"The jungle began to 'breathe' for me. Everything had 'presences,' everything was spotted, filled with luminous lights and alive.
I kept feeling that for me the dark glass had been removed and I was seeing things the way they really were for the first time. Reality hung suspended in the Now like bits of fruit in jelly, fish frozen in ice."

Immortal Jaguar is Hugh Fox's account of his experiences with the inner worlds and ancient powers unleashed by his use of traditional South American spiritual hallucinogenics. After consuming psychoactive plants in Peru he is gripped by visionary experiences and finds a dazzling magical world of Immortals opening up, a whirl of ancient knowledge pouring through his consciousness. On his return to academic life in the US he finds that having a shamanic gift which he is unable to switch off is something of a dangerous liability.

Part memoir, part archaeology, this fusion of visions and ideas into fictional narrative is among the most excitingly readable presentations of the spiritual underworld of the Andes and its expression through sacred hallucinogens. The vision extends outward across the ancient world through language and legend, all leading to a voyage to the house of the Sun-King – Tiawanaku in Bolivia. Fox, a major authority on the Pre-Columbian Americas, and a true visionary to boot, makes a compelling case for the connection of myths and cultures around the world in deepest antiquity.

"Hugh Fox has long been a legend in the annals of contemporary American poetry, a poet who is unafraid to explore the deeper fodder of the human psyche .... there are no barriers here for Fox is a shaman who walks through walls, ignoring all social rules and regulations."
— B.L. Kennedy, Rattlesnake Review

ISBN: 978-1-908011-09-1
Copyright: Hugh Fox
Language: English
Pages: 172  
Binding: perfect-bound paperback
Interior print: black & white, with line illustrations
Dimensions: 15.2cm wide × 22.9cm tall (6 x 9 in)

Published March 31st 2011

£10.95

$17.95