Campbell challenges everyone to see the presence of a heroic journey in his or her own life. Campbell: " "There is a typical hero sequence of actions which can be detected in stories from all over the world and from the many, many periods of history. It is essentially the one deed done by many, many different people. The hero or heroine is someone who has given his life to something bigger than himself or other than himself.... Losing yourself, giving yourself to another, that's a trial in itself, is it not? There is a big transformation of consciousness that's concerned. And what all the myths have to deal with is the transformation of consciousness--that you're thinking in this way, and you have now to think in that way.""Moyers: " "Well, how is the consciousness transformed?""Campbell: " "By trials.""Moyers: " "The tests that the hero undergoes?""Campbell: " "Tests or certain illuminating revelations. Trials and revelations are what it's all about.""

    Clarissa Pinkola Estes, this spoken-word masterpiece guides you through the dark labyrinths of the psyche in search of "la chispa" the ember that is the elemental source of all creative work. Dr. Estes teaches about the hidden aspects of creativity, including the negative complexes that prey upon creative energy. The Creative Fire includes many special insights for people who create for a living: artists, writers, teachers, and others who must depend on their creative instincts every day."

    Her name is Wild Woman, but she is an endangered species. Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D., Jungian analyst and cantadora storyteller shows how women's vitality can be restored through what she calls "psychic archeological digs" into the ruins of the female unconsious. Using multicultural myths, fairy tales, folk tales, and stories, Dr. Estes helps women reconnect with the healthy, instinctual, visionary attributes of the Wild Woman archetype.Dr. Estes has created a new lexicon for describing the female psyche. Fertile and life-giving, it is a psychology of women in the truest sense, a knowing of the soul.

    With explanations of strange phenomena from both folklore and modern scientific research, it examines famous hauntings, historical figures and events, and myths and legends surrounding ghosts and spirits in different cultures. This edition covers recent breakthroughs and incidences, new information about important myths, and current research into ghosts and other paranormal occurrences.

    The mythical embodiment of these fears is the Dark Goddess. Known around the world by many names--Lilith, Kali, Hecate, and Morgana--the archetypal Dark Goddess represents death, sexuality, and the unconscious--the little understood, often feared aspects of life.Demetra George combines psychological, mythical, and spiritual perspective on the shadowy, feminine symbolism of the dark moon to reclaim the darkness from oppressive, fear-based images. George offers rites for rebirth and transformation that teach us to tap into the power of our dark times, maximizing the potential for renewal inherent in our inevitable periods of loss, depression, and anger.

    They explain what happened to the goddess, when, and how she was excluded from western culture, and the implications of this loss.

    Couliano shows that, far from being "historically" transmitted, the underlying connection between all dualistic worldviews is a perennial and immensely appealing mindset.

    Bureau of Ethnology, James Mooney's History, Myths, and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees has enduring significance for both Native Americans and non-Indian people. The book contains the full texts of James Mooney's Myths of the Cherokee (1900) and The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees (1891), with an exclusive biographical introduction by George Ellison, James Mooney and the Eastern Cherokees. Mooney's exhaustive research preserved essential Cherokee history, lore, and rituals in a time when such knowledge was dying because younger Cherokees were accepting Western education, commerce, and medicine. The first section of this text covers Cherokee history from the time of DeSoto's search for gold in the 1600s to the late 1800s when the tribal consciousness nearly came to an end. The second section reveals the rich Cherokee mythology, detailing how the earth was made, how all "people" (both two-and four-footed) came about, and how they could all converse with each other. The third section of the book provides 28 sacred formulas from a mass of over 600 prayers, formulas, and songs. These formulas are centered on such things as medicine, hunting, love, finding lost articles, and frightening away storms. Exclusive to this edition, George Ellison's biographical portrait of James Mooney emphasizes the ethnologist's timeliness and his empathy for the Cherokees and their rich heritage. Completing this book are photographs of many of the chiefs and shamans, a glossary of terms, an index, and an immense section on notes and parallels to the Cherokee myths.

    Martin West investigates their traditional mythologies, religions, and poetries, and points to elements of common heritage. In The East Face of Helicon (1997), West showed the extent to which Homeric and other early Greek poetry was influenced by Near Eastern traditions, mainly non-Indo-European. His new book presents a foil to that work by identifying elements of more ancient, Indo-European heritage in the Greek material. Topics covered include the status of poets and poetry in Indo-European societies; metre, style, and diction; gods and other supernatural beings, from Father Sky and Mother Earth to the Sun-god and his beautiful daughter, the Thunder-god and other elemental deities, and earthly orders such as Nymphs and Elves; the forms of hymns, prayers, and incantations; conceptions about the world, its origin, mankind, death, and fate; the ideology of fame and of immortalization through poetry; the typology of the king and the hero; the hero as warrior, and the conventions of battle narrative.

    How the Butterflies Came to Be is one of twenty-four Native American tales included in Native American Animal Stories. The stories, coming from Mohawk, Hopi, Yaqui, Haida and other cultures, demonstrate the power of animals in Native American traditions.Parents, teachers and children will delight in lovingly told stories about "our relations, the animals." The stories come to life through magical illustrations by Mohawk artists John Kahionhes Fadden and David Fadden."The stories in this book present some of the basic perspectives that Native North American parents, aunts and uncles use to teach the young. They are phrased in terms that modern youngsters can understand and appreciate ... They enable us to understand that while birds and animals appear to be similar in thought processes to humans, that is simply the way we represent them in our stories. But other creatures do have thought processes, emotions, personal relationships...We must carefully ccord these other creatures the respect that they deserve and the right to live without unnecessary harm. Wanton killings of different animals by some hunters and sportsmen are completely outside the traditional way that native people have treated other species, and if these stories can help develop in young people a strong sense of the wonder of other forms of life, this sharing of Native North American knowledge will certainly have been worth the effort." —excerpt from the forward by Vine Deloria, Jr.These stories first appeared in Keepers of the Animals: Native American Stories and Wildlife Activities for Children by Michael J. Caduto and Joseph Bruchac

    Gods disguised as beggars and beasts, animals enacting Machiavellian intrigues, sagacious jesters and magical storytellers, wise counselors and foolish kings--all inhabit a fabular world, yet one that is also firmly grounded in everyday life. Here is an indispensable guide to India's ageless folklore tradition.With black-and-white illustrations throughoutPart of the Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library

    They possessed a complicated array of concepts and rituals, a powerful priesthood - the Druids - and a pantheon which included the goddess-queen Medb and the Morrigan, a sinister war-goddess.

    On the occasion of the Centennial of the University of Chicago and its Press, we take pleasure in reissuing this complete work in a handsome four-volume slipcased edition as well as in redesigned versions of the familiar paperbacks. For the Centennial Edition two of the original translations have been replaced. In the original publication David Grene translated only one of the three Theban plays, Oedipus the King. Now he has added his own translations of the remaining two, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone, thus bringing a new unity of tone and style to this group. Grene has also revised his earlier translation of Prometheus Bound and rendered some of the former prose sections in verse. These new translations replace the originals included in the paperback volumes Sophocles I (which contains all three Theban plays), Aeschylus II, Greek Tragedies, Volume I, and Greek Tragedies, Volume III, all of which are now being published in second editions. All other volumes contain the translations of the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides for the most part from the original versions first published in the 1940s and 1950s. These translations have been the choice of generations of teachers and students, selling in the past forty years over three million copies.

    Yet, until now, no single-volume introduction has existed to act as a guide to this labyrinthine symbolic world. In The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya nearly 300 entries, from accession to yoke, describe the main gods and symbols of the Olmecs, Zapotecs, Maya, Teotihuacanos, Mixtecs, Toltecs, and Aztecs. Topics range from jaguar and jester gods to reptile eye and rubber, from creation accounts and sacred places to ritual practices such as bloodletting, confession, dance, and pilgrimage. Two introductory essays provide succinct accounts of Mesoamerican history and religion, while a substantial bibliographical survey directs the reader to original sources and recent discussions. Dictionary entries are illustrated with photographs and specially commissioned line drawings. This authoritative work serves as a standard reference for students, scholars, and travelers.

    

    Fourteen selkie (half-seal half-human creatures) tales from the Orkney and Shetland islands which embrace the fantasy, romance and unusual perspective of the Scottish travellers.

    This book offers an introductory guide to the beliefs and customs of the ancient Mesopotamians, as revealed in their art and their writings between about 3000 B.C. and the advent of the Christian era. Gods, goddesses, demons, monsters, magic, myths, religious symbolism, ritual, and the spiritual world are all discussed in alphabetical entries ranging from short accounts to extended essays. Names are given in both their Sumerian and Akkadian forms, and all entries are fully cross-referenced. A useful introduction provides historical and geographical background and describes the sources of our knowledge about the religion, mythology and magic of "the cradle of civilisation."

    The author urges us to weigh questions and answers intuitively within ourselves, to confront them within ourselves, and to only believe that which we can perceive inwardly. Only through this process can we reach true conviction in our lives.

    They have attempted to explain the mysteries and allay the fears in the same way - through the worship of gods. Deities have been identified with the human psyche for at least 60,000 years. Encyclopedia of Gods offers concise information on more than 2,500 of these deities, from the most ancient gods of polytheistic societies - Hittite, Sumerian, Mesopotamian - to the most contemporary gods of the major monotheistic religions - Allah, God, Yahweh. Among the cultures included are African peoples, Albanian, Pre-Islamic Arabian, Aztec, Babylonian, Buddhist, Canaanite, Celtic, Egyptian, Native American, Etruscan, Germanic, Greek, Roman, Hindu, Persian, Polynesian, and Shinto. The Encyclopedia includes not only the most significant gods of each culture but minor deities as well. Here you will find information not only on Zeus, Thor and Astarte but also on Tozi, the Aztec goddess of healing, Annamurti, the Hindu patron deity of the kitchen, and Nyakaya, the Shilluk crocodile goddess. Each entry provides details on what culture worshiped the god, the role of the god, and the characteristics and symbols used in identification. In the case of the more important personalities, references in art and literature and known dates of worship are also provided. Indexes by civilization and role of the god enable the researcher to compare gods across cultures or to find information on specific topics of interest. Encyclopedia of Gods will be indispensable to students and researchers in religions, anthropology, history and archaeology. It will also provide endless information for thereader interested in mythology and legend.

    

    Set in the sensuous & exuberant world of North European myth & saga, this epic of heroism & betrayal, incest & tragedy breathes life into an age of unequaled grandeur, bringing intimacy & poignancy to the tumult of legend.

    Each section features a song for the goddess of light, a litany for the associated elemental creature, poems inspired by tarot cards and love spells in the ancient poetic form of the charm. A four-part "Goddess Instruction Manual" is woven through the book and included is a 73-minute CD of 25 poems set to song.

    The story of Icarus, who flies too close to the sun, of King Midas, whose touch turns everything to gold, and many others, including the adventures of Jason, Odysseus, and Theseus, are included in this collection of 16 favorite Greek myths, illustrated with bright, original drawings.

    

    Heaney has written a preface to this joint work, and the second half contains the complete revised poem.

    The volume features a foreword written by Walter R. Echo-Hawk, a senior staff attorney with the Native American Rights Fund, whose legal experience includes cases involving religious freedom and reburial rights. This volume is available in paperback for the first time. Featuring more than 1,200 cross-referenced entries, this encyclopedia is a fascinating guide to the spiritual traditions of Native Americans in the United States and Canada, including coverage of beliefs about the afterlife, symbolism, creation myths, and vision quests; important ceremonies and dances; prominent American Indian religious figures; and events, legislation, and tribal court cases that have shaped the development of Native American religions. Reviews: Praise for the hardcover edition: "...recommended." -Booklist

    

    Book 6 describes how Glaukos and Diomedes, though fighting on opposite sides, recognise an ancient bond of hospitality and exchange gifts on the battlefield. It then follows Hector as he enters the city of Troy and meets the most important people in his life: his mother, Helen and Paris, and finally his wife and baby son. It is above all through the loving and fraught encounter between Hector and Andromache that Homer exposes the horror of war. This edition is suitable for undergraduates at all levels, and students in the upper forms of schools. The Introduction requires no knowledge of Greek and is intended for all readers interested in Homer.

    Slatkin reveals the full importance of mythic allusion in Homeric composition and in the experience of Homer's audience.

    

    This study uses interviews, participant observations, and textual analysis to explore the nature of the Goddess and her devotees' experience of her.

    Explored are the many tales of an ancient race said to have lived in the Arctic regions, such as Thule and Hyperborea. Progressing onward, the book looks at modern polar legends: including the survival of Hitler, German bases in Antarctica, UFOs, the hollow earth, and the hidden kingdoms of Agartha and Shambhala. Chapters include: Prologue in Hyperborea; The Golden Age; The Imperishable Sacred Land; The Northern Lights; The Arctic Homeland; The Aryan Myth; The Thule Society; The Black Order; The Hidden Lands; Agartha and the Polaires; Shambhala; The Hole at the Pole; Antarctica; Arcadia Regained; The Symbolic Pole; Polar and Solar Traditions; The Spiritual Pole; The Catastrophists; The Uniformitarians; Polar Wandering; more.

    This stunning collection of original tales, legends, and historical accounts explores the rich tapestry of Mesoamerican narrative myths that have survived the Conquest. Some of the narratives in this selection are presented here for the first time in English translations of their original texts, while other antiquated translations have been updated. "We are fortunate to be able to present what remains of one of the world's great mythological traditions," write the Markmans, "and even in these 'fragments shored against the ruins' we can still sense the magnificence of that tradition." From the ancient goddess of Zohalpico, perhaps the earliest known image of the village cultures, The Flayed God chronologically traces the development of the myths of creation, fertility, rulership, hero journeys, and migration within the urban mythic traditions of the Olmec, Toltec, Maya, Mixtec, and Aztec cultures. Richly illustrated throughout with the strange and compelling imagery of the original codices, stelae, friezes, murals, figurines, masks, and statues, The Flayed God is among the most coherent and eminently readable volumes to date on the Mesoamerican experience. The flayed god of the title is Xipe Totec, "the metaphoric embodiment of the cyclical pattern of all life, a pattern promising the rebirth of man and man's sustenance, the corn, but requiring sacrificial death for the accomplishment of that rebirth." He is depicted with his face covered by a mask made from the taut skin of a sacrificial victim, a mask through which we can see the wearer's own living eyes and mouth, and he also wears the skin of the flayed one as a garment. In the ritual

    Schoolchildren make crude replicas of totem poles when they study northwestern tribal peoples. But in Dictionary of Native American Mythology we learn that Coyote is a cultural hero and trickster figure with vast numbers of stories from many tribes. Totem poles, while artistically beautiful, represent the animal lineage from which a human family has descended. And sand paintings are created as a part of an eight-day Navajo healing ceremony. These are just some of the more familiar of the more than 1,300 richly worded and illustrated entries. The importance of ritual and myth in creating meaning is nowhere more evident than in Native American traditions. Dictionary of Native American Mythology is a careful selection of the distinctive stories, characters, themes, symbols, and motifs that interweave the traditions of over 100 different Native American cultures. The alphabetically arranged entries are rigorously cross-referenced, allowing the reader to pursue in depth a particular path of inquiry. Each entry cites tribal origin and the corresponding geographic region. These regions in turn are keyed to ten tribal territory maps that pinpoint exact tribe locations. The massive bibliography and tribal index complete this work so that it is not only an indispensable resource for students and scholars, but also a delight to the casual browser. Dictionary of Native American Mythology is a monumental contribution to the study of Native American myth and ritual, both past and present.

    Nagy illuminates in particular the forces of interaction and change that transformed the Indo-European linguistic and cultural heritage into distinctly Greek social institutions between the eighth and the fifth centuries B.C. Included in the volume are thirteen of Nagy's major essays--all extensively revised for book publication--on various aspects of the Hellenization of Indo-European poetics, myth and ritual, and social ideology.The primary aim of this book is to examine the Greek language as a reflection of society, with special attention to its function as a vehicle for transmitting mythology and poetics. Nagy's emphasis on the language of the Greeks, and on its comparison with the testimony of related Indo-European languages such as Latin, Indic, and Hittite, reflects his long-standing interest in Indo-European linguistics. The individual chapters examine the development of Hellenic poetics in the traditions of Homer and Hesiod; the Hellenization of Indo-European myths and rituals, including myths of the afterlife, rituals of fire, and symbols in the Greek lyric; and the Hellenization of Indo-European social ideology, with reference to such cultural institutions as the concept of the city-state.A path-breaking application of the principles of social anthropology, comparative mythology, historical linguistics, and oral poetry theory to the study of classics, Greek Mythology and Poetics will be an invaluable resource for classicists and other scholars of linguistics and literary theory.

    Human aspiration and social improvement elevate these stories enlivened by an idiomatic sense of comedy; this edition also allows readers to discover the delightful narrative skills of little-known writers such as Korolenko, Kupin and Chirinov.

    Previous edition published: Glastonbury, Eng: Gothic Image, 1982.

    He is both storyteller and explicator, deciphering the symbolic world of Lithuanian mythology.This first English translation of Apie Dievus ir zmones is a brilliant convergence of Greimas's historical and folkloric studies. Greimas examines the origins of ancient deities; discusses the concepts of life and death, fate and fortune; looks at codes used by farmers to organize systems of mutual obligations and implicit contracts; examines pranks and games associated with agrarian seasonal changes; and discusses the semantic reconstruction of the names and functions of several deities.Emphasizing the historic dimension of myth analysis, Greimas assembles concepts and deities from scattered texts, integrating them into their Lithuanian cultural context. This study of mythology is his archeology of culture.

    Herbalist Elisabeth Brooke explains where, when, and how to collect herbs; how to dry, store, and prepare them; and how to use them for physical, emotional, and ritual purposes. She also traces their mythological history, astrological significance, and main chemical components and offers recipes for food, drinks, and medicines.

    Aliens disguised as garbage cans invade Earth but meet their match in Mandy and Owen--two teenagers who fight them off by calling up some mythical characters on their computer.

    The collection resulted from the efforts of Milford G. Chandler and Richard A. Pohrt, whose early childhood fascination with the Indian frontier past evolved into a deep and comprehensive interest in Native American ceremonies, beliefs, and art. Though neither was wealthy or enjoyed the sponsorship of a museum, they traveled extensively early in the twentieth century, buying or trading for objects they could not resist. This volume presents the Detroit Institute of Art's Chandler-Pohrt collection with detailed documentation and commentary. Clothing and accessories of porcupine quill and buckskin, woven textiles, bags, beadwork, necklaces, rawhide paintings, smoking pipes, tools, vessels and utensils, pictographs, and visionary paintings are portrayed in 220 stunning color plates. Complementing the illustrations are essays dealing with historical context, ethnographic issues, and the lives and philosophies of the collectors.

    The author has preserved the oral tradition of the Lakota nation by setting down the tales that she herself heard as a child from her father, Chief Chauncey Yellow Robe. Illustrated.

    A Jungian analyst provides a new model for understanding the masculine and feminine principles that exist in everyone, providing insight into the events of daily life and the themes of entire lifetimes.

    She cannot kill them, but she can get rid of them. Casting a spell, she unleashes a terrible enchantment - they are to be swans for 900 years, living in the most inhospitable lakes in Ireland.

    This fascinating, fast-moving overview of contemporary events shows why the Temple is significant in Bible prophecy and how, more than ever, Israel is ready to rebuild.

    Bolen contributes to feminine psychology discussing the myth of the mortal psyche and her quest to be reunited with her lover Eros, a god.

    Lummis's profound understanding of Indian and Spanish culture in the American Southwest is reflected in this collection of thirty-two myths centering around the Pueblo of Isleta on the Rio Grande. In adapting these traditional oral tales, Lummis drew on his experience of living at Isleta and his familiarity with the native language. originally published in 1894, Pueblo Indian Folk-Stories is as enchanting as ever. Seven elders seated around a campfire take turns telling about Antelope Boy. the fabled coyote, the man who married the moon, the snake-girls, the sobbing pine, the feathered barbers, the hero twins, the revengeful fawns, and other natural and supernatural entities. Beautifully wrought, these wisdom and initiation stories speak to all who have not lost their sense of wonder.

    Wheless roundly debunks. . the patriarchs and the covenants of Yahweh . the wonders of the Exodus . the forty years in the wilderness . the "ten commandments" and the "law" . the "conquest" of the promised land . the holy priests and prophets of Yahweh . the "prophecies" of Jesus Christ . the inspired "harmony of the Gospels" . the Christian "plan of salvation" . and more. This is a highly provocative work, one that should be explored by believers and doubters alike. ALSO AVAILABLE FROM COSIMO: Wheless's Forgery in Christianity

    Kennedy imagines what those creatures present at the Nativity might have said on that night--each animal speaking according to its nature. With compassion, irony, wit, and reverence, these insightful poems portray animals large and small, and each poem is accompanied with a full-color illustration.

    To scholars who had hoped to prove the Bible's authenticity, the results were traumatic.One by one, the various books of the Bible were discovered to contain errors of fact, inaccurate guesses, rationalizations, prophecies ex post facto (usually combined with prophecies of the future that proved inaccurate), and unmistakable, deliberate lies. Such was the power of the churches that, despite the publication of thousands of scholarly books and articles refuting every part of the Judaeo-Christian Bible, to this day the existence of unchallengeable proof that the Bible is a work of fiction is unknown to ninety percent of the population of Christian-dominated societies.For a century this information has been available only to students willing to wade through dozens of books, each of which deals with only one aspect of Judaeo-Christian mythology. It is hoped that, by bringing together information on the origin and development of every part of the Yahweh- and Jesus-myths, Mythology's Last Gods will make the facts available to a large enough segment of the population to end the equation of god-mythology with history permanently. This is the first book to critically analyze, and take issue with, every section of the Judaeo-Christian Bible from a wholly skeptical, utterly scholarly perspective.Mythology's Last Gods is a comprehensive history of the development of Judaeo-Christian god-mythology. Harwood traces the beginning of the "god" concept, the evolution of Judaism to the first century, and the evolution of Christianity from its monotheistic beginnings to its emergence as a three-god creed in A.D. 325. Harwood's work reveals many things including that Jesus the Nazarite preached only Essene Judaism, and that every teaching attributed to him can be traced to a pre-Christian source.

    Have you ever wondered why storytellers the world over weave new tales about Zeus and Hera, Aphrodite, Apollo, Andromeda and Perseus -- and the fearsome Medusa? What's so special that's made them famous for thousands and thousands of years?Lucy Coats' sparkling prose and Anthony Lewis's exciting and haunting pictures capture the daring and danger of past times as they explain how our own understanding of what people think and do has been influenced by adventures of long ago.

    Materials for both are drawn entirely from the Archive of Turkish Oral Narrative at Texas Tech University. Whereas the tales in the earlier volume were collected between 1961 and 1964, most of those in More Tales Alive in Turkey were taped in Turkey in the 1970s and 1980s.