Philosophy and Religion

The Shadow is the part of us made up of all that we hide from others: our shame, our fears, and our wounds, but also our divine spirit, our blinding beauty, and our hidden talents. The Shadow is not bad – in fact it is the source of our creativity and power – but until we bring it into the light this power will remain untapped and our full potential unreached.

Otto Rahn's lifelong search for the Grail brought him to the attention of the SS leader Himmler, who shared his esoteric interests. Induced by Himmler to become the chief investigator of the occult for the Nazis, Rahn traveled throughout Europe - from Spain to Iceland - in the mid 1930s pursuing leads to the Grail and other mysteries. LUCIFER'S COURT is the travel diary he kept while searching for

Shakti is synonymous with the Devi, the Divine Mother or divine power that manifests, sustains and transforms the universe. She is the womb of all creatures, and it is through her that the One becomes the many. Our first and primary relationship to the world is through the mother, the source of love, security and nourishment. Extending this relationship to worship of a cosmic being as mother was a

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

Salvia divinorum has been used since ancient times by the Mazatec shamans of Mexico for divination, vision quests and healing. Known by many names - nearly all associated with the Virgin Mary, who has come to symboliSe the spirit of salvia - this plant ally is now regarded as the most powerful natural hallucinogen. Providing the first practical guide to the shamanic, spiritual and therapeutic uses

Mudras have been used for thousands of years in Hinduism and Buddhism to channel the movement of energy in the body for physical enhancement and spiritual enrichment. These sacred gestures of the hands and body create a tangible link between body and mind, conscious and unconscious and can be used to strengthen and invigorate specific organs or bodily systems. Exploring the mudras of sexual vitali

· Details the author's training and life as a curandero using ayahuasca medicine, San Pedro cactus, tobacco purges, psychedelic mushrooms and other visionary plants · Offers first-hand accounts of miraculous healing where ayahuasca revealed the cause of the illness, including how the author healed his mother from liver cancer

Our Stone Age ancestors discovered that the geometry of the Earth provided a sacred connection between human experience and the spiritual worlds. Exploring the numerical patterns of time and then the size and shape of the Earth, they created an exact science of measures and preserved their discoveries within sacred structures, spiritualised landscapes and mythologies, which interpreted the religio

Contemplation begins with intellectual understanding. As contemplation deepens, the mind shifts from the accumulation of data to the unfolding of direct gnostic apprehension. This dissolves the idea that outer and inner or personal and cosmic distinctions exist, allowing phenomena to return to its basis as a single, uninterrupted continuum. As the mind becomes dwarfed by the sheer immensity of thi

Before he became the film maker and graphic novel author known throughout the world today, Alejandro Jodorowsky studied with Zen master Ejo Takata in Mexico City. In THE FINGER AND THE MOON, Jodorowsky recounts how he became Takata's student and offers his interpretations of the teaching tales, initiatory stories, koans and enigmatic haikus he learned at the feet of his great and humble teacher. B

During Paris's Belle Époque (1871–1914), many cultural movements and artistic styles flourished - Symbolism, Impressionism, Art Nouveau, the Decadents - all of which profoundly shaped modern culture. Inseparable from this cultural advancement was the explosion of occult activity taking place in the City of Light at the same time. Exploring the magical, artistic and intellectual world of the Belle

· Explains how to transform your relationship into an initiatory temple of spiritual development and ignite the alchemical process of Sacred Marriage—union with God · Offers female specific, male specific, and couples exercises for self-awakening, womb pulsing, yoni-lingam evolution, and a series of sacred body rites · Integrates wisdom from shamanic, gnostic, tantric, and alchemical traditions wi

· Reveals the practices of Vamachara, known as the Left-hand Path but more accurately translated as the Path of Shakti · Includes a Kali ritual from the Nirrutara Tantra, translated here for the first time · Presents devotional chants, meditations, and mudras specific to Tantric worship of Kali According to traditions going back to pre-Vedic times, Kali sprang from the third eye of the Goddess Dur

In THE PATH OF MODERN YOGA, Elliott Goldberg shows how yoga was transformed from a sacred practice into a health and fitness regime for middle-class Indians in the early 20th century and then gradually transformed over the course of the 20th century into an embodied spiritual practice - a yoga for our times.Drawing on more than 10 years of research from rare primary sources as well as recent schol

After returning from a tour of duty during the war in Afghanistan, Alex Seymour needed a way to cope with the extremes he experienced as a member of the Royal Marine Commandos, losing 7 men in his unit and having his best friend critically injured by a Taliban bomb. Drawing upon his pre-deployment experiences with DMT and psilocybin mushrooms, Alex knew that entheogens could help him release his f

Dr. John Dee (1527–1608), Queen Elizabeth I's court advisor and astrologer, was the foremost scientific genius of the 16th century. Laying the foundation for modern science, he actively promoted mathematics and astronomy as well as made advances in navigation and optics that helped elevate England to the foremost imperial power in the world. Centuries ahead of his time, his theoretical work includ

In this philosophical, psychological, and spiritual exploration of enlightenment, Jason Gregory addresses how to access the original spontaneous awareness we all came into this world with. He exposes the illusion that we must strive to reach enlightenment, uncovering how our yearning for future accomplishments, attachment to the past, and reliance on authority outside the self are social construct

Shamanism is humanity's oldest spiritual tradition. In much of the Western world, the indigenous pre-Christian spiritual practices have been lost. Yet at the northern fringes of Europe, Christianity did not displace the original shamanic practices until the end of the Viking age. Remnants of Norse shamanic spirituality have survived in myths, folk traditions and written records from Iceland, provi

Few legends have had the enduring influence of those surrounding King Arthur. Many believe the stories are based on historical truth. For others Arthur represents the archetype of the brilliant monarch reigning over a fairy-tale kingdom, offering his knights the opportunity to prove their mettle in battle and find gnostic illumination through initiation into sacred mysteries like that of the Grail