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Pagan Christmas: The Plants, Spirits, and Rituals at the Origins of Yuletide
By Claudia M ller-Ebeling, Christian R tsch. 2003
An examination of the sacred botany and the pagan origins and rituals of Christmas • Analyzes the symbolism of the…
many plants associated with Christmas • Reveals the shamanic rituals that are at the heart of the Christmas celebration The day on which many commemorate the birth of Christ has its origins in pagan rituals that center on tree worship, agriculture, magic, and social exchange. But Christmas is no ordinary folk observance. It is an evolving feast that over the centuries has absorbed elements from cultures all over the world--practices that give plants and plant spirits pride of place. In fact, the symbolic use of plants at Christmas effectively transforms the modern-day living room into a place of shamanic ritual. Christian Rätsch and Claudia Müller-Ebeling show how the ancient meaning of the botanical elements of Christmas provides a unique view of the religion that existed in Europe before the introduction of Christianity. The fir tree was originally revered as the sacred World Tree in northern Europe. When the church was unable to drive the tree cult out of people’s consciousness, it incorporated the fir tree by dedicating it to the Christ child. Father Christmas in his red-and-white suit, who flies through the sky in a sleigh drawn by reindeer, has his mythological roots in the shamanic reindeer-herding tribes of arctic Europe and Siberia. These northern shamans used the hallucinogenic fly agaric mushroom, which is red and white, to make their soul flights to the other world. Apples, which figure heavily in Christmas baking, are symbols of the sun god Apollo, so they find a natural place at winter solstice celebrations of the return of the sun. In fact, the authors contend that the emphasis of Christmas on green plants and the promise of the return of life in the dead of winter is just an adaptation of the pagan winter solstice celebration.Prayer for the Day
By Bbc Radio 4. 2014
Prayer for the Day brings together 365 selected readings from the much loved, long-running series on BBC Radio 4. The…
programme, which has been broadcast daily at 5:43am for several decades, and continues to attract over half a million dedicated listeners, comprises a short 2-minute reflection to start your day. These artfully combine traditional forms of prayer and reflection, from a variety of religions and denominations, with contemporary issues and themes that are often relevant to the date on which the programme is broadcast. In keeping with the theme of 'Prayer for the Day', there are 365 reflections in the book, from a vast range of the eminent religious figures and broadcasters who have contributed to the programme over the years. There is a foreword by a prominent figure in the faith community, a short profile of each contributor and an index of contributors. To emphasise the point that the reflections can be used daily, they are ordered by date (i.e. 1st January, 2nd January etc), and each entry is selected on the basis of it being as date-specific as possible. The date of broadcast is underneath each entry, and dates are also marked at the top corners of each page so they can be found easily. The spacious design includes page openers for each month with simple line illustrations. Prayer for the Day is a beautiful and inspirational addition to any bedside table, with religious meditations that both participate in the ecumenical spirit of the 21st century and equip you perfectly for each day's journey.Powerful Prayers for Your Children (Powerful Prayers Series)
By Heather Kopp, David Kopp. 1997
From Spelling Tests to Future Mates-Learn to Pray for Every Aspect of Your Kids' Lives.AS A PARENT, you want your…
prayers to have an impact on the lives of your children. But how can you ensure that will happen? What are some of the vital things you should pray for? How can you claim God's glorious promises for your kids? In Powerful Prayers for Your Children, you'll find the answers to these questions, along with rich, Scripture-based prayers that will show you how to communicate more confidently, more fervently, and more effectively with the Lord. Most important, your prayer life will be forever changed as you learn to pray more intimately and wisely to the One who loves your children most of all.From the Trade Paperback edition.Agnostic Khushwant: There Is No God
By Khushwant Singh, Ashok Chopra. 2012
Instead of entering into a pointless debate on whether or not God exists it is more important to bear…
in mind that belief in the existence of God has little bearing on making a person a good or a bad citizen One can be a saintly person without believing in God and a detestable villain believing in Him In my personalized religion there is NO GOD Khushwant Singh over the decades has built up a reputation for coming up with something new and controversial in each book and he does not disappoint his readers this time too He begins with a chapter on the need for a new religion without God in which he questions the relevance of God He then moves on to describe how religion has proved to be more harmful than beneficial and in the process debunks astrologers and the breed of so-called godmen However he is not dismissive of religion Through his lucid writing he brings out the beauty and significance of holy books such as the Bhagvad Gita the Quran and the Granth Sahib He provides relevant extracts to highlight the poetry and the music in such books The author next tries to dispel the prejudices held by many non-Muslims against their Muslim compatriots by giving down-to-earth examples He also emphasizes the importance of the Ramzaan fast Khushwant Singh s description of the life and times of Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh and his in-depth analysis of the Granth Sahib throw new light on a particularly troubled period in India s history The chapter devoted to the interaction of the author a confirmed agnostic with the Dalai Lama probably the world s most renowned spiritual leader makes for fascinating reading Here s one book containing a wealth of knowledge and information that you would want to read or consult again and againBefore Taliban: Genealogies of the Afghan Jihad
By David B. Edwards. 2002
If you want to read one book to understand the background to the political conflicts in Afghanistan and the Taliban's…
rise to power, this is the book. Edwards tells the stories of three men--a Marxist politician, a tribal leader, and an Islamic militant--to explain the complex political culture of Afghanistan.Say No To Arthritis: The proven drug free guide to preventing and relieving arthritis
By Patrick Holford, Christopher Quayle. 1999
Arthritis is a debilitating and painful disease for millions of people. In this updated and expanded book, leading nutrition expert…
Patrick Holford highlights the latest research on arthritis and how the disease can be prevented or alleviated by the correct diet and supplement programme.SAY NO TO ARTHRITIS examines the various forms of the disease, and how it is affected by the foods you eat, exercise and even the attitude you have towards your symptoms. This invaluable knowledge is brought to life with a practical and easy-to-follow anti-arthritis action plan that includes guidance on what to eat, the appropriate supplements to take, which exercises can reduce pain and how to reduce stress in order to ease symptoms.Say No To Cancer: The Drug-Free Guide to Preventing and Helping Fight Cancer
By Patrick Holford, Liz Efiong. 2010
Cancer is increasing at an alarming rate and one in three people will develop cancer at some point in their…
lives. According to the World Cancer Research Fund, up to 39 per cent of the most common cancers - lung, breast, colorectal, skin, mouth/throat and oesophagus, liver, stomach, prostate, cervical ovarian, testicular, endometrial and pancreatic - are preventable through diet, physical activity and weight control alone. SAY NO TO CANCER was originally published by Piatkus in 1999 and this greatly expanded edition contains new chapters that reflect the very latest information on the connection between diet and lifestyle and the risk of developing cancer. It offers guidance for people who wish to avoid getting cancer, and for those who want to know what they can do nutritionally if they have cancer and/or want to prevent reoccurrence.By improving your diet and taking the right nutritional supplements you really can say no to cancer.Conscious Medicine: A radical new approach to creating health and well-being
By Gill Edwards. 2010
Radical changes are afoot in medicine as we build stronger bridges between science and spirituality. In CONSCIOUS MEDICINE Gill Edwards…
explains that mind and body are inseparable and that emotions are crucial in health and disease. Her new approach to healthcare is based on the latest research into the transformative power of consciousness, energy and the bodymind. She explains how, when you break your old habits of thought, you can not only reverse disease processes and heal injuries but also attract more positive events and circumstances into your life. Chapters cover 'miracles' in health and why our current medical model is limiting, how negative thoughts activate the stress response in the body which eventually makes us ill, how the body speaks to us symbolically through symptoms and illness, how to break free from limiting patterns and create a new health-full future. Always thought-provoking and inspiring, this is an accessible, practical and joyous book.Chakras Made Easy: Seven Keys to Awakening and Healing the Energy Body
By Anodea Judith. 2016
An accessible, authoritative guide on balancing your energetic body to heal both body and mind.Chakras Made Easy is the ideal…
book for readers who are new to, or curious about, energy healing systems. Written by Anodea Judith, world-renowned energy healing expert, it offers a complete range of practical tools on using chakras to balance, heal and take charge of your wellbeing. In this book, the reader will learn: * the meaning, function, and purpose of each chakra * the childhood experiences that affect and programme each chakra * the role each chakra plays in our lives, including in our health, relationships, and decision-making * physical, emotional, and mental signs of chakra imbalances * simple yet powerful exercises to balance each chakra * using the chakras as a tool for liberation, manifestation, reception, and expressionThis book was previously published within the Hay House Basics series.The Power of Forgiveness
By Joan Gattuso. 2015
How can we forgive someone who has caused us pain?Must we forgive and forget?How does forgiveness help us move forward…
in life?How can we forgive ourselves and move forward in life?Joan Gattuso, bestselling author of A Course in Love, brings her wisdom to a topic that affects everyone--how to forgive when forgiveness seems impossible. Gattuso's practical and inspiring teaching serves as a compass to the spiritual principles that can transform bitterness into beauty and anger into peace. The road to forgiveness is the path to freedom. It is this freedom, she writes, that allows us to move forward, so that we can live a happy and joy-filled life. In The Power of Forgiveness, discover:* The ten principles of power over guilt, blame, and resentment* Practical ways to experience peace of mind* How to forgive authentically and let go of the past* The path to overcoming blocks blocksReiki Made Easy: Heal Your Body and Your Life with the Power of Universal Energy
By Torsten Lange. 2015
A fascinating simple and practical introduction to the Reiki healing system Reiki is one of the most popular energy-healing…
systems founded in Japan and now used all over the world It s easy to learn and everyone can benefit from it Written by the founder of the Reiki Academy London Torsten A Lange Reiki Made Easy is a comprehensive yet accessible guide to the powerful Reiki healing system showing how it can be used for physical emotional mental and spiritual healing This book explores - the history of Reiki including new information not currently found in any other book- how to connect to Reiki energy to heal ourselves and others- the symbols of Reiki and how to work with them- how to give a distant healing- real-life stories that demonstrate the deep healing this system offers- the steps to becoming a Reiki practitionerFor anyone wishing to learn how to apply the benefits of Reiki in their lives this book is a perfect starting point on their journeyFull of Hot Air: Launching, Floating High, and Landing
By Gary Paulsen. 1979
In THE SOUL CONNECTION, healer Anne Jones helps you to connect with your soul and access your divine powers. You…
will be filled with the most powerful and uplifting energy, which will allow love and joy to flow through you and be present in everything you do. You will be able to: * Heal the soul wounds that block your ability to live your life fully * Feel the sense of the divine spark that is your core essence * Release the imprints of the past that inhibit you * Learn to live in joy and allow yourself to be happy * Remember who your really are THE SOUL CONNECTION is the perfect book for everyone who is searching for meaning and belonging in their lives.For anyone who plays sports and is looking to facilitate recovery or prevent injuriesEveryone who plays sports experiences injuries. Many…
people never fully recover because they're not aware of what they can do to facilitate recovery. But there's no need to simply resign yourself to "living with" a sports injury. In The Anatomy of Sports Injuries, author Brad Walker brings years of expertise--he works with elite-level and world-champion athletes, and lectures on injury prevention--to this how-to guide. The book takes a fundamental approach, bringing you inside the body to show exactly what is happening when a sports injury occurs. At the heart of The Anatomy of Sports Injuries are 350 images. This second edition includes updated illustrations and more anatomical information and is for every sports player or fitness enthusiast who has been injured and would like to know what the injury involves, how to rehabilitate the area, and how to prevent complications or injury in the future.The Spirit of the Muse: Conversations on the Journeys of Artists
By Rajiv Mehrotra. 2011
The Spirit of the Muse is an illuminating series of intimate conversations with some of the greatest contemporary classical performers,…
artists and writers. Presented in this unique collection are rare insights into the creative process and responses to questions such as: Does great personal suffering help produce great art? What are the internal processes that precede the surrender to the moment(s) of creativity? How does one balance the imperatives of structure with spontaneity? What is the role of an audience for an artist? How does he or she respond to critics and criticism? Is it useful to be a "good" human being to be a "good" artist? Does the creation of an enduring work of art compensate for a fear of mortality? Ranged in the book are musicians such as Pandit Ravi Shankar and Yehudi Menuhin together, Zubin Mehta and L. Subramaniam; painters Satish Gujral and Anjolie Ela Menon; sculptors Amarnath Sehgal and K. S. Radhakrishnan; dancers Leela Samson and Mrinalini Sarabhai; filmmakers Adoor Gopalakrishnan and Mrinal Sen; playwright Habib Tanvir; poet Gulzar; and writers Mahasweta Devi and Indira Goswami.Seeking Good Debate
By Michael S. Evans. 2016
Why do religion and science often appear in conflict in America's public sphere? In Seeking Good Debate, Michael S. Evans…
examines the results from the first-ever study to combine large-scale empirical analysis of some of our foremost religion and science debates with in-depth research into what Americans actually want in the public sphere. The surprising finding is that apparent conflicts involving religion and science reflect a more fundamental conflict between media elites and ordinary Americans over what is good debate. For elite representatives, good debate advances an agenda, but, as Evans shows, for many Americans it is defined by engagement and deliberation. This hidden conflict over what constitutes debate's proper role diminishes the possibility for science and religion to be discussed meaningfully in public life. Challenging our understanding of science, religion, and conflict, Seeking Good Debate raises profound questions about the future of the public sphere and American democracy.Becoming Ageless: The Four Secrets To Looking and Feeling Younger Than Ever
By Strauss Zelnick. 2018
Four secrets to looking and feeling younger than ever. Becoming Ageless presents a three-month, detailed diet and exercise plan to…
create a leaner, more muscular and happier you. Developed by business mogul and fitness buff Strauss Zelnick--founder of the private equity firm Zelnick Media Capital and president and CEO of Take-Two Interactive, the company behind blockbuster video games such as Grand Theft Auto and NBA2K-- the strategies contained in Becoming Ageless are the same tactics that allowed Zelnick to evolve from a skinny, out-of-shape business executive (a workaholic wunderkind who headed the film studio 20th Century Fox in his early 30s) to one of the world's fittest and most physically active executives who reached his best-ever shape in his late 50s! "If you believe my fitness buddies," Zelnick writes, "I have a body that's aging in reverse...And Becoming Ageless is filled with the amazing tips and unique principles you'd find if you trained with me."Khushwant Singh on Women, Sex, Love and Lust
By Khushwant Singh. 2011
An anthology of Khushwant Singh’s best writings on his favorite subjects, Women, Sex, Love and Lust is at once witty,…
informative, thought-provoking and flagrant. Definitely a book you can’t afford to miss! If you are looking for answers to eternal questions like which came first – love or lust, or debates pertaining to celibacy, chastity or arranged marriages, Khushwant Singh delivers his unique exposé. Whether he is analysing the fine dividing line between obscenity, pornography and erotica, describing sex from ‘Chaturbhani’ (200-350 B.C.) or his ideas of a composite Indian woman, Khushwant holds the reader’s attention effortlessly. But that isn’t all – years before terms such as ‘gender issues’ or ‘gender divide’ became popular, he was writing, thinking and sharing his views on them. His deliberations reveal an unexpected side to Khushwant . . . in these pages you’ll also find a rare glimpse of Khushwant the feminist. Women, Sex, Love and Lust abounds with Indian as well as foreign myths, legends, proverbs, and poems ranging from Chaucer, Shakespeare, Whitman to Kalidas, Iqbal and Faiz. Almost each page offers you delectable quotes from Russell to Wodehouse along with special anecdotes which could only come from the inimitable Khushwant. Only he could share with you his intense experience of nudo-phobia suffered in Sweden, his acute observation of Indian whoremongers when abroad, scandals amongst the literati and glitterati – H. G. Wells as a compulsive fornicator or Georges Simenon hammering away at his typewriter (and his women) at the age of eighty are only a few revelations.Thank You Cancer
By Megha Bajaj. 2009
Sometimes just sometimes it takes breast cancer to convince a seemingly ordinary woman to discover her extraordinariness …
her mission in life A highly inspiring and motivating book based on real-life cases that enables women to fight breast cancer by putting mind over body A disease is nothing but your body s signal to you to transform your lifestyle your thought processes and your approach to life Breast cancer is one such disease that can be conquered if you do not get overwhelmed by apprehensions and uncertainty The author presents ten ordinary women who appear extraordinary because they refused to succumb to breast cancer They drew upon their resources of courage determination and perseverance to defeat this dreaded scourge Despite the odds stacked against them they not only succeeded in getting cured but also became the source of inspiration for many other women afflicted by breast cancer The author whose mother overcame breast cancer presents apart from the conventional treatment including surgery chemotherapy and radiation complementary therapies such as yoga meditation reiki and pranic healing as well which can go a long way in dealing positively with the after-effects of breast cancer After reading this book you will feel confident enough to tackle breast cancer head-on or enableothers to do soOvercoming Arthritis
By Dr Sarah Brewer. 2012