From Moon Festival to Michaelmas

Ben gave a wonderful talk on the special time between the Moon Festival, with its feeling for the abundance of life and the grace of reunion, and Michaelmas, a festival of courage, self-knowledge and new community.
Just as the full moon reflects the light of the sun, so can the autumn festival be a time for reflection, reverence and gratitude. Without these qualities, life becomes barren. In the moon’s shining, we have an image of the reflective process of our thinking, which is an activity of the human spirit.

Michaelmas takes place at the end of September whereas the Moon Festival this year was in the middle of the month. Truly it takes courage to develop self-knowledge and to recognize the soul & spirit beyond our normal conditioned thought and state of being. And spirit recognition, not of oneself only but of others, is the basis of community.

As the moon reflects the light of the sun, bringing its mysterious light where otherwise there would be darkness, so can our thoughts become reflectors of light in our lives. The greater the thought or ideal, the more it can illumine what we do. Consider, for example, the great thought that what happens in our lives is what we have drawn to ourselves, even our pain and suffering. If we go beyond mere speculation and make this thought a ‘shining moon’ in our ‘universe’, then gradually, in place of blame or self-pity, a new sense of inner responsibility, even of gratitude, can arise.
To hold such thoughts is not an intellectual process but an act of will – and it is primarily the will that is called upon in the festival of Michaelmas. Only through putting something into practice - through upholding a certain thought in one’s life, for example - does one come to recognize that is ‘I’ who am doing it, ‘I’ as creative spirit. Realization dawns that in today’s world each one of us creates the reality in which we live. Through our thoughts, feelings and actions we are actually creating ourselves.
Even the moon’s eclipse (which can only happen when it is full) touches something deep within us. In the eerie luminosity we see then, we can open our souls to deep processes of the universe, connecting with the sun that we cannot at that time see. So too our true self is veiled, yet there are moments when we know it is there – moments, for example, when with spirit presence we cut through the fickle dragon of our likes and dislikes. At such times, the human spirit illumines the darkness as if with the flaming sword of Michael depicted in medieval paintings, and a will for the good arises in our depths, bringing new impulses and meaning into our lives.
This inner presence is neither mystical nor theoretical. It is an experience, just like confidence is. What is confidence, after all, that intangible sense of security which can appear and disappear and which has such a determining influence on the quality of our lives? Is it not a manifestation of spirit presence? And can it not also overflow into another person, at least for a time, as can other expressions of the spirit?
Through our lives we learn the hard truth that the world in not here to serve us, rather for us to be able to grow, to become responsible and ultimately to create ourselves and our reality anew. Through reverence and wonder, we have an instrument for seeing what is good in the existence that we have inherited from the past. In saying yes to what my life brings, I have a source of real experience right now out of which I can create and bring new influences into the world. In having the strength and courage to recognize the living spirit, in oneself and others, we have a flaming sword which can cut through our weaknesses and transform our world for the good. It is up to us.
In reflecting on the abundance of what life brings, and of all that I have received from others, gratitude – an endangered resource in our modern world – is born. And gratitude, in its turn, is a preparation for future acts of courage. Gratitude becomes a seedbed for confidence; from confidence comes courage. So in the remarkable wisdom of the year’s course, we move from the Moon Festival, which celebrates the community of family and loved ones and the fruits of life, to the Festival of Michaelmas, through which one can feel united with people all around the world, irrespective of nationality or creed, who have the courage to face their own dragons and meet their own spirit, becoming warriors of truth in this critical time in which we are living.
While the one is celebrated more in the East and the other in the West, each one, in its true meaning, can be a world festival.

During the second day, we worked with the theme of ‘The inner development of the Teacher and Child development’
It is awesome to realize the extent to which children take on what we are and what lives in us as teachers and parents and in this talk and discussion Ben led us through the processes whereby this happens.
Essentially the incarnation of the child into this world takes the form of the meeting of two streams, as each unique being (of soul and spirit) gradually descends into the vessel of the living body (physical and etheric), inherited through the parents. A dance and a struggle takes place between these two, which shows itself in many of the characteristic childhood illnesses and in children’s quickly changing moods and sometimes difficult behaviour. We cannot directly influence the child’s spirit, nor is it our task to do so, but we can and do have a strong influence on the ability of the body and soul to receive this spirit – which in turn influences the spirit’s ability eventually to take hold of its destiny in this life. Preparation for this is the realm of home life and education.
Small children learn through imitation, as kindergarten teachers well know. This is not consciously done but is an expression of the fact that the child, in its soul and spirit (also etherically – i.e. with its life forces), flows into everything that is around it.
In its limbs the child is active and comparatively awake, but in its head it is asleep. This is why the child learns most of all through doing, not through concepts or moral instructions. Its soft, small body takes in the environment deeply, even into the forms of the brain, with consequences for the whole of life. Only gradually does the head wake up, though in today’s world this happens earlier and earlier through the over-stimulation of the brain and senses. As the head awakens, the young person learns consciously to direct her actions out of her own volition, not just because her teacher or parent tells her to do it. This properly belongs to the time of adolescence and beyond.
Strangely, we are most social when we are asleep, for then we merge with one another, but unconsciously. This is the natural state of early childhood. As we wake up, we become separate; we cannot flow with life as before and are too much in our heads. Children who are awakened into life too early often have social and learning difficulties because they lose the openness and the magic grace that comes from childhood. It is the child that is the creative source within each one of us and if this is taken from us too early our lives become the poorer for it. The spirit in the head is a powerful energy; children are not yet ready to be able to deal with it.
As kindergarten teachers one has to use one’s etheric body to educate the physical bodies of the children. What does this mean? Consider the power of an inner picture to change how one stands or speaks or moves one’s limbs. If we tell children to keep their backs straight and their chins up, we are giving them physical instructions and they will respond by trying to move their muscles accordingly, but probably not for very long as it is physically tiring. If you give them the image of a star above their heads, however, they will raise themselves without even thinking about what they are doing. The picture lifts them. This is part of what it means to work etherically.
Similarly our words and gestures can either be lifeless and purely functional or they can take wing through the thoughts, images and feelings we carry within us. When we point with our fingers or nod or smile, is this just a physical movement? No it is not. Something beyond the physical – a thought or intention or feeling - shows itself in what the body does, it is not the body alone which does it. How potent is the inner picture of a fountain of water, sparkling with life, sunlight and air and how readily children will flow with one in this fountain if one creates it for them!
Etheric energy can stream through our eyes and flow through our gestures, touching children’s hearts. Joyfulness, gratitude, love and light, all these are carried etherically and in their presence children feel safe and learn respect. In them grows the love of life.
As a child's etheric body is born (i.e. becomes independent from those around) and she moves on into the primary school, we need now to use our astral body (the feeling-based, sentient foundation of the soul) as our medium of education. Take notice of what is happening in your own soul, in your inner weather and recurring thoughts! What tones and colours do we carry within as the atmosphere out of which we teach? Is one colour too dominant, one tone too strident? How can we soften it and mix it with others so as to bring harmony to the temperaments that live in the etheric body of each child?
We become artists in working on ourselves and the beauty of it is that we do this because it is what the children need. The appearance and state of the classroom, our ways of doing things and of teaching all the subjects we teach, our rhythm of breathing (whether too loose or heavy, too serious or light) - all these become an integral part of our professional lives as teachers and need to be transformed as the consciousness of the children changes.
When in adolescence the astral body of the young person is born (becomes independent) and his whole personality can change, it is now one’s own ‘I’ which is being called into action, to demonstrate its mastery over one’s own astrality (emotional turbulence) and its ability to give true direction to one’s life.
Adolescents are experts in pressing buttons. The anger you thought you had said goodbye to years ago suddenly bursts its banks and floods into the room, followed perhaps by a deep depression about one’s inability to teach... But they also long to see the strength of the human spirit and can be merciless in testing whether it lives in their teachers and parents or not. ‘Who are you behind your outer veneer, what do you really know and why are you teaching me this content?’ These are the kinds of questions that live in the souls of many adolescents towards their teachers. It is a direct call to the human spirit. And our response can either give them hope and energy for the future or it can confirm them in their fears and doubts.
At every stage of teaching we have a vital role to play. Only in the future will the effects of what we have done be revealed.

On the third day, we worked with a verse by Rudolf Steiner calling for the strength to transform our weaknesses and self-seeking into compassion and spiritual rebirth. We worked further with the speech exercises we had done the day before to bring meaning and life into this powerful Michaelmas verse.

Spirit Triumphant!
Flame through the weakness of fainted-hearted souls!
Consume our self-seeking,
Ignite our compassion,
That selfless desire, the life-stream of mankind,
May hold sway as a well-spring of Spirit Reborn!