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Editorial

Dear Reader,

Welcome to the Michaelmas issue of New View. It is a time in the cycle of the year when, traditionally, stories are told of overcoming a dragon. Rudolf Steiner had much to say about the changing seasons and the Archangel connected to each of them. With Michaelmas he stated that a dark spiritual being had indeed been cast down from the heavens into the Earth, amongst us. Christian terminology would call this being Satan, Steiner named it Ahriman. What was an outer story – St. George and the Dragon in English culture for example – has now become a personal one, as each of us deals with the ‘dragon’ in our own soul life. The archangel who cast this being out of the Heavens is Michael. Steiner once said a curious thing: “Ahriman calculates, but Michael makes the final addition”. You could understand this in different ways, but it may mean, essentially, that there is always something that is left open, there is something that can happen to change things and make a difference. There is hope, a way forward can be found. It is a qualitative thing, like adding some seasoning to a meal. In English we often speak about things that ‘make a difference’.

The changing of the seasons is a powerful influence on peoples and cultures, with its daily, monthly and yearly cycles reflected in our recognition, and reliance on, calendars. Michaelmas is one of four Christian festivals in the year that mark the changing of the seasons; the festival days of Easter, Midsummer, Michaelmas and Christmas are close to the two solstices (the longest and shortest day) and two equinoxes (the moment when the day and night are of equal length, or duration) that occur in each year. The reason for this, and for why the seasons are opposite in the Northern and Southern hemispheres of the Earth, is because whilst the Earth, spinning around its axis, orbits the Sun, it is also tilted by 23.5°. First one and then the other hemisphere tilt toward the Sun as the Earth completes each orbit. The hemisphere tilted toward the sun experiences summer; the hemisphere tilted away from the Sun experiences winter. Without this tilt, the days would never lengthen or shorten and the season would remain fixed for each place on the Earth. This tilt adds something to our experience of the passage of time – and warmth – spread over the Earth, it brings a quality to it. It makes a difference on a planetary scale and one that affects each of us in our soul life too.

New View also wishes to make a qualitative difference as to how we can see and understand ourselves, the world and the Cosmos around us. This issue begins with a further exploration into the work of the American, Frank Chester. In the last issue we looked at his development of a unique geometric form and how that related to the underlying geometry of the human heart. In A New Understanding of the Geometry of the Earth, based on conversations with Frank Chester I share his astonishing ideas and insights that also offer an explanation as to the phenomenon of the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis – the so-called Northern and Southern Lights. This is complimented by Paul Carline’s biographic sketch of The Life and Work of Paul Schatz, a German mathematician, sculptor and inventor of new kinds of technology who also inspired and informed aspects of Frank Chester’s own research. I should add here that in response to some of our readers requesting a little more humour in the magazine, this article is accompanied by New View’s first ever featured cartoon strip! A young, talented and budding graphic artist, Zephir Delamore, from New Zealand is on a gap-year and brings an insightful lightheartedness to ‘season’ the mixture of the serious content – and make a difference!

We then travel to Nepal with Eric Fairman’s Shanti Seva ~ Peace and Selfless Service where he visits a project, inspired out of anthroposophy, that is enhancing the lives of lepers, the disabled and orphans who are regarded as outcasts of their own society. Close by, in India, Felix Padel then exposes the far-reaching consequences of the aluminium industry in Aluminium Propensities for Life and Death.

In a reflective piece, The Right to Be Wrong, Matthew Barton asks if it is not allright to stray from the path sometimes, being even necessary for us to really grow and understand things. Terry Boardman also takes a reflective moment, in his garden, where he muses on the rhythms of life and the passing of time in Saturn Returns… This leads, rather appropriately, on into Cosmic Memories where Hannah Townsend offers a helpful overview – with a special centre-page illustration – of one of Steiner’s seminal books, Cosmic Memory.

Terence Davies then brings his clear thoughts to bear, looking at the undisputable truths that we base our beliefs on and which tend to guide our moral principles in The Source of a priori Truth. This is followed by Seeking the Astral: From Nests to Nebulae where Richard Bunzl looks at the Astral element of the human being.

Finally, in A Wi-Fi Update, Sarah Benson has passed on an interesting article that addresses the issue of the airy environment that sustains us and every other living thing. How polluted is the air now from microwave and wireless technology – who is monitoring it and who is to say when enough is enough? Reader’s thoughts on this are especially welcome.

The New View ‘Fighting Fund’ for the Friends of New View has produced a heart warming response to our financial appeal and we can now produce at least another two, or possibly three, issues at least. This gives us a breathing space to find a better way forward. My grateful thanks to all the generosity extended to us.

Wishing you well, wherever you are,

Tom Raines – Editor

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