Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

Asatru (AH-sa-troo), also called Odinism, is the native religion of the Teutonic peoples as embodied in the fundamentals of their cultural expressions. Much more than just a belief system, it encompasses every aspect of ancient Northern European society. This book is an attempt to explain the basic philosophic and moral ideals of this ancient way of life, while seeking to eliminate many of the misconceptions surrounding it. Demonstrated here is the nature of a faith that has existed for centuries, in spite of numerous campaigns to suppress or destroy it by various powers. Once the reader learns the core values found within this creed, it is easy to recognize how it coincides with our notions of civilization and its evolution. It teaches inner strength and courage, as well as kindness and compassion. In introducing the positive, ethical standards Asatru has to offer, the aim here is to rekindle the primal spirit within us all. The author provides an in-depth introduction for those new to the folkway, yet gives much food for thought to the experienced practitioner. Sure to inspire deeper investigation of the various aspects of Asatru. Highly recommended.

Introduction; The Instruction of Ptah-Hotep; The Instruction of Ke'Gemni; Note to appendix; The Instruction of Amenemheet; Explanation of Names; Bibliography.

In this Native American allegory, a young Lakota boy named David is despondent over the death of his sister and fears that he will never know happiness again. His father gives him a gift, a scroll with seven pictures, which properly understood, holds the keys to self understanding. In a deeply moving way, Lessons of a Lakota blends traditional Native American beliefs, with more modern principles such as positive thinking and self awareness. This book will teach you about yourself, show you what it means to be happy, and lead you on your own personal journey to inner peace.

"Song of the Caiman""Spiritual Beliefs of the CiBoNey Peoples""Connect with the ancestors and there Florida and Caribbean descendents"For more information please contact: Ciboney Tribe of [email protected]

This book describes itself as: 'a cultural, psychological study of the way Christian Malawians account for their involvement in African traditional religion'. It is a qualitative study of how Christians manage to be at the same time involved in African traditional religions, of which the Christian church, on the whole, disapproves. It lends insight into the ways in which individuals enact two different religions in their daily lives, focusing particularly on religious practices. It further aims to adopt a position of religious pluralism, representing the voices and perspectives of the peoples studied.

Are you searching for a spiritual path that speaks to your cultural identity? Are you curious about the connection of the African-American experience to ancient African culture and spirituality? The Quest for Spiritual Transformation: An Introduction to Traditional Akan Religion, Rituals, and Practices is an important contribution to the exploration of cultural approaches to healing the mind, body, and spirit. Author Nana Opokuwaa clearly illustrates the connection between the traditions and beliefs of Africans born in the Diaspora to the ancient customs of the Akans. Her writing style exhibits a special sensitivity and compassion that shows appreciation for the reader's need for guidance. Opokuwaa's approach to explaining the Akan Akom Tradition brings clarity to the complicated practices associated with African religion in the Diaspora. In addition to seven study guides meant to serve as discussion points within your organization, group of friends, or for yourself, this book includes a list of references to enlighten you about Akan culture, customs, and traditions. utilized in the book and an index for readily available reference. In the follow-up to Akan Protocol: Remembering the Traditions of Our Ancestors, Opokuwaa continues her effort to share information about the ancient traditions and customs of the Akans of Ghana, West Africa.

IN everyday life the shaman is not distinguishable from other people except by an occasionally haughty manner, but when he is engaged in communicating with spirits he has to make use of a special dress and special instruments. Of these the most important and the one in most general use is the shaman's drum. It may be said that all over Siberia, where there is a shaman there is also a drum. The drum has the power of transporting the shaman to the superworld and of evoking spirits by its sounds.

A literal translation that preserves the poem's original structure This second volume provides a literal, line-by-line English translation of the Popol Vuh, capturing the beauty, subtlety, and high poetic language characteristic of K'iche'-Maya sacred writings. By arranging the work according to its poetic structure, Christenson preserves the poem's original phraseology and grammar, allowing subtle nuances of meaning to emerge.

This work contains a brief view of the myths, traditions and religious belief of races with concise studies in ethnography. These short studies in ethnography were written chiefly in the British Museum. It is meant for the general reader and not scientists, so the references given have usually been from easily attainable works in English, and only a small portion of the abundant notes that might have been given from French, German and Latin authors have been used. The object of this book is to throw light on the many important passages in Holy Writ, and to show that the finest learning and most recent discoveries have not antagonized the Mosaic author, but have followed the path he traced.

When the Spanish took over Central America in the 16th and 17th centuries they made certain to destroy the writings and holy books of the native Mayans in an effort to convert them to Christianity. Few texts survived, yet one did of the highest importance. It is called The Popol Vuh. It is the creation story of the Mayan culture and, according to the author, this was the first English rendering of that text. It tells the story of a great flood, gods who created mankind, and a number of other interesting parallels to mythologies from around the world. This is the "Genesis" of the mysterious Mayas and should be essential reading for those interested in our ancient past. The book also contains three bonus chapters from Spence on mythology and religion from ancient Mexico. All of the gods and deities are fully explained and at times compared with those from Greece, Rome, and Egypt. All told, this is a fascinating collection of mythology from Central America and Mexico.

To what extent did colonialism affect the terms by which the colonised understood the material and spiritual landscapes in which they lived? What history, memories, and meanings survive from the colonial encounter and before? In this text, Sandra E. Greene explores the material and spiritual meanings that the Anlo-Ewe people of Ghana once associated with particular bodies of water, burial sites, sacred towns, and the human body itself and brings these meanings and memories into contemporary context for the Anlo. As a key to understanding the Anlo world view, Greene reconstructs a vivid and convincing portrait of the human and physical environment of 19th century Anlo. Drawing on her extensive fieldwork, early European accounts, and the archives and publications of the Bremen Missionary Society, Greene charts how these ideas changed following contact with British colonisers and German Pietist missionaries who discouraged spiritual interpretation of these sites in favour of more scientific and regulatory views.; Anlo responses to these colonialist challenges to their ways of organising physical space involved considerable resistance and, over time, selective acceptance of aspects of n

Lying on the border between eastern and western Christendom, Orthodox Karelia preserved its unique religious culture into the 19th and 20th centuries, when it was described and recorded by Finnish and Karelian folklore collectors. This colorful array of rituals and beliefs involving nature spirits, saints, the dead, and pilgrimage to monasteries represented a unique fusion of official Church ritual and doctrine and pre-Christian ethnic folk belief. This book undertakes a fascinating exploration into many aspects of Orthodox Karelian ritual life: beliefs in supernatural forces, folk models of illness, body concepts, divination, holy icons, the role of the ritual specialist and healer, the divine between nature and culture, images of the forest, the cult of the dead, and the popular image of monasteries and holy hermits. This book will appeal to anyone interested in popular religion, the cognitive study of religion, ritual studies, medical anthropology, and the folk traditions and symbolism of the Balto-Finnic peoples.

They can be found along the side streets of many American cities: herb or candle shops catering to practitioners of Voodoo, hoodoo, Santeria, and similar beliefs. Here one can purchase ritual items and raw materials for the fabrication of traditional charms, plus a variety of soaps, powders, and aromatic goods known in the trade as "spiritual products." For those seeking health or success, love or protection, these potions offer the power of the saints and the authority of the African gods.
In Spiritual Merchants, Carolyn Morrow Long provides an inside look at the followers of African-based belief systems and the retailers and manufacturers who supply them. Traveling from New Orleans to New York, from Charleston to Los Angeles, she takes readers on a tour of these shops, examines the origins of the products, and profiles the merchants who sell them.
Long describes the principles by which charms are thought to operate, how ingredients are chosen, and the uses to which they are put. She then explores the commodification of traditional charms and the evolution of the spiritual products industry--from small-scale mail order "doctors" and hoodoo drugstores to major manufacturers who market their products worldwide. She also offers an eye-opening look at how merchants who are not members of the culture entered the business through the manufacture of other goods such as toiletries, incense, and pharmaceuticals. Her narrative includes previously unpublished information on legendary Voodoo queens and hoodoo workers, as well as a case study of John the Conqueror root and its metamorphosis from spirit-embodying charm to commercial spiritual product.
No other book deals in such detail with both the history and current practices of African-based belief systems in the United States and the evolution of the spiritual products industry. For students of folklore or anyone intrigued by the world of charms and candle shops, Spiritual Merchants examines the confluence of African and European religion in the Americas and provides a colorful introduction to a vibrant aspect of contemporary culture.
The Author: Carolyn Morrow Long is a preservation specialist and conservator at the the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.

This is a reprint of Kersey Graves classic, a rare 1875 book on Christianity before Christ and the 16 messiahs or saviours who are known to history before Christ! Chapters on: Rival Claims of the Saviours; Messianic Prophecies; Prophecies by the Figure of a Serpent; Virgin Mothers and Virgin-Born Gods; Stars Point Out the Time and the Saviours Birthplace; Sixteen Saviours Crucified; The Holy Ghost of Oriental Origin; Appollonius, Osiris, and Magus as Gods; 346 Striking Analogies Between Christ and Krishna; 25th of December as the birthday of the Gods; 45 chapters in all. Topics include: Miraculous and Immaculate Conception of the Gods; Virgin Mothers and Virgin-Born Gods; The 25th of December and the Birthday of the Gods; Rival Claims of the Saviours; Messianic Prophecies; Sixteen Saviors Crucified; Prophecies by the Figure of a Serpent; Christ as a Spiritual Medium.

Though Malawi and Central Africa are now predominantly Christian countries, African tradition relgion remains important everywhere. Now a classic, this study was first published in 1979 against the background of neglect in publishing texts on economic and social history and other aspects of cultural development. It provides important information on Central African territorial cults, and it one of a series recording the history of African religious systems. Ten scholars report on detailed case studies conducted in Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe.

"Hassig's position is daring and potentially controversial and will be mandatory reading for those who deal with calendrical systems." -- Dr. Barbara J. Price, Columbia University

Based on their enormously complex calendars that recorded cycles of many kinds, the Aztecs and other ancient Mesoamerican civilizations are generally believed to have had a cyclical, rather than linear, conception of time and history. This boldly revisionist book challenges that understanding. Ross Hassig offers convincing evidence that for the Aztecs time was predominantly linear, that it was manipulated by the state as a means of controlling a dispersed tribute empire, and that the Conquest cut off state control and severed the unity of the calendar, leaving only the lesser cycles. From these, he asserts, we have inadequately reconstructed the pre-Columbian calendar and so misunderstood the Aztec conception of time and history.

Hassig first presents the traditional explanation of the Aztec calendrical system and its ideological functions and then marshals contrary evidence to argue that the Aztec elite deliberately used calendars and timekeeping to achieve practical political ends. He further traces how the Conquest played out in the temporal realm as Spanish conceptions of time partially displaced the Aztec ones. His findings promise to revolutionize our understanding of how the Aztecs and other Mesoamerican societies conceived of time and history.

Indigenous religions are the majority of the world's religions. This Companion shows how much they can contribute to a richer understanding of human identity, action and relationships. It also challenges their marginalization in the study of religions. An international team of contributors discuss representative indigenous religions from all continents in relation to significant themes. In the process they illustrate a variety of approaches to the study of religions. The Companion therefore provides a valuable resource and a provocation to a full consideration both of some of the most dynamic religions of the world and of ways in which they might be approached. The 17 chapters are divided among three parts labelled "People", "Power" and "Gifts" which encapsulate much of what is significant about a diversity of religions which are often pragmatic, multi-stranded, layered, non-dogmatic but unanalytical. They are frequently concerned with reciprocal rather than hierarchical relationships. Some challenge the obesssion with deities, showing that religions are concerned with a far broader range of relationships, many initiated and furthered by humanity not by putative "spiritual" beings. Others challenge obsessions about the afterlife or next world, showing that religions can be concerned with the pursuit of health, wealth and happiness in this world now. The possibility that this is true of all religions makes this Companion relevant to everyone interested in human religiosity today.

The Encyclopedia of African and African-American Religions covers the religious movements and churches of sub-Saharan Africa, North and South America and the Caribbean. The wide-ranging nature of the book includes religions which have their origin in the African Diaspora as well as discussing those which are products of contact between major world religions (such as Christianity and Islam). In addition, attention is given to the growing worldwide influence of African and African-American religions in Europe, Asia and the South Pacific. The work of anthropolgists, historians, religious scholars and sociologists is drawn upon and covers:
* African religion including major indigenous religions, new religions and non-indigenous religions
* African-American religion in North America including Black churches within mainstream religions; African-American sects; African-American movements
* African-American religion in South America and the Caribbean, including a nation-by-nation survey of African derived religions * General topics, beliefs, practices and institutions * Individuals including: Martin Luther King, Elijah Muhammed, Malcolm X, Father Divine, Jesse Jackson, and Lydia Cabrera. African-American societies and cultures.

EACH YEAR IN THE HIGHLAND Guatemala town of Santiago Momostenango, Maya religious societies, dance teams, and cofradias perform the annual cycle of rituals and festivals prescribed by Costumbre (syncretized Maya Christian religion), which serves to renew the cosmic order. In this richly detailed ethnography, Garrett Cook explores how these festivals of Jesucristo and the saints derive from and reenact three major ancient Maya creation myths, thus revealing patterns of continuity between contemporary expressive culture and the myths, rituals, and iconography of the Classic and Postclassic Maya.

Drawing on fieldwork conducted in the 1970s and renewed in the 1990s, Cook describes the expressive culture tradition performed in and by the cofradias and their dance teams. He listens as dancers and cofrades explain the meaning of service and of the major ritual symbols in the cults of the saints and Jesucristo. Comparing these symbols to iconographic evidence from Palenque and myths from the Popol Vub, Cook persuasively argues that the expressive culture of Momostenango enacts major Maya creation myths -- the transformative sunrise, the representation of the year as the life cycle of anthropomorphized nature, and the erection of an axis mundi.

This research documents specific patterns of continuity and discontinuity in the communal expression of Maya religious and cosmogonic themes. Along with other recent research, it demonstrates the survival of a basic Maya pattern -- the world-creating vegetative renewal cycle -- in the highland Maya cults of the saints and Jesucristo.

Garrett W. Cook is Associate Professor and Chair of Anthropology at Baylor University.