Advent can be seen as a picture that is able to support our understanding of the helps and hindrances on the path that leads us towards the transformation of the soul’s capacities to enable a living relationship with the spiritual world.  Through our conscious relationship to the kingdoms of nature, the weeks of advent teach us how to grow in greater harmony with these kingdoms and overcome the blocks that prevent harmony with others. This is an essential preparation for new spiritual births to take place.

The Christmas festival is not only a time to enter into the mysteries of the returning, strengthening light, but also the mysteries of awakening, growing love. During Advent we honour and connect with the elemental beings as we begin preparing towards entering into the school of love that opens its doors in this season. Through meeting weekly with each of the four spiritual forces of love in the Christmas preparation, we can develop a greater relationship towards love in life and set the ground for growing love in the coming year. Within the human heart the physical, spiritual human being unites in the deepest way.

In community life we learn consciously and unconsciously from each other. Rudolf Steiner stated that to be an educator in the Consciousness-soul Age we need to be able to elicit the individuality from the other. This professional development talk on The Art of The Educator includes the relationship between the educator’s task of working with the individuality whilst working in groups and communities. From an esoteric perspective that gives rise to an exoteric practice, we can find what is needed for healthy educational forms.

All of the biodynamic preparations can be strengthened and fortified by understanding the esoteric wisdom that lives behind how they are made and why they are used. With winter fast approaching, we will seek to understand the healing offering of the biodynamic three kings prep and how we can support its work through both inner and outer preparation. We will explore living consciously with the spiritual year towards deeper care and understanding of the natural world.
While we celebrate the cycle of the year collectively, these celebrations also represent and relate to the individual’s path of development. The mystery schools of the past brought outer festivals to present the community with the esoteric wisdom clothed in outer forms. Today this wisdom is not engaged with consciously by the chosen few but is now for the many. Deepening our understanding and ability to participate in the spiritual year supports us on the path of inner development and in relationship to the spiritual world and to our farms, gardens, and communities.

We will examine how developing inner capacities allows us to more clearly perceive and bring healing activities to the land and to our communities. From this viewpoint, we will explore foundational pictures out of anthroposophy relevant to biodynamics and the renewal of agriculture.

The course is part presentation, and part experiential exercises, drawing from the EduCareDo Foundations in Anthroposophy course. Together we will orient towards the inner work and development of faculties of perception to support our relationship to our farms and our communities.

This course presents aspects of the inner biography and how meditative practice can help evolve us forward. Perceiving our outer biography from an esoteric point of view allows us to utilize the events of our lives to work more deeply towards self-transformation. We also seek to understand how the seasons and cycle of the year reflect stages of inner development, focusing on how the Easter mysteries are reflected in our inner life. Practices are given that support growth and development in both our inner and outer lives.

A course to assist teachers, therapists, parents and anyone working with supporting others, as well as those wanting to understand their own relationship to addiction in its various forms. It will look at what’s behind addiction and what is needed to overcome its grasp. Through helping to understand the draw to consciousness altering substance, and the effects of substance use and process addiction on development, we are more equipped to help. It relates and extends upon the Substance Program delivered by Developing the Self, Developing the World.

The Christmas Mystery is among other expressions a ‘celebration’ of the higher ‘I’ awakening of the individual within the collective spiritual year.

It is a time in which the spiritual world becomes more accessible. The preparation and effort we make helps to support the spiritual births and the unfolding steps towards deepening our spiritual life, and allows us to manifest the resulting capacities in daily life.

Working with colleagues and enlivening teacher practice.

Through the esoteric understanding of child development we will explore what is needed to support a child’s growth at various stages of their school life. This brings harmony between the evolving body and soul which sets the ground for healthy adult experience. The course also addresses gender differences and similarities that can both limit or free us.

As adults much of what we struggle with today can be traced to our own developmental stages. By understanding deeply the foundations laid down in childhood we can recognise the healing steps we and others need to take. Through inner development exercises we overcome our past and in doing so we begin to see the potential gifts in it.

Working out of Consciousness Soul is working with the most progressive part of our being. For the spiritual hierarchies to support progression, developing humanity must also be working progressively. And if we are to help others progress, we have to work with the most progressive part of ourselves. This course is therefore particularly useful for those working with others in a teaching, health related or developmental way.

The subtle changes that are perceived in the finer sheaths of the human being are significant transformations in our inner development. In order to keep developing Consciousness Soul, we need to understand what it is developing into. Through understanding the inner path we can gain insight into our individual relationship to the various steps that are asked of us and recognise how to utilise the inner exercises that both develop and support the progressive forces within ourselves. This allows the progressive beings to work with us.

Every soul capacity is a modification of Love. Our true being is the eternal I and the eternal Soul. All that is transient in us must be identified so that the Eternal can be evolved.

In our onward journey some experiences are likely to make us question if we have taken a wrong turn. By seeing the path that all must take, we can objectively evaluate our next step and learn how to work healthily from each stage.

This is a useful course for both those beginning with an inner practice and those who have taken one or many steps on this transforming path.

What leads our lives? Is it our desires, our intellect – or the most aware part of us? Each of us already has certain capacities but we need to develop them in order to be able to make use of them. Developing ourselves affects not only our own lives and the decisions we make but also effects the lives of others around us. This course will include several exercises and meditations that will help cultivate and understand the fruits of the inner work.

Through understanding the inner path we can gain insight into our individual relationship to the various steps that are asked of us and recognise how to utilise the inner exercises that both develop and support our onward journey. By seeing the path that all must take we can objectively evaluate our next step and learn how to work healthily from each stage.

As we grow into life the needs of our health and education change. Through understanding the esoteric wisdom behind Waldorf Education we understand why teachers are also seen as preventative health carers. This wisdom leads us to gain knowledge of our own capacity to prevent or correct imbalances in body and soul.

Looking at the individual expression of a child’s being, we begin to see their individual needs. At the same time we recognise the collective journey of childhood and the inevitable path of growth and change so that we can guide their unfolding stages in the most healthy way possible. Doing so brings insights into our own growth and development needs as adults and the inner exercises support our own strengthening enabling us to perceive and meet the needs of the child.

Through the inner work path we become aware of the living spiritual year and its reflection in the stages of inner development. The Easter picture is full of insights and guidance to the students of the path whether they are just beginning on the first step of the inner journey or have taken many. As it is the pinnacle of the spiritual year the Easter mysteries speaks of deep soul and spiritual transformation. Through the inner work exercises and meditations we develop the soul capacities and our own unfolding relationship to the divine spiritual world. This strengthens us in our daily lives and our ability to support the conscious evolution of ourselves and the community. The more we understand and live the inner path the greater we can serve the outer life. As we celebrate the collective spiritual year we can find our individual inner year and our next step onwards.

Through the inner work and the meditative life one has to understand the process of conscious surrender and letting go of attachments to the transitory life – “to die before we die”. This can be the hardest aspect of meditative practice and also the hardest aspect of life. With the esoteric understanding of death, dying and surrender we can actively take the steps that lead to the seeds of transformation and a new stage of growth, preparing us for the letting go of the body and the journey into the spiritual world.

We look at the habits and addictions that create unfreedom in our own and others’ lives, and see how in the overcoming of them in ourselves and the meeting of them in others we strengthen our capacity to enter deeply into the mysteries of transformation. The workshop content is accessible and relevant to both returning participants and newcomers alike. With 25% of people confronting addiction in the US, as individuals and as a community, deepening our understanding is becoming a necessity.

Outer festivals are celebrated collectively and yet they are also representations of an individual’s initiation path. The mystery schools of the past presented outer festivals to present the community with the esoteric wisdom clothed in outer forms. Today this wisdom is not engaged with consciously by the chosen few but is now for the many. Deepening our understanding and ability to participate in the spiritual year serves a relationship between ourselves and the spiritual world as well as between ourselves and the community.

“Without sense-born love, nothing material would exist in the world; without spiritual love, nothing spiritual can arise in evolution.”  – Rudolf Steiner

The human being has the possibility of continually evolving in consciousness. We will look at the stage of development we are at now, where we have been and where we are headed. We will explore how this reflects on the experience of being a man or a woman and the effect it has on sexuality in our times. This workshop is for individuals and couples who are interested in understanding how gender differences and similarities work in childhood development, human relationships and spiritual development. Looking at the gifts, the struggles and the purpose of these on the inner path. When working out of anthroposophy we are asked not to judge the other by gender and to teach in a unisexual way. Only through a deep understanding of the un-freedom of being man or woman can we contribute to the education and development of others in freedom. By understanding sexuality through the inner work we transform its capacity into higher activity of serving the spiritual world.

A course that was held in collaboration with Rev Jonah Evans of the Christian community in Canada. This weekend course was to bring clarity and depth to the meaning of the festivals and their effect on inner development and community development. The mystery schools and religious teachings have both held the festivals as an important passage through the year. As we penetrate their meaning we can each discover how we can enter freely into our own relationship with the spiritual year.

Lisa and Jonah have both been working individually for many years with the meaning of festivals and how they effect the inner and outer life of individuals that participate in them. Together they shared the various ways in which we can all participate in the mystery and meaning of the festivals that deepen our experience of our spiritual life.

Whenever we impart knowledge in its manifold forms to another, we impart more than the thoughts in words and actions; we stream out into the world the foundational meaning behind all that we bring. Inner work helps us to penetrate behind the material representation of what is conveyed to its deeper meaning and purpose for growth and development. By deepening our own experience and understanding, what we can convey will be richer, healthier, and strengthening for others as well as for ourselves. 

A workshop to assist the understanding of the different experiences that unfold on the path towards the Macrocosm and the Microcosm and the gifts that support us in our unfolding soul development. We look at the importance of preparation for these experiences and the difficulties some meet when not prepared. This includes transforming the double (the shadow) which allows us to have an understanding not only of our own stages of development but also the stages of others. This brings insight into Rudolf Steiner’s indications of ‘crossing the threshold’ in these times.

Where are we, what can we do to step forward with clarity and how may we help?

As humanity evolves so does our relationship to working with health and healing. What is healing today? How can we develop the connection inwardly that supports healing in community and relationships? As we continue into the Consciousness Soul Age we are asked to re-meet these questions, being challenged by our times that causes greater difficulties between people.

As humanity evolves so does our relationship to working with health and healing. As we continue into the consciousness soul age we are challenged by greater difficulties arising between people. Through the lens of the inner work, we will enter into the study of the healing conversation; looking at what we can do and what role we may hold in the healing path of another. When we understand our task we may also understand the activity of the healing forces working towards wholeness through the life transitions, crises or illness processes.

Anthroposophy places human freedom as the guiding principle in all its healing modalities, therefore we must also understand what brings un-freedom and how to meet the other in a way that supports freedom when working with either body or soul.

This course is highly valuable for health professionals, Waldorf teachers and those with a living interest in health and healing.

This course continues on from where the Foundation Course leaves off.  It addresses the needs of those new to a meditative practice as well as long-term meditants. It focuses on understanding the different experiences that unfold through meditative practice and the gifts that support us in our evolving soul development. We will look at the challenges and obstacles that affect the inner work both from within and outside of ourselves. These hindrances can block the progressing levels of soul experience and even prevent us from carrying out our meditative practice whereas the progressing forces help us on the path.

Once the body has grown, the soul begins to develop, either in relationship to the physical body which is limited and transient, or within its own capacities whereby the soul develops through sentient experience into intellectual reasoning and finally towards full consciousness. It is during this development of the capacities which occur through individual effort, that the I may begin its initiation.

The path of initiation leads us towards transformation of the soul’s capacities into organs of spiritual perception and a living relationship with the spiritual world. The participation in the truth that is traced out in the spiritual world becomes the source of our giving towards the outer life and transforms the outer world in which we all participate.

As we celebrate the collective spiritual year we can find our individual inner year and our next step onwards. We can experience a time in which the spiritual world becomes accessible and the preparation and effort we make supports the birth of our Higher Self and the journey towards initiation.

Through understanding the nature of both inner and outer growth we can more readily take the next step in our lives. The inner life is not a room or space but a living, growing world that has its reflection in the outer sense world.

Like the outer sense world there are developmental stages and steps that need to be lived through. In both biographies we can learn what is being asked and what is being cultivated in ourselves and in others. We learn to recognise the next step and how each individual can work towards personal and collective evolution.

The course includes the mysteries of the human biography and karma along with how to be in a living relationship to our inner and outer worlds.

This lecture is an excellent introduction to meditative courses. It outlines the meditative form and the realms of consciousness that are being prepared for by engaging with the inner exercises.

The inner work leads to crossing the threshold. Certain stages and preparations are an essential for a healthy relationship with the spiritual world. This is essential if we wish to clearly see the path of evolution and connect with the spirits of progression that support humanity.

“Without sense-born love, nothing material would exist in the world; without spiritual love, nothing spiritual can arise in evolution. When we practice love, cultivate love, creative forces pour into the world.” Rudolf Steiner.

There is an esoteric saying that states all paths to the spiritual world go through the heart. Throughout this course we look at the place of the heart in the inner work and the meditative life and how we need to understand the activity of spiritual love and its effects on the human soul and the outer sense world.

The inner work provides accessible insights into the workings of the human soul, outlines its relationship to the spiritual life, and shows the way to develop and strengthen our inner capacities through practical exercises, experience, and deep understanding. By building a bridge between the spiritual and the earthly, the unfolding of these soul capacities awakens the consciousness with which to engage and transform our outer lives.

Through a meditative life inner changes take place that evolve our inner capacities and transform our way of being. This workshop will support the various stages of inner development by applying the most useful inner exercise for each step along the path.

“Every step an individual takes affects the collective development of humanity. The world we experience now is a result of the inner work of past generations. By consciously working to understand and experience our connection to the higher worlds we are more able to fully realise and contribute to the higher unfolding of humankind” – Lisa Romero

As we walk on the inner work path that is outlined in Anthroposophy we are encouraged to meet the world around us and not flee from difficulties. The responsibility of this requires having the courage to meet even the lowest expressions of the human Soul. By understanding the struggles of our times we also shed light on the change that is necessary for progress. How do the beings of progress support change and the beings of digression distort and prevent healthy change?

Entering the inner work of the Eurythmy Meditation brings insight and strength to meet the challenges and awaken the joy of the task.

Marilyn Myres is a therapeutic eurythmist and is often a part of  many and varied workshops.

These three gatherings are a preparation to meet the Easter mysteries with greater potential for growth.

As we enter consciously into the aspects of the mysteries that focus on renewal through death to resurrection, we are mindful of the materialistic forces attempting to penetrate beyond the material world to gain ground at the gates of the spiritual world. The elemental world requires our help to hold back and repair the disharmony gaining ground in the world. It is at Easter that we are reminded of our joint and unified task with the nature spirits and the cosmic spirits.

The Easter Mysteries are full of the wisdom and strength to overcome the sickness and death arising from materialistic forces that are growing in their capacity to affect the human soul as well as the world in which we live.

Preparation for the Michaelmas festival and deepening our relationship with Michael, the spiritual being that supports our freedom

Michael is probably the most well-known archangel and is celebrated and acknowledged through many traditions. This consciousness is a protector of our human freedom and when we stand in the light of the Michaelalic stream we serve alongside this task. Although we have different roles and sometimes seemingly opposing streams in which we work into the world, it is Michael that unites us in the task of serving the greater good of humanity.

Diverting forces that wish to bring into humanity ways of being, feeling and perceiving intended to subvert the course of our free and healthy development, push their way forward to gain more ground through opportune events. We are presently facing another wave of these diverting efforts. It is Michael that stands as the counterforce through all those who are willing to prevent the loss of our human purpose.

The true and good purpose of humanity, our community, and our individual life is known to us before we enter into the earthly world. Michaelmas is a time to re-enliven the purpose and find the fire of the spirit to overcome the anaesthetising forces that dull our knowing and the diverting forces that harvest our energy for false and misleading goals.

The impingements to human freedom and the ever increasing deceptions cause many of us to encounter the fear behind the prevailing images of humanity’s future. Michael stands with all our strivings towards creating a better world that supports freedom, equality and sibling-hood and unites us with the wisdom, courage, and strength to meet what challenges humanity’s true purpose.

What leads our lives? Is it our desires, our intellect – or the most aware part of us? Each of us already has certain capacities but we need to develop them in order to be able to make use of them. Developing ourselves affects not only our own lives and the decisions we make but also effects the lives of others around us. This course includes several exercises and meditations that will help cultivate and understand the fruits of the inner work.

Through understanding the inner path we can gain insight into our individual relationship to the various steps that are asked of us and recognise how to utilise the inner exercises that both develop and support our onward journey. By seeing the path that all must take we can objectively evaluate our next step and learn how to work healthily from each stage.

Saint John calls for metanoia in the human soul, a complete change of heart towards receiving the new impulses from the spiritual world and each year we give our collective attention to this individual journey. In this yearly festival we may look at our human part and responsibility in the evolution of the world, it allows us to develop and express the different elements of our change of heart that we and our community may need as we celebrate humanity’s path together. We ask how those traditions that have gone before us may inform our way forward and how those that are present can bring a living change to the festival itself as a commitment to bettering the world in which we live

This course describes how and why various meditations and exercises work to strengthen the soul and its relationship to the spiritual world.

Rudolf Steiner gave many exercises and meditations to strengthen the human being through its journey of developing consciousness. Together we will explore the inner work, the birth of the higher self, the spiritual year and how exercises can bring us closer to our own experience of these processes. This will enable us to both hold and further our daily practices.

Those wishing to establish a meditative life and long­-term meditants have found this work invaluable in deepening their relationship to the path.

Through the lens of the inner work, we will enter into the study of the healing conversation; looking at what we can do and what role we may hold in the healing path of another. When we understand our task we may also understand the activity of the healing forces working towards wholeness through the life transitions, crises or illness processes. Anthroposophy places human freedom as the guiding principle in all its healing modalities, therefore we must also understand what brings un-freedom and how to meet this as health practitioners of either body or soul.

This course is highly valuable for health practitioners, Waldorf teachers and those with a living interest in health and healing.

From an esoteric view of the human being, it can be understood that within the individual there are masculine and feminine forces that are necessary for deeper soul development. This course will explore the evolving of these masculine and feminine forces within the individual from childhood to adulthood, what occurs when there are hindrances in this process and how these may be expressed in adolescent and adult sexuality and social behaviors. Using these insights we can support the balance of these primary forces throughout childhood to adolescence as well as discover how to rebalance ourselves through inner development exercises that support both the masculine and feminine forces required for the awakening of inner capacities.

In community life we learn consciously and unconsciously from each other. Rudolf Steiner stated that to be an educator in the Consciousness-soul Age we need to be able to elicit the individuality. This course focuses on how to perceive support and elicit the true nature of the individual human being from childhood to adulthood. We will explore the changing role and the need for new community responsibility, that can provide young people with what is needed in the growing self-consciousness and separation that they are facing. We look at how young people can be supported within a community that respects, encourages and expands each individual’s qualities as the basis for the modern rites of passage into adulthood.

Once the body has grown, the soul begins to develop, either in relationship to the physical body which is limited and transient, or within its own capacities whereby the soul develops through sentient experience into intellectual reasoning and finally towards full consciousness. It is during this development of the souls capacities, which occur through individual effort, that the I may begin its initiation.

Inner schooling exercises and meditation leads us towards transformation of the soul’s capacities into organs of spiritual perception and a living relationship with the spiritual world. The participation in the truth that is traced out in the spiritual world becomes the source of our giving towards the outer life and transforms the outer world in which we all participate.

Even before we are called onto the path of initiation we can prepare ourselves by understanding the way and the truth of the unfolding schooling we shall take.

This course aids  the understanding  of where we, are others, are on the path of development, and how working with certain exercises can help us take the next step.

Outline  pending