The Divine Art: The Alchemy of Human Transformation

The Divine Art: The Alchemy of Human Transformation

A Graduate Course of the Suluk Academy
Four Online Sessions via Zoom
November 2020 through May 2022

FINAL APPLICATION DEADLINE IS SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2020

Our way is the way of alchemy. — Shaykh Najm ad-Din Kubra

Psychology is the higher alchemy, and one must not study it only, without practicing it. — Hazrat Inayat Khan

Over the last sixteen years, the Suluk Academy Core Course has provided a unique opportunity for murids to absorb the fundamental teachings and practices of Hazrat Inayat Khan.

Recently, there have been increasing calls for further study in the form of a graduate course. There is a wish on the part of many to come together again for sustained study and practice, this time focusing on themes that stretch beyond the introductory, albeit profound, subject matter of the Core Course.

Accordingly, the Suluk Academy is pleased to announce a new two-year graduate course, entitled The Divine Art: The Alchemy of Human Transformation. Pir Zia Inayat Khan will serve as primary faculty, in collaboration with seasoned esoteric guides Zumurrud Butta (Austria), Amida Cary (USA), Huzur Hamilton (UK), and Sitara Jironet (Holland). The course will consist of four five-day online sessions spread out over two years and is designed for graduates of the Suluk Core Course.

The course will explore the vital intersection between cosmology and psychology: the manner in which the visionary topography of the unveiled universe functions as a mirror to the interior life of the human being, and vice versa. “As above, so below.” Serving as a microcosm of the whole, the human being has the potential—in fact, the hallowed duty—to sublimate the quintessence of creation and return it to its Source. Sufi alchemy provides the template for this process, and the literature of Hermeticism, Eastern and Western, furnishes valuable elucidations.

CURRICULUM

Pir Zia will explore the following themes each session of the program:

Session One – Light and Color
Introduction to alchemy. Murshid on light and color. The Illuminationist (Ishraqi) philosophy. The chromatic mysticism of the Kubrawiyya. The seven lata’if.

Recommended readings:

Henry Corbin, The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism

Hazrat Inayat Khan, Philosophy, Psychology, Mysticism; Nature Meditations

Najm ad-Din Kubra, Les Éclosions de la Beauté et les Parfums de la Majesté

Alison Roberts, Hathor’s Alchemy

Shahab ad-Din Yahya Suhrawardi, The Philosophy of Illumination

Session Two – Stars and Planets
The philosophy of rays. The seven planets in alchemy, Illuminationism, and Hermeticism. Pir Vilayat’s sidereal meditations.

Recommended readings:

Marsilio Ficino, Three Books on Life

Ibn ‘Arabi, The Alchemy of Human Happiness

Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, The Ecstasy Beyond Knowing (“Working with Light”)

Abu Yusuf Ya‘qub al-Kindi, The Philosophical Works (“On Rays”)

Maslama al-Qurtubi, The Goal of the Sage

Shahab ad-Din Yahya Suhrawardi, L’Archange Empourpré (Le Livre d’Heures)

Session Three – Planes of Being
Creation as emanation. The Five Presences. Angels and Jinn. The World of Images and the Collective Unconscious. The soul’s descent.

Recommended readings:

Henry Corbin, Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth

Hazrat Inayat Khan, The Soul, Whence and Whither

Pseudo-Dionysius, The Complete Works (The Celestial Hierarchy)

Session Four – Resurrection
The creation of the Philosopher’s Stone. Solve et coagula. The marriage of opposites. Dying before death. The lesser and greater resurrections.

Recommended readings:

Thomas Aquinas (att.), Aurora Consurgens

C.J. Jung, Psychology and Alchemy

Michael Maier, Atalanta Fugiens

Johan Daniel Mylius, Rosarium Philosophorum

Mulla Sadra Shirazi, The Wisdom of the Throne

Salomon Trismosin (att.), Splendor Solis

Turba Philosophorum

Basil Valentine (att.), Twelve Keys

Throughout the course, Zumurrud Butta, Amida Cary, Huzur Hamilton, and Sitara Jironet will excavate the depths of the retreat process, delineating its fundamental patterns and relating them to the larger arc of the movement of the human spirit toward its fulfillment in God.

FACULTY

PIR ZIA INAYAT KHAN carries the Sufi lineage of his grandfather, Hazrat Inayat Khan. He received his Ph.D. in Religion from Duke University. His books include Saracen Chivalry: Counsels on Valor, Generosity, and the Mystical Quest, Mingled Waters: Sufism and the Mystical Unity of Religions, and the forthcoming Dream Flowers: The Collected Works of Noor Inayat Khan. Pir Zia is president of the Inayatiyya and founder of Suluk Academy. He and his family live in Richmond, Virginia. Photo Credit: Karamat Hess

SITARA JIRONET received her Ph.D. in Theology, Psychology of Religion, at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands in 1998. As a postdoctoral researcher, she continued studying Sufi mysticism and published Sufi Mysticism Into The West: Life and Leadership of Hazrat Inayat Khan’s Brothers 1927-1967. Sitara was trained as a Jungian psychoanalyst in Zurich (ISAP). Her orientation is towards spirituality in leadership, corporate as well as personal. She travels and works with groups and individuals globally and in her private practices in the Netherlands and in Italy.

AMIDA CARY is Director of the Inayatiyya’s Retreat Concentration and its Retreat Guide Training Program, working in concert with an international network of experienced retreat guides and trainee mentors. Her primary focus is encouraging all involved to enter the transformative depths of the retreat process. Amida is an experienced retreat guide herself and has worked closely with Pir Vilayat, Aziza Scott, and Pir Zia. She collaborated with Pir Vilayat for many years editing his curriculum and establishing the website www.universel.net. She is also a founder of Suluk Academy and has served as Suluk faculty. Amida lives in Berkeley, California.

HUZUR NIGEL HAMILTON is a qualified psychotherapist of some 40 years, working extensively with his clients in their dreamwork and helping them through their personal Alchemical transformation process. He is the Co-founder of the Dream Research Institute, London, and is the author of Awakening through Dreams (2014). He was initiated in 1978 by Pir Vilayat. As the UK Inayatiyya Representative, he is an experienced retreat guide having guided groups and individuals on spiritual retreats for some 38 years. Nigel has also taught as part of the Suluk Academy in the US, Europe and Zenith Institute Camp in Switzerland.

ZUMURRUD BUTTA serves as a member of the Esoteric Training Committee in Europe and has taught at Suluk Academy in North America and Europe. She offers individual and group retreats, a retreat guide training program and is responsible for the Inner School in Germany.

DATES

The program will be online for four sessions, each beginning on a Wednesday at 9 am ET/2 pm CT and ending on a Sunday at 1 pm ET/7 pm CT. Participants are asked to participate in real-time to encourage community and dialogue, rather than only watch the video.

November 4-8, 2020 w/ Pir Zia & Sitara Jironet

May 19-23, 2021 w/ Pir Zia & Amida Cary

November 3-7, 2021 w/ Pir Zia & Huzur Hamilton

May 18-22, 2022 w/ Pir Zia & Zumurrud Butta

SCHEDULE

Our schedule each day will be as follows. Even though we are gathering online, the below times are based on the time in Richmond, Virginia (ET), and Suresnes, France (CT).

We look forward to our third gathering Wednesday, November 3 (9:00 am EDT) – Sunday, November 7 (1 pm EST) – please note that the eastern US observes daylight savings time, which ends at 2:00 AM on Sunday, November 7 so this could impact start times depending on where you are in the world. Be sure to check the time zone converter here if you are unsure how this might impact you: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html.

North American (Eastern)	Europe (Central)
9:00 am Opening 9:15 am Pir Zia 10:30 am Break 11:00 am Pir Zia 12:15 pm Break 2:00 pm Guest Faculty 3:15 pm Closing	2:00 pm Opening 2:15 pm Pir Zia 3:30 pm Break 4:00 pm Pir Zia 5:15 pm Break 7:00 pm Guest Faculty 8:15 pm Closing

There will also be small groups Wednesdays – Saturdays of the program:
12:00-1:15 pm Europe (CT)
3:45-5:00 pm North America (ET)

We hope to add additional online social and conversation time as we get closer to the program

TUITION

Tuition for the full program is $2,000. Payment may be made all at once at the beginning of the program ($2,000) or per session ($500/session) via Eventbrite. Partial scholarships may be available on an as-needed basis and all are invited to give to the Suluk Scholarship Fund as part of the registration process.

APPLY

Admission to The Divine Art: The Alchemy of Human Transformation Graduate Course of the Suluk Academy is now closed.

If you have questions about The Divine Art: The Alchemy of Human Transformation, please email Josh Octaviani, Front Desk Manager & Registrar, [email protected].

*Image Art: Maria the Prophetess, one of the first alchemists, 1st-3rd Century A.D.