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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Alternative belief systems > Occult studies > General
Antero Alli and Klint Finley discuss Antero's 'paratheatre'
projects, his relationships with Christopher Hyatt and Robert Anton
Wilson, and much more. Approximate running time is 36 minutes.
When Jean-Francois Champollion rediscovered how to translate the
Egyptian hieroglyphs in the early nineteenth century he described
them as "....a complex system, a writing that is figurative,
symbolic, and phonetic all within the same text, a single sentence,
I would even say a single word." Since then, although his
discoveries have led to the translation of most of the ancient
Egyptian texts, the emphasis in modern scholarship is to regard the
hieroglyphs purely as sounds and to disregard or even deny their
symbolic meaning. This book explores how the hieroglyphs function
as a comprehensive system of magical symbolism, the medw neter or
Words of the Gods by which the sacred truths of the Inner worlds of
creation are conveyed to humanity. Their effect is 'magical'
because when we study them and ponder their meaning they cause
changes in our consciousness, enabling us to reach a deeper
understanding of ourselves, of our surroundings and of the
universal principles that lie behind all creation. They also
incidentally teach us a great deal about the magical beliefs and
practices of the ancient Egyptians and their perception of the
relationship between the earthly and spiritual worlds. Using many
examples and illustrations, this book demonstrates how the
hieroglyphs formed the basis of Egyptian magic and were the means
by which it was taught and practiced. It offers an entirely new
interpretation of Egyptian magic, and shows how the hieroglyphs can
be used as a magical tool that is as transformative today as it was
in ancient times.
Fourteen years after it was first published, the 2021 edition of
The Red Goddess has been freshly typeset and is introduced with a
preface by Alkistis Dimech. The Red Goddess is an ecstatic journey
through the unheard history of Babalon, the goddess of Revelation,
an explicit and challenging vision of a very modern goddess coming
into power. From the Revelation of St John the Divine, back through
the Ishtar Gate and forward into a living modern magical current.
This is more than a history, it is a passionate account of living
magic and the transcendent power of Love. The epic sweep of the
text takes us from Babylon to Jerusalem to Rome, and onwards to
Apocalypse. It confronts us with the language and symbols of our
own culture and the denied demonic feminine. It looks at the
angelic work of John Dee and places it in a European eschatology.
It delivers a devastating exegesis on the excesses of Aleister
Crowley, and unlocks the secrets of 'Waratah Blossoms.' It explains
the immolation of the Californian antichrist-superstar Jack Parsons
and his relationship with Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. There
is also a full supporting cast of Solomon, Simon Magus, St John the
Divine, Earl Bothwell, the Templars, Mary, the Magdalene and
countless others. This is the missing history of the love goddess
in the West. Thirteen essays conclude the book on subjects
including: roses, mirror magick, bdsm, aphrodisiac drugs, the
information age, love and lust, and the meaning of apocalypse. The
Red Goddess is for anyone with blood in their veins, regardless of
tradition, background or experience.
Aboriginals believe they have lived in Australia since the
Dreamtime, the beginning of all creation, and archaeological
evidence shows the land has been inhabited for tens of thousands of
years. Over this time, Aboriginal culture has grown a rich variety
of mythologies in hundreds of different languages. Their unifying
feature is a shared belief that the whole universe is alive, that
we belong to the land and must care for it. This book collates and
explain the many fascinating elements of Aboriginal culture: the
song circles and stories, artefacts, landmarks, characters and
customs. From the author of Wild Cat Falling, Dr Wooreddy's
Prescription for the Ending of the World, and Master of the Ghost
Dreaming. An A-Z spanning the history of Aboriginal mythology from
the earliest legends to the present day.
Neo-Assyrian and Greek Divination in War focuses on all divinatory
practices which were used in the ancient Near East and Greece in
time of war. Divination was a practical way of discovering the will
of the gods, and enabled human contact with the divine. Divinatory
practices were crucial to decision-taking. The results of
divination were especially important during war. This book
concentrates on the methods used to obtain all possible information
from the divine world which could impact on the results of war.
Knowledge of divine plans, verdicts and favors would ensure
victory, power and eternal glory. This book is also about the
convergence of the ancient Near East and Greek divinatory systems,
methods and practices. Step by step, it points out that the Greeks
treated divination in a very similar way to the Mesopotamians, and
presents the possible routes of transmission of this divine
knowledge, which was practiced in both cultures by a group of
well-trained professionals.
Almost two decades after writing his famous The Occult, Colin
Wilson re-examined the whole spectrum of the mystical and
paranormal, producing a general occult theory that remains as
compelling as the evidence of atomic particles. Originally
published in 1988, Beyond the Occult contains a huge amount of new
material and evidence, which came to light following publication of
The Occult. It combines scientific thinking on the nature of
physical reality with a wide range of fascinating case studies,
from the Swiss dowser who located the body of a missing woman to
the lucky American whose dreams foretold the winning horses in
multiple races to scores of accounts of mystical experiences of the
Divine, of spirit possession and of poltergeists. Part One covers
the amazing hidden powers of the human mind: ESP, clairvoyance,
psychometry, precognition, psychokinesis, and dowsing. Part Two
considers the more mysterious forces for good or evil -
poltergeists, spirit possession, and reincarnation - that convinced
Colin Wilson of the reality of disembodied spirits. In Beyond the
Occult, Colin Wilson puts forward a convincing case that our
so-called 'normal' experience may, in fact, be subnormal, and that
evolution may have brought us near the edge of a quantum leap into
a hugely expanded human consciousness. This new edition includes a
foreword by Colin Wilson's biographer, Colin Stanley.
During the archaic and classical periods, Greek ideas about the
dead evolved in response to changing social and cultural
conditionsOComost notably changes associated with the development
of the polis, such as funerary legislation, and changes due to
increased contacts with cultures of the ancient Near East. In
"Restless Dead," Sarah Iles Johnston presents and interprets these
changes, using them to build a complex picture of the way in which
the society of the dead reflected that of the living, expressing
and defusing its tensions, reiterating its values and eventually
becoming a source of significant power for those who knew how to
control it. She draws on both well-known sources, such as Athenian
tragedies, and newer texts, such as the Derveni Papyrus and a
recently published "lex sacra" from Selinous.Topics of focus
include the origin of the "goes" (the ritual practitioner who made
interaction with the dead his specialty), the threat to the living
presented by the ghosts of those who died dishonorably or
prematurely, the development of Hecate into a mistress of ghosts
and its connection to female rites of transition, and the complex
nature of the Erinyes. "Restless Dead" culminates with a new
reading of Aeschylus' "Oresteia" that emphasizes how Athenian myth
and cult manipulated ideas about the dead to serve political and
social ends.
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