Download or read book Bringing the Sacred Down to Earth written by Corinne G. Dempsey and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Corinne Dempsey offers a study of Hindu and Christian, Indian and Euro/American earthbound religious expressions. She argues that official religious, political, and epistemological systems tend to deny sacred access and expression to the general populace.
Download or read book 21st Century Mage written by Jason Augustus Newcomb and published by Weiser Books. This book was released on 2002-10-15 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the first time since its initial translation into English at the turn of the century, Jason Newcomb has reinterpreted the sacred magic of Abramelin the Mage into a completely relevant program for contemporary seekers. In the thirty-one chapters of 21st Century Mage , Newcomb has reinvented the "Knowledge and Conversation of Your Holy Guardian Angel" ritual. He lays out a course of practice and prayer -- and introduces a whole new generation to the Crowleyan esthetic. Thought to be the simplest and most effective explanation of secret Western doctrine, The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, a 15th century text, laid the foundation for the nineteenth century occult group, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and set young Aleister Crowley on his spiritual quest. This is the book that served as the cornerstone of Crowley's lifelong practice. Newcomb's hip, non-denominational reinterpretation requires only openness to the universe and a yearning for understanding and transcendental knowledge. Describing himself as a skeptical and pragmatic mystic, Newcomb shows how drug abuse, sexual compulsion, overeating, fanaticism in all its permutations, are all misplaced yearnings for the "Knowledge and Conversation of Your Holy Guardian Angel." Jason Newcomb combines ideas and exercises from writers through the ages with the Abramelin techniques he himself has used to lose weight and quit smoking.
Download or read book Sacred Acts written by Mallory McDuff and published by New Society Publishers. This book was released on 2012-04-01 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stories from across North America of contemporary church leaders, parishioners and religious activists who are working to define a new environmental movement, where honoring the Creator means protecting the planet. Sacred Acts documents the diverse actions taken by churches to address climate change through stewardship, advocacy, spirituality and justice. Contributions from leading Christian voices such as Norman Wirzba and the Reverend Canon Sally Bingham detail the concrete work of faith communities such as: Englewood Christian Church in Indianapolis, IN, where parishioners have enhanced food security by sharing canning and food preservation skills in the church kitchen Georgia's Interfaith Power & Light, which has used federal stimulus funds to weatherize congregations, reduce utility bills and cut carbon emissions Earth Ministry, where people of faith spearheaded the movement to pass state legislation to make Washington State a coal-free state. Sacred Acts shows that churches can play a critical role in confronting climate change - perhaps the greatest moral imperative of our time. This timely collection will inspire individuals and congregations to act in good faith to help protect Earth's climate.
Download or read book This Sacred Moment written by Albert Haase, OFM and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2013-11-21 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does it mean to be a holy person? The answer might surprise you. This delightful yet challenging book from spiritual director Albert Haase provides practical wisdom for becoming holy--right in the midst of "ordinary" life. With brief, engaging chapters that include a few reflection questions, this book is designed to fit into our full lives.
Download or read book Sacred Matters written by Tracy Pintchman and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2015-11-16 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores how objects shape the worlds of religious participants across a range of South Asian traditions. Sacred Matters explores the lives of material objects in South Asian religions. Spanning a range of traditions including Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Buddhism, and Christianity, the book demonstrates how sacred items influence and enliven the worlds of religious participants across South Asia and into the diaspora. Contributors examine a variety of objects to describe the ways sacred materials derive and confer meaning and efficacy, emerging from and giving shape to religious and nonreligious realms alike. Material forms of deity and divine power are considered along with commonplace ritual items, including images, clay pots, and camphor. The work also attends to materialitys complex role within the materially suspicious contexts of Islam, Theravada Buddhism, and Roman Catholicism. This engaging collection presents new frameworks for contemplating the ways in which historical, social, and sacred processes intertwine and collectively shape human and divine activity.
Download or read book Spiritual Ecology written by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee and published by The Golden Sufi Center. This book was released on 2017-05-01 with total page 115 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spiritual Ecology: 10 Practices to Reawaken the Sacred in Everyday Life offers inspiring and practical guidance for reconnecting to the sacred in every day life and transforming our relationship with the Earth. Describing the power of simple, daily practices such as Walking, Gardening, Cooking with Love, and Prayer, this small book supports profound changes in how we think about and respond to the ecological crisis of our times. Our groundbreaking book, Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth, (now in its second edition)—which included spiritual perspectives on climate change, species loss, deforestation, and other aspects of our present environmental crises from renowned spiritual teachers, scientists, and indigenous leaders—drew an overwhelmingly positive reaction from readers, many of whom are asking: "What can I do?" Spiritual Ecology: 10 Practices to Reawaken the Sacred in Everyday Life answers that question with inspiring, personal anecdotes from the author—Sufi teacher Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee—and simple practices we all can do. Rooted in the mystical foundation of the world's great spiritual traditions, with a particular connection to Sufism, these timeless practices remind readers of our deep connections to life, each other, and the Earth, and invite a return of meaning to our desecrated world. As Rumi says, "there are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the ground," and it is this sacred ground that is calling to us, that needs our living presence, our attentiveness. This small book offers simple ways to reconnect so that we can once again feel the music, the song of our living connection with the Earth. "This small book, exquisite in its luminous simplicity, brings me home to my life. Even in a dark time, its practices center me in a sense of the sacred, our birthright." —JOANNA MACY, teacher, activist, and author of Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work That Reconnects “Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee's book on practices for Spiritual Ecology in everyday life awakens us to the potential to take small steps towards big transformation. It overcomes the artificial divide between nature and humans, and spirituality and action. No matter who we are, where we live, these are steps each of us can take.” —VANDANA SHIVA, activist and author “A beautiful book. Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee and Hilary Hart do a brilliant job sharing simple and powerful practices that help readers connect to the sacredness within nature, the earth, and our own daily lives.” —SANDRA INGERMAN, author, Walking in Light: The Everyday Empowerment of Shamanic Life
Download or read book Is Nothing Sacred written by Salman Rushdie and published by Penguin Group. This book was released on 1990 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Fifth Sacred Thing written by Starhawk and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2011-08-10 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An epic tale of freedom and slavery, love and war, and the potential futures of humankind tells of a twenty-first century California clan caught between two clashing worlds, one based on tolerance, the other on repression. Declaration of the Four Sacred Things The earth is a living, conscious being. In company with cultures of many different times and places, we name these things as sacred: air, fire, water, and earth. Whether we see them as the breath, energy, blood, and body of the Mother, or as the blessed gifts of a Creator, or as symbols of the interconnected systems that sustain life, we know that nothing can live without them. To call these things sacred is to say that they have a value beyond their usefulness for human ends, that they themselves became the standards by which our acts, our economics, our laws, and our purposes must be judged. no one has the right to appropriate them or profit from them at the expense of others. Any government that fails to protect them forfeits its legitimacy. All people, all living things, are part of the earth life, and so are sacred. No one of us stands higher or lower than any other. Only justice can assure balance: only ecological balance can sustain freedom. Only in freedom can that fifth sacred thing we call spirit flourish in its full diversity. To honor the sacred is to create conditions in which nourishment, sustenance, habitat, knowledge, freedom, and beauty can thrive. To honor the sacred is to make love possible. To this we dedicate our curiosity, our will, our courage, our silences, and our voices. To this we dedicate our lives. Praise for The Fifth Sacred Thing “This is wisdom wrapped in drama.”—Tom Hayden, California state senator “Starhawk makes the jump to fiction quite smoothly with this memorable first novel.”—Locus “Totally captivating . . . a vision of the paradigm shift that is essential for our very survival as a species on this planet.”—Elinor Gadon, author of The Once and Future Goddess “This strong debut fits well against feminist futuristic, utopic, and dystopic works by the likes of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Ursula LeGuin, and Margaret Atwood.”—Library Journal
Download or read book Oregon Historical Quarterly written by Oregon Historical Society and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Philosophical Hermeneutics and the Priority of Questions in Religions written by Nathan Eric Dickman and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-02-24 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Buddhas, gods, prophets and oracles are often depicted as asking questions. But what are we to understand when Jesus asks “Who do you say that I am?”, or Mazu, the Classical Zen master asks, “Why do you seek outside?" Is their questioning a power or weakness? Is it something human beings are only capable of due to our finitude? Is there any kind of question that is a power? Focusing on three case studies of questions in divine discourse on the level of story - the god depicted in the Jewish Bible, the master Mazu in his recorded sayings literature, and Jesus as he is depicted in canonized Christian Gospels - Nathan Eric Dickman meditates on human responses to divine questions. He considers the purpose of interreligious dialogue and the provocative kind of questions that seem to purposefully decenter us, drawing on methods from confessionally-oriented hermeneutics and skills from critical thinking. He allows us to see alternative ways of interpreting religious texts through approaches that look beyond reading a text for the improvement of our own religion or for access to some metaphysically transcendent reality. This is the first step in a phenomenology of religions that is inclusive, diverse, relevant and grounded in the world we live in.
Download or read book Abandonment to Divine Providence written by Jean Pierre de Caussade and published by Ignatius Press. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: God is to be found in the simplest of our daily activities and especially through total surrender to whatever is His will for each of us. That is the message of this 18th-century inspirational classic by Jean-Pierre de Caussade. Its encouragement to live in the present moment, accepting everyday obstacles with humility and love, has guided generations of seekers to spiritual peace and holiness. In this timeless spiritual classic, de Caussade presents the simple, profound gospel message that Jesus lived and taught: My meat is to do the will of my Father in heaven. The author states, The will of God gives to all things a supernatural and divine value for the soul submitting to it. The duties it imposes and those it contains become holy and perfect because everything it touches shares its divine character.This special volume of the famous spiritual treatise also includes the many insightful letters of Father de Caussade on the practice of self-abandonment. These numerous letters provide a great additional source of wisdom and much practical guidance for how to grow in abandonment and to deepen our union with God in our daily lives.De Caussade shows that this practice of self-abandonment to God's will is the key to attaining true peace and virtue, and that it is readily available to all people - from beginners to those well advanced in the spiritual life. He also shows how to determine what God's will is for us. He reveals that it is not extraordinary feats that God expects for our growth in holiness, but rather heroic attention to every detail in our lives and humble acceptance of our daily lot in life as coming from His hand. The rich spiritual lessons in this book have stood the test of time, offering real and practical assistance to all people because its message is simple and clear, one that the reader will find to be a rare treasure of inspiration and direction to be referred to again and again.
Download or read book Grounded written by Diana Butler Bass and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2015-10-06 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The headlines are clear: religion is on the decline in America as many people leave behind traditional religious practices. Diana Butler Bass, leading commentator on religion, politics, and culture, follows up her acclaimed book Christianity After Religion by arguing that what appears to be a decline actually signals a major transformation in how people understand and experience God. The distant God of conventional religion has given way to a more intimate sense of the sacred that is with us in the world. This shift, from a vertical understanding of God to a God found on the horizons of nature and human community, is at the heart of a spiritual revolution that surrounds us – and that is challenging not only religious institutions but political and social ones as well. Grounded explores this cultural turn as Bass unpacks how people are finding new spiritual ground by discovering and embracing God everywhere in the world around us—in the soil, the water, the sky, in our homes and neighborhoods, and in the global commons. Faith is no longer a matter of mountaintop experience or institutional practice; instead, people are connecting with God through the environment in which we live. Grounded guides readers through our contemporary spiritual habitat as it points out and pays attention to the ways in which people experience a God who animates creation and community. Bass brings her understanding of the latest research and studies and her deep knowledge of history and theology to Grounded. She cites news, trends, data, and pop culture, weaves in spiritual texts and ancient traditions, and pulls it all together through stories of her own and others' spiritual journeys. Grounded observes and reports a radical change in the way many people understand God and how they practice faith. In doing so, Bass invites readers to join this emerging spiritual revolution, find a revitalized expression of faith, and change the world.
Download or read book Sacred Actions written by Dana O'Driscoll and published by Red Feather. This book was released on 2021-04-28 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A challenge that many pagans and earth-based spiritual practitioners face is how to integrate sustainable living with our everyday lives. By offering a vision of "sacred actions," or the integration of sustainable living with Earth-based spirituality, learn how to combine the three ethics: people care, earth care, and fair share, to execute comprehensive sustainable living through the lens of paganism. Find a wide variety of accessible sustainable living activities, rituals, stories, and tools framed through the neopaganism eightfold Wheel of the Year. Each chapter is tied to one of the eight holidays, offering specific themes that deepen topics, including home and hearth, lawns and gardens, food and nourishment, ritual items and offerings, reducing waste and addressing materialism, and much more. Consider this your manual of personal empowerment through sustainability as a spiritual practice.
Download or read book Taking Sacred Back written by Nels Linde and published by Llewellyn Worldwide. This book was released on 2016-05-08 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Whether you’re designing a group ritual for five people or five hundred, Taking Sacred Back will help you make it moving and memorable. Join authors Nels Linde and Judy Olson-Linde as they explore creative ideas for all the stages of ritual—making the space sacred, entering into the liminal, engaging the subconscious of all attendees, creating awe and wonder, raising and directing energy, and ending the ritual. Discover advice on hardware and prop-making (and tips on using props effectively) and ideas for scaling up or scaling down for larger or smaller groups. Complete with photos and diagrams, examples of rituals the authors have conducted, and wise problem-solving advice, Taking Sacred Back is an indispensable guide for all ritualists. Praise: "A wonderfully in-depth book. Everything is here for those who want to create community ritual. . . . We would highly recommend it for both beginner and advanced ritualists."—Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone, authors of A Witches’ Bible, The Witches’ Goddess, and Lifting The Veil. “Taking Sacred Back is a must-have for the beginner or the advanced ritualist . . . It is an amazing book and I recommend it highly!”—H.E. Rev. Patrick McCollum, author of The Sacred Path “Taking Sacred Back is a treasure that I hope finds its way into the hands and hearts of all who are called to bear the torch of ritual.”—Ivo Dominguez, Jr., author of Casting Sacred Space
Download or read book Invisible Agents written by David M. Gordon and published by Ohio University Press. This book was released on 2012-11-26 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Invisible Agents shows how personal and deeply felt spiritual beliefs can inspire social movements and influence historical change. Conventional historiography concentrates on the secular, materialist, or moral sources of political agency. Instead, David M. Gordon argues, when people perceive spirits as exerting power in the visible world, these beliefs form the basis for individual and collective actions. Focusing on the history of the south-central African country of Zambia during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, his analysis invites reflection on political and religious realms of action in other parts of the world, and complicates the post-Enlightenment divide of sacred and profane. The book combines theoretical insights with attention to local detail and remarkable historical sweep, from oral narratives communicated across slave-trading routes during the nineteenth century, through the violent conflicts inspired by Christian and nationalist prophets during colonial times, and ending with the spirits of Pentecostal rebirth during the neoliberal order of the late twentieth century. To gain access to the details of historical change and personal spiritual beliefs across this long historical period, Gordon employs all the tools of the African historian. His own interviews and extensive fieldwork experience in Zambia provide texture and understanding to the narrative. He also critically interprets a diverse range of other sources, including oral traditions, fieldnotes of anthropologists, missionary writings and correspondence, unpublished state records, vernacular publications, and Zambian newspapers. Invisible Agents will challenge scholars and students alike to think in new ways about the political imagination and the invisible sources of human action and historical change.
Download or read book Toward Holy Ground written by Margaret Guenther and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 1995 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second half of life--which we can enter at any age--is that time when we begin the process essential to a mature faith: discovering who we are, exploring our relationship with God, and beginning to let go. This part of life has a depth and spirituality all its own--a need for structure and rule, a tolerance of ambiguity, an exploration of limitation and mortality, and the deep work of discipline and detachment. Margaret Guenther brings her insights as a spiritual director to the gifts and opportunities of those of us who are on this journey to "holy ground." In each chapter, Toward Holy Ground explores the practical aspects of spirituality in midlife: intercessory prayer, a sense of community, a rule of life, lightheartedness, detachment, and stripping down, preparing for "a good death." A final chapter discusses practical aspects of ministry to the frail aged.
Download or read book Sacred Land written by Clea Danaan and published by Llewellyn Worldwide. This book was released on 2007 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learn how to plan and plant your garden, create compost, save seeds, conserve water, connect with garden goddesses and incorporate planetary energy in your garden.
