Virginia Sease and Cornelius Pietzner of the executive council of the General Anthroposophical Society are inviting members and friends to the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland, for a third English Week, "Entering into the 21st Century Spiritually," to be held August 2-7. It will be preceded July 29-August 1 with performances of Rudolf Steiner's four Mystery Dramas by the Goetheanum stage group, with English translations and introductions. Please consult the linked flyer right for all the details and reservation information.
The human I stands at the center of anthroposophy. It provides the orientation for the human constitution and our knowledge of the human being, a knowledge that becomes practical in fields like pedagogy and medicine. But the I is also closely con- nected to the human being’s cosmic origin and the Christ Being.
Entering into the study of anthro- posophy we soon find that the very heart of it is the mystery of the human I or self. This is one of the central issues in anthroposophical Christology and one of the most important questions in anthroposophy altogether.
Dear Friends,
Easter greetings! I was asked how I was spending Easter and thought I'd share the reply with a larger group. It's been a lovely day for me and I hope the same for each of you. It's already evening here and it was a lovely day, spent with my friends up the road at the Camphill village for handicapped people. Winter is finally letting go, so it was a pleasant day even though some snow remains and conditions outdoors are muddy, wet, and sometimes very fresh.
Because we are out in the country, the Easter Hare -- (a hare is similar to a jack-rabbit, so he can carry much more than a mere bunny) -- has a lot of choices and possiblities for hiding his gifts. This hare chose the nearby woods. We went to the woods and spread out, looking for goodies -- colored eggs, bright oranges, little packets of candies, each tied in a ribbon. They were hidden in stumps and among the ferns, holes in trees, etc. The rule was that when you found something, you had to take it back to the starting point and place it on a cloth there before going to look for more. No one was rushing about, scooping up everything before anyone else could get it.
School of Western Esotericism
In 2006 a small school for anthroposophy was founded in Riga by Uldis Saveljevs (Council member of the Anthroposophical Society in Latvia) together with former Waldorf teacher Dainis Ozolins, physician Mara Meijere and eurythmy teacher Guna Donina. The first
14 students have now celebrated their graduation.
The festive granting of diplomas on May 23 began with a eurythmy performance under the direction of eu- rythmy teacher Guna Donina and a reading from Rudolf Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul. The students received their diplomas at the conclusion of a threeyear program of study.
Uldis Saveljevs, teacher at the School for Western Esotericism, told the audience about how this initiative arose. Some time earlier, the impulse for the school had been perceptible in the spiritual world, and thus it did not take too much effort to bring it to incarnation in the physical world. The school was founded in 2006 to meet the needs of young people and the Anthroposophical Society in Latvia for a deepened knowledge of anthroposophy. Since then the School for Western Esotericism has been offering its work to members of the Anthroposophical Society as well as to the general public.
Various Relationships to the State
Teachers and parents belonging to the Waldorf movement in Sweden and Germany have often worked in Lithuania. The result has been several kindergartens and schools organized along the lines of Waldorf pedagogy.
The Vilnius school has twelve classes with about 220 children; graduates can attend university. The school was run by the state, but now it wants to change that; a large circle of parents and teachers have discussed a new constitution for the school. The social form of the Gröbenzell Rudolf Steiner School (Germany) seemed a good model.
The building the state left to the school looks like a ruin. The approximately 3 million litas (=1.5 million euros) hoped for from the EU will not be nearly enough for renovation, not to mention the fact that there is no auditorium or facility for sports. At the end of March a group from the school (and their architect) will visit Gröbenzell to discuss how to start construction on a new building.
