THE WATCHING WORDS
by PETER KINGSLEY
Anyone tempted to read this book ought to be warned. It opens the door to reality — and to the very essence of religion. But it takes everything away from the reader and leaves nothing behind.
The Watching Words is seemingly about many different things: the meaning of education, the dangers of imitation, the purpose of alchemy, the true roots of Sufism, the depths of eternity. It spans huge stretches of time and space, from the ancient Greeks to medieval Islam and down to the present day; from Asia to Europe and Africa, then back again.
It honors the wise: Pythagoras and Socrates, Empedocles, Parmenides and Heraclitus, Aeschylus and Solon, Dhu’l-Nun and Suhrawardi. And it exposes those who think they are wiser than the wise for the fools they are — whether famous philosophers and spiritual teachers or scholars and seekers.
But beneath these themes, names, places is the one story of human unconsciousness in all its absurdity always trying to find a greater reality and never discovering how.
For everybody wanting something to hold onto, inspiring ideas and reassuring guidance, even more knowledge to gobble up and even more wisdom to imagine is their own, this is a book to run as far away from as they can. But for everyone sick to death of their own superficiality and fakery, their constant compromises and cowardice, The Watching Words may be all they need.
Publication date: 9 September 2026.
ISBN: 978-1-9195332-1-6 (hardback) or 978-1-9195332-0-9 (paperback). Length: 316 pages. Dimensions: 6 x 9″ (229 x 152 mm). Price: $55.00 + shipping (hardback) or $29.95 + shipping (paperback). Publisher: Catafalque Press.
About Peter Kingsley
PETER KINGSLEY is internationally recognized for his groundbreaking work on the origins of western spirituality, philosophy and culture. Through his writings as well as lectures 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 seven books which together have exerted the profoundest and most far-reaching influence outside as well as inside academia. For years he has lectured very widely—speaking to Native American elders and psychologists, professional scholars and followers of different spiritual traditions, 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.
After receiving the degree of Master of Letters from King’s College Cambridge in 1977, Peter Kingsley was awarded a PhD by the University of London. He has worked together with many of the most prominent figures in the fields of classics and anthropology, philosophy and religious studies, ancient civilizations and the history of both healing and science. He is the recipient of numerous academic awards and holds honorary professorships or fellowships at universities in Canada, the United Kingdom and United States.
To explore the work of Peter Kingsley, visit www.peterkingsley.org