Regular Community Events

Jesus Christ, Through the Lens of the Jesus Prayer

April 29-May 1st, 2022

In the first of a series of work weekends about the Five Prophets, Claymont is offering a weekend: “Jesus Christ, Through the Lens of The Jesus Prayer.”

The program will be led by Georgia DuBose, an Episcopal priest who first began working with The Jesus Prayer, or Prayer of the Heart, when she was 16; Georgia was encouraged to explore it further by Pierre Elliot.

James Farrelly, a writer and former educator, will collaborate with Georgia. James has also had a long history of work with The Jesus Prayer. Both will share their understanding of the prayer, inviting participants to share theirs as they wish.

This event will begin a process whereby participants work to connect or reconnect with the living streams of spiritual traditions that have nurtured the very foundation of The Claymont Society. In subsequent cycles, we will explore the practices / traditions handed down by the Holy Saints Moses, Mohammed, Buddha, and Llama.

For the first in the Series, we will focus on activities and practices during the weekend that will include work with Movements embodying The Jesus Prayer. There will be periods of silence and solitude, walking meditation, and some practical work.  Other experienced practitioners may join via Zoom or livestreaming. Participants are encouraged to minimize electronic communications during this event. This event may serve as an introduction to the prayer for those unfamiliar with it; participants who have worked with The Jesus Prayer before may find it useful to renew their work with a group.

You are cordially invited to join us in this work.  If you wish, please give us some indication of your years of experience with this practice and a short statement as to its personal benefits for you.

The seminar will begin with dinner at 6:30 pm on Friday April 29 and end after lunch on Sunday May 1.

Suggested donation for the event is $150 if you are staying at Claymont, and $100 if staying off-site.  However, do not let cost prevent you from attending as financial assistance is available.

For more information, and to register, please contact Amy Silver, Registrar, at Claymontgathering@hotmail.com

Summer Seminar 2022: Making Space for Grace

“When I know, I cannot speak.
When I can speak, I do not know”. 

           Rumi

Words used intentionally are indispensable. Automatic words – whether spoken, thought or even read – waste energy that might otherwise be used for our transformation. Mahesh Maharshi said we could judge our spiritual development by the degree to which we can stop our thoughts. So how developed are we? And Saint Augustine observed that before God can fill my cup, I must first empty it. How can we make such space? And especially how can we hold inner space open in life?

The more essence is part of our awareness, the fewer automatic words. We see this with practices we know such as relaxing and filling as preparation for morning exercise. Zikr can also interrupt formatory apparatus and bring positive emotion into awareness. Such activities can help bring essence into awareness, but can we live in a way that holds and enhances that awareness? Let’s try.

In memory of Bob Brown who spoke often of making space

The seminar will be led by Hardy Mason.  Hardy is a Mevlevi Sufi sheik and long-time student of the Fourth Way.

Practices to include zikr, Movements, practical work outside (weather permitting), turning, and adab (if the group seems ready).   In addition, the aim of conscious food preparation and preparation of the dining room in service to all who attend.

Ground Rules: No electronic devices.  In case of true emergencies, a telephone number will be provided where calls can be directed.  Intentional talking only, with a practical purpose and while sensing. The next activity after each meal will begin after the kitchen bashi says the kitchen and dining room are in good order.

The seminar will begin with dinner at 6:30 pm on Wednesday July 13 and end after lunch on Sunday July 17.   Suggested donation for the event is $340 if you are staying at Claymont, and $220 if staying off-site.  However, do not let cost prevent you from attending as financial assistance is available.

For more information, and to register, please contact Amy Silver, Registrar, at  Claymontgathering@hotmail.com

A time to enrich and sustain three-centered awareness within oneself and within the group.

The possibility that finer energies are generated as a result of conscious work together makes collective Work with the Gurdjieff Movements a beneficial endeavor for one and all. Conscious work in the kitchen and on the grounds will also be included.

Join us at the Great Barn, Claymont Society for Continuous Education

September 15-18, 2022

The event begins with dinner on Thursday, the 15th and ends on Sunday after lunch.

Suggested donation for the event is $250 if you are staying at Claymont, and $125 if staying off-site. However, do not let cost prevent you from attending, as financial assistance is available.

For more information, and to register, please contact Amy Silver, Registrar, at  claymontgathering@hotmail.com

Claymont Members Doug and Marla Londraville returned three times this Spring and Summer to resume the project they started last fall of repairing, restoring and painting the Great Barn. This summer, working in 90+ degree weather, they made great progress with the paint sprayer, completing the West Kitchen side and painting all the way down to the Octagon. They even painted the old boiler room and paint shed. They also patched and prepped much of the rest of building so we can continue the work in October.

We still need to complete a stretch along the walkway on the north side; finish the south east side and five sides of the Octagon!  That may sound daunting but not to Doug and Marla, who took on the entire building.

You are cordially invited to help out with this effort.  The work weekend begins with dinner at 6:30 on Friday October 7 and ends on Sunday October 9 after lunch.

Suggested donation for the event is $200 if you are staying at Claymont, and $125 if staying off-site. However, do not let cost prevent you from attending, as financial assistance is available.

For more information, and to register, please contact Amy Silver, Registrar, at  claymontgathering@hotmail.com.

Claymont Society Annual General Meeting (AGM) is scheduled for Sunday November 20, 2022 beginning at 10:00 am. 

View a presentation by Claymont board member Jack Chromey.

A Five-hour Experiential Category II Workshop for Social Workers, A Learning Experience for Counselors and Anyone Who’s Interested.

Download Requirements and Application

We explore a practical method in a safe environment for using all emotions as guidance to solutions, happiness, and safety. This notion is often in contrast to seeing emotions as needing to be controlled, eliminated, or at odds with being reasonable. Emotions used productively supports changing our patterns of thought to match the energetic patterns of our ideals.

The five-hour experiential workshop includes lunch, coffee, and tea at the historic Washington family mansion—Claymont Court. Each participant will share with peers an event, old or current, that has left a lingering negative emotion. Choose one you feel ready to explore.

This time between the most stressful holidays of the year is perfect for examining how the technique works and possibly bringing relief to our own situations. However, this needn’t be our choice of event.

Size of the workshop is limited to only six people so that everyone is able to actively experience the technique as we would in personal therapy. A small group setting provides the added advantage of hearing an array of examples which contribute to knowledge that strengthens each person’s own leadership role.

Claymont work weekend

AN EXPERIENTIAL WORKSHOP

March 10-12, 2023

“With the present, repair the past and prepare the future” – G. I. Gurdjieff

This workshop will be an open-ended investigation into the boundaries and relationships between our essence and our personality. We will both examine and challenge our view of this distinction by means of our own moment-to-moment experiences of who we take ourselves to be. Our view for this workshop will be oriented toward the embodiment of Presence. We will locate and focus our work within the present moment: “All experience is contained within the Present Moment. This is the only immediate and irreducible certainty. The present moment is not a dimensionless point, but a finite region of experience. – J. G. Bennett

“Essence is what you are born with,” Mr. Gurdjieff said. We will examine some implications of modern ideas, including the role of trauma, about how we each actually developed from an essence being into a personality. We will practice inquiry to build competency to subtly shift our felt experience toward essence-as-presence. A further question to be addressed is: What exactly happens to our experience of personality, if and when our work unfolds so as to result in these experiences of essence and subsequent development of essence?

During the workshop we will practice: Sensing and breath-awareness exercises; Subject-matter talks, including the Systematics of Essence and Personality (two pentads); Spoken inquiries into the felt sense of personal truth; Gurdjieff’s Movements exercises; Practical work sessions for abiding in presence-in-action.

The seminar will begin with dinner at 6:30 pm on Friday March 10 and end after lunch on Sunday March 12. Suggested donation for the event is $150 if you are staying at Claymont, and $100 if staying off-site.  However, do not let cost prevent you from attending as financial assistance is available.

For more information, and to register, please contact Amy Silver, Registrar, at  Claymontgathering@hotmail.comChuck Riley will facilitate this weekend. He is a former President of The Claymont Society, who taught on several Claymont courses, including as lead teacher on two four-month residential programs. During 1972-1973, he attended J. G. Bennett’s Second Basic Candidate’s Course at Sherborne House. Chuck is also a long-time student of The Diamond Approach to inner realization.

An exploration of Fourth Way theatre with Anthony Blake and Jesai Jayhmes: Enacting Reality

See Flyer for full information

Dates:  April 27-30, 2023.  The seminar will begin with dinner on Thursday evening and end with lunch on Sunday.

Location:  The Claymont Society for Continuous Education
Charles Town, WV  25414

(See www.society.claymont.org for more information about the Claymont Society)

Seminar Leaders:

• Anthony Blake is Director of Research of DuVersity and a leading exponent of the ideas of John Bennett and his systematics, as well as of dialogue and modern ideas of communication and experiential knowledge.   (See www.duversity.org for more information about DuVersity.)
• Jesai Jayhmes is an eclectic social artist, director, actor and writer particularly interested in creating immersive theatre experiences using classics, mythology and personal stories. He is currently artist director of Teatro de la Tierra in Costa Rica, (See www.teatrodelatierra.com for more information.)

Cost:
The cost of the event including lodging and meals is $450 if staying at Claymont and $315 if staying off-site.

For more information and to register:
Please contact Matt Zenkowich – mattzenkowich@gmail.com

An Exploration into Meaning and Inter-Relationship

Gurdjieff’s Sacred Dance and the Gurdjieff/de Hartmann Music
Led by Elan Sicroff

May 11-14, 2023
What are we to make of Gurdjieff’s assertions about music and sacred dance? In his writings he states that there is an ‘objective music’ that will have the same effect on all people regardless of culture, type or taste; that seekers in the past read sacred dances in the way that we now read books; and that wise men in Babylon inserted “lawful inexactitudes” related to the Law of Seven, into various art forms, in order to transmit information to initiates of future generations.

In this seminar we will uncover underlying principles that govern rhythm, melody and harmony in music. We will explore the ways that composers insert meaning into their work, identify lawful inexactitudes in Gurdjieff’s sacred dances, and then interpret their meaning. We will also bring the music and the dance together, to discover how they support and inform each other.

The dancer Alexander Sacharoff, with whom de Hartmann and Kandinsky worked on the “abstract opera” Der Gelbe Klang (The Yellow Sound) around 1910, once said, “I” dance the music.”
Conversely, in relation to the Movements, the musician must “play the dance.”

Additional activities will include exercises in listening, meditation on sound, and inner exercises based on the teaching of Mr. Gurdjieff and Mr. Bennett.

There will also be a lecture-recital about Thomas de Hartmann: his life, the music, and the ideas that inform it.

The seminar will begin with dinner at 6:30 pm on Thursday May 11 and end after lunch on Sunday May 14.   Suggested donation for the event is $395 if you are staying at Claymont, and $260 if staying off-site.  However, do not let cost prevent you from attending as financial assistance is available.

For more information, and to register, please contact Amy Silver, Registrar, at  Claymontgathering@hotmail.com

Elan Sicroff attended the second, third and fourth Basic Courses at Sherborne under the direction of J.G.Bennett, from 1973-1975 —  first as student and later as director of music.   Between 1975 and 1979 he studied with Mme. Olga de Hartmann, widow of the composer, focusing on the music that de Hartmann composed in the classical idiom.  He performed many recitals under her auspices, and in 1982 toured the United States.

Elan has worked with the Gurdjieff/de Hartmann music for 50 years, and has released 3 recordings: A Journey to Inaccessible Places (1987), Sicroff Plays Gurdjieff (2002), and Laudamus… (2010).  He accompanied Movements classes for 40 years. Since 2006 he has been Artistic Director for the Thomas de Hartmann Project, which aims to bring de Hartmann’s music back to the listening audience, after many years of neglect.