The Sun at Midnight Quotes

“Religion is an inherited form. Sufism on the other hand existed before religion. Do not make a religion out of your experience. Rather, focus on what gave birth to religion, and the rest will flow naturally.”
― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis

“Religion is an inherited form. Sufism on the other hand existed before religion. Do not make a religion out of your experience. Rather, focus on what gave birth to religion, and the rest will flow naturally.”
― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis

“When you allow your self to travel freely, the self will unerringly move and bring to you exactly those experiences, people and things that you need. A New World will be born from out of your Unicity.”
― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis

“The true Sufi cannot utter any prayer beginning with the word 'I,' for example: 'I want to know Thee better.' For to do this presupposes that there are two beings: the Sufi and Allah. This is the greatest sin. Iblis cried, 'Ana khayrun minhu! (I am better than he is!') The personal pronoun 'I' is the classic Sufi symbol for pride in its extreme form.”
― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis

“It is best to live in a state of perplexity and fluidity, like water, than to live in a hardened and doctrinal state of believing one knows everything.”
― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis

“It is said that 70,000 veils separate the human being from Perfect Freedom. These veils are not evil, below us or filthy. They are complexes that need to be dissolved, beliefs that need changing and doorways to existential core issues. God has said, 'There are seventy thousand veils between you and Me, but there are no veils between Me and you.' This is why we so greatly stress the importance of the Murid involving him or her self in some kind of psychological and body work.”
― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis

“You must give the aggressive and hostile aspects of yourself constructive ways of expression through assertiveness, determination, self-assuredness, boldness, mental toughness, decisiveness, learning how to articulate one's feelings, speaking directly, forcefulness, and sport.”
― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis

“Beware of becoming too sure of your beliefs, because you run the risk of dissociation, or losing touch with parts of yourself. That is why the irrational and spontaneous are so precious to the Sufi. The 'irrational' circumnavigates the rational mind and by that allows the unconscious to manifest. The spontaneous and flexible person, who is not afraid of non-rational impulses, unorthodox behaviors, poetry, and dreams, in other words, the totality of being, acquires a unitive nature.”
― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis

“Beware of becoming too sure of your beliefs, because you run the risk of dissociation, or losing touch with parts of yourself. That is why the irrational and spontaneous are so precious to the student of spirituality. The 'irrational' circumnavigates the rational mind and by that allows the unconscious to manifest. The spontaneous and flexible person, who is not afraid of non-rational impulses, unorthodox behaviors, poetry, and dreams, in other words, the totality of being, acquires a unitive nature.”
― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis

“You are an epiphany.”
― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis

“A Way is needed which contains a concept of Absolute Existence that includes both the Light and the Dark, and Life and Death. If, for instance, Christianity might see Lucifer as the complement and not the enemy, it might take a valuable step on the road to becoming more holistic and respectful of the human reality. If the Divine cannot partake of the Shadow, it cannot be the Divine, for the Divine cannot truly nourish humanity if it only feeds one pole of the human being.”
― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis

“We fear what is uncontrollable. This 'control' attitude results in an 'order fetish.' People become obsessed with mowing and grooming their lawns and obsessed with neatness. People living in contemporary society are split beings divided against themselves. Our Eurocentric society is wounded. Society does not want to feel pain. Therefore, society denies history, and hides its collective head in the sand. We must reintegrate what we have taken apart and love the thing we fear.”
― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis

“There are many probability axes in Allah's creation. Space, time and probability all have an axis on which it is possible to move. This is why they often refer to the greatest Sufi saints and Sheikhs as Qutubs, Poles, or Axial Centralities of the Universe.”
― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis

“Do not let perfection and order become your masters! These are the two most dangerous traps set for the spiritual Murid. True spirituality proceeds from an honoring and awareness of chaos and imperfection. Who would dare untangle a rainforest?”
― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis

“Allah is the Source of the Entire Universe and is also your Source.”
― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis

“The name Cthulhu provides an important and fascinating parallel with pre-Islamic mystical Sufi practice. Cthulhu is very close to the Arabic world Khadhulu (also spelled al qhadhulu). Khadhulu is translated as 'Betrayer,' 'Forsaker,' or 'Abandoner.' Many Sufis and Muqarribun writings use this term 'Abandoner.' In Sufi and Muqarribun writings 'abandoner' refers to the power that fuels the practices of Tajrid 'outward detachment' and Tafrid 'interior solitude.”
― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis

“Tajrid and Tafrid and forms of mental 'yoga,' used in Arab systems of illumination, to help the mystic to free him or herself from (abandon) cultural programming. In Muqarribun texts, Khadhulu is the power that makes the practices of Tafrid and Tajrid possible for the Sufi.”
― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis

“As we know, bears hibernate in caves. They appear almost lifeless. This is an analog to the practices of ancient shamans, and to Sufis who practice the forty-day halvet (retreat), in which the Shaman would enter a cave, have an experience of dying, explore the spiritual realms, and then is reborn as the Initiate or Master (just as the bear is reborn each spring as it “wakes up” and leaves its cave).”
― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis

“Sufis acknowledge that in each generation there is a being known as the Qutub, or Axial Centrality, the Spiritual 'Pole' of the Age.”
― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis

“The journey to marifat (becoming the mirror of Allah) may be long or it may occur at your next breath, but in the meanwhile, we must encounter duality. Duality is as 'Divine' as non-duality. The light and the dark must be regarded as sacred, so we do not fall into faulting Allah for the thorns on the rosebush.”
― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis

“You live an insular existence, going from your soundproofed cars to your air-conditioned, insulated houses. People would not say God is dead if they only looked up at the spectacular panorama of the night sky, or had an unobstructed view of the sunset.”
― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis

“Instead of worrying about evil, worry about losing the power to do good!”
― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis

“Turn your attention to all that is dying and decaying. Look at dead leaves, a lifeless tree, a dead animal. Regard anything that is slowly returning to its constituent elements. Smell the pungent odor of decay. Inhale the effluvium of the dissolution process. The object of this exercise is to know the Earth, not just in its telluric aspect (flower bearing soil), but also in its chthonic aspect. Let death talk to you.”
― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis

“In the ancient Armenian texts, which include the book 'Merkhavat,' there are references to the 'Sarmoung Society.' This society is described as a well-known occult school that according to tradition, dates from 2,500 B.C.E. The school is said to have fared in Mesopotamia up until the sixth or seventh century, C.E. Attributed to the school were many great occult mysteries.”
― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis

“Our society needs a functional mythology of the Dark. We need a spirituality that reminds us that we have to share one half of our existence with the Dark. We can do this willing or unwillingly. The paradox must be lived in our lives in order for us to be truly enlightened.”
― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis

“The Way does not consist of gather more knowledge. Abu Madyan Shu'ayb Ibn al-Husayn al Ansari said: 'Worship saves you from the tyranny of formal knowledge.”
― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis

“Oh, our brothers and sisters of the Way, Sufism is the most delicate and dangerous of paths, for the dervish dares to storm the gates of heaven itself.”
― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis

“It is not your job in life to instruct everyone as to what his or her proper opinion or conduct should be.”
― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis

“The Dragon is the gatekeeper to the Divine Court who lets pass only those who have stripped off all the garments of religiosity and custom, and who are ready and willing to give up their very lives. For beyond this desert, the Sufi loses him or herself and gains Allah. That is why they call it a dessert. That is why it is such a frightening place, for the ego cannot pass by the Gatekeeper!”
― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis

“Many great truths are told through stories and tales. 'Story' is a part of whom we are as human beings. For untold centuries, occult truths were passed on orally from teacher to student, as stories. Whether these stories were true or not, did not matter. It still does not matter, as long as the message is conveyed.”
― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis