In his 1973 book, Time Enough for Love, Robert A. Heinlein wrote, A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. I agree with this idea. My mother used to express the concept that someone could be a "jack of all trades, master of none." I've come to disagree. Why not become a master of all things you want to master? I've worked as an

In my previous post, I described the three necessities of grey magick. At the end of that post, I asked if anyone thought I had missed something. Several people, here and on my Facebook account, felt that emotion was important and that I had left it out. Well, yes and no. It's absolutely true that I didn't mention emotions per se. However, I most certainly did stress and include the concept of the importance of using all your emotions in Modern Magick. I gave only the briefest description of the three necessities in my previous blog post, but certainly using all your emotions is an aspect of what I called "The Second Necessity," knowing how to generate and control magickal

In Modern Magick I describe three general types of magick and equate them to the concepts of white (spiritual), black (negative), and grey (practical). If you follow the system in the book, you'll learn that these are only descriptions about the results of the magick. The techniques for all three are similar or the same. When many or most people get into magick—influenced by the fictions found in fairy tales, novels, comic books and movies—they are most often focused on grey magick: making actual, observable changes in their lives and the lives of others. Some think that if they merely mumble some ritual in an arcane book that a pot of gold will suddenly appear, the family dog will

Holy art Thou, Lord of the universe! Holy art Thou, whom nature hath not formed! Holy art Thou, the vast and mighty one! Lord of the light and of the darkness! The above expression of honoring the Divine is found in rituals of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. It has been held up as showing that ceremonial magick is sexist. Some Golden Dawn temples have changed the vocabulary so it is not what they consider sexist. For example, the first line might be changed to "Holy are Thou, Source of the Universe!" and the last line might be changed to "Lord and Lady of the light and of the darkness!" To discuss this I would like to introduce you to a philosopher named Jacques Derrida