Ascendant Sunrise (Painting by Kathie Young)
In what is now becoming an Anthroposophy NYC tradition, with the aim of keeping a torch lit across these darkest nights of the year, we ask our members, friends and colleagues to share inner light and warmth. We ask them to do so through speaking about what is near and dear in their spiritual lives, and to do so in a manner that invites true conversation. Each night or day, from December 26 to January 6th, a different person will introduce a theme and then open the door to a community conversation—all in keeping with these special days and nights spanning Christmas and Epiphany and the closing and dawning year. All programs will be available on Zoom, and several will be hybrid. All are welcome!
Thursday December 26 at 7:00pm
Presenter: Eugene Schwartz
Presentation Topic: Space, Time, and the Holy Nights
Rudolf Steiner tells us that at Wintertide the Soul of the Earth is fully contracting into the earth. What role may we play in this cosmic drama?
As a Fellowship Community coworker in the 1970s, Eugene Schwartz worked with the elderly and those crossing the Threshold and helped to develop the foundations of today’s Otto Specht School. He has also served as a Waldorf class teacher for twenty-five years, and has been a frequent lecturer at the Renewal Conferences and Rudolf Steiner College, and the Director of Teacher Training at the Sunbridge Institute. Eugene has lectured worldwide on Anthroposophy and Waldorf education for over forty years. His essays, videos, and lectures may be accessed at iwaldorf.net.
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Friday December 27 at 7:00pm
Presenter: Mary Stewart Adams
Presentation Topic: Dialogue with divine spiritual beings/the stars
As an adjunct to the Anthroposophical Society in America’s Holy Nights program “Our Paths Among the Stars,” Mary will offer a consideration of how a dialogue with the divine spiritual beings revealing themselves from the stars can be undertaken during this season, together with a few starry highlights of the coming year. It is worth noting that December 27 is shared by Johannes Kepler as the date of his birth in 1571, and Marie Steiner, who died on December 27 in 1948, and to whom Rudolf Steiner gave at least two significant “star” verses: Behold the sun at the midnight hour, and Stars spake once to man.
Mary Stewart Adams has been General Secretary and President of the Anthroposophical Society in America since autumn, 2023. She serves as a spokesperson for the Society and country representative in the international movement. For over twenty years, under the title of Star Lore Historian, Mary has worked as a dark skies advocate, to raise awareness about the effects of light pollution and to make known the mysteries of the starry skies from environmental, cultural, and anthroposophical perspectives.
The Anthroposophical Society in America
Join us for Holy Nights “Our Paths Among the Stars“
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Saturday December 28 at 1:00pm (live and Zoomed)
138 W15th St (between Sixth and Seventh Aves)
Presenter: Brigida Baldszun
Presentation Topic: “What is a gift?” (a retold experience)
Brigida Baldszun trained in Vienna, Austria and worked for 9 years at a Waldorf school in Germany; in that time she taught Eurythmy, Music and led for 5 years a class of 39 children grades 4-8. Learning Eurythmy in the English language opened for her new aspects to teaching and performing in Detroit, Chicago and New York. Since 2012 she added Eurythmy therapy to her work and has taught in India, Russia, South Africa and repeatedly in China.
Since 2016 Brigida offers therapeutic Eurythmy at Green Meadow and in the larger community.
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Sunday December 29 at 4:00pm
Presenter: Laszlo Böszörmenyi
Presentation Topic: From the lonely ego to a spiritual community “You cannot bring about the anthroposophical formation of community through external arrangements. You must bring it about from the deepest sources of human consciousness itself.” (R. Steiner).
“Being together is not a special task, over and above my other tasks, but it is my fundamental task; without fulfilling it, I am not yet human: obviously we are not yet human.” (G. Kühlewind).
We feel a lifelong desire for intensive encounters, loving relationships, and real communities. However, our egoistic everyday consciousness is an awareness of boundaries, which repeatedly fails when it comes to being together. People who strive together to overcome their egoistic limitations through exercises in concentration and meditation can intensify their attention to such an extent that they touch each other spiritually, forming a common chalice into which the Charis, divine grace or love, can flow. This ability is not given – it can only be practiced by free I-beings.
Laszlo Böszörmenyi, born in 1949 in Budapest, 1992-2017 Professor of Computer Science in Klagenfurt. Friend and student of Georg Kühlewind for decades. Articles about the training path. Lectures and seminars in many places. Books: Mondenlicht – Sonnenlicht. Die Umkehr zur Quelle der wissenschaftlichen Denkweise (Moonlight – Sunlight. The return to the source of scientific thinking), Frankfurt 2020; Georg Kühlewind – Ein Diener des Logos (Georg Kühlewind – A Servant of the Logos), Stuttgart 2022.
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Monday December 30 at 7:00pm
Presenter: Joanna Bergmann
Presentation Topic: The Birth of the Sun Spirit as the Spirit of the Earth
Joanna will introduce the 3rd lecture in the series by Steiner entitled “The Festivals and their Meaning: Christmas, The Birth of the Sun Spirit as the Spirit of the Earth” given on the 26th of December, 1911 in Hanover, Germany (link below). Steiner spoke about the 6th of January as significant, not just as Three Kings’ Day, but more importantly as the amazing mystery of “the descent of the Christ Being into the body of Jesus of Nazareth” which has been hidden since A.D.354. Followed by a conversation based on the lecture themes.
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/Christmas/19111226p01.html
Joanna Bergmann has been a distance learning student at The Seminary of The Christian Community of North America, and a long-time anthroposophist.
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Tuesday December 31 at 7:00pm
Presenter: Don Bartlett
Presentation Topic: GA 69C Jesus and Christ
Out of his study of these Rudolf Steiner lectures, Don will introduce several themes: the differences between natural and spiritual science, the importance of the development of the soul, the study of history versus the study of science, and the way toward experiencing the spiritual Christ and historical Jesus.
Don has been a member of Anthroposophical Society since 1991. He is a retired therapist/drug and alcohol counselor with thirty years of experience in Connecticut and NYC. Don has been a musician (guitarist) for 57 years.
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Wednesday January 1 2025 at 7:00pm
Presenter: Joyce Reilly
Presentation Topic: Janus—facing forward and facing back
Janus is the god depicted in mythology as having two faces- one facing forward and one looking back. Hence, the approach of JANU-ary is the time to invite him in and spend an hour in reflection with the help of paint, pencil, and poetry.
This evening we will use artistic means to investigate, imagine, and depict the events of 2024 in our personal lives, and their meaning. After group conversation we will take time to make a picture or a poem or other representation that speaks to us of our 2024 journey and then share; after this we will take a short time in silence and then depict our hopes for 2025 and share.
Please bring your calendar or journal of the past year, and any pictures or poetry, etc. that has moved you. You will need paper and pen, colored pencils or pastels. We will work quickly and trust the process! Welcome to Janus and the New Year!
Joyce Reilly is a Coach and Counselor, a New Yorker at heart, aging and flourishing in the Kimberton Pennsylvania area.
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Thursday January 2 at 7:00pm
Presenter: Gritli Rabin
Presentation Topic: Gritli’s latest creations/technique demonstration
Gritli was born in Germany and lived 20 years in Dornach, right below the Goetheanum. Her uncle, Ralph Kux, a pianist and composer, met Rudolf Steiner when he was 19 years old and moved to Dornach to become a eurythmist. Gritli remembers his showing her backstage at the Goetheanum after performances.
Later, in 1967-68, Gritli studied dance with Martha Graham. After her children were grown, with “incredible” support from artist colleagues in the New Haven area, she developed her skills as an artist.
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Friday January 3 at 7:00pm
Presenter: Fred Dennehy
Presentation Topic: To Be in the Light
One person – not at all atypical — who experienced a near death experience described the light of which she became aware as “…warm. It possessed unearthly peace and radiant splendor. Nothing on earth has its color. There are not words to describe the depth of its beauty. This is a place of total love and a place where ultimate security exists.”
Owen Barfield, not one given to exaggeration or sentimentality, said that to perceive light itself as etheric is “ a deeply moving experience. Much deeper than observation. It goes to the roots of one’s being, like the breath of life itself. There will be occasions when one is aware not only of seeing or feeling the light, but of breathing it.”
Tonight’s talk will explore what it means to “be in the light.”
Fred Dennehy, one of the Class holders for the NYC area, is a former attorney, playwright and actor.
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Saturday January 4 at 7:00pm
Presenter: Ted Petrenko
Presentation Topic: New Thinking
Ted will introduce this theme based on his study of Otto Palmer’s Rudolf Steiner on His Book “THE PHILOSOPHY OF FREEDOM” (Steiner Books/Anthroposophic Press), specifically on content Steiner delivered to the Goetheanum workmen.
Ted’s stalwart, volcanic, enthusiastic promotion of all things pertaining to Rudolf Steiner Bookstore and general Anthroposophy (NYC in particular) is known to many.
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Sunday January 5 at 2:00pm (live and Zoomed) (and a live social event—food+)
Presenter: Ezra Sullivan
Presentation Topic: East meets West
Ezra will share his experience of a recent pilgrimage to Japan in which his focus was the confluence of Buddhism and Animism. What is the conversation between Esoteric Buddhism and Esoteric Christianity in the evolution of consciousness? How can we bridge the East and the West to Christianize Buddhism, and achieve the non-dual consciousness gift of Buddhism within Christianity? Why is it that so many Eastern ideas are feeding Western peoples spirituality at present? How can these two streams feed each other? We will explore these questions and more.
Ezra Sullivan moved to South America after high school in California to initiate an inquiry into the life of the human being and nature through meditation and agriculture. There he encountered the work of Rudolf Steiner, and upon returning to the United States after three years, he orientated his spiritual life toward Anthroposophy. The following nine years were focused mainly in the Pacific Northwest on biodynamic agriculture, nonprofit leadership, the intentional communities’ movement, and non-violent activism. His focus now lies primarily in the social realm including the renewal of organizations.
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Monday January 6 at 7:00pm
Presenter: Jesús Amadeo
Presentation Topic: Bringing the Christ into Every Activity
Jesús Amadeo, co-class holder at Anthroposophy NYC
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