This unique study examines Dante's Divine Comedy in relation to the evolution of consciousness, and explores Dante's connection to the Knights Templar, the Fedeli d'Amore, and other esoteric movements.By analysing the poetry of Dante and the other Italian poets of the Fedeli d'Amore, the author investigates the existence of a 'secret language' and the transmission of sacred knowledge hidden within the lyrics of those who partook in the Dolce Stil Novo (Sweet New Style), the most significant literary movement in Italy during the 13th century.The book culminates in an in-depth analysis of the Divine Comedy in its entirety, canto by canto, based on the threefold nature of the human being -- thinking, feeling and willing, as outlined by Rudolf Steiner.

Why does Dante describe the Inferno as a real place? What secret society did Dante belong to? What was Dante's connection with the Knights Templar? What was his secret connection to militant Islamic sects? Jonathan Black, author of the international bestseller The Secret History of the World, uncovers the real-life stories of Dante and The Inferno. Here you will find hidden codes, passageways under the streets of Florence, mad monks, mind-bending drugs and terrifying underground rituals. Together they contain all the elements of a great thriller - greed, murder, obsessive love, betrayal - and they reveal a 2,000-year-old conspiracy: to rule the world. Perfect if you want to understand the mysteries that inspired Dan Brown's novel Inferno, or as a standalone initiation to one of the great turning points in occult history.

Dante brings the legendary author—and the medieval Italy of his era— to vivid life, describing the political intrigue, battles, culture, and society that shaped his writing. Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy has defined how people imagine and depict heaven and hell for over seven centuries. However, outside of Italy, his other works are not well known, and less still is generally known about the context he wrote them in. In Dante, Barbero brings the legendary author’s Italy to life, describing the political intrigue, battles, city and society that shaped his life and work. The son of a shylock who dreams of belonging to the world of writers and nobles, we follow Dante into the dark corridors of politics where ideals are shattered by rampant corruption, and then into exile as he travels Italy and discovers the extraordinary color and variety of the countryside, the metropolises, and the knightly courts. This is a book by a serious scholar with real popular appeal, as evidenced by its bestseller ranking in Italy. It is a remarkable piece of forensic investigation into medieval Italian life.

Mark Booth, author of the international bestseller The Secret History of the World, uncovers the real-life stories of Dante and The Inferno. Why does Dante describe the Inferno as a real place? What secret society did Dante belong to? What was Dante’s connection with the Knights Templar? What was his secret connection to militant Islamic sects? Here you will find hidden codes, passageways under the streets of Florence, mad monks, mind-bending drugs and terrifying underground rituals. Together they contain all the elements of a great thriller–greed, murder, obsessive love, betrayal–and they reveal a 2,000-year-old conspiracy: to rule the world. Perfect if you want to understand the mysteries that inspired Dan Brown's novel Inferno, or as a standalone initiation to one of the great turning points in occult history.

For thousands of years, people believed the Earth was flat. Similarly, everything we believe about hell, the devil and karma is based on centuries of dogma, illogical beliefs and foolish theories. In this book, Samael Aun Weor demonstrates how to confirm for yourself the reality of the inferior levels of life, and how to avoid them. Although modern culture laughs at the mere mention of the devil and hell while simultaneously indulging deeply in them via popular music, movies, and television, the practical reality remains completely unknown to the general public. Samael Aun Weor discusses his personal, conscious experiences of the inferior worlds and the beings who reside there. By application of ancient techniques preserved by the Gnostic tradition, anyone can confirm with certainty what exists in the subtle dimensions of nature, whether above or below. Learn the true identity of both the Devil and Lucifer, and how to harness the forces of nature in order to be propelled towards a higher way of life. Dispels centuries of beliefs and theories, while explaining the essential truths hidden in ancient symbols Provides practical steps towards acquiring your own experience of the truth Supported by solid science and authentic spiritual traditions

In this book, Dante, Seamus Heaney and Derek Walcott engage in an eloquent and meaningful conversation. Dante's capacity for being faithful to the collective historical experience and true to the recognitions of the emerging self, the permanent immediacy of his poetry, the healthy state of his language, which is so close to the object that the two are identified, and his adamant refusal to get lost in the wide and open sea of abstraction - all these are shown to have affected, and to continue to affect, Heaney's and Walcott's work. The Flight of the Vernacular, however, is not only a record of what Dante means to the two contemporary poets but also a cogent study of Heaney's and Walcott's attitude towards language and of their views on the function of poetry in our time. Heaney's programmatic endeavour to be "adept at dialect" and Walcott's idiosyncratic redefinition of the vernacular in poetry as tone rather than as dialect - apart from having Dantean overtones - are presented as being associated with the belief that poetry is a social reality and that language is a living alphabet bound to the "opened ground" of the world.

“I present to you . . . the truth about this man’s death and my life.” Baltimore, 1849. The body of Edgar Allan Poe has been buried in an unmarked grave. The public, the press, and even Poe’s own family and friends accept the conclusion that Poe was a second-rate writer who met a disgraceful end as a drunkard. Everyone, in fact, seems to believe this except a young Baltimore lawyer named Quentin Clark, an ardent admirer who puts his own career and reputation at risk in a passionate crusade to salvage Poe’s. As Quentin explores the puzzling circumstances of Poe’s demise, he discovers that the writer’s last days are riddled with unanswered questions the police are possibly willfully ignoring. Just when Poe’s death seems destined to remain a mystery, and forever sealing his ignominy, inspiration strikes Quentin–in the form of Poe’s own stories. The young attorney realizes that he must find the one person who can solve the strange case of Poe’s death: the real-life model for Poe’s brilliant fictional detective character, C. Auguste Dupin, the hero of ingenious tales of crime and detection. In short order, Quentin finds himself enmeshed in sinister machinations involving political agents, a female assassin, the corrupt Baltimore slave trade, and the lost secrets of Poe’s final hours. With his own future hanging in the balance, Quentin Clark must turn master investigator himself to unchain his now imperiled fate from that of Poe’s. Following his phenomenal debut novel, The Dante Club, Matthew Pearl has once again crossed pitch-perfect literary history with innovative mystery to create a beautifully detailed, ingeniously plotted tale of suspense. Pearl’s groundbreaking research–featuring documented material never published before–opens a new window on the truth behind Poe’s demise, literary history’s most persistent enigma. The resulting novel is a publishing event that, through sublime craftsmanship, subtle wit, and devious twists, does honor to Poe himself