Describing my road to eurythmy, or said in other words: looking at one significant milestone along that road, I would like to describe one very special moment in my life. I could, of course, describe all the events that led me to the decision to study eurythmy, but I have come to realize that this very moment that I mentioned above has been like a catalyzer for how I have lived my life.
It was during my first eurythmy course with Cornelia Simon, my beloved teacher introducing me to the world of eurythmy. In that specific eurythmy course, Cornelia was presenting the main vowels: A, E, I, O and U. Encountering the vowel E gave me a completely new experience that gave my life a new direction. It has ever since been a kind of lighthouse that helps me navigate. The experience can be somehow put in words like these:
” You are a sovereign individual being with your own inner life, and you are obliged to draw a line between what´s happening around you and what is happening within yourself. The center of all your thoughts that also guides your actions lies within you, and you will never be able to do good to other people if you deny this center. Pleasing others cannot be the goal of your actions. Doing what you find to be right will never please all people, and so to draw a line between you and the world and to be responsible for your own actions is the most important thing in your life.”
I was trying to form the vowel E,- and in looking back at the moment I must also say that somehow in doing so I was encountering a being, what I might call the eurythmy being of the vowel E, and this being clearly touched my soul. My momentary experience in the eurythmy course was that of something completely new. It was something that I had never experienced before. And the quality of the experience was also different from other associations and ideas that I normally experience during my awake life.
Looking back to the event afterward I would say that it has had a far-reaching effect on how I´ve lived my life up till this present day. A new impulse clearly entered into my life. I would dare to describe it as a kind of experience of my own higher self. Looking back at my life when I´m now turning sixty, this very basic experience I had when I was twenty-two, has guided me like a lighthouse throughout my entire life.
During my eurythmy studies and afterward I have studied how Rudolf Steiner describes the supersensible counterpart of the physical world. And I have also been practicing many of the exercises described in his books. This has led me to a deeper and wider understanding of my experience in my first eurythmy course. I now understand that the vowel E has its home in the impulses coming from the spiritual realm of the planet Mars. This might sound like total nonsense to people that neglect the reality of the spiritual world, but in working with eurythmy movements I have to take the spiritual world just as real as the physical. The home base of the movements in eurythmy is clearly that of the supersensible world, but the place in which the movements reveals themselves is that of the matter.
So how is the home base of the vowel E like? What kind of spiritual impulses are coming from the spiritual beings on Mars? The spiritual realm of Mars is in our modern time going through the most important changes. These significant changes have very much to do with how mankind is working on shaping its future. In earlier times the spiritual sphere of the planet Mars gave the impulses of energy and aggression,-or you might say; the impulses of war. In our times the spiritual impulses of Mars are changing very radically. And to bring about this change a great being was needed. According to Rudolf Steiner the entelechy of Gautama Buddha, after its incarnation as the Gautama Buddha, took on the enormous task in last century of something you might call a peacekeeping mission in the spiritual realm of the planet Mars. One might say that instead of swinging the sword of war, the entelechy of Gautama Buddha is in its effort to swing the sword of peace on Mars. And the sword of peace can be no other than words that are born out of an intuitive understanding of each situation. That we as sovereign individual beings are obliged to take actions according to what we feel is right and take responsibility for our actions. We can no longer act as individuals hiding behind structures of leadership or regulations. The history of the last century has shown where that might end.
The entelechy of Gautama Buddha is depending upon the actions and the deeds of people living on earth and is at the same time guiding and inspiring them to work for this new mission. In simple words, he is inspiring people to stop fighting wars by wanting to control others and instead of starting to make them interact as free individuals. This results to people being honest to each other and to one's own true being while working out of their free will by trusting their own intuitions.
This impulse also makes the base of the leadership model in Steiner schools. It is a model of leadership that emphasizes dialogue between equal individuals rather than hierarchic structures. I’ve been working for the support and development of this model of collegial leadership during my entire professional life as a eurythmy teacher in different Steiner schools.
I dream to see Buddha's E-inspiration spreading and taking over the world in the future more and more. I dream to see people's integrity and rights being treated fairly. I dream to see people speaking up totally transparent way as free individuals. I dream to see people supporting each other and all initiatives that tells truth to the world. These times offer a great possibility for people to wake up to the demands of the 21th century.
In my own Norwegian dialect, Bergen dialect, we say “EG” to ourselves when we say “ME”.
Syyskuun blogin kirjoittajana toimi Jostein Aarbakke (s.9.7.1959); diplomi-eurytmisti, eurytmiaopettaja ja taide-eurytmian kouluttaja.
Vuoden 2019 Blogit koskevat kysymystä: Miksi eurytmia? Eurythmy Channel Helsinki on pyytänyt tähän kysymykseen vastausta 12 eri ihmiseltä ja he kertovat blogeissaan omakohtaisen näkemyksensä asiasta.