Sophia Wellbeloved

Who is Sophia Wellbeloved?

Sophia Alice Louisa Wellbeloved is an Irish artist and scholar of Western esotericism. She is a director of Lighthouse Editions Publishing House and co-founder of the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Western Esotericism, a transdisciplinary organisation.

She has established a reputation as one of the relatively few academically qualified commentators on Gurdjieff and his teaching who is not a member of any Gurdjieff group or Foundation. This often lends her writing on Gurdjieff an independent flavour.

Wellbeloved was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1940. She received her education at Newtown Quaker School, Ireland, 1951-55; Beechlawn Tutorial College, Oxford, 1955-56; Ruskin School of Art, Oxford, 1955-56; Saint Martin's School of Art, London, 1956-60; Central School of Art and Design, London, 1961; King's College, London, Ph.D. 1996-99. She has identified her tutors and influences as Cecil Collins, 1960-61; Henriette Lannes, Maurice Deselle, Henri Tracol, and others in the Gurdjieff Society, London, 1962-75; the Rev. Donald Reeves and the Anglican community at St. James Church, Piccadilly, 1984-2004.

From 1984 to 1991, she worked as a part-time tutor teaching sculpture at Central Saint Martins.