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BOOKS
GNOSIS: The Nature &
History of Gnosticism by Kurt Rudolph is one of the
ultimate resources on the subject of gnosis. A scholar of the very finest
caliber, Rudolph meticulously explores the earliest origins of a loosely
connected spiritual movement that can be historically traced back to at least
the year One Common Era. Within this context the author alludes to the fact
that Pagans, not just Christians, were associated to the Gnostic view of a
universe under the domination of the Demiurge (Satan or exploitation). The
author describes the inevitable conflict between the myriad Gnostics sects and
the Church Establishment. The Gnostics were concerned with individual
liberation, while the early Church was obsessed with imposing a rigid
fundamentalism and considered the Gnostics to be the worst heretics—and dealt
with them accordingly. The author also demonstrates the fact that Gnostics were
involved in astrology, numerology & magic. He also states the compatibility
of modern Gnosticism and socialism.
THE
SECRET BOOKS OF THE EGYPTIAN GNOSTICS by Jean Doresse is
another great scholarly work free from “New Age” claptrap & commercialist
distortion. The book is particularly
relevant as French author Doresse was literally one of the first Westerners to
actually see the original Nag Hammadi texts discovered in 1947. Although Doresse
is a Christian proponent with a thinly veiled hostility to Gnostic tradition,
he provides a wealth of reference material and, like Kurt Rudolph, indicates a
possible interaction with Gnostic beliefs and Paganism—particularly in
Alexandria, the motherland of Gnostic Paganism. This book is a MUST READ for
any serious student of the origins and practices of Gnostic Philosophy.
THE PASSOVER PLOT by Hugh J.
Schonfield is available in a 40th
Anniversary Edition. It is the forerunner of all the recent speculations
concerning the truth about Christianity’s alleged founder. In novel format, the
book suggests that a “real” Jesus did exist and was surrounded by an inner clique
of followers or apostles. This groups deliberately interpreted biblical
“prophecies” to serve their own goal of establishing a reformed & militant
branch of Judaism. The healings and miracles performed by Jesus were no more
the result of divine intervention than manipulating mental illness or slight of
hand. The group found itself forced in a corner in relying so heavily on
scripture—to wit that the Messiah had to die & rise again from the dead.
How this ultimate act of magic was attempted and its ultimate results form the
exciting climax.
THE JESUS MYSTERIES by
Timothy Freke & Peter Gandy is probably the
best- known new take on the Pagan origins of the Jesus Cult. It is a scholarly
and engaging work that takes the reader back through mythic time to trace the
many lines that lead directly to the construction of what was to become the
doctrine of the early church. There are particularly interesting allusions to
the ancient Egyptian religion & the Cult of Isis and her son Horus (the Sun
God. The image of Isis suckling the babe Horus was obviously the artistic
inspiration for the Christian Madonna & Child. The allegorical basis of
this idea is reinforced by the fact that in myth Isis was said to have
conceived her son following the death of her husband Osiris—in other words, a
Virgin Birth.
SIGNS FOR A MESSIAH by Rollan McCleary purports to be nothing less than a revelation of the
astrological horoscope or natal chart of Joshua ben Joseph, better known to
history as Jesus the Christ, the One and Only Son of God & Founder of
Christianity. Dr. McCleary supports this astounding claim with a sort of
astrological forensic examination of the cultural and astronomical evidence
& events either implicitly or explicitly indicated in the Old Testament
that led to the birth of Jesus as the Messiah. The author then casts and
analyzes Joshua’s birth chart compared to the history of his life &
teachings as described in the New Testament…The author’s core disagreement with
Christianity is its almost unanimous condemnation of astrology…In the second
section of SIGNS, however, McCleary raises questions concerning Jesus’ sexual
orientation that, more than any astrological speculation, would in times past,
cause the author to be burned at the stake.
DAIMONIC REALITY A Field
Guide to the Other World by Patrick Harpur is a
well-documented, scholarly work on one level, and an extremely entertaining
collection of folklore, ghost stories, monsters, myths, visions, Blessed
Virgins, stigmata, sacred places and UFO encounters on an equally engrossing
other level. Sci-Fi and horror buffs will not be disappointed…In the Introduction,
Patrick Harpur discusses some differences between the two basic groups of
scientists who involve themselves with the so-called "paranormal":
The first comprises the devotees of scientism who cling, like old Stalinists,
to an outmoded cult of dreary mechanistic materialism. Theory has long since
hardened into dogma, as rigidly upheld as that of any extraterrestrialist.
(There is a telling film of such customers at work on a rival cult--a bunch of
heretical children in Medjugorje, Yugoslavia, who claim visions of the Virgin
Mary. At the first sign of ecstasy, they are wired up to inquisitorial
machines, poked with sharp instruments, assaulted by loud noises in their ears
and flashbulbs in their faces.) Why anyone at the end of the twentieth century
still wishes to woo this kind of "scientist" is something of a puzzle. The reason
why the second group of scientists--honest, open-minded, reasonable-- dismisses
[a painstaking, scientific analysis of--.ed] the evidence in favor of the
paranormal is more of a mystery. Ufologists are inclined to see their silence
as a conspiracy or as a fear of the unknown. But I think there is a simpler
answer. No one who reviews the evidence for, say, UFO's for an hour is likely
to deny that SOMETHING strange is being seen.
AWAKENING OSIRIS: The Egyptian Book of the
Dead by Normandi Ellis. This literary gem is much,
much more than a "new and improved" translation of the Coffin Texts,
or The Going Forth By Day (Egyptian Book of the Dead). It is a mystic and poetic interpretation of
great personal depth and collective application. Every page of AWAKENING OSIRIS
is a humanist and sacred testament, utilizing simple words to evoke complex
poetic images, opening the mind to profound and illuminating vistas. AWAKENING
OSIRIS is a hymn and a challenge—a statement so personal as to be universal.
I am one of the great ones sitting in a field
of corn.
I eat and I am nourished. In turn I offer myself,
the bread of air, the white spirit of fire.
I am a falcon of gold. I burn with a passion and lie still.
I flare and smolder, live and die in a breath. I sail on gold wings that fan
the blaze.
I am consumed by fire. This is what I was born to:
to live, to love, to know, to change and embrace the infinite.
I shall not forget my becoming.
FROM NEW AGE TO NEW GNOSIS
by Peter Wilberg. The Old Gnosis was a form of
subversive theo-politics. This took the form of a spiritual critique of the
ruling gods of the era – the gods of both Old and New Testament ‘orthodoxy’, of
Greek paganism and Roman imperialism. Along with this spiritual critique went
political opposition to the priestly and political powers or archons, which
represented these gods and their theologies.
The New Gnosis is a theo-political critique of the ruling secular and cultural
gods of our era, and of the social-economic cultures and scientific cults that
support them. It calls into question the gods called ‘energy’ and ‘the eternal
gene’, the New Age cult of ‘energy medicine’, the medical cults of ‘human
genomics’ and ‘nanotechnology’ - and the global corporations and stock exchanges,
which promote them. New Gnosis is a spiritual-political spear aimed at the
foundations of global neo-conservatism and neo-imperialism, and challenging all
four faces of its famous pyramid – the dollar, the idolatry and ‘i-dollartry’
of new technologies, the politically illiterate platitudes of New Age
‘spirituality’, and the historically illiterate ‘literalism’ of Christian
fundamentalist bible-worship or bibliolatry – which now sees its own face
reflected in the deathly clash of Islamic and Zionist fundamentalisms.
TOP PICKS: DEEP
SOCIALISM by Peter Wilberg.
INITIATION by Elisabeth
Haich. The inner core of this reportedly
autobiographical novel revolves around the psychic reliving of previous
incarnations by the author, and their applications and relevance to her
contemporary life in pre-and post-World War II Germany as a woman, wife, mother
and, eventually, spiritual teacher. The central incarnation is that of an
ancient Egyptian princess who was granted initiation in the Sacred School. The
lessons included exercises in meditation, concentration, body and sense control
and telepathy. The exercises were primarily designed to stimulate and
strengthen the biopsychic centers in preparation for the infusion of elevated
energy vibration.
SEX, DRUGS, VIOLENCE AND THE
BIBLE by Chris Bennett and Neil McQueen is an
amazingly readable indictment of the Old and New Testament—and should be
required reading in all Bible Studies and Comparative Religion classes. Not
only is SDVB a well thought scholarly work; it also loaded with often amusing,
often revealing snippets of Biblical scandal and hidden lore.
The Authors
make no secret of their core intention of writing the book as a means of
promoting the central
thesis summed up on the book’s jacket:
“Second
only to sex, do drugs—as in psychoactive substances—play a
pivotal
role in the development of religious thought and experience, and the
Judaeo-Christian
traditions
are no exception. What will be surprising to most modern readers is the
frequent use
of
intoxicants like wine, strong-drink, and mandrake in the Bible. Perhaps even
harder to accept
will
be the copious use of cannabis, (Hebrew kaneh-bosm), by both the Hebrew
Priests and Kings
for
shamanistic purposes…a tradition that was continued by both Jesus and his
followers.”
RED SCARE: Memories of the
American Inquisition by Griffin Fariello. This remarkable
historical political/social document contains personal narratives not only by
individuals who were persecuted by the so-called “McCarthy Witchhunts,” but
also includes first hand accounts by the very people who “hounded” them. On the
first page of his Preface, author Fariello states the fact that many
Americans (particularly those citizens under 40 years of age) haven’t a clue
what McCarthyism and the House Committee On Un-American Activities (HUAC) of
1945 - 1965 were (the writer call this “collective amnesia” P. 24):
The
memories die hard—yet for many Americans, only the barest sketch of the era remains,
or
nothing at all. In 1992, a man of thirty, doing well in a San Francisco
publishing firm, told me
what
he knew of the Red Scare: “It was Joseph McCarthy, and he went after Hollywood
actors
for
the sake of publicity. Richard Nixon was in on it.” One woman of thirty-five
demanded,
“When
did all this happen?” Another of the same age, after confusing “Reds” with her
favorite
baseball
team, came back astonished: “America had a Communist Party?”
What little that is culturally remembered/known regarding the Red
Hunt by the younger generation in the United States is basically promoted in
films that deal with the Hollywood Blacklist—and avoid its more far-reaching
effects on Organized Labor in particular and Social Conformism in general.
There have been very shallow artistic treatments such as the 70’s film The
Way We Were, and more penetrating and thoughtful renditions like Guilty
by Suspicion.
CRACKING THE SYMBOL CODE
The Hidden
Message within Church and Renaissance Art
Cracking the Symbol Code explores
how ingenious and complex secret codes for communicating with others of like
minds were concealed in symbols hidden in art, artifacts and architecture of
the medieval world to preserve the truth for future generations. While symbolism has always been used by man
in his exploration of the world of the spirit, and Christian symbolism was
prevalent throughout medieval religious art and architecture, it is a
relatively recent discovery that there were deeper layers of meaning disguised
within the symbolism; “heretical” ideas that were kept hidden from the prying
eyes of a repressive hierarchy. After twenty years of research, Author Tim Wallace-Murphy (also
co-author of bestseller Rosslyn,
which provided source material to Dan Brown for The Da Vinci Code) takes
the reader on a guided tour across Europe to medieval churches searching out
the secret messages that were meant to be discovered. Decoding this “hidden symbolism” is on two levels. There are certain keys, but there will
always be an intuitive element to the understanding of the coded messages.
THE MASK OF APOLLO by MARY RENAULT describes
in astonishing detail the life of a pagan actor during the height of Hellenic
culture. As with all of Mary Renault’s work, The Mask of Apollo is so
realistic in exploring the social milieu and character motivation of the times
that the material seems “channeled” through the author. In The Persian Boy
a homosexual relationship between Alexander the Great is sensitively woven with
threads of minute historical so typical of the writer.
TOP PICKS: FIRE FROM HEAVEN; BULL FROM THE
SEA; THE PRAISE SINGER; THE KING MUST DIE: THE LAST OF THE WINE>
DO WHAT THOU WILT A Biography of Aleister Crowley by Laurence Sutin is the most extensive and impartial portrait of the Magus
to date. From the book: Magick, for
Crowley, is a way of life that takes in every facet of life. The keys to
attainment within the magical tradition lie in the proper training of the human
psyche itself—more specifically, in the development of the powers of
will and imagination. The training of the will…is the focusing of
one’s…essential being. The imagination provides…the target for this focus…and
hence bring into magical being—possibilities and states beyond those of
consensual reality.
TOP
PICKS: THE LAW IS FOR ALL?; THE BOOK OF LIES; THE
CONFESSIONS OF ALEISTER CROWLEY: An Autobiography; THE BOOK OF THE LAW; MAGICK:
LIBER ABA: Book 4 (Magick Bk. 4) by Aleister Crowley, et al; THE MAGICK OF
THELEMA: A Handbook of the Rituals of Aleister Crowley by Lon Milo Duquette.
From the Publisher:
William L. Shirer's THE RISE AND FALL OF
THE THIRD REICH is a monumental study of the 20th Century's most frightening
moments. Now, 53 years after the end of World War II, it may seem incredible
that our most valued institutions, and way of life, were threatened by the
menace that Hitler and the Third Reich represented. Shirer's description of
events and the cast of characters who played such pivotal roles in defining the
course Europe was to take is unforgettable.
Benefiting from his many years as a reporter, and thus a personal observer of
the rise of Nazi Germany, and availing himself of some of the 485 tons of
documents from the German Foreign Office, captured by the First Army, as well
as countless other diaries, phone transcriptions, and other written records,
meticulously kept at every level by the Germans, Shirer has put together a
brutally objective account of how Hitler wrested political control of Germany,
and planned and executed his 6 year quest to dominate the world, only at the
end, to see Germany go down in flames.
From Publishers Weekly
This book may well be
the most comprehensive collection of Gnostic materials ever gathered in one
volume. After a dry introduction to current debates about gnosticism (by Meyer)
and a luminous, marvelously literary introduction to issues of translation (by
Barnstone), the bulk of the text is taken up with primary sources, which are
drawn from three continents and span an astonishing 13 centuries. These are
helpfully organized into various schools of Gnostic tradition: Sethian,
Valentinian, Syrian, Hermetic, Mandaean, Manichaean, and--in an unusual
move--relatively late Islamic and Cathar texts. Each grouping of texts is
preceded by a brief introduction to that particular section's brand of
Gnosticism. What is clear from this sourcebook is the tremendous diversity of
thought that exists under the "Gnostic" umbrella, including
Christian, Jewish, Muslim, pagan, Zoroastrian and Greco-Roman themes. Many of
the texts are being published here in English for the first time, making this a
valuable resource for students and scholars.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All
rights reserved.
Any investigation
into vampire legends leads inevitably to the works of Montague Summers
(1880-1948), whose research and writings in the 1920s established him as the
subject’s preeminent authority. This study examines vampire lore in fantastic
detail, constituting a record of folk beliefs unequaled in its sheer scope and
depth. It features all the apparatus of an academic work, including footnotes
and references to rare source documents, and it addresses such issues as how
vampires came into existence, vampirish behavior, vampire-like ancient myths,
and vampires in modern literature. Unabridged republication of the classic 1929
edition. Introduction. Bibliography. Index.
TOP PICKS: VAMPIRE:
HIS KITH & KIN (highly recommended; THE authoritative source on vampire
lore); THE VAMPIRE IN LORE & LEGEND; VAMPIRE IN EUROPE; THE
WEREWOLF IN LORE & LEGEND.
Devil's Game:
How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam (American Empire
Project) by Robert Dreyfuss
Book
Description
The first
complete account of America’s most
dangerous foreign policy miscalculation: sixty years of support for Islamic fundamentalism
Devil’s Game is the
gripping story of America’s misguided efforts, stretching across decades, to
dominate the strategically vital Middle East by courting and cultivating
Islamic fundamentalism. Among all the books about Islam, this is the first
comprehensive inquiry into the touchiest issue: How and why did the United
States encourage and finance the spread of radical political Islam?
Backed by extensive archival research and interviews with dozens of policy
makers and CIA, Pentagon, and foreign service officials, Robert Dreyfuss argues
that this largely hidden relationship is greatly to blame for the global
explosion of terrorism. He follows the trail of American collusion from support
for the Muslim Brotherhood in 1950s Egypt to links with Khomeini and Afghani
jihadists to cooperation with Hamas and Saudi Wahhabism. Dreyfuss also uncovers
long-standing ties between radical Islamists and the leading banks of the West.
The result is as tragic as it is paradoxical: originally deployed as pawns to
foil nationalism and communism, extremist mullahs and ayatollahs now dominate
the region, thundering against freedom of thought, science, women’s rights,
secularism—and their former patron.
Wide-ranging and deeply informed, Devil’s Game reveals a history of
double-dealing, cynical exploitation, and humiliating embarrassment. What
emerges is