fall issue is here - Anthroposophical Society in America

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being human
anthroposophy.org
personal and cultural renewal in the 21st century
Imagine the Potential
re:Generation (p.14)
Spirituality Affirmed
by CIIS (p.30)
Provoking a Crisis, review
of Mind & Cosmos (p.46)
Gallery:
The self portrait (p.33)
Detail of Self Portraits by
various artists, and the
Representative of Humanity by
Rudolf Steiner with Edith Maryon
a quarterly publication of
the Anthroposophical Society in America
michaelmas-fall issue 2015
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Contents
8
12
13
14
initiative!
14
17
18
22
23
27
29
30
“Imagine the Potential”: reGeneration, by Shepha Schneirsohn Vainstein
Lakota Waldorf School Building, by Truus Geraets
A Community Center for Heartbeet, by Hannah Schwartz
Authentic Assessment in Education, by Patrice Maynard
An Emerging Anthroposophic Psychology, by William Bento, PhD
Reflections on “Reflections on Playing Maria,” by Travis Henry
Physicians’ Association Vaccine Statement
arts & ideas
30
32
32
33
37
38
39
42
42
44
46
being human digest
From the Classified Section of a Newspaper of 2407, by Christian Morgenstern,
translated by Christiane Marks
A World in Need, editorial by John Beck
Spirituality Affirmed by CIIS, by Robert McDermott
Entanglements of Freedom, by David Steinrueck
From Waldorf to CIIS: Knowing Imagination, by Becca Tarnas
Paul Cézanne, Self Portrait with Palette,
Gallery: The self-portrait
1887. See the Gallery, pages 33-36.
An Anthroposophist Goes to CIIS, by Jeremy Strawn
The Influence of Steiner on My Philosophical Development, by Matthew D. Segall
History Three-folded, by Paul Gierlach
Parent–Teacher Conferences as Reverse Ritual, by Torin Finser
The Gifts of Waldorf Education and the Ecological Crisis, by Maximilian DeArmon
Climate Change Brings Moral Change, by Mary Evelyn Tucker
research & reviews
46
Provoking a Crisis, by Frederick Amrine (review of Thomas Nagel, Mind & Cosmos)
50
A Treatise on Living Thinking, review by Fred Dennehy
52
Barfield’s Symposium, and Other Tales, by John Beck
54
Henry Barnes Fund for Anthroposophical Research
55
news for members & friends
55
57
57
59
59
60
61
61
62
Some Reflections, by Torin Finser; General Secretary Meetings & Travel
Welcoming Katherine Thivierge
Inner and Outer Journeys, by Deb Abrahams-Dematte; Celebrating a Great Contribution
Social Event of the Central Region Season, by Margaret Runyon
Phyllis Eleanor Phillips
Members Who Have Died – New Members
Theodore van Vliet, by Virginia Sease
“Prayer at Evening Bells,” by Rudolf Steiner, Translated by Marianne H. Luedeking
Aurelia Buzato, with Words by Stephen Usher
from the editors
The Anthroposophical Society
in America
General Council Members
Torin Finser (General Secretary)
Joan Treadaway (Western Region)
Dennis Dietzel (Central Region, Chair)
Virginia McWilliam (at large)
Carla Beebe Comey (at large, Secretary)
John Michael (at large, Treasurer)
Dwight Ebaugh (at large)
Marian León, Director of Programs
Deb Abrahams-Dematte, Director
of Development
Katherine Thivierge, Director
of Operations
being human
is published four times a year by the
1923 Geddes Avenue
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1797
Tel. 734.662.9355
Welcome, Teachers & Parents!
Our spring issue was distributed to many of the member schools of
AWSNA, the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America. A larger
number of copies of this issue are being sent both for teachers and for parents.
Many parents already get the wonderful Renewal magazine edited by Ronald
Koetzsch. What Renewal does for the Waldorf world, being human tries to do
for the core impulse of “anthroposophy” and the whole movement around it.
So what is anthroposophy? If you know something about Waldorf education, you can simply say that what Waldorf aims to do for school-age children, anthroposophy is offering to adults. Unlocking our fullest capacities
as human beings. Understanding our times so that we can participate fully.
Finding our ultimate authenticity and what Rudolf Steiner identified as the
one place of real freedom: knowing what we truly love, and acting from that.
Around this luminous core there are initiatives of exploration, understanding, healing, creativity, and new community such as you see inside—the
anthroposophical movement. And this
movement, and the Anthroposophical
Society working at the core of it, is at a
threshold. Just one hundred years ago
Rudolf Steiner was asked whether such
efforts could break through to support a new culture. World history and
its own history caused the anthroposophical movement to adopt a cautious
stance, and that has become a bit of a
habit. But Steiner’s tools are designed To stay in touch with being human please go to
for a global, cosmopolitan world, and our web page: anthroposophy.org/bh
ninety years after his death much of anthroposophy is still avant-garde.
Other great and good ideas have emerged to help, but so far nothing has
proven broad and high and penetrating enough to open the doors of a new
world culture. Meanwhile, those of us who know it well believe that anthroposophy provides the means to “be the change,” helping each individual to
find the place where she or he really wants to take a stand.
To stay in touch you can subscribe—just visit anthroposophy.org/bh; to
explore membership in the Society visit anthroposophy.org/join (being human
is part of your membership). Enjoy what you find here, and feel free to share
your thoughts to editor@anthroposophy.org or to the address below.
Home
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comments to: editor@anthroposophy.org
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for our next issue by 10/10/2015.
©2015 The Anthroposophical Society in
America. Responsibility for the content
of articles is the authors’.
6 •
being human
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Being Human
Bh1Rudolf Steiner At 150
Evolving News
ENews
Journal For Anthroposophy
Click to enlarge covers
In February 2011 with the 150th anniversary of the birth of Rudolf Steiner, the
quarterly print publication of the Anthroposophical Society in America took on the
name being human. This reflects core concerns of anthroposophy individual self
development and the further evolution of human culture and society and the
concern of all of us with the human future.
Each issue includes feature articles on initatives, arts, ideas, research, and reviews.
There are also news and events of the anthroposophical movement in the USA and
internationally. Book reviews continue the editorial tradition of the Newsletter of the Rudolf Steiner
Library.
The printed quarterly being human is sent free to
current members of the Anthroposophical Society
in America, and complimentary copies are sent for
a limited period to those who express interest in
our work. The first special issue for Rudolf
Steiner's 150th anniversary year is
available below for reading online and
download.
Past issues through Summer 2012 are viewable
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color; please see our
information sheet or contact
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available to the public. Please contact Cynthia
Chelius (7346629355 or email).
Print (in the USA) and digital subscriptions will
be available with the Spring 2015 issue.
Editor: John H. Beck
Associate Editors:
Fred Dennehy, Elaine Upton
Design and layout: John Beck
Membership
Ann Arbor, MI 481041797
We will consider lengthy submissions for
alternative presentation here on
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try to respond to all submissions, letters,
feedback, and inquiries promptly, but feel free to
check back if you do not hear from us in a
reasonable amount of time.
The general editor of being human is John Beck. Rudolf Steiner Library newsletter editor Fred
Dennehy and Elaine Upton are associate editors. An oversight committee of the society's General
John Beck
HOW TO receive being human, or to comment or contribute
Copies of being human are free to members of the Anthroposophical Society
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In this issue we present three reviews (on pages 46 to 54). John
Beck makes a survey of some of the books newly available from the
Owen Barfield Literary Estate, whose editor in chief is Jane Hipolito.
For those not familiar with him, Owen Barfield was arguably the most
brilliant and engaging of all English speaking anthroposophists. The
Literary Estate is publishing for the first time three works of Owen
Barfield’s fiction, and reissuing the 1962 masterpiece, Worlds Apart.
Worlds Apart is presented in the form of a conversation -- a drama of
ideas – engaging the “watertight” disciplines of space science, physics,
evolutionary biology, positivist philosophy, psychology, theology, language and, yes, anthroposophy.
Had Worlds Apart been written today one of its conversational
protagonists might well have been a fictionalized version of Thomas
Nagel, the author of a highly controversial refutation of contemporary materialist reductionism, (for which Nagel has been accused by a
number of materialist thinkers of intellectual treason), entitled Mind
& Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature is
Almost Certainly False. Frederic Amrine, in his review of the book, examines Nagel’s presentation of several crucial issues—life, consciousness, human reason, the lawfulness of the universe and moral values—as to which reductionism can only stammer at an explanation.
Mr. Amrine proceeds to scrutinize critically the scientific consensus against Nagel’s “emperor’s new clothes” assessment of neo-Darwinian reductionism. He then proposes his own view, distinct from
Nagel’s, that the failure of reductionism as an explanatory principle
does not so much call for an alternative form of causality as a new and
more radical paradigm that embraces indeterminacy and complexity.
He suggests that the fundamentals of such a paradigm already exist in
the works of Rudolf Steiner.
Finally, I have reviewed Massimo Scaligero’s A Treatise on Living
Thinking: A Path Beyond Western Philosophy, Beyond Yoga, Beyond Zen.
Scaligero was an original (and highly demanding) anthroposophical
writer and teacher of the practice of living thinking that may be realized in the authentic practice of contemplation and meditation. Scaligero had a powerful influence on the writings of Georg Kühlewind,
who, in addition to communicating his own original understandings,
transformed Scaligero’s insights into clear and accessible language.
I have also examined in this review a problem sometimes encountered with anthroposophical writers of the last century, i.e., how to
reconcile the brilliance of what they say with the questionable record
of how they have acted.
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being human digest
This digest offers brief notes, news, and ideas from holistic and humancentered initiatives. E-mail suggestions to editor@anthroposophy.org or
write to “Editor, 1923 Geddes Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104.”
[www.anthroposophy.org/articles] Research of the life and
times of Marion Mahony Griffin, including her understanding of her own and Walter’s contributions to the
world, is continuing in Canberra with Laura Summerfield (+61-417 609 946, laura.summerfield@gmail.com)
and Trevor Lee (+61 2 6291 3391, tlee@tpg.com.au).
They are bringing insights to this from their own backgrounds in anthroposophy, biography work, architecture
and psychology.
SOCIETY
Naming ceremony for a Marion Mahony Griffin overlook near Canberra, Australia
ART
Australia’s most famous
anthroposophist honored in her native Chicago
On 9 May 2015, Marion Mahony Griffin was honored by the naming of a park in the Chicago suburb
where she lived for the last stage of her life. With her
husband Walter Burley Griffin, Marion was co-designer
of Australia’s national capital, Canberra, after a worldwide competition in 1912. Even before then, Marion had
achieved prominence by graduating in Architecture at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1884
and becoming the first female licensed architect in the
state of Illinois and among the first so qualified anywhere
in the world.
Read the full report with links to her legacy online
Karl König Institute at Camphill Ghent
Camphill Ghent is an anthroposophically inspired community
for elders in rural upstate New York,
near the quaint village of Chatham
and close to an extensive cultural
life. The community itself hosts an
outstanding chamber music series,
Karl Koenig, MD
and a new on-site addition is an
office of the Karl König Institute for Art, Science, and
Social Life. A physician and founder of the Camphill
movement, Dr. König was one of the most important anthroposophical thinkers and doers of the generation active after Rudolf Steiner’s death. The institute’s original
office in Aberdeen, Scotland, began the work of maintaining an archive. Seven years ago the first volume of the
New Edition of Karl König’s Works was published; recent and forthcoming volumes are Social Farming—Healing Humanity and the Earth and
Nutrition from Earth and Cosmos.
“Karl König showed directions
and ways towards the renewal
of medicine, educational theory,
curative education, psychology,
inspired from anthroposophical
life and research. This applies as
well for many areas of practical
life.” The international website
is at www.karl-koenig-archive.net
and contact in the USA is Richard Steel, Camphill Ghent, 2542
Route 66, Chatham, NY, 12037
(r.steel@karl-koenig-archive.net),
or telephone (518)-721-8410.
New Books
for Educators and Parents
Please Visit Our Online Store!
store.waldorfearlychildhood.org
The Singing,
Playing
Kindergarten
Creating Connections:
Perspectives on Parent-andChild Work in Waldorf Early
Childhood Education
Edited by Susan Weber and
Kimberly Lewis $14
Daniel Udo de Haes,
translated by Barbara
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From Kindergarten
into the Grades:
Insights from Rudolf
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Edited by Ruth Ker $14
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E-mail: info@waldorfearlychildhood.org
www.waldorfearlychildhood.org (845) 352-1690 Fax: (845) 352-1695
8 •
being human
being human digest
EDUCATION
NEW
AWNSA-Alliance New Relationship
In March the leadership and boards of the Alliance
for Public Waldorf Education and the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America announced that “together
we are forging a new relationship based on our common
foundation and perspective on what is best for children.
Today a license for the Alliance use of the term Public
Waldorf was signed, as was a Memorandum of Understanding that affirms and articulates some of the many
ways the two organizations and our respective members
can collaborate. The license empowers the Alliance to
use the mark ‘Public Waldorf SM’ with acknowledgement
that it is a service mark owned by the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America and used pursuant to a
license.” The agreement is posted on the Alliance website
(www.allianceforpublicwaldorfeducation.org).
The letter concludes, “Waldorf educators, whether
they work in independent or in public schools, hold Rudolf Steiner’s goal for education to be eloquently expressed
in this quote: ‘Our highest endeavor must be to develop free
human beings who are able of themselves to impart purpose
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P e r s e u s Ve r l a g B a s e l
•9
being human digest
and meaning to their lives.’ In all of Waldorf education
lives the hope of providing new ideas for cultural and educational renewal in our communities. It is with tremendous excitement and hope that we look towards a future
of working collaboratively in service to the children of
North America.” The website for AWSNA is located at
whywaldorfworks.org.
HUMANITIES
Village University
From June 22 through July 8, in Concord, Massachusetts, the Village University was convened. The name
is inspired by a hope of Henry David Thoreau: “...That is
the uncommon school we want. Instead of noblemen, let
us have noble villages of men” and women.
The theme for the first week was: The Genius of Our
Land in all her aspects, facets—which the conversations
and gathering lived up to in many ways. The second week
was devoted to the theme: Translating Transcendentalism
into a Language for Our Time. A detailed account of these remarkable gatherings is
posted online (anthroposophy.org/articles), and you can
find out more about the impulse at www.concordium.us.
The moving spirit of this vision is Stuart-Sinclair Weeks,
Founder, Center for American Studies, Concord, MA
01742 (stuartbweeks@gmail.com).
“Archangel Michael: The Fiery Thought King of
the Universe; How Can We Know Him?”
Theology was once a primary field of the studies now
known as the humanities, but as localized in seminaries
and committed to existing dogmas it is now a specialist
field. Rudolf Steiner was a well-respected public intellectual in 1900, but when he began to speak dramatically about
matters associated with theology, many turned away.
Steiner developed techniques to research consciousness and said he did that as his first step, looking at existing sacred texts and such only after finding his own way.
To be understood, he then communicated his findings
in known terms and concepts. Eventually he identified
the archangel Michael as a primary inspirer of his work.
Independent researcher Bill Trusiewicz has contributed a
number of fine papers, under the title above, which are
too long for being human to print. To four already posted
we are adding a fifth now at anthroposophy.org/articles. It
is wide-ranging and handsomely illustrated.
10 •
being human
MEDICINE
What is anthroposophic nursing?
Recent issues have shared general and specific ideas
and practices involved in anthroposophic medicine, and
this issue includes the statement from the physicians’ association on vaccination (see page 29). Also in this issue
is William Bento’s article about anthroposophic psychology (page 23). We recently asked Anthroposophic Nurse
Specialist Elizabeth Sustick (esustick@gmail.com) for a
thumbnail description of the nursing side. She replied:
“Anthroposophic Nursing (AN) is an expression of
holistic care-giving, encompassing the physical and spiritual nature of the human being. Rudolf Steiner, PhD and
Ita Wegman, MD collaborated in clinics in Arlesheim,
Switzerland in the early 1900’s to develop a natural approach to medicine that would offer healing to the whole
human being, body, soul and spirit. The nurses in their
treatments work closely with the element of warmth as a
bridge between the physical and spiritual being of their
patients. This is of key importance in supporting and
nurturing the patients’ own life-giving healing forces.
AN practice includes external applications of therapeutic
substances through
teas, footbaths, compresses,
embrocations (Einreibung)
and hydrotherapy.
Nurses interested in AN have the opportunity to expand
and deepen their nursing impulse in the art of healing
and their own inner development through continuing education offered by NAANA. NAANA is affiliated with
the International Forum for Anthroposophic Nursing
(IFAN) at the Medical Section of the School for Spiritual
Science, Goetheanum, Dornach, Switzerland.”
Online visit www.aamta.org/organizations/nurses/.
being human digest
AGRICULTURE
BD, Organic, Conventional soil compared
ELIANT, European Alliance of Initiatives for Applied Anthroposophy (eliant.eu/en/news), coordinates the
work by Steiner-inspired initiatives with complex regulatory structures, research, and information. A recent report, “Climate, Soil, and Effects of Herbicides,” notes that
“the long-term trial comparing biodynamic (D), organic
(O) and conventional (K) growing systems prove scientifically that organic and biodynamic agriculture produce
soils with a significantly higher level of organic matter
and humus than those of conventional agriculture.”
Beyond soil fertility, climate change make this important because “throughout the world the number of
heavy rainstorms is increasing. Water that cannot be absorbed by the soil runs off as surface water... Agricultural
land and villages are flooded and the damage and costs
of reparation are huge.” All soil combines mineral content
with organic matter, and it is “the organic matter in the
form of humus and microbial biomass [which] can absorb
and hold water.” Sterilizing the soil by use of herbicides
and pesticides diminishes biomass.
ANTHROPOSOPHY NYC
The New York Branch
of the Anthroposophical Society
in America – 138 West 15th Street
New York, NY – (212) 242-8945
WORKSHOPS TALKS STUDY GROUPS
CLASSES FESTIVALS EVENTS EXHIBITS
UPCOMING EVENTS & PROGRAMS
HEALING PLANTS (MONTHLY LECTURE)
Wed’s 7pm: David T. Anderson, 9/16, 10/14, 11/18, 12/16
STEINER & KINDRED SPIRITS
Robert McDermott, Thurs Sep 17, 7pm
ART OPENING: “NEW WORK”
by David Taulbee Anderson, Sat Sep 19, 2–4pm
TECHNOLOGY IN EVOLUTION
talk by Andrew Linnell, Thurs, Sept 24, 7pm
MICHAELMAS FESTIVAL & POT-LUCK
Sunday, Sept 27, 4pm to 7pm
EURYTHMY (MONTHLY WORKSHOP)
Mondays 7pm, Linda Larson: 9/28, 10/19, 11/16, 12/14
ROBERT FROST
Andy Leaf, Open Saturday, Oct 10, 2pm
WHAT MOVES THE BLOOD
ODYSSEY to EGYPT
Fri, Oct 16, 7pm: Branko Furst, MD,
new research on the heart’s role in life & health
CYMATICS
December 20th 2015 - January 3rd 2016
Wed Nov 11, 7pm, the art, science, & therapy of
sound’s visible effects; Jeff Volk, Gabriel Keleman
Come with us, visit the sacred places of this
ancient civilization and its Mysteries!
Plus Weekly & Monthly Study Groups
We will visit many of the famous and not-so-famous sites:
The Sphinx and the Pyramids of Giza
The tombs of the Valley of the Kings
The great Temples of Luxor, Karnak,
Dendera, and more
Visit the anthroposophically-inspired
community of Sekem
Cruise the Nile in a traditional
dahibiya sailboat
With informal talks and eurythmy
Please have no fear to visit Egypt
at this historic moment!
For details, please
contact Gillian:
610 469 0864
gillianschoemaker@gmail.com
Programs and resources in visual arts eurythmy
music drama & poetry Waldorf education
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www. centerpoint
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spiritual, therapeutic,
world & ‘outsider’ art
• 11
From the Classified Section of a Newspaper of 2407
by Christian Morgenstern, translated by Christiane Marks
August 5 !! Artificial Snowstorm
An official reward of 3,000 Marks
in Thale (Harz Mountains) produced by Hotel
is offered for the capture of the balloon pirate
Alpenrose utilizing the great Paper Scrap Snow who took the tiles off of the roof of the Köpenick
Centrifuge owned by the American Nature Drama Courthouse on the night of Monday to Tuesday.
Imitation Company Brotherson and Sann.
Signed: A. Bilz, Aerial Police Officer
American Agent
seeks stuffed Noblemen. Paying top prices.
Resuming Tomorrow on a Daily Basis:
Transformation of water into wine. Oysters,
caviar, champagne, finest fruits for everyone, by
a simple method!
Egon Schwarzfuss, Hypnotist
(Across from the Ministry of Agriculture)
The Executive Council of the
Society for Technical Issues,
Division of Transportation,
invites the public to the September 12
continuation of the discussion on the subject
of laying tracks on water.
is the best mouthwash! In addition to its
cleansing power, it is highly nutritious! Its use
We invite the Society for Ant Games
replaces breakfast or supper! Testimonial: Very
to gather tomorrow, the 17th, on Tempelhof Field
dear Sir: I have been using your Nutridentol
to finish the great heap.
regularly for two months now and during
this period I have saved 4 kilos of butter. My
headaches have totally disappeared, as well. My
greatest thanks to you! Eleonora Hecht
Phantasius Liptauer,
Marketplace for Animal
Games of all Sorts
offers ant costumes in brown and black, all sizes, For the Lonely: Memory-evoking fragrances,
manufactured strictly to the specifications of the made up to your exact specifications by The
Marketplace of Little Things to Make You Happy.
S for A (“Society for Ant Games”).
Address telegrams to: Happiness House.
Aphid costumes in all sizes also available,
complete with accessories.
Diversion A pparatus:
containing
music, images, liqueurs, fireworks,
The Society for the Spread
brochures, lottery tickets, etc.
of Horrors of Every Kind
Tomorrow, Sunday:
announces that simulated burglaries
Grammophone-lecture by Professor Houston
are now officially allowed by the police.
Shaw of the University of New Heidelberg,
As always, subscribers enjoy considerable
benefits. Subscribe for a whole year, and you Massachusetts. Authentic proof that Henrik Ibsen,
receive one attempted murder free, in addition to to whom the well-known dramas have been
ascribed, is identical with Peer Hansen,
the three burglaries. For further details,
former lecturer at the University of Christiania.
see our catalogues and prospectuses.
English Church,
made of rubber; easy assembly, with its own
carrying case. 1550 Marks.
Upcoming Event: Launching of the first
German Aerial Newspaper!
Six tethered balloons anchor the screen, which
measures 800 square meters.
It will be installed on Kreuzberg every evening
after dark, projecting the latest news in letters
visible at a great distance.
There are specially-made binoculars available
to subscribers, in addition to tickets for seating
in the attics and on the chimneys of our
headquarters and its branches.
We call to your attention that only subscribers
have access to the special events we are
planning, the first of which
will be the full-size projection of
every subscriber born on a Sunday.
12 •
being human
Seeking a Violinist –
an excellent one – to play for my lizard.
Adele Süsskind , c/o Main Post Office
Artificial
Heads!!!
Those who do not purchase an artificial head
are simply fools. Your artificial head is put
on over your natural head and offers the
following advantages: a) Protection from rain,
wind, sun, dust – in short, all negative outer
influences which irritate the natural head no end
and prevent it from carrying out its intended
function – that of thinking. b) Sharpening of
the natural senses: With your artificial ears
you hear about 100 times better than with your
natural ones; with your eye apparatus you see
as with binoculars; with you A.H. you smell more
keenly and taste more discerningly than with
their predecessors. And yet you do not need to
make use of any of this; you can adjust the head
in whatever way you wish; so you can switch
it onto “dead,” too. The A.H. makes possible a
completely undisturbed inner life. Closed rooms,
monks’ cells, vernal solitude, etc. have now
become unnecessary. You may isolate yourself
even when surrounded by the densest of crowds.
The A. H. is tailored to you personally and is
lightweight for comfortable wear. It includes a
battery which prevents the unauthorized from
touching it. Since it needs no hair, the skull area
can be used for advertising. If you are smart and
open-minded, you can easily recoup the cost of
the A.H. by renting advertising space there to
a business you find congenial. You can actually
make money via your A.H. more easily than by
means of your natural head.
Translator’s Note: Christian Morgenstern was born in Munich on May
6, 1871 and died in Merano, Austria, on March 31, 1914, of the tuberculosis which overshadowed his entire adult life yet never hindered his work or
touched his optimism and love of all of humanity. These relatively early futuristic ads are usually included with his Galgenlieder (Gallows Songs), which
were first published in 1905. They are not as well-known, but considerably
more translatable than the exquisite humorous poems, which rely so heavily
on rhyme, meter, puns, etc. The ads are funny, of course, but also foreshadow every technical device available today to seduce us into worlds of virtual
reality, sensation and horror, and distraction generally. Their only inaccuracy lies in underestimating the speed at which technology has moved!
In the preface to the 1962 edition of Morgenstern’s letters (Alles um des
Menschen Willen) his life-long close friend, Friedrich Kayssler, reminds us
that Morgenstern’s “humorous” and “serious” poems have always formed a
unit. Morgenstern called humor “a certain hard-to-define quality that can
probably only be found where life is at the same time regarded with an unshakably earnest eye, as with the heart-felt love of a child.”
— Christiane Marks
initiative!
A World in Need
Undertaking a Campaign for Anthroposophy in America
An editorial by John Beck
I have rarely written editorials in seven years as editor of being human. I do so now for three reasons. First,
despite tremendous power and material wealth, humanity
is not in good shape. Second, anthroposophy and other
holistic, spiritual, and globally-aware impulses have proven that they can engage the deficiencies of the modern
world and bring forth better approaches. Third, the Anthroposophical Society in America has arrived at a place
of decision in regard to acknowledging the far-reaching
cultural intentions of anthroposophy—intentions which
speak clearly to open minds and hearts.
1. Starving in the midst of plenty
Human circumstances today, globally, include many
shortages and problems. Our media thrive on threats;
do they ever give accounts of the immense assets and resources which are available to us? How much work and
value is being created today by machines? How much
free activity is supported by energy resources we have
learned to harness? How much is humanity empowered
by an ever-growing access to the world of ideas? With all
this abundance mere survival should not be in question
(though for so many it still is). So there are historically
unprecedented resources available for culture.
Properly used, culture liberates, empowers, inspires,
heals, helps us grow wise. Many millions of individuals
use their free cultural time well, but we endure saturation
advertising for empty entertainments—things that have
been clearly identified as sleep-inducing social drugs.
2. Spirit works
As Thomas Meyer wrote recently in The Present Age,
Rudolf Steiner’s saw a basic shift in humanity’s relationship with mind and spirit (Geist) as the deeper cause of
the First World War and the turmoil that followed. In
1899, a five-millennium process of darkening of human consciousness ended. Like a cosmic dawning, new
streams of consciousness started pouring in. Locked into
materialistic culture and its principle of enforcement, few
people could engage this new light consciously; instead, it
fueled conflict. Many more people are now seeing reality
in this new light and acting in accord with the spiritual
principle of empowerment. With necessary trials and errors, these actions have had profoundly positive results,
including the ambitious and penetrating initiatives out of
anthroposophy. And these alternatives are being noticed.
3. Light under bushels
If you have a light, you don’t hide it, you place it high
to light the whole room. That ancient wisdom is the challenge anthroposophy is now facing. Rudolf Steiner gave
us centuries’ worth of insights, questions, and projects.
We need to keep renewing ourselves by engaging this gift,
yet we must also try to make it available. Every human
being today is making choices which will determine our
individual futures—and humanity’s. Materialism toughens and hardens us; anthroposophy lights up interiors,
builds capacities for healing, reawakens community.
For historical reasons, the Anthroposophical Society
has been cautious in presenting its case to the world. German language and culture, highly appreciated in 1910,
has been overshadowed by English. Special responsibility
rests now on the Anthroposophical Society in America.
I find it a kind of signal from “behind the veil” that
as the ASA has moved to shoulder these responsibilities
we meet the financial challenges engendered by our past
isolation. The ASA, a national organization concerned
with all human needs, has a membership and budget
suitable to a regional animal welfare league. We have
overcome our traditions to start communicating more
openly and to undertake stronger relationship building—
the type of things that initiatives on the following pages
like reGeneration and Heartbeet Lifesharing do so very
well. And we are willing at last to say and to undertake
“A Campaign for Anthroposophy in America.”
For decades I have been inspired by the astonishing
ideas of anthroposophy and by its caring, creative, committed people. I can express that now in a few clear words:
“anthroposophy is being more consciously human, becoming
more fully human, and acting more humanely in all of life.”
And I also know that this campaign will succeed as we
begin to reach out with authenticity to each other, to others in our movement to create a worthy culture, and to
all others who are trying to wake up into a better world.
• 13
initiative!
IN THIS SECTION:
Waldorf parent Shepha
Schneirsohn Vainstein
liked her school so
much that she started
organizing people to
use Waldorf to create a
better world.
People on the Pine Ridge
Indian Reservation in
South Dakota think
Waldorf can help sustain
their whole culture.
In Vermont, Heartbeet
Lifesharing has so many
wise ways of making
community that they
now need a proper
space for it.
The Avalon Initiative just
organized an important
gathering to work
on rediscovering the
fundamental inspiration
of teaching.
The soul or psyche
is the center of
anthroposophy’s
picture of the human
being. The late William
Bento has helped
get anthroposophic
psychology established
in North America.
Every role an actor
takes on is an initiative,
and Maria in Steiner’s
mystery dramas is a very
special challenge.
What do
anthroposophical
doctors think about
vaccination? Read their
statement on page 29.
“Imagine the Potential”
“Seeding the Middle East with
an educational philosophy that
embraces life, learning, the arts, the earth and all the children.”
Waldorf alumna and teacher Karen Gierlach recently shared with Members of the Section for
the Social Sciences a report from Shepha Schneirsohn Vainstein, president of reGeneration, on a
Waldorf teacher training event in Palestine. We pass it along, prefaced by reGeneration’s vision
statement, goals, and key activities, including its work in development of “social capital.” — Editor
Vision. Children of all faiths growing up in the Middle East have a basic right to experience a wholesome environment that cultivates the empathic foundation, the motivational
drive, and the personal and social resources to be able to create a sustainably peaceful, productive, and prosperous society as adults.
Goals. Contributing to the field of social change and
equal access to education, reGeneration seeks:
• To back grassroots, interfaith and multicultural education with social technologies that fosters cooperation between Jews and Arab in Israel.
• To bring educational achievement among Arab citizens of Israel and Palestinians of the West Bank on
par with Jewish Israelis through increasing access to
high caliber education for all children; and,
• To cultivate a diverse cadre of interfaith supporters who use their financial and human capital to
promote our mission.
Objectives:
• Support Ein Bustan, a joint Jewish-Arab Waldorf
school in Israel
• Build the capacity of Tamrat El Zeitoun, the first Arab Waldorf School
• Introduce and facilitate the development of Waldorf education in Palestinian schools in
the West Bank Strategy
• Organize Waldorf education workshops and training for Arab Waldorf teachers
• Support programs in California that focus on overcoming preconceptions and building
bridges based on our common humanity.
Background and Strategic Context. On five continents there are over 1,000 Waldorf
educational institutions, community epicenters fostering wholesome environments in the
classroom and in the home. This growing global
educational community is creating a ripple effect
promoting UNESCO’s values of equality and tolerance, transforming families and ultimately society
worldwide. In the Middle East, outside of an initiative in Egypt, there are no Waldorf schools in the
Arab world.
Tamrat El Zeitoun—an Arab interfaith Waldorf school educating
In Israel the number of schools using Waldorf
children from kindergarten through fifth grade in northern Israel.
14 •
being human
reGeneration Vice-President Noor-Malika Chishti ritually
pours water over the hands of Shepha Schneirsohn
Vainstein at the concluding ritual of Celebration of
Abraham where the organization’s interfaith work and
support of educational projects for Jewish, Christian and
Muslim children in the MIddle East was honored at the
Celebration of Abraham in Davis, California, in January. We
each washed the other’s hands and the breaking of a loaf
of bread together symbolized of respect and connection.
educational techniques has steadily increased in the Jewish community since 1989 when the first school started
with 13 children. Today there are more than 4,000 Jewish children in 16 Waldorf schools in every major city
in Israel. Additionally, in Israel there are over 100 kindergartens using these methods and three Waldorf high
schools opened in the 2009/2010 year. The annual student growth rate is over 10% per year.
Consistently each year approximately 60% or more
graduates from the Waldorf high school in Israel sign up
to perform an extra year of volunteer community service to work with Jewish and Arab individuals who are
homeless, drug addicted, or orphaned—in comparison
with 2% of Jewish high school graduates overall. Waldorf
school graduates in Israel testify that the values they received in school had a major influence on their decision
to do volunteer service benefitting the community.
reGeneration’s initial phase included conflict resolution training for faculty and teens in Israel,
support for our Palestinian Teacher Training, and support for a high school peace
leadership program in the Galilee. The
high school program was a two-pronged
educational model promoting Jewish and
Arab coexistent participation in Israeli society while addressing the high drop-out
rate and low performance for matriculation
of Israeli-Arab high school students from a
public high school. Though the high school
program in itself was successful, we made
two critical observations. One was that we
saw that the educational gap between Jewish and Arab high school students was too large to try to
effectively remediate at such a late stage of development.
From this observation we decided it was far more
productive to support an equal education for both Jewish and Arab students from the earliest years. We also
observed how important it was for the Jewish and Arab
communities to share a common goal in which they could
work together to achieve.
Because of the unprecedented growth of Waldorf
education in the Jewish community and the nascent development of this humanistic education within the Arab
community, reGeneration decided that the most effective
intervention for equal opportunities in education in Israel was to support two pilot education programs, Ein
Bustan, the first Arab/Waldorf kindergarten in Israel and
El Zeitoun, the first Arab Waldorf School in Israel. Both
of these programs, along with our Palestinian Teacher
Training have a high potential for positively impacting
society in the Middle East. Today we support an education in the Middle East that builds resiliency in Christian, Jewish, and Muslim children while promoting new
capacities for this generation to shape a stable and sustainable future for all.
Building social capital
reGeneration is a member of Alliance for Middle East
Peace (ALLMEP), a coalition of over sixty organizations,
and the United Religions Initiative (URI), a coalition
of grassroots interfaith organizations from over seventy
countries around the globe. The two schools it co-sponsors in Israel, Ein Bustan and El Zeitoun, are affiliated
with the Inter Agency Task Force on Israeli Arab Issues.
Last November a concert, “Together in the City of
Angels,” launched the newly established Southern California Muslim-Jewish Forum. reGeneration worked with sixteen Jewish and Muslim organizations to establish the Forum as
an umbrella body to strengthen MuslimJewish ties in the Greater Los Angeles area.
Everything from the event committee to
the performances are examples of Muslims
and Jewish working together. Members of
the forum are the Academy of Jewish Religion California; Bayan Claremont Islamic
Graduate School; Beth Shir Shalom; Claremont Lincoln University; IKAR; Islamic
Center of Southern California; King Fahad Mosque; Malibu Jewish Center and
Synagogue; MECA Young Professionals; Muslim Public Affairs Council; New Ground; Pacifica Institute; reGeneration; Sufi Order International; Temple Emanuel
of Beverly Hills; Valley Beth Shalom; and the Wilshire
Boulevard Temple.
Teacher Training in Palestine
Letter from Shepha Schneirsohn Vainstein
Palestinian educators in Jenin in the West Bank are
enthusiastically talking about their wonderful ten days at
the recent West Bank Waldorf Institute [WBWI] held at
Al Quds University’s Open Campus in Jenin from February 15 to February 25, where we were able to produce a
West Bank version of the Public School Institute held at
Rudolf Steiner College for the past twenty-three years.
One hundred twenty eager Palestinian kindergarmichaelmas-fall issue 2015
• 15
initiative!
ten and grade school teachers came from
to be told how much people enjoyed the
throughout Jenin to be part of this imWBWI faculty who taught with great
mersive workshop. The WBWI was a
patience and such open hearts. Thankwindow into how to provide an engaging
fully, filmmakers captured on video the
and healing education for Palestinian chilfirst two days and the final three days of
dren growing up under the chronic stress
these historic moments. This footage will
of conflict. The Palestinian educational
eventually become part of a documentary
community welcomed learning methods
on Waldorf education in the Middle East,
on how to educate children in a manner
scheduled for release in 2017.
that promotes creative thinking while culOne of the highlights of the WBWI
tivating a culture of safety, peace, and rewas to see how the Palestinian teachers
spect in their classrooms.
cherished Aida Awad, the founding kinWBWI’s Waldorf teachers (left-to-right): Aida
The teachers learned about recent re- Awad, Lauren Hickman of Rudolf Steiner College, dergarten teacher from Tamrat El Zeitoun,
search showing powerful advantages that California award winning teacher, Anna Rainville the Arab Waldorf school in Israel. The Palhigh quality early childhood education bestows, whose
estinian teachers knew Aida had studied in Hebrew at a
major benefits can emerge much later in the adult lives
Jewish Waldorf Teacher Training in Israel and that she
of their students. Palestinian kindergarten teachers behad transposed what she had learned into Arabic and the
gan to learn how to create these environments for young
Palestinian culture. They appreciated her warm welcomchildren while grade school teachers learned how to give
ing demeanor and were amazed by her ability to captivate
engaging lessons using the arts, movement, and
children in such a magical and tranquil way.
singing games developing a multiplicity of skills. It was deeply
Also greatly appreciated by the Palestinian
gratifying
In an overflowing room of 180 people, the
teachers were classes taught by Lauren Hickto see how
program was emceed by WBWI’s Coordinator,
man of Rudolf Steiner College and nationallywe were
Dr. Rola Jadallah, who recently had been induct- connecting the recognized Waldorf consultant Anna Rainville,
ed into the Women in Science Hall of Fame of Palestinian
who has taught at Rudolf Steiner College’s Public
the United States Embassy in Amman, Jordan. educational
School Institute for the past twenty-three years.
The opening ceremony included comments from community
Waldorf alumna Karen Gierlach provided classes
the Governate of Jenin, Jenin’s Director of Edu- to a global
on adult development based on the reflection of
cation, the President of Al Quds University in Waldorf
each individual teacher’s own unique biography.
Jenin, psychologist and Director of WBWI Dr. educational
Group singing was provided by Julia Anna KataWael Mustafa Abu Hassan, myself, and Rudolf community
rina, an English Waldorf graduate, musician, and
embracing
Steiner College Chair of Early Childhood Educaopera singer who is fluent in Arabic. In addition,
all children,
tion, Lauren Hickman.
reGeneration’s Middle East Liaison and Way of
regardless
of
With initial attendance way beyond the
Council trainer, Itaf Awad, worked with sevenreligion, race
expected number, it turned out that word had
teen Palestinian school counselors giving them
or nationality.
spread throughout the Al Quds student body
an experience of how the Way of Council can
that a great class was being held on the top floor of their
teach their students deep listening skills and build a sense
university so the first few days we had a huge number of
of community. The work with Itaf was so valued by the
unregistered drop-ins
school counselors that
until we tightened our
Itaf has made plans
check-in procedures
to continue to come
with our administrafrom Israel to Jenin to
tive assistants. Even
work with them once a
then we had forty kinmonth. Before giving
dergarten teachers and
my own lectures on the
eighty grade school
developing brain of the
teachers in attendance.
young child, I met with
It was very touching Aida Awad, WBWI’s “Waldorf Rock Star”—Math Lessons for Grade School Teachers—Handcrafts for Kindergarten Itaf’s group of Palestin16 •
being human
ian school counselors who informed me that televisions
are ubiquitous in preschools and kindergartens throughout Palestine. I therefore included a talk on how the
American Academy of Pediatricians has recommended
absolutely no screen time for children under two and how
recent research in brain development validates the holistic
Waldorf approach to educating young children in a manner that physically helps the brain grow more primed for
creative thinking and executive functioning. We all made
a strong case for keeping television out of the kindergarten and Aida Awad highlighted the daily rhythm in her
classroom as a model of how the Waldorf kindergarten’s
calm and consistent routine serves as an important foundation, a healing environment for children growing up in
stressful conditions.
It was deeply gratifying to see how we were connecting
the Palestinian educational community to a global Waldorf educational community embracing all children, regardless of religion, race, or nationality. For further highlights please see West Bank Institute of Waldorf Inspired
Education on Facebook [www.facebook.com/WBIWIE].
“What is next?” Although we are waiting for the results of our pre- and post-surveys, it already has become
apparent that the Palestinian teachers hunger for more
exposure to Waldorf methods for their students. Training to become a Waldorf teacher requires a significant
time commitment and deep inner work to learn how to
embody the Waldorf approach. We developed a Committee for Palestinian Waldorf Inspired Education to field
applications from Palestinian kindergarten teachers who
want Waldorf early childhood education training. We are
in the midst of refining criteria for the selection of these
teachers and soon will be developing the program and its
accompanying budget.
It was extremely moving to see the faces of these Palestinian teachers glow in joy from what they were learning, knowing that these experiences were creating an educational foundation from which their own students will
benefit. Something truly magnificent happened in the
West Bank! If we are persistent, it can only bring something good and productive to the troubled Middle East.
Lakota Waldorf
School Building
by Truus Geraets
It has been a miracle that some 150 people responded to send a message of support to the Lakota Waldorf
School [www.lakotawaldorfschool.org ] and a check of
$10,000 earmarked for building. We understand that
building a new class room is now urgent, as a big recruiting drive will bring in many new enrollments, and because the school has now two buses to pick up children
from further afield.
Our check, we hope, will stimulate bigger building
grants from other sources. The administration is currently talking with a log cabin builder from the Black Hills,
to make a proposal of building a tipi classroom out of
wood. Another piece of good news is that an experienced
Waldorf teacher by the name of Barbara Booth has committed herself for a year to be the mentor for the teachers.
Administrator Isabel Stadnick’s own children, who
grew up on the Reservation, are now both studying Waldorf education at the Goetheanum in Switzerland. The
older one is presenting just now [April 2015] her thesis
about the future of the Lakota Waldorf School, where
high school students could learn trades in workshops
and sell their goods in retail outlets. Also, how to make
the Lakota Waldorf School an interesting destination for
tourists. All this with the aim to make the Lakota Waldorf School ultimately self-sustaining.
Because it may take a few years to work towards the
realization of this fantastic plan, let us continue to show
them our support in keeping the ball rolling, the ball,
which has already been pushed by so many people. We
can’t thank you enough for that.
Truus Geraets (truus.geraets@gmail.com) is a eurythmist and
social activist working through The Center for the Art of Living.
Shepha Schneirsohn Vainstein co-founded re:Generation
[regenerationeducation.org]. She received her Masters of Counseling
Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute and is a psychotherapist
practicing in Los Angeles specializing in trauma recovery and personal empowerment. She is a facilitator of Nonviolent Communication
and the Way of Council. A long time Waldorf parent and advocate,
she continues to volunteer at her local public Waldorf-Method
school, the Mariposa School of Global Education in Agoura Hills.
• 17
initiative!
A Community Center for Heartbeet
Heartbeet Lifesharing is the
newest Camphill community
in North America. I became
aware of Heartbeet at the
Anthroposophical Society’s
fall conference in 2009 when
Hannah Schwartz shared its
story of community outreach
and engagement.
Hannah grew up in Camphill,
and just out of college she and her husband Jonathan Gilbert bought a farmhouse in Hardwick, in Vermont’s “Northeast Kingdom,” a beautiful region of small New England
towns. Fifteen years later Heartbeet Lifesharing is a local
institution and widely known for inspiring, youth-oriented
conferences. After houses and a barn, it is now building a
community and cultural center, “the heart of Heartbeet.” “It
will be a venue for gatherings, concerts, festivals, plays, conferences, and many special events—a multi-purpose theater,
seating 175 people, will be the core of the building.”
Out of $2.2 million there is just under $300,000 to raise.
Hannah hopes that will be in place by year’s end so that the
building can be finished by March. The fundraising “is beautiful work as it is all relationship building around something
truly meaningful.”
The following is drawn from newsletters, pamphlets, and the
Heartbeet website (www.heartbeet.org). Several pictures are
from a fine video by Corey Hendrickson. — Editor
The mission
The Camphill impulse is multi-dimensional. An
early mission statement described Heartbeet Lifesharing
in part as “an initiative that recognizes the importance
of interweaving the social and agricultural realms for the
healing and renewing of our society and the earth. We
fully acknowledge and live out of the understanding that
every human being is unique and unrepeatable. In light
of this insight, our mission is to offer both a vacation and
respite program and a permanent residential program for
developmentally disabled individuals that focus not on a
person’s disability but rather on his or her capacities.”
Today, Heartbeet is a vibrant lifesharing Camphill
community that includes adults with developmental dis18 •
being human
abilities. Working from a philosophy of social therapy,
Heartbeet has become recognized as an innovative model
of care for individuals with special needs. It is a fully licensed Therapeutic Community Residence.
“In Camphill you approach
who you meet in a very
different way. We’re not
care-givers, we’re caring for
each other. So really we’re
recognizing each human
being as having a destiny to fulfill.”
— Heartbeet co-founder Jonathan Gilbert
Five extended-family homes form a supportive environment that enables individuals to discover and develop
their unique abilities and potential. Heartbeet provides
work and artistic opportunities, which help adults with
special needs participate in the community in a meaningful way. This means:
• healthy and fulfilling adult relationships
• building practical and artistic skills
• meaningful vocational experiences
• integral membership of a caring community
• love of lifelong learning
• openness for new experiences
• social and self-awareness
• mutual trust and respect.
Independence & success flourish. It is a place where differences fade and diversity is celebrated!
Because of Heartbeet, the hopes that we had for
Max at his birth—of a happy and productive life
surrounded by loving family—have been restored.
We see so much promise in Max’s future now.
His life at Heartbeet is a dream come true.
— Amy Gleicher, parent
The youth conferences
Rachel Schwartz (now Rachel Knauf) was prime
mover in ten years of twice-yearly Heartbeet Youth Conferences. Themes included “The Whole Human Being in
Relation to Karma” and “Learning the Signs of Destiny
through Thinking and Artistic Experience.” Three conferences explored, four at a time, the experience of the
twelve sense identified by Rudolf Steiner: lower senses
of touch, life, movement, and balance; middle senses of
smell, taste, sight, and warmth; and the upper senses,
hearing, word, idea, and perceiving the “I” of the other.
Conference #20 was “Know Yourself and Change the
World”: finding the courage to begin (Joan of Arc for inspiration), making connections between inner work and
social justice and transformation, karma and reincarnation, the new clairvoyance, and more. The coordinating
role passed to Annie Volmer with the next conference,
“Encountering Thresholds: The Courage to be Vulnerable.” Annie wrote, “Heartbeet remains committed to the
destiny of these very special events. We are working hard
to fill Rachel’s shoes!”
In fall 2014 a new direction came: an International
Camphill Youth Conference. As Haleh Wilson reported
to being human, “Nearly eighty attendees came together
to frame important questions about prevailing dynamics between the generations of Camphill. After four days,
such questions had been identified, parsed, and refined,
and participants had struck new friendships of the kind
that serve increasingly to knit Camphill together as an
international community.”
This year the Second International Camphill Youth
Conference offers “An Anthroposophical Initiative: At
the Altar of the Present Moment—An Exploration of
Selfless Collaboration.” It welcomes those, young and
old, who will to carry the spiritual impulse of Camphill
into the future. The organizers write:
Since parting from the last conference, members of the
planning committee have been mindful of the deep suffering of humanity on a world scale as well as in our
communities, our relationships, and our selves.
We’ve been led to ask what it might mean to become
a selfless collaborator in our time—to learn to gently
ask the healing questions for our brothers and sisters
in pain, and to cultivate vulnerable spaces wherein we
give of our listening and our compassion. The last conference brought us down a path much like Parzival’s,
where we came, each in our own way, to recognize our
individual failures and the failures of our communities
and of modern humanity. What happens when that
self-knowledge is given over to the healing forces of the
Christ who spoke, “Where two or more are gathered
in my name, there shall I be”? How do we take up this
sacred responsibility for the altar of the present moment
which exists between human beings? Have we advanced
far enough in our inner striving that we can offer our
own suffering at this altar, that it may be transformed
through Community into the courage to meet others in
the present moment, and to hold—as conscious, selfless
deed—their suffering as our own?
Can [the Parzival] story encourage our own intergenerational collaboration? We have a sacred responsibility
for one another. This thought will be at the heart of our
explorations together.
“To strangers I think it will
be interesting for them
to learn what Heartbeet
is about. It’s up to them
if they want to come and
support, it’s up to them,
it’s their own calling if they’re ready. Being
supportive means to bring of your utmost self,
and I think that’s important.”
— Annie Jackson, resident
A view of Vermont’s “Northeast Kingdom” [photo: Patmac13, CC 3.0, Wikipedia]
• 19
initiative!
The building impulse
Six years ago Per Eisenman wrote, “Our temporary
conference community…has been coming together faithfully for nine years. The Heartbeet Lifesharing community hosts us and
grows around us,
like a time-lapse
movie of a growing flower. Every
six months there
is a new develHannah Schwartz speaking at a community meeting.
opment, a new
home, new barn, new coworkers.” But this unfolding
was interrupted in January, 2013: “Heartbeet Lifesharing’s new home, Sophia House, nearing the end of construction, was destroyed as a result of a chimney fire. We
are deeply thankful that no one was hurt! Our hearts are
heavy, but we are slowly getting off our knees. Although
this is a tremendous setback, we are working hard to continue embracing the vision and enthusiasm that has filled
the air at Heartbeet over the last year.”
Out of the ashes of Sophia House came the impulse
to build a community center. Reporting from last fall’s
meeting Haleh Wilson wrote, “On September 20, 2014,
101 years since the laying of the Foundation Stone of the
First Goetheanum, a Heartbeet ceremony incorporated
conference participants in a poignant visual reminder
of Camphill’s basis in anthroposophy and the legacy of
Rosicrucianism. A vast cross [of ashes] was laid on the site
where Heartbeet will soon commence construction on its
Community Center. Participants joined Heartbeet community members to form a
circle around the site while
seven bunches of red roses
were laid in the circuit that
appears on the Rose Cross,
a symbol that urges us toward renewal. ... Certainly
in the moment of that September 20th ceremony, the
Rose Cross image seemed to
speak to the events of today’s Camphill movement, a call
for renewal in the face of forces seeking to change us: the
cross on the Earth, the wide circle around it, people joining hands, voices lifted in song.”
Joan Allen, who just passed away and designed many
20 •
being human
if not all the Camphill Halls in the USA, planted a further seed in conversation with Hannah Schwartz. “The
idea was to have something that pre-dates the materialistic nature of our times, or came before its full onset, built
into this inevitably modern building. I was coming home
at high speed from a long trip when through the trees the
colors called me to turn
around.” On display in an
antique store was an 1830s
stainglass window from
a church in New Haven,
Connecticut. “The window itself is mostly a deep
blues and reds with golds,
Tiffany-style with motifs of a swan and the lamb as well
as a special cross between the two big panels.”
There are many powerful things happening in
Hardwick but the one I am most excited about is
Heartbeet. The sheer humanity that is practiced
there every day is an antidote to what is wrong
with the world at large.
— Mateo Kehler, Co-Owner of Jasper Hill Farm
and a new board member of Heartbeet
Community benefits
The new community hall will be a powerful, integrating space, in service to Heartbeet, the “Northeast
Kingdom,” the international Camphill community, and
the anthroposophical movement. The benefits, including cultural, educational,
economic, and environmental one, have been carefully
planned out.
For Heartbeet itself the
Community Center answers
the need for more space.
“Our growing community
is squeezed to capacity. With
five lifesharing homes, we
can no longer comfortably meet under one roof or welcome the local community to the extent that we would
like. The ability to gather together is essential to building
community life, and keeps everyone connected through
shared experiences.”
Heartbeet has a limited number of designated building sites, so the Community Center is multi-faceted, with
a multi-purpose theater, seating 175 people, as the core
of the building. It also houses therapy rooms, a community library, a bakery and processing kitchen, and ad-
ministrative offices. Paper-making, weaving and felting
workshops can expand into the old administrative spaces.
Massage therapy, fitness classes, art exhibits, quiet study
space, and computer access are available on site! Baking
and food processing for the entire community take place
in the Community Center kitchen, providing a training
workshop for Friends with special needs.
The most important thing that Heartbeet brings
to our area is a broader perspective on diversity.
I love watching friendships develop, discomfort
melt away, as Heartbeeters integrate into the
community, spreading their own brand of love
and joy. Every town needs a Heartbeet.
— Pete Johnson, owner of Pete’s Greens
From its beginning Heartbeet
has participated in
the annual town
dinner, and for
the last four years
family and friends
Sign for Hardwick’s annual community dinner.
have gathered at a
local church to celebrate a Passover Seder.
“In the new center there will be space to host regular community meals together, and expand our ability to
connect and host other Camphill communities and anthroposophical events. There will be an inclusive, noncompetitive environment for a broad range of quality arts
events, including plays, concerts, dance performances,
contradances, readings, and lectures. It expands opportunities for collaboration with local artistic, cultural, and
educational groups.”
The final push
Hannah Schwartz writes, “In January we thought we
were finished planning, but we needed to go back to the
drawing board to keep the building within budget. Now,
with the help of our tireless advising team, we are excited
to say that we love the final building plans, and feel that
we have just what we need and not an inch more.
“The building will soon start its material manifestation! We hope to break ground in late summer, though
the exact date will depend on permitting. Imagine with
us the festivals, plays, group meals, life celebrations, music and art that will fill this space! It will bring relationships, joy, inclusion and understanding that will resonate
within Heartbeet and far beyond.
“We are all
living and breathing with anticipation of the community
center.
This building will
be the bridge to
allow the gifts and Community music-making at Heartbeet.
treasures cultivated within our community to reach the surrounding extended community and will make collaboration
possible with the many already interested parties that have
approached us. Once construction has started we will begin
formalizing plans for upcoming activities, and I hope that
within the next year you will come and see some of these
dreams and initiatives underway in this amazing new space!
To date we still need the last $300,000 to get us across the
finish line. A profound and humble thank you to all who
have brought us this far!”
Hannah Schwartz (hannah@heartbeet.org) is Executive Director
of Heartbeet Lifesharing, on the internet at www.heartbeet.org and
on Facebook.
Thank You from Heartbeet Lifesharing!
A special thank you to Corey for many of the photographs.
Hannah Schwartz, Director of Development
Heartbeet Lifesharing, 218 Town Farm Road, Hardwick, VT 05843
Office: 802-472-3285 ~ Cell: 802-498-4180 ~ hannah@heartbeet.org ~ www.heartbeet.org
16
• 21
initiative!
Authentic Assessment in Education
by Patrice Maynard
On Saturday, April 25, at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York, a few more than
60 people from different arenas of education
gathered together to discuss how to recapture
the imagination of teaching as a vocation, student assessment as something other than a test,
and education as an art, not a technical delivery
system.
The Avalon Initiative [edrenewal.org ], a research project of The Research Institute for Waldorf Education [waldorfresearchinstitute.org ]
in collaboration with the Hawthorne Valley Association’s Center for Social Research
[thecenterforsocialresearch.org ] sponsored and
formed the day’s work. We accidentally met
hot on the heels of the recent round of Common Core testing in New York and the successful “Opt Out: Refuse the Test” effort. Up to
200,000 families opted out and kept their children home or requested that their children stay
at school in study halls on the testing days. This
number is up from 60,000 in the last round
and is a statistically significant slice of the 1.1
million school-age children in New York.
Public, charter, independent schools,
homeschoolers, and Waldorf school teachers and administrators were involved all day
in lively presentations and discussions of vital
imaginations for the future of education and
cultural renewal in education.
A panel comprising Katie Zahedi, PhD, assistant professor at SUNY New Paltz and former principal at the Red Hook Middle School,
Heinz-Dieter Meyer, PhD, Associate professor
at SUNY Albany, and Carol Bärtges, doctoral
candidate and teacher of comparative literature
at the New York City Rudolf Steiner School,
launched the day with vibrant ideas about a
new approach to teaching, learning, and accountability in America. Gary Lamb acted as
primary convener and moderator for the day
with Patrice Maynard acting as facilitator.
Katie spoke of the success of the Opt-Out
22 •
being human
Gary Lamb introduces local public
school 8th and 9th grade students
who read poems of what it is like
to take standardized tests.
Patrice Maynard (l) and Katie
Zahedi (r) spoke of the artificial
divide being made between public
schools and private schools, when
all teacher are vocationally called
to serve children. Katie spoke
of the sacred space between a
teacher and her students that
defies digital measures.
On a beautiful sunny day at Omega
Institute Heinz-Dieter Meyer spoke
of the need for teachers to be free
of political and economic control
of education.
Carol Bärtges regaled teachers
with stories of assessment as a
Waldorf teacher and explained
the new publication Assessment
for Learning in Waldorf Classrooms,
peer-reviewed research on nontesting approaches.
In small group discussions, Waldorf, private, public, homeschool
and charter school educators
spoke of professional evaluations
done by relevant professionals.
movement, which she helped to energize and
foster in New York State; and of the sacred
relationship between teacher and student, unmeasurable with technology-driven testing.
Heinz-Dieter Meyer spoke, as he has all over
the world, and with particular clarity in India
and in his classes in the United States, of his
vision of the administration of education in
which teachers play a pivotal role in determining appropriate assessments and accountability
measures with politics and economic interests
uninvolved. Carol Bärtges spoke of her years
of experience in the classroom and how she
assesses students using her own intuitive capacities and expertise in her Waldorf school.
Carol also spoke of research being published
by Academica Press, Assessment for Learning
in a Waldorf School, chronicling the means
of assessment used in Waldorf schools without a single, standardized test (available from
www.waldorfpublications.org ).
One highlight of the day’s activities was the
presentations by four eighth and ninth grade students who read their poetry about their experiences taking the language arts state tests. Poised
and clear, these young people gave a chilling description of what the tests do to children during
the test-taking hours. One of the members of the
support team from Omega cried when she heard
them rehearsing. She has been a teacher herself
and appreciated deeply the eloquent expression
of despair, anxiety, boredom, and wishes these
students captured in their poetry.
We all left with new understanding of how
the artificial barriers of “public and private,” “us
and them,” “Republicans and Democrats,” are
distractions from the high vocational calling of
“teacher” that we, who teach or support teachers, all share. The day was remarkable and important for the future of education in America.
Patrice Maynard (patrice@waldorf-research.org) is
Director of Publications and Development at the Research
Institute for Waldorf Education.
An Emerging
Anthroposophic
Psychology
by William Bento, PhD
In recent years, William Bento worked with distinguished
colleagues to establish a professional presence
and training in North America for a psychology
imbued with the insights of anthroposophy.
The article that follows is one of his last; he
passed on from a stroke on June 5th. — Editor
Introduction to an
Anthroposophic Psychology
I will attempt to give an abbreviated view
of the context out of which Rudolf Steiner
brought forward his ideas in the Berlin lecture series of 1909, 1910 and 1911, now published and
entitled, A Psychology of Body, Soul and Spirit. Its former
title was Anthroposophy (wisdom of the body), Psychosophy
(wisdom of the soul), and Pneumatosophy (wisdom of the
spirit). If one lives with the idea that Steiner was taking every opportunity to address the origin, nature and destiny
of humanity, many developmental aspects of his talks fall
into place.
His view on cosmology was both anthroIf one lives
with the idea
pocentric and Christ centered. He wished to
that Steiner
reveal the esoteric beginnings of humanity
was always
from the standpoint of the cosmos. Each time
taking every
he told the cosmological story layers of insight
opportunity
were added to his book, Esoteric Science: An
to address the
Outline. The telling of the story compelled the
origin, nature
listener to enter into picture building, imaginand destiny of
ing what cannot be seen by the sensible eye. In
humanity, many
fact, it prompted one’s “I” to develop an organ
developmental
of supersensible cognition. We can simply reaspects of his
fer to it as imaginative cognition. I need not
talks fall into
elaborate on how Steiner refuted the “Big Bang
place.
Theory.” Rather than to speak of abstract forces Steiner brought the living being-ness of the Cosmos by
introducing the many beings of the Spiritual Hierarchies
who served the Godhead. Hence the origin of the human
being does not begin in some primal soup, but within the
imaginative powers of the Godhead wherein all manner
of beings cooperated in a unity and for a divine purpose.
Civilizations of our forefathers always told the stories of
their relationship with the Cosmos, honored the many
spiritual beings that participated in the human creation,
and conducted rituals and ceremonies to invoke their
continued participation in human evolution.
In this particular series of lectures Steiner addresses
the nature of the Human Being, as he can be understood
from the standpoint of the senses and from the phenomenological view of the soul. There is very
little borrowing of ancient ideas about the
soul nor is there much reference to modern
concepts and formulations of the anatomy of
the soul. Steiner attempts to bring a descriptive narrative of soul processes in which we
are involved all the time. It is presented in a
form that accentuates our own experiences
and places them in a cohesive developmental
context. And as such it bypasses the thorny
dilemmas of theoretical and philosophical
debates about the human soul. In today’s
world there is a great deal of confusion, skepticism, and
delusions about the nature of the human soul. The term
“psyche” used by Freud had the meaning of soul. This
term meant something much larger than the narrow
meaning it has today. Soul meant a dimension that was
both sacred and at the core of one’s character. Unfortunately, soul as used by Freud was translated into English
as merely being mind. Although mind was in vogue in the
Western world at the turn of the 20th century, it left out
the greater dimension of the soul and its relationship with
the cosmos. The whole birth of psychology suffers from
a loss of a genuine understanding of soul. It has as a consequence been fraught with an intellectual convention of
materialism. Fundamentally the soul has been abstracted
from the spirit and driven deeper into the mechanisms of
the body. In an approach to Anthroposophic Psychology
realignment between body, soul, and spirit is sought for.
This search is not for a new set of concepts to illuminate the realities of soul life, but to reinstate the heart of
psychology. To state it succinctly, psychology offers us a
path of knowing what lives as soul warmth and soul light
when we take interest in each other’s lives. Psychology
must not be relegated to an individual affair. It is a collective responsibility to create healthy conscious community
that connects us to each other, to the endowment of the
resources of the Earth, and to the wonders of the Cosmos.
Emphasis on the “I” as the spiritual executor of the
• 23
initiative!
soul is given a high premium in an anthroposophic parafor crafting the Psychosophy Seminars curriculum went
digm. The “I” becomes the bearer of one’s destiny. It navon to obtain higher accredited degrees and licensure in
igates through the karmic conditions set up by previous
the field of psychology. James Dyson, MD, went through
lives and contributes to the future course of humanity.
training in one of the foremost schools of Psychosynthesis
But most important of all is its responsibility for impartin London and graduated with a Master’s degree, and I
ing meaning to our individual development. In the realm
attended the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology and
of psychotherapy the “I” is the great transformer of our
graduated with a PhD in clinical psychology, procuring a
soul life. There the spirit must be found and be engaged
license to practice in 2006. From the culmination of the
with at the most profound level. Soul wisdom must be
Psychosophy Seminars to the present we have continued
united with love for the spirit. When this attitude is fully
to collaborate on researching ways in which an Anthroembraced psychotherapy no longer becomes an intervenposophic Psychology could fructify the mainstream psytion to alleviate pain and suffering, it becomes a means
chologies, and particularly the transpersonal approaches
to bear and transform pain and suffering into wisdom
to psychology that have acknowledged the spiritual nature
and love. The path of Anthroposophic Psychotherapy
of the human being. Although another cycle of Psychosoand Counseling becomes a path of initiation, a path of
phy Seminars could not take place there were a number of
self-education in the fullest sense of the word
gatherings under the title of the Psychosophy
Psychology must
educare, to draw out one’s sense of destiny.
Circle, wherein alumni met to support each
In The Riddle of Humanity (1916) Ru- not be relegated to
other’s continued studies and research. Each
dolf Steiner offers a schema that connected an individual affair.
meeting was followed by public workshops.
the twelve senses and seven life processes to It is a collective
Dr. Roberta Nelson, who attended and fathe zodiac and the planets respectively. In
cilitated groups in the Psychosophy Semiresponsibility to
the last 99 years there have been research
nars, joined Dr. Dyson and myself in cocreate healthy
and therapeutic practices within the anthropresenting content. These events would not
conscious
posophical movement that have given these
have been nearly as successful were it not for
correlations validity. And we can take heart community that
the insightful guidance of our eurythmists,
that this work has been done. As we stand connects us to
Karen Derreamuax and Gillian Schoemaker,
one year from the centennial of the lectures each other, to the
also graduates of the Psychosophy Seminars.
of The Riddle of Humanity we may take hope endowment of the
As time went on a most remarkable event
that a more thorough approach to applying
occurred at a Medical Section conference in
resources of the
this schema to the human soul may take
September 2012 in Dornach, Switzerland.
Earth, and to the
place. Not in a prescriptive manner, but as
A report on this conference can be found
wonders
of
the
a map to navigate the ever evolving terrain
in full text at APANA [apana-services.org ].
Cosmos.
of the soul.
The conference addressed anthroposophical
Ancient wisdom practices always had the cosmos in
approaches in psychiatry, psychotherapy, and psychosomind when any attempt at restoring health or intervening
matics. During this time a group of psychotherapists met
in a healing process was undertaken. But today, in world
under the guidance of Ad and Henrietta Dekkers from
that has ignored the cosmos and relegated it to mere suHolland. At the conclusion of these meetings the Interperstition and myth, we must rediscover the reality of
national Federation of Anthroposophic Psychotherapy
living within the cosmos. Not only as we can determine
Associations was founded. I was fortunate to be in atit as the vast celestial space that enfolds us but as the dytendance and a founding member of IFAPA. It was not
namic realm of living forces that permeates the interior
long after this event that I recognized the time for an
space within us. In the Psychosophy Seminars that took
accredited and/or certified training in Anthroposophic
place from 2001 to 2004, preceded by five years of annual
Psychology had come, a dream held by Dyson, Nelson,
conferences exploring the mental health paradigm from
and myself. As destiny would have it a core group of inan anthroposophical viewpoint, a group of us attempted
dividuals rallied around the emerging task and agreed to
to facilitate an experiential and cognitive learning of the
make the ideal a reality. as two other anthroposophically
innate relationship between cosmology and psychology.
inspired psychologists committed to form the AnthropoThe two individuals who were primarily responsible
sophic Psychologists Association of North America with
24 •
being human
us. These two individuals are on the core faculty of APANA: Dr. David Tresemer, one of my most significant collaborators in the research and development of New Star
Wisdom, and Dr. Edmund Knighton, a fellow graduate
of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology and a talented psychologist in the field of teaching psychosomatics. I
hope having shared context to the emerging relationships
involved in the APANA initiative, the reader may gain a
sense for the guiding ideals in this endeavor.
lives. Thirty years ago Neil Postman brilliantly characterizes this phenomenon in his book, Amusing Ourselves to
Death (1985). Seven years later he wrote Technopoly: The
Surrender of Culture (1992). In this epic work he identifies one of the most crucial issues facing our post-modern
world—the proliferation and intoxication with technology. He not only makes an astute diagnosis of the ills of the
post-modern world, he addresses the cause behind the illnesses of our time. He declares that the rise of technopoly
is due to a lack of cosmology guiding Western civilization.
A psychology emerging from an
Indications gained from cosmological aspects provided a
anthroposophic cosmology
compass by which to navigate the course of the future and
In the word itself cosmology reveals its study. It etymounderstand the terrain of the past. Technopoly has filled a
logically means the logical order of the origin and develvacuum and provides the magic, which was once a task of
opment of the Cosmos. Embedded in the meaning of the
the spiritual and religious institutions of society. And who
word cosmology is the sense of a teleological
can deny the magic afforded by technology!
significance to the purpose of existence. Is There is an
Spiritual and religious institutions are
there a higher study than this? With the loss existential terror
hard pressed to maintain their own viabilof a consensus cosmology in Western civi- in living with the
ity in the face of the countless scientific and
lization we have fallen into an abyss of ab- notion that the
technological advances proclaiming to lead
stractions. The Big Bang Theory is a perfect
humanity into a progressive future. By comculmination of
example of this. The theory itself suggests
parison such institutions are seemingly antiwe are all here by chance without any higher one’s life is nothing
quated and insufficient to capture the minds
more
than
a
pile
purpose. Such a view coupled with the vast
and hearts of the younger generations. In
array of stars in our known galaxy can give of ashes. Although
describing the nature of the human being
rise to a feeling that the human being is an most people do not
metaphors abound that make the machine
insignificant creature. It also lends itself to give much thought
the template for understanding the species
the argument that there is no moral world to this popular
of humankind. The brain is a computer, the
order to abide by. In this perspective any asheart is a pump, the functioning of vital orbelief, it impacts a
sertion that there is a moral world order is
gans are the result of a well oiled machine,
viewed as mere speculation or a myth at best. majority of people
etc. What we have surrendered in our culeven
though
it
is
The very idea that for millennia men and
ture to technopoly is the image of the human
women have believed and prayed to a God, below the surface of being. It is no longer sacrosanct. It is subject
whether known and unknown, has been dis- consciousness.
to all sorts of phantasmagoria, for instance
missed as an aberration instead of being serithe robotic-man where the body parts are
ously considered that the need for a God is a central factor
interchangeable as with the many animated superheroes
in man’s search for meaning.
with extraordinary powers.
There is an existential terror in living with the notion
The phrase “man is made in the image and likeness
that the culmination of one’s life is nothing more than
of God” is no longer an unquestioned proposition. It once
a pile of ashes. Although most people do not give much
evoked the image of the cosmos as the face of God. The
thought to this popular belief, it nevertheless impacts a
likeness of God provoked a relationship to the creative
majority of people even though it is below the surface of
powers in the human being. Let us take a page from the
consciousness. It is astounding that so few professionals
ancients, which described the image of God within the
in the field of mental health ever give much attention to
form of the human being. Rudolf Steiner reveals this rea client’s world outlook and how it shapes their soul’s dislationship in his lecture series in Christiana (Oslo), Norposition. In America we are so mesmerized by a culture
way from June 2-12, 1912, entitled Man in the Light of
of amusement and distraction that little time is spent in
Occultism, Theosophy, and Philosophy. At this time he
serious reflection on the values and purposefulness of our
imparted the correlation between the zodiacal signs and
• 25
initiative!
their glyphs to the human body parts. He referred to it as
the Mysterium Magnum, the Great Mystery. Although
Steiner did not expound upon the glyphs, it was a wellknown fact among ancient astrologers and esotericists
that the glyphs were not abstractions. They were drawn
from initiates with clairvoyant perception. The down
streaming light from the stars within a particular constellation imprinted upon the physical body. These sculpting
etheric forces not only contained a creative capacity, they
contained moral impulses as well. And with each sign of
the zodiac there were spiritual hierarchical beings at work
gifting the human being with senses to apprehend the divine creation.
We can imagine the glyphs of the zodiac as the living
skeletal form of the human body. Consider these sculpting forces as light that is infused with wisdom. It bears
the archetypal forms of all living things, and as such the
entire macrocosm is contained in the microcosm of the
human being. “In the beginning was the Word. And the
Word was with God. And the Word was God” (Gospel of
St. John, Chapter 1 verse 1). The Logos
lives in the light. And the light reveals
the mystery of Life. For ancient humanity this was understood and proclaimed
in many ways. From the Spirit the human being was created, created in the
image and likeness of God. An Anthroposophic Psychology seeks to make this
declaration a guiding principle. By uniting Star Wisdom with Soul Wisdom APANA strives to provide an impetus for a
renaissance of the living spirit of Anthroposophia for the twenty-first century!
William Bento PhD, Founding Executive
Director of Anthroposophic Psychology Associates of North America (APANA), crossed the
threshold on June 5, 2015, just before his 64th
birthday. He had created many different relationships with many
clients as a psychologist, a mentor, and one who consulted the workings of the heavens (astrosophy—astro, star—Sophia, wisdom). He
nurtured the development of psychology at Rudolf Steiner College,
where he worked for several years. He wrote Lifting the Veil of Mental Illness, contributed to Signs in the Heavens: A Message for
Our Time, and contributed to The Counselor (see below). His annual Holy Nights Journal tracked those important nights between
December 24 and January 7, helping many find insights into the year
past and the year to come. His final achievement was the establishment of APANA, for which he gathered an excellent faculty who will
continue to offer this program in the United States.
26 •
being human
Update from David Tresemer: APANA offers
two certificate programs in Anthroposophic Counseling
Psychology, one at Rudolf Steiner College in Fair Oaks,
California, and the other in the Hudson, New York, area.
These groups meet three times a year for three years, nine
seminars in all. The mission statement of this initiative,
and the name of the seminar series is “Re-membering
PsychoLogy through Relational Anthropo-Sophia.” After
the passing of William Bento, we have reorganized our
excellent faculty (see www.APANA-services.org). Both of
the seminar series are now closed to additional students;
we will likely offer another series beginning in August
2016. APANA is completing negotiations with Burlington College, Vermont, to grant accredited academic
credit for an IMA (Individualized Master of the Arts), or
BA, for those attending the certificate program. We are
completing registration with NBCC to offer Continuing
Education credits for licensed professionals. The certificate program is open to all who have an interest in a spiritually oriented counseling approach. See below for our
main publication to date.]
The Counselor ...
as if soul and spirit matter.
Inspirations from
Anthroposophy
by William Bento, PhD, Edmund
Knighton, PhD, Roberta Nelson, PhD, David Tresemer, PhD, from SteinerBooks
The art of counseling is practiced in
many settings. An uncle counsels a troubled niece. A licensed professional clinical
counselor (LPCC) works in a treatment
center for drug addicts. A counselor can
also be everything in between the two.
If you consider everyone who mentors
another—from life-coaches to police officers to wedding
planners to lawyers to intimate friends—counseling includes all of us. Whereas mainstream counseling psychology has been moving increasingly toward cognitive and
pharmacological approaches, this book brings us back to
a psychology of soul and spirit. Through the guidance of
Anthroposophy, the becoming human being, and Sophia,
and divine wisdom, counselors will rediscover here an approach to people that has the heart of soul, and the light
of spirit.
Reflections on
“Reflections on Playing Maria”
by Travis Henry
today...to her vocational evolution from “not a Maria” (in
the words of one-time mentor and speech teacher, Christy
From Chanticleer December 2014
Barnes) into quite a fine portrayal and embodiment of
To find ourselves, we must unfold that power first
Maria.
that penetrates into our inmost being.
Having performed one Mystery Drama each year for
The word of wisdom says in truth:
the past four years, this past summer she and the rest of
Evolve yourself, in order to behold yourself.
Barbara Reynolds’ cast performed all four plays at the sig—Rudolf Steiner, The Portal of Initiation,
nificant international conference held in Spring
Scene Eight, spoken by “Maria”
Valley, New York in August. Laurie shared that
What did you need to do in order to prepare
for the main characters, each play contains six
to play the role of Maria in the Mystery Dramas?
times as many lines to memorize as an ordinary
Out of this question asked of actress Laurie
play. That means last summer, she and her felPortocarrero by the Berkshire-Taconic Branch,
low actors performed the equivalent of 24 “ordiarose the presentation that took place on Nonary” plays in the span of a couple weeks. Twice.
vember 22, 2014.
Once for a public full-dress rehearsal (which I
Laurie Portocarrero
The following double question became, for
was lucky to attend along with a van-load of
her, the only place from which to begin: Who and what is
friends), and then the real deal. A beautiful and heroic
Maria? And who is Laurie Portocarrero?
accomplishment.
Many of us have witnessed her skillfully portraying
Following the summer performance, she and Glen
a role on stage, or have experienced her poised, smiling
Williamson have been touring anthroposophic communipresence as a colleague or passing acquaintance. Yet on
ties throughout the United States and Canada, performthis evening, up on Windy Hill, we got to hear not only
ing excerpts from the scenes with Maria and Johannes.
the behind-the-scenes story of what it was like for her to
Laurie has served as Maria in the Mystery Dramas for six
play Maria in the Mystery Dramas, we also glimpsed the
years. Besides perhaps a few actors in German-speaking
biography of Laurie herself. What an honor. Afterwards,
countries, how many individuals have so immersed themsomeone in the audience observed how nice it is to hear
selves in this role, for such a span of life?
the biographies of those in our midst...before they die!
Laurie frankly shared some of the challenges of this
Otherwise we pass like ships in the night.
performance. Whereas in the previous four productions,
The glimpses of
she gladly made herher life ranged from
self available to coach
her childhood in the
and advise her felsunny soul warmth
low cast, composed
of Latin America...
mostly of amateur
to her beginning as
volunteers, this year
a Waldorf student
she felt as if she were
in Washington, DC.
pregnant with qua...to the biographidruplets and was imcal synchronicities
pelled to pare down
which needed to
everything in life to
happen for her to bethe barest essentials.
come the actor and
In this way, though,
Maria
in
her
medieval
incarnation
as
a
priest,
between
the
adversary
powers,
is
advised
by
the
spirit
of
her
teacher
Benedictus,
human being she is
she unexpectedly felt
in the 2014 performance of The Trial of the Soul, Rudolf Steiner’s second mystery drama [Photo: Threefold Educational Foundation]
• 27
initiative!
more akin to Maria’s expectant, space-creating quietude.
Maria. The name resounds from ancient times. Laurie shared how in the Mystery Dramas, Maria is one who
holds the space for others to become who they are striving
to become—a space where something new and fresh may
enter into the community. Maria’s power of witnessing
attention is a circle within which the new social mysteries
unfold. Laurie brought the well-known quote by Christian Community priest Adam Bittleston pointing out that
“In the new mysteries the whole earth becomes an altar...
our friends and colleagues become for us, though we and
they may know but little of it, the terrible and wonderful
actors in the ceremony of our initiation.” Maria is also the
one whose thinking, feeling, and willing are most balanced: both radiant and enveloping. She is devoted to the
spiritual world and its aims for our time. One could say
Maria is a picture of the higher or spiritualized self we are
each striving toward.
As a portrayal of the most advanced student of Benedictus, the actor takes on the mantle of what could be
called a priestly, sacerdotal role. Laurie’s long experience
playing Dona the Priestess in Aeschylus Unbound turned
out to be a preparation for this.
Yet Maria is not perfect. Laurie shared how in the
Leaving a
Legacy of
Will
first drama, Maria experiences that, like the Beautiful
Lily in Goethe’s Fairy Tale, her loving interest in others evokes their own self-destruction. Her overwhelming
pain of soul drives her in the second play to her spiritual
teacher Benedictus, seeking karmic insight. He discloses to her that she was chosen to be the bearer of a great
“cosmic being.” The seemingly harmful effects she has on
those she loves is only because this Being must burn up in
her and in others all that is temporal and less than eternal:
“...What flourishes for higher life must bloom from death
of lower being.”
Laurie herself experienced something like the Lily’s
wilting touch, in that as the preparations for this summer
commenced, all of her usual circle of friends disappeared
through various coincidences—a long-distance move, a
new job—and whoever new she tried to lean on, somehow become unavailable. She felt that she was “not allowed” to have that external support during this unique
experience. In this way she came to lean only on deepening reserves of vertical relationship to the spiritual world.
Laurie also shared about how Maria struggles with
her own “dragon of self-conceit”—of subtle spiritual
pride. Yet she continually surmounts and overcomes these
inner and outer hindrances, and as the story unfolds, she
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28 •
PlannedGiving_QTR
AD_FINAL.indd
1
being
human
10/25/14 6:44 AM
stands among the circle of friends who supersede the
Mystic League.
A few further anecdotes from Laurie’s story:
Laurie’s mother promised the Washington Waldorf
School that if they let her attend for extremely lowered tuition, Laurie would grow up to serve anthroposophy. No
time limit was mentioned on this term of service! Thankfully, Anthroposophia is surely a more gracious master
than Rumpelstiltskin.
As a nine-year-old, Laurie entered her new classroom
on the cathedral grounds...on the same day that twentythree-year-old Barbara Reynolds first walked into that
same room as her class teacher.
From an early age, Laurie wanted to be an actor. She
would speak entire Shakespeare plays in her room, playing every role! In the 5th grade class play, Laurie coveted
the lead role of Pallas Athena. Miss Reynolds, “for pedagogical reasons,” gave the part to another girl, while Laurie was assigned the role of a foot soldier, with no lines. In
rehearsals, the other girl’s acting did not look promising,
but on the day of the performance, something clicked
and she stunned the audience, by “becoming” gray-eyed
Athena. Decades later, the role of Maria, who is a human
face of Sophia, is in a way the fulfillment of that long-ago
wish.
After the closing at Windy Hill, Laurie expressed: “I
am so grateful to have been asked the question that led to
this presentation! And to be given the opportunity to live
with the character of Maria, into my own destiny.”
In regard to Laurie’s further course of life, I wonder:
What’s next?
Travis Henry is author of a remarkable series of books, newsletters,
and works of art about the threefold organization of human society
and social healing. Links to the various works are found at
http://sites.google.com/site/threefoldnow
Laurie Portocarrero trained in the Chekhov method under Ted
Pugh and Fern Sloan, and has studied and taught movement,
drama and speech in the US and abroad. A member of The Actors’ Ensemble, Walking the Dog Theater, Shakespeare Alive!, and
Threefold Mystery Drama Group, Laurie has recently been seen in
The Mystery Journey of Johannes and Maria, The Little Prince,
Under Milk Wood, Touch of the Celtic, and Thornton Wilder’s
3-minute pieces. With the Threefold Mystery Drama Group, she
has played Maria in Rudolf Steiner’s four mystery dramas. Laurie
directs The Art of Acting: Drama as a Path of Inner Development
(www.threefold.org/education/art_of _acting), a year-long course
beginning October 10th. Waldorf-educated, Laurie holds a BA in
Theater Arts, and also trained at Sunbridge College and Rudolf
Steiner College.
Vaccine Statement
Recent and recurrent concerns about mandatory vaccination and parental choice in vaccination have included media
statements that associate anthroposophy with a position.
Here is the position statement of anthroposophical MDs.
From the Physicians’ Association for
Anthroposophic Medicine (PAAM):
There is no formalized policy on immunization within the practice of anthroposophic medicine. The decision
to vaccinate or not is based on the parents’ consent and
the physicians’ consideration of the child’s unique development, health, and immune system status.
General guidelines:
1. The patient or legal guardian has a right to
full disclosure and informed consent. The
physician’s obligation is to “present the medical facts accurately to the patient or to the individual responsible for the patient’s care and to
make recommendations for management in accordance with good medical practice. The physician has an ethical obligation to help the patient
make choices from among the therapeutic alternatives consistent with good medical practice.”
(AMA’s Code of Ethics regarding informed
consent, section 8.08)
2. Forced or mandatory vaccination is unethical and by definition in total violation of “informed consent.”
3. The physician must honor the parents’ or
patient’s right for self-determination to object
to immunization according to the State laws
regulating vaccinations.
4. The physician’s creed must be “do no harm.”
5. The physician must accept unvaccinated
children in his/her practice. It is unethical
and irresponsible to refuse medical care to
non-vaccinated children.
6. PAAM supports a reassessment of the “one
size fits all” approach regarding multi-dose
vials and standardized vaccine schedule.
7. PAAM supports long-term studies for safety
and efficacy of vaccines.
A healthy social life is found only when in the mirror of
each soul the whole community finds its reflection, and
when in the whole community the virtue of each one is
living. —Rudolf Steiner
• 29
arts & ideas
IN THIS SECTION:
The California Institute
for Integral Studies (CIIS)
helps give San Francisco
a justified reputation for
advanced, global thinking.
President emeritus Robert
McDermott and four
graduate students share
how welcoming it is for
anthroposophy.
Our Gallery wanted to
join the “selfie” craze. We
felt that as long as oil
paints and etchings were
involved, that might be ok.
Waldorf history teacher
Paul Gerlach wanted to
talk with his colleagues
about the importance of
history teaching—both for
Waldorf schools and for
the future of humanity. We
are invited to listen in.
ASA General Secretary and
educator Torin Finser is a
popular author, blending
the everyday with the
esoteric so matter-offactly that we wanted to
share something.
Max DeArmon—another
CIIS grad student!—is
deeply involved in social
activism and film-making.
He thinks Waldorf
schooling is a great
preparation for that.
Mary Evelyn Tucker is a
notable activist in the
academic world. She
succinctly unfolds why
Pope Francis’ ecological
stance is important.
30 •
being human
Spirituality Affirmed by CIIS
by Robert McDermott
As a distinguished teacher and university administrator and a noted leader
of the anthroposophical movement in America, Robert McDermott is
uniquely qualified to talk about anthroposophy’s challenge in being received
in the academic world. And when he suggests that the California Institute of
Integral Studies is welcoming to anthroposophy, he can invite young graduate students to give evidence, as four do here. — Editor
If Rudolf Steiner were alive today and applying for a position in a
philosophy department, his resume would show that from age 21 to 28
he was the editor of the national edition of Goethe’s eight volumes on natural science, for about
five years he taught courses in social science at night school for returning adults, and he was the
author of two books on epistemology and ethics. Yet I suspect that he would not be appointed,
nor even granted an interview at any university in the United States—except at the California
Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), a university that explicitly affirms a pluralism of spiritual
world views and practices.
Founded by Dr. Haridas Chaudhuri, a professor of Indian and Western philosophy, and a
spiritual teacher in the tradition of Sri Aurobindo, CIIS adheres to seven ideals, three of which
affirm the integration of the spiritual with the intellectual:
• The integration of body-mind-spirit. It values the emotional, spiritual, intellectual, creative, somatic, and social dimensions of human potentiality.
• The study and practice of multiple spiritual traditions and to their expression and embodiment throughout all areas and activities of the Institute community.
• Many learning modalities and ways of knowing—intuition, body-knowledge, creative
expression, intellect, and spiritual insight.
Along with varieties of Buddhism, Hinduism, meditation practices, Earth-based spirituality,
and Jungian archetypal cosmology, anthroposophy is thriving at CIIS.
Fully accredited since 1981, CIIS has 1500 students and four schools: School of Professions
Psychology and Health, School of Consciousness and Transformation, School of Undergraduate
Studies (which offers a bachelor of arts completion), and as of July 1, 2015, a fourth school, the
American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine (ACTCM). Each of these four schools, and
each program in these schools, has a slightly different relationship to whatever counts as spiritual.
In general, the contemporary mantra, “spiritual not
religious,” is the norm. I am aware of at least a half
dozen students in these schools with a strong connection to anthroposophy or Waldorf education, or
both. I have invited three students with such a connection to write a brief account of the ways that
they have integrated in their academic study their anthroposophical world view or practice.
Most of the students with a connection to anthroposophy are attracted to the program in
Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness (PCC), founded in 1994 by Richard Tarnas (author
of Passion of the Western Mind and Cosmos and Psyche). Students enroll in this program, which
offers both masters and doctoral degrees, in order to study Jungian topics with Richard Tarnas
and Sean Kelly, inspiring cosmology courses offered by Brian Swimme (see Journey of the Uni-
versity that Brian co-wrote with Mary Evelyn Tucker and
biodynamic agriculture, perhaps the two best ways to innarrated), integral ecologies studies with Sean Kelly, and
troduce and defend anthroposophy, do not immediately
the relationship among ecology, spirituality, and religion
reveal their spiritual content. Waldorf is good for children
with Elizabeth Allison. Anyone interested in comparaand BD is good for food but how are they spiritual? As
tive spiritual philosophies studies with me. Most students
Steiner explained repeatedly and brilliantly, the opposite
study with all five of these core faculty.
of spiritual is materialism—not material, which is positive,
Except for someone born into a family of anthrobut a view of matter which denies spirit. Waldorf and BD
posophists, most anthroposophists have very few family
are spiritual precisely because they go beyond the material
members or friends who read Rudolf Steiner and exhibit
in both directions: they affirm both interior depth (or deep
an interest in anthroposophy. But as I acknowledge in
interior) and transcendent height (the spiritual influence of
the preface to my new book, Steiner and Kindred Spirthe cosmos). A third way would be length: both Waldorf
its (SteinerBooks 2015), three of my four colleagues have
and BD take account of the evolutionary past and distant
co-taught with me courses substantially
future with respect to child development and
Waldorf
education
devoted to Steiner and anthroposophy. Brithe nurturance of Earth.
an Swimme and I have taught a course on and biodynamic
With the students of Hinduism Steiner
Steiner and Teilhard de Chardin and I have agriculture are
affirms the reality and efficacy of Krishna
taught many courses on Steiner and anthro- spiritual precisely
and the Bhagavad Gita, with the Buddhists
posophy both on my own and with Rick because they go
he affirms the enduring compassion of BudTarnas and Sean Kelly. I have also served on
dha. More, much more, Steiner vividly debeyond the material
committees for students in PCC and in other
picts the ways that Christ and Sophia recondepartments whose dissertations prominent- in both directions:
cile the immanent and transcendent, as well
they
affirm
both
ly include Steiner.
as spirit and mater. There would seem to be
Here are three reasons why John Beck interior depth
no spiritual text, teaching, or tradition with
and I thought readers of being human might (or deep interior)
which anthroposophy can’t be shown to be
want to know about this comfortable rela- and transcendent
in positive relation. Anthroposophy affirms
tionship between anthroposophy and CIIS. height (the spiritual
all realities and denies only the limits to reConsidering the aggressively secular posture
ality placed by ideological materialism and
influence of the
of higher education in the United States it
religious fundamentalism.
must be counted as good news that there cosmos). A third way
Perhaps the most positive contribution
would
be
length:
is at least one university that is unabashof CIIS to spirituality (and contribution of
edly affirmative of spiritual world views and both Waldorf and
spirituality to CIIS) is in its pervasive willdisciplines, including anthroposophy. It is BD take account of
ingness to explore and share diverse spiritual
important for faculty and students at other the evolutionary past world views and practices. Most classes and
universities to be able to point to a university and distant future... faculty meetings begin with meditation or a
with a history of the successful integration of
spiritual reading. Spiritual perspectives and
academic and spiritual learning. Second, students of anways of knowing appear in lectures, class discussion, and
throposophy should know where research has been generwritten work. Tolerance is not total: a faculty meeting
ated, and often published, on anthroposophical ideas and
might begin with a reading in Sanskrit of the names of
practices embedded in standard academic fields including
the Divine Mother but has never begun with a reading of
philosophy, psychology, social sciences, and arts. Third,
the litany of the mother of Jesus closely associated with
it seems to me important for anthroposophists to know
the Catholic Church. The reason for this preference is
that there is a university where they can earn a bachelors,
obvious: CIIS in general does not approve of a religious
masters, or doctoral degree without having to leave at the
institution that is dogmatic, exclusivist, or harshly judgdoor their commitment to anthroposophy.
mental, especially concerning sexual morality. Its favorA student of anthroposophy in an institution that inite spiritual teacher appears to be His Holiness the Dalai
cludes many spiritual teachings and traditions will want
Lama. Thanks to Laudato Si, Pope Francis is emerging
to be able to explain the ways in which anthroposophy
as a religious leader who, as is often said, is doing all that
is spiritual. Even the Waldorf approach to education and
he can to move an allegedly unmovable institution. More
• 31
arts & ideas
important, what both the Dalai Lama and Pope Francis
exhibit is a combination of wisdom and compassion: wisdom in knowing realities higher and deeper than matter and compassion in serving all such realities including
matter. At CIIS this combination of wisdom and compassion counts as the home base of spirituality.
Robert McDermott is President Emeritus of the California Institute for Integral Studies in San Francisco, as well as Chair, Philosophy and Religion, and Program Director, Philosophy, Cosmology, &
Consciousness. He has served on and chaired the boards of a number
of anthroposophical initiatives and served on the General Council of
the Anthroposophical Society in America.
Entanglements of
Freedom
by David Steinrueck
I have always been someone to question and cross
the normative lines of the world. In an early incident in
my life, walking down a flight of stairs (instead of up, as
my mother wanted me to), I shouted, “But I am going
up!” What is “up” anyways? As we learned from Kafka’s
Red Peter in A Report to an Academy, the fibers of the
universe are experienced and enacted in fundamentally
different ways, folding into the unique agency of every
individual being. It is this unique burst of personhood
that is welcomed and celebrated in the Waldorf
The fibers of
education. In this way, rather than inundating
the universe
and shaping the student with certain informaare experienced tion, the gifts of each child are respected and
and enacted in integrated into the classroom community. In
fundamentally
my Waldorf education, I was able to explore
different ways,
my own experience of the world and learn the
folding into
skills to critically question normative cultural
the unique
practices. And this is, in fact, the real philosoagency of every
phy of freedom: the freedom to trust oneself
individual
and adventure outside of the narrow self-regenbeing.
erating economic, political, and cultural traditions (held together by reason). The PCC program has
enabled me to continue this line of critical inquiry and
self-development on the graduate level surrounded by a
supportive community of fellow adventurers.
At its core, the PCC program is a place to explore
knowledge. Although this may seem like the bare minimum requirement for any graduate program (or any level
of schooling for that matter), the ability to fully explore
32 •
being human
the ontological and epistemological conditions of the
universe in higher education is exceedingly rare. As we
are seeing in universities around the world, non-STEM
related fields [science, technology, engineering, mathematics]—those not driven by clear, objective outcome
goals—have been devalued, underfunded, and phased
out. By offering a contingent, open-ended learning environment, PCC has provided me with a structure to push
the boundaries of knowledge; the philosophical works
that we engage with do not provide answers, but, instead,
act as sign posts along the endlessly shifting trails of the
universe. The friendships that I have developed with professors and colleagues are, likewise, built on a foundation
of radical inquiry and openness to unfamiliar territory
and experience. This learning environment has allowed
me to use deeply transdisciplinary methods of inquiry to
explore the subjects I am most passionate about: the interactions between subjectivity, politics, and the Earth. In
the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program,
I have found a place to go “up” in whatever direction I
choose, supported by a rigorous community of learners.
David Steinrueck was in Waldorf through 8th grade; he is an MA
student at CIIS.
From Waldorf to
CIIS: Knowing
Imagination
by Becca Tarnas
Why do Waldorf students learn to knit? Why are we
introduced to the letter M through the story of a doublepeaked mountain, or to V through a tale told in a steep
valley? Why are numbers split by Prince Divide, but increased rapidly by Princess Multiply and her little companion butterfly named Of? Why is each classroom wall
painted in the ascending order of the rainbow’s spectrum?
As a child in a Waldorf School, the reasoning behind
the lessons we engaged in—whether of craftworks and
art, bodily expression and poetic movement, of color,
sound, and story—were not usually explained to us. In
Rudolf Steiner’s pedagogy, the importance lies as much
in how a subject is taught as it does in what is taught.
Waldorf Schools create not only a unique curriculum, but
a unique environment, an atmosphere that one inhales on
Gallery: The self-portrait
Modern “onlooker consciousness” intensifies self-examination. This becomes a public
act in the self-portrait where artists also try out technique and often “put on” characters
like an actor. This gallery presents examples from the 1500s to 1924. The acceleration of
subsequent decades has led us by way of Frieda Kahlo’s mysteries, Cindy Sherman’s nonself-portraits, and Francis Bacon’s traumatic ones, to the exploding “selfie”! What is it all
for? Are we rehearsing for some kind of universal self-recreation?
Below, old masters: four self-portraits of Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528, age 13, 22,
26, and 28) bespeak in eyes and hands his very awake consciousness. Next row,
four by Raphael (1483-1520, age 16, 23, 26 and 35) with his famous serenity.
Above from top:
Marie Ellenrieder,
Self-portrait as
a Painter (1819);
Vincent Van Gogh,
self-portrait sketches
age 33 (1886); young
Paul Gauguin (1877).
Women painters were creating self-portraits from the 1500s: Caterina van Hemessen (1548),
Sofonisba Anguissola (1554), Artemisia Gentileschi as a Lute Player (1617), Élisabeth Sophie Chéron
(1672), Mary Beale (1675); second row, Rosalba Carriera (1715), Anna Dorothea Therbusch (1777),
Elisabeth-Louise Vigée-Lebrun (1782), Marie-Gabrielle Capet (1783), Maria Cosway (1787).
• 33
arts & ideas
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) painted and
drew several dozen self-portraits. In the earliest
(above, at age 20), the easel and canvas seem
to overwhelm the young painter. Some of the
many subsequent self-portraits appear to be
introspective, but as a group they are clearly
essays in character with the artist’s own features
pressed into dramatic service. Shown right and
above are works from age 22 to 28.
In the later 19th century women began to be known as painters.
Below, Lady Elizabeth Southerden Butler née Thompson (1869),
Mary Cassatt twice (1878 and 1880), Marie Bashkirtseff (1880).
Bottom row, Suzanne Valadon (1883), Elisabeth Nourse (1892),
Olga Boznanska (1893), Suzanne Valadon again (1893),
Zinaida Serebryakova (1909) at the dressing-table.
34 •
being human
Paul Gauguin
(1848–1903)
was a world
artist, his
ancestry and
childhood part
Peruvian, his
first language
Spanish, his life unfolding in France and Denmark, Panama and Martinique, Tahiti and the Marquesas. The self-portraits shown
above date from 1885-1896. Context plays a strong role with art objects in the background including (second row, left) his own
famous painting “The Yellow Christ.” The last is titled “ Self-portrait near Golgotha.”
Art and theology were family callings for Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) but he came to art late; his first self-portraits date from
age thirty in Paris. If Rembrandt
is testing characterizations, Van
Gogh probes inner being and
suffering as he becomes ever
stronger in observation and
technique. The last image here
(bottom row, clean-shaven) was a
birthday present to his mother.
• 35
arts & ideas
Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876-1907)
admired Gauguin and in her own short life
brought a gentle, reflective naturalism into
self-portraits (1902 above, others 1906-7).
Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945) leaves us one smiling portrait (left) from 1889.
By 1910 (middle row below, with hand on brow) she has begun an astonishing
project of expressing humanity’s suffering through the medium of her own face.
Left-to-right, top row 1889-1901, middle 1904-19, bottom 1920-24.
36 • being human
a day to day basis. If one word could be chosen to capture
what such an environment nurtures and develops, it is the
capacity of the child’s imagination. If the portal of imagination is allowed to remain open, if it is nourished and
kept safe, strengthened and tested through adolescence to
maturity, then the reasons behind the teaching of every
form of creative practice—from material arts, to etheric
movement, from astral knowledge, to personal wisdom—
become apparent on their own.
While the spiritual science of anthroposophy is not
explicitly taught to Waldorf students, except sometimes
as an optional course to graduating high school seniors,
the place within the student’s soul in which spiritual science can come to be understood is nurtured through the
long arc of the curriculum. When the time comes to leave
the imaginative womb of Waldorf education, questions
regarding the why of Steiner’s methods may come forth.
As a graduate student whose childhood was shaped
by Steiner’s educational approach, I found that the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program at CIIS
felt like a mature extension of my Waldorf schooling.
Here I was invited not only to continue to keep the doorway to the imaginal open wide, unlike at many other universities and graduate institutions, but I could also begin
to explore the reasons behind the form of education that
shaped me. Not only is Steiner directly taught in PCC,
but many of the graduate program’s other courses can engage with questions initially brought forth by some of my
high school and even grade school classes. A continuity of
ideas flows between these forms of education, which I feel
stems not only from a recognition of the body, soul, and
spirit as channels of knowledge and wisdom, but also a
profound respect for the power of the imaginative vision.
Becca Tarnas (beccatarnas.com) attended Waldorf pre-school
through high school. She received her M.A. in Philosophy, Cosmology & Consciousness and is now a CIIS doctoral student in Ecology,
Spirituality, & Religion, writing a dissertation on Jung and Tolkien.
An Anthroposophist
Goes to CIIS
by Jeremy Strawn
I came to the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program deeply inspired by anthroposophy. This
started for me fourteen years prior, when I lived my twenty-first year on a biodynamic farm. I liken this to com-
ing home, as I felt I had found the synthesis of spiritual
perception and practical, Earth-healing work I had been
seeking. As I continued to delve deeper in my relationship
to anthroposophy, the world became ever more suffused
with warmth, love, and meaning, growing in contrast to
the modern scientific view of things. In an attempt to
plumb the depths of the philosophical underpinnings of
this division, I returned to academia, and earned a B.S. in
Biology, all the while striving to understand Steiner’s epistemology and a Goethean way of science (and continuing
to farm). Following this, I was four years a Waldorf high
school science and math teacher, which occasioned even
further explorations into questions of science and the relationship of human consciousness to the natural/spiritual
world.
Along the way, there grew in me a pas- As I continued
sion for projective geometry. In the course of to delve
my time studying and teaching this lawfully deeper in my
imaginative form of geometry, it became in- relationship to
creasingly clear that this was an amazingly anthroposophy,
rich landscape, but few, and nearly none out- the world
became ever
side anthroposophical circles, had access to it.
more suffused
This then was the focus that brought me to the
with warmth,
PCC program at CIIS, to see how projective love, and
geometry, and more generally, anthroposophi- meaning,
cal science, could be integrated into the larger, growing in
more global project of consciousness transfor- contrast to
mation in which we find ourselves today.
the modern
Here, I discovered both an academic envi- scientific view
ronment in which to hone my geometric and of things.
philosophical ideas in a broader context, and a vibrant
community of individuals “seeking the same goal.” Becoming familiar with the visions of Pierre Teilhard de
Chardin, Sri Aurobindo, and most profoundly of all, Jean
Gebser, my perspective, previously monochromatically
influenced either directly or indirectly by Steiner, took on
all-new dimensions. Akin to triangulating a location by
sighting it from more than one vantage point, adopting
the perspective of others with similar visions as Steiner
brought me to see facets that he, being one man living
in a particular cultural and historical context, could not
convey. But, dedicated as I am to an anthroposophical
path, this also served to clarify my location on this path,
and to affirm my intention of fostering a greater awareness and practice of projective geometry.
For me, this was one of the greatest benefits of embarking on the PCC journey, and engaging with this diverse, compassionate, scholarly community. It expanded
• 37
arts & ideas
my horizons beyond anthroposophical circles, and simultaneously crystallized a vision of projective geometry as a
path of epistemological inquiry, etheric perception, and
ultimately, a practical means of cultivating a kind of holistic, ecological, or integral thinking well suited to transforming our modern scientific materialism into a spiritual
science.
Jeremy Strawn is a Philosophy, Cosmology, & Consciousness program alumnus. He taught Waldorf high school for four years and
was BD farmer. He led a workshop at the 2014 Fall Conference of the
Anthroposophical Society in America.
The Influence of
Steiner on My
Philosophical
Development
by Matthew D. Segall
I began studying philosophy during my senior year
of high school. Alan Watts, Carl Jung, and Friedrich Nietzsche were my initial guides. Their application of deep
metaphysical ideas to everyday human life resonated with
the feeling I’d carried since childhood that more was going on here on earth than most of the “adults” in charge
seemed to let on. I entered college excited to
For the rest of
pursue such ideas further, but was quickly dismy time as an
illusioned by the state of academic philosophy.
undergraduate, My professors did little to encourage wonder
I continued
or the love of wisdom. Instead, they instructmy journey
ed me on the correct usage of logical fallacies
into genuine
and on the proper materialistic interpretation
philosophy
of various scientific theories. Philosophy was
outside of class
discussed as though it was nothing but a valueby following a
neutral exercise in linguistic clarification with
trail of clues
little connection to the mystery of being huthrough old
man.
books written
For the rest of my time as an undergraduby heretical
ate,
I continued my journey into genuine phimystics and
intellectual
losophy outside of class by following a trail of
misfits.
clues through old books written by heretical
mystics and intellectual misfits. I eventually stumbled
upon and was intrigued by the works of Rudolf Steiner.
He seemed to have something insightful to say about almost everything! I was initially overwhelmed by the sheer
38 •
being human
volume of his output and had no idea where to start. It
was not until enrolling in the Philosophy, Cosmology,
and Consciousness program at the California Institute of
Integral Studies that I was able to openly study, discuss,
and apply his ideas within the context of an academic
community of fellow wisdom seekers. The unique combination of the intellectual and the spiritual at CIIS allowed
me to reintegrate what I had been forced to disintegrate
during my time at a normal university.
My dissertation topic, because it takes esoteric knowledge of higher worlds seriously, would almost certainly
be impossible in any other philosophy graduate program.
The working title is Etheric Imagination in Process Philosophy: Toward a Physics of the World-Soul. One of the core
commitments underlying my thesis linking the etheric
formative forces of nature and the process philosophical
imagination is that human consciousness is deeply interwoven with and a participant in the creative evolution
of the cosmos. For materialists who believe consciousness
is an epiphenomenal accident with no efficacious connection to reality, and for creationists who believe each
human soul is independently created at birth and enjoys
a destiny entirely separate from that of the physical universe, I expect my arguments will ring hollow. While I
hope my research will help in some small way to shift the
popular culture away from the false dichotomy of these
dueling fundamentalisms, I recognize that there are limits to what verbal argument can accomplish. Steiner’s influence on the formation of my dissertation topic should be clear to anthroposophists. More
than anything else, Steiner has taught me the necessity
of intuitive thinking in philosophy. The dynamic unity
of subject and object, or consciousness and cosmos, cannot be shown at second hand by way of logical disputation, but must be directly experienced as the product of
one’s own free inner activity. Reading Steiner, especially
his book translated into English as Intuitive Thinking as
a Spiritual Path, has helped forge my identity, not just as
a human being, but as a member of a wider cosmic community of beings.
Matt Segall (msegall@ciis.edu) is Executive Assistant to the Academic Vice President of CIIS. He began to study the writings of Rudolf Steiner after coming to CIIS. Well known from Footnotes2Plato
blog, he is now a doctoral student, writing a dissertation on Schelling,
Whitehead, and Steiner.
did not make up the existence of these forces; actually,
all historians deal with them. Even journalists do. We are
allowed to mention them without crossing that line where
we would “teach anthroposophy.” Have we forgotten that
for the past hundred years
or so historians have moved
A long-time Waldorf history teacher invites his
away from the Old History
colleagues and interested others to a conversation
approach to understanding
about the impact of how history is taught...
our past (those appreciations
There was a time when the Waldorf sciof history from the point of
ence curriculum had to prove itself in the
view of important leaders, national strife, etc.) and have
mainstream. About thirty years ago or so most questions
embraced New History (that which concerns itself more
that came to a school faculty concerned the viability of
with social realities that are common, such as feminism
“Waldorf science.” Those times have passed, and Waldorf
and even post-modernism)?
grads matriculate at universities around the world with
In point of fact, it is modern to look for a way to explain
realizable intentions of having a career in any of the scius and our ancestors to ourselves and call it history. The
ences. The same was and is true in the field of
hidden strength of our pedagogical approach
mathematics. As far as I know no one in his The three-fold
is the biography, true. Yet, we need more than
right mind has ever questioned the fact that
society organism
that these days since we find ourselves comWaldorf students have a close affinity to any
did not play a role pelled to be more and more explicit in every
of the arts. That includes literature in all its
in the “peace talks” area of our teaching.
manifestations. But what about history?
The fact that we Waldorf teachers as hisHistory has not proved itself. Nor is it a at Versailles, and
torians are asked to appreciate history from
“given” that Waldorf students are immersed in there has been
the point of view that includes an existence
the histories. We might be inclined to think war ever since.
between one death and a rebirth into a subsethat such an oversight is no big deal, but acquent life, and from the point of view of active spiritual
tually, it is. In fact, I would go so far as to suggest that it
presences in evolving earthly activity, does put us outside
undermines the purpose of Waldorf education. Waldorf
the mainstream. But it is much too early to worry oneself
education is a response to Rudolf Steiner’s inability to inabout such things. We are not out to teach three-folding;
culcate into the mainstream of post-World War I society
rather, we are going to foster an ability to uncover the
the realization that society is an organism with three incomplexities of social intercourse of all kinds in all inditerpenetrating members distinct in character and purpose.
viduals and races and nations and times with “three-fold
The thought was, of course, that were we as citizens to
questioning.” It is enough for us as high school teachers
really understand social forms and impulses in their threeto open students’ eyes and instincts to the presence of
fold character,—were we to note, consider, and eventually
these forces. Perhaps our students can do little with the
understand relationships between society and the nature
concepts at first, but the impulses can certainly live in
of human beings,—then and only then we would create
them as more than the “limited view” mentioned in the
a society that was suitable for human habitation and onnext quotation. In Rudolf Steiner’s Soul Economy we find
going human evolution. The three-fold society organism
the following:
did not play a role in the “peace talks” at Versailles, and
If school subjects are introduced in the wrong order,
there has been war ever since. Waldorf education is meant
students project their own experiences and understandto foster all things three-fold.
ing of purely physical laws into the social sphere and
The high school history curriculum provides a frameinto their understanding of history. And since this way
work for an elaboration of the three-fold nature of sociof seeing the world has deeply penetrated educational
ety, but do we teachers actually create in the children an
practice, the general public is quite willing to look for
awareness of the forces that create cultural identities, legal
natural laws in practically every area of life, so that one
responsibilities, economic relationships? Rudolf Steiner
may no longer suggest that historical impulses originate in
History
Three-folded
by Paul Gierlach
• 39
arts & ideas
12). By using the previous sentence we can not only intuit
but prove in a phenomenological way that the spirit that
must express itself in a three-fold manner in our materialistic, present times manifested itself differently in times
past.1 To uncover that spirit—it would be to discover the
motherlode of historical verity!
There is no call to teach the three-fold social order;
The “Ancient Civilization” block is very handy for our
all we need to do is help the future citizens of all the napurposes. As any history book will show, all cultural, potions on earth touched by anthroposophy to find it. Our
litical and economic activities were united in one ruler.
teaching will be a continuum of discovery, for the acHowsoever often he, and sometimes she, was changed,
knowledged facts of history will lose their status as truths
the spiritual idea remained fast bound to the times: the
and prove more valuable as exempla. True, we should
gods spoke through someone, and everybody else listened.
know conceptually something about the three-fold soIn one’s own tribe or village or city, that is. Of course,
cial organism before looking for it, but we can best learn
other languages spoke out directives from different gods
about its intricacies and mysteries by finding its activity
with the same conviction, and warfare was inevitable—as
in historical events and conundrums.
was innovation and migration and change. In this block,
Let me just mention a few examples of
we teachers can advance the notion of threewhat I mean before wondering out loud if We are not out to
foldness itself by framing our understanding
there is anyone reading this article who feels teach three-folding; and appreciation of it within 1) the physical
the same way about this pressing responsi- rather, we are
elements of geography, climate, altitude, etc.,
bility and wants to do something to further
that gave a form to the different civilizations;
going to foster an
an anthroposophical reading of history and
2) the soul characteristics of customs, languagconsequently an understanding of humanity. ability to uncover
es, religious beliefs, political forms, economic
I know of no Waldorf school that does the complexities of
activities that linked different civilizations
not teach a “Revolutions block” in grade 9. social intercourse
together; and 3) spiritual impulses evident in
We teachers move a lot of blocks around, but of all kinds in all
what Karl Jaspers called the Axial Age. It was
not that one. Before I even write the words, individuals and races that time (roughly 600-300bce) when thinkmany of you are saying “ liberté, égalité, fra- and nations and
ers and other influential men—they were all
ternité.” Rudolf Steiner stated that this immen from what I can tell—incarnated in a
times with “threepulse was premature, that the society was not
wide swath of the ancient world from China
ready for it, and it led to bloodshed. It takes fold questioning.”
to Greece to jolt certain cultures into new disome effort by us teachers to cite all that was premature
rections, especially as regards personal spirituality (in opso that we create a fair picture of the specific times; it is a
position to ritual) and thinking (in opposition to acceptbit more work to speak of the French Revolution as a temable explanation). All this we can find in the recognized
plate for the many revolutions that have followed it; yet
fact: culture was everything. (We can in the same block
this we do so we can have one dependable viewpoint of
nudge the students to an awareness that that change is
modern times. When we have a four-year overview of the
an important historical event and so point out to them a
three-fold social organism, we can find the Imaginations
substantive fact that bears much pondering.)
needed to treat the three nouns liberté, égalité, fraternité
The moment we think the thought: ancient civilizaas living forces. Unless a school offers the block in which
tions were all cultural, we might be tempted to think: the
students create their own societies within the framework
civilizations that follow in the next age are all political.
of these forces (Idealism and Humanity), the Revolutions
But such is not the case. However, it is easily discovered
block is the best place to introduce the three-fold social
that what characterizes the Intellectual Soul age is the
organism as theme, as fact, as aspiration.
gradual change of a predominantly cultural sphere into
Students meet a curriculum that leads them from
one that wants also to be recognizably human: the poSentient Soul times (2097-747bce, grade 10) through the
litical. Now we have in history a chance to explore two
Intellectual Soul epoch (747bce-1413ad, grade 11) to our
1 Rudolf Steiner said as much in his Christmas Day laying of the Foundation
modern Consciousness Soul times (post-1413ad, grade
Stone of the Anthroposophical Society in a reference to the Greeks.
the spiritual world. Again, this is reflected in the current principles of education. Children are encouraged
to develop a firm belief in what they have been taught
in physics and chemistry, so that later on, as adults,
they will maintain this limited view in their outlook as
a whole. (page 19, my italics).
40 •
being human
spheres: cultural and political, with economics followimpulse, especially when the teacher approaches it as a sciing the lead of the most powerful. Let’s remind ourselves
ence. What contrasts can be drawn! Another block, Sympthat the Romans not only borrowed their gods from the
tomatology, is by its nature designed to lead the student
Greeks but then proceeded to rename them and make
beyond the facts that are evident to the spiritual impulses
contracts with them! This very conflict of what actually
that are present but veiled. It is a block that can summarize
exists (the gods in their splendor, especially in Sentient
four years of work in the high school and be that moment
Soul times) and what the mind creates (the ideas of gods
when three-folding is unfolded in its verity. Yet, this block
who are suspiciously unable to speak any longer) is the
cannot stand on its own, for the students can only appreciconflict between Nominalism, the thought that reality is
ate its import and impact if they have been led for three
2
a construct of human thinking, and Realism, the conprevious years to see the cultural, political, and economic
viction that there is a spiritual component to our thinking
forces that have always been part of our social existence.
and our life, even if we are unable to access it directly.
I have talked enough for now. (And yet have only
Is the endless conflict between civil and secular ortouched the surface of the enquiry.) Let me simply add
der (read power) not a defining element in the Medieval
that as history teachers we are tasked with the creation of
block? I prefer to trace the transition from the Sentient
society in the future. This is no longer the time to think
Soul one-ruler type (which we find in Charof history as dealing with the past. It deals
lemagne) through the discord between na- Let’s remind
with the future. For the Consciousness Soul
tions and between commoners and royals ourselves that the
age is of the future. Is it not true that the
that characterize Intellectual Soul activity Romans not only
spirit speaks to us all, in many ways? It is
(which is clearly evident in the brilliant, pow- borrowed their gods our job, I would say, to help students learn to
erful, and dysfunctional family of Henry II
listen to it as it sounds out its daily toll.
from the Greeks but
and Catherine of Aquitaine) to the beginFacts of history are, indeed, events; yet
ning of the modern state with its penchant then proceeded to
the phenomenon is not the impulse. As high
for organization (in the reign and realm of rename them and
school teachers we need to open up the unLouis XI) which prefigures the Conscious- make contracts with seen world for our charges; we need to emness Soul activity of modern times. But there them! ... [It] is often brace the unseen and perhaps the immediare many ways to discover and present the overlooked in our
ately unknowable. For me, serendipity is the
forces of culture, politics, and economics in work: people thought new intellectuality. I have come to believe
their shaping of the facts as we know them.3
that what is serendipitous for us is actually a
differently in earlier
(A hidden benefit of this approach is that we
common sense of the spirits who inform our
can make evident what is often overlooked times.
world.
in our work: people thought differently in earlier times.)
And I wonder if others feel the same way I do? And
Economics is the force of the Consciousness Soul age.
would be interested in doing something about it? WhatRudolf Steiner commented on this new fact as World War
ever that if might be.
I ended and the new world order became evident. We find
Paul Gierlach (paulgierlach@gmail.com) has worked in Waldorf
it ourselves in our own lives. We live it every day. It is
schools since 1979. He has undergraduate and graduate degrees from
hardly possible to read an article on any subject these days
St. Vincent’s College and York University, respectively, and completed
Waldorf teacher training at the Waldorf Institute of Mercy College
in journals and newspapers that does not somehow referin Detroit. He was a class teacher and high school humanities teacher
ence the economic sphere.4
for most of his career. Having recently retired from full-time high
Economics is a block in grade 12 that can lead stuschool teaching, he teaches main lessons in different schools throughout the US, mentors teachers, and advises faculties and schools on the
dents to appreciate the essential fraternal aspect of this
2 These days we say construction of the human mind, not human thinking,
which shows how far we have come along the great Materialism Trail.
3 Rudolf Steiner directs our attention to the transition from the Intellectual
to the Consciousness Soul activity of human beings in Anthroposophical
Leading Thoughts, specifically but not exclusively in the First, Second and
Third Studies of Michael’s role in human evolution.
4 In The Corporation, Joel Bakan offers a compact overview of the rise of the
corporation and society’s ensuing demise.
use of the Waldorf curriculum to teach students with a wide variety
of learning styles. Paul teaches the block on Parzival at the Bay Area
Center for Waldorf Teacher Training (www.bacwtt.org).
• 41
arts & ideas
Parent–Teacher
Conferences as
Reverse Ritual
by Torin Finser
Chapter 23 of A Second Classroom: Parent-Teacher Relationships in a Waldorf School, SteinerBooks 2014
In cultures around the world people celebrate in the
form of rituals, from tribal customs in Africa,
to Native American ceremonies in what is now
the United States. These rituals were used to
draw a community together in shared practices, and remind the participants of their connection to their common spiritual traditions.
Churches, synagogues, and mosques around
the world also rely heavily on ritual. One could
say that many of these rites and rituals serve as
an invocation, inviting the descent of spirit into matter.
They call down to Earth spiritual content that serves to
energize and unite a community.
Rudolf Steiner describes the above as one way to
build community, one that has deep historical roots. He
then also describes another route, something he names as
a reverse ritual, in which human beings become so active
with one another that spiritual content is generated and
sent in the reverse direction, from the earth to the heavens. How can this happen?
In lectures on community building given in February 1923, Steiner describes three stages of consciousness:
dreams, which occur without much personal direction,
waking consciousness that arises as we interact with nature
and daily life, and then a third level which is particularly
interesting: “We begin to develop the first understanding
of the spiritual world when we awake to the spirit and soul
of the other person.” (Awakening to Community, lecture of
2/27/1923) When we work spiritually together, with reverence and dedication to the common idealism, we do not
have a ritual descending so to speak into our midst but a
community spirit that ascends. “The individual persons
awake to one another, and they awake to each other in a
changed condition each time that they gather together, as
each of them in the meantime has gone through a different experience and advanced somewhat further.” (Ibid.)
If one works time and again together to create spiritual
42 •
being human
substance, and one awakens again and again to the others, one finds the spirit at work on the Earth and enacts a
reversed ritual. One could say an offering of human striving results in an entirely new substance woven from human working out of anthroposophy. When a teacher in a
Waldorf school meets in conference with the same parents again and again, sometimes three times a year over
eight years, a substance is created that might be called
a reversed ritual. A tapestry of connected conversations,
dedicated to the best interests of the child in question, is
gradually woven over time. Especially if the participants
are spiritually active, it is possible to feel a change in the
atmosphere of the conference over time. One does not
have to begin at the beginning each time, but there is a
continuity that supports and strengthens the work. One
cannot say much more about this phenomenon, for it is
ever so delicate. But I encourage those who participate in
these conversations over time to observe what happens,
and at least entertain the possibility that something is being offered up that is greater than the words spoken in
any given conference.
Behold, I make everything new.
Torin Finser is Chair of the Education Department, Antioch
University New England, and is General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in America. He lectures widely and has written nine
books on education, leadership, and community.
The Gifts of
Waldorf Education
and the Ecological
Crisis
by Maximilian DeArmon
History is governed by those overarching movements
that give shape and meaning to life by relating the human venture to the larger destinies of the universe.
Creating such a movement might be called the Great
Work of a people… The Great Work now, as we move
into a new millennium, is to carry out the transition
from a period of human devastation of the Earth to a
period when humans would be present to the planet in
a mutually beneficial manner. — Thomas Berry 1
1 Thomas Berry, The Great Work: Our Way into the Future (New York: Three
Rivers Press, 1999), 1.
We are bearing witness to, and participating in, an axial turn in the story of humanity. For the first time in our
journey, we are becoming conscious of the fact that we are
a global species forming a planetary civilization.2 While
there are many positive aspects of this turn, including the
increasing tolerance of cultural, religious, and individual
freedoms, the democratization of information through the
Internet, and an emerging planetary awareness, there is
also a great looming threat. Some scientists say we are at
the brink of the sixth mass extinction event, which could
bring an end to the Cenozoic Era, the primary cause of
which is collective human activity. To put things into perspective, the last mass extinction event happened 65 million years ago, potentially caused by an asteroid hitting the
Earth, killing the dinosaurs and other life forms.
Some geologists say we are entering the epoch of the
“Anthropocene”3 in which humanity is a major driving
force on the planet. On our current trajectory of endless
industrial growth, extraction of natural resources, mass
deforestation, ocean acidification, alterations in the atmosphere, and climate change, it seems that total ecological
destruction is inevitable; this is being called “the Great
Unraveling.”4 In the words of the evolutionary cosmologist Brian Swimme, humanity has emerged as a planetary
power but has yet to become fully conscious of that power
and the responsibility that comes with it.5
While many people are aware of the ecological crisis we currently face and its dire consequences, there is
a complementary narrative of ecological resilience and
hope that is gaining traction in our collective consciousness. Joanna Macy, an eco-philosopher and activist, refers
to this phenomenon as “the Great Turning.”6 Emerging
out of our current crisis, capturing the imagination of
millions, and catapulting people to take action, the Great
Turning is the greatest opportunity of our times. In his
book Blessed Unrest, Paul Hawken claims we are witnessing the largest social movement in human history, in
which more than ever, grassroots organizations are working towards positive ecological and social change, and the
number is growing exponentially.7
2 Sean Kelly, Coming Home: The Birth & Transformation of The Planetary Era
(Great Barrington: Lindisfarne Books, 2010), VII.
3 Ibid., VIII.
4 Joanna Macy and Molly Brown, Coming Back to Life (Gabriola Island: New
Society Publishers, 2014), 5.
5 Brian Swimme, Cosmological Powers, DVD
6 Joanna Macy and Molly Brown, Ibid.
7 Paul Hawkin, Blessed Unrest: How the largest social movement in history is
restoring grace, justice, and beauty to the world (New York: Penguin Books,
In the face of all this, what role do Waldorf education
and Waldorf students play in the Great Turning? As both
a former Waldorf student and someone who was home
schooled with a Steiner education, I have identified four
main skills that give Waldorf students the ability to grapple with the enormity of our situation and that strategically place them in a position of leadership.
First, an active imagination is required to ignite the
creativity that will give rise to solutions for the global
problems we face. The power of the imagination created
ancient civilizations in China, Babylon, Greece, the Indus
valley, Meso-America, and Egypt. It created the world’s
great mythologies of the Olympian Gods, the Norse
Gods, and the Hindu Pantheon, which influenced most of
the world’s literary traditions. It created modernity; great
economic systems; Paris, London, and New York City.
The power of the imagination will be the
driving force behind creating a new world ben- The power of
eficial to all life on Earth. Children in Wal- the imagination
dorf education spend years cultivating the will be the
driving force
imagination through mythological studies and
behind creating
personalized main lesson books created by the
a new world
students. Most public schools and other educa- beneficial
tional institutions do not put strong emphasis to all life on
on the imagination.
Earth. Children
Second, biospheric consciousness seems to in Waldorf
be naturally developing across the planet, 8 but education
Waldorf education places an especially strong spend years
emphasis on the individual’s role within the cultivating the
Earth community9 and within the cosmos it- imagination...
self. This expansive form of consciousness is required for
our society to rebuild so that all life on Earth can thrive
and human activity can be in harmony with the natural
rhythms of the cosmos. Without this type of global consciousness, any rebuilding of civilization will fall short of
fully integrating our social systems with the greater ecological and cosmological systems.
The third skill is the practical application of abstract
ideas. Steiner believed that students should learn abstract
ideas through tactile activities. I remember woodworking, crocheting, eurythmy, and the Olympic games as
enjoyable activities that stay in my memory to this day.
Science is taught with a hands-on, applicable approach,
2008), 2.
8 Jeremy Rifkin, Empathic Civilization: The race to global consciousness in a
world in crisis (New York: Penguin Books, 2009), 593.
9 Thomas Berry, The Dream of the Earth (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books,
1988), 6.
• 43
arts & ideas
and the history of math and science is taught during those
subject periods, giving proper context to the lessons. Now
as a doctoral student wading through an ocean of ideas,
I can clearly see how these activities opened up certain
neural networks in my brain, expanded my consciousness, and allowed me to process these abstractions with
ease. This skill is essential in dealing with the ecological
crisis because our brain’s neural plasticity has a limited
or expanded bandwidth based on past experiences, and
our perception of reality, and cognitive ability, is in part
shaped by these neural networks.10 Having years of intentional cognitive and creative development working on
these neural networks gives the brain the mental capacity
to handle more complex abstract philosophical ideas such
as re-imagining civilization and re-inventing the human
in alignment with a living Earth.
The fourth skill I identified, cultivated in Waldorf
education and necessary for dealing with ecological
devastation, is that of developing an ecological sensibility.
Steiner’s development of biodynamic farming could literally be what shapes the future of agriculture all over the
world.11 As the dangers of mono-cropping become ever
more present, biodynamic farming seems to be a major
solution to healing our relationship with domesticated
animals and with the growing of our food. Most Waldorf
schools go on field trips to biodynamic farms, and some
have a biodynamic farm or garden on the school property,
or at least close by. This type of education and connection
to the Earth is priceless and exactly what is needed to reconnect to the life-sustaining principles of our ancestors.
As a former Waldorf student, I feel a moral obligation
to use these skills to help our world in this time of great
crisis. Because of the care of our families and communities, we were given a gift of a liberated mind and the freedom to develop ourselves to our highest potential through
transformative education. Steiner developed an education
model that is not only beneficial to unlocking latent potentials for individual growth and development, but also
is beneficial to the greater community, and the natural
world. We are now being called upon to utilize these skills
for the benefit of all beings and to join others who are
already committed to the mission of the Great Turning.
The Earth needs us to participate. Humanity needs us to
participate. There is no more time to sit on the sidelines
10 Thomas Luckman and Peter Berger, The Social Foundations of Human
Experience (New York: Oxford, 2007)
11 John Paull, “Biodynamic Agriculture: The journey from Koberwitz to the
world, 1924-1938,” Journal of Organic Systems, 61), (2011): 27
44 •
being human
and contemplate a better world while we criticize the fall
of industrial society. A new world is gestating and a fully
formed planetary civilization is on the horizon. Will we
be part of its creation or merely bear witness to its birth?
Steiner was well versed in the battle between good
and evil on subtle planes and his revelations about these
polarities reverberates through his philosophical and
educational writings. One could argue that the battle is
now playing out on the world stage, and we are facing
the greatest threat to our own survival, as well as the survival of countless other species. My Waldorf education
has convinced me that we have been invited to join the
battle and for what is good in our world.
The task at hand is making sure that the Anthropocene does not continue down the path of the Great Unraveling, where the collective power of humanity is the
primary destructive force on the planet. By re-imagining
humanity to be intricately interconnected with the entire Earth community, as part of a “communion of subjects” (Thomas Berry’s phrase), we have the opportunity
to transform this destructive power into a positive regenerative force where the Anthropocene could turn into the
epoch of the Great Turning. Steiner’s dream of a better
world, a more creative and ecologically harmonious world,
is also a dream of humanity—and a dream of the Earth.
Maximilian DeArmon, writer and producer of the film The
Future of Energy (www.thefutureofenergy.org), is a planetary
advocate whose mission is to facilitate global transformation through
educational and creative projects. He’s currently doing his Graduate
studies in San Francisco at The California Institute of Integral Studies where his main focus is transpersonal psychology, evolutionary
cosmology and integral ecology.
Climate Change
Brings Moral
Change
by Mary Evelyn Tucker
Pope Francis is clearly one of the most popular people
on the planet at present. With his love for the poor, his
willingness to embrace the outcast, and his genuine humility, he has captured the hearts of millions, Christian
and non-Christian alike. He has inspired minds as well
by his willingness to take on difficult issues such as ecology, economy, and equity, which he sees as inextricably
linked. Indeed, these three interwoven issues are at the
“We need to learn to work together in a framework that
heart of his recent Papal encyclical. An encyclical is a letlinks economic prosperity with both social inclusion and
ter to the Bishops and all Church members. It is the highprotection of the natural world.” This linkage of ecology,
est level of teaching in the Catholic Church and this is
economy, and equity is what is being called an “integral
the first encyclical on the environment in the history of
ecology” and is central to the encyclical.
the Church.
Such an integral ecology clearly requires interdisFirst, he addresses ecology. Pope Francis, following
ciplinary cooperation as we find our path forward on
in the tradition of Francis of Assisi, celebrates the natua planet of more than seven billion people. We need to
ral world as a sacred gift. He does this with his reference
understand more fully the challenges the world is facing
to St. Francis’ “Canticle of Brother Sun, Sister Moon” in
in terms of economic development and environmental
the title of the encyclical, “Praised Be” [Laudato Si]. The
protection. These are not easy to reconcile. Indeed, the
kinship with all creation that St. Francis intuited we now
international community has been seeking answers since
understand as complex ecological relationships that have
the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992 set forth a framework
evolved over billions of years. For Pope Francis these relafor sustainable development. The world is ever more in
tionships have a natural order or “grammar” that needs to
need of an integral ecology that brings together a fresh
be understood, respected, and valued.
understanding that people and the planet are
Second, he speaks about the economy.
part of one interdependent life community.
For Pope Francis,
Within this valuing of nature, the Pope enSuch an integral ecology affirms the cooperprofit over people
courages us to see the human economy as a
ation of science and ethics, knowing that our
or at the expense
subsystem of nature’s economy, namely, the
problems will not be solved without both. It
of the planet is not
dynamic interaction of life in ecosystems.
is clear that climate change requires moral
genuine
profit.
Without a healthy natural ecology there is
change.
not a sustainable economy and vice versa. They are ineviThe Papal encyclical, then, represents a new period
tably interdependent. Moreover, we cannot ignore polluof potential cooperation. In the Yale Forum on Religion
tion or greenhouse gases as externalities that are not facand Ecology we have been working for two decades with
tored into full cost accounting. This is because, for Pope
hundreds of scholars to identify the cultural and religious
Francis, profit over people or at the expense of the planet
grounds in the world’s religions for a more diverse enis not genuine profit. This is what has happened with fosvironmental ethics to complement environmental scisil fuels causing climate disruption.
ences. Between 1995-2004 we organized ten conferences
Third, he highlights equity. From this perspective,
at Harvard and published ten volumes to examine how
working within the limits of nature’s economy can lead
the world’s religions can contribute their varied ethical
to thriving human societies. In contrast, exploiting the
perspectives for a sustainable future. At Yale School of
Earth and using oil and gas without limits has led to inForestry and Environmental Studies we have been broadcreased human inequities. Ecosystems are being underening this dialogue and building on the work of environmined by climate change and the wealthy most often
mentalists, policy makers, and economists. The Papal enbenefit. The Pope recognizes that such an impoverished
cyclical will be a fresh inspiration for these and numerous
economic system results in impoverished and unjust soother efforts that are bringing together ecology and ethics
cial systems. Thus, for him, the poor must be cared for
for the flourishing of the Earth community. To this end
as they are the most adversely affected by climate change.
we look forward to working together with the Center for
In all of this the encyclical is not anti-modernity, but
Process Studies which, in addition to numerous publihopes to reconfigure the idea of progress. “Not blind opcations, has convened conferences in both the U.S. and
position to progress but opposition to blind progress,” as
China to advance the goals of ecological civilization.
John Muir said. The Pope refers to this perspective when
Mary Evelyn Tucker co-directs the Forum on Religion and Ecology
he speaks of a throwaway economy where humans are
at Yale (fore.yale.edu) and is a Senior Lecturer and Research Scholar
saturated in materialism. He sees the need for genuine
at Yale University where she has appointments in the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies as well as the Divinity School and
progress where the health of both people and the planet
the Department of Religious Studies.
can be fostered. Thus, as the head of the Pontifical Academy of Justice and Peace Cardinal Peter Turkson has said,
• 45
research & reviews
IN THIS SECTION:
There are a growing
number of “signs” that the
worldview of modernism
is nearing its expiration
date. When solid citizens
of modernity speak up in
the way Thomas Nagel
has done, those who are
comfortable with things
as they are get worried.
Frederick Amrine is our
expert guide to this
noteworthy defection.
Besides insights, Rudolf
Steiner left a vast number
of questions to work
on further. Many agree
on the importance of
understanding and
experiencing the difference
between “thinking” that
just moves around preformed concepts, and
thinking that explores
a non-physical “higher”
world. Frederick Dennehy
worked with consciousness
researcher Georg
Kuhlewind and introduces
us to GK’s friend the Italian
anthroposophist Massimo
Scaligero.
Owen Barfield penetrated
the English-speaking
mainstream with his
research into words and
meanings and what they
show about an evolving
human consciousness. His
grandson is keeping OB’s
work available.
The Henry Barnes Fund
seeks support for new
research being done now!
46 •
being human
Provoking a Crisis
by Frederick Amrine
Review of Thomas Nagel, Mind & Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian
Conception of Nature is Almost Certainly False (New York: Oxford UP, 2012).
“Above all, I would like to extend the boundaries of what is not regarded as
unthinkable, in light of how little we really understand about the world.” (p. 127)
This is an important book, trenchant and brave. Thomas Nagel is a preeminent analytic philosopher, but this admirably succinct treatise1 is nontechnical: it can be read and understood by any educated person with good
will and a bit of perseverance. It deserves careful study.
Despite the book’s rather sensational subtitle, it is not specifically anti-Darwinian. And Nagel
offers no direct comfort to creationists: an avowed atheist, he assures us that he doesn’t have a religious
bone in his body. Biblical literalists might well be tempted to befriend Nagel in an enemy-of-myenemy sort of way, but Nagel isn’t sympathetic. (Nor am I.) Nagel is likewise a critic of creationism’s
more progressive wing, “intelligent design,” dismissing it with the stinging (and accurate) critique that
it offers only the empty form of an explanation, without any specific content.
Mind and Cosmos describes a paradigm that should be in crisis, but is not.2 Nagel means to
provoke the crisis that ought to be unfolding on its own. The paradigm at issue is even larger
than Neo-Darwinism: Nagel calls it “materialist reductionism.” Because it is the prevailing
explanatory model in all of mainstream contemporary science, the stakes are vast.
It will help us understand Nagel’s contentions if we first digress a bit and recall
Mind and
how paradigms work via an extended simile. The analogy might seem too facile at
Cosmos
first, but please just stay with me for a moment. A paradigm is like a job that is meant
describes a
to pay the bills. Some excellent jobs (think medical intern or graduate teaching fel- paradigm that
low) can’t cover the bills in the short run, but it is reasonable to accept that limitation should be in
because there is a good likelihood that they will turn into high-paying jobs down the crisis, but is not.
road. What matters is paying the bills (and more) in the long run. Highly successful Nagel means
paradigms such as Copernican astronomy and Relativity left large bills unpaid in the to provoke
short run, but soon enough these “anomalies” (as Kuhn calls them) were explained the crisis...
in light of the new paradigm. If major bills remain unpaid for an extended period of The paradigm
time, the typical and appropriate response is a Kuhnian “crisis”: clearly it’s time to at issue is ...
the prevailing
hunt for a better job.
Born in the late Renaissance, “reductionist materialism” is hardly a new para- explanatory
digm.3 It should be paying the bills and then some. Nagel has sat down at the end of model in all of
mainstream
the month, as it were, and inventoried the unpaid bills. The result isn’t pretty: we’re
contemporary
covering food and clothing, so we’re comfortable enough day-to-day; but we can’t
science, [so] the
cover rent, car payments, or utilities.
stakes are vast.
Specifically, Nagel argues that materialist reductionism can explain everything
except life, consciousness, human reason, the lawfulness of the universe, and moral values. Because it
1 128 pages in a small format. Nagel’s own summary, published in The New York Review of Books (“The Core of ‘Mind and Cosmos’”; August 18, 2013), is even more succinct, but you will want to own and read the entire book.
2 I mean the terms “paradigm” and “crisis” in their specifically Kuhnian senses (Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions [1962; Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2012]).
3 Pace H. Allen Orr, who calls it “the new kid on the block” in his critical review of Nagel (The New York Review of Books; February 7,
2013).
has no adequate explanation of consciousness and reason,
the prevailing paradigm cannot even begin to explain how
science of any kind is possible. Moreover, the prospect of
finding reductionist explanations of all these fundamental natural phenomena (for such they are) is effectively nil.
That should be shocking enough. We should feel a sense of
overwhelming crisis. We should be looking for a new job.
But what is doubly and triply shocking is not that Nagel
would dare to mount such a critique, but rather that most
scientists remain untroubled, and that many are working
overtime to deny such problems even exist.
Let’s consider each of these issues briefly.
Life: Nagel devotes little
space to this problem because
there’s no real argument about it.
The prevailing paradigm seldom
even attempts to answer this question, and when it does, the process
is purely—sometimes wildly4 —
speculative. The explanation most
often invoked is blind chance—
which is to say, the absence of any
explanatory principle dressed up
to look like an explanatory principle. When it comes to the origin
(let alone the meaning) of life,
materialist reductionism is clueless.
Consciousness: Reductionists themselves refer to this as “the
hard problem.” One might call
this lack a congenital defect, since
it dates from the moment modern science was born. Cartesian
dualism not only fails to solve the
“mind-body problem”: it created the problem intentionally so that it could pursue materialistic determinism untroubled. Scientific progress was purchased at the price of
exporting the mind and all its phenomena to a separate
realm, and then declaring the physical substrate to be the
sole and proper domain of science. After having issued
IOUs for going on half a millennium without having paid
down a dime of the principal, materialist reductionism
has now begun simply to deny the existence of a debt:
there is no mind; what feels like mind is just “sparks and
drips at the synapses”;5 nothing else is there. Or as the
4 E.g., Francis Crick’s hypothesis of “directed panspermia,” discussed on p.
124.
5 Berkeley neuroscientist John Kihlstrom, quoted by Louis B. Jones in his
noted geneticist Francis Crick notoriously put it: “ ‘You,’6
your joys and sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in
fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve
cells and their associated molecules. Who you are is nothing but a pack of neurons.”7 At most, mind is a pleasant
fiction, good enough for literary diversions but entirely
unworthy of philosophical consideration.
As for the “mind,” which Nagel holds could not have
been brought into being merely by Darwinian natural
selection, it has played a magnificent part in English
poetry: in Marvell, Keats, Wordsworth, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and so on. But it is
not at home in philosophy. The
“mind-body problem,” a sort of
Indian rope-trick, is a toy which
has been teasing and entertaining
philosophers for too long.8
Or if the existence of consciousness can’t be denied, at least its importance can be minimized, as in
Orr’s specious counter that consciousness is rare in nature, so why
worry about an exceptional problem? Such arguments duck the real
issue here: materialist reductionism
“cannot provide the basic form of
intelligibility for this world” (p. 53).
R ationality and lawfulness: Nagel argues these are attributes of Nature herself. It is not
at all clear how consciousness, let
alone rationality, should have survival value, since so many species
have survived very well without either. The implied answer
is that rational creatures (humans) have survived and prospered as a species; therefore rationality has survival value.
But that would be a textbook logical fallacy, so sophomoric that it wouldn’t even rate a response. Hence proponents
won’t say it aloud. Here Nagel elegantly deploys the aporia
of a simple calculator. We tap in “5+3=” and we obtain the
correct answer “8.” The mechanism of the calculator can
be reduced to physics, but not the meaning of the answer.
review of Nagel (The Threepenny Review; Fall 2012).
6 These telling internal quotes are Crick’s own.
7 Quoted by Andrew Ferguson in his review of Nagel (The Weekly Standard;
March 25, 2013).
8 These appalling words conclude the late P. N. Furbank’s review of Nagel
(The Threepenny Review; Fall 2012).
• 47
research & reviews
Nagel rightly terms our awareness of meaning a “miracle,”
and 3) Nagel’s proposed alternative paradigm, “natural
because it is not susceptible to reductionist analysis. As
teleology,” is a non-starter. The third complaint has merLouis B. Jones puts it so very well in his review, “Only a
it. The first two have none, but because they are so sympsovereign consciousness sees that. Furthermore—and this
tomatic, let’s consider them before turning to the third.
is an additional leap of cognition that Nagel finds almost
Many scientists’ feathers are ruffled by Nagel’s havnuminous—the little equation pertains to a logical, cogniing taken science to task. However by their own lights,
zable universe. How is it that this universe happens to fit,
this should neither surprise nor annoy them: they should
like a glove, our cogitations and surmises?” Reductionist
welcome it. Rational self-criticism is integral to the way scimaterialism cannot begin to answer this question.
ence works. Such complaints betray a fundamental misMoral Values: Nagel is a “moral realist.” For him,
understanding of the proper role of philosophical reasonvalues are (mentally) perceptible facts: “… pain is really
ing within scientific method.9 To be sure, scientists have
bad, and not just something we hate, and … pleasure is
grown unaccustomed to philosophical critique because
something good, and not just something we like” (p. 110).
by and large Anglo-American philosophers have become
We can be as confident about the wrongness of slavery,
apologists for the reigning paradigm, working overtime to
or cruelty to children, as we are about the
defend reductionism by denying “the ghost
chemical composition of the air or the boil- Nagel is a “moral
in the machine.” But philosophy isn’t the
ing point of water. We needn’t agree with realist.” For him
handmaiden of science (or its “underlaborer,”
Nagel on this point specifically to feel the
as Locke asserted); it’s just that so many phi... we can be as
force of his argument. It is enough to admit
losophers have abdicated their responsibilconfident about
that civilized people act as though moral vality. No wonder they want to brand Nagel a
ues were real in their everyday experience; the wrongness of
heretic—literally! In his review of Nagel, the
slavery,
or
cruelty
to
morality is in that sense a pervasive natural
Cambridge philosopher Simon Blackburn
phenomenon in need of explanation. Mate- children, as we are
asserted that “[i]f there were a philosophical
rialist reductionism cannot begin to explain about the chemical
Vatican, the book would be a good candiwhy “it is the case that the interests of others composition of the
date for going on the Index [of Prohibited
provide us with reasons for action,” or why
Books].”10 Nor is such discourse at all excepair or the boiling
reflection should lead us to feel “some detional: molecular biologists themselves refer
point of water.
gree of benevolence” (p. 101). Altruism and
to the prevailing paradigm as “the central
selflessness are not necessarily advantageous to specific
dogma,” and both scientists and philosophers are quick
individuals; indeed, the opposite is a much more plauto refer to problems such as the conscious mind as an unsible argument. The philosopher Sharon Street has arknowable “mystery”—the same fideistic dodge that early
gued rightly that a moral realism such as Nagel advocates
modern philosophers and scientists had criticized so mer“would make no contribution to reproductive fitness” (p.
cilessly. Leon Wieseltier’s riposte is rhetorically delicious:
107), and therefore it must be false, because we hold the
“What once vitiated godfulness now vindicates godlessDarwinian account to be true. Nagel boldly turns the
ness.” It is not Nagel who is the apostate here: the shoe is
point of this argument around and flings it right back:
on the other foot.
because we can be confident that moral realism is true,
The eminent evolutionary biologist Richard LewonDarwinistic accounts of value judgments are implausible.
tin is aware of what he is doing, at least: “…we are forced
Such accounts have not lacked extramural critics, but
by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an
Nagel’s criticism is especially painful because it comes
investigation and a set of concepts that produce material
from within. Materialist reductionism isn’t just unacceptexplanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter
able to the devout: now an eminent philosopher contends
9 Contrary to the disingenuous claims of countless popular scientific
that it fails key tests of scientific rigor. Materialist reducpresentations, the scientific method is not simply empirical, and it never
proves anything. As Karl Popper has demonstrated, experimental science is
tionism is bad science. Nagel’s assault on the paradigm’s in“hypothetico-deductive,” and it proceeds via falsification. The key moment
nermost citadel has elicited three persistent refrains from
in the process of “justification” is the application of rational analysis in the
his critics: 1) Nagel has betrayed science as such by siding
devising of experiments and the evaluation of their results. “Discovery” is
with its detractors; 2) philosophers shouldn’t be poking
an imaginative act that transcends both empiricism and rationality.
their noses into scientists’ business; scientists know better;
10 Quoted by Leon Wieseltier in The New Republic (March 8, 2013).
48 •
being human
how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that matesense, but I do not at the moment see why it doesn’t” (p.
rialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot into
93). Mind & Cosmos is a thoroughly admirable book, and
the door.”11 Needless to say, science should not be dealing
there is no doubting the sincerity of Nagel’s convictions,
in such preconceived notions, and if it does, philosophy’s
but this is hardly persuasive rhetoric, and associating the
proper role is to protest. Nagel is far more reasonable and
idea of “natural teleology” principally with an ancient
balanced than his opponents. Like Rudolf Steiner, he is
philosopher makes it feel like a throwback. That move
not opposed to materialism as such, merely to its overstatstrikes me as unfortunate and unnecessary.
ed claims. Ferguson argues well on this point, in defense
I agree wholeheartedly that the crisis calls for “a major
of Nagel, that materialism is “a premise of science, not a
conceptual revolution at least as radical as relativity theory
finding … The success has gone to the materialists’ heads.
… or the original scientific revolution itself” (p. 42), but I
From a fruitful method, materialism becomes an axiom:
wonder whether “teleology” is the best term for it, and (as
If science can’t quantify something, it doesn’t exist, and
Nagel himself recognizes) Aristotelian teleology as such is
so the subjective, unquantifiable, immaterial ‘manifest
a non-starter because it is too theistic and intentional. Even
image’ of our mental life is proved to be an illusion.” Ferif we restrict ourselves to teleology, there is a distinguished
guson agrees with Nagel that materialism has its place
modern school of philosophical, non-theistic teleology
as a valid scientific methodology, but it can
reaching back to Kant via important biolobe sustained as a comprehensive metaphys- Nagel is far more
gists such as Karl Ernst von Baer and Jakob
ics only through “a heroic feat of cognitive reasonable and
von Uexküll. Indeed, Stephen Jay Gould gives
dissonance”—by simply ignoring the unpaid balanced than his
us one version of this lineage in his important
12
bills Nagel itemizes. Or begging the quesfirst book, Ontogeny and Phylogeny,13 which
opponents. Like
tion dogmatically by simply asserting what
inspired the new field of evolutionary develRudolf
Steiner,
he
is at issue. “The question, then,” Orr writes,
opmental biology or “evo-devo” that “elabo“is not whether [Nagel’s proposed] teleology is not opposed to
rates important new lines of inquiry into selfis formally compatible with the practice of materialism as
organization of life forms.”14 This and many
science. The question is whether the practice such, merely to its
other similar developments suggest that maof science leads to taking teleology seriously.” overstated claims.
terialist reductionism is indeed slowly giving
But the question we are asking is whether
way to a new paradigm of emergence.
the current practice of science is correct. Orr’s assertion
I propose that what we need is not an alternative
is tantamount to saying, “Given that the current pracform of causality, but rather an even more radical paratice of science is correct and does not include teleology,
digm that makes room for indeterminacy and the historiwe may safely disqualify Nagel’s alternative explanation.”
cal emergence of previously unknown levels of complexHearing such arguments, one wants to shout, “Is there a
ity, a paradigm in which phenomena are correlative to
philosopher in the house?”
consciousness. Some of Nagel’s critics have inadvertently
Nagel proceeds from itemizing unpaid bills to job
pointed us in the right general direction by accusing Nahunting as it were, and that is where he falls short. The
gel of having harkened back to German Idealism15 and its
critics’ third objection does have merit, but for a differcentral concept of Spinozist natura naturans, or of trying
ent reason: whereas they accuse him of having been led
to “re-enchant the world” (in the Weberian sense of that
astray, I fault him for not having gone further in the right
term) after the manner of the Romantics. Goethe’s nondirection. Ironically, Nagel’s powerful analytic focus
reductive science is a kind of Spinozism recast in the light
seems to have given him tunnel vision regarding possible
of German Idealism, and Spinoza was also the philosopher
alternatives, and makes him seem captive to the tradition
most admired by Einstein. Spinoza lies at the heart of the
in which he was trained. More than one critic has quoted
a key sentence, couched in four negatives, as symptom13 Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1977.
14 John H. Zammito in The Hedgehog Review, vol. 15, No. 5 (Fall 2013).
atically vague and tentative: “I am not confident that the
15 Zammito. See also Malcolm Thorndike Nicholson, “Thomas Nagel is not
Aristotelian idea of teleology without intention makes
11 Quoted by Nagel in a footnote on p. 49.
12 Nagel calls materialist reductionism “a heroic triumph of ideological theory
over common sense” (p. 128).
crazy” (Prospect; October 23, 2012): “Nagel concludes, in a vein similar to
the German idealist philosophers of the late 18th and early 19th century,
that the nature of reality is such that there is a natural progression towards
consciousness.”
• 49
research & reviews
profoundest philosophical writing of the last half-century,
Gilles Deleuze’s metaphysical, scientifically advanced monism.16 Many other such figures could be listed. The index of Nagel’s book is filled with minor analytic philosophers, but these major alternative thinkers are conspicuous
in their absence.17
When Nagel writes, “After all, whatever one’s philosophical views, so long as there is such a thing as truth there
must be some truths that don’t have to be grounded in anything else” (p. 103), he is invoking what German Idealism
means by the a priori. Kant or Fichte could have written
the words: “As with cognition in general, the response to
value seems only to make sense as a function of the unified subject of consciousness” (p. 115). Nagel does indeed
seem to be reviving Idealism’s moral realism, as worked out
by Schiller and further elaborated by Rudolf Steiner. And
Hegel could have written Nagel’s radiant claim that “[e]ach
of our lives is a part of the lengthy process of the universe
gradually waking up and becoming aware of itself” (p. 85).
But Nagel need not have gone all the way back to German Romanticism and Idealism; there is a source closer to
home. What he is seeking is a philosophy of freedom that is
embedded within an overarching notion of the evolution of
consciousness. Readers of being human will recognize these
radical ideas as familiar ground. Ferguson rightly describes Nagel as looking for a “Third Way” between theism and materialism. That “Way” already exists—in the
form of anthroposophy.18 It is one of the tragedies of our
era that great minds and honest seekers such as Thomas
Nagel seem unaware of the work of Rudolf Steiner.
Frederick Amrine (amrine@umich.edu) has been a student of
anthroposophy his entire adult life. He teaches literature, philosophy,
and intellectual history at the University of Michigan, where he is
Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in German Studies. His research has
been devoted primarily to Goethe, German Idealism, and Romanticism. He is also a past editor of this publication.
16 See my essay “Gilles Deleuze’s Philosophy of Freedom,” being human,
Spring 2012.
17 To his credit, Nagel does refer to Stuart Kauffman’s work on emergence.
And he also identifies himself as “an objective idealist in the tradition of
Plato, and perhaps of certain post-Kantians, such as Schelling and Hegel”
(p. 17), but then, oddly, none of these three names appears in the index.
18 Cf. Frederick Amrine, “Discovering a Genius: Rudolf Steiner at 150,” being
human, Spring 2011: “Steiner … occupies the seemingly excluded middle
ground between science and religion …”
50 •
being human
A Treatise on
Living Thinking
Review of A Treatise on Living Thinking: A Path
Beyond Western Philosophy, Beyond Yoga, Beyond
Zen, by Massimo Scaligero, translated by Eric L.
Bisbocci; Lindisfarne Books, 2014; 103 pages
by Fred Dennehy
Massimo Scaligero (1906-1980) is a
somewhat shadowy figure to anthroposophists in America. Some may have heard
of him as one of a cadre of fascist anthroposophists in Italy who (according to anthroposophist
critic Peter Staudenmaier), during the 1930s and 1940s,
wrote numerous articles endorsing antisemitism and Nazi
Germany’s “decisive racist campaign,” and purveyed visions of a “noble Roman heritage” and “the solar tradition”
it supposedly embodied. According to Staudenmaier, Scaligero depicted World War II as a racial conflict, stated
that only the victory of the “Aryan race” could reintegrate
spirituality into human life, and said that Jews spread “Ahrimanic, sub-human, and materialistic” forces throughout
the world.
Staudenmaier’s writings are heavily slanted against
anthroposophy, and he writes like a high school debater,
eager to present the evidence for one side and to conceal
the rest. I have no reason to believe that Staudenmaier’s
references to Scaligero’s early writings are wrong. It is not
known to me, however, that Scaligero continued in later
life to espouse his wartime points of view. There is some
anecdotal evidence that he underwent a conversion experience after the war. I am also aware that Georg Kühlewind
was a close colleague and friend of Scaligero from 1969
until Scaligero’s death in 1980. Kühlewind was Jewish.
Others will be familiar with Scaligero as an anthroposophical thinker who had significant influence on
Kühlewind. In a biographical statement that was included
in “Stages of Consciousness” in 1984, Kühlewind wrote:
In 1969, I met Massimo Scaligero, the Italian anthroposophical thinker. As a matter of fact, our real and
effective meeting did not occur personally, but only
through his books after personal acquaintance. Out of
this, a deep and helpful friendship emerged which still
lasts after his death—he died in 1980—although there
was more than one question on which we did not agree.
Our agreement was perfect, however, concerning questions of knowing and the inner path.
tualized by very few individuals.
For Scaligero, a theme or an object is alRelatively few American anthroposoways something already thought, and as such,
phists have read Scaligero, despite the fact
abstract, dialectical, and reflected from a livthat Steiner Books has published The Light
ing thinking now lost. It is “the substance of
(La Luce) in 2001, The Secrets of Space and
a dead culture” inhabited by those who no
Time in 2013 and, most recently, A Treatise
longer think in thoughts, but in words or in
on Living Thinking. Still fewer, I suspect,
numerical correlations. It is—in Scaligero’s
have read a Scaligero book to completion.
word—“non-existent.”
All three of these books, as translated by Eric
What is “already thought” can again
Bisbocci, employ an intricate syntax and a
become “thinking.” This resurrection of the
sliding vocabulary that forces the reader to
“already thought” is “thinking in the act of
reread again and again. The text of A Treatise
reflecting itself” (pensiero pensante), but penon Living Thinking will appear on first readsiero pensante alone does not permit us to exit
ing to be extraordinarily repetitious. Unlike Kühlewind,
the redundant circle of reflectivity. Only if we can cogScaligero does not provide the reader with familiar exnize this activity, if we can perceive (through concentraamples of the modes of thinking he speaks of,
tion) the dynamic moment of its life, which is
or any basic “how to” advice. Although one is Just as meditation “continually disappearing,” may we ascend to
urged most enthusiastically to engage in “liv- upon a phrase or a “pure” or “living” thinking. Living thinking
ing thinking,” there is no specific prescription sentence consists
is the experience of thinking in its dynamis, or
for how to do so.
primal force, before it dies into “reflectivity.”
not in coming to
But A Treatise on Living Thinking is a pow“understand” that We may “attain” it through concentration or
erful book. It speaks out of the present, and
meditation, both of which require our release
phrase or sentence,
has the clear ring of authenticity. Just as medfrom sensory bondage.
but
in
realizing
it,
itation upon a phrase or a sentence consists
To realize living thinking, we cannot be
not in coming to “understand” that phrase or the “concatenation mere “passive receptors” of earthly experience.
sentence, but in realizing it, the “concatena- of thoughts” in this We have to become. We have to be “cooperators
tion of thoughts” in this book is “assembled book is “assembled in the fulfillment of earthly experience.” And
in such a way that the retracing of it begins to in such a way
this task demands of us a radical metanoia.
be the experience proposed.” Scaligero urges
We have to pass from being merely created,
that the retracing
us, by abandoning the pervasively dialectical
nature-dependent beings to free beings who
of it begins to be
movement of our ordinary thinking, and by
create according to our own principle. That
the
experience
employing forces of the “I” schooled through
principle is the Logos. All creatures, includconcentration, to experience pensiero vivente, proposed.”
ing the rest of humankind, who are bound to
or “living thinking.” A Treatise on Living Thinking is woearthly conditions, wait in suffering for us to liberate them
ven out of Scaligero’s own non-linear, meditative experiby changing ourselves in this way.
ence, and it is his hope that the readers’ “retracing of the
Scaligero cites the “greatest modern teacher of thinkthoughts assembled in this book” will begin to yield the
ing,” Rudolf Steiner, to confirm his own experience that
very experience the book proposes to the reader.
the inner realization of the transformative discipline of
The “argument” of the book is similar to that of Ruspiritual practice requires concentration1. Concentration redolf Steiner’s The Philosophy of Freedom. Scaligero, howstores, even if only momentarily, the dominion of the “I.”
ever, is not interpreting Steiner, but recounting his own
We realize that dominion by willing a theme as a means
independent and parallel experiments in thinking.
to “unify and intensify the normal current of thinking.”
Scaligero begins A Treatise on Living Thinking with a
When we turn our attention totally to a theme or an image
daunting “Premise”:
The present treatise, even if logically formulated and
accessible, proposes a task that, most likely, can be ac-
1 For Scaligero, at the moment when concentration “grasps the very process
of thinking that lies at the heart” of any inner technique, it has become a
path “beyond” that technique, whether the technique be philosophy, yoga,
zen, or something else.
• 51
research & reviews
or a concept, thought “discovers its own original unity,”
which is the force of the “I.”
Ordinarily, thought is under the control of the astral body. Only when the “I” is active do we experience
direct knowledge of the suprasensory. The “I” must be
fully present and realized if “chaos” is not to rule. But
experiencing chaos—which manifests as neurosis, mental illness, and unhealthy experiences of all kinds—may
provoke the counter intuition that consciousness can actually arrive at the origin of the thinking activity. It may
arouse the transcendent forces of the “I,” so that they can
incarnate in us. A discipline that avoids the breakdown of
higher forces into “reflected thought” can give thinking a
way to unfold according to the direction of the
“I.” This discipline, in fact, is anthroposophy,
Concentration
what Scaligero refers to as “the path of thinkrestores,
ing of the new times.”
even if only
Living thinking is limitless, and not submomentarily,
ject
to logic, dialectic, or “spiritualist” intelthe dominion
of the “I.” We
lectualism. Its transcendence becomes immarealize that
nent at the point where thought “actualizes the
dominion by
power of the resurrection and genuinely overwilling a theme comes death.” This transcendence is the Loas a means
gos, “whose light alone can restore the original
to “unify and
divine nature to the soul.”
intensify the
The light of thinking becomes life and finalnormal current
ly
becomes
the love of the world. “The warmth
of thinking.”
of instincts becomes the power of love.” Thus,
the ultimate “purpose” of living thinking, of “thought’s
transcendence gathered in its everyday immanence,” is to
“transform evil into good,” to “dissolve the darkness of the
human psyche” into light. It is the power of love, “which
incarnates in thought’s transcendence,” as the Logos itself
has incarnated.
It is fatuous to judge a spiritual path by a kind of
moral litmus test of its proponent. But one hopes that
Scaligero’s experience of the living thinking that leads to
the power to transform evil into love (in terms of the John
Gospel, the transformation of aletheia into charis) came
after he had abandoned the antisemitism and the enthusiasm for Nazi doctrine that he exhibited during the war
years. Otherwise, the experience Scaligero recounts can
be at best only a seeing in part, “through a glass darkly.”
Fred Dennehy is an attorney in practice in New Jersey, serving as
General Counsel to a large law firm and specializing in professional
responsibility. He earned a PhD in English and in recent years has performed in more than a dozen Shakespeare plays. He is a classholder in
the School for Spiritual Science and editor for reviews in being human.
52 •
being human
Barfield’s
Symposium, and
Other Tales
by John Beck
The Owen Barfield Literary Estate continues to republish, and publish for the first time, works of the most
influential English-speaking anthroposophist to date.
The Estate is energetically directed by grandson Owen
Barfield, and there is a steady increase of free offerings at
www.owenbarfield.org alongside handsome new editions.
Dr. Jane Hipolito is the expert series editor for the books.
Owen Barfield’s accomplishments are many and
profound. In What Coleridge Thought he did much to restore awareness of the stature of Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
among the greatest English-speaking thinkers (not just a
great poet and aesthetician) whose complex life and subtlety of mind hid him from view for a century and a half.
Barfield also brought to life etymology—the history
and genealogy of words—in several widely appreciated
books, beginning with History in English Words. His word
work also provides an ideal foundation for understanding
“evolution of consciousness”—a subject which might be
much more widely investigated if we began to call it simply “human evolution.”
Barfield also gave a very clear way of thinking about
the relation of human consciousness to nature: as a participation in it, originally, then a separation into our modern
“onlooker” consciousness, and now in prospect—if we
will—a new participation in which we retain our hardearned sense of individual responsibility and “agency,”
the ability to act. I can think of no intelligible insight
other than this “original and future participation” which
has the power to explain not only where our present ecological crisis has come from (the radical detachment of
the “onlooker”), but also the participatory role we can and
must play if it is to be overcome.
Finally, in Saving the Appearances O.B. carefully
leads us to the still almost unthinkable realization that
humanity’s shared representations of reality have shaped
and reshaped reality. The effort to think such a thought
encounters a real block, a cultural taboo, as he says. And
you perhaps thought that there were no taboos in modern
culture! Then again, this taboo may be serving a func-
tion. Do we perhaps wish to postpone any confident
recognition that consciousness can reshape reality—that
“nothing there is but thinking makes it so”—until we
have found a new and secure relationship to our individual conscience?
I am writing not only to praise Barfield, however, nor
really to review the four books I will mention. All that is
needed is to give the hint that in meeting and engaging
Owen Barfield one has started on a great and important
adventure. And yes, adventure was another of his talents.
His early children’s book The Silver Trumpet was also
known to the Tolkien family (yes, those Tolkiens), and it
seems that there was a whole stream
of significant tales, which are now
readily available. There is Eager
Spring, an ecologically colored tale
from the mid-1980s; Night Operation, a late, dystopian science fiction; and from the late 1920s The
Rose on the Ash-Heap.
It is fair to say that one might
not read any of these today if they
were not by Barfield. He is disinclined to wind up the tensions to the
extremes of the last several decades,
so addicts of the sensational will
be disappointed. These are simply
good stories with deep, culturalmoral undertones. The Rose on the
Ash-Heap is of the serious fairy-tale
genre: one gains most from its symbols (beginning in the Rosicrucian
title) if one can open up again like
a wondering child. In Eager Spring
the spiritual striving of women and the forces of commercial indifference do battle for the health and life of
the Earth. When the malefactors are finally brought to
such justice as there is, we hear very contemporary words
from the court: “It is fortunate for the defendants that
the penalties exacted by the law bear so little relation to
the offense.” And Night Operation tells us a tale of fear
and social manipulation overcome only by a few young
people—who then find themselves taking the Manichean
or Bodhisattva path, returning into the evil and working
to change it from inside.
The fourth volume here is much better known, at
least to Barfieldians. It brings to my mind the Symposium
of Plato, that great enduring conversation about love. Ru-
dolf Steiner mentioned the Symposium in connection with
the social role of alcohol; his research indicated that it was
a force for liberating the individual from the old group
souls. Now that we are well liberated to begin with, its
effects are not so helpful. Ancient cultures had ways of
managing this Dionysian power, and one such was the
gathering where the guests were reclining together (“symposium”) and drinking, and working against the effects
of the alcohol by making speeches on the most serious
topics. In Plato’s Symposium the comedian Aristophanes
has the hiccups throughout, and subsequent generations
blushed much (or rewrote Plato) due to the different affections of the ancient Greeks.
Reading Barfield’s non-alcoholic conversation should make us
blush all the more over the state of
modern culture, for Worlds Apart:
A Dialog of the Sixties is concerned
with the truly obscene compartmentalization of knowledge. A
“friend of Barfield” arranges a
weekend with a nice selection of
academics, plus a young rocket scientist, plus an older Waldorf school
teacher. All of them think and work
in very different worlds, and for the
most part they are all accustomed
to dismiss or ignore what the others see and work with. Faced with
the same situation of relentless specialization and compartmentalization Buckminster Fuller asked us
around the same time (in Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth) to
think comprehensively, to collaborate like the crew of a
great spaceship, and to wake up to the idea of synergy:
that a whole is more than the sum of its parts. This holistic thinking is what Rudolf Steiner called for when he
said that realities of mind and spirit must be viewed from
many sides, even contradictory ones.
Barfield here takes hold of the core of contemporary
culture and puts it through such a many-sided looking. It
is hard work to engage each of the speakers and his direction of thought. (Yes, it’s the sixties, and all the participants are men. Another blush.) Each field of science and
inquiry has evolved a lot in fifty years, so one should not
run out with any of the particular arguments of this book
and try to make conversation with the nearest materialist.
• 53
research & reviews
And there are real efforts today at holistic thinking, along
with many “inter-disciplinary” projects at universities.
What we have not overcome, however, is a kind of
eutrophication or over-nourishment of thought life. A
Swedish friend has long been working on that problem
with the Baltic Sea. The run-off of nutrients from such
enterprises as pig farms has “fed to death” a large part
of this great sea. I would say that decades of increase in
higher education, post-World War II, have brought much
new energy into global culture, but the specialization of
it all has made for endless fine extensions of particular
thoughts, and little rethinking of the whole. So the Tree
of Knowledge, to bring the metaphor on shore, is very
root-bound and in need of a bigger pot.
Barfield’s Waldorf teacher comes off the best in
Worlds Apart, reminding us that insights large, healthy,
and whole may come more easily to a thoughtful high
school or grade school teacher, still free to think her own
thoughts. Meanwhile, out on the academic battlefield today most instructors are poorly paid part-timers with no
hope of a liberating tenure appointment.
This was my second steep read through Barfield’s
great conversation. It went much better than twenty years
ago, when I met it in the Barfield Group at the New York
Branch of the Anthroposophical Society. The ideas and
the well-drawn persons came to life strongly. A lawyer
with a spiritual bent, like Abraham Lincoln, Barfield
thinks and writes powerfully well. His “big” books may
never be easy, but they are sound.
In ten years or so I will read Worlds Apart again. It is
an exercise in “meta-thinking”—in pushing off from the
safe and familiar shore in order to consider all the various
harbors of thought. There, under the stars on the open
mental sea, one may wonder when a great new civilization may be born, united in enjoyment of rich differences,
reaching out to “participate” nature again, and prepared
to evolve consciousness as a matter of sober intention.
John Beck (editor@anthroposophy.org) is editor of being human.
Henry Barnes Fund
for Anthroposophical Research
As a leader of the Anthroposophical Society in America, Henry Barnes recognized the need to work further
with anthroposophy for the benefit of contemporary civilization. He compared this to the research and development aspect of other organizations and in 1991 founded
the Future Value Fund to help individuals pursue anthroposophical research in various fields. In June of 2010 an
anonymous donor gave the the North American Collegium of the School for Spiritual Science nearly $60,000
for support of anthroposophical research. The Collegium
named this gift the Henry Barnes Fund for Anthroposophical Research. Twelve grants have been awarded, and
there are currently two worthy requests that cannot be fulfilled until the Fund is replenished. Please consider making a gift to support the fund today.
The Nature Institute is embarking on a research
project to be cvonducted over the coming year by Craig
Holdrege and Stephen Talbott to demonstrate and articulate a spiritual view of evolution that is wholly grounded
in the facts discovered by modern evolutionary science.
They will provide resources (publications and educational
programs) for educators, farmers, and the broader public
on this important topic.
54 •
being human
Also, an intergenerational
group of twelve people has
formed itself into a research
community. They plan a peerled training in Moral Imagination with a focus on small
group research into social issues. Their relationship includes colleagueship in forming
the four Research Symposia at the Threefold Educational
Foundation from 2010 to 2013. Members come from the
InPower Youth Conference (a collaborative effort of the
Christian Community, the Anthroposophical Society,
and the Threefold Foundation) and the Mystery Drama
Conference which took place in August 2014.
Gifts to the Henry Barnes Fund support anthroposophical research across a variety of fields and activities.
To continue to recognize and support anthroposophic
research activity, an ongoing gift stream to sustain the
Fund needs to be cultivated. For further information
or to make a one-time or monthly contribution, please
visit www.anthroposophy.org/henrybarnesfund, or contact
Sherry Wildfeuer (sherrywlf@verizon.net) or Helen Lubin
(helenlubin@gmail.com).
news for members & friends
of the Anthroposophical Society in America
recently than ever before who have deliberately decided
to tune out, to turn off the radio, CNN, internet news
feeds, newspapers, etc., because the current events are so
“depressing”—and they are. How many stories of ISIL
can one read? When will the random acts of violence in
Some time ago I was sorting out old files in a box of
schools and places of work stop? How many natural calong-forgotten materials when I came across a Christmas
tastrophes can one ingest? I understand this point of view,
card received from Lisa Monges perhaps 35 years ago. On
and yet I continue to read parts of the Wall Street Journal
the right side was her Christmas greeting signed simply
most days, occasionally catch the evening news, and have
L.D. Monges, and on the left was a portrait of Rudolf
given some thought-time to world events. I respect those
Steiner standing behind a sofa. In addition to the well
who need to create islands of sanity, but I feel an inner
known black outfit and white collar, one cannot but help
obligation as yet to stay engaged in world events. Why?
notice his strong hands and expressive fingers, the serious,
In another context—the founding of the first Goethewell formed facial contours that are filled with light, and
anum—Rudolf Steiner used the word “Weltbejahung,” one
of course the eyes that look both outward and inward
of his terms that is almost impossible to translate. The
at the same time. On the top left hand corner one finds
closest I have come to it is “affirmation of the
a four-line verse followed by Rudolf Steiner’s
world,” a willingness to say “yes” and not reRudolf Steiner
signature and date: 17, February, 1924 and the
ject what the world has to offer. This is a high
used the word
two words “am Goetheanum.”
order. How can one do that? It may be only
Of course one always has to wonder why
“Weltbejahung,”
part of the story, but my approach is to see it
such a card finds its way into the reader’s hands
one of his terms
not as agreement with all that is happening,
just at this time when the leadership of the
that is almost
but rather a “living in presence” or awareness
Anthroposophical Society at the Goetheanum
impossible
of what the world offers us today. It is possible
has introduced a very particular theme for
to witness, to be aware, and not immediately
to translate...
the year ahead (see anthroposophy.org/theme
to rush to judgment, acceptance (or rejection)
“affirmation of
or Anthroposophy Worldwide for more on the
as so many are apt to do these days. There are
the world,” a
theme of the year). So I decided that since very
times, yes even months when it is terribly cold
few things in life are really an accident, it was
willingness to
in New Hampshire, and there are the warm
the right time to take up this gift from Lisa
say “yes” and not summer days, and of course we all have preferMonges and work with the verse in a renewed
reject what the
ences. But can I learn to practice Weltbejahung
way. (Lisa was a pioneer eurythmist in the
world has to offer. to all kinds of weather, as well as the news stoU.S., helped start the Spring Valley School of
ries that enter our consciousness?
This is a high
Eurythmy, and taught eurythmy to a group of
Some might ask: what is the point of
order. How
community children in her living room once
can one do that? doing this? After all, along with being overa week. I was one of them. Later, after years
whelmed, many feel totally helpless in the face
of mowing her lawn as a teenager, I
of world events. What can I do as one
turned to Lisa Monges when, at age
solitary person?
18, I heard about an exciting conferThe second line of the verse has
ence for members and I asked her to
a
clue
that helps us with this riddle:
sponsor me.)
“Und du findest dich” — You will
So here in my hands was the
find
yourself. What, I can find myself
Christmas card with her signature,
in another atrocious story on CNN?
and a verse in Rudolf Steiner’s own
Is that not the last place I would want
hand. It begins with the line:
to find myself? Well, on one level, of
“Suche in der Welt nach allen Seiten…”
course. But if one actually takes a few
To seek in the world on all sides, in
minutes to think (something that we
all dimensions… What a challenge
cannot take for granted these days),
these days. I have met more people
the percepts from the world phenom-
Some Reflections
by Torin Finser
• 55
ena start to work on the soul, concepts start to arise. For
instance, after a series of stories from the Middle East recently, I spent some time thinking about the root causes
of fundamentalism. What makes people fanatics? Why
do those who outwardly seem to be on a religious path
(with all the teachings of peace) turn a corner and become
fundamentalists? There are many in our circles who could
help with this question (Christopher Bamford comes to
mind) but I am not attempting to answer it here. I just
want to point out a series of steps:
◊ We seek to know the world in all dimensions.
◊ That gives rise to new experiences which can take
shape in new thoughts.
◊ And if we have done some thinking, we have to
own our own concepts.
◊ And in owning our thoughts, and the soul depths
from which they arise, we can experience ourselves
in a new way.
◊ Thus the world leads to self.
Then we move to the third and fourth lines of the verse:
“Suche in dir nach allen Tiefen
Und du findest die Welt.”
Here we have the reverse process! If we are willing to
seek in the depth of the soul, delve into our innermost being,
we can find the world in a new way. There are many ways
in which this can happen, but one has to do with meditation and reflective practices in general. When we do the
inner work, we find our center, our essential Self. One can
emerge from strenuous inner work with a heightened sense
of integrity, authenticity, groundedness. Like the violinist
who practices for hours before giving a concert, when one
has done the inner work then one meets the world/audience on a different level. What a difference it makes if one
has prepared a presentation or simply tries to “wing it”!
When one is rooted in the depth of soul experience, one
can then stand in a different relation to the theme or task
at hand. And when one does so, one meets others and the
world in a new way. So again we have a sequence:
◊ Seek within in all possible depths of inner experience.
◊ Let the research and soul exploration give rise to
new experiences.
◊ These experiences become the ground of authenticity.
◊ When we are authentic in relation to others and the
world, we will re-discover the “world” on a new basis.
So this little verse actually contains all of anthroposophy! We have the meditative path, self-knowledge, etc., as
well as all the initiatives, schools, farms, etc., that have
grown out of authentic deeds of sacrifice. And if there is
56 •
being human
need of any final proof, one has only to talk with a longtime biodynamic farmer, a seasoned Camphill co-worker,
a veteran Waldorf teacher, or learned anthroposophical
doctor. Nowhere could one find such depth, insight, and
wisdom as one does from these people. They know the
world not only from having worked in the world, but by
virtue of having worked on themselves. And their inner
work has led to new achievements in their respective fields
and professional life.
In my travels I have had the honor of meeting many
such people who have spent a lifetime working out of anthroposophy in this way. There is in reality no better evidence of the fruitfulness of anthroposophy than to experience such remarkable people. They are successful in an
outer sense, but one finds after only a few minutes that at
the same time they are also remarkable human beings. And
their humanity and work success seem to go hand in hand.
Finally, one footnote: the inscription on the card ends
with the two words “am Goetheanum”—at the Goetheanum. These words should not be overlooked. It is not just
about Rudolf Steiner the historical person, but also about
the Goetheanum impulse that continues to work around
the world in so many ways. We need to be willing, as he
was, to identify ourselves and our work as coming out of
this impulse. Our future success will depend on the authenticity of the inner work and the integrity that arises
from compassionate engagement with the world. We do
not reject, we embrace. We do not criticize, we suggest.
We are here not to judge but to help, servants of all that is
good, kind and just.
Our Anthroposophical Society is dedicated to these
goals. May we find the strength and the friends to help us
realize our aims.
Torin Finser is General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in
America.
General Secretary
Meetings & Travel
Living in the east, I have felt it was particularly important to experience the work of members out west. I had been
to Portland, Seattle, Sacramento, Phoenix and other places
over the years, but early this year I had a first branch meeting in three more cities. In San Diego we enjoyed a relaxed
brunch in the home of a member before starting the two
hour meeting, exchanging news of their study groups and
local initiatives with my reports on the national and worldwide themes. One theme that came up was how much we
could learn from other groups and organizations. Richard
Rettig spoke of his involvement in Toastmasters and how
he has presented on themes close to our work.
I next took the Amtrak train for a beautiful two hour
ride to Los Angeles for an evening meeting at the branch
house. We had a light supper and then heard news from
their area. One couple who went on the SteinerBooks trip
to Auschwitz shared the effect it had on their lives. Margaret Shipman reported on her work (GEMS, Traveling
Speakers Program); others spoke of the challenge to get a
good turnout to events.
My third visit was for a talk and branch meeting in
Denver. The parents of the school had asked me to speak
on my new book, and so we arranged a branch meeting for
the night before. Members came from all over Colorado,
some drove over two hours. The branch meeting included
a vibrant group of youth section members, teachers, and
some long standing members—thirty-six in all. They had
many questions, and again some focused on how we can
best connect with like minded organizations. They were
very interested in the Society’s reorganization, and some
had attended the mystery drama conference last August.
I spent two nights at the home of Adam Blanning,
MD, who took an entire day off from his busy practice to
ferry me all over Denver to meetings etc. In the process,
I learned a lot more about PAAM and the medical work.
There are now seventy members of the Physicians Association for Anthroposophic Medicine.
Welcoming
Katherine Thivierge
Katherine Thivierge (katherine@anthroposophy.org)
has joined the Anthroposophical Society in America as
Director of Operations. She brings extensive administrative experience to her position, most recently with the
Association of Waldorf Schools of North America and
the Oakland (MI) Steiner School. An attorney who practiced law in Michigan for over ten
years, she has trained as a Waldorf
teacher and a speech artist and has
often spoken for eurythmy. Katherine joined the Society in 1976 and is
a member of the First Class for the
School of Spiritual Science. Her appointment completes the planned
Leadership Team for the Society.
Carla Beebe Comey, member at large of the ASA General
Council and Secretary, writes:
“As we look towards the future, the Council is cognizant that we need professional individuals with the capacities and skills to serve our mission to support the development, communication, and practice of anthroposophy in the
United States. It is in this light that we have restructured
the two positions of Administrative Director and Director of Finance, into Director of Operations and Director
of Programs and Services. We would like to thank John
Price for his years of service to the Society in his role as
Director of Finance and welcome Katherine Thivierge as
the Director of Operations. She will take on the administrative and financial duties of the Society. Marian Leon,
in her new role as Director of Programs and Services, will
now focus fully on programming and services for members. Marian and Katherine join Deb Abrahams-Dematte
Director of Development. The Council is confident that
this capable Leadership Team will support the growth of
the Society in serving the current and future membership by providing the earthly forms and events in which
we may find each other in the Spirit of Michael. But we
are truly passing through the eye of the needle and it is
time for all who hold in their hearts the importance of
this earthly organization, founded by Rudolf Steiner, to
come together as an association of people whose will it is to
nurture the life of the soul, both in the individual and in human society, on the basis of a true knowledge of the spiritual
world.”
Inner and Outer
Journeys
by Deb Abrahams-Dematte
A favorite part of being development director for the
Anthroposophical Society is getting to know people and
learning about the work and study they are doing. On several recent trips I’ve met with and heard from members
and talked about the work of the Society. At dinner with
Cordelia Lane, a long time member and part of the Michael Support Circle, I asked her why she gives. She replied,
“I give because I love anthroposophy, and I believe
that it’s important for the Anthroposophical Society
to have a strong and clear presence in the world.”
Cordelia’s gesture of love and generosity echoes among
our members around the country.
• 57
I recently traveled to Vermont and Maine with my
dear friend and colleague Helen-Ann Ireland of the New
Hampshire group, to hear thoughts and ideas related to
the transition of the Eastern Regional Council. Unsurprisingly, I learned so much more! On a Friday evening
at the new Lake Champlain Waldorf School High School
building in Vermont, we gathered with members of the
local branch, the Social Science Section, and a local foundation studies group. People shared accounts of growing
insight and transformational development, as well as stories of practical and essential action in the wider world.
And for me, that’s the essence of what anthroposophy has to bring, and why it’s so important that we work
together to bring the insights of Rudolf Steiner’s work to
broader awareness and impact in this country. How can we
weave together the rich perceptions and thoughtful actions
of our members and friends in an effective and sustainable
way? How can we become part of larger societal discussions
and choices that affect us all? This is the purpose of our
“Campaign for Anthroposophy in America”: to support the
work of the Society and the movement in a broad-based
and compelling way, in service to a healthy future.
Soon after the Vermont trip, we ventured out again to
northern Maine. We were welcomed by Jennifer Greene,
who brought us into her water lab and demonstrated some
of the research she conducts. Her
experiments were both fascinating and beautiful. We were also
grateful to be able to study and
converse with the well-established
Prokofiev study group in Camden.
As we headed home, we stopped
and wandered the gardens at Avena Botanicals, a biodynamic farm
and apothecary, and met herbalist/
Water researcher Jennifer Greene
teacher Deb Soule. All in all, a rich
experience of the presence and promise of anthroposophy
in so many different ways.
That night at dinner with Cordelia, she told me
of the inspiring projects she’s involved in, including
her long-time connection to biodynamic agriculture. I
thanked her for her support of the work of the Society,
and shared the challenges of high aspirations and limited
resources. We talked about the importance of membership and giving, and when I asked her advice, she said,
“I am sure there are many others who also love anthroposophy or who would love it if they learned about it.”
58 •
being human
It is our task, and our pleasure, to reach out with a
warm welcome to those who love anthroposophy, and
also to those who would love it if they knew more. Our
development efforts are focused on creating sustainability
for the Society so that we may effectively do our tasks and
fulfill our mission.
In order to do this, we need your help in several ways!
Please be sure to keep your membership up to date, and
give generously at the level that makes sense for you. Let
us know your ideas, your thoughts, your priorities. And
invite your friends to join us! Together we do something
that Rudolf Steiner tells us we can only do together: building the earthly sheath of human community which allows
anthroposophy to become a powerful social impulse.
Spring Appeal! Many thanks to all who made gifts
to our 2015 Spring Appeal. We received over 220 gifts,
totaling nearly $30,000. We are truly grateful! Your
support is essential in making it possible to increase the
impact of our efforts on behalf of and humanity’s future.
Thank you for joining us in this important work.
Celebrating a Great
Contribution
I had the privilege of being in Chattanooga, Tennessee recently to attend an Anthroposophical Society-sponsored celebration for Maria St. Goar and her
enormous contribution to
anthroposophical
study
and understanding. Maria
has translated into English
more than fifty works by
anthroposophical writers,
including Rudolf Steiner’s
The Inner Nature of Music
and the Experience of Tone
and The Origins of Natural
Science. Her thoughtful and
knowledgeable translations Maria St. Goar
of Sergei Prokofieff’s books over the past ten years include Anthroposophy and the Philosophy of Freedom and
The Foundation Stone Meditation.
The event was well-supported by local group leader
Katherine Jenkins and Class Holder Edward St. Goar,
Maria’s son. More than fifty people from all over gathered in a festive mood to honor Maria. A Bach Partita
performed by violinist Isabel Bartles introduced a warm
welcome from Marian León, Director of Programs for the Society. Messages included a lovely greeting from Virginia Sease on behalf of the Executive Council
at the Goetheanum and congratulations from Torin Finser, US General Secretary. Fred Amrine, who presented two lectures as part of this day of celebration,
started off by speaking about the art and artistry of translation and how important and challenging it is to do this successfully. He characterized Maria’s work
as a service to the anthroposophical movement, a creative endeavor, and an act
of selflessness. Gratitude and appreciation were the major themes of the day. I
feel honored to have met Maria and want to relate the sense of the radiance,
warmth, wisdom, and insight that she so freely shares with those around her.
The next day, Marian and Director of Research and Library Services Maurice York and I sat with Maria and her son Edward to hear wonderful stories
of her adventurous life and connection to anthroposophy. This recorded interview will be included in the Rudolf Steiner Library’s Oral History Project, with
the long term goal of collecting insights and stories of elders in our movement
to share with future generations. Events like this celebration for Maria St. Goar
do much to bring the inspiration and knowledge of anthroposophy into the
present and future.
Deb Abrahams-Dematte (deb@anthroposophy.org) is Director of Development for the Anthroposophical Society in America
Social Event of the
Central Region Season
by Margaret Runyon, (Maid of Honor)
As a long-time member of the Society’s Central Regional Council, Marianne Fieber was honored along with her husband, Joseph Dhara, by CRC colleagues past, present, and future. Pretty fabulous! The Fieber-Dhara nuptials
were celebrated in Viroqua, Wisconsin, on June 13th. An unseasonably chilly
mist did not
dampen the spirits
of more than
200 guests in the
Wooded Acre,
half a block from
the happy couple’s
home. Exuberant
flowers framed the
clearing, while cello
and guitars accompanying a choir of
more than a dozen
voices filled nature’s
own “cathedral”
Pictured from left: Alberto Loya, Lori Barian, Margaret Runyon, Dennis Dietzel, Joseph Dhara the
groom, Marianne Fieber the bride, Hazel Archer Ginsburg, Mary Louise Hershberger, Robert Karp,
with deeply moving
and Raven Garland, who will be coming onto the CRC as Mary Louise Hershberger is leaving. Raven
is a poet who has lived in Iowa for several years and has led eurythmy at several CRC events.
and joyous music.
Phyllis Eleanor Phillips
Published in The Tennessean on
Apr. 10, 2014.
Phyllis Eleanor
Phillips, age 80, a
longtime Nashville
resident, died April
1, 2014 in Portland,
Oregon. Phyllis was
born in Oxford, Mis- Phyllis Phillips
sissippi on August 6, 1933 to Faye and
Phil “Moon” Mullen. Her grandfather
owned and her father edited the local
newspaper, the Oxford Eagle. She graduated from the University of Mississippi at the age of 19 and married musician, John F. “Del” Sawyer, with whom
she had four children, later divorcing.
After years as a stay-at-home
mother, Phyllis became a real estate
agent in Nashville, eventually building her own successful brokerage company, Phyllis Phillips Realtors. Phyllis
founded the Nashville Steiner Group
in the late 1980’s, working to bring
anthroposophic philosophy to the city.
She initiated the Nashville Waldorf Association, which provided the foundation for growth of the Linden Waldorf
School. Through over thirty years of
weekly study groups, workshops and
retreats, Phyllis inspired many toward
deepening their own spiritual work.
At age sixty-five, Phyllis obtained
her Masters in Counseling from Tennessee State University. She went on to work
for Centerstone, a nonprofit communitybased behavioral health provider, helping
families and children in crisis.
Phyllis is survived by her husband
of 36 years, Dr. Leslie Phillips, 98,
her four children, Cameron Sawyer of
Moscow, Russia, John Phillip Sawyer
of Easton, MD, Katy Wieland of Jacksonville, FL and Scholle McFarland of
Portland, OR, her two stepsons, David Phillips of Chicago, IL and Ken
• 59
Members Who Have Died
Nydia Delgado Abney, Solana Beach, CA;
died 06/05/2015
Joan W. Allen, Kimberton, PA; died 08/03/2015
Christine Bender, Glenmoore, PA; died 05/16/2015
William Bento, Rancho Cordova, CA; died 06/05/2015
Aurelia Buzatu, Austin, TX; died 06/06/2015
Terese Gostomski, Detroit, MI; died 12/25/2014
Bonnie Green, San Diego, CA; died 05/05/2015
Julian Howard, Pinole, CA; died 05/22/2015
G. Frank Kohler, Granada hills, CA; died 04/03/2015
Ursula H. Lehnhardt, Ghent, NY; died 12/30/2014
Tamara Lewis, Sacramento, CA; died 06/26/2015
Santina V. Margucci, Agoura hills, CA; died 04/12/2015
Daniel Marshall, New York, NY; died 04/03/2014
Bess Neild, Severna park, MD; died 07/08/2014
Ralph Neuman, Ashland, OR; died 04/13/2015
Yuko Okada, Carmichael, CA; died 02/04/2014
Betty Ann Patsenka, Shelton, CT; died 05/24/2015
Phyllis Sawyer Phillips, Gallatin, TN; died 04/01/2014
Ursel Pietzner, Glenmoore, PA; died 07/28/2015
Emil Ravetto, Yorktown heights, NY; died 01/20/2015
Mary Schiller, Santa Barbara, CA; died 06/14/2015
Albert F. Siegfried, Wilmington, DE; died 01/06/2014
Gabriele Van Geloven, South Lyon, MI; died 07/25/2014
Gerda Von Jeetze, Chatham, NY; died 07/17/2015
Philip Wharton, Novato, CA; died 02/14/2015
Peggy Winchell, Fair oaks, CA; died 07/26/2015
Ruth Zinniker, Elkhorn, WI; died 07/16/2014
New Members of the Anthroposophical Society in America,
recorded 3/2/2015 to 8/17/2015
Christiana Acree, Phoenixville, PA
Heike Adamsberger-Kosta,
Santa Monica, CA
Leila Alemi, Ann Arbor, MI
Peter Allen, Viola, WI
Jazmin Aminian, Meadow Vista, CA
Brandy Arena, Austin, TX
Summer Dawn Arnett, Portland, OR
Katelynn Benvenuti, Oakland, CA
Kathy Bull, Atlantic Beach, FL
John Richard Chamberlain,
Los Angeles, CA
Michael L Chernick, Los Angeles, CA
Kelly Childs, Saint Louis, MO
Michelle Davies-Smith, Maplewood, MO
Catalina De Luna Garza, Decatur, GA
Regine Detremmerie-Carr, Chelmsford, MA
Carrie Zarka Dooley, Atlantic Beach, FL
Suzanne Drinen, Anchorage, AK
Jose J Esparza, Sacramento, CA
Daniel I Evaeus, Los Angeles, CA
Marguerite Evans, Cleveland, TN
Sabrina Ford, Louisville, KY
Aaron French, Tucson, AZ
Veronica French, Tucson, AZ
Dan Gannon, West Sacramento, CA
Melanie A Gisler-Scharff, Los Angeles, CA
Fiona S Handschin, Atlanta, GA
60 •
being human
Mary Kate Hannan, Madison, WI
Oana Antonela Havris, Portland, OR
Karen Hite, Royersford, PA
Mark Hite, Royersford, PA
Elisabeth Clark Holwech,
East Pepperell, MA
Amy Inglis, Wilton, NH
Ian Johnson, New Orleans, LA
Elena Karoulina, Vallejo, CA
Kevin Kless, Gainesville, FL
Chelaine Kokos, Louisville, CO
Lori Kulik, Lincolnwood, IL
Ana Marcela Lopez Lara, Madison, WI
Stewart K Lundy, Accomac, VA
Elizabeth A Lunt, Camden, ME
Mehdi Madani, Vancouver, WA
Aveah Malesza Brock, Richmond, CA
Dena Malon, New York, NY
Catherine Massey, Gold River, CA
Alexandre Mbassi, Santa Fe, NM
Laurie McCloskey, Corvallis, OR
Chloe McKenna, Seattle, WA
William Murphy, Tyngsboro, MA
Nancy Myers, Santa Barbara, CA
Brett York Neumeister, Cambridge, MA
Jill Ogard, Encinitas, CA
Sandra Owen, Snohomish, WA
Sara Parrilli, West Stockbridge, MA
Lee E Pearson, Milwaukie, OR
Sigrid Penrod, Soap Lake, WA
Miguel Perez-Gibson, Olympia, WA
Stan Posey, Tucson, AZ
Sandra Rayne, Terrace Park, OH
Matthew Richter, West Kingston, RI
Joe Robertson, New York, NY
Liliana Sophia Rollinson, Hadley, MA
Susanna Sahakian, Glendale, CA
Karl Schlottig, Hermosa Beach, CA
Dana Larson Sher, Boulder, CO
Stephanie Skinner, Meadow Vista, CA
Virginia Smith, Calgary, AB
Richard M Snodgrass, Lucerne, CA
Margaret Squire, Beverly, MA
Valerie St. John, Cambridge, MA
Jennifer A Stickley, Beaverton, OR
Ayn Cates Sullivan, Santa Barbara, CA
Nancy M Swan, East Missoula, MT
Roy Chirinda Tau, Copake, NY
Edward Tazer-Myers, Santa Barbara, CA
Jan Upton, Redwood Valley, CA
Lon Van Geloven, South Lyon, MI
Robin Van Riper, Bethel, CT
Shahada S Vianzon, Sylmar, CA
Susan T Viets, Marblehead, MA
Cherie Wendelken, Portland, ME
Miguel Yi Sandino, Santa Fe, NM
Phillips, of Mt. Juliet, as well as by her
grandchildren, Joshua and Nicholas
Wieland of Jacksonville, FL, Graham
and Kate McFarland of Portland, OR,
Daniel Sawyer of Moscow, Russia,
Jessica Rodocker of Knoxville, Erin
Hughes of Nashville, and Michael and
Kieran Welsh Phillips of Chicago.
Theodore van Vliet
February 9, 1918 – October 3, 2014
by Virginia Sease
Goetheanum Executive Council
For seventeen years it was possible (especially for members from
English-speaking lands) to encounter
Theodore van Vliet when they came
to the Goetheanum. Until the end
of the 1990s there was an “English
week” parallel to the large conferences
around productions of Rudolf Steiner’s
Mystery dramas or Johann Wolfgang
von Goethe’s Faust. Since
Theodore van Vliet had
been well educated musically, linguistically, and
anthroposophically, he was
frequently involved in preparing the “English week”
and often held lectures in
English at them.
Ted van Vliet
Chicago, London, New York.
Theodore van Vliet was born in a suburb of Chicago. His father was an engineer and inventor; his mother came
from a farm family. He grew up with
two brothers and a sister. His ancestors
were early Dutch and English immigrants. His older brother brought him
into contact with anthroposophy, and
Theodore van Vliet made the effort to
work through Rudolf Steiner’s Goethe’s
Theory of Knowledge with his elementary knowledge of German.
When the United States entered
World War II, Theodore van Vliet was
trained as a meteorologist and sent to
England. In 1943, before his depar-
ture, he joined the Anthroposophical Society in America. In London
he sought a connection with the local
Anthroposophical Society and met his
first wife (eurythmist Elizabeth Raab)
at the Raab family home. After the war
she founded a studio for eurythmy and
speech formation in New York. Thanks
to his studies of art, music, and speech,
Theodore van Vliet also taught there.
Newsletter. With George and
Gisela O’Neil he led the anthroposophical branch in New York. Under General Secretary Dietrich von Asten he
became a member of the Council of the
Anthroposophical Society in America.
During this time Theodore van Vliet
was involved in a newsletter that reported on the work and activities of the
branch. For several years it was circulated among the members in America.
Elizabeth’s illness brought the
couple back to Switzerland
(where she died in 1970).
Theodore trained as a Waldorf teacher and that was
how he met Erika Schwarz
and her young daughter.
After several years of activity in Spring Valley, New
York, the small family returned to Europe and settled near the
border with Switzerland.
One of the things that can be a
great help for anthroposophy is someone who is a member of the General
Anthroposophical Society and is willing to take up an initiative—even if
the founder of the initiative is no longer able to carry on with it. This point
has a close relationship to the esoteric
principle of continuity in the realm of
intentionality.
A request by Friedrich Hiebel
(Goetheanum Executive Council member) to become editor of News from the
Goetheanum (an editorship that fell vacant in 1976) was a happy coincidence
because this completely matched Theodore van Vliet’s capacities and interests.
Dora Baker had been editor since 1933.
Theodore van Vliet was free to give the
publication a new form and content.
Henceforth it was called What is happening in the Anthroposophical Society?
and contained translated Section reports, conference reports, reports on
issues, exchanges with the periphery,
etc. The layout (still without computer),
dealings with the printer, and occasional trips to meetings in Europe made it a
one-man business.
Literary Activity. In his last years
(and after 17 years with News from the
Goetheanum) he worked in literature:
an English translation of Christian
Morgenstern’s Einkehr, his own poetry
and reflections on the meaning of poetry in human history. Increasing blindness was a serious hindrance—as was a
serious cardiac condition he bore without mechanical help so as not to lose the
cosmic rhythm in his heart. Nonetheless Theodore van Vliet remained inwardly creative, awake, and interested.
In the past twelve years he lived in seclusion with his wife in a small town in
the southern Black Forest.
Prayer At Evening Bells
Admiring Beauty,
Protecting Truth,
Honoring Nobleness,
Deciding on Goodness:
Will lead us humans
To aims in life,
To dealing with honor,
To feeling at peace,
To thinking in clarity;
And teach us to trust
In divine Will
In all that exists
In the Cosmic World,
In the Depth of Soul.
—Rudolf Steiner, translated by
Marianne H. Luedeking
• 61
Aurelia Buzato
September 22, 1932—June 6, 2015
Aurelia Moldovan was born
in Miraslau, a tiny village in
Transylvania, Romania. While
her mother was working in Bucharest to raise money for the family,
she grew up in the care of her grandmother, Baca, whom she loved enormously and who was a most important
and formative influence. They lived
in a one room home with no power or
running water, with dirt floors and a
wood-burning stove, yet despite the
poverty, there was never a shortage of
love from Baca during her childhood.
She later moved to Bucharest with her
mother where she graduated from high
school in 1950.
She obtained her master’s degree
in Romanian language and literature
in 1958 from the University of CJ Parhon in Bucharest. After graduation she
taught for one year in a small village
near Timisoara, moving in 1960 to Techirghiol, another small town on the
opposite side of the country, near the
Black Sea, where she taught literature
and French to middle-school and highschool children and was for a few years
the school’s principal. Aurelia loved her
job. The poems, novels and short stories she chose to focus on, and the ways
she guided her classes through their interpretation, awakened students to her
compassionate perspective on life and
the idea that the human experience is
a lesson whose challenges, be they positive or seemingly negative, coach us toward our better selves. Her views on life
were deeply influenced by the classics
she knew well and by anthroposophy,
of which she was a life-long student.
Aurelia met Serban, a teacher in the
same school, and they married in 1965.
Together they had two boys: Christian,
born in early 1966, and Daniel, born in
62 •
being human
late 1967. Aurelia and Serban
were married for fifty years. In
1981, the family immigrated to
the United States. Aurelia was
torn between seeking a better
life for her family and abandoning a job she loved and the
students she cared about so much. The
family moved to Houston, Texas at the
end of 1981, through the generous help
of Bill and Edna Evans, who both sponsored the Buzatus and adopted them
into their extended family.
The next thirty-four years would be
a significantly different experience from
what had come before. Amelia held a
number of menial and difficult positions, but discovered a new world with
an open and generous spirit with which
she powerfully resonated. Although no
longer a teacher formally, she continued
to inspire, not imposing or demanding,
yet setting a powerful example.
Aurelia had a childlike
spirit and could find joy and
beauty in the smallest things.
She loved nature and all animals and would talk to a bird
or a dog, a flower or a tree and
wish them a nice day. Always joking,
smiling and laughing at life, Aurelia was
outgoing and genuine and had a gift of
connecting with everyone: a cashier at
Wheatsville Coop, one of her students, a
next door neighbor, a fellow dog-walker.
It was impossible not to be touched in a
positive way by her presence.
“If we do not believe within
ourselves this deeply rooted feeling
that there is something higher
than ourselves, we shall never find
the strength to evolve into something higher.” — Rudolf Steiner
Every evening Eya meditated using
the weekly verses from Rudolf Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul. For June 2–8:
Forgetful of my will’s intent,
The full warmth of the world at
summer’s door
Pervades my spirit and my soul
Spirit vision beckons me
To lose myself in light;
An inner prompting speaks to me,
‘Now lose yourself to find yourself.’
Words by Stephen Usher at the
Funeral of Aurelia, June 12, 2015
We know from Rudolf Steiner’s
clairvoyant research that the moment
of death and the three-and-a-half days
following, the period of the traditional
wake, is a period of heightened consciousness. The soul sees a picture of her
whole life spread before her, a great life
tableau. The near death literature confirms this. During this time the life picture expands as if it were on the surface
of a huge balloon. It grows larger and
fainter until it vanishes out of sight. In
Steiner’s terms the soul sheds its etheric
body, which gives us life. After
putting aside the etheric body,
the soul and spirit continue
their journey in the “astral
body” and ego.
The funeral comes shortly
after the three-and-a-half days
in most traditions. It is a kind of sad
party where those left behind bid farewell to the earthly life that is past, but
on the other side a happy party of welcoming takes place. At this party all
her friends who have pre-deceased her
greet the soul. Not only earthly souls
of the dead but also higher spiritual
beings—angels, archangels, archai—
also greet her. Having her return to her
spiritual home is a cause of great joy on
yonder side of the threshold of death.
The sad party and the happy party reinforce each other. Our sad celebration
helps intensify the happy one on the
other side. The two realities are mysteriously linked. So as we feel our sorrow we can also glimpse the great joy
on yonder side. When each of us makes
our crossing we will see Aurelia there to
welcome us.
In the course of the funeral the
soul is led a) from the visible into the
invisible world; b) into the world of
spiritual existence; c) and into the
heights of spiritual realms. It would be
too much to attempt a description of
the great journey of the soul between
death and rebirth traced by Rudolf
Steiner in his many works, but a little
can be given. For this we need to imagine not the Copernican worldview but
the Ptolemaic one with the earth in the
center and the planets circling. Steiner
says that this picture is the true one
for the astral space in which the soul
journeys. The soul first expands into
the sphere circumscribed by the moon,
and this part of the journey is known
as purgatory in Christian tradition and
Kamaloka in the Oriental one. It lasts
about the time a person slept during
earthly life. Here the soul is weaned
of all desires that can only be satisfied
with a physical body, e.g., the gourmet
no longer has a palate so his desire for
tasty dishes cannot be satisfied.
The soul journey continues, expanding into spheres circumscribed by
Mercury, Venus, and the Sun. It is none
other than the great Christ Being who
guides the soul to the Spiritual Sun.
Steiner describes remarkable spiritual
experiences to be had in each of these
regions. There follows the expansion
of the spirit of the soul into the spheres
of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the fixed
stars. The outward journey from death
takes on average about 500 years. It is
followed by a return journey—to a new
incarnation—of about 500 years. Thus
the soul reincarnates on average about
twice as the sun progresses through a
sign of the zodiac over 2160 years, leaving time for two eighty-year earth lives.
Let me now describe, for the benefit of Aurelia, an important aspect of
the afterlife. During earthly life the
center of our existence is our physical
body. Rudolf Steiner explains that it
allows us to have our individual consciousness. When we sleep we leave our
physical and etheric body and live in
our astral body and ego. During this
time we tend to merge or weave into
one another. Steiner even uses the expression “primordial jelly” to designate
how our identities are at risk of merging
into all others so that we cannot even
tell which feelings or thoughts are our
own and which belong to other beings.
Because during sleep we retain a longing for our physical body we do not
entirely lose our identity during sleep.
But when we die we separate from our
physical body and after three-and-ahalf days from our etheric body.
What then allows us to retain our
identity? Steiner answers this way. Each
soul is uniquely linked to her star or
rather starry structure. This structure
is a unique set of angels and archangels numbering perhaps a thousand or
more such beings. If you took one of
those angels out of the starry structure
and replaced it with a different angel
then you would have a starry structure
of another person close to the one in
question. So Aurelia will now work at
recognizing her star, the unique set of
higher beings that allows her to have
her special individuality in the afterlife.
It is important for us who remain
behind to understand that Aurelia is
not really gone. Rather she is among
us but in a different form. The key
to communicating with her is to understand this: she can see thoughts of
a spiritual nature and pictures of her
own biography that are reflected in the
minds of her loved ones on earth when
they recollect her. Steiner states that for
the loved one these recollections are experienced as art in yonder world!
Thoughts of a material nature, on
the other hand, are not visible to those
on the other side, so anthroposophists
like to spend time reading to the dead,
particularly Steiner’s lectures about the
life after death. In doing this one pictures the friend on the other side vividly
and then begins to read, either out loud
or clearly sub-vocalizing the words.
The deceased can also send ideas
to us. These ideas pop into our consciousness and for the most part we
never ask from whence they came. Rudolf Steiner even tells that we can ask
questions of our dead. We do this by
imagining before we go to sleep that
our deceased friend is asking us the
question we wish to put to her; i.e.,
we create a vivid picture of her standing before us and asking us the question we wish to ask. We should try to
fall asleep with the question. Then as
we awaken we should pay attention to
our thoughts. If we have completed the
link we will notice thoughts entering
our mind, the answer of our deceased
friend. If we are particularly successful,
we may even see an image of ourselves
answering the question; i.e., the answer
appears to come from our own lips, but
it really comes from her. This inversion
contains an important secret about the
nature of life after death.
Let this presentation conclude
with a verse by Rudolf Steiner that is
recited at the funerals and memorials of
many students of Rudolf Steiner:
Angels, Archangels and Archai
In the Ether weaving,
Receive Aurelia’s web of Destiny
In Exusiai, Dynamis, and Kyriotetes,
In the astral feeling of the Cosmos,
The just consequences of the earthly life
of Aurelia die into the realm of Being.
In Thrones and Cherubim and Seraphim, as Their Deeds of Being,
The justly transmuted fruits of the
earthly life of Aurelia are resurrected.
• 63
ENGAGE!
Meeting the Events of Our Time
2015 Fall Conference and members’ meeting
October 9 – 11
Masonic Temple,
Webster Groves
12 E. Lockwood St.
Webster Groves, MO
We invite you to join us over Columbus Day weekend as we gather in St. Louis, MO – in the heartland of America, the Gateway
to the West, on the banks of the Mississippi River. Drawing on the theme of the year, “The I Knows Itself ” - in the light of
Michaelic World Affirmation and World Connection, this year’s program will offer vignettes on how anthroposophy in the United
States is meeting homelessness, addiction, isolation, urban violence, genetic engineering and many other challenges confronting
our society today. Through our inner work and personal initiative, anthroposophy is making an impact in the world. As a group of
striving individuals, how might we “see” one another — “hear” the longings in each or our hearts and bring healing to these
troubled times? Throughout the conference, we’ll be building a picture of engagement through hearing about the unique initiatives
of individual anthroposophists, and by meeting directly with one another through eurythmy, speech and biography work. We will
warm our soul life and practice new ways of meeting in community. Can we help one another find our way in anthroposophy, and
together create the space within the Society to welcome everyone working within the anthroposophical movement?
Friday • October 9
2:00 pm
10:00 am - 12:00 pm Gathering for group and branch representatives
Working on the Theme of the Year
3:30 pm
Break
2:30 pm – 7:00 pm
4:00 pm
Vignettes and Panel Discussion
Meeting the Events of Our Time 3
6:00 pm
Dinner
8:00 pm
Performance: Eurythmy and Speech
9:20 pm
Poetry and Storytelling
Registration
3:00 pm – 5:00 pm What is the full picture of the School for
Spiritual Science and Its Impulse?
For members of the School for Spiritual Science, blue cards
required
3:30 pm – 5:00 pm Anthroposophy in your Life
A conversation about membership in the Anthroposophical
Society, the School for Spiritual Science, and the cultivation
of anthroposophy in our communities
5:30 – 6:45 pm
Reception
7:00 pm
Welcome and Opening Remarks
9:20 pm
Poetry and Storytelling
Saturday • October 10
8:30 am
Welcome, announcements
Speech to start the day
9:00 am
10:30 am
Break
11:00 am
Biography in Dyads
12:30 pm
Lunch
Artwork by Sophie Bourguignon-Takada; Week 33 from the Calendar of the Soul
Practicing the Social Arts:
“Standing in the Fire” and “Listening Bowls”
Sunday • October 11
8:30 am
Announcements; Speech to start the day
9:00 am
Conversation
As individuals associated with the Anthroposophical
Society, how does our striving to transform the
events of our time help us build a vessel for the
Being of Anthroposophy?
10:15 am
Break
10:45 am
Introduction of the General Council and
Society reports
12:45 pm
Foundation Stone Meditation
1:00 pm
Conclusion
To register online visit

fall issue is here - Anthroposophical Society in America

Transcription

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