Events List

Event: Lecture: The emergence of Irish High Crosses and Armenian Khachkars. Mysterious coincidence? Common roots? A lecture-investigation by Natalia Abelian on the opening of the exhibition Armenia: The Literary and Visual Tradition.

The lecture will be preceded by an introduction to the exhibition by the curator, Vesna Petkovic of Pro Art and Co..

Venue: Scotland-Russia Institute, 9 South College Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9AA.
Date: Friday 11 February 2011.
Time: 7.30pm.

Event Description: Natalia Abelian is an artist, philosopher and historian of art of a mixed Armenian-Russian origin, who presently resides in Northern Ireland. Having graduated from Moscow State University with MA in Aesthetics (1999), Natalia is a founding member of Societas Celto-Slavica. She has organised a number of cultural events at the Societas’ Colloquia (Coleraine, 2005, Moscow 2006, Lodz 2009), as well as held independent exhibitions in Cork (2003), Derry (2007) and Yerevan (2009). In her talk, Natalia will look at pre-historic origins of Irish standing stones and Armenian stelas (vishaps), and discuss various stages of development of the High Crosses in Ireland and Scotland and of the khachkars in Armenia, and will deal with the origin and comparanda regarding some shared carving techniques and exterior characteristics.

Cost: All welcome. Donations £2 (SRF members), £5 (non-members) payable at the door.
NB Booking essential as space is limited.
Contact: 0131 668 3635, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Event: Talk: "The Sufi Book of Life: Healing Pathways."

Speaker: Dr Neil Douglas-Klotz.
Venue:  Edinburgh Theosophical Society, 28 Great King Street, Edinburgh, EH3 6QH.
Date: Thursday 17 February 2011.
Time: 7.30pm-9pm.
Event Description: An evening presentation of Sufi practice, meditation and stories from the author of The Sufi Book of Life (Penguin 2005) and co-author of The Tent of Abraham (2006). In the Sufi tradition, healing begins by finding our way back into contact with qualities of the divine seeded in us at the beginning of time, when we were all in the heart of the Beloved. This evening will focus on healing resources from the rich treasure of the "pathways of the heart" found in the Sufi practice of the 99 Beautiful Names.

Cost: £2. (£1 for members of the Theosophical Society).
Contact: Cameron Pirie, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Event: The Beshara Lecture.
Title: Educating the Heart: establishing a spiritual perspective in the modern world.

Speaker: Jane Clark (BSc, MPhil).
Venue: Quaker Meeting House, 7 Victoria Terrace, Edinburgh, EH1 2JL
Date: Saturday 26 February 2011.
Time: 2pm.
Event Description: Our rationality is a rightly valued faculty often proposed as the only guide on the path to truth and knowledge of the world and ourselves. However all the great spiritual/wisdom traditions have maintained that we have an even more important faculty by which we may directly perceive the oneness and interconnectedness of things. This talk is concerned with how we can establish this faculty in ourselves and so develop a spiritual perspective based on the premise of unity. It will explore how this transforms our understanding of the spiritual path, our relationship with the world and ‘others’, and our capacity to encompass change.

Cost: Admission Free.
Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , www.beshara.org