Essays

Sacred Time 

Sacred Time 

Llewellyn Vaughan-LeeMay 1, 202310 min read

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? 

Who Are You? 

Tracy CochranMay 1, 202310 min read

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

A Turning Point in the Cosmos

Mary A. OsborneMay 1, 202312 min read

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

And So On

Kent JonesMay 1, 202315 min read

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, tell me a word

Roger LipseyJan 31, 202317 min read

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

Fusterlandia, by Tracy Cochran

Tracy CochranJan 31, 201811 min read

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

The Golden Ticket, by Tracy Cochran

Tracy CochranApr 29, 201713 min read

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

My Journey to Qigong Master, by Robert Peng

Robert PengMay 7, 201716 min read

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

Ayni: Living Life in the Round

Patricia Soledad LlosaJul 29, 202010 min read

“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

To Honor the Sacred, by David Ulrich

David UlrichJul 30, 201715 min read

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

The Challenge of Artificial Intelligence, by Jeff Zaleski

Jeff ZaleskiJul 21, 201518 min read

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…

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Golden Temple, by Neil Patel

Neil PatelAug 25, 20152 min read

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

Family, Faith, and Faygo: A Journey Through the Dark Carnival of the Juggalos, by Kitty Stryker

Kitty StrykerNov 1, 201711 min read

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

Sister God, by Betsy Cornwell

Betsy CornwellApr 20, 20168 min read

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…

The Desk

The Desk

Kenneth KrushelMay 8, 202116 min read

I. Aside the schoolyard Two columns of one-hundred-foot spruce trees follow along a meandering creek, forming a protective border aside the school playground, trees planted a century before in the…

Signore: Parabola visits the Monastero di Bose in the Foothills of the Italian Alps, by Roger Lipsey

Signore: Parabola visits the Monastero di Bose in the Foothills of the Italian Alps, by Roger Lipsey

Roger LipseyOct 28, 201521 min read

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

Down the Well

Tracy CochranJan 31, 202114 min read

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

Healing the Wounds of War

Edward TickOct 31, 20141 min read

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

The Way of the Heart, by Cynthia Bourgeault

Cynthia BourgeaultJan 31, 201723 min read

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….…