Anthroposophy in Hawkes Bay
Rudolf Steiner Centre, 401 Whitehead Road, Hastings
Events in brief for your diary
Friday 17 July to Sunday 2 August 2026
- Friday 24 July, 7 to 8:30 pm. Friday Conversation Group meets in the Library. Study text is Christianity as Mystical Fact* 3rd edition. Chap 3 p39.
- MONDAYS 20, 27 July 7 pm. Conversations on the Christmas 1923 FOUNDATION STONE**
- Saturday 25 July. 2 pm. Anthroposophy Hawke's Bay AGM.
Approving a new Constitution. - Saturday 25 July, from 3:30 pm (after AGM) to 5 pm. Talking, Listening, Caring. Invitation
Later in the year:
- First Saturday of every month, from 9:30 am. School of Spiritual Science. 1 August; 5 September; 3 October; 7 November; 5 December.
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Charitable donation Receipts for IRD tax relief.
In early April, as Treasurer, I sent out (so I thought) official receipts to all those who made donations. The letters were created, but Outlook failed to send them, as I discovered when people started enquiring where their letter was. A few days ago I repeated the exercise, so I trust a Receipt has reached everyone. When applying for a tax refund, you will need to know that our IRD# is 101-435-873.
If you still have not received your Receipt, please email me at robin@bacchus.co.nz
If the reason you did not receive a receipt was an oversight on your part, we would still love to receive a contribution to 38-2016-0511420-00.
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Arithmetic Musings #16
Metamorphosis in the Waldorf Maths Curriculum reflects the metamorphosis of children.
Let us first look at the larger picture of our whole life.
Using the Soul Forces in Mathematics:
creating and working with patterns and form;
counting objects – determining quantity.
Writing numbers;
number operations [adding, subtracting, multiplying, etc.]; calculations.
Involving action, change.
rhythm and rhyme, counting sequence,
relationships [equals =, larger >, smaller < than];
ordinal numbers – rank, position [first, second, etc.].
Involving judgment, comparison.
the character of number, symbols, concepts, cognition;
qualitative aspects.
Involving imagination, picturing.
Math in Lower School
– first stage
Analysis - from whole to parts; awakening to the world;
from the basket to the apples; from the forest to the trees.
Building and changing patterns and shapes (form drawing).
Counting in whole numbers (discrete); up and down.
Expansion and contraction.
Creating a number system – what do you need?
Four operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division.
– second stage
Between nine and twelve: engaging feelings – experiencing RELATIONSHIPS.
Inner - outer; measurement – relating self to the world by measuring it against oneself or human activities. The basic quantities first measured were Length,Time, and Mass.
Our Eyes in our Head see distance, the beginning and the end of an object: inch (thumb), hand [4], foot [12], yard [36]. fathom [2*36]. A mile came from 1,000 [mille] Roman marching steps (left-right) marked along roads of the Roman Empire, as milestones (did they rest every mile??)
Our Heart in our chest-body beats with rhythm (about every second), experiencing Time: second, minute [60], hour [60*60], day [24*60*60], etc.
Our Muscles in our Limbs (arms & legs) experience the inertia/weight of objects we move (actually accelerate): ounce, pound (lb) [16], stone [14*16] - I don't know if this was actually the millstone of fairy stories. {a sack (cwt) was 8 stones; a ton was 20 sacks} For tiny weights, grains of wheat/grain were used.
Measurement serves as an introduction to fractions - mostly not decimal fractions
Factors creating larger numbers from Primes by multiplying.
Multiplication of large numbers.
Algorithms = instructions.
Rich, poor, prime and perfect numbers.
Proportion, ratio, fraction, decimal.
Geometry of circles and polygons
More next week. RB
Posted: Thu 16 Jul 2026