An interview with me has just been published on The Magical Buffet. You can read it by going to THIS LINK. In the interview I talk about the changes you'll find in the new edition of Modern Magick, challenges I see for the Pagan, Wiccan, and magickal communities, what it was like to share an apartment with Scott Cunningham, and several other topics. I'd like to thank Rebecca of The Magical Buffet for giving me this opportunity. I really appreciate it. The Magical Buffet is one of the blogs I regularly read. If you're interested in "spirituality, politics, and pop culture," you might start reading that website, too. If you have any questions in relation to the comments I made there,

It is important for people who practice magick to be true skeptics. Too often I have seen people perform a ritual and then get swept away into a world where chance and mere happenstance are attributed to their magickal working. Such people constantly see magickal forces (often working against them) rather than more common explanations. If you're feeling sick, assume flu first, magickal attack last. As any person who regularly works with magick knows, most people don't believe in magick. Those who go around saying that every creaking sound in an old house is the sign of a ghost or the failure of a politician is due to their magickal ritual only make the doubters laugh more heartily. And

This may well be the strangest title for any blog post ever. What does spiritualized sexual practices have to do with the Jewish festival of lights? And what do either have to do with magick? Follow along and I hope this will all make sense. Tantra Most people think that Tantra is just some form of spiritualized sexuality. Actually, Tantra is one of the oldest forms of Pagan spirituality that has been continuously practiced. It has its own deities, magickal techniques, philosophy, psychology, physiology, medicine, and much more. Much of it was altered and became important sources of Hinduism and Buddhism. Most of the spiritual ideas that we think of as coming from India, including the

Happy Samhain (Halloween), everyone! This is the new year celebration for Pagans all over the world. In honor of this I'd like to share a short story. Years ago, while a student at UCLA, I was drawn to the strange worlds created by H.P. Lovecraft and by those who wrote stories focused on his Cthulhu Mythos. Most of my writing, for long years, had been non-fiction. But my fascination with Lovecraftiana drew me to write a couple of stories. One, called “The Thing on the Desert,” is lost. It was the story of a young man, driving alone across the desert between a mythical spot similar to the Parker Dam area of Arizona and Los Angeles. On the way he has a horrifying encounter with strange