In preparation for the Christmas season, Professor Brian Gray of Rudolf Steiner College in Fair Oaks will be presenting a three-part lecture series on the topic of the Christ Child and esoteric Christianity through December 14th. According to Rudolf Steiner College, these presentations will focus “on the cosmic background of the Christ event leading to the experiences of the shepherds and kings at the birth, and the childhood and youth of Jesus up to the moment of Baptism.” Each lecture costs $15 to attend, and takes place on three consecutive Monday evenings from 7 to 9 p.m. on the campus of Steiner College, 9200 Fair Oaks Boulevard in Fair Oaks.

If you’ve never been there, you will find that Fair Oaks is one of the few California towns that lives up to its name, for nearly everywhere you look in this hidden hamlet of east Sacramento county there are…well, fair oaks. Famous for its free-range chickens that are allowed to roam its homey streets and meandering byways, Fair Oaks is like a mystic land full of hidden treasures that only a few lucky people have been blessed to discover. Possibly the most well-known of these precious places is the old-fashioned downtown, Fair Oaks Village. But one of the most brilliant, unknown gems in Fair Oaks, and the one that probably does the most to lend this village its mysteriously spiritual atmosphere, is Rudolf Steiner College.

Named in honor of the early twentieth century philosopher and renaissance man Rudolf Steiner, who excelled in blazing bold, new theoretical and practical trails in fields of study as seemingly disparate as child-rearing and education, art and architecture, movement and dance, farming and agriculture, theology and philosophy—not to mention health and alternative medicine—the college is located on a beautiful 13-acre campus punctuated by flowers and greenery designed to aesthetically match the somewhat quirky architecture that is characteristic of this school’s philosophical outlook, which is a harmonious blend of the spiritual and the down-to-earth. The school is surrounded on almost every side by farms and fields where teachers, students, and interns practice biodynamic agriculture, a holistic method of managing land and animals that anticipated organic farming by several decades.

Though it is mainly a training ground for steeping future teachers and educators in Steiner’s vision for holistic education practiced in the world-famous and well-respected Waldorf Schools that he founded, Rudolf Steiner College also offers publicly accessible lectures and classes in dance, painting, sculpture, agriculture, consciousness studies, and philosophy. Recently, the college has partnered with Meristem, a facility that helps young adults on the autism spectrum develop life skills, increase their social capacity, and transition to work and independence. Meristem students on the Steiner College campus have wide access to the arts and crafts studios, as well as to the biodynamic farm where they enjoy a rare hands-on approach to learning to deal responsibly and lovingly with the real world.

Like everything else that Rudolf Steiner wrote about or taught, the esoteric approach to Christmas and the Christ event that are to be the topic of Professor Gray’s lecture series will surely present profound and fascinating perspectives on a topic of which many Americans seem to have forgotten the true meaning. For more information, contact Rudolf Steiner College office at (916) 961-8727.