Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee (born 1953, in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

) is a Sufi mystic and lineage successor in the

Naqshbandiyya Naqshbandi (Persian: نقشبندیه) is a major Sufi order within Sunni Islam, named after its 14th-century founder, Baha' al-Din Naqshband. Practitioners, known as Naqshbandis, trace their spiritual lineage (silsila) directly to the Prophe ...

-Mujaddidiyya

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

Order. He is an extensive lecturer and author of several books about

Sufism Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

mysticism Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute (philosophy), Absolute, but may refer to any kind of Religious ecstasy, ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or Spirituality, spiritual meani ...

, dreamwork and

spirituality The meaning of ''spirituality'' has developed and expanded over time, and various meanings can be found alongside each other. Traditionally, spirituality referred to a religious process of re-formation which "aims to recover the original shape o ...

Life and education

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee was born in London in 1953. He began following the

-Mujaddidiyya

path at the age of 19, after meeting Irina Tweedie, author of ''Daughter of Fire: A Diary of a Spiritual Training with a Sufi Master''. He became Irina Tweedie's successor and a teacher in the Naqshbandiyya Sufi Order. He initially trained as an English high school teacher and taught for six years, before completing a Ph.D. on Jungian Psychology and Shakespeare. In 1991 he moved to

Northern California Northern California (commonly shortened to NorCal) is a geocultural region that comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, spanning the northernmost 48 of the state's List of counties in California, 58 counties. Northern Ca ...

and founded The Golden Sufi Center to help make available the teachings of this Sufi lineage. He currently lives in California.

Works

Author of several books, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee has lectured extensively throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe on

Jungian psychology Analytical psychology (, sometimes translated as analytic psychology; also Jungian analysis) is a term referring to the psychological practices of Carl Jung. It was designed to distinguish it from Freud's psychoanalytic theories as their s ...

and dreamwork. He has also specialised in the area of dreamwork, integrating the ancient Sufi approach to dreams with the insights of

. Since 2000 the focus of his writing and teaching has been on spiritual responsibility in our present time of transition, and an awakening global consciousness of oneness. More recently he has written about the feminine, the world soul, the ''

anima mundi The concept of the (Latin), world soul (, ), or soul of the world (, ) posits an intrinsic connection between all living beings, suggesting that the world is animated by a soul much like the human body. Rooted in ancient Greek and Roman philo ...

'', and the emerging field of

spiritual ecology Spiritual ecology is an emerging field in religion, conservation, and academia that proposes that there is a spiritual facet to all issues related to conservation, environmentalism, and earth stewardship. Proponents of spiritual ecology assert ...

. He has also hosted a number of Sufi conferences bringing together different Sufi orders in North America. His initial work from 1990 to 2000, including his first eleven books, was to make the Sufi path more accessible to the Western seeker. The second series of books, starting from the year 2000 with ''The Signs of God'', are focused on a spiritual teachings about oneness and how to bring them into contemporary life, with the final book in this series being ''Alchemy of Light''. He is editor and contributor to the 2013 anthology ''Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth'' (Summer 2013, new edition Fall 2016), which was followed the same year with the publication of his work ''Darkening of the Light: Witnessing the End of an Era''. His most recent book is ''Seasons of the Sacred: Reconnecting to the Wisdom Within Nature and the Soul''. In Autumn of 2022 he began a podcast series, "Stories for a Living Future" about the need to reconnect our consciousness to the living Earth, what he terms "a

deep ecology Deep ecology is an environmental philosophy that promotes the inherent worth of all living beings regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs, and argues that modern human societies should be restructured in accordance with such idea ...

of consciousness." Llewellyn has been featured in two films, ''One the Movie'' and ''Wake Up''. He has also been featured in the television series Global Spirit and in August 2012, he was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey as a part of her '' Super Soul Sunday'' series. A regular contributor to Sufi magazine, Parabola, and other periodicals and websites, he also wrote a series of blogs between 2010 and 2017 on the

Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers ...

. In Fall 2015, Parabola magazine featured a comprehensive interview with Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee on his life and work, ''Part of an Ancient Story: A Conversation with Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee''. In 2019 he was interviewed by Bjork for her Cornucopia Tour Book

Bibliography

*''The Lover and the Serpent: Dreamwork within a Sufi Tradition'' (1990: out of print) *''The Call and the Echo: Sufi Dreamwork and the Psychology of the Beloved'' (1992: out of print, reissued in 1998 as ''Catching the Thread: Sufism, Dreamwork, and Jungian Psychology'') *''The Bond with the Beloved: The Mystical Relationship of the Lover and the Beloved'' (1993) *''In the Company of Friends: Dreamwork within a Sufi Group'' (1994) *''Travelling the Path of Love: Sayings of Sufi Masters'' (1995) *''Sufism: The Transformation of the Heart'' (1995) *''The Paradoxes of Love'' (1996) *''The Face Before I Was Born: A Spiritual Autobiography'' (1997, 2nd Edition 2009 with new Introduction and Epilogue) *''Catching the Thread: Sufism, Dreamwork, and Jungian Psychology'' (1998) *''The Circle of Love'' (1999) *''Love is a Fire: The Sufi's Mystical Journey Home'' (2000) *''The Signs of God'' (2001) *''Working with Oneness'' (2002) *''Light of Oneness'' (2004) *''Moshkel Gosha: A Story of Transformation'' (2005) *''Spiritual Power: How It Works'' (2005; second updated edition Spring 2019) *''Awakening the World: A Global Dimension to Spiritual Practice'' (2006) *''Alchemy of Light: Working with the Primal Energies of Life'' (2007; second updated edition November 2019) *''The Return of the Feminine and the World Soul'' (2009) *''Fragments of a Love Story: Reflections on the Life of a Mystic'' (2011) *''Prayer of the Heart in Christian and Sufi Mysticism'' (2012) *''Spiritual Ecology: the Cry of the Earth'' (Summer 2013. Second updated edition published Fall 2016) *''Darkening of the Light: Witnessing the End of an Era'' (Autumn 2013) *''Within the Heart of Hearts: A Story of Mystical Love'' (Spring 2015) *''For Love of the Real: A Story of Life's Mystical Secret'' (Autumn 2015) *''Spiritual Ecology: 10 Practices to Reawaken the Sacred in Everyday Life'' (Spring 2017) *''Including the Earth in Our Prayers: A Global Dimension to Spiritual Practice'' (Spring 2019; new edition of ''Awakening the World'') *''Handbook for Survivalists: Caring for the Earth, A Series of Meditations'' (Winter 2020) *''Seasons of the Sacred: Reconnecting to the Wisdom Within Nature and the Soul'' (Spring 2021) *''Seeding the Future A Deep Ecology of Consciousness'' (Spring 2022)

References

External links

The Golden Sufi Center: teachings and resources by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, including extensive article, video, and audio librariesWorking with Oneness: teachings on oneness and spiritual ecology by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, with extensive article, video, and audio libraryParabola magazine, articles and interviews with Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, 2015–2021 Guardian UK, April 22, 2013: "Eco-Spirituality: Towards a Values-Based Economic Structure" Ecological Buddhism, 2012: "Spiritual Ecology, Part 1 & 2" Kosmos Journal, Fall/Winter 2013: "Caring for a World with a Soul" Bioneers, Aug. 30, 2013: "Sacred Activism: Engaging Communities of Faith in Environmental Advocacy—Interview with Matthew Fox and Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee" SUFI: Journal of Mystical Philosophy and Practice, Winter 2013: "Adab: Sufi Etiquette in the Outer and Inner Worlds"
* ttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/llewellyn-vaughanlee/ Huffington Post: Multiple Articles 2010–2014 br>"Lover and Beloved"
an article featured in ascent magazine.
The Journey Towards Oneness
a Video Interview with Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee and Ravi Ravindra on LinkTV's Global Spirit Program
Global Oneness Project Interview with Llewellyn Vaughan-LeeComplete Interview from ONE: The Movie
About ONE: The Movie {{DEFAULTSORT:Vaughan-Lee, Llewellyn 1953 births English emigrants to the United States English spiritual teachers English spiritual writers English Sufis British Sufi religious leaders Living people Sufi mystics Sufi psychology Writers from London