The rich religious beliefs and ceremonials of the Pueblo Indians of Arizona and New Mexico were first synthesized and compared by ethnologist Elsie Clews Parsons. Prodigious research and a quarter-century of fieldwork went into her 1939 encyclopedic two-volume work, Pueblo Indian Religion.

The author gives an integrated picture of the complex religious and social life in the pueblos, including Zuni, Acoma, Laguna, Taos, Isleta, Sandia, Jemez, Cochiti, Santa Clara, San Felipe, Santa Domingo, San Juan, and the Hopi villages. In volume I she discusses shelter, social structure, land tenure, customs, and popular beliefs. Parsons also describes spirits, cosmic notions, and a wide range of rituals.

The cohesion of spiritual and material aspects of Pueblo culture is also apparent in volume II, which presents an extensive body of solstice, installation, initiation, war, weather, curing, kachina, and planting and harvesting ceremonies, as well as games, animal dances, and offerings to the dead. A review of Pueblo ceremonies from town to town considers variations and borrowings. Today, a half century after its original publication, Pueblo Indian Religion remains central to studies of Pueblo religious life.

The rich religious beliefs and ceremonials of the Pueblo Indians of Arizona and New Mexico were first synthesized and compared by ethnologist Elsie Clews Parsons. Prodigious research and a quarter-century of fieldwork went into her 1939 encyclopedic two-volume work, Pueblo Indian Religion.

The author gives an integrated picture of the complex religious and social life in the pueblos, including Zuni, Acoma, Laguna, Taos, Isleta, Sandia, Jemez, cochiti, Santa Clara, San Felipe, Santa Domingo, San Juan, and the Hopi villages.

Volume 2 presents an extensive body of solstice, installation, initiation, war, weather, curing, kachina, and planting and harvesting ceremonies as well as games, animal dances, and offerings to the dead. A review of Pueblo ceremonies from town to town considers variations and borrowings. Today, a half century after its original publication, Pueblo Indian Religion remains central to studies of Pueblo religious life.

The Kabbalah is Judaism's intriguing mystical tradition, thousands of years old. In recent years, a growing number of people--both Jews and non-Jews--are finding the Kabbalah to be a fascinating treasure house of wisdom about the human mind. Men and women are discovering and applying Jewish mystical insights in daily life, and professionals in such fields as psychology, psychotherapy, and medicine are actively using Kabbalah in their work.
"Opening the Inner Gates "is an anthology concerning these new explorations. In sixteen chapters, thirteen contributors present both theoretical considerations and applied methods of Kabbalah in such areas as healing, the mind-body relationship, dreamwork, intuition and creativity, storytelling, women's spirituality, parenting, working with the elderly, and "repairing the world" ("tikkun olam)."
Contributors:
LaVera Draisin, MD - Gerald Epstein, MD - Sheldon Kramer, PhD - Rabbi Steven Rosman, PhD - Edward Hoffman, PhD - Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi - Steven Joseph, MD - Howard Schwartz - Rabbi Chaim Richter - Alyce R. Tresenfeld - Mark Malachi - Rabbi Rami Shapiro - Laya Firestone Seghi

This book brings together as complete a record of traditional Yup'ik rules and rituals as is possible in the late twentieth century. Incorporating elders' recollections of the system of ruled boundaries and ritual passages that guided their parents and grandparents a century ago, Ann Fienup-Riordan brings into focus the complex, creative Yup'ik world view-expressed by ceremonial exchanges and the cycling of names, gifts, and persons-which continues to shape daily life in communities along the Bering Sea coast.

This illuminating guide to the Native American ritual of the Medicine Wheel makes an ancient spiritual practice available to everyone. Roy Wilson, Cowlitz Chief and Spiritual Leader in Washington, combines Sun Bear's Zodiac (outer circle) and his own vision. The Four Pathways are used to experience the God within. It is important to note that all Pathways go through the Creator. which includes the Creator in the center, surrounded by seven Spirit Messengers: Cougar, Hawk, Coyote, Wolf, Bear, Raven, and Owl; the four Gatekeepers: Buffalo in the East, Bear in the South; Eagle in the West; and Cougar in the North; the twelve Spirit Helpers: Turkey, Turtle, and Owl on the East Pathway; Beaver, Ant, and Squirrel on the South Pathway; Butterfly, Bat, and Grouse on the West Pathway; and, Hawk, Goose, and Wolf on the North Pathway.

Employing all the available Data and Survival of the Historic Persio-Roman Mithraics embodying versions of Zoroastrian Scriptures combining the Religions of all Races and Times, with the best of Modern Spiritual Thought with Experiments for every Day of the Year. Contents: Search for Truth; Control of Sleep; Achievement of Health; Comparative Religion; Valuation of Error; Judgment of Self-knowledge; Vindication of Diving Justice; Calling of the Saviors; Building of Sanctuaries; Soul-Marriage to Wisdom; Choice of Successors; Unveiling of Final; Truth. Use this scarce and illuminating book to achieve an intitaition into the secret Mithraic Mysteries.

In this definitive work-a product of more than half a century of research and close observation-the noted anthropologist Omer C. Stewart provides a sweeping reconstruction of the rise of peyotism and the Native American Church. Although it is commonly known that the modern peyote religion became formalized around 1880 in western Oklahoma, it had roots in precontact American Indian ritual. Today it is practiced by thousands upon thousands of American Indians throughout the West.

Long a subject of controversy, peyotism has become a unifying influence in Indian life, providing the basis for ceremonies, friendships, social gatherings, travel, marriage, and much more. As Stewart demonstrates, it has been a source of comfort and healing and a means of expression for a troubled people.

"Santeria "represents the first in-depth, scholarly account of a profound way of wisdom that is growing in importance in America today. A professional academic and himself a participant in the Santeria" "community of the Bronx for several years, Joseph Murphy offers a powerful description and insightful analysis of this African/Cuban religion. He traces the survival of an ancient spiritual path from its West African Yoruba origins, through nearly two centuries of slavery in the New World, to its presence in the urban centers of the United States, where it continues to inspire seekers with its compelling vision.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

This is valuable information to have on hand and give you an insight as to the depth of what the organized religions won't tell you about. The power that Moses had, the ability to command things to happen like he did wasn't just a one way street, it was a two-way communication and his Egyptian knowledge of magick was transferred to the monotheistic belief system he helped to set up. Here are secrets of Moses' powers that can now be revealed for the serious student of the New Age and Occult. Included are the 21 MAGICAL TALISMANS OF MOSES seldom seen, which can be used to: * Bring you reader the highest possible good fortunes. * Attain honor and personal wealth. * Bring back a loved one or straying mate. * Help overcome illness and stay healthy. This book contains ancient spells, charms and powerful commands given to Moses by God to help the Chosen People overcome all obstacles and vanquish their enemies.

n this prophetic, millennial work, written by Russia's greatest philosopher at the end of the last century, the great task facing humanity as progress races to end history is the resistance to evil. Solovyov addresses what seem to him the three main trends of our time: economic materialism, Tolstoyan abstract moralism, and Nietzschean hubris--the first is already present, the second imminent, while the last is the apocalyptic precursor of the Antichrist.

"The sacred texts of Ifa, repository of the accumulated wisdom of countless generations of Yoruba people, are an invaluable source not only for all students of African oral literature and Yoruba civilization, but also for future generations interested in the continuing vitality of Ifa divination and a Yoruba way of life and thought." Henry Drewal

This landmark study of Ifa, the most important and elaborate system of divination of the Yoruba people of Nigeria, remains a monumental contribution to scholarship in anthropology, folklore, religion, philosophy, linguistics, and African and African-American studies."

For half a century, readers on peyotism have devoured La Barre's fascinating original study, which began when the author, at age twenty-four, studied the rites of fifteen American Indian tribes using Lophophora williamsii, the small, spineless, carrot-shaped peyote cactus growing in the Rio Grande Valley and southward. Continuing his research from the 1930s through the 1980s, Weston La Barre reviews topics such as the Timothy Leary-Richard Alpert ""experiments"" with peyote and other psychotropic substances, the Carlos Castaneda phenomenon, the progress of the Native American Church toward acceptance as a religious denomination, the presumptions of the Neo-American Church, the legal ramifications of ritual drug use, and the spread of peyotism from the Southwest to other North American tribes. This new edition of La Barre's classic study includes 334 new entries in the latest of his highly valued bibliographical essays on works relating to peyote, not just in anthropology but in a variety of fields including archeology, economics, botany, chemistry, and pharmacology. The bibliography lists important contributions in popular media such as newspapers, audiotapes, and films, as well as in scholarly journals.

Playing God discusses the genre of rituals known as 'Teyyam' extant in the North Malabar region of Kerala State, India. In this elaborately costumed ritual practitioners invoke the spirit of a deity into themselves that constitutes a splendid theophany in which, when the ritual process is over, the devotees are able to talk to the 'god' and invoke his/her blessings and predictions of their future. This book concentrates on the cult of the Muttappan duo of gods, the most popular among the Teyyams of North Malabar. The Muttappan cult, though originating from worship of a forest god by tribal groups and untouchables of the hill districts of North Malabar, is not only popular in Kerala, but also attracts worshippers from all the castes and regions of South India. Playing God analyses the mythology and ritual praxis of the Muttappan cult and examines attempts to integrate the cult into a wider Hinduism by enunciating a new hermeneutic of the legend and rituals based on the Hindu Advaitic tradition. The book also discusses how the Teyyam ritual contrasts significantly with rituals and worship in Brahminical Hinduism. The popularity of the cult is a reflection of the changing relationships between castes in Kerala, involving a closer symbiosis and reflecting the urge by the untouchable groups of Kerala to gain a higher standing and acceptance in Keralan Hindu society. The rituals are rich in theological significance and symbolism, and have links to the performing arts of Kerala such as Kathakali and Ottam Tullal.

Tendrils of musky incense curl about you in Baal's temple of seven elements. You light an oil lamp in reverence to the ancient deities. Have you ever wondered who the deities in the land of Canaan before the Bible were? A practical and well-documented guide, this work combines history and archaeology of the Canaanite world with modern insight. In "Whisper of Stone", learn about Asherah poles, how to avert the Evil Eye, how ancient sorcerers created golems, and about the legends that inspired the Bible. Unearth a culture buried in bias, rediscover a pantheon and a people formerly described as needlessly violent, sex-crazed, and devoid of humanity. Read of a religion far more rich and complex than previously understood.

After twenty fruitless years on a frustrating spiritual search, Dawn Paul was faced with no other option but to give up. Disheartened and exhausted, she went on holiday to Peru and this changed her life forever. During a visit to Machu Picchu she received a mystical experience, a vision of the Inca, who instructed her to follow the path of the shaman. Feeling she had finally been given the direction she had been looking for all her life, Dawn promptly resigned from her six figure career in a bank and stepped onto the shamanic path. Over the following years Dawn worked worldwide as a shamanic healer and spiritual teacher, assisting many people of all ages, from all races and religions. A Healer of Souls is Dawn s gift to the general public, and to the wider community without which a shaman cannot exist.

An invitation to embrace your feminine powers, awaken your soul's creativity, and ignite your inner wild magic * Explains how to awaken your spiritual Womb to find strength within and how to reclaim your softness and vulnerability as a feminine superpower * Explores Earth Magic, the Moon Mysteries, Flower of Life teachings, Dragon wisdom, the shamanic powers of grief, the feminine archetypes of the Witch and the Priestess, and powerful goddesses from around the world * Reveals sacred spaces in the world where the power of the Goddess lives on The Womb is the seat of our primal power and intuition--our "wild knowing." Spirit weavers are those who have heard this wild voice from within and have followed that call--embarking on a grail quest to follow the feminine path of magic, awaken to the depths of their soul, and embody their true feminine essence. Inviting you onto the spiral path of the spirit weaver, Seren Bertrand shares wisdom teachings and rituals from the feminine path of magic and her own ancestral lineage of old European witches and faerie folk, spirit keepers and story weavers. She explores Flower of Life teachings, the moon mysteries, and dragon wisdom. She unveils the shamanic powers of grief and deeply examines the feminine archetypes of the witch and the priestess. Drawing on powerful feminine spiritual icons from around the world, such as Kali, Isis, Teresa of Avila, and Mary Magdalene, she explains how to awaken your spiritual Womb to find strength within and how to reclaim your soft powers of heart-opening vulnerability. She explores the lost traditions of the Goddess lineage and reveals sacred spaces in the world where her memory lives on. She shares the Womb Mysteries of alchemical union, revealing how to awaken the wild feminine and wild masculine and become sacred lovers who balance their light and shadow. From working with the cycles of the moon and learning how to root your power into the earth to healing the ancestral wounds left by the generations before you, Seren's medicine teachings, like secret spells, cast an enchantment over your feminine soul, awakening its fertility and wild inner magic.

The Wheel of the Year in Ancient Egypt isbn 978190695138 The very oldest Egyptian ritual calendar was lunar. The evidence for this is very complex and in the words of Professor Leo Depuydt, "does not exactly jump out at you " This ancient lunar calendar continued a veiled existence alongside the dominant solar or civil year. Many details are lost so the project of this book is to bring together what has survived. Revealed here is a very ancient pantheon of gods, including Set, Min, & Hathor, one for each month of the lunar year. I have provided for them a unique collection of liturgy, ritual and prayers as may have been offered in the homes, sanctuaries and temples of the original Egypt. Many of these feasts of Ancient Egypt were celebrated on the phases of the moon - principally when it was new or full. So whatever your favorite god or goddess, make offerings on either of these days and you will be reviving an old and authentic form of the Ancient Egyptian magical religion. To complete the picture I present over several chapters all the technical details of the lunar month as well as its more well known civil replacement. Here you will find information on how certain key days were calculated when needed. These later chapters also provide related material on the mysteries of the Northern Constellations. Finally there are descriptions of the thirty lunar days of each month and lunar omens. So in total this is the most complete and authoritative guide to the ritual wheel of the year at all stages of its use in the Ancient Egyptian magical religion.

In this volume Levi-Strauss explores the mythologies of the Americas, with occasional incursions into European and Japanese folklore, tales of sloths and squirrels interweave with discussions of Freud, Saussure, "signification," and plays by Sophocles and Labiche. The author also critiques psychoanalytic interpretation and defends the interpretive powers of structuralism.