Bøger af Jean Markale

Druidism was one of the greatest and most exalting adventures of the human spirit, attempting to reconcile the unreconcilable, the individual and the collective, creator and created, good and evil, day and night, past and future, and life and death. Because of the oral nature of Celtic civilization our understanding of its spiritual truths and rituals is necessarily incomplete. Yet evidence exists that can provide the modern reader with a better understanding of the doctrine that took druidic apprentices 20 years to learn in the remote forests of the British Isles and Gaul.Using the descriptions of the druids and their beliefs provided by the historians and chroniclers of classic antiquity -- as well as those recorded by the insular Celts themselves when compelled, under Christianity's influence, to utilize writing to preserve their ancestral traditions -- Jean Markale painstakingly pieces together all that is known for certain about them. The druids were more than simply the priests of the Celtic people; their influence extended to all aspects of Celtic life. The Druids covers everything concerning the Celtic religious domain, intellectual speculations, cultural or magical practices, various beliefs, and the so-called profane sciences that have come down from the Celtic priesthood.Poet, philosopher, historian, and storyteller, Jean Markale has spent a lifetime researching Celtic civilizations. He is the author of more than 40 books on pre-Christian societies, including The Celts, Merlin, Women of the Celts, and King of the Celts. He lives in the Brittany region of France.

The history and philosophy of the mysterious Cathar religion and its lost treasure.

A world-renowned Celtic historian restores the classic Irish epics to their original sacred context. • Restores the true Celtic morality and sentiment to these tales, which were expurgated by Christian monks. • Reveals how deeply these mythic tales have shaped modern sensibility. • Shows how the ancient Celtic tradition provides answers to contemporary spiritual needs. Some of the most powerfully moving tales in Western literature are to be found in the epics of Celtic Ireland. Heroes and heroines like Finn Mac Cool, Grainne, and Cuchulainn are now familiar names, and their exploits have even been novelized for the contemporary reader. But the value of these stories extends far beyond mere entertainment. In Celtic myth the adventure of a hero and a warrior is not only an instinctive search for answers to the great human metaphysical problems, but also a palpable, even sensual experience. The dividing line between sacred and profane is forever shifting in ways that can be shocking, if not incomprehensible, to a person accustomed to the logical systems based on classical thought. Distrustful of the written word, Celtic druids forbade anything involving their tradition from being put into writing. However, Christian monks chose to preserve all they could of the oral tradition on paper. Unfortunately, they did not hesitate to alter what they couldn''t comprehend, or what their Christian sensibilities found shocking. In this collection of some of the most important narratives in the rich Irish tradition, Jean Markale restores these texts to their original form and reveals how the Celtic spirit is on the verge of reclaiming its rights.

CELTIC MYTHOLOGYWas Merlin a mythical character or a real person? If he was a real person, when and where did he live? In this provocative survey of all the known literary and historical sources, Jean Markale pieces together a compelling story of who and what Merlin might have been. Combining his investigation of the sources with fragments of Celtic mythology, Druidic culture, and the esoteric tradition, Markale draws an enlightening portrait of the archetypal Wild Man and shaman known as Merlin, who lived in the Lowlands of Scotland late in the sixth century, some fifty years after the reign of King Arthur.In a state of divine madness Merlin sought refuge in the forest, where he inherited the gift of prophecy. With him was his companion, Vivian, an essential element of the Merlin legend. Their sacred clearing in the woods--described in some legends as an invisible castle of glass or air--was the site of their ecstatic journey of enlightenment and union with nature. From his place in the Cosmic Tree and outside of time, Merlin the enchanter challenges us to reexamine our way of life.When the Merlin legend resurfaced in the twelth century, his message of the universal brotherhood of all beings and things called out to a rapidly urbanizing society that was losing touch with nature. His warning, which went unheeded, is no less relevant to us today than it was at the dawn of the modern era.Poet, philosopher, historian, and storyteller, JEAN MARKALE has spent a lifetime researching Celtic civilizations. He is the author of forty books on pre-Christian societies, including The Celts, Women of the Celts, and King of the Celts.

MYTHOLOGY / WOMEN'S STUDIES In ancient Babylon she was Anat, in Egypt, Isis and Hathor, Dana in Celtic Ireland, Rhea and Demeter in Greece, and in India, Anapurna the "Provider." She is the Great Goddess, the symbol of earth and the giver of life, the Vast Mother, who represented all the powers and mysteries of creation for our ancestors. In this comprehensive exploration of the Goddess figure, Jean Markale, one of today's foremost Celtic historians, examines how over time patriarchal societies tried to force the preeminent power of the feminine into an obscure and sub-servient position, shifting her solar association onto masculine deities and discrediting those of her symbols, like the serpent, that could not be easily assimilated. With its extensive investigation of all the myths, sites, and sanctuaries devoted to this influential figure, The Great Goddess provides us with abundant evidence of the extraordinary permanence of her worship--even at the heart of those religions that tried to destroy her. Markale explains how the Goddess did not simply disappear when her position was usurped, but went underground, resurfacing time and again in altered but distinctly recognizable forms. The great solar goddess of Celtic culture reappears as the mythical Grainne and in the well-known legend of Tristan and Iseult. Features of the primordial Lilith, relegated to darkness in rabbinical tradition, can be discerned in the incomprehensible Black Virgins of Christian sanctuaries. And one of the key figures of modern Christianity, the Virgin Mary, possesses all the characteristics of the ancient Mother Goddess: wisdom, beneficence, nurturance, and sacred sexuality. Whether in Ancient Egypt, the Roman Empire, Celtic Europe, or the present day, the goddess played, and continues to play, an integral part in society's need to connect with the source of all creation. Poet, philosopher, historian, and storyteller, JEAN MARKALE has spent a lifetime researching pre-Christian civilizations. He is the author of more than forty books, including The Druids, The Celts, Merlin, Women of the Celts, and King of the Celts. A specialist in Celtic studies at the Sorbonne, he lives in the Brittany region of France.

An extensive examination of the religious anomalies and lost treasure of the Mary Magdalene Church in Rennes-le-Château • Looks at the connection between the Templars, Cathars, and other enigmatic groups in the history of this church and the surrounding area• Maintains that Mary Magdalene was the high priestess who anointed Jesus into his priesthood, in accordance with ancient religious tradition • Explores the role of the Sacred Feminine in early Christian Church historyThe small church of Rennes-le-Château, in a remote village in southern France, may well hold the key to the proof of Mary Magdalene’s marriage to Jesus and the bloodline they founded. In 1885 the village of Rennes-le-Château welcomed a new priest, Abbe Saunière, for its church dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene. Abbe Saunière ordered very strange restoration work for the church, and it is thought that he discovered something during this renovation that brought him to the attention of the power brokers of that time and made him a very rich man. Possible identifications of his discovery range from the gold pillaged from Delphi in Roman times; the treasure brought out of Jerusalem by the Templars, who had a strong presence in this area; and the missing Cathar treasure, spirited out of Montségur mere days before the fall of that fortress.Yet even more curious and compelling is this church’s ambiguous portrayal of Mary Magdalene. Markale explains that the unusual depictions of Mary in the church hint at an even more archaic role performed by Mary that could shake the very foundations of the Church if it were fully understood: that of the high priestess who anoints the priest king into his spiritual duties.