Ren Gunon (1886-1951) is undoubtedly one of the luminaries of the twentieth century, whose critique of the modern world has stood fast against the shifting sands of recent philosophies. His oeuvre of 26 volumes is providential for the modern seeker: pointing ceaselessly to the perennial wisdom found in past cultures ranging from the Shamanistic to the Indian and Chinese, the Hellenic and Judaic, the Christian and Islamic, and including also Alchemy, Hermeticism, and other esoteric currents, at the same time it directs the reader to the deepest level of religious praxis, emphasizing the need for affiliation with a revealed tradition even while acknowledging the final identity of all spiritual paths as they approach the summit of spiritual realization. Many readers of Gunon's doctrinal works have hoped for translations of his detailed exposs of Theosophy and Spiritism. Sophia Perennis is pleased now to make available both these important titles as part of the Collected Works of Ren Gunon. Whereas Theosophy: History of a Pseudo-Religion centers primarily on historical details, The Spiritist Fallacy, though also packed with arcane facts, is unique in revealing how one of the greatest metaphysicians of our age interprets the phenomena, real or alleged, of Spiritism. The doctrinal expositions that accompany his astonishing account of Spiritism offer extraordinarily prescient insight into many deviations and 'psychological' afflictions of the modern mind, and should be as valuable to psychiatrists and spiritual counselors as to historians of esoteric history. And it also offers a profound corrective to the many brands of New Age 'therapy' that all too unwittingly invoke many of the same elements whose nefarious origins Gunon so clearly pointed out many years ago.

Many readers of Guenon's later doctrinal works have longed to hear the tale of his earlier entanglement, and disentanglement, from the luxuriant undergrowth of so-called esoteric societies in late nineteenth-century Paris and elsewhere. The present work documents in excoriating detail Guenon's findings on what did, and did not, lie behind the Theosophical Society founded by Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott in 1875. Much further information has of course come to light during the 80 years since this book was written, but it has never been superseded as a fascinating record of the path of a master metaphysician through this maze. A sampling of chapter titles will convey a sense of the depth of this remarkable work: 'Madame Blavatsky's Antecedents', 'The Theosophical Society and Rosicrucianism', 'The Question of the Mahatmas', 'The Society for Psychical Research', 'Esoteric Buddhism', 'Esoteric Christianity', 'The Future Messiah', 'The Trials of Alcyone', 'The Anthroposophy of Rudolf Steiner', 'The Order of the Star of the East', 'Theosophy and Freemasonry', 'The Political Role of the Theosophical Society'. Brotherhood of Luxor, which has recently attracted the attention of scholars of the occult. The Collected Works of Rene Guenon brings together the writings of one of the greatest prophets of our time, whose voice is even more important today than when he was alive. Huston Smith, author of The World's Religions, etc.

Rene Guenon (1886-1951) is undoubtedly one of the luminaries of the twentieth century, whose critique of the modern world has stood fast against the shifting sands of recent philosophies. His oeuvre of 26 volumes is providential for the modern seeker: pointing ceaselessly to the perennial wisdom found in past cultures ranging from the Shamanistic to the Indian and Chinese, the Hellenic and Judaic, the Christian and Islamic, and including also Alchemy, Hermeticism, and other esoteric currents, at the same time it directs the reader to the deepest level of religious praxis, emphasizing the need for affiliation with a revealed tradition even while acknowledging the final identity of all spiritual paths as they approach the summit of spiritual realization. Traditional Forms and Cosmic Cycles is a wide-ranging collection of articles that could just as well have been called Fragments of an Unknown History. Although they must remain fragments, as Guenon did not return to many of these themes again, it would have been regrettable to leave such fascinating articles buried in old journals, and so this posthumous collection is now offered to Anglophone readers for the first time. by two pieces on Atlantis and Hyperborea. Two sections follow, concerned respectively with the Hebrew Tradition and the Egyptian Tradition. The former comprises five articles concerned primarily with the Kabbalah and the Science of Numbers, and the latter includes three articles on Hermes and the Hermetic Tradition. Book reviews are inserted at relevant points. To lend the collection coherence, no other spiritual Traditions are here represented. A list of the Collected Writings of Rene Guenon has been provided for those who wish to investigate Guenon's metaphysical expositions on such topics as Christianity, Islam, the Greco-Latin Traditions, Celtism, etc.

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.

A new edition covering the latest scientific research on how the brain makes us believers or skeptics

Recent polls report that 96 percent of Americans believe in God, and 73 percent believe that angels regularly visit Earth. Why is this? Why, despite the rise of science, technology, and secular education, are people turning to religion in greater numbers than ever before? Why do people believe in God at all?

These provocative questions lie at the heart of How We Believe , an illuminating study of God, faith, and religion. Bestselling author Michael Shermer offers fresh and often startling insights into age-old questions, including how and why humans put their faith in a higher power, even in the face of scientific skepticism. Shermer has updated the book to explore the latest research and theories of psychiatrists, neuroscientists, epidemiologists, and philosophers, as well as the role of faith in our increasingly diverse modern world.

Whether believers or nonbelievers, we are all driven by the need to understand the universe and our place in it. How We Believe is a brilliant scientific tour of this ancient and mysterious desire.

Our author lays before the reader a summary of all the historic evidence available, together with a detailed record of his own experiments with this medium, conducted in Naples in November and December 1908. A complete resume of every theory that has been advanced to date, with a provisional hypothesis of his own. He then discusses at some length the biological and psychological peculiarities of the case, from the point of view of one who assumes, on the strength of the existing testimony, that the facts are established.

Satanic channels of today are represented in anarchism, communism, socialism, nazism, atheism, fascism, occultism and modernism. As occultism seems to be a subject which the average reader has avoided for some reason, the author presents this edition to set at rest confused and troubled minds.

Volume 1: The Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross. Authentic and spurious organizations as considered and dealt with in treatises originally published and issued in monograph form.

This volume contains four smaller works by various authors. Rosicrucian Thoughts by W. Wynn Westcott presents thoughts on the ever-burning lamps of the ancients. Harold Bayley pens The Hidden Symbols of the Rosicrucians wherein facts are presented as to the variety of hidden symbols used by the Rosicrucians. De Mysteriis Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis, wherein under the form of an admonition to an Adeptus Minor of the R.R. et A.C. is disclosed the true symbolism of the Rosy Cross for the enlightenment of those who are worthy of the same is written by Frater Achad. The final essay is Rosicrucian Symbols by Franz Hartmann.

This work presents the Rosicrucians and their teachings; how they are misunderstood, misquoted, their writings grossly misrepresented and they themselves defamed; imitated by pretenders, frauds and pseudo- initiates, they, the true Rosicrucians remain as ever the Masters of the Ages. It is based on facts such as may be readily verified by anyone sufficiently interested to search through copyrighted books and magazines in the Library of Congress.

Found in this work are historical sketches of magic and witchcraft in England and Scotland. It was not the author's purpose in this volume to attempt a general history of magic and alchemy, or a scientific inquiry into their psychological aspects. He confined himself to a sketch of their progress in England and to a narrative of the lives of our principal magicians. It is also devoted to a historical review of witchcraft in Great Britain, and an examination into the most remarkable witch trials.

This book of magic and politics uses quotes from classic books to show the connections between the two throughout history.

This translation and commentary on the Ugaritic texts is aimed at general readers as well as students and specialists in biblical, classical and religious studies. The Ugaritic texts have long been recognized as basic background material for Old Testament study. Ugaritic deities, myths, religious terminology, poetic techniques and general vocabulary are widely encountered by the attentive reader of the Hebrew Bible. This edition has a modern translation and commentary based on scrutiny of the original tablets and recent academic discussion. While addressing the needs of accurate translation, it also attempts to take seriously demands for a readable English version.

Mrs. Stanton's Bible traces the impact of Elizabeth Cady Stanton's religious dissent on the suffrage movement at the turn of the century and presents the first book-length reading of her radical text, the Woman's Bible. Stanton is best remembered for organizing the Seneca Falls convention at which she first called for women's right to vote. Yet she spent the last two decades of her life working for another cause: women's liberation from religious oppression. Stanton came to believe that political enfranchisement was meaningless without the systematic dismantling of the church's stifling authority over women's lives. In 1895, she collaboratively authored this biblical exegesis, just as the women's movement was becoming more conservative.

Stanton found herself arguing not only against male clergy members but also against devout female suffragists. Kathi Kern demonstrates that the Woman's Bible itself played a fundamental role in the movement's new conservatism because it sparked Stanton's censure and the elimination of her fellow radicals from the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Mrs. Stanton's Bible dramatically portrays this crucial chapter of women's history and facilitates the understanding of one of the movement's most controversial texts.

This colorful, richly textured account of spiritual training and practice within an American Indian social network emphasizes narrative over analysis. Thomas Buckley's foregrounding of Yurok narratives creates one major level of dialogue in an innovative ethnography that features dialogue as its central theoretical trope. Buckley places himself in conversation with contemporary Yurok friends and elders, with written texts, and with twentieth-century anthropology as well. He describes Yurok Indian spirituality as "a significant field in which individual and society meet in dialogue--cooperating, resisting, negotiating, changing each other in manifold ways. 'Culture, ' here, is not a thing but a process, an emergence through time."

This comprehensive guide offers complete sample rituals for celebration and worship plus a history of Wicca and the beliefs of the Celtic Druids, the different phases of the god and goddess, and the principles of nature and their sacred symbols. Illustrations.

Mrs. Stanton's Bible traces the impact of Elizabeth Cady Stanton's religious dissent on the suffrage movement at the turn of the century and presents the first book-length reading of her radical text, the Woman's Bible. Stanton is best remembered for organizing the Seneca Falls convention at which she first called for women's right to vote. Yet she spent the last two decades of her life working for another cause: women's liberation from religious oppression. Stanton came to believe that political enfranchisement was meaningless without the systematic dismantling of the church's stifling authority over women's lives.

In 1895, she collaboratively authored this biblical exegesis, just as the women's movement was becoming more conservative. Stanton found herself arguing not only against male clergy members but also against devout female suffragists. Kathi Kern demonstrates that the Woman's Bible itself played a fundamental role in the movement's new conservatism because it sparked Stanton's censure and the elimination of her fellow radicals from the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Mrs. Stanton's Bible dramatically portrays this crucial chapter of women's history and facilitates the understanding of one of the movement's most controversial texts.

At an excavation of the Great Aztec Temple in Mexico City, amid carvings of skulls and a dismembered warrior goddess, David Carrasco stood before a container filled with the decorated bones of infants and children. It was the site of a massive human sacrifice, and for Carrasco the center of fiercely provocative questions: If ritual violence against humans was a profound necessity for the Aztecs in their capital city, is it central to the construction of social order and the authority of city states? Is civilization built on violence?
In City of Sacrifice, Carrasco chronicles the fascinating story of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital, investigating Aztec religious practices and demonstrating that religious violence was integral to urbanization; the city itself was a temple to the gods. That Mexico City, the largest city on earth, was built on the ruins of Tenochtitlan, is a point Carrasco poignantly considers in his comparison of urban life from antiquity to modernity.
Majestic in scope, City of Sacrifice illuminates not only the rich history of a major Meso american city but also the inseparability of two passionate human impulses: urbanization and religious engagement. It has much to tell us about many familiar events in our own time, from suicide bombings in Tel Aviv to rape and murder in the Balkans.

Huna is ancient and at the same time magnificently modern.The mystical practice of Kahuna evolved in isolation on the island paradise of Hawaii. The ancient Hawaiians valued words, prayer, their gods, the sacred, the breath, a loving spirit, family ties, the elements of nature, and mana-the vital life force-ideas profound yet elegantly simple. Discovering the concepts of Huna is like finding gemstones in a mountain-a joyous journey!

An explosive first-person account by a young woman who spent fifteen years in a sex cult called the Children of God, which encouraged "sacred prostitution" and taught that "The Lord is our pimp."

Miriam Williams was an idealistic child of the sixties who, at seventeen, accepted an invitation from a "Jesus person" to visit a commune in upstate New York. She would soon be prostituting herself for a perverse cult that used sex to lure sinners to the Lord -- and this is her shocking, searingly honest account of a fifteen-year spiritual odyssey gone haywire.

The Children of God turned its female devotees into Heaven's Harlots, leading strangers to the love of God by enticing them with the pleasures of the flesh. At its height, the cult boasted 19,000 members around the world: In such places as France and Monte Carlo, young women, Miriam among them, mingled with the rich and famous to save their souls, and in this unsparing, unnerving autobiography, she'll identify some of her high-profile "clients." She left this bizarre world in an attempt to protect her son, born through an arranged marriage and kidnapped by his father.

Now, in a clear, compelling, cautionary tale, she shares both her extraordinary existence as a holy whore and the daunting experience of rebuilding a normal life -- an ordeal that led her to found a group dedicated to helping other cult survivors reclaim their souls as well.

In 1886 Walter McClintock went to northwestern Montana as a member of a U.S. Forest Service expedition. He was adopted as a son by Chief Mad Dog, the high priest of the Sun Dance, and spent the next four years living on the Blackfoot Reservation. The Old North Trail, originally published in 1910, is a record of his experiences among the Blackfeet.

Ancient Egyptian Magic is the first authoritative modern work on the occult practices that pervaded all aspects of life in ancient Egypt. Based on fascinating archaeological discoveries, it includes everything from how to write your name in hieroglyphs to the proper way to bury a king, as well as:

• Tools and training of magicians

• Interpreting dreams

• Ancient remedies for headaches, cataracts, and indigestion

• Wrapping a mummy

• Recipes for magic potions and beauty creams

• Explanations of amulets and pyramid power

• A spell to entice a lover

• A fortune-telling calendar

These subjects and many more will appeal to everyone interested in Egyptology, magic, parapsychology, and the occult; or ancient religions and mythology.

Every witch needs a book of spells. Bring the power of magic into your everyday with these fun and easy-to-use spells, charms, potions and more. Using common household ingredients, The Good Spell Book provides answers to the problems we all face in our day-to-day lives; from winning a job to attracting the one you love - it will give you all the guidance you need. Whether you're a complete beginner, advanced spell caster, or simply curious, these are the spells that will increase your self-worth, and empower you to lead a healthier, happier and more fulfilled life.