Wings Of The Gods

Download or read book Gods in the World written by Aftab S. Jassal and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2024-11-05 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the north Indian state of Uttarakhand, in the Central Himalayas, Hindu deities are ever present in the lives of devotees. Through ritual practices of placemaking, spirit mediums, oracles, priests, and other specialists bring these beings into embodied form, calling on them for healing and counsel. In exchange for alleviating human suffering, deities ask that a place be made for them—in homes, villages, and temples, and in bodies, lives, and communities. Gods in the World is a richly descriptive and evocative ethnography of Hindu ritual practices that shows how deities and other supernatural agents come to matter to ordinary people. Aftab S. Jassal traces how acts of placemaking, including healing practices that repair and restore relations between people and deities, allow deities to participate and intervene in human affairs. Many of the professional healers, storytellers, musicians, spirit mediums, and lay devotees who are chronicled belong to marginalized Dalit communities. These communities are at the forefront of combined pressures of tourism, neoliberal development, and Hindutva nationalist politics and often find creative ways of responding to their changing worlds. Bringing together fresh insights on the dynamics of caste and gender with enduring questions about ritual, healing, and the nature of human-divine relations, Gods in the World offers a striking account of everyday Hinduism in a contested and rapidly changing region.

Download or read book Orphic Tradition and the Birth of the Gods written by Dwayne A. Meisner and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-07-17 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The hatching of the Cosmic Egg, the swallowing of Phanes by Zeus, and the murder of Dionysus by the Titans were just a few of the many stories that appeared in ancient Greek epic poems that were thought to have been written by the legendary singer Orpheus. Most of this poetry is now lost, surviving only in the form of brief quotations by Greek philosophers. Orphic Tradition and the Birth of the Gods brings together the scattered fragments of four Orphic theogonies: the Derveni, Eudemian, Hieronyman, and Rhapsodic theogonies. Typically, theogonies are thought to be poetic accounts of the creation of the universe and the births of the gods, leading to the creation of humans and the establishment of the present state of the cosmos. The most famous example is Hesiod's Theogony, which unlike the Orphic theogonies has survived. But did Orphic theogonies look anything like Hesiod's Theogony? Meisner applies a new theoretical model for studying Orphic theogonies and suggests certain features that characterize them as different from Hesiod: the blending of Near Eastern narrative elements that are missing in Hesiod; the probability that these were short hymns, more like the Homeric Hymns^r than Hesiod; and the continuous discourse between myth and philosophy that can be seen in Orphic poems and the philosophers who quote them. Most importantly, this book argues that the Orphic myths of Phanes emerging from the Cosmic Egg and Zeus swallowing Phanes are at least as important as the well-known myth of Dionysus being dismembered by the Titans, long thought to have been the central myth of Orphism. As this book amply demonstrates, Orphic literature was a diverse and ever-changing tradition by which authors were able to think about the most current philosophical ideas through the medium of the most traditional poetic forms.

Download or read book The Secrets of the Gods written by Claudiu Gilian and published by Claudiu-Gilian Chircu. This book was released on 2017-03-22 with total page 806 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What would it be like to realize one day that everything you believed to be true was nothing but a lie? That you lived in an illusion constantly fed by those around you? That reality is often diametrically opposed to the chimera that was inoculated to you? That to learn the truth you need to forget everything you know? - What is God? - Are aliens real? - Is the material universe just an illusion? - Why are we here, where do we come from and where do we go after death? - Is Earth a prison? - Are humans the descendants of the gods of the past? - Is the Bible just a collection of plagiarized myths? - Was Christianity invented by Philo of Alexandria? - Was the Garden of Eden located on the territory of today's Romania? - Are Lucifer and Adam the same character? - Is Noah's Ark one of the Giza pyramids? - Is the Great Pyramid an interdimensional travel device? - Was the prophet Abraham a descendant of the Akkadian emperor Sargon the Great? - Was Moses really Pharaoh Akhenaton? - Is there an unseen war between the Aryan and Semitic races? - Did Alexander the Great discover the source of life in Dacia? - Did Pharaoh Tutankhamun's family practice black magic? - Does the Asteroid Belt come from the Mariana Trench? - Are the fallen angels at the top of the Masonic pyramid? - Is time travel possible? - Is the Apocalypse an event of the past? - Was Jesus possessed? All these questions (and many more) can be answered by "The Secrets of the Gods", a secret history of the world, based on the decoding of ancient myths, as well as on the results of modern scientific research. A unique and controversial interpretation of universal history, which brings to the general public the secrets of the gods, until now reserved only for the initiated.

Download or read book Like Sex with Gods written by Bayla Singer and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2003-05-08 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Human flight is not a simple matter of science and technology. It is a continuing epic of dreams and obsession, of yearning and striving to harness the intellect in the service of the emotions." In Like Sex with Gods: An Unorthodox History of Flight, Bayla Singer offers a unique approach to humanity's fascination with flying. Rather than merely tracing the factual prehistory of flight up to the success of the Wright Brothers, Bayla Singer considers the interaction and influence of our dreams, fantasies, culture, and technology on the age-old quest to fly. This enlightening study begins with the deities and other denizens of the heavens that humanity has created in its religion, literature, and art. At first a monopoly of the gods, flight came to interest humanity as a way to free itself from the physical and intellectual bonds of the earth. The myth of flight eventually gives way to the pursuit of actual flight. Singer shows in compelling detail the many flying machines that have been created, including balloons, gliders, and kites. The accomplishment of the Wright Brothers and our successful trips into space are merely stops on a continuing journey, as our ancient dream of flight continues to push us to new and loftier places. Filled with compelling stories and detailed illustrations, this book provides absorbing reading for aviation experts, those fascinated with the intimate relationship between technology and culture, and all of us who have even a passing interest in flying.

Download or read book Animals, Gods and Humans written by Ingvild Saelid Gilhus and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006-09-27 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Consulting a wide range of key texts and source material, Animals, Gods and Humans covers 800 years and provides a detailed analysis of early Christian attitudes to, and the position of, animals in Greek and Roman life and thought. Both the pagan and Christian conceptions of animals are rich and multilayered, and Ingvild Sælid Gilhus expertly examines the dominant themes and developments in the conception of animals. Including study of: biographies of figures such as Apollonus of Tyana; natural history; the New Testament via Gnostic texts; the church fathers; and from pagan and Christian criticism of animal sacrifice, to the acts of martyrs, the source material and detailed analysis included in this volume make it a veritable feast of information for all classicists.

Download or read book Where the Gods Are written by Mark S. Smith and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2016-06-28 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The issue of how to represent God is a concern both ancient and contemporary. In this wide-ranging and authoritative study, renowned biblical scholar Mark Smith investigates the symbols, meanings, and narratives in the Hebrew Bible, Ugaritic texts, and ancient iconography, which attempt to describe deities in relation to humans. Smith uses a novel approach to show how the Bible depicts God in human and animal forms—and sometimes both together. Mediating between the ancients’ theories and the work of modern thinkers, Smith’s boldly original work uncovers the foundational understandings of deities and space.

Download or read book Heroes, Gods and Monsters of Ancient Greek Mythology written by Michael Ford and published by Andrews UK Limited. This book was released on 2012-02-21 with total page 70 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Heroes, Gods and Monsters in Ancient Greek Mythology' is a collection of classic archetypal Ancient Greek myths, including the stories of Jason, Perseus, Odysseus, Heracles, Oedipus and Theseus, and many more dark and delirious, famous Ancient Greek myths. These stories, which have had a great influence on thinkers throughout the centuries, inform popular culture even today. Here they are told as if by a fireside storyteller, detailing the horrific perils these heroes faced. A historical introduction explains who the Ancient Greeks were, describing their beliefs and customs, and a 'Finding out more' section provides you with the tools you need to discover even more about this increidble civilisation and their beliefs.