In my previous posts in this series, located here and here, I gave links to my extensive series of posts on the LBRP and described why The Middle Pillar is a valuable ritual and what this rite does. If you haven't read them (and preferably, regularly practiced the LBRP), I suggest you review them, now. In this post, I'm going to describe the basic ritual and how to perform it. Before starting this ritual, however, you should first calm yourself, focus on what you're doing, and relax. One way to do this is with the Relaxation Ritual which I described in Modern Magick. Follow this with the LBRP. As part of this, during the first and second repetitions of the Kabalistic Cross, you visualize

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Emily Carding, author Faery Craft. I am not long back from the most wonderful trip, leaving my beloved Cornwall behind for a short few weeks to explore Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. My family and I witnessed stunning primal landscapes; saw bears, orcas, and bald eagles in the wild for the first time; and admired the beautiful carvings of the First Nation tribes. We took a walk through a rainforest, flew over a majestic glacier in a sea-plane, and marveled at the incredible beauty of what seemed an almost unspoilt landscape. Forests stretched on as far as the eye could see, and the peaks of snow-topped mountains disappeared into

At this time of year, it is natural to turn inward. I don't know about you, but these next few months, into January, really, I do most of my deeper, personal readings, focusing on soul work. One of my favorite decks for this type of exploration is the Gaian Tarot (HERE). I quiet down and listen for the rhythm of soul, the beat of my heart, the voice of my spirit. And this card, The Magician, drums me into meditation, with compassion, joy, and expectation. He becomes my guide. In the few years I've been working with this deck, I've come to look forward to these quiet, candle-lit nights and the blessings that they bring. What decks or cards do you use to focus on your soul's need

Recently, I've begun to think that maybe the Mayans—or more accurately, some interpreters of the Mayan calendar—were right. I've seen a great deal of personal loss this year. Musically, I learned that a guitarist I had played with had died. Before we worked together he had played with the early group, The Music Machine, and had one hit, "Talk, Talk." Later, he had played with Ike and Tina Turner, and claimed to me that it was he who had convinced Ike to play "Proud Mary." More recently, the far-better known Jon Lord, keyboard player for the original Deep Purple, passed on. His playing had greatly influenced my own. More personally, several people, including relatives, have passed on