Findhorn

Findhorn

The Findhorn Foundation is a dynamic experiment where everyday life is guided by the inner voice of spirit, where we work in co-creation with the intelligence of nature and take inspired action towards our vision of a better world. We share our learning and way of life in experiential workshops, conferences and events that take place within a thriving community and ecovillage.

Community life provides the spiritual and social framework in which to experiment with new ways of being. Living together and practising spiritual values creates the transformative environment where learning takes place naturally through the ordinary activities of daily life. We work through conflicts, celebrate seasonal rhythms, eat, work and play together, acknowledge life’s milestones and explore new forms of leadership, economics and governance.

The Foundation has two main sites. The Park, nestled amidst dunes and forest, bay and beach, is an ecovillage that is home to many of our staff and a larger community of people living with shared values. Cluny Hill is a stately Victorian former hotel, five miles away from The Park, which houses staff and welcomes participants in our workshops and events. Our retreat house on the island of Iona, and the satellite community on the neighbouring island of Erraid, also welcome participants for life-changing experiences on the wild, wind-swept west coast of Scotland.

The Findhorn Foundation is an NGO associated with the United Nations Department of Public Information, holder of UN Habitat Best Practice designation and is co-founder of the Global Ecovillage Network and Holistic Centres Network. The Foundation is at the heart of a community of more than 500 people who every day support and live the vision of creating a better world by starting with themselves.

Ecovillage

The Findhorn Ecovillage is a constantly evolving model used as a teaching resource by a number of universities and school groups. The Findhorn Foundation College was established to provide a vehicle for academic programmes and to host students and study groups from the local area and around the world.

In 1997 the UN recognised the Findhorn Foundation as a Non-Governmental Organisation associated with the Department of Public Information. The Findhorn Foundation is an active participant in a variety of UN activities and events.

At the end of the 1980s, the Ecovillage Project at Findhorn began, contributing significantly to the development of the ecovillage movement worldwide. An ecovillage, defined as being ecologically, economically, culturally and spiritually sustainable, was a logical development of the community’s work with spirit and nature. There are now 90 ecological buildings, three wind generators and a biological sewage treatment plant, The Living Machine.

In 1995 the Findhorn community and the evolving informal ecovillage network organised a conference at Findhorn: Ecovillages and Sustainable Communities for the 21st Century. From this initiative the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) was established, with the Foundation becoming one of its founding members.

Founding Principles

Through more than 50 years of living and exploring together, three key themes have emerged as guiding principles for our work in the world

Inner Listening

When we become still and go within, either through meditation or activities such as being in nature, we can find a deep inner knowing that reaches far beyond the sense of a small and separate self. At Findhorn we describe this process as inner listening, and the knowledge received as guidance. We also use attunement, the practice of consciously tapping into the interconnectedness of life. These are at the heart of the Foundation’s ethos.

Eileen Caddy began her practice of inner listening in a Glastonbury sanctuary in the late 1950s. Later, through training and regular meditation, she developed the ability to attune to the deep knowing within her at any time. Committed obedience to this guidance led her, the community’s co-founders and the group that gathered around them, to step into a living relationship with this inner wisdom which continues to this day.

Finding the stillness and listening within, attuning, and then trusting and acting on this attunement, is the central process by which the Findhorn community lives and evolves. We believe it is a way of living that can support humanity to evolve. The Findhorn Foundation and community is a gateway to this new world and a living demonstration of it.

Work Is Love In Action

Work is an opportunity to bring our whole selves and our highest love into the practical business of daily life. By bringing full, loving engagement into each task, moment by moment, we can shape a new consciousness for ourselves and the world.

‘Love where you are. Love what you’re doing. Love who you’re doing it with.’ This is founder Peter Caddy’s succinct explanation of our practice of Work is Love in Action. A former military officer who led by example, he insisted that community members bring this attitude into every daily activity, whether raking up the leaves, harvesting organic vegetables or making key decisions.

With this attitude, people discovered that each day can become an opportunity for growth and discovery when we bring our highest spiritual aspiration and love to it. Also, when we act with love and clear intention, life meets us with the right resources, people and realisations. An example of this is in the community’s early days: Peter, acting on guidance, bought several bungalows with borrowed money, although there were no people yet who needed housing. Within weeks the bungalows were full with people who wanted to live the exciting experiment that was happening at Findhorn. Manifesting the right thing at the right time became so common that the community adopted the motto ‘expect a miracle’.

Today, we continue to bring love and mindfulness to every moment, no matter how seemingly ordinary. Before each shift we share whatever is needed to bring ourselves present and then hold an attunement: a brief meditation to align people with each other and with the task at hand, and to invite the cooperation of our partners, seen and unseen.

This practice is a recognition that everything we do, no matter how small, is an opportunity to move beyond previously limiting beliefs and to shape a new future. Our own story of a tiny band of spiritual seekers growing into a flourishing, internationally respected spiritual learning centre and community is a demonstration of the power of putting our love into action. And we know that this story is just a beginning – our vision is nothing less than a world where each human being manifests their highest love and, in doing so, becomes a unique blessing for all life.

Co-Creation With The Intelligence Of Nature

Our planet is alive and aware. By communicating and working with the rest of nature humans can find and bring new and creative solutions to life.

In the early days of the community, while trying to grow a garden, community co-founder Dorothy Maclean found she could communicate consciously with the intelligence that gave form to the plants in the garden. As she and others followed the suggestions of these intelligences, a seemingly impossible abundance grew in the poor soil, including the giant cabbages that brought fame to the community. Building on this early work, the Findhorn Foundation continues to be a pioneer in partnering with the intelligence of nature, a practice we call co-creation. Everyone, either through innate gifts or through training in inner listening, has the potential to partner with these more subtle aspects of our world.

We bring the practice of collaborating with other forms of life into our daily activities in our kitchens, gardens and living spaces. Before each shift, we invite non-human partners, such as the plants we’re tending, animals we’re with and non-physical members of our subtle ecologies, to work alongside us. This cooperation brings practical results, as well as a more connected and creative relationship to life.

Learn More About Findhorn

Findhorn supports a variety of socially conscious spiritual research, workshops, retreats and initiatives with like minded associates all around the globe. Learn more online or or plan a visit yourself!

Visit Findhorn’s Website

Explore Other Radical Ruralities

Damanhur

Findhorn Meets the Matrix

Nature Revolutionaries by Larry Karsteadt

My Damanhur journey began when my lovely wife Julie Caldwell said, “Want to go to Italy in October?” to which I replied, “Of course!” followed immediately by, “Why?” (we usually travel to parts of the planet with clear warm water and vibrant snorkeling reefs). And she responded, “Well, our Organization of Nature Evolutionaries (O.N.E.) is hosting a spiritual discovery experience at Damanhur.” To which I asked, as most people do, “What’s Damanhur?” and she replied: “It’s an intentional spiritual community with an amazing underground temple system that some say is the 8th Wonder of the World. It’s kind-a like Findhorn meets The Matrix. Pam has been there several times, and it’s the place where ‘The Music of Plants’ device we’ve been enjoying for months was invented.” So I said: “Sounds like a new kind of adventure so count me in!” We started doing some homework by, guess what, googling “Damanhur.” By the way, when you do so, what comes up are many things like: eco-spiritual community, hippy commune, a cult, a place dedicated to all of humanity and sustainable living. I felt intrigued.

With tickets purchased and bags packed, we made our way to Milan, met our group and headed into new terrain and a place called Damanhur. I arrived with an open mind and heart full of excitement, curiosity and little in the way of expectation.

Our wonderful group of 13 Nature Evolutionaries, including two men and the rest woman (always love such gatherings), arrived at Damanhur, nested in the Italian foothills with snow-capped Alps visible in the distance. A few things immediately stood out – beautiful nature- oriented murals adorned the walls and interesting sculptures, some Egyptian looking, were standing along paths leading in multiple directions. Everyone we met, from day one, were welcoming and exuded a genuine sense of kindness. Nice start and it only got better from there. We spent six full days and evenings learning about Damanhur guided by Pam, Jen and the citizens of Damanhur. Because the Damanhurians are interested in the work being done by O.N.E., we were given red carpet treatment and allowed to enter the Sacred Forest, walk special spirals and most amazing of all, visit the Temples of Humankind.

How did this incredible place come to exist in the foothills of Northern Italy? It all has to do with Synchronic Lines, which, according to the Damanhur story (explained on their website and in many books), comprise a communication system that connects all of the heavenly bodies where life is found. On Earth, 18 main Synchronic Lines connect to each other through minor lines. The 18 main lines join together at the north and south poles to form a single line at each pole that projects into the Universe.

Anything that does not have a physical body can travel through the Synchronic Lines, such as thoughts, energies, emotions and soul structures. The network of Synchronic Lines is like the central nervous system of the Universe and being in contact with it means being at the center of a flow of thought and information, which can be extremely inspiring. It’s possible to contribute to this flow through awareness and the ability to direct one’s thoughts. The reason why Damanhur was founded in the Canavese area of Italy is precisely because of the presence of four Synchronic Lines, which can be contacted through the Temples of Humankind. This region is one of two places on the planet where four Synchronic Lines converge; the other is Tibet. This blew my mind a little and opened me to an expanded thought process.

Our Universe is jam packed with energy and we are, without question, energetic beings. It is beyond easy to feel different or more potent energy at Damanhur – it's a powerful place for sure and I’ve had enough experiences with such spots to at least allow the energy of the Damanhur story inform me. After all, we humans tend to like good stories. If those stories, myths, words help us be more open to any of the infinite pathways toward bliss and wonder, I’m on board with it.

The Sacred Forest of Damanhur lives on the hills where the Synchronic Lines cross, and the Temples of Humankind were built, largely by pick and hand, underneath the Sacred Forest. The chestnut, pine, oak, and bay trees here thrive, act as energy antennas, and each of us was chosen by a meditation tree ally…mine, typical of a Gemini, were two trees joined at the base, Oak and Chestnut.

Enter the Temples…we first did a guided mediation in the Hall of Mirrors. Amazing to see yourself and everyone else in this most amazing room reflected many times at once from different angles. The largest stained glass dome, perhaps in the world, towers above and it is beyond beautiful. For me this was a deep relaxing journey into my past and the stars. The narrative is that Damanhur is connected to ancient higher energetic beings – who are working with and through trees, Synchronic Lines and other beings to help humankind get through this tough time to help us avoid extinction. Hmm…not sure about the details, but there’s no question folks, either we work together to sustain our planetary life support systems or the writing’s on the wall. Oh, and Damanhur originator, Falco, supposedly discovered (from these ancient beings) now extinct languages that he wrote on some of the walls of the Temple to help teach us. It was beautiful and at times I could almost read the messages.

We returned several days to the Temple complex with wonderful teacher Lucertola (which means lizard in Italian) for meditations, contemplations and experiences. For me, the Hall of Earth we visited after the first meditation simply blew me away. It was full of accurately painted animals, plants and places from around the world, many of which this biology and natural history loving dude has been beyond fortunate to have visited, so I was immediately at home. And every other room or hall in the complex was as amazing, with paintings, carvings and globes that tell the whole story of life on this wonderful world, with deep visual teachings designed to lift us to our individual and collective highest potential so we can, together, work with our shared experiences to help sustain our precious one and only world.

Julie and I visited many amazing art works in Italy on this and earlier trips. While incredible, the themes of most of this art (e.g, The David, Sistine Chapel, The Last Supper, the Duomo in Milan, etc) are religious…Christ crucified, Mary and baby Jesus…all beautiful…but only one main story is featured. This is the story I started life with and have incorporated much from, but with so many other narratives from around the world and thanks to Joseph Campbell and others, all are at their best symbols designed to help each of us arrive, at least for a moment, at that place of bliss and awe where we feel completely connected to and one with the Universe. The difference for me is that Damanhur wasn’t just telling one story, but seems dedicated to all stories, to all life, to helping humans become the best we can on this planet before it’s too late.

When we returned to the Hall of Mirrors I experienced a most powerful meditation. It all came together as I communed with my Oak-Chestnut Tree and had the distinct honor to mind-ride on Eagle-Owl wings through the Universe, visit my past, revisit the wonders of the world I have been privileged to know including Mother Trees and our own backyard redwoods, peeked into the future, and rode the winds of time. At some point in the meditation we returned to the Sacred Forest, and, with both trees grasped in Eagle-Owl talons, lifted off! To “our” delight, roots, miles of mycelial connections, and crazy I know, the entire Earth came along! “We” soared high and far and showed this beautiful living planet the best of the Universe and eventually flew to the edge of a Black Hole, where I struggled for moment not to be pulled in. But with a Joyful “why not?” dove in head first with the Earth along and came out looking at my wings-to-hands in the Hall of Mirrors, out-of-breath, refreshed and elated.

Damanhur’s next planned addition to the Temples is a World Parliament, intended to bring all peoples, including indigenous healers, together to fuse the many stories, all knowledge, wisdom and spiritual teachings to help ensure a sustainable future for humanity and life on Earth. I can fully get behind this goal, and left Damanhur and later Italy, feeling exuberant and with greater clarity that life and growing awareness will continue to unfold in amazing ways.

My future role seems to be to bring everything I’ve learned and experienced together to be of service to all life, humanity and men in particular. There are many awake males but so many more would be well served by a bit more humility, kindness, compassion and empathy. We need a lot more of this today - it’s good for the world, the Universe and dang if it doesn’t feel right too. Hopefully, through my song and story, others will realize our very real inter-dependence with living systems and see “the wonder of it all.”

Our Damanhur mentor, Lucertola, said to me as we exchanged goodbyes, “Larry, be the best you can.” And in my usual undervalued self, I replied: “Sure, I’ll try to do the best I can” and she squeezed my hands and whispered, “No, BE the very best you can be.”

Always chose joy! “From wonder into wonder, existence opens.”

Learn more about Damanhur

Explore the sacred underground meditation halls or plant a visit!

Waldorf Education + Rudolf Steiner

The Spirit in Waldorf Education

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable still exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty. This feeling, is at the center of true religiousness." — Albert Einstein

An important characteristic of a Waldorf Education is that it offers a spiritual view of humanity. The human being is seen as a bridge between two worlds, the earthly and the heavenly. Although our bodies have a mammalian nature, there is also something uniquely dignified, noble, and heavenly in our nature. This spiritual aspect has been named in a variety of ways throughout history. It has been called our our angel, and at other times our genius.

Waldorf education, with its naturally integrated honoring of the human spirit, is founded on the deeply significant works of Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy.

Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Steiner was a pioneer in alternative education. He created a movement that saw individuals as spiritual beings rather than economic fodder or shapes for society to mold.

According to the Steiner Waldorf School Fellowship, ‘the priority of the Steiner ethos is to provide an unhurried and creative learning environment where children can find the joy in learning and experience the richness of childhood rather than early specialization or academic hot-housing.’

Rudolf Steiner was born in Austria in 1861, and was educated as a scientist and philosopher.

He developed deep insights into the spiritual essence of the earth, universe and humanity. He named these insights "ANTHROPOSOPHY" - the wisdom of the Human.

Steiner, having highly developed spiritual faculties, was not only able to verify for himself the existence and working of spiritual entities, but was able to show his contemporaries how to develop their inherent spiritual gifts to achieve the spiritual growth and development appropriate for their era.

In the course of his life Rudolf Steiner was asked for guidance in many fields and endeavors, and was able to inspire others to begin original work for the renewal of education, scientific research, social research and other fields.

An impressive number of Rudolf Steiner's collected works - totaling over 350 volumes - are available in English and other languages. These books and others on numerous subjects by authors applying his philosophy to their fields —such as such as parenting, farming, architecture, medicine, and psychology to name a few— are available from the Waldorf School Association Bookstore

Open To The Mystery

Because a Waldorf School endeavors to awaken and maintain a child's experience of the mysterious through awe and wonder, parents often ask if it is a religious school. This is a difficult question to answer because the term religious can be understood in so many different ways. Perhaps the most accurate answer would have to be both, "No and Yes."

In the sense that a religious education is associated with a creed or a catechism that children are asked to memorize and accept on faith, the answer is decidedly "no." There are no tenets presented to Waldorf students that are intended to become their set of beliefs. Neither are Waldorf Schools sectarian and for that reason they can thrive equally in a Buddhist country like Japan, an Islamic country like Egypt, or on a kibbutz in Israel.

But in the sense that a Waldorf education helps children remain open to the mysterious dimensions of life, to the complex web of meaning that connects human destiny with other individuals and events, to the over-riding sense that there is something present in life that is greater and wiser than we are, the answer is "Yes."

In keeping with the origin of the word religious, derived from the Latin religare (to reconnect or bind together), it is the task of Waldorf Education to help children remain open and connected to this inexplicable aspect of human existence. For this reason it is appropriate to describe Waldorf in a broad way as a spiritually-based education.

At the heart of the Waldorf approach is the understanding that young children are innately spiritual and arrive in this world with the ability to recognize the mysterious and the sublime. The words of the poet William Wordsworth seem to convey this best:

"There was a time when every meadow grove and stream,
The Earth and all the World did seem,
Appareled in celestial light,
The glory and freshness of a dream."

The Good, The Beautiful, + The True

A PRESCHOOL teacher protects this unconscious awareness in the young child by creating an environment where a child can sense that the world is good. Through activities, routines, and stories, children encounter the inherent goodness in human existence, the wonder and bounty of nature, the comfort of loving human care. These elements reassure, welcome, and invite a young child to embrace all of life.

IN GRADE SCHOOL children's spiritual awareness diminishes slowly over time as their sense of self, their independent individual awareness, becomes more pronounced and distances them from the immediacy and oneness of early childhood. It is at this time that Waldorf teachers provide children with the experience that the world is beautiful. Through arts-infused instruction, through a program rich in poetry, painting, and music, and through science study that explores the splendor of our natural world, the children's feelings are nourished by this aesthetic quality.

IN HIGH SCHOOL a young person's growing capacity for critical thinking longs to know that the world is true as they grapple to understand modern life by recognizing patterns and underlying causes of human behavior and in world events.

These experiences:

• that the world is GOOD for the preschool child
• that the world is BEAUTIFUL for grade school child
• that the world is TRUE for the high school student

enable Waldorf graduates to engage life. It was Rudolf Steiner's contention that when children are educated in a sound three-dimensional manner, they are able to sustain their deeper nature.

In being introduced to these experiential stages, here, we may gain insight into how Waldorf graduates achieve emotional maturity and a rounded and grounded sense of self, one that is progressive and able to create independent thought and compassionate values in their adult lives.

3 Stages Of Development In Waldorf Education

‘Where is the book in which the teacher can read about what teaching is? The children themselves are this book. We should not learn to teach out of any book other than the one lying open before us and consisting of the children themselves.’ 

~ Rudolf Steiner, Human Values in Education

The Physical: Birth – Age 7

Body

Physical Expression: Metabolic/Limb System

Psychological Expression and Developmental Mode: Willing

Spiritual Expression: Sleeping

Cultural Orientation: Religion

Attribute: Goodness

The first stage on the path to ‘ethical individualism’ is that of the physical where the child, having recently left the ethereal plane, has gently integrated the physical body through ritual, a safe environment and a deep connection with nature.

The child learns through non-self-conscious imitation in a nurturing environment to help them with this; the kindergarten is decorated like a home, kept warm and they are encouraged to help out with physical activities such as chopping vegetables to make their own soup, painting or polishing wood, and simple crafts like finger knitting and sewing.

Rather than being directly ‘taught’, the imagination and thought processes are allowed to develop through song, story and puppet shows of their own accord and pace, discipline delivered through gentle song (basically a telling off told in a loving and forgiving way) and daily work and play outside to keep them grounded and steeped in reality.

The religious element is designed to be much more about ritual and celebrating festivals than enforcing any ideology on the child, and in an ideal environment, to show the child that the world is good and that their every need is met.

The teacher may observe their play and reflect back to them their processes but avoid labeling and practice non-attachment with each child.

Teachers in the Early Years in Steiner education generally do not pick up children, instead taking them on their knee if they’re upset and although the emphasis is put on nurturing the child through their engagement in day-to-day activities and self care, they become highly self sufficient, seeking answers and direction from within rather than the external. The teacher keeps commands and input to a minimum, simply holding the space and being in the background.

‘Live through deeds of love, and let others live with tolerance for their unique intentions.’ Steiner, Philosophy of Freedom

The Imagination: Age 7 – 14

Soul

Physical Expression: Heart/Lungs

Psychological Expression and Developmental Mode: Feeling

Spiritual Expression: Dreaming

Cultural Orientation: Art

Attribute: Beauty

Deciding when the time is right to bring a child into slightly more formal classroom settings where they can begin to learn the alphabet and numbers depends on how formed their character is and is usually dependent on whether they are losing their milk teeth, which is the body’s indication they are ready for the next stage of development.

Children between seven and fourteen will be assigned a class teacher who teaches the majority of subjects to them without becoming a figure of authority in order to upkeep their assertions of self and an autonomy to their learning processes.

As with the early years, the teacher encourages learning through physical movement, poetry and story and becomes a nurturing figure who oversees a class who stays together for many years with abilities mixed together in a familiar setting.

Song and story still play a big role in allowing children to access academic tools to further their educational enquiry and the imagination and feelings of the pupil are the key elements being developed between these ages.

For example, an imaginative story about the angelic realm may be told to demonstrate the more concrete rules of grammar. One angel represents a command, another represents a question, a third represents a statement, and so on.

“If we do not believe within ourselves this deeply rooted feeling that there is something higher than ourselves, we shall never find the strength to evolve into something higher.” Rudolf Steiner

The Spirit: Ages 14 – 21

Spirit.

Physical Expression: Nerves/senses

Psychological Expression and Developmental Mode: Thinking

Spiritual Expression: Waking

Cultural Orientation: Science

Attribute: Truth

From ages fourteen to twenty one children, having connected with their bodies and hearts can now be taught in a more logical, structured fashion. Students are allowed to focus on certain subjects that explore their interests having embraced their true selves and been given a grounded foundation in the world.

As the body becomes disrupted and transformed with adolescence, children are encouraged to embrace freedom and their role in the outside world. Specialist teachers will come in and they are able to spread their wings a bit more and take influences from outside forces.

Students can enjoy the slow pace of their former years where they were able to develop their social skills and emotional needs in their own time without the pressures of formal testing.

It is in this stage that pupils may enjoy their emotional maturity and see the fruits of being more in touch with their core and inner voice, a gift that allows them to choose more directly what they want to do in the world without external confusions.

‘Each individual is a species unto him/her self.’

Steiner, Philosophy of Freedom

A Lifetime Of Unfolding

And the development doesn’t stop there! Steiner went on the describe the karmic stages beyond normal school age:

The Sun: Ages 21-42 yrs

‘The next three seven-year segments are associated with the Sun (21-42 years old), and the elements of sentient soul, intellectual soul, and consciousness soul.

Mars: Ages 42 -49

The next seven-year segment is associated with Mars (42-49 years old), when the soul works hard to impress the full forces of its personality upon the world. At this time, the soul has the opportunity to a higher state of consciousness called Spirit Self.

Jupiter: Ages 49- 56

The following seven-year segment is associated with Jupiter (49-56 years old), when wisdom is dawning and the ego needs to unfold the Life Spirit.

Saturn: Ages 56-63

The final seven-year period is associated with Saturn (56-63 years old) when Saturn completes its second “return” (e.g. comes back to its position it had at one’s birth), and the soul can manifest an event higher element of Self called Spirit Man.’ ~ Thomas Armstrong

For more information, see Steiner’s Karmic Relationships Vol. VII, lecture two.

Our Genius

In his book, Education in Search of the Spirit, John Gardner states:

"in the original sense of the word, genius is a guiding, inspiring principle that is accessible, if we will, to every human being. The source of strength and guidance is not concerned with special abilities but with the whole person. An education works either to close or to open the channel between a child and his or her genius. Genius was once an intuitively perceived reality: the protective and guiding spirit that gave each person prepared to receive it the wisdom, or love, or power for good deeds on Earth. A persons genius was a higher self that could be called upon to infuse life with values transcending personal limits. Genius, says the Oxford University Dictionary, stating the ancient view, is a tutelary god or attendant spirit, allotted to every person at birth to preside over destiny in life."

How confusing and sad that in schools today, the progressive as well as the traditional, this term has come to mean something entirely different, some special privilege no longer available to all. From a spiritual perspective all children have genius. This premise raises an important question: How do we nurture and protect the child’s genius?

Unlike other spiritually-based schools that teach in a conventional manner and then add a class or two to address childrens’ deeper needs, Waldorf Schools meet the inner needs of their students through the entire educational program.

It begins with the reverence and respect that the teachers feel for each child. It occurs continually throughout the school year at timely moments when students stop to say a verse or a grace and acknowledge the existence of something greater. But more extensively, it takes place through a unique approach to teaching that engages children actively, emotionally, and thoughtfully. This truly holistic and balanced approach nurtures the deepest in each child by encouraging warm-hearted involvement, an enthusiasm for learning, and an abiding interest in the world.

This spiritual dimension of a Waldorf Education supports and strengthens children. It is the surround that quietly pervades their whole educational experience allowing them to find their way freely to a deeper, more meaningful experience of life, one that is consistent with their family's values and beliefs. This spiritually-based education provides a compass for young people affording them direction in a chaotic world and enabling them to enter adult life with confidence and courage. For Rudolf Steiner and the first Waldorf teachers this was the foundation that supported children's healthy development. In todays challenging times this foundation is needed more than ever.

Thoughts On The Intersection of Anthroposophy + Waldorf Education

More information about Rudolf Steiner, anthroposophy and work arising out of these impulses can be found at:

Anthroposophical Society in Canada www.anthroposophy.ca

General Anthroposophical Society www.goetheanum.ch

Rudolf Steiner Archive www.rsarchive.org

Adapted from various sources.

The Rudolf Steiner Centre

Fractal Enlightenment