In my life experience I have found that raising children is one of the most inspiring opportunities you may have for spiritual initiations.  Every child is a recent arrival with the latest news from the spiritual world and that gift lies within the being of this tiny individual who is a seed baby ready to grow and blossom.  Rudolf Steiner has shared that the angels were intimately involved with child rearing in earlier stages of   human consciousness . The necessary evolutionary development of our intellect has left us without the intuitions which the angelic world conveyed to us in times past to assist in parenting.  He also offers a pathway to develop these intuitions and reestablish a relationship to the angelic world to assist us in guiding the children.

This intuitive process begins to develop when we consider with an open mind that every child has come from the spiritual world and alternates between life on earth and life across the threshold. They are children of the creator,  gifted to us to love and cherish, to guide and learn with as they mature. A family is chosen by the soul and higher being, the I AM THAT I AM, with particular ancestral traits and possibilities for a constitutional body.  This provides  a vehicle offering the best options for developing and living a life which allows the destiny to unfold. Based on past life experiences  and the insights of  the higher being, these characteristics serve the evolutionary needs of the child’s soul and spirit.  The feelings and attitudes which the mother has about this unfolding miracle play a central role in the development of the child in the womb.   Awe and wonder, joy and serenity affect  the body chemistry of the Mother so that she can create a welcoming environment for the feelings and organs of the infant to develop in a healthy and life embracing way.

A dialogue can also begin with the child’s angel with a request to guide and assist one in creating an environment in the home which will support health and well being for your child, in a way co-parenting with the wisdom and insight higher beings can offer.

The relationship with the child has already begun as well.  Steiner shares in one of the volumes of “ Karmic Relationships: Esoteric Studies” that we have been together in the spiritual world before our birth and in  past lives, not necessarily as parent and child.  Thus a possibility exists that parents and children may evolve together.  With these thoughts in mind the child who is held in joy and wonder,  before and after birth, has a very different feeling than one who is surrounded with worry, fear or doubt about any aspect of childbirth and child rearing. This is an important aspect, for the child is affected a great deal by the feeling world of adults.  Of course, thoughts and actions have an impact, but it is the feelings the child perceives most strongly.

From birth, when the child’s perceptions are first experiencing physical earthly existence, the child is mainly connected to the parents and foremost the mother.  Steiner spoke of the dominant capacity of imitation in the young child and this is what is most prominent in the relationship. In the spiritual world the child experiences a deep feeling of devotion and brings this into the physical world in the expression of imitation. This is not the basic concept of imitation that I raise a hand, the child raises a hand. Rather, the young child’s imitation is one that is visceral and  all encompassing as the child  experiences not so much what you say or what you do, but instead who you are, your “Being”, which expresses itself in what you think, say, do and particularly what you feel.

The predominate mode of imitation in the child makes the parents the prominent role models for the child at the deepest and formational levels of the body and psyche as well as a guide for how to be in a physical body and function in the material world.  When the relationship develops with this understanding of the child’s experience one strives to be a role model worthy of imitation. This developmental and age appropriate understanding supports  the child’s sense of self in growing with a deeply felt experience of being understood and honored .Note that the emphasis is on striving, for we all learn a great deal from making errors and the child benefits from this as a model for being human.

In the future I hope to further explore imitation and the role of guidance as well as other aspects of parenting as I continue to develop the work with prenatal parents.

I am very happy to have people forward these blog articles on to other parents and request that you acknowledge where they originated and/or link to my website.☺

In Stargarden, my Waldorf Early Childhood Parenting Program, the morning  begins with the group of adults and children singing together:

 “Give Thanks to the Mother Earth, Give Thanks to the Father Sun, Give Thanks to the beautiful garden, Where the Mother and the Father are One,

 Give Thanks, give thanks, give thanks that we are One, Give thanks, give thanks, To the Mother and the Father Sun”

The greeting is accompanied by gestures of gratitude to our Mother, the Earth, and Father, the Sun, reconnecting with a feeling of humility to the Nature Spirits, the Elementals, and the Higher Beings who have sacrificed themselves to manifest material reality for the sake of our Spiritual Development here.

In creating a garden, even small flowerpots on the window sill, one nurtures in children a deep appreciation of these invisible brothers and sisters. The feeling of gratitude and appreciation for the plants, which are manifestations of the elemental beings, nurtures these Beings in a way that frees them from material bondage. The relationship that we cultivate with the Divine Mother Earth through tending and caring for our garden keeps alive the child’s inherent experience of their spiritual home and creates an aura of blessed sanctuary so that the beneficial elementals, and we with them, find peace. Through the seasons, careful attentiveness to the needs of the elementals in the garden helps to imbue the children and adults with health-giving vitality so that they have an experience of the sensible and supersensible in nature and the physical world and can find the peace and harmony accessible to all.

One aspect of tending the garden involves use of biodynamic sprays with which we aid the cultivation of sanctuary for humans, for plants, for animals, and the supersensible realms. Each sanctuary becomes an island of light with its boundaries extending to the farthest reaches of the cosmos and to the deepest realms, where Higher Beings who guide the earth reside. The home becomes the chapel for the Holy Family to worship in the daily rhythms of waking and sleeping, eating and cleaning, working and playing. Our work becomes our prayer, and our prayer becomes our work, as we celebrate the spark of divinity, the gift of co-creator, within each individual. It is a very full, rich and beautiful tapestry of life that we weave together.

It was Rudolf Steiner’s vision that these islands of light be cultivated far and wide. Here in the Rocky Mountain region and throughout Waldorf communities and other communities which appreciate the Mother Earth and Father Sun, we can shine brightly by creating such sanctuary.

I am very happy to have people forward these blog articles on to other parents and request that you acknowledge where they originated and/or link to my website.☺

Hello, Hello Moms!

Well, we noticed a bit of hitting today, a wonderful opportunity for our community to grow together. I would like to share my insights from the many years of working with this.

The very first thing I would say is do not worry and don’t be embarrassed, and do begin to apply your observational skills and intuition and form a long lasting relationship to your Angel and your child’s Angel to determine what would be the best approach for you and your child. The first reason I say not to worry is because it feeds what can become a pattern by creating a negative visualization, the so called ,”self fulfilling prophecy.” Your child will be best supported by holding a very positive picture of who your child is and what they will become, according to the values and ethics which are important to you. I am not advising going into denial about what your child has done, but taking a more positive approach to the issue.

The other reason I say not to worry is that hitting is a “normal,” behavior for 2-3 year olds, however it is unacceptable; normal for many reasons and mainly age related. They still live in the consciousness that the world is them and they have challenges sharing. They don’t understand the difference between animate and inanimate objects. They do not have the neurological development for impulse control nor for understanding cause and effect. They are toddlers, learning how to socialize. (Perhaps our culture is like toddlers learning how to socialize with the need to give up the bully complex.) They also do not have the necessary neural development to understand boundaries and to communicate their needs.

They can however, learn socially acceptable behavior, which I would describe as kind, considerate and caring with the ability to compromise and participate harmoniously.

Now, in the instance of your child, try to understand and empathize with what underlies their  behavior. You can apply this to other behaviors as well. A few of the reasons I would suggest off the top of my head are:

1. not feeling well, hungry, tired, teething, allergies, coming down with a seasonal illness.

2. need for nutritional support. At this age their nutritional needs begin to shift a great deal.

3. young impulse control capacity, often with an underlying developmental reason for such behavior

4. not aware of boundaries and feeling threatened.

5. inability to communicate

6. unfamiliar with the space and guidelines

Whether you come to some insight into who they are and what makes them tick, ask the Angels to assist, as you put them to bed at night, mainly as a silent interaction, and to have the answer upon awakening.

Regardless of what comes to you a helpful approach after your child has hit is to say, as you shake your head back and forth calmly and caringly, “ We do not hit.” You can add, if you need a stronger statement, “Mommy doesn’t hit, Daddy doesn’t hit, We don’t hit. Our hands are strong and helpful and kind,” demonstrating on your self the gesture. Gesture is one of the most important tools you can use, since often the visual pathway is stronger than the auditory pathway. It can also be helpful to model for them caring for the child who was hit or asking to have a turn, mainly demonstrating the appropriate action, since they learn mainly from imitation.If your child is unable to verbalize, I’m sorry, say it for them as a role model. When they are a bit older, which varies from child to child, you can expect them to say the words.

It is beyond your child’s ability to state why they did something. How often do we know truly why we do what we do, or even think of it? The reasons they do so are mainly developmental and not because they are mean, cruel, or any other morally challenged reason. They just need help from us by  understanding the underlying reason and providing the help they need developmentally or providing the nutrition, sleep,etc. that they need. It helps, too, if it is all done with a lot of love in your heart. Children are most aware of what you think and feel about them.

I was so happy to see that all Mom’s were alert and guiding their child, caring for others children and not being judgmental of the other’s child. It says a great deal about what fine parents you are and what wonderful role models. I look forward to our year.

Love, Ms. Vicki

I am very happy to have people forward these blog articles on to other parents and request that you acknowledge where they originated and/or link to my website.☺