Four Quartets – TS Eliot and Spirituality

In June, we have a Cathar pilgrimage from Puivert to Foix, which we have themed around TS Eliot's Four Quartets as a spiritual journey through time to the timeless. This book takes the reader through four chapters on experience, symbolism, suffering and freedom, explaining various aspects of the background in French symbolist poetry, Dante, St John of the Cross and others. He sees the 'intersection of the timeless with time' as the alignment of our nonphysical or spiritual with our physical nature. The chapter on suffering explores the depths of the human condition as represented in the poetry but also the transformative and purgative experience represented by fire and leading ultimately to a degree of freedom that is also detachment - it is a timely reminder that the ultimate journey is inner rather than outer and that Eliot is a helpful companion along the way.