This book is an auto-biography of Trausti Valsson, an Icelandic architect, planner, theoretician and a professor of planning at the University of Iceland. It gives a personal account of what shaped planning and design in the world and in Iceland as he experienced it in his lifetime. Valsson e.g. tells about his personal encounter with Ian McHarg, Buckminster Fuller and Christopher Alexander. Early TV started working on a future plan for Iceland, consisting, for example, of roads connecting Iceland´s settlements, across the Central Highlands. He also started an overlay mapping project, mapping both the hazard- and resource areas of the country, which created a basis for his Iceland-Plan proposals. Work on this he continued at Berkeley and at the University of Iceland as he started teaching there in 1988. Many of his articles and books deal with this subject. In 1980 Valsson started his PhD studies in Environmental Planning at UC Berkeley, California. In the philosophical section of his dissertation he presented his argument that the Western, mechanistic worldview was the underlying cause for today´s alienation, and that more holistic and integrative schemes were inherent in Eastern worldviews. TV´s dissertation is called A Theory of Integration for Design and Planning – Based on the Concept of Complementarity (1987). In 1988 – a year after Valsson returned to Iceland – he got an associate professor position in planning at the Engineering Faculty of the University of Iceland, and later a tenured professor position. The last part of this book describes Valsson’s 27 years at the University. The title of this present book: Shaping the Future – Ideas – Planning – Design, reflects how wide Valsson´s field of his operation has been.

The Circle of Knowledge is an informative book that was designed in 1917, to be both inspiring and entertaining. The book represents the modern, progressive spirit which fits that time, in its forms of expression and its editorship. The purpose of this work is to answer the why, who, what, when, where, how of the wide majority of curious minds, both young and adult, and encourage them to raise further questions. Special measures were taken in creating this work to isolate essentials from non-essentials; to differentiate human interest subjects of universal significance from those of little concern; to deliver living truths instead of dead vocabulary; and finally, to bring the whole within the knowledge of the intermediate reader, without regard to age, in an acceptable and exciting form. The use of visual outlines and tables; maps, drawings, and diagrams; the illustrated works of great painters, sculptors, and architects all are used to give the reader the valuable and cultural knowledge of past and present.

Go beyond the basics of witchcraft and take your study of wicca to the next level: everything you need to know to have a deeper understanding of wicca, its teachings, and the meaning behind its rituals and practices. You’ve bought your crystals and cast your basic spells, planted your herb garden and smudged your home—now what? Wicca: A Modern Practitioner’s Guide takes you beyond the trendy witchy basics to the deeper roots the practice. This book will guide you in reexamining basic Wicca and teach you to create rich rituals that will foster your personal growth. It also includes comprehensive explanations of the traditions, beliefs, and rituals that make up the Wiccan religion. Read about Solitary Wicca, which teaches you how to practice wicca—whether you work with a coven or practice alone—and goes beyond the “how” of different practices to explore the “why”: for example, when should you create a sacred space rather than cast a circle? How and why do you purify yourself before a ritual? What is grounding and why is it important for you to ground yourself before doing spellwork? For those who seek them, Wicca has all the answers.

Of all prehistoric monuments, few are more emotive than the great stone circles that were built throughout Britain and Ireland. From the tall, elegant, pointed monoliths of the Stones of Stenness to the grandeur of Stonehenge and the sarsen blocks at Avebury, circles of stone exert a magnetic fascination to those who venture into their sphere. In Britain today, more people visit these structures than any other form of prehistoric monument and visitors stand in awe at their scale and question how and why they were erected. Building the Great Stone Circles of the North looks at the enigmatic stone structures of Scotland and investigates the background of their construction and their cultural significance.

Is meticulous Matthew also mathematically so? Why does Matthew alone in the canon discuss guards at Jesus' tomb? For popular storytellers in the early church, is the serpent of the Garden the unseen catalyst in the murder of John the Baptist? Why do almost three dozen words beginning with the Hebrew letter ayin have analogues in Luke's infancy narratives? Why do Mary's meditations there cohere with Psalm 19? John's Jesus describes himself as Way, Truth and Life. Does this bear any relation to the single Latin term veritas? St. Ignatius of Antioch, in his letter to the Ephesians, talks about the song of the Body of Christ and people as stringed instruments. Does John know that idea? What does the Roman legend of the emergence of bees from the carcass of a slain ox have to do with the early church? In these close readings of the Gospels, the reader will rediscover the fascination of listening to some of the original resonance of the New Testament text with Hebrew, Greek, and Latin culture. Attentive to detail and persistent in asking questions about the larger picture, this scholarship fulfills the promise inherent in research.

Residential Design Using AutoCAD 2015 is an introductory level tutorial which uses residential design exercises as the means to teach you AutoCAD 2015. Each book comes with a disc containing numerous video presentations in which the author shows and explains the many tools and techniques used in AutoCAD 2015. After completing this book you will have a well-rounded knowledge of Computer Aided Drafting that can be used in the industry and the satisfaction of having completed a set of residential drawings. This textbook starts with a basic introduction to AutoCAD 2015. The first three chapters are intended to get you familiar with the user interface and the most common menus and tools. Throughout the rest of the book you will design a residence through to its completion. Using step-by-step tutorial lessons, the residential project is followed through to create elevations, sections, details, etc. Throughout the project, new AutoCAD commands are covered at the appropriate time. Focus is placed on the most essential parts of a command rather than an exhaustive review of every sub-feature of a particular command. The Appendix contains a bonus section covering the fundamental principles of engineering graphics that relate to architecture. The disc that comes with this book contains extensive video instruction as well as bonus chapters that cover must know commands, sketching exercises, a roof study workbook and much more. About the Videos The videos contained on the included disc make it easy to see the menu selections and will make learning AutoCAD straightforward and simple. At the start of each chapter you are prompted to watch a video that previews the topics that will be covered in the proceeding chapter. This allows you to become familiar with the menu selections and techniques before you begin the tutorial. By watching these videos you will be more confident in what you are doing and have a better understanding of the desired outcome of each lesson.

This volume examines mystical experiences as portrayed in various ways by “authors” such as philosophers, mystics, psychoanalysts, writers, and peasant women. These “mystical authors” have, throughout the ages, attempted to convey the unsayable through writings, paintings, or oral stories. The immediate experience of God is the primary source and ultimate goal of these mystical expressions. This experience is essentially ineffable, yet all mystical authors, either consciously or unconsciously, feel an urge to convey what they have undergone in the moments of rapture. At the same time they are in the role of intermediaries: the goal of their self-expression – either written, painted or oral – is to make others somehow understand or feel what they have experienced, and to lead others toward the spiritual goal of human life. This volume studies the mystical experiences and the way they have been described or portrayed in West-European culture, from Antiquity to the present, from an interdisciplinary perspective, and approaches the concept of “immediate experience” in various ways.

First published in 2004. These four classic masterpieces in esoteric research by the noted orientalist - M. Penzer explore customs and traditions from other cultures and periods of history which, for all their apparent strangeness, mask fundamental subjects of continuing interest. The first concerns the motif of the poison damsel -- the beauty who dealt death in many forms to her admirers - which originated in India, was prevalent in medieval Europe, and persists today in the belief of the femme fatale. The volume includes a study in the ancient Tate of the Two Thieves, an essay on sacred prostitution in India, the ancient East and West Africa, and an exhaustive treatment of the custom of chewing the betel or areca nut which is widespread in the far East from India through Indonesia to New Guinea. A natural stimulant and narcotic whose effects are similar to that of tobacco, betel is of growing interest to the medical world, and has, as the author shows here, a rich legacy of customs and belief.