Medieval stairs, galleries and upper chambers in cathedrals, abbeys, and parish churches have been an enduring source of fascination to historians and archaeologists since the eighteenth century, but their practical purposes have long been shrouded in mystery and speculation. From libraries to lights, clocks to dovecotes, from secret games of skittles played over the vaults to the daring exploits of the twelfth-century Flying Monk, Toby Huitson explores the lofty spaces, nooks and crannies of medieval upper spaces though the interrogation of a wide range of documentary, visual and archaeological materials. Evidence is revealed for over 30 different functions during the period from around AD 1000 to 1550. Generously illustrated and fully-referenced, the text is accompanied by a set of special features and a quick-reference section, making it indispensable to all those interested in medieval history and architecture. Dr Toby Huitson teaches at the University of Kent, Canterbury.

Located in a remote area of modern Sichuan province, Mount Emei is one of China's most famous mountains and has long been important to Buddhists. Stairway to Heaven looks at Emei's significance in Chinese history and literature while also addressing the issue of "sense of place" in Chinese culture. Mount Emei's exquisite scenery and unique geographical features have inspired countless poets, writers, and artists. Since the early years of the Song dynasty (960–1279), Emei has been best known as a site of Buddhist pilgrimage and worship. Today, several Buddhist temples still function on Emei, but the mountain also has become a scenic tourist destination, attracting more than a million visitors annually. Author James M. Hargett takes readers on a journey to the mountain through the travel writings of the twelfth-century writer and official Fan Chengda (1126–1193). Fan's diary and verse accounts of his climb to the summit of Mount Emei in 1177 are still among the most informative accounts of the mountain ever written. Through Fan's eyes, words, and footsteps—and with background information and commentary from Hargett—the reader will experience some of the ways Emei has been "constructed" by diverse human experience over the centuries.

Four short novels that go together the way short steps can make a stairway to heaven, describing a year of living vibrationally, which lead to a lot of ecstasy. It was not a year of living Biblically, it was a year of living ecstatically.

Finally, after nearly half a century from its release we get to know the true meaning of the most beautiful rock song ever produced, 'Stairway To Heaven' by Led Zeppelin. This book has not been written to win a Nobel Prize in literature, but has been written with passion and attention to details to solve one of the biggest mystery of the musical world. You will get to understand the inspiration behind the song, the beautiful and earthed comparison that the singer and author Robert Plant makes between Faith, Religion and Spirituality, topics which have got more questions than answers. Gently and respectfully Robert Plant has concentrated the life conundrum of the here and now and the possible afterlife options on a single page, while giving a deep meaning and a sense to the purpose of life itself, a result which religion has not been able to achieve in thousands of years. You will come to discover that this masterpiece, this beautiful song's secret is that it has no secrets. The linear and captivating story told in the lyrics represents all of us. It talks in the most humble and respectful way about our hopes and fears, doubts and certainty; it invites us to wonder, but above anything else, guides us gently to acquire a better understanding of the importance of tolerance in life. A song accused of the worst, lyrics with no coherent meaning being as abstract as a dream can be, to get to understand that it is really a dream at the end, the most beautiful dream that any person can ever have while wide awake. It calls in rationality and common sense to look at life and what it has become today, a competitive game with winners and loser, a frantic search for the missing item that can make us feel better, happier, to discover at the end that we are already having all that life needs to become a blessing, a beautiful adventure that we all should enjoy and cherish. Precisely the song that was supposed to have hidden and hideous messages to make people lose themselves, we are going to understand that it is a song that makes you to find yourself, gives you the courage to be yourself and become a person that can help others along the way. The deepest descent in the topics of theology and religion in which many of us can get confused, completely simplified and expressed with such a clarity and respect that will surprise many. A song which goes from the present to the future, leading us also into the afterlife, explaining to us how to grasp the importance of the here and now, essential to be able to maintain the delicate equilibrium of life on this planets, which starts from an interior equilibrium, inside oneself, made up of well-being and respect, joy and effort used to offer as a result a helping hand to others rather than asking for it. A book of simplified complications and complicated simplicity following the song that has spoken always directly to our heart, leaving the mind "Dazed and Confused". Not only you'll get to love 'Stairway to Heaven' more than you ever did before just because of the real simple meaning of it, but you will as well acquire more respect for the author that has made one of the most beautiful and comprehensive yet concise talk about the enormous topic which is spirituality. On top of which, he also laid those few words on one of the most iconic melodies, one of most beautiful musical composition that you can ever hear. If you thought that the song was the most beautiful one of the last 50 years, you will get to appreciate the fact that eventually it will be the most beautiful song ever, full stop. Get ready to be surprised, because at the end you will see that the story narrated in the lyrics, it is a story to which you can relate with easy, actually, you already related with this strangely familiar lyrics from as long as you can remember. This book is here to explain to you the reason why, because the story told in the lyrics, is actually your story.

The idea of heavenly ascent, while popularized in Jewish mysticism, is neither a unique nor recent one. Expertly tracing its origins back to the ancient Middle East, Levenda unearths ascent literature in Africa, India, and China, discerns a common connection in the heavens themselves, and determines that this connection has been sorely neglected in contemporary scholarship. Because scholars treat the "heavens" as metaphorical, it is necessary to recreate the physical context of the culture under discussion in order to better understand it. For the benefit of the reader, Levenda offers two useful concepts for his investigative journey: a "map," whereby he means the cosmological system to better understand the mystical technologies of each culture investigated, and a "vehicle," the method by which the individual equipped with special knowledge is able to navigate the culture's particular cosmology. With these two tools, Levenda travels from the worlds of ancient Egypt and Babylon to the Hebrew Bible, to Jewish and Christian kabbalists, to Daoists in ancient China, to Hindu Tantra and Haitian Vodoun, and, finally, to nineteenth and twentieth century European occult societies.

A journey of extraordinary coverage by an author who migrated from Greece and won his citizenship of the year arrival

Since earliest times, humanity has pondered the incomprehensible mysteries of the universe, life...and the afterlife. In The Stairway to Heaven, the second book of Zecharia Sitchin's Earth Chronicles series, the author answers these fundamental questions: Was there somewhere on Earth where, after death, mortal man could join the immortal Gods? Where was this place? By whom was it established? And does it still exist today? After years of painstaking research--combining recent archaeological discoveries with ancient texts and artifacts--Sitchin has identified the legendary Land of the Gods, and provided astounding new revelations about the Great Pyramids, the Sphinx, and other mysterious monuments whose true meanings and purposes have been lost for eons. The Earth Chronicles deal with the history and prehistory of Earth and humankind. Each book in the series is based upon information written on clay tablets by the ancient civilizations of the Near East. For the first time, the entire Earth Chronicles series is now available in a hardcover collector's edition.

This volume examines the powerful ways in which identity can be shaped by rock music. Through the music, imagery and discourse surrounding one of the most innovative and commercially successful rock bands ever, Susan Fast probes such issues as constructions of gender and sexuality, the creation of myth and the use of ritual, the appropriation of Eastern musics and the blues, the physicality of the music, and the use of the body in performance. The band's influence is examined through socially-situated musical analysis, as well as an ethnographic study of Led Zeppelin fans. Fast draws on academic and journalistic writing as well as a new interview with band member John Paul Jones. Specific pieces examined include "Dazed and Confused," "Kashmir," "Stairway to Heaven," and "Whole Lotta Love."