Providing a unique anthropological perspective on Jewish mysticism and magic, this book is a study of Jewish rites and rituals and how the analysis of early literature provides the roots for understanding religious practices.
Contemplative experience is central to Hindu yoga traditions, Buddhist meditation practices, and Catholic mystical theology, and, despite doctrinal differences, it expresses itself in suggestively similar meditative landmarks in each of these three meditative systems.
Kabbalah: A Guide for the Perplexed is a concise and accessible introduction to the major elements of the prevalent metaphysical system of Judaism, Kabbalah.
Twelfth-century Rhineland mystic Hildegard von Bingen records her exquisite encounter with divinity, producing a magnificent fusion of divine inspiration and human intellect.
By 1791, the French Revolution had spread to Haiti, where slaves and free blacks alike had begun demanding civil rights guaranteed in the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man.
The first practical guide to the transformative uses of salvia *; Explains how salvia connects you with your higher purpose and aids you in envisioning your unique path in life *; Describes appropriate methods of use, a shamanic diet to increase effectiveness, and the meaning of the symbols experienced during salvia's ecstatic embrace *; Explores recent clinical research into salvia's long-term positive psychological effects and its potential as a treatment for Alzheimer's, depression, and addiction Salvia divinorum has been used since ancient times by the Mazatec shamans of Mexico for divination, vision quests, and healing.
Identifying the Mayan World Tree with the central axis of the cosmos, the author shows how evolution is not random *; Shows how the evolution of the universe emanates from the cosmic Tree of Life *; Explains the origin and evolution of biological life and consciousness and how this is directed Using recent findings within cosmology, coupled with his broad understanding of the Mayan Calendar, biologist Carl Johan Calleman offers a revolutionary and fully developed alternative to Darwin's theory of biological evolution--and the theory of randomness that holds sway over modern science.
Divination, the use of special talents and techniques to gain divine knowledge, was practiced in many different forms in ancient Israel and throughout the ancient world.
This book, first published in 1957, is the study of 14th-century Arab historian Ibn Khaldun, who founded a special science to consider history and culture, based on the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle and their Muslim followers.
Mysticism in Early Modern England traces how mysticism featured in polemical and religious discourse in seventeenth-century England and explores how it came to be viewed as a source of sectarianism, radicalism, and, most significantly, religious enthusiasm.
The triple aim of Hamadhani in this work, first translated into English in 1915, appears to have been to amuse, to interest and to instruct; and this explains why, in spite of the inherent difficulty of a work of this kind composed primarily with a view to the rhetorical effect upon the learned and the great, there is scarcely a dull chapter in the fifty-one maqamat or discourses.
Since the seventeenth century, science has been contending with philosophy, organised religion and the arts for domination over Western civilisation and society.
A detailed account of the transformation of consciousness and discovery of life's purpose brought on by peyote *; Shows how peyote and other visionary plants do not distort reality but gloriously unveil it, pulling the mind out of its cosmic slumber and revealing our unity with all life *; Explains the necessity when working with peyote to remain the master of one's mind and consciously work on oneself *; Examines how modern society's revulsion to sacramental plants and other consciousness expanders is deeply rooted in Western philosophy Charles Duits was caught in the grip of a dead-end existential and spiritual crisis.
A modern-day quest that echoes the ancient alchemists' work to discover the elixir of life *; Provides an overview of alchemical practices in the ancient world--from Europe to China *; Reveals the alchemical secrets for creating this elixir in clear scientific language In 1989, while attempting to extract precious minerals from his property, a wealthy Arizonan obtained a mysterious white material that initially defied scientific attempts to identify it.
A profound understanding of the surrealists' connections with alchemists and secret societies and the hermetic aspirations revealed in their works *; Explains how surrealist paintings and poems employed mythology, gnostic principles, tarot, voodoo, alchemy, and other hermetic sciences to seek out unexplored regions of the mind and recover lost ';psychic' and magical powers *; Provides many examples of esoteric influence in surrealism, such as how Picasso's Demoiselles d'Avignon was originally titled The Bath of the Philosophers Not merely an artistic or literary movement as many believe, the surrealists rejected the labels of artist and author bestowed upon them by outsiders, accepting instead the titles of magician, alchemist, or--in the case of Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo--witch.
Bending genre as a planetary body might bend spacetime, Bashirs poems live as music and film, as memoir, observation, and critique, as movement across both cosmic and poetic fields.
Examines the work of Carl Jung in relation to Eastern religion, the wisdom teachings of the Sophia, Sufi mysticism, and visionary spirituality *; Reveals the spiritual values underlying the psychoanalytic theories of Carl Jung *; Explores the role of the Gnostic Sophia with respect to Jung's most controversial essay, ';Answer to Job' *; Presents new revelations about Sufi mysticism and its relationship to esoteric Buddhist practices *; Shows how the underlying spiritual traditions of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity mesh with the spiritual teachings of Buddhism Henry Corbin (1903-1978) was one of the most important French philosophers and orientalists of the 20th century.
This study analyses the commentaries of four Muslim intellectuals who have turned to scripture as a liberating text to confront an array of problems, from patriarchy, racism, and empire to poverty and interreligious communal violence.
Drawing on Tibetan, Hindu, Taoist, Christian and Kabbalistic traditions, Andrew Harvey shows why he believes the direct path is now essential to the future survival of humanity - and how the truth and vibrancy of this radical vision depends on reclamation of the Sacred Feminine.
A history of how mystical and spiritual influences have shaped Russia's identity and politics and what it means for the future of world civilization *; Examines Russia's spiritual history, from its pagan origins and Eastern Orthodox mysticism to secret societies, Rasputin, Roerich, Blavatsky, and Dostoyevsky *; Explains the visionary writings of the spiritual philosophers of Russia's Silver Age, which greatly influence Putin today *; Explores what Russia's unique identity and its history of messianic politics and apocalyptic thought mean for its future on the world stage At the turn of the 20th century, a period known as the Silver Age, Russia was undergoing a powerful spiritual and cultural rebirth.
The first English translation of the book that reveals the Cathar stronghold at Montsgur to be the repository of the Holy Grail *; Presents the history of the Papal persecution of the Cathars that lies hidden in the medieval epic Parzival and in the poetry of the troubadours *; Provides new insights into the life and death of this gifted and controversial author Crusade Against the Grail is the daring book that popularized the legend of the Cathars and the Holy Grail.
The first volume in a three-volume set, this is a study of the rise of Persian Sufi spirituality and literature in Islam during the first six Muslim centuries.
The Zen tradition has just two main meditative practices: shikantaza, or "e;just sitting"e;; and introspection guided by the powerful Zen teaching stories called koans.
African religion is ancestor worship; that is, funeral preparations, burial of the dead with ceremony and pomp, belief in eternal existence of souls of the dead as ancestors, periodic remembrance of ancestors, and belief that they influence the affairs of their living descendants.
Drawing on Jewish myth, ritual and tradition, as well as the author's own experiences, this original and unique book offers insights into how Jung's psychology and ideas are relevant if understood from a wider, archetypal, perspective.
