The Bottle - Newsletter for the Section of the Spiritual Striving
of the Youth and Young Adults
Dear Friends of the Section for the Spiritual Striving of the Youth and Young Adults,
Life is tossing and turning like an ocean. This has always been true, but the waves are bigger today. The starry night sky, once a picture for eternal order and rhythm, is now crisscrossed with satellites, which can be seen with the naked eye. Thousands are being launched annually. They orbit the earth along with trillions of bits and pieces of debris, paint chips and parts. These moving stars are connected by invisible lines to another horizon of movement which we are all traveling through. Instead of spaceships and suits, we enter through screens and devices. Normal awareness and perception, be it walking down the street or communicating with others, are now “augmented”. Simple experiences are thrust into accelerations, movements and connections spanning the world. This year inanimate, hyper automated patterning and animation (computer programs like chat GPT and image generators like Dall E) have increasingly joined social media and communications. The tossing and turning has increased. What is true, what illusion? Will the world go under in this deluge?
The speeding satellites and virtual connections are accompanied by a static silence, of a machine loneliness. In all the movement there is a lonely stillness. There is another development, which this newsletter is dedicated to. In it we find stillness and movement as well. It appears where we bring concentration, in a spirit of reverence, toward thought, toward feeling and action, as a contemplative research practice. Here too the world is opening into movement, but into an unfolding, living, warm and creative movement of heartfelt, radiant intuition. We look out with our eyes through screen-portals into moving virtual planes where static presences are interwoven with a heavenly sky of wandering techno-planets. Inwardly we see, in participatory reverence, the resurrection of the intellect as spiritual thinking.
The bottle that has ended up in your hands contains messages from this direction.
In looking at what follows I must think of people of goodwill all around the world who are praying for cessations of violence. In Palestine and Israel, in Russian and the Ukraine. In this issue the voices of young people from many cultures and nations can be heard, who have hosted conferences (see the article on the event in Georgia), intercultural, collaborative art projects (see the reflections on “Question, Encounter, Play”) and intense preparation for the international student’s conference (ISC 2024) which is dedicated to themes of peace and cooperation. These are just a few of the impressions you will find in what follows. Around the world, in youth groups and projects, members of the “Section for the Spiritual Striving of the Youth and Young Adults” are working for the good. It is the end of the year and the team at the Goetheanum has seen significant changes. Jacinta Gorchs has written a reflection on the year and what has happened since she was joined by Gabriele Nys, Nathaniel Williams, and most recently, Noël Norbron at the Goetheanum.
Our next coworker gathering will be taking place in May of 2024, hosted by Section members in the Netherlands. Part of this involves the launching of a scholarship fund to support friends and colleagues who will need it for the journey from locations around the planet. A core goal among the co-workers this year is to develop a deeper, spiritual understanding of digital technology. In preparation we will be gathering at the Goetheanum in February for an event dedicated to this facet area of modern life. In preparation individuals and groups around the world are studying Rudolf Steiner’s remarkable “Leading Thoughts”.
Another central inquiry this year revolves around higher education, seminars and colleges dedicated to working with anthroposophy, contemplative orientations and practices. In May of 2024 a circle of individuals working in this area will be hosted by the Iona Foundation, the Bildungs Akademie and the Section for an exchange on these topics. One week before that many members of the Section will be part of the “Bildungs Festival” that will take place in Schloss Hamborn, Germany. You will find many other windows into the work and efforts of young people around the world in what follows.
One hundred years ago the School for Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum was founded, and the Youth Section was established in 1924. In the coming year we will also have opportunity to connect with the spirit of the founding, and reflect on what has come about in 100 years in order to look forward into the coming decades.
At the end of this year, 2023, I share these reflections and impressions, and express gratitude on behalf of the youth groups and projects for all the support they have received.
I would also like to honor Florian Roger, a founding member of a new youth circle in Oceania, who passed away this year. A friend from the circle has written a small tribute to him which you will find below.
Readers of “The Bottle” will feel grateful to Jacinta Gorchs who has worked hard to put it together, and to all the contributors of texts and images.
Respectfully, from the Goetheanum in Switzerland, Nathaniel Williams | 
