There is a bit of background to this book that is needed to place it properly into perspective: In the works of Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God, there is a quotation from the first volumn that has had great meaning to me: “sila ersinarsinivdlugo – Be Not Afraid of the Universe” When […]
Book Review – The Alaskan Eskimos, Report of the Fifth Thule Expedition 1921-24 Read More »
Every once in a while, one needs to step out of your comfort zone and read something that is quite at odds with one’s usual beliefs and this is my latest attempt at that. And it was worth it. The book has the obvious attraction that it is about Crows, my personal spiritual animal and […]
The most thought provoking book of the Bible. First off, The Anchor Bible itself requires a bit of an introduction: This is from the Wikipedia: The Anchor Bible Commentary Series, created under the guidance of William Foxwell Albright (1891–1971), comprises a translation and exegesis of the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and the Intertestamental […]
I rather like this guy, expecially when he subs for Bill O’Reilly. His sense of humor and mine go well together. Not sure what that says about the two of us, but it’s a fact. This book is about the impact that the purveyors of “Cool” are having and have had on American society….and it […]
Published 1963, a translation from the German. This was a hard read. The thoughts here are deep and make one work for understanding. I read parts of it and then had to start all over….but it was worth the effort. Some notes: P 68 – There is dancing in heaven P 61 – The 144th […]
Book Review – Sacred and Profane Beauty: the Holy in Art, van der Leeun Read More »
The Story of Sex in Religion Published in 1930 so the language is a bit odd perhaps and it would fail all kinds of “political correctness” tests The last 2 sentences in the book: “All religious ceremonies of today are expressions of that intimate relationship that love introduced into religion. They who know religion know […]
From Isis to Spohia…365 Wisdom Poems to Invoke, Visualize and Embody the Goddess. Never quite got into this….style of presentation just not for me. Couple notes: P 6 – An Egyptian Isis Poem contains the line “I made with my brother Osiris an end to the eating of men.” P 14 – Reference […]
Since reading this book, I have taken to always referring to this man as per the book – John Paul The Great. This is a story of Pope John’s life as told by an admirer and is an excellent read. One can, if you look deep enough, find flaws in any person. But, for this […]
This is one of the books I picked up as a consequence of reading the book “The Da Vinci Code”. I’ve had a long interest in this general subject and this was a nice addition to the collection. Joseph of Arimathea has the distinction of being mentioned in all 4 of the New Testament Gospels, […]
Book Review – St Joseph of Arimathea at Glastonbury, Lionel Lewis Read More »
For the first time in one volume: Ancient esoteric texts including: Jewish Pseudepigrapha Christian Apocrypha Gnostic Scriptures Kabbalah Dead Sea Scrolls Contents: Creation Myths Histories and Narratives Wisdom Literature and Poetry Gospels Infancy Gospels Acts Apocalypses Diverse Gnostic Texts Manichaean and Mandaean Gnostic Texts Mystical Documents It is not possible to write an extract of […]
Women, Religion and Power in Celtic Ireland Read this some time ago, not sure when and not sure where I got the book. As the author states in the preface: “This book will trace the development of the patriarchal mind-set and the sexual political struggle in Irish cultural history.” Some quotes: “History is not the […]
Book Review – The Serpent and the Goddess, Mary Condren Read More »
Title: Lost books of the Bible – Bell 1979 edition – 293 pages The documents in this book were written soon after Christ’s crucifixion, during the early spread of Christianity. But when the Bible was compiled these text were not among those chosen, were suppressed for 1500 years, shrouded in secrecy. By and about many […]
Book Review – The Lost Books of the Bible, Bell Publishing Read More »
An Anthology of Medieval Texts, Edited by Alcuin Blamires From the back cover: Despite the recent surge of investigations into women’s situation, however, no one book has sought to collect the key voices of medieval antifeminism, let alone to present the voices sometimes raised, even at that epoch, in defence of women. This new volume […]
Recommended to me by my book seller friend in Santa Fe This proved to be a rather difficult book to deal with as it relates in some detail how a group in the Amazon makes use of drugs in their spiritual practices. As a recovering drug and alcohol addict, it got a bit sticky at […]
Book Review – Forest of Visions, Alex Polari de Alverga Read More »
I was given this book by a coworker who is also a Muslim teacher. We have had a number of interesting conversations about Islam. A short book of 74 pages or so. Many illustrations. The 3 chapters are: Some Evidence for the truth of Islam Some Benefits of Islam General Information on Islam While […]
Book Review – A Brief Illustrated Guide to Islam Read More »
Commentaries on the “Prajnaparamita Diamond Sutra” This Sutra is in the form of a dialog between the Buddha and his disciple Sughati. We are taught in Western civilization to look at the world, and life, in terms of dualities: left/right, good/evil, rich/poor, black/white…etc. While this may be convenient in some ways and perhaps ‘efficient’, it […]
From the forward: “To the best of our knowledge the present book is the first to cover the entire phenomenon of shamanism and at the same time to situate it in the general history of religion.” Not a bad summary of this book. If you have any interest in the topic, this is a must […]
Book Review – Shamanism, Archaic Techniques Of Ecstacy, Mircae Eliade Read More »
I liked the way the author was described in the title page – Sometime Professor in the University of Bucharest This is the second or third book I’ve read by the same author. The book itself is in somewhat ratty condition with someone elses notes and lines…looke like Gai Eaton, London Feb, 1953 (French Edition […]
Book Review – Patterns In Comparative Religion, Mircae Eliade Read More »
For a tiny little book which gave me fits to understand, this sure did generate a lot of notes….LOL “Here the word “warrior” is taken from the Tibetan ‘pavo‘, which literally means ‘one who is brave.” Warriorship in this context is the tradition of human bravery, or the tradition of fearlessness”. “The key to warriorship […]
Book Review – Shambhala – The Sacred Path of the Warrior Read More »
One might not be aware of the fact, and there is really no good reason why anyone should know this I suppose, but I have a personal connection with our black birds. It stems from reading a number of books related to the culture of the American Indians. In that culture, a person has what […]
Book Review – Crows and Ravens, Marzluff & Angell Read More »
Actually, this is not a book – it’s one of my favorite Video games. A couple of my buddies & I were discussing some current events as they relate to censorship and one of them pointed us to a page in the WikiPedia that contained the sayings of some of the characters we have come […]
This is a multi-volumn set of books, 3 in all and is one of the more difficult books I have read and tried to review. One of the main thrusts of the books is that the human race has gained and lost an enormous amount of knowledge about our history and heritage. Much of this […]
This is a reprint of a book originally published in 1914. That original publication data needs to be kept in mind as language, customs and what is ‘politically correct’ have evolved. I found the book rather interesting for the most part but a little redundant at times. This is due to the fact that many […]
Book Review – The Myths of the North American Indians, Lewis Spence Read More »
and other anomalous elements in the Hebrew Creation Myth The premise of this book is that the book of Genesis was written as a sort of synthesis of myths and stories that were current about 400-600 BC. The idea is that the other stories were reprocessed and reordered into a story that was of, at […]
A Search for Spiritual Meaning…An Appreciation of Joseph Campbell Not at all sure where or when I picked this up but I recall that it sat on the shelf for quite a while before I finally read it. An interesting book, written by a man who knew Campbell reasonably well and worked with him. Generally […]
Book Review – The Myth of the Great Secret, Toby Johnson Read More »
A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life From the back cover: Compassion is the guiding principle of the bodhisattvas, those who vow to attain enlightenment in order to liberate all sentient beings from the suffering and confusion of imperfect existence. To this end, they must renounce all self-centered goals and consider only the well-being […]
Book Review – A Flash of Lightning in the Dark of Night, The Dalai Lama Read More »
Gilgamesh, A New English Version Simply put, this is my favorite story. Period. I own every copy of every translation that I have ever been able to locate and buy. It is difficult to explain why this is such a favorite….sorta like trying to explain why burnt-orange is my favorite color. The story touches on […]