Finding Magic: A Spiritual Memoir
Sally Quinn - 2017
After years of searching, most of which occurring in the secular capital of the world, she came to realize that the time she spent with friends and family—the evenings of shared hospitality and intimate fellowship—provided spiritual nourishment and that this theme has been woven into all the most important moments of her life.In this spiritual memoir, Quinn speaks frankly about her varied, provocative spiritual experiences—from her Southern family of Presbyterians and psychics, to voodoo lessons from her Baptist nanny, her trials as a hospitalized military kid in Japan as the Korean War begins, to her adventures as a Post reporter and columnist and her experience as one of the first female news anchors on national television; her battles with the Nixon administration, Watergate, and other scandals that have rocked the nation; her courtship and long marriage to one of the most authoritative figures in the media; her role as the capital’s most influential hostess; and her growing fascination with religious issues. This fascination led to her pioneering work in creating the most visited religious site on the web, OnFaith.co, where she reports on the unseen driving force of American life.Throughout this radiant, thoughtful, and surprisingly intimate memoir, Quinn reveals how "it’s all magic"—the many forms of what draws us together and provides meaning to all we do. Her roller coaster and irreverent but surprisingly spiritual story allows us to see how the infinite wonder of God and the values of meaningful conversation, experience, and community are available to us all.Finding Magic includes 16 pages of exclusive photographs.
Dreaming the Dark: Magic, Sex, and Politics
Starhawk - 1982
This anniversary edition of the best-selling classic includes a new preface reflecting on the fifteen years since the book's original publication.
Craft of the Wild Witch: Green Spirituality & Natural Enchantment
Poppy Palin - 2004
It resonates with those who yearn to express their inherent spirituality in a joyous, meaningful manner; who sense their wild heart and soul nature; who know there is beauty, magic, and meaning in the world if only we want to find it. It is a magical path for those with poetry in their souls. Evocative and compelling, Craft of the Wild Witch reveals how to practice a form of Witchcraft that is both wild and free. Within these pages you will discover the wild Witch's way of seeing and knowing, how to discern one's suitability for the wild Witch's path, and the fundamental themes of green spirituality. Also covered in this guidebook: --Rituals, chants, pathworkings, and seasonal prayers--Tree meditations, spell-weaving, and trance work --The Fey and other-worldly companions--Herbs as helpers --Other-life memories--Sacred intent and safe practice
Psychic Blues
Mark Edward - 2012
Written for the mainstream audience and not necessarily curious magicians or psychic entertainers, the inquiring reader will quickly find themselves on the inside track of such grandiose scams as talking to the dead for fun and profit, the psychic radio business, spiritualist churches and their New Age offspring, psychic infomercials, Hollywood and the celebrity scene, the agents who ply the psychic’s wares, very private readings and numerous twisted and weirdly bizarre trips I have taken and taken others on for the last twenty five years. It’s all here and laid bare with an eye towards finding the humor in it all, not just another expose or debunking bore. This is a dark comedy narrative taken from true experiences that rips open the cracks in the crystal ball. If you are a mentalist, psychic or just a wannabe charlatan, you can find a lifetime of nefarious tricks of the trade sandwiched in-between the LOLs and stranger-than-any fiction tales of a bumpy career traveling the slick underbelly of the professional soothsayer.
Do What Thou Wilt: A Life of Aleister Crowley
Lawrence Sutin - 2000
But he was also a groundbreaking poet and an iconoclastic visionary whose literary and cultural legacies extend far beyond the limits of his reputation. This controversial individual, a frightening mixture of egomania and self-loathing, has inspired passionate--but seldom fair--assesments by historians. Sutin, by treating Crowley as a cultural phenomenon, and not simply a sorcerer or a charlatan, convinces skeptic readers that the self-styled "Beast" remains a fascinating study in eccentricity.
None Dare Call It Treason
John A. Stormer - 1964
It dissects the failures of the Eisenhower Administration just as effectively as it details the blunders of Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy and Johnson. It documents the concurrent decay in America's schools, churches, and press which has conditioned the American people to accept 20 years of retreat in the face of the communist enemy. You won't finish None Dare Call It Treason without concluding that America is in serious trouble.
The Witch's Dream: A Healer's Way of Knowledge
Florinda Donner - 1985
This is the extraordinary account of Donner-Grau's experiences with doña Mercedes, an aged healer in a remote Venezuelan town known for its spiritualists, sorcerers, and mediums.
The Vapors: A Southern Family, the New York Mob, and the Rise and Fall of Hot Springs, America's Forgotten Capital of Vice
David Hill - 2020
Hot Springs, Arkansas was home to healing waters, Art Deco splendor, and America’s original national park—as well as horse racing, nearly a dozen illegal casinos, countless backrooms and brothels, and some of the country’s most bald-faced criminals.Gangsters, gamblers, and gamines: all once flocked to America’s forgotten capital of vice, a place where small-town hustlers and bigtime high-rollers could make their fortunes, and hide from the law. The Vapors is the extraordinary story of three individuals—spanning the golden decades of Hot Springs, from the 1930s through the 1960s—and the lavish casino whose spectacular rise and fall would bring them together before blowing them apart.Hazel Hill was still a young girl when legendary mobster Owney Madden rolled into town in his convertible, fresh off a crime spree in New York. He quickly established himself as the gentleman Godfather of Hot Springs, cutting barroom deals and buying stakes in the clubs at which Hazel made her living—and drank away her sorrows. Owney’s protégé was Dane Harris, the son of a Cherokee bootlegger who rose through the town’s ranks to become Boss Gambler. It was his idea to build The Vapors, a pleasure palace more spectacular than any the town had ever seen, and an establishment to rival anything on the Vegas Strip or Broadway in sophistication and supercharged glamour.In this riveting work of forgotten history, native Arkansan David Hill plots the trajectory of everything from organized crime to America’s fraught racial past, examining how a town synonymous with white gangsters supported a burgeoning black middle class. He reveals how the louche underbelly of the South was also home to veterans hospitals and baseball’s spring training grounds, giving rise to everyone from Babe Ruth to President Bill Clinton. Infused with the sights and sounds of America’s entertainment heyday—jazz orchestras and auctioneers, slot machines and suited comedians—The Vapors is an arresting glimpse into a bygone era of American vice.