Temenos Academy Review 2017

This annual review is full of interest, as it always is. For those unfamiliar with the Academy, it was founded by the poet Kathleen Raine, and the patron is HRH the Prince of Wales, who contributes a speech on true Renaissance. The highlights for me were Kathleen's article on poetic symbols as a vehicle of tradition, Joseph Milne on Meister Eckhart and the purpose of creation, Grevel Lindop comparing TS Eliot and Kathleen Raine as contemporary poets, and Malcolm Guite on Owen Barfield and his contribution to science, poetry and consciousness. Meister Eckhart is always a rich and subtle seam, and the principal idea here is that all creatures seek to become a likeness of God, most completely realised by the human soul. TS Eliot and Kathleen Raine were both influenced in their development by mystical experiences, which I remember Kathleen describing to me one afternoon over tea at her home in Chelsea. The article on Barfield links his work on language to his later books on the development of science and the elaboration of a participatory view, even more relevant to our culture today than when he wrote it. There are also poems, paintings and reviews, all of which make for a sumptuous feast of reading.