Bio

Dr. Paul Chris Kiritsis (BBSc, BMSc, PostGradDip, MMSc, PhD) was born on the 15th July 1979 in Melbourne, Australia. As is often the case with a great many youngsters, Paul was an imaginative, overtly curious and introverted little boy that preferred to read books, armchair travel, ghost hunt and experiment with little electrical gadgets in the garage rather than loiter around sandpits and playgrounds or play with his Legos and Tonka Trucks. On his sixth birthday, he was given a book on ancient civilisations and became enamoured of Ancient Egypt. The exotic eschatological practices and mystical beliefs of this esoteric culture exerted a particularly powerful influence on his psyche. This early fixation not only survived the test of time, but greatly influenced the sphere of personal philosophies which were to flower into a full-fledged personal cosmogony by early adulthood. The all-defining inquisitive nature of his personality, his interest in the inner workings of the human psyche, and a passion for folklore and mythology have coalesced under a single aegis and culminated in the undertaking of studies in psychology, literature and metaphysics, as well as travels to Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas.

Paul is an esotericist, a scholar and a professional writer, with a very keen interest in world religions, mythology, Hellenistic and Egyptian folklore, Jungian psychology and variant streams of Western occultism. His principle area of research lies in the philosophy of metaphysics–Hermeticism with its associative denomination of alchemy, Gnosticism and Neoplatonism. Of particular interest to him is the manner in which these primordial disciplines have spurred the development of analytical psychology in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (i.e Freudian and Jungian ideas surrounding the human psyche), and consequently, the development of contemporary transpersonal counselling.

He is a proud member of the C. G. Jung Society of Melbourne, The Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis (AMORC), a member of the Greek Australian Cultural League (GACL), an accredited Metaphysical Professional listed on the Professional Metaphysics Directory (www.metaphysics.com/directory) and a member of the American Metaphysical Doctors Association (AMDA). As an ordained metaphysical minister, he is available for one-on-one transpersonal counselling by appointment (either through e-mail or phone). Requests for lectures, seminars or symposia in the aforementioned denominations of metaphysical inquiry are also welcome.

Many of Paul’s poems have appeared in periodic anthologies. He has also appeared in many editions of the literary publication Sensations Magazine (published in New Jersey, USA) with poems pertaining to different periods of American history along with esoteric and classical philosophy. These include:

• The Alchemist and Sacrilege (Sensations Magazine, Spoken Word Issue 42, Fall/Winter 2007)
• God-Mind in the Waters, The Persistence of Memory, The Tea-Travelling Mad Hatter’s Act and The Secret History of the American War of Independence (Sensations Magazine, 18th Century America Issue 45, Fall/Winter 2009)
• The Law of Thirds, Californian Heart Remedies and The Soliloquy of Lady Liberty (Sensations Magazine, 19th Century America Issue 46, Spring/Summer 2010)
• In the Black Room (Sensations Magazine, 20th Century America Issue 47, Spring/Summer 2010)
• Out of the Darkness and Into the Light, Drowned World, Atlantis: The Last Inheritance and Through the Ancient Eye (Sensations Magazine, 21st Century America Issue 48, Fall/Winter 2010)
• Lips Dressed in Scarlet Red, May God Continue to Bless America, Music of the Spheres, The Camelot of Kings, The Stone Methuselah, The Hymn of an Urgent Hero and Words in Action (Sensations Magazine, 21st Century America “Poetry of American Presidents” Supplement, Spring 2011)
• The Apotheosis of Washington, The Seer, An Act of Creation, An Old Greek Folk Song, Shades of Aphrodite, Botticelli, and Coming-to-be (Sensations Magazine, Silver Anniversary Poetry Winter Issue 49 Part 2, 2011)

Thus far, he has published three books: two collections of poetry in Origin: Poems from the Crack of Dawn (2006 and reissued in 2009) and Fifty Confessions (2009), as well as a literary collection in Hermetica: Myths, Legends, Poems (2007).

He has received the following awards:

• 2008 Reader Views Literary Awards–Hermetica: Myths, Legends, Poems was a winner in categories of Fiction-Poetry and Global-Australasia, as well as Semi-Finalist in category of Non-Fiction-Poetry
• 2008 Premier Book Awards–Hermetica: Myths, Legends, Poems received a fiction award for Best Book of the Year in category of poetry
• 2009 National Best Books Awards by USA Book News–Hermetica: Myths, Legends, Poems was a winner in the category of poetry-general
• 2009 Written Art Awards–Origin: Poems from the Crack of Dawn was the first-place winner in category of non-fiction-poetry and Fifty Confessions was an honourable mention
• 2009 Premier Book Awards–Fifty Confessions placed second in the category of poetry
• 2010 Reader Views Literary Awards–Fifty Confessions was a winner in the category of Global-Australasia
• 2010 National Best Books Awards by USA Book News–Origin: Poems from the Crack of Dawn was a finalist in the category of poetry-general
• 2011 shared “Best Batch” Award for the “American Presidents” Supplement of Sensations Magazine
• 2012 “Best Rhymed Poem” Award for the Gnostic "An Act of Creation" in the Winter 2011 Silver Anniversary Issue of Sensations Magazine

His next work, Shades of Aphrodite: In Search of the Golden Apple (due out 2011), is composed of two separate narratives. One tells the fictional, metaphysical tale of the Aphrodite goddess after the Judgement of Paris. The other is the author’s own personal journey of self-discovery and self-examination through the occult. Both narratives are inextricably linked and dissolve into one another during the later stages of the book.

Paul has a wide array of extracurricular interests. These include scuba diving, weightlifting, thrill seeking, playing the synthesizer, adventure travel and spending quality time with family and friends. He can be reached at paul@paulkiritsis.net.

Interests

adventure travel, playing the synthesizer and piano, reading, scuba diving, writing

What I'm Reading

Myth and Knowing: An Introduction to World Mythology by Leonard and McClure Fulcanelli: Master Alchemist, Le Mystere des Cathedrales, translated from the French by Mary Sworder Pythagoras: A Compendium of Classical Sources by Thomas Stanley Neoplatonism by Pauliina Remes

What I'm Listening To

Music by Dulce Pontes and Haris Alexiou

Movies I've Seen Recently

Thor

Websites I'm Into

Atlantis Rising , Parabola Magazine , New Dawn Magazine

Education

High school

St Johns College

College

Latrobe University

Graduate school

Latrobe University, University of Metaphysics, University of Exeter

Additional study

Australian and New Zealand Centre for Cultural Arts (ANZCA)