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About Us
Recommended Reading
Although no books have yet been published specifically about the Minoan Brotherhood, and the inner teachings of the tradition remain oathbound and veiled in mystery, many books touch upon related themes or have served as inspiration for the tradition. The following reading list explores subjects such as witchcraft, paganism, male spirituality, sacred Eros, Greek mythology, and the ancient Minoan civilization. These works may help provide a broader cultural, historical, and spiritual context for those interested in the tradition.
Other Groves of the Minoan Brotherhood in Europe
Erotos Grove - Kêpos tou Érotos
Erotos Grove is a developing Grove of the Minoan Brotherhood, based in Saronno, Italy, and guided by Minos Nerites within the Kommos Line. The Grove offers training and initiatory work in English, Italian, and Portuguese, focusing on sacred Eros, spiritual transformation, and the mysteries of men who love men.
A Reading Guide to the Essence of the Minoan Brotherhood
This reading path moves from philosophy, through myth and history, into lived tradition and inner integration. These works do not define the Minoan Brotherhood. They illuminate the currents from which it emerges.
α - Step 1: The Awakening of Eros
- Plato - Symposium - ca. 385 BCE
Eros is revealed as a path of ascent; from desire toward the divine.
β - Step 2: The Bridge Between Worlds
- Edward Carpenter - The Intermediate Sex - 1908
Same-sex love is understood as a mediating force; a bridge between inner and outer worlds.
γ - Step 3: Mythic Embodiment: Crete and Initiation
- Mary Renault - The King Must Die - 1958
- Mary Renault - The Bull from the Sea - 1962
The mythic world becomes lived experience. Initiation is encountered through trial, descent, and transformation.
δ - Step 4: The Historical Ground
- L. Vance Watrous - Minoan Crete: An Introduction - 2021
Provides archaeological and cultural grounding for the Minoan world.
ε - Step 5: Greek Love in Context
- Kenneth Dover - Greek Homosexuality - 1978
Clarifies how male-male relationships functioned in ancient Greece.
ζ - Step 6: The Living Tradition: Modern Pagan Roots
- Michael Lloyd - The Bull of Heaven: The Mythic Life of Eddie Buczynski and the Rise of the New York Pagan - 2012
The life of Eddie Buczynski reveals how modern pagan traditions - including those connected to the Minoan current - emerged within the cultural upheaval of the 20th century. Set against the backdrop of the Stonewall riots, the book shows how spirituality, identity, and liberation became intertwined.
η - Step 7: The Inner Masculine
- Robert A. Johnson - He: Understanding Masculine Psychology - 1974
- Robert Moore & Douglas Gillette - King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine - 1990
These works map the inner structure of masculine development.
θ - Step 8: The Erotic Connection
- Jack Morin - The Erotic Mind: Unlocking the inner Sources of Sexual Passion - 1995
- Thorkil Vanggaard – Phallos: A Symbol and Its History in the Male World - 1969
Desire is understood as an inner field shaped by imagination and meaning, in which the Phallos emerges as a symbol of generative power, presence, and direction.
Books on Wicca and Paganism
Margot Adler – Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America Today (1979)
Eddie Buczynski – Witchcraft Fact Book (1984)
Arthur Scott Evans – Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture (1978)
Michael Thomas Ford – The Path of the Green Man: Gay Men, Wicca, and Living a Magical Life (2005)
Michael G. Lloyd – Bull of Heaven: The Mythic Life of Eddie Buczynski and the Rise of the New York Pagan (2012)
Books on Male Spirituality and the Sacred Masculine
Robert Bly – Iron John (1990)
Jean Shinoda Bolen – Gods in Every Man (1989)
Arie Boomsma & Stephan Sanders – De Man en zijn Lichaam (2010)
Joseph Campbell – The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949)
Dagonet Dewr – Sacred Paths for Modern Men (2007)
Jack Donovan - Androphilia: A Manifesto (2017)
Matthew Fox – The Hidden Spirituality of Men (2008)
Robert A. Johnson - He: Understanding Masculine Psychology (1974)
Ton van der Kroon – De Terugkeer van de Koning (1996, revised edition 2012)
Robert Moore & Douglas Gillette - King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine (1990)
Desmond Morris – The Naked Man (2008)
Books on Homosexuality, Sacred Eros, and Male Love
Andrew Calimach – Lovers' Legends: The Gay Greek Myths (2002)
Edward Carpenter - The Intermediate Sex (1908)
Mantak Chia & Douglas Abrams – The Multi-Orgasmic Man (1996)
Randy P. Connor – Blossom of Bone: Reclaiming the Connections Between Homoeroticism and the Sacred (1993)
Alain Daniélou – The Phallus: Sacred Symbol of Male Creative Power (1993)
Kenneth Dover – Greek Homosexuality (1978)
Mark Emme – In Your Hands: The Everyman's Guide to Masturbation (1990)
Bruce P. Grether – The Secret of the Golden Phallus (2012)
Bruce P. Grether – Nine Golden Keys to Mindful Masturbation (2014)
Gilles Herrada – The Missing Myth: A New Vision of Same-Sex Love (2013)
Johan Mattelaer – The Phallus: Worship, Decoration, and Mutilation (2011)
Jack Morin - The Erotic Mind: Unlocking the inner Sources of Sexual Passion (1995)
Plato - Symposium (ca. 385 BCE)
Michaela Riedl & Jürgen Becker – Discover the Secrets of Male Sexuality: Lingam Massage (2008)
Terry Sanderson – The Gay Man's Kama Sutra (2003)
Charles Silverstein & Felice Picano – The Joy of Gay Sex (2003)
Jacob Slavenburg – Vrijen met God: Over ‘heilige bruiloften’, erotiek & religie (2015)
Thorkil Vanggaard – Phallos: A Symbol and Its History in the Male World (1969)
Mitch Walker – Men Loving Men (1977)
Craig A. Williams – Roman Homosexuality (1999, second edition 2010)
Books on Greek Civilization and Mythology
Stephen Fry – Mythos (2017)
Stephen Fry – Heroes (2018)
Stephen Fry – Troy (2020)
Robert Graves – The Greek Myths (1955)
George E. Mylonas – Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries (1961)
Martin P. Nilsson – A History of Greek Religion (1922)
Martin P. Nilsson – Minoan-Mycenaean Religion and Its Survival in Greek Religion (1950)
Books and Articles on Minoan Civilization and Archaeology
Benjamin Alberti – Faience Goddesses and Ivory Bull-Leapers: The Aesthetics of Sexual Difference at Late Bronze Age Knossos (World Archaeology, 2001)
Rodney Castleden - Minoans: Life in Broze Age Crete (1990)
Cynthia Eller – Two Knights and a Goddess: Sir Arthur Evans, Sir James George Frazer, and the Invention of Minoan Religion
(Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology, 2012)
Arthur Evans – Cretan Pictographs and Prae-Phoenician Script (1895)
Arthur Evans – Mycenaean Pillar and Tree Cult and Its Mediterranean Relations (1901)
Arthur Evans – The Palace of Minos, Vol. I (1921)
Arthur Evans – The Palace of Minos, Vol. II (1928)
Arthur Evans – The Palace of Minos, Vol. III (1939)
J. Lesley Fitton - The Minoans (2002)
Cathy Gere – Knossos and the Prophets of Modernism (2009)
Harry R. Hall – The Older Civilisation of Greece: Further Discoveries in Crete (Nature, 1901)
Charles H. Hawes & Harriet Boyd Hawes – Crete: The Forerunner of Greece (1909)
Robert Koehl – The Chieftain Cup and a Minoan Rite of Passage (Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1986)
Alexander MacGillivray – Minotaur: Sir Arthur Evans and the Archaeology of the Minoan Myth (2000)
John K. Papadopoulos – Inventing the Minoans (Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology, 2005)
John D. S. Pendlebury – A Handbook to the Palace of Minos at Knossos (1933)
L. Vance Watrous - Minoan Crete: An Introduction (2021)
Theodore Ziolkowski – Minos and the Moderns: Cretan Myth in Twentieth-Century Literature and Art (2008)
Books on Comparative Mythology and Religion
James George Frazer – The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (1911)
James George Frazer – Adonis, Attis, Osiris: Studies in the History of Oriental Religion (1914)
Robert Graves – The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth (1948)
Novels on Historical and Mythological Fiction
Mary Renault – The Last of the Wine (1956)
Mary Renault – The King Must Die (1958)
Mary Renault – The Bull from the Sea (1962)
Mary Renault – The Mask of Apollo (1966)
Mary Renault – Fire from Heaven (1969)
Mary Renault – The Persian Boy (1972)
Mary Renault – The Praise Singer (1978)
Mary Renault – Funeral Games (1981)
For those who want to read Renaults books in chronological order:
1. The King Must Die (Theseus I)
Mythic Bronze Age – before the Trojan War.
A retelling of the early life of Theseus, set in the legendary world of Minoan Crete and pre-Homeric Greece.
2. The Bull from the Sea (Theseus II)
Mythic Bronze Age – after the events of the Trojan War cycle.
The continuation of Theseus’ story, exploring kingship, fate, and decline.
3. The Praise Singer
6th century BCE – before the Classical Athenian flowering.
Set in archaic Greece, this novel follows the poet Simonides and the evolving cultural identity of the Greek world.
4. The Last of the Wine
ca. 404 BCE – during the Peloponnesian War and the death of Socrates.
A deeply human account of Athenian society in crisis, centred around the final years of the war and the philosophical circle of Socrates.
5. The Mask of Apollo
4th century BCE – after the death of Socrates.
Set in the post-Socratic world, this novel explores theatre, philosophy, and shifting political landscapes through the life of an actor.
6. Fire from Heaven (Alexander I)
4th century BCE – the youth of Alexander in Macedon.
The early life of Alexander the Great, shaped by destiny, education, and ambition.
7. The Persian Boy (Alexander II)
334–323 BCE – the campaigns of Alexander.
A vivid account of Alexander’s conquests, told through the eyes of Bagoas, his Persian companion.
8. Funeral Games (Alexander III)
After 323 BCE – the aftermath of Alexander’s death.
The struggle for power among Alexander’s generals, as his empire fractures and legacy is contested.
Thomas Burnett Swann – Cry Silver Bells (1977)
Thomas Burnett Swann – The Forest of Forever (1971)
Thomas Burnett Swann – The Days of the Minotaur (1966)
(The Minotaur novels are given here in chronological order. They were later collected as The Minotaur Trilogy, published in 1997)
Thomas Burnett Swann – How Are the Mighty Fallen (1974)
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