Divine Books

Kathie FitzPatrick's book, Angel Promises, is a journey into the odyssey of losing someone precious in one's life and then, through the process of this experience, attempting to find a purpose that goes well beyond the loss and the pain. The book is the story about Karen, her daughter who died in the Thirtymile Fire in July 2001. It is a story told through Karen's poetry, writings and experiences. But Angel Promises is also a dialog by a parent, and rightly so, as it describes a mother who, while celebrating her daughter's life, at the same time, is sharing her own suffering, questions, and her experience in finding answers through her faith. The book is a dialog rooted in the nature of faith and that age old question, why do these terrible things happen? Through the compilation of this experience, Kathie has modelled in tangible terms, through the publication of these thoughts and memoirs, a method by which others on this journey can rediscover those lost as well as themselves in a way that reaffirms the assurance that God still cares. Angel Promises would make an excellent background reading for courses dealing with the teleology of human suffering or the challenge of personal loss.

Firefighters throughout the world joined together to grieve over the loss of four young wildland firefighters. It was on a hot dry July 10th day in 2001 when 18 year old Karen FitzPatrick of Yakima was trapped with three young comrades and died. The whole nation was in shock.
Safety issues sprang forth from the tragic fire that will be heatedly discussed for infinity.
"Angel Promises" is a well written memoir about a lovely young woman who was denied adulthood by circumstances. For lovers of poetry, this book is a must read. Verse is incuded by both Karen and her mother Katherin (the author). The reader will obtain an understanding of the physical events that were never reported by the media relative to this fire in Northern Washington state, but far more important is the way the emotions leading up to and afterwards, are portrayed by beautiful verse. I highly recommend "Angel Promises." Of all the "tags" or key words available, I think "Inspirational" would far outshine any other possible tag. (9-2-07) The circumstances behind this tragedy are going to be more and more in the National news. Get a head start on a major issue; read "Angel Promises"

The great Zen master D.T. Suzuki once said: "For you Westerners, it is Swedenborg who is your Buddhe. It is he who should be read and followed!" Suzuki translated four of Swedenborg's books (including "Divine Love and Wisdom") into Japanese, but if you want an English version, this is without doubt the finest available translation of Swedenborg's metaphysical masterpiece. Before beginning his English rendering, Mr. Rogers prepared a critical edition of the Latin text - an imperative task if the translation is to be completely faithful to the original, but a task that has been and continues to be ignored by the Swedenborg Foundation, the major publisher of Swedenborg's theological writings, which is now focusing more on pretty covers than on reliable translations. If you are new to Swedenborg, and you want to start with one of his most profound and important works, read "Divine Love and Wisdom" in this wonderful new translation. It will certainly give you an incentive to read Mr. Rogers' translation of Swedenborg's "Marriage Love," and his forthcoming translation of "Divine Providence."

This work, from the Divinely inspired pen of Emanuel Swedenborg, lays out the spiritual and natural foundations of the created universe. The book details how our Creator brought humans into existence from his Divine Love for us and how he governs that creation. It answers philosphical and practical questions about the works of God. This new translation, by the Rev. N.B. Rogers, allows the Divine message to come through clearly in modern English. Learn how the spiritual and natural worlds co-exist and corespond.

This book is primary to any astrology library. Understandable and organized, it is one of the best books on astrology that I own.

I have been a Professional Astrologer for almost 40 years and I have this in First Edition and have used it everyday of my life. With this one book you can learn more than you will ever need to know about this traffic-in-the-sky philosopy.

FLR
Phoenix

Bibliotheca Iranica must be congratulated in sanctioning the publication in it's Intellectual Traditions Series, a unique and novel study on the Aura of Kings, particularly in reference to Ancient Persian and Iranian Kings by Abolala Soudavar.

Since early antiquity, rulers and kings of various dynasties in varied civilizations have claimed themselves or had their chosen ministers proclaim some kind of divine connection with the Divinity. Claiming a divine connection, makes the task of ruling
and formulating policies much easier as few (if any) would like to defy the ultimate source of all power in this universe. Pre-Achemenid, Achemenid, Parthian and Sassanian Kings of Persia were no exception to this rule. This divine connection, legitimacy and sanction of Persian kings was acheived by the ideological concept of the "khvarnah" or the "Divine Glory" usually, visually symbolized as a circular disk or a ringed circle around the head of the king. In early antiquity it was also iconographed as a winged circular disc above the head of the ruling king. Persian literature and sculptures abound with references to the ruler's "Divine Glory" and past studies often emphasized the centrality of this theme to the topics of authority and power. Yet so far little attention and studies have been devoted to this visual symbolism of the "khvarnah" and it's potential for shedding more light on the understanding of Ancient Iranian history. Abolala Soudavar has attempted in his bold daring and novel publication to develop this wealth of iconographic material available into an essential tool for Ancient Iranian historiography.

Soudavar's study traces back the "khvarnah" symbolism from the Mughal era which gives textual references on the subject of kingly "khvarnah" and it's representation to the Il-Khanid era in which legitimacy symbols of pre-Islamic Iran were revived, to the Sassanian era, where multiple ways of the "khvarnah" representaions were created, back to the Achaemenid era when universal symbols of authority were created to demonstrate divine connectedness.

Readers interested in Ancient Iranian history, art and culture would do well to give this book their undivided attention as it is a novel and bold approach at studying a rare and difficult subject, where the past written words are scarce. The book has an excellent bibliography with many new and "fresh" references in the Persian language. However the black and white plate reproduction at the end of the book is marginally satisfactory. The publisher could have provided coloured plates and the layout more spread out for easy reading and comparison.

The book does open up new avenues for discussion and will serve a good reference source for some time.

This is a very interesting book about legitimacy and divine sanctions in Iranian kingship during different Iranian dynasties, Achaemenid, Sasanian, Mughal, and Il Khanid.
As a Turko-Mongol Muslim ruler, the emperor ruler Akbar encountered problem to get an acceptable legitimate right to rule based on Islamic principle of legitimacy and his Vizir based Akbar's Legitimacy on a more acceptable principle of Farre Izadi (Divine glory) and Kayan Kharra (Kayanid Glory) which had deep roots in Iranian culture.
The book consists of 4 chapters:
Chapter I: Khvarnah symbolism is discussed during different dynasties and its connection to Mithraic symbolism.
Chapter II: Reinterpreting Sasanian reliefs: The author has introduced new ways to analyse Sasanian iconography and has rejected the classical translation of Sasanian regal inscriptions which describes the king as `whose seed is from the gods' and a correct translation is `image of god', Chihr az Yazdan.
In this chapter he has also discussed Apam-Napat/Anahita and Mithra as protector of Khvarnah and how Ahura Mazda rose to prominence, while Mithra and Apam-Napat were demoted to a secondary position during Zoroasrtianism.
Chapter III: Symbols of authority for a nascent empire: he traces back the origins of symbolic winged disc to Egyptian art which represented the sky-god and Assyrians used lotus as regal iconography
And it provided Achaemenids with new ideas of combining the lotus and sunflower for a dual representation of the Khvarnah.
Chapter IV Aspects of Farr duality: he has discussed common roots of Iranian and Roman Mithra
The book is very easy to read and is based on calligraphic, pictorial and textual analysis and last 33 pages provides the reader with helpful images and have fantastic footnotes.
I thank Ahura Mazda for having dedicated people like Mr Soudavar among us and recommend this book to readers with love and passion for Iranian history.

The Blessed Surgeon: The Life Of Saint Luke, Archbishop Of Simferopol by Archdeacon Vasiliy Marushchak is an impressive biography of a devoutly religious man in the Russian Orthodox faith. Oppressed by the anti-Christian Soviets, exiled and tortured multiple times, Saint Luke retained an abiding faith and openly spoke his mind. He was also a master surgeon, who oversaw the treatment of injured soldiers during World War II, and ironically, received the Stalin award for his pioneer medical work. The Blessed Surgeon is very highly recommended reading as being an incredible documentary (first of its kind in English), of one man who selflessly devoted his life to God and man during one of the Orthodox Church's most difficult periods in Mother Russia.

Saint Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol was a truly amazing man in both the scientific and theological realms. An incredible man of faith and science he wrote a pioneering surgical book called "On The Surgery of Pyogenic Infections." After the communist revolution he was frequently imprisoned and harassed by the communists for his religious belief, but was still admired for his scientific gifts.

His life is a testament to excellence in all areas. Even being imprisoned and exiled by the communists, he still served in their military hospitals during wartime because he believed it was his duty to save lives, even those of his enemies.

An amazing, inspiring work by Archdeacon Vasiliy Marushchak that is highly readable and inspiring. Saint Luke would inspire the man of faith that doubts science and the scientist that doubts faith. He's even more inspiring to those that believe religion and science can not only coexist, but strengthen each other.

to the publisher, please email us any info you have on the french version of this book.

Those who are intersted in learning the teachings of a true spritual master should study this author he has written over 50 books on true spritualty for the golden age.

What can I say? This is powerful stuff!! At the end of every chapter I found myself saying "Thank you, Lord Jesus!!!"

I enjoyed reading this book. It added more dimension to my relationship with Christ. It opened up my heart to what He did on the cross and what God has available for me in life. Easy to read and follow, not boring.

Last year I bought Helena Nelson-Reed's Call of the Goddess calendar and loved it, so naturally I had to have the new one as well. I can look at her paintings for hours and still discover new details. Further more it is the perfect calendar for everyone who likes mythology and love their Goddess.

I purchased this as a gift and had to fight myself from keeping it! The artwork is beautiful and the information included for each month is very information and interesting.

I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in beauty, and especially those who appreciate the emergence and rise of the Goddess Religions again.

But buy if for the beauty alone.

This book provides an objective review of the cases supporting and opposing intelligent design. The author discusses the strengths and weaknesses of each case. It brings sanity in an area of study where emotional retaliation seems to be the predominant response.

It is also very informative in discussing the progress in the study of biology for the lay reader.

The Case for Divine Design is a must read for anyone interested in the Intelligent Design (ID) controversy. I was attracted to the book because the author wrote a college level botany text I once used and has authored several leading college textbooks in this area with major textbook publishers. The author has a PhD in plant physiology from Cal Tech and is a leading researcher in the field. Salisbury was also department head at Utah State University for many years. He reviews a great deal of cell biology and biochemistry in this 258 page well illustrated book and does an excellent job, showing that the case for Intelligent Design is very strong and this is one major reason for the opposition to the idea today. Opponents see it as clear competition to classical Neo-Darwinism, although in articles critical of ID the authors try to imply the opposite. He also does a good job answering many of the common objections to ID. No one can claim to be informed about this issue without reading this well documented book which should become a classic in the field. He has much good material on irreducible complexity, showing that everything is irreducibly complex except quarks and leptons and they may not be fundamental particles either! If 2 or more parts are required for something to function, it is irreducibly complex.

I love this man and wish more of his books were translated into English. His insight is phenonemal as well as his research. A must read 'before' your trip to Chartres. It arrived after I returned last year, but encouraged me to go again this year.

Jean Markale's books are an amazing journey of discovery through philosophy, gnosis, and the wonderful world of esoterica. He is a mystic and a scholar, he is a teacher and a guide. Markale will never force his conclusions upon you, rather he leads you to them and makes you think and feel for yourself. There is no dogma in his work, only wisdom. While he researches with the thorough tenacity of the most intrepid academic, he is never pendantic or stodgy in his conclusions.

There are layers of fascinating historical information within, the kind of detail that isn't found in a library, but that comes from Markale's lifelong love of his French homeland and the folklore and cultures that he was raised in. This is wisdom firsthand. It is experiential and real.

If you have an interest in ancient cultures, goddess worship, the sacred nature of the cathedrals and those who built them, and the path of Gnosis, there is much to love in this book. But don't expect a linear, typical journey. Markale is a genius, and he would never do anything that obvious.

Read it, put it away and read it a few months later. You will see something within it that you did not see before.