Sean and Kieran Murphy, two former Waldorf students now living in Kerry have created a beautiful new ice cream cookbook. The Book of Sweet Things is now available on amazon.co.uk as well as in Irish bookshops both North and South.

Last Saturday Johannes Moora from Camphill Glencraig brought two German musicians to Dingle. For the story, click on http://sessionsounds.blogspot.com/

The ALFA Project, Active Learning for Adolescents, Steiner-based, secondary education in Co. Clare,Ireland, seeks to fill the following positions:o One full-time and two part-time experienced teachers of both academic and craft subjects who will carry the work with young people from 13-16. Understanding of Steiner Education essential. o Researcher, who will research 'active learning' and Steiner Education to further the work of Alfa.
For full job descriptions and specs contact; Peggy Boyle, The ALFA Project;Main St., Scarriff; Co Clare, office@alfaproject.org or Tel 353-(0)61- 640798. See our website at www.alfaproject.org

Festival at Raheen Wood School

Last Friday evening, April 25, a group met at the Raheen Wood Steiner School to discuss a teacher training program in Steiner education. The school was decked out for its Spring festival the next days. Here are some photos of the offerings.

Lovely, aren't they?

Gardeners and Growers!
Prelude for the upcoming activities of the Biodynamic Agricultural Association of Ireland (see events list below)

Have you ever hear of Ehrenfried Pfeiffer? As an organic farmer or gardener you might have read one of his books: Grow a Garden & Be Self Sufficient—still the best introduction to organic-biodynamic horticulture. (copies available from the Office of the Biodynamic Agricultural Association, Watergarden Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny, €12.50)

Here’s an extract from an article on Pfeiffer by A.W. Martinez, Collier’s, May 31, 1952. (for the full article see http://rotheraine.com/golden_garbage.html):


The City With Golden Garbage?
Trained bacteria, turned loose on the refuse of Oakland, Cal., produce a rich, sweet-smelling fertilizer that’s guaranteed to perform near miracles for farm land. It’s like backyard compost, and it could save the nation billions of dollars.

Dr. Ehrenfried E. Pfeiffer, German-born biochemist
One morning in October, 1950, two strangers walked into the office of Tony Dalcino, president of the Oakland Scavenger Company, with a proposition that turned Dalcino’s casual smile into a look of utter disbelief. His callers wanted to know whether the company would let them have part of the daily haul of garbage from the city of Oakland, California. They hoped, they said, to put the garbage on an assembly line and sell it!

The two visitors were Richard Stovroff, a young owner of a wastepaper business in Buffalo, New York. The other was Dr. Ehrenfried E. Pfeiffer, German-born biochemist, holder of an honorary U.S. medical degree, and lifelong experimenter with new ways to grow better food.

Pfeiffer, a tall, robust, pink-cheeked man with an infectious twinkle, explained. In the course of his researches he had discovered a new ‘race” of bacteria which converts garbage into a sweet-smelling black earth fertilizer which could perform virtual miracles for the land. A tablespoon of the bacteria, grown in test tubes, could turn a ton of garbage into rich humus in three weeks.
Pfeiffer told Dalcino: “It costs the American taxpayers a few billion dollars a year when we throw away as garbage the precious minerals and organic material we take out of the soil in the form of food. At the same time it costs farmers nearly $7,000,000,000 a year to put some of these minerals back in the ground in the form of chemical fertilizers. That doesn’t make sense.” He had, he added, decided to do something about it ever since his arrival in the U.S. in 1940 as a refugee from war-ravaged Europe.

In control tests at Pfeiffer’s Biochemical Research Laboratory at Spring Valley, New York, vegetables grown in this converted garbage weighed 25 per cent more than those grown with conventional fertilizers, with from one to three times more vitamin A. The garbage-compost treated soil showed from one to four times as much life-giving nitrogen, and grain showed a consistently higher protein content. Laboratory experiments proved that the mixture could restore even sterile sandy soil to vigorous fertility and make rich farm land out of desert if adequate water was available. The converted garbage restored organic matter, mineral balance and structure, giving soil body, and permitting it to absorb and hold water. The organic matter released a powerful concentration of bacteria whose digestive activities and decay created plant foods, soil-binding humus and released nitrogen.

Alas, the city of Oakland did not take Pfeiffer up on his offer. Now, half a century on, have we moved on, or found anything better?

We invite everyone interested in learning more about Pfeiffer’s biodynamic approach to composting farmyard manure and barrel composting to participate under the Skillnet programme at the following venues and events:

11 AM – 4 PM on each of the following dates:
May 9, June 6, and July 4, plus a date in September to be confirmed,
at Camphill Jerpoint, Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny
or
May 16, June 13, and July 11 plus a date in September to be confirmed
at John McDonnell’s farm, Shalvanstown Organics,
Slane, Co Meath

We will also assess the state of the compost via microscopy in order to establish the soil-food-web and create “Barrel Compost” the backyard gardeners gold ! Please bring appropriate clothing, overalls, boots, (a dungfork if you can)

Registration prior to the events essential at the BdAAI office

We look forward to seeing you all, as we will hardly have another 50 years to move to a sustainable agriculture!

-- Michael Miklis, Biodynamic Agricultural Association in Ireland, Watergarden, Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny, Tel. / Fax. 056-7754214, Email bdaai@indigo.ie
Website www.biodynamic.ie

Stuttgart Eurythmeum in Dingle

This week we had a visit from the Stuttgart Eurythmeum (website in German) with a performance of the Grimm fairytale “The King of the Golden Mountain” at the Diseart chapel in Dingle. It was attended by 1^st year students as well as a special needs group from Camphill and a few interested people. The costumes were beautiful and numerous requiring many rapid changes. The eurythmy was very fluid and expressive depicting the various archetypes of the story.

Eurythmy is described by Wikipedia as a movement art developed by Rudolf Steiner with Marie von Sivers in the early 20^th Century. Primarily a performance art, it is also used in education, especially in Waldorf School and as a movement therapy.

The word eurythmy stems from Greek roots meaning beautiful or harmonious rhythm; the term was used by Greek and Roman archetects to refer to a harmonious balance of proportion in a design or building.

Furthur performances of the Eurythmeum: 18th April Camphill Dunshane 12 noon, 19th April Camphill Ballytobin 4 pm, 20th April Camphill Glencraig.

--Finbarr Murphy

Monday April 7th 2008 at the Silver Springs Hotel in Cork City at 7pm - "Biodynamic food and its effect on consciousness" a talk by Wendy Cook

The Christian Community in Clare

Preparations for the Confirmation:
Saturday 29th March
help is needed for cleaning of the Mountshannon Hall and St. Caimin's Church, decorating, laying out tables and chairs, cleaning cups etc. Time; 10 am
Please bring or send flowers, greenery etc. for decorations and tablecloths

Sunday 30th March
Confirmation Ceremony in St. Caimin's Church Mountshannon

10.30 am - 12.00 noon, meeting afterwards in Mountshnnon Hall for presentations, tea's/coffee and light refreshments.

Help is needed in providing cakes, biscuits, finger food etc. They can be delivered to the Hall prior to the ceremony at 12.30
EVERYONE WELCOME
Contact Peter Shields (co-ordinator) 087 6455955

Dear Friends,
Caroline Kelly would like to let you know, that if someone from the congregation would like to join the confirmands and their families for Sunday dinner at the East Clare Golf Club in Bodyke (plain cooking and lovely views, 3 courses for under Euro 20.00) to contact her for booking.
email: cphkelly@gmail.com or mobile phone 087 6287006
Regards
Anne Benham

BUILDING BRIDGES RETREATS AND WORKSHOPS

The aim of the retreats and workshops is to provide a safe space where people may explore inner challenges and crises, working from an anthroposophical understanding of the human being as body, soul and spirit.

Some life events that may have caused pain and suffering often hold the key to transformation, hope and joy. A true listening space for shared biography can help their spiritual significance to emerge. Artistic activities access the imaginative dimension and strengthen social awareness. Stories, myths and legends release the mind from everday concerns, inviting the language of archetypal images belonging to the soul's journey to appear. Thematic talks complement the interactive processes and provide sustance for deeper reflection, conversation and questions.

Facilitators invite enquiries from any group, community or organisation. The character and form of the retreats may be adapted to suit the needs of particular groups.

For information, costs and venues contact: Linda McKeown, Building Bridges Ireland, 5, Martello Terrace, Holywood, County Down BT 18 9 BE, Tel: 02890 424607 email: building healing bridges@yahoo.co.uk

Sean Christopher Byrne has created a fine new website featuring his books To Hell or Rome, Gnosis, Poems for the Path. More books are in the works. http://www.spiritofsophia.co.uk/

The above illustration, featured on the website, is of the Cumaean Sybil, depicted here by 15th century Italian Renaissance artist, Andrea del Castagno - courtesy the Castagno Museum, Florence.

NOTICE: NOTHING IS MORE URGENT THAN THIS!!!

PLEASE PARTICIPATE.

Dear Friends,
In the new postcard design above you will see the Goethe motif that accompanies our quest to find 1600 ELIANT activists who will undertake to collect 432 signatures each by the end of November...presently there are 300 such people.
In 2008 the signature campaign to secure legal frarmework conditions for anthroposophic initiatives in Europe is entering its most vital phase: We need to achieve one million signatures!
We very much hope that we will also be able to find the financial means necessary to spread and evaluate our campaign: for poster, signature lists and advertising materials, translating the information into different European languages, recording and attributing signatures by country, replying to enquiries that come in via email, post and fax, regular communication with supporters and sponsor members across the world (currently in 100 countries) and attending events in order to collect signatures.
(NB Between the 24th and 29th of March 200 of these postcards will be tied to balloons and released into the surrounding area from the Goetheanum terrace during the big teachers' conference. We are excited to see whether heaven will send us a few very special signatures by this means).
On behalf of the Alliance we invite you most warmly to participate. Even small donations are very welcome.
Thank you for your help!
Dr Juergen Erdmenger, Mikolai Fuchs, Dr Michaelas Gloeckler, Thomas Goeing, Guenther Schulz, Heike Sommer, Christof Wiechert.
Donation accounts: Germany and International: Aktion ELIANT account no.: 790 255 50 01 sort code: 430 609 67 GLS Gemeinschaftsbank eG, Christstr. 9, D-44789, Bochum, Germany. IBAN: DE66 4306 0697 7902 5550 01, BIC/Swift: GENODM1GLS
For donations to the ELIANT campaign received into the German account, we will send you a donation certificate. Please give your name and address for this purpose.

Many thanks to all for your active support of ELIANT. Till the end of November we will go on with concentrated forces to reach 673.000 more signatures, so please keep collecting signatures in your organization, school or practice, to spread the signature forms and to say a few words during events or conferences. Postcards and information materials available on our website info@eliant.eu
With kind regards
Thomas Göing

Message from Jonathan Angus at the Raheen Wood School

Dear Friends,

As you've probably heard by now, the Irish Government has approved the applications for two new national schools, teaching the primary curriculum using the methods espoused by Rudolf Steiner. This is exciting news, and it marks the beginning of a new phase of development for Waldorf education in Ireland.I wanted to take this opportunity to inform you of some upcoming offerings from the Irish Steiner Teaching Institute.

Next month, on Friday, 14th March, also at 7.30, MaryJo Oresti will be visiting from the United States, and will give a presentation on the theme of Trauma: helping children develop resilience. This promises to be an encouraging and useful talk, and you are warmly invited to attend.

Susan Perrow, author of Healing Stories, will visit Ireland on 15th and 16th March as part of a world tour to present two workshops, called Therapeutic Storytelling and Creative Discipline. If you are interested in attending either of these, please contact training@steinerireland.org

And finally, the Easter courses of the Foundations in Anthroposophy will be open to a select number of individuals. The subjects are Watercolour Painting with Dick Bruin (from Holland), Eutony with Helene Roitinger (from Austria), Speech with John Nixon and Introduction to Anthroposophical Medicine with Dr. Maria van den Berg (both from Northern Ireland). You can sign up for one, two or all four subjects, but please do so soon, as spaces are limited.

To register, please contact
training@steinerireland.org

For more information, please open the attached fliers. If you would care to print and post any of these, it would be most appreciated. If you have further questions, feel free to address them to me.

I wish you all a wonderful and productive spring.
Jonathan Angus for the Teaching Institute

Open the following address for details on the Mary Jo Oresti talk: http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=1&realattid=f_fcnl18m91&attid=0.2&disp=vah&view=att&th=1181931e13ea63b6
For details of the Therapeutic Storytelling: http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=1&realattid=f_fcnl1dvx2&attid=0.3&disp=vah&view=att&th=1181931e13ea63b6
For the open courses at Easter: http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=1&realattid=f_fcnl1mfn3&attid=0.4&disp=vah&view=att&th=1181931e13ea63b6

FROM THE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY IN COUNTY CLARE

Dear Friends, Please mark this date in your calendar:
the all Ireland conference 2008, which had to be postponed at Epiphany

will take place on Friday 12th and Saturday 13th September 2008.

Venue: "live at the marquee" in Tuamgraney, Co. Clare.
Program and registration forms to follow shortly.
Kind regards
Anne Benham
congregational correspondent

anne.benham@yahoo.ie

Letter from Jonathan Angus:

Dear Friends, as you may have heard, the Irish Government has approved the applications for two new national schools, teaching the primary curriculum using the methods espoused by Rudolf Steiner. This is exciting news, and it marks the beginning of a new phase of development for Waldorf education in Ireland.

TWO EVENTS

1. Early Childhood Education Programme presents
Open Courses at Easter 2008

5 days : 25th - 29th March, 9.30am - 5.30pm

at Raheen Wood School, Tuamgraney, Co Clare
You are welcome to join the students on the Early Childhood Education Programme

for five days of classes on interesting and creative themes:

· Introduction to Anthroposophical Medicine with Dr Maria van den Berg
· Watercolour Painting: with Dick Bruin
· Eutony : with Helene Roitinger, musician and eutony therapist
· Introduction to Artistic Speech : with John Nixon

Cost: €75/topic for 5 days or €300 for full week’s programme
A cooked lunch is available each day at a cost of €8.
Prior booking essential
For more information or to book a place please email: training@steinerireland.org


2. Irish Steiner Kindergarten Association

& Early Childhood Education Programme

present
Two Workshops:

Sat 15th March: Therapeutic Storytelling

Sun 16th March: Creative Discipline
With Susan Perrow

at Raheen Wood School, Tuamgraney, Co Clare
Cost: €55 per workshop, incl. lunch
Discount: €95 for both workshops

For more information or to book a place on the workshop please email:

email:training@steinerireland.org

SUSAN PERROW (M Ed) has an extensive background (24 years) in storytelling, early childhood teaching and facilitating courses. In 1986 she founded the first Steiner Kindergarten in Byron Bay, Australia, and in 2000 developed the first course on Storytelling for an Australian University (S.C.U.). Over the last twelve years Susan has worked in Teacher Training and Parent Education in Australia, Kenya and South Africa, specialising in storytelling, therapeutic story writing and creative discipline. A writer of children’s stories for twenty years, she has several collections published locally. Her resource book on ‘Healing Stories’ will be published by Hawthorn Press in the U.K., March 2008.

One Day Event: A look at the life and work of Vernon Watkins and W.B. Yeats at the Writers Museum, Parnell Square, Dublin
Saturday December 1 2007
short prepared contributions, recitations, music, imaginative exercises and conversation.
Breaks for coffee and lunch in a nearby restaurant.
For more information: Sean Byrne, 1 Martello Terrace, Holywood, Co. Down BT18 9BE
phone 028 9042 2910 sean@ageoldbooks.fsnet.co.uk

HOLY NIGHTS CONFERENCE

at

Camphill Community Ballytobin

on

4 and 5 January 2008

A series of talks and discussions examining the deeper historical challenges facing Europe in the 21st century

In March 1925, the last month of his life, in a conversation about the true tasks and possibilities of Europe, and the forces of opposition to these, Rudolf Steiner named three problems, or questions, that urgently needed 'solving':

"The queston of the two Johns

Where did Kaspar Hauser come from?

Who was Dmitri?"

It is these three questions which we intend to discuss during the conference.

PROGRAMME

Friday 4th January

6:30 pm registration/arrivals with light refreshments

7.00 Introductions with music

7.30 'The question of the Two Johns' by Richard Ramsbotham, followed by discussion

Close with music

Saturday 5th January

Introducion

10.00 'Where did Kaspar Hauser come from?' by Terry Boardman, followed by discussion

11.30 Break

12.00 artistic activity together with bells

1.00 Lunch

2.30 'Who was Dmitri?' by Markus Osterrieder, followed by discussion

4.00 Break

4.30 Conversation; connecting with where we are now

5.30 Rounding off and end with music

Light refreshments follow for journey home

Contribution/fee €25. Booking before December 20

For more information:

Mark Dwan, Camphill Community Ballytobin, Callan, Co. Kilkenny

086 853 9342, markdwan@camphill.ie

Lecture on Reading and Writing by Gordon Woolard

Fri Nov 16 19:30 - 21:30 (Dublin) Raheen Wood School, Tuamgraney this Friday at Raheen Wood School. Gordon Woolard will speak on the subject of Writing and Reading, the processes we go through in developing these faculties, and the challenges that can arise. An expert on dyslexia and its treatment through the use of movement, drawing and painting exercises and resident of England, Gordon has become a regular visitor to Raheen Wood School as one of the core tutors on the Healing Education and Resource Teaching (HEART) programme. If you have attended any of his previous presentations, you know that his warm and engaging approach to his subject is not to be missed. This is the first of two visits scheduled for this year. There will be a follow-up presentation as part of his second visit, also open to the general public. The theme of that lecture, on Friday, 15 February, will be Mathematics and Discalcula. Please consider joining us this Friday at Raheen Wood School for this stimulating presentation.

For more information contact Jonathan at 061 926 889 or mailto:jonathan.angus@gmail.com

An introduction to Anthroposophical Medicine and Therapies

by Dr Nick Blitz
8pm

Wednesday 07 November 2007

Camphill Community Greenacres
Upper Kilmacud Rd (Beside Airfield House)
Dublin 14

info at 01 – 298 7618

illustration: Bryony by Walther Roggenkamp for Weleda

Castalia Eurythmy

Poetry of Ireland by Seamus Heaney performed with Speech, Eurythmy and Music

in Northern Ireland

Thursday, November 15, 7.30pm at Camphill Glencraig, Holywood, Belfast

Friday, November 16, 2.00pm at St. Columb's College, Buncranagh Road, Derry, and 7.30pm Verbal Arts Centre, Stable Lane, Derry

Saturday, November 17, 7.00pm, Samhain Poetry Festival, Gortahork, Co. Donegal see:www.samhainpoetry.com

for more information: breedamannix@hotmail.com

The Anthroposophical Society in Ireland and Camphill Greenacres warmly invites you to

Goethe's theory of colour- playing for freedom

a public lecture by Dr Malin Starrett

This lecture and demonstration gives an overview of the relevance of Goethe’s theory of colour today, with a comparison to the current dominant viewpoint. Theories of how we see tend to have wideranging consequences for the whole of society.
Wednesday 17th October 2007, 8pm
Camphill Community Greenacres
Upper Kilmacud Rd (Beside Airfield House)
Dundrum
Dublin 14
Tel 01 298 7618

TWO EVENTS:


“Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy – An Introduction”
Wednesday, October 3, 8 pm

Talk by Daniel Newman
at Greenacres Camphill Community
Upper Kilmacud Rd (beside Airfield)
Dundrum
Dublin 14
Tel 01 - 298 7618
greenacres@camphill.ie



...Ruth Marshall, publisher of Holistic Network Ireland Magazine, sends the following:

'I was sent a brochure about a workshop taking place in October at Pishwanton Wood, near Edinburgh. Pishwanton is a wonderful place, home to the Life Science Trust, and where I took part in a couple of the long sessions on the 2-year journey that was “The New Hibernian Way” (combining Goethean science and art) some years ago under the guidance of Margaret Calquhoun et al. For more info contact : The Life Science Trust, Pedlar's Way, Gifford, East Lothian EH41 4JD Scotland. Tel: 01620 810 259'

For more information click here: Goethe's Colour Theory