Strange Rites
Strange Rites

Author: Tara Isabella Burton

Publisher: Public Affairs

Published: 2022-01-18

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 9781541762527

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A sparklingly strange odyssey through the kaleidoscope of America's new spirituality: the cults, practices, high priests and prophets of our supposedly post-religion age. Fifty-five years have passed since the cover of Time magazine proclaimed the death of God and while participation in mainstream religion has indeed plummeted, Americans have never been more spiritually busy. While rejecting traditional worship in unprecedented numbers, today's Americans are embracing a kaleidoscopic panoply of spiritual traditions, rituals, and subcultures -- from astrology and witchcraft to SoulCycle and the alt-right.As the Internet makes it ever-easier to find new "tribes," and consumer capitalism forever threatens to turn spirituality into a lifestyle brand, remarkably modern American religious culture is undergoing a revival comparable with the Great Awakenings of centuries past. Faith is experiencing not a decline but a Renaissance. Disillusioned with organized religion and political establishments alike, more and more Americans are seeking out spiritual paths driven by intuition, not institutions. In Strange Rites, religious scholar and commentator Tara Isabella Burton visits with the techno-utopians of Silicon Valley; Satanists and polyamorous communities, witches from Bushwick, wellness junkies and social justice activists and devotees of Jordan Peterson, proving Americans are not abandoning religion but remixing it. In search of the deep and the real, they are finding meaning, purpose, ritual, and communities in ever-newer, ever-stranger ways.

Property Rites
Property Rites

Author: Elizabeth M. Smith-Pryor

Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press

Published: 2009-04-30

Total Pages: 408

ISBN-13: 0807894176

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In 1925 Leonard Rhinelander, the youngest son of a wealthy New York society family, sued to end his marriage to Alice Jones, a former domestic servant and the daughter of a "colored" cabman. After being married only one month, Rhinelander pressed for the dissolution of his marriage on the grounds that his wife had lied to him about her racial background. The subsequent marital annulment trial became a massive public spectacle, not only in New York but across the nation--despite the fact that the state had never outlawed interracial marriage. Elizabeth Smith-Pryor makes extensive use of trial transcripts, in addition to contemporary newspaper coverage and archival sources, to explore why Leonard Rhinelander was allowed his day in court. She moves fluidly between legal history, a day-by-day narrative of the trial itself, and analyses of the trial's place in the culture of the 1920s North to show how notions of race, property, and the law were--and are--inextricably intertwined.

Burial Rites
Burial Rites

Author: Hannah Kent

Publisher: Little, Brown

Published: 2013-09-10

Total Pages: 341

ISBN-13: 0316243906

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Set against Iceland's stark landscape, Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution. Set against Iceland's stark landscape, Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution. Horrified at the prospect of housing a convicted murderer, the family at first avoids Agnes. Only Tv=ti, a priest Agnes has mysteriously chosen to be her spiritual guardian, seeks to understand her. But as Agnes's death looms, the farmer's wife and their daughters learn there is another side to the sensational story they've heard. Riveting and rich with lyricism, Burial Rites evokes a dramatic existence in a distant time and place, and asks the question, how can one woman hope to endure when her life depends upon the stories told by others?

Uncivil Rites
Uncivil Rites

Author: Steven Salaita

Publisher: Haymarket Books

Published: 2015-10-12

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 1608465780

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In the summer of 2014, renowned American Indian studies professor Steven Salaita had his appointment to a tenured professorship revoked by the board of trustees of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Salaita’s employment was terminated in response to his public tweets criticizing the Israeli government’s summer assault on Gaza. Salaita’s firing generated a huge public outcry, with thousands petitioning for his reinstatement, and more than five thousand scholars pledging to boycott UIUC. His case raises important questions about academic freedom, free speech on campus, and the movement for justice in Palestine. In this book, Salaita combines personal reflection and political critique to shed new light on his controversial termination. He situates his case at the intersection of important issues that affect both higher education and social justice activism.

Adulthood Rites
Adulthood Rites

Author: Octavia E. Butler

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Published: 2023-03-28

Total Pages: 303

ISBN-13: 1538765470

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From the award-winning author of Parable of the Sower:After the near-extinction of the human race, one young man with extraordinary gifts will reveal whether the human race can learn from its past and rebuild their future . . . or is doomed to self-destruction. In the future, nuclear war has destroyed nearly all humankind. An alien race intervenes, saving the small group of survivors from certain death. But their salvation comes at a cost. The Oankali are able to read and mutate genetic code, and they use these skills for their own survival, interbreeding with new species to constantly adapt and evolve. They value the intelligence they see in humankind but also know that the species—rigidly bound to destructive social hierarchies—is destined for failure. They are determined that the only way forward is for the two races to produce a new hybrid species—and they will not tolerate rebellion. Akin looks like an ordinary human child. But as the first true human-alien hybrid, he is born understanding language, then starts to form sentences at two months old. He can see at a molecular level and kill with a touch. More powerful than any human or Oankali, he will be the architect of both races' future. But before he can carry this new species into the stars, Akin must reconcile with his own heritage in a world already torn in two.

Magical Rites from the Crystal Well
Magical Rites from the Crystal Well

Author: Ed Fitch

Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide

Published: 1984

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13: 9780875422305

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Now you can get the collection of rituals and wisdom that has helped start thousands of people on a Pagan path for over thirty-five years-Magical Rites from the Crystal Well by Ed Fitch. "The Crystal Well" was a small magazine that was published at a time when little information was available on Wicca, Witchcraft, and Paganism. Because of this, the rituals from that magazine circulated far and wide. Today, decades later, they are still popular. Why? Because they're some of the most beautiful, magical, and lyrical rituals ever written. These wonderful rituals have been collected in a beautifully illustrated book. Among the many rituals and techniques you'll find in Magical Rites from the Crystal Well are: - Rites for all of the seasons, including Midsummer, Lammas, Winter, and more. - The Rite of Calling Down the Moon - The Ceremony of Cakes and Wine - The Feast of the Full Moon - Storm Magic - Magical Dance - Building an Astral Temple - Pathworking - A Handfasting Rite - Rite of Dedication and Protection for an Infant Each rite includes complete instructions, with every word and every action clearly explained. The book also includes Pagan lore, such as the Rede of Chivalry, tips on forming a Pagan training group, how to tell if your pet is also your familiar, and much more. Almost every page has an elegant illustration. This book is not just filled with important ideas and rites that you can use, it's also beautiful to behold.

Blood Rites
Blood Rites

Author: Jim Butcher

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2004-08-03

Total Pages: 465

ISBN-13: 1101146664

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In this novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling Dresden Files, Chicago's only professional wizard takes on a case for a vampire and becomes the prime suspect in a series of ghastly murders. Harry Dresden has had worse assignments than going undercover on the set of an adult film. Like fleeing a burning building full of enraged demon-monkeys, for instance. Or going toe-to-leaf with a walking plant monster. Still, there’s something more troubling than usual about his newest case. The film’s producer believes he’s the target of a sinister curse—but it’s the women around him who are dying, in increasingly spectacular ways. Harry’s doubly frustrated because he only got involved with this bizarre mystery as a favor to Thomas—his flirtatious, self-absorbed vampire acquaintance of dubious integrity. Thomas has a personal stake in the case Harry can’t quite figure out, until his investigation leads him straight to the vampire’s oversexed, bite-happy family. Now, Harry’s about to discover that Thomas’ family tree has been hiding a shocking secret: a revelation that will change Harry’s life forever.

Blood Rites
Blood Rites

Author: Barbara Ehrenreich

Publisher: Twelve

Published: 2020-01-07

Total Pages: 293

ISBN-13: 1455543713

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A New York Times Notable BookAn ALA Notable Book "Original and illuminating." --The Washington Post What draws our species to war? What makes us see violence as a kind of sacred duty, or a ritual that boys must undergo to "become" men? Newly reissued in paperback, Blood Rites takes readers on an original journey from the elaborate human sacrifices of the ancient world to the carnage and holocaust of twentieth-century "total war." Ehrenreich sifts deftly through the fragile records of prehistory and discovers the wellspring of war in an unexpected place -- not in a "killer instinct" unique to the males of our species, but in the blood rites early humans performed to reenact their terrifying experiences of predation by stronger carnivores. Brilliant in conception and rich in scope, Blood Rites is a monumental work that continues to transform our understanding of the greatest single threat to human life.

Rites of Religious Profession
Rites of Religious Profession

Author: Edward Foley

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2023-04-28

Total Pages: 222

ISBN-13: 1666769711

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The rites of religious profession mark the initiation of women and men into the various religious communities of the church. These public liturgies of the church manifest and shape the relation of these women and men to the church and to the world. How are the rites of religious profession to be understood, prepared, and celebrated? Edward Foley offers an overview of their history and a reflection on the theology of these rites. He then shows how to approach these liturgies and bring them to life as celebrations of the church. We learn how much the rites themselves tell us about the formation of religious women and men, and how and the place these communities have in the church. This volume also contains the entire official text of the Rite of Religious Profession. This includes all revisions to this text made through 1988.

Rites
Rites

Author: Savannah Johnston

Publisher:

Published: 2021-09-27

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 9781938841156

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In this collection of short stories that focuses on the modern-day experiences of Indigenous people living in Oklahoma, Johnston documents the quiet sorrow of everyday life as her characters traverse the normalized, heartbreaking rites of passage such as burying your grandfather, mother, or husband, becoming a sex worker, or reconnecting with your family after prison; the effects are subtle, yet loud, and always enduring. Whether Johnston's characters are coming of age and/or grappling with complex family dynamics, Johnston delivers the economy of loss and resilience that marks this post-colonial collection with biting, captivating prose that demands to be read from start to finish.