Last September, 16 people gathered Emerson College for the launch of the Quietude® Practitioner Training, a new seven weekend modular training, teaching spiritual care on the journey of death and dying. The first weekend was very moving with an introduction to the different stages of dying, exercises in listening with loving presence, participants exploring their own experiences with death through drawing and sharing, and a beautiful evening ceremony honouring loved ones who had died.

Quietude Students co-creating a visual timeline of their journey over the year

 I was fortunate enough to have been able to attend the Mental Health Seminar over the last three years. The course is formed and carried in a truly collaborative way by the main teachers who bring the participants the riches of their own research and experience, and also facilitate each participant to go on their own journey to a deepened self-knowledge.  

Students from our Holistic Baby & Childcare course were finally able to enjoy a long-awaited residential at Emerson and meet in person for the first time.

The gardens at Emerson are legendary. The ancient trees, the landscape, the views and the biodiversity are all second to none. And if you look closely, you will find an endless display of medicinal plants in and around the gardens.

I have just recieved my first ever Rhythmical Einreibung (RE) Treatment from Fiona Simm. Before recieving the treatment, I knew nothing at all about it, and didn’t even know how to pronounce it. I now am feeling so good after the first experience, I will try to put words to it.

Firstly I have to say it’s unlike anything I’ve ever experienced in terms of massage or touch. None of the trainings I’ve had in Swedish massage, aromatherapy massage, reflexology, or biodynamic massage comes close to it, although the latter has hints of it. Nor is it like Thai yoga massage or shiatsu, which I’ve experienced as a client. It’s because it’s not really about the actual concrete physical body as such: nor is it about hovering over parts of the body, like in methods of spiritual healing, reiki or chakra balancing. 

What is the secret of this particular kind of touch?

In April this year, Steve Briault wrote to the faculty to let them know that it was agreed, with the Board of trustees and directors, that his interim role as Education Director would come to an end on June 30^th this year.  

Mythology exists in every culture, in every nation and every land. Why?
One reason may be that it is the voice of the land speaking through the souls of the people who lived there. It has existed for thousands of years, expressing eternal truths still relevant today.

But today, in many ways, we are cut off from Nature, from Mother Earth and from the Great Goddess. We live in cities, in buildings, in concrete and think we have ‘tamed’ and ‘harnessed’ nature to serve our consumer needs. How can myths still teach us what it means to be human and to guide us on a spiritual path of what is human and what is Divine and how the two interact?

In November 2020 Emerson Education partner, Innessa Burdich, brought her Research In Spiritual Science course to Emerson. The first module was enthusiastically recieved by all participants and the next course is already planned.  To enable people to get a sense of what the course brings we asked Innessa a few questions about her inspiration and methodology behind the course.

Heartwood Botanic is based in the Rachel Carson Centre at Emerson College in Forest Row. We run the apothecary garden which is part of Emerson's 22-acre biodynamic garden that also comprises a vegetable garden, an orchard, a memorial garden and ornamental areas, located on the edge of the Ashdown Forest within hundreds of acres of land that has been under biodynamic cultivation for well over half a century.

A reflection on our work here at Emerson

Since the beginning, Emerson’s purpose has been helping students to find their way to meaningful action by creating ‘a space for people to flourish’ inspired by Anthroposophy.  Whilst the essence of what we do is embedded in the very being of the College, the way in which we bring this into action has changed over the years.

On Friday 15^th November a very special ‘Evenings@Emerson’ event took place in Ruskin Hall – a concert by Aeham Ahmad, known as the Pianist of Yarmouk, combined with readings from the book detailing his experiences by Barbara Schiller of stART International.

This year we celebrated the first Emerson Alumni Gathering in twenty years which brought together 113 former students from around the globe.

Theme, Format and Organisation

The theme ‘Listening to our Time, Speaking to the Stars’ was chosen to reflect the current gesture of Emerson College in relation to its wider purpose in the world. The global community of alumni joined together to ‘honour the past, meet and share in the present and welcome the future’ through individual initiative and collaboration. Alumni from the 1960s to the 2000s contributed out of what they had developed inspired by their time here. The result was a rich programme of workshops, dialogue, art and encounter. 

To create such an event would not have been possible without our volunteer event coordinator and alumna Linda Churnside. A former teacher at Michael Hall School and Education Coordinator at Philpots Manor, she brought her strength of will, powers of organisation, and personal warmth to the task. 

On the 7th August, the Gathering began with an open space devoted to honouring those no longer with us, followed by an introduction to the theme by Emerson Trustee James Dyson. Over the next three days, discussions flowed from past to present to future.

The Foundation for Water, an independent charity within the Emerson College campus, is continuing the work of John Wilkes and George Adams for water and nature. Over the last few years, with only meagre resources, we have focused on setting up infrastructure for an international expansion of influence and in reorganising our main physical asset, the 'water building' on the Sussex campus at the same time as conducting a thoroughly scientific 'Energizing Water' research programme funded by Software AG Stiftung in Germany.

Jupiter and Saturn were waiting for us. There they were, shining down on us every night from the clear skies over Emerson College, visible to even the most ammeter star gazer with the expert help of John Meeks. He explained that they are making their way silently across the sky on their individual paths to a meeting planned for the winter solstice, 21st December 2020. We wondered what they might be preparing to say to each other and what they might say to us of their journey. But of course they remain silent – and maybe offer us an invitation to listen with our understanding and our eyes. We are left contemplating what we might say to them.

The Lifeways team and participants had also been planning their journeys and were delighted to meet during the joyful babble that is registration. Workshops booked. Forms filled in. Sun hats remembered!! Many questions were asked and answers offered. Which room am I in? Where is it? Where do I pitch my tent? Which workshops have I booked? Did I remember to tell you about my child’s allergy? And so, starting in the heat and under a bright blue sky, the weeks not-so-silent meetings that made lifeways 2019 were in the last stage of preparation.

Next the conversations catching up with news from Lifeways friends over supper. Then listening to the workshop leaders sharing what they would be offering during the week ahead. What a choice it was ! What glorious opportunities there were going to be to practise creating space within ourselves to listen.

Rhythmical Einreibung (RE) is a method of gentle, therapeutic touch developed by anthroposophic nurses. One of the enormous benefits of RE is that it can be used by health care professionals in many situations where traditional forms of massage cannot be used: with acutely ill patients or patients with chronic conditions; with women who are in labour; with cancer patients who have undergone extensive treatment, and with end of life patients who would be too frail for traditional massage. There are also many ways that RE can be used outside of a traditional health care environment, for example by parents and by those caring for people with special needs.

Over the last three years, along with two other nurses, I have been exploring how complementary treatments can be used in a hospice environment to help provide end of life care. I spend eight hours per week delivering complementary therapies to in-patients, which include both RE and ‘M’ Technique, two types of ‘therapeutic touch’ techniques developed by nurses. They are both very low risk, being gentle and following a set sequence, and can be used by professionals and non-professionals in certain circumstances.