It includes hands-on information for modern celebrations, spells and divination, recipes and crafts, invocations and prayers, and more!Yule—also known as Midwinter—is when nighttime has reached its maximum length, but there is a promise of brighter days to come as candles are lit and feasts are enjoyed. This guide to the history and modern celebration of Yule shows you how to perform rituals and magic to celebrate and work with the energy of the winter solstice.

    The Maya discovered that the periodic alignment of the Sun with the center of the Milky Way galaxy is the formative influence on human evolution. These alignments also define a series of World Ages. The fourth age ends on December 21, 2012, when an epoch chapter in human history will come to an end. Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 reveals the Maya's insight into the cyclic nature of time, and prepares us for our own cosmogenesis--the birth of a new world.

    

    852 A.D. For decades the Vikings have swept out of the Norse countries and fallen on England, Ireland, whatever lands they could reach aboard their longships. Few could resist the power of their violent onslaught. They came at first to plunder, and then to settle, an encroachment fiercely resisted where ever they went. Such was the case in the southern lands of Ireland. En route to the Viking longphort there, known as Dubh-Linn, Thorgrim Night Wolf and Ornolf the Restless stumble across an Irish ship that carries aboard it a single item - a crown. The Vikings eagerly snatch the prize, unaware of its significance to the people of Ireland and the power granted to the king who wears it. Soon the Norsemen are plunged into the violence and intrigue of Medieval Ireland, where local kings fight with each other and with the invaders from the north for rule of the island nation. With enemies at every hand, and loyalties as fickle as the weather, Thorgrim must lead his men, the white invaders, the Fin Gall, in the fight of their lives, with both Irish and Dane eager to see them dead.

    Alone at the edge of the world, hope is all they have left.Desperate to save them, Omat journeys across the icy wastes, fighting for survival with every step. When she meets a Viking warrior and his strange new gods, they set in motion a conflict that could shatter her world...or save it.

    A community betrayed ... The whistle-blower priest who paid the ultimate price Glen Walsh and Steven Alward were childhood friends in their tight-knit working-class community in Shortland, on the outskirts of Newcastle, New South Wales. Both proud altar boys at the local Catholic church, they went on to attend the city's Catholic boys' highs schools: Glen to Marist Brothers and Steven to St Pius X. Both did well: Steven became a journalist; Glen a priest. But when Glen discovered another priest was sexually abusing boys, he reported the offending to police, breaking Canon Law and his vows to the Catholic 'brotherhood' in the process. Just weeks before he was due to give evidence at a key trial against the highest cleric to ever be charged with covering up child abuse, Father Glen Walsh was dead. Two months later, his friend Steven also died, only weeks before he was to marry the love of his life. Ensuing investigations revealed that at least 60 men in the region had taken their own lives. Why? What had happened, and why were so many from the three Catholic high schools in the area?By six-time Walkley Award-winning investigative reporter Suzanne Smith, The Altar Boys is the powerful expose of widespread and organised clerical abuse of children in an Australian city, and how the cover-up in the Catholic Church in Australia extended from parish priests to every echelon of the organisation. Focusing on two childhood friends, their families and community, this gripping and explosive story is backed by secret documents, diary notes and witness accounts, and details a deliberate church strategy of using psychological warfare against witnesses in key trials involving paedophile priests.

    Instead, he found himself exiled, resigned to a life of raiding, killing for plunder and survival. He became bodyguard to a king, brutally fighting in monumental battles - Maldon and Swoldr - to be handed down for centuries in skaldic verse. Because of a blood-oath made years before the murder of his father, Halldorr was adopted by an exile, Greenland's discoverer, Erik the Red. Halldorr believes his life is his to command when Freydis, the fierce, fire-haired enchantress, at last desires to be his wife. However, destiny strikes, forcing him to flee from Greenland to Ireland to England to Norway without her. He fights his way to wealth and in an epic battle, defending his king against overwhelming odds, he finds that it was not destiny, but betrayal that sent him into banishment thirteen years earlier.

    A SHIP OF OUTLAWS. A WOMAN, ALONE. Dangerous seas…and even more dangerous secrets on board. Iceland’s powerful Althing Council has convicted seafarer Tiller Thorvaldsson of murder - to force him on a ship for a perilous quest in search of a legendary land, said to lie in uncharted western seas. Who is the mysterious, beautiful woman aboard, called Fishgirl? A skilled liar, she tells Tiller that her life is in danger and that she is in desperate need of an ally...but do they dare trust one other? Based on the Saga of Erik the Red and evocative of Jean Auel’s CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR, THE GREEN LAND is a sweeping epic novel of murder, passion, love, and courage in a battle for survival between the dark forces of intrigue and the redemptive power of the human spirit. Fast-paced action with complex, strong-willed characters and meticulously researched, authentic storytelling – with plot twists to keep you guessing until the last page - you’ll love the experience of reading VIKING: THE GREEN LAND! Will finding land offer hope…or bring them even greater danger? ADVENTURE AWAITS! Buy VIKING THE GREEN LAND now to set your sails for excitement.2016 AWC Novel Award Winner

    Now he is becoming a man and it is time for him to meet his destiny. Though raised a slave who could only dream of freedom, young Halfdan's fate may be about to change. If freed, he may train as a Viking warrior, and come to know the glories of true brotherhood and the horrors of unspeakable evil. In the world of Vikings, a warrior's destiny is forged in the heat of battle. If the fates decree it, Hafdan may emerge as a new hero . . . a new myth . . . and perhaps a new legend.

    They traded walruses with Inuits and sold slaves in Constantinople. They discovered America, settled in Newfoundland, and fought battles in Central Asia.•Arranged thematically, Vikings examines Norse life from religion to raiding, from exploration to settlement to their legacy.•Illustrated with more than 150 photographs and artworks, Vikings is an exciting history of a people who have long held a place in popular imagination.

    Covering the first three seasons of the series, this official companion book delves into the real history as well as the behind-the-scenes stories. Viking historian Justin Pollard explains shipbuilding and navigation, Norse culture and religion, and the first encounters between Viking warriors and the kings of England and France. Interviews with cast and crew reveal the process of dramatizing this gripping story, from reviving the Old Norse language to choreographing battle scenes and building ancient temples for human sacrifice. This spectacular package is a must for fans of the show and history buffs alike.VIKINGS © 2015 TM Prods Ltd/T5 Vikings Prods Inc. VIKINGS™ TM Prods Ltd.

    Apart from their achievements, they have suffered all through the history right from the days of Moses till the Israel-Palestine issue. This book clearly brings out the life of jews and their battles, sufferings, customs, beliefs, strategies etc.

    This is completely contrary to the Founding Fathers’ original vision of America; it was designed by them to be a secular democratic republic built on evidence-based Enlightenment values, emphatically not religious faith.Indeed, the Founders purposefully intended that a high, strong “wall of separation” keep church and state apart in the new nation, while allowing individual religious freedom untrammeled by government—and vice versa. But Christians with theocratic dreams keep trying to breach the wall. Through their efforts, God is now in evidence everywhere in the country—on our money, in our schools, even in high-level-government officials’ speeches. Freedom of — and from — religion is the American promise to all its people whatever their belief—or disbelief. This is how the Founding Fathers wanted it to be, not the undemocratic theocracy zealous evangelicals are trying to force on American society.

    The story portrays the political situation of Europe in the later Viking Age, Andalusia under Al-Mansur Ibn Abi Aamir, Denmark under Harold Bluetooth, followed by the struggle between Eric the Victorious & Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark, Ireland under Brian Boru, England under Ethelred the Unready, the Battle of Maldon, all before the backdrop of the gradual Christianisation of Scandinavia, contrasting the pragmatic Norse pagan outlook with Islam & Christianity.

     Although he was born in what was considered the backwaters of the Roman Empire, Saint Augustine of Hippo has long been renowned for his early religious and philosophical thought. He has been called a Doctor of the Church for his unrivaled ability of patching up even the most complex of theological questions. He tackled such things as the condition of the soul and the omnipotence of God. During the course of his tenure as bishop of the North-African city of Hippo, Augustine often gained as many critics as he did followers. Inside you will read about... ✓ The Son of a Pagan ✓ Augustine’s Love Child ✓ The Road that Led to Rome ✓ Looking toward Christianity ✓ The Priest of Hippo ✓ A Founding Father of the Church And much more! To say that this esteemed theologian was a complex man would be an understatement. Saint Augustine’s life held many contradictions from the very beginning. Born to a pagan father and a devoutly Christian mother, he seemed destined to be at a crossroads. In his life he was both a sinner and a saint, and his seminal works, such as the Confessions and the City of God, prove that somewhere at the intersection of tremendous faith and terrible human frailty you will find the greatness of Saint Augustine.