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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Alternative belief systems
Witches and Warlocks of New York is a collection of legends and
historical accounts about witches and warlocks from the Empire
State. This will be the second in a series (the first being
Massachusetts publishing September 1, 2021). New York has a
surprisingly rich history of witches and witchcraft. These stories
are known locally in the towns where they occurred but have never
been collected into one book before. Included are a history and
origins of witchcraft in New York State and historical tales of
"witches" across the state including Hulda and the thirteen Witches
of the Catskills.
The Secret Teachings of All Ages is perhaps the most comprehensive
and complete esoteric encyclopedia ever written. The sheer scope
and ambition of this book are stunning. In this book Manly P. Hall
has successfully distilled the essence of more arcane subjects than
one would think possible. He covers Rosicrucianism and other secret
societies, alchemy, cryptology, Kabbalah, Tarot, pyramids, the
Zodiac, Pythagorean philosophy, Masonry, gemology, Nicholas
Flammel, the identity of William Shakespeare, The Life and
Teachings of Thoth Hermes Trismegistus, The Qabbalah, The Hiramic
Legend, The Tree of the Sephiroth, and Mystic Christianity. There
are more than 200 illustrations included here (and in the trade
paperback edition) many of which have been omitted from other
publisher's editions of this book. This is essential reading for
anyone wishing to explore esoteric knowledge.
Lux in Tenebris is a collection of eighteen original
interdisciplinary essays that address aspects of the verbal and
visual symbolism in the works of significant figures in the history
of Western Esotericism, covering such themes as alchemy, magic,
kabbalah, angels, occult philosophy, Platonism, Rosicrucianism, and
Theosophy. Part I: Middle Ages & Early Modernity ranges from
Gikatilla, Ficino, Camillo, Agrippa, Weigel, Boehme, Yvon, and
Swedenborg, to celestial divination in Russia. Part II: Modernity
& Postmodernity moves from occultist thinkers Schwaller de
Lubicz and Evola to esotericism in literature, art, and cinema, in
the works of Colquhoun, Degouve de Nuncques, Bruskin, Doitschinoff,
and Perez-Reverte, with an essay on esoteric theories of colour.
Contributors are: Michael J.B. Allen, Susanna Akerman, Lina
Bolzoni, Aaron Cheak, Robert Collis, Francesca M. Crasta, Per
Faxneld, Laura Follesa, Victoria Ferentinou, Joshua Gentzke,
Joscelyn Godwin, Hans Thomas Hakl, Theodor Harmsen, Elke Morlok,
Noel Putnik, Jonathan Schorsch, Gyoergy Szoenyi, Carsten Wilke, and
Thomas Willard.
A radically new way of understanding secularism which explains why
being secular can seem so strangely religious For much of
America’s rapidly growing secular population, religion is an
inescapable source of skepticism and discomfort. It shows up in
politics and in holidays, but also in common events like weddings
and funerals. In The Secular Paradox, Joseph Blankholm argues that,
despite their desire to avoid religion, nonbelievers often seem
religious because Christianity influences the culture around them
so deeply. Relying on several years of ethnographic research among
secular activists and organized nonbelievers in the United States,
the volume explores how very secular people are ambivalent toward
belief, community, ritual, conversion, and tradition. As they try
to embrace what they share, secular people encounter, again and
again, that they are becoming too religious. And as they reject
religion, they feel they have lost too much. Trying to strike the
right balance, secular people alternate between the two sides of
their ambiguous condition: absolutely not religious and part of a
religion-like secular tradition. Blankholm relies heavily on the
voices of women and people of color to understand what it means to
live with the secular paradox. The struggles of secular
misfits—the people who mis-fit normative secularism in the United
States—show that becoming secular means rejecting parts of life
that resemble Christianity and embracing a European tradition that
emphasizes reason and avoids emotion. Women, people of color, and
secular people who have left non-Christian religions work against
the limits and contradictions of secularism to create new ways of
being secular that are transforming the American religious
landscape. They are pioneering the most interesting and important
forms of secular “religiosity” in America today.
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