|
Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Non-Christian religions > Pre-Christian European & Mediterranean religions
Mountains form the most spectacular creations on the planet and
cover such a large amount of Earth's landmass that they can be seen
clearly from outer space. Mountains are also a reminder that humans
count for nothing in the greater scheme of things. They were formed
by tectonic plate upheavals of such magnitude that the fossilised
remains of prehistoric sea-creatures can be found on mountains
tops; in fact, many Himalayan rocks were originally sediments on
the primordial Tethys Ocean floor. In this first of the Sacred
Landscape series Melusine Draco looks at ways of connecting with
the genii locorum that inhabit the caves and mountains of our
world. A companion volume to Sacred Landscape: Groves and Forests
and Sacred Landscape: Lakes and Rivers.
This book examines the collection of prayers known as the Qumran
Hodayot (= Thanksgiving Hymns) in light of ancient visionary
traditions, new developments in neuropsychology, and
post-structuralist understandings of the embodied subject. The
thesis of this book is that the ritualized reading of reports
describing visionary experiences written in the first person "I"
had the potential to create within the ancient reader the
subjectivity of a visionary which can then predispose him to have a
religious experience. This study examines how references to the
body and the strategic arousal of emotions could have functioned
within a practice of performative reading to engender a religious
experience of ascent. In so doing, this book offers new
interdisciplinary insights into meditative ritual reading as a
religious practice for transformation in antiquity.
|
Celtic Cyclopedia
(Hardcover)
Matthieu Boone, Tyler Omichinski; Contributions by Yulia Novikova
|
R2,682
Discovery Miles 26 820
|
Ships in 10 - 15 working days
|
|
The charming painter of Endymion's Sleep, Atala's Funeral and
Chateaubriand's Portrait was also a poet. Thanks to his classical
education, Girodet (1767-1824) was the author of free translations
of ancient Greek and Latin poets. In 1808 he tried the to imitate
and at the same time illustrate the Odes of Anacreon, whose edition
was published posthumously. The Musee du Louvre holds the precious
manuscript of this intense and complex work, in which the poetic
research and graphic invention - compositions or vignettes -
intertwine with the text. Only a facsimile could restore this
organic whole in its integrity. This book reconstructs the history
of the manuscript, the various stages of the project and the
posthumous versions, and analyses the artist's aesthetic sources.
Girodet's handwriting is sometimes difficult to decode, but the
complete transcription allows the reader to appreciate all the
refinements and to rediscover the charm of Anacreontic poetry. Text
in French.
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.
Prophecy, Fate and Memory in the Early and Medieval Celtic World
brings together a collection of studies that closely explore
aspects of culture and history of Celtic-speaking nations.
Non-narrative sources and cross-disciplinary approaches shed new
light on traditional questions concerning commemoration, sources of
political authority, and the nature of religious identity. Leading
scholars and early-career researchers bring to bear hermeneutics
from studies of religion and literary criticism alongside more
traditional philological and historical methodologies. All the
studies in this book bring to their particular tasks an
acknowledgement of the importance of religion in the worldview of
antiquity and the Middle Ages. Their approaches reflect a critical
turn in Celtic studies that has proved immensely productive across
the last two decades.
From SUNDAY TIMES bestselling author Kate Heartfield comes a
glorious, lyrical retelling of one of Norse mythology's greatest
epics Brynhild is a Valkyrie: shieldmaiden of the Allfather,
chooser of the slain. But now she too has fallen, flightless in her
exile. Gudrun is a princess of Burgundy, a daughter of the Rhine, a
prize for an invading king - a king whose brother Attila has other
plans, and a dragon to call upon. And in the songs to be sung,
there is another hero: Sigurd, a warrior with a sword sharper than
the new moon. As the legends tell, these names are destined to be
lovers, fated as enemies. But here on Midgard, legends can be
lies... For not all heroes are heroic, nor all monsters monstrous.
And a shieldmaiden may yet find that love is the greatest weapon of
all.
The fabled land of Nubia, whose very name means 'gold,' was famous
in ancient times for its supplies of precious metal, exotic
material, and intricate craftsmanship. Many of the adornments made
in Nubia are masterpieces of the jeweler's art-marvels of design
and construction rivaling, and often surpassing, adornments made in
Egypt and the rest of the ancient Mediterranean world. Although
these unique treasures are among the most stunning to have survived
from antiquity, they remain little known. Richly illustrated with
beautiful photographs of these exquisite items, many of them never
before published, Nubian Gold also places the jewelry within the
cultural contexts in which it was manufactured and employed. It
tells the story not only of the treasures themselves but of the
exciting tales of their discovery and the rich background of the
exotic and remote civilizations that produced them. The book also
explores the innovative techniques used to procure the precious
materials used in the jewelry and to craft them into intricate
ornaments replete with magical purpose and coded meaning.Featured
in the book are not only the intricately crafted pieces themselves
but depictions of them in sculpture, relief, and painting as well
as references to them in ancient texts, locating them within the
full spectrum of Nubian history, from the earliest beginnings of
society to the advent of Christianity.
This volume examines the state ideology of Assyria in the Early
Neo-Assyrian period (934-745 BCE) focusing on how power relations
between the Mesopotamian deities, the Assyrian king, and foreign
lands are described and depicted. It undertakes a close reading of
delimited royal inscriptions and iconography making use of
postcolonial and gender theory, and addresses such topics as royal
deification, "religious imperialism", ethnicity and empire, and
gendered imagery. The important contribution of this study lies
especially in its identification of patterns of ideological
continuity and variation within the reigns of individual rulers,
between various localities, and between the different rulers of
this period, and in its discussion of the place of Early
Neo-Assyrian state ideology in the overall development of Assyrian
propaganda. It includes several indexed appendices, which list all
primary sources, present all divine and royal epithets, and provide
all of the "royal visual representations," and incorporates
numerous illustrations, such as maps, plans, and royal iconography.
This is an introduction to the extraordinary religion of the
ancient Egyptian civilization and the beliefs that shaped their
everyday life. It is an authoritative text by a leading
Egyptologist is complemented by beautiful maps, drawings,
illustrations and photographs of places and objects. It includes an
account of Egyptian beliefs about the afterlife, the Book of the
Dead and ceremonies such as mummification and the Weighing of the
Heart. The widespread practices of magic, ritual and rites of
passage are clearly explained. It includes a study of burial sites
such as tombs, pyramids and ben-ben and other sacred stones. It
describes temple rites and offerings, the power of the high
priests, and the role of women in religion. Religious belief was
central to life in ancient Egypt and played a fundamental role in
the development of their great society. In the first half of this
book, the state religion is considered, with an examination of the
preparation for the afterlife, including the procedures and
ceremonies that followed death. The second half of the book
considers the effects of popular religion on daily activities and
social history. The religion of the people of the River Nile is
documented here with maps and a wealth of over 200 beautiful
photographs, reproductions and artworks, making this book an
essential reference for anyone interested in this ancient
civilization.
From the earliest times, people have told stories of allpowerful
gods and goddesses, mighty spirits and fabulous creatures to
explain the mysteries of life. This book explores the rich
diversity of these legendary themes within North America,
Mesoamerica and South America. An instantly accessible A-to-Z
format provides concise, easy-to-locate entries on more than 900
key characters, enabling the reader to discover who is who in the
mythology of the Americas. This book is a rich source of
information for learning about and understanding the myths and
religions of the indigenous inhabitants of the American continents.
By the author of Celtic Prayers from Iona In Celtic tradition, the
"Book of Creation" is where we "read" what the Creator has said to
us. J. Philip Newell here reflects on the seven days of creation in
Genesis, using them as a guide to the practice of Celtic
spirituality. Each day explores a different aspect of creation as a
manifestation of God, revealing divine presence at the heart of
everyday life. Newell begins by tracing the history of Celtic
spirituality and how it clashed with Rome, then he goes on to draw
from a rich and diverse selection of Celtic sources on creation:
Eriugena, Pelagius, the Carmina Gadelica, novelist George
MacDonald, poet Kenneth White, and Iona Community founder George
MacLeod. Newell also includes meditation exercises that may be used
by either individuals or groups. Newell is quickly becoming one of
today's most authoritative and inspirational voices on Celtic
spirituality. His book is perfect for prayer groups, seasonal
parish programs, small faith communities, religious communities,
spiritual seekers, anyone of Celtic heritage, and anyone interested
in creation spirituality.
|
|