Sculpting Sacrifice

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~TODAY I AM –
An old gnarled tree near the shore,
Roots swallowing the sand & rock
Pecked by the high-tide & the wild wind…
A 1000 fledglings have nested in my boughs
& beneath, I give shelter to all…
How do you see me?
As firewood or freedom…?
~hag

Prayer to our Angel by Rudolf Steiner

You my heavenly friend, my angel who has led me to the earth and who will lead me through the gate of death, into the spirit-home of the human soul; You who knows the paths since millennia, do not cease to enlighten me, to strengthen me, to advise me so that I will emerge from the weaving fire of destiny as a stronger destiny vessel and will learn to fill myself ever more with the meaning of divine world goals.

Lanie Gentlen

Rudolf Steiner goes on to say:

‘This prayer is a direct invocation of the human soul to their angel. Every human being has an angel, an individual guiding being, who constantly accompanies the individual, and who gives this earthly human being, out of immediate perception of the total web of destiny, the right impulses and indications – IF this soul wishes to take them up. The angel accompanies this human soul intimately, its strivings, tasks, needs and fears. The angel grabs this soul with its entire being, at the same time grasping the spiritual world with its laws and possibilities. The angel helps and guides the human soul on its assigned paths.

9 February 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Venus (occult Mercury) has returned as a dazzling morning lantern, emerging into view from beyond the southeast horizon well before sunrise. A month ago, on Jan. 8, Venus had her inferior conjunction – passing between the Sun and Earth to make her transition from evening to morning star. And now Venus is at her brightest.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1872 – Birthday of Edith Maryon. She studied sculpture at the Royal College of Art, London & exhibited her work at the Royal Academy. When she met Rudolf Steiner & Anthroposophy she discovered her raison d’être. Maryon wrote to Steiner that “for some years I have always felt there is something for me to do, and that sometime I shall meet the Master who will tell me what it is and explain some of the things that have puzzled me so much. For a long time I searched…and when I saw you in Berlin I knew at last I was right about the Master…is there really any definite thing for me to do… if there is may I know now what it is?” (1 Jan 1913). Months later, from Munich, Maryon wrote to Steiner: “I must find some definite work to do, or be forced to return to England. There is a feeling that perhaps there may be something for me to do here, so I will not go back unless absolutely obliged. You will see that it is necessary for me to come to a conclusion about the kind of work I will do during the rest of my life, and I do want some advice…Your pupil, L Edith C Maryon” (10 Jun 1913).

Sculpture by Edith Maryon

Maryon arrived at Dornach, Switzerland, in January 1914. These were very early days for the project of relocating Anthroposophy headquarters to Switzerland. It was propitious timing since six months later the Great War would begin & engulf Europe & the world in catastrophe. Maryon was a trailblazer: “There was hardly any other artist coming to work in Dornach before her, capable in the way Edith Maryon was, of sacrificing – that is, largely giving up her own deeply rooted style, born out of the aesthetics of Greece, in favour of a new Mystery art”.

The next decade was a period of intense industry & creativity for the English sculptor, a period in which she found her life’s purpose. “Edith Maryon…was helping him [Steiner] with the Goetheanum building and above all with the great wooden sculpture The ‘Representative of Humanity’…Miss Maryon throughout those years was one of his closest collaborators…the studio in which the work was going on became his study for a great part of the day. Here he received his visitors, and she was acting very largely as his secretary” (George Kaufmann Adams, 1958). Adams related a visit to Dornach after the war: “We were received in the most friendly way by the Dornach members and above all by Miss Maryon herself. She gave us mallet and chisel and let us help with parts of the sculpture where there was much superfluous wood and our unskilled hands could do no harm”.

Adams reported that Steiner was “anxious for an English edition of the book [on the Threefold Social Order], and as no one else was at hand, Miss Maryon had undertaken to translate it. In style – like many of the attempted translations of Dr Steiner’s works in those days – it was impossible…and we said so frankly. We were then invited to Dornach to go into the whole question”. (Adams went on to extemporaneously translate many of Steiner’s lectures, for example at Oxford & Torquay, as well as books, for example Steiner’s Agriculture Course)

by EM

Edith Maryon & Rudolf Steiner carried on an extensive exchange of correspondence beginning in 1912, when Maryon wrote to Steiner on 16 October from London. Steiner wrote to Maryon from his travels including from Ilkley, Penmaenmawr, London, Stuttgart, Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, Mannheim, Vienna, Prague, Amsterdam, Kristiania (Oslo), and & The Hague. Steiner’s salutation to Maryon progressed in the course of 1919 to 1920 from “Mein liebes Fraulein E. Maryon” (My dear Miss E Maryon) to “Mein liebes Fraulein Edith Maryon!” (My dear Miss Edith Maryon) to “Meine liebe Edith Maryon!)“ (My love Edith Maryon!)

Theirs was an artistic partnership: “Rudolf Steiner stood, day after day, beside his colleague in the high ceilinged sculpture studio. During this time they not only worked with their hands, but also conversed intensively on every imaginable subject – from art, through politics to things of the deepest concern. Over & above this his studio had become for Rudolf Steiner a refuge of inner peace in which – well protected from visitors by Edith Maryon – he could both do a lot of esoteric work & also relax”. Maryon worked tirelessly with Steiner to create the ‘The Representative of Humanity’. She was “one of the closest colleagues and pupils of Rudolf Steiner”.

Maryon was appointed by Steiner as the leader of the Section for Sculptural Arts at the Christmas Conference of the Anthroposophy Society at Dornach in December 1923, & was unanimously elected as the vice-president of the Anthroposophy Society at the General Assembly on 21 January 1924.

Edith Maryon died on 2 May 1924 reportedly of tuberculosis, & many say from a broken heart (a depletion of her etheric forces  which were tied up in the burning of the Goetheanum.) In his memorial tribute, Steiner stated of Edith Maryon that: “When we began to build the Goetheanum, she was one of the first to devote herself to the work…With a perfect control of her technique, her special gift was to give spirituality to stately form. This artistic skill she devoted entirely to the service of the Goetheanum…earnestness showed itself in her appearance. One could see a person who had not been spoiled by the amenities of life, though she had been sorely tried by the hand of fate…She participated most actively in all that went on at the Goetheanum. The spiritual contents of the Christmas Assembly and the Class lectures…up to the last days of her life she pondered on how this Section [Sculptural Arts] should develop its activity in the right way…Her work for the this Society will always be remembered as being most earnest and devoted”.

1881 – Deathday of Russian novelist Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky – Rudolf Steiner speaks about him in GA157 – The Destinies of Individuals and of Nations – 14 lectures Berlin

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Early bird registration is now open for  
Sophia Rising: Unveiling the Wisdom of Being Human…
Converge with us this April 21-24 in Santa Fe, New Mexico! 

Join us in the ‘land of enchantment’, resonant with light ether and deep history, as we enliven Sophia in her many facets and expressions – past, present, and future. We will explore the divine feminine through storytelling, biography, art, color, eurythmy, singing, speech,

amazing offerings from Carrie Schuchardt, Mary Stewart AdamsHazel Archer-GinsbergStephanie Georgieff, and more. 

Click here for more info & to register for the Early Bird Rate*

*Early Bird Rate until February 26 ~ exclusively for those who book their lodging with Hotel Santa Fe (which is also our venue for the gathering!)

After February 26 we will release the next round of tickets. 

EARLY BIRD with ROOM BOOKING (until 2/26): $295STANDARD RATE (after 2/26): $350SUPPORTER RATE: $425 

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Come and experience Sophia Rising as we honor the elements, the landscape, and each other.

See you soon!Tess Parker, Director of Programs , and the Sophia Rising Organizing Committee   

Art by Eyahnna DalBo

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