Titus Burckhardt was Swiss and an eminent member of the traditionalist school. He is perhaps best known to the English-speaking public as the author of the following books: Sacred Art in East and West; Siena, City of the Virgin; Moorish Culture in Spain; and Alchemy: Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul. A generation ago, he won much acclaim for producing and publishing the first successful, full-scale facsimiles of the Book of Kells and other ancient manuscripts. In more recent years, he acted as a specialist advisor to UNESCO, with particular reference to the preservation of the unique architectural heritage of Fez, which was then in danger. The present volume is a complete collection of Burckhardt's essays, originally published in a variety of German and French journals. They range from modern science in its various forms, through Christianity and Islam, to symbolism and mythology. It is a rich collection. Burckhardt blends an accessible style with a penetrating insight. He interprets the metaphysical, cosmological, and symbolic dimensions of these sacred traditions from the perspective of timeless, spiritual wisdom.

Fons Vitae is devoted to making available works from the world's great spiritual traditions which could be of true use to a person of any faith seeking Wholeness or Holiness. Literally translated from Latin as "the fountain of life", fons vitae refers to the Knowledge which flows out to mankind from the Divine Source. Although Fons Vitae was established in 1997, its efforts are a continuation of publishing begun in Cambridge, England in 1979 as Quinta Essentia (focused on symbolism, the arts, and universal spirituality) and the Islamic Texts Society (whose aim is to translate important work in the Islamic tradition, especially Sufism). Our wish is to bring out books which are exquisitely produced and impeccable in scholarship, which could be used with confidence by both the university professor in classes and by the person interested in the eternal verities, with no compromise to a recent soft focus on spirituality. A person seeking the realm of the sacred must have authentic and reliable traditional sources to find the sustenance required for his or her own path and inspiration. Our work has been so beautifully crafted that we won the 1991 and 1993 Best Produced and Designed Book Award in Great Britain. Works from Fons Vitae often become focal points for events -- Merton and Sufism: The Untold Story precipitated a congress at the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine College, Louisville, Kentucky. His Holiness the Dalai Lama requested Islam in Tibet and The Ornaments of Lhasa be brought into being. Cairo: 1001 Years of Islamic Art and Architecture and Islam: A Pictorial Essay have been prominent in the film festival of the Middle East Studies Association annualconference. Complete collection of Burckhardt's essays shows how the symbolist perspective cultivated by the Sufis offers insights into Islamic art as well as Russian icons, the Odyssey, chess, and the Sun Dance of the American Indians.

A dazzlingly original and ambitious book on the history of female self-portraiture by one of today's most well-respected art critics. Her story weaves in and out of time and place. She's Frida Kahlo, Loïs Mailou Jones and Amrita Sher-Gil en route to Mexico City, Paris or Bombay. She's Suzanne Valadon and Gwen John, craving city lights, the sea and solitude; she's Artemisia Gentileschi striding through the streets of Naples and Paula Modersohn-Becker in Worpswede. She's haunting museums in her paint-stained dress, scrutinising how El Greco or Titian or Van Dyck or Cézanne solved the problems that she too is facing. She's railing against her corsets, her chaperones, her husband and her brothers; she's hammering on doors, dreaming in her bedroom, working day and night in her studio. Despite the immense hurdles that have been placed in her way, she sits at her easel, picks up a mirror and paints a self-portrait because, as a subject, she is always available. Until the twentieth century, art history was, in the main, written by white men who tended to write about other white men. The idea that women in the West have always made art was rarely cited as a possibility. Yet they have - and, of course, continue to do so - often against tremendous odds, from laws and religion to the pressures of family and public disapproval. In The Mirror and the Palette, Jennifer Higgie introduces us to a cross-section of women artists who embody the fact that there is more than one way to understand our planet, more than one way to live in it and more than one way to make art about it. Spanning 500 years, biography and cultural history intertwine in a narrative packed with tales of rebellion, adventure, revolution, travel and tragedy enacted by women who turned their back on convention and lived lives of great resilience, creativity and bravery.

Spiritual attainment has frequently been described as a transformation whereby a human's leaden, dull nature is returned to its golden state. This wonderfully insightful volume introduces some of the metaphors useful for establishing attitudes required for the soul's advancement: trust, confidence, hope, and detachment. It is a reminder that when any substance or entity undergoes dissolution, it must eventually be resolved or re-crystalized in a new, possibly higher and more noble form.

By considering the thought and personalities of two popular icons of twentieth century philosophical and psychological thought, Nietzsche and Jung demonstrates how analytical psychology can be enriched by investigating its philosophical roots.

Unique study of the spirit and artistic fluorescence of the 800 years of Moorish dominance.

This fascinating edited collection of art historian Titus Burckhardt's most important writings on Hindu, Buddhist, and Taoist art is lavishly illustrated with 140 superb examples of Oriental art, architecture, statuary, and painting.