There’s a passage from Baha’u’llah that presents hospitality not as food or shelter, but as character and conduct. He writes:
“Graciously enable my loved ones to show their hospitality unto Thee through their character and their conduct, that the heavenly table of Thy loving-kindness may thereby be spread before all Thy servants… This, verily, is the true meaning of offering hospitality unto one’s fellow men.” (Baha’u’llah: Days of Remembrance)
This reframing has lingered with me. It suggests that true hospitality is not transactional. It invites us to become a spiritual conduit for heavenly delights by spreading the heavenly table of loving-kindness through our character and conduct.
The new section of my website about Paradise of Presence was shaped in that spirit. It’s a symbolic space that presents the chapters of the book as a series of images and short descriptions all with a shared visual resonance. The effect is to offer viewers a form of spiritual hospitality that invites them in with beauty, spaciousness, and mystery.
I’ve come to think of this work as spiritual cartography. I’m mapping terrains of meaning and creating spaces where resonance can unfold slowly in the reader, without pressure or persuasion. This is an entirely different approach to outreach in the conventional sense, which can be coercive and intrusive. It is a new way of speaking about the Faith—one that honors the seeker’s rhythm and allows architecture, atmosphere, gesture, and colour to work together.
For decades, I stood within the Western tradition of education, with its rigor, citation, and mastery. I earned my degrees, built meaning through definition and structure, and claimed authority through my work.
But when I wrote Paradise of Presence, I had to find another way. If I wanted to speak about Baha’u’llah in a hospitable way, and not just echo him within familiar frameworks, I had to offer something that welcomed without requiring credentials. I chose wandering prose, invitational imagery, and structure that mirrored the inner journey.
That offering has now taken shape as a new area of my website, designed for seekers, mystics, and slow thinkers. It’s not a curriculum, but a set of thresholds. The new section begins with brief descriptions of each chapter of the book. As you move deeper, longer reflections unfold. Each reflection opens with a visual pairing and a short description.
Beyond this, a kindred space has opened within my creative realm. A philosophy section—now unfolding on Patreon—is an archive of texts that explores the philosophical underpinnings of Paradise of Presence. It offers general readers a place to dwell with the deeper themes: metaphysics, meaning, presence, metaphorical landscapes, and the spiritual logic that shaped the book’s terrain. Some of these reflections are inspired by Jean-Marc Lepain’s ground-breaking study, Archeology of the Kingdom of God—a metaphysical framework that explores the layered structure of revelation and the soul’s journey through divine worlds.
If you feel drawn to linger, to explore the philosophical roots beneath the book, I invite you to join me there. It’s free: https://www.patreon.com/cw/AlisonElizabethMarshall