Search results for ""Author John Michael""

The holy grail. The Knights Templar. The Gnostics and ancient mysteries of Greece. Discover the connection between them all with this phenomenal book written by 32nd-degree Freemason and celebrated author John Michael Greer. This book is a must-read for seekers of the holy grail and those who want to learn about the inner workings of occult Freemasonry. The Ceremony of the Grail delves deep into the ancient mysteries, drawing on recently translated texts and published documents that until recently were among Freemasonry's most jealously guarded secrets. From the grail legends to the Picatrix to Jessie Weston's pioneering research, this book provides answers that have eluded seekers for centuries.

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Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. Although he was writing nearly a century ago, William Butler Yeats could just as easily be describing the United States today. The decline and fall of America's global empire is the central feature of today's geopolitical landscape, and the nature of our response to it will determine much of our future trajectory, with implications that reach far beyond the limits of one nation's borders. Decline and Fall: The End of Empire and the Future of Democracy in 21st Century America challenges the conventional wisdom of empire. Using a wealth of historical examples combined with groundbreaking original analysis, author John Michael Greer: * Shows how the United States has backed itself into a blind corner in the pursuit of political and economic power * Explores the inevitable consequences of imperial collapse * Proposes a renewal of democratic institutions as the only constructive way forward By shifting the conversation from whether today's American empire should survive to whether it can survive, and arguing persuasively that the answer to the latter question is "no," Decline and Fall makes an invaluable contribution to the body of speculative post-industrial literature. This book is a must-read for anyone concerned about the state of the Union, or who believes that the time has come to reinvent the American Dream. John Michael Greer is a scholar of ecological history, an internationally renowned Peak Oil theorist, and the author of more than thirty books including The Long Descent.

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Explores the role of magic and the occult in the rise of the ultra-conservative right• Details the magical war that took place behind the scenes of the 2016 election • Examines in detail the failed magical actions of Trump’s opponents, with insights on political magic from Dion Fortune’s war letters • Reveals the influence of a number of occult forces from Julius Evola to chaos magick to show how the political and magical landscape of American society has permanently changed since the 2016 election Magic and politics seem like unlikely bedfellows, but in The King in Orange, author John Michael Greer goes beyond superficial memes and extreme partisanship to reveal the unmentionable realities that spawned the unexpected presidential victory of an elderly real-estate mogul turned reality-TV star and which continue to drive the deepening divide that is now the defining characteristic of American society. Greer convincingly shows how two competing schools of magic were led to contend for the presidency in 2016 and details the magical war that took place behind the scenes of the campaign. Through the influence of a number of occult forces, from Julius Evola to chaos magicians as well as the cult of positive thinking, Greer shows that the main contenders in this magical war were the status quo magical state--as defined by the late scholar Ioan Couliano--which has repurposed the “manipulative magic” techniques of the Renaissance magi into the subliminal techniques of modern advertising, and an older, deeper, and less reasonable form of magic--the “magic of the excluded”--which was employed by chaos magicians and alt-right internet wizards, whose desires coalesced in the form of a frog avatar that led the assault against the world we knew. Examining in detail the magical actions of Trump’s opponents, with insights on political magic from occultist Dion Fortune’s war letters, the author discusses how the magic of the privileged has functioned to keep the comfortable classes from being able to respond effectively to the populist challenge and how and why the “Magic Resistance,” which tried to turn magic against Trump, has failed. Showing how the political and magical landscape of American society has permanently changed since the 2016 election cycle, Greer reveals that understanding the coming of the King in Orange will be a crucial step in making sense of the world for a long time to come.

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Intellectuals occupy a paradoxical position in contemporary American culture as they struggle both to maintain their critical independence and to connect to the larger society. In Anxious Intellects John Michael discusses how critics from the right and the left have conceived of the intellectual’s role in a pluralized society, weighing intellectual authority against public democracy, universal against particularistic standards, and criticism against the respect of popular movements. Michael asserts that these Enlightenment-born issues, although not “resolvable,” are the very grounds from which real intellectual work must proceed.As part of his investigation of intellectuals’ self-conceptions and their roles in society, Michael concentrates on several well-known contemporary African American intellectuals, including Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cornel West. To illuminate public debates over pedagogy and the role of university, he turns to the work of Todd Gitlin, Michael Bérubé, and Allan Bloom. Stanley Fish’s pragmatic tome, Doing What Comes Naturally, along with a juxtaposition of Fredric Jameson and Samuel Huntington’s work, proves fertile ground for Michael’s argument that democratic politics without intellectuals is not possible. In the second half of Anxious Intellects, Michael relies on three popular conceptions of the intellectual—as critic, scientist, and professional—to discuss the work of scholars Constance Penley, Henry Jenkins, the celebrated physicist Stephen Hawking, and others, insisting that ambivalence, anxiety, projection, identification, hybridity, and various forms of psychosocial complexity constitute the real meaning of Enlightenment intellectuality. As a new and refreshing contribution to the recently emergent culture and science wars, Michael’s take on contemporary intellectuals and their place in society will enliven and redirect these ongoing debates.

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Although much attention has been paid to early modern European travel to the New World, attention is just beginning to be paid to the travels in the Old World, even though they speak to contemporary concerns with categories like civilization, race, and nation as much as, sometimes more than, the New World explorations. This book aligns travel narratives and historical surveys of parts of the Old World—Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, and Russia—with texts by Shakespeare, Milton, and Dryden that contributed to English ideas about those regions. Addressing the current interest in Europe's relationship with its neighbors and near-neighbors in the Old World, the author introduces the term "paracolonial" to describe Europe's attitude toward those areas where its colonial reach was intermittent or nonexistent. The book begins by matching ancient and early modern accounts of Egypt and Ethiopia with Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, showing how antiquity's veneration of Egyptian values was tainted in Shakespeare's time by anxieties of racial and sexual degeneration. The next chapter, centered on Milton's Paradise Lost, relates degeneration to the epic cycle of imperial rise and fall attributed to Southwest Asia and its monumental ruins by European historians and travelers. The Elizabethan and Jacobean fascination with Russia is the topic of the third chapter, which argues that Herodotus' Scythia and early modern slavery were the dual origins of the barbarous Russia glimpsed in Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost and Milton's Muscovia. In the process, the author offers a novel explanation for the puzzling link between Russia and racial "blackness" in the English Renaissance. The book concludes with India, where degeneration, cyclic empire, and bodily images of racial and sexual difference were combined in geographical writings and sensationally staged in Dryden's Aureng-Zebe. Tracing the overlap between Graeco-Roman geography and the itineraries of Renaissance travelers and traders, Old Worlds brings together a rich array of texts that rewrite European traditions about a plural antiquity from an early modern English perspective.

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The first in-depth study of Mendelssohn's two settings of Goethe's Die erste Walpurgisnacht, in the context of scenes from Goethe's Faust and other works. This paperback edition of Mendelssohn, Goethe, and the Walpurgis Night addresses tolerance and acceptance in the face of cultural, political, and religious strife. Its point of departure is the Walpurgis Night. The Night, also known as Beltane or May Eve, was supposedly an annual witches' Sabbath that centered around the Brocken, the highest peak of the Harz Mountains. After exploring how a notoriously pagan celebration came to be named after the Christian missionary St. Walpurgis (ca. 710-79), John Michael Cooper discusses the Night's treatments in several closely interwoven works by Goethe and Mendelssohn. His book situates those works in their immediate personal andprofessional contexts, as well as among treatments by a wide array of other artists, philosophers, and political thinkers, including Voltaire, Lessing, Shelley, Heine, Delacroix, and Berlioz. In an age of decisive political and religious conflict, Walpurgis Night became a heathen muse: a source of spiritual inspiration that was neither specifically Christian, nor Jewish, nor Muslim. And Mendelssohn's and Goethe's engagements with it offer new insightsinto its role in European cultural history, as well as into issues of political, religious, and social identity -- and the relations between cultural groups -- in today's world. John Michael Cooper is Professor of Music at Southwestern University and author of Mendelssohn's "Italian" Symphony (Oxford University Press).

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Secular Lyric interrogates the distinctively individual ways that Poe, Whitman, and Dickinson transformed classical, romantic, and early modern forms of lyric expression to address the developing conditions of Western modernity, especially the heterogeneity of believers and beliefs in an increasingly secular society. Analyzing historically and formally how these poets inscribed the pressures of the modern crowd in the text of their poems, John Michael shows how the masses appear in these poets’ work as potential readers to be courted and resisted, often at the same time. Unlike their more conventional contemporaries, Poe, Whitman, and Dickinson resist advising, sermonizing or consoling their audiences. They resist most familiar senses of meaning as well. For them, the processes of signification in print rather than the communication of truths become central to poetry, which in turn becomes a characteristic of modern verse in the Western world. Poe, Whitman, and Dickinson, in idiosyncratic but related ways, each disrupt conventional expectations while foregrounding language’s material density, thereby revealing both the potential and the limitations of art in the modern age.

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John Michael Perry considers how God was experienced in the Old and New Testaments. In the context of the Ancient Near East, Exploring the Evolving View of God chronicles Israel’s development to monotheism, as well as the apostles’ evolving understanding of Jesus as the fulfillment of Hebrew prophecy. Exploring the Evolving View of God outlines cultural and historical limitations that continue to shape our language and ideas about God. It relates abstract thinking about God to the concrete history of ancient Israel and draws parallels between Israel’s history and the New Testament confession of Jesus as Messiah. With Scripture passages, discussion questions and written in an accessible style, Exploring the Evolving View of God is a suitable companion for individual or group study.

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This book provides a systematic account of the impact of COVID-19 on the digital labour process by situating its analysis within the broader and global perspective of neoliberalism and financialisation. It investigates how COVID-19 has both changed and strengthened neoliberal and financialised class relations in the digital workplace. By drawing on Marxist theory and numerous empirical studies, the book examines these areas both before and during COVID-19 by focusing on five distinctive digital labour and work processes: global 'productive' digital work processes in sectors like manufacturing; 'unproductive' digital work in sectors like retail and finance; creative industries; gig and platform work; and digital work in the state and public sector. It also maps out degrees of class struggle in and around exploitation, oppression and emancipatory potential in the digital workplace before and during the pandemic.

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A century ago, groups descending from the famed Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn fused the occult lore of the Western magical tradition with the nature spirituality of the Druid Revival. They invoked Pagan Celtic powers instead of the Judeo-Christian names and symbols. Respected occult author and Grand Archdruid John Michael Greer has re-created a complete magical system based on the Celtic Golden Dawn traditions. This new book provides students with a complete curriculum of Druidical magic and occult wisdom, including training in ceremonial magic, meditation, pathworking, divination, geomancy, and herbal alchemy, allowing self-initiation into the three degrees of Ovate, Bard, and Druid. It features spectacular magical techniques for such things as invisibility, etheric shapeshifing, and conjuring spirits.

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This book is not only a fascinating biography of one of the greatest painters of the seventeenth century but also a social history of the colorful extended family to which he belonged and of the town life of the period. It explores a series of distinct worlds: Delft's Small-Cattle Market, where Vermeer's paternal family settled early in the century; the milieu of shady businessmen in Amsterdam that recruited Vermeer's grandfather to counterfeit coins; the artists, military contractors, and Protestant burghers who frequented the inn of Vermeer's father in Delft's Great Market Square; and the quiet, distinguished "Papists Corner" in which Vermeer, after marrying into a high-born Catholic family, retired to practice his art, while retaining ties with wealthy Protestant patrons. The relationship of Vermeer to his principal patron is one of many original discoveries in the book.

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The cosmic patterns and universal truths of sacred geometry bridge past and future. Now you can put this ancient wisdom to work in your own life with The Sacred Geometry Oracle. The Sacred Geometry Oracle contains thirty-three cards, each representing a basic figure or process in sacred geometry and relating to one of the basic patterns of the universe, which form the hidden structure of our everyday lives. The accompanying 268 page book presents in detail the meanings of each of the thirty-three cards and explores their esoteric philosophy and how the cards can be used for divination, meditation, and self-exploration. The card set also comes with textbook introducing and guiding users through the deck.

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An examination of the waxing and waning influence of demoted planets • Explains in detail how the demotion or proved nonexistence of a planet marks the beginning of a roughly 30-year period in which that planet’s influence wanes • Explores Pluto’s arc of influence on individual and collective life in depth, from its discovery in 1930 to the end of its influence in 2036 • Offers examples from other demoted planets, such as Ceres, whose fifty-year reign as a planet corresponds very closely to the Romantic Era of history Recent research in astrology has shown that the discovery of a new planet correlates with the emergence of a new set of influences in individual and collective life. As John Michael Greer reveals, the opposite is also true: the demotion of a planet correlates with the decline of a set of influences into the background. Although there are several instances of this over the last two centuries, Pluto, downgraded to minor planet status in 2006, is the most striking example. Exploring the waxing and waning of planetary influences in astrology, Pluto in particular, Greer explains in detail how the demotion or proved nonexistence of a planet marks the beginning of a roughly 30-year period in which that planet’s influence fades out. He examines several examples of planet demotion, including Ceres, whose fifty-year reign as a planet corresponds closely to the Romantic Era of history. Ceres’s influence began to take shape some 30 years before its discovery in 1801 and gradually faded over the three decades following its demotion in the 1850s. Examining Pluto’s astrological influence in depth, from the beginning of the search for “Planet X” in 1900 to the end of its influence in 2036, the author shows how during the Plutonian era the concept of cosmos--from the ancient Greek meaning “that which is beautifully ordered”--was in eclipse. Pluto’s influence led to the rejection of unity, beauty, and order, exemplified through the splitting of the atom by physicists, the splitting of the individual into conscious and subconscious halves by psychoanalysts, and the splitting of the world into warring camps by politicians. Offering an essential guide not only to the astrology of the future but to the twilight of the Plutonian era, Greer shows how as Pluto’s influence fades out in the years ahead, a great many disruptive phenomena of the recent past will fade with it and the notion of cosmos--beautiful order--will regain its traditional role in our individual and collective worlds.

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The Universal Monk is about the monk in all of us. In today's fast- paced and often fractured culture we all seek inner peace and unity. The Universal Monk is a powerful way for everyone of any state of life to find it. It is written from John Michael Talbot's experience in public international ministry and as founder and spiritual father of the Brothers and Sisters of Charity, a new integrated monastic community of celibates, singles who can marry, and families who live in an integrated monastery or in their own homes. It walks us through a treatment of the current issues that face us? Such as the great recession, political polarization, and the sex abuse crises in the church? With real spiritual and lifestyle answers that come from a fully unified and integrated life in God. If you are tired of the same old, same old," this book is for you!

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The Arab Spring, chat forums, political leaders tweeting, online petitions, and protestors in the Occupy Movement - new media public spheres have without doubt radically altered social and political activism in society. But to what extent is this new activist public sphere stifled by the neoliberal economy and workfare state? Have we in fact become transformed into subjects of online consumption and orderly surveillance, rather than committed social and political campaigners? In this highly topical book, John Michael Roberts employs a political economy perspective to explore the relationship between financial neoliberal capitalism and digital publics. He assesses the extent to which they provide new forms of radical protest in civil society and offers an indispensable guide to understanding the relationship between the state, new media activism and neoliberal practices.

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Discover the secrets of the ancient temples, the sacred geometry that gave rise to the world's most awe-inspiring cathedrals and the cryptic ceremonies of the modern-day Freemasons. Thousands of years ago, people began to notice that certain structures had beneficial effects on the crops that sustained their lives. A body of traditional lore evolved, guiding the priests and priestesses of ancient tribes in the use of architecture and ceremonies that made use of wholly natural magical effects. The Temple of Solomon was only one of many ancient structures that drew on the temple tradition, and its secrets and traditions have been passed along from the Knights Templar to the Freemasons. Join John Michael Greer as he rebuilds a body of lost knowledge that's been used to accumulate and direct energy throughout history...and can be used again today.

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Scholar of the occult and secret histories, John Michael Greer shines a light on 100 mysterious conspiracies and hidden societies throughout history, from Ancient Greece to the modern era. The Freemasons. The Satanic Hell-Fire Club. The Illuminati. This fascinating book delves into 100 mysterious conspiracies across time, ranging from secret societies that planned revolutions to underground groups with sometimes-nefarious agendas. Illustrated with intriguing photos and ephemera, it’s a must-read for anyone interested in learning more about the hidden forces that have shaped some of the most significant events in history.

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Occult detective Ariel Moravec investigates the strange forces stirring in the little farm town of Criswell, where a famous witch lived in colonial times. Eighteen-year-old Ariel Moravec doesn't expect much from a summer with the grandfather she hasn't met in years: a respite from her dysfunctional family, perhaps, and a brief delay before she has to face an uncertain future. A few days after her arrival, however, she learns that her grandfather is an occult investigator tasked with hunting down the perils of the Unseen -- and he offers Ariel the chance to assist him on a case. Strange forces are stirring in the little farm town of Criswell, where a famous witch lived in colonial times. Has old Hepzibah Rewell's curse awakened, or is the evil magic the work of someone living? Caught in a tightening net of bitter local rivalries and strange happenings, Ariel has to find out...or her own life may be at risk.

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This anonymous Commentary is printed from Troyes, Bibl. munic. 658, a manuscript written at Clairvaux in the late 12th century.It is well known that St Bernard in 1147 revised the monastic hymnal for the use of his Cistercian monks; the anonymous Explanatio is primary evidence for the content of Bernard's hymnal. It is also an invaluable index of Cistercian spirituality in the late 12th century, and provides an index of the range of reading of a Cistercianscholar of that time.

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Winner of the 2006 Thomas J. Lyon Book Award in Western American Literary Studies, presented by the Western Literature Association In The Emergence of Mexican America, John-Michael Rivera examines the cultural, political, and legal representations of Mexican Americans and the development of US capitalism and nationhood. Beginning with the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848 and continuing through the period of mass repatriation of US Mexican laborers in 1939, Rivera examines both Mexican-American and Anglo-American cultural production in order to tease out the complexities of the so-called “Mexican question.” Using historical and archival materials, Rivera's wide-ranging objects of inquiry include fiction, non-fiction, essays, treaties, legal materials, political speeches, magazines, articles, cartoons, and advertisements created by both Mexicans and Anglo Americans. Engaging and methodologically venturesome, Rivera's study is a crucial contribution to Chicano/Latino Studies and fields of cultural studies, history, government, anthropology, and literary studies.

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A Stanford University Press classic.

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Natural magic is the ancient and powerful art of using material substances - herbs, stones, incenses, oils, and much more - to tap into the hidden magical powers of nature, transforming your surroundings and yourself. Not just a cookbook of spells, the Encyclopedia of Natural Magic provides an introduction to the philosophy and ways of thought underlying this system. It also gives detailed information on 176 different herbs, trees, stones, metals, oils, incenses, and other substances.

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Occult detective Ariel Moravec investigates the strange forces stirring in the little farm town of Criswell, where a famous witch lived in colonial times. Eighteen-year-old Ariel Moravec doesn't expect much from a summer with the grandfather she hasn't met in years: a respite from her dysfunctional family, perhaps, and a brief delay before she has to face an uncertain future. A few days after her arrival, however, she learns that her grandfather is an occult investigator tasked with hunting down the perils of the Unseen -- and he offers Ariel the chance to assist him on a case. Strange forces are stirring in the little farm town of Criswell, where a famous witch lived in colonial times. Has old Hepzibah Rewell's curse awakened, or is the evil magic the work of someone living? Caught in a tightening net of bitter local rivalries and strange happenings, Ariel has to find out...or her own life may be at risk.

Read more less

Secular Lyric interrogates the distinctively individual ways that Poe, Whitman, and Dickinson transformed classical, romantic, and early modern forms of lyric expression to address the developing conditions of Western modernity, especially the heterogeneity of believers and beliefs in an increasingly secular society. Analyzing historically and formally how these poets inscribed the pressures of the modern crowd in the text of their poems, John Michael shows how the masses appear in these poets’ work as potential readers to be courted and resisted, often at the same time. Unlike their more conventional contemporaries, Poe, Whitman, and Dickinson resist advising, sermonizing or consoling their audiences. They resist most familiar senses of meaning as well. For them, the processes of signification in print rather than the communication of truths become central to poetry, which in turn becomes a characteristic of modern verse in the Western world. Poe, Whitman, and Dickinson, in idiosyncratic but related ways, each disrupt conventional expectations while foregrounding language’s material density, thereby revealing both the potential and the limitations of art in the modern age.

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First published in 1937, Israel Regardie's The Golden Dawn has become the most influential modern handbook of magical theory and practice. In this new, definitive edition, noted scholar John Michael Greer has taken this essential resource back to its original, authentic form. With added illustrations, a twenty-page colour insert, additional original material, and refreshed design and typography, this powerful work returns to its true stature as a modern masterpiece. An essential textbook for students of the occult, The Golden Dawn includes occult symbolism and Qabalistic philosophy, training methods for developing magical and clairvoyant powers, rituals that summon and banish spiritual potencies, secrets of making and consecrating magical tools, and more.

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Encuadernación: RústicaColección: Guía Tutor aire libreLas GUÍAS TUTOR AIRE LIBRE están pensadas para formar parte, junto con la mochila y las botas, de su equipamiento básico en las actividades de aire libre. Estas guías, verdaderas herramientas llenas de información para el principiante, o de referencia práctica para el veterano, condensan años de experiencia en forma de libros concisos y manejables. Tanto si está planificando una actividad de aire libre o una excursión, como si los utiliza como obra de consulta, en los volúmenes de esta colección encontrará exactamente lo que necesita saber.Descubra cómo:-Reconocer e identificar las diferentes clases de tiempo-Predecir cómo se van a desarrollar los cambios de tiempo-Identificar las formaciones de nubes y lo que éstas significan-Observar las variaciones en la geografía y como afectan al tiempoReconocido por su entusiasta estilo, humor y conocimientos sobre las actividades de aire libre, el galardonado peri

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The Arab Spring, chat forums, political leaders tweeting, online petitions, and protestors in the Occupy Movement - new media public spheres have without doubt radically altered social and political activism in society. But to what extent is this new activist public sphere stifled by the neoliberal economy and workfare state? Have we in fact become transformed into subjects of online consumption and orderly surveillance, rather than committed social and political campaigners? In this highly topical book, John Michael Roberts employs a political economy perspective to explore the relationship between financial neoliberal capitalism and digital publics. He assesses the extent to which they provide new forms of radical protest in civil society and offers an indispensable guide to understanding the relationship between the state, new media activism and neoliberal practices.

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Ditch traditional corporate branding to create a powerful, recognizable brand Brand Against the Machine offers proven and actionable steps for companies and entrepreneurs to increase their brand visibility and credibility, and to create an indispensable brand that consumers can relate to, thus becoming life-long customers. Discover the aspirational currency that makes your brand one that people want to be or want to be friends with. Learn how to be real with your audience and make strategic associations to establish credibility. Brand Against the Machine will help you stand out, get noticed, and be remembered. Brand Against the Machine is the blueprint for how to market your brand to attract better clients and stand out from the clutter that is traditional corporate branding and marketing. Instant Positioning Method: How to instantly stand out from the crowd and position yourself as a resource, not just another service provider The 20/60/20 Rule: Why it's important to take a stand and why it's okay to have haters—because it creates a stronger bond with those who love you Ditch your traditional corporate branding and marketing, and exchange it for something memorable. Your customers will thank you for it.

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Based on the novels by John Michael Greer, this is an alternative to everything you think you know about the world of H. P. Lovecraft. In this reality, the Great Old Ones are not the evil monster’s of Lovecraft’s original stories. This is propaganda lies cultivated by an evil secret society named Radiance. In this RPG you will play a human or Mythras creature, part of the small percentage who still fight for the Great Old Ones, and the nature they represent. But the task is not an easy one: Radiance is out to get you at every turn. Following a series of obscure clues you must try and find them, navigating a world full of mysterious power and danger. Weird of Hali uses a modified version of the Mythras rule system. Except for paper, pencil and dice the book contains everything you will need to play. Weird of Hali can be easily combined with Mythras and other Mythras based games. The game is also beautifully illustrated with mind-bending images by Sarah Maxwell.

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Acclaimed author and Archdruid John Michael Greer provides an in-depth beginner�s guide to Druidry�a modern tradition of nature spirituality with ancient roots in Celtic traditions. Although we know little about the ancient Druids, their reputation for wisdom and harmony with nature lives on. Today, Druidry is a vibrant, diverse movement with groups and practitioners on every continent but Antarctica. Spiritual rather than religious�more an attitude than an ideology�it can be embraced by people from different faiths and backgrounds. Archdruid John Michael Greer explores the history and basics of Druidry; how to perform Druidic rituals, meditation, and divination; elements of the lifestyle; and advice for placing less of a burden on the Earth. Includes a simple self-initiation ritual for starting on the Druid path, as well as exercises to help you tap into the elements and learn to pay attention to the natural world.

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The things that people in the modern Western world consider "occult/’ secret, forbidden, or irrational—amulets and talismans, omens and divinations, spells and charms, spirits good and evil—are part of everyday life in many parts of the world, and have been for generations. In this fascinating book, occult scholar and practitioner John Michael Greer shines light on 100 of the dramatic incidents, arcane knowledge, and colorful historical figures from occult traditions over two and a half millennia—from the earliest alchemists of ancient Egypt, Babylon, and Greece; to pagan rituals; the Philosopher's Stone; Kabbala; the first tarot; the Knights Templar; to the Nazi Thule Party; fortunetelling trials; and the birth of modern witchcraft, or Wicca. Each entry illustrated with a stunning image or intriguing item of ephemera.

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Enjoy cross-stitching your favorite people and create high-quality, fun, personal works of art! Stitch up all the most important people in your life with this one-of-a-kind method that solves technical challenges for you but thrives on your creative input—only you know how to bring these characters to life. Using the PixlPeople method, select from a huge swath of elements that go beyond generic patterns and exact replicas—body types, skin tone combinations, hairstyles, outfits—and just follow the provided templates for each element. Add pets, hobby and career accessories, facial expressions, and even zodiac signs to round out your PixlPeople. This method works as a great introduction to cross-stitch, as well as a fun new type of project for those with more experience. Tips on design techniques will help your finished work stand out as a high-quality craft and charming gift. John-Michael Stoof is a cross-stitch pattern designer who's carved out a unique style that draws in new stitchers. His successful cross-stitch pattern shop, PixlStitch, is found on Etsy.

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imaginate verb /im`ag´i`nate/ to create imaginatively in collaboration Collaborate with the Creator of the universe. In this broken world, we can feel lost, unworthy, and unremarkable. But we’re invited to—in fact, created for—ultimate collaboration with God himself, the greatest artist of all time. This book reveals your significance as God’s masterpiece and equips you to use your talents to partner with God in his creative process. Imaginate and bring beauty to a fractured world together. Join authors John and Ken as they • marvel at God’s design in every corner of the earth, • share the vital importance of art, • reveal the creativity inherent in every job, • inspire you with stories and examples, and • urge you to greater vulnerability and deeper purpose. Whether you feel artistic or not, you can discover the joy of creating with your Creator. Unlock your true purpose by imaginating with God.

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