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What’s Happening in theRudolf Steiner LibraryJudith Soleil, Library DirectorThe last issue of the Rudolf Steiner Library Newsletter (no.46)under its own imprint was published this April. Founded bylibrarian emeritus Fred Paddock to keep readers informed aboutthe library’s collection, the newsletter was published for overa decade. We are very happy that in future our news, annotations,and reviews will appear in this new quarterly publication,which you hold in your hands. Now we will have the opportunityto communicate with a much larger audience, and we hopeto encourage more society members—who enjoy borrowingprivileges at no additional charge as a benefit of their membership—andfriends, who can join the library for an annual fee, touse the library. We look forward to hearing from many of you.Automation! I say this with a big grin. After researching optionsfor almost five years, this fall we selected an electroniccirculation program, OPALS (Open-source Automated LibrarySystem). This Web-based, open-source system is reasonablypriced and quite user friendly. The vendors are personable andresponsive. In December we started working with the programand by mid-February had already catalogued over 2000holdings. Judith Kiely, assistant librarian and budding libraryscientist, initiated us into the arcane world of MARC (machinereadablecataloging), enabling our little crew to create catalogrecords that will be intelligible all over the world. Anyone cansearch the library catalog (not yet complete, but growing daily)and view a list of new books at http://rsl.scoolaid.net/bin/home.With a patron ID you can also reserve books and access yourown records. Contact us to receive your patron ID; we preferemail: rsteinerlibrary@taconic.net; you may also use postal mail orphone us at (518) 672-7690. Choose a username and password,send them to the library, and we will create and send you apatron ID.Volunteers. Our automation project is progressing quicklythanks to the help of some new volunteers: Hawthorne ValleySchool student Thaddeus Sipe, and community memberThomas O’Keefe. Our long-time volunteers Louisa Sierau andElsie Helmke are exhibiting great patience as we work with thenew and old systems simultaneously. William Furse, photocopierextraordinaire, has also contributed to the project with zest.Postage. Some patrons like to include a donation when theyreimburse the library for postage (thank you!). When includingextra funds, please note whether it’s a donation or “on account”for future postage charges.Book search. The library needs another copy or two of“Thinking about Knowing,” a pamphlet by Alan Howard publishedby St. George Book Service in 1985. We are also lookingfor the Rudolf Steiner Press (London) edition of Knowledge ofthe Higher Worlds: How Is It Achieved? translated by D.S. Osmondand C. Davy. There have been several printings of that translation;we hope to obtain the blue and white paperback from 1969.Stay in touch. Contact us if we can help you prepare for astudy group, research a particular topic, or need reading recommendations.The library is filled with treasures and we love toshare them.ContentsNotes from the Editor 2What’s Happening in the Rudolf Steiner Library 3News Briefs from E-News 4Communicating Anthroposophy 5YOUTH, COMMUNITY, SOCIETY, CONSCIOUSNESSThe Beginnings of the Anthroposophic Youth Movement 6If I go forward, I die. If I go backward, I die. 9What kind of world do you want to live in? Connect 2009 10Growing a Farming Community, Cultivating a Complete Life 11The Josephine Porter Institute: Applied Biodynamics 12Climate Change, Peak Oil, Recession: Crisis or Opportunity? 13Today’s Global Crisis & the Need for Renewal 16From Consumer to “Producer in the Spiritual Sphere” 17The Light of The “I”: Guidelines for Meditation 19Money: Old & New Mysteries 20A Michaelic View of the “Credit Crunch” 20ART, HEALTH & THERAPIESEurythmy Spring Valley: The Graduates’ Dornach Trip 22Exploring The Threefold Nervous System 23Images of Self: Painting the Tree 25Anticipating the North 32NEWS FOR MEMBERSGeneral Secretary’s Report 34Study Theme of the Year: Thinking of the Heart as an Organof Perception for Development and Metamorphosis 35Creating a Michael Support Circle 36Notice: The Annual Members’ Meeting 36Thinking Michaelmas Together 37Eastern Regional Council Meeting in Spring Valley 38An Appeal From the Goetheanum 392009 Annual General Meeting & Conference 40New Members of the Anthroposophical Society in America 42Members Who Have Died 42Elisabeth Berlin Franceschelli 43Ekkehard Heyder 44ACTIVITIES & EVENTSSummer 2009 Trainings, Conferences, Events 46-47Also note pages 2 (inside front cover), 15, 21, 28 in this issueand, from the previous issue, pages 15, 16, 17.Spring-Summer 20093

News Bri efs from E-NewsKindergarten Report“Time for play in most kindergartenshas dwindled to thevanishing point, replaced bylengthy lessons and standardizedtesting....”The Alliance for Childhood hasjust released Crisis in the Kindergarten:Why Children Need to Playin School, by Edward Miller andJoan Almon.“New research shows thatmany kindergartens spend 2to 3 hours per day instructingand testing children inliteracy and math—with only30 minutes per day or less forplay. In some kindergartensthere is no playtime at all. Thesame didactic, test-driven approachis entering preschools.But these methods, which arenot well grounded in research,are not yielding long-termgains. Meanwhile, behavioralproblems and preschool expulsion,especially for boys, aresoaring.”In a foreword to the reportDavid Elkind, author of The Powerof Play, writes,“We have had a politically andcommercially driven effort tomake kindergarten a one-sizesmaller first grade. Why in theworld are we trying to teachthe elementary curriculum atCrisis in theKindergartenWhy Children Needto Play in Schoolthe early childhood level?”The report is covered in the HarvardEducation Newsletter (May/June 2009), and Peggy Orenstein,who recently went looking for akindergarten for her child, wrotein “Kindergarten Cram” in theNew York Times (4/29/2009),“I came late to motherhood,so I had plenty of time to ponderfriends’ mania for soupedupchildhood learning. Howwas it that the same coupleswho piously proclaimed that3½-year-old Junior was not‘developmentally ready’ to usethe potty were drilling him onflashcards? What was the rush?Did that better prepare kids tolearn? How did 5 become thenew 7, anyway?”The full report text is availablefree at allianceforchildhood.org.New BD ExecutiveRobert Karp has assumed theimportant responsibility of executivedirector of the BiodynamicFarming & Gardening Association.A well-known food and agricultureactivist, Robert is also a longtimeanthroposophist knownfor his lectures, workshops, andwritings. Interviewed by RebeccaBriggs on the association’swebsite, biodynamics.com, Robertbriefly described his background:“At eighteen I encounteredanthroposophy through mysister and this had a profoundeffect on me. I was exploringa lot of spiritual disciplines atthe time, but anthroposophywas different and slowly itemerged as my core spiritualpath. At nineteen I lived fora time in a small anthroposophicalcommunity in northernNew Mexico, near the Coloradoborder, a stunningly beautifulplace. That is where I encounteredbiodynamics. One of thefounders of that communityhad been influenced by AlanChadwick and the French intensivemethod. We grew a lotof our own food; we harvestedour own wood for all our heat.It was a very influential experience.Around this time I alsowent to a Prairie Festival at theLand Institute in Kansas andwas introduced to WendellBerry and Wes Jackson. Sobiodynamics and the widersustainable agriculture movementwere always intimatelyconnected, intertwined for me.When I was twenty-seven, Iwas a young man still lookingfor a vocation, searching formy initiative . . . I had studiedtheater and creative writing,taught a bit in Waldorf schools,considered becoming a priestin the Christian Community. Iwas interested in everythingbut didn’t know what to devotemyself to.“Two decisive things happened.The first is that Ibecame a member of one ofthe first CSAs in the country inMassachusetts, Sunways Farm,and became friends with thebiodynamic farmer there, HughRatcliffe. CSA revolutionizedmy thinking about farmingand about community andmy sense of task. I began torealize that there was a role fornon-farmers in the agriculturaltransformation that I knewthe country needed. Aroundthis same time my brotherJohn was killed in a planecrash in Iowa. It was the crashof United Flight 232, a DC 10,into a cornfield in Iowa. It wasvery dramatic—half the peoplelived and half died. It’s a longstory to explain, but to put itsimply, when I emerged fromthe fire and ash of this experience,I knew that my life’s workwas with agriculture.”Biodynamic agriculture appearsto be on the threshold of significantnew recognition. We wishRobert and his many colleaguesgreat success.Pseudo-Market Economy“Monetary proliferation withoutsocial responsibility...” From theGlobeNet3 mailing list comes thenews that Udo Herrmannstorfer’simportant 1991 work PseudoMarket Economy has been translatedinto English, edited by ChristophStrawe. It is free to download atthreefolding.net. Strawe writes,“Later generations will find itdifficult to understand that criticaltexts such as this, containingconstructive suggestions asto how to create dynamicallysustained monetary stability,could have been so widelyignored.”BerkShares RisingBerkShares are a local currencyfor the Berkshire mountain regionof Western Massachusetts andadjacent New York state. Sincetheir introduction in 2006 theyhave gotten a lot of national andinternational media coverage,most recently on NBC Nightly News(04/26/2009).Complementary currenciesare expected to be one of thetopics at the RSF Social Finance“Economics of Peace” conferencethis October, and the Fund forComplementary Currencies ofthe Rudolf Steiner Foundationwas a sponsor of BerkShares. Theproject is closely related to theE.F.Schumacher Society (“smallis beautiful”), with significantanthroposophical contributions.More at berkshares.org.Sign UpforE-NewsSign up for Anthroposophy inAmerica E-News on our websitehome page: anthroposophy.org.4 Evolving News for Members & Friends

Communicating AnthroposophyActual/Potential, Youth/AgeLast January, when the national council was meeting withfriends and members in East Troy, Wisconsin, my intermittentwork with the ideas of Owen Barfield and Samuel Taylor Coleridgefocused into one persistent thought. Anthroposophy connects humanand cosmic spirit, and Coleridge seeks a similar connectionin considering how the ultimate potentiality or power to become—what we perhaps ought to mean by the word “spirit”—entersinto actual manifestation. To express its whole character, potentialitymust stretch itself into a “polarity of contraries,” a pair oflinked qualities in which one side increases only at the other’sexpense. (Barfield’s great example is the polarity in language betweenexact communication and unique self-expression. The moreyou get of one, the less you have of the other. Pushed to eitherextreme, meaning itself disappears from the communication.)Coleridge discerned that the cosmic creative gesture mustunfold between limitless expansion and a pulling back into theminimum. On that bitter cold night in Wisconsin it struck me thatRudolf Steiner’s anthroposophy reaches out with the same gestures.On the one side it stretches and leads us out, to the beginningof time and to futures beyond imagination. On the other sideit enters into particulars of our individual situation, right into theintimate space of free conscience in the human heart.In this issue of Evolving News for Members & Friends polaritiesare at work as we listen in to the wonderful, multi-layered renewalof youth participation in the anthroposophical movement. On thenext page Nathaniel Williams gives a wise and gentle account ofthe youth movement in Steiner’s time. Then Maika Munske sharesthe stark transcendent vision of the newly arrived young adult.And Caitlin Balmer speaks about the impulse of the recent ConnectConference at the Goetheanum, for Waldorf senior classes. Ineach account I hear, at different pitches, the isolation of individualityreaching to affirm that community—alongside self-development—isour avenue for regaining our higher identity.Youth’s seeking challenges elders’ absorption into the fixity andexclusions of material existence, into the culture of death. Andage notes youth’s uncertainties and inexperience and hesitantcompassion. Meanwhile, some youth carry the sobriety of a staggeringcosmic old age. And some very old persons reveal on thisearth the enduring youthfulness of real freedom won.Into these contrasts and disparities anthroposophy can bringunderstanding, good will, peace—if we open ourselves to the possibility.Whether we are reaching out beyond our comfort level tomeet needs, or drawing back into the immense solitude of meditation,the work that Rudolf Steiner has led us into can accompanyus. In life’s polarities anthroposophy reveals meaning and purposethat steadily become intelligible, a great fabric of conscioushuman being, woven by love.In subsequent articles the theme of youth becomes hidden, butwe can discern its spirit of renewal grappling with the isolationof farm life, with an old anthroposophical community’s need forsocial transition, with the general economic and ecological crises.And then, from young-old Herbert Witzenmann to the newest eurythmistsgoing out into the world, the timeless speaks again intoour mortal situations, and blesses them.Spring-Summer 2009— John Beck, Editor5Rudolf Steiner CollegeA Center for Transformative Education, the Arts,and Waldorf Teacher EducationNOW ENROLLINGAt Rudolf Steiner College, you can join fellow studentsand an exceptional faculty in programs that prepareyou to transform yourself and the world. Full-timeresidential and part-time programs available.Foundation Studies andWaldorf Teacher EducationEarly Childhood, Grades andHigh School (summer)beginning September 2009in Fair Oaks, CAVisit our campus in FairOaks, CA. Programs,conferences and workshopsare also offered inSan Francisco and otherlocations.San FranciscoWaldorf Teacher EducationEarly Childhood, Grades andHigh School options availableWeekend & Summerbeginning September 2009PROGRAMS IN• Consciousness Studies• Compassionate Community Facilitator Training• Early Childhood Education In-Service Program• Eurythmy• Lifeways Childcare Provider Training• Remedial Education Program• Biodynamics• Community LearningCenters for FoundationStudies in your locationFinancial aid available forqualified applicants.Rudolf Steiner CollegePhotos by Jim Heath9200 Fair Oaks Blvd., Fair Oaks, CA 95628 916.961.8727www.steinercollege.edu * rsc@steinercollege.edubookstore@steinercollege.edu * housing@steinercollege.eduVisit our NEW Online Bookstore

Nathaniel Williams: a summerThe Beginnings of the Anthroposophic Youth MovementNathaniel WilliamsA youth movement is a riddle. Apathy might deliver an easyanswer to this riddle but the ease and its lack of depth will simplyleave us dull and dissatisfied. An independent youth movementis an amazing event. It is an event of testimony. It testifiesto a fire in the young heart that does not find a suitable hearthto house it; it is colored light born into a society of grays. Theyoung person walks with their light into the rules of society, thecustoms, the popular ideas and culture, the economic practices,and finds these places smothering and suffocating. As they cannotfind a worthy field for their inspiration within society theycreate an independent space, a movement, outside of it.To accept observations like these as eternally true whereeverold and young meet, though it does possess some validity,is partially blinding. Reality demands more care. It is simplyempirically untrue that every generation revolts in the sameway against its elders. Some generations have found admiration,love, respect, and contentment when looking up toward their elders.Some generations have experienced only discord betweenthose older than them and what they longed for and sought.There is an inner force of tremendous significance in the relationshipbetween generations. If we look to where in the worldgreat strides were made we discover that whole groups wereinvolved, groups fired up by some virtue, some justice, sometruth. We have to see the difference between ideas about thingsand living, authentic sentiments that shape lives and relationships.We all learn about the Golden Rule. Our learning aboutit does not enter into our heart with transformative force andfrom there into our way of thinking and being. In some generationswe see living sentiments, burning ideals. How are we to understandtheir origin? It is as if the world were clouded and gray,and then a portion of the great sky opens and the enliveningsunlight brings the gray, blue-green field into a luminous greenglow and all the rest of the world undergoes a similar awakening.Through a new generation the hills and valleys of the worldacquire fresh and original significance. Out of the young, trulynew virtues, abilities, and forces are making their way. They arelike the gate into the creative foundation of the universe, andthrough them the most progressed melody is being played.Two clear testimonies of this come to mind when lookingback over the last century. The generation that came of age between1950 and 1970 are the first and most familiar. The generationsthat came of age within the first quarter of the twentiethcentury are less familiar. 1 Within the first decade of the century,small gatherings began that were to grow into internationalmovements. Young people began striking out into the world ofnature with their cities and towns attheir backs. They were not engagedby their cities, customs, and education.These were alien and cold tothem. Carrying umbrellas for protectionfrom the elements they wanderedout over hills and throughvalleys for days and days. They feltlife in the flowing bird whistles, inthe wide sky-colors, in the wind thatwas more noble and more worthythan the cliché of twentieth centurycivilization. They became “Wandervögel”—wanderingbirds.1 Examples include the Wandervögel and Herman Hoffman; theNeueschar and Muck Lambarty; the Bruderhof and Eberhard Arnold;Lebensreform and people like Gustav Graser, Ludwig Hauesser, andFidus. Hermann Hesse gives aspects of the life of these in his worksDamian and Die Morgenlandfahrt.6 Evolving News for Members & Friends

You wandering birds in the air,in the ether-shine,in the sun-aroma,in blue sky-waves,I greet you as companions!I am also a wandering bird,and my gift of songis my dearest possession.—Otto RoquetteNot everyone pursued this path. Some sought a worthy lifein religious traditions, which they tried to embrace and even renew.Others tried to find something worthy by reaching far backinto past civilizations and mythologies. Everyone had in commonthe search in other places, other times, other settings thanthose offered by their elders, where they could live a human lifethat satisfied them. Their elders could not inspire respect andadmiration in them. Their elders testified to their impotencethrough their creation of the brutal insanity that was the FirstWorld War. Many of the young witnessed this testimony fromthe blood-spewn trenches. Who could be inspired by such acivilization?Many in this young generation became aware of an elderwho sparked some wonder and admiration in them. He waswell known and controversial. He tirelessly traveled throughoutEurope, lecturing, and was involved in a number of huge creativeprojects: the creation of the large work of art in Dornach,Switzerland, called the Goetheanum; the movement for a newsocial order; and leadership of a new and innovative school inStuttgart called the Waldorf School. He was not just dreaming.He thoroughly understood the current state of civilization andculture and yet he did not find it sufficient. The culture thatthe older generation was so proud of, and in their pride wereentrenched in, was materialistic natural science, it’s methods,results, and technologies. This man acknowledged the carefulobservations and the many fruitful insights and technologiesthis science made possible, yet he insisted that the remainingforces and mysteries of the universe had to be pursued aswell. He maintained that so long as science only recognizedone realm of the world as significant and existent, then such ascience would yield illusion instead of truth, since it overlookedgreat portions of reality. He worked to reveal the need to furtherthe knowable, and what is even more important, he actually pursuedthis furthering. He developed a spiritual science, which hecame to call anthroposophy, by pursuing the inspirations thatpersonalities like Goethe and Fichte had pursued and developingthem to a new level of maturity. Besides this he recognizedsignificance in many spiritual movements of his time, such asthe Theosophical movement and Freemasonry. He worked withand within them. This man was Rudolf Steiner.So the younger generation met an elder who was totally athome in his time, yet also pointed to its illusions and failuresand developed ways forward. Many of his contemporariesmay have viewed him as an eccentric standing at the fringes ofsociety, but this was far from the truth. He stood fully withinhis time, as his work shows anyone willing to do some research.Among the younger generation to witness him at this pointwere such people as Arvia MacKaye, Karl Ege, Ernst Lehrs,Maria Roeschl, Lili Kolisko, and Herbert Hahn. Many of the realcarrying forces of the first Waldorf School were from this younggeneration.The new melody the younger generation heard in their heartsfound a harmonious resonance in an elder. It was not a simpleharmony, either. Through Rudolf Steiner they heard the maturityof their songs, an enrichment and articulation they hadonly divined. Many came to discover that the inspiration theyfelt in themselves was also speaking through Rudolf Steiner andanthroposophy. Here they found an elder from whom they couldstrive to learn in total freedom. They felt they might not needan isolated and separate youth movement as they had foundan elder who was creative, active, and in relationships that correspondedwith their inner ideals.Rudolf Steiner gave a course for a group of these youngpeople 2 . He saw the fire in them as tremendously significant.It was a new fire. He saw in the dancing flames the sparks thatwould illumine a new age. He had been fueled by the same lightin his work to develop anthroposophy. I know that it is difficulttoday to take such insights as indicating real facts; all the same,that is what is meant here. That there are real spiritual forces atwork in our lives is a strange idea for most people today. Whatis strange is granting them the right to be as real as our skeletalsystem. By “real” I do not mean spatial extension and mass;these measurements are not the only way to validate positiveexistence. These forces have particular qualities, and there areforces that can bring our heart to jump in enthusiasm and to seethe spirit and soul in the world as well as in other people, just asthere are forces that humble us and fill us with receptivity andopenness. Despite the unpopularity of this idea, it is an idea thatcorresponds with reality, and is an insight and experience thatanyone can achieve given interest and a willingness to pursue it.Yet the young who were trying to find their way into the meetingsand activities of older anthroposophists were very disappointed.At times they met meek bookishness, contemplativerestraint, and extreme arrogance. They wanted to see the firethey recognized in Rudolf Steiner in all other anthroposophists.Many elders did not live up to this ideal. The young wanted todeny the elders’ version of anthroposophy. Some older anthroposophistsfound the younger generation to be superficial, anuisance at times, and a distraction from all the important workthat had to be done. Rudolf Steiner encouraged the elders todistinguish between the essential and inessential and to maketime for the younger people. He criticized their obsession withtheir work and their overlooking the importance of humanrelationships. He turned with some severity to the young, whowere beginning to see themselves as the true anthroposophists,and struck down this vanity. He warned them that anthroposophywas for everyone, for old and young each in their own way.He revealed it to them as a power affecting humans in manyconditions, in many different ways. He encouraged them tohave compassion for the older generation who could not freethemselves from the grayness of the nineteenth century. He toldthem that they possessed enthusiasm through their youth, butthey would grow old and dull like everyone else if they did notactively awaken the spirit in themselves through working withanthroposophy. He pointed out that their instinctive, physiologicalyouthfulness would wane and that only by establishing a2 Rudolf Steiner, Becoming the Archangel Michael’s Companions(formerly The Younger Generation). SteinerBooks, 2007.Spring-Summer 20097

free and creative relationship with the spirit of the world couldthey retain their youth. Anthroposophy alive within the humanbeing appeared as the fountain of youth.There were changes in the heart of the world. The sunriseand the colors spreading through the sky were different. Inthese young hearts forces were flowing that pointed towardthis change as well. An age of darkness was turning, and on itsheels brilliant light and life were growing. Rudolf Steiner spoketo these young people in a way he had never spoken before. Awhole new quality entered his expressions. This is perceptiblethroughout the two books that have been published in Englishas Becoming the Archangel Michael’s Companions (formerly,TheYounger Generation) and Youth and the Etheric Heart. He spoke tothe humanity of this new day. These two books are an indicationof how Rudolf Steiner addressed modernity. Everyone readingthis article has been born into that day.I will only dwell on the advice he gave the youth for theirwork together, their movement. They were burning up, stormingaround him, wanting to engage in changing the world andto get organized and solidify their work together. They cameforward and suggested officials, representatives, committees,and structures of this sort. Rudolf Steiner discouraged them inthis. He testified to his own experience, which proved that thesemethods were ineffective and obstructive. To develop a living,vital, and healthy movement one should not start by tryingto find a form, but rather focus on the authentic relationshipsbetween you and your companions, and in these relationships aform will unfold out of life. Life will make a form from inside out.There are conditions that will support this.Find a few people who want to come together to work withanthroposophy in whatever way seems right and want to doso regularly. The real and pressing desire to be together isimportant, to want to meet. In the meetings there must be anauthentic mood of tolerance; everyone should really feel freeto articulate their thoughts and feelings. Don’t get caught up inthe small stuff, in details of how things should be expressed orother technicalities. Instead of wasting your energy in that, pourit into listening with such empathy that you know, you feel, whatthe other person is experiencing when they speak even if theirspeech is clumsy. The clumsiness is beside the point. There willbe disagreements. It will be difficult. Get over it. Develop loyaltyto one another that does not exclude individuality. Stick togetherthrough all your lives. Don’t get caught up in simply philosophizing.Strengthen your thinking to the point that you starthaving experiences. Then forces, virtues, healing will flow fromyour ideas. This is needed. Anthroposophy appears in its mostnoble and healthy form where it unfolds among people sharingThe Free Columbia Art Course...“...is a full time, year long course based on the fundamentalsof the art of painting as they appear and come to lifethrough anthroposophy... The course will include study of thebasic elements of anthroposophy, history of art as an imageof evolution, philosophy of aesthetics (past and present),social questions in relation to art and economics... The courseis open to all who want to pursue it.”FreeColumbia.org, or contact Laura Summer at 518 672 7302.authentic human relationships. This may seem trite and ineffectiveto many people. It can only seem so. The strength, thefree and unhindered inspiration to take up a cause or creativeproject arises with natural force under these conditions. Thosewho think it is easy to create such conditions are mistaken; youneed your whole life to do it, and your whole heart.Over Christmas 1923 Rudolf Steiner led the refounding ofthe Anthroposophical Society and became its chairman. Heorganized the society with a school of spiritual science at itscenter. The school was organized into various sections for differentrealms of research and creativity. Besides the mathematicalsection, the literary section, and others, there was a youthsection. Rudolf Steiner asked Maria Roeschl, one of the teachersat the Waldorf School in Stuttgart, if she would take on theleadership of this section. He discussed the goals of the sectionwith her and the young people. This section was to be a placewhere courses and gatherings were designed for young peopleso that they could meet anthroposophy through older anthroposophistswho could connect with them. The bridge betweenthe generations was of tremendous importance and was a majorpart of this section. The youth section was to be responsiblefor creating books and literature for young people. Basic bookswere to be written for the young in a way that spoke to themwhere they were. However, before two years had elapsed afterthe founding of the school, Rudolf Steiner died. Maria Roeschlcontinued to work for six years toward these goals. After RudolfSteiner died various individuals in the society began to experienceextreme difficulties with one another. Parties developed.Young people were pulled to various sides. Maria Roeschl leftthe section in 1931, announcing that such conditions made thetasks of the section impossible. She returned to Stuttgart to helpcarry the work at the Waldorf School forward. The difficultieswithin the society continued to worsen. In 1935 an extreme wasreached when the society was split through the exclusion ofmany leading individuals and even national societies.Against the backdrop of these events the importance of RudolfSteiner’s advice to the young takes on its warm brilliance.A question must arise in one’s heart through all of this: What iftoday, in the first quarter of the twenty-first century, we were torenew the youth movement founded on the virtues describedabove? What if these virtues were not viewed as secondary toour work but as primary and central? These simple inspirationscan ignite the formation of small groups anywhere. They throwa whole new light on the significance of regionalization. Size isnot the significant quality. What is significant is that people regularlyseek each other’s company to work with spiritual truths,that they practice honesty, tolerance, empathy, and a thinkingthat lives. I can see groups forming everywhere, some smaller,some larger, all unique and special, sensing their unity with thegreater movement through these virtues. I can see each groupwith a name, a sign, a song—and each would have space in oursociety given.We come together in joy.We seek anthroposophy each in our own way.We seek loyalty that is not oppressive.We seek speech that has reality.We seek listening that is revelation.We seek relationships that are enduring.So the Human heals.8 Evolving News for Members & Friends

Farmer-Mentor Workshop:Growing a Farming CommunityCultivating a Complete LifeKimberly BarnesIn February, the North American Biodynamic ApprenticeshipProgram was officially inaugurated with the first Farmer-MentorCircle workshop, held at Hawthorne Valley Farm in Harlemville,New York. Thirty-one biodynamic and organic farmers and gardenersgathered for a weekend of presentations and discussionsexploring the art of on-farm mentoring. As the group membersshared their experiences, challenges, successes, and strategiesfor working with apprentices, they began to formulate a commonvision of the gift that they as farmer-mentors might offer tothe next generation of young farmers.This vision was thoughtfully developedby Nathaniel Thompson (left) in the finalpresentation of the weekend. Nathaniel, whomanages Remembrance Farm in Trumansburg,NY, offered a reflection on the waysin which a more collaborative approachto farming has enabled him to develop a balance between hisinner and outer life, a difficult challenge that every farmer faces.It is part of the mentor farmer’s responsibility, he suggested, tomodel a healthy lifestyle and to support young farmers in developingthe same for themselves. Nathaniel encouraged the groupof mentors to consider how the development of cooperativefarming communities might allow beginning farmers to envisionand create high-quality lives.In Nathaniel’s twelve years as a farmer, he has experienceda lot of transitions and encountered many obstacles. Throughtrial and error, he has succeeded in building a business that isboth financially viable and supportive of his personal needs.Remembrance Farm along with two other farms is part of acooperative Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) venture,known as the Full Plate Farm Collective. The collective preservesthe CSA marketing model while allowing each farm tofocus its efforts on specialized crops. Thus, each farm operationis streamlined, but can still maintain a connection to thebroader community through the CSA. Administration and bookkeepingis managed by a third party non-farm-family member,and the association is strengthened by the friendship and trustthat exists among the farmers involved. Nathaniel has foundthat working within the collective has relieved a great deal ofthe pressure he felt when farming on his own. He can produce ahigher quality product and, with less stress and more time, livea more complete life.The collective model has also opened doors to greater communityoutreach. The Full Plate Farm Collective is collaboratingwith several other local farms and the Cornell CooperativeExtension to launch the grant-funded Healthy Food For Allprogram, which offers lower-priced CSA shares to low-incomecommunity members. Because there are several farms involved,there is more grant funding available for the project. Funds forthis program are also raised at all participating farms throughevents such as on-farm dinners.For Nathaniel, the opportunity toengage in this kind of broader communityoutreach is a key part of afulfilling life, an aspect he could nothave developed to such an extentwithout this kind of collaboration.Nathaniel spoke about the painfulexperience of watching manyof his farmer friends struggle and “tread water” as “slaves tothe farm or to their off-farm jobs.” Why, he asked, are so manyyoung farmers resigned to lives of financial destitution? It ispossible, albeit difficult, to make a living as a farmer, especiallygiven the growing demand for local, organic produce. What islacking, Nathaniel suggested, is guidance from farmer-mentorsbeyond the apprentice’s initial training experience on the farm.The farmer-mentor must offer guidance to beginning farmers asthey craft their business plans and envision their futures. How,Nathaniel asked, might we begin to grow a community that canencourage and support the possibility of a successful and balancedlife for the young farmer?The consensus in the group was that the work has alreadybegun in earnest. The Farmer-Mentor Circle workshop is a firststep in the development of a strong farmer-mentor network,which will provide support and opportunities in a numberof ways. First, it is the foundation for a culture of guidance.Through workshops and conferences, mentor farmers will helpeach other to become better teachers. They will develop theability to provide their apprentices with a fuller understandingof what it is to be a farmer.The farmer-mentor network will also serve as a valuable poolof advice and support for the apprentices beyond the two-yearprogram. A mentor might use the network to direct youngfarmers to appropriate partnerships or to resources that mighthelp them gain experience and insight. Because of the network,farmer-mentors may know, for example, who might be hiring anassistant manager, who has an excellent poultry operation, orwho has experience working with land trusts.Of course, each mentor farmer can benefit from the networkin the same way, using the network connections to build collectiveCSA ventures, share equipment, order bulk supplies,or get advice on a production problem. This collaboration andmutual support creates a lower stress, higher quality of life forthe farmer-mentor, and this support system ultimately becomesa living example of collaboration for apprentices to observe andtake advantage of in the future.As Nathaniel explains on his website, “I wish to lead a life inwhich the outer conditions of life support and nurture my innersearch for self-knowledge.” This is an ideal to which we all candedicate ourselves as we progress on our journeys, and thisawareness is perhaps the greatest gift that can be offered to theyoung farmers who find their way to the mentor farms of theNorth American Biodynamic Apprenticeship Program. May wesucceed in providing it to them!Read more about Nathaniel Thompson and the Full Plate FarmCollective at remembrancefarm.org and fullplatefarms.org. For theNorth American Biodynamic Apprenticeship Program, visit bdtraining.org.This article was forwarded from the Agriculture Section inNorth America of the School of Spiritual Science.Spring-Summer 200911

The Josephine Porter Institute: Applied BiodynamicsThe Courtney farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia,home of the Josephine Porter Institute for the last twenty-threeyears, was approved in November for a conservation easementthrough the Virginia Outdoor Foundation. A conservation easementprovides for the land to remain in agricultural use ratherthan being subject to commercial or residential development,and results in a decrease of the market value of the land. Such adecrease will allow JPI to eventually purchase the land from theCourtney family, insuring a home for thepreparations-making into the future.Autumn is a busy time at JPI. At thelast annual Fall Prep-Making Workshopand Conference more than thirtypeople gathered to learn how to makebiodynamic preparations and to hearrenowned biodynamic soil and vineyardconsultant, Philippe Armenier.The fall issue of JPI’s newsletter AppliedBiodynamics featured an in-deptharticle by Hunter Francis on ManfredKlett’s 2008 visit to Rudolf Steiner College.Former head of the agriculturalsection in Dornach, Klett is author ofmany important books and lectures onbiodynamics.The winter issue of Applied Biodynamicspresented a revised and updated versionof Ehrenfried Pfeiffer’s original farm survey questionnaire.This document was to furnish in-depth biographical informationabout the farm individuality in anticipation of a future visitby Pfeiffer to guide the farm into biodynamic agriculture. The“The key is one’s attitude in workingthe land. Transform what you thinkand feel in your daily work!Even a conventional farmer withgreat care and devotion becomes agreat fertilizer. We fertilize the earththrough our work being penetratedand carried by our thinkingand feeling.”–Manfred Klett quoted in “Working inthe Midst of Polarity: Manfred Klett’sFurther Reflections on Biodynamics,”by Hunter Francis, in the Springissue of Applied Biodynamics.farm questionnaire will now be used by JPI’s Farmer-to-FarmerAdvisory Service.Learn to Make the Biodynamic PreparationsThe institute’s 2009 educational events range from one-dayworkshops to the five-day fall preparation-making event. Topicsinclude learning to make and use horn manure, horn silica, valerian,yarrow, stinging nettle; composting, harvesting of sheathsand working with planting calendars.Maria Mihok attended the fall workshopand described its meaning for her. “Havingnow been a part of the process of thepreparations from creation to application towitnessing the results, I have a whole newappreciation and reverence for them. I alsohave a much deeper level of gratitude for theplants, animals, trees, minerals, and humanefforts involved. I have no plans to make thepreparations on my own; however, I thinkI would be able to if necessary. And I knowabsolutely that every part of the experienceof this workshop will live on in me wheneverI buy, work with, apply, and speak about thepreparations... I highly recommend this workshopto anyone of any level of experiencewith an interest in biodynamics. It will changeyour life.”To get either single issues or subscriptions to AppliedBiodynamics, email info@jpibiodynamics.org or call 276-930-2463.Upcoming events including preparation-making are listed atjpibiodynamics.org.12 Evolving News for Members & Friends

Friendly Haven Rise Farm“Where spirit and nature meet”Would you enjoy shared farm projects, independent pursuits, inspired conversation andcommunity? We’re looking for a good-natured person or couple to purchase part of our landand co-farm alongside us, sharing the work and bounty of our spirit-filled ten acres. On ourbiodynamic farm we teach sustainable living skills and how to have a kind-hearted relationshipwith nature. We are in a quiet valley a half hour from Portland, OR. and the land has alwaysbeen organic. The farm is Certified Naturally Grown and on the WA Historic Register.Our tiny village of 3,000 has a general store, small church and historic community center. Wehave a roomy farm-house, workshop, guest cottage, farm buildings and large barn. Room foranother house, cottage and more farm buildings. We have orchards and forest, a milk cow, beefcattle, chickens, turkeys, honeybees, gardens, pasture and mild enough winters for a year roundgarden. Pristine well water, friendly neighbors, a wide Milky Way at night.Cost is $265,000. Partial owner contract possible.Read about the farm at www.FriendlyHaven.comJoseph & Jacqueline Freeman h Contact us at FriendlyHaven@gmail.com or 360-687-8384tion towns. For information online, go to transitionus.org.Our Own CommunityThis community (Chestnut Ridge/Spring Valley, NY; HungryHollow Road is pictured, right) is unique in several ways. Twovery rele vant things that have been cultivated here since the1920s are consciousness change on the one hand, and biodynamicagriculture on the other. If we look at all of the problemsmentioned, we can see that we are mainly dealing with a consciousnessproblem. Humanity at large has been living with theattitude: What can I do for myself? If everyone around the worldcould change that to: What can I do for the world? there is noproblem we couldn’t solve. We need to fundamentally shift frombeing con sumers to being caretakers of the earth. Anthroposophypro vides a powerful support for this shift in consciousnessand the inner growth needed to make it possible.That is a great plus, but there are also significant drawbacks.The anthroposophical community has not always been good atreaching beyond its boundaries, and often exhibits an introvertedgesture. We have created little islands in which we feelwe are cultivating something essen tial, and wonder why the restof the world doesn’t always find it as essential as we do. RudolfSteiner spoke of the many Michaelic souls in the world. Wehave shown a ten dency to devalue what they are doing if it isn’tanthroposophy.Ours is a community in a crisis. It displays more dying thanflourishing tendencies. If it stays as it is, it is hard to see howthat can be turned around.On the other hand, we can see Michaelic souls in the worlddoing things that have real vibrancy and future in them, thingsthat are urgently needed in our time, things that strike a powerfulchord in many people today. If we can begin to work togetherand join our strengths with theirs, a great revitalization andrenewed blossoming of the commu nity is very conceivable.The Local Transition InitiativeMany people have taken a great interest in this process.We are asking ourselves: What does this community need toachieve long-term health, viability, and resilience? (We consciouslyavoid defining the borders of “this commu nity,” andwould like to include anyone in the lower Hudson Valley whotakes an interest.) We see important eco nomic issues to workon, such as increasing local food pro duction, distribution,processing, and storage; developing alternative energy sources;developing green building tech niques, preferably with local materials;developing systems of reclamation and salvage to reusematerials already pres ent; and generally growing a local economy.We also see important social issues to work on, such ascreating networks to interact more strongly with our neighbors;creating systems to share resources and equipment; helpingthose in need; and facilitating communication. In the long term,we see cultural issues to work on. Who wouldn’t like to live ina community with a vibrant cultural life, with active dialog andexchange of thoughts, with artistic activities, and with spiritualnourish ment, especially as our reliance on electronic media forentertainment diminishes?Some of these things are already present or have at least begun.These are in need of support. Much of it has hardly begunto be envisioned, and there is plenty of room for creative, imaginativeengagement. How this moves forward depends uponthe initiative of each person involved. To get involved, visit thewebsite localtransition.ning.com where you can find all sorts ofinformation and join the email list. We are planning a series ofevents on food next, and after that renewable energy.Spring-Summer 200915

Today’s Global Crisis & the Need forSocial, Ecological & Spiritual RenewalCommunity Building: Meeting the Challengeof Time through Creative CooperationWith Robert Karp. Profound new social and spiritualimpulses are emerging within humanity. In the last thirtyor so years, for example, thousands of new “communitiesof interest” have sprung up that are working in oneway or another for the ecological, economic, social and spiritualrenewal of civilization. The coming decades will determinewhether these communities can evolve and work together insuch a way as to forge a worldwide movement capable of givingcivilization an upward turn, or whether they will prove toofragmented, competitive, narrow and sectarian to meet the challengeof the times. In this course we will draw on the insightsof Rudolf Steiner as well as contemporary thinkers in order topenetrate the mysteries of this decisive time and what it is askingof us.Some of the questions we will take up include: Where dowe see new social and spiritual impulses emerging in twentyfirstcentury America? How can those who carry the impulseof anthroposophy best work together with those from othermovements who share our goals? What are the principles ofcommunity building and social transformation from a spiritualscientific perspective? How can we begin to embody these principlesmore fully in and between our initiatives, businesses, andorganizations? Can a new community building impulse emergefrom the heart of the anthroposophical movement?Re-Imagining Capitalism:Surviving the Current Economic TsunamiWith Jerry Schwartz, Clemens Pietzner, Robert Hill. Ifever there was a part of our societal structure that criesout for change, that urgently needs to be re-imagined,it is western free-market capitalism. How could it havegone so wrong, become so out of balance as to requiremassive governmental intervention around the world toprevent global depression? The complexity and scale ofthis gargantuan economic network would seem to defyone’s efforts to understand or re-imagine it. However,if one examines this aspect of societal life, as Rudolf Steiner, incontext of the spiritual/psychological make-up of the threefoldhuman being, the picture that emerges is remarkably straightforwardand instructive of what must be done to create balanceand stability not only within our economic lives, but morebroadly within the human community.Think OutWord at Rudolf Steiner Institute, July 5-11This summer’s Rudolf Steiner Institute presents a special block of three classes, coordinated with Think OutWord, a peer-led trainingin social threefolding. Each course will meet separately for two sessions of each day to address pressing societal challenges fromone perspective. Participants from all three courses come together in the third session to work artistically and collaboratively inprototyping of new social forms, led by Laura Summer. Evening programs during this first week are in the format of a community colloquiumthat integrates artistic presentations, talks by guest speakers, and two panel discussions. Those participating in the courseconcentration will present the explorations and findings that arise from their collaborative efforts. The courses are open to all, witha special invitation to the young and to anyone interested in starting, continuing, or connecting with socially progressive initiatives.There is a special discount for Waldorf graduates age 18-35. Go to steinerinstitute.org, call 410-358-0050 or email reg@steinerinstitute.org.Using the framework and insights of the threefold socialstructure, we will address the questions that both experts andlaypersons are asking: what lies at the roots of the currentfinancial chaos; what attitudes, knowledge and practices mustone acquire in order to navigate in this economic turmoil; whatare the inner and outer remedies called for if we are to createa healthy social order; what new ways of thinking and financialhabits or behaviors should one adopt to become part of thesolution; what must change if western market-driven capitalismis to be prevented from destroying itself? The course will be ledby three individuals who represent a broad spectrum of experiencewithin the economic world: Jerry Schwartz has been a WallStreet broker and is president of Arista, a financial managementfirm; Clemens Pietzner is founder and president of Triskeles,a non-profit foundation that manages philanthropic donoradvised funds, works with youth who are struggling to find theirway into the economic world, and provides an organizationalumbrella for start-up non-profits whose mission is communitybuilding; Robert Hill was president and CEO of a mid-sized managementconsulting firm that served a wide range of companies.Water, Energy, and Changes in the Climate:Outer and Inner Manifestations ofEnvironmental Problems and SolutionsWith Michael D’Aleo. Each one of us regularly hearsstories about environmental destruction in the dailynews. We long to do something about these problems but oftenfeel overwhelmed by the magnitude of what is reported. Mostof us find ourselves accepting the stories as reported and wefeel ourselves ill prepared to deal with both the outer and innerissues that arise from such a startling and often bleak picture.The course will offer three approaches to help establish arenewed and healthier relationship between our self and ourenvironment. The first morning sessions will focus on helpingourselves to reconnect to the foundation for knowing the world:the relationship between the sensory and conceptual elementsof our experiences. This activity will help us to breakthroughthe limited view that we are encouraged to accept by manyelements of our modern western culture. The second set of sessionswill involve an investigation of some of the contemporaryenvironmental issues: what is really happening, what needsto be done and what aspects do we need to be less concernedwith. The third aspect of the course will consist of a group artisticactivity in the sculptural arts.16 Evolving News for Members & Friends

From Consumer to “Producer in the Spiritual Sphere”Herbert Witzenmann[Republished from Revisioning Society & Culture: The Journalfor Anthroposophy #77, which is third in the series of “Classics”available at anthroposophy.org. The original article was probablywritten in the 1960s or early 1970s.]When we regard the situation of today, we see that it comesto meet us with a particular demand. Concerning this particulardemand, the historian Toynbee has made a significant statementin a recently published essay. He points out that oneof the most characteristic and serious symptoms ofthe present is the increase in violence in all areas ofthe earth and that, alongside this symptom of theincrease in violence, there exists yet another symptom,the increase in pitilessness, which is evidencedamong other things in the fact that nowadays thereis no longer any underprivileged class of society, butthat in all classes and levels of the populace thereare underprivileged people; that is to say the old,the weak, such people who are not provided for bylarge-scale organizations. These two symptoms ofviolence and lovelessness are drawing humanity intoa constantly worsening state of brutality. Toynbeestates that every government is really based on force and that noimprovement can be expected as long as nations do not discardthe two principles of force and pitilessness.In response to such an utterance, we can feelthe challenge of the times appealing to our ownhearts to find a style of working that can confrontthis violence and pitilessness with a positiveexample: the working together of free individualities.Certainly, Rudolf Steiner has said that peoplewill and must become more and more individualizedand differentiated, that this will and mustbring about an increasingly greater danger ofestrangement, that there will be no guaranteeof safety in the future—this future has in themeantime become the present—and that therewill only be one remedy, to live with trust in thespiritual world, which expresses itself in singlehuman beings as the impulses of the individual.Now, to these symptoms I have mentioned with referenceto Toynbee, I should like to add a third that is significant andcharacteristic for everyone, but particularly, I think, for youngpeople, and that is the wish to escape from being a consumerand being part of a society consisting of consumers. This dissatisfaction,this wanting to escape from a society of consumerswith its forced production and its surplus of goods, is one ofthe deepest impulses of our time, especially in young people.Here we encounter a situation similar to the one that confrontedRudolf Steiner at the end of the First World War with regard tothe proletariat.The proletariat at that time wanted to escape from a societybased on property and commercial interests and it possessedtremendous forces, impulses of will, to do so, but it only had theold manner of thinking and habits of feeling. It wanted to escapefrom this old situation with old forces. That was the tragedy atthat time. And the whole of present-day humanity is in a similarsituation. The whole of humanity has actually become the proletariat.Fundamentally, everyone wants in his innermost being—even those who are at home in this society of consumers—toescape from it, particularly young people. But they do not yetknow how to do so, and consequently they slip back again andagain into the old habits of thinking and feeling, into the veryattitudes that brought about this consumer situation. Progresscan only be made when people learn to overcomethe consumer situation in themselves and insteadof being consumers, become producers in thesense of Rudolf Steiner’s words: “My whole work isonly the apparatus on which one learns gymnastics.”The consumption of this work has no value.If one wants to help, and particularly to helpyoung people, the first thing is not necessarilyto provide answers—of course, one must alsoin a tactful way provide answers, as far as onecan—but it is much more important to try to leadpeople to the point where they create the prerequisitesin themselves, whereby they can answertheir own questions and provide their own counsel.Wilhelm von Humboldt said that if you really want to counselsomeone you should not give him advice. If young people areto help themselves through an inner exertion ofwill, through inner discipline and exercise, thenit is just the overcoming of the consumer mentalitythat is urgent. In this sense, I should like toattempt a brief contribution. I should like to takeas my starting point something one often meetsas a question particularly from young people.This is the question concerning the path ofinner training, of meditation. I intentionallychoose the most delicate question just becauseit cannot receive a direct answer, since the bestand most productive course is not to speak ofthe results and experiences of meditation if onewishes to make progress in one’s meditative life.Nevertheless, in the preparatory stage leadingto meditation one can make significant observations. I shouldlike to present observations of this kind as they might emergein a living way during the course of a conversation, observationsthat need in no way be adopted by others, but may serveas a stimulus to develop out of oneself whatever corresponds toone’s own nature.Let us consider the seed meditation, which you all know. Notonly can it be meditated, it allows one to observe the preparatorystage of consciousness—that which precedes supersensibleimpressions or presentiments—with the sober, reflectivecalmness of the scientist. Out of a seed, we can let the plantappear before us in an inner formative process in somewhat thesame wonderful way in which it occurs in Goethe’s elegiac lineson metamorphosis. Then we see rising before this inner, activeprocess a growing, a striving from the darkness of the earth intolight, from the formless to the formed, from the colorless to theSpring-Summer 200917

colorful, from the arid into the juicy. We follow these metamorphosesof plant growth, their expansions and contractions, closingto complete the ring of growing and becoming, which in turnbecomes a link in the chain of life. But if at the same time we fixour observant gaze on ourselves, we notice that this meditationcan only succeed if we produce a stronger power of will thanwe do in ordinary life. In ordinary life, our will is actually drawnalong by that to which we are accustomed, by outer influencesand coercions. It actually submerges itself in our activity andtherefore eludes our consciousness. When we meditate, however,we must make a free decision to activate our will. And it isthrough this effort that we become conscious of it.But it enters our consciousness in a strange way. Underordinary conditions, it is always directed outward. Now it isdirected inward. A complete reversal of the will occurs. And nowas a consequence, the following experiencecan perhaps make itself delicately felt. Thisreversal of the will, which is directed inwardon the seed or on any other phenomenonor being of the world, is like sending downroots into the essential nature of things.From these roots of will, the trunk of ourown being begins to grow up.We notice, when we continue thisself-observation, that our life of feelingalso undergoes a transformation. We feelourselves wondrously refreshed through livinglike this in the growth of a plant. Greenshoots begin to sprout in us, and perhapseven to blossom, and we notice that, in thissprouting and blossoming, we overcome theconsumer attitude, the consumer mentality.No longer do we consume the seed, as wedo not only by chewing it with our jaws butwhich we also consume by simply acceptingit, or simply accepting any other object ofknowledge in order to nourish our soul-lifewith it. But now within the “greening” in oursoul, in our feeling life, the seed begins tounfold its leaves all over again. It achieves,so to speak, a new dimension to grow in.Not only does our relationship to the worldchange in that we provide the beings thatare part of it with a new opportunity ofgrowth rather than consuming them; no, our relationship to ourselvesalso changes, as I have already touched on, for we beginourselves to spring up and grow out of the elements and the beingsof which the world is composed.But this springing growth is evinced in the sphere of ourfeeling life by still another change of direction. Previously, wereversed the will from a going-outward to a going-inward movement.In ordinary life our feelings are turned inward and aretremendously interested in themselves. In meditation, our lifeof feeling turns outward. We feel ourselves inside the being andbecoming of things, and this allows another delicate experienceto present itself. Attached to the trunk that is growing from theroots of the will, now, suddenly, wings appear, wings of feeling,for in the spiritual sphere roots and hovering do not contradicteach other, just as Pherecydes, the European forebear of us all,We notice, when we continuethis self-observation, that ourlife of feeling also undergoes atransformation. We feel ourselveswondrously refreshed throughliving like this in the growth ofa plant. Green shoots begin tosprout in us, and perhaps even toblossom, and we notice that, inthis sprouting and blossoming, weovercome the consumer attitude,the consumer mentality. ... Notonly does our relationship to theworld change in that we providethe beings that are part of it witha new opportunity of growthrather than consuming them; no,our relationship to ourselves alsochanges...for we begin ourselvesto spring up and grow out ofthe elements and the beings ofwhich the world is composed.imagined the world as a winged oak. This feeling life that is nolonger confined to its own narrow limits and, in its limitation, isestranged from the world, now lives at one with the world andgives us the wings that support us in the world.Thirdly, something changes in the life and events of ourcognitional faculty. The processes that underlie our cognitionallife, our representational faculty, usually elude our observation.Only in exceptional circumstances do they enter into ourconsciousness in a living way. Usually we only have the deadfinal products of these processes of our cognitional life in ourconsciousness. This means that we move in a bloodless worldof shadows. But when, in meditation, we send down the roots ofthe will into things and spread the wings of feeling, we experiencethe law of plant growth, of the formative force that livesboth in us and in things themselves. In this way, our cognitionallife is now two-sided, like a Janus head,its gaze turned both in an inward and anoutward direction. And now on this wingedtrunk with its roots sent down by the will,blossoms begin to appear, the blossomsof cognitional knowledge. The blossom,too, has two aspects toward which it turns.With its perfume, its radiant beauty ofcolor, the blossom turns outward; inwardlyit conceals the seed.If we now ask ourselves: What hasactually taken place, what are the forcesthrough which our own being is conjuredup once more out of the being of thingsas something that takes root and blossomsand has pinions? How does this seedripen in our meditative experience? Thenwe must answer: It ripens, it grows, notthrough the force of nature, but through aforce that lies in our own being. And when,now, to conclude, we inquire as to thenature of this force, we can say: It is a forcethat counteracts the forces of death thatare also at work in our being. These deathforces are just the opposite of the processI have been describing. They lead us awayfrom the world, let us become estrangedfrom the world, constrict our feeling lifewithin the narrow limits of what is subjectiveand egoistic, and finally destroy our physical form. Theseforces, however, that allow us to sprout roots and blossoms andpinions, build up our spiritual form, they widen our feeling lifebeyond its narrow limits out to the periphery, into the encirclinghorizon, and they unite us finally with the being of the world.They are not the forces of death, but Easter forces of resurrection.And it is these forces of resurrection that spread and movethe wings of this blossom- and root-sprouting sapling, in thatwe ourselves allow our own being to spring up and grow out ofthe beings of the world. These forces carry our being throughincarnations and through the progressive development of consciousness.Perhaps this may serve as a stimulus to overcome the attitudeof the consumer in favor of an inner state of productivesoul alertness.18 Evolving News for Members & Friends

The Light of The “I”: Guidelines for MeditationLindisfarne Books, 2008, 75 pgs. By Georg KühlewindReview by Frederick J. DennehyOf all Rudolf Steiner’s works, the most important to GeorgKühlewind was The Philosophy of Freedom, or as he preferredit titled, Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path. Nearly every bookhe wrote may be viewed as a response to Steiner’s injunction inthat seminal work to experience —to realize—our own spiritualpath.The Light of the “I” was written in English—the only one ofKühlewind’s works that was, to my knowledge. Like most ofhis later writings it is brief, and was composed in a meditativestate. It is a practical guide, a “how-to” book in the finest sense,designed to help his readers find the innerpath and stay on it.In the last thirty years, no anthroposophisthas written with more eruditionand ease on the epistemological andontological foundations of anthroposophythan Georg Kühlewind. Witness, as onlyone example, his Logos-Structure of theWorld—as radical and profound a work ofphilosophy as was produced in the latterpart of the twentieth century. But while hewas as able as any of his contemporariesto present a dialectical exposition ordefense of the inner path of anthroposophy,Kühlewind’s preferred focus was notargument but praxis. In his daily life hewas always ready to serve as a mentor,a guide, and a friend to meditants attemptingto achieve the meditative life, topractice what Rudolf Steiner called “theonly really fully free deed possible in thishuman life,” the only way in this world tobecome “completely free.”For those who were fortunate enough toattend workshops and study groups with him, reading The Lightof the “I” will be a remembrance. So many who at tended thosesessions would not have thought to take notes at any other similargathering. They would break that rule with Georg, however;then, puzzling over their own scribblings later that night orearly the next morning, would ask other participants for theirnotes unless they were asked first. But what was conveyed inthose privileged meetingswas, in Kühlewind’s words,“vertical,” directed towardthe source of meaning, andnote taking is “horizontal,”that is, broken, associative,and object-directed. It is as if,in The Light of the “I,” we arefinally given the per fect setof notes, horizontal and vertical,beginning with ordinaryconsciousness and leading uptoward the source.Georg Kühlewind by Dan Marshall (dansart.com)No one should read The Light of the “I” without first readingthe introduction by Christopher Bamford, who presents GeorgKühlewind personally, provides keys to his relationship to ThePhilosophy of Freedom, and emphasizes Steiner’s aim in thatbook not to create a universal methodology, but rather to showhow he himself had “walked” the “inner path.” The Philosophy ofFreedom was not didactic but provocative, urging every readerto find his or her own path—to walk, as Antonio Machado said,like Jesus on the water. Mr. Bamford eases newcomers into Kühlewind’sarresting, perhaps initially off-putting, non-dialecticalstyle. Kühlewind’s injunction is to act—to begin on an innerpath and then make that path our own.The structure of the book is simple. The first section, “WhatAre We Looking For?” is a meditativelysequential presentation of the centralinsight of The Phi losophy of Freedom,transposed into Kühlewind’s own vocabularyof “attentive ness,” “emptiness,” “thewitness,” and the “I Am.”The second section, “Exercises,” is adetailed, practical guide to the developmentof our attention through “concentration”exercises. Kühlewind presents notone but a multitude of possible practices,advice on how to cope with distractions,and finally, in prose that smiles at our tendencytoward dutiful imitation, hard will,and “cramped” effort, a gentle reminder tobe playful.The third section is the fruit of his ownforty years of meditation, not only thetextual meditation for which he is bestremembered, but symbolic image meditationand perceptual meditation. While it istempting to say that this is the end of thepath, it is in fact where we must alwaysbe—“in beginning.”Kühlewind ends his book with a personal afterword and asequence of medita tive sentences that may be worked withtogether or separately.Books on the inner life have been plentiful, even fashionable,for some time. These books typically trace a predictable narrativeof awakening to inspiration, of ten characterized by generalizations,a loftiness of tone, and a depiction of inner bliss.You won’t find that here. This book is for readers who wantto do anthroposo phy rather than hear about it. Kühlewindoutlines paths to the source through the humblest of methodsand the simplest of exercises. What other writer would point theway to the kingdom of heaven through concentrated attentivenessto the distinc tion between “that” and “this”? For thosewho take the doing of anthroposophy se riously, for those whounderstand the inner path to be not an object of interest but aneed, this is a book to read, to reread, and to keep close at hand.Georg Kühlewind gave so very much to so very many. This isthe last of his written gifts.Spring-Summer 200919

Money: Old & NewMysteriesKim Chotzen invited Dr. Christopher HoughtonBudd from Canterbury, England to hold a “townsquare”-style economic workshop in Viroqua, WIin October 2008. The economic crisis had alreadybrought bank failures, record job losses, plummetingreal estate prices, and dire financial bottomlines for three major US auto manufacturers.Over the course of the weekend, Christophergave two workshops with practical and timelydetails regarding the inner and outer aspects ofassociative economics. He covered a wide rangeof topics that pictorially described the journeyof money from the old to the new mysteries andexplored Rudolf Steiner’s place in economic andmonetary history and in wider social evolution.Particular consideration was given to the refoundingof the Anthroposophical Society and the inaugurationof the School of Spiritual Science.Christopher characterized the current economicsituation as a result of a change in consciousness.Citing Rudolf Steiner’s “shell to its nut” analogy,Christopher described economic life as the shell ofour inner life, just as the human body reflects anindividual’s spirit. As general human consciousnesshas become abstract, so too has our economiclife.In ancient times economic transactions weresacred, and for long ages money in principlereflected essentially the “goods” side of economiclife. There was little in the way of “credit,” whichwas confined to those with a greater consciousnessof social life, such as priests and elders.Today, with electronic money and credit, oureconomy is 97% “money,” 3% goods. Money hasgone from the realm of the visible to the realm ofthe invisible. If we are to become the masters ofmoney rather than money mastering us, we needthe will to engage with money and economics asa transparent bookkeeping process for which weare all now responsible. What we do with each economictransaction has impacts around the worldand consequences for ourselves. We now have aone-world economy, which Steiner foresaw andaddressed in his 1922 lectures.Christopher says, “To this day, money links theinner and outer life of the human being, a characteristicwhich in our times needs to be placed inthe foreground, not only so that monetary affairsbecome ‘soul sized,’ but also that the world offinance can be mastered by everyone.”The entire weekend was recorded, and audioCDs are being prepared. Contact Rose Passafero(rosepassafero@gmail.com or 800-898-8215) for moreinformation.A Michaelic View of the“Credit Crunch”Christopher Houghton BuddMichael stares taciturnly at humanity, awaiting deeds that are born ofthe spiritual world by human beings who tread the fine line between Luciferand Ahriman. Anthroposophists know this as a spiritual quest and, especiallytoday, as a battle for the soul - a seemingly permanent struggle toavoid inflammation and sclerosis. It is the same “event” that stands behindhumanity’s recent experience of cheap money coupled with the idea thatthe value of assets can rise out of nothing and supposedly without constraint,on the one hand, and the sudden cramping of economic life and theintensification of state regulation, on the other. The combined effect on thesoul is to disorient it, to make human beings disbelieve in themselves. Moreprecisely, to refute by their deeds the fact that they are spiritual beings.Undoubtedly, occult forces and manipulative actions are at work intoday’s situation, but one should beware of locating the cause of the crisisin such things. That would be to mistake the sail for the ship. A Michaelicresponse would be to steer a course between extremes, and also to takeseriously Rudolf Steiner’s concept of history as symptomatology.For example, does the so-called credit crunch betoken a quickening inthe unfolding of the Michaelic period, now in its 130th year? Is Michael tryingto speak to humanity? And what is his message? It is very important notto underestimate this possibility; and not to focus overmuch on Ahriman’srole. For it is almost a platitude to see his signature in the current tighteningof finance. The challenge, clearly, is not to respond in kind.nSeen as a phenomenon of the spiritual world, finance is a Guardian-likeexperience. It both reflects the human soul and one’s spiritual state, butalso provides support for any change consequent on addressing the issuesby which one finds oneself confronted. In such matters it is crucial not tolocate the cause and the cure of the problem “out there.” It is also importantnot to forget that all human action is allied, as it were, to one god oranother, so that it serves little real purpose to attribute today’s moneyproblems to bankers, the rich, or other “agents.” What matters is whetherour own financial behavior is Michaelic. Take care not to look at the dragonby seeking to attribute cause beyond ourselves.The human being should stand firm on the fact that his home is on theother side of the threshold; the laws of that world have the power to orderhuman existence (ergo, the caricaturing of this fact by what is known as“the market”).To give expression to this, however, human beings need to ground theiractions in the kind of economics that Rudolf Steiner describes. They needto be properly remunerated for their contribution but also properly capitalized.This will give expression to a new paradigm, the very absence ofwhich is arguably the “cause” of today’s travails.For example, when we sell or buy do we give thought to “true prices”? 1 Itis persistent underpricing 2 that removes purchase money from the world,requiring people to borrow the difference and thus become party to thephenomenon of too much capital or loan money in the world.Concerning the latter problem, Rudolf Steiner (among others, of course)gave clear warning. But we do not appreciate the full incisiveness ofSteiner’s comments until we question what we are doing when we “save”1 See lecture 6, Economics – The World as One Economy, Rudolf Steiner. NewEconomy Publications, Canterbury 1996.2 See explanation of exploitation in Anthroposophy and the Social Question, 1905.20 Evolving News for Members & Friends

money by putting it in banks on condition that it is not lost,that is, not put at risk. We thereby, albeit unwittingly, give thefoundation – savings supposedly not at risk – for modern creditcreation, which could not be there otherwise. If we do not likeundue credit expansion, therefore, we need to step beyond thecult of savings (for such it is) and begin to develop two distinctbut related habits instead. On the one hand, we need to practicelending at risk. But that means to stop hiding behind the banksand begin direct investing – in the real-estate side of a biodynamicfarm or a Waldorf school, for instance.On the other, we need to learn to give money freely. Generally,of course, but in our movement specifically for work doneby the sections of the School of Spiritual Science, provided,however, that this activity is evidently bona fide public benefitin character. A clear example of this is the Goetheanum Fund(Fonds Goetheanum) 3 recently launched in Switzerland by theSwiss Anthroposophical Society, the genesis of which lies in aquestion put to Rudolf Steiner by Mr. Van Leer at the ChristmasConference.just as the closing entries in accounting are effected throughthe income statement and balance sheet, so gift money is of ahigher order than and works through purchase money and loanmoney, which, it is important to notice, are also not of the samekind. In all examples, the lower two are explicit, the higher onepresent by implication.If we gave thought to these ideas two things would result, andmay indeed already be in the offing. Firstly, our own understandingof big economic issues, as also our day-to-day conduct,would become more precise (and therefore less vulnerableto Luciferic and Ahrimanic influences). Secondly, we wouldthereby help provide the ground for the key change needed inhumanity’s general monetary understanding – namely, the needto perceive such pairings as cash and credit, income and capital,purchase money and loan money, as identities that belongto contrasting realities, each with its own logic. It is this fact –that cash and credit are not of the same kind – that is calling forour attention today. In a word, two kinds of money, not one, as isthe convention. But not three, either.Thereby also our actions will become more aligned withRudolf Steiner’s monetary analysis, which remains, for the mostpart, unknown both in the world at large and in our own movement.A key part of this is his insight that, nowadays, money issynonymous with accounting – an evolutionary step that RudolfSteiner clearly points to at the end of his lectures on economics.4 This step we will not take, however, until we really act asif money is accounting and accounting is money. Then humanitywill stand free of the so-called financial “system,” which inreality is a reflection of the way we behave, which in turn is anexpression of the way we think. If ever thoughts were things itwas in modern economic life.Crucial to this process is the need to overcome too strong afocus on the idea of three kinds of money when, arguably, weshould be paying attention to two: purchase money and loanmoney, income and capital. The “third” one – gift money – is notso much money as awareness of the need to maintain the balancebetween the other two, along with the technique for doingso. More precisely stated, just as hearing is a function of havingtwo ears, so gift money works through the other two. And3 See www.fondsgoetheanum.ch/en/home.html.4 Economics, op.cit.To revisit the idea of three kinds of money in this way has afurther, double consequence. On the one hand, it calls on theentire anthroposophical movement to review its monetaryunderstanding of itself, while on the other, it renders RudolfSteiner’s work understandable and tractable for academicsand policy makers in the financial world, with whom detaileddialogues are currently underway concerning the contributionRudolf Steiner’s ideas could make to the very specific technicalproblems that modern finance faces, especially today.nIt is the signature of Michael that human beings separatethings in their minds so that the I of man can make the worldwhole again. Michaelic finance is not therefore about the marketversus the state, or liberalized or regulated banking; butwhether humanity can take the step from one to two kinds ofmoney. A Michaelic act, however, has one other key feature: it isaccomplished while incarnate. This means that someone, somewhereneeds to enact Michaelic finance if it is to play its part inhuman history. And not just someone, but many. Would that ourmovement as a whole became a first mover in this respect.Spring-Summer 200921

Eurythmy Spring Valley: The Graduates’ Dornach Trip[This article was published some weeksago in The Listener, a glimpse of that momentwhen artists turn from long trainingto challenges in the world. The photos byCharlotte Fischer show a performance bythe Goetheanum’s resident eurythmists.]By now everyone in the communityis aware that our large class of sixteenwomen from many nations of the worldgraduates from Eurythmy Spring Valleyin May. People are usually surprisedwhen we tell them that it takes at leastfour years to finish studying eurythmy.Why so long? In eurythmy trainingwe are not just training our bodiesto move harmoniously and learningcertain skills. Rudolf Steiner referred toeurythmy as a kind of soul gymnastics,and indeed this is what it feels like!Eurythmy is a spiritual path throughwhich we transform what is mostunconscious in us—our movement. Wecan consider the movement not only ofour physical body but of our thoughtsand feelings as well. We are strivingto awaken our whole being, from thedepths of our heart to the tips of ourfingers, and to express through our bodieswhat is shining within us, once it hasbeen awak ened. The women in our classhave sacrificed much for the love of thisart form, eurythmy, and for the mostpart the world around us has noidea what we are up to! It is quietwork here in a little valley and weare slowly growing from seeds intoflowers, offering our colors and fragrancesto the world. Each one ofus has a special message to bring.This summer, our class will havethe opportunity to visit Dornach,Switzerland and perform on theworld stage of eurythmy at acon ference at the Goetheanum.As many as fifteen schools fromaround the world will show workfrom their graduation programsin many different lan guages andstyles.The only thing we are still missingto make our trip possi ble areall the funds! Our class has heldseveral fundraisers: craft activitiesfor children, lec tures by specialguests, a jazz café, a raffle, andVictoria Sandler, for the class of 2009more events and some lovely concertsto come. We have also mailed out adetailed fundraising letter to family,friends, and community members. Alongstanding friend of eurythmy hasoffered a $1500 challenge grant. As weare still short of our goal, we are hopingto meet his generous challenge.Some may still have the question thatour donor posed to us: “Why does thegraduating class go to Dornach? Whynot somewhere else less expensive,or perhaps more fun, like Paris?” Wefelt that it would be good to share ourreasons with everyone.First, when you are pursuing a relativelyunheard-of art form (considerthat we are the only sixteen women inthis coun try graduating with a diplomain eurythmy this year!), it is importantto see as much as possible in order tobe inspired and feel that artistic eurythmyis alive and well. In Dornach we willmeet many students and professionalswho support our efforts, and throughmutual enthusiasm new capacities willsurely develop.The Goetheanum building and thesurrounding area are very special toanyone working out of anthroposophy.It is a sacred and symbolic place wheremany eurythmists and great personalitieshave worked and made contributionsto the work of anthroposophy.Also, the first Goetheanumwas built by Rudolf Steiner, withthe help of an international crew, atthe same time that eurythmy cameto birth. Steiner describes that forhim the Goetheanum and eurythmycame from the same source ofinspiration. How exciting, therefore,for us to visit and move in aplace that is itself full of eurythmyin design and intent.We believe that in Dornach wecan offer our work in a place thatwill receive and nourish it, andperhaps even bless it as we carry itout into every corner of the world.[The graduates should be in Dornachas you read this! To offer help,contact Eurythmy Spring Valley at(845) 352-5020 x13.]22 Evolving News for Members & Friends

Exploring The Threefold Nervous SystemAnthroposophical Medical Conference, July 9-12, Stonehill CollegePAAM (Physicians’ Association for Anthroposophical Medicine) and AAMTA (the association for anthroposophical health professionals)are holding their annual conference at the site of the Rudolf Steiner Institute, in Easton, MA, south of Boston, from theevening of Thursday, July 9th through noon on Sunday, July 12th. A meeting for members of the First Class and Medical Section ofthe School for Spiritual Science will precede the conference on the 9th. Call 410-358-0050 or email reg@steinerinstitute.org for moreinformation and to register.The threefoldedness of the nervous system will be studied from different therapeutic perspectives to get an insight into its roleas bearer of soul and spirit. Presenters include Branko Fuerst, MD, on the peripheral nervous system; Cathy Sims-O’Neil, DO, onthe central nervous system; Gerald Karnow, MD, on the autonomic nervous system; Jef Saunders on art therapy; Miriam Karnow oneurythmy; Marion Van Namen on music therapy; and Elisabeth Sustick, RN, LMT, on rhythmical massage.From Fundamentals of TherapyAnthroposophic medicine andby Rudolf Steiner and Ita Wegman,therapies constitute a holistic andMD:human-centered approach to healingand understanding human ill-“The etheric body is predominantlyactive in the sympatheticness. These approaches recognizenervous system, which is presentand utilize modern medicine’s vastthroughout the digestive organs.information and rigorous methodology.Each anthroposophicThe nerve organs concerned areessentially organs that are live bytherapist is fully credentialed innature. The astral and the I organizationdo not organize them fromThe anthroposophic approachhis/her profession.inside but from outside. This meansgoes further than conventionalthat the influence of the I and astralmodern therapeutics, addingorganization active in these nerveknowledge of the laws of the livingorgans is powerful. Affects and passionshave a continuous, significantspirit. This knowledge is derivedorganism, the psyche, and theeffect on the sympathetic system.from a spiritual scientific methodology,which expands on conven-Worry and cares will graduallydestroy it.tional science. It requires—besides“The astral organization is predominantlyactive in the nervousand moral development requiredthe ongoing professional, personal,system in the spinal marrow withof every true health professional—all its branches. This makes it theOrpheus, by Odilon Redon (1840-1916)an active meditative life.vehicle for the soul aspect of the human being, of reflexThis inner activity leads to a deepened capacity forprocesses, but not for anything that happens in the I, in the apprehending the whole human being. Such a meditativeself-aware mind and spirit.journey was outlined by Rudolf Steiner in many books and“The actual cerebral nerves are the ones that are subject lectures, and has been practiced and written about byto the I organization. In them the activities of the ethericmany authors since that time. The result is an integratedand astral organization are less marked. We see that thisimage of the whole human being in illness and health. Thisresults in three regions within the sphere of the total organism.”healing professions. —[From the conferencemakes possible a holistic but also rational approach to theinvitation.]“Joys are gifts of destiny, whichprove their worth in the present.Sufferings, in contrast, aresources of knowledge whosesignificance lies in the future.”— Rudolf SteinerGA 40, p. 252The International Annual Conference of theMedical Section at the Goetheanumin Dornach, Switzerland,September 17–20, 2009Cancer: Diagnostics and TherapyMedical, Artistic and Spiritual ApproachesInformation available at paam.net, “Calendar of Events”Oncology inAnthroposophicMedicineSpring-Summer 200923

Images of Self: Painting the TreeActive Participation in the Processes of Growing and Becoming through Dynamic Watercolor PaintingPhoebe AlexanderDynamic watercolor painting is a therapeutic modality usingthe wet-on-wet method of bringing liquid color onto moistenedpaper. Its purpose is to create an experience of—and to (re-)establishan inner resonance with—the fluid, formative processesassociated with life and development. We share these processeswith the rest of the natural world. These developmental processesof life are most visible in the metamorphoses and transformationsof plants, and in animal embryonic development. Theyare manifestations of our etheric, or life body.Color and music may both be seen as nonverbal languageswith correspondences to our feelings, emotions, and moods,and to the moods of nature. They are languages of the soul (orpsyche or astral body). They “speak” to us—we feel “moved” bythem. The resonance between our inner world of feeling andthe moods of outer nature is universal to human experience.Color as mood even appears as idiom in our various languages;feeling blue, seeing red, seeing things in a rosy light, and so on.Further, the seasons of the year, the time of day, the phases oflife, all share resonance with one another as color-mood qualitiesof developmental processes. We can see these relationshipsbroadly sketched as follows:Spring Summer Autumn WinterSunrise Midday Sunset NightAwakening Active Tired SleepingUnfolding Open Closing DormantSprouting Growing Fruit-bearing Seed DispersalBirth Youth Adulthood DeathWarming Hot Cooling ColdLight Bright Dimming DarkNewPotentialFullnessof BeingFulfilledFutureImpulsesBringing these archetypal qualitative relationships intoconscious alignment in the imagination through brief discussionbefore a painting session strengthens the exercise and makesthe resulting images more potent.The term dynamic implies energy, activity, movement (bothinner and outer)—it denotes an activating principle. Throughthis therapeutic painting method, healthy developmental lifeprocesses (such as, in this case, the growth of a tree) are recreatedon the paper through movement of color and form, activatingthe resonance between inner and outer, and mirroring (orimprinting) the healthy process within.Dynamic watercolor painting is based on the premise thathealthy images and processes that are taken up into the soullife through an individual’s own active participation—willedactivity—work in a corrective/self-corrective manner, graduallyreplacing the unhealthy or damaged process with a healthy one.This painting method engages individuals in rhythmic andharmonious experiences that strengthen their etheric/formativeforces and make them aware of their inner connection to theworld. The process can be seen as a reeducation of the inner lifeof the individual through a form of guided imagery.With the image of the tree we experience not only a profoundconnection to its threefold nature—its roots firmly anchoredand seeking sustenance in the darkness and depths, the strengthand verticality of its trunk, and the outward-reaching, shelteringlimbs that interface and breathe with the environment—we alsofeel an equally deep connection to the developmental processesthat give the tree its life and form and that will continue to bethe source of its unfolding potential into the future.Since the root of much of our somatic illness is the psyche,dynamic painting of the tree, an image of how we perceiveourselves as living, developing beings in the world, serves as apsychosomatic therapy.Guiding the ProcessA developmental process takes place in time between pastand future; it is a metamorphic process, that is, the idea or goalof the process is already embodied in the starting point ofthe impulse, as the idea of the oak is already in the acorn. Indynamic watercolor painting of the tree, we know what we aregoing to paint before we begin. How we get there, the process, isthe developmental journey of our painting exercise.In our lives, just as with the tree, there are periodic wintersand springs, periods of dormancy and of new growth leadingtoward an eventual fulfillment of purpose; the sprouting acornbecomes a magnificent tree, the fetus becomes an infant, andthe infant becomes an adult, fulfilling the purpose of the species.And in the human, that purpose is fulfilled in the developmentof individuality.As humans, we have become increasingly individualized beingswith a purpose distinct from the purely biological goals ofour genes—and we need to seek this purpose within our ownindividual biographies (the human developmental process) inorder to experience a true sense of self, and the connectednessof that self to other selves within human society. The idea thatthe life of each individual is not only purposeful but uniquelypurposeful, and, as with the image of the tree, will develop andunfold over time, is both life-affirming and self-affirming.Yet unlike the tree in nature, we as ego-beings need to unfoldthe seeds of our individual strivings with increasing intentionality.That means becoming active participants in our owndevelopment and in our own healing. The image of the living,growing, solitary tree is therefore offered as a kind of modelingclay into which we project ourselves quite visibly, and in whichwe can then effect change through our willed activity accordingto our own individual capacity to see “what is wrong with thispicture.”Spring-Summer 200925

“‘Which color is cold darkness?’ I’ve always loved this strong and stout tree on the left, by avery petite lady in her 80s—petite, but not to be messed with! The tree at right is a tad moreelegant, by a young adult female. I don’t speak of age or temperament in the article…”Step 2 of the Painting Exercise: Creating the Atmosphere—Seasonal Mood and Inner MoodSeasonal mood and daily weather determine what colors are offered—each seasonhas its own palette of color and hue. Our inner mood or weather, affected by ourphysical and mental health, emotional state, as well as individual temperament, willdetermine how we use those colors—in what proportion and intensity. Given a warmsummer palette, it is entirely possible for an individual to produce a verywintery looking scene. But the elderly, who find themselves in the winteryears of their lives, and who often take particular pleasure in paintingwinter scenes, are not particularly prone to winterizing a summer scene.Interestingly, chronological age seems to have little effect when it comesto inner mood-states. A winteriness would need to have penetrated intothe soul, not just the physical body, for this to occur. In fact, many elderlypeople experience themselves as quite youthful; and all of us have knownperiods of inner bleakness. A winter mood can also embody deep peaceand serenity. Each season of the year, and every conceivable manifestationof weather, finds its reflection in the human soul.While the colors are being handed out and before we begin painting, wehave a brief discussion of the qualities of the current season and weather.In an effort to bring the colors before us into a living relationship with thequality of mood we are about to paint, I will ask, “Which color is warmsunlight? Which color is cold darkness?” and so on, so that as much aspossible we will be painting with mood qualities rather than paints. (Illustrationsabove.) I then give descriptive pictures, such as “the sky is stormyand dark,” or “bright warm sunlight shines onto the cold spring earth.” Itis rare for someone not to know what color I am referring to or what to dowith it. The color in our cups is now no longer only the blue or yellow ofour subjective meaning, but embraces an objective universality as well—weget a picture of the mood that’s in the air.When we paint the atmosphere, our papers are quite wet. This makesit possible for the colors to flow into one another and to be moved easilyacross the paper without becoming fixed. Working this way from outof an archetypal image (bright, warm sunlight) rather than out of anintellectual concept (yellow), painting is a pure expression of our feelingand breathing (of our heart and lungregions). Painting at this stage is veryfree, mobile, and airy, and we have theleast control over the fluid element.With dementia, stroke, mental retardation,and other conditions in whicha cognitive or physical deficit impairsan individual’s ability to control theapplication and intensity of color, predilutedcolor is offered. I always testthe strength of the colors in relation toone another ahead of time to insure apleasing, positive aesthetic experiencefor those who would otherwise experiencefrustration and ineptness—bothvery counterproductive reactions.This intervention reduces the likelihoodof ugly and unsatisfying results.We want people to enjoy the activity,look forward to future sessions withanticipation, and reap real therapeuticvalue from the ongoing process.Nourishment, Sustenance,and the GardenA tree is always in a landscape.While trees generally grow in forestswhere the group has dominance overthe individual, the solitary individualtree—the individualized tree withwhich we identify—always standsA tree painting made after suffering a stroke.Spring-Summer 200927

alone (or in a small family group) on cleared or cultivated land.Many of these trees have been planted for shelter, food, orbeauty. The landscape, the garden in which the tree grows, hasbeen tended by human hands and is the chief source of sustenancefor the solitary tree. The tree can achieve its full potentialonly when there is a garden to nourish it—when it is rooted ina sustaining substrate. The image of the tree, then, cannot beseparated from the image of the garden. It is our garden, ourinner resources—our capacity (as adults) to self-nurture—thatfeeds or starves our developing selves.Step 3 of the Painting Exercise:Establishing Terra Firma: Creating the Gardenpicture. The portraits we are about to make of our trees will bea window on a moment suspended in time. We recognize ourtree portraits season after season, as we recognize the reflectionof our own changing image in a mirror. Observation hasshown that each individual paints a specific tree that reappearswith almost no deviation in form from season to season (illustrationsbelow and next page center). The trees (as well as paintingstyles) are so individual as to be identifiable with a specificperson, much as one’s handwriting is. And each individual developsa kinship with his or her tree—an intimacy and fondnessthat is only strengthened by repeated seasonal visits. We lookforward to these periodic visits, to seeing how our trees aredoing.Despite our greatest efforts, the trees we paint are often noteverything we would wish them to be. And even when theyTrees by the same artist: Spring, Summer, and (next page) Fall. “Each individual paints a specific tree that reappears...Once the atmosphere of the garden has been established, weare ready to create the landscape. We prepare the garden to receivethe tree. Each individual is encouraged to create a personalgarden. It is the solid, physical ground on which we stand, andit contains the plants, rocks, and other features we choose toplace there. It can be a lush paradise or a barren, rocky hillside.By this time our paintings have dried somewhat and can nowreceive more (or stronger) color. Though still moveable, our colorsnow flow and spread minimally. The placement and blendingof colors is now more controlled and intentional, and the moodin the room has become noticeably inward and meditative.The Tree and the GardenerNow we arrive at the central theme of this exercise: growingthe tree—placing the projected image of ourselves into thegrow beyond our expectations in strength, grace, and beauty,we are somehow still aware of structural anomalies, areas of fragility,parts that are broken, disconnected, or congested (threeillustrations next page, at right). Our trees are as perfect andimperfect as we are.Usually, the healthy part of us feels called upon to heal thatwhich we perceive as ailing in our trees. The awareness ofweakness and the response to heal sets a relationship of caringattentiveness in motion. The trees are ours (even when not consciouslyperceived as being us). We want them to do well.Preceding or following a major event such as stroke (illustrationprevious page, bottom right), onset or lifting of depression,certain changes in medication (illustrations at bottom of page28 Evolving News for Members & Friends

The full form of the tree is now visible,including its size, type, placement,proportions, rootedness, uprightness,solidity, integrity, gesture, the branchingpattern of its crown, and its relationshipto its environment. The archetypaltree image is essentially complete atthis point. We are now ready to bringthe optional seasonal elements of foliage(green or autumnal), flowers, andfruit into our paintings.Foliage, Flowers, and FruitI designate these as optional, becauseit has been my experience thatmany individuals feel satisfaction andcompletion after the intense labor ofbringing the full tree-form into theirpaintings, and either have no wish or noenergy to go further. For these individuals,then, as well as for those who dowish to continue, we pause briefly atthis point in order to look with wonderand admiration at one another’s trees.Everyone is left free, no one feels pressured. Those who are finishedwill sign their paintings and either leave or stay to watch.The formed elements in the painting, the garden and the tree,are initially painted in blue. Blue is the color that is closest todarkness. Matter, physical substance, is impenetrable to lightto varying degrees, and so we use blue, the color of darkness,to give things initial form. Therefore when sunlight (yellow)shines onto the earth (blue), plant life (green) naturally appears.Likewise, when our trees (blue) are warmed by the sun(orange-red), they become brown, as does the warmed earththat is visible to us. In the same way, the foliage growing fromthe branches of our summer tree (blue) into the surroundingheat and brilliance (warm yellow) of a summer day, becomesat once a rich green canopy. As in nature, the branches insummer become clothed with a mantle of green, and the tree’sform is no longer clearly visible. And, just as the real tree doesnot bypass making branches to produce foliage, it is fromthe branches of our trees that the foliage grows. Not only arewe being true to a natural process in painting our trees thisway, but we get to see their underlying form regardless of theseason.In autumn we condense and trap the sunset colors of thesky (visible through the branches of the tree) into the rich,warm, and often fiery foliage of the crown. Our autumn treeglows against a background that echoes its mood. In spring, welikewise condense the soft, pastel tints of wafting fragrance orof sunrise (visible through the branches of the tree) into a blossomingcrown of varying delicate hues.Although fruit is mentioned in our seasonal, pre-paintingdiscussions, I have never specifically requested it. Fruit oftenappears spontaneously in the paintings of some individuals,and men as well as women will ask if they may also add fruit totheir trees. While the appearance of fruit may sometimes representone’s offspring, bearing fruit in one’s life can also be seenas the fertile culmination of a particular period of struggle and“These were both painted shortly before a woman’s death from cancer; they show an increasedletting go. The second painting (right) shows the tree in a “weeping” version.“growth for an individual, and at the same time the beginning ofnew impulses toward the future: fruits contain seeds. One of mymost enthusiastic painters was ninety-nine years old. He developeda zest for life he claimed was lacking in his younger years.His spirit seemed ageless.Spring-Summer 200931

Closing CommentThe therapeutic approach described here developed into itscurrent form through my work with a group of elderly membersand mildly developmentally delayed young adults at the RudolfSteiner Fellowship Community in Chestnut Ridge, New York;with adults attending the self-development seasonal tree paintingworkshops I offered at the New York Branch of the AnthroposophicalSociety; and from workshops offered at therapeuticrecreation conferences. Much more can be said about thetherapeutic value of this work, just as more can be read fromthe content and mood of the paintings, but that is beyond thescope of this article.About the Author: Phoebe Alexander received her diploma inanthroposophic art therapy from “De Wervel,” Academie vor KunstzinnigTherapie, The Netherlands; training in Waldorf pedagogy/remedial pedagogy from Emerson College in England; certificatesin gardening and horticulture from the New York Botanical Garden,Bronx, NY; and her MSEd in therapeutic recreation educationfrom Lehman College, CUNY. She maintained a weekly therapeuticpainting group at the Fellowship Community for about 15 years,and has offered courses and workshops on this and other areas ofanthroposophical art therapy at the New York Branch of the AnthroposophicalSociety, at conferences, and other venues. Anyoneseeking further information on the topic of this article or on otheraspects of anthroposophical art therapy should feel free to contacther directly at 212-744-0257 or phoebe@artopathy.com. For moreinformation about anthroposophical art therapy in North America,go to www.aaatna.org.Anticipating the NorthPhilip Thatcher, General Secretary for CanadaThis August 1-8, participants from many countries will cometogether in Whitehorse, Yukon, for the week-long conferenceEncircling Light–Expectant Silence [encirclinglight.ca]. As I continueto prepare for this week, it seems good to bring together intentions,questions, insights, and nuances from some of those whowill take part in it.When Edna Cox from Port Alberni, British Columbia, traveledto Whitehorse in August 2006 to begin preparing for the conference,she wondered “just how my anticipation of the north and itsreality would fit together.” Such a question may also live in otherparticipants, especially Canadians for whom “north” is a strongimagination of who they are, yet one that can seem remote fromwhere they actually live. In the words of Alexandra Günther, aworkshop leader from Ontario, “Central to my long-standing wishto be part of something like this is the question: What is it aboutthe north that draws us there, we who are not its creatures? Andwhat is the idea of north in the Canadian mind and heart, and inother people who have never been there?”Canadians carry varied, powerful, and conflicting images oftheir north, a fact that has fueled countless books, articles andworks of art. Yet certain images are pervasive. West Vancouverparticipant Robbie Black pictures a drive northward from Edmonton,Alberta. The city falls behind, then the farms, then the lastcluster of houses, until only the forest lies ahead: “When the carcomes to rest, the silence descends…a subtle awareness emergesof all that lies in hiding, out of sight of the casual glance.”Other participants are drawn northward by the silencesthey intuit from or have experienced in that part of the globe.Marjorie Nordås, a Canadian now teaching at the NorstrandSchool just south of Oslo, once traveled northward with a groupfrom an army base in Toronto: “We made a performance rightup between Russia and Canada, at a base called Alert. I was 20years old but it was my first strong experience of the light, andwhat touched us most was the silence.”Jef Saunders, who emigrated from Britain to Toronto, is alsodrawn to the “expansive light-filled days” and “deep, yet expectantsilence”; he also wonders what spiritual intentions might behidden in that landscape, waiting to be drawn out. Or are theseintentions hidden in ourselves, waiting to be unveiled within thisnorthern setting? At the close of the nineteenth century, prospectorsfrom around the world flooded into the Yukon looking forgold. Workshop leader Anthony Perzel, who is concerned with understandingthe activity of elemental beings in the north’s mineralwealth and Luciferic and Ahrimanic influences in our exploitationof it, observes: “The seeking of precious metals and diamonds isanalogous to seeking the ‘precious’ within ourselves.”For at least two participants, the conference will provide acontext for understanding the importance of the places wherethey live. Olga Kornienko from Ekaterinburg, Russia, writes:“Here in the middle of the Urals we have extreme variations oftemperature, from -40C to +40C, with northern snowy wintersand hot southern summers. The mountain range itself looks alot like a spinal column; in the history of Russia it always playeda spinal role. People here are strong and courageous, especiallythe women. Being a barrier and a gate, the Urals gathered dif-32 Evolving News for Members & Friends

ferent peoples and religions. So too, meeting different peoplefrom different parts of our planet helps you to meet yourself andknow your native land better; the other side of the earth reflectsyour own land.”And from Anchorage, Alaska, Mary Lee Plumb-Mentjes, withher Fairbanks colleague Lisa Del Alba, is trying to understandAlaska’s spiritual meaning in the world by observing its landscape,the angle of the sun, the caricatures of its people in thepress, its 50th anniversary as a state of the United States: “Howare we the same as and different from other northern lands?The not knowing is exciting. This is my first explicit, prolongedanthroposophical research; it is also very daunting.”For Jorun Carlsen of Tønsberg, Norway, the conference couldbe an opportunityto carry forwardmany years ofresearch, as anextension of Nordicanthroposophicalsummer conferencesheld in Scandinaviaand Finlandand later, Iceland,since 1949: “NowI feel this impulsehas expanded tothe American continent,to Canada,and maybe nexttime it will be theNordic East—inRussia. Nothingshould be static;it has to changeaccording to thetime. I feel it is veryimportant that we anthroposophists connect to and cooperatein a conscious way with the spiritual world in different places inthe world.”On a similar note, Marie Kolmos of Copenhagen, Denmark,wonders: “I’m curious about what a conference in the northcould be like: Are anthroposophical thoughts and themes differentfrom ones in the south of Europe? What can happen in anorthern conference not held in a Scandinavian context?”One contrast is evident: A conference hosted at 60 degreeslatitude in the Nordic countries is supported by the presence ofthe Anthroposophical Society, anthroposophical initiatives andone hundred years of anthroposophical activity. Virtually all ofFinland lies north of 60 degrees, as does most of Norway andmuch of Sweden. Iceland has only a few members of the societyand one Waldorf school and biodynamic farm, but all are activenorth of 60 degrees; so too in Alaska, with the Waldorf schoolin Anchorage and the four members of the School of SpiritualScience in Fairbanks who meet weekly to work with the classlessons. In Canada there is a single anthroposophical initiativeat 60 degrees—the Waldorf preschool Chalia Tuzlak cares for inWhitehorse, where she has lived for twenty years. After havingto travel thousands of miles over that time to go to pedagogicalconferences elsewhere, Chalia is amazed and excited about theconference that will be held on her doorstep this coming summer:“Some people call me a keeper of the flame in this part ofthe world, but with no one to discuss thoughts on an anthroposophicallevel, I haven’t had many opportunities to grow on thatpath. So for me this conference is an opportunity to gain a newunderstanding of what supports my everyday life, as well as anew perspective of the north.”Two further themes gleam through the thoughts of participants.One is a wish to meet and interact with First Nationspeoples for whom the north is their homeland—an intentionand responsibility acutely felt by Seija Zimmermann and PaulMackay when they met last August in Whitehorse with thecouncil of the society in Canada. For Jonitha and Paul Hasse ofHillsdale, New York,a meeting with FirstNations friendsstands in thecontext of a largerquestion raised bythe failure of Europeancultures “tolisten, to learn, tohonor and to sharethe spiritual gifts ofdifferent peoples.”The secondtheme is that ofdiscovering theChrist in a new way:How can the lightand silence andexpansive landscapeof the northsupport an expandingand deepeningunderstanding ofthe etheric Christ in our time? In the words of a participant wholives near Edmonton:I have never been to the NorthThis in itself is reason enough to go.There is a mystery about this place—undiscovered truthswaiting to be understood.From hence the Christ is coming,Christ in the Earth,Christ in us.Last summer I stood at midnight on a bluff north of the ArcticCircle, overlooking the Inuit hamlet of Kugluktuk and the ArcticOcean at Coronation Gulf. The sun hovered a few degrees abovethe northern horizon—as if it were about to return to the placefrom which it once left the earth. Yet after a time sunset becamesunrise; the sun journeyed back into the sky, as if to remind methat Christ-sun comes to the north along another path, the pathof warm, human activity.And from Paul Mackay: “This conference in Whitehorse isof a special nature... Every step was silently contemplated andcarefully designed; the contacts with those involved were takencare of in a most human way. All this creates a wonderful basisfor the conference to unfold: May the encircling light shine overthis conference!”Spring-Summer 200933

What are the essential tasks of the Anthroposophical Society?This is a question that has occupied the general secretaries intheir meetings for two sessions, most recently again in our Aprilmeetings in Dornach. The executive council had prepared fouraspects for our conversations:Experiencing the “destiny of the age” through the humanencounter. To quote from Paul Mackay: “Anthroposophy itselfmust be understood as something with its own living quality.Anthroposophy knocks at the door of the heart and says: ‘Letme in, for I am your true human being!’ This being is not givenby nature – it must be sought by human beings though study,practical schooling, and meditative deepening. The AnthroposophicalSociety is meant to prepare the ground for this work.This deepened self-knowledge leads to an experiential understandingof karma and reincarnation. Self-knowledge becomesworld-knowledge. Life itself becomes an expression of karmicrelationships.”Accessing the inherent “I am.” A characteristic of ourMichaelic age is that self-knowledge leads us increasingly to aNews for Members is published four times a year by theAnthroposophical Society in America1923 Geddes Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1797Tel. 734-662-9355 Fax 734-662-1727 www.anthroposophy.orgEditor: John H. BeckAssociate Editors: Judith Soleil, Fred DennehyPlease send submissions, questions and comments to:editor@anthroposophy.org or to the postal address above.©2009 The Anthroposophical Society in AmericaThe responsibility for the content of articles is the authors’.Dear Members and Friends...The Anthroposophical Societyin AmericaGeneral Council MembersTorin Finser (General Secretary)MariJo Rogers (General Secretary)Gordon EdwardsJames LeeRegional Council RepresentativesLori Barian (Central Region)Linda Connell (Western Region)Ann Finucane (Eastern Region)Marian León, Director of Administration& Membership ServicesWinnie Han, Director of Financial ServicesJerry Kruse, Treasurergreater connection to the inherent “I am.” Since the crucifixion,when Christ’s blood poured into the earth, the greater “I am”of the Christ can be experienced in humanity in general. Thisbecomes a creative force toward a new universal culture.The reappearance of the Christ in the etheric. To quoteSergei Prokofieff, “The whole of anthroposophy can be seen asa preparation. It is a modern path on which the spiritualizationof human thoughts can begin to consciously penetrate into theworld of imagination where the etheric Christ can be perceivedtoday.How can we read the signs of our times? Today peopleeverywhere are confronted with social and personal situationsthat cannot be understood without the benefit of spiritual insight.How can we help decipher what is being asked of us, andhow can we respond?These themes are further developed in recent issues ofAnthroposophy Worldwide, which is readily available to readersonline through the society’s web page (goetheanum.org).In addition to these ongoing conversations, we heard reportson the mystery dramas, society finances, and the recent meetingsof the executive council and collegium with Judith von Halle.Many of us had a chance to experience the new productionson the large stage that demonstrate Rudolf Steiner’s attemptto give form to the inner life of the human being. In regard tofinances, many questions were raised as to the future support ofthe society given stable or declining membership (minus about1,000 last year); the decline of unrestricted donations; and theever-present needs to repair and maintain the building that sovividly represents anthroposophy on the earth.In her report on recent meetings with Judith von Halle, ElizabethWirsching (head of the youth section) spoke of how we canstrive to get beyond sensationalism and find perspective in freedom.She warned of the danger of polarization and the potentialfor factions to develop among different points of view. She askedwhat it might mean as a sign of our time that so many membershave responded to this call to meet the Christ?Regarding more external matters, we heard that the AktionELIANT has now gathered 720,000 signatures in their petitionto the European authorities regarding homeopathic remediesand alternative approaches to healing. More signatures arestill needed to reach one million, so please participate! We alsoheard about further efforts to transform the publications of thesociety arising in Dornach, and I was able to circulate our EvolvingNews for Members and Friends just off the press. It receivedmany positive reviews.Finally, I want to draw your attention to several importantevents in the future: We have in the year ahead the 100thanniversary of the St. Mark’s group in New York City; in 2011the 150th anniversary of Rudolf Steiner’s birth, and in 2012 aplanned conference in Ann Arbor with the executive council,most likely the first week of August 2012. We have set as a tentativetheme Health and Illness. So please mark your calendars.Sincerely,Torin M FinserGeneral Secretary34 Evolving News for Members & Friends

Study Theme of the year 2009 / 2010Thinking of the Heart as an Organ of Perceptionfor Development and MetamorphosisBy Johannes Kühl for the Collegium of the School of Spiritual Science in Dornach, SwitzerlandThe theme of evolution is present everywhere this year.The occasion is the commemoration of the anniversary ofCharles Darwin‘s book The Origin of Species and his birthday200 years ago. To begin with, we associate Darwinismin an anthroposophical context with the frightening battleof existence and a materialistic world view. Conversely,his insight into natural evolution was to Rudolf Steinerone of the three conditions for the appearance of modernspiritual science (Notes for Eduard Schuré, Sept 1907 fromthe so called “Barr document”, GA 262 - Rudolf Steiner andMarie Steiner-von Sivers: Correspondence and Documents1901-1925). Further, Rudolf Steiner speaks in his lecture of1913 about “a deeper understanding of Christianity thatlies in Darwinism” and that “in our time the Darwinisticimpulses are born out of the Christ impulse” (GA 148, TheFifth Gospel). We would like to take this anniversary as anopportunity to propose a deepening of the theme of evolution.In addition, we want to advance the idea that themany controversial thoughts regarding this theme livingin our culture today can be complemented by anthroposophy.There is hardly a subject in anthroposophy that doesnot include the theme of evolution, from the developmenttowards a free human being in the great presentationabout the evolution of man and the world to RudolfSteiner’s last great work, the founding of the Free Schoolof Spiritual Science. Ultimately it is all about evolution andself development, one cannot exist without the other! Forthat reason it is noteworthy that the modern idea of evolutiononly came about in the late 18th century throughJohann Gottfried Herder, Johann Wolfgang Goethe andothers.Before this time the word evolution was understoodas the unfolding of something that was already there,in other words, predestined in the original sense of theword. Now it is about a striving to become different, theachievement of something new that was not already there.This is the reason why Goethe avoided the old word asmuch as possible. This new concept of evolution is theone that Darwin picked up on to understand how newspecies come about in the earth evolution. The thought ofevolution taken in this way certainly belongs to the greatachievements of post Christian times.In recent years the themes of the year were connectedwith the thinking of the heart. When you try to observehow you take in and think about evolution or metamorphosis,you can discover that much of what Rudolf Steinerdescribes about the thinking of the heart (March 30, 1910,GA 119, Macrocosm and Microcosm) relates to it. Thinkingabout evolution is not a logical cause and effect but asculptural participation that ends with insight into the relationshipsunder consideration. You can experience thisin a simple sequence of leaves. In this way we are able toconnect with the larger question of evolution. We mentiontwo more questions here.If you have an encompassing view of evolution everythingcan become different, and we know well that RudolfSteiner also describes the evolution of spiritual beings.This means that nothing remains the same. Then againone can only speak of evolution when something remainsthe same, identical with itself. How could one otherwiserecognize in the new phase that which is evolving? Howcould one otherwise speak in the Saturn state about thegerms of human beings? Rudolf Steiner discusses thisquestion from various points of view in the lectures Evolution,Involution and Creation from Nothing (June 17 1909,GA 107 – Spiritual-Scientific Knowledge of the Human Being)and in the lecture Polarity of Duration and Evolution (September15, 1918, GA 184 – The Polarities of Duration andDevelopment in the Life of the Human Being. The CosmicPre-History of Humanity).A completely different aspect opens up when you lookto Darwin for the origin of the thought struggle of existence.Darwin describes how the social scientist [Thomas]Malthus inspired him with that thought. Malthus had observedin the early 19th century something similar in thecapitalistic English industrial society. Thus the thoughtwas not derived from nature but from human behavior.And later, in the 20th century, the thought was reversed tojustify the worst human behavior in the sense that it wasonly natural that the fittest would survive. You also finda connection between social science and natural sciencewith Rudolf Steiner, but reversed: that from the naturalsciences we learn and practice new ways of thinkingwhich can lead to formative ideas that are fruitful in thesocial realm. Rudolf Steiner talks about this connection inthe opening cycle in the First Goetheanum: Boundaries ofNatural Science (GA 322).With all that has been said here, a theme clearly comesto light that penetrates the whole of anthroposophyregarding the concept of evolution. The future of evolutiondepends on how human beings give it form out of freedom!This thought about evolution is worthwhile when itfinds entrance into our present culture.(translated by Jannebeth Röell)Spring-Summer 200935

Creating a Michael Support CircleA time of crisis is very often the birth moment for importantnew initiatives. It is with that awareness that we are proposinga new funding program, the Michael Support Circle, to complementthe membership dues that are our financial foundation.For the Anthroposophical Society in America, the worldwideeconomic crisis comes on top of several years of declining annualincome. For 2009 our deficit before legacies is approximately$50 per member. Over the last year your national council hastaken a number of steps to reverse this situation.»»We have examined and trimmed costs, and our treasurer,Jerry Kruse, a real expert in nonprofit finance, is strengtheningour accounting practices to give a clear focus on meetingcurrent expenses with current income.»»We are also restructuring some of the positions of the AnnArbor office to help us minimize costs and yet help us bettermeet the evolving needs of our membership and the times inwhich we live.»»We commissioned a task force to evaluate, and have undertakenan overhaul of, our communications processes: upgradingthis printed quarterly, adding a monthly news report deliveredby email, and redesigning our website (a project still inprocess), with further ideas in discussion.»»A second task force is examining the purpose, collection andfacility needs of the Rudolf Steiner Library. Its excellent newsletteris being folded into this quarterly where it will reach amuch larger readership.»»At the end of May we will have a meeting of the CAO, Collegiumand General Council to explore enhanced collaborationand mutual understanding among these leadership groups.»»We are making our strategic planning more sustained, and wewant to make it more inclusive of all the representative andleadership groups in the society.»»We are encouraging new approaches to meetings like thisfall’s AGM, and we have scheduled another very special nationalconference for early August 2012 with the full executivecouncil from Dornach.These steps the council has taken are important, but evenmore important is the continuing creative work and success ofindividuals and groups around the country. The many visibleinitiatives out of anthroposophy—artistic, therapeutic, educational,ecological, agricultural, social, financial, and spiritual—are deepening and extending their work and services. Recognitionof this work has been growing. And the research work inthe sections of the School for Spiritual Science continues to gainstrength.Now we are all further challenged by the global economiccrisis—but this is a time when anthroposophical research,insights, and practical experience are even more valuable andneeded.At this challenging moment we need two things from everyfriend and member. One is for you to participate fully and fearlesslyin the new initiatives and community building that arespringing up quite remarkably both from young people engagedwith anthroposophy, and from many established groups as well.Participate in groups and meetings, use and support the new resources,and make new connections with those around the USAand beyond who share your particular interests and concerns.Our second need is for you to reaffirm your financial support.Everyone can help. Many anthroposophists have very limitedresources, but the deed that stands behind the smallest giftremains both economically and spiritually important.There are also members and friends who can increase theirfinancial commitment. Ernst Katz, MariJo Rogers, and I arepersonally contacting individuals who we feel might be able tojoin in this effort. We propose to create a circle of donors who arewilling and able to invest in the society at this difficult time. Aswe work to improve the society’s work and the fabric of the life ofanthroposophy in this country, we hope that the members of thisMichael Support Circle would help overcome our operating shortfallby pledging an annual unrestricted donation of at least $1,000through at least the next five years. If you can consider joiningthis effort and haven’t yet heard from Ernst, MariJo, or myself,feel free to contact any one of us through the national office.We stand at a critical juncture in world affairs and in ourAnthroposophical Society. As we continue our building and rebuildingefforts, a budget that is truly balanced would allow usto turn our full attention to the essential tasks of the society andbecome more visible and active through member initiatives andthe human encounter. I am convinced there are many peoplewho want to work with us, if only we can become more visibleand active!Torin M FinserGeneral SecretaryThe Annual Members’ Meetingof the Anthroposophical Society in Americawill be held on Sunday, October 4, 2009 at theThreefold Auditorium, 285 Hungry Hollow Rd.,Chestnut Ridge, New York. The meeting willbegin at 9:00 a.m. and conclude at 1:00 p.m.Members are invited to submit proposalsto be considered for the meeting. Items forconsideration may be addressed to the GeneralCouncil and must be submitted in writing andsent via first-class mail postmarked by August4, 2009 at the latest. Send your request to theSociety office at 1923 Geddes Avenue, AnnArbor, Michigan 48104.Thank you.36 Evolving News for Members & Friends

On April 4, the Eastern Regional Council met in Spring Valleywith representatives from regional branches and organizations.The idea of celebrating festivals along a common themearose during planning for the 2009 Annual General Meetingconference, which will be held the weekend immediately followingMichaelmas Day this year. Like the adage “think globally,act locally,” the idea of embarking on a common themeduring a festival holds the possibility for local institutions,branches, and communities to connect across geographicaldistances. Might we share our thoughts and plans for thisyear’s Michaelmas celebration and perhaps discover somecommon threads that weave in response to the needs of ourtime?While seeking a theme to bridge multiple activities, wetook note of the General Anthroposophical Society’s themefor 2009/10: Heart Thinking as Organ of Perception for Developmentand Metamorphosis. There are two late-summerconferences planned in Spring Valley: Inner Transformationand Social Renewal with Gary Lamb, August 8-11, and ThePortal of Initiation and Its Relationship to Goethe’s FairyTale, August 12-16. The Annual General Meeting conferenceOctober 2-4 is titled Creating Living Connections: ChristianRosenkreutz and the Social Impulse.One bridging thought might be the theme of point and periphery,expressed by the fact that only through the transformationof the individual can the world be changed. Conversely,self-transformation becomes spiritual egotism unless it isperformed in service to the whole of humanity. We transformourselves in service to the world to transform the world.Rudolf Steiner speaks about the importance of renewingthe festivals. Particularly, he tells of how a renewed Michaelmascelebrated in a way that speaks to the whole human Gemütwould be the solution to the social problems of our day.How can we find a way to help one another, regionally andnationally, to develop such a festival celebration?How can we bring the spirit of that celebration to the AnthroposophicalSociety’s annual meeting in October?Jordan Walker (Jordan@threefold.org) for the AGMConference Planning Committee, Spring Valley.Spring-Summer 200937

Eastern Regional Council Meeting in Spring ValleyOn Palm Sunday weekend (April 3-5), the five members of theEastern Regional Council(ERC) met in Spring Valley April 3-5.There was great enthusiasm in the exchanges and much beingplanned around the region in the coming year.Part of the work was to meet with members from the ThreefoldBranch, NYC Branch, the Michaelic Group from Connecticut,the Youth Movement, the 2009 AGM conference planners,and with Barbara Renold to hear about the August MysteryDrama conference. Spring Valley will be bustling with activityfrom August through October beginning with a workshop withGary Lamb (“Social Transformation,” August 8-12) and includingan art and science exhibit. This will lead into the MysteryDrama conference August 12-16. Barbara Renold will be directingboth Steiner’s Portal of Initiationand Goethe’s Fairy Tale; sheobserved that the Portal will beperformed on the 99th anniversaryof the first performance ofthe play. [See more informationon both conferences on page 47.]The October AGM will takeplace at the time of Michaelmas.Ray Manacas shared somethoughts about Michaelmas andits importance. This year theAGM conference will be opento friends, as well as membersof the society and there willbe a talk by Virginia Sease formembers only with pink cardsrequired. An alternative lectureby Torin Finser at the same timewill be open to all. All agreedwith the suggestion that a waybe found to begin connectingthe Michaelmas festivals takingplace across the country inmembers’ consciousness. [SeeJordan Walker’s thoughts on theprevious page.]Also discussed were ERCplans for a full day “communicationssummit” on Saturday,May 23 that will bring togethermany people from the regionwho are involved with communicationsto talk with John Beckabout how there can be greater collaboration and exchange ofinformation.Another item of discussion among ERC members was thepossibility of adding two more members to the council. The ideawould be that instead of the entire council visiting just one ortwo areas per year, its members would travel in pairs to areasclose to them, saving on travel expenses and visiting moregroups more frequently.Left to right: Ed Scherer of Long Island, NY; Herbert Hagensof Princeton, NJ; Kathleen Wright of Durham, NC, who joinedthe Council in Spring 2008; Ruth Bruns of Harlemville, NY, whojoined in Fall 2008; and Ann Finucane of Washington, DC.Walter Alexander announced that this year is the 100th anniversaryof the oldest continuing anthroposophical group inAmerica, the St. Mark’s Group. The New York Branch is planninga celebration in March and Virginia Sease has been invited tospeak. Suggestions were voiced to begin planning a week longcelebration.During the afternoon’s conversation the wish surfaced to consciouslyhold and form a bridge from the summer activities andthe AGM to what is formed for the 100th anniversary celebrationin New York City in March, and then to continue to consciouslyconnect the fruits of those events to future activities.Many other items were discussed or mentioned during themeeting: What should be done when factions arise over controversialindividualities; or thingsare published that are contraryto what Rudolf Steiner said; orthe society or a particular memberis criticized? What should acommunity do when membersare giving time and energy todaughter movements but littleif any to the society? How canwe bring the many spiritualstreams within anthroposophyinto greater harmony and reachthe Michaelic groups out inthe world with whom we sharecommon goals? Which brancheshave their own web sites andwhat are they? The nationalwebsite expects soon to havea page for each branch in thecountry. Should the ERC contactnew members, and how?How does our outreach work?How about starting an Easternregion speakers’ bureau?As is typical, the mostinteresting conversations wereheld among individuals duringthe snack breaks. This writer[KW] posed a question to youthmovement representative JordanWalker about why it is thatyears ago, the youth and theolder members worked togetherand now there seem to be twoseparate movements within the society. Jordan said that hehears this question all the time. We both agreed that we needto work together more, as we both have different things to offereach other, each vital to the society’s future.During the AGM in October, the ERC will be available for anyonewho wants to meet, in the Threefold Auditorium during theSaturday lunch break.(Combined from reports by Kathleen Wright and Ed Scherer forthe Eastern Regional Council.)38 Evolving News for Members & Friends

An Appeal From the GoetheanumDear Members and Friends,As with the seasons of the year, the Goetheanum reflects anin- and out-breathing rhythm in regard to the world Society.This is essential for its possibility to perceive and supportanthroposophy in its manifold expressions worldwide. TheGoetheanum frequently hosts diverse initiatives and theirrepresentatives from around the world in conferences, meetingsand professional trainings; a kind of in-breathing. And there isongoing active engagement from the Goetheanum with theserepresentatives and concerns in all parts of the world. Bothcontribute to a strengthening process of anthroposophy that isessential for the Society and movement.One aspect of this rhythm is the renewed engagement withRudolf Steiner’s Mystery Dramas. This is an artistic and researchundertaking of significant proportions, giving expressionto essential anthroposophical content in artistic form. TheGoetheanum may be the only place in the world that one canhope and expect to experience the four Mystery Dramas in theirentirety on a regular basis.However, this needs a commensurate financial commitment.The work on the Dramas is not subsidized through state or governmentagencies. It needs to be carried by the financial will andenthusiasm of members, friends and institutions! For 2009, withthe presentation of three Dramas, the Goetheanum has commitmentsthat need to be covered through extra fundraising effortsof 1.1 million Sfr. We must therefore turn to members and friendswith a request for additional financial support. We have alreadybeen enormously encouraged by challenge grants totallingAnthroposophy NYCCenterpointThe New York Branch d 212-242-8945138 West 15th Street, New York CityA friendly anthroposophical oasis in the heart of NYCLectures, workshops–see the calendar listings; weekly andmonthly study groups, eurythmy, drawing, singing classesThe Rudolf Steiner Bookstore—NYC’s largest stock of booksby Rudolf Steiner, on Waldorf education and more—call forhours... Gallery 138—art exhibits through the year...Visit www.asnyc.org for our schedules, sign up fore-news, and come visit when you are in the city!250,000 Sfr. This amount needs to be met by the end of August,2009! If members and friends donate or pledge, it will be matchedone a one-to-one basis to the total amount of 250,000 Sfr. Weare making this generous initiative known with the hope thatmany of you can make a financial commitment now to help theMystery Dramas. The Goetheanum is also turning to foundationswith the request for special funding for this central activity.Cultural work on the stage, and the hundreds of eventseach year at the Goetheanum are made possible by the uniquespaces and sheath that the Goetheanum itself provides. Thismonumental building needs care and attention. Over ten yearsago significant renovations were made to the Great Hall, anda start was made to preserving the concrete exterior. It is nowtime to complete the work on the forms and face of the Goetheanum,and repair the exquisite but failing slate roof and exteriorterrace. These urgent repairs cannot wait. They will alsorequire the extra financial support of those who feel connectedto the Goetheanum building. Estimated costs for these threebuilding projects are 3.7 million Sfr. We turn to you with thisspecial appeal to inform you of this pressing need and warmlyinvite your direct participation. Although we will require leadershipfinancial commitments to make this possible, all donations- also pledges continuing over the next three years - are mostwelcome!Please consider your possibility to donate to these two extraordinaryinitiatives. We would be pleased to send you moredetails, or respond to any questions you may have. These aretwo significant priorities which extend beyond the ongoing andannual funding needs of the School of Spiritual Science. Thereforewe turn to you now with this request to invite your supportof the Mystery Dramas and the Goetheanum itself. Please makeyour donation directly to your country Society (with a notationfor the Goetheanum and which project).Thank you very much for your support and engagement!Cornelius PietznerTreasurer, General Anthroposophical SocietyCornelius Pietzner stands sixth from left in this photograph ofsociety treasurers meeting this spring in Dornach.Spring-Summer 200939

2009 Annual Conference: October 2–4 in Spring Valley, New YorkThe Anthroposophical Society in America in collaborationwith the Threefold Educational Center is pleased to presentCreating Living Connections: Christian Rosenkreutz and the SocialImpulse. Join us in exploring the many faces of anthroposophy,where inner work manifests in practical forms to bring aboutsocial transformation.Creating Living Connections: Christian Rosenkreutz and theSocial Impulse is intended to give anthroposophic organizations,initiatives, groups, and individuals the opportunity tomeet, interact, and share their work. A rich array of talks anddiscussions, artistic activities, and social events promise ampleopportunities to Create Living Connections among individualsand initiatives.New approach to pre-conference activitiesBeginning with the Threefold Community’s Michaelmasfestivities on Tuesday, September 29, groups, initiatives, andorganizations working out of anthroposophy are invited toarrive early and take advantage of Threefold’s facilities for preconferencemeetings on Wednesday and Thursday, September30 and October 1. Planned social and artistic events will enableparticipants to meet and share ideas and information abouttheir work; a morning forum on Friday, October 2, will offer aunique opportunity for those present to exchange perspectives,identify common concerns, and see what else is going on in themovement. Groups, organizations, and initiatives interestedin participating in this pre-conference activity should contactJordan Walker (845.352.5020 x19; Jordan@threefold.org).SpeakersTorin Finser, PhD, is chairperson of the Education Departmentand Director of the Waldorf Teacher Education Programat Antioch University New England. He is a founding member ofthe Center for Anthroposophy in New Hampshire and has beenan educator for three decades, as well as a keynote speaker atconferences in Asia, Europe, and throughout North America.He is the author of many books on Waldorf education and onorganizational development. Torin has been General Secretaryof the Anthroposophical Society in America since 2007.Gerald Karnow, MD, has been a physician and co-worker atthe Fellowship Community for more than 30 years. He is activein training physicians in anthroposophic medicine, and a memberof the Physician’s Association for Anthroposophic Medicine(PAAM). He is an active lecturer, writer, translator, and editor ina wide range of subjects related to Rudolf Steiner and spiritualscience. In addition to his busy medical practice, Gerald is alsoschool physician at Green Meadow Waldorf School and at theRudolf Steiner School in New York City.Michael Ronall has taught anthroposophical subjects in theFoundation Year and Teacher Education programs of SunbridgeCollege, the Fellowship Community, Eurythmy Spring Valley,and the New York Branch, and has joined the faculty of theFoundation Studies Cycle in Princeton, NJ. A writer and editor,he is an alumnus of the Rudolf Steiner School in New York,received his MA in Philosophy from the New School for SocialResearch, and trained in teaching high school English and historyat the Center for Anthroposophy in Wilton, NH.Virginia Sease, PhD, has been a member of the ExecutiveCouncil (Vorstand) of the General Anthroposophical Society atthe Goetheanum since 1984, and has been responsible for theGoetheanum’s English-language Anthroposophical Studies Programsince October 2001. An alumna of the Waldorf TeachersSeminar in Stuttgart, Virginia took a class through eight gradesat Highland Hall Waldorf School. She has served on the WesternRegional Council and the National Council of the AnthroposophicalSociety in America. She received her PhD in Germanliterature from the University of Southern California.Elizabeth Wirsching has been the worldwide representativeof the Youth Section since 2000 and a member of the Collegiumat the Goetheanum. Born in Norway, she grew up in Kristiansand,traveled to Asia, then studied history of art (includinga course of studies in Rome), literature, and philosophy. Witha group of colleagues she founded the Rudolf Steiner School inNesodden, near Oslo, where she taught for 17 years. In additionto teaching, she has traveled extensively through China, NorthAfrica, and South America.Conference Fees: Members fee for the conference is $150;non-members, $180; students (25 and under) and Seniors, $50.The conference fee covers all lectures, evening performances,workshops, and Saturday lunch and dinner. There is no fee forthe Class lesson, nor for the Annual General Meeting.If you need financial assistance to attend the conference,please contact Marian León at the Society’s office, 734.662.9355.A few scholarships are available. Donations will be gratefullyaccepted, and will be added to our scholarship fund to make itpossible for others to attend.Identification: The lecture by Virginia Sease is open onlyto members of the Anthroposophical Society; you will needto show your pink membership card to attend. If you cannotlocate your pink card, please contact the office immediately(734.662.9355), and we will request a replacement card for youfrom the Goetheanum. Class members are reminded to bringtheir blue cards for admission to the Class lesson.40 Evolving News for Members & Friends

The Longing of the SoulPurification of the soul allows for the individual and the cosmosto unite. This holy union happens on the altar of the human heart.In this workshop, we will discover the color spectrum anew,finding within it both the source of wisdom and the source oflove. We will find the Rosicrucian recipe for reversing the colorspectrum and artistically represent our findings. We will useGoethe’s Rosicrucian Fairy Tale as our artistic point of departureto experience a new path to Christ where love becomeswisdom and wisdom becomes love. Karine Finser.Building Capacities for Spiritual ResearchIn this workshop, we will attempt to demystify the idea andpractice of spiritual research—grounding it in the existentialchallenges of our biographies and the disciplines of artisticwork and social initiative. We will also explore how to metamorphoseour communities of spiritual study into communities ofspiritual research, so as to better meet the urgent needs andchallenges of our time. Michael Howard & Robert Karp.A Dramatic Exploration of the Mystery DramasWe will draw on the movement and acting techniques of thegreat Russian actor and anthroposophist Michael Chekhovto explore char acters and atmosphere in a scene from RudolfSteiner’s third Mystery Drama, The Guardian of the Threshold.Wear comfortable clothes; no previous acting or movementexperience is necessary. Glen Williamson.Imagineering the Human HeartSculptor Frank Chester’s exploration of the relationshipbetween form and spirit led him to do deep creative researchon the number seven. By applying an alchemical transformativeprocess to his seven-sided form, he has discovered manypreviously unknown geometric structures that demonstrate aremarkable correlation to the form and functioning of the humanheart. These forms and Frank’s artistic process have muchto teach us about the objective realities of Living Thinking.Frank Chester.Communicating AnthroposophyThough its practical benefits are remarkable, anthroposophyis a challenging subject to talk about. Why? It just doesn’t “define”well, in the sense of finding its limits. It’s an active process,not a body of knowledge. And its goals are outside the usualscope of contemporary thinking. In an era of glibness and emptyspeech, we may lose visibility and support if we cannot directattention toward the true identity of this living cultural force.Can we find the words? Yes, we can. John Beck.Registration materials will be mailed to members and friendsshortly. You can also get more information on the sponsor web sites,anthroposophy.org and threefold.org, and by phone to 734.662.9355.The End of the 20th Century and the Culminationof AnthroposophyRudolf Steiner predicts (Karmic Relationships Vol. 6, 7/19/1924)that the future of civilization hinges on properly realizing theculmination of anthroposophy at the end of the 20th century. If,and only if, anthroposophists work in the way intended by Michaelwill “modern civilization emerge from decline.” Otherwise“humanity will stand at the grave of civilization.” We will discussthe background that gave rise to these predictions and whereto go from here. Suggested reading: Karmic Relationships Vol. 6,July 18, 19, 1924. Stephen Usher, Judith Brockway, and othermembers of the Friends of Rudolf Steiner Group.Awakening the Voice of Presence: Speaking andWriting from the HeartThe purpose of this workshop is to explore that edge wherepresence opens into response, where language forms the livingbridge between inside and outside, and where our spokenand written words stimulate others to think and act creatively.Through the practice of presence, movement, interactive exercisesand writing and speaking we will encourage each other toawaken and activate our true voices. John McManus and DianeRossman.Anthroposophy in the World: An InternationalPerspectiveA conversation with Virginia Sease and Elizabeth Wirsching.Transforming Capacities: Q and A with exhibitorsof the Arts and Science ExhibitionJoin us for a moderated question and answer session withsome of the artists and scientists who have their work exhibitedas part of the “Transforming Capacities” exhibit. The exhibit,which runs from August 8th, will close October 4th. AGM Conferenceparticipants are invited to inquire about leasing piecesfor their home organizations and communities.Mercury in America: Findings from a SpiritualResearch TourFor over a month, a biodiesel bus named Mercury will crossthe country, stopping at an arts festival in the desert of Nevada,providing transportation for a northeast speaking tour, and visitinganthroposophical initiatives and communities in-between.Join us for an experiential presentation of the creative communityand social alchemy that we experienced along the way.Dawn Stratton and the New Forms Project.Working with the Foundation Stone in EurythmyA participatory workshop exploring how eurythmy cancontribute to working with the Foundation Stone Meditation.Dorothea Mier.Spring-Summer 200941

SCHEDULEFriday, October 2»»Recognizing My Inner Tools – The Living Lemniscate»»Guided conversations with Elizabeth Wirsching»»Lecture: Finding One Another in a Spiritual Task –Building Community – Elizabeth Wirsching»»Performance: Eurythmy for Michaelmas – EurythmySpring Valley»»Lecture: How Can We Meet Christian Rosenkreutzand Rudolf Steiner Today? – Gerald Karnow»»Evening Café featuring Walking the Dog TheaterSaturday, October 3»»Class Lesson 8 for members of the School forSpiritual Science (blue cards required)»»Community Eurythmy with Brigida Baldszun(open to all)»»Concurrent Lectures:The Living Connection Between Rudolf Steiner andChristian Rosenkreutz – Virginia Sease; for membersonly (pink cards required)What is the Relationship Between the AnthroposophicalSociety and the Anthroposophical Movement?– Torin Finser»»Workshops (see descriptions following)»»Artistic Activity for All: Speech-Formation withMichael Steinrueck»»Lecture: Living Thinking – Michael Ronall»»Meetings of Initiatives»»Honoring Henry Barnes: Recollections – VirginiaSease and Gerald Karnow»»The Portal of Initiation Scene 7 and Scene 11, producedby Barbara Renold»»Evening Café with dessert and live Balkan music.Sunday, October 4»»Annual General Meeting of the AnthroposophicalSociety in America»»Honoring the Dead»»Reports»»Guided conversation with membersNew Members of theAnthroposophical Society inAmericaAs recorded by the Society from February 2009 through April 2009Linda Abelkis, Niwot COVeronica Achon, Miami FLJoseph J. Allam, Livonia MIAlicia Allen, Santa Fe NMBarbara Andrus, Niskayuna NYCarol Ayers, Amelia VAJohn Azzizzi, Berkeley CASarah G. Barron, Birchrunville PASusan Beck, Austin TXHoward Berg, Renton WAJohn L. Carpenter, Annandale MNAdam Collins-Torruella, Auburn CACatherine Commerford, Suffern NYVirginia R. Cooper, Riner VASvetlana Correa, Cincinnati OHCatherine H. Decker, Chatham NYDenise Deneaux, Crockett CALucas C. Dreier, Belchertown MAJohn K. Fallon, Delmar NYRichard Frost, Alfred MELauralee Guttridge, Ithaca NYKarina M. Haedo, Monsey NYCatherine Lycett Hogan,Hillsdale NYJudy Hughes, Winchester VAVirginia A. Jonas, Cambridge MAAllyssa Aurellia Kadlitz, Warren MIBrigitte Keane, Philmont NYSandra Khan, North Syracuse NYJimmy Jet Klansnic, Seattle WAJane Lorand, Ross CADaniel Louton, Providence RIJeffrey Lydic, Toledo OHMelinda Martin, San Anselmo CAJohn Masar, Sacramento CATerryann Stillwell Masotti,Lamy NMJennifer Mitchell, Brooklin MECarrie Monroe, Saugerties NYKelly G. O’Hearn, Kinderhook NYKara Osselmann, Boxborough MAEmilie Papas, Copake NYJoseph Papas, Copake NYLawrence Peers, Boston MAPatricia G. Pierce, Camp Hill PAMauricio Prado, Santa Cruz CABarbara M. Ray, Chattanooga TNLuis Felipe Rego, Austin TXGloria Reitz, Denver COPeg Rosenkrands, Ann Arbor MIWillow Rosenthal, Berkeley CANicole Roy, Englewood COMax Sassenfeld, Portland MEMarlies Schade, Carmichael CAJeffrey Steele, Madison WITra-Ling Tu, Boulder COKatherine E. Viek, Austin TXMaureen L. Waters,Salt Lake City UTBenjamin A. Wilson, Marengo ILWanda Zebroski, New York NYMembers Who Have DiedJ. Leonard Benson, Hillsdale NYjoined 11/12/1952; died 4/4/2009Sabine B. Bertsche, Kimberton PAjoined 6/13/1968; died 11/30/2008Ekkehard Heyder, Saint Charles MOjoined 12/12/1985; died 1/28/09Sylvia Miller, Stamford CTjoined 2/12/1948; died 7/10/2008Michael Somerson, Westport MAjoined 11/19/1999; died per notice4/24/0942 Evolving News for Members & Friends

Elisabeth Berlin FranceschelliSeptember 20, 1918—April 25, 2008Elisabeth Berlin Franceschelli, or Lisl as she was known bymost who knew her, was by any standard a devoted anthroposophistfor her entire adult life. She lived to be just five months shyof ninety. She loved to relate how as a very young child she wasasked to step forward and shake Dr. Steiner’s hand. In her silveryears she began to question the details of this event. Did shereally step forward and shake hands? Had she been too shy andhidden behind her mother’s skirts? Did she really remember theoccasion or only others telling her of it?She was born in Dambach, Germany, not far from Nuremberg,into a culture so different from ours today that it beggars theimagination. Her family was free-thinking, well-educated, andmoderately well-to-do, but little Lisl loved nothing better than togo over to the nearby farms to watchher neighbors as they worked withearth, plant, and beast. Her mother,Ilse Berlin-Neubart, one of the firstwomen in Germany to receive adoctorate in sociology, had been amember of the Theosophical Society.She became an anthroposophistwhen Steiner left the Theosophists.Ilse saw to it that her four childrenwere sent to the Stuttgart WaldorfSchool as soon as they were oldenough to board with a host family inStuttgart. Lisl’s oldest brother Hans, atrained chemist and later a corporateexecutive, was a pioneering Waldorfeducator and translator of anthroposophyin Mexico. Her sister Suslbecame a highly-respected Waldorfeducator in the United States, and herbrother Heinrich, the “quiet” Berlin,became an archaeologist, doingpioneering work in the deciphering ofMayan glyphs.Some of Lisl’s most treasuredmemories were of the years at thatfirst Waldorf school, where she wastaught by such legendary founding teachers as Hermann vonBaravalle and Karl Ege. Her education coincided with the appallingrise of National Socialism; her last year in school was shortenedby an accelerated graduation so that her male classmatesmight be conscripted into the military. As long as Lisl’s memoryremained intact, her experience of the school’s tragic, final closingassembly in April 1938, ordered by the Nazis, was indeliblyburned into her being. Because Lisl’s father, Philip, was of Jewishdescent, the Berlin family found itself in a life-threateningsituation. But the immediate family was remarkably and fortunatelyspared the harshest ravages of the Holocaust. Philip wasable to trade his once flourishing business for a tiny toy importingcompany in Mexico, thereby at least being able to securea means of economic survival. His wife and Lisl were to followhim in September 1939, having booked passage on a vessel ofthe NordDeutscher Lloyd. But solely on a hunch and an instinctiveliking of the name “Holland America Line,” Ilse changed herbooking to a vessel with that company. The Dutch ship wouldarrive safely in Mexico; the German vessel, departing only threedays later, was called back to port thirty-six hours after sailing:the authorities had ordered that the passenger ship be pressedinto the service of the German Navy. Ultimately, parents and allfour children were finally reunited in Mexico. The Berlins werean extraordinarily close-knit and harmonious family who putdown firm roots in their newly adopted country. Mexico made aprofound impression on Lisl: she mastered Spanish, continuedher study of the violin, and immersed herself in botany. She spentconsiderable time in the jungle, assisting in the search for yamswhich were used in the manufacture of therapeutic steroids.But there were not a few setbacks in Lisl’s life. A serious hearingdefect, which she developed in childhood, contributed inno small part to her becoming neither a Waldorf teacher nor aeurythmist. After completing her botanicalstudies at Adelphi Universityin Garden City, New York, she workedfor a time at Dr. Ehrenfried Pfeiffer’slab in Spring Valley, New York, butthat stint was to be short-lived: Therein Spring Valley, at a conference atthe “Threefold” in 1951, she metAmos Franceschelli, an idealisticand able math teacher. He had askeda question at the end of a lecture.Lisl, not seeing who it was who hadspoken, thought to herself: “The manwith that voice I will marry.” At thetime Amos was seeking to enrich histeaching through the Waldorf method.After a rather genteel, almostformal courtship, they were marriedin 1953 and moved to New York City,where Amos became an integral partof the Rudolf Steiner School. Perhapsnot coincidentally, that school is alsoa first—the first of its kind in NorthAmerica.Lisl’s life was occupied for manyyears thereafter with raising her twosons. All the creativity she could notmanifest professionally she poured into her children’s education.She saw to it that they had the same opportunities that shehad had in her childhood: to experience the best of Europeanculture, the wondrous expressions of the natural world, and theinspiration from adults around them. When the children wereolder, Lisl began a dedicated and fruitful career as a fundraiserat the New York Steiner School. Renate Soybel, a senior teacherat the school, contributed the following eloquent and tellingdescription of Lisl’s life there:“I met Lisl about forty-eight years ago as a fellow parent inthe Manhattan Rudolf Steiner School. Our children were in thesame class. Very early in our acquaintance I became awarethat here was a rather special lady sitting in our parent-teachermeetings, making very different kinds of suggestions and contributionsthan the rest of us. Or maybe it was just the way sheSpring-Summer 200943

spoke about the expectations she had for her children as well asfor all the children in the class. Lisl was supportive of the teachersand those of us who were innocently ignorant parents. Manyof us appreciated her knowledge, her caring, and the way shetried to set the tone and uphold the high moral and educationalstandards she remembered so well from her own school days atthe Stuttgart Waldorf School in the 1930s.“As the years went by, Lisl became a very important memberof our school community. She traveled in from Queens—andlater from Spring Valley—twice a week to work on the annualgiving campaign for the scholarship fund. Long before computerscame to our school she maintained meticulous records,carefully collected on three-by-five cards, of all the graduates,and she kept in touch with them. I am sure that there must havebeen hundreds if not thousands of personal letters she wrote,thanking friends and former students for their gifts, or justgiving them a bit of news about the school to encourage theirinterest in supporting us.“Lisl wrote the most beautiful letters, always finding just theright word to express gratitude, or comfort, or a note of joyousremembrance to someone. She spoke a language that came fromher heart but was also deeply imbued with clear thought.“It was this heart-thought quality that was felt throughoutthe school community. She would bring suggestions and ideasculled from her experiences at the Stuttgart school which wereof invaluable help to new and old teachers alike. She was thesource of much pedagogical knowledge and spiritual insight.Countless are the times I heard it said in school: ‘Let’s ask Lisl;she will know.’ She usually did—and when she didn’t, she wentout of her way to find out.“We all know how much she loved the school and how muchshe was committed to its mission. Her devotion to anthroposophyand to Rudolf Steiner’s ideas on education made us listen deeplyto her many presentations during faculty meetings and her legendaryfaculty festivals, which were always filled with music, poetry,and lectures. We knew and experienced that her contributionswere drawn from a life truly lived out of anthroposophy.“It would be a major omission not to mention Lisl’s sense ofhumor, which was an essential part of her nature. A small groupof us in the third floor office frequently got a taste of what I callthe quintessential ‘Berlin humor’: dry, direct, and sparkling withwit. Sometimes we could hear the old class teacher Mr. (Rudolf)Copple laughing ever so heartily in the hallway and knew that itmust be Lisl sharing a little joke with him. What a gift she had tomake all of us, young and old, feel good about ourselves.“Lisl was not one for pretty words; she despised sentimentality,but she could always readily find the best and the highest inus—and would never forget to greet or thank us.“Permit me to end this with a personal anecdote. Duringthe time that I taught German at the school, Lisl would alwaysencourage me and support my efforts by bringing special materialsto my class room. So every year in late February—afterChristmas, Epiphany, and Fasching had passed, you could becertain that the first snowdrops—Schneegloeckchen—wouldappear in my German classes, straight from Lisl’s garden. Neveronce did she forget them. Generations of students connectthis pure white, exquisite little flower with the kind lady on thethird floor and with all that is beautiful in the German languagebecause around this gift I could build my lessons during theearly spring weeks. And then on May 1st, she would do the samefor the French teacher, now bringing lilies of the valley from hergarden once again to bring joy to the class room.“And so, in one way or another, Lisl Franceschelli lives onin our school and in our hearts, and in the hearts of so manychildren who knew her over the decades.”Lisl would spend her golden years in Spring Valley, first inher own home in a quiet neighborhood, then lastly at the RudolfSteiner Fellowship Community, where she was reunited withmany former colleagues and fellow anthroposophists and mademany new friends. She suffered from a laundry list of illnesses,but never seemed to lose her wry wit and love of a joke, nor didher genuine concern and appreciation ever waiver for thosewho cared for her so selflessly.Lisl was in many ways a devoted soul. She devoted herself,among other things, to keeping in touch with family and friendsfar and near, to cultivating flowers, and to creating beauty. Herdevotion to truthfulness, humility, and moral rectitude were anexpression of a spirit that wanted to serve a higher purpose, agreater good. Anthroposophy in its many expressions was forLisl this purpose.Nicholas FranceschelliEkkehard HeyderFebruary 22, 1938—January 28, 2009Ekkehard Heyder, the Waldorf School of Princeton’s foundinggrade school class teacher, passed away on January 28, 2009.He was a man with tremendous energy and will, and gave bothgenerously to the Waldorf School of Princeton from the timehe began teaching here in 1985 until the time of his retirementto Missouri after graduating the Class of 2000. Mr. Heyder wasborn in Germany, and grew upduring the war years, living ina small farming village until theage of 13. He enrolled in theWaldorf School in Hannover fortenth grade, and experienced amajor turning point in his life.When he entered the school,his new teacher extendeda welcoming, outstretchedhand and at that handshake,Ekkehard “knew” he was beinghanded his own life’s work.Following high school, Mr.Heyder completed his universitydegree at PaedagogischeInstitut in Jugenheim an der Bergstrasse, now a part of FrankfurtUniversity, and then continued his studies in the U.S. wherehe studied German literature and taught German language as agraduate student at the University of Oklahoma. It was here thathe met his wife, Betty. Returning to Germany, he taught at a publicschool for handicapped children before taking his Waldorfteacher training in Stuttgart. At the age of 25 he took on his firstgrade school class at the Waldorf School in Marburg. Followingthis he moved to the Hiberniaschule in Wanne-Eickel, wherehe taught two classes from first through eighth grade. In July44 Evolving News for Members & Friends

1985, the Heyders along with their threechildren returned to America and movedto Princeton, where Mr. Heyder took on theschool’s pioneering combination first andsecond grade class which became the firstSeptember 1998Bottom floor withgraduating class in 1992. In the fall of that four classrooms September open. 1998same year, he turned around once more Bottom floor withto take a new group of children in the first four classrooms open.grade—the Class of 2000. Alumni parentMR. HEYDER: A THIRD GRADER’SPORTRAIT /BY GRETA NELSON ’00MR. HEYDER: A THIRD GRADER’SI amPORTRAITin my imagination/BY GRETAand memory.NELSON ’00Mr.IHeyderam in mydoesimaginationnot sit stillandbutmemory.strides forward,still[ed] controlled, through strawberry-less StrawberryMr. Field—up, Heyder does up, up, not to sit the still crest but strides of the forward, hill.Everything still[ed] about controlled, him is through large and strawberry-less solid: his feet Strawberryof shoes Field—up, up, up, to the crest of the hill.inboatsEverything about him is large and solid: his feet in[sturdyboatstannedof shoeshide]and[sturdyhis legtannedtrunks encasedhide]in corduroys thinning atthe seat, speak of simple practicality, of frugality,just and like his leg shirt trunks of kaleidoscopic encased in corduroys primary plaid, thinning atdesperate the seat, need speak of replacementof simple practicality, of frugality,just like his shirt of kaleidoscopic primary plaid, in[hisdesperatethinning hairneedwhispersof replacementthis, echo].He leaves[his thinningits firsthairbuttonwhispersopenthis,so heecho].can [in]halethe deepest breaths of crispclean early autumn,that He forgets leaves a world its first outside button of open itself. so he can [in]halethe deepest breaths of crispclean early autumn,Strongthat forgetsSmootha world outsideSpeckledof itself.hands,Strongleathered andSmoothweathered face,Speckledbroad withalmost-vulnerable honesty and set-jawed stubbornness;hands, eyes leathered that storm and weathered with shadows face, of broad horrors withhardly almost-vulnerable remembered but honesty never forgettable and set-jawed sparkle stubbornness;in the glory eyes of that a peaceful storm with pause. shadows of horrorsnowhardly remembered but never forgettable sparkleHe exhalesnow in thehalf-wordsglory ofthata peacefulscrapepause.sandpapered“Achs”He exhales half-words that scrape sandpaperedat his“Achs”aching joints of over sixty years; but his laughcomes from somewhere deep [deep] in the earthlike at his his feet aching have joints roots, of drawing over sixty out years; the secret but his laughtruths comes from from the very somewhere core. deep [deep] in the earthlike his feet have roots, drawing out the secretHe bendstruths fromdown,thekneesveryfoldingcore.lanky limbs, hoveringin the long grasses, first to just listen to theirmusic He and bends then, down, softly, knees to harmonize folding lanky in a limbs, distantthundeingin bass. the long Cousin grasses, to the first crickets, to just he listen at to home theirhover-under music a blue-skied and then, ceiling. softly, to harmonize in a distantthunderbass. Cousin to the crickets, he is at homeJustunderas heaisblue-skiedat home inceiling.nature he has broughtnature into his workspace—the classroom. [Hisnatural Just habitat]. as he is at An home oaken in desk nature of thirty-six he has brought teachingnature years and into one his workspace—the ocean crossing bears classroom. handboundnatural books habitat]. and all An else oaken that desk is elemental, of thirty-six crystals teach-[Hisand ing fossilized years and creatures one ocean and musical crossing instruments bears handboundbooks and creek-clay and all else pots that and is dusty elemental, feathers crystalshandmadeand and beeswax fossilized candles. creatures and musical instrumentshandmade and creek-clay pots and dusty feathersCuriositiesand beeswax candles.Curiositiesgatheredwith bottomlessgatheredcuriosity.with bottomlessHEADcuriosity.HEARTS HANDS. whole.HEAD HEARTS HANDS. whole.Spring-Summer 200945Lorette Pruden writes, “Ekkehard reallyheld the spirit of Waldorf education for me,2002 guided me through many questions, andFull accreditation from led by his bright example in so many ways.AWSNA 2002 and New JerseyThis world will miss him; the next is surelyAssociation Full accreditation of Independent fromSchools AWSNA (NJAIS). and Newrejoicing.”JerseyAssociation of IndependentSchools (NJAIS). This story and these poems are reprintedfrom Windy Hill, the annual report of theWaldorf School of Princeton, NJ, with thekind permission of the authors.Mr. Heyder: A Tribute / by Greta Nelson ’00Mr. Heyder: A Tribute / by Greta Nelson ’00He kindle[s]curiosity about world as it isandHeaskindle[s]it could bemeaningfulcuriositycreativeabout worldimaginat[ion]as it isand as it could benotmeaningful creative imaginat[ion]isolatednotmeasurement and timeoutsidebut-in laws of naturein beautifulisolatedintersectionmeasurementwithandthetimeuniverse humanoutsidebeing[s]but-in lawsandofhumannatureconnectionsHe isinrespect-wonder-responsibilitybeautiful intersection with the universe humanBalancedbeing[s] and human connectionsPhilosopherHe is respect-wonder-responsibilityscientist architect artista uniqueBalancedspirit anchor[ed] in intentionnurturingPhilosopherhealthyscientistdisciplinedarchitectmusic[al]artistmovements ofthea uniquemind andspiritbodyanchor[ed]and spiritin intentiondramaticnurturinginterplayhealthy disciplined music[al] movements ofdynamicstheofmindseasons,and bodyof lightand spiritharvestingdramaticharmoniesinterplayanddynamicsbursting withof seasons,grace andof lightcomplexity,withharvestingsymmetryharmoniesand synergy in song and speech.and bursting with grace and complexity,He iswithfor[ever]symmetryeightandgrades,synergy in song and speech.the compassguidingHe is[butfor[ever]not theeightsource]grades,of our self-knowledgepracticalthe compassartistic intellectualguiding [but not the source] of our self-knowledgeplaypractical artistic intellectualalwaysplayabilityalwaysteacherabilitywith a natural[exceptional] capacityteacherforwithawarenessa natural[exceptional] capacityHe celebratesfor awarenessthe space of each childto growto createHe celebrates the space of each childto bringto growto life.to createto bring to life.Windy Hill 2008–2009 13

Summer 2009 Trainings, Conferences, EventsNOTED IN THE LAST ISSUE (Winter/Spring) of NEWS FOR MEMBERS & FRIENDS:Summer Arts Festival, Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training (June/July; page 15); info@bacwtt.org or 415 332 2133.Renewal Courses, Center for Anthroposophy in Wilton, NH (June/July; page 16); www.centerforanthroposophy.org or 603 654 2566.Summer Events, Sunbridge College, Chestnut Ridge, NY (June/July/August; page 17); summer@sunbridge.edu or 845 425 0055 x16.REPORTED ON PREVIOUS PAGES OF THIS ISSUE of NEWS FOR MEMBERS & FRIENDS:Rudolf Steiner Institute, Stonehill College, Easton, MA (July 5-25, inside front cover and page 16); steinerinstitute.org, 410-358-0050 or emailreg@steinerinstitute.org. Note special 50% discount of registration fees is being offered to Waldorf alumni aged 18 to 35.The Threefold Nervous System, Annual PAAM/AAMTA Conference (July 9-12; page 23); 410-358-0050 or email reg@steinerinstitute.org.Encircling Light-Expectant Silence, Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada (August 1-8, pages 32-33); www.encirclinglight.caSUMMER CONFERENCES at RUDOLF STEINER COLLEGE, Fair Oaks, CAHandcrafts Conference June 28 through July 3: Craft Work—An Aid toIncarnation, Embody and Activate the Senses through Intentional Movement. Acollaboration with Ruskin Mill College, one of three colleges in England based on thepedagogical work of Rudolf Steiner and created to meet needs of young people withvarious life challenges. Aonghus Gordon who developed these outstanding initiativesis the keynote lecturer, joined by two well-known faculty members of RSC, DennisKlocek and William Bento. Master craftsmen from Ruskin Mill will offer the day longhands-on workshops. Of interest to all educators, including therapeutic educators, andinspiring for all those interested in crafts.Language Conference June 28 through July 3: Moving Language: The Art ofTeaching Foreign Language, is inspired by the recently published book The Artof Foreign Language Teaching: Improvisation and Drama in Teacher Development andLanguage Learning by Dr. Peter Lutzker, a long time educator and Waldorf teacher inGermany. Master of improvisation, Vivian Gladwell from England, will join him. Alsoonboard are Waldorf language educators who will offer much to enliven and inspireaspiring and current language teachers.Textile and Craft Conference July 5 through July 10: Reading the Wisdom of theEarth through Textiles and Other Crafts, with Dr. Gerda Kramer, founder of a villagecrafts center in Spain and investigator of the earth body and human cultures for 30 years. In this conference she traces the history of humanpopulations and the earth’s being. Her daily lectures will be further enhanced by artistic work in Weaving on the Inkle Loom with Carol Cliftonand portraiture of the temperaments in Clay with Gosha Karpowicz.More information: www.steinercollege.edu – Registration: conferenceregistration@steinercollege.edu – 916.864.4864 – Fax: 916.864.4860July 8th, Wednesday: Rudolf Steiner & the Fifth Gospel: an Evening with Virginia SeaseAt the Los Angeles Branch (110 Martin Alley, Pasadena, CA); 5-6:30pm, potluck dinner; 7:00pm talk by Dr. Sease. The Fifth Gospel has specialimportance in the work of Rudolf Steiner, and for us in our time; it is grounded in Steiner’s awareness that “The only true name of Christ is ‘I am’.”Now, when every human being has the possibility of encountering the “I am” of humanity in the etheric realm, anthroposophycan make a significant contribution to such a heartfelt recognition. Virginia Sease has made an in-depth study of RudolfSteiner’s work concerning the Christ Being. A member of the executive council of the General Anthroposophical Society at theGoetheanum, she also has responsibility for its Anthroposophical Studies Program in English. In Southern California she was ateacher at Highland Hall, earned her PhD in German at USC, and taught German at Occidental College. Please bring a dish andshare in this rare opportunity to meet with Virginia in a social setting. All donations given this evening will go directly to thework of the Goetheanum. Information: www.anthroposophy-socal.com or call Jane Hipolito, Branch Chair, at 714 993 6498.ENGAGEMENT and CONSCIOUSNESS 2009 | ONE WEEK TRAININGwww.engage09.de with ORLAND BISHOP | July 31 - August 07 2009 | Stuttgart | GermanyThere is a world you give something to... We can’t be human by ourselvesThere is a world you give something to...46 Evolving News for Members & Friends

Summer 2009 Trainings, Conferences, EventsAugust 7 to 11, Intensive Art Retreat with Jennifer ThomsonOrange…Green…Violet — exploring the complementary colors will be our focus. Morningsdevoted to ‘exploring color & form’ through veil watercolor painting in the studio. Afternoons filledwith light/dark charcoal, Cezanne’s approach to motif, space & composition by sketching & paintingoutdoors, painting on different surfaces and paper sizes & motif practice. Explore artistic freedomwhile working with charcoal, pencil, gouache paints and ink. Our color work based on Goethe’scolor theory, and Rudolf Steiner’s color indications. Opportunities to soak/swim in nearbyhot springs or hike in the national forest or the Sand Dunes National park, Crestone’s 8000 ft.alpine valley, or visit spiritual centers. Talks & Presentations: Philip Incao: “What is Health?”Jennifer Thomson: “Life & work of Paul Cezanne” Wade Cavin: Goethean color observationsession. Location: Sun Studio in Crestone, Colorado. Sign up & information: JenniferThomson, PO Box 894, Crestone, CO. 81131, 719-256-5747 or jtcolorist@fairpoint.net.Inner Transformationand Social RenewalCONFERENCE • ART AND SCIENCE EXHIBITIONAugust 8-11, 2009 • Chestnut Ridge, NYWorkshop Leaders * Henrike Holdrege, mathematician, biologist, teacher, and co-founder of The Nature Institute,SPONSORED BY THREEFOLD EDUCATIONALGhent, NY. CENTER, * Michael THE Howard CENTER FOR teaches SOCIAL sculpture, AND edited Art as Spiritual Activity: Rudolf Steiner’s Contribution to the VisualArts, wrote Educating ENVIRONMENTAL the Will RESPONSIBILITY on art in education. AT * Gerald Karnow, MD, physician and co-worker at the FellowshipCommunity HAWTHORNE for more than VALLEY, 30 AND years, THE lecturer, SOCIAL writer, translator and editor. * Gary Lamb , founder of the Institutefor Social SCIENCES Renewal, SECTION director OF of NORTH the Center AMERICA for Social and Environmental Responsibility at Hawthorne Valley. *Mac Mead, Program Director at the Pfeiffer Center, Chestnut Ridge, NY, resident farmer at the FellowshipCommunity’sSpeakers/WorkshopDuryea Farm 1997-Leaders2005. * Ulrich Roesch, social scientist at the Goetheanum; authorWhat spiritual capacities must we develop to address today’s crises, andof From Social Science to Social Art; An Elucidation of Joseph Beuys’ Concepts of Money and Capital;and Henrike Another World Holdrege Is Possible. is a * mathematician,Michael Steinrueckcreate, founder,a renewedCreativepolitical,Speech Springeconomic,Valley;and cultural life for the future? How canspeaker-in-residence, biologist, teacher, and Eurythmy co-founder of Spring The Nature Valley. * Laura a spiritualized Summer, teacher art and at Bright science Wing help Studio, to develop these capacities and create aInstitute, Ghent, NY.Harlemville, NY; her work has been shown at the community National Museum life that of Catholic fosters Art peace and at and the prosperity?Sekem Michael Community Howard in Egypt. teaches * Think sculpture OutWord, to aadults and children. He edited Art as Spiritual Social peer-led change training that in social draws threefolding on conventional for ways of thinking never seems to getyoung adults. * Nathaniel Williams studied art at the neueKUNSTschule in Basel, Switzerland,Activity: Rudolf Steiner’s Contribution to the to the root of our problems. In this conference, artists, researchers, doctors,co-founded Visual Arts, Free and wrote Columbia Educating with the Laura Will on Summer. the MORE INFO: www.threefold.org/eventsCONTACT: Lory Widmer: and farmers who work from a spiritual scientific foundation will identify innerrole events@threefold.org of art in education. / 845-352-5020 x18.Geraldcapacities we will need to effect meaningful social renewal — and how toKarnow, MD, a physician andco-worker at the Fellowship Community for develop them.more than 30 years, is an active lecturer, writer,Artistic activities, workshops, talks and guided conversations will lead totranslator and editor.Gary Lambstimulating Wednesday—Sunday, and thought-provoking August 12-16, experiences. 2009 — A concurrent Threefold Auditorium, art and science Springis a founder of the Institute for Valley, NY: The Green Snake and Beautiful Lily and The Portal of Initiation performed,Social Renewal and the director of the Center exhibition will highlight the themes of inner transformation and social renewal.with lectures and conversation groups.for Social and Environmental Responsibility atHawthorne Valley. Barbara Renold has directed Rudolf Steiner’s Mystery Dramas since 1984. She residesSupporting Organizations: The Fellowship Community • Institute for Social Renewal •Mac Mead is Program Director at thein Spring Valley, NY. * Herbert O. Hagens has taught courses on Rudolf Steiner’s MysteryThe Nature Institute • Bright Wing Studio • The Pfeiffer Center • Think OutWord • Free ColumbiaPfeiffer Center, Chestnut Ridge, NY. Mac was Dramas at the Rudolf Steiner Institute and in the Anthroposophical Studies Program at theresident farmer at the Fellowship Community’s Cost: Goetheanum. $285 plus Herbert room serves and as board cochair of the Circle of Class Holders in North America and isDuryea Farm from 1997 until 2005. president of the Board of Trustees for the Threefold Educational Foundation in Spring Valley,Ulrich Roesch is a social scientist at theEarlyNY. * JoanRegistrationAllen foundedDiscount:“Camphill$255Architectsbeforeat BottomJune 1Village” and with her late husbandGoetheanum. His publications include From Financial Paul wrote constraints The Time is at should Hand: The not Rosecrucian prevent anyone Nature of from Goethe’s attending. Fairy Tale and the MysterySocial Science to Social Art; An Elucidation of Please Dramas contact of Rudolf us Steiner. for financial * Joan Almon assistance. has frequently performed the Green Snake as a largeJoseph Beuys’ Concepts of Money and Capital;marionette show with the Washington, D.C. Green Snake Players. A Waldorf early childhoodand Another World Is Possible.Contact educator for Lory over Widmer: 30 years and events@threefold.org former General Secretary of / the 845-352-5020 Anthroposophical 52 5020 x18Society inMichael Steinrueck is the founder ofAmerica, she is currently director of the Alliance forCreative Speech Spring Valley, and speaker-inresidenceand was with a Eurythmy keynote Spring speakers Valley. at the first Pan-American Conference in San Diego. She has helped organize the Heartbeet YouthSchedule Childhood. and * Els registration Woutersen worked information:as a restorer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art inNew York Citywww.threefold.org/eventsConferences Laura and Summer recently organizedteaches adultsthe YoungandEconomist Course at the Goetheanum with her husband Tiemen. * Daniel Hafner is a priestof the children Christian at Bright Community, Wing Studio currently in Harlemville, in Toronto. For more information contact Barbara Renold (845-356-0674 barbararenold@yahoo.com).Sponsored Accompanied byNY. Her by work the has Threefold been shown Mystery at the National Drama Group, Threefold Educational Foundation and the Eastern Regional Council.Museum of Catholic Art and at the Sekem Transforming Capacities:Community in Egypt.Think OutWord is a peer-led training inAn Art and ScienceSpring-Summer social threefolding 2009 for young adults.47ExhibitionNathaniel Williams studied art atTHE PORTAL OF INITIATION and its RELATIONSHIP TO GOETHE’S FAIRY TALE

in this issue:youth, community, society, economyimages of self: painting the treestudy theme of the year 2009-10News for Members is a publication of the Anthroposophical Society in America,1923 Geddes Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48104