Jag har läst första delen i Tore Rems Bjørneboe-biografi. Det är en alldeles utmärkt bok, för övrigt; den har mycket intressant att komma med vad gäller antroposofin och den antroposofiska rörelsens historia. Men något som slog mig — inte för att det är nytt utan mer som en påminnelse — det är just det att […]
The trial in the defamation case brought by the French Federation of Steiner Waldorf schools against Grégoire Perra and Unadfi took place on friday last week (I wrote a post then) — the outcome will be known in may. Grégoire is summing up* the court experience with great hilarity on his blog. You should read […]
You don’t expect to end up in court for saying what you feel is true and justified. If you’re saying what you feel is true and justified about a cult, you may end up in court nonetheless. Yes, it is completely justified to call anthroposophy a cult. A movement which sues someone for expressing his […]
There’s a new article by Peter Staudenmaier in the most recent edition of the journal Environmental History; the article is entitled ‘Organic Farming in Nazi Germany: The Politics of Biodynamic Agriculture, 1933-1945′ (read the abstract!). It sheds some (much needed) light on the fate of biodynamic philosophy and practices in the nazi era, and should interest […]
Vaxholms fästning Vi var uppe tidigt i morse. Bussen gick vid 8, båten från Vaxholm redan innan 9. Då vi närmade oss skärgården vällde dimman in; jag tror den kom från havet. Tjock, vit dimma just ovan marken och ovan vattnen. Det måste ha haft något att göra med vattentemperaturer i förhållande till den starka […]
I december 2011. Jag vet inte om mycket har hänt sedan dess; jag har inte gått förbi. Enligt hemsidan ska det vara färdigfixat hösten 2014. I december 2011 var bygget helt övergivet. Här är ett gammalt vykort från Lidingöbro.
Jag tror att det är på det gamla plåtskjulets plats som Oaxens krog har byggts. Fotografiet är drygt två år gammalt. [Större version. Jag gillar alla smådetaljer!]
mr Dog, sitting in the sun, pondering the deepest mystery of all mysteries, the mystery of the easter bunny. It is that season now.
The sea-level is extremely low now, and a sunken ship, which is believed to be from the 17th century, has resurfaced. It is quite amazing. It was last visible some time in the 1940s! And speaking of old, forgotten things, we also found this book on our walk. We didn’t find the easter bunny, but […]
Can you be an anthroposophist and not care a lot for eurythmy? I posted this delightful image on facebook. It’s from the most recent Anthroposophy Worldwide newsletter, containing some stuff about the annual meeting last weekend. See page 4 (make sure you enlarge the pdf image, it is quite good). Supposedly (if I’m guessing correctly), […]
One thing I did discover in 7th grade — apart from a world that was both kind and decent, which, being full of self-hatred, I didn’t quite manage to take advantage of — was Depeche Mode. It was dark; and the darker, the better. It was electronic; for several years I listened to almost nothing […]
It seems that spring has been cancelled, or at least postponed. But the harsh sun is there, chasing my eyes or so it feels. I’m waiting for some improvement, for the green foliage of trees. But temperatures are still below zero — often a lot below, -10 in the evening, perhaps -5 during the day. […]
The presence of gnomes in waldorf education explained in a rather magnificent manner by a Steiner school in the UK: Gnomes are the embodiment of the life of the earth as a mineral entity. Thus they are associated with rocks and mountains, deep mines and caves, their quick-witted intelligence encompassing the whole earth. The gnomes are important […]
Ramon Brüll writes about the supposed effects of the Grandt brothers’ activities: Und doch ist etwas hängengeblieben. Michael und dessen Zwillingsbruder Guido Grandt, mit dem zusammen er das Schwarzbuch Anthroposophie verfasst hat, haben manche Anthroposophenkreise in Angst und Schrecken versetzt. Bis heute kann man die reflexartige Reaktion beobachten, die bei jeder, auch wohlwollenden, Kritik oder […]
I came across this article in The Atlantic. I’m sure there are some parents who, if asked, would say that they don’t want to have their seventh graders exposed to narratives about suicide, or torture, or God, or sex, and don’t want them to read the word “fuck.” There are probably parents who would be […]
As you may have noticed, I have very little energy for conventional blogging, whatever that is. But I can’t keep this gem from you. Read. Wood, already in the first paragraph of the article, seems rather taken aback that Zander has only raised the question of whether Rudi is one of the characters in the […]
Bara titeln på Eva Malms bok En tonårings värde och värdighet: en pedagogisk essä om det mellanmänskliga och människans mitt (Carlsson Bokförlag, 2013) lyder som vore den ägnad att väcka uppmärksamhet hos en sådan före detta waldorfelev som jag. ‘Värde och värdighet’ – vadå, undrade jag? De är inte precis begrepp jag förknippar med waldorfskolan. […]
Detta kan man också ägna fredagkvällen åt. Ursula Flatters (läkare, Vidarkliniken) talar om reinkarnation.
Over a year ago, Diana recommended Harry Mulisch’s novel The Discovery of Heaven. I think I bought it the same day. But, it turned out, not only is it over 700 pages, the print is also very small. I couldn’t read it. I had my eye operation something like a week later. Then it took […]
Marcelo da Veiga continues a discussion Jost Schieren intitiated. (Which I wrote about.) I wish I could say da Veiga’s article didn’t contain deepities such as ‘the human desire to know rests upon the perceived inadequacy of the known’ but it does. Nevertheless, it’s worth reading, despite the occasional shallowness masquerading as profound. More interesting, […]
A waldorf education conference will take place this year in Vienna. It deals — somewhat obscurely perhaps but all the more fascinatingly — with the ‘educator’s view of the human being’. As you know, anthroposophy has its own curious view of the human being. In a marvellous feat, the organizers — the majority of whom […]
To live up to my new (well, perhaps it isn’t exactly new) and bad reputation as some kind of weird crypto-esoteric, and also to behave in a suitably mysterious manner in general (I always aim to), I’ll recommend to you that you read Steiner’s ninth esoteric lesson for the first class, providing of course you’ve […]
I haven’t read Peter Selg’s monumental (physically speaking monumental) new Steiner biography — or shall we say hagiography –, and when I read Ramon Brüll’s review I felt sure I never will — it simply doesn’t seem worth the effort. It’s the kind of thing you’ve seen a thousand times before — a boring effort […]
This is from an article by Sixten Ringbom, Art in the ‘epoch of the great spiritual’, published in 1966. In the article, which is quite interesting, we also learn that Paul Klee thought anthroposophy was ‘either false or a piece of self-deception’. (Though, Ringbom points out, Klee’s own ideas were hardly more rational.) I came across […]
I’ve been lazy posting things on the blog lately; usually it’s easier to just post on facebook or twitter, which is a shame. This is a lovely find from yesterday, Thomas Vaughan’s Anthroposophia Theomagica from 1650. ‘Be pleased to consider, that Obstinacy inslaves the Soule, and clips the wings which God gave her for flight, […]
