As we come to the Winter Solstice, it is interesting that so many cultures around the world have found this astronomical event to be so important to their spiritual systems. Certainly it was important for ancient cultures, as the hope for a return of the Sun and the eventual growth of plants and increase in the number of animals meant their very survival. Although survival today requires much larger societal cooperation rather than simply a tribal ritual, it is amazing that many such rituals remain today. For example, one of the most popular festivals in Hinduism (the world's 3rd largest religion with about 1.4 billion followers) is Diwali (or Deepavali). There are a lot of reasons given

Thanks to the miracle of podcasting, wherever you are in the world you can tune in and hear me interviewed on a wide variety of magickal topics. Interestingly, this blog is on servers based out of Minnesota, I'm in California, and the interviewers were in England. (Well, I found it interesting.) The podcast is episode 32 of a program called "Right Where You are Sitting Now." On the website it says: "We continue our occult exploration this week with seminal author Donald Michael Kraig. Donald is the author of the best-selling titles: Modern Magick and Modern Sex Magick, and has recently authored his first novel, The Resurrection Murders. This is our longest interview to date, kept at

In Modern Magick, I discussed how to use a divination to prevent doing something that could have unwanted negative results. I wrote that the real reason that sensible magicians don't do magick that can negatively effect you is not really because it's "evil" or "black magick," but because it would be foolish to do something that could actually harm you. Well, I have a confession. That's not always true. There are occasions where I would consciously choose to do an act that could negatively effect me through the actions of Tee-koon (a Kabalistic term for what non-Kabalistists refer to as "karma"). Tee-koon, like karma, is based on actions, not intentions. If I harm you—accidentally or on

In Modern Magick, I tried to stress that although there are traditional tools of the magician (and that you should use them all or none of them to keep the energy balanced), you don't have to use the traditional tools. For example, I point out that the traditional tool for water, a glass chalice, can be very fragile, and it might be better to use one made out of metal or some other material—ceramic, stone, even a paper cup. Unfortunately, I didn't mention a tin cup and I once received a question asking if that was acceptable because I didn't mention it specifically. Sigh. (And if you're wondering, yes, use it!) It's nice to be linked to out magickal past by using traditional