Dennis Gaffin Knihy

The book offers an intimate exploration of the significance of birds in Native American culture, as revealed through conversations between anthropologist Dennis Gaffin and two Indigenous naturalists, Michael Bastine and John Volpe. It highlights the spiritual, psychological, and social roles birds play in the lives of Algonquin, Ojibwe, and Haudenosaunee peoples. The discussions contrast Indigenous beliefs with Western perspectives, illustrating how birds serve as spiritual guides and environmental indicators, while emphasizing their deep connections to human life and culture.

Found floating in the Straits of Bosporus, Constantinople, is the body of a woman, Euphemia Bray, alleged Theosophist and wealthy friend of Madame Blavatsky, a controversial Victorian mystic. Thus begins a British mystery and an investigation by Church and Queen to discover whether Blavatsky is a true mystic or an imposter, an adventure which moves from England to India. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky was a real person, known as 'the most remarkable woman of the century' and the 'yogini of the West'. Cambridge Professor of Divinity Paul Hartley and graduate student Giles Bluecastle face a host of dangers enquiring into Bray's death and the authenticity of Blavatsky's reported occult powers. They visit sacred sites and institutions to interview clergy, savants, monks, yogis, and kabbalists on their sojourn to India via Ireland, Greece, and the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Interwoven within the adventure are the machinations of British and Church rule, conflicts between authority and religion, and debates over the realities of mystical experience.