Today was not really traveling, it was attending the INATS convention. It's not huge—you can walk it and see everything in an hour or two—but it's great to see the trends that are going on and what people will be selling in the coming year. Lots of crystals and gems. Lots of clothes. And of course, lots of books! I went around the floor a few times—you never really see everything the first time. For me, there were a few standouts: Flash cards decks. One for learning astrology, another for learning the Runes, and another for learning Tarot. A giant tuning fork. Made of reconstituted crystal, it was about two-feet long and perhaps .75 inches thick. When sounded, it could

Winter has started here on the Sea of Trees in Southern California. We've had the heaviest rainfall in a decade and it's been quite cold (for us), dipping down below freezing. So I've got the heater on and I've been enjoying a lot of great reading with some fairly recent books. I'd like to share some of them with you. First, I've been overwhelmed with the amazing books by Stephen Skinner and his Golden Hoard Press titles. I especially like The Goetia of Dr. Rudd and the Veritable Key of Solomon (with David Rankine), but all of his books are excellent and highly recommended. These have never been published before and have information crucial to anyone doing evocation magick, especially

Let's have a Saturday night date! You can pick me up at 9:00 p.m. Central Time at THIS ADDRESS. You can hear and talk with me from anywhere in the world tomorrow night, August 21 at 9:00 p.m. Central on the Pagans Tonight webcast. Pagans Tonight is the world’s leading nightly Pagan show bringing you news, information, entertainment and ideas from across the world, physically, virtually, and spiritually. The show is an ensemble show led by Ed Hubbard & Traci Wood with regulars Don Lewis, Mayann and Zaracon. Guests and regular listeners call in to comment and share ideas and experiences at 1-347-308-8222. Go to THIS LINK to listen. I’ll be talking about the new third edition

In Modern Magick I write about the two histories of the Kabalah. One, the most well-known version, is mythical and metaphoric. The second is factual and historic. This second history indicates that there are predecessors to Kabalistic thought and magick. One of these predecessors was local (i.e., Semitic) folk magick and beliefs. Sometimes, the folk traditions continued as a separate strain of spirituality. For example, you've probably heard of the cultural icons who are wearing a read string around their wrists for good luck. But according to Rabbi Ahron Lopiansky, "there is absolutely no genuine kabbalistic source for wearing a red thread around one's wrist to ward off the 'evil