Downloadable Courses & Lectures
Botticelli’s ‘The Birth of Venus’ with Mary Attwood and Angela Voss – 27 June 2021 – 10am-12 noon (UK time) – via Zoom – £15
Following our popular session on Botticelli’s Primavera, we are offering an in-depth contemplation of its sister painting, The Birth of Venus. We will study the mythology and cosmology behind this iconic image, and consider it in the context of the revival of the divine feminine in Renaissance Florence.
Introduction to Goethean Enquiry with Louise Livingstone – 4 July 2021 – 3pm-5pm (UK time) – via Zoom – £15
In this seminar, we explore the 18th century German poet and scientist, Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe’s (1749-1832) relational approach to learning about the world; particularly engaging with the imagination.
Levels of meaning in Shakespeare with Philip Marvin – 6 July 2021 – 6:30pm – 8:00pm (UK Time) – via Zoom – £10
Shakespeare’s ‘mirror up to nature’ encompasses every aspect of human being. It is common to explore his texts in terms of plot development, themes, imagery, historical background, sources/influences, rhetorical devices, linguistic analysis etc. This all has its place. But Shakespeare’s mirror up to nature goes deep. Deeper than perhaps any other writer has ever achieved. In this session, we will explore the different levels of meaning contained in these works and their power to transform our own understanding of ourselves and the world.
Meeting the World Through the Heart with Louise Livingstone – 25 July 2021 – 3pm-5pm (UK time) – via Zoom – £15
As Iain McGilchrist states in his book The Master and His Emissary, “The model we choose to understand something determines what we find….Our first leap determines where we land” (2012, p.97). Expanding our enquiry deeper into the imaginal realms, in this session we continue to take the imagination seriously and move into our heart space; known through various discourses as an organ of imaginal perception.
Dante’s Illumination: An Introduction to the Divine Comedy – Dr Mark Vernon – Talk with Q&A – £10 – DOWNLOAD
This talk was recorded on 27th April 2021. In this session, Dr Vernon reflects on the Divine Comedy and the great art it has inspired. It considers themes from the links between descent and ascent, the nature of freedom, the intelligence of light, and the transformation Dante himself undergoes that widens his perception.
Mother Mary & the Mystery of Divine Conception – Marguerite Rigoglioso, PhD – Talk with Q&A – £10 – DOWNLOAD
In this talk, Dr. Rigoglioso calls upon one of the Virgin Mary’s forgotten gospels, the Infancy Gospel of James, to reveal a truth that has been suppressed for nearly two millennia: that Mother Mary was not a passive bystander to her own pregnancy but an advanced member of a sacred order of women trained in divine conception.
Botticelli Primavera with Angela Voss and Mary Attwood – £15 – DOWNLOAD
In this session celebrating the Spring Equinox, Angela and Mary introduce you to one of the most famous and iconic of Renaissance paintings by Botticelli, one of only four of his paintings inspired by pagan themes.
Wilding the Psyche – William Rowlandson talk with Q&A – £10 – DOWNLOAD
This talk took place on 23rd March 2021. In this session William takes us into the Wild. We follow the fault-lines between landscape and wilderness, tame and wild, civilised and savage, wildness and wasteland.
Calling and the Inner Imaginarium – Sharon Blackie talk with Q&A – £10 – DOWNLOAD
Sharon’s talk took place on 23rd February 2021. This package contains the full recording of both Sharon’s talk and the Q&A afterwards. In this talk, Sharon explores the idea that each soul has a unique way of being, a unique purpose, which is essential not only to its own growth, but to the world’s own becoming.
Dreams and the Sacred – 4 part course with Simão Cortês – £40 – DOWNLOAD
In this course, Simão explores some of the core issues around dreaming and the relationship between the dreamer and her dreams. Each session focuses on a specific set of approaches to dreams, both religious and psychoanalytic, private and communal, creative and playful.
From Renaissance Magic to Baroque Nostalgia – 4 Part Course with Angela Voss – £40 – DOWNLOAD
DOWNLOAD. This course investigates a rich and dynamic period of cultural history, exploring how the newly discovered esoteric philosophy of Hermeticism and Neoplatonism influenced 15th century practices of musical and astral magic.
Beyond Flatland – Discussion Day – Recordings DOWNLOAD
Reductionism and literalism are often acknowledged as problems bequeathed to us by the 18th century Enlightenment. They foster tyrannical attitudes that disqualify ways of knowing widely enjoyed by our ancestors.
Owen Barfield called it “camera consciousness”: the ability to look at but not into things. It has become so powerful that even those pursuing imaginative and intuitive modes of perception can run aground on the rocks of spiritual materialism, which can be defined as the tendency to collapse life’s multiple dimensions onto a flatland of mechanical existence.
The Art of Seeing background lecture Part 1 with Mary Attwood – £10
In Part One of this series of lectures on The Art of Seeing, Mary provides a more theoretical overview to the experiential and practical monthly ZOOM sessions on The Art of Seeing.
Wholeness: perceiving dynamic unity, with Louise Livingstone – £5
20 minute downloadable lecture. What is wholeness? In this talk, Louise attempts to illuminate the difficulty that this question poses and aims to reframe the idea of wholeness
Transforming the heart: from biological pump to producer of knowledge, with Louise Livingstone – £5
20 minute downloadable lecture. This lecture presents the idea that the heart is far more important and complex than our dominant way of generating knowledge about the world makes possible
Creating safe spaces for the heart in relation to global challenges, with Louise Livingstone £5
20 minute downloadable lecture. This lecture is based on a paper written for a sustainability conference. In it, Louise discusses the idea that the heart’s wisdom and benevolent qualities cannot gain traction at the level at which decisions are made in our society
Introduction to Goethean enquiry: a different way of seeing for contemporary times, with Louise Livingstone – £10
45 minute downloadable lecture with accompanying handout. This popular lecture was a regular feature within the MA Myth, Cosmology and the Sacred at Canterbury Christ Church University. In it, Louise introduces Goethe’s expanded way of seeing.
Research Lecture – The heart speaks: reimagining the heart for contemporary times, with Louise Livingstone £10
60 minute downloadable lecture. In this lecture, Louise introduces her PhD research that makes a case for heart knowing as a vitally important human capability which has, over the course of many hundreds of years, been divorced from, and rendered subservient to, knowledge about the world as generated through the brain.
Leonardo da Vinci – The Last Supper, with Angela Voss £10
72 minute downloadable lecture. In this lecture, I focus on the possibility of a hidden meaning within the fresco The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, painted between 1495 and 1498. I want to ask whether he intended to hide a cosmic dimension behind or within this portrayal of a pivotal episode in Christian history, and if so, why.
Renaissance Music and Magic with Angela Voss – £10
Downloadable Podcast. In this session on Renaissance Music and Magic Angela Voss discusses her love of playing and studying the music of 15th-17th centuries, and talks about how the newly-discovered esoteric philosophy of hermeticism and Neoplatonism influenced 15th century practices of musical and astral magic.
Taking the lead from nature: why creativity matters in research – with Angela Voss – £5
This lecture was originally given at Christ Church Canterbury University in 2017 as the opening of a research day on creativity in research. In it Angela discusses combining the two ways of knowing – the objective and the intuitive
