Ancient Cults

Mystery cults are one of the most intriguing areas of Greek and Roman religion. In the nocturnal mysteries at Eleusis, participants dramatically reenacted the story of Demeter's loss and recovery of her daughter Persephone; in the Bacchic cult, bands of women ran wild in the Greek countryside to honor Dionysus; in the mysteries of Mithras, men came to understand the nature of the universe and their place within it through frightening initiation ceremonies and astrological teachings.

Mystery. Manipulation. Murder. Cults are associated with all of these. But what really goes on inside them? More specifically, what goes on inside the minds of cult leaders and the people who join them? Based on the hit podcast Cults, this is essential reading for any true crime fan. Cults prey...

Where did God come from? What do the bible stories really tell us? Who or what was Jesus Christ? This audiobook challenges everything we think we know about the nature of religion.

An “engrossing, unputdownable” (Amanda Montell, New York Times bestselling author) pop history that explains why the eccentric doomsday beliefs of our Puritan founders are still driving American culture today, contextualizes the current rise in far-right extremism as a natural result of our...

Africa may have given rise to the first human beings, and Egypt probably gave rise to the first great civilizations, which continue to fascinate modern societies across the globe nearly 5,000 years later. From the Library and Lighthouse of Alexandria to the Great Pyramid at Giza, the Ancient Egyptians produced several wonders of the world, revolutionized architecture and construction, created some of the world’s first systems of mathematics and medicine, and established language and art that spread across the known world.

When Toru Narazaki's girlfriend, Ryoko, disappears, he tries to track her down, despite the warnings of a private detective he's hired to find her. Ryoko's past is shrouded in mystery, but the one concrete clue leads him to a compound in the heart of Tokyo, with a group that seems to be a cult led by a charismatic guru. Narazaki plunges into the secretive world of the cult, ready to expose himself to any of the guru's brainwashing tactics if it means he can learn the truth about Ryoko. But the cult isn't what he expected, and he has no idea of the bubbling violence beneath its surface.

A long time ago, in a suburban high school not so far away, a closeted nerd (me) and a closeted soccer star (Hutch) fell in love and planned to make their public debut at prom. Until Hutch bailed at the last minute, leaving me with a broken heart and unworn tuxedo. Tale as old as time, right? I spent the past ten years working to forget Hutch, returning to our old high school to teach and make new memories that could erase ones of him. I thought Hutch was ancient history, off living his professional athlete life. 

From the national best-selling author of Racing Weight, Matt Fitzgerald exposes the irrationality, half-truths, and downright impossibility of a "single right way" to eat and reveals how to develop rational, healthy eating habits.

In the early Roman Empire, as Christianity struggled to gain a foothold and survive in the polytheistic pool of Roman theology, its greatest rivals weren't the Caesars or the Roman aristocracy but rather the faith and devotion of the common Roman legionary. The faith of these men was centered on the god Mithras, who, they believed, led them to victory upon the field of battle and had done so for nearly four centuries.

This program includes an introduction read by the author. "Pulls you into the depths of a secret world from the first page. Ian Smith’s novel is unmissable." —Harlan Coben, New York Times bestselling author of Missing You Spencer Collins thinks his life at Harvard will be all about...

Reveals how we can each reconnect to collective intelligence and return our world to wholeness, balance, and sanity Explains how collective intelligence manifests in flocks of birds, instantaneous knowing in indigenous peoples, and the power of sacred places Offers ways for us to...

Sarah Wright has a job to die for. She never asked for it, never even filled out an application. To be fair, she didn’t ask to die either. Ever since she woke up as a vampire, she only wanted to unlive in as ordinary a way as possible. Alas, the realities of undeath and awakening to the greater existence of the supernatural made certain demands of the family. Now Sarah runs errands for the vampire boss of Seattle. It isn’t such a bad gig when she’s not being shot at, chased, clawed up, thrown around, or scrambling to keep her family safe.

Before medical schools. Before clinical science. There were sanctuaries. Across the hills of ancient Greece, the sick traveled to quiet marble precincts dedicated to Asclepius — god of healing, son of Apollo, student of a centaur, and himself a figure both mortal and divine. They came not only for remedies, but for dreams.

Before temples and official rituals, there were places people avoided after sunset. In the hills of ancient Anatolia, long before Rome ruled the Mediterranean, villagers gathered around stones they believed were alive. They were not there to recite prayers. They came because something unsettled them, and gathering together made it bearable. Drums carried across the valleys. Some people swayed, some watched, some stayed at the edge. A presence was felt before anyone gave it a name. Later it would be called Cybele. This book follows the Great Mother through the lives of ordinary people.

Rome did not fear wine. It feared what wine could gather. When the cult of Bacchus spread through the Roman Republic, it was more than a religious movement. It was secret meetings. Night rituals. Shared vows. A god who did not answer to the Senate. In 186 BCE, the state struck back. The Bacchanalian scandal led to investigations, arrests, and one of the most dramatic religious suppressions in Roman history. Yet Bacchus survived. This audiobook traces the rise of Rome’s wine god from his Greek origins to his transformation within Roman society.

Historians Cameron Thorne and Amanda Spencer-Gunn discover a fourteenth-century journal which confirms a long-rumored historical heresy: The medieval Church outlawed the Knights Templar because the warrior monks were secretly worshiping the ancient Goddess. The journal also sucks Cam and Amanda into the orbit of a ruthless cabal of modern-day pagans intent on pushing America into the loving arms of the Goddess—whether America wants succor there or not.

The reverence that ancient Egyptians had for certain animals evolved during the long duration of Pharaonic history until the Late Period animals of specific species were mummified by the thousands as offerings for their associated deities. For instance, ibises were mummified for the god Thoth, while cats were mummified for the goddess Bastet. Although most of the animal mummies discovered in the Sacred Animal Necropolis of Saqqara are the thousands of nameless ibises, falcons, crocodiles, and cats, the region was also home to another, more important animal cult.

The city of Heliopolis was one of ancient Egypt’s most important religious centers, the focus of the civilization’s solar cult, and a destination for pilgrims for nearly 3,000 years. Heliopolis’ origins were quite humble though, and it does not appear that it was ever planned to be a great city. The city began as a small settlement in the late 4th millennium BC, but within a couple of hundred years it became the center of Egypt’s solar religion, due to several fortuitous circumstances.

In the Roman Empire, beneath crowded streets and busy markets, there were hidden rooms carved into stone. No windows. Low ceilings. Oil lamps flickering against carved reliefs. Here, men gathered in silence. They called their god Mithras. This audiobook takes you inside one of the most mysterious religious movements of the ancient world. Not through lectures or abstract theology, but through lived experience. Through the daily routines of soldiers on distant frontiers. Through whispered initiations. Through shared meals eaten in the glow of underground firelight. You will enter the mithraeum.

In the autumn of 1834, New York City was awash with rumors of a strange religious cult operating nearby, centered around a mysterious, self-styled prophet named Matthias. It was said that Matthias the Prophet was stealing money from one of his followers; then came reports of lascivious sexual relations, based on odd teachings of matched spirits, apostolic priesthoods, and the inferiority of women. At its climax, the rumors transformed into legal charges, as the Prophet was arrested for the murder of a once highly regarded Christian gentleman who had fallen under his sway.