Upcoming Events
Regular Community Events
- Monthly Movements Classes
See the Calendar for details. - Work Weekends
See the Calendar for details. -
Thursday Night Inner Work – 8:00pm.
Currenty being held on Zoom.
Join us to explore the spiritual side of Gurdjieff’s work. We work collaboratively to share our experiences, our personal journeys, and to reflect on the readings and practical exercises. All are welcome, but please, contact us for details. -
Morning Meditations & Sittings 6:30am – 7:30pm.
Mondays – Fridays, Barn Community Room.
Sit with the community and be a part of our daily practice. Some mornings are guided meditations or sittings, others are on your own. Interested? Contact us!
Full Calendar
4th Way Course of Study – August 18 to November 12, 2023.
The Claymont Society is offering a three-month Course of Study in The Fourth Way tradition. This is open to anyone who feels a need and wish to go deeper in their spiritual search and practice.
The Course will be conducted both in person and online. It will focus on the teachings and practices of G. I. Gurdjieff and J.G. Bennett, offered by
people who studied with Bennett at Sherborne, with Pierre Elliot at Claymont, as well as other prominent spiritual teachers.
This will begin with an on-site retreat August 18-26 and conclude with a second on-site retreat November 6-12 with regular on-line group activities in between.
Open the Application here to apply to attend the Course of Study.
Workshop lead by Jack Chromey
Download Flyer
The role of the thinking or intellectual center may have fallen out of favor with some who seek an inner life. This is understandable to an extent, but warnings to avoid getting lost in our heads or just being in the head may lead unintentionally to a passivity of mind which does not solve the problem and may even create new problems.
On this weekend workshop we will explore the role of thinking and the thinking center as it relates to work on ourselves. What is the relationship between the thinking center and other parts of ourselves? Many of the great teachers who emerged from direct work with Mr. Gurdjieff warned about the pitfalls of being out of balance through identification with thought. Yet, in their own right, they were all very accomplished thinkers. We will consider what was said by such teachers as P.O. Ouspensky, M. Nicoll, A.R. Orage, J.G. Bennett, Madame de Salzmann and others. We will also have open exchange, discussion and observation. Presentation topics will include kinds of thought and Creative Thinking. There will also be work on movments.
The weekend will be coordinated and hosted by Jack Chromey who will also sprinkle in some active work withexercises as well as his own version of speculation and wiseacring.
For more information, and to register, please contact Amy Silver, Registrar, at claymont_gathering@hotmail.com • The event will take place at the Great Barn. It begins with dinner on Thursday, the 19th and ends on Sunday after lunch. Suggested donation for the event is $200 if you are staying at Claymont, and $100 if staying off-site. However, do not let cost prevent youfrom attending, as financial assistance is available.
“No growth of being will take place without a corresponding growth in sensation”
What is sensation and how does it grow? How do we open ourselves to its presence in our bodies? Can I learn to bring it with me into my ordinary life, the walking, the talking, and all the other daily activities? On this weekend we will try to look into questions like these as we study one of the foundational practices of the 4th Way.
We plan to make this weekend very collaborative, a deep conversation and experimentation among friends. We will work with some exercises with a long history and some that arise from our immediate personal experience and we will look as well at some of the obstacles we encounter along the way.
The staff will provide some of the teaching material and participants will provide material that arises from their own efforts. We can be motivated and guided by theory and the words of our teachers but our own experience is the raw material of inner growth.
We hope this weekend will enhance our understanding of sensation and strengthen its role in our work.
Also, if you are interested in learning about the 4th Way and do not have much experience with the practice of sensation you are still very welcome to attend.
Activities for the weekend will include guided sittings and explorations, movements, practical work, and inner sharing. You are cordially invited to join us in our work and exploration.
The weekend will begin with dinner at 6:30 pm on Thursday March 7 and end after lunch on Sunday March 10. All activities will be at the Great Barn.
Suggested donation for the weekend is $195 if you are staying overnight at Claymont and $95 if you are not staying overnight at Claymont. However, do not let the cost prevent you from participating, financial assistance is available.
For more information and to register please contact, the registrar, Amy Silver at Claymontgathering@hotmail.com.
For more information about the Claymont Society go to www.society.claymont.org
April 18-21, Work Weekend at the Barn with a theme of Sensing, Sound, and Silence.
Relaxation and sensing can help us hear what we need to hear from inside ourselves and from Above. Chanting of aspirational phrases can help us interrupt automatic and habitual thoughts and feelings – especially the negative ones – toward a state of inner relaxation, openness and receptivity. During this spring weekend, let’s take a break from busyness of mind and heart and open to the beauty around us.
This weekend will combine some familiar 4th Way practices with zikr (chanting and dance) from the Mevlevi tradition. Time to listen to silence and to resonate with the beauty of spring at Claymont. Time to open to what we need to hear, what we need to receive, and perhaps even Grace.
The seminar will be led by Hardy Mason. Hardy is a Mevlevi Sufi sheik and long-time student of the Fourth Way.
Note: Participants on the March work weekend at Claymont studying sensation may find this gathering a useful follow-on, but no previous experience is required.
The weekend will begin with dinner at 6:30 pm on Thursday April 18 and end after lunch on Sunday April 21. All activities will be at the Great Barn.
Suggested donation for the weekend is $195 if you are staying overnight at Claymont and $95 if you are not staying overnight at Claymont. However, do not let the cost prevent you from participating, financial assistance is available.
For more information and to register please contact, the registrar, Amy Silver at Claymontgathering@hotmail.com.
For more information about the Claymont Society go to www.society.claymont.org
Exploring Gurdjieff’s Sacred Dances
DOWNLOAD FLYER for full info
May 16-19, 2024
In this seminar, three diverse but kindred spirits – Deborah Rose Longo, a well-known teacher of the Movements; Elan Sicroff, a pianist who has worked extensively with the music of Thomas de Hartmann; and Anthony Blake, writer and student of J.G. Bennett – who was a leading exponent of Gurdjieff’s ideas – will come together to ask questions, experiment and encourage a fresh exploration of many different aspects of the Movements.
The seminar will be held in the historic Claymont Mansion and begins with dinner at 6:30 pm on Thursday May 16, and end after lunch on Sunday May 19.
The cost of the event including meals and lodging is $495. ($450 if registered and paid before April 1.)
For participants not staying in the Mansion, the cost is $340 ($325 if registered and paid before April 1.)
For more information and to register please contact, the registrar, Amy Silver Claymontgathering@hotmail.com
Annual Movements Retreat 2024
Annual International Movements Retreat to be held at Claymont Court.
For more information and to register, please visit the website: https://movements-retreat.org/
Higher Energies Workshop at the Barn led by Joe Naft
DOWNLOAD FLYER for more info
The workshop will be led by Joseph Naft. He is the author of www.innerfrontier.org and of seven books, most recently Light on the Way. He studied with J.G. Bennett at Sherborne, England in 1974 and has led Fourth Way groups since 1976. Deborah Rose Longo will teach movements, along with Joe.
The workshop will begin with dinner at 6:30 pm on Wednesday July 10 and end with lunch on Sunday July 14.
All activities will be at the Great Barn. You are cordially invited to join us in our work and exploration. Participants must have experience in Fourth Way groups or courses.
Suggested donation for the workshop is $400 if you are staying overnight at Claymont and $220 if you are not staying overnight at Claymont. However, do not let the cost prevent you from attending, as financial assistance is available.
For more information and to register please contact Amy Silver at Claymontgathering@hotmail.com.
“If a man desires sincerely and seriously, and out of no mere curiosity, to attain to the knowledge of the way leading to Real Being, and if he fulfills to this end all that is requested of him and begins, in fact, among other things to aid indirectly, and from his very first step, the attainment of this by others, he will, by this act alone, become as it were the forming ground for the real data contributing to the manifestation of objective and actual Good.”
Appropriately, from The Herald of the Coming Good.
Mr. Gurdjieff, in some of his early writing indicated that people working together in the sense of being could become sources of good in this world. The obstacles faced by Mr. G in establishing his work are well-known and well-documented.
Through the work and sacrifice of countless people over the years we have been able to participate and benefit from the above-mentioned good. It is with deep gratitude that we look to acknowledge and celebrate several significant milestones that are rapidly approaching us this year.
Our founder and teacher, J.G. Bennett, in the midst of his Sherborne residential project, looked to the future. With great cost to himself and with the help of numerous others, he managed to find and acquire the Claymont property in 1974 for the establishment of a community firmly centered on the work that Mr. G transmitted to him and many others. Mr Bennett’s vision, profound and far-reaching, was left in the hands of others, as 1974 would also mark the end of Bennett’s ‘planetary existence.’
This year, 2024, marks fifty years since the founding of the Claymont Society as well as fifty years since the passing of its founder. There have been countless challenges along the way, and no one claims to have fulfilled The Call for a New Society. We are now fifty years into the project and it is up to us how it is to unfold for the years during and beyond our lifetimes.
This, therefore, is a great time to come together, acknowledge the events that have occurred along the way, celebrate the greater present moment in which we find ourselves, and consider the possibilities for Claymont’s future.
We are calling out to all who have taken part in the past as well as all those connected inwardly and outwardly with our core practices and aspirations to come together from October 16th to 2oth 2024 for an event marking the 50 years of the society.
Please take an active part. We are interested in your input and ideas. We have volunteers locally who are working with the details of preparation and planning. However, we view and sense this event in a larger context and hope that others will be active toward it in a positive way and will contribute time, care and thought into bringing about an event worthy of the Occasion.
The event will begin with dinner on Wednesday October 16 and end after lunch on October 20.
Lodging and activities will be at the Great Barn at the Claymont Society in Charles Town, WV.
The cost for the event is $495 including meals and lodging. However, do not let the cost prevent you from participating, financial assistance is available.
For more information and to register please contact Amy Silver at claymontgathering@hotmail.com.
Click Here to Register
Free and open to the public. All ages are welcome, though youth must be accompanied by an adult. Registration is required.
PVMN Continuing Education and Volunteer Credit Eligible
What is biochar? In this hands-on demonstration, you’ll learn how to create biochar from unwanted organic matter (we’ll be using recently removed Autumn Olive shrubs as feedstock), how to safely operate a biochar kiln, and learn about new methods for managing non-native species and enhancing forest resiliency.
(Rain date: March 7)
Download the flyer
March 27 – 30, Work Weekend at the Barn with a theme of Educating Essence.
Seminar by Hardy Mason. The weekend starts with dinner at 6:30pm Thursday, March 27th.
For more information and to register please contact, the registrar, Amy Silver at Claymontgathering@hotmail.com.