Form Drawing for Teachers
2023-02-19 - 2023-03-12 | Online
The How, the Why, and the When of
a Linear Language of Form in Education

Online workshops with Van James, artist, author, educator based in Hawaii, USA
About the workshops

What is the underlying importances of Form Drawing?
How does it benefit the growing child?
Why is it taught in Steiner-Waldorf schools and when (at what grade levels) is it appropriate and most beneficial?

We will address these questions and many more in this practical online art course for teaching children the creative art of form drawing.
Who are the workshops for?
For class teachers, homeschool parents, art instructors, art therapists and educational specialists.
No experience necessary.

Dates

In Asia: Sundays February 19 and 26 & March 5 and 12 2023,
9:30 AM – 11:30 AM (Indian Standard Time)
In USA: Saturdays February 18 and 25 & March 4 and 11, 2023,

Cost
Rs.6995 = $105 USD
Registration
Please look here for more details.
For more information
Please contact Van James at the Nurturer’s Studio

About Van James
Van James is an artist, author, Steiner-Waldorf educator and international advocate for the arts. A longtime teaching-artist in Hawai’i and a mentor for Gradalis Teacher Education. Van is a council member of the Visual Art Section of North America, a mentor with the Academy of Himalayan Art and Child Development, editor of Pacifica Journal, and an award-winning author of numerous books on culture and the arts including Drawing with Hand, Head and Heart, The Secret Language of Form: Visual Meaning in Art and Nature and the recently published Teaching Art History: Engaging Adolescents in Art, Cultural History and the Evolution of Consciousness.
Find out more about Van James here or Click here for Van’s YouTube Channel on painting

“We must begin with inner, not outer perception, by stimulating in the child a strong sense of symmetry. Even in the case of the very youngest children we can begin to do this. For example: we draw some figure on the blackboard and indicate the beginning of a symmetrical line.Then we try to make the child realise that the figure is not complete; they must find out how to complete it. In this way, we awaken an inner, active urge in the child to complete something as yet unfinished.This helps them to express an absolutely right conception of something that is a reality. The teacher, of course, must have inventive talent but that is always a very good thing. Above all else the teacher must have mobile inventive thought.”

In A Modern Art of Education by Rudolf Steiner

The Threshold
2023-03-04 16:00 (Australia/Sydney) | Australian Centre for Christianity & Culture, 15 Blackall St, Barton, ACT, 2600
An artist’s musings on ageing and the end of life, from the point of view of women
by Judith Clingan AM

There will be three performances: 4pm and 8pm Saturday 4 March and 11am Sunday 5 March. Admission is ticketed: $40 full, $30 concession, available online from mid-February.

Background Notes
Judith (Judy) Clingan is a composer, writer, artist, educator and multi arts director/creator. Since early 2021 she has been interviewing many women aged 70 and older, and asking them to write thoughts on a range of issues related to the ageing process, as well as our varying attitudes to the end of life. Their answers have helped her greatly in writing a script, entitled The Threshold. She has also composed fourteen short pieces of music (for choir, strings, wind and piano, as well as bells and singing bowls). She is now (in December) painting a series of visual images to amplify the shifting moods. The ambience Judy is aiming for is a subtle mix of humour, grief and transcendence.
Three performances are planned for March 2023 in the Chapel of the ACC&C – creating an intimate café atmosphere, with the audience invited to take a cup of tea to one of multiple small tables, while the three actors (all ageing women) will speak from small stages interspersed among the tables. Musicians will sing and play from a corner; individual musicians will occasionally interact with the actresses. The main wall of the chapel will be used from time to time for projections of words, especially when they are perhaps difficult to hear well in choral rendition, as well as the painted images. The text will vary between intimate dialogue and the delivery of poems, both whimsical and heart- wrenching. The dialogue and some of the poetry is Judy’s; some is from the classical canon of great English writers; some she has invited from women poets both in Australia and elsewhere. While of course it is impossible to write a piece which will speak equally meaningful to every member of the audience, she is trying to touch on a wide range of experiences, practices and beliefs. Judy has so far held seven script-reading sessions with older women in and beyond Canberra, which have sometimes led to emendations.
Judy says: “I have been very interested to discover, across the twenty months I have so far spent on this project, that while some women are unwilling to explore their thoughts on the topic of ageing and death, others are delighted to be given the opportunity. Maybe death is our last great taboo. At least, those of us living an affluent, western lifestyle very rarely experience the raw reality of death, and very rarely live day by day alongside a person dying slowly. I expect that in those societies where multi-generational families exist together in the one home, the realities of ageing and thoughts about the end are experienced daily. In our society older people are usually sequestered away, out of sight even of their families for most of the time. Certainly it isn’t often that our artists dare to think about the void – or perhaps the unknown something – which awaits us all. I hope that The Threshold might be a step towards a more vigorous exploration of this topic.”

When?
Saturday 4 March2023 at 4:00 pm and 8pm
Sunday 5 March at 11am
Where?
Chapel at the Australian Centre for Christianity & Culture, Charles Sturt University
15 Blackall Street, Barton, ACT 2600
Bookings
Book here
For more information
Please contact Judith Clingan

Anthroposophic Naturopathic Intensive Training
2023-03-15 19:00 - 20:30 | ACT
This is an online advanced training for naturopaths and integrative health professionals who wish to prescribe anthroposophic remedies.
Part One 2023: Pharmacodynamics and remedies – metal, mineral, plant, animal and organ remedies.
Part Two 2024: Nutrition as a healing modality for different illnesses.
Part Three 2025: Anamnesis, diagnosis and the karma of Iilnesses
Cost
Payable as you go or as a full amount in advance
$70 for qualified practitioners per webinar
$50 for students per webinar
$600 (discounted) and $400 (discounted) for all 9 webinars
Payment details will be given upon acceptance into the Training.
Date
The 3rd Wednesday of every month from 7pm to 8.30pm, starting 15 March 2023
For more information
Please call Irmhild Kleinhenz or phone 0444 551 381
Endorsed by the ANG (Anthroposophic Naturopaths Guild) and ISAN (International Society of Anthroposophic Naturopaths)

Meeting Christ in the Etheric in Response to the Challenges of our Times
2023-03-27 07:00 - 08:30 | Online
A Webinar with James Dyson, MD
Part of the “Shining a Light into the Darkness” series.
What is it about?
Human consciousness has slowly come from the cosmos to the earth via the ethers & the elements which have mediated the Logos into the earth to create the human being as an image of the Divine. That creative process, working from Logos into the human body, came to its culmination around the time of the Mystery of Golgotha. Before that, human initiation had to be a journey backward to reconnect to the elements and their etheric connections that bridged to the Spirit. All earlier initiation was to bring the earthly ego from the 4fold nature of the elements, and awakening the ego into the etheric world and the spirits beyond.
This process became ever more difficult as time proceeded. This separation (as expressed in “The stars once spoke to man…”) through the ethers and elements, by the time of Golgotha had grown silent and led to the widespread desecration of soul which Jesus of Nazareth had to encounter.
Humanity, as it has crossed into 21st century, is now walking the path that Jesus of Nazareth walked in his 20s when he was meeting the deserted altars. We are meeting the destitution of the soul, the denial of the Logos, meaninglessness: the power of the Logos no longer reflected in the environment around us.
How do human beings find their way to speaking the Logos back to the stars? Christ’s penetration of the body of the earth, bringing His being now closer to humans in the etheric realm, can manifest in many ways but, archetypally, in the meeting of one human being with another. We meet the etheric world through the human encounter – where ‘conversation is more precious than the light, and the light is more precious than gold.’ Through human encounter, human communication, we can meet Christ’s etheric body. Through human connection we regain connection to the Logos.
When
Monday, 27 March 2023 at 7.00am AEDT
Registration
Register here

About James Dyson
James Dyson, M.D. was a co-founder of one of the few English speaking anthroposophical medical clinics, Park Attwood, in the UK where he worked from 1979 to 2003. He has practiced as a doctor in Steiner Waldorf Schools and in centers for social therapy. His areas of special interest are developmental psychology and adult mental health, and he is a regular contributor to anthroposophic therapeutic trainings in the UK and internationally. James has added Psychosynthesis to his training and is a prolific lecturer of Rudolf Steiner’s body of work in the healing fields.

What is Phenomenology? And how do I begin?
2023-03-29 18:30 - 20:00 | Online
Stream of Life Research Studio presents
A webinar on how to practice phenomenology in the workplace

This webinar is the 3rd in our series and a follow-up to our first two dialogues (16 November 2022 and 15 February 2023). You are invited to join us again!
This series of webinars aims is to provide an interdisciplinary view of how different professions understand and implement phenomenology, including how this form of research supports professional practice. Through sharing our collective experience of working phenomenologically, we address the questions: what is phenomenology? and how do I practice it?
Are you interested in learning how to work phenomenologically?
In our first two webinars, we have heard from a range of practitioners and researchers how they approach phenomenology in their professional practice and some techniques they use. Now, in this third and final webinar, we introduce how to begin working phenomenologically yourself.
Program
Firstly, Robin Steele will be presenting her hermeneutic research into therapeutic change through psychophonetics.
Then, an open discussion on how to take the first steps in developing a phenomenological method for researching spiritual science.
Participants are invited to submit their questions in advance to the organisers to help facilitate the discussion.
For both parts of the program, we will be using this framework:

An open attitude: how do I see with “new eyes”?
Dwelling: how do I immerse myself into the object, how do I engage with the experience, the information?
Disclosure: how can I reveal the essence of the phenomenon in question?
Description: sharing my experiences of working phenomenologically. How do I do this?

A practice-based workshop is planned for 13 May in Sydney and potentially early Spring -TBA
When will this webinar take place?
6.30 pm AEDT/5.30 pm AEST Wednesday 29th March 2023 online.
Cost
$20 donation or whatever you can afford to support us.
Registration
To register
How to join the webinar
After registration, participants will be sent the Zoom link by email two (2) days beforehand, and then again one (1) hour beforehand.
Please login for the webinar via your Zoom app and not via Eventbrite.
For more information
Please contact Fiona Campbell or Martin Samson

Phenomenology is essentially the study of the structures of consciousness, though it is better known as the study of the lived experience.

It concerns how a phenomenon is experienced, as it is experienced, and aims to describe those experiences, rather than theorise or explain them. Moreover, in studying the experience, phenomenology opens the way to understanding our consciousness of that experience. In turn, this can change our way of seeing the world (Campbell 2018*).

*Fiona Campbell (2018), ‘Flow, resistance and thinking : a phenomenological study of creativity‘ Doctoral thesis, UTS Digital Thesis Collection.

Annual General Meeting of the General Anthroposophical Society
2023-03-31 - 2023-04-02 | Goetheanum online
Notice of the Annual General Meeting of the General Anthroposophical Society (31st March – 2nd April) at the Goetheanum, Dornach, Switzerland.
Theme: Society for a Common World

Here is a recording of Peter Selg’s “1923: Rudolf Steiner’s Commitment to an Anthroposophical Society for the Future online in preparation for the upcoming Annual General Meeting of the General Anthroposophical Society (31st March – 2nd April).
The next lecture in the series will be Claus Peter Röh “Once I answered YES: Dag Hammerskjöld’s Destiny Drama” on May 11th.
You can find the full program here

The Illumination: A Pictorial Contemplation for Easter
2023-04-09 17:00 - 18:15 | Online
An online contemplation exploring the phenomenon of light in the darkness, as experienced by the disciples on the path from Maundy Thursday to Easter Sunday.
Using the paintings of modern masters, artist Fiona Campbell leads this art contemplation using a special form of phenomenological observation called beholding that allows us to experience an artwork from within it.
Suggested reading: St John Chap. 13, St Luke Chap 24.
When
Date: 9th April 2023
Time: 5.00pm – 6.15pm AEST
Cost
$20 donation or amount of your choice is much appreciated.
For more information
Please contact Fiona Campbell
How to register
Register here
After registration, participants will be sent the Zoom link by email two (2) days beforehand, and then again one (1) hour beforehand.
Please login for the webinar via your Zoom app and not via Eventbrite.
About the presenter
Dr Fiona Campbell is an artist, lecturer and phenomenologist with a special interest in the Goethean approach. Out of her research and practice, she has developed a form of Goethean observation called beholding which is especially suited to the deep contemplation of artworks.
Trained at Tobias School of Art and Therapy in England and UTS in Communications, she has been painting and researching the Easter theme for over 20 years. Fiona is a founding member of the Stream of Life Research Studio, which promotes the phenomenological way of seeing the world.
Event flyer

Organiser website

Feature image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Kevin M. Gill

Postponed: Threefolding: Spiritual Freedom, Social Equality, Associative Economics
2023-04-14 - 2023-04-19 | Tombarra by the River, 579 Northangera Rd, Budawang, NSW, 2622, Australia
A Five-Day Festival of Change!

Postponed until later in the year: expressions of interest welcome.
Threefolding is the concrete transformation of the present ‘unitary state’; it shifts challenges into opportunities, shapes practical social outcomes, forms healthy communities & reminds us of our spiritual intentions.
We’ll explore: why our current cultural, social rights & economic systems are failing, how this directly impacts on our freedom, our perception of what it truly means to be human & how we can together transform our circumstances and innovate positive, creative change.
Dates
14th – 19th April 2023
Full programme early 2023
Venue
Tombara 579 Northangera Rd,, Mongarlowe NSW ​2622
Accommodation bookings: Call Niccia on 0448533616 (accommodation costs are not included in the booking price)
Facilitators: Iris Curteis, Irmhild Kleinhenz, Hamish Mackay, Gillian Rogers & friends
For more information
Please contact Iris Curteis 0487 719 476 or Hamish Mackay 0412 862 823

What is Veil Painting? And why do we use it?
2023-04-28 12:00 - 14:00 | Online
“The basis of artistic creation is not what is,
but what might be; not the real, but the possible.
Rudolf Steiner, in The Aesthetics of Goethe’s Worldview

A beginner’s guide to wet-on-dry painting
With artist Fiona Campbell

This online workshop introduces the foundations of the wet-on-dry watercolour technique in all its variations, from classic veiling to more flexible layering and blending.
The workshop will be recorded and available for six months.
Why use this technique?
The workshop also covers why we use it in the anthroposophical approach to painting, including its effect on the painter and viewer and its applications in difference contexts, such as art therapy, meditation, Steiner school curriculum, lazure wall painting and general artistic work.
Fiona provides a wealth of professional and teaching practice with this special ist watercolour approach, including 35 years as a professional artist, 10 years art therapy practice and 12 years as a lazure/mural artist. She draws on Rudolf Steiner’s Colour lectures, his ‘portfolio’ of training sketches for artists and his numerous references to the role of art and the task of the modern artist.
We will cover:

Materials required for this technique
The basic wet-on-dry technique
Forming from positive and negative space
Blending, intensifying, enhancing
How form arises out of colour
Soul/spiritual indications
Different applications for different contexts e.g. therapeutic applications, artistic approaches

When
Friday 28 April, 2023 at 12.00pm AEST
Cost
$65 includes video recording
How to register
Registrations closed. Video recording of the workshop available for $65
For more information
Please contact Fiona Campbell

About the presenter
Fiona Campbell PhD is a visual artist, researcher, lecturer and arts educator. She does interdisciplinary research on phenomenology, creativity and cognition and has been a professional artist and arts educator for more than 30 years.
She is a member of the Stream of Life Research Studio, where her focus is phenomenology and is creative consultant for the multimedia Parsifal Project. She is also teaches research methods and consciousness studies in Masters and post graduate trainings.
Fiona has been involved with Anthroposophy for over 40 years and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience about the core principles and practice of Steiner’s work to her classes. You can find out more about her, read about her lecturing work at Sydney Rudolf Steiner College (where she has regularly taught since 1994) or listen to an 2021 ABC Soul Search interview with her about the anthroposophical approach to art.

Examples of the range of wet-on-dry techniques

Photo credits: courtesy of Fiona Campbell

Anthroposophical Society in Australia 2023 AGM
2023-04-29 15:45 - 17:45 | Online
The ASinA’s 2023 Annual General Meeting will be held from 3.45pm-5.45pm, beginning at 3.45 with Rod Tomlinson speaking of Communal Inner Striving and Anthroposophy.
Official AGM Business 4.30pm-5.45pm, on Saturday, 29 April, 2023

Online access: Zoom Broadcast from Kingston, Tasmania. The Zoom link has been sent to members.
Venue: Room 1A, Adult Education Building, Hutchins Street, Kingston, Tasmania.

Projective Geometry, The World of Life and The World of Soul
2023-05-01 19:00 - 2023-06-12 21:00 | Online
A part-time online course facilitated by the Melbourne Rudolf Steiner Seminar

Projective geometry began as an exact science yet its own development has turned even science inside out. Rudolf Steiner saw in this meeting of opposites a new beginning – and called it the polarity of space versus counterspace. It is the interplay of etheric and physical and the forms of the plant-world tell of this mystery.
This polar (threefold) relation lives also in the soul’s thinking, feeling and willing. What does Rudolf Steiner mean by ‘pure thinking’ ? Well, projective geometry leads us to experiences of that. The new soul condition indicated in Rudolf Steiner’s Philosophy of Freedom is that of the thinking will – yet this is no mere admixture of the two.
There is no need to read Philosophy of Freedom before the course, but participants will need to read at least the short 8th and final chapter – entitled “Practical Conclusion – of the Earlier Work Truth and Science” (GA 3). Super-condensed and real work for the mind, this elicits an experience, alive in thought, of what human freedom means.

Date/time
Duration: Term 2. Mondays 1 May to 12 June.
Monday evenings from 7.00 – 9.00pm (Melbourne time)
Cost
Cost: $445 per term
To register
Register here!
For more information
For enrolment questions, please contact Carmen in the office on +03 9876 5199 or email her.
About the tutor

Gordon Woolard is an experienced Steiner teacher and educator from kindergarten to class 12. His trainings include university Physics, the Foundation and Education years at Emerson College, the Wynstones Science Teachers’ course, the Michael Hall Kindergarten training, Joinery and Cabinet Making, a post grad teaching diploma for SpLD (Dyslexia) and Audrey McAllen’s Extra Lesson training. Gordon Woolard, Dip SpLD AMBDA PATOSSMathematical Association
He is also an independent specialist teacher and trainer.

Therapies for Care and Recovery Workshop
2023-05-12 - 2023-05-14 | Taruna College, 33 Te Mata Peak Road, Havelock North, New Zealand
A three-day workshop focussed on practical, effective care and intervention strategies to alleviate symptoms of trauma, stress and anxiety.
Across our New Zealand community, we are seeing many people affected by trauma, stress, and anxiety. In response, we want to widen the circle of those able to offer supportive nursing therapies that we know provide valuable care and recovery in such experiences in any situation.
Whether you are a nurse, therapist or caregiver we invite your registration for this three-day workshop focussed on practical, effective care and intervention strategies to alleviate symptoms of trauma, stress and anxiety.
This is an opportunity to explore both patterns of physiology and presenting symptoms, through a lens that includes their weaving between body and spirit. Central to our learning process, healing plants and external treatments will become familiar to you, preparing you to assess and safely offer supportive therapies, based on a sound rationale.
Our inspiration is Anthroposophic Medicine, where nursing care and therapies work out of a positive concept of health that recognises a self-regulated equilibrium. Central to this approach is the emphasis on human autonomy along with the vital importance of care and the therapeutic relationship. Within this picture a signature of the anthroposophic nursing pathway is caring that recognises it is our knowing, our way of being and our way of acting that makes a quintessential difference.
In addition to working with a range of external treatments and healing substances, this workshop introduces biography work, the inner path of the nurse or therapist and casework to help with individualised support across various situations and settings.

When and where
12 – 14 May 2023
Taruna College,
33 Te Mata Peak Road
PO Box 8103
Havelock North
New Zealand
Cost
$550 NZ (includes $100 NZ registration deposit)
Register
Register here
Nurse Tutors
Deborah Bednarek RN MN ANS
Find out more about Deborah here.
Michelle Vette RN MN ANS
Find out more about Michelle here
For more information about this workshop
Get in touch to register your interest via info@taruna.ac.nz
For more information about the Anthroposophic Nursing Training
Taruna College in New Zealand offers the Foundation Course in Anthroposophic Nursing (FCAN). This part-time education process over two years aligns with the criteria developed by the International Forum for Anthroposophic Nursing (IFAN) for foundation courses in anthroposophic nursing and will prepare nurses to work with external treatments including hydrotherapy, compress use and body oilings.
You can download the Taruna Nursing Course flyer here.

Phenomenology in Action! A one-day workshop in research methods
2023-05-13 | Rudolf Steiner House, 307 Sussex Street, Sydney, NSW, 2000
The Stream of Life Research Studio presents
An intensive day of practice-based research methods
Interested in developing yourself as a phenomenological researcher? Want to gain skills and understanding in how this future-directed research methodology works in practice? Or deepen your existing skills?
This one-day intensive offers and introduction to three practice-based methods for phenomenological research from different streams or approaches to phenomenological investigation, led by experienced researchers and practitioners.
The workshop builds on the work begun in Stream of Life’s past webinars, which explored how phenomenology is understood and practiced in different professions. But you don’t have to attended the webinars to find this workshop a useful starting point for developing your research skills.
Professional development certificates available for teachers, etc.
Program and presenters
Check here for the program
Venue
Rudolf Steiner House, 307 Sussex St, Sydney NSW
Cost
Standard: $80 for three practice-based sessions
Professional: $100 incl. PD Certificate for professionals,
Included in cost: some materials (bring your own coloured pencils and notebook) and morning tea,
Please bring own lunch.
Please contact Martin Samson for more details.
Bookings
Book here!
Everyone welcome, but bookings essential by 12 May please.
For more information
Please contact Martin Samson or Fiona Campbell

Festival of Change
2023-05-20 15:00 - 16:30 | Online
Introduction to Social Sculpture Zoom

In this free zoom session we will offer concise descriptions of what we will individually and collectively present during a 5-day Festival of Change & provide ample time for Q&A.

Presenters
Irmhild Kleinhenz – Functional Threefoldness within the Human Body
Hamish Mackay – Economy Life
Gillian Rogers – Social Rights Life
Iris Curteis – Spiritual Cultural Life

Contact

Contact Iris Curteis

Book here

Meeting ID: 881 7770 7254
Passcode: 491411

Parzival and Feirefiz: Co-Creating a New Grail Ritual
2023-05-26 03:00 - 04:30 | Online
Exploring the Grail mysteries over the course of three workshops (plus a bonus performance session!). We will hear presentations on themes of colour, tone, sound, ritual and more. We will also have the opportunity to explore our biographies and converse in pairs and groups. See below for the schedule and more details!
About the series
The medieval initiation story of Parzival (also written Percival, Perceval, Parsifal and Peredure), a knight who goes in search of the Holy Grail, has been an archetypal and spiritual inspiration for many great thinkers, including Rudolf Steiner. There are several retellings of this story, most famously Wolfram von Eschenbach’s medieval epic poem and Richard Wagner’s opera Parsifal.
Wagner’s Parsifal does not include Feirefiz, the Black brother of Parzival, as Eschenbach’s story does. Why is this? It appears to be the tragic outcome of a worldview that places the white European narrative first – at the cost of other experiences, cultures, and races.
Using the Parzival narrative as a foundation, and an exploration of themes of light and dark within music and art, this workshop series will explore questions around brother and sisterhood, inclusion, and race. We will also explore how ritual can be a healing structure to connect with the ostracised Other and build wholeness and inclusion in our society. Seen through this lens, the story of the quest for the Holy Grail can be reimagined more as a collective or collaborative social process, a journey to the Other, than as a singular quest for individual enlightenment.
Cost
Suggested: $60
Youth & Equity: $30
Supporter: $95
When
May 21, June 4, and June 18, at 3am Sydney/10 am Pacific for 75 min. via Zoom
Registration
Register here!
Then check your inbox for a confirmation email with all links and resources.
Each gathering will be recorded and posted in our Participant Portal (link emailed upon registration).
For more information
Detailed information about the program and the presenters.

This series of webinars is hosted by the Anthroposophical Society in America

There is a knighthood of the 21st century whose riders do not ride through the darkness of forests, but through the forests of darkened minds. Out of them shines healing. They must create inner justice, peace, and conviction in the darkness of our time.
~ Karl König

Image credit: courtesy of the ASA

Whitsun Festival and AGM of the Vic Brancn
2023-05-27 10:00 - 13:30 | Aurora Australis, 2 Union Street, Kew, Vic, 3101, Australia
Invitation to members and friends of the Anthroposophical Society Victorian Branch

You are warmly invited to attend the 2023 Whitsun Festival and the Annual General Meeting of the Victorian Branch of the Anthroposophical Society on Saturday 27th May 2023, 10am—1.30pm at Aurora Australis, 2 Union Street, KEW.
Program
The program of the day will include;

10 am—11.30 Whitsun Festival
Starting with Eurythmy presentation, followed by a lecture by Lukas Ryan, then Eurythmy or Speech presentation to conclude around 11.30.
11.30—12 pm Coffee Break
12 pm – 1.30 pm Annual General Meeting of the Victorian Branch. We will keep the business part short and leave some time for member discussion.

Secretary’s report
You can read the Secretary’s report on the activities of the Vic Branch over the past year here.
For more information
Please contact Branch Secretary Birgith Lugosi for AGM documents.

Bridging the Temple Between: A Whitsun Festival
2023-05-28 02:30 - 04:00 | Online
This Whitsun, let us bridge the temple between and celebrate our shared strivings towards the Spirit.
In partnership with the World Social Initiative Forum (WSIF), we warmly invite you to a Zoom festival spotlighting five anthroposophical organizations working internationally. Join us as we celebrate these initiatives from Nepal, the Philippines, Kenya, Argentina, and the UK. This program is free with the opportunity to donate and support this work and the organizations represented.
For more information and registration
Check here
Not able to attend in person? We will record this event and send it out within 24 hours

This webinar is hosted by the Anthroposophical Society in America

The human being is a bridge between the past and the future.
The present is a moment-moment as bridge.
Spirit grown to soul in matter’s husk
comes from the past:
soul growing to spirit as seed encased
journeys toward the future.
Grasp future things through past ones:
hope for evolving things through what has evolved.
So grasp existence in evolving growth:
so grasp what will be in what exists.
~Rudolf Steiner

Image credit: courtesy of the ASA

What is Phenomenology? And is it time to consign 'subjective/objective' to the past?
2023-05-31 18:30 - 20:00 | Online
Stream of Life Research Studio presents
A webinar discussion
on consciousness and the nature of being

This webinar is the 4th in our popular ongoing series. Join us again! or join us for the first time. All welcome!
This series of webinars aims is to provide an interdisciplinary view of how different professions understand and implement phenomenology, including how this form of research supports professional practice. Through sharing our collective experience of working phenomenologically, we address the questions: what is phenomenology? and how do I practice it?
Program
We have another exciting program to share with you:

Robin Steele presenting her hermeneutic research into therapeutic change through psychophonetics.
Kate Sharp sharing her methodology as an art therapist.
then, an open discussion on the thorny question of subjective vs. objective.

Subjective vs objective
This dichotomy has been the bedrock parameter for judging research in the past, but is it time to consign this dualistic way of perceiving the world to history?
The modern desire for absolute and certain knowledge, what the philosopher John Dewey called ‘the quest for certainty’,* is foundational to this attitude. In the past, scientifically-rigorous, valid and reliable outcomes replaced the unknowns of opinions, beliefs and ‘supernatural’ experience with known facts. And despite qualitative research’s increasing acceptance, this mentality is still shaping our response to phenomenological research, to our understanding of human consciousness and indeed, to Anthroposophy itself,
This question will be the theme up for discussion and questioning in the second part of the webinar.
When will this webinar take place?
6.30 pm AEST Wednesday 31st May 2023 online.
Cost
$20 donation or whatever you can afford to support us.
Registration
To register
How to join the webinar
After registration, participants will be sent the Zoom link by email two (2) days beforehand, and then again one (1) hour beforehand.
Please login for the webinar via your Zoom app and not via Eventbrite.
For more information
Please contact Fiona Campbell or Martin Samson

Who are the Stream of Life Research Studio?
Stream of Life is a fluid, collective group of researchers and practitioners who are interested in exploring Anthroposophy with open and inquiring minds and hearts. The founding members of the Studio are Dr Fiona Campbell, whose core research work concerns consciousness, cognition and creativity; and Dr Martin Samson, who studies how the spiritual and physical work in union with each other in the starry realms.

Different members have different fields of expertise but all are working out of Anthroposophy and use some form of phenomenology as their primary research methodology, in an approach that stretches beyond the world of natural science into the arts, humanities and human sciences.

Phenomenology concerns how a phenomenon is experienced, as it is experienced, and aims to describe those experiences, rather than theorise or explain them. Moreover, in studying the experience, phenomenology opens the way to understanding our consciousness of that experience. In turn, this can change our way of seeing the world (Campbell 2018*).

*John Dewey, (1930). The quest for certainty: A study of the relation of knowledge and action. The Journal of Philosophy, 27(1), pp.14-25
*Fiona Campbell (2018), ‘Flow, resistance and thinking : a phenomenological study of creativity‘ Doctoral thesis, UTS Digital Thesis Collection.

The Riddle of the Labyrinth
2023-06-04 13:30 - 15:30 | Online
And the Mystery of the Maze

What is the origin and meaning of the Labyrinth?
Why is it found in so many cultures around the world?
How is it different from a Maze?
Why are these forms so popular today?
What is its significance for us?

Let’s explore together the mystery and magic of these forms in a two-hour, online artistic course with artist and educator Van James.
When
Sunday 4 June from 1.30pm to 3.30pm AEST
Cost
$US20
Register here!
Presenter
Van James is an artist, author, Steiner-Waldorf educator and international advocate for the arts. A longtime teaching-artist in Hawai’i and a mentor for Gradalis Teacher Education.

Van is a council member of the Visual Art Section of North America, a mentor with the Academy of Himalayan Art and Child Development, editor of Pacifica Journal, and an award-winning author of numerous books on culture and the arts including Drawing with Hand, Head and Heart, The Secret Language of Form: Visual Meaning in Art and Nature and the recently published Teaching Art History: Engaging Adolescents in Art, Cultural History and the Evolution of Consciousness.
Click here for Van’s YouTube Channel on painting

From Wasteland to Grail Castle: the Soulscapes of Parzival
2023-06-24 17:00 - 18:30 | Online
An imaginative soul journey through the Parzival legend
This lecture and artistic presentation follows the journey of the young Parzival soul from his beginnings in the Waste Forest, through his trials of the spirit, to the culmination of his quest at the Grail altar.
Parzival is a story that takes place of different levels of reality, and should be understood as such. He wanders through soulscapes that are like dreams, but living dreams. He moves through shifts in consciousness into liminal spaces, but spaces that act as windows opening into the spiritual world, from which he can learn wisdom.
When
Date: 24th June 2023
Time: 5.00pm – 6.15pm AEST
Cost
$20 donation or amount of your choice is much appreciated.
For more information
Please contact Fiona Campbell
How to register
REGISTER HERE
After registration, participants will be sent the Zoom link by email two (2) days beforehand, and then again one (1) hour beforehand.
Please login for the webinar via your Zoom app and not via Eventbrite.
About the presenter
Dr Fiona Campbell is an artist, lecturer and phenomenologist.
She specialises in the study of evolving consciousness through artistic media and has lectured extensively on the Arthurian, Grail and Parzival themes for almost 30 years. She currently researcher and creative consultant for the Parsifal Project.
She has an PhD on creativity and thinking, and runs masterclasses in the anthroposophic approach to painting and drawing.
Fiona’s artworks can be seen at Painted Space; she also is a founding member of the Stream of Life Research Studio, which promotes the phenomenological way of seeing the world.

Three Sisters of the Threshold - Death, Sleep and Meditation
2023-06-25 19:00 - 2023-07-02 20:00 | Online
A mid-winter series of contemplations
on aspects of death and the threshold

Learning what to expect when we cross the threshold of death. How sleep and meditation prepare us for the journey in the spiritual world.
This is a 45 minute contemplation taking place each day from 7.00 pm -7.45 pm AEST (with fifteen minutes conversation at the end of each evening.)
In each session there will be a 45 minute consideration of the themes, which will complement each other and set a mood of soul for participants to work with over the ensuing night and day. The final minutes of the session will be for any further considerations and nuances that will help grow the work over the mid-winter season to prepare our inner transformation to the threshold. The hope is that each day will have the nurturing aspect of a retreat for resetting our soul for the rest of the year.
When
Eight Days: Sunday 25 June 2023 – Sunday 02 July 2023 (Inclusive)
Cost
Recommended Donation: $55 for the eight presentations.
To register
Register here!
Once registered the recurring zoom link will be sent out two days, two hours and ten minutes before the first session. The same link will be used every day.
Please login via your Zoom app. You will also receive a link to the archive folder for viewing the recording. Please use this as a study resource and do not share it with others.
Recommended reading
The Imaginative Life Tableau
For more information
Enquiries directed to Martin Samson

Picture credit: Pity by William Blake (1795)

Palliative Care and Preparing for Death Workshop
2023-07-01 09:00 - 2023-07-02 17:00 | The Links, 631 Hogbin Drive, Toormina, NSW, 2452, Australia
Confronting death can be overwhelming if we are not prepared. However, by developing deeper insights, accompanying the dying becomes a unique experience that brings a sense of reverence and fulfilment. This workshop highlights home nursing care practices throughout the death process whilst creating meaning through ritual. We will consider the planning of after-death care options, including the three day vigil.
The aim of the workshop is to share information so that more informed and personal choices can be made in the emerging field of community death care.

When
Saturday and Sunday July 1st and 2nd 2023
Venue
The Link, Toormina, 631 Hogbin Drove Toormina 2452
Cost
$260 full, $160 concession card holders
Register here

For more information
For enquiries call Rosi on 0431 135 769

Saturday Program

9.00 am Acknowledgement to Country and Introduction to Dadirri, creating a deep listening space for the dying and community of carers including family and friends, presented by Beth Wrigley.

9.30 am 9.45 am 10.30 am 11 am 11.30am 12.15 pm 12.45 pm 1.45 pm 2.30 pm 3.30 pm 4 – 5 pm

History of the three day vigil presented by Charlotte Rogers. Preparing for end of life – presented by Lisa Harris.
Morning tea
Spiritual care perspectives, ritual and ceremony by Lisa Devine
Anthroposophical nursing care perspectives presented by Charlotte Rogers.
Facilitated family conversations and a guided visualization, presented by Wendy Harfield.
LUNCH
Metamorphosis of the life forces – presented by Lisa Harris. Art pastel work led by Charlotte Rogers.
Afternoon tea
Circle reflection – creating a safe space and questions presented by Wendy and Beth.

Sunday Program
9 am Check in, questions & answers/conversation and introduction to sessions;
9.30 am Practical Demonstration – Laying out of the body: washing and anointing/oiling the body, clothing and shrouding and attendance to the body during the three day vigil by Charlotte and Beth.

11.00 am
11.30 am 12.15 am
1 pm LUNCH 1.30- 3 pm

Morning Tea
Staying connected and end of life care planning led by Lisa Harris.
Sharing lived experiences of pre and post-death care led by Wendy and Beth.
Questions & Answers/Conversations and Closing Ritual of honouring and reflection.

About the Presenters
Charlotte Rogers: Anthroposophic nurse consultant, Anthroposophical massage and art therapist. Lisa Devine: Ordained Priest of the Christian Community, Master of Psychology (Counselling).
Wendy Harfield: Trauma therapist, Counsellor, Death Doula. Facilitator of Grief Tending Rituals.
In Wendy’s counselling practice she works very deeply with individuals using image-work, inner journey and sensorimotor psychotherapy, assisting people to find where trauma sits in their body, how it impacts their life and facilitating them towards self-awareness and change. wharfield@hotmail.com
Dr Lisa Harris: GP Proceduralist in Palliative Care with Anthroposophical Integrative medical training. ANTHROPOSOPHICAL INTEGRATIVE PALLIATIVE CARE
As an anthroposophical palliative care circle our mission is to deliver holistic palliative care that encompasses the body, soul and spiritual aspects of the human being. We are a collective of human beings who have our spiritual home in the path of Anthroposophy*, and who work in various professional modalities at the threshold of death. This circle forms a source from which we draw, and to which we contribute in order to support each other and our work, and deepen and refine our understanding of care of the threshold of death.
What We Do
Find out more about the Palliative Care Circle

A Festival for Change - Social Threefolding
2023-07-06 - 2023-07-10 | Samford Valley Steiner School, 5 Narrawa Drive, Wights Mountain, Qld, 4520
Five Creative Days on Sustainable, Social and Organisational Change
6 – 10 July 2023
Social Threefolding works with the recognition that three distinct social spheres operate in all human social organisations. Based on this understanding the coordination of these social life processes are not unitarian or centralised by state or leading elite. Instead, they are self-directed, relatively autonomous spheres that vertically and horizontally balance and enhance each other:

cultural-spiritual life empowers and upholds unassailable freedom, individuality and creativity
social life supports, sustains, and promotes equal justice as its highest aspiration, out of an understanding that we are all equal by virtue of our humanity;
economic life, is balanced by reciprocal interactions between people and people, and people and environment, governed by solidarity with the endeavour to meet human needs and enable individuals to work out of their pre-birth intentions.

With Social Threefolding/Social Sculpture we can build systems that reflect what it is to be truly human.
Find out more
A brief introduction
Threefolding Tho Ha Vinh
Venue
Samford Valley Steiner School, Wights Mountain QLD
Bookings
Bookings close: 28th June
Book here
For more information
Download the flyer or contact Iris Curteis
Presenters
Irmhild Kleinhenz Functional Threefoldness within the Human Body
Hamish Mackay Economy Life
Gillian Rogers Social Rights Life
Iris Curteis Spiritual Cultural Life

‘Where the realm of freedom of thought and action begin, the determination of individuals according to generic laws ends.’

Rudolf Steiner, Philosophy of Freedom

Breathing through the night: a painting intensive for Winter
2023-07-10 17:00 - 2023-07-14 18:30 | Online
A soul-building activity over five evenings
with artist Fiona Campbell

‘Colours are the breath of the living soul’
Dr Margarethe Hauschka

This online series over 5 evenings brings the health-bringing forces of the harmonious breath into our souls and bodies through painting the cycle of the night.
Based on a classic exercise called Painting as an Exercise for Breathing from the Hauschka art therapy training, we will paint the cycle of light and darkness from sunset to sunrise using colour and verse.
This is a deep breathing activity, an artistic contemplative ideal for enlivening the inner and outer chill of Winter. We breath in colour, and then breathe out its complementary in a transforming process that enlivens both the life body and soul. In this way, we bring our innermost being into connection with nature, moving gently between the two.
Who is it for?
For anyone who feels the need for soul nourishment at this time of year. The exercises support our mental health and overall wellbeing by harmonising the breath, easing our tensions and bringing our polarities into balance.
You don’t have to be an experienced painter to find nourishment in this series. You can use pastels, wet-on-wet or wet-on-dry techniques.
When
10th July – 14th July 2023 at 5.00pm AEST
Cost
$160 for 5 sessions, including video recording.
How to register
Register here
Materials list, payment details and suggested readings will be sent after registration.
The Zoom link for the workshop will be sent two hours beforehand. It will be the same link for each day.
For more information
For more information, please contact Fiona Campbell
About the presenter
Fiona Campbell PhD is a visual artist, muralist, researcher, lecturer and arts educator. She trained in the anthroposophic approach to the arts at Tobias School of Art and Transpersonal Therapy, first as an artist, then as a therapist.
Fiona have been a professional artist for more than 30 years and regularly offers masterclasses in wet on dry painting and art contemplations for festivals. She is also a member of the Stream of Life Research Studio, where her focus is phenomenology and is creative consultant for the multimedia Parsifal Project.
Fiona has been involved with Anthroposophy for over 40 years and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience about the core principles and practice of Steiner’s work to her classes. You can find out more about her, read about her lecturing work at Sydney Rudolf Steiner College (where she has regularly taught since 1994) or listen to an 2021 ABC Soul Search interview with her about the anthroposophical approach to art.

Meditation and Destiny: The Four Mystery Dramas
2023-07-11 - 2023-07-16 | Goetheanum, Rüttiweg 45 4143, Dornach, Switzerland
Meditation and Destiny

The Four Mystery Dramas by Rudolf Steiner
from 11.-16. July 2023

The focus for this year in the dramas and the supporting program is the inner place of meditation and self-knowledge. Through the dramas we experience how there can be a space that I create myself and that can increasingly carry and transform me.
Surrounded by external and internal events, we experience in the drama the progress and the increase in strength of the individual protagonists in their community.
In the working groups and the contributions in the evening, the conference topic is examined from different perspectives, while the morning lectures shed light on the fate of the protagonists.
Like many areas of life, the mystery drama ensemble has faced turbulent and challenging times in recent years. The marks that it left on us, too, prompted us to reassemble the cast. In this way, newly added actors will make new aspects of the drama visible alongside well-known ones. And so we are particularly pleased that the dramas can be performed again.
Conference program

The supporting program

In the period from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. there are various parallel offers:
An introduction by Vicke von Behr to the Mystery Dramas, a discussion group on the theme of the conference with Claus-Peter Röh and artistic courses in eurythmy, speech, sculpture, painting and singing. Lists for the offers are available at the information desk upon arrival.
From 1:15 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. you can get an insight into the creation of the eurythmy costumes and learn about the aspects of their design.
The two evenings with keynote speeches are dedicated to the conference topic from different perspectives and professional fields.

Please note the program is in German.
English translation requests: The organisers would like to clarify whether English-speaking societies or even individuals would like to participate in ensuring that enough English-speaking guests will come so that a translation is worthwhile. If someone or even several would like to contribute to promote, communicate or get in touch with this in your circle with friends, then that would be very much appreciated.
Please contact Francesca Kym-Volpe for English translation requests.
For more information
Check here for information on booking and costs.

Heart in the Radiance of Stars
2023-07-28 - 2023-07-30 | School of Arts, 1 Old Pacific Hwy,, Burringbar, NSW, Australia
The Etheric Heart – An Organ of Spiritual Perception

Presenters: Gillian Rogers, Irmhild Kleinhenz, Iris Curteis
Many of us feel a genuine need to find innovative ways of being, to cultivate courage and a deeper perception and understanding of the interconnectedness of life in all its visible and invisible forms.
With presentations born out of genuine insight, a wealth of practice-based knowledge and creative activities we will explore heart thinking and the development and evolution of the Etheric Heart.
Our intention is to provide you with tools and practices that enable you to find greater strength, clarity and humanity to meet these challenges. Using storytelling, shared research, visual and meditative exercises, and conversations we will deepen your appreciation and understanding of the transformative capacity of the heart as an instrument for spiritual perception and heightened social consciousness.
We will offer our work in a process of Collaborative Knowledge Building, Creative Exercises, Contemplation and Conversation.
Watch a video on the theme here

Where
School of Arts, 1 Old Pacific Hwy, Burringbar, NSW
Cost
Rates: Bare Bones $250; Early Bird $300; Full $350 (further options see booking page)
Bookings
Book here
Bookings close: 20 July
For more information
Inquiries: Iris Curteis

Photo credit: Pillars of Creation Nebula

End of Earthly Life Matters Day Seminars
2023-07-29 | Ballarat Steiner School, 244 Moss Avenue, Mount Helen, Victoria, 3350, Australia
A Day Seminar
on the holistic palliative care approach

When
Saturday 29 July 9.00am – 5.15pm

Where
Ballarat Steiner School, 244 Moss Avenue, Mount Helen.

What is it about?
A holistic palliative care approach, legalities and practicalities, and soul and spirit care at the end of life, with Pippa White, Melinda Whyman and Cheryl Nekvapil.

Cost
Entry by $55 or donation.

To register
Contact Cheryl 0458 124 088, or Pippa 0433 363 041.

Presenters
Pippa White has worked as a Palliative Nurse for 15 years, both in institutional and home based care and for 11 vears as an Anthroposophical nurse both in general nursing and palliative care. She has facilitated many parent workshops for home nursing care for children and on topics of death and dying.
Melinda Whyman is the Community Activator for the not-tor-profit’| tender-funerals-Greater Eastern
Melbourne’ initiative. She has previously worked as a holistic funeral director guiding individuals, families and communities through all aspects of the funeral care process.
Cheryl Nekvapil is a priest of The Christian Community working in Melbourne. Since 2016, she has variously worked in with Pippa and Melinda in offering wholistic care for body, soul and spirit for people at end phase of life and in death care.
Program

Anthroposophical Professional Development Initiative
2023-08-01 - 2023-11-21 | Online
Introducing a new online course
For terms 3 & 4, 2023
What is the Anthroposophical World View?
The aim of these two blocks of lectures and workshops is to present an overview of what is often experienced as an overwhelmingly large and complex body of knowledge, particularly for student teachers and other professionals working in anthroposophically-based groups and organisations.

A closer understanding of how spirit and matter permeate each other lies at the very heart of any truly monistic world view, such as the one Rudolf Steiner gave to the world. It is out of this very understanding that Anthroposophy can be concretely applied in so many practical fields of life.
Lecture series

Term 4 Lecture Series II: An Introduction to Rudolf Steiner’s Cosmology
Download the lecture program

Full course program
Three Worlds – 4 Ethers : Connecting Spirit and Matter
Block 1 (Term 3) explores the links between the physical, astral and spiritual worlds and how nature and the human being are placed within this multi-tiered reality. This also includes the Manifestation process by which spirit incarnates into physical form and substance via the medium of the 4 Ethers, which form the bridge between spirit and matter.

Steiner’s Cosmology: The Cosmic Mission of Humanity and Earth
Block II (Term 4) explores the larger Chronological context, which leads us to the question of humanity’s cosmic origins and future destiny. Where did humanity come from? Where are we going? What is our cosmic purpose and mission on Earth and within the larger spiritual universe? Rudolf Steiner’s surprising answers can throw a profound light on such questions, including the problem of good and evil, human freedom and the longer-term consequences of the seeds we are planting right now, both as individuals and collectively as a humanity. The cosmological picture also provides a context to the currently raging, worldwide battle between Good and Evil and can help us face this battle with renewed confidence and strength in our humanity.

Download the program here.
Cost
Please check the program flyer for fees
Enrolment
Download the enrolment form
For more information

For a 15-minute video introduction
Contact Johannes on: +61 (0) 414 724 587

The Heart in a Radiance of Stars
2023-08-18 - 2023-08-20 | Harmony Centre, 11 Beresford St, Mittagong, NSW, 2575
The Etheric Heart
An Organ of Spiritual Perception
Presenters: Gillian Rogers, Irmhild Kleinhenz, Iris Curteis
Many of us feel a genuine need to find innovative ways of being, to cultivate courage and a deeper perception and understanding of the interconnectedness of life in all its visible and invisible forms.
With presentations born out of genuine insight, a wealth of practice-based knowledge and creative activities, we will explore heart thinking and the development and evolution of the etheric heart. Our intention is to provide tools and practices that enable us all to find greater strength, clarity and humanity to meet these challenges. Using storytelling, shared research, visual and meditative exercises, and conversations we will deepen our appreciation and understanding of the transformative capacity of the heart as an instrument for spiritual perception and heightened social consciousness. We will offer our work in a process of collaborative knowledge building, creative exercises, contemplation and conversation.
Dates
18-20 August
Venue
Harmony Centre, Mittagong
Cost

$250 subsidised
Early Bird $300
For all rates see booking site.

To book
Book here
Bookings Close: 13 August
Find out more
Download the flyer or contact Iris Curteis

About the presenters
Iris Curteis is a storyteller and speech artist with 40 years of artistic experience. Her background includes studies in visual arts, speechformation & dramatic arts (Europe), BA & BA hon. (Creative Writing) and a PhD on Storytelling and Community Building [Australia]. Anthroposophy has been her source of inspiration for 50 years. ‘I will use folktales and storytelling to create an experience of Heart Thinking as they offer immediate, imaginative spiritual perceptions accessed through ‘liminal space’. To face growing social and ecological challenges, we need pictorial, creative thinking found through the folktale and within the liminal space of storytelling. Rather than a disintegration of the world into intellectual fragments, we can uplift it through new human thinking and human acts.
Irmhild Kleinhenz’s background and work include Post Grad. Diplomas in Applied Science and Integrative Medicine, International Post Grad. Cert. Anthroposophic Medicine, Integrative Medicine, Health Consultant, Anthroposophic Naturopath, mentor for International Post Graduate Training in Anthroposophic Medicine, Accredited Fellow of the Australian Natural Therapists Association and on-going research in global health issues. She will invite you to explore with her healing practices for the etheric heart, the separation of the physical and etheric heart; the effects of this separation and the distorted rhythms that arise as a consequence; the heart as a pioneer in embryological development paralleled by the etheric and the astral heart as pioneers for human moral-ethical life, and what impact illness and preventative interventions have on the development of the etheric heart.
Gillian Rogers holds a BA (hon English Lit.), Grad. Dip. Adult Ed., Post Grad. Cert (Professional Learning), MA (Steiner Education). She has worked in Steiner Education for over twenty-five years, most recently as a Steiner high school English teacher, Professional Learning coordinator and Head of Education. Her current interest lies in Community Development using place-based approaches centred on local collaboration and consultation, and on development of leadership attributes aligned to a ‘Steiner context’, but also inspired by Restorative Practices and Positive Psychology. ‘In the Future Waiting to be Born sessions, I will inspire insights into the development of heart thinking, generate experiences through exercises and observations stemming from Steiner’s work, and use the growing body of research on the heart as an organ of perception as a reference point – all of which we will exploration through creative writing and poetry.

Telling the Difference
2023-08-26 15:00 - 2023-11-18 17:00 | Online
The Oral Art of Telling Myths, Legends,
Sagas, Parables, Fables and FolkTales
An Online Course with Iris Curteis, PhD

Myths, Legends, Sagas, Parables, Fables, & Folktales are often lumped together or confused. They really are very different; they have different relationships to what we could call the sacred-spiritual, they have different social functions, & they require different ‘ways of telling’.
This five-part online course is about getting to know these differences & building practical skills so you can confidently ‘tell the difference’ when you are telling a story. Whether you use storytelling in child or adult education, parenting, community building, social justice, caregiving, or are looking for creative ways to explore your cultural roots, this course will develop storytelling skills, inspire cultural insights and provide a clear, practical introduction to ‘liminal space’, the importance of story openings & closings, why we need them, & how they work.
Seminar Outline
Topic 1 – ‘Liminal Space’; the health and social benefits created through this space for people of all ages; opening and closing the liminal Space; a contract of trust
Topic 2 – Myths; ancient and timeless oral knowledge of beginnings: the sacred that creates the world; divine standards; the foundations of lore and law
Topic 3 – Legends and Saga/Folklore; Actions of demi-gods and human beings placed within human time; a sense of truth; embedded within the ‘culture of place’
Topic 4 – Fables & Parables; the educational, culturising or cautionary tale; the comparison – animals speaking and acting like humans or fictitious people; grasping the unfamiliar idea (compassion for your enemy)
Topic 5 – Folktales: our guide to new ways of thinking; a ‘living experience ‘of expanded reality’, meeting the challenges of the return journey, treasures and new wisdom are gifts gained for the community; wedding the land – the new ancient ecology
Dates
3.00 pm to 5.00 pm 26/8, 16/09, 07/10, 28/10, 18/11
Cost (inc. course material and zoom)

Standard $250;
Individual sessions $50
Prices open to negotiation

To book
Book here!
Find out more
Please contact Iris Curteis
About the presenter
Iris Curteis is a Storyteller and Speech Artist with 40 years of artistic experience. Her background includes studies in Visual Arts, Speech formation [Creative Speech] & Dramatic Arts (Europe), BA & BA hon. (Creative Writing) and a PhD on Storytelling and Community Building [Australia]. Anthroposophy has been her source of inspiration for 50 years.
