Khizr is of lore and legends - the "Hidden Prophet" of the Koran - who is also the "Green Man" of folk tradition, the master of sufis and alchemists, and "patron saint" of the Islamic ecology movement. Both immortal human and vegetarian spirit, Khizr appears in the garden as the point where consciousness and nature intersect to illuminate the "Divine Waymarks" of material creation. Green Hermeticism invokes Khizr to preside over the moment of this intersection: garden as paradise.
Alchemy is the working with the fire of the divine while Magic is the working with light as it expresses itself through form, virtues, and lives within nature. Everything that exists has its individual part to play yet each is intimately interconnected and interdependent within the greater whole. In this session we will examine the geometrical, planetary and physiological virtues that are intrinsic within a given plant and more especially within the cultivated magical garden.
The garden is usually a place of reverse alchemy: Instead of turning our weeds into gold, we demonize them and cast them out in favor of rarer plants that we, in turn, begin to see as common. Join Susun Weed in the garden for a look at growing things from three perspectives: the scientist, the hero, and the wise woman. We'll attune with the Earth, breathe with the plants, and feel our hearts and minds enveloped, but never hermetically sealed, by the great mysterious force of Nature.
This session will offer a look at Beuys' involvement in spagyrics (from 7000 Oaks to Cosmas & Damian), environmental politics, and other aspects of Green Hermeticism.
The Eleusinian Greater Mysteries were held for over 2000 years and for most of that time were seen as the central spiritual ritual of the ancient world, the basis for the later mystery cults of Hermetic tradition. At the beginning of the Hymn to Demeter Persphone is plucking flowers. When she plucks a narcissus the ground opens up and Death abducts her into the Underworld. At the end, before she returns to the living, she eats pomegranate seeds, and because of this she cycles back and forth between life and death, following the seasons. These plants are not random choices, but rather demonstrate the ancient knowledge of biology coded in myth. The end of the Hymn tells how Demeter not only instituted the Mysteries but also taught agriculture to humans. Thus the rites follow the shift from wild nature to human cultivation. The story also describes the change from asexual mother/daughter reproduction to bisexual genetic mingling, an evolution that introduced death into the world.
Ancient Egypt did not understand the idea of gardens because the country as a whole was seen as "the garden at the center of the earth,"one nation-sized living amulet. We will make a visual tour of the Duat, the Center of the center of the earth, a through-the-looking-glass paradise whose sky is the surface of our planet, and whose labyrinths of torment and pleasure stretch illimitably downward. Parallels will be drawn between Osiris' garden of darkness and the psychology and ecology of the modern world.
In this workshop Craig Holdrege will guide participants in plant observation. Inspired by the work of Goethe, he will explore the principle of metamorphosis as a key to understanding the qualities of plants and their growth dynamics. As Goethe wrote, "if we want to gain a living understanding of nature, we must become as mobile and flexible as nature herself."
Instinctively we reach for a flower on occasions that mark major life transitions - marriages, births and deaths- the need for healing and as a token of love or congratulations. Behind that simple impulse there lies a vast history of traditional wisdom and experience. From ancient cultures indigenous people and pioneering individuals we have a valuable legacy of information regarding the effects of flowers on humans. This information is primarily concerned with color, fragrance and numerology. In this presentation we will explore some of the ways flowers have been used for healing and inspiration in the past and how those methods may be effectively used today.
Floral Angelology is a supradisciplinary modality, which unifies modern science, mysticism and art to explore Earth's vegetation as a co-evolving biosynthetic body of an Archangel, called various names, such as Amertat, Flora, Chloris, etc., in certain mystical traditions. In Floral Angelology plants are seen from a multitude of complimentary perspectives and meditated upon as Primary Light Processors on whose humble angelic service depends the well-being of all Earth's inhabitants, including ourselves. In Floral Angelology, the images of flowers are used to facilitate an open-ended exploration in perceiving faces of plants, through which transpires the ephemeral countenance of their angelic counterparts, their fragile world and fragrant purpose of being. Floral Angelology is a part of the Living Science curriculum, developed by Espahbad Michael Yoshpa, Ph.D.
It is difficult to say which world flowers belong to. As symbols of the soul, they seem to unite both worlds. By their roots, they are earthly-bodily; by their blossoms they are spiritual-cosmic. This talk will try to unravel some of their many meanings starting from the metaphysical, universal realities of like Dante's "mulifoliate Rose" and Novalis's mysterious "Blue Flower." In the light of what these can teach us, we shall consider the botanical and biological existence of flowers between earth and sky. Learning from their transcendent seed-bearing art of beauty and color, we shall then examine how ancient Hermetists used flowers and flower metaphors in their workin order to learn how we, like they, can likewise become celestial gardeners.