Here, acclaimed scholar Stephen Greenblatt explores it with profound appreciation for its cultural and psychological power as literature. From the birth of the Hebrew Bible to the awe-inspiring contributions of Augustine, Dürer, and Milton in bringing Adam and Eve to vivid life, Greenblatt unpacks the story’s many interpretations and consequences over time. Rich allegory, vicious misogyny, deep moral insight, narrow literalism, and some of the greatest triumphs of art and literature: all can be counted as children of our “first” parents.

    Larrington)The runes are mysterious and powerful magical keys to the primal forces of nature that shaped Norse and Northern European culture. These twenty-four unique and inspiring symbols of the Elder Futhark (first runic alphabet) each possess powerful energies, identities, meanings, and sounds. The runes are invoked and harnessed to create change through inspiration, healing, protection, knowledge and divine wisdom from the Norse gods.Odin’s Gateways is a practical guide to using the runes in our lives, in magic and in divination – a unique journey into the mysteries hidden within the runes, filled with the information and practices necessary to developing a deep personal understanding and relationship with them. By focusing on how to directly harness and channel the energy of the individual runes, the author guides the reader along the path to self knowledge and empowerment. With a deft hand and lucid style, Katie Gerrard cuts to the heart of the runes, combining the wisdom of the Norse Sagas and Rune Poems with practical advice and techniques gained through living and experiencing their powers.The practical magic of the runes is demonstrated through numerous examples of Galdr (incantation), bindrunes (composite runic sigils) and spellcraft for purposes such as protection, healing, childbirth, creating a sacred space, fertility, sleep, battle and cursing. The divinatory meanings of the runes are given, with a range of different reading methods, and advice on how to cast and interpret them. Woven among the manifold techniques and practices contained in her work, the author also explores the history of rune use, providing the highlights from Tacitus and Snorri Sturluson to the modern European and American rune masters who have revived their use."Odin’s Gateways is a practical guide to using the runes in our lives, in magic and in divination – a unique journey into the mysteries hidden within the runes, filled with the information and practices necessary to developing a deep personal understanding and relationship with them. With a deft hand and lucid style, Katie Gerrard cuts to the heart of the runes, combining the wisdom of the Norse Sagas and rune poems with practical advice and techniques gained through living and experiencing their powers."

    In the tradition of unsolved historical mysteries like David Grann's Killers of the Flower Moon and Douglas Preston's The Lost City of the Monkey God, Brian Muraresku’s 10-year investigation takes the reader through Greece, Germany, Spain, France and Italy, offering unprecedented access to the hidden archives of the Louvre and the Vatican along the way.In The Immortality Key, Muraresku explores a little-known connection between the best-kept secret in Ancient Greece and Christianity. This is the real story of the most famous human being who ever lived (Jesus) and the biggest religion the world has ever known. Today, 2.4 billion people are Christian. That's one third of the planet. But do any of them really know how it all started?Before Jerusalem, before Rome, before Mecca—there was Eleusis: the spiritual capital of the ancient world. It promised immortality to Plato and the rest of Athens's greatest minds with a very simple formula: drink this potion, see God. Shrouded in secrecy for millennia, the Ancient Greek sacrament was buried when the newly Christianized Roman Empire obliterated Eleusis in the fourth century AD.Renegade scholars in the 1970s claimed the Greek potion was psychedelic, just like the original Christian Eucharist that replaced it. In recent years, vindication for the disgraced theory has been quietly mounting in the laboratory. The rapidly growing field of archaeological chemistry has proven the ancient use of visionary drugs. And with a single dose of psilocybin, the psycho-pharmacologists at Johns Hopkins and NYU are now turning self-proclaimed atheists into instant believers. No one has ever found hard, scientific evidence of drugs connected to Eleusis, let alone early Christianity. Until now.Armed with key documents never before translated into English, convincing analysis, and a captivating spirit of quest, Muraresku mines science, classical literature, biblical scholarship and art to deliver the hidden key to eternal life, bringing us to what clinical psychologist William Richards calls "the edge of an awesomely vast frontier."Featuring a Foreword by Graham Hancock, the New York Times bestselling author of America Before: The Key to Earth's Lost Civilization.

    Accessible introduction to Greek religion. Focuses on Athens in the classical period. Includes detailed discussion of Greek gods and heroes, myth and cult. Includes vivid descriptions of Greek religion as it was practiced. Ancient texts are presented in boxes to promote thought and discussion. Abundant illustrations help readers visualize the rich and varied religious life of ancient Greece.

    Donald Tyson presents a new, easy way to perform ritual magic with only one tool: tarot. From manipulating elemental forces of nature to making potent charms, all ceremonial rituals can be performed with a standard 78-card deck. Tyson's efficient system of tarot magic is based on the Golden Dawn tradition, which corresponds with tarot imagery. He teaches how to work magic on the astral level by projecting one's awareness into the ritual tarot layout. Learn how to set up an astral temple, build an altar, cast a magic circle, and create a triangle through which to actualize your purpose. This innovative guide to tarot magic also includes rituals related to unions, business, banishing, and evoking elementals.

    Bernard Haisch contends that there is a purpose and an underlying intelligence behind the Universe, one that is consistent with modern science, especially the Big Bang and evolution. It is based on recent discoveries that there are numerous coincidences and fine-tunings of the laws of nature that seem extraordinarily unlikely.A more rational concept of God is called for. As astrophysicist Sir James Jeans wrote, "the Universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a great machine."Despite bestsellers by Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and Sam Harris that have denounced the evils of religion and proclaimed that science has shown that there is no God, The Purpose-Guided Universe shows how one can believe in God and science.

    So too the monsters that haunt the stories of the Judeo-Christian mythos and earlier traditions: Leviathan, Behemoth, dragons, and other beasts. In this unusual and provocative book, Timothy K. Beal writes about the monsters that lurk in our religious texts, and about how monsters and religion are deeply entwined. Horror and faith are inextricable. Ans as monsters are part of religious texts and traditions, so religion lurks in the modern horror genre, from its birth in Dante's Inferno to the contemporary spookiness of H.P. Lovecraft and the Hellraiser films. Religion and Its Monsters is essential reading for students of religion and popular culture, as well as any readers with an interest in horror.

    Amin examines various aspects of Islamic tradition through a Darwinian framework. Islam's allowance of polygamy and the underlying reasons for the subordination of women in many Muslim societies are among the important issues this book addresses. Amin also offers original insight into many aspects of American society and history. Through the filter of biologically based theories, he explores the reasons behind the monumental changes in sexual mores that have occurred in the United States over the past century, the underpinnings of feminism, and the differences between liberals and conservatives. An astute and entertaining work that compares and contrasts American culture with that of the Muslim world from a perspective inspired by evolutionary psychology, Conflicts of Fitness presents many thought-provoking tools to those in search of greater understanding of these two dynamic cultures and worlds.

    English authors such as J.R.R.Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Terry Pratchett, and J.K.Rowling, dominate the world of magic in fiction, but from the earliest times, England has also acted as home to generations of eccentrics and scholars who have researched and explored every conceivable kind of occult art. Most people are torn between a fascination with magic and an almost instinctive fear of the occult, of a world redolent with superstition and illusion. And yet more people now practice magic in England than at any time in her history. The Book of English Magic explores this hidden story, from its first stirrings to our present-day fascination with all things magical. Along the way readers are offered a rich menu of magical things to do and places to visit.

    In all the current highly publicized debates about creationism and its descendant "intelligent design," there is an element of the controversy that is rarely mentioned—the "evidence," the empirical truth of evolution by natural selection. Even Richard Dawkins and Stephen Jay Gould, while extolling the beauty of evolution and examining case studies, have not focused on the evidence itself. Yet the proof is vast, varied, and magnificent, drawn from many different fields of science. Scientists are observing species splitting into two and are finding more and more fossils capturing change in the past—dinosaurs that have sprouted feathers, fish that have grown limbs. Why Evolution Is True weaves together the many threads of modern work in genetics, paleontology, geology, molecular biology, and anatomy that demonstrate the "indelible stamp" of the processes first proposed by Darwin. In crisp, lucid prose accessible to a wide audience, Why Evolution Is True dispels common misunderstandings and fears about evolution and clearly confirms that this amazing process of change has been firmly established as a scientific truth.

    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.

    He examines its relation to religion, science, philosophy, art, literature and politics before introducing us to the different types of magic, the kinds of people who practiced magic, and the reasoning behind their beliefs. This book places magic at the crossroads of medieval culture, shedding light on many other aspects of life in the Middle Ages.

    The world's leading Islamicist offers a concise introduction to this rich and diverse tradition of 1.2 billion adherents.In this informative and clear introduction to the world of Islam, Seyyed Hossein Nasr explores the following topics in depth:•What Is Islam?•The Doctrines and Beliefs of Islam•Islamic Practices and Institutions•The History of Islam•Schools of Islamic Thought•Islam in the Contemporary World•Islam and Other Religions•The Spiritual and Religious Significance of Islam

    When you think of a witch, what do you picture? Pointy black hat, maybe a broomstick. But witches in various guises have been with us for millennia. In Waking the Witch, Pam Grossman explores the cultural and historical impact of the world’s most magical icon. From the idea of the femme fatale in league with the devil in early modern Europe and Salem, to the bewitching pop culture archetypes in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Harry Potter; from the spooky ladies in fairy tales and horror films to the rise of feminist covens and contemporary witchcraft, witches reflect the power and potential of women. In this fascinating read that is part cultural analysis, part memoir, Pam opens up about her own journey on the path to witchcraft, and how her personal embrace of the witch helped her find strength, self-empowerment, and a deeper purpose. A comprehensive meditation on one of the most mysterious and captivating figures of all time, Waking the Witch celebrates witches past, present, and future, and reveals the critical role they have played—and will continue to play—in shaping the world as we know it.

    As a culture we have become less interested in the exploration of the glorious mind, and more interested in creating and mastering technologies that will yield material well-being. But while cultural pessimism is always fashionable, there is still much to give us hope. In The Givenness of Things, the incomparable Marilynne Robinson delivers an impassioned critique of our contemporary society while arguing that reverence must be given to who we are and what we are: creatures of singular interest and value, despite our errors and depredations.Robinson has plumbed the depths of the human spirit in her novels, including the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning Lila and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Gilead, and in her new essay collection she trains her incisive mind on our modern predicament and the mysteries of faith. These seventeen essays examine the ideas that have inspired and provoked one of our finest writers throughout her life. Whether she is investigating how the work of the great thinkers of the past, Calvin, Locke, Bonhoeffer--and Shakespeare--can infuse our lives, or calling attention to the rise of the self-declared elite in American religious and political life, Robinson's peerless prose and boundless humanity are on display. Exquisite and bold, The Givenness of Things is a necessary call for us to find wisdom and guidance in our cultural heritage, and to offer grace to one another.Humanism --Reformation --Grace --Servanthood --Givenness --Awakening --Decline --Fear --Proofs --Memory --Value --Metaphysics --Theology --Experience --Adam --Limitation --Realism