A healthy ‘We’
Community-building relies on the inner development of the individual. A healthy ‘We’ is not something ready-made but needs to be continually worked on to be achieved.
Florian Osswald Community-building starts with individuals and relies on their cooperation and their relationship to spiritual beings. In this way, the community can inspire the development of ideas in individuals.
Claus-Peter Röh Social organisms have been thoroughly shaken up in the Coronavirus year. The question now is how a new and healthy ‘We’ can be achieved. Anthroposophy has three qualities to offer in this respect: through imagination I develop essential images. When I approach and am interested in a topic or person, I open myself to inspiration. Through intuition I become one with my actions. According to the new edition of Rudolf Steiner’s First Teachers’ Course (2020, GA 293-295, page 18), Herbert Hahn outlined this process as follows: behind each of us stands a being, awakening imaginations and showing ways forward or possible resolutions in particular situations – this refers to the relationship with the angel. Inspiration occurs in consonance with others, when someone in the community has an idea – arising from the relationship with the archangel. For the resolution to be realized or implemented, intuition is required, out of a relationship with the Archai. This wealth of encounters has been missing during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Strength – orientation – courage
Osswald Engaging with the quality of imagination gives us strength: the image gives us orientation out of which we become active. In the second step, that of inspiration, the courage to act emerges in and through the community. These are at the same time answers to typical questions such as ‘Do I have the strength to put something into practice?’ or ‘Do I have the courage to act?’
Röh What is important first of all is that we perceive others – children, colleagues, parents – and that we are being perceived. This changes our actions. As a result of the three steps I sense what wants to be perceived - in a classroom, for instance, or in a social situation. Basic virtues such as courage for the truth or the unity of idea and action are essential in this.
Osswald Assuming that one already knows how something is done can also be an obstacle.
Röh We can practice openness and impartiality if we foster our ability to be astounded and open to new things, maybe by learning something new (which helps teachers also to understand the students’ situation). At the social level, it is also important to share experiences and perceptions among colleagues and in other groups, about a class for instance.
Osswald It is a matter of seeing oneself as part of the process, to participate in it and to know: I am (co-)responsible for the atmosphere that is being created.
Forming – dissolving – forming again
Röh And then I am released from all that again: I enjoy the initiative and actions of others, such as a young person taking steps on their own.
Osswald If a communal process in which a ‘We’ is formed is to be healthy one cannot hold on to it. It has to dissolve again – otherwise it will make us unfree. A healthy ‘We’ newly forms itself again and again. This shows that a community is not being organized. By working at the level of the ‘I’, the higher ‘I’ can be found to which – to go back to what was said earlier – we can refer as ‘angel’.
Röh This also needs trust, not in what has been achieved and established, but in the potential of every new constellation to allow for something new to arise, again and again. Through meditation we can build bridges to beings that are active in the social realm. I concentrate by choosing the content of my thoughts, enter into them and open myself to the new things that come towards me.