The Skeleton Key of Solomon


Book Description

A note about the price: This book is of a rare nature, not for the general public, and the author has priced it accordingly. Less affluent readers are invited to pursue used copies or contact the author directly. Whether carved into amulets, daubed onto parchment, traced through ashes, or scratched in sand, ritual diagrams are the age-old precursors to our modern circuit boards, their intricately flowing lines summoning powerful energies. Five thousand years ago in China, the Yin-Yang alchemists of Taoism painted mysterious calligraphy onto rice paper, creating magic talismans imbued with the secrets of the universe. Each stroke and dot of their ink comprised a program for channeling the forces of nature, whether it be to influence human events or to establish contact with the non-material realm. In later years, and on other continents, the spiritual ancestors of the Taoist sorcerers developed their own systems of charms. In West African Vodou ceremonies, we find striking v�v� diagrams, those stylized "character sketches" that compel the deities to come forward. In Europe, we find the goetic sigils, those mystical glyphs documented in the grimoires of Medieval evocation rites. Interestingly, the sigils and the v�v�s share some striking parallels. In both cases, the diagrams conjure astral forces into the earthly plane, and they do so with some very similar symbols. Do the similarities constitute mere coincidence, or do they point to a profound significance?




The Lesser Key of Solomon


Book Description

The Lesser Key of Solomon, also known as Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis or simply Lemegeton, is an anonymous grimoire on demonology. It was compiled in the mid-17th century, mostly from materials a couple of centuries older. It is divided into five books—the Ars Goetia, Ars Theurgia-Goetia, Ars Paulina, Ars Almadel, and Ars Notoria. This edition was translated by Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers and published by Aleister Crowley under the title The Book of the Goetia of Solomon the King. Crowley added some additional invocations previously unrelated to the original work, as well as essays describing the rituals as psychological exploration instead of demon summoning.




A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake


Book Description

Since its publication in 1939, countless would-be readers of "Finnegans Wake" - James Joyce's masterwork, which consumed a third of his life - have given up after a few pages, dismissing it as a "perverse triumph of the unintelligible." In 1944, a young professor of mythology and literature named Joseph Campbell, working with Henry Morton Robinson, wrote the first "key" or guide to entering the fascinating, disturbing, marvelously rich world of "Finnegans Wake." The authors break down Joyce's "unintelligible" book page by page, stripping the text of much of its obscurity and serving up thoughtful interpretations via footnotes and bracketed commentary. They outline the book's basic action, and then simplify -- and clarify -- its complex web of images and allusions. "A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake" is the latest addition to the "Collected Works of Joseph Campbell" series.







The Venus Blueprint


Book Description

In 2010, Richard Merrick took a family trip to Scotland's Rosslyn chapel—the enigmatic fifteenth-century temple made famous by Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. Little did he know he was about to embark upon an intellectual and personal journey that would lead to the discovery of a real-life lost symbol—one that reveals the connection between the world's most sacred temples and opens up a treasure trove of lost science and ancient secrets. The symbol he discovers—the Venus Blueprint—is based on that planet's orbital pattern, which takes the shape of a five-pointed star when seen from Earth. As Merrick digs deeper, he realizes the Venus Blueprint was an integral part of the design template of some of the most significant religious architecture around the world--including St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, the Roman Pantheon, the Greek Parthenon, the Temple of Jerusalem, and the Great Pyramid of Giza, as well as many buildings designed by the secretive Freemason society. Upon further examination, Merrick is astounded to discover that temples designed using the Venus Blueprint are endowed with extraordinary acoustics that, when supplied with the right tones and frequencies, are capable of harmonizing with Earth's resonant frequencies and evoking altered states of consciousness. He then proposes a fascinating idea: Could it be that the ancients used these harmonics to enhance entheogenically induced visions—to commune with the divine and liberate the gods within? Supported by an impressive array of historical research and scientific analysis, The Venus Blueprint offers compelling evidence of an ancient lost culture that was both spiritually and scientifically advanced.




The Lost Symbol


Book Description

Symbologist Robert Langdon returns in this new thriller follow-up to The Da Vinci Code.




Skeleton Key


Book Description

Skeleton Key puts the reader on the Merry Pranksters' bus behind the real Cowboy Neal, uncovers the origins of Cherry Garcia, follows the dancing bear on its trip from psychedelic artifact to trademarked icon, and unlocks the Dead's own tape vault.




Solomon Grant Returns to Earth


Book Description

Solomon Grant began as a one-man show the author used to perform at coffeehouses and on university campuses. Here you will find him in all his youthful and venerable glory as he regales you with his travels through time and space, stumbling into the underworld, and floating out of the overworld to take questions and give answers. Whether you accept all that he says in faith or take it with a grain of salt, you are advised to check your reality at the door. You are entering the never-ending universe of Solomon Grant. We trust that you will leave with more questions than you came with.




The Care and Feeding of a Spirit Board


Book Description

What can we say authoritatively about the nature of this esoteric volume, beyond the presumption that it was a cherished heirloom and the fact that it was mostly lost to a fire? Historical truths are often inconclusive, pointing as they do in ambiguous directions toward fading memories and secret archives. What we can say is that occult forensic specialists have delicately pieced ashes back together. Read now with delight this most present prescient volume; protect it from any fire save that of your understanding enthusiasm and joy.




Wiley Hall


Book Description

Wiley Hall is a collection of twenty-five short nonfiction stories. The stories are of people, places, and events that the author related to and experienced during his formative years in an orphanage. The characters are representative of humankindstern, ignorant, wise, industrious, humorous, and playful. The beauty of the Adirondack Mountains come to life at the Camp. Gothic buildings standing tall and foreboding contrasted with the serenity of the chapels. Senior citizens skipped a generation and interacted with children regaling them with stories of World War I, their fathers fighting in the American Civil War, sailing to exotic ports, and experiencing the stock market crash of 1929. While the children covered the face of North America and Europe, prejudices were evident by those in charge, not realizing that many of the children came from backgrounds from southern and eastern Europe. Despite these derogatory manifestations, the children succeeded in their chosen walks of life.