Sacred Evil

The details of the crime scene are no coincidence. The body — a promising starlet — has been battered, bloodied and then discarded between two of Manhattan’s oldest graveyards. One look and Detective Jude Crosby recognizes the tableau: a re-creation of Jack the Ripper’s gruesome work. But he also sees something beyond the actions of a mere copycat. Something more dangerous...and unexplainable.

The details of the crime scene are no coincidence. The body – a promising starlet – has been battered, bloodied and then discarded between two of Manhattan’s oldest graveyards. One look and Detective Jude Crosby recognizes the tableau: a re-creation of Jack the Ripper’s gruesome work. But he also sees something beyond the actions of a mere copycat. Something more dangerous…and unexplainable.

The “evil eye” is rich with cultural anecdotes and traditions, mystical lore, and modern concepts. This book takes a deep dive into the origins of the evil eye, from ancient Egyptian practices to those found in ancient Greece and Rome. Most people are unaware that the world’s major monotheistic religions are replete with references to the evil eye.

Italian folk magic is a beautiful, powerful, and effective magical tradition that is accessible to anyone who wants to learn it, including Italians who want to regain their magical heritage. Containing magical and religious rituals and prayers, this book explores divination techniques, crafting, blessing rituals, witchcraft, and, of course, the evil eye.

Violence and the Sacred is Rene Girard's landmark study of human evil. Here Girard explores violence as it is represented and occurs throughout history, literature, and myth. Girard's forceful and thought-provoking analyses of Biblical narrative, Greek tragedy, and the lynchings and pogroms propagated by contemporary states illustrate his central argument that violence belongs to everyone and is at the heart of the sacred.

You're at the malt shop with your greaser pals, eating the best burgers and onion rings in town. Then, you spy her. There she is. She's with all her gal pals. This book is gonna get you past the jukebox and into the back of Bubba's Cadillac out on Lovers Lane. You gotta get there with a bit of love and some old school cool. She's gonna have heart bubbles floating around her like in the cartoons!

Journey back 250 years, into a long forgotten world, where nature speaks through plants, and song pours forth from cascading waterfalls as breathtakingly as a church choir sings Ave Maria. A place where the rhythm of a feathered rattle is believed to bring you closer to your creator. A world where mysticism and innate spirituality conflict with Christianity. Avá-Tapé, raised in the traditions of the Guarani Indians of South America, then Mission educated by the Jesuits, sees the truth and beauty in both worlds, but he can only live in one.

For thousands of years, humans have lived by rules and formulas created back in a very barbaric time. Since then humans have moved forward but these old instructions for life haven't. Humans find themselves pulled between the two most powerful forces in the universe: creative and destructive.