Dear Families and Friends of Golden Hill Steiner School,

We held our Winter Festival in the chilly, still night air of Friday evening and what a wonderfully reverent event it was thanks to the efforts of whole school community. On behalf of everyone who attended I would like to take this opportunity to offer my heartfelt thanks to the following, who made it all possible:

Penny Goodwin for her amazing organisation and coordination of helpers to assist with spiral foliage, lantern setting and lighting, bonfire building and post-festival pack-up;

To the many helpers who contributed to all those tasks – Tanya Bourne, Chelsea Donohoe, Lucy Dusenberg, Brooke Eddy, Kimberley Fisken, Hannah Halls, Lydia Kenyon, Katja Lamb, Brett Lamb, Gillian Malata, Rosie Reddie, Rangi Schwartz, Via Stidwell,  Haikam Suttie, Jane Taylor, Ryan Taylor and Lila Thanos, Sandra Brandao-Woodruff.

Silvia Davey-Lehmann for the wonderful winter tale by the bonfire.

Bruce Anthony for playing the lyre at the Junior spiral.

Kristi McMullan for her amazing efforts with the bonfire – once again! – and laying out the spiral, and assisting with the Class 6 lighting of the fire.

To the staff for preparing the children for the festival with lanterns and class stories, singing songs in the lead up, braving the deluge to lay out the spiral and assisting with the festivities on Friday evening.

Ellen Somas, Tina Charlton and Class 5/6 students for their efforts in lighting the bonfire and leading the singing. Truly beautiful!

As always I am so immensely proud and humbled to be a part of such a wonderful school community.

Sunday saw in the Winter Solstice, when the night was at its longest. The days now, with their glorious light, will get longer and we may look forward to the Spring.

Anyone from a place where the winters are truly long and awfully cold would really know the depth of Winter and the joy of Spring. Here in WA, we are fortunate to have bouts of perfect weather even in the middle of winter. So the metaphor of spiralling into the darkness, letting go of destructive forces within us and then moving outward towards the light has great significance and formed a part of our Winter Festival celebration.

If we connect to what is happening globally: the varied response to the pandemic; the lack of positive leadership in parts of the world; exclusion and harm to people on the basis of race or belief, we can easily succumb to feelings of angst and despair. Destructive forces may appear to have an upper hand. We may ask, “what is an antidote for this?”

In his lectures and writings, Rudolf Steiner addressed the question of morality and whether there is the opportunity for renewal. He suggested there is no human soul in which there is not the foundation of what is morally good. If we delve deep enough, we shall always find moral impulses. Human nature, Steiner states categorically, is not bad; originally it was good.

So as we head into the darkness and take the opportunity to reflect and experience a letting go, we can also look toward the promise of light and goodness.
Steiner suggests that the foundation for the improvement of a human being, morally, always consists in taking away one’s spiritual error through Faith, Love and Hope.
Faith: We must have faith that something immeasurably good lies at the foundation of man.
Love: If we develop faith in the original goodness of humans we can do no other than attain boundless love for human nature.

A moral life is formed on the foundation of faith in human goodness and love of that original goodness that lives in a person.
Steiner explained that the faith in the divine in a person, no matter what appearances may otherwise suggest, and measureless love of a person that springs from this faith are the foundation of a truly moral life.
In today’s world, it would appear exclusion and harm on the basis of race could not endure with such faith and love. In truth this becomes an antidote.

Hope: Steiner suggests that if we are to have a morally fruitful attitude towards our fellow man, (something that we may struggle to feel sometimes when we engage with the content of mass media and social media), we need to develop in our soul the hope that every single soul, even though it may have fallen far from the height of spiritual life, can find its way back to the divine spiritual.
He explained, we should be aware that Faith and Hope, either singly or together do not work; one must, of course, have them, but only Love is effective.

May the Winter Solstice have provided for our community a time to reflect and let go. May we emerge with hope and reaffirm our faith in the goodness of our fellow man. May that faith translate into acts of love towards our children, our partners, our students, our teachers and especially those whom we otherwise would judge poorly.

Warmest regards,

Jacqui Hamblin

Principal