Abwoon News, 12 November:
Books, New In Person Events for 2027, Online Opportunities
Dear Friends,
First, some book news:
A free digital sample of the new, revised edition of The Hidden Gospel is now available. It describes what I’ve changed and added:
The book will be out, in ebook and print in February.
Also, this time I will be reading the audio book myself, so you can be assured that a) the reader understands what they’re reading and b) the Aramaic is correct!
Additional in-person events for next year–mark the dates
23.-26. September 2027, Le Jardin de Safran, VARAIRE, Lot, France
Entering the Garden of Remembrance—Rediscovering Love’s Many Vectors within Us
Sufis describe the “garden” as a place that is not a reward for being good or loyal, but a remembrance of a world from which we came and to which we will return. In between, we have a “self,” a nafs, in order to learn, love, and possibly to affect the whole of human and earth consciousness around us.
Love in this sense is more than an emotion; it is a creative force seeded into us and the planet from the first Beginning. The heart’s doorway shows us its many vectors, which allow us to follow its traces back to Love’s source.
As tools for the retreat journey, we will use meditation, chant, walking meditation, Sufi stories,, body prayer, and sacred movement in the form of authentic Dances of Universal Peace (not created by artificial intelligence), and Sufi zikr. I will include several of the Sufi dhikrs (forms of chanted / moved remembrance) and cycles that he has received in meditation on personal retreat over the years.
We also will work with lesser-known selection of the Sufi “Beautiful Names” (beyond the list of 99 “most beautiful”) many of them common to Jesus’ Aramaic language and the Arabic of the Sufis. This work comes from my new Sufi book Vectors of Love, due to be released in spring 2027.
30.September – 03. October 2027, Caduceus Center, Bad Bevensen, Germany:
Ways for the Modern Nomad from the Aramaic Jesus and the Sufi Jesus
Through meditation, seed healing words, chants, body awareness practices, stories, and group circle dance, we will explore a path of consciousness that offers both freedom and responsibility. We will uncover this ancient pathway of the heart with one who travelled with honesty, courage, and passion for life—the Aramaic Jesus and the Sufi dervish Jesus. This three-day residential retreat includes the hidden history of how the Aramaic Jesus traditions, the “Jesus before Christianity,” come into the stories and traditions of the Sufis more than six hundred years later, where they were applied in a world more like our own–one of commercial competition, culture wars, city life, and a more individualised consciousness. We will experience several different words of love shared in Jesus’ native Aramaic and in the Arabic of the “Beautiful Names” of the Sufis and the Qur’an. These are names of power and healing, not only emotion. Connected to this, Neil will also share from some of the work in his new book Vectors of Love, on the Beautiful Names beyond the list of “99 Most Beautiful.”
29.-30. October 2027, Sufi Center on Anna Paulownastraat. Hague, Netherlands
The Aramaic Jesus and the Sufis: Ways of Courage and Heart in Difficult Times
Similar to the above, but with less content, in a shorter, two-day workshop.
Registration opening soon for all of the above events.
As before, all events scheduled so far can be found on the home page of the Abwoon website: https://abwoon.org
New online events from friends and colleagues:
Two more paid online series from friends coming up shortly that I also recommend. The free online events below will be very valuable:
Suzanne Giesemann: “How to Prepare Your Nervous System for Spirit Communication.” Free introduction,
November 14, repeated November 17.
Personally, I find this is an issue for anyone who begins to take seriously the conventional ideas of an only-material reality. How does one stay balanced, in the heart, with self and soul connected, when entering certain types of dreams, visions, and communications with teachers who have passed? What’s true, what’s a lower form of imagining? Even if you’re not interested in becoming a psychic medium, this session could help you. I know Suzanne personally through her interest in my Aramaic work. She became a psychic through a personal, family emergency—not through looking for it!
Link to register for this one-hour free session
Matthew Fox: “The Sacred Navigation of Evil: What Western Mystics Like St John of the Cross Teach Us About Enduring and Converting Darkness into Light.”
Free introduction November 21, repeated November 24.
An important issue today when so many well-meaning people use a type of “spiritual bypass” to avoid real spirituality, which clearly recognizes what is healthy and what is unhealthy in themselves and the world around them. And there is plenty going on that we can easily feel is unhealthy! So how do we find our way back to health, first in our own self and then through our heartfelt, healthy action, which Jesus calls “ripeness”? Matthew will share insights from his translation and interpretation of the words of St John of the Cross in his new book, The Beloved Will Guide You.
Link to register for this one-hour free session
For both of these, if you sign up for the introduction, you will receive a link to watch the recording a day or two after the repeat.
The free introduction to my own next Aramaic Jesus course, on Jesus and the Sufis, will be on December 19. I will send out a short email when you can register for the intro, which will be beginning December 9.
Many thanks for your interest in this work!
May you travel with as much ease as possible in these challenging times!
Love and blessings,
Neil
