Stephen Crimi

Katabatic Wind Stephen Crimi

Traditionally, the mountains are from whence wisdom is found and dispensed, the homes of the gods, places we look up to for aspiration and inspiration. Yet there is another source of insight, which involves a katabasis, from the Ancient Greek, meaning 'to go down', to travel from this world to the underworld. There, the chthonic gods and goddesses are just as real, and maybe just a little bit edgy from being neglected for so long. It is the journey of the initiate, to die before your die, thence to live twice-born: once of the flesh, and again of wisdom, Sophia. Katabatic Wind is an inspired collection of essays drawn from the lost unknown sacred tradition of the West. Using the lens of mythology, pre-Socratic Greek thought, and a long essay comparing the West with the Indian tradition through the characters of Hamlet and Arjuna of the Bhagavad Gita, this book illumines how these traditions shadow life lived today. The kernel of these essays is loss, longing for return, and the grief of living in a society without an inkling of its sacred origin story.