Women's rights and rites merge in this complete guide to the principles and practices of matriarchal religion.

    Every aspect of esoteric doctrine and practice is exhaustively dealt with and every authority cited.

    A Book of Pagan Prayer provides the pagan community a comprehensive and thoughtful selection of prayers - and shows readers how they too can create their own. After an introduction on why to pray, author Ceisiwr Serith explores how to pray through words, posture, dance, and music. He explains how to prepare for and compose prayers, how to address and honor the deities, and how to conclude a prayer. Serith also answers important questions, such as: Why should pagans pray? Should prayers be spontaneous? What are offerings about? Is all this just trying to buy the gods off? Gathered from many traditions - including Celtic, Germanic, Egyptian, Greek, and Zoroastrian - this guide includes nearly 500 sample prayers organized by purpose: for the family and household; times of the day, month, and year; life passages; thanksgiving, grace, and petition; as well as litanies and mantras. Whether offering a blessing, celebrating new life, safeguarding travel, or honoring the seasons, readers will discover timeless pagan prayers for worship, spiritual connection, and personal relationship with the gods.

     Chaos Magick can give you quick fixes, emergency solutions, direct results and rituals that can be tailored to your exact and immediate circumstances. Ideal for beginners, or a new direction for the experienced occultist. This book presents a revolutionary style of Chaos Magick. These ideas are original, direct and above all, practical. You will discover: The secrets of Instant Alchemy, Emotional Crafting and The Fire of Gnosis. How to generate Magickal Chaos Energy, to empower all your workings. Influence Magick, Thoughtforms and an alternative form of Sex Magick. Sigil Magick Remastered – a completely new way of tapping into the essence of magick. Contacting Spirits – detailed instructions for contacting and commanding entities. There’s nothing quite like doing magick and seeing it work, so that’s what lies ahead of you. If it doesn’t work, it isn’t magick.

    Part One considers the distinguishing features of the various Cycle of tales and the personages who figure most prominently in them. Part Two reveals the cosmological framework within which the action of the tales takes place. Part Three consists of a discussion of the themes of certain classes of stories which tell of Conceptions and Births, Supernatural Adventures, Courtships and Marriages, Violent Deaths and Voyages to the Other World, and an attempt is made to understand their religious function and glimpse their transcendent meaning.

    Your astrological birth chart is a powerful tool for gaining a deeper understanding of your unique gifts, talents, challenges, and life's purpose. As you begin to decipher the wealth of information in your own birth chart, you'll experience astrology in a personally meaningful way--which makes it easier to understand and remember. Once you learn the basics of astrology, you'll be able to read the birth charts of yourself and others.This friendly guidebook is the most complete introduction to astrology available. Popular astrologer Kris Brandt Riske presents the essentials of astrology in a clear, step-by-step way, paying special attention to three areas of popular interest: relationships, career, and money. She explains the meaning of the planets, zodiac signs, houses, and aspects, and how to interpret their significance in your chart. Over 30 illustrations, including the birth charts of several famous people--Al Gore, Oprah Winfrey, Brad Pitt, and Tiger Woods, to name just a few--add a helpful visual dimension to your learning experience.Practical and positive, Llewellyn's Complete Book of Astrology offers techniques for using astrology to identify the qualities you seek in an ideal mate, realize your career and financial potential, calculate your luck, and discover your inner strength.

    When standing before an ancient tablet in a museum or visiting an Egyptian monument, we marvel at this unique writing and puzzle over its meaning. Now, with the help of Egyptologists Mark Collier and Bill Manley, museum-goers, tourists, and armchair travelers alike can gain a basic knowledge of the language and culture of ancient Egypt. Collier and Manley's novel approach is informed by years of experience teaching Egyptian hieroglyphs to non-specialists. Using attractive drawings of actual inscriptions displayed in the British Museum, they concentrate on the kind of hieroglyphs readers might encounter in other collections, especially funerary writings and tomb scenes. Each chapter introduces a new aspect of hieroglyphic script or Middle Egyptian grammar and encourages acquisition of reading skills with practical exercises. The texts offer insights into the daily experiences of their ancient authors and touch on topics ranging from pharaonic administration to family life to the Egyptian way of death. With this book as a guide, one can enjoy a whole new experience in understanding Egyptian art and artifacts around the world.

    She's heard all the questions and misconceptions that can confuse newcomers (and sometimes more experienced readers, too). Kitchen Table Tarot was written as a guide for anyone looking for no-nonsense lessons with a warm, friendly, and knowledgeable teacher.Join Melissa as she shares straightforward guidance on decks, spreads, card meanings, and symbols. Filled with real-life examples and personal explanations of what it's like to read the cards, this book tells it like it is and provides the information you need to read with confidence.

    In a series of chapters dealing with rune pairs, readers will learn the historical meaning of each individual rune and their use and meaning now, in contemporary culture. At the end of each chapter there are rituals and spells for all levels of ability which help internalise the attributions, meanings, symbolism, and use of the runes.

    It draws on the latest findings in archaeology and history to explain the meanings of rituals, rites, auspices, and oracles, to describe the uses of temples and sacred ground, and to evoke the daily patterns of religious life and observance within the city of Rome and its environs. The text is usefully organized around major themes, such as the origins of Roman religion, the importance of the religious calendar, the structure of religious space, the forms of religious services and rituals, and the gods, priests, and core theologies that shaped religious observance. In addition to its clear and accessible presentation, Roman Religion includes quotations from primary sources, a chronology of religious and historical events from 750 B.C. to A.D. 494, a full glossary, and an annotated guide to further reading.

    A "Who's Who" of fairyland, with entries by fairy name and additional legends, songs, and anecdotes within each entry.

    Just as Russ Kick's Guides focusing on secrets and lies from the mainstream media, government, and other establishment institutions rethought what a political science book could look like and whom it would appeal to, Book of Lies redefines occult anthologies, packaging and presenting a huge array of magical essays for a pop culture audience. Just some of the contents:An introduction by comics genius Grant Morrison, who also contributes a threepart article on Pop Magick.Mark Pesce, author of The Playful World, compares computer programming and spellcasting.Genesis POrridge, father of Industrial Music and Rave culture explains how samples in a rave song can have magical consequences.Paul Laffoley discusses his magical artistic strategies (Metzger compares Laffoley to Merlin the Magician).Magical Thinking--an extended excerpt from Daniel Pinchbeck's Breaking Open the Head.William Burroughs and the occult.Nevill Drury, Australia's most noted occult writer, tells of Dion Fortune, Austin Spare, and Rosaleen Norton.Why Does Aleister Crowley Still Matter?Donald Tyson's "The Enochian Apocalypse Working." Were the seeds of the end of the world sown in the Elizabethan era?.The first ever biographical essay on Marjorie Cameron, the fascinating character from Los Angeles' occult and beatnik scene.Hitler and the occult--Peter Levenda interview by Tracy Twyman.Robert Temple on how his book The Sirius Mystery's, controversial thesis (for which he was ridiculed) was proven by the Hubble telescope twentyfive years late.An exclusive Anton LaVey interview by Michael Moynihan, author of bestselling book Lords of Chaos.Erik Davis, author of Techgnosis, looks at H. P. Lovecraft's Magick Realism.

    To practice witchcraft is to be purposeful whether it's to help heal, bring about prosperity, imbue your home with positivity, or even to fall in love. To be a practical witch is to tap into an inner place of intention, energy, and magic to bring about positive change in your life and those of your loved ones. With life's increasingly frenetic pace, a magical approach to living is more important now than ever. In this must-have guide for spell-casters of all levels you will find hundreds of spells, blessings, and incantations for love and romance, contentment and happiness, success and prosperity, health and healing, work and vocation, and money and wealth, all to enrich your mind and spirit, and to improve your life and the world around you. Also included are ritual resources, magical correspondences, lucky colors and numbers, moon spells, and all the essential tools you need for making magic.

    God and Mankind: Comparative Religions by Professor Robert Oden is an ideal starting point for gaining some progress in considering these questions. And if you've been thinking about them for a while, as so many do, you will likely discover he has many fresh insights to offer you.Professor Oden, who holds degrees in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and Theology, has taught at Harvard University and Dartmouth College over a long and exceptionally distinguished career as both teacher and college president.His lectures approach religious belief and ritual as possible answers to these most difficult and enduring questions, which have occupied humanity from the beginning.An Ideal Starting Point for InquiryThe lectures underscore both the unity and the diversity of religious approaches to life in a sweeping conceptual grasp.Professor Oden begins with a discussion of the nature and study of religion, distinguishing between religion as both a matter of faith and as an appropriate subject of intellectual and academic pursuit.In addition to discussing the four traditional views of religion, Professor Oden proposes another: a system of communication.This serves as a crucial conceptual framework for exploring the thoughts of Mircea Eliade, a historian of religion, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago, who proposed that the best way to understand religions is to examine their views of how the world came into being and how it operates on a daily basis.How Do We Reconcile Suffering and a Benevolent Deity?Professor Oden continues with an investigation of the problem of reconciling an all-powerful and benevolent deity with the suffering and evil that are part of human existence.You will also look at the dynamics of religious communities in general and the impact of the Puritan religious tradition on America.The introductory lecture lays out a framework for the study of religion, beginning with the "what" and "why" of the matter, and moving to how religions have been compared with history, science, psychology, and society.You learn that for religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism that see the world as old, salvation comes by escaping from the endless cycle of birth and rebirth. But Judaism and Christianity, however, see the world as relatively new, and the goal is to gain more chances at life, either collectively or individually.Professor Oden addresses the centrality of myth in making sense of religious cosmologies, and he places special emphasis on the birth narratives of religious heroes, particularly the unusual circumstances surrounding their conception and birth.Religious Heroes and Teachersin developing a framework for an extensive discussion of the ancient Sumerian myth, the Epic of Gilgamesh and its cosmological implications.You explore the notion of the anthropologist Arnold van Gennep, later expanded by the American anthropologist Victor Turner, that the rite of passage theme must be understood as central for religious cosmologies in general.As with Gilgamesh, this lecture looks at the stories of Moses, Jesus, Krishna, and Gautama the Buddha, unearthing in each a key point that aptly reflects the cosmology of the religion in question.Professor Oden goes into a systematic analysis of the "theodicy" problem, which is: How can an all-powerful and benevolent deity allow innocent people to suffer while often success and happiness seem to come to those who are evil? All world religions have attempted to deal with this dilemma—and five answers have been produced.The discussion of theodicy continues by examining the most famous example in the Western religious tradition—the book of Job—and two of the main sources of Christian thinking on the topic, the Apostle Paul and the 16th-century Swiss theologian, John Calvin.By way of comparison, Professor Oden also discusses the Hindu and Buddhist responses to the theodicy question, including the Hindu doctrines of karmic law and transmigration of souls, and the Buddhist teaching that life is suffering, with the only release an acceptance of the impermanence of the universe and everything in it.Ritual, Sect, and ChurchIn examining ritual, Professor Oden places special emphasis on its nature, importance, and ramifications for the religious community, and then describes the dynamics of the development of two types of religious communities: sect and church.Professor Oden moves from the comparative sociology of religion to what might be termed the religious nature of a particular society: the United States. Drawing on the work of the Harvard scholar Sacvan Bercovitch, the lecture addresses the American identity with reference to its Puritan origins.Taking the theme of America and Americans being "God's elect" and the parallels between America and ancient Israel, Professor Oden proposes an American civil religion whose themes include:The "chosen" history of AmericaA strong notion of covenant, with America's fate emblematic of the world'sThe idea that, in America, the ultimate sovereignty is not the people's, but God's.In conclusion, Professor Oden discusses four aspects of today's American identity that seem to have come directly from the Puritan tradition:An anti-intellectual bias toward individualism rather than collective experience and theoryA bias against ritualThe strongest fundamentalist tradition in the advanced industrialized worldA uniquely American anxiety over vocational and occupational calling that is not found elsewhere in the world.8 lectures | 43 minutes each1 Why Nothing Is as Intriguing as the Study of Religion2 Orienting Humanity—Religions as Spiritual Compasses3 Religious Heroes 1—Gilgamesh and the Dawn of History4 Religious Heroes 2—Moses and Jesus5 Pondering Divine Justice—Do We Suffer for Naught?6 Defending Divine Justice—Religious Accounts of Suffering7 Religious Rituals and Communities8 Bringing It All Back Home

    . . or Knowledge of the Ancients? Space travel . . . Genetic engineering . . . Computer science . . . Astounding achievements as new as tomorrow. But stunning recent evidence proves that as these ultramodern advances were known to our forfathers millions of yrsterdays ago . . . as early as 3,000 years before the birth of Christ!In this remarkable companion volume to his landmark EARTH CHRONICLES series, author Zecharia Sitchin reexamines the teachings of the ancients in the light of mankind's latest scientific discoveries -- and uncovers breathtaking, never-before-revealed facts that challenge long-held, conventional beliefs about our planet and our species.