Reflections from The Path of the New Mysteries Conference

By Angela Foster

In 1924, Rudolf Steiner inaugurated the First Class of the School of Spiritual Science and delivered 19 esoteric lessons to its members. In recognition of this special centennial anniversary in anthroposophy, acknowledging the past and opening the door to the future, a week-long conference for members of the school was convened in Chestnut Ridge, New York, at the Threefold Community. One hundred and four members of the School joined together from August 4 – 10, 2024, to co-create an opportunity to deepen our esoteric work and enliven the social threads that weave us together as students of spiritual science. We began the week in a heat wave followed by three days of rain, with the crescendo of a thunderstorm on the last evening. On Saturday, we were blessed with abundant sunshine on our closing morning.

Typically, Class lessons are studied one lesson at a time, most often with a full month of study of a particular lesson before moving onto the next lesson. The usual practice is for a group of members to gather locally; a Class holder will either read the lesson as Dr. Steiner delivered it, or the Class holder will give a “free rendering” of their distillation of the lesson. There might be conversation after the lesson, when students ask questions and share their insights from working with the mantras given in each lesson. This practice of studying, meditating, and working with the Class lessons happens regularly all around the world, and the rhythm of this method is like a spiritual heartbeat that pulses through our School.

The intention of this conference, however, was to approach the 19 lessons as a whole. Quite a mighty task, as each discrete lesson itself can lead into deep mysteries of the human being and our place in the cosmos. To attempt to take up the whole course of the lessons in one week is ambitious. Yet, just as we know that there is great value in the breathing process and the moving of center to periphery, and back again, so too with the Class lessons, there is benefit in appreciating the overall path, an arc of the entire

19 lessons. By moving from the individual lessons, to seeing the relationship to the neighboring lesson of each one, and then to the overall movement of the 19 lessons, students gain new perspectives and hopefully, fresh insights into the world wisdom and intentions flowing to us from the future.

When we hear the words “school,” “study,” and “class lessons,” we might assume that this is an intellectual experience. But, like all of anthroposophy, to work in the School of Spiritual Science is no assignment for the head alone! Again, we can think of the breathing process and how important movement is for healthy flow of breath. When we seek to move head-thinking to the heart-feeling and back again, we can activate our heart-thinking. Add to this a third step that involves the whole human being; we want to include the hands and limbs, and thereby involve our will. In this conference, we designed a schedule that opened and closed each day with Class lessons, while creating opportunities throughout the day to practice the arts - social arts through small group conversations and biography work; tactical/visual arts by painting, drawing, clay sculpting; and time arts through eurythmy, speech, and music. This rhythm gave us the strength and stamina to attend these 19 Class lessons with devoted and sustained attention.

The conference closed on Saturday, August 10, with heartfelt gratitude: Gratitude to the kitchen crew for a week of delicious, nutritious meals; to the initiators of the conference who planned for many years to create the conference; to the eurythmists (led by Dorothea Mier) who helped to create a mood of sacred reverence and openness each morning; and deep gratitude for the people in the world who aren’t members of the School, yet worked to make the conference possible. Our gratitude transforms into reverence and the spiritual world responds to this mood of soul.

Throughout the gathering, the working of spiritual beings was evidenced in the joyful conversations among participants, the deep questions shared among kindred souls, and in the dreams that participants shared from the night. The days’ activities were full and rich, and our night work, too, was enriched throughout the time together.

If you have experienced the Threefold Community, you probably know that they have a special task in holding the Threefold Verse (the Verse for America) given by Rudolf Steiner to Ralph Courtney in 1923. While we did not focus on the Threefold Verse as part of the conference, I could truly feel it reverberating in the atmosphere throughout the week. It is a verse that has lived deeply in the community around the Threefold Center and can serve as a foundational imagination

for all of us in the ASA- for friends, members of the Society, and for members of the School of Spiritual Science. To connect with striving human souls who seek the same goals, to work on self-development as a path for world healing is a sacred gift! This work connects us all in anthroposophy and I trust the good work that we did at the Path of the New Mysteries conference flowed toward Portland, into the annual ASA gathering held in October, and beyond. Blessings on our work!

To learn more about the School for Spiritual Science: https://www.rudolfsteiner.org/school/