The Minor Arcana of the tarot is divided into four suits, much like a deck of playing cards. The suits are Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles. They are usually associated with elements, fire, water, air, and earth respectively, although some decks do reverse Wands and Air. Each suit contains the Ace - 10, Page, Knight, Queen, and King. Each suit focuses on specific areas of life or human experience. Wands are associated with fiery passion, will, determination, career, and projects. It is an active energy, fast-moving and hard to contain. If not handled properly, it can burn wildly out of control. At its best, it is inspiring and uplifting and fuels our efforts and

A tarot deck has 78 cards. The cards are divided into sections, which makes learning them easier because the section a card is in shapes its meaning. The sections are: Major Arcana (22 cards) Minor Arcana (40 cards) Court Cards (16 cards) This article focuses on the Court Cards. The Court Cards are technically part of the Minor Arcana because they are found in each of the four suits of the Minor Arcana. In each of the suits (Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles) there are four cards that are like the royalty cards in a playing deck. A playing deck has a Jack, Queen, and King. In a tarot deck, the Court Cards are: Page, Knight, Queen, and King. These cards usually

Spiritual Intimidation In my previous post, I described why I decided to quit a small, Crowley-oriented group from when I lived in the San Diego area: First: One of the leaders attempted to cover up his clear lack of knowledge. There is so much information available today, it is quite impossible to know everything. One of the great values of groups is their ability to bring together people with a wide range of interests and centers of knowledge. When you don't know something it's quite likely there will either be someone else who does have that knowledge or who knows how to access it. But when a supposed leader gives a talk on a subject with superficial preparation and the inability to

Delta T and Delta C One of the challenges of being involved in the study of occultism is to find people with similar interests. The pool of occultists interested in studying magick is even smaller. The pool of magickal students who want to practice magick is smaller still. It is true that today you can find people on the internet who are practicing magicians…at least they claim to be practicing magicians. However, the truth is the so-called "social media" is antithetical to actual socialization. Besides, the time I'm talking about in this True Tale was pre-WWW, so other than through the use of "snail mail" and telephones, the only way to be part of a group  was to actually meet