Movements and Meditations -Eurythmy Book Review

Movements and Meditations – A Journey to the Heart of Language, by Cynthia Hoven

Eurythmy Movements and Meditations – A Journey to the Heart of Language came into being, as perhaps all worthy writing should, not by pre-formed answers, but by a daunting question posed earnestly to Cynthia Hoven from one of her students: “What do you really do when you do a sound in Eurythmy?” Answering this question required Cynthia to draw upon decades of her work and training in eurythmy—as performing artist, medical therapist, and teacher at Rudolf Steiner College in Fair Oaks, California. Cynthia’s reply to her student, “I have learned to experience every sound in language as a spiritual being,” became the inspiration for a unique book that she describes as “a celebration of the beings whom I love deeply; the sounds of language.”

The organizational “template” for Cynthia’s book is true to the root meaning of the word, for it is indeed a kind of “temple” honoring the stars and planets themselves as mighty cosmic forces. Rudolf Steiner’s research gave birth to eurythmy exactly one hundred years ago in 1912. His discoveries are based upon the understanding that each constellation in the zodiac emanates formative shaping forces experienced as consonants in human language, while the vowels express the rich inner landscape of soul feelings. Eurythmy schools us in the Logos Mystery that human speech is a sacred microcosm reflecting and radiating the creative impulses of the stellar macrocosm; thus this book is organized into 24 essays celebrating the consonants of the Zodiac and vowels of the planets.

This temple-like quality of this book graces every page; one feels an underlying reverence for the Word that reaches deep into the strata of the soul. At the same time, Eurythmy Movements and Meditations imparts practical and precise exercises incorporating the specific colors, gestures, images and movements of each consonant and vowel, accompanied with illuminating color illustrations by Renee Parks. Each essay is mighty in meaning and yet distilled into an essential and concise wisdom that only comes from years of devotion and practice—a style of writing that is both prose and poetry. As each “spiritual being” of sound is presented, we are led to understand its potent and creative origins, its intention for the human soul, and the inner feelings, colors and movements that can help us actively experience its reality. Each essay concludes by describing a culminating transformational soul response that is itself a kind of “speaking to the stars,” a path of consciousness Rudolf Steiner deemed so crucial in our age. The result is a book that is not so much to be read as to be engaged; not a book to peruse but to use. The following are three examples based upon my own active exploration of its contents:

Nature Study—I initially read this book in my garden and other venues in the High Sierra of northern California. A longtime student of nature, I was delighted to discover how every essay in Eurythmy Movements and Meditations enlivens my imagination and perception for the phenomena of Nature. For example, the towering trees above my head imbue me with the Leonine forces of “T “as the “the lightening power of the Creator” that directs “Creative Will into the core of my Being.” When I behold the buds of plants, I am moved to contemplate all that is rounded and held womb-like in the mothering forces of Virgo, the “endless mantle of maternal love.” As I encounter the reeling motions of mountain rapids and rivers, the Taurean dynamism of the Bull is revealed in the rolling sound of “R” as “the vibrant joy of movement” impelling my own soul “beyond inertia”.

The Alchemy of Stars and Planets—Popular astrology typically offers rather wooden, inert definitions of the Stars and Planets, bypassing the alchemical processes of dynamic polarity that are at the heart of all creation. This book led me into a more living consideration of how the creative forces of the stars and planets work. For instance, the Ram (Aries) is associated with fiery intensity and bold initiative but works through the “delicate breath” of “W”—the waving forces of water and wind. On the other hand the Crab (Cancer) is related to the water element but manifests through the being of “F” a “fire of spirit” that fans the flames of creative will. Or the Lionized Leo who is exalted in an upward blaze of solar conflagration, but is grounded in the consonantal forces of “D” and “T” so that this power of Spirit lives right into the very matter of the earth.

Meditation—Perhaps the concern of any modern student pursuing a path of meditation, is how pale and stale one’s inner life can become when routines descend into ruts. The meditations and movements outlined in this book are elixirs that can reawaken and re-enliven one’s inner life. Each essay is a meditative force in its own right, enormously revivifying for the soul. Furthermore, this book has inspired me to set a kind of mood of soul before entering into any other form of meditation. For instance, I might invoke the mood of Venus, opening myself to the “ah” of wonder and making my heart a pure chalice to receive Spirit Wisdom. If I am working with a meditation that leads my soul from its inner reality to the wide world, then the Jupiter “O” might set the stage, for as Cynthia writes, “the roundness we hear in the sound Oh embodies the circle of connection we create when we embrace the world and others in love.” If I am reading a particularly challenging lecture I might invoke the Being of “G”, to open the gate or door of the soul from its cocoon of unconsciousness into the bright, golden luminosity of insight.

Cynthia Hoven points out in the forward that her book is not intended to replace actual movement work with a trained eurythmist. However, few of us are fortunate enough to have this in-person access on a frequent basis. And even if we have had many satisfying experiences doing eurythmy at conferences, in groups or in private curative sessions we still are not likely to have pondered sufficiently with our hearts the intricate depth and limitless soul vistas that this great Logos teaching holds. As the art of Eurythmy celebrates its centennial year, I cannot think of a more appropriate gift to all of us who travel the spiritual path of anthroposophy. Eurythmy Movements and Meditations is a marvelous work at once honoring the essential wisdom of eurythmy that has flowed into the world during this past century, and all that it still has the potential to become in future centuries, if anchored ever more solidly in the creative core of each human soul.

Patricia Kaminski is Executive Director of the Flower Essence Society (www.flowersociety.org) a worldwide collegium of practitioners devoted to the research and study of plant essences for healing. She also coordinates the development of Terra Flora, a 27 acre biodynamic-certified garden and herbal cottage industry in Nevada City, CA.