Tuesday Evening Lectures

Where do you get your inspiration? Today we might “breathe in” any number of influences, but the people of ancient Greece had only one source: the Muses. The Muses were the Greek goddesses of poetic inspiration, and were deities of song, dance, and memory. That last item might come as a surprise, because we usually think of something new when we hear the word “creation.” But the mother of the Muses was the Greek goddess Mnemosyne, or Memory, and their music – sometimes divine, sometimes silent – enabled a few lucky people to have visions of the past: as mysterious as insight into the future, and only partially dependent on one’s own powers. This 90-minute session with discussion introduces the Greek poet Hesiod and his Theogony, the best and most detailed explanation of who the Muses were and where they might best be encountered today.

In this interactive talk, Victoria Field will explore some of the ways in which the poetic can enhance our lives and expand our sense of connection with ourselves, the world and the transcendent. Mindful reading of poems and writing in response can offer solace, pleasure, new insights and even awakening experiences. We will look specifically at how metaphor, form and rich ambiguity work in poems. No previous experience or knowledge is required. Please bring a notebook and something to write with.

The theme of this talk is beauty, love and ecstasy, and how they may save us and the cosmos. In particular I will talk about love as a response to the theophanic beauty of the world and human persons. This ecstatic movement of eros is a personal call which lifts me out of my ego-centred self, abandoning myself to realise the divine presence and dignity of the other (whether human or non-human) as an icon of God. It is however a slow process and indeed it will never end, continuing, deepening, expanding for ever. This is an ecological vision which includes the afterlife, as it should.