Temenos Academy Newsletter March 2026

[Temenos Academy]

NEWSLETTER March 2026 Ramana Maharshi and the Question of Experience PROFESSOR CLARE CARLISLE Monday 9 March 2026 In the chair Dr Mark Vernon William James's 1902 study The Varieties of Religious Experience signalled a wider turn to experience evident both in popular culture and in the philosophy of religion throughout the 20th century, and continuing today. This interest in experience among westerners was partly shaped by a growing awareness of Indian mysticism. Professor Carlisle's lecture will explore some philosophical questions about experience. It will focus on the story of the renowned south-Indian sage Ramana Maharshi, whose spiritual awakening or 'Self-realisation' is usually attributed to a "transformative experience" — an account Ramana himself contested. By examining the divergences between these two accounts, Professor Carlisle will consider the attractions and the pitfalls of the concept of religious experience. Clare Carlisle is Professor of Philosophy at King's College London, and the author of eight books on philosophy and philosophers — including Spinoza, Kierkegaard and George Eliot. Her Gifford Lectures on life writing and philosophy, titled Transcendence for Beginners, were published in London by Fitzcarraldo Editions in 2025. While she was trained in European philosophy at Trinity College, Cambridge, Professor Carlisle also has a longstanding interest in Indian traditions. Her most recent publication, for example, is 'Spinoza and India: The Question of Influence.' Venue & Admission 18 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, WC2A 3ED Doors open 6.10pm, Lecture begins 6.30pm £10 General admission Free for Temenos Academy Members/Full-time students with ID Symbol and Style: Kathleen Raine’s Neoplatonic Aesthetics DR JENNY MESSENGER Monday 23 March 2026 In the chair Professor Grevel Lindop This talk explores how Neoplatonism shaped both the intellectual commitments and literary style of Kathleen Raine. Raine understood consciousness as the ground of reality and regarded ancient symbolic discourse—drawn from Platonic and Neoplatonic texts, the Corpus Hermeticum, and other esoteric traditions—as a living inheritance capable of expanding human perception. Her poetry, criticism and autobiographies reveal a mode of writing in which inner and outer worlds interpenetrate, and where literature becomes a vehicle for transforming consciousness. This talk focuses on her autobiographical practice, which adapts ancient allegoresis, including Porphyry’s On the Cave of the Nymphs, to interpret her life as a multilayered symbolic text. This approach not only informs Raine’s stylistic choices—rich in myth, metaphor and visionary resonance—but also aims to initiate readers into a way of seeing, grounded in the perennial philosophy she sought to recover. In doing so, Raine offers literary style as a path of philosophical insight. Jenny Messenger is a UK-based journalist and writer who covers climate change, the environment, housing and business. She is currently working on a short book about the cultural history of the sponge. Her first monograph, Kathleen Raine: Classics and Consciousness, was published by Bloomsbury in July and develops research from her 2019 PhD at the University of St Andrews, Neoplatonism and its Reception in Robert Graves, Jorge Luis Borges, Suzanne Lilar, and Kathleen Raine. The book examines how Graeco-Roman antiquity informs Raine’s conceptions of consciousness and illuminates her distinctive poetic and scholarly vision. Venue & Admission The Warburg Institute, WC1H 0AB Doors open 6.10pm, Lecture begins 6.30pm £10 General admission Free for Temenos Academy Members/Full-time students with ID For more information and to book please click HERE E – temenos...@myfastmail.com T – 07513 883 335   LAMPETER STUDY DAY Immortal Fabric: The Learning of the Imagination In collaboration with The University of Wales Trinity St David With Revd. Malcolm Guite, Julia Cleave and Prof. Mary-Ann Constantine Wednesday 11 March 2026 Free admission. Advance booking only. For more information and to book click HERE   KEITH CRITCHLOW COLLECTION: OPENING EVENT Our friends at the Keith Critchlow Collection invite you to join them on 21st & 22nd March 2026 to celebrate the month of Keith’s birthday and welcome you to their new (interim) space in the Abbey, Sutton Courtenay which now holds a selection of Keith’s artwork, artefacts and personal library. Weekend events include workshops on The First Exercise in Geometry by Keith Cricthlow and A ‘Rose’ Mandala. There will also be a film screening of The Geometry of Life – a lecture delivered by Keith to the Temenos Academy in 2012. Further details and booking links can be found HERE To celebrate Keith and all he shared with us, three of his children and other family members will be present and all proceeds go to support Keith’s archives and library.   BECOME A MEMBER You can support the Temenos Academy by becoming a member for £60/year. Members benefits include free admission to our lecture programme, concessionary rates to seminars, study days and online courses, a free copy Temenos Academy Review 28 and Ten Basic Principles that Inspire the Work of Temenos on joining, and complimentary copies of forthcoming Temenos Academy publications as they are issued. To become a member click HERE THE ARCHIVE Our website Archive hosts many audio and video recordings of lectures, digital versions of all thirteen issues of the journal TEMENOS, and the texts of seventy articles from Temenos Academy Review. New material is added regularly. https://temenosacademy.org/main-lecture-archive https://temenosacademy.org/temenos-journal-archive https://temenosacademy.org/temenos-academy-review-archive Many of our audio recordings are available as PODCASTS. PAYPAL GIVING FUND UK The Temenos Academy is registered with PayPal Giving Fund UK. When using PayPal if you choose you may also make a donation in support of the Temenos Academy. Thank you FURTHER INFORMATION EMAIL temenos...@myfastmail.com TELEPHONE 07513 883 335 PRIVACY POLICY https://temenosacademy.org/privacy-policy