The Learning of the Imagination:
THESE SEVERAL STREAMS
Wednesday 19 March 2025
Speakers: Rowan Williams, Jane Clark, Valentin Gerlier
Temenos Academy & The Harmony Institute, University of Wales Trinity St David
at the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David Campus
in Lampeter, Ceredigion SA48 7ED
Chair: Hilary Davies, Fellow of the Temenos Academy
WELCOME from Dr Nick Campion, Director of the Harmony Institute and Professor Bettina Schmidt
Vernon Watkins and the Taliesin Tradition
ROWAN WILLIAMS
The ‘Taliesin’ persona is used by a number of poets from the Middle Ages onwards to evoke a poetics of deep participation or identification. Some see this as a kind of ‘shamanic’ understanding, in which the poet speaks out of the heart, the interior, of the matter of the poem. Watkins’s use of this persona is distinctive, blending the Welsh tradition with the wider world of Platonic thought that underlies all his work. In this lecture I will aim to relate the Taliesin pieces to this broader compass.
Dr Rowan Williams is a former Archbishop of Canterbury and was until 2020 Master of Magdalene College at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of many books, including Looking East in Winter, Holy Living, The Edge of Words, and Passions of the Soul. He lives in Cardiff and continues to broadcast, preach and lecture internationally. He is a Fellow of the Temenos Academy.
The Eternal Youth: Vision and Imagination in the Work of the Poet and Mystic, Ibn ‘Arabi
JANE CLARK
In 1202, whilst living in Mecca, Ibn ‘Arabi had an extraordinary vision of an eternal youth who spoke ‘only in symbols’ and whose reality ‘the finest words would never reach nor the most eloquent speech ever manage to express’. Nevertheless, what ensued from the encounter was his great masterwork, The Revelations at Mecca, comprising 9,000 pages in 560 chapters, which he took over thirty years to complete. This talk will explore some of the meanings of the vision and what it might tell us about the relationship between the imaginative presence and the written word.
Jane Clark is a teacher and independent researcher who lives in Oxford. She has been studying the Islamic mystical tradition for more than forty years and until her retirement last year, was a Senior Research Fellow of the Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi Society. She is the editor of Beshara Magazine and has edited two books: The New Metaphysics of Modern Science (IONS, 1994) with Willis Harman and The Kiss: The Beshara talks of Dom Sylvester Houédard (Beshara Publications, 2023) with Charles Verey.
Imagination: The Ligature of Being
VALENTIN GERLIER
The imagination is often associated with notions of creative freedom, artistic innovation or mental discovery. Following William Blake, Plotinus, Shakespeare and others, I suggest that such freedom flourishes when the imagination also articulates the deep interconnectedness of all reality. This lecture explores the idea that genuine creativity is also that which affirms and reveals deep unity, where the imagination can be understood as that which weaves together the various inhabitants, aspects and realms of Being.
Dr Valentin Gerlier is Lecturer at Schumacher Wild and Research Associate at the Institut Catholique de Toulouse, France. He is author of Shakespeare and the Grace of Words (Routledge, 2022) and regularly teaches and lectures at the Temenos Academy.
Advance bookings only – Admission free
TIME: 9.30am for 10am – 4.30pm
VENUE: The Old Hall, Lampeter Campus NB. The OLD HALL is opposite the CHAPEL in the Old Building
A light vegetarian lunch, and tea/coffee will be served, free of charge.
E temenosacademy@myfastmail.com
T 07513 883 335
Accommodation
There is a variety of accommodation available in Lampeter town. To enquire about B&B accommodation on the Lampeter campus please contact the Accommodation Office accommodation@uwtsd.ac.uk
Image Credit: © The Estate of David Jones / Bridgeman Images
***
Image Credit: Adobe Stock Images
© 2019 Temenos Academy All Rights Reserved
