Working from the original Persian sources, translators and scholars David and Sabrineh Fideler offer faithful, elegant translations that represent the full scope of Sufi poetry. These concise, tightly focused meditations span only a few lines but reveal worlds of meaning. The poems explore many aspects of human life and the spiritual path, but they center on the liberating power of love.
"This well-wrought historical mystery pits the brilliant wordsmith John Donne against the Machiavellian politician Robert Cecil. The match is uneven; Cecil runs James I's kingdom while Donne struggles to make ends meet through the patronage of the alluring Countess of Bedford, who sets herself up as a rival to his resourceful wife, Anne. Donne is summoned to meet with Cecil, who suborns the struggling poet as a spy to infiltrate the underground network of English Catholics, seeking Jesuit priests. But Donne wants no part of any spying. He sets out instead to outwit Cecil as he journeys with Lady Bedford's crafty old manservant through dangerous territory, surviving plots and threats by his wits, aid from the quick-spirited Anne, and a strong dose of gallows humor. "
Would you like to know the secrets to attracting your soul mate and feeling profound love every day? With this hip and fun guide, you'll learn to use the rules of attraction, magic, astrology, and your intuition to attract the man of your dreams and experience true, soulful love. Jessica Shepherd joyfully reveals the Nine Soul Mate Secrets, offering insight into all aspects of creating and maintaining love, such as how to focus on loving yourself, open up to love from others, and trust your intuition. You'll engage in fun, hands-on spells, rituals, and meditations to explore your heart and grow spiritually. The Nine Soul Mate Secrets will also reveal how to: Break bad karmic patterns • Move beyond difficult relationships Learn from past mistakes • Overcome your fears Tap your magnetism with your Venus sign From avoiding relationship "potholes" to understanding karmic soul mates—and the invaluable lessons that they teach us—to casting love spells under a waxing moon, this love-focused astrology book holds the key to achieving long-lasting love with your true soul mate. "A Love Alchemist's Notebook is a worldly and wise guide to finding a spiritual partner. Jessica Shepherd reveals in detail the practical magic that will work for anyone ready to connect with great love."—Holiday Mathis, author of Rock Your Stars Watch Jessica's interview on KRON Channel 4 (San Francisco). Also watch the book trailer for A Love Alchemist's Notebook, here.
“There is no way you can read this book and not feel more love for those around you—and as you do, you can see the healing changes that love will bring.” —Magical Blend Magazine The sensitive, profound and rare insights in Alchemy of the Heart help us gain entrée into the most precious, and misunderstood, component of our being—the heart. They show us that while love can be compassionate and nurturing, it can also be powerful, dynamic and practical—a catalyst for spiritual growth. Drawing on wisdom from the world’s great spiritual traditions, this inspiring guide explores how you can overcome hidden blocks to giving and receiving more love. You’ll learn how you can soften and strengthen the heart to create more meaningful relationships in all areas of your life. And you’ll discover how even the most intense lessons of love, if we are willing to learn from them, can be the open door to a higher love—and a higher way of loving. “It is critical for personal well-being and the betterment of world relations to open the heart to its highest spiritual potential—that is, divine love. This book explores how we can recapture this experience by nurturing ourselves, cultivating gratitude, overcoming self-criticism, using affirmations and prayers, guarding against toxic thoughts and feelings.... Prophet guides us through these processes drawing on her extensive spiritual experience.... Through this ‘pocket guide to practical spirituality’ we learn...how we can become ‘a living transformer of love.’ ” —Bodhi Tree Book Review
Explores the myriad ways in which alchemy was conceptualised by adepts and sceptics alike, from those with recourse to a fully functioning laboratory to those who did not know their pelican from their athanor!
A unique approach to the history of science using do-it-yourself experiments along with brief historical profiles to demonstrate how the ancient alchemists stumbled upon the science of chemistry. Be the alchemist! Explore the legend of alchemy with the science of chemistry. Enjoy over twenty hands-on demonstrations of alchemical reactions. In this exploration of the ancient art of alchemy, three veteran chemists show that the alchemists' quest involved real science and they recount fascinating stories of the sages who performed these strange experiments. Why waste more words on this weird deviation in the evolution of chemistry? As the authors show, the writings of medieval alchemists may seem like the ravings of brain-addled fools, but there is more to the story than that. Recent scholarship has shown that some seemingly nonsensical mysticism is, in fact, decipherable code, and Western European alchemists functioned from a firmer theoretical foundation than previously thought. They had a guiding principle, based on experience: separate and purify materials by fire and reconstitute them into products, including, of course, gold and the universal elixir, the Philosophers' stone. Their efforts were not in vain: by trial, by error, by design, and by persistence, the alchemists discovered acids, alkalis, alcohols, salts, and exquisite, powerful, and vibrant reactions--which can be reproduced using common products, minerals, metals, and salts. So gather your vats and stoke your fires! Get ready to make burning waters, peacocks' tails, Philosophers' stone, and, of course, gold!
An Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried in the Pyramids. Along the way he meets a Gypsy woman, a man who calls himself king, and an alchemist, all of whom point Santiago in the direction of his quest. No one knows what the treasure is, or if Santiago will be able to surmount the obstacles along the way. But what starts out as a journey to find worldly goods turns into a discovery of the treasures found within.
Winner of the 2005 Pfizer Prize from the History of Science Society. What actually took place in the private laboratory of a mid-seventeenth century alchemist? How did he direct his quest after the secrets of Nature? What instruments and theoretical principles did he employ? Using, as their guide, the previously misunderstood interactions between Robert Boyle, widely known as "the father of chemistry," and George Starkey, an alchemist and the most prominent American scientific writer before Benjamin Franklin as their guide, Newman and Principe reveal the hitherto hidden laboratory operations of a famous alchemist and argue that many of the principles and practices characteristic of modern chemistry derive from alchemy. By analyzing Starkey's extraordinary laboratory notebooks, the authors show how this American "chymist" translated the wildly figurative writings of traditional alchemy into quantitative, carefully reasoned laboratory practice—and then encoded his own work in allegorical, secretive treatises under the name of Eirenaeus Philalethes. The intriguing "mystic" Joan Baptista Van Helmont—a favorite of Starkey, Boyle, and even of Lavoisier—emerges from this study as a surprisingly central figure in seventeenth-century "chymistry." A common emphasis on quantification, material production, and analysis/synthesis, the authors argue, illustrates a continuity of goals and practices from late medieval alchemy down to and beyond the Chemical Revolution. For anyone who wants to understand how alchemy was actually practiced during the Scientific Revolution and what it contributed to the development of modern chemistry, Alchemy Tried in the Fire will be a veritable philosopher's stone.
