The Design of The Waste Land


Book Description

"The Design of "The Waste Land" offers a detailed, comprehensive explanation of T. S. Eliot's enigmatic poem. It relates The Waste Land to earlier and later poems by Eliot, demonstrating that the major poems describe a continuous spiritual odyssey or quest undertaken by the same individual, initiated by the moment of ecstasy in the Hyacinth garden." "Blistein's analysis of Eliot's sources reveals that the protagonist's glimpse of "the heart of light" is equivalent to drinking from the Grail, or communing with God. The incarnate deity momentarily transforms the Hyacinth garden into the likeness of the Edenic paradise. With the inevitable passing of the moment of communion, the protagonist in effect is expelled from the paradisiacal garden as mankind was from Eden. By contrast, the familiar world appears to him a wasteland. The protagonist seeks to drink again from the divine Source and return again to the garden as it was when transfigured by the divine presence. His is a quest for grail and homeland."--BOOK JACKET.




The Foundations of Power


Book Description

The Kings and their nobles; the Hawk and his rebellion; and Keiritte Alo and his Alo soldiers work feverishly to create a strong position for the battle to come that will decide the fate of the Valley of Nieve Alo and everyone living in it. While they toil at their labours, there is ever an unseen hand working in the shadowy background. Weaving his spells and manipulating the world around him. Let the puppets struggle to gain power. Let them think themselves strong. Let some throw themselves in his way to try and stop his every measure. He is growing invulnerable to any act of will or stubborn bravado. Were they ever a threat? The third sword resists bonding with its chosen wielder out of time, but the Watcher has waited long enough. Goelld'n-Auk, Bvornt'wenn, Di'Jennai - the Three Swords of the Legacy of Auk Tria Yus will be claimed and united. When that time comes, his Volgath will be exacted. Power is an illusion. He is very real.




The Waste Land


Book Description

The second in an adventure-filled historical series featuring Irish Knight Templar, Richard Savage, whose nemesis has abducted his daughter... 1316 AD. Ireland has been drawn into the bitter war between Scotland and England. Richard Savage thought he had left the war behind, but arch enemy Edward Bruce won't let him just walk away. Savage stole something from him, and there are no depths to which he will not descend to get it back. To force Savage's return, Bruce takes what is most dear to him: his daughter Galiene. To rescue her, Savage must voyage back to an Ireland devastated by war and decimated by famine, where Scottish invaders ravage the countryside. Soon, Savage's personal mission becomes entangled with the battles tearing Ireland apart, and he finds himself on a final, desperate raid. This is his only chance to save his daughter and turn the tide of war in Ireland's favour – and he's not going to waste it... PRAISE FOR TIM HODKINSON: 'Intrigues, jousts, pitched battles, lepers, witches, religious dissent, Saracen Assassins, besieged castles and even a dangerous shipwreck. Readers will be fascinated by the detailed descriptions of medieval life in all its filth and glory' HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW 'A brilliantly written historical adventure which will appeal to fans of Bernard Cornwell, George R.R. Martin, and especially Theodore Brun' HISTORICAL NOVEL ASSOCIATION 'A gripping action adventure like the sagas of old; and once finished, you just want to go back and read it all over again' MELISENDE'S LIBRARY 'An excellently written page-turner, with a feel for the period which invites you into the era and keeps you there' HISTORICAL WRITERS ASSOCIATION READERS LOVE LIONS OF THE GRAIL: 'LOVED IT' 5* Review - Dennis, AMAZON REVIEWER 'Totally brilliant... Can't wait for the next book' 5* Review - Ecobeech, AMAZON REVIEWER 'Fast paced lots of action. Recommended' 5* Review - Andrew, AMAZON REVIEWER




The Wasteland: America's Search for Redemption


Book Description

Imagine the Spirit of America as the Fisher King - the Maimed King - of the medieval Arthurian romances. The King is charged with preserving the Holy Grail (American greatness). But the King has been wounded in the genitals and rendered impotent. The power of the Grail is the only thing that keeps him alive. He cannot move. He is unable to perform his tasks. His kingdom suffers just as he does. His impotence stretches across all the land, affecting its fertility, devastating it and turning it into a barren wasteland. The Wounded King reigns over a cursed land. America is a Wasteland for its people. The rich elite - the 1% - are the wound that afflicts the nation and curses it. Only the plutocrats prosper in America. Only they have great and glittering opportunities. Everyone else is left to fester and rot. The masses are supposed to spend their whole lives fantasizing about success. Dream". As George Carlin said, "It's called the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it."




Castle in the Air


Book Description

In this stunning sequel to Howl's Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones has again created a large-scale, fast-paced fantasy in which people and things are never quite what they seem. There are good and bad djinns, a genie in a bottle, wizards, witches, cats and dogs (but are they cats and dogs?), and a mysterious floating castle filled with kidnapped princesses, as well as two puzzling prophecies. The story speeds along with tantalizing twists and turns until the prophecies are fulfilled, true identities are revealed, and all is resolved in a totally satisfying, breathtaking, surprise-filled ending. Abdullah was a young and not very prosperous carpet dealer. His father, who had been disappointed in him, had left him only enough money to open a modest booth in the Bazaar. When he was not selling carpets, Abdullah spent his time daydreaming. In his dreams he was not the son of his father, but the long-lost son of a prince. There was also a princess who had been betrothed to him at birth. He was content with his life and his daydreams until, one day, a stranger sold him a magic carpet. All fans of classic fantasy books deserve the pleasure of reading those by Diana Wynne Jones, whose acclaim included the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement. As Neil Gaiman stated, she was "quite simply the best writer for children of her generation." The three books in the World of Howl are: Howl's Moving Castle Castle in the Air House of Many Ways Other beloved series from Dianna Wynne Jones include the Chronicles of Chrestomanci and the Dalemark Quartet.




The Emerald Modem


Book Description

Twenty years ago, in England, author Richard Leviton "discovered the planet." Following quite specific guidance, he began a long process that amounted to an apprenticeship. "My mentors dispatched me to various specific locations in the Somerset landscape, and at all hours of the night and day. I sat on hills and valleys and rocks under sunlight, moonlight, rain, snow, and fog, and had visions. I started to see another landscape behind the apparent landscape. It was an apparitional landscape with stars, planets, galaxies, angels, spirits of Nature, mythic deities, divinity." As time went on, he found himself talking with angels, visiting celestial cities, and following gnomes. He came to understand that at one level we are the planet, and that both we and it have an intimate relationship with our galaxy. "I found myself living inside the myths of the world as if they were expert scripts for real-life inner adventures. I never once thought I was crazy. Why should I? Quite the opposite. I believed I was finally getting grounded in something real. But it would take me twenty years to make sense of it. That sense is embodied in The Emerald Modem." The Emerald Modem includes: direct correspondences between human chakras and the Earth's energy features--and the galactic originalstables listing locations of sacred sites around the planet where you may experience this relationshipexplanations of world myths, which provide clues to this unsuspected visionary world around us This is the first book to synthesize all the fragments of geomantic perception (sacred sites, energy points, vertexes, etc.) into a global interactive model that ties human consciousness directly to it. Leviton describes 85 subtle features in the planetary landscape, places you can go for mystical experiences. They are features of the Earth's energy body, almost all invisible to conventional sight. But psychic cognition can be trained, and you can usefully interact with any of these types of sites today without seeing what you're doing. Your intent to interact for the benefit of yourself and the planet is all that's required. Just as modems dial us into the Internet, so the features of the Earth's energy body described in The Emerald Modem help us get online with the galaxy. You can learn to visit Grail Castles, experience a Mount Olympus, or walk through the stars in a landscape zodiac--and you can learn enough to become confident that you're not traveling alone.




I Want a Better Catastrophe


Book Description

An existential manual for tragic optimists, can-do pessimists, and compassionate doomers WITH GLOBAL WARMING projected to rocket past the 1.5°C limit, lifelong activist Andrew Boyd is thrown into a crisis of hope, and off on a quest to learn how to live with the "impossible news" of our climate doom. He searches out eight leading climate thinkers — from collapse-psychologist Jamey Hecht to grassroots strategist adrienne maree brown, eco-philosopher Joanna Macy, and Indigenous botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer — asking them: "Is it really the end of the world? and if so, now what?" With gallows humor and a broken heart, Boyd steers readers through their climate angst as he walks his own. From storm-battered coastlines to pipeline blockades and "hopelessness workshops," he maps out our existential options, and tackles some familiar dilemmas: "Should I bring kids into such a world?" "Can I lose hope when others can't afford to?" and "Why the fuck am I recycling?" He finds answers that will surprise, inspire, and maybe even make you laugh in this insightful and irreverent guide for achieving a "better catastrophe." AWARDS BRONZE | 2023 Living Now Book Awards: Social Activism / Charity




The Medieval Castle in England and Wales


Book Description

This original and pioneering book examines the role of the castle in the Norman conquest of England and in the subsequent administration of the country. The castle is seen primarily as an instrument of peaceful administration which rarely had a garrison and was more often where the sheriff kept his files and employed his secretariat. In most cases the military significance of the castle was minimal, and only a very few ever saw military action. For the first time, the medieval castle in England is seen in a new light which will attract the general reader of history and archaeology as much as the specialist in economic and social history.




The Grail Cypher


Book Description

The secrets of Arthurian history revealed




Warriors of the Wasteland


Book Description

In this exhaustively researched work John Grigsby reveals how behing this medieval tale lies the dim remembrance of a cult of human sacrifice that forms the backbone of Pagan Celtic religion.