|  | June Newsletter/Calendar 2022The library is open every Saturday. For more information or an appointment on Saturday, or other days, contact librarian Lisa Jones, lmjones1075@protonmail.com 1-929-624-7266 To schedule the space contact James Knight, j365k@yahoo.com To contact the Portland Branch: portlandanthroposophy@gmail.com Website portlandbranch.net | | In this Issue:Save the Dates Whitsun Thoughts - Become a Flame Rudolf Steiner’s Last Verse, Become a Flame Workshop: Reintegrating in Community After Separation and Crisis, with Orland Bishop Portland Branch Annual Gathering Verse: Spirit Triumphant! New Column From the Library: Excellent overview of Rudolf Steiner’s Five Basic Books by Lisa Jones Calendar: Events/Ongoing Groups Events Fliers Embryo DVD’s Available Advertisers and Sponsors; please support those who support the Branch! Members/Donors
| | Save the Dates (more details in the Fliers, Articles & Calendar below) Reintegrating in Community After Separation and Crisis, with Orland Bishop June 3-4-5 (Whitsun) Portland Branch Annual Gathering and Potluck June 25, 3-5 pm (St Johns) Micha-el Institute Teacher Training, Summer Conferences and Intensives, June-August Christ and the Earth with Rev. Daniel Hafner Tuesday August 23, afternoon and evening Scenes From Rudolf Steiner’s First Mystery Play, The Portland of Initiation, Wednesday, August 24
| | Some Whitsun Thoughts - Toward a Reverse Whitsun, Become a Flame | Whitsun is a festival of the future that we have to grow into by our own efforts, as we strive to connect to our higher selves - which as yet only hover above us - through the healing, illuminating Holy Spirit. Because of the rift between heaven and earth that ensued from the Fall, our true higher self is with the Father, not with us. The same rift that separates earth and heaven divides human beings as well – all oppression, bitterness and hindrances of earth existence are due to being separated from our higher self. To enter the sphere where our own true self is present we must let the ground of our soul become warm through a form of prayer which is not just words from the intellect. It must be prayer in which we ask for nothing and set out solely on the path to the father. Solely and purely through prayer from the heart can the soul’s very being become warm and animated, and we can approach the sphere out of which the flames of Whitsun descended upon the disciples. Rudolf Steiner has given us many exercises, practices, verses and mantras, as well as much knowledge, which can warm the heart and soul to prepare us for the Whitsun experience. The Foundation Stone Meditation, and the spiritual Foundation Stone itself, are important examples. Whitsun flames have warmth and light. Their warmth must arise out of human hearts like a fire. The Spirit responds out of the sphere of the Father, where Christ and the Father are now one. The light-flame of the Spirit sinks down upon the warmth-flame of the praying heart. The light-flame from above answers to the warmth-flame from below. Only when we have actively striven with sufficient patience and endurance to become warm, may we hope for illumination. Becoming warm is our task, then illumination is the answer from heaven. Then thinking can change, and with that the whole activity of human life, which today is formed so utterly out of the intellectual forces. The aim of those who guide our spiritual-scientific movement is for us to foud through it a community in which human hearts can flow out towards the sources of wisdom, as the plants flow out towards sunlight. Where separate egos are united by a common truth, the higher group-soul can descend. Humanity must now try to create vessels in which beings of higher worlds can pour themselves. Per Spiritum Sanctum Reviviscimus In the Spirit’s Universal Thoughts, the Soul Awakens. *This is not a foot-noted piece, but draws liberally on writings by Rudolf Steiner, and Rev. Emil Bock, a priest founder of the Christian Community who wrote eloquently about renewing the festivals. Vh | |  | | Pentecost, Marie Laure Valandro |
|
|
|
|
|
| | | | | Dear Friends, It has come to our attention that because of some of the language in our description, some of you have the impression that this event is meant for dealing with dynamics in our Branch community. That will not be the focus of this event. It is meant to address the challenges that we have all faced - at work, within families, close relationships, and other organizations - in this time when polarization around many issues and perspectives has become so prevalent. It is meant to help us advance our abilities to have conversations in which something new can arise. We welcome you to join us with courage for this work. Full Scholarship Now Offered for Those at a Distance Who Would Like to Attend the Workshop: ‘Reintegrating in Community After Separation and Crisis’ with Orland Bishop As this work will be done together, in person, we have taken up the question of how to be helpful to those at a distance who feel drawn to it. Because we feel that this will be such an important experience, we are offering that those coming from a distance, who will have the added cost of travel and lodging, may attend for free, or at whatever reduced amount encourages you to overcome the temptation to stay at home – or that conversely, supports you to join us live and in person. We hope that this will be a help to those of you who have expressed an interest. |
|
|
|
|
|
| Orland Bishop will be with us on Whitsun weekend to help us address some of the great challenges of our time – the need to transform in ourselves the forces of division, separation, isolation, sympathies, and antipathies, so that we can better serve healthy human development, which is being undermined in so many ways. The Portland community has a vibrant life, working for anthroposophy out of Rudolf Steiner’s indications and the work of other anthroposophists. We have come together to foster capacities for conversation and group development, and to study and observe festivals and the cycle of the year. Groups pursue development on an ongoing basis in visual art, eurythmy, astrosophy, the mystery drama, the Foundation Stone, Christian Community, and more. As most of us have, no doubt, experienced, the covid situation over more than two years now has further fragmented many relationships and made them more difficult. Working through – redeeming - such events in our lives is one of the many tasks of Anthroposophy - of everyone. And working through them is important if we are to build up spiritual community which can truly serve the needs of humanity and the earth in these times. This workshop with Orland is yet another step in our striving toward such redemption. |
|
|
|
|
|
| | Orland Bishop is the founder and director of ShadeTree Multicultural Foundation in Los Angeles, where he has pioneered approaches to urban truces and mentoring at-risk youth that combine new ideas with traditional ways of knowledge. ShadeTree serves as an intentional community of mentors, elders, teachers, artists, healers, and advocates for the healthy development of children and youth. Orland’s work in healing and human development is framed by an extensive study of medicine, naturopathy, psychology, and Indigenous cosmologies, primarily those of South and West Africa. |
|
|
|
|
|
| | | Friday, June 3, 7-9:30 pm The individual and the community in the cycle of separation, crisis and reintegration - or - What is a Crisis of Healing? Saturday, June 4 Morning: 9:00-9:10 Singing 9:10-10:30 Your Word and your Will in agreements 10:30-11:00 Break 11:00-12:30 How can we rebuild broken agreements 12:30-2:00 Lunch Break Afternoon: 2:00-2:15 Eurythmy 2:15-3:30 Exercising receiving and giving in community 3:30-4:00 Break 4:00-5:30 Individual in the community and community in the Individual Evening: 5:30-7:30 Dinner Break Optional Evening Session 7:30-7:50 Eurythmy 7:50-9:30 Working with the extended community of all beings ( or specifically those who have crossed the threshold) Sunday Morning, June 5 (Whitsun) 9:00-9:10 Singing 9:10-10:30 am Listening and Understanding across the divides 10:30-11 am Break 11 am-1 pm Community Artistic Activity - Wrapping up where we've been, what are we now carrying and how do we carry it with us into the extended community Great thanks to artist and author Marie Laure Valandro who donated her painting titled ‘Pentecost’ for our newsletter. It is her favorite holy day. | | The annual gathering will be organized as a follow-up to our event with Orland Bishop. Attendance at that event is not necessary for attendance at our Annual Gathering. |  | | Spirit Triumphant! Flame through the weakness of faltering, fainthearted souls! Burn up egoism, kindle compassion, so that selflessness, the lifestream of humanity, may flow as the wellspring of spiritual rebirth!" — Rudolf Steiner | | From the LibraryA new column offered by librarian LM Jones to showcase the many and varied treasures available from the library. Contact her at lmjones1075@protonmail.com **** An Introduction to Rudolf Steiner’s Basic Books | Rudolf Steiner wrote five foundational works—five basic books—which provide a pathway from the earthly realms to the higher worlds. Steiner intended the basic books to provide people with guidance that honors the freedom of individual conscience in the modern age of thinking, each one representing a different approach to the many pathways to the spirit. The basic books share two characteristics: each is written for the general public, and each presents a complete path to the higher worlds. These books are valuable to nearly everyone--from the novice who is approaching Steiner for the first time and looking for a place to start and what to read; to the long-time student and experienced anthroposophist who is seeking guideposts for further insight and meditative depth; to the study group who would like to use them as a springboard for discussion, reflection, and inspiration. Steiner intended these volumes to serve as a foundation for all of his more advanced anthroposophical writings and lecture courses. Come by the Library to pick up your copies to begin reading and studying today! Theosophy The book begins with a beautiful description of the primordial trichotomy of body, soul, and spirit. A discussion of reincarnation and karma follows. The third and longest chapter of the work (74 pages) presents, in a vast panorama, the seven regions of the soul world, the seven regions of the land of spirits, and the soul's journey after death through these worlds. A brief discussion of the path to higher knowledge is found in the fifth chapter. “Whoever is able to work upon his inner life...climbs upwards from stage to stage in spiritual knowledge. The reward of his exercises will be the unfolding of certain vistas of the supersensible world to his spiritual perception. He learns the real meaning of the truths communicated about this world, and he will receive confirmation of them through his own experience.” The Philosophy of Freedom Steiner's most important philosophical work deals both with epistemology, the study of how man knows himself and the world and with the issue of human freedom. In the first half of the book, Steiner focuses on the activity of thinking to demonstrate the true nature of knowledge. There he shows the fallacy of the contemporary idea of thinking, pointing out that the prevailing belief in the limits to knowledge is a self-imposed limit that contradicts its claim to truth. The possibility for freedom is taken up in the book’s second half. The issue is not political freedom, but freedom of the will. Some maintain that man's thoughts and actions are just as determined as a chemical reaction or a honey bee's behavior. Steiner points again to the activity of thinking, from which arises the possibility of free human action. When asked, “What will remain of your work in thousands of years?” Steiner replied: “Nothing but the Philosophy of Freedom”. When asked which of his books he would most want to see rescued if catastrophe should come upon the world, Steiner replied: “The Philosophy of Freedom”. How to Know Higher Worlds Rudolf Steiner's fundamental work on the path to higher knowledge explains in detail the exercises and disciplines a student must pursue to attain a wakeful experience of supersensible realities. The path described here is safe and will not interfere with the student's ability to lead a normal outer life. “All knowledge pursued merely for the enrichment of personal learning and the accumulation of personal treasure leads you away from the path, but all knowledge pursued for growth to ripeness within the process of human ennoblement and cosmic development brings you a step forward.” Christianity as a Mystical Fact An introduction to esoteric Christianity calls attention to the supreme importance of the Mysteries of Antiquity and the ancient mythological wisdom of Egypt and Greece. The work shows how this wisdom underwent a tremendous transformation into a historical event in the mystery of Golgotha. Far from being concerned only with the past, this book also points to the future and the significance for the modern age of the ever-renewing Christ impulse. “Christianity brought the content of the Mysteries out of the obscurity of the temple into the clear light of day. The one spiritual stream within Christianity that has been characterized here led to the idea that this content must necessarily be retained in the form of faith.” Occult Science This work of nearly 400 pages begins with a thorough discussion and definition of the term “occult” science. A description of the supersensible nature of man follows, along with a discussion of dreams, sleep, death, life between death and rebirth, and reincarnation. In the fourth chapter, evolution is described from the perspective of initiation science. The fifth chapter characterizes a student’s training to become an initiate. The sixth and seventh chapters consider the future evolution of the world and more detailed observations regarding supersensible realities. “When we use the term natural science, don’t we mean that we are dealing with the knowledge of nature? Esoteric science is the science of what takes place esoterically in the sense that it is perceived, not outside in nature, but where one’s soul turns when it directs its inner being to the spirit. Esoteric science is the opposite and counterpart of natural science.” | | | MICHAELA GLÖCKLER: WHERE ARE WE NOW IN THE CORONA-PANDEMIC? WHAT CAN HELP US TO LIVE CONSTRUCTIVELY WITH THE CONSEQUENCES? | This 49 page booklet was kindly translated from German to English by Astrid Schmidt-Stegmann and forwarded to council member Walter Rice at his request. We have Dr. GlÖckler’s permission to make it available through our newsletter. Click here to be linked to the materials, now available as a pdf. | | | First Class of the School of Spiritual Science. Sunday June 12, 9:30 am sharp • Recapitulation Lesson 1 • (no admittance after the class starts at 9:30 sharp) • Bothmer Hall • Blue card required. See 2022 Schedule below. For more information contact: Cheri Munske cherimunske@gmail.com, Diane Rumage drumage@comcast.net or Rebecca Soloway rrsoloway1@gmail.com First Class Schedule for 2022: June 12, July 10, August, no meeting; September 11, October 16, 3rd Sunday; November 13, December 11 Portland Branch Council Meeting Monday, June 13, 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. Reintegrating in Community After Separation and Crisis, with Orland Bishop June 3-4-5 (Whitsun) • Branch Library/Community Space • Contact Valerie Hope with questions or offers of help, valerieannhpdx@aol.com • Register on our website, portlandbranch.net • Orland will help us to address the challenges of our consciousness soul times, and asks that we bring our own experiences to share. Together we will build a sacred space to host a healthier future for us all. See description and program in this newsletter, flier below. Portland Branch Annual Gathering and Potluck June 25, 3-5 pm • Branch Library/Community Space Contact Valerie Hope with questions or offers of help, valerieannhpdx@aol.com • Save the date! More details coming soon. We will build on our experiences with Orland Bishop, but attendance at that workshop is not a prerequisite for attending the annual gathering. New Class, the Tarot in Light of Spiritual Science with James Knight • Tuesdays beginning May 3rd • James will be offering a bi-weekly class on "The Tarot" in light of spiritual science and practical occultism. This will not be a class on the use of Tarot for divination. In this class we will focus on the major arcanum of "The Tarot" as a practical tool for self development and insight into oneself and the world. • For more details and to RSVP go to: Tuesday Tarot as a Tool for Transformation and Self Development, Tue, May 3, 2022, 7:00 PM | Meetup Christ and the Earth with Rev. Daniel Hafner Tuesday, August 23, afternoon and evening • Branch Library/Community Space. Contact Valerie Hope, valerieannhpdx@aol.com to indicate that you will be attending • The topic is very much about how at the turn of the ages the spirit light of the world entered the earthly stream of being. And how the earth prepared for that event, and responded to it, and continues to respond. Scenes from The Portal of Initiation Wednesday, August 24, evening • Branch Library/Community Space - Church Stage. Contact Valerie Hope, valerieannhpdx@aol.com to indicate that you will be attending • The Port Townsend Mystery Drama Group, (featuring Jeremy Davis as Johannes), and directed by David Axelrod, will be in Portland for a one-night performance of scenes from Rudolf Steiner’s first mystery play. Grades Curriculum Intensives & Early Childhood Conference, with the Micha-el Institute • This summer with sessions between June 19 and July 14 • Location, Micha-el School, Milwaukie, OR • Contact: inquiry@micha-elinstitute.com or 971-808-1640 or visit www.micha-elinstitute.com • Taught by local and visiting teachers, for current and aspiring Waldorf Teachers. See Flier below. |
|
|
|
|
|
| | Ongoing Groups and Activities |
|
|
|
|
|
| Beginning Astrosophy Class First and Third Tuesdays, 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 Influences of Lucifer and Ahriman Study Group First Monday of the month, 7:45-9:00 pm • Currently conducted on Zoom • Contact Heidi Sheppard, HSHEPPAR@LHS.ORG Free Please join us in lively discussions centered on Rudolf Steiner’s Influences of Lucifer and Ahriman: Human Responsibility for the Earth. Speech Formation and Mystery Drama Group 2nd & 4th Wednesdays, 7:30-9 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. Now studying Glen Williamson’s mystery drama, Future Dawning. Pacific Eurythmy Open Classes for the Community in Anthroposophy and the Arts Monday Evenings For details please see Pacific Eurythmy or call Jolanda, 503-896-3345 or Carrie, 415-686-3791 Waldorf Education and Teacher Training Lectures and Courses Conducted throughout the year by the Micha-el Institute Contact Jen Davis, 503-449-7387 jennifer@micha-elinstitute.com | | | 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. | |  |  |  |  | |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | | | | Great gratitude to the members and friends who have donated thus far in 2022 to make this newsletter and our library/community space possible.John Beck, Jeremy Davis, Julie Foster, Vicki Hess-Smith, Mark Hope, Valerie Hope, Lois (Tish) Johnson, Marsha Johnson, Timothy Kennedy, Rene Kehrwald, James Knight, Anne Kollender, Barry Lia, Mihoko Lunsford, Lisa Masterson, Cheri Munske, Robin O'Brien, Lucy O’Neal, Donna Patterson-Kellum, Diane Rumage, Kimberly Sinclair, Jerry Soloway, Rebecca Soloway, Linda Sussman | | 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. |
|
|
|
|
|
| |  | Copyright (C) *|CURRENT_YEAR|* *|LIST:COMPANY|*. All rights reserved.
*|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|**|LIST:DESCRIPTION|**|END:IF|*
Our mailing address is:
*|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|**|HTML:LIST_ADDRESS_HTML|**|END:IF|*
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe
*|IF:REWARDS|* *|HTML:REWARDS|* *|END:IF|* | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
