The Knew York Times

by Coby Michael

• Explains how to work with baneful herbs through rituals and spells, as plant spirit familiars, as potent medicines, and as visionary substances • Details the spiritual, alchemical, astrological, and symbolic associations of each plant, its active alkaloids, how to safely cultivate and harvest it, and rituals and spells suited to its individual nature and powers • Shares plant alchemy methods, magical techniques, and recipes featuring the plants, including a modern witches’ flying ointment Part grimoire and part herbal formulary, this guide to the Poison Path of occult herbalism shares history, lore, and information regarding the use of poisonous, consciousness-altering, and magical plants. Author Coby Michael explains how, despite their poisonous nature, baneful herbs can become powerful plant allies, offering potent medicine, magical wisdom, and access to the spirit realm. Detailing the spiritual, alchemical, astrological, and symbolic associations of each plant, the author explores their magical uses in spells and rituals. He focuses primarily on the nightshade family, or Solanaceae, such as mandrake, henbane, and thorn apple, but also explores plants from other families such as wolfsbane, hemlock, and hellebore. He also examines plants in the witch’s pharmacopoeia that are safer to work with and just as chemically active, such as wormwood, mugwort, and yarrow. The author shares rituals suited to the individual nature and powers of each plant and explains how to attract a

by Elizabeth A. Murphy

Qualitative researchers have traditionally been cautious about claiming that their work was scientific. The "right-on" schools have exaggerated this caution into an outright rejection of science as a model for their work. Science is, for them, outmoded; "an archaic form of consciousness surviving for a while yet in a degraded form" (Tyler 1986:200). Scientists' assertions that they are in pursuit of truth simply camouflage their own lust for power. There is no essential difference between truth and propaganda. The authors acknowledge that the boundary between science and propaganda has often been breached and some distrust of scientific claims may be healthy. They also question the claim that science creates disinterested and objective knowledge of an observer-independent world without concluding that science is impossible. The skeptics' reservations about qualitative research are based on the deep-rooted assumption among natural scientists, and some social scientists, that there is a world "out there," prior to, and independent of, their observations. This world can be known objectively in the sense that all observers will, if identically placed, see it in exactly the same way. If a suitable language were available, they would also all produce identical descriptions. From these observations they can work out the laws governing the world's operations. The authors try to resolve these contrary claims by asserting that science is a procedural commitment. It consists of openness

by Terry Tempest Williams

In the spring of 1983 Terry Tempest Williams learned that her mother was dying of cancer. That same season, The Great Salt Lake began to rise to record heights, threatening the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and the herons, owls, and snowy egrets that Williams, a poet and naturalist, had come to gauge her life by. One event was nature at its most random, the other a by-product of rogue technology: Terry's mother, and Terry herself, had been exposed to the fallout of atomic bomb tests in the 1950s. As it interweaves these narratives of dying and accommodation, Refuge transforms tragedy into a document of renewal and spiritual grace, resulting in a work that has become a classic.

by Bob Torres

Going vegan is easy, and even easier if you have the tools at hand to make it work right. In the second edition of this informative and practical guide, two seasoned vegans help you learn to love your inner vegan freak. Loaded with tips, advice, and stories, this book is the key to helping you thrive as a happy, healthy, and sane vegan in a decidedly non-vegan world that doesn’t always get what you’re about. In this sometimes funny, sometimes irreverent, and sometimes serious guide that’s not afraid to tell it like it is, you will: find out how to go vegan in three weeks or less with our “cold tofu method” discover and understand the arguments for ethical, abolitionist veganism learn how to convince family, friends, and others that you haven’t joined a vegetable cult by going vegan get some advice on dealing with people in your life without creating havoc or hurt feelings learn to survive restaurants, grocery stores, and meals with omnivores find advice on how to respond when people ask you if you “like, live on apples and twigs.” In a revised and rewritten second edition, Vegan Freak: Being Vegan in a Non-Vegan World is your guide to embracing vegan freakdom. Come on, get your freak on!

by Randy Shilts

An investigative account of the medical, sexual, and scientific questions surrounding the spread of AIDS across the country.

by Christiane Northrup

Offers information on a variety of women's health issues, including nutrition, menstruation, fertility, pregnancy, menopause, sexuality, breast health, sugery, illness, and mental and emotional well-being.

by Scott Rosner

The book covers professional, Olympic and collegiate sports and each chapter has a fully developed introduction to explaine the relevance of the articles to be presented.

by Melanie Joy

"An absorbing examination of why humans feel affection and compassion for certain animals but are callous to the suffering of others." — Publishers Weekly Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows offers an absorbing look at what social psychologist Melanie Joy calls carnism, the belief system that conditions us to eat certain animals when we would never dream of eating others. Carnism causes extensive animal suffering and global injustice, and it drives us to act against our own interests and the interests of others without fully realizing what we are doing. Becoming aware of what carnism is and how it functions is vital to personal empowerment and social transformation, as it enables us to make our food choices more freely—because without awareness, there is no free choice. "An important and groundbreaking contribution to the struggle for the welfare of animals." —Yuval Harari, New York Times–bestselling author "An exposé of the ideas, prejudices, and numbing of men and women who block out the unsavory details of what is involved in the creation and consumption of animal-based foods." — Spirituality & Practice "With eloquence and humility, Melanie Joy appeals to the values that all of us already have and have always had. She reminds us of who we are." —Jonathan Safran Foer, New York Times–bestselling author "Melanie Joy examines the psychological props that make it possible for us to adore some animals and eat others—and kicks them all aside." —Peter Singer, professor of bi

by Fiammetta Rocco

"Cinchona revolutionized the art of medicine as profoundly as gunpowder had the art of war." -- Bernardino Ramazzini, Physician to the Duke of Modena, Opera omnia, medica, et physica, 1716 In the summer of 1623, ten cardinals and hundreds of their attendants died in Rome while electing a new pope. The Roman marsh fever that felled them was the scourge of the Mediterranean, northern Europe and even America. Malaria, now known as a disease of the tropics, badly weakened the Roman Empire. It killed thousands of British troops fighting Napoleon in 1809 and many soldiers on both sides of the American Civil War. It turned back travelers exploring West Africa in the nineteenth century and brought the building of the Panama Canal to a standstill. Even today, malaria kills someone every thirty seconds. For more than one thousand years, there was no cure for it. Pope Urban VIII, elected during the malarial summer of 1623, was determined that a cure should be found. He encouraged Jesuit priests establishing new missions in Asia and in South America to learn everything they could from the peoples they encountered. In Peru a young apothecarist named Agostino Salumbrino established an extensive network of pharmacies that kept the Jesuit missions in South America and Europe supplied with medicines. In 1631 Salumbrino dispatched a new miracle to Rome. The cure was quinine, an alkaloid made of the bitter red bark of the cinchona tree. Europe's Protestants, among them Oliver Cromwell, who suff

by Harvey Karp, M.D.

Never again will you have to stand by helplessly while your little baby cries and cries. There is a way to calm most crying babies . . . usually in minutes! Why is it so hard to get a baby to sleep? Thousands of parents, from regular moms and dads to Hollywood superstars, have come to baby expert Dr. Harvey Karp to learn his remarkable techniques for soothing babies and increasing sleep. Now his landmark book—fully revised and updated with the latest insights into infant sleep, bedsharing, breastfeeding, swaddling, and SIDS risk—can teach you too! Dr. Karp’s highly successful method is based on four revolutionary concepts: 1. The Fourth Trimester: Why babies still yearn for a womblike atmosphere . . . even after birth 2. The Calming Reflex: An “off switch” all babies are born with 3. The 5 S’s: Five easy steps to turn on your baby’s amazing calming reflex 4. The Cuddle Cure: How to combine the 5 S’s to calm even colicky babies With Dr. Karp’s sensible advice, parents and grandparents, nurses and nannies, will be able to transform even the fussiest infant into the happiest baby on the block! Praise for The Happiest Baby on the Block “Dr. Karp’s book is fascinating and will guide new parents for years to come.”—Julius Richmond, M.D., Harvard Medical School, former Surgeon General of the United States “The Happiest Baby on the Block is fun and convincing. I highly recommend it.”—Elisabeth Bing, co-founder of Lamaze International “Will fascinate anyone who wants to know how babie

by James Mallinson

'An indispensable companion for all interested in yoga, both scholars and practitioners' Professor Alexis G. J. S. Sanderson Despite yoga's huge global popularity, relatively little of its roots is known among practitioners. This compendium includes a wide range of texts from different schools of yoga, languages and eras: among others, key passages from the early Upanisads and the Mahabharata, and from the Tantric, Buddhist and Jaina traditions, with many pieces in scholarly translation for the first time. Covering yoga's varying definitions, its most important practices, such as posture, breath control, sensory withdrawal and meditation, as well as models of the esoteric and physical bodies, Roots of Yoga is a unique and essential source of knowledge. Translated and Edited with an Introduction by James Mallinson and Mark Singleton

by Michael Pollan

Offers insight into food consumption in the twenty-first century, explaining how an abundance of unlimited food varieties reveals the responsibilities of consumers to protect their health and the environment.

by Kate Millett

Praised and denounced when it was first published in 1970, Sexual Politics not only explored history but also became part of it. Kate Millett's groundbreaking book fueled feminism's second wave, giving voice to the anger of a generation while documenting the inequities -- neatly packaged in revered works of literature and art -- of a complacent and unrepentant society. Sexual Politics laid the foundation for subsequent feminist scholarship by showing how cultural discourse reflects a systematized subjugation and exploitation of women. Millett demonstrates in detail how patriarchy's attitudes and systems penetrate literature, philosophy, psychology, and politics. Her incendiary work rocked the foundations of the literary canon by castigating time-honored classics -- from D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover to Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead -- for their use of sex to degrade and undermine women. A new introduction to this edition draws attention to some of the forms patriarchy has taken recently in consolidating its oppressive and dangerous control.