St. Michael: The Inner Fire. Reflections on the youth gathering in the Netherlands
St. Michael: The Inner Fire
During the last weekend of September, we celebrated Michaelmas in the Netherlands. The theme was "Dealing with your inner flame", as a metaphor for an inner feeling of trust. When feeling enthusiastic, your flame will grow. But when you feel sad or angry, your flame may become smaller or be almost extinguished. During summer, it is quite easy to keep the flame alive; the sun is shining, the days are long, you have summer holidays, and feel free. When the days get shorter in autumn, daily life continues and the leaves are falling down from the trees, it is harder to feed your flame. It is more difficult to let it burn in balance. And in winter, when it gets even more cold and dark, it takes a lot of power and connection to keep your flame alive.
With summer just behind us, this theme felt suiting for the Michael celebration. We looked into questions such as: how can I trust what I experience within myself, and come to acting? What makes my inner flame bigger or smaller? How do I make sure not to burn others with my fire, or how can I prevent that I don’t give my flame away? How to keep it burning in balance in a world where so much is going on?
With seven young and enthusiastic people connected with the Youth Section in the Netherlands (Arthur, Merle, Anne-Thaya, Marieke, Max, Rik, and Bregje), we organized a three-day-long celebration. It took place in a beautiful state in the middle of nature, owned by a biological dynamic farmer. The program was very diverse, with singing and eurythmy every morning. We had lectures from three inspiring people in diverse working fields, all connected to the theme of the inner fire. We organized a carousel during which people were divided into teams and followed all sorts of mini-workshops to work on courage, such as building a kite, making poetry, building a bridge (and walking over it!), and learning the basics of survival. People also had the option to do workshops, forging with a hammersmith, researching our inner voices, and an introduction to Anthroposophy and vitality. In between, we enjoyed delicious home-cooked biodynamic meals, during which we got to know each other better. In the evenings, we stayed warm by making a big bonfire. We sang together, and people told stories.
We experienced the celebration as really inspiring and fruitful. There were a lot of new people, but they all connected very easily and it felt like we were a group of old friends celebrating Michaelmas. We learned a lot from the different lecturers and the workshops. It was very nice to learn more about the topic of our inner fire.
As is typical for the Netherlands, it was raining a lot during the weekend, but luckily the sun was shining in between and we were able to stay warm and keep the fire burning!