IN THE DARK PLACES OF WISDOM
by PETER KINGSLEY
Strange evidence about a tradition of people who were mystics but who were so intensely practical that, two and a half thousand years ago, they shaped our existence and the world we live in. And yet they did this with a purpose we’ve completely forgotten …
These are just two ingredients of this extraordinary book, which uncovers an astonishing reality that lies unsuspected right at the origins of the western world. Our dramatic failure to acknowledge or come to grips with that reality is what has been responsible for so much of the emptiness — of the sense of something missing — in our modern lives.
In the Dark Places of Wisdom is no work of fiction. The documents, the discoveries, the people that it describes are all as real as we are. But the story it has to tell is far stranger than any fiction, because this is the story of ourselves.
Catafalque Press edition of this classic book first published in 1999.
Date of this reprint: 5 October 2026
ISBN: 978-1-9996384-8-1 (hardback) or 978-1-9996384-7-4 (paperback). Length: 272 pages. Hardback dimensions: 5.5 x 8.5″ (216 x 140 mm). Paperback dimensions: 5.315 x 8.465″ (215 x 135 mm). Price: $45 + shipping (hardback) or $25 + shipping (paperback). Publisher: Catafalque Press.
“One of the most interesting books I’ve ever read is a book by Peter Kingsley called In the Dark Places of Wisdom. Wisdom wasn’t just a matter of books. It was about going into the unconscious and minding the treasures of the unconscious through vision, dream, trance, and intuition; getting in touch with reality from within. And those are the kinds of secrets that we have lost in our whole western world.”
Margaret Starbird—author of The Woman with the Alabaster Jar and The Feminine Face of Christianity
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“This remarkable book speaks with equal power to the scholar and the seeker alike. To absorb what it says is to encounter a completely new vision of the ancient world that lies at the root of our own civilization. Right there, at our own feet, lies a forgotten tradition that has the power to transform all our views about our culture and our life.”
Jacob Needleman—author of Lost Christianity and The Heart of Philosophy
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“With its surprisingly fresh and original approach, In the Dark Places of Wisdom includes a wealth of suggestions and observations hardly ever made before… The philosophical and mystical roots of Western civilization start to appear in a completely new light.”
Walter Burkert—author of Greek Religion and Ancient Mystery Cults
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“This beautiful book is a transmission of life and wisdom.”
El Mundo (Madrid, Spain)
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“Peter Kingsley is a master excavator of lost and hidden meanings. He accomplishes nothing less than giving us a new pair of eyes by which to see the true philosophical and spiritual depth of the ancient world upon which our own civilization is built. In the beautiful and penetrating language of an accomplished storyteller, he shows the absolute relevance of history and wisdom to our own present life.”
Georg Feurstein—author of The Yoga Tradition and Tantra, the Path of Ecstasy
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“Quite simply a masterpiece: a work of immaculate, luminous scholarship which recovers for Western civilization the treasures of wisdom discarded by Plato over 2000 years ago. No-one could fail to respond to this story or be moved by the poetic prose which takes us ‘as far as longing can reach’ and opens a door into depths which have never been recognized, let alone explored by our culture.”
Anne Baring—co-author of The Dream of the Cosmos
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“Compelling, fascinating, hard to put down. Told in a direct, lucid style the story reads like an intriguing detective novel. Each page reveals new depths of thought — revelations that can serve us today if we are to survive the contemporary illusions of reality that are poisoning our souls.”
Rudolfo Anaya—author of Bless Me, Ultima and Tortuga
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“This gives me great hope, the dawning of insight. It is a very important book that at last brings the past to life and true relevance again — a pioneering effort in recovering the origins of our humanity and uncovering the source from which each of us springs.”
David Appelbaum—author of Disruption and The Delay of the Heart
About Peter Kingsley
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