The Time Falling Bodies Take To Light

In the opening passages of his classic book, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light, William Irwin Thompson asks the question, "But what is myth that it returns to mind even when we would most escape it?" Acknowledging the pervasive power of myth to create and inform culture, Thompson answers this question by weaving descriptions of the human abilities to create life and to communicate through symbolic myths based on male and female forms of power. Taking us from the earliest periods of prehistory through the time of female goddess worship to the rise of the male-dominated warrior state, Thompson shows the passage of humankind's relationship to nature from initial awe to persistent conquest. At the end of his journey, Thompson finds an answer to his original question: myth is the history of the soul; its creation is ongoing and its power is never-ending. This is a beautiful and fascinating book now being reissued for a new generation of readers, as well as for those it inspired originally.

Investigates the intersection of science, history, art, and religion in myth as a way of illuminating human nature and providing a new understanding

In this volume of poems written over thirty-five years, William Irwin Thompson presents a remarkable range of work--from the personal and lyrical, through the narrative and mythological, to the scientific and cosmological--that traces many of the major themes that have affected contemporary culture for the past half century. His book opens with a mythological sequence on Quetzalcoatl, "Blue Jade from the Morning Star," which john Bierhorst has called "a fresh reading." In the words of Kathleen Raine: "There is a great difference between merely academic translation and the imaginative participation which Dr. Thompson has brought to these 'versions' and verse commentaries on the great vision of Quetzalcoatl." Books Two and Three contain mostly lyrical work, while Book Four concludes with a vision of the evolution of life that extends the lyrical into the cosmological in a sequence built on and addressed to the work of his four scientific friends: Ralph Abraham, James Lovelock, Lynn Margulis, and Francisco Varela.

In his best-selling The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light, William Irwin Thompson intrigued readers with his thoughts on mythology and sexuality. In his newest book, Coming into Being: Artifacts and Texts in the Evolution of Consciousness, he takes the reader on a journey from the preverbal communications of early stone carvings to the writings of Marcel Proust and around the monumental wrappings of Christo to the rebirth of interest in the Taoist philosophy of Lao Tsu. Owing as much to the rhythmic constructions of jazz as to established methods of scholarship, Thompson riffs on biology and culture, seeing the birth of the mind in Proust's madeleine, the displacement of humanity in Christo's wrappings of the Reichstag, and the path forward into a new planetary culture in the Tao Te Ching. In Coming into Being, William Irwin Thompson presents a fascinating vision of our past, our present, and our future that no one will want to miss.

A stunning New Age tour through literature, sculpture, and science that looks at the archetype of the human ascent to the heavens

We know from our literary histories that there was a movement called the Irish Literary Renaissance, and that Yeats was at its head. We know from our political histories that there is now a Republic of Ireland because of a nationalistic movement that, militarily, began with the insurrection of Easter Week, 1916. But what do these two movements have to do with one another?... Because I came to history with literary eyes, I could not help seeing history in terms and shapes of imaginative experience. Thus Movement, Myth, and Image came to be the way in which the nature of the insurrection appeared to me. This method of analyzing historical event as if it were a work of art is not altogether as inappropriate as it might seem when the historical event happens to be a revolution. The Irish revolutionaries lived as if they were in a work of art, and this inability to tell the difference between sober reality and the realm of imagination is perhaps one very important characteristic of a revolutionary. The tragedy of actuality comes from the fact that when, in a revolution, history is made momentarily into a work of art, human beings become the material that must be ordered, molded, or twisted into shape. (from the preface)

This introductory guide is aimed at anyone who is interested in working with the chakra system, meridiens and vibrational techniques, and includes chapters on vibrational therapies such as sound and colour therapy, aromatherapy, gemstone therapy and homeopathy.

This is the ultimate guide to the ancient religion of Wicca by best-selling Pagan author, D. J. Conway. WICCA: THE COMPLETE CRAFT offers a comprehensive overview of Wiccan philosophy, dispels the common misconceptions, and is a useful primer for practicing Wicca as a spiritual lifestyle. Included are chapters on sacred space, ritual tools, holy days, meditations and visualizations, spells and the art of spell casting, as well as terminology.