Journal for Star Wisdom 2011 (Star Wisdom 2020)

William Bento, PhD, worked in the field of human development for more than thirty years. He was a recognized pioneer and a published author in psychosophy (soul wisdom) and astrosophy (star wisdom), and traveled extensively as a speaker, teacher, and consultant. Dr. Bento was the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at Rudolf Steiner College in Fair Oaks, California, and worked as a transpersonal clinical psychologist at the Center for Living Health in Gold River, California. He also guided social therapy seminars for Camphill Communities for more than twenty years. Dr. Bento was also the author of Holy Nights Journal and Meditation Cards & Booklet on the Eightfold Path and a frequent contributor to Journal for Star Wisdom. He died June 5, 2015.

Daniel Andreev (1906-1959) was born in Berlin. His father was the well-known Russian writer Leonid Andreev. His mother Alexandra Veligorsky died during childbirth. Daniel's father, overcome with grief, gave up Andreev to Alexandra's sister Elizabeth Dobrov, who lived in Moscow. It was a critical event in Daniel Andreev's life, for in contrast to many of the Russian intelligentsia at the time, the maintained its Russian Orthodox faith. Daniel's childhood included contact with persons as his godfather Maxim Gorky. Daniel was conscripted as a noncombatant in the Soviet Army in 1942, and after the war he returned to writing fiction and poetry. Daniel Andreev was arrested in 1947, along with his wife and many of his relatives and friends, and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison, while his wife received twenty-five years of labor camp. All of previous writing was destroyed. With the rise of Khrushchev, Andreev's case was reviwed and his sentence reduced to ten years. He was released to his waiting wife in 1957, his health ruined following a heart attack in prison. While in prison, he had written the first drafts of The Rose of the World and Russian Gods (a collection of poetry), as well as The Iron Mystery, a play in verse. Andreev spent the last two years of his life finishing his work on these works. Andreev's wife Alla, realizing the negative reception the books would get from the Soviet authorities, hid them until the mid-seventies, but didn't publish them until Gorbachev and glasnost. The first edition of The Rose of the World (100,000 copies) quickly sold out, and since then several editions have been equally popular in Russia.

David Tresemer, PhD, has a doctorate in psychology, and is associate professor of psychology at Rudolf Steiner College for the certificate program in Counseling Psychology, with concentration in Anthroposophic Psychology. He has written in many areas, ranging from The Scythe Book: Mowing Hay, Cutting Weeds, and Harvesting Small Grains with Hand Tools to a book about mythic theater, War in Heaven: Accessing Myth Through Drama, and a book on astrology-seen-intelligently, Star Wisdom and Rudolf Steiner: A Life Seen through the Oracle of the Solar Cross, as well as The Venus Eclipse of the Sun. David's has also written numerous articles on the connection of celestial events to human experience.

Kevin Dann, Ph.D., has taught history at SUNY Plattsburgh, the University of Vermont, and Rutgers University. His books include Lewis Creek Lost and Found (University Press of New England, 2001); Across the Great Border Fault: The Naturalist Myth in America (Rutgers University Press, 2000); and Bright Colors Falsely Seen: Synaesthesia and the Search for Transcendental Knowledge (Yale University Press, 1998).

Brian Gray trained as an architect and has taught at Rudolf Steiner College in Fair Oaks, California, since 1981. He has taught classes to aspiring teachers in Waldorf schools around the world on such topics as the creation of the world and cosmic warmth from a spiritual perspective, sacred architecture, and the constitution of the human being, as well as various aspects of star wisdom (Astrosophy) related to biography, life cycles, karma, and reincarnation. A student of astrology since 1967, Brian has interpreted astrological charts for thousands of people and offers regular classes in observation of the stars and in Esoteric Christianity. He has discovered hidden astrological keys in several important works of literature, from the Parzival story of the Grail Knights to many parts of the Bible. He is the author of an upcoming "astrobiography" of Rudolf Steiner, Unfolding Destiny. He also teaches courses in the San Francisco and Los Altos extension programs of Rudolf Steiner College.