All Friday Seminars & Lectures Events

Journeying 7pm - 8.30pm (UK time) A series of zoom and face to face seminars exploring the spiritual significance of nature given by speakers working with the insights of Rudolf Steiner. All welcome, no need to book, no charge. Voluntary donations towards costs are gratefully received and can be made by transfer to a Nationwide account held for this purpose. Account name: Adrian Hotten, sort code: 07-01-16 account number: 31466776 or via Paypal to suejoanpeat@gmail.com Zoom link https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82632129836 Meeting ID: 826 3212 9836, Passcode: 755359 Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kw5KhlMVS 

Online events are highlighted in blue.

  • Friday 6 June
    7pm - 8.30pm

    with Tom Smith

    When was the first computer built? What have computers been used for over human history? Why is the invention of the transistor so important for modern digital technology? Who are George Boole and Claude Shannon, and what role did they play in the invention of the digital computer? 

    Tom will guide us through an overview of the steps people have taken on the journey towards our current digital reality. He will present some contributions from key people in history, showing us how different ideas and inventions have brought us from a world of abstract mathematics to baffling digital landscapes and public influence. This talk aims to distil 3,500 years of technological development into a 1-hour presentation. A discussion afterwards will explore the role of digital technology and AI in our modern world, with sharing some ideas on how the Waldorf movement can help to defend against some of the greater harms of modern smartphone use.

    Tom is a co-founder of beehub (Brighton Evolving Education Hub) and has been involved in Waldorf education for over 10 years. Tom spent 5 years at the Brighton Waldorf school as the science, music & IT teacher. Having worked in mainstream, Waldorf and home education, he has developed a range of main lesson series based on modern digital technology and methods to deliver them to students in a thought out and conscious way. He is especially interested in seeking out the best ways to combine the qualities of Waldorf education with modern digital tools. Tom thinks the most important question being asked at the moment is 'what are the steps we need to take between the age of 8 to 18 to teach children how to use digital tools to improve and enhance their lives, while avoiding the addiction and other harms associated with smartphone use?'

    All welcome, no need to book, no charge. Events are not recorded and zoom meetings are limited to 100 participants. Voluntary donations towards costs are gratefully received and can be made by cash donation on the day, transfer to a Nationwide account held for this purpose or via Paypal. 

    Account name: Adrian Hotten, Nationwide, sort code: 07-01-16 account number: 31466776. Paypal to suejoanpeat@gmail.com

  • Friday 13 June
    7pm - 8.30pm

    with Peter Van Breda

    Seeking to capture an experience of the infinite, Caspar David Friedrich composed works that directly confronted the viewer with the awesome. Friedrich took the genre of landscape painting, traditionally considered unimportant, and infused it with deep religious and spiritual significance. Believing that the majesty of the natural world could only reflect the magnificence of God, he featured sunlight vistas and foggy expanses to convey the beautiful power of the divine. Friedrich was born in the town of Greifswald on the Baltic Sea in what was at the time Swedish Pomerania. He studied in Copenhagen 1794-1798, before settling in Dresden. He is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. He creates the viewer of nature looking out into its beauty and mystery. 

    He once wrote: 

    ‘Close your bodily eye so that you may see your picture first with the spiritual eye. Then bring to the light of day that which you have seen in the darkness so that it may react upon others from the outside inwards.’

    Peter studied at Emerson College where he felt how a transformative seed of becoming had entered into his destiny. One gift was the two-week-long initial course given by William (Mucky) Mann, a devoted art historian. As the course unfolded Peter began to recognise that art through the ages was, amongst many other things, a direct indication of the phases of consciousness through which we have evolved.  History of Art has remained an innovative companion for him for over 50 years.

    All welcome, no need to book, no charge. Events are not recorded and zoom meetings are limited to 100 participants. Voluntary donations towards costs are gratefully received and can be made by cash donation on the day, transfer to a Nationwide account held for this purpose or via Paypal. 

    Account name: Adrian Hotten, Nationwide, sort code: 07-01-16 account number: 31466776. Paypal to suejoanpeat@gmail.com

    Zoom link https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82632129836 

    Meeting ID: 826 3212 9836, Passcode: 755359

  • Friday 20 June
    7pm - 8.30pm

    with Robert Chamberlin

    How many times has this thought arisen in many of us: “Is there a guidebook which helps me at least onto the first plateau, from where I can get a good overview? I have tried reading a book by Steiner but just found it too difficult to get into”.

    Robert’s book ‘HEARTlogic. An experiential guide to Rudolf Steiner’s Spiritual Science’, aims to be a guide, taking us up into a region where one can breathe in the pure air of thinking alongside the deepest feelings of awe at the vistas unfolding before one. He will take us on the journey of writing such a book - trying to avoid the pitfalls of being too simplistic on the one hand, and on the other, being tempted to go into more and more complexity. Along the way, some poems and sayings will be recited, extracts of which are to be found in the book, which serve to illustrate the journey the book is describing.

    For thirty-three years, Robert Chamberlain worked at Tintagel House and the Merlin Theatre in Sheffield, which was then a Steiner community arts and education centre. It involved programming a regular series of cultural events, which included his own theatre productions, as well as public courses on Anthroposophy, some of which were under the auspices of Sheffield University’s Division of Continuing Education. He now lives in Leeds, still involved with drama and introducing Steiner’s work to people. His book is available in the bookshop at Rudolf Steiner House.

    All welcome, no need to book, no charge. Events are not recorded and zoom meetings are limited to 100 participants. Voluntary donations towards costs are gratefully received and can be made by cash donation on the day, transfer to a Nationwide account held for this purpose or via Paypal. 

    Account name: Adrian Hotten, Nationwide, sort code: 07-01-16 account number: 31466776. Paypal to suejoanpeat@gmail.com

  • Friday 27 June
    7pm - 8.30pm

    with Howard Smith

    Rudolf Steiner lectured extensively on our journey through the planetary spheres after death. Some of his lectures were given during the First World War – conditions we are again witnessing. Today we have the same questions as then. Steiner aimed to bring understanding to such issues as battlefield deaths, the deaths of children, the connection between the living and the dead, and the formation of karma for the next incarnation. These are practical questions, which invite us to take our own inner development and understanding in hand, both as a personal preparation, and as a selfless service to the dead and the spiritual world in general.

    All welcome, no need to book, no charge. Events are not recorded and zoom meetings are limited to 100 participants. Voluntary donations towards costs are gratefully received and can be made by cash donation on the day, transfer to a Nationwide account held for this purpose or via Paypal. 

    Account name: Adrian Hotten, Nationwide, sort code: 07-01-16 account number: 31466776. Paypal to suejoanpeat@gmail.com

    Zoom link https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82632129836 

    Meeting ID: 826 3212 9836, Passcode: 755359

  • Friday 4 July
    7pm - 8.30pm

    with Helen Kinsey

    The threats to childhood in the digital age are different to those in the industrial age and yet the journey through childhood to adulthood from a developmental perspective, remains the same. In our age, an increasing number of children are suffering from mental ill health. What can be done? We will explore this question by looking at the journey through childhood from a Waldorf perspective, comparing it with a mainstream experience and drawing out the strengths and weaknesses of both.

    Helen is an anthroposophist and has been teaching in the Waldorf School for 20 years, mostly as a class teacher. She now teaches as a mainstream primary teacher.

    All welcome, no need to book, no charge. Events are not recorded and zoom meetings are limited to 100 participants. Voluntary donations towards costs are gratefully received and can be made by cash donation on the day, transfer to a Nationwide account held for this purpose or via Paypal. 

    Account name: Adrian Hotten, Nationwide, sort code: 07-01-16 account number: 31466776. Paypal to suejoanpeat@gmail.com

  • Friday 11 July
    7pm - 8.30pm

    with Eric Klein

    What’s happened over the last 100 years? Can we even imagine life without the possibility of gathering from all over the world on zoom to consider what life was actually like 100 years ago?  In the time of Steiner there was not even the possibility of jumping on Easy Jet from London to Switzerland to attend an ‘in person’ talk delivered by the man himself. Now his written words are accessible to anyone who looks no further than a screen. Between then and now the world has changed dramatically, as has the application of his ideas to the developing areas of science and the arts. His insights, particularly those that relate to the nature of the human being and our connection to both the physical and the spiritual worlds, are timeless, and certainly offer inspiration for another 100 years at the very least.  

    Eric Klein was born and raised in an Anthroposophic home in New York and was educated at the Rudolf Steiner School in New York City, before training as a concert musician at the Manhattan School of Music. His life’s journey has gone through Harvard Business School and the Christian Community Seminary in Stuttgart, Germany before settling in England in 2002. He has worked as a performing musician, composer, conductor, teacher and lecturer.

    All welcome, no need to book, no charge. Events are not recorded and zoom meetings are limited to 100 participants. Voluntary donations towards costs are gratefully received and can be made by cash donation on the day, transfer to a Nationwide account held for this purpose or via Paypal. 

    Account name: Adrian Hotten, Nationwide, sort code: 07-01-16 account number: 31466776. Paypal to suejoanpeat@gmail.com

    Zoom link https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82632129836 

    Meeting ID: 826 3212 9836, Passcode: 755359