From the World Society
On Our Wounds and Our Healing
by Bert Chase
Dear Members and Friends of the Anthroposophical Society in Canada,
Many years ago, I was very fortunate to be part of the architectural group at Emerson College in Sussex, England when one of the leading anthroposophical physicians from the Netherlands visited the college and spoke about wounds and their healing. He made a seemingly simple statement, one that affected me deeply and has been a guide in my life since. What he brought as a distillation of his long career in anthroposophical medicine was this:
“The wound that is healed becomes a sense organ”
We all have the experience of scar tissue formed by the healing of a physical wound. We can experience how this tissue becomes more sensitive than it had been. He used this example of the physical process to help us understand the much more significant wounding of our souls. This is the wounding that is the path of human incarnation we have chosen before birth, reaching back into intentions arising out of our previous incarnations. Perhaps the greatest gift of anthroposophy is this knowledge, this startling revelation, that what we meet in life, what we draw toward ourselves in life, arises out of the mysteries of destiny, the countenance of karma. This reality, the fundamental understanding of the working of karma and destiny in our time – and the centrality of the Archetype of Humanity in these processes, Rudolf Steiner saw as his primary task, that which he was meant to bring to humanity at this time.
As we journey through our lives, meeting the situations and conditions we have pre-planned for ourselves, we meet what we seek so that we can accomplish what is only possible in a human incarnation – the transformation of the hindrances we have built up in this remarkable journey toward becoming fully human. If we pay attention to our biographies, we can recognize that it is at those points where we feel deeply hurt, deeply wounded, that have provided the doorways to fuller self-knowledge.
But we must choose to step through.
As we reflect on this extraordinary process, we can also recognize that in truly walking this ‘path of life’ toward our true self, we develop remarkable sensitivities of soul that do indeed become soul organs. To be conscious of this process, to awaken to this, is especially critical in our time at the beginning of a completely new stage in human development.
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January Council Retreat in Calgary
I wanted to share with the membership some personal reflections of a recent Council retreat.
This January the Council with our General Secretary visited Calgary for a retreat and also to meet active members. Landing at the airport on a Thursday in a cold, snowy landscape was a bit of a shock because I had been enjoying almost spring-like temperatures in Vancouver, where I live.
Christof Wuerscher met me and I was whisked away to his house where his wife, Christine, was getting ready for visitors. Later the other Council members joined us for a fine dinner with food that Calgary friends had provided. In the evening we met with local members, including a few who had travelled from Edmonton, several hours away. We introduced ourselves and shared news of initiatives in our areas. It was freezing cold outside but, inside the Wuerscher’s home that night, there was laughter and warmth.
The next day the Council met at Mike Galbraith’s house for a full day of meetings. We took over his dining room with its long wooden table. We discovered that Mike has many talents and one of them is cooking. He plied us with quiche, soup and salad and loaves and cookies during our lunch and break times, everything made from scratch.
As a Council, we try to meet in person three times a year. It is an expense to be sure in this huge country of ours for the Society to fly Council members to be together but it would be an impossible job if we couldn’t meet in person. We do have monthly Zoom meetings but we all agree that we interact more deeply when we meet face-to-face and more gets decided.
While in Calgary we discussed many things. One key issue was the Administration. Jef Saunders has retired from being the membership administrator, though he continues his work as editor of the eNews. He also works actively with Christine Tansley, his replacement. The Council is taking a year to envision how the administrator job might change. Christine had agreed to take on the task in the interim but she has asked us to be looking actively for her replacement. Can we imagine the role of the administrator in a new way? When this is done would we advertise for this position in the newspapers? Could our new administrator live outside of Toronto? Should we hire an ad hoc professional development officer to help with initiatives? We are keeping an open mind with these questions at the moment.
Here are a few items we discussed (there were more): issues around our new logo, our new publication (Perspectives), our website (we are thinking of refreshing it), the funding of initiatives (can we strike a balance between those at the centre of our meditative work and those initiatives at the periphery of our practical working together), our plans for celebrating the 100th anniversary of the re-founding of the Anthroposophical Society in 1923/24, our plans for the next AGM (to be held in Vancouver with the theme: the second panel of the Foundation Stone Meditation), the writing of short articles for Anthroposophy Worldwide and who will do this, news about a Latin Language conference in Dornach (a Canadian contact is needed), the Treasurer’s letter (going out in the next little while) and mandate groups (their scope of activity). John also reported on the work of the worldwide Treasurers’ Circle which met recently in November In England. This Circle has come up with Nine Points which it wants each of the country societies to consider and perhaps agree to adopt as the Circle strives financially to support the important work carried out at the Goetheanum.
A highlight of the weekend for me was the clay workshop on Saturday led by Jef on healing our wounds. The workshop was also open to any local members who wanted to attend.
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Class Holders/Council meeting October 17 – 20, 2019 Thornhill, Ontario, Canada
Kim Hunter
A first conference exploring the General Anthroposophical Section as experienced in Canada included local (Toronto area) Class members as well as Class Holders and Council members.
My questions going into this conference were about deepening my understanding of the General Anthroposophical Section, its role in Anthroposophy, its role in my life. A challenge for me has been this word, 'section'. It seems counter-intuitive to call it a section. Olaf Lampson once suggested that we think of it as a 'field' while Ute Weinmann suggested 'sphere'. These options appeal to me more than 'section'.
What started for me as an exploration of the landscape of the General Anthroposophical Section over the last year as I became a part of the organizing team of four (with Dorothy LeBaron, John Glanzer and Greg Scott) who carried the torch of this conference, became a deepening process of my orientation to the significance anthroposophy plays in my life. In the last decades, since I came to anthroposophy, it has become a part of me both inwardly and outwardly in ways that I wasn't fully conscious of. It informs my work as a Class holder, and as a teacher, and 'breathes' into the rhythm of my days and in my relationships. The General Anthroposophical Section runs through my life like a river in the landscape, providing a place of beauty and truth, a place to come and renew myself. It enriches my life in both subtle and profound ways.
The conference offered an excellent balance between the artistic work – speech, eurythmy, painting –, social working - biography, collaborative artistic work and 'cafe conversations' – and talks on the early history of the GAS -Eric Philips-Oxford brought his talk 'From Fire to Foundation Stone' while Bert Chase carried the historical context further with a talk he called 'Growth: Centre and Periphery - Goetheanum and Collegium'. John Glanzer added to these elements that which activated us to hold this conference namely the question posed to Class Holders world-wide last fall by the Executive Council: What might it look like were the world circle of Class Holders to help carry the General Anthroposphical Section?
Each day the mood was set with the reading of the Foundation Stone Meditation in English, French and German, as brought by Rudolf Steiner at the Christmas Conference of 1923. This was carried by speech artist, Patricia Smith with Eric Philips-Oxford reading the French.
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LETTER AND INFORMATION FROM EMMANUEL VUCOVICH
I hereby wish to thank The Anthroposophical Society of Canada for supporting The Parcival Project this past August 2019 in presenting PARZIVAL & FEIREFIZ - a contemporary musical re-telling of the Grail myth at the following events:
August 6th: The Simons Center for Geometry and Physics - International Conference on Cosmology & String Theory, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York:
http://scgp.stonybrook.edu
August 8th: North American Anthroposophical Youth Section - Question of Courage Conference, Spring Valley, New York:
https://nayouthsection.org
On August 6th, 2019, Emmanuel Vukovich presented a solo violin recital of Bach, Bartok, and the original composition PARZIVAL & FEIREFIZ - a contemporary retelling of the Grail myth at Stony Brook University's Simons Center for Geometry and Physics International Cosmology and String Theory Conference. This annual summer conference brings together some of the most advanced mathematicians and physicists from around the world - including Nobel Prize Laureates - to discuss and present their research on Cosmology and Micro-Cosmology (String Theory). It is an incredible honour for Emmanuel to be invited back to this conference for a 2nd time - to present and perform for this elite audience. On August 8th, he was joined by award-winning American composer, pianist, and african drummer John McDowell in a performance at the Youth Section of North America - Questions of Courage Conference in Spring Valley, New York. This performance opened the conference with a dramatic and powerful impulse which combined a telling of Eschenbach’s story with musical performance. The following day, John and Emmanuel left New York to participate in the New Music for Strings International Festival held between August 9-15th, 2019 in Reykjavik, Iceland
This conference brought together international performers and composers from around the world to share, discuss, present, and perform new works - almost all world premiers - dedicated to the exploration of advancing new music for string instruments (violin, viola, cello, bass - piano and harp were also present). Some of the musicians present included:
Zhou Long (UMKC, Pulitzer Prize) - composition
Eugene Drucker (Emerson String Quartet) violin, composition
Mari Kimura (UC Irvine, Juilliard) - violin, composition,
Lin Wei (Violinist & Artistic Dir., HIMA & Atlanta Festival Academy) chamber music
Ásdís Valdimarsdóttir (Royal Conservatory of the Hague) - viola, chamber music
Ari Þór Vilhjámsson (Israel Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic) - violin
Eivind Buene (Norwegian Academy of Music) - composition
Henrik Brendstrup (Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus, Denmark) - cello, chamber music
Emmanuel participated in the performance of works by Japanese composer Tomoko Ozawa: Piano Quintet No 1: From High Above and Below (2019) and Piano Quintet No 2: Spring Winds (2019), and performed the Solo Violin Sonata by Dutch composer, violinist, and the founder and artistic director of New Music for Strings Organization - Anne Sophie Anderson. On August 13th, John and Emmanuel performed PARZIVAL & FEIREFIZ in a Festival concert joined by New Music for Strings faculty Henrik Brendstrup - principal cellist of the world renowned Chamber Orchestra of Europe and faculty at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, Denmark, violinist Patrick Yim - Assistant Professor in the Department of Music at Hong Kong Baptist University, and cellist þórdís Gerður Jónsdóttir - an Icelandic cellist now a student of Henrik’s in Denmark.
The Conference presented many interesting talks, master classes, and presentations all around a central theme: Timbre. Timbre is the musical term used to describe the quality of a sound, in German - Tone Klangfarbe (tone sound colour) - the colour or quality of a given tone. What became clear very quickly is that in this world of New Music, the common parameters of music which have served composers for the past 300 plus years: rhythm, melody, and harmony, were not being discussed, or heard in music. The entire focus of the New Music movement, it appears, is the impulse to search for a new musical language for Timbre or tone quality - both in performance and composition.
Iceland is a country with a history for discovery. In the center of Reykjavik stands a modern cathedral - its spire in the shape of the head of a Viking ship. In front of the cathedral stands a statue of Liefr Ericsson “Son of the Iceland discoverer of Vinland - The United States of America to the people of Iceland on the one thousandth anniversary of the althing AD 1930.” There was not doubt in my mind after seeing this, that what is of utmost importance to the spirit of this country, and this conference, is the discovery of the new.
Emmanuel
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Dear readers,
information on the extended knowledge and spiritual foundations they are based on. This applies as much to agriculture in times of climate change as it does to education, medicine or ethics in the age of transhumanism. Practice and knowledge, if they are conveyed in accessible and comprehensible ways, move more closely together and present major challenges in all areas. What must not be forgotten in all this are artistic creativity, transformative power and social action as essential preconditions for the future of humanity. The Anthroposophical Society could become a global association of people who stand up individually and courageously for human dignity and for shaping the world out of spiritual insights. The motto we have chosen for this year’s Annual Conference from Rudolf Steiner’s Letters to Members reflects this: «Connecting with the world willingly out of love».
The members of the Executive Council are therefore delighted that Ueli Hurter decided to accept their call to join them even if this nomination may seem unusual. For where, after all, is the connection between spirit and practice as tangible as it is in biodynamic agriculture? This quality is needed in the coming years, as is the increasing inclusion of the Society worldwide. It is with this particular task in mind that Joan Sleigh has offered to continue her work on behalf of the Executive Council for another seven years. The Executive Council will ask the members to agree to both nominations at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting.
Warm greetings,
Justus Wittich
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Annual Conferences of the Anthroposophical Society from 30th March to 5th April 2020 at the Goetheanum in Dornach/Switzerland
Dear Friends responsible for the Anthroposophical Society,
Dear General Secretaries and Country Representatives,
Dear Councils and Treasurers,
Dear members responsible for Branch and Group,
Dear Friends,
In the spirit of "Save the Date" we would like to give you the exact dates and times of the intense week of the Anthroposophical Annual Conference in March/April 2020, in which we hope for rich and plentiful encounters, initiatives and achievements from all the work in the worldwide society. Justus Wittich
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Branch work as a cultural impulse
Not only is the public becoming more and more polarized, but among us we also find views that tend to polarize. However, they do not always need to be recognized as such, but rather point to essential challenges for all of us and show the diversity that lives actively among us. Thus, the question of how to deal with such challenges arises.
This also applies to our publications, which have different objectives: "Anthroposophy Worldwide" (AWW), the official newsletter of the Anthroposophical Society, and "Ein Nachrichtenblatt" (ENB), which also sees itself as a newsletter on "What is going on in the Anthroposophical Society".
We therefore have invited the editors to our meeting and asked them to support us in our search for and development of a culture which accepts different views and seeks to discover new views and insights based on mutual understanding
...
We warmly invite all those who are active in and feel responsible for the Branch and Group work, to participate in our gathering.
Joan Sleigh for the Executive Council of the GAS at the Goetheanum, Andreas Heertsch and Ronald Templeton for the Branch at the Goetheanum
Programme
1.4.2019 17:00 Welcome [Joan Sleigh] followed by an introduction to the topic [NN, not yet confirmed]
1.4,2020 20:00 Easter Celebration of the Branches around the Goetheanum (All are warmly invited)
2.4.2020 09:00 Introduction to the topic [Andreas Heertsch]: Goals of our publication organs [Sebastian
Jüngel/Kersten Juel & Roland Tüscher].
2
.4.2020 10:15 Break
2.4.2020 11:00 Working groups on the topic
2.4.2020 11:45 Plenary on the topic
2.4.2020 12:30 End of the meeting
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Society for Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening in Ontario
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General Information and Upcoming Events
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Branches & Groups
Calgary Branch
Contact: Christine at
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Cantons de l'Est
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Contact:
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Edmonton
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Huronia Branch (Barrie)
Contact Janine at
705-728-1443
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London
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Montréal (Français)
Institute Rudolf Steiner Quebec
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Montreal Branch (English)
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Nelson, BC
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Nova Scotia
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Polaris Branch (Thornhill)
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Saugeen Cedar Branch
(Durham)
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Sherbrooke (Français)
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Sunshine Coast (BC)
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Thornhill Group
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Toronto Branch
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Vancouver
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Victoria
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Membership Update
New M
embe
rs
Marc Delannoy, Ottawa
Welcome!
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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:
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Contact Info
Anthroposophical Society in Canada
# 130A - 1 Hesperus Rd.
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L4J 0G9
Membership Administrator
Christine Tansley
416-892-3656
877-892-3656
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Members website
please note you will need to use the password
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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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ONTARIO - MARCH 5TH, 2020
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900 Queen St. West ~ Loft 205 ~ Buzz 016
Check out our new website for info on the Spiritual Bootcamp and all our programs
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Astrosophy: An Introduction and Exploration with Denis Schneider
Lecture:
Friday, March 27, 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm
Workshop:
Saturday, March 28, 9:30 am to 4:00 pm
Waldorf Academy, 250 Madison Avenue Open to Society members and friends
Workshop and Lecture: $85; Lecture only $20 (by cash or cheque).
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NOVA SCOTIA - March 6 - 9th
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BANCROFT, ONTARIO - July 30 - August1
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The geology of Bancroft region will be the general theme of this conference, including hands-on geological field activities, lectures and discussions about Goethean observation, spiritual-scientific insights into the earth’s geology and related topics observation exercises, plus a visit to the RockHound Gemboree.
An artistic activity will enhance the experience.For information and to register for the conference, please contact: Dr Sandy Musclow in Bancroft, ON at
sandymusclow@gmail.com
or (613) 334-9802.
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Anthroposophy Worldwide - 2020
If you would like to see the archive of past issues, go to:
Archiv
e
then enter password AWE-2018
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