Anthroposophy in Hawkes Bay
Rudolf Steiner Centre, 401 Whitehead Road, Hastings
Events over next 2 weeks
[26 October to 9 November]
- Saturday 1 November. 9:30 School of Spiritual Science. The focus will be on the notes of the second lesson, given in London on 27 August 1924, during RS's's last visit to England.
- Friday 7 November. 7:30 pm. Talk* by Iain Trousdell
~~~~~ future...
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Friday 14 November. 7 pm. [ and 2nd and 4th Fridays of each month] Friday Study Group has finished the Leading Thoughts and will be embarking a study (read and discuss) of Karmic Relationships (Vol VIII), 6 lectures that Rudolf Steiner gave (in Torquay and London) on his last visit to England, when he also visited King Arthur's Tintagel and a Druid centre in Penmaenmawr, North Wales. New members are welcome to join us. There are copies of the text in the Library.
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Sunday 16 November. 10 to 3pm. Taikura Fete. We have a stall selling second-hand books to raise funds for our library. Helpers [Contact Angela, 027-4436737] and buyers needed.
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Thursday, 20 November, 7.30 pm Lecture by Thomas Mayer,
"Living with the Deceased and effects of materialism on the afterlife"
Rudolf Steiner Center Independent of the workshop. Entry by Donation.
- Friday 21 to Sunday 23. Meditation Workshop. [see note below]
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2026
- Monday 5 to Sunday 11 January 2026. Social Eurythmy Course, at Michael Park School, Ellerslie.
- Weekend17-18 January. 'Deepening Course' at Titirangi RS School**
- Saturday 7 February. 9:30 am. School of Spiritual Science starts the cycle of 19 lessons again,
- Saturday 28 February. Van James from Hawaii: "I would like to offer a lecture-demonstration-drawing-experience". [see note below]
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*KNOWING REALITY - Iain Trousdell
Talk invitation - 7.30 pm, Friday 7th November.
"I have been working for many years on modernising the language of Anthroposophy presented as an intuitive way of knowing multidimensional reality in an effort to make it attractive to a wide range of people.
I would like to share how this is progressing, both with my nearly complete book and more than 40 seminars to more than 1000 participants in China, Britain, Eruope, NZ and Australia.
best wishes
Iain
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Meditation workshop
This meditation workshop will take place in Hastings from Friday 21st to Sunday 23 November 2025.
Thomas Mayer will also give a talk on Thursday evening:
"Living with the Deceased and effects of materialism on the afterlife"
Thursday, 20. November 2025, at 7:30 pm.
It is independent of the workshop - all welcome.
Donations please.
Venue for both events is the Rudolf Steiner Centre in Hastings.
The attached flyer has all the details, including an email address for the purposes of enrolling.
So, if you would like to attend, please use the email in the flyer to enrol, do not reply to me.
Thomas and Agnes are asking if anyone could host them for four nights, i.e. Wed 19 to Sun 23 November.
The person hosting would attend the workshop for free.
If you are able to host Thomas and Agnes, please indicate this in your registration/enrolment email.
Gerrit
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About Thomas Mayer:
THOMAS MAYER, author, meditation teacher and civil rights activist, was born in southern Germany. He is co-founder of More Democracy, an association in Germany to further direct democracy or participatory politics, particularly through referenda (of which he has organized many). He has lectured widely on the subject of regional currencies and initiated pilot projects to introduce them. He organized a referendum in Switzerland in 2018 called sovereign money regarding the question of who should have the right to create money: private banks or public institutions? Since 2004 he has been teaching anthroposophical meditation, together with Agnes Hardorp. He is the author of eleven books, including Answering the Call of the Elementals (2021).
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Dear members,
Preparation for the Summer Festival and a Speech Course
Over the last few months we have done some speech chorus work preparing for the Society Festivals. The nature of this work comes out of anthroposophy, and it is our striving to practice this as a path of learning.
Working with the Living Word and the cosmic forces of the planets and the zodiac through the sounds of language is the new impulse that Rudolf Steiner gave: it helps us to move beyond mere entertainment, which involves only the emotions and is still bound up with personality... into a life-giving, healing and ‘energy-boosting’ universal space, of movement, rhythm and the objective mantric-poetic element, which raises our speaking above the purely material, into an etheric flow.
Such speaking opens up new perspectives and allows something higher to come to life, the cosmic forces being felt, when we allow the sounds to speak... A tall order..? – maybe, but we can experience being energised, enlivened and coming to ourselves – a lot of fun..!
Through Rudolf Steiner’s work with speech and acting, a new path of inner transformation has been shown. This is the path given particularly in the Speech and Drama Course of 1924 and the basis of the anthroposophical Speech and Drama Training, a four-year full-time course.
Today, we are needing to find different ways of achieving such a course, often in shorter increments in time, as full-time courses have become increasingly more difficult to uphold. In the ‘Spirit of the Word School’, here in New Zealand, we have tried different formats, and this year, we are planning some new full-time blocks for 2026, that will work for those already in training and others who are interested.
We are also planning some courses in educational speech, working with the wonderful age-appropriate, inspiring curriculum that Rudolf Steiner gave to the teachers of the first Waldorf School in Stuttgart, from 1919 onwards. This was so important to him, that we work with the etheric and allow the sounds to speak, that her personally worked with each of the teachers, to bring movement and flow, rather than emotional hype, also into story-telling.
If anyone would like to experience doing some chorus work, you are welcome to join us for our practices, on Tuesdays at 4 – 5.30 pm at the Rudolf Steiner Centre, opposite the School.
We will be doing some light-hearted texts for the Summer Festival, on the 21st December; as well as the Canticle to the Sun by St. Francis of Assisi.
Please let us know if you would like to join the chorus –
Astrid Anderson; starguid@xtra.co.nz ; John Jackson : jackson33@yahoo.co.nz
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Humor and Rudolf Steiner — the Cartoonist
A presentation by Van James on Saturday 28 February 2026 at Centre.
Caricature sketches by Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Steiner had several things to say about the importance of humor and laughter from a spiritual scientific point of view and its significance for humanity. What is not so very well known is that he drew humorous cartoons. In this introduction to the theme of humor we will share some of Steiner’s thoughts on humor and laughter, hear various comic anecdotes, see and discuss some of his caricature sketches and draw some cartoons of our own. Come prepared with a black pencil or pen and paper, as well as your favorite anthroposophical jokes.
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Library
The latest issue of New View [Vol 117] has just arrived.
The Library is OPEN with Fran Obers in attendance as Librarian for advice and help on Wednesdays during Term time from 11 am to 3pm.
REQUEST:
If you have any anthroposophical or related books on your shelves that you have read sufficiently and would like to make available to other readers, please box them up and bring them to the Library by 12 November. Fran will look to see if there are some suitable for the Library; the others will be offered for sale on our stall in the Taikura Fete on Sunday 16 November.
Volunteer helpers needed for this.
Proceeds from the Fete will be used to purchase new publications for the Library. If you have suggestions for purchases please send a note to info@anthrohb.nz
If you have Library books you wish to return when the Centre building is closed, there is a Return slot in the Library wall to the west of the building, just beyond the two concrete carpark strips. Open the flap and push the book right in.
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**Deepening Course
‘The Human Being as Symphony of the Creative Word’
17 and 18 January 2026. Titirangi Rudolf Steiner School, 5 Helios Place, Titirangi, Auckland
Fee: $75 includes morning (2x) and afternoon tea (1x),
BYO lunch or head to Titirangi Village, with its many cafes.
It is with much pleasure that we invite you to this deepening conference at the beginning of
the 2026 school year. This conference is open to anyone who finds a connection with the
theme. Brian Tracey and Sue Simpson will join us to give the morning lectures. Please read
their biographies below to see with how much knowledge and experience these two people
come to us!
Saturday afternoon will be spent on creative pursuits, willingly offered by a range of
colleagues from different fields of Waldorf education.
This event has come together with the financial support the Steiner/Waldorf Early
Childhood Education Trust.
A timetable and registration form are attached with this invitation and we ask you to fill in
the form and send it back to edith.vandermeer@gmail.com no later than 14 January 2026
Maximum number of participants is 100 and we will register people on a first-come, first-
served basis (after payment is in the bank!)
Who are they??
Brian Tracey
Tēnā Koutou,
Ko wai au?
No Aerani āku tupuna
I whānau mai au I Tamaki Makaurau
E noho ana au I Mataruahou, Ahuriri
He Kaiako ahau
Ko Brian Tracey tōkū ingoa
It was at Hohepa Homes in the Hawkes Bay that I found teaching was my path. I am grateful
for those children in need of soul care who were able to support me becoming a teacher.
After training at Taruna I became a class teacher at Titirangi Rudolf Steiner School. These
where the years at Parau and the building on the present site. I was fortunate to be able to
complete 3 classes.
Then it was back to Taruna to teach the teachers and prospective teachers. I co-wrote the
Certificate in Rudolf Steiner Education Course and was fortunate to experience the ‘fruits’
from this Course
Next……………it was to prison. I thought it would be a challenge to teach behind the wire, and
that it would be a few memorable months. Well, that was over 10 years ago and I am still
there.
Sue Simpson
My life with anthroposophy, eurythmy, and Steiner education has taken me across the globe
— from Germany and Russia to Australia, Asia, and New Zealand.
As a eurythmist, I’ve had the privilege of working in diverse settings, including Waldorf
schools, adult education, and even within the corporate world.
I served as principal of Taikura Rudolf Steiner School in Hastings, and held the role of General
Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in New Zealand.
My commitment to anthroposophy has also led me to serve on various boards and
leadership groups over the years.
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We are so pleased to have these two wonderful people join us for our fourth January
Deepening Conference.
We hope to see you there!
Kind regards,
Kathy MacFarlane and Edith van der Meer
on behalf of the Steiner/Waldorf Early Childhood Education Trust
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In Love lives the seed of Truth,
In Truth seek the root of Love:
Thus speaks thy higher Self.
The fire's glow transmutes
Wood into warming rays.
Wisdom's resolving Will
Changes one’s outer work
Into abiding strength.
So let thy work be the shadow
Cast by thine I
When it is lit by the flame-
The flame of thy higher Self.
** From one of Rudolf Steiner’s notebooks 1902.
-Verses & Meditations p119
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Future Events Regular Groups
Items, Notices, Letters, or articles of interest to the Hawkes Bay Anthroposophical community
ARE MOST WELCOME
Please email your text by midday Saturday to the Editor at info@anthrohb.nz
with "For AnthroHB News" in the subject line.
Diagrams and pictures need to be in .jpeg (or .jpg) format.
Robin Bacchus, Editor
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PETSITTER NEEDED
Weekend of Friday Oct 31st to Sunday 2nd Nov (evening) -
Is anyone able to look after my 2 old dogs (small fox terrier brother and sister). Either at my house or I am happy to bring them to you along with their home away from home sleeping crate. They are easy going, as long as they get enough pats.
Contact me on 027-3089276 or nic@healinglands.nz
Thank you,
Nic Parkes.
Las Palmas Clinic, Suite 107,
201 King St North, Hastings
Retail hours:
Tuesday 1pm to 5pm,
Wednesday and Thursday 10am to 5pm,
Friday 10am to 2.30pm.
