The word ‘archaic’ derives from the Greek arkhaios, which in turn is related to the word archē, meaning ‘principle’, ‘origin’, or ‘cause’; the

For millennia, people have universally engaged in ecstatic experience as an essential element in ritual practice, spiritual belief and cultural identification.

The Descent of the Soul and the Archaic explores the motif of kátabasis (a "descent" into an imaginal underworld) and the importance it held for writers from a

Reveals the shaping influence of money and ritual on Greek tragedy, the New Testament, Indian philosophy, and Wagner.