Beyond Ceremony

In 2006, prominent businessman John Darch met with a man named Wicha Promyong. That meeting led to the establishment of an equal partnership business venturea partnership that goes beyond fair trade and shows that capitalism can have a human side. Today the Doi Chaang Coffee Company's coffee can be found across the world. Mark Pendergrast takes the reader on a journey through time and place as he leads us through the history of the ancient, persecuted hill tribe, the Akha, from their very roots to their current status as makers of one of the world's top coffees. Along the way he explains the history of cash crops ranging from opium to coffee, the latter being the crop that has saved the Akha and restored a sense of pride in the Akha people. He tells the story of John Darch and Wicha Promyong and acknowledges their primary role in this story, but he also tells the story of the many people without whom this venture may never have succeeded. This is not a story about charity; it is the story about a real partnership based on a groundbreaking approach to international business practices.

The slave market in Seville, while still relatively small, became one of the most active in Europe. Many called the city the 'New Babylon.' Northern and sub-Saharan Africans comprised more than 50 percent of the inhabitants of several of Seville's neighborhoods. The African populations became so socially and politically important that in 1475 the Crown appointed Juan de Valladolid, its royal servant and mayoral, to represent Seville's Afro-Iberian community. Churches and charities catered to its spiritual and material needs.

Studies on druidry, Jungian psychology, politics, history and the time ahead In 2003 John Michael Greer became the seventh Grand Archdruid of the Ancient Order of Druids in America (AODA), an initiatory organization teaching Celtic nature spirituality which was founded in 1912. The outcome was that his writings began to stray into territory very far from the Hermetic occult philosophy that had been the previous focus of his career. The essays included in this volume chronicle some of the themes he explored as a result: Druidry, Jungian psychology, politics, history, and the shape of the future in a society in decline.

Jack, Mick, Mahaney and Walking Bear are all enjoying a respite from the pressures of their careers when they are alerted to a possible strike on the Royal Family. Mahaney's recent trip to Northern Ireland, to investigate a string of brutal bank robberies, has left him suspicious of the SAS and the motivations for the robberies. A possible action against the Royals by the military has everyone running scared... The same characters from #2 Molesworth Street, Under the Spider Tree, Slaughterhouse Creek & A Day Without Stars are back for another rousing adventure of ""Life in the Shadows.""

Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony: The Recovery of Tradition is a study of the embedded texts that function as the formal and thematic backbone of Leslie Marmon Silko's 1977 novel. Robert M. Nelson identifies the Keresan and Navajo ethnographic pretexts that Silko reappropriates and analyzes the many ways these texts relate to the surrounding prose narrative.

An illustrated, encyclopedic overview of the prophecies, calendars, and theories that indicate the year 2012 is a threshold of great change for humanity • Looks at the scientific and anthropological evidence for the rare galactic alignment due to occur in December 2012 • Sifts through the catastrophic theories to show what we might really expect in 2012 In December of 2012 the Mayan Calendar’s Great Cycle will come to an end. Opinion remains divided as to whether apocalyptic scenarios of worldwide destruction or utopian visions of a spiritually renewed humanity will prevail after this key date has passed. What is certain, however, is that a rare galactic alignment will occur, one so unique that it is found at the core of many wisdom traditions from around the globe. Geoff Stray has been collecting the vast amounts of data relating to the 2012 phenomena since 1982. Far from confining his research to the Maya, who provide the most prominent predictions indicating this date will herald significant changes for humanity, he has studied the prophetic traditions of other cultures--including the Tibetan, Chinese, Jewish, Ethiopian, and tribal cultures from around the globe--to show the kind of convergence of cosmic purposes happening along a number of parallel tracks. This book offers an extensive study of many modern theories, including Terence McKenna’s timewave zero and Maurice Cotterell’s sunspot research as well as anomalous phenomena such as near death experiences and crop circles. Sifting through all the scientific research and speculation that the year 2012 has inspired, Geoff Stray provides an encyclopedic look at what we might really expect on this pivotal date.