Socially Radical Anthroposophy

putting more Life* into Branches and Study Groups

Did you ever send a letter or essay to "Anthroposophy World-wide" or "being human" or a local anthroposophical publication, because you had your own thoughts you wanted to contribute and it was never published, perhaps not even acknowledged?  Do you ever wonder why some folks thoughts are more important than others, and they always get to lecture?  Is this fair? Is it wise?  Then this place is for you.

This website means to be the home for papers and discussions, of ordinary members and friends of the Anthroposophical Society, who desire to take into their own hands the future life of Anthroposophy in the Third Millennium.  Those who commune here recognize that there are limits to what various "centers" of anthroposophical authority can do, for opening the true potential that has to arise at the local level.  That potential is in the hands of the members, who are directly present in these "free" groups.  When Rudolf Steiner wrote the letters/essays collected under the title: "The Life, Nature, and Cultivation of Anthroposophy", his main concern was with illuminating what could live in the local Branches and Groups, where members met each other to learn of and practice "anthroposophy".

In this action we might recognize that even then Steiner knew that a top down centric social form would not survive the coming social trials, and wanted to set out the understanding of how to make Branches and Study Groups carry anthroposophy, in spite of potential failures at the "top".  He knew that in the Consciousness Soul Age, hierarchical social forms were going to fail, but he was forced by circumstances to create centric hierarchical forms anyway, because those were the only social forms presently recognized among his students.

We are now in the Third Millennium, and it is time to organize anthroposophical practices from the social commons, not from the top down.  This website seeks to serve that purpose by providing a forum for members and friends to contribute, out of their own insights, their thoughts on how to cultivate anthroposophy in small groups.

All that needs to happen is that whoever wants to make a contribution to this shared endeavor just send me an e-mail, with a link to where their contribution can be found, or in the alternative, the primary essay/tale of Branch and Study Group life they want to offer.  I will take that material and turn it into a webpage, and put a link to that page here.  I will not edit this material for content, or otherwise "Judge" it.  I do require that the individual (or group) offering their contribution identify themselves, so that we know who is willing to stand behind that particular offering (your name, age, and general geographical location, as well as any other biographical matters you wish to share).  In addition, if someone reads that offering and wants to dispute its facts or observations, I will also help publish those comments, again without any editorial restrictions.  I trust, that for the most part, we will not be collecting here what is basically gossip or various emotional rants.  All the same, if you want to offer that, then they will still be published here, unless it turns out that the "who" that offered lied about who they were.  If that is established to my (or others) satisfaction, the material will be removed.

In the case of problems/issues/questions that are in need of the wise consideration of others, I will take those issues to two forums that already exist on Facebook: Independent Anthroposophical Research Examination (almost 800 members) and Anthroposophy (over 4,000 members).

Some suggestions for types of offerings: book reviews; tales of local initiatives; questions needing answers; stories (the biography) of your local branch and/or study group; personal or group comments on problems/issues with the so-called leadership in Dornach or various national councils and so forth; announcements as to what your Study Group is studying; invitations to various events; joke; pictures; etc. Please include a self-chosen title, as may be useful (I don't want to be providing even that). If you want for references purposes to include one or more URLs, do so, and as needed I will make them active.  As these accumulate (should that happen) I will organize the offerings into those categories that make their content more "useful" to others, AND folks should feel free to challenge what I am doing, and I will also publish those challenges for discussion.

My e-mail for contact: hermit@tiac.net
Joel A. Wendt
... Google me if you don't already have a reason
to think I'm a fool and an idiot.  Contributors should
realize that they are joining an anarchy/circus of such fools, by
offering here, that of their hearts that has been ignored or refused elsewhere.

Some wonderful Emily Dickinson:
"Assent, and you are sane;
Demure; - you're straightway
dangerous and handled with a chain"