1. The Turning Point: Star Wisdom, vol. 5

2. The Children's Forest: Storyies & Songs, Wild Food, Crafts & Celebrations...

3. The Maria Thun Biodynamic Almanac 2023: North American Edition

4. Bach Flower Remedies: Form and Function

5. How to Know Higher Worlds: A Modern Path of Initiation (CW 10)

6. Mistletoe and the Emerging Future of Integrative Oncology

7. The Mission of Folk Souls (CW 121)

8. Findus and the Christmas Tomte

9. Understanding Deeper Developmental Needs: Holistic Approaches for Challenging Behaviors in Children

10. Agriculture: Spiritual Foundations for the Renewal of Agriculture (CW 327)

11. Simplicity Parenting: Using the Power of Less to Raise Happy, Secure Children

12. The Marian Way of Heart Knowledge: From Mary through St. John's Gospel to Rudolf Steiner's Philosophy of Freedom

13. Woody, Hazel and Little Pip (2nd edition)

14. Tolkien's Hidden Pictures: Anthroposophy and the Enchantment in Middle-earth

15. Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path: A Philosophy of Freedom (CW 4)

16. Stargazers' Almanac 2023: A Monthly Guide to the Stars and Planets

17. The Spiritual Hierarchies and the Physical World: Zodiac, Planets & Cosmos (CW 110)

18. Pancakes for Findus

19. The Language of Plants: A Guide to the Doctrine of Signatures

20. Old Age: Journey into Simplicity

21. Cosmic Memory: The Story of Atlantis, Lemuria, and the Division of the Sexes (CW 11)

22. Soul-Size: The Eternal Psychosomatic Dilemma: An Exploration of Anthroposophic Physiology and Psychology

23. Findus and the Fox

24. What Makes Blood Move? A Mind-Body Physiology of the Heart

25. Healing Stories for Challenging Behaviour

Educating Traumatized Children: Waldorf Education in Crisis Intervention

Reviewed by David Kennedy, Waldorf Today

Our book reviews are arranged many weeks in advance. I had no way of knowing that current events in Europe would make the review of Educating Traumatized Children all the more relevant. 

Teachers and parents will both sense the relevance of this book in the modern educational landscape. Trauma, much as we might hope to relegate it to the purview of special educators and therapists, has become a daily facet of life.

Gone are the days when only one or two children in a class were in need of "special help".

Bernd Ruf found his calling at the time of the 2006 Lebanon War. Since then he has facilitated the development of "Emergency Education". He and teams of teachers, doctors, psychologists, and therapists have taken part in crisis interventions around the world. They work with psychologically traumatized children and young people in war zones and disaster areas. 

Bernd Ruf presents an anthroposophical understanding of trauma itself. There is a an extensive examination of psychological trauma and healing the frozenness of trauma. The book contains many vignettes of their trauma work and concludes with emergency education as threshold education. 

Although the book is written primarily out of the experience of emergency educators in trauma situations, I would imagine that many classroom teachers and parents would find much they recognize in their "normal" world. 

Five stars. Great book.

READ AN EXCERPT: "EMERGENCY EDUCATION"

Mercury Press, an initiative of the Rudolf Steiner Fellowship Community in Spring Valley, New York, has been publishing interesting, unique, and useful books and pamphlets for more than fifty years. They include resources for teachers, children’s books, books on anthroposophic medicine, original translations of Rudolf Steiner's works, biographies, and much more.

As of December 15, 2021, Mercury ceased its mail-order operations and no longer publishes books. However, the fruits of this publishing initiative are not lost. Many of the titles published by Mercury are now or will soon be available through SteinerBooks as of 2022.