Dear Subscribers:

We are excited to launch our inaugural volume of the digital Sacred Web: A Journal of Tradition and Modernity.

Sacred Web has been published in print for over 25 years, spanning 50 volumes that cover teachings from all the major faith and wisdom traditions. With our first digital edition, we continue our focus on the essential importance of the Sacred in navigating the issues of the modern world.

Our latest publication, Sacred Web 51, offers a rich collection of essays, poems and other materials rooted in traditional metaphysics, exploring spiritual, ethical, and artistic themes. Topics range from an examination of the ongoing crisis in Gaza, and a critique of Carl Jung to essays on Buddhism, on traditional symbolism, on holistic health care, and on Edwin Muir's poetic intersecting of life and literature. Volume 51 also includes poetry and essays in tribute to the late Dr. Wolfgang Smith, preeminent physicist, metaphysician and Christian theologian. Scroll below for the full contents.

In these challenging times, an age whose spirit is often pitted against the Spirit itself, we hope this journal, which reminds us of the vital relevance of the Sacred in our lives, will prove to be an invaluable resource to our readers.

As a reader-supported publication, we rely on the generosity of our community. If you find value in our work and wish to support us, donations are gratefully welcomed. Your support ensures that Sacred Web continues to thrive and is able to sustain its aim to provide high-quality, accessible scholarship to readers like you.

Pax et bonum.

M. Ali Lakhani (Founder and Editor)

Essays in Sacred Web Volume 51:

Hard Hearts: Reflections on Human Nature in the Context of the Gaza War
This essay explores King Lear’s question: Is there any cause in nature that makes these hard hearts? Highlighting the importance of spiritual and ethical literacy in a world losing the Sacred, the essay argues that Judaism upholds universal humane values, distinct from the ideology of Zionism.
Sacred WebM. Ali Lakhani
The Deification of the Psyche: Carl Jung and the Spiritual Crisis of the Modern World
Jung diagnosed the modern mental health crisis as being caused by the decline of religion in modernism. Yet by doing so, he unintentionally reintroduced the religious impulse - through the deification of the psyche.
Sacred WebSamuel Bendeck Sotillos
Leo Schaya’s Journey to Morocco (1950) – Part 1
In 1950, Leo Schaya, a Jewish friend of Frithjof Schuon, traveled to the Muslim world for the first time. He recorded his impressions in a diary, which is presented here for the first time in English.
Sacred WebFatima Jane Casewit
Buddhism and the Perennial Philosophy
Buddhism offers a unique lens through which to appreciate other religions. Its understanding of ultimate reality, along with its notion of skillful means, allows for a comprehensive scope of salvation that extends to all beings—not just adherents of Śākyamuni’s teaching.
Sacred WebRev. John Paraskevopoulos
The Good Life of Edwin Muir
In Muir’s political poetry, history is reimagined as an internal event. Muir depicted our time as one of transition, an interregnum of civilization, during which the danger is great that we can forget altogether the meanings and associations that make specifically human life possible.
Sacred WebAndrew Frisardi
The Peacock’s Tail: On Light-Hierophanies and Visionary Photisms
Continuing the tradition of designing cover art for the Journal, Nigel Jackson depicts ‘The Peacock’s Tail’ and writes about the metaphysical symbolism of light and colour in the context of the fan of the peacock.
Sacred WebNigel Jackson
Modern Day Health
Ishaaq Valodia offers an integrated view of health from a perspective that connects Spirit, mind and body.
Sacred WebIshaaq Valodia

Tributes to Wolfgang Smith:

In Memoriam: Wolfgang Smith (1930–2024), Eminent Scientist and Defender of Sacred Metaphysics
A reminiscence of Dr. Smith by Samuel Bendeck Sotillos.
Sacred WebSamuel Bendeck Sotillos
Wittgenstein and the Tao
A Poem in Memory of Wolfgang Smith (1930-2024)
Sacred WebM. Ali Lakhani
Letter to Wolfgang Smith: On the Measurement Problem
If observation collapses the wave-function by bringing Form into contact with the materia of quantum potentiality, what exactly is observation—by which I essentially mean, who is the observer? A tribute to Wolfgang Smith.
Sacred WebCharles Upton

Poems:

Five Poems
A series of five meditative poems entitled: ‘Stream’, ‘The Poetry of Absence’, ‘The Yellow Moth’, ‘Word’, and ‘Maya in Two Movements’.
Sacred WebAndrew Frisardi
Cascading Light
In this poem by Mohammed Rustom, the writer reflects on a passage from the great Sufi metaphysician, Ibn ’Arabi.
Sacred WebMohammed Rustom
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