• To Kailash and Beyond
• The Absence of Direction
• Swayambhu- conversations with death

The author of the trilogy Swayambhu, Eric-Jan Verwey, has a past rich in travelling. Over the last two and a half decades, he has travelled the world extensively, but his main destination has always been India. On seventeen trips there, he spent a total of five years making pilgrimages to different temples and other places considered holy, studying the living myths connected to them.

Finding that the mystical heart of Hinduism communicating to him through numbers, numerology entered Verwey’s life, eventually leading him to the academic study of Hebrew in order to gain a deeper understanding of the Jewish numerological conception of the Bible. Upon completion of his MA he felt the urge to share all that he had realised about the relationship between Hinduism and Judaism. Being able to back up his personal and non-textual experiences in the temples of India with theories from existing kabbalistic texts, his stories bridged the gap between Hinduism and Judaism. Further incorporating facets of Buddhism and his own experiences while delving in the ancient texts, they grew into the fascinating whirlwind of inter-religious modern-day mystical adventures that they are now.

Of the three volumes, To Kailash and Beyond is the most strongly autobiographical, relating the start of the author’s personal numerological experiences. The two main components of all three volumes, mystical Hinduism and Judaism, are represented here in loosely alternating chapters, slowly making their way to converge in the final transcendence of the organized and prescriptive elements of the more conservative conception of these religions. The relationship between the two kinds of mysticism mentioned is less explicitly present, though more thoroughly interwoven in the second part, The Absence of Direction. This novel is less explanatory in its main text, but more heavily based on the author’s own experiences while delving in the kabbalistic texts. In the concluding volume Swayambhu- conversations with death, Verwey’s story-telling has reached its own mythological form, presenting a purely mystical reality.

THE BEGINNING