This book is temporarily unavailable - 1st edition out of print - 2nd edition in the works - available January 2021.
The ancient Religion of the Sun has been one of the most powerful influencers on human history. It was practiced by a lost civilization tens of thousands of years ago, which influenced the major civilizations of the ancient world that venerated the sun. It gave rise to many of the world's most famous ancient sites and some of its most revered wisdom traditions.
This book is for anyone wishing to learn about the history of the ancient Religion of the Sun. It traces its origins by exploring some of the most ancient sacred texts and indigenous histories on Earth. It examines its reestablishment following the global flood at the end of the last ice age, as well as its founders, many of whom are remembered as the greatest spiritual figures and teachers in history. It also explores the lost civilization they helped initiate, from which the major civilizations of the ancient world arose, and our own civilization grew.
Throughout much of the ancient world the sun was used as the supreme symbol of divinity, megaliths and temples were aligned to the sun, and sun gods who traveled the oceans were seen as the founders of religions and civilization. In this book, ancient accounts from across the world are brought together to tell the story of our sacred past, not as a mythology, but based on real people and real events. It explains why common symbols, megaliths, religions, and mythologies can be found in so many disparate parts of the world, and why the sun was revered as the most prolific sacred symbol in history.
About the author
Lara Atwood is a researcher and practitioner of the Religion of the Sun, which she first began researching and writing about in 2011 and has been dedicated to ever since. She runs the website SakroSawel.com where she presents her findings ("sakro sawel" means "sacred sun" in the Proto-Indo-European language).
Frankly this book is amazing because it's reignited my interest in our lost past.
It's immediately obvious incredible research efforts, diligence and time have gone into this work, and though presenting a very different picture of our prehistory (which will certainly challenge you!) it is all evidence based and referenced.
And Yet as a reader it feels like joining in on a magic carpet ride as you fly over ancient South American civilisations, towering megaliths, pyramids in warm lands, as you sail to remote pacific islands, are caught in Norse myths of the Ragnarok, trace Odin's wanderings, witness the powers of the feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl, dive into the seas to find Atlantis and gaze upon the sacred stone rings adorning our world with new eyes.
Believe it or not, the author shows how all these things (and a lot more) are connected and have a real reality to them. But it doesn't merely point out similarities as matter of intrigue, as some archaeologists have very cautiously done over the last centuries, but the author 'weaves all these connecting elements together on a necklace of the understanding of its deeper significance'. And that's different. She co-authored another book which explains the hidden meaning, symbols and understanding of cosmic and divine principles known to ancient spiritually advanced cultures. In this book she takes that knowledge as a key and specifically traces all the evidence she can find on this religion of the sun, on those deified beings – which she calls 'Wisdom Bringers' who taught it, as well as bringing together the information on the civilisations of the sun that practised it. Those who built the baffling structures we can still behold today!
BTW; the sheer keenness of the author and an insatiable thirst to learn and uncover one thing after another can be felt as a reader too!
Another BTW; There are videos freely available on Youtube where the author presents her research, they're extremely well done and so worth checking out. (Search for 'Sakro Sawel.')
I do feel this book, and more importantly the work to bring this knowledge to light, is something much bigger than I can do justice to in a review. But this book and those accompanying videos, are just such an adventure and joy to read. So I highly recommend them. Yet it's also a work that has something more serious, a deeper purpose and meaningfulness behind it because I feel we in the modern day have very much lost the sacred connection we as humans can have to nature, to otherworldly knowledge, and to the reality of a divine presence which exists beyond our normal perception.
But as we unbury our past and recognize the profound universal knowledge contained in there. It will help us to know how to reconnect to the experience of another way of life again in ourselves today.
Reading this book has been very eye-opening and thought provoking! I've been interested in ancient cultures and their spirituality for some time, but a lot of the material / insights and connections in this book are new to me. I'm actually fairly astounded by how much of "history" we don't actually know about and were never taught in school that's contained in this book. It's quite amazing to see how humanity was once much more connected on a spiritual level than we are now, despite being separated by vast distances. If this information was more widely known it would really change how we understand sociology and culture and religion in general!
I really like how the book takes you on a journey by first explaining the origins of the Religion of the Sun and then how it was spread, before going on to explain about the lost cultures around the world that venerated the sun, and why the sun was given so much respect from a spiritual perspective. Then finally wrapping up with how the Religion of the Sun is being revived today in different cultures and places around the world. It's great that all the insights and connections being made are evidence-based too, being backed up really thoroughly by excerpts from many ancient texts which gives it a very solid basis. There are many fascinating aspects to the research and conclusions drawn in here.
There are some great (and brave) researchers doing groundbreaking work into the similarities between ancient civilisations that go back much further than commonly accepted in mainstream archaeology like Graham Hancock, but I haven't read anyone else who explains the "why" behind the similarities between these cultures, or anything else that explains in detail why these cultures venerated the sun. This book does a really great job of that, and I think anyone interested in the spirituality and similarities of ancient cultures, and the spiritual meaning of the sun would really get a lot out of this book and will enjoy the adventure into the past it takes them on!
Very important book. Painstaking research and compelling evidence, though it was easy to understand without any scholarly background.
It has made me see that part of the reason for my indifference towards history was the commonly held notion of ancient people being simple minded sun worshipers, who built the (actually astonishingly advanced and complex) megalithic sites because they needed them to depend on as calendars for their crops. However, after reading this book that notion gets completely turned on its head and you can't remain indifferent!
What The Ancient Religion of the Sun has done for me is open my eyes to the valuable spiritual legacy we have from the lost civilization of the Sun, and the history of our very ancient past that should not have been forgotten as it has effectively cut us off from our roots, where we now exist as a self-contained modern technological society, disconnected from nature, the cosmos and its divine principles, dismissing much of ancient religion and culture as primitive, and mythology as a product of naive peoples' imagination. It's been astonishing to discover through Lara Atwood's meticulous work that some of what we've got used to thinking of as myth or legend, is actually evidence based true history. It changes everything.
More importantly, what the book has revealed to me is that the same principles imbued in nature and creation that the civilization of the Sun lived their lives by and practiced spirituality by, and built their societies around, are still there for me to study and learn from and use in my own life. This is a real living connection to a mightily distant past. The book goes in depth into the understanding of the many enigmatic megalithic sites around the world and mysterious findings such as elongated skulls and giants among others, and makes you realize that our ancestors were very advanced, wise and capable in every sense, really the opposite of what we think.
This book wonderfully outlines the history of the Religion of the Sun, seeking back to it's roots encoded in myth and legend. Well researched, this book is a great resource for extending academic research as well as solidifying some of the details that are outlined with her other book (co-written with her husband), The Ancient Path of the Sun: Uncovering the Spiritual Meaning of the Solstices and Equinoxes.
For me, this book also arouses something deeper, something internal within me. It is a sense of completeness. It is a sense of foundation. It is a sense of coming Home. So, I can only thank the author with my heart for this work, and the publishers who have brought it to light. With a mountain of information to disseminate within the covers, this book can clearly be used as a springboard for further exploratory work into our deep past. Perhaps it might also be used to lift the veil on the dogmatic treatment of history so far.
What an extraordinary and revelatory piece of work. The Ancient Religion of the Sun is full of wisdom and history that traces our past cultures to a time where certain people lived in harmony and devotion through sacred worship and reverence to the mysterious qualities of creation and enlightenment latent in nature. Perhaps they figured out how to see through the veil that separated the spiritual and physical worlds, and were living closer and truer in appreciating the divine architecture of existence.
Reading about their firm devotion, such as continual praises of song and worship, made me wonder how much is lost and also needed to unstitch the closed veil, and see once more the greater reality that reveals the purpose to return to the ultimate divine source.
I loved this book, and it left me with so much to ponder regarding a history that is really unknown to us and much that has been suppressed.
This book is a wonderful step in bringing the fragmented pieces of humanities historical puzzle together. The significance of this book to peoples of the world who wish to understand their identity, culture and origins cannot be over stated.
The research this book uncovers is from sources which, sadly, are often overlooked, buried or misunderstood. Lara brings these sources together and manages to highlight them in a simple and comprehensible way.
Lara is able to look into areas that unveils the past in a way that can help us understand issues which today leaves humanity confounded. Our ancestors were not as we view them today and this book can help us all learn what they were trying to teach us.
I loved reading this book. Researched at an academic level, while being written by someone who practices the religion of the sun, it is packed with only relevant information.
Definitely recommended if you want to learn many interesting facts about humanity's ancient past and spirituality with the connections presented like (probably) nowhere else, and also if you want to get inspired to search more into your own heritage.
Really loved this book, got completely engrossed as soon as I started reading, and now I'm on the second round as I couldn't totally digest all the info the first time and felt there's so much in here I'd like to delve into further and understand more. Lots of references to ancient spiritual texts that are now on my to-read list, and the book is pitted with a ton of quotes which makes reading it very enjoyable, (and a pretty mystical experience!) as well as the author's own engaging tone. There are explanations of the evidence for lost civilizations and their high culture that I had no idea even existed, yet seem crucial to the understanding our true heritage, like the Paracus people of Peru and a bunch more.
I've been really into Graham Hancock's work for a while, and for me, this book on the topic of ancient, lost civilizations has the added insight of Atwood's clear mystical depth. The research seems rigorous, and so this book is surely to become one of the key works that contributes evidence for a cataclysm that has erased a chapter of our shared history from our common knowledge. It's a combination that works really well, speaking to the intuitive part of the self (the one that 'just knows' when it's got a book of rare wisdom in its hands and that gets goosebumps from ancient passages) and satisfying the intellectual part, (the bit that really wants to know the nitty-gritty evidence and have some cold hard facts).
All in all, this book has propelled my own personal search to investigate and connect to the true story of mankind's history. We're at such a crazy time in history it seems now, with so much info emerging through the internet that's impossible to suppress, and so many credible scholars and scientists coming forth and working together in multiple disciplines to piece together the puzzle of the truth. Among these voices, I think Atwood provides the most clear spiritual context, which is a big thing for me and I think for a lot of people who are into this topic.
Being from the UK I was particularly interested in the idea that the island was once a kind of 'spiritual refuge' where esoteric practice was still possible without persecution. It's made me so inspired to connect to the sites of my homeland, as well as kindled a feeling of a deep connection to the world in its entirety and the spiritual practice that is our true heritage as humanity.
A fascinating book that pulls together seemingly disconnected fragments of our ancient history, based on a detailed research of historical and sacred texts, oral histories, art and archaeology, resulting in some groundbreaking revelations and a very original narrative that feels right and makes a lot of sense.
Whether it is an intriguing role of the region of Caucasus in our ancient history, compelling evidence for the “Lost Civilisation of the Sun”, or the story of the mysterious wisdom bringers, the accounts of whom can be found scattered throughout different world cultures, the book continues to amaze with every page. At the same time, as the author herself states in the introduction, it is not an easy read. The paragraphs are so packed with meaning, connections, and new revelations, that it takes a slow and careful reading to really soak in all this new information, despite its very reader-friendly and captivating style of writing.
The precision and depth of research is also evident just by briefly scrolling through over 15-pages long references section, as well as the meticulous text and image copyright acknowledgements at the end. This actually proved extremely useful, as I have found myself following a couple of the references further during my reading of the book. Having done some little research into our ancient history myself, it was very interesting for me to discover the connections I wouldn’t have thought about before, or to gain new research leads based on some of the referenced material.
Finally, after reading this book, I feel like I may as well start reading it all over again, as it is definitely a book that cannot just be read once, but needs to be picked up each time one needs to refresh their memory or understanding of certain topics. And the last but not least, the book fills me with joy that such a wonderful legacy as the Ancient Religion of the Sun is being brought back from obscurity (and even, as it would seem, a cover-up), for all interested people to once again study and practice.
I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, which brings together information about the origins of civilisation from a number of ancient sacred texts, legends, myths and megalithic sites. One of my favourite books of all time.
I currently have the 2018 (first edition) of this book and I have already placed an order of the second edition which has an additional 100+ pages of new/updated information that I am super excited to read. "The Ancient Religion of the Sun" is, in my opinion, one of the best history books I have ever read. It offered me important clues to the history of my ancient ancestors whom I knew so little about. I learned through this book that they too had worshipped and venerated the sun as a symbol of divinity and built such incredible ancient monuments that were aligned to it. It delves into the possible origins of our ancient sacred past and helps to answer meaningful questions as to why there are so many similar ancient sacred structures (i.e. pyramids, dolmens, mounds, etc.) found across the world, what was their purpose, who built them and what the significance of that information means for us today.
I have used this book, along with another highly recommended book that Lara Atwood had co-authored with her husband Mark called "The Ancient Path of the Sun", as references for seeking out a better understanding of the history and the sacred spiritual practices and traditions of the ancient Religion of the Sun. These books are honestly a great source of inspiration and they are so precious to me that I have made a permanent home for them next to my bed, where I can easily access them not only for reading and learning, but in the event of an unexpected emergency where I would need to immediately evacuate, they will be the two books I rescue along with my cat.
This book explores the hidden history of humanity through innumerable research and study of ancient texts and archaeological evidence. Imagine Indiana Jones correlating every piece of physical, written and oral history of ancient civilisations and uncovering a worldwide Religion of the Sun where all these amazing megalithic sites align to important Solar times of the year such as Solstices and Equinoxes. It would make an entertaining movie and stimulate the imagination of what was this mysterious past. Yet, it’s all completely true!
The Author has painstakingly researched and articulated this prodigious amount of information for a common reader like me to look into the distant past and explore these histories that time has forgotten. The rise and fall of civilisations and those who sought to guide them along a higher way of existence encapsulated within a Solar religion is not just an academically interesting read but one that is incredibly relative to each individual. Take a journey into the past and within yourself and explore the past in the present.
I liked how the author's perspective is supported by so many references, especially from ancient texts. And some of them not so popular like The Kolbrin and the Stanzas of Dzyan which they contain so much wisdom.
It's also the very first book I came across which put together so many evidence about the ancient sun-worshipping, something was taught even in schools but quite superficially.
Living in an age with materialism being at its max, this book gave me a hope that maybe someday many people will get united under the Sun by the Sun. Looking forward to the upcoming updated edition!
I would say that was an incredible journey reading this book, historical, mythological, sprititual links and evidences around the globe. Ancient civilizations left their remarkable mark in our planet but something more important, they've got strong similarities each other and our human history isn't exactly what has been written and studied. Through this book my personal quest and research goes to upper levels. Many thanks to the author.