Witches and pagans have long faced historical persecution from the Catholic church and other patriarchal systems of power. In the eyes of mainstream society, they have been reduced to fragments of ancient history and entertaining media stereotypes. Real practitioners of witchcraft and paganism have remained fairly marginalized and trapped in the shadows, but this is starting to change. Witches and pagans have begun to involve themselves in large-scale political movements, combining spiritual power with direct action. While this phenomenon has a longer track record in the United States, in France it is extremely new. France is a country that has an even deeper history of pagan origins and Inquisition witch trials, wih a currently conflicted religious dynamic of being both secular and Catholic. Therefore, the reclamation and practice of witchcraft within an activist setting has even more revolutionary significance. Because the basic tenets of most witch and pagan spiritualities emphasizes fighting oppression, witchcraft has attracted marginalized groups, especially the LGBT community. The occult offers valuable new ways of examining activism and social justice using spirituality and magic.

This thesis is an analytical study of the place of clairvoyance (avadhijñāna) in Jain epistemology and soteriology. It argues that avadhijñāna occupies an ambivalent position regarding both, since it is not solely attained by means of spiritual progression but may also spontaneously arise regardless of a being’s righteousness (samyaktva). Beginning with a survey of descriptions of avadhijñāna in the canons of each sect, including a translation of Nandisūtra 12-28, it examines how commentaries, philosophy and narrative literature developed and elaborated upon avadhijñāna as part of its epistemological system. Further, it examines the nexus of avadhijñāna and karma theory to understand the role of clairvoyance in the cultivation of the three jewels—correct perception, knowledge, and conduct—that lead to liberation (mokṣa). Finally, several examples of clairvoyants from Jain narratives show how clairvoyance reamined an ambivalent tool for virtuous transformation in popular literature.

THE MEXICAN HYDRA: HOW CALDERÓN’S PURSUIT OF PEACE LED TO THE BLOODIEST WAR IN MEXICAN HISTORY. WILL THE MEXICAN PEOPLE INHERIT A FAILED STATE IN 2012? Abstract Marco Antonio Pinon-Farah The drug-war in Mexico (2006-present) has accelerated at a chilling rate, claiming the lives of 35,000 Mexican people. Since President Felipe Calderón assumed office, Mexico has been battling an internal beast unlike any it has known, the Mexican Hydra. Like the mythical creature, the Mexican cartels have proven capable of not only combating the government forces, but also of regenerating and strengthening themselves in the face of increasing government scrutiny and the loss of several prominent Mexican cartel leaders. Feuding between individual cartels and the Mexican government continue to maintain a significant portion of the country, particularly the states of Chihuahua and Sinaloa, in a paralytic state of fear. Struggling to maintain the safety of all people in Mexico, the military must also contend with the reality that it is often outgunned by the increasingly powerful drug-trafficking organizations (DTOs). Given the historical accusations of corruption in Mexican judicial, military, and police authorities, this branch of the government is constantly fighting for the trust and support of the Mexican people in order to fulfill its duties and obligations. The moral guide of Mexican society since Spanish conquest, the Catholic Church, has been notably missing from the debate until recent years in which it has chosen to speak up more frequently on behalf of those who have suffered human rights violations. In recent months, the Church and the State have been working towards a partnership to publicly condemn the violence and fear that has become all too common in Mexico. This state of chaos has been further examined by the musical phenomenon, “el narcocorrido,” (drug song). Derived from the “corrido,” one of Mexico’s most valued methods of cultural expression and storytelling, this new take on the genre provides a controversial view and analysis of the Mexican drug-trafficker. Much like the American gangsta-rap genre, the narcocorrido glamorizes the lives of individuals who are considered criminals by society. With police being criticized and the government accused of corruption and abuse, the narcocorrido is a manifestation of the sentiments of many Mexican people past and present. This cultural force allows for a greater understanding of the complexity of the drug-war in Mexico, in that it is not simply a struggle between the people and the drug industry, but rather it exposes the nature of the war for what it truly is, a battle between one Mexican presidential administration and the drug trafficking industry. President Calderón’s strategy has been successful in eliminating various important Mexican DTO leaders, however it also has been responsible for a rise in violence between the cartels and government. His strategy has left thousands dead and set a precedent for future Mexican presidents in that they are now all committed to this war, for a withdrawal from the conflict would be catastrophic for the Mexican state. Calderón is already struggling to maintain his government’s legitimacy, and it is becoming increasingly true that his state verges on failure due to its inability to guarantee and protect the rights afforded to its citizens by the Mexican Constitution.

The purpose of my research is to provide high school English instructors and students a contemplative writing pedagogy that has the capacity to assist them in calming their bodies and quieting their minds so that they can focus their attention, openly explore self and others, rediscover their creativity, and reawaken their appreciation for the art of writing. Such a pedagogy is supported by mindfulness practices, which are exercises in moment-to-moment awareness that help to detach the practitioner from his or her thoughts. Mindfulness practices include breathing, walking, yoga, body scans, and visualizing; they provide quiet spaces wherein mind, body, and soul are allowed to concentrate on and connect with a particular being, idea, or experience. Such quiet spaces engage the whole learner, thus making possible holistic learning and being. If students are given the space to write in a classroom of contemplative practices, they will possibly have an increased chance at passing state assessments, while also developing a skill that will assist them in their own self inquiry and transformation.

This study discloses Shinto’s experiential and existential significance and aims to articulate Shinto’s sacred objective. It shows that Shinto, by way of experience, communicates being in the world with nature and with others as a sacred objective. This suggests that Shinto, in communicating its objective, appeals to the emotions more so than to the intellect; and that Shinto’s sacred objective does not transcend the natural world of both nature and everyday affairs. This study pursues this goal by showing the experiential and existential dimensions of the three primary features of Shinto: it shows how kami (or kami-ness) is thought of as an awe producing quality of being/s that are mostly associated with the natural world; how Shinto shrines’ aesthetics and atmosphere are thought to evoke a feeling of the natural world’s sacredness; and how festivals are thought to be ecstatic and effervescent occasions that regenerate an affirmation of being in the world with others. Though this study does not employ a strict methodological approach—insofar as the conclusions herein are based primarily on literature review—it was motivated by an existential outlook on the study of religion and assumes that the term “religion” refers primarily to an existential phenomenon that pertains not necessarily to socio-historical institutions but to a way of being in the world.

Parental death can have a negative impact on children’s lives with changes in economic resources, and lead to change in residence, loss of contact with friends and neighbors, change in caretakers, and loss of time with the surviving parent. Research on the effects of a grandparent’s death on children is limited. Death of a sibling signifies the loss of a role model, friend, confidante, and playmate. The purpose of this correlational study was to identify: 1) differences in the spiritual coping strategies used by children across age groups, gender, race/ethnicity, participation in religious rituals and practices, and the relationship of the deceased to the child (parent, grandparent or sibling), and 2) the relationship between children’s use of spiritual coping strategies and grief, personal growth, anxiety, and depression after the death, with and without controls for child’s age, gender, race/ethnicity, participation in religious rituals and practices, and relationship of the deceased to the child. A sample of 97 children, 8 to 18 years old and 64% Hispanic completed the Spiritual Coping Strategies Scale, Hogan Inventory of Bereavement, Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale, and Child Depression Inventory, and their parents completed a demographic form. Children who participated in religious rituals after the death used less religious coping strategies than children who did not participate. When child’s age, gender, race/ethnicity, participation in religious rituals and practices, and relationship of the deceased were controlled, greater use of spiritual coping, but not religious coping, and greater grief were significantly related to greater personal growth and greater anxiety. Younger children and Black children had significantly greater anxiety. Only grief was significantly related to depression. Children who experienced the death of a parent, grandparent, or sibling had similar outcomes. The results of this pioneer study will add knowledge to the state of the science regarding the effects of children’s spiritual coping after parent, grandparent, or sibling death on their grief, personal growth, and mental health which is a subject area were very little is known.

This study explored the origins, evolution and influence of the tradition of San Lázaro as it currently pertains to the Cuban-American Santeria community in Miami. The main argument of the study is that in the context of the contemporary religious culture of Santeria in Miami, San Lázaro is a hybrid spirit. Many manifestations of healing entities have come to merge in the person of this spirit. Though practitioners identify with specific manifestations of this spirit, the processes of transmigration have blurred the lines of deep-rooted faiths and created a fusion of meanings from disparate traditions, making San Lázaro an ambivalent personality. San Lázaro’s ambivalence is the very quality that makes him such an important Orisha. As a deity whose personalities demonstrates the combination of a diversity of qualities, including those that contradict each other, San Lázaro is deployed in a very broad range of healing context, making him a versatile Orisha. This study clarified the contrasting qualities this deity embodies and traces the socio-historical context in which the deity acquires the layers of meanings it is currently associated with. Drawing on interviews with Lázaranian worshipers [Lázarenos] in Miami and engaging in Bourdieu’s concept of Habitus, the study provided a window into the nature of the tradition of San Lázaro and how its usage is linked with the African heritage of the worshipers.

This thesis explores the challenges that Shvetambar Terapanthi Jain female mumukshus (religious aspirants) face during their training at the Parmarthik Shikshan Sanstha, an institute unique to this sect dedicated to training young females to become nuns. The educational requirements, secluded social environment, disciplined rules, and monastic hierarchies train aspirants to understand the demands of nunhood. Based on interviews and observations, aspirants express their struggle to balance the personal desire to progress spiritually toward liberation (moksha) that motivated them to renounce with the requirement to raise their juniors as part of the ascetic community, a new kind of familial structure. The disparity in the training of female and male renouncers in the Terapanth reveals problems that remain in the gendered way female renouncers are treated in their training. Renunciation is shown not to be gender neutral, leading to a more nuanced understanding of Jain asceticism in contemporary India.

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The fundamental thesis of the analyst is that the ills or humanity are due to ignorance and more particularly to self-ignorance and that the way to self-healing is the way to self-knowledge. The purpose of this thesis is to show how these Yoga sutras of Patanjali contain the methods for the regenerating and recreating factor in human life; and that these methods can be carried into present-day, practical living.