No. 1 Workshop with Michael Schmidt
Transformation through Cultivation
This will be an intense process of working through Art and Observation into the inner understanding of our individual struggles by recognizing ones destiny to act or not to act.
This workshop will be jointly conducted by Elisa VanderHout and Michael Schmidt.
This workshop will be jointly conducted by Elisa VanderHout and Michael Schmidt.
No. 2 Workshops with Shelley Sacks
Developing a Field of Awareness (morning workshop) and Earth Forum (afternoon workshop)
In the morning session we will work together to develop a ‘field of
awareness’ in the area in which the conference is taking place.
Everyone is a participant in the creation of this temporary ‘field of
awareness. Tuning in to the trees and the spirit of the place, as well as
our human and social needs, we will create a temporary arena for our work.
This process will not only give us insight into the questions, energies and
potential of the place, but is also a direct experience of one of the University
of the Trees’ ‘instruments of consciousness’.
Earth Forum is a social sculpture - connective practice that opens up a direct encounter
with the earth, with our self and with each other. These simple but profound
encounters for ‘coming to ourselves’ and ‘coming to our senses’ enable
participants to gather substance and new insights in relation to our
individual situations, projects and agendas as well as to potential collective
actions on a wider scale.
Over the past 3 years thousands of people in Germany, England, India and
South Africa, as well as cultural, environmental, change management and
activist groups have participated in the Earth Forum process. Of these
over 100 people have been trained to lead the Earth Forum themselves.
Earth Forum is a process of ‘coming in to go out’ and ‘going out to come in’.
It is one of the University of the Trees modules or ‘instruments of
consciousness’ to enhance the potential for connective action and ecological citizenship.
awareness’ in the area in which the conference is taking place.
Everyone is a participant in the creation of this temporary ‘field of
awareness. Tuning in to the trees and the spirit of the place, as well as
our human and social needs, we will create a temporary arena for our work.
This process will not only give us insight into the questions, energies and
potential of the place, but is also a direct experience of one of the University
of the Trees’ ‘instruments of consciousness’.
Earth Forum is a social sculpture - connective practice that opens up a direct encounter
with the earth, with our self and with each other. These simple but profound
encounters for ‘coming to ourselves’ and ‘coming to our senses’ enable
participants to gather substance and new insights in relation to our
individual situations, projects and agendas as well as to potential collective
actions on a wider scale.
Over the past 3 years thousands of people in Germany, England, India and
South Africa, as well as cultural, environmental, change management and
activist groups have participated in the Earth Forum process. Of these
over 100 people have been trained to lead the Earth Forum themselves.
Earth Forum is a process of ‘coming in to go out’ and ‘going out to come in’.
It is one of the University of the Trees modules or ‘instruments of
consciousness’ to enhance the potential for connective action and ecological citizenship.
No. 3 Workshop with Tom Ravetz
Angels and Elementals - How can we work with the spirits of nature?
For the last centuries, knowledge of the creative spirits at work in creation was almost forgotten in the western world as human beings restricted themselves to what they could see and measure with their senses. This was the price of our journey to freedom.
In the ecological, social and cultural crises of our time, we are challenged to become co-creators with these spirits.
Using the methods of contemplative inquiry, nature study and the insights of Rudolf Steiner, we will outline a path that can awaken the faculties needed to do this without abandoning the fruits of freedom.
In the ecological, social and cultural crises of our time, we are challenged to become co-creators with these spirits.
Using the methods of contemplative inquiry, nature study and the insights of Rudolf Steiner, we will outline a path that can awaken the faculties needed to do this without abandoning the fruits of freedom.
No. 4 Workshop with Paul Brennan
Connecting with Nature through Inner and Outer Gestures
Theatre Director Paul Brennan will lead a group into an experience of Psychological Gesture, an acting technique developed by Michael Chekhov, which will then be used to explore the Gestures inherent in trees, plants and other growing things.
Russian theatre actor Michael Chekhov developed this technique in the course of a long career from the Moscow Art Theatre to Hollywood. He shared it with Marilyn Monroe, Gregory Peck, Yul Brynner, Ingrid Bergman and many other Hollywood greats.
Participants in this workshop, after introductory work, will experience the transformative power of Psychological Gesture culminating, in connection with a chosen tree or plant, in the transfer of gesture into speech. And so we approach the possibility that will and feelings inherent in the subject of our study are of a diverse, profound and exciting nature.
Participants should spend some time with one particular tree or plant before coming to the conference, simply observing it in quiet contemplation.
Russian theatre actor Michael Chekhov developed this technique in the course of a long career from the Moscow Art Theatre to Hollywood. He shared it with Marilyn Monroe, Gregory Peck, Yul Brynner, Ingrid Bergman and many other Hollywood greats.
Participants in this workshop, after introductory work, will experience the transformative power of Psychological Gesture culminating, in connection with a chosen tree or plant, in the transfer of gesture into speech. And so we approach the possibility that will and feelings inherent in the subject of our study are of a diverse, profound and exciting nature.
Participants should spend some time with one particular tree or plant before coming to the conference, simply observing it in quiet contemplation.
No. 5 Workshop with Pearse O'Shiel
The World Enchanted
Self transformation is an individual journey. We all have our own starting point. For some the path of transformation will lead through the arts, for others through a spiritual practice and again for others it will come through more orthodox education and research but in all cases it will begin with a commitment to change.
This workshop is intended for those who wish to find their way into a new and deeper relationship with the natural world of which they, of course, are part. We have fallen out of love with the world and have grown accustomed to experiencing ourselves as separate from it. This feeling of the world as something other than myself carries with it a set of values that allows us to see the earth as something to be exploited – as an accumulation of resources that has no essential relationship to me.
This workshop will consider how this way of thinking about the world arose and how, while remaining within the tradition of Western thought, we can develop new ways of seeing the world.
It will trace a path from J.W. von Goethe the artist/poet/scientist who articulated a science of participation rather than separation through to Arthur Zajonc, the quantum physicist who understands that the way we think about the world is the way we experience it and who presents Rudolf Steiner's meditative work in a contemporary setting.
The number of participants is limited to seven so the conversations and responses can be directed at people's lived experience.
Preparatory material is Arthur Zajonc's book “Meditation as Contemplative Inquiry” which will be available on the day or through the conference website and my article “The Disenchanted World”
This workshop is intended for those who wish to find their way into a new and deeper relationship with the natural world of which they, of course, are part. We have fallen out of love with the world and have grown accustomed to experiencing ourselves as separate from it. This feeling of the world as something other than myself carries with it a set of values that allows us to see the earth as something to be exploited – as an accumulation of resources that has no essential relationship to me.
This workshop will consider how this way of thinking about the world arose and how, while remaining within the tradition of Western thought, we can develop new ways of seeing the world.
It will trace a path from J.W. von Goethe the artist/poet/scientist who articulated a science of participation rather than separation through to Arthur Zajonc, the quantum physicist who understands that the way we think about the world is the way we experience it and who presents Rudolf Steiner's meditative work in a contemporary setting.
The number of participants is limited to seven so the conversations and responses can be directed at people's lived experience.
Preparatory material is Arthur Zajonc's book “Meditation as Contemplative Inquiry” which will be available on the day or through the conference website and my article “The Disenchanted World”
No. 6 Workshop with Caroline Kelly and Audrey Flynn
Dear Earth - Making Change
The culmination for the conference will be a facilitated group process on the theme – Transforming Self, Transforming the Earth to share and integrate our learning and experiences in a way that allows next steps to emerge. During the process we will look at 2 questions that will allow us to support and inspire each other and express that in writing our Dear Earth Manifestos.