This article is on Perspectiva’s website… Many stories have been told about love, exploring the way it works, the way it pains, its delight and promise. It is a confusing subject, at once a self-evidently “good thing”, perhaps the most important capacity possessed by human beings, and simultaneously a confusing feeling, which can lead people… Continue reading Some thoughts on love
Author: Mark Vernon
Dante, awakening, and erotic love
Dante’s journey is all about erotic love, through ugly possessiveness, and powerful passions, to the realisation that love is usually experienced as an ignorance about what we desire, to which he awakens. The Divine Comedy is, therefore, a crucial resource for understanding this energy that surges through us. The poem is rare in the western… Continue reading Dante, awakening, and erotic love
Light – a conversation with Rupert Sheldrake
We naturally talk about seeking the light at the end of the tunnel, or hoping to be enlightened. But are such phrases that reference light more than metaphors? In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon explore how light is both physical and spiritual, and note the remarkable harmony between scientific… Continue reading Light – a conversation with Rupert Sheldrake
Preview of my new Dante book!
In case you’d not heard, 2021 is the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante, author of the great Divine Comedy. My book, which is a guide for the spiritual journey presented as a narrative retelling and interpretation, will be published in September 2021, in time for the actual date. To have a sneak read… Continue reading Preview of my new Dante book!
Dante 2021 – Top 10 Spiritual Insights
We will learn a lot about Dante’s language, love, politics and humanism in 2021, the 700th anniversary of his death. But perhaps not so much about the spiritual insights he felt charged by heaven to communicate in his Divine Comedy. My top 10 spiritual insights are: 10. Comedy transcends, not excludes tragedy 9. Morality gets… Continue reading Dante 2021 – Top 10 Spiritual Insights
Could 2021 offer more than healing?
Reverting to normal is a missed spiritual opportunity As 2020 ends and 2021 begins, people are talking of healing. There is a strong desire to recover from the suffering of the year and return, as speedily as possible, to normal life. The yearning is right, and the remarkably speedily development of vaccines promises to make… Continue reading Could 2021 offer more than healing?
The Meaning of Soul
Pixar’s film wittily subverts the wisdom of our age Pixar’s great film, Inside Out, was a touching tale about inner conflicts. Coco took as its theme the destructive presence of the unresolved past. Now, Soul combines a near death experience with the ennui of modern life to tell a story that brilliantly subverts many self-help… Continue reading The Meaning of Soul
How To Read The Greatest Secret by Rhonda Byrne
The new book sits uneasily alongside the bestseller that made her name The Greatest Secret by Rhonda Byrne is released, and immediately looks like as much of a publishing success as its predecessor, The Secret. The 2006 book has sold 20 million copies. So what do they have that is so immensely compelling? Is it… Continue reading How To Read The Greatest Secret by Rhonda Byrne
The Meaning of Christmas by Owen Barfield
Owen Barfield agreed with the other Inklings, like JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis, that the life of Jesus marked a pivot point in history. But he had a particularly powerful way of capturing the truth… Reading from History in English Words by Owen Barfield. For more on his understanding of Christianity, and genius worldview, try… Continue reading The Meaning of Christmas by Owen Barfield
Artificial Intelligence – conversation with Rupert Sheldrake
Artificial intelligence is rarely out of the news. But what is it? In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon take a lead from the breakthrough by Google in the prediction of protein folding, which Rupert has studied for decades. Whether this success reveals any deeper understanding of nature leads to… Continue reading Artificial Intelligence – conversation with Rupert Sheldrake