Who was the Melchizedek the apostle Paul spoke of in the book of Hebrews? How is his priesthood different than the priesthood of Levi? Why was the Messiah ordained after the order of Melchizedek and not after the order of Levi? For the first time, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the ancient church fathers, and other rare history books reveal the mystery of the Ancient Order of Melchizedek.

Throughout my many years in the occult, I recall many wonderful things. I was enamored by so many different systems that I just had to try them all. For the most part, I did. Some with great success and some not so much. One aspect of the magickal practices that really interested me was the use of talismanic or seal magick. I used all kinds of talismans, and each had its own energy and feel.

A few books exist on Asherah so I am going to jump in and add my two cents. I found the others to be rather complex. I will do my best to deconstruct it all in this book, but for the sake of brevity I can't go too deep. Like all my books, I will cover the texts and history. I have many old notes that I will clean up and present here.

In Judaism, there are several entities often referred to as Satan. However, one stands out above the rest, and his name is Samael. Yes, we recognize names like Belial, Mastema, and Asmodeus as being the princes and kings of the demons. However, it is Samael who has the distinct honor of being the father of the left-hand path, or as it is called in the Kabbalah, the “Sitra Achra”, or the “other side”. He is the top of the top and the father of all the Klippot that leads humanity astray.

Occultism and magick is rife with symbols. In fact, the very basis of magick and occult is symbology. Everything is symbolic of some higher truth, from the rituals we perform to the books we listen to. We are immersed in the power and magick of symbols. The tarot cards are one aspect of occultism that I feel is worth paying close attention to. In this book, we will not be focusing on tarot cards as a source of knowledge about the future; there are plenty of good books for that. Instead, we will be using them as a driving force for magickal practice.

In this book, you will learn, for the first time, the six hidden names of God within the first few verses in the book of Genesis. The names are in Hebrew, but do not worry. I will transliterate as necessary. These names are known by very few people. Today, you will learn them for yourself. Although the Old Testament books are filled with secret names of the divine, the ones in the book of Genesis are of utmost importance.

Belial is, by far, one of the most popular demons in occult lore. He is second only to Satan, and in some circles, he is Satan himself. When looking through the occult literature, one finds rituals to and descriptions of Belial, but there is little to no tangible history. We all take the occult texts as gospel and assume that what we find is all there is regarding Belial.

In this series, Ouija Board Magick, we will discuss the various ways of communicating with the spiritual world. Each volume will contain one class of spiritual beings. We will learn what they are and brief history of both the spiritual entities and the Ouija board, as well as ways to harness their powers for our magickal purposes. But I must warn you, this is certainly not for the faint of heart. In this book, we will discuss how to communicate and work magically with the Archangels of the western tradition, mainly Angels Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, Raphael, and Metatron.

This is volume one of the Bible Magick series. In this book we will discuss magick and some of its uses in the Bible. Often we are told that magick and the teachings of the Bible don't mix. We are warned time and time again that if we use magick we are breaking God's law. In this book, I will show you clearly that magick has been used in the Bible by divine command. This book is not a book on how to perform Bible magick, but rather that there is such a thing as Bible magic.

In this book I'm going to deal with what magick is, I'm going to go into why magick works when you actually perform a ritual, of course it does involve spirits and it does involve supernatural powers but there is another reason. If you notice that the more intention you have towards the ritual, the more effective it is, so there is an individual component in every single ritual. We will discuss individuality, embracing of the dark side, being present in life.

In this book, we will be experimenting with a phenomenon called quantum jumping. You have probably heard of this before and, yes, some elements of quantum jumping will be in this book; but that is where the commonalities end. We will be performing magic but not in the way I have explained in my 19 other books. We will be performing magic to influence our lives today but performing the ritual in a parallel universe. You will find your magician doppelgänger whose magic is always effective, and you will meld with him or her.

Shiva is one of the most mysterious gods of the Hindu pantheon. His energy can be found in all things, yet his tranquil and fierce energy can seem out of reach for some. His images often depict him in a meditative state or in his most common form, the Nataraja, or the one who dances within the circular fires that represent creation and dissolution.

Like most Eastern traditions, Tibetan Buddhism has a rich tradition of mantra chanting and magick. Some of the rituals are so elaborate they can often intimidate the minds of those with entrenched Western sensibilities. A good way to pierce the mystery is to work with the mantras of this great tradition.

What you are about to learn right now is rather obscure. It's a hidden side of an otherwise popular spiritual practice. What you will learn is the Dark Mantras of Subjugation called Vashikaran. I call them dark because they are meant to "subjugate" people and events to your will, or "command" them. That kind of thing was relegated to black magick and witchcraft here in the West. But is there actually such a thing as white and black magick in the Eastern traditions? Or perhaps we, in the West, interpret these things in stark black-and-white terms?

If there is one thing we all have in common, is that we live on this great planet we call home. We often do not sit and reflect at the immensity of this planet. We take it for granted. Our days are so packed with activity and busy work that we forget where we come from. Very few people today can detach even for a moment to realize the miracle of existence on this great planet. According to both science and religion, life on this planet is a miracle, perhaps a fluke. No matter what you want to call it, that life exists here at all is amazing.

Why does the Bible depict a world in which humans, with surprising regularity, encounter the divine - wrestling an angel, addressing a burning bush, issuing forth prophecy without any choice in the matter? These stories spoke very differently to their original audience than they do to us, and they reflect a radically distinct understanding of reality and the human mind. Yet over the course of the thousand-year biblical era, encounters with God changed dramatically.

This epic, thrilling journey through Bible scholarship and ancient religion shows how much of Scripture is historically false - yet the ancient writings also resound with theologies that crisscrossed the primeval world and that direct us today toward a deep, authentic inner experience of the truly sacred.

In a book that took eight years to research and write, leading Bible scholar Bart D. Ehrman explores how an apocalyptic prophet from the backwaters of rural Galilee crucified for crimes against the state came to be thought of as equal with the one God Almighty Creator of all things. Ehrman sketches Jesus's transformation from a human prophet to the Son of God exalted to divine status at his resurrection. Only when some of Jesus's followers had visions of him after his death - alive again - did anyone come to think that he, the prophet from Galilee, had become God.

The Council of Nicea was not clerics in a dark and ornate hall. It was brawls in churchyards; it was emperors and governors fighting to save the empire; it was political intrigue as the governments of church and state blended into a volatile stew. It was the way a fringe group of peace-loving communal worshipers of a crucified Palestinian prophet conquered the Roman Empire.

Three decades after leaving the Mormon faith, Latayne Colvett Scott looks back to her original journey out of Mormonism and the reasons why she left. Revised and updated, this third edition of The Mormon Mirage presents both a fascinating inside look at Mormonism and new and formidable evidence against its claims and teachings.

Historians know virtually nothing about the two decades following the crucifixion of Jesus, when his followers regrouped and began to spread his message. During this time the man we know as the apostle Paul joined the movement and began to preach to the gentiles. Using the oldest Christian documents that we have - the letters of Paul - as well as other early Christian sources, historian and scholar James Tabor reconstructs the origins of Christianity.

Large numbers of atheists, humanists, and conspiracy theorists are raising one of the most pressing questions in the history of religion: "Did Jesus exist at all?" Was he invented out of whole cloth for nefarious purposes by those seeking to control the masses? Or was Jesus such a shadowy figure - far removed from any credible historical evidence - that he bears no meaningful resemblance to the person described in the Bible?

In The Bible’s Cutting Room Floor, acclaimed author and translator Dr. Joel M. Hoffman gives us the stories and other texts that didn’t make it into the Bible even though they offer penetrating insight into the Bible and its teachings. The Book of Genesis tells us about Adam and Eve’s time in the Garden of Eden, but not their saga after they get kicked out or the lessons they have for us about good and evil.

James was a vegetarian, wore only linen clothing, bathed daily at dawn in cold water, and was a life-long Nazirite. In this profound and provocative work of scholarly detection, eminent biblical scholar Robert Eisenman introduces a startling theory about the identity of James - the brother of Jesus - who was almost entirely marginalized in the New Testament.

In Reasons to Believe, Scott Hahn, a convert to Catholicism, explains the "how and why" of the Catholic faith - drawing from Scripture, his own struggles, and those of other converts, as well as from everyday life and even natural science. Hahn shows that reason and revelation, as well as nature and the supernatural, are not opposed to one another; rather, they offer complementary evidence that God exists. He is someone, and He has a personality, a personal style, that is discernable and knowable.

In recent years, Christians everywhere are rediscovering the Jewish roots of their faith. Every year at Easter time, many believers now celebrate Passover meals (known as Seders) seeking to understand exactly what happened at Jesus' final Passover, the night before he was crucified. Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist shines fresh light on the Last Supper by looking at it through Jewish eyes.

Between 50 and 90 CE, the various writings that comprise the New Testament were written, including the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles of Paul, and other letters to more general communities of the early Church. But what is recognized as the 26 books of the New Testament today, in literally hundreds of English translations, actually took several more centuries to be determined as "canonical" by the Church.

Two celebrated scholars illustrate how the newly discovered Gospel of Judas provides a window into understanding how Jesus' followers understood his death, why Judas betrayed Jesus, and why God allowed it. Presented with the elegance, insight, and accessibility that has made Pagels and King the leading voices in this field, this is a book for academics and popular audiences alike.

Waiting to be rediscovered in the British Library is an ancient manuscript of the early Church, copied by an anonymous monk. The manuscript is at least 1,450 years old, possibly dating to the first century, Jesus' lifetime. And now, The Lost Gospel provides the first-ever translation from Syriac into English of this unique document that tells the inside story of Jesus' social, family, and political life. The Lost Gospel takes listeners on an unparalleled historical adventure through a paradigm-shifting manuscript.

In the winter of 1945, in Upper Egypt, an Arab peasant discovered a large vessel. Inside were scrolls containing a hitherto unseen book. One of these books was the Gospel of Thomas. Here before you is the translation of that book. This is the contemporary translation of the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas with Greek and Coptic verses. Included are Bible parallels and commentary placed within the flow of the text to explain and expand these amazing verses.