Madonna and Child by Marie Vassilieff
Anthroposophy in Hawkes Bay
Newsletter 51 for Sunday 22 December 2024 ** Summer Solstice **
Calendar of Coming Events-- Diary Dates
In the Rudolf Steiner Centre, 401 Whitehead Road, Hastings
unless stated otherwise.
The Committee ask that visitors to events in the Centre pay a contribution into the Koha box in the Foyer, as we we have regular bills for electric power, city rates, insurance, and maintenance for an aging building.
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FLORIAN
Florian's mother Laurence, sister Elodie, father's wife Chantal and father Jean-Pierre by the rose about to be planted in memory of Florian.
Financial Gift for Florian's Family
As a gesture of gratitude and goodwill, Deryn gave an envelope containing $1000 (in anticipation that others would support her) to Florian's family with a message that said: "For your New Zealand trip, with much love from Florian's many friends."
Greetings,
"If you would like to be one of the many friends to help financially uplift this beautiful family, who have travelled so far with such courage and openness to bring us together, then donations can be made to:
D L MENZIES. 38-9001-0641433-06
Any funds received will partly re-imburse the money already given; if the sum is exceeded, the extra will be forwarded to them, for the next part of their journey.
We can but imagine the emotional and practical costs they have borne since Florian's death. Their gift and goodwill to us has been enormous. "
With best wishes and thanks,
Deryn.
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Letter to the Editor
"I would like to comment on the Play Group adopting a Smoke-free policy for our Centre.
Yes, it is sensible not to have smoking or vaping around the children. But adults make their own choices.
The extending of the long arm of the Social Compliance which is stretching itself into our free space for spiritual cultural life, is too far.
There is concerted propaganda in such policies and our education system along with everywhere else receiving public funding has to have such policies.
I object to our Centre complying to this when I have never seen a smoker light up in or around our building. And if they did, are we all bound to Police them?"
Jocelyn Freeman
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Editor’s Note: The Committee adopted a smoke-, vape-, and alcohol-free policy for the Centre after being approached by the Te Kakano Play Group (run by Taikura School). Certainly, they are pressured by the Ministry of Education to have such a policy, but it is not contrary to how they want to conduct the Play Group. The Play Group uses the Centre on Monday and Friday morning during term time.
True - it has not been a problem! The policy is in the form of a request to visitors to refrain from certain behaviour while on the premises. A person is free to smoke, etc. where it does not affect others. We are not police; all one can do is ask a person to desist or go somewhere else. Freedom (personal) is not licence (social).
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The Rainbow
Further thoughts:
This is just a planar view - you need to imagine this rotated 360 deg around the centreline going to the sun. The first reflections contribute to the brighter light under the rainbow. The transmitted light is the source of haloes around the sun and moon. The light for the main rainbow is internally reflected once; the light for the fainter outer rainbow is internally reflected twice.
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Rays are largely a mental construct. The sun radiates light into the space surrounding it. There are no linear 'rays' as such – the light is undivided, holistic. However, opaque objects cast shadows. The inner part of the shadow, the umbra, gets no light directly from the sun; next to that is the penumbra which receives some light, from part of the sun.
Here, we can introduce the concept of a straight line – the edge of the shadow. What is a straight line? – some say the shortest distance between two points! What points? Neither the sun or the object is a point. So we must take a point on the periphery of the sun and a point on the periphery of the opaque object casting the shadow. But for the shadow this line has to be extended beyond the object!
Back to the rainbow. Sunlight falls on a raindrop – the drop is not opaque but transparent. The drop is not rigid but essentially spherical due to the powerful surface-tension of water. They are small – just a few millimeters in diameter. But all the light that falls on any raindrop starts a unique journey where it diverges from its previous straight path due to processes that we call reflection and refraction. [Note that science describes these processes, sometimes quite minutely, but it does not explain them.]
The diagram of the raindrop merely gives an indication of what happens to the light by using the ‘straight line’ quality of light. The light leaving the raindrop is not split into ‘rays’ but is continuous and diverging, thus becoming less intense.
Part of this light from a raindrop enters the eye of an observer of the rainbow through the small pupil of the eye – maybe by now it can be called a ray when it falls on a rod or cone in the retina,
At the same time a neighbouring cone receives light from a neighbouring raindrop. Pixels in a picture. The light from myriad raindrops fall on myriad cones in the eyes of every viewer of the rainbow. Every cone sends an impulse of some kind to the viewer’s brain. Every rainbow is unique and changing every second. Do you now have a feeling for infinity???
We here have a high degree of physical separation, but it does not end there. It is the task of our sentient soul to integrate these myriad impulses multiple time a second into a coherent, moving picture for our soul. Our sentient soul is incredibly busy, for it does this not only for our sight but for all our senses. Pay your respects!! But for all that, you only see the rainbow if you are ‘looking’.
Can we relate this to Christmas?
The basic element of Christmas is the annual remembrance of the birth of the child Jesus, 3 days after a northern winter solstice – a child destined to be baptized by John in the Jordan in his 30th year and receive the power of the spiritual being, Christ, into his soul. So, what has that to do with us, now 2024 years later?
Here, the insights of Rudolf Steiner can help us. Human evolution proceeds in stages of development. Throughout history, leading human individualities, one may say, trial the next development before humanity as a whole takes it on. Higher spiritual beings or Hierarchies have guided this process from the spiritual world. The human beings undertaking these leading responsibilities themselves need preparation for this role. This is indicated in the Gospels of the New Testament by the long genealogies of Joseph, the father of Jesus going back 40 generations to King David – the Luke Gospel via the priest Nathan; the Matthew Gospel via his brother King Solomon – two families with a complex interaction.
The incarnation of Christ spirit into a human soul, not at birth but a later age [30], heralds the development of humanity that we experience as the acquisition of an EGO. With the acquisition of a ego we are no longer tribal beings, but have the possibility of independence and freedom. Early in his life Rudolf Steiner writes a book once called “Philosophy of Freedom” (now called “Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path”) that indicates his awareness of this character of modern development and the goal of striving for Ethical Individualism.
As we grow through life we follow a universal human archetype where we reach new stages about every seven years: the sequence starts with physical body, then etheric body and next astral or sentient body and so on.
These archetypes have been developed for humanity over long Cultural Epochs (of just over 2000 years). The archetype for the etheric body was further developed for humanity during the ancient Indian cultural epoch; for the sentient body during the following Persian cultural epoch; and so on. Currently the archetype for our Consciousness Soul is being developed, where we become aware of our ego.
These archetypes are like suns shining over all humanity. However, with the Ego, the Gods are sharing future development with humanity; we become co-responsible for our home, the earth. We have to be consciously active in what we do.
Perhaps we can make an analogy: we are like raindrops; our daytime experiences flow into us as we are awake. Can we make the deeds that flow from us, working in concert with our fellows, radiate into the world like a beautiful rainbow?
Light Divine
Christ-Sun
Warm thou our hearts,
Enlighten thou our heads,
That good may become
What we from our hearts would found
What we from our heads would direct
In conscious
Willing.
Robin Bacchus
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Reader's comments and contributions for this section of the Newsletter below the ***** line are warmly invited. Contact the Editor
info@anthrohb.nz
