Showing results by narrator "Shea Taylor" in All Categories

Don Alvaro, a young but wise man, invokes Satan in a goetic-style magical ritual. Upon seeing the young Alvaro, Beelzebub falls in love with him and assumes the appearance of a beautiful young woman. In the journey that unfolds, Satan, disguised as a woman, tries to seduce Alvaro who rejects his advances lest he lose his precious virginity.

Noah Derwin knows what it's like to be different. Being a 17-year-old kid in high school with blue hair, piercings, a mostly all black wardrobe, and an obsession with zombies and video games, he doesn't exactly blend in. But he never wanted to. His two dads raised him to always stay true to himself. Being gay in high school isn't exactly rainbows and butterflies, and Noah has definitely faced his fair share of bullies. Moving to Port Haven, Oregon opens up new possibilities for him, and he starts falling for the quiet, brown-eyed boy from his English class.

These are the remaining fragments from the otherwise lost hymns of Hermes Trismegistus. Included are the gnostic hymns: "A Triple Trisagion", "A Hymn to All-Father God", "The Secret Hymnody", "A Hymn of Grace for Gnosis", and "A Song of Praise to the Aeon". Translated with additional commentary by esoteric scholar, G. R. S. Mead.

The Painted Veil is the story of Kitty Garstin, a young socialite who amuses herself with the pursuit of various men until settling into a marriage with a physician, who takes her to Hong Kong to begin his work. Shortly after they move, Kitty meets the charming, yet distasteful, Charlie Townsend, and begins a passionate affair that lasts several years without notice from her husband.

The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories is the third book by Irish fantasy writer Lord Dunsany, who is considered to be a major influence on the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, H. P. Lovecraft, Ursula K. Le Guin, and others.

Donick Walsh: king of the school bullies, secret dancer, closet-case. What’s to be done when a football injury means he can never play again? Dance in the school musical, of course! Not like he has a choice. Fingers crossed his father doesn’t find out! Enter Michael Penrose: theatre-kid, and Donick’s former best friend. For years Michael has been the object of Donick’s ridicule simply because Michael is out and proud, and Donick is afraid. Suddenly confronted with his old friend, Donick sinks under the weight of the guilt of his past. How can a bully make amends for all the hurt he’s caused?

When a popular mystery novelist dies suspiciously, his writing partner must untangle the author’s connection to a serial killer in award-winning John Copenhaver’s new novel set in 1950s McCarthy-era Washington, DC.

Prince Ryu's hatred of magic is matched only by his loyalty to his dying country. So when his mother orders him to track down a mage consorting with Arn's legendary tidefoxes, he won't let anything stand in his way of healing the land… not even the beautiful mage or her animal companions. Mellie reluctantly agrees to help Arn and the mysterious Ryu, but when she learns he's actually the cunning prince known for hunting mages, it's too late to run—she's his captive, and the lives of her wolves and fox are at risk unless she does exactly what Ryu wants.

With no word from Kyja, the people of Farworld are beginning to face the possibility that she is truly dead, and the quest to save Farworld and Earth has failed. In an effort to find a way to bring Kyja back, Marcus must enter the most dangerous place possible, the Realm of Shadows. Meanwhile, Kyja wakes up in a world of lost souls and memories. With no idea who she is, she wanders Fire Keep, home to the most quick-tempered of the elementals. The other spirits around her have given up hope.

Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109) was the outstanding philosopher-theologian of the Latin West between Augustine and the thirteenth century. As a public figure, especially as Archbishop of Canterbury, he corresponded with kings and nobles, popes and bishops, in letters that reveal a fascinating personality and flesh out the practical dimensions of his theoretical philosophy. He wrote at a time when a renewed interest in logic encouraged careful and rigorous argumentation, but before the recovery of Aristotle filled the philosophical discourse.

Following back-to-back, long-term undercover assignments in Indianapolis and Dallas, the latter resulting in four dead, FBI Special Agent Jake Kruse returns to Los Angeles to take on another undercover operation. Posing as an office supply salesman, Jake befriends a Chinese American business owner believed to be working for an intelligence officer operating out of the Chinese consulate in Los Angeles. Within weeks, the probe reveals a public corruption and human trafficking operation involving politicians and Hollywood executives.

In 1967, Fay Stonewell, a water tank escape artist in Florida, leaves for Vietnam to join the Amazing Humans—a jerry-rigged carnival there to entertain the troops—abandoning her disabled teenage son, Dickie, to the care of an abusive boyfriend. Months after Fay’s departure, Dickie’s troubled home life ends in a surprising act of violence that forces him to run away. He soon lands in Manhattan, where he’s taken in by eccentric artist Laurence Jones. Fay, meanwhile, is also facing dangerous threats.

All that we achieve and all that we fail to achieve is the direct result of our own thoughts. “Self-control is strength. Right thought is mastery. Calmness is power.” (James Allen, As a Man Thinketh) As Allen himself describes, “It shows how, in his own thought-world, each man holds the key to every condition, good or bad, that enters into his life, and that, by working patiently and intelligently upon his thoughts, he may remake his life, and transform his circumstances…and it can be carried in the pocket.”

Masonic author Carl Claudy presents 24 fictional tales or morality lessons in the form of advice being given to a younger mason by the Old Past Master. These are all on masonic topics such as: brotherly love, the ideal mason, geometry, masonic libraries, charity, Order of DeMolay, ancient landmarks, masonic failure, understanding, the masonry you make, symbols, and much more.

French literary figure Charles Baudelaire was a member of the infamous Club of the Hashish-Eaters, a Parisian literary group dedicated to the exploration of altered states of consciousness, principally through the use of hashish. The Poem of Hashish was first published in 1850. This is Aleister Crowley’s translation of it, from 1895. Baudelaire was part of the French art movement known as saymbolism, which acted as a reaction to realism and placed a lot of emphasis on the power of dreams and the imagination as tools for communicating ideals through symbols.

When Taj sets a trap to catch his parents pretending to be the Tooth Fairy, he finds the real Tooth Fairy fried by the wire he’d connected to a couple nine-volt batteries. Instead of spending his summer vacation building robots and taking it easy, he’s pretending to fit in with kids who practically worship the holiday seasons. His only hope to return to normal life is to find a way to fit in, or discover who kidnapped the Tooth Fairy and bring them to justice....

In 1923, Achad published an edition of only 220 copies of a series of hymns or poetic devotions, in a manner slightly reminiscent of Crowley’s own emphatic style, aimed at adoring the Egyptian goddess Nuit (the number 220, being intended to align with the number of verses in Aleister Crowley’s own Book of the Law). Achad titled his own book, Thirty-One Hymns to the Star Goddess.

For two villainous nobles, it is a desperate means to an end. For two clever demons, it is one hell of a tax break. Henry and James have accidentally staked claim on the same soul. Elliot Dosett, the bitter and sickly son of a successful steel magnate, summoned a demon in hopes of solving his trouble with his father and inheriting the estate. Violet Clifton, his aunt, also summoned a demon in order to rid herself of a useless husband and take over the business he leaves behind.

Machen's novella The Great God Pan is often cited as one of Lovecraft's most notable influences. In it, Dr. Raymond's ultimate goal is to devise a way to open the mind of man so that he may experience all the world has to offer. He calls this "seeing the great god Pan". After much study of the human mind, he devises an experiment that involves minor brain surgery. He performs this experiment on a young woman named Mary, but when she awakens she is terrified and mentally crippled.

Always a lover of fairy stories yet unable to believe in their truth, young Davy finds himself whisked away on a "Believing Voyage" one magical Christmas Eve by a little red goblin. In a strange country full of wonders, Davy finds himself coming face to face with a whale in a waistcoat; Robin Hood; the last member of the band of Forty Thieves; Robinson Crusoe; talking dogs, horses, and cows; and Mother Hubbard herself, living side by side with Jack's beanstalk!