Celebrates the rich spectrum of paths that cross our sacred world. This book tells of inner spiritual journeys and of the physical pathways that have been inscribed by the spread and search for religion. It examines the relationship between pilgrim travel, arrival and our inherent desire for connectedness with the Divine.
So far as rituals and traditions go, such understanding should recall ages bygone, recapture memories preserved and comprehend practices handed down the generations. This book addresses the following query: Why were certain rituals prescribed and practiced, how traditions were born and nurtured, why do they not survive wholly?
Examining relics, this book deals with life, and faith and how it is sustained. It tells of a California seeker who ended up in a Jerusalem convent because of a nun's disembodied hand; a French forensics expert who travels on the metro with the rib of a saint; and many other stories, myths, and peculiar histories.
From the extraordinary Machu Picchu set high in the Andes to Uluru in the central Australian desert, and from Britain's Glastonbury Tor to Saint Catherine's Monastery beneath Mount Sinai, this book offers a homage to those sites around the world that have inspired faith, devotion and mystical experiences.
Explores how African shrines, in their diverse forms, are more than just points of worship - they are powerful symbols of ethnic solidarity, group cohesion, and knowledge about the landscape. This book shows how African shrines help to define ethnic boundaries, and symbolically articulate a society's connection with the land it occupies.
Demonstrates how to create personal altars and empower these sacred spaces according to readers needs. This book includes suggested meditations and information - spanning chakras, colours, days of the week, elements, gemstones, gods/goddesses, runes, and more - for choosing appropriate symbols and objects that reflect readers needs.
Offers a look at the way in which women's making of ritual has emerged from the rapidly developing field of women's spirituality and theology. This title uses ethnographic material drawn from the author's personal experience to show how the construction of ritual is a practice which uses storymaking and embodied action to empower women.