Green Hermeticism

"In Alchemy, there is an injunction to quicken, or revive, the dead, which is illustrated by a dead tree growing verdant again. That is exactly what this wonderful and rare work does in awakening human consciousness to its Divine potential and Ultimate Destiny. Art thus helps Nature to achieve its ideal Perfection. The authors must be congratulated for their insightful words. I wholeheartedly recommend reading it again and again, and again." --Stanislas Klossowski de Rola, author Alchemy: The Secret Art and The Golden Game: Alchemical Engravings of the Seventeenth Century -- -- -- "Environmental solutions today are largely technical, but the planetary crisis is also a crisis of soul--or better yet, of the Imagination. Too tricky for religion, too poetic for reductionist science, Green Hermeticism reheats a prophetic imagination still in love with the material world--a new alchemy of ancient nature." --Erik Davis, author, The Visionary State: A Journey through California's Spiritual Landscape -- -- -- "Just when you felt numb and disenfranchised, thinking the world had become bleak and dead, along comes this rare, much needed book to remind us that there is still some sanity, depth, and creative energy percolating up from the heart of Reality. Thank God (and the Goddess Nature) for this smart and inspiring breath of fresh air! Green Hermeticism is where the wasteland ends--and where the world becomes re-enchanted with genuine living thought that goes beyond superficialities. It's a rare pleasure to be in the presence of living minds who actually know something wonderful and have not been deadened by the opiates of capital or the tenure track. Very highly recommended." --David Fideler, publisher (Phanes Press) editor (Alexandria), author of Jesus Christ, Sun of God and translator of Love's Alchemy: Poems from the Sufi Tradition (with Sabrineh Fideler) -- -- -- "The publication of Green Hermeticism has the sense we so rarely get, of a genuine moment in cultural history. It is not just the eloquence of its authors' knowledge and arguments or that they are showing us, once again, the depth and range and beauty of alchemy, and the Hermetic tradition, and what Peter Lamborn Wilson calls Romantic Science. Nor is it even the links they establish between the Hermetic tradition and ecology, and the value of a science that perceives the world as alive rather than a machine. What makes this work significant is the sense that it shows us how we can use these ideas and knowledge to create a genuine counter to destruction and despair, an alchemy of our politics as well as of our spirit." --Rachel Pollack, author of 78 Degrees of Wisdom: A Book of Tarot -- -- -- "Green Hermeticism reminds us that the art of the Great Work is to enter more deeply into the dynamic and practical wisdom of the universe, which is our laboratory, where work and prayer combine. When we engage with the All, we know ourselves to be one kindred with all in the viriditas--God's greening power--where body, soul, and spirit honor each other." --Caitlin & John Matthews, authors of Walkers Between the Worlds: The Western Mysteries from Shaman to Magus

Peter Lamborn Wilson is a scholar of Sufism and Western Hermeticism and (under the pseudonym Akim Bey) a well-known radical-anarchist social thinker. His books include Sacred Drift: Essays on the Margins of Islam and Escape from the Nineteenth Century and Other Essays. Christopher Bamford is Editor in Chief at SteinerBooks, and is a scholar of Western esotericism, esoteric Christianity, and Anthroposophy. Kevin Townley is an esotericist and practicising alchemist. He is the author of The Cube of Space: Container of Creation. Pir Zia Inayat Khan is the spiritual leader of the Sufi Order International and founding director of the Suluk Academy, an esoteric school in upstate New York. He holds a master's degree in religion from Duke University.