Biography

Peter Kingsley, PhD, is internationally recognized for his groundbreaking work on the origins of western spirituality, philosophy and culture. Through his writings as well as talks he speaks straight to the heart and has helped to transform many people's understanding not only of the past, but of who they are. He is the author of three books—Reality, In the Dark Places of Wisdom, and Ancient Philosophy, Mystery & Magic—which in the space of only a few years have exerted the profoundest and most far-reaching influence outside as well as inside academia. He lectures widely—speaking to Native American elders and physicists, followers of different spiritual traditions and professional scholars, healers and medical practitioners as well as people who very simply are aware of the need to wake up to a reality greater than the one we are used to. Together with his wife, Maria, he emigrated to the United States in 2002 and now teaches and writes in North Georgia. He is a Research Associate at Emory University in Atlanta as well as an honorary Professor both at the University of New Mexico and at Simon Fraser University in Canada.

Click here to go to Peter Kingsley's website: www.peterkingsley.org

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

BOOKS:

Reality (Inverness, CA: The Golden Sufi Center, paperback and hardback edition, Fall 2003)

In the Dark Places of Wisdom (Inverness, CA: The Golden Sufi Center, paperback edition, 1999)

Ancient Philosophy, Mystery, and Magic (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995, [5th printing, 1998]; revised paperback edition, 1996)

TRANSLATIONS:

Claude Addas, Quest for the Red Sulphur: The Life of Ibn 'Arabi (Cambridge, England, 1993)

René Guénon, The Great Triad (Cambridge, England, 1991)

RECENT ARTICLES:

'Empedocles for the New Millennium', Ancient Philosophy, volume 22 (Pittsburgh, 2002), pp. 333-413

'An Introduction to the Hermetica: The Asclepius and Ancient Esoteric Tradition', in From Poimandres to Jacob Boehme, ed. R. van den Broek and C. van Heertum (Amsterdam, Netherlands: In de Pelikaan, 2000), pp. 18-40

'Where East and West are One', Caduceus, volume 47 (Leamington Spa, UK, Spring 2000), pp. 21-24 and volume 48 (Summer 2000), pp. 21-24

'Paths of the Ancient Sages: A Pythagorean History', Lapis, volume 10 (New York, December 1999), pp. 63-68

'In the Dark Places of Wisdom: The Forgotten Origins of the Western World,' Parabola, volume 23/4 (New York, 1998), pp. 40-46

'Knowing Beyond Knowing: The Heart of Hermetic Tradition,' Parabola, volume 22/1 (New York, 1997), pp. 21-25

'Empedocles' Two Poems', Hermes, volume 124 (Stuttgart, Germany, 1996), pp. 108-111

'Notes on Air: Some Questions of Meaning in Empedocles and Anaxagoras', Classical Quarterly, volume 45 (Oxford, 1995), pp. 26-29

'Artillery and Prophecy: Sicily in the Reign of Dionysius 1', Prometheus, volume 21 (Florence, Italy, 1995), pp. 15-23

'Meetings with Magi: Iranian Themes among the Greeks, from Xanthus of Lydia to Plato's Academy', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Third Series, volume 5 (London, 1995), pp. 173-209

'From Pythagoras to the Turba philosophorum: Egypt and Pythagorean Tradition', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, volume 57 (London, 1994), pp. 1-13

'Empedocles' Sun', Classical Quarterly, volume 44 (Oxford, 1994), pp. 316-324

'Greeks, Shamans and Magi', Studia Iranica, volume 23 (Paris, 1994), pp. 187-198

'Empedocles and his Interpreters: The Four-Element Doxography', Phronesis, volume 39 (Assen, Netherlands, 1994), pp. 235-254

'The Christian Aristotle: Theological Interpretation and Interpolation in Medieval Versions of On the Heavens', Le Muséon, volume 107 (Louvain, Belgium, 1994), pp. 195-205

'Empedocles in Armenian', Revue des études arméniennes, volume 24 (Louvain, Belgium & Paris, France, 1993), pp. 47-58

'Poimandres: The Etymology of the Name and the Origins of the Hermetica', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, volume 56 (London, 1993), pp. 1-24. Reprinted, with additions and updates, in From Poimandres to Jacob Boehme, ed. R. van den Broek and C. van Heertum (Amsterdam, Netherlands: In de Pelikaan, 2000), pp. 42-76

'Ezekiel by the Grand Canal: Between Jewish and Babylonian Tradition', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Third Series, volume 2 (London, 1992), pp. 339-346

'The Greek Origin of the Sixth-Century Dating of Zoroaster', Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, volume 53 (London, UK, 1990), pp. 245-265

An expanded biography is available upon request.