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  • Book of Mormon YouTube Videos
    Here are the Book of Mormon videos I have been producing for You Tube. Enjoy. http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=TheBackyardProfessor
  • Lot and his wife in the Bible........
    JAMES (age 4) was listening to a Bible story. His dad read: 'The man named Lot was warned to take his wife and flee out of the city but his wife looked back and was turn ed to salt.' Concerned, James asked: 'What happened to the flea?'
  • We are but dust..........
    The Sermon I think this Mom will never forget.... this particular Sunday sermon... 'Dear Lord,' the minister began, with arms extend ed toward heaven and a rapturous look on his up turned face. 'Without you, we are but dust...' He would have continued but at that moment my very obedient daughter who was listening leaned over to me and asked quite audibly in her shrill little four year old girl voice, 'Mom, what is butt dust?'
  • Kerry Shirts author: Mormon Times links to the Internet School of the Prophets -
    I was just notified that the "Mormon Times" has linked to our Internet School of the Prophets showing we are serious about studying Hebrew and recognizing the great Spiritual heritage of Judaism, our Brothers and Sisters in Israel. This is very nice to be specified as the best blog for today. Here's the link. http://mormontimes.com/ME_blogs.php?todayBlog=1

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Interesting websites

Great Books

  • Did God Have a Wife?: William G. Dever

    Did God Have a Wife?: William G. Dever
    Dever, one of the world's most renowned archaeologists has finally asked the BIG question, and his research, archaeology, and scholarship have come up with the most stunning answer. Yes, God was married! His analysis of the folk religion, and how the common folk worshipped was one of the powerful aspects of this book, the stuff that never made it into the Bible, yet is reflected in the archaeology of the people in the countryside. This is archaeology at its level-headed best. A very shocking book, as well as revealing for his amazingly coherent, and provocative challenges, and answers to the nay-sayers of Asherah being God's wife. I highly recommend it. (*****)

  • Giorgio Santillana, Hertha von Dechend: Hamlet's Mill

    Giorgio Santillana, Hertha von Dechend: Hamlet's Mill
    This is not the easiest book to read or understand, but it is by far one of the most influential ones I own for the sheer power of generating ideas and themes to research and write on. It is archeoastronomy detective work like no other text. Scholarly, erudite, difficult, astounding, breath-taking. I also rate this one as one of those books in my all time favorite top 10. I know others have not found their overall thesis convincing, but archeoastronomy is indepted to this book for having a serious start, and it has also come a long way since, especially with John Major Jenkins work on "Maya Cosmogenesis 2012" and "The Galactic Alignment." Archeoastronomy became a hobby of mine directly because of this book. I highly recommend it. It was reprinted for the 3rd time in 1992, and well worth shelling out the dough for it. (*****)

  • Hugh Nibley: The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri
    This 2nd edition has been enlarged, updated, totally checked footnotes for accuracy of quotes and use of sources, all new pictures and more than what the original edition had, and all footnotes put at the bottom of the page for easier reading. John Gee, the LDS Egyptologist at BYU/FARMS (Now the Neal A. Maxwell Institute) spent 17 years checking the accuracy of every single quote and deserves our accolades and congratulations. So does FARMS for putting back all the materials that were supposed to be originally in here. It has gone from a 270 page text to over 600. It is a magnificent tome, very useful indexes, much nicer to read and understand, and is one of my all time favorite top 10 books. (*****)
  • Jason Lotterhand: The Thursday Night Tarot

    Jason Lotterhand: The Thursday Night Tarot
    In his down to earth style and humor, Lotterhand opens up the world of the Tarot symbolisms and what they can mean for us in our every day to day lives. Without stuffy erudition, nor with New Age silliness, Lotterhand goes through the Major Arcana of the Tarot Cards and analyzes their interpretations as he understands things. You can't help but come away from this book feeling good. This is the collection of his classes he has taught for years and years, including questions from many of his students and his responses. I have read it many times, and will continue reading it as a perfect introduction as to what the Tarot symbolisms and use really means, not what phony prognosticators of the New Age Movement have hijacked the Tarot to mean. Their use of it is an "adulterated use" to quote Paul Foster Case, another of the true Tarot interpreter geniuses. The overall view of the Tarot following Lotterhand's interpretation is one of love.... love for God, our fellowman, as well as for ourselves. That Tarot has nothing at all in any form to do with Satan worship, devil loving wickdness, and magic is more than proven by Lotterhand's scholarship in this fascinating area. I highly and strongly recommend this cure for the disease of understanding Tarot as an evil Devil inspired system. (*****)

  • John W. Welch, David & JoAnn Seely, editors: Glimpses of Lehi's Jerusalem
    The most complete, insightful look into Jerusalem as she existed in 600 B.C. just before the Babylonian captivity. It analyzes and looks into the social life, economic, political, physical, spiritual, archaeological, and in every way possible to understand what life was like for Lehi as a parent, and Nephi as a child. The updating of the Lachish Letters, of the reform of King Josiah, the Rechabites, International affairs occurring, Egyptian connections, etc., is powerfully transforming our understanding on the very real background and pathbreaking work that the FARMS group (now called the Neal A. Maxwell Institute) is performing on all aspects of the LDS scriptures, culture, doctrine, and history. A most delightful read! (****)
  • Kevin Townley: The Cube of Space
    This book (Archive Press, 1993) is the singular most comprehensive description, discussion, meditation, and writing of the Sefer Yetzirah's description of the Cube of Space in existence. Townley has written a book like no other, although his followup book "Meditations on the Cube of Space" (Archer Books, 2003) is also in-depth and provocative. David Allen Hulse's book "New Dimensions for the Cube of Space," Samuel Weiser, 2000) is a simpler guide, with different developments, discussions and assignments for the Tarot Card symbolisms on the cube however. Townley has discussed every single available notion of the cube, its symbolisms, significance, and interest in both the Jewish Kabbalistic texts, as well as for us in our modern meditations for further understanding of the cosmos. His two books are nothing less than a tour de force, which gives years of pleasant reading. (****)
  • Leonora Leet: The Secret Doctrine of the Kabbalah

    Leonora Leet: The Secret Doctrine of the Kabbalah
    This book just simply stunned me. It is one of the most fascinating analysis of Sacred Geometry and modern Quantum Physics along with a detailed discovery after discover after discovery of the Jewish religious system called Kabbalah. Leet's geometric charts make the book even easier to understand, but the depth of her cogent reasoning concerning the cosmos, geometry, and music is a sight to behold. Her follow up book "The Universal Kabbalah" is quite interesting in the first few chapters and then bogs my mind down with so much detail and analysis that it is far over my head, though I am working on deciphering it. Leet spent over 20 years analyzing and writing about her discoveries. The most significant one concerns the Kabbalah Tree of Life diagram which is remarkably elucidated by Leet, both in the historical aspects of its changes, as well as the reasons why it is the shape and form that it is, and the meaning of sacred geometrical extensions of the already existing lines of the Tree of Life. A most significant contribution, not only to my own understanding of Kabbalah and Geometry, but for my own enthusiasm of learning more about the Kabbalah (****)

  • Margaret Barker: The Great High Priest

    Margaret Barker: The Great High Priest
    With her astonishing range of scholarship and working with ancient archaeological and linguistic data, Barker has changed our understanding of the ancient Hebraic Priesthood as well as religion. This book is a milestone. (*****)

  • Menas Kafatos, Robert Nadeau: The Conscious Universe

    Menas Kafatos, Robert Nadeau: The Conscious Universe
    The Quantum Physics notion of Complementarity (two particles being connected, no matter how far apart they are in the universe), as well as understanding how the part relates to the whole is what is explored in this gem of a little book. This is no spiritual guru linking of science and religion together by mis-representing one or the other or both of the disciplines, but a sober, real look into the ideas of consciousness, and how Quantum Physics has come around to recognizing the universal aspect of consciousness in *all things*. An amazing book, quite technically written, but with amazing conclusions. The main conclusion being that consciousness can no longer be separated from the problem of the way science operates. (****)

  • Robert Eisenman: The New Testament Code

    Robert Eisenman: The New Testament Code
    Again, with his impeccible schoalrship and thirst for detail Eisenman extends his analysis and evidence for a First Century Early Christian provenance for the Dead Sea Scrolls using the internal materials of the scrolls themselves, their literary usages, their dramatis personae, and their descriptions of what sins abound with the wicked foreign leaders, which can only possibly apply to the Herodians. I wish Eisenman's writing style was easier however. For this reason I can't give it a 5 star rating. His information is astonishingly useful however, and rather controversial, my kind of book! (****)

  • Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism: Howard Schwartz

    Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism: Howard Schwartz
    Magnaminous! This compilation from all periods of Jewish mythology, using hundreds, if not thousands of the texts, shows without doubt or question that there was a Jewish mythology, and its power of presentation for relevance is unsurpassed in all of mythology. From the Creation, the the Shekhinah as the wife of God, to Israel's woes, and successes, this detailed, and humorous, insightful, powerful book has so much in it from the lives of the Patriarchs, the prophets, and the rabbis, that it will take many months to read all the way through it. I have referenced it several times, and spent not a few very delightful evenings (even rainy days) browsing through its pages, and the excellent scholarly discussions by Schwarts itself placing things in context. This is a book I turn to again and again and again with new "Aha!" insights from every single page. (*****)

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March 12, 2010

Hugh Nibley's Magnum Opus "One Eternal Round" is HERE!

Waiting for 20 years to get this in my hands was worth the wait. I got my copy yesterday, and just finished reading it tonight. This 700 page magnum opus is vintage Nibley, so incredibly fascinating, scholarly, interesting, broad and deep that it simply takes my breath away!

THANK YOU MICHAEL D. RHODES for your work on making sure it did not slip into obscurity! 

If you do not purchase this book, you only cheat yourselves. I will be producing many a video for You Tube about this lil baby for many years to come.

Edited to add:

I'll add that it is, of all the books Nibley ever wrote, my favorite. He brings in Alchemy, Hermeticism, Kabbalah, Free Masonry, the Tabula Smaragdina (parallels to the hypocephalus are absolutely STUNNING!) many ascension literatures, Sacred Geometry, and ALL in *favorable* lights!!! No joke, this was unlike much of his other themes wherein he downplayed things in order to elevate something else. In this book, IT IS ALL GOOD. Absolutely stunning. This is the wake up call to we LDS to broaden our views, open our minds, and get more serious about learning far more than in our own tradition and culture. It really is vintage Nibley with a vengeance. He is saying HEY LDS, don't you think it is time to take others serious instead of only ourselves and our view of truth and religion? I really believe he takes the roof off the house with this astonishing book. Only Nibley could have pulled this off. Now if we will just take the clue and run with it. We don't do very well with the clue that Joseph Smith gave us about learning the Biblical languages, perhaps Nibley can nudge us a bit more? We appear to be sleep walking through an awful lot, and all this stuff is prophesied to come forth. To the critics Nibley is simply destroying your objections. Course, you won't agree with me on this, but he is anyway. Wow are we *all* behind or what?! None of us can claim knowledge now if we ignore this. Well, I mean we can claim it, but those who read it and get it will see the hollowness of such an claim. Trust me, you WANT to read this, friend and foe alike. 

Posted at 06:09 PM |

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Comments

Marc

You got my attention! Sounds like a cool book. I took a class from Bro. Rhodes once...he was really sharp!

Posted by: Marc | March 12, 2010 at 08:42 PM

Kerry Shirts

Yes Rhodes IS reallt sharp! You'll love this book. I can see I am going to have multitudinous pleasant hours in its pages for years to come......

Posted by: Kerry Shirts | March 12, 2010 at 09:01 PM

Curtis

Cool. Mine's on order. Can't wait. Thanks for the review.

Posted by: Curtis | March 15, 2010 at 09:25 AM

Kerry Shirts

You betchta........It is a delight to learn from.

Posted by: Kerry Shirts | March 16, 2010 at 10:55 AM

Henry

Get Joe Cannon fired as editor of the Deseret News over Pedophile Cover Up!

Posted by: Henry | March 17, 2010 at 12:15 PM

Manuel Arjona

I just got the book in Spain, on Tuesday. I have read the first 4 chapters and the last one on geometry. It is worthwhile and I agree that is more accesible than other of his books. My commendation to Rhodes for his great work and all the others that have contributed as well. Each chapter should be a whole book, this book is more of a door to open fields of study and reflection. It looks more like a summary or a synthesis of fascinating and deep subjects. One misses a deeper and more extensive treatment on several topics (like relativity physics in the treatment of Kolob, the relationship of the hypocephali to euclidean and non-euclidean geometries, the golden number, modern cosmology, etc.). I wish they would publish on the web the whole set of files Nibley produced (probably thousand of pages no doubt) for free access to all those wishing to study in depth this work of his. One feels the book is just a window on each subject. However is of great value and concentrates and stimulates your mind like very few books do.
I suggest some books to enhance the wealth of this work. It is by no means the only or best list, it is just one way of pointing to further study.
- General: Nibley’s An Egyptian Endowment, Temple and Cosmos, Abraham in Egypt, Abraham Creation Drama, Teachings of the Pearl of Great Price, Ancient State, An Approach to the Book of Abraham.
- General: The Anthropic Cosmological Principle of Frank Tipler. And of course some classics: The Iliad and The Odissey of Homer, Faust by Goethe, The Greek Myths of Robert Graves and all the books of Mircea Eliade (the Romanian foremost world scholar on religion).
- Geometry: The Road to Reality of Roger Penrose (mind boggling, but really useful on modern cosmology, and Mathematics and Physics realities, Is God a Geometrist? of Ian Stewart, The Golden Ratio of Mario Flavio, The Dancing Wu Li Masters of Gary Zukav, The Universe in a Nutshell of Stephen Hawking.
- Kabbala and Hermeneutics: The novel Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco (the hocus pocus of people in History who think they have the true secret and knowledge), The Limits of Interpretation of Umberto Eco (a great book on Semiotics, hermeneutics and signs and symbols), also his Treatise on Semiotics and In Search of the Perfect Language.
- On mind-conscience relationship the three books of Roger Penrose The New Mind of The Emperor (incidentally Roger Penrose and particularly this book is quoted by Nibley several times in his talk Abraham and the Creation Drama, and he fancied his ideas, comparing them to the Kabbala), The Shadows of the Mind and Of Great and Small Things. His latest ideas on aeons (eternities for him) and What Happened Before the Big Bang and of particular interest as well.
I also miss the inclusion and comments of some scriptures related (like 1 Nephi 10:19 and D&C 3:2), maybe they are on the original manuscripts.
Overall, a great book to have and study, and great door opener to a life of study and searching.
My thanks to Hugh Nibley, family, Rhodes and all others for this great work.

Posted by: Manuel Arjona | March 19, 2010 at 03:11 PM

Kerry Shirts

THANKS Manuel..... yes this books OPENS up all kinds of juicy wonderful studies for the rest of us, that is the greatness of the book! I have gone through all the materials covering the explanations of the figures in the facsimiles 3 times now, because I am getting ready to head down to Utah to give a lecture on it. I wanna make sure I am up to sniff.

Posted by: Kerry Shirts | March 19, 2010 at 06:34 PM

Manuel Arjona

Kerry,
It is really significant that the latest book of Umberto Eco (Lists) starts his first chapter with Achilles’ shield and explanations on it, and the latest book of Roger Penrose (The Road to Reality) finishes up with a tale on the green light effect related to research on quantum gravity (what a happy coincidence!)
By the way, I wish I could attend your lecture. Here in Spain we have very few opportunities of firesides like that. Would it be possible to get a copy of your lecture by Winzip? Of course if it is not possible I would understand.
Thanks

Posted by: Manuel Arjona | March 20, 2010 at 03:26 PM

bryan

Kerry Shirts! What a surprise putting together a website such as this! "Backyard Professor? Have you been hiding your Ph.D.? Your summary has taken me back to our old Deseret Book days in Idaho Falls in the G.T. Mall. :) Did you get a pre-publication copy of this book by Nibley? Can you tell me where I can get the best deal for a copy since we don't get our 20% discount any more.
After I've read it we I'd like to discuss. Look forward to hearing from you.
Regards,
Bryan Maughan

Posted by: bryan | March 29, 2010 at 08:46 AM

Kerry Shirts

No, I don't have a Ph.d. It's the name my wife calls me since I am always reading and taking my books with me, camping, fishing, whatever occassion. So it kinda stuck. Yeah the Deseret Book job in the old days were good times weren't they?! Good to see you again. Hope everything is well with you.

Posted by: Kerry Shirts | March 29, 2010 at 06:48 PM

Kim Gifford

Hey Kerry!

I look forward to your comments on this book. It's been a while since Kip Farr's online symposium- do you still take the diffusionist's angle on comparative mythology? I think Nibley did, right to his dying day. Anyhow, it doesn't sully his message at all. There are so many holy things in this world, they are certainly not the sole domain of the LDS. But I will always like Talbott's reconstruction, as it explains much of the early symbolic figures universally adopted as the language of belief.

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Steve Graham

I just ordered this, Kerry. I'm not a great Nibley (or other) scholar. Hope that I will be able to grok it.

Posted by: Steve Graham | April 30, 2010 at 04:17 PM

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Wake up call indeed! I've started re-reading certain portions over and over just to get a glimpse into some of the more challenging passages.

Recently, I wrote an introduction to Hamlet's Mill (http://www.believeallthings.com/4667/hamlets-mill/) which Nibley quoted in this and other books. It is a fascinating but difficult read. Nevertheless, it is well worth studying.

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No, I don't have a Ph.d. It's the name my wife calls me since I am always reading and taking my books with me, camping, fishing, whatever occassion. So it kinda stuck. Yeah the Deseret Book job in the old days were good times weren't they?! Good to see you again. Hope everything is well with you.

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