I have been able to have only a cursory glance, so far, but the remarkable contents of this book have enabled me to confirm a theory on which I am working, relating to the palaeopyschology of links between natural phenomena and the emergence of belief in divinities. I look forward to having a much more detailed browse. The size of the font in this reduced facsimile is indeed small. I have poor eyesight, with thick multifocal lenses in my spectacles, but have little trouble reading the book.

Since writing the above, I've used the book often in searches for IE cognates, particularly Sanksrit, and have found it very useful.

Brian Barratt...

I was initially disappointed by this book, since I have a particular interest in Persian (Farsi or Iranian). Alas, Persian is almost completely unrepresented, although Irish seems to be everywhere. Basically, this book is very weak on any Indo-European language east of Suez.

Still, it's a splendid reference and a great achievement.

You can pick this book up and flip to any page at random and learn something that will make you go "huh!". I recommend this book for anybody at all interested in language or thought, either just getting into linguistics or a tenured professor.

The entries are from basic vocabulary, grouped by topic (food, familial relations, etc.), though there's an alphabetical index in the back. For each entry, Mr. Buck gives the word (sometimes a couple different words) in Ancient Greek, Modern Greek, Latin, the Romance languages, the Celtic languages, the main Germanic languages (incl. Old, Middle, and Modern English), Balto-Slavic, and usually Indo-Iranian (occasionally Armenian).

But the cool thing is that then he gives an always-enlightening discussion below on how they are related, what ideas lie behind different word-choices, how they've changed, and so forth. This discussion is usu. about 2-3 times the length of the list and is the best part.

This book used to be a big hefty lieberry book, but the University of Chicago has reprinted it into a handy paperback, with four of the old pages on each new one. One reviewer said you'd need a magnifying glass, but I have terrible vision and I can read it just fine.

It's a great book to read on the toilet, or whenever you're just sittin' around waitin' for somethin' to happen. You'll learn something every time you read it, and at this price it's one of the best book-deals you'll get anywhere.

"The dead came back from Jerusalem, where they did not find what they were seeking." So begins the short esoteric treatise "The Seven Sermons to the Dead" by the late C.G. Jung, reproduced here with an introduction and extensive commentary and analysis by the learned and insightful Dr. Stephan A. Hoeller.

Who are the dead? They are really the living dead, the spiritually dead -- those who are ignorant of "the knowledge of the heart", or Gnosis. Why do they return from Jerusalem? Because it is the symbolic home of the dogmatism and "dead creeds" which have blinded men to their own true nature.

This book is part gnostic treatise and part academic exegesis of Jung's "Seven Sermons". It serves as an extremely enlightening introduction to both Gnosticism and Jungian psychology. Hoeller clears up many misunderstandings about the ancient Gnostics, who have been vilified by mainstream Christians as "heretics" since ancient times. He also restores dignity to the notion that we (post)moderns can draw on a store of "ancient wisdom". New Age gurus who can't hold a candle to Hoeller bandy this phrase about ad nauseum. Hoeller's knowledge of history and primary texts and his own insight and wisdom shine through to create a unique and vital synthesis that puts the New Age crowd to shame.

Hoeller's writing is intellectually sound and spiritually compelling. There is no dry analysis or tedious language here. Indeed, Hoeller clearly loves the English language and uses it more creatively and adeptly than many native speakers (English is not his first language). His style tends toward the esoteric, but such is the clarity of his thought that the sometimes archaic vocabulary doesn't distract one's attention for an instant. To give an example, Hoeller explains the symbolism of the rooster-head found on images of the ancient Gnostic "god" Abraxas as follows:

"The head of the rooster symbolizes vigilant wakefulness and is related to both the human heart and to universal heart, the sun, the rising of which is invoked by the matutinal clarion call of the chanticleer."

If such highbrow style isn't your cup of tea -- well, then, this book isn't for you. As for me, I found joy on every page and give Stephan Hoeller's "The Gnostic Jung" the highest possible recommendation.

Many decades later Jung commented thus upon these sermons: "All my work, all my creative activity, has come from those initial fantasies ... everything that I accomplished in later life was already contained in them ..."

The seven sermons deal with the self as the androgynous being Abraxas, with the message that self-knowledge may be attained by the conscious assimilation of the contents of the subconscious, in order to achieve unity. The "dead" are those who stopped growing spiritually by not questioning their egos. By not growing, they are in essence the living dead.

Jung considered his own work a link in the golden chain from ancient gnosticism via philosophical alchemy to the modern psychology of the subconscious. Just as in those ancient texts, his work reveals a fragmented self in which the image of the divine may be found.

The author made his own translation of the sermons and provided a comprehensive preface, exegesis of the sermons and afterword in which he comments grippingly on Jung, gnosticism and the current era. His views on the survival of the pansophic/theosophic tradition (through the arts) are particularly enlightening.

Jung's central doctrine of individuation is an ancient concept of the western esoteric tradition - the tendency of the individual consciousness not to surrender its light into nothingness. Unlike many eastern spiritual systems, the Western tradition never knew the permanent dissolution of the individual consciousness in the divine.

Already in the first sermon this question is discussed, i.e. how to remain an individual while simultaneously achieving an optimal degree of unity with the ineffable greatness of the pleroma within us. Jung gives us an undivided model of reality in which both causal and acausal connections, spirit and matter, are reconciled.

As for belief, Jung convincingly argues that human beings have a religious need - not a need for belief, however, but one for religious experience. This is a psychical experience that leads to the integration of the soul. Inner wholeness - gnosis - is achieved not by belief in ideas, but by experience.

In the place of a god to believe in, Jung thus offers us an existential truth that we can experience. He rejects the "god of belief" in favor of a symbol of lasting validity, and instead of the much abused concept of "belief", he offers the power of the imagination as the way to gnosis, just as in the magickal and alchemical traditions.

The seven sermons are gripping and poetic, while the commentary is full of insight and enriched by quotes from inter alia the Nag Hammadi texts, Plotinus, Helena Blavatsky, Emerson and others. The most beautiful is a moving poem by the mystic Angelus Silesius, of which I quote a part:

"God is such as he is,
I am what I must be;
If you know one, in truth
You know both him and me.

I am the vine, which he
Doth plant and cherish most;
The fruit which grows from me
Is God, the holy ghost."

This text, and Basilides' thoughts on the pleroma (fullness of god), reminded me of Patti Smith's song "Hymn" on her album Wave:

"When I am troubled in the night
He comes to comfort me
He wills me through the darkness
And the empty child is free

To take his hand, his sacred heart
The heart that breaks the dawn, amen.
And when I think I've had my fill
He fills me up again."

I highly recommend this book as a bridge between psychology and religion, or rather the religious experience in the human psyche. It ought to be read together with William James' "The Varieties of Religious experience" and Richard Maurice Bucke's "Cosmic Consciousness", for a breathtaking metaphysical and metatextual experience.

Gnosticism was a late antique worldview contemporary with early Christianity that claimed the human soul was a stranded fragment of the divine and uncreated Light from which all binaries, including God and the Devil, emanate. Our purpose in life is to transcend the base world of matter--the creation of an evil God--and find our way back to the Pleroma or source of all being.

In 1916 Jung wrote a short set of "sermons" under the name of the ancient Gnostic Basilides. He had them privately printed and later cited them as the inspiration for his subsequent psychological theories. This book not only makes a vivid case for Jung's thought as "a psychological restatement of Gnosticism," but also defines the major Gnostic doctrines with clarity and sympathy. Hoeller is a Gnostic himself and wants to recover this "heresy" from the accusations that drove it underground when Rome colonized Christianity. He takes on many critiques of the Gnostics, which run the gamut from early Church Fathers to modern thinkers like Martin Buber, and shows how Jungian psychology gives Gnosticism a new lease on life by transforming its beliefs into powerful symbols of the human psyche. That he's not afraid to step down from the lectern and argue as a believer gives the study an urgency you rarely find in more academic accounts of the Gnostics (see, for example, James M. Robinson's excellent introduction to the one-volume Nag Hammadi Library).

I finished the book with two minds about Gnosticism, which seems about right for a worldview so taken with binaries! On the one hand, the Gnostics insist on our essential divinity. Each individual carries a piece of the light within and is free to develop it without the constraints of dogmas or moral laws. With 9/11 so fresh on the brain, that must sound appealing to anyone reading this right now. On the other hand, the view of creation as evil, or at least inferior to the higher realities of the spirit, troubles me. I agree with Hoeller that it's probably unfair to brand the Gnostics as "World Haters." But to revive this ancient sect, even in Jung's symbolic form, I think you have to come to grips with its disdain for the material world of bodies and atoms and things that modern science makes more attractive to us all the time. With so much power in our merely human hands, the point shouldn't be to escape physical reality, but redeem it. Why save your own soul if you lose the whole world? That sounds pretentious even as I write it! But I'm clearer on where I stand after reading this lucid book and I think you will be, too.

Carl Sommer does a great job of utilizing age old concepts in teaching children character education concepts through his stories. My son absoutely loved the book and it will be a must read book on our family list. The book is easy to read and is illustrated magnificiently. Virtues such as hard work, obedience, self-acceptance, perserverance, truthfulness, kindness and respect for parents are taught through this story. All things we are trying to teach our children.

This is a fun story that would be great for kids. It's a story that shows motives can be hidden but will usually be discovered. A great lesson for kids!

The Great Royal Race was one of my favorite Carl Sommer books. It's a story about Princess Elizabeth who must choose between three suitors to be become her new husband and the next king. Her father had a wonderful idea on how to find him, and put all three suitors to a true test of loyalty. As the story ends you find out who her true love really is as he passes the royal test. What a great lesson in loyalty, love and wisdom.

I've always loved fairy tales, and I've never found a better version of Grimm's Tales. Why? The translation! Other versions tend to gloss over the details, taking away from the richness (and occasionally, gruesomeness) of the original. Manheim stays true to the spirit of the work in his translation, and the character of the original really shines through.

The best example I can give is one of the stories -- "The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers." Other versions translate this as "The Boy who left home to find out what fear was." Why is this wrong? Well, the story is really about the physical effects of fear -- shivering. He didn't actually leave home to find out about fear itself. The gist of the story is that the main character never understood why his brother would "get the shivers" when he heard a scary story, so (among other reasons) he leaves home to seek his fortune. No matter what scary things he encounters, he never gets the shivers. Finally, at the end, the princess he married gets fed up with his whining about the shivers, and while he's sleeping, dumps a bucket of cold water full of minnows on him. He wakes up happy, saying "I'm shivering, I'm shivering!"

To this day, I use this story as a test of any translation of the Brothers Grimm.

What a great read! As an adult reading this to myself I am enjoying these tales! Contrary to what most people think these tales truly are meant for adult ears and are of interest to all ages.

Manheim explains that in early translations these were incorrectly labeled fairy tales and mistakenly assumed they were stories for children only. Over and over I am shocked by the gruesome content and punishments. Punishment by entrapping someone inside a barrel lined with the nail heads and then rolling them down a hill, father cutting off his daughters hands to avoid harm to himself, etc.

The reason I began reading these was to get a purist idea of what the Grimms' tales were: having grown up on the Disney version I was curious about the real thing. I was surprised at what I found, and happy! I was hoping to retell these stories to my 3 year-old but I have yet to find one that is tame enough to retell to him, but that is okay.

The storytelling nature of this is truly captured and I am entranced by these tales. The translator explains in his preface that this was the first time that the tales were translated from German to English by one person who was reading the original Grimms' manuscripts. This was first published in 1977. Manheim explains how earlier translations by other translators were muddled and errors made which changed some words, and at worst enough of the content was erroneous that the reader was really missing out on the true flavor and intent of the story. Manheim claims his edition is the most pure English translation. I compared this with my copy of the Pantheon edition edited by James Stern, as I was reading both copies at the same time. I found that the Manheim edition made more sense, that is, that some words were correctly translated to English while the other book had some words that I had just never heard of and could not understand. What fun to read these tales! Reading this book has been more fun than reading some recent fictional works. I have a renewed interest in reading about the old folk tales and fables now. Indulge yourself and read this book!

This book contains the stories and fairy tales presented by the Brothers Grimm in their original form (translated from German). There are 210 tales in this book, and some of the more well known of these stories include: Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Hansel & Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin, Rapunzel.... And the list goes on.

These original stories contain undertones that are lost with Disney-like euphemisms and euphemistic adaptations. This also means there are some ghastly contents to children, so be attentive. As well, it is unillustrated, and may be more difficult to relay to children, but any effort will be well worth it, in my opinion. At any rate, it could be good reading for adults who wish to discover the original version of some of the fairy tales they might have heard as a child.

If you are looking for a book that shows a step by step process for identifying and partnering with the emergence of the Self, this is it. Never condescending, always challenging, Raff uses well known alchemical prints to show the path to individuation which is really the art of identifying the guidance of the self and allowing the ego to partner with it, without impeding it. Bravo Jeffrey Raff for having such faith in your readers as to allow them to know what the Alchemists have always known: That everything that you need for your transformation in the eternal realm of this life is within you, simply waiting to be utilized and understood. Understanding this book, could change your life.

This analysand (4 years in Jungian analysis) finally found a post-Jungian book that breaks new ground. Students of alchemy, in any tradition, will find a treasure of meaning in these pages-- especially if you are interested in how alchemy and psychology relate to one another! Raff wells articulates the "transcendent function" in very understandable terms (even for a student not well acquainted with Jung's writings). He then postulates a concept of what he terms the "psychoid." And, that is exactly where the reader will find the pay dirt. I was especially thrilled to find a very concrete discussion of the individuation process using the 17th c. alchemical engravings by the German philosopher Lambsprinck. Raff precisely articulates & operationalizes--in psychological terms-- many of the symbols therein. Since I have been studying that particular set of alchemical symbols for ten years, I was thunderstruck with his discussion. I keep his work by my bed with a copy of my now worn out GOLDEN GAME by Stanislas Kolossowski de Rola. I could not put the book down because this author is a true Kabbalist, as well as a Jungian scholar/healer. Thank you Dr. Raff! What a treasure here!

Ignore the complexity of the title. This book is the newest and best handbook on finding your myth. If you are serious about living by guidance from an Intelligence equal to "God", read this book. You need little knowledge of Jung , as Raffe does a great job making him easy to understand. But the power in this book is his focus on the THREE REAL STEPS you must experience as the world of the sub-conscious guides you. Raffe proves this process from the history of Alchemical (read source of all modern chemistry) "scientists". Mystics from world religions are quoted in their experience of the Divine as an Alcemical process. Raffe shows you how you can emulate their process of letting the Ego find it's correct place in your life. My journey goes back 45 years, and this book puts it all together for those of us who seek enlightenment where our heritage is Ocidental. Synchronicity is my myth, and Raffe accurately brings Synchronicity into focus as a major source of finding the sub-conscious guides waiting to help you find your bliss. If you want to know the riddle of what is the "Last Desire" before enlightenment, read the book. The changes associated with the real "straight and narrow" path of one's myth Raffe proves are time tested and proven logically, through the evolution of Alchemy as both real science and the analogy of our soul development. Alchemy and Synchronicity are magic, and both are paradoxical. Raffe shows us how not to fear the often sudden and frightening changes that emerge in a life tuned to expect and accept paradoxical events. And it's done in a non-demoninational process that can produce wholeness and bliss while living in a world of chaos. Raffe is a genuine man, and this book is not the source of an empty fad. This is the real thing, as good as any book from all of the post Jungian writers.

There was a brief stage in my college career when I hoped to get into newspapers. Unfortunately, I'm a very slow writer. I would sweat bullets over remarkably simple stories, and my editorial prowess was equally dubious. It was at that time I discovered Carl Hiaasen and his remarkably subversive novel, TOURIST SEASON. His author's bio indicated that his newspaper setting was drawn from authentic experience -- he was a columnist for the Miami Herald.

Unfortunately, the web was just in its infancy, and access to Hiaasen's newspaper writing was apparently one of the few exclusive benefits of living in South Florida. KICK ASS turns out to be just the sort of collection that I had been craving for many years.

KICK ASS does not disappoint. It begins with a nifty introduction that provides a smattering of biographical information on Hiaasen, as well as a context for the subjects and tone of his columns. Hiaasen clearly resides in a longstanding tradition of muckraking American journalism, and I mean that in the best possible way.

This is no mere sampling of his work -- there are more than 200 columns here, organized by topic, and just about every one of them meets the mandate stated in the title of the collection. Hiaasen has a passion for the environment, consumer protection, crime control, and good government. His portrait of a Florida reeling after the flood of growth and development of the last three decades is even starker than the one in his novels. Speaking of the novels, it is also fun to see where he "lifts" some of his ideas for the things that happen in his books. The overamorous dolphin of NATIVE TONGUE appears in KICK ASS as well.

If there is anything to regret about this book, it is that the topical organization often generates confusion for the reader when certain figures re-occur. Some of them almost develop a roguish charm. After all, us non-Floridians don't have to live with the direct consequences of local corruption. A little wrap-up to let us know how some of the notorious figures and controversies ended up would have been nice. I always hated that device at the end of his novels, but it would be perfect for a collection like this.

As a lifelong resident of Florida (albeit a ninetten-year-old one), I have seen Florida at its best and worst. Hiiasen's columns represented in this book illustrate the "politics" and people of a great but confused state. If you live in Florida, have visited, or even have heard of it, this book will both amuse and depress you, as is the nature of the state. Everyone will identify with the outrage Hiiasen evokes over the disregard of the envirnment, the sham of politics, and the overall life in Miami, and indeed, all of Florida. This book will remind readers of what Marjorie Kinnan-Rawlings and Marjorie Douglass once experienced in Florida, and tells both the good and the bad of what has happened after a hundred years of exploitation If you want a non-stop laugh and a big dose of reality, read this collection - it's one of the best books in print right now.

I know what you are thinking: I'm not a Florida resident. Why should I care about what some newspaper columnist wrote about a local scandal in the Miami Herald in 1987?

There's a lot more reasons for buying this book than you'd expect.

If you appreciate Hiaasen's "fiction," you'll love to read about the fountain of avarice and corruption from which it came.

If you are at all interested in the reality of politics and society in this country, this book will give you an eyeful.

And if you do happen to be a Florida citizen--or even a Florida visitor--you'll be well-served to get a synopsis of South Florida history as witnessed by Carl Hiaasen in the 15 years (and counting) that he's served as one of the Herald's most acerbic, witty, and controversial voices.

This is a lay-persons guide to Jungian theory and shows you how to uncover hidden aspects of your personality, how to interpret dreams, develop creativity and improve relationships. It conveys the essence and spirit of jungian thought in a simple and effective way. Lots of interesting stuff on complexes, archetypes and integrating the personality. I found the discussion of the dynamics of relationships very helpful. I just think more focus on practical implementatiuon in the form of exercises would have been even more helpful, otherwise you'll have to read the book over & over again. Includes a good bibliography and index.

This book provides the clearest explanations I have seen yet of many of the stickiest concepts in Jungian psychology. The author's background in Jungian therapy and religious studies are blended together skillfully to produce a readable and instructive introduction to this fascinating subject.

The chapter on typology, a technique for understanding our inner selves and why we are not true to them, is one of the clearest I have ever read.

The concepts of persona, complexes, archetypes, shadow, Anima and Animus, etc., are presented clearly and directly. The author is always careful to ground the information in real-life language and experience, making it meaningful and applicable to the reader.

The book concludes with chapters on dream interpretation and active imagination, spurring readers to discover their own psychic process through the use of these powerful techniques.

While an introductory book, this work provides much to think about. The author's compassion and sense of humor are evident throughout. It is a worthy addition to the library of those interested in Jungian psychology and personal growth.

When this book was recommended as the pre-read for a Caroline Myss workshop, I was apprehensive. I thought it might be way beyond my comprehension. To my delight I found the book very readable, highly interesting, provocative in the ideas and sound in application. Have you ever read a book and wished it was a workshop? This is it! Encore, Pascal!

Although there are many excellent books and articles covering particular aspects of feminism and science, finding a comprehensive text is difficult. I was delighted to discover _Lifting the Veil_ a few years ago, and have been using it ever since as a text in a class I teach, "Feminist Perspectives in Science." It is written with great sensitivity, insight, clarity, and conviction. Shepherd advocates for greater gender balance in the ways science is conceived, practiced, and taught. Specifically she imagines a more inclusive science--inclusive not only of women and people of color, but also inclusive of certain qualities customarily associated with women and customarily undervalued in Western science. Each chapter features one of these qualities: feeling, receptivity, multiplicity, nurturing, cooperation, intuition, relatedness, and social responsibility. Her writing style is engaging and enjoyable to read. Endnotes, bibliography, and commentary within her text are exceptionally illuminating guides to the literature, and inspire and facilitate further reading. Especially important to me as a teacher is that my students like the book, and read it--even the most skeptical males.

Shepherd exposes male bias in science not in an accusatory way but simply by proposing a positive and appealing alternative-- "more creative, more productive, more relevant, and more humane"--noticing how a more "feminine," inclusive science is emerging already in a thousand different ways, and unveiling the places where it has all along been present but unseen. Her book seems to take into account, as if by design, most of the complaints about science voiced by my students. They find in this book a new face of science to which they can relate.

This is a wonderful book that details the difference between how men and women approach science. It demonstrates those charactoristics that women can uniquely bring to science. As a mathematician I was impressed with Dr. Shepherd's rigorous scholarship and enjoyed her interviews with living women scientists. I'm a father of a teenage girl who plans a career in science, and I appreciate the author's efforts to highlight the special ways that women contribute to the scientific effort.

Lifting the Veil shows the feminine perspective in science, instead of the normal male view. This is extremely illuminating, and makes the reader think of new things -- an alternate reality for many male viewers. There is an important message here: when we do not include the feminine perspective, we miss seeing part of reality. The author mixes philosophy, science, and feminism in a very readable way, filled with anecdotes and conversations with both women scientists and men who are not afraid of their feminine sides.

Very useful for the IMGs. Contains the majority of informations necessary to pass an exams that requires lots of associations between facts that just need to be memorized. The new edition (2002) has been greatly improved, it is better than other more popular comprehensive reviews.

This book is so simple to read that I assumed that it could not be comprehensive. After the exam, I realized just how good the book was. The book looks thick but that is only because the charts and diagrams are big and clear and there is plenty of room to add notes. It is an excellent final review of key concepts and details. Much easier to read than First Aid. If you know everything in this book, you are very well prepared for Step 1.

Fantastic review, very well written and presented Easy ,even funny form of presentation makes studying much easier. Absolutely A MUST for USMLE exams. Worth every penny.

No Longer a Dilly Dally was about two families who moved away from their friends to start a new home in the country. I thought this was a very good book about the lesson of getting your work done first and playing later. It would be a good book about the lesson of hard work and working first before you play. My family is just like the Work Play Family, and even though we follow this good rule, I still have lots of time to play. Great color and illustration, I really like the pictures. My Mom and I read this book together and had a good laugh about how the Work Play Family was just like us.

What parent doesn't spend alot of time trying to convince their child that play time comes after work time. This book is a fun way to reinforce that lesson to kids. Great book!

No Longer A Dilly Dally is an adorable book about the hard working ants, however some ants don't understand that in order to eat they must work first. This story warms your heart as you see the Dilly Dally's learn a hard lesson about laziness. The picture illlustrations are superb and they put a smile on my face. As usual, they have lots of detail. I will share this book with my class and it will enable me to integrate teaching about ants and hard work.