Philosophers' Secret Fire

The visionary tradition of spirits, gods, and demons continues to subvert our rational universe, erupting from the shadows in times of intense religious and philosophical transition. In this dazzling history, Patrick 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. "No matter where we look, " he writes, "human beings have a universal tendency to divide the world in two." That second part of our world--things that go bump in the night--is his province. The alchemists' "secret fire" was the one essential ingredient for transmuting base metal into gold, but it extends far beyond alchemy. It was passed down from antiquity in a long series of links called the Golden Chain, embodying a tradition we have either ignored or labeled "esoteric" or "occult." Yet it continues to run like a vein of quicksilver beneath Western culture. Touching on myth, science, philosophy, and the unconscious, on spirit, soul, madness, and death, Mr. Harpur argues that the secret of this perennial wisdom is one of imaginative insight: a simple way of seeing that reenchants our existence and restores us to our own true selves.