Author Guide · Ancient Philosophy and Mysticism
Books Written by
Peter Kingsley, born in 1953, studied classics at Lancaster and Cambridge, wrote a PhD in London under Martin West and became a Fellow of the Warburg Institute. In 1995 Oxford’s Clarendon Press published his 422-page study of Empedocles and the Pythagoreans. Four years later he used excavations at Velia, ancient Elea in southern Italy, to argue that Parmenides was a practising priest of Apollo and an iatromantis, a healer-prophet. Since then his books have appeared with non-academic publishers, latterly Catafalque Press in London. This guide covers his 7 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 7 key books · 1995–2026 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Peter Kingsley has published 7 books: an Oxford study of Empedocles, Ancient Philosophy, Mystery, and Magic (1995); two books on Parmenides, In the Dark Places of Wisdom (1999) and Reality (2003); A Story Waiting to Pierce You (2010); Catafalque (2018), on Carl Jung; A Book of Life (2021); and The Watching Words (2026). Start with In the Dark Places of Wisdom, his first book on Parmenides. Below: each book in order, how they connect and how scholars have received them.
Where to Start with Peter Kingsley
If you want his argument about Parmenides in short form
→ In the Dark Places of Wisdom (1999) — archaeology from Velia and Parmenides as a priest of Apollo.
If you want the full case for Parmenides
→ Reality (2003) — 591 pages on his poem as a sacred text.
If you want the academic groundwork
→ Ancient Philosophy, Mystery, and Magic (1995) — his Oxford study of Empedocles and the Pythagoreans.
If you want Kingsley on Carl Jung
→ Catafalque (2018).
7 Peter Kingsley Books, in Order
Ancient Philosophy, Mystery, and Magic
Published by Clarendon Press, Oxford, in 1995 (ix + 422 pages). Kingsley reads Empedocles as a magician who meant his claims to magical powers literally, reverses the usual identification of the gods with his four roots, linking Hades to the volcanic fires of Sicily, and argues that the myth in Plato’s Phaedo draws on Sicilian and Pythagorean sources. In Bryn Mawr Classical Review John Bussanich called it “a great contribution to scholarship”, while finding parts of the case against Plato’s originality unproven.
In the Dark Places of Wisdom
Published by the Golden Sufi Center in 1999. Kingsley draws on excavations at Velia, ancient Elea, to argue that Parmenides was a practising priest of Apollo and an iatromantis, a healer-prophet.
Reality
A 591-page book published by the Golden Sufi Center in 2003; a second edition followed from Catafalque Press in 2020. Kingsley reads Parmenides’s poem as a sacred text that initiated its readers into an experience of death and rebirth, and gives a central place to mêtis, a cunning, practical intelligence. A reviewer in Bryn Mawr Classical Review called it “a work of rare genius”.
A Story Waiting to Pierce You
Published by the Golden Sufi Center in 2010 with a foreword by Joseph Rael; a second edition followed from Catafalque Press, London, in 2025. Its subtitle names its subject: Mongolia, Tibet and the destiny of the Western world.
Catafalque
Published by Catafalque Press in November 2018 in two volumes, 848 pages, the second made up entirely of notes; a single-volume edition with minor revisions followed in 2021. Kingsley distinguishes the public Jung, the scientist, from a private Jung revealed in The Red Book, ties him to the Presocratics, and argues that almost all of Jung’s interpreters have misread him, with the French scholar of Sufism Henry Corbin as an exception.
A Book of Life
Published by Catafalque Press in London in 2021, his next book after Catafalque.
The Watching Words
His most recent book, published by Catafalque Press in London in 2026.
In What Order to Read Peter Kingsley
The books form one long argument, so publication order works well. The Oxford study of 1995 lays the scholarly groundwork on Empedocles and the Pythagoreans; In the Dark Places of Wisdom and Reality turn to Parmenides; the later books carry his inquiry to Mongolia and Tibet and to Carl Jung.
Most readers start with In the Dark Places of Wisdom, then go on to Reality. Read the 1995 book if you want the scholarly groundwork behind his claims, and Catafalque if you come to him through Jung.
A reading path
1. In the Dark Places of Wisdom (1999)
2. Reality (2003)
3. Ancient Philosophy, Mystery, and Magic (1995)
4. Catafalque (2018)
Everything Else Peter Kingsley Published
Beyond the 7 key books: 1 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Translation
1
1 book · 1993
- 1993Quest for the Red Sulphur: The Life of Ibn ‘Arabihis English translation of Claude Addas’s biography, Islamic Texts Society
The years · 1953–2026
Quick facts about Peter Kingsley
- Known for
- Peter Kingsley is known for arguing that Parmenides was a priest of Apollo and a healer-prophet, and that Empedocles was a magician who meant his claims to magical powers literally.
- 1953
- Born
- 1975
- Graduates from the University of Lancaster
- 2018
- Catafalque
- Born
- 1953
- Education
- Highgate School; University of Lancaster (1975); MLitt, Cambridge (King’s College); PhD in classics, University of London, under Martin West
- Posts
- Former Fellow of the Warburg Institute, London; honorary professor at Simon Fraser University and the University of New Mexico
- Subjects
- Parmenides, Empedocles, the Pythagoreans, Carl Jung
- Publishers
- Clarendon Press; the Golden Sufi Center; Catafalque Press, London
- Translations
- His books have appeared in more than a dozen languages
The red mark is 1999: In the Dark Places of Wisdom, his short book on Parmenides.
How Peter Kingsley Writes: Philology as a Way In
Kingsley began as a conventional classical scholar, and his first book reads like one: 422 pages from Clarendon Press, built on close readings of Greek texts and on questioning how reliably Plato, Aristotle and Theophrastus reported the thinkers before them. In In the Dark Places of Wisdom he added archaeology, using excavations at Velia to argue that Parmenides was a practising priest of Apollo.
From 1999 his books came out through the Golden Sufi Center and then Catafalque Press in London. Reviewing Reality in Bryn Mawr Classical Review, a reviewer noted that it has no index and that the fragments are not numbered for reference; Kingsley says that he has always been a mystic and that this experience underlies all his work.
His link to non-duality is explicit. He compares the absolute reality described by Parmenides to Advaita Vedanta, Zen, Dzogchen and some schools of Sufism, and links the tradition of Parmenides and Empedocles to the Indian concepts of turiya and samadhi. In a 2006 interview with Parabola he said that “if Oneness is up there you have already created a duality by placing it somewhere else”, and that stillness “has to be realized through the senses.”
Listen
Peter Kingsley in Conversation with Michael Lerner
Michael Lerner talks with Peter Kingsley in the conversation Finding What Is Real, part of the Commonweal New School’s Archetypal Psychology series, dated 21 June 2007. From the archive of the Commonweal New School.
Frequently asked questions about Peter Kingsley’s books
How many books has Peter Kingsley written?
Seven, all covered on this page: Ancient Philosophy, Mystery, and Magic (1995), In the Dark Places of Wisdom (1999), Reality (2003), A Story Waiting to Pierce You (2010), Catafalque (2018), A Book of Life (2021) and The Watching Words (2026). He also translated Claude Addas’s biography of Ibn ‘Arabi, Quest for the Red Sulphur (1993).
What are Peter Kingsley’s books in order?
Ancient Philosophy, Mystery, and Magic: Empedocles and Pythagorean Tradition (1995), In the Dark Places of Wisdom (1999), Reality (2003), A Story Waiting to Pierce You: Mongolia, Tibet and the Destiny of the Western World (2010), Catafalque: Carl Jung and the End of Humanity (2018), A Book of Life (2021) and The Watching Words (2026).
Where should I start with Peter Kingsley?
With In the Dark Places of Wisdom (1999), his argument that Parmenides was a priest of Apollo and a healer-prophet. Then read Reality (2003), 591 pages on Parmenides’s poem as a sacred text.
What is Peter Kingsley’s most famous book?
No single title is agreed on. The Oxford study Ancient Philosophy, Mystery, and Magic (1995) is the one reviewed in the classics journals, where John Bussanich called it “a great contribution to scholarship”; In the Dark Places of Wisdom (1999) is the book this guide suggests starting with.
What does Peter Kingsley say about Parmenides?
That Parmenides was a practising priest of Apollo and an iatromantis, a healer-prophet, and that his poem is a sacred text that initiated its readers into an experience of death and rebirth. For the poem itself and its other readings, see the guide to Parmenides.
How have scholars received Peter Kingsley’s mystical reading?
With a mix of praise and objection. John Bussanich (Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 1997) called Ancient Philosophy, Mystery, and Magic “a great contribution to scholarship” but judged its claim against Plato’s originality “extreme”. A reviewer in Bryn Mawr Classical Review (2004) called Reality “a work of rare genius” while writing that Kingsley “asks too much of his readers”. Robert Segal (Times Higher Education, 2019) wrote of Catafalque that “Kingsley never offers arguments for his intuitions about Jung.” A. A. Long named his early books as examples of work that stimulates new thinking, and Gabriele Cornelli placed him among the most significant interpreters of the Pythagorean tradition.
What is Catafalque about?
Catafalque: Carl Jung and the End of Humanity (2018) argues that nearly all of Jung’s interpreters have misread him, separates the public, scientific Jung from the private Jung of The Red Book, and connects Jung to the Presocratic tradition Kingsley wrote about earlier. It first appeared in two volumes, one of them entirely notes.
Is Peter Kingsley an academic?
He was trained as one: a PhD in classics from the University of London, supervised by Martin West, and a fellowship at the Warburg Institute. He has been an honorary professor at Simon Fraser University and the University of New Mexico, but since 1999 his books have appeared with non-academic publishers.
Is Peter Kingsley still alive?
Yes. He was born in 1953, and his most recent book, The Watching Words, was published in 2026.
Footnotes
- Peter Kingsley — Wikipedia
- Books by Peter Kingsley — peterkingsley.org
- Review of Ancient Philosophy, Mystery, and Magic — Bryn Mawr Classical Review 1997.10.19
- Review of Reality — Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2004.07.43
- Catafalque, reviewed by Robert A. Segal — Times Higher Education, 2019
- Common Sense, an interview with Peter Kingsley — Parabola, 2006
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“It all comes back to the senses.”
— Peter Kingsley, interview in Parabola (Spring 2006)
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