Monday, February 18th
Focus, Grasp and Step: Coming into Dimension
Aonghus Gordon
Focus, grasp and step lay the foundation for the adult capacity of a locus of control. Through the practical arts, the locus of control can shift the self from a ‘me’ perspective to a ‘thou’ perspective in which the prized possession of self-generated conscious action emerges.
Nature/Alchemy: A Resistance
Jonathan Code
To source, transform and create with mineral, metal, plant and animal products is a creative act which can bring the head and the hand together in a synthesis of far-reaching significance. We furthermore have the opportunity, together with the development of the skilled hand and mind, of developing the ethical capacities of the heart. We do this by facilitating an awareness that by transforming the world, we transform ourselves and by transforming ourselves, we transform the world. This mirroring was known and described by alchemists across the ages, and it begins with the process of solve – or ‘right separation’.
Tuesday, February 19th
Will and Re-Imagination
Aonghus Gordon
Toward the task of self-mastery, the medieval world developed the guilds in which the apprenticeship model of learning created the foundation for cultural renewal – the building of European cathedral cities. Through a practical skills education and the harnessing of materials in which social intent requires ethical imagination, a new seed of social will is in potential.
Resistance, Invitation, Synthesis
Jonathan Code
The creative act of transforming ‘the given’ materials sourced from nature into items of beauty, function, and social intention is a deeply human act. Through the will we engage in the creation of the new. There is a crucial point in this process, however, which asks for a deeply conscious act of ‘reversal’. The fires of creation can all too easily become the fires of destruction. The capacities for facilitating a ‘right synthesis’ require patient and rhythmic cultivation and lie at the heart of an education whose focus is for social renewal in the deepest sense.
Wednesday, February 20th
Braiding the Continuum
Aonghus Gordon
The fields opened up by Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual science are extensive. For Waldorf education is it not time to braid these fields of practice to give essence and vitality to the curriculum? Human phasic development is changing. The new patterns require heightened pedagogical insight requiring therapeutic skill, revitalized food, and intensification of interpersonal collaboration.