Join Matthew Fox and Others for a UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY to study the great medieval mystic MEISTER ECKHART in Erfurt, Germany in the very rooms where he lived and taught and prayed as a Dominican!
Comments on Fox’s recent book, Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior for Our Times:
“In this book Matthew Fox, one of the gigantic Christians of this century, engages and presents Meister Eckhart, one of the gigantic Christians of the ages, in dialogue with some of today’s best minds. The result is a stunning new vision of Christianity that transcends both creeds and boundaries. It is a thrilling read.” –John Shelby Spong, author of The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic
Meister Eckhart may well be the most significant mystic-prophet of the West. His influence has been vast, including Karl Marx and Martin Burber, Carl Jung and Thomas Merton, John of the Cross and Dorothee Soelle and Eckhart Toelle. His deep insights ring true to Buddhists, Sufis, Hindus, Jews and indigenous peoples. What better place to study him than in his own Dominican house where he lived “longer and more continuously than anywhere else during his lifetime,” according to historian Joel Harrington.
Predigerkirche in Erfurt was a Dominican priory and church in the middle ages. Its Gothic church was still under construction during Eckhart’s time, the choir and high stone altar only fully roofed a year or two before his joining the Dominicans at 15 years of age.
Now Lutheran, the church and priory went amazingly undamaged for 700 years including the two world wars. Updated and renovated, it provides a most special space of morphic resonance and deep memory in which to listen deeply to what Eckhart is telling us today amidst our struggles for eco-justice, social justice and an evolutionary leap towards a deeper consciousness for our species.
Our week will consist of body prayer in the mornings followed by teachings and discussions on Eckhart by Matthew Fox; and art as meditation classes in the afternoons. Participants will choose for art as meditation either “Moving to Eckhart’s Words” led by dance instructor Meshi Chavez; or “Dreams and Journaling with Eckhart” led by Jungian therapist and author Steve Herrmann.
An optional Process Seminar will be offered daily after art as meditation by Claudia Picardi. Private meditation time in the Dominican choir stalls where Eckhart prayed is also encouraged. The group will design and celebrate an “Eckhart Mass” on Thursday evening at the altar where Eckhart celebrated Mass regularly as prior.
Matthew Fox has been called “perhaps the greatest writer on Meister Eckhart that has ever existed.” Like Eckhart, he was a Dominican and like Eckhart he was condemned by a corrupt papacy. He has written three books on Eckhart and 33 other books on Creation Spirituality including three on Hildegard of Bingen. His books have been translated into 70 languages. He holds a doctorate in the history and theology of spiritualities from the Institut catholique de Paris.
Steven Herrmann has been studying the “master” since he was an undergraduate in college. He is a practicing Jungian therapist and has authored the books A Call To Shamanism; Walt Whitman; Spiritual Democracy; Emily Dickinson: A Medicine Woman for Our Times.
Meshi Chavez is a choreographer and movement teacher based in Portland, OR. He began his teaching career in Soul Motion TM, and then got seduced by his pursuit of the dance form called Butoh. He is a student of Natsu Nakajima (the first female to dance this form) and Denise Fujiwara. Meshi is co-founder of Momentum Conscious Movement. His approach to presence in the body is greatly influenced by his 20 years of working with Native Spiritual leaders and ceremonies.
Claudia Picardi will oversee the workshop and also lead an hour-long process group. Claudia holds a master’s in Transpersonal Psychology from ITP and a Doctorate in Computer Science. As vice president of the Creation Spirituality Organization in Italy, she leads workshops on re-activating the imagination through fairy tales, myths and sacred texts. This one hour gathering is optional and follows the Art as Meditation classes. The learning of each day will be processed and shared via images, words, and impressions of the participants.
Also in Erfurt is the Augustinian church where Martin Luther was ordained a priest. And two hours away is Wittenburg where Luther pounded his theses that launched the Reformation movement and we will visit those sites as well.
For more information and to add your name to the list, contact Dennis @ 510.835.0655, or email 33dennis@sbcglobal.net. For more details, visit www.matthewfox.org
