Dummies.com: Religion & Spirituality

Adding Fasting to Your Prayer Life

Fasting isn't a complicated business. When you fast, don't eat. You stay away from all food or refrain from specific types of food for a set amount of time. [more…]

Avoiding Roadblocks to Stress Reduction

If you recall your last attempt at losing a few pounds or getting rid of all the clutter in your house, you may recognize that good intentions do not always guarantee success. Usually, you encounter one [more…]

Biblical Viewpoints on Women

The Bible is primarily a religious book about the covenant between the creator and creation, between God and humankind. But it's important to remember that the people described in the Bible and the human [more…]

Celebrating the Cycles of Life in Judaism

Judaism honors and celebrates the major stages of life with rituals, including the bris (circumcision for boys), Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, weddings, and funeral rites. [more…]

Charming Your Way to Effective Magic

A four-leaf clover for luck. The suit that you always wear to job interviews for success. The ring you never take off because it represents your love for another person. The pendent you wear around your [more…]

Christian Holy Days, Holidays, and Seasons

Many in postmodern society downplay tradition. This change has rippled through some parts of the Church as well. However, tradition remains an important part of what the Christian faith is all about, because [more…]

Climbing the Five Tiers of Prayer

All prayer is directed to God, whether you're praying in your bedroom or Denver's Mile High Stadium filled with 80,000 people. However, the manner in which you pray and the words you speak should be tailored [more…]

Coming of Age: Confirmation

Soon after the kids are born and get fed, they start to grow. Growth is as vital to human life as nourishment. The body and mind must grow to stay alive. Catholics believe that the soul also needs to grow [more…]

Considering Who Jesus Claimed to Be

People often think of the President of the United States as one of the most powerful people in the world. Perhaps that idea's due to the fact that he's got so many names, roles, and titles associated with [more…]

Considering the Many Faces of Spiritual Realization

If you've read the stories of the world's great mystics and sages, you find that spiritual experiences come in a dazzling array of shapes and sizes. For example: [more…]

Contemplating the Mormon Worldview

The following equation best sums up how Mormons understand the universe and the purpose of life: As humans are, God used to be; as God is, humans may become. [more…]

Correcting Major Misconceptions about Tarot

A "tarot misconception" means that someone interprets a tarot concept or card based on incomplete, faulty, or biased information. As you know, misconceptions can be powerful, especially when more people [more…]

Cultivating Spiritual Virtues

Your spiritual growth becomes visible to yourself and others through how you think and act in each moment of your life. Although it is helpful to put efforts into watching and uplifting your outer actions [more…]

Debunking Common Myths about Freemasonry

Modern Freemasonry has been around since 1717. The first concocted untruths about the Order appeared in print at almost the same time. The United States was consumed by anti-Masonic hysteria in the late [more…]

Discovering More about the Koran

The Islamic tradition describes the Koran as a vast ocean of knowledge that never ceases in its wisdom, no matter how much you study it. You may want to continue investigating the Koran, looking for new [more…]

Discovering What Freemasonry Is

Freemasons don't always do such a good job of defining just what they are or what they do, but that's often because the answers non-Masons are looking for are really too complicated. [more…]

Discovering What Meditation Is All About

Meditation is simply the practice of focusing your attention on a particular object — generally something simple, like a word or phrase, a candle flame or geometrical figure, or the coming and going of [more…]

Double Agent Delilah: Sapping Sampson's Strength

Delilah, who lived in the thirteenth century BC, breaks the heart of her lover, Samson, a man who devoted his life to fighting the enemies of the Israelites. In fact, she even betrays him to these enemies [more…]

Eid al-Fitr: Focusing on Charitable Acts

At the end of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting, families break the fast and celebrate during a three-day festival called Eid al-Fitr (Eid means "recurring event, [more…]

Examining Opus Dei: Secret Societies and The Da Vinci Code

The controversial Catholic sect called Opus Dei is the only secret society mentioned in The Da Vinci Code that may well have some of the smear coming. This is not to say that Silas, the mad and murderous [more…]