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Echoing the Ancient Greek axiom, "Man, Know thyself," Rudolf Steiner, the founder of anthroposophy, described it as "awareness of one's humanity."  Nowhere is the need for such awareness greater than in relation to our fellow human beings, and to the life and work we share with them.  It is this awareness that lies at the heart of the practical work described  here.  The number and breadth of the initiatives, fostered by the Anthroposophical Society that Steiner founded in 1923, reflect anthroposophy's progressive, healing influence on cultural life in America.

Anthroposophy embraces a spiritual view of the human being and the cosmos, but its emphasis is on knowing, not faith.  It is a path in which the human heart and hand, and especially our capacity for thinking, are essential. It leads, in Steiner's words, "from the spirit in the human being to the spirit in the universe."  Humanity (ANTHROPOS) has the inherent wisdom (SOPHIA) to transform both itself and the world.  Today, when many aspects of our culture are in crisis, and people are easily drawn into cynicism and despair, anthroposophy's vision of human potential is a source of hope and renewal.

"Anthroposophy seeks to broaden the knowledge and practice experience that is deepened by the spirit for the most diverse fields."

Thus, human communities are the mysterious locations that higher spiritual entities move and sink into so as to work through individual human beings, just as the (human) soul works by means of the limbs in the body...this is the secret of the advancement of future humanity ~ to work out of communities.

festivals page quote at bottom saved here because of bad appearance on cell phone

"When it is understood how to think with the course of the year, then forces will intermingle with the thoughts that will let human beings again hold a dialogue with the divine spiritual powers revealing themselves from the stars. We have drawn down from the stars the power to establish festivals which have an inner human validity. Festivals must be founded out of inner esoteric force. Then from the dialogue with the fading, ripening plants, with the dying Earth, by finding the right inward festival mood, we will also again be able to hold converse with the Gods and link human existence with divine existence."

Rudolf Steiner | Cycle of the Year as Breathing Process | April 1, 1923

awsna text

The Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA) was established in 1968. It started as a small organization of roughly a dozen schools established to inspire and support collaboration and leverage member collaboration, for the purpose of strengthening each member as well as the vision and mission of the association.

The association became an organization of support and guidance for Waldorf schools and Waldorf teacher training institutes across North America. It provided accreditation services for schools, emphasizing that the principles of Waldorf education are living in schools. This accreditation process helps to maintain the integrity and quality of Waldorf schools, giving parents and students confidence in their choice of education.

From membership to community, from community to festival life, from festival life to the cosmic ritual. Our following together the path toward the good star of anthroposophy restores truth in karma, nurtures the soul life in the individual and in humanity, and creates the potential for a universal happiness to dissolve individual sorrows, as Goethe described it in his fairy tale ~ until there is nothing unbeautiful in all the world.

Andrew Wolpert

The Human Form Divine

Special Good Friday gathering

This year's Easter Festival virtual offerings follow on the celebration of the artist Raphael that we began during the Holy Night of Christmas, and are inspired by Rudolf Steiner's Last Address as well as the exhibit Raphael:Sublime Poetry at New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the largest-ever exhibition of Raphael's works in the US to date. On Good Friday, April 3, 2026, Andrew Wolpert will lead us through a contemplation of Death on Good Friday and what rose on Sunday. We will remember what Adam lost in the "Fall," how that was restored, and how the Second Adam offers us the way to the new potential of our unfinished human evolution.

We will focus on four Raphael images, including: 

The Crucifixion

The Sposalizio

The Disputa

The School of Athens

Andrew Wolpert  is a scholar who has been lecturing and leading courses and seminars on anthroposophical themes internationally for many years. He led the Spirit of English Course at Emerson College for 17 years and was co-editor of the ‘Golden Blade’ magazine. He has also taught at the Waldorf Teacher Training University in Stuttgart, at various schools in Japan and Italy, and is coordinator of the Humanities Section of the School of Spiritual Science in Great Britain.

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