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Customer Reviews (17)

Do not order from "thermite_media"
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Amazon has a great system that Thermite Media must exploit. By cancelling your order there is no way to leave negative feedback.Thanks Amazon.

DO NOT order ANYTHING from Thermite Media.
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Amazon needs to remove them as a marketplace vendor.
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Medieval vision of the afterlife
This was required reading for a graduate course in medieval history. Norton edition has great articles to help explain the work and is a great translation. Dante Alighieri's (1265-1321) "Devine Comedy" weaved together aspects of biblical and classical Greek literary traditions to produce one of the most important works of not only medieval literature, but also one of the great literary works of Western civilization. The full impact of this 14,000-line poem divided into 100 cantos and three books is not just literary. Dante's autobiographical poem Commedia, as he titled it, was his look into the individual psyche and human soul. He explored and reflected on such fundamental questions as political institutions and their problems, the nature of humankind's moral actions, and the possibility of spiritual transformation; these were all fundamental social and cultural concerns for people during the fourteenth-century. Dante wrote the Commedia not in Latin but in the Tuscan dialect of Italian so that it would reach a broader readership. The Commedia was a three-part journey undertaken by the pilgrim Dante to the realms of the Christian afterlife: Hell, (Inferno), Purgatory, (Purgatorio), and Paradise, (Paradisio).

The poem narrated in first person, began with Dante lost midlife. He was 35 years old in the year 1300 and in a dark wood. Being lost in the dark wood was certainly an allegorical device that Dante used to express the condition of his own life at the time he started writing the poem. Dante had been active in Florentine politics and a member of the White Guelph party who opposed the secular rule of Pope Boniface VIII over Florence. In 1302, The Black Guelphs who were allied with the Pope, were militarily victorious in gaining control of the city and Dante found himself an exile from his beloved city for the rest of his life. Thus, Dante started writing the Commedia in 1308 and used it to comment on his own tribulations of life, and to state his views on politics and religion, and heap scorn on his political enemies.

Dante's first leg of his journey out of the dark wood was through the nine concentric circles of Hell (Inferno), escorted by his favorite classical Roman poet Virgil, author of the Aeneid. Dante borrowed heavily from Virgil's Aeneid. Much of Dante's description of hell had similarities to Virgil's description in his sixth book of the Aeneid. Dante's three major divisions of sin in hell where unrepentant sinners dwelled, had their sources in Aristotle and Augustinian philosophy. They were self-indulgence, violence, and fraud. Fraud was considered the worst of moral failures because it undermined family, trust, and religion; in essence, it tore at the moral fabric of civilized society. These divisions were inversions of the classical virtues of moderation, courage, and wisdom. The fourth classical virtue, justice, is what Dante came to believe after his journey through hell that all its inhabitants received for their unrepentant sins. There were nine concentric circles of hell inside the earth; each smaller than the previous one. For Dante the geography of hell was a moral geography as well as a physical one, reflecting the nature of the sin. Canto IV describes the first circle of hell, Limbo, which is where Dante met the shades, as souls where called, of the virtuous un-baptized such as Homer, Ovid, Caesar, Aristotle, and Plato.

In the four circles for the sin of self-indulgence Dante met shades who where lustful, gluttons, hoarders and wrathful. In the second circle of Hell, lustful souls were blown around in a violent storm. In Canto V, one of the great dramatic moments of the poem, Dante had his first lengthy encounter with an unrepentant sinner Francesca da Rimini, who committed adultery with her brother-in-law. Like all the sinners in hell, Francesca laid the blame for her sin elsewhere. She claimed to be seduced into committing adultery after reading the story of Lancelot and Guinevere. At the end of the scene, Dante fainted out of pity for Francesca.

In Canto X, the sixth circle of hell reserved for heretics who are punished by being trapped in flaming tombs, Dante took the opportunity to use the circle to chastise political leaders for participating in political partisanship. A Florentine who was a leader in the rival Ghibbelline political party, Farinata degli Uberti, accosted Dante. Both men aggressively argued with each other, recreating in hell the bitterness of partisan politics in Florence. Farinata predicted Dante's exile. Dante used this Canto to show the dangerous tendencies of petty political partisanship that he harbored.

The seventh circle of hell was subdivided into three areas where sinners were punished for doing violence against themselves, their neighbors, or God. In Canto XIII Dante encountered Pier della Vigne in the wood of the suicides. The shades there were shrubs who had to speak through a broken branch. Pier spoke to Dante about how he had been an important advisor to Emperor Frederick II, and how he blamed his fall, and his suicide, on the envy of other court members. This Canto was especially important because Dante came to grips with his own "future" fall from political power and exile. Pier's behavior served as a strong example to Dante how not to act in exile. Whether he had been tempted to commit suicide is not clear; however, he certainly had been prone to the selfish and despairing attitude that Pier represented.

The last two circles of hell contained the sinners of fraud. In the eighth circle, there were ten ditches for the various types of fraud such as Simony, thievery, hypocrisy, etc. Canto XIX described the third ditch, which contained those guilty of Simony, the sin of church leaders perverting their spiritual office by buying and selling church offices. Simonists were buried upside down in a rock with their feet on fire. Pope Nicholas III mistakenly addressed Dante as Pope Boniface VIII who was the current Pope in 1300, and whose place in hell was thereby predicted. This is not surprising since Boniface was the person most responsible for Dante's exile. In an interesting literary twist, Nicholas "confessed" to Dante, as if he was a priest, his sin of greed and nepotism. He admitted that even after becoming Pope he cared more for his family's interests than the good of the whole Church. Dante responded to Nicholas' "confession" with a stinging condemnation of Simony drawn from the Book of Revelation. After this encounter, Dante came to understand that hell was a place of justice.

Canto XXXIV, the last one in the Inferno, depicted Satan with three heads. Each head was chewing the three worst sinners of humankind. The middle head was chewing on the head of Judas Iscariot, who was a disciple to Jesus and his betrayer. The other two heads were chewing Brutus and Cassius; the murderers of Julius Caesar, and the two men Dante faulted for the destruction of a unified Italy. Dante considered the two ultimate betrayals against God and against the empire as the worst betrayals perpetrated in the history of humankind.

Thus, Dante's intent in his Commedia was to teach fourteenth-century readers that if one wanted to ascend spiritually towards God then one needed to learn the nature of sin from the unrepentant. By doing this, one could learn to overcome the same tendencies found in themselves. He wanted people to realize what he had come to learn that political partisanship would only stand in the way of unifying Italy and keep it from regaining any of its former glory that it enjoyed during the time of the Roman Empire.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in literature and medieval history.

soso
The translation is still very old speak. Hard to understand and follow the story line.

even better than it looked
I gotta say, I was blown away by the quality of this book. I was looking for something basic, and was very pleasantly surprised when I unwrapped this beautifull version of the book. Highly recommended.

Just what I was looking for
The product was delivered in perfect condition and just as described by the seller. I would buy from this seller again. ... Read more

Product Description
At last a truly comprehensive and authoritative text on numerology! Part I is a complete introduction to esoteric numerology. Part II includes extensive delineations of each of the numbers 1 to 78 and, for the first time in book form, a synthesis of numerology, astrology and the Tarot. Each number is explained as personal number vibrations, as a temporary number vibration, in terms of its astrological correspondence and in terms of its Tarot symbolism. Each of the Tarot cards is illustrated. Numerology and the Divine Triangle is the book to which all books on the subject will be compared from now on. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (42)

Numerology and the Divine Triangle
The authors have put together an excellent primer on Numerology.Well written, this book presents not only good descriptors of the science of the meaning behind numbers, but it also ties in concepts of Astrology and the Tarot. An all around good reference book for students, clients, students of Numerology, Astrology and the Tarot, the Divine Triangle is good to look through every year or so, every nine years or so, every time you are presented with one of life's interesting challenges. I especially liked the book because it is not too intellectual, nor too scientific, nor too in-depth about Astrology and Tarot (neither of which am I excoted ab out learning in-depth). Spirit Journeys: Freeing the Soul in this Life and Beyond, Healing Thoughts: Applying Therapeutic Shamanism in Your Daily Life

very complete, thorough and easy to read
I am very amazed at how well this book taught me about numerology and that it made it easy enough for a beginner to use and also provided lots of clear details on using numerology in so many ways. Excellent authoritative work.

Brilliant, classic, reliable
This is one of my favorite books and I refer to it many times.It's one of the best books on numerology.Well written, fascinating, easy to understand, insightful, incredibly accurate.I highly recommend it.

Truthful book.
After mapping out my numbers on the number triangle, I read the messages that are implied with my numbers, and the messages for me are the same messages that a psychic gave me a couple months ago.So I think the number mapping is truthful and accurate. I found it really facinating!

Thorough
This is an awesome read. I had no clue about Numerology and this
book taught me well. Now, all I do is decipher numbers. This book
also applies Tarot meanings to Numerology and I love the Tarot. I
didn't know that Numerology and the Tarot were linked. I only have
one complaint...it's too "white" or should I say, too right hand
for me. It enlightened me very well on this Art. It would've been
more respected by me if I had come across Numerology from a more
"Dark" perspective. H.S. ... Read more

Product Description
COULD I command rough rhimes and hoarse, to suit That hole of sorrow, o'er which ev'ry rock His firm abutment rears, then might the vein Of fancy rise full springing: but not mine Such measures, and with falt'ring awe I touch The mighty theme; for to describe the depth Of all the universe, is no emprize To jest with, and demands a tongue not us'd To infant babbling.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Medieval vision of the afterlife
This was required reading for a graduate course in medieval history.Norton edition has great articles to help explain the work and is a great translation.The other great translation is by Mark Musa."The Divine Comedy" describes Dante's journey through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and Paradise (Paradiso), guided first by the Roman epic poet Virgil and then by Beatrice, the subject of his love and another of his works, "La Vita Nuova." While the vision of Hell, the Inferno, is vivid for modern readers, the theological niceties presented in the other books require a certain amount of patience and scholarship to understand.Purgatorio, the most lyrical and human of the three, also has the most poets in it; Paradiso, the most heavily theological, has the most beautiful and ecstatic mystic passages in which Dante tries to describe what he confesses he is unable to convey (e.g., when Dante looks into the face of God: "all'alta fantasia qui mancò possa" - "at this high moment, ability failed my capacity to describe," Paradiso, XXXIII, 142).

Dante wrote the Comedy in his regional dialect.By creating a poem of epic structure and philosophic purpose, he established that the Italian language was suitable for the highest sort of expression, and simultaneously established the Tuscan dialect as the standard for Italian. In French, Italian is nicknamed la langue de Dante.Publishing in the vernacular language marked Dante as one of the first (among others such as Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio) to break from standards of publishing in only Latin or Greek (the languages of Church and antiquity).This break allowed more literature to be published for a wider audience - setting the stage for greater levels of literacy in the future.

Readers often cannot understand how such a serious work may be called a "comedy".In Dante's time, all serious scholarly works were written in Latin (a tradition that would persist for several hundred years more, until the waning years of the Enlightenment) and works written in any other language were assumed to be comedic in nature.Furthermore, the word "comedy," in the classical sense, refers to works which reflect belief in an ordered universe, in which events not only tended towards a happy or "amusing" ending, but an ending influenced by a Providential will that orders all things to an ultimate good.By this meaning of the word, the progression of Dante's pilgrim from Hell to Paradise is the paradigmatic expression of comedy, since the work begins with the pilgrim's moral confusion and ends with the vision of God.

The Divine Comedy can be described simply as an allegory: Each canto, and the episodes therein, can contain many alternate meanings.Dante's allegory, however, is more complex, and, in explaining how to read the poem (see the "Letter to Can Grande della Scala"), he outlines other levels of meaning besides the allegory (the historical, the moral, the literal, and the anagogical).The structure of the poem, likewise, is quite complex, with mathematical and numerological patterns arching throughout the work, particularly threes and nines.The poem is often lauded for its particularly human qualities: Dante's skillful delineation of the characters he encounters in Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise; his bitter denunciations of Florentine and Italian politics; and his powerful poetic imagination.Dante's use of real characters, according to Dorothy Sayers in her introduction to her translation of "L'Inferno", allows Dante the freedom of not having to involve the reader in description, and allows him to "[make] room in his poem for the discussion of a great many subjects of the utmost importance, thus widening its range and increasing its variety."

Dante called the poem "Comedy" (the adjective "Divine" added later in the 16th century) because poems in the ancient world were classified as High ("Tragedy") or Low ("Comedy"). Low poems had happy endings and were of everyday or vulgar subjects, while High poems were for more serious matters. Dante was one of the first in the Middle Ages to write of a serious subject, the Redemption of man, in the low and vulgar Italian language and not the Latin language as one might expect for such a serious topic.

Paradiso
After an initial ascension (Canto I), Beatrice guides Dante through the nine spheres of Heaven. These are concentric and spherical, similar to Aristotelian and Ptolemaic cosmology.Dante admits that the vision of heaven he receives is the one that his human eyes permit him to see. Thus, the vision of heaven found in the Cantos is Dante's own personal vision, ambiguous in its true construction.The addition of a moral dimension means that a soul that has reached Paradise stops at the level applicable to it.Souls are allotted to the point of heaven that fits with their human ability to love God.Thus, there is a heavenly hierarchy. All parts of heaven are accessible to the heavenly soul.That is to say all experience God but there is a hierarchy in the sense that some souls are more spiritually developed than others.This is not determined by time or learning as such but by their proximity to God (how much they allow themselves to experience him above other things).It must be remembered in Dante's schema that all souls in Heaven are on some level always in contact with God.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in literature and medieval history.

Worth the price...
Most of the text is technically there. I downloaded it and was disappointed; many lines are cut off and there are large gaps in the text for no apparent reason. If you're desperate for Paradise Lost, I suppose it's worth it, but I think I will just delete these. If they weren't free, I'd complain, but you get what you pay for :D ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (8)

Missing something, something added?
I like this interesting book and CD, but for some reason the author insists on making the Divine Name fit his ideas, rather than the other way around. The hardest part to deal with is that the OOO-EEE-AAA-etc. *does* rather sound like the Yod and Hay of the Divine Name, but completely ignores the second half of the name, Va- Hay. The track just repeats Yod-Hay over and over again. Fear of pronouncing the Divine Name, perhaps?
Beautiful sound, well produced, but Mr. Goldman seems to fear going all the way with it.

Same thing on Holy Harmonies, which I like even better--but--he adds a "Shin" between Yod-Hay and Va-Hay and claims it's an ancient Messianic chant (for Jesus). And yet, in this case, he does use the consonants with the vowels, but for what? What comes out means nothing. I found that a little crass. Gregg Braden's idea, I suspect.

As a Jew who studies The Holy Books voraciously, as well as Kabbalah, it's *news* to me that adding a Shin into the Divine Name gets you the ancient name of Jesus, and I bet it would surprise millions of others as well - especially bible and Kabbalah scholars. It's pandering.

The chants would be perfect had he done the obvious. Sure, use the vowels, which feel right, but the consonants are also what the ear listens for after all these years of hearing the Name. He got it *right* -- then slid away from it. Used properly the Divine Name can be used for prayerful chant. There was really no reason to go this route, and what's left isn't really quite what it claims it is, if you listen closely. A great effort, but.I'm looking forward to listening to several other of his works, though. He's definitely got it.But will he give it?

A Joyful Noise
In The Divine Name, what you hear is what you get. The author literally teaches us God's name, literally--and it isn't Andy, as in "Andy walks with me, Andy talks with me;" nor is it God spelled backwards. I have to admit that I was a little skeptical about the book's claims at first. I've bought books before that promised to divulge life-altering, cosmic knowledge only to be left with a sense of loss of both my money and my spirit. I'm happy to say that The Divine Name delivered for me. Merely listening to the CD altered my perceptions even before joining in with the chanting. The mantras opened new channels of awareness for me I never knew I had. It was as if my consciousness had switched from analog to cable without the costly set-up fees. Once that heavenly reception came through there was no going back. By the end of the book I was ready to shave my head and join a monestary; then I remembered I was single and already living the lifestyle of a monk. Be that as it may, I found The Divine Name to be a truly divine read.

Spiritually uplifting Book
If you are searching for a way to enrich your life spiritually, buy this man's books and cds.His knowledge crosses all religions; it is a way to get to know God, not religion.In my opinion, this man is the real deal; and his CDs are very healing.

Any new age or spirituality library needs this
The Divine Name: The Sound That Can Change the World includes a free instructional CD and is a top pick for any library strong in spirituality. The Divine Name is a universal sound that can bring harmony and healing not just to ourselves, but to the planet. This sound is the personal name of God - and this book offers a step-by-step survey of vibratory activation for experiencing this power. Any new age or spirituality library needs this.

Powerful toning tool
Sound healing pioneer Jonathan Goldman presents a simple yet powerful toning tool for creating a gateway to a higher state of being. Using the heart chakra sound as a bridge, Goldman shares how to tone the vowel sound of each of the seven chakras to unlock the sound of the divine name of God. Different religious and spiritual traditions believe that the divine name has a universal sound, and that when properly intoned, can create harmony and healing on a personal and planetary level. In the accompanying instructional CD, Goldman's healing voice leads readers through the toning exercises. Toning the sounds of the chakras creates a powerful healing experience: energy flows up and down the spine, the crown chakra opens wide and energy moves freely and expansively, and you sense that you play a small, but important part in a greater universal symphony. Goldman's sound healing tools are a fundamental and necessary part of any spiritual journey. Sound reminds us of who we are and the deep connection we hold with the divine.

-- Vicky Thompson, New Connexion Journal
[...]
... Read more

Product Description
Beginning with Dante's liberation from Hell, "Purgatory" relates his ascent, accompanied by Virgil, to the Mount of Purgatory - a mountain of nine levels, formed from rock forced upwards when God threw Satan into depths of the earth. As he travels through the first seven levels, Dante observes the sinners who are waiting for their release into Paradise, and through these encounters he is himself transformed into a stronger and better man. For, it is only when he has learned from each of these levels that he can ascend to the gateway to Heaven: the Garden of Eden. The second part of one of the greatest epic poems, "Purgatory" is an enthralling Christian allegory of sin, redemption and ultimate enlightenment. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Purgation of Dante
I'd completed the first book of The Divine Comedy and had to pick up the second and third. This volume takes place in Catholic Purgatory and opens up with Dante escaping from Hell and making his way across the waters to the mountain of Purgatory. It follows Dante as he makes his way up the mountain encountering more souls who are paying the price for their sins in their now-lost lives. Dante will in essence share in these tribulations to purify himself so that he can enter Paradise.

Medieval vision of the afterlife
This was required reading for a graduate course in medieval history.Norton edition has great articles to help explain the work and is a great translation.The other great translation is by Mark Musa."The Divine Comedy" describes Dante's journey through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and Paradise (Paradiso), guided first by the Roman epic poet Virgil and then by Beatrice, the subject of his love and another of his works, "La Vita Nuova." While the vision of Hell, the Inferno, is vivid for modern readers, the theological niceties presented in the other books require a certain amount of patience and scholarship to understand.Purgatorio, the most lyrical and human of the three, also has the most poets in it; Paradiso, the most heavily theological, has the most beautiful and ecstatic mystic passages in which Dante tries to describe what he confesses he is unable to convey (e.g., when Dante looks into the face of God: "all'alta fantasia qui mancò possa" - "at this high moment, ability failed my capacity to describe," Paradiso, XXXIII, 142).

Dante wrote the Comedy in his regional dialect.By creating a poem of epic structure and philosophic purpose, he established that the Italian language was suitable for the highest sort of expression, and simultaneously established the Tuscan dialect as the standard for Italian. In French, Italian is nicknamed la langue de Dante.Publishing in the vernacular language marked Dante as one of the first (among others such as Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio) to break from standards of publishing in only Latin or Greek (the languages of Church and antiquity).This break allowed more literature to be published for a wider audience - setting the stage for greater levels of literacy in the future.

Readers often cannot understand how such a serious work may be called a "comedy".In Dante's time, all serious scholarly works were written in Latin (a tradition that would persist for several hundred years more, until the waning years of the Enlightenment) and works written in any other language were assumed to be comedic in nature.Furthermore, the word "comedy," in the classical sense, refers to works which reflect belief in an ordered universe, in which events not only tended towards a happy or "amusing" ending, but an ending influenced by a Providential will that orders all things to an ultimate good.By this meaning of the word, the progression of Dante's pilgrim from Hell to Paradise is the paradigmatic expression of comedy, since the work begins with the pilgrim's moral confusion and ends with the vision of God.

The Divine Comedy can be described simply as an allegory: Each canto, and the episodes therein, can contain many alternate meanings.Dante's allegory, however, is more complex, and, in explaining how to read the poem (see the "Letter to Can Grande della Scala"), he outlines other levels of meaning besides the allegory (the historical, the moral, the literal, and the anagogical).The structure of the poem, likewise, is quite complex, with mathematical and numerological patterns arching throughout the work, particularly threes and nines.The poem is often lauded for its particularly human qualities: Dante's skillful delineation of the characters he encounters in Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise; his bitter denunciations of Florentine and Italian politics; and his powerful poetic imagination.Dante's use of real characters, according to Dorothy Sayers in her introduction to her translation of "L'Inferno", allows Dante the freedom of not having to involve the reader in description, and allows him to "[make] room in his poem for the discussion of a great many subjects of the utmost importance, thus widening its range and increasing its variety."

Dante called the poem "Comedy" (the adjective "Divine" added later in the 16th century) because poems in the ancient world were classified as High ("Tragedy") or Low ("Comedy"). Low poems had happy endings and were of everyday or vulgar subjects, while High poems were for more serious matters. Dante was one of the first in the Middle Ages to write of a serious subject, the Redemption of man, in the low and vulgar Italian language and not the Latin language as one might expect for such a serious topic.

Paradiso
After an initial ascension (Canto I), Beatrice guides Dante through the nine spheres of Heaven. These are concentric and spherical, similar to Aristotelian and Ptolemaic cosmology.Dante admits that the vision of heaven he receives is the one that his human eyes permit him to see. Thus, the vision of heaven found in the Cantos is Dante's own personal vision, ambiguous in its true construction.The addition of a moral dimension means that a soul that has reached Paradise stops at the level applicable to it.Souls are allotted to the point of heaven that fits with their human ability to love God.Thus, there is a heavenly hierarchy. All parts of heaven are accessible to the heavenly soul.That is to say all experience God but there is a hierarchy in the sense that some souls are more spiritually developed than others.This is not determined by time or learning as such but by their proximity to God (how much they allow themselves to experience him above other things).It must be remembered in Dante's schema that all souls in Heaven are on some level always in contact with God.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in literature and medieval history.

A stint in Purgatorio
"And I shall sing about that second realm/where man's soul goes to purify itself/and become worthy to ascend to heaven..."

Having finished his tour of hell and its residents, Dante Alighieri turns his attention to a more cheerful (if less juicy) supernatural realm. "Purgatorio" is less famous than its predecessor, but it's still a beautiful piece of work that explores the mindset not of the damned, but of sinners who are undergoing a divine cleansing -- beautiful, hopeful and a little sad.

Outside of Hell, Dante and Virgil encounter a small boat piloted by an angel and filled with human souls -- and unlike the damned, they're eager to find "the mountain." And as Hell had circles of damnation, Purgatory has terraces that the redeemable souls climb on their way towards Heaven, and none of the people there will leave their terrace until they are cleansed.

And the sins that are cleansed here are the seven deadly ones: the proud, the envious, the wrathful, the greedy, the lazy, the gluttonous, and the lustful. But as Dante moves slowly through the terraces, he finds himself gaining a new tour guide as he approaches Heaven...

I'll say this openly: the second part of the "Divine Comedy" is simply not as deliciously entertaining as "Inferno" -- it was kind of fun to see Dante skewering the corrupt people of his time, and describing the sort of grotesque punishments they merited. But while not as fun, "Purgatorio" is a more transcendent, hopeful kind of story since all the souls there will eventually be cleansed and make their way to Heaven.

As a result, "Purgatorio" is filled with a kind of eager anticipation -- there's flowers, stars, dancing, angelic ferrymen, mythic Grecian rivers and an army of souls who are all-too-eager to get to Purgatory so their purification can start. Alighieri's timeless poetry has a silken quality, from beginning to end ("Here let death's poetry arise to life!/O Muses sacrosanct whose liege I am/and let Calliope rise up and play") and it's crammed with classical references and Christian symbolism (the Sun's part in advancing the soiled souls).

And the trip through Purgatory seems to have a strong effect on Dante's self-insert, who appears less repulsed and more fascinated by what he sees there. It's hard not to feel sorry for him when the paternal Virgil exits the Comedy, but at least he has someone else appears to guide him.

The middle part of the Divine Comedy isn't as juicy as "Inferno," but the beauty of Dante Alighieri's writing makes up for it."Purgatorio" is a must read... and then on to Paradise.

The notes illuminate Dante's message.
This translation is a "must" for anyone who thought they couldn't comprehend the Divine Comedy.I recommend purchasing the 3 volume set.

Dante Musa Style
Mark Musa has produced an extremely readable translation of a text that at times can be next to inaccessible.As a non-Dante scholar, I have struggled with other translations.The notes accompanying each canto also are well done:thorough and very illuminating.Musa's deft pen has turned Purgatory into a pleasure. ... Read more

Product Description
Explains the links between the Bible and ancient Sumerian texts, probing the age-old question of the relationship between humanity and its creators.
* Challenges scientific maxims of the basis of human life.
* Draws fascinating parallels between the leaders of the Anunnaki (from the 12th planet) and Yahweh.
* A comprehensive new look at the history of man.
* First time available in hardcover.

In Divine Encounters Zecharia Sitchin draws on basic Judeo-Christian texts to analyze the creation myths, paralleling Biblical stories to the myths of Sumer and Mesopotamia in order to show that humanity did not evolve without assistance. Sitchin daringly hypothesizes instead that Enki, one of the leaders of the Anunnaki from the 12th planet, created humanity as a "primitive worker." Furthermore, Sitchin suggests that the extraterrestrial encounters of today demonstrate the continued interest of the Anunnaki in the Earthlings they created. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (21)

Great book!
This is a great book. It was delivered timely and the description was accurate. Thanks!

Encounters
Another Zecharia book that makes you wonder about the ancient past and is hard to put down. As with all his books, I highly recommend it.

Yahweh Revealed?
Divine Encounters is essentially a rehashing of Sitchin's earlier works, but this time with a renewed focus on whether encounters with ancient gods were divine or extraterrestrial in nature. The last chapter is the most interesting, because it is here that Sitchin finally addresses the question of whether or not Yahweh is one of the Anunnaki. This is a point Sitchin has previously been silent on, despite being able to associate almost every other ancient god with the Anunnaki. Surprisingly, Sitchin concludes that Yahweh is not just one of the Anunnaki, but in fact is the god of the Anunnaki. Is Sitchin being politically correct here so as not to upset the establish religious orthodoxy of present day Judaism? After all, it is one thing for Sitchin to suggest that Judaism has its roots in the pagan (let alone extraterrestrial) beliefs and practices of ancient Mesopotamia, it is quite another to suggest that Yahweh is just an extraterrestrial from another planet! Clearly, Sitchin seems to be playing it safe by concluding that Yahweh is not only the one true god of Judaism, but also the Anunnaki, and quite possibly of other worlds in the universe. However, if one looks closely at Sitchin's own writings, the evidence to decipher the identity of Yahweh can be found - it is none other than the Anunnaki god Enki. The reasoning is too long and complex to go into here, and I will leave it to the interested reader to do their own research, and reach their own conclusions. Regardless of whether you agree with Sitchin's theories or not, his theories are compelling, and he is without doubt one of the most fascinating writers of our time.

Puzzling and Captivating
From Biblical prophets to questioning the validity of religions. From the origin of religious beliefs to fantasy. Subjects that have intrigued the human mind. Sitchin takes you on a long journey of intellect, doubt, inquisition, metaphoric interpretations and the blasphemous reality. What a wonderful book!

Great contribution to the series--stunning ending!
This contribution to Sitchin's Earth Chronicles series would stand on its own as one of his most interesting books. But Sitchin really buries the lead in this book. The last chapter is called an endpaper, and is the most stunning of chapter of any of his books.

Without giving away the ending, Sitchin goes through the entire pantheon of ancient astronaut "gods" we've come to know through him and shows how the Yahway of the Old Testament isn't any of these figures. His unexpected conclusion is mind-boggling and really changes the meaning of all of his previous books. I don't know why this wasn't the thesis of one of his books, and is instead included as a footnote to this book. ... Read more

Product Description
Meditations on the Power of Prayer and the Prayer of Faith

Jesus is "the savior of both the soul and of the body...ready to grant pardon and healing," says Andrew Murray. In these thought-provoking meditations, Murray—who personally experienced God's healing—lays a clear biblical foundation for healing and guides believers in how to claim this gift for themselves.

Discover what the Bible says about:

Pardon and healing

Obedience and health

Intercessory prayer

The prayer of faith

This classic devotional study has been newly updated for today's reader. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

A. Murray is always worth reading!
Over the years Andrew Murray's books have always been both instructional and inspirational.This one is no exception. If someone in your life is in need of healing, please give this book to them or read it to them.

a very good accurate view of the Bible's teaching on healing
This book is a very good accurate view of the Bible's teaching on healing, one of the best writings on the subject I have ever read. If you are ready it can help straighten out your misunderstandings that block the way to health from God but if you looking for some easy quick fix you'll probably be disappointed. True sometimes you can get a pretty quick and easy answer to prayer for healing but that is usually not the norm and usually it's for something minor, a headache, flu,cold, sprained ankle etc.. These things many times can take a pretty intense wrestling with the powers of darkness, something most Christians seem to know little about or have little stomach for.

Understanding faith and the healing that was accomplished for ever believer on Calvary is not something achieved through mere prayer and intellectual investigation it is something that comes through real humility, perseverance and Divine illumination.I really believe most Christians seem to know so little of the Spirit's illumination, we are so use to trying to understand the things of God with our mind alone that we do not realizing we are blocking God's light which comes through the spirit (Pro 3:5,6ICor 2:14,15). We are too unbroken, reading Watchman Nee's "Release of the Spirit" might help to understand something of this.

I heard some readings from the life of Andrew Murray and his journey into finding out about Divine healing I think 97% of today's believers would have given up. It was quite difficult for him and it took a lot of patience to understand how God works in this area, this is the experience of many who have had success in finding God's supernatural healing. Extremely valuable things don't come cheap. The church being behind for so many centuries in this area is another thing that hinders the way for all of us, we've had few people who can do a good job of instructing us about God's healing power and what faith and trusting God's in promises is really like. Much of what Christians think they know about these things is just almost always very misguided, shallow or down right fake.

There are many temptations and subtle lies from Satan, many don't understand they are deceived by them. The Devil puts up an intense fight over this subjecthe enjoys watching Christians suffer more than anything,he hates them with a cruel and vicious hateand sickness is nothing but a curse and a work of pure hate. The Devil's diseases are a cherished tool he uses to rob and hinder the church of much usefulness in this world. The testimony that our God is the one and only real God is blocked as Christian's experience of sickness with no deliverance is usually not really any different than any other atheist or unbeliever's experience of sickness. So the world misses many opportunities to see a real God, it is just the same old theoretical powerless God in the sky that many believe in.

Of course many Christians are so use to self deception they haven't the slightest idea they are under its influence. So most of the time they will cover up for this embarrassment of having a do nothing, powerless God by trying to rationalize, excuse and substitute half truths with testimonies along these lines :" Yes I am very sick but God gives me courage and cheerfulness to endure and this is a testimony to the world of what Christ can do for someone".

Satan almost always seems to easily deceive and whip most Christians so they give up and adopt some pacifying deceptive excuse to explain why their God doesn't seem real when they need Him to heal them, when He promises to be their Healer and heal all their diseases, Jesus came to destroy the works of the Devil etc... The promises of God's get explained away as not meaning what they really mean, or that was just for the Jews and not the Church etc.. Hence Christians come up with many bizarre theories and rationalizations to defend themselves with.

Faith is knowing you have something you can't see but most want to have something they can see before they believe they have it and this will never work, without faith it is impossible to please Him.

One of the best!
One of the best books ever written on the subject of divine healing, by one of the best authors ever! As with all books by A. Murray, the spotlight is on "sanctification" of the people of God in this book. Why do you want to be healed? What are you going to do with your healing? Be ready to have the Lord probe into your heart. Recently retitled "Healing Secrets."
Randy

Good Reading From Andrew Murray
This book has been Murray's most debated book.While evangelicals love his books on prayer and surrender, few have taken time to read his book on divine healing of which Murray came to believe in after being healed himself.While it is true that Murray somewhat retracted from his views that he wrote in this book, he never denied that healing is needed in the Church nor that we should not obey James 5:13-16 and pray for the sick.

The book is written in short chapters so you can use this book to read for your devotions along with your Bible.Murray takes portions of Scriptures that focus on healing and expounds on them.While the chapters are short, the message is full of meat (Hebrews 5:14).

Overall I recommend this book for those wanting to study divine healing or deepen their faith in praying for the sick.No matter what your view of the manifestation gifts of 1 Corinthians 12, we all believe that the Lord God can do whatever He wants (John 14:12-14) and we should pray in faith for the sick (Mark 11:22-24) even if the person is not healed now.We should trust that God is sovereign and He does heal for His own glory and honor.

Divine Healing by Andrew Murray
This book is wonderful.Andrew Murray is an author that is easy to read and understand.His positive writings along with documentation of The Word explain GOD's Promises for healing us, mind, body, and spirit. I would recommend any book written by this man.His wisdom is so expansive and his understanding of THE WORD is Spirit driven. ... Read more

Product Description
“A welcome remedy for the increasing number of lay Christians who have rediscovered the daily offices. Tickle puts each day’s prayers, psalms, readings, and refrains–everything you need–in one place. The rhythm that Tickle’s book establishes gives one a stronger sense of participating in an ancient, worldwide but very personal liturgy.”
–Nora Gallagher, beliefnet.com, and author of Things Seen and Unseen: A Year Lived in Faith

The third and final volume in a trilogy of prayer manuals compiled by Publishers Weekly religion editor Phyllis Tickle as a contemporary Book of Hours to guide Christians gently yet authoritatively through the daily offices.

The Divine Hours is the first major literary and liturgical reworking of the sixth-century Benedictine Rule of fixed-hour prayer. This beautifully conceived and thoroughly modern three-volume guide will appeal to the theological novice as well as to the ecclesiastical sophisticate. Making primary use of the Book of Common Prayer and the writings of the Church Fathers, The Divine Hours is also a companion to the New Jerusalem Bible, from which it draws its Scripture readings.The trilogy blends prayer and praise in a way that, while extraordinarily fresh, respects and builds upon the ancient wisdom of Christianity.

The third and final book in the set, Prayers for Springtime, provides prayers, psalms, and readings for this season associated with rebirth. Compact, with deluxe endpapers, it is perfect for those seeking greater spiritual depth. As a contemporary Book of Hours, The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime heralds a renewal of the tradition of disciplined daily prayer, and gives those already using the first two volumes the completion they are seeking.With this volume, the series culminates with three prayer manuals encompassing the liturgical and calendar year with the offices for every day.Amazon.com Review
The Divine Hours completes the celebrated trilogy of fixed-hour prayer manuals edited by Phyllis Tickle. Where gospel and shared meals are known as the "food and sustenance of the Church," the fixed-hour prayer is the "work," according to Tickle, religion editor for Publishers Weekly. Fans of the previous Divine Hours books (Prayers for Summertime, Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime) applaud Tickle's uncomplicated format, her use of a modern calendar rather than a liturgical one, and the single ribbon in the binding, which is, amazingly, all that readers need to track the daily offices. Fixed-hour prayers (also called "keeping the hours" or "saying the offices") are listed for each calendar day--morning, midday, and evening. Almost all of the sacred readings are from the New Jerusalem Bible, and the psalms and psalm hymns are lifted from the Book of Common Prayer. Some readers may object to the occasional passages with traditional, patriarchal language ("Almighty God, my heavenly Father: I have sinned against you, through my own fault....") Be assured that Tickle chose these readings carefully, no doubt relying upon her extensive religious studies and strong feminine perspective, as evidenced in her excellent memoir The Shaping of a Life. --Gail Hudson ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

Great tool for "Soul Care"
The Divine Hours is an excellent help in learning to take time out throughout each day to stop and remember God's presence and to briefly pray.A much needed "reality check" in the midst of daily pressures.

A Refreshing Approach to the Ancient Tradition of Offices of Prayer
"The Divine Hours," by Phyllis Tickle, is a refreshing approach to the ancient practice of the offices of daily prayer, that has been practiced continuously for nearly two milleniaby Christian believers.Regardless of your denomination, Tickle's "Divine Hours" makes this tradition readily accessible to all Christians- whether Protestant or Catholic.

In the beginning of each volume, Tickle provides a concise "Brief History of Fixed Hour Prayer" as well as "Notes for Use of this Manual" which are very helpful, fascinating and informative.The book itself is arranged in three brief daily offices of about 1-2 pages each containing Psalm verses, prayers of the day, as well as a suggestion to say the Lord's prayer.The fourth office, said before retiring for the evening is found in the "complines" section for each month.The book can be used interchangably in any year, as it is arranged by day of the week closest to _____ date.

There is also a special section for Holy Week and Easter in the spring edition.

I heard about this wonderful resource from my pastor, and have found it to be a tremendously meaningful and spiritually fulfilling discipline.I must admit I have not said each and every office, but I do squeeze in about two a day on average, and just pick up with the date and time for that given day.

I highly recommend this series of excellent books for anyone looking to deepen their spiritual journey in a very enriching way!

Better Than Expected!
Easy to use, meaningful, and provides a good amount of background info. If you are interested in doing the daily offices, you cannot go wrong with Tickle's book(s).

Excellent tool for Daily Office
This is a fine way to practice the Daily Office.It speaks to the heart and is beautifully written.My husband and I use it for family devotions.It is wonderful for that.In my private devotions I like to use the more lengthly version found in the BCP and add this to it.It is perfect when you need a lite Office.It is also perfect for someone just starting to practice the Office or for someone's evening devotions with family.My son will be receiving a copy of this to use with his family.It is a great gift.
The reason I give it four stars is that it is very large, fat paperback.I would carry it everywhere with my BCP and Bible were it smaller.As is I leave it at home and use it there.I would also love to see a leather bound edition.I would own one.

Restoring your prayer life.
To contemplate prayer being recited every hour all day long is almost overwhelming.But it happens every day and has an ancient history.Ms. Tickle has brought the practice into our busy schedule by compliling the daily prayers into a logical and easy to quickly pick up series of books.Find the season and she has done all the leg work.Now you can just pick up the book at the appointed times and pray with the world.Sometimes you can hear the world praying with you.Just get one of the series in the season you want to start and begin. ... Read more

Product Description
The Bible is full of clever plots and compelling stories, laced with historic insights and literary beauty. Despite its richness and depth, many of us struggle to close the gap between the ancient world and our own. What does it mean to know that Jesus is the Good Shepherd when the only place you've encountered sheep is at a petting zoo? How can you understand the promise of a land overflowing with honey when you buy yours in a bear-shaped bottle? Can you grasp the urgency of Jesus' invitation to abide in the vine when you shop for grapes at a local grocery store?Popular author and speaker Margaret Feinberg invites you to accompany her on the spiritual adventure of a lifetime. Explore how ancient livelihoods illuminate meaningful Christian truths that apply to life today. Spend time with a shepherdess, farmer, beekeeper, and vintner who each bring fresh insights to familiar Scriptures. Scout the divine and move from just reading the Bible to entering stories that can be touched, tasted, heard, seen, smelled, and savored. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (52)

Scouting
This is a great book by Margaret. My husband has been reading it and appreciating the insight. In addition to that, I'll be using it for our next book club event.The seller fulfilled all their promises on quality and delivery.

Honey, Hives and Health
When I picked up this small hardback, I expected it to be a light devotional focus like so many that are found on the market today.A quick read but not a lot of enduring substance.I did not expect a lot of depth or challenge.

Feinberg's work is indeed easy to read and is written in a bright personal testimonial style.But the more I read the more substance I realized filled these modest pages.It is intriguing and engaging.

Adventure
Feinberg is a person who likes adventure.She is always intrigued, she indicates, by the lure of new settings and new concepts.She enjoys meeting people from different lifestyles.One encounter for instance, occurred while she was working in her aunt's bed-and-breakfast in Alaska, she tells of meeting an Oregon sheep farmer.

The farmer Lynne comments that she has been collecting writings that offer spiritual perspectives on sheep and offers to send Feinberg a copy.This led to a follow-up 10 years later of a visit to Lynne's sheep farm and some personal reflections on the ubiquitous references to sheep in the cultures reflected in the Bible, and their use as metaphors of our spiritual life.

Probing Life
Feinberg reports here on some of the adventures that reflect aspects of life prominent in the Bible.This is not simply a set of personal reflections.She has taken time to look into the cultural background and the basic meaning of the key Hebrew words involved.But she never get pedantic.

One of the areas she investigates in raising honey.Through a friend she got connected to a bee farm in Colorado.She details the discussions and insightful experiences with Gary the beekeeper at Honeyville Farm.This is an informative section was of interest to me a a fan of honey.

Honey in Africa
Honey has special meaning for me too, from my many years of life in East Africa.Honey is an important basic of life in Africa, even vital.Honey is important in most traditional societies.My family raised honey forwhen I was a child, and we learned how to tend bees and encourage their life to enhance our own, a positive symbiotic experience illustrating how we share our life with other life forms on god's earth.

In Kenya, the Kamba people were the most famous as beekeepers and honey raisers.They were neighbors of ours on the eastern side of the East African Highlands.They were culturally, historically and linguistically related to the Kikuyu, among whom we lived in the center of the country.Our languages were similar and some dialects could understand each other.Language across the African highlands is comprised of a broad continuuum of related forms of Bantu speech.

Honey was raised traditionally and commercially by many peoples in Kenya and other parts of Africa.We would often see jars of honey on sale along the main roads.But The Kambas were the Honey People.All over Machakos district, the core area of the Kamba People, honey was a high commodity and roadside kiosks abounded.We would see hives in the trees all along the Trans-African Highway, the main (only!) highway from Nairobi to Mombasa on the Indian Ocean coast 300 miles southeast.Honey was critical to health and life for the Kamba People.

Balance of Life
I could connect with Feinberg as she described her experience in the hives of Honeyville, with Gary explaining the ins and outs.She felt Gary's grief when he told her of the loss of hundreds of hives due to a viral infection bees get that shortens their life span considerably due to a disruption of their gut.This is costly in terms of the loss of whole hives and much honey production.

Feinberg, reflecting on the importance of honey, and its spiritual significance,comments that only 70 references to honey appear in the Bible, compared to 700 for sheep.

"Yet honey appears consistently throughout Scripture," she says."Maybe it's my love of food, but the presence of honey in the bible serves as a tangible reminder that the truths of scripture are a multisensory experience."

Real Life
It appears to me likewise that the Bible is not focused on the ethereal, the theoretical and the philosophical, but on the practical forces and relationships of real life!The fact that references to honey are found in the Bible is not important because honey has a high and mystical spiritual significance.

But rather, like the metaphors she references about sheep and vines and other common features of our lives, honey provides insights into some aspects of our spiritual identity because honey is in itself so basic to life in the society in out of which the Scriptures arise.Indeed, honey is considered mystical in some cultures.This is a basis for its power to focus us on the unseen realities that underlie our daily life.

Value of Life
Honey is a basic and important food in societies all over the world.Honey is a basic natural food, and known in many cultures as a healing agent.Not only health is supported by honey, but life itself.I think you'll find Feinberg's thoughtful reflections here a meaningful affirmation of the value of responsible life.

Feinberg also pursues an adventure in a northern California vineyard, learning about the care of grape vines.This provides great insights to the high-visibility metaphor of grapes and vineyards in the Bible.She spins out the vibrant picture that results when you set the New Testament images in Jesus' teachings into this real-life context of care, production of fruit.

Book Review
Book had some good material.Just at times had to dig for it.Lots of writing about just moving through the day.

I LOVE MARGARET
I really enjoy Margaret Feinberg and her writing and this is no exception.
From the sheep stories to making wine....a wonderful retelling of capturing God in all facets of life.
More great stuff from a prolific writer.

Book Review
I received the book very quickly. It's in great condition. Very well written. A great addition to my library. ... Read more

Product Description

When Siddalee Walker, oldest daughter of Vivi Abbott Walker, Ya-Ya extraordinaire, is interviewed in the New York Times about a hit play she's directed, her mother gets described as a "tap-dancing child abuser." Enraged, Vivi disowns Sidda. Devastated, Sidda begs forgiveness, and postpones her upcoming wedding. All looks bleak until the Ya-Yas step in and convince Vivi to send Sidda a scrapbook of their girlhood mementos, called "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood." As Sidda struggles to analyze her mother, she comes face to face with the tangled beauty of imperfect love, and the fact that forgiveness, more than understanding, is often what the heart longs for.

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood may call to mind Prince of Tides in its unearthing of family darkness; in its unforgettable heroines and irrepressible humor and female loyalty, it echoes Fannie Flagg's Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.Amazon.com Review
Wells is a Louisiana-born Seattle actress and playwright; her loopysaga of a 40-year-old player in Seattle's hot theater scene who mustcome to terms with her mama's past in steamy Thornton City, Louisiana,reads like a lengthy episode of Designing Women written underthe influence of mint juleps and Faulkner's Absalom,Absalom!. The Ya-Yas are the wild circle of girls who swirlaround the narrator Siddalee's mama, Vivi, whose vivid voice is"part Scarlett, part Katharine Hepburn, part Tallulah." TheYa-Yas broke the no-booze rule at the cotillion, skinny-dipped theirway to jail in the town water tower, disrupted the Shirley Templelook-alike contest, and bonded for life because, as one says,"It's so much fun being a bad girl!"

Siddaleemust repair her busted relationship with Vivi by reading ahalf-century's worth of letters and clippings contained in the Ya-YaSisterhood's packet of "Divine Secrets." It's a contrivedpremise, but the secrets are really fun to learn. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1181)

Exhausting
I didn't realize this book was a sequel.I just read it on its own without any familiarity from prior reading.

It feels like the "strong Southern women with lots of secrets that are gradually revealed" plot has been done enough already.I got exhausted by these characters and the word "ya ya" was pounded into my skull like a spike.

If you are into these kinds of plots, you'll love it.If watching "Steel Magnolias" was all you needed to satisfy any craving for "strong Southern women" stories, don't bother.(I suspect that few men will enjoy this book.That could be part of my problem with it.)

One of my top three favorite books of all time
I loved this book! I've read it three times. I can see how others would say that the characters are feminist or mean (which I loathe normally), but they're so well-developed that I could really relate to both Vivi and Sidda.I don't have a great relationship with my parents and it really helps explain the story of a life and loss and how that can affect a person's ability to parent.Vivi is a horrible/wonderful mother depending on her state of intoxication. She can be silly and fun and creative or abusive and neglectful. I also love my girl friends and cherish our friendships, so that was something else I could relate to.

I found the relationship between the friends enviable and charming and sweet. Each character had their own personality that was so well described, I could actually picture them as people and relate them to friends in my own life.And the story and plot itself captivated me to the end. it doesn't try to defend the mother, its just the story of how she came to be.Highly recommend!

In my top ten favorite novels
I cried when I read a flashback of Vivi's childhood.I laughed out loud during some of the funny stories of the Ya-Yas.My heart ached for some of the trauma that poor Siddalee endured.I was angry at Vivi's mother for being just so terrible at it. I honestly can say that I've never actually felt as many emotions while reading a novel as I have during this one.I read a review of another reader that said she wasn't super excited to read this because the title is rather silly and I agree with that.However, titles can be deceiving. I had no idea what I was in for.

This book is anything but silly.It is an incredible drama with tales woven in of physical abuse, alcoholism, friendship, lost love, the kind of trauma that a mother can leave with a daughter, and trying to find a place in life when you feel damaged.

The author is a wonderful writer and storyteller.She also brilliantly went back and forth between different periods of time effortlessly. You must read this book.I've recommended it to nearly everyone in my life and I haven't heard one person say they didn't devour it and love every moment of reading it.

One other note - if you have seen the movie, please read the book!The book is so much better and has so much more detail.The movie compared to the novel was quite terrible.

Just Right
The book was in good condition and just as was described.Very reasonable price and was shipped very quickly.Will definitely buy from this dealer again.

Good Read
this book took me a little longer to read than Little Alters, but I still enjoyed it. I know I'm late in reading this series lol, but I'm off to Ya-Ya's in Bloom. How can anyone NOT like the YaYa's ... Read more

Product Description
The same methods I [teach] my workshop audiences are in this book. These methods have successfully enabled thousands of my workshop attendees to receive Divine messages. My workshop audience members come from every conceivable age group, nationality, education and income level, and race. They are from Protestant, Catholic, New Thought, Mormon, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, agnostic, and countless other backgrounds. Just like my workshops, this book is for all faiths, because God sends messages and angels to everyone.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (32)

Another Great One
This book will open your eyes and not to mention your mind. Another great one by Doreen

Divine Guidance
A straight forward book.It has answered several questions that have been roaming around in my head for several years.A quick read that doesn't bog one down with too many un-needed details.She tells it like it is and provides enough examples to get her point across.

Divine Inspiration
Doreen Virtue comes through again. Always profound and easy to read. She has a gift for communication on all levels.

Talking to & Receiving Guidance w/God and the Angels
A 1998 work by Angel Lady, this 285 page, 21 chapter book, is packed with info.

Chapters 1, 2, 3 are about having a dialogue with God and your Guardian Angels.This section explains how to invite the dialog, what it might sound like, how EVERYONE CAN talk with God and the angels and receive communication and guidance back.(No one is more or less worthy than another to speak with the Father, or Mother, if you prefer.We are His/Her children.)

Chapters 4, 5 are about discerning true guidance from false guidance.This section provides some pretty good clues and I like the way they are broken down.In my personal experience, working on this type of spiritual level can be very confusing, until we begin to get some validation, and recognize it as such.It is so very easy to doubt the information you receive because we have been taught to doubt and disbelieve.As a matter of fact, we've been taught that we are NUTS if we even think we are experiencing something "special" that others don't experience.An example from page 88, "True guidance sounds familiar---true guidance has a familiar ring to it, an "I knew that" quality.. . .You'll know it's true guidance by its underlying message, trust and have faith.False guidance will confront your aspirations and say Don't even try."There are a lot more of these:
--True
Has a loving and energetic feel to it
--False
Drains your enthusiasm and energy
--True
Surrounds you with warm loving energy
--False
Makes you feel cold, prickly, alone, afraid
--True
Empowers you
--False
Weakens you
And so on... Of course, there are explanations too.I found this section especially helpful as validation for my own guidance, especially when the message seems too good to be true.That's because the lower self/ego is telling you to be afraid because you might fail.Why?Because you might be wrong!(Well, God help me if I'm ever wrong!I might just implode or something.--I tell you what--if you spend your life being afraid of everything, the only part of you that will be happy is your ego. And when you go on to the happy hunting ground, you'll be full of the if-I-had-onlys.)

Chapters 6 through 19 are about the "Clairs":
Clairvoyance (seeing pictures/movies in your mind's eye)
Clairaudience (hearing guidance, a small voice inside or outside of your head)
Clairsentience (feeling via emotion, smell, tightened muscles, or touch)
Claircognizance (knowing something, without knowing how you know it)
You may have one or some or all of the Clairs. These chapters try to help you recognize your dominant Clair(s) and help you refine/increase it/them.

Chapters 20 and 21 cover advanced communication methods and co-creating with God. Tons of hints here with explanations.Here are just a few: 1) Purify your diet.Food has vibrations.Eat fresh fruit, vegetables, etc.Avoid alcohol, sugar, caffeine, etc."The essence of all foods you eat affects you long after the food is digested and gone."(So true!I had to prove it to myself but you REALLY are what you eat!) 2) Spend time alone in nature (explanation) 3) Don't give in order to get (explanation) 4) etc.

If you don't know it already, Doreen is a counseling psychologist who also works with the angelic realm.She has published many books and CDs on communicating with the angels and related spiritual material, including meditations.Doreen also has published some excellent material on resolving issues so one can lose weight.I have quite a few of her publications and am quite happy with all of them.I have also attended one of her presentations in Manhattan in 2007.She gave some angel readings to the audience which were right on target for those receiving them.Doreen also includes many case studies from her psychological counseling sessions in this book.Of course, the names are altered to protect the privacy of her patients.Doreen has patients and students from all religious beliefs so don't think she is only here for any one religion or group, because she is here for EVERYBODY.Her messages are about God, angels, and love.

Lots of really good, useful information in this book, if you are ready to believe and to move forward on your spiritual path.But, if you don't want to hear God's name and you don't believe in the Angels, then don't buy this book. Buy a pizza instead and eat the whole thing!

God bless all in their quest for enlightenment.Namaste'.

Comprehensive tome on how to receive Divine guidance
Doreen clearly explains the principal ways we can learn to listen for and receive Divine guidance.She provides excellent examples and her guidelines about whether we're primarily visual, auditory, or sensory, were right on target for me (I'm auditory).I was impressed by the results of the exercises I've done so far and feel encouraged that I will increase my adeptness at hearing Divine Guidance.Her chart comparing Divine guidance with false guidance is excellent.I've wasted money on psychics searching for answers to some of my life's issues.I feel confident that I'll not be able to obtain the answers that are 100 percent accurate because they'll be coming from my own inner Divine guidance that knows me better than anyone!

In my personal opinion, some of the negative feedback on the book appear to be from individuals who have not read Doreen's advice carefully and are misinterpreting what she says.Of course, we all have a right to our opinion - but, I think one should read carefully before jumping to criticize. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (44)

Cheap Card Stock
Love the symbolism but the card stock is cheap making them hard to shuffle.A serious disappointment.I recently purchased the Tarot of Dreams by the same author and the cards are even thinner.What gives?Such lovely cards to be printed on such cheap card stock.

Legacy of the Divine Tarot
This is by far my most cherished deck. I even ordered another to have on hand if I ware mine out. I even went so far as to frame a deck, as the images Ciro Marchetti has produced in this deck will take your breath away. Any Tarot reader would love this deck, the companion book is magnificent, easy to follow, and is a regular size book. You simply cant go wrong with this Deck & book. Beginner or advanced reader, you will love this deck.

Stunning and well thought out
My husband and I collect tarot, sometimes for its art and othertimes for its use. Though I have many decks at my disposal, this one has got to be my favorite by far. The art style is gorgeous and the execution of symbols is just magnificent.

I will say that the book is stunning as well, so don't just get the deck. The book has a very interesting story that gives a small journey of the artists endevour for these cards. The story itself is very inspiratonal. The collaboration of 5 differant people compile the sense of each card. From the poetic to the list of key words down to an analytical picking of each and every symbol ingrained in the images. It is great for learning about the meaning of the cards and communicating with it.

The cards themselves are of great quality and the art is just wonderful to look at as I read any kind of spread. To me these have responded well and their intriquite details show just how much work this artist put into them! Please don't pass this one by. It is truely a work of art to be cherished and imbued for ages to come!

Exceptional Tarot Cards
I have had the Legacy of the Divine Tarot for a while now and I am telling you they are an amazing deck.I would recommend these for the person who has worked with cards for a little while.The meanings can be a little hard to understand if you are trying to make your own interpretation of them.And when you do read the meanings in the book that comes with it, they will definitely give you something to think about. One reviewer did say the cards were a little flimsy and I will have to agree with that but I have no regrets at all for buying this deck ...... Vanessa

very bad deck
The art of this deck is so beautiful and that's why i bought it but the material is very cheap is not smooth or silky like other decks and you can't shuffle the cards easily. one start. ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Medieval vision of the afterlife
This was required reading for a graduate course in medieval history.Norton edition has great articles to help explain the work and is a great translation.The other great translation is by Mark Musa."The Divine Comedy" describes Dante's journey through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and Paradise (Paradiso), guided first by the Roman epic poet Virgil and then by Beatrice, the subject of his love and another of his works, "La Vita Nuova." While the vision of Hell, the Inferno, is vivid for modern readers, the theological niceties presented in the other books require a certain amount of patience and scholarship to understand.Purgatorio, the most lyrical and human of the three, also has the most poets in it; Paradiso, the most heavily theological, has the most beautiful and ecstatic mystic passages in which Dante tries to describe what he confesses he is unable to convey (e.g., when Dante looks into the face of God: "all'alta fantasia qui mancò possa" - "at this high moment, ability failed my capacity to describe," Paradiso, XXXIII, 142).

Dante wrote the Comedy in his regional dialect.By creating a poem of epic structure and philosophic purpose, he established that the Italian language was suitable for the highest sort of expression, and simultaneously established the Tuscan dialect as the standard for Italian. In French, Italian is nicknamed la langue de Dante.Publishing in the vernacular language marked Dante as one of the first (among others such as Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio) to break from standards of publishing in only Latin or Greek (the languages of Church and antiquity).This break allowed more literature to be published for a wider audience - setting the stage for greater levels of literacy in the future.

Readers often cannot understand how such a serious work may be called a "comedy".In Dante's time, all serious scholarly works were written in Latin (a tradition that would persist for several hundred years more, until the waning years of the Enlightenment) and works written in any other language were assumed to be comedic in nature.Furthermore, the word "comedy," in the classical sense, refers to works which reflect belief in an ordered universe, in which events not only tended towards a happy or "amusing" ending, but an ending influenced by a Providential will that orders all things to an ultimate good.By this meaning of the word, the progression of Dante's pilgrim from Hell to Paradise is the paradigmatic expression of comedy, since the work begins with the pilgrim's moral confusion and ends with the vision of God.

The Divine Comedy can be described simply as an allegory: Each canto, and the episodes therein, can contain many alternate meanings.Dante's allegory, however, is more complex, and, in explaining how to read the poem (see the "Letter to Can Grande della Scala"), he outlines other levels of meaning besides the allegory (the historical, the moral, the literal, and the anagogical).The structure of the poem, likewise, is quite complex, with mathematical and numerological patterns arching throughout the work, particularly threes and nines.The poem is often lauded for its particularly human qualities: Dante's skillful delineation of the characters he encounters in Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise; his bitter denunciations of Florentine and Italian politics; and his powerful poetic imagination.Dante's use of real characters, according to Dorothy Sayers in her introduction to her translation of "L'Inferno", allows Dante the freedom of not having to involve the reader in description, and allows him to "[make] room in his poem for the discussion of a great many subjects of the utmost importance, thus widening its range and increasing its variety."

Dante called the poem "Comedy" (the adjective "Divine" added later in the 16th century) because poems in the ancient world were classified as High ("Tragedy") or Low ("Comedy"). Low poems had happy endings and were of everyday or vulgar subjects, while High poems were for more serious matters. Dante was one of the first in the Middle Ages to write of a serious subject, the Redemption of man, in the low and vulgar Italian language and not the Latin language as one might expect for such a serious topic.

Paradiso
After an initial ascension (Canto I), Beatrice guides Dante through the nine spheres of Heaven. These are concentric and spherical, similar to Aristotelian and Ptolemaic cosmology.Dante admits that the vision of heaven he receives is the one that his human eyes permit him to see. Thus, the vision of heaven found in the Cantos is Dante's own personal vision, ambiguous in its true construction.The addition of a moral dimension means that a soul that has reached Paradise stops at the level applicable to it.Souls are allotted to the point of heaven that fits with their human ability to love God.Thus, there is a heavenly hierarchy. All parts of heaven are accessible to the heavenly soul.That is to say all experience God but there is a hierarchy in the sense that some souls are more spiritually developed than others.This is not determined by time or learning as such but by their proximity to God (how much they allow themselves to experience him above other things).It must be remembered in Dante's schema that all souls in Heaven are on some level always in contact with God.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in literature and medieval history.

Inferno? Purgatorio?
A very poor offering. The print is essentially photocopies from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's initial translation, with page marks and notations included, and in some places worn to the point of incomprehensibility.

The major issue, however, is that the book offered does not contain Inferno or Purgatorio! Despite the description here on Amazon and even the title on the cover, the entirety of the work is Paradiso. I can see why the publisher declined to allow viewers to 'look inside' before purchasing.

Needless to say, I'll be returning this and likely not buying anything from Kessinger Publishing again. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (15)

Amazon used book purchase
Thank you for your prommpt shipment.The book and cd are in excellent condition - just as described.

Excellent book for daily meditation
I've been a spiritual seeker for a number of years, but, I'm new to Doreen Virtue's work. In fact, this is the first book of hers that I've had the pleasure of reading, and, I am overjoyed at having discovered such an inteligent, well spoken writer. Her translation is erudite yet accessable enough for use in daily meditation. This is undoubtedly one of the best books on spiritual philosophy I've ever read. I look forward to reading the rest of her body of work.

Divine Magic by Doreen Virtue
I enjoyed reading and putting into action the seven spiritual laws of manifestation as outlined in the book Divine Magic (Hay House Classics), I have actually Studied The Emerald Tablet and I feel that Doreen Virtue has made the work much clearer and more practical to use in this time. I have had wonderful insights and results from working with the message in this book. Well written and quite powerful. The added bonus of a CD is terrific.

Sonia Lewis

Excelent!
This book is so rich with spiritual teaching. Amazon Books has it for easy and fast shipping.
Thank you Amazon Books!
Astrid

Doreen's Worst Book
I like Doreen's books, but this is probably her worst.Simply awful.I recommend you buy one of her better (older) books.The older books have more depth because she probably spent more time researching topics.The factory speed the new ones come out have definitely affected the quality. ... Read more

Product Description
DIVINE MISFORTUNE is a story of gods and mortals---in worship, in love, and at parties.

Teri and Phil had never needed their own personal god. But when Phil is passed up for a promotion - again-it's time to take matters into their own hands. And look online.

Choosing a god isn't as simple as you would think.There are too many choices; and they often have very hefty prices for their eternal devotion: blood, money, sacrifices, and vows of chastity.But then they found Luka, raccoon god of prosperity.All he wants is a small cut of their good fortune.

Oh -- and can he crash on their couch for a few days?

Throw in a heartbroken love goddess and an ancient deity bent on revenge and not even the gods can save Teri and Phil. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

From Unknown Worlds....
This author's work is always enjoyable, but this one seems lighter in tone than his previous work. It reminds me very much of the sort of fantasy which appeared in a fondly remembered pulp magazine called "Unknown" or "Unknown Worlds," in which writers like Heinlein, DeCamp, Kuttner, and Poul Anderson sort of reinvented fantasy, generally using humor and contemporary settings.Well worth reading

If you like Terry Pratchett (especially Good Omens) and/or Douglas Adams, Don't Miss this Book
The subject of my review says it all.If you've ever read and enjoyed the work of Terry Pratchett (particularly Good Omens) or the off-beat British humour of Douglas Adams, then this is a book for you.

Fantasy set in modern times
As always, A. Lee Martinez brings to the table a well crafted novel, with interesting characters and moving plot lines.The premise of this novel is that gods, thought of as mythological to us, exist and through sacrifices can gain favor from their patron deity.Phil and Terry, the novel's main human characters, are looking for just a little help from a deity, and thus chose one named Lucky, who brings luck to those in his following.If this was just some cautionary tale of the pitfalls of riches and such, this novel would not have been so good.But rather, through the course of the novel, characters must grow, either by moving on and finding a new role for themselves of by doing selfless acts for the good of others.As a side note, the author did an excellent job of picking many different mythological characters from many different belief systems, that shows no favoritism to classical Greek and Roman deities.This is truly a good novel and highly recommend it for its character development but also for the story that is just plain fun.

A wonderful adventure
I picked those book up from the library and did.not know much about it.What I just finshed, was a funny and interesting book that kept me interested to the end.Some of the books I have read lately have been depression or boring, and this book made me smile. I enjoyed the story beginning to end, and this differernt world the author puts you just makes me want to read more.

A Divine Diversion
Imagine a world where gods and humans directly interact. Then imagine the possibilities. Such a fun book, and a fast read--even for me who manages an average sized book every two weeks. I think everyone should sit down every now and then with just this kind of clever and lighthearted material. You have a minor but successful god of fortune, his highly likeable aimless friend Quick, aka serpent god Quetzalcoatl, a love goddess who made the grave mistake of falling in love herself turning her into the goddess of tragedy and heartbreak, and a rogue god of choas and death (who has one of the best lines, which is actually borrowed from the movie Army of Darkness). With some mere mortal characters mixed in, it all makes for an amusing and delightful diversion. Well worth picking up. ... Read more

Product Description
Dante (1265-1321) is the greatest of Italian poets and his DIVINE COMEDY is the finest of all Christian allegories. To the consternation of his more academic admirers, who believed Latin to be the only proper language for dignified verse, Dante wrote his COMEDY in colloquial Italian, wanting it to be a poem for the common reader. This edition is translated by, and includes an Introduction by, Dorothy L. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Dante the Medievalist
A window into the medieval world. Read it: the minds of the Middle Ages were not nearly so befuddled as those that claim it to be.

Medieval vision of the afterlife
This was required reading for a graduate course in medieval history.
"The Divine Comedy" describes Dante's journey through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and Paradise (Paradiso), guided first by the Roman epic poet Virgil and then by Beatrice, the subject of his love and another of his works, "La Vita Nuova." While the vision of Hell, the Inferno, is vivid for modern readers, the theological niceties presented in the other books require a certain amount of patience and scholarship to understand.Purgatorio, the most lyrical and human of the three, also has the most poets in it; Paradiso, the most heavily theological, has the most beautiful and ecstatic mystic passages in which Dante tries to describe what he confesses he is unable to convey (e.g., when Dante looks into the face of God: "all'alta fantasia qui mancò possa" - "at this high moment, ability failed my capacity to describe," Paradiso, XXXIII, 142).

Dante wrote the Comedy in his regional dialect.By creating a poem of epic structure and philosophic purpose, he established that the Italian language was suitable for the highest sort of expression, and simultaneously established the Tuscan dialect as the standard for Italian. In French, Italian is nicknamed la langue de Dante.Publishing in the vernacular language marked Dante as one of the first (among others such as Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio) to break from standards of publishing in only Latin or Greek (the languages of Church and antiquity).This break allowed more literature to be published for a wider audience - setting the stage for greater levels of literacy in the future.

Readers often cannot understand how such a serious work may be called a "comedy".In Dante's time, all serious scholarly works were written in Latin (a tradition that would persist for several hundred years more, until the waning years of the Enlightenment) and works written in any other language were assumed to be comedic in nature.Furthermore, the word "comedy," in the classical sense, refers to works which reflect belief in an ordered universe, in which events not only tended towards a happy or "amusing" ending, but an ending influenced by a Providential will that orders all things to an ultimate good.By this meaning of the word, the progression of Dante's pilgrim from Hell to Paradise is the paradigmatic expression of comedy, since the work begins with the pilgrim's moral confusion and ends with the vision of God.

The Divine Comedy can be described simply as an allegory: Each canto, and the episodes therein, can contain many alternate meanings.Dante's allegory, however, is more complex, and, in explaining how to read the poem (see the "Letter to Can Grande della Scala"), he outlines other levels of meaning besides the allegory (the historical, the moral, the literal, and the anagogical).The structure of the poem, likewise, is quite complex, with mathematical and numerological patterns arching throughout the work, particularly threes and nines.The poem is often lauded for its particularly human qualities: Dante's skillful delineation of the characters he encounters in Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise; his bitter denunciations of Florentine and Italian politics; and his powerful poetic imagination.Dante's use of real characters, according to Dorothy Sayers in her introduction to her translation of "L'Inferno", allows Dante the freedom of not having to involve the reader in description, and allows him to "[make] room in his poem for the discussion of a great many subjects of the utmost importance, thus widening its range and increasing its variety."

Dante called the poem "Comedy" (the adjective "Divine" added later in the 16th century) because poems in the ancient world were classified as High ("Tragedy") or Low ("Comedy"). Low poems had happy endings and were of everyday or vulgar subjects, while High poems were for more serious matters. Dante was one of the first in the Middle Ages to write of a serious subject, the Redemption of man, in the low and vulgar Italian language and not the Latin language as one might expect for such a serious topic.

Paradiso
After an initial ascension (Canto I), Beatrice guides Dante through the nine spheres of Heaven. These are concentric and spherical, similar to Aristotelian and Ptolemaic cosmology.Dante admits that the vision of heaven he receives is the one that his human eyes permit him to see. Thus, the vision of heaven found in the Cantos is Dante's own personal vision, ambiguous in its true construction.The addition of a moral dimension means that a soul that has reached Paradise stops at the level applicable to it.Souls are allotted to the point of heaven that fits with their human ability to love God.Thus, there is a heavenly hierarchy. All parts of heaven are accessible to the heavenly soul.That is to say all experience God but there is a hierarchy in the sense that some souls are more spiritually developed than others.This is not determined by time or learning as such but by their proximity to God (how much they allow themselves to experience him above other things).It must be remembered in Dante's schema that all souls in Heaven are on some level always in contact with God.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in literature and medieval history.

DANTE THROUGH DOROTHY: IT DOESN'T GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS
please read the life and works of Dorothy L. SAyers to appreciate fully the effort she made here, her final writing, posthumously completed (no, not with any seance, which she adequately lambasted in her detective stories).

Her total translation of the Commedia is worth the price of admission (Do not abandon all hope, as she will bring you home to the beatific vision).

There are several translations of varying usefulness and grace, but Dorothy is the rock upon which to stand when comparing the rest.

Hame one cannot give 6 stars...
This is not the most up - to - date translation: however, it is one of the more worthy bits of the history that has grown up around the Comedy, and its perspective is still of practical use. (She actually tries to avoid Freud, for example). Her misunderstandings are ones we can overlook, and she could evenhelp to correct any new ones (not that I do not have full faith in our, er, "currentness", of course!) that might arise.
As for the work of the Master himself, what can one say? Its the best book in world history (have not read any better: and I am, in all humillity, considered something of a reader).
Simply put, its Heaven.

Quella che m'paradisa la mia mente
The elevated sound of poetry are here heard. Not fisical reality, but the ideal; In the Paradiso, ideas and feelings are visible. Dante sees God's unexpressible force: love. ... Read more

Product Description

Award-winning vocalist, speaker, and author Sandi Patty uncovers the crucial decision every woman must make to leave a life of regret and find a life of freedom and joy.

Every woman reaches an unavoidable crossroads where she either spirals into a life of shame and regret or walks proudly in the freedom of God's grace and goodness. In The Edge of the Divine, Sandi Patty takes readers to the heart of the crucial choice to cling to the hope God gives.

Women discover that they can leave a life of wondering for a life of wonder. Wonder at the infinite love of God, at His inexhaustible mercy, and His refusal to let us wallow far from the blessings, hope, and grace. But first, as Sandi shows, women must walk to the edge of the divine and decide to jump.

Customer Reviews (52)

Slow Read, Encouraging Message
"The Edge of the Divine" by Sandi Patty, recounts Sandi's journey through life and weight loss. Readers are entertained with Sandi's touching personal stories of love, marriage, parenting, and self-awareness using God's word as key element.

I found this book entertaining and insightful. As a person that had ups-and-downs with weight loss, I found it was refreshing to read "The Edge of the Divine". However, I would not limit it to readers trying to make sense of their weight-loss woes since she shares her bout with depression, career changes, and how "God is enough" for everything that ails your life.

My only complaint is the pacing of the book. I found it to be very slow, which made for a great book to read every evening. I plan to read it again because she gave great insight and practical use of some commonly known passages in the bible.

In the end, I would recommend this book to readers ready for change. You will find the stories enlightening and entertaining. She writes in a informal, girlfriend tone, which makes it relatable. Lastly, she advocates for self-love and tapping into our greatest resource...God.

As a reader of this book, you cannot help but to walk away motivated and inspired to be all that God has called you to be.

Wanted to love it
I wanted to love this book, really I did, but I didn't fall in love with it- I liked it.But I found it dry and lacking.It had some great stories and made me laugh but it was hard to get though.It left me wanting more. I felt like it was great stories and walked me through her struggles and the reason she reached her decision to have surgery. It even helped me to understand how to notice the edges we come to in our life and how are decisions help us move into the divine or turn and head the other way.I just felt like I was missing something in the book. I'm not sure what exactly. If you love Sandi Patti and are curious about her life and how she got where she is, it's a book to give you some insight. If you are looking for a life changing book, this will probably leave you a little disappointed.

Not What I Expected
I love the music ministry of Sandi Patty. She has an amazing, spiritually uplifting voice. Her book is about her struggle with weight loss and how you can be helped as well. She shares personal stories, spiritual- lessons- learned and offers encouragement. However, she goes off on a track describing things I would never want to hear over tea-time. I didn't think it was appropriate or necessary for a general audience. I was actually very upset by it. Because of this, sadly, I will not recommend this book.

*Disclosure - I receive this book from Thomas Nelson for review purposes. *

The Edge of Divine by Sandi Patty
I recently received The Edge of Divine by Sandi Patty from Thomas Nelson Publishers and agreed to do a book review for them.My opinion of this book is my own and no one else.I have always been a big fan of Sandi Patty from the time I was little and into my adulthood.I have many of her CDs and love to listen to her music.Just because I was a fan of her music had nothing to do with how I rated her book.Sandi Patty is a true christian person.She is honest with you about her thoughts and isn't trying to be anyone else but her true self.She takes you through her struggle with her weight and her decision to go through with a Lap-band surgery.She tells about her relationship with Don and how everyone turned their backs on her. She tells you a great deal about her family so that you can understand more about her life.I think many people can relate to the abuse that Sandi went through as a young child.Being scared to tell someone about the abuse taking place when the person who was doing it was in a very reputable position working with other children.Sandi tells her story the way that things were at a certain time in her life.She didn't sugar-coat it for everyone to like.She told about her struggles in life with her family, her relationship with Don, her struggle with finding a church and leaving her older children in Indiana while she moved to Oklahoma with Don and two of her other children.She also tells about the fact that God never left her side that he was there for her through each obstacle that she had faced.I would highly recommended this book to anyone who is dealing with obstacles in their life.Sandi is a good example of a person who knew that with God in her life that all things can be possible if you can just believe it.At times you want to laugh while reading this book because of the humor that she uses to tellyou about her journey fromthe brink of physical disaster to a wonderful life of good health, wonderful supportive family and an ever loving God in her life and you want to cry when you she gets you thinking about your own life.What a good read for the weekend, choose this book. You won't be disappointed.My hats off to Sandi Patty for telling the world that she is human like the rest of it and everything can be possible with God.

Encouraging!
The Edge of the Divine; Where Possibility Meets God's Faithfulnessis the latest book offering by Grammy winner Sandi Patty. From the opening verse of chapter one, Sandi's heart leaps off the page; "I'm on the edge of losing it-the pain in my gut keeps burning. I'm ready to tell my story of failure".- Psalm 38:19 (The Message)

Earlier this past year I read two of Sandi's previous books; Broken on the Back Row and Layers. As in the the previous two books Sandi's story in Edge revolves around personal brokenness stemming from her childhood as well as poor (and painfully public) decisions made as an adult. While some stories in this book are the same as before, it makes sense that they are included considering that with any personal reflection of our lives, we are all the total sum of our experiences. Without any piece of the puzzle of our lives, we wouldn't be the same... we wouldn't be complete.

In this book Sandi shows us that the impact of these stories was on more than her career and her family. She shows us that the weight of these burdens were more than figurative... they were literal. The weight that she carried through the years, had taken it's toll. As she makes the difficult decision to have weight loss surgery she is forced to revisit the pain of her past. She shares with us her "sometimes humorous story of her journey from the brink of physical disaster toward the abundant life of good health and keen spiritual fulfillment God wants all of us to have".

Well-written, insightful and personal... Sandi once again opens her heart and her soul to us as readers. I enjoy her humility and her humor as she allows us to walk with her through such personal struggles. She invites us to share her triumphs and her tribulations, all the while reminding us of the presence and grace of God throughout it all.

I received a copy of this book from Thomas Nelson Publishers as a part of their BookSneeze program. The opinions I have expressed are my own. ... Read more

Product Description
The Ladder of Divine Ascent was the most widely used handbook of the ascetic life in the ancient Greek Church. Popular among both lay and monastics, it was translated into Latin, Syriac, Arabic, Armenian, Old Slavonic, and many modern languages. It was written while the author (who received his surname from this book) was abbot of the monastery of Catherine on Mount Sinai. As reflected in the title, the ascetical life is portrayed as a ladder which each aspirant must ascend, each step being a virtue to be acquired, or a vice to be surrendered. Its thirty steps reflect the hidden life of Christ himself. This work had a fundamental influence in the particularly the Hesychastic, Jesus Prayer, or Prayer of the Heart movement. Pierre Pourrat in his History of Christian Spirituality calls John Climacus the "most important ascetical theologian of the East, at this epoch, who enjoyed a great reputation and exercised and important influence on future centuries." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Exceptionally Good

Book received on time and in condition as stated.Have make recommendations to my colleagues to purchase same.Professionally good in very appreciative.

regards

which translation?
I have read both translations and they are both excellent.

HTM(Holy Transfiguration Monastery) has the best footnotes and also includes "To the Shepherd"; the Russell-Luibheid edition does not include the second book.

The main difference between the two rests in the introductions.

The translation by Colm Luibheid and Norman Russell is introduced by Bishop Kallistos Ware. His introduction is 70 pages long. Among other things,Ware says, "It is an existential work..." and does not contain "detailed directions about what foods to eat, how much,and when...[and offers]not techniques and formulae but a way of life." I found his introduction extremely interesting!

The translation by HTM is introduced by the monastery. The monastery's introduction is only about 11 or 12 pages long:
"This holy book inscribed by the Wisdom of God has been brought down to us from the height of Divine experience, as of old Moses brought down from the summit of Sinai the God-inscribed tablets of the Law. The tablets contained rules and regulations,statutes and prohibitions, but this heavenly book contains rather observations and insights concerning the goal of our calling as Christians and monastics."

Read both of them!

The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Written by St. John Climacus, a monk living in the in the Sinai desert in the sixth century, this book details 30 steps, or challenges to living a more Christ like life.The steps are increasingly complex, pinpointing many of the temptations and weaknesses within our human nature.This book is challenging to read and is one that will have to be read slowly and more that once.It is a classic of Eastern Orthodox Christianity.

good edition of an Orthodox classic
This is a very readable translation of the Ladder.I found both of the introductions scholarly but easy to understand.I think they do about as good a job as possible of setting the Ladder in a context that modern Christians can accept.I noted that one person did not like Kallistos Ware's introduction, but I thought it was quite good.

The translation by Holy Transfiguration Monastery is more formal, but it is a beautiful hardback -- one of the nicest I've seen at that price.

An incredible guide in the spiritual life
When I first read Saint John Climacus' work, I read this edition and was somewhat disappointed with it, though I did not know why.An orthodox monastic suggested I get the Holy Transfiguration Monastery edition.The latter translation is translated in the older style and thus seems more authentic.As I recall the version here seemed to have too much of the translator's own interpretaions in it.That was offputting to me.
This book gives guidance as to how to strip oneself of the passions of the old man and put on the new man.
I reread this work every Lent and am always amazed at the insights it gives.When I don't understand a passage I just move on and know that the insight will come at a later reading.The book gives incredible insight into the passions.If one is working on a specific passion like anger or vainglory, the book can be a remarkable help.
This book is read every evening in one monastery I know of, and monastics reread it every Lent.
After writing this review I realized that the five star rating I gave it is for the Holy Transfiguration Monastery edition.I would have to give the Paulist Press version a lower rating for the above-mentiioned reasons.Maybe three stars? ... Read more

Product Description
From the grandeur of Creation to the glorious union of the Savior and his bride, God's majestic love sweeps through time, space, and eternity in this greatest of all love stories. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (50)

I love Gene Edwards
I love Gene Edwards, but I wasn't as crazy about this book as I have been about his books A Tale of Three Kings or Prisoner in the Third Cell. If you want to start reading Gene Edwards books, start with those first.

Crazy Amazing
This book is beyond fabulous. It captured my heart. Written from the perspective of our Savior it truely shows that the Lord died for us so that we might have a relationship with Him. Thank you Father. Gene Edwards did an amazing job.

The Disturbing Romance
I do not understand the glowing reviews of this book, which on many points is contrary to the Bible. The main theme, which is flawed, is that God is lonely and needs a "counterpart." The main purpose of creation is so that God will have a "counterpart," a mate, like Adam and the animals. Here are some major problems in the book:
1. God is lonely because although he is love, there is "no one to love" and he needs a "mate." God does not need anyone or anything; to assert this is unbiblical and goes against how God has revealed himself.
2. God creates a "spiritual sphere" out of his being; angels come out of God; God marks off "portions" of his being. This is panentheism, a decidedly anti-biblical view.
4. The main purpose of creation is for God to have counterpart.
5. Eve is created on the 8th day, contrary to the biblical account.
6. God tells Adam that he will know the love of a counterpart before God will know such a love. This means that God is not omniscient.
8. Before the Fall, God is sad and lonely and declares that all things are not good, contrary to Scripture.
9. It is implied that God the Father incarnates because God "disappears" from heaven when Jesus incarnates and the angels wonder where God is. God the Father never incarnated.
10. The fallen angels, including Satan, are "crucified" with Christ. The angels bring Satan to the cross to crucify him with Jesus. However, Hebrews 2 states that Jesus did not come for the angels; angels cannot be redeemed and Satan was certainly not crucified with Jesus!
11. There is a strange theme about the wound in Jesus' side correlating with Eve being taken from Adam'sside. The author writes that Jesus is wounded to pay the price for his "counterpart."The resurrected Jesus states that "someone that has been inside me for all eternityis now missing!" Jesus reaches out as a young girl comes toward him and places her in his side. Later, someone comes from his side and is portrayed as a raven-haired beautiful girl who is the bride of Jesus. This is clearly meant to be the church but the language and imagery are surreal.

The message of this book is that God and Jesus are lonely and need a mate, so God creates the world, and Jesus suffers, dies, and resurrects so that He can have a bride. Sin and the need for man's redemption are downplayed and this other message about God's loneliness and need are highlighted. Of course, the Trinitarian God is not lonely and he has no needs. If God had a need, he would not be God. But God is all-sufficient and needs no one.

Are you kidding me? Don't waste your money!!
I wish Amazon would develop the capability to give negative stars. This book deserves one!

So the Bride of Christ turns into a white woman huh? Why not Asian or African woman. How about a woman that blends all races to make them inderterminable.

And what's supposed to happen now? Are they supposed to have sex?

This book is so on the verge of heresy!!!!

Don't waste your hard-earned money on this book!!!
I had the misfortune of running into this book at a local bookstore and decided to give in a try only to be heavily disappointed and frankly, worried to pieces about the other people who may try to read this book.
As I began the book, I continued to think something was wrong.I stopped every few paragraphs and would pray that God show me His face in reading - but the feeling that I was reading something dangerous only grew stronger.I had to stop reading completely after the first 13 pages.
The next day I began research on the author and the book.Unfortunately, what I uncovered was nothing short of a writer who is the closest description to a cult leader.As a former Evangelical Baptist preacher, Mr. Edwards has found solace in starting "home churches" - he has the background to write a book, but looks as if he's gone after the wrong genre.Maybe he should try fiction...
I looked at the reviews from Amazon and saw only good things - so I thought something was wrong with me.But (while there are MANY things wrong with me), disliking this book is not one of them.
Mr. Edwards fills the pages with lengthy descriptions as if he is (trying) to mimic one of the great classical writers of our pasts (i.e Shakespeare, Dickens).Dear Mr. Edwards, people will still see past you even though you use fifteen more words when trying to write something that only takes six.
I grew tired trying to see past all of the words to find out what he was really trying to say.However, when I did look past the words to see what the book was really trying to say, it was, "I'm going to retell the beginning of man, in MY own words (which are about 15 billion), make God a flat character and I'm going to charge you $11.99 in the process."There are also never any biblical references.
The book reminded me of "The DaVinci Code" - not in story or technique - but in the instance that a writer took historical and biblical truths and turned them into a completely different story.
I would NEVER recommend anyone read this book - don't waste your time! Just read the first chapters of the Bible to get what really happened!

(The only reason this got one star is because I could not rate it "no star" or "negative 5 stars")
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Product Description
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Customer Reviews (18)

A must-read for persons of any faith
Given to me to read by my priest during reconciliation:This book spoke to me in a way that held my heart and mind fully as I read.It was as if a big "Ah hah!" continually went off in my mindas I read it.Although, it was written in the 17th century, it has been translated so well, that it is an easy, understandable, and very applicable read.Many times throughout the reading, I felt as though I already knew many of the lessons, and I must've just needed a reminding.

If you believe that God is fully in control of your life (which He is), and you want to more fully submit your will to His in all things, this book will remind you of how you will be blessed -- over and over and over again because of it ...... and of course, not necessarily in material matters but in spiritual growth and ways pleasing to the Lord.

This book will help you to relinquish your burdens (whether emotional, physical, or material); so you can say with your entire being, "Let it be not my will, but Thine."

You will not give your copy away; but, you wil buy another one for your neighbor.
Simple but profound, practical and spiritual counsel concerning God's will and the ordinary events of our daily lives: trials, difficulties, hardships, misfortunes, adversities, sickness, losses, turns of events, family life, finances, death, etc. It is all packed in this little book. The advice does not come from lightweights. Saint Claude de la Colombière was the Spiritual Director of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, to whom the devotion of the Sacred Heart was revealed by Our Lord. The writings of Father Jean Baptiste Saint-Jure were a lifetime companion to Saint John Vianney, Curé of Ars.

Between its covers, almost too small to be called a book, you will find passages you will go back to time after time, year after year. They are perennial. They never grow old. Year after year, I have given dozens of these away. They always seem to have the advice people need. One caution must be pointed out here: the guidance found in this gem is outstanding. It is not, however, easy.

The ultimate statement against "Why Me?"
`Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence: The Secret of Peace and Happiness' is so aptly titled that one could argue that a descriptive is unnecessary. This brief book is written in two parts by two different authors, yet their message is so cohesive and complementary, that it is easily read as a unified whole.

This is a wonderful, profound, yet simple book. It can initially be quite hard to swallow, because it can seem to the non-discerning reader that God wills the evil we experience in our lives. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. The basic premise is this: accept and even embrace all that comes your way--the good and joyful as well as the pain and suffering--recognizing that your Loving Father has His hand in the situation; for God actively wills the good, and even `permits' the evil in our lives only because He recognizes a greater good can come of it. As the author states, "The misfortune which has befallen you will soon do what all your exercises of piety would never have been able to do."(p 103)

This is a hard teaching, and truly a `mystery', because our human limitations do not permit us to see the big picture, not only across the world but across time. Sometime we are blessed to look back on suffering in our life--sometimes tremendous suffering--and see how that season and situation in our lives transformed into a good, or perhaps even protected us from a much greater evil/pain that God knew would have been right around the corner. To illustrate, If I was heading to a destination where, unbeknownst to me, I would be greatly tempted and fall into grave sin, and on my way I am hit by a drunk driver and paralyzed, that would seem to me a great evil. But would not the potential loss of my soul be much MUCH worse? I even reflected on this when I brought my 3 month old daughter in for her inoculations; I was devastated as I held her down so the doctor could administer 4 shots in her legs, seeing her looking up at me with incredulous and deeply pained eyes as if to say, "why are you letting him do this to me? You're my father!" Could I ever expect her to understand that what I was protecting her from was far worse? Yet even MY knowledge of this greater good did not prevent me from suffering in union with her.

So again the title in many ways says it all. We must trust... trust that we have a loving and merciful God Who is actively orchestrating all in our lives so that we may ultimately be drawn to Him, even when the "good" seems far removed. Far from being a hindrance upon our free will, it is His constant offering of the "Great Invitation" from every direction and in every circumstance to enter into His eternal joy with Him. I strongly recommend this book, especially for those who have suffered greatly in their past and/or are suffering now. Though if I might also offer a suggestion; the book, as good as it is, will not necessarily on its own alleviate the misery of a loved one in the midst of tremendous pain.Both prayer and a receptive ear of one who "get's it" (probably you) will often be necessary to process through the circumstance to the degree where God's loving hand becomes evident.

Some other books which readers may find helpful:

Arise from Darkness: What to Do When Life Doesn't Make Sense
The Mist of Mercy
Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul

Perfect Theology. Actually.
The depth of truth and fecundant application that this book addresses is unparalleled among other works. The subtitle, "The Secret of Peace and Happiness," is no gimmick. Let me assure you 1000 times over. I've read this book through about three times and done a research paper on the history of it's spirituality and what was the culture that it arose out of. Having studied this book and the opposite theology (Jansenism) extensively, I can affirm that through one's personal commitment to engage this book, that they can and will arrive at a peace and happiness NEVER before experienced.

Also, please don't read this book in pieces and sections and then write a review about it how horrible the book is. I'm amazed at the one negative review about this book; while others who were in between on the book mentioned the difficulties (not on the books part but in personal application to the teaching) actually had some truth, the one "flawed theology" review actually is a flawed review. I found that all his remarks and criticisms were surface level and shallow and contradictory of the book moreover.

Please, for any of you who are struggling... and as I see it.. that's all of us, let this book, which is the Truth and words of Christ himself, speak to you and transform your life for the better.

Trust? Tough to swallow....
This book teaches patience and seems to speak to me whenever I pick it up to read it. Many of my friends also have this same experience. Try meditating, then pick it up and read from that chapter, works for me - every time.

I trust no one. No living man, woman can be trusted. To have this book reintroduced to me that whatever I've lost is part of some divine plan is a hard-sell indeed.

Trusting in a yet-unknown "divine grand plan" can be very tough to swallow, at least for me at this time. I have to caution against non-action on our own part to resolve whatever situations we're in, rather than turn to laxity and say that that is "divine"....

I recommend this tiny book if you're facing tough times or if you just need to learn some patience from mystics.



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