Eyes, Stones

Eyes, Stones
Author: Elana Bell
Publisher: LSU Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012-04-16
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 0807144649

In this debut collection, Eyes, Stones, Elana Bell brings her heritage as the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors to consider the difficult question of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The poems invoke characters inexorably linked to the land of Israel and Palestine. There is Zosha, a sharp-witted survivor whose burning hope for a Jewish homeland helps her endure the atrocities of the Holocaust. And there is Amal, a Palestinian whose family has worked their land for over one hundred years -- through Turkish, British, Jordanian, and now Israeli rule. Other poems -- inspired by interviews conducted by the poet in Israel, the Palestinian territories, and America -- examine Jewish and Arab relationships to the land as biblical home, Zionist dream, modern state, and occupied territory.

Loving Stones

Loving Stones
Author: David L. Haberman
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2020
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0190086718

"Loving Stones: Making the Impossible Possible in the Worship of Mount Govardhan is based on ethnographic and textual research with two major objectives. First, it is a study of the conceptions of and worshipful interactions with Mount Govardhan, a sacred mountain located in the Braj region of north-central India that has for centuries been considered an embodied form of Krishna. In this capacity it provides detailed information about the rich religious world associated with Mount Govardhan, much of which has not been available in previous scholarly literature. It is often said in that Mount Govardhan "makes the impossible possible" for devoted worshipers. This investigation includes examination of the perplexing paradox of an infinite god embodied in finite form, wherein each particular form is non-different from the unlimited. Second, it aims to address the challenge of interpreting something as radically different as the worship of a mountain and its stones for a culture in which this practice is quite alien. This challenge involves exploration of interpretive strategies that aspire to make the un-understandable understandable, and engages in theoretical considerations of incongruity, inconceivability, and like realms of the impossible. This aspect of the book includes critical consideration of the place and history of the pejorative concept of idolatry (and secondarily, its twin anthropomorphism) in the comparative study of religions. Accordingly, the second aim aspires to use the worship of Mount Govardhan as a site to explore ways in which scholars engaged in the difficult work of representing other cultures struggle to "make the impossible possible". ""--

Stones Will Shout

Stones Will Shout
Author: Helen E. Herr
Publisher: FriesenPress
Total Pages: 88
Release: 2019-05-08
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 1525547437

In Stones Will Shout, Helen E. Herr shares poetic anecdotes that demonstrate life's ironies and loveliness in equal measure. "Our children have left home for their careers/I just begin mine," she writes, reminiscing about obtaining a theology degree in her 40s; and, after a beloved foster son's death, she reveals that in the heart of deepest pain "all smile for family photos". Herr also celebrates Saskatchewan's beauty and the gifts nature delivers, ie: crocuses "dress frosty hills/in mauve," and seagulls at Greig Lake "map routes in the sand". This is a writer who not only understands that the "Black-eyed oak refuses/to face the ocean" because it is "ashamed to be a bench/on a beach," but also empathizes with that misplaced tree. The human body becomes wind, tree, moon, bird, water. In their disparate subject matter—and with Herr's ability to press the bruises—the poems in this candid and well-honed collection remind us that where there have been shadows, the light one day returns. How does one survive a life? By naturalizing sorrow, creativity, community, and the self as part of the order of all things animate and inanimate. - Taylor Leedahl, Toronto, ON

Stepping Stones to Go

Stepping Stones to Go
Author: Shigemi Kishikawa
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
Total Pages: 164
Release: 2012-07-17
Genre: Games & Activities
ISBN: 1462904637

Learn the Asian strategy game of Go with this user-friendly, expert guide. Go was invented some four thousand years ago in China, and is the oldest game in the world, still enjoyed today. Played with black and white stones, it is easy enough to be enjoyed by any beginner, yet sophisticated and complex enough to baffle an expert. Like chess, it is a game of skill, not chance; whereas chess is a battle. Japanese go expert Mr. Kishikawa's easy-to-follow book explains the fundamental principles of the game for the Westerner. From the basic rules of play, the author leads the reader in easy stages to the more advanced subtleties of go. Over a hundred diagrams, with twenty problems and answers, make this a complete introduction to one of the most fascinating and rewarding games in the world.

Stones of the Seven Rays

Stones of the Seven Rays
Author: Michel Coquet
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2012-05-11
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 159477708X

The magical and spiritual uses of the seven sacred gemstones--diamond, sapphire, emerald, jasper, topaz, ruby, and amethyst • Explores each sacred gem’s effects on the seven facets of the soul and their corresponding virtues • Reveals their spiritual and therapeutic uses, the meaning of their colors, their ties to the chakras, and their historical use in amulets, talismans, and other magical tools • Outlines the basics of Seven Ray Science and the properties of each of the Seven Rays Taught solely in secret for millennia, the Science of the Seven Rays was introduced outside of the ancient mystery schools of Western and Hindu tradition by some of the great occultists of the late 19th and early 20th century: H. P. Blavatsky, Manly Hall, C. W. Leadbeater, and Alice Bailey. Based on the soul’s seven-faceted nature, the Seven Ray system underlies metaphysical traditions around the world through its connections with the seven musical notes in the scale, the seven days in the week, the seven chakras, the seven colors of the rainbow, and the seven sacred planets. Laying out the key principles behind this spiritual science, Michel Coquet explores the seven sacred gemstones of the Seven Rays--diamond, sapphire, emerald, jasper, topaz, ruby, and amethyst--and shows that not all precious stones have true mystical powers: they must be charged, either naturally or through ritual, with a living deva or angelic presence before they can effect spiritual transformation and physical, mental, and soul healing. Drawing on Hindu, Jewish, pre-Columbian, and Greco-Roman magical traditions with precious stones as well as their use by great initiates of history--including Hildegard von Bingen, Paracelsus, Cornelius Agrippa, Elias Ashmole, Nicholas Flamel, and the Count de Saint Germain--Coquet examines each sacred gem’s effects on the seven facets of the soul as well as their spiritual and therapeutic uses, the meaning of their colors, their influences on the chakras, and their use in amulets, talismans, and other magical tools. Illuminating techniques of invoking spirits into gemstones and reports of the power to enlarge diamonds at will, stones that produce anesthesia, and the use of gem medicines in India, Coquet reveals that while gems can influence our physical, mental, and spiritual well-being, without daily work toward a gem’s corresponding virtue, even a consecrated stone will have no effect, for the most beautiful gems are within.

The Curious Lore of Precious Stones

The Curious Lore of Precious Stones
Author: George Frederick Kunz
Publisher: Courier Corporation
Total Pages: 502
Release: 1971-01-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780486222271

Excerpts from history and folklore trace the unusual beliefs and uses of gems since ancient times

Stepping Stones to a Higher Vision

Stepping Stones to a Higher Vision
Author: Joseph P. Schultz
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2021-07-29
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1532692684

Stepping Stones to a Higher Vision examines the development of religious consciousness from religion to spirituality to mysticism. This developmental path imaginatively described as “stepping stones” in the title of the book and as “elevators of religion” in chapter one, has its rewards but also its dangers and pitfalls. Intended for the non-specialist lay person interested in religion, as well as the scholar, the book focuses on Jewish tradition and its sources (Hebrew Bible, Talmud-Midrash, and Kabbalah), but in a broad cross-cultural interdisciplinary context. Ritual, prayer, including meditation and contemplation, ethics and morality, religious leadership, and the afterlife are analyzed in the context of sociology, science, and the history of religion.