'The Mage's Cosmic Handbook' by Ashley Manzo serves as a comprehensive guide for aspiring mages and seasoned wizards alike. In this book, readers are introduced to the intricacies of cosmic magic and the art of interstellar sorcery. Covering everything from basic spellcasting to advanced magical techniques, the handbook offers valuable insights into the workings of the universe. Through detailed illustrations and step-by-step instructions, readers are taken on a journey through the galaxy's most enchanted locations, learning the secrets that have been passed down through generations of mages. This handbook is an essential resource for anyone seeking to master the magical arts of the cosmos.

AT LAST! The landmark encyclopedia-style OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE hardcover series finally is reprinted in softcover format! each volume has corrected any errors in all profiles - and features an all-new, 16-page "Where Are They Now?" update addendum with text and art! An indispensable resource for all true Marvel fans! VOL. 3 spotlights hundreds of characters beginning with C, D and e - including Cyclops, Daredevil, Dazzler, Deadpool, Dr. Doom, Dr. Octopus, Dr. Strange, Dracula and Elektra!

The cosmos is a vast realm of primal powers, alien empires, and wonders and dangers beyond imagining. Now it is yours to explore with The Cosmic Handbook for the Mutants & Masterminds Superhero Roleplaying Game. This sourcebook looks at the universe beyond Earth, from the history of the cosmic in the comics to the conventions of cosmic stories and characters. In its pages you will find advice and rules for creating characters and adventures in the depths of space. GMs get ready-to-use villains, from space tyrants and aliens to nigh-omnipotent cosmic beings, and an expanded look at the universe of Freedom City and Emerald City beyond the bounds of Earth. Get ready, heroes, infinity awaits!

This alphabetical reference guide offers in-depth information on topics, terminology, and key figures from the history of sorcery and magic. Sorcery—the art of manipulating the supernatural forces that control the universe—has a long, rich, and fascinating legacy reaching back to ancient times. Any student or practitioner of this strange art will need a roadmap to its unique vocabulary and secret history. Drawn together from many different sources and presented in this book in simple terms are thousands of fascinating items relating to sorcery. Entries are arranged alphabetically and cross-indexed to provide ready access to the wide variety of materials associated with sorcery. Sorcery, as used in this book, embraces the precepts and practices through which men and women have sought to manipulate their universe.

A working guide to the proper methods of interacting with the full Vodou pantheon • Includes the myths, cultural heritage, and ancestral lineage of the lwa and how to honor and serve them • Provides an introduction and guide that is especially useful for the solitary practitioner • Discusses the relationship between Vodou, Haitian culture, and Catholicism In The Haitian Vodou Handbook, Kenaz Filan, an initiate of the Société la Belle Venus, presents a working guide to the proper methods of interacting with the full Vodou pantheon, explaining how to build respectful relationships with the lwa, the spirits honored in Haitian Vodou, and how to transform the fear that often surrounds the Vodou religion. Until recently, the Haitian practice of Vodou was often identified with devil worship, dark curses, and superstition. Some saw the saint images and the Catholic influences and wrote Vodou off as a “Christian aberration.” Others were appalled by the animal sacrifices and the fact that the Houngans and Mambos charge money for their services. Those who sought Vodou because they believed it could harness “evil” forces were disappointed when their efforts to gain fame, fortune, or romance failed and so abandoned their “voodoo fetishes.” Those who managed to get the attention of the lwa, often received cosmic retaliation for treating the spirits as attack dogs or genies, which only further cemented Vodou’s stereotype as “dangerous.” Filan offers extensive background information on the featured lwa, including their mythology and ancestral lineage, as well as specific instructions on how to honor and interact fruitfully with those that make themselves accessible. This advice will be especially useful for the solitary practitioner who doesn’t have the personal guidance of a societé available. Filan emphasizes the importance of having a quickened mind that can read the lwa’s desires intuitively in order to avoid establishing dogma-based relationships. This working guide to successful interaction with the full Vodou pantheon also presents the role of Vodou in Haitian culture and explores the symbiotic relationship Vodou has maintained with Catholicism.

Reality is a lie invented by a technocratic enemy who has written history to it's liking. The truth is magic'ae the universe can be crafted with a simple working of your will. Mages have taught this truth throughout the ages, but the proponents of technology have crushed the mystic masters. Join the last stand in the war for reality. Mage: The Ascension places you in the midst of supernatural intrigues and inner struggles. The more secrets you learn, the more important your wisdom and power become. Mage drags spirituality and metaphysics screaming through the streets of a postmodern nightmare. A definitive look at the Traditions as a whole -- from how the Council functions to who'll take charge with the dearth of Masters to what techniques determine the allocation of chantries and wonders. Between the roles for up-and-coming Disciples and the problems facing the 21st-century Council lie stories begging to be told.

The Routledge Handbook on the Sciences in Islamicate Societies provides a comprehensive survey on science in the Islamic world from the 8th to the 19th century. Across six sections, a group of subject experts discuss and analyze scientific practices across a wide range of Islamicate societies. The authors take into consideration several contexts in which science was practiced, ranging from intellectual traditions and persuasions to institutions, such as courts, schools, hospitals, and observatories, to the materiality of scientific practices, including the arts and craftsmanship. Chapters also devote attention to scientific practices of minority communities in Muslim majority societies, and Muslim minority groups in societies outside the Islamicate world, thereby allowing readers to better understand the opportunities and constraints of scientific practices under varying local conditions. Through replacing Islam with Islamicate societies, the book opens up ways to explain similarities and differences between diverse societies ruled by Muslim dynasties. This handbook will be an invaluable resource for both established academics and students looking for an introduction to the field. It will appeal to those involved in the study of the history of science, the history of ideas, intellectual history, social or cultural history, Islamic studies, Middle East and African studies including history, and studies of Muslim communities in Europe and South and East Asia.

“As Zadeh concludes, reformers and modernists have closed the rich and varied archive revealed in Wonders and Rarities...In this beautifully written and engaging text, Zadeh takes his readers back to the world of surprise and enchantment that preceded this closure.”—Malise Ruthven, Financial Times “The wonders and curiosities of the Islamic imagination await discovery by a new generation of readers in this superb and very enjoyable book by Travis Zadeh.”—Orhan Pamuk, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature The astonishing biography of one of the world’s most influential books. During the thirteenth century, the Persian naturalist and judge Zakariyyāʾ Qazwīnī authored what became one of the most influential works of natural history in the world: Wonders and Rarities. Exploring the dazzling movements of the stars above, the strange minutiae of the minerals beneath the earth, and everything in between, Qazwīnī offered a captivating account of the cosmos. With fine paintings and leading science, Wonders and Rarities inspired generations as it traveled through madrasas and courts, unveiling the magical powers of nature. Yet after circulating for centuries, first in Arabic and Persian, then in Turkish and Urdu, Qazwīnī’s compendium eventually came to stand as a strange, if beautiful, emblem of medieval ignorance. Restoring Qazwīnī to his place as a herald of the rare and astonishing, Travis Zadeh dramatically revises the place of wonder in the history of Islamic philosophy, science, and literature. From the Mongol conquests to the rise of European imperialism and Islamic reform, Zadeh shows, wonder provided an enduring way to conceive of the world—at once constituting an affective reaction, an aesthetic stance, a performance of piety, and a cognitive state. Yet through the course of colonial modernity, Qazwīnī’s universe of marvels helped advance the notion that Muslims lived in a timeless world of superstition and enchantment, unaware of the western hemisphere or the earth’s rotation around the sun. Recovering Qazwīnī’s ideas and his reception, Zadeh invites us into a forgotten world of thought, where wonder mastered the senses through the power of reason and the pleasure of contemplation.

Violence has always played a part in the religious imagination, from symbols and myths to legendary battles, from colossal wars to the theater of terrorism. The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence surveys intersections between religion and violence throughout history and around the world. The forty original essays in this volume include overviews of major religious traditions, showing how violence is justified within the literary and theological foundations of the tradition, how it is used symbolically and in ritual practice, and how social acts of violence and warfare have been justified by religious ideas. The essays also examine patterns and themes relating to religious violence, such as sacrifice and martyrdom, which are explored in cross-disciplinary or regional analyses; and offer major analytic approaches, from literary to social scientific studies. The contributors to this volume--innovative thinkers who are forging new directions in theory and analysis related to religion and violence--provide novel insights into this important field of studies. By mapping out the whole field of religion and violence, The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence will prove an authoritative source for students and scholars for years to come.

This Handbook is a current, comprehensive single-volume history of Iranian civilization. The authors, all leaders in their fields, emphasize the large-scale continuities of Iranian history while also describing the important patterns of transformation that have characterized Iran's past. Each of the chapters focuses on a specific epoch of Iranian history and surveys the general political, social, cultural, and economic issues of that era. The ancient period begins with chapters considering the anthropological evidence of the prehistoric era, through to the early settled civilizations of the Iranian plateau, and continuing to the rise of the ancient Persian empires. The medieval section first considers the Arab-Muslim conquest of the seventh century, and then moves on to discuss the growing Turkish influence filtering in from Central Asia beginning in the tenth and eleventh centuries. The last third of the book covers Iran in the modern era by considering the rise of the Safavid state and its accompanying policy of centralization, the introduction of Shi'ism, the problems of reform and modernization in the Qajar and Pahlavi periods, and the revolution of 1978-79 and its aftermath. The book is a collaborative exercise among scholars specializing in a variety of sub-fields, and across a number of disciplines, including history, art history, classics, literature, politics, and linguistics. Here, readers can find a reliable and accessible narrative that can serve as an authoritative guide to the field of Iranian studies.