Autumn-Winter 2008

15 October 2008

The Secret Garden of the Soul

An Introduction to Kabbalah

Allan Armstrong is the Prior of the Order of Dionysius & Paul, a position he has held since 1991. The ODP is a Religious Order dedicated to the contemplative life and the study of Comparative Religion, Mythology and Symbolism. His life’s work is devoted to developing a greater understanding of the spiritual life and the path of spiritual perfection in the context of the Order curriculum. His research interests reflect this in his life long study of the whole spectrum of Spiritual Disciplines. He has written introductions to a series of books on mysticism, including Ruysbroeck’s Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage and Brianchaninov’s On the Prayer of Jesus, and his book The Secret Garden of the Soul – an introduction to the Kabbalah was published earlier this year.

The study of Kabbalah is no lightweight undertaking. It is, essentially, a central part of the Mysteries most suited to those souls whose love of the Spirit is greater than their love of the world; indeed, its inner sanctuaries are only accessible to those who are brave enough to give up the world. Much of Kabbalistic doctrine is concerned in one way or another with the nature, experience and destiny of the soul. But whatever the true nature of the soul may be, coming to know and understand it is central to the way of spiritual regeneration known as Kabbalah. Throughout history Kabbalistic exponents of the spiritual life have likened the soul to a garden, a secret garden hidden deep within our being, and their disciplines and teachings have ever been directed towards enabling others to enter that secret garden and to engage with the inner reality of their own being.

Book signing

19 November 2008

The Masonic Magician

The Life & Death of Count Cagliostro & his Egyptian Rite

Phillipa Faulks is a writer on history, the occult and Freemasonry, with a special interest in Hermetics and the life of ancient Egypt. Her love of mysteries led her and her co-author, Robert Cooper, to immerse themselves in the life of one of Europe’s most fascinating enigmas: the alchemist and Freemason, Count Alessandro Cagliostro. Her research has led to extraordinary discoveries beyond those documented in The Masonic Magician, and has inspired her to continue her quest to find the conclusion of the story of this remarkable man. Her other books include The Secrets of Meditation; The Handbook for the Freemason’s Wife (Jan 2009); and The Quest for Hermes (due 2009)

Count Alessandro Cagliostro was a charismatic cult figure in European society during the years before the French Revolution. An alchemist, healer and Freemason, he inspired both wild devotion and savage ridicule – reflected in novels by Alexander Dumas, in Goethe’s play The Great Cophta and in Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute. Cagliostro’s dramatic and controversial Egyptian Rite of Freemasonry, and his deeply held belief in magical powers, including the attainment of immortality, won him both fame and enemies. His celebrated travels through the Middle East and the capitals of Europe ended abruptly in Rome in 1789, where he was arrested by the Inquisition and condemned to death for heresy. This lecture is based on the book The Masonic Magician, which does far more than simply tell Cagliostro’s extraordinary story. Drawing on remarkable new documentary evidence, the authors expose the terrible injustice of the Inquisition’s flawed case against Cagliostro and demonstrate that the teachings of this genuine visionary and true champion of Freemasonry have much to reveal to us today. They include also in the book the first full English translation of the Egyptian Rite to be published.

Book signing

3 December 2008

The Presence of the Past

Morphic Resonance & Nature’s Memory

Dr Rupert Sheldrake is a biologist and the author of more than 75 scientific papers and a number of successful books, including The Presence of the Past. He is the current Perrott-Warrick Scholar, Trinity College, Cambridge, a Fellow of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, near San Francisco in California and a visiting Professor at the Graduate Institute College in Connecticut, USA. A former Research Fellow of the Royal Society, Dr Sheldrake studied natural sciences at Cambridge University, where he took a double first class honours degree and was awarded the University Botany Prize. He then studied philosophy at Harvard University, where he was a Frank Knox Fellow, before returning to Cambridge, to take a Ph.D. in biochemistry. He was a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge University, where he carried out research on the development of plants and the ageing of cells, and was also Director of Studies in biochemistry and cell biology. Dr Sheldrake is now one of the world’s most innovative biologists, and is best known for his theory of morphic fields and morphic resonance, which leads to a vision of a living, developing universe with its own inherent memory.

Nature is not governed by fixed laws but by evolving habits. According to the hypothesis of formative causation, all self-organizing systems, including crystals, organisms and societies contain an inherent memory, given by a process called morphic resonance from previous similar systems. All human beings draw upon a collective human memory, and in turn contribute to it. Even individual memory depends on morphic resonance rather than on physical memory traces stored within the brain. This hypothesis is testable experimentally, and has many implications, some of which Rupert will explore in this lecture.

Book signing

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