The Francis Bacon Research Trust
Swan-Rose Seminars

Gateway to the Ageless Wisdom

The Secret World of Shakespeare and the Old Masters

‘The Mysteries’

Saturday 30th October 2010
(2:00 pm - 5:00 pm)
Compton Verney, Warwickshire

Afternoon Seminar
with
Peter Dawkins and Julia Cleave

This is the fifth of an innovative series of seminars revealing the hidden knowledge and initiatic mysteries that were passed on in the Platonic academies and mystery schools of the Renaissance through their paintings, sculptures, emblems and other works of art.

These truths found their expression in Italy and France in the works of great initiate artists like Verrocchio, Botticelli, Giorgione and, later, Poussin and Claude; and, in England, in the writings and associated artwork of Dee, Sydney, Spenser, Bacon and Shakespeare.

These truths, which are moral, psychological, spiritual and scientific, are pertinent to each human being and to society at large, and exist to guide us towards personal and universal peace, illumination and joy.

The Mysteries
The theme of this seminar concerns the Mysteries and will include two talks:-

1) The Quadrivium and the Mysteries
A study of Verrocchio’s Tobias and the Angel. [Julia Cleave]

2) The Royal Ark of the Mysteries
Craft & Royal Arch Freemasonry in John Dee’s 1577 ‘Rosicrucian’ Book of Navigation. [Peter Dawkins]

‘The Mysteries’ refer especially to the dramas of initiation that were carried out in the Mystery schools of ancient and classical times, and continued in one form or another through the Medieval and Renaissance periods, including those of the Christian Church but also other esoteric schools of wisdom and initiation (e.g. Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism). The name is derived from the Greek word, Mysteria, referring to the dramas of the Greek and Orphic Mystery schools. Our word ‘mystic’ is likewise derived from the Greek mystes (‘one who has been initiated’), referring to those who took part in the Mysteria and were thus able to feel, hear, see, understand and experience the truths hidden and portrayed symbolically in the drama and the stage or surroundings in which the drama took place.

Usually it is thought that the Mysteries and Mystery schools only really existed in mainland Europe and not in England, but this is in fact not at all the case – the Mysteries were known and practised in Elizabethan and Jacobean England in a very profound way, including what is known as the Royal Arch and Higher ‘Rosicrucian’ Degrees of Freemasonry, in which Shakespeare became involved, and this itself is one of the Mysteries. The works of the Elizabethan magus, Dr John Dee, give insights into this hidden world of the initiates.

The Secret World of Shakespeare and the Old Masters
The first five seminars of the series are being given in 2010 at approx. 6-7 week intervals. Each seminar takes place on a Saturday afternoon and contains an introduction and two main talks.

The team of speakers, each with expert knowledge and experience of this initiatic and symbolic theme, comprises Peter Dawkins, Julia Cleave and Jill Line.

The dates and titles of the other seminars are:-

1 May 2010
The Hermetic Journey of the Soul

19 June 2010
The Pillars of Time & Eternity

31 July 2010
Hidden Truth

18 September 2010
Arcadia

Venue
The venue is at Compton Verney, the 18th century mansion and award-winning art gallery whose location in the ‘Shakespeare Country’ of Warwickshire is part of the secret knowledge and mystery.

Compton Verney houses six permanent collections and has a programme of changing exhibitions. Besides a seminar room and art gallery, the Grade 1 listed Robert Adam mansion also has a good cafe/restaurant. The mansion sits overlooking a lake in the midst of Grade 2 listed classical parkland, landscaped by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, the most eminent landscape architect of the eighteeth-century.

Why not make a day of it and visit the art galleries in the morning, have lunch at the cafe and then attend the seminar in the afternoon?

Compton Verney is situated 7 miles east of Stratford-upon-Avon on the B4086 between Wellesbourne and Kineton, and adjacent to the Fosse Way. It is 6 miles drive from the M40, Junction 12. [See map.]

Programme
Each seminar will begin at 2:00 pm and end at 5:00 pm.

Cost and Booking
Seminar fee = £25 per person, or £100 for all five seminars if booked in advance.
(The cost does not include include admission to the Compton Verney art gallery.)

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