A practical guide to merkavah mysticism, suitable for VERY experienced magicians. There are many books available about Qabalah but very little has been written about older forms of Jewish mysticism. This book seeks to address that lack of information by describing one of the oldest, merkavah mysticism, an ancient technique that is similar to shamanism, but with a very different purpose. Where shamans seeks to contact animal spirits, merkavah mystics seeks to penetrate the seven Heavens and stand before the throne chariot of God. Within this book you will find detailed instructions for performing merkavah mysticism, adapted from Medieval sources, along with the names and functions of the entities you will encounter, all in an easy to use format that avoids the obscurism of the medieval material. The author has used this material himself and can vouch for its efficacy. This book is suitable for all those who are interested in ancient Jewish mysticism and advanced forms of practical work. WARNING The techniques contained within this book are NOT suitable for beginners.

Patrick White's brilliant 1961 novel, set in an Australian suburb, intertwines four deeply different lives. An Aborigine artist, a Holocaust survivor, a beatific washerwoman, and a childlike heiress are each blessed—and stricken—with visionary experiences that may or may not allow them to transcend the machinations of their fellow men. Tender and lacerating, pure and profane, subtle and sweeping, Riders in the Chariot is one of the Nobel Prize winner's boldest books.

Since long, chariots in ancient Egypt are only known from depictions and the wooden remains from six of those vehicles from the tomb of Tutankhamun, but the present work presents for the first time a unique, complete leather casing and harnessing of a New Kingdom chariot in the collection of the Egyptian Museum (Cairo).

The Hekhalot literature is a bizarre conglomeration of Jewish esoteric and revelatory texts in Hebrew and Aramaic, produced sometime between late antiquity and the early Middle Ages and surviving in medieval manuscripts. These texts claims to describe the self-induced spiritual experiences of the "descenders to the chariot" and to reveal the techniques that permitted these magico-religious practitioners to view for themselves Ezekiel's Merkavah as well as to gain control of angels and a supernatural mastery of Torah. Drawing on epigraphic and archaeological evidence from the Middle East, anthropological models, and a wide range of cross-cultural evidence, this book aims to show that the Hekhalot literature preserves the teachings and rituals of real religious functionaries who flourished in late antiquity and who were quite like the functionaries anthopologists call shamans.

The present work is the result of the First International Chariot Conference, jointly organised by the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo (NVIC) and the American University in Cairo (AUC) (30 November to 2 December 2012). The intention of the conference was to make a broad assessment of the current state of knowledge about chariots in Egypt and the Near East, and to provide a forum for discussion. A wide variety of papers are included, ranging from overviews to more detailed studies focusing on a specific topic. These include philology, iconography, archaeology, engineering, history, and conservation. The book is of interest to scholars as well as anyone with an interest in ancient technology, transportation, or warfare.

The sweeping, dramatic finale of Swati Teerdhala’s South India-inspired fantasy trilogy rounds out the epic, romantic tale of an assassin and a soldier fighting to save their country and their people. Perfect for fans of Sabaa Tahir and Victoria Aveyard. A queen at last. An empty palace. A kingdom to save. Esha is reeling from Kunal’s betrayal, but she has a kingdom to rule from behind a thin smokescreen—pretending to be Princess Reha while she sends her most trusted soldiers to collect Reha and Kunal by any means necessary. Traitors, after all, must be punished. But the Yavar are attacking from every front—tracking down Kunal and Reha in the remote mountains, kidnapping Harun—in search of legendary artifacts that will give them the power to break the precarious janma bond and release the destructive magic back into the lands. Now that the race is on to find the missing artifacts, Esha must put aside her rage and work with Kunal again—but can she find the strength to forgive him, or will the Viper have her revenge at any cost?

An occult classic and a Dion Fortune bestseller of strongly growing interest. Fortune was one of the first to bring this “secret tradition” to a wider audience with her clear and comprehensive exploration of the Qabalah tradition. The Mystical Qabalah remains a classic in its clarity, linking the broad elements of Jewish traditional thought—probably going back to the Babylonian captivity and beyond—with both Eastern and Western philosophy and later Christian insights. The Qabalah could be described as a confidential Judaic explanation of the paradox of “the Many and the One”—the complexity and diversity within a monotheistic unity. Whereas the Old Testament outlines the social and psychological development of a tightly knit “chosen group” culture, the supplementary Qabalah provides a detailed plan of the infrastructure behind the creative evolutionary process. The Mystical Qabalah devotes a chapter to each of the ten schematic “God-names,” the qualities or Sephiroth which focus on the principal archetypes behind evolving human activity: the Spiritual Source; the principles of Force and Form; Love and Justice; the Integrative principle or the Christ Force; Aesthetics and Logic; the dynamics of the Psyche; and, finally, the Manifestation of life on Earth in a physical body.

An award-winning journalist tells you everything you need to know about being Jewish in this user-friendly guide that explains not only what Jews do and believe, but why.

Music as a Chariot offers a multidisciplinary perspective whose primary proposition is that theatre is a type of music. Understanding how music enables the theatre experience helps to shape our entire approach to the performing arts. Beginning with a discussion on the origin and nature of time, the author takes us on an evolutionary journey to discover how music, language and mimesis co-evolved, eventually coming together to produce the complex way we experience theatre. The book integrates the evolutionary neuroscience of the human brain into this journey, offering practical implications and applications for the auditory expression of this concept—namely the fundamental techniques artists use to create sound scores for theatre. With contributions from directors, playwrights, actors and designers, Music as a Chariot explores the use of music to carry ideas into the human soul—a concept that extends beyond the theatrical to include film, video gaming, dance, or anywhere art is manipulated in time.