Search results for ""Collective""

Have you ever stood beneath a majestic 300 year old oak tree and thought, this tree lived before I was born, and will be alive long after I'm dead? Have you ever wondered about such a tree might have witnessed during its long life, and thought, if only it could talk? This is the story of an oak tree, from birth to death. Using the tree as our witness, we see many small moments in history - moments that rippled outward to affect the world. Intimate family moments and tragedies all take place under the oak's shade. But the tree is more than a witness, it is connected to all the life around it. It, too, has its tragedies, its suffering, and times of renewal. After reading this, you won't think the same way about trees again.

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This is a descriptive guide written in an easy-to-read format that will make discovering, exploring and learning about the tarot interesting and informative. Styled to represent the vast majority of tarot decks available on the market, it covers the history of the cards, how the Higher Arcana and four lower suits of the deck blend and fit together in a reading. It teaches a level of competence enabling the tarot to be read proficiently, providing a progression of simple card layouts that will help the reader's ability and understanding to build in sensible increments until they can work with a full eleven card spread to give a more knowing and flowing reading.

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In the last two centuries, some of Hinduism's greatest saints and scholars have lovingly embraced Christ and made him their own. Continuing and aggressive Christian mission in India is now making some Hindus anti-Christ as well as anti-Christian. Mission agencies are pouring millions into India to "save" the "heathens." Religious tensions are increasing, hitting the headlines and claiming lives. Find out why mission disturbs Hindus. Find out how they have responded to their encounter with Christ and Christianity from colonial to contemporary times, in India and in the West. This is their story in their words. Discover how Hindus revere the Christ of faith rather than the Jesus of history. Explore the universal but not exclusive Christ of Hinduism. Find out the rich social and spiritual dimensions Hindus bring to reflection on Christ. Knowing and understanding others is always challenging. Make your own interfaith journey and discover what happened when Christ crossed the Ganges.

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The Christian life is not about giving up, but taking up. The call of Jesus to discipleship is a positive one-love God and your neighbour. It's not about being serious, but happy and loving. It's not a constant battle against small temptations. It's because Jesus didn't spend all his energy fighting the temptations of the world that he was able to withstand genuine temptation. This series of studies of his life takes a look at stories from the gospels which illustrate the way in which temptation came to Jesus in his ministry-the temptation to stay where he was comfortable and known; to divide people into friends and enemies; to avoid confronting problems, and many others. They are the serious temptations we all face, and which Jesus answers. Quotations from the gospels are taken from GOOD AS NEW, the new translation of early Christian scriptures to be published later in the year. "John's presentation of the Christian gospel is of extraordinary power simply because it is so close to the prose and poetry of ordinary life. Instead of being taken into a specialised religious frame of reference-as happens even with the most conscientious of formal modern translations-and being given a gospel addressed to specialised concerns-as happens with even the most careful of modern "devotional books-we have here a vehicle for thinking and worshipping that is fully earthed, recognisably about our humanity." Rowan Williams

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We need to be self-advocates because, as amazing as modern medicine is, it focuses on narrow and biased fields.

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This time they invaded a new world that refused to be conquered.

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A profound solution to calming and dissolving climate anxiety in these perilous times.

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Fenella Woodruff shares with housemates half her age to stay young - then the arrival of handsome divorcee Martin changes everything.

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According to global reports, sadness is increasing, but with the Transcendental Meditation program, happiness can expand far beyond our current expectations.

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Connect with your inner Goddess with the help of crystals, and create the life of your dreams.

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A definitive and invaluable re-assessment of the last decade of speculative realism.

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For many centuries in the East, the Four Pillars has been used as a method of divination to guide individuals with their relationships, wealth and, in general, fortune. But very little is known about the method as a theory. Saju master and author Sarah Kim offers an easy-to-follow instructional guide with the basic tenets that will enable you to read and interpret the Four Pillars (saju) charts. Decoding your saju chart is like diving into water to examine the bottom of the iceberg; you will gain knowledge about yourself through the unique perspective of natural anthropology as presented in this primer. Bring your questions about your life -- past, present, and future -- and about your relationships with significant others to engage in this spiritual exercise. Your saju chart will be your personal oracle to provide the answers you need.

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Rural East Texas, 1968 Calvina ("Cal") Jean Prather is a 10-year-old precocious angel hunter living in Onward, Texas. She is blessed by birthright to be a "special purpose" child who can see the angels on Earth as they go about their celestial tasks. She lives with her mortician granddaddy in their combined house and funeral parlor. Cal's best friend is Moody, a child with social challenges. Enthralled by local legend, the duo secretly heads for the forbidden reaches of the Sabine River Bottom, where they witness a murder confession while playing an innocent game of Indian scouts. When the killers seek to silence Cal and Moody as witnesses, the children realize that they are tangled in a dangerous web. Cal must soon choose between her solemn oath not to call on the angels to intervene in Earthly matters, or risk the lives of those she loves. Only one angel can be summoned on such short notice who has the light and power to save her: Lucifer. Her gamble with the devil brings her to the jaws of death, and Onward to a reckoning with their own prejudices. Cal must choose between her promise, her loved ones, and her own place in eternity. The revelations reveal the circumstances of her mother's death, the origin of her powers, and who she can claim as her father.

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This is a journal of empowerment. The book of my rebirth. Paige Delaney -- misfit, rebel, heretic -- dies at the age of forty, leaving a cast of characters to deal with her cremation ashes, some willingly and others begrudgingly. The ashes have been divided into twelve vials. Her family and friends -- each with a different spiritual viewpoint -- venture forth from the funeral with the ashes in hand. Through their eyes, as they scatter them, we get to know Paige, and through her own journal entries, we learn about their relationships from her perspective. Their unique beliefs influence their opinions about her and where the ashes should be released. Whether we are devoted religious practitioners, new agers or atheists, our belief systems influence us all. At a time when religious clashes impact all our lives, how do we find common ground? Are there as many paths to the Creator as there are people on this planet?

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The Maheshwara Sutra is the key teaching on sound consciousness in the Vedic tradition, given by Shiva over 2,200 years ago, after his iconic dance of destruction and creation. It is the clearest exposition of the world being created by sound vibration ever recorded. The Maheshwara Sutra was revealed by Shiva through his Drum. Each beat weaves the matrix of life, dynamically creating the universe and human being in 42 sound vibrations. Each sound unfolds the universal creative process, from the quantum field and Big Bang to the mind, breath, sexuality, chakras and all elements of creation. The Maheshwara Sutra is Shiva’s holographic Creation of Everything, the original yoga of sound. Its 42 Sound Keys create 42 vibrational shifts within you, which can align you into the quantum blueprint of creation. Shiva’s Hologram: The Maheshwara Sutra is a science of consciousness, a profound synthesis of Vedic and western wisdom and practices that articulates a path into wholeness through sound. Thorough and well researched, it explains the sounds that form your self, opening doors into using sound never revealed before. Shiva’s Hologram: The Maheshwara Sutra translates this ancient wisdom into contemporary relevance and practice through quantum physics, sacred geometry, the union of masculine and feminine Shiva-Shakti, and the wisdom of India’s greatest masters. Shiva’s Hologram is written for the beginner and advanced practitioner and reveals the yoga of the 42 sounds, their meanings and practical applications. Use the sounds for sound-healing and to resonate into the harmonious Blueprint of Creation: Create mantras to resonate every part of you into health and well-being: Use it for yoga, self-inquiry and to expand your consciousness in meditation. The deeper wisdom of the Maheshwara Sutra has been kept within the Saivite Indian lineage for millennia, and has not been released to the general public until now.

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Heavy Radicals: The FBI's Secret War on America's Maoists is a history of the Revolutionary Union/Revolutionary Communist Party - the largest Maoist organization to arise in the US - from its origins in the explosive year of 1968, its expansion into a national organization in the early '70s, its extension into major industry throughout the early part of that decade, and the devastating schism in the aftermath of the death of Mao Tse-tung to its ultimate decline as the 1970s turned into the 1980s. From its beginnings the grouping was the focus of J. Edgar Hoover and other top FBI officials for an unrelenting array of operations: Informant penetration, setting organizations against each other, setting up phony communist collectives for infiltration and disruption, planting of phone taps and microphones in apartments, break-ins to steal membership lists, the use of FBI ‘friendly journalists’ such as Victor Riesel and Ed Montgomery to undermine the group, and much more. It is the story of a sizable section of the radicalized youth whose radicalism did not disappear at the end of the '60s, and of the FBI’s largest - and, up to now, untold - campaign against it.

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What course?s? do intimate relationships usually take? And why do they often seem to go wrong? ?A? concise, brief guide aimed at finding and maintaining peaceful, harmonious relationships?, Miracle Relationships: A Path to Freedom and Joy w?i?ll help you understand the? ?purpose ?of these relationships ?and the gifts they? have to? offer. Understand the healing opportunities in every relationship and the real reason we choose the partners we choose. End the cycle of repeated painful patterns? and discover that there is no 'failed' relationship.

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Kate McNally grew up in a mainstream Christian faith, where she could not find the connection to the divine that we all seek. She turned to psychology and science and to the pursuit of success. That all worked for a while, providing a measure of comfort but not fulfillment, feeding the ego but not the spirit. Then, at a low point and broken by the drive for success, Kate began a spiritual journey that brought her to the Quakers, where she found a spiritual community and a stripped-down, simple way of following the basic commandment: Love one another. In Quaker Quicks - A Simple Faith in a Complicated World, Kate explores the faith of Jesus rather than the faith about Jesus and shares with us the connections to God, self, and others that have brought her to the spiritual community we all long for. Take this journey with her and explore the idea of perfection and how imperfections make us uniquely ourselves, perfectly suited to the work we are called to do.

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The Eleusinian Mysteries were the most prestigious initiation of the ancient world. The ritual’s secrets were protected by death vows and have been speculated about for more than 4,000 years. The nine-day festival was run by a group of women called Melissae, or “bees”: married women, second only in rank to the Priestess of Athena Polias, who presided over Athens. They amassed incredible wealth, fame, and political status. Temple accounts from the period reveal that it was the priestesses’ money that paid for Greece's glorious architecture. Fees were earned for sacrifices and granting access to divinity. In return, the priestess made Greece a magnificent place to live. Oracles, diviners, soul midwives and creatrixes of innumerable festivals, these women ensured that the city-state kept favour with the goddess. They achieved that by emulating the ways of the world’s most successful matriarchal community, a bee colony. Herbal textbooks speak of a relationship between these women and the Lemon Balm herb (Melissa officinalis). Journey into the past and into the enchanting dreamscape of the hive with aromatherapist Elizabeth Ashley. A delightful odyssey for anyone interested in herbal wisdom, ancient Greek history, female empowerment, and humankind’s greatest allies, the bees.

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Amazing Grace: Memoirs of a Transformational Journey is about one man’s struggle to discover his soul in a soulless world, in which he argues that a new kind of human being needs to emerge if our society is to be healed. This new person will need to be someone who will have ‘worked on themselves’ to have become less materialistic and less ego-centred, more planet-friendly and, in particular, more concerned about the well-being of their fellow human beings. In this honest and no-holds-barred book, we learn that if we choose to undertake such a journey, there is no avoiding a confrontation with all those areas of ourselves which prevent this. In author Serge Beddington-Behren’s case, this included his need to come face to face with his chauvinism, his ‘little boy’ who refused to grow up, his narcissism - the myth that the ‘right woman’ would save him - and the delusion of being ‘special’! Chronicling his encounters with the many wise people he’s met along his way, Amazing Grace shows how to let go of attachments to false narratives and assists one in becoming more honest and open-hearted. Serge’s adventures are amusing in places; his hope is that upon discovering the many gifts and blessings that came his way as he aspired to evolve, the reader might feel moved to embark upon similar journeys of self-discovery, vital to our planet’s survival.

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In 2020, as COVID-19 spread from Asia to North America, Zen Buddhist and ikebana practitioner Joan Stamm was forced to cancel her long-anticipated trip to Japan, where she had planned to research a flower temple pilgrimage and learn the deeper meaning of flowers known as 'little Buddhas.' But with lockdowns and stay-at-home orders, Stamm, who lives on a mountain on an island in the Salish Sea, sequestered herself like a hermit and turned to her own flower garden for solace and meaning as the pandemic engulfed the world around her. The Language of Flowers in the Time of COVID tells the story of Stamm’s life and spiritual journey through these difficult times. Using traditional Japanese flowers as seasonal indicators, Stamm speaks the poetic language of flowers to explore ancient flower metaphor as it relates to the pandemic and the many manifestations of impermanence in one of the most tumultuous years in American history.

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Lynne Renoir began life as a devout Christian, but after many years, she realized that her faith was not working. She sought an explanation for her situation by completing postgraduate degrees in psychology and philosophy and carrying out research in quantum theory. Drawing on the insights that the universe is multidimensional and that everything is ultimately one, Renoir proposes that we, too, are multidimensional beings. She points out that what we believe about anything is generally deemed to be either true or false. This approach in her view is applicable to our everyday three-dimensional reality, but that transformation occurs when what we consciously accept as fact resonates with the oneness that lies at the deepest level of our being.

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Changing your life requires effort. Often, that effort brings its own benefits and you can end up improving your quality of life by making better choices. Beyond Sustainability - Authentic Living at a Time of Climate Crisis is an extended discussion about individuality and choice and how, to thrive as individuals and a society, we must seek to move beyond the notion of sustainability.

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Although doubt is a normal part of Christian life, it is not a visible discussion within most churches. This tension led Kat Wordsworth to experience acute shame and isolation when she was overwhelmed with doubt while working for a church. Let's Talk About Doubt offers an antidote to this silence by combining Kat's story of doubtful faith with a wider look at the attitude towards doubt within contemporary Christian culture. Kat doesn't pretend to present a cure or step-by-step guide to eliminating doubt. Instead, she recounts how she found a way to accept her doubt, reclaim her faith and engage with church. Brutally honest but ultimately hopeful, Let's Talk About Doubt is essential for all those who experience doubt and all those who want to support them.

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In the face of potentially cataclysmic challenges and existential threats to both humanity and the planet, it is timely for this generation to recall and then live by forgotten or ignored universal ethical principles and virtues. Transcendental Spirituality, Wisdom and Virtue: The Divine Virtues and Treasures of the Heart identifies and explores 36 such principles that represent divine virtues or universal ethical principles. Supported by relevant scriptural passages from various faiths such as Baha'i, Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Indigenous spiritual beliefs, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Shintoism, Sikhism, Taoism and Zoroastrianism, each chapter is devoted to exploring and synthesizing the essence of the scriptural meaning and scope of one Divine Virtue. While previous works have focussed generally on ancient wisdom, this book extends beyond wisdom to include 35 additional virtues or spiritual principles that underpin these great and diverse religions.

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In The Soul & the Sea, Benig Mauger interweaves depth psychology with spirituality to present a new model of healing. Inspired by the sea and land around her home, Mauger draws from her own life experiences as a Jungian therapist and spiritual teacher to illustrate how connection to nature and the spiritual world can heal emotional wounds. In a time of spiritual awakening, emotional healing must move beyond psychology to be effective. As both a guide and a creator of a new portal for healing, The Soul & the Sea reads like a story as it charts the journey to healing through nature and spirit while serving as a tool for emotional healing and soul growth, showing us how to connect to our inner healer.

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If things were to collapse, would you still know who you are? Would you know which way to turn if you suddenly felt betrayed by the company you worked for or by the leaders of your country? Do you feel empowered to make decisions for yourself, or do you rely on others for guidance? Each of us is conditioned to fit in, to strive for specific goals, to make life choices that our parents or society designated for us, rather than to understand and strive to live our uniqueness. And because we are in uncharted territory in these new times, which call for serious upgrades, it is essential to learn who you are, how to live as your unique self, and how to make decisions based on your own personalized inner GPS system - a powerful inner guidance system you probably don’t even know you have. Are You a Mutant? breaks down a brand-new intel designated to assist you in uncovering a truth about yourself that is inevitably shocking. An insight that rings true like a mystical calling from your soul that simultaneously reveals all the places in your life you are living as a fake. In these changing times, we need all the upgrades we can get, and now it is time for an INNER WORLD UPGRADE, a new system of knowledge to support your understanding of the world we are currently wading through, its complexity, who you are within it, what makes you different, and how you can live the best strategy for your personal success, satisfaction, peace, and the wonderment of being alive.

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We live in an age of emergency, exacerbated by a collapse of meaning. Writer and psychotherapist Mark Vernon examines the type of intelligence that, whilst often dismissed and overlooked, is crucial to understand and cultivate if we are to survive and thrive in our times. Spiritual intelligence is the foundation of who we are and our particular type of consciousness. It is the perception identified across wisdom and religious traditions, and known by many names, which can be summarised as the awareness of awareness, and so of being itself. It is the foundation of peace, even in the face of death, as well as purpose and solidarity. The challenge today is to recover and live according to that knowledge. Examining themes from the nature of consciousness to the experience of time, the emergence of our species and the teaching of spiritual adepts, the book is an antidote to rampant AI and a complement to emotional intelligence. It is written without presuming religious commitments in readers and draws on a mix of sources and experience gained from the author's own practices. It advocates pilgrimage and improvisation, virtues over morality, and big histories that do not turn the story of our species into a bleak struggle for survival. The seven steps will help readers identify spiritual intelligence within themselves, unpack why it matters, and suggest how a wider trust in it may be revived.

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The Shape of Knowledge is the outcome of a meaningful experience that occurred in 2012. In it are developed the foundations of a new science of philosophy, which promises to provide a solution to the disparity preventing our discourse from progress. Through the language of the Western canon, The Shape of Knowledge exposes the ubiquitous structure that conditions our capacity to reason the truth for our world. Then, through an investigation of the phenomenon of self-reference, in both the processes and products of thought, this structure is shown to necessitate its own existence. Underscoring it all is a principle of complementarity, which arises as the modality of the rationalisation of paradox. Experience is shown to be a relative process of making sense of the nonsensical nature of reality, and the emergence of paraphilosophy is our means of reconciling the present war of opposites—having now served its purpose—with the nondual nature of self-consciousness. Paraphilosophy is not an idea to be believed—it is the idea of the idea, which is our creative spirit. So this work is at root an inquiry into oneself.

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Have a giggle as you mix and match the words and make up your own set of fantabulous affirmations. Great fun for all the family.

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Did you know that the first named piece of writing was the work of a Sumerian woman in approximately 2085 BC, while the world’s first novel was written by a Japanese woman in the eleventh century? Or that Hildegard of Bingen, the great twelfth century Abbess, writer, and composer, defied the Church’s traditions by viewing feminine sexuality as a gift of God? Or that one of China’s most powerful Emperors was a woman? These are but a few examples of the facts in this autobiography with a difference, Woman Through the Ages. Author Ann Merivale, a deep-memory process therapist, has used previous lifetimes in her own history to illustrate the roles we all play in preparation for returning to the source whence we’ve come. Skilfully weaving her personal story into each area and time period covered, Merivale highlights the injustices wrought on women for centuries, as well as their many achievements. Woman Through the Ages gives a fascinating and comprehensive picture of womanhood through the ages and concludes that the time for equality and greater respect for feminine energy is finally arriving.

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Deeply rooted in environmentalism and activism, Honoring the Wild answers crucially pertinent questions while driving at lasting change. From political demonstrations to personal calls, Irisanya Moon offers a collection of stories and lessons, as told by Reclaiming Witches from around the world, about the facts and fears, the confessions and collaborations within the Reclaiming tradition’s own timeline of activism. Honoring the Wild inspires and informs creativity and purpose while reminding us of all that has come and of all that is left to do. May the wild be blessed and healed by this spell of intention and inspiration.

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When tourism transforms a fishing village on the green and beautiful Greek island of Corfu, old hatreds, envy and greed threaten to tear the community apart. Behind the scenes, personal demons fuel division while guardian angels battle to neutralize their influence… Hotelier Jason - planning to get rich - ruthlessly chases his goal, unaware of the trouble and danger he is stirring up. Three visitors from Ireland, America and Wales bring their own problems. Clare, running from a broken relationship, is drawn into a love triangle with Jason. Aeron, battling a mid-life crisis, is closer to despair than he realizes - while Bethany, jolted by a Big Birthday into doing a Shirley Valentine, is hoping it will sort her life out. As the sizzling summer unfolds, each faces make-or break-challenges. Extra help is at hand though, with the arrival of Gabriella, angel of Greece. When meddling demons prevail, and smouldering greed and vengeance reach flashpoint, can she avert disaster?

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A unique perspective on working with Baba Yaga, Slavic Earth Goddess of mystery, intrigue and ambiguity, through apprenticing into her magic. In this introductory work Baba Yaga is re-defined outside of the dogmatic portrayals and becomes one of the most powerful and influential figures in an individual spiritual practice. An accessible guide to building a devotional practice, Pagan Portals – Baba Yaga is a journey of discovery and collaboration with deity, written to aid your own psycho-spiritual progression and offer a unique presentation of how we might work with the Goddess, psychologically and spiritually.

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Why has Madagascar has failed to make any meaningful progress since independence? A mix of journalism and scholarship, the book is the result of almost nine months spent on the ground in Madagascar travelling and interviewing a wide range of political leaders at the national and local levels, including an unprecedented interview with the country’s former president, Marc Ravalomanana. The book takes as its point of departure the military coup in 2009 that replaced Ravalomanana with Andry Rajoelina, and all of the negative aftershocks that followed, as well as including chapters on the bleak economic prospects of young people across the island, the unsustainable population growth that threatens so much of its future and a unique chapter on the effects of climate change on the southern region of Madagascar, where worsening droughts have left millions in humanitarian peril.

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The Good Ship Story Compass sails you away on a potentially life changing journey! Story Compass is a book of word and action, leading the reader on a ship's journey through the Four Directions Medicine Wheel! You step onboard, put on your captain's hat and sail away! Compass points take you sailing North, East, South and West to visit the story fields of the author, lifeline, ancestral banks and the mythical realms. Story becomes understood in a way you have possibly never been able to appreciate before. Archetypes for Mother Goose, Wild Merlin, the Prince from Sleeping Beauty and Anansi the Spider appear as the inspirational teachers for each compass point. Playful in tone, interactive in design and deeply explorative in its action, this startlingly original book is both a healing journey and an instruction manual.

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A healer reveals powerful invisible ‘tools’ to expand your horizons and overcome personal challenges. Beyond Sex and Soup is about the beauty in you. The beauty is always there but sometimes shrouded by fear, anger, anxiety or pain. This story is also about death, the knowledge of which makes us so much more joyful about living. Anna Parkinson offers you tools to help you uncover the beauty from the everyday drama of your life. She has found them powerful for her own healing and her practice of healing others over the past fifteen years. Along the way, you’ll encounter some of the everyday drama of the author's own life and the characters it’s been her privilege to share the adventure with.

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A look at the nature of myth as a carrier of deep truth and that we all have our own internal myths about ourselves and life. Exploring what was and is meant by the term Messiah, both in the 1st century and now. "Here is a book bursting with common sense and inspiration, written by someone who has known life in all its rich complexity... It's a book that has to be read by all those who dare to ask for more" Revd Dr Terry Biddington FRSA, Dean of Spiritual Life, Winchester University.

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Marty Strong's direct and compelling message is focused on business but in truth, its leadership tenets are agnostic as to industry, marketplace, private or public setting. This is not a textbook. It is a personal conversation between a high-performance business leader and professionals searching for actionable insights that deliver results. Be Nimble provides mentorship, tips, tools, and useful examples to help drive home its valuable leadership insights. Marty Strong has an accomplished leadership career spanning four decades. He worked his way from enlisted SEAL Team member to the SEAL Officer corps, retiring with twenty years’ service in that highly-decorated and esteemed military unit. He is the author of the Time Warrior Sagas and the SEAL Strike Series.

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We have a decade or less to radically slow global warming before we risk hitting irreversible tipping points that will lock in catastrophic climate change. The good news is that we know how to slow global warming enough to avert disaster. Cut Super Climate Pollutants Now! explains how a 10-year sprint to cut short-lived "super climate pollutants" -- primarily HFC refrigerants, black carbon (soot), and methane -- can cut the rate of global warming in half, so we can stay in the race to net zero climate emissions by 2050.

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- - is a blank city. There’s a sick glow to the clouds, and it always seems to be raining here even when it isn’t. Only sad and wounded people live here anymore. They are homeless in their apartments. They are unemployed at their jobs. They are widows in their marriage beds and celibates in amours and loners with many friends because - - is a sad city, full of sad and lonely people. I can’t say very much about myself now, only that we have known each other before and for a very short, very slight while. We had a class together and I grew up down the block and our mothers say hello still from time to time in the aisles of a grocery store somewhere north of Tampa. Somewhere deep in Maryland. Somewhere down in Solano County. Somewhere out where the winds never seem to change and the days tick by like cars on a beltway. Things have not worked out for me in life as they may have for you. I have seen your visions of this world flickering on the outsides of my eyelids for a very long time and now and for many other reasons, I cannot stand to see them anymore.

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In this colourful memoir, from 1950’s childhood to the COVID crisis, Brian Mountford describes his life as a priest, which has spanned a period of immense social change and seen the secularisation of Britain to the point where 52% of the population say they have ‘no religion’. Opening with a vibrant account of London in the Sixties, he moves to Cambridge college life in the Seventies, Suburbia in the Eighties, and thirty years as Vicar of the ‘most visited parish church in England’, the University Church, Oxford. Rich in humour and anecdote, he unpacks his liberal theological ideas on the way, addressing questions such as God, the meaning of life, sexual ethics, and the relationship between doubt and faith. A central idea is that the abandonment of organised religion has not eradicated spiritual questioning and, following Philip Larkin’s poem Church Going, from which the book takes its title, people of all ages are forever ‘surprising/A hunger in (themselves) to be more serious.’ Both the story and the essay content will fascinate many, many more people than actually go to church.

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The "spectre of communism" which Karl Marx confidently evoked in 1848 is now nothing more than a ghostly and ghastly nightmare, without form or substance. This is because working people have developed a love-hate relationship with capitalism. They hate insecurity, inequality, and greed, and love civic and political freedom. They love mass consumption, and accept the logic of commerce. Barreling along through wars, revolutions, epidemics, and crises of all sorts, working people in their millions have consistently dumfounded and dismayed the left, by their refusal to countenance any alternative to the capitalist mode of life. We have to ask: Is it possible to reverse this reality, and once again talk of the necessity of communism?

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This book serves as a presentation resource for everyone from interns to executives in the private sector. It centers around a proprietary presentation framework and outlines the complete formula to preparing, designing and delivering an effective professional presentation. The Effective Presenter combines information, research and first-hand experiences to offer unique insights and outline common misconceptions of professional presentations. It provides a blend of practical skills and advice to supplement the optimal presentation formula and build confidence.

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Is it actually possible? …that we might emerge from this pandemic with a peaceful global power switch from those who have too much to those who don't have enough? With billionaires able to decide the fate of nations, private corporations more powerful and less accountable than ever, and political autocrats around the world shaking our confidence in democratic institutions, power resides in all the wrong places. And so our world is in crisis. In such moments, activists find opportunities. Not to restore the pre-crises order, but to transform it. Paul O’Brien argues that progressive activists may never have a better opportunity to rewrite economic rules, systems and outcomes in favor of those who don't have enough. His book offers practical action steps for activists who want to drive a power switch that overcomes extreme inequalities in our world.

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In Slave and Sage William Ferraiolo distills and reanimates the original spirit of Epictetus’ Enchiridion for a 21st century audience, and shows how the lessons Epictetus offered are more relevant than ever to modern life. Much like the original stoics, Ferraiolo's work prides itself on a combination of erudition and accessibility, to teach and counsel every reader. "This little gem of philosophical insight will help you dig down into the best wisdom of the ancient Stoic philosopher, Epictetus, and see how it can apply powerfully in our lives today. Highly recommended." Tom Morris, author of The Stoic Art of Living

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