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Ashley Borders

@ashley.borders

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We are delighted to announce the release of Theosis Volume 2, the annual magazine of Harvard Divinity School’s Center for the Study of World Religions.

Featuring thought-provoking essays, compelling interviews, stunning visual art, and photography that emerged from our vibrant scholarly community over the past year, this volume showcases research spanning diverse spiritual traditions, cutting-edge academic work, and creative collaborations that extend far beyond traditional academic boundaries.

We invite you to journey alongside our scholars “across cultures, spiritual landscapes, and historical periods.”
To read and download Volume 2, please see the link in our bio!

#harvard @harvarddivinity #research #worldreligions #spirituality #history #reflection #art #scholarship #transcendence #transformation #annual #magazine

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scenes + behind the scenes
𓂃ꑘ 𓂃
the natah, marga, upāya, + dāna series are available through #laneycontemporary
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#miltonavery #artcatalog #bottlerocketdesigngroup

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Harvard students embark on Indigenous-led pilgrimage to British Columbia

The practice of pilgrimage often involves a journey into an unknown land, undertaken by individuals seeking to discover new understanding and meaning through the portal of experience.

In six intensive days,14 Center for the Study of World Religions/Harvard Divinity School students, researchers, and educators traveled to Vancouver Island in Canada’s Pacific Northwest to engage in cultural sharing with Indigenous knowledge holders, scientists, and artists.

The trip was part of the CSWR Thinking with Plants and Fungi initiative and facilitated by a partnership with the Awi’nakola Foundation, an Indigenous-led organization based in Victoria focusing on blending arts and sciences to protect Indigenous territory and sovereignty.

This was one of the most significant and inspiring programs at the CSWR this year. We worked closely with Awi’nakola to document and capture its extraordinary impact.

The links in our bio will direct you to the photo gallery, story by @jeffreyblackwellmedia and the YouTube videos of the trip by @ashleyborders.

@harvarddivinity

#harvard
#firstnations
#indigenous
#collaboration
#research
#heritage
#history
#plants
#fungi
#trees
#journey

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Celebrating Full Pink Moon with a Full Purple Hair Savannah memory 🌕 love transporting to this dream time

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Excited to return to @harvarddivinity on Friday, April 25th for the Program for the Evolution of Spirituality (PES) Conference.

I’ll be offering Resonance of Grace from 1–2pm in the Cader Room—a sound journey rooted in Sufi devotional music and shaped by practices of embodied listening, collective healing, and spiritual experience.

This series has been unfolding across academic and contemplative spaces—from last month’s at-capacity session at @harvardcswr to this next iteration at PES. Each offering is an invitation to engage sound not just as art, but as spiritual inquiry.

If you’re attending the conference—or part of the broader HDS and PES community—I would love to connect, collaborate, and be in conversation about the role of music, media, and sacred tradition in our shared work.

Photo by Ashley Borders-Zigman © (@ashley.borders) 2025 CSWR/HDS, Harvard University

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#UmerPiracha #ResonanceOfGrace #SufiMusic #HarvardDivinitySchool #PES2025 #SpiritualPractice #HealingThroughSound #SacredTraditions #ArtistScholar #SoundHealingJourney

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Transcendence through sound ~

On March 5, Sufi vocalist and sound artist Umer Piracha led “Resonanceof Grace,” a meditative journey of spiritual connection and communal healing through sacred
music. Umer’s vocals, accompanied by a tanpura drone and harmonium, guided participants through an immersive sound bath influenced by the rich devotional traditions of fourteenth-century Sufi music.

Umer Piracha, originally from Multan, Pakistan, is guided by practitioners from a 700-year lineage of Qawwali, a South Asian devotional musical tradition. His work transcends cultural boundaries, blending mysticism with contemporary elements to create performances that inspire meditation, conversation, and communal healing. Follow him on Instagram at @UmerPiracha and
@falsamusic.

To hear the recording of the live performance, Resonance of Grace: A Sufi Sound Bath with Umer Piracha on YouTube, see the link in our bio.

Video by @ashley.borders

#harvard #harvarddivinity #worldreligions #spirituality #transcendence #transformation #sacredmusic #sufi #soundhealing

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A special hands-on workshop, Thinking Through Photography with CSWR Artist-in-Residence Sarah Schorr, brought together @harvarddivinity faculty, graduate students, undergraduates, and local photographers and writers to explore photography as a tool for inquiry and contemplation at Walden Pond.

Through interactive sessions on visual storytelling and image reflection, participants embraced photography as a means of sense-making and self-reflection.

See the links in our bio to:

Read “Bowing to Walden,” an essay by Gosia Sklodowska, CSWR Executive Director, who reflects on the field trip as a meditation on nature, perception, and the sublime.

View a video with photo highlights from Walden Pond.

See Reflections and Photography Highlights from workshop participants.

Video by @ashley.borders

#harvard #harvarddivinity #worldreligions #history #transcendence #transformation #art #photography #reflection #waldenpond #fieldtrip

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Last week, on Dec. 4-5, the CSWR held a groundbreaking summit on the life and work of 20th-century philosopher, mystic, and spiritual teacher George Ivanovich Gurdjieff.

More than 300 people from Europe, South America, and the United States attended the conference at the Harvard Divinity School in person, while more than 2,000 people from 40 countries watched it online.

The conference, the largest of its kind, marked the 100th anniversary of Gurdjieff’s visit to Harvard University in 1924 and featured leading scholars, academics, practitioners, and international representatives from the Gurdjieff Foundation and independent centers. Attendees enjoyed panel discussions, presentations, a piano recital, and the forum for discussion to better understand the Gurdjieff movement and its teachings.

To read the story, see photo highlights, and recordings of welcome remarks and the piano concert, see the link in our bio.

Music: Piano Recital of Gurdjieff / de Hartmann music featuring performances from Cecilia Ignatieff and Charles Ketcham. Multimedia by @ashley.borders
Story by @jeffreyblackwellmedia

#harvarddivinity
#harvard
#transcendence
#transformation
#movement
#music
#international
#conference

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Meet a Harvard student who found peace beyond the books. Ashley's ability to connect spirituality with science was mindblowing. From the concepts of multiverse, space and time to micro neurological concepts such as brain synapse, she had so much of clarity. We are proud that she chose to learn sound healing at Lotus and to carry all the learnings to her research at Harvard. It is one of the moments where we learned a lot from our trainee 🙂

Here, she shares how meditation became her sanctuary, helping her overcome anxiety, reduce stress, and embrace a balanced mind. 🌿

#Lotus

#MentalHealthAwareness #InnerPeace #WellnessJourney #CalmMind #MeditationBenefits #StressFreeLife #HealingFromWithin #DailyMeditation #PositiveVibes #HolisticHealth #AnxietySupport #DepressionRelief #MindfulLiving #BreatheAndRelax #TransformYourMind #StudentWellness #PeacefulMindset #SelfGrowth #WellbeingMatters #SerenityNow

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What does Mariano Villalba, a postdoctoral fellow in spirituality and the arts, do when taking a break from researching modern occultism in Latin America?

He creates a Shorts with Scholars video!
 Mariano joined the CSWR this fall from Argentina. His work is in collaboration with the Cini Foundation in Venice, the HHP at the University of Amsterdam, and the Warburg Institute in London.   Stay tuned for updates on Mariano’s project, “Occult Movements and Mexican Mural Art: What Role Did Occult Movements Play in Mexican Mural Art During the Interwar Period?”

#shorts
#scholars
#spirituality
#arts
#worldreligions
#harvard
#harvarddivinity
@mariano.villalb

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STRAND podcast EPISODE 022!
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talking all things WATER WAYS + lotus-inspired works now at laney contemporary through june 1.
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listen to this + all episodes of the STRAND @strandpodcast (link in bio) or at www.strandpodcast.podbean.com OR you can find episodes on spotify, apple + wherever you listen to podcasts. there are some seriously GREAT episodes. check them out!
𓂃ꑘ 𓂃
#laneycontemporary #strandpodcast #arts912 #savannah

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across the globe, cultures + appearing in vast timelines, the lotus flower + motif represents rebirth, renewal + ascension — to purity, spiritual awakening, nirvana, enlightenment. the diurnal rising + submerging of the aquatic plant mirrors the cycle of samsara - birth, death + rebirth. the lotus, and of course, the easter message, models to us + reminds us of the eternal call to reflect, renew + transform.
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WATER WAYS: lotus-inspired works
opening reception at laney contemporary
4-4-24
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#laneycontemporary #contemporaryart #abstraction #visualculture

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