Collection: Spirituality & Religion

Surah Yusuf, a chapter of the Qur'an (Koran), was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad at a critical juncture of his life. This was the time when he had gone through ten to eleven years of ridicule and rejection in Makkah, a time when he lost his wife and partner, Khadija, a time when he lost his dear uncle Abu Talib. Allah revealed this precious surah to strengthen the Prophet Muhammad's heart. To remind him that he lives in the footsteps of the great prophets of the past and that Allah's help and support is there.

This surah is full of meaningful messages of patience, reliance on Allah and how to overcome hardship and betrayal. It was also educational, teaching the Prophet Muhammad the answers to queries that were posed to him by the local Jews and Muslims. Finally this surah was a timely morale booster for the Prophet and his companions in a time of need.

Yasir Qadhi has clearly divided the surah into related themes, as per the revelations, so that the reader can easily understand and grasp the great wealth of knowledge relayed through this surah to all.

In the vein of Educated and Hillbilly Elegy comes a young woman's memoir chronicling her harrowing journey from despair to salvation that showcases the depths and resilience of the human spirit and empowers readers on their own paths toward healing, forgiveness, and redemption.

Carrie Sheffield grew up fifth of eight children with a violent, mentally ill, street-musician father who believed he was a modern-day Mormon prophet destined to become U.S. president someday. She and her seven siblings were often forced to live as vagabonds, remaining on the move across the country. They frequently subsisted in sheds, tents, and, most notably, motorhomes. They often lived a dysfunctional drifter existence, camping out in their motorhome in Walmart parking lots. Carrie attended 17 public schools and homeschool, all while performing classical music on the streets and passing out fire-and-brimstone religious pamphlets--at times while child custody workers loomed.

Carrie's father was eventually excommunicated from the official LDS Church, and she was the first of her siblings to escape the toxic brainwashing of his fundamentalist creed. Declared legally estranged from her parents, Carrie struggled with her mental health during college and for most of her adult life. But she eventually seized control of her life, transcended her troubled past, and overcame her toxic inner voice (and a near death experience)--thanks to the power of forgiveness, cultivated through her conversion to Christianity. She evolved from a scared and abused motorhome-dwelling girl to a Harvard-educated professional with a passion for empowering others to reject the cycles of poverty, depression, and self-hatred.

Motorhome Prophecies is the story of Carrie's unbelievable, yet in many ways, very American journey. It resonates with those trapped in difficult situations and awes all who are enchanted by the depths and resilience of the human spirit.

Answers to a range of questions asked by young people regarding the Baha'i Faith and its perspective on many issues. A book written to support young people's search for spiritual truth through independent investigation. Topics covered range from the existence of God, human evolution, aliens, angels and the devil through to the afterlife, as well as some of the teachings, principles and laws of the Baha'i Faith.

Target audience 11 - 15 years

Get to know the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader and one of the most popular world leaders today.

Two-year-old Lhamo Thondup never imagined he would be anything other than an ordinary child, but after undergoing a series of tests, he was proclaimed the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. By age 15, he found himself the undisputed leader of six million people who were facing the threat of a full-scale war from the Chinese. After the defeat of the Tibetan national uprising in 1959, the Dalai Lama had to flee Tibet and went into exile in India. For nearly 50 years, he has aimed to establish Tibet as a self-governing, democratic state. In 1989, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent efforts for the liberation of Tibet and his concern for global environmental problems. As the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama continues to spend his life working to benefit humanity and preserving Tibetan culture.

- Traditional Hebrew text and format - Abridged highlighted text of essential elements of the Haggadah to engage and hold the interest of children-a Haggadah within a Haggadah - Gender inclusive English translation - User friendly explicit directions for conducting the Seder - Transliteration of Hebrew - Inspirational and meaningful content in an egalitarian setting - Rich background into women's and men's roles in the Passover narrative - Section on Miriam's cup and Elijah's cup - Why there is an orange on the Seder plate - A bridge between the Liberal and Orthodox Haggadot This Haggadah contains all the elements of a traditional text and an abridged strand (i.e., a Haggadah within the Haggadah), as well as explicit directions for conducting the Seder. It is egalitarian throughout both the English translation and inspirational passages. In writing this Haggadah, I share with you the culmination of love I have for the holiday of Passover, for my family, and for Judaism.

"Cute, not-so-cute, smart, not-so-smart...thin, not-so-thin... athletic or not-so-athletic." If you're breathing and moving around, you are labeled.

Labels attach themselves to us from day one, when our parents decide if we are fussy babies or easy. While we don't understand why we are called this or that when we are young, somewhere early in life we become aware of the words which are a part of society's definition of who we are. If we could only see ourselves as God does: beautiful, unique treasured creations who are absolutely, perfectly ENOUGH for Him to work in and through us.

Know that there is something so much more to you than the labels that have been attached to you. The Bible tells us that God was speaking to Jeremiah, and He told him, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you were born, I set you apart..." - Jeremiah 1:5. This isn't just for Jeremiah but for you and for me. Before we were a zygote, God knew WHO we were. He set us apart for a specific task, a particular purpose, a distinct role in His story.

You are not an accident. While you may have been a surprise to your parents, you were no surprise to God. You have a unique spot in the universe that only YOU can fill. You matter. You alone matter. You matter today...right now. No decision or mistake changes the fact that you matter. You have a place, matchlessly suitable for the time in which you are living. And, most importantly, you matter to God.

I want to encourage you to take a journey with me--a journey to find the person within you who God designed and purposed you to be... before you were ever born.

"Did beings from outer space visit earth in the past ... are the various objects seen in the sky evidences of their visits?
What is the explanation of falls of frogs, falls of fishes, falls of seagulls, which have been recorded from time to time?
How can we account for all the inexplicable astronomical observations that have been made in the past?
How can we answer reports of strange animals, disappearances of men from open sight, curious structures in the snow, talents like teleportation and telekinesis?"
These are the "damned," by which the late Charles Fort meant all the wide range of mysteries that are ignored by orthodox science or explained away improperly.
He worked for 27 years at the British Museum and the New York Public Library gathering material on phenomena from the borderlands between science and fantasy. His research appeared in four books: The Book of the Damned, New Lands, Lo!, and Wild Talents.
In these four volumes Fort organized and commented on a wild host of phenomena: flying saucers seen in the sky before the invention of aircraft, flying wheels, strange noises in the sky; correlations between volcanic activity and atmospheric phenomena; falls of red snow; falls of frogs, fishes, worms, shells, jellies; finding of "thunderbolts"; discrepancies in the schedules of comets, sightings on Mars and the moon; infra-Mercurian planets; inexplicable footprints in snowfields; flat earth phenomena, disruptions of gravity; poltergeist phenomena; stigmata; surviving fossil animals; the Jersey devil; Kaspar Hauser; spontaneous combustion; and similar weird effects.
While Charles Fort never actually explained the phenomena, beyond making vague hints of an organic universe and neo-Hegelianism, through the years his following has grown. At first his work was picked up by literary men such as Theodore Dreiser, Booth Tarkington, Clarence Darrow, Havelock Ellis, and Oliver Wendell Holmes. Later, "Fortean themes" influenced the development of science fiction, and today his work remains the great predecessor to all extraterrestrial speculations.

The Basilica of the Sacred Heart at the University of Notre Dame contains one of the largest collections of late nineteenth-century French stained glass outside of France. The French Gothic-inspired church has forty-four large stained glass windows containing two hundred and twenty scenes. Today, more than 100,000 visitors tour the basilica each year to admire its architecture.

This informative guidebook tells the unique story of the windows: the improbable creation of a glassworks by cloistered Carmelite nuns in LeMans, France, and their stained glass that so perfectly illuminated the late-nineteenth-century French Catholic spirituality of the Congregation of Holy Cross. Stories in Light describes the windows according to their location in the building, from the narthex at the entrance to the Lady Chapel behind the altar. Full-color photographs, accompanied by commentary on the historical and theological importance of the glass and the iconography of the saints, provide a detailed view of the scenes found in each window. Stories in Light is an easy-to-read book written for all who visit the basilica and for readers everywhere who want to know more about the rich history and heritage of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart's stained glass.

Witchcraft is a subject that fascinates us all. Indeed, from childhood most of us develop some mental image of a witch--usually an old woman, mysterious and malignant. But why do witches still feature so heavily in our cultures and consciousness? From Halloween superstitions to literary references such as Faust and, of course, Harry Potter, witches seem ever-present in our lives. In this Very Short Introduction, Malcolm Gaskill takes a long historical perspective, from the ancient world to contemporary paganism. This is a book about the strangeness of the past, and about contrasts and change; but it's also about affinity and continuity. He reveals that witchcraft is multi-faceted, that it has always meant different things to different people, and that in every age it has raised questions about the distinction between fantasy and reality, faith and proof. Delving into court records, telling anecdotes, and challenging myths, Gaskill re-examines received wisdom, especially concerning the European witch-hunts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He also explores the modern memory and reinvention of witchcraft--as history, religion, fiction, and metaphor.

A fresh retelling of the ancient texts about Ishtar, the world's first goddess. Illustrated with visual artifacts of the period. "A great masterpiece of universal literature."--Mircea Eliade

A heart-breaking and hilarious memoir about the author's fight to be true to themself

WINNER OF THE POLARI FIRST BOOK PRIZE 2020WINNER OF A SOMERSET MAUGHAM AWARD

Amrou knew they were gay when, aged ten, they first laid eyes on Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone. It was love at first sight.

Amrou's parents weren't so happy...

From that moment on, Amrou began searching in all the wrong places for ways to make their divided self whole again.

Life as a Unicorn is a hilarious yet devastating story of a search for belonging, following the painful and surprising process of transforming from a god-fearing Muslim boy to a queer drag queen, strutting the stage in seven-inch heels and saying the things nobody else dares to ....

Almost four hundred years ago, in Zaragoza, Spain, Baltasar Gracián began to write what many modern-day scholars consider to be the most prolific and mysterious of his seven works, El Discreto: The Complete Man (1646). It is a treatise that describes the qualities that are needed for a man to become the center of perfection, as he experiences life and its spacious fields of time. Through his mystifying, divinized, and sacred style, he explores the themes of moral and political philosophy, literature, criticism, human nature, morality, and the complexity of social relationships. It is a discourse full of fables, metaphors, allegories, and wordplay that requires the reader to measure himself against the greatness of its matter in order to understand and benefit from its wisdom.

Chained to a linguistic barrier for centuries, with its complexity making it nearly impossible to translate into English, this Spanish masterpiece has remained largely unavailable to modern readers until now. This fascinating book, which Friedrich Nietzsche referred to as "the finest and most complicated work to ever come out of Europe," contains all that is needed to become a Master of Matters and a Master of Men.

Praise

"In the experience of life, Gracián shows incomparable wisdom." -Friedrich Nietzsche

"My favorite author is the philosophical Gracián, all of whose books I have read." -Arthur Schopenhauer

"This jewel of a man is very gifted; I assure you that he contains great things." -King Philip IV of Spain

"No one who precedes him, nor those who follow him, will be able to surpass him in genius and ingenuity; he is the ne plus ultra." -Don Vincencio Juan de Lastanosa, Spanish Noble and Knight

About the translator

Moises San Pedro, professionally known as Mike San Pedro, is a writer and philosopher. He is a student and historian of Baltasar Gracián and a friend of his singular spirit.

Counting the Omer is a Kabbalistic meditation guide to understand the in-depth meanings of each of the forty-nine days between Pesach (Passover) and the Shavuot celebration of the revealing of the Torah. Rabbi Kantrowitz follows Kabbalistic guidelines to show how the unique values of the sephirot interact each day, giving the reader insight into the strengths of the day. Through this guide the reader is led to meditate on the mystical qualities of life and self.

Long out of print and hard to find, this is the most celebrated book on eclipses of the last seventy years. In this book, learn the unique astronomical factors that create eclipses and why some eclipses are total while others are not. Learn how the Chaldeans discovered the Saros cycle in the sixth century BC, which is still in use today. Learn how the Greeks discovered the Metonic cycle. Find out how the Saros cycle is used in forecasting the effects of eclipses. Jansky gives the astrological key for all 19 of the Saros series. The author uses his understanding of eclipse mechanics in analysis. He uses the twelve houses of the chart, planets conjunct and opposed, the Saros series, fixed stars conjunct the eclipse as well as stars rising or setting on the horizon (ascendant/descendant), the planetary ruler, and the path of the Moon's shadow (the umbra) as it races across the earth during the eclipse itself. Jansky's interpretation of eclipses is rooted in Transactional Analysis (what I do to you becomes what you do to me, etc.), which, astrologically, is the study of polarities, which is what lunar and solar eclipses literally represent, and how these polarities, expressed as opposing signs and houses, can be resolved in terms of human relationships. Jansky delves into the astrological duration of an eclipse, prenatal eclipses, eclipses in rectification and eclipses and health. For case studies he tells of an eclipse-driven corporate crisis at his employer and how it impacted him, his fellow employees, and the management. In the data section, solar eclipses for the 20th century: Date, degree of the zodiac, total, partial or annular, and the Saros number. Also, longitudes of major fixed stars and general and medical bibliographies. A comprehensive book on eclipses. A must-have.

Si siempre quisiste saber cuál es tu verdadero propósito en la vida, éste es tu libro. Qué has venido a hacer a este mundo? Cuál es tu misión en la vida? Cuál es el "TIKÚN" que has venido a transitar? Por medio de esta obra maestra lograrás responder a estas preguntas con absoluta certeza, pues se trata de una guía imprescindible para lograrlo con asombrosa precisión y sencillez. Mediante la aplicación práctica de la sabiduría de los Nombres de Dios aprenderás a trabajar activamente y despertar el potencial alquímico de tu propia sabiduría interior, reconocer quién eres realmente y despertar a tu verdadero propósito en la vida. También encontrarás cuál es el papel de los 72 Nombres de Dios en la Creación y sus importantes implicaciones para tu ascensión espiritual. Una obra única e inigualable que recoge los frutos de más de 20 años de incansable investigación de la autora en los secretos de sabiduría mística de la cábala."Tenemos en nuestras manos la sabiduría de un alma muy especial, Rosa Gómez Casañ ya ha dejado su legado a las futuras generaciones, porque nos ha revelado algunos de los más importantes secretos que son los 72 conductos por los cuales el Infinito oculto se ha revelado a través de su Merkabá".Mario Sabán "Todo aquel que busque sobre este tema, debería tener este libro para poder mirar de forma lenta pero segura detrás de los misterios de Dios.Pero también el esotérico con experiencia debería encontrar aquí, algo que quizás nunca buscó, porqué ni siquiera conocía.Todos aquéllos interesados en la espiritualidad podrán descubrir algo".Eckard Strohm

As more and more is being discovered about the beginnings of Christianity, a whole new understanding of the context of Christian origins is emerging. Any serious student now needs a knowledge of the traditions of the temple. This book, a supplement to Margaret Barker's The Gate of Heaven: The History and Symbolism of the Temple in Jerusalem, breaks further new ground, showing how the symbols and rituals of the temple shaped the lives of the early Christians, and illustrates the striking relevance of temple theology to the New Testament. The influence of the temple cult has to be reconstructed by drawing on the increasing number of non-biblical texts now available. These include those written in the early churches; fragments from among the Dead Sea Scrolls; and Jewish texts written in the early Christian period. Piece by piece the world of the temple is emerging from this material. Through this close study of the Pseudepigrapha and other non-canonical writings, Margaret Barker examines four symbols of temple theology: Light, Life, Blood, and the Robes of Glory. She shows how details missing from the Old Testament descriptions can be recovered from other ancient texts to throw new light upon many significant passages of the Bible. This is a reprint of the volume published by T. & T. Clark in 1995.