Sufi Wisdom: an introduction

Listen to this story:When the soul left the body,it was stopped by Godat heaven’s gates:“You have returned just as you left!Life is a blessing of opportunity: Where are the bumps and scratchesleft by the journey?” Poem by Rumi, translation Neil Douglas-Klotz A few people are seeking a spiritual thread to help them find meaning and … Read more

A Sufi View of Climate Change

I’ve been exploring Sufi spiritual teachings for over twenty years, and felt it might be useful to explain how these help me to live with and respond to the climate crisis. My sense is that a spiritual path and practices can help a lot in this process. So what do I mean by Sufi? It’s … Read more

Book blog: Journey of Souls by Michael Newton

Ever wonder about a life beyond this one? Perhaps Covid-19 has made many of us reflect about our mortality, and wonder if this increasingly strange world is a preparation for something else.  I have long believed that our soul exists before and after a human lifetime, and this book offers evidence I find persuasive.  Michael … Read more

Exploring the Soul’s Journey: Resource List

A         MAIN SOURCE BOOKS Journey of Souls by Michael Newton. A detailed description, built from hypnotherapy sessions with over 300 clients reporting broadly the same experience. Describes stages in soul development, soul groups and mentors, how a soul chooses a human incarnation, and how it is reviewed after death. Fascinating and inspiring! Testimony of Light … Read more

Befriending your soul: starting a dialogue

There was a time around age 40 when I felt that the interest of life was thinning out: friends from early adulthood were drifting away, my kids were turning into grumpy teenagers, work challenges became samey. However, now I’m in my early seventies, I’ve seen my life getting progressively more interesting for many years. One … Read more

The spirit of the Sahara

Picture this scene: you are standing atop a sand dune in the Sahara, in a 360-degree panorama of utter vastness and silence. You face west, watching the sunset, the sky a blaze of orange, blue and red. You turn to face east: just as the sun sets, the full moon rises above the rim of … Read more

Desert Wisdom: the book and the nomads

Desert Wisdom is not a formal category, or a defined body of religious doctrine, but it is a useful name for a large, diverse body of teachings which share many qualities.  The deserts of the Middle East have been the inspiration for many great spiritual teachings, notably Christian, Islamic, Jewish and Sufi.  The culture of … Read more

Revealing the spiritual landscape of the desert

How do you navigate from place to place around Britain?  Probably by roads – hard-surfaced, man-made thoroughfares which get you efficiently from A to B.  You can pick your roads easily with a road atlas, or be told where to go by Sat Nav.  It’s unlikely that you choose your route by thinking which valley … Read more

Glubb Pasha’s elegant way with challenges

An English gentleman meets the Bedouin The essence of this story is in that amazing name, Glubb Pasha. John Glubb was a Brigadier in the British Army, who spoke Arabic fluently, rode a camel, and in the 1930’s was a Pasha, a kind of governor for the Bedouin tribes in Jordan. There are echoes of … Read more