Greetings to our valued readers and contributors!
We are pleased to inform our readers that the Winter 2025/2026 edition of Sacred Web is now online.
Volume 53 of the digital Sacred Web contains the following contributions:
Cover Image
Nigel Jackson‘s artwork has graced the covers of Sacred Web for many Years. Volume 53 features his rendering of The Chariot of Arjuna on the Battlefield of Kurukshetra. Jackson explains its symbolism and iconography.
Essays
In Sura Al-Fatiha, The Heart of the Qur’an, M. Ali Lakhani offers reflections on the Opening of the Qur’anic Recitation, to illustrate why it is considered to be the heart of the Holy Qur’an.
Muslims/Islam/Salam: A Contemporary Semantics for Universal Peace, by the Bosnian Muslim intellectual, Rusmir Mahmutćehajić, explores how the three related terms in the title are central to the metaphysics of peace in Islam.
In The Serene Sustenance of Annyō: Peace in Shin Buddhism, John Paraskevopoulos, addresses (in a lecture given by him at Oxford) the question ‘what is the deeper meaning of peace, and how can we appreciate its significance in light of fundamental Buddhist principles?’
In Meaning Amidst Chaos: Navigating the Post-Human Era, Samuel Bendeck Sotillos looks at the deteriorating conditions of the modern age and asks what it means to be ‘normal’ in an era of abnormality.
Brazilian author, Victor F. Bruno, has written an essay titled Jonas’ Two Initiations outlining a traditional understanding of Baptism and Confirmation through the initiatic structure embedded in the Jonas narrative.
In Why Is Amida Male?, the Buddhist traditionalist, Johan Nilsson, distinguishes between exoteric and esoteric understandings of gender in Buddhist iconography.
Memoirs
The Traditionalists features exclusive excerpts from the spiritual autobiography of Charles Upton, Giving Myself Away, From Beat Protégé to Metaphysical Social Critic: A Cultural History of America through Fifty Years of Spiritual Seeking (2025).
Book Reviews
‘Like The Sun Blessing Stones’, Poems by Brian Keeble (2024) is reviewed by M. Ali Lakhani.
Psyche and the Sacred: Integrating Mental Health and Spiritual Well-Being by Samuel Bendeck Sotillos, (2025) is reviewed by M. Ali Lakhani.
Uprooting the Vineyard: The fate of the Catholic Church after Vatican II by Mark Perry (2025) is reviewed by Mateus de Azevedo.
‘Christianity - Islam: Perspectives on Esoteric Ecumenism’ by Frithjof Schuon. The Brazilian edition (2025) of this classic work is reviewed by Ricardo Garcia de Mello.
Poetry
'In Memoriam', Sonnets by Brian Keeble.
‘Variations: A Sonnet for Alexandra Conunova‘ by Michael Bradburn-Ruster.
‘When My Time Comes’ by M. Ali Lakhani.
Request from the Publisher:
The digital Sacred Web is offered as a free resource as a public service. It is sustained by the publisher and by a small team of dedicated volunteers. If you appreciate this resource, please let us know by:
- sharing comments in the Comments Box at the end of each published piece; we are hoping by this to encourage public dialogue and to build a community of engaged readers;
- spreading the word about this resource so that others too can benefit;
- giving donations to help us sustain the publication as a free-of-charge online resource;
- volunteering to help with tech support and/or to convert and proofread the print archive of 50 volumes so it can be made available to the public as a free-of-charge online resource: if interested, please contact the publisher at: editor@sacredweb.com.
Thank you for your support and appreciation. We hope you will enjoy this volume. And please explore the many other articles that are now online, using the search feature.
M. Ali Lakhani, Founder and Editor, Sacred Web
