Dreams

Annick de Souzenelle was a French author who spent her life unveiling the essence of spiritual texts and spirituality. She died on August 11th, 2024, at the age of 101.

While visiting her in Angers, France, a few years ago, I met this couple, friends of Annick: Edda Caron James, an Italian artist and mandala painter and her husband Tony James, a British author. Tony translated Annick de Souzenelle’s masterpiece The Body and Its Symbolism from French to English.

As I was embarking on the translation of another of Annick’s essential books: Le Grand Retournement, from French to English, it appeared that this encounter was more than a coincidence, it was serendipity!

Since then, working with Tony has been enlightening on many levels. Tony releases his depth and spiritual Knowing like a flower would: discretely, timelessly.

In this podcast I initially wanted to share Tony’s connection with words, cultures and languages, I ended up exploring the themes of dreams and singing, religion and meditation.

Books and references:

Tony James, Dream, Madness, and Creativity in Nineteenth-Century France, OUP, 1995.

Tony James, Vies Secondes, Gallimard, 1997.

Tony James, Le Songe et la Raison: Essai sur Descartes, Hermann, 2010.

Annick de Souzenelle, The Body and its Symbolism -a Kabbalistic Approach, Quest Books, 2015.

Victor Hugo, Promontorium somnii (written in 1863, but published posthumously in the complete works; available to read on Wikisource).

Martin Laird, Into the Silent Land.  A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation, OUP, 2006.

The Cloud of Unknowing and other Works, ed. A. Spearing, Penguin Classics, 2001. 

Ann Faraday, The Dream Game, London, Temple Smith, 1975.

Iégor Reznikoff, Ecole de Louange.