& Friends - Anthroposophical Society in America

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Work with the Theme of the Year“Thinking of the Heart as an Organ of PerceptionFor Development and Metamorphosis”as observed in our North Carolina BranchThis year the Eastern Regional Council requested that eachgroup and branch observe some aspect of the theme of the yearat its Michaelmas celebration. The Anthroposophical Societyannounces the new theme every Easter and it is usually takenup by a community in some way the following Michaelmas.Often one of the recommended books is taken up in branchmeetings or a guest speaker speaks on the topic.For the past four years, the theme has been some aspect of“heart thinking.” In this year’s theme the “organ of perception”Rudolf Steiner refers to is of course not the physical heart, butwhat Eastern religions call the heart chakra or the twelve-petalledlotus, a spiritual area that surrounds the heart. By “metamorphosis”he is referring to the fact that through meditativepractice and character development, this organ of perceptionevolves and develops new abilities.This theme of “metamorphosis”—whose synonym is “evolution”—waschosen because this year marks the 200th birthdayof Charles Darwin (February 12, 1809) and the 150th anniversaryof the publication of his book Origin of the Species. Thewhole scientific community has commemorated this all over theworld and it was felt important to shed some anthroposophicalinsight onto the theory. While Steiner felt that Darwin’s ideaswere one-sided and materialistic, and that the philosophies thatarose out of it (such as “natural selection” and “survival of thefittest”) were Ahrimanic, he also said that there is a “deeperunderstanding of Christianity that lies in Darwinism.” In otherwords, while Darwin had some misguided conclusions aboutevolution, the actual idea of evolution is extremely important,for all of creation is evolving, even the angels are evolving intoarchangels, the archangels into archai, and so on. Mankind isdestined to become the tenth hierarchy, the Spirits of Love andFreedom. While Darwin’s theory holds that man is just a higheranimal or “naked ape” (as in Desmond Morris’ book of thattitle), an anthroposophist might call the human being insteadan evolving angel or a “dressed angel” (as an anthroposophicalbook by Paul Chu is entitled). The theme of evolution is involvedin almost every topic Steiner addressed—spiritual development,the evolution of consciousness, and the metamorphosisof plants, to name a few.Several suggestions were made for studying this year’stheme, one of which was to read Steiner’s mystery dramas fromthe perspective of how the characters evolve through their variousincarnations. It is the last example which we observed inour community this Michaelmas with Marlene Joyce’s presentationof Goethe’s Fairy Tale of The Green Snake and the BeautifulLily. As you probably know, Steiner was inspired to write hismystery dramas after reading Goethe’s tale and his charactersare based on the tale’s archetypal characters. One could placethis as the beginning of the study of those characters’ evolutions.This past summer, Margaretta and Bruce Bornhorsthosted a study group on the Portal of Initiation and we hope thework will continue in the coming year.I would also like to mention one very interesting aspect ofthe metamorphosis of the heart chakra, discovered in our localbiography study group last year. We learned that empathy isone of the abilities that the awakened heart develops, and wereamazed to hear that this word first coined only in 1912 (by theGerman psychologist Theodor Lipps; I had thought it was an ancientGreek word). The term was not used in America until 1928.Apparently this phenomenon, empathy, was undeveloped forcenturies and then not recognized when it first began to manifest.It is still in its early phase, even though the word is nowquite common and we speak of individuals being “empaths.”While it is related to sympathy and compassion, empathy isfar more spiritually evolved. When you have sympathy for aperson, you feel sorry for them, and that puts you in a superiorposition. Having empathy for someone makes you at one withthem and on an equal level; you feel what they are feeling. Itis a more Christ-like virtue than sympathy. Rudolf Steiner tellsus that empathy will eventually lead us to an understanding ofanother person’s destiny. We will then know not only know whatthe other is feeling, but why and for what purpose. When wehave developed our hearts to that point of empathy where werecognize the other’s destiny, Steiner says that our encounterswith other human beings will become actual sacraments. Thiswill develop during the sixth cultural epoch, starting in the nextmillennium, but we should begin striving for it now.A Christian Community minister named Baruch Urieli haswritten a couple of really beautiful books about the developmentof empathy. Our biography study group read excerptsfrom these. Urieli’s books include: Learning to Experience theEtheric World, from which we read the chapters “Empathy, theAfter-image and a New Social Ethic” and “Karmic Experience,Karmic Research and the Power of Empathy.” He has also writtenMale and Female: Developing Empathy. Both books are fromTemple Lodge Press.Another “evolving” word that has been circulating aroundour community lately, which ties in very strongly with the conceptsof empathy and destiny is “entelechy.” It stems from theGreek words enteles (complete), telos (end, purpose, completion)and echein (to have). Entelechy was first coined by Aristotle andsaid to mean “the condition of something whose essence is fullyrealized or actualized.” Thomas Aquinas also used the word andgave it a more Christianized meaning. The great enlightenedJesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (much of whose work wasforbidden to be published in his lifetime by church officials)revived the word and was said to ask one of his students “Whatis the entelechy of you?” He explained that “it is inside you likethe butterfly is inside the caterpillar… It means the dynamicpurpose that is inside of you.”Our community member Renate Wend has been askingpeople a similar question: “Who are you in your entelechy?”She has told us that Steiner evolved this word further to meanthe entire human being with the sum total of all their past lives.One can surmise that this is a further evolution of the heartwords mentioned above: sympathy –> compassion –> empathy–> knowledge of the other’s destiny –> knowledge of the other’sentelechy. Much food for thought and further research!Kathleen WrightKathleen edits the Sophia Sun newsletter of the North Carolinabranch and is a member of the Eastern Regional Council.40 Evolving News for Members & Friends
Boston: Making a Home......for a Vibrant Society at the Heart of theMovementThe following is reprinted from the Boston branch newsletter.The Anthroposophical Society in Greater Boston is fortunateto have healthy daughter movement organizations in its midst.We have a Waldorf K-8 and a Waldorf high school, a ChristianCommunity, and other initiatives. When the Williams moved toupstate NY, the Society lost its center. Their home had been ourhome. Now we are gathering our strength to obtain a new andmore permanent center. At this time, we look to our membersand friends for support. One way is to send as soon as possibleyour membership dues and additional contributions to supportthe work and our goal to our treasurer, John L. de Ris, 12Bentwood St., Foxborough, MA 02035. Please make your checkpayable to The Anthroposophical Society in Greater Boston,abbreviated as necessary. A guideline is $20 per individual or$30 per family. If this size donation is not possible, a $5 giftwould be welcome in order to cover our mailing costs. Each ofthe past few years we have needed our dues to cover $3000 ormore of expenses. This year, with our search for a new center,our expenses could be more. A special dues letter is also beingmailed to members.This autumn we have a reduced number of local talks, workshops,and performances scheduled in and around Boston butthe ones scheduled should prove to be of high quality. Our CapeAnn group warmly invites us to attend activities there. We areworking with groups in Wilton, NH and Amherst, MA to bring inspeakers during the year and to share costs. Look for announcementslater once these have been arranged. Moreover, we hopeto add other events and to periodically mail event flyers andtimely news. Please put the events described in the Newsletteron your calendars and come and bring friends whenever youcan.We again wish to encourage you to join and actively participatein one or more of the study groups. By participating, we notonly cultivate our life in anthroposophy, but we have the opportunityto meet and to grow with one another. If you are unable toattend one of the groups listed in the newsletter, you are encouragedto gather with friends to read and to study anthroposophy.Andrew Linnell, SecretaryThe Anthroposophical Society in Greater BostonRudolf-Steiner-ArchiveMagazineExcerpted from Anthroposophy Worldwide 2009 #6. A copyof the Archive Magazine is mailed to members with this issue ofEvolving News for Members & Friends.Red. Red? Read Thread!“We have to deal with two misperceptions,” says VeraKoppehel. “One is that Rudolf Steiner’s collected works (GA) arecompletely published [in German]. We have enough material forat least a further thirty books.” And the other? “That we receivea share of the membership contributions made to the GeneralAnthroposophical Society. The Rudolf-Steiner-Archive is financiallyand legally an independent institution.”Sincere and unsettlingKoppehel puts the new Archive-Magazine on the table. It appearsnondescript yet special. It does not have a typical frontpage. Instead it carries a facsimile of one of Rudolf-Steiner’sdrawings. Over it is a red paper tape. There is no issue number.It is somewhat confusing—and not just that! The back is notproperly glued so that one can see the binding—the red binding.Red? Is that the look of a magazine? If anything, it is the lookof an unfinished book. It looks more like a book once it is openwith a noble type face, modern and sincere, imparting an impressionof substance, and here and there full page illustrations.The concept which Vera Koppehel has developed with thegraphic artist Philipp Tok works on the tension between sincereand unsettling elements. This has led them to a design whichreflects the reality of the archive. Evendocuments can be unsettling. Despitetheir age they also speak of the present.That, indeed, is what the co-workers ofthe archive re-iterate: the future lies inthe archives.The archive originally wanted to offeryoung artists the opportunity to graphicallyexpress their impression of the archive.The first draft looked very fresh,but so irritated some people close tothe archive that another method had tobe found that would directly reflect the being of the work of thearchive. So the archive’s material itself offers the model for thedesign, typically reflecting one of Rudolf Steiner’s notebooks.Looking for Sponsors for the Collected WorksThe Rudolf-Steiner-Archive can only be carried out throughoutside finance, a destiny shared with many scientific charities.Now and again the archive public funds support individualprojects. But the collected works are sold below their actualcost—or is there too little demand?With the new magazine the archive becomes pro-active andhas found support. The first issue is distributed to members inGreat Britain, Canada, the Netherlands, Austria and the USA;the participating anthroposophical societies fund the distribution.The recipients are invited to make a donation. In Germanyand Switzerland only members of the Rudolf- Steiner-Archivesupport network automatically receive a copy, other interestedparties, however, are able to order one.In the magazine the archive co-workers write in a scientific,easily readable way about their editorial work and about financesand worldwide events. It is intended to publish the magazinebiannually; how long the English edition continues will dependon the interest it meets. Response will show how deeply the collectedworks live within the consciousness of the members.Contact: Rudolf-Steiner-Archiv, Postfach 135, CH–4143 Dornach,Tel. +41/(0)61 706 82 10, www.rudolf-steiner.com.Donations: Internationale Fördergemeinschaft Rudolf-Steiner-Archiv (Schweiz), Raiffeisenbank Arlesheim, Kto.-Nr. 12906 24,IBAN CH44 8077 6000 0012 9062 4, BIC RAIFCH22.Fall-Winter 200941
Page 4: ttleViolandSCIENCE AND ANTHROPOSOPH
Page 8: What’s Happening inthe Rudolf Ste
Page 11 and 12: The Secret Language of FormVisual M
Page 13 and 14: From: seth jordanVery important new
Page 15: The Web as Will and IdeaEugene Schw
Page 20: internet. The “words” in that a
Page 24 and 25: getting by with only our bare neces
Page 26 and 27: ODYSSEYOur Hellenic OdysseyOn June
Page 28 and 29: The 8th annual meeting of the Econo
Page 30 and 31: I.Sophia, We Call to You 1Like Emer
Page 32: III.Returning by Sight and SoundThe
Page 35: Although human beings now experienc
Page 38 and 39: anthroposophist than to see emergin
Page 42 and 43: Michaelmas 2009 in theBerkshire Tac
Page 45: Inner Impressions of The Portal of
Page 49 and 50: served for over thirteen years as c
Page 51: Bronk puts Kant squarely within the
Page 55 and 56: 2010 Spiritual Research SeminarThe

& Friends - Anthroposophical Society in America

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?