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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Alternative belief systems
The book provides an overview and analysis of the witch trials in
the Scottish Borders in the 17th century. The 17th century was a
time of upheaval in Scottish and British history, with a civil war,
the abolition of the monarchy, the plague and the reformation all
influencing the social context at the time. This book explores the
social, political, geographical, religious and legal structures
that led to the increased amount of witch trials and executions in
the Scottish Borders. As well as looking at specific trials the
book also explores the role of women, both as accuser and as
accused.
Divination, the use of special talents and techniques to gain
divine knowledge, was practiced in many different forms in ancient
Israel and throughout the ancient world. The Hebrew Bible reveals a
variety of traditions of women associated with divination. This
sensitive and incisive book by respected scholar Esther J. Hamori
examines the wide scope of women's divinatory activities as
portrayed in the Hebrew texts, offering readers a new appreciation
of the surprising breadth of women's "arts of knowledge" in
biblical times. Unlike earlier approaches to the subject that have
viewed prophecy separately from other forms of divination, Hamori's
study encompasses the full range of divinatory practices and the
personages who performed them, from the female prophets and the
medium of En-dor to the matriarch who interprets a birth omen and
the "wise women" of Tekoa and Abel and more. In doing so, the
author brings into clearer focus the complex, rich, and diverse
world of ancient Israelite divination.
The Book of the Law, the holy text that forms the basis of Thelema,
was transmitted to Crowley by the entity known as Aiwass in Cairo,
on three successive days during April 1904. Acting as a medium,
Crowley recorded the communications on hotel notepads and later
organized his automatic writing into a short, coherent document.
Aiwass/Crowley presents The Book of the Law as an expression of
three god-forms in three chapters: Nuit, Hadit, and Ra-Hoor-Khuit.
In this novel academic study, Aled Thomas analyses modern issues
surrounding boundaries and fluidity in contemporary Scientology. By
using the Scientologist practice of 'auditing' as a case study,
this book explores the ways in which new types of 'Scientologies'
can emerge. The notion of Free Zone Scientology is characterised by
its horizontal structure, in contrast to the vertical-hierarchy of
the institutional Church of Scientology. With this in mind, Thomas
explores the Free Zone as an example of a developing and fluid
religion, directly addressing questions concerning authority,
leadership and material objects. This book, by maintaining a
double-focus on the top-down hierarchy of the Church of Scientology
and the horizontal-fluid nature of the Free Zone, breaks away from
previous research on new religions, with have tended to focus
either on new religions as indices of broad social processes, such
as secularization or globalization, or as exemplars of exotic
processes, such as charismatic authority and brainwashing. Instead,
Thomas adopts auditing as a method of providing an in-depth case
study of a new religion in transition and transformation in the
21st century. This opens the study of contemporary and new
religions to a series of new questions around hybrid religions
(sacred and secular), and acts as a framework for the study of
similar movements formed in recent decades.
Shawn wrote this book based upon his life experiences as a
struggling business owner trying to remain spiritually grounded in
2013. His personal relations with an angel appearing as his
ex-girlfriend had a profound impact on his life. He felt driven to
share this unique story with the world. He lives eight months out
of the year in Homer Glen, Illinois. The extended winter months, he
lives at different locations in Hawaii. His personal life is always
an adventure. He enjoys spending time with the angels, while doing
his best to stay on a clairvoyant path. Dream and reality merge,
and "Dreamality" forms while experiencing God's pace in his
life.
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