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<![CDATA[LIVING WATERS WELLNESS - Living Waters Wellness BLOG !]]>Mon, 13 Jul 2026 03:14:26 -0700Weebly<![CDATA["The Work of the Angels in Man's Astral Body"]]>Thu, 14 May 2026 03:34:14 GMThttps://livingwaterswellness.weebly.com/living-waters-wellness-blog/the-work-of-the-angels-in-mans-astral-body

"Flora" : Fresco in the Greek stye
Pompei, first century A.D.

Thoughts and images can be a bridge to higher insights - a real bridge, one that can bear more traffic than we may at first think. Art can do this especially, leading our thoughts, feelings and imagination places where they haven't been before - but afterwards we're glad it did.

Per Rudolf Steiner, as also per older tradition, each of us is accompanied by an Angel, a faithful companion with us from lifetime to lifetime, mindful of our history, our progress and setbacks, the resolves we ourselves have made, but feel only dimly in our affinities, or the prompting of our conscience. Imagine that silently, patiently this Angels weaves images into our souls where it can, of what we might be able to become, do, achieve, that lead us upward, in times when there's every opportunity to fall lower. Perhaps we might want to preserve a little time and calm in our lives, a little more "ear" for its whispers, coming towards us from anywhere, everywhere .....

Thanks to my Facebook Friend Irina Kruzhilina for this fine quote from Rudolf Steiner concerning this Angel, an image for the mind, a flower for the heart :

The Work of the Angels

"What are the Angels doing in our astral body ? Conviction of what they are doing can come to us only when we have achieved a certain degree of clairvoyance and are able to perceive what is actually going on in our astral body. A certain degree at least of Imaginative Knowledge must therefore have been attained if this question is to be answered.

It is then revealed that these Beings of the Hierarchy of the Angels — particularly through their concerted work, although in a certain sense each single Angel also has his task in connection with every individual human being — these Beings form pictures in man's astral body. Under the guidance of the Spirits of Form (Exusiai) the Angels form pictures. Unless we reach the level of Imaginative Cognition we do not know that pictures are all the time being formed in our astral body. They arise and pass away, but without them there would be for mankind no evolution into the future in accordance with the intentions of the Spirits of Form. The Spirits of Form are obliged, to begin with, to unfold in pictures what they desire to achieve with us during Earth-evolution and beyond. And then, later on, the pictures become reality in a humanity transformed.

Through the Angels, the Spirits of Form are already now shaping these pictures in our astral body. The Angels form pictures in man's astral body and these pictures are accessible to thinking that has become clairvoyant. If we are able to scrutinize these pictures, it becomes evident that they are woven in accordance with quite definite impulses and principles. Forces for the future evolution of mankind are contained in them. If we watch the Angels carrying out this work of theirs - strange as it sounds, one has to express it in this way - it is clear that they have a very definite plan for the future configuration of social life on earth; their aim is to engender in the astral bodies of men such pictures as will bring about definite conditions in the social life of the future."

- Rudolf Steiner
"The Work of the Angels in Man's Astral Body"

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]]><![CDATA[Alone Together II : Three Verses for Dangerous Times]]>Mon, 27 Apr 2026 04:13:24 GMThttps://livingwaterswellness.weebly.com/living-waters-wellness-blog/three-verses-for-dangerous-times

Painting : Irma Stropeni

Wise as Serpents, Harmless as Doves

Previous in series : Alone Together : Three Verses for Hard Times

The world of our senses and of everyday life is compelling ; it's "on us" the minute we open our eyes each morning, and demands our attention all day long. Our thoughts are filled with it, and we can feel like there's nothing else. But there is in fact more - and if we create and protect space for it, the more is actually us. An inner life of soul and spirit all our own, that makes us independent, at least in potential ; a second world that can itself be born and develop, unfold and grow.

And then there are other people - yet a third world we live in. If we're honest, to a large extent they make us what we are. Helpless without them, we want them and yearn for them - but they can also come with thorns. They can be heedlessly and carelessly cruel, and sometimes just dangerous to us. Blessing though they can be, they require that we be wide, wide awake. To be - without losing ourselves or our love - "wise as serpents, and harmless as doves."

I'm writing this after a very brief conversation with a friend - but one that left a poignant, lingering impression. She described an experience she had during COVID 19. Besides her work, she also has a flair for theatre and acting and was part of a local circle of acting people. Her day work requires her to observe and do research precisely, decide and take action with money on the line. When COVID rose on the horizon she applied these same tools to all she could find on the subject - and shared her findings openly with friends. Instead of conversation, however, she was met with rejection, hostility and eventually with being ostracized and shunned in a circle she cared about. She's a person who is by first nature, to my and my wife's impression, open and intelligent, interested in people and in life, and who has real joy in both. The sense we came away with from this short conversation was that the impact of this experience on her was a lot like the words of an old song :

"The first cut is the deepest ..... "

I had my own hard experiences during COVID, and also witnessed reactions that went much further than mere rejection, to the point of actual harm : to "cancellation", deplatforming, demonetization of the platforms of dissenters, keystroke by keystroke surveillance and censorship on social media, threats of loss of livelihood and actual loss ; with documented threats against platforms and employers that didn't do these things even by governments worldwide. It became a dangerous world, around this issue. And the number of new directions from which such dangers come has only multiplied since.

This post is about these multiplying external dangers in our world, but also about the dangers to our own human soul - and hopefully, what we can do to protect and heal it. To change gears now .....

Three Verses for Dangerous Times

From early in my life, verses and prayers, even short ones, have been a pillar of my inner life. As a result, I became a kind of magnet for them, and have worked with many over time. Today it will often happen that when I meet a new situation, that one or more verses come fairly quickly to mind, and I'll work with them in relation to it - a "magnet" effect of another kind. In this case, the mood of our conversation stayed with me, and in the next days these verses came together for me.

Psalm 23

"The Lord is my shepherd ; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures ;
He leadeth me beside the still waters ;
He restoreth my soul.
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil :
for thou art with me ;
thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
thou preparest a table before me
in the presence of mine enemies ;
thou anointest my head with oil.
My cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life ;
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."
– A Psalm of David, Hebrew

This is a verse we said as a class together each morning, along with the Lord's Prayer, as late as sixth grade in public school. I remember experiencing the mood and pictures and landscape of the prayer very vividly at that time.

Verse in Moments of Danger

In North and South and East and West
In all worlds high and low ;
In movement and in stillness
In speaking and in silence
Our best qualities surround us.

This is my own verse that I created, as it grew from a very short prayer for moments of sudden danger, given by Rudolf Steiner - simply "My best qualities surround me." In our present disturbed and confusing world situation, I work with it every day.

Trouthe : Ballade de Bon Conseyl

Flee fro the prees and dwelle with sothfastnesse ;
Suffyce unto thy good, though it be smal ;
For hord hath hate, and climbing tikelnesse,
Prees hath envye, and wele blent overal.
Savour no more than thee bihove shal,
Reule wel thyself that other folk canst rede,
And trouthe thee shal delivere, it is no drede.

Tempest thee noght al croked to redresse
In trust of hir that turneth as a bal ;
Gret reste stant in litel besinesse.
Be war therfore to sporne ageyns an al,
Stryve not, as doth the crokke with the wal.
Daunte thyself, that dauntest otheres dede,
And trouthe thee shal delivere, it is no drede.

That thee is sent, receyve in buxomnesse ;
The wrastling for this world axeth a fal.
Her is non hoom, her nis but wildernesse :
Forth, pilgrim, forth ! Forth, beste, out of thy stal !
Know thy contree, look up, thank God of al ;
Hold the heye wey and lat thy gost thee lede,
And trouthe thee shall delivere, it is no drede.

- Geoffrey Chaucer

I met this poem in a college course in my early twenties, and at the time wrote it on a piece of paper and pinned it to the wall next to my bed. Recently for my sanity - and even for my safety in an incredibly divided world - I've been circling back to it. I've been working to set myself some healthy rules about things I want for sure not to do, things I want to make sure I do, and somewhere in the middle between these two, pictures, thoughts and attitudes I can hold as an inner bridge with others - at least for now inwardly.

The Middle English of this poem may seem impenetrable at first - but a little work to understand isn't necessarily a bad thing. Hopefully you have a mind for poetry, and will wrestle this through with me .....

Next in series (in progress) : Alone Together : Verses in Times of Spiritual Warfare

In the meantime : Think It Right !

]]><![CDATA[Weekdays and Worlds : "The Seven Planets"]]>Sun, 19 Apr 2026 20:57:25 GMThttps://livingwaterswellness.weebly.com/living-waters-wellness-blog/weekdays-and-worlds-the-seven-planets

Yongsung Kim : "Symphony of Praise"

Soul of Man !
Thou livest in the beat of Heart and Lung
Which leads thee through the rhythmic tides of time
Into the feeling of thine own Soul-being.
Practice Spirit-mindfulness
In balance of the Soul,
Where the surging
Deeds of the World's Becoming
Do thine own I
Unite
Unto the I of the World.
Then 'mid the weaving of the Soul of Man
Thou wilt truly feel.

For the Christ-Will in the encircling Round holds sway
In the Rhythms of the Worlds, blessing the Soul.

Spirits of Light !
Let this be fired from the East
And through the West be formed,
Speaking :
In Christ, Death becomes Life.
The Spirits hear it in East and West and North and South :
May human beings hear it !

The Foundation Stone Meditation from which this verse is taken was given by Rudolf Steiner on December 25, 1923 in Dornach, Switzerland, during the Christmas

"The Rhythms of the World, Blessing the Soul"

I attended the Centre for Social Development, an offshoot of Emerson College in Forest Row, Sussex, England in 1992 and 1993, taking courses on anthroposophical biography work, biographical counseling and Rudolf Steiner's threefold social idea. The courses were integrated, and as teaching tools worked particularly from Steiner's renewed presentation of the archetypal spiritual qualities embodied in "the seven planets" - the planets we've heard of from Greek mythology and from which the days of our week were originally named. This included lectures on the planets, on their manifestations in human soul life, various artistic and observation exercises, daily planetary verses, and practice in "the seven planetary counseling styles". We immersed ourselves in the qualities of the planets, marinated in them - to the extent that I'm still aware of them day by day in the week, and see them in myself and others, thirty years and more later.

A year or so ago I met another former CSD student online, in whom the planets were every bit alive as they are in me. That meeting stirred me to gather and write the resources below, and offer them on Facebook - a big task, and labor of love to be sure. I have still more saved resources and articles in mind, and will be sharing them as I can.

In working with planetary verses or with counseling based in the planetary styles, one notices one has one's own favorite "planetary" ways of seeing and doing things - and ways one avoids or is weak in. In potential our souls contains all the planetary qualities in balance and in strength. Yet we can also be strong in one or several, but in others almost at a loss !

To work with planetary verses and exercises meditatively over time can be one way to balance and harmonize the soul, and the living of life altogether. The introductions to the planets in the posts below offer starting points towards this harmony and stability, and for building an effective daily practice. For your interest :

Weekdays and World : The Seven Planets

Discovering Rhythm in an Unrhythmical World

The Day of the Sun : Sunday

The Day of the Moon : Monday

The Day of Mars : Tuesday

The Day of Mercury : Wednesday

The Day of Jupiter : Thursday

The Day of Venus : Friday

The Day of Saturn : Saturday

- Jeff Smith RN (Retired)

]]><![CDATA[Good Friday]]>Fri, 03 Apr 2026 20:18:26 GMThttps://livingwaterswellness.weebly.com/living-waters-wellness-blog/good-friday

Painting "The Truth is Blue" by Annael Pavlova

Good Friday

“Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.” Luke 23:46

Now, as the mighty Christ Being completes the process of occupying the body of Jesus, this Being makes the ultimate sacrifice. Crying out loudly he says to his progenitor, his Father - who had named himself to Moses as the eternal I Am - "I give myself to you.”

Commend or commit in Greek is paratithemi from para, a verb meaning going or coming, bringing etc., and tithemi from which we have the word tithe, which essentially means to "to set aside". It is used of a mother bearing a child, she sets herself aside for the life of her offspring. In this context Christ set aside all that he accomplished as a gift to the Universe.

Can we say that we are prepared to give up a prize that we worked hard to win ? We only win this prize when we have learned to love in the highest way - agape, which is the Greek word for highest, selfless love. Can we say that our love is non-conditional ? Can we remove any reason we may have to love someone, to simply love them unconditionally ? If we can, we are a gift to the Universe, as Christ was the greatest Gift to the Universe through his love.

“Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." Here Christ-Jesus is seen, not only as the Light of the world, but as the Being Who makes the offering of supreme self-surrender ; the Being Who is all-encompassing without losing His own identity; Who, in that He is capable of the uttermost sacrifice, of the greatest imaginable self-surrender, is the very fount of Compassion and Love ; Whose warmth streams through the life of men and of the earth now and in all ages of time to come.”

- Rudolf Steiner, November 2, 1909

Now we too can hope to set ourselves aside unconditionally for the evolution of consciousness. How do we do this ? By understanding these mysteries so that they become a life-giving power within us.

Shared elsewhere by The Esoteric Connection
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/EsotericConnection

]]><![CDATA[Holy Wednesday]]>Wed, 01 Apr 2026 22:06:24 GMThttps://livingwaterswellness.weebly.com/living-waters-wellness-blog/holy-wednesday

A Blessing and a Curse

Mary the Magdala and Judas the Betrayer

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Congratulations – you have made it to the midpoint of Holy Week - on this the Full Paschal Moon where the April Fool meets Ostara the Goddess of Spring - reminding us that "the best fool is the fool for love".

Wednesday, is Mercury Day, and today we meet the mercurial figures of Lazurus, Mary Magdalene, Martha and Judas.

Towards evening a scene unfolds in the quiet town of Bethany, beyond the Mount of Olives, where not too long ago the scene of the raising of Lazarus took place - The"‘miracle" that pushed the authorities into murderous action. Lazarus along with the disciples of Christ are gathered around his table - Lazarus who has earned the title John - "the one whom Jesus loved" - the one described as resting on the heart of Jesus Christ at the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday.

Martha and Mary Magdalene are the sisters of Lazarus-John. It is in their ancestorial home that they have gathered. Each one of these three has had their own specific karmic event - bringing a radical transformation in the fulfillment of their life’s destiny.

For Lazarus it was the awakening from the grave - the first Christian Initiation picturing the redemption of the physical body, and the coming in of new “I” forces, through the spirit of John the Baptist, who was working with him across the threshold, as well as the Magdalene who held the sacred space during his descent.

For Mary Magdalene, Myrrhophores and former priestess of Isis, it had been the freeing and purifying of her astral body, with the casting out of the seven demons.

The long-suffering Martha is said to be the woman who was healed of the issue of blood. Thru the Christ, her etheric formative forces were restored.

As they all sit at the table with the disciples, Mary Magdalene anoints the feet of Christ with precious spikenard ointment, wiping his feet with her hair.

Spikenard is a sacred oil used for thousands of years by Death doulas, as a spiritual tool to assist in bringing a clarity of self-reflection to those about to cross the threshold. The scent is described as an evocation of the perfume of the lost Garden of Eden - it is sacred to the Planet Venus, and to the honeybees, and is associated with the crown chakra. Nard oil has strong, warm, musky notes, similar to the aroma of healthy earth. This oil inspires right deeds and harmonizes the relationship between heaven and earth.

St John’s Gospel says that the whole house was filled with this heady mystical fragrance. Mary Magdalene had performed a similar act a year and a half previously.

But what does her act of anointing signify now ? It is a sacramental act - the fulfillment of the rite of last anointing, performed right before death.

And yet, the solemn stillness is suddenly broken by the green demon of jealousy that has seeped into the unconscious soul corners of the disciples, especially in the one who forms an opposite polarity to Mary Magdalene. When Judas sees the deed of the Magdalene, he loses all self-control. He says that the precious oil could have been sold for supplies, or given to the poor. The Magdalene’s selfless anointing enrages him, providing the final impetus to his betrayal - for in his mind Jesus was meant to publicly lead an earthly political insurrection. But this was not to be.

Interestingly enough both Judas and Mary Magdalene are typical Mercury people - they are active and temperamental. One of the virtues of their nature is that something is always happening around them. Mary Magdalene, however, trains her restlessness and transforms it into devotion, peace and the capacity for love. This intense devotion allows her to be ‘ " the one who anoints the anointed one", the first to meet and behold the Risen Christ – becoming "the apostle to the apostles".

Judas pretends to want something for the poor. But no matter how "good" and commendable social activity may be, it is often only self-deception. The underlying motive is not a genuine social impulse, but his own inner desire for power - which leads to his betrayal, and his own dark fate. Such a soul cannot show devotion; & above all, it cannot love. A selfish person is not capable of real love ; for love is possible only where the soul has turned passion into compassion and peace.

So, we see in these two diverse individualities, two separate paths, as at a crossroads. One leads to the Christic Wisdom of Love - the other into tragedy & suicide.

Martha, the other sister of Lazarus, is a transitional type, somewhere between these two. Martha is constantly active as well, her service and devotion are genuine - and yet, the unrest which was healed in her body, has remained in her discontented soul.

These mercurial characters of Holy Wednesday show us the crossroads which we must face before we can hope to find a place at the table on Maundy Thursday – able to truly participate in the mystery of the Sacrament.

Judas is the man without ritual. He loses self-control when he comes into the realm of true ceremonial worship, so foreign and anathema to him.

Mary Magdalene is the sacramental soul.

Martha is the striving soul.

Mercury, the god of healing, is a messenger of the gods - but he is also the patron of merchants and thieves. On this Holy Wednesday he comes into the orbit of the Christ Sun. The scene in the house of Lazarus and Mary and Martha shows how Mercury, the god of healing, can himself be healed by the Sun imbued Christ impulse.

Mary Magdalene, as a great Initiate, was able to serve her role, knowing the right time to perform the last anointing.

- Hazel Archer Ginsberg, inspired by the Gospel of Matthew 26:3-16, the Gospel of John 12, and indications from Christian Community Priest Emil Bock.

]]><![CDATA[Palm Sunday]]>Tue, 31 Mar 2026 18:14:38 GMThttps://livingwaterswellness.weebly.com/living-waters-wellness-blog/palm-sunday

The time has come. The stars have aligned. In the Gospel of Matthew we hear the good news. The great week before the Passion begins. This Holy Week is an octave of eight days which allows us the opportunity to reflect upon the shift in human and cosmic evolution brought to bear through the deeds of Christ, at this turning point of time.

Today on Palm Sunday, Christ rides thru the gate of the once holy city of Jerusalem, upon a lowly donkey, a beast of burden, followed by a euphoric multitude. This sight invokes an image of the ancient God of Spring creating a frenzy in the souls of the crowd. They are seized with a group ecstasy, and begin to unconsciously revive the old spring rites, casting down palm branches from the trees.

The palm tree holds the image of the physical sun gaining strength as the days lengthen - and yet, these branches are destined to become the ashes of Lent. For in truth the crowd is adorning the path with the symbol of the Old Sun, which must and will fade away.

In their rhapsody they ask each other : Is this the Friend & Lord of the Sun who has been promised to us as the great King of the Light ? Is the original spiritual significance of Jerusalem to be released from its evil enchantment ? The holy city once sheltered one of the oldest sun-sanctuaries of humankind, on Mount Zion, before it was overshadowed by Mount Moriah, the Mount of the Moon, with the Temple of Solomon. Has the time of Melchizedek, the great Sun-Initiate, come back ?

It would appear as though the Christ had now finally found entrance into the hearts of humanity. The Sun-Spirit of the cosmic Christ has already lived for three years in the human body of Jesus of Nazareth, taking on the earthly karma of humanity. And yet thru all the hosannas and hallelujahs Christ Jesus held back and kept silent ; for He knew his destiny was not to be found in an atavistic ecstatic jubilation - no, this prophesy which was in the process of being fulfilled, was just the beginning of the most solemn week in human history. The same folk who joyfully laid down palms branches, singing fervid hosannas, would be shrieking with fanatical hatred a few days later - even the 12 fishers of men would run and hide.

The cross on Golgotha - the hill of the skull-symbol of death giving birth to spirit, is the exalted companion of the palm branch-symbol of the limited life of the senses.

It is the Christ Himself who brings about the sudden reversal of feeling - For He passes thru the ecstatic crowd in silence, with a grave, knowing countenance. He sees thru the superficial cheers ; he knows too well that the people are unconscious sleepwalkers - and as the Son of God, He aims to bring humanity the gift of the awakened “I” thru his sacrificial deed - which births the New Sun of Easter - the higher octave to this day of the old Palm Sun.

In the "Weekday Exercises", Steiner’s renewal of the Buddha’s noble eightfold path to enlightenment - Sunday is about inner steadfastness, the practice of wholesome judgment, of creating right resolves and intentions. We are guided to make decisions, even on the most insignificant things, only after a fully reasoned deliberation. All unthinking behavior, all meaningless actions, should be kept far from the soul. We must always strive to have well-weighed reasons for everything we think, or do, or say. Once we are convinced of the rightness of our decision, we must hold fast to it, with courage and patient steadfast resolve. This may be called : "WHOLESOME JUDGMENT", having been formed independently of sympathies and antipathies.

So today : How can we use wholesome judgement to make the resolve to let go of all the old ways of thinking, feeling and willing that keeps us in our old unconscious ways ? Can we create an intention to compost the old habits that no longer serve - so that we can reach the higher note - to allow the spiraling interval of the Easter Sun to rise in us ?

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

]]><![CDATA[Thoughts for a Sunday - St Johnstide]]>Sun, 20 Jul 2025 16:09:13 GMThttps://livingwaterswellness.weebly.com/living-waters-wellness-blog/thoughts-for-a-sunday-st-johnstide

Painting : Zan Newstrom

Europe Versus Russia ?

I've followed the Russia-Ukraine war closely, and the supposedly unbridgable divide between Europe and Russia for even much longer. But I can't help but be concerned at the new weapons rattling underway, especially on the European side.

I understand the motives, and by now know the history and arguments almost by heart. But it's also clear the economies of Europe are already extremely vulnerable - and that as Putin made clear in his recent letter, in a no holds barred war with Russia, the consequences could be apocalyptic. This seems a path just too dangerous to take.

Best, I woke up with the very clear thought this morning, would be for as many hearts and minds as possible to wake up to the sheer disaster such a war would be, and the need, rather, for relationship with Russia, for brotherhood, cooperation, unity and trade, especially between the individual countries of central Europe and Russia, "each according to its nature ; each according to its need ; each according to its possibilities."

This, if we can tear ourselves away from our tendency to side taking, and a fear mongering media that inflames it, is something we can actively cultivate : something to picture - creatively, imaginatively and also concretely in detail. Each of us individually, and together. And something to work towards with goodwill

"that Good may become ..... "

" ..... that the Good endure."

In the depths of World War I, people came to Rudolf Steiner in despair at the carnage, and asked him what they could or should do. His reply ? To paraphrase, "Read the newspapers, all of them. Get the clearest picture you can of what's happening. The facts as best you can understand them, what the leaders and the various parties are saying, and what they're doing. Then picture for yourself what they should do, or realistically could do, to find the way through this and out of it, that it would resolve for the best, and not the worst. Inwardly, think it right."

We have an advantage over Steiner's circle then : our World War has so far not happened yet. We can still picture and obsess on war, in all its fears and fascinations, and perhaps stumble straight into it. Or we can try to discern morally viable ways THROUGH these situations - and work towards them tirelessly. To discern the facts and best options beyond our reactions, and think it right.

All the best for your Sunday, and your ongoing St Johnstide !

]]><![CDATA[Wokism and Globalism : The Scylla and Charybdis of Our Times]]>Thu, 08 May 2025 13:08:59 GMThttps://livingwaterswellness.weebly.com/living-waters-wellness-blog/wokism-and-globalism-the-scylla-and-charybdis-of-our-times

Facebook : #preludestorudolfsteinersthreefoldsocialidea

Between Scylla and Charybdis .....

After decades observing politics and geopolitics, a structure of the dangers we face begins to emerge for me - with "wokism" and "globalism" as two sides of an existential guantlet, a kind of modern Scylla and Charybdis we must somehow find a way to navigate.

The story of Ulysses in his passage between different, but equally deadly dangers, unfolds in Book 12 of Homer's Odyssey - the tale of an archetypally resourceful, wayfaring hero in a vivid and violent age. In this video James Lindsay captures two great dangers we face - in our case, in the political and geopolitical spheres - brilliantly. His descriptions here of wokism on the one hand, and globalism on the other as methods of powerful elites to strip nations, cultures and individuals of their sovereignty, are virtually never examined like this in our mainstream media.

The first 34 minutes of the video introduce the theme and its peripheral manifestations, but from there the presentation becomes very concentrated. His description of the ostensibly supremely enlightened U.N. Agenda 2030 is especially telling.

Communism and national socialism - manifestations of left and right wokism, respectively - unleashed and harnessed extreme passions in human beings ; but also had extremely calculating, methodical and intellectual sides - what Schiller described as the mindset of the educated person who nevertheless regards humanity with coldness, and is eventually capable even of atrocities. This he characterized as the mindset of the barbarian.

I lived in Europe myself in the 1990s, had wonderful experiences there, and have appreciated European culture all my adult life. But to observe it now, I feel that nowhere are the strategies of both wokeism and globalism more advanced in public policy, nor formulated as proudly as ideals, as in Europe. This is not meant to indict it, but as a recommendation to watch ongoing events there closely.

Scylla, Charybdis - And a Narrow Way THROUGH

Before you watch the interview below, take note of a perspective not a source of dangers, as threatened by wokism and globalism. This is the threefold social idea of Rudolf Steiner. Put forth in the harsh aftermath of World War and rejected at first by both leading capitalists and communists, it is still little known. Neither theory nor ideology, it gathers observations of society, noting factors that make it healthy, and also ones that reliably make it sick. After hearing and digesting James Lindsay views on wokism and globalism, make a start on Steiner's threefold idea via the articles linked at the bottom of this page. To my by now almost 50 years experience, it's something genuinely "new under the sun", able to lend both force and direction through the gauntlet of "woke" and globalism.

In the meantime, this video is an hour and a few minutes long, but is essential to a clear understanding of this unholy pair - and what would happen if either of them should get its way. I hope you'll watch it in its entirety !

Next in series : Rudolf Steiner's Threefold Social Idea

]]><![CDATA["Rethinking Philanthropy !" : Gifting, Philanthropy and Rudolf Steiner's Threefold Social Idea]]>Fri, 18 Apr 2025 01:42:47 GMThttps://livingwaterswellness.weebly.com/living-waters-wellness-blog/rethinking-philanthropy-three-new-articles-on-rudolf-steiners-threefold-social-idea6419729

Previous in Series : A Sudden and Brutal Crisis

Three Articles on PHILANTHROPY AND GIFTING

The first and second posts in this series looked at the seemingly intractable political divisions in our society - and the utterly futile nature of them. They also explored two relatively simple, but new and foundational concepts to restructure our understanding of society. And finally, they took note of a looming catastrophic economic crisis - impending already for decades, but of which the public remains almost completely unaware.

The unique lens through which we've looked at these things has been the threefold social idea of Rudolf Steiner. We'll now consider an aspect of it that has especially to do with economic life.

Gifting and philanthropy, we'll see, are not only crucial but justified for one especially vulnerable - and also permanent - segment of society : namely the economic, educational, health and other care needs of the young, the old and the infirm. They can also be crucial for gifted persons in many professions, for their education and training ; or for work not yet connected to any commercial project. Examples here would include teachers teaching, nurses and doctors healing, inventors creating new technologies, scientists doing independent or new and exploratory research that may yield great future benefits for the world ; but which for now show nothing particularly obvious or tangible, and are thus typically undervalued. As forces for the future, gifting and philanthropy for these purposes are in fact a cutting edge.

These articles have evolved over the course of years, and I've just revised and edited them again recently. Nevertheless they're still works in progress - therefore your thoughts and feedback are welcome !

Jeff Smith RN (Retired)

Rethinking Philanthropy I : Steps Towards a More Human Future

Rethinking Philanthropy II : Ways, Means - And Reality Checks

Rethinking Philanthropy III : An Idea That Becomes an Ideal

]]><![CDATA[A Sudden and Brutal Crisis]]>Mon, 14 Apr 2025 19:56:26 GMThttps://livingwaterswellness.weebly.com/living-waters-wellness-blog/rethinking-philanthropy-three-new-articles-on-rudolf-steiners-threefold-social-idea

Leonardo Da Vinci : "Storm Over a Valley

A Sudden and Brutal Crisis

Previous in series :
Post Review : "The Dying Throes of a Terminally Ill Country ?"

This is a crisis I by no means want to see - but in recent years I've heard more and more often that our U.S. economy - and the value of our U.S. dollar - are in serious and fundamental, foundational trouble ; and that they not only could fall, but will fall hard, and soon - some suggest even as early as mid-2025.

I won't attempt a detailed picture of why this would happen, but I do want to set a background for some measures that could help, if and when it does happen. Therefore, "with shaking knees", I'll at least try a thumbnail sketch :

Main and most often identified factors in this impending breakdown center on overwhelming, are decades long expansions of American government programs and services. To do the actual work these projects require, government has needed to reach out to private sector and corporate contractors on an immense scale, and also often at high retail prices. For corporations, this trend has been something of a bonanza, even a kind of gold rush.

At the same time America has taken on an enormous burden of military spending and wars, in what might otherwise easily have been peacetime.

To finance these many enterprises, our government has embraced the wholesale printing of new money, "out of thin air and again, on a colossal scale. Its also looked to - or at least looked the other way on - wholesale unsound, sleight of hand financialization of government debt to delay repaying it, and even take advantage of inflation to benefit from it - at least on paper and temporarily.

For at least a century, in the meantime, the U.S. dollar has been the world's reserve currency - the international standard, in which lending and financial transactions can be conducted worldwide. But in policies related to its wars, America has also aggressively used this status to control or punish actions and policies of other countries. This has led many to find ways to circumvent world dollar payment system, and even build new ones. These weaken the dollar, and are springing up in different forms all around the world.

To complete this very brief picture, it also becoming clear that when U.S. Treasury Bills next come due for redemption, the country won't be able to repay them - by an extremely wide margin.

The economic havoc this could cause would mean many existing economic structures - including even some of our largest banks - would fail, and need extraordinarily great courage to replace with other, new and more viable systems.

And this speaks only to ordinary economic life, the kind that conceives, produces and distributes the products people need for their lives. It doesn't yet address needs not related to products : for instance especially, needs for the education, training, health and other care of those too young, old or infirm to provide for themselves. We'll consider ways to address these needs in my next post here.

A Sudden, Brutal - and DIVISIVE Crisis

These latent, extremely large problems are almost never discussed in our mainstream media, and could descend on us with terrifying suddeness. In our current, near pathologically divided atmosphere of political debate today, there could well be a wave of blame assigned to our current president - but this would be not just wrong, but even more destructive. Although Donald Trumps's policies may catalyze a crisis, hasten or even delay it incrementally, like techtonic plates in the earth it's been in movement for decades, a matter of time only - inevitable.

Sudden and brutal as the coming crisis may be, there will be ways through it. They'll require the coolest, clearest of heads, goodwill - and again, courage. My most recent previous post sketches some of these possibilities ; my next explores an important specific one.

Onward (and back) gentle reader !

Next in series :
"Rethinking Philanthropy !" : Three Articles on
Rudolf Steiner's Threefold Social Idea

]]><![CDATA[Article Review : "The Dying Throes of a Terminally Ill Country ?"]]>Sun, 13 Apr 2025 23:34:23 GMThttps://livingwaterswellness.weebly.com/living-waters-wellness-blog/the-dying-throes-of-a-terminally-ill-country

The Death Throes of a Terminally Ill Country ?
And the Two Constitutional Changes to Restore Health

This Substack article by Seth Jordan is a quite excellent look at our current social and political situation, and imagination of where it's tending. My sense more and more is that to choose sides vehemently on social and political issues, whether from habit, emotion (fear, reactive outrage) or cynicism, effectively makes us antisocial - and we really CANNOT AFFORD THIS NOW.

Seth two points in the later part of this article go straight to the heart of our current predicament : namely that within society

- Economic, rights-political and "spiritual-cultural" life are very different kinds of activities, with very different needs to keep them healthy ; that

- They're constantly mixed and entangled in our society, especially in the sphere of government, with little understanding what the consequences might be ; and that

- It's pressing that ways be found to separate them - or perhaps more accurately, to establish effective and appropriate boundaries among them.

These insights, which draw strongly on Rudolf Steiner's threefold social idea are crucial at a moment when social tensions arising from these "boundary trespasses" are high - but when few social observers at all understand why.

Although for many it may be new, Steiner's threefold idea is not rocket science, and when grasped even basically, it begins to act in surprisingly fruitful ways as a lens and diagnostic tool for social situations - and not least as a source of imaginations and insights with promise for practical action, beginning with the smallest choices and decisions of everyday life.

To finish this post, I'll include a resource page on Rudolf Steiner's threefold social idea, and recommend a deeper dive.

In the meantime, please note that Seth Jordan's article is on a Substack page, and it's an important part of the way he supports himself. From what I know of Seth, he lives like a monk, and does so willingly for the best of reasons. But in my opinion he shouldn't have to. If you're in a position to afford a small - or larger - monthly subscription, please do !

Visit Seth Jordan on Substack :

The Death Throes of a Terminally Ill Country ?
And the Two Constitutional Changes to Restore Health

Here are some further resources on Rudolf Steiner's threefold social idea, intended for "any thinking person of goodwill" :

Living Waters Wellness Articles : Rudolf Steiner's Threefold Social Idea

Next in series : A Sudden and Brutal Crisis

]]><![CDATA[READING TO THE RUSSIAN AND UKRAINIAN WAR DEAD]]>Wed, 12 Mar 2025 16:35:53 GMThttps://livingwaterswellness.weebly.com/living-waters-wellness-blog/reading-to-the-russian-and-ukrainian-war-dead

Painting : Zan Newstrom

Dear Friends,

The Russia-Ukraine war shows signs of reaching an end soon, and I truly hope it does. Please note though, that this work will remain relevant for these souls, still for years to come ; and also for the war dead of any conflict, present or future, anywhere !

Jeff Smith RN (Retired)

Reading to the Russian and Ukrainian War Dead

The question of relations between Russia and the West has been much on my mind recently ; and judging from posts and exchanges I see elsewhere online, on the minds of many of us. I've followed this story fairly continuously since 1991 and the fall of communism, through publicly reported stories and events - but also especially in light of things Rudolf Steiner had to say about certain secret Anglo-American brotherhoods, and their role in world events. In a conversation with a friend yesterday, my friend formulated this in a single sentence that stuck with me :

"The brotherhoods feel that their power is waning, historically, and they want at all costs to prevent a blossoming of relations between Middle Europe and Russia."

Rudolf Steiner spoke on this theme already around the time of World War I. In our own time Terry Boardman has also written and posted YouTube videos about it ; and I've seen remarkable presentations of world events and political dynamics that discern much the same - but from observers who probably know nothing of this more spiritual background.

See Facebook : #rightslifetodayukraine

In the past three years, thoughts have emerged for me as to what might help particularly in the current tragic Russia-Ukraine war. This might also need a separate conversation - but for now, there's one thing I can see absolutely no downside to.

At this point, hundreds of thousands of Russian and Ukrainian young people have died and are in the spiritual world - and I can only guess that they're unclear WHY they've had to die, in the sense of the deeper social and political causes of all this. I can only guess too, that it might comfort them to know how these conflicts and events might unfold for the better, take turns for the better in times to come. Rudolf Steiner recommended reading anthroposophy to the dead (examples) - that they're hungry for it, and I see no possible downside to reading to these souls who've died.

Steiner also presented his threefold social idea as a way to understand human society - including serious conflicts that arise in it, but also foundations for its future health. My sense is that this material could be especially healing for the dead in war. My recommendation and hope, therefore, is that people would consider sharing this content not just to the war dead of Russia and Ukraine, but with their own beloved dead - whoever they feel might want, need or appreciate hearing it. A simple way to do this :

- Read to yourself or aloud, with your chosen departed in your thoughts, feelings and heart.

- Read with the first firm goal to understand what you read, to the point that you're even able to put it in your own words.

- Read what you read at least three times.

- Pay attention in the days and nights following, to what "returns" to you as thoughts, feelings and impulses to action.

This pamphlet by Rudolf Steiner's personal secretary, Guenther Wachsmuth is very clear, and was one of the first pieces of anthroposophical literature I ever bought, from a bookstore table over 45 years ago. In that time, it's lent enormous structure and insights to my own understanding of society - and eventually, even also to my own actions in life.

I hope you'll look into this - and that if it resonates, you'll share it with your loved ones - both living and dead !

The Threefold Social Order

For more on this subject, see also

Living Waters Wellness Resources : Rudolf Steiner's Threefold Social Idea

]]><![CDATA[Something New Under the Sun : Rudolf Steiner's Threefold Social Idea]]>Sat, 14 Dec 2024 01:36:52 GMThttps://livingwaterswellness.weebly.com/living-waters-wellness-blog/rudolf-steiners-threefold-social-idea-ten-reasons-to-learn-more

Its Value for Life and for Action

Transitions on the Stage of History

In former times - for instance in days of ancient Egypt - we were not "individuals" as we experience ourselves today. Whole peoples stood under guidance of figures as portrayed in the great Osiris - priest-kings who taught them their religions, their cultures, their agriculture, their tasks and duties to the finest details, and were thought of as gods living in human bodies. These forms and guidance gave stability, life and abundance to ancient societies, changing only by slow phases over hundreds, even thousands of years. This way of life was not unique, and is described with variations in ancient cultures worldwide.

Over long periods of time, however, human consciousness did gradually change, from one ruled by outer authority, roles and membership in a tribe or people, towards a sense of being an "I" - a ""me myself", an independent, self aware and self determining individual. In the West, for instance, we see this in slow steps through Greco-Roman, Medieval and Renaissance periods, to our own still unfolding times.

Right as this was for the progress and freedom of the individual, however, it also multiplied the risks of individual error, of social misunderstanding and division. The sense of knowing one's "place" in society has faded, at least for now, and we look first more spontaneously to our own needs and ends, than to any social whole. Society as a whole, for its part, drifts and gropes towards new forms, but like the proverbial blind men and the elephant, we experience our world by parts, and don't yet really compare notes - at least not in any particularly cooperative or effective way. At the world and international level, as well as the local and personal, again this gives rise to risks.

Dangers and Uncertainty

Since time immemorial, illness, death and evil have accompanied humanity - our shadows and companions always. But these too have changed, and take new forms all their own. In a world made rapid and efficient by technology, problems grow to astonishing dimensions in an astonishingly short time - and with them our capacity to do ourselves and each other harm. Wars, economic crises, attacks and affronts to our civil and human rights, new diseases arising from our own actions and inventions - these greet us in bewildering succession, keep us guessing, on guard and off balance. And how do we see our situation ?

As humans we're highly gifted beings, and can be proud of our achievements in many fields. But as a society, we're also far from agreeing, on the one hand, how to assure each other safety from our own errors, blindnesses, greed and other faults. Nor have we found ways to consistently support and cooperate with each other, even when it's in everyone's interest. Ideas, values, systems collide, and we find ourselves vulnerable, if not outright anxious and fearful. Voyagers in transit, our brave and shiny new world can be wild as any ocean, with powerful currents, sudden and violent storms. How can we understand or even get to know this more or less uncharted expanse, orient ourselves, safely navigate it ?

Something New Under the Sun

In the turbulent aftermath of World War I, Rudolf Steiner did a still mostly unknown service to humanity in this regard, in presenting his threefold social idea. could help - considerably. Of the resources below, some are from Rudolf Steiner himself, some are my own work, some are from others working with the threefold idea. My recommendation : dig deeper. There's real substance in this threefold social idea, and these concepts are much needed !

Ten Reasons to Investigate Steiner's Threefold Social Idea

1) Our world today has bewilderingly many moving parts - enough to keep us uncertain and off balance much of the time. The threefold idea can first of all lend structure to our understanding, and some pressingly needed orientation points.

2) The threefold idea - a unique and cohesive set of scientific observations on human social life, first discerned and presented by Rudolf Steiner - offers clarity on why different phenomena in society are healthy when they're healthy - and unhealthy when they're not.

3) Once grasped, these principles can become a kind of "organ" for understanding social situations, a diagnostic tool for social problems, and source of insights into what might help.

4) As individuals, we participate in all three realms of social life - economic, rights and spiritual-cultural. We participate in these in our own three worlds : our inner life of thoughts and feelings, our encounter with the world around us and our world of human and social relationships. For each of these, the threefold idea works as a kind of mirror, helping us better assess ourselves, and recognize or correct our own course in life.

5) With an evolving grasp of the threefold idea can come an increased sense of personal meaning : in learning the needs and nature of society, we may find that certain thoughts and insights light up for us - ways and places where, each in our own unique and personal way, we can contribute something to our world.

6) To discover the deeper nature and needs of a world that had previously seemed undecipherable, can also contribute to personal morale. To find pattern, structure, order - even if compromised - in our world, can relieve the sense of being "at sea" in a vast landscape with vast problems ; and lend an affirming sense that, even if difficult, change is possible.

7) Insight, we may find to our surprise, can create an enthusiam we haven't felt in years - and forces of conviction and will we may never have felt !

8) Per Rudolf Steiner, the threefold social idea - and the potential for a new threefold ordering of society - are already powerfully at work in humanity ; but thus far only in our needs and feelings about our lives, and not yet consciously. These things will eventually to consciousness, per Steiner, through constant and repeated life experience - potentially excruciating life experience. But if rightly presented, they can also be grasped even in the present, purely on the basis of insight. What stands between the threefold social idea and a threefold ordering of our world, per Rudolf Steiner, is - significantly - only that more people understand it !

9) With understanding, realizations dawn that a healthy threefold ordering of society need not be "implemented" by some external means, but will arise when multiple dispersed people find each other, work, communicate, cooperate intelligently on the basis of their shared needs and interests.

10) Every aspect of social life, each of the three sphere's of life the threefold idea identifies, requires constant activity and work. But an eventual threefold order will not only depend on external work. The threefold idea is itself a creative force, a kind of seed that, once planted in a human being, can grow into much more - full of life and germinating power, just as a seed is. Such is the power of an idea - in this case still brand new in the world, just over 100 years ago.

For more on Rudolf Steiner's threefold social idea, enter here :

Living Waters Wellness Resources : Rudolf Steiner's Threefold Social Idea

]]><![CDATA[Rudolf Steiner's "World Economy" : Will You Join Us ?]]>Fri, 06 Sep 2024 02:33:41 GMThttps://livingwaterswellness.weebly.com/living-waters-wellness-blog/rudolf-steiners-world-economy-will-you-join-us

For me recently, our Sunday Zoom study group has been getting more and more interesting and inspiring. The last few days, in fact, I've actually been waking up feeling a little grandiose about it. Could we actually conquer the world, in our own peaceful way ? Should we at least give it a try ?

First things first - given the kind of material we study, the way it's written and the way we study it, the world would need to decide for itself to be conquered or not. But as a member of that world, please hear me out !

We're a group that's met for several years now, with ever closer focus on Rudolf Steiner's threefold social idea. Most recently we've looked at inner aspects of this with Steiner's Social and Antisocial Forces in the Human Being, and before that, his first and foundational book on the subject, Towards Social Renewal (see resources). We read each text carefully together, and stop to explore when someone has a question or insight. In my experience, the discussion has gotten better and better with time. Next we'll read the first five chapters of Steiner's World Economy (we may decide to read more) - and this may be where you come in.

Rudolf Steiner had scholarly knowledge in astonishingly many of fields - but his books and lecture are not just more information in an information-choked world, but windows into new ways of looking at a subject, no matter which one. In a world where economic life is hit with shocks, conflicts and breakdowns not just more frequently, but of increasing magnitude, "world economy" seems in real need of this. I've read through the first chapter of the new book twice now, and it seems clear he'll deliver again.

I said that my thoughts have been grandiose recent mornings, but my sense is that many people today might welcome new insights on economy, and new ways to look at it - or at least need and could benefit from them. Hundreds of people. Thousands. Even millions. My mind boggles to think of all these people, most newcomers to all this, joining our study group. But then I think : maybe I shouldn't underestimate them - or us !

What We Do

Our "method" of studying, as noted, is to read carefully, with a goal simply to understand what's said, and to clarify through questions and discussion. We've learned to listen to each other, to not fight and to simply let different thoughts stand side by side in service of insight.

As for the structure of our group, for the first half hour we share how different ones of us have worked with these ideas in the past week. Each of us, in our greater or smaller way, hopes to find ways to help this threefold social idea grow into a future healthier threefold social ordering of society, even in our own lives. For me it's energizing both to hear these updates, and to share what I've done myself.

At the half hour mark, we do two things. First we hear the weekly verse from Rudolf Steiner's Calendar of the Soul, in both English and German, the original language. Then, whoever wants to can invite friends who have died, who took special interest in the threefold idea, or who we feel might now. For many of us, our sense is that they not only can, but do join us in active, helpful ways. Then, for the next hour, we study and discuss.

At the end our meeting we hear this verse of Karl Koenig, founder of the Camphill Village movement for developmentally disabled children and adults :

There is a knighthood of the 21st century
Whose riders do not ride through the darkness of
physical forests as of old,
But through the forest of darkened minds.
They are armed with a spiritual armor, and
an inner sun makes them radiant.
Out of them shines healing.
Healing that flows from the knowledge of
the human being as a spiritual being.
They must create inner order, inner justice, peace
and conviction in the darkness of our time.
They must learn to work side by side with angels.

What YOU Can Do

We meet by Zoom every Sunday afternoon from 4 to 5:30 pm U.S. Eastern Time. For years, one friend gets up very early in Australia and listens in on her long drive to work. Although we seldom hear her voice, when we do we're glad, and she's always fully there in what she shares. We welcome new members, but clearly for some in this wide world, the times won't line up - ever. But here's another possibility, to me an exciting one.

If you can't join us in person, we invite you to read along with us, independent but parallel, in this book and future ones, wherever you are. Or to start your own threefold study group, in time zones within your reach.

We feel Rudolf Steiner's threefold social idea is very important to understand today, a kind of "missing link" to a more healthy social future. It's no problem to add you to our email list for weekly updates.

Like world economy, as seen in the first chapter of our new book, the need for a threefold understanding of society is a worldwide phenomenon. And the basic unit of a potentially healthier society is the individual human being, working together with other individual human beings.

Will you join us ?

Literature

Our current reading, as noted, is World Economy by Rudolf Steiner

Read for free : World Economy GA/CW 340 - Rudolf Steiner Archive

Listen : "Rethinking Economics" - GA/CW 340, 1922 - Rudolf Steiner Audio

MORE Resources on Rudolf Steiner's Threefold Social Idea

If you feel this post could be helpful and that this theme is important
please share them with friends !

]]><![CDATA[A Crisis of Mindset : Renewal - Or The Abyss ?]]>Tue, 06 Aug 2024 15:48:04 GMThttps://livingwaterswellness.weebly.com/living-waters-wellness-blog/a-crisis-of-mindset-renewal-or-the-abyss

"Pieter Breughel the Elder : The Triumph of Death

Renewal - Or the Abyss ?

Beyond my own interests and needs of life, retirement gives me more time for the world around me. From a space of more external freedom, I'm grateful and take joy simply in the weather whatever it may be, at people in stores and the street, in friendships and relationships, for which - finally - I have more unspoken for time. I'm more free to read, to reflect if I take time for it, to observe mood and events in the great world around me.

This is not all sweetness and light. I'm not unwell, but with age do come vulnerabilities, and I notice them. The companions of every human life - illness, death, evil around us in the world - and if we're honest, a measure of evil inside us too - don't sleep. They announce themselves in subtle ways and I, for one, can't help but hear. I want to share one especially vivid to me just now.

My computer uses a Windows operating system, and when I turn it on each day, the first thing I see is its very intense newsfeed, Microsoft Start. The images and headlines are hard hitting, and it's almost impossible not to stop and read something. I worked in psychiatry for 40 years and I'm not excitable, not by nature, training or life experience. But the image of the world portrayed there is really something like a cauldron, rising steadily towards a boil.

The story of the Russia-Ukraine war is a huge case in point. It's been a front burner theme on the feed since 2013. Rather than taking a side in the matter, I'd like to simply list some observations on the coverage of the war. The facts and interpretation of the situation, as portrayed consistently on the platform, center on the themes that

There is a history of the conflict - but the Russian side and interpretation of it are lies, end of story.
The motives of Russia are expansion and to build a new empire - basically, end of story.
The motives of Ukraine and its supporters are based solely in a need and love for freedom.
The Russian leader Vladimir Putin is a tyrant and ruthless sociopath - full stop, end of story.
Being in decisive ways incompetent, the Russian military can be defeated - end of story.
The right weapons and right unity of America and the European Union are crucial - "but we can do it !"
Any view other than these is naive and/or Russian propaganda, and thus inadmissable.

The starkness of content in the coverage is also striking : a language of obliteration, annihilation of Russian forces has been prevalent, even from the start. Video of a drone strike, the destruction of a tank, a ship, a group of Russian soldiers in a field are staples, to my sensibilities almost a kind of war porn - a daily diet of it. Similar are depictions of increasing unity, coalition among allies, country after country sending arms to Ukraine, building up weapons in their own.

The tone of coverage in the feed, for more than ten years now, has been one not just of unity, but increasing inevitability, with other options either not discussed, or swept quickly off the table. Parallel is an accustoming of the world to risk, with multiplying stories, for instance, on nuclear war - and for Americans, of how you would be affected by one, with maps with red circles, state by state.

Impressions of the authority of sources and stories are also remarkably conveyed, with articles at times 3 to 5 or more in a day credited explicitly to Ukraine intelligence services - and given the constant, intense specific details and videos, most likely with input from U.S. intelligence as well.

To crown these factors, on a platform with a potential reach to 1.5 billion Microsoft OS users daily, until just recently comments by readers on these stories had been turned off for years. There are few or no other voices to be heard, and the powerful question in the air becomes

"Where is all this going - and how soon ?"

With the force and directness dreams can have, one morning recently, my own soul gave its take on this :

I was in a house, and I heard shouting outside. I looked out the window and out across a large field of grass, I saw a group of young people, running towards something still a bit further in the distance. Looking to the point they ran towards, I saw a herd of horses, agitated, pacing restlessly to and fro among themselves. Looking towards movement from the right now, there came an immense tiger, healthy and strong, running at full speed and with fierce intention towards them. The screams of the women, especially, rang out in the air.

The tiger bore down on one horse, separated from the rest, and it froze, head raised, terror in its eyes. Without breaking stride the tiger leapt, wrapping itself with all its claws on the horse's shoulders and neck, and bringing it immediately to earth, attacking with powerful jaws.

The struggle would appear to have ended in seconds, but now the other horses descended on the struggle en masse. With fierceness to match the tiger's, they attacked, screaming and biting in frenzy, stamping with their hooves at the tiger, throwing up great clouds of flying earth and grass. The tiger's focus, however, was complete and it was not to be deterred.

The young people too now joined the struggle, the women leading, shouting, striking and pulling at the tiger with their hands. The tiger broke its attack momentarily, turning and snarling, lashing with fierce claws in all directions, but returning to its prey with undiminished fierceness. At a certain point the struggled was finished, and horses and young people drifted away. I saw that there was nothing to be done, and prepared to leave the house.

Out in the town there was excitement in the streets over the attack, and people walked talking energetically. I came to one woman with cuts and scratches on her face and arms, and she walked by. There then came another woman, and we stopped and talked. She had open cuts and scratches like the other woman. She said to me "yes, it was terrible - he took half my breast away." She open her coat, and indeed, although healed, the lower part of her left breast was scarred, and had a depression in it.

Now the scene changed, and I was in the house again. Two men were there, attacking a third man. One of the two struck ferociously, intent to do harm, as much as he could. I jumped in, at first wanting to hurt him, but he was very strong, and threw me off. I realized with a feeling of helplessness that I had neither the strength to stop him, nor a real will to hurt him. I turned to the second assailant, holding him by the arms and shaking him. I looked in his eyes and cried at him urgently "stop this, and make him stop now !"

The man stopped struggling with me, eyes closed, face contorted with inner tension, as if he was struggling with himself. I could see I had reached him at least in part, and that he was grappling with himself. I felt to myself, "this could be possible", and I felt a sense of hope. Then I awoke. My sense was that what would happen, whether it was yet more destruction or not, was in no way guaranteed - but that there was at least a direction to try.

I won't interpret this dream just now, although I have ideas - but how would you see it ? I'll also come back to the glimmer of hope at the end, at what might need to happen next - but again, what do you think ? What do we do in the face of violent crisis - or perhaps more important, what do we do beforehand, that we don't have to go there ? I'll return to these questions, but first I want to look at what happens when we do go there.

The Monstrosity of War

It's been said that at this time in history, our tools of physical warfare have passed a certain tipping point - that we've become so skilled at it that we can destroy whole infrastructures - physical, but also human and social - in just months, weeks - even days. Overpowering force and technologies, however, also meet factors not seen in planning : they produce not submission, as hoped, but increased cunning in adversaries - the dark skills and intelligence of extreme extreme hatred, extreme fear and desperation. And what, collectively, does this then cost ?

We read and forget the numbers : "casualties of war." But what and who does it actually mean ? Soldiers with weapons in hand, clearly ; but in our times the civilian toll is almost always more. Some deaths are from nearby combat, to be sure - but others also to greater or lesser degrees intented : deaths from shelling, bombing, landmines, executions, massacres, deaths of retaliation and revenge ; death from disease and starvation, from starvation even as a weapon, on the largest scale. Death in gulags and concentration camps, in refugee camps. "Collateral" deaths, yes, but also millions intended - or even planned. And this is to speak only of deaths. Miraculously, people survive these horrors - new life rises, and in the best case thrives. But the economic, physical and psychological costs are devastating - and not just for those who "lose" a war.

Picture this in terms of your own life. Most of us never see it - it doesn't happen where we live. But what if it did ? What would it be like, how would it actually unfold ? Would people around us act decently ? Help each other - or under the wrong circumstances, slip into the madness themselves ? We like to think not - yet all over the world, again and again people do.

These processes are the "downside" of human potential. They have patterns - triggers, starting points, steps by which they grow. Do we dare look at these processes, our own dark reflection when we lose our way ? Better perhaps to look, than blindly live it out.

A Slippery Slope

Illness, death, evil, as noted, simply can't be avoided in life. At best we deal with them honestly, creatively, morally - the mark and achievement of a good human life. Through ignorance, recklessness, carelessness however - through inattention to things that need our attention - they can also get away from us.

This happens to individuals, and it can happen to whole societies.

The consequences even of our mundane pride, self-centeredness, apathy and indifference can under the wrong circumstances magnify - multiply. Despite our better and best potentials as human beings, our humanity can also break down and unravel. Fear, doubt and hatred, as endpoints of these processes, have been called "the three beasts of the abyss" - which, if not overcome in ourselves, drive us to despair, violence, depravity, with no real lower limit.

On this slippery slope, where do we find ourselves today - and which direction are we headed ?

From Feelings to Attitudes

Look again at your experience, at the social landscape around you. How do people think about each other, how do you hear them talk to and about each other ? Not to say no one feels or acts with compassion, with integrity today - but we characterize each other freely as stupid, gullible, brainwashed, "just evil". We dismiss each other's sources of information as "misinformation", "disinformation", "malinformation ", out of hand and with scorn. We demean each other's thoughts, feelings, life experience, and on social media, say these things to each other's faces, so to speak. We label each other right or left extremists, fascists, communists, conspiracy theorists, "sheep", and are done with each other. And where might thisit go from here ?

From Attitudes to Actions

From portraying others to ourselves as stupid, extremist, evil, to speaking badly of them easily, it's no large further step to want them out of our lives. But what if they won't go - and if they're active ?

Tempting next steps are to push them out, to suppress, silence or coerce them. Censorship on search engines and social media during COVID 19, for instance, reached the point of keystroke by keystroke surveillance and removal of content, instigated or even demanded by government. Governments sought compliance indirectly through pressure on employers (e.g. vaccine mandates), and retail businesses (lockdowns, masking), restricting access to needed food, goods and services, even the chance to earn a living. The laws of many countries of course forbid them to deny freedoms of speech, movement, medical informed consent etc, and often these attempts failed in the courts - but still, only eventually, long after the fact. after the fact. In the moment they were almost impossible to fight, and their cost in terms of time and stress were extreme. The worldwide social and economic toll, the perverse costs of these measures on physical and mental health, even their costs in deaths, are still yet to be reckoned, and these facts too remain subject to censorship.

]]><![CDATA[There is No Darkness So Great .....]]>Sat, 27 Jul 2024 15:08:32 GMThttps://livingwaterswellness.weebly.com/living-waters-wellness-blog/july-27th-2024"There is no darkness so great, that a greater light cannot dispel it."
- Henry David Thoreau

Riaan Swiegelaar was a co-founder and the lead spokesman of the Satanic Church of South Africa. In 2022, while preparing to take part in a ritual to increase the worldwide reach and power of Satan, he had - suddenly - an overwhelming, face to face experience of Jesus Christ. Here is a very short glimpse of that experience - a longer account of what's happened since, and some thoughts on the meaning of these events follow.

I saw this video yesterday on the Facebook page of a friend. There's something sensational about it because it concerns Satanism, and something important about it, because as the second video below shows, it led to things being revealed about Satanism that are usually very much kept secret.

Experiences like the initial one of Riaan Swiegelaar, however, are not completely isolated in the world.

I was never a Satanist, but I had this experience of meeting Christ too, when I was 23 (I'm 74 now), after the extremely painful breakup of my first marriage.

In my case, I saw Christ on the cross, crucified. It was very sudden, vivid, a moment outside time, as if I was there, witnessing it personally. Christ was the most beautiful man, covered in wounds, but the most beautiful human being I could imagine. No words were said, but the love that emanated from him to me was overwhelming ; yet gentle, and I felt loved without reservation, unconditionally. I thought and felt, there is nothing in him that deserves this - and nothing I could ever do that would deserve love like this. I fell to the floor, overwhelmed, grateful and weeping.

The friend who shared this video has had this experience too, and his wife as well, when she was at a complete bottom with Lyme's disease. George Ritchie described this type of experience too, in his book "Return From Tomorrow", which I hope everyone will one day read ; and when I read the experince of Saul of Tarsus on his way to Damascus, it resonates completely. The exact details of these events are different, but the core experience is the same.

Watching this on my friend's page reminded me of my own experience - and interestingly, now again in the present, came at a moment when I actually needed it. It brought to mind that my way of reaching Christ, and his way of reaching me, have a continuity - that there is a thread in my life, a theme and a stream of life that I still live in. It reminded me that glimpses, reminders of that event also still come to me regularly through other people ; new episodes of this being loved and "seen" are still in my life, in ways great and small every day. I lose track of this relationship sometimes, but that it's always there to return to - and it evolves.

The realization is that I'm loved more than I could ever deserve. It puts my shortcomings right in front of my eyes - but also leaves me free to find my own way out of the error and dross, so that each step is still organic, real, my own.

I find myself loved unconditionally, but still responsible for what I do, how I think, subject to consequences, responsible to "pay my bills" in the world. I'm still in need of healing - but also receive healing in new ways large and small all the time. It's hard work, work of attention and mindfulness, even of trust and letting go ; but in Christ, with a chance I could never have otherwise.

Continuation

This morning, searching for an embed code for the video above, I found this further chapter in the life of Riann Swiegelaar. It brought to mind again for me how these profound meetings, though they have core features in common, are still unique and individual for every person. They happen in the context of a whole life lived thus far - but also change intimately how it unfolds in the future. Beyond the imagination or expectations of the person him/herself, something new can enter.

Paul, Saul as he was known before Damascus, persecuted the Christians, believing it the best, the most right and important thing to do. His mind, gifts and whole life experience, however, had also prepared him for something else - something greater than he would ever have thought of himself, but for which he was needed. With this as a picture, consider the life of Riann Swiegelaar as it's unfolded since :

]]><![CDATA[A Letter to My Elected Representatives]]>Thu, 11 Jul 2024 18:11:52 GMThttps://livingwaterswellness.weebly.com/living-waters-wellness-blog/a-letter-to-my-elected-representatives

Use Your Available Resources !

Today I sent this message to my Oregon Governor, state Senator and state Representative, and I'm glad I did. It's my growing sense that however much we may protest things we're concerned about among ourselves, no real or lasting change will come until we take up the tools actually available to us, and use them - skillfully and vigorously. I found contact information for my representatives with a tool in an old article of mine

Activism 101 : An Activists Toolbox

If you're a U.S. citizen, you can find contact information for your elected representatives there too.

Maybe you already do this with issues you're concerned about, but if cynicism or apathy have crept in for you, I hope you'll join a process begun by our Founders, that's actually brought a great deal of the progress these past few hundred years. It's empowering to state your thoughts and needs clearly, and stand up for them. On occasion in my life, I've seen this bear quite amazing fruits.

Here's my letter :

Vaccine Safety and Informed Consent

"I'm a retired RN, and besides what I was taught about vaccines in my nursing training and through hospital staff education my whole career, I've also followed vaccine safety and choice issues since 1982, including the ongoing history of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986.

There have been three life threatening events in my family in close proximity to a vaccine dose, and I also had a frightening systemic reaction myself, immediately following the TDap vaccine, the full body effects of which lasted several weeks.

I've witnessed blatant ridicule and censorship of dissenting medical and scientific evidence for decades, including the concerns of leading virologists, epidemiologists, immunologists, vaccine researchers, public health and preventive medicine experts. For at least the last ten years, I've also seen my own posts of articles like the one below deleted, more or less instantly and systematically on social media, on the stated basis of "community standards" and "misinformation".

https://x.com/AaronSiriSG/status/1811186363791966542

I request that you read this article, review the linked references at least for an overview, and assign staffers to review them more deeply and summarize them for you. Given what you'll discover, I request that you work to establish ironclad guarantees of informed consent law, to include - explicitly - information gathered by patients and their families themselves.
Please respond that you have received this request, and take every action within your means to ensure informed consent for patients or their legal gaurdians, without strings or exceptions.

It's my conviction that, under cover of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, vaccine makers have taken enormous and irresponsible liberties with vaccine safety ; that, even beyond reported vaccine injuries, this has caused enormous harm to public health ; and that full, public and bipartisan investigation is urgently needed. I include this in my requests to you, ask your response, and request to be kept informed what is done going forward.

Thank you,

Jeff Smith
Jacksonville OR"

To fight for freedom is not just a matter of emotions or what we want, I'm coming to believe, but one of endurance, courage and skill. I think it's time to raise our game !

Next post : my first response.

]]><![CDATA[A Short But Important Update !]]>Mon, 08 Jul 2024 04:13:28 GMThttps://livingwaterswellness.weebly.com/living-waters-wellness-blog/a-short-but-important-update

San Miguel de Allende, June 2024

Dear Friends,

I'm writing from Mexico - this is our fourth visit since 2020, and these are two friends who've taken us under their wing here. This photo is from an outing on my 74th birthday !

So, to our message and update - this has three parts :

First

I write - and actually have been writing since I was about seven years old. I started with poetry, and got wonderful encouragement to keep it up, both then and in my teen years. I still write poetry, and try to bring at least something artistic into everything I write.

As my life has turned out, I worked in the medical field for 40 years, and my writing took this direction too, first of all with patient education sheets in my time as a psych nurse. I still write in retirement, now on a very wide range of wellness related themes. You can find more than 20 years worth of what I do on my holistic wellness website

Living Waters Wellness

Why I Write

I'm grateful that at key moments in my life I was encouraged to explore, and never told not to have questions about life and my world, or follow them where they led. Because of this I've received many real treasures. At this time in my life, I want to give back as much as I can.

Some themes you'll find on my website you really won't hear much about elsewhere. I hope you'll visit these pages, explore them, and that if you like something, you'll share it further. In fact, if you really like something, I hope you'll get in touch personally. Important ideas, thoughts and insights thrive on being explored deeply, and actually need that kind of treatment - so please, come ahead !

Two

We need your help. This has a slightly political element to it, but I'll make it quick - please don't worry !

Our news and headlines, as you know, and even our personal conversations today are full of the themes of left versus right, Republican versus Democrat. I feel this is a complete misunderstanding of the situation, and a dangerous one. More of a problem and danger, to my understanding, is a domination of government by economic interests of the largest and most powerful kind, their influence, subtle or direct over our elected representatives and their setting us against each other for their own ends. People on both "left" and "right" have noticed these influences at different times, and protested them sharply.

You can decide from your own experience of me whether I'm a wild eyed, radical guy, but my speaking up on social media has gotten me into a lot of trouble. The low point was in October 2019, while we were in Croatia, when I woke to find six Facebook pages - including the one for our business - taken down permanently overnight.

Unfortuntely, this hasn't been at all unusual these past five years. I know of dozens of cases where such things have happened, just among people I know.

Seventy feet above the ground, on the wall that goes all the way around the city of Dubrovnik. Roswitha was terrified of the height at first, but we walked the whole thing !

This is the end of my tale of cyber surveillance and censorship, which have become so common, even for ordinary people who dissent these days. I've gotten smarter about dealing with it, but if it's not cat videos or photos of my dinner in a restaurant, my reach on Facebook remains badly limited. My request is simple : please visit

My Facebook Profile

My Page Rights Life Today and

Our business Page Living Waters Wellness Products

on Facebook, and Like, Share and/or Comment on my Pages and posts as you feel moved to. Thank you - it will be a real service to us !

Three

This has to do with businesses of ours, with products we market, and that you could potentially market too. You're under no obligation to do anything - again I'll be brief, and again please don't worry !

As you may know, we're both retired health professionals, and even before our careers, closely interested in health in the holistic sense. Over time, we've also vetted and used various wellness related products, both to protect and strengthen our own health. We use all products we market ourselves, and as you can imagine, are only interested in the best.

The page linked below introduces these products, with links to learn more, either to use them yourself, or to partner with us, and build an income of your own. We've createded some great presentation tools we can share, and at this point in our lives, also really enjoy helping others succeed.

For more on what we do, visit

Living Waters Wellness : Partner With Us

Thanks, be well and be in touch !

Jeff and Roswitha Smith

]]><![CDATA[The Rights Life of the Future ? Three Vignettes]]>Sat, 25 May 2024 18:37:45 GMThttps://livingwaterswellness.weebly.com/living-waters-wellness-blog/the-rights-life-of-the-future-three-vignettes

Rights Life

The core and essential need of "rights life", as described in Rudolf Steiner's threefold social idea, is equality : that all adults be able to have a part in decisions that affect their rights and safety, be protected equally by any rules or laws established, and that no one have special advantages, exemptions or power over others in these universal human concerns.

It also follows that rights life must eventually have corresponding forms and processes for its work, including

- Forums to which all adults can have access or representation, in which rights and safety concerns can be aired and discussed.

- Decision making processes, through which guiding principles and clarity can be established - for example

- What rights and protections do all people need, and must they have ?

- What constitutes an offense against these rights and protections ?

- How can agreements and decisions be reached about these things - efficiently, yet still without undermining particiation and equality ?

- How shall offenses be remedied - matters of identification or detection of offenses, justice and restitution - police and armies ?

The following highlight some key current manifestations of these questions, in an I believe especially skillful and relevant way.

In Focus : The WHO Pandemic Agreement

This appeal, written by Dr Michaela Gloeckler for Alliance Eliant - the European Alliance for Applied Anthroposophy - enters with dignity and clarity into this field. It references Rudolf Steiner's threefold principles boldly and publicly, and makes a strong, healthy entry to the arena of "rights life", on the largest of public stages. An excellent, ongoing initiative, and I feel very well done !

Stop the WHO Power Grab

An article from the organization Children's Health Defense. I feel this is another fine example of "rights life" in the sense of Steiner's threefold idea, done in a nonviolent way, and coming from a completely different direction and source, outside the anthroposophical movement. Not least, it includes an ingenious tool for direct participation in the rights process.

It pleases me to see this, and also the common insights lighting up from different quarters. No matter how much is or isn't possible at this time, the crucial element is a cognitive and spiritual one : thoughts that can't be unthought, a light that can't be extinguished.

Rudolf Steiner described the day of physical warfare and exercise of external power as having passed, and indicated the new field of battle must become spiritual warfare - the war of facts and ideas. This and the prevous initiative above might be seen as examples of the legitimate "swords, shields and spears" of the future.

It's Not Over : The WHO's Relentless Power Grab

From CHD TV, another production of Children's Health Defense.

The crucial need in rights life, as noted above, is equality : that every adult have a say in his or her own rights and safety, a voice in decisions to be made, equal protection under any related laws. Again as noted, this requires forms and processes in which they can actively participate.

Rights life, per Rudolf Steiner, is the appropriate task of government and of "politics" - in their healthiest form, simply discussions and negotiations among people about their rights. This video discussion, between two longtime observers of world health policy formation, outlines a kind of counter-process underway, to regulate health related rights and safety entirely from the top down - to effectively "manage" rights and enforce compliance on individuals worldwide, first of all through binding agreements with their governments.

Governments may fail in their roles and responsibilities - but the rights needs of human beings remain. Where governments do fail, humanity has little choice but to either remind them of their tasks, or rebuild and "regrow" them from the ground up - if at first informally, eventually in new, more functional and permanent forms.

Fortunately, the push for ever tighter control of consumer, civil and human rights, underway for decades, has been noted and steadily documented. I'm pleased to be able to witness this process. Painful as it may be to look at a sharp evil in the world, I hope you'll hear them out with open ears !

- Jeff Smith RN, Retired

]]><![CDATA[Growing Point : Rudolf Steiner's Threefold Social Idea]]>Fri, 17 May 2024 16:14:46 GMThttps://livingwaterswellness.weebly.com/living-waters-wellness-blog/growing-point-rudolf-steiners-threefold-social-idea

The Seed Nature of an Idea

I was introduced to Rudolf Steiner's threefold social idea almost 45 years ago, and it's come to belong for me, in a good way, to the category of "thoughts I can't unthink". This started simply with a $3 pamphlet I picked up from a bookstore table. Over time this small seed has grown into quite a vigorous plant in me - and not one that's even needed much water or attention, in any external sense. If anything, once planted, enthusiasm for this surprising, "something new under the sun" perspective on human social life has seemed to grow on its own in me - and also to generate impulses to do something with the insights it brought. This far in, new shoots of ideas still sprout up in me all the time. Given a chance through honest interest and attention, in my experience, this is what Steiner's threefold idea does in the human being.

What is it about the threefold idea, that yields this kind of growth and conviction ? It's really not more than a set of differentiated - but remarkably healthy and refreshing - observations about human social life : a modest extension of science into a new area, discerned systematically by Rudolf Steiner for the first time.

In Overview

This "threefold" perspective on society observes that human life unfolds in three core, recurring kinds of activity, each with its own needs, and its own requirements to be optimally healthy. Namely :

- Economic life, encompassing processes of production, distribution and consumption in society, by which human beings meet their physical needs of life.

Economic life requires constant, intelligent cooperation and communication in the realm of practical work, and an attitude of goodwill towards others, in order for the needs of all to be met. This mindset is quite diffent than the current view of profits and competition as the driving forces of economic life.

- Rights or political life, through which we work out our human need for basic freedoms, protections and safety.

The special need and requirement of rights life, Rudolf Steiner observed, is for equality among citizens : an equal voice in creating measures that protect civil and human rights, safety and dignity, equal protection under rules and measures thus established, and equal liability, in the case rules are broken - which is to say, that there be no special exemptions or exceptions from them.

- Spiritual and cultural life, based in the gifts and abilities of each individual human being, which, developed and manifested in society, give rise to inventions and innovations, and to progress and wellbeing in all realms of life. This includes such fields as education, the healing arts, religion and spirituality ; but also the work of every profession, and any gift or ability in a person which, when developed, serves to benefit society.

The special need of spiritual-cultural life is for freedom : the possibility to develop one's gifts and offer one's contributions, freely and unhindered ; and in turn to receive those of others. The limits of freedom in this sphere are that these activities not cause harm or injury to others.

As each of these three spheres has needs in order to thrive, there are also circumstances that make it weak and unhealthy. The three spheres of course interact, and have relationships among them that, again, foster health or its opposite. Crucial to these relationships, for better or worse, are the boundaries among the three realms of social life ; and unhelpful entanglements among them into each other's affairs.

Trespasses of roles and functions among the three spheres have evolved gradually, Steiner observes, and for the most part unnoticed in recent centuries ; but have for this reason become all the more destructive. The threefold idea, again, a set of meticulous social observations, raises these trespasses to the level of clear consciousness - often for the first time.

As public discourse falls more deeply into blame, fears and hostility between people today, this perspective suggests causes and solutions in terms of the needs of rights, economic and cultural spheres, obstructed and thus frustrated. To disentangle and separate these spheres becomes a priority today, as a basis for their more appropriate and harmonious integration.

New as this perspective is in the course of history, as challenging these needed separations, it raises the prospect of future social conflict, even social warfare, back into the realm of social problem solving - in these times, absolutely no small thing.

To Look Deeper

The Fullness of Life : New Articles on Rudolf
Steiner's Threefold Social Idea
\

"Something New Under the Sun" : Rudolf
Steiner's Threefold Social Idea

Book Review : "A Way Forward : From
Social Illness to Social Health"

Please share this page with friends !

]]><![CDATA[A Study Group on Rudolf Steiner's Threefold Social Idea]]>Tue, 30 Apr 2024 14:34:33 GMThttps://livingwaterswellness.weebly.com/living-waters-wellness-blog/study-group-on-rudolf-steiners-threefold-social-idea

A Modest Chronicle

Previous : We Have the Ideas - But How Do We Awaken the Will ?

Dear Friends,

I'm keeping a running tally for myself of themes that come up repeatedly in our group. Among these :

1) Inner Aspects : We'd like to live in a more healthy society, but how social are we - how able to make space for others in our thoughts, treat them as we'd want to be treated ? What attitudes, principles and guiding thoughts could help us transform ourselves, as participants in social life ?

2) Perspectives and Understanding : What thus far unnoticed insights and principles of social life are there, that could help us better understand it ? More effectively work in it ? Promote its health, and reduce harmful and destructive tendencies at play in it ? How do we first firmly grasp - and then best share - Rudolf Steiner's observations of society through

- His own books and lectures ?
- Succinct overview literature - old and new ?
- Skills for sharing personally : "elevator speeches", putting threefolding skillfully/accurately into our own words ?

3) Moving from Insights to Action : How do we break free of inertia, doubt and fear to replace stagnant social concepts with better, more dynamic ones ? How can we best and most effectively move from threefold thinking to action in the world ?

4) How can we identify and spotlight healthy examples of threefolding already unfolding in the world (anthroposophical and "non-anthroposophical" examples ?

5) In addressing dysfunction in society, how can we critique clearly and firmly, without being divisive in the process ? Rudolf Steiner : the time for wars of weapons and power has passed - but spiritual warfare ("the war of ideas") is appropriate and necessary today.

6) What ideas, norms and guidelines can we identify for our study and work together, so they unfold in the most healthy and fruitful way ? (Rudolf Steiner : "the right way of working" together is crucial).

7) How can we deepen and clarify understanding of rights life in a rights-dysfunctional world - how best to interact with "the powers that be", and how to create "parallel" forms to promote progress ?

In the meantime I promised to send some articles that address some of these questions :

We Have the Ideas - But How Do We Awaken the Will ?

Think It Right !

In Focus : The WHO Pandemic Agreement

This last is written by Dr Michaela Gloeckler for Alliance Eliant - The European Alliiance for Applied Anthroposophy. It's a remarkable example of threefold principles spoken boldly and publicly, and a strong, healthy example of "rights life" played out on the largest of public stages.

All the best for your week,

Jeff

Next in series : Three Articles on Rudolf Steiner's Threefold Social Idea

]]><![CDATA[We Have the Ideas - But How Do We Awaken the Will ?]]>Mon, 22 Apr 2024 22:18:12 GMThttps://livingwaterswellness.weebly.com/living-waters-wellness-blog/we-have-the-ideas-but-how-do-awaken-the-will

The Path of Knowledge and the Path of Action

Previous : Study Group : Rudolf Steiner's Threefold Social Idea

In this week's meeting of our Sunday study group on Rudolf Steiner's threefold social idea, the need was raised yet again - and justifiably - that in a turbulent, even increasingly dangerous world, people not just be content with reading, studying and having ideas about the threefold idea, but that they take action and actually do something.

I myself have come the route in life, and belong to a generation and country that did and/or does do things first, and finds out what we did only later - sometimes with large regrets and casualties. This absolutely does lead to wisdom - but I've also learned over time to be grateful for good ideas where I find them. This was especially true in my career, in the sequence of rigorous training in nursing school, then immersion in the intense world of hospital work.

There's a path, therefore, from idea to action too, from knowledge to will, that gives clarity to freedom, that makes it effective, responsible, worthy of trust. As a person "head first" by nature, and a graduate in many ways of "the school of hard knocks", I've become fierce in my love for the idea, for the possibility of a cognitive path, for instance as I've met these in the work of Rudolf Steiner (resource) ( resource).

This said, I was awake in the night after our study group wrestling with the many sharp dangers I can see in the world around me today. Finding my way to peace and to sleep again, though, I woke up to a clear thought and memory of the answer by Bernard Lievegoed to a question "How do we awaken the will in ourselves, as modern human beings ?"

Lievegoed's answer :

"To awaken the will, you must cultivate a lifelong committment to knowledge and learning ; an active inner life ; and learn to distinguish the essential from the non-essential."

This is worth considering, as it puts responsibility squarely on us. To bridge the seeming chasm between concepts and action, thinking and doing, ideas and deeds, we're asked to overcome factors in us that stand in the way. But it also lends hope the bridge can be built - no matter which side of the gap we at first stand.

]]><![CDATA[Three Articles on Rudolf Steiner's Threefold Social Idea]]>Mon, 22 Apr 2024 22:17:22 GMThttps://livingwaterswellness.weebly.com/living-waters-wellness-blog/three-articles-on-rudolf-steiners-threefold-social-idea

A Recent Email to Friends

Previous : Study Group on Rudolf Steiner's Threefold Social Idea

Dear Friends,

I've promised one each of these resources to Earl and Chris, and am sending them to the rest of you on the spur of the moment. Why ? Becuse you each, as much as I know you, are or have been deeply involved in the world professionally, and have immersed yourselves in it in as thoughtful, competent and creative way as you can. I'm sending this, you could say, in the sense of "the rich get richer" - but in a good way !

Rudolf Steiner's "threefold social idea" was presented as a set of observations about forces living deeply everywhere in human society as needs and feelings - yet grasped consciously by human beings virtually nowhere. Simply said, the threefold social idea is a new set of scientific observations about society, discovered and presented for the first time by Rudolf Steiner.

I first met this threefold idea almost 50 years ago. My experience has been that the idea is like a seed : in gradually and more deeply grasping these principles, they begin to generate clear understanding of why things go badly in society when they do, and organic pictures and ideas how they could possibly go better ; and an impressively strong will and enthusuasm to do those things.

Rudolf Steiner on Building Healthy Organizations

A Way Forward : From Social Illness to Social Health

Study Group on Rudolf Steiner's Threefold Social Idea

This is a sampler - as the old Alcoholics Anonymous saying goes, "Take what you like and leave the rest". Please also share with more friends as you think best !

With best greetings,

Jeff

]]><![CDATA[Study Group : Rudolf Steiner's Threefold Social Idea]]>Wed, 17 Apr 2024 14:54:26 GMThttps://livingwaterswellness.weebly.com/living-waters-wellness-blog/study-group-rudolf-steiners-threefold-social-idea8680782

There is a knighthood of the 21st century
Whose riders do not ride through the darkness of
physical forests as of old,
But through the forest of darkened minds.
They are armed with a spiritual armor, and
an inner sun makes them radiant.
Out of them shines healing.
Healing that flows from the knowledge of
the human being as a spiritual being.
They must create inner order, inner justice, peace
and conviction in the darkness of our time.
They must learn to work side by side with angels.

- Karl Koenig

Previous : Study Group Rudolf Steiner's Threefold Social Idea

Dear Friends Around the World

Our study group on Rudolf Steiner's threefold social idea meets on Zoom every Sunday afternoon at 1 pm U.S. Pacific Time (U.S. Eastern time 4 pm), and we're welcoming potential new members. We've just finished Steiner's major work Towards Social Renewal, and will next read some shorter pieces, lectures and articles, probably about three. Whether you're a long time student of this threefold idea, or keep hearing about it and want to look into it more deeply, you may want to join us !

Our group has been meeting for several years now, and has studied the threefolding movement of 1919 in some detail. With Towards Social Renewal we've also refined how we study, to make the most of our available time together. We've established a half hour before we read for news and updates on threefolding work, both our own and work elsewhere.

To start the study itself we read the weekly verse from Rudolf Steiner's Calendar of the Soul, and importantly, invite those who have died who took special interest in threefolding, and worked for it actively. Our way of study is to read the work at hand closely and carefully, to understand it clearly, and again importantly, build a shared vocabulary. We stop as needed for questions, for insights that arise and for ideas for applying threefolding concepts in the real world around us. We start our meetings promptly at 1 pm PST (4 pm EST) and finish promptly at 2:30 pm PST
(5:30 pm EST), with a reading of the Karl Koenig verse above.

Our next reading is Rudolf Steiner's article Culture, Law and Economics

Read for Free Read for Free Listen (Audio)

The Zoom link for the group is

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85414625808?pwd=KzU5Nlcra3o1b01ieGZPNEhKSEtDZz09

This Sunday and every Sunday at the time noted !

Jeff Smith
For our Sunday Study Group

UPDATE : The reading above is from the collection of Rudolf Steiner essays and articles entitled "Renewal of the Social Organism". When we met the idea was raised and agreed on to first read the

Forward by Joseph Weizenbaum

Next in series : We Have the Ideas - But How Do We Awaken the Will ?

]]><![CDATA[Study Group : Rudolf Steiner's Threefold Social Idea]]>Wed, 06 Mar 2024 20:02:44 GMThttps://livingwaterswellness.weebly.com/living-waters-wellness-blog/study-group-rudolf-steiners-threefold-social-idea

There is a knighthood of the 21st century
Whose riders do not ride through the darkness of
physical forests as of old,
But through the forest of darkened minds.
They are armed with a spiritual armor, and
an inner sun makes them radiant.
Out of them shines healing.
Healing that flows from the knowledge of
the human being as a spiritual being.
They must create inner order, inner justice, peace
and conviction in the darkness of our time.
They must learn to work side by side with angels.

- Karl Koenig

Rudolf Steiner's Threefold Social Idea

What to Read Next ?

Dear Friends,

Our Sunday afternoon (1 pm U.S. Pacific time) study group on Rudolf Steiner's threefold social idea will soon finish "Towards Social Renewal". We've dwindled down to three regular members and three frequent or intermittent ones, and Sandra recently raised the question whether there are enough of us to make it worthwhile to continue - or should we perhaps think about disbanding ?

I'm a threefold social idea "lifer" myself, and want to be part of the creative penetration of this idea into every corner of the earth - whatever course this needs or will take. I'll continue to study Steiner's writings on this "something new under the sun" idea - and want very preferably to do so with others. So for me the questions come down to : what to study next ; this decided, how to study and work for the advancement of threefolding ; and with whom ?

We've been a group that's stopped easily for check ins and personal sharing, but have moved towards closer, more granular study of the text itself. This coming Sunday we'll start promptly with this week's reading from Rudolf Steiner's Calendar of the Soul, continue with study and discussion of the book, then leave the last half hour for a look at some possible next readings. We'll close with the verse above, as we have in recent months.

Here are some possible next choices for our next work :

A list of suggested readings on the threefold idea shared elsewhere by Seth Jordan :

Resources for Developing a Whole Society Perspective

Named, but without links in the above list is the important article collection

Renewal of the Social Organism

Two more resources oriented towards becoming more social ourselves, within the social organism :

Inner Aspects of the Social Question

and

Social and Antisocial Forces in the Human Being

We may not reach a decision yet on Sunday, but please have a look at these options, and bring your own thoughts and perspective !

With best greetings,

Jeff Smith

Next in series : Study Group : Rudolf Steiner's Threefold Social Idea

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