Sailing to Paradise: The Discovery of the Americas by 7000 B. C. Jim BaileyProclaiming that America was discovered and developed into a world power seven thousand years ago, an original work of reconstructed history offers evidence of ancient seafaring civilizations with travel and trade on a worldwide scale as early as 5000 B.C. 15,000 first printing.The Essential Zohar: The Source of Kabbalistic Wisdom Rav P.S. BergFor thousands of years, no book has been more shrouded in mystery than the Zohar, yet no book offers us greater wisdom. The central text of Kabbalah, the Zohar is a commentary on the Bible’s narratives, laws, and genealogies and a map of the spiritual landscape. In The Essential Zohar, the eminent kabbalist Rav P. S. Berg decodes its teachings on evil, redemption, human relationships, wealth and poverty, and other fundamental concerns from a practical, contemporary perspective. The Zohar and Kabbalah have traditionally been known as the world’s most esoteric sources of spiritual knowledge, but Rav Berg has dedicated his life to making this concentrated distillation of infinite wisdom available to people of all faiths so that we may use its principles to live each day in harmony with the divine.Eternity by the Stars: An Astronomical Hypothesis Louis-Auguste BlanquiIn a century replete with radical politics, final liberations, historical codas, and dreams of eternity, the shadowy figure of Louis-Auguste Blanqui, the constant revolutionary, wrote Eternity by the Stars in the last months of 1871 while incarcerated in Fort du Taureau, a marine cell of the English Channel. In the midst of contemplating his confinement, Blanqui devises a simple calculation in which the infinity of time is confronted with the finite number of possible events to suggest a most radical conclusion: every chain of events is bound to repeat itself eternally in space and time. Our lives are being lived an infinity of times across the confines of the universe, and death, defeat, success and glory are never final. For the world is nothing but the play of probabilities on the great stage of time and space. By straddling the boundaries of hyperrealism and hallucinatory thinking, Blanqui's hypothesis offers a deep, tragic, and heartfelt reflection on the place of the human in the universe, the value of action, and the aching that lies at the heart of every modern soul. This first critical edition of Blanqui's incantatory text in English features an extended introduction by Frank Chouraqui. Exploring sources of Blanqui's thinking in his intellectual context, Chouraqui traces the legacy of the text in critiques of modernity devoting particular attention to the figures of Nietzsche, Walter Benjamin, and Borges. It features copious illuminating annotations that bring out the web of connections which interlace the great marginal figure of Blanqui with more than two millennia of European culture.The Secret History of the World Mark BoothThe amazing surprise New York Times bestseller, filled with "breathtaking glimpses into worlds that heretofore have been little explored" (Foreward)
They say that history is written by the victors. But what if history-or what we come to know as history-has been written by the wrong people? What if everything we've been told is only part of the story?
In this groundbreaking and now famous work, Mark Booth embarks on an enthralling tour of our world's secret histories. Starting from a dangerous premise-that everything we've known about our world's past is corrupted, and that the stories put forward by the various cults and mystery schools throughout history are true-Booth produces nothing short of an alternate history of the past 3,000 years.
From Greek and Egyptian mythology to Jewish folklore, from Christian cults to Freemasons, from Charlemagne to Don Quixote, from George Washington to Hitler- Booth shows that history needs a revolutionary rethink, and he has 3,000 years of hidden wisdom to back it up.Fractal Time: The Secret of 2012 and a New World Age Gregg BradenIn his latest book, former senior computer systems designer and bestselling author Gregg Braden merges these ancient and modern world views into a powerful new model of time. Marrying the modern laws of fractal patterns to the ancient concept of cycles, he demonstrates how everything from the war and peace between nations to our most joyous relationships and personal crises are the returning patterns of our past. As each pattern returns, it carries the same conditions of previous cycles—fractal patterns that can be known, measured and predicted!
What makes this model so important today is that the returning cycles also carry a window of opportunity—a choice point—that allows us to choose a new outcome for the cycle. Braden suggests that if we can see time from this perspective, the patterns will show us what’s in store for the future, and perhaps how to avoid the mistakes of our past.
After presenting the case histories that confirm the accuracy of fractal time calculations, the author crosses the traditional boundaries of science and spirituality to answer the question that must be asked: What does fractal time tell us about 2012, and beyond? Because the cycles repeat, the seed for 2012 has already happened and the pattern already exists! In a narrative format of easy-to-read science and true-life accounts, Fractal Time shows us what we can expect as we close the Great World Age described by the Mayan Calendar, and the secret to our moment in history.The Dude and the Zen Master Jeff Bridges, Bernie GlassmanThe New York Times bestseller from Academy award-winning actor Jeff Bridges and Zen leader and author of Bearing Witness, Bernie Glassman.
Zen master Bernie Glassman compares Jeff Bridges’s iconic role in The Big Lebowski to a Lamed-Vavnik: one of the men in Jewish mysticism who are simple and unassuming, and so good that, on account of them, God lets the world go on.” His buddy Jeff puts it another way. The wonderful thing about the Dude, he says, is that he’d always rather hug it out than slug it out.
For more than a decade, Academy Awardwinning actor Jeff Bridges and his buddhist teacher, renowned Roshi Bernie Glassman, have been close friends. Inspiring and often hilarious, The Dude and the Zen Master captures their freewheeling dialogue about life, laughter, and the movies with a charm and bonhomie that never fail to enlighten and entertain. Throughout, their remarkable humanism reminds us of the importance of doing good in a difficult world.Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy Mircea Eliade, Willard R. Trask, Wendy DonigerFirst published in 1951, Shamanism soon became the standard work in the study of this mysterious and fascinating phenomenon. Writing as the founder of the modern study of the history of religion, Romanian émigré—scholar Mircea Eliade (1907-1986) surveys the practice of Shamanism over two and a half millennia of human history, moving from the Shamanic traditions of Siberia and Central Asia—where Shamanism was first observed—to North and South America, Indonesia, Tibet, China, and beyond. In this authoritative survey, Eliade illuminates the magico-religious life of societies that give primacy of place to the figure of the Shaman—at once magician and medicine man, healer and miracle-doer, priest, mystic, and poet. Synthesizing the approaches of psychology, sociology, and ethnology, Shamanism will remain for years to come the reference book of choice for those intrigued by this practice.The Ark Before Noah: Decoding the Story of the Flood Irving FinkelThe recent translation of a Babylonian tablet launches a groundbreaking investigation into one of the most famous stories in the world, challenging the way we look at ancient history.
Since the Victorian period, it has been understood that the story of Noah, iconic in the Book of Genesis, and a central motif in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, derives from a much older story that existed centuries before in ancient Babylon. But the relationship between the Babylonian and biblical traditions was shrouded in mystery. Then, in 2009, Irving Finkel, a curator at the British Museum and a world authority on ancient Mesopotamia, found himself playing detective when a member of the public arrived at the museum with an intriguing cuneiform tablet from a family collection. Not only did the tablet reveal a new version of the Babylonian Flood Story; the ancient poet described the size and completely unexpected shape of the ark, and gave detailed boat building specifications. Decoding this ancient message wedge by cuneiform wedge, Dr. Finkel discovered where the Babylonians believed the ark came to rest and developed a new explanation of how the old story ultimately found its way into the Bible. In The Ark Before Noah, Dr. Finkel takes us on an adventurous voyage of discovery, opening the door to an enthralling world of ancient voices and new meanings.The Language of the Goddess: Unearthing the Hidden Symbols of Western Civilization Marija Alseikaite Gimbutas"The first authoritative work on the ancient goddess culture."—Boston Globe
The Goddess is the most potent and persistent feature in the archaeological records of the ancient world, a symbol of the unity of life in nature and the personification of all that was sacred and mysterious on earth.
In this pioneering and provocative volume, Marija Gimbutas resurrects the world of the Goddess-worshipping, earth-centered cultures, bringing ancient matriarchal society vividly to life. She interweaves comparative mythology, early historical sources, linguistics, ethnography, and folklore to demonstrate conclusively that Goddess-worship is at the root of Western civilization. Illustrated with nearly 2,000 symbolic artifacts, Gimbutas' magnum opus is at once a "pictorial script" of the prehistoric Goddess religion and an authoritative work that takes these ancient cultures from the realm of speculation into that of documented fact. Over 500 illustrations.A Pictorial Anthology of Witchcraft, Magic and Alchemy Emile Grillot de GivrySupernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind Graham HancockLess than fifty thousand years ago mankind had no art, no religion, no sophisticated symbolism, no innovative thinking. Then, in a dramatic and electrifying change, described by scientists as "the greatest riddle in human history," all the skills and qualities that we value most highly in ourselves appeared already fully formed, as though bestowed on us by hidden powers.
In Supernatural Graham Hancock sets out to investigate this mysterious "before-and-after moment" and to discover the truth about the influences that gave birth to the modern human mind. His quest takes him on a detective journey from the stunningly beautiful painted caves of prehistoric France, Spain, and Italy to rock shelters in the mountains of South Africa, where he finds extraordinary Stone Age art. He uncovers clues that lead him to the depths of the Amazon rainforest to drink the powerful hallucinogen Ayahuasca with shamans, whose paintings contain images of "supernatural beings" identical to the animal-human hybrids depicted in prehistoric caves. Hallucinogens such as mescaline also produce visionary encounters with exactly the same beings. Scientists at the cutting edge of consciousness research have begun to consider the possibility that such hallucinations may be real perceptions of other "dimensions." Could the "supernaturals" first depicted in the painted caves be the ancient teachers of mankind? Could it be that human evolution is not just the "meaningless" process that Darwin identified, but something more purposive and intelligent that we have barely begun to understand?Aparitions and Precognition Aniela JaffeThe Gospel of Judas, Second Edition Rodolphe Kasser, Marvin Meyer, Gregor WurstFor 1,600 years its message lay hidden. When the bound papyrus pages of this lost gospel finally reached scholars who could unlock its meaning, they were astounded. Here was a gospel that had not been seen since the early days of Christianity, and which few experts had even thought existed–a gospel told from the perspective of Judas Iscariot, history’s ultimate traitor. And far from being a villain, the Judas that emerges in its pages is a hero.
In this radical reinterpretation, Jesus asks Judas to betray him. In contrast to the New Testament Gospels, Judas Iscariot is presented as a role model for all those who wish to be disciples of Jesus and is the one apostle who truly understands Jesus.
Discovered by farmers in the 1970s in Middle Egypt, the codex containing the gospel was bought and sold by antiquities traders, secreted away, and carried across three continents, all the while suffering damage that reduced much of it to fragments. In 2001, it finally found its way into the hands of a team of experts who would painstakingly reassemble and restore it. The Gospel of Judas has been translated from its original Coptic to clear prose, and is accompanied by commentary that explains its fascinating history in the context of the early Church, offering a whole new way of understanding the message of Jesus Christ.South American Meditations: On Hell in Man's Soul Count Hermann KeyserlingArt of the Celts: From 700 BC to the Celtic revival Jennifer Laing, Lloyd LaingA journey along the historical spectrum of Celtic art, from the rich treasures found throughout Iron Age Europe, through the flowering of metalwork, sculpture and manuscript illumination, to the revivals attempted today.The Book of Enoch the Prophet Richard LaurenceThis anthology is a thorough introduction to classic literature for those who have not yet experienced these literary masterworks. For those who have known and loved these works in the past, this is an invitation to reunite with old friends in a fresh new format. From Shakespeare s finesse to Oscar Wilde s wit, this unique collection brings together works as diverse and influential as The Pilgrim s Progress and Othello. As an anthology that invites readers to immerse themselves in the masterpieces of the literary giants, it is must-have addition to any library.Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling Charles Godfrey LelandNostradamus and His Prophecies Edgar LeoniDefinitive French text and facing translation of all the prophecies, with notes and indexes, historical background, theories about how and why they were made, plus a critical biography of the seer, his will, letters, more. Map bibliographies, genealogies. 17 illustrations. 832 pages.Stairway to Heaven: Chinese Alchemists, Jewish Kabbalists, and the Art of Spiritual Transformation Peter LevendaStairway to Heaven is an incredibly broad ranging new study that stretches from ancient Egypt and Babylon to Jewish and Christian Kabbalists, Chinese Daoists, Hindu Tantra and Haitian Vodun and finally to 19th and 20th century European occult societies, uncovering a hitherto unrecognized common myth that has been employed the world over in roughly the same form since the earliest recorded texts. Beginning with the oldest form of Jewish mysticism and extending this search through the dead sea scrolls, Levenda reveals a consistent emphasis on the number seven and its association with heavenly themes, including those of a chariot, a Throne, a Temple and a divine Being. The author then examines the myths and rituals of egypt, sumer and Babylon to locate the origin of this myth and comes up with some surprising results in the ascent rituals of the middle east. Shifting to the far east, Levenda demonstrates how the mystical practices of China and India display important similarities to these rituals, most notably in the practices of the Chinese alchemists who used a map of seven stars as their ladder to heaven.
Reinforced by visits to the Buddhist shrine of Borobudur in indonesia, Levenda concludes that there was a myth common to peoples across the ancient world that an ascent to the heavens was possible using a ladder of seven stars, a process running parallel to the alchemical idea of the perfection of metals and the perfectibility of the soul.
This concept was enshrined in the rituals of the Western secret societies of the 19th and 20th centuries such as the golden dawn and the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, and influenced the development of new age occultism. exhaustive in scope and revealing in its scholarship, Stairway to Heaven casts a fascinating new multidisciplinary perspective on the mystical practices of heavenly ascent.The Templar's Secret Island , The Knights, The Priest and the Treasure Henry Haagensen Erling / LincolnDoes the remote Baltic island of Bornholm hold the key to an ancient secret? A secret that links it to the enigmatic village of Rennes-le-Chateau in the French Pyrenees and the tunnels beneath Mount Sion in Jerusalem? What is its connection with the Templar Knights, and what were they trying to hide on such a distant isle? The Templar's Secret Island is a journey of awe-inspiring breadth and complexity, a journey that spans Europe and reaches into ancient Palestine, that first takes us thousands of years into the past and then back to our own time. It is a journey that casts new light on some of the most important enigmas of modern science.Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge A Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution Terence McKennaFor the first time in trade paperback, the critically acclaimed counterculture manifesto by the wildly popular McKenna. "Deserves to be a modern classic on mind-altering drugs and hallucinogens."—The Washington Post. Photos and illustrations.The Steampunk Tarot Barbara Moore, Aly FellWhere the past and future converge . . .
With a turn of the wheel and a spin of the cog, the oracular machinery lumbers into action. The curtains slowly draw back; the time has come to reveal your destiny.
Created by award-winning tarot expert Barbara Moore and brilliantly brought to life by artist Aly Fell, The Steampunk Tarot deck offers a glimpse of the future through a lens to the past. Retooling the gears of the Rider-Waite tradition, each card’s intricate artwork depicts a scintillating fusion of man and machine, nature and technology, science and alchemy, romance and fashion. The included manual offers tips, original spreads, and guidance in card interpretation.
Praise:
"An electric marriage of favorite geeky things, this deck is the perfect formula."
—Geek Mom Blog on Wired.comThe Archimedes Codex: How a Medieval Prayer Book Is Revealing the True Genius of Antiquity's Greatest Scientist Reviel Netz, William NoelAt a Christie’s auction in October 1998, a battered medieval manuscript sold for two million dollars to an anonymous bidder, who then turned it over to the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore for further study. The manuscript was a palimpsest-a book made from an earlier codex whose script had been scraped off and the pages used again. Behind the script of the thirteenth-century monk’s prayer book, the palimpsest revealed the faint writing of a much older, tenth-century manuscript. Part archaeological detective story, part science, and part history, The Archimedes Codex tells the extraordinary story of this lost manuscript, from its tenth-century creation in Constantinople to the auction block at Christie’s, and how a team of scholars used the latest imaging technology to reveal and decipher the original text. What they found was the earliest surviving manuscript by Archimedes (287 b.c.-212 b.c.), the greatest mathematician of antiquity-a manuscript that revealed, for the first time, the full range of his mathematical genius, which was two thousand years ahead of modern science.The Gnostic Gospels Elaine PagelsA provocative study of the gnostic gospels and the world of early Christianity as revealed through the Nag Hammadi texts.The Eternal Man Louis Pauwels, Jacques BergierImpossible possibilities Louis PauwelsThe Morning of the Magicians Louis Pauwels, Jacques BergierThe Original and Present State of Man Joseph PhippsThe Forbidden Universe: The Occult Origins of Science and the Search for the Mind of God Lynn Picknett, Clive PrinceFrom the bestselling and controversial writers who inspired The Da Vinci Code comes the latest in scientific and religious conspiracies.Secret societies, famous scientists, ancient Egyptian mysticism, and a fascinating addition to the god-versus-science debate: the Catholic Church. By the bestselling authors of The Templar Revelation and Mary Magdalene, The Forbidden Universe reveals how the foundations of modern science were based around a desire to destroy the church. The great pioneering scientists of the Renaissance and the early Enlightenment (including Copernicus, Galileo, and Sir Isaac Newton) were fervent devotees of the philosophical/mystical system of Hermeticism. Many of the most important scientists of this age, including Galileo, belonged to a secret society called the Giordanisti, which had the agenda to overthrow the Church and establish a new age of Hermetic supremacy.2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl Daniel PinchbeckRead Daniel Pinchbeck's posts on the Penguin Blog
Cross James Merrill, H. P. Lovecraft, and Carlos Castaneda -each imbued with a twenty-first-century aptitude for quantum theory and existential psychology-and you get the voice of Daniel Pinchbeck. And yet, nothing quite prepares us for the lucidity, rationale, and informed audacity of this seeker, skeptic, and cartographer of hidden realms.
Throughout the 1990s, Pinchbeck had been a member of New York's literary select. He wrote for publications such as The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, and Harper's Bazaar. His first book, Breaking Open the Head, was heralded as the most significant on psychedelic experimentation since the work of Terence McKenna.
But slowly something happened: Rather than writing from a journalistic remove, Pinchbeck-his literary powers at their peak-began to participate in the shamanic and metaphysical belief systems he was encountering. As his psyche and body opened to new experience, disparate threads and occurrences made sense like never before: Humanity, every sign pointed, is precariously balanced between greater self-potential and environmental disaster. The Mayan calendar's "end date" of 2012 seems to define our present age: It heralds the end of one way of existence and the return of another, in which the serpent god Quetzalcoatl reigns anew, bringing with him an unimaginably ancient- yet, to us, wholly new-way of living.
A result not just of study but also of participation, 2012 tells the tale of a single man in whose trials we ultimately recognize our own hopes and anxieties about modern life.Toward 2012: Perspectives on the Next Age Daniel Pinchbeck, Ken JordanAn informed, challenging, and engaging collection of essays on the new choices in lifestyles and community as we begin the countdown toward the year 2012.
This fresh and thought-provoking anthology draws together some of today’s most celebrated visionaries, thinkers, and pioneers in the field of evolving consciousness— exploring topics from shamanism to urban homesteading, the legacy of Carlos Castaneda to Mayan predictions for the year 2012, and new paths in direct political action and human sexuality.
Toward 2012 highlights some of the most challenging, intelligent pieces published on the acclaimed website Reality Sandwich. It is coedited by Daniel Pinchbeck, the preeminent voice on 2012, and online pioneer Ken Jordan, and features original works from Stanislav Grof, John Major Jenkins, and Paul D. Miller (DJ Spooky); interviews with Abbie Hoffman and artist Alex Grey; and a new introduction by Pinchbeck.
Here are ideas that trace the arc of our evolution in consciousness, lifestyles, and communities as we draw closer to a moment in time that portends ways of living that are different from anything we have expected or experienced.Bhagavad-Gita As It Is A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami PrabhupadaThe Zingara Fortune Teller A Gypsy QueenYou Forever Tuesday Lobsang RampaThe author has created 30 easy-to-follow lessons on the basic metaphysical arts. Instructions for reading an aura, seeing the etheric, traveling in the astral plane, developing your psychic senses, and much more.The Bathhouse at Midnight: An Historical Survey of Magic and Divination in Russia W. F. RyanThe title of this book refers to the classic time and place for magic, witchcraft, and divination in Russia. The Bathhouse at Midnight, by one of the world's foremost experts on the subject, surveys all forms of magic, both learned and popular, in Russia from the fifth to the eighteenth century. While no book on the subject could be exhaustive, The Bathhouse at Midnight does describe and assess all the literary sources of magic, witchcraft, astrology, alchemy, and divination from Kiev Rus and Imperial Russia, and to some extent Ukraine and Belorussia. Where possible, Ryan identifies the sources of the texts (usually Greek, Arabic, or West European) and makes parallels to other cultures, ranging from classical antiquity to Finnic. He finds that Russia shares most of its magic and divination with the rest of Europe.Subjects covered include the Evil Eye, the Number of the Beast, omens, dreams, talismans and amulets, plants, gemstones, and other materials thought to possess magic properties. The first chapter gives a historical overview, and the final chapter summarizes the political, religious, and legal aspects of the history of magic in Russia. The author also provides translations of some key texts.The Bathhouse at Midnight will be invaluable for anyone—student, teacher, or general reader—with an interest in Russia, magic, or the occult. It is unique in its field and is set to become the definitive study of Russian magic.Ancient African Kingdoms Margaret ShinnieAn Encyclopaedia of Occultism Lewis SpenceThe Vampire, his Kith and Kin Augustus Montague SummersCagliostro W.R.H. TrowbridgeTHE HOLY GRAIL: The Galahad Quest in the Arthurian Literature ARTHUR EDWARD WAITEIn this book the author has sought to group the material in such a manner that the reader may attain an accurate knowledge of that which the writers of the several great Cycles understood by the Grail itself, and that which was involved in the Quests. Also endeavored to furnish a reasonable conversance with the intention which has been attributed by various students to the makers of the Romances. Presents the mystical side of the Legends as that only in which the Grail literature can repay pursuit.Treasury of Witchcraft: Sourcebook of Magic Arts Harry E. Wedeck |
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