Sun of Fire // Son of Fire
A journey through the tradition of fire in ancient and contemporary Iran.
From the ancient sun god Mithra to the eternal flame of Zarathustra; from the fire of عشق (eshq) and longing carried in the hearts of Sufis to the brotherhoods of chivalry who bore the love of motherland into the battlefield. Fire has never been merely a symbol in Iranian culture. It has been a living force of continuity, a thread binding spirit, land, and people across time.
Across millennia—through the devastation of the Mongol invasions, through cycles of ruin and renewal, and into the suffocating shadows of the present—something has endured: a fiery center. A force that refuses extinction, persisting in the epic and the streets alike, its flames fanned in both the earthly and the unseen.
This evening is an invitation into that living flame. This is not only a historical talk, but an immersive experience through myth, poetry, dreams, and live music with the Oud and Tanbour, instruments that carry ancestral memory.
Art, myth, poetry, music, and the dream realm have long served as both refuge and arsenal within the Iranian imagination. They are vessels of resilience—ways in which memory survives, dignity is restored, and life insists on itself, even in the darkest times. It is from within this lineage that we gather, at a moment of particular sensitivity in the Middle East, to listen again for the many names of fire.
We will trace these flames—from the Zoroastrian light of Farr to the embodied fires of courage, honor, and devotion found in heroic and chivalric traditions—and trace how they continue to flicker these days on the streets.
An evening of remembrance and rekindling, of tending the fire together in the presence of music, story, and wine.
Event Details
Immersive performance & historical talk (including storytelling)
Date: Thursday, April 2
Time: 19.00 - 21.00
Place: Keizersgracht 123 in Amsterdam, or online via Zoom live-stream
Ticket Price: € 20 (in-person) or €15,- (online)
Reserve your spot via Embassy of the Free Mind or fill in the form below.
About the Hosts
Farânak Mirjalili (ReMA) a Jungian analyst based in The Netherlands. She is graduating this summer at the C. G. Jung Institute in Küsnacht, Switzerland (IAAP). As both a Sufi mystic and psychoanalyst, she's interested in the places where trauma and the soul meet, and how the analytical work can become a work of descent and incarnation and the inherent relationality with each other, the greater cosmos and the whole of life. She’s especially drawn to the questions of what it means to be a mystic and advocate of the soul in our current landscapes of poly-crises.
She earned a Research Masters degree the University of Amsterdam where she did groundbreaking fieldwork research on the intersection of Jungian psycho-spiritual alchemy and laboratory alchemy— a work that she is now completing within a more Jungian and analytical framework at the CG Jung Institut. The title of her research is: “Alchemy & The Poetics of Matter: Eco-mysticism and the Practice of Alchemy for a Wounded World.”
Sepand Dadbeh (b. 1992) is an Iranian multi-instrumentalist, troubadour, and cultural entrepreneur known for his musical storytelling and innovative interpretation of multiculturalism in the performing arts. Raised in a family of renowned artists, he began with the Tombak before specializing in the Oud and Tanbour. At 18, he joined the prestigious Shams Ensemble, and in 2012 co-founded the Jansouz Collective with his sister Khorshid to honor their grandfather’s legacy. Sepand holds a BA in Iranian Music from Tehran University and an MMus in World Music from Codarts Rotterdam. His work seeks to harmonize spirituality and ancient musical traditions with contemporary artistic expression.