ENTHEOGENS, MYTH AND HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS is a much needed accessible exploration into the role of psychoactive sacraments - entheogens - in religion, mythology, and history, and also includes most treatments of the subject focus on modern scientific research, psychotherapy, are auto-bibliographic accounts, or are agenda-driven or otherwise naive and myopic.A great mystery of altered states of consciousness and species development is expanding with new archeological and anthropologi...

Since the publication of Daniel Pinchbeck's "Breaking Open the Head" there has been a resurgence of interest in psychedelics in general and mushrooms in particular. Professor Carl Ruck has been researching and writing about mushrooms and culture for decades, and is one of the preeminent scholars on classic mythology and mushrooms. The many people who follow news and developments in the psychedelic community will embrace “Mushrooms, Myth, and Mithras” as a classic and will be fascinated by ...

“Thoughtful, eloquent, inspiring.” — San Francisco ChronicleA special 25th anniversary edition of Thomas Moore's #1 New York Times bestseller, with a new introduction by the author. More timely than ever, this classic work on personal growth provides a powerful spiritual message for our troubled times.In Care of the Soul, readers are presented with a revolutionary approach to thinking about daily life—everyday activities, events, problems, ...

Enter the World of Spirits!The Encyclopedia of Spirits is a comprehensive and entertaining A to Z of spirits from around this world and the next. Within these pages meet love goddesses and disease demons, guardians of children and guardians of cadavers. Discover Celtic goddesses and goddesses of the Kabbalah, female Buddhas, African Powers, Dragon Ladies, White Ladies, Black Madonnas, the Green Man, the Green Fairy, lots and lots of ghosts, djinn, mermaids, fairies, and more. From ...

The Emerald Tablet—an ancient document that contains the essence of the alchemical teachings—has had an important influence on many Western spiritual and religious traditions. Ostensibly concerned with turning base metals into gold, alchemy was in fact dedicated to transforming the lead of self into the gold of spirit. This brilliant history of alchemy traces its sources back to ancient Egypt, and presents alchemy as a useful, practical system of self-transformation. Each of the seven step...

In The Four Elements, poet and philosopher John O'Donohue draws upon his Celtic heritage and the love of his native landscape, the west of Ireland, to weave together a tapestry of beautifully evoked images of nature. As John explores a range of themes relating to the way we live our lives today, he reveals how the energy and rhythm of the natural world - its innocence and creativity, its power and splendour - hold profound lessons for us all.With a foreword written by his ...

Unlock the lost and hidden meanings of the world's ancient and modern signs and symbols with the latest in the hugely popular series of 'Element Encyclopedias'. This is the biggest A-Z reference book on symbolic objects you'll ever find.From the popular series of 'Element Encyclopedias', this is the largest, most definitive guide to the secret and ancient knowledge of signs and symbols, some of which has been lost over thousands of years.Why is the eye believed to be ...

From the Fall Equinox and Beltane to celebrations of peace and justice, A Pagan Ritual Prayer Book offers more than 700 prayers for the rituals of life--from the sacred to the mundane. A companion to the popular A Book of Pagan Prayer, this handbook of rituals and prayers is organized thematically, making it convenient to use if one is seeking prayers for specific occasions, seasons, times of day, meals, or milestones. Included is an extensive section on the requisites of ritual and how to...

Unlock the secrets hidden within your dreams with this enlightening and in-depth and revealing exploration of 1,500 dream images.The Big Dictionary of Dreams is an essential work for entering and understanding the enigmatic world of dreams. What we dream can unravel mysteries from the past, show unknown facets of our personality, and even open the door to the future. It is therefore very useful to know the symbolism of dreams, forged from personal experien...

A world-renowned authority on the history, uses, and power of dreaming, Robert Moss guides neophyte and experienced adventurers alike to open their own dreamgates. Through these gates await otherwise inaccessible realms of reality as well as soul remembering — the “recovering of knowledge that belonged to us before we came into this life experience.” Exercises, meditations, and the mesmerizing tales of fellow dream travelers outline Moss’s Active Dreaming technique, a kind of shamanic soul...

Exploring the mystery, wisdom, and power of the dark phase of the moon's cycle--a lunar-based model for moving through the dark times in our lives with understanding, consciousness, and faith in renewal.The moon's dark phase has traditionally been a time of fear and superstition, a time associated with death and isolation. The mythical embodiment of these fears is the Dark Goddess. Known around the world by many names--Lilith, Kali, Hecate, and Morgana--the archetypal Dark Goddess ...

“Unusually accessible and useful . . . An eye-opener to readers into the universality and importance of myth in human history and culture.”—William E. Paden, Chair, Department of Religion, University of VermontFor as long as human beings have had language, they have had myths. Mythology is our earliest form of literary expression and the foundation of all history and morality. Now, in Parallel Myths, classical scholar J. F. Bierlein gathers the key myths f...