Examines the unicorn tapestries displayed at the Cloisters in New York City

A tour de force of history and imagination, The Lady and the Unicorn is Tracy Chevalier’s answer to the mystery behind one of the art world’s great masterpieces—a set of bewitching medieval tapestries that hangs today in the Cluny Museum in Paris. They appear to portray the seduction of a unicorn, but the story behind their making is unknown—until now. Paris, 1490. A shrewd French nobleman commissions six lavish tapestries celebrating his rising status at Court. He hires the charismatic, arrogant, sublimely talented Nicolas des Innocents to design them. Nicolas creates havoc among the women in the house—mother and daughter, servant, and lady-in-waiting—before taking his designs north to the Brussels workshop where the tapestries are to be woven. There, master weaver Georges de la Chapelle risks everything he has to finish the tapestries—his finest, most intricate work—on time for his exacting French client. The results change all their lives—lives that have been captured in the tapestries, for those who know where to look. In The Lady and the Unicorn, Tracy Chevalier weaves fact and fiction into a beautiful, timeless, and intriguing literary tapestry—an extraordinary story exquisitely told.

The legendary medieval tapestry The Lady and the Unicorn is Sutherland Lyall’s starting point for this journey into the world of mythology and mystery which has been woven around the myth of the unicorn and the lady. We learn that the unicorn is the symbol for power and the lady may be mother, mistress or virgin. With an abundant collection of documents form a number of international museums, Lyall’s writing is an exciting exploration, a lively new examination, of old subjects. Who knows - perhaps he has finally sloved the mystery of The Lady and the Unicorn!

Among the most popular attractions at The Cloisters, the medieval branch of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, is a set of tapestries depicting the hunt of the fabled unicorn. Each of the seven exquisite tapestries is reproduced in large colorplates and with a wealth of color details. Created in the Netherlands in 1495-1505, they contain supremely memorable images - from the vulnerable unicorn and the individualized faces of the hunters to the naturalistically depicted flora and fauna. The author also looks at the construction of the tapestries and the historical and cultural context in which they were woven.

A Season-by-Season Guide to an Enchanted Natural Life The world is filled with magic, reflected back to us through the cycles of nature, if we can just slow down and learn how to channel it. This book is a journey through the year, exploring its tides, seasons, and festivals. It provides practical advice for celebrating the whole cycle—not just the eight sabbats—with rituals, meditations, projects, and invocations to help you discover the magical rhythms of the natural world. Join Anna Franklin, bestselling author of The Hearth Witch's Compendium, as she shares more than one hundred spells, recipes, remedies, and crafts designed to bring enchantment, healing, and joy into your life. Within these pages you will also discover natural cleaners and time-honored projects for the hearth and home to help you celebrate the cycles of the seasons, honor the Gods, and manifest your deepest spirituality.

Shrike, the Butcher of Blackthorn, is a legendary warrior of the fae realms. When he wins a tournament in the Court of the Silver Wheel, its queen names him her Oak King - a figurehead destined to die in a ritual duel to invoke the change of seasons. Shrike is determined to survive. Even if it means he must put his heart as well as his life into a mere mortal's hands. Wren Lofthouse, a London clerk, has long ago resigned himself to a life of tedium and given up his fanciful dreams. When a medieval-looking brute arrives at his office to murmur of destiny, he's inclined to think his old enemies are playing an elaborate prank. Still, he can't help feeling intrigued by the bizarre-yet-handsome stranger and his fantastical ramblings, whose presence stirs up emotions Wren has tried to lock away in the withered husk of his heart. As Shrike whisks Wren away to a world of Wild Hunts and arcane rites, Wren is freed from the repression of Victorian society. But both the fae and mortal realms prove treacherous to their growing bond. Wren and Shrike must fight side-by-side to see who will claim victory - Oak King or Holly King.

For thousands of years people from all parts of the world have been fascinated by unicorns-- and many have believed that these one-horned animals really existed. This book recounts different unicorn legends, the very real trade that existed for unicorn horns (alicorns), and examines what real animals might have inspired the unicorn stories.

Margaret Starbird’s theological beliefs were profoundly shaken when she read Holy Blood, Holy Grail, a book that dared to suggest that Jesus Christ was married to Mary Magdalen and that their descendants carried on his holy bloodline in Western Europe. Shocked by such heresy, this Roman Catholic scholar set out to refute it, but instead found new and compelling evidence for the existence of the bride of Jesus--the same enigmatic woman who anointed him with precious unguent from her “alabaster jar.” In this provocative book, Starbird draws her conclusions from an extensive study of history, heraldry, symbolism, medieval art, mythology, psychology, and the Bible itself. The Woman with the Alabaster Jar is a quest for the forgotten feminine--in the hope that its return will help restore a healthy balance to planet Earth.