Love's Caravan

Everyone has an imagination, but how many of us can say we use it to its full potential? Not only Ibn Arabi, the “greatest Shaykh” of Sufism, but poets and mystics in every age have developed their imagination to the point where they can apprehend a silence that speaks in symbol and a dynamic stillness that can transform the world.

This journey starts from where we are as novice meditators in a bustling, distracted world and guides us into the mystical imagination with twelve short discussions, each illustrated by accessible, memorable poems. With creative challenges in each chapter, you can chart your own exploration by writing a poem, painting a picture, or making a piece of music using the suggestions as a starting point.

Stops along the route of this armchair pilgrimage include dreams, alchemists, Sufi stories, bardo states, angels, synchronicities, prophecies, a mermaid, and a well-known crucifixion. This book is for seekers, yogis, and believers of all traditions and at all stages, as well as those who simply want to better connect with their creative imagination.

James Patrick followed up an honours degree from the University of Cambridge with an MA in Mysticism and Religious Experience from the University of Kent in Canterbury. His unlikely training for poetry was as a writer for BBC Radio 4 light events department and various television production companies. When he is not writing poems, he is taking historical and cultural tours around the UK and Western Europe. He is also a composer-conductor and lives in Hove.