Friday-Saturday November 8 - 9, 2008
Location: Novalis Hall, Nottawasaga Village, 7481 4th line, Angus

Stairway of Surprise: 
A Two-Day Workshop with Michael Lipson, PhD

 "I shall mount to paradise
             By the stairway of surprise"
                        - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Where do thoughts come from? What lies at the basis of our world of sights and sounds?  Can we learn to feel fresh feelings, or must our feelings grow stale and dead?  What is life's meaning, what is it for?  What are we to do? How can our planet be saved?
 These fundamental questions cannot be answered, or even adequately posed from out of  normal consciousness.  To move more deeply into such questions, we need to pursue a path of spiritual development

This weekend workshop will offer exercises in consciousness that are suitable both for beginning and advanced students of meditation.  These six exercises were initially formulated by Rudolf Steiner.  They prompt us to move beyond our habitual world of separation and to enter a more unobstructed level of consciousness that is our true source of meaning, purpose and love.

Saturday, November 8 from 1:00pm - 8:30 pm
Sunday, November 9 from 9:30am - 3:00pm

Michael Lipson, PhD, is the author of The Stairway of Surprise, a re-working of Rudolf Steiner's six 'supplementary' exercises, and the translator of many works by R. Steiner and by Georg Kuehlewind.  A Clinical Psychologist in independent practice in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, he teaches meditation internationally.

Cost: Complete Event $150
(including Saturday dinner, Sunday lunch and snacks)

The Spiritual In Art

…a water colour painting course with Italian art master, Donald Hall

June 28/29, 2008 at Novalis Hall, 7841 4th line, Angus, Ontario

Explore the 'light' energy of the Black Madonna and experience Donald Hall's inspired approach to art history and his unique insights into the work of the great Italian masters.

Educate your senses and gain a practical understanding of Goethe's theory of colour.

Learn Donald's engaging exercises in colour, form and composition.

Enjoy meaningful social exchange with kindred spirits old and new.

Experience the tranquil, rural ambience of Novalis Hall and environs.

Create your own rite of passage into summer.

Mornings: 9.30-12.30pm       Afternoons: 2.00-4.30pm

Please bring dry watercolours or a set of Pelikan watercolour cakes and brushes-suggested sizes small, three quarters and one inch. Bring your own easel if possible-some can be provided. Course suited to beginners and advanced students alike.
        
Course fee, including paper, lunches and snacks: $225
(a non-refundable deposit of $35 is due before June 10) Cheques payable to Ita Wegman Foundation, 92 Mary St., Barrie, ONL4N1T1

“In working with Donald Hall and in hearkening to his profound insights on the great masters, I have renewed my connection with painting.”           
Denis Schneider, art teacher

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Presenting an Earth Day Concert with Mary Anderson and friends

The Haunting Magic
of the Celtic Harp

Sunday April 22 at 3pm
Location: Novalis Hall, 7841 4th Line, Angus, Ontario
Admission: $20 including refreshments

"One of Canada's finest harpists."
- Ottawa Folklore Center

"Simply a superb musician with a growing
reputation for excellence"
- Kitchener Waterloo Record

"Enough exuberance to set your feet to
dance and your heart to dream .."
- Folkharp Journal

Mary Anderson began her career as a harpist studying at the Royal Conservatory of music. Mary has evolved a style that encompasses traditional, jazz, classical, contemporary and popular sounds. Her playing has been called "aggressive", "refreshing", and "spirited", and she has been dubbed one of Canada's finest folk harpers.

Special Guest Rev. Bonnie Kelly will present
Maude’s Newfoundland Memories
The character of Maude is a composite of the many wonderful Newfoundland women that Rev. Kelly lived and worked with in her native Newfoundland when she served a United Church parish there. Maude has been shaped by a vibrant, happy community life and by the wild waves of the sea. Come and listen to her tales... She's sure to give you a laugh!

Please reserve by calling 1-705-722-5408
rsvp@novalisproject.com
Mailing address: Novalis Project, 92 Mary Street, Barrie, ONL4N ITI

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A Watercolour Painting Course with Donald Hall,
art professor and water colour artist from Bolzano, Italy

The Mystic Mastery of Raphael

Saturday-Sunday, March 24-25, 2007

Raphael exalted the art of painting to an expression of the divine and revealed the spiritual dimensions of colour and form. We can discover the true purpose of art in the study of his work, which has endured the test of time as a source of beauty and transformation in human hearts. Drawing on Goethe’s classic theory, participants will create colour combinations that give entry to the secret world of Raphael’s creations. The hidden power of the good, the beautiful and the true to which the work of this painter attests will reveal themselves in these exercises. The course will also include short talks on the history of art as it relates to Raphael. As a painter working in Italy, Donald presents an informed perspective on the classical tradition and its relevance to modern art.

Mornings: 9.30-12.00am:
Learn to see colour and find the right technique. Explore a living process to raise consciousness and feeling with the guidance of a superb teacher.

Afternoons: 2.00-4.30pm:
Make colour sketches and light/dark charcoal drawings to express the formal nature of objects and their relationship to one another.
Please bring dry watercolours or a set of Pelikan watercolour cakes and brushes-suggested sizes small, three quarters and one inch. An easel can be provided if you do not have your own. Course suited to beginners and practiced painters alike.

Course fee including paper, lunches and snacks: $225
(a non refundable deposit of $35 is due before March 10)

Location: Novalis Hall, 7841 4th line, Angus.

Please reserve by calling 1-705-722-5408
rsvp@novalisproject.com
Mailing address: Novalis Project, 92 Mary Street, Barrie, ONL4N ITI

“A mood of contentment prevailed during Donald Hall's opening talk and seemed to increase as participants applied themselves to his clearly articulated exercises and discourses on the history, meaning and purpose of art, delivered between painting sessions when we clustered in rapt attention around him.”
- Lilipoh Magazine, Fall 2006

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Workshops 2006 | HOME

Friday-Saturday October 13 - 14
Location: Cornerstone, 78 Toronto St., Barrie

Peace
The Spiritual Challenge of our Time
with Dr. Michael Lipson, clinical psychologist

Lecture: Friday, 7:30-9:00pm, $20
Our world is breaking apart into deadly wars. Meaningful peace between nations or individuals (horizontal peace) depends on our first making peace with the heavens (vertical peace). The process demands an infinite strengthening of our feeling life. This evening lecture establishes the basis for the meditative process that the Saturday workshop will engage.

Workshop: Saturday, 9:30-4:30pm
We will practice exercises of spiritual peacemaking through group and dyadic meditations, working from inspired texts and with everyday problems and conflicts. Through group meditative practice and reporting, we will help one another to make peace with the heavens and to transform the heart into a perceptive organ.

Michael Lipson, PhD, is a Clinical Psychologist in independent practice in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. The translator of Steiner's Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path and numerous books by G. Kuehlewind, he is the author of The Stairway of Surprise: Six Steps to a Creative Life. He teaches meditation and related themes internationally.

Cost:
Complete Event $100 (including snacks)

Lecture only:$20

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Saturday, November 11, 1:30-4:30pm

Hospitality that Heals

A conversation with John and Carrie Schuchardt, who founded the House of Peace in Ipswich, Massachusetts in 1990, so that victims of war might live in therapeutic community with working adults who have disabilities. In the last 16 years, John and Carrie have welcomed over 400 refugees from approximately 30 countries into their home, offering a healing refuge from the despair of war and enabling each refugee to realize the sacred right to peace that is fundamental to every human life.

John and Carrie also participate in many activities that foster the conversion in consciousness and policies that will shift the collective focus from war to peace. They join many others in following the lead of individual conscience, which becomes a powerful redeeming force when it is exercised. Traveling to Japan in 2005 to conduct a prayer vigil and fast, they apologized as individual Americans for the atomic atrocities perpetrated in Hiroshima and Nagasaki sixty years earlier. They promised to devote themselves to building a strong spiritual base for a non-violent future.

Participants in this dialogue will learn how to create hospitality that heals in their own hearts and homes. People who care for the homeless, the sick, the disabled and the elderly will derive encouragement and inspiration from these two pioneering peacemakers. The extended Camphill family is in the process of forming an inclusive therapeutic community in the Barrie downtown area, for which Carrie and John Schuchardt will provide valuable mentorship in the course of their visit.

Location: Cornerstone, 78 Toronto St., Barrie

Suggested Donation: $30

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