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Paper Short Abstract:

In the therapeutic movement practice called Eurythmy, Anthroposophists – a spiritual group originating from German-speaking Europe – claim to “work out” not only the physical body but also the spiritual bodies for health and wellness, cohabiting with spirits in the middle of “secular” Europe.

Paper Abstract:

Anthroposophy is a spiritual school founded by Rudolf Steiner in 1912 in German-speaking Europe, which he called “a spiritual science.” In founding the Anthroposophical Society, Steiner aimed at bringing together occult knowledge, natural science, and Christianity. Besides developing systematic programs for school pedagogy or organic farming, both of which are still very widespread all around the world, he also developed art and movement practices that suggest a different way of being in the world, than secular or Christian understandings of health and wellness. Anthroposophists also constituted one of the two largest groups during demonstrations against Covid-19 measures in Germany, along with Neo-Nazis. In this paper, I will focus on Eurythmy, a therapeutical anthroposophical movement practice that the practitioners believe to move not only our physical body, but also our etheric body, astral body, and the ego. In this constellation, humans have a fourfold body, with each responding to different human activities such as thinking, feeling, and sensing, but also creating realities, or being in touch with other beings. For humans to be healthy, according to Anthroposophy, it is important to balance these four bodies. Eurythmy is one of the modalities through which one can align one’s bodies. This paper will analyze how these different conceptions of the body, health, and wellness coexist with biomedical knowledge within the context of Anthroposophy, and what it means to cohabitate with spirits in post-pandemic/post-truth Germany and Europe.