Eurythmy is the Dance of the New Word...

by Cynthia Hoven

Cynthia founded and led for eight years a eurythmy training at Rudolf Steiner College; she can be reached at choven@sbcglobal.net. The following are short excerpts from her illustrated book, to be published this summer,— “a celebration of the beings whom I love deeply: the sounds of language.”

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.

We carry the Word in our minds and hearts and bodies. We are living in the great mystery of learning to speak the Word as we grow into earthly/cosmic maturity. ……………………

The Dance

In the beginning, human beings were mute.

We could not speak, but we could dance

Even as plants dance in the wind,

As jellyfish dance in the water,

As cilia dance in our bellies,

We participated in the first dance of the creation.

As the willed-wisdom-moving Word of the Creator poured forth,

Creating the world and all that is within it,

We danced in imitation of it.

Our limbs were long and loose and lithe,

And we were one with all of nature.

Across all the widths and depths of time and space, the movements of creation surged forth from the first source as the manifestations of the Creative Word. World wisdom gave rise to sculptural movements, and these gave rise to the shapes, forms and textures of the manifest world. Our loving gaze can reveal the mysteries of the World Word behind all its manifestations.

Now, everything we behold in the world is a mute mystery. As the world became hardened, the dance of our bodies became small.... Eurythmy is the new dance, the dance reborn, the dance of the new word.

Aries: The Ram

The World Word weaves through the world.

The first utterance of the World Word arose as an expression of pure world will and wisdom. It lifted as the surge of a wave from the depths of the spirit’s ocean being, and in its wake the world was born.

W

is the wave that rises from the depths of the water, and the wind that blows through the widths of the world.

Intention

I am one with the Being of the World Word.

I unite myself with the Beings of W.

In the Being of W, I discover the guardian of the World Word.

It is the delicate breath that hovers at the threshold between spirit and matter.

I will now awaken to the Being of W in me.

Feeling

I stand clothed in deep blue, experiencing the peace of the world.

Around me I sense the pale yellow field of world movement, pregnant with surging life.

Movement and Form

I bend myself low to the ground and let my arms hang heavy at my sides with the palms facing to my back, containing a quiet violet tension in the backs of my arms.

Feeling the impulse of a wave swelling from the depth below me I rise, lifting my arms with a movement that begins heavy that starts from the shoulders.

My arms press outwards and forwards in a great convex curve. The movement expands and grows around me.

Soul Response

I have become upright. My head, no longer bent to the earth, is crowned with yellow light.

All around me I feel spirit brightness.

I know myself to be human.

Small wonders:

Winter warblers watch for wiggly worms