2024 Annual Conference
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Step into a Modern Esoteric Stream
It is with great pleasure we invite you to the Annual Conference of the
Anthroposophical Society in America, held this year in dynamic downtown Portland,
Oregon, October 11 to 14, 2024.
Unable to join us in person?
Learn more about our online conference offerings at anthroposophy.org/fall24online
WHAT TO KNOW
Keynote speaker Marc Desaules, general secretary from Switzerland, steps into our theme with his opening address The Anthroposophical Society and Today’s Riddle of the Threshold on Friday, and America’s Contribution as Healing Response to the World Crises of our Time on Sunday, unfolded in the midst of premier anthroposophical arts and activity, including research projects of the School for Spiritual Science, an experience of the healing Metal Colored Light Therapy, performances by the Portland and Bay Area Eurythmy Ensembles, and more. We are also excited to announce the exhibit of Rik ten Cate’s replica of the original Foundation Stone at the conference, a beautiful double dodecahedron sculpted in copper, encasing pyrite crystals, a hallmark of this moment in the history of anthroposophy in the world.
DATES
Friday, October 11 - Monday 14, October, 2024
The conference begins 4 pm Friday and ends at 12pm on Monday
Plus three pre and post conference sessions on Zoom
Tuesdays, September 10, October 1, and October 22 at 8pm ET/5pm PT
Scroll down for the event schedule
LOCATION
Crowne Plaza Hotel Portland-Downtown
1441 NE 2nd Ave
Portland, OR 97232
Now offering: A CONFERENCE FLIGHT DISCOUNT WITH ALASKA AIRLINES!
Book tickets with Alaska Arlines for Portland-bound flights from October 4-18 and recieve a 7% Discount!
The discount code is available in our Participant Portal~ accessible to all conference attendees!
Please contact us for details or further questions.
See below for a special booking link to receive the discounted 'ASA Conference' room rate! Secure this room rate by September 10.
Free shuttle pick-up from the Portland International Airport (PDX) will be available by the Crowne Plaza Hotel Shuttle Service.
We will offer conference parking for $15 a day.
The Crowne Plaza Hotel is situated in downtown Portland, the City of Roses, and offers beautiful city views, as well as views of stunning Mount Hood. There is much to see and do in the surrounding area, including hiking the Forest Park or Washington Park, visiting the International Rose Test Garden and Arboretum, strolling through the Portland Japanese Garden, touring the Pittock Mansion, and more!
TICKETS
ASA Members
$350 - includes meals
$200 - no meals
Supporter
$550 - includes meals
Non-Members
$400 - includes meals
$250 - no meals
Youth and Equity*
$250 - includes meals
A ticket without meals includes access to all conference activities, coffee/tea and snacks throughout the weekend, and a Friday night reception with hors d'oeuvres.
A ticket with meals includes all of the above plus lunch Saturday and Sunday, and dinner on Saturday.
Interested in having a table as a vendor or exhibitor? Apply here and we will be in touch.
*You are welcome to choose this option if you are 35 and under, or if you are experiencing financial hardship.
No Refunds at September 10, 2024
ACCOMODATION
Book your hotel room with our discounted ASA room rate of $149/night HERE
You may also call the reservation desk at 1 (866) 242-1264, available 24/7 and mention that you are part of the ASA block October 11-14.
Reservations must be made by September 10, 2024 to secure the ASA room rate of $149 per night.
This special rate extends 3 days before and after the conference- so feel free to stay longer and explore all that Portland has to offer!
MORE DETAIL
Step into a Modern Esoteric Stream
We have the pleasure of providing you with an updated program for the October conference in Portland, which combines a celebration of the current life of the Society with a review of its journey to date, as well as consideration of where it might next be headed. Coincidental with the 532nd anniversary of Columbus’s landing in the Bahamas on 12 October 1492, our 4 days together provide an opportunity to meet in person and are organised to place various current activities in a context of themes ~ articulated in the keynote talks ~ that are not only relevant to the Anthroposophical Society in the United States, but in the anthroposophical movement worldwide, not to mention their importance for the US and the world at large at this pregnant, but increasingly fraught, moment in human history.
Some one hundred years after Rudolf Steiner's last public address given on the eve of Michaelmas, 1924, how do things stand with anthroposophy in the world? Especially, here and now, how does anthroposophy live in the United States? And how would we like it to live?
We would like to ask these questions against a background of Rudolf Steiner's insights about the continent of North America prior to its rediscovery in the 15th century and within that the role of what, two and a half centuries ago, became the United States of America.[1] Further, how has the Anthroposophical Society developed in the US since the 1923/4 Christmas Conference? What have been the intentions and accomplishments of those who played a prominent part in the first century of anthroposophy in the world? Further still, if we imagine coming together at Michaelmas each year (beginning with this conference) and stretching forwards to 2033, for example, how might the Society in America continue its journey, especially in its role of providing both context and home for the work done out of spiritual science?
Our main speaker is Marc Desaules, General Secretary and Treasurer of the Anthroposophical Society in Switzerland, whose many initiatives[2] within the Society and the Movement illustrate a depth of understanding and a dynamic of lived experience that shows how anthroposophy can move through the world like a flame, bringing warmth and light to human souls in the midst of contemporary culture.
We have chosen Portland, Oregon in the Pacific Northwest for this year’s gathering because it supports our inner sense of how we might now turn around in the ‘wild, willed West’ and look back towards Europe, and so take stock of how things now stand in the light of Rudolf Steiner’s many insights into the relationship between Europe and America. Can we together – Europeans and Americans – consider what it means to say ex occidente forma,[3] when what is enkindled in the heart takes on form as a life path, receiving and achieving its fullest expression when it is shared with others seeking the same goal.
[1] See Virginia Sease, The Spiritual Contribution of the West, The Golden Blade, 1992
[2] L’Aubier, Coopera, the Anthroposophical Society in Switzerland, Goetheanum Fund, etc…
[3] ...what through the West takes on form (from the second panel of the Foundation Stone Meditation)
Keep up to date on all our offerings at anthroposophy.org/ASAPrograms
| SCHEDULE* *This schedule is subject to minor changes and updates |
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Friday 10/11 *For members of the School for Spiritual Science Saturday 10/12 |
Sunday 10/13 Monday 10/14
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If you are interested in becoming a vendor, exhibitor, or presenter at the conference apply here and we will be in touch.
ONLINE PRE AND POST CONFERENCE SESSIONS VIA ZOOM
Click here for full event description
September 10
The Great Peacemaker: The Spiritual Impulse behind the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and its Relationship to the First Continental Congress
with Micky Leach of the Western Regional Council
October 1
Anthroposophy in Portland
with Valerie Hope and Walter Rice of the Portland Branch
October 22
Reflections and Leading Thoughts from the Conference
with the General Council of the ASA
If you can't join us at the time of the session, we will post the recording in this Participant Portal and send it via email within 24 hours of our gathering!
More information coming soon!
PROGRAM TITLES, TOPICS AND THEMES INCLUDE
Keynotes:
I. The Anthroposophical Society and Today’s Riddle of the Threshold ~ Marc Desaules
II. Aligning the Stars and the Stripes - Unsheathing America, why now? ~ Mary Stewart Adams
III. America’s Contribution as Healing Response to the World Crises of our Time ~ Marc Desaules
IV. The Country Societies and the Contribution of the West ~ Panel with Country Representatives from the US, Canada, Hawaii, & Switzerland
Workshop options:
Threefold the Social Organism: We Can Start Here and Now! with a look at L’Aubier and other initiatives with Marc Desaules (3-part intensive)
Single session workshops offered by Sections of the School of Spiritual Science
Metal Colored Light Therapy and the After Image with Helena Hurrell
Performances:
Earth: This Being Human with the Portland Eurythmy Ensemble
The Foundation Stone Meditation in Eurythmy with the Portland Eurythmy Ensemble
The Michael Imagination with The Bay Area Eurythmy Ensemble
The Sacred Drama of Eleusis with speech artists Christine Burke, Beatrice Voigt, and Marke Levene
MEET YOUR PRESENTERS
Featured Keynote:
Born in 1956 in Brig Switzerland, Marc Desaules is a physicist and entrepreneur, and father of three, who now lives with his wife in Montezillon near Neuchâtel, Switzerland. In 1979, he founded L'Aubier, an eco-hotel and event space with its own biodynamic farm, cheese dairy, organic store, restaurant, and intergenerational eco-housing. L’Aubier hosts many groups each year for seminars, conferences, and trainings for young people. Today, he is responsible for the center’s finances and real estate. Marc is also the co-founder of CoOpera, a pension fund for companies, and was a longtime member of their board of trustees. Marc joined the Board of the Anthroposophical Society in Switzerland in 1994 and currently serves as treasurer and General Secretary.
Valerie Hope has been a member of the Portland Branch Council since 2010, and served as editor of the Branch newsletter from 2012 to 6/24, with a brief editorial hiatus at one point. Her love of the festivals and following the cycle of the year has only grown over the years. Her research project for some decades has been exploring and experiencing the necessity of blessing our food. For most of her adult life she has been involved with community organizing activities in various forms, helping to found new organizations. Valerie was employed during her 20’s by the Portland Planning Bureau, and later the State Department of Environmental Quality. Back then organized public participation in governmental agency planning and decision making was a very new idea. Until then ‘blue ribbon’ groups representing powerful interests were the norm. In 1986 she enrolled her 4-year-old son in the Portland Waldorf School, and became the president of the school’s first Parent Council. A second son was soon also enrolled. Later she was hired in the position of outreach and enrollment staff. Over some 10 years Valerie was a member of a US and Canadian 7- person team, the Lemnis Group, which held regional conferences for Waldorf School faculty, administrators and parents as the schools (often painfully) worked to develop approaches to needed administrative functions. In 1999 Valerie graduated from Marylhurst University with a degree in communication, which included conflict resolution, mediation, and group development, which became her new profession
Michael Hughes is trained with diplomas in artistic, pedagogical and therapeutic eurythmy. His primary eurythmy diploma comes from the Camphill Eurythmy School in England where he worked in communities caring for people with special needs. He has performed and taught all ages in both Europe and many parts of the US. He moved to Maui in 2006, teaching children at Haleakala Waldorf school,as well as adults in the AWE (Adult Waldorf Education) program. Michael has special joy in bringing Eurythmy and all work arising out of Anthroposophy to those working on behalf of future generations. Michael currently serves as Chairperson for the Anthroposophical Society in Hawai’i
Helena Hurrell is the director of the Helios Center, is trained in Metal Color Light Glass Therapy from the Lichtblick Atelier in Schwörstadt, Germany, and received a certificate approved by the Medical Section at the Goetheanum in 2013. She has also completed a master’s level therapeutic training at the Tobias School of Art and Therapy in the UK and is currently providing anthroposophic art and metal color light therapy to children and adults in Carbondale, Colorado. Helena has been working therapeutically with individuals and groups in the UK, Australia, and the USA since 1981.
Timothy Kennedy has been a part of anthroposophical communities throughout his life. He has sought to find an Anthroposophy of the will, and through steady practice, and a lot of grace, he is finding balance in his inner and outer work. He has led the largest natural building and design company in the US for 24 years, administrates the global Natural Building Network online, and has been in development on a 700 acre project integrating regenerative farming, ecological restoration, and healthy housing for 100+ humans. He recently joined the Western Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America in hopes of furthering the life of Anthroposophia in the West.
Micky Leach was first introduced to Anthroposophy as a college student in 1980, and has been active in the Anthroposophical Society and its initiatives for the past 40 years. She is a member of the School of Spiritual Science, the Western Regional Council and a former member of the General Council. In the late 1980's she was a founding Board Member of the City of Lakes Waldorf school in Minneapolis, MN. After her move to Santa Fe, NM was twice asked to serve as a Trustee for the Santa Fe Waldorf School. Micky has a deep love of history and for many years she has intensively studied the origins of the United States.Through this study and research, she holds a deep appreciation for the Native American Culture and its understanding of the individual and community that deeply informed those who founded this country.
Mary Stewart Adams has been General Secretary and President of the Anthroposophical Society in America since autumn, 2023. She serves as a spokesperson for the Society and country representative in the international movement. For over twenty years, under the title of Star Lore Historian, Mary has worked as a dark skies advocate, to raise awareness about the effects of light pollution and to make known the mysteries of the starry skies from environmental, cultural, and anthroposophical perspectives. She first encountered the work of Rudolf Steiner at the age 18 in 1981, and met Hazel Straker, a pioneer in astrosophy, in 1996. These two destiny moments have shaped much of her life path, which, together with her education in literary arts, continue to inspire her work and research. She joined the School of Spiritual Science in 2000.
Miriam Cosentino Ward studied nursing at the first anthroposophical hospital in Germany to offer a nursing degree and then went on to study speech and drama in Switzerland at the Marie Steiner School. Returning to the United States she worked at Raphael Association in California for four years before moving to Camphill School in Pennsylvania, where she was part of the community for 20 years. Having obtained her BSN, she worked as a school nurse in the public school system for over a decade. She is presently retired and lives outside of Portland, Oregon.
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CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT
CONFERENCE PRESENTERS,
WORKSHOP LEADERS,PERFORMERS,
AND PLANNING COMMITTEE MEMBERS
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Performances and Exhibitions:
Performances by Portland Eurythmy and The Bay Area Eurythmy Ensemble
The Bay Area Eurythmy Ensemble, BAEE, was founded in 2016 and is a group of eurythmy teachers located around San Francisco. We have been focused on offering performances to students at local Waldorf Schools and occasionally branches of the ASA to allow for an experience of artistic eurythmy in our region. This year’s offerings are for the first time more oriented toward an exclusively adult audience. Our current inspiration is the Michael Imagination and the Rudolf Steiner’s last address. Our current ensemble is: Michaela Bergmann, Lilith Dupuis, Sebastien Dupuis, Isabela Guardia, Karen Gallagher, Monika Leitz and Barbara Neumann joined by our speaker Jeremiah Turner.
Portland Eurythmy is the collaborative effort of six local eurythmists, a pianist and a speaker who have come together to create performances through the art of eurythmy, a gestural language that brings a living expression to sound and tone and fills the dynamic space between performers and audience.
Check out the program for "Earth: This Being Human" - the Saturday evening performance by Portland Eurythymy
The Sacred Drama of Eleusis with speech artists Christine Burke, Marke Levene, and Beatrice Voigt
Christine Burke met anthroposophy in 1997 and immediately signed up for the Rudolf Steiner College San Francisco Waldorf Teacher Training. During a rich and art infused training, she met the anthroposophical speech arts. In 2001, Christine embarked on the 4 year, full-time Speech training in England. Before meeting anthroposophy, Christine completed an associate’s degree in Literature and a bachelor’s degree in Linguistics. After the Speech training, Christine earned a master’s degree in Communication Studies. In retrospect, a clear path of the Word – or to the Word – has been her life’s companion, along with a healthy dose of finding and creating community. Christine now teaches Communication Studies part time at her local Community College and teaches Sacred Speech Work in workshops around the globe, with private students, and at Kairos Institute.
Marke Levene is a Eurythmist and actor, former president of the Eurythmy Association of North America, current member of the Council of Anthroposophical Organizations, and creator of the children's products company Enchantmints. He also created the theater company, Portal Productions, that toured Rudolf Steiner's Mystery Dramas in English and whose initiative through Lemniscate Arts was behind the New World Symphony tour in 2005/6.
Beatrice Voigt has performed and taught artistic speech and drama across North America and Europe, appearing with the Spring Valley Mystery Drama Group, Eurythmy Witten Annen, The Harlotry Players, Hostia and most recently with Ink-Pot Arts. She graduated from The School of Speech and Drama at the Goetheanum, Switzerland and came to the United States to study the Michael Chekhov acting technique. Beatrice is currently a member of the Detroit Waldorf School faculty and she serves on the council for Anthroposophic Speech Arts in North America.
Exhibits:
An Art Dispersal, offered by Patricia Lynch, and Laura Summer from Free Columbia, is an event where we hang up original works of art and invite people to become their stewards. They can take a piece home, keep it for as long as they like, as well as return it to the artist if they no longer want to keep it. Stewards are offered an opportunity to make a contribution to Free Columbia. Contributions support the artists as well as Free Columbia.
Free Columbia has run 20 Art Dispersals over the past 10 years, with over 800 paintings (as well as other works of art) dispersed to stewards in Hudson, Philmont, Spring Valley, and Manhattan, NY; Eugene and Portland, OR; Los Angeles, CA; New Orleans, LA; and Jarna, Sweden. In 2020 we held our first online art dispersal in collaboration with the Anthroposophical Society in North America.
The Foundation Stone, beautifully handcrafted by Rik ten Cate in honor of the centenary of the Christmas Conference. This copper double dodecahedron is on a world tour and we are pleased to announce that it will be on display at our annual conference in Portland, OR.
Helena Hurrell will bring Metal Color Light Therapy panels to the conference. Learn more about her work HERE.
Pictured: Marianne Altmaier, the founder of this form of therapy, with glass panels.
Learn more about conference presenters, workshop leaders,
performers, and planning committee members
No refunds after September 10, 2024.
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