This New Moon in Virgo occurs September 8, 2010 at 6:30 am EDT (10:30 am GMT). While the new moon is a time of new beginnings and fresh starts, remember that we are still feeling the influence of Mercury retrograde (Mercury remains retrograde through this weekend, when it goes direct on September 12). Because of this,  you may want to begin the planning phase of any new projects, but actually hold off any implementation until September 12 when Mercury again goes direct to avoid any potential pitfalls. Likewise, even when planning, make sure to double check everything twice, as Mercury retrograde wreaks havoc on communication and travel plans, especially. The New Moon in Virgo is a time

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Deborah Blake, author of Circle, Coven & Grove; Everyday Witch A to Z; Everyday Witch A to Z Spellbook; The Goddess Is in the Details; and the new Witchcraft On a Shoestring. Every book has its own origins. I wrote my first one—Circle, Coven & Grove: A Year of Magickal Practice—because I wanted an easy guide for my first year leading a coven, complete with a year of rituals, and couldn’t find one. So I wrote it myself. I wrote my third book—The Goddess is in the Details—because people kept telling me that they wanted to integrate their spiritual lives as Pagans with their everyday world, but didn’t know how. My newest

There are lots of ways to read a tarot card. The other day, I was rereading What’s in the Cards for You? by one of my favorite people on the planet, Mark McElroy. The book provides exercises (each one is about 15 minutes) that you do each day. One exercise, 15 minutes a day, 30 days. At the end, you assess your experience and find out what your best aptitude and inclinations are for using the tarot: educational, magickal, psychological, creative, predictive, or planning. It’s a clever book. I think a group that meets once a month could have fun with this, with each member doing the exercises and then coming together to do the assessment. But I thought one of the exercises would