Madeira Darling

Genuinely very good

Revisado: 08-02-20

I have a fair bit of knowledge of the more occult tradition of Kabbalah as well as some more traditional Jewish knowledge (lots of books, lots of teachers) but this book is still useful and covers traditional Kabbalism with a lot of charm and insight. A beautiful look into the rich world of Kabbalistic theology.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

Holy Narcissism

Revisado: 07-31-20

Alright first things first I haven’t finished the book and don’t believe I will, but as someone who has dedicated their life to their church (different religion) I have to say this woman distinctly doesn’t seem to have what it takes at all. Her opinion of the church updating prayers and so on to be more inclusive (“a way to get more bums on seats and more money in the donation plate” not an exact quote, but the jist) is vile, did she not consider that those bums are attached to human beings with minds and souls who need community and pastoral care as much as she does? She doesn’t care, she only cares about her cozy comfortable familiarity, in her cozy comfortable church, no thought for those left outside. She, a woman who is comfortably enough off to afford Manolos and a trip to England every three months for years at a time, who had a wonderful childhood according to her, thinks it is more important that the church accommodate her than accommodating people who've been abused by their fathers, She even defends residential schools for indigenous Canadians as helping to “uplift them out of the poverty and alcoholism of their home communities”. She’s bothered by any form of change ever and her fantasies of life in a convent are disgustingly selfish in every way. She’s bitter at atheists who’ve been hurt by faith, bitter against the church for not attacking back. She remembers feeling targeted and left out as an Anglican in Catholic school but turns around and passes judgement on other people left out. She dreams of a life of lazy contemplation, of furthering her happy fuzzy fluffy relationship with her nice fluffy god and cares nothing for others. I might have managed to get through it on the interest of the subject alone but her personality and view point is so vile I couldn’t stand it.

Not to mention the blasé way she contemplates abandoning her children and fiancé, I will admit, I myself find it uncomfortable when churches focus entirely on social justice and brush aside the supernatural, and more mystical concerns, but I don't think you have to give up social justice to keep an interest in the afterlife and spiritual life, but her position as someone who needs relatively little in the way of social justice makes it so easy for her to brush all of it aside without a shred of empathy. Faith without works is dead as they say, and works without faith don't work all that well.

Update: It gets worse, I decided to continue listening to it out of horrified curiosity and honestly for a moment I thought she might improve as a person, but no. Her entitlement in the face of Catholicism is absolutely vile. I’ll be honest about my faith, I’m a Luciferian Satanist, but I would never just waltz into another faith’s sacred space and argue with them over not including me in their sacred rites. I’m not a Catholic, that stuff’s not for me

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esto le resultó útil a 5 personas

This is a life changer,

Revisado: 04-05-20

I’m not a corporate type, I’m not giving investor presentations or anything like that, but I am a pastor’s wife and have to deliver sermons and form good relationships with parishioners, and having been very shy all my life, I found this very hard at times, especially at large church get togethers, and giving the extreme natural charisma of my husband I often felt like I didn’t measure up. This book however, changed everything, now I make people feel warm, welcome and at ease with ease. It’s the real deal and gets real results

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Ignore the whiners

Revisado: 04-05-20

This is a delightful look at linguistics with no political agenda, aside from that indicated by the discipline itself. Linguistics as a field has repeatedly proven there is no such thing as “degeneration” of language as it changes. Anyway, the speaker is charming and funny and engaging and gives one lots of fun tidbits

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Wow this book is genuinely transformative,

Revisado: 02-25-20

I wept reading this, the fights from the case studies sound so real, and for couples where both parties have trauma... it’s genuinely life changing

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Brilliant, Hilarious

Revisado: 11-21-19

This is a very personal, opinionated and highly entertaining history of metal. I personally wouldn't call myself a metal head (I like glam metal... and a certain amount of black metal) but I date a lot of metalheads and I find the history of the genre FASCINATING and as a Satanist I certainly have some affection for the genre. I love this author's politics and sense of humor, Andrew brilliantly confronts many of the difficult aspects of metal while maintaining a sense of wry humor and a true fan's enthusiasm and opinionatedness.

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Don't Listen to The Whiners

Revisado: 09-26-19

"This isn't about ghosts!" "All he does is debunk!" "He's repetitive". This is a marvelous book absolutely about ghosts, it covers a number of well known American ghost stories and ties them to local and national history. I'm a believer in ghosts, personally, and frankly, this in no ways discounts this work. Ghosts can be as real as the nose on my face and still what ghost stories get repeated and the way in which they are told (and what inaccuracies are transmitted) is absolutely and undoubtedly representative of the culture in which they exist. He writes lyrically of the unrighted wrongs of our past and how this leaves us haunted by our past as well as by ghosts (real or imaginary). He's not smug or self righteous, at least if you're not willfully ignorant of American history and its difficult moral implications. He also genuinely forces us to engage with the moral implications of our engagement with the supernatural, and as a ghost believer I actually find this very important and useful. If ghosts are real, and for example we're interacting with the still tormented spirits of enslaved people, shouldn't we have... at least some engagement with them and the unconscionable history that lead to their presence? Shouldn't we be... doing something to deal with that history in the present as well as dealing with it in terms of any spirits it has left in torment rather than gawking and getting a pleasurable little chill from the unimaginable horror of what happened to these very real people? ESPECIALLY if they are actually present.

People also suggest he doesn't post "Proof" of his claims, when these are famous stories (unsubstantiated in many cases themselves) and very easily checked. This is a popular work and not an academic text.

It's beautifully written, similar in tone and style to the lush Southern Gothic qualities of Faulkner. So, while it may not be a simple easily digestible pleasurable thrill-ride for the prurient and ghoulish, it's a lush well researched work about the American spirit and the moral history that still haunts this country.

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esto le resultó útil a 34 personas

It's entertaining but incredibly misogynist

Revisado: 07-08-18

Look, I'm all for sex magic, and sluttiness, but this dude talks about women who rejected him being divinely punished for sleeping with men who aren't him. He's gross and frankly... as an occultist he's the lazy version of a chaote who likes chaos magic because he thinks it means he doesn't have to do the reading he would if he devoted himself to a specific system of esoterism, instead of meaning you have to do all the reading for all of them.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

Fascinating and informative

Revisado: 07-05-18

I love this book, although it's obviously very much a survey and a pop history, it includes loads of information that make for great jumping off points for further research. The reader's voice is lovely and he reads at just the right pace though the audio did seem to repeat now and then at occasional points in the text. Lots of fun, lots of great historical anecdotes that give one a greater appreciation for gay history.

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esto le resultó útil a 6 personas

Predictable but enjoyable

Revisado: 07-05-16

A fun mystery novel, well written, tense and pacy, although I knew who it was from page 20 or so, still fun

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