One of only 720 copies bound in Telluric Brown fine cloth.

This groundbreaking release is the first authoritative work on Ludwig Klages and his pagan metaphysics ever to be published in English. Without a doubt Klages is one of the most intriguing and enigmatic pagan thinkers of the early 20th Century. A figure of great controversy he radically rejected Christianity and Monotheism in favor of a pan-daemonic paganism. Advocating the return to primordial states of consciousness through magico-erotic encounters with the living powers of the ensouled cosmos, Klages was a driving force in the notorious Cosmic Circle of German mystics. Masterfully expounding his vision of daemonic Life in disciplines as diverse as philosophy, poetry, metaphysics, psychology and graphology, he influenced many important contemporaries such as Hermann Hesse, Walter Benjamin and the Frankfurt School, C.G. Jung, Martin Heidegger and others. The work of esoteric teachers such as Lama Anagarika Govinda, Michael Bertiaux and David Beth has been deeply inspired by the magical antinomian biocentrism of Klages. Misinterpreted, vilified and slandered, this great heretic and ‘high priest of the irrational’ remains virtually unknown in the English speaking world although his work may have never been more relevant.

Table of Contents:

Introduction – Paul Bishop: The Philosophical Contribution of Ludwig Klages – p. 9

Gunnar Alksnis: Ludwig Klages and his Attack on Rationalism

Preface – p. 47
Chapter 1: Introduction – p. 49
Chapter 2: The Poetic Years – p. 61
Chapter 3: The Metaphysician of the Irrational – p. 75
Chapter 4: The Metaphysician of the Subconscious – p. 89
Chapter 5: The Metaphysician of the Primitive – p. 103
Chapter 6: The Influence of Klages on German History – p. 117
Chapter 7: Klages Pro and Contra, Man and Philosopher – p. 139
Chapter 8: Conclusion – p. 167

Appendix – Volker Zotz: Distance, Time and Image. Ludwig Klages as reflected by Lama Anagarika Govinda – p. 173

Bibliography – p. 192
List of Illustrations – p. 206
Acknowledgments & Edition – p. 207