Root Of All Evil
I recently watched a programme on Channel 4 (UK) fronted by the evolutionist Richard Dawkins and entitled The Root Of All Evil.
As might be expected, it is a platform for Dawkins to rant against what he sees as the ‘superstition’ of religion. Unfortunately in doing so, he merely exposes his own shallowness of thought. For example, in a Sunday Herald article he states the following:
I pretty much knew what I was going to find when I started making the films, which didn’t make it any more palatable or acceptable, of course.
Which is hardly an objective rational viewpoint and of course, as most balanced people realise, one often finds what one looks for if even only on a subconscious level. But this is my main criticism of Dawkins - he seems utterly unaware that there is a subconscious level, to him (as to the fundamentalists he decries) everything is black and white. With him being the one who knows which one is the absolute truth.
January 12 2006 in Sufism/Islam | Read More | Comments [7]
Tapioles 53
On Thursday night we went with some friends for the first time to Tapioles 53, a new restaurant in the Poble Sec area of Barcelona.
Tapioles 53 is the baby of designer Ricardo Feriche and Sarah Stothart (who used to be Rupert Murdoch’s personal chef) and is beautifully designed and situated in an old umbrella factory. The restaurant almost always requires reservations and people are no booking from New York months ahead - which is understandable when you taste the food!
There is no menu as such (which I found a bit daunting at first but it is a fantastic touch and really makes the experience) and Sarah comes to talk to you at your table, explaining what is on the days menu. All the ingredients are sourced locally from markets or personally imported (she hunts mushrooms locally and uses produce from her parent’s garden in the Penedés region). On our visit for starters we were offered a choice of carrot and ginger soup with cardomom and roquet and parmesan salad with poached egg which was absolutely sensational.
Entrées offered a choice between Sarah’s homemade Gnocci with sage and spinach and a Moroccan tajine of lamb and sultanas with couscous - Sarah procured the spices for this dish from Morocco I believe and it was perhaps the best example I have tasted outside the region or perhaps in a restaurant in Paris.
This was one of the best dining experiences as a whole that I have experienced anywhere, let alone in Barcelona, and the food was excellent which is something that you can’t always say in Barcelona, regardless of how cool the restaurant is. It was very reasonably priced too although I can’t remember how much it was or I’d post a guideline. Not expensive I think. I’m going back - soon.
I think something interesting is happening on the Barcelona food scene at the moment. There are some good-looking places springing up and it’s about time. Food is still dire in way too many places and your chances of getting a curry that is anything remotely approximating what you might expect of something going under that name are virtually zero. In fact, actually zero in my experience. But forget slumming it, if you are in Barcelona then treat yourself and check out Tapioles 53 - while it is still relatively unknown. It’s definitely going to be massive.
December 17 2005 in Foodism | Read More | Comments [1]
News
Things are happening a bit here - which is surprising for the end of the year in Barcelona but I’m not complaining.
On the work front the project I mentioned earlier concerning a center which will teach various things (yoga, chi gong, voicework etc) and be an ‘open space’ for exhibitions and happenings is underway and it looks like we will be able to go ahead with this in Barcelona in the new year if we find the right space. In a year or so the aim is to move this to the Albujarras region outside Grenada and these plans seem miraculously on track. More as it develops.
Have been quite busy also as some transitions are happening in the design aspect of things. In the New Year I will cease to be a ‘gun for hire’ as some friends from Los Angeles and I are launching a new design agency and consultancy here in Barcelona. They are graphic geniuses (which I am not!) but hate coding and programming (which I love) so we have a perfect work division and will be offering Uber-cool multi-lingual web and print design. Lots to do to set it up but it’s all taking-off.
December 16 2005 in Design/Css | Read More | Comments [1]
Mirror of the Free
It is strange how things work - I have lately found myself being drawn into an exploration of the Caballa, Tarot and Alchemy and have started to see these connected issues in a whole new light. All of this research and reading has been offline and I haven’t even bothered to look anywhere on the net for that sort of thing for a long time. The strange aspect of this was that these issues somehow forced themselves on me a few weeks ago and as I prepared to write them up as yet another convoluted and impenetrable post, the owner owner of a new site discussing just these issues contacted me about a new publication he was preparing.
The publication is an interesting looking work called by Nicholas Swift to be published shortly and entitled The Tarot and the Kabbalah, the Ancient Mesopotamians and the Sufis. The accompanying website can be found at The Mirror of the Free.
December 12 2005 in Sufism/Islam | Read More | Comments [1]
Test
Testing.....1..2..3....
We were called to the forest…
When we went down
A wind blew warm and eloquent.We were searching for the secrets of the universe
And we rounded up demons and forced them to tell us what it all meant
We tied them to trees and broke them down one by one
And on a scrap of paper, they wrote these words…
And as we read them, the sun broke through the trees…“Dread the passage of Jesus, for he will not return.”
November 29 2005 in General Stuff | Read More | Comments [2]
Even more literalism
Following on from the last post outlining the general gist of my wiseacrings about literalism and Islam, I thought I’d belabour the point with an actual example though (hopefully) not in as much depth as in the finished writings.
Part of the purpose of the project is to ‘map the territory’ of what Islam actually represents. Of course most people seem to think that that territory is already mapped but that is the problem and why the subject needs attention. Although (imo) it can easily be shown that elements both within the religion and in the West seem to have a commitment to misrepresenting Islam - they do not call it this, they call it ‘stating the facts’ but it revolves just the same - the research I am engaged in does not aim to address why this might be but rather to identify the misconceptions and correct them.
November 23 2005 in Sufism/Islam | Read More | Comments [5]
Bit more on literalism…
As promised earlier, I thought I’d expand a bit more on the ‘literalism’ motif I mentioned I was writing about elsewhere.
The central idea of the book is that there are two modes of perception - or perhaps two ‘types’ of perceiver - the ‘literal’ and the ‘metaphoric’. Actually I am not too happy with these terms and will change them when other more suitable ones suggest themselves but for now they will do. Basically the ‘literal’ is seen as a rigid mode of fixed, inflexible thought. This is not to be equated with what is called ‘fundamentalism’ (in fact the book will argue that this is a nonsensical and artificially constructed term which is of little use) but rather is the position taken when someone is, for example, convinced they are always right regardless of any evidence to the contrary. Obviously this condition is prevelant in religion to a considerable extent for various reasons which are explored but it can and does also occur in politics, science and in everyday life but in the context of the work under discussion it is explored particularly in relation to Islamic thought as well as, to a lesser extent, other religions such as Christianity.
November 21 2005 in Sufism/Islam | Read More | Comments [3]
Literalism Again
I’m writing a book. And it’s getting serious because I have till mid 2006 to finish it and now I’m going to have to do some work.
I thought it would mean I post less but I think I have found a way to post more. I will subtly and imperceptibly point this blog in the direction of my work and possibly garner some fresh insights or even (whisper) some heated debate.
The book is kind of political, something I have studiously avoided here, but in an academic kind of way so it’s allright. Basically it is an outlining of a certain social phenomena that is increasing in virulence, what I term a ‘literalist’ tendency, contrasting it with a ‘metaphoiric’ mindset.
The argument is that the ‘metaphorics’ are the mystics and magicians of history and they can only convey their experience through analogy, stories or parables. As they find a certain ‘truth’ in this manner it obviously attracts those who are not of their mindset - the ‘literalists’ and, naturally, these - being literalists - misinterpret those ‘truths’ and this is the genesis of structured and hierarchical religion and ‘schools’.
The book is an outline of these two mindsets throughout history and at the same time an examination of their interaction today. The argument is that there is no such thing today as a ‘religious fundamentalist’ or ‘extremist’, there are only literalists and moreover, that the perception of this non-existent ‘fundamentalism’ is i itself a misinterpretation by literalists.
Thus the ‘battle’ (such as it is) in this period of time, now that (as we are constantly told) ‘the rules have changed’, is not in fact between fundamentalists and moderates but between literalists (Christian, Islamic, atheist and whoever else) and those of a more metaphoric frame of mind (Christian, Islamic, atheist and whoever else). In fact it has always been this way.
I shall probably post the synopsis later this week or maybe some bits of some chapters and perhaps it might be worth a discussion or two.
November 15 2005 in Sufism/Islam | Read More | Comments [5]
Progress….
A while back I mentioned some changes I was making and how I might waffle on about them at some future time. Well, lo...the time is now!
I’ve got together with some associates and am going to try to get together two new projects. The major one of these - a radical restructuring of a long-term project at Three Rivers - I will probably post on in depth on Monday but for now I will briefly outline an associated project with the working title ‘Seekers after Truth’ - although we were/are toying with the equally sardonic ‘Society for the Unravelling of Fixed Ideas’.
Basically this group is (or aims to be) an association of people who are serious researchers into esoteric tradition and who can bring divergent skills to bear on collecting information and original research - initially for archiving but eventually for publication - into the possibility of establishing evidence of the existence of, or possibly making contact with, an authentic esoteric tradition.
The title of the group is obviously a nod to the group of the same name detailed by G I Gurdjieff in his Meetings with Remarkable Men
We have set up a temporary Yahoo group (although we will probably develop a dedicated private website or forum at a later date) and anyone interested in this is invited to apply for the association.
Seekers After Truth Yahoo Group
November 12 2005 in General Stuff | Read More | Comments [9]
Headstone Project: Idries Shah
Thanks to my good friend T, I am able to post a photo of Idries Shah’s grave in London.
November 11 2005 in Headstone Project | Read More | Comments [2]
John Fowles: 1926 - 2005
One of my favourite authors and the writer of my #1 book The Magus died at the weekend after a long illness.
Although, for reasons I cannot personally fathom (possibly because he did not play the ‘fame’ game but perhaps more to do with the elitism of UK critics), Fowles was not rated amongst the foremost novelists of the twentieth century, at least in Britain, he nevertheless wrote several books that have transcended literature and had enormous transformative effects on people’s lives.
He will be sorely missed by me and many others I know - I have been waiting in vain for the ‘lost’ novels to be published and I suppose they never will now. The old guard is truly passing and we are really now in the eight day of the week. We shall not see his like again and the others of his type are also fewer by the day.
Some tributes and related stuff:
November 09 2005 in Literature | Read More | Comments [3]
Outage
Had an outage the last couple of days which is unfortunate but in a way, significant. As readers may be aware (thanks to all who mailed during this time) I have been going through a period of re-evaluation of well....everything really, and the site being down coincided nicely with the culmination and resolution of that.
Anyway, we’re both back. Be afraid.......:D
November 09 2005 in General Stuff | Read More | Comments [0]
I’m Back!
Following on from my last rambling effort which doubtless convinced everyone that I am clinically insane and shed my few remaining readers (purging is good - see post below!) I thought I might continue in the same vein for a while and divulge my current epiphany. First some background:
I have had several life-changing ‘Road to Damascus’ experiences - one was actually on that road - but I shall describe just one of them although they are all inter-linked. This occurred when I lived in London last century (I’ve been waiting so long to use that line). At that time I owned several businesses, amongst them a cafe and an antique rugs gallery, and had a nice apartment in Hampstead blah, blah.
November 03 2005 in General Stuff | Read More | Comments [3]
Okapi Fever
I haven’t posted for a while as I am continuing to be more than a little ill, feverish in fact. As a result this post will probably be more rambling and unfocussed than usual.
Fever and illness in general has some advantages I think, one seems a bit closer to the ‘other world’ or imaginal realm, whatever that might be. Certainly I have been having fairly regular lucid dreams and on a couple of occasions, these occurred even whilst semi-awake. I should state the background to this period of ‘unwellness’ such as it is. It has been going on for a few months and although ordinarily one should be concerned, this is not the case. I have come to be convinced that it is not an illness as such but a form of ‘incapacity’ the purpose of which is my body and mind forcing me to a position where I have to let go of everything. A ‘healing crisis’ or period of detoxification I think. I realized this whilst experiencing a lucid dream a few days ago.
November 01 2005 in Design/Css | Read More | Comments [0]
Christianity Before The Sands
Have decided to occasionally feature original and interesting articles on all aspects of philosophy and theology (well the good bits anyway) in the Articles section.
If anyone is interested in writing something for this or perhaps has something suitable then send it my way and I’ll have a look. In the meantime I’ll kick it off with a fascinating article by one of my oldest friends Max Gorman. I won’t describe it as it speaks for itself better than I could and is well worth a read.
Check out Christianity Before The Sands
October 26 2005 in Esoteric Christianity | Read More | Comments [0]
