Le Mouvement « Cafés-Mortels » Arrive à North Vancouver

North Vancouver, C-B, 8 mai 2013

- Abegael Fisher-Lang

Le North Shore Death Café ouvre un espace où l’on peut tenir une véritable conversation sur LE SUJET TABOU.

Vous vous posez des questions sur ce que veut dire une bonne mort? Vous vous trouvez décontenancé devant les témoignages d’expériences de mort imminente?

Qui aurait cru qu’une rencontre pour parler de la mort puisse être si pleine de vie? « Il a été bon de pouvoir se parler de manière si authentique » a dit Jack. Et Linda d’ajouter : « Je me suis sentie si vivante grâce à ces nouvelles façons de penser à la mort! »  D’autres participants ont répondu de manière analogue : encourageant, magique, inspirant.

La première séance d’un Café-Mortel à se tenir sur le North Shore s’est déroulée dans le cadre accueillant du Casa Nova Café, situé au centre de North Vancouver. Abigael Fisher-Lang et Ann Gillespie ont souhaité la bienvenue à 28 nouveaux venus courageux. Ceux-ci s’étaient réunis pour participer à une soirée ouverte sur les questions traîtant de la mort et des soins de fin de vie.

Grâce aux bons soins des propriétaires Javier et Elena, l’endroit offrait une ambiance chaleureuse et accueillante. La table, une superbe « nature table », couverte de couches chatoyantes de bombasin noir, les énormes pots de branches de saule entrelacées, les amoncèlements de pétales de rose et les vases remplis de lilas odorants – toute cette beauté invitait à penser à un autre royaume magnifique : celui de la mort.

L’exquis gâteau original qu’Elena avait créé spécifiquement pour notre Death Café de North Vancouver a suscité des applaudissements de la part des participants. Déguster un délicieux morceau de gâteau accompagné d’un bon café semblait être une manière toute naturelle de parler de la mort, car le tout fait partie de la célébration de la vie.

Les vers austères du poème de Mary Oliver : When Death Comes ont été récité pour ouvrir la rencontre. Ont suivi : les présentations, des remerciements à l’endroit des deux fondatrices de l’organisation sœur (Vancouver Death Café) qui étaient présentes, et l’expression de notre reconnaissance envers nos hôtes, propriétaires de Casa Nova. Les buts fondamentaux du mouvement Cafés-Mortels, ainsi qu’une description de l’évolution du mouvement, ont été présentés lors de ces remarques préliminaires.

Parmi les 29 participants présents, on pouvait trouver toute une gamme d’âges, de professions et d’intérêts, quoique très peu de diversité culturelle : deux journalistes (dont l’un propose d’écrire un article pour le journal local), plusieurs officiants, des thérapeutes-accompagnateurs, et une infirmière chargée de soins palliatifs. Pour commencer, chacun a dit son nom et deux ou trois mots pour décrire ses sentiments par rapport au phénomène de la mort.  Parmi ces énoncés :

-          Jouis de la vie maintenant

-          Un maître extraordinaire

-          Pas prêt

-          Source de vie, d’expansion

-          Curiosité, transition, étonnement

-          « Shazam! »

Ensuite, les participants se sont répartis en groupes de quatre (selon des cartons de couleur distribués préalablement) pour se livrer à des échanges plus approfondis. Quelques groupes se sont penchés sur la question : « Pourquoi êtes-vous venu ici ce soir? » D’autres ont parlé plus en profondeur de leur expérience par rapport à la mort. Des cartes portant des citations pertinentes avaient été distribuées pour faire démarrer les conversations.

À chaque table le dialogue a suivi son propre chemin : ce qui constitue une « bonne mort »; comment la mort est traîtée au cinéma (une référence particulière étant faite au film Amour);  les conséquences qui découlent du refus de parler de la mort; ne pas savoir comment vivre un deuil; la pression que l’on subit pour ne plus y penser et pour passer tout de suite à autre chose.

Un des officiants a parlé des rites traditionnels qui honorent la mort. La conversation a porté sur les funérailles à la maison et sur des options écologiques telles que le « mushroom  burial suit » (revêtement de champignons) qui favorise la décomposition et le compostage du corps. Certains ont amené la réflexion que nous sommes une énergie éternelle et qu’il n’y a pas de mort. D’autres ont dit avoir l’impression d’être unis par un lien remarquable, comme si quelque dessein mystérieux les avait réunis. Les participants se sentaient tout à fait à l’aise dans ce partage d’histoires personnelles et ont été déçus de voir arriver la fin de la soirée.

Presque tous les participants de ce Café ont rempli un formulaire d’évaluation. Bien que l’expérience de la soirée n’ait peut-être pas modifié leur manière de concevoir la mort, beaucoup ont dit avoir acquis de nouvelles perspectives sur la question et espéraient revenir ou du moins recommander à des amis à participer à un prochain événement. 

Un dernier mot pour décrire la soirée : réaffirmer la vie!

La prochaine soirée du North Shore Death Cafe aura lieu le mercredi 26 juin au même endroit : Casa Nova Café, 116 E. 14^e rue, North Vancouver. Pour vous inscrire : northshoredeathcafe@eventbrite.com.

Organisation et animation :

Abegael Fisher-Lang – Life Threads Ceremonies

Ann Gillespie – A Perfect Ending

Some thoughts on the book, Entering the 21st Century Spiritually

- by Emanuel Blosser

Sue Simpson writes:

...The title of my talk, 'The Path of Anthroposophy Today', left me puzzling with the words 'the path'. I felt it only partially represented something. There is a path that all can walk - and, at the same time , there are as many paths as there are people in this room, as there are people on earth. everyone of these pats is unique and individual; each journey is individual and valid. And in recognizing this we begin to learn how to walk with one another.

....How can we as anthroposophists, as fellow human beings, help one another to take hold of an impulse and move forward?

....To me the path of anthroposophy is as diverse as you are in this room, and in our diversity we work and walk with one another.

***

In Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment, Rudolf Steiner writes in chapters one and two:

...There is, in truth, no difference between esoteric knowledge and all the rest of man's knowledge and proficiency. This esoteric knowledge is no more of a secret for the average human being than writing is a secret for those who have never learned it. And just as all can learn to write who choose the correct method, so, too, can all who seek the right way become esoteric students and even teachers.

...The methods by which a student is prepared for the reception of higher knowledge are minutely prescribed. The direction he is to take is traced with unfading, everlasting letters in the worlds of the spirit where the initiates guard the higher secrets.

...The soul world (astral plane) broadens out slowly before him. These lines and figures are in no sense arbitrary. Two students who have reached the corresponding stage of development will always see the same lines and figures under the same conditions. Just as a round table will be seen as round by two normal persons, and not as round by one and square by the other, so too, at the sight of a flower, the same spiritual figure is presented to the soul. And just as the forms of animals and plants are described in ordinary natural history, so too, the spiritual scientist describes or draws the spiritual forms of the process of growth

...There are, in fact, people with considerable psychic gifts who need but a slight impulse in order to find themselves already developed. But they are the exceptions, and the methods described above are safer and apply equally to all. It is possible to acquire some knowledge of chemistry in an exceptional way, but if you wish to become a chemist you must follow the recognized and reliable course.

****

Are there as many ways to do chemistry as there are people on earth? Are there as many ways to do anthroposophy as there are people in this room? What is the relationship between knowledge and individuality? Doesn't knowledge by definition mean a content and activity that reaches out beyond my individuality? If I want to compose music do I need to know the theory of composition in order to make an expression of my individuality? Is a musical expression that contains only the results of my individuality interesting to listen to or is music interesting because an individual finds a new way to express what is universal between individuals?

In the sense world, in my bodily sense experience, I can never see what you see in your bodily sense experience. Just think of how it feels with I see the glory of a shooting star and you are standing right next to me but didn't see it. My feeling life goes somewhere, has a content, that yours can't follow because you didn't see it. You can see and feel my feeling life change and become filled with the excitement of what I saw, but since you didn't see it the excitement can only be vicarious or from a memory of you having seen a shooting star some other time. In the sense world I can never walk the same path that you walk. We can never swim in the same river twice or even once as the old sages have pointed out.

And yet there it is an old thought, 'I can never swim in the same river twice', just as true now as it was 2500 years ago when it was first discovered and just as true for me as it is for you. There is no diversity in this fact of the sense world any more than there is diversity in the fact that your sense experience will never be the same as mine. These are truths that are the same for everyone.

Steiner offers us the logic that when I observe facts that transcend my individually and are true for every other individuality then I am observing a world that is different from the sense world because in the sense world every fact must suffer the division from the whole and holiness my individuality imposes on it. When I observe facts that don't suffer the diversity of individuality then I must be looking at a different world and need to name it appropriately. In the opening paragraphs of chapter one of his book Theosophy, Steiner explicitly states that these observations are what he is referring to when he uses the word 'spirit'.

In my thought life I can also observe that there are many thoughts that don't have this quality of being true for every individual. Many of my thoughts only apply to my sense experience, to my feeling life, or simply are my own fantasies that have nothing to do with facts of any world other than my own. If I am going to pursue a path of knowledge I have to learn a method of distinguishing these various characteristics.

If I want to help you on your path in the sense world or I want to work with you in the sense world where we are separated by our individual bodily experience, I have to have first found and develop an intentional activity in that realm where we are not divided by our individuality.

Telephone Study Courses In Rudolf Steiner

- with Ann Watson

These courses are designed for anyone, but include people who are not able to get to study groups.  We use the books of Rudolf Steiner or other Anthroposophical writers as reading material.  it is a one-to-one meeting of minds over the phone!  Improve your knowledge and articulation through conversation and reading out loud.  Included in the sessions is reading from the New Testament as an opening to the main study material.

Ann Watson has been a member of the Anthroposphical Society for over 30 years and has been offering Telephone Study Courses for more than 5 years.  References are available on request.

PLEASE CALL 250 653 4184  (Ann is located in Vancouver Canada)  The cost of the calls are covered by Ann's telephone package but  donations are gratefully accepted.

The National Study Group

- by Margaret Shipman (Submitted by Judy King)

GEMS stands for Geographically Engaged Members Study group – or just think of it as “the national study group”. How is this possible when we are spread over such a gigantic area? It is possible, as anthroposophists know, because THOUGHTS ARE REAL. When we sit down Saturday mornings across the continent at the same time and study the same material and think consciously of doing this with one another, presto, we have a national study group.

This idea was born in August of 2002 and set in motion with six people a month later. It has grown by simple word of mouth to include about 90 members in 28 states and Canada.

It is a simple concept. The only “fee” requested is $20 yearly, at Easter, for copying and postage. But an earnest commitment is asked towards the time and material. We study together at least an hour, with the west coast starting at 6.30 every Saturday morning, while the east coast starts at 9.30 am (10.30 am AST) – and the time zones in between get the most reasonable hours! We each light a red candle to remind ourselves of one another, and imagine silver threads that connect us above this large room called the Americas. Then we study materials which come in monthly physical mailings on the subject for the year.

                    May our work together strengthen our resolve to study regularly

                                   and may our study strengthen our lives

Margaret Shipman

shipman2005@sbcglobal.net

323-462-7703

Death Café - North Vancouver , BC- May 8

The NorthShore Death Café  opens a door on THE taboo topic

- by Abegael Fisher-Lang

Curious about a Good Death?  Flummoxed by tales of near-death experiences?

Who would think that an agreement to meet with new people and talk only about death would be so enlivening?

“It was so good to speak at such an authentic level”, said Jack. ‘I felt so alive with new thoughts,” responded Lisa. Other participants wrote similar responses: hopeful, magical and illuminating.  

The first Death Cafe on the North Shore took place on May 8 at the inviting Casa Nova Cafe in central North Vancouver.  Abegael Fisher-Lang and Ann Gillespie  welcomed 28 courageous newcomers to an evening of open conversation on death and end of life considerations.

A warm and inviting atmosphere was created through the generosity of owners Javier and Elena.  The striking, lush nature table covered in shimmering layers of black bombazine, giant pots of twisted willow branches, piles of dark rose petals, and vases of fragrant lilacs inspired thoughts of another beautiful realm: death.

Elena created a special cake with North Vancouver's own Death Cafe meme which inspired a round of applause from the gathering.   Enjoying a rich and delicious piece of cake with good coffee seemed a natural part of talking about death.  All part of the feast of life.

Mary Oliver’s stark poem  When Death Comes, was spoken to open the evening, After introductions, gratitude was expressed to the two organizers of the sister Vancouver Death Cafe who were in attendance, and the Casa Nova hosts.  The objectives and guidelines of the Death Cafe movement, as well as it's origins and growth, were shared in opening remarks.

The group of 29 represented a broad range of ages, professions and interests although not a large cultural diversity. Two journalists (one offering a prospective article in the local paper), several celebrants, grief counsellors, a palliative care nurse.  To begin,  everyone spoke their name and 2  or 3 words that described their current feeling about death. Some of these were:

- enjoy life now!

- amazing teacher

- not ready

- life-giving , expansive

- curiosity, transition, amazement

- shazaam!

For the next part of the evening, participants moved to tables of 4, based on nametag colours, for a more in-depth conversation.  Some groups considered the question, "What brought you here tonight", while others spoke more deeply about their experience with death.  Conversation starter cards with interesting quotes were offered as leading thoughts.

The dialogue took a different path at each table, from: what makes a good death;  how dying is portrayed in film,  especially in the recent Amour;  the consequences of not talking about death; not knowing how to grieve; the pressure to "just move on".  

A Celebrant spoke about traditional rituals to honour death. The discussion touched on home funerals and ecological alternatives to regular burial, such as the ‘mushroom suit’ that helps to decompose and compost the body. There was reflection on the idea that we are eternal energy and there is no death.  Other groups reported a wonderful connection, as if there had been some mysterious plan that brought them together; these groups enjoyed an easy sharing of personal stories, and were dismayed when the evening had to close.

Almost every cafe participant completed an evaluation.  Although the evening didn't necessarily change the way people thought about death, many found that they gained new insights, hoped to attend again or planned to recommend the event to their friends.  

A final phrase to describe the evening:  reaffirming life!

The next NorthShore Death Cafe will take place on Wednesday June 26 at the same location, Casa Nova Café, 116 E. 14th St., North Vancouver.  To register, see northshoredeathcafe@eventbrite.com  

Your co-facilitators:

Abegael Fisher-Lang - Life Threads Ceremonies

Ann Gillespie - A Perfect Ending

Thomas Meyer In Edmonton

- by Ann Watson

Thomas Meyer is coming to Canada again in September this year.  In Edmonton he will be speaking about "Rudolf Steiner and his Work" on Wednesday September 18th at Ernest and Rogelle Pelletier's house at 14004 48th Avenue.  To learn more details please call the Pelletiers at 780 436 6203 or Ann Watson at  250 653 4184.

The Pelletiers' study group, which has twenty five regular members and meets every Wednesday night, is a "breakaway" Theosophical group.  They are known to the Canadian Theosophical Society but are ... well ... different.

When Helena Petrovna Blavatsky died who was the teacher and leader of the Theosophical Society, having founded it in England in 1875, the leadership of the TS was in question.  There were literally thousands of members, most of whom were from old European families and highly cultured people.  Finally only two people were deemed worthy, both of whom were well known, both strong individualities, but with very different qualities. W.Q. Judge and Annie Besant.  Mrs. Besant eventually took over the leadership of the Worldwide Theosophical Society and William Judge left for America to start his own Theosophical community.  This community followed the teachings of HPB but deviated from what Annie Besant was planning in England.   It is from this  initiative of Judge's that the Pelletiers'  group has evolved.  It is a lively, brotherly community with a tremendous interest in all things theosophical, but who have a "breakaway" status in the Canadian Theosophical Society because of their position towards W.Q. Judge and Annie Besant.

Its very heart warming to know that there are people not associated with the Anthroposophical Movement or the Society but who are "brothers".  Rudolf Steiner was connected with the Theosophical Society for almost twelve years.  He took on the role of Teacher of Occultism in the Theosophical Society's Berlin Branch.  William Judge had already left for the US and Annie Besant was in full command with Charles Leadbetter at her side, when Rudolf Steiner was asked to take on the General Secretary's position in the Central European Section, which had over two thousand members.  Rudolf Steiner was well aware of William Judge and why he had left for America.  But now, after more than a century, W.Q. Judge's initiative and one of his "breakaway" groups, is looking forward to hearing Thomas Meyer talk about "Rudolf Steiner and His Early Work Within the Theosophical Society".

The Pelletiers with their group have been studying theosophical works connected with H.P. Blavatsky for more than a decade but they are also well aware of Daniel Nicol Dunlop.   D.N. Dunlop was one of Rudolf Steiner's strongest supporters in the 1920's. "D.N. Dunlop, A Man For Our Time" is the title of one of Thomas Meyer's two extensive books on this great person.  Among other achievements DND was George Westinghouse's right hand man in marketing, helping the young electrical industry to stand on its feet... and he was also an enthusiastic theosophist at the time of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky.

 The story goes like this:
W.B. Yeats was an active theosophist in Ireland and a helper and friend of one of the leaders of the Irish Theosophical Society.  There was a magazine connected to all this called "The Irish Theosophist", which was published (only) six times over a number of years.  What is of interest to us is that Thomas Meyer became aware of the Edmonton Theosophical Group through this magazine.  It was Ernest Pelletier who re--published "The Irish Theosophist", and Thomas found a copy somewhere and subscribed.  The first and original editor of this magazine, when it started in Dublin in the 1890's, was D.N. Dunlop.  He and W.B. Yeats and also AE, who was a famous Irish artist and writer, (of whom RS commented about his beautiful paintings at the Theosophical AGM in London in 1902), were all best friends and the main writers for "The Irish Theosophist".

Today Thomas Meyer is good friends with the Pelletiers and their group.  The first time Thomas thought of coming to Canada he asked if he could visit Ed Monton so as to contact the Pelletiers in person and thank them for publishing the "Irish Theosophist".  This wonderful magazine had been extremely helpful to Thomas for writing the biography of DNDunlop.  The Pelletiers were delighted and a warm relationship has developed over the course of three visits to Ed Monton.  One of these visits was very brief because of Volcanic Ash ... The night Thomas was supposed to give his talk in Edmonton all flights were cancelled because of Iceland's volcanic ash, but Thomas did make it to the Pelletiers at 3am and was taken back to the airport at 7am for his flight to Vancouver.

This time, the "breakaway" group would like to hear more about Rudolf Steiner.  In the past they have heard all about D.N. Dunlop and the third (second) visit was "Rudolf Steiner's Core Mission". Now they want to hear about the beginnings of Rudolf Steiner's work in The Berlin Branch of the Theosophical Society.