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Halloween, All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day

10/31/2020

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Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland , the United Kingdom , and northern France , celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter. 
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To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.

The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona , the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas.
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The Biodynamic Conference Has Never Been More Accessible

10/21/2020

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Thanks to the generous donors to our Biodynamic Scholarship Fund, we are excited to be able to offer many more scholarships to the Biodynamic Conference than ever before. We hope to be able to fully fund up to 200 participants for this dynamic and interactive online experience.

We encourage all those who need financial assistance to apply for a scholarship award — especially those who are new to biodynamic agriculture.

Priority is given to applicants who demonstrate a strong interest in learning about and pursuing biodynamic farming or gardening, including:
  • Members of the Biodynamic Association (membership starts at only $5/year!)
  • Black, Indigenous, and People of Color
  • Trainees enrolled in the Biodynamic Farmer Foundation or Development Years
  • Existing farmers
Early applications are encouraged! Scholarships will be awarded on a rolling basis through November 1.

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online Holy Nights Journal

10/16/2020

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“Everything in the cosmos takes its rhythmic course: the stars, as well as the sun, follow a regular rhythm. Would the sun abandon this rhythm even for a moment, an upheaval of untold magnitude would take place in the universe. Rhythm holds sway in the whole of nature, up to the level of the human being. … The rhythm which through the course of the year holds sway in the forces of growth, of propagation and so forth, ceases when we come to the human being. For the human being is to have his roots in freedom … As the light disappears at Christmas-time, so has rhythm … departed from the life of the human being: chaos prevails. But the human being must give birth again to rhythm out of his innermost being, his own initiative. By the exercise of his own will he must so order his life that it flows in rhythm, immutable and sure; his life must take its course with the regularity of the sun. Just as a change of the sun's orbit is inconceivable, it is equally inconceivable that the rhythm of such a life can be broken. The Sun Hero was regarded as the embodiment of this inalterable rhythm; through the power of the higher human being within him, he was able to direct the rhythm of the course of his own life. And this Sun Hero, this higher human being, was born in the Holy Night. In this sense, Christ Jesus is a Sun Hero and was conceived as such in the first centuries of Christendom. Hence the festival of His birth was instituted at the time of the year when, since ancient days, the festival of the birth of the Sun Hero had been celebrated. Hence, too, all that was associated with the history of the life of Christ Jesus; the Mass at midnight celebrated by the early Christians in the depths of caves was in remembrance of the festival of the sun. In this Mass an ocean of light streamed forth at midnight out of the darkness as a remembrance of the rising of the spiritual Sun in the Mysteries. Hence the birth of Christ in the cave — again a remembrance of the cave of rock out of which life was born … As earthly life was born out of the dead stone, so out of the depths was born the Highest — Christ Jesus. Associated with the festival of His nativity was the legend of the three Priest-Sages, the Three Kings. They bring to the Child: gold, the symbol of the outer, wisdom-filled human being; myrrh, the symbol of the victory of life over death; and frankincense the symbol of the cosmic ether in which the Spirit lives.”  (Rudolf Steiner in Signs and Symbols of the Christmas Festival, a lecture given by Rudolf Steiner in Berlin on December 17, 1906; The Festivals and Their Meaning / GA 96)

The online Holy Nights Journal is meant to help us to connect with the cosmic rhythm and the yearly rhythm during the time of the holy nights between the Christmas festival and Epiphany. The online Holy Nights Journal can be used as a guide during the 12 days and 13 nights between December 24 and January 06 to practice to live with a consciousness that connects in a meaningful way with the higher truths in the universe and concerning our own life. We are encouraged to turn inward and towards a contemplation of the deeper meaning of our lives and of our own particular and unique biography.

The Sophia Institute Holy Nights Journal has been inspired by several individuals and the work of the late Willi Sucher and William Bento in particular. Sucher and Bento dedicated much of their life’s work to the research into Astrosophy and the wisdom of the stars. Astrosophy concerns itself with the new relationship of the human being to the stars, was pioneered by Willi Sucher and is based on the understanding of the world and humanity as represented in the work of Rudolf Steiner, called Anthroposophy. For more than 65 years, Willi Sucher strove to understand humanity’s new relationships to the stars. His work was inspired by Anthroposophy, which was his lifetime study and path of spiritual development. The “lightning-bolt” that galvanized his intense interest in developing a vision of the human being’s new relationship to the stars was a statement by Rudolf Steiner that the asterogram at one’s death is more significant than a birth chart in understanding the significance of an individual life as it affected that individual’s further evolution. Willi Sucher combined meticulous mathematical calculations and a fully scientific approach with a personal path of meditation and spiritual development to bring a high level of intuition and inspiration to his work. William Bento, PhD had created many different relationships with many clients as a psychologist, a mentor, and one who consulted the workings of the heavens including Astrosophy and anthroposophic psychology which evolved into Psychosophy. William Bento was instrumental and participated in creating Holy Nights Journals for many years. More recently Mary Stewart Adams has been taking up the work with star wisdom, Astrosophy and the Holy Nights, and has led groups working with the Holy Nights under the auspices of the Anthroposophical Society in the United States.

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Crossing the Sea - A Michaelmas Puppetry Show

10/4/2020

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Presented by the Magical Puppet Tree

This is a tale of courage... a young child seeks to share the beauty of his garden with those who live in a land that has become dry, arid, and bereft of life. In order to do so, he must steer towards the light of his star despite hardship and stormy seas. Based on a Wynstones Michaelmas story with music from the Hebridean Islands. With: Janene Ping, Renannah Weinstein, Odin Esty, Somer Serpe, and Jen Zimberg. Video by Ragnar Freidank. More ...
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Eurythmy Online

9/23/2020

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Join Cynthia for a 6-week Live Webinar Series

Offering healing exercises to help you ground yourself, build forces of immunity, overcome stress and strengthen your spiritual practice

Including Hygienic Soul Exercises and Copper Rod Work

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Biodynamic Association - Celebrating the Fall Equinox!

9/22/2020

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I can belong now to myself
And shining spread my inner light
Into the dark of space and time.
Toward sleep is urging all creation, 
But inmost soul must stay awake
And carry wakefully sun's glowing
Into the winter's icy flowing. 


Twenty-Fifth Week [September 22 -28] 
Rudolf Steiner, The Calendar of the Soul 
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Today, we celebrate the fall equinox. What are you doing to connect with this unique time of year? What are you observing as we move from one blessed season into another.

Here at the BDA we're celebrating in our own individual ways — whether it's enjoying fresh-roasted dandelion root tea, or recognizing and appreciating how life lives and moves inside of us. I would like to appreciate all members who participated in our most recent Biodynamics & Justice Salon II. We imagined how the biodynamic movement and our communities could manifest diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice. With much gratitude, I'm moved to say we are manifesting this reality one day at a time by overcoming fear with confidence, investing in trust, and embracing readiness. I encourage any member who is still questioning how biodynamics and social justice fit together to take a moment to view this 2-minute video called Bridging & Breaking. Take from it what serves you and leave the rest. 

Next month, we are supporting and participating at the Anthroposophical Society's annual conference, Willing the Good: Love, Action, Healing. Our annual kick-off for the Biodynamic Scholarship Fund has also begun. We've got a good journey ahead of us to get to reach our $30,000 goal, which will allow 200+ aspiring farmers and gardeners who wish to learn more about biodynamics the opportunities to connect with some of our leading practitioners and best of all you! 

Hot cider and cheers to enjoying the remainder of this special day.

Be safe and stay well,  


Tonya Taylor 
Member Services 
members@biodynamics.com 

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When the body does not express one’s true identity - an interview with Christian Breme

9/2/2020

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Some children and adolescents feel that the biological gender assigned to them does not express who they are. The Waldorf teacher and sculptor Christian Breme has studied the phenomenon of gender identity for many years, asking how Waldorf education can support these young people.

​Sebastian Jüngel Is the question of gender identity new or are we only just becoming aware of something that has been suppressed for a long time?

Christian Breme There certainly have always been children and adolescents whose gender identity differed, temporarily or permanently, from the one assigned to them. Today they express themselves more forcefully and demand to be recognized as who they deeply feel they are. They are often quite distressed.

Jüngel What does the fact that they feel so strongly tell us?

Breme It is rooted in a previously unknown authority of the soul over a body that is experienced as alien. We could call it an awakening that first manifests as a sense of not being at home in one’s body. Did we not notice it before? Maybe we had to first get to a point where we are able to look at the phenomenon without fear. We have to learn to support transgender children and their parents in unusual ways today. This confronts us with new pedagogical challenges.


Distracting from the ‘I’

Jüngel
How significant is gender in your view on the path to one’s personal identity?

Breme The ‘I’ develops with what it connects to, as Rudolf Steiner pointed out in his book Theosophy (GA 9). My interests, my goals, my studies, my encounters, my work – they strengthen my ‘I’.

When we look at others we should therefore not focus on cultural aspects, family, gender etc., but on what they have decided to do and how they do it. We are still blinded by a person’s appearance, particularly their gender. It pushes itself to the fore and hides the active ‘I’. This deception occurs to a lesser degree when we look at children or elderly people. We can learn from this.

Jüngel How has this topic changed for you over the last decades?

Breme Studying the enigma of gender is part of pedagogical anthropology. How do boys and girls develop? What does puberty mean? I must admit that I neglected the question of homosexuality in the first years. I only learned gradually to perceive a latent homosexuality in older adolescents and to address questions regarding gender orientation in class when we learned about relationships. The question of gender identity became more central for me around five years ago when I visited other countries, and also through reading. This space is now filling with experience, with conversations and individual destinies. And with great amazement: in the end we are each entirely individual.


Cultural differences

Jüngel
You have addressed this question with different cultures. What differences do you notice? Where do you see something universally human coming to expression?

Breme In 2013 I was invited by a number of Waldorf Schools in the US to speak about relationships. I visited a small school with five transgender children. That is normal today. In the upper grades of the large school in Austin, Texas, ‘gender issues’ were discussed in depth in the lessons – at a time when we hardly knew what that meant here in Europe.

In Shenzhen (CN), a city with twelve million people, I gave a workshop on sex education and relationships. In China it is generally very difficult to speak of our origin and sexuality because there is a traditional sensitivity and reluctance to unveil the mystery. Many people are also traumatized by the enforced abortions of the last thirty years. In the end it was possible to speak about special forms of sexual orientation and identity only when the topic was presented in an artistic, Goethean way.

Most recently I visited the Waldorf School in Samara (RU). The whole upper school came together. The students had only one question, “What is it with this gender movement? How can we understand gender identity? We are confronted with it in the media. Politicians call it destructive.” The young people were grateful for an approach that made such phenomena more accessible. Then I met the parents in the evening. Again, the same question was discussed vehemently. A doctor translated the outcome of the discussion for me: it is right, we should overcome gender in the future, but it is too early. Our ‘I’ is not strong enough yet.


Authentic ‘I’ awareness

Jüngel
How do you think a spiritual community should deal with this question?

Breme Anthroposophy can explain these seemingly sudden and new possibilities at a deeper level. My book Matryoshka is an attempt at presenting ways towards understanding and resolving identity conflicts. As a knowledge-based community our working contexts offer us the space to practise authentic ‘I’ awareness and the unconditional acceptance of the other.

Jüngel Have you ever had a key experience in connection with this topic?

Breme I approach it as I do all problems that I care about: I build bridges. A key experience? All encounters I had with young people or adults in my sphere of life who struggled with their physical gender were moving: I was able to perceive the ‘I’ in its authenticity.

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Waldorfee - Curriculum Resources For Homeschool & Class Teachers

8/22/2020

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Waldorfee is a bit of a play on words. Through the duration of 20 years as a classroom teacher, Jacquelynn caught herself using this informal term, “”Waldorfee”” to describe anything that fit into the Waldorf category. Given that Waldorf Education is primarily taught in schools offering a relatively consistent curriculum across the world, what we offer you is indeed “”Waldorfee””, which is our best endeavor to provide you with Waldorf-inspired elemental education in an online setting. More ...
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Biodynamic Association News

8/10/2020

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Discover new opportunities to engage with the biodynamic community and learn more about biodynamics. From the 2020 Online Biodynamic Conference, to a member poetry and creative writing salon, to an exploration of how to heal the earth and social life—and much more!—we invite you to connect with, learn from, and get inspired by the many others doing transformational work across the continent. More ...
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August 6th - Feast of the Transfiguration

8/6/2020

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The Transfiguration by Raphael / Year 1516–20 / Medium Tempera on wood
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The Feast of the Transfiguration is celebrated by various Christian communities in honor of the transfiguration of Jesus. The origins of the feast are less than certain and may have derived from the dedication of three basilicas on Mount Tabor. The feast was present in various forms by the 9th century, and in the Western Church was made a universal feast on 6 August by Pope Callixtus III. More ...

Rudolf Steiner's word regarding this event can be found in the following lecture: The Gospel of Mark. Lecture 8 of 10. Rudolf Steiner, September 22, 1912:

In the Gospel of St. Mark directly after the great world-historical monologue which I have described there follows, as you know, the scene known as the Transfiguration or Transformation. I have often pointed out before that for the three disciples who had been taken to the “mountain” on which the Transfiguration took place, this was a kind of higher initiation. At this moment they were to be initiated, as it were, more profoundly into the secrets that were to be entrusted to them, one by one, to enable them to become leaders and guides of mankind. From what we have said before on several occasions we know that this scene contains a series of secrets. Both in the Gospels and other occult writings whenever the “mountain” is spoken of, then we have to do with something occult. In an occult connection it always means when the mountain is spoken of that those who are led to the mountain are led into certain secrets of existence. In the case of the Mark Gospel we feel this especially strongly for a reason that will become apparent if the Gospel is read rightly. But it must be read rightly.
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Take, for example, the third chapter of Mark from the 7th to the 23rd or 24th verse. Actually we need not go further than the 22nd verse, but it is necessary to read it with perceptive understanding. Then something will be noticed. It has often been stressed that the expressions “accompany to the mountain” and “leading to the mountain” have an occult meaning. But in this particular chapter we find a threefold activity, and not only an “accompanying to the mountain.” If we examine carefully the three passages indicated by Mark, we notice first in verse 7, “And Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake,” etc. Then, in the 13th verse it is said, “And he went up to the mountain and called to him those who were acceptable to him.” Then in verses 20 and 21 we read, “And then he went to his home. And the crowd gathered again so that they could not so much as eat bread. And when his family heard of it they went out to seize him, for they said ‘he is out of his mind.’” Thus we are referred to three separate localities: the lake, the mountain, and the house. Just as in an occult sense the mountain signifies that something important takes place, so is this also true in the other two cases. In occult writings if such expressions as “being led to the mountain,” or “being led to a house,” occur, this invariably means that they have an occult significance. When this is the meaning intended in the Gospels some specific circumstance is connected with it. You should remember that it is not only in the Mark Gospel but also in the others that a special revelation or special manifestation is connected especially with the “lake,” as when the disciples cross the lake and Christ appears to them. They at first take Him for a ghost, but then become aware that it is He in reality that is approaching them (Mark 6:45-52). And elsewhere you can also find a similar mention in the Gospels of some event that takes place because of the lake, or by the lake. On the mountain he first appoints the Twelve, that is, he confers their occult mission on them. That was an act of occult education. It is again on the mountain that the occult Transfiguration takes place. When he was “at his home,” he is declared by his family to be “out of his mind.” This was the third thing, and all three are of the greatest and most comprehensive significance.

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    Sophia Institute offers a variety of programs, courses, publications and other resources to anyone interested in Anthroposophy and Waldorf/Steiner inspired education. Currently there are students from all over the world enrolled in the Sophia Institute online courses. Sophia Institute publications are available worldwide. The Sophia Institute newsletter and blog provide insights and information concerning the work of Anthroposophical initiatives, Waldorf/Steiner Schools, the Camphill Movement, and related endeavors. More ...
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