From Satan S Crown To The Holy Grail

Morgan discusses the origin of the emerald, its peculiar structure, and its strange allure. The story weaves across several continents and thousands of years. It is a tale of conquistadors, treachery, shipwrecks, and alchemy. Along the way, we meet scientists and kings and bear witness as the great emeralds are born, mined, smuggled, cut, and sold. The book also discusses the modern art of making synthetic emeralds. From the fastnesses of Afghanistan to the steamy jungles of Colombia and Zimbabwe, from the sands of Egypt to the bitter Urals, this is the story of a stone whose strange journey reflects the yearnings, greed, passions, and longing for beauty of the human race.

Morgan discusses the origin of the emerald, its peculiar structure, and its strange allure. The story weaves across several continents and thousands of years. It is a tale of conquistadors, treachery, shipwrecks, and alchemy. Along the way, we meet scientists and kings and bear witness as the great emeralds are born, mined, smuggled, cut, and sold. The book also discusses the modern art of making synthetic emeralds. From the fastnesses of Afghanistan to the steamy jungles of Colombia and Zimbabwe, from the sands of Egypt to the bitter Urals, this is the story of a stone whose strange journey reflects the yearnings, greed, passions, and longing for beauty of the human race.

A guide to the mystery teachings of the mineral kingdom for catalyzing spiritual growth and healing • Focuses on 7 essential crystal and gemstone mentors: obsidian, jade, lapis lazuli, emerald, quartz, amethyst, and diamond • Integrates crystal lore from around the world with mineral science to reveal the archetypal wisdom embodied within each stone • Provides crystal healing exercises and meditations on the specific spiritual work each stone archetype supports Stones and crystals are our most ancient teachers. The relationships between the mineral kingdom and the human kingdom are as old as life itself, for the mineral kingdom--comprised of beautiful crystals, dense rocks, sands, clays, and everything in-between--is the very foundation upon which life developed on Earth. Supporting humanity through the eons, these teachers offer curative and restorative properties for healing as well as powerful guidance to catalyze spiritual growth. Integrating gemstone lore from around the world with modern mineral science, Nicholas Pearson guides readers on a journey into the inner realm of the mystery teachings of the mineral kingdom, a journey that mirrors the soul’s path to perfection. He reveals the archetypal wisdom embodied within 7 essential crystal and gemstone mentors--obsidian, jade, lapis lazuli, emerald, quartz, amethyst, and diamond--examining each stone’s mythological, historical, and cultural associations in tandem with their crystalline structure and chemical composition. He explores each stone’s healing and spiritual properties, providing practical exercises, esoteric revelations, and meditations on the specific spiritual work each stone archetype supports. Obsidian, for example, is the stone of initiation, revealing our shadow side and guiding us to places in need of light. Diamond, the final perfected stone of the seven, illuminates Divine Love, purifying us and leading our consciousness to enlightenment, cutting through any vestiges of fear or illusion because it is the hardest, sharpest, most luminous teacher the mineral kingdom has to offer. Enabling each of us to harness the power of stones for spiritual evolution and healing, this guide to the mystery teachings of the mineral kingdom shows how the ancient call to evolve with the crystals and stones that surround us lives on in an unbroken legacy.

Presenting the ancient Holy Grail lineage from Asia and how the Knights Templar were initiated into it, this book reveals how ancient Asian wisdom became the foundation for the Holy Grail legend.

Among the magnificent gems and jewels left behind by the great Islamic empires, emeralds stand out for their size and prominence. For the Mughals, Ottomans, and Safavids green was—as it remains for all Muslims—the color of Paradise, reserved for the Prophet Muhammad and his descendants. Tapping a wide range of sources, Kris Lane traces the complex web of global trading networks that funneled emeralds from backland South America to populous Asian capitals between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries. Lane reveals the bloody conquest wars and forced labor regimes that accompanied their production. It is a story of trade, but also of transformations—how members of profoundly different societies at opposite ends of the globe assigned value to a few thousand pounds of imperfectly shiny green rocks.

This book does not claim absolute truths, but it speaks for those who can no longer speak for themselves by the histories they witnessed, wrote about, and which defined their ancestors and descendants, including the most powerful woman that ever lived – Countess Elizabeth Bathory. She tried to change the world; she paradoxically succeeded and failed. But what drove her? What did she know, we do not? What is her history? To begin to understand all this, one must travel back in time to when it began, when truth first became obscured, and when European society – Western culture – went horribly wrong. It is why her world was the way it was. Today, historiological “truths” of European Medieval Dark Ages, at best, exist as dim flashes of information in ancient manuscripts. A very interconnected European medieval history has much more, but inconvenient historiological information to informs us of events, names, places, and dates, but like a giant, complicated jigsaw puzzle. Unfortunately, many pieces are still missing, none more so than that of Carpathia. Consequently, an incomplete, theoretical picture of historical reality remains. There’s a reason for it. Throughout history, Europeans struggled for Humility, Humanity and Liberty, but only Carpathian Ungars maintained and struggled to keep it for more than a millennium – from about 600 to 1711. Their history has gone missing, supplanted by myths. Their greatest leaders are caricatures of Gothic horror literature, and their greatest traitors are their heroes. Their monuments are everywhere. Carpathia’s history does not exist in Western consciousness. What is it about Carpathia we are not supposed to know? Its missing medieval jigsaw puzzle pieces, when liberated from obscure archives, then reassembled, and inserted into the macro context of centuries, however, allows us to understand why. This book is a sequel to Chrysalis I: Metamorphosis of Odium. The time period covered is roughly from the early eleventh to late fourteenth centuries. The book explores the complexity of the Late Medieval period from a Carpathian, Slavic-Turkic perspective. An extremist, elitist European world sunk deeper into human depravity – of European and Middle Eastern genocides and of material greed. These depravities gave the rise to Hohenstaufen, Arpad, Bathory, and Osman dynasties. Together, they kindled a period of philosophical awakening - a fundamental reformation of the feudal order. Thanks to them, the supreme Vatican lost control over its Holy Roman Empire for the first time. Such heresies had responses too – the Apostolic Inquisition, Avignon Papacy, Mongol Invasions of Europe and the Middle East, and the extermination of non-compliant ruling European dynasties namely Hohenstaufen and Arpad. Only the Bathorys survived, but they had to endure a debilitating war to do so. One dynasty – Habsburg – sought to profit from the chaos. Indeed they did. Their arrival marks the end of the first great pendulum swing of European cultural metamorphosis. Soon, it would be Elizabeth Bathory’s duty to change the world. This is a story of us.

While scholars have long documented the migration of people in ancient and medieval times, they have paid less attention to those who traveled across borders with some regularity. This study of early transnational relations explores the routine interaction of people across the boundaries of empires, tribal confederacies, kingdoms, and city-states, paying particular attention to the role of long-distance trade along the Silk Road and maritime trade routes. It examines the obstacles voyagers faced, including limited travel and communication capabilities, relatively poor geographical knowledge, and the dangers of a fragmented and shifting political landscape, and offers profiles of better-known transnational elites such as the Hellenic scholar Herodotus and the Venetian merchant Marco Polo, as well lesser known servants, merchants, and sailors. By revealing the important political, economic, and cultural role cross-border trade and travel played in ancient society, this work demonstrates that transnationalism is not unique to modern times. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

The snake is one of humankind's most powerful and ambiguous symbols: it has at various times represented immortality and death, male and female, deity and demon, circle and line, killer and healer, the highest wisdom and the deepest subconscious. By virtue of its mysterious movement, potent poison, fearful grip, unblinking gaze and lightning quick strike, the power and image of the snake has wound its way into every culture. Whether snakes are worshipped as gods, feared as devils, or handled in religious ceremonies to test faith, snakes have played a critical role in the human heritage. This book explores the cult of the snake in world history, religion, and folklore. Fascination with snakes has been around since the dawn of time. Even today, images of snakes attract attention, fear, disgust, or admiration. Morgan examines that obsession with this mysterious creature, covering in vivid details such topics as mythical snakes like the Plumed Serpent, serpent iconography, tall tales, as well as the psychological symbolism that has attached itself to snakes. Cultures as diverse as pre-Columbian America, India, Egypt, China, sub-Saharan Africa, Celtic Europe, and the United States have all accorded the serpent a special place in their culture—apparently regardless of whether or not real snakes play an important part in the life of the people. Here, the mysterious nature of the snake unfolds, enchanting readers with a colorful and lively discussion of its place in our history, stories, religions, and cultures.