Magic and magicians appear in early Babylonian texts, the Bible, Judaism, and Islam. Secret words, spells, and incantations lie at the heart of nearly every mythological tradition. But for every genuine magus there is an impostor.During the Middle Ages, religion, science, and magic were difficult to set apart. The Middle Ages also saw the pursuit of alchemy—the magical transformation of base materials—which led to a fascination with the occult, Freemasonry, and Rosicrucianism.The turn of the twentieth century witnessed a return to earlier magical traditions, and today, magic means many things: contemporary Wicca is practiced widely as a modern pagan religion in Europe and the US; “magic” also stretches to include the nonspiritual, rapid-fire sleight of hand performed by slick stage magicians who fill vast arenas.The Occult, Witchcraft and Magic is packed with authoritative text and a huge and inspired selection of images, some chosen from unusual sources, including some of the best-known representations of magic and the occult from around the world spanning ancient to modern times.

    A billionaire with a PR nightmare, and the summer party that could change everything. Welcome to The Cove With heavy iron gates, two security stations, and a groundskeeper's cottage, The Cove has everything a billionaire could ask for in a home. Dubbed Billionaire Bachelor Cove because of the resident's single status and income portfolios, The Cove is the perfect place to hide away from the world. But, as the residents soon find out, they can't hide from love. Secrets, Fireworks, and her Billionaire Boyfriend Sayler Davenport lives to work. When her boss, Liam Summers, goes on his honeymoon and forces Sayler to take a six-week vacation, she finds herself out of her element trying to relax. Changing course, she visits her brother in The Cove, determined to be productive during time off by decorating her brother’s mansion. She never expected she’d need to defend the property from a thief. Billionaire Brooks Morgan is a resident in The Cove, and most definitely not a thief, but he has secrets that can’t be shared with anyone; especially not while his company has received worldwide negative attention. He wants to make a good impression by throwing the biggest party The Cove has seen to date. In danger of losing his company and his heart, he sets out to win Sayler over and to improve his PR situation. When doubt creeps in and secrets threaten to tear all that has been built apart, will sparks fly or will the only fireworks be in the sky? Read all of the romance novels by bestselling author, Chelsea Hale! All of the romances in this series can be read in any order. Each book is a sweet/clean contemporary billionaire romance and has a guaranteed happily ever after. A Falling for You Clean Billionaire Romance Series: The Undercover Resort Billionaire Her Fake Christmas Eve Billionaire Boyfriend Snowed in with the Movie Star Billionaire Her British Billionaire Best Friend Hart to Heart with the Billionaire A Rich and Famous Romance Series: Mr. Write Love in Focus The Companion Perfect Catch

    Is Mark going mad or was his girlfriend Called from Beyond? Mark’s girlfriend dies in a car accident before he can tell her how much he loves her. He never believed in ghosts, but a well-meaning friend and guilt push him into new and dangerous territory. All he wants is the chance to say he is sorry. To speak to her one more time. During a desperate, alcohol-fueled binge, he buys an Ouija board and calls Alissa. Is his drinking problem or survivor’s guilt making him doubt his sanity? Or are the footsteps in the night and inexplicable messages real—has Alissa returned? Gail and Jesse have their own guilt to bear, both tormented by a secret they have no choice but to keep. Is it their fault Alissa died? All they want is to help Mark through his grief, but his true plight soon becomes apparent. Evil is waiting and it’s worse than they can imagine. Will Mark be sucked into the darkness or will he send away his love to save his own life? Scroll up now to find out in this thrilling, fast-paced ghost story that will have you reading well into the night. Just remember to keep the lights on. This is the second book in the exciting Spirit Guide Series. Each book is a complete story and they can be read in any order. They follow Gail and Jesse as they search for ways to put spirits to rest and to save those who are tormented by them. The first book in the series is The Haunting of Seafield House It is permanently 0.99 and FREE on Kindle Unlimited or get an introduction to the series for free - Get The Black-Eyed Children at http://eepurl.com/cGdNvX

    And it was my privilege to listen.” —Sebastião Salgado On a very fortuitous day in 1970, 26-year-old Sebastião Salgado held a camera for the first time. When he looked through the viewfinder, he experienced a revelation: suddenly life made sense. From that day onward—though it took years of hard work before he had the experience to earn his living as a photographer—the camera became his tool for interacting with our world. Salgado, who “always preferred the chiaroscuro palette of black-and-white images,” shot very little color in his early career before giving it up completely. Raised on a farm in Brazil, Salgado possessed a deep love and respect for nature; he was also particularly sensitive to the ways in which human beings are affected by their often devastating socio-economic conditions. Of the myriad works Salgado has produced in his acclaimed career, three long-term projects stand out: Workers (1993), documenting the vanishing way of life of manual laborers across the world, Migrations (2000), a tribute to mass migration driven by hunger, natural disasters, environmental degradation and demographic pressure, and this new opus, Genesis, the result of an epic eight-year expedition to rediscover the mountains, deserts and oceans, the animals and peoples that have so far escaped the imprint of modern society—the land and life of a still-pristine planet. “Some 46% of the planet is still as it was in the time of genesis,” Salgado reminds us. “We must preserve what exists.” The Genesis project, along with the Salgados’ Instituto Terra, are dedicated to showing the beauty of our planet, reversing the damage done to it, and preserving it for the future. Over 30 trips—travelled by foot, light aircraft, seagoing vessels, canoes, and even balloons, through extreme heat and cold and in sometimes dangerous conditions—Salgado created a collection of images showing us nature, animals, and indigenous peoples in breathtaking beauty. Mastering the monochrome with an extreme deftness to rival the virtuoso Ansel Adams, Salgado brings black-and-white photography to a new dimension; the tonal variations in his works, the contrasts of light and dark, recall the works of Old Masters such as Rembrandt and Georges de La Tour. What does one discover in Genesis? The animal species and volcanoes of the Galápagos; penguins, sea lions, cormorants, and whales of the Antarctic and South Atlantic; Brazilian alligators and jaguars; African lions, leopards, and elephants; the isolated Zo’é tribe deep in the Amazon jungle; the Stone Age Korowai people of West Papua; nomadic Dinka cattle farmers in Sudan; Nenet nomads and their reindeer herds in the Arctic Circle; Mentawai jungle communities on islands west of Sumatra; the icebergs of the Antarctic; the volcanoes of Central Africa and the Kamchatka Peninsula; Saharan deserts; the Negro and Juruá rivers in the Amazon; the ravines of the Grand Canyon; the glaciers of Alaska... and beyond. Having dedicated so much time, energy, and passion to the making of this work, Salgado likens Genesis to “my love letter to the planet.” Whereas the limited Collector’s Edition is conceived like a large-format portfolio that meanders across the planet, this unlimited book presents a selection of photographs arranged in five chapters geographically: Planet South, Sanctuaries, Africa, Northern Spaces, Amazonia and Pantanal. Each in its own way, this book and the Collector’s edition—both edited and designed by Lélia Wanick Salgado—pay homage to Salgado’s triumphant and unparalleled Genesis project.The world premiere of Sebastião Salgado: Genesis will open at the Natural History Museum in London on April 11, 2013. The exhibition builds on the Museum’s reputation as the home of the planet’s best nature photography. For further information and to book tickets please go to www.nhm.ac.uk/salgado. Additionally, from May 14th, a special portfolio of plantinum prints from Genesis will be shown at Phillips Howick Place gallery in London.Worldwide venues for the Genesis exhibition:The Natural History Museum, London, UK - April 11 through September 8, 2013 The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada - May 2 through September 2, 2013 Ara Pacis Museum, Rome, Italy - May 15 through September 15, 2013 Jardim Botânico, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil - May 28 through August 25, 2013 Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland - September 21, 2013 through January 12, 2014 La Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP), Paris, France - September 25, 2013 through January 5, 2014 SESC Belenzinho, São Paulo, SP, Brazil - September 9 - November 2013

    This classic deck is now reprinted with enhanced cards and a booklet specially written for this new edition. The Arthurian Tarot Deck depicts characters and themes from the famous Celto-Arthurian legends, along with the four Hallows of the Quest for spiritual wholeness. * New edition of a classic deck. * Stunning artwork by Miranda Gray, a leading MBS artist. * Caitlín and John Matthews are Arthurian-legend and tarot experts.

    Swiftly, the aliens take control of Britain’s cities and force the remainder of the British military to go on the run. With the government destroyed, the population must choose between fighting and collaborating with the alien overlords. This is truly Britain’s darkest hour. Caught up in these events are a handful of ordinary people, struggling to survive. The Prime Minister, forced into hiding, and an unscrupulous politician looking to find fame and power by serving the aliens. Soldiers fighting an insurgency and senior officers trying desperately to find the key to driving the aliens away from Earth; police officers faced with a choice between collaboration or watching the aliens brutalise the civilian population. And ordinary citizens, trying to survive a world turned upside down. But resistance seems futile and the aliens appear unstoppable – and the entire population is caught in the middle. As the alien grip tightens, the last best hope for freedom lies with those who will never surrender...and are prepared to pay any price for the liberation of Earth.

    But he soon finds himself mysteriously detained at a highway inn in the strange and varied company of thieves, brigands, cabbalists, noblemen, coquettes and gypsies, whose stories he records over sixty-six days. The resulting manuscript is discovered some forty years later in a sealed casket, from which tales of characters transformed through disguise, magic and illusion, of honour and cowardice, of hauntings and seductions, leap forth to create a vibrant polyphony of human voices. Jan Potocki (1761-1812) used a range of literary styles - gothic, picaresque, adventure, pastoral, erotica - in his novel of stories-within-stories, which, like the Decameron and Tales from the Thousand and One Nights, provides entertainment on an epic scale.

    A light snow was falling as our family of six and a dog started out in our 1935 Ford. The tires were almost bald and there was a third of the steering wheel missing. The trailer behind was a modified shell of a travel trailer. It was loaded with the bare necessities to set up housekeeping nearly two thousand miles away. We were moving from Kanawha, Iowa to Yakima, Washington to seek our fortune picking fruit in the fruit-rich Yakima Valley.” UPHILL ALL THE WAY, a collection of sixty-seven short stories, is a first hand account of the life of the author’s family and their struggles through the Great Depression and World War II, and their eventual triumph. The circumstances they endured, some beyond their control and some created by the choices they made along the way, provided rich experiences for their family and does the same for the reader. The author’s father suffered ill health the last twelve years of his life. It was during this time that the author spent many hours with his father and heard, for the first time, several of the stories told in this book. After his father died, the author had many visits with his mother to get a better understanding of his parents’ lives before they were married and to clarify some of the things he remembered from his youth, taking notes and recording it all in the form of short stories. The end result is an unusual collection of poignant vignettes that draw the reader in and make the pages turn. More than 2,000 copies have been sold. Here are some comments from readers. * “UPHILL ALL THE WAY” By James Sloter. “Anyone who grew up in small-town Iowa and especially those who grew up right after the Great Depression will find something to relate to in James Sloter’s stories about the obstacles his parents overcame in raising their family in Iowa.” Ellen Heath, Homegrown Writing, The Des Moines Register and Tribune. “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few are to be chewed and digested.” “OF STUDIES” ESSAYS II, Francis Bacon (1561-1626) “Thanks, Jim, for the copy of “UPHILL ALL THE WAY”. We are ‘digesting it’. The book signing was such fun—we’ll do it again for the sequel!” Claudia Warner, Administrator: Algona Public Library, Algona, Iowa “You asked me to tell you what I thought of your book “UPHILL ALL THE WAY”. You said that you rewrote each story several times to ‘make it flow’. Does it ever flow! WOW!” Betty Shipman, Corwith News editor, Corwith, Iowa “I just finished “UPHILL ALL THE WAY”. It was wonderful. I would like to buy ten copies for my book club.” Peg Williams, Minneapolis, MN “This check is for five more copies of your fascinating book. Thank you very much for the privilege of reading it.” Kent Ryerson, Norwalk, IA “I just finished reading your book. I enjoyed it so much.” Delores Huse, Pharr, TX “I enjoyed your book so much and am passing it around for all my family to read.” Maxine S., Dixon, IL “I hope your travels through Iowa and book-signings have been successful. I have finished your book—enjoyed it very much—it has us reminiscing about our own youth.” Pearl White, Sioux Falls, SD “Your book was interesting reading and factual, as I can really remember doing many of the things you mentioned doing in your childhood. The one difference though is that you were loved and you knew it.

    Although they have been mentioned in the bible and traces of their existence are scattered throughout the globe, Peter Madeloy had always presumed that the myths of the possible existence of an ancient brotherhood, living on Earth for milennia, was nothing more than that, a myth. Until one day his father is brutally murdered and his mother is kidnapped. In exchange for his mother’s safe return, Peter must enter his father’s secret world, uncover the truth about his mother’s kidnappers and find the ancient artefact his father had dedicated his life to protecting. Peter enlists the help of his uncle, Daniel O'Brien, a professor of Philology and avid researcher of veiled organisations and his wife, Emily, a geneticist, to unravel a series of clues his father has left him. Together they embark on a journey that thrusts them into the centre of an ancient battle for supremacy that uncovers a truth that for them, will change the history and future of humanity simultaneously. With the enemy watching their every move Peter, Daniel and Emily must figure out his father's clues in time to save his mother and ultimately protect the world from the true secret that was unearthed from beneath King Solomon's Temple all those centuries ago.

    Put a tired-looking mom behind the wheel of a minivan and she becomes invisible…and the perfect spy.But Kate secretly fears she’s lost her instinct—that guiding voice that’s kept her safe in the world of espionage.To run U-Tap, she must work with John, a handsome, experienced officer with a reputation that sends her self-doubts into overdrive.And when Kate discovers John has secrets of his own, she must trust her instincts or lose everything.

    Some of his tales will seem far fetched, unless you're a cop and then you know that anything can happen - and just when you think you've seen it all, someone will surprise you.

    They are 300 times more effective than an ordinary patrol... If we are going to have murderers and terrorists roaming the towns, then we have to have somebody who is able to go out and find them.” Contemporary press report Some think it stood for ‘Military Reconnaissance Force’, others ‘Mobile Reconnaissance Force’. Many people thought it didn’t exist at all and was made up, a figment of the press’s imagination. To the members of the group that was just fine. It added to the illusion, and the speculation about the unit’s name and mission only added to the uncertainty amongst their targets — terrorists — members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, the IRA, the provos. For decades there has been argument in the media and amongst politicians about the possible existence and extent of a shoot-to-kill policy in Northern Ireland. MRF Shadow Troop confirms there was such an agenda in the early, chaotic days of British military intervention across the Irish Sea. Amongst the mountain of speculation there is little of any accuracy or authority relating to this period. Simon Cursey was recruited into the Military Reaction Force — the unit’s true name — in 1972. This book is his personal account of his time with the group and in it he reveals the truth about their operations — the briefings, missions, political wrangling, and government-sanctioned law-bending. With documents and photographs to corroborate all his revelations, MRF Shadow Troop is a fascinating, exciting but above all accurate historical text about the pioneers of counter-terrorism.

    She ran away.Sickness stole Corbin’s wife and love of his life.Mattie ended her marriage the day it should have begun.Corbin and Mattie are strangers living in Malibu, unaware of each other...Until Valentina Del Torre steps in.The matchmaker brings the lonely billionaire entertainment entrepreneur and the creative Broadway musical writer wannabe together, but it’s up to them to build a relationship.Corbin wants to love Mattie, but something is blocking him.Mattie must face her past and make a choice.But will Corbin wait for her to make it?Is new love just as good or better than first love?

    A tiny mother and child bustle through a dusty township in Cape Town, while a miniature informant whispers in a telephone booth in Beijing. Thumb-size riot police climb the Acropolis in Athens, while an inch-high woman pole-dances around a lamppost in a Hong Kong red-light district.Global Model Village collects the international works of Slinkachu, the London-based artist who as part of his “Little People Project” has been abandoning tiny model people on the mean streets of the world since 2006. Documented through photography, these little dramas of hope and tragedy, loneliness and humor, somehow get to the heart of what it means to be human, to be alone among millions of other people, all experiencing the melancholy and magic of life in the big city.

    From the tale of a sixteenth-century shoemaker from Breslau whose ghost terrorized everyone in the city, to the testimony of a doctor who presided over the exhumation and dissection of a graveyard full of Serbian vampires, his book is fascinating reading.