The Spiritual Journey in Poacher’s Pilgrimage

March 09, 2017

An evening with Alastair McIntosh, author of Poacher’s Pilgrimage: an Island Journey. An exploration of space, time, consciousness and the basis of our profound interconnection, through love and community, both with nature and with one another.

Event Description

Chair: Jim Griffin

Alastair McIntosh’s recent book, Poacher’s Pilgrimage: an Island Journey, is on the face of it a travelogue. But a pilgrimage is a journey with intent to open to the inner life. The walk that he made across the isles of Lewis and Harris back in 2009 was a basis to explore pressing issues of our times: amongst them, war, poverty, nonviolence, feudal power in land ownership and climate change. But deeper than any of these, his pilgrimage opened out an ecology of the imagination. It became an exploration of space, time, consciousness and the basis of our profound interconnection, through love and community, both with nature and with one another. This offers an alternative to worn out versions of religious expression from the past. In particular – as befits a physical walk through Celtic spiritual history replete with beehive cells, holy wells and the ancient “temple” sites – Alastair explores Christian mystical insights for the future, but always with a deep appreciation of the gifts of other faiths that are rooted in love.

Timetable

Registration: 6.30pm-7pm
Talk: 7pm-9pm

Venue: Sanctuary, Augustine United Church, 41 George IV Bridge, Edinburgh, EH1 1EL.

Booking & Fees

Cost: £10
£8 (concessions)
£3 (students)

Book online


Or download a Registration Form


Contact: Neill Walker, mesp2017@hotmail.com, 0131 331 4469.

The 2017 Edinburgh International Festival of Middle Eastern Spirituality and Peace

From Saturday 4 March – Sunday 26 March 2017 the 14th annual Edinburgh International Festival of Middle Eastern Spirituality and Peace (MESP 2017), will bring together people from a wide range of spiritual backgrounds, people working with peace, conflict, reconciliation and justice, educators, teachers, scholars and students, people from artistic and cultural backgrounds, people working with health, wellbeing and healing experiences and concerns, people from diverse cultures, traditions and communities, and people from across Scotland and internationally. More generally, everyone participates in an individual and non-representative capacity to allow people to draw upon their own experiences and to share their unique visions and perspectives, and people of all backgrounds who respect the Festival ethos are warmly invited to participate in this spiritual, educational, artistic and cultural and international festival which celebrates peace and mutual understanding.

MESP 2017 Events

Course / Event location

Sanctuary, Augustine United Church, 41 George IV Bridge, Edinburgh, EH1 1EL

Love and Knowledge in the Light of Unity | the Direct Path

A Beshara Foundation Course

Introductory weekend at Sutton Courtenay Abbey, Oxfordshire
16th – 18th February 2024
(Zoom attendance also available)

10 x fortnightly online sessions
29th February – 4th July 2024
Thursday evenings, 19:00–20:30 GMT/BST

This is a new foundational course in esoteric education that provides a full introduction to the principles of Beshara in terms of both knowledge and practice. Taking the metaphysics of Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi as a starting point, the course explores what it means to understand oneself and the world in the light of unity.

Contact: besharacourses3@beshara.org

The Alchemy of Human Happiness: Online Study Group

Weekly from late January 2024
Saturdays 13:30–15:30 GMT online via Zoom

An opportunity to study and explore a recent translation of an influential work of Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi.

This group is now full. If you would like to be added to a waiting list for a possible new group, please contact london@beshara.org

Cover Addresses 1

Addresses by Bülent Rauf

 

Weekly from 16th January 2024
Tuesdays:
21:00–22:00 GMT

 

An online study and reading of Address by Bülent Rauf. This is an existing group with a limited number of places. New participants are very welcome.

 

Contact: Yafiah Katherine Randall
yafiahkatherine@gmail.com

Nestled in the Womb of God

Hindu-Muslim comparative inquiry

9th December 2023
14:00–17:00 GMT
The October Gallery, London

A seminar by Hina Khalid

This seminar ventures into the relatively unexplored terrain of a Hindu-Muslim comparative inquiry into the intimate presence of the divine reality to the finite world. It offers a comparative analysis of the conception of the infinite in the worldviews of two major philosopher-poets of the Indian subcontinent – Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938) and Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941).

Work by James Suzman: A Discussion

The history of work from the stone age to the age of robots

Sunday 3rd December 2023
15:00–16:30 GMT via Zoom

A chance to discuss the topic of Work as discussed by James Suzman in a book recently reviewed in Beshara Magazine.

“It is rather hearts, clinging to the door of the Divine Presence”

Learning from Ibn ‘Arabi

4th November 2023
14:00–17:00 GMT
The October Gallery, London

A talk and seminar by Eric Winkel

Mystic, philosopher, poet, sage, Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi (1165–1240) was one of the world’s great spiritual teachers. Since 2012, Dr Eric Winkel has dedicated his life to the first-ever translation of and commentary on the entirety of Ibn Arabī’s al-Futūḥāt al-Makkīyah (The Openings Revealed in Makkah). Ten thousand pages of the original handwritten manuscript make up 37 books of the complete work. In this seminar, he will discuss Ibn ‘Arabi’s seminal work and its significance for us now.

Drowning in the depths of Rumi’s Masnavi

‘You are not a single you, o good comrade; nay, you are the sky and the deep sea’ – Rumi

30th October – 27th November 2023
Weekly Zoom sessions
19:00–20:30 GMT

This course is an opportunity to study and explore some of Rumi’s main spiritual teachings from the Masnavi, which is considered to be his masterpiece.

How Rumi Opens the Eye of the Heart

14th October 2023
14:00–17:00 BST
The October Gallery, London

A talk and seminar by Alan Williams

The 13th century Masnavi of Jalāloddin Rumi is not a story book, yet, like the Bible and the Quran, it is full of stories. What are the secrets the Masnavi reveals? They may be summed up in the phrase ‘the opening of the eye of the heart’. The primary question of this lecture is: how does the Masnavi effect the opening of the heart?

The Mysticism and Spirituality of St. John of the Cross

2 online series of 3 Meditation Workshops

30th September, 28th October, 26th November
Saturdays, 10:00–12.30 BST/GMT
and
October 12th, November 9th, December 7th
Thursdays, 17:00–19.30 BST/GMT

Two poems by St. John of the Cross, The Dark Night and The Spiritual Canticle, will form the basis of our meditation.

Gustav Klimt

Exploring the meaning of ‘Know Yourself’ according to five wisdom traditions

27th September – 6th December 2023
Fortnightly Zoom sessions
19:00–20:30 BST/GMT

This course offers the opportunity to reflect on the meaning of what it is to Know Yourself in the mirror of five Ancient Wisdom traditions and to explore their relevance to each of us and to the current modern era.

This course is now full. If you would like to join a waiting list for the next one, please contact admin@beshara.org

Ibn ‘Arabi and the Ecological Crisis: a Merciful Nemesis? Revisited

September 16th, 2023 (14:00–17:00 BST)
The October Gallery, London

A talk by Peter Coates about the ecological crisis and its deeper significance.

The Ways of the Heart III: The Compassionate Heart

​5th September – 14th November 2023
Tuesdays, 20:00 – 21:30 GMT

An online Beshara course exploring a spiritual life in the contemporary world.