Over a year ago I started an eight-part series on the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram or LBRP. To the best of my knowledge it's still the most complete explanation of the ritual available on the web, although I do imagine some people may have put more of a focus on different sections. You can find my original posts here: Why the LBRP Matters Secrets of the Kabalistic Cross More Secrets of the Kabalistic Cross Sounds of the Kabalistic Cross Understanding the Formulation of the Pentagrams The Names that Charge the Pentagrams The Formulation of the Pentagrams and The Evocation of the Archangels If you want to learn this ritual, or if you want to add some insights

The New Moon in Libra occurs Monday, October 15 at 8:02 am EDT (12:02 pm GMT), at 22 degrees. New moons signify a new cycle, new beginnings, and rebirth. This New Moon, along with the Sun (also in Libra) will highlight the Airy Libra qualities of balance and diplomacy, as well as seventh house themes of relationships and partnerships. This Libra New Moon period is the perfect time to examining your partnerships, especially as they relate to your overall well being. Do you need to be more tactful in your communications? Are you spending too much time on one relationship to the detriment of another? However, Uranus and Jupiter are still retrograde, (until December 13, 2012 and January 30,

Last weekend I was at the Detroit Area Tarot Intensive, where I presented along with Dan Pelletier, co-owner of the Tarot Garden and knower-of-many-fascinating-things. When attending conferences, one expects to learn a lot during the actual classes or workshops. But sometimes things are learned at other times, like while sharing a meal. Dan taught us a nifty little technique over dinner one evening. He didn't have a name for it; he just did it. Here's how it played: Dan asked someone to ask a question, then pick a card from the deck he had fanned out. The card was left face down. Dan then answered the question without looking at the card. Then he had the person flip the card

The definition of a tarot deck varies quite a bit from person to person. The bare bones definition is a deck of 78 cards: 22 majors and 56 minors (of four suits, ace - 10, and four courts per suit). There have been, historically, deviations. An example is a Minchiate deck, which has 40 majors, plus the Fool. Modern deck designers have played with this structure as well, sometimes adding a few cards to the majors or adding a court to the minors, or even an entire fifth suit. Some would argue these are not tarot decks. In addition, there are decks that follow what I call the bare bones structure but deviate wildly from the familiar Golden Dawn (Thoth and Rider Waite) images and