Book picks similar to
Sexual Symbolism: A History of Phallic Worship by Richard Payne Knight
history
thelema
egc
staircase
Wired for Intimacy: How Pornography Hijacks the Male Brain
William M. Struthers - 2009
Our contemporary culture as been pornified, and it shapes our assumptions about identity, sexuality, the value of women and the nature of relationships. Countless Christian men struggle with the addictive power of porn. But common spiritual approaches of more prayer and accountability groups are often of limited help. In this book neuroscientist and researcher William Struthers explains how pornography affects the male brain and what we can do about it. Because we are embodied beings, viewing pornography changes how the brain works, how we form memories and make attachments. By better understanding the biological realities of our sexual development, we can cultivate healthier sexual perspectives and interpersonal relationships. Struthers exposes false assumptions and casts a vision for a redeemed masculinity, showing how our sexual longings can actually propel us toward sanctification and holiness in our bodies. With insights for both married and single men alike, this book offers hope for freedom from pornography.
Witches, Midwives and Nurses: A History of Women Healers
Barbara Ehrenreich - 1972
This pamphlet explores two important phases in the male takeover of health care: the suppression of witches in medieval Europe and the rise of the male medical profession in the United States. The authors conclude that despite efforts to exclude them, the resurgence of women as healers should be a long-range goal of the women’s movement.
Pope Awesome and Other Stories
Cari Donaldson - 2013
Catholic homeschooler Cari Donaldson here relates how her friend’s newborn baby, a portrait of the Virgin Mary, and the words of the Miraculous Medal called her forth from a selfish, small way of life into the welcoming arms of the Church.
The Secret Language of Dreams: A Visual Key to Dreams and Their Meanings
David Fontana - 1993
a great book to read
The Uncensored Bible: The Bawdy and Naughty Bits of the Good Book
John Kaltner - 2008
But what if, perhaps, "rib" was a mistranslation and the body part she was really created from was Adam's penis bone? This would explain why human males don't have such a bone, unlike other male mammals. That's only one of many surprising and fun biblical twists readers will encounter in The Uncensored Bible. Here readers will learn that King David swore like a sailor, mandrakes were the biblical equivalent of Viagra®, Cain was depressed, and Joseph's "coat of many colors" might have actually been a dress (which may explain why his brothers picked on him).Authors Kaltner, McKenzie, and Kilpatrick bring some of the most outrageous speculations about the scriptures to light—all based on legitimate scholarship—revealing a stranger, bawdier side of the Good Book. The Uncensored Bible is a shocking, hilarious, and thought-provoking collection of the most recent, compelling, and racy interpretations of the Bible from the newest voices of Bible scholarship.
Ishtar Rising: Why the Goddess Went to Hell and What to Expect Now That She's Returning
Robert Anton Wilson - 1974
and much, much more!!
The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature
Geoffrey Miller - 2000
Psychologist Geoffrey Miller offers the most convincing-and radical-explanation for how and why the human mind evolved.Consciousness, morality, creativity, language, and art: these are the traits that make us human. Scientists have traditionally explained these qualities as merely a side effect of surplus brain size, but Miller argues that they were sexual attractors, not side effects. He bases his argument on Darwin's theory of sexual selection, which until now has played second fiddle to Darwin's theory of natural selection, and draws on ideas and research from a wide range of fields, including psychology, economics, history, and pop culture. Witty, powerfully argued, and continually thought-provoking, The Mating Mind is a landmark in our understanding of our own species.
Hamlet's Mill: An Essay Investigating the Origins of Human Knowledge and Its Transmission Through Myth
Giorgio de Santillana - 1969
But what came before the Greeks? What if we could prove that all myths have one common origin in a celestial cosmology? What if the gods, the places they lived & what they did are but ciphers for celestial activity, a language for the perpetuation of complex astronomical data? Drawing on scientific data, historical & literary sources, the authors argue that our myths are the remains of a preliterate astronomy, an exacting science whose power & accuracy were suppressed & then forgotten by an emergent Greco-Roman world view. This fascinating book throws into doubt the self-congratulatory assumptions of Western science about the unfolding development & transmission of knowledge. This is a truly seminal & original thesis, a book that should be read by anyone interested in science, myth & the interactions between the two.
Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation
Mitch Horowitz - 2009
Americans all, they were among the famous figures whose paths intertwined with the mystical and esoteric movement broadly known as the occult. Brought over from the Old World and spread throughout the New by some of the most obscure but gifted men and women of early U.S. history, this “hidden wisdom” transformed the spiritual life of the still-young nation and, through it, much of the Western world.Yet the story of the American occult has remained largely untold. Now a leading writer on the subject of alternative spirituality brings it out of the shadows. Here is a rich, fascinating, and colorful history of a religious revolution and an epic of offbeat history.
From the meaning of the symbols on the one-dollar bill to the origins of the Ouija board, Occult America briskly sweeps from the nation’s earliest days to the birth of the New Age era and traces many people and episodes, including:•The spirit medium who became America’s first female religious leader in 1776 •The supernatural passions that marked the career of Mormon prophet Joseph Smith •The rural Sunday-school teacher whose clairvoyant visions instigated the dawn of the New Age •The prominence of mind-power mysticism in the black-nationalist politics of Marcus Garvey•The Idaho druggist whose mail-order mystical religion ranked as the eighth-largest faith in the world during the Great Depression Here, too, are America’s homegrown religious movements, from transcendentalism to spiritualism to Christian Science to the positive-thinking philosophy that continues to exert such a powerful pull on the public today. A feast for believers in alternative spirituality, an eye-opener for anyone curious about the unknown byroads of American history, Occult America is an engaging, long-overdue portrait of one nation, under many gods, whose revolutionary influence is still being felt in every corner of the globe.
The Kosher Sutra: Eight Sacred Secrets for Reigniting Desire and Restoring Passion for Life
Shmuley Boteach - 1999
In The Kosher Sutra, the author whom Newsweek magazine calls, “the most famous rabbi in America,” and Salon.com praises for having “his scholarly finger on the pulse of the nation” offers “Eight Sacred Secrets for Reigniting Desire and Restoring Passion for Life,” combining tantric and Kabbalah wisdom with modern psychological insights and common sense.
Unlocking the Secrets of the Feasts
Michael Norten - 2012
The intricate detail of theprophecies illustrated in the observances of these feasts provide insight intoGod's plan for the ages.
The X-Rated Bible: An Irreverent Survey of Sex in the Scriptures
Ben Edward Akerley - 1985
"Everything you wanted to know about the holiness-horniness nexus, but they wouldn't tell you."—George CarlinFound in nearly every home, within the reach of underage children, is a book plump with scenes normally confined to sin-bins marked “Adults Only.” We’re talking about the Holy Bible, a book filled with incest, rape, adultery, prostitution, drugs, bestiality, castration—all the nasty stuff!
When God Was a Woman
Merlin Stone - 1976
Under her, women's roles were far more prominent than in patriarchal Judeo-Christian cultures. Stone describes this ancient system and, with its disintegration, the decline in women's status. Index, maps and illustrations.
The Elementary Forms of Religious Life
Émile Durkheim - 1912
He investigates what he considered to be the simplest form of documented religion - totemism among the Aborigines of Australia. For Durkheim, studying Aboriginal religion was a way 'to yield an understanding of the religious nature of man, by showing us an essential and permanent aspect of humanity'. The need and capacity of men and women to relate to one another socially lies at the heart of Durkheim's exploration, in which religion embodies the beliefs that shape our moral universe. The Elementary Forms has been applauded and debated by sociologists, anthropologists, ethnographers, philosophers, and theologians, and continues to speak to new generations about the intriguing origin and nature of religion and society. This new, lightly abridged edition provides an excellent introduction to Durkheim's ideas.
The Ark Before Noah: Decoding the Story of the Flood
Irving Finkel - 2014
Since the Victorian period, it has been understood that the story of Noah, iconic in the Book of Genesis, and a central motif in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, derives from a much older story that existed centuries before in ancient Babylon. But the relationship between the Babylonian and biblical traditions was shrouded in mystery. Then, in 2009, Irving Finkel, a curator at the British Museum and a world authority on ancient Mesopotamia, found himself playing detective when a member of the public arrived at the museum with an intriguing cuneiform tablet from a family collection. Not only did the tablet reveal a new version of the Babylonian Flood Story; the ancient poet described the size and completely unexpected shape of the ark, and gave detailed boat building specifications. Decoding this ancient message wedge by cuneiform wedge, Dr. Finkel discovered where the Babylonians believed the ark came to rest and developed a new explanation of how the old story ultimately found its way into the Bible. In The Ark Before Noah, Dr. Finkel takes us on an adventurous voyage of discovery, opening the door to an enthralling world of ancient voices and new meanings.