Shiva's and Metta's Mother's Sutra

Tube station Well, London. I saw Josh. I saw Francoise. I ate Turkish food. I saw Blake. I sat in a pub and drank gin. I rode the Tube. London is definitely a lot grimier and grottier than when I last saw it three years ago. It was really not a pleasant place to be in. There were pockets of real wealth alongside such serious homelessness. We think we have a homeless problem... no, we do not. LONDON has a homeless problem. It is everywhere. There is so much homelessness than it has become pervasive. It has actually become so ridiculous that I felt unsafe on the streets. How can they think of spending so much money on Big Ben? How could they just ignore what's going on, the media, the politicians. No wonder people want Brexit. I really worry what will happen to the UK come the 31st.  Right. I don't know what to say. I have been at sixes and sevens the entire time in January. It has been hell really. I need to think about what is happening. I didn't get a chance t...

From Revelations Before the 21st century, there was Blake. A visionary like no other. A man of and not quite of his time. His paintings conceived in light and by light. He was a cosmic radio, receiving the beautiful and incredible. I had no idea QUITE how revolutionary and amazing he was. No wonder, no wonder he was such an inspiration. Detaiol Imagine he was doing this when Reynolds and Gainsborough were producing their stupid paintings It is easy to see why Blake chose to work in the medium he did, instead of oil. Watercolour and ink gave the most mobility - everything in his work was translucent. It all glowed with beauty.  Everything is an attempt to be human There is so much in Blake which prefigures anthroposophy - this is why Steiner isn't original, but he follows a tradition. He follows something which comes before and which has gone on since.  I sought Pleasure and found Pain. Ununtterable. Blakes honesty as well is such a wellspring o...

Moon and the Sun After doing so well in the past two weeks leading up to the new year. I have slightly fallen apart. It has been a bit hell not having any motivation nor energy and I just want to sleep all the time. I know what I need to do but I just can't be arsed to do it - and this has gone on since January. I feel a bit like Betelgeuse. Sigh. I don't understand what is wrong with me... or what is going on with me? It just isn't like me at all. Right... I need to wise up. So first, the inspections are over. They were a very interesting exercise. Firstly, I thought that they had an impossible task. What exactly were the measuring if they didn't have tests since we didn't do tests? Then, secondly, they were in for a very short while. So what did they know about our school? I thought that was mental that they only observed small amounts of the lessons. Then finally, they have no idea what governs our school, the principles which we practice. I am i hug...

La Lune It has been a great day. First waking up and hanging out with the boys, then drawing the moon, getting the final bits of prep ready for school, and finally doing the weekly shop. The boys hoovered the house. The shop was in budget and I was feeling good about things. I don't know what it is about astronomy. I do not think it is possible to be in a bad mood if you are looking at the stars. If you are looking at the stars, everything is small stuff. Especially the very small stuff. So, this evening, loads of lesson prep and then more lesson prep... and then laundry. I am going to catch up with laundry later on this evening. Drawing the Moon made me realise that it was so fascinating. What were all these features? How large were they? Some of these chasms were twice the size of the Grand Canyon which I'd imagine is very large. These 'seas' were not seas basaltic lava flows which were almost 4 billion years old. The Earth - in fact the entire solar sys...

And a great evening was had by all Pheasant pluckers And the pheasant was no more Didn't even know this place existed What we saw... Yesterday, I put out a call to see the stars. I said, I am terrified of going to Nendrum so would anyone like to come along? And people said, yes!!! Then Celia Spoucer offered her place - a house beside a 4,000 year old neolithic site. I hadn't seen Celia for AGES so I said, absolutely!!! Let us go!!! So Emma, Sarah, Eileen and then Zoe! and the four girls turned up. It was quite a troop by the time we all landed in Celia's kitchen. A brace of pheasants greeted us and Emma instantly decided she was going to have the feathers. But the STARS!!! OMG. We saw EVERYTHING... The Milky Way!!! Since we had been doing astronomy in school Milla was well prepared. I had brought the iPad and showed people the star map and talked about the stars we expected to see. The various constellations. So there was Orion. We always s...

So toot Here is some work from the last two weeks from the class. Gemini The lunar cycle Auriga Our notice The constellations we have done so far Enjoying our own local star Main Lesson book Where it all began - Orion and Taurus This time Astronomy makes so much sense.  Over the past two weeks I have really understood how to teach it. Last time I began with the stars and fell into a huge mess. This time round I began with the stars and success.  Next week we are doing the planets and the moon, but still will have the daily constellation. I'll draw that and they can draw it in their books... It is going to be so awesome. What I love is that I love teaching so much more this time round. I was so worried about it, but the class and I are settling in so well. The backwards and forwards of the lessons don't seem to phase them either. They are a really very capable class. Yes of course there are things which are different,...

Auriga Everything is going well school wise. The kids are doing well. The lessons are going great. Things are ticking along. But I myself am exhausted. Everyone else is tired too. And the world is coming to an end. Australia is on fire, the right is in the ascendancy everywhere, the ideals of love and compassion have been thrown out of the window. I can barely keep up. People are so fucking selfish and stupid. I have had to listen in the past two weeks to people become increasingly insane and mental. I wonder also if people who don't travel are very conservative? I mean if you don't get out a lot, are you someone who is more likely to end up caring about what people think? I for instance generally don't care what people think. I don't care for it from where I came from and I don't care for it from where I live now. I care a lot about how I behave and how I affect other people and trying to do my best, I care all about that. But if my best isn't good en...

Cooking with love She loved cooking. Loved it. But she didn't like any old cooking. She loved simple cooking. If always figured that if it took more than half an hour to prepare, it was a waste of time. The less time spent cooking, the better. More time to be spent eating than cooking. If you spent more time cooking it was a waste of time. For this simple reason she detested TV programmes which made such a huge deal of cooking. The nonsense around cooking, she couldn't be having. Cooking was a simple love. It should be as simple as digging in a garden. Or writing a letter. Or going for a walk. Anything else was pointless. Today was the last day before she was supposed to go shopping. She looked into the fridge and there was precious little. There were frozen chicken breasts. The frozen remains of puff pastry. And frozen peas. Chicken pie it is then, she said to herself. Boys! she shouted across.  Silence. Then - What is it? Is chicken pie ok for dinner? ...

Ghin's baptism. A moment to cherish forever. Our wonderful friends and this journey, on this spinning rock, the incarnation of the spirit, the coming of Christ. I was recently reminded of Rupert Sheldrake's ten dogmas of science which are holding us back. They are:- That nature is mechanical. That matter is unconscious. The laws of nature are fixed. The totally amount of matter and energy are always the same. That nature is purposeless. Biological inheritance is material. That memories are stored as material traces. The mind is in the brain. Telepathy and other psychic phenomena are illusory. Mechanistic medicine is the only kind that really works. Then, I thought of today. Or rather yesterday. Something very odd has happened since me doing astronomy this year. I have started to care a lot less about the nonsense which has taken place around me. There is something very comforting about the skies now, knowing how to read them a bit. It is al...

Full moon //''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''I have been remarkably exhausted over the last week. I did manage to do some knitting yesterday but everything else - nope. A biiig positive is that I have cut down an alcohol. But the running has not started up in any meaningful way. And I have not written anything by way of creative output or even a blog since Tuesday - apart from the last one. School is going great though - everything else, not so much. By not so much I mean not so much is happening. But I am usually happy because I am doing astronomy. This time round I am ready - I know what I want to teach. How much I can teach and what is possible for kids their age. I stretch them a bit, give them a bit of magic. Build on what we already have. Bring them to some sense of wonder of the stars above them. But the thing for me is, th...

Meow It was a very chilled holiday. There is something I can't argue about. It is now taking me about a week to find the new rhythms of the week, especially since there are many new things which we have taken up. So, in addition to school and the new business, and all the other ADMIN stuff, there is also a new course I have done on the anthroposophical perspective of light and electricity and learning Irish! Then there is piano, writing, art and gardening. Plus housework. So that is house completely full. The house of 2020 completely full. Plus I have to organise the trip to Florence for next year. I have not blogged or written in my journal since school began. It is so tiring I don't know how I used to do it. I guess I was younger then? In 2013, I asked for a quiet life. I purposely said, I have had enough of adventure. So I purposely had a very quiet life. I boring life was what I wanted. A life in which I went to work, did stuff, came home and just could not be bo...

Art - Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966) “I wasn't given my wings I had to grow my own. I had to fight for them. Strengthen them. Breathe life into them time and time again. They were no gift. They are signs of my sweat, blood, tears, faith, story, bravery, beauty and love. But I have made them my gift to the world" S.C. Lourie

This week Anatomy of a constellation What a week!!! Back to school and we started with Astronomy. I have to say I am a far far FAR better teacher today than I was two years ago re Astronomy. I think I am a far better teacher, full stop really. What has really improved with me, if I had to say, are two things: first, I know how to read the class better. Secondly, I have more in my arsenal to bring out. I know what I need to do more. I am not working this blind. Whereas with my previous class, it really was like I was a first time captain. This time round, it feels like I am more certain of what's going on and what can be done. There are times of course when I am flabbergasted, no idea what's going on, but really, I now know what is important for the children. What is important is that you connect with them - and Steiner said that there is a direct connection to the children. You must see it as if you have wires coming out of yourself, touching their plates. There is thi...