Birthdate: March 30, 1945 URS: October 16, 2024
| Thomas Atum O’Kane Thomas Atum O’Kane, Beloved Father, Teacher, and Soul Friend peacefully passed away surrounded by the love of his children on October 16th, 2024. The cause of death was complications from Crohn’s, an autoimmune disease. Atum was known for being joyfully alive and a lover of beauty, laughter, and life. He was a passionate advocate and a generous supporter of dreams. Atum was filled with deep gratitude, appreciation, and authenticity. A follower of calls and a teller of stories, he walked the world, and landscapes of the soul with heartfelt enthusiasm, compassion, and humility. “A larger life leads to a larger consciousness and a larger consciousness leads to a larger life.” This quote by Carl Jung was the mantra that reverberated through Atum. It framed and oversaw the larger unfolding design of his life. Atum overcame the confined trappings of a difficult childhood and lived an extraordinary life. After studying philosophy and drama at St Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, his journey into a larger life and spirituality started when he worked for VISTA to defer the draft during the Vietnam War. His work with VISTA led to him teaching 8th graders in the inner-city schools of Camden, New Jersey, and introducing drama into prisons in Kansas City. In his late twenties, a Yoga teacher and friend told him he needed to find a real spiritual teacher. This advice led to him attending a camp in the French Alps that profoundly changed his life. In the mountains of Chamonix, Atum met his first spiritual teacher, the Sufi master, Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan. This powerful meeting led to a decades-long mentoring relationship spanning many roles including Atum serving as the Secretary General of the Sufi / Inayati Order. Atum met his next root teacher and lifelong mentor Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi the founder of Jewish Renewal and Spiritual Eldering, in Philadelphia. Reb Zalman called Atum his chosen son and served on Atum’s Ph.D committee at Union Institute. Atum’s studies with the Quaker John Yungblut and the transpersonal psychologist Francis Vaughn, were also profoundly influential. A fortuitous private meeting with the highly realized Buddhist teacher H.H Dilgo Khyense Rinpoche at Shechen Monastery in Nepal opened a gateway to Buddhism that shaped many of Atum’s more recent teachings. After receiving an MA in Psychological Counseling from Goddard College while working in HR at a department store, and a Ph.D in Transpersonal Psychology while working for the Sufi Order, Atum devoted his life to teaching and being a spiritual guide. For over 40 years, he cultivated planetary consciousness as he taught programs, retreats, and pilgrimages in Bhutan, Brazil, Canada, Cambodia, Cuba, England, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Nepal, New Zealand, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, USA, and Uzbekistan. His home base for these excursions was, in chronological order: Philadelphia; The Abode of the Message in upstate New York; Seattle; Sussex, England, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico; and Spokane. In 1999 Atum founded the Spiritual Guidance Wisdom School, an interfaith program drawing from the teachings of Carl G. Jung, Hazrat Inayat Khan, and Teilhard de Chardin, and influenced by the teachings of Francis Vaughn, Pir Vilayat Khan, Reb Zalman Schacter-Shalomi, and H.H. Dilgo Khyense Rinpoche and lessons from his personal relationships with them. In line with Atum’s synchronistic nature and his teachings on wholeness, he was born on March 30th, 1945, a full moon Good Friday (moon in Libra and sun in Aries). He passed away on October 16th, 2024, with a full moon (moon in Aries and sun in Libra). An abundance of love. Atum is survived by his four children, Chris, Emmanuel, Kyrian, and Rose, his former wife Mary, and the Spiritual Guidance Wisdom School Community. Submitted to the Spiritual Guidance Wisdom School by Emmanuel O’Kane |
Precious Atum… a true teacher. He gave light and availability through spiritual guidance and the essence of the Mystical Heart to all those whom he touched with his teachings for decades.
“Take time to be aimless. Be present to life. See what’s here! We have to leave space for life without agenda. Be alive in life with life!”
“ Do not hide your Light… Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.”
I will miss hearing his laugh. My heart will hold , with deepest Love and Gratitude, his open hearted gifts that he gave so very generously.
Ya Salaam
Stephani-lila
As a student of Atum, I remember him as a unique teacher with an astonishing mastery of language and oration. The rhythm of his speech and his unfaltering delivery was spell-binding. I remember Atum as a faithful student of his own teachers, from those who mentored him to those that sat next to him on a bus. He was an superbly skilful transmitter of the teachings that he received through his gift of story-telling.
One of the practices that I learned from Atum which I have used over and over is Ya Azim. He said it meant, “Oh how beautifully the Divine does flow in and through you.” I invite you to please stand, touch your heart, and then give a deep bow to this wonderful teacher.
Ya Azim! Atum O’Kane – how beautifully the Divine flowed in and through you.