Here's the thing: I could have taken a five-hour-plus flight across the Atlantic in order to witness the wedding of H & M, or taken a less-than-five hour drive to Toronto in order to attend the Society's annual AGM and conference. What a choice! What a dilemma!! I mean, stand in the sun for X long hours, all in the beautiful month of May, in the quaint town of Windsor set in the lush English countryside, to catch maybe a seven minute view of the happy couple, other royals and invitees... orto sit through a morning of lectures, push the boundaries of my body and mind in a eurythmy workshop (not to mention stimulating my etheric body) and then attend a formal meeting surrounded by fellow members of the Anthroposophical Society i.e. my tribe?

 

Well, you guessed it, dear fellow member. I spent the Whitsun weekend at the Toronto Waldorf School, set in verdant grounds in the built-up suburb of Richmond Hill. I met a few people previously unknown to me, caught up with older and newer friends (Yay! Karma rocks!... Yes??) absorbed wisdom from three excellent lecturers and, to put it briefly, came away re-affirmed in my commitment to Anthroposophy, and grateful for our Society and especially to the Council, the organizing committee and all active members.

 

Surely, I made the right choice. Say I had been one among the priviledged 800 who received a wedding invitation. Would I have preferred sitting crushed among strangers in St. George's chapel only able to peek through a flower-covered archway at the goings-on, to sitting on a red plastic chair and struggling with mind-expanding concepts, dealing with various emotions, concentrating on presentations and proceedings? I don't think so. After all, I have questions and content to be busy with and to carry me into the future, as well as the satisfaction of having been part of an important meeting, attended not only by fellow anthropops but, as Lady Ute so reverently reminded us before our meditative conversation, by caring, concerned and interested discarnated souls and spiritual beings.

 

June 21, 2018

 

Dear Members of the Anthroposophical Society in Canada:

 

In recent days you will have received several letters for members of the General Anthroposophical Society from the Executive Committee at the Goetheanum. As a newly appointed General Secretary for Canada, I have not yet been involved in the ongoing work arising from the recent AGM at the Goetheanum. However, I feel it would be helpful for you to have the following letter from John Bloom, the General Secretary for the US Society, as further background on these recent event.

 

With Regards, Bert Chase

 

 

Dear Members of the Anthroposophical Society in the US,

 

By now you should have received the most recent communication from the Goetheanum regarding the changes in leadership and responsibilities for the General Anthroposophical Society and the General Section of the School for Spiritual Science. The Executive Council (Vorstand) with Goetheanum Leadership have worked deeply together to absorb and transform all that the departures of long-standing colleagues mean for carrying the extensive work of the World Society for the future. The vote taken at the Annual General Meeting marked a painful but important shift in recognizing a need for a revisioning of leadership, management, and governance. That shift, and the attendant communications, have also had the benefit of raising a new awareness among members of the country societies large and small about their connection to what is going on at the Goetheanum.

 

We as General Secretaries and Country Representatives, especially those present during the proceedings of the Annual General Meeting, see our relationship to the work at the Goetheanum in a new way as a circle of colleagues holding both Executive Council and Goetheanum Leadership and each other as bridges ....read on

At the Encountering Our Humanity conference in 2016, an important part of the conference was the research forums where there was an opportunity for participants to share their work, inspired by anthroposophy. 

 

In our ongoing effort to support member initiatives, we have added a  Research    area on our website which already has four contributions. We welcome further contributions. Please send to Jef Saunders  ascnat@gmail.com .

 

"This is indeed written in the karma of every single Anthroposophist. Be a person of initiative... This should stand written in golden letters, constantly before the soul of the Anthroposophist."

 

The subject of the eternal masculine and the eternal feminine emerged (again) in the last AGM 2018 meeting in Toronto. In one of its keynote talks on the theme "Creating Moral Substances", Rev. Jonah Evans talked about the union of these opposite characters in each human being and in humanity as a crucial step towards building the New Community. He drew resources both from the Old Testament, which is more of the feminine character, and Spiritual Science, which is more of the masculine character.

 

The Bible's Cain and Abel story shed light on many profound aspects of this subject. The Temple Legend shed light on still other aspects. Other aspects of the union of these opposite characters in man were also portrayed in numerous fairy tales and legends, including my favorite love story of Penelope and Odysseus in Homer's Odyssey. The divine feminine and masculine are also evident in the polarities of various streams in humanity described by Rudolf Steiner, such as between the Platonic and Aristotelean streams, or between the Buddhism and Christianity streams (in lectures of the theme "From Buddha to Christ"). We can also experience the feminine and the masculine in the Zodiac sign of "the Twin" with the help of Steiner's suggestion for meditation for that sign, "Perseverance becomes faithfulness."

 

As we evolve into the future and build the New Community or the New Mysteries, humanity will gain more understanding of this deep subject. And I believe that we will necessarily discover more and more other significance of these opposite but most intimate characters of man.

 

This subject recently became my dearest subject of spiritual research. Here I would like to share some of my recent intuitive findings, put in the form of an imaginative tale. The tale is about the union of the divine masculine and feminine and its redemption of evil. As far as I am aware of, the aspects that this tale here recounts have not been portrayed explicitly elsewhere. I leave it up to the reader to verify the truth of it, as I do myself too.

 

Before I am going into the tale, let me say a few more words on what the union of the eternal masculine and feminine is about. To me, of this deep subject, we can say ..........read on link

Welcome to a Eurythmy Holiday in beautiful Nova Scotia

 

With a window on the Atlantic, SEAFORTH COMMUNITY HALL is a half hour drive from Halifax/Dartmouth. Carpooling will be available.

Guest contributor SYLVIE ROBERGE spent many years working in Camphill Communities in England before training there in the Art of Speech Formation. She works with speech therapeutically and artistically in Barrie, Ontario, and is the Speaker for the Northern Star Eurythmy Group. She will get our speaking 'ship-shape'! and provide dynamic speech for Eurythmy - the Art of Visible Speech developed by Rudolf Steiner, last century.

ELLEN GIBLING, our accomplished Harpist will provide beautiful music appropriate to the story of "The Sailor and The Porpoise" and will provide a concert on Monday morning.

The Conference Fee is $125 (Canadian) for the four days, and includes catered lunches for three days-Friday, Saturday and Sunday. For Accommodation, there is some local B&B and Camping to meet your budget...Book early please.

The conference begins at 9am Friday August 3rd at Seaforth Hall. (We will meet arrivals on Thursday August 2nd in the afternoon.)

Our work will conclude on Monday August 6th (Natal Day) at Noon, with a sharing of our work to family and friends beginning at 11am.

To register, please contact Margaret or Arthur Osmond by email:   aeo@live.ca or phone 902 466 7735 (leave a message after 4 rings.)

Human beings discover themselves through others.

Rudolf Steiner expands on this simple yet remarkable sentence by Martin Buber in his four mystery dramas.

It is therefore not surprising that staging these works of art again and again in a whole variety of ways, in order to secure the depth of our working and being together, is one of the most magical and memorable traditions found in anthroposophy. The more we rely on each other in today's differentiated world, experiencing how our confusion often distorts this depth, the more relevant it seems to me today to both perform and to see these plays.

 

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