Written as an overview of Rosicrucian history, esoteric author Manly P. Hall explores different theories as to the beginnings and motives behind the fabled secret society, the Rosicrucians. He discusses the life and death of Christian Rosenkreuz, the famas, as well as scholarly interpretations of the Society and their possible motives.

Renowned occultist and founder of the Theosophical Society, here Madame Blavatsky explores the legitimacy of Rosicrucianism and what that brotherhood means in a greater sense to the occult movement in general. She also compares different types of Kabbalah and discusses how they relate.

Not simply satisfied with the signs, grips and words of workmen at temples, from a bygone past, the author wants to know what lies beyond these pedestrian tales told to the newly made mason, of our history. Brother Bush engages in justifiable pride examining the mysteries of ancient Egypt and Greece, which span centuries and helped to carve the path, which gave way for our modern fraternity. What are masonry's ties to the ancient Rites of Eleusis?

Renowned Masonic scholar Albert G. Mackey examines the role Pythagoras has played in our fraternity. He begins by examining old records and the potential origin of how the Masonic name "Peter Gower" became a synonym for Pythagoras. He points to an early Masonic reference of Pythagoras and Hermes, dating to 1450, while at the same time pointing out that many of the much later documents are devoid of his name altogether. From there, Mackey explores the history of Pythagoras and what he may have symbolized to some early masons.

Hargrave Jennings (1817-1890) was a British author on esotericism and student of comparative religion. This 1870 work examines the relationships between science, religion, and the supernatural. This was his most popular book, which includes discussions of Gnosticism, the Kabbalah, the Druids, and ancient cultures.

Pound begins his discourse with an examination of what he deems to be the four major systems of Masonic philosophy. Two of these are intellectual systems: First that of Preston, whose key word is Knowledge; second, that of Krause, whose key word is Morals. Two of these are spiritual systems: First that of Oliver, whose key word is Tradition; and second, that of Pike, whose key word is Symbolism.

Madame Helena Blavatsky, in two introductory essays, offers students of Theosophical beliefs a wide-reaching and worldly outlook on the Ancient Mysteries. While demonstrating that much like Rosicrucian and Masonic philosophy, Theosophy has, at the heart of its doctrine, the concept of a Universal Brotherhood, she by no means forgets to include numerous Eastern influences, which help set apart the distinctive path of Theosophy, from other arenas of esoteric study...

Contains the complete text of Albert Pikes never-before-published esoteric study of the symbols of Blue Lodge Degrees. Subjects include "The Compasses and the Square", "The Weapons and Blows of the Assassins", "The Three Grips", "The Substitute for the Masters Word", "The 47th Problem of Euclid", "The Truth", "Is the Cable-tow a Symbol?", "Corner Stones", "The Ladder of Jacob", "Tubal Cain", "Shibboleth", and "Solomon and Hiram".

Member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and co-creator of probably the most famous and most commonly used tarot deck, Arthur Edward Waite was also a prolific writer and prominent Freemason. Here he looks into the trio of Blue Lodge degrees and the initiatory arc of birth, life, and death associated with those degrees. He looks at the history of these types of initiations in the ancient world, as well as how they relate to the candidate, and asks the listener to consider if Freemasonry even has a place in this type of initiation cycle.

In this classic work, Professor George G. M. James methodically shows how the Greeks first borrowed and then stole the knowledge from the Priests of the African (Egyptian) Mystery System. He shows how the most popular philosophers including Thales, Anaximander, Plato and Socrates were all treated as men bringing a foreign teaching to Greece. A teaching so foreign that they were persecuted for what they taught.

Chilling initiations. Big banks and money manipulations. Possible links to the Rockefellers, Rothschilds, Adamses, and Bushes. Reviewing the evidence, documents, and connections, The Illuminati: The Secret Society That Hijacked the World by award-winning journalist and author Jim Marrs shines a light on the history, workings, continuing influence, and pernicious and hidden power of this secret order. Surveying experts, Marrs cuts through the wild speculation and the attempts to silence critical thinkers to tell the true story of this secret cabal.

So revolutionary, so original, so convincing, that the most faithful Christians will be moved; here is the book that has sparked worldwide controversey.

Western civilization has given us modern science, the wealth of free-market economics, the security of law, a sense of human rights and freedom, charity as a virtue, splendid art and music, philosophy grounded in reason, and innumerable other gifts we take for granted.

In this practical guide, Mark Stavish details the spiritual lessons and rituals of Freemasonry as a step-by-step path of spiritual development and self-improvement for both Masons and non-Masons, men and women alike.

From the illustrious George Washington and the infamous J. Edgar Hoover to brilliant imaginer Walt Disney and bad boy of baseball Ty Cobb, Freemasons have influenced every aspect of American life. Yet this secret society remains as controversial and mysterious as ever. In this tell-all audiobook, you'll learn the truth about the largest - and oldest - fraternal organization and unravel the mystery of this intriguing society - one secret at a time!

Western civilization has given us modern science, the wealth of free-market economics, the security of law, a sense of human rights and freedom, charity as a virtue, splendid art and music, philosophy grounded in reason, and innumerable other gifts we take for granted.

From the illustrious George Washington and the infamous J. Edgar Hoover to brilliant imaginer Walt Disney and bad boy of baseball Ty Cobb, Freemasons have influenced every aspect of American life. Yet this secret society remains as controversial and mysterious as ever. In this tell-all audiobook, you'll learn the truth about the largest - and oldest - fraternal organization and unravel the mystery of this intriguing society - one secret at a time!

In The Dream of Enlightenment, Anthony Gottlieb expertly navigates a second great explosion of thought, taking us to northern Europe in the wake of its wars of religion and the rise of Galilean science. In a relatively short period - from the early 1640s to the eve of the French Revolution - Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, and Hume all made their mark. The Dream of Enlightenment tells their story and that of the birth of modern philosophy.

Richard Carrier, Ph.D., philosopher, historian, blogger, has published a number of papers in the field of ancient history and biblical studies. He has also written several books and chapters on diverse subjects, and has been blogging and speaking since 2006. He is known the world over for all the above. But here, together for the first time, are all of Dr. Carrier's peer reviewed academic journal articles in history through the year 2013, collected with his best magazine articles, research papers, and blog posts on the same subjects.

Since they were first discovered in the caves at Qumran, in 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls have aroused more fascination - and more controversy - than perhaps any other archaeological find. They appear to have been hidden in the Judean desert by the Essenes, a Jewish sect that existed around the time of Jesus, and they continue to inspire veneration and conspiracy theories to this day. John Collins tells the story of the bitter conflicts that have swirled around the scrolls since their startling discovery, and sheds light on their true significance for Jewish and Christian history.

On August 10, 1632, five men in flowing black robes convened in a somber Roman palazzo to pass judgment on a deceptively simple proposition: that a continuous line is composed of distinct and infinitely tiny parts. With the stroke of a pen the Jesuit fathers banned the doctrine of infinitesimals, announcing that it could never be taught or even mentioned. The concept was deemed dangerous and subversive, a threat to the belief that the world was an orderly place, governed by a strict and unchanging set of rules.

Here is the remarkable story of how medieval Arab scholars made dazzling advances in science and philosophy, and of the itinerant Europeans who brought this knowledge back to the West. For centuries following the fall of Rome, Western Europe was a benighted backwater, a world of subsistence farming, minimal literacy, and violent conflict. Meanwhile, Arab culture was thriving, dazzling those Europeans fortunate enough to catch even a glimpse.

Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) is generally regarded as the greatest intellectual ever to have appeared in the Arab world - a genius who ranks as one of the world's great minds. Yet the author of the Muqaddima, the most important study of history ever produced in the Islamic world, is not as well known as he should be, and his ideas are widely misunderstood. In this groundbreaking intellectual biography, Robert Irwin provides an engaging and authoritative account of Ibn Khaldun's extraordinary life, times, writings, and ideas.

Already a classic, this landmark study of early Western thought now appears in a new edition with expanded coverage of the Middle Ages. Author Anthony Gottlieb looks afresh at the writings of the great thinkers, questions much of conventional wisdom, and explains his findings with unbridled brilliance and clarity. From the pre-Socratic philosophers through the celebrated days of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, up to Renaissance visionaries like Erasmus and Bacon, philosophy emerges here as a phenomenon unconfined by any one discipline.

Consisting of fewer than 200 verses written in an obscure if not impenetrable language and style, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra is today extolled by the yoga establishment as a perennial classic and guide to yoga practice. As David Gordon White demonstrates in this groundbreaking study, both of these assumptions are incorrect. Virtually forgotten in India for hundreds of years and maligned when it was first discovered in the West, the Yoga Sutra has been elevated to its present iconic status.

Best-selling author Richard E. Rubenstein brings the past to life in this engrossing story of social, religious, and scientific revolution during one of the darkest periods in European history. When a group of Dark Ages scholars rediscovered the works of Aristotle, the great thinker's ideas ignited a firestorm of enlightened thought. This is the endlessly fascinating account of the pivotal period in history when the modern era took root.

Vividly written, The Infidel and the Professor is a compelling account of a great friendship of two towering Enlightenment thinkers that had great consequences for modern thought. David Hume is widely regarded as the most important philosopher ever to write in English, but during his lifetime, he was attacked as "the Great Infidel" for his skeptical religious views and deemed unfit to teach the young. In contrast, Adam Smith was a revered professor of moral philosophy and is now often hailed as the founding father of capitalism.

If you were taught that the Middle Ages were a time of intellectual stagnation, superstition, and ignorance, you were taught a myth that has been utterly refuted by modern scholarship. As a physicist and historian of science James Hannam shows in his brilliant new book, The Genesis of Science: How the Christian Middle Ages Launched the Scientific Revolution, without the scholarship of the "barbaric" Middle Ages, modern science simply would not exist. The Middle Ages were a time of one intellectual triumph after another.

One of our most renowned and brilliant historians takes a fresh look at the revolutionary intellectual movement that laid the foundation for the modern world. Liberty and equality. Human rights. Freedom of thought and expression. Belief in reason and progress. The value of scientific inquiry. These are just some of the ideas that were conceived and developed during the Enlightenment, and which changed forever the intellectual landscape of the Western world.

On a brutal winter's day in 1650 in Stockholm, Frenchman Rene Descartes, the most influential and controversial thinker of his time, was buried after a cold and lonely deathfar from home. Sixteen years later, the pious French Ambassador Hugues de Terlon secretly unearthed Descartes' bones and transported them to France. Why would this devoutly Catholic official care so much about the remains of a philosopher who washounded from country after country on charges of atheism?