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This section is devoted to expressions of world and historical culture.
The rating system used is as follows:
5 Melted Elephants: Mind-bogglingly excellent. All that will remain of your elephant will be a bubbling grey liquid.
4 Melted Elephants: Truly remarkable. The eyes looking out from the seething mass which was your elephant will alarm small children.
3 Melted Elephants: Interesting and worthwhile. Your elephant's features will swirl as though the world were the reflection in a glassy lake.
2 Melted Elephants: Has redeeming features. Your elephant will be sticky to the touch.
1 Melted Elephant: Not up to snuff. If you even attempt to test the consistency of your elephant it may trample you or turn away in disgust.
Robert Fludd : Hermetic Philosopher and Surveyor of 2 Worlds
by Joscelyn Godwin
5 Melted Elephants
Wonderful alchemical etchings. The eye looking out of the cloud, the darkness at the center of light.
Art and Symbols of the Occult : Images of Power and Wisdom
by James Wasserman (Editor)
4 Melted Elephants
The tree of life can refract into an almost fractal snowflake.
Witchcraft : Magic and Alchemy
by Grillot De Givry
5 Melted Elephants
Probably the finest survey of the occult arts in English. Filled with extraordinary illustrations.
Sacred Geometry : Philosophy and Practice
by Robert Lawlor
5 Melted Elephants
Graphs of God.
Man and His Symbols
by Carl Gustav Jung et al
4 Melted Elephants
Tutankhamen through Godzilla
Sacred Dance : Encounter With the Gods
by Maria-Grabiele Wosien, Maria-Gabriele Wosien
3 Melted Elephants
Think of the universe as its atoms dancing under a spell
The Dances of Africa
by Michel Huet (Photographer), Claude Savary (Contributor), Dorothy Blair (Translator)
5 Melted Elephants
African masks are normally viewed stuffed and mounted, but here they are still alive. This amazing book conveys better than any other I've seen, the beauty and power of traditional African cultures.
Africa : The Art of a Continent
by Tom Phillips
5 Melted Elephants
If you like African art this one will blow you away.
The Royal Arts of Africa : The Majesty of Form
by Suzanne Preston Blier
5 Melted Elephants
Kings seem to get the best stuff
Divine Inspiration : From Benin to Bahia
by Phyllis Galembo, Robert Farris Thompson, Joseph Nevadomsky
5 Melted Elephants
The photographs here of altars and ritual dress convey an absolutely uncanny sense of magic.
Aboriginal Art
by Wally Caruana
5 Melted Elephants
The symbolism of Aboriginal art is deliberately hermetic. Mysterious, beautiful off-symmetry.
Dreamings : The Art of Aboriginal Australia
by Peter Sutton (Editor)
5 Melted Elephants
Another excellent survey of this unique contemporary flowering of an alien way of seeing the world
Oceanic Art
by Nicholas Thomas
5 Melted Elephants
Patterns of an almost eidetic quality incised into flesh and the rest of the world
Arts of the Pacific Islands
by Anne D'Alleva
5 Melted Elephants
How many worlds are there?
Oceanic Art
by Anthony J. P. Meyer, Olaf Wipperfurth (Photographer)
5 Melted Elephants
To my taste not as consistent as the above 2 books but the most comprehensive and best presented, with many wonderful pictures.
Arms and Armor of the Samurai
by Ian Bottomley, A. P. Hopson (Contributor)
5 Melted Elephants
World cultures' apotheosis in the aesthetization of the warrior
Art of Tantra
by Philip S. Rawson
4 Melted Elephants
Eroticism, mathematics, magic, and metaphysics woven into images of each other
The Tantric Way
by Ajit Mookerjee, Madhu Khanna (Contributor)
4 Melted Elephants
Everything as symbol, instinct as potential fuel to power understanding
The Great Book of Tantra : Translations and Images from the Classic Indian Texts
by Indra Sinha
3 Melted Elephants
Focussed too exclusively on the erotic aspects of tantra, this book still has much of interest
Native American Dance : Ceremonies and Social Traditions
by Charlotte Heth (Editor), National Museum of the American Indian, W. Richard West
4 Melted Elephants
Lots of nice photos here. - I affectionately embrace the persistence of the word "Indians" as a telling monument to the dominion of error.
Mola : Cuna Life Stories and Art
by Maricel E. Presilla
3 Melted Elephants
I consider the molas of the Cuna Indians of Panama, the bead- and yarn-work in wax of the Mexican Huichol Indians, and the contemporay paintings of Australian Aborigines, to be the three great contemporary flowerings of art from authentic folk traditions. Molas deserve a stronger book; in the meantime this book for children is of interest.
Huichol Indian Sacred Rituals
by Susana Valadez, Mariano Valadez (Illustrator)
4 Melted Elephants
Extraordinary images of yarn inlaid in wax illustrate themes in the mythology of this Mexican Indian people who use peyote as a traditional sacrament
