Meeting The Melissae

The Eleusinian Mysteries were the most prestigious initiation of the ancient world. The ritual’s secrets were protected by death vows and have been speculated about for more than 4,000 years. The nine-day festival was run by a group of women called Melissae, or “bees”: married women, second only in rank to the Priestess of Athena Polias, who presided over Athens. They amassed incredible wealth, fame, and political status. Temple accounts from the period reveal that it was the priestesses’ money that paid for Greece's glorious architecture. Fees were earned for sacrifices and granting access to divinity. In return, the priestess made Greece a magnificent place to live. Oracles, diviners, soul midwives and creatrixes of innumerable festivals, these women ensured that the city-state kept favour with the goddess. They achieved that by emulating the ways of the world’s most successful matriarchal community, a bee colony. Herbal textbooks speak of a relationship between these women and the Lemon Balm herb (Melissa officinalis). Journey into the past and into the enchanting dreamscape of the hive with aromatherapist Elizabeth Ashley. A delightful odyssey for anyone interested in herbal wisdom, ancient Greek history, female empowerment, and humankind’s greatest allies, the bees.

In the Regency-inspired kingdom of Calatini, two powerful houses nurse a generations-old feud... while their heirs conceal their secret soulbond. Lady Annalise Greysnowe is the most beautiful lady in Calatini but conceals her true self behind an ice-perfect mask. Her ambitious parents can't wait to marry her to the king or any wealthy lord that will improve their standing at court. Anyone except the one gentleman she truly desires—Dare, the genial Count of Ravenstone and her family's ancestral enemy. Despite the feud, Dare only seeks peace with Annalise's family. As a nature witch, he knows that such strife simply harms everyone involved. Plus, he can't forget his intense attraction to Annalise. Something more than her otherworldly beauty calls to him—perhaps it's her love of animals, or her warm and radiant smile whenever she rides her beloved horse, or the hints of potent magic akin to his own. For Annalise is a rare and coveted soul healer able to heal anything at the risk of forming an irrevocable soulbond. Yet when Dare is nearly killed, she must use her secret powers to heal him, forever binding herself to her family's enemy. Annalise and Dare agree to conceal their soulbond until they can convince her family to end the feud and accept their marriage. But her parents refuse to relent, and their forbidden love activates an ancient curse, so not even their powerful soulbond may be enough to keep them together... The Secret Soulbond is a Romeo and Juliet romance that sparkles with magic and ends with a heartwarming happily-ever-after. The Calatini Tales will spellbind any reader looking for lush fantasy romance.

Travelers are buzzing about apitourism--or "bee tourism"--as an opportunity to get close to bees and learn about the ecology and industry they support. Apitours invite visitors to see what takes place inside a hive, taste fresh honey and observe its journey from comb to bottle. Apitourists explore "bee culture" through diverse activities--watching films, creating art, building "bee hotels," sampling mead, learning to plant pollinator gardens and documenting species in the wild. This guide presents an educational overview of apitourism, with an exploration of the fascinating world of bees and the sometimes controversial issues surrounding them.

When other girls her age were experiencing their first crushes, Melissa Sue Anderson was receiving handwritten marriage proposals from fans as young, and younger, than she was. When other girls were dreaming of their first kiss, Melissa was struggling through hers in front of a camera. From age eleven in 1974 until she left the show in 1981, Melissa Anderson literally grew up before the viewers of Little House on the Prairie. Melissa, as Mary, is remembered by many as “the blind sister”—and she was the only actor in the series to be nominated for an Emmy. In The Way I See It, she takes readers onto the set and inside the world of the iconic series created by Michael Landon, who, Melissa discovered, was not perfect, as much as he tried to be. In this memoir she also shares her memories of working with guest stars like Todd Bridges, Mariette Hartley, Sean Penn, Patricia Neal, and Johnny Cash. In addition to stories of life on the set, Melissa offers revealing looks at her relationships off-set with her costars, including the other Melissa (Melissa Gilbert) and Alison Arngrim, who portrayed Nellie Oleson on the show. And she relates stories of her guest appearances on iconic programs such as The Love Boat and The Brady Bunch. Filled with personal, revealing anecdotes and memorabilia from the Little House years, this book is also a portrait of a child star who became a successful adult actress and a successful adult. These are stories from “the other Ingalls sister” that have never been told.

It's true that some people spend years studying Italian before they finally get around to speaking the language. But here's a better idea. Skip the years of study and jump right to the speaking part. Sound crazy? No, it's language hacking. Unlike most traditional language courses that try to teach you the rules of Italian, #LanguageHacking shows you how to learn and speak Italian through proven memory techniques, unconventional shortcuts and conversation strategies perfected by one of the world's greatest language learners, Benny Lewis, aka the Irish Polyglot. Using the language hacks -shortcuts that make learning simple - that Benny mastered while learning his 11 languages and his 'speak from the start' method, you will crack the language code and exponentially increase your language abilities so that you can get fluent faster. It's not magic. It's not a language gene. It's not something only "other people" can do. It's about being smart with how you learn, learning what's indispensable, skipping what's not, and using what you've learned to have real conversations in Italian from day one. The Method #LanguageHacking takes a modern approach to language learning, blending the power of online social collaboration with traditional methods. It focuses on the conversations that learners need to master right away, rather than presenting language in order of difficulty like most courses. This means that you can have conversations immediately, not after years of study. Each of the 10 units culminates with a speaking 'mission' that prepares you to use the language you've learned to talk about yourself. Through the language hacker online learner community, you can share your personalized speaking 'missions' with other learners - getting and giving feedback and extending your learning beyond the pages of the book . You don't need to go abroad to learn a language any more.

A five-point plan to usher you through heartache and toward a stronger, healthier place. “I know how to kill someone and get away with it.” The words spoken by her father when Melissa was a teen haunt her to this day. Two years later, after confessing that he was the serial killer nationally known as the Happy Face Killer, Keith Jesperson was arrested for the murder of eight women. The pain, guilt, and shame that followed her father’s conviction stigmatized Melissa for years until she figured out a way to use her emotions as fuel to free herself from self-imposed limits and set out on a journey to rebuild her fragmented life. Through her work as an Emmy-nominated investigative journalist, television host, educator, and advocate, Melissa created WHOLE, a five-step program to better develop her own approach to healing: Watch the Storm, Heal Your Heart, Open Your Mind, Leverage Your Power, and Elevate Your Spirit. Among other things, she found that the commitment to your core values makes all the difference in getting unstuck; that forgiveness gives the greatest chance of making a future not defined by the past; that there is great value in vulnerability; that creativity is essential to living a full life; and that hope is the basis for everything we feel, believe, and do. In each phase of the program, Melissa inspires you to embrace your past to find wholeness within the parts of your life that you believe to be “broken.” If you are stuck in the rut of a painful experience—whether depression, trauma, pain, fear, addiction, or guilt—you will find comfort in this book’s advice, self-evaluation, and action plans. WHOLE is a powerful journey of recovery and awakening that reframes the pain experience so it can be used as a way to invite understanding, growth, and transformation into your life.