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Mystical Bodies, Mystical Meals is the first book-length study of mystical eating practices and experiences in the kabbalah. Focusing on the Jewish mystical literature of late-thirteenth-century Spain, author Joel Hecker analyzes the ways in which the Zohar and other contemporaneous literature represent mystical attainment in their homilies about eating. What emerges is not only consideration of eating practices but, more broadly, the effects such practices and experiences have on the bodies of its practitioners. Using anthropology, sociology, ritual studies, and gender theory, Hecker accounts for the internal topography of the body as imaginatively conceived by kabbalists. For these mystics, the physical body interacts with the material world to effect transformations within themselves and within the Divinity. The kabbalists experience the ideal body as one of fullness, one whose boundaries allow for the intake of divine light and power, and for the outward overflow of fruitfulness and generosity; at the same time, the body retains sufficient integrity to confer a sense of completeness, as the perfect symbol for the Divinity itself. Nourishment imagery is used throughout the kabbalah as a metaphor signifying the flow of divine blessing from the upper worlds to the lower, from masculine to feminine, and from Israel to the Godhead. The body's spiritual continuity allows for unions between the kabbalistic devotee and his food, table, chair, and wine and is exemplified in the practices and experiences surrounding the consumption of food; this continuity is also applicable to other aspects of embodiment, such as the kabbalist's union with his fellow man. Mystical Bodies, Mystical Meals underscores the homosocial quality of the kabbalistic fraternity, in which gendered hierarchies of master and disciple are linked to the imagery and dynamics of nourishment and sexuality. Bringing this entire spectrum into focus, Hecker ultimately considers how the oral cavity and stomach, even the emotions associated with festive meals, are mobilized to produce the soul of the mystical saint in medieval kabbalah.
Angela of Foligno (c. 1248-1309) is one of the most outstanding representatives of the Franciscan and Christian mystical tradition. Her Book, published here in English for the first time, describes her passionate love affair with the "suffering God-man," and her teachings in the form of letters and exhortations to her spiritual progeny.
False Mystics provides a history of popular religion, race, and gender in colonial Mexico focusing on questions of spiritual and social rebellion and conformity. Nora E. Jaffary examines more than one hundred trials of ?false mystics? whom the Mexican Inquisition prosecuted in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. While the accused experienced many of the same phenomena as bona fide mystics?visions, sacred illness, and bouts of demonic possession?the Mexican tribunal condemned them nevertheless. False Mystics examines why the Catholic church viewed the accused as deviants and argues that this categorization was due in part to unconventional aspects of their spirituality and in part to contemporary social anxieties over class and race mixing, transgressions of appropriate gendered behavior, and fears of Indian and African influences on orthodox Catholicism. Jaffary examines the transformations this category of heresy underwent between Spain and the New World and explores the relationship between accusations of "false" mysticism and contemporary notions of demonic possession, sickness, and mental illness. Jaffary adopts the perspectives of visionaries to examine the influence of colonial artwork on their spiritual imaginations and to trace the reasons that their spirituality diverged from conventional expressions of piety. False Mystics illuminates the challenges that popular religion and individual spirituality posed to both the institutional church and the colonial social order.
"Canadian bookseller Alex Graham is a middle-age widower whose quiet life is turned upside down when his college-age son disappears without any explanation or trace of where he has gone. With minimal resources, the father begins a long journey that takes him for the first time away from his safe and orderly world. As he stumbles across the merest thread of a trail, he follows it in blind desperation, and is led step by step on an odyssey that takes him to fascinating places and sometimes to frightening people and perils. Through the uncertainty and the anguish, the loss and the longing, Graham is pulled into conflicts between nations, as well as the eternal conflict between good and evil. Stretched nearly to the breaking point by the inexplicable suffering he witnesses and experiences, he discovers unexpected sources of strength as he presses onward in the hope of recovering his son--and himself"--Jacket.
The struggle over fundamental issues erupted with great fury in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. In this book preeminent medievalist Heinrich Fichtenau turns his attention to a new attitude that emerged in Western Europe around the year 1000. This new attitude was exhibited both in the rise of heresy in the general population and in the self-confident rationality of the nascent schools. With his characteristic learning and insight, Fichtenau shows how these two separate intellectual phenomena contributed to a medieval world that was never quite as uniform as might appear from our modern perspective.
Egyptian alchemy and Sufism, with a coherent explanation of fundamentals and practices. This book explains how Ancient Egypt is the origin of alchemy and present-day Sufism, and how the mystics of Egypt camouflage their practices with a thin layer of Islam. The book also explains the progression of the mystical Way towards enlightenment, with a coherent explanation of its fundamentals and practices. It shows the correspondence between the Ancient Egyptian calendar of events and the cosmic cycles of the universe. This Expanded Edition of the book is divided into four parts containing a total of 13 chapters and five appendices. Part I: The Hidden Treasure consists of two chapters: Chapter 1: Egyptian Mysticism and Islamized Sufism will cover the differences between dogmatic and mystical routes and how ancient Egypt is the source of Sufism and alchemy. Chapter 2: The Treasure Within will cover the limitations of humans' organ of perceptions and how to find realities with such limitations. Part II: Transformation From Dust To Gold consists of five chapters—3 through 7: Chapter 3: The Alchemist Way will cover the source of alchemy as being Ancient Egypt; and the progression along the alchemist way; and the role of a guide in the process. Chapter 4: The Purification Process will cover both outer and inner purifications through the process of living in the world. Chapter 5: Basic Practices will cover general practices by the Egyptian mystics to increase their awareness of the real world. Chapter 6: The Way to Revelations will cover the methods by which a mystical aspirant can find knowledge through revelations. Chapter 7: The Heavenly Helpers will cover the role and duty of those who attained super natural powers, to help others on earth. Part III: The Public Visitation Fairs has four chapters—chapters 8 through 11: Chapter 8: The Cyclical Renewal Festivals will cover the importance of holding and participating in annual festivals. Chapter 9: Samples of Ancient-Present Festivals will cover about a dozen annual ancient egyptian festivals and how many of them are very familiar and being observed throughout the western world. Chapter 10: The Egyptian Spirited Fairs (Mouleds) will cover the main elements of a typical festival Chapter 11: Egyptian Themes of Saint's Nick Traditional Festivities will cover a comparison between the commonly known Saint Nick's Christmas traditions with a typical Ancient Egyptian festival of a folk-saint. Part IV: Come One Come All has two chapters—12 through 13. Chapter 12: Fellowship Formations covers the general structure and practices to form/participate in a mystical fellowship. Chapter 13: Auset (Isis)—The Model Philosopher covers the principles and practices of Sufism as found in the Ancient Egyptian allegory of Isis and Osiris. The contents of the five appendices are self evident from each's title, as follows: Appendix A: Miscellaneous Sufi Terms and Their Ancient Egyptian Roots Appendix B: Sleeping With the Enemy (Surviving Islam) Appendix C: Zikr—The Ecstatic Practice Appendix D: Reaching the Hearts and Minds (Effective Communication) Appendix E: The Egyptian vs. The Latin Calendar.
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