Entering the Mysteries (ePub)

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.

"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 Verluis 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.

A beautiful book that I enjoyed reading right through-simple, luminous from beginning to end. I wish I had had this book in England when I was growing up!"

-Kevin Corrigan, Emory University, author of _Gnosticism, Platonism and the Late Ancient World_, _Reading Ancient Texts_, and many other books.