The Freedom Mystery Conference 2016 – Paul Hodgkins

10 Jan The Freedom Mystery Conference 2016 – Paul Hodgkins

The Freedom Mystery Conference 2016 took place October 21 – 23, 2016 at the Christian Community Church in Thornhill, Ontario. The conference was conceived, organised, and spearheaded by Tim Nadelle. Working out of Rudolf Steiner’s book, The Philosophy of Freedom, Tim devised exercises which brought some of the difficult concepts in the book into practical use.

During the year preceding the conference, Tim met regularly with a group of facilitators, and, together, they worked on some of the exercises. During the conference, each facilitator sat with a group of participants and guided them through the exercises.

The conference theme centred on the relationship of thinking to feeling: how to recognise the drive of feeling, and how to engender higher feelings with free moral thinking. To help the participants to gain more conceptual certainty, two pertinent lectures were given – one by Jonah Evans at the beginning of the conference, and the other by Daniel Hafner midway through. Both are Christian Community priests, and both are brilliant! No one, to my knowledge, achieved moral freedom during the conference, but we began to practise ways to work toward it, and, overall, the experience of the participants was positive. It became clear that The Philosophy of Freedom is not only to be understood, but also to be experienced and lived.

I just want to tell you that this conference was really important for me. The small group exercises were the outstanding part for me, though the drama and the lectures were also outstanding, of course. The exercises are still living with me and bearing new fruit as I continue to use them almost daily to ponder new feeling experiences. I regret missing last year’s conference, and I’m glad the exercises are still there on the web site. I will certainly be there next year – and so will as many other people as I can persuade!

2016 conference participant:

The conference was interspersed with a performance of the Prelude and Scenes I – VII of Rudolf Steiner’s first mystery drama, The Portal of Initiation. This also was masterminded by Tim Nadelle. For some time, Tim had felt that all of anthroposophy was contained in the two afore-mentioned literary works, and so, he conceived the idea of working with them together. Magi Nadelle directed, delicately nurturing the overall aesthetic imagination of the drama while allowing actors the freedom to individually discover the essence of their characters and grow into their roles.

For two years, a group of stalwart eurythmists and amateur actors rehearsed this play, and the conference participants enjoyed the fruits of the group’s labours. The performance took place on the altar steps of the church, and included lighting by Carl Natiuk and set design by Julian Mulock. Preceding each performance segment, Daniel Hafner gave short lectures to the audience, which were insightful and helpful for the understanding of this serious and difficult drama.

Some twenty-odd actors brought to life the story of the initiation of Johannes Thomasius, aided by his loving friend, Maria, and their beloved teacher, Benedictus, all interwoven with a cast of spiritually-striving characters. In short, the performance was a truly special event!

Next fall, 2017, the third, and final, Freedom Mystery Conference will take place, and will include a performance of the entire mystery drama, The Portal of Initiation. Not to be missed!

Great thanks are due to Tim Nadelle for his indomitable spirit and enormous hard work.