From the hearth to the altar, make magic in every moment. Being a Witch isn't limited to casting a spell under the full moon or consecrating a ritual circle. Whether you're calling the Goddess or doing the dishes, your wonderfully witchy ways are woven into everything you do. With her signature down-to-earth wisdom and warmth, Deborah Blake takes you into the heart of what it means to be a Witch all day, every day. Filled to the brim with practical suggestions, Pagan and Wicca spells, and helpful advice, this essential book brings to light all facets of a modern Witch's life: The seven core beliefs of Witches, mindful eating and health, creating sacred space at home, relationships with non-Pagans, sex and the single Witch, raising Pagan children, solitary and coven practice, Pagan ritual, and green living. "Deborah Blake has created a practical method of weaving the spiritual into the daily chores of the mundane world in which we must live."-Edain McCoy, author of Advanced Witchcraft and If You Want to Be a Witch
Modern Goddess: The Complete Series contains all three installments in the Modern Goddess series. Sprawling fantasies intertwined with mythology, adventure, romance, and philosophy, pick this boxset up today and soar free with an Odette C. Bell series. Trapped by Thor: Yes, she's a goddess. And, oh yes, he is most certainly a god. You can tell from the fact he marches around in glimmering armor, picking fights with titans and picking up divine broads. But she didn't sign up for this. Sea monsters, kidnappings, evil plots, and the end of the world? Are you kidding? She spends most nights reading the weather report and icing cupcakes. It’s all his fault. Trapped by Atlas: Jeanie’s just an ordinary goddess holding down an ordinary job in these hard economic times. But when an actual legend wades into her life one day, making way more mess than she can clean, she quickly learns there's something extra to her ordinary. It'll take her deep into the golden age of the gods, deep into universe-ending danger, and even deeper into a love that’s waited eons for her. Trapped by Apollo: The first casualty in every war is the truth. Which is terrible if you happen to be Truth herself. In the golden age of the gods, Veritas was one of the most celebrated deities. These days she sits on her couch, suffers from panic attacks, and shouts at the news. Modern times have not been kind to the truth, and now she’s more elusive than ever. But when mysterious cracks begin appearing through her temple, Veritas is forced to act. Someone is attacking the truth, and there’s only one person she can turn to. A god she'd rather push out a window than rely on. Her ex-husband, Apollo. Modern times killed their love, but if it kills the truth one last time, all will lose – none more so than Apollo.
Goddess characters are revered as feminist heroes in the popular media of many cultures. However, these goddess characters often prove to be less promising and more regressive than most people initially perceive. Goddesses in film, television, and fiction project worldviews and messages that reflect mostly patriarchal culture (included essentialized gender assumptions), in contrast to the feminist, empowering levels many fans and critics observe. Building on critiques of other skeptical scholars, this feminist, folkloristic approach deepens how our remythologizing of the ancient past reflects a contemporary worldview and rhetoric. Structures of contemporary goddess myths often fit typical extremes as either vilified, destructive, dark, and chaotic (typical in film or television); or romanticized, positive, even utopian (typical in women’s speculative fiction). This goddess spectrum persistently essentializes gender, stereotyping women as emotional, intuitive, sexual, motherly beings (good or bad), precluded from complex potential and fuller natures. Within apparent good-over-evil, pop-culture narrative frames, these goddesses all suffer significantly. However, a few recent intersectional writers, like N. K. Jemisin, break through these dark reflections of contemporary power dynamics to offer complex characters who evince “hopepunk.” They resist typical simplified, reductionist absolutes to offer messages that resonate with potential for today’s world. Mythic narratives featuring goddesses often do, but need not, serve merely as ideological mirrors of our culture’s still problematically reductionist approach to women and all humanity.
Annually during the months of autumn, Bengal hosts three interlinked festivals to honor its most important goddesses: Durga, Kali, and Jagaddhatri. While each of these deities possesses a distinct iconography, myth, and character, they are all martial. Durga, Kali, and Jagaddhatri often demand blood sacrifice as part of their worship and offer material and spiritual benefits to their votaries. Richly represented in straw, clay, paint, and decoration, they are similarly displayed in elaborately festooned temples, thronged by thousands of admirers. The first book to recount the history of these festivals and their revelry, rivalry, and nostalgic power, this volume marks an unprecedented achievement in the mapping of a major public event. Rachel Fell McDermott describes the festivals' origins and growth under British rule. She identifies their iconographic conventions and carnivalesque qualities and their relationship to the fierce, Tantric sides of ritual practice. McDermott confronts controversies over the tradition of blood sacrifice and the status-seekers who compete for symbolic capital. Expanding her narrative, she takes readers beyond Bengal's borders to trace the transformation of the goddesses and their festivals across the world. McDermott's work underscores the role of holidays in cultural memory, specifically the Bengali evocation of an ideal, culturally rich past. Under the thrall of the goddess, the social, political, economic, and religious identity of Bengalis takes shape.
Goddess worship has long been a significant aspect of Hinduism. In this book David Kinsley sorts out the rich yet often chaotic history of Hindu goddess worship.
"Goddess Thoughts", is an easy to read, easy to absorb lyrical poetry book created by Amy Ramdass.Featuring Poetry on the hidden secrets and mysteries of life, "Goddess Thoughts" overflows with over 250 poems on topics as diverse as the Goddess herself and draws the readers into the fascinating world of the ancient mythological Immortals, where the reader becomes Divinity, Gods and Goddess of the modern era. Although these poems worship the Divinity in modern man, the main focal point is that of empowering the Goddess in her fellow women. "Goddess Thoughts" are wider than the poles, so be prepared for positive transformation as you begin to absorb the secret thoughts of the Tantric Goddess. And she is inviting you to...come fly on the wings of her poetry and soar your spirits free.
From the earliest of times people have sought to grow and nurture plants in a garden area. Gardens and Gardeners of the Ancient World traces the beginning of gardening and garden history, from Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, to the Minoans and Mycenaeans, Greeks, Etruscans and Romans, through Byzantine, Islamic and Persian gardens right up to the Middle Ages. It shows how gardens in each period were designed and cultivated. Evidence for garden art and horticulture is gathered from surviving examples of ancient art, literature, archaeology, actual period gardens that have survived the centuries and the wealth of garden myths associated with certain plants. These sources bring ancient gardens and their gardeners back to life, and provide information on which plants were chosen as garden worthy, their setting and the design and appearance of ancient gardens. Deities associated with aspects of gardens and the garden's fertility are featured - everyone wanted a fertile garden. Different forms of public and domestic gardens are explored, and the features that you would find there; whether paths, pools, arbors and arches, seating or decorative sculpture. The ideal garden could be like the Greek groves of the Academy in Athens, a garden so fine that it was comparable with that of the mythical king Alcinoos, the paradise contemplated by the Islamic world, or a personal version of a garden of Eden that Early Christians could create for themselves or in the forecourt of their churches. In general books on garden history cover all periods up to the present, often placing all ancient gardens in one chapter at the beginning. But there is so much of interest to be found in these early millennia. Generously illustrated with 150 images, with plant lists for each period, this is essential reading for everyone interested in garden history and ancient societies.
The Syrian Goddess Lucian - On the Syrian Goddess is a Greek treatise of the second century AD which describes religious cults practiced at the temple of Hierapolis Bambyce, now Manbij, in Syria. The work is written in a Herodotean-style of Ionic Greek, and has been traditionally ascribed to the Greek essayist Lucian of Samosata.
The essays in this volume, written by specialists working in the field of tantric studies, attempt to trace processes of transformation and transfer that occurred in the history of tantra from around the seventh century and up to the present. The volume gathers contributions on South Asia, Tibet, China, Mongolia, Japan, North America, and Western Europe. The chapters cover a wide thematic area, which includes modern Bengali tantric practitioners, tantric ritual in medieval China, the South Asian cults of the mother goddesses, the way of Buddhism into Mongolia, and countercultural echoes of contemporary tantric studies.
A goddess who defeated the box-office gods. An emperor who was defeated by a slave girl. A child who became an adult too soon. An adult who went the other way. An alcoholic. A teetotaller. A millionaire. A tramp. The Bollywood Pocketbook of Iconic Characters showcases 50 legendary characters that have become icons of Hindi cinema. Characters we have wanted to become. Characters we have loved, hated, lusted after, and even worshipped. Characters with whom we have laughed, for whom we have cried, and whose lives became inspirations for the stories of our own lives. Whether you're a trivia buff or a die hard Bollywood fan, or on your way to converting detractors into becoming one, this must-have book will have you declaring 'Unka naam toh suna hoga!'
Explores the contemporary nature and the diverse narratives, rituals, and performances of the Navar?tri festival. Nine Nights of the Goddess explores the festival of Navarātri—alternatively called Navarātra, Mahānavamī, Durgā Pūjā, Dasarā, and/or Dassain—which lasts for nine nights and ends with a celebration called Vijayadaśamī, or "the tenth (day) of victory." Celebrated in both massive public venues and in small, private domestic spaces, Navarātri is one of the most important and ubiquitous festivals in South Asia and wherever South Asians have settled. These festivals share many elements, including the goddess, royal power, the killing of demons, and the worship of young girls and married women, but their interpretation and performance vary widely. This interdisciplinary collection of essays investigates Navarātri in its many manifestations and across historical periods, including celebrations in West Bengal, Odisha, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and Nepal. Collectively, the essays consider the role of the festival's contextual specificity and continental ubiquity as a central component for understanding South Asian religious life, as well as how it shapes and is shaped by political patronage, economic development, and social status.
