Ancient Spirituality

Few people today realize that this earth is the primary battle zone of a cosmic war that erupted years ago. But, after listening to this book, you will know why it is being fought, how and when it will end. The Great Controversy begins at the dawning of the Christian era, traces the rise and fall of nations and religious powers down to our day, then plunges ahead to preview the future. And what this book sees coming is not based on guesswork.

The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India. It is of immense importance to the culture of the Indian subcontinent and is a major text of Hinduism. Its discussion of human goals (artha or 'purpose', kama or 'pleasure', dharma or 'duty' and moksha or 'liberation') takes place in a long-standing tradition, attempting to explain the relationship of the individual to society and the world (the nature of the 'self') and the workings of karma.

Rev. Dr. Stephen De Young, creator of the popular The Whole Counsel of God blog and podcast, traces the lineage of Orthodox Christianity back to the faith and witness of the apostles, which was rooted in a first-century Jewish worldview. The Religion of the Apostles presents the Orthodox Christian Church of today as a continuation of the religious life of the apostles, which in turn was a continuation of the life of the people of God since the beginning of creation.

Millions of people have thrilled to best-selling authors Bill O'Reilly and historian Martin Dugard's Killing Kennedy and Killing Lincoln, works of nonfiction that have changed the way we view history. Now the anchor of The O'Reilly Factor details the events leading up to the murder of the most influential man in history: Jesus of Nazareth. Nearly 2,000 years after this beloved and controversial young revolutionary was brutally killed by Roman soldiers, more than 2.2 billion human beings attempt to follow his teachings and believe he is God.

The crucifixion and resurrection of Christ are central events in our salvation. Yet few Christians have a good grasp of the first-century historical and religious context in which the crucifixion took place, nor of its true significance for the people of that time - and hence for our time as well. Biblical scholar and attorney Dr. Jeannie Constantinou puts modern listeners in the center of the events of Christ's Passion, bringing the best of modern scholarship to bear while keeping her interpretation faithful in every particular to the Orthodox tradition.

"Simplicity,” wrote legendary occultist Jack Parsons, “has been the key to victory in all the idea wars and, at present, Magick does not have it.” In Practical Magick, acclaimed historian and esotericist Mitch Horowitz responds to this call, distilling magick to its core essentials. Drawing upon ancient, Hermetic, Renaissance-era, and modern sources, Mitch dissects the building blocks of magick and provides formulas of immediacy, simplicity, and potency.

No other monument in the world evokes mystery like the Great Sphinx of Giza. It has survived the harsh climate of Egypt for thousands of years and will remain long after our own civilization is gone. According to orthodox Egyptology, the Sphinx was built around 2500 BCE as a memorial to the pharaoh Khafre. Yet this “fact” has scant to no supportive evidence. When was the Sphinx really built and, most importantly, why?

Who are the ancient astronauts? Why did they first come to Earth? Why are they returning now? What part did they play in building the great monuments of antiquity? What part did they play in the formation of present and earlier civilizations? With what other beings do we share our universe? And where does the Earth fit into the cosmic scheme of things? Almost twenty years of experimental work with telepathy led to the "breakthrough" contact recorded in this book.

The centuries after the Protestant Reformation brought about a radical reinterpretation of the epistles of St. Paul, disconnected from any historical reality. But Paul operated, during his entire life, as a faithful Pharisee within the Roman Jewish world. In Saint Paul the Pharisee: Jewish Apostle to All Nations, Fr. Stephen De Young surveys Paul’s life and writings, interpreting them within the Holy Tradition of the Orthodox Church.

What does it mean to "think Orthodox"? What are the unspoken and unexplored premises and presumptions underlying what Christians believe? Orthodox Christianity is based on preserving the mind of the early Church, its phronema. Dr. Jeannie Constantinou brings her more than 40 years' experience as a professor, Bible teacher, and speaker to bear in explaining what the Orthodox phronema is, how it can be acquired, and how that phronema is expressed in true Orthodox theology.

Imagine finally understanding the teachings of the ancient Egyptian priestly order, and how their findings can be applied to your own existence. How much better would your life be if you actually understood the whys and hows of life? In what ways would your own existence be transformed?

Rudolf Steiner uses the history of Atlantis and Lemuria to discuss the esoteric evolution of man. He covers in more detail what is suggested in An Outline of Occult Science. There was a time when a continent called Atlantis still lay between Europe and America. This portion of the worlds surface was at one time land; this land now forms the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Plato alluded to the last remaining remnant of that lost continent when he spoke of the Island of Poseidon.

Matthew presents Jesus Christ as the Jesus as the Meshiach Nagid, the Messiah the King, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. It was written by a Jew, to Jews, about a Jew. This book of the Bible uses more Old Testament quotes than any other. The Gospel of Matthew emphasizes the saying of Jesus, including 10 parables not found in any other Gospel. After first establishing the royal genealogy, he then goes on to focus on the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies.

Here in these ancient repositories of wisdom, the lamas learn the meaning of life - and of death: the relationship between the mind and the brain; the secrets of hypnotism, telepathy, clairvoyance, and reincarnation.

In a book that took eight years to research and write, leading Bible scholar Bart D. Ehrman explores how an apocalyptic prophet from the backwaters of rural Galilee crucified for crimes against the state came to be thought of as equal with the one God Almighty Creator of all things. Ehrman sketches Jesus's transformation from a human prophet to the Son of God exalted to divine status at his resurrection. Only when some of Jesus's followers had visions of him after his death - alive again - did anyone come to think that he, the prophet from Galilee, had become God.

Written between A.D. 413 and 426, The City of God is one of the great cornerstones in the history of Christian thought, a book which is vital to the understanding of modern Western society. Augustine originally intended it to be an apology for Christianity against the accusation that the Church was responsible for the decline of the Roman Empire, which had occurred just three years earlier. Indeed, Augustine produced a great amount of evidence to prove that paganism was responsible for this event. However, by the time the work was finished, the book had taken on a larger theme.

The Book of God reads like a novel, dramatizing the sweep of biblical events, bringing to life the men and women of this ancient book in vivid detail and dialogue. From Abraham wandering in the desert to Jesus teaching the multitudes on a Judean hillside, this award-winning bestseller follows the biblical story from start to finish.

The Stage of Time will bring you through an adventurous exploration into understanding the secrets of consciousness, ancient history, and the nature of reality. Be prepared to question the world you live in and everything you thought you knew about the universe, human origins, and the lost civilizations of antiquity. Discover thought-bending evidence from some of the oldest texts ever written and learn the reasons why their contents eventually became suppressed and hidden from most of society. Conspiracy theories or conspiracy facts, you decide what's real based on the evidence.

Elaine Pagels explores the surprising history of the most controversial book of the Bible. In the waning days of the Roman Empire, militant Jews in Jerusalem had waged anall-out war against Rome’s occupation of Judea, and their defeat resulted in the desecration of the Great Temple in Jerusalem. In the aftermath of that war, John of Patmos, a Jewish prophet and follower of Jesus, wrote the Book of Revelation, prophesying God’s judgment on the pagan empire that devastated and dominated his people.

Now available in audio, the best-selling edition of the most important noncanonical apocalyptic text. The Book of Enoch's vision of the apocalypse takes a very different view than that of Western Christians, although it is part of the biblical canon for Ethiopian and Eritrean Christians.