Last month, a fabulous new book was released. It's called Merry Meet Again: Lessons, Life & Love on the Path of a Wiccan High Priestess, written by Deborah Lipp. In case you don't know who Deborah is, in a nutshell she is a 3rd degree Gardnerian Wiccan High Priestess who has written several books for Llewellyn on witchcraft and magic, and one on James Bond (not published by Llewellyn!). She was encouraged to start writing after years of experience running a coven and giving presentations at Pagan and Wiccan festivals by a well-timed tarot reading in 1999, and has been at it ever since. In her memoir, she has a lot of stories to tell; things like finding Wiccan training before the

Many years ago, before the debacle that brought down the guru known as Osho, a friend of mine was a follower of him. She went to his ashram in Pune, India, to experience him directly. Known then as Rajneesh (or more fully, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh), he had numerous allergies. Before she was allowed to see him she had to go past people who would sniff her to make sure she wasn't wearing any perfumes, scented oils, etc. When she finally met him he told her, "You don't need me any more." She returned to America and from that time rarely attended any of his groups, although she still practiced what he had taught. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (Osho) Many Westerners don't like the very concept of

[caption id="attachment_3466" align="alignleft" width="176" caption="Isaac Bonewits at the Gnosticon Aquarian Festival III, held September 20 - 23, 1973 in Minneapolis"][/caption] One of the first things Isaac said to me when he came to work at Llewellyn was to explain that his name, Bone – wits, meant “smart bones”—that he was smart. In many ways I think he set out to live a smart life no matter what profession or subject he was interested in. When he was allowed to major in “Magic” at UC-Berkeley, he went about the streets of Berkeley wearing a ceremonial sword knowing he would be attract attention and many opportunities to explain what a magic ceremonial sword was. I

By now, you probably know of the passing of a true giant, Phillip Emmons Isaac Bonewits. I did not know Isaac all that well, be we did spend many hours together at various festivals and I will always consider it an honor that he called me his friend. Actually, I knew Isaac long before I met him. He graduated from UC Berkeley in 1970 with a degree in magic and thaumaturgy, the only person to ever receive such a degree from an accredited university. The following year he published Real Magic. It was something incredibly new. Until that time, books on magick had primarily been either the mocking and debunking, or the repetition of historical texts. In this book, Isaac revealed his