Well, sort of. This strange adventure took place many years ago when I was attending UCLA. At the time, there had been a spate of books that were republished about Atlantis and Lemuria. This happens every 20 or so years. Being a contrarian (I was in college…what do you expect?), I looked for a more unusual book on Lemuria. The book I selected was Lemuria: The Lost Continent of the Pacific by Wishar Spenle Cerve. It turns out that the author's odd name is an anagram of Harve Spencer Lewis, late Imperator of the AMORC Rosicrucians. The book was also published by AMORC, so I consider this to be my Rosicrucian adventure. The book offers a some of the strangest stories about the

I have conflicting views on spellbooks. One one level, I think they're fantastic. They give you a complete and simple ritual which can be powerful and effective.* On the other hand, they often imply that all you have to do is read some words, chant a spell, burn a colored candle, and Ta Da! the magick happens. Only for most people, it doesn't. In my experience, most people who try various simple magicks don't have much luck. I realize there will be some people reading this who will write in saying, "But it worked for me!" and that's fantastic. However, that's what's called anecdotal evidence. Merely because it worked for you doesn't mean it's going to work for everyone…or even for

Recently, James Ricklef asked several regular users of Tarot how they think giving readings with the cards actually works. He published the answers on his blog in two posts located HERE and HERE. In his posts he begins by sharing his own theory and that of Robin Wood. He also shares the beliefs of Rachel Pollack, Mary K. Greer, Thalassa, Julie Cuccia-Watts, Lon Milo DuQuette, Pamela Steele, Mike Hernandez, Joseph Ernest Martin, Robert M. Place, James Wells, Bonnie Cehovet, Johanna Gargiulo-Sherman, Lisa Hunt, Ferol Humphrey, Katrina Wynne, and myself (James even included a nice little drawing to make my theory clear). So here are 18 theories as to how the Tarot works,

In a recent post, Psyche gives some excellent information on how to give a Tarot reading. Specifically, she advises that the information the reader gives should be presented in a manner that is useful to the person receiving the reading. This sounds like it should be elementary information—if the information presented in a reading isn't useful, it's basically meaningless data. However, Psyche's idea is actually a rather advanced concept. In fact, it is often one of the most challenging aspects of giving a Tarot reading. The reader has to give up being centered on himself or herself and turn all attention to the client. The reader, in seconds, has to determine how to best convey