Drawing from fifteen years of research, classicist and lawyer Brian Muraresku reopens the investigation into whether the earliest Christians and ancient Greeks shared a secret sacramental technology — an entheogenic Eucharist capable of producing direct experiences of immortality. Building on the work of R. Gordon Wasson, Albert Hofmann, and Carl A.P. Ruck in The Road to Eleusis, Muraresku travels from the ruins of Eleusis to the catacombs of the Vatican, uncovering traces of a pre-Christian mystery religion centered on the Divine Feminine and ecstatic communion through psychoactive wine. The book bridges science, theology, and ancient spirituality, suggesting that the “lost sacrament” of the West may have been hiding in plain sight.

In this collection of essays, historian Richard Bauckham explores the spiritual and cultural landscape of Judaism during the Second Temple period — the very soil from which the Essenes and early Christians emerged.

He demonstrates how Jewish communities across the Mediterranean, especially in Alexandria, absorbed elements of Greek philosophy and Egyptian spirituality, giving rise to a new mystical synthesis.

Through detailed historical analysis, Bauckham situates the Essenes and the Therapeutæ within this trans-Mediterranean dialogue where the Hebrew prophetic tradition met the Hellenistic mysteries.
The book reveals that the first followers of Jeshua evolved in a network of contemplative schools, where wisdom was transmitted through both intellectual study (Jnana) and ritual embodiment (Bhakti-Karma) — a pattern mirroring the initiatic model of Egypt and Eleusis.

In this foundational work, Edmond Bordeaux Szekely traces the spiritual lineage linking the Essene communities, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the original Christic message.

He interprets the “Teacher of Righteousness” mentioned in the Qumran texts as a prefiguration of Christ — a bridge between ancient Essene mysticism and the Gospel narrative.

Szekely presents the Essenes as guardians of an initiatic science inherited from Egypt and Babylon, based on the harmony between the elements, the human body, and divine law — what he calls “The Law of Light.”
His thesis proposes that the Essenes preserved the universal tradition of initiation, which later found expression through Jeshua’s teachings. The Gospel, in this reading, is not a rupture but the flowering of a continuum of sacred knowledge.

This compilation gathers original source texts and historical commentary on the major ancient mystery traditions—particularly Eleusis, Dionysian rites, Orphic fragments, Hermetic teachings, and early Gnostic initiations. The volume offers a direct window into the sacred rituals of death and rebirth that shaped the spiritual worldview of antiquity and left an imprint on Renaissance esotericism.