The School of Spiritual Psychology

The Facilitators

Robert Sardello, Ph.D. and Cheryl Sanders, Ph.D., co-directors of the School of Spiritual Psychology are the lead faculty. Other faculty are sometimes brought in for individual sessions. (For fuller descriptions of the credentials of the faculty, see the Home tab.)

The Presence of Forgiveness
January 26-29, 2012

THIS SOUL RETREAT WILL BE HELD AT THE MARY AND JOSEPH RETREAT CENTER IN LOS ANGELES, CA.

THERE IS A SPECIAL TUITION RATE FOR THIS SOUL RETREAT:
$400

See Tuition Tab under “Spiritual Courses” on Main page for Registration

This soul retreat enters into the understanding and practice of forgiveness – of ourselves, of others, and as the most powerful of world-forces. We enter into an entirely new and creative way of understanding and entering into the process of forgiveness. Forgiveness, we discover, is a particular region of the soul, a Presence, and the inner contemplative work is to be able to locate this region. As long as we attempt forgiveness from the place of usual consciousness, we are locked into forgiveness as a subtle mode of power.

We look at why forgiveness is of importance to you and as perhaps the deepest mystery of the soul, and most certainly the only way to move out of the patterns of repetitious harmfulness we live both individually and the harmfulness that the world is now caught within.

We describe the spiritual background of forgiveness in aspects the myth of Parzival, a story for our times, through a very new reading of this myth of our time; and in the life story of Caspar Hauser, an individual of extraordinary capacities of forgiveness, indeed as the initiate of a new form of forgiveness in the world. We look at the illusory benefits, often unconscious and very powerful, that often prevent attempts to forgive others. We then examine the ill effects of living with resentment on our emotional, physical and spiritual life. We look at what harming others and being harmed by others does to the soul. The central nature of forgiveness as requiring the development of new soul capacities is discussed, and ways to identify and develop this mode of imagination are suggested, with exercises and practices for developing these capacities. We look at some extraordinary stories of forgiveness to show how the most unimaginable atrocities have been met with deep resources of love. Finally, we look at the effects forgiveness has in the world.

A New Heaven and a New Earth: Entering into the Creative Soul-Imagination of the Book of Revelation.

April 19-23, 2012
See Tuition Tab under “Spiritual Courses” on Main Page for Registration
The Book of Revelation is without doubt the most enigmatic writing in the world. And one of the most influential. It has entered into everyone’s imagination, even though, for the most part, quite erroneously. We do not offer this soul retreat as an ‘academic’ study of this story, nor a theological exposition. We work inwardly, contemplatively, with the images as a guide into the future.

If we can find a kind of inner key to this work, the way in which we are present with the images will open up in astounding ways – it is a true imaginal visioning of the future. A primary key is to understand this work as a mythology. It is a new mythology, requiring that we enter into the ‘new mythical consciousness’ described by Rudolf Steiner, to engage in the now unfolding future of the world –- without fear. But, unlike all other mythologies, which belong to the past and to the present of the soul, the Book of Revelation is a mythology of the world coming into being. It is not a picturing of this world --- yet. Rudolf Steiner says that the pictures in this work are located in the soul world. And, further, he says that the present pictures in the soul world are what will happen in the future in the physical world. However, the picturings in the soul world will not occur in the way that they do in the soul world.

The event of Solstice 2012 brings the picturings of this sacred document closer to the physical world. How that will happen, what it will mean, and how to meet such an occurrence are the central concerns of this soul retreat. As the entirely new emerges, what is ‘leaving’ always seems as if the world is crumbling. We orient in this retreat toward what is coming rather than what is leaving.

Entering soul contemplation of some of the images of this ‘myth’ aids us in developing our soul and spiritual life and capacities of Presence – being here, completely, wholly, bodily.

Freeing the Soul from Fear

September 27-30, 2012

THIS SOUL RETREAT WILL TAKE PLACE AT THE BISHOP BOOTH RETREAT CENTER IN BURLINGTON, VERMONT.

THERE IS A SPECIAL TUITION RATE FOR THIS SOUL RETREAT:
$400
See Tuition Tab under “Spiritual Courses” on Main Page for Registration

What can we do about so much fear in the world? Like a shapeshifter, it takes many forms: terrorism, corporate downsizing, incurable diseases, cruelty in relationships, ecological disasters, abuse, violence, crime, natural catastrophes, unknown sources. It drains the fluidity of imagination, permeates our body with continual anxiety, narrows cognitive capacities, and can turn us into a mere shadow of what it means to be a human being.
In this soul retreat we seek to re-imagine fear, showing how it operates in the world in multiple forms. The particular difficulty of the possibility of losing the sense of ourselves, becoming a mere double of ourselves, without realizing this is happening, is addressed in depth. A healthy response to fears, we will show, involves neither fighting against what seems to cause them nor imagining a life without fears. Rather, freeing the soul from fear requires the development of specific soul and spirit capacities. The nature of these capacities and how to go about developing them are presented, with practices that increase the strength of the only true balance to fear – love and presence of heart.

Spiritual Psychology and The Gospel of St. John

November 8-12, 2012

See Tuition Tab under “Spiritual Courses” on Main Page for Registration

We work with the question of how the Gospel of St. John lives within our soul. We are not here working with what we believe or what we know from outer sources, but how the soul responds to the Word. How does the Word live within us; how we can get a feeling of that from the quality of the act of speaking in creative and intuitive ways. We present ways of developing the capacity to be present to and with the Word. Then, based on work by Kristina Kaine, We work with the spirit-soul sense of The Washing of the Feet – how we care for the soul of others; the Scourging, which inwardly concerns the capacity of remaining inwardly free; The Crowning of Thorns, which inwardly concerns remaining steadfastly true to living from soul and spirit; The Bearing of the Cross, which inwardly concerns loving our own defects; The Crucifixion, which inwardly concerns the way constraints opens new capacities of soul; The Burial, which inwardly concerns entering into union with Earth; and The Resurrection, which inwardly concerns the dawning of a new consciousness.
A second aspect of the course concerns engaging the re-visioning of our sense of the I – “not I but Christ in me” – how this capacity is developed. Here, we enter into an imagination of the Seven Miracles in the Gospel of St. John and how living inwardly with the felt-sense of these miracles changes our consciousness. We work with The Marriage Feast of Cana as a transformation of our ego-sense; The Healing of the Nobleman’s Son as developing the capacity of love for the Stranger; The Healing of the Sick Man at the Pool of Bethesda as developing inward knowing when we are off the mark; Feeding of the Five Thousand as healing the multiple aspects of our Shadow Self; The Miracle of Walking on the Water as the capacity of experiencing the presence of the spiritual worlds in everyday life; The Healing of the Man born Blind as the capacity of being healed from the disease of literalism; and the Miracle of Raising Lazarus from the Dead as the death of old consciousness and the awaking of love as a creating force of the soul.