the Rudolf Steiner Library - Anthroposophical Society in America

What’s Happening in
the Rudolf Steiner Library
Judith Soleil, Library Director British journal Anthroposophical MoveFlying barcodes! Yes, the automation
project proceeds apace. The library’s
online public access catalog at http://
rsl.scoolaid.net now contains searchable
records for nearly 14,000 items, about half
the collection. When visiting the catalog
online, be sure to check out the “News”
section. We are posting book annotations
on the page now as well as events we host
at the library. Also check the “New Items”
page, which lists monthly acquisitions.
Call for volunteer translators! The
library subscribes to a number of Germanlanguage anthroposophical journals with
intriguing contents: Das Goetheanum,
Info3, Flensburger Heft, Der Europäer, Die
Drei, Die Christengemeinschaft. We would
love to share some of the articles from
these journals with English speakers.
Please let us know if you would like to collaborate with us on such a project; we will
provide editorial assistance.
We are looking for back issues of the
ment/News Sheet for Members of the Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain, and
copies of the Rundbrief published by the
Pedagogical Section. Contact us regarding
specific dates needed.
Why books? Are books just a tired, inefficient, outdated medium (ouch!)? Digital
resources are important, particularly
in the sciences, where researchers rely
on up-to-the-minute online journals and
databases. Still, Robert Darnton, director
of Harvard’s university library, predicts
longevity for the book: http://harvardmaga-
zine.com/2010/05/gutenberg-2-0
Book Reviews
by Frederick Dennehy
In this issue we offer Keith Francis’s
review of Metamorphosis: Evolution in
Action, by Andreas Suchantke, one of the
most important books on Goethean science to appear in years. Readers of this
book (and, because it is so incisive and detailed, this review) are likely to come to a
fresh understanding
of metamorphosis as
not only a concept,
I believe that miso belongs to the highest class of medicines,
but as an imaginative
those which help prevent disease and strengthen
activity. Suchantke
emphasizes the need
the body through continued usage. . . Some people speak of
to “escape from the
miso as a condiment, but miso brings out the flavor and
idea of a fixed spatial
form” and cultivate
nutritional value in all foods and helps the body to digest
an intuition of “the
and assimilate whatever we eat. . .
inner line, or, rather,
the time-gestalt of
—Dr. Shinichiro Akizuki,
the whole of evoluDirector, St Francis Hospital, Nagasaki
tion.” In a larger
context, readers
will be challenged
to wean themselves
from the mechanistic habit of focusing
exclusively on what
Aristotle termed
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“efficient cause” and
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for the neglected
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“formal cause” or
“archetype.” Such a
genuinely scientific
approach yields a
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comprehension of
living things and of
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Research Issue 2010
MISO COMPANY
5
the process of change—metamorphosis—
sharply distinguishable from a grasp of the
finished world that physicists investigate.
Also in this issue is my review of Where
On Earth Is Heaven? by Jonathan Stedall,
a warm, honest, and amateur—in the best
sense—inquiry into the meaning of immortality. Readers will be intrigued (and
instructed) by Mr. Stedall’s understanding
of anthroposophy from the periphery of
the movement, and an account of Rudolf
Steiner not from the vantage point of a disciple, but from that of a sympathetic friend.
Book reviews are on p.6 and p.23.
Library Annotations
Brief descriptions of new books available from
the library; annotations this time by Judith Soleil.
Anthroposophy—Rudolf Steiner
Astronomy and Astrology: Finding a
Relationship to the Cosmos, compiled and
edited by Margaret Jonas, Rudolf Steiner
Press, 2009, 250 pgs. Includes notes and a
bibliography.
“Although Steiner rejects the simplistic
notion of the planets determining our lives
and behavior, he makes a clear connection
between the heavenly bodies and human beings…. This…anthology features excerpts of
Steiner’s work on the spiritual individualities
of the planets, the determination of human
characteristics by the constellation at birth,
the cultural epochs and the passage of the
equinox, solar and lunar eclipses…and much
more.” An excellent introduction by Margaret
Annotations continue on p. 62
Rudolf Steiner Library’s borrowing service
is free for Anthroposophical Society in
America members; non-members pay
an annual fee. Borrowers pay round-trip
postage. Requests can be made by mail
(65 Fern Hill Road Ghent, N.Y. 12075),
phone (518-672-7690), fax (518-672-5827),
or e-mail: [email protected]
Book Review / the Rudolf Steiner Library Newsletter
is simply between science and religion. Rather, the division is between
those persons who sense and seek
an intrinsic meaning and purpose in
the world, and two other groups: (1)
those who see any notions of meaning and purpose as the ephemeral
projections of needy humans, determined by a combination of biochemistry and “contingency”; and (2)
those who believe in the existence
of objective purpose and meaning
but think that these are destined to
be realized elsewhere, in a “heaven”
somewhere beyond Earth. That “somewhere” is often conceived
to be on a “thinner” or disembodied plane that is subject nonetheless to “ordinary consciousness”—the same consciousness
that regulates our experiences at ten in the morning on a not
very exciting workday.
Mr. Stedall takes his stand unmistakably on the first side of
this divide, but not as a combatant, a philosopher, or a systematizer. Instead, he reports to us as an observer of long standing
who has seen and inquired into a vast range of human experience. A significant part of that experience is closely related to
anthroposophy.
Mr. Stedall returns again and again to Rudolf Steiner, as a
philosopher, an esotericist, and the source for the creation of
Camphill therapeutic initiatives and Waldorf education. Very
little in these pages could be deemed to be “original” regarding
Steiner, and a fair portion of the commentary is overtly mediated through secondary sources. Mr. Stedall was enormously
impressed with the Camphill movement, which he encountered through his work documenting the Camphill community,
Botton Village, and the school at Camphill Aberdeen. He was
strongly influenced by his nine-month stay at Emerson College
in England, particularly by the scientific method of founder and
principal Francis Edmunds. During that same stay he boycotted all eurythmy classes. While he enrolled both his children in
a Waldorf school, he found the experience there insufficiently
flexible to accommodate the particular interests evinced by his
children when they did not conform to the time frame expected
by the teachers concerned.
But this is not a book for students of Rudolf Steiner or for
participants in the daughter movements of anthroposophy
who want to go deeper. Nor is it a book in which you will find
the struggles and hurdles encountered by a man who at long
last “finds” anthroposophy. What you will find is an intelligent,
intensely curious, and candid thinker who experiences and
digests the insights of Rudolf Steiner along with those of Carl
Jung, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, and many others, albeit with
a partiality toward Steiner. You will find a man fascinated by
the human side of great thinkers and doers. And so he places
Steiner in both surprising and unsurprising company, along
with Tolstoy, Gandhi, Sir Bernard Lovell, Malcolm Muggeridge,
the poet John Betjeman, Laurens van der Post, and many
Where on Earth Is Heaven?
By Jonathan Stedall; Hawthorn Press, 2009, 566 pgs
Review by Frederick J. Dennehy
Books describing an author’s spiritual journey generally tend
toward an ending. Readers find themselves traveling along with
the author and sense in the final pages that a “destination” of
some sort will be reached.
Where on Earth Is Heaven? is not structured in that way. As
Richard Tarnas aptly notes in his foreword, Jonathan Stedall’s
book is more like a fireside chat. His account has the freshness
and honesty of a friend’s impressionistic reminiscences, as well
as the meandering and somewhat repetitious features of informal conversation.
Mr. Stedall’s original intention was to write very little about
himself, and to focus on the people whom he had come to know
and the ideas he had encountered that had influenced him spiritually. Readers
Editor’s Note: by separate routes we
of the first draft
received two reviews of this unusual book.
suggested that
Since they are relatively short and different
the book needed
in character, we are publishing both. The
to be more ausecond review, by Signe Schaefer, follows the
tobiographical;
continuation of this review, on page 59.
consequently,
Mr. Stedall, with some reluctance, extended his account to
include moments from his “own bumpy journey—the downs as
well as the ups.”
“Where on Earth is heaven?” was a question originally asked
many years ago by the author’s then seven-year-old son. This
book is Mr. Stedall’s effort, after a gap of twenty years and his
encounter with serious illness, to answer it. Each of the thirtysix chapters is connected—directly or indirectly—to the possibility and meaning of immortality. The chapters loosely follow
Mr. Stedall’s career as a BBC documentary film producer. His
employer (hard to imagine
this now!) allowed him to
travel—geographically
and spiritually—almost
wherever his most burning
questions dictated.
Mr. Stedall is not a scholar but a producer of films.
He is not a man of personal
visionary experience but a person of natural devotion and
highly focused attention. In the words of Nicolas Malebranche,
“attention is the natural prayer we make to inner truth in order
that it may be revealed in us.”
This book takes its place on one side of a cultural divide
whose fault lines have been visible for a long time and have
been widening at an ever-increasing speed. The topography
of that divide has also altered appreciably since it was delineated by C.P. Snow in The Two Cultures in 1961. The split is not
so much between the scientific method and the humanities
(Geisteswissenschaft), and it would be crude to maintain that it
Review continues on page 59
6
Evolving News
Book Review / the Rudolf Steiner Library Newsletter
Metamorphosis: Evolution in Action
By Andreas Suchantke. Translated by Norman Skillen. Adonis Press, 2009, 324 pgs. Review by Keith Francis
My first impression on receiving the review copy of Metamorphosis was “What a beautiful book!” and the discovery that it
had been printed in China went some way toward erasing recent
impressions of the quality of goods from that country. It is
coffee-table sized and the pictures, most of them by the author,
are an education in themselves; but as we shall see, Metamorphosis is definitely not a coffee-table book.
Andreas Suchantke, who was born in Switzerland in 1933,
taught life sciences at the Rudolf Steiner School in Zurich and
worked extensively in teacher training.
Apart from teaching, his life’s work
has been the development of an ecological understanding of landscapes
and traditional cultures, and he has
published books on tropical South
America, South and East Africa, and Israel and Palestine. In his new book he
shows how the fundamental principles
implicit in Goethe’s scientific work,
together with the insights gained from
a lifetime of studying nature’s ways,
lead to a far-reaching understanding
of the evolution and interrelatedness
of all that lives on Earth. In so doing
he acknowledges his debt to Rudolf
Steiner, and it seems appropriate to
allow Steiner to give us a starting
point with a few words on the subject
of Goethe:
through which it has come to exist…. In nature’s own formations she gets ‘into specific forms as into a blind alley’; one
must go back to what was to have come about if the tendency
had been able to unfold without hindrance…. Not what nature
has created, but according to what principle it has created, is
the important question. And then this principle is to be worked
out as befits its own nature, not as this has occurred in the
single form subject to a thousand natural contingencies. The
artist has to ‘evolve the noble out of the common, the beautiful
out of the misshapen.’
In contemplating the forms of
plants and animals Goethe perceived
a principle of metamorphosis that
enabled him to see each organism
as a unity of interrelated parts. He
expressed his thoughts on plant and
animal morphology in such a way
as to suggest principles of growth
and being that might apply to the
whole process of nature. He saw the
development of the plant as a series
of alternating expansions and contractions: seed, leaves, calyx, corolla,
stamens and pistil, fruit, and, again,
seed. To ask for a physical cause for
the expansions and contractions is,
as Steiner pointed out, to stand the
matter on its head.
Nothing is to be presupposed which
causes the expansion and contraction;
on the contrary, everything else is the
result of this expansion and contraction. It causes a progressive metamorphosis from stage to stage. People are
simply unable to grasp the concept in its very own intuitive
form, but demand that it shall be the result of an external
process. They are able to conceive expansion and contraction
only as caused, not as causing. Goethe does not look upon expansion and contraction as if they were the results of inorganic
processes taking place within the plant, but considers them as
the manner in which the entelechy, the principle,
takes form.
For him, art and science sprang
from a single source. Whereas the
scientist immerses himself in the
depths of reality in order to be able
to express its impelling forces in the
form of thoughts, the artist seeks by imagination to embody
the same forces in his material…. ‘In the works of man, as
in those of nature, what most deserves consideration is the
intentions,’ says Goethe. Everywhere he sought, not only what
is given to the senses in the external world, but the tendency
The fruits of research appear in conversations, conferences,
and of course books. Though it is still mostly “outside the
mainstream,” anthroposophical research has a further,
hidden life, like that of runners from a plant, through a quiet
stream of fine books. Also worthy of note is the quality of
work coming from authors from whom serious research
would not be expected in the mainstream—high school
teachers, for example. Both the author of this book and the
reviewer were long-time Waldorf high school teachers.
Research Issue 2010
23
People who believe that nature consists of
nothing but particles, waves, and space feel
the need for a mechanism for such processes.
I speak with the voice of personal experience
when I say that it is very hard, even for those of
us who are intuitively drawn to Goethe’s view
of nature, to get out of the mechanistic habit.
Goethe’s way of expressing things has the cognate disadvantages of provoking facile ridicule
from the scientific intelligentsia and receiving
uncritical acceptance by the half-baked dilettan-
Research–a special section
ti. Suchantke’s book shows that a contemplative biology drawing
on the fundamental concepts of Goethean science and imbued
with reverence for the living Earth can produce a consistently
illuminating picture of life in all its amazing abundance and
multiplicity.
•
From the beginning, Suchantke emphasizes the need to escape from the idea of a fixed spatial form (space-gestalt):
Our guiding principle will be Goethe’s words to the effect
that,
when we study forms, organic ones in particular,
nowhere do we find permanence, nowhere repose or
completion.... For no
sooner has something
been formed than it is
immediately transformed, and if we wish
to achieve a living
perception of nature,
we must strive to keep
ourselves as mobile
and flexible as the
examples she herself
provides.’
We must learn to think in terms of development, to engage
in the transformation of our conceptual systems in accordance with a deeper, dynamic understanding of the sphere
of life. It was Goethe who first demonstrated that a method
seeking to unravel the secrets of living processes must not be
applied to, but rather must take its lead from its object of
study, and thus… develop organically. This process should
encompass all aspects of the development of the living organism under consideration and recreate them as fully as possible in imagination—quite a tall order! In the introduction to
his botanical studies, Goethe formulates it as follows:
What follows, therefore,
will also be concerned
with breaking through
from the organism’s sense-perceptible, external form or
space-gestalt to the process of its formation, which is an
expression of its time-gestalt. This can only be perceived when
we actively reconstruct it in our imagination: an inner process
which enables us to experience and describe its formative
movements.
In introducing a science of morphology, we must avoid
speaking in terms of what is fixed. If we use the word
Gestalt [form] at all, we ought to have in mind only an
abstract idea or concept, or something that is held
fast but for an instant.
The principles of metamorphosis apply not only to the development of the individual plant but also to the evolution of
species, in which the retention of juvenile characteristics into
adulthood (neoteny), and the changing relationships to the environment known as internalization and externalization play
important parts in generating a stream of continuous change.
In describing these and other time-gestalts, the author says,
Metamorphosis should not be read like a textbook; it asks the
reader to entertain the possibility of inner transformation in
which the imagination becomes an organ of perception, thus
giving the title a double meaning that its author undoubtedly
intended.
•
It would be impossible to convey the immense richness of
Upcoming Conference of the Natural Science Section in Chicago
The Spherical & Radial Principles in the Human & Animal Organism, with a focus on Horns & Antlers
published by Adonis Press, and lecture 4 of Spiritual Foundations for the Renewal of Agriculture, published by the Biodynamic Association.
For more information on the conference, contact:
The Natural Science & Mathematics/Astronomy Section
c/o John Barnes, 321 Rodman Road, Hillsdale, NY 12529
Phone 518-325-1113; Fax 518-325-1103; [email protected]
The next annual conference of the Natural Science Section
will take place at the Rudolf Steiner Center in Chicago from the
evening of Thursday, November 18 till noon on Sunday, November 21, 2010. The theme of the conference will be “The Spherical
and the Radial Principles in the Human and Animal Organism,
with a focus on Horns and Antlers.” At a time when cows are
routinely dehorned and organisms are being manipulated for
practical and commercial purposes, it is incumbent upon us to
gain a scientific understanding of their living wholeness and integrity. Such an understanding, however, requires the development of new cognitive capacities. During the conference we will
engage in Goethean observation of skeletons, horns and antlers
in an attempt to “read” them as the expression of dynamic forces and in relation to our experience of the living organisms. The
goal is to experience and understand the organisms in question
as concrete manifestations of creative forces.
Because of the importance of cow horns in biodynamic
agriculture, we are also inviting members of the Agricultural
Section to participate in the conference. As we would also like
to continue to work at the level of the Class, this conference will
again be for Class members only. Essential reading in preparation for the conference will be Metamorphosis: Evolution in
Action (especially chapters 2 and 11) by Andreas Suchantke,
Metamorphosis: Evolution in Action is available to conference
participants at a discount of 40% (for $30). There is more information on the book at the Adonis Press website: adonispress.org.
To take advantage of this offer, send a check for $30, made out
to Adonis Press, to the address above along with your reservation fee.
John Barnes also published an essay some months ago, The
Third Culture, subtitled “Participatory Science as the Basis for a
Healing Culture.” It deals with this same theme: the need for the
development of new scientific methodologies capable of insight
into living organisms and qualities. It attempts to put Goethean
science and anthroposophy into the broader context of the
development and current crisis in western culture. A review of
the book will be posted shortly at anthroposophy.org.
24
Evolving News
Suchantke’s book in the few pages of a review, so I’ll give a brief
impression of its contents and concentrate on just one aspect of
the author’s thinking.
After giving a vivid account of some of the transformatory
processes of nature he tackles the difficult question of the
functioning of the archetype in the evolutionary process. He
goes on to clarify the concepts of metamorphosis with a discussion of Goethe’s perception of the relation between the bones
of the spine and those of the skull, but he doesn’t limit himself
to the human skeleton. Salamanders, foxes, moles, bats, hummingbirds, and even cacti are drawn into the discussion, which
ends with the perception of polar tendencies that produce both
round, immobile, protective structures such as the skull, and
mobile, articulated, linear structures like the arms and legs.
Chapter 3 deals with the forms of leaves, showing their relatedness to other parts of the plant and to its functioning within
the environment. The theme of sphere and radius, already
developed in relation to the vertebral nature of the skeleton,
reappears here. “The leaf, we must agree with Goethe, is the
‘true Proteus.’ From top to bottom the plant is all leaf.” From
leaf to flower is a transformation that naturally takes us into
chapter 4, which deals with the polarity of the two structures
and the extraordinary correlations between color and form. Of
particular note is the section on the evolutionary potential of
the blossoms, in which Goethe’s ideal of intensification reaches a
high point. Chapter 5 reviews the functioning of metamorphosis
and reminds us that we, as readers, are invited to take part in a
process of transformation.
Next comes a chapter on the various forms of metamorphosis in the plant kingdom, in which the ideas of the previous
chapters are profusely illustrated and developed. In chapter
7 the principles of polarity and threefold organization are illustrated by the growth of plants from the unity of the seed into
the structure of root, leaf, and blossom, the subtlety of which
cannot altogether be conveyed by a simple spatial picture. Of
great interest is Suchantke’s commentary on the description
Rudolf Steiner gives in his autobiography of the gradual development of his perception of the threefold nature of the human
being. Chapter 8 is an extended tour de force that demonstrates
how polarity and threefoldness are expressed in different ways
throughout the animal kingdom. The photographs and drawings
are breathtaking.
Chapter 9 brings us back to the archetype. Different groups of
creatures emphasize different aspects of the threefold organization and, when viewed together at a moment in time, can be
seen as forming a gestalt, momentarily frozen in space. When
the gestalt is regarded as “only fixed for a moment” and “about
to undergo transformation” we enter “the realm of formation
and transformation, of development on the different levels of
ontogeny (development of the single individual) and phylogeny
(development of the ancestral group, evolution).” “In this way,”
Suchantke states emphatically, “the archetype comes to be understood as the initiator of evolution, which is as much as to say as
evolution itself.”
This is important enough to repeat in different words:
“The archetype may thus be construed as the prime source
of evolutionary impulses and at the same time, the inner line,
or, rather, the time-gestalt of the whole of evolution, revealing
facets of itself in the various species, genera, and families of
organisms. Its full compass is only to be revealed through contemplation of the whole or through the fact that at every stage
of evolution it inclines towards polarization and ultimately
toward clear, tri-structured order.”
The Nature Institute: a Center of Excellence in Holistic Research
The Nature Institute may be the only scientific research institute in North America dedicated to developing and practicing a
scientific methodology that can gain insight into living, organic
nature. The Institute is entering a new phase in its growth and
development at a time when the limitations of modern science
and technology in this regard are becoming increasingly clear.
John Barnes writes us that “the excellent research and educational courses occurring there are laying the groundwork for
a further development in science that will lead to a far deeper,
more living, and mutually healing relationship with nature.”
Recently The Nature Institute joined Think OutWord to sponsor a new category of the Credere grants, Goethean phenomenology. The 2010 application deadline is past, but donations to
fund grants are always welcome, at thinkoutword.org/grants.html.
Another Institute project, nontarget.org, collects reports
on “unintended effects of genetic manipulation.”
another. Putting the matter plainly: when foreign genes are
introduced into an organism, creating a transgenic organism
[GMO or GenTech organisms], the results for the organism and
its environment are almost always unpredictable. The intended
result may or may not be achieved in any given case, but the
one almost sure thing is that unintended results—nontarget
effects—will also be achieved. These facts have been, and are
being, widely reported in the scientific literature. While they
are correcting our understanding in important ways, they are
not at all controversial. And they bear directly upon the wisdom
of virtually all the current genetic engineering practices.
If there has been limited reportage of unintended effects in the
popular press, it may be because the facts are often buried in
technical scientific articles. And within genetic engineering
research itself, scientists are mainly concerned with achieving targeted effects and not with investigating beyond the
range of their own intentions and reporting unexpected
effects. But when they do investigate, there is usually
plenty to see. It is the purpose of this project to make
evidence about the wide-ranging and never wholly
predictable effects of genetic engineering readily accessible to concerned citizens, policy makers, and
scientists... [Emphasis added.]
Much of the public debate concerning genetically
modified organisms, their widespread use in animal
and human food, and their impact upon the environment could be raised to an entirely new and more
productive level if certain undisputed facts were
more widely known. The facts at issue have
to do with the unintended and systemic
consequences of genetic manipulations,
as revealed in one research report after
Research Issue 2010
Along with the searchable short reports,
natureinstitute.org has a major collection of
longer articles covering the whole field.
25
Research–a special section
It seems to me that chapter 9 is the fulcrum of the book, the
point at which the final intent becomes clear:
is often forgotten that this idea was no hard-won conclusion
of Darwin’s, but was lifted from a completely different realm of
discourse and applied to Nature. He adopted it from Thomas
Malthus, whose book An Essay on the Principle of Population attempted to address the effect of world-wide population growth.”
This is rather like saying that Niels Bohr filched the idea of
quanta from Max Planck and applied it in a different context.
Darwin never made any secret of his indebtedness to many of
his predecessors, including Malthus, and it’s worth noting that
Loren Eiseley, in his masterly Darwin’s Century, puts the matter much more fairly, seeing the gradual evolution of Darwin’s
ideas as a process—dare I say, as a time-gestalt—rather than
suggesting that he simply plucked a ripe fruit from someone
else’s tree. There are more examples of this tendency. Although
T. H. Huxley may be “notorious” among anthroposophists and
creationists, in other circles “famous” would seem more appropriate—but this is something that could easily be corrected and
there is another far deeper problem that is simply in the nature
of the enterprise.
Suchantke goes to great lengths to characterize the archetype and its all-pervasive functioning, but it remains a concept
that is very hard to get hold of, partly because, like Proteus,
it is always changing its form and partly, perhaps, because it
isn’t a concept. Proteus had been given the gift of prophecy, but
on being questioned he assumed different shapes and eluded
his questioners. The archetype does not merely “know” the
future; it brings all kinds of different futures about in constantly
changing ways and we may well be excused for feeling that
we still don’t know what it “really” is. We see what it achieves,
but something in us wants to know how it works and where it
comes from. These may be unanswerable or even meaningless
questions, but we can’t help asking them, and it may be helpful
to look at evolution from a different angle, for which the study
of Steiner’s Outline of Esoteric Science would be a good starting
point. How does Suchantke’s description of the organic development of a vehicle for human consciousness relate to Steiner’s
account of the work of the hierarchies, in which the human
being has been present from the very beginning? And if we want
to know what the driving force for evolution is, we could profitably study The Driving Force of Spiritual Powers in World History,
a course which, among many other things, gives the clue to the
emergence of the archetype in the form it took in the Middle
Ages.
As Suchantke indicates, the very idea of the archetype is
likely to promote an acute negative reaction on the part of a
modern biologist, even when it is given a new context and a new
understanding, and it will take either a catastrophe or a long
evolutionary process to change this situation. Nevertheless,
Metamorphosis has the ring of truth and will amply repay the
contemplative reader.
The environment is internalized, and that which later on lights
up as the inner content of consciousness is the inside, or spiritual
content of nature, internalized and raised to the level of consciousness. Internalization of the external world, steady gain
in inner richness and complexity—this is the leitmotiv in the
evolution of deuterostomes, the line in the animal kingdom
that leads to the human being.
Two further chapters deal with the evolutionary processes of
the endo- (inner) skeleton, characteristic of vertebrates, and the
exo- (outer) skeleton of the insect world, and finally bring us to
the embodiment of the archetype in the human being, in whom
evolution “has not only expressed itself in the physical form of
a single species, but at the same time has become conscious of
itself.”
Evolution does not stop here, however. The capacities of
consciousness can be intensified but “there is a vast discrepancy between what we actually achieve and the goals we aspire
to, goals which should in principle have been attainable. This is
a feeling that can arise in connection with any activity: it could
have been better, we should really do it again more thoroughly!
The importance of this experience cannot be overestimated because it induces the future and is an expression of the developmental potential of the Self, probably its most important attribute.
All this only makes sense… if the Self, as the bearer of this
developmental resolve, has the possibility of further existence
beyond its present life; if, indeed, what it has begun in this life
can be carried on in subsequent ones…. The continuity of the
individual spirit through a series of physical incarnations is the
precondition for the quantum leap from biological to mental/
spiritual evolution.
This is how Suchantke ends his
book, and some readers may feel
that although the evolution of human consciousness has been in his
crosshairs from the beginning, his
conclusion is rather brief and facile.
If, however, we say that the further
development of the human soul
and spirit is a subject that demands
another whole book, we must
recognize that other whole books
have already been written, notably
by Rudolf Steiner, whose intimations about the future of this
incarnation of our planet make rather uncomfortable reading.
This is not surprising since any realistic survey of the past has
the same effect.
•
Metamorphosis will undoubtedly be both a comfort and a
challenge to students of anthroposophy, and may well be a
source of inspiration to people who have never heard of Rudolf
Steiner. Whether it will have any influence within the scientific
community is a different question, one of the problems being
the rather partisan tone that the author adopts in speaking of
Darwin, his supporters, and modern biological science. Speaking of the idea of the struggle for existence, Suchantke says, “It
Keith Francis majored in physics at Cambridge University and
worked as an engineer at Bristol Aircraft before joining the teaching profession. He was on the faculty of the Rudolf Steiner School
in NY for 31 years as a teacher of physics, chemistry, mathematics,
earth science, English and music. Since his retirement he has written several novels and a history of atomic science.
26
Evolving News
stories of the wounded and vulnerable, and of everyday people
doing quiet, often unnoticed good work.
Since his youth Jonathan kept a notebook in which he jotted
down questions or insights that occurred to him, quotations
from his reading or poems that moved him. The book is rich
with these mementos of his meandering intellect and heart. At
times it feels almost like an anthology of treasured references.
Again and again we meet the writers who played a significant
role in his inner journey, thinkers like Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, C.G. Jung, and Rudolf Steiner. We follow the evolution of his thinking as it is challenged and inspired,
as his life experiences evoke ever deeper questions about life
and death, and as his searching takes him around the world and
also approaches invisible realms.
Rudolf Steiner plays a central role in Jonathan’s quest and
in the book. We meet Steiner the man, his teachings, and the
results of his spiritual research. In clear and approachable
language Jonathan presents complex ideas such as the four-fold
human being, reincarnation and karma, life phases, the Christ
being, the evolution of consciousness, and Waldorf education, to
name only some of the areas he addresses. He has had his arguments with Steiner which he expresses, but also allows to evolve
over the years. His quest is ongoing, and his gratitude is enormous. He is deeply motivated by a certainty that people today
need to meet real ideas and real pictures of what it means to be
a human being. Committed as he is to speaking the language of
everyday and avoiding exclusive terminology of any kind, it must
also be said that he is an elegant and inspiring writer.
Early in his career Jonathan met the work of the Camphill
movement, and the profound effect of his meetings with both
co-workers and villagers is movingly invoked in the book. In
1968 his film In Need of Special Care won a
British Film Academy Award. This was followed
over the years by other films about Camphill
and also about Waldorf education. It is exciting news that he is now preparing to film The
Challenge of Rudolf Steiner. His experience
documenting other great world leaders and his
lifelong work with anthroposophy make him
singularly qualified to direct this film, and we
can await it with great anticipation.
As a closing to this review, I would like to
mention that my husband and I read Where
on Earth is Heaven? aloud, over the course
of many weeks. We looked forward to this part of our evening
when we would open that big book and enter into this story of
our times. Inevitably our reading would spark rich conversations and reflections about our own lives. If you like to read with
others—one or a group—this book is a great choice. It seems
somehow appropriate to share it with others, because in a way
the book itself is a testament to the importance of relationships
and to the enduring reality of what lives between people, even
beyond death. It is all about making connections—with others,
with ideas, with history and the times we live in, with nature,
and with the spirit. Finally, whether one reads it with others or
alone, this is a book that will nourish and inspire.
Review of Where on Earth is Heaven? cont. from p.6
others, including anthroposophists like Edmunds, John Davy,
Owen Barfield, Karl Koenig, James Dyson, and Rudolf Meyer. Mr.
Stedall is nothing if not eclectic—he takes his wisdom, purpose,
and meaning where he finds them. And after his long journey, he
refuses to “fall into the trap of suddenly trying to make everything comprehensible.”
But Mr. Stedall’s journey has not been without order and
progress. In his conclusion, he is firm and confident in his
dismissal of militant atheists and acolytes of the random such
as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. He believes that
there are no limits to knowledge—one horizon always follows
the next. As for the question that engendered the book—
“Where on Earth is heaven?”—the answer is clear to him.
Heaven is a possibility that can become a reality, not as some
“thing in itself” only derivatively knowable, but here on Earth,
“amidst all the obstacles through which we learn and grow.”
Where on Earth is Heaven?
Reviewed by Signe Schaefer
Jonathan Stedall’s Where on Earth is Heaven? is a big book—in
size and even more in the breadth of its imagination. I hope no
one will be put off by its length; for from the opening of its title
question, asked many years ago by the author’s young son, the
reader is invited on an extraordinary journey through the 20th
century and beyond. This is a cultural and spiritual journey,
accompanying a man finding himself through following his questions and honoring what he calls the “awakeners” along his way.
The details of the author’s life are never the point of his writing;
this is more an inner memoir, a record of the
legacy he has received from literature, art, psychology, natural science, philosophy, anthroposophy, and most of all from other people. It is
the story of a life lived deeply and caringly; and
its telling is, in a way, a call to us all.
For me that call felt quite personal, an invitation from a friend to consider with him the
searching and the influences, the questions
and the gratitudes of a lifetime. I have known
Jonathan since the Spring Valley International
Youth Conference in 1970, and I had the good
fortune to see him often when my family lived
in England through most of the 1970’s. His keen intelligence, his
warm heart, and his ever-ready wit permeate this rich book.
Throughout his long career as a documentary filmmaker
Jonathan had the opportunity to interview many remarkable
individualities of our times: the writer Laurens van der Post,
poets John Betjeman and Ben Okri, novelist Alexander Solzenhitsyn, physicist Fritjof Capra, and economist E.F. Schumacher
to name a few. During his many years with the BBC, he also
directed films on Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and Carl Gustav
Jung. Now he brings these people, and many others, into his
book, inviting us along on his different projects and introducing us to those he felt privileged to come to know. With deep
respect he explores the varieties of thought and creativity that
have shaped our modern consciousness. But Jonathan’s wide interest is not limited to the famous and influential. He also shares
Research Issue 2010
Signe Schaefer was for many years Director of Foundation Studies
at Sunbridge College. She founded and continues to direct a part-time
program in Biography and Social Art. She has had a life-long interest
in questions of human development.
59
New Members
of the Anthroposophical Society in America
As recorded by the society from 2/23/2010 through 9/17/2010
Paula Alkaitis, New York NY
Alicia Allen, Santa Fe NM
Mary Baenen, Sandpoint ID
Edward Balmuth, Granbury TX
Kristin C. Barton, Hillsdale NY
Victoria Basarabescu,
Houston TX
Linda Bestor, Sturtevant WI
Rebecca Bissonnette,
Hudson NY
Hermina Booysen,
Glenmoore PA
Carolyn Briglia, Wilton NH
Tom Brunzell, New York NY
Kimberly A. Carr, Easton CT
Francisco Cavazos, Tomball TX
Ellen Cimino, Decatur GA
Mark Vincent Collins,
Friendswood TX
Kim Couder, Soquel CA
Susan Crozier, Wadsworth OH
Kristin E. Dalton, Ghent NY
Canyon Darcy, Austin TX
Francesco De Benedetto,
Fair Oaks CA
Catherine H. Decker,
Chatham NY
Jennifer Dye, San Rafael CA
Danielle Epifani, Berkeley CA
John K. Fallon, Delmar NY
John M. Finale, Brooklyn NY
Library Annotations, from p.5
Jonas, librarian at the Rudolf
Steiner Library in London, places
Steiner’s view of astrology in a
historical, cultural, and philosophical context.
Biography: Freedom and
Destiny. Enlightening the Path
of Human Life, translated by
Pauline Wehrle, Rudolf Steiner
Press, 2009, 264 pgs. Includes
notes and a bibliography.
Rudolf Steiner shows here that
every biography—regardless of
one’s place in life or a person’s
perceived importance or success—is ruled by archetypal
influences, patterns and laws. He
describes the human individuality as a being with a continuing
existence, both before birth
Janine Fron, Huntley IL
Richard Frost, Alfred ME
Laura Gabelsberg, Tucson AZ
Amy Garnsey,
Boynton Beach FL
Hazel Archer Ginsberg,
Chicago IL
Mahalath Gordon, Medford OR
Michael Gratsch,
Grosse Pointe MI
Paul M. Helfrich, Castaic CA
Angelica G. Hesse, Portland OR
Doug Horner, Lafayette CA
Gene Hutloff, Phoenix AZ
Laura Iturralde, Houston TX
Louis Kauffman, Chicago IL
Kay Kinderman, Glenmoore PA
Sylvia Lagergren,
Johnson City TN
Karin Layher, Saint Louis MO
Margaret Leary, Culpeper VA
Ashley Shea Legg, Philmont NY
Julianna Lichatz,
Carbondale CO
Daniel Lips, Hauppauge NY
Jolie Hanna Luba, Decatur GA
Jessica Mansbach,
Spring Valley NY
Anna V. Masters, La Mesa CA
Todd Matuszewicz, Denver CO
Melanie Maupin, Chapel Hill NC
Matthew Messner,
Charlottesville VA
Rick Mitchell, Lawrence KS
Megan Neale, Inverness CA
Caroline Nguyen,
San Francisco CA
Joseph Papas, Copake NY
Emilie Papas, Copake NY
Vicki Petersen, Phoenix AZ
Nattapat Phinittanont,
Glenmoore PA
Patricia A. Robertson-Russell,
Miami FL
Anthony W. Roemer,
Martinez CA
Carl St.Goar, Chattanooga TN
Susan Stern, Fair Oaks CA
Anouk Tompot, Seattle WA
Maria Celina Trzepacz,
Clifton NJ
Julia Van Vliet, Chicago IL
Forrest Ann Walsh, Tempe AZ
Casey Warner, Kirkwood MO
Mary Wildfeuer, Kimberton PA
Benjamin A. Wilson,
Marengo IL
Karl Wilson, Copake NY
Liz Woodlock, Leesburg VA
Lucy Wurtz, Portola Valley CA
This new translation of Curative Eurythmy is based on the
thoroughly revised German edition of 2003 and includes a new
appendix with reminiscences by
Anthroposophy—Medicine
Compendium for the Remedial Treatment of Children, Adolescents and Adults in Need of
Soul Care. Experiences and Indications from Anthroposophic
Therapy, Bertram von Zabern,
M.D., compiler, Mercury Press,
2009, 167 pgs.
Originally compiled in 1972
and published by Weleda, this
work is now available in English for the first time. Various
syndromes are presented with
lists of suggested remedial
indications. Rudolf Steiner’s suggestions are the keystone; other
experienced anthroposophical
doctors also contribute. The
editor stresses that this book is
meant to be used as working material and stimulus for therapists
and doctors who are active in
anthroposophic medicine. The
therapies mentioned should be
used in close collaboration with
a supervising physician.
Anthroposophy—Nutrition
and beyond death. Our eternal
being experiences a myriad of
conditions and situations, the effects of which may be observed
in one’s biography. This book
addresses these and other issues
such as freedom and destiny, the
effects of heredity, illness, and
the impact of education, among
others.
Eurythmy Therapy: Eight
Lectures Given in Dornach,
Switzerland, between 12 and
18 April 1921 and in Stuttgart,
Germany, on 28 October 1922,
translated by Alan Stott, Rudolf
Steiner Press, 2009, 159 pgs.
she says, “one should learn to
become older every day consciously….” “Steiner places two
extreme geriatric pictures before
us: a sage working out of heart
forces and a person who has rigidified into a ‘mummy’ through
their life routine.”
early eurythmists, as well as revised and expanded notes based
on those prepared for the 2003
German edition by Dr. Walter
Kugler, director of the Rudolf
Steiner Archives in Dornach,
Switzerland.
Getting Old: Excerpts from Rudolf Steiner’s Complete Works,
Gisela Gaumnitz, compiler,
Mercury Press, 2009, 289 pgs.
Originally published in German in 1987, this new translation features an introduction by
Gisela Gaumnitz, a coworker at
Johanneshaus Öschelbronn, an
anthroposophical senior residential community in Germany.
Gaumnitz emphasizes her hope
that readers will be inspired to
read Steiner’s lectures in full
after “tasting” the excerpts she
has selected. “After [age] 35,”
62
Cosmos, Earth, and Nutrition:
The Biodynamic Approach to
Agriculture, Richard Thornton
Smith, Rudolf Steiner Press,
2009, 304 pgs.
Biodynamic agriculture is
a unique development of the
organic approach that does not
focus only on agricultural techniques. A whole new way to think
about farming, nutrition, and the
world of nature, biodynamics
allows revitalized relationships
with the living soil, the elemental
world, and the cosmos. Originating from a series of eight lectures
by Rudolf Steiner in 1924, biodynamic methods broaden the
outlook of agriculture and the
science behind it, leading to a
holistic perspective that incorporates astronomical rhythms and
unique preparations for plants
and earth.
Evolving News
Richard Thornton Smith describes the foundations on which
biodynamics as well as the
more general organic movement
are based. He builds bridges
between mainstream science
and Steiner’s insights, making it
easier for the broader organic
and ecological movement to
approach biodynamic concepts
and practice.
The Waldorf Book of Breads,
collected by Marsha Post, illustrated by Jo Valens, edited and
introduced by Winslow Eliot,
SteinerBooks, 2009, 57 pgs.
“All four elements that are
essential to life are inherent in
[a] single loaf of bread.” This
book includes breads for the
daily table as well as specialty
breads for the seasons and festive occasions. There are recipes
for wheat, spelt, corn, and rye
breads, and for honey-salt bread,
“a new bread for our time.”
Anthroposophy—Waldorf
Education
Dyslexia: Learning Disorder
or Creative Gift?, Cornelia
Jantzen, Floris Books, 2008,
248 pgs.
Dyslexia has long been known
as a learning difficulty that
primarily affects literacy skills.
Increasingly, however, researchers and professionals working
with dyslexia suggest that it is
less a disorder than a sign of specially gifted persons. They often
have above average intelligence
and are highly creative, provided
they are supported and nurtured
by parents and teachers.
In this book Cornelia Jantzen
explores the basis of this radical
viewpoint. Throughout, she provides many practical examples
that explore various aspects
of dyslexia, giving parents and
teachers greater confidence
when dealing with the challenges
that dyslexia presents.
The author is a consultant on
dyslexia in Hamburg and is the
mother of two dyslexic children.
Her interest in a new approach is
based on her study of the Davis
method, Waldorf education, and
a broad overview of current
practices.
Research Issue 2010
Lessons for Middle School
Issues. Classroom Lessons
Supporting the Development
of Life Skills, Self Knowledge
and Social Grace for 13 and 14
Year Olds, Grades 8–9, Linda E.
Knodle, Coming of Age Press,
2008 [2009], 116 pgs.
their repertoires. There is also a
companion CD available for this
collection.
Four Electronic Books 2009,
Research Institute for Waldorf
Education and the Waldorf Curriculum Fund, AWSNA, 2009.
Linda Knodle, a Waldorf
teacher from the Seattle area,
continues the pioneering work
of Tamara Slayton to create a
contemporary life skills curriculum for middle school students
that reflects an anthroposophical understanding of the human
being.
Darwin (and More), David
Mitchell, editor and compiler,
AWSNA, February 2010, 107 pgs.
This is the 14th volume in the
Waldorf Journal Project series.
These publications feature essays, articles, and specialized
studies from around the world,
translated into English for the
first time. This issue, inspired by
the recent Darwin bicentennial,
centers around three substantial articles on the theme by
biologist Wolfgang Schad. Other
contents discuss school governance; Goethean observation in
literature lessons; anthroposophy and modern brain research;
ecology study in the 11th grade;
and several articles on the performing arts. These journals are
always filled with rich, contemporary ideas.
Something new! AWSNA has
just released a compact disc with
the contents of three seminal
classics for teachers: Karl Koenig’s For Teachers: Conferences
and Seminars on Arithmetic [31st
January–2nd February 1964]; For
Teachers: Conferences and Seminars on Reading and Writing; and
Embryology and World Evolution;
and Dieter Brüll’s “attempt to
penetrate to the heart of social
life,” originally published in
German in 1995, Creating Social
Sacraments.
Esoteric Christianity
The East in the Light of the
West, Parts 1–3, Sergei O.
Prokofieff, Temple Lodge, 2010,
552 pgs.
Previously available only in
German as three separate books,
with just an early version of part
1 published in English, this translation has been long awaited.
The work comprises a comprehensive study of Eastern and
Western esoteric streams and
the occult powers behind them.
In part 1, Prokofieff discusses
the spiritual movement of Agni
Yoga presented to the world by
Helena Roerich and her husband,
the painter Nicolas Roerich.
Part 2 focuses on the teachings
A Day Full of Song: Work
Songs from a Waldorf Kindergarten, Karen Lonsky, illustrated by Victoria Sander, WECAN,
February 2009, 64 pgs.
Subtitled “Forty-two Original
Songs in the Mood of the Fifth,”
this collection by a veteran earlychildhood teacher offers songs
to accompany children as they
work in the kindergarten: grinding grain, baking bread, cleaning,
building, shoveling. The author
states that songs can facilitate
children’s movements by creating form around them. “To learn
to work with joy as a young child
is a true gift for the adult that
he or she will one day become.”
Teachers and parents will be
glad to add these new songs to
63
developed by Alice Bailey, while
part 3 considers the relationship
between Eastern and Western
spiritual masters and the esoteric streams they represent.
Studies in the Gospels, vol. 1,
Emil Bock, edited by Tony
Jacobs Brown, translated by
Val Jones, Floris Books, 2010,
448 pgs.
How we welcome the publication of this much-in-demand
work by Emil Bock! The library
has long circulated the contents
of this volume in the form of
ancient typescripts, and it was
anyone’s guess how much longer
they would last.
Bringing his broad knowledge
of the history of the Gospels
and their time together with his
deep anthroposophical insights,
Bock, one of the first priests in
The Christian Community, offers
fresh views of familiar stories in
the New Testament.
Volume 1 looks in particular
at the relationship of the New
Testament to the Old, as well
as discussing Matthew and the
Sermon on the Mount, Judas,
and Peter. He concludes with a
chapter on Simon of Cyrene and
Joseph of Arimathea.