The prehistoric native peoples of the Mississippi River Valley and other areas of the Eastern Woodlands of the United States shared a complex set of symbols and motifs that constituted one of the greatest artistic traditions of the pre-Columbian Americas. Traditionally known as the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex, these artifacts of copper, shell, stone, clay, and wood were the subject of the groundbreaking 2007 book Ancient Objects and Sacred Realms: Interpretations of Mississippian Iconography, which presented a major reconstruction of the rituals, cosmology, ideology, and political structures of the Mississippian peoples. Visualizing the Sacred advances the study of Mississippian iconography by delving into the regional variations within what is now known as the Mississippian Iconographic Interaction Sphere (MIIS). Bringing archaeological, ethnographic, ethnohistoric, and iconographic perspectives to the analysis of Mississippian art, contributors from several disciplines discuss variations in symbols and motifs among major sites and regions across a wide span of time and also consider what visual symbols reveal about elite status in diverse political environments. These findings represent the first formal identification of style regions within the Mississippian Iconographic Interaction Sphere and call for a new understanding of the MIIS as a network of localized, yet interrelated religious systems that experienced both continuity and change over time.

French historian Robert Ricard postulated a quick and facile evangelization of the native populations of central Mexico. However, evidence shows that native peoples incorporated Catholicism into their religious beliefs on their own terms, and continued to make sacrifices to their traditional deities. In particular the deities of rain (Tlaloc and Dzahui) and the fertility of the soil (Xipe Totec) continued to be important following the conquest and the beginning of the so-called spiritual conquest. This study examines visual evidence of the persistence of traditional religious practices, including embedded pre-hispanic stones placed in churches and convents, and pre-hispanic iconography in what ostensibly were Christian murals.

Sacred Symbols: Unlocking the Healing Energies of the Universe Discover the hidden secrets of Sacred Geometry and immerse yourself in a world of energy healing and spiritual expansion with the book "Sacred Symbols: Unlocking the Healing Energies of the Universe." Through ancient geometric forms, this guide offers a portal to harmonize body, mind, and spirit. The subtle energies of these forms activate deep healing and elevate your vibrational frequency, bringing balance to every aspect of your life. Are you ready to transform your reality and access higher dimensions of consciousness? In this fascinating work, "Sacred Symbols: Unlocking the Healing Energies of the Universe," it is revealed how sacred geometry, especially Arcturian forms, can be the key to unlocking humanity's true energetic and spiritual potential. These powerful geometric shapes are presented as tools that not only connect the individual to the universe but also promote holistic healing – physical, emotional, and spiritual. Here is an essential guide for meditation practitioners, energy healers, and anyone seeking to raise their vibrations and attune to universal energies. With practical meditation techniques, powerful visualizations, and detailed instructions for working with crystals and geometric forms, the reader learns to apply these symbols in daily life to create harmony and transform spaces and energies. Through Arcturian Sacred Geometry, it is possible not only to harmonize your own energy field, but also to utilize its properties for collective healing and environmental purification. This book explores how these forms act as true interdimensional portals and how their vibrational patterns can improve your health, expand your consciousness, and help you access higher dimensions. Prepare yourself to explore the hidden healing power of the universe and align with your higher spiritual purpose.

Is there Life after Death..? For most of recorded history, people from all places across our little blue planet have asked the question; "What will happen to me when I die..?" This Book reveals the published manuscripts, of my drowning accident in the Ocean, or NDE (Near Death Experience) on August 28, 1966, in Santa Cruz California, which just happens to be on a Sunday, the same day it occurred, exactly fifty years ago, to the day. If you've ever wondered what your last day on earth might be like, then read on my friend. My name is Michael William AngelOh, and this is my own true, and personal, NDE story, which has been transcribed directly from my own Personal Diaries, which I have entitled; "My NDE beneath the SEA".

The Sacred Flame - Unlocking Spiritual Power Each pain, blockage, or repressed emotion is an echo of deep energies reverberating beyond what the eyes can see. Yet, there is a portal, a silent invitation to enter a dimension where sacred flames, endowed with transformative power, offer the healing you have always sought but never knew how to reach. These flames are divine forces capable of transmuting dense energies, dissolving emotional wounds and karmic scars that limit your spiritual potential. This path is not merely another journey of self-discovery, but one of profound transcendence, where body, mind, and spirit intertwine to touch the sacred that dwells within each of us. The practices revealed here are portals to elevated states of consciousness, from meditations that align your energy field to decrees that release the invisible chains binding us to suffering. As these energies are transmuted, they guide you to deep levels of healing, discovering a new balance between the physical, emotional, and spiritual planes.

The city of Banaras is widely known as a unique, impressive and particularly ancient historical place. But for many it is above all a universal, cosmic, and in a sense timeless sacred space. Both of these seemingly contrasting depictions contribute to how the city is experienced by its inhabitants or visitors, and there is a great variety of sometimes competing views: Kasi the Luminous, the ancient Crossing, the city of Death, the place of Hindu-Muslim encounter and syncretism, the cosmopolitan centre of learning, etc. The present volume deals with the multiple ways this urban site is visualized, imagined, and culturally represented by different actors and groups. The forms of visualizations are manifold and include buildings, paintings, drawings, panoramas, photographs, traditional and modern maps, as well as verbal and mental images. The major focus will thus be on visual media, which are of special significance for the representation of space. But this cannot be divorced from other forms of expressions which are part of the local life-world ("Lebenswelt"). The contributions look at local as well as exogenous constructions of the rich topography of Kasi and show that these imaginations and constructions are not static but always embedded in social and cultural practices of representation, often contested and never complete.

A practical guide to connecting with plants through ceremony • Explains how to commune with plants and their spirits through the traditional shamanic method of “plant dieting” to receive their teachings and guidance • Details 8 ceremonial plant initiations centered on common, easily recognized plants and trees such as primrose, dandelion, oak, and dog rose • Provides instructions to develop your own sacred plant initiations and make ceremonial plant elixirs • Includes four audio journeys to facilitate plant initiations In this guide to sacred plant initiations, medical herbalist and shamanic practitioner Carole Guyett explains how to commune with plants and their spirits through the traditional shamanic method of “plant dieting.” A plant diet involves ingesting a particular plant over a period of time so you regularly receive the plant’s vibratory energy as well as its medicinal actions. Adding a ceremonial element to plant dieting offers a sacred initiation by the plant world, allowing you to connect deeply with all aspects of a plant, receive its sacred teachings, and forge a relationship for guidance and healing, benefitting both yourself and others. Each of the eight ceremonial plant initiations detailed in the book was personally developed by the author through extensive work with her ceremonial groups. They each center on an easily recognized plant or tree such as primrose, dandelion, oak, and dog rose. These common plants have powerful teachings and healing guidance to share with those who communicate with and honor them. The initiations, for both individuals and groups, work with the Wheel of the Year, honoring each plant’s sacred timing and connecting with one of the eight Celtic and Pre-Celtic Fire Festivals--the solstices, equinoxes, and the holy days of Beltane, Lughnasadh, Samhain, and Imbolc. Offering practical instructions so you can develop your own sacred plant initiations, the author also include access to 4 audio journeys to facilitate the initiations in the book. She also explains how to make plant elixirs for use in plant diets and for healing. She shows how connecting with plants allows us to deepen our relationship with Nature, access higher levels of consciousness and spiritual realms, and facilitate the full flowering of human potential.

Sacred Geometry exists all around us in the natural world, from the unfurling of a rose bud to the pattern of a tortoise shell, the sub-atomic to the galactic. A pure expression of number and form, it is the language of creation and navigates the unseen dimensions beyond our three-dimensional reality. Since its discovery, humans have found many ways - stone circles, mandalas, labyrinths, temples- to call upon this universal law as a way of raising consciousness and communicating with a divine source. By becoming aware of the dots and lines that build the world around you, Sacred Geometry will teach you how to bring this mystical knowledge into your daily practice.

A millennia ago, Native Americans entered the dark recesses of a cave in eastern Missouri and painted an astonishing array of human, animal, and supernatural creatures on its walls. Known as Picture Cave, it was a hallowed site for sacred rituals and rites of passage, for explaining the multi-layered cosmos, for vision quests, for communing with spirits in the "other world," and for burying the dead. The number, variety, and complexity of images make Picture Cave one of the most significant prehistoric sites in North America, similar in importance to Cahokia and Chaco Canyon. Indeed, scholars will be able to use it to reconstruct much of the Native American symbolism of the early Western Mississippian world. The Picture Cave Interdisciplinary Project brought together specialists in American Indian art and iconography, two artists, Osage Indian elders, a museum curator, a folklorist, and an internationally renowned cave archaeologist to produce the first complete documentation of the pictographs on the cave walls and the first interpretations of their meanings and significance. This extensively illustrated volume presents the Project's findings, including an introduction to Picture Cave and prehistoric cave art and technical analyses of pigments, radiocarbon dating, spatial order, and archaeological remains. Interpretations of the cave's imagery, from individual motifs to complex panels; the responses of contemporary artists; and interviews with Osage elders (descendants of the people who made the art), describing what Picture Cave means to them today, are also included. A visual glossary of all the images in Picture Cave as well as panoramic views complete this pathfinding volume.

This is not only a book about healing, however, but also one about the phenomenology of self and self-transformation."--BOOK JACKET.