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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Alternative belief systems
Ná herhaaldelike polisiebrouwerk begin kaptein Ben Booysen die Krugersdorp-moorde in 2016 manalleen ondersoek.
Booysen haal koerantvoorblaaie toe hy die baasbrein, Cecilia Steyn, en haar vyf trawante vir minstens 11 moorde in hegtenis neem.
Suid-Afrika se eie “Chuck Norris” neem die leser tot agter die skerms van die satanistiese moorde en onthul nuwe, skokkende besonderhede van die misdade wat die land amper ’n dekade lank vasgenael gehou het.
The End Of Whiteness aims to reveal the pathological, paranoid and bizarre consequences that the looming end of apartheid had on white culture in South Africa, and overall to show that whiteness is a deeply problematic category that needs to be deconstructed and thoughtfully considered.
This book uses contemporary media material to investigate two symptoms of this late apartheid cultural hysteria that appeared throughout the contemporary media and in popular literature during the 1980s and 1990s, showing their relation to white anxieties about social change, the potential loss of privilege and the destabilisation of the country that were imagined to be an inevitable consequence of majority rule.
The ‘Satanic panic’ revolved around the apparent threat posed by a cult of white Satanists that was never proven to exist but was nonetheless repeatedly accused of conspiracy, murder, rape, drug-dealing, cannibalism and bestiality, and blamed for the imminent destruction of white Christian civilisation in South Africa.
During the same period an unusually high number of domestic murder-suicides occurred, with parents killing themselves and their children or other family members by gunshot, fire, poison, gas, even crossbows and drownings. This so-called epidemic of family murder was treated by police, press and social scientists as a plague that specifically affected white Afrikaans families. These double monsters, both fantastic and real, helped to disembowel the clarities of whiteness even as they were born out of threats to it. Deep within its self-regarding modernity and renegotiation of identity, contemporary white South Africa still wears those scars of cultural pathology.
Known as the `four horsemen' of New Atheism, these four big thinkers of the twenty-first century met only once. Their electrifying examination of ideas on this remarkable occasion was intense and wide-ranging. Everything that was said as they agreed and disagreed with one another, interrogated ideas and exchanged insights - about religion and atheism, science and sense - speaks with urgency to our present age.
Questions they asked of each other included:
- Is it ever possible to win a war of ideas?
- Is spirituality the preserve of the religious?
- Are there any truths you would rather not know?
- Would you want to see the end of faith?
The dialogue was recorded, and is now transcribed and presented here with new introductions from the surviving three horsemen. With a sparkling introduction from Stephen Fry, it makes essential reading for all their admirers and for anyone interested in exploring the tensions between faith and reason.
In 1636, residents at the convent of Santa Chiara in Carpi in
northern Italy were struck by an extraordinary illness that
provoked bizarre behavior. Eventually numbering fourteen, the
afflicted nuns were subject to screaming fits, throwing themselves
on the floor, and falling abruptly into a deep sleep. When medical
experts' cures proved ineffective, exorcists ministered to the
women and concluded that they were possessed by demons and the
victims of witchcraft. Catering to women from elite families, the
nunnery suffered much turmoil for three years and, remarkably,
three of the victims died from their ills. A maverick nun and a
former confessor were widely suspected to be responsible, through
witchcraft, for these woes. Based primarily on the exhaustive
investigation by the Inquisition of Modena, The Scourge of Demons
examines this fascinating case in its historical context. The
travails of Santa Chiara occurred at a time when Europe witnessed
peaks in both witch-hunting and in the numbers of people reputedly
possessed by demons. Female religious figures appeared particularly
prone to demonic attacks, and Counter-Reformation Church
authorities were especially interested in imposing stricter
discipline on convents. Watt carefully considers how the nuns of
Santa Chiara understood and experienced alleged possession and
witchcraft, concluding that Santa Chiara's diabolical troubles and
their denouement -- involving the actions of nuns, confessors,
inquisitorial authorities, and exorcists -- were profoundly shaped
by the unique confluence of religious, cultural, judicial, and
intellectual trends that flourished in the 1630s. Jeffrey R. Watt
is professor of history at the University of Mississippi.
This is Laurence Gardner's final book, written shortly before his
death in 2010 and is the accompanying book to his Origin of God
(published 2011 by dash house publishing). Together with Origin of
God, this book outlines an irrefutable and searing indictment of
conventional belief and exposes the evils and absurdities
perpetuated over the millenia in the name of Christianity. In
Revelation of the Devil, Laurence Gardner traces the history of the
Devil, from its roots in Mesopotamia and the Old Testament all the
way up to the modern world of today. Travelling through the New
Testament, as well as the Koran, and then passing in turn through
the Inquisitions, the Reformation and the Enlightenment, he unmasks
what he has called "the myth of evil and the conspiracy of Satan."
For nearly 2,000 years a supernatural entity known as the Devil has
been held responsible by Church authorities for bringing sin and
wickedness into the world. Throughout this period, the Devil has
been portrayed as a constant protagonist of evil, although his
origin remains a mystery and his personality has undergone many
interpretive changes, prompting questions such as: If God is all
good and all powerful, then why does evil exist? How can it exist?
If God created everything, then where did the Devil come from? If
the Devil exists, then why does he not feature in any pre-Christian
document? Revelation of the Devil follows the Devil's sinister
history, in the manner of a biography, from his scriptural
introduction to the dark satanic cults of the present day. In a
strict chronological progression, we experience the mood of each
successive era as the Devil's image was constantly manipulated to
suit the changing motives of his creators in their bid for
threat-driven clerical control.
This is an accessible response to the contemporary anti-God
arguments of the 'new atheists' (Dawkins, Dennett, Harris,
Hitchens, Grayling, etc). Atheism has become militant in the past
few years, with its own popular mass media evangelists such as
Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett. In this readable book,
Christian philosopher Peter S. Williams considers the arguments of
the 'new atheists' and finds them wanting. Williams explains the
history of atheism and responds to the claims that: 'belief in God
causes more harm than good'; 'religion is about blind faith and
science is the only way to know things'; 'science can explain
religion away'; 'there is not enough evidence for God'; 'the
arguments for God's existence do not work'. Williams argues that
belief in God is more intellectually plausible than atheism.
A sigil is an intensely powerful magickal tool that any modern
witch should consider adding to their repertoire. Sigils can help
manifest your desires, ward off evil, and add deeper levels of
meaning to your spells. You don’t have to be an artist to create
a sigil—anyone can do it. Sigil Craft is Lia Taylor’s
must-have guide to creating sigils, including step-by-step
instructions using various methods including the Magic Square and
Austin Osman Spare, as well as an overview of sigils throughout
history, from Agrippa to modern chaos magick, from medieval
grimoires and prehistoric cave paintings to the graphic novels of
Grant Morrison. Taylor shares how to charge your sigils,
incorporate them into your creative endeavors, and heighten the
power of your sigils through the shoaling technique. This immensely
useful book is fully illustrated with Taylor’s art, and is a
fascinating guide to an increasingly popular practice.Â
A unique essay about Science and Metaphysics in which the author
Alex Red Kenaton shifts the readers awareness by disclosing
precious information. It is a stream of consciousness depicting
many reflections and dialogues revealing a loose interior monologue
connection characterised by some associative leaps in thought. This
uncommon book is held together by the author's passion for science,
spirituality and an unrelenting search for truth. Alex Red Kenaton
is a multifaceted scholar working in different fields of study:
Humanistic Social Sciences, Physical Natural Sciences, and
Metaphysical Philosophical Sciences. These areas have allowed him
to acquire a broad interdisciplinary understanding of human life.
As a new author, he compares the latest scientific discoveries in
physics to spiritual and religious texts, often finding
commonalities. One of his deeps beliefs is that people have been
searching for a way to understand if they have power in their lives
for centuries. He thinks that this mastery exists, is real, and is
located, not just metaphorically, in our hearts. Alex Red Kenaton
inspires people to step into joy, to live fully and with life's
presence, without fleeing or getting caught in protective bubbles.
He trusts that by assuming responsibilities, it is possible to live
all the aspects of life without separation, always knowing that the
external reality reflects our consciousness and nothing more.
In a time unremembered, this author was found washed up on the
shores of Lake Titicaca. In his possession was this book. This book
is a map, it tells you where you've come from, it tells you where
you're going, it tells you where you are. It tells you what is
hidden and what will be revealed, and it tells you how to get out
alive if only youa d remember
A powerfully poignant tale of one of the most turbulent moments in
Scotland's history: the North Berwick Witch Trials. IT'S THE 4TH OF
DECEMBER 1591. On this, the last night of her life, in a prison
cell several floors below Edinburgh's High Street, convicted witch
Geillis Duncan receives a mysterious visitor - Iris, who says she
comes from a future where women are still persecuted for who they
are and what they believe. As the hours pass and dawn approaches,
Geillis recounts the circumstances of her arrest, brutal torture,
confession and trial, while Iris offers support, solace - and the
tantalising prospect of escape. Hex is a visceral depiction of what
happens when a society is consumed by fear and superstition,
exploring how the terrible force of a king's violent crusade
against ordinary women can still be felt, right up to the present
day. 'This series has already produced two works of note and
distinction. It raises the question - if a country cannot re-tell
its history, will it be stuck forever in aspic and condemned to be
nothing more than a shortbread tin illustration? Hex and Rizzio are
showing the way towards a reckoning, and about time too' - Stuart
Kelly, Scotland on Sunday
Can the existence of God by proven by science? The answer will
still surprise you. Since the advent of science in the 16th
century, it has navigated mankind in the direction of mechanistic
materialism, and as a consequence to atheism. Since the beginning
of the 20th century this direction has changed. Relativity and
quantum physics, in conjunction with Big Bang cosmology, laid the
foundation for a revolution in physics, in what became labelled as
the "New Physics". Subsequently during the 1970's it was discovered
that the universe, at every level and from its first billionth of a
second at the time of its creation, was mysteriously fine-tuned.
This fine-tuning comprises the inexplicable and delicate balance of
the four fundamental forces that rule the universe: gravity,
electromagnetism, and the strong and the weak nuclear forces. This
discovery implies that even the most basic building blocks of
matter, such as atoms and its sub-atomic particles, can only exist
by the grace of an inexplicable, complex and delicate balance
between these forces. The chance that this fine-tuning could have
emerged spontaneously and fortuitously, is not only improbable, but
utterly impossible. Intelligence or Chaos elucidates that the
complexity and fine-tuning of the universe can only be explained by
the presence of an all-pervasive intelligence, the source and
reservoir of the Information that actually guides and controls the
universe. For the first time in history such a conclusion is
confirmed by indubitable scientific evidence. The existence of an
all-pervading intelligence, as expressed in the principle of
fine-tuning, is also at the core of the ancient Vedanta philosophy
of India. The author explores how Vedanta disentangles some of the
paradoxes encountered in quantum physics and major cosmological
questions such as the Big Bang and its origin. Using the latest
empirical and scientific evidence Intelligence or Chaos clearly
shows that the universe is ruled by intelligence and information,
and not by chance and chaos.
A fascinating and enlightening celebration of mushrooms and the
magic of the forest for those who revel in mushroom imagery and
lore. Mushrooms--as a decorative element, as a signifier of the
mystery of the forest, and as an adorable emblem of witchy
cottagecore dreams--have proliferated in the collective
consciousness as of late. Mushroom Magick is a whimsical collection
of mushroom facts and fables divided into three sections: first,
profiles of 22 well-known mushrooms include information on biology
and common uses as well as a rundown of their energetic properties
and suggestions for incorporating them into spellwork. Section two
provides a world-spanning collection of mushroom myths and fables.
The final section is a taste of the spells and rituals that you can
perform with common mushrooms such as creminis, shiitakes, and
portobellos--carved candles, floor washes, teas, and even some
yummy meals can improve your love life, super-charge your good
fortune, or even cast a well-deserved hex upon your most hated
enemy.
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