The Dasha Avatar is the Puranic story of the ten incarnations of Vishnu who descends to the terrestrial world to establish stability and order, time and again. The avatars occur in a sequence – the first was matsya or fish representing life in water, followed by kurma or turtle signifying life in water and on land, then varaha or boar alluding to terrestrial life and so on. The sequence of the avatars could be taken to symbolise various stages in the evolution of life culminating in the advent of the perfect being.

    R. K. Narayan provides a superb rendition in an abbreviated and elegant retelling of this great epic.

    In this groundbreaking work, three experts—a mycologist, a chemist and a historian—argue persuasively that the sacred potion given to participants in the course of the ritual contained a psychoactive entheogen. The authors then expand the discussion to show that natural psychedelic agents have been used in spiritual rituals across history and cultures. Although controversial when first published in 1978, the book’s hypothesis has become more widely accepted in recent years, as knowledge of ethnobotany has deepened. The authors have played critical roles in the modern rediscovery of entheogens, and The Road to Eleusis presents an authoritative exposition of their views. The book’s themes of the universality of experiential religion, the suppression of that knowledge by exploitative forces, and the use of psychedelics to reconcile the human and natural worlds make it a fascinating and timely read. This 30th anniversary edition includes an appreciative preface by religious scholar Huston Smith and an updated exploration of the chemical evidence by Peter Webster.

    These "Selected Works provide facsimile editions of her landmark writings, spanning the whole of her publishing career, from 1959 to 1980.

    From orange trees growing at the command of a child to talking fish, these stories present us with a world of wonder, delight, and mystery.

    With over 200 illustrations and lively, informative and often ironictexts, she discusses and explains an enormous variety of symbolsextending from the Arctic to Dahomey, from the Iroquois to Oceana, andcoming from systems as diverse as Tao, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism,Islam, Tantra, the cult of Cybele and the Great Goddess, thePre-Columbian religions of the Western Hemisphere and the Voodoo cultsof Brazil and West Africa.

    A retelling of three of the great oral legends of ancient Ireland, accompanied by illustrations influenced by the Book of Kells.

    In this book, an eminent Jungian analyst examines the recurring motifs that appear in creation myths from around the world and shows what they teach us about the mysteries of creativity, the cycles of renewal in human life, and the birth of consciousness in the individual psyche. Among the topics discussed are:    •  Why the creative process is often accompanied by anxiety, depression, loneliness, and fear of the unknown.    •  The meaning of creation motifs such as the egg, the seed, the primordial being, the creative fire, the separation of heaven and earth, and the four stages of creation.    •  Creation symbolism in the alchemical opus of medieval tradition.    •  How creation-myth motifs appear in the dreams of people who are on the verge of a leap forward in consciousness.

    Man’s yearning for something afar finds its most vivid articulation in this novel.Prince Shamba, afflicted with leprosy, refusing to submit to fate, undertakes a long and arduous journey in quest of cure, in the course of which he comes across a wooden replica of the Sun God, the Divine Healer, in the confluence of Sindhu and Chandrabhaga and realizes that “nothing is meaningless in life”.It is fundamentally a story of man’s attempt to meet the challenge of his own self. Shamba reaches fulfillment in human existence not as a Ksatriya prince but as an outsider in the contemporary society, to which he never returns after the cure.

    Stories from Ancient Canaan is the first to offer a one-volume translation of all four. This accessible book teaches the principal Canaanite religious literature, and will be useful to students of the history of religion, of the Bible, and of comparative literature.

    - Mircea Eliade Nahman of Bratslav: The Tales translation, introduction and commentaries by Arnold J. Band preface by Joseph Dan Rav Nahman answered and said: On the way, I told a tale (of such power) that whoever heard it had thoughts of repentance... And that is how I am curing her. Therefore I have this power in my hands. And this is my gift to you this day. And there was great rejoicing and everyone was very happy. Nahman of Bratslav (1772-1810) The body of this book is comprised of the thirteen Tales of Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav, one of the most renowned of the early Hasidic masters of prayer and probably the greatest of the Hasidic storytellers. These tales are presented in a style both readable and scrupulously close to the original. No previous translators of these tales have attempted to take the original text this seriously, for they changed, added and deleted at will. As the editor of the volume states in his foreword, Of the thousands of Hasidic tales circulated in the past two centuries, few have earned the veneration and affection of the thirteen Tales of Nahman of Bratslav...Still studied as scripture, these tales have attracted a varied audience intrigued by the remarkable blend of intense Kabbalistic faith and narrative artistry. Dr. Band goes on to say, In this English translation I have tried to capture the ambiance of...the oral familiarity and charm of the Yiddish and the metaphysical rigor and grandeur of the Hebrew. In his preface Dr. Joseph Dan of Hebrew University, Jerusalem, addresses the question, Why is this an important work today? He says, Rabbi Nahman's tales should be regarded as a great literary accomplishment of a mystical author, who achieved complete identification and unity between external and internal elements and expressed them in a unified spiritual autobiography, in the guise of folktales. Such achievements are very rare in the history of religious literature, and as one such rare example it should be read in the twentieth century. The volume includes an introduction giving a biography of Nahman as well as a theory of spiritual literature. To each of the Tales, Dr. Band prefaced a brief editor's prologue to set the tone and direction of the reading. At the end of the volume he has appended a fuller commentary on each tale.

    This second edition features three new Zuni stories, updated transcriptions of stories from the original edition, a bibliography, and a new preface and introduction.

    Mortenhurze, Purwell's patron, wants revenge. Todman, a horse warlock, has more sinister intentions. Both men seek to capture the mysterious horse, so that its magic powers will become theirs to command. But they are no match for the dark forces of myth and magic which still exist among the Berkshire hills. Only Diana, who is blind, is allowed a glimpse of the truth. With Merlin's help, she learns that the Moon Stallion is beyond the reach of ambitious men. It is part of a legend which unites past, present and future... Based on the 1978 BBC Children's fantasy drama starring Sarah Sutton, John Abineri, and David Haig. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Best known for his work on Doctor Who, he wrote a total of six stories and created the iconic Celestial Toymaker and The Ice Warriors! Hayles wrote for such television series as The Regiment, Barlow at Large, Doomwatch, Out of the Unknown, United!, Legend of Death, Public Eye, Z-Cars, BBC Playhouse, The Wednesday Thriller and Suspense. In addition to script writing for the radio series The Archers, Hayles penned a novel based on the soap called Spring at Brookfield (Tandem, 1975) set in the period between the two world wars. His other books included novelisations of his Doctor Who stories, and two horror plays for children, The Curse of the Labyrinth (Dobson, 1976) and Hour of the Werewolf (Dobson, 1976). An original novel entitled Goldhawk (NEL, 1979) was published posthumously.

    It goes into the truth of the legend of King Arthur.

    The distinguished authors bring a wealth of knowledge, visionary thinking, and accessible writing to each intriguing subject in these lavishly illustrated, large-format paperback books.

    

    This is a succinct gathering of the most important writings on the Unicorn in the 2300 years since he was first described. We present these texts without annotation, hoping by this to allow for clear perception and unhindered personal response. we have chosen the pictures principally for their historical importance.-W.P.-

    His family, who claimed to have come from Hua Shan, the Taoist mountain in western China, followed the observances of the Dragon-Tiger Mountain sect in southeastern China. Although there are many conflicting Taoist schools, the antiquity and authenticity of Master Chuang's traditions cannot be doubted. Michael Saso, a Western disciple of Master Chuang, recounts the teachings of Taoist Master Chuang, including Taoist history as Master Chuang understood it, the role of Taoist Priests in modern Chinese society, and Master Chuang's own rituals of Taoist black magic, meditation, and rarely discussed exorcistic thunder magic.

    One of the most popular and influential historians and theorists of myth, Eliade argued that all myth is religious. Douglas Allen critically interprets Eliade's theories of religion, myth, and symbolism and analyses many of the controversial issues in Eliade's treatment of myth including whether Eliade's approach deals adequately with the relationship between myth and history and how Eliade's anti-modern perspective makes sense of myth in modern culture. A valuable resource for scholars in religious studies, philosophy, anthropology, and history, this book enables readers not only to understand "archaic" and "traditional" religious phenomena, but also to make sense of repressed and sublimated myth dimensions in modern secular life.

    This mimetic desire, Rene Girard contends, lies at the source of all human disorder and order. In brilliant readings of Dante, Camus, Nietzsche, Dostoevski, Levi-Strauss, Freud, and others, Girard draws out the thesis of mimetic desire -- and ponders its suppression in the West since Plato: The historical mutilation of mimesis ...was no mere oversight, no fortuitous 'error.' Real awareness of mimetic desire threatens the flattering delusion we entertain not only about ourselves as individuals but also about the nature and origin of that collective self we call our society.

    This study provides analysis of all aspects of the poem and background information.

    

    

    A collection of tales, including: I Will Now Tell a Story / The Creation / The Two Brothers / The Gifts of the Little People / Skunny-Wundy and the Stone Giant / The Brave Women and the Flying Head / The Story of Okteondon or The Workers of Evil / The girl Who Was Not Satisfied With Simple Things / The Two Daughters / Naho.