New Additions To My Bookshelf

כ'ב באדר ב' תשס"ח
Raven 23

Barddas: A Collection of Original Documents, Illustrative of the Theology, Wisdom, and Usages of the Bardo-Druidic System of the Isle of Britain by Authors: J. Williams Ab Ithel, Iolo Morganwg, John Williams, John Matthews.

"Serious students of Druidism and Paganism, as well as Celtic historians, are sure to include Barddas in their libraries. Barddas contains the only extant description of Bardo-Druidic Celtic philosophy. It is a metaphysical and spiritual description of beliefs handed down by word of mouth by Druidic initiates from before the Roman occupation of the British isles. Culled from 16th-century notes and compiled into book form, Barddas reveals a belief system with a wide range of influences, including Judeo-Christian and ancient Roman. Yet there are beliefs and views expressed within that appear to be unique to Celtic thought and oddly similar to Eastern traditions.

On its publication in the 19th century, Barddas stirred controversy. Some critics claimed that it was completely made up or based on forgeries. Others defended it by pointing out similarities to other surviving Celtic documents with clear provenance.

Photo-offset from the first printing, this edition of Barddas includes the original Welsh on verso pages with the English translation running on the recto pages.

John Matthews, popular writer about all things Celtic, provides an introduction outlining the history and contemporary importance of Barddas."

The Secret Life of Nature: Living in Harmony with the Hidden World of Nature Spirits from Fairies to Quarks by Peter Tompkins

"If you don't believe in fairies, this startling book by Peter Tompkins, the bestselling author of The Secret Life of Plants, will convince you otherwise.

Tompkins wasn't a true believer until he uncovered the extraordinary work of nineteenth century theosophists who used their yogic powers to see and study nature spirits, as well as accurately describe the subatomic structure of chemical elements, including isotopes not yet discovered. Find out what these spiritualists—in addition to Paracelsus, Dionysius, and other pioneers of the occult—have to say about the otherworldly creatures responsible for the growth and development of our world. Talented clairvoyants describe devas, elves, gnomes, fairies, sea nymphs, sylphs, and other beings that live in air, water, fire, and the earth. Going beyond the usual fairy dialogue, Tompkins also draws fascinating connections between the natural world and the Kabbalah Tree of Life, the astral and etheric body, angels, and other esoteric mysteries.

The Secret Life of Nature offers a profound message for curing the soul, as well as the planet, through communion with Earth's natural guardians."

Mythic Astrology Applied: Personal Healing Through the Planets by Ariel Guttman.

"During the past century, whole libraries from ancient Sumer and Babylon have been uncovered. Stacks and stacks of cuneiform tablets have been translated by scholars. Thousands of inscriptions record the omen literature of the era. Esoteric writings, ritual texts, lamentations, medical recipes, dream books, texts to counter witchcraft, lists of auspicious days, and so on fill these ancient tablets.

Anu was the god of heaven.His son Enlil was the god of earth. These were not separate domains, but instead two parts of the same domain. Earth was not lesser than heaven. There was an interdependence and complementary relationship between the two, and the omens or messages could clearly be seen as coming from one or the other realm. From them and their interplay, the West has inherited much of the body of its astrological mythologythe names and details changing but the stories remaining relatively similar. Though many may speculate that astrology is much older, the first written proof of its usage dates from the seventh century BCE and was found in King Ashurbanipals library in Assyria. Here we find predictions that dealt with matters affecting the entire country and its rulers, such as war and peace, plagues and famines, floods and droughts, etc. The worlds oldest astrology book, the Enuma Anu Enlil, was the chief atrological/astronomical text of the time. Astrological divination was its chief concern. The kings of ancient Babylon required two things from their astrologers. First, it was necessary to predict, with some precision, the occurrence of eclipses. Second, the moment the moon appeared as a crescent sliver each month in the night sky was extremely important, because it was at this moment that the Babylonian calendar month began. From the actual observable appearance in the sky of moons, eclipses, stars, and planets, stories began to unfold. It was not enough simply to observe a crescent moon in Taurus; the stars that the two horns of the moon pointed to were equally important. And if the moon contained a halo, that was another omen.

The planets as we know them today originated as the goddesses and gods of Sumer and Babylon. Matched with their Greek counterparts and given Greek and Latin names, they remain with us even today. Many perhaps most of them bore names that have become distant and unfamiliar to us. There was Anu the supreme sky god, his sons Enlil and Enki (who were sworn rivals), and then Ninhursag,Marduk, Ishkur, Nannar, Ninurta, Inanna, Nabu, Utu, and Nergal. Some of the members of this divine family got along great together; others absolutely hated each other. Sound familiar? We might recognize these deities as having some similarities both in character and function to the later twelve Olympians of the Greek system. The important point here, however, is that as astrology developed in the observatories of ancient Babylon, it was these early deities for whom the planets were named, and who were recognized as having a nature and function similar to the planet with which they were linked."

Kabbalistic Astrology: The Sacred Tradition of the Hebrew Sages by Rabbi Joel Dobin

"The author clearly has a thorough familiarity with midrashic thought and style, and his symbolic connections are thought provoking and useful. I especially enjoyed his discussion of how numerous and how pervasively subtle astrological references are in the original Hebrew of the Bible, despite the common modern belief/fixation that the Bible generally condemns astrology. He also offers intriguing attributions of the constellations from the standpoint of the 12 ancient tribes. There's lots of nifty stuff you just don't see in the usual astrological texts. I like this book very much for the historically rich worldview it presents.

The author claims to be using the constellations themselves rather than the signs in this system, which implies that he's using a sidereal zodiac, but a few pages later he talks about how 0 degrees of Aries is defined as occurring at the Vernal Equinox, which undoes his claim. Plus, even in a sideral zodiac the dates don't match his statements because his ayanamsha is sometimes apparently 30 degrees, sometimes apparently some other figure. By this I mean sometimes the dates or sign placements are okay, and other times not. He does not define or even mention any ayanamsha, though he does spend a bit of time talking about precession. Go figure, literally."