Few religious currents have been as influential as the Theosophical. Yet few currents have been so under-researched, and the Brill Handbook of the Theosophical Current thus represents pioneering research. A first section surveys the main people and events involved in the Theosophical Society from its inception to today, and outlines the Theosophical worldview. A second, substantial section covers most significant religions to emerge in the wake of the Theosophical Society - Anthroposophy, the Point Loma community, the I AM religious activity, the Summit Lighthouse Movement, the New Age, theosophical UFO religions, and numerous others. Finally, the interaction of the Theosophical current with contemporary culture - including gender relations, art, popular fiction, historiography, and science - are discussed at length.

This unprecedented volume contains powerful invocations that can be used during each successive full moon, to aid humanity in canalizing the potent energies available only during this special time of the month. Helena Blavatsky and the Tibetan Master Djwhal Khul through Alice Bailey's writings, first introduced the art and science of invocation to the western world. Full moon group meditations take place globally amongst many religions and spiritual faiths. This book will peak the interest of meditators around the world.

Jeffrey Kripal here recounts the spectacular history of Esalen, the institute that has long been a world leader in alternative and experiential education and stands today at the center of the human potential movement. Forged in the literary and mythical leanings of the Beat Generation, inspired in the lecture halls of Stanford by radical scholars of comparative religion, the institute was the remarkable brainchild of Michael Murphy and Richard Price. Set against the heady backdrop of California during the revolutionary 1960s, "Esalen" recounts in fascinating detail how these two maverick thinkers sought to fuse the spiritual revelations of the East with the scientific revolutions of the West, or to combine the very best elements of Zen Buddhism, Western psychology, and Indian yoga into a decidedly utopian vision that rejected the dogmas of conventional religion. In their religion of no religion, the natural world was just as crucial as the spiritual one, science and faith not only commingled but became staunch allies, and the enlightenment of the body could lead to the full realization of our development as human beings.
"An impressive new book. . . . [Kripal] has written the definitive intellectual history of the ideas behind the institute."--"San Francisco"" Chronicle"
"Kripal examines Esalen's extraordinary history and evocatively describes the breech birth of Murphy and Price's brainchild. His real achievement, though, is effortlessly synthesizing a dizzying array of dissonant phenomena (Cold War espionage, ecstatic religiosity), incongruous pairings (Darwinism, Tantric sex), and otherwise schizy ephemera (psychedelic drugs, spaceflight) into a cogent, satisfyingly completenarrative."--"Atlantic Monthly""" "Kripal has produced the first all-encompassing history of Esalen: its intellectual, social, personal, literary and spiritual passages. Kripal brings us up-to-date and takes us deep beneath historical surfaces in this definitive, elegantly written book."--"Playboy"

This book examines the shifting moral and spiritual lives of white Afrikaners in South Africa after apartheid. The end of South Africa's apartheid system of racial and spatial segregation sparked wide-reaching social change as social, cultural, spatial and racial boundaries were transgressed and transformed. This book investigates how Afrikaners have mediated the country's shifting boundaries within the realm of religion. For instance, one in every three Afrikaners used these new freedoms to leave the traditional Dutch Reformed Church (NGK), often for an entirely new religious affiliation within the Pentecostal or Charismatic churches, or New Religious Movements such as Wiccan neopaganism. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork in the Western Cape area, the book investigates what spiritual life after racial totalitarianism means for the members of the ethnic group that constructed and maintained that very totalitarianism. Ultimately, the book asks how these new Afrikaner religious practices contribute to social solidarity and integration in a persistently segregated society, and what they can tell us about racial relations in the country today. This book will be of interest to scholars of religious studies, social and cultural anthropology and African studies.

- Langevin is the author of Secrets of the Ancient Incas (New Page, ISBN 1564146022, 2002) and the editor of two anthologies including A Magical Universe (Granite Publications, ISBN 0926524399, 1996)
- The inside story of Magical Blend, which started as a San Francisco commune in the late 1970s
- An up close, real-life look at making your dreams a reality despite life's challenges
- Co-op available

The success of books such as "Elaine Pagels' Gnostic Gospels" and Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code" proves beyond a doubt that there is a tremendous thirst today for finding the hidden truths of Christianity - truths that may have been lost or buried by institutional religion over the last two millennia. Many people now are delving into the byways of this tradition of inner Christianity, hoping to find an alternative to stale dogmas and blind beliefs. Among the most compelling of these lost traditions is Gnosticism. "Forbidden Faith" explores the legacy of the ancient esoteric religion of gnosticism, from its influence on early Christianity to contemporary popular culture.

'What would we be without love? We would inevitably become isolated and gradually lose all connection with our fellow human beings and our fellow creatures in the natural world.' - Rudolf Steiner In this rich, previously-untranslated collection of lectures, Rudolf Steiner approaches and illumines the figure of Christ from manifold directions and perspectives. Christ, the being of love, is for the body of the Earth what the heart is within our individual organism. Given throughout 1911 - the year before Rudolf Steiner split from the theosophists citing fundamental disagreements over the true nature of Christianity - the lectures reflect Steiner's intensifying emphasis on the central deed of the Christ being in Earth evolution, whilst in tandem demonstrating the truths of reincarnation and karma. He reveals profound vistas of human development and paths of advancement over many lifetimes, in which Christ is to be our steadfast companion and exemplar. Lectures include: 'Faith, Love, Hope'; 'Original Sin and Grace'; 'The Effect of Moral Qualities on Karma'; 'The Importance of Spiritual Enquiry for Moral Action'; 'Wisdom, Prayerfulness and Certainty in Life'; 'The Birth of the Sun Spirit as Earth Spirit'; 'The Threefold Call from the World of Spirit'; 'Christmas - A Festival of Inspiration'; 'The I at Work Upon the Child and How this Relates to the Christ Being'; 'Ossian and Fingal's Cave', and many more. Translated by Matthew Barton, this volume features an introduction, notes and index.

Contemporary life is so deeply reliant upon digital technology that the computer has come to dominate almost every aspect of our culture. What is the philosophical and spiritual significance of this dependence on electronic technology, both for our relationship to nature and for the future of humanity? And, what processes in human perception and awareness have produced the situation we find ourselves in? As Jeremy Naydler elucidates in this penetrating study, we cannot understand the emergence of the computer without seeing it within the wider context of the evolution of human consciousness, which has taken place over millennia. Modern consciousness, he shows, has evolved in conjunction with the development of machines and under their intensifying shadow. The computer was the product of a long historical development, culminating in the scientific revolution of the 17th century. It was during this period that the first mechanical calculators were invented and the project to create more complex `thinking machines' began in earnest. But the seeds were sown many hundreds of years earlier, deep in antiquity. Naydler paints a vast panorama depicting human development and the emergence of electronic technology. His painstaking research illuminates an urgent question that concerns every living person today: What does it mean to be human and what, if anything, distinguishes us from machines?

In 1917 Annie Besant (1847-1933), a white Englishwoman, was elected president of the Indian National Congress, the body which, under the guidance of Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948), would later lead India to independence. Besant - in her earlier career an active atheist and a socialist journalist - was from 1907 till her death the president of the Theosophical Society, an international spiritual movement whose headquarters' location in Madras symbolized its belief in India as the world's spiritual heart. This book deals with the contribution of the Theosophical Society to the rise of Indian nationalism and seeks to restore it to its proper place in the history of ideas, both with regard to its spiritual doctrine and the sources on which it drew, as well as its role in giving rise to the New Age movement of the 20th century. The book is the first to show how 19th century Orientalist study dramatically affected the rise of the Theosophical ideology, and specifically demonstrate the impact of the work of the Anglo-German scholar, Friedrich Max Muller (1833-1900) on Mme Blavatsky (1831-1891), the founder of the Theosophical Society.

"Gnosticism" has become a problematic category in the study of early Christianity. It obscures diversity, invites essentialist generalisations, and is a legacy of ancient heresiology. However, simply to conclude with "diversity" is unsatisfying, and new efforts to discern coherence and to synthesise need to be made. The present work seeks to make a fresh start by concentrating on Irenaeus' report on a specific group called the "Gnostics" and on his claim that Valentinus and his followers were inspired by their ideas. Following this lead, an attempt is made to trace the continuity of ideas from this group to Valentinianism. The study concludes that there is more continuity than has previously been recognised. Irenaeus' "Gnostics" emerge as the predecessors not only of Valentinianism, but also of Sethianism. They represent an early, philosophically inspired form of Christ religion that arose independently of the New Testament canon. Christology is essential and provides the basis for the myth of Sophia. The book is relevant for all students of Christian origins and the early history of the Church.

'This book is a tribute to [Stein's] appreciation of the land of his adoption and, to those who knew him, it is a monument to his penetrative powers of spiritual perception.' - A.P. Shepherd At a time when British identity is being reassessed and questioned, W.J. Stein's classic and timeless study, with its penetrative analysis of the character, psychology and destiny of the British people, takes on new relevance. Stein, a political refugee from Austria, spent the last 24 years of his life in Britain. As an outsider, he was able to view British custom and culture with objectivity. As a student of Rudolf Steiner, he brought years of spiritual study and wisdom to the writing of this book, enabling profound insights. In this concise and aphoristic study, Stein writes on everything from geography, history, politics and economics to the arts (in particular painting and music) and religion. He also reflects on the British concept of freedom, as well as Great Britain's somewhat mysterious propensity to extend itself - and its language and culture - across the world. 'Amidst the international turmoils of today the Delphic word can be heard to resound from all sides, in its metamorphosed form: "Know yourselves as folk-souls!" Stein's little book is an invaluable contribution to such a super-individual self-knowledge.' - T.H. Meyer

A-ha! Working through a topic or question, a shaft of sudden inspiration hits. The cloud of fragmented ideas and thoughts clear as a whole picture begins to form coherently in your mind. What you have now worked out - in an unexpected, exciting eureka moment - will stay with you forever. All teachers seek this experience for their students. Liz Attwell explores theories of education to argue that traditional teaching, 'filling buckets', must be replaced by dynamic, progressive teaching that promotes active learning - not just 'lighting a fire', but knowing how to lay the sticks and finding the matches too. This progressive approach seeks to create a basis for inner awakening and original insight, in order for students ultimately to come to their own a-ha moments. In A Drop of Light, Liz Attwell presents her original research into the phenomenon of a-ha moments, offering a theoretical background as well as practical advice to give teachers the tools, lesson plans, anecdotes and inspiration to bring living thinking to their own classrooms. Goethe's approach and Rudolf Steiner's pedagogical ideas make an important contribution, but Attwell advises that teachers following Steiner's philosophy should enter into dialogue with educators from other backgrounds. Working together, enlightened teachers around the world can help schools and colleges to become true learning communities.

A sizeable minority of people with no particular connection to Eastern religions now believe in reincarnation. The rise in popularity of this belief over the last century and a half is directly traceable to the impact of the nineteenth century's largest and most influential Western esoteric movement, the Theosophical Society. In Recycled Lives, Julie Chajes looks at the rebirth doctrines of the matriarch of Theosophy, the controversial occultist Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891). Examining her teachings in detail, Chajes places them in the context of multiple dimensions of nineteenth-century intellectual and cultural life. In particular, she explores Blavatsky's readings (and misreadings) of Spiritualist currents, scientific theories, Platonism, and Hindu and Buddhist thought. These in turn are set in relief against broader nineteenth-century American and European trends. The chapters come together to reveal the contours of a modern perspective on reincarnation that is inseparable from the nineteenth-century discourses within which it emerged, and which has shaped how people in the West tend to view reincarnation today.

The Indigo Child concept is a contemporary New Age redefinition of self. Indigo Children are described in their primary literature as a spiritually, psychically, and genetically advanced generation. Born from the early 1980s, the Indigo Children are thought to be here to usher in a new golden age by changing the world's current social paradigm. However, as they are "paradigm busters", they also claim to find it difficult to fit into contemporary society. Indigo Children recount difficult childhoods and school years, and the concept has also been used by members of the community to reinterpret conditions such as Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) and autism. Cynics, however, can claim that the Indigo Child concept is an example of "special snowflake" syndrome, and parodies abound. This book is the fullest introduction to the Indigo Child concept to date. Employing both on- and offline ethnographic methods, Beth Singler objectively considers the place of the Indigo Children in contemporary debates around religious identity, self-creation, online participation, conspiracy theories, race and culture, and definitions of the New Age movement.

In this book, Henrik Lagerlund offers students, researchers, and advanced general readers the first complete history of what is perhaps the most famous of all philosophical problems: skepticism. As the first of its kind, the book traces the influence of philosophical skepticism from its roots in the Hellenistic schools of Pyrrhonism and the Middle Academy up to its impact inside and outside of philosophy today. Along the way, the book covers skepticism during the Latin, Arabic, and Greek Middle Ages and during the Renaissance before moving on to cover Descartes' methodological skepticism and Pierre Bayle's super-skepticism in the seventeenth century. In the eighteenth century, it deals with Humean skepticism and the anti-skepticism of Reid, Shepherd, and Kant, taking care to also include reflections on the connections between idealism and skepticism (including skepticism in German idealism after Kant). The book covers similar themes in a chapter on G.E. Moore and Ludwig Wittgenstein, and then ends its historical overview with a chapter on skepticism in contemporary philosophy. In the final chapter, Lagerlund captures some of skepticism's impact outside of philosophy, highlighting its relation to issues like the replication crisis in science and knowledge resistance.

Theology has a rich tradition across the African continent, and has taken myriad directions since Christianity first arrived on its shores. This handbook charts both historical developments and contemporary issues in the formation and application of theologies across the member countries of the African Union. Written by a panel of expert international contributors, chapters firstly cover the various methodologies needed to carry out such a survey. Various theological movements and themes are then discussed, as well as biblical and doctrinal issues pertinent to African theology. Subjects addressed include: * Orality and theology * Indigenous religions and theology * Patristics * Pentecostalism * Liberation theology * Black theology * Social justice * Sexuality and theology * Environmental theology * Christology * Eschatology * The Hebrew Bible and the New Testament The Routledge Handbook of African Theology is an authoritative and comprehensive survey of the theological landscape of Africa. As such, it will be a hugely useful volume to any scholar interested in African religious dynamics, as well as academics of Theology or Biblical Studies in an African context.

Witches, ghosts, fairies. Premodern Europe was filled with strange creatures, with the devil lurking behind them all. But were his powers real? Did his powers have limits? Or were tales of the demonic all one grand illusion? Physicians, lawyers, and theologians at different times and places answered these questions differently and disagreed bitterly. The demonic took many forms in medieval and early modern Europe. By examining individual authors from across the continent, this book reveals the many purposes to which the devil could be put, both during the late medieval fight against heresy and during the age of Reformations. It explores what it was like to live with demons, and how careers and identities were constructed out of battles against them - or against those who granted them too much power. Together, contributors chart the history of the devil from his emergence during the 1300s as a threatening figure - who made pacts with human allies and appeared bodily - through to the comprehensive but controversial demonologies of the turn of the seventeenth century, when European witch-hunting entered its deadliest phase. This book is essential reading for all students and researchers of the history of the supernatural in medieval and early modern Europe.

Witches, ghosts, fairies. Premodern Europe was filled with strange creatures, with the devil lurking behind them all. But were his powers real? Did his powers have limits? Or were tales of the demonic all one grand illusion? Physicians, lawyers, and theologians at different times and places answered these questions differently and disagreed bitterly. The demonic took many forms in medieval and early modern Europe. By examining individual authors from across the continent, this book reveals the many purposes to which the devil could be put, both during the late medieval fight against heresy and during the age of Reformations. It explores what it was like to live with demons, and how careers and identities were constructed out of battles against them - or against those who granted them too much power. Together, contributors chart the history of the devil from his emergence during the 1300s as a threatening figure - who made pacts with human allies and appeared bodily - through to the comprehensive but controversial demonologies of the turn of the seventeenth century, when European witch-hunting entered its deadliest phase. This book is essential reading for all students and researchers of the history of the supernatural in medieval and early modern Europe.

Peter B. Clarke's in-depth account explores the innovative character of new religious movements and new forms of spirituality from a global vantage point. Ranging from North America and Europe to Japan, Latin America, South Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, it is the perfect introduction to NRMs such as Falun Gong, Aum Shirikyo, the Brahma Kumaris, the Ikhwan or Muslim Brotherhood, Sufism, the Engaged Buddhist and Engaged Hindi movements, Messianic Judaism and Rastafarianism. Charting the cultural significance and global impact of NRMs, he discusses the ways in which various religious traditions are shaping, rather than displacing, each other's understanding of notions such as transcendence and faith, good and evil, of the meaning, purpose and function of religion, and of religious belonging. He then examines the responses of governments, churches, the media and general public to new religious movements, as well as the reaction to older, increasingly influential religions, such as Buddhism and Islam, in new geographical and cultural contexts. Taking into account the degree of continuity between old and new religions, each chapter contains not only an account of the rise of the NRMs and new forms of spirituality in a particular region, but also an overview of change in the regions' mainstream religions.

The Witchcraft Reader offers a wide range of historical perspectives on the subject of witchcraft in a single, accessible volume, exploring the enduring hold that it has on human imagination. The witch trials of the late Middle Ages and the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have inspired a huge and expanding scholarly literature, as well as an outpouring of popular representations. This fully revised and enlarged third edition brings together many of the best and most important works in the field. It explores the origins of witchcraft prosecutions in learned and popular culture, fears of an imaginary witch cult, the role of religious division and ideas about the Devil, the gendering of suspects, the making of confessions and the decline of witch beliefs. An expanded final section explores the various "revivals" and images of witchcraft that continue to flourish in contemporary Western culture. Equipped with an extensive introduction that foregrounds significant debates and themes in the study of witchcraft, providing the extracts with a critical context, The Witchcraft Reader is essential reading for anyone with an interest in this fascinating subject.

Bridging science and spiritualtiy, Theosophy formulates a modern statement of the ancient wisdom tradition found in all world religions. But while many have heard of Theosophy, few simple interpretations exist. This introduction by a leading Theosophical teacher clarifies this often-misunderstood esoteric system.

Who wrote this mysterious guide to the principles of esoteric psychology and worldly success? History has kept readers guessing . . . and now, for the first time, seekers everywhere can discover a widely available edition of a guidebook that has been an underground classic for generations.
Here are the teachings of the legendary sage Hermes Trismegistus, reinterpreted for the modern reader. Rumored to be an ancient Egyptian man-god who fathered astrology, alchemy, and other magical arts, the figure of Hermes has fascinated readers of occult literature for generations. Writers in late antiquity named Hermes Trismegistus as the author of their own esoteric teachings, building the mystery of his lineage. Since 1908, "The Kybalion"awritten at the hand of the unnamed aThree Initiatesaahas itself generated debate and controversy. Who is behind it? Do its ideas really arise from the secrets of a distant era? And, most important, do they work for the modern seeker? In this concise, engaging guide, the pseudonymous author breaks down Hermetic doctrine into seven compelling principles, and then provides practical methods for how to apply them for self-development in daily life. Here is the definitive edition of a classic of esoteric psychology, now available to readers everywhere.