A Holy Space
Reflections on “Beyond Woke & Anti-Woke: What Does Anthroposophy Have to Offer?” hosted October 12th-14th at The Brightmoor Maker Space in Detroit, Michigan.
The theme was the depolarization of the Anthroposophical Movement. The gathering’s diversity of ages, localities, genders, backgrounds, and ethnicities provided fertile ground for approaching the complexity of social issues.
It included individual presentations from Robert Karp, Anthroposophy and Social Justice Project, Daniel Hindes, Boulder Valley Waldorf School, Linda Williams, PhD., AWSNA, and Francis Vig, Pedagogical Section. Panel presentations centered on DEI in Waldorf education and social justice in community life. The Waldorf panel included Abra Derbis, Sunfield Biodynamic Farm and Waldorf School, and Mark McGivern, former Waldorf teacher and co-founder of Ubuntu Learning. The second panel featured a coworker of the Kimberton Hills Camphill Community, a priest, and a seminary student of the Christian Community.
Although the conference was inspired by the research from the ASJP, it was organized by Ezra Sullivan and Adeline Lyons, coworkers of the Youth Section. Ezra facilitated the gathering, opening it with an invitation to enter into the temple work, stating that this gathering had its aim in erecting a bridge in the midst of the conspiracy of materialism. He invited everyone to create a social fabric together, where we can look down upon our experiences from our higher, objective, selves, through sacramental conversation or what in anthroposophy we call the reverse cultus, which he then explained in some depth.
We wove warmth and understanding into the hardened constellations of the Anthroposophical Movement. Besides hosting youth conferences, the Youth Section is a vessel out of which future bearing conversations can more freely take place. Difficult conversations enable a transformation of polarity, not to a middle ground, but into an entirely new substance. This spiritual research is the creation of new paradigms that can host the future.