Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Moral Technology Conference Australia.





Dear friends,

Just last weekend in Melbourne there was a Conference on technology and
the effects on the Human being.

Here is the Video of the first session.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7x37Ma4mWmU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


https://youtu.be/7x37Ma4mWmU


It will be followed by the rest of the sessions.


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Wednesday, March 9, 2016

TOP OF THE SOUTH #4



Welcome to Top of the South News!




Inline image 1
unknown Brazilian artist.


For when at a certain time of year the larks and the nightingales sing, what is thereby formed streams out into the cosmos, not through the air, but through the etheric element; it vibrates outward in the cosmos up to a certain boundary... then it vibrates back again to Earth, to be received by the animal realm — only now the divine-spiritual essence of the cosmos has united with it. -Rudolf Steiner     See more at: http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/Dates/19230403p01.html#sthash.8vKQdALr.dpuf
Image what the Tui s are bringing back!
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Last year of his life.....
Dottie Zold's photo.


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FESTIVAL DATES.



Easter: Easter Sunday the 27th of March 5pm at Alistair and Carolyn's place

St John Festival: Saturday the 25th of June at  4pm at Gundula's place

Michaelmas: Saturday 1st of October at 5pm at Gundula's place



Christmas:  Saturday the 17th of December at 5pm at Gundula's place





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EASTER
Linda Rgamez's photo.
Rudolf Seiner's picture for Good Friday.

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​Everyone is cordially invited to our Easter Festival.

Easter Sunday​

Home of Alistair  Munro and Carolyn Hughes
Te Awa RD
Tasman.

5 pm.

We are fortunate to be having a presentation by  Marije Laarakker around the Isenheim Altar.

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"Autumn brings us the celebration of Michaelmas, a time we can use to conquer our inner demons and prepare ourselves to receive the Light in the darker days of Winter.
Simultaneously the Northern hemisphere celebrates the cosmic event and the mystery of Death and Resurrection at Easter.

Both elements are obviously present in the Isenheim Altar piece that was painted between 1512 and 1516 by Matthias Grunewald.

The intense paintings of the altarpiece were used as a medium for very sick people who suffered from Ergotism. They were put in front of the altar piece to contemplate their disease and receive insight in a healing process, to conquer their demons and meditate on Death and Resurrection."



​The presentation will be flanked by music from Patsy and ​Edith, and some Taize music to finish.

POTLUCK.

Venue
113  AWA AWA ROAD, which is off Marriages  Road, Tasman
 PH 03 5403435  if  anyone is  having difficulty finding us.

Link to  Map:
https://www.google.co.nz/maps/place/113+Awa+Awa+Rd,+Tasman+7173/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x6d3b854b0cab7b9b:0x7069723bf574e57d?sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiH27mvgMnLAhXE5aYKHSpkAGYQ8gEIGjAA


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GROUPS




Thursday Group Motueka.

Our Thursday Group really enjoys the Mystrey Plays!   We appreciate that the whole of Anthroposophy is contained in them, and revel at the gems of wisdom that fall from the lips of the various characters.  Like a true picture of life unfolding  through the imaginations and pictures we enter in to.  All welcome!  Ask Michael Wilson [michael-wilson@ihug.co.nz] to put you on our mailing list!


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Nelson Group

Please contact 

Heather
heatheric@clear.net.nz


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MEDITATION GROUP TASMAN.

Please contact 


Alistair Munro
ackm@silkweb.net.nz


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Please Support the Motueka Steiner School Fair.


10th APRIL

High St
Motueka



Autumn comes, the Summer is past, Winter will come too soon,
Stars will shine clearer, skies seem nearer
Under the Harvest Moon
Autumn comes, so let us be glad, singing an Autumn tune...
Hearts will be lighter, skies seem brighter
Under a Harvest Moon

See More



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HEY!!!!!

​Link to the New Zealand Anthroposophical Website:​ http://www.anthroposophy.org.nz

Check it out!

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Report from:

Alamandria Meditation Retreat             
                                    
A group of fourteen of us took part in ‘The Art of Meditation 1’, a three day retreat held at the end of February.  We were a mixed group, including a range of ages and backgrounds, some coming from further afield. We all seemed to fit in well with each other.
We were fortunate that our workshop leaders, Emily Fletcher and Mark Geard brought their retreat to Motueka with the venue being the Riverside Community. This lovely space was ideal for a wide range of activities including meditative movement, meditation exercises, impromptu mime, chalk pastel painting and form drawing.
Our day began with Tai Chi to settle and relax us, which took us into our pastel drawings. Colour, and our relation to it, came into all aspects of our work. Some of us felt less confident in using the colours but the process was more important rather than the result. It felt very nourishing to do this twice a day.
Most of us felt the meditation exercises given made coming into meditation more accessible, especially those who were fairly new to it. Some of these exercises were for soul protection.
The longer meditations proved challenging for some but the process was well presented and supported throughout.
Movement happened throughout the day giving a real feeling of contraction and expansion over the rhythm and flow of the day. Our breathing and movements became slower and any tension disappeared taking us into a more peaceful place. By the end of the weekend we all felt able to take back what we had learned into our everyday lives.
We left with a feeling of gratitude for Mark & Emily’s sensitive and humorous approach to this workshop.

                                                 


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FROM AFAR.....

ALLIANZ ELIANT
ELIANT
Sponsoring Members
Dear friends
The fireside meeting of sponsoring members on 25th February in Brussels was a very special occasion – and not only because of the unexpected arrival of three sponsoring members from Greece. It was the constructive nature of the discussion and the mood of brotherliness which made it into a genuinely festive occasion. We received important suggestions as to how our website could be improved and prepared the anniversary event of 8.11.16 together.

The idea also arose - thanks to our Goethe motto - of promoting the Goetheanum Faust festival. See the invitation concerning this below.
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No other work shows the problems of today in such detail as does this drama of European development; whether it be financial crises, the causes of war, boundaries of knowledge, the understanding of nature, spirituality versus materialism, religion and philosophy, identity crises, relationship problems and the great quest to find lasting individual and social values. The first part addresses the identity and freedom of the individual human being, the second part the development of mankind as a whole.

Finding access to these processes of consciousness, entering different levels of experience with more than 900 people can, in a quite remarkable way, help us to grasp the mounting problems of our age – this is a chance not to be missed.

We are keen to draw this opportunity to the attention of our sponsoring members. The relevant dates and registration details can be found here.

With best wishes and warm greetings

Michaela Glöckler
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Tamarack Waldorf School, Milwaukee, USA...East stairwell
as in all true lazure painting the aim is to en-soul architecture with life and warmth

JOHN STOLFO


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Centuries ago, with the future development of humanity in view, secret Orders which set themselves the highest conceivable tasks were established. One such Order was the Manichean. The individual members of the Order were specially trained for their great work. The Order knew that some day there will be men in whose karma there is no longer any evil, but that there will also be a race evil by nature, among whom all kinds of evil will be developed to a higher degree than in th...e most savage animals, for they will practice evil consciously, exquisitely, with the aid of highly developed intellects.
These evil races will not be like bad children in whom there is goodness which can be brought out by precept and example. The members of the Manichean Order are already learning how to transform quite radically those who by nature are wholly evil. And then the transformed evil will become a quite special good. The power to effect this change will bring about a condition of moral holiness on Earth. -rudolf steiner
sin eater
See More
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Meet Uncle taz!
THE SECRET LODGES OF THE WESTspy
and their sinister plans with the world population

Introducing Tarjei Straume   http://uncletaz.com/seclodg.html


The primal motive these opponents had (apart from all the hatred), was to stop Steiner's habit of making public occult secrets. But when we read his description of activities attributed to so-called secret lodges during and after the first world war, it becomes clear that if there was only a hint of truth in his pronouncements about the power and influence of these circles, he must have been aware that he took an enormous risk by speaking out as boldly as he did.

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Friday, January 29, 2016

THE UPHOLDER











Please take a minute to think about something you are really good at!

Something you have Mastered!

How have you arrived at that level of understanding?

Let's imagine I'm good at making cakes.  Can you connect to the idea that I have Mastered the 'Spirit of cake-making."   I have 'seen' how the alchemy of cake batter should be...I have 'seen' how the baking works perfectly through experience, I have learned that the finest ingredients make for the best possible flavour and texture.It becomes more than just the recipe.  I am fully confident in becoming an instrument of  patisserie!  I have entered in the very spirit of it.


In the latest ART SECTION NEWSLETTER it begins with the following excerpt from Rudolf Steiner.

    So you see: if you really stand within the vital forces that pulse through Anthroposophy , Then you acquire above all a feel for the artistic media that you are employing - and you begin to be able ,  not intellectually but through feeling, to see into the life of things.'

This preamble is about defending the 'faith.'  

In the Pacifica Journal Edition 49  there is an article entitled, 'Sticking Wings on a Butterfly.' by Neil Boland.  He contends that 'without a fundamental rethink are we going to find the authentic New Zealand curriculum we talk about ?' 

...and reminds us  'Southern Germany in 1919 is very different to contemporary New Zealand.'

He then goes on to question the use of Grimm's Fairy Tales as compared to tikanga Maori legends.

However, from Rudolf Steiner..


The brothers Grimm, and other collectors like them, devoted long years to bringing the world the somewhat civilized fairy tales they had gathered out of the folk tradition. Although they had no help from spiritual science, they lived wholeheartedly with these tales, convinced that they were giving human beings what belonged intrinsically to human nature itself. When you know this, you will understand that although the age of reason did its best for a hundred years or so to alienate everyone, even children, away from fairy tales, now things are changing. Fairy tale collections like the Grimms' have found their way to every person who is alive to such things; they have become the property and treasure of every child's heart, yes, property of all our hearts. This will grow even stronger when spiritual science is no longer considered just a theory but becomes a mood of soul, one that will lead the soul perceptively towards its spiritual roots. Then spiritual science, moving and spreading outwards, will be able to confirm everything that the genuine fairy tale collectors, fairy tale lovers, fairy tale tellers wanted to do.
To sum up what spiritual science would like to say today in describing the fairy tale, we can take the poetic and charming tribute that a devoted friend of the tales [Ludwig Laistner (1848 – 1896)] liked to use in his lectures, some of which I was able to hear. He was a man who understood how to collect the tales and how to value them.
“The fairy tale is like a good angel, given us at birth to go with us from our home to our earthly path through life, to be our trusted comrade throughout the journey and to give us angelic companionship, so that our life itself can become a truly heart- and soul-enlivened fairy tale!”

- See more at: http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/PoeTales/19130206p01.html#sthash.RJhrpEg7.dpuf

Is there  a battle on-going to tinker with the Waldorf curriculum!
I would contend it would be a 'spiritual battle' .  Are we working out of the Sun Stream or the Moon Stream?
My concern is the longevity of the School. Will the spiritual world tolerate a 'grafting ' of older cultural practises into the new cultural impulse ' and not react? Where are failures occurring??? * Are we truly fired enough to carry 'the burning thread'  that will ignite a true modern future?
Isn't this the Call of Michael?   There is more than enough fuel in the Lectures to keep any teacher fully busy.


The anti-Christian impulse makes its appearance first and foremost in the form of nationalism. The old Luciferic principle of the blood comes to life once again in nation-consciousness. We see a revolt against Christianity in the nationalism of the 19th century, which reached its apex in Woodrow Wilson's phrase about the self-determination of nations, whereas the one and only reality befitting the present age would be to overcome nationalism, to eliminate it, and for men to be stirred by the impulse of the human universal. -rudolf steiner
fascist

Larry Young. ....pic


*   The Lakota School was started with the idea of making it Waldorf/Lakota.  A blending of cultures.  It closed down.  It did not withstand the mixing.    After some time it has now reopened with a new Waldorf trained teacher.

Personally, I reckon there is a need to re-enter the 'spirit of Waldorf.'  As a 5th generation Kiwi, I find myself referring back to the Oxford Lectures where the English speaking world was being set up to carry this Sun Impulse ;  this entirely new cultural impulse tailored for modern mankind which it seems to me few have truly entered.Those that have are Warriors.  For the searcher there is a whole fund of knowledge and practical advises to carry the teacher through the sometimes thorny path of  bringing education to a new level.
If one can only enter into the 'spirit' of these lectures one can be rewarded with inspirations and illuminations that compel a close companionship with the wisdom and its' inherent magic.  The caterpillar does indeed become the butterfly and the transformation is complete.    Those with ears to hear will know what I am saying




Picture
The house where Rudolf Steiner was born, in Kraljevic, present-day Croatia

Whanau icon ?



Sunday, November 22, 2015

CONFLUX CAFE #8



GREETINGS!

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"The physical, cognitive, creative and psychological benefits of child-directed play are well-documented. Less acknowledged, though, is a secret that really shouldn’t be one: quietly observing our children playing is a magical experience for parents."
In case you haven’t noticed, play is hot. Once taken for granted as a universal childhood right, in the last decades aggressive marketers of early learning
janetlansbury.com


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"If a child has been able in his play to give up his whole living being to the the world around him, he will be able, in the serious tasks of later life, to devote himself with confidence to the service of the world."- Dr. Rudolf Steiner

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Many people think of Waldorf schools as "artsy." Well, yes. Waldorf schools have a curriculum infused with art. We don't think of art as "extra" - art is an integral part of every school day. Thank you to Eugene Waldorf Schoolfor explaining why!
The Waldorf curriculum is fundamentally an artistic curriculum. It seeks to engage the developing child as his or her capacities for thinking, feeling and…

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Kimberton Waldorf School's photo.

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They should be free to choose what they think is worthy of saving from the past and decide for themselves what changes need to be made.
While there is much controversy around education reform today, it is generally assumed by all parties that the education of the younger generation plays an…


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Why I Send My Children to Waldorf School

by Joy Lapseritis, parent & president WSCC Board of Trustees
Waldorf School class teachers move through the grades with their students.
“You should check out the Waldorf School,” our son’s first childcare provider said to my husband and I as we lamented losing her as a “teacher” when he had grown too old for the infant room at the VNA Childcare Center in Falmouth.  We had entrusted this woman with his care since he was just 6 months old, and she had helped us learn to become parents, witnessing the messiness of our first attempts at parenting.  She was as much our teacher as his, and we wanted her to continue with him into the young toddler room at the tender age of 18 months.  “There is a type of school where the teachers do move along with the students,” she began, and directed me to the Waldorf School of Cape Cod, then located in Bourne.  Within short order I found myself sitting on the floor of a cozy, sunlit room listening to Claire Small conduct a model class and give a puppet show.  At first, I was confused by the faceless dolls and strange songs, but I was drawn to learn more, to discover the specific and thoughtful intentions behind each action and object.  Shortly thereafter our family moved to the Berkshires, and we had the rare fortune of choosing from among three local Waldorf schools.  Our son, Morgen, spent 4 years in early childhood bliss, and daughter Mathilde and I a year in a parent-child program before we moved back to Cape Cod and joined the Waldorf School of Cape Cod.  While we knew the Falmouth public schools were good enough, we actively desired for our children to experience a Waldorf Education.
Our children’s teachers are our co-parents.  Every day we learn how to parent our two very different children as they present us with new and unique challenges and joys, each needing something different from us – more space, more attention, fewer interventions, new boundaries.  This is true for all aspects of their lives, and it is more than reassuring that their class teachers are there to witness and guide them on their educational journeys with a long-term perspective. Waldorf teachers are specially trained to understand human development, and are well prepared for the next set of developmental challenges.  Having been Morgen’s teacher for five years, Kim Allsup has a deep knowledge of his personal growth over that time, and a view into the challenges he may face.  She brings this wisdom into her approach to him in the classroom, and to us as his parents so that we can be a mutually supportive team.  Waldorf teachers understand that education is not an event separate from the human development of a person – it is an integration of daily and lifelong experiences, internal and external – and we all educate each other as we move through life.  I shudder to think of how disconnected our children would be if they were passed from one teacher to another throughout their formative years.  Parenting has made me more reflective on my own childhood, and I have a real sense of distance and separation from my own education in public schools even though I was very successful academically.  Keeping a connection with a class teacher, even if only for several years in the event of a change, ameliorates that disconnection and forms a stronger bond between children and the adults who care for them daily.
Maintaining a class teacher from first through eighth grade presents benefits and challenges. Like many personal traits, the potential weaknesses of the class teacher/student relationship are closely tied to the strengths.  Human relationships are seldom without conflict, and there can be anxiety around keeping a teacher for eight years.  What if there are disagreements? (there will be). What if the teacher isn’t strong in all subjects? (they won’t be).  What if my child has a personality conflict or is “incompatible” with their teacher? (they likely will be at some point in the journey from age 7 to 14).  One of the gifts of the class teacher is that we are forced to discover and develop conflict resolution skills to cope with each of these eventualities – skills that are useful to everyone in life.  Parents, teachers, and children must find ways to resolve disagreements, to reach out for help from someone else, or agree to disagree and find a new path forward.  Faculty lean on each other to fill gaps, share techniques, and teach to the whole curriculum; they demonstrate to children how learning is a lifelong process and how no one knows everything.  Teachers must bring their maturity and long-term vision to both embrace and overcome interpersonal conflicts; children must learn tolerance and respect for every type of person.  All learn patience in this process.
Waldorf School graduates know how to learn and are successful in higher education.


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Mercy For Animals's photo.


Kiss turkeys.....dont eat them.


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During my student teaching I remember telling my mentor teacher that I was nervous about the responsibility of teaching a whole room full of children "how to read". She let me in on the secret when she said "This is going to sound corny, but it just sort of happens magically." Of course, for the magic to happen, there needs to be a strong early childhood foundation! Take a look at this great article if you're interested to hear "the Waldorf way" smile emoticon
This is a guest post written by Barbara Dewey of Waldorf Without Walls in which she describes learning to read the Waldorf way.


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Waldorf education shared a link.
It's one reason children during the Great Depression and World War II were…




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  CONFLUX CAFE

"An association is not an organization and not a combination. It comes into being through the conflux of the individuals within the economy. The individual does not have to adopt something handed out from a central body, but is able to contribute the knowledge and ability he has in his own field. From a collaboration in which each gives of his best, and where what is done springs from the agreement of many — only from such associations does economic life in general derive.
Associations of this kind will come into being. We can foster them and make them arise more quickly, or we can wait until they arise from necessity"....Rudolf Steiner.

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Anne Perry.
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