Sheffield, UK. Quinlan Wingfield from England has studied anthroposophy at the Goetheanum. He believes that the anthroposophical community should not be afraid of emphasizing its unique characteristics.
It is very easy to spend an ungodly amount of hours aimlessly searching through the Rudolf Steiner online archive, finding the next shiny thing. But especially as someone who isn’t (yet) working with the First Class, you quickly get to a position where you know lots of random, interesting, and deep anthroposophical facts, but where the basics remain kind of hazy.
Having actual structured and tailored learning around anthroposophy—not biodynamics, not teaching, not therapy, but anthroposophy—is something which is becoming harder and harder to find. And where better to do it than the Goetheanum?
Most people, if not everyone in the course, is here because of the spiritual or esoteric side of anthroposophy. I would say the biggest challenge that I, and almost everyone else I’ve spoken to here, is facing, is the fact that the esoteric isn’t taking center-stage anymore. It is still present, don’t get me wrong, but I have the impression that the marketing, the way things are presented, the topics, are almost all watered down to seem more “normal”.
Trying to frame anthroposophy and anthroposophy-adjacent things as just “another professional alternative of X” is in my opinion not really the way to go. We aren’t leading with our strengths, and we’re creating a situation where someone could like the idea of biodynamics for example, but come across Steiner’s spiritual works, and without proper context or resources, walk away from both without a second thought. This way of presenting ourselves doesn’t work, yet it is becoming all the more common. Embrace the weird; acknowledge that it is weird, and we might be better off.
Contact qgeorgewin@gmail.com
Translation Paula Boslau
Image Private
