Anthroposophy in Hawkes Bay          

Calendar of Coming Events-- Diary Dates

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

• Saturday, 22 March 11am to noon. He Rangatahi Pounamu Ambassador Program - Return celebration
• Friday, 28 March 7 to 8:30pm.  Conversation on the Michael Mystery letters from Rudolf Steiner to the members, and the associated Leading thoughts. p150 "What is revealed when one looks back into repeated lives on Earth"
• Sunday, 30 March 2025. 100th anniversary of Rudolf Steiner's death.  Eva Knausberger will speak on "The Threefold Principle in Social Organisations and in Daily Life and Society" - a theme into which Rudolf Steiner put much energy in the last years of his life.
• Monday 31 March Margaret-Mary Farr's Kairos Artistic Therapy training starts.
• Saturday 5 April. (Note later date).  Autumn-Michael Festival. See below.
• Kolisko Conference "Great Expectations" in Taikura School 11-14 April 2025. 
  
• Saturday 26 April at 3 pm.  HB Branch of the Anthroposophical Society AGM.
• Friday 9 to Sunday 11 May in Auckland. A Workshop on finances with UK speaker Christopher Budd.
  

  The Committee ask that visitors to events in the Centre pay a contribution to the Koha box in the Foyer, as we have regular bills for electric power, city rates, insurance, and maintenance for an ageing building.

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He Rangatahi Pounamu Ambassador Program - Return celebration

"With great joy and success in many ways: stories, new friends, old friends -- and our fresh young souls walking in the Arctic snow have returned. 

I will hold a return presentation of the He Rangatahi Pounamu Ambassador Program in D'Armand King and Kalel Wairau took part. This is its first voyage and its first return on a platform that has been built on a 25-year-long relationship, whakapapa, with Suomi that connects with Agneta Friedlander's land of birth, Finland.

Come and see and listen to the wonderful adventures and choices that these boys made and what they have see, done, who they met and what they want to do now. 

Tervetuloa. Ja kiitos. "

Whiri Seeds

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AUTUMN-MICHAEL FESTIVAL, Saturday 5 April

The Autumn Festival for our Hawkes Bay Branch will be celebrated on Saturday, 5^th April.

At 10 am, John Jackson will be offering a reading in the morning from the lecture:

‘The Creation of a Michael Festival out of the Spirit’.

A Biodynamic preparation stirring early in the day will be confirmed next week.

In the evening, gathering at 7 for a 7:30 pm start there will be a festival chorus speaking the description of Michael’s battle with the Dragon, from Revelations 12 – (the next practice will be on Thursday, 13^th March, at 5.30 pm)  Anyone who would like to join the chorus, is most welcome! Contact Astrid 021-215 4019.

Robin Bacchus will speak about the Archangel Michael, as described in the Leading Thoughts (Michael Letters).

A poster with the details will come out next week.

Festival preparation: Astrid Anderson (021-215 4019) and John Jackson (022-122 8002).

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“MADE IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND” – a Workshop

“The finances of the Anthroposophical Society in the light of today's world situation.”

9 to 11 May in Auckland

In collaboration with people with interest from West Auckland, we are pleased to announce a workshop weekend with Christopher Houghton Budd. Christopher is an economic and monetary historian. His work bridges between mainstream finance in London and the work of the Anthroposophical Society Treasurers.
There will be a combination of lectures and interactive workshop sessions to have open discussions leading to co-creating future research. We will weave around themes of current world economy and the Anthroposophical Society worldwide, the task of New Zealand; a wider view of money and Rudolf Steiners' world economy as part of social renewal.
On the website - Register your interest before March 31st so we can plan.  Steiner House is booked for the event but larger numbers may necessitate a different venue being found.
After 31st March we will be able to calculate the registration fee and open the actual registration which will be for those who have pre-registered.

On the registration form you are asked to list any questions you have.  Christopher is asking for questions that live within us, the people of Aotearoa New Zealand.  A number of members have been in communication with the Council recently about finances, and we know there are questions discussed at a regional level.  Please take the opportunity offered by Christopher’s visit to bring these to a common ground for discussion.

If you want to help sponsor this visit, please contact us at info@anthroposophy.org.nz.  Sponsorship comes in many forms; we need to pay for Christopher’s flights and his fees; venue costs; catering for morning and afternoon tea.  Help with money towards these or sponsorship otherwise is hugely appreciated.

A timetable is on the website and includes a mix of public events and some restricted to ASNZ/GAS members only.

We hope to see you there.
This event is the first of the three Society events for 2025.
The others are the Conference for First Class of The School of Spiritual Science at Kings Birthday weekend and
the Society Day and AGM in September.
See the Events page for details as they become available.

Warm regards
Emma Ratcliff, Michelle Vette and Nic Parkes
The Council of Anthroposophical Society in New Zealand

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Kolisko Conference Tickets

“Great Expectations”

'Meeting the Challenge of Expectations of Self, each Other and of Life.'

Friday 11 to Monday 14 April in the Taikura School, Nelson Street North, Hastings.

Keynote Speakers:

• Dr Adam Blanning
• Anne de Wild & Chris Burke

The Conference is now  fully booked. 

For those who are unable to attend full-time, it will be possible to attend the Keynote presentations.

There are a limited number of tickets to the 6 Keynote presentations being made available.  This is for lectures only - specifically excludes the Morning Teas or refreshments.

The Keynote Lectures are:

A            Fri 11 at 11:30am          Dr Adam Blanning

B            Fri 11 at 7:15pm            Anne de Wild & Chris Burke

C           Sat 12 at 9:30am           Dr Adam Blanning

D            Sun 13 at 9:30am         Anne de Wild & Chris Burke

E            Mon 14 at 9:30am        Dr Adam Blanning

F            Mon 14 at 11:30am      Anne de Wild & Chris Burke

TICKETS

For those unable to attend the conference in full but would like to hear the Keynote Lectures, tickets must be purchased in advance via the Hawkes Branch.  20 tickets are available for each lecture.

If you wish to hear any or all of the lectures, please email treas@anthrohb.nz giving

1. your name;
2. email;
3. mobile number;
4. which of the lectures (A to F) that you wish to attend; 
5. seating level:  Balcony or Ground floor;
6. Are you a Gold Card holder? (give client #)

You will then be sent an Invoice. 
When your payment has been received, you will be sent a personal Lecture Only Admission Ticket to show the person with a checklist at the door, and you will be shown to specially reserved seats.  Some seats will be on the balcony/mezzanine, others on the lower floor, so please indicate which level you prefer.

PRICES: There is a discount for pensioners with Gold Cards (quote your Client Number), and for more than one lecture.. 

Kolisko lectures
# Lectures	Regular	GoldCard
ONE	$30	$20
TWO	$57	$38
THREE	$81	$54
FOUR	$102	$68
FIVE	$120	$80
SIX	$135	$90

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Threefoldness

Over the next few weeks before the talk commemorating the 100th anniversary of Rudolf Steiner’s death on 30 March, we will explore some aspects of threefoldness which particularly occupied Rudolf Steiner from 1917 (in the middle of WW1) in his exposition of Anthroposophy.

More next week.

Robin

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Eclipses

On Friday evening (14 March), there was a nicely visible Lunar Eclipse from just before moonrise to about 10pm as the cloud cover during the day kindly evaporated away.

There are two kinds of eclipse involving the Sun, Earth and Moon.

• Lunar eclipses only occur at Full Moon when the shadow of the Earth cast by the Sun reaches the moon.  It is visible only to that half of the world experiencing night-time – that is, after sunset.  The darkest, central part of the shadow, called the Umbra, has no direct light from the Sun.  The partial shadow at the edge/fringe of the Umbra (called the Penumbra) has a varying amount of direct light from the Sun.  At the edge of the shadow, the sunlight is passing through the Earth’s atmosphere.  If the atmosphere is turbid with pollution or from storms, then that part of the shadow will be reddish, maybe brown.
• Solar eclipses only occur at New Moon when the Shadow of the Moon reaches a part of the Earth.  It is visible only during daytime.  Because the Sun is bigger than the Moon, its Umbra tapers to a point.  When the Moon is near its perigee or the closest part of its orbit around the Earth, the tip reaches the earth and can be up to 160km wide.  Because the Moon is orbiting the Earth at a speed of Mach 3, and the Earth is spinning on its axis, the Moon's shadow moves across the surface of the Earth at speed of 1,770 km/hr (Mach 1.44) or faster near the curved edges.  Thus, the longest time a place can be in Moon’s umbra is just over 5 minutes. Those astronomers who want to remain in the shadow for more than a few minutes need to be in a supersonic jet.

 When the Moon is near its apogee or most distant part of its orbit around the Earth, the tip does not reach the Earth at any point – people viewing it  when the shadow passes over them will not experience a full eclipse, only an annular eclipse when a “ring of fire” will appear around the dark New Moon for a brief period.

 The plane of the Moon’s orbit around the Earth is at an angle of 5⁰ to the plane of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun (called the Ecliptic Plane).  When we look north at midday we see the sun at its maximum elevation (zenith) above the horizon.  For someone at the equator at an equinox, this elevation would be 90⁰.  Here in Hawkes Bay, we are about 39.5⁰ South of the equator, so the elevation of the Sun is (90-39.5) = 50.5⁰.  Due to the tilt of the Earth’s axis of 23.5⁰ to the Ecliptic Plane, the Sun’s elevation varies from 27⁰ at the Winter Solstice to 74⁰ at the Summer Solstice.  At New Moon, the Moon can be 5⁰ further, namely a zenith range of 22⁰ to 79⁰.  For about 6 months of the year the Moon is above the Sun, then it descends to below the Sun for 6 months. The points of crossing are called the descending and ascending nodes.  It is close to these times of crossing that Eclipses can occur. 

So, at the next New Moon there will be a partial Solar Eclipse (ascending node) on Saturday 29 March. It will not be visible here : its path starts in the mid-Atlantic and moves up past Greenland to the North Pole.

*****

Some wondrous facts:

What is amazing about our solar system is the angular width of the both the Sun and the Moon are virtually  the same at 0.5⁰.  According to their places in their orbits one or the other can be slightly the bigger one.

Also: the Moon always presents the same face {Man in the Moon} to the Earth, no matter what phase.  That means that a ‘day’ on the moon is exactly a month long.

Relative sizes:

Sun’s diameter = 108 x Earth’s diameter. = (12x9)

Earth’s orbital radius = 108 x Sun’s diameter = 108x108 x Earth's diameter.

Our year:

A Synodic Month (from New Moon to next New Moon) = 29.5 days;
so a Lunar Year of 12 moonths is 354 days.

A Solar Year (from spring equinox to next spring equinox) = 365.24 days.

The average of these 2 values is about 360 which has been adopted as the number of degrees in a circle (protractor).

360 is a very ‘abundant’ or rich number as it has so many factors: {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 24, 30, 36, 40, 45, 60, 72, 90, 120, 180, 360}

As the Earth rotates 360⁰ in 24 hours; or 15⁰ in an hour; or 1⁰ in 4 minutes it takes the Sun and the Moon 2 minutes to rise (144 heartbeats [12x12]).

How accidental is all this?

Robin