Rudolf Steiner's Vision for the Future - Anthroposophical Society in ...

theme of the conference, “The True Gestalt, A
Source and Force of Light,” made a profound
connection to the time of the year, Easter Holy
Week.
Driess van Beusichem welcomed the full
audience to Camphill Village Copake for the
opening presentation with Jaimen McMillan.
Jaimen’s presentation was carried with lightness
and humor and audience participation.
People experienced a simple and accessible
approach to a theme which brought the depth
and profundity that carried us through the following
days of our conference. According to
Jaimen we develop in accord with the pictures
we carry within us. Without the concept of the
human archetype, one easily falls prey to the
portrayal of man as fatally flawed and fragmented.
Awakening to awareness of the ideal
image behind every human being integrates
the individual parts into a vibrant whole.
Jaimen began by asking us to mind our
P’s and Q’s. The P’s represented the inspirations
that continued the development of Spacial
Dynamics, a discipline that is used in
Movement Education and Movement Therapy
worldwide. Describing his involvement with the
friends and special teachers at Raphael
House, a home for children with special needs
in Stuttgart, Germany, Jaimen saw himself as
a kind of “detective.” Looking at people, observing
movement patterns (patterns), seeing
a connection of all people to one another (puzzle),
and a recognition that there are three
planes in space; the body exists in and around
these three planes (planes). The last “P” is for
Patrick, a young man with cerebral palsy with
whom Jaimen spent time working using
movement therapy.
Patterns: observations were made of the
children’s movement patterns during his years
of work at Raphael House. Posture, gait, physical
proportions, foot placement, all had a direct
influence or connectedness to the soul life
(life of feelings) of the individual. There were
patterns in the children’s movements in which
they demonstrated sadness and/or depression
in their heavy-footedness and in their slumping
posture or ungroundedness in walking upon
on their toes. Their movements impeded them
from connecting to the space that is always
around us.
Puzzle: Each and every one of us is a
piece of the bigger picture (puzzle). We each
bring something of ourselves to make the
puzzle whole. How might we come to the
sense of connectedness?
Planes: The body exists in and around the
three planes in space—the sagittal, the horizontal
and the frontal plane. These three
planes are a foundation for understanding that
we each carry our own cross within us. With
the division of the space on the sagittal or longitudinal
plane of the body, we find our middle,
the “I.” According to Rudolf Steiner, the sagittal
plane is representative of thinking, the horizontal
plane is representative of feeling, the
frontal plane of willing.
Patrick: Patrick, a young man with cerebral
palsy, showed Jaimen a mystery in his
movement, a kind of riddle that a “detective”
would feel called upon to reveal or discover.
With time, patience, and exploration of movement,
Patrick and Jaimen arrived at that place
of discovery. Patrick’s arms made a spiralingin
gesture, bringing the hands and arms tightly
in towards his chest. Taking that spiral motion
a bit further in towards the body and then
offering the opposite or counter motion gave
the possibility for the limbs to unfurl away from
the body.
Q’s: Questions came from the audience
about the cross that we each carry within us.
How can we determine where the notch in the
cross lies in relationship to our own body?
Each person carries a cross within. There
is an ideal or an archetypal placement of this
cross within us that can give us a feeling of
the greatest ease in movement, balance in the
feeling life, and stability in the deeds we
accomplish here on earth.
Where we are spatially oriented to our
own cross determines how we feel and how
we carry ourselves. And, yes, the other is also
true. The way we feel determines how we
carry our cross. We may feel “UPset,” HIGHstrung,
nervous or wound-UP when the notch
is too high. If the notch is too low, we may feel
DOWN and out, LOW energy, or dragging our
heels.
Ernesto Martinez of Camphill Village
Copake asked, “I have watched many people
walk and the way they move their feet…does
the way you feel affect the way you move your
feet or does the way you move your feet affect
the way you feel?” (A great question from a
fellow movement detective!) Jaimen asked the
audience, “Does anyone have a pair of shoes
to lend me?” In the front row Ernesto enthusiastically
offered his.
Jaimen disappeared behind the stage
curtains and made a visual presentation of the
way people stand and walk, simply by moving
a pair of shoes on the stage where everyone
could see them in front of the curtains.
Through this exercise, it became visible to us
that the natural curve of the feet, if projected
further beyond the foot, inscribes a circle. The
person whose feet have the toes directed out
away from the center of the body has a wide
circle in front of them. (The clown is an extreme
example of this). The person whose feet
have the toes pointed in towards one another
inscribe a circle behind them. These people
carry a gesture of shyness and reserve. The
feet that slide across the ground, slow and
heavy, inscribe a circle beneath the earth. The
feet that are tripping along on tiptoe seem
light-footed and not well “grounded.” Jaimen
demonstrated “standing in the right way to
meet the other” by standing upright with feet
slightly apart and thus ready “to meet the
other.”
first issue 2011 • 87