Courageous Incarnation: From Michaelmas to Advent
A Lecture by Eugene Schwartz
Front Range Anthroposophical Café, November 13, 2020
Although there is usually a three-month gap between the Festivals, the month-long celebration of Advent creates an overlap between Michaelmas and Christmas. How can we understand the special relationship between these Festivals, clearly indicative of the interplay between the Archangels Michael and Gabriel? In yet another division, halfway between Michaelmas and Advent stand All-Hallows' Eve and All-Souls' Day, whose nocturnal and diurnal appearances demarcate a second point of balance reflective of Michael's scales. We will explore the interweaving of these Festivals in the light of our polarized times -- and we won't neglect to have a look at the US Election Day, held this year on November 3rd, at that tenuous point of balance between Michaelmas and Advent. This lecture is a video presentation.
To view this lecture, click here.
Below are the sources and resources to which Eugene referred in his lecture: links to images, lectures, and courses that will further substantiate or give other perspectives on his presentation. And just beneath this description is the "Continuation" lecture that he promised!
And Only on This Web Page
Courageous Incarnation: Three Case Studies
A lecture by Eugene Schwartz
The 30-minute limit of the November 13th FRAC lecture compelled Eugene Schwartz to "leave a lot unsaid." Since leaving things unsaid is not Eugene's style, he has given a "continuation" lecture that fills out and rounds off his remarks on the interplay of Michael and Ahriman —and brings it all close to home. He asks, "When the spiritual world provides the Waldorf Movement (and, less directly, the anthroposophical movement) with an opportunity to draw upon Michaelic forces and encounter or confront Ahriman in a direct way, how do we fare?" Eugene describes three such encounters and gives a play-by-play commentary on the conflicts and their resolution.
Please note that this lecture is Audio Only.
To listen to this lecture, click here.
Here is a link to the Beverly Amico interview that Eugene cites in his lecture:
https://wenurturecollective.com/connecting-communities/7sps2ggbdc7dnoskaqtrydrxq9ee76
A Picture of Earth Evolution in the Future, Lecture by Rudolf Steiner
In this unique lecture Rudolf Steiner describes the nature of the "new" souls who will be incarnating in our time.
Images from the First Goetheanum:
Rudolf Steiner's presentation of Ahrimanic Beings in the Colored Glass Windows
Rudolf Steiner's presentation of the Gates of Life and Death in the Windows
The Rudolf Steiner Course
This is the first — and still the most extensive — online presentation of the life and work of Rudolf Steiner. Whether you have been a student of Anthroposophy for decades or are brand-new to Spiritual Science, these lectures will be stimulating and enlightening.
1919: Discord and Destiny
According to Eugene Schwartz, the year 1919 was the only year in which the first Waldorf school could be founded. In these comprehensive lectures Eugene discusses the ramifications of the Great War, the worldwide flu epidemic, central European social unrest, and myriad other factors had on the formation of Waldorf education.
Waldorf 2020
In 2016, as the US presidential election campaigns were in full swing, Eugene looked four years ahead — beyond the giddy preparations underway for Waldorf Education's 100th anniversary. His insights and predictions concerning the crisis in which Waldorf schools would find themselves in 2020 have proven to be distressingly accurate!
Michaelmas Musings: The Future of Waldorf Education in America
In September, 2019 — several months before the Covid-19 outbreak — WaldorfToday asked Eugene to write an article about the hundredth anniversary of Waldorf education. In the light of the struggles that Waldorf schools are undergoing today, this article is prescient and uncompromising.
Dragonsblood, a Story for Michaelmas
Written in 1989 in response to a parent's question concerning the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, this story has become a Michaelmas classic in Waldorf schools worldwide. This link will lead you to the story and the remarkable blackboard drawings (a publishing first!) that illustrate it.
The Factory Photo
In August of 1919 Emile Molt commissioned a photograph of the entire staff of the Waldorf Astoria Cigarette Factory to be taken in front of the factory buildings. Many of the workers portrayed in the original photograph were the ones who asked Emil Molt and Rudolf Steiner to create the school, but they were not alone. The workers' photo was taken just weeks before the first Waldorf school would be born. In a second photograph, Eugene Schwartz tried to imagine the host of individualities — most human, some divine, many dead, some living, and some not yet incarnated — who gathered to eagerly help, support, and celebrate the school's founding. This photograph captures something of the vitality and joyous expectation that swirled that day on the factory grounds.
Other Resources:
The Trial by Existence, Poem by Robert Frost
One of the very few poems in English about pre-birth experiences. The poem was written ca 1915, at the same time that Rudolf Steiner was frequently lecturing about life after death. It is quite Michaelic in nature.
8th Grade Moments, a film by Katie Oscar
A rare look into the way in which a Waldorf school adolescent experiences Halloween! The Halloween sequence runs from 1:30 to 4:20.