In "A Full Moon Rising . . . and the Tao of Menopause," Kimberly Quinn Smith very humorously tells the tale of entering into the new stage of mid-life, while associating hormonal moments with the lunar schedule and her symbolic metamorphosis into a menopausal werewolf. Throughout her journey she flashes back to her colorful 70's childhood, where she grew up in the eclectic town of New Paltz, New York, a small town just an hour outside of Manhattan. She then brings us back through her early motherhood years and lands us where she resides currently, with a house full of teenagers. Throughout her tale, she makes intermittent, contemplative reflections on her halfway-ness and explores strategies of how to learn to embrace the Principles of the Tao of Menopause.
Reveals the esoteric mysteries encoded in the order of the alphabet • Explores the secrets hidden in our alphabet and how each letter represented a specific stage on the alchemical path toward enlightenment • Divides our alphabet’s sequence of letters into three distinct parts: the first representing Earth and the natural year, the second the Underworld and the hero’s journey, and the third the Heavens and astronomical cycles • Reveals how the ancient secrets encoded in the numerical order of the alphabet can be found in Mystery Traditions and divination systems throughout the world Our alphabet hides a Mystery older than its magic of turning sound into shapes. Secrets lie in the choice of objects chosen to represent early alphabet letters and their order, a pattern inherited by numerous traditions, an alchemical spell to return the sun from the dark and guide the soul toward enlightenment. Revealing the spell hidden in our alphabet, Judith Dillon explores the importance of the placement of each letter in early alphabets and how each letter represented a specific step on the alchemical path of self-transformation. She investigates the alphabet’s spread around the world, beginning in Egypt and then spreading through Hebrew, Greek, and other ancient systems of writing and divination. These include Germanic Runes, Celtic Oghams, Tarot cards, the I Ching, and the wisdom of Mother Goose. Comparing the mythic attributes of many traditions, the author reveals the commonality of a numerical placement of symbols and how the hidden message was adapted by multiple peoples using objects and shapes from their own traditions. Examining the esoteric wisdom encoded in the alphabet, Dillon divides the numerical sequence of letters into three distinct parts. The first family of letters represents the Earth and describes the cycle of the natural year. The second family represents the Underworld and symbolizes the hero’s journey through judgments and death into the light of day. The third represents the Heavens and its astronomical cycles. Together, our alphabet symbols are a spell of alchemical stages on a path toward the light. Hidden in plain sight, our alphabet represents a transmission of ancient wisdom, the great alchemical Mystery of transforming dark earth into shining gold, of releasing the soul from the bonds of matter into the gold of enlightenment.
Awaken sexual energy for radiant love and empowerment, healing of emotional trauma and chronic conditions, and celebration of each stage of a woman’s life • Reveals how to channel sexual energy to experience the 3 kinds of female orgasm, clear trauma, and heal issues related to PMS, menopause, and libido • Details how to perform breast self-massage, jade egg yoga, yoni articulation, and Universal Healing Tao work such as the Inner Smile and Ovarian Breathing • Includes solo and partner practices for conscious energy exchange, intimacy building, unconditional love, and activating your multi-orgasmic potential Through the Taoist tantric arts, women can experience the full flowering of their sexual energy. Rooted in Chinese energy medicine, Universal Healing Tao practices, and ancient Taoist traditions from the Yellow Emperor and his three female advisors, these practices honor and celebrate each stage of a woman’s life and allow women to awaken their genuine feminine sexuality--receptive, soft, sensitive, intuitive, and creative--rather than the masculine approach that focuses on strength, endurance, and control. In this comprehensive guide to Taoist tantric arts for women, author Minke de Vos reveals how to channel natural sexual energy to evolve the Divine within and heal deep-rooted negative emotions and traumas related to sexuality. She explores techniques from the Universal Healing Tao system, such as the Inner Smile and Ovarian Breathing, to cleanse the uterus of negative emotions and fill your creative center with compassionate vibrations. She offers sexual energy practices to prevent chronic conditions like cancer, depression, and osteoporosis and heal issues related to PMS, menopause, and libido. She explains how to experience the three different kinds of female orgasm and provides detailed, illustrated instructions for exercises such as breast self-massage for emotional transformation and jade-egg yoni yoga to strengthen the pelvic floor and stimulate inner flexing and articulation. She offers evocative meditations to connect with the Goddess within and embrace the innate sexiness at each stage of life. Including solo and partner practices for conscious energy exchange and intimacy building, Minke de Vos’s detailed guide to cultivating female sexual energy allows you to ease the passage through the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, and menopause; harmonize your relationships; and merge your inner male and female energies into wholeness.
The Call of Sedona speaks to anyone seeking greater fulfillment and deeper meaning in their lives. With practical advice on meditation and profound insights on the healing power of the earth, this book gives you the guidance you need to embark on your own journey of the heart. If you haven’t been to Sedona, this book will urge you to travel to this blessed place. If you have been to Sedona—or even if you live there now— this book will deepen the love you hold for the wonders of the land. Wherever you are, let this book show you how to experience the spirit of Sedona and make a true connection with your heart.
The yoga teacher’s guide to planning and sequencing yoga classes—with over 2,000 instructional photos and 67 yoga pose sequences for students of all skill levels. Also features additional resources, including yoga class planning worksheets, comprehensive glossaries, and much more! Addressing one of the most popular topics in the yoga profession, this book offers 67 model sequences of yoga poses (asanas) that cover the broad range of yoga student experience. Inside, established and aspiring yoga teachers will find: • Over 2,000 instructional photos and guide to over 150 yoga asanas • Multiple sequences for beginning, intermediate, and advanced students • Yoga sequences for kids, teens, seniors, and women across their life cycle • Yoga classes designed for relieving depression and anxiety • Sequences for each of the major chakras and ayurvedic constitutions • Guidance for teaching breathing (pranayama) and meditation techniques • Glossary of terms and alphabetical asana index with thumbnail photographs • Yoga class planning worksheets • Representative sequences from several popular styles of hatha yoga • And many more resources for further reading! Drawing on ancient yoga philosophy and contemporary insights into functional anatomy, biomechanics, and kinesiology, Yoga Sequencing is the ultimate guide teachers looking to bring the transformative power of yoga into their practice and classes.
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Women in Clothes is a book unlike any other. It is essentially a conversation among hundreds of women of all nationalities—famous, anonymous, religious, secular, married, single, young, old—on the subject of clothing, and how the garments we put on every day define and shape our lives. It began with a survey. The editors composed a list of more than fifty questions designed to prompt women to think more deeply about their personal style. Writers, activists, and artists including Cindy Sherman, Kim Gordon, Kalpona Akter, Sarah Nicole Prickett, Tavi Gevinson, Miranda July, Roxane Gay, Lena Dunham, and Molly Ringwald answered these questions with photographs, interviews, personal testimonies, and illustrations. Even our most basic clothing choices can give us confidence, show the connection between our appearance and our habits of mind, express our values and our politics, bond us with our friends, or function as armor or disguise. They are the tools we use to reinvent ourselves and to transform how others see us. Women in Clothes embraces the complexity of women’s style decisions, revealing the sometimes funny, sometimes strange, always thoughtful impulses that influence our daily ritual of getting dressed.
A tender and deeply moving picture book about loss and the big questions it leaves behind from New York Times bestselling author Sheila Heti and acclaimed illustrator Esmé Shapiro. Two bunnies and a cat live happily together in a beautiful garden. But when the big bunny passes away, the little bunny is unsure how to fill the void she left behind. A strange dream prompts her to begin asking questions: Why do the creatures we love have to die, and where do we go when we die? How come life works this way? With the wisdom of the cat to guide her, the little bunny learns that missing someone is a way of keeping them close. And together they discover that the big bunny is a part of everything around them -- the grass, the air, the leaves -- for the world is a garden of creatures. With its meditative text, endearing illustrations and life-affirming message, A Garden of Creatures reveals how the interconnectedness of nature and the sweetness of friendship can be a warm embrace even in the darkest times.
From the acclaimed author of Taipei, a bold portrait of a writer working to balance all his lives—artist, son, loner—as he spins the ordinary into something monumental. An engrossing, hopeful novel about life, fiction, and where the two blur together. In 2014, a novelist named Li leaves Manhattan to visit his parents in Taipei for ten weeks. He doesn't know it yet, but his life will begin to deepen and complexify on this trip. As he flies between these two worlds--year by year, over four years--he will flit in and out of optimism, despair, loneliness, sanity, bouts of chronic pain, and drafts of a new book. He will incite and temper arguments, uncover secrets about nature and history, and try to understand how to live a meaningful life as an artist and a son. But how to fit these pieces of his life together? Where to begin? Or should he leave society altogether? Exploring everyday events and scenes--waiting rooms, dog walks, family meals--while investigatively venturing to the edges of society, where culture dissolves into mystery, Lin shows what it is to write a novel in real time. Illuminating and deeply felt, as it builds toward a stunning, if unexpected, romance, Leave Society is a masterly story about life and art at the end of history. A VINTAGE ORIGINAL
