100 Years On -
Whither the Anthroposophical Society?
Ann Arbor, MI / 29 June – 2 July, 2023
by Patricia Delisa
Under this title, during the last weekend in June, 2023, the Great Lakes Branch co-hosted the fourth in a series of Hope.Springs.Eternal events, this time with the Economics Group of the Anthroposophical Society in America. Given that a great deal of attention is being placed on the significance of this centenary year in the history of the anthroposophical movement, this event was timed to address what seems to slumber in its history: the three financial calls of the Christmas Conference, and how these reveal the mystery of “endowment.” Through this event, participants came to understand this as a free gift of the spiritual world that comes of its own, providing human beings awaken to the structure created to receive it, here meaning both physically in the building of the Goetheanum, and formally in the statutes of the Christmas Conference.
Attended by 15 participants from the US, Canada, UK and the Netherlands, including the Director of Finance and a Council Member of the Anthroposophical Society in America, the gathering was punctuated with thoughtful presentations of the Foundation Stone Meditation and the America Verse, and their relation to one another, both from 1923, the year during which Rudolf Steiner promoted the various country societies, prior to refounding the Society in December.
To ground our understanding of the financial mystery of our working together in light of Rudolf Steiner’s insights, participants reviewed our actual travel, food and lodging costs, compared to what we would have paid. An accounting was done that showed when human beings act freely, and perforce of being incarnate, there is always a surplus (in this case set aside for subsequent events).
The history of the anthroposophical movement and the Society served as an important context within which to consider this moment in its history, 100 years after the Christmas Conference. Among many things, we noted that the German International Society then became one of several national societies. We discussed the Johannes Bauverein, the Swiss version of which became the Goetheanum Association of the School of Spiritual Science, owner of the buildings required for its work. An example of how, in endeavoring to be in but not of the world, to meet the challenges implicit in resourcing such things so as to be supported but not trapped by them.
In the case of the Society in America, similar events took place recently in Ann Arbor, Chicago, and Los Angeles that noted our own use of real assets. What properties do we now need? For what purposes? How does real estate management align with the mission of the Society and its Branches?
What, then, are the three financial calls?
– Membership dues, which are voluntary obligations and pay for the Society’s expenses, as an organization, not for its members but in service to Anthroposophy.
– Research funding for research for the School of Spiritual Science.
– Legacies and donations. Funding from beyond our means as members; products rising out of initiative; gifts but not for oneself or one’s ‘own’ Society; thinking worldwide and how the laws of different lands support this.
‘Doveland’ was a playful name we came up with when wondering if the American Society (or folk soul?!) has been shielded from the split that occurred in 1935. When it awakes to its true future, can America become quiet so as to recognize its true place and purpose? Spiritual sovereignty comes of financial autonomy. We can further this and change our habits in the way we move money, less so by constitutional change.
We heard from a Canadian colleague about the Jupiter Fund, a proposed fundraising vehicle for anthroposophical projects, which he willingly placed before us for critique and as an invitation to join in researching how to do such a thing. Discussions took us into the territory of foreign exchange markets, which are hugely profitable only because the world is hugely sick! Critical (in finance) is to know if those who are receiving the money are able to manage the money and are those who own buildings able to manage them?
The whole event was a brilliant revelation of how to house a spiritual impulse, in terms of physical structure, through an association of human beings, in service to the spiritual world, to make a place for the future, which can only ever be a truly free space.
[1] There have also been other events of this nature in Ann Arbor, Chicago and Pasadena (December 2022) and Chicago (March, 2023). For further information on these topics, click here for more information.
[2] Importantly, in Swiss law an association exists de facto, not requiring notarizing. |
