What’s On
All Friday Seminars & Lectures Events
Online events are highlighted in blue.
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Friday 3 May7pm - 8.30pm
with Ted Prestbury
This talk will explore the relationship between a person’s actions and the moral and legal consequences. How does the English legal system attempt to address these issues and achieve justice? Does the English legal system reflect universal spiritual laws, and can we find in it the laws of karma?
Ted has worked with Anthroposophy for over 40 years. He qualified as a solicitor in 1978 and remained in private practice until 2016. He worked as a lawyer in the city, the west end and in a country practice. He specialised in mental health work and held judicial office for 29 years.
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Friday 10 May7pm - 8.30pm
with Angela Lord
An illustrated presentation giving an overview of past civilisations in the development of human consciousness. We will consider the karma of our previous earthly lives in this context, and some of the implications for the present day. The themes will include the Fall from Paradise in Lemurian times, Atlantean technology, and the karmic consequences of the mystery streams of Ancient Egypt and Greece.
In her book ‘The Archetypal Human-Animal’ (Temple Lodge Press), Angela includes her research on the Fall from Paradise and its consequences in considerable detail. It includes many relevant and remarkable insights from Rudolf Steiner which throw light onto our human and world development.
Angela Lord is a painter and author. Her books include: Colour Dynamics, Books I and II; Form Drawing; and four illustrated books on Rudolf Steiner's four large watercolour paintings, which contain substantial research material on each theme.
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Friday 17 May7pm - 8.30pm
with Eric Klein
The talk will examine the origins of music from the spiritual world as it makes its way into earthly evolution, from the ‘Music of the Spheres’ through the incarnation of Christ and as expressed in the compositions of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner and especially the 20th century music of Dmitri Shostakovich. We will ask questions about the karmic development of man and these great composers, why it is only in the last few hundred years that Western Classical Art Music has evolved on Earth, and how and why this music affects us and our future evolution. Could we have evolved as we have without this music? The karma of Dmitri Shostakovich, his life in Russia, and his impact on humanity will be the main focus.
Eric Klein was born and raised in an Anthroposophic home in New York, educated at the Rudolf Steiner School in New York City, before training as a concert musician at the Manhattan School of Music. His life’s journey has gone through Harvard Business School, the Christian Community Seminary in Stuttgart, Germany before settling in England in 2002. He has worked as a performing musician, composer, conductor, teacher and lecturer.
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Friday 24 May7pm - 8.30pm
with Helen Kinsey
What’s it like to have Autism? How can we best relate to those living with this challenge? Autism spectrum disorder ranges from a very severe disability, clearly present in early childhood, to mild difficulty with social interactions that can often go unnoticed until adult hood. Helen will share her experience of working with children who have Autism and offer us some recent research into its possible causes and how it can best be approached.
Helen is an anthroposophist. She was a Waldorf class teacher for a number of years. She is currently teaching in mainstream and has spent some time in a specialist autistic setting.
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Friday 31 May7pm - 8.30pm
with Dr. Peter Gruenewald
Suffering from a chronic physical or mental illness can be an existential challenge that may seemingly limit our self-expression and even social reach. It can be caused by experiences and deeds in previous lives but may also be a preparation to acquire new life skills for a future lifetime. In fact, organs that are weak in one incarnation, may become organs of strength in a next life. All illness, even physical illnesses have to be understood from their spiritual, soul, vital and physical and social aspect. Once we understand these dimensions of illness and its individual purpose, we can start to work on improving the conditions by means that strengthen our physical, vital, emotional and spiritual constitution.
We will in this context look at two statements: ‘All illnesses are musical problems.’ (Novalis) and Paracelsus: ‘The foundation of all medicine is love.’ We will explore the question: How can we use spiritual development and initiation to work towards a true and sustainable state of health, physically, vitally, emotionally and spiritually?
Dr Peter Gruenewald is an anthroposophical doctor, general practitioner, specialist doctor in sleep medicine and a trainer in Adaptive Resilience and stress management. He is the author of the books: Rosicrucian Alchemy. A Spiritual Christian Path (2024). Mastering Life. Rosicrucian and Magical Techniques for achieving your Life’s Goals (2022). Manifesting your Best Future Self: Building Adaptive Resilience (2020). The Quiet Heart. Putting Stress in its Place (2007).
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Friday 7 June7pm - 8.30pm
with Dr Andrew Welburn
Reincarnation points to all the things we have been and still may be. It is often contrasted with Christianity's focus on one's present self and hope for salvation. But reincarnation is not just an oriental idea. In fact, it has formed part of Jewish as well as several major Christian perspectives. Rudolf Steiner is neither just East or West but shows how we can find a universal understanding of karma, transforming how we think of our lives and our responsibility for the world.
Andrew has been an academic in the fields of English Literature and biblical interpretation and history. A life-long Anthroposophist, he has written several books on Rudolf Steiner’s philosophy, esotericism, and Christianity, and on the prophet Zarathustra.