Simple geometric shapes and symbols combine to make the universal, powerful, sacred model Karen French calls Gateway to the Heavens. In this book, French explains the meaning and purpose of these shapes, how they mold our reality and perception of it and how they have a direct bearing on what you are and why you are here. These shapes and symbols contain messages that have been consistently represented in religion, philosophy, mythology, mysticism, the arts and sciences. Their messages are built into our genetic make-up and we recogniZe them instinctively. The book is divided up into 3 parts. Part 1 covers the properties of the basic geometric shapes and numbers. Part 2 describes how these, in turn, form layers of construction, creating principals that are fundamental to the purpose of the universe; the spiral sustains reality, the cross highlighting the central point of existence and the heart is where we weigh up our choices. Part 3 describes how we can use these principals to create positive change in our lives by helping us to expand our awareness of reality.

Geometry orders the Universe...why? As a reason for some purpose for life, humans have searched throughout history for order and patterns in the seeming random nature of our surroundings. Our ancestors learned to unravel the importance of simple geometric shapes in this quest for knowledge that is still largely shrouded in mystery. In Gateway to the Heavens you will discover the purpose and meaning of simple geometric shapes and how they mould your reality and your perception of it. Learn how they have a direct bearing on who you are and why you are here. Then find out how this knowledge can be achieved through the expansion of your conscious awareness and how this expansion is made possible through the use of a universal model based on sacred geometry called the 'Gateway to the Heavens'. Gateway to the Heavens provides an insightful look at a wide range of diverse topics. Ideas are compared and clarified in an easily understood way using over 700 illustrations, pictures and drawings, and numerous quotes.

"Gateway to Heaven tells of a memorable journey to France, the Vallances' stormy sea voyage from London to the Greek Isles, where Mary falls into frightful danger; an idyllic vacation in Hawaii, their response to the antiwar movement, the drug culture, and sexual freedom in the confusion of the sixties" --

In this book, first published in 1991, the prolific and innovative British biblical scholar Margaret Barker sets out to explore the origins and the afterlife of traditions about the Temple in Judaism. Using evidence from the deutero-canonical and pseudepigraphic texts, Qumran and rabbinic material, as well as early Christian texts and liturgies, she advances a host of radical and suggestive theories, including the following: 1. Apocalyptic writing was the temple tradition. 2. Temple buildings were aligned to establish a solar calendar, thus explaining the astronomical texts incorporated in 1 Enoch 3. The temple symbolism of priest and sanctuary antedated the Eden stories of Genesis. 4. The temple buildings depicted heaven and earth separated by a veil of created matter. 5. The throne visions, the basis of the later Merkavah mysticism, originated as high priestly sanctuary experiences, first attested in Isaiah but originating in the royal cult when king figures passed beyond the temple veil from earth into heaven, from immortality to the resurrected state, and then returned.

One day every hundred years, a town appears, its location and character different every time. It is home to the greatest miracle a man could imagine: a doorway to Heaven itself. The town’s name is Wormwood, and it is due to appear on the 21st September 1889, somewhere in the American Midwest. There are many who hope to be there: travelling preacher Obeisance Hicks and his simple messiah, Soldier Joe; Henry and Harmonium Jones and their freak show pack of outlaws; the Brothers of the Order of Ruth and their sponsor Lord Forset (inventor of the Forset Thunderpack and other incendiary modes of personal transport); and finally, an aging gunslinger with a dark history. They will face dangers both strange and terrible: monstrous animals, predatory towns, armies of mechanical natives, and other things besides. Wormwood defends its secrets, and only the brave and resourceful will survive...

The NIV is the world's best-selling modern translation, with over 150 million copies in print since its first full publication in 1978. This highly accurate and smooth-reading version of the Bible in modern English has the largest library of printed and electronic support material of any modern translation.

This first volume lays out all the Marian doctrines and their evolution in a clear and easy-to-follow format as well as providing two chapters on patristic and medieval devotion.

Etienne Nodet proposes that Qumran functioned as a pilgrimage site for the Essenes from the 1st century BC onwards. Nodet suggests that the Essenes were scattered everywhere within Palestine in rural communities and that they used to commemorate a renewal of the early Israelites' entrance into the Promised Land, after crossing the Jordan river and celebrating Passover at Gilgal with Joshua, Moses' heir. The Essene dead were moved to be buried at Qumran in a well-organized graveyard, as the place was deemed to be a kind of gate to heaven. Nodet shows how the Jewish movement of the Essenes did not did not disappear after the war in 70 CE, rather its customs had a strong influence upon early Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism. The chapters of this book examine the Essenes in the period after the war in Jerusalem, showing how this community developed and its longer term significance. This is linked to the texts of the New Testament, to the writings of Josephus and to the Qumran community's own documents, the Dead Sea Scrolls.