Spirits That Dwell In Deep Woods

Revealing the fascinating body of hymnal work that flourished in Southern communities populated by the children of slaves between 1885 and 1925, this stirring collection of spiritual songs sheds light on a vanished era. While these hymns owe much to their rural Southern origin, they are distinct from traditional gospel, borrowing heavily from the oral storytelling tradition of the region and possessing a rousing, repetitive nature. Twenty-four hymns from this underappreciated era in African American music are included, along with an extensive analysis of each work, providing a rare look into a pivotal generation of church music.

This volume presents a treatise on trees and how they relate to the human spirit. Through its in-depth discussion of the meaning of trees, a need for a shift in thinking becomes clear. Historically, people in dominant cultures have viewed trees as resources to be used and forests as obstacles to such endeavors as farming and ranching. This publication presents a different view of trees and forests, one calling for a shift from domination and irreverence to respect and care—even kinship. While the text includes a discussion about some of the amazing characteristics of trees, the primary focus here is on the philosophical meaning of, and emotional connections with, trees. Its integration of disciplines and the recognition of different ways of knowing will make this book appealing to a wide variety of readers.

Leave all the mundane and repetitions of the daily grind behind and all the drama that comes with it and join Devil James into the slow-descending trek of the doom and gloom of the dreaded Witchwood Forest. It grows like sinister, haunted old rusty railroad spikes shooting out of the back rural Illinois country roads, spreading over endless miles of sticks that clutter the hills. The same beer cans littered old haunting hills that hold Devils Creek in its cold hypnotizing hands. Lonely places of solitude that illuminate the spirit world are found out here in the mazes of the back country roads of Clinton and Madison County. Come venture out into these twisted old nightmares that cling onto your psyche like the stained sounds of the cicadas buzzing haunting songs over the caws of blackbirds and ravens. Join the Devil James cult and walk among us through the festering clouds of gnats and mosquitoes with the buzzing, croaking sounds of bullfrogs to a place where the stillness beckons you to test your courage. Leave your stress and bullshit all behind and dare to step into the beyond into an eerie solitude of the spirit world where all these sounds vanish into a still silence that holds only the whispering voices of those who reside within. Welcome to a head trip that will leave your poor tattered, battered mind and broken heart guessing every misplaced step along the stumbling path. The clumsy crooked left-hand path of Witchwood Forest will latch on to your every thought and pull it down into a dark descent of mystery, a mystery that will not only set your mind free to a new humility and dignity it so craves and endlessly searches for but a mystery within echoing mysteries that will also unlock the chains of your heart and hand you back the moral compass we all hold so dear. Welcome my friends into the descending darkness of fallen angels who dream of becoming archangels but are too lost to find their way. Welcome to Devils Creek, welcome to the Witchwood Forest. We've been waiting for you so long; we all have missed you so much.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1875. The publishing house Anatiposi publishes historical books as reprints. Due to their age, these books may have missing pages or inferior quality. Our aim is to preserve these books and make them available to the public so that they do not get lost.