The birth of this updated website, along with a forum to share ideas through blogging, presents the potential for a magickal experiment beyond what has ever been done before. However, to explore this requires a bit of information and history so we're all on the same cyber-page. Two Human Needs Humans and other mammals are social creatures. We physically and mentally need the contact of others, especially those who are similar to us. When it comes to people involved with magick and occultism this has traditionally meant meeting in lodges, orders, covens, etc. For people who can't meet regularly with groups such as these, or who choose not to, I have strongly urged occasionally meeting

If you've been involved in the world of magick and the occult for some time, you may remember the anti-occult disaster in the 1980s and 1990s that has been called "The Satanic Panic." For those unfamiliar with what happened, a few nurses and sympathetic practicing mental health "professionals," along with various religious "leaders" and governmental officials who couldn't separate their spiritual beliefs from their professional duties, began supporting the bizarre mental musings of some troubled women. This carried over to the manipulation of children resulting in wild claims of "SRA" or Satanic Ritual Abuse. The claims are so bizarre and so impossible that I won't repeat them here. But

"And so it begins…" is a line from one of my all-time favorite TV shows, Babylon 5. The line refers to the manifestation of violence—in the case of Babylon 5, an interstellar war—that results from events that already occurred. As a magician, and knowing that I have the ability to change my reality, I have to accept the notion of personal responsibility. People who do not have the magickal mind-set often look for others to blame for their own problems. Currently, many countries in the world are experiencing extreme financial distress. Some people blame "the government" for the problem. Frankly, I find this odd since many of the countries involved in this melt down are democracies.

I want to thank all the people at Pagan Pride San Diego (especially Scheduling Committee Chairwoman Cari) for their hospitality and for the wonderful time I had there. I gave a talk on three future trends for magick, met lots of friends I hadn't seen in a year or more, and made lots of new friends, too. I had a chance to talk personally with many people and gave dozens of autographs, too. I was delighted to see that the boxes for donations of non-perishable foods for the food bank run by Mama's Kitchen were overflowing, and I hope that the donations of funds to Mama's Kitchen or the San Diego Humane Society and SPCA were also larger than ever. I strongly support gatherings of magickal