From the World Society
On Evolving Leadership
from the General
Secretary
Dear Members and Friends of the Anthroposophical Society in Canada
Over the past year a group of 20 to 25 young people living in Dornach have taken up an extensive study of the Christmas Conference. For almost all of them the 2018 General Assembly was their first as new members. For them, as for many of us around the world, the events at that General Assembly were difficult to understand or integrate into our experience of the significance of anthroposophy in our lives. It was out of this struggle to understand that these young people took up this study. During a recent meeting of General Secretaries these young members asked to meet with us as those carrying a unique relationship between the members around the world and the centre of this work at the Goetheanum.
Early in the evening we gathered in the large conference room immediately below the space where the Representative of Humanity stands. The delicate blue light of dusk filled the room as we formed a large circle – General Secretaries from around the world and this group of young members based at the centre of this world Society.
There were several questions that had occupied them, that they wanted to share with us. The first, and perhaps most significant, had to do with leadership, asking “What is esoteric leadership?” This question had an immediate effect and has continued to work. Like a quickened seed, it brings an enlivening perspective, an attentive lens, with which to consider the significance of leadership in our current situation.
Turning to the Christmas Conference, a shift in mood is apparent when Rudolf Steiner introduces a new Statute not previously included in the proceedings, that establishing the new Society’s leadership – the ‘Vorstand’. As we consider this point in the Christmas Conference certain elements come to the foreground. The most striking is that he proposes this leadership organ as a group, not as a set of individuals. He also changes how he asks the members to consider this leadership group. He requests affirmation of the group as a whole. He is also clear that with this specific Statute discussion was not appropriate, and a vote was not to occur. He asks for an affirmation of a circle. Also significant is that this circle is to be ‘recognized’ by the members, not elected by them.
As we allow the mood of this to live in us, we can sense that we are at a frontier in our souls. This inner threshold in some way has to do with our personal relationship to anthroposophy. Although we, as members of this Society, are being asked to respond to an event in the world, we are simultaneously turned toward ourselves. If we try to describe this ‘addressing of ourselves’, we might characterize it as being willing to step beyond our individual perspectives – to recognize at a deep level that this ‘group’ bears within itself more than what each individual brings. As members we are asked whether we can recognize this deeper significance of ‘group’.
This stands against the background of the other Statutes that describe the ways-of-working appropriate for this new Society – the Members’ Group. Here too..........
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FROM THE GOETHEANUM
Dear Members and Friends,
We live in a world dominated by fear and anxiety, either explicitly experienced in the face of danger and threat, or as the implicit underlying state of unease in the face of growing unpredictability in seasonal and environmental stability, social complexity, and economic security. This underlying tone of anxiety may manifest in many different guises, including states of paralysis and avoidance, denial of real-life situations, panic reactions, and aggression and violence towards self and others. Life circumstances continually demand that we recognize within ourselves how often we fall prey to the rulership of anxiety which so easily determines our perceptions and responses in our daily dealings.
Currently much attention is being directed to addressing the above through self-transformation for world-transformation. Three fundamental qualities can be identified in the call to face anxiety: courage, open-mindedness and forgiveness. What conditions allow these qualities to develop, and be put into practice?
By way of example, the international students conference at the Goetheanum in April, hosted by the Youth Section, engaged close on 700 learners in the exploration of what it means to have courage. A Youth Conference in Spring Valley in August will focus on ‹Questions of Courage›. The summer conference staging the Four Mystery Dramas at the Goetheanum: ‹Spirituality in Anxiety and Health› will focus on the central theme of anxiety as a doorway to health and spirituality, by awakening to self-transformation. The Social Initiative Forum, a growing network of organizations, initiatives and individuals working actively to transform discrimination, marginalization and inequality through developing open-mindedness, empathy and forgiveness, will host a seminar on ‹Ethical Individualism: transforming self and society› at the Goetheanum in October. In addition, an extensive Forum on ‹Unfolding Individual Potential for the Future› will be held in Sekem, Egypt, in December.
We warmly invite you to participate in these and other events, with the intention of contributing to a courageous, open-minded future based on the transformative qualities of forgiveness and love.
Joan Sleigh
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JOB POSTING -Administrator
The Anthroposophical Society in Canada is currently accepting applications to fill the role of Administrator.
This is a part-time, paid position, requiring between 1 – 2 days a week.
Applicant must be a member of the Anthroposophical Society in Canada.
Responsibilities include: office management and related administrative mandates, activities and projects; mailings, membership liaison; Society correspondence and archiving.
We are seeking candidates with the following capacities:
- Supportive of the cultural development of anthroposophy
- Ability to liaise with members, associates and Council
- Working knowledge of computers and competency with programs such as MS Word and Excel, Constant Contact, and Dropbox
- Efficient and effective in self-managing, taking initiative, executing and managing a plan within a collaborative context
Fluency in both English and French, an asset.
Start date: September 1, 2019
Candidates are invited to submit their resume to the attention of the Hiring mandate group by July 30, 2019 at
cburisch@sympatico.ca
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REPORT FROM ECONOMICS CONFERENCE
A Second Chance for the World Conference in Vancouver, BC, Canada, 21 -24 March 2019
Seeing beyond the falsehoods of modern history – excerpts from a full report by Meg Freeling
30 participants attended the recent A Second Chance for the World Conferencein Vancouver, Canada. In the two keynote lectures – What did happen and what could have happened in the last hundred years? and What do we envisage for the next hundred years? – Christopher Houghton Budd laid the groundwork. Mexican economist Marcelo Delajara presented “A Second Chance for Labor and Income: What Is a Living Wage?” He described his research project in Mexico City to develop ways to ensure a dignified income for employees that goes beyond ‘equal pay for equal work’. Anna Chotzen, business manager of an incubator farming project in Mt. Vernon, Washington, USA, presented “A Second Chance for Farming: The Farmer as Entrepreneur”. She sees the need to “move away from the conventional perceptions of farming as an industry, or farming as 'quaint', to a new emphasis on farming as entrepreneurial, seeing farmers as business owners. She presented both a business development curriculum and a proposal for a shared-equity land ownership structure.
The conference began with the following thoughts: It's a serious thing we are addressing. Many countries around the world are on the rocks at the end of this last hundred years. They are just unraveling. There are no more answers out there. All the paths have been trodden. The future history is what lives in each of our wills today to do. We have but to take a step to activate an otherwise unseen path. Polarized positions at every level seem insurmountable, resulting in more and more suffering, paralysis and inaction. Yet a case is being made here that a breakthrough, a second chance, and even a ‘second renaissance’, is now possible.
2
Many people think the way things are now is how they have been forever. But they have only been like this for the past hundred years and result from a wrong turn taken by humanity for the world in 1919. But we did not notice the stepping stones Rudolf Steiner placed in history to guide humanity’s next steps, namely:
- The book on the threefold social order: Basic Issues of the Social Question, 1919. (Die Kernpunkte der sozialen Frage.)
- The first Waldorf School, founded in Stuttgart, Germany, 1919.
- Coming Day Joint Stock Company (Der Kommende Tag), founded Stuttgart, 1919.
- Economics course, 14 lectures given by Rudolf Steiner, Dornach, Switzerland 1922.
- Christmas Conference of 1923/24,Dornach, Switzerland.
At that time, because of the manipulations of WW1 coming from the West, the baton was passed to the Anglo- Americans to rule the world for the next one hundred years.4 Now, in 2019, we are at the end of that time. Making a new startis based on the understanding that the place to start is with oneself and the arena is in one's own economics. Knowing what lives in one’s will is where history will begin. The future will be created through the active agency of young people who get themselves capitalized. Job markets are irrelevant. Supply and demand theory is so untrue. The new watchword is: Tomorrow’s history is what is already living in your will. For this, financial literacy should be taught in all schools. Why is it not?
D’Arcy Mackenzie of Toronto, Canada, to whom this event was dedicated, was active in the realm of associative economics right up until his untimely death in February 2018. He worked in the pension markets and straddled the worlds that could be and that are. His experience told him that pension funds should have no place in the future of economics. Other future hallmarks of an associative economic life would be:
- No banks.
- No focus on price stability (which favors capital over labor); replaced with true price.
- Outlawed collateralized lending; replaced with lending to the person (personal credit).
- No permanent foundations (which preserve capital); replaced with spend-down foundations.
After 100 years, we should also be able to see:
- A choir of peoples; no United Nations.
- A one-world economy with money as bookkeeping.
- Ethical stock markets; banks and mutualsreplaced with stock companies that put air beneath the wings
of entrepreneurs who are meeting the genuine needs of others. Further, economic life should take its cues from:
- – Luca Pacioli, father of accounting, who insisted on a moral training before going into finance: “In the name of God I will be true in all my accounting.”
- – Altruism in business: no egotism; no self-serving schemes, only serving others.
- – Aristotle: Know/say when “enough is enough”.
- – Rudolf Steiner, who often said in lectures, “I apologize if the fleas are biting when we talk about capital...”
He said this to wealthy audiences, many of whom he probably relied upon for financial support.
- – Owen Barfield5, who said we need to know the difference between the true materialist and the naughty materialist: The true materialist says, “I can't see a spiritual world so I won't say anything about it.” The
naughty materialist says, “I can't see a spiritual world, so it doesn't exist.” – George Soros, who warned that in economics, thoughts are things.
To move into this landscape, we were taken into an imagined dialogue in a play featuring three early twentieth century contemporaries, two of whom represented dramatically different views, and the third a witness to the other two as they spoke their contrasting approaches. Through sparse but impeccable diplomacy, the karmic chaos between them reached a palpable but hard to explain resolution. The background music, a promenade6 that suggested taking important steps, accompanied the three characters, Woodrow Wilson, John Maynard Keynes and Rudolf Steiner as they stepped into another future... Perhaps we all did.7
4 See the 1919 cycle The Mysteries of Light, of Space and of the Earth, Rudolf Steiner. Anthroposophic Press, USA 1945.
5 Owen Barfield (1898-1997), renowned British philosopher, critic and author of Romanticism Comes of Age, History in English Words and Saving the Appearances: A Study in Idolatry among others. He translated a number of Rudolf Steiner's books into English and represented anthroposophy in the English-speaking world.
6 'Promenade' from 19th century Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky's 'Pictures at an Exhibition'.
7 Pro tem, a simple documentation of the event is in preparation.
A new landscape, a second chance... the conference took place on a weekend that was described to us by Mary Stewart Adams as a bit of a celestial mystery, an ‘inner Easter’. “If the astronomical first Full Moon of the Spring were used to determine the date for the Easter festival this year, then Easter Sunday would have been Sunday, March 24th, precisely now when we are gathered in Vancouver.”
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PERSPECTIVES
The first issue of the Society's new publication,
Perspectives
, has been distributed to all members of the Anthroposophical Society in Canada
The editorial team is already planning for issue two which will come out in May 2020. The theme will be:
Good and Evil, Light and Darkness
.
We are calling for articles of 1500 words or less and, in order to be considered for selection, they must be received no later than Dec. 31, 2019. Files can be sent in English or French (we will take care of the translation). We would also like to receive good quality photos of artwork based on the theme.
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ASC COUNCIL REPORT
If you were unable to open or did not receive the Council Report after the AGM you can download or view it below
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General Information and Upcoming Events
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After six years, Karen Davis-Brown is stepping down as newsletter editor.
The Board is seeking an individual or individuals to edit the newsletter and maintain the website, Mailchimp account, and social media.
There is a monetary stipend provided for these tasks, by the Society.
Karen will provide the resources and train the person who takes over.
Someone is needed by July 1.
Anyone who is interested, please contact Board President Matthew Boughner
bdsocietyonchair@gmail.com
(905) 549-2578
.
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We are keen to form a relationship with you.
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Spiritually Striving Youth in North America
Thank You to Members Who Have Supported Us!
North American Youth Conference August 8-11 SPRING VALLEY NY
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Branches & Groups
Calgary Branch
Contact: Christine at
*******
Duncan
Events
Contact:
*******
Huronia Branch
Contact Janine at
705-728-1443
*******
Montréal
Institute Rudolf Steiner Quebec
Montreal Branch (English)
*******
Nelson, BC
*******
Nova Scotia
*******
Saugeen Cedar Branch
*******
Thornhill Branch
Next branch meeting -
September 19
********
Thornhill Group
Nicanor Perlas, see main panel Ontario events
*******
Toronto Branch
St John's Tide Celebration
*******
Vancouver
Nicanor Perlas, see main panel Ontario/Vancouver BC events
*******
Membership Update
Transferred in from USA
Claudia Pfiffner (Ottawa)
June16, 2019
Deceased
Roger Schaffrin (BC)
March 9, 2019
******
Editorial Notes
The eNews is published 10 times per year for members of the Anthroposophical Society In Canada.
Please send correspondence and articles in either Word doc or iWork pages without formatting except for paragraphs to
BACK ISSUES are available on our website:
You will need the password: ASC
Contact Info
Anthroposophical Society in Canada
# 130A - 1 Hesperus Rd.
Thornhill, ON
L4J 0G9
Administrator
416-892-3656
877-892-3656
Members website
please note you will need to use the password
ASC
to access the members only page
Council
President
Treasurer
Secretary
General Secretary
School For Spiritual Science
For list of Class Holders,
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Nicanor Perlas to Speak on "Humanizing Artificial Intelligence" and "Social Threefolding", June 26 & 27
or
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P.O. Box 163
Sechelt BCV0N 3A0Canada
Next intake June 30, 2019; summer 2019 session begins June 30 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. Web site:
June 30, 2019 @ 8:00 am - June 30, 2020 @ 5:00 pm
Next intake June 30, 2019; summer 2019 session begins June 30 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. http://westcoastinstitute.org/programs/waldorf-grades-teacher-training Grades Program Director Lisa Masterson email: WCIGrades@gmail.com Tel: 949-220-3193 Administrator Sarnia Guiton email:
June 30 @ 8:00 am - July 5 @ 5:10 pm
2148 Lakeside Rd
Duncan BC V9L 6M3Canada
June 30 to July 5, 2019 with Louise deForest, Heather Church & Wendalyn von Meyenfeldt This week-long deepening, open to experienced EC teachers, will explore the art of mentoring through a variety of approaches. This will be especially helpful for those who are, or want to be, mentoring in their own schools and in the wider movement.
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Nicanor Perlas to Speak on "Humanizing Artificial Intelligence" and workshop: "Humanity's Last Stand
June 29, 30, 2019 in Vancouver
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Teaching with Heart 2019 Experiencing the Waldorf approach — Duncan
July 7 @ 10:15 am - July 9 @ 3:30 pm
July 7 to 9, 2019
with Kate Reynolds, Rebecca Watkin & othersThis course will offer an overview of Waldorf education for those who are teachers in other schools and/or to those who are potentially interested in becoming a Waldorf teacher. The three-day session will include presentations on child development, story-telling, ideas for how to create a curriculum for different ages, artistic activities and practical classroom experiences.
July 8 @ 8:00 am - July 12 @ 5:10 pm
2148 Lakeside Rd
Duncan BC V9L 6M3 Canada
July 8 to 12, 2019
with Kris Boshell, Adola McWilliam & Graham Oslund This course will help practicing teachers gain clearer insights into the nature of each child, learn to recognize the signs that indicate one-sidedness or imbalance, and learn how to develop an approach towards healing the child.
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Rudolf Steiner Centre Toronto
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Summer Festival of Arts and Education, July 8-26, 2019
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Five Bursary Opportunities available for Glencolton Retreat 2019
Experience Anthroposophy on a Biodynamic Farm July 21 to 27, 2019
RSCT is pleased to announce that we can offer five bursary opportunities for people wishing to attend the retreat who cannot afford the retreat costs. The bursay will cover all or a portion of the costs based on need.
To apply for the bursary, please send an email to James Brian, Executive Director at
jmbrian@rogers.com
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Rudolf Steiner Centre Toronto Offers First-Ever Retreats for Young Adults (18-35)
1. At Glencolton Farms in Ontario in July 19th - 25th, 2019
The first will be July 19th to 25th at Glencolton Farm near Durham Ontario. This is the farm of Michael Schmidt and Elisa van der Hout. The theme for the week will be “Experiencing Anthroposophy on a Biodynamic Farm”. This is billed as a seven-day retreat for young adults from around the world, interested in deepening their knowledge of anthroposophy and nature.
2. At Wakefield, in the Gatineau Hills in August 2019
The second retreat will be from August 18th to 24th, near Wakefield, in the Gatineau Hills of Quebec. There the focus will be deepening knowledge of art, anthroposophy and the natural world. Although this retreat will be held in Quebec where both French and English are spoken, this retreat will be conducted in English.
There may be young people who would like to take part in one of these young adult retreats but who cannot themselves afford to pay the costs involved. If you would like to help make it possible for more young people to attend these events, please consider sponsoring a young person to attend by making a tax-deductible donation to the RSCT's sponsorship fund. Your sponsorship could make a difference in their lives.
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An Introduction to the World of
Rudolf Steiners
Outline of Esoteric Science
Moderated and led by Paul Goodyear & Eurythmy movement with Margaret Osmond
Sunday July 21
st
to Sunday July 28
th
2019
This workshop is suited for people who wish to study this seminal work of Rudolf Steiners Masterpiece - An Outline to Esoteric Science -.
In his thousands of lectures Steiner often refers his audience to material that was covered in this book.
Esoteric Science is an explanation of mankinds true origin and points to our ultimate destiny as a being of soul and spirit.
The Week will consist of Morning Lectures and an afternoon of Discussion, and Artistic Activities arising from the daily theme.
The workshop will take place in the wonderful setting of Bear River Farms, a full working biodynamic farm in Nova Scotia.
Workshop Fee is $960 plus tax. Included is a shared room, all meals, lectures materials, discussion groups and artistic activities.
Our brand new on farm suites are simple, clean and comfortable. We have twin and double rooms available. People from away are invited to stay one night before and/or after the workshop for an additional $60 per night.
For more information and to register please visit
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Adventures in Colour & Story A Summer Painting Course
with Artist Donald Hall
August 8 & 9 at Lightfoot & Wolfville Winery in Wolfville NS.
&
August 10 & 11 at the South Shore Waldorf School in Blockhouse NS.
Course Description
“The good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly “
Using water colour we will explore The Grimm fairy tale of Snow White and Rose Red, how it relates to our own soul and how it offers us a way of meeting the many challenges we might face in our present age. We will explore the meaning of the Bear and Dwarf as important archetypes for renewal and growth.
The Nova Scotia Group of the Anthroposophical Society in Canada is offering a limited number of bursaries for members and friends towards the registration costs of participation in:
(i) Rudolf Steiner's Outline of Esoteric Science to be held at Bear River Farms 21-28th July, 2019 (see website
www.bearriverfarms.org
), SEE ABOVE
and/or
(ii) an Anthroposophical Painting Course with Donald Hall on 8-9 the August or 10-11 August, 2019. If you are interested in a bursary, please contact Jim White before 15th July indicating your needs: 902-688-1857 or
greerwhite@eastlink.ca
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Mystery Drama Summer School
Threefold Educational Foundation and Eurythmy Spring Valley
I
nterdisciplinary Intensive
With Barbara Renold
Professional Eurythmy Intensive
With Dorothea Mier
August 8-18, 2019
Polarities in the social chaos of our time . . .
First performed a century ago, Rudolf Steiner’s four mystery dramas trace the evolving relationships of a group of individuals through multiple incarnations, from ancient times to modern. The unfolding on stage of these interwoven destinies reveals the deep origins of interpersonal and social polarities and strife, and points the viewer toward paths for understanding and reconciling the social issues of our time.
This summer, Threefold Educational Foundation and Eurythmy Spring Valley offer two ten-day intensives especially for those who wish to deepen their relationship with this massive work of art.
The Interdisciplinary Intensive
Created for all levels of familiarity with the plays, the Interdisciplinary Intensive with Barbara Renold offers an interactive, participatory plunge into the third mystery drama,
The Guardian of the Threshold
, with a focus on scenes 3, 7, and 8: Lucifer and Ahriman’s kingdoms and the Guardian. Study and discussion will be enriched and illuminated by group artistic activities, including actors’ workshops, eurythmy, and speech exercises.
The Professional Eurythmy Intensive
with Dorothea Mier will be devoted to exploring the archetypal spiritual beings portrayed in Rudolf Steiner’s four mystery dramas. Our focus will be on Lucifer, Ahriman, the Guardian of the Threshold, and the Soul Forces Philia, Astrid, Luna, and the Other Philia.
For professional eurythmists, this is a unique opportunity to work with Dorothea Mier and your professional peers to • develop your understanding of these important works • explore artistic activity as a path of inner development • experience art as a path to understanding and resolving interpersonal and social strife • and to let the mystery dramas enliven your own eurythmy work.
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Section for Social Sciences
Dear friends,
We are very pleased to announce, by this letter, the Soul of Europe 2019 conference to be held in
Brussels
from
23 to 25 august 2019
. You are cordially invited to participate!
This conference is organized by an enthusiastic group from the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. The conference is offered by the Anthroposophical Society of the Netherlands and was co-organized under the auspices of the Social Sciences Section of the Goetheanum.
With cordial greetings of Europe!
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Anthroposophy Worldwide - 2019
We will continue to provide a link for anthroposophy worldwide for the time being. Please refer to article below concerning direct delivery from the Goetheanum.
If you would like to see the archive of past issues, go to:
Archiv
then enter password AWE-2018
Anthroposophy worldwide to your inbox
If you are a member of the Anthroposophical Society in Canada (ASC), you are also a member of the General Anthroposophical Society (GAS) centred at the Gotheanum, Dornach, Switzerland. The GAS is currently pursuing a policy of direct email communication with members.
Anthroposophy Worldwide, which reached its 21st birthday this year, is available ten times a year by email. You can now receive it in pdf form directly from the Goetheanum. Please send them your email address – to ensure correct identification add your name and postal address – using the online forms, which are available in English, French, German and Spanish at:
anthroposophie.org/abo.
S
elect ENGLISH (EN)/FRENCH (FR) on the welcome page.
Fill out the form. If you have problems filling in or submitting the form, you can also send your data informally to
abo@dasgoetheanum.com
.
Many Thanks,
Editor
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