Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan has therefore translated the Sefer Yetzirah the oldest and most mysterious of all kabbalistic texts, and now brings its theoretical, meditative and magical implication to light. He expounds on the dynamics of the spiritual domain, the worlds of the Sefirot, souls and angels. When properly understood, the Sefer Yetzirah becomes the instruction manual for a very special type of meditation meant to strengthen concentration, and to aid the development of telekinetic and telepathic powers. These powers were meant to help initiates perform feats that outwardly appeared magical. The magical kabbalah is closely related to the meditative kabbalah, and uses various signs, incantations, and divine names by which initiates could influence or alter natural events. This translation includes the meditation in five dimensions, the transition from Binah to Chakhmah consciousness, the point of infinity, kabbalistic astrology, Ezekiel's vision according to the Sefer Yetzirah, and the mystery of the 231 gates.Also included is a digest of all major commentaries on the text of Sefer Yetzirah and a bibliography of many of the major kabbalistic works that discuss it, as well as extensive notes regarding various aspects of the translation, Rabbi Kaplan's translation is based on the Gra version, which has been thought to be the most authentic. Also included is the short version, the long version, and the Saadia version, making this volume the most complete work on the Sefer Yetzirah in English.

    Their supposed author, a mythical figure named Hermes Trismegistus, was thought to be a contemporary of Moses. The Hermetic philosophy was regarded as an ancient theology, parallel to the revealed wisdom of the Bible, supporting Biblical revelation and culminating in the Platonic philosophical tradition. This new translation is the only English version based on reliable texts, and Professor Copenhaver's introduction and notes make this accessible and up-to-date edition an indispensable resource to scholars.

    This Renaissance era craft is nonetheless based upon philosophical materials from far older times, namely the third or fourth century AD, from which the primordial material came. Credited to Hermes Trismegistus, the Divine Pymander (sometimes spelled "Poemander") touches upon astronomy, science, nature, and a great deal of theological material. It is presented in the form of discourse; a format which will be familiar to anyone also familiar with Plato's "Republic" and some similar philosophical works of antiquity. Through his discourse with several individuals, Trismegistus attempts to draw upon the overarching philosophy "as above, so below." Thus then, this work describes the very process and ideation behind all of existence, the purpose of life, and the nature of good and evil, all through its treatises upon various topics.

    This compelling narrative paints a delightfully intimate portrait of the Navagrahas. Surya subdues his raging heat to please his beloved Samjna. Chandra lusts after his guru’s wife and is cursed to wane each month. Kuja emerges from a drop of perspiration on Shiva’s brow. Budha marries Ila, who is his wife for one month and a prince in the next. Brhaspati forgives his wife’s adultery and curses an amorous apsara to be born as a monkey. Usana becomes Sukra when he is swallowed by a furious Shiva. Sanaischara requests the Trimurti to ensure he inspire fear in all living beings. Rahu and Ketu wreak their vengeance on Surya and Chandra by swallowing them. In an irresistible medley of drama, romance, humour and devotion, Navagraha Purana entertains and informs as it asserts that no one is exempt from the implacable influence of the Nine Planets. V.S. Rao is a celebrated, multifaceted Telegu author, playwright, translator and scriptwriter. Mr. Rao has 84 titles to his credit, including short stories, novels, children’s books and plays. His writing spans an astounding variety of genres, from crime and detective fiction, to thrillers, drama, mythology, philosophy and lyrics for devotional albums. In his largely womencentric writing, Mr. Rao passionately highlights women’s issues. He is the recipient of numerous literary honors and awards.

    I’d try to conjure fluffy unicorns and happy, smiling faeries, but after a brush with Death as a kid, those figments of light seemed beyond my reach. When I say I had a brush with Death, I mean he held me in his arms in the pulsing darkness as doctors and nurses worked to revive my body in a sterile hospital room. And when that darkness began to flicker, life calling me back, he murmured something to me. Something important. Something I couldn’t quite hear over the roar of blood in my ears and the squawking of hospital machinery. Ever since that day, my daydreams and nightmares seemed to collide. Sometimes they seem more substantial than the world around me. But when the shadowy figments of my imagination break through the veil separating dream from reality on the darkest night of my life, I start to wonder if my brush with Death was much more than a hallucination. And maybe I brought more than a touch of darkness back from the brink with me.

    It is written in a form that is not usual or which is not usually found in the remnants of Ancient Egyptian scriptures. It is in the form of teacher and disciple, much like the Eastern scriptures such as Bhagavad Gita or the Upanishads. This form of writing may not have been necessary in Ancient times, because the format of teaching in Egypt was different prior to the conquest period by the Persians, Assyrians, Greeks and later the Romans. The question and answer format can be found but such extensive discourses and corrections of misunderstandings within the context of a teacher - disciple relationship is not usual. It therefore provides extensive insights into the times when it was written and the state of practice of Ancient Egyptian and other mystery religions. This has important implications for our times because we are today, as in the Greco-Roman period, also besieged with varied religions and new age philosophies as well as social strife and war. How can we understand our times and also make sense of the forest of spiritual traditions? How can we cut through the cacophony of religious fanaticism, and ignorance as well as misconceptions about the mysteries on the other in order to discover the true purpose of religion and the secret teachings that open up the mysteries of life and the way to enlightenment and immortality? This book, which comes to us from so long ago, offers us transcendental wisdom that applied to the world two thousand years ago as well as our world today.

    

    

    Neither the house nor the powerful Reynolds family have ever recovered.Twenty-five years later, a car accident forces four friends to take shelter from an approaching storm in the abandoned Reynolds house. Married couple Michael and Susan Wright, nurse Linda Vincent, and her brother, Vietnam vet and PTSD sufferer Johnny Vincent, are too smart to believe in the supernatural, but they might have a change of mind. The car crash wasn't an accident: Johnny, Linda, Michael, and Susan have been chosen as pawns in a dangerous battle of wills. As the darkness falls, each will be tested - fighting not only for their lives, but for their sanity.

    A collection of articles, essays and interviews focusing on the life and art of Austin Osman Spare.

    H. Charles provides a definitive translation of one of the most noted apocalyptic works still in existence. Often described as "the lost book" of the Bible, The Book of Enoch seems to have been written in Palestine by several different authors in the first and second centuries B.C. For hundreds of years it was accepted by the early church fathers, but it was rejected by the council of Laodicea in A.D. 364. Today, it remains a written remnant of the Apocalypse — an ardent testament to hope and the triumph of good over evil in the dawning of a world to come. Rife with concepts of original sin, fallen angels, demonology, resurrection, and the last judgment, it is a vital document to the origins of Christianity.The Book of Enoch is comprised of various monumental works: The Book of Enoch, The Parables, The Book of the Courses of the Heavenly Luminaries, The Dream Visions, The Concluding Section, and The Noah Fragments. Each work is independent, but all the works are bound by a common theme: the punishment of the wicked and the blessedness of the righteous. This edition, complete with analysis and notes, is an indispensable resource for the study and understanding of both the Old and New Testaments.

    Even non-believers cannot help but be affected by its doctrine and adherents. But what are the real origins of this vastly influential religious text? Like all people, the compilers of the Bible were strongly influenced by humanity's basic struggle for survival, striving for fertility and search for meaning. Of the many influences that contributed to the theological development of the Bible -- and religion in general in the ancient world -- the most profound were without a doubt, Sex, Drugs, and Violence. As humanity comprehended, sex ensured their continued propagation, the sex act became sacred, and was thought to magically affect all sorts of areas of life, even the actions of the gods themselves. The Old Testament is rife with references to such religio-erotic practices taking place, not only amongst foreign cults like the Canaanites, but even amongst the Israelites themselves. Erotic activities that later, according to the New Testament and other sources, filtered into early Christianity. Second only to sex, do drugs - as in psychoactive substances - play a pivotal role in the development of religious thought and experience, and the Judaeo-Christian traditions are no exception. What will be surprising to most modern readers is the frequent use of intoxicants, like wine, strong-drink, and mandrake in the Bible. Perhaps even harder to accept will be the copious use of cannabis (Hebrew, Kaneh-bosm), by both the Hebrew Priests and Kings for shamanistic purposes... a tradition that was continued both by Jesus and his followers. Moreoever, the history of the Bible and the history people who have preached its words are histories of violence. This fact should not at all be surprising when one considers the endless atrocities that fill the pages of the so-called "Good Book." Indeed, if members of today's moral majority ever took the time to analytically read the book which they continually point to as the pillar of morality, they would be horrified to find a book filled with Sex, Drugs, and Violence!

    In fact there were several of his paintings and I could not believe my eyes. Until then I had only been aware of his name and had been conscious of seeing the recurring and hauntingimage of “PAN”, which was actually a section of the late pastel called “The Vampires Are Coming.” This image was widely used in the seventies on several occult type book jackets and was a key figure in the promotion of the eclectic magazine series ‘Man, Myth and Magic"

    

    This booklet is perfect for anyone wishing to get to know Loki better or to integrate His worship into their religious life. Stepping away from a specifically reconstructionist perspective, this book aims to empower modern worshipers with practical information that can be put to use right away.This book contains information on altar building, offerings, prayer, worship, ritual, and more. Advice about cultivating discernment and deepening your practice is also included.A special bonus section explores Loki's feminine aspect in detail. Different aspects of Lady Loki's personality are explored and a short rite of contact is provided to aid worshipers in getting to know Her.

    

    With an engaging style, Philostratus portrays a charismatic teacher and religious reformer from Tyana in Cappadocia (modern central Turkey) who travels across the known world, from the Atlantic to the Ganges. His miracles, which include extraordinary cures and mysterious disappearances, together with his apparent triumph over death, caused pagans to make Apollonius a rival to Jesus of Nazareth. In a new two-volume Loeb Classical Library edition of Philostratus's third-century work, Christopher Jones provides a freshly edited Greek text and a stylish translation with full explanatory notes. Apollonius of Tyana is by far the longest biography that survives from antiquity. Jones in his Introduction asks how far it is history and how far fiction, and discusses its survival from Late Antiquity to modern times.

    Grimoire and root workers, Hoodoo and Vodoun, Quimbanda and Ifa collide. A potent fusion is occuring, a second diaspora. At the Crossroads tells the stories of what happens when the Western magical tradition encounters the African Diaspora and Traditional religions, and vice versa. It is a mixing and a magic that speaks of a truly new world emerging. In this gathering of kindred spirits, experiences are shared between initiates of very different cultures whose magic proves to be underpinned by the same principles, though clothed in different garb. We find the grimoires of Old Europe flourishing in the New World, Juju spreading through the United States, the Cunning men of Essex rendering service to the Lwa of Haitian Voudon, Alchemists who are Paleros, the techniques of the Greek Magical Papyri applied to Conjure counter-hexing.  This is fertile ground for the imagination, and practice. In depth essays by leading practitioners of the occult community from New York to Bristol, and from London to Brazil, and illuminated by art and illustrations in black & white and full colour. An important contribution made at the point where all roads meet, where we encounter the most traditional approaches and the wildest fringes of the avant garde, At the Crossroads gathers those practitioners whose work places them at the forefront of the new direction magic is taking.Contributors:Peter Grey; Jake Stratton-Kent; Aaron Leitch; Eric K. Lerner; Stephen Grasso; Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold; Richard Ward, Drac Uber & Ivy Kerrigan; Michael Cecchetelli; Humberto Maggi; Ryan Valentine; Hagen Von Tulien; Kyle Fite; ConjureMan Ali; Christopher D. Bradford; Chad Balthazar; and Angela Edwards.

    Its magical foci are dedicated specifically to the Ancestral Manes of the Sabbatic Current, the shade-mothers and fathers of the Companie of the Wise.Historically, the figure of Biblical Cain is known from the context of Italian witchcraft and Romany magic, as well as esoteric orders of Freemasonry and the Society of the Horseman's Word. However, it is from the British witchcraft-lineages of the Cultus Sabbati that Cain has come to modern occult prominence as the especial patron of the Witch's Art, the embodiment of Exile and Opposition explicit within the Elder Craft. In its rarefied embodiment of Crooked Path Sorcery - the ever-deviating path of Bane and Blessing, the power of Cain arises from his mythic forms of Transgressor-against-God, First Murderer, Wandering Exile, and First Tamer of the Horse, among others. These Cainite arcana received their highest ritual and literary expression in Andrew D. Chumbley's Dragon-Book of Essex.The Psalter of Cain is the first public work of joint authorship of the magical order Cultus Sabbati, its pages drawn from the collective work of its present initiatic body. As a work of devotional rite, charm, and incantation, the book manifests the transcendant Sabbatic vision of Cainite Gnosis: the radiance which illumines the Nocturnal Eden, the light of vision-anointed eyes. In addition, The Psalter also features works from the outer sodality of the Cultus, the solitary companions of The Companie of the Serpent-Cross. Its progression of rite and charm is incepted by a Proem by Andrew D. Chumbley, and a Consummatum by Daniel A. Schulke. The book is produced to the highest Xoanon standard, with a design wholly apposite the Cainite Arcanum. 110 pages, octavo format, printed letterpress, and illustrated by Fraters A.A., Soror T.A. and Frater A.H.I.

    Once delivered into her skillful hands, the reader has no choice but to follow along into a world of nightmares, questions and philosophical fantasies. From her fatalistic dark sonnets to her hard hitting meditations on life, Jane Timm Baxter shares countless raw emotions and invites you to do the same as we all go through life, awaiting fullness and understanding.

    

    THE ONE BOOK ON UFOS YOU MUST READ!Find out:-That UFOs are a demonic spiritual phenemonon-The most interesting facts about UFOs-Why UFOs cannot be material aircrafts from an alien civilization-What the top experts in the world on UFOs have concluded about UFOs-The impossibility of aliens traveling in flying objects through space to planet earth-The amazing parallels between UFO abduction cases and demonic possession-Also covered are famous alien abduction cases; Roswell; Majestic 12; the men in black; the alien autopsy film; area 51; cattle mutilations; alien landing strips; crop circles; and more...

    

    

    

    

    1988 9th print clean bright copy

    C. G. Jung's theory of synchronicity considers symbolic, psychological connections between material events of prime importance. Hoeller describes how other cultures make use of their sense of connectedness and how we can develop this sense. STEPHAN HOELLER: For over twenty years Stephan Hoeller has been sharing his wisdom in weekly talks recorded at the Los Angeles Gnostic Society. His subjects range over the entire scope of Western inner traditions, emphasizing Jungian psychology and gnosis--the ancient premise that we can experience direct knowledge of transcendent reality, with corresponding practices that encourage and enhance this experience. Born to Hungarian nobility, Stephan Hoeller survived the ravages of Nazi oppression only to be forced into exile by the Communist takeover of his home country. As a young scholar in Austria, Hoeller had already developed strong interests in Gnosticism and the depth psychology of Carl Jung, when a mysterious visitor introduced him to Jung's unpublished Gnostic text, "Seven Sermons to the Dead." This fortuitous event propelled Hoeller into what has become his life's work. Like Joseph Campbell, Hoeller covers a vast territory in his uncompromising scholarship. His knowledge of esoteric systems spans the range of human culture and digs at depths in the tradition of C. G. Jung. His understated presentation is richly informative, leading from thorough research grounded in many years of personal practice, to surprising insights. The effect is cumulative - after hearing a few of his talks, you will find yourself looking at the world a little differently, noticing details and connections you may have overlooked, considering the hidden factors underlying everyday life.