Book picks similar to
Making Magic: Religion, Magic, and Science in the Modern World (AAR Reflection and Theory in the Study of Religion Series) by Randall Styers
religion
non-fiction
magic
religious-studies
Witchcraft: Witchcraft for Beginners: A Guide to Bringing Real Witchcraft Spells and Witchcraft Rituals into your Daily Life (Witchcraft Magick and Spells ... Books- Wicca - Witchcraft Spells -)
Edith Yates - 2015
In ancient history witchcraft was termed as the "craft of the wise" since the practitioners who followed this path were in perfect harmony with the forces of nature and in this book you will find out what real witchcraft is and also more importantly how you can start on the path of incorporating this craft into your life so you can live a fulfilling life Before the name of Witchcraft was tarnished by the religions of the time magic practitioners of all walks of life were extremely revered from different regions of the world and were the seers,healers, wise ones, rainmakers, medicine men and women and they practiced magic in one way or the other, may you follow the craft as well Here is a preview of what you will learn What real Witchcraft is and the many misconceptions people have Explain White Magic and Black Magic and the dangers and benefits of both Different styles of common Witchcraft and what they entail How to become a witch and tools and tips to get you started on your path Learn different spells for beginners witchcraft supplies Conclusion and encouragement Tags witchcraft, witchcraft supplies, witchcraft spell books, witchcraft books
A Witches' Bible: The Complete Witches' Handbook
Janet Farrar - 1987
This collection includes two books in one volume, Eight Sabbats for Witches and The Witches' Way and is the most comprehensive and revealing work on the principles, rituals and beliefs of modern witchcraft.
American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us
Robert D. Putnam - 2010
Unique among nations, America is deeply religious, religiously diverse, and remarkably tolerant. But in recent decades the nation's religious landscape has been reshaped. America has experienced three seismic shocks, say Robert Putnam and David Campbell. In the 1960s, religious observance plummeted. Then in the 1970s and 1980s, a conservative reaction produced the rise of evangelicalism and the Religious Right. Since the 1990s, however, young people, turned off by that linkage between faith and conservative politics, have abandoned organized religion. The result has been a growing polarization—the ranks of religious conservatives and secular liberals have swelled, leaving a dwindling group of religious moderates in between. At the same time, personal interfaith ties are strengthening. Interfaith marriage has increased while religious identities have become more fluid. Putnam and Campbell show how this denser web of personal ties brings surprising interfaith tolerance, notwithstanding the so-called culture wars. American Grace is based on two of the most comprehensive surveys ever conducted on religion and public life in America. It includes a dozen in-depth profiles of diverse congregations across the country, which illuminate how the trends described by Putnam and Campbell affect the lives of real Americans. Nearly every chapter of American Grace contains a surprise about American religious life. Among them:● Between one-third and one-half of all American marriages are interfaith; ● Roughly one-third of Americans have switched religions at some point in their lives; ● Young people are more opposed to abortion than their parents but more accepting of gay marriage; ● Even fervently religious Americans believe that people of other faiths can go to heaven; ● Religious Americans are better neighbors than secular Americans—more generous with their time and treasure even for secular causes—but the explanation has less to do with faith than with their communities of faith; ● Jews are the most broadly popular religious group in America today. American Grace promises to be the most important book in decades about American religious life and an essential book for understanding the United States today.
Kybalion: A Study of the Hermetic Philosophy of Ancient Egypt and Greece
Three Initiates - 1912
This concise guide offers a modern interpretation of the doctrine, distilling its teachings with seven compelling principles that can be applied to self-development in daily life.
Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic Among the Azande
E.E. Evans-Pritchard - 1937
In her introduction, Eva Gillies presents the case for the relevance of the book to modern anthropologists.
It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens
Danah Boyd - 2014
. . It’s Complicated will update your mind.”—Alissa Quart, New York Times Book Review “A fascinating, well-researched and (mostly) reassuring look at how today's tech-savvy teenagers are using social media.”—People “The briefest possible summary? The kids are all right, but society isn’t.”—Andrew Leonard, Salon What is new about how teenagers communicate through services such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram? Do social media affect the quality of teens’ lives? In this eye-opening book, youth culture and technology expert danah boyd uncovers some of the major myths regarding teens' use of social media. She explores tropes about identity, privacy, safety, danger, and bullying. Ultimately, boyd argues that society fails young people when paternalism and protectionism hinder teenagers’ ability to become informed, thoughtful, and engaged citizens through their online interactions. Yet despite an environment of rampant fear-mongering, boyd finds that teens often find ways to engage and to develop a sense of identity. Boyd’s conclusions are essential reading not only for parents, teachers, and others who work with teens but also for anyone interested in the impact of emerging technologies on society, culture, and commerce in years to come. Offering insights gleaned from more than a decade of original fieldwork interviewing teenagers across the United States, boyd concludes reassuringly that the kids are all right. At the same time, she acknowledges that coming to terms with life in a networked era is not easy or obvious. In a technologically mediated world, life is bound to be complicated.
Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft
Raymond Buckland - 1986
The workbook formats includes exam questions at the end of each lesson, so you can build a permanent record of your spiritual and magical training.
The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World
David Abram - 1996
This major work of ecological philosophy startles the senses out of habitual ways of perception.For a thousand generations, human beings viewed themselves as part of the wider community of nature, and they carried on active relationships not only with other people with other animals, plants, and natural objects (including mountains, rivers, winds, and weather patters) that we have only lately come to think of as inanimate. How, then, did humans come to sever their ancient reciprocity with the natural world? What will it take for us to recover a sustaining relation with the breathing earth?In The Spell of the Sensuous David Abram draws on sources as diverse as the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty, Balinese shamanism, Apache storytelling, and his own experience as an accomplished sleight-of-hand of magician to reveal the subtle dependence of human cognition on the natural environment. He explores the character of perception and excavates the sensual foundations of language, which--even at its most abstract--echoes the calls and cries of the earth. On every page of this lyrical work, Abram weaves his arguments with a passion, a precision, and an intellectual daring that recall such writers as Loren Eisleley, Annie Dillard, and Barry Lopez.
Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewishness of Jesus Can Transform Your Faith
Ann Spangler - 2009
Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg paint powerful scenes from Jesus’ ministry, immersing you in the prayers, feasts, history, culture, and customs that shaped Jesus and those who followed him.You will hear the parables as they must have sounded to first-century Jews, powerful and surprising. You will join the conversations that were already going on among the rabbis of his day. You will watch with new understanding as the events of his life unfold. And you will emerge with new excitement about the roots of your own Christian faith. Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus will change the way you read Scripture and deepen your understanding of the life of Jesus. It will also help you to adapt the rich prayers and customs you learn about to your own life, in ways that both respect and enrich your Christian faith. By looking at the Jewishness of Jesus, Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg take you on a captivating journey into the heart of Judaism, one that is both balanced and insightful, helping you to better understand and appreciate your own faith.
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.
Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds: A Sourcebook
Daniel Ogden - 2002
Recently, ancient magic has hit a high in popularity, both as an area of scholarly inquiry and as one of general, popular interest. In Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds Daniel Ogden presents three hundred texts in new translations, along with brief but explicit commentaries. This is the first book in the field to unite extensive selections from both literary and documentary sources. Alongside descriptions of sorcerers, witches, and ghosts in the works of ancient writers, it reproduces curse tablets, spells from ancient magical recipe books, and inscriptions from magical amulets. Each translation is followed by a commentary that puts it in context within ancient culture and connects the passage to related passages in this volume. Authors include the well known (Sophocles, Herodotus, Plato, Aristotle, Virgil, Pliny) and the less familiar, and extend across the whole of Greco-Roman antiquity.
Aradia: Gospel of the Witches
Charles Godfrey Leland - 1899
What is certain is that this 1899 classic has become a foundational document of modern Wicca and neopaganism. Leland claimed his "witch informant," a fortune-teller named Maddalena, supplied him with the secret writings that he translated and combined with his research on Italian pagan tradition to create a gospel of pagan belief and practice. Here, in the story of the goddess Aradia, who came to Earth to champion oppressed peasants in their fight against their feudal overlords and the Catholic Church, are the chants, prayers, spells, and rituals that have become the centerpieces of contemporary pagan faiths. American journalist and folklorist CHARLES GODFREY LELAND (1824-1903) was editor of Continental Monthly during the Civil War and coined the term emancipation as an alternative to abolition, but he is best remembered for his books on ethnography, folklore, and language, including The Gypsies (1882), The Hundred Riddles of the Fairy Bellaria (1892), and Unpublished Legends of Virgil (1899).
Muhammad: The Messenger of God: An Analysis of the Prophet's Life
M. Fethullah Gülen - 2005
This book presents Prophet Muhammad in the different roles he assumed within his community as a father, husband, statesman, chief of staff, and an individual with utmost compassion, wisdom, grace, humility, and trustworthiness.
America's God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln
Mark A. Noll - 2002
Yet, by the nineteenth century, American theology had shifted dramatically away from the severe European traditions directly descended from the Protestant Reformation, of which Puritanism was in the United States the most influential. In its place arose a singularly American set of beliefs. In America's God, Mark Noll has written a biography of this new American ethos.
The Magical Household: Spells & Rituals for the Home
Scott Cunningham - 1983
Create a magical household--a haven of harmony, safety, spirituality, security, and romance. The benefits include a happier existence, protection against thieves, improved health, restful sleep, satisfying spiritual experiences, and a perfect environment for positive magic. This warm and wise guide by much loved author Scott Cunningham has been helping people create sacred space in their homes and gardens for nearly twenty years.