In brief
• This week in focus: From Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations
• Meditation
Retreat-Workshops: May 15-17 at Ikigai (Yanchep)
Balingup Wednesday evening - resumes 29th April
• Education
Home Schooling - Balingup area - begins 29th April
Nannup - proposed new community school
• Spiritual Awakening
Spiritual Awakenings Conference - June (online)
Spiritual Formation - one-on-one deepening work
• TAROT
2026 WA Tarot Conference - extract of my presentation
Kat Black’s Tarot of the Troubadours
Aligning Mind Body and Soul - Russell Sturgess
Kat’s Sage tarot reading offerings (and more)
Youtube - David’s interview with myself
Purchase my book…
• Yoga
Balingup - Thursdays 10am and 6pm
Yallingup - see below for details
• ASEA Supplement and Renu28 - information and ordering
• Share - and subscribe - sage.fourhares.com
This week in focus
From Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations
Book 2 of Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations, written in the second century, opens with a gentle acknowledgement of our nature and what we daily face:
Say to yourself first thing in the morning: The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly. They are like this because they can’t tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good and what is right, and the ugliness of evil and what is bad, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature closely related and similar to my own — not of the same blood or birth, but the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me. No one can implicate me in ugliness. Nor can I feel angry at my relative, or hate him. We were born to work together like feet, hands, and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural and thus against our true nature. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are obstructions and in opposition to who we truly are.
In Book 1 - at the very opposing of the book, Marcus Aurelius - who was, it should be remembered, also Roman Emperor - begins his masterpiece by collecting all the graced gifts from his lineage (I here abridge his longer description):
From my grandfather: decency and mild temper; from my natural father: integrity and manliness; from my mother: piety, generosity, avoidance of wrongdoing, simplicity of living; from my great-grandfather: not to have attended public schools, to have had good teachers at home; from my tutor: to tolerate pain and feel few needs, to work with my own hands and mind my own business … from Catulus: not to spurn a friend’s criticism, even it it may be an unreasonable complaint; from Severus: love of family, love of truth, love of justice; from Maximus: self-mastery, immune to any passing whim, a nice balance of character, both gentle and dignified; from my adoptive father: gentleness, and an immovable adherence to decisions made after full consideration; from the gods: to have had good grandparents, good parents, a good sister, good teachers, good family, relatives, and friends…
Marcus Aurelius is classified as a Stoic in the history of Philosophy. Irrespective of any classification, what he reminds us it that of the importance of virtue and self-control (otherwise known to the ancients as temperance), and inner fortitude when facing adversity. The good life - a key concept in Aristotle some 600 years prior - includes a recognition of the inter-connectedness of humanity and that one's judgements (which are continuously necessary in discriminating the good and the true) is something each has to cultivate.
For financial contributions from those who are able:
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Retreat-Workshops
Meditation
Our 15-17 May Meditation workshop-retreat is around the corner - only a few places left…
Through generous support, prices are below normal cost - avail yourselves of this amazing opportunity.
Term 2 2026 - 29th April - 24th June (9 weeks)
Home schooling 12-17 y.o.
Text: Umberco Eco’s The Island of the Day Before
Umberto Eco (together with John Deely) are two of the most important philosophers and semioticians that span the latter part of the 20th century and into the early parts of the 21st. Umberto Eco has also written a number of fiction books that are each exceptional pieces of literature, infused with historical, psychological, and philosophical content. The Island of the Day Before is set around the time when the setting of longitude was at its peak. The book provides us with opportunities for geography as well as scientific historical understanding.
9:30 – 11:30 BOOK – Umberto Eco The Island of the Day Before
12:30 – 2:30 ART – focussed on Geometry and Geography
Please note that the book is around 500 pages, and will require reading (or listening) to approximately 50 pages per week. It is NOT expected that all words are understood - especially as the author is purposefully seeking to (at times) bamboozle the reader.
You will also need, for the geometry, around 2-3 A3 (or 6 A4) sheets of thin cardboard (around 270-300 gsm paper), and a drawing book. We will be constructing a cube-dodecahedral inversion solid, as well as drawing geography directly or indirectly arising from the novel.
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Water Tree Community School is a proposed non-government independent school located in in the Nannup, in the heart of the South West of Western Australia. Check their website for further details.
Meditation through Tarot
Meditation climaxes in a transformed conscious experience leading to mystical union or what is called Samadhi in the Eastern tradition. Tarot shows a path towards this metamorphosis of consciousness.
Dive in to your own inner journey
Spiritual Formation
Personal Development has traditionally focussed on spiritual formation. In the manner that I work, I include practices inclusive of imagery and meditation. If you are interested in finding out more, please be in contact.
Following an initial consultation, deepening work requires commitment for a once-a-month meeting for either 6 or 12 months (renewable if desired).
Tarot News
Conference extract
30 minute extract from my presentation at the March 2026 WA Tarot Conference - focus: III the Empress
to keep in mind
Yoga
Yoga
KYWA 2025 Summer solstice celebration
Balingup - Balingup Yoga Studio
opposite Tinderbox on Brockman Street
Thursday 10 am - with Jean-Michel
Thursday 6 pm - with Jean-Michel
Injidup - Kundalini Yoga Southwest
Thursday 6:00 am - DM Devi on @kundalini_southwest
Friday 6:00 am - DM Devi on @kundalini_southwest
Saturday 8:00 am - DM Devi on @kundalini_southwest
Contact form, share the newsletter subscription, and read through my older website!
ASEA
Redox Supplement & Renu28
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