Anthroposophy in Hawkes Bay
Rudolf Steiner Centre, 401 Whitehead Road, Hastings
Events over next 2 weeks
[21 September to 5 October]
- Tuesday 23 September: Equinox.
- Friday 26 September. 7 pm. Study Group: Michael Letter p206 "The Apparent Extinction of Spirit Knowledge in Modern Times". Leading Thoughts 177-9.
- Saturday, 27th September 2025 at 2 p.m. Talk by Norbert Mulholland on the Paintings/murals on the walls of the Centre's Main Room in relation to the First Goetheanum.
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- 11 & 12 October. Spring Festival
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Note from the Librarian:
A plea to anyone or any groups using the library --- could you please leave it how you found it …..i.e …
putting the heater away.
By the way, as reported elsewhere - the Library is NOT full to capacity. Come and browse.
We aim to acquire newly published anthroposophical texts each year. We are glad to receive donations of such books that we do not currently have.
Warm regards
From Francisca
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Talk by Norbert Mulholland on the Paintings in the Centre's Main Room
It is 30 years since Norbert Mulholland painted murals depicting Steiner's seven planetary seals as well as the 'Representative of Man' (from the ceiling of the first Goetheanum) on the walls in the Main Room.
Some members have expressed interest in knowing more about these paintings and Norbert has generously offered to give a talk about them, in the context of the First Goetheanum.
We invite you to Norbert's talk on
Saturday, 27th September 2025 at 2pm.
Koha at door, please.
Please bring a plate to share in the afternoon tea.
We will have a break during the talk for afternoon tea.
Gerrit Raichle
For the Committee
** Norbert’s description: "This talk/presentation will give an extensive overview of Rudolf Steiner’s intentions when he undertook to paint the south side of the small cupola (including the central figure) of The First Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland. It will cover the origin of his extraordinary vision, his groundbreaking techniques with plant colours, his decisiveness, and courage as an artist. It will also outline the importance of the very image itself—its power, and the effect it has on the viewer.
The second part will context the painting within the sculptural/architectural achievement of The First Goetheanum. We will experience how the law of metamorphosis was actually realised artistically for the first time, providing a prototype for a truly living art and architecture of the future: that is NOW!"
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Spring Festival Notice -
– Spring Festival –
– the Festival of Enlightenment –
– ‘Oh Human being, know thyself’ –
– Sunday 12th October 2025 –
Events:
Saturday, 11th Oct at 3pm – There will be a stirring of the Biodynamic Preparation 500 with Jen Speedy.
Sunday, 12th Oct at 3pm – a reading of Lecture 5 "The Working together of the Four Archangels" from ‘The Four Seasons and the Archangels’with John Jackson
Sunday, 12th Oct at 7pm – social gathering and Festival Celebration
This will be a celebration of spring, the joy in nature – with an earnest note addressed to each of us:
Alexandre Pushkin presents us with an initiation in the desert in his ‘Prophet’ – spoken by the festival chorus;
Leslie Waite will give the festival address on the forces at work in the spring time.
There will be a presentation of Scene 4 from the ‘Portal of Initiation’, Rudolf Steiner’s first Mystery Drama – holding up a mirror to our time and consciousness, our extreme cleverness and immersion in material gold, as perceived by the natural and spiritual world.
Verses, poems and music – our CHB friends will be there again to enliven us with music, and we will sing and move together.
All welcome – bring some friends.
With many thanks to all involved, preparing this event! –
Astrid Pook & John Jackson.
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Colour therapy:
Therapeutic pastel class with Kathy Allan
This term, we continue working with Wagner’s opera, Parzival, in story form.
Each week there will be a guided colour meditation which will lead to the creation of a scene from the story.
Each participant will receive one-on-one therapeutic guidance with their colour work.
The beings of the colour lift up our vibration bringing us towards inner harmony and healing.
Where….Rudolf Steiner Centre Art Room
When….Wednesday during term time: 10am – 11:30am
Materials….Box of Mungyo pastels; 10x sheets of “bulky newsprint paper”. These can be purchased at Humanity Books. Please bring your own.
Contact:….Kathy (art therapist tutor) 027 233 0970
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Items, Notices, Letters, or articles of interest to the Hawkes Bay Anthroposophical community
ARE MOST WELCOME
Please email your text by midday Saturday to the Editor at info@anthrohb.nz with"For AnthroHB News" in the subject line.
Diagrams and pictures need to be in .jpeg or .jpg format.
Robin Bacchus, Editor
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Musings on the Mystery PLays - 2
In 1900, the actress Marie von Sivers came into contact with the French philosopher, Édouard Schuré, because she intended to translate his works into German (The Great Initiates, The Sacred Drama of Eleusis and The Children of Lucifer). In 1906, Sivers brought about a meeting between Schuré and Rudolf Steiner. Schuré was deeply impressed and thought of Steiner as an authentic 'initiate' in line with his treatise The Great Initiates. After hearing Steiner lecture in Paris for the first time in 1906, Schuré in an ecstatic state ran home and wrote down the entirety of the lecture from memory. This first lecture, and the other lectures in the series (which Schuré wrote down) were published as Esoteric Cosmology. Subsequently, Steiner and von Sivers staged Schuré's esoteric dramas at the Theosophical Congresses each August, in Berlin and Munich. Schuré's The Children of Lucifer, served as a precursor to Rudolf Steiner's own esoteric mystery dramas:
- The Portal of Initiation (1910)
- The Soul's Probation (1911)
- The Guardian of the Threshold (1912)
- The Soul's Awakening (1913)
They contain the whole essence of anthroposophy. Indeed, Rudolf Steiner said that, if through some unlikely chance the four Mystery Dramas alone should survive, in them the essential content of anthroposophy would be preserved.
The first Goetheanum was originally built to house these spiritual plays. While the first building was destroyed by fire in 1922, before the dramas could be performed there, staging them in the second Goetheanum [available from1928] has been a core tradition.
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In these four plays. Steiner intended to show how spiritual development might manifest in a karmically-intertwined group of people. The experiences of the main characters of the play, particularly Johannes Thomasius, Professor Capesius and Doctor Strader, represent aspects of the path of initiation “differing according to the karma of the respective individualities.” The plays focus on each character’s spiritual transformation and trials before achieving higher wisdom.
Steiner based his first play “The Portal of Initiation” on Goethe's "Tale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily" – an artistic fairy tale published in 1795. It is a tale about transformation, which Steiner recognised as an initiation story.
In his first draft of the play, the names of the characters were those of the characters in Goethe's tale, but in the course of his work, he replaced the fairytale characters with characters of his own imagination.
However, the characters depicted by both Dr Strader and Professor Capesius are modelled on two men whom Steiner had met earlier in his life and in whom he had taken a special interest.
RB
