Closing Comment
Anticipating the North
The therapeutic approach described here developed into its current form through my work with a group of elderly members and mildly developmentally delayed young adults at the Rudolf Steiner Fellowship Community in Chestnut Ridge, New York; with adults attending the self-development seasonal tree painting workshops I offered at the New York Branch of the Anthroposophical Society; and from workshops offered at therapeutic recreation conferences. Much more can be said about the therapeutic value of this work, just as more can be read from the content and mood of the paintings, but that is beyond the scope of this article.
Philip Thatcher, General Secretary for Canada This August 1-8, participants from many countries will come together in Whitehorse, Yukon, for the week-long conference Encircling Light–Expectant Silence [encirclinglight.ca]. As I continue to prepare for this week, it seems good to bring together intentions, questions, insights, and nuances from some of those who will take part in it. When Edna Cox from Port Alberni, British Columbia, traveled to Whitehorse in August 2006 to begin preparing for the conference, she wondered “just how my anticipation of the north and its reality would fit together.” Such a question may also live in other participants, especially Canadians for whom “north” is a strong imagination of who they are, yet one that can seem remote from where they actually live. In the words of Alexandra Günther, a workshop leader from Ontario, “Central to my long-standing wish to be part of something like this is the question: What is it about the north that draws us there, we who are not its creatures? And what is the idea of north in the Canadian mind and heart, and in other people who have never been there?” Canadians carry varied, powerful, and conflicting images of their north, a fact that has fueled countless books, articles and works of art. Yet certain images are pervasive. West Vancouver participant Robbie Black pictures a drive northward from Edmonton, Alberta. The city falls behind, then the farms, then the last cluster of houses, until only the forest lies ahead: “When the car comes to rest, the silence descends…a subtle awareness emerges of all that lies in hiding, out of sight of the casual glance.” Other participants are drawn northward by the silences they intuit from or have experienced in that part of the globe. Marjorie Nordås, a Canadian now teaching at the Norstrand School just south of Oslo, once traveled northward with a group from an army base in Toronto: “We made a performance right up between Russia and Canada, at a base called Alert. I was 20 years old but it was my first strong experience of the light, and what touched us most was the silence.” Jef Saunders, who emigrated from Britain to Toronto, is also drawn to the “expansive light-filled days” and “deep, yet expectant silence”; he also wonders what spiritual intentions might be hidden in that landscape, waiting to be drawn out. Or are these intentions hidden in ourselves, waiting to be unveiled within this northern setting? At the close of the nineteenth century, prospectors from around the world flooded into the Yukon looking for gold. Workshop leader Anthony Perzel, who is concerned with understanding the activity of elemental beings in the north’s mineral wealth and Luciferic and Ahrimanic influences in our exploitation of it, observes: “The seeking of precious metals and diamonds is analogous to seeking the ‘precious’ within ourselves.” For at least two participants, the conference will provide a context for understanding the importance of the places where they live. Olga Kornienko from Ekaterinburg, Russia, writes: “Here in the middle of the Urals we have extreme variations of temperature, from -40C to +40C, with northern snowy winters and hot southern summers. The mountain range itself looks a lot like a spinal column; in the history of Russia it always played a spinal role. People here are strong and courageous, especially the women. Being a barrier and a gate, the Urals gathered dif-
About the Author: Phoebe Alexander received her diploma in anthroposophic art therapy from “De Wervel,” Academie vor Kunstzinnig Therapie, The Netherlands; training in Waldorf pedagogy/ remedial pedagogy from Emerson College in England; certificates in gardening and horticulture from the New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY; and her MSEd in therapeutic recreation education from Lehman College, CUNY. She maintained a weekly therapeutic painting group at the Fellowship Community for about 15 years, and has offered courses and workshops on this and other areas of anthroposophical art therapy at the New York Branch of the Anthroposophical Society, at conferences, and other venues. Anyone seeking further information on the topic of this article or on other aspects of anthroposophical art therapy should feel free to contact her directly at 212-744-0257 or phoebe@artopathy.com. For more information about anthroposophical art therapy in North America, go to www.aaatna.org.
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