Marcus Manilius’s Astronomica is one of our oldest and most detailed historical sources for how ancient astrologers conceptualized the twelve places. Manilius is believed to have composed this work in the early first century, probably around 14 A.D.1 In contrast, Valens, whom astrologer Chris Brennan acclaims as “the single most important surviving source for studying …
Empedocles (c.494-c.434 BC), like Pythagoras, is a presocratic philosopher whom contemporary expositors either deride or ignore. Because he is a philosopher who sings, invoking the muse and articulating his doctrines as hexameter poems (D7)[1], if it is presented at all, he is presented as an object of either pity (for his alleged ignorance) or scorn …
Pythagorean Myths: Classical and Contemporary Pythagoras is one of the most elusive and intriguing figures in the history of Western philosophy. He is the rumored source of many of the core doctrines of Platonism such as the idea that the soul is immortal and reincarnates after death, that our empirical world constitutes a harmonious cosmos …
Richard Strassman’s DMT: The Spirit Molecule—A Doctor’s Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near Death and Mystical Experiences is best understood as a Neo-Cartesian project. Ostensibly, it recounts the details of his clinical research into the effects of DMT, but its overall argument is thoroughly Cartesian. The problem of mind-body interaction has long plagued Cartesian …
Shamanism is a primordial form of religion found in many tribal cultures. The term “shaman” is said to be derived from the Manchu-Tungus word “šaman” meaning “one who knows.”[1] Specifically, the shaman is one who knows the world of spirit and the techniques by which to travel and operate within it. Published in 1951, Mircea …