The Ancient Religion of the Sun


Book Description

The ancient Religion of the Sun has been one of the most powerful influencers on human history. It gave rise to many of the world's most famous ancient sites and some of its most revered wisdom traditions. This book tells the history of this religion, by bringing together scientific evidence, ancient texts, and traditions.




The Ancient Path of the Sun


Book Description

The sun was the most celebrated religious symbol of the ancient world and hundreds of the most enigmatic sites were aligned to it at the solstices and equinoxes. This book answers why the sun was so spiritually important to ancient people and describes how to practice this same ancient religion of the sun today.




Jesus Christ, Sun of God


Book Description

The early Christian Gnosis did not spring up in isolation, but drew upon earlier sources. In this book, many of these sources are revealed for the first time. Special emphasis is placed on the Hellenistic doctrine of the "Solar Logos" and the early Christian symbolism which depicted Christ as the Spiritual Sun, the illumination source of order, harmony, and spiritual insight. Based on 15 years of research, this is a unique book which throws a penetrating light on the secret traditions of early Christianity. It clearly demonstrates that number is at the heart of being. Jesus Christ, Sun of God, illustrates how the Christian symbolism of the Spiritual Sun is derived from numerical symbolism of the "ancient divinities."




Yahweh and the Sun


Book Description

This challenging provocative book argues that there was in ancient Israel a considerable degree of overlap between the worship of the sun and of Yahweh-even that Yahweh was worshipped as the sun in some contexts. As an object created not by humankind but by God himself, the sun as an object of veneration lay outside the bounds of the second commandment and was considered by many to be an appropriate 'icon' of Yahweh of Hosts. Through its ivestigation of 'solar Yahwism', this book offers fresh insight into several passages (e.g.Genesis 1;32.23-33; Joshua 10.12-14; 1 Kings 8.12; Ezekiel 8.16-18; Psalms 19;104) and archaeological data regarding the orientations of Yawistic temples, the "lmlk" jar handles ,horse figurines, and the Taanach cult stand. The book argues that the struggle between Yahweh and other deities in ancint Israel took place within the context of the development of Yahwism itself.




Cult of the Sun


Book Description




God of All Things


Book Description

Abstract theology is overrated, for God can be found in even the most ordinary of things. Jesus used things like a lily, sparrow, and sheep to teach about the kingdom of God. And in the Old Testament, God repeatedly describes himself and his saving work in relation to physical things such as a rock, horn, or eagle. In God of All Things, pastor and author Andrew Wilson invites you to rediscover God in this way, too--through ordinary, everyday things. He explores the idea of a material world and presents a variety of created marvels that reveal the gospel in everyday life and fuel worship and joy in God--marvels like: Dust: the image of God Horns: the salvation of God Donkeys: the peace of God Water: the life of God Viruses: the problem of God Cities: the kingdom of God God of All Things will leave you with a deeper understanding of Scripture, the world you live in, and the God who made it all.




The Sun in the Church


Book Description

Between 1650 and 1750, four Catholic churches were the best solar observatories in the world. Built to fix an unquestionable date for Easter, they also housed instruments that threw light on the disputed geometry of the solar system, and so, within sight of the altar, subverted Church doctrine about the order of the universe. A tale of politically canny astronomers and cardinals with a taste for mathematics, "The Sun in the Church" tells how these observatories came to be, how they worked, and what they accomplished. It describes Galileo's political overreaching, his subsequent trial for heresy, and his slow and steady rehabilitation in the eyes of the Catholic Church. And it offers an enlightening perspective on astronomy, Church history, and religious architecture, as well as an analysis of measurements testing the limits of attainable accuracy, undertaken with rudimentary means and extraordinary zeal. Above all, the book illuminates the niches protected and financed by the Catholic Church in which science and mathematics thrived. Superbly written, "The Sun in the Church" provides a magnificent corrective to long-standing oversimplified accounts of the hostility between science and religion.




The King's Curriculum


Book Description

The King's Curriculum is an idea, a philosophy and a cosmology built upon the ancient tradition of Sacred Kingship. It connects man with his True Will and leads him on a divine path, securing his own Crown, Throne, and Kingdom in the process. The mythic journey described in this book might be thought of as a metaphor for personal transformation, a sacred ritual of bringing order to one's consciousness as both a spiritual practice and practical approach for cultivating a fulfilling life.How many men, when staring into the abyss of death, will regret a life wasted on trivialities? It is the rare Individual, indeed, who escapes this common fate. Few will be able to say they've commanded the course of their life, that they've crafted it into a WILLED shape. You could be among those few.Ancient cultures developed a method for addressing this fundamental human dilemma, cultivating a long tradition of forging unconquerable men through initiatory rites. These sacred rites, often modeled on the hero's journey, were ordeals structured to test and transform the Initiate. Those who triumphed over these archetypal challenges became the heroes, prophets, and kings of legend. You are the descendants of these immortals and the inheritors of this great tradition. Who amongst the living is now prepared to take up this torch and carry it into the future?This book will help you:* Initiate your True Will* Transform your life into a Ritual with meaning* Cultivate the immortal legacy of your "I AM""Here is a brilliant and original synthesis of many traditions of self-discovery and redemption by a young man who has experienced it all and come through with a tale to tell. Johnny Mannaz has taken the hero's journey and offers a guidebook for the adventurous souls who will be the new beings of a new age. This is a book for explorers." -John Harrod (writer, teacher, musician and fellow explorer)




Stations of the Sun


Book Description

Comprehensive and engaging, this colourful study covers the whole sweep of ritual history from the earliest written records to the present day. From May Day revels and Midsummer fires, to Harvest Home and Hallowe'en, to the twelve days of Christmas, Ronald Hutton takes us on a fascinating journey through the ritual year in Britain. He challenges many common assumptions about the customs of the past, and debunks many myths surrounding festivals of the present, to illuminate the history of the calendar year we live by today.




The Cult of Ra


Book Description

Did the ancient Egyptians believe in many gods, or was it one god in many guises? The answer lies in the special relationship between the sun god Ra and the king, in his central title "Son of Ra". Stephen Quirke draws together recent advances in our understanding of the cult of Ra, from the third millennium B.C. to the Roman conquest of Egypt and the rise of Christianity. He explores the Egyptian sources for the character of Ra, his pivotal role in creation, and the way in which the Egyptians expressed the world as physical matter unfurling from the sun. Through select inscriptions and manuscripts the reader enters the closed world of the king as he carried out his principal function, to maintain life itself. With prayer, sacrifices, and the power of knowledge, Pharaoh ensured the smooth passage of the sun hour by hour through the sky. The epicenter of the cult was the temple of Ra at Iunu (the Heliopolis -- "city of the sun" -- of the ancient Greeks). All but inaccessible within the urban spread of modern Cairo, the sacred precinct of Iunu formed the greatest religious complex of ancient Egypt. Excavations at the site offer a glimpse of vanished magnificence, echoed in displaced monuments within Egypt and around the globe, and in better-preserved sites inspired by the solar city, such as Karnak and Tanis. Pyramids and obelisks represent the outstanding architectural and engineering achievements of ancient Egypt, and here their precise links to the sun cult are examined. The book closes with an account of Akhenaten, the most exclusive son of Ra, who transformed the Ra cult into the royal worship of the sun-disk, Aten. From this richly rewarding and provocative book we learn justhow central the sun and its cult were to ancient kingship and personal belief in the Valley of the Nile.