Women's Rites of Passage grew out of Abigail Brenner s desire to answer some fundamental questions about the role of rites of passage in contemporary women s lives. Relying on a research study involving over 50 women, Brenner shows how women today understand the need to take responsibility for their lives and for directing their own paths, and are beginning to do so by creating their own very personal rites of passage.
Rites to a Good Life is the definitive guide on how to think about and restore practices of ritual healing to everyday contemporary life. This exhaustive handbook is essential for the well-being of all individuals, families, and communities. Poised in the middle of a conversation between the ancient past and the present-day, Marx translates indigenous wisdom practices into the needs and realities of our present-day world. This is a spiritual book for all those who've given up on religion and spirituality, yet recognize that something is missing in their life. There's nothing New-Agey here. It's full of no-nonsense practical suggestions. Self-help books tend to focus on the individual (i.e. "Here's what's wrong with you that you need to fix.") But what if there were nothing to fix? What if we only needed to drop more deeply into what already IS, experience it more fully, and then consecrate it with simple ritual? This book focuses on the key processes and relationships that make that possible (i.e. between parent and child, individual and community, individual and nature). With a final chapter focusing on all the upheavals during 2020's Planetary Rite of Passage (i.e. Covid, the economy, Black Lives Matter, and political turmoil), Marx clarifies what happened and the opportunity that exists for all of us to create positive change. The times demand change and Marx tells us what rebirth might look like. Outdated tropes must die (i.e. "Looking out for #1," "Every man for himself," and "Whoever dies with the most toys wins."). This definitive handbook is full of practical advice for: - What parents can do with children. - How families can restore relations across the generations. - How to gain sustenance from nature. - Where to find the mentorship we require. - Who the leaders are who can introduce us to the future.
FROM BEGINNING TO END Why "rituals"? My thinking was set in motion by those who, knowing I was a parish minister for many years, have asked me for advice about ceremonies and celebrations. They wanted words to use at graduations, funerals, and the welcoming of children. They inquired about grace at family meals, the reaffirmation of wedding vows, and ways to heal wounds suffered in personal conflict. People requested help with the rituals of solitude, such as meditation, prayer, and contemplation. . . . Rituals do not always involve words, occasions, officials, or an audience. Rituals are often silent, solitary, and self-contained. The most powerful rites of passage are reflective--when you look back on your life again and again, paying attention to the rivers you have crossed and the gates you have opened and walked on through, the thresholds you have passed over. I see ritual when people sit together silently by an open fire. Remembering. As human beings have remembered for thousands and thousands of years. FULGHUM
From Marx to Murakami and Beethoven to Bacon, 'Daily Rituals' examines the working routines of more than a 160 of the greatest philosophers, writers, composers and artists ever to have lived. Filled with fascinating insights on the mechanics of genius and entertaining stories of the personalities behind it, it is irresistibly addictive and utterly inspiring
The customs and symbols of major life-cycle milestones, including cultural, secular, and religious traditions observed in the United States. Features important life events from the nation's major religious and ethnic groups.
Celebrate life transitions on the Pagan path. Rites, rituals, and traditions to mark births, deaths, comings of age, marriage, mid-life, and more are detailed by the author/illustrator team behind Ancient Ways and Wheel of the Year. 34 b&w illustations. 38 photos.
For more than seven years, Ryman traveled the world documenting life-cycle rituals. The result is a book that presents intimate and stunning pictures of more than 30 rituals--from birth to death--from all parts of the globe.
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.
An epic tale of freedom and slavery, love and war, and the potential futures of humankind tells of a twenty-first century California clan caught between two clashing worlds, one based on tolerance, the other on repression. Declaration of the Four Sacred Things The earth is a living, conscious being. In company with cultures of many different times and places, we name these things as sacred: air, fire, water, and earth. Whether we see them as the breath, energy, blood, and body of the Mother, or as the blessed gifts of a Creator, or as symbols of the interconnected systems that sustain life, we know that nothing can live without them. To call these things sacred is to say that they have a value beyond their usefulness for human ends, that they themselves became the standards by which our acts, our economics, our laws, and our purposes must be judged. no one has the right to appropriate them or profit from them at the expense of others. Any government that fails to protect them forfeits its legitimacy. All people, all living things, are part of the earth life, and so are sacred. No one of us stands higher or lower than any other. Only justice can assure balance: only ecological balance can sustain freedom. Only in freedom can that fifth sacred thing we call spirit flourish in its full diversity. To honor the sacred is to create conditions in which nourishment, sustenance, habitat, knowledge, freedom, and beauty can thrive. To honor the sacred is to make love possible. To this we dedicate our curiosity, our will, our courage, our silences, and our voices. To this we dedicate our lives. Praise for The Fifth Sacred Thing “This is wisdom wrapped in drama.”—Tom Hayden, California state senator “Starhawk makes the jump to fiction quite smoothly with this memorable first novel.”—Locus “Totally captivating . . . a vision of the paradigm shift that is essential for our very survival as a species on this planet.”—Elinor Gadon, author of The Once and Future Goddess “This strong debut fits well against feminist futuristic, utopic, and dystopic works by the likes of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Ursula LeGuin, and Margaret Atwood.”—Library Journal
