library news - portlandanthroposophy.org€¦ · 07/08/2013  · positive side of a choleric...

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Newsletter of the Portland Branch of Anthroposophical Society www.PortlandAnthroposophy.org Volume 109, August 2013 LIBRARY NEWS Last week the branch Library received a donation of 102 books from Marion Van Namen. This brings us to a total of 1,475 books. Most of these new books are titles that we did not already have. Marion is a music therapist and there were many books of a psychological nature, and many Dutch books. These are the first Dutch books in the library and constitute the second most books of any language in our collection. Marion Said she could use the space the books took up, and by donating them to us she could always borrow them if she wanted them. Marion, thank you for this donation. And thanks to Jannebeth Roell her for help in cataloging these books. ~Tom Klein THE GLYPH OF LEO BY DONNA KELLUM From mid August to mid September the sun in Leo is moving to the south. The bright light of summer is dulled by damp autumn air and the coming storms. One of the lines of the Cancer glyph has, as Klocek describes it, "burst free into a kind of swagger". From the tiny beginning circle -"seed" in Cancer, a whole new seed is now sprouting in Leo as the mirror image of the plant that produced it, except it appears to be reaching out now on its own, sensing into unforeseen dimensions, stretching beyond itself as it takes root. Leo stands directly opposite Aquarius in the Zodiac circle. Man, descending from spiritual realms, first made his sensory appearance when the sun stood in Aquarius. Remember the Aquarius glyph of two waves flowing gently in a cadence? In the stirrings of spring the forces of heaven and earth come together in alignment. Now for the first time since that setting of spring in Aquarius, the Leo glyph shows us a parabola, or reflex curve, as a mathematical image hovering in a new kind of sensory dynamism between the material and spiritual worlds. It's a physical manifestation of the anciently derived "quadratic equation", which expresses this new relationship between spiritual activity and material form. In Man: Hieroglyph of the Universe: Lecture 3, Steiner described this new relationship as the "plane of Will, the plane of the Zodiac itself [the plane of Leo opposite Aquarius]", separating us materially from our past, yet recapturing its memory in a new representational form. In mathematics, a quadratic equation maps a connection between more than two things in dynamic relationship, such as in the dynamic vortex of Cancer, for example. This mapping allows the relationships to be plotted into a 3-D that captures the relational dynamic as completely as it is possible to capture it in “frozen”matter. (continued on p. 2) The Portland Branch of the Anthroposophical Society invites you to Save The Date! Thomas Meyer, of Basel Switzerland Friday, September 13: The Temple legend and its completion by Rudolf Steiner Saturday, September 14: The Twelve Cosmic Viewpoints Sunday, September 15: The Michael School All lectures at 7:30 pm, Bothmer Hall Sunday, September 29, 7pm: Michaelmas Celebration: In Search of the Michael Impulse The First Class will not meet in August For more information about these branch-sponsored events, and other events and initiatives in our community, see the calendar section of this newsletter or visit the branch website.

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Page 1: LIBRARY NEWS - portlandanthroposophy.org€¦ · 07/08/2013  · positive side of a choleric raging-lion nature, for example, lies in its transformative higher expression of warmth

Newsletter of the Portland Branch of Anthroposophical Society www.PortlandAnthroposophy.org Volume 109, August 2013

LIBRARY NEWS

Last week the branch Library received a donation of 102 books from Marion Van Namen. This brings us to a total of 1,475 books. Most of these new books are titles that we did not already have. Marion is a music therapist

and there were many books of a psychological nature, and many Dutch books. These are the first Dutch books in the library and constitute the second most books of any language in our collection.

Marion Said she could use the space the books took up, and by donating them to us she could always borrow them if she wanted them. Marion, thank you for this donation. And thanks to Jannebeth Roell her for help in cataloging these books.

~Tom Klein

THE GLYPH OF LEO

BY DONNA KELLUM

From mid August to mid September the sun in Leo is moving to the south. The bright light of summer is dulled by damp autumn air and the coming

storms. One of the lines of the Cancer glyph has, as Klocek describes it, "burst free into a kind of swagger". From the tiny beginning circle -"seed" in Cancer, a whole new seed is now sprouting in Leo as the mirror image of the plant that produced it, except it appears to be reaching out now on its own, sensing into unforeseen dimensions, stretching beyond itself as it takes root. Leo stands directly opposite Aquarius in the Zodiac circle. Man, descending from spiritual realms, first made his sensory appearance when the sun stood in Aquarius. Remember the Aquarius glyph of two waves flowing gently in a cadence? In the stirrings of spring the

forces of heaven and earth come together in alignment. Now for the first time since that setting of spring in Aquarius, the Leo glyph shows us a parabola, or reflex curve, as a mathematical image hovering in a new kind of sensory dynamism between the material and spiritual worlds. It's a physical manifestation of the anciently derived "quadratic equation", which expresses this new relationship between spiritual activity and material form. In Man: Hieroglyph of the Universe: Lecture 3, Steiner described this new relationship as the "plane of Will, the plane of the Zodiac itself [the plane of Leo opposite Aquarius]", separating us materially from our past, yet recapturing its memory in a new representational form. In mathematics, a quadratic equation maps a connection between more than two things in dynamic relationship, such as in the dynamic vortex of Cancer, for example.

This mapping allows the relationships to be plotted into a 3-D that captures the relational dynamic as completely as it is possible to capture it in “frozen”matter. (continued on p. 2)

The Portland Branch of the Anthroposophical Society invites you to

Save The Date!

Thomas Meyer, of Basel Switzerland

• Friday, September 13: The Temple legend and its completion by Rudolf Steiner

• Saturday, September 14: The Twelve Cosmic Viewpoints

• Sunday, September 15: The Michael School

All lectures at 7:30 pm, Bothmer Hall

Sunday, September 29, 7pm: Michaelmas Celebration: In Search of the Michael Impulse

The First Class will not meet in August

For more information about these branch-sponsored events, and other events and initiatives in our community, see the calendar section of this newsletter or visit the branch website.

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Volume 109, August 2013 Newsletter of the Portland Branch of the Anthroposophical Society 1 Leo brings us out of the spiraling motion of Cancer into a greater sensory awareness of 3-dimensional earthly realities expressed as moments in time, as the 4th dimension. While that dynamic can have many unknowns, they are limited in a quadratic equation to what can be expressed on a square grid as a parabola. Leonardo da Vinci captured this idea with his drawing of Vitruvian Man, balancing himself between the cosmic sphere and the earthly square. At every moment of the parabola's story, images everywhere in nature show a relationship between plan and being that gets expressed in an unfolding process, in a growth pattern that is not strictly bound to the material. The beauty and simplicity of a rainbow plots for us a quadratic equation in which we see, in a slice of reality, the formative forces of a cosmic etheric arch expressed in visible physical parabolic dimensions. All light entering a parabola, in parallel with its axis of symmetry, is reflected in a way that lets us see how the vertex of the parabola acts like a focus for the shaping of matter out of the etheric field.

We can consider the parabola of Leo as a young shoot that is growing as it's reaching out and sensing its environment. It has a certain inherited form and at the same time it has a relationship in time with spirit to unfold according to its karma. Every moment of Leo is one of sensation, of actually feeling the relationship between spirit and matter and struggling to express it in harmony through the growth of one's own being. Note the red Leo-parabolic glyph superimposed on the pharyngeal arch of a human embryo at the 4th week, and how that arch sprouts out as its bodily being, defining a series of smaller arches within it that will

evolve into the oral cavity, palate and throat, and so forth. SOUND GESTURE: Leo gives us the T and D-gestures, both of which, in their human expression in sound, involve the tongue touching the upper palate--the material world coming into sensory contact with the heavenly arc of a parabola. T is the first gesture of ego activity in the blood physiology. We have seen this ego activity in the "I" (ee) breathing itself free within the central axis of negative space in the Cancer vortex. The Leo T-ee gesture is expressed eurythmically in the metabolic limbs of the arms up-reaching with fingertips coming down to make contact with the center line of the parabolic arc of the convex skull (that rises up to meet it), the point at which spirit and matter touch in materialization. Then in the “D”-gesture, the two arms come down with outstretched hands, as if to touch/sense the earth sphere. Like a rainbow that “touches” two points on earth, a parabola that intersects a plane, the D-gesture captures the movement of spirit through matter within the concave aspect of the material side of the etheric cosmic arch.

In the T and D sound gestures then, we can experience a “breathing” back and forth between etheric imagination and concrete intellect. Breathing between spirit and matter incorporates into human nature both the warmth in blood (spirit infusing into matter) as it circulates the ego through an independent astral body, as well as the beginning of the human heart, as material formed vortically through blood out of spirit (see Frank Chester’s work), to rhythmically sense our resistances/challenges in the physical realm, and keep our soul in balance. As we achieve and maintain soul balance, our blood processes warm with the ego-energy of the T-gesture. We can experience ourselves as

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Volume 109, August 2013 Newsletter of the Portland Branch of the Anthroposophical Society 2 personalities (beings with historically derived identities in time) because Leo's cosmic/karmic-memory capacity for this has been lying in our soul with a dull clairvoyant consciousness, like a sleeping lion, since the Saturn stage of planetary evolution. In an act of cosmic representation, memory and conscience are activated in our thinking processes to the extent that the T-gesture of “in-spiring” ego activity meets the D-gesture of our “ex-spiring” sensory capacity --the lens through which we see ourselves and the world. Every human astral quality the ego meets has by nature two opposing aspects that complement one another. The positive side of a choleric raging-lion nature, for example, lies in its transformative higher expression of warmth. To grasp and evolve this antithesis over time, requires us to activate our memory-connection to the real meaning and purpose of our life, through “awakening” a sensory apparatus that came into dormant being with our densification in matter. The ancients did not need to discern the Divine through concepts and ideas because the underlying natural order of the universe came through them. They breathed God in and out and then expressed the Name/Word/Logos/TAO of what they in-spired in a sound. Today, the Leo forces send us on the long road back to that realm now with consciousness, where we may begin to know it for ourselves. T, the gesture that awakens the ego, is also the initiating sound gesture of the TAO. To “become one with the Tao,” to achieve “effortless action,” is the object of spiritual-meditative and moral practice in Taoism. The TAO that can be named, of course, is not the TAO, and yet today one of the exercises we have for achieving a soul-sense experience of spirit, that surpasses the illusory world of our senses, and brings the ego to waking consciousness, is the practicing of the primary soul-sounds of the three main vowels to which we give expression in naming the TAO: I-A-O. "Stand upright" were Steiner's words to eurythmy students, who then tried to experience a column, with the balls of their feet as its base, and their forehead as its capital. "Learn to experience this column, this uprightness, as "I" ('ee') … the consolidation of your spiritual being within yourself.” Just to the front of the physical experience of standing upright, he told them, is a distinct feeling activity within this column of light. The sound of the ‘ee’ activates the inner-experience of a vertical impulse, as we identify ourselves with our own true self. This is something of how the meditation and eurythmy exercise begins. The whole structure and sequence of the three vowel speech sounds correspond to the three soul-forces of wonder (I-"ee"), love (A-"ah") and conscience (O "oh"). We can begin to recognize these in our inner soul-life as sound-gestures to regain spiritual awareness through our

senses in thinking, feeling and willing activities as we meet the world. In this way we harmonize the will with the primordial essence of Nature in order to evolve through the counter-actions that every D-gesture of sense activity unavoidably creates, as a natural development out of the "I"- being within the limitations of matter.

BODY PARTS: The region of the heart, which defines the inner life of man, developed when Saturn was under Leo. The "lion people" are described in Steiner's Reading the Pictures of the Apocalypse: Part 2, Lecture 3, in context with the four group souls of ancient times, as the powerful and aggressive ones who developed their etheric body, heart and blood circulation the most. In it’s purr, a lion is masterful at experiencing a rhythmic relationship between its heart and lungs, building harmonics in the cavity of its throat and chest that rhythmically aligns the inflow-outflow of air with its heartbeat. Our heart-lung rhythmic system continues to be challenged to bring these breathing processes of the lion to higher expression --as in the great power that lies in being resonantly in touch with one’s feelings in every moment. The human heart houses the spirit and has to adapt through breathing to all sorts of life experiences/conditions. The bronchi invest down into us from above, like an upside down tree, with our larynx and pharyngeal columns as the root. Each “branch” ends in a little bulbous “bud” that directly connects blood with incoming air. At that space, the blood and the heart have a window on “tasting” the world, bringing it into direct experience for processing, and presenting us with the challenge of developing a higher sensory capacity for taking in our environment. The “lion” is always in touch with its relationship with its blood (and thus ego), giving the idea of being “blood-thirsty” a whole new meaning. the blood pulses up toward the mouth in hunger, gluttony, craving, avarice, selfishness, etc., the breath pulsing down can potentially spiritualize it to a higher calling. Deep inner satisfaction can accompany the inner mastery at this reciprocal crossing of these opposing forces in continual rhythmic interplay. The interface of spiritual and material processes, in breathing and digestion, involves an alchemical transmutation of hydrogen (fire) in its etherization of the blood. ATP, carried in the blood, provides a font of energy by using hydrogen bonds of water to liberate warmth into human metabolism, at the same time that it mediates hydrogen flow to the stomach for purposes of digestion as HCL. With the fiery capacity of ancient Saturn to dissolve matter and re-expose it to the world, hydrogen (the gas that burns) moves the human ego in the blood from the primal realm to that of human warmth as its foundation -- to "lift toward the upper Man what was more animalistic lower down,

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Volume 109, August 2013 Newsletter of the Portland Branch of the Anthroposophical Society 3 transforming it into a truly human element, one that moves in the direction of mental picturing [as "food for thought"] and supports the development of the thinking apparatus" (Steiner, August 8, 1920). We feel warmth as something belonging to us when we stretch out our hands and arms as extensions of our heart to touch something or someone. And with our sense of warmth, when that warmth streams back towards us, we feel something inside. Each of us, with every breath we take back and forth between intellect and imagination, is preserving "the heart of the world" in the warmth of our blood. A continual transformation of the blood warming in our heart streams upwards towards our head. Its flow can be perceived clairvoyantly as the aura of memory--rays of light shining continually from the heart towards the head during all our waking hours. Convolutions (parabolas) of gray matter build up in the uppermost part of our body where the dynamic reciprocity of energy currents coursing upwards is pressed back the least. Our soul sense of inner warmth, the spiritualized fire associated with Leo, becomes involved with our thoughts, memory and sleep, opening us more to the world non-materially and giving us more heart in our thinking, so we might connect more deeply with the “I” being of another. In the spirit world then, the lion forces are a good guide for opening ourselves to life, for monitoring the rhythm of our breath while staying connected with deep heart issues, and for experiencing the blood as an opportunity for learning, and healing, through surrender. Studies support that specific frequencies of different cat purrs have healing properties, including bone healing. Electrographs of the sinus rhythm of the heart are composed of parabolic images, which resemble the curve of the lion's mouth. CULTURAL EPOCH: As ancient Earth evolved through the non-physical "pralaya" or seed stage of its development, known as old Saturn, it “peaked” at the elemental condition of fire or warmth, then "died" into the next stage of planetary evolution, referred to as Old Sun. From these beginnings, the spiritual beings of the Zodiac comprise a single entity which remains alive in the astral world as twelve animal group-souls.

As the Virtue of Lion-courage within the human ego springs fearlessly to earth and continues to evolve

within the red blood of each individual human being, humanity as a whole maintains a spiritual connection while becoming ever more deeply entrenched in the material sense world. The fourth of seven degrees in Christian Initiation practice, called the Lion in the Mysteries, was reached when one’s consciousness could extend beyond the bounds of individuality, over a whole tribal stock.

Humanity's sense-based cultural development of both the alphabet and mathematics has given us concrete experiences of continuing connection with the spiritual world. In ancient days Man came to know Truth through the alphabet. He knew instinctively that the consonants he uttered were cosmic sounds coming from his inner nature to express his own stellar relationship to Spirit, and he knew that each being communicated his own true name in a definite sound or tone. And as the epochs progressed through Lemurian and Atlantean times, and men gained the earth-bound consciousness needed to note the movements of the planets, with their being they created vowels, voicing the "A" (ah) or the "I" (ee)-harmonies of the planetary spheres (of consciousness). Through this sensory vocalization they grasped an instinctual awareness of their material descent to earth, adding harmonies to the sound-gesture of their cosmic name in relation to the zodiacal origins of their passage. The various groupings into the "root races" were first conceived by men who were instinctively aware that how they harmonized with the universal all-embracing Word or Logos would constitute how they had descended to material form. These harmonies, in which we can hear the voice of all beings, were called by both Plato and Pythagoras alike, the ‘Music of the Spheres,’ as the living, Cosmic Word. Pythagoras taught that mathematical entities, such as numbers and shapes, were the ultimate stuff out of which the real entities of our perceptual experience are constructed, such as our concepts of the real world as exhibiting the evolution of our ideas. While in Egypt, Pythagoras began a lifelong study of math and geometry, which he believed would lead to the essence of things. For the ancient Egyptians, for example, the number four was the basis of eternal stability. Both Pythagoras' mathematical formulas in the sixth century BCE and those of Plato in the fifth century BCE generated triples using a square and triples to solve quadratic equations. The smallest and best known Pythagorean triple is the right triangle. The union of the three bodies -- the physical, etheric and astral-- with the Ego was then venerated by Pythagoras in the sign of the Tetragram as shown below. Tetraktys in Greek means "fourness", the root of ever-flowing nature regarded as the expression of Divinity, and the Hebrew letters translate to the four

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Volume 109, August 2013 Newsletter of the Portland Branch of the Anthroposophical Society 4 consonants,YHVH meaning Yahveh, the ineffable name of God. Leonardo da Vinci used the fourness of the Tetragram as inspiration for his drawing of the Vitruvian Man, within the square as denoting "universal manifestation" and within the cosmic circle as expressing the perfection and harmony of the three-fold human body. Plato taught that the essential property of mathematical thinking is that Truth does not lie within any single material, sense-perceptible form (a circle, parabola, square, etc.), but in the way that image leads us beyond itself to a comprehensive spiritual fact. Plato presented projective geometry exercises to his students as ways to think about something the senses could perceive, but at the same time not to think in terms of sense-perception in order to know spiritual truths. Today, as then, those mathematical forms do not serve as metaphors but as a distinct order and lawfulness by which visualized memories/ideas can be taken into our sleep. And what then comes to awareness upon awakening are the various self-serving ideas and beliefs we were holding subconsciously. By using the first steps in mathematical knowledge, we can stimulate our soul-forces to spiritually transcend our sense-based perceptions. This was the all-important point for Plato--to engage the senses in order to work with mathematical figures so that one could think independently of the senses, transcend the world of images and come to know Pure Truth. Similarly, Socrates envisioned human beings as having three animals inside them: a multi-headed beast, a lion, and a human. For Socrates, unjust behavior feeds the beast and the lion, and starves the human being. It also fails to accustom the three parts to one another and leaves them as enemies. In the just person, the human takes care of the beast like a farm animal, feeding and domesticating it, while also making an ally of the lion, in the service of human development.

WORLDVIEW: The Sensualism/Sensationism of Leo maintains that world reality consists of sensations and strives to explain everything, from man’s perceptions to world politics, through what the intellect is able to cognize out of what the senses are able to observe--without necessarily seeking a connection with the supersensible. Still, our capacity to really know the world can come not by denying our sensuality, but

rather by expanding it, by allowing our soul to become permeated by Leo forces. The human soul is not a vague, nebulous something, but an essential part of our being, consisting of three distinct members within which the Ego is actively engaged: Sentient Soul, Intellectual/Mind Soul, Consciousness Soul. The Ego created the Sentient Soul at a time when we lacked the degree of consciousness needed for transmuting our own instincts and passions; then the Ego created the Intellectual/Mind Soul to work in our etheric body, and finally, the inner Consciousness Soul to work in our physical body. From our physical-sense perceptions, our lower ego/intellect receives impressions that create our lower mental state of feelings, which flow upward continuously from our heart to our brain as an etheric stream which then meets another stream flowing downward from the intellectual soul and consciousness soul. Christ was called "the Lion of the stem of David" because with lion courage and balance in his soul-life, he transcended the subjective sense-based world by maintaining inner harmony with the objectivity of his I-consciousness. Ever since the Mystery of Golgotha, Christ's etherized blood has lived in the Earth's ether, permeating all its physical the intellect alone can surmise from the senses, but from both etheric currents which meet in the brain with a tension demanding discharge, by imprinting as a memory (concept) picture in the evolving etheric body. The positive side of the lion-raging aspect of our passions lies not in its annihilation, then, but in its purification, a leading upwards through the chaos and congestion of the sentient/sensation body to a higher stage. The Pythagoreans argued this long ago, that Pure knowledge is the purification (catharsis) of the soul, which means striving to rise above what we think we know based upon the immediacy of our material senses. In conscious meditative practices that make us slow ourselves down, slow our breath, cause our heart to slow down blood flow throughout the body, we open the portal to "sensing" with our blood in new conscious and internal ways, and increase our capacity for reaching a conclusion different from what our purely externally-based senses might tell us about forming or transforming our being and the world.

The Twelve Moods: Leo

Stream through with senses’ power Developed world-existence, Perceptive beinghood To firm resolve to be. In streaming glow of life, In stress of growth’s becoming, With senses’ power arise!

~ Rudolf Steiner,12 verses for Eurythmy performance: Dornach, August 29, 1915

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Volume 109, August 2013 Newsletter of the Portland Branch of the Anthroposophical Society 5

The Portland Anthroposophic Times is published monthly to serve Branch members and friends. To learn more about the Portland Branch of the Anthroposophical Society, contact Diane Rumage at 971-271-7479.

To submit an article or a calendar item, email it to both Valerie Hope, [email protected] and Wes Burch, [email protected], The deadline for submissions is the 15

th of the month. Items selected

for publication may be edited for style, content and length. To sign up for our email list, or contact the Branch Council, go to http://www.portlandbrnch.org/contact

Newsletter co-editors are Wes Burch & Valerie Hope, Seth Miller is our webmaster, and Ruth Klein is our accountant.

The newsletter and calendar are posted on the Branch website, www.portlandanthroposophy.org. Paper copies are available at the Takacs, Pohala and Healthbridge Clinics; and the Cedarwood & Portland Waldorf Schools, and Swallowtail School. The newsletter will be online only in August

The Portland Branch thanks the following Members & Friends for their Dues and The Portland Branch thanks the following Members & Friends for their Dues and The Portland Branch thanks the following Members & Friends for their Dues and The Portland Branch thanks the following Members & Friends for their Dues and Generous Donations in 2012Generous Donations in 2012Generous Donations in 2012Generous Donations in 2012----13!13!13!13! Cyndia Ashkar, Chrystal Brim, Sandra Burch, Wes Burch, Lesley Cox Yvonne DeMaat, Mia Ellers, Ron Ennis, Sacha Etzel, Charles Forester, Valerie Hope, Lauren Johnson, Marsha Johnson, Tish Johnson, Bob Kellum, Ruth Klein, Tom Klein, Kathy Kremer, James Lee, Robin Lieberman, Regina Loos, Cheri Munske, Robin O’Brien, Donna Patterson, Timothy Popof, Padeen Quinn, Jeff Rice, Walter Rice, Jannebeth Roell, Twila Rothrock, Diane Rumage, Chiaki Uchiyama. Please submit your Branch membership dues ($50) each January,

or your donations, to: The Portland Branch c/o Ruth Klein, 3609 SE Center, Portland, OR 97202

The Mission of Rudolf Steiner

Excerpted from an essay by Dr. Ernst

Katz, 2004. For the entire essay, which can make great summer reading, go to: http://www.rsarchive.org/RelAuthors/KatzErnst/AGM_Address.php

Did Rudolf Steiner ever actually state what he considered to be his mission? In his autobiography he describes eloquently and sensitively all the people he met and what they felt as their mission, but nothing about his own mission. Of course, his autobiography covers the period only up to 1907, and most of his esoteric work came later. But once, on his sickbed, only a couple of weeks before he died, he wrote a poem that tells what he felt as his mission. Unlike many other poems he wrote during his creative life (which start typically with “The light of the sun,” or “The sphere of spirit is the soul's true home”) this last verse is a declaration of his Will, what he wanted to accomplish against the odds of the forces that want to degrade the human being to the level of being merely a thing, a thing that can be fashioned to specifications, that is bound by external rules, and can be discarded after being used. The human thing. This verse starts with the words “I want ...” (Ich möchte ...):

I want with cosmic spirit To enthuse each human being That a flame they may become And fiery will unfold The essence of their being.

The other ones, they strive To take from cosmic waters What will extinguish flames And pour paralysis Into all inner being.

O joy, when human being's flame Is blazing, even when at rest. O bitter pain, when the human thing Is put in bonds, when it wants to stir.

~ Rudolf Steiner

Telephone Study Course Available

With Ann Watson of Vancouver, Canada

These courses are designed for anyone, but can be especially helpful for people who are not able to get to study groups, but would like to study the books of Rudolf Steiner or other Anthroposophical writers.

It is a one-to-one meeting of the minds over the phone! Improve your knowledge and articulation through conversation and reading out loud. Reading from the New Testament is an opening to the main study material.

Ann Watson has been a member of the Anthroposophical Society for over 30 years and has been offering telephone study courses for more than five years. References are available on request. The cost of the calls is covered by Ann’s telephone package, but donations are gratefully accepted. Please call 250-653-4184 for more information.

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Volume 109, August 2013 Newsletter of the Portland Branch of the Anthroposophical Society 6

THE FARMER’S MARKET

BY ROBERT KELLUM PORTLAND, 6-22-13

At the farmer’s market in Portland,

It’s a beautiful vibrant day. We could be in Philly on 9th Street,

Or Perralta in Santa Fe.

But we’re here at the Hollywood Market, And the air is alive and fresh.

We could be at Carmel in Tel Aviv, Or Medina in Marrakesh.

People are carrying sickles and knives

To be sharpened, yet no one’s concerned. We could be at de Cuyp in Amsterdam,

Or Wochenmarkt in Lucerne.

Are you getting this? Can you feel it? There’s a breath of life in the air.

We could be in Yangshuo’s Fuli town. We could be in Tehran’s Four Square.

Here in this public kitchen,

Transcending space and time, There’s a moment free from terror and war,

From hate and fear and crime.

There’s a guy with guitar and harmonica. There’s a lively marimba band.

There are kids with painted faces, And colored balloons in their hands.

There’s a small girl playing a cello.

There’s a guy on a bike with one wheel. This could be Borough Market in London,

Or Marche at Raspail or Bastille.

There are mushrooms of every persuasion, Rainbow chard, purple kale, fava beans.

There are four year old ballerinas, From the dance class at Miss ilene’s

There are berries, and cherries and peaches,

Piled high under colorful tents. This could be Barcelona’s Boqueria,

Or the market in old St Laurent.

Will you sign the petition to finance the arts, Stop GMO’s, and end the war?

Will you pause for a brief reflection, To consider what we’ve come here for?

Are you getting this? Can you feel it?

There’s an energy thick in the air. Like a shut up room that’s been opened;

Like a day at a Country Fair.

Baguettes stick up like bagpipes, From colorful handbags and packs. There’s a farmer selling duck eggs,

And jerky from bison and yaks. There are home-made candies, kombucha and wines,

New starts of basil and snap pea vines, Sauces and pickles and jams for gourmets,

Freshly caught salmon, floral bouquets.

There’s a girl with no bra in a skimpy T-shirt. No one’s in danger, no one is hurt.

Small children ponder a case full of bees, There are samples of pita with bits of goat cheese

There are smells of tamales, Crepes, quiche, and curries,

There are moms out with strollers, Who chat without hurry.

Begging for money, a man with his dog,

Reads Brautigan ‘s Revenge of the Lawn. Here for a moment, no one is homeless,

No one’s alone or withdrawn.

Children are singing, dogs bark, sniffing A man in a goriila suit.

We could be in El Galpon Mercado, Or Souk el Tayeb in Beirut.

Are you getting this? Can you feel it? There’s a moment of hope in the air.

This eternal public kitchen, That’s nowhere,

and everywhere.

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Volume 109, August 2013 Newsletter of the Portland Branch of the Anthroposophical Society 7

Portland Branch Council Meeting Monday, August 12, 7-9 pm • 2606 SE 58th Ave. Contact 503-775-0778 • email [email protected].

All Branch members are welcome to attend, and/or to call us with agenda items, proposals, suggestions, or to observe. Meetings are on the second Monday of each month.

First Class of the School of Spiritual Science The Class will not meet in August.• 9:30 am sharp • Bothmer Hall, 5919 SE Division St, Portland, 97206, Contact Diane Rumage at 971-271-7479 or Cheri Munske at 503 772-2632 Blue card required. Second Sunday of each month

Thomas Meyer on Three Important Topics: The Michael School;The Twelve Word Views; and The Temple Legend Friday Sept. 13, The Temple Legend and its Completion by Rudolf Steiner; Saturday Sept. 14, The Twelve Cosmic Viewpoints; & Sunday September 15, The Michael School • 7:30-9pm • Bothmer Hall, 5919 SE Division St., Portland • $15/lecture, $40 all three evenings; Portland Branch members $12/lecture, $36 all three evenings. Pre-registration not required. No one will be turned away because of finances. • For more information contact Tom Klein at 503-777-3176 or [email protected]

The Friday lecture will take a look at the legend which touches upon the mystery of evil and its transformation into a higher good. On Saturday, both examples and exercises of the twelve cosmic views and seven cognitional moods will be considered. The purpose will not be to gather theoretical information, but to make our thinking both more exact and more versatile, which can become the basis of the social tolerance which is needed so desperately today. On Sunday we will look at three phases of the Michael school, and consider the question: How should we relate today to the class lessons?

Michaelmas Painting Workshop: A Passion for Color, with Cheri Munske Saturday, September 28, 10 am – 2 pm • Bothmer Hall, 5915 SE Division St. • For questions and to register contact Cheri at 503-484-4133 or [email protected] .

German Expressionist painter Emil Nolde brought a Michaelic impulse into the world through his pioneering artistic work. The workshop will include a biography of Nolde and painting exercises based on his South Sea sketches. $55 includes materials and snack.

In Search of the Michael Impulse – Michaelmas Observance Sunday, September 29 (Michaelmas), 7pm • Bothmer Hall, 5919 SE Division St. • contact Timothy Popoff, [email protected]

All Souls Observance Saturday, November 2, 7:30 pm • Bothmer Hall, 5915 SE Division St. • For more information or to get involved contact Valerie Hope, [email protected]

Beginning Anthroposophy with Tom Klein Wednesdays October 2 through December 11 (except November 27), 7:30 pm -9pm • place tba • Cost $60 including text • contact Tom at [email protected]

This class is for those who know little or nothing about Anthroposophy. They may not even be able to pronounce it. The class will provide an overview of the basics with suggestions for further study.

Easter Sunday Observance Sunday, April 20, 7:30 pm • Bothmer Hall, 5915 SE Division St.

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Council Meetings of the Portland Branch • Second Monday of the month 7-9 PM 2606 SE 58th Ave., Portland • Contact Valerie Hope, (503) 775-0778, [email protected]

All Branch members are welcome to attend, and/or to call us with agenda items, proposals, suggestions, or to observe.

First Class of the School of Spiritual Science • Second Sunday of the month No August Meeting 9:30 am sharp • Bothmer Hall, 5919 SE Division St, Portland, 97206 • Blue card required. Contact Diane Rumage at 971-271-7479 or Cheri Munske at 503 772-2632

Portland Branch Calendar August 2013

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Volume 109, August 2013 Newsletter of the Portland Branch of the Anthroposophical Society 8

First Class Study • Second and Fourth Tuesday of the month • Blue card required 7:30-9pm • Contact Tom Klein, 777-3176, [email protected].

This group works with the contents of the First Class.

Anthroposophical Course for Young Doctors • First Tuesday of the month 7-8:30 pm • Pohala Clinic, 12050 SE Holgate Blvd. • contact Julie Foster 503-572-4196, [email protected]

Karmic Relationships Study • First and third Thursday of the month 7-9:30 pm • Contact James Lee, 503-249-3804, [email protected] This group will not meet in July and August

The study group will continue working with lectures from the Karmic Relationships lecture cycle and applying Rudolf Steiner’s

karma exercises.

Singing Classes with Vladimir Baba • Friday Evenings beginning July 5 7 pm – 8 pm • Bothmer Hall, 5919 SE Division St, Portland, 97206 • $40 per session • contact Vladimir Baba at 503-515-1771 or email [email protected]

I will be offering singing classes to members of the Portland Branch, or anyone else in town interested in cultivating their God-given instrument, the human voice. I am a classically trained singer and over the years have performed operatic and art song works of the masters world-wide. I have also given numerous performances as fund-raisers to benefit Waldorf Schools and other not for profit institutions throughout the world.

The Spiritual Hierarchies and the Physical World • First and third Tuesdays 7:30-9 pm • 3046 NE 33rd Ave. • contact Donna Patterson and Bob Kellum, 503-331-7393 • All are welcome

Mystery Dramas with Speech-Formation Exercises – 2n d & 4 t h Wednesdays 7:30-9:00 pm in SW Portland • Starting anew on March 13, 2013 with Steiner’s 4th Mystery Drama, “The Soul’s Awakening” • Beginners Welcome • Contact Diane Rumage by e-mail at [email protected] or by phone at 971-271-7479

Portland Waldorf School Community Choir • Friday Mornings 8:45-10:15 am • Portland Waldorf School, 2300 SE Harrison St., Milwaukie, in the Orchard Room Free. Contact Marion Van Namen,

503-956-4046

Waldorf Education and Teacher Training Lectures and Courses Conducted throughout the year by the Micha-el Institute. Contact John Miles, 503-774-4946 [email protected]

Waldorf Teacher Education, Eugene September-June • Eugene Waldorf School • Now enrolling for September, 2013 Foundation Year Contact Lee Ann Ernandes @ message phone, 541-686-9112

Preparing Waldorf teachers for their future vocation since 1990.

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! (Shepherd’s Play Update)

Calling all able folk to join in a traditional seasonal pageant – The Shepherd’s Play – the story of the birth of the Child of Light told simply in verse and song. The cast of players is coming together. We are still looking for shepherds and innkeepers and those that want to sing in the merry chorus at intervals throughout the play. Contact Sandra or Wes Burch 503 353-1818 or [email protected]. Don’t miss your chance to be part of this humble vignette celebrating the Nativity.

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Volume 109, August 2013 Newsletter of the Portland Branch of the Anthroposophical Society 9

Embryo In Motion: Understanding Ourselves as Embryo

4-DVD Set Now Available With Jaap van der Wal, PhD, MD This beautiful 4-DVD set was professionally recorded live in Portland, OR, June 3–6, 2010.

To learn more about the 4-DVD set and for instructions on how to order it, go to the “shop” portal on the Portland Branch website at www.PortlandAnthroposophy.org.

You can help support the Portland Branch of the Anthroposophical Society

and

See your business card sized ad here

by contacting

http://www.portlandbranch.org/contact#3

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Beginning Anthropos ophy

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Three Evenings with Thomas Meyer!September 13, 14, 15, 7:30 pm - 9 pmBothmer Hall, 5919 SE Division St., Portland, OR

Thomas Meyer (b. 1950) is a resident of Basel Switzerland, where he is fully engaged in Anthroposophical work as a freelance writer, author of several Anthropsophical books, publisher (see www.perseus.ch), lecturer and teacher of Rudolf Steiner’s legacy of Spiritual Science. Thomas publishes a monthly magazine Der Europaer which includes historical and current events seen from the light of an Anthroposophical world view.

Sponsored by the Portland Branch of the Anthroposophical Society in the Americas

$15/lecture, $40 all three evenings; Portland Branch Members $12/lecture; $36 all three evenings.Pre-registration not required. No one will be turned away because of finances.

Friday, September 13: The Temple legend and its completion by Rudolf SteinerThis lecture will take a look at the legend which touches upon the mystery of evil and its transformation into a higher good. Hiram, its central figure, has to penetrate into the interior of the earth to find Cain as he was before he became a murderer. Cain had been in a state of readiness to sacrifice, which was perverted into the desire to kill. This original Cain’s state is to be regained by us.

Saturday, September 14: The Twelve Cosmic ViewpointsThere are 12 possible world concep-tions, and seven cognitional moods through which we gain knowledge.

We will consider both with examples and exercises. Our purpose will not be to gather theoretical information, but to make our thinking both exact and versatile. Such versatility can become the basis of the social tolerance which is needed so desperately today.

Sunday, September 15: The Michael SchoolWe will look at three phases of the Michael School: The purely supersen-sible school existing through centuries in the spiritual world and culmi-nating in the cosmic cultus around the turn of the 18/19th century; the short phase during which Rudolf Steiner incorporated it on earth, giving the class lessons of the Michael School; and the third phase which again started to take place in the spiritual world after Steiner’s death. We will look at the question: how should we relate today to the class lessons, which are the earthly documents remaining from the second phase?