The Tarot is first and foremost a powerful instrument of self-knowledge and a representation of the structure of the soul. The Way of Tarot shows that the entire deck is structured like a temple, or a mandala, which is both an image of the world and a representation of the divine. The authors use the sacred art of the original Marseille Tarot--created during a time of religious tolerance in the 11th century--to reconnect with the roots of the Tarot’s Western esoteric wisdom. They explain that the Tarot is a “nomadic cathedral” whose parts--the 78 cards or “arcana”--should always be viewed with an awareness of the whole structure. This understanding is essential to fully grasp the Tarot’s hermetic symbolism. The authors explore the secret associations behind the hierarchy of the cards and the correspondences between the suits and energies within human beings. Each description of the Major Arcana includes key word summaries, symbolic meanings, traditional interpretations, and a section where the card speaks for itself. Jodorowsky and Costa then take the art of reading the Tarot to a depth never before possible. Using their work with Tarology, a new psychological approach that uses the symbolism and optical language of the Tarot to create a mirror image of the personality, they offer a powerful tool for self-realization, creativity, and healing.

    Forgiveness means a way out, a second chance, a feeling of hope with which to turn a new page in life. It is through the seeking of forgiveness that we begin to understand that there is no reason whatsoever to despair of the mercy of God. Islam encourages us to not run away in fear of Allah but rather to turn toward God the same way a baby would run into its mother's lap. So lovingly does God, Most High, address His sinful servants: "Say (to humanity, O Muhammad): O My servants—those (of you) who have committed (sins in great) excess against their own souls—never despair of the mercy of Allah! For, indeed, Allah forgives sins, one and all. Indeed, it is He who is the All-Forgiving, the Mercy-Giving. So turn in penitence to your Lord. And submit yourselves to Him." (The Qur'an 39:53-54) This collection of seventy prayers for forgiveness [istighfarat] is attributed to one of the greatest spiritual luminaries of the past, Hasan al-Basri, and it has been presented here to offer a way for us to navigate through the complications and pitfalls of this life. Set out in Arabic script, with adjoining translation in English, this edition also includes transliteration of the prayers to facilitate reading for those who are not so well-versed in Arabic.

    Contains CD "A Meditation into the Heart of Christ"

    Thoroughly personal and inspiring, Drawn into the Mystery challenges all Christians to encounter the fullness of life lived in close communion with God. Vanier writes: "These insights that I share in this book come from the life of Jesus in me . . . They also flow from my life with people who are weak and who have taught me to welcome Jesus from the place of the poverty in me." Jean Vanier was a friend and influential mentor to the late Henri Nouwen. Toward the end of his life, Nouwen left Harvard to live and work at one of Jean Vanier's L'Arche communities. This was perhaps the most profound experience of Christianity Nouwen experienced. The thought and spiritual direction/discipleship of Jean Vanier is available to all in Drawn into the Mystery of Jesus-through the Gospel of John. +

    Based on decades of work, travel, and experience, Rohr, a Franciscan brother and best-selling author, unearths the complexities of male spiritual maturation and helps us to understand the importance of male initiation rights in both culture and the church.

    The teaching staff was struck by the paradox of students on the one hand spending a week discussing healing, in terms of forgiveness and undoing separation, and on the other, fervently practicing judgment and condemnation of each other,directly opposite to the kind, gentle tone of Jesus' words in 'A Course in Miracles. This talk thus was devoted to the kindness of healing, in hopes of reinforcing Jesus' message of undoing separation. Kindness reflects our inherent oneness with each other, while attack drives us still further apart in our awareness. In reviewing the principles of sickness and healing and some common misapplications, the discussion in this book helps us undo the sources of unkindness, so that in all our interactions we would reflect the Source of kindness. It is hoped that this little book will serve to remind us all of the need to be kind, the spiritual principle par excellence.

    This is the topic explored in this book, which consists of an edited transcription of a talk given to a group of students by Kenneth Wapnick, supplemented with two articles, co-authored with his wife Gloria, that appeared in the Foundation's newsletter, "The Lighthouse." The focus is on the many forms of resistance and their basis in the fear of love. Freud's valuable insights are discussed, along with Jesus' role in helping us look without judgment at our investment in maintaining the ego's thought system--the miracle that resolves the paradox.

    How do we reclaim that fire today?On Encountering the Wisdom Jesus, this brilliant author and dynamic Episcopalian priest presents her first full-length audio course about rediscovering the Master of Wisdom. Twelve immersive sessions cover: the parables as wisdom tools; Jesus's teachings about kenosis (or self-emptying: a path as radical today as it was 2,000 years ago); Jesus as tantric master; Centering Prayer, an approach to meditation as Jesus lived it, and much more.

    Original.

    In short order, Bob cleared up John's doubts and questions and pointed out to him the fact of our real nature: self-shining, ever-present awareness. Bob Adamson has encouraged John to share this understanding of 'who we really are.'The articles contained in this book (extended by another 30 articles in this edition) cover some of John's experiences with meeting 'Sailor' Bob Adamson and various aspects of the understanding which subsequently unfolded. Interspersed with these are chapters of email correspondence with enquirers who have been drawn to this radical and direct approach to self-realisation.

    Born a princess in the region of Rajasthan in 1498, Mira (as she is more commonly known) fought tradition and celebrated a woman's right to an independent life in her ecstatic poems. Her royal family arranged an early marriage for her, but she felt a marriage to Krishna was more important. As a result, her life became a model of social defiance and spiritual integrity. During her lifetime, Mira's reputation spread across her country. She was known as a woman of immense talent and devotion. By the time she died in 1550, she was considered a saint. People across India recited and danced to her poems, and they still do today. In this collection, Robert Bly and Jane Hirshfield, two of America's best poets, have created lively English versions of Mirabai's poems, using fresh images and energetic rhythms to make them accessible to modern readers. Their work makes clear that Mirabai's poetry transcends her time and culture.Columbia University professor of religion John Stratton Hawley provides an afterword to the volume that discusses what is known of Mirabai's life and reputation. With a historian's precision, he shows how Bly and Hirshfield's versions belong to a tradition of reinterpretation and rephrasing that is already centuries old.Mirabai comes to life through the impressive interpreting of her poems by Bly and Hirshfield. The poems feel as fresh today as they must have felt when this amazing woman sung them herself five centuries ago.

    Dreams also reveal the wishes of the soul, calling us to move beyond our ego agendas and the web of other people’s projections into a deeper, more spirited life. They call us to remember our sacred contracts and reclaim the knowledge that belonged to us, on the levels of soul and spirit, before we entered our present life experience. In dreams we also discover where our vital soul energy may have gone missing--through pain or trauma or heartbreak--and how to get it back.Robert Moss was called to these ways when he started dreaming in a language he did not know, which proved to be an early form of the Mohawk Iroquois language. From his personal experiences, he developed a spirited approach to dreaming and living that he calls Active Dreaming.Dreamways of the Iroquois is at once a spiritual odyssey, a tribute to the deep wisdom of the First Peoples, a guide to healing our lives through dreamwork, and an invitation to soul recovery.

    In some corners of the earth, in some traditional cultures, and in monastic life, this is still remembered. But in our fast-paced modern world, this wisdom is often lost on us. It is important for us to remember the significance of the threshold. While it is certainly true that thresholds mark the end of one thing and the beginning of another, they also act as borders-the places in between, the points of transition. These can be physical, such as the geographical borders of a country; others, such as the spiritual border between the inner and outer world-between ourselves and others-are intangible. In To Pause at the Threshold, Esther de Waal looks at what it is like to live in actual border country, the Welsh countryside with its slower rhythms and earth-linked textures, and explores the importance of opening up and being receptive to one's surroundings, whatever they may be.

    It shows how mystics are helping with this work, bringing light and love where it is needed, transforming old patterns, and bringing this new awareness into the mainstream. This book stresses the role of the feminine and how her natural understanding of life’s wholeness and interrelatedness is pivotal to evolution, offering an understanding of a future in which the knowledge of science and the wisdom of the mystic will come together.

    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.

    Meditation: The First and Last Freedom shows that meditation is not a spiritual discipline separate from everyday life in the real world. In essence, it is simply the art of being aware of what is going on inside and around us. As we acquire the knack, meditation can be our companion wherever we are-at work, at play, at rest.Meditation contains practical, step-by-step guides to a wide variety of meditation techniques selected by and/or created by Osho, including the unique OSHO Active Meditations which deal with the special tensions of contemporary life. Recognizing that it's almost impossible for most people these days just to stop and sit silently, these meditations - including the Osho Dynamic Meditation and Osho Kundalini Meditation - begin with one or more stages of vigorous physical activity. This brings our physical and mental energies to a peak, so that the following silence is easy -- leaving us alert, refreshed, and newly energized.Newly revised and resized into a handy portable format, Meditation is the perfect text to begin or continue exploring the joys of meditation.

    Also, the possibility that Ancient Egyptian Priests and Priestesses migrated to Greece, India and other countries to carry on the traditions of the Ancient Egyptian Mysteries, has been speculated over the years as well. In chapter 1 of the book Egyptian Yoga The Philosophy of Enlightenment, 1995, I first introduced the deepest comparison between Ancient Egypt and India that had been brought forth up to that time. Now, in the year 2001 this new book, THE AFRICAN ORIGINS OF CIVILIZATION, MYSTICAL RELIGION AND YOGA PHILOSOPHY, more fully explores the motifs, symbols and philosophical correlations between Ancient Egyptian and Indian mysticism and clearly shows not only that Ancient Egypt and India were connected culturally but also spiritually. How does this knowledge help the spiritual aspirant? This discovery has great importance for the Yogis and mystics who follow the philosophy of Ancient Egypt and the mysticism of India. It means that India has a longer history and heritage than was previously understood. It shows that the mysteries of Ancient Egypt were essentially a yoga tradition which did not die but rather developed into the modern day systems of Yoga technology of India. It further shows that African culture developed Yoga Mysticism earlier than any other civilization in history. Allof this expands our understanding of the unity of culture and the deep legacy of Yoga, which stretches into the distant past, beyond the Indus Valley civilization, the earliest known high culture in India as well as the Vedic tradition of Aryan culture. Therefore, Yoga culture and mysticism is the oldest known tradition of spiritual development and Indian mysticism is an extension of the Ancient Egyptian mysticism. By understanding the legacy which Ancient Egypt gave to India the mysticism of India is better understood and by comprehending the heritage of Indian Yoga, which is rooted in Ancient Egypt the Mysticism of Ancient Egypt is also better understood. This expanded understanding allows us to prove the underlying kinship of humanity, through the common symbols, motifs and philosophies which are not disparate and confusing teachings but in reality expressions of the same study of truth through metaphysics and mystical realization of Self.

    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.

    In an engaging and accessible style, Frankel brings together tales and teachings from the Bible, the Talmud, Kabbalah, and the Hasidic traditions as well as evocative case studies and stories from her own life to create an original, inspirational guide to emotional healing and spiritual growth.

    But what they don’t know is the story behind Exodus, or how they can use this backstory to connect with a higher realm. Kabbalah teaches that the lesson of the parting of the Red Sea is that within all humans lies the power to do anything if they relinquish fear and inject certainty into the equation: consciousness controls reality. This new rendition of Exodus is the second book of the Kabbalistic Bible, which forms a bridge between the Zohar, the sacred text of Kabbalah, and the Torah or Bible. Edited and annotated by noted Kabbalah scholar Yehuda Berg, this handsome hardcover is printed front-to-back, with Hebrew and English translations printed on facing pages.

    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.

    Yannaras begins by outlining Heidegger's analysis of the fate of western metaphysics, which ends, he argues, in a nihilistic atheism. Yannaras's response is largely to accept Heidegger's analysis, but to argue that, although it applies to the western tradition of what Heidegger calls "onto theology" (which regards God as a 'being', even if the highest), it does not take account of the Orthodox tradition of apophatic theology, of which Dionysius the Areopagite is a pre-eminent example. A God 'beyond being' escapes the criticism of Heidegger, and provides an alternative to Heidegger's nihilistic conclusion.

    In his new book, Teasdale presents a powerful daily guide to interspiritual wisdom with 365 quotes from the great religious and spiritual traditions, from sources as varied as St. John of the Cross, Confucius, the Dhammapada, and Allen Ginsberg. Designed as an aid for daily reflection and meditation, Teasdale's illuminating commentary follows each passage.

    More than just a physical environment, the desert represents the darkness of our ego that we are meant to overcome in order to bring the Light into our lives. It is the ego that we are ultimately enslaved to as it hides in our fears, doubts and limitations. As the Israelites who were led by Moses from bondage to the land of Canaan, we too can take control of our own journey by understanding the concepts of slavery and freedom. The purpose of this book is to bring the Creator’s Light into the “desert” in which the world finds itself. The stories guide readers to the Spiritual Promised Land — which is their true destiny.

    Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, her brother-in-law Rodney Collin, and other spiritual supermen fired Joyce Collin-Smith's imagination from a young age and she literally 'sat at the feet' of many such masters and esoteric teachers.