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 ...

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...

**THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERAs seen on The Joe Rogan Experience!**A groundbreaking dive into the role psychedelics have played in the origins of Western civilization, and the real-life quest for the Holy Grail that could shake the Church to its foundations.The most influential religious historian of the 20th century, Huston Smith, once referred to it as the "best-kept secret" in history. Did the Ancient Greeks use drugs to find God? And did the e...

Whether or not The Illuminati – an elite body claiming an ancient pedigree – does exist, it is important that growing numbers of people nonetheless do believe it exists. So does it exist? If so, is it a force for evil or a force for good - or, as some would have it, a conspiracy aimed at making us believe there is a conspiracy? Was the Bavarian Illuminati of Adam Weishaupt the true inheritor of more ancient knowledge?A force for evil or a force for good? A movement whose benevolent...

"Everyone who cares about the human adventure will find new information and new angles of vision."—Martin E. Marty, The New York Times Book ReviewThis extraordinary work delves into the subject of religion in the prehistoric and ancient worlds—humankind's earliest quests for meaning. From Neanderthal burials to the mythology of the Iron Age, to the religions of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Israel, India, and beyond, it offers both an appreciation of the wid...

In this fascinating installment of the New York Times bestselling Don’t Know Much About® series, Kenneth C. Davis explores the great myths of the world and their implications for art, science, religion and culture throughout history.What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on the U. S. dollar bill? • Did a pharaoh inspire Moses to worship one God? • What’s a Canaanite demoness doing at a rock concert?Since the beginning of time, people have been insatiably curious. They’ve asked q...

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...

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 ...

Humanity has always used symbols-material objects used to denote difficult, abstract concepts-to describe thoughts and feelings, or to protect secret truths from common knowledge.This concise A-Z guide is a fascinating work of reference that brings to light all the symbols and symbolisms of the world, many aspects of which have been lost to time, including Freemasonry, the Kabbalah, the tarot, astrology, alchemy, Zoroastrianism, and ancient cultures from Egypt to Japan.

This groundbreaking book proposes that the rise of alphabetic literacy reconfigured the human brain and brought about profound changes in history, religion, and gender relations. Making remarkable connections across brain function, myth, and anthropology, Dr. Shlain shows why pre-literate cultures were principally informed by holistic, right-brain modes that venerated the Goddess, images, and feminine values. Writing drove cultures toward linear left-brain thinking and thi...

A scholarly study of older women in pre-patriarchal societies, from the author of The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets ."A useful and thought-provoking guide, pointing the way to a more humane future by enhancing our understanding of the past and present." — Los Angeles TimesA probing account of the honored place of older women in ancient matriarchal societies re...

An occultism reference chronicling the quest for metaphysical truth, from astronomers to astrologers, necromancers to sorcerers, alchemists to prophets.If the history of black magic and the occult reveals anything, it's that the drive to marshal the unseen powers of the dark, and bend them to mortal will, is as old as mankind itself. Men and women have believed, in virtually every age and in every land, that there is another world—a world of spirits and souls, angel...