Dear colleagues and friends around the world!
 
In spite of the threats and troubles of all kinds that we are facing, our beloved early childhood movement keeps growing and growing all around the world. This is for sure very good news! There are so many nuances in this big palette, so many cultures, languages, traditions, so many social and political situations…the world is really diverse! How can we open ourselves for all the new impulses that are blossoming in every single part of the world?  Do we deeply know each other? How is the landscape, weather, food, or social fabric? How can we create our different festivals from our shared universal essence?
 
The time has come to turn ourselves to our fellow human beings with an open mind and open hearts to see what each of us has to give to the other. Through a little sample of experiences, we invite you to enjoy and reflect on the celebration of the Festivals, which is such an important part of the life of the little child.
 
We also want to present the newly born World Association for Puppetry and Storytelling Arts, which we are sure will be a wonderful impulse to develop Puppetry for children in our kindergartens and homes.
 
The Care 1 Group keeps on working for the earliest years of childhood.  Since the conference had to be postponed, 5 new online events have been created: don’t miss this information, as these events will take place very soon, in addition to the international conferences described in the newsletter.
 
We hope you will enjoy reading and sharing this issue with your colleagues, parents and friends.
 
Wishing you all the best,
Lourdes Tormes
On behalf on the Council of IASWECE more ...

WHITSUN VERSE By RUDOLF STEINER

There first
Where sense can know no more,
Stands the portal, which discloses
Life-reality
To Soul-being;
This portal's key the Soul may fashion
If she herself grow strong within the strife
By World-Powers waged on their own ground
With human forces;
If of her own accord she puts to flight
The sleep, which at the frontier of her senses
Cloaks the forces of knowledge
In spirit-night.

(Translated by Owen Barfield)
​

The Whitsuntide Festival / Its Place In The Study Of Karma. A lecture given by Rudolf Steiner on June 4th, 1924 ​in Dornach, Switzerland.

When we consider how Karma works, we always have to bear in mind that the human Ego, which is the essential being, the inmost being, of man, has as it were three instruments through which it is able to live and express itself in the world. These are the physical body, the etheric body and the astral body. Man really carries the physical, etheric and astral bodies with him through the world, but he himself is not in any one of these bodies. In the truest sense he is the Ego; and it is the Ego which both suffers and creates Karma.

Now the point is to gain an understanding of the relationship between man as the Ego-being and these three instrumental forms — if I may call them so — the physical, etheric and astral bodies. This will give us the foundation for an understanding of the essence of Karma. We shall gain a fruitful point of view for the study of the physical, the etheric and the astral in man in relation to Karma, if we consider the following.

The physical as we behold it in the mineral kingdom, the etheric as we find it working in the plant kingdom, and the astral as we find it working in the animal kingdom — all these are to be found in the environment of man here on Earth. In the Cosmos surrounding the Earth we have that Universe into which, if I may so describe it, the Earth extends on all sides. Man can feel a certain relationship between what takes place on the Earth and what takes place in the cosmic environment. But when we come to Spiritual Science we have to ask: Is this relationship really so commonplace as the present-day scientific conception of the world imagines? This modern scientific conception of the world examines the physical qualities of everything on the Earth, living and lifeless. It also investigates the stars, the sun, the moon, etc.; and it discovers — indeed it is particularly proud of the discovery — that these heavenly bodies are fundamentally of the same nature as the Earth.

Such a conception can only result from a form of knowledge which at no point comes to a real grasp of man himself — a knowledge which takes hold only of what is external to man. The moment, however, we really take hold of Man as he stands within the Universe, we become able to discover the relationships between the several instrumental members of man's nature, the physical body, the etheric body, and the astral body and the corresponding entities, the corresponding realities of Being, in the Cosmos.

In regard to the etheric body of man, we find spread out in the Cosmos the universal Ether. The etheric body of man has a definite human shape, definite forms of movement within it, and so on. These, it is true, are different in the cosmic Ether. Nevertheless the cosmic Ether is fundamentally of like nature with what we find in the human etheric body. In the same way we can speak of a similarity between what is found in the human astral body and a certain astral principle that works through all things and all beings out in the far-spread Universe.

Here we come to something of extraordinary importance, something which in its true nature is quite foreign to the human being of to-day. Let us take our start from this. (A drawing is made on the blackboard). We have, first, the Earth; and on the Earth we have Man, with his etheric body. Then in the Earth's environment we have the cosmic Ether — the cosmic Ether which is of the same nature as the etheric in man. In man we also have the astral body. In the cosmic environment too there is Astrality. Where are we to find this cosmic Astrality? Where is it? It is indeed to be found, but we must first discover — what it is in the Cosmos that betrays the presence of cosmic Astrality; what it is that reveals it. Somewhere or other is the Astrality. Is this Astrality in the Cosmos quite invisible and imperceptible, or is it, after all, in some way perceptible to us?
​

There are several editions of the Calendar of the Soul on the internet. The one at the Lili Kolisko Institute allows you to click through to Steiner’s eurythmy for for that week’s verse. This version offers many translations with original text, and other special features. (If initially you see only the German, hover your mouse pointer over the text to see options.)

Come together in community to explore the mystery and experience of the divine feminine, Sophia, in our time. This 12-part series will occur monthly on Wednesdays from May 5, 2021 through April 6, 2022.

What: ASA Sophia Community Circle hosted by members of the Sophia Group. Click here to see the full line-up of presenters!  Each unique 45 minute session will include a leading thought or experiential activity + breakout spaces & large group sharing.

When: Wednesdays at 12:30pm Eastern/ 9:30am Pacific for 45 minutes. See all dates on the registration page! 

How: Register Here! Then check your email for a registration confirmation. Share with your friends--our events are open to all!  Registration closes May 3, 2021. Cost: Flexible registration levels--$60 and up for the full 12 month series.  Contributions help support Sophia work and financial assistance for the upcoming Sophia Conference in April 2022.  More ...

​March is the month of new beginnings. In the Andean world, as the rains begin to recede, we welcome the harvest. Here in Peru, March is also the month when our school year begins.  In line with governmental restrictions, we will continue to teach in a remote way, as we did in 2020. Our hope is to be back, in person, in the classrooms in July. Not only do students benefit from direct contact with their teachers and others, they need this exchange. During our journey of launching the fundraising campaign “In-between”, we introduced teacher Rosita. You can find the interview here. Guided by and rooted in Waldorf pedagogy, she was trying to reach students by encouraging creative abilities and adapting her teaching methodology based on practical and direct experience through audio and video tools. Adjusting and delicately delivering quality education and recognizing the need for accompaniment of heart and mind wellbeing, teacher Rosita poured her best intentions towards confronting an unprecedented situation in the most viable, tender and admirable ways. More ...

​The Aenigma Archive for Anthroposophical Art, Architecture and Design in Berlin (DE) opened in 2016 (Anthroposophy Worldwide 3/2016). Since then it has been entrusted with tens of thousands of works by anthroposophical artists. The Havelhöhe community hospital in Berlin (DE) is exhibiting pieces from the Archive on its premises.

Every handover is a small miracle: it encompasses the trust placed in the Archive, the picking up and, not least, the inspection and storage of the work. Each work provides insight into creative biographies and working contexts that are waiting to be made visible.

Most recently, the Archive received over a hundred works by the artist Maria Hiszpanska-Neumann (1917–1980) and a large altarpiece by Max Wolffhügel (1880–1963). A comparison between this painting and another altarpiece from 1937 by Margarita Voloshina (1882-1973), which is also held in the Archive, is interesting in that it illustrates how differently one and the same theme can be realized.

The art works entrusted to us are in very different states of preservation, with over half of the collection requiring conservational attention. And they need to be stored appropriately. The costs of all this by far exceed the funds available to us, since very few donations come with the funding required to give them the attention they need. The Archive takes up an area of 250 square metres in a building of the Berlin Kladow Waldorf School, which is very close to the Havelhöhe Hospital. The idea of a viewable ‘depot’ had to be deferred for reasons of space, due to the sheer number of art works we have received.

More ...

Waldorf Publications is pleased to announce the inclusion of Wolfgang Schad’s new edition of his master work: Threefoldness in Humans and Mammals (original editions in English titled: Understanding Mammals or Man and Animal) in our offerings. Anyone teaching fourth grade or High School, anyone interested in strengthening the relationship to the animal world must have this two-volume set!  The photographs are compelling, the information is comprehensive and compassionate, and the shared relationship between mammals and human beings is made crystal clear and movingly complete through this deep study. It is a necessarily expensive set, but the results are beyond ordinary value and you will treasure the books for a lifetime! More ... 

The answer would appear to be “no”. A look at his work and biography reveals a nuanced yet pragmatic approach. Anthroposophists are currently present in the media as potential deniers of the coronavirus pandemic and anti-vaxxers. But to what extent can opponents of vaccination actually invoke Rudolf Steiner? In this question too – as with many other topics – nuances in Steiner’s work come to the fore, opening up a number of different possibilities. On the one hand, Steiner had reservations about the mass use of vaccination, especially as compulsory vaccination, but on the other hand he also advocated that anthroposophy should recognise medical progress. Anthroposophical medicine, as Steiner developed it together with the doctor Ita Wegmann, therefore always sees itself as an “extended” system of medicine which builds on the findings of conventional medicine: “It is not a matter of opposing medicine working with the recognised scientific methods of the present day. We fully recognise the principles of the latter,” it says, for example, in the introduction to the book Extending Practical Medicine written by Steiner and Wegmann in 1925. Steiner thus also thought and acted accordingly in concrete situations where vaccination was involved. This is shown by his statements to doctors in 1924 on the subject as well as his behaviour during the smallpox epidemic in Berlin in 1917 during the First World War, reported by the stenographer Hedda Hummel. In 1924 Steiner was asked by practising doctors what anthroposophy had to say about vaccination. Steiner told them how, during his time as a tutor with the Specht family in Vienna, he exposed himself to the risk of contracting hemorrhagic smallpox, which had afflicted the mother of his pupils. He had relied on being resilient enough to defy infection: one could minimise the risk of infection through fearlessness, he argued to the doctors. In other words, a positive mental attitude strengthened the immune system in his view – as indeed resilience theory advocates today.

No fanaticism
However, Steiner also pointed out to the doctors that in areas where the population is definitely afraid of infection, “educational measures” in this direction were pointless. “You just have to vaccinate there. There is nothing else you can do,” Steiner emphasised. For “fanatically opposing these things is what I would not recommend at all, not for medical but for general anthroposophical reasons,” he added. It was “completely absurd” to proceed with such fanaticism in specific instances. During the First World War, Steiner was confronted with the smallpox epidemic in Berlin – also in his immediate environment. As Marie Steiner reports, Steiner had made the large art room of his flat in Motzstrasse and its adjoining rooms available for a children’s nursery, and he himself lived in rooms in the back of the house during his stays in Berlin. At that time, Steiner commuted between Dornach and Berlin. With the outbreak of smallpox in Berlin, the question now arose of how to protect children and residents. Schools and kindergartens in Berlin were already vaccinating at that time. Hedda Hummel reports on this: “Dr. Steiner ordered that the children in our nursery be vaccinated as well, and also the people who went in and out of the nursery.” Steiner himself and his wife had also had themselves vaccinated, the stenographer continues. Steiner had suffered from the side effects of the vaccination – just like all the other vaccinated people, mostly women. They often rubbed their aching arms, which had been affected by the smallpox vaccination, which Steiner also did. Thus a joke had circulated in Motzstrasse that Dr Steiner was “joining in the women’s movement”.

Pragmatic approach
Against the background of these reports, we can ask ourselves where Steiner’s place would be today, at the time of the coronavirus pandemic. Certainly not with the anti-vaxxers and coronavirus deniers, for as stated above, he spoke out against a “fanatical approach”. He would look at the new vaccination technologies – mRNA and vector-based – with great interest, as they serve medical progress, but he would reject compulsory vaccination. And as to whether he would have himself vaccinated or trust in his own resilience to COVID-19? Here, too, one can draw one’s conclusions with a look at Steiner’s biography: as a young tutor in Vienna in the 1880s, Steiner – then still under 30 years old – relied on his own resilience. In wartime Berlin, in his mid-50s, he preferred to rely on the smallpox vaccination, which also protected the children in the Waldorf nursery. Thus in the current controversy about vaccination and corona measures it is basically only the pragmatists who can invoke Rudolf Steiner. More ...