How Humanity Encounters and Interprets the Otherworld Across Time and Tradition:
An Intercultural Lexicon of Invisible Realms and Their Messengers
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Over 1,200 Spirit World Terms Within
in a 500-Page Encyclopedia
The Encyclopedia of the Spirit World is a complete guide to the unseen dimensions that cultures across the globe have described for thousands of years. This book is an essential resource for seekers, scholars, storytellers, and anyone interested in understanding how humanity has encountered, named, and navigated the invisible realms of existence. Covering more than 1,200 entries-from ancient myths to modern spiritual practices-this encyclopedia provides concise, reliable information on each term's origin, cultural role, and symbolic meaning.
It includes descriptions of realms of the dead and heavens of the gods, spirits and deities, sacred practices and objects, and gateways between worlds. With its wide coverage and cross-cultural approach, this book is an indispensable tool for navigating the vast landscape of the spirit world.
Concepts Included:
Aaru - Egyptian Fields of Reeds, Paradise of the AfterlifeAbaton - Greek Sacred Island of the DeadAncestor Worship - Worldwide practice of honoring the departedBardo - Tibetan intermediate state between death and rebirthDjinn - Islamic beings of smokeless fireElysium - Greek paradise for heroes and blessed soulsLoa - Haitian Vodou spirits and intermediariesMoksha - Hindu liberation from the cycle of rebirthNirvana - Buddhist extinction of suffering and final releaseOtherworld - Celtic realm of faeries, youth, and immortalityPurgatory - Catholic realm of purification before HeavenShamanism - Cross-cultural practice of spirit journeyingTree of Life - Axis of connection between worldsYggdrasil - Norse World Tree linking nine realmsZoroastrian Heaven and Hell - Realms of reward and punishment...and over a thousand more.
Perfect for readers of Manly P. Hall, Mircea Eliade, Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, and those drawn to world mythology, esotericism, and sacred studies.
The portals to the Spirit World are all around us -
learn to identify more of them in order to step through the gates to the otherworld more often.