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Newsletter 22: Sunday 1 June 2025Anthroposophy in Hawkes BayCalendar of Coming Events In the Rudolf Steiner Centre, 401 Whitehead Road, Hastings
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Festival for the DeadThis is an opportunity for us to remember people who have crossed the threshold of death.
You can find out more about the Norwegian mystic who slept through the thirteen days and holy nights of Christmas in: Olaf Asteson a 1914 lecture by Rudolf Steiner.
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Winter FestivalThe Midwinter Festival will be on the 6th of July at 7 for 7.30pm at the Centre. There will be a chorus speaking St. Paul’s 1 Corinthians 13 – ‘In Praise of Love’ Johnny Ryan will give the Festival Address: ‘Light in our Darkness’. We will hear, perhaps get a chance to sing, verse 38 of Julian’ 52 Rounds of the Soul’s Calendar. Further details next week.
If you would like to join the Chorus, please contact Astrid: 021 215 4019 or starguide@xtra.co.nz as soon as possible. Practices start this week. ~~~~~ -- Regular Groups
The FOUNDATION STONE MeditationFrom Monday 7th July there will be four conversations on the Foundation Stone. This is a meditation released by Rudolf Steiner during the 1923 Christmas Foundation Meeting in Dornach, Switzerland. This meeting represents a sea-change in the development of the Anthroposophical Society. Rudolf Steiner himself became president of the General Anthroposophical Society and undertook its administration with the help of five colleagues who formed the first Executive Council. These five people, Marie Steiner, Ita Wegman, Albert Steffen, Elizabeth Vreede and Guenther Wachsmuth, were not at the time all well known in the Society. However they were chosen because Rudolf Steiner valued the way they related to the Society. In our conversations, we will take time to introduce these five people and try to offer some ideas as to why they were so valued by Rudolf Steiner. We will also look at some aspects of the meditation and why it is important in the story of the Society. The four conversatons will be in the Centre in Nelson Street on four consecutive Monday nights from 7pm. They wiil finish around 8pm. Anyone is welcome. The first Monday is Monday 7th July. Chris Bacchus ~~~~~ COMMUNITY NOTICEBOARD: Requests; Exchange; Wanted; For sale Flatmate wanted Sunny room available in Havelock North home, with a separate bathroom. ----- ~~~~~ CancellationWe are having to cancel the weekend course for Salutogenesis on the 13th to 16th June as there weren't enough registrations. {Salutogenesis is the study of the origins (genesis) of health (salus) and focuses on factors that support human health and well-being, rather than on factors that cause disease (pathogenesis).} The October course from the 3rd to the 6th will be going ahead. Many thanks, Helen Proctor ~~~~~ MIKE CARIS Biographical Sketch I was born in Mowbray, Cape Town on the 9th of July, 1947 to a newly married white couple as their first child. We lived in Cape town until I was about 5 when we moved to a rural town in the Western Cape. My first education was at an Afrikaans-speaking school, after which we moved back to the city. I had one brother and one sister. I was a shy, quiet child and enjoyed playing with my tinkertoy and Meccano sets. Learning came easily to me as I was a curious and observant child. I eventually ended up at a well-run, developing high school where I graduated with matriculation [UE] in 1964. It seemed obvious that I should go to university, and I gained my B.Sc. from the University of Cape Town a few years later. I found my first teaching position at a mixed language (English/Afrikaans) school as a high school science teacher where I discovered that I liked working with students. I returned to UCT after two years to gain my Secondary Teacher's Diploma. During that year I first encountered Waldorf Education when I took a part-time position teaching their senior physics class. Afterwards, I was offered a full-time teaching position at the Constantia Waldorf School for nearly two years. During this time, I was fortunate to meet Francis Edmunds and John Davy of Emerson College, and they persuaded me to apply to the college to help me understand Waldorf Education more fully, especially its approach to science. In 1974, my wife-to-be and I flew to England for me to take the Foundation Year and then the Education Year, working part-time at Michael Hall in Forest Row and then finally full-time while my now wife did the Education Year. In 1977, we both took teaching positions at a struggling Waldorf school in Ilkeston called Michael House. We worked there very productively for 5 years, Allysen as a class teacher and me as a high school teacher where I set up my first laboratory. After a very happy and creative time at Michael House, we both felt the need to return to the southern hemisphere and start a family. I was offered a class 5 teaching position at Michael Park School in Auckland in 1983 where I worked while Allysen gave birth to and raised our two daughters. During this time, I was drawn into the development of the fledgling high school due to my previous experience and set up my second laboratory. By the end of that period, Allysen had started teaching English in the high school too. When my original class graduated from Class 12 we felt it was time for a change and we were both offered positions at Raphael House School in Lower Hutt which was just embarking on growing its own high school. During this exciting time, we helped establish the high school and I set up my third laboratory. It was a very fruitful if exhausting period and after 14 years there, Allysen retired from full time teaching to focus on adult education at Taruna College and where I, after a time as principal, moved more into woodwork teaching. Finally, both of our daughters graduated from Raphael House and I was offered a position as woodwork/science/maths teacher at Taikura school in 2006. I worked at that school until I finally retired in 2014 after having to deal with health issues which curtailed our subsequent advisory work in Thailand and China. I have been caring for Allysen and trying to look after myself since Covid, and I finally felt strong enough to offer to help on the committee of the Hastings Anthroposophical Society committee. My hope for the Hawkes Bay Branch is to try to foster by application of Rudolf Steiner's ideas and practices, a deeper understanding of contemporary events in the light of Anthroposophy. I would like to see the committee promote more talks, lectures and workshops to bring more relevancy and understanding into this weird and wonderful world of ours. There is so much to learn! Mike Angela Hair introduced herself in News 20-25, John Jackson in News 19-25, Gerrit Raichle in News 18-25.~~~~~ Checks and Balances in the Social Politico-Legal Realm.Rudolf Steiner has described how human society has evolved through 5 post-Atlantean civilisation periods. 1st PA. Ancient Indian. Nomadic hunter-gatherer societies whose leaders were considered to be divinely inspired. 2nd PA. Ancient Persian. Settlement based on down-to-earth occupations of the cultivation of land and the husbandry of tamed animals. Initiative leadership. 3rd PA, Ancient Egyptian. A singular Pyramidal, layered, social structure with a divinely inspired Pharoah [ego] at the top and a huge swathe of peasants, workers and slaves at the bottom. 4th PA. Greek City States. Ruled by an elite, an aristocracy. A lot of work done by slaves. Religion diminishes and Philosophy emerges. Roman monarchy evolved through the Republic to the Empire. Forums and senate were human affairs -- not divinely inspired. Roman Law was established – documentation was important. >>> Birth Certificates, Passports, etc. today. 5th PA. Two significant events happened at the end of the 18th Century
Individual egos of commoners were beginning to emerge from a tribal consciousness and wanting to have a say in how their lives were ruled. In the USA, this resulted in a bicameral Congress system of representation:
How do the checks and balances work? It’s THREEFOLD! Each Branch has some control over the other two.
Freedom was important to the Founders: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." I give this example because of the challenges to the system now occuring in America. Is it a time for a further change? How about NZ? We do NOT have a constitution or a bicameral system. We are unicameral, single state, multi-party system, part of a 'Commonwealth'. What sort of checks and balances do we have? RB
Posted: Sun 01 Jun 2025 |
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