Sacred Time
Time speaks in many voices, many different images and sounds. For the Neolithic builders of Stonehenge, sacred time was marked by the Summer and Winter solstices, particularly the Winter solstice, when, at around 3:50 pm the midwinter sun would set…
Who Are You?
Years ago, when I was a young spiritual seeker, I was invited to a daylong retreat to experience the teaching and the presence of Jeanne de Salzmann, the foremost student of the spiritual teacher G.I. Gurdjieff. The moment she entered…
A Turning Point in the Cosmos
In the Kingdom of Egypt, when a mighty pantheon embodied the forces of nature, the elderly sun died each night and was born anew each morning. Lifted up from the underworld and carried across the nighttime sky by the winged…
And So On
I wanted to write a piece about the obsessive focus on “the present” and how it obscures the Now. Here is how I decided to begin. For the last few years, I’ve had conversation after conversation with close friends about…
Abba, tell me a word
Abba Anthony was living his customary day of prayer and labor in the desert hermitage he called home when a band of seekers paid a visit. We are sometime in the fourth century of our era and in Scetis, the…
Fusterlandia, by Tracy Cochran
Havana. Photograph by Augustin de Montesquiou A tour of Havana leads to a priceless discovery I stood on the upper deck of a cruise ship at…
The Golden Ticket, by Tracy Cochran
Photograph by Peter Hershey One day a Buddhist monk stopped me on the street in Manhattan, offering me peace for the rest of my life. I…
My Journey to Qigong Master, by Robert Peng
The Horse Stance. Suzhou, China The Legendary Monk Xiao Yao Sometime around the year 1889, a baby boy was born to a poor family in a…
Ayni: Living Life in the Round
“Today For You, Tomorrow For Me.” This is the meaning behind ayni, a living Andean philosophy and practice that awakens a balanced and harmonious relationship between nature and man. In…
To Honor the Sacred, by David Ulrich
Offering Platform, Moa‘ulaiki, Kaho‘olawe, Hawai‘i Photographs by David Ulrich Photographing a sanctuary and its desecration. What is the meaning of sanctuary—and of sacred places—in the context…
The Challenge of Artificial Intelligence, by Jeff Zaleski
Mike Licht, Cydippe with Acontius’s Apple iPhone, after Paulus Bor The toy company Mattel has announced the release in Fall 2015 of “Hello Barbie,” the first…
Golden Temple, by Neil Patel
Julian Nyca, Golden Temple, Amritsar, India, Wikimedia Commons The night Nimo, Jay, and I arrived in Amritsar, India, we made a cursory survey of the Sikh…
Family, Faith, and Faygo: A Journey Through the Dark Carnival of the Juggalos, by Kitty Stryker
Members of the Left Coast Juggalos “cramming into the ride before a show,” circa 2004. Photograph courtesy of Ape Boy “There is a love and a…
Sister God, by Betsy Cornwell
Snow White. Heinrich Leutemann or Carl Offterdinger, late nineteenth century When I was three or four years old, I started to grow afraid that I was…
Signore: Parabola visits the Monastero di Bose in the Foothills of the Italian Alps, by Roger Lipsey
Photograph courtesy of Monastero di Bose “There must be monasticism in the twenty-first century!” So said a friend not long ago. Both his implicit protest and…
Down the Well
When I think of wellness, I can’t help but think of my great aunt Tilley who was trapped in an actual well for a good long while. This is not…
Healing the Wounds of War
In contrast to our modern situation, traditional and indigenous peoples had extensive spiritually and communally based warrior medicine, practices and lineages. They lived immersed in and part of nature and…
The Way of the Heart, by Cynthia Bourgeault
Photograph by Brandon Zierer From the Christian esoteric tradition, a path beyond the mind Put the mind in the heart…. Put the mind in the heart….…