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.

Since its first publication in 2008, The Secret History of the World has sold over 250,000 copies and established itself as the authoritative text on the subject of esoteric belief systems and secret societies. Now, with The Illustrated Secret History of the World, this landmark book achieves a new level of authority, adding to its thorough and revealing text more than 350 illustrations-many of them rare-of the symbols, drawings, engravings, paintings, and photographs that are a key part of the world's secret history. This richly illustrated edition features exclusive new material to accompany the original text in a beautiful package and oversized format. The Illustrated Secret History of the World presents a radical re-interpretation of human existence and a view of the world previously hidden from us. Featuring: Alchemists & Freemasons The Illuminati The Garden of Eden The Knights Templar The Looking Glass Universe The Gods Who Loved Women The Green King The Prophets The Sphinx & the Timelock The Neolithic Alexander Zarathustra The Rise of the Magi Lucifer Gnostics & Shamans Mohammed and Gabriel Francis Bacon and the Green One The Rosicrucian Age The Seven Seals & The New Jerusalem And much more . . .

"What if religions are neither all true nor all nonsense? "Alain de Botton's bold and provocative book argues that we can benefit from the wisdom and power of religion--without having to believe in any of it.
He suggests that rather than mocking religion, agnostics and atheists should instead steal from it--because the world's religions are packed with good ideas on how we might live and arrange our societies. De Botton looks to religion for insights into how to build a sense of community, make relationships last, overcome feelings of envy and inadequacy, inspire travel, get more out of art, and reconnect with the natural world. For too long non-believers have faced a stark choice between swallowing lots of peculiar doctrines or doing away with a range of consoling and beautiful rituals and ideas. "Religion for Atheists" offers a far more interesting and truly helpful alternative.

In this practical guide to attaining your true Divine Identity, Denmark's leading spiritual teacher Lars Muhl reveals exactly how to connect with your magnificent inner power and attain your highest possible potential. Muhl invites us to join him on a journey to the Qumran Caves in the Judean desert to discover The Book of Asaph. The journey and the sacred text itself offer a breath-taking metaphor for the process of spiritual Enlightenment. Lars Muhl considers The Light Within a Human Heart his most profound and powerful work. It is for all who wish to embrace their endless magic and enter Heaven on earth, remaining beautifully Present despite the inevitable difficulties of life. When we move, breathe and live in our Inner Light, we have returned home.

A clear, concise explanation of human nature; the worlds of body, soul, and spirit; the laws of reincarnation; and the workings of karma.

Rudolf Steiner is perhaps best known for his influence and wisdom in the fields of education, agriculture, medicine, science, and art. It is often forgotten that it was as a spiritual teacher that he made these contributions. Unfortunately, while his immediate students had the advantage of Steiner as a personal guide to their inner lives, later readers have had only his written works to guide them.

Steiner, however, did give a few lectures on inner development -- especially on beginning a path of practice. This book now collects these lectures -- some of which have never been in English -- for the first time. It also contains a number of the basic meditations and exercises shared by Steiner with his students.

Here readers will find descriptions of various practical exercises, including exercises for the moral qualities that students must develop, and for the various qualities of consciousness that inner development requires. This book is not only for beginners. Wherever you are on the path, this book will be your companion.

The idea of maintaining, continuing, and enhancing our relationships with those who have died was a fundamental part of Rudolf Steiner's work. This volume collects a rich harvest of Steiner's thoughts on this subject gathered over many years. Steiner speaks from his own experiences, providing some of the meditation practices and verses that worked for him. We learn of the value of reading to the dead; of using verbs (rather than nouns) when talking with them; of the importance of the sacred moments while falling asleep and awaking for asking questions and receiving answers; of the way our memories of the dead are like "art" to them; and of key moods we must develop -- community with the world, gratitude, confidence in the current of life.

'Barfield towers above us all... the wisest and best of my unofficial teachers.' - C.S. Lewis --- 'We are well supplied with interesting writers, but Owen Barfield is not content to be merely interesting. His ambition is to set us free from the prison we have made for ourselves by our ways of knowing, our limited and false habits of thought, our "common sense".' - Saul Bellow --- Owen Barfield - philosopher, author, poet and critic - was a founding member of the Inklings, the private Oxford society that included the leading literary figures C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and Charles Williams. C.S. Lewis, who was greatly affected by Barfield during their long friendship, wrote of their many heated debates: 'I think he changed me a good deal more than I him.' Simon Blaxland-de Lange's biography - the first on Owen Barfield to be published - was written with the active cooperation of Barfield himself who, before his death in 1997, gave numerous interviews to the author and shared a large quantity of his papers and manuscripts. The fruit of this collaboration is a book that penetrates deeply into the life and thought of one of the most important figures of the twentieth century. It studies the influences on Barfield by the Romantic poet Coleridge and the philosopher Rudolf Steiner (founder of anthroposophy), and elaborates on Barfield's profound personal connection with C.S. Lewis. The book also features a biographical sketch in his own words (based on personally conducted interviews), and describes Barfield's strong relationship with North America and his dual profession as a lawyer and writer. This updated edition features vital new material including Barfield's own 'Psychography' from 1948 and an illustrative plate section.

Selected lectures and writings on the return of this solar being to the direction of earthly evolution.

'We have shown how in the course of time the being who was present in Elijah appeared again at the most important moments of human evolution on Earth - appeared again so that Christ Jesus Himself could give him the initiation he was to receive for the evolution of mankind. For the being of Elijah reappeared in Lazarus-John - who are in truth one and the same figure ...' Thus spoke Rudolf Steiner in his 'Last Address' to members of the Anthroposophical Society. This was his first and only indication of the connection between John the Baptist and John the Evangelist. As Prokofieff points out, Steiner intended to develop and bring to full clarity the short comment reproduced above, but his terminal illness prevented him from doing so. In this brief but enlightening booklet, Sergei O. Prokofieff addresses the mystery of the 'two Johns', solving many unanswered questions. In particular, he throws light on issues of 'incarnation and incorporation', the nature of John the Baptist's and John the Evangelist's respective initiations, the significance of their mutual work at the 'Turning Point of Time', and its relevance to our present day.