Here
in the hall of Empire City Amsterdam – Austrian Emperor Maxmillian granted the Dutch capital in 1489 the right to bear the Imperial crown on its coat-of-arms with
the current motto Valiant, Steadfast
and Compassionate added by Queen
Wilhelmina in 1946 – it marks the first time that all 12 contemplations from the The Virtues – Seasons of the Soul by Herbert Witzenmann (in English
and Dutch) are exhibited together with the 13 accompanying illuminations by Jan
de Kok.
During the formal opening and Vernissage on April 5, a completely revised (Dutch)
edition of The Virtues will be
presented (a new English edition has in the meantime also appeared).
In his opening
remarks, the publisher Robert J. Kelder will make a historic connection between
the theme of the exhibition and the medieval founding father of the House of
Orange, the legendary Willehalm (see image), who, based on his outstanding
embodiment of the knightly virtues of courage,
justice and loyalty, was in 1066
declared Patron Saint of the Knights, and after whom the Foundation solely responsible
for this exhibition is named.
This connection will be further elaborated on in
two talks on April 26 and May 3, leading to a well-grounded petition to our new
King William-Alexander, who as such will on April 30 also become the new Grand
Master of the Military William Order of the
Sword that is also named after this first valiant William of Orange. This
petition entails a request to install a supplementary Civil Chivalric Order of the Word with the noble aim of giving rise
to a Movement for a New Courtesy through
the embodiment of the 12 Virtues portrayed here as a counterpoise to the ever
increasing ruffianship and worse in our Kingdom and beyond.
The exhibition, which will be open to
the public from April 3 to May 10 on weekdays from 7 AM to 6 PM, is a free
contribution to the project “Courtesy of Amsterdam” initiated by Municipal
executive councilor Andrée van Es in 2011. Its subtitle Towards a New Courtesy is taken from the Virtue of the month
September that begins with “The compassion that becomes freedom restores to
courtesy its meaning and dignity.” and that ends with “Thus courtesy becomes tact of the heart”.
H.P.
Blavatsky and Rudolf Steiner
The 12 meditative texts on display
here stem reportedly from Madam Blavatsky, one of the founders of the Theosophical
Society, who attributed a Virtue to each month, e.g. May: perseverance. Afterwards Rudolf Steiner, the principal founder of
the Anthroposophical Society, set them in motion: Perseverance becomes faithfulness. Subsequently it was the
German philosopher Herbert Witzenmann (1905-1988), a personal student of Rudolf
Steiner, who explicated the conceptional movement between the thus conjoined
Virtues, For this he wrote a magical-idealistic introduction “On the Genesis of
the Virtues” as well as an apologetic-philosophical epilogue “Primer for the Adoption
of the Virtues”. He also indicated the sources from the spiritual treasures of
mankind for the mantras with which each of the 12 Virtues as spirits of
movement end
Jan de Kok
Concerning his illuminations, the
Dutch painter Jan de Kok, who views Maarten Krabbé and Jan Sierhuis as his
teachers, wrote the following, “In the portrayal of The Virtues I allowed myself to be led by nature, nature in which
often invisible forces are active in connection with the whole cosmos. This I
expressed in pure colour power that finally flows out in form power. Colour
after all precedes form. Those are the forces that make nature grow. In
connection with the image and the text from this booklet, it can come to pass
that the spiritual world becomes a reality that one undergoes as a meditative
experience. The colour experiences in our soul play an important role in each
month. When we connect ourselves with that, this can in the here and now take
on a succinct form. A conscious awareness of ourselves and nature around us, may
lead us to better understand the whole, the interconnectedness.
Willehalm
Order of Knights
The historical motivation for the
request to install a Willehalm Chivalric
Order of the Word to our new king, who according to article 75 of our constitution
is the only one entrusted with the power to do so, is based on the scholarly research
report How the Grail Sites Were Found –Wolfram von Eschenbach and the Reality of the Grail by the Swiss
anthroposophist Werner Greub that was published by the Willehalm Foundation in
1999. From this, it appears that after his military career as the supreme
commander of the Carolingian army in defense of the Spanish mark, this William
with the Horn played a crucial role in the events leading up to the wonderful
coronation of Parzival as King of the Grail as well as its oral tradition to
posterity. Under the title The Virtues,
William of Orange and the New Kingship this will be elaborated on during
the talks in City Hall as “Dream for our Country”, inspiration for the future
activities of our new king and queen.
Robert
Jan Kelder
Willehalm Foundation,
Amsterdam, April 3, 2013
