My new book ,The Caretakers of the Cosmos, published by Floris Books, will be released on August 22 on both amazon.com and amazon.co.uk. It addresses the question of the meaning of human existence and develops themes I address in my earlier books A Secret History of Consciousness and The Quest for Hermes Trismegistus. In it I look at ideas about the human task of ‘repairing the universe’, as expressed in the Kabbalistic notion of tikkun and relate these to similar ideas in Hermeticism, and in the work of Swedenborg, Abraham Maslow, Colin Wilson, Iain McGilchrist, Rudolf Steiner,and philosophers such as Max Scheler, Nikolai Berdyaev, and Ernst Cassirer, among others. I will be posting excerpts from it in the coming months, so keep an eye out for them. And please, take care.
Archive for the Introduction Category
The Caretakers of the Cosmos
Posted in Introduction, Notebook with tags Colin Wilson, consciousness, esoteric, Gary Lachman, hermetic, Iain McGilchrist, kabbalah, Phenomenology, Rudolf Steiner, spirituality, Swedenborg on May 31, 2013 by Gary LachmanSecret Societies and their Rituals
Posted in Introduction, Notebook with tags conspiracy theories, Egypt, Eleusis, freemasons, Gary Lachman, Illuminati, secret societies, Skull and Bones on March 24, 2013 by Gary LachmanHere’s a link to a brief article on secret societies that I wrote for the Munich-based magazine Earnest & Algernon (obviously inspired by Oscar Wilde…)
Jung in the Huffington Post
Posted in Introduction, Notebook with tags creative illness, Freud, Gary Lachman. spirituality, individuation, Jung, modern religion, Red Book on February 27, 2013 by Gary LachmanHere’s a short piece on why Jung is important that I wrote for the Huffington Post.
HPB on Expanding Minds and Reading the Spirit
Posted in Introduction, Notebook with tags consciousness, esotericism, Gary Lachman, interfaith, Madame Blavatsky, new age, occult, paranormal, religion, spiritualism, spirituality, Theosophy on January 17, 2013 by Gary LachmanHere are links to two recent interviews about Madame Blavatsky. One is with Erik Davis and Maja D’Aoust as part of their excellent Expanding Mind series. The other is with David Crumm at the interfaith website, Read the Spirit. Both are broad and open conversations about Blavatsky’s influence in the modern world.
Blavatsky Down Under
Posted in Introduction, Notebook with tags esotericism, Gandhi, Gary Lachman, India, Madame Blavatsky, magic, mediums, occult, spiritualism, Theosophy, Tibet on December 8, 2012 by Gary LachmanHere is a long interview with me and the people at Mysterious Universe, a radio show broadcast from Australia, about Madame Blavatsky. As my readers might have recognized by now, I take the people I write about seriously enough to have a sense of humour about them, something HPB herself excelled in. Too often followers of spiritual teachers become defensive and sanctimonious if their gurus are spoken of in less than saintly terms. HPB encouraged a light hearted view of things, especially herself. As she told A.P. Sinnett, she was a hippopotamus.
Madame Blavatsky on Gnostic Radio
Posted in Introduction, Notebook with tags Buddhism, drugs, esoteric, feminism, Gary Lachman, Heremticism, India, Madame Blavatsky, magic, occult, religion, spiritualism, Theosophy, Tibet on November 28, 2012 by Gary LachmanHere’s an interview with me about Madame Blavatsky and other things on Miguel Connor’s Gnostic Radio show, Aeon Byte. The Einstein story is apocryphal, I’m sure. But I did hear that Stephen Hawking is a closet reader of Isis Unveiled, although I cannot reveal my sources…
Blavatsky in Review
Posted in Introduction, Notebook with tags Blavatsky, esotericism, Gary Lachman, Isis Unveiled, K. Paul Johnson, masters, Theosophy on October 31, 2012 by Gary LachmanHere is a review of my new book, Madame Blavatsky: The Mother of Modern Spirituality (Tarcher/Penguin 2012). I should perhaps point out that the reviewer is not a ‘mainstream’ Theosophist – if such a creature exists – and is part of a lively new breed interested in HPB’s life and work, but who are not convinced devotees. Precisely the kind of people, I would think, she would be interested in reaching.
Unveiling Isis
Posted in Introduction, Notebook with tags Darwin, esoteric, evolution paranormal, Gary Lachman, hermetic, Madame Blavatsky, occult, Samuel Butler, spiritualism, spirituality on October 26, 2012 by Gary LachmanHere is an excerpt from my new book, Madame Blavatsky: The Mother of Modern Spirituality, courtesy of the Reality Sandwich site. Take a bite.
Heaven, Hell, and Other Places
Posted in Introduction, Notebook with tags esoteric, Gary Lachman, heaven, hell, Swedenborg, video, western inner tradition on October 16, 2012 by Gary LachmanAn excellent new film about Swedenborg, Heaven, Hell, and Other Places, has recently been released by the Swedenborg Society. I’m interviewed in it and I contribute a short essay to the booklet. Swedenborg remains one of the best kept open secrets of the western inner tradition. This film explains why.
Hermes Understood
Posted in Introduction, Notebook with tags cosmic consciousness, esoteric, evolution of consciousness, Gary Lachman, Herme Trismegistus, hermeticism, Jean Gebser, occult on October 10, 2012 by Gary LachmanA writer is always pleased to see reviews of his books, even bad ones, as they at least suggest that someone is reading his work. But when you come across a review that actually understands what you are trying to do – well, one can be practically overjoyed. Here is an excellent review of my book The Quest for Hermes Trismegistus that I recently came across trawling through the net.
