Best of
Mysticism

1988

Medicine Cards: The Discovery of Power Through the Ways of Animals


Jamie Sams - 1988
    now, revised and expanded to include eight additional cards, this unique and powerful divination system draws upon ancient wisdom and tradition to teach the healing medicine of animals. Medicine Cards and found its way into the hearts and hands of many, guiding the way to healing the body, emotions, mind, and spirit, and providing insight into and understand of one's unique purpose in life.

Kashmir Shaivism: The Secret Supreme


Lakshmanjoo - 1988
    This exposition of the non-dual philosophy with practical applications is his first book in English. The tantric teachings are hidden in a language of allusion and symbol. Swamiji offers the skeleton key of the oral tradition that allows access to the secrets. The intent is to preserve the tradition and to make it available. The emphasis is on practical realization of Truth through the experiences of Kundalini Yoga. The author contrasts this realization with the concepts of liberation taught by other schools of Indian philosophy, especially Advaita Vedanta. Kashmir Shaivism experiences the world as real and true as real and true as the existence of God. Liberation is the unbroken awareness of this universe as one s own transcendental Consciousness. It is a blissful realization."

Redemption and Utopia: Jewish Libertarian Thought in Central Europe: A Study in Elective Affinity


Michael Löwy - 1988
    . . a generation of Central European Jewish intellectuals of an antiauthoritarian political orientation who left a considerable mark on 20th-century radical thought. . . . As Löwy’s subtle and profound book reminds us, their legacy is a rich one.”—American Historical Review

The Golden Game: Alchemical Engravings Of The Seventeenth Century


Stanislas Klossowski de Rola - 1988
    By the 17th century, the complex pictorial language of symbols which encoded its theories and secrets had reached a highpoint of elaboration and sophistication. With the spread of printing, the iconography of alchemy began to flower as never before.

Spiritual Unfoldment Vol 4 : The Path to the Light: The Path of the Light: v. 4


White Eagle - 1988
    A particular feature is its teaching on brotherhood. Chapters include: The Second Coming; Man, Human and Divine; and The Way of a Brother.

Nonduality: A Study in Comparative Philosophy


David R. Loy - 1988
    Increasingly, however, this topic is finding its way into Western philosophical debates. In this "scholarly but leisurely and very readable" (Spectrum Review) analysis of the philosophies of nondualism of (Hindu) Vedanta, Mahayana Buddhism, and Taoism, Loy extracts what he calls "a core doctrine" of nonduality of seer and seen from these three worldviews and then applies the doctrine in various ways, including a critique of Derrida's deconstructionism.

Spiritual Dimensions of Psychology


Hazrat Inayat Khan - 1988
    This is the most comprehensive gathering of Inayat Khan's teachings on the mind and its potential, and contains material which has not been published elsewhere.

Path of Fire and Light, Vol. 2: A Practical Companion to Volume I


Swami Rama - 1988
    Shows how to understand the mind.

The Mystical, Magical, Marvelous World of Dreams


Wilda B. Tanner - 1988
    This book shows how to recognize dreams which contain teaching and encouragement from your Higher Self. Along with a comprehensive, cross-referenced index for easy use, it contains an extensive encyclopedia of dream symbols and how to find the meanings that are right for you.

God of Ecstasy: Sex Roles and the Madness of Dionysos


Arthur Evans - 1988
    

The Greatest Story Never Told: A Scientific Inquiry into the Evidence of the Fall of Man from a Higher Civilization in Antiquity


Lana Corrine Cantrell - 1988
    

The Triadic Heart of Śiva: Kaula Tantricism of Abhinavagupta in the Non-Dual Shaivism of Kashmir


Paul Eduardo Muller-Ortega - 1988
    It explains Abhinavagupta's teaching about the nature of ultimate reality, about the methods for experiencing this ultimate reality, and about the nature of the state of realization, a condition of embodied enlightenment. The author uncovers the conceptual matrix surrounding the practices of the Kaula lineage of Kashmir Shaivism.The primary textual basis for the book is provided by Abhinavagupta's Paratrisika-laghuvrtti, a short meditation manual that centers on the symbolism of the Heart-mantra, SAUH."Muller-Ortega's approach is good, clear, intelligent, and perceptive. The translation of the Paratrisika-laghuvrtti given in the appendix, being the first English translation of this short but important text, is a very useful contribution to the study of Kashmir Shaivism, and so are the long and numerous quotations in the text of other works, as yet untranslated into English, of Abhinavagupta." -- Andre Padoux, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, ParisPaul Eduardo Muller-Ortega is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Michigan State University.

Studies in Ecstatic Kabbalah


Moshe Idel - 1988
    It includes the mystical union, the world of imagination, and concentration as a spiritual technique. The emphasis in the text is on the interaction between the "original" Spanish stage of Kabbalah and Muslim mysticism in the East, mainly in the Galilee. The influence of the Kabbalistic-Sufic synthesis on the later developments of Jewish mysticism is traced, thereby providing a more precise understanding of the history of Kabbalah as an interplay between the theosophical and ecstatic mystical experiences.

Mastering Sadhana: On Retreat With Anthony De Mello


Carlos G. Vallés - 1988
    How can you search for what is right before your eyes? How can you attain what you already possess? What is called for here is not effort, but recognition." -Anthony de MelloA spiritual director of the first order, Anthony de Mello has touched countless persons worldwide through his bestselling books, the first of which was SADHANA: A WAY TO GOD. His deceptively simple teachings on prayer, meditation, and self-realization -- through his writings, workshops, retreats, and spiritual therapy courses -- have profoundly changed the lives of those who have experienced him.In MASTERING SADHANA, a close friend and associate shares in detail not only personal reminiscences and conversations, but in fact de Mello's own words, as recorded by Valles during a fifteen-day retreat in India, which was the last conducted by Anthony de Mello. Here in essay form are teachings on love, suffering, the self and the non-self, change, awareness, role-playing, and more -- in sum, a guide to the SADHANA way of life.

The Poetics of Ascent: Theories of Language in a Rabbinic Ascent Text


Naomi Janowitz - 1988
    Through a complex dialogue, a rabbi-teacher reveals to his student the techniques of ascent, methods for traveling up through the heavens by means of recitation of hymns. The teacher gives vivid descriptions of the heavenly realm, filled with flaming chariots and a chorus of angels engaged in praising the deity.The emphasis in the text is on language, on the correct recitation of the words to achieve the ritual. The particular focus is on the divine Name, which can be employed in unusual ways. The author relates the structures of the text to the linguistic idealogies. The complex structures of the text begin to unfold in light of the theories about the ritual function of language.The hymns include praise of the deity and voces magicae, words that have no semantic meaning, but draw attention to sounds of letters in God's name. Since God's name is used to create the world, the sounds of the name are creative, but the Name cannot be spoken. The hymns create a multiplicity of Name-equivalents, words that have the functional status of the divine Name and which can be employed in ritual. Voces magicae are not so much nonsense as they are logical extensions of the linguistic theory. The final chapter surveys recent theories of ritual language and then uses the conclusions from the study to refine the general issue of the relationship between the semantic meaning of words and their ritual efficacy.The dialogic structure of the text permits the reader to become the next student in a chain going back to the deity by means of Moses.