The Golden Ass: Ubiquity University Great Books 2023

A two-part course on The Golden Ass by Apuleius (translated by E.J. Kenney).

March 14th and April 11th, 2023

This amusing and seemingly unassuming novel contains several significant treasures for scholars of mythology, mystery cults, analytical psychology, and Egyptology. These treasures include its embedded tale of “Eros and Psyche,” and its detailed account of initiation into the cult of Isis.

Both are about the growth of the soul: one is about psychic transformation, the other about spiritual initiation. One claims that love tortures the psyche into growth, the other that the “Mother of the Universe” furthers psychic growth by recalling her devotees home to their divinity and immortality. Writing in the second century C.E. at a time when the Great Goddess and the pagan mysteries are beginning their descent under the crypts of the Christian Empire, Apuleius leaves behind one of the most stunning portraits of the Great Goddess found in the mythological records of antiquity.

To watch part one on YouTube, click here.

To watch part two on YouTube, click here.