community open course entitled, Sacramentalism and Alchemy.

The Integrity of Animals

review by Craig Holdrege

Understanding Mammals: Threefoldness and Diversity, by Wolfgang Schad.

Adonis Press,

2018, www.adonispress.org; 1320 pages in two volumes.

This book is a fruit of Wolfgang Schad’s many decades of research into the dynamic morphology of mammals. The first German edition was published in 1971, when Schad was 36 years old. An English translation, entitled Man and Mammals, was published in 1977. It became known as the “go to” book on mammals written by an anthroposophist and Goethean scientist. I’ve met many people whose eyes were opened to a fundamentally new and exciting way of understanding the forms and characteristics of mammals. This was also the case for me. Moreover, it inspired other researchers and helped them discover patterns in different groups of animals.

Schad never stopped researching, and his ability to hold innumerable facts and then weave them into a meaningful and coherent picture is truly remarkable. In 2012, the new German edition was published—two volumes totaling over 1200 pages! Truly, a lifetime achievement. Now, through the efforts of publisher John Barnes and editor Mark Riegner, we have an English translation that includes new material (Schad remains a tireless researcher at 83!) and many new illustrations. In the scope of its treatment of mammals and in the uniqueness of approach, the book is bound to become a classic.

Schad found a key to understanding mammalian form and patterns in Rudolf Steiner’s idea of threefoldness in the human being. In 1917 Steiner reported for the first time on his spiritual research into human physiology and psychology that revealed an intertwined threefoldness: A nerve-sense pole is focused anatomically in the head and psychologically in the ability to form thoughts and mental pictures based on sense experience. Here we are most awake. The metabolic-limb pole is focused anatomically, on the one hand, in the visceral organs such as the liver and digestive tract and, on the other hand, in the muscles and bones of the limbs. It is our will that works through this system and in our will, as Steiner often characterizes it, we are asleep—we have power to act and to transform, but our waking consciousness does not penetrate into the wisdom at work in the will. Mediating dynamically between these two poles is the rhythmic system. It is focused anatomical-

ly in the heart and lungs, and through rhythmic processes in the body we embody our life of feelings. Since childhood Schad was a keen observer of animals. When he later studied Steiner’s idea of threefoldness in the human being, he formed a mental lens that allowed him to see patterns in animals that had hardly been recognized before.

Animal form is usually interpreted through a NeoDarwinian view of evolution. All characteristics, whether the color or patterning of the fur or the form of the teeth, are considered in terms of survival. How does the long neck of the giraffe, the flat tail of the beaver, the larger molars of a horse, or the horns of an antelope allow the animal to survive? The beaver’s teeth are good for gnawing wood, the large flat tail for swimming and as a paddle to slap against the water to alert other beavers about the presence of potential predators, and the high-set eye sockets for swimming inconspicuously with its head only slightly above the water surface. All these “explanations” make sense, but they are also quite speculative. Moreover, this way of looking leads us to mentally dissect the animal into different traits, each of which has its own type of survival value. The coherence and integrity of an animal dissolves into a collection of traits, and all of its characteristics are considered solely as adaptations that secure survival.

Long before Darwin, Goethe protested against trying to explain animal traits in terms of their utilitarian functions. He wrote, “We conceive of the individual animal as a small world, existing for its own sake, by its own means. Every creature is its own reason to be.... We will not claim

that a bull has been given horns so that he can butt; instead, we will try to discover how he might have developed the horns he uses for butting.”1 This means that we need to study the characteristics of an animal in relation to one another and see if we can discover how they fit together with the context of the animal as a whole. In this spirit, and with the lens of threefoldness, Wolfgang Schad builds up a comprehensive picture of the diversity of mammals.

A threefold pattern in mammals is perhaps most vividly displayed in the differences between rodents, carnivores, and hooved mammals (ungulates). Think of a mouse or a chipmunk. These small animals are nervous and keenly aware of every sound, smell, and movement in their environment. When awake, they are hardly still, scurrying around with their small and agile limbs; everything is done quickly. When resting and sleeping, they often seek hollows or make tunnels that form a kind of larger protective sheath around them. They are herbivores, but seek out mostly oil, fat, and starch-rich seeds and nuts that provide them with the sustenance they need for their active lives. They can manipulate their food with the nimble-fingered forepaws and assimilate nutrients rapidly.

In contrast, the hooved animals are large and more centered in themselves, think of a bison (buffalo) or a moose. Smaller ungulates such as deer or small antelopes are more outwardly sense oriented and can be skittish— size matters! The ungulates have highly specialized limbs that form long stable pillars, allowing extended periods of standing and endurance in running. (A horse can sleep while standing!) They have nothing of the agility of rodent limbs. Ungulates are also herbivores, but most feed on grass and leaves, which are hard to digest and not nearly as nutrient-rich as nuts and seeds. Especially the ruminants (think of cows, sheep, goats, but also deer and antelopes) have a highly differentiated digestive system. They grind and chew regurgitated cud for many hours a day and with the four-chambered stomach—which includes a rich microbial flora in the rumen—and a very long small intestine, they digest grass and create their large, stately bodies. As a rule, ungulates sleep very little.

Between these two starkly contrasting groups of animals there are the carnivores (think of lions, bobcats, wolves, or foxes). They are mid-sized animals and meateaters. Their lives oscillate between hunting and resting—between extreme focus and activity in the hunt and long periods of rest while digesting. In many ways, their 1 Goethe: Scientific Writings (Princeton U. Press, 1995, p. 121); written 1795, published in 1820.

characteristics lie between those of the more sensoryoriented rodents and the metabolic-limb oriented hooved mammals. Schad speaks of carnivores as animals dominated by rhythmic processes—living between extremes (in-breath and outbreath; contraction and expansion).

Truly striking is how this threefoldness reveals itself in the details of anatomy, physiology, and behavior. Take the teeth. The rodents have very large front teeth—the incisors—that grow throughout life and are chiseled into shape through their gnawing activity. Rodents have no canine teeth and then a row of molars. They emphasize the front teeth, the ones that are most externally oriented. Ungulates emphasize the back teeth—the cheek teeth (premolars and molars) that form a long and uniform row of very tough grinding teeth. What’s remarkable is that ruminants have no upper incisors and canines at all, possessing front teeth only in the lower jaw. The emphasis is truly to the rear, where their food is ground and salivated, beginning the digestive process.

Lacking in these two groups are the canines, precisely those teeth that are emphasized in the carnivores. These are the teeth that lie between the incisors and the cheek teeth. Carnivores have small pointy incisors, long sharp canines, and sharp cheek-teeth with which they shear off the flesh. All the teeth carry the signature of piercing and shearing— not grinding. So in an impressive way, the teeth reveal the differences between these three groups of animals.

There are many subgroups of each these three types of mammals, and Schad shows how the lens of threefoldness can help us make sense of some of this variety. Take, for instance, the bear family. Bears are the largest of carnivores alive today and they tend to eat mostly plants. Moreover, their cheek teeth are flat and allow chewing. In these respects they have, in Schad’s terms, as carnivores a metabolic tendency. If one were to think schematically, then one could expect that bears would also have more specialized limbs. But this is not the case—they have quite unspecialized limbs, more like rodents and the smallest group of carnivores, the weasel family (e.g. weasels, martins, skunks). Schad concludes:

The entire bodily organization of the bear is based on the fact that, in a sense, it is a small carnivore grown large. The bear, therefore, is like a giant baby, large-headed and relatively short-legged, which never achieves the specialization of the cats, dogs, or seals. In its basic characteristics it most nearly resembles the badger, the metabolically oriented counterpart of the nerve-sensitive weasel.

Here we can see that Schad is not interested in fitting the diversity of mammals into rigid and neat system. Rather, he explores what kinds of relations the lens of threefoldness allows one to see. And many notable and surprising connections show themselves in the 1320 pages of the two volumes. Few readers will study the entire book page by page. But once you work enough with the book to gain a good sense of what Schad means by threefoldness, you can begin to see and appreciate the nuanced iterations in different groups. You begin to move in a world of dynamic connections. Then you can select individual chapters about, say, bats or whales, and not

only learn interesting details about these animals, but also have your eyes opened to relationships you would have never thought of.

This book belongs in every good library. It will help animal lovers and educators gain a new way of looking at the diversity of mammals.

Craig Holdrege, PhD (craig@natureinstitute.org) is The Nature Institute’s director and spearheaded its founding in 1998. His passion is to develop what Goethe called “delicate empiricism” — an approach that learns from nature how to understand nature and is infused with a cautious and critical awareness of how intentions and habits of mind affect human understanding.

Communication & Humanity

Communicating Anthroposophy: The Course for Speakers to Promote the Idea of Threefolding, by Rudolf Steiner. Introduction by Christopher Bamford, translated by Rory Bradley.

review by Seth Jordan

I found Communicating Anthroposophy to be a pretty fascinating read for a number of reasons. First off, the time and place are immediately present—World War I is over, Europe is in chaos, and Rudolf Steiner is in southern Germany speaking with activists who are preparing to travel west to Upper Silesia (which is in the midst of deciding its direction as a nation) to stand on soapboxes and give public speeches advocating for the ideas of social threefolding. It’s a historic moment of possibility (“we are dancing on the edge of a volcano”) and the scene is one of real strategizing on the ground—“for unless agitations are conducted in a drastic and widespread manner, and soon, we will never get anywhere with something as comprehensive as the threefolding of society must be.”

How does one prepare for such a task? This type of activism is no simple matter—Steiner tells his listeners about the need to grasp the living threefoldness of society, to work out of a deep foundation in spiritual science, to familiarize themselves completely with the trends of modern thought, all while never speaking abstractly but always out of one’s own experience. As if that’s not difficult enough, Steiner tells his audience that “we do not dispense finished, dogmatic judgements; rather your primary task above all else must be to see to the creation of a

basis upon which one person will arrive at a judgement by one means, another person by another. Only when there is a convergence of these sorts of judgements will we have something that we can use in reality.”

If one is hoping for the nuts and bolts of public speaking, one might be better off with The Art of Lecturing, a somewhat similar course that he gave to threefolders later that same year in Switzerland. That said, in Communicating Anthroposophy he still spends a number of lectures going under the hood and into the mechanics of public speaking, just not as systematically. One invaluable treasure contained in these talks is the combination of his advice on how to prepare one’s notes for a presentation (to be found in lecture 5) with his actual notes for these presentations (which are found at the end of the book). In this way, you both hear his advice as well as see the evidence of how he himself did it. One also gets a small window into such “mundane” matters as fundraising and publicizing the books and newsletter— everyday affairs that never find their way into his other talks and so are all the more interesting.

Then there is all the rich content of these lectures which, for the contemporary threefolding activist, offers many years of material for study. He brings in new pictures around the development of social life and touches on its deeper ninefoldness. He goes farther into some particulars of economic life (including the forming of

associations) than he does anywhere else to my knowledge. He emphasizes over and over again the “productivity” of spiritual/cultural life, and the need to make it independent. And he speaks about the administration of the cultural and economic spheres, offering new pictures to meditate on while still remaining frustratingly elusive (the open-ended approach, devoid of all “finished judgements,” that have irritated many a student of threefolding who really just wants some good, cookie-cutter answers!).

In the end, he throws his listeners (as well as the threefolding activist of the present day, of which the current write considers himself) back on him or herself. It is bitter medicine. He says that the anthroposophical movement “has progressed in such a way that its members have far too little interest in what is actually happening in the world around them”—an accusation I would say holds true today. To the frequent objection that the healthy threefolding of society is a development that will take decades and centuries to unfold, Steiner says “the things that are to come about in humanity, particularly when it comes to social institutions, are entirely dependent upon what human beings want, and how much strength and courage they set behind their will toward it. [In this way] institutions that might last for centuries due to carelessness and inaction can be overturned in a moment by the use of active powers.” For folks struggling to understand and advocate these ideas with little to show, it is hard to hear but also hopeful. Ultimately, the healthy development of society depends on our commitment, the strength we muster and the courage we manifest, when the moment arrives and the possibility of a new step presents itself.

The hardest pill to swallow, though, comes right at the beginning. The first thing he mentions, in the very first lecture, are two “foundational forces” we all need in

order to truly advocate for a healthy threefold society— love for the cause of threefolding and love for humanity. Like most activists who have fallen in love with a specific cause, the threefolders I know (myself included) advocate for it somewhat blindly. We step into a conversation and forget the person in front of us. The idea becomes vivid, catches fire in our imagination, and the human being before us dims. It only become worse if they disagree, in which case we might just write them off and go on to the next person. It is in such moments that our true lack of love for humanity becomes clear. Humanity is no abstraction, but simply the person in front of us that we struggle to tolerate. “Be clear with yourselves about this: if these two preconditions are not met [love for the cause and love for humanity], or if they are replaced by some other force such as ambition or vanity, you will still be able to deliver very logical speeches to people; you will be able to speak very cleverly, however you will not be able to achieve anything.”

It’s pretty discouraging really, and pretty much enough to make one want to give up before one’s even started. But it’s also an impetus to struggle through to develop a real interest in others (including their ideas!) while simultaneously striving to comprehend threefolding and to take up the work of self-development that is an ongoing precondition for this work. Thankfully, with Communicating Anthroposophy we have one more crucial aid in figuring out how to take up this difficult work.

Seth Jordan (seththomasjordan@gmail.com) is an organizer and educator living in Harlemville, NY. Since co-founding Think OutWord, a peer-led training in social threefolding, in 2008, he has traveled widely, giving talks and workshops and organizing projects in Europe, Asia, and the US. At home, Seth works with organizations including Free Columbia, 7 Billion Crowns, and The Nature Institute.

The Mystery of Dante review

by Terry Hipolito

Unveiling the Mystery of Dante: An Esoteric Understanding of Dante and His Divine Comedy, by Eric L. Bisbocci. Lindisfarne Books, 2017.

Mr. Bisbocci has written a comprehensive study of Dante’s Commedia , one that should appeal especially to students of anthroposophy interested to fit this great landmark of European culture into their work with the society. Those who are innocent of anthroposophy may find many of the general conclusions in this volume nearly incomprehensible. Anyone however who simply wants to rehearse or preview the contents of the Commedia will discover clear and effective précis of this medieval masterwork.

research & reviews

For Mr. Bisbocci’s book is written in two distinct sections, so distinct in fact that there are even separate and separately numbered notes. There is, as is too often the case these days in volumes of literary criticism, no index; this is especially unfortunate with an author like Dante and his proliferation of (to us) obscure names and places. Anyhow, the first section of this volume serves as prolog to the second; it has an academic form devoting itself to “the esoteric background” in eleven distinct chapters covering such topics as “Deciphering the Meaning of Love” and “The Sufis and their Influence.” In all, this preliminary material comprises about one third of the entire volume (190 of the 571 pages).

The second concluding section follows the Commedia itself. After a brief discussion explaining the full shape of the poem, is an annotated paraphrase of it. Its three major subdivisions are those of the work itself: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The paraphrasing commentary at times refers back to the introductory material and also (if memory serves me) introduces some new background material. For the most part however the paraphrase carries the load; it makes for a useful way to review the contents of the Commedia somewhat above the entanglements and details of Dante’s allusive and demanding verse. Bisbocci uses Ciardi’s translation throughout (as well as some of Ciardi’s commentary). There is little Italian and less Latin in this study.

These details would hardly matter if one uses this volume as an introduction to Dante’s great work or as a refresher. We are however offered a great deal more than that: an “esoteric understanding.” This volume does certainly offer esoteric understanding. Most of the remainder of this essay deals with the esotericism as Bisbocci studies it; he feels it unveils the anthroposophical meaning of medieval literature and culture in general.

There are two major forms of esotericism which the book considers: the “public” esotericism of general Rosicrucianism and the “private” relationship between Dante and Beatrice. The public strand, roughly, is to describe how the Templars and Rosicrucians influenced the Commedia . The private strand involves Dante’s use of the conventions of courtly love to examine his own spiritual erotic life, however frustrated and however fictional.

These strands, as Bisbocci presents them, form an ever diverse pair. There is very little exoteric evidence that Dante actually had ties to Rosicrucianism. Meanwhile Dante himself exerted the extent of his awesome exoteric literary powers to make sure the world was aware of his attachment to Beatrice.

Bisbocci’s early chapter “Resurrecting the Temple” (pp. 127-37) offers an example. He quotes Rudolf Steiner asserting that the Templars possessed a kind of faith and reverence that were “feminine,” rather one supposes than the brutally masculine militarism of the so-called Dark Ages. Henry Adams, in a writing roughly contemporary with Steiner, contrasts the masculine island fortress of Mont St. Michel with the feminine presence of the Virgin at Chartres and sees in this dichotomy a major turn in world history. Steiner’s thesis concerning the Templars I take to be an example of what anthroposophy means by spiritual science. Much the same might be said of Adams. Spiritual science seems very much, that is, to be an artifact of modern culture stemming from the phase of romanticism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The feminine pole of love in Dante’s work could hardly be more open. Nor I think could the portrayal of Beatrice be more empirical, more exoteric, or more complete. Bisbocci’s mention of Virgil and Beatrice nearly always includes an abstract formula. Virgil is nearly always accompanied by “(reason)” or some near equivalent. Beatrice is characterized in greater detail:

“…as long as Dante stayed on track by cultivating the knowledge leading to Divine Wisdom, she was alive ” (p. 391). Beatrice is most often mentioned as though she represented “Divine Wisdom” itself. Dante’s work of course is in many ways an allegory, and many of the characters, stuck in their own spiritual neighborhoods, are clearly meant to stand for moral abstractions. The Commedia‘s structure is also more complex than a pure allegory, such as Prudentius’ Psychomachia

In the opening chapter of his volume “The Tower of Babel and the Problem of Dialecticism,” Mr. Bisbocci sets forth his methodology; where he begins I shall end. He finds much to condemn in the literary criticism of the twentieth century which he implies has raised more

than one tower of Babel almost always around a bastion of incoherent and incomprehensible jargon. These verbal structures are what he labels dialecticism. One sympathizes. The rather lengthy epigraph to his book is a quotation from Owen Barfield’s Saving the Appearances which describes essentially a Gestalt experiment in which the appearance of a rectangular box can seem to be a view of the outside or the inside of the box depending upon how one orients one’s gaze. Barfield’s focus in Saving the Appearances is on how to conduct empirical science; the point of the quote, it seems to me, is how materialistic science, even physics itself, can never be free of questions that are ultimately subjective if not spiritual.

More apt to the point of Bisbocci’s introduction might have been a quotation from Poetic Diction where Barfield, I believe, anticipates and answers many of the dilemmas of “poststructuralism” which Bisbocci finds so troublesome. This early Barfield is, I believe, nearly a precognition of phenomenology. It is something like this sort of activity which underlies much of Heidegger, the postmodern Derrida and their fellow travelers exactly the sort of thinkers whom Bisbocci terms dialectical. Their work is often incorrect (whose isn’t?) but it seems to me that what it attempts to do very often is exactly to break free of dialecticism, from the rigid categories which Descartes posited in order to render them mathematical. Getting it wrong or getting it incomplete are quite distinct from getting it backwards. Husserl, a founder of phenomenology, attempted to save philosophy for science, much as Saving the Appearances also attempts, although by very different means and for very different ends. Husserl’s near contemporary Bertrand Russell is the true believer in dialecticism as we have characterized it here. Russell was not exactly an enemy of poetry; he considered it simply “noise.”

One might well see Beatrice as Divine Wisdom, but one cannot read Bisbacci, much less Dante himself, carefully and not perceive that she is alive as well perhaps as wise and divine. Mr. Bisbacci gives us a careful and well written guide to help us perceive divinity and wisdom bound up in an earthly feminine form, one of the first and certainly among the finest such expressions in human evolution.

Terry Hipolito (tahipolito@earthlink.net) became (anathema) a software developer, part of the artificial intelligentsia, and student of medieval literature, but he has been active in the Anthroposophical Society and in the Literary Arts & Humanities Section of its School for Spiritual Science.

I came through the woods…

I came through the woods a stream to find Though I didn’t know it at the time, And chanced upon a solid stump

Where some farmer cleared the way, Sat down to watch some squirrels romp, To rest and perchance to stay—it was getting late in the day.

And there, thinking myself well rooted, I took note of my little nook, and, Well satisfied with my convenient stump

I opened an old book and began to read

When my glance

Fell off the page and lighted

In an ageless brook

That carried another chapter

Down a shaded stream, Down the ever recurring stream, A chapter that murmured through fallen branch

Between speechless banks

As though to beckon to the idle place, My place of solid comfort,

As though to bid me follow

The never fallow ripples that sought, Ever buoyant, to lift

The living glint beneath unprinted eyes

Already turning to catch the flow

The irresistible flow,

The shining, tumultuous, gleeful flow

Reflecting clouds and the banks of heaven

And I rose from my now too solid stump

I rose and followed a many chaptered path: With a leap the crouching mind

Left its seeming solid nook behind. With never a backward look I even left

The little book,

The unfinished read of narrow lines, I left it there in the middle

Of the clearing

In case you too might come this way

Searching through the woods to find

A chance to stay the mind

By the little brook, and the seeming solid nook, That stumps the path we find.

Michael Ridenour

Michael Ridenour is a long time Waldorf high and middle school teacher; his interest in Goethean science led him to write The Greatest Gift Ever Given (Temple Lodge), bridging Esoteric Christianity with trends in modern science.

news for members & friends of the Anthroposophical Society in America

Open Hearts, Open Minds

by Deb Abrahams-Dematte

Anthroposophy brings the opportunity to go deeper, along with the inspiration, tools, and companions on the path to make change happen. Over the past several months I’ve had the joyful experience of meeting many of you at inspiring events including “How We Will” in Chicago, the 2018 conference and members’ meeting in New Orleans, and “Finding Our Voice” in San Francisco. And just this past weekend I shared potluck lunch with members of the Northeastern Massachusetts Study Group. At gatherings such as these, we have the chance to make deep human connections with friends old and new. Over and over as I meet more of you and learn about the ways you are bringing the work of Rudolf Steiner into your life, your work, and the world, I am inspired and humbled.

In Chicago at “How We Will” we came together with open hearts and open minds, to learn how to apply threefold practices to contemporary problems. The energy, intention, and skills of the young people who organized and led the event was also strongly present in the multi-generational group who attended. Much was shared and relationships were created and strengthened, bringing great joy to our lives and great power to our shared intentions to put love into action. Together we can bring anthroposophy into the world in service to this goal, in a concrete and profound way.

At “Finding Our Voice” recently, and truly at every event I attend, themes of equity, inclusion, diversity, and the importance of deep listening continue to emerge as essential pieces of the puzzle. How do we make a positive difference in the world? How do we find meaning? How can we cultivate our relationship with the spiritual world and with one another, to make significant and lasting change? As it was expressed in Chicago, “How do we make a more beautiful world?”

The beauty of this “development” work I do is about relationships. I am honored to work with you in support of bringing our highest intentions into the world. And I value the relationship with each and every one of you, and appreciate the chance to get to know more and more members. Thank you for sharing this journey.

Leaving a Legacy of Will

We are deeply grateful to the estate of Catherina Vanden Broek for a recent bequest. Her intention and generous care will help bring the gifts of anthroposophy into the future. Born on Christmas Eve in 1924, Catherina joined the Anthroposophical Society in 1984 and crossed the threshold in January of 2018.

Legacy giving, including bequests and other types of deferred gifts, is a far-reaching and meaningful way to support the work of the Society beyond a person’s current giving capacity. And the magic of this Circle is that it can only continue to grow, no matter which side of the threshold you are on. Many thanks to the newest members of the Legacy Circle, Cecilia Leigh and three anonymous friends. We share with you a sense of hope and direction toward the future. If you’d like to learn more about legacy giving, contact me at deb@anthroposophy.org or visit www.anthroposophy.org/legacy.

Appeal Updates

The 2018 end of year appeal, “Transform Yourself: Transform the World,” raised $40,010 in operating support toward achieving the mission of the Anthroposophical Society in America. We are deeply grateful to the 286 individuals who made gifts this year. Our donors help to bring Rudolf Steiner’s insight, plus resources for learning and human connection, to a world that needs these ideas and practices now more than ever. On behalf of all of us at ASA, we thank you for your generous support.

This year’s spring appeal will support the efforts of spiritually striving youth. The Youth Section brought meaningful content and great energy to the annual conference in New Orleans, and is now in the planning stages for “Questions of Courage, a North American Youth Conference” coming in August 2019 in Halifax, NS. Please see pp. 32-33 and stay tuned for details.

Thank you for your interest in the Anthroposophical Society in America, and for your care for anthroposophy in the world.

Deb Abrahams-Dematte (deb@anthroposophy.org) is ASA Director of Development

Photo by Chang Duong on Unsplash.com

New Members

Anthroposophical Society in America, 6/11/2018 to 2/28/2019

Stefan Kyle Ambrose, Gainesville FL

Fred Annexstein, Cincinnati OH

Kim Baker, Fair Oaks CA

Ildiko Horovitz Balintfy, Bethesda MD

Noreen J Barros, North Miami Beach FL

Isabel Bartles, Nashville TN

David F Bartlett, Gainesville FL

Bob J Bernstein, Antrim NH

Bruce P Bifano, Nokomis FL

Jenny Malik Bifano, Nokomis FL

Cathy M Blanch, Richfield MN

Angelique Bonca, Altadena CA

James R Bowen, Jr, Auburn CA

Rebecca Brown, Portland ME

Erin Byrne, Spring City PA

Wendy Campbell, La Canada CA

Joseph Christian Carmichael, Avondale AZ

Christopher Chapaneri, Rowlett TX

Laura E Childers, Altadena CA

Matthew R Chojnacki, East Dundee IL

Sheila K Clark, Sonoma CA

Steven J Clee, Kimberton PA

Lindsey R Cole, Brooklyn NY

Anna Katherine Curfman, Bainbridge Island WA

Jasmine Darland, Marietta GA

William Deady, Wakefield VA

Dan Ditzler, Cloverdale CA

Julia Doemer, Irvine CA

Kathy Donchak, Cody WY

Jenny Doty, Rockford IL

Dorothy Dunne, Sandpoint ID

Patrick Ebel, Whitewater CO

Laura Emerson, Freeport ME

Greta Fields, Mayking KY

Read Forrest, San Pablo CA

Laura T Founds, Pacific Grove CA

Luis Gallardo, Chicago IL

David Galstyan, Syracuse NY

Carl R Gibson, Ithaca NY

Matthias G Giles, Denver CO

Susan Marie Gimpel, Sebastopol CA

Michael Givens, Happy Valley OR

Mila Gracanin, Cincinnati OH

Catherine R Guidry, Jonesboro AR

Jonathan Hadley, Chicago IL

Mary Ann Haley, Great Barrington MA

Oliver M Hall, Los Angeles CA

Matthew S Hammond, Orangevale CA

Jeanette Harbour, Phoenix AZ

Eric J Harden, Ardmore OK

Josias M Harder, Santa Cruz CA

True M Hardt, Austin TX

Nick Hemenway, Oak Park IL

Trudy K Henke, Minneapolis MN

Gayatri Mary Horan, New Port Richey FL

Beckie Hotz, Frenchtown NJ

Virginia Antonela Jansta, Boca Raton FL

Christopher Johnson, Reeves LA

Shawn Johnson, Okemos MI

Dylan Jones, Covelo CA

Karen Garrett Jones, Ann Arbor MI

Veronica Kent, New Paltz NY

Doris Klemm, La Crosse FL

Andrew R Klump, Annapolis MD

Joshua W Kuebler, Lincoln NE

Abby Kurlfink, Rockwood MI

Edwin Kurlfink, Rockwood MI

Ella Lapointe, Ghent NY

Jeana Lee, Vaughan ON

Linda Lee, Belfast ME

Angeli Leinenkugel, Bellingham WA

Heidi V Leontie, San Rafael CA

Nancy S. Leuer, Tucson AZ

Ron Wayne MacKenzie, Portland OR

Andrew Madey, Chatham NY

Matthew Mandeville, New Haven CT

Alicia L Marvin, Glenwood MN

Julie Mauldin, Tampa FL

Abigail R McGlone, Lynbrook NY

Taryn McKnight, Sacramento CA

Bride Alona McWilliam, Gloucester MA

Sarah Menzies, Paia HI

Sheila Meyer, Nyack NY

Wymond Miles, San Francisco CA

Elizabeth L Miller, Santa Rosa Beach FL

Renee M Monteil, Keene NH

Nicholas M Morrow, Cleveland NM

Christa Mutschler, Tarpon Springs FL

Michael Nau, Belton TX

Lloyd Nelson, Paonia CO

Nicos Nicolaou, Irvington NY

Barbarah Nicoll, Castlegar BC

Sara Norris, Westmoreland NH

Karolina A Nowak, Evanston IL

Randall S Olson, Waterford MI

Caroline Palacios, San Francisco CA

Inez Maria Pandit, Kerken Germany

Tess A Parker, Altadena CA

Catherine Andrea Paz, Dexter MI

Ismaele Perez, Chino Hills CA

Chris Phillips, Lawson MO

Terri L Prakash, Austin TX

Edward Quevedo, Burlingame CA

Carlos Dane Richmond, McIntyre GA

Chris Roszell, Ann Arbor MI

Shea Saint John, Los Osos CA

Rebecca Scheele, Saint Cloud MN

Lisa Anne Schmidt, Pescadero CA

Aviran Shoshan, Phoenixville PA

Nancy Sicbaldi, Hampden MA

Cynthia East Skovlin, San Francisco CA

Michael Sophia, South St Paul MN

Stephanie Star, Tucson AZ

Rebecca Stoddard, Sebastopol CA

Kurt D. Stofko, Barnegat NJ

Noemi Tal, Copake NY

Denise Tester, Gig Harbor WA

Cappy Thompson, Seattle WA

Rick Lee Thorne, North Richland Hills TX

Jacquelyn N Trem, Jacksonville FL

Carolyn Trimmer, Mansfield TX

Patricia M Urda, Mount Clemens MI

Kristen Vasques, Toledo OH

Robert P. Wagner, Stratford CT

Levi M Walden, Dayton OH

Claire Warner, Hillsborough NC

Marilyn Welkier, Urbana OH

K Diane Williams, Mountain House CA

Marion D Williams, Lecanto FL

Virginia Sada York, Central Tilba NSW

Kirstin Young, Saugerties NY

Xue Zhang, Keene NH

The ASA invites you to join the

Michael Support Circle

our major donor circle.

THANK YOU to the 47 individual members, and to these organizations, whose gifts provide generous and on-going support to bring Rudolf Steiner’s vision more fully into the world, for the future of the world.

Anthroposophical Society of Cape Ann

Anthroposophy NYC

Association of Waldorf Schools of North America

Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training

Biodynamic Association

Camphill Special School – Beaver Run

Cedarwood Waldorf School

Center for Anthroposophy in NH

Council of Anthroposophical Organizations

Elderberries Café

GRADALIS Waldorf Consulting & Services

Great Lakes Branch

Heartbeet Lifesharing

High Mowing School

House of Peace

Monadnock Waldorf School

Oakwood Lifesharing

Research Institute for Waldorf Education

RSF Social Finance

Rudolf Steiner College

Rudolf Steiner Fellowship Foundation

Shining Mountain Waldorf School

SteinerBooks

Michael Support Circle members pledge gifts of between $500 and $5000 per year for five or more years. They help the Society to grow in capacity and viability— the basis for increased membership, new learning opportunities, and greater community engagement. To learn more about how you can support the strength and sustainability of our movement, contact Deb at deb@anthroposophy.org or visit online at www.anthroposophy.org/msc

John Joseph Cronin, Jr.

June 20, 1957 – October 5, 2018

John Cronin was an intrepid adventurer, and he started young. At 16, he went out from his hometown of Leominster, Mass., on his Suzuki 250 for a little motorcycle ride with a friend. The little ride turned into a 200-mile trip west, including a couple of hours stopped at the New York border to wire up his broken headlight.

In 1985, Mr. Cronin bicycled home to Massachusetts from Seattle, where he was a student at Washington State University in the geology master’s program. This year, he retired and planned to crisscross the country on his BMW motorcycle, to far flung destinations where his friends were, but on Friday, October 5, he was killed in Hillsdale, NY, when his motorcycle was hit by a northbound SUV.

Mr. Cronin was artistically and technically proficient in the physical arts and also had the intellectual reach of an academic, a rare combination. After graduating from high school in 1975, he drove trailer dump trucks loaded with gravel to major job sites. Following the Blizzard of 1978, having earned enough money on overtime, he decided to enroll in college and thus began his academic career.

His career in education took him from teaching science at Portsmouth High School in NH, to the Waldorf school environment in Wilton, NH, and Great Barrington, Mass. Finally he served in Ghent, NY, at Hawthorne Valley Waldorf School, where he was high school chairman and a teacher of mathematics and physical science, and faculty chairman for a year. He retired there in June, and the open road beckoned.

Mr. Cronin made long distance journeys and short day trips. He liked to stop and explore and half seriously pondered starting a blog, a kind of trail based upon hamburger joints he liked. He was an avid skier and spent many cold but happy hours at the now-closed Pheasant Run in Leominster. He was a cyclist who competed in many 100mile races, and a runner who could hold a respectable six-minute mile for a good distance. He also competed in triathlons as a member of a team that always included his sister, Beverly Cronin, his only sibling, as the swimmer and a third rotating team member. They always placed first in the co-ed team category. Mr. Cronin leaves three children, Jeremiah Cronin, twins Angelica and Mackenzie Cronin, and many nieces, nephews, and cousins. He also leaves a large cadre of best friends.

Maria St. Goar

January 27, 1928 – August 15, 2018

By Edward St. Goar

Maria St. Goar passed away on August 15, 2018 late in the evening at her home of 65 years in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Following a long and difficult period of declining health which had left her handicapped, Maria left her physical vessel peacefully and painlessly.

Upon her passing, the following verse (that she had previously translated herself from German into English) was read aloud with loving family members present that had been gathered around her all day.

Members Who Have Died

Robert A. Brandt Montrose MI joined 1999 died 01/28/2019

Richard A. Camp Littleton CO joined 1997 died 12/10/2018

John Joseph Cronin Chatham NY joined 2008 died 10/15/2018

Lois Elaine Dasher Chism Parkersburg WV joined 1987 died 03/21/2017

Sheila Epstein Santa Fe NM joined 1981 died 09/30/2018

Stanley A. Evans Cleveland TN joined 2005 died 07/02/2018

Virginia Gilmer Harrisonburg VA joined 1970 died 09/20/2017

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Barbara Hurley-Wilson Indianapolis IN joined 2005 died 09/25/2017

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Pass across into that realm

That is illuminated by the Christ. For the Christ bears you through death into life. He will accompany you through the spheres of The cosmic midnight hour to new existence on the earth. In the future you shall live in the Christ, Awakened through the spirit’s power.

The spirit will guide you to the father of the universe. For the Father-God sent the Son-God into The earthly world so that we can tread the path

Once more back to the Father.

—Rudolf Steiner

Maria, or Mechtild as she was called by her German friends, was 90 years old. Through the course of her life, she had been able to contribute significantly to the growth of anthroposophy in the English speaking world primarily through translation of over 50 books and other individual lectures or pamphlets, mostly by Rudolf Steiner but some also by Rev. Emil Bock and Sergei O. Prokofieff. Through her translation work, her devotion to anthroposophy, her language abilities, plus her enthu-

siasm and care for other people, Maria also became connected with anthroposophists from around the world.

Maria St. Goar Chattanooga TN joined 1954 died 08/15/2018

Roberta van Schilfgaarde Huntsville AL joined 1970 died 12/18/2018

Jim F. Willetts Carmichael CA joined 2000 died 07/17/2018

Charles H Williams Seattle WA joined 2004 died 10/22/2017

Brigitta Witteveen Melrose MA joined 1991 died 09/16/2016

In many cases these connections became close personal friends that would last for the rest of her life. Before that however, though she grew up with anthroposophy, Maria experienced a period of isolation from other anthroposophists (following immigration to the United States) which lasted through her 20’s and 30’s. Much of this occurred in Chattanooga, a city that to begin with was far away from any anthroposophical centers of activity. Maria therefore came to greatly value and love her anthroposophical friends that came into her life as time went on. In private letters from many years ago she said, “Looking back over my life, I marvel at the karmic patterns that become increasingly evident as I grow older. Although experiences of homelessness and isolation were prevalent for many years, my destiny guided me to learn from them and

eventually to find a way to realize what I envisioned all my life, namely, to work and serve in some form in the Anthroposophical Movement.”

Born in Matsue, Japan in 1928, Maria St. Goar was the daughter of Dr. Fritz and Emmela Karsch, both German citizens and already anthroposophists themselves. Her father taught German at the Japanese university in Matsue, and was the parent from whom Maria received a great sense of humor and philosophical disposition. Her mother home-schooled her and instilled a deep religious faith in her, and likewise a deeply serious comportment toward life. Maria, her parents, and one sister lived in Japan throughout World War II. She grew up speaking German and Japanese (English came later when she was in her teens). Japan was her home until age 21.

Maria had a limited formal education with only a few years of actual classroom exposure. She was tutored intermittently by a nearby Jesuit priest. Maria however had a voracious appetite for reading, and she loved learning new things. At age 12 she began reading and studying anthroposophy on her own, first through books on the Old and New Testament by Rev. Emil Bock. Through much independent study, she eventually became fluent in three languages.

When World War II ended, Maria was utterly shocked to learn of the atrocities that had taken place under Adolf Hitler back in Germany, a country from which she and her family had been isolated during the war years. Yet deep down Maria had always felt Germany to be her real home, her spiritual home in a sense. She had grown up believing that one day in the future she would go back to Germany when her father’s work was finished; Germany, the land of

Rudolf Steiner, Goethe, great composers, philosophers, and poets such as Christian Morgenstern. That changed markedly as knowledge became public concerning the concentration camps (“death camps”), German fascism, and the terrible events that had taken place during the war.

As a result she did not go back to Germany with the rest of her family after the war ended; her father’s teaching job ended at roughly the same time. Once the American occupation began, Maria Karsch accepted a position as an interpreter at the International War Crimes Tribunal in the Prosecution Section. Then she married, and arrived in the United States in 1949. Her first marriage ended soon after, but she married again in 1954, to Herbert St. Goar, a former German refugee who arrived in the United States just before the War in 1938. He became a US citizen, served in US army intelligence till after the end of the war, and then worked as a business executive in Chattanooga.

Maria moved to Chattanooga in 1954 and joined the Anthroposophical Society in America for the first time. The couple were married for nearly 50 years until Herbert, who had supported her in her translation and other anthroposophical endeavors, passed away in 2004. During those decades, Maria raised two children, travelled regularly to Germany to see her family and relatives, and studied anthroposophy. By the early 1970’s other anthroposophists began to appear in surrounding areas. Contact with these other isolated members in southeastern states led to a growing group life, locally and regionally.

In 1975 she attended her first week-long anthroposophical summer conference in Spring Valley, NY. At this conference Gilbert Church, the

managing editor of the Anthroposophic Press, asked her to translate a pamphlet, Problems of Nutrition , by Rudolf Steiner. That began the translation work that would continue for the rest of her life. Maria also met Gisela O’Neill at the conference, then editor of the American newsletter, and began translating articles for her.

In 1989, Maria began serving as a Class holder for the tri-state area which was beginning to grow in membership. The School of Spiritual Science would remain an important part of her life from then on. She also served on the Eastern Regional Council during the 1990’s.

“The Language of God”

The story below is from letters Maria wrote, age 6 or 7, to her family.

The first time Mother read the story of the Tower of Babel to me, I became quite angry. To think that there had been a time when everybody spoke the same language! And then those careless people messed it all up by building that arrogant tower! So that’s why I have to learn German, Japanese, and English! Oh, why did they have to build that tower?

My parents spoke German and insisted that I speak only German to them. The whole world outside our house spoke Japanese, so naturally I had to speak Japanese just so I could play with my friends. Then there was Aunt Jessie, my English godmother, who came to visit us at least once every year when I was little. She could understand some German but was not able to speak it well so we would come to impasses in our conversations. Frequently, my mother would help and translate into German what Aunt Jessie had said. I knew very well that I would have to become fluent in at least those three languages, not only speaking but reading and writ-

ing them as well. There was so much that would have to be studied and sometimes I dreaded it. No wonder I was indignant at those Babylonians who long ago had spoiled things!

One day I was strolling with Father on a favorite footpath through rice fields not far behind our house. We had been talking about Germany, that amazing country where everybody was German! Father then threw in a little geography lesson by telling me about other countries surrounding our distant homeland. There was France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, each with its own language. And that’s not all, there was also Russia, Africa, and so many more countries. People spoke so many different languages that it would be hard to count them all. My head swam at the prospect of encountering so many tongues.

“Is it possible to learn all the languages of the world if one studies real hard?” I wanted to know because I was secretly alarmed at this possibility. “No, I don’t think so,” countered Father, “there are just too many languages for one person to learn them all.” That was a relief, but it still disturbed me to think that people the world over spoke so many different languages. Suddenly, a new question occurred to me: What happens when all these people pray to God? Does God understand them all? As far as I knew God of course spoke German. After all, our big black Bible was in German and we said our prayers in German. But what happens when we leave for heaven? Would we have to learn yet another language?

“Father, what language does God speak? What about heaven? Which language do we have to speak there?”

Father was silent for a few seconds, thinking, then he replied: “Think

of a word in Japanese, for example, ‘ichi.’ You know it means ‘one.’ Now say it and then say the same word out loud in German, ‘eins’. Think: First you heard the sound, ‘ichi,’ then the sound, ‘eins.’ Two completely different sounds, but they mean the same thing, the number, ‘one.’ Now, I could say ‘one’ in several other languages.” With that, Father said the words for ‘one’ in English, French and Latin. The words were unfamiliar to me. Father continued, “although these words sound different in each language, they all mean the same thing. Can you understand that? You see, behind all the many, many different languages there is really only one language, the language of meaning, and this is the language that God speaks, the one we have forgotten. This is why God can understand every human being, regardless of the earthly language that this person uses. When we go to heaven, at first we remember only the language we knew on earth, but gradually we remember and understand the heavenly language again. Then we don’t need the former words anymore and everybody can understand everybody else. Do you know what I mean?”

Indeed I did; my father’s explanation had made a lasting impression on me. It also reconciled me with the Tower of Babel and its consequences. Despite the fact that I might have to learn three or four languages, the language of heaven was the one language that somehow linked them all together into one. I didn’t realize it then, but Father had conveyed a profound philosophical principle to me. He had made me realize that behind all the apparent diversity in the world there is an inner unity to all things.

Maria’s Final Week

On a Wednesday morning seven

days before she passed away, a rainbow appeared soon after sunrise that could be seen in the sky from the front of her home between two large southwest-facing trees. Her family scrambled to get her into a wheelchair to place her by a front-facing window. With her house in a wooded area, rainbows were generally never to be seen. It is the case in our region that especially in August rainbows (if they appeared) were seen in the east after a late-afternoon thunderstorm, not in the morning or in a westward direction. This rainbow occurred as part of a very small isolated shower that occurred in exactly the right place at the right time, and otherwise there was mostly a clear sky elsewhere around us. It seemed to each of us beside her at that moment that this rainbow was meant for her. She was greatly heartened by the sight of the rainbow and it occurred to each of us that this might also be a sign; a sign that the spiritual world was looking in and getting ready to receive her. Seven days later this was confirmed.

Maria was a very learned anthroposophist but it was her undoubted and absolute love for and commitment to anthroposophy that caused her to be an important figure in many people’s lives. Maria will be remembered and praised for her strength of character and her love for others. Ultimately, however, her strength came from the study of Rudolf Steiner’s works which now accompanies her across the threshold into the spiritual world. She was a great mom and we are all blessed and grateful to have had her in our midst.

— Editor’s note: Maria’s life and work were celebrated in 2015 in an event with music by Isabel Bartles, two lectures by Frederick Amrine.

Stanley A. Evans

June 7, 1939 – July 2, 2018

by Angela Foster

I met Stanley Evans in 2013 at a Saturday workshop where a group of us gathered to study Rudolf Steiner’s Philosophy of Freedom. I remember being impressed by Stan’s warmth, enthusiasm, and the twinkle in his eyes. He had an aura of quiet joy around him that I experienced every time I was in his presence. I saw Stan again a few months later when Barbara Renold led a workshop on the Mystery Dramas. Stan voluntveered to read the lines of Ahriman. He did a good job for the day; he was bold and loud, but really he had too much kindness and love in his voice to play Ahriman convincingly.

In 2016 Stan became a supporter of the Anthroposophical Lending Library of Atlanta (ALLA). He has donated many books to our fledging collection, as well as an incredible resource that exists nowhere else in the world: a comprehensive set of indexes for the works of Sergei O. Prokofieff.

When Stan learned about our little library, he told me that he had read Prokofieff’s books and when he realized that no indexes existed, Stan asked Sergei Prokofieff personally if it would be all right to create indexes for the books. Sergei agreed on the condition that Stan only share an index with individuals who had read the whole book. Sergei wanted his books read in entirety, keeping the ideas in context, rather than having an idea lifted out of its place in the continuum of thought. Stan agreed to this stipulation and went on to create indexes for all of Sergei Prokofieff’s books—more than 35, and it includes the large pink book May Human Beings Hear It! If you have read Proko -

fieff’s work, you know what a huge undertaking this project must have been for Stan.

As anthroposophists, we acknowledge the power and living-ness of thoughts as beings. Even if you never read a book by Prokofieff or use one of the indexes that Stan created, the fact that Stan has done this work is a gift to us all, with reverberations sounding out for a long time to come.

Last December (2017) Stan even discovered a Prokofieff book of which he had been unaware. Stan was so excited to send me the index he had created for a book entitled Riddle of the Human I. The book is only 72 pages long, yet the index is 17 pages. That’s how thoroughly he worked through the book! Now that Stan has crossed the threshold between the physical and spiritual world, he will be able to continue his work with Sergei Prokofieff in a new, more intensive, way. I can only imagine how thrilling it must be for Stan now!

The printed indexes are so numerous and complete that it takes two big three-ring binders to hold them. If you are a student of Prokofieff’s work and would like to have a copy of one of the indexes, we have hard copies at the ARC in Decatur. I also have digital copies than I can share via email [ afoster@thirdbody.net ]. I know Stan

would be happy for us to make use of his gift— remembering, of course, his promise to Sergei that he would only share them with students who have read the whole book!

Thank you dear Stan, for your warmth of heart and clarity of thought. I look forward to experiencing the blessing of your thoughts and deeds for years to come.

Friedolf Michael Smits

November 10, 1924 – January 17, 2017

Friedolf was born in Stuttgart, Germany on November 10, 1924, the son of Henri and Olga Smits. He grew up in Germany where he received his PhD in Physics from the University of Freiburg in 1950. In his thesis, he developed a new method of geological age determination based on the radioactive decay of potassium. In 1954, Friedolf was recruited to the United States by W. Shockley, one of the co-inventors of the transistor, and moved to the United States to work at AT&T Bell Laboratories focusing on the then new semiconductor technologies. One of his proudest accomplishments was his ground breaking work on the radiation hardening of the solar cells powering Telstar, AT&Ts first prototype communications satellite. He joined the Anthroposophical Society in 1978 and retired from Bell Laboratories in 1986 after leading various aspects of semiconductor development.

Friedolf is survived by three children; his wife Irmgard, a life-long piano teacher, died on May 3, 2018.

At the 2016 Southeastern Regional Gathering Stan presented a report on his work (with Angela Foster (l) and Melissa Grable (r).

Rudolf Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul Dates

from Easter 2019 to Easter 2020

April 21, 2019: verse #1 Easter Mood

April 28: verse #2

May 3: verse #3

May 10: verse #4

May 17: verse #5

Oct. 6: verse #27

Oct. 13: verse #28

Oct. 20: verse #29

Oct. 27: verse #30

Nov. 3: verse #31

Light from Spirit Depths Light from Spirit Depths

May 24: verse #6 (May 30: Ascension)

June 2: verse #7

Nov. 10: verse #32

Nov. 17: verse #33

Luciferic Temptation Ahrimanic Deception

June 9: verses 8/9 Whitsun

June 16: verses 10/11

June 23: verse #12

Nov. 24: verse #34

Dec. 1: verse #35 (Advent)

Dec. 8: verse #36

Dec. 15: verse #37

Dec. 22: verse #38

St. John’s Mood Christmas Mood

June 30: verse #13

July 7: verse #14

July 14: verse #15

July 21: verse #16

July 28: verse #17

Aug. 4: verse #18

Aug. 11: verse #19

Aug. 18: verse #20

Dec. 29: verse #39

Jan. 5: verse #40 (2020)

Jan. 12: verse #41

Jan. 19: verse #42

Jan. 26: verse #43

Feb. 2: verse #44

Feb. 9: verse #45

Feb. 16: verses 45/46

Feb. 23: verse #46 (Lent)

Luciferic Temptation Ahrimanic Deception

Aug. 25: verse #21

Sept. 1: verse #22

Light from Cosmic Widths

Sept. 8: verse #23

Sept. 15: verse #24

Sept. 22: verse #25

Sept. 29: verse #26 Michaelmas Mood

Mar. 1: #verse 47

Mar. 8: #verse 48

Light from Cosmic Heights

Mar. 15: verse #49

Mar. 22: verse #50

Mar. 29: verse #51

April 5: verse #52

April 12: verse #1 Easter Mood

Rudolf Steiner first published the 52 mantric verses we know as the Calendar of the Soul in 1912 and again in 1918. Verse number one starts on Easter Sunday, but the date of Easter shifts cosmically every year. So the dates of the verses must also be adjusted each year. The dates listed here for 2019-2020 adhere to the practice of meditating a new verse each week, Sunday through Saturday. This formula was also used in the 1912 edition. In keeping with Rudolf Steiner’s instruction, we open the meditative year with verse number one on Easter Sunday (April 21, 2019) and follow the seven day astral rhythm of the soul to the next Easter (April 12, 2020).

Note:

The rule for setting the cosmic date of Easter creates the opportunity to re-chart the yearly course of the Soul Calendar verses. Rudolf Steiner composed 52 verses, but there are only 51 weeks between Easter 2019 and Easter 2020. The intention here is to meditate the festival verses in sync with the actual dates of Easter, Whitsun, St. John’s, Michaelmas and Christmas, including the observance of Advent and Lent. The proposed adjustments include doubling up verses 8/9 and 10/11 and adding an extra week to work with verses 45/46. The Calendar of the Soul guides us through the metamorphosis of the archetypal plant, the changing seasons and the moods of one’s soul life. The verses can also be studied in relation to the planets and the zodiac. We come to treasure the Calendar as a living pathway to self-knowledge and spiritual awakening.

Herbert O. Hagens , Princeton, NJ, USA hohagens@aol.com

Artwork by Laura Summer