Welcome to the YouthSection Newsletter 2008!

By: Elizabeth Wirsching

A wonderful happy new year to all of you. I wish you a year full of courage and initiative, and that we will meet during this year. The world needs the power and wisdom of the youth!

In one of the talks Rudolf Steiner gave to the youth, he expressed it this way:

"Originally I felt I had to inaugurate the Youth Section for the sake of those who clearly and honestly feel: Youth’s longing is present in me in today’s style of life. Let them truly come together in this Youth Section of the Anthroposophical Society and we’ll achieve the ‘wisdom of youth’ of which I wrote in the Mitteilungen. It is not intended to be anything pedantic, but something that is worked for in a cordial way, people sharing and communicating in warmth of heart. I know it is a matter of feeling our way forward, lovingly understanding how this lives in the youth of today.“

Rudolf Steiner. “The life of this world must be newly established in its foundations.” Arnhem. 20.7.1924. GA 217 A.


"Die Jugendsektion glaubte ich zuerst inaugurieren zu müssen wegen derjenigen, die in aufrichtiger, klarer Weise fühlen: Jugendsehnsucht im heutigen Lebensstile ist in mir. Die mögen sich einmal wirklich in dieser Jugendsektion der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft zusammenfinden, dann werden wir das zustande bringen, wovon ich in den Mitteilungen spreche als von der Jugendweisheit. Es soll nichts pedantisches sein, es soll etwas sein, was durch herzliches Wirken, durch herzliche Verständigung unter den Menschen erarbeitet wird.  Gewiss, es handelt sich darum dass man tastend forscht, liebevoll erfasst, wie es in der Jugend heute lebt."

Rudolf Steiner. "Das Leben der Welt muss in seinen Fundamenten neu gegründet werden".
Arnhem. 20.7.1924. GA 217 A.

Some of you receiving this newsletter are new to the network, others already know us. But let me update you on the situation in Dornach! Since autumn there has been some changes in the team of the YouthSection. Jesse and Nanna have left the team and are now occupied with new tasks and their "little“ family. Caspar was born just before the summer conference "mittendrin“.  They all show up every now and then to help us out with different topics. Reinoud is still here, leaving for Sweden in summer 08 to start up the International YIP program. When we meet for our monday team meetings, you will find the following people around the table: Katharina Ludwig, Germany; Marcia Ferreira, Brazil; Guy Collins, South Africa; Ani Hanelius, USA; Reinoud Meijer, Holland; Rose Nekvapil, Australia, and Elizabeth Wirsching, Norway. Christina Gerodetti from Switzerland was here until Christmas and is now traveling in the USA and South America, but soon Jakob Kraul from Germany will join us for a shorter period of time.
Each one of us will be introduced in the upcoming newsletters.

It is pleasure for us here in Dornach to send you a newsletter now in the beginning of the year 2008. Here you will find our main focus for the year, a calendar, some reports and an interview.
Our aim is to publish a newsletter from the YouthSection every month so that we can keep all of you in our network up to date on what is filling our lives and our hearts here in Dornach.

Warm Greetings
Elizabeth Wirsching

Update from the “Karma Crossing”

By: Ani Hanelius

Christmas Dinner 2007

Sushi Party

The Mudd Family plays Friday nights

Katha and Guy giving the Teestube a new look

Elizabeth Wirsching often (half) jokingly refers to the YouthSection house as “the railway station” because of the constant stream of people coming and going from all four corners of the world. But what sets the YouthSection apart from your typical railway station (aside from the obvious lack of trains) is summed up in the name the “Karma Crossing." Here significant meetings happen, karmic connections are established and destinies are entwined on a daily basis. And I can easily say that the usual setting for these meetings is on the stoop, in the kitchen, and/or in the Teestube, usually over a cup of coffee or a meal.

With the close of 2007, it was clear that a new life had begun to bubble up and out of the YouthSection. As the “Karma Crossing” it has always been a place of meeting but this year food and entertainment took center stage. As always there were various events and study groups including a festive General Secretary's Dinner hosted by the YouthSection, various holiday and festival celebrations, and a special New Year’s Foundation Stone Meditation group that was led by Elizabeth.

But it was the various eating and meeting opportunities during any given week that was enough to bring out the happy phlegmatic in (almost) everyone. Monday evenings brought people to the YouthSection for Kochen.Essen.Quatschen (KEQ), which began with a yummy meal provided by Katha followed by the “Slightly Different Study Group,” headed up by Guy, which focuses on participants interacting together through games or other activities, followed by a short text or quote that then lives with participants during the week until the following monday when it is discussed. Other exciting eating opportunities included a meal on tuesday and wednesday lunches that for the first time ever brought together students from the English and German Anthroposophical/Foundation Studies courses where they cooked for and get to know one another. Then the week was rounded off on friday nights with the pairing of the fine cuisine of the "Gourmet Girls" (two Anthroposophical Studies students Michelle and Donna) with the soulful sounds of the hill-country blues sang and strummed by "the Mudd Family" (aka Guy and Ani).

And all this dining and discussion happened in the new and improved Teestube, which got a whole new look with a new coat of paint that transformed it into a warm, sultry place perfect for meeting, eating and greeting. But while the physical changes were evident, the increase of new and familiar faces coming and going also indicated that something else has changed. People were coming in flocks to take part in meals, to meet and to exchange ideas and inspirations over food and coffee....and the Karma Crossing Cafe was born!

We look forward to the new life and liveliness of the YouthSection carrying over into the new year. So the next time you are in Dornach, come by, have a cup of coffee or a steaming bowl of soup and I am sure you will find a new meeting or connection happening before your bowl is empty.

Reflections from the New Years Foundation Stone Meditation Study Group

By: Kathleen Morse, Guy Collins & Rose Nekvapil

Over the holy nights, a group of young people met with Elizabeth Wirsching, and although many of the individuals work together throughout the year, there was a decidedly different tone during these afternoons of study. We took up the final section of the Foundation Stone Meditation, using the themes of the Shepherds and the Kings as a focus.

At the turning point of time
The Spirit Light of the World
Entered the Stream of Earthly Evolution.
Darkness of Night had held its sway.
Day-radiant Light streamed into Souls of Men:
Light that gives warmth
To simple Shepherds’ Hearts.
Light that enlightens
The wise Heads of Kings.

O Light Divine,
O Sun of Christ,
Warm Thou our hearts,
Enlighten Thou our heads,
That Good may become –
What from our hearts we would found
And from our heads direct
With single purpose.

--Rudolf Steiner

This verse took us through a journey of images enlightening our ideas of the purpose and intention of why we are present, into what we can do in the transformation of the world we live in. These afternoons, bitter cold outside, were warmed by the light of the setting sun, and our own inner fires’ light through the encounter with each other, and these powerful images brought through verse. At the end, a new study was initiated to take place over the Easter holiday in order to come together and examine another section of the Foundation Stone Meditation.
--Kathleen Morse

Foundation Stone Echoes

Still resounding off the walls of my knowing, the words of the last portion of the Foundation Stone verse grow in magnitude. “At the turning point of time...at the turning of the times...at the turn of time...” Take your pick, as the words cannot be nailed down in English, however much certain adherents of this global language would love to fix words in a manner only possible in German. It became clear that each translation had something new to offer and so the mantric quality of the original becomes, through translation, an inner struggle for the individual, both translator and reader. Behind the translated word lies something that is within the original word. These thoughts followed me as I struggled to understand and live with the pictures presented. Our method was an attempt to live into the images presented in the verse. Who are the shepherds and the kings? What does it mean that the “Spirit-Light of the World entered the stream of Earthly Evolution”? What is the “Darkness of Night”? And most of all, how do I live with these images? If these images are truly universal, I should be able to find them.

My own experience was one of re-meeting words that I once knew well and used as opening for youth meetings I was part of in South Africa. But this time the pictures sprang forward and presented themselves as vistas, each line being almost too much to contain. The magnitude of what is presented in these nineteen lines suddenly struck. Not that this was completely new but the fact that this “foundation stone” is to be laid in the hearts of human beings is an incredibly powerful image. This huge event contained within the human being.

The questions led to the artwork of the Renaissance and finally to a contemplation of the Representative of Man and attendant beings. One of the things that struck deeply for me was something that Elizabeth Wirsching said, which was to the effect of, “until recently, the words karma and reincarnation were whispered within the Anthroposophical Movement, what is it that we are hesitant to speak aloud now?” I pondered on this and have to say that my initial response remains the same, which is that the significance of the other two beings in the Group Sculpture is somehow still something that is whispered. The names of Lucifer and Ahriman are commonly spoken, but a real acknowledging of their being is something to be whispered and avoided because that would mean that they must be acknowledged within each human. What would it mean to take these beings as seriously as the contents of the Foundation Stone? Not to dwell on and cower before, but to look upon with due respect for the threat posed to each individual by their one-sidedness. And especially the being that lies prone beneath the earth in the sculpture, I always feel that this being wants nothing more than to be written off as weak. Ahriman, especially, is the name that we inwardly whisper and avoid because his is not the beauty of Lucifer which is far easier to stomach.

And so, for me, this Foundation Stone is that which lies as balancing fundament to these two extremes. The study of it during the holy nights was a privilege and the little group that met each day in the Youth Section really struggled through these images together.

Lastly, just as a candle being lit in a dark room lights the space, each person, no matter how small they feel, can face the outer darkness that threatens, with an inner light.
--Guy Collins

Balance...

On the lead up to Christmas I often find myself in a questioning space of “what is Christmas?” “How do I meet the spirit of this time?” This year, although I had a very enriching Christmas celebration with dear friends, I found the spirit of Christmas in the daily study group at the YouthSection on the last part of the Foundation Stone Meditation. It is such a gift to meet with others and go into the great questions and possibilities that Rudolf Steiner’s words summon. On this occasion, during discussions about the King’s qualities and the Shepherd’s, and the light of Christ, I met a deep “truth” in the space of our words about the “turning point of time”.  Our time.
This study brought me into my new year, which I would like to give the word Balance. Balance of heart and head, balance between light and dark, balance between work and play, and above all between meeting myself and the world.  

--Rose Nekvapil

i-study in motion

By: Kathleen Morse

Elizabeth, Kathleen and Juliana discuss i-study in motion

This October, amidst the vibrant display of foliage, three individuals came together in Dornach to deepen, connect, and reflect upon their individual study in motion. These themes of study were as diverse as the individuals. Each of the three had chosen a question to live and study in the context of life.

The topics that were engaged in:
Annie Sauerland - ‘Bridges’ What is the Spirit of Islam?
Kathleen Morse - ‘Mirrors’ What is the Sprit of America?
Claire Lerner - ‘Arriving’ Art and Communication

Annie’s study took her to Palestine.  Here she engaged with individuals and communities to research what stands behind the religion and conflict in the middle east, to begin to point to the spirit of Islam that is not a fundamental expression of Allah, but an expression of the essence of the religion.  Annie interviewed many individuals to begin to see this expression of Islam thru their personal stories.  She also searched in herself and Palestinians to find those bridges that could be built to bring humanity back to the conflict in the area.  Annie co-organized the ‘Walk Your Talk’ conference in Israel and Palestine in May 2007 as part of her study.

Kathleen’s study took her from Europe to Africa, Israel, Palestine, and through the United States.  Her question was a search for the essence of America.  It began as a search for another America, an expression of what lives inherently as a gift within each individual and for herself, and how to manifest this gift in the world.  She was also researching how the outer world is manifest in ourselves, and how our inner world is manifest in outer situations.  It was the beginning of a long journey to understand this complex relationship.  Kathleen hosted a Initiative Meeting for young Americans to look at their questions and what are the needs of young people in America as part of her study.

Claire’s study took her to Lima, Peru.  The first half of her study was spent investigating her own personal creativity and painting process.  This was an intense inner journey of communicating her experience and life on paper.  From this study, Claire organized an IDEM workcamp in Lima at the San Aesthetic School for children with special needs.  Here Claire lead the participants in building a water clarification system, which is much needed by the school, as well as a bench on the playground.  With the bench project, Claire facilitated and opened space for participants; through getting their hands dirty with the mud mixture used to shape the bench they entered into a creative process where individual initiative was balanced with the overall progress of the bench.  Each individual was working on a specific area of the bench, while engaging in the overall aesthetic quality of it.

These projects’ home is in the Individual Study Program at the Goetheanum and is represented by Elizabeth Wirsching, head of the International Youth Section, was initiated by Juliana Hepp and funded by the Evidence Foundation.  This pilot program has successfully run its course, giving tools and acting as a springboard into each individual’s next endeavors in life.  For more information on future individual studies in motion or living your own questions please contact Elizabeth Wirsching elizabeth@youthsection.org

a festival.forum – Summer Conference 2008

By: Guy Collins

This summer will see people of all ages gather in Dornach for what has previously been called the annual summer “youth” conference. festival.forum will bring a unique twist to the summer conference experience in that it will bring together people of all ages and backgrounds to come together, hear about and take part in the contributions and initiatives of young people and youth activity from around the world.

 The young people we are gathering as the core of festival.forum will bring their own passions, interests, initiative, and insights to the wide variety of workshops, discussion groups, lectures, and artistic performances that they will offer. They are the people behind the initiatives and networks that are growing up around the YouthSection work. The exciting thing is that they will be presenting their own special interests which may or may not be directly related to their work and that the subject, content, and way of presentation is completely up to the facilitators themselves. We are just offering a space in which these young people can create and be creative, and have invited them to take part because we want to share their ideas and inspirations with the diverse participants of festival.forum. We are sure that new and exciting ways will be found to present fresh, challenging and enlightening content.

Another unique element of festival.forum is that it will have an open program giving each participant diverse possibilities to create their ideal schedule based around their interests and desires, with lots of space to meet other interesting and engaging participants over coffee, conversation and lively entertainment. In other words, each participant will have to choose their own way through the conference just as one might have to make difficult choices at a film or music festival. There will be focus points where all the participants gather throughout the event, be it for performances, lectures, etc., while meal and coffee breaks will be also seen as important meeting possibilities.

This event aims to transcend generational boundaries so that a fruitful interchange can grow. The subject matter will also address current issues that affect all of us ranging from, “the nature of esoteric work today” to “forces behind globalization” to “art in the present and its social relevance” to “economics and its importance” and many more such topics.

A festival of inner and outer questioning. Welcome All!

“No YIP no Sense....”

By: Ani Hanelius

Reinoud and Rose (The Yippies) working hard

Taking time for a cup of coffee and a chat

On a sunny late afternoon in early January, I sat down with Reinoud Meijer and Rose Nekvapil, YouthSection team-members and local Youth Initiative Program (YIP) coordinators, over a cup of coffee to chat with the two about the project that is currently the focus of their day and the apple of their eye.

Ani: So, where did it all begin for YIP?

Reinoud: It has been a wish in the YouthSection for a long time to have something that could answer the needs of the participants of Connect in a way that they could “learn by doing”...Jiro (Omura) had the same idea...as did Kgotla in South Africa...and in California, Luc (Schloss)had the idea of a “Jubilee Year”. Then I talked to the Swedish General Secretary (of the Anthroposophical Society) with Sussie Hansen to discuss setting something up for the 3 Nordic countries. In Järna there was a space, and so we began to connect the dots. Then at the Initiative Meeting in January 2007 we had our first real meeting.

Ani: How did you decide to commit to being part of the creation of YIP?

Rose: At the Initiative Meeting in January I ended up in a group about YIP (after initially thinking to myself, “I am not doing that!”). By the end of the week Reinoud said (definitively), “So, Rose is moving to Sweden to help with YIP.” It is so incredible that this is what young people get to do with their lives! YIP is everything that I want for young people.

Ani: What is it that makes YIP so special and so unique?

Rose: There is nothing like it...offering this kind of training with experts coming in from all over, rather than teachers who teach all the time out of their specific expertise. Doing is just as much learning, which makes it a special kind of practical training that you can’t find elsewhere.

Ani: What excites you most about the YIP year?

Rose: What young people have to bring...their visions and capabilities that aren’t ordinarily supported. The participation of the 60 participants.

Reinoud: Free space. Ideally, people will think out of the box, without it being right or wrong...and just see it. Things that are utterly new. New ideas and ways to go about them.

Ani: What do you personally hope to gain from the experience of creating YIP?

Reinoud: I find the facilitation exciting....it’s been on my list for a number of years since I left teacher training. You need to be a facilitator for development. You can bring experience from the outside. This is what I believe, and now I can prove myself.

Rose: (It’s like) doing YIP myself on a different scale. Learning...taking on something new and generating the know-how out of myself. Meeting myself over the past year and doing work by doing something. Working with the participants in the future will be a really big thing...being part of a world wide network...facilitating for young people...and the relationships with and role I’ll have for those young people as part of a civil society.

Ani: What has been the hardest part so far?

Rose: Planning the money. Meeting so much support and inspiration from young people, but having to bring that into structured reality...while it’s still us trying to...

Reinoud: (joins in)...work out the statutes.

Ani: If you had a YIP super-power what would it be?

Reinoud: Having at least 37 hours per day.

Rose: Making YIP world-known...in every corner of the world...and world wide knowledge of the participants’ initiatives would also meet that number...”YIP Speed!”  

Ani: What shameless plug would you like the world to read?

Reinoud: “YIP: One Year of Making Sense. No YIP, no sense.”
Rose: Something like...“YIP: Giving today’s Youth the...(something)...for creating a better world.”
Reinoud: ...power...
Rose: “Giving Youth the power for creating a better world.”
Reinoud: “...give youth their power...”
Rose: “YIP will give Youth their power for a better world.”  Yeah!