While written in a lighthearted style, this book is based on the serious concept that everyone is part of "God" and that, like parents, God expects everyone at some point to grow up spiritually and take charge, and that the heavens will support the process if called upon.

Whether you realize it or not, you play a part in the divine plan of creation. Once you recognize this, you can gain access to the immense power in the universe. It’s simple: when you engage the right celestial helpers, anything becomes possible. In Hiring the Heavens, Jean Slatter shares how she learned to hire the Heavens and offers a fresh, revitalized way of bringing spirituality back into your everyday life. Whether the task is large or small, whether you want to manifest your dreams, find a soul mate, improve your finances, or simply get through your days without stress and worry, the Heavens are ready to help. With their assistance, you become cocreator and codirector of your life, experiencing more joy and more serendipity every day.

Angels have been with us in every time and culture, and in many religious traditions. Ask Your Angels vividly chronicles how they are currently reaching out to every one of us in a totally new way, bridging our physical reality with their pure spiritual energy. From historical writings and widespread contemporary experience that includes their own workshops, the authors show us how we can draw on the power of angels to reconnect with our lost inner selves and to achieve our goals, whether they be better relationships, healing an illness, or recovery from addiction To align with the angelic energy field, you will use five simple steps, as well as exercises, meditations, and visualizations, to learn how to talk with your angels—in your mind, in letters, in dreams, on a computer—and ask their guidance in matters from the inspired to the mundane. From Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, and Uriel to the angels of birth and death, from the Earth Angel to the guardian or companion angel who is your personal teacher, comforter, and intimate friend, this guide will introduce you to humor, wisdom, and companionship that come from contact with angels, for they are a doorway to the Divine within us.

The New York Times best-selling author of Soul Lessons and Soul Purpose We’re all spiritual beings with a spiritual support system on the Other Side that oversees and helps guide our lives from the moment we’re born to the moment we leave our physical bodies and return to Spirit. Not knowing this fact is a severe handicap, as the Universe is designed to care for and nurture all its creatures and help make our life’s journey easier and more successful. When we learn how to connect with our angelic guides, our lives naturally fall into a pattern of ease and flow during which we grow our souls, fulfill our life’s purpose, and make our time on Earth endlessly entertaining. This fascinating and inspirational book by Sonia Choquette provides all the information you need to help you connect with your spirit guides so that you can enjoy all the love, abundance, and joy you’re entitled to.

LIVE FULLY. LOVE DEEPLY. ENGAGE AUTHENTICALLYImagine what your life would be like if you let go of the need to please everyone, and focused on pleasing yourself instead?Would you be happier, more fulfilled, and more honest in your relationships?The answer is YES!It is your divine birthright.Live. Love. Engage. tells the story of Gloria Grace Rand's journey of self-discovery and spiritual awakening that began when her sister was diagnosed with stage four cancer. Gloria candidly relates how growing up with an alcoholic father and abusive mother contributed to unconscious limiting beliefs about self-worth which hindered her ability to succeed in business.Coming to terms with her sister's mortality, Gloria discovered the importance of self-love thanks to the "Divine Download" that helped her let go of the pain and trauma of her childhood. By the end of Live. Love. Engage., you will learn what it takes to let go of your self-doubt, to trust your Higher Self, and begin to live fully, love deeply and engage authentically.THE L.O.V.E. METHOD-Let Go and Let God-Open Your Heart to Receive-Value Your Uniqueness-Embrace Your Divinity"If you are ready to use L.O.V.E to transform your life and connect with your higher self - read this book! Gloria holds nothing back so we can be inspired by her life lessons and gives us the ultimate permission to trust, love and be ourselves!" Tasha Chen, Co-Founder/Owner, Science of Getting Rich Academy"At a time when cancer is so prevalent, Gloria's willingness to share how she rode the emotional roller coaster that comes from caring for a loved one with cancer is so important. Caregivers are so under-appreciated. This book should give many a "roadmap" to heal so they can Live. Love. Engage?" Tamara L. Hunter, President/Co-Founder, CB4L.org "Brava Gloria for your courage and vulnerability in exposing the trauma of abuse you suffered as a child and for sharing your spiritual process of transformation and healing. With these tools entrepreneurs and individuals alike will overcome self-doubt and succeed on our own terms." Trish Carr

In Heaven's Interpreters, Ashley Reed reveals how nineteenth-century American women writers transformed the public sphere by using the imaginative power of fiction to craft new models of religious identity and agency. Women writers of the antebellum period, Reed contends, embraced theological concepts to gain access to the literary sphere, challenging the notion that theological discourse was exclusively oppressive and served to deny women their own voice. Attending to modes of being and believing in works by Augusta Jane Evans, Harriet Jacobs, Catharine Maria Sedgwick, Elizabeth Oakes Smith, Elizabeth Stoddard, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Susan Warner, Reed illuminates how these writers infused the secular space of fiction with religious ideas and debates, imagining new possibilities for women's individual agency and collective action. Thanks to generous funding from Virginia Tech and its participation in TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem), the ebook editions of this book are available as Open Access volumes from Cornell Open cornellpress.cornell.edu/cornell-open) and other repositories.

Of the many sects that broke from the official Russian Orthodox church in the eighteenth century, one was universally despised. Its members were peasants from the Russian heartland skilled in the arts of animal husbandry who turned their knives on themselves to become "eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake." Convinced that salvation came only with the literal excision of the instruments of sin, they were known as Skoptsy (the self-castrated). Their community thrived well into the twentieth century, when it was destroyed in the Stalinist Terror.In a major feat of historical reconstruction, Laura Engelstein tells the sect's astonishing tale. She describes the horrified reactions to the sect by outsiders, including outraged bureaucrats, physicians, and theologians. More important, she allows the Skoptsy a say in defining the contours of their history and the meaning behind their sacrifice. Her deft handling of their letters and notebooks lends her book unusual depth and pathos, and she provides a heartbreaking account of willing exile and of religious belief so strong that its adherents accepted terrible pain and the denial of a basic human experience. Although the Skoptsy express joy at their salvation, the words of even the most fervent believers reveal the psychological suffering of life on society's margins.No foreign tribe or exotic import, the sect drew its members from the larger peasant society where marriage was expected and adulthood began with the wedding night. Set apart by the very act that guaranteed their redemption, these "lambs of God" became adept at concealing their sectarian identity as they interacted with their Orthodox neighbors. Interaction was necessary, Engelstein explains, since the survival of the Skoptsy depended upon recruitment of new members and on success in agriculture and trade.Realizing that some prejudices have changed little over the centuries, Engelstein cautions that "we must not cast the shadow of our own distress on the story of the Skoptsy. Their physical suffering was something they willingly embraced." In Castration and the Heavenly Kingdom, she has produced a remarkable history that also illuminates the mysteries of the human heart.