Letter from the General Secretary

This issue of being human was being produced in the midst of significant activity in the anthroposophical movement ~ during preparations for the 100th anniversary of Rudolf Steiner’s death on March 30th and Easter 2025, the first spiritual new year of the next century of anthroposophy in the world. The challenge this presented was in how to include these momentous events while also looking forward, knowing that by publication date, the long anticipation for these events would now be transformed into experience, and, ideally, nourishment for the way ahead. Immediate reporting is not so easy, so our pages are filled not with reporting on these events, but with encounter, of Rudolf Steiner in contemporary culture, through research, in art, in the lives of our members. We are grateful to the authors, whose submissions helped us identify where and how we might begin to carve out this new path.

We begin with Tom O’Keefe, editor, translator, teacher, and an address he delivered to the community in Spring Valley, NY on the centenary of Rudolf Steiner’s death, March 30th.

The next two essays were solicited by our colleagues at the Goetheanum in anticipation of this centenary time. I was given a prompt by Christiane Haid of the Literary Arts Section of the School of Spiritual Science: Where do I Find Rudolf Steiner? The essay appeared in the Section’s magazine STIL and appears here, translated back into English.

Linda Williams’ Dear Brother Steiner , was beautifully delivered from the main stage at the Goetheanum during the weekend of commemoration March 2830, 2025. The parallel lines Linda drew, describing the lives of her greatgrandparents and their experiences in the United States at the time that Rudolf Steiner was born, leading up to her own encounter with anthroposophy generations later, is intimately drawn, fostering an opportunity for presencing spiritual science in a culturally rooted way.

From the death anniversary to present encounter, we come next to Marc Desaules’ essay describing how we may engage with the Folk Spirit of our country society ~ a spiritual striving that is as essential now as it was when Rudolf Steiner first identified the work of the various beings involved in community life around the world.

Jeffrey Hipolito then invites us into an experience of the Word, as articulated through the life and work of Owen Barfield, among the first English-language members of the movement , and made beautifully accessible here through Hipolito’s scholarship.

From these bold beginnings, our attention is draw to the future, which not only shines brightly but speaks consequently through the dynamic essay and thoughtful poetry of two students who participated in the Youth Eurythmy Festival in February 2025. See pages 30-33.

Over this, Richard Neal drapes the rainbow, sounding a welcome note of divine encouragement into this moment, made luminous when we are able to enter into living relationship with color.

Contemporary research informed by anthroposophy is demonstrated with

Adam Blanning’s report on medical and therapeutic research. Adam is co-leader of the Medical Section of the School of Spiritual Science, living and working in Colorado. We then take an insider’s look at Anthroposophic Psychology with Leigh Glenn, who gives a colorful sense of the training and the self-encounter it allows. AAP begins its 6th cohort later this year.

Our poets John Urban and Peter Rennick lift us out of the mundane into contemplation of Anthroposophia, the world of stars, and more on the following pages, and we hear again from Jeffrey Hipolito, though now not in review of Barfield, but as poet (see page 43).

Through the book reviews in this issue we are taken by the hand from Word to pilgrimage to ground.

We are forever grateful to Herbert Hagens for generously sharing his work and research with the Calendar of the Soul and its alignment to the cycle of the year, included here on page 40. This year Herbert acknowledges the helpful research of Gino Ver Eecke, and also asked me to share celestial information about what we can see overhead in the coming weeks, for how it can be “read” through the Calendar verses.

The News section of being human is always one of welcome and celebration, honor and tribute, and in this issue it is full, with a report from the Lawrence, Kansas Study Group, now in its 24th year of serving as a steady foundation for community; the introduction of three new General Council members, including a new council secretary, chair, and member-at-large. Here we are honored to include memorial essays on the lives of Betty Staley and Ed Scherer, together with our regular feature list of new members and those who have died.

To conclude this issue, and to place an accent mark on the first two decades of 21st century anthroposophy in the US, we pay tribute to Cynthia Chelius, currently the longest-serving staff member in the Society’s administrative office. It is with deepest appreciation that we say goodbye to Cynthia, who retires this May, 2025. We wish Cynthia all the best. We are certain that the seeds of tireless commitment and dedication that she cultivated from the northeast corner of the first floor here at 1923 Geddes Avenue will blossom and bear hearty fruit in the days (and ways) ahead. It is a sweet sorrow, commensurate with the mood of this moment in the history of Anthroposophy.