The Elder or Poetic Edda of Saemun Sigfusson, bi-lingual side-by-side edition with illustrations.

Now fully revised-the classic study of Neo-Paganism Almost thirty years since its original publication, Drawing Down the Moon continues to be the only detailed history of the burgeoning but still widely misunderstood Neo- Pagan subculture. Margot Adler attended ritual gatherings and interviewed a diverse, colorful gallery of people across the United States, people who find inspiration in ancient deities, nature, myth, even science fiction. In this new edition featuring an updated resource guide of newsletters, journals, books, groups, and festivals, Margot Adler takes a fascinating and honest look at the religious experiences, beliefs, and lifestyles of modern America's Pagan groups.

Memory and Urban Religion in the Ancient World brings together scholars and researchers working on memory and religion in ancient urban environments. Chapters explore topics relating to religious traditions and memory, and the multifunctional roles of architectural and geographical sites, mythical figures and events, literary works and artefacts. Pagan religions were often less static and more open to new influences than previously understood. One of the factors that shape religion is how fundamental elements are remembered as valuable and therefore preservable for future generations. Memory, therefore, plays a pivotal role when - as seen in ancient Rome during late antiquity - a shift of religions takes place within communities. The significance of memory in ancient societies and how it was promoted, prompted, contested and even destroyed is discussed in detail. This volume, the first of its kind, not only addresses the main cultures of the ancient world - Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Rome - but also looks at urban religious culture and funerary belief, and how concepts of ethnic religion were adapted in new religious environments.

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

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

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.

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.

Focused on the indigenous African belief that ethics and spiritual growth are irrevocably linked (Iwa Pele), this book provides clear direction for those interested in the spiritual path of Ifa. Filled with Techniques and Understandings for Beginners and Adepts alike, Iwa Pele continues to be a "Must Have" book for Western Ifa Followers to understand how and why the tradition is practiced. It is with great excitement that we welcome this second edition of what has become a classic in Yoruba literature. In this ground breaking book, Babalawo Falokun Fatunmbi continues the work of Yoruba writers such as Dr. Wande Abimbola and others in unmasking the deep cosmological and theological principles of the Yoruba people. This exposition of the theology of the Yoruba people challenges the prevailing prejudicial assumptions regarding the depth, beauty and relevance of African theological thought. Titled "Iwa Pele," this book focuses on the indigenous African belief that ethics and spiritual growth are irrevocably linked. Written in a highly accessible manner and in a style easily assimilated by the Western mind, this great work also provides sensible direction for those wishing to embark on the spiritual path of Ifa. Each chapter provides instruction for the adept on Ifa/orisa veneration as done in the traditional manner.