A Cultural History of Tarot: From Entertainment to by Helen Farley

By Helen Farley

The enigmatic and richly illustrative tarot deck finds a bunch of odd and iconic mages, reminiscent of The Tower, The Wheel of Fortune, The Hanged guy and The idiot: over which loom the terrifying figures of dying and The satan. The 21 numbered cards of tarot have continuously exerted robust fascination, method past their unique function, and the a number of resonances of the deck are ubiquitous. From T. S. Eliot and his "wicked pack of playing cards" in "The Waste Land" to the psychic divination of Solitaire in Ian Fleming's "Live and allow Die"; and from the satanic novels of Dennis Wheatley to the deck's adoption by way of New Age practitioners, the playing cards have nowa days develop into inseparably hooked up to the occult. they're now considered as arguably the most important medium of prophesying and foretelling. but, because the writer indicates, initially the tarot have been used as leisure cards by way of the Italian the Aristocracy within the Renaissance. It used to be merely a lot later, within the 18th and nineteenth centuries, that the deck grew to become linked to esotericism sooner than evolving ultimately right into a diagnostic instrument for brain, physique and spirit. this is often the 1st e-book to discover the remarkably assorted ways that tarot has encouraged tradition. Tracing the altering styles of the deck's use, from online game to mysterious oracular gadget, Helen Farley examines tarot's emergence in fifteenth century Milan and discusses its later institutions with astrology, kabbalah and the Age of Aquarius.

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Astrology for the new Minds by Dane Rudhyar

By Dane Rudhyar

Астрология и ее применения в условиях современного мира. Времена проходят и уходят, но остаются звезды и вселенная. Остаются извечные законы мироздания, влияния планет на судьбы людей. Англоязычный автор пишет о взаимоотношениях науки астрологии и мирового сообщества, каждого индивидуума, каждого человека.

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Cities of Ladies: Beguine Communities in the Medieval Low by Walter Simons

By Walter Simons

Chosen through selection journal as a great educational identify for 2002In the early 13th century, semireligious groups of ladies started to shape within the towns and cities of the Low nations. those beguines, because the ladies got here to be identified, led lives of contemplation and prayer and earned their livings as workers or teachers.In towns of women, the 1st historical past of the beguines to seem in English in fifty years, Walter Simons lines the transformation of casual clusters of unmarried ladies to massive beguinages. those veritable single-sex towns provided decrease- and middle-class ladies a substitute for either marriage and convent existence. whereas the region's increasing city economies at the start valued the groups for his or her affordable exertions provide, serious fiscal crises via the fourteenth century limited women's possibilities for paintings. Church specialists had additionally grown much less tolerant of non secular experimentation, hailing as subversive a few points of beguine mysticism. To Simons, although, such accusations of heresy opposed to the beguines have been mostly generated from a profound anxiousness approximately their highbrow goals and their claims to a chaste lifestyles open air the cloister. less than ecclesiastical and financial strain, beguine groups faded in measurement and effect, surviving in basic terms through adopting a posture of restraint and submission to church gurus.

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Ennead IV (Loeb Classical Library, Volume 443) by A. H. Armstrong, Plotinus

By A. H. Armstrong, Plotinus

Plotinus (204/5-270 CE) was once the 1st and maximum of Neoplatonic philosophers. His writings have been edited through his disciple Porphyry, who released them a long time after his master's dying in six units of 9 treatises every one (the Enneads).

Plotinus looked Plato as his grasp, and his personal philosophy is a profoundly unique improvement of the Platonism of the 1st centuries of the Christian period and the heavily similar considered the Neopythagoreans, with a few affects from Aristotle and his fans and the Stoics, whose writings he knew good yet used seriously. he's a special mixture of mystic and Hellenic rationalist. His idea ruled later Greek philosophy and motivated either Christians and Moslems, and continues to be alive at the present time as a result of its union of rationality and extreme non secular adventure.

In his acclaimed variation of Plotinus, Armstrong presents very good introductions to every treatise. His worthwhile notes clarify imprecise passages and provides connection with parallels in Plotinus and others.

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Cosmic Consciousness - A Study in the Evolution of the Human by Richard Maurice Bucke

By Richard Maurice Bucke

First released in 1901, this paintings is an research of the improvement of man's mystic relation to the endless. In reviewing the psychological and non secular job of the human race, Dr Bucke postulates that at periods, convinced contributors have seemed who're proficient with the powers of transcendent cognizance, or illumination. He proposes that those studies are at the bring up and provides info of the entire situations on list on the time of writing.

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Death, Dying, and Mysticism: The Ecstasy of the End

Modern society has a tendency to hide loss of life and the demise technique from public view, looking to erase them from our attention. this angle of denial stands in nice distinction to the technique of the nice non secular traditions of humanity, for which the loss of life strategy was once an vital and sometimes an important a part of our personal religious perform. This quantity deals a pattern of reflections from students and practitioners at the topic of dying and loss of life from students and practitioners, starting from the Christian culture to Hinduism, Lacanian psychoanalysis, whereas additionally concerning the subjects of the afterlife and near-death experiences.

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Agents of Uncertainty: Mysticism, Scepticism, Buddhism, Art by John Danvers

By John Danvers

Via an research of many various examples, Danvers articulates a brand new mind set approximately mysticism and scepticism, now not as contrary poles of the philosophical spectrum, yet as fields of enquiry with overlapping goals and techniques. caused by way of a deep experience of ask yourself at being alive, many mystics and sceptics, just like the Buddha, perform disciplines of doubt which will develop into freed from attachment to fastened appearances, essences and viewpoints, and in doing so that they locate peace and equanimity. They increase methods of dwelling with impermanence and the unforeseen via letting pass of adherence to dogmatic ideals and through postponing judgement. In universal with many artists and poets they act as brokers of uncertainty, actively hectic the workouts and conduct of day by day proposal and behavior in an effort to exhibit the best way to retain a feeling of stability and spontaneity in the middle of life's problems. subject matters explored comprise: being and self as technique; mysticism and language; scepticism and dogmatism; Buddhism, interdependence and vacancy; Daoism and impermanence; dialectics of doubt in paintings and poetry. Written in a full of life and available type, followed by way of drawings and images by way of the writer, this quantity is geared toward students, artists, lecturers, and someone attracted to philosophy, faith, paintings, poetry and methods of being.

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