Mutating Goddesses traces the shifting fortunes of four specific Hindu deities—Manasa, Candi, Sasthi and Laksmi—from the fifteenth century to the present time. It focuses on the goddess-invested tradition of Bengal's Hinduism to argue for a historical evolution/devolution of divinities in tandem with sectarian interests and illumines in the process the knotted correlation of gender, caste and class in the sanctioning of female subjectivities through goddess formation. The critical studies of Hindu goddesses have been dominated by the sastrik perspective deriving from the Sanskrit scriptures authorized by the male Brahman. But there are religious practices and beliefs under the broad rubric of Hinduism that are neither governed by the male Brahman nor articulated in Sanskrit. It is this vibrant laukika archive—considered low from the hegemonic perspective—that Mutating Goddesses explores to realize the politic trafficking between this realm and the sastrik. The book excavates the multiple and layered heritage of the region which includes tribal culture, Buddhism, Tantricism, and so on, as is available in rituals, proverbs, verses, circulating myths, poetic genres and kathas, caste manuals, census records etc to illustrate how tradition is a matter of strategic selection.

The book examines the representation of women, their agency and subjectivity and gender relations in 18th- and 19th-century India. The chapters in the volume interrogate notions and discourses of ‘women’ and ‘gender’ during the period, historically shaped by multiple and even competing actors, practices and institutions. They highlight the ‘making of the woman’ across a wide spectrum of subject areas, regions and roles and attempt to understand the contradictions and differences in social experiences and identity formations of women. The volume also deals with prevalent notions of masculinity and femininity, normative and non-conformist expressions of gender and sexual identity and epistemological concerns of gender, especially in its intersectional interplay with other axes of caste, class, race, region and empire. Presenting unique understandings of our gendered pasts, this volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of history, gender studies and South Asian studies.

This book presents a feminist mapping of the articulation and suppression of female desire in Hindi films, which comprise one of modern India’s most popular cultural narratives. It explores the lineament of evil and the corresponding closure of chastisement or domesticity that appear as necessary conditions for the representation of subversive female desire. The term ‘bad’ is used heuristically, and not as a moral or essential category, to examine some of the iconic disruptive women of Hindi cinema and to uncover the nexus between patriarchy and other hierarchies, such as class, caste and religion in these representations. The twenty-one essays examine the politics of female desire/s from the 1930s to the present day - both through in-depth analyses of single films and by tracing the typologies in multiple films. The essays are divided into five sections indicating the various gendered desires and rebellions that patriarchal society seeks to police, silence and domesticate.

This volume explores space, place and hybridity in today’s multicultural societies with a strong emphasis on the role of art and spatial representations, in order to map out the complexity of modern nations and celebrate the creative powers of their highly dynamic communities and cultures. It considers how the very idea of the nation has evolved since the emergence and development of the idea of the nation-state at the end of the eighteenth century, and how art can reinvigorate representations of nation-states worldwide without relegating their minorities to the margin. Instead of merely focusing on the role of place and land in national representations, the book adopts a wider and more critical approach to space in the arts by investigating the notions of both hybridity and Bhabha’s “Third Space” in the fields of aesthetics, film studies and literature, with a particular emphasis on postcolonial literature.

In ESSENTIAL ENERGY BALANCING and RELIANCE ON THE LIGHT, best-selling author Diane Stein taught readers how to heal and cleanse their souls of the negative karma suffered on Earth. Now, in ESSENTIAL ENERGY BALANCING II, she explains how to continue the process of releasing the karma through 24 individual processes, including "Connection with the Light" and "Vibrational Sealing." Readers learn to let go of karmic baggage, not just here on Earth, but throughout the Universe, in order to enjoy the full potential of their soul's energy. Rich with encouragement, ESSENTIAL ENERGY BALANCING II guides readers to an empowering place of healing and growth.

Sian is an experienced clairaudient, clairvoyant, and clairsentient channel of Light who has dedicated many years of her life to the pursuit of helping others improve theirs. Now, in Healing of the Goddess, she brings readers within a life-changing experienceand the epiphany that it inspired. After her soul was imploded by a massive psychic force, she developed breast cancer, causing a near-death experience that took fifteen years from her life. As she describes an extraordinary experience in her healing journey, the hand of God encapsulated her soul with Light, giving her the strength and faith to endure long healing process to reinstate her body back to life. She explains how breast cancer was the result of a karmic strike and how the Keys of Transformation allowed her to be healed. Cancer, she has come to understand, is a trial by tribulation. The Healing of the Goddess explores the cause-and-effect factors that are the real underlyingcauses of disease and recalls Sians journey of self-healing and transformation.The challenge we all face is to truly understand the nature of life, energy, andhealing. If life is to be sustained, the time has come for humanity to fundamentallyaddress our relationship with all life on this glorious planet. This is an auspicious and providential period in human evolution: Are we enlightened enough to shepherd in a new era of health and peaceor will we condemn it with apathy and ignorance?

Empowerment and Integration Through The Goddess is perhaps the most profound and informative book written on the subject of the Divine Feminine and how women and men can integrate The Goddess energies into self and the world. Since early in Earth's history, abuse, denial, and ignorance of the Divine Feminine has led to the enormous patriarchal attitudes that pervade mass consciousness and even Spiritual literature. This book provides one of the most in-depth studies of this issue ever written; from the Divine Mother, Archangels and inner plane Ascended Masters' perspective! This is for all who are looking for spiritual growth! Collectively, we are shifting out of polarity consciousness and choosing empowered, balanced lives. This must-read book braids polarity into oneness, reveals the disparity of heart/mind, internal/ external, compassion/will, experience/knowledge, love/power, and assists us across the bridge of transition into the return of full consciousness. You will discover: How the imbalance began, What Goddess energy really is, How to balance Feminine and Masculine, Why experiencing the Heart is vital, Manifestation through The Goddess, Feeling into Physical Ascension, Meditations/Attunements to activate the Divine Feminine, What a balanced Master is, and How to Balance Love, Wisdom and Power.