Letter from the general secretary

Welcome to the Spring-Summer 2024 issue of being human , in which we take as our focus the time arts as they are expressed through spiritual science. The term time arts refers to those arts that exist in time rather than in material form, such as eurythmy, speech, and drama ~ those arts that carry us through an experience beyond the day-to-day where, as Plato described it in his Phaedrus, the soul has a moment to behold the beauty it knew as it journeyed with the gods.

It was the 100th anniversary of the first performance of the Foundation Stone in eurythmy that inspired this theme, which occurred on April 20th, 1924. In that year, April 20th was Easter Sunday. The eurythmy performance on that day marked a culminating act in Rudolf Steiner’s life work with the Foundation Stone, which, as a first step, he placed into the Earth, in September 1913; then into human hearts at Christmas 1923/24; and then offered to the spiritual world through eurythmy on Easter Sunday, 1924.

In 2025, the 100th anniversary year of Rudolf Steiner’s death, Easter will recur on April 20th, which heralds the next century of anthroposophy in the world like a poem, which, in the words of TS Eliot, communicates before it is understood. Such a recurrence can strengthen our thoughts about the future, and about how we step into the unknown ~ for here, through the life and deed of Rudolf Steiner, a foundation has been laid, in the earth, in our hearts, and as an affirmation that we can and do, as a humanity, speak with the gods.

Through the time arts we prepare a space for this.

In this issue are essays on the time arts, the visual arts, and more, with a feature on Metal Colored Light Therapy in the midst. This therapy, pictured on the cover, is inspired by the etched windows of the Goetheanum, and here it serves nicely as a bridge between the healing imparted by the visual and time arts. This therapy allows for an experiecne of how light streams into the world, and as it flows into visible color through the oxidized metal in glass, it can inspire healing thoughts that form in the life body of the human being. Rudolf Steiner described this life body as the time body.

Beth Dunn-Fox’s article on the professional path to eurythmy is nicely complimented by Andrew Wolpert’s detailed description of the Foundation Stone Meditation. And as eurythmy is intimately connected through the word to the speech arts, we are happy to highlight the speech training that formed in Spring Valley in 2017. Fred Dennehy writes about Shakespeare, whose command of the language can be imagined as an invocation of the spiritual. Shannon Boyce’s article on the living voice addresses the healing power of the sung tone, which is beautifully complimented by the soul connections fostered by the lyre tone.

We are also happy to include here articles from the Bay Area Eurythmy Ensemble, on the archetype of the pentagram as researched by Brigitta Baldszun, and Salutogenesis from Michael Hughes.

We are pleased to feature Richard Steel’s rich work with the Calendar of the Soul which is nicely supplemented by Karl Koenig’s artwork. This inspired us to call on artist Jannebeth Röell for several of her calendar pieces.

Jannebeth works in Portland, where we will host this year’s annual conference in October 11-14, 2024.

There are several reviews, including Glenn Williamson’s play Fire in the Temple, and Eric G. Müller’s book Why Parzival? And a few regular features, including Herbert Hagens’ handy Calendar of Soul verse and date alignments for 2024-25, as well as a celebration of both new members who have joined, and an honoring of those who now work with us from beyond the threshold, through the veil of space and time, and who are there to meet us in the work of following the good star of anthroposophy.

I would like to express my deep gratitude to Maria Ver Eecke for taking up the role of guest editor for this issue, and to all the artists and writers who made submissions. Counting 100 years from Rudolf Steiner’s act of laying the foundation stone in 1913 to the Christmas Conference 1923/24, we have just completed a decade of centennials. This final year that culminates in the anniversary of Rudolf Steiner’s death provides a unique opportunity to review the staggering riches that he placed on the path of humanity, from the publication of his Philosophy of Freedom and his first esoteric lectures on Goethe’s fairy tale, all the way to establishing the Michael School, the final address, and the on-going cultivation of Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts, until, at last, he closed his own eyes and walked on from this life.

Through the time arts we are carried to and, potentially, across this same threshold and into an experience that activates the living imagination , that can nourish our capacity for orienting beyond the exoteric in inspiration , and may support us in finding ourselves among the gods once again, in intuition.

We hope you enjoy this issue, Mary Stewart Adams General Secretary Anthroposophical Society in America

On behalf of all who contributed to this issue of being human