“Encountering Novalis” / 2026 Pentecost Conference / Dornach

Opening Words from a poem by Novalis ***

Dear Friends,

As reported in previous Section meetings and announcements, the Section for the Literary Arts & Humanities of the School for Spiritual Science has sponsored this Pentecost Conference on Novalis at the Goetheanum. The conference is almost entirely in German, but here is a PDF of the conference schedule in English (scroll down).  

For the complete conference announcement in German, click here.

Update! Written on June 1, 2026.

This very rich conference deserves its own Section meeting for unpacking and discussion. I’ll schedule that meeting for middle June, if causes and conditions prove favorable. Keep an eye on the Section website and emails for date and time and information. Meanwhile, as time permits, I’ll update this post with remembrances and documentation. This present report necessarily shades toward a North American perspective, since I am concerned with representing the Section in North America. I’ll report on the German language contributions in a later post. 

Update! Written on June 2, 2026.

The original schedule (posted below; scroll down) underwent sudden revision at the beginning of the conference. The lecture “Novalis als Trickster” was spoken on Saturday. The performance “Hymns to the Night” in English was presented on Pentecost Sunday, a day quite fitting for this poem by Novalis. (Scroll all the way down for performance program.) This change was made for dramatic reasons at the request of the lecturer, poet/translator, and musicians.

Also, Daniel Polikoff read an original poem in English on Monday that was inspired by a viewing of Rudolf Steiner’s Representative of Man. This occurred because: following the performance of Hymns to the Night in English on Pentecost Sunday, Section leader Christiane Haid escorted a small group of North American Section members (Literary Arts & Humanities and Visual Arts Sections), musicians, composers, spouses, and intimate friends to a closed viewing of the famous wood carving by Rudolf Steiner. The small group spent about forty minutes in contemplative silence in that room.

At the conclusion of the Conference, the musicians and poet/translator were given access to Rudolf Steiner’s Atelier for an extended period of silent contemplation. We look forward to carrying the spirit of that special moment and the spirit of this special conference into future performances and initiatives in Europe, North America, or elsewhere! This conference in Dornach at Pentecost brought back to memory the seeding-moment of this multi-year journey: the presentation of Novalis in Manitoba in 2023 at the Festival of Initiative — so rightly named and so rightly situated . . . as the Manitoba conference sat right in the middle of the North American landmass! One might imagine that all the waters in Manitoba now resonate like a North American soundboard with the spirit of Novalis for our 21st century. Or maybe not . . .

“Friends, the soil is poor. We must scatter abundant seed to ensure even a middling harvest.”

 

— Novalis

Update! Written June 3, 2026.

As I reported in the previous update, Daniel Polikoff read a poem at the end of the conference, and he sent me a copy of it to share with Section friends and members. Here it is:

The Representative of Man
After Rudolf Steiner

 

That is no slave. That is no man broken
in two, though his outstretched arms (the left,
raised heavenward; the right, pointed down
like Michael’s spear) keep Lucifer

and Ahriman at bay. The bony one below
is not Death, though one wonders what
he has done with Hades; the cloud-borne
one above fills human dreams with false gods.

So he stands there, towering, in-between –
his stern countenance casting off idols,
enacting the tragic drama of discernment

while, almost hidden in the upper right-
hand corner of the mind, the angel-eye
of the quixotic Spirit of Humor
                              hovers.

                                       

— Daniel Polikoff

That word “hovers” is a key word for Novalis, by the way. “Hover” and “hovering” are two terms that we find in Hardenberg’s Fichte Studies notebook, and the words are used meaningfully by him until the very end of his life. He used this word “hover” (“schweben”) significantly in a poem that he wrote just before he died. 

Update! Written June 7, 2026.

I scheduled a Section Zoom meeting for June 13, 7-8 pm Pacific. At this meeting we can share news and memories of the Pentecost conference. I sent the Zoom credentials to the Section regulars. If you need them, contact me.  

*** The words at the top of this posting are from a poem by Novalis that we find in the novel Heinrich von Ofterdingen. Rudolf Steiner read the complete poem at the founding of the first anthroposophical society in Cologne, Germany in 1912. At that time, Rudolf Steiner praised this poem by Novalis as a kind of “motto for the anthroposophical movement.” Rudolf Steiner repeatedly hailed Novalis as the herald of Anthroposophy and praised Novalis as the guiding star for the anthroposophical movement . . ., and of course he pointed to the importance of Novalis in his Last Address. (For more about Novalis, click here.)

Here is the complete poem. 

5.20.26