A Directory of Applied Imagination in the Hudson River Watershed
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A Directory of Applied Imagination in the Hudson River Watershed The Wisdom Working Directory is a Guide to Initiatives Inspired by the Insights and Legacy of Rudolf Steiner. First edition, Autumn 2018 wisdomworking.org [email protected] The Directory Working Group: Jordan Walker (the new forms project) Conceptual Design and Project Coordinator Martin Ping (Hawthorne Valley Association) Organizational Support Travis Henry (Threefold Now) Initiative Scout Gwendolyn Sherman Illustrations John Scott Legg (SteinerBooks) Editor Leland Lehrman (Fund-Balance) Participant Support Philipp Tok (Das Goetheanum) Logo Design David Perry (Chronogram Magazine) Creative Director Amara Projansky (Luminary Media) Print Consultation ProPrint (Hudson, NY) Scanning Services creative commons: share/adapt/attribute/non-commercial You are free to: Share: copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format Adapt: remix, transform, and build upon the material provided you: Attribute: You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. Non-commercial: You may not use the material for commercial purposes. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction . vi AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SYSTEMS . 1 Demeter Certified Biodynamic Farms . 1 Other Biodynamically-Enhanced Farms . 2 Agricultural Training and Advocacy . 6 Food Justice . 7 Demeter Certified Biodynamic® Processors and Traders . 7 Bakeries, Cafés, Catering, Groceries, and Farm Stores . 9 ANTHROPOSOPHY . 11 Local Groups and Branches of the Anthroposophical Society . 11 The School of Spiritual Science, First Class . 11 Other Initiatives Working with Anthroposophy . 12 THE ARTS . 13 Eurythmy . 13 Music Out of Anthroposophy . 14 Other Musicians and Musical Groups . 15 Practical Arts and Crafts . 16 Speech Arts . 18 Theater . 18 Visual Arts . 20 BOOKS . 23 Publishers . 23 Bookstores and Gift Shops . 24 Libraries and Archives . 25 Local Authors’ Websites and Blogs . 26 EDUCATION . 27 Waldorf Schools and Early Childhood Programs . 27 Will-Focused, Therapeutic Waldorf Schools . 30 Anthroposophically-Inspired Schools and Child Care . 30 Children’s Programming, Camps, and Tutoring . 31 Gender and Sexuality . 32 Teacher Training and Administrative Development . 33 School Associations and Education Advocacy . 33 Scientific Renewal . 34 HEALING ARTS . 35 Anthroposophic Doctors and Medical Collaboratives . 35 Anthroposophic Nurses . 36 Counseling and Biographical Consulting . 37 Flower Remedies . 38 Homeopathy . 38 Massage Therapy and Bodywork . 38 Music Therapy . 39 Nutrition . 39 Physical Therapy . 40 Remedies and Natural Skin-Care . 40 Spacial Dynamics® Movement Therapy . 41 Therapeutic Eurythmy . 42 Therapeutic Horseback Riding . 43 Twelve-Step Fellowship . 43 SOCIAL RENEWAL . 43 Community of Initiatives - Hub Associations . 43 Community Spaces . 43 Conversational Arts and Social Technologies . 44 Lifesharing and Intentional Communities . 45 Lifesharing Training and Advocacy . 46 Local Currency and Social Investment . 47 Religious Renewal and Sacramental Services . 47 Societal Threefolding and Activism . 48 INTRODUCTION reetings! Welcome to the tives listed in the following pages conduct Wisdom Working Directory, a practical work across the wide spectrum guide to the individuals and of human endeavor, representing inno- Gorganizations working professionally vations in agriculture, the arts, medicine, out of anthroposophy in the Hudson education, therapy, research, and more. By River Watershed. This compilation of placing them within the same directory, listings follows in the tradition of past Wisdom Working seeks to shed light on directories cre ated locally (the Berkshire- the foundational element they share in Taconic region has published its own) common. and nationally (the Anthroposophical Society in America has created several Drawing from a versions and is currently working on Common Source another). It also signifies the hopeful Fertile ground is found where timeless foundation for other versions to come. Wisdom (referred to in Greek antiquity This directory is not exhaustive, and the as Sophia) meets the contemporary Hu- accuracy of contact information and man Being (Anthrōpos). While a bit hard description details will no doubt continue to pronounce, the word Anthroposophy to change. One helpful aspect of releasing (an∙thrō∙pos´∙ō∙fē; “the wisdom of human- this first addition electronically (and ity”) shouldn’t be entirely foreign. After print-on-demand) is that it is relatively all, Anthropology (“the study of humanity”) easy to update information for future is commonly understood as the scientific editions. Please contact us with additional study of the origins of humans, how we initiatives for inclusion, or corrections have changed over the years, and how we and updates on those already included. relate to each other, both within our own Likewise, we’d love to hear feedback on culture and with people from other cul- how you find this directory and what tures. It is a clear discipline of study. might prove additionally helpful in future While Anthroposophy hasn’t made it versions. Please contact us at directory@ into such common usage (or understand- wisdomworking.org. ing), there is no less thorough a science behind it. The 300+ initiatives listed in this The Nature, Scope, directory provide practical examples of the and Intention insights and methods of Anthroposophy of this Directory being applied. So what is Anthroposophy A founding intention for this directory and what does it mean to work out of it? was to bring awareness to what often re- What, in fact, is the difference between mains, like the waters of an underground “Knowledge” and “Wisdom”? Does it mat- spring, largely unseen. The diverse initia- ter? Does it affect how we grow our food, vi educate our children, care for our health, spend our money, or any of the countless other ways we lead our lives? While a full introduction is outside the scope of this brief essay, what we can assert is that Anthroposophy is not a system of belief or dogmas. It is certainly not a cult or something that one becomes indoctrinated into. Rath- er, it is a picture or conception of the human being that continues to be revealed. It is a research methodology that one may use to contemplate the most central questions of our life on earth, as individuals and as social beings. It may even be described as a global research community that one joins through one’s own effort toward wisdom— self development for world development. Rudolf Steiner In recent times, no one has mapped this territory as extensively, or fruitfully, as the Austrian philosopher, social reformer, and spiritual teacher Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925). Though the word “Anthroposophy” was coined before his birth, Steiner used it to describe the “Spiritual Science” that he helped to inaugurate. Again, a full introduction is beyond the scope of these opening pages, but encouragement can be offered: meet this man. Not as a guru or final authority, but simply as one of the best kept secrets of our times. In a world so desperately in need of new ideas and new impulses, Rudolf Steiner’s gifts are on display wherever one finds initiatives working with his radically life-enhancing in- sights. As the saying goes: “By their fruits ye shall know them… “That the academic world has managed to dismiss Steiner’s work as inconsequential and irrelevant is one of the intellectual wonders of the twentieth century. Anyone who is willing to study those vast works with an open mind...will find himself faced with one of the greatest thinkers of all time, whose grasp of the modern sciences is equaled only by his profound learning in the ancient ones. Steiner was no more of a mystic than Albert Einstein; he was a scientist rather, but a scientist who dared to enter into the mysteries of life.” —Russell Davenport (writing in 1954) vii Watershed as Guiding Metaphor “If you drop a rose in the Hudson River at its mysterious source in the Adirondacks, think of all the places it journeys by as it goes out to sea...” —Jack Kerouac The Hudson River Watershed provides more than just the cover art for this directory. It offers itself as both our central guiding metaphor and as the general geographical region we cover (see footnote for more on the initiatives we’ve includ- ed outside the Watershed’s precise topological designation*). Through the lens of physical geography, a watershed is “the region draining into a river, river system, or other body of water.” Wherever we are in the world, if we are standing on solid earth, we are in a watershed: The waters around us are always flowing from somewhere and to somewhere. And nowhere in North America is there as great a number and as wide a diversity of initiatives flowing from anthroposophy as the lands that encompass the Hudson River Watershed. If one travels upstream from the Hudson’s meeting with the Atlantic Ocean at New York City, past the joining of many smaller streams, eventually one arrives at a source, Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy, the high- est point in the Adirondack Mountains. So too, in aspects of human life, we can metaphorically follow the visible outward forces that shape our world—politics, economics, culture—to arrive at invisible underlying perspectives that inform all ac- tivity “downstream” from their philosophical source. Every “work” in the world indicates something of the worldview