From the World Society
Into the Future
Dear Members and Friends of the Anthroposophical Society in Canada,
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How does the light shine through matter?
How does substance receive radiance into itself?
Early in the twentieth century Rudolf Steiner began the practice of creating unique, identifying motifs for anthroposophical activities and publications. These designs were to be visual cues that artistically communicated the essential anthroposophical character of what was taking place. Rudolf Steiner’s intention was that these distinct forms would stand as signatures for what was arising out of his work.
Over the years this new art form has evolved extensively, becoming integral to anthroposophical initiatives wherever they occur. As such the quest for an appropriate design, that includes a typeface and colours that enhance the image, is one of the most important steps in developing a public presence for an anthroposophical initiative.
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In 2016 the Council of the Anthroposophical Society in Canada began an extensive review of the Society’s structure and purpose. Over several years a broad consultation with members across the country took place. One aspect of this consultative process was the development of a new ‘Statement of Purpose’ for the Society, that represents the essence of Anthroposophical endeavor in Canada sixty years after it was initially established in 1953. Out of the contributions of members from across the country our current Statement evolved.
Purpose of the Anthroposophical Society in Canada adopted in 2016
To foster the life of the soul and a true spiritual understanding of the world, both in the individual and in human culture. Based on the path of knowledge brought by Rudolf Steiner; our intention is to make a contribution to the artistic, scientific, and cultural life of today, and for the future.
The primary themes arising out of this lengthy consultative process are the longing to develop relationships, to meet each other, to work together. The foundational intentions of the 2016 Ottawa conference were to experience this ‘Encountering Our Humanity’; meeting each other, working together.
As this vision for the future developed, an impulse arose to seek for a new artistic motif, a new visual signature, that represents our Society as it has evolved and how we see it going into a new century. This quest for an artistic expression became part of the preparation for the 100- year celebrations of the founding of the General Anthroposophical Society at the Christmas Conference of 1923/24.
This initiative led the Council to invite artists working out of an anthroposophical impulse to collaborate on this new project. The Visual Arts Section of the School of Spiritual Science guided this process and three members of the Section stepped forward to take on this task – Jean Balekian, Regine Kurek, and Bert Chase.
The task given them was to capture this evolving gesture of our anthroposophical life in Canada, and to give visual expression to the qualities of the newly adopted Statement of Purpose, both for our time and for the future we seek.
One of the most significant influences of how we see ourselves as members of the Anthroposophical Society in Canada is the aftermath of the 1980 referendum on Sovereignty Association for Québec, and the politicization arising from it. Soon after the referendum the Council of the Society in Canada made a pivotal decision; that our Society must stand as an example in Canada, that we structure ourselves in such a way that we fully integrate and support Francophone members and culture. This decision acted as the primary impetus for what developed, an association based on movement and inclusion. Our leadership was to come from across the country. The Council and our Annual Meetings were to ‘migrate’ across our land – voyageur, caribou, geese. These were conscious steps to bring about ways of working that weave and connect us to each other across vastness.
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As Jean, Regine and Bert began their explorations, this embracing, inclusive gesture was the foundation for all their work. This pulse beat, running between east and west, linking diverse communities and languages, so clearly represents something essential about us and the Society we seek. From this starting point, and working with the newly adopted Purpose, they entered a lengthy ‘artistic conversation’ developing proposals for how to bring these impulses into an artistic representation. Working individually, and then coming together to consider what had been developed, became the pattern of artistic reciprocity out of which the design gradually took on form.
Early in this process a new element began to emerge. Beyond the clear east-west relationship was a more hidden impulse coming from the north. The first beginnings of this consciousness, and the place of the vastness of the north in our Canadian perspective, came with the 2009 Encircling Light Conference in Whitehorse, Yukon. This more delicate influence in our work has different aspects to it. The most obvious is an awakening sense of closeness to Indigenous communities and values. A link that we continue to seek for ways to develop.
This relationship to the North, and to its People, gradually awakened a sense for the relationship between substance and light, and how the sun has a distinct relationship with the earth in the North. We were reminded of the separation of Sun and Earth, an integral aspect of the reality of our North. These realizations brought an impulse to grapple with, and visually represent, the complex interrelationship of light and darkness. As we worked, questions gradually evolved. How does the light shine through matter? How does substance receive radiance into itself? These questions seemed critical indications for how we seek to realize anthroposophy across our land, a common gesture that transcends cultures of language and of geography.
All of these considerations became formative principles in the design finalized by Jean.
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The signature form has two aspects, its artistic motif and its accompanying lettering that together form our new logo.
In its development the artistic forms were gradually rotated to the point where a grail gesture spontaneously appeared, one that seems to reach both East and West – horizontally. This receptive open embrace rests in substance, in matter. Rising from it, and descending into it, are two other forms. Each becomes lighter, more buoyant. Lifting substance into the light, receiving the divine into itself.
This rising and descending is amplified by the colours selected. The chalice is indigo; the colour of the consciousness – spiritual soul. A ‘new’ colour, appropriate for the soul faculties we are in the process of unfolding. The colour of the earth within which an inner radiance shines.
Its complement, the upper form, is rose that inclines toward violet. This indicates a relationship to the threshold between the world of substance and of spirit where ‘peach blossom’ appears.
Between these two the third element in the design is a dynamic balance of blue–violet and rose–violet; selflessly enabling what is below to rise up, what is above to descend. In the simplest of ways these three forms, clothed in their coloured mantles, moving up from the substance and descending into it, capture something essential of our anthroposophical striving.
This sign is then completed, made whole, with the powerful scarlet sash running east, streaming west. Our pulse beat, held, given its distinct form by the realities of language and culture that we truly are.
The essence of who we are, and who we strive to become – Canada.
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From Above
after F. R. Scott
That is when you see it
how water pervades this land
From a single propeller Beaver low
over Johnstone Strait, over the
sounds and inlets reaching into
sheer coastal rock before touching
down so, so deftly
on the Kingcome River
Coming out of Inuvik, the Mackenzie Delta
below a maze of ponds, channels
a labyrinth of passage and dead ends
looking for that Ariadne thread
as westward the east slope of the
Richardson Mountains marks where
the last ice age came to a stop
Flying west from Fort Simpson to the
South Nahanni River and its falls,
above the myriad lakes below
and eastward from Yellowknife
into Nunavut, then west again over
lake upon lake, the blue of each
alight at the ending of the day
Rising out of Cape Dorset and looking
north into Baffin Island, lakes spreading
across the wet earth, into the wet earth
northward, southward
three million of them
configuring this land
On the night flights high above
an inkling of the Voyageur canoes
that once travelled far below,
the long stretches of opening water
and the portages well known,
sensing down into the darkness
how water holds this land together
how water prepares the way
into this land and away from it
An early spring flight westward over
the Davis Strait. Below a mesh of ice
breaks south toward Newfoundland
as its bergs begin to emerge
and a flight eastward through
a long summer night, from the north
side of the plane
At the horizon
the mouth of a great river empties
into what lies beyond the horizon
Above its flow the sun that does
not set floods open
spills down
into the long summer night
an effulgence of water
an intimation of fire
Philip Thatcher, August 2021
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Letter from Hélène Besnard
Dear friends
At the closing of the 2021 AGM of the Anthroposophical Society in Canada, the organizers and members of the National Council invited us to make comments and suggestions. Zoom is still foreign to me and I prefer to respond with this letter.
First of all, thank you for the organization, the work, the involvement in spite of all the uncertainties regarding the holding of this AGM. I did not attend all the presentations, I cannot stay at the computer for long, but I appreciated what I received.
So while I recognise the positive aspect of the technology that made this gathering possible even from a distance, I remain convinced of the importance of balancing (a term we heard a lot during the week-end,) with face-to-face meetings. Yes, this year was better than the previous year since there was a group in attendance. We could go even further in this direction by proposing, as it was mentioned in the Laurentians without taking shape this time, that those who cannot attend the AGM, meet among themselves in presence in the respective branches, at the same time as the AGM taking place in a defined place.
With:
1. Moments together in our respective branches, listening to what is proposed by the organizers or the content of a conference or other activity by zoom;
2. Exchanges in our branch intimacy, directly, without apparatus, from common themes in purely spiritual relation with the different groups throughout Canada. As well as simultaneous artistic activities without technical interference.
3. Exchanges of what came out of the simultaneous conversations or artistic experiences, but then between people of different branches, so also by zoom.
4. Presentations from different branches prepared during the year.
Or something similar that combines the opportunity highlighted by some people to meet anthroposophists by zooming in, whom we would not otherwise have had the chance to discover, with the opportunity to rediscover those who we come into contact with more frequently but who, in serious anthroposophical work, still and always give us new aspects.
Of course, this does not exclude members who are unable to attend the AGM or a branch group, and therefore participate alone or in pairs via their screens.
Another suggestion and wish:
The themes of gold, the Templars and the therapeutic aspect to community life lead me, as I mentioned at the AGM to THE FOUNDATION STONE brought by Rudolf Steiner at the Christmas Conference of 1923-24 and whose 100 year anniversary is fast approaching.
This Foundation Stone with its triple constitution:
- The stone itself fashioned by Rudolf Steiner from the substance of cosmic Love, to which was given the cosmic imaginative form of the dodecahedron (in relation to the golden number, the golden relationship) and illuminated by the response of the spiritual world.
- The meditation of the Foundation Stone, which in a masterly work brings the whole of anthroposophy to life. Becomes an envelope to The Being Anthroposophia. Micah Eldelstein spoke about many aspects of Anthroposophia. I thank him warmly. Rudolf Steiner also called her a being, of which the Anthroposophical society can become the manifested earthly body.
- The daily rhythms that keep this stone in our hearts alive in relation to the therapeutic forces that want to help the human being and the communities devoted to the spiritual, such as the Knights Templar once were.
I therefore propose to the future organizers of the next AGM, at least until 2023-24, to include a deepened approach around this Christmas Conference, 1923-24, of the stone of Love present in the hearts that welcome it, of the meditation and the daily rhythms that accompany it.
With work in the branches in preparation. Starting from the pose of the stone and the words of Rudolf Steiner, but also inspired by the research of several authors on the subject and groups that are already working on it. (References can be given).
May this Stone LIVE among us, which transmutes physical gold (materialism in and around us) into spiritual gold of wisdom and Love; which inspires the new Templars; which can participate in the healing of this historical moment particularly testing us as to our real link with the spiritual world.
Rudolf Steiner said, "The times are grave" and I will end, echoing Judy King's words that touched me, with a phrase from the great initiate who has left us so much to help us cross this threshold:
"It is only if a spirituality such as the anthroposophical movement brings together with other spiritual movements, that Michael will find the impulses through which He can unite with the earthly intelligence which in reality belongs to him.
... Ahriman seeks to prevent this and fights it to the hilt... These are grave times.
Knowing that we are engaged in this decisive struggle between Ahriman and Michael should kindle enthusiasm in our hearts."
(Translated from French, will be good to find the German version)
R. Steiner, Karma III, 7th lecture, July 28, 1924.
All the best to everyone, Hélène Besnard
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The Foundation Stone Meditation and the Challenges of Our Time
We are so pleased to announce that the book The Foundation Stone Meditation and the Challenges of Our Time is now available for sale!
This wonderful and important volume was made possible by donations from members of the Anthroposophical Society in Canada.
Edited by Arie van Ameringen, former General Secretary of our Society, and Christianne Haid, who leads the Literary Arts and Humanities Section at Dornach, it contains fourteen unique essays that approach the Foundation Stone Meditation from the most diverse perspectives.
This great meditation stands at the very centre of anthroposophical life. The more each of us can bring to it, the more it can enlighten us, warm us, and guide us in our lives and in our shared work on behalf of Anthroposophia. But it can also be an imposing practice to take on. This volume helps us get to know the meditation in its manifold richness. Reading these essays, fuels one's appreciation for Dr. Steiner's greatest gift to his students. Study of this volume can support each of us in finding a deeper relationship to the Foundation Stone's enlivening power.
The book will retail for $35.00. If you order it from the publisher, there will be a $15.00 shipping cost.
A French version will follow later in the year.
Click below to read a review of the book published in Being Human, and to see the Table of Contents.
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Calling All Writers!
Articles Needed for Perspectives 2021/2022
Mark McGivern, editor
The editorial team of Perspectives (our Canadian Society publication) is planning for our next few issues. We have decided to have two issues a year, one in the winter and one in the summer. We would like to prioritize youth in the winter editions, which we will publish just through the website. The summer editions will be in usual paper edition delivered to all members at their home and open to submissions from all members.
Our upcoming themes come from planning that is taking place for the 100th anniversary of the re-founding of the Anthroposophical Society after the burning of the first Goetheanum in December,1922. As we recall, the original Goetheanum was destroyed in an all-consuming fire that left witnesses desolate. After the initial shock, it was Rudolf Steiner who comforted and encouraged everyone in the movement to look towards the future: “If we are able to change the pain and grief into the impulse to action, then we shall change the sorrowful into a blessing.”(GA 233, lecture 8)
The winter youth edition theme (winter 2021) is:
THE FUTURE
To be considered for selection for this digital issue, writers need to be under 35 years old and articles need to be received by the end of November 2021.
The summer 2022 hard-copy edition theme is:
FROM GRIEF TO ACTION. Articles for this issue need to be received by the end of December 2021.
For both issues, articles need to be under 1500 words. Poems will also be considered. 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.
If you do not feel very confident in your writing ability don’t let that stop you! Our editor Mark McGivern will give you editorial feedback to help the process.
We hope members will be inspired to contribute to these issues. Articles on the theme of rising up after tragedy and going forward into the future are welcome. Those articles we can’t use, we will publish in the new website.
For advertising queries, contact Claudette Leblanc at
Sincerely,
Mark McGivern and Susan Koppersmith
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Anthroposophy CanadaWide
Arlene Thorn
Our Society will continue the Anthroposophy CanadaWide zoom calls, starting this month on Sunday, September 26 at 4 pm Eastern. Our first presenter will be Arlene Thorn who is active with the New Adult Learning Movement, a network of people seeking change through learning processes based on sevenfoldness. This movement comes out of the Dutch anthroposophical stream and the work of Coen van Houten, Bernard Lievegoed, and F.W. Zeylmans van Emmichoven. Over the past 20 years, Arlene has developed the Connections program for personal and professional development. This program offers courses in-person and online.
Arlene’s talk on September 26th will be: Experiencing the Destiny of the Age through Karma Consciousness
More zoom calls are being organized but, at the point of this writing, plans are not yet finalized. Our hope was that these calls could take place on the third Sunday of each month but this is not always possible as we have to fit into the schedule of the presenter.
We will continue to send out information through Constant Contact about a week before each call. It will contain information about the presenter and the zoom link. Please share the email and link with anyone you think might be interested.
Our hope with these Anthroposophy CanadaWide zoom calls is to connect members and friends in our movement with each other. At the start of the pandemic last year, many of us were sceptical about the true human value of connecting through video conferencing. We are happy to say we have received much positive feedback over the past 9 months for these Society zoom calls which took place most months. Members have been able to connect in unexpected ways, with the hope of meeting again in-person in the future.
We hope you will join us!
Susan Koppersmith, on behalf of the Council and the Membership Development Mandate Group
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Anthroposophy, Politics, Science: A Warning
To contribute to the discussion among anthroposophical circles concerning the pandemic, I offer this short and pithy article by Richard Fried, M.D., who has been the Medical Director at Camphill in Kimberton, Pa., and is Past President of the Physicians’ Association for Anthroposophic Medicine. As he writes, the divide over disparate persuasions around the virus “is affecting our anthroposophical community…and poses a very real threat to our movement, just at a time when our country and its citizens need more than ever the kind of spiritual guidance and clear, objective thinking which are hallmarks of Steiner’s philosophy.” I hope that people will read this article to the end and put it in the mix.Below is the link, first published in “being human—winter/spring 2021” by the Anthroposophical Society in America.
Carol Lewis, London, Ontario
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Dear Friends of Auriel Eurythmy,
We hope you are having a warm and relaxing Summer.
We have had an eventful year filled with many highlights and much hard work. We began our year in a new purpose built eurythmy room in Coyoacan, a beautiful old colonial neighbourhood of Mexico City, built by one of our students. We completed the year with a combined Summer module with all three groups of eurythmy students. Our first, second and fourth year joined together for this module. We began each day with singing, led by Karen Gallagher, and then worked with guest teacher Darsi Ribeiro from Peru, who led the students through sequences of therapeutic eurythmy exercises. Visiting us from Germany for this module was Astrid Infantas, one of our mentors from the Stuttgart Eurythmeum, who taught basic elements in tone and speech eurythmy. At the end of each day the students worked with Jennifer Brooks Quinn, recently moved to Mexico City from the US, on biography.
It was a joyful ending to a productive year.
At the end of August our new academic cycle begins again, with a new first year group, a second year, a third year and a fifth year group, scheduled to graduate June 19, 2022. The fifth year group will take their graduation performance on tour in Mexico, to Stuttgart and finally to Dornach, where they will join the other graduating eurythmists on the Goetheanum stage for their final performance.
In spite of our healthy student numbers, we have 28 students registered for the new school year, we are nonetheless needing to supplement our income by raising money for our bursary fund. We have initiated a gofundme page to help raise the money needed for the upcoming year. The link to our fundraising page is copied below:
We are hoping that you will help us not only by offering a donation, but also by passing on this link to others who you think will want to support our eurythmy training. Eurythmy trainings worldwide are dependent on the good will of their communities for their survival. We are no exception.
Auriel Eurythmy offers eurythmy training to people from all walks of life. Some students live in areas/countries of low income, working in not for profit Waldorf School initiatives. The scholarship fund is to support people to participate in the training to bring eurythmy to their communities.
How to Help? You can help us by offering a donation. Any amount is helpful. 100% of these funds will go to the eurythmy scholarship fund.
We accept low income students into the training. All of these people are committed to bringing eurythmy to their communities, and your gift will support them to do this.
You can also help us by:
- passing on this email
- sending us good thoughts!
Warm greetings,
Nina Wallace-Ockenden
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The Many Faces of Gold by Duncan Keppie
A number of members have requested a copy of the present at the AGM by Duncan Keppie. This powerpoint presentation is now available under the Research menu on the ASC website.
Or you can click the link below to view.
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GOETHEANUM COURSES 2021/2022 |
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GOETHEANUM LEADERSHIP COURSE
Entrepreneurial Leadership in a Complex and Challenging World.
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28 Days of Insights, Art and Encounter
Online-Studies
Creativity, autonomy, dialogical work and mutual concern are fundamental factors for the Special Online Course, 'Goetheanum Anthroposophy Studies'. Having learned from the COVID-19 crisis and also wishing to reach out to you under these special circumstances, we designed this new online course aimed at a global audience. The interactive study work takes place in separate groups in German, English, French, Portuguese/Spanish.
The joint courses are in English.
NEXT SEMINAR
15 Nov - 12 Dec, 2021
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Branch 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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Confluence of Three Rivers (Ottawa)
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Duncan
Contact:
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Edmonton
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Huronia Branch (Barrie)
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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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Val David (Français)
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Victoria
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Membership Update
New Members
Steve Vetricek (Missassauga, ON)
Jean Forest (Bécanour, QC)
WELCOME
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Resigned
Charles Kyd (Barrie, ON)
Melina Marin (Burlington, ON)
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Died
Eileen Goodey-Dyer (Calgary, AB)
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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 ipages without formatting except for paragraphs before the 15th of the month prior to 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:
You will need the password: ASC
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
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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Foundation Studies in Anthroposophy begin again this month at the SSWS in Blockhouse, NS
with Maggie and Duncan Keppie
sponsored by the East Coast Institute for Studies in Anthroposophy (ECISA), a program of the NS Group of the Anthroposophical Society in Canada
2021 Fall Focus – An Outline of Esoteric Science, by Rudolf Steiner
* Three Saturdays * September 25 – October 23 – November 20
In person gatherings in the ground-floor classroom.
10 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. (includes morning tea/coffee and hot soup lunch)
Cost $200 payable by cash, check, or email transfer.
Contact Maggie to register and arrange payment.
phone 902-542-5320 email <mkeppie@hotmail.com>
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NALM NEWS
Path 1 - The Sevenfold Path - Fall - Oct. 1-3, Nov. 5-7, Dec. 2-5
Path 2 - Destiny Learning - Winter. Path 3 - Spring - Creative Spiritual Research
Observing My Child - Module 1 - Online - Seven Thursday Evenings - Oct 7- Nov. 18, 7-9 pm
Observing My Child - Module 1 - Cowichan - Dates TBA
Observing My Child - Module 1 - Ontario Waldorf Homeschoolers - Dates TBA
My Child's Angel - Module 3 - London Waldorf School - Wed. evening Oct. 13 - Nov. 24
Seven Tuesday Evenings - October 5th - Nov.16,7-9 pm
Module 1 – Home for Body, Soul and Spirit - Wednesday evenings, 7:00 – 9:00 – Oct. 6 – Nov. 17, 2021
Module 4 – My Family Biography
Saturday afternoons, 3:00 – 5:00 – Oct 16 – Nov 27, 2021
Intensive - September 20-26, 2021
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11th conference «The Soul of Europe – Experiencing Thresholds»
July 14 to 17, 2022 in Yekaterinburg, Russia
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SAVE the DATE
July 19-22, 2022
Anthroposophic Health Association Biennial Conference 2022
The Mysteries of Healing: Realizing AnthropoSophia
“Love is the result of Wisdom that has been reborn in the I”
Keynote speakers: Ursula Flatters, MD, Marion Debus, MD, and James Dyson, M.D.
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Anthroposphy Worldwide - 2021
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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