In Europe and North and South America during the early modern period, people believed that their dreams might be, variously, messages from God, the machinations of demons, visits from the dead, or visions of the future. Interpreting their dreams in much the same ways as their ancient and medieval forebears had done-and often using the dream-guides their predecessors had written-dreamers rejoiced in heralds of good fortune and consulted physicians, clerics, or practitioners of magic when their visions waxed ominous. Dreams, Dreamers, and Visions traces the role of dreams and related visionary experiences in the cultures within the Atlantic world from the late thirteenth to early seventeenth centuries, examining an era of cultural encounters and transitions through this unique lens. In the wake of Reformation-era battles over religious authority and colonial expansion into Asia, Africa, and the Americas, questions about truth and knowledge became particularly urgent and debate over the meaning and reliability of dreams became all the more relevant. Exploring both indigenous and European methods of understanding dream phenomena, this volume argues that visions were central to struggles over spiritual and political authority. Featuring eleven original essays, Dreams, Dreamers, and Visions explores the ways in which reports and interpretations of dreams played a significant role in reflecting cultural shifts and structuring historic change. Contributors: Emma Anderson, Mary Baine Campbell, Luis Corteguera, Matthew Dennis, Carla Gerona, Maria V Jordan, Luis Filipe Silverio Lima, Phyllis Mack, Ann Marie Plane, Andrew Redden, Janine Riviere, Leslie Tuttle, Anthony F. C. Wallace.

The Temple Priestesses of Antiquity tells the story of the Oracles and Sibyls, Seers, Psychics, Sacred Dancers and Healers of ancient civilizations. They were empowered women who enthralled those who sought their advice and served the Goddess they revered. Tales about ancient Priestesses and the Sacred Temples where they lived, prayed and worked thousands of years ago, have fascinated archaeologists and historians for decades. Living in complex temple structures above ground and in underground cavernous tunnels, they shared vows of chastity and lived a dutiful and respected life. The Temple Priestesses of Antiquity is a story of these women, some well known and others forgotten to the centuries.

The Blue Cliff Record is a translation of the Pi Yen Lu, a collection of one hundred Zen koans - the paradoxical teaching stories used by Zen teachers to go beneath rational thought - accompanied by commentaries and appreciatory verses from the teachings of the Chinese Zen masters. Compiled in the twelfth century, by the great Zen master and poet Hseh-tou Ch'ung-hsien it is considered to be one of the greatest treasures of Zen literature and an essential study manual for students of Zen.

With widespread publicity concerning the near death experience, many people are now searching for a deeper understanding of death and the process of dying. Esoteric teachings on the subtle bodies and their interrelationship have much to offer to those pondering on and researching the mystery of death. Resurrection is the keynote of nature; death is not. Death is only the ante-chamber of resurrection.

Out of the Forest of Time come two Gods for the Twenty-First Century. Join Andrew Anderson as he makes a pilgrimage to discover more about the ancient Celtic Bear Gods. Weaving together archaeology, folklore and spiritual practice, this book pieces together the evidence to create a clearer picture of who Artio and Artaois were and how they can be honoured today. The journey will take the reader from the medieval city of Bern to the depths of an English forest, from the Rothar Mountains in Germany to the Highlands of Scotland, from the slopes of Glastonbury Tor to the rocky headland of Tintagel. With voices from an array of practitioners and experts, this is a journey back to the very beginning of human belief.

This is the first survey of religious beliefs in the British Isles from the Old Stone Age to the coming of Christianity, one of the least familiar periods in Britaina s history. Ronald Hutton draws upon a wealth of new data, much of it archaeological, that has transformed interpretation over the past decade. Giving more or less equal weight to all periods, from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages, he examines a fascinating range of evidence for Celtic and Romano--British paganism, from burial sites, cairns, megaliths and causeways, to carvings, figurines, jewellery, weapons, votive objects, literary texts and folklore.

Our most modern monster and perhaps our most American, the zombie that is so prevalent in popular culture today has its roots in African soul capture mythologies. The Transatlantic Zombie provides a more complete history of the zombie than has ever been told, explaining how the myth's migration to the New World was facilitated by the transatlantic slave trade, and reveals the real-world import of storytelling, reminding us of the power of myths and mythmaking, and the high stakes of appropriation and homage. Beginning with an account of a probable ancestor of the zombie found in the Kongolese and Angolan regions of seventeenth-century Africa and ending with a description of the way, in contemporary culture, new media are used to facilitate zombie-themed events, Sarah Juliet Lauro plots the zombie's cultural significance through Caribbean literature, Haitian folklore, and American literature, film, and the visual arts. The zombie entered US consciousness through the American occupation of Haiti, the site of an eighteenth-century slave rebellion that became a war for independence, thus making the figuration of living death inseparable from its resonances with both slavery and rebellion. Lauro bridges African mythology and US mainstream culture by articulating the ethical complications of the zombie's invocation as a cultural conquest that was rebranded for the American cinema. As The Transatlantic Zombie shows, the zombie is not merely a bogeyman representing the ills of modern society, but a battleground over which a cultural war has been fought between the imperial urge to absorb exotic, threatening elements, and the originary, Afro-disaporic cultures preservation through a strategy of mythic combat.

Believing herself to be suffering from an incurable condition, Harriet Martineau wrote Life in the Sick-Room in 1844. In this work, which is both memoir and treatise, Martineau seeks to educate the healthy and ill alike on the spiritual and psychological dimensions of chronic suffering. Covering such topics as "Sympathy to the Invalid," "Temper," and "Becoming Inured," the work occupies a crucial place in the culture of invalidism that prospered in Victorian England. This Broadview edition also includes medical documents pertaining to Martineau's case; other writings on health by Martineau; excerpts from her other autobiographical writings; selected correspondence with Florence Nightingale; excerpts from contemporary works of sick-room literature; and reviews.

Do you have a soul? How can you know? Can science demonstrate its existence? What difference does it make? These are among the difficult and important questions at the heart of "Beyond Death". In the wake of the revolution of quantum physics, an increasing number of scientists have acknowledged the very real possibility of the existence of spirit or soul. The book sets out to prove the existence of spirit and its survival after death, not by appealing to some airy-fairy new age theory or religious dogma, but from empirical evidence gathered by qualified researchers from a number of scientific disciplines. Mind-matter interaction, research into healing and remote viewing, consciousness at the cellular level, near-death experiences and biological evidence of reincarnation are among the many perspectives from which this crucial subject is explored. What does this mean to you? Imagine it is after your 'death' and you are looking back on this, your past life. Ask yourself what kind of life from here onward would please you as a spirit? What personal challenges met, fears overcome, actions taken and deeds done would make you proud? By answering this question now and moving on through life with that answer always present in your heart, you will have unlocked the secret of spirit and the true purpose of your life.

The first serious attempt to illuminate, for English-language readers, the mystical roots of the ideas and teachings of the great thirteenth-century Jewish scholar Nachmanides.

How can we, or should we, talk about God? What concepts are involved in the idea of a Supreme Being? This book is about the search to reconcile modern metaphysics with traditional theism - focusing on the seminal work of Austin Farrer who was Warden of Keble College, Oxford, until his death in 1968, and one of the most original and important philosophers of religion of this century.

The origin story of every culture contains a description of animism; humans in direct relationship with the land and, through the reciprocity of that connection, evolving together. The livelihood of humans and Nature is intertwined. If one ails, so does the other. History is littered with stories of losing that connection, and the toll this takes in the form of humans against each other, humans against Nature. Between colonization, conscription into the Church, imperialization, and industrialization, we have created systems of destruction that have decimated our relationship to the land, and to each other. From within these systems institutionalized racism, sexism, and all aspects of 'othering' became embedded in our political and social structures. As modern pagans, we recognize the need to tear down these structures and build supportive, inclusive new ones. Our spiritual paths are Nature-based and Ancestor-honoring, the rituals of which heal land wounds and ancestral trauma, to create sacred recovery and activism for all. This anthology presents modern pagan activists working through their spiritual lines to do better. Edited by Trevor Greenfield, publisher of Moon Books and editor of Naming the Goddess, with contributory essays from eleven pagan voices.

The Theologia Indorum by Dominican friar Domingo de Vico was the first Christian theology written in the Americas. Made available in English translation for the first time, Americas' First Theologies presents a selection of exemplary sections from the Theologia Indorum that illustrate Friar Vico's doctrine of god, cosmogony, moral anthropology, understanding of natural law and biblical history, and constructive engagement with pre-Hispanic Maya religion. Rather than merely condemn the Maya religion, Vico appropriated local terms and images from Maya mythology and rituals that he thought could convey Christianity. His attempt at translating, if not reconfiguring, Christianity for a Maya readership required his mastery of not only numerous Mayan languages but also the highly poetic ceremonial rhetoric of many indigenous Mesoamerican peoples. This book also includes translations of two other pastoral texts and parts of a songbook and a catechism. These texts, written in Highland Mayan languages by fellow Dominicans, demonstrate the wider influence of Vico's ethnographic approach shared by a particular school of Dominicans. Altogether, The Americas' First Theologies provides a rich documentary case example of the translation, reception, and reaction to Christian thought in the indigenous Americas.

Through in-depth analysis of musical theatre choreography and choreographers, Making Broadway Dance challenges long-held perceptions of Broadway dance as kitsch, disposable, a dance form created without artistic process. Setting out to demonstrate that musical theatre dance is not a monolith but rather multi-varied in terms of dance styles, aesthetics and methodologies, author Liza Gennaro provides insights into how Broadway dance is made. By examining choreography for musical theatre through the lens of dance studies, script analysis, movement research and dramaturgical inquiry, she treads in uncharted territory by offering a close examination of a dance form that has heretofore received only the most superficial interrogation. She also explores how musical theatre choreographers create within the parameters of librettos, enhance character development and build dance languages that inform and propel narrative. By considering influences from ballet, modern, postmodern, Jazz, social and global dance, she reveals a rich understanding of musical theatre dance. This book exposes the choreographic systems of some of Broadway's most influential dance-makers including George Balanchine, Agnes de Mille, Jerome Robbins, Katherine Dunham, Bob Fosse, Savion Glover, Sergio Trujillo, Steven Hoggett and Camille Brown, and is essential reading for theatre and dance scholars, students, practitioners, and Broadway fans.