Social sciences

Since 1999 Jan Kounen has regularly travelled to the Peruvian Amazon to participate in ayahuasca ceremonies. At first only a curious filmmaker, over multiple trips he transformed from explorer to apprentice to ayahuasquero and often found himself surrounded by other foreigners coming to the jungle for their first taste of ayahuasca medicine.

The legends of the Norse and Germanic regions of Europe - spanning from Germany and Austria across Scandinavia to Iceland and England - include a broad range of mythical characters and places, from Odin and Thor, to berserkers and Valhalla, to the Valkyries and Krampus.

In Antiquity, the art of memory was a mnemonic device that allowed an orator, such as Cicero, to recall all the points he wished to make by associating each of them with an image or architectural element in the site he was speaking.

There are few areas of our world where shamanic traditions have been preserved in their original context and form. Nepal is one of these rare and special places. In the shadow of the Himalayas, Nepalese shamans, known as dhamis or jhankris, are still consulted for healing and divination, as well as for providing comfort and maintaining harmony.

One of the most valuable nutritive substances we can consume, sugar supplies the essential energy the body and brain need to function. But there are good and bad, healthy and harmful forms of sugar. Good sugars are those found naturally occurring in foods such as fruits, honey, maple syrup and whole grains.

Jesse James left behind secret diaries and coded treasure maps. Working to decrypt these maps, Daniel J. Duke--the great-great grandson of Jesse James--reveals hidden treasures yet to be recovered as well as connections between the infamous train robber and Freemasonry, the Knights Templar, the Founding Fathers, and Jewish mysticism.

Unveiling the long-forgotten prequel to the Grail quest stories, Caitlín and John Matthews examine The Elucidation of the Grail, a forgotten 13th-century French text and show how it offers the key to understanding the sevenfold path of the Grail and the deeper stories beneath the Christian Grail narrative.

In Sex and the Enneagram, Ann Gadd explores relationships and sex through the lens of the Enneagram, its nine personality types, and the subtypes of the wings and Instinctual Triads. The author introduces the Enneagram system and provides a full chapter devoted to each type. She examines each type's approach to sex, their fantasies, and levels of integration in relation to love and sex.

Dr. John Dee and his polymath protégé Sir Francis Bacon were the most influential men in the court of Queen Elizabeth I, part of an elite group with invisible control throughout Europe. And as Steven Sora reveals, not only were they key members of the Rosicrucians, they were the driving force behind England's colonization of the New World and the eventual establishment of the United States.

Deepen your connection to spirit and follow your life’s path with the ancient wisdom of this powerful Norse oracle card deck • Includes 54 full-color cards depicting Norse deities, runes, and mythic beings with a message from the Nine Realms and a book offering guidance and card spreads

Exploring the craftsman, warrior and magician archetypes - three vocations that echo the traditional tripartite division of society, Angel Millar reveals how these archetypes represent the three successive stages of spiritual growth in an individual's life. He shows how they provide structure for the initiatory process to develop one's mental, physical and spiritual potential.

Looking at the Solomonic magical tradition and Solomon's profound influence on esoteric traditions around the world, Claude Lecouteux reveals King Solomon not only as one of the great kings of prehistory but also as the ancient world's foremost magician and magus.

Despite the recent resurgence of interest in the therapeutic potential of psychedelics, Cannabis sativa as a psychedelic therapy has been completely overlooked. Yet, as psychedelic specialist Daniel McQueen, MA, reveals, when used skilfully and with intention, cannabis can be used to treat trauma and other mental health concerns just as psilocybin mushrooms and MDMA can.

Throughout the millennia shamans, saints, and yogis have discovered how the brain-mind can be reprogrammed to become a powerful instrument facilitating access to higher states of consciousness. In particular, the written Tantric texts of India and Tibet describe, in extraordinarily precise detail, interior transformations of conscious energy along with numerous techniques for stimulating, ...

In the early 1980s, underground musicians Tamra Lucid and her boyfriend Ronnie Pontiac discovered the book The Secret Teachings of All Ages at the Bodhi Tree bookstore in Los Angeles. Poring over the tome, they were awakened to the esoteric and occult teachings of the world.

Finland has long been viewed as the land of sorcerers and shamans as well as being identified with Ultima Thule, the mystical farthest north location of ancient myth. Exploring the rich history of Finnish occultism, Perttu Häkkinen and Vesa Iitti examine the significant figures and groups of Finland's occult world from the late 19th century to the present day.