A collection of essays on magic and occultism. The essays and articles collected in this volume sum up the first not-quite-decade of John Michael Greer's career. While they cover a range of subjects, all of them share a common theme, and were shaped by certain experiences that remade his spiritual life just before the first of them was written. They record a remarkable period in the life of a scholar, and will provide inspiration and entertainment to students of the occult as well as anyone interested in magic or writing.

Plague, a devastating and recurring affliction throughout the Renaissance, had a major impact on European life. Not only was pestilence a biological problem, but it was also read as a symptom of spiritual degeneracy and it caused widespread social disorder. Assembling a picture of the complex and sometimes contradictory responses to plague from medical, spiritual and civic perspectives, this book uncovers the place of music - whether regarded as an indispensable medicine or a moral poison that exacerbated outbreaks - in the management of the disease. This original musicological approach further reveals how composers responded, in their works, to the discourses and practices surrounding one of the greatest medical crises in the pre-modern age. Addressing topics such as music as therapy, public rituals and performance and music in religion, the volume also provides detailed musical analysis throughout to illustrate how pestilence affected societal attitudes toward music.

Television, the movies, and computer games fill the minds of their viewers with a daily staple of fantasy, from tales of UFO landings, haunted houses, and communication with the dead to claims of miraculous cures by gifted healers or breakthrough treatments by means of fringe medicine. The paranormal is so ubiquitous in one form of entertainment or another that many people easily lose sight of the distinction between the real and the imaginary, or they never learn to make the distinction in the first place. In this thorough review of pseudoscience and the paranormal in contemporary life, psychologist Terence Hines teaches readers how to carefully evaluate all such claims in terms of scientific evidence.
Hines devotes separate chapters to psychics; life after death; parapsychology; astrology; UFOs; ancient astronauts, cosmic collisions, and the Bermuda Triangle; faith healing; and more. New to this second edition are extended sections on psychoanalysis and pseudopsychologies, especially recovered memory therapy, satanic ritual abuse, facilitated communication, and other questionable psychotherapies. There are also new chapters on alternative medicine, which is now marketed in our drug stores, and on environmental pseudoscience, with special emphasis on the evidence that certain technologies like cell phones or environmental agents like asbestos cause cancer.
Finally, Hines discusses the psychological causes for belief in the paranormal despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. This valuable, highly interesting, and completely accessible analysis critiques the whole range of current paranormal claims.

Los dialogos que forman este libro son una recopilacion de la intemporal ensenanza de uno de los sabios mas grandes de la India. Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj no propuso ninguna religion ni tampoco ideologia alguna, limitandose a desvelar suavemente el misterio del Ser, con su mensaje a la vez sencillo, directo y sublime. La unica preocupacion de Nisargadatta era acabar con el sufrimiento humano y su mision fue guiar al individuo hacia la comprension de su verdadera naturaleza: el Ser todo-abarcante y todo-penetrante, eterna bienaventuranza y felicidad sin limites, de la cual surge todo cuanto existe.

La profecia del Mastay predice el futuro advenimiento de una era de luz y armonia; de un dia que empezara iluminado por un nuevo Sol. Esedia se iniciara con la reintegracion entre la gente de las cuatro direcciones. El proposito de este libro es facilitar dicho reencuentro y descubrir que puede suceder entonces. Para ello, se explica un fragmento significativo de la vida de cuatro personajes, donde cada uno representa un elemento, direccion y civilizacion. El primer personaje representa a lagente de aire, la direccion Este y a la civilizacion Oriental. El segundo representa a lagente de agua, la direccion Norte y al Islam.El tercero a lagente de fuego, la direccion Oeste y a la civilizacion Occidental. Finalmente, tenemos al cuarto personaje, una mujer aborigen australiana que representa a lagente de tierra, la direccion Sur y a todas las primeras naciones. En el quinto capitulo, titulado "El punto de reencuentro," los cuatro personajes mantienen una conversacion. Ellos se reunen con la esperanza de generarla chispa que provoque el mismo reencuentro entre todos y cada uno de nosotros. Un reencuentro predicho por los incas... hace mas de cinco siglos. Este libro tambien trata de recordarnos las ensenanzas originales, tal como las ha interpretado a lo largo de la historia la gente de cada direccion y elemento. Busca aquello que tenemos en comun, aquello que nos complementa. Trata de devolver el equilibrio al planeta, empezando por nuestro propio equilibrio interior para, a continuacion, buscar la armonia entre los pueblos y las culturas. Cuando recordemos, dispondremos de una mejor comprension de quienes somos y de cual es nuestra funcion. Dicen lasensenanzas originales que somos aspectos distintos de una mismadivinidad encarnada y que nuestra responsabilidad inmediata es devolver el equilibrio a la Madre Tierra. Lo lograremos...?"

Complete in itself, this volume originated as a commentary and expansion of Manly P. Hall's masterpiece of symbolic philosophy, "The Secret Teachings of All Ages,"
In "Lectures on Ancient Philosophy," Manly P. Hall expands on the philosophical, metaphysical, and cosmological themes introduced in his classic work, "The Secret Teachings of All Ages," Hall wrote this volume as a reader's companion to his earlier work, intending it for those wishing to delve more deeply into the esoteric philosophies and ideas that undergird the Secret Teachings. Particular attention is paid to Neoplatonism, ancient Christianity, Rosicrucian and Freemasonic traditions, ancient mysteries, pagan rites and symbols, and Pythagorean mathematics.
First published in 1929-the year after the publication of Hall's magnum opus-this edition includes the author's original subject index, twenty diagrams prepared under his supervision for the volume, and his 1984 preface, which puts the book in context for the contemporary reader.

In the crucible of grief following a friend's death, Presbyterian pastor Patricia Pearce sensed a dimension of existence beneath her ordinary perception-and became resolved to discover it. She soon found herself in a vortex of revelatory dreams, synchronicities, energy openings, and insights that shattered her worldview, exposed a unified Reality of Love, and unveiled the illusory nature of the ego and the world it has created. Faced with these discoveries, she struggled to remain in a religion that, she now realized, has been shaped by the very ego consciousness Jesus transcended and urged others to abandon. Enlightening, revelatory, and bold, Beyond Jesus reveals how our political and religious institutions are an outward manifestation of the inner beliefs we hold about who we are, and that beneath the layers of dogma about Jesus lies a key to our spiritual evolution and the astonishing possibility it holds for the future.

This title follows the themes in the writings of Kenneth Grant, H.P. Lovecraft and the Necronomicon, uncovering further meanings of the concepts of the famous writers of the Left Hand Path. It is for Thelemites, as well as lovers of the Lovecraft Mythos in all its forms and for those who find the rituals of classical ceremonial magic inadequate for the New Aeon.

This compelling book uses extensive foreign- language sources to enlighten English-speaking readers about the effect of the tilt of the earth's axis on catastrophes, the Hollow Earth Theory and the link between UFOs and the polar regions.

A step-by-step guide to developing an embodied relationship with Egyptian divinities * Details the nine stages of the ancient Egyptian initiatory path, describing each stage's powers as well as the culminating ceremony called "The Crown of Isis" * Provides profound guided meditations for each of the nine stages and illustrates the manifestation of this path's principles through stories of awakening * Shares the author's personal journey as a Garment of Isis and her own powerful interactions with Isis, which culminated in her serving as Oracle of Isis at the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago in 1993 The Sacred Science of ancient Egypt was an initiatory spiritual system, a technology of consciousness designed to birth a mystical communion with the divinities, an embodied union of being between the eternal and the mortal. After initiation was completed, the re-identified being, now divinely possessed, was known as a Garment of Isis, signifying that the goddess Isis dwelt within them. Offering a practical guide to the key principles within the Egyptian temple tradition, Naomi Ozaniec explores the process of creating and developing a personal relationship with the Neteru, the divinities and forces of creation of ancient Egypt. She details the nine stages of this initiatory path, which are divided into three phases--heartmind, spiritmind, and soulmind. This step-by-step, interactive process culminates in a ceremony called The Crown of Isis. The author provides profound guided meditations and illustrates the manifestation of the initiate's powers through stories of awakening brought on by this spiritual path. She also shares her personal journey as a Garment of Isis and her own powerful interactions with Isis. An accessible yet substantive guide to initiation into the Egyptian Mysteries, this book details how to gradually awaken and attune your mind to the symbolic, open access to higher realms of consciousness, and enter into a mystical marriage between personal and divine consciousness.

Contemporary seekers on the hunt for an overview of the Western mystery traditions often face a small selection of dense, out-of-date tomes. Alternatively, Hidden Wisdom is a fresh, coherent, and accessible work that expounds many of the teachings of Western esotericism, examining its key figures and movements.

The Rosicrucian Trilogy features modern translations of Fama Fraternitatis(1614), Confessio Fraternitatis (1615), and The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreuz (1616) with 30 original illustrations by Hans Wildermann.

Four hundred years ago, the publication of these 3 anonymous documents launched the Rosicrucian movement. The story of Christian Rosenkreuz and his secretive order, as told in the Fama Fraternitatis, had political repercussions that continue to this day, while The Chemical Wedding is a landmark in European fantasy fiction. This present book offers the 3 founding documents in reliable, readable, modern English. Fully annotated and with modern introductions, these new translations explain the historical context, shed light on the beginnings of the Rosicrucian Order, and bring this fascinating material to a wider readership.

After the execution of the Samuels family - known as the Witches of Warboys - on charges of witchcraft in 1593, Sir Henry Cromwell (grandfather of Oliver Cromwell) used their confiscated property to fund an annual sermon against witchcraft to be given in Huntingdon (Cambridgeshire) by a divinity scholar from Queens' College, Cambridge. Although beliefs about witchery had changed by the eighteenth century, the tradition persisted. Martin J. Naylor (c.1762-1843), a Fellow of Queens' College and the holder of incumbencies in Yorkshire, gave four of the sermons, on 25 March each year from 1792 to 1795. Although he called the subject 'antiquated', he hoped his 'feeble effort, levelled against the gloomy gothic mansion of superstition, may not be entirely without a beneficial effect'. This collection of the four sermons was published in 1795, and appended with an account of the original events in Warboys.