Product Description: Sacred Wells is an in depth study of springs, wells and waters that have been venerated from California to Cornwall, Russia to Australia. Tales of faeries, black hounds, hauntings and miraculous cures are explored. Many of these sites are still locations for religious festivals and ritual, unchanging for hundreds of years...read more

Product Description: The symbols and strange images that we find in our cemeteries, religious structures, banks and in our parks are the same symbols that have been part of the framework of the human psyche for thousands of years. While contemporary man may think that they are simply decorative manifestations of a by-gone era, they represent the fears, dreams, ideas, beliefs and struggles that humankind has endured since we began to walk upright...read more

Product Description: Today the majority of humankind worships a single God. Although this God is said to be all loving and wanting peace for his worshippers there is very little peace among the three religions based on common theology. Judaism, Christianity and Islam all fost

Bringing together a medley of stories, myths, and folklore Gary Varner shares a fascination and respect for humankind's early and contemporary cultures and wonders at similarities across the board. Here, he focuses on "Little People" and giants, animals and were-creatures, and the odd, helpful or threatening ways imputed to our earthly companions including dogs and cats, bats and spiders, and the stories people have told each other about them since time immemorial. Gary Varner has performed a valuable service in these books. [Presenting] lore from about the world, a collector's hoard of traditions rich and strange, ... Varner shows there really are obvious and puzzling similarities between widely separated cultures. Gary Varner has pointed the way to some important cross-cultural readings in the ageless themes of stone and water. - Jeremy Harte, Curator of the Bourne Hall Museum, Surrey, England, in Northern Earth magazine, #103, 2005 Menhirs, Dolmen and Circles of Stone is an excellent guide to large-scale magical stones and stone magic. This book is a must for anyone interested in megalithic sites. Most highly recommended. -PanGaia Magazine, United States As with other books by the same author, this is a book based upon broad research into the subject, stretching across the world. What results is a fascinating weave of stories and images, descriptions of sites and associated tales, that leaves a sense of a thousand deities whispering in the air. Because it is so broad a sweep, the positive outcome is an overreaching perspective of the patterns and commonalities held between human communities - our ancestors - all around the world. The book is a sound overview and provocation to research more deeply ourselves, to find alternative visions, tales and interpretations, to find out more about the sacred currents, their depths and importance - both to our ancestors and to ourselves. The author's notations are comprehensive, allowing us easily to follow the clues. A valuable piece of work. -The Druid Network, England * Gary R. Varner is a lecturer and writer on folklore and early religions. He is author of several popular books comparing legends and beliefs around the world, including The Mythic Forest, the Green Man & the Spirit of Nature (Algora 2006); Menhirs, Dolmen and Circles of Stone: The Folklore and Magic of Sacred Stone (Algora 2005); and Sacred Wells: A Study in the History, Meaning, and Mythology of Holy Wells. His approach incorporates details from ancient cultures and from Native American, UK and European, Asian, South Pacific and African folklore. Varner is a member of the American Folklore Society.

Product Description: The Dark Wind provides a survey of witches around the world, their prehistoric origin and how society has viewed them throughout history. Folklorist Gary R. Varner explores the use of magic, spells and curses among indigenous groups as well as state approved religions such as those observed in ancient Rome and Greece, and how even contemporary Christianity uses many of the same "magic" combinations...read more

Product Description: Trees and forests are rich in symbolism and have been feared or revered since man began to walk the earth. Mankind has given a recognizable face to the awesome and impalpable forces of nature in the image of the Green Man and the nature spirits that this book explores...read more

Product Description: From the Stone Age to today, humans have erected stones, shaped stones, and attributed special powers to stones large and small. Gary Varner presents a sweeping historical and cultural overview of the symbolic significance of stones over the ages in an excellent reference for anyone interested in folklore, history, and the development of religion...read more

Product Description: Water of Life-Water of Death is an exploration of the folklore and mythology of sacred water found throughout the world. A companion volume to Sacred Wells, Water of Life-Water of Death continues the quest for the underlying sacredness associated with water and the universal themes found in folklore and religious traditions from around the world...read more

Product Description: This book is a welcome addition to the scant literature concerning holy wells, springs, and rivers around the world. One of a few serious works outside of regional studies which discusses, in depth, the folklore, mythology, and archaeology of holy wells and springs, as well as rituals that still exist today at many of the sacred water sites around the world...read more