This list is more potentially doable; obviously don't expend resources you're unable or unwilling to

[alexseanchai]

(If you want to send physical items, email me for my address, alexseanchai at gmail. Fannish requests are part of fandom_stocking.)

(I will be delighted by charitable contributions to charities doing good work, or volunteer labor to same, but this year I'm not wishing for those things as gifts to me. Do them as gifts to you. Do them as gifts to the people who benefit from the charity's work. Do them as resistance to oppression. Gods know we need a lot of that last.)


* any amount of money

* more Patreon patrons

* other indications that people like my original writing; for example: comment on a poem at Sunbow Publications (or, if the comment thread is closed, on this post, indicating which poem); rec a poem to your friends; remix a Creative-Commons–licensed poem and link back to the original

* local polytheist friends

* jewelry that reflects my faith

* Cosmos Tarot, Wooden Tarot, and Earthbound Oracle

* Pampered Chef manual food processor (see this entry if you're thinking about this before Dec 14)

* pretty sky images

* book recs, or actual books (but before reccing and definitely before gifting, check my LibraryThing):
  ** ancient Greek mythology / theology / religion
  ** reconstructionist polytheism (bonus points if Hellenic-specific)
  ** worship of ancestors
  ** worship of the land
  ** anything on ecstatic contact with divinity regardless of religion (such as experienced by forex Teresa of Avila)
  ** ecofeminisms
  ** queer theories
  ** women-of-color feminisms
  ** disability wrt oppression or wrt feminism
  ** resistance to oppression
  ** SF/F with canon lesbians who don't meet a tragic end
  ** SF/F with canon genderqueer/nonbinary folks who don't meet a tragic end
  ** bonus points for crossover between above genres!

Comments

[wohali]

FYI the link to your LibraryThing just redirects to the home page for me. I had to use https://www.librarything.com/profile/AlexSeanchai instead.

Tomorrow when I can get back into my library I will give you references from my university course on mysticism, taught by Louis Dupré. It focused primarily on Christianity, but there were some very good books in there.

I do know one of the primary references for the course was Light from Light, an anthology of Christian Mysticism writings that he edited himself. An excellent jumping off point for picking up the full texts and reading them. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/925583.Light_from_Light

[alexseanchai]

Oh, crap, thanks. I'll fix.

Oooooh thank you!

[wohali]

OK, here are the other texts. Some of these are from the course; those are listed first. The others are ones I purchased to supplement my own learning. I hope you find any of them useful. If you do, please let me know! :)

Mysticism: A Study and an Anthology, ed. F.C. Happold (1963). Starts off with hermeneutics, and surprisingly a skeptical viewpoint: "...I have tried to make out a case for regarding the validity of mystical experience and the world-view...as a possible, and not unreasonable, hypothesis." One of the few texts in the course to include Buddhism and other spiritual traditions (Indian, Palestinean, Sufi, Upanishads, etc.) than the mainstream European traditions.

Mysticism: A study in the nature and development of Man's spiritual consciousness by Evelyn Underhill (1955). A fantastic survey research into mysticism in the European tradition. Dense but rewarding reading.

An Introduction to the Medieval Mystics of Europe, ed. by Paul Szarmach (1984). Notable for its coverage of women mystics, Jewish mystics and the Spanish Kabbalist tradition, and even unknown mystics (The Cloud of Unknowing) along with the classics (Eckhart, Aquinas, Cusa).

--

The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism by Daniel C. Matt (1994). I wanted more explanation of Ein Sof and The Ten Sefirot than the other texts provided; this book went the distance and then some.

The Common Life by Louis Dupre (1984). This book by my professor goes into Trinitarian Mysticism and how it developed through Jan Ruusbroec (whose work is excerpted in both the anthology books I've recommended). I wanted to read more of my prof's work, and while this wasn't an easy read, it was a short one (less than 100 pages). Shortly after I finished reading this I had dinner with him and we spent the better part of 3 hours discussing pantheism vs. Christian mysticism, Ruusbroec vs. Eckart, and a number of other topics that my memory has lost to the mists of time. A thoroughly pleasurable evening, probably my best memory of my alma mater.

[alexseanchai]

*bounce*

I will see what local library system has or can interlibrary-loan me! Thanks!

[wohali]

Awesome! And I wouldn't mind re-reading any of this to discuss with you, or sharing some of the class notes I took on a given topic (I keep EVERYTHING), if that sort of thing piques your interest.

[alexseanchai]

EEEEEE