Barks's translations capture the inward exploration and intensity that characterize Rumi's poetry, making this unique voice of mysticism and desire contemporary while remaining true to the original poems. In this volume readers will encounter the essence of Sufism's insights into the experience of divine love, wisdom, and the nature of both humanity and God.While Barks's stamp on this collection is clear, it is Rumi's voice that leaps off these pages with a rapturous power that leaves readers breathless. These poems express our deepest yearning for the transcendent connection with the source of the divine: there are passionate outbursts about the torment of longing for the beloved and the sweet delight that comes from union; stories of sexual adventures and of loss; poems of love and fury, sadness and joy; and quiet truths about the beauty and variety of human emotion. For Rumi, soul and body and emotion are not separate but are rather part of the great mystery of mortal life, a riddle whose solution is love. Above all else, Rumi's poetry exposes us to the delight that comes from being fully alive, urging us always to put aside our fears and take the risk of discovering our core self:No one knows what makes the soul wake up so happy! Maybe a dawn breeze has blown the veil from the face of God. These fresh, original translations magnificently convey Rumi's insights into the human heart and its longings with his signature passion and daring, focusing on the ecstatic experience of the inseparability of human and divine love. The match between Rumi's sublime poetry and Coleman Barks's poetic art are unequaled, and here this artistic union is raised to new heights.

    It covers astrological basics: the planets, signs, houses, and aspects. It includes a chapter on putting it all together in interpreting a chart.

    Study hard, work hard, buy a house, retire happy. It's all a lie, spun for the benefit of a tiny elite. The richest eighty-five people on earth have as much wealth as the poorest 3.5 billion. Each month, the numbers change but they never improve.Magical and spiritual discourse has failed to keep up with this new reality. The Chaos Protocols aims to fix that.Join Gordon White as he shows you how to use chaos magic not only to navigate these trying times, but to triumph as well. Discover how to become invincible through initiation, and wage the mind war that will keep you moving toward what you really want. From sigil magic to working with spiritual allies, The Chaos Protocols helps you act on the unwavering belief that your life should matter and you're not going to let something as trifling as the apocalypse get in the way of it.Praise: Gordon White gives a master class on the hard economic realities and the kind of low down and dirty magic for which he has become famous. Pragmatic, sharp, and funny, The Chaos Protocols is a treasure of a book.--Peter Grey, author of Apocalyptic WitchcraftTake two parts Magick Without Tears, a measure of The Wealth of Nations, a pinch of Ian Fleming and a dash of Noel Coward and you have this almost promiscuously readable text. Whoever said books on magick can't be fabulously entertaining as well as eminently practical has obviously not read up on their Gordon White. Remedy that situation.--Chris Knowles, author of The Secret History of Rock n' Roll and Our Gods Wear Spandex

    

    It begins with the belief that everything in the cosmos is connected.Then it traces the connection between us and the planets at the moment of our birth. That connection reflects and influences every facet of our life on Earth, from love to money. Once you learn the language of astrology, it makes perfect, practical sense. The Essential Guide to Practical Astrology offers an easy-to-understand explorationof this celestial language that goes far beyond daily horoscopes. In these pages, you learn how to calculate and decipher your birth chart; meet and discover the secrets of the great zodiac “wheel” and its 12 signs; and tour the 12 houses that symbolize the major arenas in which life’s big events occur. You also get:• A road map through the planets, Sun, and Moon, along with key informationon what their sign and house placement - and their relationships to oneanother - mean.• A walk through the cycles of astrology and how they reflect cycles in your own life.• Guidelines for creating daily, monthly, yearly, and long-range planners soyou can better manage your personal goals.• Tips for mastering the language of astrology to make predictions for yourfuture.The Essential Guide to Practical Astrology gives you a no-nonsense approachto a system that helps you discover what’s best for you, your life, and your world.

    Mara is an angry and intelligent young woman who undertakes a theology degree to explore her unresolved relationship with her vicar father and deceased sister, who died mysteriously in an extreme religious community.

    Martin's (1993) Language: English

    Now, the major books making up the body of Enochian literature are presented to the public in a single volume. Joseph Lumpkin is the author of the best-selling work, "The Lost Book of Enoch." His work on both 1 Enoch and 2 Enoch have met with wide acceptance and plaudits. Now Lumpkin has completed his work on The Third Book of Enoch. 3 Enoch has not been available to the general public for over eighty years. His previous releases of 1 Enoch and 2 Enoch are placed along side The Hebrew Book of Enoch (3 Enoch,) which has been translated using Hebrew source materials and contains "in-text" commentary. This expansive volume contains copious notes and commentaries in all three books, designed to guide the reader through the difficulties of language, theology, and mystical references. It is a necessary resource for those curious about Angels, Demons, Watchers, Nephilim, Melchizedek, the angel Metatron, or the Merkabah (chariot of God). This volume is an indispensable resource for those engaged in the study of religion, religious history, angelology, demonology, mysticism or the Kabbalah.

    By studying the Tarot, we connect ourselves with the mythical underpinnings of our lives; we contact the gods within. This book presents the Tarot in language that is plain and simple, devoid of extraneous philosophical, or metaphysical musings, for those who wish to learn an easy and reliable method of reading for themselves and for others.

    Running alongside the mainstream of Western intellectual history there is another current which, in a very real sense, should take pride of place, but which for the last few centuries has occupied a shadowy, inferior position, somewhere underground. This "other" stream forms the subject of Gary Lachman’s epic history and analysis, The Secret Teachers of the Western World. In this clarifying, accessible, and fascinating study, the acclaimed historian explores the Western esoteric tradition – a thought movement with ancient roots and modern expressions, which, in a broad sense, regards the cosmos as a living, spiritual, meaningful being and humankind as having a unique obligation and responsibility in it.The historical roots of our “counter tradition,” as Lachman explores, have their beginning in Alexandria around the time of Christ. It was then that we find the first written accounts of the ancient tradition, which had earlier been passed on orally. Here, in this remarkable city, filled with teachers, philosophers, and mystics from Egypt, Greece, Asia, and other parts of the world, in a multi-cultural, multi-faith, and pluralistic society, a synthesis took place, a creative blending of different ideas and visions, which gave the hidden tradition the eclectic character it retains today. The history of our esoteric tradition roughly forms three parts:  Part One: After looking back at the earliest roots of the esoteric tradition in ancient Egypt and Greece, the historical narrative opens in Alexandria in the first centuries of the Christian era. Over the following centuries, it traces our “other” tradition through such agents as the Hermeticists; Kabbalists; Gnostics; Neoplatonists; and early Church fathers, among many others.  We examine the reemergence of the lost Hermetic books in the Renaissance and their influence on the emerging modern mind.Part Two begins with the fall of Hermeticism in the late Renaissance and the beginning of “the esoteric counterculture.” In 1614, the same year that the Hermetic teachings fell from grace, a strange document appeared in Kassel, Germany announcing the existence of a mysterious fraternity: the Rosicrucians. Part two charts the impact of the Rosicrucians and the esoteric currents that followed, such as the Romance movement and the European occult revival of the late nineteenth century, including Madame Blavatsky and the opening of the western mind to the wisdom of the East, and the fin-de-siècle occultism of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.Part Three chronicles the rise of “modern esotericism,” as seen in the influence of Rudolf Steiner, Gurdjieff, Annie Besant, Krishnamurti, Aleister Crowley, R. A Schwaller de Lubicz, and many others. Central is the life and work of C.G. Jung, perhaps the most important figure in the development of modern spirituality. The book looks at the occult revival of the “mystic sixties” and our own New Age, and how this itself has given birth to a more critical, rigorous investigation of the ancient wisdom. With many detours and dead ends, we now seem to be slowly moving into a watershed. It has become clear that the dominant, left-brain, reductionist view, once so liberating and exciting, has run out of steam, and the promise of that much-sought-after “paradigm change” seems possible. We may be on the brink of a culminating moment of the esoteric intellectual tradition of the West.

    This text describes the practice, theory, and underlying rationale of black magic in all its branches - the summoning and control of evil spirits, necromancy, psychic attack, devil worship, witchcraft, evil charms and spells - as well as other branches of occult theory.

    Learn about signs, zodiac houses, and planetary influences.

    Part I - Theory: / establishes the foundation of physical existence as explained through the elements / the secret of the Tetragrammaton / the YOD-HE-VAU-HE / Karma, the Law of Cause and Effect / the significance of the physical, astral and spiritual planes / opening the door to initiation without the aid of a teacher.Part II - Practice: (divided into 10 progressive steps) / self thought control / introspection / conscious eating and breathing / controlling the elements / the practice of mental travel / transformation of character and temperament / astral body projection / loading of tallsmans, amulets and gems / elevation of the spirit to higher spheres including conscious communion with God.

    First published in 1979 to critical acclaim, winning the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, The Gnostic Gospels has continued to grow in reputation and influence over the past two decades. It is now widely recognized as one of the most brilliant and accessible histories of early Christian spirituality published in our time.In 1945 an Egyptian peasant unearthed what proved to be the Gnostic Gospels, thirteen papyrus volumes that expounded a radically different view of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ from that of the New Testament. In this spellbinding book, renowned religious scholar Elaine Pagels elucidates the mysteries and meanings of these sacred texts both in the world of the first Christians and in the context of Christianity today.With insight and passion, Pagels explores a remarkable range of recently discovered gospels, including the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, to show how a variety of “Christianities” emerged at a time of extraordinary spiritual upheaval. Some Christians questioned the need for clergy and church doctrine, and taught that the divine could be discovered through spiritual search. Many others, like Buddhists and Hindus, sought enlightenment — and access to God — within. Such explorations raised questions: Was the resurrection to be understood symbolically and not literally? Was God to be envisioned only in masculine form, or feminine as well? Was martyrdom a necessary — or worthy — expression of faith? These early Christians dared to ask questions that orthodox Christians later suppressed — and their explorations led to profoundly different visions of Jesus and his message. Brilliant, provocative, and stunning in its implications, The Gnostic Gospels is a radical, eloquent reconsideration of the origins of the Christian faith.

    All is well and good, but an important question remains unanswered: What do you do during the remainder of your time when you are not actively using these manifestation techniques? How do you live? What do you do with the 95% of your day, the majority of your waking hours when you are not actively asking for what you want? Is the “rest of your day” important to the manifestation process? It turns out that what you do during the 95% of your time, the time NOT spent visualizing or affirming, makes all of the difference . In The 95-5 Code for activating the Law of Attraction, bestselling author and spiritual explorer Richard Dotts explains why the way you act (and feel) during the majority of your waking hours makes all the difference to your manifestation end results. Most of us mistakenly believe that the mere application of manifestation techniques results in outer manifestations. Yet, as Richard points out, the actual time spent engaging in meditation, visualization or affirmations constitutes only a very small percentage of our waking hours. Compared to what we do for the rest of our day, the time spent on those activities is minuscule! No wonder most people get little or no results from the application of these techniques at all! It is not because the techniques do not work or are done wrongly, but because most people are expecting their outer realities to change by changing the way they think and act for only 5% of the time… while neglecting the other 95% that also has an effect on our creations. Once Richard recognized this fallacy in his own thinking, he immediately re-examined his past actions and found the exact reasons why certain manifestations have been so long in coming, and why he felt so much frustration during the early days of his manifestation journey. He was trying to do the impossible by expecting 5% of his efforts to make 100% of the changes in his life! Learn as Richard Dotts shares an empowering new understanding of manifestations in The 95-5 Code, and reveals how everything changes the moment we look at manifestations and the creative process from this new perspective. While you may think of manifestations as something grandiose or even miraculous, Richard gently guides the reader to help them realize that the only journey they’ll ever have to make, to achieve anything they want in life, is really on the inside. If certain manifestations have been long in coming for you, or if you have had little success with various manifestation techniques, this new understanding in The 95-5 Code could make all of the difference.