Quest News is produced to introduce you to our staff and faculty, as well as to pass on exciting information about the upcoming Esoteric Quest Conference and Post Conference Tours. Our next conference is titled: An Esoteric Quest for Ancient Alexandria, Greco-Egyptian Birthplace of the Western Mind. This Quest will be taking place from June 12th – 17th, 2011, in Alexandria, Egypt. The conference will be followed by two optional journeys – one deeper into Ancient Egypt and the other to Cyprus. Please see http://www.esotericquest.org/ for more information.

Alexandria Beckons Part II

Dear Friends,

Here are more thoughts on our choosing Alexandria as the location for our June 2011 Esoteric Quest conference. If you didn’t get to read Part I of this article, see www.EsotericQuest.org, where we have this last newsletter posted.

The city, of course, has many contemporary associations. I’m sure that many of you have read Lawrence Durrell’s classic Alexandria Quartet, which evokes the cosmopolitan city that existed prior to the Suez Canal crisis of 1956, where 300,000 Greeks, 70,00 Jews, 12,000 Brits, 10,000 French, and numerous Italians, Syrians, Armenians and Lebanese made up an outrageously diverse population. The figure of Balthazar, the center of the kabbalistic circle in the Quartet, was based on Constantin Cavafy, the truly great Greek poet who lived most of his life in the back streets of the city and whose poems often evoke the lost world of ancient Alexandria. One of his most famous poems, The God Forsakes Anthony, evokes the departure of Dionysus from the city the night before the invasion of Octavian (and served as an inspiration to Leonard Cohen on his album Ten New Songs).

When we are there in 2011, we plan to spend a candle lit evening with the poetry of Cavafy in his former apartment in the old Greek section of the city. And of course we’ll find a way to follow in Durrell’s footsteps and retrace the drama of Justine, Clea and Balthazar. In fact, the three hotels we plan to use – the Cecil, the Windsor Palace, and the Metropole – are situated right in the center of the Corniche, the great promenade that sweeps across the shore of the Eastern Harbor and that features prominently in the Quartet. These hotels were all built at the very beginning of the Twentieth Century and haven’t changed much since. They exude a sort of faded charm with their Art Deco lounges, wooden elevators, and lengthy drapes. Sometimes it feels as if E.M. Forster or Agatha Christie is about to wander around the corner and order a gin and tonic at the bar.

As you can see, Alexandria is a city with countless dimensions. Our Quest will truly be an inner one as we will need to use the eye of imagination to bring alive the magnificent city that awed the ancient world with its refinement and learning. Some monuments, amphitheatres and catacombs remain from antiquity but most have disappeared. However, there are more than enough museums and statues to conjure the world of antiquity for any sensitive psyche.

This will be our first Quest centered in the developing world and we will have to be ready for an encounter with more poverty and crazy traffic than we might normally be used to. Modern Alexandria could not fairly be described as a beautiful city in its current state. But it is powerful, evocative, gripping, and deeply fascinating.

Our Quest is made possible by our partnership with the Alexandria-Mediterranean Research Center at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. We will meet each day at the Bibliotheca, on the site of the ancient library, with its state-of-the-art lecture halls and seminar rooms, and its Greco-Roman restaurant overlooking the Mediterranean.

In the evenings we will dine in restaurants along the Corniche, one of them close to the site of the Pharos Lighthouse, a wonder of the ancient world. And we hope to hear Coptic hymns and Sufi chants in addition to the poetry of Cavafy.

I should mention also that a brand new film, Agora, starring Rachel Weisz, is currently being released in the US. We recommend the evocative movie website at www.agorathemovie.com.  The work of one of Spain’s leading film directors, Alejandro Amenabar, it tells the powerful story of the Alexandrian mathematician, astronomer, and Neo-Platonic philosopher, Hypatia, as Christianity began to assert its political and religious dominance. Nobody I know has seen it yet, but the sets certainly look gripping and I expect that at the very least it will energize our sense of the beauty and harmonious proportions of the ancient city.

There will be two post-conference journeys to choose between. One will travel up the Nile to Luxor with its immense temples and its proximity to the Valley of the Kings. We may even go further south towards Aswan and the mysteries of Abu Simbel. All this is currently under consideration. For those who have never been to Egypt before, this will be the classic journey into the truly ancient world prior to Hellenistic Alexandria.

The other journey will be to Cyprus which was in the sphere of Alexandria’s cultural and economic influence during the Hellenistic period. It was considered the birthplace of Aphrodite, and there we will visit ancient sites, travel to the serene Greek Orthodox monasteries in the mountains, and catch a glimpse of how esoteric groups do their work in the midst of the contemporary world.

I should add, finally, that the Quest will begin with a day in Cairo before we head to Alexandria. If you have never been to the pyramids at Giza or visited the Egyptian Musuem, this will be an experience not to be missed.

We’re still in the midst of planning all of this and welcome your inquiries and input. Please contact our own Andrea Lomanto at 212-219-2527, x:101 or at Quest@opencenter.org, if you have any questions.

I am thinking of doing an esoteric weekend in or near New York some time in the summer or early fall of 2010 for those who, like me, love to have their annual shot of Quest energy and sublimity. More details will follow.

Ralph White
Conference Director

Upcoming Events at the New York Open Center

Finding the Golden Thread—Contemporary Mystery Wisdom: Rudolf Steiner, Love and Freedom
Ralph White
Monday, March 22, 8pm

The Seven Soul Centers and the Western Path to Enlightenment
Robert M. Place
Friday, April 9, 7–10pm

The World of Ancient Alexandria
Ralph White
Friday, April 16, 7:30pm

Symbolist Egypt: Nativigating the Afterlife & the Doctrine of Immortality
John Anthony West
Friday, April 30, 7–10pm

To register for any of the above events, please call the New York Open Center at 212-219-2527, ext. 2, or see www.opencenter.org.

Upcoming Events Beyond

Curator Conversation: Burial Practices
Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn, NY
Saturday, February 27, 2pm

The Road to Alexandria: The Quest for Meaning in the Ancient World
University of British Columbia
Leonard George
Saturday, April 10, 10am-5pm

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The Esoteric Quest is presented by The New York Open Center http://www.opencenter.org, is a non-profit holistic learning center offering evening events, full-day workshops, ongoing classes, advanced trainings, and graduate degree opportunities.