News
EPIPHANY 2012
Celebrates the December solstice in the lovely Turkish mediterrnean - and having just now returned to windswept England, time to welcome to the mavellous moment of Epiphany on the 6th. Today I read that in Ireland Epiphany was once called 'Women's Christmas' and sacred to Brigit as goddess of the Sun and the fertile earth. I'm sure there is more to say on that! Back soon...... Marie
SAMHAIN 2011
All pauses for a while to honour to the mercurial genius and daimonic mastery of James Hillman, who died on 27th October aged 85. How we shall remember his call to image, to beauty, to poetic language, to metaphor and the imaginal... what gifts spread along our path thanks to his silver voice flowing from the pen with sparks of sulphur, and a rich, inexhaustible humour....
I'll be preparing something in Hillman's honour to contribute to a special event planned at the University of Chichester on Saturday November 12th... It's a Celebration and Exhibition of Student work from the history of the MA Transpersonal Arts & Practice, to accompany the graduation ceremony of the final large cohort of students.... All current students and alumni and friends are invited... It is fairly informal, with the ceremony at 10.00am in the festival Theatre opposite, then from about 11.00 the exhibition of student journals and artefacts filling the big rooms we've booked, and tables set up for a 'bring something to share' buffet lunch.... maybe see you there?... if you want to come along, do drop me a line on m.angelo@imaginalstudies.org for further information.
The Solis Academy will meet in November on 13th and 19th, and in December on 10th and 11th .... after which we'll be approaching the Winter Solstice as a time to take a break to absorb and reflect on the elements of our journey so far.... I'm already looking ahead to some individual tutorial time in January/February. This will also be a good time for anyone who wants to join the pilgrimage but missed the beginning stage to catch up in your own time... for come the first hint of Spring, in March, we'll be setting off once more as a group, a visionary motley!, equipped with our Foolish experiences of the Elements, about to begin the next stage, meeting the new illuminations.... If you'd like to know more about the pilgrimage and the publications that are developing from them, do just drop me a line.
AUTUMN EQUINOX 2011 - catching up
Well, the Splendor Solis Academy has begun and I'm delighted to welcome the groups old and new; some friends from the past who have studied these light-filled materials in the makng of the vision when it was an MA course at the university of Chichester, and some new companions who have found or been found by the Solis illuminations and want to explore them from within..... The September meetings and on-line group made a beginning, and I'm proud to say that all the new equipment of recording device, fabulous projetor and large screen worked well.... although I did feel a bit like one of those one-person travelling circuses getting everything from one place to another that first time! It was easier for the second meeting last week on October 222nd and 23rd.... and the reason I'm writing this now, afterwards, right at the end of the season, is because almost all the days in-between those two meetings were spent far away in Turkish sunshine with very little on-line activity. It was a wonderful retreat, and I've been deep inside Corbin's wonderful Spiritual Earth, Celestial Body which reads sometimes like pure poetry and inspires a vision of other worlds that is subtle and delicate, yet strong and true as ... well, 'the earth beneath our feet' - yet thereby hangs a tale......
In the Solis Academy we're imagining ourselves as Foolish Pilgrims, making ourselves into travellers within the cosmos of the alchemists, so we're taking our time, with the wonderful frontispiece illumination of the Splendor Solis as our teacher. This first stage of four 'study days' is our preparation, a way-in to the master-work, with each element in turn contributing.... we began with Golden Earth ... now we are in the Sparkling Air.....
I'm also glad to have made a start contributing to the excellent MA Psychotherapy and Healing which runs in London and for which I'm contributing seminars all this Autumn...
LAMMAS 2011 - Splendor Solis news....
Dear friends .... a wonderful moment! I now have the first ever formal publication permissions for reproducing the entire Splendor Solis, image and text, so students of the Solis Academy receiving the pre-publication course materials will have the opportunity to enjoy for the first time full, unrestricted access to every detail of the exquisite images, acknowledged as the most beautiful alchemical illuminations ever made.
I particularly wanted to catch the moment of Lammas, and today my diary tells me is the astrological point of this 'festival of bread,' with the sun exactly half way through Leo, so I am pleased to have completed a small document I can now send to anyone interested in the imaginal pilgrimage - containing all the information below plus some further dates, fees and other information.
September is going to be busy.... before we reach the Equinox so many things will have happened: Saturday 10th sees the start of the Splendor Solis group in Worthing.... Monday 12th I begin some guest lectures on Imaginal Inquiry for the MA Psychotherapy and Healing in London; Wednesday 14th is the university exam board for my final cohort of MA students - a big group of 21, whose wonderful dissertations have been filling the Summer so far....., Saturday 17th marks the start of the Splendor Solis group in London ... but then Monday 19th marks the beginning of a month-long rereat to enjoy Turkey's golden time and 'dream our myth onward' .......I am currently arranging housesitters so the lovely cats have someone to talk to! I do hope that by then I'll have worked out how to add to this News page from distant shores.
Next week there are meteors at the full moon and on 14th the heliacal rising of Sirius - here's to wonderful views in clear night skies... all the best from Marie
SUMMER SOLSTICE 2011 - SPLENDOR SOLIS COURSE UPDATE....
Dear friends, thank you for all the contacts and connections. The solstice is a lovely moment to salute the Sun (yes, I have been getting to some of my yoga classes) and describe some more about the course.
Each Academy day is complete in itself, with each set of four marking a stage in the unfolding of a pattern, a mystical architecture..... (in university terms you could think of the four as a module) Like semesters, there will be two sets each year; Autumn and Spring. The full pattern will take several years to explore fully, but the whole of it is held in each illumination - just as each part of a hologram holds all the information for the entire image. It means we are not in a hurry. The idea is to enjoy ourselves as we go along.
We begin with 'Apprentice at the Temple Door', a set of four Academy days, numbered Zero, like the Fool of the Tarot, and including a fifth meeting in the form of an individual tutorial, if wished. As you see, we will not only be exploring the alchemical illuminations from inside the images, but exploring a wonderful array of correspondences and concordances with the Western Mystery tradition, such as the five elements and emblems of the tarot. ....
Dates so far are firming up in London for Septmber 17th, October 22nd, November 19th and December 10th (although 17th is also a possibility.)
There's lots of other news too... but more anon after our solstice celebrations.... Light be with you, Marie
BELTANE 2011 - SPLENDOR SOLIS COURSE STARTS in LONDON, SEPTEMBER 17th....... and in SUSSEX..... with retreats on the Turkish Aegean
Welcome to the new ideas! My long-term plan for the Splendor Solis Academy is taking shape with the chance to use lovely premises in London for Saturday 'Academy Days' as well as our lovely space and big library here in Sussex.....(and our new opportunities in Turkey - in an ancient city of divination, founded by Apollo....) So, from September, we will set off on a new pilgrimage through the landscapes and temples of this most beautiful of alchemical master-works, meeting the illuminations as great teachers, learning from inside the image. We'll look closely, breathe the atmospheres, hear the stories, explore some of the vast treasurehouses of esoteric correspondence and concordance.... and celebrate each initiatory stage of the pilgrimage....
'Academy Days' happen approximately once a month, each a complete experience centering around one of the 22 illuminations of the master-work. Like the alphabet of a mystical language, each image is one letter, one of the 'living powers' of the Great Work of transformation.
A specially written booklet and CD/MP3 recording accompanies each Academy Day, so you can greet the illumination in advance or catch up if you have missed an earlier day. As the pilgrimage unfolds, friends and colleagues enjoy meeting at the Academy to share ideas, develop meditative and creative activities and explore how to take the insights into your own personal and professional practice - maybe as artist, therapist, academic... but certainly as 'student of the art of living.'
If these images speak to you, then you are welcome to join the Academy Days. The materials have been developed over 12 years of running an MA programme, so there is mastery in the course - but it is not of the academic kind alone.... As I am about to explain at the Daimonic Imagination Conference at the University of Kent, May 6-7, the MA was all along based on my experiences of participating in the Western Mystery Tradition, and was designed with far more than the rational mind in view.
However, on the practical, worldly side, as a Professional Psychologist I can offer you Certificates and Diplomas to support your Continuing Professional Development, or your Academic studies elsewhere. Fees are yet to be set, but will be 'a fair exchange of energies.' I do have the option to take the course back into academe and explore it as an MA once more (which does feel like a big limiting factor... but if that was really wanted could be developed over time.) Meanwhile, I like to think of it as a golden opportunity arising to establish, or indeed, re-establish (for that is how it feels) Splendor Solis studies in the Wisdom School Tradition.
Let me know by email to m.angelo@imaginalstudies.org if you'd like more information and dates following on from London on September 17th....
Also if you would prefer to meet by the sea in Worthing, in Sussex - which will run on different days. At a recent presentation to the local 'Spectrum' group, we already formed a nucleus of interest, and have provisionally thought of Saturday 10th September... (TBC).
As the course is also in print and recorded... I can also offer it to you as a Distance Learner, if you would like to email me to discuss it.
After the conference in Kent I will prepare a leaflet and put more on the website...
Here's to the fires of Beltane.... Marie
SPRING 2011 - new ideas taking shape...
It's Friday, April 29th, and the big Royal Wedding has enchanted everyone... reminding me of the Alchemical pair, the White Queen and Red King... What perfect colours... I could almost imagine it to be deliberate! But maybe, as it is for most of us for most of our lives, the two are held and shaped by the archetype without knowing of it. Hard indeed to cultivate the ability to co-operate with the archetype (as Giordano Bruno described) - the making of a subtle relationship, of a special kind of consciousness I'd call Hermetic.
I missed writing these last few weeks - leaving the winter darkenss for the sun, then away again to more sun, writing, dreaming and forgetting to do all the practical things... but they have been cooking wonderfully - and for the anniversary of the website on May 1st I'll be able to make some announcements about the courses for September. Some lovely things are happening!
Spring has rushed us into summery weather and the bluebells are weeks early, the wisteria too.... here's hoping all the vision and wealth of the season is held in the heart as the perfect beginning to the alchemical year. Speak soon, Marie
ARCHIVE
Winter Solstice - December 21st 2010
at the dark of the year, Solstice night - a glimpse of the Mysteries, shining bright.....
An eclipsed full moon setting just as the sun rises on the shortest day..... such powerful images remind me of the vivid and haunting final illuminations of the Splendor Solis with their Black and Red hues, and in-between the varying whites of 'child's play' and 'women's work' ...... We're all immersed in the work now, as dissertations begin to move, and even I have found some time to sort through some of the many layers of papers and notes - it's very exciting! Can't wait to do more on the transcriptions of the talks and the making of the books... I've made a start, but as dissertation students also say - every time I touch this material it grows into something more... and we have such a job to distill and prune and craft it - can't say I've cracked the child's play bit yet... but I do have a feel for the women's work of the spinster, spinning our yarn so we can weave our tale.
New tales will be told next year... here is advance notice of my colleague Angela Voss offering a January course called 'The Imaginal Cosmos' for the new Phoenix Rising Academy... do try the site on www.phoenixrising.org.gr or go direct to a.voss@kent.ac.uk (I'll see if I can get the links active later!)
Another flyer to add is for the May conference at Kent on Daimonic Imagination - I'll be giving a paper on 'Imaginal Inquiry: Meetings with the Imaginative Intelligence' - which is a great opportunity to present some of the ideas that have been cooking in our alchemical oven these last few years.... do go to the site http://www.kent.ac.uk/secl/researchcentres/myth/events/daimonic_imagination.html (again, I'll try and get the link active asap)
But for now, those of us on this little island are just trying to keep warm and look after each other in the snow and cold... If you are in the sun - may it shine in splendor, but if you are here in the European freeze, may there be warmth at your fireside and many merry stories told... as well as quiet times to gaze into the fire and dream.
Until Epihany then - Marie
Autumn Equinox - September 23rd 2010
And a lovely full moon... what a beautiful sky. The Summer has gone in a flash of light it seems... along with the August cross-quarter... all disappeared in a dream in the garden where the Tree of Life was flowering in delight ......
Meanwhile, a huge amount of work was done by students on the one-year pilgrimage through imaginal studies, culminating in an exhibition - which we are seeing as a rehearsal for a larger show next year - the conference plan. The show was followed by the formal exam board early this month, and as a result there are now 18 students in their Dissertation year... setting off on a new stage of the pilgrimage. We are just in the midst of making plans for the supervision sessions and arranging various group meetings. It will seem strange not to have any formal study days, but remembering that they are all now recorded from last year, students can revisit them - and my new job will be to review and rework them for the new students who will come along next time and join us in the Splendor Solis Academy...... I've already a list of those interested and who want to be kept in touch - it seems slowly to be growing all the time - maybe in pace with the work itself....
As the year now stands poised to make its descent into the dark, I open Tom Cheetham's lovely Corbin Book, The World Turned Inside Out, (Spring Journal Books, 2003) and find.... "The fundamental structure of Reality takes the form of Descent and Return. The world is distant from the Divine to the extent that it is trapped in the dogmatic, the fixed, the literal, to the extent that we can only see the apparent, the letter. When the soul can stand at the edge of the cosmos and see that cosmos and everything in it as symbolic of that which is hidden, of the inner meaning that leads to a flowering of the world, then the true meaning of the text has been seen, and the Return has begun. And this experience is in each case unique. And in each case the Guide, the exegete, is the Angel, the "Khidr of your being."' (p125-6)
Speak soon - Marie
Summer Solstice - June 21st 2010
What a lovely culmination to the one-year course, and what excellent timing to finish with the solstice! The final study day was Saturday, June 19th, with elements of ritual, celebration, contemplation.... The Distance Learning page recording it all is sadly only available for current students at present - to read the details and receive all the slides, talks and photos....
However, lots of people have asked about further groups and making the materials more widely available - and at this high moment of full light, I must say, all things seem possible! There are certainly plans afoot to review and develop the materials so they can be published, and to continue current groups and open new ones .... But the warmth and light of this glorious solstice day is also a call to spend time 'in the garden' - at all levels - and to keep things watered and within one's span... The Splendor Solis Academy is not about the kind of unremitting solar light that makes a desert - a one-sided light - but about all the many kinds of light and warmth and reflection that make for transformative, illuminative inquiry and understanding.
As we hear in the final words of the Splendor Solis: 'who possesses this Art is rich, as one is rich in fire who has a flint from which he can strike fire whenever, however, and for whomsoever he will, without diminution of the fire or flint. It is bestowed on him in abundance.....'
Feeling full of light now, and abundance.... and with students busy reviewing the year's pilgrimage and preparing artefacts and commentaries .... I'm off to water the garden awhile.... more anon, Marie
Archive
May Festivals - culminating in the Wesak Full Moon on 27th
What a terrific month. I had meant to write some news right at the beginning, when the Old Celtic festival of Beltane lights the bonfires of the cross-quarters once more... but I've been inside lots of experiences rather than outside writing about them. As I write this the moon is approaching full and in many, many places world-wide, meditations are taking place to celebrate 'Buddha Day.' I'm about to join in, but I wanted to catch the moment here and send my good thoughts - I'll return later and do some more catching up.
...'As the moonlight does not differ/From the moon, so also Thou/Who abound'st in holy virtues/And the Teacher of the world'... (from the 'Hymn to perfect Wisdom')
more anon - Marie
Spring Equinox - March 20th 2010
Time to collect the dew! Welcome to the Light - a moment in the balance and then the increase. The Study Days have continued with great vigor during February and early March. A word to those exploring for the first time... at present the Distance Learning page is only accessible to current students, hence the call for a name and password etc. Sorry that you are excluded, but at present it's 'all or nothing' - current students see the story-line of the imaginal pilgrimage in some detail, and are sent the corresponding podcasts, PDFs and readings, as well as joining an email discussion group (which is now also sharing some stunning images and explorations.) Later this year there will be a new place, open to all, where you can see more about the imaginal journey - and later still, but in the plan, is exhibition space for some of the projects currently underway. It's that odd problem of being so rich I hardly know what to do with all that gold.....
Meanwhile, just to remind you about the Mystics and Scientists conference April 16th-18th.... where I'll be presenting a paper on Psyche's story on bringing order out of Chaos..... You can find details by Googling the name and there is a PDF of the brochure too.
.... and news of a lovely Art Theatre workshop day on 23rd April 'Nature's insite - Reflecting out.' It's being run by two alumni of the university course, Anthony Stapleton and Ivan Daggett, at Parndon Nature Reserve, which is 900 year old woodland, and is just £30-£45 on a sliding scale. As I don't seem to be able to upload the links, here are their email addresses for more information.....
Anthony: eyeseastories@yahoo.co.uk
Ivan: ivandaggett@yahoo.com
And here is a quote from the Splendor Solis - marking the place where the imaginal pilgrimage has just arrived in time for Spring:
'.... a heat is needed by whose power all darkness is expelled from the earth, and all is lit up... ... Then through the tincturing spirit of the fire the colour irradiates the subtilised earth like a ruby. Of such Socrates says: "You will behold a wondrous light in the darkness.'' '
(from the fourth treatise, p46 in the Magnum Opus Hermetic Sourceworks compiled by Adam Mclean and published in 1991 by Phanes Press - this being number 8, Splendor Solis by Salamon Trismosin, translated by Joscelyn Godwin.)
Imbolc/Candlemas - February 2nd 2010
Since the Solstice I've decided to alter this news page to reflect the old festivals rather than simply the months, so here is a salutation for Imbolc and the strengthening of the Light towards Spring. This cross-quarter has been one of much reflection, beside the fire whenever possible, as appointments were cancelled or postponed in the snow and bitter cold..... but the joint 'University MA study day/ Solis Academy day' on January 30th was filled with action - accompanied as it was by the full moon and Mars so bright in the sky. By one of those most satisfying of connections, the curriculum of our Imaginal Pilgrimage through the alchemical illuminations had naturally brought us to a contemplation of Mars - and there was the Warrior in the sky, bringing Above and Below into harmony.
New contacts: If you are on Facebook, do look for Brian Bates - who emailed to say he's made a page for anyone to join and discuss his work. Brian's many years of inspirational teaching and research on Shamanic Psychology at Sussex University continues with him now visiting research fellow. I've been temped to make a page myself, but haven't yet developed it - maybe that will be for the Spring.
Forthcoming events - I'll be speaking at the Mystics and Scientists conference 'Order out of Chaos' in Winchester, April 16th-18th. I have a paper exploring Psyche's initiatory task of 'sorting the seeds.' I'll post some more details including a link (when I can find out how to do it - I need to make my own order out of a bit of IT chaos!) More anon - Marie
December 2009
We can all share the solstice - one of those lovely bits of star-talk that belongs to us all. It's a shared event in the cosmos 'out there' offering all those ways of responding 'in here' (in ourselves) from mundane mechanical observation to a profound alignment with the mysteries of Light. Here in the North it's the turning point towards that light, by whatever name we call it. I love the way the tide turns at the solstice itself, but we mark it three days or so later - after just enough time for the careful observer of the heavens to have confimed that, yes, the sunrise really is coming a little earlier, sunset a little later. We are on our way back..... Then there is New Year, and then Epiphany..... but that takes the holy-days across the months we've made - so I'll wait until then t0 say more. Meanwhile, here in the dark, we've had deep snow and a hurly-burly of activities - and yes, some stillness too..... in honour of 'the sol in soul' in all its splendor. May there be warmth and good cheer for all. All the best, Marie.
November 2009
'Sometime we see a cloud that's dragonish' but in my case, it was diaphanous... This is a swirl of cloud one Autumn evening when it managed not to rain for a few minutes. Again this month so much has been invisible, as the development has been toward making the Distance Learning resources. I am delighted at the way the voice lectures come out so clearly and match well with the coloured slides. I'd like now to find a way of writing about some of the work more openly - because at present it is all or nothing - either on the course or just reading this news. Next stop You Tube maybe!
In between sessions I've been reading a lot, as the post brought a whole pile of books from my favourite on-line second hand store, Alibris. Too many to list, but including Corbin on Swedenborg, Arabic Alchemists and history of the Tarocchi..... all chosen off my long-term wish-list because I had a special money-off token. I've also been drawing quite a lot this month, re-presenting the patterns and concordances made by the illuminations of the Splendor Solis as they form our pilgrimage through the series. I call these 'mathesis' drawings (after Giordano Bruno) and find them endlessly satisfying and productive of new ideas - a mix of memory theatre and mandala to con-template (which as Mike pointed out means 'bringing temples together')
All the best - Marie
October - Samhain Festival 2009
17th saw the arrival at my door of the long-awaited Red Book - Jung's own imaginal journal of word and image. What excitement there has been in the media - and how well founded! ... it feels like one of Prospero's 'drowned books' ... not only for its talismanic reputation and its great 'presence' through size and weight, but the care which went into its making. It's for that care Jung took that I love it, before I've read more than a page or two.... All that calligraphy and miniature paintings - they offer such inspiration for the making of 'reflective journals' that display the ethic of Beauty as well as Truth. The university MA and Imaginal Studies are founded on journals with just such a wider ethic in mind - and I might dare to go even further - and aspire also to touch upon the worlds of the Good and the Holy.. 'where the two seas meet'.....
Apart from this excitement, a lot has been happening this month, but it is invisible! - unless you are already a student. I'm referring to the new page for Distance Learning. Registered students have the password and now have access to materials from three study days...... We've set off on the Imaginal Journey with illuminations of the Splendor Solis as the visiting speakers - and for each session there are my colour slides, voice lectures, papes and notes, as well as some specially valuable articles which I've scanned. At the moment we are reading part one of Antoine Faivre's masterly Access to Western Esotericism, (1994, SUNY) and reviewing the characteristics of 'esotericism as a form of thought' (with a preference for putitng 'Living Nature' first on the list, ahead of 'Correspondences.' ) One of my next projects - apart from the long overdue one to review and upate the site's main content... is to make some selections from all the video material to share on the public pages... Saturn has just entered Libra for a few months, and hence is now in Exaltation... so, I hope to join the alchemists and 'hasten slowly' (festina lente) to good effect.
Meanwhile - here at 'Summer's end' - A Happy Celtic New Year. May there be bonfires and the blessings of the Harvest.
All the best - Marie
September 1st 2009
* The one-year taught course at the university starts on September 12th with a study day devoted to the first of the Splendor Solis illuminations. It is based on my article on the illumination; 'Splendor Solis: inviting the image to teach,' first published in Harvest: International Journal for Jungian Studies, 2005, Vol 51, no 2) and now on this website to download. It unfolds seven steps into the image which can be followed as a method I call 'imaginal inquiry.' I've been writing a lot more about this over the Summer and look forward to our journey into the imaginal guided by these illuminative teachers. As soon as we have set off - I'll write some more. Marie
August 1st 2009
* Good news: The September course at the university to study Transpersonal Arts & Practice has recruited well and looks set to begin with a good sized group (see last month's news for details.) I'm also delighted with the recent interest in the Splendor Solis Academy. I'll be developing more of the ideas over the wonderful long Summer month of August - ready for some September fireworks.
* These lovely August sunflowers were photographed yesterday in my garden amongst the Morning Glories (during a rare moment of sunshine) - a gift from a student just completing her studies. Thank you Jackie, and well done.
* THE FOOL'S PRESENT: 9-11 October in Inverness, Scotland - Almunus Anthony Stapleton, who received a Distinction for his amazing writing and theatre work, will be running this residential workshop with musician and fellow student Rosamund Hoskins. Information is on the website for Anam Cara at: http://www.anamcara.org/fool's_present.htm
more anon. Marie Angelo
July 1st 2009
* STOP PRESS: re: ‘Imagination as a path of knowledge’ 
Students who have completed the imaginal journey over two years part-time at the university have said they would have enjoyed it even more if they had studied the whole journey in a year, ‘and then done it again to go deeper.’ I’m reminded of the legendary mystery school in which the same syllabus is followed for a seven year cycle, each year opening a new level of understanding. Such a vision might be one for the Splendor Solis Academy, but meanwhile, circumstances have played into my hands to create a university-based, one-year, part-time plan for September which can be studied and then repeated in your own time as you wish – or, for those eligible, followed through into the MA Dissertation in Transpersonal Arts & Practice.
Students can join in two ways. Studying for interest and your own professional development means you audit the taught course for a much reduced fee (to be confirmed.) Study for university credit and the MA means you share the same course, but do the assessments. Fees for this option are £2, 180 for the year, whether overseas or UK. Studying one year of taught courses instead of two means MA applicants must also have sufficient background so we can credit you with the equivalent of one year’s MA study when you join (something we discuss and work out with you.)
If this one-year program interests you, do email me as soon as possible, as there is already a group signed up and places will now be limited. The university route of the MA Transpersonal Arts & Practice will not take new entrants after this, remaining validated by the university, but on hold. The transformative heart of the matter, Imaginal Studies, will carry on being developed more fully through the Splendor Solis Academy. It’s where our imaginal teachers, the alchemical illuminations really belong, so they are quite happy about coming back home! .... More anon, Marie Angelo.
‘Judge then of thy Own Self: thy eternal lineaments explore,
What is Eternal and what Changeable, and what annihilable,
The Imagination is not a state: it is the Human Existence itself.’
William Blake, quoted in Paul Davies (1998) Romanticism and Esoteric Tradition: Studies in Imagination. NY: Lindisfarne Books, p67.
June 1st 2009
Dear friends, Imaginal Studies is one month old - so to celebrate here is an early Summer firework poppy from my garden. If you follow the movements of the heavens, you'll appreciate that now is a good moment to update this page, for our hermetic patron Mercury has just ceased his apparent backwards motion and begun the forward dance once more.
* NEWS about 'Imagination as a path of knowledge' - Since gaining university approval for the Distance Learning option there have been plenty of applications to make a really interesting group, not only for Distance Learning, but on campus as well. Applications are still open during June.
* NEWS about the new Professional Development modules - these are also open during June, with new course information shortly available - just email me for details. Studying for interest and a certificate of attendance works out at only £35 for a single session, with short courses of six available in Creative Arts Therapies, Creative Supervision - and, by request, 'Elements of Imaginal Studies.' I like this idea of building up sessions bit by bit, and running courses which benefit from the university connection but are for personal interest as well. Let me know if you like this too and I can develop more of them, incuding Distance Learning options.
* NEWS from the Splendor Solis Academy - I've been researching ways and means of sharing some of the illuminations and transformative ideas on-line as well as through the private groups and sessions of the last few years. I am lining up several papers to upload during this month - as soon as I get the hang of it! It would be lovely to have them in place for the Summer Solstice - so watch this space. I have several links and other additions to add as well, now that we can move forward with Mercurius.
* Todays' favourite quote comes from an end of term seminar at the university a few days ago. We spoke about the wealth of material there is when we start imaginal studies, and how it amplifies with a touch.... and I remembered from Rumi's poem 'The Granary Floor' (from One-Handed Basket Weaving: poems on the theme of work , versions by Coleman Barks, 1991, Maypop).....
'Friend, we're travelling together./Throw off your tiredness. Let me show you/one tiny spot of the beauty that cannot be spoken./ I'm like an ant that's gotten into the granary,/ludicrously happy, and trying to lug out/a grain that's way too big.' (II, 156-193, p110)
Marie Angelo, June 1st 2009
1st May 2009 – Imaginal Studies website stage One begins.
* MA through Distance Learning at the University of Chichester - ‘Imagination as a Path of Knowledge,’ approved for September 2009 entry. Transformative learning combining Humanities, Arts and Archetypal psychology with Dr Marie Angelo and Dr Angela Voss and friends.
* ‘Making the most of your Practice’ – new short course at the University of Chichester on the art of making an imaginative journal to hold your reflections. Study for interest or for post-graduate credits. Suitable for professionals from the therapeutic and healing arts, image-makers, performers and contemplatives. Starts September 2009, with Distance Learning options
* As the website develops, look here for newsletters from the Splendor Solis Academy. Current favourite quotation: ‘the muses never argue with Apollo – they just sing’ (Marsilio Ficino).
Marie Angelo April 30th 2009.