Essays

Sacred Time, by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

Sacred Time, by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

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? by Tracy Cochran

Who Are You? by Tracy Cochran

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, by Mary A. Osborne

A Turning Point in the Cosmos, by Mary A. Osborne

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, by Kent Jones

And So On, by Kent Jones

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…

A World of Sound, by Kyle Holton

A World of Sound, by Kyle Holton

Kyle HoltonJan 31, 201812 min read

Men gather for annual dances during harvest season. Photograph by Kyle Holton Listening to the Yao of Mozambique For eight years, I lived in a village…

Inanna: Relevance and Return

Inanna: Relevance and Return

Christine IrvingOct 28, 20199 min read

The Sumerian Goddess Inanna came to the notice of modern women in 1983 when Diane Wolkstein and Samuel Kramer published Inanna: Queen of Heaven and Earth. But she first appeared…

Driving Lessons, by Snigdha Manickavel

Driving Lessons, by Snigdha Manickavel

Snigdha ManickavelApr 29, 20177 min read

Chennai, India. Photograph by aotaro Snigdha Manickavel spent part of her childhood in Edmonton, Canada, before moving with her family to the temple town of Chidambaram…

Maidens & Monsters, Betsy Cornwell

Maidens & Monsters, Betsy Cornwell

Betsy CornwellOct 31, 20149 min read

The Deeper Meaning of Fairy Tales “Little Red Riding Hood”, Jessie Willcox Smith, 1911 Don’t stray from the path. Don’t disobey. Don’t eat the apple, the…

Paths are Made by Walking, by Nipun Mehta

Paths are Made by Walking, by Nipun Mehta

Nipun MehtaMay 7, 201713 min read

Nipun Mehta Walking, in our high-speed world, has fallen out of favor. The word “pedestrian” itself is used to describe something ordinary and commonplace. Yet, walking…

Love and Compassion in Meditation and Action, by Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi

Love and Compassion in Meditation and Action, by Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi

Ven. Bhikkhu BodhiOct 31, 201620 min read

Photo by Chris Ensey from Unsplash.com THE NEED FOR LOVE AND COMPASSION Love and compassion are qualities essential to our stature as true human beings, and…

Meeting Remarkable Trees

Meeting Remarkable Trees

Keith BadgerApr 27, 20229 min read

Between every two pine trees there is a door leading to a new way of life.John Muir I would often engage my secondary school students in the childhood art of…

Arrernte Land

Arrernte Land

Karen LethleanJul 28, 202214 min read

A jumble of buildings squatted some distance away, dark, and low. Not a sight I, at my age of eight, imagined part of Dad’s homeland. Funny how things stick in…

Prophets without Robes or Staffs

Prophets without Robes or Staffs

Roger LipseyApr 27, 202220 min read

Greta Thunberg was somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean on a rough day—high winds, high waves. She was traveling from Europe to North America by the only means she could accept,…

The Compassionate Warrior, by Elsa Marston

The Compassionate Warrior, by Elsa Marston

Elsa MarsrtonOct 31, 201615 min read

Abd el-Kader protecting Christians in 1860 Damascus Abd el-Kader (1808-1883) was an Algerian religious and military leader, a sharif (noble) and Sufi, elected Emir, or Commander…

Awakened Awareness

Awakened Awareness

AdyashantiJan 31, 20215 min read

Awakened awareness practices focus on dis-identifying with the conceptual mind, specifically the false self or ego that we imagine ourselves to be. To call the ego a “false self” is…

Love and Money, by Richard Smoley

Love and Money, by Richard Smoley

Richard SmoleyJan 10, 20189 min read

MADONNA AND CHILD WITH SAINTS,” TWELFTH CENTURY, FRESCO, CASTELLO, APPIANO, ITALY Although love has existed as long as the human race itself, it was Jesus Christ…

Making God Necessary, by Deepak Chopra

Making God Necessary, by Deepak Chopra

Deepak ChopraOct 27, 201822 min read

Ritual offering of arghya at the Ganges. Varanasi, India, 2006. Photograph by J Duval Why God is a verb, not a noun The practice of medicine,…

In the Hands of the Sea

In the Hands of the Sea

Surnaí MolloyJan 31, 20237 min read

I went out into the garden, to the crag, and I sat on the bench and watched the light change in the sea; looking over the fields, the holy well, the…