Those seeking a handle on the nature of modern capitalism and war, can do no better than to start with this incisive analysis by Lenin - it still applies, writ large, today.

Ideologically a Marxist, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, (better known as Lenin), wrote copiously on political and economic systems, passionately believing in the need for a total rejection of capitalism by the proletariat worldwide.

Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism looks at how Western capitalism in the mid-1800s transitioned inexorably from small businesses competing with one another into huge monopolies that concentrated labour, industry, natural resources and bank finance. Competition, a core element of capitalism, was a casualty of this process and most of the profits went to a top strata of society. Because the system was inherently growth-driven, the powerful oligarchy of financiers, industrialists and governments sought new prospects outside of their native countries in the form of a territorial 'land grab' backed by military might.

This last inexorable stage of capitalism saw the world's undeveloped countries carved up between the likes of Great Britain, France and Germany and was, in Lenin's view, the very essence of imperialism, a state of affairs to be countered at all costs.

Despite its Harry Potter-like title, The Book of the Cave of Treasures is actually a rich seam of Jewish and Christian apocryphal lore, by means of which its 5th century author frames the story of Jesus in a truly cosmic context ­- as the inevitable conclusion of God's redemptive plan for humanity, set in train since the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise.

Along the way we are treated to a feast of extra-Biblical details: of the life of the Patriarchs; of the Wind-Flood that overthrew Ur of the Chaldees, Abraham's home; of the mysterious Priest-King Melchizedek; the origin of the Magi; the genealogy of Mary; and Adam's secret burial at the 'navel of the world', the very spot where Christ was later crucified.

Translated from the Syriac by Sir E.A.Wallis Budge, former curator of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities at the British Museum, the book is extensively annotated, and contains 21 illustrations.

'The Most Holy Trinosophia' is an esoteric book of reputedly great power. It is said to have been written by the Comte de St.-Germain, a mysterious 18th century adept, confidant of kings, prophet, maker of diamonds, and alchemist extraordinaire, whose death has never been verified and whom several witnesses swore to have seen, looking as young as ever, years after his apparent demise. This edition of 'The Most Holy Trinosophia' contains twenty-four additional signs and illustrations, omitted from the original 1933 publication, all of which are needful to decipher the message hidden within this recondite and occult masterpiece.

Nicolas Notovitch was born into an aristocratic Jewish family, but converted to Christianity in his youth. A prolific journalist, author of twelve books (and some say, spy), he travelled widely in the east, visiting India, Afghanistan and Ladakh. After a riding accident that broke his leg, Notovitch recuperated at a Tibetan monastery in Hemis. Here, he heard of a manuscript that revealed astonishing information on the sixteen 'Lost Years of Jesus' - the period between Christ's visit to the Jerusalem Temple at the age of twelve and His baptism in the Jordan, about which the bible is strangely silent. The Tibetan manuscript relates that Jesus spent this time traveling to India and Tibet to study the spiritual disciplines of the East. He then returned via Persia to Israel, where He taught until eventual crucifixion. This account was published by Notovitch in 1887 as The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ. It caused an immediate sensation, stirring passions on both sides, shaking the foundations of orthodox Christianity, and raising a storm of controversy that, after more than 125 years, has not yet abated. An exciting, thought-provoking book, and essential reading for anyone interested in the life of the historical Jesus.

The 'Kebra Nagast' (Glory of Kings) was written at least one thousand years ago, and takes its theme from much older sources, some going back to the first century AD. Written originally in the African classical language Ge'ez, the book tells the history of a Davidic line of African monarchs, descended from King Solomon of Israel and Maqeda, Queen of Sheba (Saba), who journeyed to the Levant specifically to visit the wise and far-famed monarch. It was a successful meeting of minds, and Maqeda proved the equal of Solomon the Wise in a series of long philosophical discussions. But the Hebrew monarch was not merely attracted to the African Queen's intellect - by means of a ploy, he seduced Maqeda, who gave birth to a son, Ebna-Lahakim. But this seduction proved to be Solomon's undoing. While in Israel, Prince Ebna-Lahakim gathered around him a group of royal nobles and together they seized the two most powerful symbols of Israel's compact with the Almighty - the Ark of the Covenant and the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments. These trophies were carried back to Abyssinia where, it is said, they remain to this day.

This is Lenin's seminal text on social revolution and how to achieve it, published some 16 years before Russia's October 1917 Revolution. His plan to overturn the Czar's ruthless autocratic regime proposes the establishment of a cadre of professional revolutionaries with the necessary skills and experience to counter the regime's secret police.

Lenin derides trade unionists as wretched amateurs, arguing that a struggle for simple economic betterment is not enough, nor are patchwork reforms - what is needed is the complete overthrow of the political system. Lenin's professional revolutionaries are not so much 'shock troops' of violent rebellion as educated activists who will awaken the workers' class consciousness, leading them to reject western-style political factions and to work within the Party to achieve the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the October Revolution and the ensuing upheavals of the twentieth century.

Margaret Murray's enthralling study of witch beliefs and customs has become a timeless anthropological classic. Rejecting the consensus view that female witches were simply 'hysterical' or subject to 'suggestion', she uses sound scholarship and comprehensive research to reveal that 'Devil-worship' was in fact a bona fide pre-Christian religion, that was forced 'underground' owing to ceaseless persecution by the Church authorities.
All aspects of this 'Old Religion' are covered, from admission ceremonies and the 'witch-mark', through divining, fertility rites and the Sabbat, to spells and sacrifices - including those of children and even of 'the god' himself According to the The English Historical Review, the book is so comprehensive in scope, and so rich and varied in its treatment of the witch-cult ...it is not likely to be superseded.
This the full, original version of Murray's masterpiece, complete with Notes, Bibliography and five Appendices, including a chemical analysis of 'flying ointments'.

Born in 1839, Henry George learned about poverty early in life, first as a boy-sailor and afterwards by working as a type-setter with a wife and children to support. A talented writer, he gradually rose to become managing editor of the San Francisco Times, and later set up his own crusading journal, the San Francisco Daily Evening Post, only to see his newspaper crushed by the combined power of the press and telegraphic monopolies. Undaunted, George set himself the task of explaining a universal economic conundrum - why does a country's increasing prosperity always result in the most abject poverty for the lowest strata of society? Untrained in economics, he came to the subject with fresh eyes: I had no theory to support, no conclusions to prove. Only, when I first realized the squalid misery of a great city, it appalled and tormented me, and would not let me rest, for thinking of what caused it and how it could be cured.

The result of this enquiry was published in 1879 as Progress and Poverty. It rejected many of the prevailing political­-economic theories, and claimed a natural alliance between worker and capitalist. Using clear, reasoned arguments Henry George was able to show that the real villain of the piece was the rentier, the landowner who (unlike labour or capital), contributed nothing to the production of wealth but who was able to take the lion's share from increased rents as a city grew - because land became more valuable.

This then, was the source of increasing poverty in an increasingly wealthy society: When non-producers can claim as rent a portion of the wealth created by producers, the right of the producers to the fruits of their labor is to that extent denied. There is no escape from this position.

He then proposed the revolutionary idea of abolishing all present taxes (which he saw, quite rightly, as an imposition on the productive sector) and replacing it with a tax on land. Progress and Poverty caused a sensation, selling well over 3 million copies and winning praise from such great minds as Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, Leo Tolstoy and Sun Yat-sen. American Philosopher John Dewey wrote that unless one was acquainted with Henry George's ideas No man, no graduate of a higher educational institution, has a right to regard himself as an educated man in social thought... This book is required reading for all those worried by the increasing disparity of wealth in modern society, and will open up a new vista of possible solutions.

A best-seller from its first publication in 1898, this autobiography of St. Th r se and her Little Way to God, has since been translated into 55 languages. St. Th r se became a Carmelite nun at 15, and died at the early age of 24. But her life was filled with such wisdom and Holiness that she was not only canonized, but declared a Doctor of the Church.

In a collection of three manuscripts, St. Th r se tells first of her life as a child, of her intimate relationship with Jesus, and of her struggles to become a Carmelite nun. The second section reveals the Saint's Little Way of Spiritual Childhood, the Way of Trust and Absolute Self-Surrender - her method of achieving great holiness in ordinary life. We are urged to love God for God's sake, not our own, and to seek ways of offering small sacrifices each day, whether it be accepting discomfort or being kind to someone we dislike. In the final manuscript St. Th r se describes her later life - which included her own Dark Night of the Soul - until just three months before her death from tuberculosis, an event narrated with great compassion in the final chapter, written by The Prioress of the Carmel.

Also included in this edition are a series of Letters, Poems and Prayers by the Saint. An inspiring and uplifting book, essential reading for any soul seeking to establish - or renew - a more intimate relation with the Godhead.

A novel of high fantasy and spellbinding imagination set on the (strangely earthlike) planet Mercury and peopled by Ghouls, Goblins, Imps, Demons, and Witches, The Worm Ouroboros tells the epic tale of the conflict between Witchland and Demonland, including an heroic quest to free Goldry Bluszco, banished by sorcery to a remote mountain peak for the killing of Witch-King Gorice XI.

Written in sweeping, heroic, saga-like prose and shot through with stirring poetry, Ouroboros greatly influenced the work of both J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, predating Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia by some 30 years. Tolkien was especially impressed by the book, declaring its author to be The greatest and most convincing writer of invented worlds that I have read.

Major General Smedley D Butler was a military hero of the first rank, the winner of two Medals of Honour, a true 'fighting marine' whose courage and patriotism could not be doubted. Yet he came to believe that the wars in which he and his men had fought and bled and died were all pre-planned conflicts, designed not so much to defend America as to bloat the balance sheets of US banks and corporations. Filled with astounding details of the benefits the few make from the sufferings of the many, 'War is A Racket' is as relevant today as when it was first written. Mark Twain's 'The War Prayer' was considered so explosive by his contemporaries that the short anti-war piece was authorized for publication only after his death. 'The Complaint of Peace' was written in 1521 by Desiderius Erasmus, one of the greatest scholars of his day, as a reaction to the warlike times in which he lived. After an interval of nearly 500 years, this thoughtful critique of war still rings true.

In 1590 three hundred Scottish 'witches' were tried for plotting the murder of their King, James VI of Scotland (soon to be James I of England). James is known to have suffered from a morbid fear of violent death, and the trial heightened his anxiety over this apparently treasonous 'un-Christian' sect, and stimulated him to study the whole subject of witchcraft. 'Daemonologie' is the result of this royal research, detailing his opinions on the topic in the form of a Socratic dialogue between the sceptic Philomathes and witch-averse Epistemon, who reveals many aspects of witch-craft. The book consists of three sections, on magic, on sorcery and witchcraft, and on spirits and ghosts, and ends with a lurid account of the North Berwick witch trials, based on the evidence of Dr John Fian, the alleged head of the coven, whose 'confession' was obtained with the aid of thumbscrews, the Boot, and by the ripping out of his fingernails.

James Joyce's writings centre on the city of Dublin, where he was born into a middle-class family in 1882. Despite this preoccupation, he left Dublin for the continent in 1904 and spent most of his life abroad. Joyce first caught the attention of critics with 'Dubliners', a brilliant collection of short stories, and rapidly grew in fame and status with his ground-breaking stream-of-consciousness style and the explicit content of his prose in such works as 'Ulysses' and 'Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man'. 'The Dead' is universally acknowledged as one of his best works, both in its style and emotional intensity. It tells the tale of one evening in the life of Gabriel Conroy at a dinner party, and an ensuing conversation with his wife Gretta that sparks feelings of the utter solitude and, paradoxically, of the interconnectedness of humanity. In typical Joycian style (In the particular is contained the universal), the prose is also peppered with motifs and vignettes that make Gabriel's life an icon of Ireland's National Consciousness. 'The Dead' is both a meditation on the joys, woes and betrayals of life, and at the same time a barely-disguised call to Irish Nationalism.

Born in 1862, Nitobe Inazo was a Japanese polymath (holding five doctorates) and Christian convert who travelled widely in both Europe and America. In 1900, he published his seminal work Bushido, the soul of Japan, an attempt to explain his country to the western mind via the tenets of Japan's warrior caste, the samurai.

Nitobe places Bushido firmly in the western concept of Knighthood, using an eclectic sample of western philosophy and history to draw out similarities in terms of courage, honour, endurance and loyalty. At the same time he calls upon the eastern philosophies to explain the apparently bewildering differences that exist between the occidental and oriental mind-set: why, for example, westerners bestow expensive gifts to demonstrate how much they value a friendship, and the Japanese offer small presents for exactly the same reason.

Engaging and beautifully written, Bushido has remained a best-seller for over one hundred years, and continues to offer readers one of the most insightful analyses of the Japanese martial way, and its affects on the conduct and character of the people of Nippon. Enhanced with 14 full-page, colour block prints and photographs from the 1800s, this is a 'must-read' for all those interested in the martial arts and Japanese culture.

This classic work of Chinese mysticism was written over 2500 years ago. It author was Li Er, an enlightened sage and scholar known to the world as Lao Tzu (Venerable Master), who espoused a philosophy of the Way, or 'Tao' a method of non-striving existence, an effortless 'going with the flow'. Poetic, Humorous, Wise, Deep-hearted, and at times frustratingly enigmatic, the 'Tao Te Jing' is required reading for any student of mysticism and philosophy. It is also the perfect antidote to our contemporary materialist culture of acquisition and self-aggrandisement.

Originally collected from German peasantry in the early 1800's, Grimm's Fairy Tales are known and adored the world over: Hansel and Grethel, Snow White, Red Riding Hood and the Sleeping Beauty are all part of everyone's childhood. Their numerous iterations in fiction, theatre and latterly in cinema and cartoon formats have made them even more widely appreciated, but all such spin-offs have altered or edited the original tales, sometimes beyond recognition.

This new Aziloth edition re-unites the reader with Grimm's original characters. We meet the true Snow-White and Sleeping Beauty, and come face to face with cruel stepmothers, strange beasts and jealous queens in full-blooded tales of danger, wickedness and shining virtue. Children are naturally attracted to such powerful parables which, while delighting their young minds with magic spells, wizards and giants, effortlessly teach them invaluable life lessons distilled from generations past. As Professor Joseph Campbell so aptly said The folk tale is the picture-language of the soul.

All 209 tales from the original publication are included, plus 10 'Children's Legends', and the book's appeal is further enhanced with 29 illustrations by the incomparable Arthur Rackham, 23 of which are full page spreads.

Born in London in 1757, William Blake soon showed evidence of his artistic talent. His father, a hosier, encouraged the boy's gifts, and Blake was apprenticed at 14 to the engraver James Basire, after which he began illustrating and printing his own works of poetry. First published in 1789, 'Songs of Innocence' was followed four years later by 'Songs of Experience', with a combined edition reaching the bookstalls in 1794. The two collections explore the na ve joys of childhood and the darker, more jaundiced view that life imposes as the infant grows to maturity. But Blake does not use this dichotomy to bemoan a sentimental loss of innocence; rather, he uses the poems to reveal the limitations of both views. Dark and evil forces do exist in the world and it is foolish to ignore them; but equally, joy and love pervade the Universe, and to deny their presence is equally undiscerning. In Blake's view, we need both to progress, a thesis that is explored in detail in his second work, 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell'. More than 50 colour illustrations, taken from the originals of both works, are scattered throughout the text, in accordance with Blake's own belief that his poems and paintings form an integral whole. These are works of great depth and discrimination, that reveal further levels of understanding - and greater insight into the mysteries of human existence - with each successive reading.

Renowned occultist H P Blavatsky is famous for introducing the 'Secret Doctrine' to an astonished West. 'The Voice of the Silence' is derived from the same deep spring of Wisdom. Tibet's Panchen Lama endorsed the work as the only true exposition in English of the Heart Doctrine of Mahayana and its noble ideal of self-sacrifice. The current (14th) Dalai Lama concurred: I believe that this book has strongly influenced many aspirants to the wisdom and compassion of the Bodhisattva Path. The book's three segments form a step-wise introduction to this spiritual path. Fragment 1 describes the preparation of the aspirant for discipleship; Fragment 2 the methods of purification of the lower vehicles; while Fragment 3, reveals the Seven Keys which open the way to Enlightenment.

'The Corpus Hermeticum' is a collection of second or third century treatises that have survived intact the systematic destruction of the early Catholic Church. Given mainly in the form of a dialogue between Hermes and a human interlocutor, the writings reveal knowledge of the origins, nature and moral properties of the divine, and (on the principle of 'as above, so below, as below, so above') of humanity and all other spiritual beings. Using this sacred knowledge, humanity can rise above the material and enter the realms of the gods. 'The Corpus Hermeticum' is a foundation document for all students of the Hermetic tradition.

Acknowledged as one of the greatest of the western mystics, Jacob Boehme was born in 1575 at Old Seidenberg, a small village in Silesia. A shoemaker by trade, Boehme's whole life was spent in contemplation and prayer, seeking spiritual enlightenment. He was rewarded with piercing visions of God and the nature of reality, revelations which he set down in a series of books. The Clavis is perhaps the most accessible of all these tomes, a detailed, yet succinct, account of the nature of God and Creation, and of humanity's role within the unfolding evolution of the Universe.

In 1895 the Reverend Dr. Alexander Whyte bemoaned the lack of a Boehme biography, suggesting that a compilation of the many biographic details scattered throughout his works would give the student a better insight into his thoughts and ideas. W. Scott Palmer took up the challenge and the result, The Confessions of Jacob Boehme, serves to shine a light on the doubts and temptations that lay on the path to Boehme's eventual enlightenment.