Do you remember the first time you saw tarot cards? Do you remember when you fell in love with them? I do. My college roommate and I threw a party. We were both non-trads, which is a fancy way to say “older student,” and we lived in a condo off-campus. At some point she pulled out this fancy, carved box. From it, she took out a bundle wrapped in black silk. She unwrapped the fabric and revealed…a deck of tarot cards! She didn’t read with them herself, but instead just handed them around. I couldn’t stop looking at them. I was just amazed. I read the scant instructions in the little white booklet. I shuffled the cards. I spread them out according to the directions. I read the

I've written in past about the recent rise in popularity of "fortune-telling" services among Americans as our economy has taken a nosedive. These services, whether getting a tarot reading, and astrology chart, or even visiting a psychic or medium, can be costly. And it seems the Italians may have outdone us on this one: a report from the European Consumers Association shows that our Baltic friends now spend £5 billion per year on fortune tellers and astrological services. Just as more Americans have begun to look toward the metaphysical for answers during times of economic uncertainty, it seems the Italians—now facing their worst recession since the Second World War—are looking

Recently, a group of self-styled skeptics (that is, they're actually debunkers) in New Zealand needed to do something to get some attention so they made a very public display of devouring "overdoses" of homeopathic remedies. According to this report, the result of this action "forced the New Zealand Council of Homeopaths to admit openly that their products do not contain any 'material substances.' Council spokeswoman Mary Glaisyer admitted publicly that 'there's not one molecule of the original substance remaining' in the diluted remedies that form the basis of this multi-million-dollar industry." For their decisive action and valuable revelation, I give the  NZ Skeptics and others who

One of the reasons magick is unsuccessful for many people is because they fail to understand something I've described many times: "Magick isn't something you do. Magick is something you are." Part of this—the important part for this discussion—is understanding that magick is going on 24/7. We're all doing magick all the time. It is because our thoughts and practices are not focused on our goals that we send contradictory signals onto the astral plane, the level of reality where things manifest spiritually in ways that must inevitably result in their physical manifestation. The example I like to give is that of a person who spends five minutes a day doing a ritual for increased