By Richard Heinberg, Foreword by Dolores LaChapelle.

199 Pages | A Quest Original 1993 | Softcover | Quest Books, U.S.A. | ISBN: 0835606937.

Rejoice in the Seasonal Festivals of the Earth . . .

Seasonal festivals are not cultural relics. They are joyous, fun, mischievous, profound, life-affirming events that connect us deeply with the Earth, the heavens, and the wellspring of being within us. This engaging book tells the history and meaning of the Solstices, encourages the practice of full-bodied, ecstatic rituals of seasonal renewal, and gives practical suggestions for how to celebrate them in contemporary times.

• Discover the ancient roots of Christmas-tide customs.
• Honor the Goddess in all of her Names by celebrating the June Solstice as a Festival of the Divine Feminine.
• Learn how cultures around the world honored their connectedness with the Earth rhythms.
• Create life-affirming celebrations of the Solstices – alone, with friends or family, in the wilderness, or in the city.

From Chapter 3 – ‘The First Solstice Festivals’ (p.27):

” Each year, for about a week before and after the winter solstice, light from the rising Sun passes through a boxed slot above the doorway of Newgrange and shine the entire length of the corridor to the far wall of the central chamber (a distance of over eighty feet), illuminating a stone basin positioned below a series of intricate carvings of interlocked spirals, eye shapes, and rayed solar discs. For about seventeen minutes the inner sanctuaryis softly lit; then the finger of sunlight slowly creeps back across the stone floor, and darkness returns. The effect is stunning, and the effort spent to obtain it must have been enormous. “

By Śrī Śaṃkara-Bhagavatpāda with transliteration, English translation, commentary, diagrams and an appendix on Prayoga by Pandit S. Subrahmany Sastri and T.R. Srinivasa Ayyangar.

288 Pages | First published in 1937, sixth printing 1985 | Hardcover | Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar | ISBN: 0835670678.

The Saundarya-laharārī, ’the Ocean of Beauty’, eminently shares the characteristics of a poem displaying the finest touches of poetical fancy, (ii) a Stotra, hymn, in praise of the Goddess Tripurasundarī, (iii) a series of Mantra-s, mystic formulae, to be used by the Upāsaka along with the corresponding Yantra-s, diagrams, wherein the Devī is to be conceived as abiding, and (iv) an exposition of the Agama-s and Tantra-s, bearing on the worship of the Supreme Being in Its aspect of the Śakti, Creative Energy, known as  the Śrī-vidyā, embodying the underlying principles of Vaidika-dharma and as such having the sanction of the Veda-s. In its first forty-one stanzas it encompasses the Ananda-laharī, ’the Ocean of the Blisfully Sublime’.

From Page 220:

” 78. Sthiro gangāvartah stana-mukula-romāvali-latā-

nijāvālaṃ kuṇdaṃ kusumasara-tejo-huta-bhujaḥ ;

Rater līlāgāraṃ kim api tava nābhir giri-sute

biladvāraṃ siddher girisa-nayanānāṃ vijayate.

O Daughter of the Mountain! all glory to Thy navel (which may be characterized) in some such way (as) a motionless eddy of the Gangā, a trench for the growth of the creeper of the line of down, with the breasts as buds; the pit for maintaining the sacrificial Fire of the prowess of the flower-arrowed (Kusuma-Śāra); the pleasure-bower of Rati; the mouth of the cavern for the attainment (of Yoga) by Girisa’s eyes! “
 

By Charles Webster Leadbeater (1854 – 1934).

241 Pages | First Quest Edition 1986, 3rd printing 1995 | Softcover | Quest Books, USA | ISBN: 0835606090.

Ancient Mystic Rites is Leadbeater absorbing in-depth study of the Mystery Schools of Egypt, Greece, Judea and Europe in the Middle Ages, up to the emergence of Co-Masonry in the twentieth century. During his lifetime, Leadbeater used his rare capacity for clairvoyance or ‘seeing’ beyond the physical plane for many purposes. He observed and recorded the sub-atomic structure of a number of elements before science had the capacity to determine such things. He described the forms and colors created as a result of our thoughts and the shapes and colors of the human subtle body.

Drawing on these abilities as well as on historical records, Leadbeater relates in this book fascinating, previously unknown facts about the Mystery Schools and their practices and beliefs. His observations and reflections point up many similarities among these schools in spite of distance and time  – a common ‘Mystery-bond’ running through otherwise disparate cultures. As Leadbeater shows, these Ancient Rites have emerged in this century as Freemasonry.