Pan-Eu-Rhythmy:  Sacred Dances from Bulgaria

Paneurhythmy is music and dance that creates a “movement mandala” of great serenity and power; it is spiritual practice and prayer.  The composer, Peter Deunov (1864-1944) was a remarkable spiritual teacher of the early 20th century who died just as Communism was about to make his life's work precarious.  The dancer aspires to balance heaven and earth, exchanging with noetic beings, communing with nature and harmonizing with fellow human beings.

In February we will have an opportunity to have an intensive workshop on the Paneurhythmy with guest teacher Phyllis Thorpe, who comes from St. Louis, and Walking Brotherhood, Talking Brotherhood, a special lecture with guest lecturer Colum Hayward, coming from England.

Phyllis Thorpe has dedicated her life to sharing the Paneurhythmy sacred movement and other methods given by the great spiritual teacher Peter Deunov.  Trained in speech and theatre at Northwestern University (B.S. in Speech, M.A. in Performance Studies), she served as Director of Drama for twenty-six years.  She took early retirement in 1997 to be able to travel and teach.  She has worked with Maria Mitovska in Bulgaria to translate the SACRED WORDS OF THE MASTER and a small book of songs and prayers into English.  In 2002 she was a founding board member of PANEURHYTHMY: CIRCLE OF JOY, a non-profit organization dedicated to making this teaching available to the English-speaking world.

Colum Hayward is from London, England, where he is Resident Minister at the White Eagle Lodge in Kensington, the London branch and historical centre of a work of spiritual healing, meditation and a brotherhood path, which was commenced by his grandmother, the medium Grace Cooke. Deeply versed in spiritual teaching, he is particularly interested in its application in daily life.  Recently, his path took him first to a secular intentional community exploring interpersonal relations near Oxford, England, and shortly after to Bulgaria.  There he experienced at first hand the loving fellowship of brethren of the White Brotherhood of Peter Deunov (Beinsa Douno).  He is currently writing a book on the principles of brotherhood, using among his examples the three organizations mentioned.

'THE EVOLUTION OF BROTHERHOOD'
That human beings can be brothers one to one another is one of the most ancient ideas among the ways to improve the human condition.  The word 'brotherhood' may imply that people are all part of one organism, or it may simply imply respect for each other among people, as in the emancipation slogan, 'As men and as brothers'.  Colum Hayward has half a lifetime's experience of times when brotherhood works and times when it does not work, and he will describe a number of different attempts to pursue the ideal through history.  What do we have to do, for the ideal of brother-sisterhood really to take root among people?  Amid all the gloom of international conflict, Colum may be able to offer some good news.  There is an evolutionary element to brotherhood, and it may yet be irresistible.