The Alphabet Versus the Goddess

The Alphabet Versus the Goddess PDF Author: Leonard Shlain
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9780140196016
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 500

Get Book Here

Book Description
This groundbreaking book proposes that the rise of alphabetic literacy reconfigured the human brain and brought about profound changes in history, religion, and gender relations. Making remarkable connections across brain function, myth, and anthropology, Dr. Shlain shows why pre-literate cultures were principally informed by holistic, right-brain modes that venerated the Goddess, images, and feminine values. Writing drove cultures toward linear left-brain thinking and this shift upset the balance between men and women, initiating the decline of the feminine and ushering in patriarchal rule. Examining the cultures of the Israelites, Greeks, Christians, and Muslims, Shlain reinterprets ancient myths and parables in light of his theory. Provocative and inspiring, this book is a paradigm-shattering work that will transform your view of history and the mind.

The Alphabet Versus the Goddess

The Alphabet Versus the Goddess PDF Author: Leonard Shlain
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9780140196016
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 500

Get Book Here

Book Description
This groundbreaking book proposes that the rise of alphabetic literacy reconfigured the human brain and brought about profound changes in history, religion, and gender relations. Making remarkable connections across brain function, myth, and anthropology, Dr. Shlain shows why pre-literate cultures were principally informed by holistic, right-brain modes that venerated the Goddess, images, and feminine values. Writing drove cultures toward linear left-brain thinking and this shift upset the balance between men and women, initiating the decline of the feminine and ushering in patriarchal rule. Examining the cultures of the Israelites, Greeks, Christians, and Muslims, Shlain reinterprets ancient myths and parables in light of his theory. Provocative and inspiring, this book is a paradigm-shattering work that will transform your view of history and the mind.

Sex, Time, and Power

Sex, Time, and Power PDF Author: Leonard Shlain
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101200391
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 465

Get Book Here

Book Description
As in the bestselling The Alphabet Versus the Goddess, Leonard Shlain’s provocative new book promises to change the way readers view themselves and where they came from. Sex, Time, and Power offers a tantalizing answer to an age-old question: Why did big-brained Homo sapiens suddenly emerge some 150,000 years ago? The key, according to Shlain, is female sexuality. Drawing on an awesome breadth of research, he shows how, long ago, the narrowness of the newly bipedal human female’s pelvis and the increasing size of infants’ heads precipitated a crisis for the species. Natural selection allowed for the adaptation of the human female to this environmental stress by reconfiguring her hormonal cycles, entraining them with the periodicity of the moon. The results, however, did much more than ensure our existence; they imbued women with the concept of time, and gave them control over sex—a power that males sought to reclaim. And the possibility of achieving immortality through heirs drove men to construct patriarchal cultures that went on to dominate so much of human history. From the nature of courtship to the evolution of language, Shlain’s brilliant and wide-ranging exploration stimulates new thinking about very old matters.

Art & Physics

Art & Physics PDF Author: Leonard Shlain
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
ISBN: 9780061227974
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Art interprets the visible world. Physics charts its unseen workings. The two realms seem completely opposed. But consider that both strive to reveal truths for which there are no words––with physicists using the language of mathematics and artists using visual images. In Art & Physics, Leonard Shlain tracks their breakthroughs side by side throughout history to reveal an astonishing correlation of visions. From the classical Greek sculptors to Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns, and from Aristotle to Einstein, artists have foreshadowed the discoveries of scientists, such as when Monet and Cezanne intuited the coming upheaval in physics that Einstein would initiate. In this lively and colorful narrative, Leonard Shlain explores how artistic breakthroughs could have prefigured the visionary insights of physicists on so many occasions throughout history. Provicative and original, Art & Physics is a seamless integration of the romance of art and the drama of science––and an exhilarating history of ideas.

Leonardo's Brain

Leonardo's Brain PDF Author: Leonard Shlain
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1493015575
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 261

Get Book Here

Book Description
Best-selling author Leonard Shlain explores the life, art, and mind of Leonardo da Vinci, seeking to explain his singularity by looking at his achievements in art, science, psychology, and military strategy and then employing state of the art left-right brain scientific research to explain his universal genius. Shlain shows that no other person in human history has excelled in so many different areas as da Vinci and he peels back the layers to explore the how and the why. Shlain asserts that Leonardo’s genius came from a unique creative ability that allowed him to understand and excel in a wide range of fields. From here Shlain jumps off and discusses the history of and current research on human creativity that involves different modes of thinking and neuroscience .The author also boldly speculates on whether or not the qualities of Leonardo’s brain and his creativity presage the future evolution of the human species. Leonardo’s Brain uses da Vinci as a starting point for an exploration of human creativity. With his lucid style, and his remarkable ability to discern connections in a wide range of fields, Shlain brings the reader into the world of history’s greatest mind. .

Kuan Yin

Kuan Yin PDF Author: Maya van der Meer
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 1611807999
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 33

Get Book Here

Book Description
Spirituality & Practice "Best Books of 2021" Award Winner Bank Street College of Education "The Best Children’s Books of the Year" Moonbeams Children’s Book Awards "Best Illustrator" Silver Winner Two sisters discover the power of love and the true meaning of compassion in this princess-adventure story based on an ancient Chinese tale. Miao Shan isn't your typical princess. She likes to spend her time quietly meditating with the creatures of the forest or having adventures with dragons and tigers. Miao Shan's heart is so full of love that her dream is to spread happiness throughout the land and help people endlessly. But her father has other plans for her--he intends to have her married and remain in the palace. With the help of her little sister Ling, Miao Shan escapes and begins her journey to discover the true meaning of compassion. During their adventure, Ling and Miao Shan are eventually separated. Ling must overcome doubts, fears, and loneliness in order to realize what her sister had told her all along--that love is the greatest power in the world. After the sisters' reunion, Miao Shan realizes her true calling as Kuan Yin, the goddess of compassion. A princess-adventure story like none other, this ancient Chinese tale of the world's most beloved Buddhist hero is a story of sisterhood, strength, and following your own path.

When God Was A Woman

When God Was A Woman PDF Author: Merlin Stone
Publisher: Doubleday
ISBN: 0307816850
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 379

Get Book Here

Book Description
Here, archaeologically documented,is the story of the religion of the Goddess. Under her, women’s roles were far more prominent than in patriarchal Judeo-Christian cultures. Stone describes this ancient system and, with its disintegration, the decline in women’s status.

Only Ever Always

Only Ever Always PDF Author: Penni Russon
Publisher: Delacorte Press
ISBN: 0449816680
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 178

Get Book Here

Book Description
Have you ever woken from a dream feeling it was more real than your world? Could there be someone exactly like you living another life? Claire lives in an ordinary world where everything is whole. But now she feels broken into pieces as her world is suddenly shattered with grief. The silvery notes of her music box help her escape from her pain into a dream world, into Clara's world. Clara's world has always been broken. Her fragmented life revolves around scavenging and swapping objects to survive. She is determined to face the sinister side of her cracked reality to save the only family she has ever known. But the cost may be more than she bargained for. Though Claire and Clara live in different worlds, their paths are set to collide when the people they love most are faced with death. But which world is the dream? Who is the dreamer? Penni Russon has written a spellbinding tale that stretches the imagination about what is possible.

The White Goddess

The White Goddess PDF Author: Robert Graves
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 9780374504939
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 516

Get Book Here

Book Description
The White Goddess is perhaps the finest of Robert Graves's works on the psychological and mythological sources of poetry. In this tapestry of poetic and religious scholarship, Graves explores the stories behind the earliest of European deities—the White Goddess of Birth, Love, and Death—who was worshipped under countless titles. He also uncovers the obscure and mysterious power of "pure poetry" and its peculiar and mythic language.

Becoming a Successful Illustrator

Becoming a Successful Illustrator PDF Author: Derek Brazell
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350030813
Category : Design
Languages : en
Pages : 209

Get Book Here

Book Description
Get ready to enter the working world of illustration with this freshly updated second edition of Brazell and Davies's Becoming a Successful Illustrator. This edition features even more 'Spotlight on...' sections, with advice from practicing illustrators as well as the people that commission them. You can enjoy added coverage in fields such as moving image, character illustration and social media. There are also new exercises to get you started planning and building your business, and over 200 inspirational examples of artwork, most of which are new to this edition. You can expect practical tips on how to seek work, how to market yourself and how to run your illustration business in an enterprising way, with advice that will prove useful long after your first commission. Building on the resources of the first edition, this continues to be the must-have guide to practicing professionally as an illustrator. Featured illustrators include: Millie Marotta Mark Ulriksen Natsko Seki Ellen Weinstein Stephen Collins ... and many more Featured topics include: Finding clients Agency representation Fields of work Financial and legal requirements Skills in art and design Self-promotion Showing work Managing your business

The Myth of the Goddess

The Myth of the Goddess PDF Author: Anne Baring
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141941405
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 798

Get Book Here

Book Description
A comprehensive, scholarly accessible study, in which the authors draw upon poetry and mythology, art and literature, archaeology and psychology to show how the myth of the goddess has been lost from our formal Judeo-Christian images of the divine. They explain what happened to the goddess, when, and how she was excluded from western culture, and the implications of this loss.