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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Aspects of religions (non-Christian) > Religious experience > General
Encouragement and inspiration from across faith traditions for walking with sorrow and honoring loss.
"As an expression of the soul, grief has its own purposes and timing.... You can let grief work for you by responding to it imaginatively.... Grief may feel overwhelming, but that is only because it is time for you to expand your heart and make it capable of far more love and connection. In this way, grief is a pathway to a more soul-centered life.“
―from the Introduction by Thomas Moore
This soulful companion for grief offers wisdom and creative spiritual practices for expressing and experiencing sorrow while keeping a life-giving connection to the past. Whether you need to grieve in words or silence, in solitude or in company with others, this compassionate guidance from across spiritual traditions will meet you where you are, helping you find wholeness and a renewed vision of yourself and the world.
The confessions of Isobel Gowdie are widely recognised as the most
extraordinary on record in Britain. Their descriptive power and
vivid imagery have attracted considerable interest on both academic
and popular levels. Among historians, the confessions are
celebrated for providing a unique insight into the way fairy
beliefs and witch beliefs interacted in the early modern mind; more
controversially, they are also cited as evidence for the existence
of Shamanistic visionary traditions, of pre-Christian origin, in
Scotland in this period. On a popular level the confessions of
Isobel Gowdie have, above any other British witch-trial records,
influenced the formation of the ritual traditions of Wicca. The
author's discovery of the original trial records (currently being
authenticated by the National Archives of Scotland), deemed lost
for nearly 200 years, provides a starting point for an
interdisciplinary look at the confessions and the woman behind
them. Using historical, psychological, comparative religious and
anthropological perspectives this book sets out to separate the
voice of Isobel Gowdie from that of her interrogators, and to
determine the experiences and beliefs which may have generated her
confessions. The book explores: How far did those accused of
witchcraft self-consciously practice harmful magic? Did they really
believe themselves to have made a Pact with an envisioned Devil?
Did they ever participate in ecstatic cult rituals? The author
argues that close analysis of Isobel's testimony supports the view
that in seventeenth-century Britain popular spirituality was shaped
by a deep interaction between Christian teachings and shamanistic
visionary traditions, of pre-Christian origin. These findings
confirm the value of witchcraft confessions as unique windows into
the complexities of the early modern religious imagination.
An in-depth study of selected refugees from Ethiopia, Iraq, Somalia
and Sudan, this book examines the relationship between the
refugees' religious and spiritual beliefs and the refugee
experience. Susan P. Ennis takes a close look at the circumstances
of refugees' flight, their asylum, and their initial period of
settlement in Melbourne, Australia during the period between the
1990s and the early twenty-first century. Ennis finds that a sense
of religiosity seemed to aid the refugees, in some way, during all
stages of their journey. Furthermore, nearly half of the refugees
she studied reported a shift in their religiosity over the course
of their emigration. Based on her research, Ennis puts forward a
framework of religiosity and the refugee experience based on
shifting typologies at each stage of the refugee journey.
In Myriad Intimacies postcolonial theorist, spiritual practitioner,
and filmmaker Lata Mani oscillates between text and video, poetry
and prose, genre and form, register and voice, and secular and
sacred to offer a transmedia exploration of the interrelatedness of
lives, concepts, frameworks, and aspects of self. She draws on
concepts from tantra-a philosophy that celebrates matter as alive,
embodiment as sacred, and the senses as a form of
intelligence-alongside feminist, critical race, and cultural theory
to meditate on the ways in which everyone and everything exists in
mutually constitutive interrelations. Addressing issues ranging
from desire, the body, nature, and love, to otherness, identity
politics, social justice, #MeToo, and the COVID-19 pandemic, Mani
foregrounds the power and necessity of recognizing relationality as
foundational. Throughout, she offers a way of reframing what we
think we know and how we come to know it, demonstrating that it is
only by acknowledging and embracing the indivisible and
interdependent nature of existence that we restore our true
intimacy with each other and the world.
Honor life's milestones and bring sacredness into everyday life.
The Book of Blessings and Rituals shows you how to create ceremony
and meaning around the most important events in you life. Drawing
from different world traditions, leading metaphysical teacher
Athena Perrakis presents blessings to cover a wide array of
occasions and intentions, including holidays and sacred days, love,
healing, protection, prosperity and success, lunar blessings and
rituals, and manifestation. Organized by month, you'll be able to
celebrate the sacred all year long. Create medicine bundles and
altars to support blessings and ceremonies Know which crystals to
use to amplify rituals and clear energy Learn how to smudge for
clearing and protection Use the power of invocations to assist in
strengthening goals and intentions Deepen your experience of the
sacred, find inspiration, and heal with this non-denominational
guide to blessings and rituals.
SPANISH EDITION. In this classic testimonial, the author presents
God's attributes with words that touch our hearts. This masterpiece
helps readers strengthen and deepen their spiritual lives.
Where is God in the suffering of a mentally ill person? What
happens to the soul when the mind is ill? How are Christians to
respond to mental illness? In this brave and compassionate book,
theologian and priest Kathryn Greene-McCreight confronts these
difficult questions raised by her own mental illness--bipolar
disorder. With brutal honesty, she tackles often avoided topics
such as suicide, mental hospitals, and electroconvulsive therapy.
Greene-McCreight offers the reader everything from poignant and raw
glimpses into the mind of a mentally ill person to practical and
forthright advice for their friends, family, and clergy. The first
edition has been recognized as one of the finest books on the
subject. This thoroughly revised edition incorporates updated
research and adds anecdotal and pastoral commentary. It also
includes a new foreword by the current Archbishop of Canterbury and
a new afterword by the author.
An essential guide to learning everything you need to know about
the history, central practices, and the key teachings of many
religions. A compelling and insightful guide for uncovering and
understanding a variety of the world's major religions. This book
will be the perfect gift for thinkers, borrowers, and students of
religious studies and philosophy. Learn new and profound
information about a variety of faiths. In this educational guide
you'll find: - A chapter devoted to each of the major world
religions - Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Jainism,
Sikhism and Islam - Lesser-known religions and belief systems are
covered, offering a comprehensive overview of faith - Detailed
illustrations and annotated works of art, and a timeline of
religious history Discover a variety of the world's major religions
and other faiths from both the ancient and the modern world through
this insightful guide. Explore over 450 classic works of religious
and devotional art. With sacred texts, epic imagery, key beliefs,
and religious artefacts, this educational guide is perfect for
libraries, classrooms, and the bookshelves of those who simply love
learning.
This major work outlines the philosophy and methods of the new
Science of Oneness. It takes a fresh look at the findings of modern
science, including fringe fields such as parapsychology, and
integrates them with insights from spiritual traditions. Weaving
science together with experiential, spiritual and cultural
knowledge, balancing openness to all sources with critical
evaluation of their reliability, it presents a scientifically valid
vision of reality that is conscious, creative, loving, and
purposeful. It challenges us all to guide the evolution of humanity
and the Earth in positive directions. Each chapter offers
activities, thought-provoking questions and guided meditations to
stimulate intuitive understanding. "The Science of Oneness"
provides a coherent world view for cultural creatives, the holism
movement, and everyone searching for meaning in our fragmented
world.
This book comprehensively explores the changes in the Chinese
spiritual world from the perspective of transition and
transformation. Chinese feeling, a brand-new concept corresponding
to Chinese experience, refers to the vicissitudes that 1.3 billion
Chinese people have been through in their spiritual worlds. The
book discusses this concept together with Chinese experience, two
aspects of the transformation of the Chinese mentality that
resulted from the unprecedented social changes since 1978, and
which have given this unique era historical meaning and cultural
values. At the same time they offer a dual perspective for
understanding this great social transition. Further, the book
considers what will happen if we only focus on the "Chinese
Experience" while neglecting the "Chinese Feeling"; the changes the
Chinese people undergo when their desires, wishes and personalities
have changed China; and how their emotionally charged social
mentality follow ebbs and flows of the changing society. Lastly it
asks what embarrassment and frustration the population will be
faced with next after the tribulations their spiritual world has
already been through.
Now in paperback, revised and redesigned: This is Thomas Merton's
last book, in which he draws on both Eastern and Western traditions
to explore the hot topic of contemplation/meditation in depth and
to show how we can practice true contemplation in everyday life.
Never before published except as a series of articles (one per
chapter) in an academic journal, this book on contemplation was
revised by Merton shortly before his untimely death. The material
bridges Merton's early work on Catholic monasticism, mysticism, and
contemplation with his later writing on Eastern, especially
Buddhist, traditions of meditation and spirituality. This book thus
provides a comprehensive understanding of contemplation that draws
on the best of Western and Eastern traditions.
Merton was still tinkering with this book when he died; it was
the book he struggled with most during his career as a writer. But
now the Merton Legacy Trust and experts have determined that the
book makes such a valuable contribution as his major comprehensive
presentation of contemplation that they have allowed its
publication.
From the beginning of creation, God has established the sacred
pattern of going and returning, labor and rest. Especially today,
God invites us to dedicate time for restoration and
wholeness--within our bodies, minds, and souls, and within our
communities and institutions. By resting, we place our trust in
God, the primary actor who brings all things to their fullness.
When we set aside time to rest we receive the gift of God's grace,
peace, and restoration. This series of seven Little Books of
Guidance are designed for you to discover how following certain
practices can help you follow Jesus more fully in your daily life.
Fire blazes from heaven, and a stone altar erupts in flame. So
begins a spiritual awakening, the kindling of a revival fire still
burning today. Beginning with Elijah and God's tremendous one-day
revival of Israel, Wesley Duewel tells stories of revivals spanning
the globe from America to China to Africa, all brought by obedience
and heartfelt prayer. He illustrates how God has used revival fire
through the centuries to revive the church and reveal the glorious
presence of the Holy Spirit.
This book is a rhetorical analysis of the "Seybert Report," based
on the findings of the Seybert Commission formed in the nineteenth
century at the University of Pennsylvania and tasked with
investigating the paranormal phenomena alleged to arise in
Spiritualist seances. The findings of the report are significant
because they provide a historical benchmark for how "paranormal"
research--or psi--has been addressed by academics for well over a
century. Elizabeth Schleber Lowry examines academic discourse with
respect to psi from such approaches as the rhetoric of science and
scholarship in the history and philosophy of science.
Discover the secret relationship between erotic, the sexual, and
the sacred Sex is not negative or positive. Sex is not just
neutral, nor is it merely sacred because it creates babies. None of
these old sexual stories work for us anymore. We need a new sexual
narrative. This book gives the new sexual narrative, what the
authors call Sex Erotic. Erotic Mystics from the hidden tradition
of Solomon's temple taught a secret doctrine: sex is the source of
all wisdom. It's an expression of the erotic impulse of existence
itself alive in us-the yearning for contact, pleasure, and
aliveness. The sexual, however, is not the sum total of the erotic.
Rather, the sexual teaches us how to live an erotic life in all
dimensions of our existence. That is Sex Erotic. A Return to Eros:
The Radical Experience of Being Fully Alive, from Drs. Marc Gafni
and Kristina Kincaid, reveals the radical tenets of the
relationships between the sexual, the erotic, and the holy. They
share what Eros actually means and also the 12 core qualities of
the erotic, which are modeled by the sexual. These include being on
the inside, fullness of presence, yearning, allurement, fantasy,
surrender, creativity, pleasure, and more. A Return to Eros shows
why these qualities of the erotic modeled by the sexual are
actually the same core qualities of the sacred. The relationship
between the sexual and the erotic becomes clear, teaching you how
to live an erotically suffused existence charged with purpose,
potency, and power. To be an empowered lover-not just in sex but
also in all facets of your life-you must listen to the whisperings
of the sexual. Transform your understanding and experience of love,
sex, and Eros inside these pages.
`There is a physical world, which we all accept as real, but there
is also a spiritual world, which interpenetrates this material
world and is its cause and foundation. Between these two worlds
exists a threshold that can be felt, seen clairvoyantly, traversed
and passed through by anyone with a real desire to do so... At this
threshold there is a guardian, whose task is to stop humans from
passing across it unprepared...' - From the Introduction. Based on
first-hand knowledge, Are Thoresen offers insights into the meaning
of the threshold to the spiritual world. He describes his own
experiences in encountering this threshold and going beyond it. But
there are many thresholds to the spiritual world, he says, and many
ways to pass them - as there are many aspects to the `guardian of
the threshold' and versions of the so-called `animals at the
threshold'. The worlds beyond, too, have a variety of different
constructions - or, as the Bible says: `In my Father's house are
many mansions'. The author describes the methods and techniques for
opening the spiritual sense organs required to cross the threshold,
and clarifies the differences between Imagination (seeing spiritual
`pictures'), Inspiration (understanding those pictures) and
Intuition (living `inside' the spiritual reality). Structuring the
book on his own biography, Thoresen conveys many of the lessons he
has learnt through decades of familiarity with the invisible
dimensions. However, he warns that there is only one good reason to
attempt to cross the threshold, and that is to serve God and
humanity in the name of love. If we do it out of curiosity, or to
enhance our personal development, it would be better not to try.
This singular reference explores religion and spirituality as a
vital, though often misconstrued, lens for building better
understanding of and empathy with clients. A diverse palette of
faiths and traditions is compared and contrasted (occasionally with
secularism), focusing on areas of belief that may inspire, comfort,
or trouble clients, including health and illness, mental illness,
healing, coping, forgiveness, family, inclusion, and death. From
assessment and intervention planning to conducting research, these
chapters guide professionals in supporting and assisting clients
without minimizing or overstating their beliefs. In addition, the
book's progression of ideas takes readers beyond the well-known
concept of cultural competence to model a larger and more
meaningful cultural safety. Among the topics included in the
Handbook: Integrating religion and spirituality into social work
practice. Cultural humility, cultural safety, and beyond: new
understandings and implications for social work. Healing
traditions, religion/spirituality, and health. Diagnosis:
religious/spiritual experience or mental illness? Understandings of
dying, death, and mourning. (Re)building bridges in and with family
and community. Ethical issues in conducting research on religion
and spirituality. The Handbook of Religion and Spirituality in
Social Work Practice and Research is a richly-textured resource for
social workers and mental health professionals engaged in clinical
practice and/or research seeking to gain varied perspectives on how
the religion and spirituality of their clients/research
participants may inform their work.
The sweetness of music is something that has puzzled Christian
theologians for centuries. In this study, Luther's theology of
music is approached from the point of view of pleasure. It examines
the significance of joy, beauty and pleasure in relationship with
music and Luther's theology. The notion of music as the supreme
gift of God requires also a discussion about the idea of 'gift'.
Music opens up new perspectives into Luther's thinking. Luther has
seldom been reckoned among aesthetic theologians. Nevertheless,
Luther has a peculiar view on beauty, understanding faith as a kind
of aesthetic contemplation.
This volume offers a novel philosophical thesis on the ontology of
religion, and proposes a new conceptual repertoire to deal with
supernatural religion. Jibu Mathew George offers an
interdisciplinary perspective on the source and dynamics of
religious ideation upon which belief and faith are based, at the
fundamental levels of human reasoning. Using Max Weber's concept of
"Disenchantment of the World" as a point of departure, this book
endeavors to provide a pioneering philosophical and psychological
understanding of the nature of enchantment, disenchantment, and
possible re-enchantments as they pertain to the occidental cultural
history in Weberian retrospect.
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