Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks, Eranos 1: Spirit and Nature

Michael P. McGarry has provided the necessary and useful lists of essays on all 6 of the Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks, edited by Joseph Campbell. I only wish to add a few comments on Volume 6 since I finished reading all of the essays in this volume today. There is a good amount of information by Gilles Quispel in his 37 page essay "Gnostic Man: The Doctrine of Basilides" and in the impressive 68 page essay "The Concept of Redemption in Manichaeism" by Henri-Charles Putch. However, the literary prize in my opinion goes to Erich Neumann for his wonderful 41 page essay "Mystical Man." This is a distinguished piece of essay writing, worthy of an Emerson. It is the only essay that is wholly Jungian in approach, and he does a magnificent job of presenting the concept of mysticism in strictly Jungian terms. He proposes man as "homo mysticus" for whom the mystical experience is not something distant or rare but a part of the normal human experience. "The reality of this encounter is one of the fundamental facts of man's existence . . ." I found Neumann's essay to be very inspiring, which is something one does not often find in academic papers of these kinds. To me, it was worth the price of the entire book.

Since 1933, the Eranos Conferences have gathered the world's leading scholars of religion and mythology. This set consists of Joseph Campbell's selections of the best papers from that conference. This is Volume 1, "Spirit and Nature". This volume includes the writings of some distinguished scientists as well. The thirteen papers include: Carl Jung, "The Phenomenology of Spirit in Fairy Tales"; Carl Kerényi, "Apollo Epiphanies"; Walter Wili, "The History of Spirit in Antiquity"; Max Pulver, "The Experience of Pneuma in Philo"; Hugo Rahner, "Earth Spirit and Divine Spirit in Patristic Theology"; Fritz Meier, "The Problem of Nature in the Esoteric Monism of Islam"; Paul Masson-Oursel, "The Indian Conception of Psychology" and "Indian Techniques of Salvation"; Ernesto Buonaiuti, "Ecclesia Spiritualis"; Werner Kaegi, "The Transformation of Spirit in the Renaissance"; Friedrich Dessauer, "Galileo and Newton: The Turning Point of Western Thought"; Erwin Schrödinger, "The Spirit of Science"; Adolf Portmann, "Biology and the Pheonomenon of the Spiritual"; and Carl Jung, "The Spirit of Psychology".

Since 1933, the Eranos Conferences have gathered the world's leading scholars of religion and mythology. This set consists of Joseph Campbell's selections of the best papers from that conference. This is Volume 5, "Man and Transformation". The eleven papers include: Mircea Eliade, "Mystery and Spiritual Regeneration in Extra-European Religions"; Fritz Meier, "The Transformation of Man in Mystical Islam"; Henry Corbin, "Divine Epiphany and Spiritual Birth in Ismailian Gnosis"; Paul Tillich, "The Importance of New Being for Christian Theology"; Daisetz T. Suzuki, "The Awakening of a New Consciousness in Zen"; Ernst Benz, "Theogony and the Transformation of Man in Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schilling"; Lancelot Law Whyte, "The Growth of Ideas"; Jean Daniélou, "The Dove and the Darkness in Ancient Byzantine Mysticism"; Adolf Portmanm "Metamorphosis in Animals: The Transformations of the Individual and the Type"; Heinrich Zimmer, "Death and Rebirth in the Light of India"; and G. van der Leeuw, "Immortality."

Since 1933, the Eranos Conferences have gathered the world's leading scholars of religion and mythology. This set consists of Joseph Campbell's selections of the best papers from that conference. This is Volume 6, "The Mystic Vision". The fourteen papers include: Boris Vysheslawzeff, "Two Ways of Redemption: Redemption as the Solution of the Tragic Condition"; Wilhelm Koppers, "On the Origin of the Mysteries in the Light and Ethonology and Indology"; Heinrich Zimmer, "The Indian World Mother"; Erwin Rouselle, "Dragon and Mare, Figures of Primordial Chinese Mythology"; Ernesto Buonaiuti, "Christ and St. Paul", "Christology and Ecclesiology in St. Paul", and "Symbols and Rites in the Religious Life of Certain Monastic Orders"; Gilles Quispel, "Gnostic Man: The Doctrine of Basilides"; Henri-Charles Puech, "The Concept of Redemption in Manichaeism"; Louis Massignon, "Nature in Islamic Thought" and "The Idea of the Spirit in Islam"; Jean de Manasce, "The Experience of the Spirit in Christian Mysticism"; Friedrich Heiler, "The Madonna as Religious Symbol"; and Erich Neumann, "Mystical Man".

One of numerous volumes of the Eranos Yearbook Papers, The Mysteries consists of articles written by the likes of Carl G. Jung (Transformation Symbolism in the Mass), Max Pulver (Jesus' Round Dance according to the Apocryphal Acts of St. John), Hans Leisegang (The Mystery of the Serpent),and Walter F. Otto (The Meaning of the Eleusinian Mysteries); and is edited by the godfather of modern mythological interpretation, Joseph Campbell. Any student of the Western Esoteric Traditions will surely enjoy these eye-opening, scholarly, and erudite articles.Of particular importance is the translation into English of the Acts of St. John, which relates the Mystical Round Dance of Jesus after the last supper, as well as John's vision of the Cross of Light during the crucifixion at Golgotha.