The Rose Cross in Europe

A three-day conference (in English and Czech) examining

the deeper historical challenges facing Europe in the 21st century

Prague 15 - 18 October 2009

The Rose Cross in Europe conference in Nov. 2008 addressed some of the deeper historical challenges facing contemporary Europe and some profound questions raised by Rudolf Steiner concerning its (and our) spiritual identity. This year's conference will develop these themes in new directions. It is a freestanding event and it is therefore not necessary for participants to have attended last year's conference. There will be a deepening of focus on the Czech spirit and culture within this context.

We shall continue to explore the significance of the three questions posed by Rudolf Steiner in March 1925 which were at the core of last year's conference:

The Rose-Cross is deeply linked to the transformation of the cultural, political and social life of Europe since the 17th century. At the same time, however, many counter-impulses tried to impose themselves under the claim of representing the same Rosicrucianism. It is therefore necessary to investigate the occult, spiritual and political movements that were active in Central and Eastern Europe since the French Revolution and to discern their "fruits" in social life. There will be a focus on the national question in the 19th and early 20th century and the tragedy of Central Europe as well as on the occult origins and consequences of the "synarchical project", which is on the surface almost identical, yet in its essence opposed to the intentions of the Rose-Cross and a modern Threefold Social Order.

"The individuality that hides behind the veil of Kaspar Hauser is a being which worked inspiringly into the Rosicrucian connection from the very beginning....Kaspar Hauser had an important mission of esoteric Christianity to fulfil..." (Rudolf Steiner, quoted in P.Tradowsky, Kaspar Hauser – The Struggle for the Spirit – 1997) The two talks will explore the following complex of issues: Kaspar Hauser's mission and the transformation of the Earth from its 'Mars' condition to its 'Mercury' condition. Buddha and the Mars sphere in 1604. Franciscans and Jesuits. Buddha, Wotan, and Vidar. Mars, Mercury, Venus and the feminine element in the 21st century. Kaspar Hauser and the encounter between Christianity and Buddhism from 1812 to 2012.

The work of Jakob Boehme is in many ways the antithesis of that of Francis Bacon – although it is also deeply related to it. This conundrum has been at the heart of European cultural life since the beginning of the 17th century. A thread may be traced running from Boehme to Goethe in central Europe, and to William Blake, in Britain. This thread has much to do with the rightful evolution of the impulse of the Templars as this transformed into the impulse of the Rose Cross. Schiller's proposed plays 'Demetrius' and 'Die Malteser' are also connected to this. For the most part, this whole cultural thread remains an underground current within mainstream culture today, whereas the approach of Francis Bacon predominates in manifold new forms. We are still in the midst of this struggle.

The exceptional form of the land of the Czechs influences everything that has been created in this country. The task in this land is so powerful that it can not be fulfilled without clear consciousness and the help of others. An impulse has often been initiated in the Czech lands which has influenced spiritual events in the whole of Europe. The full Word is, however, still concealed, and an enormous fight is being fought for it. This fight is about to reach its peak.

Anežka Janátová: Bohemia as a land of the Grail

Morning: Richard Ramsbotham: The Spirit of the Rose Cross and the Templars in the cultural life of Western and Central Europe-from Jakob Boehme to the present day (1)

Markus Osterrieder: The Rose-Cross and Questions of Nationality and Language in Central Europe - from the French Revolution to the Present Situation

Afternoon: Plenum

Evening: Terry Boardman: Kaspar Hauser, the Buddhist Dimension of the Rose Cross and the Phenomenon of 2012 (1)

Ihla. Play performed by Dědinské divadlo from Hronec (Slovakia)

Morning: Anežka Janátová: Life of the Rose Cross in the Czech lands

Richard Ramsbotham: The Spirit of the Rose Cross and the Templars in the cultural life of Western and Central Europe (2)

Afternoon: Eurythmy performance, Prague Eurythmy group

Evening: Terry Boardman: Kaspar Hauser, the Buddhist Dimension of the Rose Cross and the Phenomenon of 2012 (1)

Memento Mori. Play written by Anežka Janátová

Morning: Markus Osterrieder: The Rose-Cross and Social Impulses. The Ongoing Struggle for the Renewal of the Social Organism in Central Europe

Richard Ramsbotham is a writer and theatre practitioner living near Birmingham, UK. Born in 1962, he studied at Cambridge University and Artemis School of Speech and Drama. He lectured in English literature at Warsaw University (1989-1993) and worked as performer and writer with the Rose Theatre Company. He is the author of Who Wrote Bacon? William Shakespeare, Francis Bacon and James I. A Mystery for the 21st Century (Temple Lodge 2004), the editor of New Selected Poems of Vernon Watkins (Carcanet,2006) and runs Amador, offering theatre, education and research. www.amador.co.uk

Markus Osterrieder, PhD., M.A.(Munich University), b.1961, Munich. Formerly a research fellow of the Institute for Eastern Europe (Osteuropa Institut), Munich, he is now a freelance historian, lecturer and writer, active in many European countries from Norway to Romania and from Britain to Russia. He has a particular interest in the spiritual, geopolitical and cross-cultural exchanges between the continents of America, Europe and Eurasia. Main publications (in German: Sun Cross and Tree of Life (1995), The Militant Commonwealth of Peace (2005). His web site: www.celtoslavica.de

Terry Boardman is a long term student of history and of Rudolf Steiner's Spiritual Science. He was a university and college lecturer for thirteen years in Japan and England, a eurythmist for 11 years, and is now a freelance writer, lecturer and translator of German and Japanese. He is the author of Kaspar Hauser: Where did he come from? (Wynstones Press,2006), Mapping the Millennium–Behind the Plans of the New World Order (Temple Lodge, 1998).

Web site: www.monju.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

Anežka Janátová, PhD., born 1945 in Tabor (Czechoslovakia). After graduating from Charles University (Prague), she worked as a psychologist and later, as a director at the Jedlickas Home, for people with learning difficulties and physical handicaps. In 1993 she conceived of the Curative Education and Social Therapy course and started it immediately. In 1997 she and her students set up The Tabor Academy of Social Arts, where she has been active ever since. She has also set up the Tabor Foundation and The Association for Social Therapy and Curative Education in the Czech Republic, in both of which she has been working until the present. She works as a consultant of several day centres and workshops for people with learning difficulties, gives lectures all over Europe, and cooperates with four Steiner schools. Since 2008, she has been the head of the

Anthroposophical Society in the Czech Republic. www.akademietabor.cz

Venue: Anthroposofická společnost, Hošťálkova392/1d, Praha 6

Applications: ruzeakriz@akademietabor.cz

This page was created 30.7.2009

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