pedagogical section newsletter
Winter / spring 2023
Dear Colleagues and Friends of the Pedagogical Section:
The Pedagogical Section Council (PSC) met in January at Betty Staley’s house in Fair Oaks, CA. This was initially billed as Betty’s farewell meeting. She was to host us one more time in her cozy home and then support our work from a distance as best she could. Luckily for us, she spent an evening in long conversation with Douglas Gerwin, the result of which was a new realization that she could remain an active participant in our study and discussions on the occasions when we met in Fair Oaks, and via Zoom at other times. While this means she will no longer travel to our meetings, her wealth of experience and active engagement with Waldorf practitioners will continue to benefit the Council’s (and hence the Section’s) work.
moon rising over lake mohave
The meeting itself focused intensively on a study of sleep from an anthroposophical perspective. Council members summarized fourteen different lectures by Rudolf Steiner dealing with this important topic, and we took turns presenting key elements of these lectures and doing artistic exercises related to themes raised in them. (Link to the fourteen summaries.) We hope they may more broadly support your own research and contemplation of this key element both of pedagogy and of inner life. The color images in this newsletter are samples of the visual exercises we did under the guidance of Frances Vig, a description of which follows below. We began each day with eurythmy, and Laura Radefeld describes the work thus:
During the Pedagogical Section Council study on sleep, we included as part of the study eurythmy exercises that serve to enliven and/or illuminate what Rudolf Steiner had to say about sleep. In the study material Rudolf Steiner spoke about the relationship of the human being in sleep and the movements of the planets and the world of the fixed stars.
We withdraw from the body for a period to draw strength from a region outside the body.
Focusing primarily on the planetary gestures and the corresponding vowel gestures, this article describes the path of experiences we had in eurythmy to enliven the study.
Rudolf Steiner described in vivid detail the phases of sleep where:
the movements of the planets and the world of the fixed stars enter our soul-spiritual organization during sleep.
In our study, we sought to lift our souls imaginatively to consciously experience the movement of the planetary world as we each do when we enter the world of sleep. After brief exercises to awaken our bodies, we created small vowel gestures, each of which blossomed from our hearts, the heart eye as RS described it in one of the lectures. We created small vowel gestures, each expressed as though sung by the heart. Entering the sounding of the planets, we imaginatively entered into the space where the vowels are the landscape and ocean that holds one’s soul-spiritual body in sleep. After each vowel sound, we paused and held a period of silence, listening to the sounding that emanates from each individual planetary realm. The pause between each eurythmy gesture created a deep listening space, appropriate to the deep listening required to enter a relationship with the movement of the planets.
During waking hours, we have two types of relationships with the surrounding world: conscious perceiving with the senses and thinking, on the one hand, and unconscious taking in of substances in highly dispersed states through breathing on the other. During sleep, we similarly take in the surrounding world, except that it is the spiritual world that enters into us. The movements of the planets and the world of the fixed stars enter our soul-spiritual organization during sleep. This relationship unfolds in phases.
The first sphere we enter upon falling asleep, and the last one we pass through before waking, is the planetary sphere. The movements of the planets are “seen” with the part of the astral body that permeates the heart during waking hours. The I and astral body leave the physical and ether body in bed, and then this heart eye sees the movements of the planets reflected to them by the (abandoned) etheric body as though the latter were a mirror. In the flexibility of the dreams that we have before waking there is a dim echo of the planetary movements we experienced during sleep. For example, if your karma is connected to a current relationship between Jupiter and Venus, this relationship might weave a dream out of memories from your distant past that, during life, had no connection with one another. The memories are woven together to “clothe” a cosmic event.
The first sphere we enter upon falling asleep, and the last one we pass through before waking, is the planetary sphere. The movements of the planets are “seen” with the part of the astral body that permeates the heart during waking hours. The I and astral body leave the physical and ether body in bed, and then this heart eye sees the movements of the planets reflected to them by the (abandoned) etheric body as though the latter were a mirror. In the flexibility of the dreams that we have before waking there is a dim echo of the planetary movements we experienced during sleep. For example, if your karma is connected to a current relationship between Jupiter and Venus, this relationship might weave a dream out of memories from your distant past that, during life, had no connection with one another. The memories are woven together to “clothe” a cosmic event.
In order to enter into an experience of the planetary gestures we formed the gestures and listened
for the movement/sounding that rayed in towards us from out of the cosmos. For example, with
the Sun gesture, we sought to experience the gesture radiating back into us, directly into our
hearts. Focusing on my own heart and what it was receiving by shaping the gesture of Sun, as I
was living into the sea of vowel sounding was a strong inner experience.
This first sphere of experience after sleep often provokes anxiety in us. The soul feels
itself spread like a fine mist drifting in the cosmos, as though within a large cloud of
cosmic mist. Then, a second feeling arises: a yearning to rest in the bosom of the divine
as protection from dissolution into this mist. These two feelings must be carried into
waking life or else all the substances we take into our physical body during the day, in
metabolism for example, would cause disorder within the entire organism. At present,
these experiences and feelings are carried unconsciously into the day, because human
beings are not yet strong enough to do so consciously. The heart-eye continues to
perceive the planetary sphere even as the next phase of sleep unfolds.
Rudolf Steiner notes that human beings are not strong enough to enter experiences of the
planetary world in day consciousness. We can, through eurythmy, build the capacity needed to
carry these experiences from sleep into day consciousness. We are able to feel our soul-spirit
body “spread like a fine mist drifting in the cosmos” and also, through the planetary gestures,
feel, imaginatively what radiates back towards us from the movements of the planets.
While the Moon forces, on earth, are active in heredity and reproduction, those of Saturn
are the restorer of balance for all that happens on Earth and enter into human life
through all that lives in Karma, from life to life. The other planets, Jupiter, Mars and so
on, are mediators between the Moon forces and the Saturn forces, weaving their activity
between the extremes of the physical and the highest ethical. The working together of the
planets and their influence on us show how the human being is connected with the Earth
itself and with the universe beyond.
We focused some time in our eurythmy exploration with the gestures of Moon and Saturn, living
into the polarity described in the lecture referenced here.
That was the extent of our current exploration. In our continuing studies we will complete the
planetary gestures and begin a listening exploration into the gestures of the fixed stars.
We also approached the study theme through the visual arts. Frances Vig describes that aspect:
For a visual artist to work together with a eurythmist both deepens and broadens the soul’s experience,
engaging our research from yet another perspective. In this most recent gathering we painted using wet-
on-dry with tape-edged paper, inexpensive small palettes, and fine brushes. The theme chosen was the
polarity referred to (in the summarized text from GA 228) between the forces of heredity and
reproduction and the forces of memory and karmic balance as a polarity between the activities of the
Moon and Saturn. This was indeed a challenge and an unexpected polarity to explore.
The first step in the process was for Laura to work with us on the gestures of the Moon, Saturn and the
Sun in eurythmy. Then, each of us, independently, considered color choices that related to the forces
described and their placement on the paper. We began to paint, focusing on Saturn and the Moon. Part of
the assignment was to leave space between the two for the next step, adding the influence of the Sun. The
following day, after a period of sleep and further study, we began with eurythmy prior to painting,
focusing on the Sun gesture between the Moon and Saturn. Turning to our paintings we then brought our
own imagining of the Sun forces to play, working out from the open space and allowing the whole
situation to develop freely in color.
After removing the tape, we laid all the paintings together and, after taking the time to look quietly at everyone’s work, shared reflections on our experience.
These are explorations into a way of working that challenges our imagination and asks us to be with the content of our study through a heart sensing that can alert us to aspects that we might have otherwise missed. Every time we work together, I am deeply touched by the different ways we explore the themes and by seeing that what we have accomplished, modest as it might be, enriches our work.
A quick sidenote about PSC study: in the last newsletter, I reported on another one of our study themes, namely drumming. Since Victoria Reyes, our fearless leader on this topic, was unable to attend our latest meeting in person, we postponed pursuit of this theme until we pick it up again in October.
Linda Williams wrote an extensive report from the November meeting of the International Forum. Find it HERE
Finances:
The PSC is running very low on funds. In the past, The Anthroposophical Society in America, AWSNA, sales of PSC publications, gifts from schools, and private donations supported our work so we could meet three times per year and pay our chair a modest stipend. In recent years, these streams have either dwindled to a trickle or dried up altogether. We are now actively seeking foundation grant money that would support a new round of school visits and further set of webinars as a way of generating funds, but we also would ask all of you to help us find support for the kind of work that the PSC is so uniquely positioned to offer. There is no other pedagogical organization on this continent that is dedicated solely to gathering questions, researching, and disseminating results rooted in anthroposophy. We have no political responsibilities or allegiance to institutional constituents; our sole task is pedagogical. Other Waldorf organizations, which have their own legitimate tasks, also benefit from the work we do. Please See whether your school would consider supporting the PSC and let us know of other funding sources we might approach. Donation can be made via the PSC’s website here or, for those needing a tax deduction, through the Research Institute for Waldorf Education here.
With much gratitude for your work and dedication,
Elan Leibner
for the PSC