From the World Society
On Climbing the Mountain
Dear Members and Friends of the Anthroposophical Society in Canada,
In the years following World War II the disintegration of complex multi-ethnic, multi-religious societies spread as a fracturing impulse across most of the globe. The artificial cohesion imposed by European colonial powers across Asia and Africa unravelled. In the midst of this collapse, the only model provided was the appearance of ever smaller nation-states formed on specific ethnic or religious groupings that had been imposed on Europe after the first World War. The significant step of imagining that we can live in complex societies, while still acknowledging and supporting our distinctions, was all but lost.
In the midst of this fracturing process one remarkable individual saw what might be, Mahatma Gandhi. With quiet strength he held to what he saw, that the Indian subcontinent could go forward in a completely new way by acknowledging and embracing its dizzyingly complex nature, India could be a different model for what the human community could be. This view of ‘what might be’, which lay beyond what was known from out of the past, was immensely threatening. Powerful forces sought to negate his vision and in January 1948 he was assassinated. Yet, despite his death, and the partition of Pakistan, India remains a complex society of minorities with over 25 official languages and multiple active religions.
This was the year I was born, and often gives me pause to consider this world condition I chose to incarnate into. Not alone, a large number of my fellow anthroposophists chose a similar doorway into life.
A generation later, others chose to incarnate into another significant cultural upheaval, the time of a fundamental struggle to truly recognize each individual as an equal - what became the age of ‘civil rights’. Here too arose the voice of an extraordinary individual, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He also had a vision. He could see that beyond all the forms and structures that exist out of the past, something else was possible. History would like to limit his voice to the people out of which he came, yet his vision was for all humanity. His voice, like that of Gandhi, called for his fellow human beings to connect themselves with a consciousness of a future humanity. His view, his great longing, was also profoundly threatening and he as well was assassinated in April 1968.
These are only two of a group of remarkable individuals who, coming out of disintegration and chaos, had a perception of the archetypal human being.
Last autumn the AGM of the Anthroposophical Society in the US
was held in Decatur, Georgia. Decatur is a handsome town with tree-lined streets and columned buildings. Its pleasant central square is surrounded by trendy restaurants overlooked by the porticoed County Courthouse, one of the major centres of the US Confederacy. As I walked the few blocks between my accommodation and the conference venue, I was often struck by the lack of a presence of visible minorities. By contrast, the conference gathering had a handful of minorities represented, both
A
frican and Native American.
On the Sunday morning of the conference a trip was planned for those who were interested in visiting the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. In order not to impinge on the conference schedule, those of us who wanted to participate left soon after dawn. The memorial is in a less advantaged area of the city, clearly an African-American community. The memorial is simple, a long reflecting pool with Dr. King and his wife’s sarcophagus in the middle. On the flanking walls at its entry are quotations from him that speak to a humanity that could be.
Across the street is the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church where Dr. King was the pastor. Between the church and the memorial is a wide, quite beautiful park. Directly across from the memorial’s entrance, at the edge of this park, stands a striking bronze sculpture. The sculpture’s beauty belied the unease...................
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The Corona Virus
12 March 2020 | Georg Soldner: Deputy Head of the Medical Section
For veterinarians, corona viruses are part of daily life, but now the corona virus SARS-CoV 2 has crossed the barrier to humans. What is a virus, how does it attack the human organism, and how can we respond?
Viruses are closely linked to the organism’s physical body. They originate from the substance of the genome and, like the genome, can influence the metabolism of cells, thereby making them alien to the organism. If an infection occurs, viruses penetrate into the organism. The organism recognizes that certain cells are made alien by the viruses, beginning to do something other than what is best for the whole. It begins to turn against these cells in order to eliminate them. This is what creates the symptoms of the disease that now breaks out: the organism is trying to get rid of the infected cells so as to get rid of the viruses that have invaded, by employing, for example, coughing, fever, and phlegm. Anyone who dies of a viral infection can therefore also be seen as a victim of their own immune defence, whose regulation is an expression of the individual "I-organization", the I-presence in the body.
Alienation from the body
The more a person is already in a situation where the physical body is becoming alien to her or him, the more susceptible she or he is to this viral disease, now called COVID-19. Of course, this is especially true at a higher age, when bones shrink and muscle mass decreases, or in the case of chronic illnesses.
Coronavirus infections are particularly difficult to treat in people over 80 years of age, and people with type II diabetes or cardiovascular diseases. The less I am present in my body—the less it is completely permeated by me in this sense—the more easily the infection can spread in the body and the more serious the consequences can be. Of course, how a person who has tested positive is treated is important. Sick people are often abruptly removed from their home environment and were initially treated in China with many other sick people in improvised accommodation. Unfortunately, conventional medicine has no helpful medication and no vaccine to offer in this case. Often, fever is reduced using medication. However, in severe cases, oxygen support and, if necessary, temporary mechanical ventilation can save lives, which is why it is important that clinical care concentrate on more seriously ill patients.Based on everything we know here, anxiety and antipyretic treatment make patients sicker rather than healthier. What helps people overcome the illness is everything that helps them better penetrate and warm their body, and be able to feel more at home in it. Therefore, it is not surprising that the disease is hardly dangerous for children. This is also true up to the age of 50, where the course of the disease usually corresponds to that of a normal flu. Coughing, rhinitis and fatigue are the typical early symptoms. In addition, pneumonia can be a dangerous aspect of the disease, which is initially recognizable mainly by a higher respiratory frequency.
Relationship to the Sun
This virus has particularly negative characteristics from a medical point of view. It can take a very long time for the organism to wake up and notice that there is a foreign guest on board, threatening to cause harm. There is a known case of the illness in which the disease only broke out 27 days after infection. On average, however, this period is 5 days, and 95 percent of all cases manifest after 12.5 days. Therefore, those affected are quarantined for a long period of two weeks. This virus is also more contagious than a normal flu virus. On average, one person with the normal flu virus infects 1.3 other people, whereas someone with the corona virus is more likely to infect 3 other people (for a highly infectious disease such as measles or whooping cough, the figure is 12 to 18). The infection rate is therefore higher than with influenza, and it also takes longer to manifest. The combination of these characteristics, which favour an epidemic spread, make physicians worldwide nervous.
Relationship to the animal kingdom
However, one big puzzle arises: Where do these apparently novel viruses come from and why did they develop? Interestingly enough, many of the viruses come from animals. The corona virus probably comes from the Javanese bat. So why do viruses from the animal kingdom become dangerous for humans? We are currently inflicting untold suffering on animals: Mass slaughter and experimentation on laboratory animals causes pain that the animal kingdom is helpless to bear. Can this suffering lead to consequences that alter viruses that are native to the animal organism? We are used to only looking at the physical and to seeing it as mostly separate from the mind and emotions. Research on intestinal flora, on the microbiome, which includes not only bacteria but also viruses, proves the opposite. This raises not only the microbiological question of the origin of the virus, but also the moral question of how to deal with the animal world. Rudolf Steiner pointed out these connections more than 100 years ago. Today it is up to us to investigate these relationships and to ask deeper questions in addition to scientific analysis.
What can we do?
There are a number of measures we can take in our personal lives to help our organism overcome the disease. These include abstaining from alcohol, moderating sugar consumption, and maintaining a rhythm of life with sufficient sleep and an active relationship with the sun. What our immune system often suffers from is a lack of sunlight, a deficiency that is most severe in the month of March. Seen over the year, the highest mortality rate in our latitudes therefore falls at the end of March. This is related to the lack of sunlight during the winter months and reminds us that it is extremely worthwhile to go outdoors every day and in winter, if possible, at noon, to connect with the periphery, with the elements of the cosmos. When founding Anthroposophic Medicine, even before vitamin D was discovered, Rudolf Steiner used tuberculosis as an example to explain this in detail. It is true that for the immune system, vitamin D tablets can only replace the absorption of sunlight to a limited extent. Potentized phosphorus and correspondingly potentized meteoritic iron in the morning can also support the immune system as light substances. For those who are older and may have to deal with cardiovascular diseases, anthroposophic basic remedies for the cardiovascular system, regular walking and sufficient sleep are also recommended. Those who sleep less than six hours are much more susceptible to such infections.
A healthy breathing between human beings
If illness occurs, quarantine is currently recommended, although mild cases can now be treated at home. It seems important to me that Anthroposophic Medicine has decades of experience in treating viral and bacterial pneumonia without antibiotics, with anthroposophic medicines and external applications which can be extremely effective. The physicians in the Medical Section have put together a treatment plan and made it available to international medical colleagues.
What weakens the lungs? Two things: a lack of relationship to the earth and the sun, and social tensions. It is therefore advisable to protect your own lungs, this respiratory organ, from the inside and outside by trying to balance social tensions. In my view, those who are in unresolved social conflicts are increasingly at risk here. Medicine has promoted the belief that vaccinations can protect against all infections. This is a mistake. Even the flu vaccination only offers a protection rate of 10 to 30 percent; careful hand washing and hygiene for nose-blowing and coughing are just as effective - without possible vaccination side effects. So it is an important step to break away from this fearful, defensive image of the environment and our own body and to ask what we, ourselves, can do to support their vitality and integrity.
Reprinted from Das Goetheanum
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Compostela
Three friends walk the
Way of the Stars
(Part One)
The protagonists of this adventure are three ladies, all having links to the Waldorf School
Les enfants de la Terre,
located in Waterville*. One fine day, Chantal Lamothe mentioned that she would like to do the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage on foot. “If you go, we’re going with you!” And so last spring the three friends spent 36 days walking the
Camino Francès
(The French Way)
,
from Saint-Palais to Santiago de Compostela, each one equipped with a
credencial
(pilgrim’s passport): the total distance, 943.8 kilometres.
I recently shared a meal with them in Sherbrooke. In reality, it was a meeting of complicity, since I myself had trod the Camino in the mid 1990’s (I covered the 1600 km.
via Podiensis,
the Le Puy Route, in 46 days.) And the experience feels even more complete when shared with others having made the pilgrimage. We tried to capture exactly how walking the Camino can transform a person. And how it can also become “a path of knowledge which guides the Spiritual in the human being to the Spiritual in the universe.” **
Chantal Lamothe was at a crossroads in her life: her spouse had died in 2016, and she retired two years later. “I felt the need to
walk
my life in order to discover what would be the next step.” Indeed, she was in the habit of taking walks before making any important decision. “But would going so far away be an attempt to escape? Since I was in a period of transition, I had to set myself in motion in order for life itself to bring me an answer.”
A Book
Before loading up her backpack, she had read through Manfred Schmidt-Brabant’s volume
Paths of the Christian Mysteries, from Compostela to the New World.
** The author’s vision gave her wings, bringing her a sense of something infinite connected to the journey. “I often had the feeling that the heavens were guiding me, that the full experience of the history and wisdom of the Camino de Santiago would somehow become available to me. This feeling was shrouded in a great, deep mystery, something along the lines of an inner experience difficult to express.”
Manfred Schmidt-Brabant gives particular emphasis to the words spoken by the Chancellor of Santiago University in 1987, shortly before the European Council*** requested that its countries explore and protect the Camino everywhere on the continent. “The way to Santiago, to which individuals came from all lands, actually gave form to medieval Christianity – in other words, it created what today we call the Western World.”
The revival of interest for Compostela started up again primarily in the 1980’s. The individuals behind the idea of the New Europe sought for an elegant way to strengthen that concept by going back to the roots of Western civilisation. These basic principles had been undermined by Nazism and communism, both of which had dragged mankind down to a sub-human level. The “financialization” of economic interests and technology have put a stranglehold on civilisation and all sectors of our social life. A symbol had to be found which could encourage people to gaze upwards and to find hope.
It was thus that the thousand-year old Way of Saint James was seen as something that could truly inspire human souls. “The Main Street of Europe” that had been traveled by all the cultures on the continent became Europe’s foremost cultural itinerary............
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Building Pathways to the Foundation Stone Meditation
Call for Volunteers
Our Dear Friends,
We are delighted to report that over $10,000 has been raised to support the creation of an important new book on the Foundation Stone Meditation! Over 57 Canadian Society members from across the country contributed, enabling us to far surpass the original goal of $5,500.
These funds will be used to support the translation of the various essays as needed, the printing costs of an initial print run, and marketing the book to Society members around the world. It is our shared hope that this book will help a wider audience find a pathway to working with the Foundation Stone Meditation, which in turn will cultivate much-needed health-giving forces for our world.
The project is being led by Arie van Ameringen, the former General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in Canada, with Christiane Haid, the leader of the Section for Literary Arts and the Humanities at the Goetheanum, as co-publisher.
We will be in touch as soon as the book is available, later this year.
Please note, no further donations are required for this specific project. Donations to the Society's core costs, or to any other of its other specific donation categories, are always welcome.
Our Mandate Group is seeking additional members. No fundraising experience is required. If you are interested in finding out more, please contact John Glanzer
(
john.glanzer@gmail.com
)
to discuss the opportunity.
Thank you to all the donors!
John, Dorothy and Rob
Gift Money Mandate Group
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In the near future the Canadian Society will receive 300 one-off free editions of the Winter publication
New View
with the invitation to mail them out to Canadian members. This is at no cost to the Canadian society. The challenge for me is to send 300 copies out to 500 members! Of course only one copy will go to couples - which helps and then it is only in English - so this helps a little more, my apologies to our French members! However, even allowing for the 35 Canadian members that already subscribe I will still have a small shortfall.
What would help my mailing decision would be if: a) you are really interested in receiving this with an intention in becoming a subscriber,
You can also search the link for
New View
below to view the index of articles.
Thank you,
Jef
Communications Administrator
New View
is a quarterly magazine published at Easter, Midsummer, Michaelmas and Christmas. The four seasons and their related festivals provide a context for contemporary events, issues and insights shared through its pages.
New View
offers a fresh look at the world and ourselves. Four times a year,
New View
brings together a unique collection of articles on many aspects of modern life, informed and inspired by the work and world view of Rudolf Steiner (1861-1924) which he called
anthroposophy
. Focusing on issues of the day its pages contain features, articles, interviews, book and film reviews. Regular items include: World events, Community, Health, Education, Self-development, Arts, Science, Environment, Biodynamic-Agriculture, Book and Film Reviews and much more.
New View
contains contributions that look to the deeper background and rhythms inherent in world and personal events. Its authors recognise the spiritual content woven into the material world and seek to build a bridge whereby the reader can experience the creative harmony between art, science and the religious life.
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Dear Branch and Group Leaders and Friends,
As a result of the decisions of the Swiss Federal Council on how to deal with the coronavirus, the Goetheanum has been closed to the public since March
18th
, and will probably remain closed until April 19. This means that there will be no guided tours, and in principle all events will be cancelled, including both the English and German Class Lessons. The bookshop is closed (books can still be ordered and sent out) as is the cafeteria in the Goetheanum foyer and the Speishaus Restaurant itself. The Vitality Shop is open.
Postponement of the General Assembly
Against this background the Executive Council and the Goetheanum Leadership have had to decide to cancel the Annual Conference and to postpone the Annual General Meeting- as it stands at present - to October
31st,
2020, which will be held in a shortened form. The usual timelines and deadlines for motions and notifications will still apply. The meeting of the Council of Country Representatives will also be postponed to between
October 28th – 30th,
2020; the conference of the School of Spiritual Science with all 19 Class Lessons will now be held from November
1st to 5th,
2020. Due to the given situation, the Gathering of Branch and Group Leaders (April
1st – 2nd
), including the Easter Festival (April
1st
) and the International Conference of Board Members and Treasurers April
1st – 2nd
) have also been cancelled. It remains to be seen whether a meeting of Branch and Group Leaders at the Goetheanum in autumn will still be possible - especially since a national Branch Meeting is also planned in Germany on October
24th – 25th,
2020.
Theme of the Annual Conference
Following the question ‘On what we Build?' in 2018 and the theme 'In the Heartbeat of Time' in 2019, this year focusses on turning to the world, in which human self-discovery is realized when it 'Willingly unites with the World in Love’ (see Rudolf Steiner, GA 26, Chapter 'The World Thought in the Working of Michael and the Working of Ahriman'). This perspective of becoming human through connecting with the world calls for engagement. Where this is fulfilled, humanness can be felt, no less now than before the measures taken by the state. We have to deal with this new signature of the times.
Work at the Goetheanum continues
Apart from this, operation at the Goetheanum in all departments and Sections of the School of Spiritual Science will continue as always, within the framework of the given circumstances. Staff members can be reached via e-mail and telephone. The Goetheanum reception desk is accessible through the west entrance.
We wish you good health, trust and tranquillity in the face of unpredictable
changes.
With warm greetings,
for the Executive Council at the Goetheanum
General Anthroposophical Society
Executive Council at the Goetheanum
Dornach, March
18th,
2020
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J
ustus Wittich
General Anthroposophical Society Executive Council at the Goetheanum .
www.goetheanum.org
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Joan Sleigh
vorstandssekretariat@goetheanum.ch
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A Hundred Years of Anthroposophical Medicine
Dear readers,
When, at Easter 1920, Rudolf Steiner gave his first course for physicians at the Goetheanum (ga312), the foundations for Anthroposophic Medicine were laid. In twenty lectures he discussed the human organism, its pathologies and the corresponding therapies. Today we stand astounded at the germinal power and breadth of those lectures: many of the things Rudolf Steiner said then have been corroborated by modern findings, for instance the connection between the intestine (microbiome) and the nervous system. Numerous indications have become daily practice in Anthroposophic Medicine, such as the use of mistletoe therapy in cancer and Rhythmical Einreibungen in nursing. Many other such seeds are waiting to be scientifically explored and applied in practice.
Healthy humans and a healthy earth
The motif of the bridge is central to medicine: Anthroposophic Medicine is a bridge that originates in the achievements of natural-scientific medicine and leads across to a health-oriented understanding of human beings as self-developing entities: a medicine that, through the therapeutic relationship, builds a bridge to the patient and other professional groups with whom it forms a therapeutic working community; a medicine that develops and applies its remedies on the basis of a living understanding of the human being, nature and the cosmos, a medicine, in other words, that builds a bridge between microcosm and macrocosm. We need to take responsibility for the living earth and its protective layers because our health cannot be separated from that of the earth.
From 12 to 20 September 2020 we will celebrate the birthday of Anthroposophic Medicine at the Goetheanum with a world conference. We have chosen the bridge motif for the conference because it will be about current developments and future perspectives in all areas of life that are touched by Anthroposophic Medicine. Eurythmy performances and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, festive encounters, lectures and around a hundred workshops will await the birthday guests, form bridges from person to person and from the past to future developments, to «future existence».
Warm greetings,
Matthias Girke and Georg Soldner, Goetheanum
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General Information and Upcoming Events
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Branches & Groups
Calgary Branch
Contact: Christine at
*******
Cantons de l'Est
*******
Confluence of Three Rivers (Ottawa)
*******
Duncan
Contact:
*******
Edmonton
*******
Huronia Branch (Barrie)
Contact Janine at
705-728-1443
*******
London
*******
Montréal (Français)
Institute Rudolf Steiner Quebec
*******
Montreal Branch (English)
*******
Nelson, BC
*******
Nova Scotia
*******
Polaris Branch (Thornhill)
*******
Saugeen Cedar Branch
(Durham)
*******
Sherbrooke (Français)
*******
Sunshine Coast (BC)
********
Thornhill Group
*******
Toronto Branch
*******
Vancouver
*******
Val David (Français)
*******
Victoria
******
Membership Update
New M
embe
rs
Ian Campbell. Qualicum Beach, B.C.
Welcome!
******
Editorial Notes
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416-892-3656
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Council
President
Treasurer
Secretary
General Secretary
School For Spiritual Science
For list of Class Holders,
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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
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Anthroposophy Worldwide - 2020
If you would like to see the archive of past issues, go to:
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then enter password AWE-2018
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