In this edition
General Secretary's Newsletter
AGM & Conference Information & Registration
Meeting One Another INVITATION
Activity around the Foundation Stone Meditation
in Vancouver
ASC Expands Fundraising Capacity by Accepting Donations of Securities
Trillium Waldorf School is raising up to $2 million in Community Bonds
Administrative Director, West Coast Institute
Membership Update
Anthroposophy Worldwide # 04, 2022
Events and information:
Anthroposophy CanadaWide
Caring for Earth’s Body
New Training in RMT
RSCC Courses
West Coast Institute Courses
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From the World Society
On Cultivating Soul’s Life
Dear Members and Friends of the Anthroposophical Society in Canada,
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In joining this, our Anthroposophical Society, we have connected ourselves to a community of individuals who share what appears to be a simple intention, to cultivate the life of soul both in ourselves and in humanity. This is our Society’s purpose. How do we understand this intention, and how do we try to realize it now, a century later?
Over the past two years, when our ability to come together has been hindered, what is it that has been interrupted? How can we understand what has been taken from us? We have all experienced the sense of loss in this absence from one another. We have sought for alternatives that would enable some form of continuation. As we reflect on our personal experience over these past years, is there something essential that this tension between absence and connection seeks to reveal to us? How can we apprehend, not as thought but as experience, this process of cultivation? What is the ground we seek to till, the seeds we tend?
In trying to hold this tension, what can confront us is whether we recognize the essential characteristics of this universe of soul. Do we experience ‘soul’ as a living reality within ourselves and in the world? Or does the experience elude us when we seek it?
As this Society for the Cultivation of the Life of Soul was being established, Rudolf Steiner accompanied it with guidance for understanding this ‘mystery of soul’. The Foundation Stone asks us to behold, to turn attention to the world in its fullest sense. To no longer look only into ourselves, but into the whole of the Cosmos if we are to seek this Universe of Soul. We are called to recognize that what lives within our limbs, what lives within the rhythms of heart and breath, within the stillness of the head as my thinking, my feeling, my volition, are but the embodied revelations of divine presence, spirit presence not only in us as individuals but within us as the Body of Humanity. These are mighty revelations that can continuously inspire us; call us. But how do we ‘live’ it, and why do we need each other as fellow members within this community in order to find our way?
If we truly consider what is being asked of us, we realize that this call is fundamentally different from what we have cultivated as our individual experience. The fruits of the past epoch of human development are that we experience these capacities as ‘mine’. We identify these soul capacities as my thinking, my feeling, my willing. The great challenge that humanity faces is that these faculties have become bound to our experience of our ‘self’. These capacities that would link our self experience to the other, whether that be our fellow human beings or the ‘other’ in the cosmos, has become individualized, has become ‘selfish’. The very capacities that would enable us to cultivate a perception of the inner nature of the world, have become imprisoned by that part of us engaged with our daily lives, that aspect of ourselves that experiences anxiety and fear when surrounded by change and discontinuity. Continued..........
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Annual General Meeting and Conference
June 24, 25 & 26, 2022
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So, what does it mean to be
human now?
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Annual General Meeting and Conference
June 24, 25 & 26, 2022
The goal of this year’s conference is to create a continuum in time whereby the theme and experience of the Conference is not an isolated event but rather one that builds and develops as we go from this year, into next year and towards the world-wide commemorative events of the fire on December 31,1922 and for the refounding of the Society at the Christmas Conference 1923/1924.
In person at Saugeen Academy Hanover and Glencolton Farm, Durham, Ontario.
Or in person with your local branch or group.
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Keynote speaker
Christoph Wuerscher
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Christoph Wuerscher was born in Kitchener, Ontario and grew up in the United States. His parents had been very active in a resistance movement known as the “Confessing Church” before leaving Germany in 1939. Conversations around the dinner table frequently touched on moral, social and spiritual issues. Although Christoph determined to become a psychologist in Grade 7, it took more than two decades before he received his license to practice. While he was at Queen’s University in Kingston, pursuing his doctorate in Clinical Psychology, he was introduced to The Christian Community and the ideas of Rudolf Steiner. Both resonated deeply within him and greatly influenced his life and his work. As a clinical and organizational psychologist, he has learned a great deal from sharing in the lives of veterans, police officers, young offenders, executives, politicians, musicians, seminarians, and their spouses and partners. Recently retired, the question of what it means to be human in our times is near and dear to his heart, and he is looking forward to engaging with others on the topic.
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Meeting One Another
In the vastness that is Canada we celebrate those times when we can come together, to be with one another. The separation we have experienced over the past year has affected us deeply. We have longed to be with one another. This is our strength.
As we come closer to the point of renewal, of re-inauguration, at Christmas 2023 we seek to support this longing to meet each other month by month through the eNews. To make this possible an invitation is given to each of you to share your story.
How did you meet anthroposophy? What led you to join the Anthroposophical Society?
With 500 words, and a photo, share your journey with us. We all look forward to meeting you.
Thank you to members who have already sent in contributions.
Send your contribution to:
No contributions this month.
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Taking the Foundation Stone Mediation outside
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The Ocean Being of the Spirit, by G. Kientzler
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Activity around the Foundation Stone Meditation
in Vancouver
by Susan Koppersmith
In March 2020, at the start of the pandemic, a small group of us met over Zoom at 8:30 every morning for several months working with the Foundation Stone Meditation. Each day we worked with the rhythm of the day incorporating comments from Sergei Prokofieff and others in our study.
The following year in 2021 this same group with added members took this Meditation out into nature every Saturday from the end of January to the end of May. We met in the early afternoon at a designated park in the Lower Mainland, recited the words and then offered prayers to individuals, groups or nations in distress. Many of us experienced a sense of inner health when we did this. Also we felt a stillness coming from outside of us, as if all of Nature was listening and reverberating with the words of this mantra.
In September 2021, others of us met at the Rudolf Steiner Centre North Vancouver with the idea of continuing the work with the Foundation Stone in preparation for our Society’s 2023 celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the Christmas Conference. Our Council is calling the celebrations: A Festival of Initiative.
In preparation for this, our group started reading Steiner’s lecture of 17, June 1909: “Evolution, Involution and Creation out of Nothingness” because it is all about the importance of cultivating initiative. For many anthroposophists, this is a favourite lecture where Steiner makes many remarkable statements, including:
at the end of evolution, we will bear within ourselves what has been gained through our own efforts, not what has been given to us but what we have created out of nothingness.
Patricia Smith led us with recitation of parts of the Foundation Stone. We shared stories, poems, journal reflections and creative work coming “out of nothingness” which meant starting with something small and then adding to it. We were shut down again by Covid restrictions. A few of us continued to share observations about the Foundation Stone in emails to each other.
One of our group is Gundula Kientzler, a mostly self-taught painter, though she has studied life drawing, pottery and art therapy at APAKT in Munich. She says that for all her life, whenever she hears music, she sees colour, sculpture or movement. When she looks at a plant, she can hear a sound. Every smell has a colour. This condition has a name: synesthesia.
With the Foundation Stone, Gundula speaks the words inwardly several times and feels a movement in her body. With the first panel, she feels herself step into an ocean; a colour rises up (blue) and she experiences herself in a Being. She immerses herself in this Being and “goes with it” for a short time. Then she steps away from it — lets it go. She does this practice over several days.She says, “It is important, initially, to make myself “empty” when I start to paint. Blue comes up when I am filled with the words of the first panel. I then experience a relationship with other colours which want to be expressed. Through a process of breathing, a dialogue unfolds with the words. I step into the words of the mantra and encounter its Being.”
On April 8, restrictions with vaccine cards will lift in BC; hopefully we can meet in person again to keep working with the Foundation Stone Meditation as a preparation for 2023 celebrations. Steiner brought the Foundation Stone to our Society in order to give the opportunity to transform thinking, feeling and willing, thus opening the soul to true self-knowledge and a way forward to the new mysteries.
Are there any other groups working in Canada with this meditation? If so, it would be wonderful to read in this eNews of your working together.
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ASC Expands Fundraising Capacity by Accepting Donations of Securities
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Trillium Waldorf School is raising up to $2 million in Community Bonds as part of our Trillium Rising Campaign to purchase our school building.
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Administrative Director Job Opening
West Coast Institute for Studies in Anthroposophy
British Columbia, Canada
Closing date: 22 April, 2022
The West Coast Institute is looking for an Administrative Director to start on May 1st, 2022. Duties will include tasks in the legal, financial, communication and marketing realms as well as registrar responsibilities.
We are looking for someone with a high level of administrative skills who enjoys working in a collaborative environment. The successful candidate would work alongside our current administrator for a period of several weeks.
Ideally we are looking for someone who lives in the Greater Vancouver area or on southern Vancouver Island.
The West Coast Institute for Studies in Anthroposophy, located in British Columbia, Canada, offers a 2.5-year, part-time Waldorf Grades Teacher Training, a 2-year, part-time Waldorf Early Childhood Educator Training with a 14 month, part-time Birth to Three option, and differing courses and workshops each summer for Waldorf teachers and others.
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MEMBERSHIP UPDATE
NEW MEMBERS
Anja Betina Macmurchie, Duncan, BC
Christopher Roy, Quebec City, QC
Welcome!
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Anthroposphy Worldwide - 2022
If you would like to see the archive of past issues, go to: Archive
then, if required, enter password AWE-2018
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Editorial Notes
The eNews is published 10 times per year from September to June for members of the Anthroposophical Society In Canada.
Please send correspondence and articles in either Word doc or ipages without formatting except for paragraphs before the 15th of the month before publication. If you are including photographs please also attach a pdf showing placement. Articles over 1,500 words may be edited.
BACK ISSUES are available on our website:
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Contact Info
Anthroposophical Society in Canada
# 130A - 1 Hesperus Rd.
Thornhill, ON
L4J 0G9
Membership Administrator
Claudette Leblanc
416-892-3656 (Toronto area)
877-892-3656 (Freephone)
Communication Administrator
Jef Saunders
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Anthroposophy CanadaWide
The Branch and Membership Development Mandate Group is inviting you to a
cross-country Zoom call
The 1923/1924 Christmas Conference as a Wellspring of Initiative for Contemporary Anthroposophists
With Robert McKay
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Sunday, May 15th - 7 pm Eastern, 4 pm Pacific
At the 1923/1924 Christmas Conference, whose 100th anniversary we celebrate next year, Rudolf Steiner re-founded the Anthroposophical Society and united his karma with it. What does this mean for membership in the Society today and our relationship to this deed, the culmination of Rudolf Steiner’s life?
Robert McKay will speak about what happened at this conference, just under a year after the burning of the Goetheanum. As Dr. Steiner referred to the conference as “a turning point in time,” it can be seen as a mystery event that warrants careful and respectful study. A complex event, it needs to be assessed in its several facets in order to understand it. As we work with it, we can come to realize that it is the beginning of an ongoing process, not just a single event in time.
ZOOM INFO
Sunday, May 15⋅at 7 pm Eastern, 4 pm Pacific
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 838 591 9046
Passcode: asc
One tap mobile
+1 780 666 0144 Canada
+1 204 272 7920 Canada
+1 438 809 7799 Canada
+1 587 328 1099 Canada
+1 647 374 4685 Canada
+1 647 558 0588 Canada
+1 778 907 2071 Canada
Meeting ID: 838 591 9046
Passcode: 178262
Robert McKay is a student of Rudolf Steiner’s and has a special interest in the anthroposophical path of knowledge. He is a board member of Anthroposophy in Toronto, and the chair of the board of directors of Rudolf Steiner College Canada (RSCC). Robert works in healthcare management in Toronto. He is currently offering courses in meditation.
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Caring for Earth’s Body in Three Parts
Venue: Our Celtic Heart
2367 Ridge Road, Hortonville, NS
A Series of three upcoming Weekend Workshops rooted in Rudolf Steiner’s anthroposophical spiritual science
Offered by Duncan Keppie (retired geologist) and Maggie Keppie (retired educator), assisted by Margaret Osmond (long-time eurythmist).
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Full Summer Festival Course Details Just Released
The big news this year is the return to an in person Summer Festival after two years of being limited to online learning over zoom. It will be great to welcome you again to our beautiful campus here in Thornhill which we share with the Toronto Waldorf School. Now of course there is an outside chance we may end up online again depending on Ontario Public Health requirements, but we are very much looking forward to an in person Summer Festival after those two years on zoom.
Quick Summary of Courses
Week one - July 11-15 - features grade intensives for grades one through seven designed mainly for teachers. Week two - July 18-22 - features Indigenous Waldorf or Waldorf Essentials in the morning, and courses on nutrition and biography work in the afternoon.
If online learning suits you better, we are offering one online-only course titled "Cave Paintings to Post-Modernism: History of Art and Human Consciousness" with Larry Young in week two.
In week three - July 25-29 - you can choose between The Meditative Path of the Waldorf Teacher and Meaningful Movement for Children in the mornings, while in the afternoons it's Painting in Grades 1-4 or Veil Paintingor Felting Fun with Puppets or Biodynamic Gardening.
Detailed course descriptions and presenter bios for all these courses can be found on the Summer Festival page on the RSCC website, where there are links to the full course brochure and the online registration form.
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Join Our Waldorf Grades Teacher Training in British Columbia: New cohort begins July, 2022
West Coast Institute for Studies in Anthroposophy
July session at Sunrise Waldorf School, Duncan, Vancouver Island; fall & spring at the Vancouver Waldorf School in North Vancouver, BC
Part-time program over 2.5 years*, comprised of 3 weeks in July for 3 years and a week in November and February for 2 years.
This two and a half year*, part-time program of professional Waldorf teacher education is offered to those who are seeking to teach out of an understanding of Waldorf Education and what it can contribute to children today. Throughout the program, studies in Anthroposophy and Waldorf Education are interwoven with artistic and practical subjects.
Students will study books on Anthroposophy, Waldorf Education and other relevant texts. The emphasis will be on understanding all aspects of child development. The artistic courses have a two-fold purpose; to enhance personal self-development and creativity, and to provide a basis for the work of the class teacher. Courses in painting, eurythmy, speech and drama, storytelling, singing, music, clay modeling, woodwork and Spacial Dynamics, amongst others, will be offered. A major aim of the training is to awaken independent thinking, ignite enthusiasm and foster creativity.
* Program duration change from 3 to 2.5 years pending approval from PTIB
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Summer Intensive Birth to Three Completion Certificate and Introduction to the Pikler® Pedagogical Approach: Engaging with infants and toddlers through respectful and peaceful care
July 16 to 22, 2022
West Coast Institute for Studies in Anthroposophy, Duncan, Vancouver Island, BC.
With Pikler® USA President Elsa Chahin, and WCI Faculty and Pikler® USA Scientific co-chair, Dr. Debbie Laurin.
This Birth to Three course explores a peaceful and respectful approach to caring for babies and toddlers inspired by the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, Dr. Emmi Pikler, and Ute Strub. Participants will deepen their knowledge about infant-toddler care and education to provide peaceful and respectful care to babies and toddlers. This course will use a variety of experiential activities, as well as discussion and lecture.
WCI Early Childhood alumni will receive a Birth to Three certificate recognized by WECAN.
Early registration, until April 15th, open to WCI Early Childhood alumni only.
Registration open to all Waldorf Early Childhood Educators on April 16th.
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