Agaricus hoped no one saw him slip out of the kingdom, over the drawbridge, and into the forest and so begins the mythical tale of twelve year old Aggie, the headstrong and independent wizard's apprentice who must fulfill the prophesies written in a magical book that has fallen into her hands. According to the first of these prophesies the fate of the kingdom of Cedonia now depends upon her finding The Falcon's Blade, an ancient magical key to the fairy world. During her quest she uncovers information about herself, her place in the kingdom of Cedonia, and is forced to face the evil shapeshifter Malodar. Can she and her friends Giles, Harvey, and Saffron fulfill the prophesy and save the kingdom?

FIVE HUNDRED YEARS AFTER HE SET SAIL, the dominant understanding of Christopher Columbus holds him responsible for almost everything that went wrong in the New World. Here, finally, is a book that will radically change our interpretation of the man and his mission. Scholar Carol Delaney claims that the true motivation for Columbus’s voyages is very different from what is commonly accepted. She argues that he was inspired to find a western route to the Orient not only to obtain vast sums of gold for the Spanish Crown but primarily to help fund a new crusade to take Jerusalem from the Muslims—a goal that sustained him until the day he died. Rather than an avaricious glory hunter, Delaney reveals Columbus as a man of deep passion, patience, and religious conviction. Delaney sets the stage by describing the tumultuous events that had beset Europe in the years leading up to Columbus’s birth—the failure of multiple crusades to keep Jerusalem in Christian hands; the devastation of the Black Plague; and the schisms in the Church. Then, just two years after his birth, the sacking of Constantinople by the Ottomans barred Christians from the trade route to the East and the pilgrimage route to Jerusalem. Columbus’s belief that he was destined to play a decisive role in the retaking of Jerusalem was the force that drove him to petition the Spanish monarchy to fund his journey, even in the face of ridicule about his idea of sailing west to reach the East. Columbus and the Quest for Jerusalem is based on extensive archival research, trips to Spain and Italy to visit important sites in Columbus’s life story, and a close reading of writings from his day. It recounts the drama of the four voyages, bringing the trials of ocean navigation vividly to life and showing Columbus for the master navigator that he was. Delaney offers not an apologist’s take, but a clear-eyed, thought-provoking, and timely reappraisal of the man and his legacy. She depicts him as a thoughtful interpreter of the native cultures that he and his men encountered, and unfolds the tragic story of how his initial attempts to establish good relations with the natives turned badly sour, culminating in his being brought back to Spain as a prisoner in chains. Putting Columbus back into the context of his times, rather than viewing him through the prism of present-day perspectives on colonial conquests, Delaney shows him to have been neither a greedy imperialist nor a quixotic adventurer, as he has lately been depicted, but a man driven by an abiding religious passion.

India'S First Ever Sff (Science Fiction/Fantasy) Genre Novel In English The Simoqin Prophecies Marks The Debut Of An Assured New Voice. Written With Consummate Ease And Brimming With Wit And Allusion, It Is At Once Classic Sff And Subtle Spoof, Featuring Scantily Clad Centauresses, Flying Carpets, Pink Trolls, Belly Dancers And Homicidal Rabbits. Monty Python Meets The Ramayana, Alice In Wonderland Meets The Lord Of The Rings And Robin Hood Meets The Arabian Nights In This Novel A Breathtaking Ride Through A World Peopled By Different Races And Cultures From Mythology And History. The Prophecies Foretell The Reawakening Of The Terrible Rakshas, Danh-Gem, And The Arrival Of A Hero To Face Him. But Heroes Do Not Appear Magically Out Of Nowhere; They Have To Be Found And Trained. And Sometimes The Makers Of Prophecies Don'T Know Everything They Need To Know... As The Day Of Danh-Gem'S Rising Draws Closer And The Chosen Hero Is Sent On A Quest, Another Young Man Learns Of Terrible Things He Must Do In Secret And The Difficult Choices He Must Make In Order To Save The World From The Rakshas. Drawn From A Variety Of Sources Ranging From Greek And Indian Epics To Spy Novels, Fairy Tales To Superhero Comics, The Simoqin Prophecies Is A Compelling Tale, Marked By Meticulous Plotting And Artful Storytelling A Page-Turner Sure To Grip You From Start To Finish.

This book is about a 21st Century mythic adventure and spiritual odyssey. A real life Dan Brown novel where science meets reality, the mystical meets the mundane and the esoteric or hidden is made manifest. More mind bending than the Matrix movie and as strange as any Philip K. Dick take. This is a true story of one man's quest to understand the nature of Mind, Brain and Consciousness, during the course of which he discovers the nature of the universe and the divine. It is contemporary mythology involving the quest for the modern Holy Grail of Artificial Intelligence (AI), which would lead to the Holy Grail of the common understanding that is found at the heart of all the world religions, i.e. Gnosticism in Christianity, Kabbalah in Judaism, Sufism in Islam, Tantra and Advaita Vedanta in Hinduism, Vajrayana Buddhism and Taoism; also the secret behind Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, the Templars and the Ancient Mysteries of Greece of Egypt.

It's the 21st century and what have we got to show for it? Does humanity really want to continue its downward spiral or are we ready to create a different reality? The purpose of this book is many-fold. 1. It shows you ways in which our civilization can progress. 2. It challenges all the old methods of doing things. 3. It offers workable methods, which have been tried and proven by individuals and communities all over the globe, with the sole purpose of making life better. 4. It is interactive. It offers its readers an invitation to join the AlterQuest Organization and be part of a practical Global Network for the advancement of our world. AlterQuest is the most exciting, inspirational book you will ever read. Its topics will give you unlimited hope for the present and the future. You'll find yourself grasping at every wonderful idea with a renewed sense of enthusiasm. Here at last we have the answers we've all been searching for.

"Twelve-year-old Celia Cleary's first vision launches a quest to change her neighbor Jeffrey Johnson's fate"--

This long-standing series provides the guild of religion scholars a venue for publishing aimed primarily at colleagues. It includes scholarly monographs, revised dissertations, Festschriften, conference papers, and translations of ancient and medieval documents. Works cover the sub-disciplines of biblical studies, history of Christianity, history of religion, theology, and ethics. Festschriften for Karl Barth, Donald W. Dayton, James Luther Mays, Margaret R. Miles, and Walter Wink are among the seventy-five volumes that have been published. Contributors include: C. K. Barrett, Francois Bovon, Paul S. Chung, Marie-Helene Davies, Frederick Herzog, Ben F. Meyer, Pamela Ann Moeller, Rudolf Pesch, D. Z. Phillips, Rudolf Schnackenburgm Eduard Schweizer, John Vissers

This study reconsiders the Vulgate Cycle, and the functional interrelation of prophecy and epistemological critique in thirteenth-century Grail literature: no mere prediction, prophecy marks a critical strategy by which the nature and limits of knowledge are put into systematic question.