Aleister Crowley thought that developing the "magickal memory" was an important part of magickal training. The magickal memory is the ability to recall past lives. In Magick Without Tears, chapter 37, he points out that one of the values of remembering past lives is that it helps you overcome a fear of physical death. In Liber ThIShARB he goes into methods for remembering past lives, but for a different reason. Here, there is far more than merely overcoming the fear of the inevitable. Rather, remembering past lives has the goal of seeing a thread that unites all of the past lives and how those lives apply to your current life: "let him apply them [memories] to his own career, forging the

It's been an amazing two-and-a-half days at Pantheacon! I spent Saturday rehearsing for my workshops later in the day. Then I went to the exclusive Llewellyn party. Thanks to Elysia for setting it up. I had a great chance to meet and greet long-time friends and meet some new Llewellyn authors. Unfortunately, the room was rather dark and since my camera didn't have a flash, the pics didn't come out. Sorry. Then I gave my first workshop: why the LBRP (Lesser Banishing ritual of the Pentagram) matters. I presented the idea that magick requires three things: The ability to raise or generate magickal energy (both from interior and exterior sources)* The ability to manipulate the

The trip up the I5 to Pantheacon was smooth and uneventful. As we have done for the past several years, Holly—now my wife—and I went with our friend, Lon Milo DuQuette. Lon Milo DuQuette—Master of Magick There is pass through some mountains as you drive north of Los Angeles on the I5. We stopped for a bite to eat and before getting back into the car I was surprised to see that there was some snow on the tops of some of the mountains. There hadn't been much snow all season. There were more almond trees in bloom than I've seen in any year on our trips to the convention. They white flowers were beautiful! Anyone for making magick wands? I apologize for the quality

Most people now accept that the fact that the Tarot cards do not go back to ancient Egypt, Atlantis, or some other source from thousands of years ago. Most knowledgeable Tarot researchers also acknowledge that the Tarot didn't evolve out of the Kabalah. In fact, the associations of the Kabalistic Tree of Life came long after the Tarot began. They were popularized by Eliphas Levi during the nineteenth century's "French Occult Revival." But when it comes to the designs of the Minor Arcana cards—the ones that are most like a deck of playing cards—most people think they're all pictorial and dismiss any deck that doesn't have images on every card. In actuality, it was only about 100