A Group in Vancouver Prepares for the Virtual 2020 AGM/Conference

16 Jun A Group in Vancouver Prepares for the Virtual 2020 AGM/Conference

Screenshot from one of our Zoom meetings

Around mid-March when our entire country was beginning to shelter-in-place, Esther Chase and I started a daily videoconference check-in at 8:30 am every morning. Our plan was to work with the Foundation Stone Meditation to prepare for the virtual upcoming Conference/AGM in May. We soon decided that we wanted to work with each of the 7 daily rhythms that Steiner gave at the Christmas Foundation meetings from Wednesday, Dec. 26, 1923 to Tuesday, January 1, 1924. Along the way, we were joined by others — Abegael Fisher-Lang, Monica Boyd and Hannah Hidson.

We started promptly at 8:30 with the reading of the rhythm of that day followed by thoughts shared from the works of F. W. Zeylmans van Emmichoven, Sergei Prokofieff and Paul Mackay, all of who have written extensively about this meditation. We then shared personal thoughts about what it means to spirit recollect, spirit sense and spirit behold. These are the practices we humans can engage with during the day, with the hierarchies in our sleep life responding to our efforts. Our conversations were lively and engaging and led in many directions. We ended at 9 am each morning. 

We had no idea how long our group would last; we were cognizant that using the “cool” Ahrimanic medium of Zoom technology might fatigue us and that we might decide not to continue. We discovered that while we couldn’t share our thoughts in space, we could be together in time and, because of this, we could generate warmth between us. We like to think our working together has provided a counter-force to Ahriman.

Now it is mid-May, and the AGM is approaching and we are thinking about how to continue as a group as our primary reason for meeting is coming to a natural close. Each morning, for nine weeks, we worked with the rhythm indicated for that day. One idea is to continue with Zoom calls with each other with someone opening our meeting with thoughts from personal reading or from attending any on-line anthroposophical conferences or webinars   

Some of us will work artistically with the Foundation Stone or other meditation during the week; we have designated Fridays (Venus Day) as the appropriate day for the sharing of our creative work together.

Susan Koppersmith 

Some members of our group wanted to add some further thoughts:

 I feel that an enlivening part of our time together was also the daily working with the Soul Calendar verse — starting as we did at Easter and living into the different translations. We ended each session with doing the Hallelujah together in Eurythmy. 

Esther Chase

We read the Calendar of the Soul each morning, enlivening the various translations by reading them in tandem. Sometimes resources were shared from relevant books and webinars we found individually.

Abegael Fisher-Lang

In various ways we have explored what it means to each of us to face the darkness of the mind at our time, looking at how to free ourselves from the inner barriers that stand in our way of active loving, of being community members in the Beloved Community of Christ.This verse below has been appreciated by our hearts at this time of challenge.

Hannah Hidson

Knighthood of our Present Age

“There is a knighthood of the present age whose members do not ride through darkness of physical forests as of old, but through the forests of darkened minds.

They are armed with spiritual armour and an inner sun makes them radiant. Out of them shines healing. Healing that flows from a knowing of the image of Man as a Spiritual Being.They must create an inner order, inner justice, and conviction in the darkness of our time.”

Karl Koenig