A companion to the author's Dark-Hunter series provides detailed synopses of each of the books, a complete breakdown of the fictional world and the rules of the Dark-Hunters, a cast of characters, and an interview with the author.
A guide to England’s rich history of magical lore and practice “for readers of works like Harry Potter who have grown up a bit into wanting to know more” (The Hermetic Library). Through experiments to try and places to visit, as well as a historical exploration of magic and interviews with leading magicians, The Book of English Magic will introduce you to the extraordinary world that lies beneath the surface. Magic runs through the veins of English history, part of daily life from the earliest Arthurian legends to Aleister Crowley to the novels of Tolkien and Philip Pullman, and from the Druids to Freemasonry and beyond. Richly illustrated and deeply knowledgeable, this book is an invaluable source for anyone curious about magic and wizardry, or for sophisticated practitioners seeking to expand their knowledge. “Playful and serious, respectful and amused . . . this will remain the standard work for years to come.” —The Sunday Telegraph “A magical mystery tour.” —The Times “Fabulous.” —Daily Express “Lucid and wonderfully easy to read . . . While it is indeed a perfect book for the ‘intelligent novice’ it’s far more than that—it’s a serious, in-depth survey of a massive topic.” —WitchVox “An accessible and immensely readable book . . . A fascinating insight into a hidden world.” —Booksquawk
What was the Minotaur? Did a Welsh prince discover America? Did Robin Hood really exist? How does the Star of Bethlehem fit into the science of astronomy? Is the Vinland Map a fake? Can archaeologists use spirit messages to guide their work? For centuries, philosophers, scientists, and charlatans have attempted to decipher the baffling mysteries of our past, from the Stonehenge to the lost continent of Atlantis. Today, however, DNA testing, radiocarbon dating, and other cutting-edge investigative tools, together with a healthy dose of common sense, are guiding us closer to the truth. Peter James and Nick Thorpe, the professional historian and archaeologist team who created the acclaimed Ancient Inventions, now tackle these age-old conundrums, presenting the latest information from the scientific community--and the most startling challenges to traditional explanations of mysteries such as: - The rise and fall of the Maya - A lost cache of Dead Sea Scrolls - The curse of Tutankhamun - The devastation of Sodom and Gomorrah - The Nazca Lines These true mystery stories twist and turn like a good whodunit, as James and Thorpe present the evidence for and against the expert theories, shedding new light on humankind's age-old struggle to make sense of the past. The authors also make dramatic contributions of their own to the fray, demonstrating persuasively that cataustrophic events--including the collisions of comets with the Earth long ago--could explain puzzles that have baffled experts for centuries. Ancient Mysteries will entertain and enlighten, delight the curious and inform the serious.
In all of the world’s myths and religions we find traditions of a Great Flood. There are stories too of a Golden Age: the antediluvian paradise that it destroyed. Might these be real memories of the ancient world? And how can we analyze the subject scientifically? The key to unlock these ancient myths lies in astronomy. Under Ancient Skies will examine the astronomical evidence for a prehistoric cataclysm and in the process will explore a number of related anomalies in prehistory, including: • Was there a single great flood in human prehistory, or have there been many? • Could the workings of ancient calendars and the records of ancient eclipses give us clues about the Flood and the antediluvian world? • Did the Celtic Druids use a calendar based on the orbit of Saturn; and is this the same antediluvian calendar that is described in Plato’s myth of Atlantis? • Do Hindu, Chinese and Mayan cosmology myths recall the years after the Flood when our world wobbled on its axis? • Did these same events trigger the building of astronomically aligned monuments such as Stonehenge and the pyramids? • Was the Atenist religion of the heretic Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten inspired by a series of eclipses during his lifetime? • Do the seven good years and the seven bad years of the Joseph story recall a time when a comet struck the Earth? • Did the British Druids use astronomy to calculate the size of the Earth; and could they have used this knowledge to navigate to America? • Why were the ancient Celts so afraid that the sky would one day fall on their heads? • Are comets and asteroids the only danger lurking in the cosmos – or could there be other dangers as yet unknown to science? In 1994 we watched as a comet struck the giant planet Jupiter. Geologists have recently discovered the crater in Yucatan, where an asteroid impact destroyed the world of the dinosaurs. Scientists and astronomers have stopped dismissing the theory that asteroids and comets could have struck the Earth during prehistory – but any suggestion that a comet impact just a few thousand years ago might have caused the Biblical Flood, remains the last taboo. It is time for this prejudice too, to be washed away. The reader is promised 'a real book: a fully referenced textbook with original content in every chapter and a bibliography of over 300 sources, If you have read Paul Dunbavin's other books then you will know what to expect. First published in 2005 and for a long time out of print, this new edition will make the author's unique research available again to anyone who is interested in mythology, astronomy and ancient mysteries. Now also available in Kindle hard and soft editions.
Britain's rich and varied folklore, legends and beliefs provide an insight into the island's history. Every invader, refugee or settler has helped contribute some new element or twist to the complex pattern of our national heritage. This volume provides a comprehensive companion to legends and customs in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
Claiming Sacred Ground Pilgrims and Politics at Glastonbury and Sedona Adrian J. Ivakhiv A study of people and politics at two New Age spiritual sites. In this richly textured account, Adrian Ivakhiv focuses on the activities of pilgrim-migrants to Glastonbury, England and Sedona, Arizona. He discusses their efforts to encounter and experience the spirit or energy of the land and to mark out its significance by investing it with sacred meanings. Their endeavors are presented against a broad canvas of cultural and environmental struggles associated with the incorporation of such geographically marginal places into an expanding global cultural economy. Ivakhiv sees these contested and "heterotopic" landscapes as the nexus of a complex web of interestes and longings: from millennial anxieties and nostalgic re-imaginings of history and prehistory; to real-estate power grabs; contending religious visions; and the free play of ideas from science, pseudo-science, and popular culture. Looming over all this is the nonhuman life of these landscapes, an"otherness" that alternately reveals and conceals itself behind a pagenant of beliefs, images, and place-myths. A significant contribution to scholarship on alternative spirituality, sacred space, and the politics of natural landscapes, Claiming Sacred Ground will interest scholars and students of environmental and cultural studies, and the sociology of religious movements and pilgrimage. Non-specialist readers will be stimulated by the cultural, ecological, and spiritual dimensions of extraordinary natural landscapes. Adrian Ivakhiv teaches in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University in Toronto, and is President of the Environmental Studies Association of Canada. April 2001 384 pages, 24 b&w photos, 2 figs., 9 maps, 6 1/8 x 9 1/4, index, append. cloth 0-253-33899-9 $37.40 s / £28.50 Contents I DEPARTURES 1 Power and Desire in Earth's Tangled Web 2 Reimagining Earth 3 Orchestrating Sacred Space II Glastonbury 4 Stage, Props, and Players of Avalon 5 Many Glastonburys: Place-Myths and Contested Spaces III SEDONA 6 Red Rocks to Real Estate 7 New Agers, Vortexes, and the Sacred Landscape IV ARRIVALS 8 Practices of Place: Nature and Heterotopia Beyond the New Age
"The author describes the foundations on which not only biodynamics but also the wider organic movement is based. He builds bridges between mainstream science and Steiner's insights, making it easier for the wider organic and ecological movement to approach biodynamic concepts and practise. This book has much to offer to the beginner as well as to those already involved with biodynamics. Its broad range of topics - including the ecology of the farm organism, food quality and nutrition, community supported agriculture, planetary influences, seed quality, and the vitality of water - contribute to a deeper understanding of the subject."--