Riddle of America, The - Waldorf Research Institute

Vienna, the world would have been very different. In his psychosophylectures given in 1910 in Berlin, Steiner describes the positive psychologicaleffect of arts on us. As an artist and a teacher, I like the following quotationby Steiner.If art occupies the proper place in school life, it will also stimulate thecorrect approach to the students’ physical training, since wheneverart is applied in life, it opens a person to the spiritual light necessaryfor inner development. By its very nature, art can become permeatedwith the light of the spirit, and when this has happened, it retains thislight. Then, wherever art radiates, it permeates whatever it toucheswith the light it received from the spiritual Sun. It permeates matterwith light so that, outwardly radiant and shining with the lightof soul, it can express spirit. Art can collect in itself the light of theuniverse. It can also permeate all earthly and material substancewith shining light. This is why art can carry secrets of the spiritualworld into the school and give children the light of soul and spirit;the latter will allow children to enter life so that they do not need toexperience work as just a negative and oppressive burden, and, in oursocial life, therefore, work may gradually divest its burdensome load.By bringing art into school properly, social life can become enrichedand freed at the same time, although that may sound unbelievable. 16I have been recommending a book, The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron,a poet, playwright, fiction writer, and essayist. This book portrays atwelve-week exercise to recover our creativity. Although she may not be ananthroposophist, I have found many ideas that are similar to Steiner’s. Theseexercises benefited me very much, and my artistic style changed. I was ableto express myself freely and was very excited to create for my solo exhibition,which took place in Denver in June 2000. Julia reminded me throughthe ten basic principles that creativity is a spiritual experience, and by beingcreative, as God’s creations, we are continuing the Creator’s creativity. Weare all responsible to continue the creation through the arts.What, then, corrupts youth? We all do, when we do not realize thatwe are meant to be creative, when we refuse to resolve our pain from thepast, when we are motivated by fear, control, and greed.What heals youth? When we realize that we are all creative, spiritualbeings sharing the universe equally, and when we act/create accordinglywith love and compassion, we are becoming true role models for our youth.298