Inner Traditions

Children love holiday celebrations but most don't know why they wear masks on Halloween or dance round the maypole on 1st of May. Now they can discover that many of our modern traditions started with the festivals of the ancient Celts. The Celts were farming people, so their festivals marked the important events of the agricultural year. Imbolc, in very early spring, celebrated the birth of new la

Alejandro Jodorowsky's profound study of the Tarot, which began in the early 1950s, reveals it to be far more than a simple divination device. The Tarot is first and foremost a powerful instrument of self-knowledge and a representation of the structure of the soul.THE WAY OF TAROT shows that the entire deck is structured like a temple or a mandala, which is both an image of the world and a represe

Atlantis has held a perennial place in the collective imagination of humanity from ancient Greece onward. Many of the great minds of the occult and esoteric world wrote at length on their theories of Atlantis - about its high culture, its possible location, its ultimate demise and their predictions of a return to Atlantean enlightenment or the downfall of modern society.Beginning with a review of

Shri Mahant Swami Ganeshanand Saraswati Giri (ca. 1895–1988) was known to all who loved and studied with him simply as Ganesh Baba. At the age of four, he was brought back from death through an initiation by Lahiri Mahasaya and through this initiation descends from the same Kriya Yoga lineage as Paramahansa Yogananda. He became a swami under his guru Sivananda and later went on to run the Anandama

Shrouded in mystery for centuries, the Sphinx of Giza has frustrated many who have attempted to discover its original purpose. Accounts exist of the Sphinx as an oracle, as a king’s burial chamber and as a temple for initiation into the Hermetic Mysteries. Egyptologists have argued for decades about whether there are secret chambers underneath the Sphinx, why the head-to-body ratio is out of propo

The underground realm of Agarttha was first introduced to the Western world in 1886 by the French esoteric philosopher Alexandre Saint-Yves d'Alveydre with his book Mission de l'Inde, translated here for the first time into English. Saint-Yves's book maintained that deep below the Himalayas were enormous underground cities, which were under the rule of a sovereign pontiff known as the Brahâtma. Th

THE FUTURE OF THE ANCIENT WORLD sheds new light on the evolution of consciousness from antiquity to modern times. The twelve essays in this book examine developments in human consciousness over the past five thousand years that most history books do not touch. In ancient times, human beings were finely attuned to the invisible world of the gods, spirits and ancestors. Today, by contrast, our moder

Knowing or felling that we are all connected to each other and to the cosmos by more than our eyes and ears is not a new notion but one as old as humanity. Traditional indigenous societies were fully aware of nonmaterial connections and incorporated them into daily life. The modern world, however, continues to dismiss and even deny these intangible links - taking as real only that which is physica

This book presents the spiritual teachings of Edward Salim Michaël and the struggles that led to his enlightenment. Due to the circumstances of his birth, Michaël had no education, no mother tongue and no formal education when he was drafted, at the age of 19, into the Royal Air Force during World War II. Unable to think in words, Michaël already sensed the “empty mind” sought after by meditation

Galileo described the universe as a large book written in the language of mathematics, which can only be read by those with knowledge of its characters--triangles, circles, and other geometrical figures. The laws of geometry are not human inventions. They are found ready-made in nature and hold a truth that is the same in all times and all places and is older than the world itself. In How the Worl

· Provides step-by-step illustrated instructions for a complete yet easy daily Chi Kung routine· Perfect for beginners and ideal as a warm-up to more advanced practices· Clears physical and mental stress, stimulates healing and disease prevention, detoxifies the body, releases tensions, improves circulation and works to develop flexibility, strength, resiliency, and supplenessWithin every person t

After travelling at age 18 from his native California to India in 1969, Rampuri was drawn to the Naga Babas, an ancient and wild order of naked yogis whom he calls the “Hell's Angels of Indian Spirituality.” Organized into a sect by Adi Shankara in the 5th century BC, the Naga Babas see themselves as the ultimate protectors of the Sanatan Dharma, or what we call the Hindu religion. Rampuri became

· Organised by level and chi kung system for quick reference during practice or teaching· Includes 220 exercises from more than 20 of Master Chia's practice systems, including the Inner Smile, the Six Healing Sounds, the Microcosmic orbit, Chi Self-Massage, Cosmic Detox and Iron Shirt Chi kung· Covers all of the basic exercises in the Universal Tao's first 6 levels of instructionOrganised progress

Of all forms taken by the undead, the vampire wields the most powerful pull on the modern imagination. But the countless movies and books inspired by this child of the night who has a predilection for human blood are based on incidents recorded as fact in newspapers and judicial archives in the centuries preceding the works of Bram Stoker and other writers. Digging through these forgotten records,

PSYCHOMAGIC presents the shamanic and genealogical principles Jodorowsky discovered to create a healing therapy that could use the powers of dreams, art and theatre to empower individuals to heal wounds that in some cases had travelled through generations. The concrete and often surreal poetic actions Jodorowsky employs are part of an elaborate strategy intended to break apart the dysfunctional pe

Recognised as one of the world's great visionary artists, Pablo Amaringo was renowned for his intricate, colourful paintings inspired by his shamanic visions. A master communicator of the ayahuasca experience - where snakes, jaguars, subterranean beings, celestial palaces, aliens and spacecraft all converge - Amaringo's art presents a doorway to the transcendent worlds of ayahuasca intended for co

Predating all organised religion, the belief in an afterlife is fundamental to the human experience and dates back at least to the Neanderthals. By the mid-19th century, however, spurred by the progress of science, many people began to question the existence of an afterlife and the doctrine of materialism - which believes that consciousness is a creation of the brain - began to spread. Now, armed

In 1973, in Mawangdui, China, a large number of silk manuscripts were discovered at an early Han burial place. Among these were two versions of the Tao Te Ching by Lao-tzu. Dated to around 200 BCE, these manuscripts were much older than all existing versions and included, quite surprisingly yet deliberately, the Four Canons of the Yellow Emperor - a long-lost treatise never-before seen in modern t

The Qabbalah - the Jewish esoteric tradition - is richly woven with magical practices, from amulets and magic bowls to invocations and magical use of psalms. In this comprehensive and practical guide to Qabbalistic magic, Salomo Baal-Shem explains how to authentically perform rituals from the Qabbalistic tradition.The spells and rituals included range from basic “everyday” magic for health, prospe

Originally considered a vital part of inspirational literature used by the early church, the Book of Enoch never made it into the cannon or accepted books of the Old Testament because of its strange and mysterious content about Enoch's experiences in the higher realms or heavens. The real Book of Enoch, which is a set of almost 100 mystical tables, was given again to humankind in the 1580s, when i