Claymont Society

June 12 - 26th, International Movements Retreat
2026-06-12 18:00 - 2026-06-21 13:00 (America/New_York)
Movements Retreat 2026
Claymont Court, Charles Town, West Virginia
June 12th dinner – 21st brunch, 2026
Click to REGISTER NOW
Come, come, whoever you are!
Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving. It doesn’t matter.
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come, even if you have broken your vow a thousand times.
Come, yet again, come, come….

May 6-10, Work Event with Lee van Laer: The Search for Goodness in Being
2026-05-06 18:30 - 2026-05-10 13:30 | Great Barn, WV, United States
Work Event with Lee van Laer
The Search for Goodness in Being: Practical Work with the Ideas of Meister Eckhart and Gurdjieff
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It seems as though there is great trouble in the world today; yet we are not so special in this. In fact, it has always been so. Since ancient times, the inner being of mankind has forever been located at an intentionally challenging juncture between earth and heaven that opens on to a new potential.
A potential for goodness to flow into Being.
There’s a deep and mysterious – we could say conscious – connection between goodness and being. Meister Eckhart, for example, speaks very often of goodness, the way it emanates from God, and its connection to the root of the soul.
Gurdjieff spoke of developing a higher being-body and acquiring a soul. Although not always so stated, this aim is deeply rooted in the development of a practical connection to joy and goodness. Right inner development simply can’t take place without a connection to that energy.
How does this relate to Meister Eckhart’s teachings?
In this retreat, participants will be introduced to and examine various features of Eckhart’s sermons on goodness in conjunction with practical work on spiritual sensation and inner prayer drawn from both the Gurdjieff approach and Lee’s personal practice.The premise of investigation is that Goodness is a substance. It’s one of the many spiritual elements that cannot be detected or measured with ordinary instruments.
Modern science doesn’t view goodness as a material thing. It understands it as a subjective property; and this is patently false, for goodness is among the most objective qualities of creation, if it’s properly and practically understood; and every created thing that manifests in the cosmos ultimately arises from it.
In this gathering we’ll explore various questions about the root of goodness from both a serious, practical, and lighthearted point of view.
What is its nature?
How do we sense its nature?
Can we open more to it?
How and why do we gather this substantial presence within us and concentrate it?
Where is it deposited in us, and what purpose does it serve? What is its nature in today’s ordinary world?
Movements will also be offered as part of the event.
Mr. van Laer is from the Welch line of the work. He has been a member of the Gurdjieff Foundation in New York for over 40 years and has studied under numerous people who knew Gurdjieff personally. He is a former board member and Senior Editor at Parabola Magazine and is the content creator and publisher of Zen, Yoga, Gurdjieff, Morning Five, and Inner Christianity, as well as a few other more frivolous and obscure substack sites.
The gathering will begin with dinner at 6:30 pm on Wednesday May 6 and end after lunch on Sunday May 10.
All activities will be at the Great Barn.
The suggested donation for the gathering is $600 if you are staying overnight at Claymont, and $300 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.
