Wow, how time has flown! It's been almost a year, now, since I announced the "Win a Free Tarot Deck with Your Prediction" Contest. For full details and for your chance to enter, see this LINK. Only comments made to that page are acceptable. Further, ALL predictions must be made and dated on or before December 15, 2013. That means your last chance to enter is this Sunday. Are you the king or queen of making predictions? Are you ready to put your predictive abilities up against everyone else in the world? If you win, you will receive your choice of a Tarot deck, absolutely free. However, there are rules and conditions. You will find them on THIS PAGE. Go there now and make your

It was 35 years ago. A young and dumb kid—we'd call him a "geek" today—went to the newsstand to pick up some of the latest issues of Thor, The Avengers, Doctor Strange, Conan, and the Fantastic Four. He also looked quickly through the rest of the magazines at the large newsstand, seeing one he'd never seen before. It was called Gnostica, and it was published by Llewellyn. Yes, that geeky kid was me. I was also going to Gilbert's Books around the corner. They had one of the best new and used occult sections in town, and it was rumored that Israel Regardie used to hang out there. Gilbert's is long gone. A smaller version of the newsstand is still there. Gnostica was just amazing. I

Many years ago I briefly studied Kung Fu with one of the great masters of the art who, at the time, was teaching in the San Fernando Valley of California. One of the things he stated was that the hardest opponent to face would be a big, powerful, untrained bully because he had no fighting pattern to counter. Another thing I learned was never get into a fight when you are angry. If you get into a fight when you are angry, the anger will take over your mind. Rather than fighting instinctively based on your training, your actions will come from your rage. A lot of people think that it's good to get into a rage in order to prepare for a fight as it will increase your endorphins resulting in

Many decks published today are identified, in part, as being based on the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot (RWS) or as not being based on it. That identification only means something if you know what the RWS Tarot is. For seasoned tarot enthusiasts, it is ingrained, but for people new to tarot, it might be helpful to understand the importance of the RWS Tarot and its characteristics. Arthur E. Waite was the creator of the deck, although some question to what extent he was involved with the design of the cards, particularly the Minor Arcana. He was mystic and occultist and member of the Golden Dawn. He invented (although he claims it is ancient) the Celtic Cross Spread, one of the most well-known