I agree with you Jeremy. My step-children also attended a Steiner school. I sometimes doubt if one of them would have made it to adulthood if not for that school. She now does simply amazing work in the field of child and adolescent sexual assault. I could not be more proud of what she has accomplished.
Thank you for these reflections. To me it fundamentally makes sense to understand Rudolf Steiner as both a high initiative, endowed with great vision as well as an individual circumscribed to the culture of his time. They are not disparate, incongruent realities. Isn’t this exactly how important contributions reach us: through the temporal /cultural modality of a given time? There is an edge to this too. We (as much as he did, I imagine) have to discern, for ourselves, the essence of the message from the cultural scaffolding.
That’s the discernment that allows getting Steiner’s message without becoming unnecessarily pious, ruffled, and/or intellectualise one’s own lack of understanding.
How do we reach such discernment? Through the cultivation of conditions that allow clarity. Here I also note another implicit divide; the one that separates philosophical knowledge from supra-sensible insight. In my understanding that was exactly what Steiner sought to synthesise in his own life. How we do that today leads to the “methodology for engaging with Steiner’s vast opus in ways that genuinely foster our own spiritual development”, which is a promising lead in this article.
I particularly like that you speak in the first person. I find that when people speak this way I learn a great deal from them. When someone tries to tell me about universal Truth, I find myself repelled and have much more difficulty connecting with what they say.
Biodynamic farming..the Steiner schools and his teaching about how the wind instruments relate to the brain mind...strings to the heart..rhythm & drum instruments to the limbic system ..it concluded for me, back in the 70's that we humans are a beautiful sound system.
Star is my birth name. Named after an Indian gal who was healer from the Sioux tribe. It was in a novel my mother & father read while she carried me. The book is called No Survivors.
They were hoping for a boy and I became the 3rd girl. They did not have a girl's name picked out and my dad said "just name her Star"!
Both my step-daughters attended a Steiner school. The younger one attended from pre-school through high school. In college she would get lovingly teased because there seemed to be nothing she could not do: drawing, wood work, knitting, speaking German, etc. I am very happy that we could afford to send he to this school.
You have two lucky step-children. My two step children (there's a coincidence) attended when they were very young, but we moved and they had to go into the mainstream. Pity.
I didn’t know it at the time, but it was Steiner who first planted the seeds of Orthodoxy in my mind. Many years later, after encountering Christ, all of these “spiritual masters” that I held up from Gurdjieff to Steiner crumbled. They said a lot of interesting things, some true, but ultimately there is no coherence in their worldviews. All roads lead to Christ ☦️. Drop Steiner and read the lives of the saints. I recommend St. Silouan the Athonite by St. Sophrony.
Aside from the arcane spiritual pronunciations, it should be added that the practical manifestations of his work were extraordinary...
Steiner schools (our four, now adults, were "Steinerised" as they called it. And all the better for it.
Biodynamic farming
Camphill villages for the disabled.
NB. In the UK a full frontal assault by the ****ing Tories ended with many of 1 & 3 above closed down. Because they wouldn't toe the state line.
I agree with you Jeremy. My step-children also attended a Steiner school. I sometimes doubt if one of them would have made it to adulthood if not for that school. She now does simply amazing work in the field of child and adolescent sexual assault. I could not be more proud of what she has accomplished.
Yes. One of our boys would have been hopeless at school were it not for the Steiner schools he went to. Thrived and flourished.
Thank you for these reflections. To me it fundamentally makes sense to understand Rudolf Steiner as both a high initiative, endowed with great vision as well as an individual circumscribed to the culture of his time. They are not disparate, incongruent realities. Isn’t this exactly how important contributions reach us: through the temporal /cultural modality of a given time? There is an edge to this too. We (as much as he did, I imagine) have to discern, for ourselves, the essence of the message from the cultural scaffolding.
That’s the discernment that allows getting Steiner’s message without becoming unnecessarily pious, ruffled, and/or intellectualise one’s own lack of understanding.
How do we reach such discernment? Through the cultivation of conditions that allow clarity. Here I also note another implicit divide; the one that separates philosophical knowledge from supra-sensible insight. In my understanding that was exactly what Steiner sought to synthesise in his own life. How we do that today leads to the “methodology for engaging with Steiner’s vast opus in ways that genuinely foster our own spiritual development”, which is a promising lead in this article.
Exactly! Thank you Elsa!
I particularly like that you speak in the first person. I find that when people speak this way I learn a great deal from them. When someone tries to tell me about universal Truth, I find myself repelled and have much more difficulty connecting with what they say.
Thank you for being you!
Biodynamic farming..the Steiner schools and his teaching about how the wind instruments relate to the brain mind...strings to the heart..rhythm & drum instruments to the limbic system ..it concluded for me, back in the 70's that we humans are a beautiful sound system.
Beautiful. I had never thought of it that way. I love it.
One of my best friends during my late teens was named Star. Is that your given name?
Yes.
Star is my birth name. Named after an Indian gal who was healer from the Sioux tribe. It was in a novel my mother & father read while she carried me. The book is called No Survivors.
They were hoping for a boy and I became the 3rd girl. They did not have a girl's name picked out and my dad said "just name her Star"!
A very interesting thinker who deserves to be better known. I know children who have attended Steiner schools and I envy their education. .
Both my step-daughters attended a Steiner school. The younger one attended from pre-school through high school. In college she would get lovingly teased because there seemed to be nothing she could not do: drawing, wood work, knitting, speaking German, etc. I am very happy that we could afford to send he to this school.
You have two lucky step-children. My two step children (there's a coincidence) attended when they were very young, but we moved and they had to go into the mainstream. Pity.
I didn’t know it at the time, but it was Steiner who first planted the seeds of Orthodoxy in my mind. Many years later, after encountering Christ, all of these “spiritual masters” that I held up from Gurdjieff to Steiner crumbled. They said a lot of interesting things, some true, but ultimately there is no coherence in their worldviews. All roads lead to Christ ☦️. Drop Steiner and read the lives of the saints. I recommend St. Silouan the Athonite by St. Sophrony.
Thank you for this post!! Much needed:))
I’ve just started reading ‘Higher Worlds of Knowledge.’ I like the idea of using his concentration exercises for my own mental stability.