Sometimes, Westerners tend to oversimplify Eastern concepts. One such idea is the concept of karma. To some, it's a system of rewards and punishments based on both your actions and the intentions (or lack of intention) of your actions. That's simply not true. First, karma is not dependent upon your intention or lack of intention. "I meant to give a donation" does not prevent you from eventually facing the learning that helping others is good for them, good for you, and good for civilization. "I didn't mean to harm them" does not prevent you from eventually facing the learning that you are responsible for your actions, no matter the intent. There are no "Lords of Karma" who judge how

There's an old statement that, "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear." Many people—I believe mistakenly—think this means that if they work hard and do a lot of practice, some sort of Yoda or Obi-Wan Kenobi will come from nowhere to become their personal instructor. Well, that may happen, but it is far more likely that the "teacher" will be something else. It may be a book or a movie. It may be one eye-opening statement from a relative or a vagrant you happen to walk by while going to school or work. It may be a sudden, inward realization. It may be more appropriate to say that what you will receive is a teaching—a concept that only takes a moment to share but

I'm going to be live on Witchtalk this Sunday, January 10, at 1:00 p.m. Pacific (4:00 p.m. Eastern) for two full hours. Witchtalk is part of blogtalkradio, so you can hear it over the internet anywhere on earth. There are two ways you can participate. You can go to this link and enter the live chat room when the show starts. The host, Karagan, will read your questions on the air. Alternatively, you can call in and talk to us directly at (718) 664-9228. I hope to hear from you this Sunday. However, if you can't make it the show will be recorded and will stay on that page forever, so if you miss it on Sunday you can always either download it later or listen to it later on the page by

In my last blog post I described visualization as a process of mental magick where you create things on the non-physical astral plane so your creation will eventually manifest on the physical plane. While actually being able to see things on the astral plane is not necessary for visualization to be effective, it can be beneficial to this process. Here are some easy exercises for developing that visual component as well as improving concentration. Needed: a timer and four cards. The cards should be pure white with no lines. On the first card place a large black spot, and on the second place two spots side by side. On the third card make a row of three spots and on the fourth card, a