Sunday 12 May

Anthroposophy in Hawkes Bay

Newsletter 19, 2024                     

Calendar of Coming Events-- Diary Dates

In the Rudolf Steiner Centre, 401 Whitehead Road, Hastings
unless stated otherwise.

(** see below for more details.)

  • Thursday 16 May. 5:30 pm. Branch Committee meeting 
  • Friday 17 May, 7pm. Eva Knausenberger continues to explore themes from Parsifal** 
  • Friday 24 May. 7 pm.  p60 'Aphorisms from a lecture to members given in London on August 24th, 1924' and Leading Thoughts 88 to 90.
  • Wednesdays 3, 10, 17, 24 July.  7pm. Conversations on the Foundation Stone Meditation 

** THEMES FROM WAGNER'S PARSIFAL

- a continuing workshop or conversation with Eva Knausenberger-

Friday, 17 May at 7 p.m. at the Centre, 401 Whitehead Road, Hastings.

Eva gave an introduction to the libretto of Wagner's Parsifal in April.
In Wagner's Libretto Parsifal, 'The Wound of Amfortas' bleeds again and again; his life forces ebb and he grows weaker every day. Yet we can understand from the text as well as from Rudolf Steiner's Wound Course {Pastoral Medical course CW318 Dornach 8-18 September 1924} that healing forces, which are normally dormant in the human constitution, are present as soon as there is a wound. In our time, says Rudolf Steiner, said healing forces must be supported by human beings with conscious and morally engaged will, in order to work. 

From the Libretto we can understand 'The Spear', which wounded Amfortas, to be the representative of the human morality; in other words, without morality, the healing life forces will bleed out of us. 

It is my hope, that on Friday 17th we can together explore further the topics of the Spear, The Wound, and Kundry in the light of Anthroposophy.
All are welcome. {EK}

Birds From Blowhard Bush

You will notice that a flock of birds representing Blowhard Bush has migrated onto the entrance table at the Centre and will be resting there on these colder days for a month or so.
In 2023, 13 artists from around NZ were selected by the NZ Forest and Bird Society to each work with one NZ poet and present a joint contribution about a special place in NZ.  This was to commemorate 100 years that the Forest and Bird Society has been working in NZ to care for our environment.  
Sophie Lankovsky was one of the artists selected and her ceramic sculpture has created a space where these birds from Blowhard Bush can rest.   The article from the Forest and Bird magazine is on the notice board above the sculpture and explains the inspirations of Sophie and the poet with whom she worked.

Other art works In the foyer are by Clayton Gibson, Sonja Lethbridge, Andrea Beech, Kathy Allan and myself.

Diana Bacchus.

Library News

A new booklet:  Michaela Glöckler (2023) “The Task of the General Anthroposophical Society in the 21st Century” 9781915594013 is now in the Library.

Some notes: It is an essay written in a conversational style examining questions faced by members 100 years after the GAS founding.

One thing that caught my attention was the notion that ancient, pre-Christian mysteries were called mysteries of wisdom, while the new Christian mysteries were mysteries of the will.

The ancient mysteries imparted knowledge about the evolution of humanity, but only to select people – Initiates - in the inner part of the Temples. What happened inside the Temple was called esoteric; what happened in public, in the courtyard of the Temple was called exoteric. The mysteries of wisdom were kept strictly secret, hidden or occult.

Apocalypse means ’revelation’.  The mystery of Golgotha, Christ’s death on the cross, was unfolded openly and revealed in plain public view.  The dissemination of anthroposophical cultural impulses comes ‘from within’, from the will.  The secret mysteries have rituals for selecting leadership for continuity of succession.  The principle applying to the new mysteries is that everyone or anyone can seek a connection with the source of divine inspiration out of the innermost freedom of conscience.

Knowledge arises from sorrow; it is born from pain.  And this pain must lead us to take hold of our tasks with an even stronger will.

The task of the General Anthroposophical Society is to serve humanity selflessly.

As humanity evolves, the more individual we become the more we can become bearers of love. When people are linked by blood, they love because the blood guides them towards this love.  As we are granted individuality, we begin to nurture the divine spark within us; the impulses of love, the waves of love from one person to another must then arise from free hearts.  [Love gradually develops in a lifetime from physical love ‘eros’ of youth, to soul love ‘philia’ of maturity, to spiritual love ‘agape’ of old age.]  Love flows from soul to soul and will ultimately encompass all humanity in a common bond of universal love.

Evolutionary Ages

If you have ever wondered about Steiner's use of the term race, the following diagram (from Paul King, editor of The Occult Truths of Myths and Legends) helps explain. When he first started lecturing to the German Section of the Theosophical Society Rudolf Steiner used terms that they were familiar with from Helena Petrova Blavatsky's writing, then after several years he introduced his own terms which more clearly indicated that he was speaking of time periods of earth and human development, not races of people.

Light in the earth's atmosphere:

  • Lightning - strongly in the tropical zone in the afternoon/summer thunderstorms; electricity
  • Rainbows - largest in the temperate zone at dawn and dusk with sun and rain together; light
  • Aurora - brightest in the polar zones during winter night-times; magnetism.

Editor: Robin Bacchus 

info@anthrohb.nz

Posted: Sat 11 May 2024

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