A presentation of seven essential texts, central to the Hermetic Tradition, never before published together * Includes Theogony, The Homeric Hymn to Hermes, The Poem of Parmenides, The Poimandres, The Chaldean Oracles, Hymn to Isis, and On Divine Virtue, each translated from the original Greek or Latin * Presents interpretive commentary for each text to progressively weave them together historically, poetically, hermeneutically, and magically Linked to both the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth, Hermes Trismegistus is credited, through legend, with thousands of mystical and philosophical writings of high standing, each reputed to be of immense antiquity. During the Renaissance, a collection of such writings known as the Corpus Hermeticum greatly inspired the thought of philosophers, alchemists, artists, poets, and even theologians. Offering new translations of seven essential Hermetic texts from their earliest source languages, Charles Stein presents them alongside introductions and interpretive commentary, revealing their hidden gems of insight, suggesting directions for practice, and progressively weaving the texts together historically, poetically, hermeneutically, and magically. The book includes translations of Hesiod's Theogony, the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, the "Poem of Parmenides," the Poimandres from the Corpus Hermeticum, the Chaldean Oracles, "The Vision of Isis" from Apuleius's Metamorphoses, and "On Divine Virtue" by Zosimos of Panopolis. Through his introductions and commentaries, Stein explains how the many traditions that use Hermes's name harbor a coherent spirit whose relevance and efficacy promise to carry Hermes forward into the future. Revealing Hermes as the very principle of Mind in all its possibilities, from intellectual brilliance to the workings of the cognitive life of everyone, the author shows how these seven texts are central to a still-evolving Western tradition in which the principle of spiritual awakening is allied with the creative. Never before published together, these texts present a new vehicle for transmission of the Hermetic Genius in modern times.

At the heart of Michael Boughn's Measure's Measures are fundamental questions about poetry's relation to modes of knowing the world beyond what's given. Lovingly addressed to the work of poets associated with the New American Poetry and their predecessors, these essays probe the development of what Boughn calls the somatic poetics of transformative gnosis. Boughn's method combines a wide range of scholarship with his affectionate personal knowledge of many of the poets, and a radically decentred view of the stakes poetry brings to considerations of our post-modern moment. Rethinking the history of 20th century US American poetry, these essays challenge the academic containment of poetry to literary studies, opening it into a thriving wilderness of thinking being.

"Persephone Unveiled" reveals the goddess in all her guises, as the daughter of Demeter; the Queen of the Underworld; the archetypal female healer; and as a central figure in the Eleusinian Mysteries, where celebrants experienced sacred visions through secret rituals fueled by an LSD-like substance. The author examines the known details about the psychoactive agent and explores the Mysteries' influence on, and relationship to, early Christianity. Guided meditations, using active imagination techniques, help readers summon an experience with the goddess.

You enter a long, dark corridor. Indistinct luminous shapes seem to move in place on the walls. Then a human figure rises, walks towards you, stands and gazes at you, becomes almost intimate with you before turning back whence it came. In this award-winning interactive installation created by video projection, world-renowned artist Gary Hill presents an underworld-like journey from which each visitor returns to daylight somehow transformed. The second book in an ongoing series of the Quasha & Stein dialogue on Gary Hill leads you on an initiatory journey that parallels the experience of the installation itself. The book is beautifully illustrated in duotone to give a living sense of the actual installation as it appeared in the Whitney Museum (New York) and many other museums throughout the US and Europe.