Online Zoom Forum: The Holy Grail: Spiritual, Artistic, and Cultural Expressions.
Date: Wednesday 17 September 2025.
Time: 7pm-9pm (UK time).
Event Description:
Format: There will be five talks, each of 12 minutes, followed by discussion among the speakers and the chair, followed by Q & A.
Chair:
Dr Thomas Clough Daffern:
Bio: Dr Thomas Clough Daffern is a philosopher, historian, peace studies expert, poet and religious studies specialist. He was awarded his PhD from the University of London for a thesis which explores the history of the search for peace, and which proposes a new field of historiography, Transpersonal History. He has taken initiations in many spiritual paths and runs the Commonwealth Interfaith Network. He is Director of the International Institute of Peace Studies and Global Philosophy (IIPSGP) www.educationaid.net which works across many academic fields to bring together all those with an interest in and a commitment towards the study of peace, nonviolence and philosophy. Thomas taught at the Muslim College 1990-1993 & for the University of London, & University of Oxford 1993-2003. As House of Lords, Research Seminar Convenor (1992-2001) he worked with Lords and MP’s to establish an All Party Group for Peace and Conflict Resolution and co-chaired 35 meetings in parliament on peace policy. He has written over 60 books and is a published historian, philosopher, poet, and specialist in interfaith peace-making. He founded the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for the Middle East (https://trcme.wordpress.com/) after many visits to Israel and Palestine and has friends on all sides of these agonising policy choices. He has consistently supported a two state solution and in 1991 he already called on Palestine to adopt a non-violent policy of resistance to stop giving Israel excuses to demonise and attack them. He is particularly interested in the religious and spiritual opportunities for peacemaking in the region and believes that between Christianity, Judaism and Islam, Bahaism and Zoroastrianism etc. there should be treaties and declarations of non-violence. For this purpose he has drafted the first Interfaith Peace Treaty (www.Interfaithpeacetreaty.wordpress.com). He sees education as a key resource for peacebuilding and served as a front line philosophy and religious studies teacher for 20 years in the UK, and is also now running the International Delphic Academy to redefine what we mean by education as at root the process of transformational self-knowledge development. He also serves as Chair of the World Intellectuals’ Wisdom Forum (https://worldintellectualforumeurope.weebly.com).
Speakers:
Prof Mary Ann Beavis:
Title: Grail Imagery in Mononoke Hime: Sacred Symbolism in an Anime Classic.
Description: This presentation argues that there is a discernible use of Grail imagery in Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke (1997)—the Quest, the Grail Hero, the Wounded King, the Grail Question, and the Marriage with the Land—that enhances the narrative. The Grail legend is thus one of the many mythic and legendary sources of Myazaki’s syncretic imagination as manifested in the film, testifying to the broad influence of the Grail Legend in world culture.
Bio: Mary Ann Beavis (Ph.D., Cambridge University) is Professor Emerita of Religion and Culture at St. Thomas More College, the University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon, Canada). Her areas of specialization include Christian Origins, Feminist Biblical Interpretation, and Women and Religion. She is the author of many peer-reviewed articles, several of which reflect her interest in the Mary Magdalene/Mary of Bethany tradition.
John Matthews:
Title: The Gifts of the Grail.
Description: The gifts of the Grail are many. Above all stands Transformation, the ability to change yourself, to remake your life in a new form. The second is Restoration which includes Healing - the ability to restore yourself from within. The third is Knowledge - the wisdom you carry within but cannot always access. There are many other gifts - including the ability to love, both yourself and others, and to be sensitive to the world around you - to perceive its holiness, not in a religious sense, but through a recognition of the unique aspects of life, that are all pervading, even though we all too often fail to see or understand them.
Bio: John Matthews is an independent scholar living in Oxford. He published his first book in 1980 and has since gone on to complete over a hundred titles on Myth, Folklore and ancient traditions. He has worked in the Film industry as an historical advisor and won a BAFTA for his work on the movie King Arthur (2004). He has made a lifetime study of every aspect of the Arthurian legends, from its origins to modern retellings. He lives in Oxford with his wife, the writer Caitlín Matthews.
Peter Fritsch:
Title: How the Grail Myth Reminds us of the Power of the Feminine to Confront and Defeat Evil.
Bio: Peter Fritsch is an Episcopal priest, retreat leader, spiritual director, and author of books on the inner life. He is a musician, writer, teacher and activist in confronting the current rise of Fascism in the United States and in Hungary. He lives in Langlois, Oregon and Pécs, Hungary with Dr. Monika Farkas, a Hungarian medical doctor and Marriage and Family Therapist. He is the author of The Spirituality of the Holy Grail: Restoring Feminine Spirit in the Western Soul.
Caitlin Matthews:
Title: The Graal and the Grail as the Hospitality of the Earth.
Description: The anonymous C13th French text of the Elucidation provides us with not only a pre-Christian Graal of Hospitality which keeps the land peaceful, fertile and in good accord with the faery race, but also with the more familiar Christian Grail: with the quest for the restoration of the first vessel, seeming to lead to a quest for the second. Both vessels appear as part of a successive mythic substrate, giving an alternative causation of the Wasteland: a ‘before and after’ story, speaking eloquently to our own disordered times and environmental challenges.
Bio: Caitlin Matthews is the author of The Lost Book of the Grail, Mabon and the Heroes of Celtic Britain, and King Arthur and the Goddess of the Land, among many other titles. She teaches internationally as part of FÍOS, The Foundation for Inspirational and Oracular Studies. www.hallowquest.org.uk,https://substack.com/@caitlinmatthewstigerna
Prof Woodrow Steinken:
An archive recording will be made for the EICSP archive.
NB: There will be no refund if you cancel your booking.
Booking: By Paypal.
Contact: Neill Walker, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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Account Name: Edinburgh International Centre for Spirituality and Peace
Bank: Bank of Scotland
Bank Address: Edinburgh Royal Mile Branch
Account Number: 06131159
Sort Code: 802000
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The IBAN number:
GB70 BOFS 8020 0006 1311 59
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