Home

Editorial

Dear Reader,

Welcome to the Michaelmas issue of New View.

With this particular issue I am mindful that on a Friday, November 13th, back in 1998, I became the editor of this magazine. Little did I imagine that 25 years later I would be producing not only issue number 109, but also my personal one hundredth. In England there is a cricketing tradition that if a batsman makes one hundred runs in an innings he raises his bat to the assembled spectators, in mutual recognition of such a moment. There is no comparable object for an editor to raise (my keyboard does not quite fit the bill, somehow) so on this occasion I stand up and offer my sincere thanks to all the people whose good will and interest over all these years (that includes over 400 different authors we have published in this time) have brought this initiative thus far.

My own biography contained nothing in it up to 1998 that would have in any way pointed to such longevity. I did many different types of work in different parts of the world. Something of a ‘jack of many trades’, rather than master of a career path.

Editing and producing New View has been the most consistently rewarding work. I now consider it a vocation, never a job in itself. It has been a profound education for me, in so many ways, not least the work that authors have connected me to. What drew me to it in the first place was the notion that there ought to be a regular publication going out into the public that had courage for the truth and might connect people to the spiritual dimension of life through anthroposophy and to one another, helping then to be well informed. An anthroposophical newspaper was never going to happen, but New View was there.

So what is in this issue? For some time I had been thoughtful about the lack of any real protest or informed discussion, especially amongst young people, about nuclear. When I grew up I was very aware of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND); yet today there is barely a murmur when a government ‘floats’ the idea of more nuclear power stations (to ‘solve’ energy problems) and the military eyes focus on the destructive use of plutonium. I approached several authors to help remind readers what issues are involved with nuclear, industrial and militarily.

Then along came the film Oppenheimer. That seemed to be a sign to go further and I duly found a good reviewer for that film, having watched it myself. In this issue we begin with inviting the reader to journey into inner and outer space (where Pluto resides) as we open with a contribution from the astrosopher Jonathan Hilton writing from New York with The Sphere of Pluto and the Nuclear Question opening up insight and perspecive, both above and below. The analytical scientist Peter Taylor takes a break from his regular ‘Climate Watch’ column and shares his experience as a nuclear activist from many years ago and how things stand today. He also looks into the underworld in Plutonium Man. Completing our trinity of author contributions on nuclear, “Oppenheimer” is reviewed by Stephen Roberts.

Terry Boardman then takes us to the Languedoc in southern France with A Different Country? The 13th Century and Today – Part I.

Writing from Nova Scotia in Canada, Adam Bendixson also begins a small series with A New View of Money – Part I, laying the ground work for a consideration of Bitcoin.

I asked Matthew Barton if he could share something based on the quality of resilience, he kindly obliged with Begin Afresh.

Writing from California, Allison Neumann shares her personal, healing, experience with of one of Raphael’s paintings in Levity and Gravity. Also from New York, Douglas Sloan brings a profound piece with Reflections on the Mystery of Golgotha.

Linoia Pullen sadly crossed the threshold earlier this year in South Africa and in remembrance we publish an article she wrote shortly before: Colours – the Children of Light and Darkness.

Another USA author, Nigel Gilmer, writes from Tennessee on Maya: The Great Illusion of The World. Stephen Roberts then appears again in this issue with a deep treatment of Manichaeism and Rosicrucianism: A Combined Middle Way?

Rudolf Steiner spent the last two years of his life bringing forward an understanding of karma and reincarnation. Richard Bunzl delves into this in a specific way with Karmic Connections in History and Why they Really Matter.

Michael Warden, writing from Madrid, Spain, looks at the possibility for threefolding with Beyond The Separation of Powers.

There are many attacks on Steiner’s works happening these days and we include a brief, but insightful, piece from Matthew Thurber in France: Anthroposophy in France – An Interview with Isabelle Dupin.

It is neary 100 years since the refounding of the Anthroposphical Society. Michael Burton heralds that coming moment in Rudolf Steiner: Fighter for spiritual freedom – A centenary event approaches…

In a Book Review Article: Seeking to understand the trans-gender issue Richard House opens out this very present topic.

A very special thank you to those readers who have donated to New View, this is so vitally important to us.

And finally, all good wishes to you, the reader, wherever you are,

Tom Raines (Editor)

Contents

Back to Top