The trip up the I5 to Pantheacon was smooth and uneventful. As we have done for the past several years, Holly—now my wife—and I went with our friend, Lon Milo DuQuette. Lon Milo DuQuette—Master of Magick There is pass through some mountains as you drive north of Los Angeles on the I5. We stopped for a bite to eat and before getting back into the car I was surprised to see that there was some snow on the tops of some of the mountains. There hadn't been much snow all season. There were more almond trees in bloom than I've seen in any year on our trips to the convention. They white flowers were beautiful! Anyone for making magick wands? I apologize for the quality

Most people now accept that the fact that the Tarot cards do not go back to ancient Egypt, Atlantis, or some other source from thousands of years ago. Most knowledgeable Tarot researchers also acknowledge that the Tarot didn't evolve out of the Kabalah. In fact, the associations of the Kabalistic Tree of Life came long after the Tarot began. They were popularized by Eliphas Levi during the nineteenth century's "French Occult Revival." But when it comes to the designs of the Minor Arcana cards—the ones that are most like a deck of playing cards—most people think they're all pictorial and dismiss any deck that doesn't have images on every card. In actuality, it was only about 100

For many years, calling the illusions presented by stage performers "magic" could get you in trouble for pretending to be supernatural, even if what you were doing was comedic tricks for kids. As a result, many performers, rather than calling themselves magicians, used other terms such as "conjuror," "juggler," or "prestidigitator." Aleister Crowley came up with a different solution for making a written differentiation. He used an archaic spelling, magick with a final "k," to indicate the real practice and used "magic" to represent the entertainment. [The "k" also had another meaning for Crowley, indicating a reference to sex magick, but that's a different issue.] In my Modern Magick and

In my previous blog post, I wrote about the concept of "Walking your Talk." The concept I presented there was that you might best present your spiritual beliefs to others by following those beliefs yourself. That is, virtually all spiritual systems have a set of ethics, and you best represent those ethics by living them. From a magickal perspective, it's also important to "Talk your Walk," too. This comes from two concepts: Magick isn't something you do. Magick is something you are. Magick takes place 24/7. What this means is that magick is always happening whether you realize it or not. In fact, I'd say that one of the major differences between a magician and a non-magician is that