Based on a collaboration between Marc Desaules, Anita Grandjean and Christopher Houghton Budd
The world is falling into a seemingly endless mire of economic problems – failing democracy, poverty, the north-south divide, unstable markets, and wars of all kinds. What is the reality behind this? For Rudolf Steiner, for example, economic life is not something in and for itself, but an expression of spiritual conditions. When we find ourselves surrounded by so many negative events, therefore, we can be sure this is a sign that something fundamental is happening to humanity, but that we have yet to understand this experience. In this festival we would like to explore the possibility that today’s economic events provide a context and medium for modern initiation. If this is true and if it could be made a conscious experience, we would have a wholly new perspective on modern life and find ways to overcome the paralysis, fear, and sense of impotence that today’s conditions are engendering.
We would find, too, that the world we are seeking already exists, if only we could find the words to describe it. This will not be possible, however, without a concrete understanding of the deeper role of capital, entrepreneurship, and modern corporate forms. With themes such as Entrepreneur as Neophyte, Company as Temple, Finance as Guardian, and through a variety of activities, we would like to explore the idea of ‘initiation by economics’ as it can be illustrated by way of temple architecture and the corresponding inner process undergone within it. The festival programme will recapitulate this history and then follow it into modern economic life, in order to show the underlying mystery nature of today’s economy, why it has this character, and why we are having this experience at this moment in history. We hope that together we can begin to understand how ‘initiation economics’ can lead humanity beyond the ever-darkening situation that otherwise threatens to overwhelm us.
Full details of the programme will be developed in the weeks ahead, but the basic picture is of presenting and working on material in the mornings, afternoons spent in activities and visits related to the festival’s themes, with the evenings devoted to a deepening of them. The visits will include Canterbury Cathedral and the nearby Margate Grotto, an ancient underground temple of sorts. There will be plenty of pauses and long lunch breaks so that we can avail ourselves of the many coffee shops, restaurants and pubs with which Canterbury is blessed.
Flyer
Click here to download the flyer in pdf-version (66k)
Click here to download the doc-version (with registration form) (206k)You can register per post, fax, or online.
by cheque made out to ‘New Economy’ in USD or GPB
or online by Visa, MasterCard or American Express
(send name as on card, number, expiry date).£100 payable by 31 May 2003. Excluding meals* or accommodation**
Food can be bought in the many eating places close to the venue.
A range of bed and breakfasts or university accommodation is available,
with prices ranging from £15 to £35 per night per person.
Please contact to discuss your requirements.
Deadline for us to organise accommodation is 15 May 2003.Centre for Associative Economics
Christopher Houghton Budd
PO Box 341, Canterbury, CT4 8GA, England
Tel/Fax: +44 (0) 1227 738207