Ursi's Eso Garden

Further each chapter contains photographs, line drawings, and original graphics that were chosen to complement the text; in all three volumes, approximately 300 photos and illustrations images enliven the text.

The Steigers, prolific writers on the paranormal, have written an encyclopedia for believers. The volumes are meant to "explore and describe the research of those who take such phenomena seriously". Almost everything from mediumship to crop circles is taken at face value. Even Houdini's attacks on phony mediums are interpreted to suggest he was taking on frauds and not real mediums.

The work covers material of interest to a large segment of the public in a way that is clear and readable.

In this book Nostradamus compiled his collection of major, long-term predictions. The first installment was published in 1555.

The second, with 289 further prophetic verses, was printed in 1557.

The third edition, with three hundred new quatrains, was reportedly printed in 1558, but nowadays only survives as part of the omnibus edition that was published after his death in 1568.

This version contains one unrhymed and 941 rhymed quatrains, grouped into nine sets of 100 and one of 42, called "Centuries".

This found literary expression in the Revelation of John, written at the end of the first century A.D., an allegory foretelling the destruction of the wicked, the overthrow of Satan and the establishment of Christ's kingdom on earth, the `New Jerusalem'. It followed the tradition of Jewish apocalyptic writing going back to Daniel in the 2nd century B.C., in which was foreseen the deliverance of Israel from her oppressors by a sudden act of the divine will, and from which the author of the Revelation borrowed much of his imagery. Popular belief, for which there is no historical evidence, identified the writer whose name was John with John the Evangelist, and he is so represented in apocalyptic themes. Though the author is alluding to the contemporary condition of Christians under the Roman empire, succeeding ages placed their own interpretation on the allegory. Thus the figure of the Beast, or Antichrist, which stands for the pagan emperor (either Nero or Domitian both of whom caused the blood of many martyrs to flow), came to symbolize Islam to crusading Christians; to Catholics at the time of the Reformation it stood for Protestant heresy, while Lutherans made it a symbol of the corrupt papacy. The sequence of fantastic images with their often obscure symbolism - the author's `visions' - forms a loose cycle of themes that are found in religious art from the time of the Carolingian renaissance. They are seen in illuminated manuscripts, in the sculpture, stained glass and frescoes of churches, and in engravings and tapestries.

The Angel with the Key to the Bottomless Pit, 1497-98

The literary genre of apocalypses flourished from about 200 BCE to about 200 CE. Its roots, however, can be found in the Hebrew prophets, in the ancient mythologies of the Near East of the second millennium BCE, 'known to us now through the rediscovered Akkadian and Ugaritic literatures, and in independent apocalyptic traditions from Persia of the same time.
Even though a great part of the existing apocalypses were written before 200 CE, the literary tradition remained popular throughout the entire middle ages.

Albrecht Dürer - Click the picture for a larger view

With the exception of the Apocalypse of John, and the Synoptic Apocalypses the existing Jewish and Christian apocalypses are pseudonymous. They used the names of famous ancient men, such as Enoch, Daniel or Peter and thus were 'prophecies after the fact', or 'vaticina ex eventu. This gave them credibility through authority.

Apocalyptic Theories by Carolin Esser. (English)

The main focus will be set on apocalyptic theories and Anglo-Saxon literature. You will also find information about Anglo-Saxon society, a gallery, a timeline and a glossary that explains not only terminology, but offers information about the most important symbols and persons as well.