Based on a course in Paganism that the authors have taught for more than a decade, it is full of exercises, meditations, and discussion questions for group or individual study.This book presents the basic fundamentals of Paganism. It explores what Pagans are like; how the Pagan sacred year is arranged; what Pagans do in ritual; what magick is; and what Pagans believe about God, worship, human nature, and ethics.For those who are exploring their own spirituality, or who want a good book to give to non-Pagan family and friends A hands-on learning tool with magickal workings, meditations, discussion questions, and journal exercises Offers in-depth discussion of ethics and magick

    Lipton and political and cultural commentator Steve Bhaerman, we are surrounded by the proof that we are poised to take an incredible step forward in the growth of our species. On Spontaneous Evolution, you are invited to participate in an eye-opening examination of science and history--one that leads to a profound vision of the next "holistic" stage of human civilization.Join these two pioneers as they explore:The three perennial questions any belief system needs to address, and why the answers have changed throughout history - The four "Myth-Perceptions of the Apocalypse"--the unexamined pillars that support modern thought, and why each one of them is ready to crumble- Why the blueprint for a brighter future is literally inside you--encoded into each of your trillions of cells- What you can do to help usher in the greatest cultural shift since the Copernican revolutionMany of the ideas and institutions that define our culture today are breaking down--and that's a good thing, say Lipton and Bhaerman. This is a necessary part of the natural process of clearing out what no longer serves us, in order to make room for a new way of being that will carry us into the next age.Spontaneous Evolution is an insightful, playful, and ultimately hopeful look at the unfolding destiny of our species--and how you can play an active role as a co-creator of the world to come.

    Here--culled from mythology, literature, and folk tales--is the mystical realm that has populated humanity's imagination for centuries. Over 400 entries, engagingly written and organized by type of entity, make this a complete source of information and a visual feast. Among the entries are: from "The Cosmos," Quetzalcoatl and Scorpio; from "The Ground and Underground," centaurs, elves, and unicorns; from "Wonderland," Atlantis and El Dorado; from "Magic, Science, and Invention," flying carpets and the Trojan horse; from "Water, Sky, and Air," Pegasus and Moby-Dick; and from "The Night," a host of shuddersome creatures from vampires to the golem. This is a wild and wondrous gift for any visionary.

    

    A translation of the Kabbalah for the layperson includes a compact presentation of each primary text and features a practical analysis and vital historical information that offer insight into the various aspects of Jewish mysticism.

    Through the bestselling books of Elaine Pagels, thousands of readers have come to know and treasure the suppressed biblical texts known as the Gnostic Gospels. As one of the world's foremost religion scholars, she has been a pioneer in interpreting these books and illuminating their place in the early history of Christianity. Her new book, however, tackles a text that is firmly, dramatically within the New Testament canon: The Book of Revelation, the surreal apocalyptic vision of the end of the world . . . or is it?In this startling and timely book, Pagels returns The Book of Revelation to its historical origin, written as its author John of Patmos took aim at the Roman Empire after what is now known as "the Jewish War," in 66 CE. Militant Jews in Jerusalem, fired with religious fervor, waged an all-out war against Rome's occupation of Judea and their defeat resulted in the desecration of Jerusalem and its Great Temple. Pagels persuasively interprets Revelation as a scathing attack on the decadence of Rome. Soon after, however, a new sect known as "Christians" seized on John's text as a weapon against heresy and infidels of all kinds-Jews, even Christians who dissented from their increasingly rigid doctrines and hierarchies.In a time when global religious violence surges, Revelations explores how often those in power throughout history have sought to force "God's enemies" to submit or be killed. It is sure to appeal to Pagels's committed readers and bring her a whole new audience who want to understand the roots of dissent, violence, and division in the world's religions, and to appreciate the lasting appeal of this extraordinary text.

    Illustrated with visual artifacts of the period. With the long-awaited publication of this book, we have for the first time in any modern literary form one of the most vital and important of ancient myths: that of Inanna, the world's first goddess of recorded history and the beloved deity of the ancient Sumerians.The stories and hymns of Inanna (known to the Semites as Ishtar) are inscribed on clay tablets which date back to 2,000 B.C. Over the past forty years, these cuneiform tablets have gradually been restored and deciphered by a small group of international scholars. In this groundbreaking book, Samuel Noah Kramer, the preeminent living expert on Sumer, and Diane Wolkstein, a gifted storyteller and folklorist, have retranslated, ordered, and combined the fragmented pieces of the Cycle of Inanna into a unified whole that presents for the first time an authentic portrait of the goddess from her adolescence to her completed womanhood and godship. We see Inanna in all her aspects: as girl, lover, wife, seeker, decision maker, ruler; we witness the Queen of Heaven and Earth as the voluptuous center and source of all fertile power and the unequaled goddess of love.Illustrated throughout with cylinder seals and other artifacts of the period, the beautifully rendered images guide the reader through Inanna's realm on a journey parallel to the one evoked by the text. And the carefully wrought commentaries providing an historical overview, textual interpretations, and aannotations on the art at once explicate and amplify the power, wonder, and mystery embedded in these ancient tales.Inanna--the world's first love story, two thousand years older than the Bible--is tender, erotic, frightening, and compassionate. It is a compelling myth that is timely in its rediscovery."A great masterpiece of universal literature."--Mircea Eliade

    Her parents are scientists: Her mother spends most of her time in tropical rainforests, uncovering ancient artifacts, and her dad is obsessed with digging up mammoths. When her father gets invited by an eccentric billionaire to lead a team investigating a mammoth’s remains in the Arctic, Maya begs to come along. Upon her arrival at the isolated camp, the mammoth is quickly revealed to be a fake, but there is something hidden in the ice—something unbelievable. Along with a team of international experts, each with his or her own agenda and theory about the mystery in the ice, Maya learns more about this discovery, which will change her life forever.Laura Quimby expertly mixes adventure, science, and wonder into a page-turning story perfect for middle-grade explorers. Praise for The Icarus Project "Who wouldn’t want to find something earth-shatteringly unique while on an Arctic expedition?.. Quimby’s plot is exuberantly fast-paced and earnest."—Kirkus Reviews"Maya’s earnest first-person point of view and sense of fair play make her easy to root for, and the inclusion of a boy character as a foil to Maya, along with lively writing and plenty of action, will help this middle-grade novel pull in reluctant readers."—Booklist"Maya is an earnest and likable character and the plot is fast-paced enough to hold readers’ attention. Maya’s curiosity, bravery, and desire to do the right thing will resonate with many readers."—School Library Journal

    Its ultimate destination is a plausible, living validation of transcendence. Each of its three parts is like a turn of a spiral, exploring recurring ideas through the prisms of religious myth, truth and belief, respectively. With each turn, the book seeks to convey a more nuanced and complete understanding of the many facets of transcendence. Part I puts forward the controversial notion that many religious myths are actually true; and not just allegorically so. Part II argues that our own inner storytelling plays a surprising role in creating the seeming concreteness of things and the tangibility of history. Part III suggests, in the form of a myth, how deeply ingrained belief systems create the world we live in. The three themes, myth, truth and belief, flow into and interpenetrate each other throughout the book.

    In their discovery of the quantum realm, the physics community stumbled upon a genuine multifaceted revelation which can be likened to a profound spiritual treasure - a heretofore undreamed of creative power - hidden within our own mind. Quantum physics unequivocally points out that the study of the universe and the study of consciousness are inseparably linked, which is to say that ultimate progress in the one will be impossible without progress in the other. Einstein declared that what it reveals is so immensely important that "it should be everyone's concern." Yet few of us in the general public truly understand how the game-changing discoveries of the past century not only relate to our day-to-day lives, but also give us insights into the nature of reality and our place within it.Written for readers with no physics background, Paul Levy's latest book, The Quantum Revelation: A Radical Synthesis of Science and Spirituality is for those who have heard that quantum physics is a fascinating subject but don't quite understand how or why. Levy contemplates the deeper philosophical underpinnings of quantum physics, exploring the fundamental questions it provokes: What does it mean that quantum theory has discovered that there is no such thing as "objective reality?" How are we participating - via our consciousness - in creating our experience of a reality that quantum theory itself describes as "dreamlike?" What are the implications for us in our day-to-day lives that - as quantum theory reveals - what we call reality is more like a dream than we had previously imagined?The Quantum Revelation is unique in how it synthesizes science and spirituality so as to reveal and explore the dreamlike nature of reality. It is a book not just for people interested in quantum theory, but for anyone who is interested in waking up and dreaming lucidly, be it in our night dreams or our waking life.

    Later in life, he wanted to know more about the plants and rituals of curanderismo.Torres's story begins with his experiences in the Mexican town of Espinazo, the home of the great curandero El Ni�o Fidencio (1899-1939), where Torres underwent life-changing spiritual experiences. He introduces us to some of the major figures in the tradition, discusses some of the pitfalls of teaching curanderismo, and concludes with an account of a class he taught in which curanderos from Cuernavaca, Mexico, shared their knowledge with students.Part personal pilgrimage, part compendium of medical knowledge, this moving book reveals curanderismo as both a contemplative and a medical practice that can offer new approaches to ancient problems.From Curandero. . . for centuries, rattlesnakes were eaten to prevent any number of conditions and illnesses, including arthritis and rheumatism. In Mexico and in other Latin American countries, rattlesnake meat is actually sold in capsule form to treat impotence and even to treat cancer. Rattlesnake meat is also dried and ground and sprinkled into open wounds and body sores to heal them, and a rattlesnake ointment is made that is applied to aches and pains as well.

    Ought we to do so? What do we mean by prayer? What does the word mean in the Christian context? Almost always when we talk about prayer we refer to something we do. From that standpoint, questions problems, confusion, discouragement and illusions multiply. For Ruth Burrows it is essential to correct this view. Our Christian knowledge assures us that prayer is essentially what God does, how God addresses us, looks at us. And what God is doing for us is giving us the Divine Self in love. What then is the core of the central message of the revelation of Jesus? It is the unconditional love of God for us, for each one of us. God the unutterable, incomprehensible Mystery, the Reality of all reality, the Life of all Life. And this means that divine Love desires to communicate its Holy Self to us. This is the richness of the vision of a contemplative nun who contradicts the heresy of so much modern writing about the spiritual life--namely that we reach God by running faster. The growing fascination for the public of the contemplative and monastic life is evidence of the profound appeal of this approach. For this there is a real hunger. At its simplest we do no look for success so as to be assured that we do believe. We give ourselves over completely to divine love. Ultimately, we live for God and not for ourselves.

    NAILED sheds light on ten beloved Christian myths, and, with evidence gathered from historians across the theological spectrum, shows how they point to a Jesus Christ created solely through allegorical alchemy of hope and imagination; a messiah transformed from a purely literary, theological construct into the familiar figure of Jesus - in short, a purely mythic Christ.

    I’ve tried hard to go straight, and this time I thought I’d got it, thought things would work out for a change. I didn’t reckon on Tony Rossi and his gang…. Why did I have to get myself involved with such low-life again? And then I saw her, and my life would never be the same again. I knew I wanted her there and then, even though I knew I was committing a crime against her. That’s the moment I knew it all had to change, that I had to change if I was ever going to deserve a woman like Janine. Her dad, on the other hand, has different plans for his daughter’s future, plans that don’t involve me. Times running out to save her, but I have no job, no money… no hope. Even if I did, what happens when the past catches up to me and she finds out all about me? It’s bound to happen… I can’t build a relationship on a web of lies. Can she ever love a man like me? Janine I’m scared, scared as hell of a future that dad has already planned for me, but what can I do? When I meet Ed, I wish things could be different, he’s everything I want in a man… even if he is older than me. He’s strong and handsome, and someone to protect me from men like Tony Rossi… but it all seems so hopeless. I hate Tony Rossi with a passion, I hate any form of violence, and could never love a man like him… a bully and a small-time gangster. I felt a strong attachment to Ed from our first meeting… maybe it’s love at first sight, I don’t know… but I know nothing about him. With my dad forever watching me, how will I ever meet up with Ed to find out? They say that love will find a way, but I don’t see how. Can Ed save me? Is he the one? *Taken By The Thief is a short, standalone romance with an HEA, no cheating, and no cliffhanger.

     Book One: Beneath the Secrets. What happens when the only girl you’ve ever lusted comes crashing back into the picture? Nothing. Don’t construe my lack of interest the wrong way. The last time I saw Ava, she was no doubt attractive. Although she’s always been a little nerdy, and her head never left the inside of a book during her entire schooling experience, she could garner the attention of any hot-blooded male she feigned an interest in – myself included. Just one flash of her killer smile and I wanted to drop to my knees and kiss her f*cking feet. But a lot has changed since Ava left town six years ago with a flood of tears streaming down her face. Circumstances change. People change. I’ve changed. I’m no longer a teenage boy who can’t control his cock around a beautiful girl. I am a grown man. A man that has done two tours in Afghanistan. A man that has no troubles controlling his cock. A man that can still remember the sweet taste of her lips. What the f*ck? I'm screwed. From the Author that brought you the 'Enigma' series comes the next installment. An emotional story about being reacquainted with your high school crush. Does time really alter your interests? Or is using your age just an excuse to downplay real love? Let's find out - it's time to dive beneath the sheets Book Two: Beneath the Sheets. One Small Decision: One Epic Result. Five years ago, I made a mistake. If I’d known my hasty decision was going to have the consequences it did, I would have evaluated it with more diligence. I would have taken the time to properly assess the repercussions of my actions. But when my sister and unborn nephew were killed in an horrific accident, any chances of my grief-riddled brain forming a rational decision was lost. I was hurting too much. Losing Jorgie and Malcolm gutted me. Losing Ava the same week, utterly destroyed me. For the past five years, I’ve been a ghost, missing, presumed dead, hidden from the people who are seeking my demise. I knew eventually my past would catch up with me. I just never fathomed once it did, it would unravel even more secrets than the ones I've been hiding. But I'm tired of running and fighting fate. It's time to dive beneath the sheets, where all the best-kept secrets are exposed. Author Warning: This book is for people over the age of eighteen. It has swear words, sexual activities, and adult situations.