Calendar 2008

Seven Pillars Labor Day Weekend Inaugural Event
August 29-September 1, The Abode of the Message and Darrow School, New Lebanon, New York
For information, please visit http://www.sevenpillarshouse.org/inauguration

Awakening to the Prophetic Call
A Conversation with Pir Zia Inayat-Khan
Wednesday, October 15, 7:30-9 p.m., California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, California. For information or tickets please visit http://www.ciis.edu/publicprograms/.

Program Description: Every religion traces its revelation to a line of prophets. The sum of these lines is the global prophetic lineage. Are the prophets mere figures of pious memory? Or might their voices, heard as a single sacred symphony, carry a message that leads not to the past but to an as yet unrealized future, a visionary rendezvous beyond the morass of materialism, fundamentalism, ecocide and war that is our common lot today? Please join us for this conversation as we explore the prophetic call of our time. This program is part of Seven Pillars’ Prophetology track.

Cosmology of Love & Action with David Spangler, Christopher Bamford and Friends
Friday through Sunday, November 14-16, The Abode of the Message, New Lebanon, New York
For information please call Seven Pillars at 518-794-8777, or email .

Program Description: Details are forthcoming! Please check back for registration information.

The Heart Has Its Own Reason with Taj Inayat and Gayan Macher
Saturday, December 13, 10:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m., California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, California. For information or to register please visit http://www.ciis.edu/publicprograms/.

Program Description: How radical it is to actually trust our hearts as instruments of knowing, compasses that direct us unfailingly towards fulfillment. To serve us, and the greater purpose of life, our hearts must become increasingly alive and perceptive. How do we cultivate this capacity? How do we begin to sense intimacy with the timeless depth at the center of our heart? And what is the experience of life when we become faithful to the guiding voice within? Join us for a day of exploring Presence through the portal of the heart. This program is part of Seven Pillars Mysticism track.

Related Events

The Merging of Two Rivers: Yoga & Sufism
with Max Strom and Pir Zia Inayat-Khan
Friday, June 13 - Sunday, June 15, Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health.
For information or to register, please visit http://www.kripalu.org.

Sufi Conference: The Awakening of the Heart with Llewellyn Vaughn-Lee, Imam Bilal Hyde,
Pir Zia Inayat-Khan, Pir Shabda Kahn, R. Sridhar, Maata Lynn Barron, Zakira Beasley, and Peter Kingsley.
Thursday-Sunday, October 16-19, Asilomar Conference Grounds Pacific Grove, California. For information and to register please visit http://www.suficonference.org.

Previous Events

Introduction to Green Hermeticism: Alchemy and Ecology
with Pir Zia Inayat-Khan, Christopher Bamford and Peter Lamborn Wilson
Saturday, March 1, 10-5:30 p.m., The Open Center, New York, New York
To register please visit http://www.opencenter.org or call 212-219-2527.

Program Description: Hermeticism or alchemy is the primordial science of nature by which human beings in all times and places have sought to unite Heaven and Earth—divinity, cosmos, earth, and humanity—for the sake of the world. At once sacred cosmology and spiritual practice, art and science, it has accompanied each religious epoch and every revelation from India and China to the Abrahamic traditions of the West. Nevertheless, in the revival of spiritual traditions and practices, Hermeticism and alchemy—like Nature herself—have been largely ignored. Green Hermeticism proposes that it is time to explore not only our ancient masters’ “inner” sciences, but also their sciences of Nature, in order to recover a healthy, truly holistic way of healing our relationship to nature, the Earth, and the heavens. This program is part of Seven Pillars’ Cosmology track.

The Life of Noor Inayat Khan with Shrabani Basu, Author of Spy Princess
Friday, April 25, 7:30- 10 p.m.,The Open Center, New York, New York
To register please visit http://www.opencenter.org or call 212-219-2527.

Program Description: Spy Princess details the life of the first woman wireless operator in Nazi-occupied France during the Second World War. Noor was raised in England and France by her American mother and Indian father, Hazrat Inayat Khan, a Sufi mystic and musician. Code named “Madeleine,” Noor maintained a key Resistance link with London. Although her circuit collapsed around her, she refused to abandon her post. Betrayed to the Gestapo, Noor resisted interrogation with silent courage. Noor was executed at Dachau in 1944, and posthumously awarded Britain’s George Cross and France’s Croix de Guerre. This program is part of Seven Pillars’ Chivalry track.

Christian Revelation: A Dialogue with Pir Zia Inayat-Khan, Reverend James Parks Morton, Sister Miriam MacGillis, and Christopher Bamford
Tuesday, May 6, 7:30 - 9 p.m., The Abode of the Message, New Lebanon, New York
For tickets please call Seven Pillars at 518-794-8777, or email .

Program Description: Seven Pillars House of Wisdom, a new initiative based out of New Lebanon, New York, will host Christian Revelation: A Dialogue with Reverend James Parks Morton, Sister Miriam MacGillis, Christopher Bamford, and Pir Zia Inayat-Khan, on Tuesday, May 6, 7:30 - 9 p.m., at the Abode of the Message in New Lebanon, New York. This is the first in a series of anticipated public interfaith dialogues hosted by Seven Pillars.

For this initial dialogue, participants will explore how Christ’s message represents a timeless truth, and how as a tradition the Christian faith has evolved—and sometimes devolved—continuously over the last two thousand years. Participants will compare perspectives on that which is timeless in Christianity as well as that which might take new shape in response to the unique demands and opportunities of our time.

Tickets for the Christian Revelation Dialogue are $10 and should be reserved in advance by emailing , or calling 518-794-8777. Seating is limited, and due to videotaping doors will close at 7:30 p.m. For directions to the Abode of the Message, please visit http://www.abodeprograms.org/programs/directions

Press: Please contact Jennifer Alia Wittman, Seven Pillars’ Director, at 518-794-8777, or , to arrange for interviews and/or press passes.

Dialogue Participants

The Very Reverend James Parks Morton is retired Dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, and Founder and current President of the Interfaith Center of New York. In 25 years Dean Morton achieved recognition throughout the world as one of the most energetic and accomplished religious leaders of our time. During his long career, Dean Morton conceived and founded numerous social service organizations, became a force within the sacred ecology movement, and served as an ambassador of tolerance and understanding through a respect for all faith traditions. http://www.interfaithcenter.org

Sister Miriam MacGillis is a member of the Dominican Sisters of Caldwell, New Jersey. She lives and works at Genesis Farm, which she co-founded in 1980 with the sponsorship of her Dominican congregation. Genesis Farm is a learning center of Earth Studies, practicing biodynamic methods of agriculture, which are in tune with the natural rhythms of the Earth. Miriam invites us to see ourselves as a living part of a living cosmos, and lectures extensively in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Asia and the Pacific. http://www.genesisfarm.org

Christopher Bamford, editor of SteinerBooks and Lindisfarne Books, is a writer and scholar of Western esotericism, esoteric Christianity and Anthroposophy. He is the author of, most recently, An Endless Trace: The Passionate Pursuit if Wisdom in the West. http://www.steinerbooks.org

Pir Zia Inayat-Khan is the spiritual leader of the Sufi Order International, a mystical and ecumenical fellowship rooted in the visionary legacy of his grandfather, Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan. Pir Zia is also the President of the Suluk Academy and founder of Seven Pillars House of Wisdom. Pir Zia holds a Doctoral degree in Religion from Duke University and is a recipient of the U Thant Peace Award. http://www.sevenpillarshouse.org

An Introduction to the Seven Pillars School of Thought
A Live Webcast with Pir Zia Inayat Khan
Sunday, May 25, 1:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time
http://www.sevenpillarshouse.org/webcasts/