Books (OTHER)

Cosmos and Psyche by Richard Tarnas

From a philosopher whose magisterial history of Western thought was praised by Joseph Campbell and Huston Smith comes a brilliant new book that traces the connection between cosmic cycles and archetypal patterns of human experience. Drawing on years of research and on thinkers from Plato to Jung, Richard Tarnas explores the planetary correlations of epochal events like the French Revolution, the two world wars, and September 11. Whether read as astrology updated for the quantum age or as a contemporary classic of spirituality, Cosmos and Psyche is a work of immense sophistication, deep learning, and lasting importance.

World history is vast and confusing. How to find coherence? Tarnas thinks the answer lies in astrology. Possessing a tremendous amount of historical knowledge, the author correlates human history's big events and personalities with the orbits of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Why only Pluto, but not Pluto-size objects (or, for that matter, extrasolar planets) recently discovered, should reign over us goes unexamined, but be that as it may, Tarnas discusses charts, planetary alignments, and archetypal personality traits embodied by the planets so aligned. Reaching into mythology and Jungian psychology, Tarnas associates history makers with, for example, a Neptune-Pluto conjunction. Averring an empirical basis to his research, Tarnas proves a determined writer whose fortress of connected dates, historical trends, and philosophical thought defies would-be challengers to his cosmic viewpoint. Casual astrology buffs and readers of the daily horoscope may find this volume heavy going. This is a book for those who are as intrigued by and as convinced of astrology's validity as Tarnas. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Richard Tarnas was born in 1950 in Geneva, Switzerland, of American parents. He grew up in Michigan, where he studied Greek, Latin, and the classics under the Jesuits. In 1968 he entered Harvard, where he studied Western intellectual and cultural history and depth psychology, graduating with an A.B. cum laude in 1972. For ten years he lived and worked at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, studying with Joseph Campbell, Gregory Bateson, Huston Smith, James Hillman, and Stanislav Grof, and later served as director of programs and education. He received his Ph.D. from Saybrook Institute in 1976. From 1980 to 1990, he wrote The Passion of the Western Mind, a narrative history of Western thought which became a best seller and continues to be a widely used text in universities throughout the world. He is the founding director of the graduate program in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, where he currently teaches. He gives many public lectures and workshops in the U.S. and abroad.

An entertaining and enlightening compendium of the world's most amazing and bizarre plants, revealing their secrets, history, and lore

What happens when you give a plant a polygraph test? Can a flower really turn a human into a zombie? What gives the gingko tree its stink? The Big, Bad Book of Botany holds the incredible answers to all of these questions and more. From absinthe to zubrowka (a popular ingredient in Polish vodkas), award-winning author Michael Largo takes you through the historical and agricultural evolution of hundreds of plant species, revealing astonishing facts along the way. You'll be introduced to magic mushrooms, superfoods, and toxic teas. You'll learn about plants so valuable they have started international wars, so evolved they can trick animals into helping them survive, and so deadly a single taste of one will kill you. Featuring more than one hundred and forty illustrations, this fascinating and fun A-to-Z encyclopedia for all ages will transform the way you look at the natural world.

Featuring more than 150 photographs and illustrations, The Big, Bad Book of Botany is a fascinating, fun A-to-Z encyclopedia for all ages that will transform the way we look at the natural world.

Prayers of Honoring Grief is the third book of prayers by Earth Medicine Educator, Pixie Lighthorse.Prayer is a means of connecting to our elevated natures during times of transition. It is during hardship that we can look both deep within and to the cosmic outskirts for guidance and wisdom. Prayer can connect us immediately and intimately to what we feel, what is current, and where the challenges are. It allows us the secure and quiet space to be able to honor what we value.To honor is to acknowledge and celebrate. While it may feel counter-intuitive to celebrate pain, what you can celebrate is your ability to access your feelings. Your feelings function is a sense that is like a muscle, asking you to consciously exercise it. The brain is a complex, plastic organ, and it is becoming ever more apparent how it can become hyper-vigilant, triggered by trauma, confused, disorganized, and overwhelmed. To thicken the plot even more, our nervous systems are operating at warp speed, and we are not yet fully equipped with the tools being modern requires in order to navigate through the obstacles of life.Numbing out feelings due to overwhelm turns them off, and we become accustomed to moving through the world unconsciously, detached, and dissociated from them. As natural feelings of suffering and pain are acknowledged, your body will rejoice at its ability to be in the world as it is. The body is a magnificent thing. When its systems come back online, it can bring a feeling of relief as it begins again to do its job as nature intended. The task is to create space for the deeper processes to take place.We are routinely cultured to "get on with it" from an early age, instructed not to waste time lingering in negativity. When the alternative is avoidance we actually become more fragile, though we are taught to believe the opposite. Grief remains in the systems of the body, informing our lives in subtle and subversive ways in the form of fear, anxiety, and depression. The whole map of our lives changes when grief is stored away silently. It directs our decisions, impairs or inflates our willingness to take risks, and continues to have its way with us. Toxic, amputated, dishonest, denied, neglected, mutated grief causes disharmony in the body and spirit.Grief doesn't bite. It is a natural and normal way of dispersing energy through the body's systems. It is not dangerous unless it is acted out in harmful and neglectful ways. Our thoughts around what grief should look like are the most surprising thing of all. How could it possibly be harmful to be honest about how one is feeling? It is simply the confession of what it was really like then and what it feels like now. It is not the plague of darkness it is made out to be. What a relief Prayers of Honoring Grief walks the reader around the compass of life through 28 distinctive modes of suffering to help the reader gracefully navigate the inner territory of what life is really like, rather than what it is idealized to be.The book includes:

• Foreword written by Jennifer Houston
• Suggestions for how to use the book as a personal companion for healing grief as well as ways to bring it into your classes and curriculum
• An introduction to each of the Four Directions and properties associated with grief
• 28 prayers, 7 for each of the Four Directions
• Blank pages on the left side of each prayer for note-taking, collaging, and making the book your own
• One page of journal questions for each section
• Lined pages at the end of each section for recording your thoughts, personal prayers, and notes about your own spiritual awakenings

Llewellyn's Herbal Almanac offers a wide variety of practical ideas on how to benefit from nature's most versatile plants. With hands-on projects, fresh ideas, and tips and techniques, this guide is designed for herb enthusiasts of all skill levels. It also features innovative herbal ideas that span gardening, cooking, crafts, health, beauty, history, and lore. This year's edition also includes profiles for ginger, rhubarb, chamomile, sunflower, and comfrey and articles on:

Aromatics for Nervous, Respiratory, and Digestive Systems • Edible Wild Herbs and Grasses • Swedish Princess Cake with Matcha • Chewable Herbal Pills • Late-Season Herb Gardening • Italian Citrus Fruits • Soup Garden • Tinctures • Crafting with Recycled Materials • Herbal Bath Recipes • The Gardens of Pompeii • Gourmet Herbal Sandwiches • Conservation Plants • Homemade Herbal Scrubs • And Much More

With gorgeous full-color illustrations, ornate decorative elements, lettering in metallic ink, and engaging text, The Language of Flowers: A Fully Illustrated Compendium of Meaning, Literature, and Lore for the Modern Romantic is a treasure for flower lovers. A sumptuous, contemporary anthology of 50 of the world's most storied and popular flowers, each of its entries offers insight to the meaning associated with the flower, and is a fascinating mix of foklore, classic mythology, literature, botanical information and popular culture. 

Following an introduction that provides a short history of the language of flowers, a fad which reached its peak during the reign of Queen Victoria, each uniquely illustrated and designed entry is an enjoyable read full of history and little-known facts. Here is the story of Tulipmania; how the pansy got its "face," and why the most particular pollination process of a certain orchid has made the vanilla bean a very dear commodity. You'll also dicover how Christian Dior's passion for lily of the valley inspired his classic perfume Diorissimo and its extraordinary bottle; why Oscar Wilde had a penchant for wearing green carnations in his lapel; and how Greeks and Romans believed snapdragons could ward off witchcraft, so they planted them at entryways to their homes.

With more than a dozen two-page paintings evoking the romance of noteworthy Victorian gardens and symbolic bouquets, a cross-referenced index of flowers and meanings, and suggestions for further reading, this book is a must for lovers of floriology and Victoriana.

Prayers of Honoring Voice is the second book in Pixie Lighthorse's prayer trilogy. It focuses on the voice, as a sacred instrument worthy of honoring. These prayers encourage us to love and speak the truth, to build relational empowerment, to care about our impact, and to find the courage to say aloud what needs to be said.Each poem-like prayer is a powerful spark for intimate conversations with The Source of Life As You Understand It. They are meant to gentle our self-talk, to inspire and encourage us to take more responsibility for our voices. With compassion and devotion, Pixie guides us to make space for our emotions, to see things as they really are, and to fall in love with dialoguing with the Divine.Each of the books in the Prayers of Honoring series is designed to be a companion, to carry with you on your life's journey. They are designed to be marked up, drawn on, journalled in, personalized, and shared.-28 prayers, 7 for each cardinal direction.-Space to the left of each prayer to journal, collage, and draw-Journal prompts at the end of each section and space to write-Foreword by Elena Brower

Prayers of Honoring was written for sharing from the heart in community. In western culture, we keep many things to ourselves. Prayer, among other things, has become a private practice for those of us who don't congregate for spiritual purposes. Our language for connection to something greater than ourselves has become truncated to basic iterations and generalized affirmations. These prayers were written to honor the things which are easy to celebrate, and also those things which require more practice. It was written as a reminder of the process of honoring, which is to show high respect. It's my thought that respect and reverence have all but gone missing from western culture. To cultivate these things through the rhythm of prayer is to demonstrate devotion to the unfathomable energies which suspend us between the divine energies of Earth and Sky every day and night. It's my belief that creating our own family practice of prayerfulness brings us closer as we travel forth.

"Prayers of Honoring has supported my personal practice and allowed me to ground in an entirely new way." - Trace K.

"Prayers of Honoring was a gift from a fellow yoga teacher in Montana. I've carried it with me around the world and continually seek comfort in the beautiful words and phrases. I am so grateful that you are sharing your heart song, it's beautiful." - Emily S.

"Love Prayers of Honoring. As I entered my shamanic path, these prayers really helped with all of the energy I was calling in, and the energy I was letting go. I felt it was one of my strongest tools, especially when my closest cousin left earth side during it all. Thank you." - Leigh

Treating Psychosomatic Patients: In Search of a Transdisciplinary Framework for the Integration of Bodywork in Psychotherapy offers a conceptual and therapeutic framework for all therapists who have to deal with the psychosomatic 'conflicted' body, as presented in anxiety and depression, stress and burn-out, medically unexplained symptoms and trauma.

The book introduces the transdisciplinary framework 'experiential bodywork' (EBW), drawing on theories and scientific findings drawn from clinical psychology, philosophy, neuroscience, psychotherapy and myofascial therapy. EBW provides a roadmap for a better understanding of the processes that underpin body psychotherapy and body-mind therapies. On a practical level, EBW challenges the therapist to marry the power of psychotherapeutic techniques with the richness of hands-on bodywork and hands-off movement expression. With the 'armoured' body as an entry point, patients learn to feel their body from within and listen to what it tells them. In the sharpness of this awareness they discover a freer way of speaking, moving and being present in the world.

Through EBW, Treating Psychosomatic Patients offers a transdisciplinary, scientifically based framework for the integration of bodywork in psychotherapy, ranging from psychosomatics to trauma, and will be of great interest to psychologists, psychotherapists and counsellors in a variety of settings. EBW also helps somatic therapists, such as physical therapists or osteopaths, to better understand the richness and layeredness of deep bodywork from different psychological, developmental and 'embodied' perspectives.

Indoor plants have gotten a bad rap and are often associated with dusty and dowdy African violets, languishing philodendrons, and bloom-free orchids. No longer! It's time for plant lovers to dust off their houseplants, update their image, and discover just how exciting, trendy, and crucial plants can be in the home.

The Unexpected Houseplant, by renowned plant authority Tovah Martin, isn't your typical, old-fashioned, dowdy houseplant book. Martin's approach is revolutionary—picture brilliant spring bulbs by the bed, lush perennials brought in from the garden, quirky succulents in the kitchen, even flowering vines and small trees growing beside an easy chair. Along with loads of visual inspiration, readers will learn how to make unusual selections, where to best position plants in the home, and valuable tips on watering, feeding, grooming, pruning, and troubleshooting, season by season.

Martin also brings an evangelist's zeal to the task of convincing homeowners that indoor plants aren't just a luxury—they're a necessity. In addition to the design flair they add to a home, houseplants clean indoor air, which can be up to ten times more polluted than outdoor air.

Comprehensive, up-to-the-minute, and illustrated with gorgeous photography by Kindra Clineff, The Unexpected Houseplant is for beginners, green thumbs, decorators, and anyone who wants to infuse a bit of surprising green into their décor

All of the Gospels and the whole of Christian tradition depict Jesus as a miraculous healer who can cure blindness, leprosy, hemorrhages, and a host of other maladies. But how did Jesus actually heal? In this fascinating book, Donald Capps argues that Jesus was keenly attuned to the psychological causes of illness and through his ministry brought healing to body and soul alike.

Capps argues that one of Jesus' purposes was to heal people from mental illnesses, which people in the ancient world would have seen manifested in physical ailments such as blindness, paralysis, or other symptoms. Fully engaged in historical Jesus scholarship, Capps carefully examines Jesus' deep concern for both physical and emotional health and shows how his proclamation of the kingdom of God envisioned a world without mental illness.