Francesco Conte In one instance he becomes a rebel, and God takes away his mind But reaching another, he has asceticism and faith as fellow travelers. In one instant he contemplates his sins and goes straight to Hell. In another, he sees the mercy of the Truth and becomes worthy of Paradise. Click here to| The Matheson Trust
Titus Burckhardt Tayyeb Chouiref Some English excerpts of the French edition by Editions Tasnim, Titus Burckhardt: Le soufisme entre orient et occident. The two men of the same generation exchanged anecdotes on Sufi masters of their youth and wise evocations on the beauties and virtues of Shadhilite brotherhoods as well as the methodical invocation of| The Matheson Trust
Titus Burckhardt a chapter from his book “Copper is restless until it becomes gold”, said Meister Eckhart, referring in reality to the soul, which longs for its own eternal being… The alchemical symbols of perfection refer to the spiritual mastery of the human state, to the return to the centre or mean, to what the| The Matheson Trust
The Matheson Trust promotes the study of comparative religion by supporting the publication and dissemination of scholarly works which elucidate the philosophical, metaphysical, cosmological and aesthetic dimensions of the great religious traditions of the world. Our website has been hailed for years as a treasure trove by those interested either in the deeper aspects of| The Matheson Trust - For the Study of Comparative Religion
Welcome to our newsletter, dear readers, • We begin our monthly selection with excerpts from a major biographical work, Titus Burckhardt: Sufism Between East and West, full of insights into the extraordinary life, character and works of one of the best known and most beloved traditional authorities of recent times. In face of the efficaciousness| The Matheson Trust
Welcome to our newsletter, dear readers, • Our first library selection this month is an excerpt from our soon to be published Hermes Trismegistus: The Way of Wisdom, by Algis Uzdavinys. In this prolonged and erudite meditation, the concept, image and influence of Hermes and the Hermetica through the centuries are analysed and put in| The Matheson Trust
Welcome to our newsletter, dear readers, • Our first new library item this month is a chapter on the divine play of Hindu/Buddhist deity Chinnamasta, one of the ten goddesses from the esoteric tradition of Tantra, and a ferocious aspect of Mahadevi, the Hindu Mother goddess. Chinnamasta indicates a transcendence of the ordinary and portrays| The Matheson Trust
Welcome to our newsletter, dear readers. • We open our monthly selection with a page on St Francis of Assisi’s 13th-century “Canticle of the Creatures” (Laudes Creaturarum), also known as “Canticle of Brother Sun,” including a bilingual text, an audio reading of the original and an interpretative essay. This beautiful and brief poem has been| The Matheson Trust
Welcome to our newsletter, dear reader, • We begin our monthly selection with an article about “African Traditional Religion” reflecting on the essential convergence, the unanimity of the many native African religious paths and practices, allowing us to see beyond reductionist and trite labels like animism or pantheism. The Ewe-speaking people speak of Him as| The Matheson Trust
Welcome to our monthly newsletter, dear readers, Our first new library item is an introduction to “the most famous of early modern litanies”, the Litany of Loreto. We present some recordings of sung versions of this originally Latin prayer, the ritual recitation of Divine and Marian epithets, which is rooted in ancient and late antique| The Matheson Trust
Welcome to our newsletter, dear readers, Our first new library highlight this month is an excerpt from Sonorous Desert, a book about how the sounds of the desert—sounds like wind, water, thunder, animals, and even humans—shaped the development of Christian monasticism in the Middle East. Reasons for choosing a monastic life naturally varied from person| The Matheson Trust
Welcome to our last newsletter of this year, with our wishes for a blessed 2025. • Our first new library addition this month is a selection from the Sutra of the Heap of Jewels, Ratnakuta Sutra, a major ancient collection of Buddhist sutras, which has been called a small encyclopedia of Indian Mahayana Buddhism. “…| The Matheson Trust
Welcome to our newsletter, dear reader, • We begin our monthly selection with an article presenting a choice of ginans, hymns of wisdom (from the Sanskrit jnana) from the Nizari Ismaili tradition. These songs, often recited along ritual prayer, are accorded a near scriptural status, and regarded as conveying in the vernacular the inner meaning| The Matheson Trust
Welcome to our newsletter, dear reader, • We begin our monthly selection with a life of one of the Desert Fathers, St Bishoy (Paisios) of Scetis (5th century), known in the Coptic Church of Alexandria as the “Star of the Desert”. He prayed constantly, without rest and without interruption, just as the Apostle Paul commanded.| The Matheson Trust