Magi. The Quest For a Secret Tradition

Great Britain: BCA. Hardback. Slight foxing to edge. Slight shelf wear to top corner of Spine. One of the best loved stories in the Bible is the journey of the Magi, the qwitnesses of the Nativity of Jesus. Yet who were the three kings or wise men? Where did they come from and what could have been their motive in making their journey to Bethlehem? Answers to these and other questions are provided by Adrian Gilbert in this new and fascinating exploration of the Magi legend. Threaded into an epic story are the results of some twenty-five years of historical, archaeological and astronomical research. This extraordinary book takes the reader on an adventure into the past, revealing how secret knowledge was both preserved in the East in the form of monumental architecture and, at the time of the Crusades, passed westward to the fledgling states of Europe. The truth, shattering for believers and agnostics alike, is that not only was the birth of Jesus widely expected throughout the Middle East, but that Christianity itself has its deepest roots in Egypt, Persia and Mesopotamia. It is Gilbert's contention that the Magi were members of a brotherhood that has been guiding civilization for at least five thousand years, since the time the pyramids were built. At times persecuted, at others enjoying the patronage of kings and noblemen, these masters were, and perhaps still are, the custodians of a secret initiatory tradition. Gilbert has also found evidence that this tradition and its modern day representatives were the source of much of the arcane knowledge brought to the West in the twentieth century by the enigmatic teachers, G. I. Gurdjieff and P. D. Ouspensky. Illustrated. 328 pp. (We carry a wide selection of titles in The Arts, Theology, History, Politics, Social and Physical Sciences. academic and scholarly books and Modern First Editions etc.) . Very Good. Cloth. 1st BCA Edition. 1996.