"In this volume, an international team of scholars addresses the theme of books as sacred beings"--

In this volume an international team of scholars address the theme of books as sacred beings from an impressively diverse range of primary material and perspectives. Yet, as a group, they meld to engage and advance previous research to solidify the conclusion that human cultures, especially religious groups, often ritualize bodies as sacred books and books as divine beings. The studies collected here not only increase the range of examples of this phenomenon. They also show the wide variety of ways in which the identity of books, bodies and beings gets both ritualized and theorized. The articles are bracketed by an introduction to the collection, and then by a concluding essay that extrapolates the theme of books as sacred beings on a more general level.

All the human senses become engaged in ritualizing sacred texts. These essays focus especially on ritualizing the iconic dimension of texts through the senses of sight, touch, kiss, and taste, both directly and in the imagination. Ritualized display of books engages the sense of sight very differently than does reading. Touching gets associated with reading scriptures, but touching also enables using the scripture as an amulet. Eating and consuming texts is a ubiquitous analogy for internalizing the contents of texts by reading and memorization. The idea of textual consumption reflects a widespread tendency to equate humans and written texts by their interiority and exteriority: books and people both have material bodies, yet both seem to contain immaterial ideas. Books thus physically incarnate cultural and religious values, doctrines, beliefs, and ideas. These essays bring theories of comparative scriptures and affect theory to bear on the topic as well as rich ethnographic descriptions of scriptural practices with Jewish, Sikh, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist and modern art and historical accounts of changing practices with sacred texts in ancient and medieval China and Korea, and in ancient Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cultures.

What happens when the divine is given a body? Have gods created humans in their image, or is it the other way around? How do people express their values through the forms with which they present their bodies? Divine Bodies is a thought-provoking Asian art history book that explores intriguing questions like these raised by the sacred art traditions of Asia. Approximately 45 artworks from the Asian Art Museum's renowned collection show how artists have envisioned the divine, imbuing it with forms that are meant to reflect supernatural qualities. Additionally, 20 contemporary photographs suggest how some artists today deal with questions about the body and its manifold expressions. The book explores how ideal beauty is interpreted in different Asian cultures, how that beauty can be transformed by altering the forms of the body, how deities maintain their identity despite changes to their form, and how divine beings are represented after their death. By viewing these deity-images, readers—whether religious or not—can perceive the messages that artists wish to convey. But Divine Bodies invites readers to do more than just recognize and relate to the meanings inscribed on divine bodies: it also shows how divine imagery shapes and reflects the daily experiences of ordinary people. The novel topic of this book, its diverse and extraordinary artworks, and the unique perspectives of its authors make Divine Bodies a fine art book that will be talked about and thought about for years to come.

The Sacred Body Factories and the Creations of these eons old Arisings here in our Universe and beyond, are home to our Created Sacred Vessel our Sacred Body. As Soul, each of us chooses to explore what it is like to be in a Sacred Vessel, exploring an Ego Field that has as its primary ingredient no longer Feeling The Love We Are. This present work of nonfiction explores the content and Creative Manifestations of The Sacred Body Factories as well as the consequences of being in a Sacred Vessel, with its accommodative Sacred Nodal Energies, while forgetting Who/What We Really Are. Each of us is a mutually agreed- to Co-Creation of the Soul/Body Matrix with the Cosmos, and hence to honor, accept, allow, and above all else, LOVE Unconditionally this Unique Creation is critical. How we Relate to the experiences we are having here in this Ego Field while feeling so cut off from the Love We Are is deeply explored in this work Things Happen We evolve We do and say and create many things based in not Loving the self. Everything that is Created within the Sacred Body Factories, we are Co-Creating with Our Creator and with the many billions of personnel who work within and for The Sacred Body Factories - of which there are countless numbers all over the Universes. In fact, we are ourselves among these Beings who work within the Sacred Matrices of Love that so Create. We have been Gifted with many levels of experience in which to explore in this Universe and Beyond. Enjoy Your Sacredness, Your Sacred Body. Tend it Lovingly, with Great Care, Great Compassion and Consciousness. For You Created It and You are Lovingly Responsible for It. God Bless Shoh Nah

The twentieth anniversary edition of a transformative blueprint for ancestral healing—featuring new material and gateways, from the renowned herbalist, natural health expert, and healer of women’s bodies and souls “This book was one of the first that helped me start practices as a young woman that focused on my body and spirit as one.”—Jada Pinkett Smith Through extraordinary meditations, affirmations, holistic healing plant-based medicine, KMT temple teachings, and The Rites of Passage guidance, Queen Afua teaches us how to love and rejoice in our bodies by spiritualizing the words we speak, the foods we eat, the relationships we attract, the spaces we live and work in, and the transcendent woman spirit we manifest. With love, wisdom, and passion, Queen Afua guides us to accept our mission and our mantle as Sacred Women—to heal ourselves, the generations of women in our families, our communities, and our world.