Public Lectures and Events                                                                                                      Home

All events are held in the lodge (in the same building as Quest Bookshop and the lending library), at:

717 Broadway Avenue East, Seattle, WA 98103 (206) 323-4281

    ·Suggested Donation is $5.00 - $10.00, except some special events
    ·Most Sunday events start at 4:00pm - special events scheduled as noted
    ·Parking may be difficult so allow extra time for arriving
    ·Sunday Morning Meditation: 2nd & 4th Sundays, 10 am - OPEN TO ALL!!

The Theosophical Society in Seattle 717 Broadway East Seattle, Washington 98102 (206) 323-4281 invites you to enjoy its Public Lectures, Workshop & Sunday Morning Open Meditation

Your Donations are important to us. They literally keep the heat and lights on and make it possible for us to show some appreciation to our speakers who donate their time when presenting our programs. No one will ever be turned away for lack of funds. Yet we ask you to be as generous as you can be within our expanded "suggested" range of $5- $10 for a lecture and $40 -$60 for a day long workshop. Thank you!

October - December, 2005
 

October 16th,  Sunday    4:00-5:30 pm
World Meditation Ensemble
World Sacred Sounds

We are very pleased to have back for performance the World Meditation Ensemble, one of the finest, tightest and more evocative World musical groups in the Puget Sound area.  They are very popular with a large following, having given over 200 concerts.  Weaving together stringed and percussion instruments, and vocals and chants from around the world, their music alternates from toe tapping exhilarating to heart throbbing moving. Join as we take a magical carpet ride journey to points unknown around the planet !

October 23rd,  Sunday        4:00-5:30 pm
RJ Stewart
An evening talk & meditation with RJ Stewart ~ Working With Inner Contacts

What are Inner Contacts?  And how may we work with them in our spiritual life?

All spiritual traditions worldwide include communion with Inner Contacts, ranging from the Saints and great beings found in religions such as Buddhism, Christianity, or Islam, to the spirit allies of the shamanistic cultures, to the Masters and Guides of the 19th century occultists and Theosophists and beyond.

R J Stewart will explore the foundations for this important spiritual practice, which tells us that we may make contact with spiritual beings and work with them towards inner transformation and growth in consciousness.  What exactly are these spirit beings, so variously and colorfully described in tradition?  How can we come into communion with them, and (most importantly) why would we choose to commune with them?

At the close of the talk, R J will lead us through a range of Inner Contacts, enabling the direct experience of spiritual contact, which can be explored further in individual meditation.

R J Stewart is the author of over  40  books on spirituality, magic and meditation, music and consciousness, and the Celtic tradition,  which are published worldwide.  He is also a composer and musician, has written for film, television and theater, and produced a series of CDs of music and guided visualizations.  You can find out more information about RJ Stewart through his websites www.rjstewart.org and www.rjstewart.net !

An Introduction to Shamanic Journeying
A three week class with Betsy Bergstrom

There is a suggested donation for each weekly section of $15 – 25
Pre-registration is necessary through Quest Bookshop (206) 323-4281, or e-mail

There is a luminous invisible reality, that is beyond the "normal" physical world, that has been the traditional destination of shamans for countless generations.  This reality, known as the "Other World" or the "Dreamtime", can be accessed through shamanic journeying in order to directly experience spiritual revelation, healing or to gain spiritual wisdom.  The inhabitants of these realms are compassionate spirit beings, healers and helpers with whom we may enter into relationship.  Join Betsy Bergstrom for a 3-part introduction to the fundamentals of shamanic journeying and an exploration of the "Otherworld" using guided imagery, drumming and rattling.  Learn how to safely travel to, navigate in and return from these beautiful realms.

October 24th,           Monday    7- 9 pm,  Part 1  
The Middleworld is the name of the non-ordinary version of our own reality.  This reality is outside of time, a place that you may visit in your dreams.  Here, in the first evening, you will meet with an ally that can enrich, protect and empower you in your world, as well as the shamanic realms.  You will have the opportunity to travel to a known power place on the earth and to receive healing.

October 31st,           Monday    7- 9 pm,  Part 2
Descending through a tunnel or opening into the earth and emerging in the vivid natural realm of the Lowerworld will be the destination of the second class.  This realm is the home of the power animals or totems as well as the nature spirits and indigenous human helping spirits.  Meet with one or more of your totem animals and learn aspects of your own nature and power.  Deepen your relationship with the power animal and watch your personal power in your life grow.

November 7th,         Monday    7- 9 pm,  Part 3
Learn how to travel to the Upperworld and to pass through the gates into this ethereal world of the Spirit helpers in human form.  This is the realm where temples of healing, the Akashic records and angelic beings are found.  Meet with a great teacher or one of your own compassionate ancestor spirits and gain wisdom or advice on a personal matter.  We conclude with journey suggestions for continued personal explorations of these realms.

A note about donations:  The value of these evenings is apparent when one realizes that the Foundation for Shamanic Studies charges $225.00 for something a bit more in depth.  Because of the way in which experience and training will build upon the previous week’s work, it is strongly recommended that all three classes be attended.  The first Monday can be missed if any of the previous workshops with Betsy were attended at the Theosophical Society, or if a person had attended a Harner Basic workshop.

Betsy Bergstrom   is a full-time Shamanic Practitioner who has studied with shamans and healers from many cultures and countries.  She is a graduate of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies 3-Year Program.  She has been trained by a number of indigenous shamans and healers who have encouraged her and shared with her their wonderful teachings.  She has worked in various fields of Alternative Healing for nearly 20 years.  Her calling is to work in partnership with the Helping Spirits, to help the living and the dead.  She currently practices in Seattle and teaches shamanism nationally. “ I think she is a brilliant teacher,”  from Sandra Ingerman, author of Soul Retrieval  and  Medicine for the Earth. 

October 30th,  Sunday        4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
Kumbh Mela
About the movie Songs of the River

Shown to us and commented on by the Producer Nadeem Uddin, the Khumbh Mela is the “Festival of the Urn” that pours out the nectar of immortality to Humanity.  It is a great Hindu spiritual festival that has moved around India for more than four thousand years, leading to the erecting of temporary cities all along the Ganges River.  Millions of Hindu faithful gather there to wash away their sins in the holy waters.

The 2001 Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, India was the largest gathering of humanity in recorded history.  It was not just the final Kumbh Mela in a 12-year cycle of festivals.  It was the final festival of 12 cycles – the conclusion of a giant 144-year cycle, making it the “Maha” Kumbh Mela, the Great Festival.  This 144-year buildup of spiritual meaning made it a powerfully auspicious time for pilgrims to bathe in the Ganges.  The planets and stars even joined in, providing heavenly alignments that had not been seen for 144 years.  What happened, and what you will catch a glimpse and some of the flavor of, was an event inaugurating the 21st Century, when approximately 70 million people came from around the world, praying for peace, for the rebirth of themselves and of the world.  Appearing:  H.H Dalai Lama, Dr. Andrew Weil, and Yogamata Keiko Aikawa.

We are very fortunate to have living in Seattle the producer of this movie, Nadeem Uddin, who will comment, after the movie is shown, on his experiences and observations while overseeing the filming of this great event in India

Comments
"Songs of the River displaces a Westerner from everyday certitudes and opens him or her to the power of the Kumbha Mela experience and the consciousness people like (Yogmata) Keiko Aikawa seek.  All in all a compelling cinematic experience.” Harold Crooks, whose documentary film credits include the award-winning The World Is Watching, The Champagne Safari and The Corporation.

“This documentary draws you into the kaleidoscopic mix of color, sound and mood.  Watching it, you are adrift in a sea of exuberant spirituality that feels both strange and yet familiar, and you happily abandon your senses to its ebb and flow.  It is a film to be experienced with the heart rather than the intellect.”      New Connexion

"Woodstock for the Spirit.”    Robert Schnitzer-Oasis TV Los Angeles.

A Weekend with Medieval Astrologer & Writer Robert Zoller  

CANCELLED  -  PLEASE  visit www.robertezoller.com for readings.

November 13, Sunday     4:00-5:30 pm
Mike Whitty
Ageing into “Sageing” -  Creating Your Life Legacy

This mini-workshop will help all who attend to reflect on both the meaning of and the way we wish to live the rest of our lives.  As many of us head into the second half of life and we begin to encounter both the ageing process and become even more globally aware of planet wide deterioration, we will discover that there are stances we can take with ourselves and the world that can make this a different journey than the first half.  In this mini-workshop we will look at some of those stances and examine what can do to find them.  We will discover how we can liberate ourselves so that we can turn life into the adventure we would really like it to be, so that we can bravely walk onto our own new ground and live what we feel called to live, be that spiritual elder, political activist, and so on.  The possibilities are truly endless.  We can become activists, healers and helpers at any level of life, from the very large to the very, very small, both within and without.  We will examine how and why we need to do this.  Learn to become a prophet in your own time.

Mike Whitty is a Professor teaching Business Ethics at Seattle University, and is the co-author of the book Work and Spirit, “The Post-Modern Spiritual Future of Work,”   “Putting More Soul into Work,”  and numerous other articles dealing with stress, health and the meaning of life.  Professor Whitty is a member of the Detroit Lodge of the Theosophical Society.

November 20,  Sunday       4:00-5:30 pm
Leon Reed
The Four Ancient Irish Directions  & the Four Elements

The four directions and the four elements were used and continue to be used in the spiritual systems of cultures around the world.  They were drawn upon to represent everything in their existence from the material to the spiritual.   The ancient Irish called the four directions the four “airts” and they associated them with the four provinces of Ireland and their respectively unique qualities.  We will not only explore the wisdom of that world of long ago, but look at how it might be possible to tap into and use this ancient Irish understanding in our own lives.

Leon Reed has spoken at the Theosophical Society previously about Druidism, Celtism and other worlds.  Leon is a founding member of the Bards of Caer Pugetia (British Druid Order).

November 27,  Sunday       4:00-5:30 pm
Patricia Brown
Paths to Prayer

In a recent survey 95% of both religious and non-religious North Americans indicated that they pray daily.  This points to the possibility of something innate within us that wishes to communicate with a power greater than our own limited sense of the world.  Patricia will not only provide multi-faith lenses on how prayer can be seen, but will also offer multi-faith experiences of prayer that we can participate in.  Included in this larger look at the phenomenon of interaction with Higher Worlds will be some not-so-familiar ways of praying, including praying with beads and mandalas, walking prayer, prayer shawls and body prayer, to mention a few.  This presentation is both for those interested in just a deeper look at prayer, as well as those with some kind of established practice who would like to explore ways of broadening their connection.

Patrician Brown, Ph.D. is the author of ten books, including Paths To Prayer, and teaches and lives in Seattle.

Gregorian Chant as Spiritual Practice
December 3,  Saturday    10:30 am - 4:00 pm
Led by Joseph Anderson

Suggested donation $50.00 - $70.00  (Includes cost of materials and light lunch)
Please pre-register through Quest Bookshop  206-323-4281 or  e-mail

Gregorian chant flowed from the monastic spirituality of the West expressing selfless love and praise for the Divine wisdom and compassion.  Singing Gregorian chant can be a profound spiritual experience.  Thomas Merton, expressing his own experience of monastic chant, said that it can lead us "beyond explanations, beyond discourse, beyond dialogue, beyond our own self."  In this one-day introduction to Gregorian Chant, you will learn how to sing simple examples of the core genres of Gregorian chant: psalms, hymns and other melodies of a traditional Gregorian Vespers service.  The spiritual role these ancient chants play in cultivating contemplation is also explored.  At the end of the day, as a meditative singing and learning community, participants will chant the medieval office of Vespers together.  This workshop is open both to singers and to those just discovering their voices.

Joseph Anderson is the chant teacher for the Center for Sacred Art and co-founded Peregrine, a medieval vocal ensemble, in 1993.

December 4, Sunday    4:00-5:30 pm
David Spangler
Santa Christ

In celebration of the Holiday season, this talk explores the inner dynamics of Christmas and the winter solstice.  Christmas is a Christian holiday, but it rests on pagan foundations that predate the coming of Christ.  These foundations are best seen in the figure of Santa Claus and the legends and stories that surround him.  Santa and Jesus are, in a way, two sides of a single coin, one that embodies deep spiritual principles.  Understanding the convergence of these two streams of celebration and spirit cannot help but enrich our experience of the Holiday season.  And how do the inner worlds, where Santa Claus is in fact a real being, engage with our human holiday?  Christmas is a portal between light and dark, summer and winter, the human and the divine, the pagan and the Christian, the disincarnate and the incarnate.  It is the hinge on which the world turns.

David Spangler has been writing, lecturing and teaching since the early 1970s when he was co director of the spiritual community of Findhorn in northern Scotland.   He is the author of   Revelation: The Birth of a New Age;  Emergence: The Rebirth of the Sacred;  Everyday Miracles;  A Pilgrim in Aquarius;  The Call;  Blessing: The Art and the Practice;  and most recently   Parent as Mystic, Mystic as Parent.   “David Spangler’s work is one of the shining lights on any serious seeker’s path.”--Marianne Williamson   “Like a clear spring gushing up from some bottomless source, David Spangler’s writing splashes into us, quenching our thirst for the intelligence and sweetness and fullness of Love.”--Richard Chamberlain

December 11, Sunday        4:00-5:30 pm
Jamal Rahman
A Muslim Sufi Appreciation of Christmas

The Quran is filled with adoration for Jesus and Mary.  In the Holy Book, Jesus is described as the “Spirit of God” and Mary as the "holiest of the Holy."  Let us celebrate Jesus and Mary by allowing verses of the Quran and insights from Sufi mystics to connect us to Mystery.  In this process, as we expand our awareness and fill ourselves with compassion, we can participate in the process of birthing our true Self.

Jamal Rahman  comes from the Sufi lineage of Bengal and is a minister at the Interfaith Community Church in Seattle.  He has garnered a great deal of praise for his book The Fragrance of Faith, including “In simple and eloquent words, this book captures the heart and spirit of Islam.  A true spiritual treasure!” David Spangler, author of Blessing and The Call.   And from Brother Wayne Teasdale, author of The Mystic Heart  and  A Monk in the World, “A priceless book!  You cannot read The Fragrance of Faith and not be equally inspired by its eminently practical spirituality, its awesome humility, and its heartfelt humanity.”

The Hidden Teachings In Handel’s Messiah   Part 1: Nativity
A Seminar with Music taught by  Fredric Lehrman
December 17,  Saturday    2:00 - 6:00 pm

Suggested donation  $10.00 - $20.00 (includes light refreshments)

Although millions of people know and love Handel’s great oratorio, Messiah, few are aware that behind the words lie deep esoteric teachings in spiritual metaphysics.  Once this secret content has been revealed, the music takes on an added dimension and power.  Listening to this work then becomes a profound musical meditation which grounds us in the certainty that we are connected to a limitless creative intelligence.

The new insights into the Old and New Testament texts which Handel set to music will be supported by the best performances of each chorus or aria, selected from over twenty great recordings. 

If you are a singer or a conductor who has performed this work, you are strongly urged to attend.  If you are someone who loves this music, you will hear it again as if for the first time. This will be a relaxed and casual afternoon.  Please bring your own pillow if you like to listen lying down.

Fredric Lehrman is the Director of Nomad University.  He is a concert musician, musicologist, and has taught metaphysics for 25 years.  He has studied music with master teachers of the guitar, cello and voice.

December 18, Sunday        4:00-6:00 pm
Andrew Jayasundera, MA
How To Do a Meaningful Ritual or Set Up a Home Altar, Whatever Your Faith

As we approach that time of the year when we have the longest nights, we may find ourselves increasingly oriented inward, drawn towards meditation and spiritual reflection.  This is a time of year when seers and clairvoyants from different faith paths have observed that spiritual worlds are actually closer.  It is very appropriate then to gather and study ways of performing a ritual and building an altar.

Performing a ritual is at once a sensual experience that awakens the senses and a spiritual experience that elevates consciousness.  Likewise, a home altar creates a focus of beauty as well as spirituality in your home or room.

In this workshop, we will look at the elements of ritual, with examples from the world's major religious traditions.  You will learn how to prepare for and perform a ritual and also create a home altar suited to your spirituality and your purpose.  We will look at ritual supports such as light, incense, flowers, altars, and images or no images.  Together. we will perform a general blessing ritual.  There will be time for individual questions.  After this workshop, many people find that they can participate more fully in religious service, whether at church, a Hindu or Buddhist temple, or a pagan ceremony, and understand not only what is going on but also why.  Bring pen and notepad, and if you wish, a small personal article, such as a crystal, ring, or pendant, to place on the altar during our blessing ritual.

Andrew Jayasundera MA has an interdisciplinary academic background, with emphasis on art history, comparative religion, counseling psychology, and cultural anthropology.  He has written and lectured on themes about art and religion at the Seattle Asian Art Museum, and the National Museum Volunteers in Thailand.  He organized a highly acclaimed series of workshops on mind-body healing for Oberlin College in Ohio and has facilitated guided imagery groups in Seattle.
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SERVICES OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY IN SEATTLE    

Sunday Morning Meditation at 10:00 AM - Open to All

Theosophical Lending Library
A Research Library and Learning Center now inviting new members and patrons. Library fees ($20 annually) This service is included in your membership if you join the TS in Seattle.
Hours:  Open Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday 1:00 to 6:00 pm. Open Monday and Wednesday Noon to 5:00 pm

Theosophical Lending Library     e-mail
A Membership Library, Volunteer Run
1:00 pm  - 6:00 pm  Saturday, Sunday
12:00 pm - 5:00 pm  Monday ~ Wednesday
Telephone:  206 323-4281  

Quest Bookshop   e-mail
Over 10,000 books in stock
Open at 11am Seven Days a Week
Telephone:  206 323-4281