20 Nov Report from the Canadian Class Holders Conference – October 19 – 22
What happens when you get a gathering of Canadian Class Holders? This may seem a frivolous question, but perhaps it’s one worth contemplating. The easy answer might be: a lot!
Seventeen Class Holders met over the extended weekend of the 19thto the 22ndOctober for the main purpose of considering the question: ‘How do we carry the task of serving the General Anthroposophical Section?’ This is in view of a new expectation issuing from the leadership of the School for Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum. Up till now the appointed individual was only tasked with presenting the Class Lessons in their designated area.
Our preparatory reading and study centered around two works: Phillip Thatcher’s book ‘Enabling Warmth’ and the booklet by Penelope Baring and Rüdiger Janisch ‘A Way of Serving’.
We had some discussion around the English nomenclature of the General Anthroposophical Section, which might be better rendered as the ‘Section for the Universally Human’. This brings a helpful clue as to the soul direction gatherings within the purview of the General Anthroposphical Section might strive towards.
We made at least a start in creating an awareness of how to work and what this new task might entail.
Over the weekend itself, two events occurred in the spirit of the General Anthroposophical Section. On Friday night, local and visiting Class Members joined the circle of Class Holders to hear a free-holding of Lessons Twelve and Thirteen given with grace, insight and clarity by Dr. Werner Fabian. The downstairs room at Hesperus was crowded and the mood of uplifted devotion was palpable.
On Sunday morning, this enlarged circle (with some modification) gathered in the eurythmy room at the Toronto Waldorf School for a eurythmy and creative writing session led by Sylvie Richard and Brenda Hammond. We moved from the mood of devotion (blue), stepped into activity with red, and ended in the magic of magenta. Some wonderful words and even some humorous ones were shared by a few brave souls.
Thanks are due to the school for generously making the space available.
We began and ended our Class Holders gathering by creating two contemplative conversations. We did eurythmy, sang together, played a clapping and stamping game, and addressed issues and questions from individual Class Holders from different areas in our vast country as well as considering what was happening in connection with the School for Spiritual Science elsewhere.
That was the outward. Inwardly, the soul experiences of what occurred together with the beings of the spiritual world can of course only be more subtle and hidden, can only be sensed.
We ended each session with about a minute’s silence where we had the chance to absorb and live with the after-image of what had just occurred. This could be considered a kind of ‘Spirit Awareness’.
We sometimes speak of building a warmth body to help with whatever endeavours we are commonly engaged in. Our time together, apart from being fruitful, helped to create this.
As Rudolf Steiner said in his lecture of July 4th1924, “Everything that is not merely individual destiny, but is brought about by the feeling together and working together of individuals on earth, is forever in connection with the deeds of Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones above. Into the latter flow the deeds of human beings in their mutual connection with one another as well as individual earthly human lives.”
It was agreed that we would meet again next year, in October.
Brenda Hammond and Bert Chase
Emanuel Blosser
Posted at 18:21h, 28 NovemberDear Bert and Brenda,
Above is the statement:
‘Inwardly, the soul experiences of what occurred together with the beings of the spiritual world can of course only be more subtle and hidden, can only be sensed.’
Anthroposophy and especially the lessons and mantra of the School of Spiritual Science within it proposes that what occurs inwardly with the beings of the spiritual world does not have to and should not remain subtle and hidden and only vaguely sensed. If you had written that ‘Our inner soul experiences that occurred together with the beings of the spiritual world were more subtle, still hidden, and only dimly sensed with our present development,’ the statement would be congruent with what anthroposophy says human beings can and must do at this stage of cosmic and human evolution. To say that the inner experiences with each other and the spiritual beings is ‘of course’ hidden and can ‘only’ be sensed contradicts the foundations of anthroposophy.
In ‘Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment’, Steiner asserts that, ‘This esoteric knowledge is no more of a secret for the average human being than writing is a secret for those who have never learned it. And just as all can learn to write who choose the correct method, so, too, can all who seek the right way become esoteric students and even teachers. In one respect only do the conditions here differ from those that apply to external knowledge and proficiency. The possibility of acquiring the art of writing may be withheld from someone through poverty, or through the conditions of civilization into which he is born; but for the attainment of knowledge and proficiency in the higher worlds, there is no obstacle for those who earnestly seek them.’