Richard Rudgley

What is paganism? What does it mean to be a pagan in today's world? What do the Gods, the Sacred and Myths of pagan traditions tell us about what has transpired over past millennia, and how do the developments of recent centuries affect our understanding of them? Polemos: The Dawn of Pagan Traditionalism takes up these and other penetrating questions in a conceptual tour de force, exploring a worldview long thought lost under the weight of monotheistic conversions, the science and technology of Western Modernity, and the deconstructions and simulacra of Postmodernism. In this wide-ranging study and compelling manifesto, Askr Svarte illustrates how, far from a fragmentary relic of the past, paganism is very much alive and wields a critical analysis of the past, present, and future with the potential to return to the forefront of consciousness. Polemos: The Dawn of Pagan Traditionalism, the first book of the two-volume work published in Russian in 2016, sets out not only to rediscover and redefine the pagan legacy, but to orient paganism's understanding of the paradigms which have confronted it. Titled after the ancient Greeks' divine representation of war, which the philosopher Heraclitus deemed "the father and king of all", Polemos maps paganism's positions on the battlefield of ideas between paradigms, polemics, and trends. From ancient rites and myths to contemporary technologies and socio-cultural dynamics, few stones are left unturned in this extensive articulation of the pagan worldview in the twenty-first century.

What is paganism? What does it mean to be a pagan in today's world? What do the Gods, the Sacred and Myths of pagan traditions tell us about what has transpired over past millennia, and how do the developments of recent centuries affect our understanding of them? Polemos: The Dawn of Pagan Traditionalism takes up these and other penetrating questions in a conceptual tour de force, exploring a worldview long thought lost under the weight of monotheistic conversions, the science and technology of Western Modernity, and the deconstructions and simulacra of Postmodernism. In this wide-ranging study and compelling manifesto, Askr Svarte illustrates how, far from a fragmentary relic of the past, paganism is very much alive and wields a critical analysis of the past, present, and future with the potential to return to the forefront of consciousness. Polemos: The Dawn of Pagan Traditionalism, the first book of the two-volume work published in Russian in 2016, sets out not only to rediscover and redefine the pagan legacy, but to orient paganism's understanding of the paradigms which have confronted it. Titled after the ancient Greeks' divine representation of war, which the philosopher Heraclitus deemed "the father and king of all", Polemos maps paganism's positions on the battlefield of ideas between paradigms, polemics, and trends. From ancient rites and myths to contemporary technologies and socio-cultural dynamics, few stones are left unturned in this extensive articulation of the pagan worldview in the twenty-first century.

This is a drug anthology with a difference. Whilst the usual suspects are here - Huxley, Burroughs, Hunter S. Thompson and Irvine Welsh among them - there are many surprise inclusions such as film stars like Errol Flynn who fancied himself as the new De Quincey and Cary Grant who simply fancied LSD. Smashing the myth that drug culture all began in the sixties Rudgley provides a smorgasbord with dishes from the first century AD onwards and from drug cultures across the globe from Thailand to Haiti. Throughout history, drugs have inspired love and fear in almost equal proportions; no account of these substances can be called complete that seeks only to curse or praise them. This anthology is a microcosm that seeks to reflect the diverse worlds that come into being through the interplay of drugs and their users. There are individual sections for the most prominent drugs - cannabis, the narcotics, LSD as well as chapters for the lesser-known substances, such as nutmeg and crocodile dung. As such, Wildest Dreams attempts to represent the complex history of human interactions with psychoactive drugs in all its diversity. 'A book which manages to be erudite without being boring, and which keeps readers coming back for another fix without trivialising its subject' - Scene 'Wildest Dreams is as strong on anthropological exotica - hallucinogenic snuff, zombie poisons and so on - as it is on comedy' - Daily Telegraph 'This anthology suggests there is possibly something profound to be found and explored during the detachment from rationality that drugs allow us; that from the wildest dreams, we can glean insights by which to change our lives and our societies' - Glasgow Herald 'A couple of gems...are Cary Grant's encounters with LSD and Errol Flynn's morphine memories' - Time Out 'An informative and enjoyable read for newcomers to the world of drugs and its aficionados too' - The Times

In this book, Rudgley describes how the intrepid explorers of the Stone Age discovered all of the world's major land masses long before the so-called Age of Discovery. Stone Age man made precisely sized tools, and used proto-abacuses to count and measure. He performed medical operations including amputations and delicate cranial surgeries. Neanderthals not only domesticated fire for heat and light, but experimented with lichen and moss fuels. In the visual arts, the Paleolithic cave artists of western Europe used techniques forgotten until the Renaissance. Picasso himself is said to have remarked after visiting Lascaux, "We have invented nothing!" The Lost Civilizations of the Stone Age shows the greatness of the debt that contemporary society owes to its prehistoric predecessors. It is a rich introduction to a lost world that will redefine the meaning of civilization itself.

Bringing together for the first time disparate evidence from the fields of archaeology, ancient history and anthropology, Richard Rudgley shows the achievements, inventions and discoveries of prehistoric times have all but been edited out of popular accounts of the human story.

Despite great public interest in the use and abuse of psychoactive substances this is the first comprehensive and reliable book on this fascinating and controversial topic. The encyclopedia covers the entire range of naturally occurring psychoactive species, and also a great number of man-made synthetic drugs and compounds. It explores the use of intoxicating plants by Neanderthal man through to the role of hallucinogens and narcotics in contemporary youth culture. It provides basic details on the botany and chemistry of intoxicants, and examines their influence at all levels of our culture and society. The book also tackles controversial issues such as legalisation and details the legal classification of illicit substances alongside additional relevant information on detection, prevention, punishment and other criminological subjects.