Author: Susan Milbrath
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 9780292743731
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
The Codex Borgia, a masterpiece that predates the Spanish conquest of central Mexico, records almanacs used in divination and astronomy. Within its beautifully painted screenfold pages is a section (pages 29-46) that shows a sequence of enigmatic pictures that have been the subject of debate for more than a century. Bringing insights from ethnohistory, anthropology, art history, and archaeoastronomy to bear on this passage, Susan Milbrath presents a convincing new interpretation of Borgia 29-46 as a narrative of noteworthy astronomical events that occurred over the course of the year AD 1495-1496, set in the context of the central Mexican festival calendar. In contrast to scholars who have interpreted Borgia 29-46 as a mythic history of the heavens and the earth, Milbrath demonstrates that the narrative documents ancient Mesoamericans' understanding of real-time astronomy and natural history. Interpreting the screenfold's complex symbols in light of known astronomical events, she finds that Borgia 29-46 records such phenomena as a total solar eclipse in August 1496, a November meteor shower, a comet first sighted in February 1496, and the changing phases of Venus and Mercury. She also shows how the narrative is organized according to the eighteen-month festival calendar and how seasonal cycles in nature are represented in its imagery. This new understanding of the content and purpose of the Codex Borgia reveals this long-misunderstood narrative as the most important historical record of central Mexican astronomy on the eve of the Spanish conquest.
Author: Harriet Beinfield
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0804151733
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 448
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Book Description
“Comprehensive, encyclopedic, and lucid, this book is a must for all practitioners of the healing arts who want to broaden their understanding. Readers interested in the role of herbs and foods in healing will also find much to learn here, as I have. . . . A fine work.”—Annemarie Colbin, author of Food and Healing The promise and mystery of Chinese medicine has intrigued and fascinated Westerners ever since the “Bamboo Curtain” was lifted in the early 1970s. Now, in Between Heaven and Earth, two of the foremost American educators and healers in the Chinese medical profession demystify this centuries-old approach to health. Harriet Beinfeld and Efrem Korngold, pioneers in the practice of acupuncture and herbal medicine in the United States for over eighteen years, explain the philosophy behind Chinese medicine, how it works and what it can do. Combining Eastern traditions with Western sensibilities in a unique blend that is relevant today, Between Heaven and Earth addresses three vital areas of Chinese medicine—theory, therapy, and types—to present a comprehensive, yet understandable guide to this ancient system. Whether you are a patient with an aggravating complaint or a curious intellectual seeker, Between Heaven and Earth opens the door to a vast storehouse of knowledge that bridges the gap between mind and body, theory and practice, professional and self-care, East and West. “Groundbreaking . . . Here at last is a complete and readable guide to Chinese medicine.”—San Francisco Chronicle
Author:
Publisher: Waterside Productions
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 166
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Book Description
Author: Diane Wolkstein
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0060908548
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 260
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Book Description
A fresh retelling of the ancient texts about Ishtar, the world's first goddess. Illustrated with visual artifacts of the period. "A great masterpiece of universal literature."--Mircea Eliade
Author: Joan D. Stamm
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0861718690
Category : Crafts & Hobbies
Languages : en
Pages : 194
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Book Description
In this lovely meditation on ikebana - the Japanese art of flower arranging - Joan Stamm shows us how her twin paths of Buddhist practice and artistic endeavor converge and indeed become thoroughly intertwined. Stamm's lush, elegant voice weaves childhood memories of her mother's joy at a just-bloomed morning glory with meditations on the symbolic importance of bamboo, of pine, of the lily. She takes us with her on her travels to Japan as she learns the essential principles of ikebana, and lets us join her as she teaches flower arranging to women in a nursing home who, though they won't recall tomorrow the rules of arrangement or even the flowers' names, nonetheless partake in the joy and love that celebrates all living things, however briefly they endure. And, when Joan shows us the natural symmetry of a blossom, we find that we too have regained our balance. Includes 16 full-color photographs of the author's original ikebana.
Author: Susan Toby Evans
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136801863
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 993
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Book Description
This is the first comprehensive, one-volume encyclopedia in English devoted to pre-Columbian archaeology of the Mesoamerican culture area. In more than 500 articles by the major experts in the field, this work brings the most recent scholarship to an examination of regional environments and their cultural evolution. Entries range from the familiar and world-renowned archaeological discoveries of Maya and Aztec sites to more recent excavations such as the Sayil archaeological zone in the Yucatan and Teopantecuanitlan in Guerrero. A rich historical and cultural resource on one of the world's six cradles of civilization, this reference is ideal for students, scholars, and prospective travellers.
Author: Zecharia Sitchin
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1591439167
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 462
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Book Description
The Earth Chronicles series is based on the premise that mythology is not fanciful but the repository of ancient memories; that the Bible ought to be read literally as a historic/scientific document; and that ancient civilizations--older and greater than assumed--were the product of knowledge brought to Earth by the Anunnaki, "Those Who from Heaven to Earth Came." The 12th Planet, the first book of the series, presents ancient evidence for the existence of an additional planet in the Solar System: the home planet of the Anunnaki. In confirmation of this evidence, recent data from unmanned spacecraft has led astronomers to actively search for what is being called "Planet X." The subsequent volume, The Stairway to Heaven, traces man's unending search for immortality to a spaceport in the Sinai Peninsula and to the Giza pyramids, which had served as landing beacons for it--refuting the notion that these pyramids were built by human pharaohs. Recently, records by an eye witness to a forgery of an inscription by the pharaoh Khufu inside the Great Pyramid corroborated the book's conclusions. The Wars of Gods and Men, recounting events closer to our times, concludes that the Sinai spaceport was destroyed 4,000 years ago with nuclear weapons. Photographs of Earth from space clearly show evidence of such an explosion. Such gratifying corroboration of audacious conclusions has been even swifter for The Lost Realms. In the relatively short interval between the completion of the manuscript and its publication, archaeologists, linguists, and other scientists have offered a "coastal theory" in lieu of the "frozen trekking" one to account for man's arrival in the Americas--in ships, as this volume has concluded. These experts have "suddenly discovered 2,000 years of missing civilization" in the words of a Yale University scholar--confirming this book's conclusion--and are now linking the beginnings of such civilizations to those of the Old World, as Sumerian texts and biblical verses. For the first time, the entire Earth Chronicles series is now available in a hardcover collector's edition.
Author: Norman Cohn
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300090888
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 298
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Book Description
All over the world people look forward to a perfect future, when the forces of good will be finally victorious over the forces of evil. Once this was a radically new way of imagining the destiny of the world and of mankind. How did it originate, and what kind of world-view preceded it? In this engrossing book, the author of the classic work The Pursuit of the Millennium takes us on a journey of exploration, through the world-views of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and India, through the innovations of Iranian and Jewish prophets and sages, to the earliest Christian imaginings of heaven on earth. Until around 1500 B.C., it was generally believed that once the world had been set in order by the gods, it was in essence immutable. However, it was always a troubled world. By means of flood and drought, famine and plague, defeat in war, and death itself, demonic forces threatened and impaired it. Various combat myths told how a divine warrior kept the forces of chaos at bay and enabled the world to survive. Sometime between 1500 and 1200 B.C., the Iranian prophet Zoroaster broke from that static yet anxious world-view, reinterpreting the Iranian version of the combat myth. For Zoroaster, the world was moving, through incessant conflict, toward a conflictless state--"cosmos without chaos." The time would come when, in a prodigious battle, the supreme god would utterly defeat the forces of chaos and their human allies and eliminate them forever, and so bring an absolutely good world into being. Cohn reveals how this vision of the future was taken over by certain Jewish groups, notably the Jesus sect, with incalculable consequences. Deeply informed yet highly readable, this magisterial book illumines a major turning-point in the history of human consciousness. It will be mandatory reading for all who appreciated The Pursuit of the Millennium.
Author: Your Brother
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1463487495
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 176
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Book Description
We live in a prophetic time. The interpretation of holy texts, private revelations, and numerous prophecies all point to our current period as the time of a great world transformation. This "Purification Time," as some call it, is when the deeper knowledge of our Earth Mother, and the process progressing us within our sun system, are needed to prepare us for this special period, when unexpected events and fateful choices will arise for each of us. Following their instructions for this period, native priests, and other elders, are restoring sacred knowledge preserved through the ages. It is time for us to remember the true nature of the Earth, and our deep roots within Her life, and how we have been progressing with the Earth through the ages, toward a goal that is about to climax. The author spent two years with his native father, a high priest of his people, helping to pass on this knowledge. Now in his sixties, the author has continued sharing this information wherever he can: on the Internet, in a university project, and now in this book, where it is hoped that our Earth Mother's message will reach a larger audience.
Author: Gregory McNamee
Publisher: Earth Aware Editions
ISBN: 9781683830825
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Art Wolfe’s immersive photos capture the wonder humans have felt about trees for millennia. From the biblical Tree of Life to the Native American Tree of Peace, trees have played an archetypal role in human culture and spirituality since time immemorial. An integral part of a variety of faiths—from Buddhism and Hinduism to Native American and aboriginal religions—trees were venerated long before any written historical records existed. Through the vivid images of legendary photographer Art Wolfe, Trees focuses on both individual specimens and entire forests, and offers a sweeping yet intimate look at an arboreal world that spans six continents. Author Gregory McNamee weaves a diverse and global account of the myths, cultures, and traditions that convey the long-standing symbiosis between trees and humans, and renowned ethnobotanist Wade Davis anchors the text with a penetrating introduction. Humans have always shared this planet with trees, and Trees by Art Wolfe is a breathtaking journey through and homage to that relationship and its past, present, and future.
