Traditionally, the mountains are from whence wisdom is found and dispensed, the homes of the gods, places we look up to for aspiration and inspiration. Yet there is another direction emanating insight, which involves a katabasis, from the Ancient Greek, meaning ‘to go down’, to travel from this world to the underworld. There, the chthonic gods and goddesses are just as real, just as powerful, and maybe just a little edgy from being neglected for so long. It is the journey of the initiate, to die before you die, thence to live twice-born: once of the flesh, and again of wisdom, sophia.
Katabatic Wind is an inspired collection of essays drawn from the lost unknown sacred tradition of the West. Using the lens of mythology, pre-Socratic Greek thought, sacred geometry, and a long essay comparing the West with the Indian tradition through the characters of Hamlet and Arjuna of the Bhagavad Gita, the book illumines how these traditions shadow life lived today. The kernel of these essays is loss, longing for return, and the grief of living in a society without an inkling of its original sacred origin story.
Associate Producer: Steve Mercer
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Stephen Crimi has a degree in English literature from Union College, and spent over a decade in traditional Yoga study at Yoga Anand Ashram in Amityville, NY. He’s been previously published in Moksha Journal and Journal of Anthroposophy in Australia. He’s done time as an editor, estate gardener, cook, massage therapist, and most recently, running a biodynamic garden and fiber farm, Philosophy Farm, for twelve years with his wife of three decades, Krys. They now live in the city of Asheville, in the mountains of North Carolina, where they continue to garden and midwife literature. Stephen was born in Brooklyn, and raised on the streets of Ozone Park, NYC. This is his first book.
Krys Crimi worked in three major psychiatric centers on Long Island in
New York, and was the third generation in her family to do so. The main
focus of her work there was managing large greenhouses as a
horticultural therapist. She studied classical Indian and Western philosophy at Yoga Anand Ashram in Amityville, New York for ten years. During this period she was also awarded a level 4 teacher diploma in the Sogetsu School of Ikebana.
Krys holds certification in Permaculture design systems and utilizes the
methods in her own gardens in Asheville, North Carolina.
As a counter balance to the painful degradation of the arts and
architecture, she actively generates as much beauty as she can through
gardening and her own brand of indigenous art.
