The Aramaic Jesus
Resources for Exploring Yeshua —
Jesus Before Christianity
“What it has taken China thousands of years to build cannot be acquired by theft. If we want to possess it we must earn the right to it by working on ourselves. Of what use to us is the wisdom of the Upanishads, or the insight of Chinese Yoga, if we desert our own foundations as though they were errors outlived and settle with thievish intent on foreign shores like homeless pirates…. In the course of the centuries, the West will produce its own Yoga, and it will be on the basis laid down by Christianity.”
This icon of a dark-skinned Jesus was created by Br. Robert Lenz, OFM after reading the manuscript for Prayers of the Cosmos (1990) and was included on the cover in the English edition for many years. The icon is still used on the cover of many foreign language editions.
Short video introducing a new seven-week course, “The Way of the Aramaic Jesus.”
Now available on recording, with all transcripts and week-by-week deepening practices from the Shift Network. Details here
It was my privilege years ago to write a Foreword to Neil Douglas-Klotz’s first book, Prayers of the Cosmos: Meditations on the Aramaic Words of Jesus. Today, thirty-two years and fifteen books by Klotz later, I am honored to be asked to write a Foreward to this book.
My original Foreward began with these words: “Reader beware: though this book is brief, it contains the seeds of a revolution.” I do not think history has proven me mistaken….
Hear the Aramaic Prayer
The Aramaic Prayer and the Beautiful Names of Allah
Audio: New Dimensions Radio Interview 2022
Download the interview with Justine Willis Toms with Neil about his new book (links to New Dimensions site).
Prayers of the Cosmos Audio Album
Sound files for learning the Aramaic Prayer of Yeshua and the Beatitudes in Matthew with all of the chant melodies. A companion to the book. Paid Download.
Dying into Rebirth: Easter 2022 Retreat (Video or Audio Download)
Online retreat recorded over Easter weekend, 2022, 5hrs, based on Neil’s book Revelations of the Aramaic Jesus. Paid Download.
Sacred Dance and the Aramaic Jesus
Resurrection of Life: An Easter Retreat (Audio Download)
Audio Recording of a retreat in Northern California, Easter 2014. Paid Download.
The Aramaic Jesus Book of Days
Coming in February 2025….
The Aramaic Jesus: Sounds True Interview
Guitar Accompaniment Videos
Books
The Aramaic Words and Spirituality of Jesus
The Aramaic Jesus Book of Days (2025)
To be released in February 2025
A meditation a day, an oracle, a guide for 40 days of revelation.
In ancient Southwest Asia (the “Middle East”), people considered forty days to be the time one needs to receive a genuine inspiration or vision, to release an entrenched memory, or to make a radical change. Each day contains a new translation from Yeshua’s words and a short, guided contemplation that invites you to make the “thought for a day” into more than that—something you experience within and around you in your life.
Revelations of the Aramaic Jesus (2022)
With a foreword by Matthew Fox
“Outstanding Book of 2022” —Paradigm Explorer, Scientific and Medical Network
“Revelations of the Aramaic Jesus returns us to the original Aramaic of Jesus’s words, where the breath, the body, and the soul are part of a living wholeness in which nature and the divine are not separate.”
–Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, author of Prayer of the Heart in Christian and Sufi Mysticism.
The Hidden Gospel (1999)
The Hidden Gospel is not buried in the sands, not locked in a secret library, not being channeled by a new “messiah.” The Hidden Gospel is in plain sight. We fine it in Jesus’ familiar words newly translated from Aramaic, the language he actually spoke.
The key Aramaic words and ideas found in the canonical Gospel, plus a reverse glossary from King James English to its Aramaic equivalent. Body prayer contemplations throughout.
“Insightful, penetrating, dazzling.”—Leonard Shlain
Original Meditation (2003, 2016)
Best Spiritual Book of 2003– Spirituality and Health Magazine
Uncovers the ancient form of creation meditation that unites the three religions of the Middle East. An anthology of creation mysticism with new translations and body prayer meditations throughout.
“A brilliant scholar with heart whose words have the power to reconnect us to our sacred source.” —Joan Borysenko
By the time you finish this book, you are ready to join body, heart, mind and spirit into a healing wholeness—indeed the wholeness of Creation.
–Rabbi Arthur Waskow, author of God Wrestling.
A Murder at Armageddon (2015)
Judas Thomas Mysteries Book One
A.K.A. Chisti (Neil Douglas-Klotz)
“gripping…mesmerizingly real…” –Kirkus Reviews
A novel set in the world of the Aramaic Jesus and his contemporaries. Renegade scribes, revolutionary cells, temple spies, oppressive tyrants, and visionary prophets and priestesses collide in this historical mystery novel of the volatile first century in the Middle East.
Blessings of the Cosmos (2006)
In Blessings of the Cosmos, published in 2006, Neil investigates Jesus’ best-loved benedictions, including: invocations of light, joy, peace, and faith in the Beatitudes in Luke, and Jesus’ last messages to the disciples, including the “great commandment” on love, the “many mansions” teaching, and the blessing of “greater works.”
Ebook from Sounds True.
Prayers of the Cosmos (1990)
The book that launched Neil’s work: presents the Lord’s Prayer and Beatitudes in new, multi-layered, interpretive translations.
“Here we find a Lord’s Prayer and Beatitudes that call even the most agnostic of ecofeminists and deep ecologists to reverence–and to a glad reconnection with the forgotten roots of our shared culture. Breathe a sigh of relief as you open Prayers of the Cosmos! It is high time we reclaimed the ecstatic love of creation that is at the heart of Jesus’ mission and message.” –Joanna Macy