The year is 1944, and the war against the Neuroi is over. The 501st Joint Fighter Wing, also known as the Strike Witches, have accomplished their goal of protecting Britannia from the alien invaders. Now that the battle is done, the Witches disband and decide to go their separate ways for some much-needed R&R. As the girls enjoy downtime in the warstricken lands of Gallia and the deserts of Africa, a new danger lurks. A mysterious alien/ human hybrid foretells of another impending invasion. Can the Strike Witches regroup in time to defeat this latest evil threat?
The dieselpunk manga sensation continues in this stand-alone volume! The year is 1944, and the war against the Neuroi is over. The 501st Joint Fighter Wing, also known as the Strike Witches, have accomplished their goal of protecting Britannia from the alien invaders. Now that the battle is done, the Witches disband and decide to go their separate ways for some much-needed R&R. As the girls enjoy downtime in the warstricken lands of Gallia and the deserts of Africa, a new danger lurks. A mysterious alien/ human hybrid foretells of another impending invasion. Can the Strike Witches regroup in time to defeat this latest evil threat?
The third chapter in the Brotherhood of the Griffon saga is a whirlwind tale set in a barbaric land of oracles, nature spirits, and talking animals Aoth Fezim and his legendary mercenary company have restored their tarnished reputation and attracted new recruits for their depleted ranks. But they still have one big problem: Too many griffon mounts were killed in the battles in Thay Chessenta. If the Brotherhood of the Griffon is to be more than a name, new mounts must be found. As it happens, the masked witches in Rashemen have griffons available to a worthy few who can slay the undead that are committing atrocities throughout the land. Aoth volunteers his band, as do other groups who are in the market for the fighting beasts. But things are not as they seem—for epic battles between rival sellswords, berserkers, nature sprits, talking animals, and aerial skyships abound . . .
"Witches are gathering." When most people hear the word "witches," they think of horror films and Halloween, but to the nearly one million Americans who practice Paganism today, witchcraft is a nature-worshipping, polytheistic, and very real religion. So Alex Mar discovers when she sets out to film a documentary and finds herself drawn deep into the world of present-day magic. Witches of America follows Mar on her immersive five-year trip into the occult, charting modern Paganism from its roots in 1950s England to its current American mecca in the San Francisco Bay Area; from a gathering of more than a thousand witches in the Illinois woods to the New Orleans branch of one of the world's most influential magical societies. Along the way she takes part in dozens of rituals and becomes involved with a wild array of characters. This sprawling magical community compels Mar to confront what she believes is possible--or hopes might be. With keen intelligence and wit, Mar illuminates the world of witchcraft while grappling in fresh and unexpected ways with the question underlying every faith: Why do we choose to believe in anything at all?--Adapted from book jacket.
Rituals, prayers, and songs to bring the wisdom of the gods and goddesses of ancient Egypt to life. Based on Ellen Cannon Reed's twenty-five years of work with deities of ancient Egypt, this book brings an ancient tradition to modern pagan practice. With it, readers will have the tools to continue learning and developing their own methods of honoring the gods and goddesses of ancient Egypt. Over two dozen gods and goddesses are highlighted, including Osiris, Isis, Ra, Bast, Thoth, Sekhmet, and Tefnut. There is also a section devoted to glyphs. Finally, meditations and techniques bring these deities to life, enriching your spiritual path. The book provides a host of tools and techniques: Songs for the deities Rituals for ancient gods and goddesses Instructions for making your own magical tools Information about hieroglyphs Guides to making incense and oils Recipes for an ancient Egyptian feast Previously published as Circle of Isis.
This is a book about the religion once practiced ages ago in the Old Forest region of Europe. The book contains channeled messages from the Gods of the Old Forest and from the fey, as well as stories, myths, legends, and bits and pieces of the old witch language. It is not meant to be a "Wicca 101" book, but the next stage towards witches, in particular those of European descent, being able to reclaim their heritage. In this regard, there is no other book currently out there quite like this one. Not only does it provide a link to the past, but it also gives witches a potential focus for the future.
In 1999, a seemingly incongruous collection of protestors converged in Seattle to shut down the meetings of the World Trade Organization. Union leaders, environmentalists dressed as endangered turtles, mainstream Christian clergy, violence-advocating anarchists, gay and lesbian activists, and many other diverse groups came together to protest what they saw as the unfair power of a nondemocratic elite. But how did such strange bedfellows come together? And can their unity continue? In 1972--another period of social upheaval--sociologist Colin Campbell posited a "cultic milieu": An underground region where true seekers test hidden, forgotten, and forbidden knowledge. Ideas and allegiances within the milieu change as individuals move between loosely organized groups, but the larger milieu persists in opposition to the dominant culture. Jeffrey Kaplan and Helene Loow find Campbell's theory especially useful in coming to grips with the varied oppositional groups of today. While the issues differ, current subcultures often behave in similar ways to deviant groups of the past. The Cultic Milieu brings together scholars looking at racial, religious and environmental oppositional groups as well as looking at the watchdog groups that oppose these groups in turn. While providing fascinating information on their own subjects, each essay contributes to a larger understanding of our present-day cultic milieu. For classes in the social sciences or religious studies, The Cultic Milieu offers a novel way to look at the interactions and ideas of those who fight against the powerful in our global age.
Magical Transformations on the Early Modern Stage furthers the debate about the cultural work performed by representations of magic on the early modern English stage. It considers the ways in which performances of magic reflect and feed into a sense of national identity, both in the form of magic contests and in its recurrent linkage to national defence; the extent to which magic can trope other concerns, and what these might be; and how magic is staged and what the representational strategies and techniques might mean. The essays range widely over both canonical plays-Macbeth, The Tempest, The Winter’s Tale, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Doctor Faustus, Bartholomew Fair-and notably less canonical ones such as The Birth of Merlin, Fedele and Fortunio, The Merry Devil of Edmonton, The Devil is an Ass, The Late Lancashire Witches and The Witch of Edmonton, putting the two groups into dialogue with each other and also exploring ways in which they can be profitably related to contemporary cases or accusations of witchcraft. Attending to the representational strategies and self-conscious intertextuality of the plays as well as to their treatment of their subject matter, the essays reveal the plays they discuss as actively intervening in contemporary debates about witchcraft and magic in ways which themselves effect transformation rather than simply discussing it. At the heart of all the essays lies an interest in the transformative power of magic, but collectively they show that the idea of transformation applies not only to the objects or even to the subjects of magic, but that the plays themselves can be seen as working to bring about change in the ways that they challenge contemporary assumptions and stereotypes.
