|
Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Alternative belief systems
'A wonderful book by a fabulous author, very highly recommended.'
Louise DouglasA tale as old as time. A spirit that has never
rested.Present day As a love affair comes to an end, and with it
her dreams for her future, artist Selena needs a retreat. The
picture-postcard Sloe Cottage in the Somerset village of Ashcombe
promises to be the perfect place to forget her problems, and Selena
settles into her new home as spring arrives. But it isn't long
before Selena hears the past whispering to her. Sloe Cottage is
keeping secrets which refuse to stay hidden. 1682 Grace Cotter
longs for nothing more than a husband and family of her own.
Content enough with her work on the farm, looking after her father,
and learning the secrets of her grandmother Bett's healing hands,
nevertheless Grace still hopes for love. But these are dangerous
times for dreamers, and rumours and gossip can be deadly. One
mis-move and Grace's fate looks set... Separated by three hundred
years, two women are drawn together by a home bathed in blood and
magic. Grace Cotter's spirit needs to rest, and only Selena can
help her now. USA Today bestselling author Judy Leigh writing as
Elena Collins, brings you this unforgettable, heart-breaking,
gripping timeslip novel set in a world when women were hung as
witches, and fates could be sealed by a wrong word. Perfect for
fans of Barbara Erskine, Diana Gabaldon and Louise Douglas. Praise
for Elena Collins: 'A profoundly moving, beautifully written and
emotional story that skilfully combines two time frames into one
unputdownable book. I was completely immersed in Grace's story from
the beginning: despite it taking place 400 years ago. The modern
day storyline was also delightful with some wonderful characters.
In short a wonderful book by a fabulous author, very highly
recommended.' Louise Douglas
Through in-depth interviews with 22 New Agers and Neo-Pagans, this
study proposes a new model of religious identity from a
sociological standpoint. The analysis demonstrates that in spite of
their great diversity of beliefs and lack of strong organizational
ties, a discernible community of alternative spiritualists does
exist. This volume will appeal not only to scholars of the
sociology of religion, but also to sociologists interested in
community building, social movements, and self-identity.
In a long-overlooked diary entry, Franz Kafka admitted to suffering
from ''bouts of clairvoyance.'' These bouts of clairvoyance can be
seen in his writing, in moments when the solid basis of human
cognition totters, the dissolution of matter seems imminent, and
objects are jarringly severed from physical referents. June O.
Leavitt offers a fascinating examination of the mystical in Kafka's
life and writings, showing that Kafka's understanding of the occult
was not only a product of his own clairvoyant experiences but of
the age in which he lived.
Kafka lived during the modern Spiritual Revival, a powerful
movement which resisted materialism, rejected the adulation of
science and Darwin, and idealized clairvoyant modes of
consciousness. Kafka's contemporaries - such theosophical
ideologues as Madame H.P. Blavatsky, Annie Besant, and Dr. Rudolph
Steiner - encouraged the counterculture to seek the true, spiritual
essence of reality by inducing out-of-body experiences and
producing visions of higher disembodied beings through meditative
techniques. Leaders of the Spiritual Revival also called for the
adoption of certain lifestyles, such as vegetarianism, in order to
help transform consciousness and return humanity to its divine
nature.
Interweaving the occult discourse on clairvoyance, the divine
nature of animal life, vegetarianism, the spiritual sources of
dreams, and the eternal nature of the soul with Kafka's
dream-chronicles, animal narratives, diaries, letters, and stories,
Leavitt takes the reader on a journey through the texts of a great
psychic writer and the fascinating epoch of the Spiritual Revival.
About the Book The Diagram Star is explaining the whole mystery of
religious belief. The book is revealing a reconstruction of the
world history based on the formula used by the Masters of the past.
The main character in this historical and highly political novel,
Oskar Karlsen, is in his real life an invalid. He is creating a
role play on Internet were he gives him self the title Master and
states that his aim is to flood the whole world with knowledge and
drown the religious belief. Flooding the world with knowledge will
be done by the use of Internet. Oskar conclude that when the
formula is used on all the gospel stories in the Bible, they become
a total different story. The formula can be used on all the
dominating religions and sects in the world. His message to the
world is that all the gospel stories are a camouflage over
knowledge, and they were the work of the Masters of the past. Oskar
Karlsens role play on Internet is threatening the way of life for
the richest of the rich people in the world. They depend on the
religions, the national borders and the dictating economy to get
even richer, while an increasing number of humans dies daily of
causes caused by poverty. In order to make the world a better place
for all humans, knowledge of the Diagram Star have to return to all
people. Then the religious belief will vanish into thin air. Some
rich sponsors are giving the invalid Oskar an expensive operation
that most likely can cure his disability. Even if he is warned that
the sponsors will use the operation to kill him, he is determent to
do it and use the interest of the world press to advertise his role
play all over the world. Will he succeed? With the use of Internet
and your help, he certainly will succeed.
The book provides a comprehensive exploration of witchcraft beliefs
and practices in the rural region of Eastern Slovenia. Based on
field research conducted at the beginning of the twenty-first
century, it examines witchcraft in the region from folkloristic,
anthropological, as well as historical, perspectives. Witchcraft is
presented as part of social reality, strongly related to misfortune
and involved in social relationships. The reality of the ascribed
bewitching deeds, psychological mechanisms that may help
bewitchment to work, circumstances in which bewitchment narratives
can be mobilised, reasons for a person to acquire a reputation of
the witch in the entire community, and the role that unwitchers
fulfilled in the community, are but a few of the many topics
discussed. In addition, the intertwinement of social witchcraft
with narratives of supernatural experiences, closely associated
with supernatural beings of European folklore, forming part of the
overall witchcraft discourse in the area, is explored.
Silver Threads shows consciousness studies in the context of
scholarly investigation and liberal thinking. It was written to
celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Parapsychology Research
Group. However, the subject matter is not confined to
parapsychology; the volume is, more generally, a collection of
essays on and experiments in consciousness. It includes theoretical
material on the philosophy of science and experimental reports.
Many of the contributors are recognized as outstanding original
researchers in the field of parapsychology, such as Targ, Honorton,
Tart, Harman, Krippner, and Grof. The contributors conclude that:
(1) psychic phenomena are genuine and can be subject to scientific
investigation; (2) science is changing to adapt to new categories
of phenomena, including those which are considered paranormal; and
(3) paranormal function is an innate human ability that everyone
possesses and uses.
Le Livre d'Or (The Book of Gold) is a unique 17th century French
magical work comprising numerous amulets, charms, prayers, spells
and sigils for working with the Biblical Book of the Psalms of King
David. Written in a simple style akin to a medieval Book of Secrets
combined with magical practices from the ancient world, Le Livre
d'Or brings together practices which have their roots in major
works from the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Cairo Genizah, to the Greek
Magical Papyri and Sepher Shimmush Tehillim (Magical Use of the
Psalms). Now translated into English for the first time, this
exceptional text demonstrates the significance of the Psalms as a
unifying and vital thread throughout the development of Western
magic. From Sweden to Syria, Britain to the Baltic, the use of
appropriate Psalms has spread as a significant part of popular folk
and religious magic, and Le Livre d'Or is an inimitable example of
the transmission of divine power through the written and spoken
word. Le Livre d'Or was originally bound as part of Lansdowne MS
1202 with a 17th century French copy of the most important of
grimoires, the Key of Solomon. The extensive commentary by David
Rankine and Paul Harry Barron emphasises the place of the Psalms
within the Grimoire tradition, detailing their extensive
apotropaic, amuletic and coercive uses in works such as the Book of
Abramelin, the Key of Solomon and the Goetia. The editors also
illustrate how the magic of the Psalms has underlain and
cross-fertilised numerous traditions over the last two thousand
years, from Hellenic magicians, early Christians and Jews of the
ancient world to practitioners of the medieval Grimoires and
Renaissance Cunning-folk. Whether it was for benevolent or malefic
results, Le Livre d'Or provided the appropriate Psalm verses and
relevant techniques. This previously ignored work is an outstanding
example of eminently practical magic which not only draws on such
major works as the Heptameron and the Steganographia, but also many
of the divine names found in the Kabbalah. From Saints to spirits,
characters to Creeds, Le Livre d'Or shines forth as a significant
and reclaimed chapter in the Western Esoteric Traditions. There is
also a paperback edition available of this book.
 |
Mind Over Heart
(Hardcover)
David H. Sterne; Edited by Uriela Sagiv; Read by Ami Meyers
|
R1,539
Discovery Miles 15 390
|
Ships in 12 - 19 working days
|
|
This book is a collection of essays on Scottish witchcraft. Unlike
most such works, it concentrates on witchcraft beliefs rather than
witch-hunting. It ranges widely across areas of popular belief,
culture, and ritual practice, as well as dealing with intellectual
life and incorporating regional and comparative elements. The
editors were members of the team responsible for the
recently-completed Survey of Scottish Witchcraft, and the book
incorporates a number of pioneering findings from this rich online
resource.
Surveys over the last twenty years have seen an ever-growing number
of Americans disclaim religious affiliations and instead check the
"none" box. In the first sociological exploration of organized
secularism in America, Richard Cimino and Christopher Smith show
how one segment of these "nones" have created a new, cohesive
atheist identity through activism and the creation of communities.
According to Cimino and Smith, the new upsurge of atheists is a
reaction to the revival of religious fervor in American politics
since 1980. Feeling overlooked and underrepresented in the public
sphere, atheists have employed a wide variety of strategies-some
evangelical, some based on identity politics-to defend and assert
themselves against their ideological opponents. These strategies
include building and maintaining communities, despite the absence
of the kinds of shared rituals, texts, and laws that help to
sustain organized religions.
Drawing on in-depth interviews with self-identified atheist,
secularist, and humanist leaders and activists, as well as
extensive observations and analysis of secular gatherings and
media, Cimino and Smith illustrate how atheists organize and align
themselves toward common goals, and how media-particularly
web-based media-have proven invaluable in connecting atheists to
one another and in creating a powerful virtual community. Cimino
and Smith suggest that secularists rely not only on the Internet
for community-building, but on their own new forms of ritual.
This groundbreaking study will be essential reading for anyone
seeking to understand the growing atheist movement in America.
"Charms, Charmers, and Charming" brings together the work of many
of today's key scholars in the field of verbal charming. The essays
it contains cover vernacular magical texts and practice from
Malaysia to Madagascar, and from England to Estonia. As the most
comprehensive collection of research on charms, charmers, and
charming available in the English language, it forms an essential
reader on the topic.
There has been a dramatic increase in the percentage of the US
population that is not religious. However, there is, to date, very
little research on the social movement that is organizing to serve
the needs of and advocate for the nonreligious in the US. This is a
book about the rise and structure of organized secularism in the
United States. By organized secularism we mean the efforts of
nonreligious individuals to build institutions, networks, and
ultimately a movement that serves their interests in a
predominantly religious society. Researchers from various fields
address questions such as: What secularist organizations exist? Who
are the members of these organizations? What kinds of organizations
do they create? What functions do these organizations provide for
their members? How do the secularist organizations of today compare
to those of the past? And what is their likely impact on the future
of secularism? For anyone trying to understand the rise of the
nonreligious in the US, this book will provide valuable insights
into organized efforts to normalize their worldview and advocate
for their equal treatment in society.
Devil worship, black magic, and witchcraft have long captivated
anthropologists as well as the general public. In this volume, Jean
La Fontaine explores the intersection of expert and lay
understandings of evil and the cultural forms that evil assumes.
The chapters touch on public scares about devil-worship,
misconceptions about human sacrifice and the use of body parts in
healing practices, and mistaken accusations of children practicing
witchcraft. Together, these cases demonstrate that comparison is a
powerful method of cultural understanding, but warns of the dangers
and mistaken conclusions that untrained ideas about other ways of
life can lead to.
|
You may like...
Suspects
Danielle Steel
Paperback
(3)
R340
R308
Discovery Miles 3 080
|