“Like travelling around the world”
Anthroposophical Studies at the Goetheanum: getting to know oneself better by engaging with the world.
Expanding one‘s horizon by travelling and seeing other cultures is more difficult during a pandemic. But international places of study also provide the opportunity to meet people from different cultures, experience their ways of life and to get to know oneself and one‘s own societal dispositions better.
“For some time now there has not been much of a chance to travel and widen one‘s horizon by immersing oneself in other cultures,” says Edda Nehmiz, who coordinates the study courses at the Goetheanum. She points out, however, that even during a pandemic it is possible to enter the Schengen Area with a student visa and study at the Goetheanum in Switzerland.
People from different cultures and different language backgrounds meet there every year. “Engaging with questions of our time, philosophy, anthroposophy, art and culture and living in student halls makes for an experience one can otherwise only have when one travels around the world,” Edda Nehmiz adds, smiling. “One gets to know other perspectives and one also gets to know oneself better.”
It starts with trying to understand the context of a thought or idea. As one transfers this method to oneself, one‘s own roles and dispositions become more apparent. This leads to orientation regarding one‘s own place in and relationship with the world. Outer impulses and deep inner motivations can be more clearly distinguished and related to each other. Becoming active and creative out of this awareness reconnects one with the world. Edda Nehmiz is convinced that “The better I know the factors involved and the way they interact – particularly also with myself – the more firmly I can be grounded in life.”
Term 1 Metamorphosis: Paths of Participation. Goethean Approaches to Science, Art and Social Life, 4 October to 17 December 2021
Term 2 Mutuality: Realizing Human World Relations, 17 January to 25 March 2022
Term 3 Commitment: Transforming Self and World, 25 April to 1 July 2022
Translation by Margot M. Saar
Image: Goetheanum Studies: students (Photo: Edda Nehmiz)