Dancing out the mysteries

Long read for the weekend. A fascinating interview with Peter Mark Adams posted on The New Mithraeum. He discusses both his Mystai: Dancing out the Mysteries of Dionysos and his research into Mithraism. 

As his interviewer, Andreu Abuín, observes, ‘Peter Mark Adams is an astonishing author both for his area of interest and for his ability to bring to light what many others have chosen to ignore or have been unable to find.’

It is these skills which Scarlet Imprint readers will recognise from The Game of Saturn, and which here are turned to decoding the 2000 year old frescoes of the Villa of the Mysteries at Pompeii where, ‘Adams offers us unprecedented answers to a masterpiece considered by many to be the most important graphic testimony of the Western esoteric tradition.’

Peter Mark Adams outlines the strengths of being a transdisciplinary researcher outside the academy, and the insights that yields. He offers a profound understanding of the process and the phenomenology of initiation, the recent scholarship on female religious and spiritual leadership in antiquity, and the use of entheogens in the Mysteries. 

The interview can be read at The New Mithraeum.