Colleagues often ask me why I wrote this unusual book. At first,it was simply so I could sleep at night. It was a way to marshal theextraordinary facts and histories that constantly rotated in my mind andbecame graphically alive at bedtime! Now I think my reason is to restore,in a humble way, richness to the mystery tradition at a time when the oldarts of the philosopher are all but lost.There are many paths to the mysteries. The most predominantorganizations in western societies are usually composed of people wemight call literalists. They would not like the more accurate label of antiphilosophers.Literalists believe their traditional histories are unique,explain everything and provide enough wisdom to make the rest ofcivilization irrelevant.