Overview: This collection of essays within Altered Perspectives: Critical Essays on Psychedelic Consciousness delves into some of the strangest and most profound aspects of the psychedelic experience, such as seeing the self as an illusion, feelings of deep insight, the sublime (fear mixed with wonder), encounters with DMT entities, déjà vu, and existential joy.

Verdict: Drawing on research and theories from a variety of disciplines, author Sam Woolfe reflects on the ways that altered states may inform our understanding of consciousness, the self, and reality.

Particular attention is paid to the philosophy of psychedelics, with the aim of clarifying altered states through the lenses of metaphysics, philosophy of mind, epistemology, aesthetics, existentialism, and Buddhism.

In these essays, Woolfe balances open-mindedness with a critical and skeptical perspective - he believes that this approach is necessary when examining psychedelic consciousness.

Having now read this new book cover-to-cover twice in the past couple of weeks, I can honestly attest to the fact that it is a fascinatingly thoughtful, dutifully insightful, and wholly enlightened prose that is as beguiling as it is all-encompassing.

Broken down into ten chapters, the philosophy of psychedelics is a growing field, and for good reason. The psychedelic experience, much like philosophy, can instill in us radical shifts in perspective, related to everything that matters to us, and to many things we rarely (if ever) question or consider.

The mind-altering, belief-changing nature of philosophy aligns well with the psychedelic experience, in which these effects are felt more dramatically and viscerally. In a flash of illumination and insight, a particular idea one expected was true can feel confirmed; a cherished perspective may, alternatively, be discarded; or perhaps a belief previously rejected or overlooked is adopted. These changes of mind may occur swiftly or slowly.

Simply put, the author’s aim is that in these essays the reader investigates certain psychedelic phenomena with a critical and skeptical outlook, as there are many experiences one can have on psychedelics that may lead to strong and certain conclusions and consciousness or reality but which nonetheless deserve scrutiny.

About the Author - Sam Woolfe is a writer and blogger who is interested in the intersection between psychedelic experiences and philosophical views. His work has been featured in numerous publications, including IAI News, Philosophy Now, and the Psychedelic Press journal. You can read more of his work at www.samwoolfe.com. He lives in London, UK.

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Overview: Here within author Janine Lowe’s new book Feng Shui Your Way to Abundance, you will learn how to unlock the power of your very own space to attract abundance.

So if that sounds like something that you have desired all your life, or perhaps you are only now realizing something like this could happen within you, this brilliant new book is most definitely for you.

Verdict: So, and taking it from the top, What is Feng Shui? Well, we are told that Feng Shui, which translates to “wind and water,” was historically used to select favorable places and times for building homes, growing crops, and other life-sustaining activities.

The philosophy is based on the elements of earth, metal, water, wood, and fire, which can all be represented through various shapes, colors, and materials throughout a home. The right balance cultivates happy, organized spaces that support our well-being and daily lives.

With that in mind, this book holds the key to unlocking within you more Wealth, Love, Good Fortune and so much more. In Feng Shui Your Way to Abundance, author and renowned Feng Shui Consultant, Eastern Astrologer and Energy Coach Janine Lowe reveals how you can transform your environment into a powerful tool for manifesting abundance in every area of your life.

For over 20 years, Janine has worked with clients around the world, guiding them to tap into their personal, profession space and the energies around them. She brings you an easy hands-on guide to help you harness the energy of Feng Shui, showing you how to take control of the energy in your surrounding and manifest your dreams and goals by taking action using Feng Shui.

From the off here, it is very obvious that Janine’s knowledge of Feng Shui and Chinese Astrology are significance, especially since she consults with individuals and businesses on both on a weekly basis, and so the way she peacefully, and with subtle ease, uses Chinese geomancy to help herself and others achieve harmony by using these energy forces is breathtakingly inspiring.

Broken down into 11 chapters plus a Conclusion, Janine opens the book with a chapter on Abundance and what the word, its context, means to her and those that wish to Feng Shui their collective way to it.

As she notes, the book is about using Feng Shui along with the positive energy in your house to attract the abundant life we want, but before she brings the reader into her world, she makes it clear that she wants us all on the same page as to just what exactly what Abundance means.

Abundance means a large quantity of something important to us. Most of us seek an abundant life, but it means different things to all of us.

For some, it is about having more time to spend with family and friends. For others it’s about experiences, travel and knowledge. Many of us think about it in terms of prosperity - which can mean thriving and being successful financially, spiritually, emotionally, or in terms of well-being. Many consider it to be about wealth, financial assets, and material possessions.

A straightforward way of thinking about it is having plenty of what you most desire, whether that is experiences, contentment, money, or something else entirely.

For this book to work, take some time to consider what it means to you. Don’t think about it in terms of what other people want you to have or to be: it’s about what YOU value and want more of in your life.

Achieving an abundant life only works if it’s about what YOU want.

In closing, Feng Shui Your Way to Abundance breaks free from the norm or scarcity that pervades our world, Janine teaches you in simple ways how to bring abundance, better relationships, and financial flow into your life. With her easy-to-follow advice, actionable insights, and the wisdom of thousands of years of Feng Shui, Janine walks you through the process of transforming your space and your life – step by step.

About the Author - It was obvious to Janine Lowe that she wasn’t designed for a 9-5 job and she wanted to use what she was good at as a career. She trained with various masters and became a Feng Shui consultant. Meeting people and being able to transform their lives in such a positive way has brought her immense joy and fulfillment.

Her business in Feng Shui and Chinese Astrology has grown significantly and she consults with individuals and businesses on both. She lives in West Sussex, UK.

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Overview: This excellent new novel entitled The Taking, from author Dona Masi, tells a very suspenseful story of a girl besieged by strange events, the beguiling story line exploring what it means to confront the unknown.

Verdict: An unnatural silence and a feeling that you are all alone in the world. John and his daughter, Vera, grieve the loss of Vera’s mother, who mysteriously disappeared when Vera was a baby. As John struggles to raise his troubled daughter, he dismisses connections between his wife’s disappearance and Vera’s bizarre dreams of otherworldly creatures.

But when he finds Vera unconscious, lying in a ring of scorched trees, he begins to believe that a mysterious outside force is controlling her fate and his.

The Taking is a suspenseful story depicting a loving but difficult relationship between a father and daughter, amid the strange events that underlie their everyday life in a small New England town.

Tucked, seemingly at first, inconspicuously into this book as you begin reading it, is a most astutely told story that not only builds upon its tension in a layered manner, but one that becomes dutifully impassioned in such a way that the authors masterful creation of suspense and unexpectedness for the characters and the plot, is as impressive a feat as I have personally encountered in the past decade or so.

That character development blended with a genuine bringing of an angst-ridden, butterflies-affecting stance to those that read it, means what we get here in The Taking: A Novel is a story told, on the emotionally grounded surface, that heads in one direction, whilst the undercurrent silently, and yet with stealth, aches to reveal itself to be a rather compelling psychological thriller of the highest order.

About the Author - Dona Masi is a writer and editor whose short fiction and articles have been used in reading and writing assessments throughout the country. As a playwright, she has written plays that have been performed at the Provincetown Theater Company and on the Bon Mot radio program. When writing fiction or plays, she loves bringing characters to life and depicting them in all their humanity and heroism. She lives in Dover, NH.

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Overview: Christian Thinking through the Ages by author David Arnold, is an account of Christian thinking that starts with Jesus of Nazareth’s teaching and then describes how its reception has changed over the last 2,000 years.

Verdict: As noted, Christian Thinking through the Ages takes its reader on a journey through 2,000 years of ideas. It starts with Jesus of Nazareth’s teaching, looks at speculation about Jesus himself and his significance, and describes the attempts to establish uniformity of belief both in the Roman Empire and in the late Middle Ages.

It describes the thinking of medieval monks, schoolmen and friars, of the Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment, and goes on to show how the twentieth century’s political horrors led to new theological ideas, most of which have yet to trickle down to the mass of Christians.

I grew up in a very religious household, thus the teachings of Jesus during this time were always freely available to me. These teachings, many delivered in parables, focused on a repentance that would redirect a life to God, a life absolutely obedient to the will of God and following the commandment to love one’s neighbor expressed in Mark 12:28–31.

But sometimes it is hard to find the truth of a historical figure and the truth of what they brought to the world, I get that. I mean, it can be so shrouded in other people’s reactions and what they thought of them that you can hardly see past all that to appreciate the person themselves.

So what author David Arnold does here in his dutifully-constructed new book Christian Thinking through the Ages, is bring forth a profound, yet immaculately balanced, and straightforward learning essay on the subject matter to hand.

One that both allows you to acquire knowledge along the way, perhaps enlightening the reader to aspects they themselves were previously unaware of, whilst at the same time allowing everything to be told in a genuinely cohesive and instructionally lucid manner.

Thus, and as much as this thoroughly beguiling new prose concludes with an explanation of the various ways Christian churches disagree with each other, the book, as a whole, nonetheless ends with the hopeful thought that what Christians have in common and can share with others are the words of Jesus and his sacrifice.

About the Author - David Arnold was born in Hackney in 1933. He was educated at an elementary school and at Christ’s Hospital, was a history scholar of Pembroke College, Oxford, and a fellow commoner of Jesus College, Cambridge. His working life was spent as a schoolmaster, ten years in grammar schools, twelve in independent schools, and twenty in sixth form colleges. He lives in West Sussex, UK.

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Overview: Nursing Our Healer’s Heart is a gentle exploration of nurse-specific traumatization, which affects 96% of nurses, along with an actionable recovery plan for nurses to heal together as they begin to thrive instead of just survive in their practices.

Verdict: As I think we all know now, and have done for quite a few years/decades, nurses in hospitals are frequently under pressure due to a combination of factors including heavy workloads, staffing shortages, complex patient needs, time constraints, and the demanding nature of their job, often leading to burnout and stress, particularly during situations like a pandemic where patient volume may surge significantly.

So yeah, the nursing profession is, in general, in crisis. Within a decade, the world will have just over half the number of nurses it needs. The global nursing workforce has experienced mass, complex trauma secondary to healthcare system inadequacies and a global pandemic. Traumatized and burned out nurses are leaving their roles or the profession in unprecedented numbers. Those who remain are stretched to or beyond their capacity.

As noted, the fact that the healthcare organizations are still grappling with a nursing shortage crisis is nothing new. While some health systems have had success in rebuilding their nursing workforces in recent months, estimates still suggest a potential shortage of 200,000 to 450,000 nurses in the United States, with acute-care settings likely to be most affected, according to a recent article.

And as of March 2023, 45 percent of inpatient nurses reported they are likely to leave their role in the next six months, citing feeling undervalued by their organization and not having a manageable workload as their top two reasons. Healthcare leaders cannot build an effective staffing strategy without understanding how nurses are spending their time, how they would like to spend their time, and how their needs are evolving.

While system-level strategies aim to address this crisis, none of them consider nurse traumatization and its impact upon patient safety, outcomes, and quality of care. We cannot wait for health systems to prioritize nurse safety. Nurses can and must come together as a global community to heal through avoidable and unavoidable nurse-specific traumatization while partnering with healthcare leaders to usher in a new era of nursing.

However, this book, and through an actionable framework, guides nurses in healing the traumas and hardships they’ve endured as individuals and nursing communities. Grounded in the sciences of unitary caring, integrative nursing, neurophysiology, and transpersonal neurobiology, this book supports nurses in restoring their healers’ heart as they come together to address the deep trauma, burnout, attrition, and presenteeism that are central to the nursing crisis.

Thus Dr. Lorre Laws’ book (which is broken down into three sections - Healing Is Possible, Healing Is Happening, and Thriving in Practice & in Life - each with varying chapters within them) diligently explores these entangled, seemingly ever more complex as the years go by layers of trauma, most all too often ignored or overlooked, and strives to bring forth here a dutifully written, expertly cultured, and definitely vitally informative prose of a resource for anyone treating, or even themselves recovering from chronic illness, or a severe sense of burnout or traumatization.

For it is here within these pages that Nurses will learn the language of their nervous system and how to navigate it as a foundational practice to support professional wellbeing. Each nurse will discover their unique innate care plan, which will guide their healing and co-healing with other nurses.

As the author herself admits, This book was written for you, and it is about you, my most respected colleague, nurse and healer. I, too, am a nurse. I wrote this book for nurses who have experienced or are experiencing trauma or burnout, or who do not feel safe, seen, or heard, supported in practice.

And so by embracing the healing and practices offered in this book, nurses will learn how to support their nervous system regulation so they can thrive instead of survive in practice. Working from their healed scars instead of their open wounds, nurses can effectively lead sustainable organizational change and health care reforms that prioritize nurse safety and professional wellbeing.

About the Author - Dr. Lorre Laws is an author, healer, teacher, and integrative nursing professor who helps nurses who are experiencing burnout or traumatization -- often secondary to system inadequacies. Dr. Lorre guides nurses as they heal and recover together; moving from surviving to thriving in practice.

She founded The Haelan Academy, a nonprofit organization to support nurses throughout their career. As an engaging, informative, and entertaining speaker, Dr. Lorre is a beacon of way showing light for nurses and health professions as they usher in Nursing 2.0, a new paradigm that prioritizes nurse safety and professional wellbeing. She lives in Tucson, AZ.

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Overview: Hearken back to the call of Cerridwen, mistress of initiation and keeper of the cauldron of inspiration. Follow the footsteps of the bards and dive into her mysterious depths in search of the radiant brow of inner vision.

Drink of her Awen, her divine brew, and sit with Taliesin, keeper of the bright knowledge of spirit. Cerridwen has been honored by the Welsh bards for centuries and is known most famously as the mother and initiator of the bardic poet and divine child Taliesin, whose works are the greatest treasures of Welsh medieval literature, unlocking a spiritual tradition whose roots go far back to Britain’s most ancient past.

Verdict: For those not fully aware, this brand new book Pagan Portals - Cerridwen: Keeper of the Cauldron stylishly traces Cerridwen’s roots through layers of history and myth, whilst also providing hands-on exercises and visionary rites to help you realize her immeasurable power in your own magical practice.

For I honestly think that it is rather important that we learn as much as possible about a mother figure who loved her child so ferociously, with such dedication, even though she was very often a misunderstood figure. But author Danu Forest is a Celtic scholar, and her exquisite use of words makes Cerridwen so much more interesting, relatable, and human than the way history, at times, has drawn here.

A Celtic Goddess of the cauldron, Cerridwen was the embodiment of the great transformative power of the cauldron itself — the alchemical vessel through which the ordinary becomes the magical.

While known by many as a shapeshifting Goddess, Cerridwen most popularly represented the darker aspects of Goddess energy—symbolizing the crone, the wise one, the dark one who sees all and knows all.

This is why Cerridwen is most well-known for her ties to the Underworld as keeper of the cauldron (the ultimate inspiratrix and creatrix) — embedding herself at the center of that fateful cycle between death and rebirth. For Cerridwen knows, just like any wise crone would, that to create and to inspire as one does with such power means to invoke the intimate death and rebirth that all of creation requires.

What this book strives to do is bring an engaging, and dutifully balanced overview of just who Cerridwen was, along with her generous ability to teach, and love. Not only is the mythology interesting and symbolic, but the book itself is so beautifully written that the words are inspiring and relevant today.

As for why Cerridwen is so important to the author Forest, well, her interest in Taliesin and Cerridwen first took root within her while she was at school over thirty years ago, and she admits she can recall that even then how they deeply stirred her.

Thus the central work of this book has been to honor Cerridwen as best she could, but no book or journey of study ever takes place in a vacuum, and so she takes this opportunity to thank and honor all those who have supported her path and learning, and who have provided insight and inspiration along the way.

She also acknowledges and honors the rich and vibrant culture and developments taking place with regard to this subject in modern Wales at this time, and so encourages the reader to engage with these as much as possible.

About the Author - Danu Forest is a traditional Celtic wisewoman, of half British and half Irish heritage. She is a writer, teacher and Celtic Scholar with an MA in Celtic studies, her thesis was on Celtic folk magic practitioners and the fairy faith. Danu lives in a cottage near Glastonbury Tor in the midst of the Avalon lakes, in the South West of England.

Exploring the Celtic mysteries for over 30 years, and noted for her quality research, practical experience, as well as her deep visionary love of the land, Danu writes for numerous national and international magazines and is the author of several books.

She is a respected magical teacher, healer and seer offering readings and consultations, workshops and ceremonies, as well as online courses. www.danuforest.co.uk.

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Overview: Dharma Moon Press is pleased to announce the publication of Jazz in the New Millennium: Live and Well, Revised Edition, by Rick Mitchell.

The 8 ½ by 11 book contains interviews with 84 prominent jazz musicians active in the 21st Century, including such living masters as Charles Lloyd and Pat Metheny, prime time players Jason Moran and Christian McBride and rising stars Esperanza Spalding and Cecile McLorin Salvant.

As Mitchell says in the introduction, “I am shaping the narrative with the questions I ask, and my analysis of the music is never too far from the surface. But as an interviewer, my primary objective is to let the musicians speak for themselves.”

The first edition was published in 2014 by Dharma Moon Press and DaCamera of Houston. At a hefty 275 pages, Jazz in the New Millennium: Live and Well, Revised Edition includes 40 new chapters, and dozens of new photos.

The book is easy to read and full of useful information for those who want to educate themselves about jazz and/or stay current with the latest trends and new artists. The book offers the most comprehensive overview of what is happening in jazz today that exists in print.

Verdict: For those not fully aware, in Jazz in the New Millennium: Live and Well, Revised Edition, author Rick Mitchell argues that the greatest music of the first 25 years of the 21st Century holds its own with any previous era of jazz, as the most talented musicians from around the world continue to find their way to this music and bring their unique cultural perspectives to the tradition of Duke, Monk and Trane.

“Will young listeners 50 years from now discover the recordings of Cecile McLorin Salvant and Joshua Redman and approach them with the same reverence we now have for Billie Holiday and Lester Young?” he asks. “I don’t know,” he answers, “but I am here to make the case that they should.”

OK, so let us be clear about this first fact, and that is this revised edition, now complete with an amazing 40 new chapters, is a big, and noted hefty book, and yet one that once started is so very hard to close until chapters have been completed.

In what is a most highly insightful, dutifully informative, and remarkably diligent with regard not just its content, but the author’s very own heartfelt observations, the prose sets about uncovering the movers and shakers active in jazz, then and now.

Often described as having developed into many different styles, including traditional jazz, swing, bebop, cool jazz, and jazz-rock, this American music genre can also be broken down into such sub-sections as: Improvisational, Rhythmic, Swinging, Polyphonic, Blue notes and complex chords, Call and response vocals, and Pitch and timbre distortions, et al.

Jazz originated in African-American communities in New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was influenced by many musical styles, including blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythms, spirituals, hymns, marches, vaudeville song, and dance music.

Being a music journalist myself, I cover any and all musical art forms, but one that has itself always been accessible to me at times when things needed to slow down around me, when I needed to bring a little calm to my life, was jazz. Sure, I understand there is more to jazz than just the slow, low slung blues-jazz aspects (and no, I am not referring to smooth jazz, moreover cool jazz), but for me I have always personally enjoyed those albums over the faster paced entries within the genre (such as Count Basie, Buddy Rich, Stan Kenton, et al).

I also understand, and have witnessed during many a conversation on the subject, that many people think of jazz as an art form of music from the last century and beyond, a genre that has seen its day, played a good game, and has since been long retired, but that is far from the truth.

For many years now, decades even, jazz has seen a resurgence in popularity, which is in no small part due to jazz records being sampled so widely in hip-hop production. Yet in just the last decade, musicians from all across the jazz spectrum have tried to deconstruct some of the outdated tropes of jazz standards; instead opting to create a more open-ended sonic palette that incorporates the musical innovations of the later half of the 20th century.

What Rick does here is make sure that jazz is still very much a living form of music within the general consciousness, showcase that it has been growing all along via a steady undercurrent that has never let its foot off the pedal, and continues to be as well loved today as it ever was back then.

Furthermore, the book actually makes you want to go out and find the music and hear it yourself for all the artists mentioned, which if you do that, please make sure to hunt down the vinyl records of the titles, as CD/digital is just not gonna cut it through your speakers for such an intimate listening experience, trust me.

About the Author - Rick Mitchell is a radio programmer, journalist and teacher living in Portland, Oregon. He has been writing about all forms of music for national and regional newspapers and magazines for 50 years. From 1989 to 1999, he was the jazz and popular music critic for The Houston Chronicle.

His previous books include Garth Brooks: One of a Kind, Workin’ on a Full House (Simon and Schuster, 1993) and Whiskey River (Take My Mind): The True Story of Texas Honky Tonk (University of Texas Press, 2007). Since 2015, he has produced a weekly one-hour radio program, also called Jazz in the New Millennium, syndicated nationally by the African American Public Radio Consortium.

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Overview: With COBHAM: The Music and Drumming of Billy Cobham, the work and life of this drumming colossus is explored and analyzed.

Written with Cobham’s direct involvement and culled from dozens of hours of interviews with him, the book presents a biography of his early years and the development of his career, and then documents select important recordings and projects from 1968 up to the present day.

Verdict: For those not fully aware, here within these glorious pages of the dutifully constructed COBHAM: The Music and Drumming of Billy Cobham, the principle leader Billy Cobham gives his views on the industry, writing music, leading a band, recording, education/clinics, and other topics.

Presented in a coffee-table style full-color layout, an extensive collection of photos (many culled from Cobham’s personal archives) documents Billy’s history — including his contributions to the innovative setup of the instrument itself: left-hand-lead/ambidextrous playing, double bass drums, the contemporary large kit with instrument innovations such as the gong drum, and an endlessly creative approach to playing the drums in ways that continue to defy convention.

And a lot of what we are lovingly presented is simply informatively fabulous to add to what we, as drum followers, already knew. Known as one of the world’s most prolific jazz drummers, Billy was born William C. Cobham on May 16th, 1944, in Panama, where he developed a fascination with the percussion instruments his cousins played when he was a very young child.

Known today as being a jazz fusion maestro, widely recognized, and esteemed for his creative drumming/musical brilliance, over the decades he has significantly contributed as a master drummer, percussionist, composer, producer, educator, clinician, and tireless musical adventurer.

And yet, when asked the question of whether or not he had ever had any kind of formal training on the drums growing up, his answer is astounding: Very little. I went to the Music and Art High School in New York City but they didn’t have a percussion instructor there. They looked down on percussionists. I studied with Morris Goldenberg, who passed on in 1966. I also studied with Warren Smith who was a student teacher in our high school while studying at the Manhattan School of Music. But no other formal training."

Regardless, Billy has played the drums on some of the genre’s seminal early records, including ground-breaking works by Miles Davis and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, before he was a successful musician in his own right.

He has also used his incredible skill to create booming, high-octane mashes of jazz sophistication and rock & roll ferocity when playing at his best. He could play understated, funkier grooves and astonishing solo improvisations, and luckily for us all, we got to hear a lot of that phenomenal skill on his recordings.

COBHAM: The Music and Drumming of Billy Cobham chronicles the work and life of this drumming titan is explored and analyzed. Written with Cobham’s direct involvement and culled from dozens of hours of interviews with him, the book gives us his views on the industry, writing music, leading a band, recording, education/clinics, and other engrossing topics.

Also included are exclusive interviews with John McLaughlin, Ron Carter, Randy Brecker, and contributions from Wayne Cobham (Bill’s brother and collaborator) and Ken Hoshino (Tama drums). Contemporary legends who count Cobham among their main influences also contribute their views on Billy’s importance: Will Calhoun, Dennis Chambers, Gary Husband, Simon Phillips, John Riley, Steve Smith, and Narada Michael Walden. Rounded out by a complete discography and a collection of industry advertisements over the years, the book can be used as a musical analysis, biography, or an entertaining look at photos and history of the legendary music career of Billy Cobham.

In short, and both via this book and his world-renowned persona, we learn and embrace the fact that Billy Cobham is a highly skilled soloist whose explosive force and rhythmic precision set the standard for fusion drummers. He also continues to innovate and provide service to the world through his music with the same vigor and enthusiasm he had in his youth.

About the Author - Joe Bergamini is a drummer from New Jersey in the United States. He is the co-founder of the instrumental progressive rock band 4Front. 4Front’s other founder, guitarist/songwriter Zak Rizvi, went on to become a member of the classic rock group Kansas in 2016.

The latest in a series from author Joe Bergamini, who has written best-selling musical biographies of Neil Peart, Stewart Copeland, and Steve Gadd, COBHAM: The Music and Drumming of Billy Cobham is a must for the bookshelf of all drummers and fans of jazz and fusion.

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Overview: The land of Bryvania once faced a problem: too many adventurers, and not enough mythical beasts and dark wizards to provide the adventures to satisfy them.

The problem was solved when the Baron Kaveshvill opened a purpose-built dungeon, the Warren. Full of rewards and risks, and with a hefty charge to enter, this soon became a thriving monopoly on adventure, and the only opportunity for fame and fortune.

Verdict: Azra, a young girl shunned by her village for her ability to magically disappear and reappear, receives an invitation from a mysterious stranger to take part in the greatest heist in the history of the land: to steal the Warren’s gold.

But the plan is fraught with danger, and working with a legendary adventurer, a notorious trickster and an enthusiastic elf, Azra must learn quickly who to trust and who to fear, if she is to come out of the Warren with its riches - or even with her life.

My goodness, this may well be a short book at just over 100 pages, but what a most wondrous, free flowing, magically adventurous prose ride it is! From start to finish (which I did in one sitting, one evening) I was enraptured from the off and enjoyed every second of this tale of hope, fear, redemption, honor and ultimate bravery.

For in a Warren chock full of many creatures, worldly and unworldly, whether there also be real dragons or not, it doesn’t matter as what these characters encounter, the adventures they submit to, the way their adrenaline pumps, their faces contort, their hearts pump is exactly the way we ourselves find ourselves reading this very same book!

About the Author - Tom Grimwood is Professor of Social Philosophy at the University of Cumbria, UK. His previous books include The Shock of the Same: An Antiphilosophy of Cliches, Key Debates in Social Work and Philosophy, and Irony, Misogyny and Interpretation. He lives in Lancaster, UK.

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Overview: When Rydara, the mixed-race bastard daughter of a tribal king, finds out that the queen of a neighboring country is murdering tribes people in dark magic rituals, her father refuses to believe her and banishes her to avoid the risk of war.

She and her loyal brother Aander strike out through a desert wasteland to seek the fabled land of elves and dragons, where they hope to find magic strong enough to defeat the queen.

But even if they find the elves, how will Rydara convince them to save a tribe of prejudiced, short-sighted humans? Are her people worth saving--and if so, how much is Rydara willing to sacrifice?

Verdict: Admittedly, I went into this book a little blind to what, if anything, had come before, as I really enjoy not knowing too much about a read before I immerse myself.

But that’s just me, so allow me to provide some context for this new prose ahead of time for those wishing to know (and if you don’t, please forgive me if you are now reading this), because I have since been informed that author B.F. Peterson has another new book coming out in June this year entitled The Ellyrian Code: The Treaty of Edriendor, and thus this book The Land Beyond The Waste is a companion novel to that very same novel.

Does that mean you cannot enjoy this one before you have the other to hand in June so you should delay reading this now? Heck no it doesn’t! It simply means you have this wondrously adventurous new novel to hand now to enjoy over and over, to immerse yourself within, knowing that come June you have its companion to run into, arms wide open, and with a big, wide smile emblazoned!

For what we have here in The Land Beyond The Waste: A Novel is a rather gripping YA tale chock full of fantastical elements, including humans, elves, and dragons, amongst a whole slew of other interesting, nay enthralling, well-written characters.

An epic fantasy tale of the highest order, we read along as the endearing relationship between Rydara and her half-brother Aandar colorizes as the pages are turned, the story line becoming more and more intricate, at times even politically charged, and at all times is a tale told as if it were plucked from the history books.

Complete with poignant descriptions of front and center characters along with secondary and even, at times, background, the prose drawing of the Elves and their land/cultural practices is just second to none. And lest I forget to mention their spoken language as it is truly captivating, highly original and is both expansive and enriching for the unfolding story within these collective pages.

About the Author - B.F. Peterson is a poet, philosopher, and fantasy novelist with a B.A. in Psychology from Johns Hopkins University and a day job in sleep research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She lives in Madison, WI.

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Overview: Can we find religious inspiration in great atheist writing? It is a paradoxical challenge but an urgent one. The gap between secular and religious understandings of the world has become impossibly wide. It is damaging Christianity and cutting young people off from the possibility of faith. Yet if God exists, everything we learn about the world should tell us more about God.

Verdict: The Devils’ Gospels started in a youth discussion group at Oxford’s University Church. Each month the author would introduce a different atheist book to the teenagers to see where the discussion would lead. Four of the best are given the status of gospels here: Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Jacques Derrida’s Writing and Difference, Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time, and Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion. These books each have, in their own way, shaped the world we live in today.

Author Christopher Gasson is a journalist, publisher, and amateur theologian. He studied politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford University. While his children were young, he took responsibility for the University Church’s Sunday school and youth discussion group. Growing up he had felt that Church liked to wrap up children in intellectual cotton wool out of fear that their faith be upset by even the gentlest questioning.

He was therefore determined that the discussion group should therefore address the most difficult and dangerous challenges to Christianity rather than ignore them. What he discovered was that God is robust enough to stand up to such questioning and the adults in the congregation had just as much appetite for such discussion as the teenagers. The Devils’ Gospels was born.

The Devils’ Gospels captures the energy of their ideas in language simple enough for a bright 11-year-old to understand, and uses it to shed greater light on the nature of God. But it is not just written for intelligent teenagers trying to find their way towards belief. It is aimed at two other important groups: Christians who feel that they aren’t getting the answers that matter from the Church, and non-believers who want to explore the possibility that there may be more to life than physics and biology.

Thus in what is a most enthralling exploration, The Devils’ Gospels: Finding God in Four Great Atheist Books is one of those cannot put down, page-turning prose that dutifully challenges the reader to question their long-felt, long-standing understanding of right and wrong; albeit here in a way that quickly becomes a reflective re: Faith and the true nature of Evil.

About the Author - Christopher Gasson is a journalist, publisher, and amateur theologian. He studied politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford University and subsequently took responsibility for running the University Church’s Sunday school and youth discussion group.

In his day job he publishes a successful specialist magazine covering the water industry and is an occasional contributor to the New Statesman magazine. He lives in Oxford, UK.

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Overview: A spiritual odyssey, Revealing Light: How Cancer Illuminated My Divine Blueprint tells the story of its author’s psychological and spiritual evolution, from confronting her mortality with a deadly illness to creating a community of like-minded people.

Verdict: Here within the pages of Revealing Light: How Cancer Illuminated My Divine Blueprint, YouTube psychic-astrologer Maryann Weston, from Revealing Light, shares her spiritual evolution after cancer had activated dormant psychic gifts, revealing a new purpose.

In 2015, amid a successful career, wife and mother Maryann Weston was diagnosed with cancer. Engulfed first in waves of fear, she didn’t want to die and leave her family. A million questions and reasons to fight flooded her mind. Confronted by death, she felt inadequate and small. If only she had known then how supremely and divinely Spirit would soon walk beside her, onto cancer’s battlefield.

Her fear and doubt suddenly began to lift when she started reconnecting with her childhood clairvoyance, studying mediumship and astrology, drawing from her strong calling to discuss her healing and the psychic abilities she had suppressed since childhood.

Following this battle with cancer and subsequent recovery, dormant psychic abilities were reawakened and Maryann established multiple spiritual platforms, a spiritual blog and podcast, as well as a Patreon platform. Nowadays, she is a clairvoyant and psychic medium and combines these gifts with journalism and research skills to interpret how universal and spiritual truths apply and impact on our world.

She cover’s diverse subjects in her spiritual work, global events, climate change, politics and future world trends and events and uses astrology to look at major planetary movements and conjunctions impacting our world, along with channeling messages from passed over, inspirational souls and on spiritual themes.

This book is about the gifts received through adversity, about learning in the fiery waters of a spiritual baptism that many cancer warriors experience and how crisis can shatter existence to reveal divine purpose in life - a blueprint we agreed to before we were born.

About the Author - Maryann Weston is a clairvoyant & psychic medium who combines these gifts with journalism and research skills to interpret how universal and spiritual truths apply and impact in our world. She has been reading tarot for decades, studying astrology for the past 5 years, and has been a clairvoyant all her life, experiencing psychic and emphatic events from childhood. She lives in Goulburn, Australia.

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Overview: The notion that 21st-century people believe in something is self-evident. Each of us has political, religious, and social notions and beliefs - a simple given of contemporary life.

But while many have watched with horror as ordinary people in the US and around the world express ideas and beliefs that are demonstrably unsupportable, it’s apparent that the very notion of belief is in question.

Verdict: So, how is Belief explained? Well, it can be described as an acceptance that a statement is true, or that something exists, or something one accepts as true or real; a firmly held opinion or conviction, perhaps, or it is simply trust, faith, or confidence in someone or something.

Impossible to Believe focuses on several key sites of belief, such as contemporary religion, politics, and popular culture, to question and examine how these sites have been upended and supplanted. This analysis begins with Guy Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle and extends these ideas into the twenty-first century, taking account of how things such as digital culture and contemporary debt relations continue to cause spectacular life, penetrating our deepest core and proliferating over all we see and do.

Guy Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle is a 1967 work of philosophy and Marxist critical theory by Guy Debord where he develops and presents the concept of the Spectacle. The book is considered a seminal text for the Situationist movement. Debord published a follow-up book Comments on the Society of the Spectacle in 1988.

Debord traces the development of a modern society in which authentic social life has been replaced with its representation: All that once was directly lived has become mere representation. Debord argues that the history of social life can be understood as the decline of being into having, and having into merely appearing. This condition, according to Debord, is the historical moment at which the commodity completes its colonization of social life.

The spectacle is the inverted image of society in which relations between commodities have supplanted relations between people, in which passive identification with the spectacle supplants genuine activity. The spectacle is not a collection of images, Debord writes, rather, it is a social relation among people, mediated by images.

In his analysis of the spectacular society, Debord notes that the quality of life is impoverished, with such a lack of authenticity that human perceptions are affected; and an attendant degradation of knowledge, which in turn hinders critical thought.

Debord analyzes the use of knowledge to assuage reality: the spectacle obfuscates the past, imploding it with the future into an undifferentiated mass, a type of never-ending present. In this way, the spectacle prevents individuals from realizing that the society of spectacle is only a moment in history, one that can be overturned through revolution.

In the Situationist view, situations are actively constructed and characterized by a sense of self-consciousness of existence within a particular environment or ambience.

Debord encouraged the use of détournement, which involves using spectacular images and language to disrupt the flow of the spectacle.

Thus, The Society of the Spectacle is a critique of contemporary consumer culture and commodity fetishism, dealing with issues such as class alienation, cultural homogenization, and mass media.

But I digress, for the dominance of forms of spectacular life that were accelerated under neoliberalism and global consumer capital has obliterated things such as Habermas’s rational critical debate and Althusser’s notion of ideology, replacing them with a mode of existence that depends entirely on having over being. Even homo economicus has been replaced by homo consumptor.

For the record, Habermas’s rational critical debate is where Habermas envisioned the public sphere as a neutral zone, devoid of economic and political influence, where rational-critical debate could thrive, and where according to him, this space should be: Inclusive: Open to all citizens, regardless of class or background.

And Althusser’s notion of ideology is where, and according to Louis Althusser, ideology refers to the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real conditions of existence, meaning that people’s understanding of their own lives and social reality is largely shaped by a set of ideas and beliefs that are not necessarily reflective of the true power dynamics and structures around them, effectively acting as a veil that maintains the status quo; this concept is often seen as a way to explain how individuals are interpellated or positioned as subjects within a dominant ideology through institutions like education, media, and the family.

The book may only be just over 100 pages in length, but it is a notably heavy read, chock full of political, religious, and social notions and beliefs, all wrapped up within the cold, hard-faced embrace of what exactly belief is to everyone and, moreover, can bringing it into question change the embedded notion of belief with any of us - and for all the right reasons?

About the Author - Michael William Templeton is an independent scholar and writer. He completed his Ph.D. in literary studies at Miami University of Ohio in 2005. He is the author of The Chief of Birds: A Memoir published by Erratum Press. He has written creative non-fiction and critical essays on contemporary culture, which have been published in online and print magazines and journals. He lives in West Milton, Ohio.

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Overview: Death, as the saying goes, is the great leveler, and though many fear it, while others view it as a blessed release, its inescapability affects us all in some way.

The author of this unusual book makes use both of her spiritual reading and of the knowledge she gained from 20-plus years’ experience of taking her Deep Memory Process clients back to deaths in their previous lives, thus giving a broad spectrum of possible post-death scenarios.

Verdict: And thus these very same possible post-death scenarios are illustrated here with a combination of famous and fictional characters, drawn both from accounts that came from the ‘other side’ through her figurative pen and from factual research.

Part of the book’s aim is to dispel all fears of death itself and to demonstrate that the notion of eternal damnation is mistaken. At the same time, it shows the reader that whether a lifetime lasts 10 years (as did Annie Darwin’s) or 97 (like Bertrand Russell’s), it has a clear purpose and value.

The stories’ precise truth is, however, immaterial, as you will find them enjoyable, educational, and reassuring, one and all, as what you will quickly learn early on is that the author Ann Merivale has created an easy to read page turner of the highest, and most insightful order.

In what is ninth, and supposedly final book, she lovingly brings forth all she has learnt being a Deep Memory Process Therapist, inclusive of 27 individual case studies, allowing us to hear their stories whilst at the same time nudging us toward verifying our own perspectives on how we perceive death.

These differing stories of death are fascinating, allowing for our brains to focus in, and listen intently, because there is nothing more personally interesting to us humans as death - and how others handle it so that we might learn from them.

Ergo, DEATH: Friend or Enemy? is one of those reads that at 400 pages you cannot undergo in one seating, although who am I to say it cannot be done, but for me I broke it down into a weeks worth of consumption.

Yes, OK, we live in uncertain death times, with no clear answers, traditions, or histories to lean on. Death is not a teacher of any specific transcendent wisdom, nor of truth, and the existential lessons are not settled in a fixed curriculum. We die, the body is temporal, and grief is a part of life.

Sure, no arguments there, but, and in counterpoint, this is a well researched, enjoyable, and well-documented new book, full of significant insights and thought-provoking tales of near death experiences, mediums, and revealing soul voyages through past lives that will most definitely open your eyes in readiness.

About the Author - Ann Merivale is a Woolger-trained Deep Memory Process therapist. She lives in Worcestershire, UK and, prior to Covid, was working at the Ripon Natural Health Centre in N. Yorks.

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Overview: This book is a practice-based approach to compassion meditation training that equips readers with skills to bring compassion directly into their everyday lives. It sits within the secular mindfulness tradition and is a unique fusion of Buddhist, evolutionary, and psychological approaches to compassion and includes insights from neuroscience.

Verdict: Based on the authors’ experiences over the last decade of training hundreds of people in compassion meditation, including at the Master’s degree level, Compassion Based Living Course proceeds gradually, building capacity in stages.

It starts with mindfulness and proceeds to self-compassion and then compassion for others, with a final chapter focusing on socially engaged compassion. It is a companion to our earlier successful book, published by O-Books, Mindfulness Based Living Course.

In what is a brilliantly constructed, wholly impassioned and dutifully intriguing new prose, this book is more than just a study in practical DIY for those who might be interested in the aforementioned Compassion Based Living Course, moreover it will have you enthralled from the off and hopefully, come the end, you will have greatly benefited from the content held within along with perhaps even the discussed course.

About the Authors - Heather Regan-Addis began training in Mindfulness with Rob Nairn in 2004. She is a British Wheel of Yoga trained yoga teacher, has a PGDip in Mindfulness Based Approaches from the University of Bangor, Wales and a Masters Degree in Studies in Mindfulness from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland.

In 2010 she co-founded the Mindfulness Association ( www.mindfulnessassociation.net) which is now one of the largest Mindfulness Training and Mindfulness Teacher Training organizations in the UK and of which she is currently the Managing Director.

She teaches Mindfulness, Compassion and Insight courses and leads the team that developed and delivers the Mindfulness Teacher Training program to teach the 8 week Mindfulness Based Living Course (MBLC).

Choden (aka Sean McGovern) is a monk within the Karma Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, who completed a three year, three month retreat in 1997 and has been a practicing Buddhist since 1985. He is originally from South Africa where he trained as a lawyer and learned meditation under the guidance of Rob Nairn, an internationally renowned Buddhist teacher.

He is now involved in developing secular mindfulness and compassion programs drawing upon the wisdom and methods of the Buddhist tradition, as well as contemporary insights from psychology and neuroscience.

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Overview: In a time of windstorms and wildfires, Blue is a huge tree growing in an ancient forest. Blue’s best friend is Maisie-Grace, a girl with a terrible, beautiful secret. Not only can Maisie talk to trees, she has dreams and visions that come true, a gift she has to hide from everybody.

Verdict: One day, Maisie dreams of loggers coming to cut down her beloved forest. A series of events propels her from the woods, where she has been homeschooled her entire life, to a middle school she doesn’t know.

There she makes unlikely friends with JAX, a paraplegic artist, and Macon, an animal-loving farm girl. The three girls venture into the forest where they get to know the trees, and eventually themselves.

Can they save the forest from being silenced? Will Maisie-Grace come out of hiding and tell people all that she sees? Will she let them silence her, too?

In a day and age where powerful, thought-provoking tales of crucial forethought and insightful decision making is well and truly needed for our younger generation to successfully move forward, along comes Blue: When Hiding Isn’t Safe Anymore, a book that dutifully combines all of that and more for the younger generation to absorb.

Interlocking within a magnificent story line prose and a diligently scattered amount of inspiring messaging, along with clearly showcasing how to build bridges to not only further ourselves mentally, but to build a better future for all, author Caroline Allen has expertly awoken all our spiritual awareness to enable us to think about our connection to the Earth and this most gloriously spun life we exist within.

A transformative, spiritually-hued book, I can honestly say that I read it in just two sittings, but had bed not been calling me that first night, it might have been consumed in one go. For the book is just that good. An effortless read, yet one with such powerful transformations for us to visualize that it is a wonder she managed to create this most deeply colorful world and all that exists within it in just these 216 pages.

Helping us to know our challenges, to be able to handle them accordingly, but moreover to have the courage to step forward, this generational crossover of a story weaves a most beautiful tale of the wisdom of trees, one where if we can teach ourselves to be way more attentive to the roots, the trunks, the branches, the soul of our trees, perhaps we ourselves can walk head held positively high with freshly garnered Mother Nature knowledge into an always uncertain future.

About the Author - Caroline Allen was an international newsroom journalist when a sudden call to give it up left her reeling. She’d spent years giving voice to the voiceless, and now she was being called to find her own authentic creative voice.

With the narrative and characters closely intertwined with nature and climate change, her first four award-winning novels follow one mystic protagonist around the world in search of self-acceptance and purpose. How can she stop running from her gifts and use them to help a world in crisis? She lives in Estacada, OR.

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Overview: In the flow of healing waters and the urgent cry of the Earth, we hear the voice of the Celtic mother goddess Modron, also known as Matrona.

A goddess of fertility, abundance and healing, but also of grief and loss and ancestral wisdom, she is still present, although hidden, in today’s world.

Verdict: Here within the acutely written pages of Pagan Portals - Modron: Meeting the Celtic Mother Goddess, we find the myths of Modron in the tales of the Mabinogi, the Welsh Triads and modern tales of Avalon, and her image and veneration in the ancient religions of Celtic Gaul, where she first emerged as a river goddess.

Furthermore, we can trace echoes of her in ancient Indo-European texts and possibly even further back to the agricultural myths of the Neolithic. She is even present in the stars.

As we quickly learn, in Celtic mythology, Dea Matrona (Divine Mother) was the goddess who gave her name to the river Marne (ancient Matrŏna) in Gaul. The Gaulish theonym Mātr-on-ā signifies Great Mother and the goddess of the Marne has since been interpreted to be a mother goddess, with the name of the Welsh mythological figure Modron, mother of Mabon, itself derived from the same etymon (and Mabon has a cognate in Gaulish Maponos).

Author Kelle is a neurodivergent writer of Traveler heritage who is a long time pagan who holds postgraduate degrees in Feminist Theology and Creative Writing, and her work here in this brand new Pagan Portal prose is one dutifully sculpted, impassioned, and always wholly informative (without being weighed down with connotationally shrouded mysteries) throughout.

The lore of the Celtic mother goddess Modron is expertly brought to the fore here and most certainly reveals to us a lot more about the elusive goddess. Broken into two Parts, the first three chapters focus on Meeting the Great Mother, the latter Working with Modron; where these five chapters within serve as a collectively insightful, and clearly distinct reveal of just exactly who Kelle wishes us to get to know better.

Ergo, Modron - Meeting the Celtic Mother Goddess takes a deep dive into this often overlooked goddess who has inspired our modern myths, combining solid academic research with suggestions for personal practice and ritual, from a modern day dedicant and scholar of Goddess veneration. Modron is emerging from the depths.

And so the question is: Will you answer her Call?

About the Author - Kelle BanDea is a neurodivergent mother of three with Traveler heritage. She is a writer, psychotherapist, member of the Druid Network, and a trained spiritual celebrant. You can find more of her work at kellebandea@substack.com. She lives in Warwickshire, UK.

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Overview: In your hands are the keys to bringing the gifts of the ancient magic-weavers, the storytellers, into your life. The Bards of old wove magic with their words.

Through myth and legend, history and inspiration, they shaped the world around them. Just like them, you can connect with the magic of storytelling to create powerful change.

Verdict: So here within the pages of the brand new book from author Halo Quin, Storytelling for Magic: Bardic Skills and Ritual-Craft for Witches and Pagans, we can join professional performer, ritualist, bard, and witch Halo Quin, and discover how to use your voice in magic, how to unravel the secrets of stories, how to craft your own rituals to bring the power of myths and folk tales into your life, and how to find, learn, and tell stories to enchant the world inside and outside the circle.

In what is an excellent prose for anyone wishing to know more about the aforementioned bardic skills and ritual-craft for both Witches and Pagans alike, we quickly learn that words have power, that words can be magic, and that using this book correctly, giving yourself to its impassioned, structured reasoning, the tools offered up within will soon have you also developing into an astute performer.

Broken down into nine chapters, complete with four appendices, the author Halo Quin herself graciously welcomes us all into her world by opening with the aforementioned, and most heartwarming prose of a hug: Hello my lovely readers! In your hands you hold the keys to bringing the most powerful magic of those ancient magic-weavers, the storytellers, into your lives!

This book is a guide to using the skills of the bard in your rituals to enhance your magic, whether crafting spells on your own, or performing ritual for a crowd. In these pages you will learn how to use your voice in magic, how to unravel the secrets of stories, how to craft your own rituals to bring the power of myths and folk tales into your life, and how to find, learn, and tell stories that enchant your audience.

About the Author - Dr Halo Quin is a practicing witch, storyteller, author, philosopher, and a lifelong lover of magic. She is a devotee of the Faery Queen, a lover of the Welsh gods and myths, and sensual witch exploring the divine erotic and sacred nature of pleasure and beauty, and working to (re)enchant the world. She lives in Aberystwyth, UK.

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Overview: Don Falcone presents a world where anything can happen and often does: collecting albums and then recording with some of the musicians on those albums; reading paperbacks and then collaborating with one of the authors (Michael Moorcock).

He resurrected a club band into a collective - Spirits Burning - with almost 300 classic and independent rock musicians across 20 albums. And so in a world where mistakes are made, lessons are learned, and dreams are brought to life, with over 125 of the Spirits Burning crew ready to provide their thoughts, One of the Spirits Burning: A Music Memoir is a book all music lovers need to own!

Verdict: In what is an incredible 530 plus-page autobiography, one that comes complete with an insightfully brilliant foreword from Michael Moorcock (English writer, particularly of science fiction and fantasy), we are gifted an incredible insight into the world of the captain of the Spirits Burning music collective and so much more.

More than just a basic, one-dimensional memoir, this new prose provides an impassioned, colorful and openly honest narrative that shares memories from various time periods of his life/career, whilst at the same time reflecting on Falcone as a producer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, oh, and also his career as a technical writer for Pro Tools and Dolby Atmos content creation tools.

With over 125 of the Spirits Burning crew ready to provide their thoughts at any given turned page, sure this book is going to be catnip for all Spirits Burning devotees, but moreover it goes to the very soul of the man himself, revealing not just more information on his collaborations with Daevid Allen and other luminaries, but we also get an up to date and full discography with descriptions of each Falcone-touched full-length release.

Inclusive of a plethora of details on his closer collaborations with Daevid Allen, Bridget Wishart, Cyrille Verdeaux, and the aforementioned Michael Moorcock, there is also a CD attached to the book, with pieces featuring all those artists and more, along with a previously unreleased song with David Jackson, and two demo cuts from Don’s early ensembles.

About the Author - Don Falcone (born November 5th, 1958) is an American producer and multi-instrumentalist, and the guiding light behind the Spirits Burning space-rock collective. In Spirits Burning and other offshoot bands and projects, his primary collaborations have been with Albert Bouchard, Bridget Wishart, Cyrille Verdeaux, Daevid Allen, and English writer and musician Michael Moorcock.

Falcone was a member of Thessalonians and the original Melting Euphoria, and had a solo project called Spaceship Eyes.

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Overview: As the owner of Celebrity Talent Agency, a venture 25 years in the making, Mark Green’s story is one of perseverance and innovation.

Hailing from Hackensack, NJ, Mark Green embarked on his career in 1977 as a DJ, performing at high school events and local parties around Bergen County. His early exposure to rapping came from a competition in the Bronx, which he brought back to New Jersey, becoming a mentor to future Hip-Hop legends like Guy O’Brien, aka Master Gee of the Sugarhill Gang. Green’s influence on O’Brien helped shape the early Hip-Hop scene.

Telling his stories galore here within The Show Must Go On: Backstage Stories of a Hip-Hop Agent (out now via Mynd Matters), New York Times bestselling author Mark Green recants the paths taken, the forks in the road both taken and untaken, and the choices made throughout his career that have led him to where he is today.

Verdict: Before I delve into the prose of the book before me, allow me to fill you in a bit more on the man himself. Mark Green’s professional career began with an internship at Sugar Hill Records, the label behind the first major Hip-Hop single, Rapper’s Delight. He went on to work full-time at Hush Productions, where he handled various roles, including project management, artist development, and road management.

His work with notable artists such as Melba Moore, Freddie Jackson, Dru Hill, Prince, Al B Sure, Grandmaster Flash, and Usher solidified his reputation in the industry. This experience paved the way for his next role at Associated Booking Corp, where his talent for spotting rising stars led to the signing of chart-topping acts like Salt-N-Pepa, Roxanne Shante, Kid & Play, and DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince.

Green moved on to EMI/Capitol Records, where he was the Director of Marketing and held roles in Radio Promotions, Jazz, and Rap, earning accolades such as the Promotions Person of the Year in 1992. His work at EMI included producing, writing, and publishing successful tracks like Remember the First Time for Eric Gable and Midnight Hour for Spice MC.

In 1997, Green ventured into independent marketing and promotions consulting and secured a record deal with Light Year/Warner Brothers for his independent label, with Teena Marie as his first artist.

One year later, as a consultant at Northstar Distribution, Green became General Manager, distributing music for Prince’s independent label, which included Chaka Khan and Larry Graham on NPG Records. This role laid the groundwork for launching Celebrity Talent Agency, which represents a wide array of stars, and secures talent for tours, festivals, and commercials globally.

As for the book itself, well, I have to say that I have been a journalist within the entertainment industry for over 40 years now and yet love the fact that even I can still be astounded by the recalling of behind-the-scenes mechanics that led to who we adored back then and, in a lot of cases, still do today.

As we all know by now, every successful person began somewhere, was moved and motivated by people, things, and events, and some of the greatest lessons exist not only in why it happened, but how it occurred.

For Mark, it actually took ahold of him before he toured with, managed, distributed work by, and represented such names as Melba Moore, Lillo Thomas, the Force M.D.s, the Boogie Boys, Al B. Sure!, Missy Elliott, Timbaland, Roxanne Shanté, Salt-N-Pepa and Spinderella, Sparky Dee, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, Les Nubians, Phyllis Hyman, Tom Browne, MC Shan, Biz Markie, Teena Marie, James “J.T.” Taylor (The O’Jays and Kool and the Gang), Chaka Khan, Prince, Roy Ayers, Lil Jon, Cissy Houston, Dennis Edwards, and Grandmaster Flash.

We first get to know more about this acorn of awareness within him, which seems to have been culled whilst Mark was in high school back in 1975. His band Black Pearl (co-created with his friend Freddie Williams) had broken up and as a result, Mark had a lot of equipment and so had to start afresh.

Black Pearl had made a name for itself in and around Bergen County, New Jersey, covering ’70s R&B hits at weddings and other get togethers, but now Mark wanted more and so (quite literally) amplified his equipment together with his mother’s records. After connecting the equipment to the band’s cabinet speakers, and borrowing a turntable from a friend, all that was then needed to get heard were venues.

Of course, those would soon follow, and DJ L.C. (a moniker born of his football name LC Greenwood) would be playing funk, soul, R&B, pop, and disco artists’ best songs at private parties, rec centers, and sporting events all around town.

Assisted by his partner David Heard (aka Rock Bottom), the native of Hackensack, New Jersey made a name for himself on the decks. He was so successful, a promoter invited him to compete in the Battle of the DJs in the Bronx.

So that was where the acorn of awareness was most definitely born for the industry and his own talents, but it was most definitely as a record executive, where Mark redefined the role as the industry knew it.

Thus here within these 318 or so pages, and complete with some era defining color photographs (including one that shows Mark as an extra on the film Malcolm X alongside Denzel Washington), we first get a professional, albeit lovingly imbibed foreword from Guy O’Brian aka Master Gee, which is backed by an incredible 61 chapters of truly inspirational, educational, and highly impassioned prose that once you start to read is very hard to put down.

Currently, Green serves as Associate Director/General Manager of Lehman Performing Arts Center, Chairman of Artist Relations for The Hip-Hop Museum (THHM), and maintains ownership of Celebrity Talent Agency. He continues to influence the entertainment industry profoundly because, The Show Must Go On.

About the Author - Mark Green, New York Times bestselling author of Who Runs Congress?, worked with Ralph Nader for ten years in Washington, D.C., before serving for twelve years as New York City’s Consumer Affairs Commissioner and Public Advocate.

A television commentator, public interest lawyer, and the former Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, Green is also the founder and president of the New Democracy Project, a national and urban affairs institute. He has been a lecturer at the New York University School of Law since 2002, and lives with his family in New York City.

Mark Green @ Facebook

Overview: When History Had Other Plans consists of 12 stand-alone chapters which immediately furnish the reader with attention-grabbing one-liners, as evidenced in its choice of chapter titles - Hitler Ended Racism; More Environmentalism, More CO2; The West Encouraged Putin by Discouraging Him - ensuring that it will pique interest and stir up debate.

One line, one story, one chapter. There are no abstractions, no theories, no musings; just verifiable facts.

Verdict: In what is an incredibly page-turning, chapter-devouring new prose from authors Vladislav Bogorov and Allison McKenzie, When History Had Other Plans may well be a thick book to physically hold at over 350 pages, but it is, and without a shadow of a doubt, an engrossingly fleet of foot read for those invested.

With a central theme that courses throughout being that whilst real engineering is still very much an experimental science honed via en masse of real-world experiments, social engineering is solely based on connective hope and abstract theory. To a lot of people, that right there summons the smoke signals of why things, in general, fail to materialize.

And so whilst engineering is an applied science that uses scientific methods to solve real-world problems, it is obviously not a science itself, but it is closely related to science and often involves collaboration between the two fields.

However, at its heart, social engineering is the art of exploiting human psychology, rather than technical hacking techniques, to gain unauthorized access to buildings, systems, or data by convincing individuals to unintentionally give up information through confidence games and manipulation tactics.

Thus this thoroughly engrossing, dutifully engaging new book eagerly invokes immediate critical thinking within the reader, along with a passion to learn more and understand our past and contemporary world.

Not pulling any punches, and going straight for the literary jugular, the prose opens in 1914 and never lets go, and as much as it does have a tendency to bog down for patches, do not stop, always maneuver through, and keep your mind open and, at times, perhaps even observantly malleable.

About the Authors - Vladislav Bogorov is a published author with a background in journalism. He was conscripted into the Bulgarian Army as a tankman. He is probably the only person who is a certified welder and who has won four cases before the European Court of Human Rights as a lawyer. Having been born in Bulgaria, Vladislav now resides in Glasgow, United Kingdom. He has an MSc in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies and an MSc in Law.

Having written many shopping lists and lottery tickets over the years, Allison McKenzie is no stranger to writing. With only high school education, she learned about the Nazis from Allo, Allo! and Indiana Jones, and was surprised when Vladislav invited her to join in this book project. It was her ignorance of history that enabled her to edit the book so that it may be enjoyed by everyday people. She lives in Glasgow, UK.

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Overview: Demons charm, tempt and manipulate on a global scale as they wage a covert war on Earth for human souls. The Curia has been fighting them for centuries, training an elite group of demon hunters in partnership with the angelic ambassador to Earth.

Tessa Sinclair, a US Army veteran, has been newly recruited to be a hunter and to snuff out the Demons that hide among us.

Verdict: Haunted by her past, she is on a self-destructive path, numbing her feelings with whiskey and one-night stands. As Tessa trains to become a hunter, she grows suspicious of the organization.

Befriending a recruit who doesn’t believe in the supernatural realm, the two discover a possible conspiracy that could shake the foundations of our modern-day understanding of religion and science.

From the streets of Paris to the nightclubs of Scandinavia, Tessa and her fellow hunters face off against a savage enemy, whose true purpose remains shrouded in secrecy.

In what is a simply riveting prose, from start to finish, authors Jeff Durkin and Steph Nelson have joined forces to bring forth a pulsating, captivating and dutifully crafted read that is the ultimate page-turning experience.

Furthermore, I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for an interesting and beguiling read unlike anything they have read in the past few decades, if I might be so bold in saying.

The way the authors have created the world that their characters inhabit is second to none, so much so that even the not-so-good entities come complete with a refreshingly charged disarming candor. Their narratives are individual, never overlapping, and always engaging, the authors masterfully weaving a gripping tale of love, loss, and friendship that keeps readers engaged with every twist and turn.

Combined with a wondrous set of principles throughout, the plot is masterfully weaved, bringing forth a gripping, compelling tale/read that is very hard to put down. But why would you want to, because The Curia Chronicles is just that good, of that you have my word.

About the Authors - Born in Texas and raised in Michigan, Jeff Durkin left the icy Midwest after college for the less-icy Washington DC area. While toiling away in various IT-related jobs, Jeff spends his free time writing (mostly horror and science fiction), painting, biking and running roleplaying games. Jeff currently lives in the great city of Arlington, VA.

Steph Nelson began writing fiction while deployed to Iraq as an Army behavioral health officer. Faced with the stressors of war, Steph used her writing as a way to process her experiences. Following her military service, Steph moved to the Washington, DC area where she currently works as a social worker. She lives in Arlington, VA.

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Overview: Destined yet unpredictable: A new science of free will reconciling determinism, irreducibility, agency, and AI through physics and computation.

Verdict: Every individual, from the most profound thinker to the casual observer, is composed of atoms - approximately 6.71×10^27 of them. These aren’t just any atoms ... they’re the same ones that construct galaxies, stars, and the vast expanse of the universe.

Predominantly, we’re made of water molecules and a diverse mix of organic molecules. Intriguingly, every single one of these atoms operates under the deterministic laws of quantum electrodynamics.

These laws, known since the 1950s, form the bedrock of chemistry, biology, and by extension, life as we know it. If the laws of physics fully determine the motion of every atom in our body, how could we possibly have free will - or do we have it after all?

So, do we truly have free will, or are all our actions simply a result of a previous event? I am referring to the law of cause and effect. Everything that happens is based on what happens before it. Therefore, it is my belief that no one truly has free will. It is not so-called free, thus the actions we make are determined by what happened before.

Ultimately, all the choices we make in life are an indirect result of the first event to occur (if there was a first), but as much as that has always been my own personal mindset, I have always been open to listening to other peoples views on this.

And this brand new book The Science of Free Will: How Determinism Affects Everything from the Future of AI to Traffic to God to Bees from author Samir Varma is one of those that I have most recently sat down to listen intently to; and which I implore all of you thinking like me to also do.

Not that is wholly changed my mind, or even had me running to tell all my fellow thinkers what I had read, no, but it did have me re-reading many of the paragraphs, even a complete chapter or two, and so I myself found this new prose both highly engrossing and thoroughly, and dutifully thought-provoking from start to finish.

In closing, what you can expect to read within these pages is a beautifully orchestrated book that reopens the timeless debate surrounding free will and it’s actual existence. In a way becoming a bridge between theory and practice, the prose is much more than simply an interdisciplinary study, thus giving room for author Samir Varma to break down long existing barriers in this really quite fascinating book.

About the Author - Educated at Columbia University and the University of Texas, Samir Varma pursued his passion for physics under eminent physicists including Nobel Laureate Steven Weinberg. However, the cancellation of the Superconducting Supercollider prompted a pivot.

Recognizing the changing landscape, Samir founded a futures trading company in 1993, becoming an early adopter of chaos theory in finance. He lives in Cos Cob, CT.

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Overview: What is the value of a lie when you’re protecting whom you love? Dream analyst Ursula is experiencing painful visions of an unknown desert. At first, her therapist, Jill, suggests it’s only a dream. But when Ursula suffers another vision while hooked up to Jill’s dream reader, both realize that there may be more at stake.

Verdict: While Ursula is keen to uncover what her visions mean and why she’s having them, Jill and her partner, Mackenzie, struggle to keep the truth a secret - Ursula’s visions are actually memories.

Occam’s Dream delicately balances psychology, truth, and relationship against the sacrifices one must make for the sake of the world, and poses the ultimate question: Is it ever possible to truly control a narrative?

In what is a sharply written prose, complete with engaging characters, all complete with a depth rarely seen in novella’s such as this one, author Lauren Jane Barnett has brought forth a tale that had me page turning, chapter moving from the off, and thus I had read the book in one complete sitting (and still wished there had been more!)

An award-winning screenwriter and author best known for Death Lines: Walking London’s Horror History, the short Robot Armadillo and the “Invasion at Studio 69” segment in Videoshop Tales of Terror II: Lust and Revenge, Barnett’s brilliant sci-fi mystery where dreams get peeled away like onion layers until a solving can be brought forth, is as compelling as it is impassioned.

Our lead character goes on quite the embroiled journey, one fraughtly packed with so much emotional luggage that the reader will easily identify with her plight along the way. Moreover, this absorbing, and masterfully sculpted new book tells a tale that isn’t the norm within these genres, which is as refreshing as it gets, in and unto itself.

About the Author - Lauren Jane Barnett is a horror writer, podcaster, and indie actress best known for Death Lines: Walking London’s Horror History. Her horror fiction has appeared in, among others, BFS Horizons, Horrified, and Tales of Fear, Superstition, and Doom.

She shares her love of horror by hosting The London Horror Movie Club podcast and by appearing in indie horrors like Horrorscopes 2 and The Witches of the Sands. She lives in London, UK.

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Overview: How to Run a Planet recognizes the primary causes of our political and environmental crises: a lack of good global government, a laissez faire ideology, and a materialist worldview.

Presenting a wiser worldview - a political model harmonious with the nature of the universe - John Holman tasks humanity with creating a planetary civilization of sublime proportions, beyond capitalism and nationalism.

Verdict: In doing so, Holman illustrates a democratically elected world parliament and an economic system based on the pursuit of societal and environmental well-being rather than growth. This is essential reading for policymakers, philosophers, social activists, and anybody else interested in the big picture and global solutions.

Telling it like it is, author John Holman has written a quite profoundly wondrous new book here, and one that should be used to extract differing opinions from those who would hotly debate the subject matter - especially those that believe in the necessity of undertaking possibly radical ways for sustaining our collective planetary existence.

For as we all well know by now, sustaining our collective planetary existence requires a combination of individual actions, community involvement, and global cooperation, and although Holman’s overview could easily become a worldview, should this book be undertaken by a much wider audience, the underlying challenges we face on a daily basis truly exposes the shortcomings of rationalism and materialism that we exist within.

Having grown up with parents that also cared about such a thing, a sustainable development - which is a “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” - admittedly fulfills needs that are “in particular the essential needs of the world’s poor” (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987), and yet at the same time sadly showcases humanities disability to create a planetary civilization of sublime proportions, beyond capitalism and nationalism.

I mean, sustainability, as by this definition, includes an ecological, economical, and social component. This definition is the most widely accepted one, and was actually first coined as a term “planetary sustainability” by NASA in 2014, and comes with three main objectives:

1. A world in which all people have access to abundant water, food and energy, as well as protection from severe storms and climate change impacts

2. Healthy and sustainable worldwide economic growth from renewable products and resources

3. A multi-planetary society, where the resources of the Solar System are available to the people of Earth

Thus How to Run a Planet: An Essential Guide to the Big Picture and Global Solutions, is a very important read, dutifully filled with en masse of knowledge that can hopefully guide us into achieving a social and environmental well-being for all.

About the Author - John Holman PhD is a philosopher and changemaker who holds degrees in the arts, philosophy and religious studies. He is a leading authority on Western esotericism. Alongside writing and lecturing he has worked as a change consultant on European Union projects, and is an adviser and contributor to The Galileo Commission and Democracy Without Borders. He lives in Devon, UK.

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Overview: In this new book, Walker Zupp demonstrates the need to reevaluate the connection between Ludwig Wittgenstein’s philosophy and the extraordinary life that he led, and how the best way to do this, ironically, is by examining novels whose central characters were inspired by Ludwig Wittgenstein’s persona.

Verdict: In Wittgenstein Fiction, Zupp offers comprehensive biographical cross-sections of novels by Thomas Bernhard, Bruce Duffy and Lars Iyer in an attempt to define the genre of Wittgenstein Fiction for the very first time.

He argues that Wittgenstein Fiction satirizes the empirical world and the contemporary university, and that authors who work in this genre have to re-create themselves, to some extent, in the form of their fictional Wittgenstein characters, so that fictional biographies of Wittgenstein become strange autobiographies of the authors themselves.

OK, so taking it from the top, considered by some to be the greatest philosopher of the 20th century, Ludwig Wittgenstein played a central, if controversial, role in mid-20th-century analytic philosophy. He also continues to influence, and incur debate in, current philosophical thought in topics as diverse as logic and language, perception and intention, ethics and religion, aesthetics and culture, and even political thought.

Furthermore, a central factor in investigating Wittgenstein’s works is the multifarious nature of the project of interpreting them; this leads to untold difficulties in the ascertainment of his philosophical substance and method.

Originally, there were two commonly recognized stages of Wittgenstein’s thought—the early and the later — both of which were taken to be pivotal in their respective periods. In this orthodox two-stage interpretation, it is commonly acknowledged that the early Wittgenstein is epitomized in his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.

By showing the application of modern logic to metaphysics, via language, he provided new insights into the relations between world, thought, and language and thereby into the nature of philosophy. It is the later Wittgenstein, mostly recognized in the Philosophical Investigations, who took the more revolutionary step in critiquing all of traditional philosophy including its climax in his own early work.

The nature of his new philosophy is heralded as anti-systematic through and through, yet still conducive to genuine philosophical understanding of traditional problems.

However, in more recent scholarship, this division has been questioned: some interpreters have claimed a certain unity between all stages of his thought, while others talk of a more nuanced division, adding stages such as the middle Wittgenstein and the post-later Wittgenstein.

And so what author Walter Zupp has done here within his openly captivating, informative and wholly engrossing new book is to himself explore the novel’s capacity to perform its own Philosophical Investigations. Regardless of the fact that it stands outside philosophy, investigating its philosophers themselves is now central to the author’s many provocative insights found within these mesmerizing pages of prose.

Running at only 80 pages in length, I myself did not have a complete grasp on Ludwig Wittgenstein’s philosophy or his life therein, but was curious enough last night to open the book to see where Zupp was going to take me. Simply put, he took me on a journey of a couple of hours solid reading as before I knew it the book had been completely read and I was already starting to replay things said within, via the newly-informed scope of my mind’s eye.

About the Author - Walker Zupp is a Bermudian writer with an MA in Creative Writing from Lancaster University. He went on to study for a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Exeter. He splits his time between Cornwall, UK and Bermuda.

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Overview: In Justice, Love, and Organizational Healing, Ora Grodsky draws from decades of experience to lead organizational change agents through the multifaceted world of transformational consulting.

This comprehensive guide offers invaluable tools, practices, and mindsets for addressing the technical and spiritual dimensions of guiding individuals and organizations through complex, equitable, and inclusive processes for change.

Verdict: Opening by freely thanking all her clients, whose dedication to building a more just and dedicated world along with the gift of their work together, has thus become the foundation of this most wondrous book, author Ora Grodsky’s Justice, Love, and Organizational Healing: A Guide to Transformational Consulting brings forth a simply magnificent read about how her consulting has born a promise that said same practice can easily be instilled within us all, bringing forth an internal and collective transformation to subsequently thrive within us all.

In the book, of which she admits she stands on the shoulders of countless practitioners, thinkers, educators, leaders and authors, she reveals she is incredibly appreciative of everyone who has come before her and who has traveled alongside her, lighting the path, and so she must be, as this highly informed, and dutifully crafted book is as complete a thought as any I have heard in the past decade or so.

A masterful handbook that comes complete with practical tools and powerful stories - on how organizations can lead with courage, clarity, and imagination and more - along with staying humbly inspirational throughout, it is, simply put, a genuine MUST HAVE for ALL consultants and leaders who care about not only the integrity of the organizations that surround us, but desperately wish/strive for a greater sense of justice, of love, and for an impassioned organizational healing that this world seems so bereft of.

About the Author - Ora Grodsky is a mission-driven consultant with over 25 years of experience and success working with hundreds of social justice-oriented organizations. Ora is a holistic practitioner who combines training in acupuncture, non-profit management expertise, extensive study of organizational development and commitment to compassion and justice to facilitate transformation change with the organizations who are transforming our world. She lives in Watertown, MA.

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Overview: Trust me when I say that Lectio Divina changes the way you read, pray, worship, and minister by giving you a treasure of holy wisdom in your heart, soul, and body.

Verdict: For those unaware, Lectio Divina is an ancient form of devotional reading, prayer, and contemplation which deepens and broadens spiritual knowledge, wisdom, and faith. The practice is an embodied way to live the testimonies daily and gain confidence to share vocal ministry in Meeting for Worship.

Having grown up within a household that practiced this, Lectio divina comprises four elements: lectio (we read the text), meditatio (we meditate the text), oratio (we pray the text), and contemplatio (we live the text). But naming the four elements must be accompanied by a practiced awareness that their relationship is not sequential. Reading (lectio) is a linear act, but spiritual (divina) reading is not; for any of the elements may be at the fore at any one time.

This classic formulation of “lectio divina”, preceded by 1000 years of practices intended to shape reading into living, was by a European monk Guigo the Second in the 12th century.

And so what author Barbara Birch does here in her brand new book Lectio Divina: Revelation and Prophecy is invigorate and energize the mind, body and soul (and brain) of the reader to bring the history of scripture into our lives in a way that one might not have heard it brought forth before.

For Lectio Divina is a way of reading scripture that is reflective, meditative, receptive and responsive. With Lectio Divina, we read for transformation, not merely information. It’s a kind of reading that, instead of being quick and comprehensive, is a little more slow, and perhaps more in-depth.

Instead of trying to master the information, we seek to let God master us through the scripture. We read with our heart as well as our mind. As we are told, the first Quakers insisted that scriptures must be read in the Spirit which brought them forth, and that doing so can open us to divine revelation.

But the more contemporary of Quakers have invited us to approach biblical texts with a prophetic critique of oppressive social structures, as well with as an engagement that allows us to see the world afresh, with greater awareness and more attuned to what is actually holy.

And so what you get with this book is a deeper understanding, nay, a more compelling knowledge of how these collective Quaker experiences around Lectio Divina can bring a creativeness of worship into our own lives.

About the Authors - Barbara Birch is a Quaker with many years experience with a variety of spiritual practices. She is part of the Friends General Conference spiritual encounter program and a board member of Ben Lomond Quaker Center. She is active on social media (Facebook, Instagram). Follow her on Medium. She lives in El Cerrito, CA.

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Overview: One Man Down: A Novel is the tale of a stumped policeman, a third man, and a well-placed shot!

Verdict: It’s 1984. Princess Diana has just given birth to her second child. The legendary comic Tommy Cooper has died on stage (quite literally). And Angus Lovejoy and Brian Finkle are gloriously oblivious to it all as they strive to enthrall the nation with their television commercials for the advertising agency Gordon Deedes Rutter. But all is not as rosy as it might seem in the frenetic world of Soho.

Following a disastrous presentation to a manufacturer of diarrhea tablets, Lovejoy and Finkle let off steam by playing cricket for an old school friend - but in doing so, stumble upon a nest of vipers involving a gay vicar, a small-time antique fraudster, a photographer, and blackmail. There can only be one outcome and it’s going to entail murder.

To bring you up to speed, author Alex Pearl’s most recent novel, A Brand to Die For was a comic murder mystery set in the London advertising world of 1983. It was actually also the first murder mystery set in a London advertising agency since Dorothy L. Sayers penned Murder Must Advertise back in 1933.

This is his sequel, One Man Down, which was admirably taken up by Roundfire Books and is as compelling as the first one, trust me. Yet another funny, intriguing, engaging and dutifully crime-hued tale, the dry humor combined with what could easily have been a rather bland, one-dimensional world of advertising actually brings forth a beautifully crafted flashback to the 80’s, and all with the centralized theme of Britain’s national pastime cricket cored expertly within.

And so this second in the Lovejoy and Finkle murder mystery series is kind of a love letter to what was arguably the golden age of British advertising, and which, of course, spanned the pre-digital era. Indeed, it magnificently showcases an era where the eye-opening production budgets bled seamlessly into the infamous creative lunches that turned into suppers and ultimately breakfasts. All now tinged with the death/murder of a fraudster/advertising executive for good measure!

About the Author - Alex’s first novel Sleeping with the Blackbirds, a darkly humorous urban fantasy, written for children and young adults, was initially published by PenPress in 2011. It was long-listed by the Millennium Book Awards 2018 and selected by the Indie Author Project in 2019 for distribution to public libraries across the US and Canada.

In 2014, his fictionalized account of the first British serviceman to be executed for cowardice during the First World War was published by Mardibooks in its anthology, The Clock Struck War. In 2019, his psychological thriller, The Chair Man, which is set in London in 2005 following the terrorist attack on its public transport system, was published by Fizgig Press in 2020, and was a Finalist in the 2021 Wishing Shelf Book Awards.

During the Covid epidemic, Alex conducted 100 author interviews online in an attempt to delve into the backgrounds, motivations and working methods of authors across the globe. These interviews were published in 2022 under the title 100 Ways to Write a Book, and all author proceeds are being donated to PEN International.

His most recent novel, A Brand to Die For is a comic murder mystery set in the London advertising world of 1983. It is, in fact, the first murder mystery set in a London advertising agency since Dorothy L. Sayers penned Murder Must Advertise back in 1933. Alex lives in NW London with his wife and two children who are far smarter than their old man.

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Overview: Learn the ancient art of tasseography and how to read tea leaves and coffee grounds. This essential book covers the history of tea leaf and coffee cup reading, intuition, setting the intention, and preparation.

Along with a dictionary of symbols, tea meditation, recipes, and advice on journaling, The Ancient Art of Tasseography is your complete guide.

Verdict: I mean, let’s be serious, for most all of us the mere mention of the term fortune-telling brings the picture of a gypsy sitting in front of an orb or a tarot card reader with her assortment of cards. But did you know that the tea that you drink can tell a lot of stories about your future?

Tasseography, or the art of reading tea leaves, uses one of the simplest ingredients – tea leaves – in order to gain insight into the near future. Opening on the history of Tasseography and closing 14 chapters later on some wonderful tea recipes, The Ancient Art of Tasseography: How to Read Tea Leaves and Coffee Grounds from author Kylie Holmes is a genuinely intriguing prose written about the subject to hand.

As we learn, drinking tea has been a popular habit for centuries. Of course, Herbology also riffs poetic about the varied benefits of drinking different types of teas. In Ancient China the art of tea leaf reading was introduced centuries ago.

Furthermore, the name comes from the French word Tasse which translates to cup and the Greek word graph which means writing. The process involves reading the pattern of tea leaves formed in the cup after the person drinks from it.

Traditionally, Tasseography would have been passed down through family generations, but these days it just isn’t seemingly done that way. Indeed, thanks to social media, there are now many resources available like books and online websites to assist you to learn about Tasseography, so can can also find a course to learn this ancient art online or even at your local new age shop, if you are lucky enough to have one close.

Regardless, and getting back on track, once you get to Chapter 7 in this book to hand, the one in which you are taught how to do the readings yourself, at the very beginning if you try to read the symbols yourself, you might well need a while to get the hang of it. So please be patient and rotate the cup in order to perceive the symbols from various angles. There is no right or wrong way to pick out symbols. The ones that you can see are the answers that you seek.

The whole process might seem unbelievable in the first go, but it definitely is a great mental exercise. So it is totally worth giving it a shot and thus buying this book is a no-brainer, trust me.

And in what is something that I personally love about this, you get to clear out your thoughts and focus on the one thing that you wish to have answers for.

Whether you believe the results or not, you are sure to feel relaxed once a tea and coffee reading session is done. Track your results and find out if they turn out to be right, but don’t overlook Chapter 8 as it features a dedicated list of characters (a Dictionary of Symbols, to be exact) to look out for; and thus is all you need to guide you, my friends.

About the Author - Kylie Holmes is a mother of four Old Souls. She is also a writer, an intuitive Angel Therapist, Reiki Master and Past Life Regression Therapist. She lives in Cambridgeshire, UK.

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Overview: Black Magick: 13 Tales of Darkness, Horror & the Occult is an engaging occult fiction, featuring short stories by Storm Constantine, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Edgar Allan Poe, and others!

Verdict: Darkness is interpretive. It’s in our nature to explore the shadows. Through the 13 stories presented in Black Magick, compiled and edited by award-winning occult author Raven Digitalis, the reader is transported into mysterious settings that blur the line between fiction and reality.

Each story uniquely integrates occultism and magick, deepening the mysteries of the shadow. By acknowledging darkness through the written medium, we can better come to terms with the darkness within ourselves.

Black Magick is a distinctive collection of modern occult fiction. Esoteric themes permeate 13 engrossing stories, invoking a sense of wonder and terror. The stories within this anthology explore occult themes across eras and cultures, proving to be both entertaining and educational.

These haunting tales are finely crafted by a wide variety of writers, and each story is uniquely different from the other. When we bravely explore the darker aspects of life, we more accurately come to know what it means to be human.

The 13 stories included are:

1. Candle Magic by Storm Constantine - 2. Spanish Jones by Adele Cosgrove-Bray - 3. 3:33 by Rhea Troutman - 4. Entombed by Corvis Nocturnum - 5. Fata Morgana by S.M. Lomas - 6. Automatic Writing by Gabrielle Faust - 7. The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe - 8. Don’t Forget to Feed by Miranda S. Hewlett - 9. The Night Everything Changed by Raven Digitalis - 10. ReBound by Tracy Cross - 11. Captured by Jaclyn M. Ciminelli - 12. Red Gifts by Daniel Adam Rosser - 13. The Iconoclasts by Mona Fitzgerald-King.

A few of my own personal favorites here are, and in no particular order, save for the first one which has always been my personal favorite: The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe. Now this short story has been around for a long time, in fact it was first published in the August 19th, 1843 edition of The Saturday Evening Post. In the story, an unnamed narrator has a strong affection for pets until he perversely turns to abusing them and what follows, well, it is a darkly gothic tale for the generations.

The next would be Don’t Forget to Feed by Miranda S. Hewlett, which is an easy read, but don’t be fooled into thinking it is less of a deeply dark prose. This excellent, and highly original short story actually leads us down the Poe path ie: “The Pit and the Pendulum” and soon brings forth a story that engages within a very atmospheric setting; one drenched with palpable tension that only grows with each page turn.

The last one I would like to highlight is Automatic Writing by Gabrielle Faust, which is itself a most compelling supernatural séance story, combined with the underbelly of having a demonic presence. Unlike a few of the others here, this story doesn’t linger too long on expansive scenescaping, instead choosing to get to the point sooner rather than later. Full of imaginative prose, this is definitely one that will have you thinking outside the box come the end.

About the Author - Raven Digitalis (USA) is an award-winning author best known for his “empath’s trilogy,” consisting of The Empath’s Oracle, Esoteric Empathy, and The Everyday Empath, as well as the “shadow trilogy” of A Gothic Witch’s Oracle, A Witch’s Shadow Magick Compendium, and Goth Craft.

Originally trained in Georgian Witchcraft, Raven has been an earth-based practitioner since 1999, a Priest since 2003, a Freemason since 2012, and an empath all of his life. He holds a degree in cultural anthropology from the University of Montana, jointly operated a nonprofit Pagan temple for sixteen years, and is also a professional Tarot reader, editor, card-carrying magician, and animal rights advocate.

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Overview: In his 43rd book, prolific writer and scholar Wes D. Gehring presents Gehring Beside Himself: More Selected Essays published by BearManor Media.

Gehring first appeared on the international scene when his critically acclaimed first book on Charlie Chaplin landed an invitation to speak at the Paris-Sorbonne University’s celebration of the comedian’s 100th birthday (1889-1989), hosted by Chaplin’s daughter, actress Geraldine. Her encouragement and the later publication of the talk/essay in a German Chaplin anthology was a great boost to Gehring’s career.

Verdict: Well, as you can well imagine, forty plus frequently award-winning books later, and his style of writing about film comedy and/or film remains the same - be entertainingly insightful. As SNL founder/ongoing producer Lorne Michaels once said, Do it in sunshine (never forget everything about comedy needs entertainment).

As it turns out there was just not enough room in volume one, Gehring Lost and Found: Selected Essays, for all the best of the shorter pieces to find a home. Plus, several pre-Covid years have passed, not to mention the post-2020 Covid years further fueled the number of essays. Consequently, once again it was hard to make the cut.

As for what you can now expect to be entertained by within this second volume, well, these essays are drawn from a number of publications whose interest made the entire text possible. Inside, the book is broken down into four parts: Films (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Make Way For Tomorrow, Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, Bull Durham, amongst others), Literature & Film (Capraesque Curtis, The Many Sides of W.C. Fields, Signature Songs, The Comic Anti-Hero in American Fiction, amongst others), Profiles And/Or Moments (Karl Malden, Red Skelton, Sydney Pollack, Peter Sellers, George Clooney, amongst others) and A Lighter Side, which includes Neighborhood Baseball, Darn Ten Speeds, Wordsmithing, Homage To a Humorist.

“I find myself always drawn into Wes’ comedic research and storytelling by its insights into history, politics and sociology of the period explored. In that context, his gift is not only that of a researcher but also a “deeper understanding” of what leads a reader to explain, “Oh, so that’s how he (the subject) got that way.” - Steve Bell, former ABC News and Good Morning America anchor.

About the Author - Wes D. Gehring is Ball State University’s Distinguished Professor of Film. He is the Award-winning author of more than forty books. In 2017 and 2018 he was one of Turner Classics Movies’ on-screen scholars for its summer online classes. His writing has resulted in speaking engagements from the Paris-Sorbonne University to New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

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Overview: Moon Books Duets are a celebration of ten years of the unique Pagan Portals series and a recognition of some of our finest and most popular authors.

Presented as a hardcover collector’s edition, Duets encompass two of the best-selling Pagan Portals titles under one cover. In this edition you will find Rhiannon and Blodeuwedd by Jhenah Telyndru.

Verdict: Rhiannon … An exploration of Rhiannon that remembers her history, reclaims her divinity, and renews a pathway into relationship with this Welsh Goddess of Sovereignty.

Although entitled Rhiannon: Divine Queen of the Celtic Britons, this enclosed title offers a good overview of the three known, and overlapping, Celtic horse goddesses: Rhiannon, Epona and Macha. Furthermore, it compares their myths, and relates them to similar themes in both mythology and historical writings.

Ensconced within a beautiful hardcover backing, this tale might indeed be well trodden ground at this point in time, but author Jhenah Telyndru does an incredible job at presenting the various associated myths, and other evidence, in a way that is both easy to follow and dutiful to its cause.

Indeed, Telyndru has a formal background in Celtic studies, and it shows. Her approach is scholarly, with citations and a solid bibliography, and yet the deeper you read, the further you get into her prose, the more the facts seadily become beautifully approachable.

As an introduction to Rhiannon, this book will be great for the curious reader who doesn’t know much about this goddess. In other books, the different threads of the horse goddesses can be rather tangled, but here they are fully, and importantly patiently explained.

Blodeuwedd … A reclamation of the true nature of Blodeuwedd, a widely misunderstood Welsh Goddess whose myth holds deep wisdom and powerful lessons for the modern-day seeker.

This book, albeit shorter than I would have personally liked, is a genuine wealth of knowledge on the subject mater to hand, is is therefore the most perfect guide for any and all wishing to forge a deeper connection with this complex and fascinating magical ally.

I mean, trust me when I say that author Telyndru’s devotion to this enigmatic Goddess can be felt in each page of this book for it is not just deeply researched, but comes fully loaded with historical source material. So this prose isn’t just a devotional guide to Blodeuwedd, but also a scholarly investigation into her personal tale, and her place in Welsh mythology.

In closing, this is an exceptionally useful book for anyone interested in celticism or celtic reconstruction, or in welsh mythology or welsh history, for many points along the compass of life are brought to the fore. And, of course, ones more astute understanding will most definitely be increased by this excellent book, which is all one can really ask for, is it not.

About the Author - Jhenah Telyndru has always felt called to dance with joy in that liminal space which straddles the realms of history and myth, of individuality and collectivity, of the seen and the unseen. A creative mystic who loves science and values fact, Jhenah embraces the conscious co-creation of the future, while immersing herself in an impassioned study of the past. The path between, she believes, is where the mysteries are revealed and where true magic happens.

Jhenah holds an MA in Celtic Studies from the University of Wales, and a BA in Archaeology from Stony Brook University. She founded the Sisterhood of Avalon in 1995, and serves as Academic Dean of the Avalonian Thealogical Seminary. She hosts residential training retreats, presents internationally at conferences and festivals, teaches online workshops and immersion programs, and facilitates pilgrimages to sacred sites in the British Isles. A priestess in the Avalonian Tradition for over 35 years, she has walked a Pagan path since 1986.

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Overview: Step into the vibrant world of jazz, big bands, and unforgettable musical encounters with My Eight-Decade Musical Journey. Written by Robert Breslin Fogle, this captivating memoir chronicles a lifetime spent immersed in music, from hanging with jazz legends like Louis Armstrong and Oscar Peterson to witnessing icons like Sinatra. The Beatles and Elvis Presley.

With over 700 interviews conducted throughout his career, Fogle shares first-hand accounts of his experiences in the music industry, from intimate jazz club performances to legendary concerts. Through vivid storytelling and insightful anecdotes, this book offers a front-row seat to the evolution of jazz and popular music over the decades.

Verdict: Whether you’re a die-hard jazz enthusiast, a lover of classic music history, or simply someone who appreciates the magic of live performances, My 8 Decade Musical Journey: Musical Events, Stories, and Interviews is must-read!

For what you will quickly discover within the pages of this thoroughly engrossing new prose, are a whole host of personal interviews with jazz greats like Dave Brubeck, Joe Williams and Count Basie, numerous stories from behind the scenes of iconic music venues and legendary performances, some highly memorable moments of stars such as Frank Sinatra, Erroll Garner and The Jacksons, along with an incredibly dutiful deep dive into Toronto’s rich jazz history and its vibrant music scene therein.

So I implore you all to purchase My 8 Decade Musical Journey: Musical Events, Stories, and Interviews by author Robert Fogle and experience one man’s emotionally cultivated passion, rhythm, and the unforgettable moments that shaped a lifetime devoted to music.

About the Author - Robert Breslin Fogle, born in Toronto in 1941, is the retired president of an entertainment agency. He helped organize many prestigious events, including the Royal Gala for Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s Toronto visit, the Canadian Premieres’ Conference attended by Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip and former President Lyndon Johnson’s granddaughter’s sweet sixteen.

Rob spent twenty-seven years hosting the radio show Some Experiences in Jazz, interviewing over seven hundred jazz icons, including Oscar Petersom, Dave Brubeck, Count Basie, Sran Getz, Peter Appleyard, and Moe Koffman. He was a nominee at the Canadian National Jazz Awards in this category.

He has emceed over 350 concerts across the country. Since retiring from his day job in 2017, he has kept busy with many music-related projects. He has been called a jazz historian and has taken part in Talk Back sessions and lectures on the subject. He even presented Duke to the Ellington Society.

Overview: Thread of Life is a portrait of the twentieth century - its times of war and peace - seen through the lives of three generations of Jewish women.

At its heart are Dora, a romantic and tragic figure, a concert pianist born in Riga, who lived in St Petersburg and was killed in the Riga Holocaust; her daughter, Genia, born in 1915 in St Petersburg, who lived in many places around the world before dying in England at the age of 102; and, in their different threads and versions of the truth, their legacy to author Jennifer Kavanagh, who shares her moments of discovery while addressing themes of Russia, Jewishness, motherhood, music, home, and language, as well as the vagaries of memory.

Verdict: In what is a genuine page turner of a prose experience, Thread of Life: My Russian Legacy by author Jennifer Kavanagh is one of those books that you maybe didn’t know much about going in, but my goodness, once you start reading it you are instantly compelled to keep reading until your eyes force you to rest.

For wrapped loving within its profoundly revealing pages is not only a dutiful tale of social observation, but one where as the pages turn also brings forth a heartwarming work of heartfelt remembrance.

Containing themes such as Jewishness, family, music, home and so much more, this, at its beginning, tale of two ladies - Dora Holocaust and her daughter Riga; latterly inclusive of Riga’s daughter Genia - spans Russia to Latvia, Switzerland and both Egypt and England in such a way that their tapestry of life woven by Kavanagh is one both widely researched and thoroughly impassioned.

An expertly created and magnificently sculpted new book, Thread of Life: My Russian Legacy is, simply put, a story that once read will stay with you for life. It is mesmerizing, well written and with its many themes, is one that should resonate within you, Jewish or not, on a family level.

About the Author - Jennifer Kavanagh gave up her career as a literary agent to work in the community in London’s East End. She is a speaker and prolific writer on the Spirit-led life and an Associate Tutor at Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre. She lives in London, UK.

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Overview: Empaths have a unique vantage point when it comes to magickal and metaphysical work. Although sometimes overwhelming, empathy, the experience of stepping into the emotions of another, is actually of great spiritual benefit.

In Pagan Portals: Magick for Empaths, award-winning author Raven Digitalis explores: the spiritual significance of empathy, as well as its biological and evolutionary forces; overcoming empathic challenges and emotional overload; grounding, protection, and shielding; spellcasting techniques and magickal tools for empaths; balancing emotion and cognition; daily energy maintenance; approaching mystical realms as an empath; flow states and artistic expression; connecting with the water element; and so much more!

Verdict: The award-winning author best known for his empath’s trilogy, consisting of The Empath’s Oracle, Esoteric Empathy, and The Everyday Empath, as well as the shadow trilogy of A Gothic Witch’s Oracle, A Witch’s Shadow Magick Compendium, and Goth Craft, now brings forth his brand new prose on the subject of Magick, the dutifully sculpted Pagan Portals - Magick for Empaths, a comprehensive and clear-eyed look at what it means to be an empath within this world.

Upon opening the guidebook, Raven offers up a chakra meditation with the empathic soul in mind. Most readers will be at least somewhat familiar with the seven primary chakras of the human body, so this should be a very pleasing meditation to receive.

First recognized in ancient Indian Vedic texts, wisdom of the chakras and the body’s energy system has now spread far beyond Hinduism and Vedantic philosophy.

At all times insightfully engaging and wholly impassioned, and yet never one-sided, Pagan Portals - Magick for Empaths (an empath being someone who is highly attuned to the emotions of others and who may feel what others are feeling so deeply that they take on those emotions) reveals the mystery of being an empath whilst at the same time encourages us to open our hearts and find out where the magick of being one can take you.

So come explore the numerous aspects of the empathic experience and how it relates to magickal spirituality here in the most wondrous new book Pagan Portals - Magick for Empaths out now.

About the Author - Raven Digitalis is an award-winning author best known for his Empath’s trilogy and Shadow trilogy. Originally trained in Georgian Witchcraft, Raven has been an earth-based practitioner since 1999, a Priest since 2003, a Freemason since 2012, and an empath all of his life.

He holds a degree in cultural anthropology from the University of Montana, jointly operated a nonprofit Pagan temple for sixteen years, and is also a professional Tarot reader, editor, card-carrying magician, and animal rights advocate. He lives in Missoula, MT.

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Overview: In a culture that often prioritizes and celebrates rugged individualism and separateness, Hestia welcomes us home.

Her magick invites togetherness and shared resources by cultivating spaces of belonging and community.

May Hestia call her back to our homes to celebrate families of all shapes, sizes, and forms, creating sustainable structures for ongoing collaboration and nourishment.

Verdict: For those not completely in the know, Hestia was the virgin goddess of the hearth (both private and municipal) and the home. As the goddess of the family hearth she also presided over the cooking of bread and the preparation of the family meal.

Hestia was also the goddess of the sacrificial flame and received a share of every sacrifice to the gods. The cooking of the communal feast of sacrificial meat was naturally a part of her domain.

In myth Hestia was the first born child of Kronos (Cronus) and Rhea who was swallowed by her father at birth. Zeus later forced the old Titan to disgorge Hestia and her siblings.

As the first to be swallowed she was also the last to be disgorged, and so was named as both the eldest and youngest of the six Kronides. When the gods Apollon and Poseidon sought for her hand in marriage, Hestia refused and asked Zeus to let her remain an eternal virgin. He agreed and she took her place at his royal hearth.

Indeed, Hestia was depicted in Athenian vase painting as a modestly veiled woman sometimes holding a flowered branch (perhaps a chaste-tree). In classical sculpture she was also veiled, with a kettle as her attribute.

Although not as well known as Her Olympian siblings, Hestia played an essential role in ancient Greek religion. But hearth and home remain the sacred spaces around which communities are built - as such, Hestia’s warmth and shelter are just as important and healing in today’s fractured world as they were millennia ago [Thumper Forge, Llewellyn author of Virgo Witch: Unlock the Magic of Your Sun Sign].

Is you’ve ever studied the Greek godds for any time, you will likely notice the drama of being a godd in this pantheon. There are affairs, fights, and controversies galore. From Zeus and his many lovers to Aphrodite and her disdain for Psyche, the Greek godds are often in conflict and disarray, but Hestia isn’t one for drama; or at least it wasn’t captured in writing any case. She is a steady, solid figure in the Greek pantheon, and someone who continues to influence family life.

Thus here in prolific author Irisanya Moon’s latest Pagan Portals book, Pagan Portals: Hestia: Goddess of Hearth, Home & Community, they offer a veritable myriad of of practical ways to develop a relationship with Hestia; which include, but are not limited to, storytelling, cookery and serving the community.

About the Author - Irisanya Moon (she/they) is an author, Witch, priestess, international teacher, and initiate in the Reclaiming tradition. A devotee of Aphrodite, Hecate, the Norns, and Iris, she has been practicing magick for 20+ years.

They are passionate about the idea that life is and humans are love spells, ever experiencing a dance of desire and connection, moving in and out of the heart, always returning to love. Her teaching/facilitation style is immersive, gracious, safe, and welcoming. She currently lives in Santa Rosa, CA.

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