Anthoposophy Worldwide 1999 (8)

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Anthroposophy and Politics

People from 17 nations collaborated to build theGoetheanum during the first world war, including severalfrom both sides of the conflict. Though it was often difficultto master their patriotic emotions for the benefit of servinganthroposophy and humanity, they managed. Indeed, asarticle 4 of the Statutes of the General AnthroposophicalSociety states, party politics are not considered to be part ofits task. Anthroposophy is not about separation, it is aboutassociation.

How does anthroposophy relate to a conflict such as therecent NATO war against Yugoslavia? Since anthroposophyitself does not relate to war, one must rephrase the question:How do human beings relate to it in the spirit of anthropos-ophy? The members of the Anthroposophical Societybelong to many nations, and their feelings are influenced bytheir nationalities. They need not give this up any moretoday than did the Germans and British during the worldwar, who were able to work together as anthroposophists inthe service of humanity during the same years that they hadto fight each other as citizens of particular nations.

The same holds true for a conflict like the NATO-Yugoslavian war. From an anthroposophical point of viewthere can be no position for or against one side or the other.Every judgement calls forth an immediate opposite judge-ment; a politically-motivated search for truth is necessarilyone-sided. This is quite different from the kind of character-ization that would serve to uncover Truth. From an anthro-posophical perspective, we interest ourselves in the world,indeed in the whole world. Anthroposophy thus leads usthrough characterizations to intuitions that are healing.

I would like to offer an example of what I consider tobe a healthy way of occupying oneself with a conflict suchas Kosovo. It is Albert Schmelzer’s comment in the Juneissue of this paper, where he mentions an idea that couldcontribute to overcoming conflicts between nationalities:threefolding the social organism. Anything that is healingfor social and international life cannot be good for one per-son and simultaneously bad for the other. Good for the oneis good for the other.

Oskar Borgman-Hansen, Denmark

Nr. 8 • October 1999

Olivera Todorovic –I Have My Goalbefore Me Always

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Pan AmericanConference

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Revision of the Constitutionof the General Anthroposophical SocietyPlanned

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ForumAnthroposophy around the WorldPortraitSigns of the TimesSchool of Spiritual ScienceAnthroposophical SocietyFeature

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1012 Translated from the German

2 Anthroposophy Worldwide 8/1999

Anthroposophy Worldwide“Life in the Anthroposophical Society –Anthroposophy Worldwide” is publishedmonthly. It is distributed by the regionalAnthroposophical Societies – in some casesaugmented with independently edited newsand articles. It also appears as a supplementto the weekly paper “Das Goetheanum”.

Publisher:General Anthroposophical Society, repre-sented by Paul Mackay

Editors:Carol Brousseau (responsible for the Eng-lish-Language Edition), Sebastian Jüngel,Dietrich Rapp, Ursula Remund Fink(responsible for this issue), Michaela Spaar,Stephan Stockmar, Justus Wittich

Correspondents:Jürgen Vater (Sweden)Marianne Møller-Nielsen (Denmark)Andrew Wolpert (Great Britain)

We expressly wish for active support andcollaboration. The process of building a teamof editors and correspondents has not yetbeen completed.

To receive Anthroposophy Worldwide,please apply to the Anthroposophical Societyin your country. If questions with the distri-bution arise, only the subscribers to “DasGoetheanum” should contact the addressbelow. For all others the address is theaddress of the Anthroposophical Society inyour country.

Address: Weekly Paper “Das Goetheanum”,Box, CH–4143 Dornach 1, Switzerland, fax +41/61/706 44 65 e-mail: [email protected]

© Copyright 1999 General AnthroposophicalSociety, Dornach, Switzerland

Printing by J.W. Arrowsmith Ltd. Bristol

Forum

Should the collected works of RudolfSteiner be made available on CD sothat they can be accessed by comput-er at home? This question is current-ly being considered by the Caretak-ers of Rudolf Steiner’s Estate, whileothers have already begun the workof making his works electronicallyaccessible (in German). This raisesquestions such as: What kind of con-sciousness would be fostered by thisform of the collected works? InTheosophy, Rudolf Steiner writes:“This cannot be read as books areusually read in our time.” I remem-bered this sentence only vaguely, butbecause I have the text of Theosophyin my computer for test purposes, Iwas able to find the quote immedi-ately, based on the words “cannot beread.” However, this demonstratesthe problematic nature of quickresearch as opposed to in-depth read-ing in context. When the search is soeasy (with the CD one can locate vir-tually any phrase of the collected

Rudolf Steiner’s Complete Works on CD?

works) Rudolf Steiner’s workbecomes a boundless quotation quar-ry in which anyone can cut thestones they want, to build any build-ing.

This is not new in principle. Wealready have reference books (such asEmil Mötteli’s) that allow for this,albeit with more effort. However, notonly anthroposophists would be ableto use such a CD. Recently, for exam-ple, quotations by Rudolf Steinerwere published in a non-anthropo-sophical magazine in such a way as togive the impression that Rudolf Stein-er was antisemitic. Until now, one hadto read a lot of material to be able towrite such an article. With a CD, itcan be written immediately. There arealso other themes that could be usedto discredit Steiner today.

Also, does not a CD encourage amerely intellectual grasp of spiritualscience, thereby contradicting anykind of meditative study? Yes, thiskind of access to the Complete Edi-

tion will doubtless encouragedetached intellectual thinking, but itis also possible that the ideas willunexpectedly startle the intellect outof its lethargy. Initial contact withspiritual science is usually undertakenby the (as yet) unenlivened mind, inany case.

In any event, the question is nolonger whether the Complete Editionshould appear on CD or not, becausepreliminary versions of it are alreadyin circulation. The rights to the lec-tures and to the form of publicationstill rest with the Caretakers of RudolfSteiner’s Estate in Dornach, and theyare currently grappling with the tech-nical and moral questions involved.The complete works will appear inelectronic form, the only question iswho will do it and how.

If CDs can help Rudolf Steiner’swork reach the public, and help indi-vidual anthroposophists in their stud-ies, then the dangers of a quotationquarry will probably be worth therisk. Only the future will tell.

Andreas Heertsch, Switzerland

Soul Calendar in SpanishCoordination of Translations

Response to “Few Members Are under30,” in Anthroposophy Worldwide,Nr. 7/1999

An “authoritative atmosphere” isprobably seldom a reason for notwanting to be part of the Anthropo-sophical Society. Usually the youngpeople are the ones who take decisiveaction to prevent authoritarian“atmospheres.”

New young mem-bers of the Anthropo-sophical Society couldcome from Waldorfschools, if the schoolswould not merely basetheir teaching on anthro-posophy but also teachmore anthroposophyitself.

It is still true, ofcourse (as Rudolf Stein-er said), that Waldorfschools do not exist toproduce anthroposophists, but ratherto raise independent human beings.But a well-founded knowledge ofanthroposophy would help to servethis end. It would allow the indepen-dent young people to arrive at astandpoint from which they coulddecide whether to join the Anthro-posophical Society, or not.

Peter Völkner, Germany

Toni Zenker arrived at the Pan Amer-ican Conference with a Spanish trans-lation of Rudolf Steiner’s Calendar ofthe Soul fresh off the press. Translatedby Miriam Schwebsch, Mexico, itcontains color illustrations by IrmaRoldán and Toni Zenker and waspublished by the San Juan de la CruzBranch in Mexico.

Toni Zenker has offered to helpcoordinate translations of anthroposo-phy into Spanish. Perhaps unnecessaryduplications could be avoided and exist-ing translations better shared among theSpanish-speaking countries if translatorsknew of each other’s work. CB

Contact: Toni Zenker, Avenida Revolucion1341–18, Col. Campestre San Angel, MX–01040Mexico DF.

Finding Younger Members

3Anthroposophy Worldwide 8/1999

Anthroposophy around the WorldThe Spiritual Mission of the AmericasPan American Conference in San Diego, U.S.A., July 31–August 6, 1999

question came up: How does Ahri-manic activity express itself today inour culture, in art, and in moderntechnology? Some friends expressedthe feeling that the old Mexican Mys-teries have changed their “appearance”but not their Ahrimanic spirit. Today’sblack magic shows up in strong ego-ism. We might understand the spiritualmission of the Americas to be the taskof helping people understand old “tra-ditions” in a wider context, so thatthey can begin to recognize the ChristBeing in the etheric realm.

Nicanor Perlas (Philippines) lec-tured in his charismatic way about theneed for globalization, threefolding,and spiritualization. He presentedmany facts about modern civilizationand economics. He condemned espe-cially the U.S. trade contracts through

which, in a very subtle way, theworld’s biggest corporations gainmore and more power, renderingentire countries dependent and poor.He portrayed the present situation asalready having apocalyptic dimen-sions. The spiritualization of econom-ic life is most needed, and hardest toaccomplish.

Leading us back to the sacredearth of the Americas, Patricia Kamin-ski (U.S.A.) pointed to the dark mys-teries of modern time exemplified bythe atomic bomb. In many modern

technologies we experience theunleashing of elemental spirits occu-pied by Ahrimanic beings. The ethericChrist has to enter the hearts of humanbeings in order to transform evil.

The final lecture was presented byManfred Schmidt-Brabant (Goethe-anum) on the theme of the Americasin the mystery tradition of humanity.The old mysteries are cosmic organ-isms in time and space that still live ontoday. It is out of these cosmic organ-isms that the new mysteries will needto be shaped. The Americas have asignificant role to play in this.

Other lecturers were FlorencioHerrero (Spain), Jorge Sanz-Cardona(U.S.A.), Denis Schneider (Canada),Els Woutersen (U.S.A.), and ArthurZajonc (U.S.A.). The art program ofthe conference deserves special praise!Also, it needs to be said that every lec-ture, every workshop, and everyannouncement was provided in twolanguages, English and Spanish. Allthe translators did a marvelous job!May this conference be the first ofmany! Uwe Stave, U.S.A.

Excerpts from a report in Aspects, Newsletter ofthe Faust Branch in Fair Oaks.

Virginia Sease (Goetheanum) beganthe series of keynote lectures bydescribing how in earlier times, thepeoples were guided by initiates of theMystery Centers. Several differentspiritual streams originated on theAmerican continent. At the turningpoint of time there occurred signs andevents indicating that a high spiritualbeing had entered the material plane.

In the old Mexican Mysteries,Ahriman, Lucifer and later the Asuraswere actively involved in the ritualactivities of tribes and peoples livingin Central America. A spiritual beingrefered to as Taotl, an Ahrimanicdegeneration of the Great (Atlantean)Spirit, who did not appear in a physi-cal body but in an elemental form,inspired the ritual sacrifice of humanbeings. This was done in such a waythat the victim’s soul would want toavoid returning for another earthlyincarnation. A very great number ofsouls were affected.

Then, in the year one of our cal-endar, a being came into the world inCentral America, born to a virginwho had conceived through a super-sensible power pictured as a featheredbeing. The child of this union was ahigh being from the sun, who incar-nated for the sake of humanity. Hisname was noted phonetically byRudolf Steiner as “Vitzliputzli.” Helived for 33 years as the unknowncontemporary of Christ in the West-ern Hemisphere. – At the same time,out of the Ahrimanic Mysteries, thegreatest black magician who everwalked the Earth came and continuedthe bloody ritual. Many young peopledied. Finally, this “false prophet” wascaptured and nailed to a cross by Vit-zliputzli. This event in Central Amer-ica succeeded in holding back theAhrimanic forces in the fourth andfifth epochs.

Through lively personal presenta-tions by friends familiar with today’sCentral American culture and its his-tory, the conversations during the con-ference opened many new vistas and abetter understanding for all partici-pants. Meeting and conversing withfriends from Latin America was animportant part of the conference. The

During a Curative Education Confer-ence in Ecuador in July, and the PanAmerican Conference in the U.S. abouttwo weeks later, it became clear that theanthroposophical collaboration be-tween North and South America, andindeed within each country, needs to bebetter integrated. For one thing, weneed a better flow of information. As aresult of both conferences, the MicaelBranch in Quito, Ecuador, and EfrénDonoso in particular, were asked tocoordinate the flow of information. It ishoped that the coordinator will be ableto collect and distribute ideas and infor-mation toward a future conference:suggestions, possible dates, venues,themes, etc. are to be made available toanyone who wants to send or receiveinformation.

An impulse was also expressed forthe Goetheanum to join in with thework of the Spanish-speaking worldmore closely, by offering more trans-lations into Spanish there and by con-tributing to conferences in the Span-ish-speaking regions, with the aim ofintensifying the work.

Micael Branch, Ecuador

Contact: Rama Micael, P.O. Box 17-04-10454,Quito, Ecuador, tel./fax 593/2/468421, [email protected] or [email protected]

Ecuadoreans to HelpCoordinate

Efrén Donoso with two editors ofAnthroposophy Worldwide, Sandra Bealsand Carol Brousseau

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The Pan American conference was a landmark meeting attended by about 150people from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Columbia, Czech Republic,Ecuador, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Mexico, Peru, Philippenes,Spain, Switzerland, U.S.A., and Uruguay. A Native American prophecy thatspeaks of a time when the eagle of the North will fly with the condor of the Southaccompanied the conference as a picture of the cosmopolitan Michaelic impulse forthe Americas.


Danish Alternative Bank Opens its Third Branch

Merkur Andelskasse, an alternativebank in Denmark, has just opened athird branch in Arhus, Denmark’s sec-ond largest city. The bank was found-ed in 1982. Its first branches were inNordjütland (Ålborg) and Kopen-hagen. Today it has a total of 20 co-workers. In 1998 the budget was 220million krones.

Merkur has been an actual bankfrom the beginning. Today it looksafter the needs of 5000 customersfrom different sectors of Danish soci-ety. Since most of them are likely tohave daily business, the bank mustemploy a relatively large number ofpeople.

The bank’s customers areinvolved mainly in education (includ-ing social work, curative educationand child care) and agriculture (biody-namic or organic). Denmark is unusu-al in that it has long had an indepen-dent, state-supported school systemwith many different kinds of schools.(Of the 440 independent schools, only

17 are Waldorf schools.) Merkur hascontributed a great deal to the devel-opment of organic agriculture in Den-mark, particularly when the move-ment was still young and investmentswere considered too risky by theestablished banks. Merkur also sent an“Agricultural Memorandum” to thepolitical parties in 1998.

The bank publishes a quarterlymagazine. Sociale penge has a circula-tion of 4000 and includes contribu-tions by their customers and perspec-tives on threefolding.

Merkur has a representative inHamburg and collaborates withTriodos (the Netherlands) and GLSGemeinschaftsbank (Germany). Itmeets several times a year with otheranthroposophically oriented financialinstitutions in Scandinavia (CulturaSparebank, Norway, and Ekobanken,Sweden – see Anthroposophy World-wide, Nr. 2, 1998) to discuss variousprojects and future collaboration.Marianne Møller-Nielsen, Denmark

For once a different start to the schoolyear: the twelfth graders from all ofthe Swedish Waldorf Schools cametogether in Järna for a seminar onquestions of society. “Better a FellowCitizen than a Subject” was the themeof the week-long event. Prominentrepresentatives from Swedish econom-ic, legal and cultural life were alsoinvited – and came.

The initiative had arisen from agroup working with questions ofthreefolding in connection withEkobanken, the recently foundedalternative bank. The group felt thatthreefolding is discussed a lot, but lit-tle is done. They wanted to approachyoung people who have just acquiredthe right to vote.

The idea was to let the youngparticipants plan the week them-selves. Two students from each classwere involved in the planning fromthe start. They helped decide whatwould be done and which speakers toinvite. The end result was a weekwith morning lectures, discussiongroups, workshops, and evening par-ties.

Meeting Decision MakersNearly all of the invited guests wereprominent Swedes. However, the stu-dents were not at all interested in rep-resentatives of the political parties.Instead, the life of rights was repre-sented by the president of theSwedish police and a woman prisonpastor.

The discussion groups received aseries of visitors who were pioneersactive in various anthroposophicfields: art, curative education, Waldorfeducation, economics, etc.

The workshops dealt with themesrelating to money, school reports,future networks for young people,feminism, and practical artistic exer-cises. The most popular was a “work-shop” called “Siesta.” When 160young people meet, the nights canbecome quite short – and people doneed to sleep sometime…

Now a written evluation of theweek is to be sent to the Waldorfschools. Perhaps similar initiatives willfollow. In a small country like Swe-den, that has only ten full-sized Wal-dorf schools, it is not always easy tofind qualified teachers for every singlesubject. Such forms of collaborationmight actually help Waldorf educationto continue here.

Jürgen Vater, Sweden

Denmark

Poland

Koberwitz Palace in New SplendourMemorial Plaque Honors Agriculture Course

When I last visited Koberwitz Palace, it was a ruin, and the grounds had grownwild. This had once been the property of the Count Carl von Keyserlingk family,where Rudolf Steiner held his course for farmers in 1924, for more than 100 peo-ple. When a group from Breslau visited the palace in May 1999, they were sur-prised and delighted to find that everything had been excellently renovated. Aguard eventually understood the interest of the reverent German guests andsecured permission by telephone for them to tour the residence. The renovationhad been undertaken by the Koberwitz municipality – wealthy through the saleof land. Today the palace is used for cultural events and the local administration.Christian von Wistinghausen, who worked as an agricultural advisor in Polandfor many years, arranged for a plaque commemorating the agriculture course tobe placed to the left of the entrance.

The visitors of 1999 were impressed by the etheric wealth in the light andwarmth of the broad Silesian landscape, particularly in the park with its pond fullof reeds and water lilies, and the tall, old trees. It was exactly 75 years since theKoberwitz course! Charlotte Eckloff-Dietz, Germany

Sweden

Questioning SocietyWaldorf Students in Discussionwith Prominent Citizens


European Students Visit IndiaFirst Public Assembly and 4000 Trees

Ind ia

Help and Consideration among Wal-dorf Students.” An audience of 250came, along with reporters for Indiantelevision. A press conference wasarranged.

The following day, the studentsvisited the Sloka Waldorf School andobserved classes in the three kinder-garten groups and grades one andtwo. It was moving to experience theloving, peaceful, and enthusiasticatmosphere that surrounds the hun-dred children of this school. This evencame to expression in the unavoidableIndian school uniform – the childrenin their tri-colored, bright, warm uni-forms radiated joy and great warmth.

On the afternoon of July 29, afirst public assembly was held before300 guests at the Greenpark Hotel.The brand new first graders showed acounting game, the second gradersacted the fable of a fox that outsmarts

For one month (July 7– August 7, 1999) thirty young people aged 15–24 visitedIndia. Most of them were from Switzerland and Southern Germany. They visit-ed the Sloka Waldorf School and the biodynamic Maikaal project, which involvesmore than 1000 farmers, cultivating cotton, soy, chili, and other crops. On July29, 1999 the visitors celebrated a public assembly with the Indian children. Thetrip was organized by the Basel Christian Community.

a rooster. The visiting youth groupsang in chorus, did eurythmy, playedinstruments, and performed dramaticscenes in English. This two-hourevent also drew the interest of thepress and television. The reaction tothe television programs was very pos-itive. We can only hope that Sloka willsoon succeed in financing a largerschool building and that it will be ableto continue to develop as well as it hasso far.

After the encounter with Sloka,the students travelled to Bangalore (toattend the first Christian Communitybaptism in India) and visited templesand palaces in Belur, Halebid, Mysore,Kancheepuram, Mahaballipuram, andMadras.

Susanne Reubke, Germany

Anand Mandaiker, a priest of theChristian Community in Basel,Switzerland, had prepared the youngpeople thoroughly. Wonderful en-counters and rich experiences arosefor them with the farmers and theirfamilies living in the remote areas bythe Narmada River. During the firstthree weeks they were given theopportunity to add their efforts to theMaikaal project. They happily plantedmore than 4000 trees together withschool groups from the region.

A high point of the trip was theencounter with students, teachers,parents, and friends of the Sloka Wal-dorf school in Hyderabad, July 28–30,1999. After a warm welcome, Karl-Julius Reubke (Germany) held a lec-ture on education and elements ofWaldorf education in India. Later, thevisiting students entered into a livelydiscussion on the theme “Mutual

Self Development in PrisonPrisoners Work with Basic Exercises

Fred Janney, a psychologist whoworks with groups of incarceratedmen, has developed a course calledSelf Development in the Penitentiary,which incorporates Steiner’s six basicexercises. In presenting these exercis-es, Janney uses examples from prisonlife so that the men can identify withthe content of the exercises. Whenissues of death and evil arise in theensuing discussions, Janney intro-duces an anthroposophical perspec-tive. This stimulates questions fromthe men, who begin asking for moreinformation about anthroposophy.With generous donations from theGreat Lakes Branch of the Anthro-posophical Society and Anthropo-sophic Press, a study group formedthat continued for over three years.One of the group members took theinitiative to create an official prisonerorganization called Friends of An-throposophy. This official status willenable the group to bring speakersand educators into the prison. TheAnthroposophical Society in Americasupports this initiative.

Louise Hill, U.S.A.

From a report in News for Members, June 1999.A group has committed to explore the possibili-ty of developing a prison outreach program inthe U.S. Contact: Louise Hill, tel. +1/610/827 16 46,e-mail: [email protected]

Argentina. Several curative educationprojects in Argentina were describedin Anthroposophy Worldwide Nr.3/1999. Now ACACIA reports thatthe Basel City Fund for DevelopmentCollaboration has contributed 30,000Swiss Francs to the following projects:Fundación Tobias, Fundación ItaWegman, Fundación La Choza, andFundación La Escondida. It was alsopossible to persuade a Basel printer(Druckerei Linsenmann) to print aSpanish translation of Rudolf Steiner’sCurative Education course free ofcharge. The 1500 copies were given toa publishing house in Madrid (Editor-ial Rudolf Steiner). Sixty of the bookswill be given to the above projects –students who buy it will receive a dis-count – and 2.50 Swiss Francs ofevery book sold will go to theArgentina Fund of ACACIA.

Source: ACACIA-RundblickContact: ACACIA, Fonds für Entwick-lungszusammenarbeit, Eisengasse 5, CH–4051Basel, tel. +41/61/263 35 00, fax 262 15 12, e-mail:[email protected]

World. A series of conferences delib-erately placed on different parts of theplanet aims to help renew civilizationon the basis of a living relationshipwith the Time Spirit, particularly byfostering threefolding initiatives. Thefirst, “Shaping the Future. Elite Glob-alization, Anthroposophy, and theThreefold Social Order,” was held inthe Philippines October 25–30, 1998.Preparations are now underway for aconference in Gothenburg, Sweden(December 29, 1999 – January 3, 2000)on the theme “The AnthroposophicalSociety and its Living Relation to thePresent Social Intention of Michael.”In January/February 2001, the confer-ence will move to Cape Town, SouthAfrica. The current initiators areHåkan Blomberg, Hans Brodal,Alexandra Iván, Hans von Essen(Sweden), Jesaiah Ben Aharon(Israel/U.S.A.), Nicanor Perlas(Philippines), Ralph Shepherd (SouthAfrica), Paul Zachos (U.S.A.).

Contact for the Northern Conference: Anthro-posophical Society, Birkagatan 10C, SE–416 56Gothenburg, fax +46/31/84 69 41, tel. +46/31/21 90 19, e-mail: [email protected]

IN BR I E F

U. S. A.


PortraitI Have My Goal before Me Always

Interview with Olivera Todorovic

tions. Our periodical appears justonce a year, since there is not enoughmoney to publish it more often.

Do you also have larger gatheringsof anthroposophists fromdifferent parts of the country?Not really. I am in contact with peo-ple in Croatia, and with two or threepeople in Slovenia and Bosnia. So farno one has thought of gathering. Per-haps it is becoming more likely now. Iwould like to support the idea ofmeeting regularly. I am disappointedwhen the others do not want to. I amthe only one who has done a trainingoutside of Yugoslavia who came back.All the others just read. This is a littlehard for me. Very few have had anykind of practical anthroposophicaltraining, and those who have do notusually return to the country. Person-ally, I have a very strong connectionto the Goetheanum and the Anthro-posophical Society. Others think thisis unnecessary, they just do not feel it.This disappoints me.

What are your plans?My main interest is education. I havemy goal. Another wish of mine wouldbe to find better rooms for ouranthroposophical cultural center,which we opened in 1994. We alsoneed better translations for ourlibrary. We need more initiativesbesides the ones in Pancevo, Subotica,and Zrenjanin in the Vojvodina. So farthere is no group at all south of Bel-grade. Friends from the surroundingscome into Belgrade for special events.Our problem is to become a Society.We have made several attempts tomeet once a year, to discuss things andmake plans, but it has not reallyworked. I do not know why. I do notthink it is because of lack of interest.

Does it perhaps have something to dowith the Balkans? Is it a reflection ofwhat is happening there politically?Yes, certainly. In addition, there is nostrong sense of responsibility. It is notenough to be responsible for myselfalone. I can share responsibility withothers, but then I need to look at whatthe others are doing, I cannot just dowhat I want. I have to stay in commu-

A simply-clothed, slender, reticent woman arrives at the editors’ office. When I hear that she is from former Yugoslavia, Iseize the opportunity and introduce myself. We quickly make a date to discuss her initiative in Belgrade and the general sit-uation in her country. (See Anthroposophy Worldwide Nr. 4/1999.)

Olivera Todorovic is an educator who works for the public kindergarten system of Belgrade. She studied Waldorfkindergarten teaching in Bern, Switzerland, 1992–1995. In 1995 she founded the Association for Waldorf Educationand Art in Belgrade.

What has been achieved sinceyou founded the Association?After I completed my training inBern in 1995, I intended to continuedoing what I had done before – workfor the public kindergarten system.However, I found that I really wantedto start a Waldorf kindergarten inBelgrade, so I created the Associationwith the help of friends from outsideof Yugoslavia.

Various friends have visited Bel-grade. Dr. Schädel, a pediatrician,came in 1996, bringing medicineswith him, to examine children andgive lectures on childhood illnessesand anthroposophical medicine. JonMcAlice of the Pedagogical Sectioncame with Juriaan Cooiman to give aworkshop which included form-drawing and eurythmy. Our next visi-tor was Heinrich Schneider, a doctorfrom Bern. He lectured to the publicand studied anthroposophy with usprivately. There were usually fifteenor twenty of us. Last February, Dr.Schneider came again. We hadplanned eurythmy classes for April,but then the war started.

In addition to these events,mothers have been meeting regularlyin my apartment to create puppets,celebrate festivals, or go for walks. Iorganize all these things in order tofind parents who would be interestedin Waldorf education. I expectedmany people to be interested, but sofar interest has not grown much. Forthis reason, I began organizing fewerevents, also because of visa problemsand the war. However, I have beenhearing more and more from peoplewho want to visit us. I do not have tosend invitations any more, peoplewant to come.

Why has it not yet been possibleto open a Waldorf kindergarten?We have space problems. I still havenot been able to find a room. I have tobuy one. This is the biggest problem.We have received money from variousfriends and foundations, but a housewith a garden is very expensive.

I share a house with two families.Perhaps I will be able to buy a smalladditional piece of property and starta kindergarten there.

Is there a group of parentsbehind your plan?There are interested parents, but theyare scattered around Belgrade, so theywill not be able to send their childrenif I am outside the center. I will justtake the children whose parents wanta private kindergarten in my part oftown.

How is the anthroposophicalwork progressing?There is a group of about ten peoplewho meet once a week to study booksby Steiner. In Pancevo, a small citynearby, three or four young peoplemeet regularly. (They attended theFaust youth conference at theGoetheanum this year.) There are twoor three other initiatives near Belgradethat are growing slowly.

The difficulties lie elsewhere,however. One can take in a great dealtheoretically, one can know a lot andenjoy the weekly gatherings. Difficult,however, is to apply it to real life.

Is there is a readinessto think about spiritual questionsin spite of every-day worries?Yes. We study anthroposophy. Politi-cal problems and our personal worriesare another matter. Sometimes wecome together and speak first aboutour problems. Then we put themaside and speak of anthroposophy.

There is still hardly anything real-ly practical being done. There is a bio-dynamic farm in Subotica, and wehave various translations and publica-

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the violence, even if one knows exact-ly what is going on. I know I did notwant to think about it.

But I do experience a great deal ofmental violence as an educator. I expe-rience my lack of freedom, for exam-ple, when I want to do something forand with the children and my sugges-tions are not accepted.

How is the violencereflected in the children?They act out what they see on televi-sion. They bring weapons to kinder-garten. Their teachers have often toldme how hard it is to deal with thechildrens’ aggression or restlessness.

How do you seethe situation in your country?Do you have concerns or hopes?Yes, I always have hope. I am opti-mistic. I keep my goal before mealways, and I do not give up.

Did Milosovic sow hateamong the people?It is not so much hate, I think. Hegoaded them. He – or his group (onesenses that he is not alone) – createdthe situation in Bosnia. Bosnia used tobe a good example of how differentpeoples and religions can live peaceful-ly together. Everyone says that, andwe felt these good relations in Sarajevo– still do. Young Serbs are still fallingin love with young people of othernationalities (Croations, Turks, Alba-

Anthroposophy Worldwide 8/1999

nians) and other religions (Catholicsand Muslims) and vice versa.

Did the media convey a false picture?Yes, I think so. One must think indi-vidually. The same happened duringthe second world war. It was bad, butnot in the way that it was portrayedlater in books and the press. There arecertain situations, experiences of vio-lence, in which one does not necessar-ily develop hate, one develops love,because one has suddenly lost every-thing. One can choose between twopaths: either to hate, or simply todevelop love. All of us are developing.All of us have a chance. A terrible sit-uation like war is always also anopportunity to do something better.

We need to learn to forgive.Everyone makes mistakes…Yes. With us, no one wanted to admitthey were wrong; they said it was theothers. But it was not genuine hateagainst another folk, against other peo-ple. It was generated by the war, espe-cially in Bosnia (now in Kosovo, ofcourse). I cannot speak about it, butone senses clearly that it is not normal.

Interview by Michaela Spaar in August 1999

Donations for the Association for Waldorf Edu-cation and Art in Belgrade: Freunde derErziehungskunst, Köpernicker Str. 175, D–10997Berlin, tel. +49/30/61 70 26 30, fax 61 70 26 33.GLS Gemeinschaftsbank bochum, account nr.13 042 010, BLZ 430 609 67, earmarked: “KigaBelgrad.”

Signs of the Times

As the year 2000 approaches, it wouldseem a valuable exercise for anthro-posophists involved in variousbranches of activity to ask themselveshow their field of work relates to thespiritual situation in the world atlarge.

For those involved in science, thisproblem takes a particular form. AsRudolf Steiner was at pains to stresson many occasions, the chief impor-tance of science to mankind is not thecontent of science or the use to whichscience is put, but the effect thatthinking scientifically has upon thehuman soul.

The time has arrived when scienceand scientific ways of thought haveceased to be the preserve of a veryfew. The thought forms and thought“habits” of scientific people, onceconfined to a tiny minority, have now,by means of mechanisms invented bythat very same thinking, multipliedthemselves in the souls of virtually

everyone in the western world and farbeyond.

A man like Michael Faraday inthe early 19th century could still per-form extremely simple investigationswith magnets and wires, and respondwith a kind of innocent awe and rev-erence towards the world and its mar-vels, treating every new discoverywith a kind of religious sensitivity,which lived in his austerely devotionalbackground.

One needs to be quite clear aboutthe fact that in Faraday’s opinion, sci-ence was something to be studiedbecause it made men “amiable and lib-eral,” whereas trade made them“vicious and selfish.” It would beworth asking how Faraday or his likewould view a world which has turnedhis inventions entirely towards thevery things he avoided; i.e. trade,greed, selfishness, and governments.

It would be good to imagine for amoment the social situation of 1831,

We Are Already within the “Skin of the Dragon”

nication with them. This quality islacking somewhat here. I think peopleare not familiar with such a process.

Anthroposophy fosters responsibility?Yes, it is a challenge, a task, one thatperhaps not everyone wants to take on.We have often spoken about it. We feelthat we lack the strength. There is noone to take responsibility, to insist thatwe come together. So we each just doour own thing, as well as we can. Manyguests have tried to explain to us thedifference between a Society that unitesvarious groups as opposed to many iso-lated groups and initiatives. A Societymust have a connection to the Goethe-anum. So far, we do not have a repre-sentative or even a central address. Wealways give several addresses.

Can you say a bit more aboutyour work in public kindergartens?I work as an advisor and instructor.Belgrade has 13 districts. The one inwhich I work has 200 kindergartens.They are supervised by a director andtwo to four advisors, educators, orpsychologists. We visit all 200 groupsto see how they are doing and whetherthey have any problems. We buy toys,books, etc. We make a schedule for theyear, discuss supplementary training.This is strictly regulated and I do nothave much freedom. However, when Iam with the teachers I can speak open-ly. I have a good connection withthem. They are very aware of theproblems, so I can speak about Wal-dorf education. I have made manypuppets, and I have been able toreplace some of the plastic toys withwooden ones. But we are very limitedby official directives. It is strange –there is always enough money forplastic things such as Legos, but wenever have enough of other thingssuch as paper. We also have to impro-vise with the food, to make sure thatthe children get enough vitamins, milk,fat, etc. We try to make the rooms asbeautiful as possible and to acquire thethings that the children really need.

However, things are still verymuch like they were in communisttimes, with hierarchy, for example.Maybe it is just the laws that the gov-ernment makes. Sometimes thereseems to be a deliberate plan to ruinthe people. However, I think thatEuropean education is similar. An oldanthroposophist in Belgrade once saidto me that the schools of the 20th cen-tury teach people to make war. Peopledo not learn social values, they learnto be egoistic.

What was your experienceof violence during the war?I did not experience physical violencepersonally. Someone told me that oneshould not occupy one’s mind with


when electromagnetism was more orless discovered, and contrast it with theuse of electricity today in every branchof life. Having perceived this, there canbe no question whatever of imaginingthat scientific discovery can ever againbe a preserve of a kind of gentle other-worldliness in a world where whatFaraday called “viciousness” is consid-ered absolutely normal, natural and theonly possible way of life.

We hear on all sides that the taskfor anthroposophists is to come togrips with modern life and transformit, and this is cited as a kind of justifi-cation for anthroposophical sciencecirculating information on the Inter-net and using all the paraphernalia ofmodern information technology. Vari-ous phrases about “transforming thedragon from within” and so on arecited. However, this should not bebelieved without question.

The characteristic of science andscientific investigation is that theyrequire of the human being a very defi-nite effort of soul. Scientific discovery,being by its nature factual, tends more

than anything else human beings dotowards a kind of soulessness; an atti-tude of being uninvolved and impartial.It takes little to see that this attitudespills over into life as a kind of indiffer-ence to others, a sort of cold lack ofinterest in other people and even innature. It demands a very special effortof soul to keep alive the forces of soulof which Faraday was a pre-eminentexample; i.e., forces of wonder, interest,and love, both for nature and its mira-cles, and for other human beings (towhom he was generosity itself).

This effort of soul, this need tomaintain living human interest in otherhuman beings and in “things” is pre-cisely what is being subtly and cleverlyundermined and overwhelmed by thefantastic proliferation of informationtowards which the real human soulcannot possibly be related.

The idea that one should “enterthe skin of a dragon” cannot beapplied to every situation. Otherwiseone would feel obliged to take drugsor murder people in order to enter theskin of drug takers and murderers!

Such an idea would be utterly absurd.Therefore, confronted with a drag-

on which wishes to deny the humansoul and utterly misrepresent to thehuman being its own true nature,anthroposophists should surely beamong those who feel committedenough to the real issues of life today asto assert in the strongest possible termsthe fully human soul in all they do.

A “science” conducted by disem-bodied messages transmitted electron-ically can in no way whatever be a sci-ence in which human beings expresstheir full humanity.

There is no question of having toenter a dragon’s skin; we are alreadyfully within the dragon of soullessinformation, and having been con-sumed, our task is to reassert thehuman soul and to demonstrate – by aheart-filled way of thinking, speakingand acting about science – the way outof the dragon for other human beings.

Stephen Moore-Bridger,Great Britain

Reprinted from the Science Group Newsletter,September, 1999.

School of Spiritual ScienceYO U T H SE C T I O N

Bringing Spirit into ActionInternational Youth Conference, July 1999, California, U.S.A.

The 1999 International Youth Confer-ence, “At the Turning Point – Bring-ing Spirit into Action,” was a trulytimeless event in which over 250 plan-ners, presenters, and participants gath-ered in the redwood forests thatMount Madonna Center has so ele-gantly nurtured for over 21 years. Theevent sprung from the desire to fur-ther the energy generated during the1997 International Youth Conference,“Conversation, Consciousness, andCommunity – Where the Inner andOuter Worlds Touch,” towards apractical, hands-on form, based on theexperiences of everyone gathered forthe conference. It is significant to notethat these two conferences were, in ageneral sense, polar opposites to oneanother, and thus the theme “BringingSpirit into Action” reflects this rela-tionship perfectly.

The planners arrived at the SantaCruz Arboretum four days beforeconference registration began, to pre-pare and set up. Our work, however,demanded a more focused locationand atmosphere, so the following day,

the computers, surf boards, crayons,thoughts, work, and planners madetheir way to the Santa Cruz WaldorfSchool for two days of meetings withconference presenters, and the refine-ment of our vision. There was a con-stant battle around contacting the out-side world as our portable phonewould frequently lose its connectionin the middle of registering last-minute participants and coordinatingother details. A few presenters couldnot make it to the meeting. One par-ticipant made it all the way to the Cal-ifornia border from Michigan whenhis vehicle decided to call it quits. Yet,such crises and difficulties only solidi-fied our resolve, and we pushed for-ward with increased enthusiasm.

Monday began with planners, pre-senters and participants scattered about– finishing tasks, preparing each work-shop room, and arriving at MountMadonna. It was truly an amazingexperience to witness travelers fromvarious parts of the Earth comingtogether with such enthusiasm andhigh spirits, despite their long journies.There was an instant kinship thatformed at each individual meeting, andone could feel the strength and poten-tial that each one brought. So, by the

end of the opening ceremony, everyonecould feel the history that we wereembarking upon together, and therewas a certain recognition or cognitionof the goal we had set ourselves as aresult of our collaboration, though thisjourney was just beginning.

The content of the week consistedof a morning gathering after breakfast and exercises that Dennis Klocekbrought. After the object exercise,everyone scattered to workshops orthe office.

Among the self-developmentworkshops, Bill Cranstoun’s “SpatialDynamics” wove along strongly fromopening to closing as well as pickingup the occasional dropped stitch inthe middle. Dennis Klocek’s “Draw-ing from the Book of Nature” chal-lenged many a young and old soul,while awakening with humorous can-dor and descriptive biography thelessons written in everyday humanexperience and in the nature sur-rounding us. Such lessons provided awonderful mirror into the human soulthrough reflection on Nature’s presentstate of being, through everyday, prac-tical experience and thought.

In addressing the conference themefrom another direction, Vital Systems (acompany dedicated to sustainabledevelopment and to supporting youthactivities that had arisen from the 1997International Youth Conference) facili-tated the building process of a straw-

A vision without a task is a dream,a task without a vision is drudgery, but a task with a vision can change the world.

– Black Elk


bale animal house, which culminatedon Saturday afternoon with nearly 200participants contributing their hands,feet, brawn, sweat, laughter, drumming,and dancing into sculpting and com-pleting the building.

Standing as “Guardian of theGate” between these two poles ofSpirit in Action, Orland Bishop’s“Community Development & Heal-ing” workshops opened the hearts ofmost. His amazing capacity to bringhis presence to a room ignited manyto share their heartfelt experiences, atruly inspiring capacity that is urgent-ly needed in the world at this time.

As the end of the conference drewnearer, the connection that was feltduring the beginning of the confer-ence grew stronger and stronger. Thiswas emphasized by the fact that theclosing was filled with a heavy, potentfeeling of purpose and an amazingthankfulness.

way of contemplating the “facts ofevolution” that includes human expe-rience in the field of cognition.

In the afternoon there were artis-tic courses: copper work, watercolourpainting, eurythmy, and bookbinding.These were followed by two moreworking groups on chemistry andmathematics. Dr. von Mackensen gavea dramatic workshop on iron, gold,and lead, working with experimentalphenomena, geological processes, andcultural evolution, and involving theparticipants deeply in the qualities ofsubstance. Georg Glöckler offered aworkshop in mathematics and led theparticipants into a challenging andstimulating way of working in therealm of pure idea and number.

Following these workshops,spontaneous groups formed to discussthe implications of the various cours-es. These were usually groups of peo-ple who were actively involved inteaching a subject at high school leveland wanted to deepen the content oftheir courses by going into pedagogi-cal questions. These meetings wereoften small, intense, and practice-ori-ented, which provided a good supple-mentary activity to the workshops.

The conference was impressivebecause so many of the participantswere class teachers from the primaryschool who – though they do notteach the subjects at high school level– still found that it is essential to workwith the existential questions that aretackled in the high school. This enthu-siasm to know what the other isworking with is something that couldbe learned by many schools.

The evenings were devoted to lec-tures by the various course givers, aswell as a slightly dampened festiveevening, and the eurythmy perfor-mance.

All this work was brilliantly trans-lated by a team of very impressive trans-lators. The courses had been followedwith animated, active interest – whichnaturally lead to a mood of expectancyfor the future. Sonya Maria from Cali,Colombia brought a tone of active real-ism to the mood by saying approxi-mately the following words: “We haveheard much over the last week. Let usgo back to our schools and work withwhat we have been given. Throughworking with it we will prepare our-selves for the next time we come togeth-er, and the time for that coming togeth-er will also become clear.”

A word of thanks needs to be saidto those people from the São PauloSchool who initiated and organizedsuch a fine conference and also tothose, including Georg Glöckler, whoarranged the financial support formany of the visiting speakers.

Peter Glasby, AustraliaExtracts from a report

We had pushed through themomentum necessary to create such atimeless event and were rewardedwith many fresh experiences and con-nections, some of which will last, andhave lasted, through several lifetimes.Now that such an event is once againliving in the hearts of hundreds ofpeople, only time will tell if the goalwas achieved. The most importantaspect, however, is the achieving. So ifone judges through actions ratherthan words, great strides have beenmade. A challenge remains: Will wetruly allow ourselves to learn fromone another and be open to giving orreceiving whatever is needed of us?

Jesse D. Osmer, U.S.A.

For further information on the 1999 Interna-tional Youth Conference, future conferenceplanning, or initiatives associated with theseconferences, please subscribe to the Conversa-tions Newsletter, [email protected] orwww.arteverywhere.com/news/

PE D A G O G I C A L SE C T I O N

The Natural Sciences and Waldorf EducationSão Paulo, July 3–10, 1999

The impact of the magnitude of SãoPaulo as a city, with a populationcomparable to that of Australia, wasnot lessened by the second visit. Theendless horizon of buildings and linesof traffic are the exterior for a vibrantlife, part of which is evident in theRudolf Steiner School and its sur-rounding community.

The conference began smoothly,with participants arriving from manyparts of Brazil (a country with an arealarger than the Australian continent),Chile, Colombia, and Peru, along withvisiting speakers from Germany andSwitzerland. The six and a half days ofthe conference had a tight, well orga-nized format that allowed for intense,varied work and flexibility for sponta-neous interest groups to form.

Every morning, eurythmists fromthe Performing Group introduced ele-ments from Goethe’s Fairy Tale of theGreen Snake and the Beautiful Lily.This provided both an enlivening startto the day and an increased apprecia-tion for the excellent performance onThursday evening, in which theeurythmists and a group of musiciansperformed the whole fairy tale to avery appreciative audience.

The eurythmy was followed bythe ongoing morning course with Dr.Manfred von Mackensen. Over sevenmornings, he led us in a highly origi-nal, lively, and deep way through thesteps of cognition that a person candevelop in coming to a universalunderstanding of the world. Usingobservation exercises, he teased out

the steps of coming to a perception,forming representations, memories,concepts, and finally the idea, whichbrings a new level of connection tothe world. He then went on to showhow the three essential steps of cogni-tion are worked with in the differentages of childhood, and how these ageseach demand a different activity fromthe teacher. The seven sessions pro-vided a seldom-heard synthesis ofepistemology, human development,and pedagogical practice.

Following the tea break, the con-ference divided into two work groupson subjects for class twelve – oneworking with optics, led by ChristianOhlendorf and Johannes Greber fromKassel, Germany, and the other led byPeter Glasby from Mt. Barker, Aus-tralia, who worked with the content ofthe anthropology/biology main lesson.

In the optics course, a way wasshown to lead the class twelve stu-dents into the area of illumination andimages whereby they become activeparticipants in the self-consciousknowledge process. Through the wayin which the participants first unitedwith the phenomena in observationand then formed questions, they wereble to gain a deeper insight into thenature of light as well as into theirown process of knowing.

The anthropology workshopdemonstrated a way to lead youngpeople to a consequential confronta-tion with reductionist Darwinism andthe potential despair that follows fromthis meeting. One can develop a new


Anthroposophical SocietyGE N E R A L AN T H R O P O S O P H I C A L SO C I E T Y

Draft of Revised Constitution to Be PresentedAs reported in Anthroposophy World-wide Nr. 3/1999, a new group formedlast year from the Goetheanum Coun-cils and General Secretaries to contin-ue the work on the Constitution. (Itsmembers are Otfried Doerfler, Dr.Michaela Glöckler, Rolf Kerler, PaulMackay, Roel Munniks, CharlotteRoder, and Manfred Schmidt-Bra-bant.) With the help of a Swiss legalconsultant, the group has now drafteda possible revision of the Society’sStatutes. This draft was discussed onSeptember 13, 1999, with the membersof the previous Constitution Group,who made fruitful recommendations.Another meeting is planned for Octo-ber 4, with several additional guests.

Based on these discussions, theGroup would like to present a draft to

the members. The plan is to publish itin the November issue of Anthropos-ophy Worldwide and then to discussit again on November 13 (afternoon)and 14 (morning) during the Branchand Group Leader Meeting. All mem-bers are warmly invited to attend thispresentation, where the draft will beexplained, questions will be answered,and possible further suggestionsreceived. We then hope to publish afurther revised version with the invita-tion to the regular General Meeting ofApril 15/16, 2000.

For now, we ask those of youwho are able to come to the presenta-tion on November 13/14 to reservethese dates. For the Group

Paul Mackay

SO C I É T É AN T H R O P O S O P H I Q U E E N FR A N C E

Correction

In the previous issue of Anthroposo-phy Worldwide, a mistake was madein reporting the way in which I leftmy post as General Secretary.

It has to be stressed that theCouncil of the AnthroposophicalSociety in France, on which I haveserved for eleven years as General Sec-retary, did not vote me out of office.In additon, there has been no Councilsince our general meeting of March21, 1999. In 1998, the former Councilhad proposed that it expand tobecome a collegium. This group hasbeen working to form a new Council.Initially I was part of this group. I leftit on May 2, 1999 of my own free will,

mainly to give my collegues thechance to work toward a way out ofthe crisis on their own.

Nothing has changed regardingmy fidelity to the Council of the Gen-eral Anthroposophical Society, to theSchool of Spiritual Science, or to theGeneral Secretaries. I will continue tosupport them in other ways.

Attila Varnai, France

The Anthroposophical Society in France wouldwelcome an exchange with neighboring countrySocieties regarding the sect problem mentionedin the previous issue. M.S.

Société Anthroposophique en France, 2 et 4, ruede la Grande Chaumière, FR–75006 Paris, tel.+33/1/43 26 09 94, fax 43 54 93 15.

Science Group Website

The Science Group (Great Britain) hasbeen on the Internet since April 1999(http://www.anth.org.uk/Science). Thesite includes details of the Group andits affiliations, publications, a booklist, articles, details of related organisa-tions, etc. From March 2000 onwards,the full text of future newsletters willbe published on the site.

The Group already publishes apeer-review scientific journal, Arche-type, of interest to Waldorf teachers,researchers, and people interested inthe history and philosophy of science.The current issue (Nr. 5) includes arti-

cles on the following: “The projectivelemniscate,” “The fruitfulness ofGoethe’s approach to science at thepresent time,” “Participation, cooper-ation and adaptive mutations: comple-menting ecological and evolutionaryparadigms,” “Foreword to The Nat-ural Scientific Writings of Goethe,”“Karl Julius Schröer, teacher ofRudolf Steiner,” “Towards a historyand sociology of the anthroposophicalresearch institutes in the 1920’s.”Archetype: 60 pages. Price: 4.00 British pounds(overseas postage: add £0.50 Europe, £1.00 else-where). UK bank checks or Eurochecks payableto “Science Group, AS in GB.” Contact: Dr.David Heaf, Hafan, Cae Llwyd, Llanystumdwy,Cricieth, GB–Gwynedd, LL52 0SG

SC I E N C E GR O U P I N GR E AT BR I TA I N

Possible Changesto the Constitution

The exact wording of the suggestedchanges to the Constitution men-tioned by Paul Mackay in his report isnot quite ready for print. However, itis possible to indicate the intentions ofthe Constitution Group at this point:–The Christmas Conference Statutes

would form the basis of the Consti-tution of the General Anthroposo-phical Society, totally replacing theBy-Laws.

–To do this, the suggestion is for theGeneral Meeting to make a declarato-ry decision that describes the plannedrevision as the result of a historicaldevelopment, also stating the deliber-ate continuation of the impulse fromthe 1923/24 Christmas Conference.

–The Statutes would stay as they are,with additions being made accordingto the intentions of the Anthropo-sophical Society that are recogniz-able today.

–In §7, which deals with Rudolf Stein-er’s organization of a School of Spiri-tual Science and the naming of a pos-sible successor, the suggestion is toadd that the leadership of the Schoolof Spiritual Science is independent ofthe General Anthroposophical Soci-ety. The Statutes would describe nei-ther the leadership of the School ofSpiritual Science nor how it is chosen.

–An addition to §8 would state thatvarious other explanatory notes wereused as time progressed.

–Most additions would be made to §10,which deals with the General Meeting.The right of the members to submitmotions would revert to procedure setout in the Christmas Conference.Extraordinary general meetings wouldbe possible at the request of 1/5 of themembers (although other suggestsionsare still under discussion).

–An essential addition to §10 wouldbe to include the world Society inthe General Meeting more by havinga two-house system. The Assemblyof General Secretaries, as representa-tives of the countries and regions,would vote on the same points thatare to be raised in the General Meet-ing immediately afterwards. Deci-sions would have to be approved byboth the Assembly of General Secre-taries and the General Meeting.

Justus Wittich, Germany

The briefly sketched intentions given here arenothing more than an attempt to inform themembers by someone who has participated inparts of the process. The author represents onlyhis own view. It is not the view of any commit-tee, and the exact wording has not been checkedwith those who are responsible for the processat this point.


Anthroposophical Group in Thailand Inaugurated

As the new millennium approaches,anthroposophy in Thailand is alsomoving to a new stage of develop-ment. A few years ago, Janpen and Dr.Porn Panosot started Panyotai, a Wal-dorf initiative in Bangkok, which hasgained wide recognition. Last year theAnthroposophical Initiative Groupwas founded to host the third Asia-Pacific Conference, a memorableexperience for many. Since then thework in the group has helped tostrengthen our individual work.

AN T H R O P O S O P H I C A L GR O U P I N TH A I L A N D

The inauguration of the Anthro-posophical Group in Thailand onAugust 7, 1999 can be compared to themoment of birth, in which a child takesphysical form, while our previousactivities resembled the period of con-ception. The picture of a child who isready to become a full human being inthe years to come, as Dr. Porn Panosotexpressed it in his opening speech, isvery appropriate for this specialmoment. Although still small at themoment, it holds the future within it.

AN T H R O P O S O P H I C A L SO C I E T Y I N GR E AT BR I TA I N

In the Hearts of the MembersNotes from the Summer Conference, July 26–31, 1999

“Meditation is Spiritual Research”was the title of the Society Conferencein July, 1999. Nine members fromNorway, Switzerland, France, Ger-many, and Ireland joined 105 mem-bers from Great Britain at EmersonCollege to cultivate this work of ourSociety. The event proved to be acommitted and encouraging affirma-tion of the spiritual reality that wehave united with.

The Foundation Stone Medita-tion was the heart of our work.There were lectures about itsrhythms and about its structure andrelevance to the School of SpiritualScience, and artistic and studygroups that also took up thesethemes. At the beginning of each daywe were shown the Rhythms ineurythmy; in the evening the euryth-mists presented the mantram in itsentirety in English. This gave thewhole event a strong, organic, andbeautiful form within which muchcould take place.

Jostein Saether, known for hispast life investigations, was the guestlecturer. His engaging, honest, andartistic approach appealed to manywho might be overawed by the notionof spiritual research, though his meth-ods, epistemology, and specific claimsgave rise to doubts in others.

In addition to several other artis-tic and study groups, and guided ple-nary conversations on the conferencetheme, there were daily sessions onthe composition and restructuring ofthe Council of the AnthroposophicalSociety in Great Britain, and artisticperformances, including a glimpse ofthe Mystery Drama Group’s newpiece, Black Earth. The quality of theconference was greatly enhanced bythree hours of free time in the after-noons for spontaneous meetings andindividual initiatives (which in thisconference included a request foradditional eurythmy).

The whole event had a mood ofsober celebration. Certainly there

The ceremony began with Thaiclassical music performed by a mem-ber of the group who is also the Chi-nese teacher at Panyotai Steiner Wal-dorf School. Then three rose candlesin red, yellow, and blue – gifts fromone of the parents – were lit by Dr.Panosot. Hans van Florenstein Mul-der (General Secretary of the Anthro-posophical Society in New Zealand)brought the warm greetings and wish-es of the Goetheanum Council, whomhe represented. Hans also broughtsome gifts from friends in NewZealand demonstrating their commit-ment to form a bridge between thetwo countries. Following the Founda-tion Stone Meditation, read by Jan-pen, the group worked with the “Sat-urday Rhythm” of the FoundationStone in eurythmy, led by Tho andLisi Ha Vinh, both eurythmists fromPerceval in Switzerland.

Rain was pouring down, which,according to Thai belief, will bring lifeand serenity. Yet the golden sunlightthat came right after is generally regard-ed as a sign of hope.

The inauguration of the Anthro-posophical Group in Thailand was amoving ceremony among friends whohave taken the same spiritual path and,in every respect, was an important steptoward a new phase at the portal of thenew millennium. Janpen Panosot,

Thailand

were moments of disappointment andfrustration that may have had to dowith the encounter of spiritual streamsor just of egos, but the overwhelmingmood was one of recognition andacknowledgment – of each other andof our chosen destiny together, and ofthe significance of our Anthroposoph-ical Society. This was greatly helpedby the livingly recreated substance ofthe Foundation Stone Meditation, inthe thoughts of the opening and clos-ing lectures, and in the eurythmy pre-sentations of the Rhythms and thewhole mantram every day. Theseeurythmy presentations raise thequestion of which translation to useand whether it is appropriate to dothem in translation at all. Such ques-tions can only be resolved in clarity ofthought, but the necessary freeing ofprejudices is greatly helped by theintense experience of the substancepresented by a group of artists whohave worked together for nearly twoyears consistently, and with integrityand fidelity that is both inspired andinspiring.

Andrew Wolpert, Great Britain

The founding group


It had not been easy to bring togetherpotential supporters to discuss build-ing an anthroposophical center inKassel, Germany. And it had beeneven harder to get definite commit-ments towards financing the 16 mil-lion mark project. Before this couldhappen, the partners (Anthroposophi-cal Society in Germany, KasselBranch, International Kinder-garten Association, and atraining community) discussedtheir ideas for the new build-ing at length. More than onceit had seemed that the effortwould fail.

Now that the center hascompleted its first seven yearsof activity, it is time to askwhether the original inten-tions of the project have beenrealized.

What did the projectoriginally aim to achieve? Forone thing, to create confer-ence premises at a centrallocation in Germany. Thelong list of anthroposophicalorganizers who have used thecenter for meetings and con-ferences shows that this goal has beenreached. Also, the builders wanted toown suitable premises for annual gen-eral meetings, instead of having torent them. The large hall of the center,with its excellent acoustics reachingeven the farthest row of listeners, cre-ates a special atmosphere.Many other organizers haverecognized this, among themthe Goethe Society, theChamber Music Association,and concert agencies. Theanthroposophical center hasthus become one of the cul-tural institutions of the city.This, too, had been intended:interaction between very dif-ferent partners. The roomswere hired 350 times last year,sometimes by groups thatone would not necessarilyexpect: a banking and insur-ance union, an education andscience union, the workscouncil of the German airline,the metal industry union, themedia industry union, theBavarian Ministry of Agricul-ture and Forestry, the Ger-man Union of EnvironmentalProtection, Doctors AgainstNuclear War, etc. For them,too, the central location isimportant, along with itsproximity to a major train

biography work, a natural sciencegroup working with “QuantumPhysics, Life and the Cosmos,” andstudy groups on Rudolf Steiner’sMystery Dramas, the Apocalypse, andOccult Science. All classes are open tothe public. There are also public lec-tures and weekend workshops.

Of course there is the branchwork as well. The branchmeets in five thematic groupsafter a shared beginning, join-ing sometimes for plenumdiscussions, lectures, and fes-tivals. There is also contactwith nearby anthroposophicalinstitutions, for example inconnection with the School ofSpiritual Science. The centerprovides meeting space forprofessionals from the region.The original idea of encour-aging contact between theAnthroposophical Societyand anthroposophical institu-tions is thus developing well.

The Kassel Branch hadrealized that an opening tothe world such as this wouldonly succeed if openness were

practiced continually within thebranch as well. This is the only way todevelop strength for the outer work.However, the exchange with manydifferent people from the peripheryhas also lent new perspectives to theirown work. One can only admire what

the members of the KasselBranch have achieved in theseseven years.None of the Kassel members

will misunderstand me if Iraise an additional question:How might the originalimpulse be intensified stillfurther? Perhaps through theefforts of people who woulduse the created framework todevelop their own initiatives.There is still space for addi-tional initiatives. It would beideal if the center providedstart-up financing for them.

The finances are well orga-nized. The costs of buildingand employees are covered.The anxiety over whethersuch an ambitious projectcould be financed at all is athing of the past. However,the center’s income is stillbeing used to pay back thebuilding loans. If they werepaid off, the money could beused to intensify the work.

Erhard Fucke, Germany

station. People feel comfortable in thebuilding, doubtless because of its gen-erous architectural forms, its colors,and – not least – the people who lookafter the visitors. The center has areputation for openness and liberality.

There are only a few employees.Various branch members volunteertheir help and thereby get to know the

guests. Public outreach by the branchhas thus increased naturally. There isspace for all kinds of classes, especial-ly art classes and eurythmy. Hardly aday goes by now that does not haveits eurythmy class. The spectrum ofother classes is broad: voice lessons,

FeatureSeventh Anniversary of the Anthroposophical Center in Kassel

The Building Committee (from left to right): Front: Ursula Krause,Wolfgang Hänel, Rosemarie Bünsow, Walter Hempel; back:Werner Tetzlaff, Reinhard Bielefeldt, Helga Steiner, RaphaelSteiner, Johannes Wolter, Liane-Heide Niederhoff.

Anthoposophy Worldwide 1999 (8)

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