Today I got five emails from authors all alerting me to a website that had 32 of our books and an equal number of other publishers’ books on it, scanned in and uploaded as PDFs for anyone to freely download. If it sounds like harmless sharing to you, please read this post and educate yourself on pirating. First, the background: people loves to steal our books. Libraries and bookstores have claimed for years that some of their most frequently stolen stock are the religious books – anything from the Bible to those on witchcraft and magic. Whether this comes from a belief that all sacred knowledge should be free, a desire to hold onto a book containing so much wisdom (or so many

This past weekend we marked Ostara, the vernal equinox – the first day of spring. But it turns out – especially if you live in Minnesota – there can be many definitions of spring. Astrologically speaking, I’m positive the Sun is in Aries and “spring” is upon us. However, driving to work today in several inches of icy, slushy snow, witnessing multiple accidents and spun-out cars, you’d think it was December. [caption id="attachment_5195" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="The view outside my cube - Woodbury, MN"][/caption] Last week it seemed winter really was over…we had temps in the 50s, gentle rain, and almost all of our snow melted. (Well, I’m still parking

Now that my blog at Llewellyn is up and running, I'd like to share a bit about my perspective on spirituality -- where I come from and what I've come to believe. Chakras, auras, spirits, and psychics? Five years ago, I would have said no way, no how. Today, my answer is always a curious maybe. You Llewellyn fans probably knew this already. Are you glad I finally caught on? I grew up without spirituality, religion, or much a higher power of any kind. As an ex-Catholic turned nature-worshiper, my mom decided she'd never force religion on me. I read books, hung out at the library, and ran around the park with friends. It's no surprise I studied literature and eventually got a master's

Most people reading this will know that adding the "k" to "magic" is not merely an affectation. Rather, it is a way to discriminate between the entertainment known for pulling rabbits out of hats (magic) and techniques for harnessing internal and external energies that will help us change ourselves and our environment (magick). I like to define the difference simply as "Magic is an attempt to imitate magick, by artificial means, as part of entertainment." Although the spelling with the "k" has a long history (there was a time when manuscript copyists were paid by the letter, resulting in the many words with needless double and multiple letters), it was Aleister Crowley who is credited with