For an overview of and foundation for this series, see HERE Part 2 HERE Part 3 HERE If you have successfully met the test or challenge of the Emperor, you will experience the Lovers, in both its traditional and modern forms. Traditionally, the Lovers is about choices. If you have been successful in integrating your inner and outer selves and your private and public selves, then you have made choices. You cannot successfully complete this row without making choices. The Lovers is also about passion and about choosing (choices again!) or doing things that you know in your heart to be right. So, skating through school or learning to pass through society under the wire may get you

I don't know who originally stated it (maybe one of my readers knows), but there's a statement running around the U.S. political blogosphere that "Republicans look for a leader while Democrats look for a consensus." Whether or not you agree or disagree with this description, it would seem that the organization of occult groups seems to fall into one of two major categories: Those that have a leader whom members follow and those that seek a consensus from all members. Each has benefits and negative aspects. I contend it's important to understand which format your magickal group, order, coven, etc. follows. By stressing the positive aspects and being aware of the potential negative aspects

This month, we are taking a little break from our journey through the cards. You see, here in Minnesota, it is still cold (only 10 degrees the morning I wrote this) and snow still covers much of ground. So I’m devoting April to welcoming April and with it, warm weather, energy, and bursting forth with new beginnings. What card marks the idea of new beginnings better than the Fool? And what a bonus…tomorrow just happens to be April Fool’s Day. Our image for today is from the Spirit of the Flowers Tarot. This darling little Fool, as the flower Geranium, also embodies the spirit of spring. In Victorian times, flowers (and even the method of presenting or holding them) were

There have been very few movies that illustrate Paganism. The few that do show Paganism have fleeting glimpses of Pagan practices most often taken out of context, used as mere plot points rather than presenting real Pagan practices, and are usually given a very negative light. There is only one film I've ever seen that reveals what it might be like to live fully in an actual Pagan world and that presents real Pagan practices. That film, of course, is Robin Hardy's 1973 movie, The Wicker Man.* Warning! Spoiler Alert! This post reveals what happens in the movie. Although supposedly based on a 1967 novel by David Piner called The Ritual, at best it can be said that Piner's horrific novel