As I sit here thinking about the NAYS conference that was held in Portland a couple weeks ago, I find myself struggling to find the right words to sum up my experience of the event. On the one hand there is an array of indelible impressions, poignant hurrahs and general layers of deep goodness that deserve mentioning, however on the other hand - and perhaps what has remained the most present for me -  is the sense that something special, something very particular happened amongst us, something that was able to touch down to earth during our brief time together. For me it was as humble a birth as it was grand. Even though I am a relative newcomer to the NAYS scene and its extended family, having been otherwise absorbed in eurythmy training the past few years, what became evident to me during this conference is that we are not merely a collective of lovey-dovey kindred spirits(don’t get me wrong, of course we are that too!), but rather in a very real way - so real it is almost intangible - we are the embodiment of an agreement to be colleagues in the highest sense.

While this may seem obvious on a theoretical level, from my experience the reality of it often does not fully manifest. It was therefore an incredibly inspiring force to stand in that circle and actually experience such a living trust, understanding, responsibility and capacity encircling us. I felt that we recognized ourselves  - maybe not for the first time - as belonging to one another: a widening circle (including many who weren’t present as well) of individuals whose hearts have known all along that we are a WE. Simple as it is, for me this reality makes all the difference. There was a whisper under my feet and in the spaces between my ribs that began to swell as soon as I stepped into that circle, churning the quiet fires of that enormous hope and resonating in the spaces between us, in the reflected cadences of Yes! bouncing off the facets of our small circle. That circle, that mighty zero circle, seemed to be lit from the inside by a certain slant of that invisible light that always feels like home.

In short, I would simply say that a real Happening most definitely Happened. And hopefully continues to happen. These names, these words like Happening  that we live into and carry collectively, are a funny thing. Having also attended the Impulse Fest held at RSC in April, followed now by the NAYS conference, I have actually begun to wonder how it is that these names are able to divine their own futures before they have unfolded. Hats off to the name choosers. (On a side note I can’t wait to see what the next one will be called! The Revolution anyone? ) But in all seriousness, this is something we should not take for granted. It reminds me of a few words from Saul Williams that speak to the power of our capacity to build the future we want to live into, through the living architecture of our words themselves:

my friends,
love is an artform
slightly removed
from its element.

one may ask
well what does this mean?
i respond
i've made it up
but it shall be
from now on

from now on

cities will be built
on one side
of the street
so that soothsayers
will have wilderness to wander
and lovers
space enough
to contemplate
a kiss

[From Said the Shotgun to the Head]

Lastly, I just want to briefly share a related thought I had on the plane flying home from Portland. It came to me as I was remembering something said to me by one of my wise eurythmy teachers. She indicated that the present generation of eurythmists my age, the fourth generation, are the ones who will necessarily bear and bring into formation the rudimentary ego forces of the art form as such -  the three previous generations having passed through the physical, etheric and astral stages respectively.  What I then began to consider is that it naturally follows, in terms of generations, that we are at a similar stage of development for Anthroposphy as a whole. While we could make a fruitful comparison of our generation of anthroposophists to the child who turns four and begins saying I to himself, we could also draw a larger comparison and extend the fourfold framework to the fourth stage of the 7-year cycles, namely the infamous threshold that arises at the 28th year.

Some of us being closer to that mark than others, this stage of development has many layers of significance you may or may not be familiar with yet. However, I only want to point to two aspects that for me tie back into that important picture of underground currents and rivers that Kathleen brought to us the second morning of the conference. The first aspect I want to consider is that which says that in order to walk freely into the more conscious stage of being that becomes available around the 28th year, it is necessary to have come to a realization of yourself as existing wholly independent from your familial blood ties. This is required so that you are able to freely form new “blood ties” with your larger constellation of “family” on a higher level out of a conscious choice.

That family, if we look again to the words of our friend Langston Hughes, is perhaps like a mighty underground river that connects us, “as ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.” This then brings me to the second aspect of the 28 year mark, namely the fact that it is related to a Saturn Return. This return to the same Saturn alignment that was present at one’s birth ushers in an opportunity to harness this planet’s particular capacity for memory, as far back as to the original source and intention of ones being. Thus the 28 year threshold also signifies a potential emerging of authentic self. Thus, as colleagues we are participating in various unique ways in the cultivation and elaboration of this currency of authentic being.  Together we are able to dip down into the earthy substance of our time and place and become the collective bearers, the hosts, the creative riverbed for this river in which we find a common source.