Tearing The Veil That Blindfolds

A history of "justice" and its iconography, that gives a full account of the ways that justice has been described, portrayed and imagined through the centuries, and how it looks like today.

What makes a Man? Perhaps the question ought to be: How is a Man made? --Lets try again. By what process is the boy, the young male human, transformed into that kind of adult human male whom societies recognize as a Man? If it were merely a process of physical maturation, then the Twentieth Century would not have spent nearly a quarter its literary substance on exploring the question. There would be no massive accumulation of psychological difficulties associated with insecurity about the matter. Ramfis S. Firethorn asserts, in Blindfold on a Tightrope, that Manhood is a real psychological state, attained through ritual Mysteries which a healthy society provides to its young males; and that the absence of these Mysteries in post-industrial times has been psychologically debilitating to the individual (both male and female) and culturally devastating to society. No one can teach you the Mysteries; but in this book (which is part anthropological exploration, part poetic evocation) Firethorn points out some guideposts along the way. From the hunt to the dance, from ancient myths to modern misconceptions, exploring Manhood and Godhead, the author offers exercises that may help you identify the Gateway. Not for the faint-hearted nor prudish: this is a journey for those who want a spiritual challenge! When first published in 1993 the book was well-received by men and women alike: but there were those who did not like it, and perhaps the best review, the most important, came from a Southern California High Priestess who stormed into the publishers office, slammed her first down on the desk, and proclaimed: Men must not be allowed to think these thoughts! It can be transformative: it can also be dangerous.

Go on an emotional journey with Beyond the Veil of Tears by Rita Bradshaw, a heart-rending saga of a young woman's defiant stand against cruelty. This historical romance, from the author of Dancing in the Moonlight, is the story of an innocent soul trapped in a world of deceit and hardship. Ensnared in a dreadful marriage with the menacing Oswald Golding, Angeline Stewart, an innocent fifteen-year-old, sees her world shattering. On learning she is expecting a child, Angeline makes plans to run away and take her chances fending for herself and her baby. But then tragedy takes over . . . Set in 19th-century Northamptonshire, Beyond the Veil of Tears is a testament to the indomitable spirit of survival and hope against all odds.

What religion does not serve as a theater of tears? Holy Tears addresses this all but universal phenomenon with passion and precision, ranging from Mycenaean Greece up through the tragedy of 9/11. Sixteen authors, including many leading voices in the study of religion, offer essays on specific topics in religious weeping while also considering broader issues such as gender, memory, physiology, and spontaneity. A comprehensive, elegantly written introduction offers a key to these topics. Given the pervasiveness of its theme, it is remarkable that this book is the first of its kind--and it is long overdue. The essays ask such questions as: Is religious weeping primal or culturally constructed? Is it universal? Is it spontaneous? Does God ever cry? Is religious weeping altered by sexual or social roles? Is it, perhaps, at once scripted and spontaneous, private and communal? Is it, indeed, divine? The grief occasioned by 9/11 and violence in Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, and elsewhere offers a poignant context for this fascinating and richly detailed book. Holy Tears concludes with a compelling meditation on the theology of weeping that emerged from pastoral responses to 9/11, as described in the editors' interview with Reverend Betsee Parker, who became head chaplain for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of New York City and leader of the multifaith chaplaincy team at Ground Zero. The contributors are Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, Amy Bard, Herbert Basser, Santha Bhattacharji, William Chittick, Gary Ebersole, M. David Eckel, John Hawley, Gay Lynch, Jacob Olúpqnà (with Solá Ajíbádé), Betsee Parker, Kimberley Patton, Nehemia Polen, Kay Read, and Kallistos Ware.

In this eloquent memoir, Shusha Guppy recreates the lost world of her childhood in Tehran before the oil boom and the eventual overthrow of the Shah. Long before the momentous Iranian Revolution of 1979, which placed the country under strict religious rule, Shusha Guppy grew up in a Persia delicately balanced between traditional Islamic society and the transforming forces of westernisation. Guppy's magical tales about relatives and friends, music and drama, religious holidays and celebrations are interwoven with myth and legend, poetry and anecdote and provide a rare and optimistic portrayal of Iran; quite at odds with prevailing views of the country today. Through these glimpses of everyday life she makes subtle yet astute social and political observations at a significant time in Iran's history, when the country was caught between the oppressive but stable disciplines of the past and the unsettling freedoms of the future. This is an enlightening and moving testimony of a vanished world: a story as vibrant as Iran itself.

‘Death Metal Buddha: Record of an Uncontrolled Mind’ is a collection of 531 poems, the product of a mind expanded from the use of organic psychedelics and Vipassana meditation training. It’s sectioned into ten themes, including the abstract, satire and story telling. By reading it, you’re meant to have your mind blown, but in a good way.

An award-winning journalist’s extraordinary account of being kidnapped and tortured in Syria by al Qaeda for two years—a revelatory memoir about war, human nature, and endurance that’s “the best of the genre, profound, poetic, and sorrowful” (The Atlantic). In 2012, American journalist Theo Padnos, fluent in Arabic, Russian, German, and French, traveled to a Turkish border town to write and report on the Syrian civil war. One afternoon in October, while walking through an olive grove, he met three young Syrians—who turned out to be al Qaeda operatives—and they captured him and kept him prisoner for nearly two years. On his first day, in the first of many prisons, Padnos was given a blindfold—a grime-stained scrap of fabric—that was his only possession throughout his horrific ordeal. Now, Padnos recounts his time in captivity in Syria, where he was frequently tortured at the hands of the al Qaeda affiliate, Jebhat al Nusra. We learn not only about Padnos’s harrowing experience, but we also get a firsthand account of life in a Syrian village, the nature of Islamic prisons, how captors interrogate someone suspected of being CIA, the ways that Islamic fighters shift identities and drift back and forth through the veil of Western civilization, and much more. No other journalist has lived among terrorists for as long as Theo has—and survived. As a resident of thirteen separate prisons in every part of rebel-occupied Syria, Theo witnessed a society adrift amid a steady stream of bombings, executions, torture, prayer, fasting, and exhibitions, all staged by the terrorists. Living within this tide of violence changed not only his personal identity but also profoundly altered his understanding of how to live. Offering fascinating, unprecedented insight into the state of Syria today, Blindfold is “a triumph of the human spirit” (The New York Times Book Review)—combining the emotional power of a captive’s memoir with a journalist’s account of a culture and a nation in conflict that is as urgent and important as ever.

A tale of blood and elder magic, where the air flays the mind of its memories, and the trees bleed psychotropic venom. A wanderer scours a sentient forest of flesh and delirium for the only thing that he can still remember: his daughter, exiled from time when a devastating cataclysm doomed the world to an eternity of suffering. The Astral Wanderer and the Forest of Tears is the first book in a series of three, fusing the genres of cosmic horror, dark fantasy, and apocalyptic science fiction with the surreal dread of a twisted fever dream. This book contains scenes of violence that may be unsuitable for some readers.