The Hieros Gamos of Sam and An Smith


Book Description

During the day a blazing and merciless sun beat down on "the boy" and at night a friendless and cold darkness enveloped him. It was a bleak and lonely countryside over which he had been wandering for ten years. A rare tree, bird or wild animal was the only life he encountered during his desolate trek through his young years of roaming. Infrequently, he was fortunate enough to find shelter and food in the shops of deserted villages; otherwise he foraged what he could from the nearly barren land. Contact with other humans was his innermost and greatest fear. But the day came when his curiosity overcame his sensibilities of self-preservation and he was drawn to the sound of a great wailing not far from a place where he had come to rest. Form that moment on his whole existence took on a radical change. His wanderings became a kaleidoscope of adventures, emotions, and responsibilities - never static, forever mobile, and potentially dangerous. There were moments when it would have been easier to turn his back, return to old ways, but somehow he knew this was an impossibility. He accepted his new fate, but still feared the greatest of all commitments until it was too late for him. This fantasy adventure will not fail to excite and stir in every reader memories and emotions of seemingly forgotten times and moments.




Hieros Gamos - Sacred Union of the Divine Feminine and Divine Masculine


Book Description

Penny had been channeling Mother Mary for 20 years and written three books with her. In 2014 Mother Mary came to Penny again and asked her to bring through her teachings on sacred relationships to be included in another book. "The teachings passed down through the priestess trainings in the Great Pyramid are being brought forth but there is a critical element that is missing - the connection with the heart and the upper chakras. In order to have a full integration of mind, body, and spirit, it is necessary to integrate not only the masculine and feminine, but to realize the full expression of these qualities in our divine blueprint. This requires healing of the wounds in the lower chakras that can be accomplished with conscious sexual union and appropriate energy practices, but it also requires an engagement of the Loving energy of the heart through the full expression of unconditional Love. It is through this door that access to the higher chakras is integrated into form Penny did not currently have a beloved in her life, but Mother Mary said he was coming to "rekindle fires left smoldering in previous lifetimes." Cool!she thought and she agreed. He showed up as promised and thus began an extraordinary adventure in the exploration of Hieros Gamos, the Sacred Union of the Divine Feminine and Divine Masculine. Penny shares in intimate detail the ups and downs of how they incorporated her teachings into their lives in creating a new paradigm of loving experience. This is their story...




Sacred Marriages


Book Description

The title of this volume, Sacred Marriages, consciously plays with the traditional concept of sacred marriage, but the plural form, “sacred marriages,” gives the reader an idea that something more is at stake here than a monomaniacal idea of manifestations deriving from a single prototype. Following the guidelines of one of the contributors, Ruben Zimmermann, the editors tentatively define “sacred marriage” as a “real or symbolic union of two complementary entities, imagined as gendered, in a religious context.” “Sacred marriages” (plural), then, refers to various expressions of this kind of union in different cultures that seek to overcome, to cite Zimmermann again, “the great dualism of human and cosmic existence.” The subtitle indicates that the contributors are primarily interested in different aspects of the divine-human sexual metaphor—that is, the imagining and reenactment of a gendered relationship between the human and divine worlds. This metaphor, which is essentially about relationship rather than sexual acts, can find textual, ritual, mythical, and social expressions in different times and places. Indeed, the sacred marriage ritual itself should be considered not a manifestation of the “sacralized power of sexuality experienced in sexual intercourse” but one way of objectifying the divine-human sexual metaphor.




Hieros Gamos


Book Description

Reiner d'Ivry, a knight's son in the north of England is an oblate, committed for life to the Benedictine priory of Wrenthorpe at the age of seven. Reiner learns that his dispossession is bound up with a long-rumored curse on the house of d'Ivry, incurred by his father while he was a knight of the Crusade, and grows up embittered and vengeful. Reiner returns home after eleven years to an unsettling encounter with his sister Drusiana, now his father's only heir, whom he has long despised for all she has gained in his place. As this reunion between the brother and sister turns into a war of wills, an unforeseen threat gathers against them both. It will lead Reiner to the mysterious texts on alchemy brought back from the Crusade, now in his sister's possession, and toward an unimaginable fate.




Hieros Gamos


Book Description

"The poetry of this intriguing volume, illumined by the 22 Tarot trumps, is a paean celebrating the 'Holy Marriage' of 'Sacred Complements' at all levels of existence--the union of male and female, of matter and consciousness, of flesh and divinity." --Margaret Starbird, "The Woman with the Alabaster Jar," and "Tarot Trumps and the Holy Grail: Great Secrets of the Middle Ages."




Tamil Temple Myths


Book Description

South India is a land of many temples and shrines, each of which has preserved a local tradition of myth, folklore, and ritual. As one of the first Western scholars to explore this tradition in detail, David Shulman brings together the stories associated with these sacred sites and places them in the context of the greater Hindu religious tradition. Originally published in 1980. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.




The Rise of Bronze Age Society


Book Description

Publisher Description




Mysteries of the Bridechamber


Book Description

Jesus was an initiate and adept of the ancient Judaic mysteries who strove to reinstate the tradition of the bridechamber sacrament in his time • Shows that Jesus sought to establish equity of masculine and feminine in both spiritual practice and social traditions, particularly in the sacrament of marriage • Reinterprets Jesus’ key teachings in light of the ancient tradition of sacred consortship • Reveals what happened to the gnostic heart of Christianity that Jesus embodied Jesus was a high-initiate and master adept of the ancient Judaic mysteries who strove to free people from the dead hand of the ritualists. He was trained in a dissident Jewish brotherhood that arose in Egypt before he was born, which sought to bring back the ancient Judaic mysteries outlawed by the Jerusalem temple. At the heart of this movement was a yogic-based practice known in the apocrypha as the Gnosis of the Heart, which espoused the union of both sexes in a secret initiatic teaching. As a fearless social reformer, Jesus wanted to restore the authority of the feminine principle, including asserting the equality of man and woman in the social contract of marriage. He reinstated in his own life the tradition of sacred consortship--a rite known to early Church fathers as the bridechamber sacrament, whereby the marriage of the masculine and feminine energies was effected. This rite, Victoria LePage suggests, was the primary focus of Jesus’ teachings, the very heart of his exhortations to love thy neighbor, and the source of his healing power. Mysteries of the Bridechamber explains how, as a master adept of the Temple of Solomon, Jesus derived these teachings directly from ancient Judaic mystery traditions, revealing both a life story for Jesus that differs markedly from the version the Church has offered as well as a spiritual practice based on a mystical wisdom tradition of self-initiation and transformation.




Jung and the Jungians on Myth


Book Description

First Published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.




The Cult of Divine Birth in Ancient Greece


Book Description

Greek religion is filled with strange sexual artifacts - stories of mortal women's couplings with gods; rituals like the basilinna's "marriage" to Dionysus; beliefs in the impregnating power of snakes and deities; the unusual birth stories of Pythagoras, Plato, and Alexander; and more. In this provocative study, Marguerite Rigoglioso suggests such details are remnants of an early Greek cult of divine birth, not unlike that of Egypt. Scouring myth, legend, and history from a female-oriented perspective, she argues that many in the highest echelons of Greek civilization believed non-ordinary conception was the only means possible of bringing forth individuals who could serve as leaders, and that special cadres of virgin priestesses were dedicated to this practice. Her book adds a unique perspective to our understanding of antiquity, and has significant implications for the study of Christianity and other religions in which divine birth claims are central. The book's stunning insights provide fascinating reading for those interested in female-inclusive approaches to ancient religion.