POWER TO THE VIRTUES - Towards a Threefold World Peace Union of Oases of Humanity Through Social Organics: Preface by the Translator and Publisher

I. World Peace Is Possible!

This updated blog contains a completely revised translation of the book The Virtues - Season of the Soul  on the 12 meditations of the month by the German philosopher/anthroposophist and poet Herbert Witzenmann (1905-1988) as well as the 13 illuminations especially painted by the Dutch artist Jan de Kok for The Virtues (the image above was painted for the title page). The blog was started as a supplement for the exhibition of these paintings of the Virtues in the De Roos (The Rose), Center for Spirituality and Consciousness-raising, in Amsterdam in 2012. 
It was updated in 2013 in connection with the exhibition of the paintings flanked by the Dutch and English texts in the Town Hall of Amsterdam under the title The Virtues - Towards a New Courtesy (see the introduction and text in this blog) and has now been rewritten in connection with the proposed peace project Power to the Virtues - Towards a Threefold World Peace Union of Oases of Humanity through Social Organics. 

The idea thereby is to once a month and beginning on December 21 exhibit and present the corresponding text "Courage Becomes the Power of Sacrifice" and painting of the Virtue of the month  first by the Christmas tree on Dam Square in front of the Royal Palace and then on the 21st day of the next 11 months  the corresponding text and painting on the Stock Market Square (Beursplein) in the heart of Amsterdam. For it was here on September 25 last that a memorial stone in the pavement with the inscription "World Peace is Possible" was unveiled and a booklet with that title presented (in Dutch) to commemorate the fact that from 1991 to 2016 a weekly silent peace vigil on Wednesdays was held here and leaflets handed out to passersby to raise consciousness about the huge multi-billion dollar arms industry enmeshed in an unjust world economy that in order to have to make huge profits and so keep the arms race going does not shy away from ever and again precipitating new armed conflicts and killing fields.  (Update I: The invitation issued to me to attend a Colloquium on the Constitution of the (General) Anthroposophical Society on December 7 in Stuttgart may result in a change of location for the first reading of December 21: instead of the aforementioned Dam Square, it may be on the grounds around the Goetheanum building in view of the carpentry shop Schreinerei (where als Rudolf Steiner's studio was located) and the Herbert Witzenmann Center just opposite the Goetheanum, all depending on whether I return to Amsterdam after the colloquium or head for Dornach instead to prepare there the working group "100 Years Christmas Conference 1923". Update II: This event to call out the new year 2020 to the "Year of the 12 Virtues" did not materialize neither in Amsterdam nor in Dornach, instead the idea took hold to post the 12 Virtues of the month online in English on my FB page and a number of anthroposophical sites such as Anthroposophy and in Dutch on Antroposofiebeweging with short introductions during this Christmastide from December 25/26 to Epiphany on January 6/7, of which as of today, December 28 four have been posted. See also Part II and III of this text below.)

The booklet "World Peace Is Possible!" that was presented to the above participants of the last silent peace vigil contained three updated articles from a Dutch blog entitled "Wereldvredesbond" (World Peace Union) that was created in 2016 in connection with the festivities marking the 500th anniversary of the death of the enigmatic Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch, who as is shown in the blog "The Secrets of the Hieronymus Bosch II" based on a trilogy by Catharina Barker to be a Rosicrucian and even an anthroposophist avant la lettre!

It was at the beginning of this Bosch-500 year that his tryptich "The Garden of Heavenly Joys" (generally but mistakenly called "Garden of Earthly Delights") was adopted as the figurehead of the project "World Peace Union of Oases of Humanity through Social Organics" and first proclaimed as such during a reading on a bitter cold and windy January 27, 2016 on Dam Square in front of the Royal Palace in Amsterdam of two petitions in Dutch and English (the latter called "Social Organics - Turning our Mother Earth into a Garden of Heavenly Joys") to the Dutch and Spanish kings, which can be seen here on YouTube, but which, as could be expected, elicited no more than a polite response that they were received in good order.)

On the subject of what is called in the YouTube video "Social Organics - A New Principle of Civilization", inaugurated by Rudolf Steiner in 1917 as a World Peace proposal from Middle Europe and consequently developed in three further phases in 1917, 1922 and in 1923/24 with the refoundation of the Anthroposophical Society during the Christmas Society  see the article "Rudolf Steiner's Idea of Social Organics - A New Constitutional Principle of Civilization". (That the constitution that Rudolf Steiner gave to this refoundation of the Anthroposophical Society was, according to his own words, the form that the anthroposophical movement needed for its practice on earth, i.e. the New Christianity, prepared in a cult for anthroposophical souls bound for earth in the spiritual world centuries earlier by the archangel Michael and his spiritual cohorts, is developed in the two motions that were submitted to the General Assemblies of the General Anthroposophical Society in 2018 entitled "Trust Over Ruins - On Regaining The Lost Ground On Which To Build In The Future" and 2019 entitled "Towards The Liberation From  The Mixed King At The Goetheanum And The  Re-Establishment Of The Anthroposophical Society". 

And in view of the dismal failure hitherto of the Anthroposophical Society in the last 30 odd years to consciously further and protect this "New Christianity" as its innermost sacred mission, I saw fit to attempt to do so under the banner of a Willehalm Order of Knights of the World (i.s.n.) here in The Netherlands as a supplement to the already existing military Willemsorde of the Sword that is also named after the founder of the original House of Orange in the 9th century, who as one of the last protectors of Celtic Christianity was canonized in 1066 as the patron saint of Christian knights. The meagre results of this enterprise can be seen here.)   

II. The Motto "Power to the Virtues!"

The prime motto of this new peace initiative "Power to the Virtues!", of which some but by no means all of the antecedents have been described in the previous section, is meant to supplement and renew the "battle cry" of my revolutionary generation of the late sixties in Europe "Power the Imagination!" and that in America of "Make Love Not War!" and to take up again the advice given to young people by Rudolf Steiner in 1924 during his course on bio-dynamic agriculture in Germany to start  "Oases of Humanity", spiritual scholing and meditation centers on isolated biodynamically-run farms to safe-guard and protect  the culture of Middle Europa of the likes of Goethe and Novalis (to which now has also been added Hieronymus Bosch , that Middle Europa which he successfully predicted would become a culturally and physically devastated wasteland.  A first attempt to realize this was made by the Swiss poet and president of the General Anthroposophical Society Albert Steffen in 1946 to turn  Switzerland into an Oase of Humanity as a haven voor hapless victims of war and oppression, and 33 years later was given a new impulse  by Herbert Witzenmann in a social scientific conference entitled "Contributions to the World Situation" (Beiträge zur Weltlage) in Arlesheim, Switzerland in which he developed (among other things) the idea of a setting up such interconnected oases of humanity, beginning with a model-oasis,  in order to develop a threefold peace: peace with oneself, peace with one's neighbour and peace with the world (the earth), which would then not only benefit the endangered physical but also the spiritual climate and offer a perspective on a World Peace Union. He motivated this further in many of his writings, such as his essay"The Basic Social Idea of Our Time", incorporated in a blog entitled "Social Organics - Basic Guidelines for a New Earth Trusteeship". Part III of this essay "Biodynamic Agriculture -  Care Communities for Spiritual Life and the Quest for a New Meaning of the Earth" ends as follows: "Finally, let me finish by summarizing my argument. The past meaning of the earth is the formation of human organisms that produce the material state of consciousness and thereby constitute the physiological basis for human freedom. The present meaning of the earth consists in the victory of the past sense of the earth through the just social design of refining and organizational work with a view to creating work and living spaces that enable the maximum development of individual spiritual productivity. Creative justice aims at a mindset that strives towards a life among the dead and a life of the dead among us. The future meaning of the earth consists in giving a new meaning to the earth as the cradle of a free spiritual life. Seeking and finding the meaning of the earth in spiritual communities of philosophically working people is only possible in an attitude of true brotherhood.The basic overarching and all-encompassing common idea is the idea of reincarnation."
  
The threefold constitution for such oases, meaning also the physical, psychological and spiritual ground on which to build them, he has supplied in his Social-aesthetic Studies for the Spiritualization of the Principle of Civilization: "Charter of Humanity - The Principle of the General Anthroposophical Society as a Basis of Life and Path of Scholing" and "To Create or Administrate - Rudolf Steiner's Social Organics/ A New Principle of Civilization."

III. The Idea and its Implementation

The idea of this new peace project "Power to the Virtues!" is thus to exhibit and present the Virtues, these "Guardians of human community"  beginning on December 21, 2019 with "Courage becomes Power of Redemption" by the Christmas tree either on the Dam Square in front of the Royal Palace  or in front of the Goetheanum building in Dornach, and from then on January 21 with "Discretion becomes Meditative Power" centered  around the memorial stone "Peace Is Possible" on the square in front  of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, followed on February 21 with "Magnanimity Becomes Love", on March 21 with "Devotion Becomes Power of Sacrifice", on April 21 with "Balance Becomes Progress" etc. until November 21, 2020 with "Control of the Tongue Becomes Feeling For Truth" and thereby to call the year 2020 out to become the Year of the 12 Virtues and in the process attempt to gain the necessary moral and financial support for the idea of setting up a World Peace Union of Oases of Humanity through Social Organics as the New Principle of Civilization. (Update: This idea, as explained in Update II, has been transformed into posting the 12 Virtues during the 13 holy days and 12 holy nights.)

Since obviously this peace initiative should, ideally speaking, be embraced, further developed and ultimately implemented within the framework of the Anthroposophical Society, the next step in this traject shall be to submit it to the coming General Assemblies of the Anthroposophical Society in the Netherlands and to the Society in Dornach (or in advance to their respective Councils) for appraisal as part and parcel of the preparations for the centennial celebration of the Christmas Conference in 2023. 

Those wishing to support it in any way or give constructive criticism  are cordially invited to leave their comments here or contact me at the address or phone numbers listed below,

Robert Jan Kelder,

October  8, last updated on December 28, 2019

Note on the publishing history: The first complete English translation of The Virtues was done by Sophia Walsh, and published by Spicker Books in Dornach, Switzerland towards the end of the previous century (no publication date given, sold-out). The Preface to the first incomplete English translation was written by Herbert Witzenmann on the occasion of the translation done by the American poetess Daisy Aldan (1923-2001) with my assistance, and was published by her Folder Editions, New York in 1975. The present edition is available from the bookstore at the Goetheanum in Dornach or from the Willehalm Institute in Amsterdam.

Willehalm Institute Press Foundation, Kerkstraat 386A, 1017 JB Amsterdam, 

Tel. 0031 (0)20-6944572; 0031 0(6)-23559564; willehalm@gmail.com 

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