Elder Flowering: Lived Experiences of Growing Older The “social art” of biography work has grown from the insights of Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual science—insights that have proved useful in identifying and exploring the archetypal rhythms and milestones of human life. The most well-known, even obvious, of these are the roughly seven-year rhythms of early childhood, childhood, and adolescence, culminating in the transition to adulthood around the age of twenty-one. But this and other archetypal rhythms continue to unfold throughout life, perhaps more subtly and certainly in the most differentiated and individualized of ways. These have often been explored, especially as they pertain to the “active years” of adulthood. But less has been written about the so-called elder years. This volume seeks to remedy that. Written and edited by longtime students and practitioners of anthroposophic biography work, all of whom have completed at least ten cycles of seven-years, this unique volume aims to address, first hand, the joys and sorrows, triumphs and realities, of these years, when the ripe fruits of a life truly lived swell with seeds for the future. C O N T E N T S: Preface Onward from 63: Helpful Concepts and Personal Stories From Seven to Twelve: A New View – Patricia Rubano Opening and Choosing – Anne Kollender Sixty-three and Beyond – Victoria Seeley Born on a Saturday – Martha Loving Orgain Eldering Exploration in my Pluto Time – Linda Bergh Tracing the Arc of Life: Gifts of Aging Following a Thread – Karen Gierlach Chroneology – Davina Muse Somebodies and Nobodies – Christopher Schaefer Coming of Sage – Mary Bowen The Gift of Aging – Joseph Rubano “There is so much to admire, to weep over.” – Alex Reid Health Questions New Perspectives on Health, Aging, and Biography Work – Douglas Garrett and Renee Meyer, MD The Paradox of Aging – Ann Sawyer Death Is Part of the Story Death as a Process and a Doorway into Light – Karen Apana, PhD Memories of the Future – Christa Hornor Loss and Transformation – Lorna Kohler Ways of Working:  Ongoing Reflection Researching the Later years – Betty Staley Biographical Questions: Sharing Our Stories – Signe Eklund Schaefer Why Not (a) Play? Heart and Soul: A One Act Play – Kathi Ciskowski Bibliography About the Author SIGNE EKLUND SCHAEFER was the founding director of a professional development program in Biography and Social Art, one of several activities of the Center for Biography and Social Art. A teacher of adults for many decades, she has been a student of life for as long as she can remember. Never having heeded what was told her as a child—not to ask so many questions—she continues to love learning. Her desire to know more about the multiple dimensions of human development led her as a young person to the work of Rudolf Steiner and to Waldorf education. She directed Foundation Studies at Sunbridge College for more than twenty years and was on the faculty of Emerson College in Sussex England before that. She continues to teach both nationally and internationally, including at several recent workshops in China. She coauthored Ariadne’s Awakening, a book on gender questions and coedited the parenting book More Lifeways. A mother and grandmother, she now lives in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, with her husband Christopher Schaefer.