I’m making available this series of 16 2-hour recordings of an interactive 2023-24 webinar. They cover in a synthetic and interactive way a great deal of what I have written in books. The recordings, arranged chronologically, cover a historical timeline and offer a sense for the continuity and metamorphoses of historical/spiritual impulses. I hope they will have an effect similar to a documentary. See attached PDF for contents and links.
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Sessions 1 to 4 look at Native-American prehistory and history from 1500 BC to 1500 AD. This interval corresponds to the Third Age (1500 BC to year 1) of the Olmecs (Chavin in South America); Fourth Age (1 to 1500 AD) of the Maya (Tiwanaku in South America); Fifth Age (after 1500 AD) of the Aztecs, Haudenosaunee and Incas. For the Fourth and Fifth Ages the sessions look at the main initiates.
Sessions 5 to 7 span the time of the colonies, the American Revolution, the Civil War and Lincoln, the Civil Rights Movement and Martin Luther King.
Sessions 8 to 14 look at modern movements and American experiential spirituality at the individual, group, organizational / community / network levels. Session 14 forms a bridge to the final ones.
Sessions 14 to 16 explore the mission of the USA and its folk soul in spiritual scientific terms through the contributions of modern imaginative material (the High Tor legend and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz).
In the attached PDF you will find a brief overview of each of the 16 sessions and the link to the corresponding video.
To donate to the author:
Searching for the Spirit of the West A Hidden History of the USA and the Twentieth Century
This coming volume (Clairview Books, Spring 2023, coming out May 2023) explores the years 1899 to 1945—from the end of the Frontier, the time of publication of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the beginning of Kali Yuga—to the end of World War II; from there it hints at repercussions in the present. The view of history offered here is situated wholly outside of any political ideology. It upturns many of the myths that go under the name of modern history through a wealth of documented evidence—the thorough research of many deeply devoted authors, historians and economists.
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The progressive spiritual impulses at play in American culture are little known even within spiritual circles. This becomes a focus of the present exploration through the agency of unique individuals, little known or little appreciated in their time. It extends to movements of renewal which are ever so present, but again hardly ever acknowledged. This corresponds to what the book calls the “True Spirit of the West,” the one that adversarial impulses have managed to all but drown. And yet they show us the way to further modern Mysteries.
The impulses living in modern American history are deeply intertwined with those of Great Britain, Germany, and Eastern Europe, particularly Russia, both in negative and in positive ways. They need to be integrally connected one with the other. What has unfolded in modern times as a deep tragedy holds nevertheless the potential of promise and hope for American and world history.
The whole of American history is followed on the blueprint of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, a quintessential modern American fairy tale. As much as it maps the journey of individual transformation, it is also a blueprint of American history, past, present, and future. Dorothy’s soul, the innocent feminine spirit of Columbia, shows us the way forward in the lands of the West, where take place the pivotal spiritual confrontations of the present.
The books listed on this page cover the cultural turning points of North and South American history. They start by looking at the changes ush-ered in by the Third, Fourth and Fifth ages, corresponding to the first cul-tural horizons of shamanic cultures (Third Age), the changes introduced in the first century CE, best represented by Maya or Tiwanaku civiliza-tions (Fourth Age) and cultures which rose around the fifteenth century (Fifth Age)...
Aztecs in Mesoamerica, Haudenosaunee in the US East Coast and Incas in the Andes. After that they turn to specifically US history up to the twentieth century. The approach here adopted corresponds to what Stei-ner calls a ‘symptomatic’ view of history. It blends the scientific aspect of events and documents with the imaginative element of myths, legends and biographies.
The two books below take the starting point from American social reality and turn to universal principles. In fact similar books could be written from European, Asian, Australian … perspectives. The writings look at the best contributions of a future-oriented American culture, and blend in the principles of Rudolf Steiner’s threefolding of social reality for a free, mu-tual and sustainable society.
Accelerating Social Change Impacting Our World While Transforming Ourselves
Here are explorations of turning points of US history from the time of the colonies to the twentieth century. Among these: the American Revolution up to the forming of the American nation; the Civil War and the role of Abraham Lincoln, the Civil Rights Movement and the role of Martin Luther King. ...
Closer in time, the epochal turning point of the closing of the Age of Darkness (Kali Yuga) in 1899, the two world wars and the rise of new evolutionary impulses around the 1930s.
The first two volumes below follow key cultural events in American history from the 1st millennium BCE to the 15th century CE. Central to these are the events that took place in Southern Mexico/Guatemala 2000 years ago, recorded in the Popol Vuh of the Maya and in the Andean chronicles. ...
Around the fifteenth century North America saw the emergence of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, Mesoamerica the rise of the Aztec Empire and South America the Inca Empire.
In the twentieth century the famous Oglala Lakota Black Elk attempted to bring about an organic convergence between Lakota spirituality and Christianity. Much of his effort, anticipated in the Great Vision of his youth, is rendered transparent by the medicine man’s own words.
Spiritual Turning Points of North American History
Accelerating Social Change: Impacting Our World While Transforming Ourselves
Social change is more than a political statement or demand; it is a moral and spiritual imperative. If this is so, then it involves the whole human being in the way he perceives and thinks, feels and relates, and acts on and impacts the world.
Practically speaking, this book explores three avenues to change. At a first level we can start to recognize that society is built around three poles. Besides the public and private sectors, civil society has emerged to play a crucial role and alter dualistic thinking. If we think beyond capitalism and socialism, new unthought-of frontiers and possibilities emerge.
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It is possible to expand our practice of democracy beyond the majority/minority dynamics to the inclusion of all stakeholders. A new art and science of civic collaboration can break the gridlocks of polarization and opposition. We can engage in a new area of honest, energetic collaboration moving beyond weak compromise, through an array of social tools that have grown in the last forty to fifty years and have now reached full maturity.
Lastly, we can expand social and organizational forms in ways that completely break away from the past. We can reconcile both entrepreneurial and participatory paradigms and break beyond top-down or bottom-up models in ways that our intellect alone cannot fathom.
Paradigms offer generous visions but are also exacting masters. The new revolution will request as much of ourselves as we will request of the world.
The following powerpoint Creating New Paths to Social Change in the Food System illustrates the reach of the three paradigms of social change in relation to food systems. It explores: Tri-sector logic: examples of associative economy; Multi-stakeholder logic: Sustainable Food Lab; Multi-scale logic: VT Farm to Plate. Here is a Zoom presentation based on the powerpoint.
The following radio interview (June 2019 on WDRT, Viroqua WI, non-commercial radio station) explores the paradigms of social change discussed in the book.
The following radio interview (June 2019 on WDRT, Viroqua WI, non-commercial radio station) discusses paradigms of change in cohousing.
The following Front Range Café presentation elaborates on the universality of the U (term adopted from Theory U) as an archetype present at various levels: from work done at the individual level (Twelve Step), to the interpersonal level (Nonviolent Communication), to the group/organizational level.
Ken Meter’s Building Community Food Webs offers examples and analysis of a paradigm change that is transforming the US food system. See the book’s annotated table of contents here and an index of topics of relevance and where to find them here.
Visions for a Compassionate America
Berrett Koehlers Open Books
The United States of America is facing a phenomenal test at present. The nightmare of a growing economic divide, and of a democratic process hijacked by corporations, is a growing reality and a challenge to the hailed dream. What happened to the "land of the free," to the land where "all men are created equal," and to the "land of opportunity"?
A dream can be forgotten, but it still lives in the collective aspirations of a nation. The struggling dream is now creating daring new ideas and practices, which honor the essence of time-honored strivings and precedents. Thus the impulses of the past are recognized and honored in brand new ways. A new American culture is emerging that is tackling the age-old questions of what it means to be human. Daring innovations render democracy and political participation much more meaningful than the casting of a vote. And a whole new way of thinking about economic and ecological sustainability is leaving its mark on the present.
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America stands at a crossroads. In fact there already are two Americas: one of denial, secrecy and constant erosion of individual rights; and a new America that predicates openness, transparency, broad participation, affirmation of individual rights and life-sustaining economic choices. Unending crisis after crisis oblige us to inwardly face despair and loss of meaning. A meaningful step into the future demands social change and a personal striving for meaning, as the two sides of a paradigm shift. This is something we can all join, if we so choose, in order that America truly be the land of the free with equality and opportunity for all.
The American dream has been abused, neglected, and nearly completely discredited. Quite often it has turned into a nightmare. Witness the extreme and still-growing social disparity, and the aspirations to world empire that consume precious resources in war efforts around the world. Yet this is the nature of a dream—to hover between potential and reality, advance and retreat. And a dream can resurrect.
The legends and stories in this book begin with our Native American heritage and continue with historical turning points and biographies of important individuals at the time of the American Revolution and up to modern times.
The first part of the book concerns the birth of the nation; the second records periodic efforts to revive the original founding intentions. Examples include the fight for women’s rights and the civil rights movement.
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Through the biographies of uniquely influential individuals, a review of critically significant historical events, and assessment of the meaning and power of national holidays and cherished symbols, the book reveals the synergistic effect of such phenomena in enabling the achievement of the American Dream.
This essay forms a continuation of American historical themes already explored from a phenomenological and symptomatic perspective. It is added to the portraits of Franklin, Washington, Black Elk, Martin Luther King and others.
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The book tries to explain why scholars and historians from the ‘40s to the present consistently rank Lincoln as the best president in American history. It seems his success rested on a unique individuality, aided by personal connections, fortuitous events, synchronicities without which the nation would have ceased to be what it once was. Lincoln achieved the feat of rescuing the soul of America, without weakening its Republican institutions.
In Lincoln we can surmise an initiate of old. His spiritual beliefs went beyond anyone of his time, equal or second to Emerson, Thoreau and the Transcendentalists alone. He wanted no less than to reconnect the nation to its original impulses, in fact rededicate it and reconsecrate it.
This endeavor looks at the best of existing scholarship. It assembles all the facets of a personality—the frontier man, the lawyer, the politician, the writer, the orator, the humorist, the Commander in Chief and leader, the thinker, the Christian and spiritual leader—until it can bring back to life his indomitable spirit and offer a full portrait.
Black Elk, one of the most well known Native American leaders, is in many degrees one of the least understood. Until his death he was a faithful preserver and promoter of the Lakota ways. However, the medicine man became a Roman Catholic in 1904. From then, until his death in 1950, he remained faithful to this choice too.
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Black Elk preserved all the best elements of his cultural heritage in his testament of The Sacred Pipe. He also continued to bring to his people and other tribes the teachings of the historical Jesus. Truly the elder Lakota found himself at home in both cultures and worlds, becoming a representative of a new humanity, beyond races and creeds. In struggling towards a personal understanding of spiritual reality, he overcame both the Lakota warfare tradition and the limitations of a dogmatic religious faith.
The controversy that has endured about Black Elk's spiritual allegiances can be put to rest through the content of Black Elk's great vision and in the Holy Man's own words and biography. His life is the enactment of the Great Vision.
Spiritual Turning Points of North American History
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Spiritual Turning Points of South American History
The two books below concern the history of the progressive impulses of cultural renewal in the Americas as well as the impulses that stood against them, from the time of Golgotha to the time of the Consciousness Soul, corresponding with European colonization.
The books explore:
The decadent Mexican Mysteries that preceded the turning point of time
How the Christ impulse manifested in North and South America at the time of Golgotha
The mysteries of Izapa and the work of Vitzliputzli (the Twins of Maya tradition)
How the Christ impulse manifested at the time of the Consciousness Soul: the Iroquois and the Incas
What makes American spirituality unique
It is the hope of these books to enliven the conversation around:
How can anthroposophical culture adapt to the particular impulses present in the Americas?
Los dos libros mencionados a continuacion acercan el tema de los impulsos renovadores de la cultura de las Americas como tambien los impulsos que los oponian, desde el evento de Golgotha hasta el principio de la epoca del alma de conciencia, correspondiente a la llegada de los colonizadores europeos.
Los libros tratan de:
Los misterios decadentes que precedieron la encarnacion del Cristo
Como se manifesto el impulso Cristico en Norte y Sud America a la hora del evento de Golgotha
Los misterios de Izapa y la tarea de Vitzliputzli (los mellizos de la tradicion Maya), el iniciado de las Americas
Como se manifesto el impulso Cristico al empezar la epoca del alma de conciencia: los Iroqueses y los Incas
Que es lo que caracteriza la espiritualidad americana
El autor espera que los dos libros desarrollen conversaciones acerca de:
Como puede la cultura antroposofica adaptarse a los impulsos particulares que viven en las Americas?
Como puede la cultura entroposofica ser enriquecida por esos impulsos?
Que puede ella ofrecerles?
Los dos ensayos siguientes se refieren a temas de la época colonial en América del Norte y del Sur
La Virgen de Guadalupe. ¿ Un acontecimiento para las Américas?
Unas palabras acerca de mi pedido de donaciones. Creo en la necesidad de iniciativas culturales gratuitas en la esfera cultural, y este sito web es una de ellas. Espero que encuentre inspiracion o alimento para la reflexion, en lo que usted lee. En el espiitu de mutua colaboracion, apreciaria mucho sus donaciones.
Ken Meter’s 
