Explore the sacramental, independent denominations of the Catholic Church and their adherents, which long for the sacraments but have been alienated by intransigent dogma and cookie-cutter churches. Each offers hope and worship, not for a "melting pot" of mass-market religion, but for those who hold fast to their individuality.

Faithful Generations provides a hopeful and helpful guide to the different adult generations alive today, discussing the events that formed them and the issues important to them. Most importantly, it describes their spiritual distinctions the particular needs, gifts and concerns that drive these different generations. With a basic understanding of how other generations think and what drives them spiritually, ministers and congregations can not only avoid conflict, but also put those distinctions to work in order to minister more effectively and create harmony in our religious communities.

Studies on druidry, Jungian psychology, politics, history and the time ahead In 2003 John Michael Greer became the seventh Grand Archdruid of the Ancient Order of Druids in America (AODA), an initiatory organization teaching Celtic nature spirituality which was founded in 1912. The outcome was that his writings began to stray into territory very far from the Hermetic occult philosophy that had been the previous focus of his career. The essays included in this volume chronicle some of the themes he explored as a result: Druidry, Jungian psychology, politics, history, and the shape of the future in a society in decline.

THE HIDDEN FAITH Previously titled "Occult Catholicism: Real Magic for Devout Catholics," this new edition is upwards of 90%% rewritten and contains loads of new material. With this book, you can learn: - What magic is and how a Catholic can practice it. - Catholicism as an initiatory magical system. - How to set up a magical home altar. - How to make prayers and novenas work for you. - How to use candles to bring good things into your life. - How you can work with the Angels and the Saints. Accompanied with copious footnotes and references to the Bible, the Early Fathers, the Council of Trent, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, this book contains a guided tour of faith and spirituality in theory, in practice, and in power.

John Sebastian Marlow Ward (1885-1949) was an English antiquarian, mystic, occult scholar, and museums' pioneer. Ward's provocative works on Masonic symbolism, secret societies, and spirit communications remain in print, and the innovative social history museum - the Abbey Folk Park - which he founded in New Barnet, north London in the 1930s, was later transplanted to Queensland, Australia, where it continues to flourish. His career demonstrates a remarkable fusion of the esoteric and spiritual pre-occupations of the early 20th century, with the deeper currents of antiquarianism and Christian mysticism. Ward's life of energetic work, spiritual exploration, and public activity presents a compelling narrative. His career moved from Cambridge Freemasonry and Edwardian Britain's occult revival to wartime spirit communications and mystical visions of a Pentecostal apocalypse as World War II approached. His unique and populist history museum fused a passion for Britain's disappearing heritage with his conviction that the collapse of Western civilization was imminent. When Ward was unfairly disgraced in a sensational court case in May 1945, he and his followers departed England for Cyprus in self-imposed exile. Archangels and Archaeology examines Ward's extraordinary life and career, demonstrating how these religious, intellectual, and cultural themes - so often treated in isolation - came together in the turbulent decades of the early 20th century. But, his career also has its own tragic arc: from youthful antiquarian, to the mature scholar, to full-blown mystic and eccentric religious leader, and, finally, to his own fall from public grace, in exile and decline.

Is the Christian mystical tradition a relic of another time, shaped by celibates for celibates, unable to engage meaningfully with people of our time who embrace their corporeality and sexuality as crucial aspects of their journey towards union with God? This book reflects in serious theological depth and detail on the spiritual and sexual journeys of gay men of mature and committed Christian faith, employing the Christian mystical tradition as the lens and the interlocutor in this process. This study examines the major themes and stages of the mystical tradition as outlined by Evelyn Underhill, but also including more recent work by Ruth Burrows, Thomas Merton and Constance Fitzgerald. Using methods of qualitative research, it then considers the texts of in-depth interviews conducted with men, most of whom are theologians or spiritual leaders with a deep Catholic faith, and all of whom are openly, self-affirmingly gay. Finally, it employs Ricoeur’s hermeneutical theory to engage in a creative theological conversation between the traditional mystical stages and themes and these men’s lives, as described in their interviews. This is a unique study that brings together ancient spirituality with contemporary lived religion. As such, it will be of interest to scholars of religious studies, theology, Christian mysticism and spirituality, and queer studies. It will be of particular interest to those teach spiritual direction and to all who seek new ways to engage with the spiritual lives of LGBTIQ+ people.

Building on critical work in biblical studies, which shows how a historically-bounded heretical tradition called Gnosticism was 'invented', this work focuses on the following stage in which it was “essentialised” into a sui generis, universal category of religion. At the same time, it shows how Gnosticism became a religious self-identifier, with a number of sizable contemporary groups identifying as Gnostics today, drawing on the same discourses. This book provides a history of this problematic category, and its relationship with scholarly and popular discourse on religion in the twentieth century. It uses a critical-historical method to show how and why Gnosis, Gnostic and Gnosticism were taken up by specific groups and individuals – practitioners and scholars – at different times. It shows how ideas about Gnosticism developed in late nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholarship, drawing from continental phenomenology, Jungian psychology and post-Holocaust theology, to be constructed as a perennial religious current based on special knowledge of the divine in a corrupt world. David G. Robertson challenges how scholars interact with the category Gnosticism, and contributes to our understanding of the complex relationship between primary sources, academics and practitioners in category formation.