This work examines the psychomachia, or battle of the soul, as it occurs in the 14th century poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Based on an analysis of the Gawain-poet's earlier work, as well as contemporary analogs in chivalric manuals, Arthurian romances and mystical literature such as The Cloud of Unknowing, it argues that Sir Gawain's quest into the Otherworld is a tragedy of limited, human perception pitted against a mysterious Infinite that "deigns to destroy" the mortal protagonist's delusion of knowing. The fault of Sir Gawain, therefore, occurs after his ordeal at the chopping...

This book details the remarkable potential of terra preta, the recently rediscovered sacred soil of the pre-Columbian peoples of the Amazon rainforest, to reverse some of the most the catastrophic damage that has been visited on our environment. The authors lay out a fascinating description of how utilizing the biochar embedded in this highly fertile, living soil offers a way to free ourselves from dependency on petrochemicals, restore the health of our soils, and remove carbon from our overheating atmosphere by fixing it back where it belongs--in the earth. They predict that biochar...