Off the Shelf Author Blog

Why We Publish Evola

Julius Evola (1898–1974), the Italian Traditionalist philosopher, continues to be a controversial and misunderstood figure, both in his lifetime and the present day. The latest eruption in the Evola controversy has taken place on Inner Traditions’ social media. This is the same controversy that plagued Evola during his lifetime and continues to challenge people now. 

Supporting Lymph Health

by Christopher Vasey, N.D., author of Lymph Health and many other books

Despite its lack of notoriety, the lymphatic system is not only an essential player in the general circulation of fluids throughout the body, but also one of the primary components of the immune system. Furthermore, it plays a decisive role in the detoxification of the physical organism.

Investigating the Afterlife

by Daniel Drasin, author of A New Science of the Afterlife

If you are curious about the possibility of an afterlife but believe that science rules it out, my book A New Science of the Afterlife may provide some food for thought, some helpful guidance, and perhaps a few surprises.

Psychedelics and Buddhism

by Lama Mike Crowley, author of Psychedelic Buddhism

In the mid-1980s, a young lady named Vanessa and I tried our first ever dose of MDMA in the area above Clifton Gorge, near Bristol, England. We began in a botanical garden but when the effects hit us, we headed for the solitude of the nearby woods and fields. After a few hours spent marveling at the miraculous manifestations of nature, Vanessa began expressing the view of reality that the experience provided.

Discover Maximum Medicine

by Sharon E. Martin, M.D., Ph.D., author of Maximize Your Healing Power

My tipping point toward learning about shamanic practice and energy medicine came completely unexpectedly. I opened a clinic in rural Pennsylvania about 18 years ago and was faced every day with the differences between Western medicine and what felt to me like a more holistic healing approach.

The Journey through Long Covid

by Vir McCoy, author of Healing Therapies for Long Covid and Liberating Yourself from Lyme

Before I became sick with Covid, I was healthy and active. I surfed, ran, swam, did yoga and breathwork, and exercised regularly. I considered myself health conscious and in touch with what worked for my body. I ate a mostly organic diet with high fats, few grains, lots of vegetables, and tons of herbs and wheatgrass. I had plenty of love in my life, no real stress, lots of meditation, and so on. But that did not protect me from what was to come.

Magic with Flowers

by Jon G. Hughes, author of Flower Magic of the Druids and many other books

Within the Druidic lore that I grew up with in Wales, flowers were everywhere—in the wild wood, in our pastures and meadows, in our gardens and homes, and especially within the dark, smoke-filled workshops of the learned Druids who were responsible for my training. The ubiquitous presence of flowers is due in no small part to the insights of our pre-Celtic ancestors who, thousands of years before the arrival of the Celtic influence on our shores, developed a system of flower magic that is as relevant today as it was during the ancient megalithic era of stone circles and ritual standing stones.

Sobekneferu, Queen of Egypt

by Andrew Collins, author of The First Female Pharaoh and many other books

The date is around 1800 BCE and the location the royal palace attached to the temple of the crocodile god Sobek at Shedet in the midst of Ta-she, the Land of the Lake (modern-day Fayum in central Egypt). Having walked slowly through the stone corridors in the company of two of her most trusted advisors, Sobekkara Sobekneferu, ruler of Upper and Lower Egypt, slowly climbed the flight of stairs that would take her to the Window of Appearance overlooking the large open courtyard below.

Healing with Shilajit

by Wolfgang Windmann, Ph.D., author of Shilajit: The Ayurvedic Adaptogen for Anti-aging and Immune Power

Also known as Mumijo, Shilajit must be one of the most interesting natural remedies to come from Central Asia. It is certainly by far one of the least well known. That it has attracted so little attention does not reflect the enormous therapeutic potential of this pure, natural substance.

Heal Your Family Energy Field

by Anuradha Dayal-Gulati, Ph.D., author of Heal Your Ancestral Roots

What if these patterns of events, experiences, and emotions that repeat in your life and relationships are indicating that something in your life needs healing? What if the source of these patterns is your family—but not as you know it? What if family is not just a nuclear entity with your parents, siblings, or even grandparents, but an energy field that includes those who are no longer alive? Like the backstories of a character in a novel, the experiences of your ancestors affect your life, even if you are unaware of them. This family energy field or family karma tries to keep coming to your attention through the repetition of patterns, events, and emotions.

Spirit Signs

by Salicrow, author of Spirit Speaker and The Path of Elemental Witchcraft

Death touches all of us; moving, shaking, and rearranging that which we call normal. When we lose someone we love we are often thrown into a whirlwind of emotions as we struggle to make sense of our life without them. I wrote my book Spirit Speaker to share what I know of the spirit world, including ceremonies and practices that help create a living connection with our Beloved Dead.

Working with the Vagus Nerve

by Lars Lienhard and Ulla Schmid-Fetzer with Dr. Eric Cobb, authors of Simple Exercises to Stimulate the Vagus Nerve

Many health problems, such as digestive disorders, chronic pain, blood pressure, breathing difficulties or circulatory problems, as well as emotional manifestations like anxiety or depressive moods, often result from our inability to process and cope with the ever-increasing stimuli and demands that the modern world throws at us.

Creating the Celtic Healing Oracle

by Rosemarie Anderson, Ph.D., author of Celtic Healing Oracle and The Divine Feminine Tao Te Ching

By gathering together ancient Celtic stories and legends, I created the Celtic Healing Oracle composed of 64 symbols from the ancient Celtic ways of knowing. The symbols represent three thousand years of Celtic culture and history derived from archaeological excavations of Bronze and Iron Age Celtic sites in continental Europe and from the myths, folktales, and faery traditions still flourishing in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. For those of us attracted to Celtic imagination and merriment or with ancestral roots in Celtic lands, the symbols will resonate deeply, as though long-slumbering insights are stirred to life once again.

My Moldavite Transformation

by Robert Simmons, author of The Book of Moldavite, The Book of Stones, and several other books

One morning in 1987, I sat down in the living room with my piece of Moldavite, having turned on meditation music. I did this every morning, and I’ll admit that I was rather bored with the routine, even though I always felt calm and refreshed afterwards. On this day, I thought, “I’m tired of waiting for an out-of-body experience or some other cool thing to happen, so I’m just going to imagine one.”

Bird Talk

by Alan Powers, author of Conversations with Birds

What do we hear when we listen to birds? What for us may seem a melodic interval may be a desperate and distressed plea. What passes as hostile assault between two Titmice (even one precipitating avian “battery” as well—pecking tailfeathers and so on) may sound like a musical fugue. Even to call bird sounds “song” is to project a certain relatively narrow range of human activity. For birds, what we call their “songs” are more often curses and threats, defiance or concession, arrests and apprehensions, or even weather bulletins and realty leases.

Satsang with Ram Dass, Summer 1969

by Ahad Cobb, author of Riding the Spirit Bus

Jim pulled over to the side of the road to pick some flowers for his friend. All I knew was that this friend was a guy. When Jim came back to the car with an enormous gathering of goldenrod in his arms, I began to wonder what I was getting into. Giving flowers to guys was unheard of where I came from. This was the first inkling I had that my reality was about to change.

The Human Need for Magic

by Carl Abrahamsson, author of Source Magic and Occulture

Putting the book Occulture together made me see that all of human history can—and perhaps even should—be looked at through magico-anthropological goggles. Without them only fragments or facets can be seen. Without a full understanding of the magical perspective, one can only scrape the surface of anything in human culture.

Undomesticating Your Heart

by Ren Hurst, author of The Wisdom of Wildness

We have become a domesticated society full of people and animals exploited for another’s needs, even in our most intimate, personal relationships. The devastating result has been a worldwide forgetting of our true nature as well as the very meaning and power of love.

Redefining Forgiveness

by Olivier Clerc, author of Healing the Wounds of the Heart and The Gift of Forgiveness

Looking back on all the years since The Gift of Forgiveness was published, and since I started leading workshops and Forgiveness Circles, I felt the need to share with my readers all the things I have been able to understand and deepen thanks to the rich interactions I’ve had with the people attending my workshops and gatherings. This is why I wrote Healing the Wounds of the Heart.

The Magick of Flower Essences

by Nicholas Pearson, author of several books, including Flower Essences from the Witch’s Garden and Crystal Basics Pocket Encyclopedia

As I began to truly engage with and explore flower essences, I started using them in my own spiritual practice, taking them well beyond their traditional role in therapy. I meditated with them, used them to facilitate journeying and dreamwork, and combined them with other ingredients in spellcraft and ritual. I did this with an investigative spirit and an open heart. The essences themselves, and the consciousness of the plants that works through them, led the process. I found other practitioners using essences in magick and ritual, too, which validated my exploration and motivated me to continue.

Escaping the Trauma of the Hero’s Journey

From The Flowering Wand: Rewilding the Sacred Masculine by Sophie Strand

Tristan is dying to escape. Literally dying or trying to. He throws himself off cliffs, out of church windows, off boats, into impossible battles, and, most often, out into the dark night of a stormy ocean. Tristan, a Dark Age romantic hero, is known for his doomed love for the Irish princess Isolde, who is married to his friend King Mark. The story plays on themes of duty and love, and the central love triangle may have formed the basis of the later Arthurian myths.

Robert Lawlor (1938-2022)

We are saddened to report that Robert Lawlor, an author and translator instrumental in the founding vision of Inner Traditions and our reforestation project Hacienda Rio Cote, passed away peacefully on November 29, 2022, on King Island, Tasmania, at the age of 84.

Eat, Drink, and BE Mary

By Marguerite Mary Rigoglioso, Ph.D., author of The Mystery Tradition of Miraculous Conception: Mary and the Lineage of Virgin Births

I had a dream. Recently. It was a difficult dream, one that stayed with my emotional body for three days. In this dream, I was confronting a person who had been a very close friend decades ago as to why she was no longer communicating with me, even though apparently she’d been visiting near where I live at least four times in the past year. I was feeling hurt, betrayed… and also, deep down, guilty in my heart.

The Genius of the "Other"

by the late Daniel Deardorff, from his book The Other Within

There is the “Other” who stands at the margin within society and at once at the edge of consciousness within each individual. The orphaned part of us thrills to every story of the child lost to lowly circumstance; while unbeknownst to the false parents, the child is really the great wizard, the true king or queen, the secret champion waiting to rise from ignominy to a just and rightful destiny. Yet many a noble soul does not rise—they live in “permanent outsiderhood”—the undesirable misfit, tolerated but never truly welcome.

Animals and Shadow Work

by Dawn Baumann Brunke, author of Shadow Animals and several other books

Instead of acknowledging qualities we do not like in ourselves, we subconsciously fling them outward—onto friends and family, politicians and the government, other races, and other countries. We also routinely do this to animals. Thus snakes are evil, spiders and bats creepy, rats dirty, and cockroaches downright disgusting.

Power, Uncertainty, and the Occult

by Mitch Horowitz, author of Uncertain Places, The Miracle Club, and many others

To write on metaphysical themes is to live in a state of constant uncertainty. Or at least it ought to be that way. The simple fact is: we do not know the foundations of reality and when or whether anomalous experiences are “real” or subjective; whether repetition equals validity (the gold-standard of social science, which conceals its own shortcomings behind methodology “corrections,” which render its clinical literature largely irrelevant in generational cycles); and, finally, how to weigh individual testimony. We possess statistical evidence as good as any for the anomalous transfer of information, or ESP, in laboratory settings—but that fact raises more questions than it answers and is rejected by a modernist intelligentsia that regards countervailing evidence to materialism as the catechist does heresy.

The Power of Harmonics

by Jonathan Goldman, author of Healing Sounds, The Humming Effect, and Chakra Frequencies

It was November 6, 1981. I was in Washington, D.C., at a conference entitled “Healing in Our Times” sponsored by the Sufi Healing Order. Thousands of people filled the lecture hall watching well-known teachers and pioneers of the spiritual and scientific communities speak on topics related to alternative healing: Elizabeth Kübler Ross spoke on death and dying; Robert O. Beeker on electromagnetism and healing; Dolores Krieger on therapeutic touch; Hiroshi Motoyama on the chakras; and Thelma Moss on Kirlian photography. Until my introduction to holistic health, I had seen no possible connection between music and healing. That was why I was so pleased to be at this conference waiting for the next speaker: Pir Vilayat Khan, spiritual head of the Sufi Order of the West. His topic was “Healing with Light and Sound.”

Attuning to Gaia’s Story

by Jude Currivan, Ph.D., author of The Story of Gaia and The Cosmic Hologram

Amassing further evidence and continuing to explore our Universe as a great thought of cosmic mind, my new book The Story of Gaia continues a journey of exploration and expands beyond where The Cosmic Hologram leaves off.

The Gift of Channeling

by Matthew McKay, Ph.D., author of The Luminous Landscape of the Afterlife and Love in the Time of Impermanence

About a year after the tragic death of my son Jordan, I consulted the late Dr. Ralph Metzner, a specialist in after-death communication. Metzner said—and this made the greatest impression on me—that Jordan, and anyone in spirit, is just a thought away. As soon as the mind recalls that person, the channel opens between the physical plane and that soul in the afterlife.

Essential Oils at the Dentist

by Jutta Schreiber, D.M.D., coauthor of Essential Oils for Dental Health

The first thing many patients notice when they walk into a dental clinic is its sterile smell, so it’s no wonder that those who had bad childhood experiences at the dentist are immediately transported back in their memories and feel an associated chill down the spine.

Dreams, Physics, and Butterflies

from Dreamtimes and Thoughtforms, by Richard Grossinger

It is myopic to think of dreams as “just dreams.” They are realities, as vast and complete as any other. A dreamer is a traveler.

Christian Rätsch (1957-2022)

by Coby Michael, author of The Poison Path Herbal

The Poison Path is a philosophy that takes focus on poisonous and psychoactive plants, their spiritual and occult uses in magic and ritual. There are few who have contributed more to this study than anthropologist Christian Rätsch. He will be missed, but he left us with lifetimes of research and information.

Healing with the Female Archangels

by Calista, author of The Female Archangels Oracle and The Female Archangels

Although depictions of angels have portrayed them predominantly in a masculine form, within each angel there exists a feminine aspect. This has nothing to do with biological sex (given that angels are non-physical beings), but all to do with the energetic vibration of an angel, which can emanate – and be sensed through our awareness – as male or female. Much like how a coin has two sides but is still one coin, an angel has two sides, too.

Autumn and Wise Old Women

by Cait Johnson, author of Witch Wisdom for Magical Aging, Witch in the Kitchen, and Celebrating the Great Mother

Old women in fairy tales are sometimes evil and usually scary. Because what could be more frightening to the prevailing culture than a woman who proudly rejects its rules, a woman who lives by the dictates of her soul, feisty and unafraid? But in many tales the Wild Old Woman functions as a teacher and a guide. She insists on the proper respect, and she sees clearly. She is in tune with her instincts and intuition (unlike young women, who are often blinded by need), so she can warn a young one of danger or sometimes even save her life. The wise old woman helps because she can see the skull beneath every young woman’s smooth and rosy cheeks. She knows that someday the young woman will be old, too.

Reading John Dee

by Jason Louv, author of John Dee and the Empire of Angels

Though it contains a biographical overview, my book John Dee and the Empire of Angels is not a biography of 16th-century scientific genius and occultist Dr. John Dee. Rather, it is a biography of his ideas, of the angelic magic, and an attempt to trace the footprint of his impact in the world.

Safe Psychedelic Journeys

by James Fadiman, Ph.D., author of The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide and Your Symphony of Selves

To become more aware is your birthright. Denying anyone access to any facet of reality in the name of religion, science, medicine, or law serves neither the individual nor society. Whenever opportunities for self-realization are suppressed or are in danger of being lost, there is a moral imperative to protect and restore them. My book was written so that certain knowledge, experiences, and techniques for increased awareness would not vanish.

Homeopathy for Mental Health

by Jerry M. Kantor, author of Sane Asylums: The Success of Homeopathy before Psychiatry Lost Its Mind

My new book, Sane Asylums, is a century and a half retrospective to a Camelot of health care, a time when an effective and utopian approach to mental illness prevailed. Knowledge of this flourishing homeopathic era and its advanced methods remains inconvenient to the economic interests of psychopharmacology. Sane Asylums’ aim is to examine this past history so that a new path forward in the care and treatment of the mentally ill can be imagined.

Essential Oils in Context

by Heather Dawn Godfrey, PGCE, BSc, author of Healing with Essential Oils, Essential Oils for Mindfulness and Meditation, and Essential Oils for the Whole Body

Essential oils straddle the ethereal and the earthly, like a bridge, touching and connecting each shoreline, reassuringly reminding us that one is never far from the other. Observing their scents, we are drawn into the moment, our senses awakened. Essential oils possess qualities that are physically protective and restorative, and emotionally grounding and uplifting. Their molecules act as chemical messengers between the cells in plants and plant-consuming animals, a process activated via various mechanisms that involve microscopic informational networks created by the microbiome, the energetic meridian channels, the circulatory systems, and the neural pathways. They instigate responses that defend and stave off intruders while they repair, rejuvenate, and replenish.

Why Believe in the Afterlife?

by Jean Jacques Charbonier, M.D., author of 7 Reasons to Believe in the Afterlife

People often ask me, “Doctor, you said that you are convinced of the existence of the hereafter. Do you have at least one good reason you can give to back that up?” Or: “I know you have written several books on life after this life. I’m looking for a book that isn’t full of medical terminology and is not too hard to read, and which I can give to someone who is very open to all these things but hasn’t read anything about them. What title would you advise?”

What Is the Poison Path?

by Coby Michael, author of The Poison Path Herbal: Baneful Herbs, Medicinal Nightshades, and Ritual Entheogens

The Poison Path is a spiritually based practice and branch of occult herbalism that explores the esoteric properties of potentially deadly plants. While many of them have entheogenic qualities, it was their poisonous nature that first attracted me.

Protecting Yourself with Crystals

by Barbara Newerla, author of Crystal Protection from 5G and EMF Pollution

When Michael Gienger, Anja Gienger, and I started our crystal business in the early 1990s and the concept of crystal healing began to spread ever farther afield, it prompted us to think about using crystals to protect against radiation from screens. It soon became apparent that certain crystals seem particularly suitable for this purpose, and these are still considered the “classic” electromagnetic pollution crystals today. However, more has since been discovered about how, why, and in what ways they work.

Who Are the Sensitives?

by Bertold Keinar, author of Empowering Practices for the Highly Sensitive

Sensitives feel too much, both within ourselves and from outside. We are empaths. Strange ability—it seems to have no use in Western society. But in fact it does have a use for us; it is a very important tool. I believe too that intuition and sensitivity is the future and will one day be a requirement for some professions.

What is Spirit?

by Richard Strozzi-Heckler, author of Embodying the Mystery

My quest to understand the mystery that is human life began with the influence of my grandmother’s early teachings on the nature of spirit. Along the way, there were a number of significant teachers and events that opened a view into a way of being that had no previous location in my life.

Dreaming and the Subconscious

by Catherine Shainberg, author of The Kabbalah of Light and Kabbalah and the Power of Dreaming

I have always been fascinated by the subconscious. At first I didn’t know what the word meant—but I knew I was more interested in following what my imaginary friends were doing, than what was happening around the dinner table. In fact, I saw no difference between the angels and fairies that populated my world, and my little friends I played with in Hyde Park. It was my mother who persistently reminded me to pay attention to the real world, and not to dream my life away.

Remembering Your Starseed Family

by the Pleiadians and Eva Marquez, author of Activate Your Cosmic DNA

Once upon a time you were, we all were, part of the infinite God’s energy. Imagine that you were oneness and peace without any separation. You had no form, no physical body; you just were God’s (oneness) energy. At some point God allowed your soul energy to separate a little so that you could experience all the wonders of the universe. You loved it and you became more curious with each discovery. You wanted to experience more and that meant lowering your vibrations bit by bit and separating yourself from the oneness of God.

Pluto and the Rebirth of Cosmos

by John Michael Greer, author of The Twilight of Pluto

On August 26, 2006, members of the International Astronomical Union filed into a hall in Prague for the last session of the organization’s triennial meeting. Normally there’s nothing duller in the world of astronomy. That day was different. There were still nine hundred new members to be voted in, and four uncontroversial resolutions to pass, covering such edge-of-the-seat issues as how to define the ecliptic and whether or not the IAU would officially endorse the Washington Charter for Communicating Astronomy with the Public. The last two resolutions on the agenda, though, addressed what had suddenly become one of the hottest topics in astronomy: what counted as a planet, and above all, whether Pluto made the cut.

The Need for Ritual

by Mara Branscombe, author of Ritual as Remedy

The need for ritual is a primal and human instinct; a compelling impulse to unite with something beyond the mundane world towards the infinite. Ritual brings forth a web of archetypal understanding and allows us to grow towards paradigms such as unity, continuity, connectivity, transformational states, and higher consciousness.

Ganesh Baba and Kriya Yoga

by Keith G. Lowenstein, M.D., author of Kriya Yoga for Self-Discovery

The passage of time seems to possess an uncanny way of marinating knowledge and transforming it into seeds of wisdom. It was some thirty-eight years ago, in the springtime, that I first met Ganesh Baba.

What Love Is

by Matthew McKay, Ph.D., author of Love in the Time of Impermanence and The Luminous Landscape of the Afterlife

Everything we know and count on and love is impermanent. I've wondered at love’s strength, its unwillingness to die with the body, its resilience in the face of every kind of change and loss this world can throw at us. And I've wondered what love actually is, what it’s made of. What do we mean, I questioned, when we say we love something? Why, for some, does love die or disappear, while for others even death has no dominion over their love?

Breath, Healing, and the Mystery

by Patricia Kay, MA, coauthor of Cell Level Meditation

Cell Level Meditation is a vehicle for finding our way “home.” We take the breath to our cells, offering them our deepest desire to be happy and healthy and strong. In some way, they hear us and respond. (Or maybe we hear them asking for the breath!) This meditative form is a gift that helps the mind and the body come into healing, which in turn, helps us be ourselves in fullness.