“An authentic spellbinder.”
—The Guardian
“Harpur cannot now avoid the credit for the most full and profound philosophical exposition of our times. It has made a deep and permanent impression on me, and I have received a vast benefit for which I shall be ever grateful.”
—John Michell, author of The View over Atlantis, City of Revelation, and The Dimensions of Paradise
“Surely one of the most persuasive evocations, ancient or modern, of genuine alchemists at work.”
—Joscelyn Godwin, author of The Theosophical Enlightenment; Arktos: The Polar Myth in Science, Symbolism, and Nazi Survival; and Harmony of the Spheres: A Sourcebook of the Pythagorean Tradition in Music
“Extraordinary and brilliant … the work is a classic and will be recognized as such.”
—Charles Nicholl, author of The Chemical Theatre, The Reckoning, and Leonardo da Vinci: Flights of the Mind
“Mercurius is a splendid celebration of the spiritual intellect and the soul’s imagination. I will keep and value it as a moving (and beautifully told) story and as a lucid and provocative manductio to the Art.”
—Lindsay Clarke, Whitbread Prize–winning author of The Chymical Wedding, Alice’s Masque, and The War at Troy
“Fascinating … absorbing … the kind of book I deeply enjoy.”
—Colin Wilson, author of The Occult, Mysteries, and The Outsider
“Mercurius is a book written at least as much to elucidate as to entertain. It is probably the most explicit account of the alchemical art ever published—it presents a strong argument for the perfectibility of man and against the species of bloodless asceticism which drives a wedge between spiritual and corporeal love.”
—The Literary Review
“Mercurius is no lightweight, New Age, fantasy fluff. It is a serious, mature work demonstrating the skill of a brilliant writer and metaphysical investigator.”
—Justin Erik Farrow, editor of www.gnostics.com
Praise for The Philosophers’ Secret Fire
“A sublime read …”
—The Guardian
“Once we believed that truth was ‘out there,’ now we hold that it’s ‘in here,’ but if Harpur is right then it lies in the line of vision between the two … In his casual brilliance he evokes the boldness of the stallion in the book of Job, who hears the crying of the captains, and is not afraid …”
—The Independent on Sunday
“One of the many things I admire about this timely book is the engaging way it offers something to upset just about everybody. And how should it be otherwise when it is the author’s considered intention to explode the peculiar perspective on which the prevailing forces of modern consciousness rely? … If you’re a hard-nosed materialist with little time for a countervailing vision of the mythical realities we inhabit, then all the more reason to read this book, for Harpur is a serious man with some serious questions to put to you.”
—The London Magazine
“It would be hard to overestimate the value of Harpur’s book or to praise it too highly. Packed with fabulous detail at which I can only hint at here, it convinces us once again that everything is soul. We’re offered a timely reminder to recall our larger mystical selves, to conceive of possibilities of transformation, to remove the constraints from our limited notion of reality and celebrate life’s infinite and sacred inventiveness.”
—Rosie Jackson, Resurgence
“Witty … disturbing … beautifully and intelligently observed.”
—The Sunday Times
“A brave, thought-provoking book … hats off to Harpur … thank heaven there are people like him to rejuvenate our vanishing sense of wonder.”
—The Daily Mail