FROM THE GOETHEANUM
Dear members,
In many countries, the enforced torpor will gradually be lifted from our lives. Is there a way back to the old normality? Has there not been a radical change in our lives and in society? Should we avoid this change, or seek to know it so we can help shape it consciously? And what are our ideas, hopes and principles for society, for life after the lockdown?
Creative time
At the Goetheanum we talk about these questions in dialogues that you can watch on goetheanum.tv. "Is culture really not essential?" was the title of one such dialogue to which we invited the artistic director of the Basel symphony orchestra, the director of the Basel Theatre and Remo Ankli, member of the governing council and head of the department of culture and education in the Canton of Solothurn. The auditoriums continue to be empty, including at the Goetheanum where the dialogues take place.
Who decides whether ‘essential’ cultural events can take place here again? Not the politicians, not money, not sublime ideals from the past, but the audience. For performing without an audience is not culture.
Art emerges in these fragile, condensed, opening moments between stage and auditorium. These cathartic moments in the unfiltered presence of events are essential. The temporal arts are enacted in an enhanced present, in a breakthrough from ordinary to creative time. This happens in the auditorium, in the real place where we meet.
Let us try to turn our venues of anthroposophical life into places where moments of enhanced presence can unfold, where the elusive touch of an angel’s wing breathes spirit into the auditorium – not to provide bourgeois entertainment but to inspire and encourage us to take an active part in shaping our societies.
Ueli Hurter, Goetheanum
|
|
Anthroposophia and the Early Beginnings
of the Anthroposophical Society
by Susan Koppersmith
As we wind our way towards 2023 and the 100 years of the Christmas Conference of 1923/24 and the re-founding of the Anthroposophical Society, we can take time to reflect upon the greatness of the individuality of Rudolf Steiner and the breadth and depth of his offerings including biodynamic agriculture, new directions in the arts, Waldorf education, the Threefold Social Organism, the Christian Community, the Camphill movement, etc. as well as the publication of 6,000 lectures on diverse topics. We can be grateful that many of his impulses are being put into practice today.
The Council and the Branch and Membership Development Mandate Group are actively looking for ways that we can celebrate the 100 years of the re-founding of the Society.
It might be valuable at this point to briefly look at the beginnings of the Society.
The first founding of Anthroposophical Society took place on December 28, 1912 in Cologne, Germany with about 3,000 members. This founding had its roots in the Theosophical Society as far back as 1902 when Rudolf Steiner became General Secretary of the German Branch of the Theosophical Society. Gradually he realized that his path lay more toward science, Western philosophy and the Christian esoteric tradition instead of in Theosophy, which rested more in a practice still active in India.
In the events leading up to the 1912 founding of the Anthroposophical Society, Steiner shared the content of anthroposophy through lecture cycles, books, and articles. He was the teacher and advisor to this new Society but did not take over the leadership of it.
In the years 1912/13 Rudolf Steiner began to make direct references to Anthroposophia, an invisible spiritual being who speaks and walks amongst us and who can be consulted for advice. He said that we, within the Anthroposophical movement, can listen to its empowering call and show greater courage, energy, patience and tolerance and above all greater truthfulness. We can also choose to devote ourselves to forming a community of human beings who are united in the spirit of Anthroposophia[1]
Because of difficulties that arose within the Society, Steiner called together members to a Christmas Conference in1923/24. He asked for (and was granted) permission to take on the presidency and leadership of the Society.
Rudolf Steiner respected the freedom of all individuals. The re-founding of the Society was intended to be open and to stand before the world like any other society. Statute 4 states that anyone can become a member, without regard to nationality, social standing, religion, scientific or artistic conviction, and who considers as justified, that the headquarters of the Society would be based at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland. In Statute 5 an inner circle was indicated for those members who could take on more responsibility by working within the context of a new esoteric school.
Steiner stood against dogma of any kind. In a letter to members on July 6, 1924, he reiterated:
It ought never to be said amongst Anthroposophists, “we believe this”, “we reject that”. There should not be a distinction in Anthroposophical circles between what is ‘orthodox’ and what is ‘heretical’[2].
In freedom, members can work in their own way with the content of Anthroposophy. They can take on increasing responsibility and become more accountable to the being of Anthroposophia. At the Christmas Conference, he introduced the Foundation Stone Meditation. If we lay this meditation into our hearts and work with it, we can at any moment connect with Anthroposophia.
Steiner’s intention was that members working together in the Anthroposophical Society could provide a spiritual sheath for earthly work. It was a chance for karmic streams within the movement to learn to work harmoniously together to serve Anthroposophia so that its impulse can work increasingly stronger towards concrete deeds that flow into the world.
We hope that members across Canada will join us as we look for ways to celebrate 100 years of the Christmas Conference. Please be in touch with the Council member in your area if you have any ideas.
Note:
See Rudolf Steiner’s The Christmas Conference: for the Foundation of the General Anthroposophical Society 1923/24 for his in-depth description of the structure and organization of the new Society.
Also, Sergei O. Prokofieff (1954 - 2014) has written extensively about the tasks of the Anthroposophical Society. See his books:
- Why Become a Member of the Anthroposophical Society?
- Why Become a Member of the School of Spiritual Science?
- The Esoteric Nature of the Anthroposophical Society.
[1] lecture of June 16, 1923, Dornach
[2] Steiner, The Life, Nature and Cultivation of Anthroposophy (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1976), 52
|
|
A brief perspective on ‘Perspectives’ front cover by Regine Kurek
By now you will all have received the annual publication of the ASC, issue three, 2021.
I would like to share a few remarks on the visuals in blue-green-white on the front cover, the background of the legacy page and some further partials throughout the first half of the magazine.
How do these speak to you?
What could blue-green-white have to do with this year’s theme of the Perspectives magazine: BALANCE?
During the first lock-down last year when ere silence had descended upon us and we could sense the magnitude of this turning-point in time wherever we each stood and now stand in terms of its interpretation, I responded to requests by carrying out our usual spring course on line. I was yet unfamiliar and also unsympathetic to Zoom and decided instead to write a letter of instructions every week to twenty-four participants. We all had agreed on lighting a candle, reading the letter silently and proceeding to carry on with our work, art work and reflective questions, as we have done in physical class for so long. At the end of this five week day-long course, everyone’s four paintings were displayed and in the summer of 2020 we even managed to meet in person, to ‘see’ and share our experiences.
In my own painting process this colour theme did not end here as I kept working with the three colours that I had chosen for the course. This inspiration had arisen from a lecture cycle by Rudolf Steiner in which he recommended contemplation on these colours to experience ‘Spiritual Beings in the Heavenly and Earthy Worlds’.
This exploration became a remarkable journey for me and culminated in six large and twelve smaller paintings in egg tempera, into seeking an experience of ‘Balance’ through blue-green-white.
The twelve paintings developed into echoes of the twelve Virtues and you are seeing on the front page of Perspectives the Scorpio painting relating to the Virtue of Patience.
Patience becomes Insight: seeking the balance between rigidity and impatience.
The background of the legacy page reflects Pisces and the Virtue of Magnanimity.
Magnanimity becomes Love, seeking balance between emotionality and hard-heartedness.
Various other paintings, of which only partials are there, can be seen throughout the magazine.
When Jean Balekien invited me to submit a visual for this year’s front cover, this invitation came during our third lock down a year later and these paintings came immediately to mind. To see them now of course is quite different just like this lock down feels very different from last year’s. I won’t go into this in more details but I feel what has grown in this past year is about to blossom and even grow fruit.
“…but in the deepening silence there grows and ripens…”3
I would like to end with two further thoughts on the topics of ‘Virtue’ and ‘Blue-Green-White.’ The first one comes from Robert Sardello’s book ‘The Power of Soul’- Working with the Virtues in our Life’ from 2002 and published after 9/11. The second one comes from Rudolf Steiner’s invitation to contemplate these three colours, in the lecture cycle ‘Spiritual Beings in the Heavenly and Earthly Worlds.’1
First to Robert Sardello: “There is no progression in approaching Virtue but different sectors of awareness are at the heart of the work, not a sequence in which they occur.”
“Spiritual awareness of the virtues consists of understanding virtue in its general significance for human beings and the particular nature and quality of them. Also in seeing a direction for the development of each virtue in one’s life.”
“Psychological awareness of the virtues consists in recognising that the turbulence in life is an invitation to develop virtue.”
“Spiritual-psychological awareness of the virtues consists of what occurs when the spiritual and the psychological dimensions surrounding virtue are brought into conscious conjunction. This is more than a combination of the two. A new freedom develops in which we consciously and receptively greet the upsets of life and work with them in light of virtue, which is precisely the manner in which soul life comes into harmony with the life of spirit. In this mode of working we seek to lift life difficulties up in an act of offering it to the spirit, and then wait receptively for a response.”2 (p.214)
Second to Rudolf Steiner in my words: A meditation that starts with an observation of the blue sky places us into a feeling of awe and religious piety in front of the infinite universe and the highest forces that live in this ether blue, connecting us to an ever lasting spiritual reality we can trust in.
The presence of green in form of freshly growing grass or leafs on trees reveal to us an understanding of how ‘thoughts grow’ in our head, how a concept is born and comes to consciousness! Thoughts grow in us as green sprouts from the earth in spring!
White teaches us how material substance comes into being. We learn how substance condenses and disperses again, how material substance ‘fills’ the world and passes again out of sight.
With these meditations I experience inner peace, stillness and a connectedness to all being, the hierarchies as well as all beings serving the earth. The stillness from blue-green-white is pregnant of being, is trust in the ever lasting guidance of the spiritual world always. Even now we can know that good spiritual beings also support our current life situation, and support our efforts in seeking a new balance. Of course it goes without saying, BALANCE is never static.
Note to the above: The Virtues in their relationship to the Zodiac are confirmed by Rudolf Steiner. Some of the names of each Virtue are Rudolf Steiner’s, some are Robert Sardello’s who chooses different one’s also in describing the two extremes to both sides of the balance.
1) Spiritual Beings in the Heavenly and Earthly Worlds, lecture 1, Helsinki April 3, 1912
2) The Power of Soul, Robert Sardello, Hampton Roads Publishing, 2002
3) Truth-Wrought-Words, Verse by Rudolf Steiner given at Christmas 1922
|
|
REVIEW OF TIM NADELLE’S ARTICLE ON THE COVID-19 CRISIS
By Eric Philips-Oxford.
Tim Nadelle has produced a full-length article (17,000 words) entitled “A Critical Assessment of the Covid-19 Crisis” in which he strives to “consider the truth of the dominant medical/scientific/bureaucratic doctrine regarding COVID-19.” (The link to this article is provided at the end of this review). In my opinion, this is a serious and well-thought-out study, including an impressive number of references to articles, lectures, interviews and videos, for which Tim provides the links. What is both troubling and convincing here, is that many of the statements questioning the generally accepted measures which have been put in place are made by colleagues of those who have sanctioned the measures. He identifies, with what in my opinion is remarkable clarity, what he sees to be the 7 assertions of the prevailing official narrative, and then goes about examining in depth the “truthfulness or untruthfulness” of each of them:
“1) People are dying around the world from a new, infectious disease, called COVID-19, dying in sufficient numbers that the pandemic poses an unusual and serious threat to the health and survival of a significant percentage of the population.
2) Scientists have isolated a virus, the 2019 novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), which is present in people who have contracted the disease.
3) Scientists have proven that SARS-CoV-2 causes the disease.
4) Accurate and reliable tests have been developed for detecting the presence of the 2019 novel coronavirus in the human being, the Polymerase Chain Reaction or PCR test.
5) A variety of safe and effective vaccines have been developed which reduce the probability that inoculated people will contract or spread the disease.
6) Measures have been politically imposed for the good of the populations of the earth, measures which have been scientifically/medically proven to be effective in halting the spread of the disease. These include the wearing of masks, social distancing and lockdowns.
7) The social good achieved through these measures to contain the disease outweigh the harm done by the measures.”
As he proceeds to examine in detail these generally accepted statements, Tim Nadelle offers extensive quotes from Rudolf Steiner’s Fifth Gospel and especially The Karma of Untruthfulness. And this is where Tim’s deep connection to the anthroposophical impulse comes through most clearly. We only have to bring to mind his remarkable initiatives, including the Philosophy of Freedom, Prison Outreach and Mystery Play initiatives, to realise how he has dedicated his energy to bringing into earthly reality the spiritual aspect of the anthroposophical movement. And here, once again, he challenges us as anthroposophists to question our own sense of truth – to ask ourselves whether we actually live with an awareness of “truthfulness.” As I was reading through this piece, I found myself initially resisting (after all, we’ve been living with these protocols for more than a year now – how could they not be true?) and then opening up, and then, painfully, coming to the realisation that perhaps “truthfulness” was not my fundamental concern as I go about my daily life.
I am not totally convinced about all aspects of what is being brought forward here, but Tim has struck a chord, something within me has shifted. The rest is up to me.
Tim's article is available in the Research menu on our web site or click below for direct links.
|
|
Associative Economics Newsletter
As I review these pages, I am struck by the fact that readers will find news and reports on an international scale – upcoming and past events, such as the seminars in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, the December 2021 annual world meeting in Mendoza, Argentina, a threefold social order seminar at L’Aubier in Switzerland and a Youth Bond experience in Curitiba, Brazil.
Also, in typical eloquent fashion, Marc Desaules draws a link between the ecological movement as an indication that the human heart now has the capacity to enlarge beyond self-interest alone to include caring for the whole world and the urgent need for our thinking / behavior in economics to do the same. Lúcia Sígolo’s piece on True Price, just translated from Portuguese, considers just how to begin to do that, treating content both from Rudolf Steiner’s Economics Course and her own entrepreneurial experience.
Changing economic thinking will bring one face to face with the English mind as it pertains to and in certain respects is the author of neoliberal thought. But Christopher Houghton Budd, in his piece The Subtlety of English, poses the question: is it as closed and materialistic as it seems to be upon surface consideration? What if one delves deeper?
To solve the social and economic injustices of the world, many are increasingly looking to cryptocurrency technology for solutions. But are they to be found there? Sebastian Bilbao reports on projects that aim to use cryptocurrencies to bring about associative economics, while Mexican economist Marcelo Delajara gives his impressions on their viability.
Finally, as Economics Conference convenor, Christopher provides an ongoing update on various items as they move rapidly across his desk – updates which link a group of worldwide researchers dedicated to making Rudolf Steiner’s economic thought visible and practiced in a world sorely in need of a reboot. Indeed, for a ‘world refresh button’, simply go to https://economics.goetheanum.org/home!
As one colleague said recently in the context of world circumstances, “I try to do something good every day.” It is my heartfelt hope that this newsletter will contribute to the strength, clarity of thought and support needed for such deeds, deeds that will nourish the world in untold ways.
Sincerely, Kim (Chotzen)
|
|
A Destiny Task
Rima Meadow feels a destiny task hovering over her in Dornach.
Rima is a Waldorf graduate and eurythmist, who has lived in Dornach for over 7 years studying Speech Formation. She is aware of the history of anthroposophical endeavours, largely unknown outside of middle Europe, which are dying with the elderly anthroposophists who initiated their original work following Steiner’s recommendations.
Most are in their eighties or nineties and, leaving this life, are taking their knowledge and experience with them. They have no one to whom they can hand over their life work to enable it to develop further, nor is any information available in English. It is very possible there are young people now who would be interested in taking this up if they only knew about it.
Some examples:
Anthroposophical Jewelry School - now closed (pictures 1 & 2)
The Sculpture School, including furniture making and the carving of wooden frames (pictures 3 & 4) Research and development of peat for protection from harmful rays (pictures 5 & 6)
The Head Chef at the Sonnenhof and his work on nutrition and the Eudoxos Mill
Lighting design and technology, including Steiner’s lighting instrument recommendations.
Rima has started interviewing and recording the stories and the knowledge of these individuals so they can be passed on. Some impulses have fallen into obscurity and can be brought back into the light e.g. anthroposophical clocks, development of new grains from wild grasses and other initiatives. Then there are the individuals who knew early anthroposophists and worked with them in the Clinics and on the Goetheanum stage, and those whose grandparents were friends of Steiner.
Rima is requesting financial help to be able to continue with this work and bring it to completion for that generation. This requires contacting individuals, conducting interviews, transcribing the translations and publishing, hopefully in a book. This is very time consuming.
Her request reflects the Threefold Social Order principle, which would provide US $20,000 for the year so she wouldn’t need to draw on her savings.
Any help toward this goal is not only appreciated but would also serve the English-speaking Anthroposophical Society membership and hopefully encourage some of this work to be resumed for the future benefit of all.
International donations can be made through Patreon: www.patreon.com/Anthroposophicalimpulses. Patreon is an interesting online donation site primarily for artists, while also offering something from the recipient. Rima has some short talks on the Patreon site which you can access by making a small donation and follow that with something larger if you wish to do so. Rima has an Instagram account, @anthroposophicalimpulses, where her work and the artistic and cultural streams of anthroposophy can be seen.
If you live in the US or Europe, other payment options can be made directly with Rima at rimameadow@yahoo.com. Thank you for considering this.
|
|
GOETHEANUM COURSES 2021/2022 |
|
GOETHEANUM LEADERSHIP COURSE
Entrepreneurial Leadership in a Complex and Challenging World.
|
|
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
|
|
Branch Information and Upcoming Events |
|
Branches & Groups
Calgary Branch
Contact: Christine at
*******
Cantons de l'Est
*******
Confluence of Three Rivers (Ottawa)
*******
Duncan
Contact:
*******
Edmonton
*******
Huronia Branch (Barrie)
*******
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 Members
François Mercier, Terrebonne, QC
WELCOME
******
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 2,500 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,
|
|
NALM NEWS
We are pleased to present the New Adult Learning 2021 programs. Although Zoom is a trial, it’s also a blessing and programs that have been inaccessible for many, are now possible. Looking forward to you joining us in one of the upcoming programs. Scholarships are available upon request to: newadultlearning@gmail.com
Times in our programs are EST or EDT.
– Arlene Thorn
Spring Summer Fall 2021 Course Preview
Summer 2021
Fall 2021
|
Dear Friends,
We’re excited to offer you a new way to enjoy and share highlights of work at the institute: listen to our just-launched podcast,
Produced and hosted by John Gouldthorpe,
a long-time colleague and teacher in our Foundation Year course, the new podcast is intended for a general audience. Our first episode, “Thinking Like A Plant,""features John in conversation with Craig Holdrege, the institute’s director, about a mode of understanding inspired by the life of plants: dynamic and resilient, in intimate connection with their environment.
Future episodes of In Dialogue With Nature will feature conversations with our staff and special guests, talks at the institute, and readings of texts from our archives. Our intention is to lead listeners on an exploration of engagement with the natural world and ways of knowing that are whole, enlivening, and experiential.
You can stream the podcast at our website, on SoundCloud, or find it wherever you access podcasts.
With pleasure,
Elaine Khosrova
Outreach & Relations
PS: Save-the-Date — On June 29 at 11:00 am (EDT), The Nature Institute’s senior researcher, Steve Talbott, is giving an invited presentation at the Linnean Society’s virtual two-day conference on Teleonomy. More details to come.
|
11th conference «The Soul of Europe – Experiencing Thresholds»
July 14 to 17, 2022 in Yekaterinburg, Russia
Due to the worldwide Corona pandemic, the upcoming conference "The Soul of Europe" has to be delayed for another year and will take place from July 14 to 17, 2022 in Yekaterinburg. Towards the end of this year you will find the detailed program on our webpage www.soulofeurope.net. We are looking forward to meeting you there.
|
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.
Join us for the Biennial Anthroposophic Health Association Conference in Kimberton, PA which will take up “Realizing AnthropoSophia”. The “Mysteries of Healing” theme was created upon reflection of the questions, “What do we need to heal in order to best therapeutically accompany others?” and “How can we better serve the good in each human-to-human encounter?”
|
Anthroposophy Worldwide - 2021
June edition
If you would like to see the archive of past issues, go to: Archive
then, if required, enter password AWE-2018
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
