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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Non-Christian religions > Pre-Christian European & Mediterranean religions > General
The books that continue where the Da Vinci code left off.Book
number six in a series by the Rebel Preacher Melvin Abercrombie you
read about Lucifer the first born son(Sun) now read about Auriel
the first Born Daughter(Mother Earth) and the Broken Wing Ministry
Where God and Goddess are [email protected]
The village of Stanton Drew in north Somerset is host to a
remarkable group of ancient monuments which together comprise the
third largest collection of standing stones in England. Its Great
Circle, the largest of three stone circles, exceeds the dimensions
of Stonehenge. Recent archaeology has revealed that a substantial
woodhenge once occupied the site, underlining its importance as a
major ritual centre of the Neolithic age. Gordon Strong, a regular
lecturer on the subject, has spent many years exploring this
fascinating site on multiple levels. In this well illustrated book
he presents archaeological detail, local folklore and the views of
various commentators from 18th century antiquarians to dowsers,
discussing mythology, mediumship and earth energies. His insights
are gleaned from his long love-affair with the site, and offer the
visitor some clues for making their own inner connection to this
unique monument which still retains its ancient magic.
Lucian was born at Samosata, a city in the ancient kingdom of
Commagene (present-day Turkey) some time around 125 AD. Trained as
a sculptor, he later became a rhetorician, pleading legal cases in
the courts. But Lucian's cynical turn of mind and biting wit made
him popular with the region's intelligentsia and he was soon
performing set-pieces in public. So successful was he, his skills
brought both fame and fortune, and allowed him to travel
extensively, through Greece and Italy and even as far as Gaul. In
'The Syrian Goddess' Lucian does more than merely entertain an
audience. His essay on the worship of the goddess Atargatis (=
Astarte) at Hierapolis ('Holy City') in northern Syria, gives an
eye-witness account of a whole swathe of (to our eyes) outlandish
pagan ceremonies: ritual prostitution, phallic worship, priestly
self-castration, and human sacrifice are all recorded with
meticulous care. 'The Syrian Goddess' remains one of the most
important sources for 'oriental' religions under the Roman Empire,
and is a classic read for all those interested in paganism and the
cult of the Great Goddess.
The Basics of Torah - The Tree of Life helps define the simple
purpose of Torah and gives scriptural reference for what is sin,
truth, light. One will learn how the Father Yahuah blesses. This
book is designed for the lost sheep of the House of Israel
(Yashra'al) that are return back to the Torah and the Father
commandment, statues, precepts and judgments.
'The Book of Jasher' is said to derive from a manuscript that was
discovered by the Romans after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD. It
appeared in Europe as a printed version at Venice in 1613. From
internal evidence it seems to date from around the time of the
Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmudic literature - it may even be
contemporary with the 'Book of Enoch'. The book is enormously
valuable as an adjunct to Biblical studies. It contains historical
information that can help to fill in historical gaps in the
Biblical narrative, such as the reason for Cain and Tubal Cain's
deaths, and the true identity of Melchizedek. There are also many
problematical comments, while others directly contradict orthodox
Jewish rites, such as Rachel's use of necromancy and the practice
of astrology by Benjamin. 'The Book of Jasher' is a document that
both enlightens and disturbs in equal measure - a book that cannot
and should not be ignored.
Asatru, the Nordic Indigenous Religion of Europe, is one of the
world's most ancient ethnic and cultural traditions. It is a
rational, positive and empowering religion, which complements
science and allows for freedom of expression. Asatru fosters the
concept of critical thinking, self-empowerment and knowledge over
blind faith. Asatru values honour, gender equality, representative
government, personal accountability and tradition. Profoundly
allegorical and deeply philosophical, Asatru is about the
importance of the family and connection to nature. The Nordic
tradition does not fear its gods, has no devil, and no concept of
eternal sin. On the contrary, Asatru fosters the natural
interaction within nature and challenges its kin to live active and
responsible lives. Although a religion with a deep and powerful
ancestral heritage, Asatru is as much about the present and future
as it is about the past. This book provides a definitive guide to
Asatru, the Nordic Indigenous Religion of Europe - its development,
its unyielding history, major events and military victories.
Inclusive of the Klovekorn Asatru Rituals, gain an insight into
Germanic myths, sacred sites and cultural heroes. Be inspired by a
revelation of Nordic philosophy, symbols and ancient cultural
practices. Understand the Nordic deities and allegories of Odin,
Freja, Tyr, Thor, the Nordic Easter and Yule Festivals. Learn how
to read, write and use runes, the ancient ancestral language of the
Germanic Peoples. If you have Germanic or Anglo-Saxon heritage,
this book reveals the faith and tradition of your ancestors and
bloodline - rediscover what you have lost and what your internal
spirit yearns to regain, your true and natural religion. This is a
must read book for all Europeans and persons of Anglo Saxon
heritage. It will become a life-long reference companion. Although
Thors mighty hammer, one of the symbols of our tradition, hangs
from the necks of only an exclusive few, being replaced by an alien
religion some thousand years ago, its grasp on the European
imagination and folk soul remains unshaken. Rediscover your true
natural ancestral pedigree.
1 Enoch, written in great antiquity, is a text of ecstasy and
heavenly vision purported to be written by Enoch, seventh from
Adam, who "lived 365 years and was no more, for God took him." This
book was influential and widely read in the early church, as
witnessed by its quotations in the Biblical books of Jude and 1
Peter.
Drawing on two years of ethnographic field research among the
Navajos, this book explores a controversial Native American ritual
and healthcare practice: ceremonial consumption of the psychedelic
Peyote cactus in the context of an indigenous postcolonial healing
movement called the Native American Church (NAC), which arose in
the 19th century in response to the creation of the reservations
system and increasing societal ills, including alcoholism. The
movement is the locus of cultural conflict with a long history in
North America, and stirs very strong and often opposed emotions and
moral interpretations. Joseph Calabrese describes the Peyote
Ceremony as it is used in family contexts and federally funded
clinical programs for Native American patients. He uses an
interdisciplinary methodology that he calls clinical ethnography:
an approach to research that involves clinically informed and
self-reflective immersion in local worlds of suffering, healing,
and normality. Calabrese combined immersive fieldwork among NAC
members in their communities with a year of clinical work at a
Navajo-run treatment program for adolescents with severe substance
abuse and associated mental health problems. There he had the
unique opportunity to provide conventional therapeutic intervention
alongside Native American therapists who were treating the very
problems that the NAC often addresses through ritual. Calabrese
argues that if people respond better to clinical interventions that
are relevant to their society's unique cultural adaptations and
ideologies (as seems to be the case with the NAC), then preventing
ethnic minorities from accessing traditional ritual forms of
healing may actually constitute a human rights violation.
Excavation of Goebekli Tepe has revealed the hitherto unknown
religion of the "Neolithic Revolution." Almost twelve millennia ago
the cult was established, at the northern end of the Fertile
Crescent, by priests who were hunter-shamans, miners of flint and
weapon-makers. Progress in weapon manufacture resulted in
overhunting, a temporary surplus of meat, too many human hunters,
and a decline in prey animal populations. Shortages of prey animals
elicited a priestly cult that specialized in the regeneration of
life. Priestly minds rationalized taking control of plants and
animals and thereby encouraged domestication--which led to
"hyper-domestication," or, what evolved as our history of
civilization and our history of religions.
Awo Falokun Fatunmbi presents in "Ebora" a revealing account and
understanding for the first time of Africa's metaphysical aspect of
Odu Ifa releasing the connection of Spiritual Warriors within our
lives. A dupe Awo Ogun. - - Ifasina O. Agbede In this book, Awo
Falokun Fatunmbi continues to make lasting contributions to our
understanding of the Yoruba cosmos. In "Ebora," Awo Falokun
provides an in depth explanation of the often misunderstood topic
of Spiritual Warriors in Ifa. Set to the rhythm of the universal
hero's journey, baba takes us on a voyage into the Yoruba spiritual
world. This book also provides instruction on how to embark on the
journey to self-transformation with the help and guidance of the
Yoruba Spiritual Warriors. - - Awo Fategbe Fatunmbi
Did you know that Canis Minor is actually a "fox," and not a "dog"?
Did you know that the ship of the Argonauts stretches across the
sky? Did you know that Pisces is actually representing the Greek
Gods Aphrodite and Eros? Have you ever wanted to know why and how
the constellations came to be? Most ancient cultures saw pictures
in the stars of he night sky. The earliest known efforts to catalog
the stars date to cuneiform texts and artifacts dating back roughly
6,000 years. These remnants, found in the valley of the Euphrates
River, suggest that the ancients observing the heavens saw the
lion, the bull, and the scorpion in the stars. The constellations
as we know them today are undoubtedly very different from those
first few--our night sky is a compendium of images from a number of
different societies, both ancient and modern. By far, though, we
owe the great debt to the mythology of the ancient Greeks and
Romans.
In the second century, Valentinians and other gnosticizing
Christians used numerical structures and symbols to describe God,
interpret the Bible, and frame the universe. In this study of the
controversy that resulted, Joel Kalvesmaki shows how earlier
neo-Pythagorean and Platonist number symbolism provided the impetus
for this theology of arithmetic, and describes the ways in which
gnosticizing groups attempted to engage both the Platonist and
Christian traditions. He explores the rich variety of number
symbolism then in use, among both gnosticizing groups and their
orthodox critics, demonstrating how those critics developed an
alternative approach to number symbolism that would set the pattern
for centuries to come. Arguing that the early dispute influenced
the very tradition that inspired it, Kalvesmaki explains how, in
the late third and early fourth centuries, numbers became
increasingly important to Platonists, who engaged in arithmological
constructions and disputes that mirrored the earlier Christian
ones.
Joseph Campbell (1904-1988) was one of the most well-known and
popular scholars of myth and comparative religion of the twentieth
century. His work, however, has never fully received the same
amount of scholarly interest and critical reflection that some of
his contemporaries have received. In this book, based on extensive
research in the Joseph Campbell Archive in Santa Barbara, Ritske
Rensma shows that reflecting on C.G. Jung's influence on Campbell
greatly furthers our understanding of these ideas, and that once
this goal is achieved it becomes obvious that Campbell was a
scholar whose ideas are still of significance today. Following
Jung's lead, Campbell put great emphasis on the innate structures
of the mind, an approach which pre-echoes the current 'evolutionary
turn' in fields such as cognitive theory, psychology, psychiatry
and neurobiology. This study will therefore not just be of interest
to students and scholars interested in psychological approaches to
the study of religion as well as Jung and Campbell, but also to
those with an interest in recent developments in the
above-mentioned fields
Rebellious Wives, Neglectful Husbands brings into conversation the
distinct fields of tafsir (Qur'anic exegesis) studies and women's
studies by exploring significant shifts in modern Qur'anic
commentaries on the subject of women. Hadia Mubarak places three of
the most influential, Sunni Qur'anic commentaries in the twentieth
century- Tafsir al-Manar, Fi Zilal al-Qur'an, and al-Tahrir
wa'l-Tanwir - against the backdrop of broader historical,
intellectual, and political developments in modern North Africa.
Mubarak illustrates the ways in which colonialism, nationalism, and
modernization set into motion new ways of engaging with the subject
of women in the Qur'an. Focusing her analysis on Qur'anic
commentaries as a scholarly genre, Mubarak offers a critical and
comparative analysis of these three modern commentaries with seven
medieval commentaries, spanning from the ninth to fourteenth
centuries, on verses dealing with neglectful husbands (4:128),
rebellious wives (4:34), polygyny (4:3), and divorce (2:228). In
contrast to assessments of the exegetical tradition as
monolithically patriarchal, this book captures a medieval and
modern tafsir tradition with pluralistic, complex, and evolving
interpretations of women and gender in the Qur'an. Rather than pit
a seemingly egalitarian Qur'an against an allegedly patriarchal
exegetical tradition, Mubarak affirms the need for a critical
engagement with tafsir studies among scholars concerned with women
and gender in Islam. Mubarak argues that the capacity to bring new
meanings to bear on the Qur'qan is not only an intellectually
viable one but inherent to the exegetical tradition.
In Bodies of Knowledge in Ancient Mesopotamia Matthew Rutz explores
the relationship between ancient collections of texts, commonly
deemed libraries and archives, and the modern interpretation of
titles like 'diviner'. By looking at cuneiform tablets as artifacts
with archaeological contexts, this work probes the modern
analytical categories used to study ancient diviners and
investigates the transmission of Babylonian/Assyrian scholarship in
Syria. During the Late Bronze Age diviners acted as high-ranking
scribes and cultic functionaries in Emar, a town on the Syrian
Euphrates (ca. 1375-1175 BCE). This book's centerpiece is an
extensive analytical catalogue of the excavated tablet collection
of one family of diviners. Over seventy-five fragments are
identified for the first time, along with many proposed joins
between fragments.
A short introduction to Witchcraft or Wicca with its symbols,
spells, and practices.
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