Eliphas Levi, born Alphonse Louis Constant, (1810-75) was instrumental in the revival of Western occultism in the nineteenth century, and published several influential books on magic that are also reissued in this series. This posthumous publication (1896) is a translation by William Wynn Westcott, co-founder of the 'Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn', of an unpublished French manuscript by Levi, then owned by the spiritualist Edward Maitland. It includes eight of the author's drawings. Each short chapter outlines the meaning of one of the twenty-two tarot trumps and is followed by a brief editor's note describing the card's iconography and summarising interpretations (sometimes deliberately misleading) given in Levi's earlier publications. The book ends with Kabbalistic prayers and rituals, praise of Jesus Christ as the great initiate, and a surprising assertion that Christianity has superseded ancient magic, revealing the life-long tension between Catholicism and magic in Levi's personality and thought.

The nineteenth-century writer and Masonic scholar Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie (1833 86) studied occultism with Frederick Hockley, and met the famous French occultist Eliphas Levi in 1861. He was also involved in the foundation of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. This extensive encyclopaedia, first published in 1877, is considered to be a classic Masonic reference work. It includes detailed information on the symbols, rites, legends, terms, people and places associated with Freemasonry. Some of the symbols are illustrated and lists of rankings are given, including a 'traditional' list of Grand Masters of England that includes Sts Swithin and Dunstan, Alfred the Great, Sir Christopher Wren (twice) and Charles II. Mackenzie aims in his entries to be critical when relevant: as he says in the Preface, freemasonry has 'received a willing tribute' in his book, but he hints at difficulties encountered in publishing material about a famously secretive society.

For many centuries, Hindus have taken it for granted that the religious images they place in temples and home shrines for purposes of worship are alive. Hindu priests bring them to life through a complex ritual "establishment" that invokes the god or goddess into material support. Priests and devotees then maintain the enlivened image as a divine person through ongoing liturgical activity: they must awaken it in the morning, bathe it, dress it, feed it, entertain it, praise it, and eventually put it to bed at night. In this linked series of case studies of Hindu religious objects, Richard Davis argues that in some sense these believers are correct: through ongoing interactions with humans, religious objects are brought to life.

Davis draws largely on reader-response literary theory and anthropological approaches to the study of objects in society in order to trace the biographies of Indian religious images over many centuries. He shows that Hindu priests and worshipers are not the only ones to enliven images. Bringing with them differing religious assumptions, political agendas, and economic motivations, others may animate the very same objects as icons of sovereignty, as polytheistic "idols," as "devils," as potentially lucrative commodities, as objects of sculptural art, or as symbols for a whole range of new meanings never foreseen by the images' makers or original worshipers.

The history and underlying ideology of pilgrimage examined, from prehistory to the middle ages. The enduring importance of pilgrimage as an expression of human longing is explored in this volume through three major themes: the antiquity of pilgrimage in what became the Christian world; the mechanisms of Christian pilgrimage(particularly in relation to the practicalities of the journey and the workings of the shrine); and the fluidity and adaptability of pilgrimage ideology. In their examination of pilgrimage as part of western culture from neolithictimes onwards, the authors make use of a range of approaches, often combining evidence from a number of sources, including anthropology, archaeology, history, folklore, margin illustrations and wall paintings; they suggest that it is the fluidity of pilgrimage ideology, combined with an adherence to supposedly traditional physical observances, which has succeeded in maintaining its relevance and retaining its identity. They also look at the ways in whichpilgrimage spilled into, or rather was part of, secular life in the middle ages. Dr JENNIE STOPFORD teaches in the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York. Contributors: RICHARD BRADLEY, E.D. HUNT, JULIEANN SMITH, SIMON BARTON, WENDY R. CHILDS, BEN NILSON, KATHERINE J. LEWIS, DEBRA J. BIRCH, SIMON COLEMAN, JOHN ELSNER, A. M. KOLDEWEIJ.

Originally published in 1923, this edition of The Travels of Fa-hsien was translated into English by H. A. Giles (1845-1935), a scholar of Chinese language and culture who helped popularize the Wade-Giles system for the Romanization of the Chinese languages. The Travels relates the story of Fa-hsien's journey from Central China across the Gobi Desert, over the Hindu Kush, and through India down to the mouth of the Hoogly, where he took a ship and returned to China by sea, bringing with him the books of the Buddhist Canon and images of Buddhist deities. This is a fascinating text that will be of value to anyone with an interest in Buddhism and Chinese literature.

The British explorer Sir Richard F. Burton (1821-90) was a colourful and often controversial character. A talented linguist and keen ethnologist, he worked in India during the 1840s as an interpreter and intelligence officer for General Sir Charles Napier, and published several books about his experiences in 1851-2. He first gained celebrity, however, for his adventurous 1853 trip to Mecca, under the disguise of a pilgrim, which is described in this lively three-volume publication (1855-6). Few Europeans had ever visited the Muslim holy places; one of them was John Lewis Burckhardt, whose 1829 account is also reissued in this series. Volume 3 of Burton's book vividly describes the pilgrims' journey from Medina to Mecca, with catering including coffee, rice and 'occasionally ... tough mutton and indigestible goat', crowded camp-sites and all-night prayers and singing. Finally he arrives at the Kaabah and witnesses the culminating ceremonies of the hajj.

The British explorer Sir Richard F. Burton (1821 90) was a colourful and often controversial character. A talented linguist and keen ethnologist, he worked in India during the 1840s as an interpreter and intelligence officer for General Sir Charles Napier, and published several books about his experiences in 1851 2. He first gained celebrity, however, for his adventurous 1853 trip to Mecca, under the disguise of a pilgrim, which is described in this lively three-volume publication (1855 6). Few Europeans had ever visited the Muslim holy places; one of them was John Lewis Burckhardt, whose 1829 account is also reissued in this series. Volume 1 of Burton's book describes his arrival in Egypt, the weeks he spent in Alexandria and Cairo polishing his linguistic and cultural skills, and how, at the end of Ramadan, he travelled to Suez by camel, and from there by boat to Yanbu al-Bahr.

The purpose of this book, published in 1813 by Thomas Duer Broughton (1778 1835), is to provide an English audience with an accurate description of 'the character, manners, domestic habits and religious ceremonies of the Mahrattas'. Broughton, an army officer in the East India Company, first arrived in India while serving as a cadet in the Bengal establishment in 1795, and eventually rose to the positions of captain in 1805, major in 1816 and colonel in 1829. The book consists of a series of thirty-two letters addressed to his brother, and most of the letters describe the events and the environment of the Rajputana region, beginning with an account of a journey from Agra to Kerowli. The letters which follow all contain fascinating descriptions of festivals and other events, and cultural encounters of all kinds, painting a vivid portrait of life for the British in early nineteenth-century India.

Nurture your inner monk and surrender to the natural grace and rhythm of your heart's deepest longings. "The whole world is, in fact, a text of sacred revelation. All experience has the potential to be revelatory, and God is singing one unending song seducing each of our hearts. So the call is to listen, to attune to the words God utters in the world." —from the Afterword Break open this ancient contemplative practice of listening deeply for God's voice in sacred texts. Drawing on her own experience as a monk in the world, Christine Valters Paintner introduces the foundations for a practice of lectio divina. She closely examines each of the four movements of lectio divina as well as the rhythm they create when practiced as a process. She then invites you to expand your practice beyond traditional sacred texts to a sacred reading of the world through image, sound, nature and life experience. Whether you want to start a contemplative prayer practice or deepen your experience of lectio divina in new ways, you are invited to savor the gifts lectio divina has to offer your heart and spirit.

How sacred sites amplify the energies of consciousness, the earth, and the universe
- Examines the web of geometrical patterns linking sacred sites worldwide, with special focus on the sacred network of ley lines in Paris
- Unveils the coming state of shared consciousness for humanity fueled by the sacred network
- Reveals how consciousness is a tangible form of energy
First marked by the standing stones of our megalithic ancestors, the world's sacred sites are not only places of spiritual energy but also hubs of cosmic energy and earthly energy. Generation upon generation has recognized the power of these sites, with the result that each dominant culture builds their religious structures on the same spots--the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, for example, was constructed over a Temple to Diana that in turn had been built over a stone pillar worshipped by the Gauls.
In "The Sacred Network," Chris Hardy shows how the world's sacred sites coincide with the intersections of energetic waves from the earth's geomagnetic field and how--via their megaliths, temples, and steeples--these sites act as antennae for the energies of the cosmos. Delving deeply in to Paris's sacred network, she also explores the intricate geometrical patterns created by the alignments of churches and monuments, such as pentagrams and Stars of David. Revealing that consciousness is a tangible energy, she explains how the sacred network is fueling an 8,000-year evolutionary cycle initiated by our megalithic ancestors that will soon culminate in a new state of shared consciousness for humanity.

'Ambiguous sanctuaries' are places in which the sacred is shared. These exist in almost all religions: tombs of saints, mausoleums, monasteries and shrines, a revered mountain peak, a majestic tree, a cave or special boulders in the river. This book examines this phenomenon in diverse parts of the world: in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Brazil. What these ritual spaces share is the capacity to unsettle and challenge people's experiences and understandings of reality, as well as to provoke the imagination, allowing universes of meanings to be interlinked. The spaces discussed reveal the many different ways the sacred can be shared. Different groups may once have visited sites that are nowadays linked to only one religion. The legacy of earlier religious movements is subtly echoed in the devotional forms, rituals, symbols or narratives (hagiographies) of the present, and the architectural settings in which they take place. In some pilgrimage sites, peoples of different faiths visit and take part in devotional acts and rituals - such as processing, offering candles, incenses and flowers - that are shared. The saints to whom a shrine is dedicated can also have a double identity. Such ambiguity has often been viewed through the lens of religious purity, and the exclusivity of orthodoxy, as confusion, showing a lack of coherence and authenticity. But the openness to interpretation of sacred spaces in this collection suggests a more positive analysis: that it may be through ambiguity transcending narrow confines that pilgrims experience the sanctity and power they seek. In the engaging and accessible essays that comprise Pilgrimage and Ambiguity the contributors consider the ambiguous forces that cohere in sacred spaces - forces that move us into the inspirational depths of human spirituality. In so doing, the essays bring us closer to a deeper appreciation of how ambiguity helps to define the human condition. This collection is one that will be read and debated for many years to come. Paul Stoller, West Chester University, Pennsylvania, 2013 Anders Retzius Gold Medal Laureate in Anthropology In a time of religious polarization, this fine collection of essays recalls that ambiguity, ambivalence and shared experience characterize the sacred as it is encountered in pilgrimages. Readers will travel through the Mediterranean, India, Pakistan and China, but also Western Europe and Amazonia, to discover saintly landscapes full of multiple meanings. Alexandre Papas, Senior Research Fellow, National Centre for Scientific Research, Paris

E. M. Bounds, one of the most prolific and powerful writers on prayer said, "Men and women are needed whose prayers will give to the world the utmost power of God; who will make His promises to blossom with rich and full results. God is waiting to hear us and challenges us to bring Him to do this thing by our praying." A Treasury of Prayer is the best of seven books on prayer by E. M. Bounds in a single volume. Pursue prayer "with an energy that never tires, a persistency which will not be denied, and a courage that never fails."

Ancient Jewish sacrifice has long been misunderstood. Some find in sacrifice the key to the mysterious and violent origins of human culture. Others see these cultic rituals as merely the fossilized vestiges of primitive superstition. Some believe that ancient Jewish sacrifice was doomed from the start, destined to be replaced by the Christian eucharist. Others think that the temple was fated to be superseded by the synagogue. In Purity, Sacrifice, and the Temple Jonathan Klawans demonstrates that these supersessionist ideologies have prevented scholars from recognizing the Jerusalem temple as a powerful source of meaning and symbolism to the ancient Jews who worshiped there. Klawans exposes and counters such ideologies by reviewing the theoretical literature on sacrifice and taking a fresh look at a broad range of evidence concerning ancient Jewish attitudes toward the temple and its sacrificial cult. The first step toward reaching a more balanced view is to integrate the study of sacrifice with the study of purity-a ritual structure that has commonly been understood as symbolic by scholars and laypeople alike. The second step is to rehabilitate sacrificial metaphors, with the understanding that these metaphors are windows into the ways sacrifice was understood by ancient Jews. By taking these steps-and by removing contemporary religious and cultural biases-Klawans allows us to better understand what sacrifice meant to the early communities who practiced it. Armed with this new understanding, Klawans reevaluates the ideas about the temple articulated in a wide array of ancient sources, including Josephus, Philo, Pseudepigrapha, the Dead Sea Scrolls, New Testament, and Rabbinic literature. Klawans mines these sources with an eye toward illuminating the symbolic meanings of sacrifice for ancient Jews. Along the way, he reconsiders the ostensible rejection of the cult by the biblical prophets, the Qumran sect, and Jesus. While these figures may have seen the temple in their time as tainted or even defiled, Klawans argues, they too-like practically all ancient Jews-believed in the cult, accepted its symbolic significance, and hoped for its ultimate efficacy.

In this landmark book, first published in English in 1958, renowned scholar of religion Mircea Eliade lays the groundwork for a Western understanding of Yoga. Drawing on years of study and experience in India, Eliade provides a comprehensive survey of Yoga in theory and practice from its earliest antecedents in the Vedas through the twentieth century.

A new introduction by David Gordon White provides invaluable insight into Eliade's life and work, highlighting the key moments in Eliade's academic and spiritual education, as well as the personal experiences that shaped his worldview. "Yoga" is not only one of Eliade's most important books, it is also his most personal--the only one to analyze a religious tradition that he had truly lived.