Böcker av Nancy Armstrong

A Beginner's Guide to Wiccan Beliefs, Witchcraft, Tools, Spells, Rituals, and MagicAre you curious about Wicca? Have you heard the folklore, fictional tales, and history of people referred to as "witches," but aren't sure where truth and fairy tale collide?Are you searching for a religious practice that honors nature and communes with the Earth?Wicca may be steeped in lore and found in the imaginations of Halloween greeting card writers, but the truth of the matter is very different.Wicca is an Earth-centered religion that focuses on the life-giving and sustaining powers of nature. It is a commitment to living in balance with the Earth through ritual worship of the Goddess and the God.The process of learning about and practicing Wicca is just like any other religion. In this book, we are going to look at just what Wicca is, what its core beliefs are, and how you can start practicing Wicca.I believe that humans are spiritual beings, as in, we can be attuned to the spirit within ourselves, others, and the world around us. The practice of Wicca seeks to celebrate and understand the element of the spirit as well as the power that is called upon in the other Elements of Earth, Wind, Fire & Water.In this Practical Startup Guide to Wicca book, I will show you the practical beginnings of Wicca and how you can adapt them to your daily life, even if you choose not to take on the formal teachings.You will learn: What Wicca is and how it relates to Witchcraft and PaganismThe history of WiccaWhat exactly people who practice Wicca believeWhat deities Wiccans celebrateHow Wiccans use and honor the Classical ElementsWhat the Wiccan Rede isWhat the Wiccan Wheel of the Year isWhat are Sabbats and EsbatsAn in-depth discussion about MagicHow to use candles, crystals, herbs, and oilsHow to conduct ritualsHow to use spellsWhat tools to use and how to maintain themWhat a Book of Shadows is and how to use itWhat the different types of Wicca areAnd, finally, how to get started with practicing Wicca for yourselfThis extensive volume is meant to educate you and also to explain exactly what Wicca entails. I encourage you to keep an open mind, and also to explore as many resources as you can while you're gathering the facts about these seeming mystic beliefs.BONUS: For a limited time, when you purchase the paperback book on Amazon, you can download the Kindle version for FREE!Glad tidings to you. Blessed be.

In the decades after U.S. independence, American novelists carried on an argument that pitted direct democracy against the representative liberalism they attributed to their British counterparts. The result was an American novel distinguished by its use of narrative tropes that generated a social system resembling today's distributed network.

"Today we are awash in computerized Bible games, pastoral care software, and church management systems with members' personal information and giving records," observe authors Spiegel, Armstrong, and Bill, but "too often we blindly accept and use technology without asking the big questions. Questions like, is it appropriate to our mission and ministry?" 40 Days and 40 Bytes will help your congregation explore technology so you can decide, from a ministry and culture standpoint, what you need to do. The goal: godly service-not technological glitz. The authors are uniquely qualified to help you think about the role of technology in your congregation. All three are staff members with the Indianapolis Center for Congregations, which launched the innovative Computers and Ministry Grants Initiative in 1998 to help congregations address the challenges they face when using computer technology in their ministries. In this book, they share what they have learned in their work with 102 congregations. There's no question your congregation is going to use computer technology. The only question is, "How?" 40 Days and 40 Bytes will help you design technology that fits your ministry and mission.

In this provocative study of British realism, Armstrong explains how Victorian fiction entered into a dynamic relationship with the new popular art of photography. So successful was this collaboration, Armstrong contends, that literary criticism assumes a text is gesturing toward the real whenever it invokes a photograph.

Nancy Armstrong argues that the history of the novel and the history of the modern individual are, quite literally, one and the same. She suggests that certain works of fiction created a subject, one displaying wit, will, or energy capable of shifting the social order to grant the exceptional person a place commensurate with his or her individual worth. Once the novel had created this figure, readers understood themselves in terms of a narrative that produced a self-governing subject.In the decades following the revolutions in British North America and France, the major novelists distinguished themselves as authors by questioning the fantasy of a self-made individual. To show how novels by Defoe, Austen, Scott, Bronte, Dickens, Eliot, Hardy, Haggard, and Stoker participated in the process of making, updating, and perpetuating the figure of the individual, Armstrong puts them in dialogue with the writings of Locke, Hume, Rousseau, Malthus, Darwin, Kant, and Freud. Such theorists as Althusser, Balibar, Foucault, and Deleuze help her make the point that the individual was not one but several different figures. The delineation and potential of the modern subject depended as much upon what it had to incorporate as what alternatives it had to keep at bay to address the conflicts raging in and around the British novel.