Crop circles are the finest, most beautiful and original art forms of modem times, and they are totally mysterious. Behind the crop circle phenomenon is an evident purpose. Some intelligence, human, alien or spiritual, is in the process of communication. It is exposing us to a course of re-education, beginning with the symbols of sacred knowledge and wisdom. The most striking evidence for this view is the amazing formation that appeared at Crooked Soley in Wiltshire on the 27th August 2002. Clearly expressed in its design are certain numerical symbols that are known esoterically as the 'Keys to Creation'. They are also keys to that universal science associated with the Holy Grail. From time to time it is revealed again, and when that happens, culture and the human spirit are renewed and life on earth is restored to its natural state as a reflection of paradise.

In this dazzling history of the imagination, Patrick Harpur links together fields as far apart as Greek philosophy and depth psychology, Renaissance magic and tribal ritual, Romantic poetry and modern models of the Universe, to trace how myths have been used to make sense of the world. In so doing he uncovers that tradition which alchemists imagined as a Golden Chain of initiates, who passed their mysterious 'secret fire' down through the ages. As this inspiring book shows, the secret of this perennial wisdom is of an imaginative insight: a simple way of seeing that re-enchants our existence and restores us to our own true selves..."His flame-like knowledge is central to the urgent seriousness of this book; buy a copy before it vanishes." THE LONDON MAGAZINE ..."It would be hard to overestimate the value of Harpur's book or to praise it too highly." RESURGENCE MAGAZINE ..."Once we believed that truth was 'out there', now we hold that it's 'in here', but if Harpur is right then it lies in the line of vision between the two" THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY ..."Mr. Harpur links together fields as far apart as Greek philosophy and depth psychology, Renaissance magic and tribal ritual, Romantic poetry and the ecstasy of the shaman, to trace how societies over time have used myths to make sense of the world. Harpur leads us through history's secret chambers with such grace of language and insight that we forget the hour. I would make Harpur's book required reading for every student of philosophy, depth psychology, and history." DIANNE SKAFTE

"Know this: I, Mercurius, have set down a full, true and infallible account of the Great Work. But I give you fair warning that unless you seek the true philosophical gold and not the gold of the vulgar; unless your heart is fixed with unbending intent on the true Stone of the Philosophers, unless you are steadfast in your quest, abiding by God's laws in all faith and humility and eschewing all vanity, conceit, falsehood, intemperance, pride, lust and faintheartedness, read no further lest I prove fatal to you. REVIEWS: 'Mercurius is a book written at least as much to elucidate as to entertain. It is probably the most explicit account of the alchemical art ever published - it presents a strong argument for the perfectibility of man and against the species of bloodless asceticism which drives a wedge between spiritual and corporeal love.' THE LITERARY REVIEW 'Each of its 479 mystical pages needs to be closely read, for the dramatic turns in this extraordinary alchemical novel are so well hidden that one dare not skip a single sentence for fear of missing an essential key to the developing mystery. It is rare to find an author who can expound with such authority on a subject whose very existence is only to a few initiates. This book is uniquely useful. There is no rival to it.' FORTEAN TIMES

Set among the mansions and tennis clubs of Surrey's richest suburb, The Savoy Truffle is a darkly comic drama that evokes an era when Mod gear was fab, the Shorty Nightie shocking, the coffee frothy, and a new Beatles' single brought hysteria to the classroom. The grey post-war years are trembling on the verge of Technicolour, and the Blyte children are struggling to cope with the transition in their own idiosyncratic ways: Hugh's novel is held up by yearning for the Irish au pair; Janey moons over the mystery of men and the enigmatic Black Mini; George wages savage war on his Enemy; and the Moo takes refuge in his exclusive Sloppy Club. A crisis in their parents' lives brings madness and death, a supernatural visitor and an all-too-real tiger...The children have to confront - and conquer - the follies of their elders with wit and invention. Patrick Harpur is the acclaimed author of three novels and three works of non-fiction, including Daimonic Reality, The Philosophers' Secret Fire and Mercurius. He lives in West Dorset, worlds away from his Surrey upbringing.

It's the summer of 1989, a time of global flux just before the collapse of the Berlin wall and of South Africa's Apartheid. Two women see something uncanny in the skies over west London, an alien sighting whose consequences cannot be predicted. A companion volume to the author's critically lauded Daimonic Reality, The Good People is a modern fairy tale that dramatises the interpenetration of revelation and delusion, the natural and the supernatural, worldliness and sanctity - intimating that all our humdrum lives are shadowed by the alien dimension of myth.

Outcast from society, his health - and heart - broken, the anguished figure of K paces the rooms of his great house, pausing to scribble furiously at a lectern...Only Victor knows that beneath K's public guise as an idle dilettante, lies a genius who has been fired by an unholy secret into creating a new kind of philosophy, where thought is passionately infused with personal experience. Based on the life of the Danish thinker, Soren Kierkegaard, who asserted that when he died 'there will not be found one single word to indicate what my life was really about', The Stormy Petrel is precisely the inside story of what his life is about - an investigation into a soul torn between natural love and a supernatural vocation, which leads inexorably to the attack that makes his name anathema for a hundred years.