Surfacing in 1616, the Chemical Wedding was the third and last commentary released by the Rosicrucians. Whereas the first two manifestos-the Fama and Confessio-were seditious declarations which seem to possess more of a fairy-tale quality than anything else, the Wedding stands on its own merit as one of the most profound and impenetrable hermetic allegories ever written. The story centers on a man who is summoned by an Angel to witness and take part in a mysterious process that bears very little resemblance to an actual wedding. Despite the success of he and his compeers (qualified by a selection where the other candidates who are not worthy to participate are killed) the story ends in sagacious irony, leaving the protagonist to stand guard over his reward, forbidding him to ever glimpse it.

Joscelyn Godwin provides the translation, and though my knowledge of medieval Latin is not complete enough to grade her work, her reputation is impeccable and warrants little scrutiny. Adam McLean provides introduction and commentary, and it is for his efforts that this volume is most valuable. He abandons the arrogance shown by J. W. Montgomery who quantified the story as an expression of Orthodox Lutheranism, and doesn't attempt a literal translation of the book's intricate symbolism as any specialized religious banter. Instead, he lists the literary symbols (actual and metaphoric) one by one and shows how they link to key Rosicrucian and Hermetic ideologies, leaving the reader to draw their own conclusions, never attempting to force feed any specific brand of Gospel. Indeed, despite the fact that the commentary's length rivals that of the text itself, my only complaint is that it is not longer, much longer, as I'm sure his valuable insight could literally fill hundreds of pages: it leaves the readers curiosity piqued more than sated.

All of the drawings and diagrams from the original are faithfully reproduced, and summarily analyzed for their symbolic content as well. As a bonus McLean shows links between the Chemical Wedding and other allegories afterwards, paying close attention to Goethe's 'Tale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily', and includes the Parabola of Hinricus Madathanus Theosophus (an anonymous translation from 'The Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians') as an appendix. If you are looking for further readings on this subject, my best suggestion is 'Foucault's Pendulum' by Umberto Eco. Despite being a work of fiction, it describes a very thorough picture of the Rosicrucian's world, and other medieval secret societies too. Showing them as wildly diabolical, it stills bears the immutable signature of a dedicated and terrifyingly intelligent scholar.

An essential text. Godwin is the premier scholar in America in this area. This text, along with two manifestoes (the Fama and Confessio) made a major cultural and political impact in 17th century Europe and up through the 18th century in Germany. The Chemical Wedding is an allegorical tale of the processes of "alchemy." Written in coded and highly symbolic language, the book is historically important, but also important for the practicioner of spiritual alchemy or ritual magic in the Golden Dawn or Rosicrucian traditions. For the other two manifestoes purchase Frances Yates "The Rosicrucian Enlightenment," a controversial but excellent scholary text on 17th century Europe and the influence of Esoteric Christianity.

This is the first modern and accurate English translation of this work, attributed to a renegade esoteric Lutheran minister.

This was a fantastic book! I call it the "Cliff Notes" version of the textbook. If you're having trouble with the amount of assigned readings in your textbook, I highly recommend you get this book. My whole class is jealous that I got this book because they had to wait months for their copies.

Give quick resource for pathophysiology cards for preparation in medical conditions and surgucal procedure. LISTs etiology, clinical manifestations, pathophys, diagnostic tests and theraputic management. A must for preparing for clinicals.

Being new to the subject and the first book I've read on HALT testing, I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to know what HALT, HASS and HASA testing is all about, how they relate to one another and the advantages of having these tests done on a product. This book isn't going to hold your hand and help you set up a HALT testing program. The book will explain what types of equipment are involved and gives suggestions as to how to perform these types of tests and who should be involved. I've seen one other book on the subject and it's thicker and more theoretical with many formulas and such. It's a big turn off and very dry reading. This book is completely the opposite. Very practical knowledge explained in easy to understand language, as if a co-worker who's an expert on the subject is explaining the whole process to you.

In this book Harry goes into hands on detail and doesn't just reiterate the theory. His explanations are complete and his guidelines are short and easy to follow. I especially found interest in his use of sigma values to determine the levels of energy a product MUST be able to endure, this gives us an educated guess into when you should fix a weekness without question and when you should take into acount cost and technology factors.

Purchasing this book is easier then compiling a library of published papers on the subject. It is worth the purchase price if you are working in the industry.

After integrating the inventions of man's several thousand years of creativity, life is now more complex and perhaps less satisfying rather than simpler and more fulfilling. Why? Because people now invest less time proactively authoring their lives and more time reactively accumulating "stuff." While "self-help" books with advice for "fixing ourselves" are abundant, there are few meaningful writings on how to author our own fulfilling life stories. "Life Launch: A Passionate Guide to the Rest of Your Life" is one of these precious few.

"Life Launch" is a powerful, well organized set of tools for helping us author our own purposeful lives. Dr. Hudson's ingenious use of conceptual "maps" breaks even the most complex phenomena, like life transitions, into comprehensible visual models. These maps powerfully facilitate: (a) characterizing the experiences we endure as we traverse the cycle of life transitions, (b) increasing our awareness of our individual resources and opportunities, (c) defining and clarifying our values and life purpose, (d) acknowledging our numerous life roles, and (e) authoring our own lives-lives that more completely and fulfillingly engage us.

Dr. Hudson's "Cycle of Renewal" is particularly powerful as we enter the 21st century where people are striving for more connection with themselves as well as with others. Like the Yin and Yang, Dr. Hudson characterizes life as a balance of "being" and "doing." Similarly, while most of us have heard of "midlife crises", few of understand the dynamics of natural life transitions. Building on the concepts of seminal researchers in Adult Development, Dr. Hudson translates psycho-babble into understandable layman's language and presents them as "The Grand Adventure: from 20 to 90."

"Life Launch" is a valuable read for every person striving to author the life they've previously only dreamed of. "If one's destiny is shaped from within, then one has to act more freely as the creator. One has to be at once the subject, author, and creator." Life Launch is this person's toolkit. A definite five star read!

I used two books for my recent Psychology class and life launch was up to date with todays society. I could relate this book to my own life. I gave this book to a dear friend for her birthday and she recommends it to others as well.

It is 1849 and Mary Mclean and her family are fresh off the boat from Ireland. Mary is excited to hear about stories and traditions from Ireland that are told by other members of the Irish community where she lives. One of the things she gets told about is the St. Patrick's Day parade. Mary is excited about this and all the stuff that surrounding it. More than anything, she wants to be part of it so she asks Mr. Finnegan, a local shop owner, if she can ride on his cart in the parade with him. Mr. Finnegan agrees but only if Mary McLean can find a perfect shamrock. This is an almost impossible task because it is winter. Mary searches and searches and she can't find one. She finally stumbles across a leprechaun who says he'll give her one later. Months later, he is back the day before St. Patrick's Day. Mary captures him and asks for the promised shamrock. The leprechaun says he lost it and tricks Mary into turning away. Mary goes home dejected. Her father comes home with a surprise! He found a shamrock for her and Mary is able to be in the parade. She's very happy.
This book is priceless. The artwork is fabulous and reminiscent of Norman Rockwell. The artwork is very engaging. Each page is laid out exactly the same. On the left side, there is the text. On the right side, there is a color illustration. The moral of the story seems to be that good things do happen to good people. This is a wonderful theme. It also seems to have a theme of good things happen to those who wait. This is something important to instill in children because so often they want things right now this very instant. The story line is entertaining and easy to follow. It is a wonderful book to read.

This is a story of a little girl who searches for a four leaf clover so she can be in the St. Patrick's Day Parade. The fantasy and excitement of a leprechaun appeals to my students. It lends very nicely to creative writing in the classroom. This is a must, especially for primary teachers.

An excellent text for Med/Surg nursing course. One you will want to keep for future reference. Indispensible!

This book I've subtitled "holding the bag" -- it is basically a text book for nurses, telling them how to deal with the patient after the doctor has left the room. It includes how to live with a diagnosis, a disease, and deal with the side-effects of a cure. It not only provides precise medical information, but includes psychological and 'daily-life' information as well. As it is designed for nurses, the vocabulary is technical, and the illustrations are graphic; if you really want to understand what the doctors just told you, this is the place to go.

I picked this book up on a whim, having no idea what it was about or who Stuart McLean was. I'm glad I made such a foolish purchase.

This book (which is a collection of short stories) is the third in the Vinyl Cafe series, following the lives of a "simple" family from Toronto; husband Dave, wife Morley, and kids Stephanie and Sam. Dave owns a used record store (the Vinyl Cafe, who's motto is "We may not be big, but we're small"). Morley works in theatre. They have a dog, they have a cat, they have quirky neighbours; they have a normal life.

The book, however, is anything but normal. Instead of simply plodding along, the book gives us strong comedic stories about universal things that uncondescendingly give a message or moral.

"Love Never Ends" is a touching story about a letter Dave receives from the widow of a man who knew growing up. It sounds like weak material, but you'll either be smiling or crying when you finish. "The Fly" sees Dave swallow one after throwing a chain letter away... and doing whatever he can to get it out of him. "Christmas Presents" follows the family through the Christmas season, as they try to make gifts for each other... with varying results.

The best may be "Harrison Ford's Toes", in where Morley finds an old Tamagotchi she was supposed to give Sam for Christmas a few years before. She decides to hide it from Dave when he comes in the room, too ashamed to admit she'd lost it and forgot about it. She pretends to be reading a magazine with Harrison Ford on the cover and makes a silly comment about how perfect Harrison Ford's Toes are. Let's just say that over the next few days, Dave tries his best to get his toes to look better than Mr. Ford's, and that when Morley begins to spend a bit too much time with the Tamagotchi.

I recomend this book to literally anyone who likes to read. It's the kind of book for all of us who've ever tried to toilet train our cat, or has ever had the sprinklers go off during a Christmas pageant, or has ever worried about their son's knitting habit. Go buy it. Enjoy.

Funniest book I've read since "A Walk in the Woods". Characters are real, situations are believeable and it's just plain fun.

Thisis a very practical book. Starts with a very short introduction to the subject, and describes how alchemical drawings are the equivalent of the well-known Eastern mandalas. Then goes on to describe how to work with, and meditate on, the alchemical drawings in the book. 30 alchemical drawings with explanations follow, and you can meditate on, and integrate, the various symbols in the drawings. Besides it's very practical application, it is very good that the book draws attention to the fact that the West have an as deep and knowledgeable esoteric tradition as the East, and that the West have tools that are especially suitable for the follower of the Western Mystery Tradition. 5 stars!

I have already begun to apply the ideas I have learned in communication to solve problems. The ideas, discussions and diagrams found in The Basics of Speech Communication will remain with me forever. In the beginning I was intimidated by the people who I thought were smarter than me. Now I understand that with effective communication skills those barriers won't stand in my way.

lifes lessons and hard courses and choices are in this book. this book shows us how to deal with them all.