Every person has seen a tree and maybe planted or climbed one! In all world religions, various trees are considered sacred. Trees have the ability to help us reach wholeness if we learn their wisdom and integrate it into our lives. This abecedarian--a book whose contents are in alphabetical order--explores the spiritual growth that is possible by reflecting on the wisdom of woody plants, which help humans experience the divine. In these pages you can explore trees from Acacia to Zaqqum. For each of the forty entries, the author presents a text identifying the tree, a reflective study, a question for journaling or personal meditation, and a concluding prayer. Some trees you may have heard about, and some may be new to you. The spiritual life is enhanced by the trees that surround and share the earth with us while also disclosing the divine to us.

60+ Trees to Deepen Your Connection with Nature Trees provide a gateway into a wider world of spirit and magic. This book helps you explore their timeless mysteries and work with their unique energy. Popular author Sandra Kynes shows you how to connect with the wonder of the forest and develop a deeper understanding and relationship with trees. This practical guide introduces you to more than sixty varieties of trees, providing illustrations, lore, botanical and historical information, ritual and magical uses, associated deities, and more. Sandra offers an abundance of resources, including correspondence charts, tree and rune calendars, and the Celtic ogham. Learn about tools from the woods like staffs, wands, and wreaths. Discover what items you can use to connect to a particular tree when it's not available in your area. Whether you're looking for a tree aligned with Venus or one to aid your divination, Tree Magic is the ideal resource to bring the magic, spirit, and wisdom of trees into your life.

This is a book about spirituality for the spiritual but not religious. Those who identify themselves as spiritual but not religious make up one quarter of the population in the United States. This book provides 189 monthly entries based on the national and international celebrations that occur every month. Each entry begins with the name of the occasion and the date when it is marked during the month. A text from the Bible, a US public law, a presidential proclamation, a United Nations declaration, etc. that illustrates the day is presented. The text is followed by a reflection which gleans the spirituality from the text and provides historical background on the day being celebrated. Journal/meditation questions follow the reflection, and a prayer concludes the entry. This book is for the spiritual but not religious, a practice of spirituality that does not regard organized religion as a valuable means to further interior spiritual growth. A section of the introduction to the book explores who the spiritual but not religious are and presents the common themes that surface from research about them.

This is a book about spirituality for the solitary, those people who live alone. In the past they were known as hermits, eremites, and anchorites; today they are known as pioneers, mountain men and women, widows, widowers, and people who choose to live alone in the country or in the city. They spend their days like other ordinary people taking care of daily chores, but also spending some time in prayer and meditation. The solitary life is alive and well, and it appears in all world religions. The solitary seeks solitude for prayer, meditation, self-awareness, and personal development. Living alone in a house or apartment begins to transform one’s life; a person sets off on the path of purpose, the path of integrity, the path of transcendence that lifts his or her heart, mind, and spirit to the divine presence, God, who transforms more and more as the solitary dives deeper and deeper. This book provides an in-depth exploration of spirituality for the solitary along with eight-part exercises designed to further enhance solitary spirituality. Included are prayers, psalms in contemporary English, and celebrations using natural things, such as water, oil, and fire.

This is a book about spirituality, more specifically, the spiritual journey. Before beginning any journey or trip—spiritual or otherwise—we experience a state of order. Then comes the call to journey, to travel, to take a trip, to walk, to pilgrimage, to hit the road, etc. The call to begin a journey may come from an urge within us; it may be an invitation from a spouse or a friend to fly somewhere; it may be as simple as taking the dog for a walk in the neighborhood, even taking different streets! The call disrupts our ordered lives. We prepare for our excursion. We enter into the stage of chaos when we take the journey; also, we enter into the process of transformation. By the time we get home, we will be transformed. These are the steps of the spiritual journey into God: order, hearing the call to journey, answering the call with preparation, entering the chaos of the journey, and being and coming home transformed. Ninety-seven reflections are presented in this book in seven chapters devoted to journey; road; path; route, highway, gateway; walk; way; and more.

This is a book about four Roman Catholic pioneers--explorers and developers--whose lives crossed each other's paths in Old Mines, Missouri, in the middle of the 1800s. Two of them were priests, and one of them was a bishop, then an archbishop. One was a laywoman, who was very generous with her riches. Three of them were not only of Irish descent but came from Ireland. The laywoman was French, and she came from Ste. Genevieve. The Great Potato Famine in Ireland in the 1840s brought all of them together in the oldest village in the state of Missouri: Old Mines. The potato famine brought many Irish to Missouri in the nineteenth century to farm, to build railroads, and to construct churches for worship. This is the story of pioneers Marie-Louise (Bolduc) Lamarque, Peter Richard Kenrick, James Fox, and John Joseph Hogan. Their lives crossed each other's paths in Old Mines, Missouri, a lead-mining village about sixty miles south of St. Louis (before St. Louis existed) and about forty miles east of Ste. Genevieve (before Ste. Genevieve existed).

Sufism in Ottoman Damascus analyzes thaumaturgical beliefs and practices prevalent among Muslims in eighteenth-century Ottoman Syria. The study focuses on historical beliefs in baraka, which religious authorities often interpreted as Allah's grace, and the alleged Sufi-ulamaic role in distributing it to Ottoman subjects. This book highlights considerable overlaps between Sufis and ʿulamāʾ with state appointments in early modern Province of Damascus, arguing for the possibility of sociologically defining a Muslim priestly sodality, a group of religious authorities and wonder-workers responsible for Sunni orthodoxy in the Ottoman Empire. The Sufi-ʿulamāʾ were integral to Ottoman networks of the holy, networks of grace that comprised of hallowed individuals, places, and natural objects. Sufism in Ottoman Damascus sheds new light on the appropriate scholarly approach to historical studies of Sufism in the Ottoman Empire, revising its position in official early modern versions of Ottoman Sunnism. This book further re-approaches early modern Sunni beliefs in wonders and wonder-working, as well as the relationship between religion, thaumaturgy, and magic in Ottoman Sunni Islam, historical themes comparable to other religions and other parts of the world.