Welcome to this new endeavor! The School of Spiritual Psychology was founded eleven years ago with the intention of encouraging conscious, embodied soul life that is open and receptive to the spiritual worlds. We have offered courses, seminars, conferences, and consulting in some twenty cities as well as in Canada, England, Philippines, and Australia. Four books have been published with more in process. For six years we offered the yearly Sophia Conference that focused on re-imagining the world in the light of Sacred Wisdom. We also offer two practical trainings – a two year, part-time program in Sacred Service, and a one year, part-time program in The Sacred Art of Maturity. And, recently, we began practices in Spiritual Therapeutics. The School also offers nearly twenty-five correspondence seminars.

This activity over these few years has generated great interest. Individuals are now taking up this work and furthering it in very unique and creative ways. Spiritual Psychology is taking on a definite character and form. There now exists a community of individuals working for the sake of the Soul of the World. We are delighted to begin to share this work and vision with an even wider community through the founding of an online journal, Sophia: Journal of the School of Spiritual Psychology. Until now, Sophia has been our newsletter and offered only in print. With this expansion into an online journal, the newsletter concludes so that we can concentrate on the journal

Already in this issue you will see a definite form and imagination that characterizes Spiritual Psychology. You will see that Spiritual Psychology is not just another psychology but, true to its name, seeks to bring together soul and spirit in the region of the heart. Soul work alone tends finally toward self-absorption, and spiritual work alone tends toward uncontained mania. The marriage of soul and spirit has long been the goal of alchemical transformation. We have discovered that the vessel of this transformation is the heart. And, from the region of the heart, the soul-spirit radiates currents into the larger world. Our interests are not just in ourselves, in our own psyches. Each of the articles in this issue and in further issues resonate into the wider world. Over time, reading and working with the articles in Sophia can bring about changes in your consciousness. You will sense more acutely, perceive more subtly, think more reverently, and act for the sake of others and the world. These changes, at any rate, are the goal of the service of Spiritual Psychology.

We welcome your comments and may find a way to incorporate them into future issues of Sophia. We also welcome your financial support which will help keep this journal in operation and growing. Contributions can be sent to:

The School of Spiritual Psychology

P.O. Box 5099

Greensboro, North Carolina 27435

We are a tax-exempt organization and all contributions are deductible.

Enjoy!

--- Robert Sardello