Timeline of Meeting Summaries

The Art of Memory

“Listen to the Bear” photo by Bruce Donehower "At a Glance . . .” At our recent Section meeting on October 2, 2021, we returned to themes that were under discussion at our last in-person meeting on March 2020, just prior to Covid isolation. We discussed the North...

Meetings, Poetry, & Publications

“For California is a Poem!” Words by Ina Coolbrith. Photo by Bruce Donehower Here is a summary of recent events and a look ahead to autumn, the “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness." A Section for the Literary Arts and Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair...

History of the Literary Arts Section

“A Poem Found Written on a Rock at the American River” / Photo by Bruce Donehower A North American Zoom Meeting for the Section of the Literary Arts and Humanities! On Sunday September 19, 2021, at 1 pm Pacific Time, the collegium of the Section for the Literary Arts...

Report from the Secret Garden

The 2021 Fair Oaks Summer Fairy Tale Group By Marion Donehower “When did it happen? Where did it happen? Did it happen at all? Is it happening now?”   “All fairy tales are dreams from a distant homeland everywhere and nowhere.” -- Novalis _____________ I already...

A Letter Home from Summer Camp, August 2021

“Bolinas Diary,” photo by Bruce Donehower Dear Friends: This mid-summer “letter home from summer camp” Section report will tell you about: Wilhelm Meister Italian Journey Faust / A New Issue of Stil “Why Can’t Henry Sit Still? / The Moral Challenge of Faust” / an...

“Umstülpung!”

“Offering” photo by Bruce Donehower Summer Break! Last night — in a hybrid meeting on the porch — we celebrated the completion of sixteen months of weekly Zoom meetings for friends and members of the Section for the Literary Arts & Humanities. A Milestone! Our...

James Joyce, Modernism, & the Unborn

  Video Lecture from June 2021 Meeting Art, Spirit, Epiphany A Waldorf Perspective   “James Joyce, the twentieth century literary giant, had a vision of the arts. He saw the arts as consisting of both proper and improper manifestations. But he saw two kinds...

Spirit Remembering

"Bisonte Magdaleniense polícromo” Cave of Altamira Here is a summary of the recent Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on June 19, 2021 via Zoom. https://vimeo.com/565947198 "Time past and time...

Liberation

“Liberation” by Marc Chagall, 1932 Here is a summary of the recent Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on June 12, 2021 via Zoom. "At a Glance . . .” “Poetry Night" We held our second poet’s...

Owen Barfield: A Video Presentation by Fred Dennehy, Ph.D.

“Owen Barfield: The Soul of a Word” In this 30-minute video recording from a Section for Literary Arts and Humanities meeting held on June 5, 2021, Fred Dennehy provides an introduction to the world and mind of Owen Barfield. https://vimeo.com/560277889 “We are...

Poetry Night / June 12, 2021

Illuminated poem by William Blake A Celebration of Poetry and Poets On June 12, 2021, the friends and members of the local group of the Section for Literary Arts and Humanities hosted the second Poets Salon of original poetry for 2021. We are fortunate that our local...

Novalis & The Healing Art of Fairy Tale

  This 20-minute lecture video is from a Section meeting held in Fair Oaks on November 20, 2020.   https://vimeo.com/583886003   Lecture by Bruce Donehower (20 min)   Novalis thought very highly of fairy tales. Much of what Novalis says about the...

Owen Barfield

“Sehnsucht” Photo by Bruce Donehower Here is a summary of the recent Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on June 5, 2021 via Zoom. "At a Glance . . .” “Owen Barfield: The Soul of a Word” Fred...

“Sumer is icumen in”

Here is a summary of the recent Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on May 22, 2021 via Zoom. "At a Glance . . .” "Sumer is icumen in . . ." We began the meeting with a quick “calendar set” for...

The Enigma of Beauty

Here is a summary of the recent Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on May 15, 2021 via Zoom. "At a Glance . . .” The Enigma of Beauty We turned once more to Friedrich Schiller’s Letters on the...

Happy Birthday, Novalis! / 2021

On May 2, 2021 the friends and members of the Section for Literary Arts and Humanities group in Fair Oaks met to celebrate the 249th birthday of Friedrich von Hardenberg, the poet Novalis (May 2, 1772). This “New Moon Salon” occurred on Zoom – an artistic hour of...

The Stars of the 1790s

Here is a summary of the recent Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on May 1, 2021 via Zoom. "At a Glance . . .” The Stars of the 1790s / Brian Gray's Presentation On Saturday, May 1 Brian Gray...

Christian Morgenstern: An Introduction by Clifford Venho

“Fishes Night Song.” Poem by Christian Morgenstern In this video recording from a Section Zoom meeting held on April 24, 2021, poet Clifford Venho shares a 34-minute introduction to Christian Morgenstern. https://vimeo.com/542245838 We Have Found a Path Morgenstern is...

Finding a Path

Here is a summary of the recent Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on April 24, 2021 via Zoom. "At a Glance . . .” Welcome, Christian Morgenstern! On Saturday we welcomed once more to our...

Poetry Night, April 17, 2021

Here is a summary of the recent Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on April 17, 2021 via Zoom. "At a Glance . . .” Poetry Night! Our weekly local meeting of the Literary Arts & Humanities...

Orpheus, Rilke, Novalis

Here is a summary of the recent Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on April 10, 2021 via Zoom. "At a Glance . . .” Our weekly local Literary Arts Section meetings have resumed after a two-week...

A Secret Word

Here is a summary of the recent Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on March 20, 2021 via Zoom. "At a Glance . . .” Terry joined our meeting to give a presentation. Terry also shared with our...

The Enchanted Garden

Here is a summary of the recent Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on March 13, 2021 via Zoom. "At a Glance . . .” The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily. Once again, we spent the entire...

A Night with Novalis

“When the Morning Stars Sang Together” by William Blake Here is a summary of the recent Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on February 27, 2021 via Zoom. "At a Glance . . .” Eurythmist and poet...

A Night at the Opera

Here is a summary of the recent Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on February 20, 2021 via Zoom. "At a Glance . . .” A Night at the Opera. Thanks to Marion and Nicholas, Mozart and Ingmar...

Goethe’s Narrated Opera

“The Procession to the Bridge” by Hermann Linde Here is a summary of the recent Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on February 13, 2021 via Zoom. "At a Glance . . .” On February 13 we continued...

Under the Sign of Friendship

Here is a summary of the recent Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on February 6, 2021 via Zoom. "At a Glance . . .” On February 6 we continued our 2021 work on the Fairy Tale of the Green...

The Time Is At Hand!

"Family of Saltimbanques" by Pablo Picasso Here is a summary of the recent Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group that occurred in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on January 30, 2021 via Zoom. "At a Glance . . .” On January 30 we...

A Moment of Redirection and Opportunity

“The Boy” by Amedeo Mogdiliani "At a Glance . . .” On January 23 we began our meetings for 2021. For the time being, we will continue to meet for an hour each Saturday We reviewed the publication Stil, a joint effort of the Section for Literary Arts and the Visual Art...

“A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens

Original Cover of the 1843 Edition An abridged performance narration for the New Year, 2021 https://vimeo.com/496245692 This performance video of the famous Dickens’ tale was done at the invitation of the Fair Oaks Faust Branch as part of their Holy Night schedule....

An Advent Celebration

“The Niccolini-Copwer Madonna” by Raphael Here is a summary of the recent Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on December 19, 2020 via Zoom. "At a Glance . . .” This was our last meeting for the...

Advent Salon

Here is a summary of the recent Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on December 12, 2020 via Zoom. "At a Glance . . .” On December 12 we had another online literary salon. The details of our...

Piktor’s Metamorphoses & Novalis

Here is a summary of the recent Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on December 5, 2020 via Zoom. "At a Glance . . .” On December 12 we will celebrate the completion of our work in 2020 with an...

Novalis, Schlegel, Shakespeare: A Fellowship of the Word

“Catching the Thanksgiving Turkey” by Grandma Moses Here is a summary of the recent Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on November 28, 2020 via Zoom. "At a Glance . . .” We discussed briefly...

Finding the Grail in Northern California

An earlier version of this essay appeared in the Yearbook of the Section for the Literary Arts and Humanities of the School for Spiritual Science (Verlag am Goetheanum: Dornach, 2002) and the Newsletter of the Section for the Literary Arts and Humanities of the School...

Novalis & The Healing Art of Fairy Tale / Video Lecture

    “The fairy tale is the touchstone of poetry . . . everything poetic must be like a fairy tale. The poet worships chance.” — Novalis   This 20-minute lecture video is from a Meeting of the Section for the Literary Arts and Humanities held on November...

Novalis, Hesse & Jung

"November Afternoon" by Alfred Sisley Here is a summary of the recent Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on November 14, 2020 via Zoom. "At a Glance . . .” On November 20, members and friends...

“The Unending Task” / A Parable of Mercy and Compassion

Speech artist and local Fair Oaks group member Margit Ilgen found this parable of compassion and mercy in an old collection of world myths and legends. She brought it to the group’s attention and suggested that it might be a worthy project. We had just finished the...

Mahler, Novalis & Scenes from Ellis Island

Here is a summary of the recent Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on November 6, 2020 via Zoom. "At a Glance . . ." Jean Yeager and Tess Parker are hosting an online writer’s salon on November...

Zoom salon for Keats and a new website

Here is a summary of the recent Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on October 31, 2020 via Zoom. Meeting Summary Last night’s meeting was a big one! And very lively! We hosted our first...

Lifting the Veil

“Spring Cloud Study” by John Constable Here is a summary of the recent weekly Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on October 24, 2020 via Zoom. Meeting Summary We began the meeting with a few...

“Alle Menschen” by Novalis

At the meeting of the local Section group on April 18, 2020, we discussed one of the very last poems that Novalis wrote: “Alle Menschen seh ich Leben.” This prompted a lively dialogue concerning translation. I hope we can continue this discussion in future meetings....

Apprentices & Fairy Tales

Here is a summary of the recent weekly Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on October 17, 2020 via Zoom. Meeting Summary We started our meeting a bit early at 6:40 to allow more time for...

Apprentices of Sais

“Still Life” by Suri Oru Here is a summary of the recent weekly Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on October 10, 2020 via Zoom. Meeting Summary We made slight changes to the rhythm of our...

Steffen, Schiller & Sensitive Chaos

Here is a summary of the recent weekly Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on October 3, 2020 via Zoom. Meeting Summary Last night we held our 28th online weekly Zoom meeting of the local group...

Language & Romantic Irony

Greetings at the season of Michaelmas. Here is a summary of the recent weekly Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on September 26, 2020, via Zoom. "Intimate acquaintance with Novalis means for...

Bach, Hesse & Keats

Here is a summary of the recent weekly Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on September 19, 2020 via Zoom. "Human beings travel many paths. Whoever pursues these paths and makes comparisons will...

Narcissus & Goldmund

Here is a summary of the recent weekly Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on September 12, 2020 via Zoom. Meeting Summary Last night we began our discussion of the novel Narcissus and Goldmund...

Tieck, Steiner & Grimm

Here is a summary of the recent weekly Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on September 5, 2020 via Zoom. At this meeting, we continued our consideration of Novalis. Meeting Summary Last night...

Birth Chart of Novalis

Here is a summary of the recent weekly Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on August 29, 2020 via Zoom. At this meeting, we continued our consideration of Novalis. Meeting Summary This week’s...

A Mysterious Singer

Here is a summary of the recent weekly Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on August 22, 2020 via Zoom. At this meeting we continued our consideration of Hymns to the Night by Novalis. Meeting...

“Handschrift” Novalis

Here is a summary of the recent weekly Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on August 15, 2020 via Zoom. At this meeting we continued our consideration of Hymns to the Night by Novalis. Meeting...

Hymns to the Night

Here is a summary of the recent weekly Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on August 8, 2020 via Zoom. At this meeting we began our consideration of Hymns to the Night by Novalis. We have...

Star Wisdom in Novalis

Here is a summary of the recent weekly Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on August 1, 2020 via Zoom. Meeting Summary Brian Gray joined us last night. Brian talked to us about the stars and...

“Cave Music” & Novalis

Here is a summary of the recent weekly Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on July 25, 2020 via Zoom. At this meeting, we continued our exploration of Novalis and the novel Heinrich...

Friedrich Hiebel on Novalis

Here is a summary of the recent weekly Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on July 18, 2020 via Zoom. At this meeting, we continued our exploration of Novalis and the novel Heinrich...

Conscience & Clouds

Here is a summary of the recent weekly Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on July 11, 2020 via Zoom. At this meeting, we continued our exploration of Novalis and the novel Heinrich von...

Heinrich von Ofterdingen

“He was an environment in which people came to be changed.” Words spoken in reference to Novalis   “To those, who judge men by their forwardness, or by their affectation of fashion or dignity, Novalis was lost in the crowd; but to the practised eye he appeared...

The Unborn

Here is a summary of the recent weekly Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on June 27, 2020 via Zoom. In this meeting, we continued our exploration of Novalis and the novel Heinrich von...

Freya, Perseus & Klingsohr

Here is a summary of the recent weekly Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on June 20, 2020 via Zoom. In this meeting, we continued our exploration of Novalis and the novel Heinrich von...

Steffen, Novalis & Dante

Here is a summary of the recent weekly Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on June 13, 2020 via Zoom. In this meeting, we continued our exploration of Novalis. Meeting Summary We again discussed...

Klingsohr’s Fairy Tale

Here is a summary of the recent weekly Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on June 6, 2020 via Zoom. In this meeting, we continued our exploration of Novalis. Meeting Summary Why have I included...

Vidar

Here is a summary of the recent weekly Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on May 30, 2020 via Zoom. In this meeting, we continued our exploration of Novalis. Meeting Summary Cheryl shared the...

Inward Goes the Secret Path

Here is a summary of the recent weekly Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on May 23, 2020 via Zoom. In this meeting, we continued our exploration of Novalis — with an accent on the color blue....

The Secret Word

Here is a brief summary of the recent weekly Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on May 16, 2020 via Zoom. I’ll continue to send out these summaries, but the idea came up in discussion last...

The King of Metals

Here is a summary of the recent Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on May 9, 2020 via Zoom. Meeting Summary The picture displayed above is a detail from a larger work that hangs in the Crocker...

Magical Idealism

Here is a summary of the recent Section for Literary Arts & Humanities meeting of the local group in Fair Oaks, CA. This meeting occurred on May 2, 2020 via Zoom. Meeting Summary "Happy Birthday, Friedrich von Hardenberg, gennant Novalis!" As noted in earlier...

Fairy Tales / “Heinrich von Ofterdingen”

Here is a summary of the recent April 25, 2020 Zoom meeting in Fair Oaks. Meeting Summary After a period of “meet and greet” and sharing some personal news and news of the community, we began the meeting with a verse. The verse chosen for this meeting comes from...

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