In this groundbreaking collection, leading scholars in this emergingfield explore how nature can be understood in a wide range of esoteric religious contexts. Included here are articles on subjects ranging from alchemy and panpsychism to music, Appalachian folk magic, and new religions. Esotericism, Religion, and Nature illuminates the way that nature is understood by figures and in traditions that historically have not always been recognized or well understood. Taken together, these articles shed new light on the connections between humanity, nature, and religion. Authors include Joscelyn...

This is not just another book, so much as a new way of seeing the world and our way of being in it. Groundbreaking, and profoundly optimistic, this is the only book to investigate how mysticism can inspire cultural and political renewal. At heart, _The Mystical State_ looks toward the future, toward what is possible on the other side of the difficult times that confront us, and how we can envision and encourage cultural emergence. In _The Mystical State_, Arthur Versluis delves into the origins of modernity and what led to the crises of our time. But he also looks to the future, and in...

Across the ancient world, it was known: a mysterious island that was the center of a Mystery tradition so secret that even today, we have only clues about it. Ancient Greek myths, myths older than Greece, a mountain whose peak is often shrouded in clouds, and a pagan sanctuary so archaic it probably dates to when the island was part of a mainland. Join Arthur Versluis on a journey to Samothrace and beyond as he investigates archaic European symbolism, myth, and mysteries, and uncovers clues to the secret religious traditions of indigenous Europe.