Collection: Spirituality & Religion

When Jan Richardson unexpectedly lost her husband and creative partner, the singer/songwriter Garrison Doles, she did what she had long known how to do: she wrote blessings.

These were no sugar-coated blessings. They minimized none of the pain and bewilderment that came in the wake of a wrenching death. With these blessings, Jan entered, instead, into the depths of the shock, anger, and sorrow. From those depths, she has brought forth words that, with heartbreaking honesty, offer surprising comfort and stunning grace.

Those who know loss will find kinship among these pages. In these blessings that move through the anguish of rending into the unexpected shelters of solace and hope, there shimmers a light that helps us see we do not walk alone.

From her own path of grief, Jan offers a luminous, unforgettable gift that invites us to know the tenacity of hope and to recognize the presence of love that, as she writes, is "sorrow's most lasting cure."

Enhance Your Craft, Community & Quality of Life

Keep up to date on the latest witchy trends, unique insights from your favorite authors, and hands-on practices that help contemporary Witches like you stay magically inspired and strong. Providing more than two dozen articles, Llewellyn's 2024 Witches' Companion showcases exciting Pagan topics and amplifies the voices of some of today's most powerful practitioners.

- Post-Pandemic Witchcraft
- Clear Inner Clutter
- Practicing Magick as a Neurodivergent
- Magical Self-Care for Breakups
- Balancing Your Throat Chakra
- Practical Divination Journaling
- Channeling with Cannabis
- Untangling Magical Misfires
- Animism in the Elements
- Witchcraft While on Vacation

This year's edition includes spells, rituals, projects, and advice from some of the best Witch and Pagan writers: Autumn Damiana - Lupa - Ari & Jason Mankey - Susan Pesznecker - Melanie Marquis - Elizabeth Barrette - Deborah Castellano - Monica Crosson - Awyn Dawn - Blake Octavian Blair - Durgadas Allon Duriel& - Alise Marie - Tudorbeth - Diana Rajchel - Melissa Tipton - Madame Pamita

Includes a sixteen-month calendar and lunar information for spellwork and rituals

Southern Cunning is a journey through the folklore of the American South and a look at the power these stories hold for modern witches. Through the lens of folklore, animism, and bioregionalism the book shows how to bring rituals in folklore into the modern day and presents a uniquely American approach to witchcraft born out of the land and practical application.

One of NPR's Great Reads of 2016

"A lively assemblage and smart analysis of dozens of haunting stories...absorbing...[and] intellectually intriguing." --The New York Times Book Review

From the author of The Unidentified, an intellectual feast for fans of offbeat history that takes readers on a road trip through some of the country's most infamously haunted places--and deep into the dark side of our history.

Colin Dickey is on the trail of America's ghosts. Crammed into old houses and hotels, abandoned prisons and empty hospitals, the spirits that linger continue to capture our collective imagination, but why? His own fascination piqued by a house hunt in Los Angeles that revealed derelict foreclosures and "zombie homes," Dickey embarks on a journey across the continental United States to decode and unpack the American history repressed in our most famous haunted places. Some have established reputations as "the most haunted mansion in America," or "the most haunted prison"; others, like the haunted Indian burial grounds in West Virginia, evoke memories from the past our collective nation tries to forget.

With boundless curiosity, Dickey conjures the dead by focusing on questions of the living--how do we, the living, deal with stories about ghosts, and how do we inhabit and move through spaces that have been deemed, for whatever reason, haunted? Paying attention not only to the true facts behind a ghost story, but also to the ways in which changes to those facts are made--and why those changes are made--Dickey paints a version of American history left out of the textbooks, one of things left undone, crimes left unsolved.

Spellbinding, scary, and wickedly insightful, Ghostland discovers the past we're most afraid to speak of aloud in the bright light of day is the same past that tends to linger in the ghost stories we whisper in the dark.

Karmamudra refers to the ancient Buddhist practice of partnered sexual yoga. Also known as 'The Path of Skillful Means' or 'The Path of Great Bliss', Karmamudra uses powerful meditation techniques to transform ordinary pleasure, worldly desire, and orgasm into vehicles for spiritual transformation and liberation. In this ground-breaking book, Dr Nida Chenagtsang draws on his extensive training in Tibetan medicine and yoga to clarify major misconceptions relating to Tibetan Buddhist Tantra in general and Tibetan Buddhist sexual yoga practices in particular. Demystifying sexual yoga without depreciating it, Dr Nida provides an overview of the relationship between Sutric and Tantric orientations in Tibetan Buddhism, offers explanations of Tantric vows, initiations, and subtle anatomy, and explores both bio-medical and traditional Tibetan ideas about sexual health and well-being.

Speaking in a colloquial style as a physician, teacher, yogi, and parent, he addresses issues of sexual abuse, well-being and empowerment in a learned, down-to-earth and compassionate way. Aiming to inform and empower, this book offers vital context and instructions through which beginner and advanced students of any gender or sexual orientation can learn to engage with typically destructive and distracting emotions in a skillful way. Drawing on special Karmamudra teachings found in the Yuthok Nyingthig tradition that are aimed at practitioners without any prior training in tantric yoga, it offers safe and simple methods through which students can work with the raw energy of their desire and transform it into a source of blessings and benefit in their everyday lives.

"A necessary addition to any collection on magic and witchcraft." -- Publisher's Weekly

From the bestselling author of Practical Magic Nikki Van De Car comes Shadow Magic, an expansive, beautiful primer on cultivating your own innate power, magic, and strength through shadow work--the mystical art of engaging with your deepest internal self.

Human beings are incredibly complex. We are more than just our happiness or sunny dispositions, and we have much to offer others and ourselves even on our worst days. There is magic and energy and potential in these moments--in the shadow--and we cannot be the fullest expression of ourselves, at our most powerful, unless we embrace and embody all that we are.

Shadow Magic is here to assist you in uncovering, understanding, and celebrating your own shadow. Author Nikki Van De Car teaches us to work with the shadow, rather than trying to suppress or ignore it--allowing each of us to uncover the whole, integrated witch within. Through foundational lessons on psychologist Carl Jung's concept of the shadow; explorations of magical topics like the moon, dream magic, and symbology; and rituals and spells for connecting to your own deepest self, Shadow Magic invites all of us to harness the shadow's power to bring more magic into our lives. The spells and rituals in this book will help you bring awareness and healing to whatever you may be carrying that you would rather leave behind. As you do so, you'll uncover your personal power, including abilities and gifts that you may not have recognized within yourself. You'll work with sigil magic and symbology, with tarot and candle magic, with the moon, and with dreams. Each section includes three spells for you to try: one for creativity, one for intuition, and one for self-love. And along the way you'll encounter profiles of witches and women throughout history who embraced their own shadows, even when it wasn't popular.

Throughout this book you will learn to embrace what it means to be in relationship with your own shadow, in a process of growth and exploration that will enhance all aspects of the self, allowing for a fuller, more magical life.

This extraordinary treatise explores parallel passages from the Bible and the Hindu scriptures to reveal the essential unity of all religions. Swami Sri Yukteswar, the revered guru of Paramahansa Yogananda, outlines the universal path that every human being must travel to enlightenment. He also explains the vast recurring cycles of civilization, affording a profound understanding of history and the ever-changing panorama of turbulent world events.

Kids Need Healthy Struggles to Succeed

Every parent loves their kids. They want to protect them from pain and give them all the opportunities and comforts they never had growing up. But by removing certain struggles, parents may unknowingly jeopardize their children's future.

What if you could give your kids a superpower to ensure their success outside the home? A lens to see the world in such a way that everything they encounter can be turned into something valuable for themselves and others. A true antidote that protects your kids against becoming victims, spoiled, anxious, fearful, lazy, or entitled.

Value Creation Kid is a proven roadmap to give your children the capabilities and confidence to succeed. Get ready to discover:

• The recipe to create a fun, value-creation learning environment at home
• How to turn healthy struggle into capability, confidence and value creation
• How to shut down the Bank of Mom and Dad for good
• How to set expectations, expenses and extra pay at home, with over 55 Home Gigs for kids to start earning money beyond their expected roles in the home
• Practical financial literacy skills so your kids can learn how to save, spend, share, earn, invest, and protect themselves online
• The principles behind the viral GravyStack(TM) banking app for kids and teens to grow their personal responsibility and grit

The movement has begun- 50 million financially competent kids ready to succeed in the real world. Will you join us?

"[Thich Nhat Hanh] shows us the connection between personal, inner peace and peace on earth." --His Holiness The Dalai Lama

Nominated by Martin Luther King, Jr. for a Nobel Peace Prize, Thich Nhat Hanh is one of today's leading sources of wisdom, peace, compassion and comfort.

The 20th anniversary edition of the classic text, updated, revised, and featuring a Mindful Living Journal.

Buddha and Christ, perhaps the two most pivotal figures in the history of humankind, each left behind a legacy of teachings and practices that have shaped the lives of billions of people over two millennia. If they were to meet on the road today, what would each think of the other's spiritual views and practices?

Thich Nhat Hanh has been part of a decades-long dialogue between two great contemplatice traditions, and brings to Christianity an appreciation of its beauty that could be conveyed only by an outsider. IN lucid, meditative prose, he explores the crossroads of compassion and holiness at which the two traditions meet, and he reawakens our understanding of both. "On the altar in my hermitage," he says, "are images of Buddha and Jesus, and I touch both of them as my spiritual ancestors."

A "panoramic and thought-provoking" (The Guardian) history of the Ottoman dynasty, revealing a diverse empire that straddled East and West 

The Ottoman Empire has long been depicted as the Islamic, Asian antithesis of the Christian, European West. But the reality was starkly different: the Ottomans' multiethnic, multilingual, and multireligious domain reached deep into Europe's heart. Indeed, the Ottoman rulers saw themselves as the new Romans. Recounting the Ottomans' remarkable rise from a frontier principality to a world empire, historian Marc David Baer traces their debts to their Turkish, Mongolian, Islamic, and Byzantine heritage. The Ottomans pioneered religious toleration even as they used religious conversion to integrate conquered peoples. But in the nineteenth century, they embraced exclusivity, leading to ethnic cleansing, genocide, and the empire's demise after the First World War. 

The Ottomans vividly reveals the dynasty's full history and its enduring impact on Europe and the world.

A powerful account of one father's journey through unimaginable grief, offering readers a new vision for how to more actively and fully mourn profound loss.

When Colin Campbell's two teenage children were killed by a drunk driver, Campbell was thrown headlong into a grief so deep he felt he might lose his mind. He found much of the common wisdom about coping with loss--including the ideas that grieving is a private and mysterious process and that the pain is so great that "there are no words"--to be unhelpful. Drawing on what he learned from his own journey, Campbell offers an alternative path for processing pain that is active and vocal and truly honors loved ones lost.
Full of practical advice on how to survive in the aftermath of loss, Finding the Words teaches readers how to actively reach out to their community, perform mourning rituals, and find ways to express their grief, so they can live more fully while also holding their loved ones close. Campbell shines a light on a path forward through the darkness of grief.

"Beautifully written and wise ... [Martin Prechtel] offers stories that are precious and life-sustaining. Read carefully, and listen deeply."--Mary Oliver, National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winner

Inspiring hope, solace, and courage in living through our losses, author Martín Prechtel, trained in the Tzutujil Maya shamanic tradition, shares profound insights on the relationship between grief and praise in our culture--how the inability that many of us have to grieve and weep properly for the dead is deeply linked with the inability to give praise for living. In modern society, grief is something that we usually experience in private, alone, and without the support of a community. Yet, as Prechtel says, "Grief expressed out loud for someone we have lost, or a country or home we have lost, is in itself the greatest praise we could ever give them. Grief is praise, because it is the natural way love honors what it misses."

Prechtel explains that the unexpressed grief prevalent in our society today is the reason for many of the social, cultural, and individual maladies that we are currently experiencing. According to Prechtel, "When you have two centuries of people who have not properly grieved the things that they have lost, the grief shows up as ghosts that inhabit their grandchildren." These "ghosts," he says, can also manifest as disease in the form of tumors, which the Maya refer to as "solidified tears," or in the form of behavioral issues and depression. He goes on to show how this collective, unexpressed energy is the long-held grief of our ancestors manifesting itself, and the work that can be done to liberate this energy so we can heal from the trauma of loss, war, and suffering.

At base, this "little book," as the author calls it, can be seen as a companion of encouragement, a little extra light for those deep and noble parts in all of us.

A must-read for anyone interested in the body-centered movement in psychotherapy. The Hakomi Method integrates the use of mindfulness, nonviolence, meditation, and holism into a highly original amalgam of therapeutic techniques. Hakomi work incorporates the idea of respect for the wisdom of each individual as a living organic system, organizing matter and energy to maintain its goals and identity. It is written with clarity, humor, and simplicity. Sure to inspire and give insight to both therapists and laypersons.

In his acclaimed Dictionary of All Scriptures and Myths, G.A. Gaskell offers authoritative definitions and clear explanations for over 5,000 terms used in sacred texts of the world's religions and mythologies. The origin, nature, and metaphorical meaning of each concept is thoroughly explored in context, supported with numerous quotations from both ancient and recent sources and authorities, and carefully cross-referenced to other examples. Part dictionary and part encyclopedia, this oversized book is packed with illuminating information and will satisfy the curiosity of spiritual and cultural seekers.
Gaskell is a masterful interpreter of sacred symbols and symbolism, and he explains all the key ones in detail while noting which ones have deeper underlying meanings and how they vary between different religions and countries. Meticulously researched and attractively presented, this invaluable guide is a must-have for comparative religion teachers and scholars. Dictionary of All Scriptures and Myths belongs in the library of anyone studying sacred writings or reading them as literature, and is an enlightening read for any layman.

One of the most powerful of the Seth Books, this essential guide to conscious living clearly and powerfully articulates the furthest reaches of human potential, and the concept that we all create our own reality according to our individual beliefs. Having withstood the test of time, it is still considered one of the most dynamic and brilliant maps of inner reality available today.

Originally published in 1981, this pioneering work by Budd Hopkins was the first focused study of an enigma that would come to captivate the world and challenge our understanding of the universe. The influence of Missing Time was such that its title is now deeply embedded into the lexicon of UFO studies-synonymous with that most controversial

and troubling of topics: alien abduction.

At the time of its writing, Hopkins could not have predicted the impact of Missing Time, not only within UFOlogy, but in popular culture worldwide. The facts, stories, and theories presented herein laid the foundation for the first mainstream debates surrounding reports of human encounters with small, grey-skinned entities-non-human beings with hypnotic black eyes who came silently in the night for their own mysterious purposes. These vivid descriptions as documented by Hopkins would trigger buried memories worldwide in people from all walks of life-to the extent that the so-called "Greys" now represent the dominant cultural imagining of an alien lifeform.

Missing Time is a comparative study of individuals distinct from one another in their life circumstances, separated by geography, but connected by their shared experience of a disturbing mystery with profound implications. An essential addition to the library of any serious scholar of the anomalous, and of all who dare to explore the physical, psychological, and spiritual extremities of human experience.