Re: Anthroposophy, a Secret Religion?
Posted by:
corboy
()
Date: May 19, 2010 02:33AM
One man's experience growing up in Anthro
[www.waldorfcritics.org]
Excerpts from a longer article. These stand out.
Growing Up Being Made Sick by Anthroposophy
By Robert Smith-Hald, a survivor
January 30, 2007
Anthroposophy is a religion, and Camphill is a sect, a cult of fanatics pursuing spiritual development and ultimately perfection. They believe that sickness is the soul incarnating, and also that it has to do with karma. They don’t believe in inoculations, so I had all the child diseases going around, some twice. My being sick all the time was obviously not just the mumps and the measles and whooping cough, so they had the anthroposophical doctors in all the time, in between punishing me for being sick.(that’s why I stayed out of the house as much as I could) There were three doctors, one in Beaver Run, one in The Village, and one that practiced both places. One of them
As it turned out I suffer from wheat intolerance. But I never found that out until I was around 36. My health had deteriorated gradually over the course of my adult life, and I ended up bedridden, hardly being able to breathe and all kinds of other wonderful stuff I don’t even want to write about.
Growing up on whole wheat bread made on double buffed and bleached flour from Government Surplus[1] with wheat germ sprinkled on top to make it look organic was the last thing I needed. I knew the food was making me sick, I felt it. But the feeling my parents had was that I should eat more of it, as I obviously needed to incarnate through the food. So I grew up being force fed food that was making me sick. The threat was that if I didn’t eat absolutely everything on the plate, I would get more. And believe me, I did. I reacted especially to bulgur, so my mother made that as often as she could. Bulgur is whole wheat, cooked like rice. That stuff made my legs weak and my stomach wrench. The doctors supported this treatment, wholeheartedly. This was a good, healthy, anthroposophical approach.
As a result, I had “weak lungs” throughout my childhood, constant tonsillitis, and an irritable stomach. As I got older, I learned to ignore the symptoms and get on, and I learned to eat everything on my plate. The doctors who “treated me” gave me little white sugar pills called infludo, and prescribed buckets and buckets of horsetail teat, and also chamomile tea. These two teas seem to be the anthroposophical answer to antibiotics, and they are upheld as miracle medicine. Also, guess what I got for the stomach? Yoghurt topped with wheat germ. Yummy! Just what the doctor ordered!
Another kid who had diabetes was treated with honey bee stings on his temples once a week. This makes sense because honeybees love the sugar, so of course it’s completely anthroposophically logical to sting kids with diabetes with honeybees! Another favourite of theirs was to treat any kind of arthritis the same way; treat inflammation with inflammation! Does your hand hurt? Come here, I’ll get a bee to sting it-now that’ll hurt!
I think the way this medicine works, is to scare the living daylights out of people. That combined with the placebo effect, faith, and cultivating the extreme. They actively discuss the foolhardiness and downright dangers of modern medicine contra their own brand, and propagate fear of modern medicine. I was effectively brainwashed to never question food, and shun traditional medicine. I was forced to eat the very food that was making me sick, under threat of being fed even more, even though I expressed that that very food was making me ill. The doctors, together with my parents, decided I needed to eat more of it to get better.
Anthroposophists also believe that eating potatoes makes you materialistic (which means unspiritual and worldly) and my plea to replace bulgur with potatoes was not only ignored, but also openly ridiculed. Robert is a little materialist!
In the end, after years of deprogramming myself in a process I dubbed “growing up twice”, I met a traditional doctor who had wheat intolerance in his family and therefore some good tips on an elimination diet to see what foods I was reacting to. After that I went to Norway’s top specialist on food allergy and intolerance and underwent a double blind testing on wheat, as blood tests were not conclusive. The result was 100 percent conclusive. I was wheat intolerant. The cure is to avoid wheat. Avoid what’s making your sick.
The anthroposophists take the opposite approach, and say fight fire with fire, eat more, it will strengthen you. It’s kind of strange that they are so dead set against inoculations, which basically work that way, although the virus is modified and rendered essentially harmless.
We moved to Norway when we were teens, and since we hadn’t been inoculated, we all got the German measles, and after that meningitis. One sister was hospitalised, comatose, and in intensive care for months. We all missed out on months of school and I was honestly afraid for my life that winter. What saved us was that we lived in a duplex, and the neighbour was a doctor. He diagnosed my sister, and practically broke the door down with his antibiotics. I can still remember my parents’ hushed voices in the kitchen that night as they discussed whether the pills would damage our health. The good thing about Norway is that there are laws that protect the child against bad parents like these, and they would have been in trouble had they denied treatment. So for all you freedom lovers out there that put your kids through hell under the guise of doing them a favour; stop and think a bit about what you are doing. Think about the bigger picture. Think about the pain you are inflicting your helpless child, under the guise of caring, under the guise of wanting to do the best for them. Making children strong through pain and disease?
I went back to work as a volunteer for one year in Copake when I was 18, and my health started to spiral quickly downwards. In Norway potatoes are a staple of the diet, and my parents adapted to this quickly, as food is also very expensive here, and potatoes are cheap. (Not such a problem with eating food that makes you materialistic when they had to pay for it from their own pocket!) But back in Camphill they were still making fake organic bread with (triple buffed now) government surplus flour in their own bakery, and washing it down with well water (against state regulations), and soup of the day. I didn’t know the cause of it, and was now so brainwashed into never questioning food, that I plodded on, and even started to search for a spiritual cause for my illness! In the end I went to the anthroposophical doctor. He had tended to me before, and knew my history well. I was sitting in his Camphill office, trembling, and I could hardly breathe, wracked in an agony that is indescribable. His prescription? Infludo, chamomile and especially, you guessed it, horsetail tea. And to sleep sitting up. That was the extent of it. He thought it was caused by my incarnating into the village, and it should work itself through as I participated more and more in village life. Translation? Get to work; get on with it, enough complaining already. Drink your tea; take your sugar pill and stop being in the way. I even started to believe it myself. It was either all in my head, or I had some serious spiritual issues to work through.
I got through that year somehow. In the beginning I had worked in the bakery, but managed to get transferred to a workshop. That’s probably what saved me, knowing what I know now. All those fresh cookies and rolls were not doing me any good.
Also, my housemother (each house was run by a couple, usually married) had a particular complication with sickness. She loathed it, saw it as a weakness, and didn’t want to even look at me, let alone offer me her thoughts and time or energy when I was sick.
After that year I was in a Camphill place in Scotland for 3 months, and fared no better. I went to an anthroposophical doctor there, and he prescribed… you guessed it; horsetail tea, and thought that I should maybe break up with my Scottish girlfriend and go back to Copake, that I wasn’t incarnating very well and this relationship was bad for me. I must also add that she was not well liked by this time in Copake. They felt she wasn’t right for them, too Ahrimanic, too materialistic, and stealing me away from under their very noses. It was an awful mess.
By this time I had had enough of Camphill altogether, and we went back to Norway. I found work in a home for mentally handicapped adults that had been started by disgruntled ex-Camphillers. That suited me just fine.
The health issues continued, and their anthroposophical doctor prescribed the same thing, and I pretty much gave up after that. I learned to live with it, and the symptoms came and went. I was sick a lot, catching anything and everything that was going around, and staying sick twice as long as everybody else. That’s a long time wasted.
Years went by, and finally my body gave up. I became seriously ill, and the dance around the doctors' offices started once again, only this time I was so marred by my experience with anthroposophical doctors that I only went to regular doctors, shunning anything and everything alternative.
The road to recovery was long and winding, and it was chance, and in the end desperation that led me to the doctor who finally was able to help me. It has taken some years to recover the effects of ingesting what is essentially poison for my body, and I am not out of the woods yet. Maybe I never will be, maybe it took too long to find the culprit. Who knows, but I am alive and kicking, and each day is better than the rest.
In light of this, I do fully understand people who turn to these quacks through desperation, but I urge people to think and be critical. Its not just alternative medicine, it’s a religion based form of treatment under the guise of medicine. It is not based on science. It is based wholly on the religious beliefs of a crazed madman who believed himself a clairvoyant and called himself a spiritual scientist. It is my experience that his followers want to be just like him, and that is a dangerous thing. Can you imagine your doctor telling you that you are sick because he can see it in the Chakra records? Horsetail and chamomile tea do work when you have the flu or a common cold. Many people know this; it is common knowledge, folk medicine so to speak. But they’re not a miracle cure, far from it. I still use them. They taste terrible, but my own experience is that they help. Anthroposophical medicine has picked up some things from folk medicine, but I assure you, if the good Dr. Steiner had somehow come up with the idea that arsenic in large quantities was good for the gout, then anthroposophical doctors would still be prescribing it, albeit in secret. And there would surely be plenty of testimonies from people claiming that it cured them, and maybe other reports of people almost dying. And you can be sure that the anthroposophical society would focus all their efforts at discrediting these people as liars and lunatics, and carry on with their business in secret. For that is what they do best.
AMy concern is that these doctors were so caught up in their secret theories that they didn’t listen to the patient. The ideology came before the fact. The same can be said of modern medicine, that the prevailing science does not support this group of patients’ problems. But the difference is that normal doctors will most often tell you to avoid a food that you feel is making you ill, and will encourage you to listen to the signals your body is telling you, even if they can’t take a blood test to show allergy or intolerance.
[www.waldorfcritics.org]
Excerpts from a longer article. These stand out.
Growing Up Being Made Sick by Anthroposophy
By Robert Smith-Hald, a survivor
January 30, 2007
Anthroposophy is a religion, and Camphill is a sect, a cult of fanatics pursuing spiritual development and ultimately perfection. They believe that sickness is the soul incarnating, and also that it has to do with karma. They don’t believe in inoculations, so I had all the child diseases going around, some twice. My being sick all the time was obviously not just the mumps and the measles and whooping cough, so they had the anthroposophical doctors in all the time, in between punishing me for being sick.(that’s why I stayed out of the house as much as I could) There were three doctors, one in Beaver Run, one in The Village, and one that practiced both places. One of them
As it turned out I suffer from wheat intolerance. But I never found that out until I was around 36. My health had deteriorated gradually over the course of my adult life, and I ended up bedridden, hardly being able to breathe and all kinds of other wonderful stuff I don’t even want to write about.
Growing up on whole wheat bread made on double buffed and bleached flour from Government Surplus[1] with wheat germ sprinkled on top to make it look organic was the last thing I needed. I knew the food was making me sick, I felt it. But the feeling my parents had was that I should eat more of it, as I obviously needed to incarnate through the food. So I grew up being force fed food that was making me sick. The threat was that if I didn’t eat absolutely everything on the plate, I would get more. And believe me, I did. I reacted especially to bulgur, so my mother made that as often as she could. Bulgur is whole wheat, cooked like rice. That stuff made my legs weak and my stomach wrench. The doctors supported this treatment, wholeheartedly. This was a good, healthy, anthroposophical approach.
As a result, I had “weak lungs” throughout my childhood, constant tonsillitis, and an irritable stomach. As I got older, I learned to ignore the symptoms and get on, and I learned to eat everything on my plate. The doctors who “treated me” gave me little white sugar pills called infludo, and prescribed buckets and buckets of horsetail teat, and also chamomile tea. These two teas seem to be the anthroposophical answer to antibiotics, and they are upheld as miracle medicine. Also, guess what I got for the stomach? Yoghurt topped with wheat germ. Yummy! Just what the doctor ordered!
Another kid who had diabetes was treated with honey bee stings on his temples once a week. This makes sense because honeybees love the sugar, so of course it’s completely anthroposophically logical to sting kids with diabetes with honeybees! Another favourite of theirs was to treat any kind of arthritis the same way; treat inflammation with inflammation! Does your hand hurt? Come here, I’ll get a bee to sting it-now that’ll hurt!
I think the way this medicine works, is to scare the living daylights out of people. That combined with the placebo effect, faith, and cultivating the extreme. They actively discuss the foolhardiness and downright dangers of modern medicine contra their own brand, and propagate fear of modern medicine. I was effectively brainwashed to never question food, and shun traditional medicine. I was forced to eat the very food that was making me sick, under threat of being fed even more, even though I expressed that that very food was making me ill. The doctors, together with my parents, decided I needed to eat more of it to get better.
Anthroposophists also believe that eating potatoes makes you materialistic (which means unspiritual and worldly) and my plea to replace bulgur with potatoes was not only ignored, but also openly ridiculed. Robert is a little materialist!
In the end, after years of deprogramming myself in a process I dubbed “growing up twice”, I met a traditional doctor who had wheat intolerance in his family and therefore some good tips on an elimination diet to see what foods I was reacting to. After that I went to Norway’s top specialist on food allergy and intolerance and underwent a double blind testing on wheat, as blood tests were not conclusive. The result was 100 percent conclusive. I was wheat intolerant. The cure is to avoid wheat. Avoid what’s making your sick.
The anthroposophists take the opposite approach, and say fight fire with fire, eat more, it will strengthen you. It’s kind of strange that they are so dead set against inoculations, which basically work that way, although the virus is modified and rendered essentially harmless.
We moved to Norway when we were teens, and since we hadn’t been inoculated, we all got the German measles, and after that meningitis. One sister was hospitalised, comatose, and in intensive care for months. We all missed out on months of school and I was honestly afraid for my life that winter. What saved us was that we lived in a duplex, and the neighbour was a doctor. He diagnosed my sister, and practically broke the door down with his antibiotics. I can still remember my parents’ hushed voices in the kitchen that night as they discussed whether the pills would damage our health. The good thing about Norway is that there are laws that protect the child against bad parents like these, and they would have been in trouble had they denied treatment. So for all you freedom lovers out there that put your kids through hell under the guise of doing them a favour; stop and think a bit about what you are doing. Think about the bigger picture. Think about the pain you are inflicting your helpless child, under the guise of caring, under the guise of wanting to do the best for them. Making children strong through pain and disease?
I went back to work as a volunteer for one year in Copake when I was 18, and my health started to spiral quickly downwards. In Norway potatoes are a staple of the diet, and my parents adapted to this quickly, as food is also very expensive here, and potatoes are cheap. (Not such a problem with eating food that makes you materialistic when they had to pay for it from their own pocket!) But back in Camphill they were still making fake organic bread with (triple buffed now) government surplus flour in their own bakery, and washing it down with well water (against state regulations), and soup of the day. I didn’t know the cause of it, and was now so brainwashed into never questioning food, that I plodded on, and even started to search for a spiritual cause for my illness! In the end I went to the anthroposophical doctor. He had tended to me before, and knew my history well. I was sitting in his Camphill office, trembling, and I could hardly breathe, wracked in an agony that is indescribable. His prescription? Infludo, chamomile and especially, you guessed it, horsetail tea. And to sleep sitting up. That was the extent of it. He thought it was caused by my incarnating into the village, and it should work itself through as I participated more and more in village life. Translation? Get to work; get on with it, enough complaining already. Drink your tea; take your sugar pill and stop being in the way. I even started to believe it myself. It was either all in my head, or I had some serious spiritual issues to work through.
I got through that year somehow. In the beginning I had worked in the bakery, but managed to get transferred to a workshop. That’s probably what saved me, knowing what I know now. All those fresh cookies and rolls were not doing me any good.
Also, my housemother (each house was run by a couple, usually married) had a particular complication with sickness. She loathed it, saw it as a weakness, and didn’t want to even look at me, let alone offer me her thoughts and time or energy when I was sick.
After that year I was in a Camphill place in Scotland for 3 months, and fared no better. I went to an anthroposophical doctor there, and he prescribed… you guessed it; horsetail tea, and thought that I should maybe break up with my Scottish girlfriend and go back to Copake, that I wasn’t incarnating very well and this relationship was bad for me. I must also add that she was not well liked by this time in Copake. They felt she wasn’t right for them, too Ahrimanic, too materialistic, and stealing me away from under their very noses. It was an awful mess.
By this time I had had enough of Camphill altogether, and we went back to Norway. I found work in a home for mentally handicapped adults that had been started by disgruntled ex-Camphillers. That suited me just fine.
The health issues continued, and their anthroposophical doctor prescribed the same thing, and I pretty much gave up after that. I learned to live with it, and the symptoms came and went. I was sick a lot, catching anything and everything that was going around, and staying sick twice as long as everybody else. That’s a long time wasted.
Years went by, and finally my body gave up. I became seriously ill, and the dance around the doctors' offices started once again, only this time I was so marred by my experience with anthroposophical doctors that I only went to regular doctors, shunning anything and everything alternative.
The road to recovery was long and winding, and it was chance, and in the end desperation that led me to the doctor who finally was able to help me. It has taken some years to recover the effects of ingesting what is essentially poison for my body, and I am not out of the woods yet. Maybe I never will be, maybe it took too long to find the culprit. Who knows, but I am alive and kicking, and each day is better than the rest.
In light of this, I do fully understand people who turn to these quacks through desperation, but I urge people to think and be critical. Its not just alternative medicine, it’s a religion based form of treatment under the guise of medicine. It is not based on science. It is based wholly on the religious beliefs of a crazed madman who believed himself a clairvoyant and called himself a spiritual scientist. It is my experience that his followers want to be just like him, and that is a dangerous thing. Can you imagine your doctor telling you that you are sick because he can see it in the Chakra records? Horsetail and chamomile tea do work when you have the flu or a common cold. Many people know this; it is common knowledge, folk medicine so to speak. But they’re not a miracle cure, far from it. I still use them. They taste terrible, but my own experience is that they help. Anthroposophical medicine has picked up some things from folk medicine, but I assure you, if the good Dr. Steiner had somehow come up with the idea that arsenic in large quantities was good for the gout, then anthroposophical doctors would still be prescribing it, albeit in secret. And there would surely be plenty of testimonies from people claiming that it cured them, and maybe other reports of people almost dying. And you can be sure that the anthroposophical society would focus all their efforts at discrediting these people as liars and lunatics, and carry on with their business in secret. For that is what they do best.
AMy concern is that these doctors were so caught up in their secret theories that they didn’t listen to the patient. The ideology came before the fact. The same can be said of modern medicine, that the prevailing science does not support this group of patients’ problems. But the difference is that normal doctors will most often tell you to avoid a food that you feel is making you ill, and will encourage you to listen to the signals your body is telling you, even if they can’t take a blood test to show allergy or intolerance.
Re: Anthroposophy, a Secret Religion?
Posted by:
corboy
()
Date: May 19, 2010 03:35AM
For those curious, learn about Steinerian agriculture aka Biodynamics.
Google Biodynamics and 'horn manure'
[www.google.com]
[www.rotheraine.com]
[attra.ncat.org]
(quote)The original biodynamic (BD) preparations are numbered 500-508. The BD 500 preparation (horn-manure) is made from cow manure (fermented in a cow horn that is buried in the soil for six months through autumn and winter) and is used as a soil spray to stimulate root growth and humus formation. The BD 501 preparation (horn-silica) is made from powdered quartz (packed inside a cow horn and buried in the soil for six months through spring and summer) and applied as a foliar spray to stimulate and regulate growth. The next six preparations, BD 502-507, are used in making compost.
Finally, there is BD preparation 508 which is prepared from the silica-rich horsetail plant (Equisetum arvense) and used as a foliar spray to suppress fungal diseases in plants.
The BD compost preparations are listed below:
•No. 502 Yarrow blossoms (Achillea millefolium)
•No. 503 Chamomile blossoms (Chamomilla officinalis)
•No. 504 Stinging nettle (whole plant in full bloom) (Urtica dioca)
•No. 505 Oak bark (Quercus robur)
•No. 506 Dandelion flowers (Taraxacum officinale)
•No. 507 Valerian flowers (Valeriana officinalis)
Biodynamic preparations are intended to help moderate and regulate biological processes as well as enhance and strengthen the life (etheric) forces on the farm.
The preparations are used in homeopathic quantities, meaning they produce an effect in extremely diluted amounts. As an example, just 1/16th ounce—a level teaspoon—of each compost preparation is added to seven- to ten-ton piles of compost. (unquote)
and
[www.cccfcs.com]
(quote)
As part of the tour, we were told about “homeopathic teas” that were used in
Biodynamic farming. These are not the healing teas that one would put in a teacup in
the morning. One of my students, a retired oral surgeon, raised his eyebrows with
skepticism as Jim told us about horn manure and horn silica as being part of two
homeopathic preparations.
Stuffing sheep manure into a cow’s horn in the Fall and burying it until Spring makes
horn manure. According to Fetzer, the manure must be placed in the horn, the same
day it is produced. After it’s buried, the manure is removed and stirred with watercreating microorganism growth. The water is then spread over the vineyard to improve
the quality of the vine growth.
Packing a cow horn with ground quartz in the Spring for six months produces the horn
silica “tea”. It is then uncovered and then mixed with water as a spray that promotes
photosynthesis. The quartz allows for enhanced light refraction. The ultimate goal is
improvement in the color and flavor of the grapes. Placing quartz or manure in a cow
horn seemed oddly ritualistic to my students. According to Biodynamic farmers in
Australia, “The cow horn preparation preserved Sun forces that work through the
planets nearer the Sun, causing germination, root development and plant growth. The
spiral stirring is of significance as it echoes the rhythmic and spiraling nature of all life.
Vortexing stirring in one direction echoes the 'Winter Sun' while the other direction
relates to the 'Winter Sun”(http://www.aracaria.com.au/preparations/500.shtml). If this
sounds a little esoteric, you are probably right.
Biodynamic farming has its roots in the work of 20th century philosopher, Rudolph
Steiner. When I was a Philosophy major in Canada, I recall asking my professors about
Steiner on several occasions. Since many viewed him as being on the fringe of
traditional philosophy, they never wanted to speak of him.
A recent article in the SF weekly.com (http://www.sfweekly.com/) titled “Voodoo on the Vine” described Steiner as
“a self-professed clairvoyant and occult philosopher from Austria who conceived of
Biodynamics during his telepathic visits to the realm of spirits he claimed existed
"behind" our material world.”
When Jim Fetzer mentioned Rudolph Steiner, bells started ringing that I had not heard in years. According to the SF Weekly article, most Biodynamic winemakers stay away from cow horns and Steiner’s interest in spirit beings
in the earth and air. Steiner believed that Gnomes assisted in pushing plants upward,
actual beings, not the porcelain variety that can be found in some gardens and tourist
gift shops.
Whether the focus is simply marketing, improved viticulture, or the spirits affecting the
quality of vines and wines, there are now over 100 certified Biodynamic growers,
including winemakers in the United States. Certification is done by only one company,
Demeter USA (http://www.demeter-usa.org/).(unquote)
Google Biodynamics and 'horn manure'
[www.google.com]
[www.rotheraine.com]
[attra.ncat.org]
(quote)The original biodynamic (BD) preparations are numbered 500-508. The BD 500 preparation (horn-manure) is made from cow manure (fermented in a cow horn that is buried in the soil for six months through autumn and winter) and is used as a soil spray to stimulate root growth and humus formation. The BD 501 preparation (horn-silica) is made from powdered quartz (packed inside a cow horn and buried in the soil for six months through spring and summer) and applied as a foliar spray to stimulate and regulate growth. The next six preparations, BD 502-507, are used in making compost.
Finally, there is BD preparation 508 which is prepared from the silica-rich horsetail plant (Equisetum arvense) and used as a foliar spray to suppress fungal diseases in plants.
The BD compost preparations are listed below:
•No. 502 Yarrow blossoms (Achillea millefolium)
•No. 503 Chamomile blossoms (Chamomilla officinalis)
•No. 504 Stinging nettle (whole plant in full bloom) (Urtica dioca)
•No. 505 Oak bark (Quercus robur)
•No. 506 Dandelion flowers (Taraxacum officinale)
•No. 507 Valerian flowers (Valeriana officinalis)
Biodynamic preparations are intended to help moderate and regulate biological processes as well as enhance and strengthen the life (etheric) forces on the farm.
The preparations are used in homeopathic quantities, meaning they produce an effect in extremely diluted amounts. As an example, just 1/16th ounce—a level teaspoon—of each compost preparation is added to seven- to ten-ton piles of compost. (unquote)
and
[www.cccfcs.com]
(quote)
As part of the tour, we were told about “homeopathic teas” that were used in
Biodynamic farming. These are not the healing teas that one would put in a teacup in
the morning. One of my students, a retired oral surgeon, raised his eyebrows with
skepticism as Jim told us about horn manure and horn silica as being part of two
homeopathic preparations.
Stuffing sheep manure into a cow’s horn in the Fall and burying it until Spring makes
horn manure. According to Fetzer, the manure must be placed in the horn, the same
day it is produced. After it’s buried, the manure is removed and stirred with watercreating microorganism growth. The water is then spread over the vineyard to improve
the quality of the vine growth.
Packing a cow horn with ground quartz in the Spring for six months produces the horn
silica “tea”. It is then uncovered and then mixed with water as a spray that promotes
photosynthesis. The quartz allows for enhanced light refraction. The ultimate goal is
improvement in the color and flavor of the grapes. Placing quartz or manure in a cow
horn seemed oddly ritualistic to my students. According to Biodynamic farmers in
Australia, “The cow horn preparation preserved Sun forces that work through the
planets nearer the Sun, causing germination, root development and plant growth. The
spiral stirring is of significance as it echoes the rhythmic and spiraling nature of all life.
Vortexing stirring in one direction echoes the 'Winter Sun' while the other direction
relates to the 'Winter Sun”(http://www.aracaria.com.au/preparations/500.shtml). If this
sounds a little esoteric, you are probably right.
Biodynamic farming has its roots in the work of 20th century philosopher, Rudolph
Steiner. When I was a Philosophy major in Canada, I recall asking my professors about
Steiner on several occasions. Since many viewed him as being on the fringe of
traditional philosophy, they never wanted to speak of him.
A recent article in the SF weekly.com (http://www.sfweekly.com/) titled “Voodoo on the Vine” described Steiner as
“a self-professed clairvoyant and occult philosopher from Austria who conceived of
Biodynamics during his telepathic visits to the realm of spirits he claimed existed
"behind" our material world.”
When Jim Fetzer mentioned Rudolph Steiner, bells started ringing that I had not heard in years. According to the SF Weekly article, most Biodynamic winemakers stay away from cow horns and Steiner’s interest in spirit beings
in the earth and air. Steiner believed that Gnomes assisted in pushing plants upward,
actual beings, not the porcelain variety that can be found in some gardens and tourist
gift shops.
Whether the focus is simply marketing, improved viticulture, or the spirits affecting the
quality of vines and wines, there are now over 100 certified Biodynamic growers,
including winemakers in the United States. Certification is done by only one company,
Demeter USA (http://www.demeter-usa.org/).(unquote)
Re: Anthroposophy, a Secret Religion?
Posted by:
eggplant
()
Date: June 03, 2010 03:12AM
I spent 2 years at a Camphill community in the mid-90s as a 'co-worker'. I'm relatively objective in the sense that I was never into Steiner or the religion, and was mainly there to learn about growing food. I would be happy to answer any questions anyone has about it. I started to write my story about it and realized it was going to become a short novel.
A couple thoughts -
I didn't ever feel any pressure to become 'one of them', so-to-speak, although had I shown much interest I am sure I would have been indoctrinated pretty thoroughly.
While in a certain way, the lives of the mentally handicapped who live there are a thousand times better because of the environment they live in and the activities they do than they would be in a group home or with over-burdened, aging parents (which are the main alternatives), there was something 'off' about the paternalistic attitude of the long-term community members toward the handicapped folks. I now know a little more of the Steiner philosophy and it's clear my hunch was right.
Some of the biodynamic gardening stuff is pretty off-the-wall, although as we were doing it I just took it at face value. I actually enjoyed the biodynamic preparations process, maybe because I've had little deliberate ritual in my life and found it sort of reassuring.
As for the Steiner philosophy overall, there is a insiders-club vibe about it, card-carrying members and such. A superficial view of it seems harmless, a curiosity. The kids who lived on the farm and went to Waldorf were some of the coolest kids I had ever met - more self-assured and intellectually curious than I was used to with pre-teens and teenagers, for example. Some of the long-term community members were clearly cynical about the Steiner stuff but were in it for the lifestyle - the community, farming, lack of materialism, living outside of society (relatively speaking - and it's easier since it's basically subsidized of course). I know if I had decided to make a longer-term commitment to staying there without embracing Steiner it probably would have been okay, as long as I went along to get along, if ya know what I mean.
But now that I know a little more about it and have had 10+ years to reflect on it, it is all pretty questionable to me. Whether or not most of the members fully grasp what Steiner believed, they are perpetuating it in some way. And others quite likely know full well what he was really about but they sure masked it with peaceful demeanor and gentle ways.
One brief comment about the health and medicine stuff. My boyfriend (who was a German doing his civil service there instead of the army - I met him at the farm) hurt his knee REALLY bad, and he went to the anthroposophical doctor, and was given arnica cream and remedies for his pain. He needed some serious pain pills or something, it was really messed up and he couldn't sleep for days, and they give him these little homeopathic sugar pills and cream. I'm not on the total extreme that all herbal medicine is a sham because there is no doubt in my mind that some herbs have medicinal effects *however* their application is limited, and this was extremely inappropriate. It was all about the woo.
As I said I could write a short novel so I've just touched on a few of the things that have come up earlier in the thread. Feel free to ask me any questions about my experience and my thoughts more than 10 years later. While I have a real soft-spot for some of the people there (esp the handicapped folks but some of the house parents as well), I generally have good memories of my time there, I know enough now to have all sorts of opinions to go along with my experience...
A couple thoughts -
I didn't ever feel any pressure to become 'one of them', so-to-speak, although had I shown much interest I am sure I would have been indoctrinated pretty thoroughly.
While in a certain way, the lives of the mentally handicapped who live there are a thousand times better because of the environment they live in and the activities they do than they would be in a group home or with over-burdened, aging parents (which are the main alternatives), there was something 'off' about the paternalistic attitude of the long-term community members toward the handicapped folks. I now know a little more of the Steiner philosophy and it's clear my hunch was right.
Some of the biodynamic gardening stuff is pretty off-the-wall, although as we were doing it I just took it at face value. I actually enjoyed the biodynamic preparations process, maybe because I've had little deliberate ritual in my life and found it sort of reassuring.
As for the Steiner philosophy overall, there is a insiders-club vibe about it, card-carrying members and such. A superficial view of it seems harmless, a curiosity. The kids who lived on the farm and went to Waldorf were some of the coolest kids I had ever met - more self-assured and intellectually curious than I was used to with pre-teens and teenagers, for example. Some of the long-term community members were clearly cynical about the Steiner stuff but were in it for the lifestyle - the community, farming, lack of materialism, living outside of society (relatively speaking - and it's easier since it's basically subsidized of course). I know if I had decided to make a longer-term commitment to staying there without embracing Steiner it probably would have been okay, as long as I went along to get along, if ya know what I mean.
But now that I know a little more about it and have had 10+ years to reflect on it, it is all pretty questionable to me. Whether or not most of the members fully grasp what Steiner believed, they are perpetuating it in some way. And others quite likely know full well what he was really about but they sure masked it with peaceful demeanor and gentle ways.
One brief comment about the health and medicine stuff. My boyfriend (who was a German doing his civil service there instead of the army - I met him at the farm) hurt his knee REALLY bad, and he went to the anthroposophical doctor, and was given arnica cream and remedies for his pain. He needed some serious pain pills or something, it was really messed up and he couldn't sleep for days, and they give him these little homeopathic sugar pills and cream. I'm not on the total extreme that all herbal medicine is a sham because there is no doubt in my mind that some herbs have medicinal effects *however* their application is limited, and this was extremely inappropriate. It was all about the woo.
As I said I could write a short novel so I've just touched on a few of the things that have come up earlier in the thread. Feel free to ask me any questions about my experience and my thoughts more than 10 years later. While I have a real soft-spot for some of the people there (esp the handicapped folks but some of the house parents as well), I generally have good memories of my time there, I know enough now to have all sorts of opinions to go along with my experience...
Re: Anthroposophy, a Secret Religion?
Posted by:
corboy
()
Date: June 23, 2010 11:09PM
A post giving a series of articles in Norwegian and in English concerning Anthroposophy.
Zooey describes challenges faced online.
Steiner thought Norway had a special destiny.
Lots of information here about measles outbreaks traced to a study trip made by Steiner students from Norway to Austria, which has a high concentration Steiner schools.
[webcache.googleusercontent.com]
A wealth of material and links.
Zooey describes challenges faced online.
Steiner thought Norway had a special destiny.
Lots of information here about measles outbreaks traced to a study trip made by Steiner students from Norway to Austria, which has a high concentration Steiner schools.
[webcache.googleusercontent.com]
A wealth of material and links.
Re: Anthroposophy, a Secret Religion?
Posted by:
dsm
()
Date: June 24, 2010 12:26AM
I lived in Great Barrington, Massachusetts which had a Waldorf school at the time. They were very interested in recruiting me because I had a school-age child. Her best friend switched from public school to that one.
When I first moved to Great Barrington there was a real creepy thing going on. Some people would actually sidle up to me and my child if we were in line at the local cafe, etc and act friendly but there was this non-verbal "sidling", that is, they always seemed to talk low and look around, and as I got settled in, they would ask if I was seeing this doctor or that, you know, family let's-help-you-find-services kind of conversations, and when I named a particular one that was a local one for years (I am thinking of a gynecologist and a veterinarian, both of whom were old local family people) they would look shocked and whisper that I should not see this one or that one, but would never answer my simple question "why not?" It was weird.
"They", as I recall, were the same set of faces, I am thinking mostly of one or two that I ran into regularly. I blew them off with wise-cracks. I did not connect them with the Waldorf school at all.
Then a friend of mine decided to enroll her daughter. A Steiner school instructor was also teaching riding lessons on the side and was an EXCELLENT riding coach. My daughter is healthy today because that coach taught excellent skills, but those were that coach's skills, not the Steiner school's. So the other child in the riding class went for the full enrollment and mine didn't.
Over the next year or two the Steiner child was telling her parents she was scared, that she was not learning anything, and that they did not want her to read. Both she and my daughter were precocious readers and used to play all their games with elaborate stories, they kept notebooks and wrote stories the way 9-year-old girls often do, they took riding and music lessons together, etc etc.
The school began pressuring the mother to either get us enrolled or stop the friendship! She actually began to be upset about this and we were in a cafe several times when Steiner parents would come up to us and stare at me while talking to her as if no one else was at the table. She was going to Steiner meetings and eventually her friendships took her in that direction and I moved out of Great Barrington not too long after that, but I think she solved the school problem by putting her daughter in a new school when she moved.
But the whole thing was incredibly cult-creepy. This experience lasted almost three years, and in that time I attended a few events that were Waldorf-school related and met a few very nice people, enjoyed their beautiful crafts, etc, and also explored Steiner's books. I was comfortable with any sort of spirituality but when I identified it as a forced spirituality I did not like that at all. My friend did not think that the spirituality meant much, and it was not hidden in the sense that they denied it was there, but they did not openly explain to parents that the children were being indoctrinated into a religion and Steiner was its prophet. They tried to act as if he was just another interesting writer whenever the school was involved.
What caused my friend to suddenly think "cult!" and yank her daughter out was a student art show. It was not just that the subjects were a common theme (we've all seen that at grade-school art shows) but the style and approach of every single child was extremely uniform. I was invited to that show as part of her last-ditch effort to recruit me and that was actually the opposite effect. She told afterwards that she was being pressured to either recruit or break off the friendship and the art show convinced her of my objections that it was a religious school and that it was stifling natural intellect.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/2010 12:35AM by dsm.
When I first moved to Great Barrington there was a real creepy thing going on. Some people would actually sidle up to me and my child if we were in line at the local cafe, etc and act friendly but there was this non-verbal "sidling", that is, they always seemed to talk low and look around, and as I got settled in, they would ask if I was seeing this doctor or that, you know, family let's-help-you-find-services kind of conversations, and when I named a particular one that was a local one for years (I am thinking of a gynecologist and a veterinarian, both of whom were old local family people) they would look shocked and whisper that I should not see this one or that one, but would never answer my simple question "why not?" It was weird.
"They", as I recall, were the same set of faces, I am thinking mostly of one or two that I ran into regularly. I blew them off with wise-cracks. I did not connect them with the Waldorf school at all.
Then a friend of mine decided to enroll her daughter. A Steiner school instructor was also teaching riding lessons on the side and was an EXCELLENT riding coach. My daughter is healthy today because that coach taught excellent skills, but those were that coach's skills, not the Steiner school's. So the other child in the riding class went for the full enrollment and mine didn't.
Over the next year or two the Steiner child was telling her parents she was scared, that she was not learning anything, and that they did not want her to read. Both she and my daughter were precocious readers and used to play all their games with elaborate stories, they kept notebooks and wrote stories the way 9-year-old girls often do, they took riding and music lessons together, etc etc.
The school began pressuring the mother to either get us enrolled or stop the friendship! She actually began to be upset about this and we were in a cafe several times when Steiner parents would come up to us and stare at me while talking to her as if no one else was at the table. She was going to Steiner meetings and eventually her friendships took her in that direction and I moved out of Great Barrington not too long after that, but I think she solved the school problem by putting her daughter in a new school when she moved.
But the whole thing was incredibly cult-creepy. This experience lasted almost three years, and in that time I attended a few events that were Waldorf-school related and met a few very nice people, enjoyed their beautiful crafts, etc, and also explored Steiner's books. I was comfortable with any sort of spirituality but when I identified it as a forced spirituality I did not like that at all. My friend did not think that the spirituality meant much, and it was not hidden in the sense that they denied it was there, but they did not openly explain to parents that the children were being indoctrinated into a religion and Steiner was its prophet. They tried to act as if he was just another interesting writer whenever the school was involved.
What caused my friend to suddenly think "cult!" and yank her daughter out was a student art show. It was not just that the subjects were a common theme (we've all seen that at grade-school art shows) but the style and approach of every single child was extremely uniform. I was invited to that show as part of her last-ditch effort to recruit me and that was actually the opposite effect. She told afterwards that she was being pressured to either recruit or break off the friendship and the art show convinced her of my objections that it was a religious school and that it was stifling natural intellect.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/2010 12:35AM by dsm.
Re: Anthroposophy, a Secret Religion?
Posted by:
corboy
()
Date: June 27, 2010 07:29AM
General Section and First Class
If you are questioning someone an project that originated with Rudolf Steiner and his Anthroposophy movement, say Waldorf Education or Biodynamic Farming, you should take care to ask that person 'Are you a member of the Anthroposophical Society?
And if they happen to say yes, then ask them, Are you a member of General Society (which anyone can join by paying a fee) or are you a member of the First Class?'
Have a look at this:
From an excerpt from The Sun at Midnight by Geoffrey Ahern:
(quote)
How is the movement organised
Not all Anthroposophists are visionaries but probably all acknowledge the legitimacy of vision. They generally aspire to become aware of 'etheric', 'astral' and other spiritual essences...The collective aspect of this striving tends to be concentrated in the School of Spiritual Science: it, more than any other social organ, is designed to be at the centre of the movement, the connecting corolla for its petals.
Steiner made provision for three Classes. Only one the 'First Class' is known to be in operation. There are no special conditions demanded for membership of the General Anthroposophical Society, which is exoteric and concerned with the external governance and arrangements of the movement. But the door of the First Class is not opened to everyone, and not all members wish to belong to it. ... At least two years' affiliation to the General Society is a pre-condition for joining. Also, 'inner responsibility' for Anthroposophy has to be accepted. Rudolf Steiner, who was distressed at the state of the movement, founded the First Class in 1923 as an organ of regeneration. Anthroposophists stress the individual taking responsibility, in contrast to the old mysteries where the neophyte was deemed ready by the hierophant and taken through a process controlled by others. In Anthroposophy you have to know for yourself when you are ready to start. The regenerating source is believed not to be accessed through a priest, temple, guru or Rudolf Steiner, but through yourself. The First Class adapts Steiner's meditative path for individuals. The latter is generally available in publications such as Occult Science and Knowledge of the Higher Worlds.3 However, only the place and times of meetings of local branches of the School of Spiritual Science are published, together with the number of the 'Lesson' concerned (there is a cycle of 19). Members of this elite are pledged to secrecy, a vow which is usually strictly observed. I had no success when I asked for information about the mantras of the First Class: I was told that they 'belong to the School'. The nineteen Lessons of the First Class contain mantras from Steiner and his own commentaries on them. When as an outsider I asked questions about them (or the commentaries on them), this was one of the few acts that would, almost predictably, incur annoyance
[www.sun-at-midnight.com])
(quote)
With this little bit of info, weigh up for yourself the probabitlities of really having any discourse that might be described os open and meaningful.
Visitors might care to ponder the differences between initiation and simple training.
It is readily recognised that Anthroposophy is by no means alone in having an initiation rite as a requirement of progress to higher echelons.
However, one might wonder if initiation is appropriate for any organisation seeking to be in regular receipt of public funding combined with being left in a position of trust with vulnerable people.
While membership of The General Anthroposophical Society doesn't appear to be an absolute requirement for those seeking an active association with any "initiative" of Anthroposophy, those thinking about such an association might find it worthwhile to query the degree of initiation of the leading lights of the initiative in question.
It seems that while membership of the General Anthroposophical Society isn't all that difficult to achieve, First Class initiation is a different matter.
"First Class" is the first class or step of initiation devised by Rudolf Steiner in response to requests from young Anthroposophists who sought to get more out of their membership of The Anthroposophical Society. Second and third classes were to have been produced as well, but Steiner shuffled off his mortal coil before achieving this.
Interested people may struggle a bit with something like text books for medical students, but the texts are available to anyone, and so finding out more can be taken from there. Despite assurances from Anthroposophy that First Class information is available (in one case at least, quoting publication information) we have found this to be impossible to obtain.
Should you be moved enough to source a de facto publicly available copy of this course, please, please forward that information: we really would like to stand demonstrably corrected on this.
[www.easeonline.org]
(unquote)
and
(quote)
STEINER FACT 2: THE STEINER MOVEMENT HAS SOME OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A CULT
Newcomers to Steiner are generally not told about the cult-like group of chosen initiates at the heart of the
Anthroposophy movement, or if they are it is only in very general terms. The group is called the School of
Spiritual Science or ‘First Class’ as it is often called. The Australian website describes it as follows:
"After two years or more [of involvement in Anthroposophy] you can apply to join the
School of Spiritual Science. … y joining the School of Spiritual Science a member now
commits to represent Anthroposophy in the world at large. … [This] involves working
with certain meditations and mantra, which were given by Rudolf Steiner."
[anthroposophy.org.au]
(the URL for this source is now a dead link--Corboy-6-27-2010)
What they don’t say is that the activities of the School of Spiritual Science/First Class are secret and known
only to initiates.
(unquote)
[sites.google.com]
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/2010 07:35AM by corboy.
If you are questioning someone an project that originated with Rudolf Steiner and his Anthroposophy movement, say Waldorf Education or Biodynamic Farming, you should take care to ask that person 'Are you a member of the Anthroposophical Society?
And if they happen to say yes, then ask them, Are you a member of General Society (which anyone can join by paying a fee) or are you a member of the First Class?'
Have a look at this:
From an excerpt from The Sun at Midnight by Geoffrey Ahern:
(quote)
How is the movement organised
Not all Anthroposophists are visionaries but probably all acknowledge the legitimacy of vision. They generally aspire to become aware of 'etheric', 'astral' and other spiritual essences...The collective aspect of this striving tends to be concentrated in the School of Spiritual Science: it, more than any other social organ, is designed to be at the centre of the movement, the connecting corolla for its petals.
Steiner made provision for three Classes. Only one the 'First Class' is known to be in operation. There are no special conditions demanded for membership of the General Anthroposophical Society, which is exoteric and concerned with the external governance and arrangements of the movement. But the door of the First Class is not opened to everyone, and not all members wish to belong to it. ... At least two years' affiliation to the General Society is a pre-condition for joining. Also, 'inner responsibility' for Anthroposophy has to be accepted. Rudolf Steiner, who was distressed at the state of the movement, founded the First Class in 1923 as an organ of regeneration. Anthroposophists stress the individual taking responsibility, in contrast to the old mysteries where the neophyte was deemed ready by the hierophant and taken through a process controlled by others. In Anthroposophy you have to know for yourself when you are ready to start. The regenerating source is believed not to be accessed through a priest, temple, guru or Rudolf Steiner, but through yourself. The First Class adapts Steiner's meditative path for individuals. The latter is generally available in publications such as Occult Science and Knowledge of the Higher Worlds.3 However, only the place and times of meetings of local branches of the School of Spiritual Science are published, together with the number of the 'Lesson' concerned (there is a cycle of 19). Members of this elite are pledged to secrecy, a vow which is usually strictly observed. I had no success when I asked for information about the mantras of the First Class: I was told that they 'belong to the School'. The nineteen Lessons of the First Class contain mantras from Steiner and his own commentaries on them. When as an outsider I asked questions about them (or the commentaries on them), this was one of the few acts that would, almost predictably, incur annoyance
[www.sun-at-midnight.com])
(quote)
With this little bit of info, weigh up for yourself the probabitlities of really having any discourse that might be described os open and meaningful.
Visitors might care to ponder the differences between initiation and simple training.
It is readily recognised that Anthroposophy is by no means alone in having an initiation rite as a requirement of progress to higher echelons.
However, one might wonder if initiation is appropriate for any organisation seeking to be in regular receipt of public funding combined with being left in a position of trust with vulnerable people.
While membership of The General Anthroposophical Society doesn't appear to be an absolute requirement for those seeking an active association with any "initiative" of Anthroposophy, those thinking about such an association might find it worthwhile to query the degree of initiation of the leading lights of the initiative in question.
It seems that while membership of the General Anthroposophical Society isn't all that difficult to achieve, First Class initiation is a different matter.
"First Class" is the first class or step of initiation devised by Rudolf Steiner in response to requests from young Anthroposophists who sought to get more out of their membership of The Anthroposophical Society. Second and third classes were to have been produced as well, but Steiner shuffled off his mortal coil before achieving this.
Interested people may struggle a bit with something like text books for medical students, but the texts are available to anyone, and so finding out more can be taken from there. Despite assurances from Anthroposophy that First Class information is available (in one case at least, quoting publication information) we have found this to be impossible to obtain.
Should you be moved enough to source a de facto publicly available copy of this course, please, please forward that information: we really would like to stand demonstrably corrected on this.
[www.easeonline.org]
(unquote)
and
(quote)
STEINER FACT 2: THE STEINER MOVEMENT HAS SOME OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A CULT
Newcomers to Steiner are generally not told about the cult-like group of chosen initiates at the heart of the
Anthroposophy movement, or if they are it is only in very general terms. The group is called the School of
Spiritual Science or ‘First Class’ as it is often called. The Australian website describes it as follows:
"After two years or more [of involvement in Anthroposophy] you can apply to join the
School of Spiritual Science. … y joining the School of Spiritual Science a member now
commits to represent Anthroposophy in the world at large. … [This] involves working
with certain meditations and mantra, which were given by Rudolf Steiner."
[anthroposophy.org.au]
(the URL for this source is now a dead link--Corboy-6-27-2010)
What they don’t say is that the activities of the School of Spiritual Science/First Class are secret and known
only to initiates.
(unquote)
[sites.google.com]
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/2010 07:35AM by corboy.
Re: Anthroposophy, a Secret Religion?
Posted by:
corboy
()
Date: June 27, 2010 10:13PM
Run searches on Google using the exact phrase "blue card" "first class" steiner and Anthroposophy.
The First Class and the Blue Card go back to Steiner himself.
(Dornach was Steiners place of residence and site of the Anthroposophy building, the Goetheanum--a building designed to Steiners specifications, that is still in use today--look it up Corboy).
From the section of a book on the history of the First Class in Anthroposophy in the chapter entitled 'The First Mediators is an entry for Johannes Leino
This excerpt is from a discussion on Green Parent forum concerning Waldorf/Steiner education.
The entire thread is well worth reading.
and
[www.google.com]
The First Class and the Blue Card go back to Steiner himself.
(Dornach was Steiners place of residence and site of the Anthroposophy building, the Goetheanum--a building designed to Steiners specifications, that is still in use today--look it up Corboy).
From the section of a book on the history of the First Class in Anthroposophy in the chapter entitled 'The First Mediators is an entry for Johannes Leino
Quote
He (Leino)later wrote: : 'In the summer of 1924, Rudolf Steiner asked me to send on the applications for Class membership and also gave me permission to pass on the Class mantras to people who had the Blue Card (Footnote 289)
From then on he would send applications to Dornach with his recommendations and ask permission to give mantras to specific people.
"‘A protracted illness made him (Leino) suggest to Marie Steiner that another long time member, Miss Katri Lorma, give the readings in his place, but this was probably refused.
Some months later, Marie Steiner wrote to him ‘There is no question of giving permission for this to a member who is not known to us."
A History of the School of Spiritual Science:The First Class By Johannes Kiersch
Pages 91 to 92
[books.google.com]
This excerpt is from a discussion on Green Parent forum concerning Waldorf/Steiner education.
The entire thread is well worth reading.
Quote
Best wishes Felix
February 9, 2009 at 7:59 am
On a discussion thread on LuckyMummy Forum, one person wrote of desiring to reform
Anthroposophy.
X wroteQuote
.....I feel my duty is to help to reform the movement and help (name omitted) Steiner Waldorf School to develop, as a free school educating children with the help of some of Steiners educational ideas but also as Steiner would have wished with a strong independance and teachers strongly based in the cultural heritage of the surrounding area with their own ideas and independant thought.
David Dodds replied to this:(wrote--Corboy interpolation)
Hi X
Good Luck with your reform efforts.
I too was part of a reform push until They got fed up.
I don’t know yet quite at what point “It’ s good you keep asking- it keeps us on pur toes” became “Not a team player” amongst other things.
I was sqeezed out to be replaced by a 23 yo from Denmark (so far as I recall) who knew nothing of Anthroposophy, and therefore could’nt rock the boat.
It seemed to come about from the higher-ups in the movement, the blue card holders, those with the information to which we minions were never to made privy.
Please carry on with your reform efforts, but watch yer back mate.
The website was never intende to cary any great conviction- just a bit more information: “I may not agree with what you say, but I will fight to the death for you to have the right to say it” Voltaire?
Should a fate similar to mine befall you or any of your fellow reformers, then the website may become more relevant. Can’t say nobody tried to warn you.
Do carry on with your independent thinking, but watch the horizon, and beware of the personal comments no matter how warm and fluffy the smile behind the attack is.
Many of us found that these are the first step toward making you either shut up or comply. I found it quite useful to look to see if the constant smile was in the eyes as well as on the mouth.
Bravo X- keep going.
David
and
[www.google.com]
Quote
February - www.portlandbranch.com The Portland Branch's ...starting to work with Rudolf Steiner's karma exercises on .... Takac's Clinic,
Blue card required – Discussion on Lesson .... our gathering with our own mantra
, a verse that we can each work with, Karl Konig/s poem on knighthood: ...
[portlandbranch.org] - - Cached - Similar pages
www.portlandbranch.com Anthroposophy and Human RelationshipExercises. Two Wednesdays a month, 7:30 - 9:00 PM in NE Portland. Currently
working on scenes 6 & 8 of Rudolf Steiner's Portal of. Initiation. ...
[portlandbranch.org] - Similar pages
<a href="[www.portlandbranch.com] ...rom this important moment onward, Rudolf Steiner remains hen all at once, when
the second half of this .... exercises follow in the middle of the second volume
. This ...... Bothmer Hall, Blue card required – Discussion at 8:30 AM, class
Program :: Whitsun Conference 22 - 25 May 2010 - Hannover ...blue card) 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM Musical opening and welcome .... performance of
fairy tales, puppet plays, speech practises and exercises. Deutsch, Englisch ...
Gemeinsame Arbeit am Anthroposophischen Seelenkalender von Rudolf Steiner. ...
[www.pfingsttagung.info] - 20k - Cached - Similar pages
Goetheanum11. Febr. 2010 ... Study of Rudolf Steiner's works, artistic exercises and developing capacities
related ...... Rudolf Steiner's Meditations and Mantras. Lectures by V. Sease .
.... lehre geben, wie sie Rudolf Steiner aus der anthroposophischen ......
Please bring your blue card. The Class Lessons in English ...
[www.goetheanum.org] - - Cached - Similar pages
Re: Anthroposophy, a Secret Religion?
Posted by:
corboy
()
Date: June 27, 2010 10:41PM
Pink Cards and Blue Cards
Quote
Recently an anthroposophical friend told me he would be organizing the lectures and work-shops for the local branch of the Anthroposophi-cal Society in the coming year.
A conversation ensued around a dilemma he felt.
The committee of individuals who hadapproached him about taking on this task made a point of reminding him that only anthropo-sophical speakers should be invited.
My friend smiled, saying he knew this had been emphasized because of his earlier spiritual affiliations.
Myfriend is deeply dedicated to studying and serving spiritual science. But the question that weighed upon him was the following: Is anthroposophy best served by distancing itself from other spiritual movements or by creating some opportunities for interaction and dialogue with representatives of other streams?,,,
(discussion of Relativism and Fundamentalism follows) and the author concluded:
Some may think I am opening Pandora’s Box which is better left closed to contain the demonsand serpents that would do us more harm. Thetruth is, the Box is already open and the serpentsare on every side.
Like those who would inmodesty say the Emperor is clothed when he isnaked, we do ourselves a disservice if we turn ourgaze from the spiritual battle that surrounds us onevery side. There is no magical formula that will subdue the dragons of the fundamentalist and relativist spirits.
My intent is simply to drawattention to this battle within and around each ofus.
In conclusion, I offer one possible starting point in the hope that others will join me, like Laocoon and his sons, in wrestling these spiritual serpents who would inflict a mortal wound upon our budding humanity.
Let us turn to my friend’s situation that I described at the beginning. Even if my friend decided to invite only anthroposophists, how would he determine this?
Is it only those who have a pink card, or a blue card?
Or, is it those whoare particularly gifted at quoting Rudolf Steiner extensively and precisely? To quote Rudolf Steiner accurately does not by itself make a good anthroposophical lecture. A lecture could befactually correct from a spiritual scientific
perspective and yet fail to be imbued with living meaning for the listeners....
page three
Pacifica Journal A bi-annual newsletter published by the Anthroposophical Society in Hawai'i Number 27
Re: Anthroposophy, a Secret Religion?
Posted by:
corboy
()
Date: June 27, 2010 11:42PM
From a biography of Ilse K given in Newsletter of the Portland Branch of the Anthroposophical Society
(last names replaced by letters Corboy)
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wondered if pregnancy would make it worse. Dr K said no, she would lose her eyesight anyway.
Then Ilse was born and named after her mother's doctor. When they met some 40 years later, Dr X said "Oh,you are that Ilse!" She felt as if she was born because Dr K had permitted it.
Her first experience of Dornach* in 1972 was not pleasant. All the veiled and wrapped up sensitive women floating around rather turned her stomach.
(Anthroposophical Society headquarters at Goethaneum)
However, she met one of these women when she tried to see the Statue in Dornach, but they wanted to see her member's card in order to see it.
Ilse thought "Heavens, I've been a member since birth! Why do I need a pink card!"
Nearbywas a draped lady with a soft melodious voice (that made her hair stand on end) who offered to take her to see it. It turned out that WB(this woman)knew Herr K , one of Ilse's high school advisers,who was married in Frau B garden.
She then took her to see and touch in awe the handle of a place where Rudolf Steiner had lived, and also took her to Sonnenhof(the curative home) which interested Ilse. Frau Bhadbeen a nurse in WWI, and her husband had been one ofthe first teachers in the Stuttgart Waldorf School.
Shereturned to Dornach each February because she felt a connection with Ilse. She seemed an angel who cameand smoothed things out, just when Ilse was about to blow her stack.
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October 24, 2007 Bulletin.qxpThe Rudolf Steiner Branch is presenting 3 weekend events: ... Anthroposophical Society pink card is required for admission. New membership ...
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