An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural


James Randi - 1995
    With 666 entries and hundreds of illustrations throughout, this book examines the shady world of manipulators, occultists, and shamanists in microscopic detail. Topics include Jeane Dixon's long string of failed predictions, the elaborate hoax surrounding the mystery of the Abominable Snowman, and much more.

Elbow Room: A Tale of Tenacity on Kodiak Island, Alaska


D.D. Fisher - 2011
    From humorous fishing excursions and frightening bear encounters to snow blinding blizzards and quirky characters, they come face to face with the unpredictable Mother Nature and learn the value of friendship, survival, and solitude in a picturesque but harsh life by the sea. Packed with adventures, challenges, and true Alaskan lifestyle.

The Seth Material


Jane Roberts - 1970
    His articulation of the furthest reaches of human potential, the eternal validity of the soul, and the concept that we create our own reality according to our beliefs, has been presented in books that have sold over 8 million copies and been translated into over a dozen languages. Seth's empowering voice clearly stands out as one of the major forces which led to the current New Age philosophical movement. This book chronicles Seth's first contact with author and medium Jane Roberts. It is a mixture of great Seth excerpts, selected by topic, and further explained by Jane.Topics covered include: afterdeath & between lives, how to get rid of llness, reincarnation, why people are born into different circumstances, God, All That Is, Dreams, exercises to develop the inner senses, and much more.

The Essential Zohar: The Source of Kabbalistic Wisdom


Philip S. Berg - 2002
    The central text of Kabbalah, the Zohar is a commentary on the Bible’s narratives, laws, and genealogies and a map of the spiritual landscape. In The Essential Zohar, the eminent kabbalist Rav P. S. Berg decodes its teachings on evil, redemption, human relationships, wealth and poverty, and other fundamental concerns from a practical, contemporary perspective. The Zohar and Kabbalah have traditionally been known as the world’s most esoteric sources of spiritual knowledge, but Rav Berg has dedicated his life to making this concentrated distillation of infinite wisdom available to people of all faiths so that we may use its principles to live each day in harmony with the divine.

Aladdin's Lamp: How Greek Science Came to Europe Through the Islamic World


John Freely - 2009
    and, during the next millennium, spread across the Greco-Roman world, producing the remarkable discoveries and theories of Thales, Pythagoras, Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Euclid, Archimedes, Galen, Ptolemy, and many others. John Freely explains how, as the Dark Ages shrouded Europe, scholars in medieval Baghdad translated the works of these Greek thinkers into Arabic, spreading their ideas throughout the Islamic world from Central Asia to Spain, with many Muslim scientists, most notably Avicenna, Alhazen, and Averroës, adding their own interpretations to the philosophy and science they had inherited. Freely goes on to show how, beginning in the twelfth century, these texts by Islamic scholars were then translated from Arabic into Latin, sparking the emergence of modern science at the dawn of the Renaissance, which climaxed in the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century.Here is early science in all its glory, from Pythagorean “celestial harmony” to the sun-centered planetary theory of Copernicus, who, in 1543, aided by the mathematical methods of medieval Arabic astronomers, revived a concept proposed by the Greek astronomer Aristarchus some eighteen centuries before. When Newton laid the foundations of modern science, building on the work of Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Kepler, Galileo, and others, he said that he was “standing on the sholders [sic] of Giants,” referring to his predecessors in ancient Greece and in the Arabic and Latin worlds from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance.Caliph Harun al-Rashid was one of the Muslim rulers who first promoted translating Greek texts into Arabic. His Baghdad is the setting for The Thousand and One Nights, in which Scheherazades’s “Tale of Aladdin and His Magic Lamp” reflects the marvels of the new science and the amazing inventions it was said to produce. John Freely’s Aladdin’s Lamp returns us to that time and brings to light an essential and long-overlooked chapter in the history of science.

Myths and Legends of Ancient Egypt (Illustrated)


Lewis Spence - 1915
    “The group of beliefs which constituted what for convenience' sake is called the Egyptian religion in an existence of some thousands of years passed through nearly every phase known to the student of comparative mythology. If the theologians of ancient Egypt found it impossible to form a pantheon of deities with any hope of consistency, assigning to each god or goddess his or her proper position in the divine galaxy as ruling over a definite sphere, cosmic or psychical, it may be asked in what manner the modern mythologist is better equipped to reduce to order elements so recondite and difficult of elucidation as the mythic shapes of the divinities worshipped in the Nile Valley.”

Witch School: First Degree: Lessons in the Correllian Tradition


Don Lewis-Highcorrell - 2008
    As an additional bonus, WitchSchool.com offers many optional interactive features to enhance your textbook learning experience.Become a WitchSet foot on the Witch's path and embark on a journey that will transform you at the deepest levels of your being. The twelve lessons of the Witch School's First Degree, designed to be completed in the traditional year and a day format, introduce Wicca as a spiritual path and teach you the essentials of becoming a Witch. Each lesson has six sections: the lesson itself, magical exercises, God or Goddess lore, a spell, a glossary, and study questions. You'll build a solid foundation for your Wiccan practice by mastering the following Craft tools and techniques:Magic Cosmology Personal Power The Altar The Airts The Circle of Art Invocation Garb Symbols, Omens, and Divination Basic Energy Work Herbs, Oils, and Incense Stones and Crystals Completion of the twelve lessons in this book makes you eligible for initiation into the First Degree of Correllian Nativist Wicca.

The Black Death and the Transformation of the West


David Herlihy - 1997
    In this compact book, David Herlihy makes bold yet subtle and subversive inquiries that challenge historical thinking about this disastrous period. As in a finely tuned detective story, he upturns intriguing bits of epidemiological evidence. And, looking beyond the view of the Black Death as unmitigated catastrophe, Herlihy sees in it the birth of technological advance as societies struggled to create labor-saving devices in the wake of population losses. New evidence for the plague's role in the establishment of universities, the spread of Christianity, the dissemination of vernacular cultures, and even the rise of nationalism demonstrates that this cataclysmic event marked a true turning point in history.

The Egyptian Book of the Dead


Anonymous
    Embodying a ritual to be performed for the dead, with detailed instructions for the behavior of the disembodied spirit in the Land of the Gods, it served as the most important repository of religious authority for some three thousand years. Chapters were carved on the pyramids of the ancient 5th Dynasty, texts were written in papyrus, and selections were painted on mummy cases well into the Christian Era. In a certain sense it stood behind all Egyptian civilization.In the year 1888 Dr. E. Wallis Budge, then purchasing agent for the British Museum, followed rumors he heard of a spectacular archaeological find in Upper Egypt, and found in an 18th Dynasty tomb near Luxor "the largest roll of papyrus I had ever seen, tied with a thick band of papyrus, and in a perfect state of preservation." It was a copy of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, written around 1500 B.C. for Ani, Royal Scribe of Thebes, Overseer of the Granaries of the Lords of Abydos, and Scribe of the Offerings of the Lords of Thebes.The Papyrus of Ani, a full version of the Theban recension, is presented here by Dr. Budge, who later became perhaps the world's most renowned Egyptologist. Reproduced in full are a clear copy of the Egyptian hieroglyphs, and interlinear transliteration of their sounds (as reconstructed), a word-for-word translation, and separately a complete smooth translation. All this is preceded by an introduction of more than 150 pages. As a result of this multiple apparatus the reader has a unique opportunity to savor all aspects of the Book of the Dead, or as it is otherwise known, the Book of the Great Awakening.

The Serpent and the Rainbow


Wade Davis - 1985
    Drawn into a netherworld of rituals and celebrations, Davis penetrated the vodoun mystique deeply enough to place zombification in its proper context within vodoun culture. In the course of his investigation, Davis came to realize that the story of vodoun is the history of Haiti—from the African origins of its people to the successful Haitian independence movement, down to the present day, where vodoun culture is, in effect, the government of Haiti’s countryside. The Serpent and the Rainbow combines anthropological investigation with a remarkable personal adventure to illuminate and finally explain a phenomenon that has long fascinated Americans.

Psybermagick: Advanced Ideas in Chaos Magick


Peter J. Carroll - 1996
    This, the third book by a leading magus, holds many surprises as it challenges many of the conventional assumptions and paradigms of magic. The author invites the serious seeker of magical knowledge to undo the basic fallacy of "being" and to learn the techniques of reaching "sideways" into imaginary time to accomplish magic(k).

1001 Ideas That Changed the Way We Think


Robert Arp - 2013
    Ranging from the ancient wisdom of Confucius and Plato to the cutting-edge theories taking shape in the twenty-first century, this book offers a wealth of stimulation and amusement for any reader with a lively and curious mind.This richly informative and entertaining book provides a wide variety of answers to those eternal questions: How was the universe created and what is the place of humans within it? How should a person live? And how can we build a just society?But 1001 Ideas That Changed the Way We Think also includes a host of speculations that are remarkable for their sheer weirdness-from the concept of the transmigration of souls to parallel universes and the paradoxes of time travel (what happens if you travel back in time and kill your own grandfather?).Readers will discover how the Greek philosopher Zeno 'proved' a flying arrow never moves and the mathematical proof of the existence of life in other galaxies. The inspiring ideas explored range from Gandhi's theory of civil disobedience to Mary Wollstonecraft's groundbreaking advocacy of women's rights. A wide variety of cultural movements are also covered, including Neoclassicism, Surrealism and Postmodernism.

Galdrabok: An Icelandic Grimoire


Stephen E. Flowers - 1650
    In this translation, the author discusses books of the black art, old gods, daemons of hell, runes and magical signs, theory and practice of magic.

If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home


Lucy Worsley - 2011
    Lucy Worsley takes us through the bedroom, bathroom, living room and kitchen, covering the architectural history of each room, but concentrating on what people actually did in bed, in the bath, at the table, and at the stove.

Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons


John Carter - 1999
    By day, Parsons’ unorthodox genius created a solid rocket fuel that helped the Allies win World War II. By night, Parsons called himself The Antichrist. “One of the best books of the year.”—The Anomalist