The Descent of the Gods

This volume contains A.E.'s known mystical writings, including his four major works, The Avatars (1933), The Candle of Vision (1918), The Interpreters (1922), and Song and its Fountains (1932), together with his letters and other prose contributions to Dana, Ethical Echo, The Internationalist, The Irish Theosophist, Lucifer,  and Ourselves, W.Y.Evans Wentz's interview with A.E. in The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries, A.E.'s first independent publication, To the Fellows of the Theosophical Society, his introduction to City Without Walls, and many other spiritual books, reviews and his hitherto unpublished story ‘The Return’.

Although Russell, known as A.E., was a poet, painter, newspaper editor, and a political writer, working for three decades in the Irish cooperative movement, it is probably as a mystic that he attracts contemporary attention. His writings on mystical and mythological topics, reflecting his study of Hindu and Theosophical teachings as well as his own visionary experience, offer a unique and inspiring exploration of unseen worlds. Interpretation of the context and significance of A.E.’s thinking is facilitated for the reader of this collection by the extensive introduction and copious notes offered by Professors Raghavan Iyer and Nandini Iyer.