The Role of the Goddess Bride in the Waulking Tradition of the Inner and Outer Hebrides
With Jane Brewer

Waulking was the work process of shrinking woollen cloth so that it was comfortable to wear after it had come off the loom. It used to be done in a simple way wherever woollen cloth was made around the world.

However, in the cloth tradition of the past found on the Inner and Outer Hebrides this work process was both complex and unique. The women would sit around a long narrow table, swaying backwards and forwards, whilst pounding the cloth and singing their Gaelic songs that were of their own making. The waulking songs comprise one of the largest collections of women's work songs and poetry.

Waulking is commonly understood as having been work alone. However, this lecture explores how waulking was more than work. The lecture reaches back to the star culture of the past, namely the Bronze Age and the mythology of the Goddess Bride, where the roots of this tradition can be found. This leads to a new way of looking at waulking and the Goddess Bride, that is both relevant for the tradition itself and for the present.

Rudolf Steiner's Spiritual Awakening: The Origins of his Esoteric Thought
With Dr. Andrew Welburn

The talk will focus on the background and significance of that moment which Rudolf Steiner describes in his autobiography, when he 'came to stand before the Mystery of Golgotha in a solemn festival of knowledge'. Understanding his starting-point, and the transformation which he experienced at that time, can form a new key to the path he followed in his later life. His spiritual-scientific originality and also his connection to the esoteric tradition may be seen in a new light.

Art and Angel Consciousness
With Clare Kunze
For bookings and enquiries email Clare or text 07503 395 263.

This lecture will attempt to explore attitudes required for an approach to painting which aims not at 'what' but 'how' a painting comes about, and make a link to a higher mode of consciousness.

The Fifth Chamber of the Heart
With Frank Chester
To book contact Kelly Connor on 01342 823 820

Frank Chester is a sculptor, artist and geometrician from San Francisco who applied his three talents to the task of manifesting a solid seven-sided form. After four years of constant research and effort he achieved his goal. The form then led him onwards to unlock the age old mystery of the geometry of the bell. And from that, the previously unknown geometry of the human heart revealed itself, showing the way in which the fifth chamber will develop.
Rudolf Steiner gave indications of a fifth chamber of the heart in which we will have a new organ that will allow us to control life forces in a different way than is possible at the moment.
Frank's lecture will demonstrate and recreate the process of his groundbreaking discoveries in an astonishing display of how to apply spiritual scientific research concretely, enthusiastically and productively. For more details visit Frank's web site.

Experiencing the Twelve Gestures of the Zodiac as a Picture of Social Life
With Heinz and Ursula Zimmermann

In this workshop, which will include a talk and eurythmy, Heinz and Ursula will lead us towards an experience of how the zodiac affects human relations.

Before his retirement Heinz was a member of the Executive Council of the General Anthroposophical Society in Switzerland and Ursula is a leading eurythmy teacher.

Rudolf Steiner House Open Day 2010
Doors open 11.30am - All welcome.
Please call Rudolf Steiner House on 020 7723 4400 for the programme, available early May.

Your chance to hear about the spiritual background to Waldorf Education, biodynamic agriculture, anthroposophic medicine and organic architecture all in one day! Also talks on meditation and the inner life, new developments in community life, and research into the afterlife! Not to mention exhibitions, performances, workshops and refreshments.

Illustrated talks
With Owen A. Barfield

Owen Barfield: A grandson's personal reflections with photographs
An intimate talk that spans the 99 years of the life of one of the twentieth century's most significant writers and philosophers.

Followed by: Symbolism / Polarity in Sacred Art and a Link to Nature
An illustrated talk that draws on the work of Owen Barfield.

London College of Eurythmy presents - Graduation Performance
Retiring collection at the door

Eurythmy is a fascinating art of movement that arose out of the work of Rudolf Steiner. Pieces of music as well as poetry are performed by solo artists or groups. Eurythmy can be created just as artistically as music or poetic recitation, only for the eye instead of the ear which is why Steiner also called it visible language and visible singing.

The whole stage setting, the lighting of the space, the sequence of the lighting effects and the colour of dresses and veils, are carefully chosen in accord with the piece and the movement. Altogether the aim is to create something like a 'visible melodic expression' of the poetry or music.

The graduating students of the four-year eurythmy training will show their solo and group pieces supported by other students of the college. Everyone is warmly welcome.

Eurythmy Summer School and Summer Workshop for Eurythmists
With Hajo Dekker, Georgie Tresidder-Howlett, Anne Ayre and Gabriele Ruehl

In this course we will explore how, through movement, the different elements of music and poetry which we can hear can be made visible to the eye. The classes in tone and speech eurythmy will be complemented by choral singing and form drawing.

For details on fees and more information, please contact the London College of Eurythmy on 020 7723 4400 ext 208 (answer phone).

The Biography of Dr. Rudolf Steiner
With Dr. Peter Selg

Dr. Peter Selg's lecture will celebrate Rudolf Steiner's 150th birthday which will fall next year in 2011. The lecture will deal with Rudolf Steiner as a spiritual teacher, but also Rudolf Steiner's personal radiance and his relation to his pupils. Underpinning it all, Peter Selg will speak about the unfolding gift of anthroposophical spiritual science which came into the world through Rudolf Steiner.

Peter Selg M.D, born in Stuttgart in 1963, is the director of the Ita Wegman Institute in Arlesheim, Switzerland, for basic research into Anthroposophy. He is both a professor in art and social science and works as a psychiatrist mainly with young people.

City Art Retreat: Revealing the Image
With Clare Kunze
Booking essential - for bookings and enquiries email Clare or text 07503 395 263.

The City Art Retreat is for people curious about life and art, who want to investigate aspects of the London city-scape, and to discover how the elemental realms of nature - earth, water, air and warmth - manifest here. How do they live in the City, how do they enter into our art?

It is proposed to gather visual impressions by visiting different parts of the City, so participants need to be prepared to do a bit of walking, sitting, standing, using buses and the tube. This will be balanced by studio work. Anthroposophic ideas on the meaning of art in our time will form a backdrop for our conversations.