MONTHLY LETTERS ARCHIVE

June 2008 Letter

May 3rd’s celebration of 21 years of “the branch,” the Anthroposophical Society in New York City, at 138 West 15th Street was a deep and joyful event. It began with hellos and hugs and too brief looks at the overflowing art exhibit, then turned to remembrance of Jesse Smith, illuminated by photos of his brilliantly quiet face as a young man we never knew, while David Ralph played piano and Walter Alexander and Albert Spekman reminisced and shared facts of Jesse’s life.

That reminder, that each person is so much larger than our encounters, laid a foundation for after-dinner slide shows and conversation. Seen in the cosmic mirror of anthroposophy, it is a mystery drama that we skate across while at best half-asleep. Jorge and Michelle Sanz-Cardona showed slides and told stories of the building’s transformation when “the branch” moved in. Shirley Latessa, Ted Pugh, Robb Creese, Doug and Fern Sloan, Jonathan Hilton, Joyce Reilly, Bibi Smith, Glen Williamson, Dorothy Emmerson and Sonia Saldarriaga were among the many who reawakened moments from this 21 years (which seems so much longer). Charles Harper, Inge Dyrenfurth, Daisy Aldan and others of the "so-called dead" were invoked, especially Lydia Wieder and William Gardner, who had created an anthroposophical arts center in the building before inviting the branch to move in.

Many from among the living were missing, too, of course. Robert McDermott sent an extended voice-mail. Gloria Kemp, attending the memorial for the branch’s long-time friend Tony Bingham, sent photos of Lydia. Marsha Post was felt in the strong embrace of our steps to full ownership and renovation of the building in 2001-3. The piano's graceful notes recalled Clark Remington. The current council members all attended, with many other long and loyal bearers of this demanding social impulse.

And so the evening’s mysterious human glow was full of warmth. In aging faces we saw spirits younger and brighter. We felt the physical absences and were tugged at gently, by some spiritual solidarity, vast and deep. Blessed by the immense vision and heartfelt gifts of Rudolf Steiner, we wondered that they are still so much unknown.

John Beck

May 2008 Letter

In the last period of his life, Rudolf Steiner wrote a series of brief paragraphs and letters entitled Leading Thoughts. The first one begins with two powerful assertions: “Anthroposophy is a path of knowledge, to guide the Spiritual in the human being to the Spiritual in the universe. And it arises in the human being as a need of the heart, of the life of feeling.” These assertions are as countercultural today as they were eighty years ago, for the predominant secular and scientific mind-set of our times regards the notions of heart thinking and a spiritual world as rank speculation. Anthroposophy, however, makes the claim that our potential as developing, autonomous spiritual beings in part stems from our efforts to let unfold latent powers related to a higher realm of existence than that of our ordinary consciousness. The theme of the year lays emphasis on the cultivation of the heart’s capacity by a “deepening through the arts.” We might consider how artistic expression is related to pursuing “a path of knowledge.”

In heart thinking, the meaningful is always under way, always coming to be. It is as if an intuition or an insight arises from an unseen, inexhaustible wellspring, endlessly configuring into wholeness in present understanding. While we depend on the already known sense world for all practical activities, our familiarity in this process does not lead to further development of personhood. In artistic expression, on the other hand, the heart-inclined senses convey perceptible intuitions that are as objectively real as what we see and hear on a daily basis. The life of art lies in the participant’s full-bodied experience of it. When in undistracted attentiveness we make or enter a work of art, we seem lifted out of ourselves. Our perception becomes keener. We may encounter a painting, piece of music, sculpture, play, poem, or dance that speaks in a way that opens an unknown vista or re-awakens a realization. Artistic beauty expresses untranslatable but highly ordered meaning. Our full participation is an act of faith in what our heightened, altered senses tell us. Goethe remarked that it is only belief that makes composition fecund—a belief that is at the furthest remove from the cold
intellect. Meditation gives rise to similar intuitions, but without reliance on the sense world.

Anthroposophy in practice should be artistically oriented. The Hierarchies who inspire meaning depend on human souls to realize the urgency of pursuing the soul-spiritual path, one that will both individualize and unite them in love. Our co-creative work in the arts counters and transforms the egotistical impulses that threaten us from within and without.

May is the height of spring, with the rejoicing of Easter still sounding, and the events of Ascension and Whitson near at hand. The Logos-Son’s ascension to the realm of the clouds and the Spirit’s illumination in tongues remind us that human beings today more than ever have the freedom to pursue “a path of knowledge” towards “the spiritual in the universe.” May our artistic deepening realize with renewed vigor this privilege and responsibility.

Michael Vode

April 2008 Letter

As spring “creeps over the window-sill”, those of us who are lucky enough to live in the great city of New York may regret the absence of mountains, forests and cow pastures. There are however, many compensations, including the abundance of kind and helpful people, the wonderful park system and, not least, the wealth of artistic experience that is always available.

“The object of an art is to gain a partial revelation of that which is beyond human senses and human faculties – of that, in fact, which is spiritual… The human, visible, audible and intelligible media which artists of all kinds use are symbols not of other visible and audible things but of what lies beyond sense and knowledge.”

These are the words of Ralph Vaughan Williams, the great visionary English composer who died fifty years ago. Many musical organizations are celebrating his life and commemorating his death, and the Fifteenth Street Singers will add their tribute at the Spring Concert (April 27th).

Music, as Vaughan Williams said on another occasion, can “open the magic casements” for us, and we can certainly take his words in a wider context. Art of all kinds has the potential to cast an inner, spiritual light on the outer world, to take us into the realms from which that light proceeds and to help us to understand the mysteries of being. This is not to say that the purpose of art is didactic; art is to be enjoyed, and, as Rudolf Steiner says, it is enjoyment that starts us on the path of enlightenment.

We therefore hope that you will come to the Branch and enjoy its many artistic offerings, including drawing with David Anderson (April 1st), singing with Dorothy Emmerson (April 10th), eurythmy with Regine Kurek and Linda Larsen (April 11th and 12th), and Eugene Schwartz’s lecture and visit to the Museum of Modern Art (April 25th and 26th)

Some of us, like the retired Waldorf teacher writing this letter, can’t often afford Broadway, Lincoln Center or Carnegie Hall, so another benefit of life in the city is that on almost every day of the week there is a free or very low-cost performance of something worth seeing. In this context it is worth repeating the customary Centerpoint note: “No one is turned away from any event for inability to pay. Best contribution is always welcome.” It seems very probable, however, that everyone who receives this letter is adequately fed, housed and clothed, and this places us in a small minority of the earth’s population. I often wonder how the magic casements are opened for our fellow-citizens who are homeless, cold and ill-fed, but not in any way to be regarded as our spiritual inferiors. Art is an essential part of the anthroposophical path but people do come to the spirit without the benefit of concerts, plays and museum trips. There is something to be learnt from pondering this question.

Keith Francis

March 2008 Letter

As Easter approaches, how does our theme of “heart-thinking” and “a deepening through the arts” come alive? A time of rebirth, resurrection and new life arising out of change and death - this is a transformative part of the year.

In more than one instance, Rudolf Steiner mentions the mission of our human existence on this earth as coming truly to know “love.” When we deepen our experience of great art, we can discover an experience of truth and warmth, and we may move closer to the fulfillment of this mission of love. Is the artist sacrificing something of himself to reach that depth of truth which can touch our hearts, when bringing into being a great and universal work? Is the artist in a sense experiencing a rebirth, even a resurrection? How blessed we are that through the human spirit we have this possibility, to create something far beyond ourselves and to appreciate such great works.

In the art of movement known as Eurythmy, when we move the gestures for the sounds creating visible speech and visible music, we are returning to our origins. Within these gestures we experience the “word” as a living being, as a becoming. Yes, sometimes in the opening to a new sound, a new word, it is a rebirth. Eurythmy can bring us to a refined experience of the artistic and spiritual nature of our being and of the word as Logos. In Hamburg in 1908, when Rudolf Steiner was speaking about the Gospel of St. John, he held a lily-of-the-valley blossom in his hand as he said, “‘In the beginning was the Word,’ . . . Just as this flower arose from its seed, and the seed is hidden in the blossom, so have the world and man arisen out of the Word; it was originally a silent world, for man was at first mute, but the Word was hidden within him, as in the blossom the seed is hidden. And the Word began to sound forth from man: ‘I am.’ ”

We can create art in its fullness only with the ego’s presence, with the “I am.” Great art in all its forms is still awaiting creation, still awaiting our opening to our higher ego and through it to truth and to the influence of the spiritual world. As we continue to strive further on our path of spiritual development, both the creation of art and the appreciation of art can be a transformative experience. And in the process, our thinking may be enlivened and warmed through with love. This verse from Rudolf Steiner seems to embody our theme:

In Love lives the seed of Truth,

In Truth seek the root of Love:

Thus speaks thy higher Self.

The fire’s glow transmutes

Wood into warming rays.

Wisdom’s resolving Will

Changes the outer work

Into abiding strength.

So let thy work be the shadow

Cast by thine I

When it is lit by the flame –

Flame of thy higher Self.

I wish you all the warmth, illumination and hope of the Eternal Easter that lives for us, and that may live within us.

        Linda Larson