We are excited to announce that the Centre for Myth, Cosmology and the Sacred is celebrating its first birthday! Over the past twelve months, via our online lectures, seminars and talks, we have had the pleasure of connecting with large numbers of you over Zoom; meeting old friends and making new ones. Each day (from Monday to Thursday), we will be releasing an online lecture for you to watch/listen to. On Friday 30th, we will be hosting an on-line, celebratory coffee morning via Zoom at 11am (BST), where Angela, Mary and Louise will be available for informal chat.
INTRODUCTION TO HEART SENSE WITH LOUISE LIVINGSTONEBeginning Monday 13th September 2021 Six week personal development course via Zoom: Mondays 7:30pm – 9pm (BST) 13th Sept, 27th Sept, 11th Oct, 25th Oct, 8th Nov, 22nd Nov 2021 “I’m so grateful to Louise...
These run once a month on a Thursday from 7-8 pm (UK time) by Zoom. Contact info@maryattwood.com for dates.
This new online session, The Art of Seeing, will run every month on a drop-in basis. You do not have to commit to any number of sessions.
We know how to read a book and get lost in the other world of the imagination, and we allow ourselves to be moved emotionally and viscerally by music, but have we lost our visionary capacity when it comes to looking at works of art?
My subject is the fundamental human experience of wonder. With a mixture of personal examples and respectful theory, we will consider what it is and isn’t: its characteristics, conditions, limits, and dynamics. We shall also try to find out what we can learn from enchantment, with particular reference to the concerns of the Centre such as myth, magic and the sacred. It also has significant implications for how to best go about contesting the ruling ideologies of our time.
In this introductory course we will cover the basic themes of neoplatonic cosmology, philosophy and ritual, focussing on key texts of Plotinus, Hermes Trismegistus, Iamblichus and Marsilio Ficino (1433-99). Some reading will be sent in advance, and there will be plenty of time for discussion.
We will think about why and how Plato uses myths in his Dialogues, and what kind of ‘truth’ he is wanting to tell us using the language of the ‘likely story’. We will follow the themes of the creation, the nature of knowledge, erotic love as a spiritual path, and finally the experience of the afterlife, and consider the importance of these stories for us now.
