Location: Ireland
Member Since: Jan. 13, 2014

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Philip Matthews

Biography

Writer's life, hidden, frugal, self-absorbed, no TV or social media, a few good friends - but the inner life, ahhhhh. Recommend it to anyone.

Smashwords Interview

What brought you to writing?
Read voraciously from early childhood. Teenage years were dancing, girls, hill walking. Then at twenty I got the idea one afternoon that I could do anything I wanted with my life. I chose to write - much to my surprise. A few months later a not untypical event occurred that was to determine the trajectory of that writing, though of course I didn't know it at that time. Destiny? Why not? To paraphrase the I Ching, everything has acted to further this writing project. Still does, in fact.

Download DARK LIBERATION: AN INTRODUCTION (free) for an overview of the main body of my work.
Some influential books?
Three come to mind.
Norman Mailer's AN AMERICAN DREAM. The rhetorical drive pushes you towards the edge (a pervasive 1960s experience), and at one point - where Rojack is tempted to commit suicide - over that edge. A stunning existential work that illustrates the power of the imagination to make real.
Flann O'Brien's THE THIRD POLICEMAN. Arguably the best Irish novel of the twentieth century (Joyce's work is essentially European), that points up the disjunct between Reason and experience within the Irish psyche, best illustrated by the following joke. A group of Irishmen in London plan a trip to a sea resort. The day being fine, many more want to come, so that the hired bus became very overcrowded. Stopped in traffic on the way, a man standing in the back suddenly shouts out: "Look, there's an empty bus behind!" So they all get off the full bus and clamber onto the empty bus. A curious feature of this mindset is that it suggests the existence of a third way of discerning reality, one that makes both this joke and THE THIRD POLICEMAN possible.
A. A. Van Vogt's QUEST FOR THE FUTURE. Van Vogt was a prolific writer of science fiction short stories in the 1940s. After a hiatus, he began to produce novels in the 1960's by linking his short stories together - which he called "fix-ups" - sometimes to quite remarkable effect. QUEST FOR THE FUTURE, an amalgam of very disparate stories, is regarded by many as his finest work. It is an instructive example of the lengths inspiration will go to find expression, in effect to surpass even the writer himself.
Read more of this interview.

Books

Ever-Lasting by
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 93,210. Language: English. Published: November 30, 2023 . Categories: Fiction » Visionary & metaphysical, Fiction » Fantasy » Contemporary
“Know this: we are four who will abide together in perfect harmony, the four humans of the Ego, our central being, of almost pure pearl light that is as dark as a sapphire.” Dr Veronika Petkova
Oyster by
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 73,200. Language: English. Published: June 21, 2023 . Categories: Fiction » Visionary & metaphysical, Fiction » Fantasy » Contemporary
The Queen of Fairyland: ‘There is one grade greater than what you have achieved here, Yerfend. That is what you must now seek, my beloved niece, sweet Sivtara, by your side some of the way. You will need first enter the Temple here and look at the stars some night. You will know when you have been blessed with holy rites.'
The Hidden Man by
Price: Free! Words: 92,910. Language: English. Published: March 2, 2023 . Categories: Fiction » Visionary & metaphysical, Fiction » Fantasy » Contemporary
Rosmun and Alice Allak are attending a course of treatment for their marital problems at the Starshine Clinic. The core problem can be defined very succinctly: while Alice can see herself very clearly in her husband, she knows that Rosmun cannot see himself in her. The treatment course is both novel and extensive. Best of all, it works.
Pearl by
Price: Free! Words: 90,990. Language: British English. Published: October 4, 2022 . Categories: Fiction » Visionary & metaphysical, Fiction » Fantasy » Contemporary
Dr Veronika Petkova: ‘The Pearl we seek – as the highest element within each human being, constituting the very core that makes our existence possible at all – is already present in each of us. It will be envisioned as a radiant light, a star, a sun, but it really is the dark presence in what we experience as a nothingness.’
Dark Liberation: An Esoteric Introduction by
Price: Free! Words: 7,830. Language: English. Published: May 6, 2022 . Categories: Essay » Literature, Nonfiction » Religion & Spirituality » Body, mind, & spirit » Hermetism & rosicrucianism
A concise esoteric background to the Dark Liberation cycle that should be of interest to potential readers in explaining the distinctive elements that have motivated the writing of these novels.
The Cell by
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 95,890. Language: British English. Published: February 18, 2022 . Categories: Fiction » Visionary & metaphysical, Fiction » Fantasy » Contemporary
These people don’t have the headroom for romance, only ground controls for being true to the other.
Siren by
Price: Free! Words: 95,400. Language: English. Published: July 14, 2021 . Categories: Fiction » Visionary & metaphysical, Fiction » Fantasy » Contemporary
Siren: ‘It is a good advance you humans have made, Bernard. Once inamorati drowned in order to join with us. Now we can join easily in water with no harm to you. That is good. It is better to commune here in this life and not among the shades, as before. The way is clearer now, as you will see.’
The Last Woman by
Price: Free! Words: 74,460. Language: English. Published: May 28, 2021 . Categories: Fiction » Science fiction » Apocalyptic, Fiction » Visionary & metaphysical
Jasmun Chrodin: ‘Then she is the Last Woman. It was a subject that long fascinated members, you know. The only reason it never became another bone of contention is because no one in the Society was interested enough in the subject. As far as they were concerned, it seemed a small price to pay for the translation of the whole of humanity that just one human being gets left behind.’
Innocence by
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 69,140. Language: English. Published: May 15, 2021 . Categories: Fiction » Visionary & metaphysical, Fiction » Inspirational
Oliver Procerus: ‘We can call this power – which is like a carrier wave that probably underlies much of human life beyond the sexual alone – the Eros Current, and see that it is the expression of those higher entities that both determine the sex of a human being and express all of the higher qualities we associate with humanity, as distinct from mere animality.’
Lilith by
Price: Free! Words: 74,660. Language: English. Published: December 19, 2017 . Categories: Fiction » Fantasy » Contemporary, Fiction » Visionary & metaphysical
A woman should have written this novel. A man could get lost in all the fantasies, not having direct access to a woman’s soul. The story is simple. A man has a purpose in reuniting his incarnated and spiritual entities, while woman here can act as a kind of midwife. A woman might want to imitate the man and seek to unite herself with her spiritual part. This is not possible, but some try anyway.
The FInal Mystery by
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 60,560. Language: English. Published: April 10, 2017 . Categories: Fiction » Inspirational
The Final Mystery is the culmination of over forty years of research and inner exploration. The mystery recounted here has not yet happened, so much of the novel will seem merely fantastical. However, it is hoped that the wealth of suggestive historical, social and personal detail, together with the inspirational effect of the three characters, will prove most persuasive for the reader.
Medea at Home by
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 69,510. Language: English. Published: January 26, 2017 . Categories: Fiction » Fantasy » Paranormal
A fantasy opera in three acts, with a prelude, some intermissions and an Aftermath. It is the second mystery in a cycle of three mysteries, and performs the Mystery of the Mother.
The Third Adam by
Price: Free! Words: 63,930. Language: English. Published: July 19, 2016 . Categories: Fiction » Visionary & metaphysical, Fiction » Fantasy » Paranormal
(4.00 from 1 review)
THE THIRD ADAM, being a modern Gothic novel, recounts the circumstances leading to the attainment of the Final Destiny of mankind, and provides descriptions of the many frightful temptations to be met with on this path.
The Gryphon Mystery by
Price: Free! Words: 58,310. Language: English. Published: September 26, 2014 . Categories: Nonfiction » Religion & Spirituality » Spiritual awakening, Nonfiction » New Age » Reincarnation
A detailed account of a spiritual process that every human being must undertake in the coming age. It is the result of ten years' spiritual investigation and five years following of persistent meditation.
Reflection by
Price: Free! Words: 129,470. Language: English. Published: March 10, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Visionary & metaphysical, Fiction » Fantasy » Paranormal
Unhappy in love, a young man sets out to drown himself. Complications prevent him from doing this, so that he finds himself instead carried off to an old stone house in which there is an ancient crystal mirror. Through this Looking Glass there is everything a young man might want, but of course there is also much more – that might take the young man a lifetime to understand…
Restoration by
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 109,080. Language: English. Published: March 6, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Visionary & metaphysical, Fiction » Science fiction » Apocalyptic
A thousand years into the future - the world a husk because so much water has been exchanged for omnium from the Other World - an artificial woman loses her fortune and is thrown out of reality. She has no memory - ruined by her long stay in reality - yet she feels compelled to cross the desolate land to the high towers in the north. She is the Midwife; her task the salvation of a dying humanity.
Angel of Truth by
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 78,590. Language: English. Published: March 3, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Visionary & metaphysical, Fiction » Fantasy » Urban
Peter Lacey has been obliged to abandon his life as peripatetic researcher into the more obscure areas of Utopianism. Now, he works as a temporary credit controller in various companies in London. One day, while on route to a routine business meeting, he and an associate pick up a hitch-hiker and give him a short lift to help him on his way. Within a week, Peter's life is totally transformed.
The Eagle flies on Friday by
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 103,980. Language: English. Published: February 27, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Visionary & metaphysical, Fiction » Fantasy » Paranormal
The Principal rules the City and so can do what he likes. He likes raping women and murdering their kin. The City Council decide to curb the Principal by providing him with a friend, They find a Wild Man to serve as this friend. It's the Wild Man's idea to climb the Stairway to Heaven, hidden away to the East and guarded by a fearsome monster. It's an unlikely quest that could be their undoing.
OR by
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 91,850. Language: English. Published: February 24, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Visionary & metaphysical, Fiction » Humor & comedy » Black comedy
Ossie Rising, boss of Rising Transport Services and a noted philanthropist, vanished a while ago en route to Sarajevo. His wife, Cissy, now runs the business. But Ossie's wild brother, Zed, is back after his failure to make it big in the world, and - coincidentally - Rising trucks are now implicated in drug smuggling. An awkward situation, now made worse by the news that Ossie may not be dead...
The Testament of Eve by
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 101,430. Language: English. Published: February 20, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Visionary & metaphysical, Fiction » Fantasy » Epic
Adam has taken to bed and refuses to toil for his extended family any longer. So Eve must find a cure for Adam’s condition, but she discovers that the man who might hold the key is one marked by a knowledge that all fear to know. This man is Cain, the ruler of the city on the plain. The result is chaos as the two families, separated for almost a thousand years, encounter one another.
Anon by
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 74,790. Language: English. Published: February 17, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Visionary & metaphysical, Fiction » Thriller & suspense » Psychological thriller
A corporate investigator with a dubious reputation is seconded to help the local police force deal with a mysterious Midnight Rambler in a city park. As coincidences mount up, the investigator comes to suspect that the night prowler's terrible assaults might be expressing his own most secret cravings.
The Prince by
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 59,420. Language: English. Published: February 13, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Visionary & metaphysical, Fiction » Fantasy » Epic
The story is about a prince, whose father, an emperor too gentle to rule, is defeated and driven to suicide by the machinations of a powerful priesthood and a great city. The emperor’s death leaves his son a fugitive, protected only by two advisers and a small group of soldiers, and the novel tells of his reconquest of the Empire and how he goes on to do what his father could not do.
The Blue Record by
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 64,470. Language: English. Published: February 10, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Visionary & metaphysical, Fiction » Science fiction » Utopias & dystopias
Human immortality has been achieved by means of the World Machine. There is a minor accident, so that one human being comes in contact with another. Growing chaos ensues as the millennia old conditioning breaks down, which awakens the one human power that science ultimately cannot control: memory - and its truths.
Solomon's Dream by
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 120,290. Language: English. Published: February 8, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Visionary & metaphysical
A writer, escaping London, falls in with a magic circle, but discovers that he is expected to perform their sacrifice - of the woman he has come to love. But together they undertake a counter-work of love, as an act of purgation, that takes them to the very edge of reality.
Crow Station by
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 185,820. Language: English. Published: February 6, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Visionary & metaphysical, Fiction » Inspirational
Dublin 1985, wet summer: the Cold War encroaching while a disparate group of young people undergo transformative experiences.
Lupita by
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 112,210. Language: English. Published: January 30, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Visionary & metaphysical, Fiction » Inspirational
Jane Blake, 37, suddenly leaves her mother, with whom she has lived since the death of her fiancé thirteen years previously, to make a life of her own before it is too late. This action sparks a profound crisis, and she finds that - living alone for the first time - as well as trying to decide what to do with her new freedom, she must re-examine her life in order to make sense of this freedom.
The Fourth Man by
Price: Free! Words: 87,200. Language: English. Published: January 25, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Visionary & metaphysical, Fiction » Coming of age
The novel is about the sentimental education of an Irish writer, Richard Butler. Given the limited possibilities of the biographical novel, Butler's early life is conveyed by means of sixteen episodes to indicate the intense aura of significance that can accompany certain moments in a life, so that some sense can be made of his life by tracing the connections between these events.
The Field of Peace by
Price: Free! Words: 85,390. Language: English. Published: January 16, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Fantasy » Epic
After the Miracle of the North, the Priest-Astronomer, Hepteidon, conceives a plan to save mankind. First he must take over the Empire, then create a miracle of his own. Complications, of course, a slave who seems to will his own death, a demanding Imperial concubine, and a wily Emperor with an agenda of his own. Hepteidon needs his old companions to help him: but they have plans of their own...
Dark Liberation: An Introduction by
Price: Free! Words: 17,400. Language: English. Published: January 16, 2014 . Categories: Essay » Literature, Fiction » Visionary & metaphysical
DARK LIBERATION is a cycle of 20 novels written over a period of fifty years, from 1966 to 2017, with the theme that the key to the future of mankind lies within each individual, and not in some external salvator, be it religious or technological. While there is no need to read all of the novels, some overview of the cycle itself should deepen the reader's understanding of the novels they do read
The Land of Fire by
Price: Free! Words: 80,920. Language: English. Published: January 15, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Fantasy » Epic
Despite a prophecy of doom, an imperial expedition is mounted to investigate the coastline in the far north and map the heavens to aid future expansion. What should be a routine patrol becomes a world in microcosm suffering extreme stress as traditional values and beliefs are undermined by mounting panic and drastic reactions that threaten to destroy the two ships and their crews.
The White City by
Price: Free! Words: 51,890. Language: English. Published: January 13, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Fantasy » Epic
An old priest and his aging warrior guard approach an outpost of a great empire. The priest is bringing bad news to a friend of his youth, an imperial priest. The news is not welcome and the bearer is accordingly punished. The old warrior? A tribal hero is no match for the armoured champions of a city of iron and stone. Yet a destiny is created here.

Philip Matthews' tag cloud

adam eve    alchemy    anthroposophy    artists    bacchus    beauty    breaking through    bridget    celtic goddess    chakras    charity    christ    christ jesus    creation    cycle of novels    deliverance    diana    discovery    end    europe trip    eve    evil    fairyland    freedom    future science    future travel    generation gap    good    grace    hieros gamos    immortality    initiation    innocence    irish writing    jason    jonah    jonas    love    love and trust    marriage test    mastery    metaphysics    miracle of love    mysticism and spirituality    osiris    perfecting    perfection    recollection    relationships    revelation    romantic    rudolf steiner    salvation    shelly    social class    sophia    survival    transcendance    transcendence    transformation    trust    union    virginity    vision    wisdom