Section Meeting / September 21, 2025

“Cloud HIdden, Whereabouts Unknown” / photo b donehower

Dear Friends:

The Section’s Northern California group met for a New Moon Salon on September 21. This was a hybrid event: in-person and on Zoom for those far away. We discussed recent events in the Section, such as the upcoming Harvard Divinity School Conference “100 Years Rudolf Steiner,” and we shared live music and poetry. We also discussed Glen Williamson’s recent presentation of Faust at the Faust Branch, among other topics. I did not make a recording.

The Salon began with a poem by Peter Rennick “Like a String Quartet Valentine.” Dan Davis and Patricia Dickson also read poems.

Like a String Quartet Valentine

 

Let’s give the seasons back
Their original holy names
If we’re ever going to understand
What this world is up to
Let’s call it Gabriel-time
When the earth holds death
And life together sleeping
Under the ice and snow
And Raphael-time when
Birthing heals the dark woods
Every flower a medicine
Lifting our eyes to Uriel’s eyes
Long staring at the sun
Falling there into Michael’s arms
The new-formed music of the earth
Breathing us in and out

 

— Peter Rennick

“Hovering at 36.1237° N, 121.6357° W” / photo b donehower

Selected Section Events / Michaelmas to New Years, 2025

George Reitnour’s Poetry Book Club will meet on 09/27/2025 in person and on Zoom at 11AM-12:30PM EST.  Megan Collins will review Christian Morgenstern’s We Have Found a Path (circa 1914) and George Reitnour will review Gabriel Bradford Millar’s Crackle of Almonds (2012).  For Zoom link and more information, click this sentence. 

Harvard Divinity School has opened registration for their “100 Years Rudolf Steiner” Conference. Our Section is well represented. Former Section leader Martina Maria Sam will give the keynote lecture. Section members Daniel Polikoff, Jeff Hipolito, and Bruce Donehower will present papers. Click here for more information.

Christiane Haid appears in a video to present and discuss the “Rudolf Steiner: Life and Work” exhibit presently on display at the Goetheanum. The video is quite lovely, and you can view it by clicking this sentence. 

Click here to view the Introduction to the Exhibit by Christiane Haid

Robert McDermott and Bruce Donehower will give a joint Section presentation on Zoom for the Faust Branch on October 8: “Buddhism and Anthroposophy.” Visit the Faust Branch for information.

Bruce Donehower will give a Section presentation on “Beauty, Truth, and Goodness” in person at the Faust Branch on October 29. If you have been following the Section’s regular meetings, events, and conferences over the past several years, you will recognize that this is an important and familiar theme in our Section. Click here for some background information on our Section’s work with this theme, including an important paper by Christiane Haid: “The Dawn of the Beautiful.” 

Andrew Linnell will give a 30-minute intersectional presentation on November 8 at a Section meeting on Zoom, followed by conversation. This presentation is part of our Section’s ongoing intersectional collaborative emphasis. Topic: “What Will AI Do to Humanity?” Transhumanism, AI, and the challenge of other-sentience are long-standing important themes in our Section.  

Bruce Donehower will give three one-hour presentation-and-conversations for the ASA in November beginning on November 8 at Noon PST, 3 pm EST. “The Community Begins: Rudolf Steiner’s “Theosophical” Years, 1900-1914.” 

Robert McDermott and Bruce Donehower will give a joint Section presentation on Zoom for the Front Range Anthroposophical Cafe on November 21. 

Spirit of the Time. Looking ahead to 2026 . . . the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will open an exhibit “Raphael: Sublime Poetry” at Eastertide. The exhibit will close at the tide of St. John. In between, Christiane Haid has planned a Novalis Conference at the Goetheanum for Pentecost. If these “signs of the times” don’t send thrills and shivers through you, then, well . . . what can I say? 

Click here for Information on “Raphael: Sublime Poetry” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art NYC

 Michaelmas Greetings, 

Bruce

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