With more than two decades of titles, here is a selection of the works we publish. They are available via bn.com, amazon.com, New Leaf Distributing, Ingram, and other distributors and retailers.
Entering the Mysteries: The Secret Traditions of Indigenous Europe
Arthur Versluis
Across the ancient world it was known, a mysterious island at 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.
“A beautiful book that I enjoyed reading right through—simple, luminous from beginning to end.”
—Kevin Corrigan, Emory University, author of Gnosticism, Platonism, and the Late Ancient World.
“A most light-filled book, which gives me hope that the secret traditions of indigenous Europe have a future as well as a past.”
—Christopher McIntosh, author of Masters of the Starlit Grove, The Return of the Tetrad, and other books.
“This is an inspiring book, in which decades of scholarship are distilled into a personal testimony. Part travelogue, part Platonic meditation, it explains how the ancient Mysteries opened up conscious commerce with the gods, or, esoterically, with one’s own divinity. In his pilgrimage to the ruined sanctuary of Samothrace, Arthur Versluis discovers that its stones still carry a spiritual and even physical charge that can set the initiatic process in motion. The Greek island then stands for all the other sacred sites, in Europe and beyond, that lie ready to support a new marriage of heaven and earth within the individual.”—Joscelyn Godwin, Colgate University, author of The Golden Thread, Harmonies of Heaven and Earth, and many other books.
“Dr. Arthur Versluis, one of the world’s foremost esoteric scholars, takes us on a journey to the fabled Aegean isle of Samothrace, a center of the ancient Mysteries. This book is a travelogue, and not just in a physical sense – Dr. Versluis guides us on a journey through realms of myth and history to uncover the secrets of ancient Western spirituality. At journey’s end, the author steers us home to who we really, deeply are.”
—Leonard George, Capilano University, author of Crimes of Perception and Alternative Realities
“Lucid, beautifully written, yet based upon a vast reservoir of evidence, previously either impenetrable or largely ignored, Arthur Versluis takes us on a voyage to the hidden mysteries of Samothrace, and of other unique sites, and brings us back home to see with new eyes the continuities—and ruptures—between archaic Indo-European traditions and our own times. This book shows us how to read and experience the overlaid but still living resonances among myths, tales, philosophical texts, telestic practices and places (ranging from Orpheus, and earlier, to late Platonic theurgy) that linked and continue to link the human and the divine.”
—Kevin Corrigan, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Interdisciplinary Humanities, Emory University
“A timely and important book. The author has ventured into an almost abandoned corner of European hiero-history, a time when the gods of Greece still informed the collective life of a people long used to their vivifying presence. He is right to alert us to the risks that we run when we dismiss what they can tell us about the power of place as a templum housing the inner life of us all. Reading Entering the Mysteries is to enter the mystery itself.”
—James Cowan, author of Desert Father, Messengers of the Gods, and many other books
Coming soon:
The Complete Works of John Pordage, Volume 1
Amor Proximi
Clara: Dialogue on Nature & Spirit
by F.W.J. von Schelling
A new translation
Now available:
To purchase, click here!
About Perennial Philosophy:
In this lucid explanation of perennial philosophy, Arthur Versluis reveals this tradition—so often described as esoteric and inaccessible—to be closer to our interests and experience than many of us have realized. Versluis has distilled an immense amount of scholarship into this small volume, but its brevity is deceiving. Like the culmination to any alchemical work, _Perennial Philosophy_ is a powerful tincture that—once imbibed—transports receptive readers to a world in which they are part of a spiritual hierarchy that links heaven to earth. Arthur Versluis has distilled an immense amount of scholarship to produce a disarmingly accessible, lucid, and deeply penetrating study of the great philosophic traditions that underlie Western culture. Versluis concisely explains what perennial philosophy is and what it isn’t. The clarity of his prose makes this deep book a pleasure to read. A remarkable achievement!
—Gregory Shaw, author of _Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus_
*****
This brilliant little book, written with stunning clarity, offers an entirely new perspective on what “perennial philosophy” actually means and entails. This is a return to the real philosophical quest, almost entirely forgotten by the academic world: a going beyond the limited self, to experience our kinship with the greater world and the deepest levels of reality, which results in a transformation of the self and a realization of our human nature.
For anyone interested in the roots of our philosophical tradition, or what a living philosophy could look like today and in the future—a philosophy that actually inspires and fertilizes culture, art, and human experience—this book is indispensable.
—David Fideler, author of _Restoring the Soul of the World_ and other books and essays.
*****
This book is about transcendence: self-transcendence. It traces a pathway to such self-transcendence from Plato (Pythagoras and the Orphic mysteries), through Plotinus, Damascius, Meister Eckhart and Emerson. _Perennial Philosophy_ unveils a contemplative way often referred to as “ mysticism” that leads to a selfless, compassionate caring for all existence, from the animate to the inanimate, since all that exists expresses divine creation. The book has no footnotes and yet is scholarly. It records a perennial way of being-in-the-world that contrasts sharply with the way most of us live and see, and is about a past that offers glimpses of a better future. To read it is to question the contemporary understanding of who we are, and what we are capable of becoming. It is medicine for difficult times.
—Robert E. Carter, Trent University, author of _Encounter with Enlightenment_, _The Kyoto School_, and many other books.
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This book is colloquial and conversational. It presents an overview of Platonism from the master himself to Emerson in the context of contemporary debates. The author is a devoted Platonist, and his presentation of their doctrines is perfectly orthodox, above all in the absolute priority he gives to intellectual vision, the Vision of the Good. This emphasis alone is a huge achievement. The book is remarkable also for its generosity of tone. To the enlightened eye, no doubt, everything is full of Being. But it is difficult to maintain at all times that warm dispassion which takes the whole world under its wing. The author achieves this simply through the quality of his discriminations. So sharp and apt are the distinctions he makes between competing contemporary doctrines the book is continually illuminating and never tendentious. This reader was forever saying “Ah!”
—Roger Sworder, LaTrobe University, author of _Mathematical Plato_, and _Science and Religion in Archaic Greece_ as well as _A Contrary History of the West_
Earlier titles include:
The Mystical State: Politics, Gnosis, and Emergent Cultures by Arthur Versluis
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 particular, to how spirituality can inform cultural and political life in new and illuminating ways.
Praise for Other Works:
“At a time when the religions of the world are meeting on a spiritual level and in a global context, it is crucial that the Christian West rediscover its often forgotten inner or esoteric wisdom. Arthur Versluis skillfully guides the reader to recover the wide range of this rich heritage.”
Ewart Cousins, general editor, World Spirituality: An Encyclopedic History of the Religious Quest
“A collection of very precious clues to the sources of the Western spiritual tradition, pointing to the hidden currents both in history and in our own selves.”
Jacob Needleman, author of The American Soul and The Heart of Philosophy
To purchase The Mystical State as a paperback, click here
To purchase The Mystical State as an ebook for only $9.99, click here
Founded in 1996, New Cultures Press and its imprints specializes in books that focus on the inner life, offering both accessible versions of major historical as well as new works on Christian spirituality. We are continuing to develop our list in these areas.
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A Christian Spiritual Psychology
by Thomas Isham
The Living Tradition of Christian Inner Teachings
A Christian Spiritual Psychology is the first book to apply the psychological teachings of the great Christian writer Jacob Boehme (1575-1624) in a contemporary context. This book offers a foundation for a profoundly spiritual psychology that is not merely another application of secular psychological systems, but in fact has a much deeper and profoundly Christian grounding. Author Thomas Isham incisively illuminates Boehme’s four psychological temperaments, revealing for the first time the living tradition of Christian psychology.
Thomas Isham is the author of The Geography of the Soul and other books.
Edited by Robert Faas, a clinical psychologist, and editor of The Divine Couple.
List price: $21.95
Karezza:
A Guide to Sexual Mysticism, Magic, and Creativity
by Alice Bunker Stockham, M.D.
Revised Edition, with a New Introduction
Alice Bunker Stockham (1833-1912) was one of the first female M.D.s in the United States. In her remarkable book Karezza, she explains her own theory and practice of sexual mysticism. She insists that the practice of karezza, a special kind of sexual union, was a key to mysticism, magic, and creativity. Stockham also saw this book as a guide to spiritual marriage. Like William James and later American pioneers of consciousness in the second half of the twentieth century, Stockham was concerned not only with results and effects for the individual, but also with the potential transformation of the whole of human society.
For anyone interested not only in the theory, but also in the practice of spiritual marriage and sexual mysticism, this book is a must-have.
List price: $16.95
A Christian Theosophic Vision
by Richard Roach
This is the only publication of Richard Roach’s exceptional visionary theosophic work since the rare originals in the eighteenth century. Included here is the only available publication of Roach’s mystical illustrations of the mysteries of time and eternity, as well as a selection of his visionary work and spiritual advice from his two major works, The Imperial Standard and The Great Crisis or the Mystery of the Times. This new edition of Roach’s writing, complete with a contemporary introduction by Robert Faas, is a rare and important work for all who are interested in the hidden dimensions of Christian spirituality.
List price: $19.95
The Divine Couple:
A Book on the Christian Mystery of Eros,
Robert Faas, editor
This book, *The Divine Couple*, seeks to reveal the ancient vision of the Christian mystery of eros. According to this vision, expressed here in the profound words of writers like Jacob Boehme, Johann Gichtel, and Nicholas Berdyaev, the coming of Christ established a spiritual process of regeneration or re-divinization for humanity. Through this esoteric process, man and woman are once again able to be restored to their original paradisal existence or angelic order. This book unveils this process of Christian spiritual awakening, and points us toward the restoration of man and woman as the Angelic or Divine Couple, the crown and jewel of God’s creation, and toward the raising-up of the earth into the Holy Earth. May this book serve as an introduction to and a remembrance of this holy vision. This book includes the writings of numerous Christian spiritual authors, including well-known authors like Jacob Boehme and William Law, as well as extremely rare treatises by such authors as Thomas Bromley, Richard Roach, Jane Leade, and Christopher Walton.
Table of Contents includes: “Selections from *Mysterium Magnum* by Jacob Boehme
“Love and Marriage” by Franz von Baader
“Spiritual Union in the State of Marriage” by Richard Roach
“On Spiritual Partaking: A Process of Regeneration” by William Law
“The Doctrine of Sophia” by Nicholas Berdyaev
“On the Natural Generation of Souls” by Dionysius Freher
416 pp., hardcover, stamped in gold. Printed on acid-free paper with a smyth-sewn binding.
Transformations of Eros:
An Odyssey from Platonic to Christian Eros
by Vladimir Solovyev
List price: $17.95
Vladimir Solovyev was one of the great Russian philosophers and mystics of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His work, as Janko Lavrin put it, centered on the human religious longing as understood in its most profound and vital sense. Culture itself, that is, true culture as distinguished from a mechanical civilization, was in his opinion inseparable from religion. Regarding an organic relationship between God, Man, Society (collective humanity), and the World (nature) as essential for a complete life, Solovyev could not imagine any of these four elements being omitted without distorting the whole of existence. And the main cause of religious principle (God) has been, or is being, eliminated out of the consciousness of modern humanity. His own philosophic work thus became an endeavour to bring all elements of human existence individual and social into the right relation with the ultimate principle of all life, and through and in it also to a harmonious relation with each other . In such a harmony alone he saw a promise and a prospect of the highest realization of existence on earth, of the integral fullness of life .
In this book, originally entitled Plato, Solovyev details how Plato’s concept of eros is transcended and transformed by the Christian concept of spiritual eros. This is an important work for understanding both Solovyev’s mysticism and the development of his mature philosophy and thought, since this work was written late in his life.
Includes a new essay by Judith Deutsch Kornblatt, an internationally known specialist in Russian religious philosophy.
Awakening the Contemplative Spirit
by Arthur Versluis
In Awakening the Contemplative Spirit, Arthur Versluis provides us with a strong antidote to despair and a much needed tonic to fortify our search for inner meaning in these troubled times.
David Appelbaum, SUNY, New Paltz; former editor of Parabola magazine and editor of the SUNY series on Western esotericism; author of Disruption and other books.
List price: $21.95
Awakening the Contemplative Spirit is a beautifully composed study of contemplation by Arthur Versluis, one of America’s wisest and most knowledgeable commentators on spiritual and religious matters. Versluis holds, quite rightly, that the contemplative life is the true path to peace and goodness and the only sure antidote to the turmoil and violence of modern life. This life, he reports, can be cultivated through a variety of daily activities, from gardening to writing to solitary walks. Along the way, we can t do better than to join in what he terms the convivium of ideas, that is, the great chorus of thoughts and visions of contemplatives of the past, and one of the joys of this book is discovering anew the inner dimension of familiar voices Emerson, Thoreau and encountering for the first time some remarkable but unknown figures, such as the 17th-century English visionary, John Pordage. Versluis believes that contemplation can transform not only the individual but the larger society; if so, this big-hearted book is a strong first step.
Philip Zaleski, Smith College; editor of The Best Spiritual Writing series; author of The Recollected Heart and Gifts of the Spirit.
In Awakening the Contemplative Spirit, Arthur Versluis explores the ways that writing and the contemplative life intertwine with one another, for in his view, writing is both preparation for and a natural expression of the contemplative life. In Awakening the Contemplative Spirit, we explore the contemplative life that can be found anywhere that there is a contemplative spirit that thrives in solitude and in the beauty of nature.
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Christian Kabbalah
by Ernst Benz
This is the great scholar Ernst Benz’s introduction to Christian Kabbalah. Christian Kabbalism is the interpretation of Kabbalistic themes in the context of the Christian faith, or an interpretation of Christian doctrines utilizing Kabbalistic methods and concepts. Its beginnings are generally traced back to Count Pico de la Mirandola, the well-known renaissance philosopher and creator of a Christian neo-Platonism. The great surge of mysticism within the theology and theosophy of German pietism led not only to a renaissance in the study of the Kabbalah within Protestant theology, but also to a positive evaluation of the religious content of the Kabbalah in its own right. This work includes illustrations of the famous Kabbalistic master tablet of Princess Antonia and discusses in detail the work of the great Christian theosopher Friedrich Christoph Oetinger.
Available now! List price is $16.95
Great Works of Christian Spirituality: The Wisdom Series
The Wisdom of Meister Eckhart
The Wisdom of Jacob Böhme
The Wisdom of John Pordage
The aim of the Great Works of Christian Spirituality series is to make available some of the most profound works in the Christian spiritual tradition in clear, accessible new editions. All of these works have as their focus deepening the reader’s spiritual life through direct inner experience. Produced with great care, these are books meant to be studied and contemplated for a lifetime.
all books 5.5″x7.5″ and under 100 pp.
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An Esoteric Masterpiece
The Rose and the Cross
The most mysterious drama of the Russian Silver Age
by Aleksandr Blok
Translated, and with an extensive introduction by Lance Gharavi
Here are two books in one: an extensive discussion of Western esotericism in relation to the most famous drama of the Russian Silver Age, The Rose and the Cross, along with a new translation of Alexander Blok’s mysterious play. Blok was inspired by the occult revival that largely defined the Russian Silver Age, and his play dramatizes his replies to the characteristically Gnostic questions “Who are we? What have we become? Where were we? Whither have we been cast? Whither do we hasten? From what have we been set free?” In his comprehensive introduction to and commentary on The Rose and the Cross, Lance Gharavi reveals how Blok, in this highly symbolic drama, drew from the Western esoteric traditions of Gnosticism, Kabbalism, Hermetism, and alchemy in order to create his masterwork, here complete with Blok’s own annotations.
List price: $27.95
About the Author
Lance Gharavi is a scholar and artist whose work has appeared in books, journals, and on stages and screens throughout the US and abroad. An early pioneer in the field of digital performance, Gharavi was one of the co-founders of the internationally celebrated Institute for the Exploration of Virtual Realities (i.e. VR). His one-man show, Honorable Discharge (written and directed by Jeff McMahon), appears in the Performing Rights Library, an international project dedicated to documenting and archiving the work of artists and activists involved in the conjoining of performance and human rights. Currently an Assistant Professor in the School of Theatre and Film at Arizona State University, Gharavi’s work focuses on the many intersections of performance, digital technology, and religion. His scholarship on Western esotericism in performance, as well as his writings on digital technology and theatre, have been published in such journals as Text and Performance Quarterly, The Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, PAJ, Theatre Topics, GRAMMA, ateatro, and Esoterica.