Author Archives: Administrator

On the wings of love – talk by Maria Bartels at the Symposium ‘The golden thread of the free mind’

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In the castles of the Occitan nobility and in the houses of the Cathar faithful, in the hymns and the poetry of the troubadours and in the sermons of the “perfects”, there was a word that was perhaps at the very heart of Occitan culture and society in the 12th and 13th centuries: amor.

However, two distinct Greek concepts underlie the Latin term amor: eros and agape, concepts that originally had nothing what­ soever to do with each other and which are, in fact, opposed to each other. What worlds are concealed behind them, and in what way do they form the basis for Catharism and the fin’amor? How did these two kinds of love come together in the Occitania of those days? And how can they still come together in our own souls? Continue reading

Freedom of conscience in Occitan Catharism – talk by Eduard Berga Salomó at the Symposium ‘The golden thread of the free mind’

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The history of the human being is the history of the conquest of freedom. Freedom as a species, in prehistoric times; freedom as a people in the first civilizations; individual freedom in our Christian era.

Christianity has paved the way for individual freedom in the West by offering everyone the possibility of receiving the Spirit in their own inner being, through the baptism of the Paraclete and through the formation of Continue reading

The breath of the spirit and spiritual energy – talk by Eric Palazzo at the Symposium ‘The golden thread of the free mind’

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Christian theology in the era of the Antiquity and the Middle Ages has rather poignantly placed the question of the freedom of the Spirit or, reversely, the spirit of freedom at the centre of their studies of the activation of the spiritual pursuit of Man, both on an individual basis as well as on a collective level.

In saying this I underline the fact that Christian theological thought in Antiquity and the Middle Ages has always differentiated itself from the gradual evolution over the centuries of the Continue reading

The paleolithic art of decorated caves – talk by Philippe Grosos at the Symposium ‘The golden thread of the free mind’

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Usually we understand ‘boldness’ or ‘audacity’ as the deed or the word of a human being who dares to do, dares to say whatever he or she is saying. The word then indicates: the courage to take a risk, no matter how small it may be. Boldness shows strength, that is when the concept is not confused with brutality or hubris. Contrary to those two motives, it will neither shock nor provoke morally or socially; it doesn’t get involved with those values, and therefore it does not foolishly run ahead to its powers.

As far as that is concerned, it is even possible to Continue reading

The caves of Volp – talk by Robert Bégouën at the Symposium ‘The golden thread of the free mind’

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The Tuc d’Audoubert and Trois-Frères caves were discovered in 1912 and 1914 by three teenagers, Max, Jacques and Louis Bégouën, in a village in the Ariège called Montesquieu-Avantès. They are large and decorated caves, and the decision to preserve them completely intact was taken immediately after their discovery. This point of view, very original for those days, is explained by the fact that at the moment of the discovery of the caves, the family had already been interested in the origin of life in general and in the origin of mankind in particular for two generations.

The grandfather of the three brothers, count Maximilien Bégouën (1826-1885) was indeed an erudite and multilingual humanist. Although trained as a Continue reading

God is love – talk by Mirjam Duivenvoorden at the Symposium ‘The golden thread of the free mind’

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There are places on earth where time and eternity seem to meet; where the boundaries between today, yesterday and long ago disappear – places that fill us with profound peace, joyful wonder, or even a great inner upheaval, because something hitherto unknown in us awakens and now expresses itself in us with remarkable force. Places where we feel small, submerged in something infinitely vast, but nevertheless we feel so ‘at home’ because we recognise a profound connection to its greatness, knowing that we belong, that we have a place in it.

These are places where the Spirit, that breathes when and wherever It will, found an entry into Continue reading