The first volume of Michael Horton’s magisterial intellectual history of “spiritual but not religious” as a phenomenon in Western culture Discussions of the rapidly increasing number of people identifying as “spiritual but not religious” tend to focus on the past century. But the SBNR phenomenon and the values that underlie it may be older than Christianity itself. Michael Horton reveals that the hallmarks of modern spirituality—autonomy, individualism, utopianism, and more—have their foundations in Greek philosophical religion. Horton makes the case that the development of the shaman figure in the Axial Age—particularly its iteration among Orphists—represented a “divine self.” One must realize the divinity within the self to break free from physicality and become one with a panentheistic unity. Time and time again, this tradition of divinity hiding in nature has arisen as an alternative to monotheistic submission to a god who intervenes in creation. This first volume traces the development of a utopian view of the human individual: a divine soul longing to break free from all limits of body, history, and the social and natural world. When the second and third volumes are complete, students and scholars will consult The Divine Self as the authoritative guide to the “spiritual but not religious” tendency as a recurring theme in Western culture from antiquity to the present.

Alberto Villoldo, a classically trained medical anthropologist, has studied shamanic healing techniques among the descendants of the ancient Inkas for more than twenty years. In Shaman, Healer, Sage, he draws on his vast body of knowledge to create a practical and revolutionary program based on the traditional healing methods used by these shamans -- methods that, until now, have been inaccessible to most of the world. Villoldo explains that central to shamanic healing is the concept of the Luminous Energy Field that is believed to surround our material bodies. His book teaches us to see and influence the imprints that disease leaves on this field and thereby to heal ourselves and others, as well as prevent illness. Villoldo weaves wonderful teaching stories throughout about the healing power of the energy medicine of the Americas. In one story, Villoldo comes down with pneumonia while in Peru. When antibiotics fail to control the infection, his mentor, the shaman Don Antonio, uses the process of Illumination to remove the toxins that had invaded Villoldo's body. These same shamanic techniques later allowed Villoldo to remove stagnant energy from a young woman whose marriage was suffering due to her past experience with abandonment. With the aid of shamanic work, the woman regained her trust in others, and her marriage was revitalized. This book is rich with ancient wisdom and contemporary techniques we can use to help ourselves and others, as well as with the more advanced methods of master shamans, which are being brought to a wide audience for the first time.

Tribal peoples believe that the shaman experiences, absorbs, and communicates a special mode of power, sustaining and healing. This book discusses American Indian shamanic traditions, particularly those of the Woodland Ojibway, in terms drawn from the classical shamanism of Siberian peoples. Using a cultural-historical method, John A. Grim describes the spiritual formation of shamans, male and female, and elucidates the special religious experience that they transmit to their tribes. Writing as a historian of religion well acquainted with ethnological materials, Grim identifies four patterns in the shamanic experience: cosmology, tribal sanction, ritual reenactment, and trance experience. Relating those concepts to the Siberian and Ojibway experiences, he draws on mythology, sociology, anthropology, and psychology to paint a picture of shamanism that is both particularized and interpretative. As religious personalities, shamans are important today because of their singular ability to express symbolically the forces that animate the tribal cosmology. Often identifying themselves with primordial earth processes, shamans develop symbol systems drawn from the archetypal earth images that are vital to their psychic healing technique. This particular ability to resonate with the natural world is felt as an important need in our time. Those readers who identify with American Indians as they confront modern technological society will value this introduction to our native shamanic traditions and to the religious experience itself. The author's discussion of Ojibway practices is the most comprehensive short treatment available, written with a fine poetic feeling that reflects the literary expressiveness inherent in American Indian religion and thought.

Connect to the spirit of the white bear and develop a heart of service with this book's powerful combination of indigenous teachings and modern, earth-based practices. Journey of the White Bear shares the tools and techniques you need to deepen your healing and personal evolution. Join shamanic practitioners Robin Tekwelus Youngblood and Sandy D'Entremont as they present their system based on the medicine wheel. Using this framework, they teach you how to gain spiritual maturity, personal mastery, and the shaman's heart--a heart that holds unconditional love and respect. This book guides you through the seven sacred directions, providing ceremonies, journal exercises, correspondences, and more. Featuring deep wisdom on spirit guides, medicine tools, and community work, this book helps enhance your spiritual practice.

It was the Kalevala that initiated the process leading to the foundation of Finnish identity during the nineteenth century and was, therefore, one of the crucial factors in the formation of Finland as a new nation in the twentieth century.

Caverns of Ornolac is volume two of the Blue Shaman Trilogy. Obsessed with the mystery of Caron's resurrection, the shaman Morgon Kara undertakes to weave a pattern that will betray the secret and subject the knight to him. Returning to Europe with the lost hallow, Caron is drawn into the intrigues of an ancient order that made and destroyed both Cathar Church and Knights Templar, and sees in him their once and future king. Blue Shaman Trilogy Volume 1: Stone of Sovereignty Volume 2: Caverns of Ornolac Volume 3: Master of Hallows

The Selk'nam people, now virtually extinct, are a classic example of hunting societies. The book is based on the author's field work among the last surviving 'pure' Selk'nam, as well as an exhaustive review of the previous literature.

Fictional depictions of Native American concepts of justice, crime, and the investigation of crime are explored in this original work. Shaman or Sherlock explores depictions created by Native American authors themselves, as well as those created by outsiders with mainstream agendas. The most successful of these writers fuse authentic Native American culture with standard genre conventions, thus providing an appealing, empathetic view of little-understood or underappreciated groups, as well as insight into issues of cross-cultural communication. Dealing with such significant concepts as acculturation, regional diversity, and assimilation, this unique study evaluates over 200 detective stories. Though the crime novel began in Europe as a manifestation of Enlightenment rationality and scientific methodology, the Native American detective story moves into the realm of the spiritual and intuitive, often incorporating depictions of non-material phenomena. Shaman or Sherlock? explores how geographical and tribal differences, degrees of assimilation, and the evolution of age-old cultural patterns shape the Native American detective story.