Curative Education, Social Therapy and the Craft Impulse

Curative Education, Social Therapy and the Craft Impulse Brian M. Walsh

THE CAMPHILL COURSE

IN

CURATIVE EDUCATION

AND

SOCIAL THERAPY

Camphill Community Glencraig,Craigavad, Holywood, Co. Down,

BT18 0DB, Northern Ireland

Final ProjectCurative Education, Social Therapy and the

Craft Impulse

Brian M. WalshFinal Draft June 2010


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The Camphill Course In Curative Education and Social Therapy Final Project:2010

Brian M. Walsh 2010. The author has asserted the moral right to be identified asthe author of this work.


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Contents

DedicationAcknowledgementsIntroduction

Part 1: Preliminary MaterialThe Human HandCraft in EducationCraft as a VocationCraft as Therapy

Part 2: The Descent into MatterThe Descent into Matter and Man's Evolving ConsciousnessThe Animal Kingdom: Felting and WeavingThe Plant Kingdom: Basket MakingThe Mineral Kingdom: Pottery

Part 3: Inner Aspects of CraftworkCraft and Morality

Appendix 1: A Theory Of KnowledgeBibliographyEndnotes


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This text is dedicated to:

Jamie

Who offers me much needed challenges, raises constant questionsabout the true archetype of humanity, and above of all shares

unwavering and much valued friendship.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Edeleine for the books, and Johannes and Valerie forconstructively critical feedback.. Thank you to Renate B. for a belief in

the possibility of a well ordered and serious me, and for makingconstant reference to my aspirations as well as acknowledging my

struggles. Thanks to all whom I live with, meet and encounter daily andwho simultaneously challenge and inspire me. Thanks, as always, to

Jamie, my steadfast friend and most profound teacher.


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Introduction

Coming towards the end of my training as a social therapist through the seminar inGlencraig I am faced with all that I have learned and experienced in my time here.Above all I have learned a lot about myself and the unique way I am constituted. Ihave also learned a lot about the human archetype and all of the subtle variations onthe theme that constitute the special children and adults that I care for, and that I havegrown to care about.

In meeting the special children and adults that I care about, and who form such animportant part of my life, I not only recognize them as they stand before me, but meetthese people with a question. What can I do (or perhaps even ‘how can I be) tosupport them in their life’s work?

This question has come to me again and again during my life in Camphill in variousinstances when I beheld a person and recognized their potential. I have chosen toenable these children and adults I care about through the medium of craftwork.

In my personal journey I have chosen to work with craft because I have a one sidedtendency towards dead intellectual thinking, or working from fixed concepts andabstractions. I have found that I need to work with my hands to be able to penetratematter and form my thinking life starting from the spiritual reality inherent in thematerial world. I have chosen to move from a one sidedness, which although greatlyrewarded and revered in our materialistic culture, does a great injustice to the gestaltof that which is human in me.

In working with our special children and adults I hope to offer a similar path ofdevelopment which allows an engagement with the material world, a feeling for thecreative potential inherent in the human being, and a development of an imaginativepictorial thinking that arises from the spiritual reality of the meeting between the spiritin nature, and the spirit in man.

I begin my project by turning towards the human hand, which Kant referred to asthe outer brain, and look at it as a tool of activity and a developing organ of moralperception.

I look at the importance of craft in the life of the developing child, making specialreference to how this question is addressed in the Waldorf curriculum. I also addressthe development of the child in need of special care.

My own work has always been primarily based in working with our special adultsand I have grown to an appreciation of the possibility for meaningful, moral andskilled work for people with a variety of needs and abilities. I look especially at thethreefold human being and the archetypal craft threefold of apprentice, journeymanand master.

In the second part of this work I turn ever more towards specific craft impulses inthe form of:

• Weaving• Basket making• Pottery

As these crafts have been practically practiced in some form in Glencraig and I havealso experienced these crafts in the village community I lived in previously, I focusmainly on these. In this I also look at the question of craftwork within the context ofworld evolution as described by Rudolf Steiner. I particularly focus on thedevelopment of work with the three lower kingdoms of animal, plant and mineral


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through work with wool and weaving, basket weaving, and pottery. This is linkedwith the ‘descent into matter’ approach.

I conclude with looking at craft activity and moral activity as interrelated impulsesin the human being.

Two appendices follow, which although not necessary to the rest of the thesis,belong to it none the less.

I have written this work out of what I have worked through and experienced. WhenI have turned to the work of others, including the work of Rudolf Steiner, I have doneso to offer content that I have, and continue to work with as if a meditation and aquestion. These words alongside my own can only ever offer starting points, seeds forfuture development. May these seeds bear fertile fruits.

Brian M. Walsh


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Part 1: Preliminary Material

The Human Hand

When entering the Waldorf School, before coming to craftwork, the child is firsteducated through handwork, which normally involves precision work such as knitting.The term handwork speaks to the significance of the hand for the wide spectrum oftasks performed by the human being.

In his lectures to the craft conference Dr. König spoke about the sublime craft to befound in the animal kingdom, for example the manner in which the honey bee formsits hive in a perfect hexagonal formation, or the formation of a dam by a beaver. Inthe animal kingdom we see within the whole physical organisation the archetype oftheir craft. In the hand of the human being we see a non particularised development(as opposed to a wing or hoof which is specific to their given purpose). The humanhand has the possibility of being free in its creative potential as the hands can expressany of the particularised actions of the animals.

We are told in Genesis that God made man in his own image, in his own likenessand gave him dominion over the animal, plant and mineral kingdoms. Man wascreated as a creative being. At this time the hands had no particularised purpose, butthis changed in their first recorded deed. Eve picked the fruit of the tree of knowledge.

‘And the Lord God said ‘Behold man is become as of one of us and knows goodand evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat,and live forever’1

And so man was cast from paradise and given the freedom of choice – to know goodand evil is also to act in accordance with this knowledge out of freedom.

When we speak about the hands we think about them as being part of the metaboliclimb system, but if we look at their physical positioning they extend from therhythmical system, from the heart and the lungs. From this we could speak of thehands as also having a rhythmical nature which relates to the rhythmical memoryassociated with repetition and craft activity.

The hand is quite unique in the gesture it can make. It can turn upwards to theheavens, or down to the earth. We see here man as a polarity between these two. In alecture on Craft and Morality Dr. Thomas Weihs speaks about the bones in the armduring the turning upwards and downwards. When the hand is facing upwards the twobones, the radius and the ulna are parallel, and when faced to the earth they arecrossed. Here we meet the eurythmy gesture of the German ‘E’ (an A sound inEnglish, such as in the word bath) in the crossing as an awakening experience.

In the hand we encounter a density of nerve endings that exemplify the sense oftouch. To touch something is to have an experience of self. Unlike substance basedsenses such as taste and smell we never encounter inside of ourselves that which wetouch. The nerve endings sit beneath the skin and we experience ourselves, andanother thing. Only from this experience of I and it or I and you do we come to selfconsciousness.

Finally I would like to point to something Dr. Steiner said about the hand as anorgan of perception. He spoke about the hand becoming an organ for moralperception. I find this image, in the light of craftwork and the work with naturalmaterials to be quite important. Can we perceive moral qualities? Dr. Albert Soesmansays:


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There is a peculiar paradox in the sense of touch: on the one hand you can feel that apiece of wood… is something hard, but on the other hand you can feel that it is a finepiece of wood, you can feel : How beautiful it is, doesn’t it feel good when you runyour hand over it? This is the peculiar thing – in the hardness we experience beingexcluded from it, and in the pleasure of touching we experience the desire to make anintimate connection. In this we see an innate desire of the human being; he actuallyknows that the sense of touch separates him, excludes him from something, to whichhe is yet related.2

I will turn to the question of morality, moral development and moral perceptionwhen I look at craft and morality at the end of this work.

Craft in EducationTo educate through Art is to awaken man through his own nobler attitudes andqualities to quicken his perception of the world he lives in, so that he may come toknow himself as the being who gives meaning to creation. Unless man can re-createhimself through an orderly education of the heart as well as head, unless he can beguided to serve spirit as well as matter, he may cease to be man and become aprototype of his misconception of himself; a beast without a mission3

- Francis Edmunds

Here in Glencraig, and in other curative educational establishments around theworld, the educational ideas of Rudolf Steiner are implemented. These ideasoriginally developed when Rudolf Steiner was asked to advise and lead the foundingof a school based on the pedagogical insights of Anthroposophy. Today there areWaldorf schools throughout the world actively educating through anthroposophicalinsights.

The work of education as expressed in Waldorf Schools and curative education areintimately related to one another but are not necessarily synonymous. The Waldorfschool and its curriculum address the archetypal development of the child,accompanying, and often precipitating developmental landmarks. Curative education,recognising the child and their archetypal development, seeks to enable children withcomplex needs to develop towards better expressing their human archetype, albeit intheir own manner. This is done through addressing one sidedness, through offering abroad range of potentials and through engaging the child in their developmentaljourney. This is done through the Waldorf curriculum and also individualisedtherapeutic and educational input.

The aim of curative education is not to normalise, but to enable these very specialchildren to bring an extraordinary perspective much needed in our time. It is the workof curative education to enable these children to take up their ‘Kaspar Hauser’mission.

In my experience education is generally directed in two directions – from the headand the thinking to the metabolism (sedimentary learning) and from the metabolismand limbs to the head.

In head to limb learning the child learns through their senses. They sense what isbeing taught but do not really engage. When we do head learning one might say welearn in the head pole in full consciousness. But if we try to remember what we have


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learned in this way (if one has been through mainstream education) we find one oftwo things. Either it has sunk into the dreamlike realm of feeling and is halfremembered, but without the clarity with which it was received; or it has beenforgotten and it sleeps in our unconscious.

It should not be considered from this description that there is anything wrong withthe path of learning from head to limbs because this is a necessary path. It is also thepath of the artist who works form concept through to doing through conquering theirmaterials. But here already there is a step further. That which was learned is broughtinto movement through the limbs, and consciousness is brought into that which istypically asleep. Through this the ego must take hold of the will forces, must engage,and the learning becomes active. Without moving the learning in a practical way it isnot engaged. Engagement can of course also happen in the thinking or feeling asmuch as the will, but within any such stirred interest there is the will, present througha sympathy in thinking or feeling. We could also express this by referring to subtleinteractions of the soul organisation such as the thinking-will, or the feeling-will.4

Rudolf Steiner looked to encourage active learning and spoke about couplingtheoretical learning with activity:

Do not omit, even at the beginning, when showing the child the connection betweenagriculture and human life to give him a clear idea of the plough, of the harrow etc.,in connection with his geographical idea. And try especially to make the childfamiliar with the shapes of some of these implements even if only in the form of alittle plaything or piece of handwork. It will give him skill and will fit him for takinghis place properly in life later on. And if you could even make little ploughs and letthe children cultivate the school garden, it they could be allowed to cut with littlesickles, or mow with little scythes, this would establish a good contact with life. Farmore important than skill is the psychic intimacy of the child’s life with the life of theworld. For the actual fact is: a child who has cut grass with a sickle, mown grass witha scythe, drawn a furrow with a little plough will be a different person from a childwho has not done these things. The soul undergoes a change from doing things.Abstract teaching of manual skill is really no substitute.5

On the other hand there is also learning which works from the will to the thinking.For our purposes we will call this practice based learning. Here there is a movementfrom periphery to point, a gesture of the will forces coming to consciousness. Here theeducation of the will through doing brings the etheric body into movement. In theentire Waldorf curriculum this is done in various ways including (but not exclusiveto) handwork and craftwork, home economics (skills such as cooking), eurythmy,bothmer gymnastics and games lessons.

Furthermore, in relation to craft education the repetitive will activity disciplinesand imprints the ether body. Here habit and craft gestures are inscribed which,although asleep, work into the will.

Rudolf Steiner points to the important link between practice based learning, in thiscase crafts, and the dawning of intellectual activity:

A visitor to a handwork lesson in the Waldorf School might well feel perplexed atseeing both boys and girls sitting together, knitting and crocheting. In our school suchactivities can no longer be referred to as ‘women’s work’ for both sexes are engagedin it. Results confirm that unless they are artificially discouraged, boys enjoy suchwork at much as girls do. But what should be the reasons for our insisting on such anunusual arrangement? A person who uses his fingers clumsily also suffers from a‘clumsy’ intellect. That is, he is unable to be mobile in has thoughts and ideas,whereas someone with a skilful hand is better able to penetrate the essence of thingswith his thinking, Anyone who is aware of this open secret will appreciate that it is


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better to train the intellect indirectly by first developing outer skills and faculties.These, in turn, will stimulate the, powers of intellect to ripen in a balanced way.6

These polarities exist also as physical-physiological and soul-spiritual. Afundamental principle in education is that the work with the body has an effect on thesoul and the work on the soul-spiritual constitution has an effect on the body. This isespecially true of children as their bodily and soul-spiritual natures are not as separateas in adult life.

In between these two poles of thinking and will there is the soul activity of feeling.Feeling has both the aspect of taking in and of moving the content. It offers a centralplace between antipathetic learning (sedimentary learning if not brought intomovement) and sympathy filled practice-based learning. In this central sphere - thebreathing of the lungs and the venous and arterial flow of the heart, as well as thefeeling – Waldorf education finds its mission. When asked what the task of Waldorfeducation was Dr. Steiner said that it was the task of Waldorf Education to teachchildren to breathe.

In theory this would mean balancing thinking and willing learning. In actuality thethinking is highly developed in our time to the point of excess. At the same timechildren have become less active and mobile, engage less with the world around themand are exposed to harmful influences such as moving images in media from a veryyoung age which simulate movement, and yet do not bring the will forces intoactivity.

Already at the time of the founding of the Waldorf School Steiner recognised theneed, ever more so, for the will to enter the education of the child. In relation to woodcarving Dr. Steiner says:

The children do this between the 11th and 15th years and nowadays even later, butgradually we shall have to bring it down into the younger classes, where the formshave to be simple.7

When I speak of the will in education I am not referring to merely the outer will butalso feeling will and thinking will. In the outermost sense there is will in the limbs asouter activity. When these will forces enter into the education of feeling it is donethrough imagination. In the thinking we bring the will through giving content whichmust be grappled with. Rudolf Steiner experienced the quality of movement inthinking through projective geometry. Movement in thinking offers the potential fordeveloping inner pictures of spiritual reality which is not based on sense experience.

For our purposes I will turn specifically to craft in the Waldorf curriculum as well asattempts to renew and deepen these original impulses based on our increasinglymaterialistic times8.

In class one the first piece of handwork introduced to the child is knitting. Throughlearning to knit the child is brought into movement with a tangible outcome. Also anattention to detail is cultivated by seeing when stitches have been dropped. In classtwo this work continues and is added to by crocheting. Here the child is brought into avery different activity through operating each hand in very different activities.

In class three these activities continue and they continue to produce practical objectsthat can be used (ie potstand). Over this time an aesthetic sense of colour will havedeveloped, on one hand through choosing and working with the wool or cotton yard,but also supported by the painting lessons which develop in a sensitive way thechild’s sense of colour. In class three there are main lessons in farming and gardeningwhich bring about a very different will impulse.


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In class four handwork continues with textiles and braiding is introduced. In classfive the work with textiles becomes much more personally useful as items of clothingare produced. The work in the animal kingdom also enters much more into theexperience of density through the beginnings of work with leather. At this time thereis also the beginning of green woodwork.

In class six (12) a change occurs in the child’s relationship to craft and to their ownbody. In Soul Economy and Waldorf Education Rudolf Steiner speaks about thedevelopment of the organism of movement. The movements of the preschool child area spontaneous expression of her life of feeling. We can read her outer forms as adirect expression of her soul as she interacts with her environment. The archetypaltantrum of the very young child is typical of this. At the age of school going, aroundseven the movement connects with the blood and the breathing. The rhythmicalaspect is addressed in the Waldorf curriculum through Eurythmy. At this age the childcan be seen with infinite energy and breath. At 9 the movement connects more to themuscle. At this stage physical education is introduced for the strengthening anddevelopment of the muscle system through games and gymnastics.

Between the 11th and 12th year the movement further connects to the body throughthe bones. The movements become much heavier and more mechanical as the childfinds solidity on the earth. At this time crafts (as opposed to the preparatory work ofhandwork) are introduced. The crafts support the adolescent in their clumsy andmechanical movements that result from a connection with the bones. The rhythmicalaspect of the crafts also offer a potential for enlivening the heaviness of the boneconnected movement. Within the heaviness the will is called upon to assert itself andto offer a counter image to the death processes in the bones.

It is also at this time that body consciousness begins to dawn. The awareness of thebody allows an outer projection of the forms of the body. The straight line, the convexand concave are all expressions of architecture inherent in the bones of the child.

Work with the denser aspects of the animal kingdom in the form of leatherworkcontinues and work with the plant kingdom begins in the form of woodwork. In classseven the work of class six is continued and intensified.

In adolescence the work of craft in its true sense begins. The skills acquired duringthe lower classes take on a new significance as these skills become medium forexpression. The will forces cannot be left to run on automatic. A sensible synthesis ofthe soul life must come about. The feeling needs to connect with spiritual orinnovative thinking, otherwise they drop to the realm of drives and desires. On theother hand the head-heart thinking must connect with the will forces. Adolescence isalso the time of the dawning of idealism and the ideals which have been fostered fromwithout, the threefold of truth, beauty and goodness can become personal aspirations.There develops a need to experience, to become co creators of the implementation ofspiritual ideals. Where these forces are not taken hold of the aspirational question of'what can I do in the world?' becomes a cold and apathetic 'I can't do anythinganyway!' Engagement with the budding ideals that well up during adolescenceultimately means the germinating of the seeds of morality.

Within the Waldorf curriculum we have a recapitulation of the development ofhuman evolution from the biblical material found in Genesis and up, through variouscultural epochs to our modern time. What potential there lies in this for accompanyingthe development of the human being through his technical accomplishments!

Also of great importance is the question of our modern age, starting with theindustrial revolution and moving through to modern day. This cannot of course


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happen in a one sided way. The questions of technology are supported by the aestheticemphasis which has been carefully cultivated. From class 10 to 12 there is a moveinto creation out of the young persons own life of soul. How do I create within thisstream of humanity, in a way appropriate for our modern age?

This curriculum needs to be further intensified in the light of the growing onesidedness of our society. Our education must bring the child into movement, both asouter phenomena and as an inner moral conscience. Attempts are being made withinthe anthroposophical movement to develop integrated education where the practicalactivities begin from nature. Thus in working with wool the young person experiencesthe shearing of the sheep, the washing, cleaning and carding of wool, dying the wool,spinning the wool all the way up to the finished article. An integrated approach withthe environment hopes to lead to a stirring of a sense of social responsibility. AonghusGordon, founder of the Ruskin Mill Educational Trust and Trustee of the Hiram Trustsaid the following about the aims of this approach:

A craft curriculum accessing the primary processes and substances of theenvironment can engender a quality of integrity, particularly for the adolescent. Thisorientation is entirely dependent on a new awareness of the school grounds and thelandscape at large. Biodynamic principles could play a key role in supporting theeducational process and help to make the ‘outdoor Classroom’ visible. Creatingeducational intimacy within the outdoor Classroom and perceiving the learningprocess is the challenge. This challenge is ignored at our peril, as the intellect of theadolescent increasingly searches for evidence of an imprint on or mastery of thepractical world. If the will is not lifted up through creative practical activity andtraining it works as an instinctual drive. Creative problem solving through practicalwork servicing human needs is also the first step towards discovering ‘socialempathy’. Brought up into consciousness through contemporary ideas ofsustainability it potentially allows the adolescent to encounter a new social ethic.9

The Ruskin Mill Educational Trust works with a densification from materials from theanimal kingdom, through the plant kingdom and into the mineral. The process also occurs ineducating from the earth to the table. This process calls upon the young person to be aware ona much wider level of origins and real world consequences of the materials they use.

It is my feeling this path from earth to table is especially relevant to our children inCamphill. Imagine the difference in shearing a sheep, cleaning and washing the wool, dyingthe wool, spinning it, weaving or knitting it before coming to an end product. What anexperience! While many educationally typical children can grasp processes through thinking,the activity of doing from beginning to end creates an understanding in a feeling-will way. Itoffers a narrative aspect which our children with complex needs can more easily grasp, followand retain. Furthermore such an approach insists active involvement and calls upon thesympathetic forces of our children, many of whom have strong disassociative tendencies.

The work of craft in the Waldorf curriculum and in our work with the children in Camphillis not intended to train craftspeople, but to support the path to becoming human. When wechoose to specialise and to take up the mask of a specific craft we enter the next stage of ourhuman journey – work as a vocation.


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Craft As A VocationThe sooner that each of us discovers that art or craft which can assist the systematicdevelopment of our natural gifts, the happier we will be. What we take in from ourenvironment cannot harm our innate individuality. Our human organs…are capable ofuniting…that which is acquired from the environment with that which is innate inus.10

- J.W. von Goethe

In Waldorf education there is an attempt to comprehensively educate the child tohave the widest range of possibilities in their adult life, with a wide and varied interestin the surrounding world. During adolescence there is a strong experimentation withself identity and trying to find a perspective from which this individuality can work inthe world. This echoes the general youth question of what can I do? It is a necessityafter finishing our comprehensively human education to find a perspective fromwhich to work in the world. Our post-graduate education, like the education of thechild, has two distinct aspects – from thinking to doing; and from doing tounderstanding.

We could call these perspectives from which to work into the world masks, and inthe Village lectures Dr. König calls them just that. The Village lectures form a seriesof leading images for working with our adults, and although given some 45 odd yearsago they still for the most part ring true. Although the images which were given thenare still very fruitful, society and the individuals in society have changed enormously.At the time we could speak about the vocation of work and our adults taking up themasks of their profession such as ‘the farmer’.

Today society as a whole has moved away from vocation and the phrase jobbecomes increasingly prevalent. Even in adult life much education is sedimentary innature - the path of learning to do (but not yet doing). In this category fall Universitycourses and other educations which are primarily lecture and information based, forexample humanities; digital media; IT and so forth. There are also those who have nottrained after their basic education and who directly enter the job market.

Today many people get jobs they do not feel at all engaged by or interested in. Manypeople take courses and education in subjects they feel no affinity to, but which theregood employment possibilities in. If one is not engaged, the activity runs onautomatic. The individuality is not engaged and because of the repetitious nature ofthe task, the task runs from habit, which sits in the etheric body in a sleeping state.Depending on the nature of the task it may never return to conscious engagement.Because of the disinterest and financial motivation behind such positions, these jobscan be easily swapped for new and different jobs for additional financial gain. I haveworked in a job where I have run on automatic and can attest to how dreary anddraining such a job can be. Running from the habitual without engagement there islittle hope of developing the moral strength that work should ideally provide.11

On the other hand there is the vocation. The first difference in a vocational work isthat no carer, doctor, craftsperson or priest works out of boredom. Nor is it a questionof doing a task adequately, on automatic. A vocation is first and foremost an act oflove in which the individuality of a person, that is their individual will, engages andworks in full consciousness. In such vocational professions it is not impossible to slipinto automatic, but the task demands a return to conscious engagement.

The question of adequacy is a personal one where the question is asked – am I doingas well as I could? There is a strong drive in vocation for continuing learning and


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inner work based on a form of will activity Steiner identified as originating in theSpirit Self, the wish to do better. In constantly renewing our engagement throughrefining our vocation we aspire to be life long learners.

And yet many vocational trainings, certainly those that involve trades and craftdisciplines, are seen as a lesser form of education. There is often a differentiationmade between white and blue collar jobs, and the accreditation offered to tradespeople such as craft people and plumbers does not offer the equivalent level ofrecognition as a university degree in spite of an advanced level of specialistknowledge. Might one infer from this that there is within our society a tieredhierarchy of professional respectability? Is manual labour, in its use of the hands andthe will, an unvalued commodity in a thought based society?

Vocational training is interplay of will and thinking, the will awakening the thinkingthrough activity, and the ever present need for innovative thinking becomes practicalinnovation in the realm of the will. The thinking engendered in vocational work(doing to learn and learning from doing rather than learning to do, and then doing)could be described with the term altruistic thinking.

Craft disciplines are traditionally handed down through apprenticeships. The journeyfrom apprentice to master is a threefold journey of body, soul and spirit.

In the first phase, the apprenticeship, the apprentice begins by doing small andseemingly meaningless tasks around the workshop. Much time is spent observing themaster at work and sympathising with his gestures. The muscle system of the humanbeing forms together an organ of hearing through its ability to receptively listen to andaccompany what it meets from without. The apprentice then graduates on to trying toimitate the master in a very literal mimicry. In doing so the apprentice tries to learnthe craft gesture. This is the archetypal habitual aspect of the craft which throughrepetition becomes a memory of movement in the etheric body. It is very importantthat anyone teaching craft, and especially so with our children and adults in Camphill,that the master also keeps a well ordered life which includes an exemplary level ofcleanliness and order. Cleaning up after each work process and maintaining specificplaces for tools instils positive working habits that aid the overall development ofdiscipline in craft.

Apprenticeships were traditionally seven years in length spanning from the age of 13to 20-21. Today the apprentice period has become significantly different, startingmuch later at 16 to 19 (typically) and continuing for up to three years. There is asignificant difference in doing an apprenticeship at a younger age as the body is stillbeing formed. In this younger age range the physical-physiological organism isstrongly imprinted by the formative forces expressed as the craft gesture. Intensivecraft work in the mid to late teens imprints the specialisation into the body itself. Thisis very different to an apprenticeship done in the 20’s or later, which although theactivity forms the body in terms of muscle tone through repetitious activity, the maininfluence is then to be seen in the soul life of the apprentice. Longer schooling andlater entry into apprenticeships in vocational training have changed the ‘archetypal’blacksmith or potter who would have trained to fourteen to having a possibility ofcarrying a greater number of masks than just that of their craft.

At the end of this period the apprentice should have gained technical skill, althoughthis skill is as yet intuitive (existing as habit in the etheric body). In a threefold imageof the human being the period of the apprentice belongs to the will.

In the traditional craft guilds apprenticeships are followed by a journeyman period.The journeyman (or woman) would have to leave his home town or town where he


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trained and had to travel around working under different masters and experiencing thediversity of technique and aesthetic sensibility. Through varied experience thejourneyman broadens his knowledge, comes to get a feeling for different aestheticstyles, and begins to form a personal style that is an individual resonance. In thethreefold image of man the journeyman period belongs to the feeling. Today thejourneyman period is almost inherent (as seed) within the apprentice period due to theavailability of printed material and the travel possibilities that allow the apprentice tosee a much greater diversity of craft work than was previously possible.

The last of this threefold is the phase of the master. The master craftsperson haspassed through the acquiring of right habit in the sleeping limbs, and has developed abreadth of experience of style and technique during the journeyman period. Now itbecomes her task to use her technical proficiency and breadth of experience to expressher individual style. This individual style is an expression of the individuality of thecraftsperson who has developed sufficiently to give outer form to her inner landscape.At this stage the craft becomes art through the expression of the eternal in thematerial. In the threefold image of the human being this period belongs to the thinkingas the master expresses the archetypal in ego filled consciousness.

These three phases also belong to archetypal life phases. The apprentice belongs tothe period from fourteen to twenty one and brings an enlivening etheric element intothe physical, bone connected movements. The apprentice belongs to the developmentof the physical body under the influence of the ego organisation. That is to say thebody is moulded to the individual will.

The period of the journeyman belongs to the time between twenty one and twentyeight. The habitual activity as a pure will discipline begins to enter into the beginningsof consciousness. This period belongs to the development of the sentient soul. Afeeling for likes and dislikes, as well as a broadening of experience helps develop thissoul body.

The period of the master begins between twenty eight and thirty five. I say beginsbecause the development of proficiency in material may come to a certain culminationat this point, but the master continues to grow in soul and spirit, reflected in the workthat they produce. This period relates to the development of the intellectual soul. Anawakening in full consciousness occurs that enables the master to make their work anego filled activity.

Rudolf Steiner speaks about the age of thirty five as an important turning point afterwhich the individual mission can begin to express itself. The proceeding period(35-42) relates to this outer activity as the development of the consciousness soul andwill forces. In the different graduations of will forces detailed in the Study of Man thisbody relates to motive. At this stage, with the craft practised in ego filledconsciousness, the master could consider taking on an apprentice.

In Camphill there was a strong craft impulse in the early work of the villages. Todaycraft has gone into a sharp decline in Camphill, both in terms of the number of peopletrained in and practising craft, and the quality of the end product. Many ‘craft’workshops in Camphill are being run by people who inherited a workshop and whohave continued, but who lack formal training, or who have had a very short handoverfrom the previous workshop leader. I have seen this in several communities in GreatBritain and Ireland, and the standards upheld are at times worrying, if not evendepressing. I particularly worry that craft workshops begin to slip into the realm ofoccupational therapy and while produced items are sold, that which is being bought ismore akin to pity filled conscience relief than skilled and objectively good work.


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Craft work is not just about skilled labour and traditional techniques. It is helpfulthat workshop leaders have relevant training in a craft so that they can work fromtheir altruistic thinking to create innovative ways for the adults to work. The mobilityof thought needed to adapt a material or craft to an individual requires a thoroughknowledge of that material and an openness to explore the possibilities rather than thedisabilities of the adults. When work begins with what a person cannot do a wall ismet, but when a persons innate potential is recognised and encouraged, met throughgenuine interest, the question is not of possibility but of practicalities. There isnothing which cannot be done, only that which cannot be imagined.

Craft As Therapy

In turning to craft as therapy it is important not to create a therapy as if a finishedtechnique, but to develop a curative educational or social therapeutic approach as acraftsperson and as a human being. Craft comes ever more into the realm of art andexpression and as such could be considered as an approach to artistic therapy. EvaMees-Christeller describes the requirements for therapeutic artistic work as follows:

A main requirement for the therapist is not in the first place to be a great artist, but tobe a free human being who is continuously testing and schooling himself. Love ofand understanding for other people, rising above sympathy and antipathy, warmth ofheart, imagination and a sense of humour are necessary faculties, which create thepositive atmosphere in which artistic therapy can be done.12

When this approach is brought to work with children the diagnosing and insight ofthe curative educator, and the leading image built with teachers, doctors andhouseparents in the college meeting inform the understanding of the individual task ofthe child. The image of humanity as described by Rudolf Steiner always stands centralto such an understanding.

In children we do not seek to teach a craft but to develop a well rounded humanbeing, using craft to achieve this. In this context craftwork may be used to harmonisethe overall constitution or to address a one sided tendency with a carefully developedevolution towards the counter image.

The rhythmical aspect of crafts is invaluable in teaching right breathing. The natureof this rhythm does not seek to directly address the harmonic breathing (meant in thelargest sense of the term) but to bring the activity of rhythmical movement into thelimbs which naturally effects changes in the rhythmical organisation. This also hasdevelopmental consequences for the thinking.

Crafts have the possibility to awaken to the world through the crossing of right andleft, as well as the crossing of the radius and the ulna in each of the arms when turneddownwards towards craft.

Craft work can be used to work with movement disorders through the six polaritiesof movement, being up and down, right and left, forwards and backwards. An idealexample of this work in all planes is the use of the threadle loom in weaving. Here thepedals and shafts are up and down and also to a lesser extent right and left. In the wefton a shuttle there is left and right in even alternation, and the back space and forwardspace are very present in the action of the beater.

There are no limits to the therapeutic possibilities for children practising craft underthe guidance of a trained and dynamically thinking teacher. That which I have offeredare by way of example, but the reality of having a person before you, individual in


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their expression of the human archetype and in what they bring to you as potential isincomparable. There is no set ‘treatment’, but a dynamic meeting of two individualswho enter into a dialogue. The therapy is in the social encounter as much as thetherapeutic activity itself. The individual, in all that they bring in their manifoldconstitution must always be the starting point.

In working with adults in a therapeutic way I consider there to be a very differentapproach and even intent. In adulthood disability is not to be considered a pathologybut as an integral part of biography. The focus of schooling or treating from without isnot appropriate for a self willing adult. In working with adults it is the task to offeropportunities for self schooling and self development.

In the craft realm a person develops in a craft discipline because they want todevelop. As a social therapist the healing is brought in the encounter- in the encounterof a possibility for meaningful work, in the encounter with individual aspiration andin the encounter from ego to ego. All of the opportunities offered in the outer senseare expressions of human encounter and they call upon the ego of the individual, callthem co-worker or adult, to arise and do the good.

Therapy is not just for the individual or about the individual. The realm oftherapeutic work is also a form of world healing in which work is engaged with as anact of love. This is seen in our carefully produced products which we send into theworld. In the outer sense these products are a positive encounter with humanengagement. To hold something handmade is to have a moral stirring, to have a senseof the worth or moral value of it. In the innermost sense, long after the item hasceased to be, the moral forces encountered continue to be world creative.

To make something is to engage. I have made this. It is of objective value tosomeone. I am a creative being. I am a potter/weaver/metal worker/ basket maker. Itis enabling rather than disabling to have a way through which to work into the worldwhen sufficient diversity remains that the person can also experience other aspects oftheir human identity.


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Part 2: The Descent Into Matter

The Descent Into MatterAnd Man’s Evolving Consciousness

The origins of all if not all of the crafts have their origins in the mythological rootsof our current civilisation. When I refer to the mythological, I do not necessarily meanthis in the sense usually associated with this word, as fictional or fantastical in nature.I have taken my definition of the mythological from Karl Konig who says thefollowing in the Village Lectures:

Do not misunderstand the word mythology and think of something that existed‘once upon a time’. For I also believe that spiritual science is mythology. For what Imean by mythology is deep, eternal, image-rich meaning.13

Whether the mythological history of humanity can be factually measured andproven, as we are so used to doing, is not the point of mythology. Mythology is notintended to be found factual by outer observation of pre historic artefacts. Mythologydeals in that which resonates as true in the innermost part of the human being.

For our purposes we will begin to look at the mythology of humanity beginning inAncient Lumeria. Lumeria is found in the mythology of humanity in the imagesdescribed from the beginning of Genesis. In Genesis the spirits of form, or the Elohimcreated the first man, the archetypal or spiritual man whom the Jewish people callAdam Kadmon.

So the Elohim created man in their own image, in the image of the Gods createdthey him, male and female created they him.14

The spirits of form gave the human dominion over all that lived on the earth- thefowl in the air, the creatures on land and at sea, the trees and plants and everythingwherein there is life.

We also meet in genesis in the creation of the second Adam the image of ElohimJehovah as the creator out of matter:

And Jehovah Elohim formed man of the red earth of the ground, and breathed intohis nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.15

This entire section of Genesis is a description of the earth during the time ofLumeria.

When man was expelled from paradise he was forced to work the land. Cain andAbel are the origins of animal husbandry and agriculture.

Of the crafts I have chosen to address, none of them have clear origins and often popup already highly developed. It is my belief that many of these crafts date to the timeof Atlantis when man was master of the etheric. The historical development of eachcraft is dealt with individually.

The Animal Kingdom:Felting And Weaving

My early encounters with textiles were at home when my mother, a former factorymachinist, sat sewing at the table on an old converted Singer. I have put weavingunder the domain of the animal kingdom as this is traditionally true. Weaving as a


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handcraft was a cottage industry and included shearing sheep, washing and preparingwool and spinning. Like all of the crafts described, a definitive beginning isuntraceable, but symbolically belongs to the time of Atlantis. Early clothes were veryliterally of the animal kingdom, comprising of animal skins sewed together by sinews.

Of felting and weaving, felting is in some ways the more elemental of the twotechniques. It involves subjecting wool to heat, pressure and movement. The use ofsoap can speed up this process.

Sheep's wool is covered by a kind of scale or skin (as a comparative description)that face one direction. As the fibres move and brought under stimulation throughrubbing these scales lock together. At the same time the agitation of rubbing causesthe keratin in the fibres to release and chemically bond with other proteins in thewool, resulting in a permanent bond between fibres in the wool. The addition of soapcreates an alkaline environment which speeds up the chemical process.

The origins of felting are unclear and the physical evidence of felting dates to (atearliest) 6,500BC in Turkey.

Felt has an immediacy of warmth that is in some ways inviting and is ideal for thehandwerk of the lower classes. It requires relatively little skill to take part so is veryaccessible to a wide variety of abilities, and can be creatively engaged with – forexample it can be done with a single or both hands, or with feet (which feelswonderful and creates movement in a sensuous manner). In theory it could be donewearing gloves, but it distances some of the primary sense experiences.

Felt can be used for an experience of colour and colour combinations. Ideally thisprocess should include processing and dying wool before hand. It can be used forpicture composition to produce narrative accompaniment to main lesson. Unlike paintand to a lesser extent other colour mediums the colour dynamic cannot enter the realmof greys and muddy secondary colours and so have a greater immediacy ofexperience.

The senses are engaged through the touch, warmth, colour (sight), own movementas well as the accompanying olfactory experience of sheep's wool and soap.

Felt could also be used as a production method in the adult community because ofhow accessible a medium it is, but it needs the guidance and eye to detail to create aconsistency of standard which is marketable as valuable in its own right.

My first experience with weaving in a sustained way was in Camphill Duffcarrigalthough I had some peripheral involvement in some of the work in the Bridgecommunity. In my second year living in Duffcarrig I worked in the weavery for sixmonths for half a day four days a week. During this time I came to a real appreciationof the craft of weaving, which compared with a medium like clay, is much moreconsequent if mistakes are made.

It is difficult to ascertain the origin of weaving. The earliest evidence of textiles is awkirt made of twisted strings hanging from the waist of a Venus idol found atLespugue, France from circa 20,000BC.

As a soft material wool breaks down relatively quickly so the easiest narrative of theevolution of weaving is the evolution of the weaving frame or loom. The first loomseems to be the horizontal ground loom which dates from 7,000BC. It was used inEgypt, Mesopotamia and Egypt. The horizontal floor loom is staked directly into theearth outside, and these warm dry regions allowed the loom to stay staked for weekson end without risk of rain.


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At around the same time the warp-weighted loom which stood vertically indoorswas developed in Eastern Europe and spread West through Europe. Both of theselooms were primarily operated

The model of loom we know today, the horizontal treadle loom first came into beingin about 1,000 AD. At this time weaving became an increasingly male profession andindustrial. The trade of weaving came under the control of Craft Guilds which createda school or method of working.

In 1785 the first mechanical loom was invented by John Cartwright and textilesbecame a central focus of the industrial revolution. This also affected the materialorigin as cotton and flax became the major fibres. The weaver fed the machine- notthe same level of involvement.

In the 20th Century weaving became computerised and even visiting such'handweavers' as Avoca in Co. Wicklow, these big electric monsters constitute themajority of production. Handweaving has left the realm of necessity and entered therealm of the artistic. It has become a novelty practice.

In the craft of hand weaving my first task is to wind a warp on a warp frame. Towatch the speed and assurity with which the weaver begins winding a warp aftercarefully calculating the thread count is quite something to watch, It is veryrhythmical and one could almost forget that the weaver is simultaneously counting thethreads as they wind on. As a student of Rudolf Steiner I cannot help but notice theform of the lemniscade is made in which what was above becomes below and visa vis.After the warp is tied into this order to keep the cross(or lemniscade) and the long andattention demanding task of putting the warp on begins. 16 Assuming the warp is onthere are several therapeutic aspects to weaving.

First of all – on a horizontal threadle loom there are the six directions of space. Herethe pedals and shafts are up and down and also to a lesser extent right and left. In theweft on a shuttle there is left and right in even alternation, and the back space andforward space are very present in the action of the beater.

The activity of crossing over offers crossing from right to left, and in the warp infront, crossing of up and down. These two crossing aspects could be used to create anawareness and activity in the impaired aspect of a person with haemoplegia. RudolfSteiner said:

If the human being has not two ears, two eyes, two nostrils, then his egoconsciousness really would not exist. He also needs two hands and when heclaps them together and feels one hand against the other then alreadysomething of the ego consciousness is there. ~Through our sense perceptionswe always become aware of the world around us from two sides, left and right.And we are the ego beings that we are only because we make these two linesof perception, from left and right, to interact.17

The most obvious aspect of weaving is the rhythmical progression, The movementtakes on a natural rhythm of the weft passing from one side to the other, the pullingtaut, the beating forward of the weft, the switching of pedals (and alternating theposition of the gates). This then starts again. The rhythmical work of the arms andwith everything at chest level creates a natural harmonic of breathing.

I have found in Camphill that weaving typically tends to be plain weaves with twobasic polarities (one up, one down).

I would like to share one peculiarity I remember from learning to weave in Camphillwhich illustrates innovative thinking to meet the needs of the adults. The adults wouldalways pull in the selvedges quite hard creating uneven edges on the piece so we were


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taught to always thread. two warp threads through the last heddle and reed slot tocreate greater resistance and to stop the weft being pulled in so tight it broke the endwarp strings.

Weaving is also suitable in early adolescence as a harmonising influence on thefeeling life, although because the warping is such an intellectually rigorous task thismay not be a realistic initial goal for most of the children we now work with. Thesenses are the same as those used in felting as well as balance between the threepolarities in space.

The Plant Kingdom:Willow Basketry

The realm of basket making is that which I have least experience of on a practicallevel having only tried a handful of times, but I feel it is an interesting middle pointbetween the flat, two dimensionality of loom weaving and the three dimensionalaspect of pottery. This is seen in one hand in the individual willow rods, and in theirbuilding of a 'ribcage'. It is interesting to watch a basket maker as they begin almostlying on the ground and working into a vertical position as the basket grows. There isalmost an accompaniment between the chest and the horizontal weaving in the basket.

The origins of basketmaking are difficult to ascertain and due to the softness of thematerials most historical evidence of its origins have long since decayed. Remains ofbaskets have been found in the middle East from 10,000BC and imprints ofbasketmaking in fired clay have been found in Africa from 8,000BC. In the Westthere is also ample evidence if basketmaking structures using willow and hazel. Anobvious example of this in in wattle and daub housing, but also in the frames for suchboats as early currachs.

Like other industries, basketmaking became a controlled and formally taught craftthrough the craft guilds.

In our modern time basketry has not been industrialised in the way that weaving andceramics have. Basketry has instead been replaced on a large scale by materials suchas plastic for containers and has increasingly become a traditional or novelty craft.

It is very important for our children and adults to work with an approach from theearth to the table so the growing, or if beginning even before that, planting andharvesting are as important to the process.

Willows grow straight to the light, but if untended and not harvested annually theyquickly turn into willow trees. Willows are very vital and reroot from offcuts to thecultivation of willows is very straightforward.

Harvesting is normally done in winter time and I have warm memories of gettingwellied up to help with the willow harvest. The willows are all cut down and bundledin groups of similar breadth and length. Being as full of life forces as they are,willows are likely to grow mould if left in the damp. They must therefore be storedindoors or beneath a substantial hedge.

Before they are used willows are soaked – for buff or stripped this may be for a fewhours or overnight but for brown or natural, barked willow this may need severaldays.


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The activity of weaving itself from making a slath and weaving a base and theinsertion of uprights (slyping) and their bringing upwards to form the walls (or to usea weaving analogy, a warp). The uprights are then wailed or keped in place throughweaving a hoop towards the top to keep them upright or otherwise keep the desiredform. Then the rhythmical weaving begins as the walls are built up. In Camphill plainweaves like English randing tend to be used.

It is in this realm that many of our children and adults excel. Basket making issuitable for people of a wide variety of abilities, although special considerations mayneed to be made. Baskets are very light so to secure a basket and give it substanceweights from dumbells may be added to the base to make it solid. This is especiallytrue for someone with haemaplegia who is unable to hold the basket as the rods areweaved and pulled tight.

After weaving the main body a woven border and/ or handle can be added. Afootring or border can also be added to give stability to the basket.

Other than the production of baskets willow work can extend to garden fences,furniture, shelters and enclosures and even living willow sculptures. Planted andwoven in place willow sculptures and shelters are good group projects and also have aneed for regular maintenance which creates a certain devotion to detail.

The sense of balance and visual balance is important in basket making as nearly allmeasurements are made by rough judgement. Basket making is traditionally a craftfor the blind and the sense of balance they manage to accomplish without sight givesa good indication of the role of balance in basket making. There is also the sense oftouch and own movement strongly engaged.

Obviously the rhythmical aspect is a strong therapeutic influence, either of weavingbaskets or material on a loom, but working in the third dimension brings the basket abit more into the human realm through the rhythmical system and the ribcage.

The Mineral Kingdom:Pottery

I first encountered a work with clay when I moved to Camphill Duffcarrig. I workedin the pottery there for about one and a half years, although the work there was muchmore working with clay as a medium than clay work as a craft. Handbuilding usingslabwork, pressmoulds and coiling were the main methodologies used. When I movedto Camphill Glencraig one of my major motivations was some of the work I had seenfrom Pinewood Pottery, and a knowledge that I could learn more about the craftaspect of clay work which I have made one of my tasks over the previous years.

There are many ways to trace the evolution of ceramics - through the objects madeand the evolution from idolatry to functional vessels, the evolution of form, theevolution of decorating techniques and glaze technology, but I would like to lookspecifically as the evolution in relation to kilns and firing techniques.

Bonfire Firing

Bonfire firings are still practised today in Africa and South America.Very rapid, open firing. Pots need to be of even thickness or they willshatter. Will reach 600°C to 800°C. Sintering

ATLANTISINTO

AFRICA


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Fire is direct. Spiritual reality is perceived through clairvoyance. Spiritualworld is the predominant reality.

Transition

Firings became more controlled through digging pits in the groundand creating a perforated floor in the pit to separate fire source andpots. In Mesopotamia the first updraft kilns were built but theproficient use, and real developmental centre of kilns and ceramictechnology was Asia.

Updraft Kilns

Still used today in Crete and Asia. Primitive versions had no fire barsand used shards of old pots to create insulation for the updraft. Willreach over 1000°C.

Fire/ spirit is a direct experience. Give greater efficacy through beingencased in matter

Crossdraft kiln

Fire is not as direct- cause and effect. Idea and manifestation. Still intouch with the source although clairvoyant knowing less strong.Reaches temperatures of 1260°C.

Downdraft Kiln

More even temperature throughout the kiln because of the path of theheat. Heat and source of heat seperated by bag wall. Old clairvoyance(perception of source) gives way to intellect and technology. Reachestemperatures of 1300°C.

Transition to Today

Technology of ceramics develops more within the scientificintellectual stream of Aristotle than the intuitive knowledge beforethat. Standardisation and recording of technique through craft guilds.

Electric Kilns and subterranean fuel sources

Electric kilns are a phenomena of the 20th and 21st Centuries. At thetime of their introduction other firing methods decreased significantly.Electric kilns run on automatic and there is no real dialogue as there isin firing a woodfired or gas kiln. Potter enters instructions and walksaway.

Electric kilns use subnatural forces. Ahrimanic deception is at work.We speak of firing when there is no fire. Although we can say it is the

TRANSITIONTO THE

EAST

EAST –PHYSICAL

EXISTENCEIS MAYA

MENTALITYOF ANCIENT

GREECE –TIME OF

PLATO ANDBEFORE

MENTALITYOF ANCIENT

GREECE –TIME OF

ARISTOTLEAND AFTER

TANSITIONTO

MODERNTIMES:

5TH POSTATLANTE

ANEPOCH –

SUBNATURALFORCES


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same, the lack of human involvement is not the same. Humandispossessed from process.

Also at this time kilns are run using fuels such as gas and oil frombeneath the earth.

The industrialisation of ceramics has developed so significantly, so deeply that it ispossible for a plate or cup to be made from beginning to end by machine with themost minuscule input of human labour. Handmade ceramics, although a novelty orartistic pursuit, has the potential to re-imbue moral substance and life forces into thematerial realm.Ceramic work is marked by the fact that we cannot talk about the technique of

making in the way that there is a definite methodology in basketmaking or weavingon a loom. Clay is a wonderfully malleable material that invites a sense of playbecause it is completely recyclable. This gives an invitation to complete freedom toexplore the medium in its primal form without worry of consequence.In my time in Camphill I have worked with clay in various ways. When I lived in

Duffcarrig I worked with the adults using moulds made of plaster paris. These couldbe filled to the top in the case of press moulds to form such items as candle holdersand ornaments. Here the shape and function is formed by the mould itself.I also worked with slabs to create imprints from nature- for example making a leaf

plate from huge cabbage leaves. The use of slump moulds allows a flat slab of clay tobe draped into the concave mould and the surface can then be textured using stamps,natural combustible materials and and other tools such as forks which are at hand.Handbuilding is a very accessible medium for producing in Camphill workshops and

at a training college level, although for marketable products it requires a workshopleader with an eye for aesthetics and with the ability to set and maintain a consistentstandard.The work that I have done in Pinewood has focused on handthrown work and I have

dealt with some of the therapeutic aspects of this in my essay at the end of the secondyear of seminar. Pinewood Pottery is a very special workshop in that is still producesexclusively by handthrowing while other Camphill potteries in the UK haveincreasingly moved towards either greater technology like jolly and jigger machineswith which the skill level needed is much lower, or the workshops have specialised inhandbuilding and (often) more therapeutic activity than work in a marketable sense.In Germany they have gone a step further with the use of slip casting, or filling

moulds with liquid clay.I sometimes wonder how I relate to all of these things and how I would like to see

this area of work grow. I do not necessarily disagree with the growing use oftechnological methods in the workshops, but I wonder if our primary aim is toproduce on a large scale and in a refined way, or rather to develop an artistic andaesthetic example of what people with complex needs are capable of. On one hand Iam in favour of enabling people to do meaningful work, but at the same time I feelcautious about removing individual impulses and expressions through refinedmethods that express more of a product than a person and an artistic aesthetic outlook.


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Part 3: Inner Aspects OfCraftwork

Craft and Morality

When I considered writing this project I knew I would need to write about moralityand I began to ask myself 'who am I to speak about morality?' do I consider myself amoral person? And if so, what does that really mean, to be moral?To deal with these questions I have turned to the work of Rudolf Steiner. On one

hand I am reluctant to turn as comprehensively as I will in the following to the workof Steiner because I have often encountered the words of Rudolf Steiner quotedselectively to substantiate a thesis. I do not want to say that this, or any aspect of thiswork is right or true by the sole merit of the word of Rudolf Steiner. On the otherhand I have worked with many of these images over several years and have struggledwith their content, and they have a deep significance for me as an individual. I havecome to a certain peace with speaking about the images offered by Rudolf Steiner byliving with them. This does not mean that I either believe or disbelieve them, but thatI live with them as questions, and I ask myself- how would I live in the world if thiswere true? It is by living with these rich images as a hypotheses, and coming to apersonal relationship borne out of experience that a healthy relationship to thethoughts of Anthroposophy can be cultivated. It is within this context that I offer theseimages.In his Philosophy Of Free Spiritual Activity, Rudolf Steiner writes about two kinds

of morality. He speaks about the morality that we most readily identify with this term,the thou shalt and shalt not which comes from without. Throughout our live we buildup a moral code somewhere between perception and conception. I encounter asituation that calls for moral activity and I scan my previous experiences of situationsand inherited concepts of what is right. Based on that which I perceive to be right,based on previous learning, I make a decision about what is the right moral action.This morality is bound to previous experience and so is the morality of an unfreeperson.Rudolf Steiner also writes about a morality which engages the moral imagination.Rather than basing moral activity on previous concepts and precepts it is possible to

mobilise a moral imagination. This allows us to form concrete mental images uponwhich we act. In Foundations Of Human Experience Steiner said:

Just as pictorial thinking is based upon antipathy, willing is based upon sympathy. Ifsympathy is strong enough, as when thoughts become memory from antipathy, thenimagination is created through sympathy… Just as concepts arise out of memory, theliving pictures that provide sense perceptions of things arise from imagination.18

While in the first instance morality is repetitious and unfree, the second demandspersonalisation and ethical individualism. How do I arise to this situation? It is verypossible that two people can come to the same activity from these differentapproaches to moral activity, but one is free and the other is not as to the outcome.As human beings we can become more free in our morality – it is raised beyond a

drive and we can look for our motivation. Why are we moral? We can consciouslyunderstand otherwise unconscious activities within us.


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In The Bridge Between Universal Spirituality And The Physical Constitution OfMan, a series of lectures given in December of 1920, Steiner gives indications aboutthe affects of moral activity on the human constitution. When a person is fired bymoral ideals there is an affect on the warmth organism. To speak about the organismas warmth, air, fluid and physical is to describe the fourfold organisation as expressedin the physiology of the human being. So we could speak about the warmth as anexpression or reflection of the ego in the physiology as an etheric process, the fluidorganism as an expression of the astral in the physiology and so forth.As well at these four lower ethers, the warmth, aeriform, fluid and solid, there is the

transformation of these through moral engagement. To be lead by moral ideal, be itlove or freedom or whichever ideal is carried by a person, there is a warming processthat occurs, an engagement. In the air organism the moral engagement works andbecomes light (the light ether). Equally in the fluid organism the moral engagementbecomes tone (chemical ether). And in the solid organism, like a seed in the earth, thebasis of life is engendered.One might wonder, if all of this is true, then why do I not experience this light or

tone in my bodily nature? All of these things happen in an asleep way in the etherorganisation in such a way that these things exist as seed. In this sense they representthe will as seed, which will come to fruition after death. At death these moralprocesses in the human constitution are freed from the body and come to fullmanifestation.After death the warming processes can be experienced consciously and insight into

the moral activity on earth. That which became light in the air organism goes out intothe cosmos. The activity of this ether I will return to shortly. That which became tonein the fluid organisation becomes part of the music or harmony of the spheres. Thatwhich became life in the solid organism becomes an aspect of the vital force of theuniverse. All of this is carried forth into the universe and becomes, in the largest senseof the term, world creative.Steiner goes on to speak about the polar opposite of this – conceptual thinking.

Again we see here the two kinds of morality described in the Philosophy Of FreeSpiritual Activity, the free morality of moral imagination, and the unfree morality ofconcept. As the warming process of morality in the human constitution becomesworld creative, so to does the conceptual thinking nurture death forces in which lifeand formative forces are not engendered, but dampened and extinguished. By anunderstanding of this thought we could summarise that without man's moralengagement there is no possibility for new life. If there is no morality in humanity,there can be no life in the universe.

I would like to illustrate this idea by another image offered by Steiner. The moralforces which have been engaged shine out as light into the cosmos. These forces areforces of ego engagement. They ray out until at a certain point they are mirrored bythe cosmos. The sun, which we describe as a mass of gases, is a reflection of spiritualprinciples at work in humanity.

I have addressed how moral activity is world creative, but how does this relate tocraft? I would like to offer two images of the human being which I have already builtin previous sections of this work.

In the first instance we have education and learning(including self education asadults) which is sensory to the detriment of the will in which sense impressions are


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taken in but not moved inwardly – they come to sit in the metabolism but are notbrought into movement.

On the other hand there is that which is brought into movement, not only in craftsbut in all engaged learning. Practise based learning, which also includes continuingself schooling through doing, engages moral ideals and has the potential to bring themto ego filled consciousness. In the limbs a moral intuition is perceived. This becomesmoral imagination in the realm of the rhythmical system, and becomes spiritualinsight in the head. The experience of 'I' from within allows us the possibility of freethinking.

Free Thinking

MoralImagination

Moral intuition

(Diagrams fromAongus Gordons WillDeveloped

Intelligence)

When we speak about morality it is necessary to recognise that morality is notinherent from birth. This is not the same as saying morality is learned duringchildhood. Morality comes from without through authority during childhood, butduring adolescence morality becomes a personal experience of what is right and true.This change is related to the dawning of the ego consciousness that allows morality tobe experienced. In The Foundations Of Human Experience Rudolf Steiner offers asevenfold graduation of will based on the sevenfold image of humanity which is asfollows:

Spirit Human DecisionLife Spirit IntentSpirit Self WishConsciousness SoulComprehension Soul Ego organisation MotiveSentient SoulSentient/Astral Body DesireEther Body DrivePhysical Body Instinct19

The realms of instinct, drive and desire belong to the lower, mainly unconsciousaspects of will activity. Only activity in the realm of the ego has motive, the questionof why do I do what I do?

PRACTICE BASEDENGAGEMENT

SEDIMENTARYLEARNING


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Above this is the form of will referred to as wish. When we read the textaccompanying this schemata we find that Steiner does not just refer to wish butspecifically to the wish to do better. In our current phase of earth evolution we canrefer to incarnated man as fourfold in constitution, as physical, etheric, astral and egoorganisation. The aspect of the wish that belongs to the spirit self is a tendency whichis difficult to bring to consciousness or practicality and yet is becoming ever moreaccessible.The shaping of human destiny cannot be removed from the work of the hierarchies.

In sleep the moral content of our activity is brought to the third hierarchy in the formof etheric forces created out of our activity. These are mirrored by the third hierarchyin a perfected form and offered to us as an image of the spiritual-moral archetypewhich lay behind our work. This stirs in us, in an unconscious manner, the wish to dobetter and the energy to return to their moral-spiritual task with renewed enthusiasm.Steiner speaks elsewhere20 about how it is not only the moral substance of our deeds

that are brought to the Hierarchies. He speaks about a threefold offering from our lifeof thoughts, of words and of deeds. He relates these to the angeloi, archangeloi andArchai respectively. We see in this the three accomplishments of the first three years,walking, speech and thought, in which the third hierarchy are instrumental.This thought has particular significance for me as in my time in Camphill I have

again and again worked with people with profound restrictions, for whom the mostsimple tasks are a challenge. How is it for those who experience and accompany workfrom the periphery? Is it possibly to be inwardly mobile and move in thought andword in such a way that an experience of self can come about.I have written about how the etheric forces become world creative after death, but

our soul life as an activity is also inscribed and released at death. In The Human HeartRudolf Steiner describes our deeds in relation to the karma of movement. Steinerspeaks about the coming about of an etheric organ of the heart at the beginning ofadolescence and the inscribing of activity, as intent and feeling as well as deeds. Theetheric heart becomes a repository for the content of our intent filled movement. Afterdeath this is encountered by the ego as we travel through the planetary spheres, andthese inscribed movements form the basis of future karma.

I often encounter the perception that Camphill, as a movement, is anti-technology.Do not agree that we are anti-technology, however I think that we are conscious andcautious about technology, as it affects us, and affects the special people we careabout. Every age has a purpose and ours is to become masters of the material, not justas dead matter, but matter imbued by ethereal forces. In reference to the hands oncurriculum of the Waldorf School Rudolf Steiner said the following:

Naturally there exists today many a prejudice against the idea of introducing youngpeople to practical life in the way indicated. But I speak about it here an entirelypractical point of view. For it is true to say that of all the past ages in humanity’sdevelopment, our present materialistic age is, in its own way, the most spiritual one.Perhaps I can explain myself better by telling you something about some theosophistswhom I once met and who were striving towards a truly spiritual way of living. Andyet in actual fact, they were real materialists…“On the other hand, I like to tell those who are willing to listen to me, that I prefer aperson holding a materialistic conception of the world but who, nevertheless iscapable of the spiritual activity of thinking, to a theosophist who, through strivingtowards the spiritual world, falls back on materialistic images. A materialist is inerror, but what he thinks does contain spirit, real spirit. The most spiritual activity in


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our time can be found in technological endeavour. There everything proceeds out ofthe spirit, out of the human spirit.“It does not require great spiritual accomplishment to put a vase of beautiful flowerson a table, for nature has provided them. But to construct even a most simple machinedoes indeed require spiritual activity...21

Technology is a reality of the age we live in and is unavoidable. It is not our task toshun modern life, but to become fortified within our own being, to develop a strengthof being that the negative potentials inherent in the one sidedness of technology donot move us in our innermost being. I believe the danger of our modern age is thetendency to view machines as doing work. Indeed, there are factories where productsare made from beginning to end with the least possible human engagement, but this isnot our task. To live in a healthy way appropriate for the time we must engage in acooperative relationship with technology. Steiner also added cautionary note in thelast of his letters to members:

In the age of Natural Science, since about the middle of the nineteenth century, thecivilised activities of mankind are gradually sliding downward, not only into thelowest regions of Nature, but even beneath Nature. Technical Science and Industrybecome Sub-Nature. He will thus create the inner strength not to go under.

A past conception of Nature still bore within it the Spirit with which the source ofall human evolution is connected. By degrees, this Spirit vanished altogether fromman’s theory of Nature. The purely Ahrimanic spirit has entered in its place, andpassed from theory of Nature into the technical civilisation of mankind.22

On the other hand to the definite mission of our time I must acknowledge that as trueas this collaboration with technology is for myself as an ego filled being, for thosewho do not have a firm centre or who are easily pushed out of that centre themechanistic aspect of technology can lead to obsession and loss of self. In Camphillwe are charged with living in a way that is relevant for our time. At the same time wehave chosen to live with people who in many ways are not of our time. Theirindividual constitutions and missions are seeds for the future and need a safe space togrow and blossom.Technology is an important part of our age, but cannot hope to replace the human

being or the human encounter. In discussing modern technology and its use in ourworkshops or elsewhere in our life, we must be careful not to denounce it, but beequally careful in the moral use, and moral judgement of where and with whom it isused.

I would like to return to the theme of moral activity as world creative. That whichwe live today as moral activity forms the basis of the world as it will be tomorrow.Rudolf Steiner speaks about the activities of the human being as world creative, andmuch in the sense that we have been created, we also create the beings of the future. Ifwe look at Rudolf Steiner's picture of world evolution we see how in each planetaryphase there is a specialisation of one of the kingdoms of nature that sacrifice theirfuture development. Rudolf Steiner speaks about how we create through our moralactivity, in the fluidic element, future Jupiter beings23

. These Jupiter beings will reach the phase of the fourfold constitution in the Jupiterphase of evolution.But this in itself raises questions – if this were true, then what arises from conceptual

thinking and immoral activity? Steiner speaks about the activity of demonic beings,not in the sense of the adversarial forces which renegade from the course of worldevolution, but demonic beings born from man's world destroying impulses. At presentthey exist in the fluidic element and are composed of physical (as expressed in the


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fluidic realm), etheric and astral. These beings are regressive in their mission and seekto halt the evolution of humanity. They work negatively upon the human being andare particularly active in the time between conception and birth, although theycontinue to attack those who have not established their ego.I repeat the ideas of Rudolf Steiner knowing they are shocking. I do not expect

widespread understanding for these things. But I return to my position at thebeginning of this section – what if I were to live my life, open to the possibility ofthese images...how will this affect how I live in the world?Living and working with children and adults who are so special I cannot help but

think how vulnerable they are to all kinds of negative experiences and influences. If Iwere to live with the possibility that these words hold truth in them, my work withmovement and craft as a medium for awakening the 'I' in people I care deeply abouttakes on a renewed and immediate importance.Craft can engage moral forces, awaken a consciousness of the spiritual reality of the

moral, and also awaken us to our moral responsibility as world creative beings.

Conclusion

It was my ambition to consider the immediate realm of my work, not in terms ofmaterial, but in terms of the impulses of craft in the widest sense and how this relatesto the work of Camphill. As a social therapist I have a primary interest in the workwith adults, but as a human being the question of the education and development ofthe child could take no less importance.I was left looking for a concluding theme and came to the word 'encounter', In theencounter between an individual and one of multitudinous possibilities to engage, theencounter of the craftsperson with their material, the dialogue between man and thekingdoms of nature, and the encounter from ego to ego something special comesabout.I have written these words to appeal to you, on an ego level, to see the potential valuein craftwork, and to communicate the need to renew and intensify impulses that are asvalid to the Camphill of today as they were when they were first conceived.

Brian M. Walsh


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Appendix 1:A Theory Of Knowledge

I would like to take the time to look at the world view which lies behind the ideasand conclusions I have come to in this work. Rather than pretend that a particular biasdoes not exist I openly admit that my work stems from the impulse of Anthroposophy,the philosophy of the wisdom of humanity as first described by Rudolf Steiner. I doso with an understanding (albeit dim as yet) of the importance of this approach for mywork and for cultivating a society based on the sanctity of the human being.

Rudolf Steiner speaks about man, the earth and the cosmos in a very different waythan our modern and materialist society speaks. Rudolf Steiner also refers to hismanner of looking at the world as spiritual science, or in the original GermanGeisteswissenschaft. I’ve found the term spiritual science a mountain to surmountwhen discussing the work of Rudolf Steiner as the word spirit in English has so manyconnotations, for example spiritualism and spirituality.

My understanding of spiritual science is connected to esotericism, but also in thesense of that which is hidden and intangible in human nature. We might call the artsand humanities spiritual sciences. They cannot be measured and quantified in thesame way as the pervasive Newtonian world conception. But I would also argue thatthe spiritual scientific outlook is a step beyond being a mere counter image.

Although it is difficult to build a truly human culture on inorganic science, thisscientific approach is valid within its own sphere of function and has very much toteach us. It represents a one sidedness that fails to take into account the impulses in usthat are uniquely human. If we lean towards the inorganic as a complete worldconception we view the world as if disconnected from each other, from the questionof our emotions, deeds, thoughts and responsibilities. The modern scientific modeldoes not have space for the organic and the dynamic.

So we are left with two images – the humanities on one hand, and on the other handNewtonian science. My understanding of a spiritual scientific method is a holisticweaving, integration and reconciliation of these two areas, which have become one-sided and disjointed, to form a middle path, the path of spieltrieb.

There is a point at which ‘two paths parted in the wood’ and the poet and scientistJohanne Wolfgang von Goethe took the road less taken. In fact he took neither of theforks one would normally follow. He firmly apposed the one-sidedness in theNewtonian world conception (matter) while at the same time his appreciation andpractice of the humanities and artistic impulses (form) were always firmly based inthe natural scientific methodologies and world conception he had arrived at. Insteadwe find in the scientific and artistic work of Goethe a voice crying in the wilderness.

J.W. von Goethe was born in Frankfurt in 1749 and during his lifetime he was aplaywright, poet, scientist and statesman.

For our purposes, being the question of a theory of knowledge in relation to craft,the most relevant aspect of Goethe’s life is his long-term friendship with thephilosopher Frederich Schiller and the resulting cross fertilization of ideas. In hiswork on Goethe, A Theory Of Knowledge Implicit In Goethe’s World Conception,Rudolf Steiner speaks about the separation of science and philosophy from thepracticalities of daily life. For people to engage with philosophy these philosophiesmust be imbued with the realities of the time that they can become social and culturalimpulses. This is certainly true of Goethe’s Faust, which is inseparable from his


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natural scientific enquiries. For Goethe the idea and the reality, the spiritual and thephysical were intimately connected. Rudolf Steiner explained Goethe’s view asfollows.

A world of ideas which does not penetrate Nature, its coming into being and itsdemise, which does not call forth its being and its growing, is for him [Goethe] afragile web of thought. To spend time unraveling logical thought without an anchor inthe true life and creativity of nature, appears to him to be fruitless. For he feelshimself to have coalesced deeply with Nature. He regards himself as a living part ofNature. That which arises in his soul, Nature, in his opinion, has caused to rise upwithin him. Man must not stand in a corner and believe that he can spin a structure ofideas by himself which will have anything to say on the essence of things. He mustperpetually allow the stream of world events to flow through him. Then he will cometo see that the world of ideas is no more than Nature’s creative and working force. Hewill come to not want to stand above things in order to meditate on them, but he willcome to delve into their depths and bring out whatever lives and works there.

It is in such a context that Goethe saw his own artist’s nature. With the samenecessity as a flower blooms, he felt his poetic works emanate from his very self.24

Goethe and Schiller originally met after both attending a lecture on natural science.They both commented on how one sided this was with no mention of the spirit. Intheir world conception the physical and the spiritual are in a constant state ofinterplay. This first meeting occurred in 1794 and from then on the two saw eachother almost daily, each spurring the other on in the search for a true understanding ofnature and of man.

In the same year as their first meeting Schiller wrote his Letters On The AestheticEducation of Man. It forms an argument for the importance of art and creativity in thelife of the developing human being. Rudolf Steiner says the content of these letterscomes directly from the discussions with and ideas of Goethe. He also says they arelargely based on how Goethe was and lived.

I have gone through the rather arduous task of reading these letters because of thespecial importance assigned them by Steiner. Steiner offers it the elevated position ofbeing a book whose ideas should be integral to education. He also assigns it as a bookto follow a person through life and to become a meditative text.25

Schiller speaks about three principles – Formtrieb and Stofftrieb as polarities andSpieltrieb as a third principle. Formtrieb or the form drive is that in the human beingwhich is more Luciferic – logic and phrase, convention and routine that limits him inhis activity. At the other polarity there is the Ahrimanic impulse of the Stofftrieb orthe material drive where he tends towards physical laws and towards nature as viewedby Newtonian science. Between form and matter can develop Spieltrieb, the playdrive. He points to the play drive as mans highest realm of activity in which he can befree. In spite of the limitations of conventions and forms, and the circumstances ofphysical existence the human being can create something which is completelypersonal. This is the realm of art where we can freely play with form and matter tocreate out of ourselves.

Schiller said that ‘man is only man when he is at play… and he is only man when heplays in the full sense of the word’.

Agnes Nobel describes how man functions in this middle sphere:He can here achieve changes himself not only in accordance with the law of logical

necessity – the formal objectivity - but from subjective, sensuously experiencedneeds. In this way the person playing stamps his subjectivity onto reality and givessubjectivity in turn objective validity. In play nature is elevated to spirit and spiritdescends to nature – the natural is spiritual, the spiritual natural.26


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We also see in this threefold of form-drive, material-drive and play-drive thequalities of spirit, body and soul respectively. We also meet these ideas in Goethe’swork. In an essay entitled Bildungstrieb (Formative Forces) Goethe offered a schemeto offer stimulus for meditation. He offers the following scheme.

FormAbilityStrengthForce LifeStrivingPower

Substance

For Goethe the artistic and the beautiful do not already exist but are in a process ofbecoming. It is not present in substance, or in the idea or form. For the aesthetic tocome about it must become life-filled content.

The beautiful is an archetypal phenomenon, which indeed never comes toappearance itself, but whose reflection becomes visible in a thousand differentexpressions of the work of the creating spirit, and is as manifold and various asNature herself.27

Goethe also expresses the three principles, form-drive, material-drive and play-drive, in his artistic work. Steiner points to Schiller’s Letters and Goethe’s The GreenSnake and the Beautiful Lily as expressing the same principle, the first in the form ofspeculative philosophy, the second as a living dynamic picture.

The lives and ideas of these two men, Goethe and Schiller, are of utmost importancein the biography and ideas of Rudolf Steiner and form a basis of the Anthroposophicalimpulse.

Rudolf Steiner was born in 1861 in Kraljevec, then a part of the Austrian-HungarianEmpire but now a part of Croatia.

Rudolf Steiner’s father was a railway station inspector serving at a number ofrailway stations throughout modern day Hungary and Austria. During his childhoodSteiner moved several times. He wrote as follows about these formative years:

I think it has been of great importance for my life that I spent my childhood in suchand environment. Living like this, my interest was drawn early on towardsmechanics. I know that this interest threatened all the time to get the upper hand ofmy senses, which were drawn towards the beautiful and grandiose Nature where thetrains time and time again disappeared into the distance, subjected to the laws ofmechanics.28

In his early childhood through a super-sensible experience of a relative who haddied he also became aware of the world which cannot be seen. Stemming from thisexperience Steiner began the work of trying to observe, as one observed the outerworld through the senses, the world of spirit.

During Steiner’s childhood he befriended a doctor who spoke to him about the greatfigures of German literature including Lessing, Goethe and Schiller. These stories, aswell as the enthusiastic manner with which they were conveyed, had a long lastingeffect on him.

When it came time for him to enter the upper school, his father decided he shouldprepare to be employed on the railway so Rudolf Steiner went to a school with a focuson the sciences. During his adolescence he also discovered several of the great worksof middle European philosophy including Kant’s Critic Of Pure Reason.


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At the age of 18 he went to Vienna to the Institute of Technology to studymathematics, natural history and chemistry. His interests did not end here and he alsopursued studies (informally) in many other areas including medicine, philosophy andGerman literature. He formed a significant friendship with the lecturer on Germanliterature, Karl Julius Schröer. Schröer’s lectures on Goethe and Schiller instantlyresonated and spurred the young Steiner to read Goethe’s Faust.

During this time he also befriended a herb gatherer who was an instinctive mysticwith whom he could speak about his experiences of spiritual realities. These were notsubjects he could readily discuss as a student of natural science. During his days as astudent he had to keep these ideas at arms length:

I have to say that I did not let my insight into the spiritual affect in a detrimentalway my studies in the science subjects, as they were designed at that time. I devotedmyself to the classes and had only in the background hopefulness that I might one daybe able to see a connection between science and the spiritual world.29

After experiencing the work of Goethe as a poet through Karl Julius Schröer,Steiner privately explored the natural scientific theories of Goethe and came to knowhim as a scientist par excellence. After discovering Goethe as a scientist he becameincreasingly dissatisfied with the prevalent methodology of natural science whichnegated the spiritual in nature, only understanding nature in its dead and static form.He saw in the scientific writings of Goethe a methodology for looking at the dynamicand living in nature, and through this a bridge between spirit and natural science.

After finishing at the Institute of Technology in Vienna, Steiner was invited toprepare an edition of Goethe’s Natural Scientific writings for publication. The then22-year-old Steiner was approached for this job on the recommendation of professorSchröer.

Also around this time Rudolf Steiner’s work with curative education began when hewas charged with the education of a 10 year old boy with developmental delays andhydrocephalus. Simultaneous to this Steiner discovered Schiller’s Letters On TheAesthetic Education of Man. In these two important meetings were the first stirringsof the practical implementation of the theory of knowledge he was quietlyformulating. By the end of Steiner’s tutelage this child could attend school withchildren of his own age and went on to become a doctor.

In 1889 Steiner moved to Weimer to take part in the preparation of Goethe’s workat the newly founded Goethe archives. Whilst in Weimar he became wholly immersedin the social cultural life of the city mixing as much with the philosophers, writers,artists as well as the natural scientists he worked with. Whilst working on the Weimeredition of Goethe’s work Steiner encountered great inner difficulties. He met in hiscolleagues a lack of understanding, and even a lack of interest in the two aspects ofGoethe’s life, science and humanities, as an integrated whole.

Not wishing to offer a biography of Rudolf Steiner I would like to wrap up bysaying the primary influences of his life's work had been germinating over this time.Steiner then moved to Berlin where he started lecturing widely as well as workingwith the Theosophical society. Under the auspices of the Theosophical, and laterAnthroposophical society Steiner offered a spiritual world view that I referred to atthe beginning of this section as spiritual science. But he also did more than this – theideas of Goethe and Schiller as well as the knowledge which he had meditativelyacquired became living knowledge – a renewal of understanding, and in some cases arenewal of form was brought into painting, modelling, architecture, music, speech anddramatic work. This also developed into medicine, social theory, agriculture,education and innumerable other areas.


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A theory of knowledge is only as valid as it can be implemented and the spiritualscientific methodologies which inform this work continue to inform new areas, andform new directions for practical applications in all realms. It is from this position thatI write this work and from which I work into the world.


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Bibliography

Adams, David Organic Functionalism: An Important Principle Of The Visual ArtsIn Wardorf School Crafts and Architecture.

Graves, Bernard The Waldorf Hand Work & Craft Curriculum (Hiram Trust)Graves, Bernard The Relevance of Handwork and Craft for the Child, Adolecent

and The Adult (Hiram Trust)Graves, Bernard Education of the Senses out of the Environment (Pyrites)Graves, Bernard The Craft Gesture (Hiram Trust)Gordon, Aongus Will Developed Intelligence (Hiram Trust)Grochala, Katarzyna The Origins Of Crafts, Their Significance in the History Of

Mankind and the Working of the Craft of Weaving in the Human Soul (dissertation,Camphill Seminar in Curative Education- Sheiling School Thornbury, 2000)

Howard, Michael Educating The Will (AWSNA Publications, 2004)Konig, Karl Seeds For Social Renewal (Floris publications, 2009)Martin, Michael (ed.) Educating Through Arts and Crafts (Steiner Schools

Fellowship Publications, 2008)Mees-Christeller, Eva The Practice Of Artistic Therapy (Mercury Press, 1985)Mitchell, David & Livingstone, Patricia Will Developed Intelligence (AWSNA

Publications 2007)Nobel, Agnes Educating Through Art: The Steiner School Approach (Floris, 1996)Richards, M. C. The Crossing Point (Wesleyan University Press, 1973)Richards, M.C. Centring: In Pottery, Poetry and the Person 2nd edition (Wesleyan

Press, 1989)Sigman, Aric Practically Minded: The Benifits and Mechanisms Associated With A

Craft-Based Curriculum (RMET)Sigman, Aric Does Not Compute: Screen Technology in Early Years Education

(Ruskin Mill Educational Trust)Sigman, Aric Well Connected: Effects Of The Integrated Learning Environment

(RMET)Steiner, Rudolf Foundations of Human Experience (Anthroposophic Press, 1996)

GA 293Steiner, Rudolf Soul Economy and Waldorf EducationSteiner, Rudolf Anthroposophical Leading ThoughtsSteiner, Rudolf The Bridge Between Universal Spirituality And The Physical

Constitution of Man GA202ASteiner, Rudolf Art As Seen in the Light Of Mystery Wisdom GA 275Various Craft In Camphill (Botton Printers 1983)Various Anthology Of Articles From Paideia (The Hiram Trust)Various The Camphill Youth Guidance Seminar Theses February 2004 (Camphill

Youth Guidance Seminar, 2004)Various The Camphill Youth Guidance Seminar Theses 1985-1987 (Camphill Youth

Guidance Seminar)Various The Camphill Youth Guidance Seminar Theses 1988-1990 (Camphill Youth

Guidance Seminar)


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Endnotes

1 The Bible Genesis 3:222 Soesman, Albert Our Twelve Senses (Hawthorn press, 1998) pg. 163 Francis Edmunds, quoted in Paper 1 For The Hiram Trust, 1995 by R. Von Zschock4 These potential sub-divisions are aptly dealt with in Michael Howard’s Educating The Will(AWSNA, 2004)5 Steiner, Rudolf Practical Advice to Teachers, Lecture 116 Steiner, Rudolf Renewal of Education page 677 Quoted in the Brighton Briefing 1995,8 Sources from Karl Stockmeyer’s notes on the craft curriculum and Bernard Graves paper TheWaldorf Handwork and Craft Curriculum (Hiram Trust)9 Gordon, Aonghus Descent Into Matter (Hiram Trust Resources)10 Goethe, letter to Wilhelm von Humboldt, 17th March 183211 See section on craft and morality12 Mees-Christeller, Eva The Practice Of Artistic Therapy (Mercury Press, 1985) pg. 313 Konig, Karl Seeds For Social Renewal (Floris, 2009) pg. 26814 Genesis I:2715 Genesis II:7

16The technical ingenuity of a threadle loom is such that to properly convey what I

would need for the reader to have an understanding of the warping on process would takecopious diagrams and half the word count of this work again. As this is quite a specialisedtechnique and not the main point of this section I will forgo a description and if you reallywant to know ask and I will tell you, show you (although its been a long time since I havedone so) or give you a book that does have the time and space to explain!

17 Steiner, Rudolf, 21st November 1914 – quoted in Mittelstedt, Katja Therapy And The Craft OfWeaving in Youth Guidance Seminar Theses 200418 Steiner, Rudolf Foundations of Human Experience (Anthroposophic Press, 1996) StuttgartAugust 22nd 1919 GA 293; page 55-5619 Steiner, Rudolf Foundations of Human Experience (Anthroposophic Press, 1996) StuttgartAugust 25th 1919 GA 293; page 89

20 Steiner, Rudolf The Forming Of Destiny In Sleeping and Waking 6th April 1923 inGolden Blade 1973

21 Steiner, Rudolf Foundations of Human Experience (Anthroposophic Press, 1996) StuttgartAugust 25th 1919 GA 293;22 Steiner, Rudolf Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts (Anthroposophical PublishingCompany, 1927) pgs 123-124

23 Steiner, Rudolf Art As Seen In the Light Of Mystery Wisdom Lecture 7: 'FutureJupiter and its Beings' Dornarch, 3rd January 1915 GA275

24 Steiner, Rudolf Goethes World View

quoted in Nobel, Agnes Educating Through Art: The Steiner School Approach (Floris, 1996)page 9625 Steiner, Rudolf Schiller in our Time (4 May 1905, Berlin) GA5326 Nobel, Agnes Educating Through Art: The Steiner School Approach (Floris, 1996) page 10027 Goethe to Eckermann, 18th April 1827 quoted Hiebel, F. Goethe’s Message Of Beauty (St.Georges Publications, 1978)28 Steiner, Rudolf The Course Of My Life29 Ilbid


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Curative Education, Social Therapy and the Craft Impulse

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