Intuitive Drawing Course

July 1 – 8, 2017

Draw from the heart and learn to see and listen in a new way. In practising to draw the mind always wants to interfere. It is important to distinguish what the heart is trying to say from what the mind is trying to determine. Once this is learned, this skill can be applied in everyday life.

Course Description

This course is an invitation to draw from the heart, and to learn to see and listen in a new way. It is an opportunity to learn to see and understand through images rather than through words.

In practising to draw, you will experience that the mind always wants to interfere. It is important to distinguish what the heart is trying to say from what the mind is trying to determine. Once this is learned, you will be able to apply this skill in everyday life.

What is important is listening, listening with an inner ear. You can ask and await answers to questions such as: What material do I want to use? What colour? What form? What is it in me that wants or even loves to be expressed?

This does not need to have anything to do with making a beautiful drawing or painting. It is an image language, and therefore a different language. The love of what it is that wants to be expressed in you might need time and practice to become apparent. This image-language is a language we are not familiar with and coming to an understanding of it needs practice and requires trust and patience. The understanding of what is drawn requires interpretation and this also needs to be learned.

Each session will begin by coming together as a group with a short invocation for help and guidance. Then we will start drawing (or painting) in silence.

After about 90 minutes everyone will be asked to show their drawing to the group, one after the other, and to talk about the experience. It is important that every member of the group says what he or she sees or feels in looking at the drawing of someone else, because in this course togetherness is all important. Anyone can draw, and it is fascinating and endlessly surprising to try to interpret this image language together; equally, we enjoy each other’s company.

There will be time for meditation, short periods of work in house or garden and opportunities for some study and conversation.

Venue

This is a residential course at the Chisholme Institute a beautiful estate in the moors of the Scottish Borders, an hour and a half from Edinburgh, Newcastle and Carlisle.

The Chisholme Institute is a school dedicated to exploring the essential unity of all existence, the true nature of the self, and how our understanding of this informs how we are in the world.

Facilitator

Elly Deutschman:
Since my earliest childhood I loved to draw; it is my life-long passion. I was introduced to Beshara and the idea of the oneness of being in 1979. This struck a cord, and my husband and I participated in two six-month retreats at Chisholme. The courses were profound and deeply transformative. Many things changed for me then. One such change was that I no longer wanted to draw what I saw with my physical eyes, nor wanted to draw from my imagination. It became crystal clear that what I really want is to concentrate and listen to the interior, and bring out what wants to be expressed from there. Learning how to do this needed years of practice. It became possible to share this learning, and develop it further, when I was invited to run courses in intuitive drawing at a centre in Maastricht, my home town in Holland. I love working as part of a group; the collective intention brings about a concentration which is so much deeper than what is possible to achieve on my own.

Booking & Fees

Cost:
Shared double or triple bedroom: £295
Single room (when available): £375

*Accommodation and all meals are included.
**A non-refundable deposit of £60 is required in advance; the balance is payable on arrival.

The Chisholme Institute tries to ensure that people are not excluded for financial reasons and may be able to offer a reduced fee to those who need it.

Enquiries & Booking:
info@chisholme.org
Tel: +44 (0)1450 880215
Booking website

Course / Event location

The Chisholme Institute, Chisholme House, Hawick TD9 7PH, UK

Mirrors of the Transcendent in the Cosmos of Ibn Arabi: The Body as Metaphor of Divine Self-Revelation

25th-26th July 2025
The Warburg Institute, University of London

A joint symposium held by the Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi Society and The Warburg Institute.

More details: https://ibnarabisociety.org/events/
Booking: https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/events/cosmos-of-ibn-arabi-2025

Aspects of Imagination, Science and the Mystical

Aspects of Science, Imagination and the Mystical

Saturday 14th June 2025
14:00–17:00 BST
The October Gallery, London

With Peter Coates

This talk will consider the vital role of the Creative Imagination in Natural Science and in the Mystical Philosophy of Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi.

Contact: Michael Cohen  london@beshara.org

Hakim Omar Khayya’m and Edward FitzGerald

Paradise E’Now or The Smile of the Spirit

Saturday 24th May 2025
14:00–17:00 BST
The October Gallery, London

With Charles Mugleston

A special Birthday Celebration with music, exploring, experiencing & soulfully enjoying the Ruba’iya’t of Hakim Omar Khayya’m translated & adapted by the Anglo-Irish genius Edward FitzGerald of Woodbridge, Suffolk into “English Music” in 1859.

Contact: Michael Cohen  london@beshara.org

Open Meetings

Monday 7th April, 2025
Monday 5th May, 2025
17:30–18:30 BST

Saturday 26th April, 2025
Saturday 24th May, 2025
9:00am-10:00am BST

Are you interested in sharing your thoughts and in contributing to the development of Beshara? We are excited to invite you to another series of monthly online Open Meetings

Open Meetings

Saturday 22nd March, 2025
9:00am–10:00am GMT

Inspired by the turn out at the recent open meetings, we are pleased to invite you to our next online Open Meeting. This meeting will give priority to our friends in Australia and the Asia Pacific before we open up the space to continue the conversation with everyone else.

Know Yourself

Saturday 26th April 2025
14:00–17:00 BST
The October Gallery, London

You yourself are the object of your quest

Reading and discussion of a classic explanation of the Oneness of Being, attributed to Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi and Awhad al-din Balyani and translated from the Arabic by Cecilia Twinch.

Contact: Michael Cohen, london@beshara.org

Bhagavad Gita – ‘The Song of the Spirit’

From 15th May 2025
20:30–21:30 BST

An opportunity to study and explore the timeless wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita in an online group setting. All welcome.

Contact: John Brown at besharacourses@beshara.org to book a place.

Daily Meditation

From 6th January 2025
07:30–08:00 GMT

Daily 30-minute silent meditation beginning with a dedication of intent and ending. All welcome.

Contact: John Brown at besharacourses@beshara.org for a Zoom invite

Open Meetings

Monday 13th & 27th January, 2025
Monday 10th & 24th February, 2025
18:30–19:30 GMT

Are you interested in sharing your thoughts and in contributing to the development of Beshara? We are excited to invite you to a series of four fortnightly online Open Meetings launching in January 2025.

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

Beshara Foundation Course

Autumn 2025 (dates to be confirmed)

Introductory weekend at Sutton Courtenay Abbey, Oxfordshire
(Zoom attendance also available)

10 x bi-weekly evening online sessions

This course 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 the Unity of Existence.

Contact: besharacourses3@beshara.org

Love Divine: a conversation between Rumi and St. John of the Cross

Meditation and poetry workshops 

Fortnightly from 18th January – 29th March
Saturdays: 10:00am – 11:30pm (GMT)
or
Fortnightly from 25th January – 5th April
Saturdays: 10am – 11:30am (Pacific Time), 12:00pm-13:30 (Central Time), and 5:00pm-6:30pm (UK time).


Meditation workshops following a format of reading some lines of poetry with contemplative meditation and shared reflections. There are a few places left.

Jesus Across Space and Time

An interactive seminar

Saturday 30th November 2024
14:00–17:00 BST
The October Gallery, London

An afternoon devoted to discussion of the question: what is the knowledge we can attain if we contemplate the person of Jesus and his function and role in the world of humanity?