Draw Into the Circle
biography, social art, soul-spiritual development, anthroposophy
Draw Into the Circle
biography, social art, soul-spiritual development, anthroposophy
circle WORK within the biography communitY
Why Circles?
by Cindy Sas
“The work carried out in brotherly harmony within our groups has quite a different significance for the spiritual world than other work we may undertake.” Rudolf Steiner
As a member of three circles currently (Heartland, Karma & Biography, and Research), I’m continually amazed by the richness of these gatherings. Like everyone, my life is busy and full, and yet I find myself wanting to increase my engagement in Circles. I want more of what they have to offer.
Every Circle in which I’ve participated is different, but what I’ve experienced in every one of them are the qualities for which training and work within Biography and Social Art uniquely prepares us:
The Circles are collegial, rather than hierarchical. We share the role of leadership, to greater or lesser degrees. Personally, I’m not comfortable with taking a leadership role. I don’t know what to do, or how to do it. And I certainly don’t want the weight that comes from being responsible for administrative tasks, content creation, and facilitation that are a part of meeting regularly. But with shared leadership, I can focus on where my strengths lie (creative ideas, note taking and allow others to carry the tasks for which they are best suited. Rotating leadership for content among members increases individual engagement and builds confidence – both in one’s ability to hold a group for ninety minutes, and also in learning that others are actually interested in what you have to say.
In Circles we discover our commonalities, that we are not alone in what we feel or what we struggle with. This has been almost eerily demonstrated in the Heartland Circle. We’ve been meeting monthly for nearly eleven years. As our Circle has evolved and grown, our way of working together has loosened up considerably. Early on, we were very formed in choosing a particular theme that we worked with over the course of a year. More recently, we simply begin with a check-in and find that we often have had very similar experiences, questions, or struggles since we’d last met. Our theme arises organically out of the check-in. There’s a kind of trust that builds in this loosening up. We trust the process; we trust our ability to move with what is. The form that we relied on when we were a “younger” group is second nature now, quietly supportive.
In Circles we have the opportunity to speak the unspeakable, and have it received without judgment. For me, this was most clearly demonstrated in the Trauma Transformation Circle (recently concluded), but also in the Karma and Biography Circle. It feels safe enough in these Circles to share even very difficult, very painful aspects of our Biographies, and what is shared is simply held by the Circle. There is none of the usual offering of advice or trying to fix or make it better. The simple holding is healing. This has taught me a lot about what’s actually needed, especially for soul healing. Deep listening and acceptance go a long way.
In Circles we have the opportunity to work through conflict and disagreement. We learn that in the working through, we become stronger and closer as a group. I’m a peacemaker and a conflict avoider, so this has been a big learning for me. I’m grateful for those in the Circle who model courage, who can speak the things (often hard to hear) that have bothered them or hurt them, or the ways they perceive that the group relationship could be improved. Slowly, I’m learning to speak up when things have bothered or hurt me, or when I see things that might need to change. This invites me to transform a lifelong pattern of behavior – staying silent when I need to speak up. Others are being asked to change in different ways – for example, learning to stay rather than flee when they experience something painful or disappointing within the Circle.
Circles allow for, and support, transformation. It’s a source of great awe for me how this happens so consistently. When I “remember a time when…”; capture the moment artistically; share with others; and receive reflections, questions, and observations from those who have listened deeply to my sharing, new possibilities arise. My perspective shifts. I see things in a new way. I change how I have habitually thought about a situation, a relationship, a person, a way of being. I am transformed. We call this metanoia– change of heart and mind – and it is common when we engage in deep Circle work.
In Circles we each listen to the other and feel ourselves listened to. In listening – in the way we are taught to listen as Biography Workers – we practice selflessness. We set aside our own thoughts, judgments, the scripts for what we’ll say when it’s our turn to speak. We give our undivided attention to the other. How often do you experience this opportunity both to listen and be listened to, outside of Biography Work? If you’ve ever experienced the wonder and beauty of being listened to in this way then you understand that this is perhaps the greatest gift that Circles can offer.
Steiner said, “Love starts when we push aside our ego and make room for someone else." John 15:13 says, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” I grew up in a strict religious family and always thought of this too literally, like I’d have to physically die for my friends in order to demonstrate the kind of love I longed to give. But when we set aside our own thoughts, when we refrain from engaging in the judgment that comes naturally to us, when we shift our focus of attention from ourselves to the other, is that not also a “laying down of one’s life,” a “pushing aside of our ego”?
Circles, then, are offering a practice in how to love, and how to be loved. Is it any wonder that I find myself longing for more of them? Is there any doubt about how much they are needed, and what they have to offer? Does this not explain how “(t)he work carried out in brotherly harmony within our groups has quite a different significance for the spiritual world than other work we may undertake”?
More about Circles below!
Chartres Cathedral
The Initiative circle : Current members
Paulette Arnold, Illinois
Paulette Arnold, Illinois
Paulette Arnold, Illinois
Sarah Putnam, N. Carolina
Paulette Arnold, Illinois
Paulette Arnold, Illinois
Lorna Kohler, California
Paulette Arnold, Illinois
Lorna Kohler, California
Seneca Gonzalez, Vermont
Seneca Gonzalez, Vermont
Seneca Gonzalez, Vermont
Eileen Jones, Vermont
Seneca Gonzalez, Vermont
Seneca Gonzalez, Vermont
Diane Piette, Illinois
Diane Piette, Illinois
Diane Piette, Illinois
Leah Walker, Illinois
Diane Piette, Illinois
Diane Piette, Illinois
conference 2025 : meeting in community
MEETING IN COMMUNITY : HONORING THE THINNING VEIL
October 2025
Graciously hosted by Foxhollow Farm
At mid-autumn, as the air cools and days grow shorter, as Hallows Eve and the Festival of All Soul’s near and the veil thins ... and remembering that our key purpose is to meet and, in our meeting, feel belonging, strength, and renewal, we DRAW INTO THE CIRCLE with devoted attention to the space we create together where Spirit Beings may join us. They are eager to associate with us in true social experience and encourage our development, individually and as a community, toward thinking of the heart.
A REFLECTION BY LINDA BERGH
Meeting, eye to eye, heart to heart
The opening circle cracking open, the striving of each one of us as the mission of the biography being was ever strengthened
The karma circle, the association discussion, the naming of circles, the Goethean conversation and review, all showing the power and challenge of our shared journey with each other and with spirit
The ancestors holding us, feeling acknowledged by our honoring of them by the candles lit and the stories shared, all of us sensing our ever-present connections
The gifts of individual striving through studio work guided well
All the conversations between sessions - deepening the web of connection word by word
The food - oh the food - oh the food - oh the food …
The moving forward of karma and circle work through striving sharing
The moving forward the elders, finding a way to hold with Sophia this sacred I-Thou soul work, the work of our time
The planting of the young Willow – watering and nurturing her roots as we felt the roots beneath our own feet welcoming her to the sacred land, which has welcomed us
The visitation to the Stones, ever present, ever present – stretching us from the deep water beneath the earth, to the warmth of the grass beneath our feet, and upward and outward to the farthest star. We felt timeless as we touched the Stones and leaned our bodies against them
The meeting of each of our eyes as we went around the closing circle singing led by our national treasure– from you I receive to you I give together we share and from this we live. The courage of each one to be here to be in the now of meeting the other through sound, through touch of hands, through looking into each other's eyes. Another moment out of time
The thinning of the veils – the name of the conference – was truly alive
We experienced the thinning of all the veils - the veils of the visible and invisible with the spirit world and our ancestors
Those within us and between us
Those between us and the being of Biography …
All guiding us toward deep healing and transformation
We are thinning the Veil - and in this the veil-thinning,
breath by breath,
We are one.
May this sacred time strengthen our future work together …
Gratitude warms my heart as I share these impressions.
Forgive me for using “we” - I could not somehow write it as “I”
What a privilege to share time and space with each and all of you
We are one round round round, We are one, walking sacred ground
We are one round round round, We are one making sacred sound
We are one round round round, We are one making love abound …
Round, round …
WORKING WITH POLARITIES
Following the conference, most participants stayed on for a professional development workshop with Robert Karp, where we explored the mystery of social and anti-social forces as they present within ourselves, within our communities and organizations, and within the society at large. Building from the Social Motto of Rudolf Steiner and drawing on the principles of social threefolding and biodynamic agriculture, we journeyed together in search of that mysterious third force which is capable of harmonizing these tensions and raising them to a higher synthesis.
conference 2024 : Simple Sacred sublime
Contributions Are Welcome
And will be applied to scholarship at our next conference. Thank you!
