The present book has evolved out of a key ontological recognition consonant with time-honored metaphysical doctrine. In keeping with a realist view of cognitive sense perception, it rejects the Cartesian dichotomy of res extensa and res cogitans, and obviates what Whitehead referred to as the fallacy of bifurcation. In an earlier book (The Quantum Enigma, 1995) the author established two facts: first, that a consistent non-bifurcationist interpretation of physics can be formulated; and second, that this eliminates at one stroke the various forms of "quantum paradox" resulting from superposition and the so-called collapse of the state vector. The crucial ingredient of the new approach, mandated by the aforesaid recognition, is an ontological distinction between the physical domain, accessed via measurement, and the corporeal, accessed by way of cognitive sense perception.In the present book the author extends this metaphysically-based interpretation from fundamental physics to contemporary cosmology. With the aid of a few additional conceptions consonant, say, with the Thomistic doctrine - such as the concept of what he terms "the extrapolated universe" or the notion of "vertical causation" relating to intelligent design - he treats a broad range of issues from a unified metaphysical point of view. Not surprisingly, his conclusions tend to be radically at odds with the prevailing interpretations of scientific data, regardless of whether these are based upon naturalistic or scientistically theistic presuppositions. The author's approach may thus be characterized as the third alternative: the sole option, it appears, consistent with the Aristotelian and Platonist traditions, and with the wisdom of Christianity, as delineated especially in the Patristic writings.

    Most scholars have guessed that its origins were in China, Egypt, or India. In Mystical Origins of the Tarot, Paul Huson has expertly tracked each symbol of the Minor Arcana to roots in ancient Persia and the Major Arcana Trump card images to the medieval world of mystery, miracle, and morality plays. A number of tarot historians have questioned the use of the tarot as a divination tool prior to the 18th century. But the author demonstrates that the symbolic meanings of the Major Arcana were evident from the time they were first employed in the mid-15th century in the popular divination practice of sortilege. He also reveals how the identities of the court cards in the Minor Arcana were derived from a blend of pagan and medieval sources that strongly influenced their interpretation in tarot divination.Mystical Origins of the Tarot provides a thorough examination of the original historical source for each card and how the cards’ divinatory meanings evolved from these symbols. Huson also provides concise and practical card-reading methods designed by the cartomancers of the 18th and 19th centuries and reveals the origins of the card interpretations promoted by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and A. E. Waite.

    The book demonstrates, through excerpts from the great Pythagorean and Platonic writers, that to these thinkers philosophy is a way of life and a means of spiritual realization-not the dry, rationalistic, mental exercise philosophy has become in the modern world. The Golden Chain of the title refers to the ancient belief that such philosophy transmits a heritage of unitive knowledge through a succession of enlightened teachers and students.

    While there are many today who still share that view, the consensus of most Egyptologists is that no evidence exists that Egypt possessed any mystical tradition whatsoever. Jeremy Naydler’s radical reinterpretation of the Pyramid Texts--the earliest body of religious literature to have survived from ancient Egypt--places these documents into the ritual context in which they belong.Until now, the Pyramid Texts have been viewed primarily as royal funerary texts that were used in the liturgy of the dead pharaoh or to aid him in his afterlife journey. This emphasis on funerary interpretation has served only to externalize what were actually experiences of the living, not the dead, king. In order to understand the character and significance of the extreme psychological states the pharaoh experienced--states often involving perilous encounters with alternate realities--we need to approach them as spiritual and religious phenomena that reveal the extraordinary possibilities of human consciousness. It is the shamanic spiritual tradition, argues Naydler, that is the undercurrent of the Pyramid Texts and that holds the key to understanding both the true nature of these experiences and the basis of ancient Egyptian mysticism.

    However for him Demons are very much our own creations; lifes problems and challenges personified and given form. We can either be their slaves or strike bargains and get back into the driving seat. With his characteristic wit and wisdom, Uncle Ramsey takes us on a rollercoaster ride through our own subconscious in a sustained effort for us to accept and negotiate with life's challenges.

    Coomaraswamy's final un-published essays, including: The Iconography of Sagittarius, Philo's Doctrine of the Cherubim, Concerning Sphinxes, and The Concept of Ether in Greek and Indian Cosmology, are complemented by the author's own illustrations from his personal archives.

    Here the student is told in simple language the why, when and how to act. This differs from any other work on a similar theme, and to date, nothing like it has yet appeared.

    There are currently two kinds of translations available, which offer conflicting interpretations�the Confucian version and an earlier version called Zhouyi. Reconstructed by 20th-century scholars and archaeologists, Zhouyi presents the imaginative world of myth and ritual that is the basis of Eastern thought. Now, for the first time, Stephen Karcher fuses these two traditions using modern scholarship, archaeological and linguistic research, Eastern philosophy, and comparative religion, presenting them to the Western reader in a comprehensive, accessible, and vivid new form. Total I Ching is a complete oracle with instructions for use in all life situations. It is also the first translation to detail the mythology of the divinatory system, the Myths for Change.

    It is the first contemporary encyclopedic exposition of the great Western Tradition since the basic books by Eliphas Levi and Papus, and it also has full practical utility. The Philosophical Tarot has always been recognized as a universal key to all wisdom attainable by human beings. This text will be of particular interest, because of its kindred approach, to the many readers of the extraordinary contemporary masterpiece Meditations on the Tarot, by an anonymous writer much valued in esoteric circles throughout the world. The present work is by no means just a theoretical treatise accessible only to specialists, for anyone can understand the initiatory concepts of Mouni Sadhu's Tarot, perceiving completely new horizons of thought, activity, psychology, cosmology, and practical esotericism. In this text a great number of questions which occur to the earnest seeker are answered in a new and fascinating way, and the solution of the philosophical equations arising from the Arcana opens new vistas in every field of life. The book is suitably subdivided into 100 separate lessons, allowing for systematic study.

    In addition to the Talmud, one of the classical sources of Jewish mysticism, the Hebrew Bible and the Zohar or Book of Splendor are discussed in an all-embracing synthesis of our earthly individuality to our essential identity with the Absolute.

    Beginning with an overview of French alchemical life at the turn of the 20th century, Rivière carefully builds his case step-by-step with facts, documents, and photographs, introducing us to the well-known physicist who was known as Fulcanelli. Rivière also demolishes the scurrilous hypotheses that suggest Fulcanelli never existed. Rivière is uniquely suited to solving this mystery as his teacher was Fulcanelli's sole student, Eugène Canseliet.

    Any discerning reader can cope with the initiatory contents of 'The Tarot', perceiving completely new horizons of thought, activity, psychology, cosmogony and practical magic in this traditional form of Hermetic Occultism. An enormous number of questions that occur to the earnest seeker are answered in new and fascinating ways. The attentive reader is offered the opportunity to understand the true meaning of one's own life and destiny, as well as that of the epoch in which we live.