Branch Library

For information, to take out a book or to arrange a visit, contact Valerie Hope, valerieannhpdx@aol.com 503-775-0778

The Book Catalog is now on the website itself in the Library section, where you can search for a title - and maybe happen upon something you didn’t know you were interested in.

To schedule the space for an event or meeting contact James Knight, j365k@yahoo.com

To contact the Portland Branch Council: portlandanthroposophy@gmail.com

Website portlandbranch.net

April Newsletter

In This Issue:

• Calendar

• Easter Inspiration

• Branch Easter Observance

• From the First Goetheanum to the Foundation Stone

• Branch Event Flyers

• New Wednesday Foundation Stone Group Available

• NEW Community Bulletin Board - This month: Housing Wanted

• Opportunity to Join Drama Group, Begin with 1st Mystery Play

• Branch Membership, Matching Grant

• Ongoing Group Activities

• Pacific Eurythmy Opportunities and Events

• Events Fliers

• Advertisers/Donors

• Embryo Workshops by Dr. Jaap Van Der Waal, dvds available

Portland Branch Calendar

Portland Branch Council Meeting Monday April 10, 7 pm Branch Library/Community Space, 5415 SE Powell Blvd, entrance off parking lot in the back. All Branch members are welcome to attend, and/or call us with agenda items, proposals, suggestions, or to observe. Please contact us at portlandanthroposophy@gmail.com to let us know you’re coming. Meetings are normally held on the second Monday of each month.

Easter Observance, Let There Be Light! Saturday, April 8, 3:30-4:30 pm Bothmer Hall, 5915 SE Division St. See piece in this newsletter for details

Lynn Madsen, The Biodynamic Cycles of the Year and the Cosmic Relationships to the Preps April 30, 2:00pm - 4:30pm Branch Library/Community Space See flyer in this newsletter for details

Harald Hoven Biodynamics: A Deed for the Earth and Our Nutrition May 12-13

See flyer in this newsletter for details

Branch Annual Gathering Sunday, May21st, 1:30pm Branch Library/Community Space

Community Activities

First Class of the School of Spiritual Science. Sunday April 16, (3rd Sunday to avoid Easter Sunday) 9:30 am sharp, Lesson 2 • (no admittance after the class starts) • Bothmer Hall, 5915 SE Division St. • Remember your Blue Card. For more information contact: Cheri Munske cherimunske@gmail.com, Diane Rumage

Art Hall Ten Year Anniversary Alumni Art Show Grand Opening Thursday April 13, 5:30-7:30pm See flyer below for times and locations. For more information contact Robin 503-222-1192

Christian Community Easter Tide with Rev. Nora Minassian Thursday-Sunday, April 20-23. See flyer below for times and locations. For more information contact Miriam Ward Miriamhcosentino@gmail.com

Study: An Outline of Occult Science with Cheri Munske Monday Evenings ongoing, 6:45-8:15 pm, Portland Waldorf School Eurythmy Room, 2300 SE Harrison St. Milwaukie, OR 97222. Suggested Donation $15 For more information email PacificEurythmy@gmail.com or visit PacificEurythmy.com See flier below.

Beginning Astrosophy Class First and Third Wednesdays, 7-8:30 pm • 8654 NE Boehmer St. • Contact Diane Rumage, 971-271-7479 drumage@comcast.net This class will introduce participants to the basic principles of Astrosophy in a study of the works of Willi Sucher and Diane Rumage’s work with the stars, with indications that Rudolf Steiner gave for those interested in the cosmos. No previous knowledge necessary. Please bring blank paper and colored pencils to the class in case we need to use them. If you are just curious if you’d be interested, please feel free to come and check us out. Free

The Occult Significance of Forgiveness Study Group • First Monday of the month, 7:45-9:00 pm • Currently conducted in person and on Zoom • Contact Heidi Sheppard, HSHEPPAR@LHS.ORG Free Please join us in lively discussions centered on Sergei Prokofieff’s The Occult Significance of Forgiveness.

Mary Isis Sophia, Her Mission and Ours - Vancouver, WA Study Group Every other Wednesday, 6:00pm - 8:00pm, in person - Contact KathyRem@gmail.com

Speech Formation and Mystery Drama Group 2nd & 4th Wednesdays, 7:00-8:30 pm • 8654 NE Boehmer St, Portland, OR 97220 • Contact Diane Rumage drumage@comcast.net or 971 271-7479. Free No experience necessary, just enthusiasm and a love of the Word. Our group will start a new reading and studying of “The Portal of Initiation”, Rudolf Steiner’s first Mystery Drama dealing with the karma and reincarnations of a group of people around the turn of the 20th century, on April 12, 2023.

The Tarot in Light of Spiritual Science with James Knight • Every other Tuesday • James (j365k@yahoo.com) is leading a class on "The Tarot" in light of spiritual science and practical occultism. This is not a class on the use of Tarot for divination. In this class we focus on the major arcanum of "The Tarot" as a practical tool for self development and insight into oneself and the world. The classes take place approximately every other Tuesday from 7pm to 8:30pm at the Branch Library Space (5415 SE Powell Blvd) Entrance off the parking lot in back of the church • This is a free class. Registration for the class happens through Meetup (meetup.com) where you can learn more about the class and RSVP at this page: https://www.meetup.com/experiences-in-spiritual-science/.

Waldorf Education and Teacher Training Lectures and Courses Conducted throughout the year by the Micha-el Institute Email us at inquiry@micha-elinstitue.com or call 971-808-1640

Michael Institute Early Childhood and Grades Summer Intensive June 18-July 9 Michae-el School, Milwaukie, Oregon For more information see flier below the calendar, click here for their website.

Opportunities From Pacific Eurythmy

Saturday April 22nd Mariama Loos-Diallo will teach us about Plant Dyeing and Eco Printing.
Monday evenings April 17th - May 22nd Daniel Stokes will bring us into the world of Creative Speech.
On Monday evenings Cheri Munski continues to help us find our way through Occult Science.

Community Eurythmy Saturdays 9:30-10:30am, April 8, 15, 22 At the Portland Waldorf School, 2300 SE Harrison, Milwaukie. Free and Open to All Adults. For details contact Amanda Leonard leonaaleonaa@gmail.com or (503)519-9487.

Community Eurythmy Thursdays 8:45-9:30am I'm very excited to be offering community eurythmy classes again at Portland Waldorf! At the Portland Waldorf School, 2300 SE Harrison, Milwaukie. Free and Open to All Adults. For details contact Carrie.Mass@PortlandWaldorf.org

Both at Cedarwood School in the Performance Space.

Pacific Eurythmy Spring Performances April 29, Cedarwood Waldorf School, 3030 SW 2nd Ave, Portland

2pm performance of the fairy tale, The Woman Who Flummoxed the Fairies, a light-hearted tale from the Scottish Highlands about a clever baker and the cake-loving fairies who try to steal her away forever! Suitable for all ages. Run time approx. 25-minutes. Donation only.

At 7pm, for our adult audiences, we will offer our program entitled, Earth: This Being Human, with pieces by Walt Whitman, Chopin, Henselt, Opal Whiteley, Bartok, and Rumi. This will be our first opportunity to perform this program for a live audience in its entirety and we are thrilled! Run time approx. 50 minutes. Donation only.

We would love to see you at one or all of our workshops! Please visit our website for more information and registration:https://pacificeurythmy.com/events-and-workshops

Pacific Eurythmy Teaching FacultyJolanda Frischknecht & Carrie Mass, jolandamf44@gmail.com & Carecare0@gmail.com

Easter Inspiration

What would have happened on our earth

if the Christ had not appeared?

Golgatha by Ninetta Sombart

What were the consequences of this event for the whole evolution of worlds?[1]

Through the Mystery of Golgotha man was endowed with the faculty to draw from his own innermost being the forces that can raise and lead him upwards into the spiritual worlds. Christ descended far more deeply than the other Guiding Spirits, cosmic and human, for not only did He bring heavenly forces into an earthly body, but He spiritualized this earthly body to such a degree that now, out of these earthly forces, men could find the way to the spiritual worlds.

…What would have happened on the earth if Christ had not appeared? We will ask ourselves this solemn, crucial question. One world-saviour after another might have descended from spiritual worlds, until finally they would have found on the earth below only human beings so entrenched in matter, so immersed in substance, that the pure, divine-spiritual forces would no longer have been able to raise men again out of this corrupted, impure substance. It was with grief and profound sorrow that the Eastern sages looked into the future, concerning which they knew that the Maitreya Buddha will one day appear in order to renew the primal wisdom, but that no disciple will be capable of retaining this wisdom.

…It was necessary that a powerful heavenly force should stream into physical matter, and in physical matter should sacrifice itself. This could not be accomplished by a god merely within the mask of a human form; it had to be accomplished by a man in the real sense, a man with human forces, who bore the God within himself. The Mystery of Golgotha had to take place in order that the matter into which man has descended should be made fit, cleansed, purified and hallowed in such a way as to enable the primal wisdom again to be understood. Humanity to-day must be brought to realize what the Mystery of Golgotha actually effected in this respect.

…There is nothing that affects more deeply cosmic evolution or cosmic existence than the Event of Golgotha. Therefore we can also understand that its influence works on, with positive and momentous consequences for mankind of the future. Christ is the greatest of all the Avatars who have come down to the earth and when such a Being as the Christ in Jesus of Nazareth descends into earthly existence, this marks the beginning of a mysterious and supremely significant process.

****

Rudolf Steiner tells us that Christ did not come as a teacher, as did many of the great helpers of humanity that had come before. No, he instead performed a most significant deed, that changed everything – forever. For much more explanatory information see, Spiritual Bells of Easter II.

[1] This section was excerpted from Spiritual Bells of Easter II, Cologne, April 11, 1909, found in The Festivals and Their Meaning, or on the archive here.

Every spring we can sense the gift of nature's creative process unfolding in response to the forces of light and warmth. Our inner being may then uncover a source of meaning and responsibility around the Easter event, as we recognize a power of renewal guiding us to foster that in life which can become.

Members of the Portland Branch are working together to bring a social and artistic offering for our Easter observance. which will feature a poem and paintings from artist Anca Hariton’s book “Metamorphora”. The original watercolor paintings will be exhibited, and the mystery of creation will be brought to light through the spoken words of the poem. Eurythmy will also be part of the program.

Come Learn About Biodynamic Gardening

Help Heal the Earth – As You Grow More Nutritious Food!

Over the course of 2023 the Portland Branch will sponsor a series of events to help Portlanders learn how you can apply Biodynamic practices in your yards, gardens, and farms. Not only do these practices help to produce food that is more nutritious, they help to heal the earth, and can lead to a healthier overall environment in our dear city. Imagine a group forming to support one another for your home, your community, and beyond. Join us for two upcoming events, one in April & one in May, listed below.

Recommended Donation $10, no one turned away because of finances.

To register for this event reply to this newsletter and we will send you more information

As Part of our Biodynamic Lecture and Workshop Series we are proud to announce Lynn Madsen, a retired MD, who now has the privilege of tending our earth full time – not just caring for young grandchildren and friends, but through her connection to plants. Through conversation and presentation, she will introduce biodynamic gardening with an overview of the cycles in a year--then describe our biodynamic preps through the seven planets/metals/organs and our human phases of life. Her hope and aspiration is to create a portal that readily taps the joyous and buoyant flow of being in a garden. Any garden will do!

Learn about biodynamics, stir and apply a prep, and build a biodynamic compost pile with Harald.

Friday May 12 Presentation, 7-8:30 pm Biodynamics - A Deed for the Earth and Our Nutrition

Location: Branch Library, 5415 SE Powell Blvd.

Recommended Donation $10 - no one turned away because of finances.

Saturday Workshop, 9am-5:30 pm Learn how to transform organic “waste” into vibrant fertilizer for your land; then stir and apply Biodynamic Horn Manure preparation (If you bring a container, you can take some Biodynamic Horn Prep home to apply to your own land)

Recommended fee $50, which includes Friday if you attend then. No one turned away because of finances.

Reply to this email to register, and we will send you more information.

1923-24: From the Goetheanum Fire to the Foundation Stone Meditation

A new opportunity has opened up for a Wednesday Foundation Stone Group

Reply to this email if you are interested.

Goetheanum Fire, David Newbatt

Friends,

It is challenging to find the right words of inspiration about the importance, the significance, of how we spend our time, where we put our attention, individually and together, over the course of this year, the hundredth anniversary of the year between the Goetheanum fire at the Christmas Conference of 1922-23, and the laying of the Foundation Stone and Meditation at the Christmas Conference of 1923-24. Important spiritual opportunities can arise at one hundred year anniversaries.

We can find ourselves in awe of what Dr. Steiner accomplished during that year. Willem Zeylmans Van Emmichoven, a student of Rudolf Steiner, was present at the 1923-24 Christmas Conference, and he describes Rudolf Steiner’s amazing mystery deed over the course of 1923 this way: “In the Goetheanum, the soul’s experience of Space, Time and Eternity were made visible in form and colour through Imagination: In the Foundation Stone meditation the same experiences are revealed through the power of Inspiration. In the threefold summons to the human soul one can experience the astonishing fact that Rudolf Steiner was able to take the mighty Imaginations which lived in the Goetheanum building - which then passed through the consuming flames to rise up to spiritual heights - and to bring them back, in the form of Inspirations - as the Foundation Stone Meditation. (emph vh) (From his book, The Foundation Stone)

Rudolf Steiner’s four plays portray the karma and past reincarnations of students of Spiritual Science, and how they can work together to transform the world and its connection with spiritual beings. He said that all of Anthroposophy is contained in these dramas.

We begin each evening with Speech Formation exercises, and the verse Rudolf Steiner gave describing how we can reveal the creating of worlds through our speaking. He has spoken of how eventually we will reproduce through our larynx or speaking, not through the sexual organs. A journey we explore further as we then either act out ad libbing with words and gestures, or perform portions of the drama only using gestures, or speaking and using gestures. Our gestures derive from the 6 basic gestures that Rudolf Steiner provided, or from the eurythmic gestures of the vowels and consonants that he and Marie Steiner worked with and developed. He said a character can be described by a consonant, a vowel, or combinations of them, and we try to discern which combination works best, and how best to express this, since a dramatic gesture is much more controlled than the flowing eurythmy gesture. Folks learn and explore as we go along, so don’t feel you have to have worked with speech, drama or eurythmy before now.

We then read and study the drama together, and discuss any questions we have.

The group has been working together for over 15 years. The cast of participants has changed, with new ones joining almost every year, and others moving on to other things or out of state, or even over the threshold. Even though we continued during covid, there was a shift at that time in attendees. At present there is a range from 14 years to almost 80 years, with lots of inspiration flowing in from those who have crossed the threshold. We have performed many scenes over the years, and would like to build up our group again to be able to perform more for our community.

Come check us out. It is free, and is held at my home from 7 - 8:30 p.m. on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of each month, at 8654 NE Boehmer St in Portland. 971 271-7479 drumage@comcast.net

A new feature of the newsletter is this Community Bulletin Board, the brainchild of Christine Badura, who now finds that she has time to make it a reality. Community members can post their offerings and/or things they are looking for. To post, please call Christine at 707-494-6741 or email badura88@hotmail.com. Possible categories that can be posted:

Housing, Give Aways, Help Wanted/Offered, Announcements, Items Wanted.

Our first posting:

Housing Wanted: Interested in hosting a Waldorf teacher, or teacher trainee this summer? The Micha-el Institute will be putting on its annual summer conferences this year, and we are in need of housing for teachers from across the country who will be attending. Our various programs run from June 18 – July 9. Contact David Axelrod at david@micha-elinstitute.com or 971-808-1640 with offers and /or inquiries. Thank you for your consideration.

Branch Membership

Please consider becoming a member of the Portland Anthroposophical Branch, and if you are a member, please consider renewing now. The annual recommended membership is still $50, or what you can afford. Annual memberships renew every January.

Memberships support: Workshops, Presenters, Festivals, Branch Rent, Website, Library.

Please join, renew, or donate (for instance to the $4,000 matching grant for rent) on our website at https://portlandbranch.net/donations/. If you send a check, we will receive 100% of your donation. Make out to Portland Branch, and send to: Portland Branch * c/o Valerie Hope * 2606 SE 58th Ave. * Portland, Or 97206

Thank you for your commitment, your participation, and the community building your help gives to ensure that Anthroposophy is alive and in action here in the Portland area.

Embryo in Us & Embryo in Motion: Two Seminars with Jaap van der Waal. Two separate DVD sets recorded live in Portland in 2010 & 2017, available only here. These two seminars explore human prenatal development and show how biology is expressing the essence of human spiritual enfoldment. Jaap van der Wal, PhD, MD now retired, was an associate professor for anatomy and embryology at the University of Maastricht, Holland. Contact the Portland Branch.

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Great gratitude to the members and friends who have donated thus far in 2023 to make this newsletter and our library/community space possible.

Jerry & Rebecca Soloway, Nancy Peirce, Julie Foster, Robin Lieberman, Pamela M Rico, Robin O’Brien, Deborah Ham, Sandra & Wes Burch, Rene Kehwald, Kathy Rem, Robin O’Brien, Tish Johnson, Mihoko Lunsford, Kimberly Sinclair, Vicki Hess-Smith, Mark & Valerie Hope, Diane Rumage, Linda Sussman, James Knight, Marsha Johnson, Timothy Kennedy, Jeremy Davis, Lisa Masterson, Donna Patterson, Cheri Munske, Julie Foster, Lucy O’Neal, Michele Limas, Kendall Weaver, Geelim Soowhan, Pamela Rico, Brian McClure, Miriam Ward, Christine Badura, Laura Elmore, Walter Rice, Amada Eastman, Karen Nelson, Constance Stokes, Anne Kollander, Nancy Peirce, Robin Lieberman, Pamela Rico, Deorah Ham, Susan Andres, Rene Kehrwald, Diane Schell-Rowley, Barbara Strong, Marsha Johnson, Magic of Waldorf

Or send a check made out to Portland Branch, and send to Portland Branch c/o Mark Hope, 2606 SE 58th Ave. Portland, OR 97206. We will receive 100% of your donation if you choose this method of payment.