arts & ideas IN THIS SECTION: Cynthia Hoven would have us take inspiration through the Zoom-scape and, shutting off the computer, resurrect in ourselves the spirit of eurythmy. Eurythmist Gail Langstroth demonstrates such resurrection in poems across two languages. Bruce Donehower and members of the Literary Arts and Humanities Section are living into the mystery of Novalis. Peter Bruckner has lived a life of many arts, but the thread is poetry.
Eurythmy as Personal Practice by Cynthia Hoven I have worked in the Goetheanum stage group, worked for decades with eurythmy therapy in hospitals and private practice, taught in schools, founded and led a eurythmy training program, and taught thousands of people at Rudolf Steiner College and in my overseas workshops. I deeply understand that eurythmy comes alive through the power of presencing. Yet in 2014 a group of people asked me to use the carefully crafted teaching style I had developed to offer an online curriculum—an opportunity for people who might never take a live eurythmy class to learn how to do it at home. I knew I could only do so if the presentations could help people internalize the power of eurythmy, the power of the Logos, and thereby resurrect the teachings through their own understanding, their own practice. So EurythmyOnline.com was born. My aim was for people to have their own “eurythmy as a personal practice.” It took nearly two years to create a comprehensive website curriculum that offered the quality of work I wanted. Since then, thousands of people have visited my website, and hundreds have written to thank me for what they found. Some object that eurythmy should never be shown online, but those who actually followed the lessons found that this method of learning worked for them. My own personal learning journey in this has been profound. I prepared my words, my pacing, my delivery style, and my handouts with great care. And I had to learn to work with my own etheric forces very carefully. Hundreds of people around the world were moving with me in real time, yet not in the same place. If I extended my consciousness too far, I felt fragmented. I learned to use peat moss body oils and copper ointments to help protect me. I learned to speak softly and not project my voice too broadly. I learned to be very calm, in order to project a truly heart-centered energy to those who were out there, “in the dark,” where I could not see. Many anthroposophical initiatives have now turned to the internet to deliver programs. Even school eurythmy teachers have tried teaching eurythmy through Zoom projects. EurythmyOnline seems to have come of age. This summer a generous gift of the Rudolf Steiner Charitable Trust allowed ATHENA (the Association for Therapeutic Eurythmy in North America) to support several eurythmists in creating videos to share across the country. I was honored to be the first presenter in this project. For the Eurythmy as Personal Practice classes that I offered, over 600 people registered, and hundreds participated in the six hour-long eurythmy lessons. The sessions covered: » Laying the Foundation: Learning to move from the Heart » Harmonizing the three centers in the body: head, heart and limbs » Overcoming stress, increasing immune strength with Reverence » Learning to ground into the body with Hope » Finding Peace with Love » Tying it all together: the Immune sequence
24 • being human