COURSES

Image: Anselm Kiefer “Im Herz des Bergs” (In the Heart of the Mountain) 2021
Photo: Charles Duprat
Restoring the Broken Order
Learning from Ibn ‘Arabi
Saturday 20th April 2024
14:00–17:00 BST
The October Gallery, London
A seminar exploring some themes from the Wisdom of Breathing Out in the Word of Seth, the second chapter of Ibn ‘Arabi’s famous Fusus al-Hikam (The Ringstones of Wisdom).
How to Book
Cost: £10 + £1.63 registration fee.
Entry by ticket from Eventbrite
Enquiries: Michael Cohen at london@beshara.org
Event Description
Restoring the broken order
A seminar exploring some themes from the Wisdom of Breathing Out in the Word of Seth, the second chapter of Ibn ‘Arabi’s Fusus al-Hikam (The Ringstones of Wisdom).
“He [God] it is who gives everything its nature, whom then He guides.” (Quran Surah 20).
In this chapter, Ibn ‘Arabi presents the prophet Seth as a gift given to his father Adam, from whom he originates and who asked for him as a present. Adam asked for this gift in order to ease his pain and restore the order that was broken by the murder of his son Abel at the hands of his other son, Cain.
This has great resonance today. According to Ibn ‘Arabi, in Seth we see and find the secrets of Adam. “And indeed God gave him as a gift to Adam and it is the first that He bestowed, except that this was from him because the son is the mystery of the father. He came out of him and belonged to him.”
Thus, according to Ibn ‘Arabi we need to know that nothing comes to us as gift except from our own selves, and we can know this in various ways, but the best way of knowing it, is by knowing that it is our own predisposition that is the origin of all the gifts we receive.
It is in this spirit of the universality of Ibn ‘Arabi that we will ask to be elevated to the contemplation of gift-giving and reception, and to explore what it means to “Know that the gifts and grants which are manifest in the universe upon the hands of His servants and upon other than their hands are of two sorts: of these one is Essential gifts and the others is gifts by the Names, and these are differentiated one from the other by the people of taste.”
The October Gallery,
24 Old Gloucester Street
London
WC1N 3AL
Refreshments Provided
MORE COURSES
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 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
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
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Mondays 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
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
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