Magic...true magic...the power to change the outcome of events and to reshape the world, is something most of us have wished for at one time or another. We all think it might make the difficulties of every day struggles in a cold and uncaring world easier by some degree. Jericho Germanicus could counsel us on such a misbegotten desire; because he knows at least one thing we do not. Covetous power is coveted, and as part of the bargain of having magic, is dealing with those who would, driven by greed, take it at any price. As our story begins Amber Germanicus, Jericho's granddaughter is about to turn 11 years old, and about to awaken to the magic long bred into their family line. To harbor the family gift so special that that it has been sought by a dark and sinister cult named The Silent Legacy for over a decade, Jericho Germanicus has had to live in hiding raising his granddaughter in secrecy and has had to keep the secret of her magic even from her. When magic becomes a threat to family, there are choices that must be made; there are sacrifices which must be made. To save the life of Amber, Jericho, knowing that the fates must keep an even balance within the universe, knows a life must be demanded...Jericho chooses to lay down his own. He had devoted many years of research and study into finding a way to keep the Silent Legacy from stealing Amber's gift...the family gift...and believes that he has found the only answer in his epic plan of self-sacrifice, but even that depends on the cooperation of Madame Zadia Gray, a carnival sideshow psychic. He has given Amber all of the knowledge he can without exposing the secret of her magic. He has found unlikely allies in Madame Zadia and the members of a carnival sideshow to help him carry out his plan. And he has chosen to bear the price of his own life to see it through. All too soon, and a moment too late, Jericho finds that he has been a pawn of the Silent Legacy all along, because they sought a much bigger prize than just his granddaughter...and he has been the vehicle for them to accomplish it...in fact he has placed them within reach of commanding all magic yet alive in the secret corners of the world...if he could let his allies know this before he is taken, they might make much better decisions...but he cannot...which is perfectly according to the Silent Legacy's plan. As the fates would have it, there are things which are even beyond magic...things that course through the minds and the hearts of everyday man. There are memories of broken pasts...there are losses and regrets which lie quietly behind the eyes...there are bonds and trusts which will not be broken because some people have felt the pain of loss before and simply could not bear it again. What the greatest wizard in the world could not weigh the value of, is second nature to those who are named freaks in a carnival side show, shunned of society, scoffed at, and considered less than human by even the least of society. What possibility tomorrow holds has been delivered into the hands of the psychic, a strong man, a dwarf, a dog-faced boy, and the young Amber Germanicus. Each untrained in the arts of magic...burdened by past failures and regrets...aware that the enemy is much larger and more powerful than he or she could even hope to be. The one thing that all can agree upon is that sideshow families stick together, and that Jericho has bound himself to the family. They must save him...or die trying. Set before them is a monumental task with little hope of success, and they quickly know, even as they walk into it, that not everyone will not all come out of this unchanged...as a matter of fact not everyone will make it out unscarred...not everyone will make it out alive.

Bethany Miller’s past, present and future collide when she inherits a generational family journal spanning three centuries, is drawn into solving mysteries about her biological family’s past, and witnesses a desperate, silent plea from a girl’s soul-piercing eyes…right before the girl disappears.

This volume offers a fundamentally different way of conceptualizing time and reality. Today, we see time predominantly as the linear-sequential order of events, and reality accordingly as consisting of facts that can be ordered along sequential time. But what if this conceptualization has us mistaking the “exhausts” for the “real thing”, i.e. if we miss the best, the actual taking place of reality as it occurs in a very differently structured, primordial form of time, the time-space of the present? In this new conceptual framework, both the sequential aspect of time and the factual aspect of reality are emergent phenomena that come into being only after reality has actually taken place. In the new view, facts are just the “traces” that the actual taking place of reality leaves behind on the co-emergent “canvas’’ of local spacetime. Local spacetime itself emerges only as facts come into being – and only facts can be adequately localized in it. But, how does reality then actually occur? It is conceived as a “constellatory self-unfolding”, characterized by strong self-referentiality, and taking place in the primordial form of time, the not yet sequentially structured “time-space of the present”. Time is seen here as an ontophainetic platform, i.e. as the stage on which reality can first occur. This view of time (and, thus, also space) seems to be very much in accordance with what we encounter in quantum physics before the so-called collapse of the wave function. In parallel, classical and relativistic physics largely operate within the factual portrait of reality, and the sequential aspect of time, respectively. Only singularities constitute an important exemption: here the canvas of local spacetime – that emerged together with factization – melts down again. In the novel framework quantum reduction and singularities can be seen and addressed as inverse transitions: In quantum physical state reduction reality “gains” the chrono-ontological format of facticity, and the sequential aspect of time becomes applicable. In singularities, by contrast, the inverse happens: Reality loses its local spacetime formation and reverts back into its primordial, pre-local shape – making in this way the use of causality relations, Boolean logic and the dichotomization of subject and object obsolete. For our understanding of the relation between quantum and relativistic physics this new view opens up fundamentally new perspectives: Both are legitimate views of time and reality, they just address very different chrono-ontological portraits, and thus should not lead us to erroneously subjugating one view under the other. The task of the book is to provide a formal framework in which this radically different view of time and reality can be addressed properly. The mathematical approach is based on the logical and topological features of the Borromean Rings. It draws upon concepts and methods of algebraic and geometric topology – especially the theory of sheaves and links, group theory, logic and information theory, in relation to the standard constructions employed in quantum mechanics and general relativity, shedding new light on the pestilential problems of their compatibility. The intended audience includes physicists, mathematicians and philosophers with an interest in the conceptual and mathematical foundations of modern physics.

How can something as complex as a human body create itself from a single fertilized egg? Drawing on ideas from physics and network theory as well as genetics and embryology, Jamie Davies describes the fascinating picture emerging from the latest research, in which complexity builds up through 'adaptive self-organization'.

Being Unfolded responds to the question, ‘What is the meaning of being for Edith Stein.’ In Finite and Eternal Being Stein tentatively concludes that ‘being is the unfolding of meaning.’ Neither Stein nor her commentators have elaborated much on this suggestive phrase. Thomas Gricoski argues that Stein’s mature metaphysical project can be developed into an ‘ontology of unfolding.’ The differentiating factor of this ontology is its resistance to both existentialism and essentialism. The ‘ontology of unfolding’ is irreducibly relational. Being Unfolded proceeds by testing a relational hypothesis against Stein’s theory of the modes of being (actual, essential, and mental being). From the phenomenological perspective, Gricoski examines Stein’s theory of the relation of consciousness and being. From the scholastic perspective, he examines Stein’s account of the relation of essence and existence in material being, living being, and human being. And from both perspectives he considers the relation of divine being to actual being and their essences. This book is limited to Stein’s theory of the meaning of being, without making an explicit confrontation with Heidegger. It offers two primary contributions to Stein studies: a systematic analysis of Stein’s modes of being, especially essential being, and an exposition and expansion of her overlooked concept of unfolding. Being Unfolded also contributes to the broader field of contemporary metaphysics by developing Stein’s theory of being as an experiment in fundamental ontology. While other relational ontologies focus on relations between beings, this exploration of unfolding examines being’s inner self-relationality.

In this first extensive Jungian treatment of Milton's major poems, James P. Driscoll uses archetypal psychology to explore Milton's great themes of God, man, woman, and evil and offers readers deepened understanding of Jung's profound thoughts on Godhead. The Father, the Son, Satan, Messiah, Samson, Adam, and Eve gain new dimensions of meaning as their stories become epiphanies of the archetypes of Godhead. God and Satan of Paradise Lost are seen as the ego and the shadow of a single unfolding personality whose anima is the Holy Spirit and Milton's muse. Samson carries the Yahweh archetype examined by Jung in Answer to Job, and Messiah and Satan in Paradise Regained embody the hostile brothers archetype. Anima, animus and the individuation drive underlie the psychodynamics of Adam and Eve's fall. Driscoll draws on his critical acumen and scholarly knowledge of Renaissance literature to shed new light on Jung's psychology of religion. The Unfolding God of Jung and Milton illumines Jung's heterodox notion of Godhead as a quarternity rather than a trinity, his revolutionary concept of a divine individuation process, his radical solution to the problem of evil, and his wrestling with the feminine in Godhead. The book's glossary of Jungian terms, written for literary critics and theologians rather than clinicians, is exceptionally detailed and insightful. Beyond enriching our understanding of Jung and Milton, Driscoll's discussion contributes to theodicy, to process theology, and to the study of myths and archetypes in literature.

The Kingdom of God is within you. As a matter of fact, you are the individualization of all that god is. "All that I have is thine." Of course, it is not a human being at all. It is a divine being. But the world interprets the human scene as a human one, so that what is appearing to the world as a human...as you or as me...is now receiving from within the depth of its own being, the revelation of its true nature. And truth that is true is universal.