Mystics. Prophets and astrologers. The Celts were a dynamic and unique people who left not only a rich legacy of artifacts, archaeological treasures, and dramatic myths, but also a vast body of wisdom and mystical symbolism that reflect universal truths about life. "The Celtic Book of Living and Dying" is a masterfully adorned collection of this ancient Celtic wisdom, tracing life from birth through death and into the afterlife. Travel back in time to a world where druids and bards, saints and angels reign as guardians of the soul. Voyage between realms, the unexpected at every turn. With its mix of more than 40 Celtic-style full-color artworks, over 40 painterly landscape photographs, and a wealth of illuminating words, poetry, insights, and timeless tales of heroes and giants, unknown creatures and magical lands, "The Celtic Book of Living and Dying" is a window into a long-ago world that continues to shape the dreams, thoughts, and ideas of today.

    And we still celebrate the ancient Celtic holy day of Samhain, only now we call it Halloween. The earth itself has preserved sacred Celtic cauldrons designed to raise soldiers from the dead.These legends and artifacts are all found in Heroes of the Dawn: Celtic Myth, an exciting new book that explores the fascinating world of ancient Celtic legend and belief.

    First published in German in 1977, it has now been translated into English with the assistance of the author himself. A clearly structured and readable survey for students and scholars, it will be welcomed as the best modern account of any polytheistic religious system.Burkert draws on archaeological discoveries, insights from other disciplines, and inscriptions in Linear B to reconstruct the practices and beliefs of the Minoan–Mycenaean age. The major part of his book is devoted to the archaic and classical epochs. He describes the various rituals of sacrifice and libation and explains Greek beliefs about purification. He investigates the inspiration behind the great temples at Olympia, Delphi, Delos, and the Acropolis—discussing the priesthood, sanctuary, and oracles. Considerable attention is given to the individual gods, the position of the heroes, and beliefs about the afterlife. The different festivals are used to illuminate the place of religion in the society of the city-state. The mystery cults, at Eleusis and among the followers of Bacchus and Orpheus, are also set in that context. The book concludes with an assessment of the great classical philosophers’ attitudes to religion.Insofar as possible, Burkert lets the evidence—from literature and legend, vase paintings and archaeology—speak for itself; he elucidates the controversies surrounding its interpretation without glossing over the enigmas that remain. Throughout, the notes (updated for the English-language edition) afford a wealth of further references as the text builds up its coherent picture of what is known of the religion of ancient Greece.

    *UPDATED in May 2013 with 15 new recipes and extra content.*

    Davenport Adams (1828 – 91) established a reputation for himself as a popular science writer, translator and lexicographer. He also wrote several children's books. In this 1889 work, Adams gives a general introduction to alchemy in Europe and traces the development of magic and alchemy in England from the fourteenth century onwards. Initially the disciplines were persecuted by the Church and met with 'the prejudice of the vulgar', languishing throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.In Book 1 Adams portrays the English 'magicians' Roger Bacon, whom he considers to have been ahead of his contemporaries; John Dee and William Lilly, astrologists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, respectively; and the English Rosicrucians. Book 2 is a historical account of witchcraft in England and Scotland, from the middle ages to the witch trials of the seventeenth century, and includes a chapter on witchcraft in literature. This edition contains both Book 1 and Book 2. Description from Cambridge University Press.This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

    Discover the hidden lessons and spiritual mysteries of the Dark Goddess as you perform guided pathworkings, rituals, and spells. Draw on the unique energies of her many expressions—her three main aspects of Macha, Anu, and Badb; the legendary Morgan Le Fay; and her other powerful guises.From shapeshifting and faery magic to summoning a lover and creating an Ogham oracle, the dynamic and multifaceted Dark Goddess will bring empowering wisdom and enchantment to your life and spiritual practice.

    Included are their history, symbolism, appearance, associated traits, and magickal abilities. More important, however, is the included information on how to use the energies and talents of these creatures to empower your magickal workings, rituals, and meditations. Use the secrets of these creatures to eliminate barriers blocking your magickal and personal progress.

    Yet the authors could offer no real proof, since their access to relevant source material was restricted. At last the truth can be told!This extraordinary and controversial book, packed with intrigue, begins where others have ended. Sir Laurence Gardner has been granted privileged access to European Sovereign and Nobel archives, along with favored insight into chivalric and Church repositories. He proves for the first time that there is a royal heritage of the Messiah in the West and documents the systematic and continuing suppression of records tracing the descendant of the sacred lineage by regimes down the centuries.This unique book, lavishly illustrated in full-color throughout, gives a detailed genealogical account of the authentic line of succession of the Blood Royal from the sons of Jesus and his brother James down to the present day.

    It is also an important source of information on the Byzantine war with the Normans, and the First Crusade, in which Alexius participated. While the Byzantines were allied to the Crusaders, they were none the less critical of their behaviour and Anna's book offers a startlingly different perspective from that of Western historians. Her character sketches are shrewd and forthright - from the Norman invader Robert Guiscard ('nourished by mainfold Evil') and his son Bohemond ('like a streaking thunderbolt') to Pope Gregory VII ('unworthy of a high priest'). The Alexiad is a vivid and dramatic narrative, which reveals as much about the character of its intelligent and dynamic author as it does about the fascinating period through which she lived.E.R.A. Sewter's translation captures all the strength and immediacy of the original and is complemented by an introduction that examines Anna's life and times. This edition also includes maps, appendices, genealogical tables, a bibliography and indexes of events and names.

    It should have been a utopia yet its literature is dominated by brutality and killing. The reasons for this, argues Jesse Byock, lie in the underlying structures and cultural codes of the islands' social order. 'Viking Age Iceland' is an engaging, multi-disciplinary work bringing together findings in anthropology and ethnography interwoven with historical fact and masterful insights into the popular Icelandic sagas, this is a brilliant reconstruction of the inner workings of a unique and intriguing society.

    A proud and independent nation developed from a number of smaller states; brilliant art and a unique way of life flourished, although the evidence of this, unfortunately, is often sketchy.A noted Celtic scholar, Nora Chadwick spent much of her life researching this field. Here she describes the rise and spread of the Celts and their arrival in the British Isles in about the eighth century BC. Chapters on their literature and art, their institutions and religion, punctuate the historical narrative and provide an illuminating insight into the Celtic way of life.

    Steeped in folklore and fantasy, it is a rich and diverse account of the part that fairies and fairy stories have played in culture and society.The pretty pastel world of gauzy-winged things who grant wishes and make dreams come true--as brought to you by Disney's fairies flitting across a woodland glade, or Tinkerbell's magic wand--is predated by a darker, denser world of gorgons, goblins, and gellos; the ancient antecedents of Shakespeare's mischievous Puck or J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan. For, as Diane Purkiss explains in this engrossing history, ancient fairies were born of fear: fear of the dark, of death, and of other great rites of passage, birth and sex. To understand the importance of these early fairies to pre-industrial peoples, we need to recover that sense of dread.This book begins with the earliest manifestations of fairies in ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean. The child-killing demons and nymphs of these cultures are the joint ancestors of the medieval fairies of northern Europe, when fairy figures provided a bridge between the secular and the sacred. Fairies abducted babies and virgins, spirited away young men who were seduced by fairy queens and remained suspended in liminal states.Tamed by Shakespeare's view of the spirit world, Victorian fairies fluttered across the theater stage and the pages of children's books to reappear a century later as detergent trade marks and alien abductors. In learning about these often strange and mysterious creatures, we learn something about ourselves--our fears and our desires.

    This entry in the popular Inspirations series offers enticing summaries of key Celtic symbols, an introduction to the Celtic worldview, and enlightening short extracts from the great Celtic texts. Featuring 75 color photos and practical exercises that show readers how to apply ancient insights to their own lives, this elegant volume captures the spirit of the druids and storytellers in a series of poetic texts. The spiritual lessons cover such subjects as plant healing, spell casting, and traveling safely in the Otherworld, while a special section reveals the secrets of King Arthur's knights and the Holy Grail.

    That book was the last surviving manuscript of an ancient Roman philosophical epic, On the Nature of Things, by Lucretius—a beautiful poem of the most dangerous ideas: that the universe functioned without the aid of gods, that religious fear was damaging to human life, and that matter was made up of very small particles in eternal motion, colliding and swerving in new directions.The copying and translation of this ancient book—the greatest discovery of the greatest book-hunter of his age—fueled the Renaissance, inspiring artists such as Botticelli and thinkers such as Giordano Bruno; shaped the thought of Galileo and Freud, Darwin and Einstein; and had a revolutionary influence on writers such as Montaigne and Shakespeare and even Thomas Jefferson.

    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.