Hellenism and Christianity: Now Available!

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"Hellenism and Christianity" is a spectacular work by Bevan on the topic of the change from pagan to Christian ways over the course of many centuries, beginning of course with Bacchylides and other ancient figures, and proceeding through the first contact and interchange between early Christians and their pagan counterparts. It is richly filled with secondary sources of material both ancient and then-modern; a fine work excellent for continued research into this fascinating historical topic.

221 pages.

Fishes of Fancy: Now Available!

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This little text is a fine collection of marine and aquatic folklore and mythology- from the returning of Solomons' magic ring by a fish, to dietary restrictions in religion, to some superstition among fishermen and sailors. It is topped off by a rather odd short story in which a group of ocean creatures stage a marine exhibition, apparently a mild mockery of British oceanic science in the age. The work has been illustrated by Raven Feather Illustrations.

92 pages.

The Old Egyptian Faith: Now Available!

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This volume is an extensive treatment of the ancient Egyptian religion; its deities, its rituals, and especially the treatment of the dead and form of the afterlife. As with Egyptology in general, all of these subjects were malleable, changing in form and practice over the course of many centuries, something which is repeatedly noted especially in the spells and enchantments and rituals involving mortality and the judgment of the spirits of the departed. A number of interesting tales about the interaction of their deities with one another are provided.

168 pages.

Babylonians and Assyrians, Life and Customs: Now Available!

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This is a full length academic treatment of the basic life, rituals, and political meanderings of ancient Babylon and, later, Assyria. Of course, it additionally alludes to the Sumerian origins of what became the Babylonian system. Of especial note for the occultist, here, is the wide difference between the purported godly nature of Babylonian royalty supplanted by the militaristic Assyrians, and the related difference between archaeological remains. A description of the basic pantheons (and evolution of their worship) is notable as well, and some intriguing healing and protective rituals and practices are detailed.

208 pages.

The Divine Origin and Craft of the Herbalist: Now Available!

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This interesting text is an analysis of the intertwined and co-evolving nature of medical practice (specifically herbal and mineral) with religions, from times as remote as early Ancient Egypt and Sumeria, up through Assyria, Greece, Rome, the rise of the Islamic world, the copts, and other groups.

A great many specific rituals and a large number of species and their usages are explored- the work is also illustrated, with cuneiform and hieroglyphic work translated and interpreted.

76 pages.

The Poetry of the Talmud: Now Available!

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This volume (and the last edited work of 2021!) is a plethora of analysis regarding the Talmud and its content; it covers the hyperbolic and metaphorical nature of a great deal of Rabbinical opinion, and a number of little cautionary tales usually involving animals, as well as the Greek influence on some of the content, in which their stories were re-interpreted according to the premises of Judaism. It is heavily sourced both to the Talmud and to contemporary academic works.

156 pages.

Identity of the Religions Called Druidical and Hebrew: Now Available!

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This little work of religious history delves into the cultural as well as the linguistic, with its main focus being on correlating ritual and language between the Druids and Hebrews, positing a common prior origin, Antediluvian in nature. It goes into some detail about other contemporary spiritual and cultural groups as well, and while this kind of theory has largely been discarded in modern academia, it is more because of its religious connotations than any prevailing counter evidence.

70 pages.

Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations: Now Available!

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This rather large, dense volume is a compilation of multiple disparate kinds of spiritual and occult lore- from treatments of major figures such as Swedenborg, Joan of Arc, and Paracelsus, to sections dealing with the initiation rites and basic beliefs of the Ancient Egyptians and Greeks, to a few then-modern meanderings into spiritualism and related fields. It is written from a spiritualist background, and casts some aspersion on certain tenets of mediumship and other practices, and is essentially a reformist occult work of sorts.

263 pages.

Hebrew Idolatry and Superstition: Now Available!

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This present book is a work mainly of religious history, seeking to categorize the various "idolatrous" practices of the ancient Hebrews, claiming most of them can be established to have had a prior origin, and that they therefore did not originate with Judaism. Some of the claims here are anthropologically outdated but many have been continuously confirmed (sacred groves and witchcraft definitely predate Judaism and probably came from interactions with other regional tribes, for example.) The number of individual stories involving witchery, totems, etc, are profuse, and the work is a great springboard for further study.

51 pages.

Pantheism; Its Story and Significance: Now Available!

 

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This short work is part of the well regarded religion series of its era and delves partly into the evolution of religious systems "towards" pantheism and partly into a refutation of the belief that certain figures from before Spinoza conform, at least literally, to the pantheistic doctrine. A bit about the life and beliefs of Spinoza himself complete this work, which is rigorously academic in tone.

54 pages.

Shinto: The Ancient Religion of Japan: Now Available!

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This short work is a compilation of religious lore mainly of a historical background. The primordial Japanese religion of Shinto is quite complex, but the linguistic content here is secondary and much of it is a description of the different types and usages of deities and rituals. It is worth noting that Astons' study coincides with the rise of Japan as a power in the world and the analysis herein is not so much tainted as colored by that.

56 pages.

The Hidden Treasures of the Ancient Qabalah: Now Available!

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This is a nice little work but the title is slightly misleading; while it speaks about Kabbalah it is a Theosophical manuscript (a transcription of oratory) which ties the same in to alchemy, yoga, and certain Christian and Buddhist tenets of spirituality. It is well written, and about half of it actually comprises a sort of social tract which speaks about inter-sex relationships, ethics, and then-modern culture.

54 pages.

The Religion of Ancient Palestine: Now Available!

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Here is another creation series work, one which I finished a week ago but which got caught up in Amazons' massively slow processing system. It is partly linguistic but unlike the last two titles is mostly about religious history and how the various spiritual systems that would contribute to Judeochristianity co-evolved and borrowed imagery and words and ideas from one another. It references, especially, Egypt and Babylon the most and speaks of some of the smaller local tribes of the Levant region.

77 pages.

The Mythology of Ancient Britain and Ireland: Now Available!

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This short work is yet another creation series entry; essentially in part supplementary to Anwyl's "Celtic Religion" in the same set. It is partially linguistic in nature and traces the development of post-christian British Isle spiritual systems and folklore (especially in the Arthurian sense) from prior religious figures; namely, deities of various sorts.

The origin stories of both Britain and Ireland are also explored in some detail, and the work is, as a whole, quite well made.

55 pages.

Swedenborg and the Sapienta Angelica: Now Available!

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This intermediate-length text is essentially three short works in one; the first third of the work is an autobiography of Emanuel Swedenborg and the second a brief overview of some of his more important works. In both, there are bits of his overarching philosophy listed and described briefly. The final section is a fairly lengthy bibliographic appendix listing both his works and the works of those about him available at the time.

The man himself is rather an enigma; he began receiving religiously themed visions and dreams and abandoned secular philosophy, inventing, and basic science, in favor of theological and spiritually philosophical work, which he wrote profusely. A small religious sect has sprung up around his teachings (which adherents appear to regard similarly to how Mormons see Joseph Smith.) His detractors consider Swedenborg to be either opportunist or madman. However, his genius cannot be denied; he developed the basic idea of neurons long before modern studies of the brain and was notable in his engineering finesse.

86 pages.

The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria: Now Available!

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This work is one of the most dense entries in the esteemed "Creation Series"- a series which contains as well several other works I have edited. It is mostly linguistic, but is also a work of religious history, and dwells mostly on some of the more important spiritual figures within the Babylonian/Sumerian pantheon. We must of course recognize that it was written long before Gobekli Tepe was discovered so the human timeline then basically terminated with Sumeria.

It is wonderful that this book admits to the Sumerian-Babylonian backdrop of Judaism (and thence Christianity) even while it occasionally refers to Genesis specifically.

83 pages.

The Idea of God in Early Religions: Now Available!

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This work is one of the main texts crafted by FB Jevons; a relatively well known academic in his day, who managed to create, here, a work which would remain relevant after a century- it is a combination of strict religious history with linguistic anthropology; a fascinating field that most would benefit from studying at least in a basic sense.

Religious evolution is explored here; the development of polytheism, the difference between a "god" in the community sense and the personal daemon or fetish, and other related topics. It refers to numerous other works and is rigorously academic.

116 pages.

The Indigenous Drugs of India: Now Available!

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This intermediate-length medical work is one part anthropological text, one part recipe book, and one part good medical history. About 90% of the entries here are herbal; but it lists some minerals and chemical compounds and even a couple of insect species, all of which were apparently sold through the Indian subcontinent as medical materials in the 1860s.

The fascinating blend of scientific rigor with what amounts to folklore here is spectacular; I'm a bit of a sucker for such works since I studied anthropology myself; the occultist may find this text useful since it is basically derived from a blend of ayurvedic, islamic, and pan-european medical practices and explicitly involves the spiritual side of life (which tends to be the case whenever mortality is addressed.) It contains both local and Latin terminology.

135 pages.

Abaddon and Manahaim: Now Available!

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This book is quite interesting, even though I disagree (obviously) with much of the religious content herein- several sections are dedicated to the topic of the Devil (from a protestant perspective) and demons, and the bit about mortality and Hellfire is, of course, interesting as well.

The author, Joseph Berg, was a preacher, so some of the statements he makes are emotionally charged and come with admonitions to the reader, but his analysis of the character of the Devil and other topics from the position of interpreting dogma is quite worth a read.

167 pages.

The Theosophy of Christ: Now Available!

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This short work represents a contemporary look at Theosophy from a perspective different from that of the Oriental tradition. While Theosophy at large brought East to West, this and similar works spoke more of Jesus and attempted to re-assert the supremacy of Christendom over spiritism and similar phenomena.

Largely, it encourages prayer for healing, claiming that the dispensation of healing miracles did not end in antiquity.

45 pages.