Our first library addition this month is a chapter by Jean Hani on “The Celestial Garden”, explaining its ancient macrocosmic and microcosmic symbolism and how the four ways of watering the garden correspond to the four types of prayer.

Amber Palace, Jaipur

• A new addition to our Sacred Audio Collection is The Song of the Sibyl, a medieval apocalyptic chant which gives a striking testimony to the survival of ancient religious imagery in a Mediterranean Christian rite. Click here to listen.

• And we complete our selection with a video recorded conversation on Islam and the Qur’an, bringing together Karen Armstrong, John Esposito and Joseph Lumbard in an event organised by the Norwegian magazine Samtiden.

Your attention is drawn to our forthcoming July events, including a lecture on “Thomas Merton and Sufism” and another one on the geometric key to the Taj Mahal and other marvels of Mughal architecture.

We would also like to draw your attention to some of the activities of our colleagues at the PSTA and Temenos:
a lecture by Gray Henry on 18 July, “The Spiritual Significance of the Defended Portal in World Art and Architecture According to A.K. Coomaraswamy”, and a weekend workshop in October, “The Head, the Heart and the Hand: Geometry, Philosophy and the Music of the Spheres”.