Educated at Cambridge and Cornell, Joscelyn Godwin, Ph.D., is the author, editor, and translator of more than 30 books, including The Greater and Lesser Worlds of Robert Fludd, and was a professor of music at Colgate University for more than 40 years until his retirement in 2016. He lives in Hamilton, New York. Guido Mina di Sospiro was raised in Milan, Italy. An award-winning novelist and essayist, he has written several books, including The Forbidden Book, coauthored with Joscelyn Godwin. He maintains a blog on Reality Sandwich and for New English Review. He lives with his wife between the Washington, DC, area and central Italy.
Forbidden Fruits is a long-awaited follow-up to Godwin and Mina di Sospriro's first coauthorship, The Forbidden Book. Now, after eight years, they have released a novel that will be a favorite among readers of esotericism as scholarship. Authentic insights into ancient and modern occult practices and suspense meet in the alchemical retort of the Society of Harmony. With the entheogenic key as its focus, Forbidden Fruits provides insight into ancient practices and visions and, like its predecessor, is prophetic, with the island of Malta being the focal point of a near-Lovecraftian evil that is encircling the world. Complete with psychedelic journeys, therapeutic blasphemy, and child seers, Forbidden Fruits is a journey into the unknown and one that will leave readers questioning the nature of reality--and how to know the real from the unreal--in their spiritual journey and the world around them. * Mark Stavish, author of Egregores: The Occult Entities That Watch Over Human Destiny * Forbidden Fruits is an occult novel that weaves together a fictional murder thriller and decades of scholarship on actual esoteric traditions and historical practices, including--yes--the ingestion of psychedelic mushrooms and their religious revelations. This is the truth in the guise of the trick; the fact in the fiction; what may have actually happened in the guise of what did not happen. Such is the nature of the secret. * Jeffrey J. Kripal, author of Secret Body: Erotic and Esoteric Currents in the History of Religions * In Forbidden Fruits, Joscelyn Godwin and Guido Mina di Sospiro, authors of the acclaimed The Forbidden Book, return with more secrets and discoveries that the protectors of complacency would like to keep under wraps. Blending together the Atlantis myth, prehistoric civilizations, alchemy, postmodern politics, international intrigue, and just the right amount of esoteric eroticism, they've come up with a magical cocktail that keeps captivated readers turning the page. Take a bite of the forbidden fruit: expulsion from the garden was never so tasty. * Gary Lachman, author of Dark Star Rising and The Return of Holy Russia * A wild tale of adventure and intrigue involving a 20,000-year-old secret entheogen sequestered in a golden pomegranate and recovered from the ocean depths off the coast of Malta. The discovery quickly spins off into a fast-paced story, weaving together ancient rites, secret cults, alchemical transformations, shamanic shenanigans, and ruthless, very bad people. It's a real page-turner and great fun! I enjoyed it immensely. * Dennis McKenna, ethnopharmacologist and author of Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss: My Life with T * Blending together the Atlantis myth, prehistoric civilizations, alchemy, postmodern politics, international intrigue, and just the right amount of esoteric eroticism, they've come up with a magical cocktail that keeps readers turning the page. * Gary Lachman, author of Dark Star Rising, and The Return of Holy Russia *