Hello from New Journal Editor

How I Came to Llewellyn

Hello! My name is Phyllis Galde, your new editor of The Llewellyn Journal now that Don Kraig has gone on to greater and more challenging things.

I began working at Llewellyn in 1985, and have had a long and satisfying, hugely educational relationship.

I was always fascinated with metaphysics, long before it became popular. I read the Llewellyn New Times back in the 1970s when it was in newspaper format.

Once while visiting the Twin Cities with my father, I casually opened the yellow pages without thinking. It magically opened to Llewellyn. Out of the clear blue I thought, "Oh, I think I'll call and ask about a job." I had no clue about what I could do. I had been a junior and senior high school teacher for all of my career. The gentleman who answered told me to send a resume. I agonized over that! I came down from North Dakota for an interview with then vice president Steve Bucher and was privileged to meet with Carl Weschcke, the owner. As I sat talking to him, it was as if an image of a Druid priest was superimposed over his current appearance. After nearly 20 years, I can still see the coarse weave of a linen-like robe.

A week or two later, at the haunted farmhouse in North Dakota where I was living alone, I had a dream that I'd be offered a job--at $5 an hour! In the dream I remember that I moaned aloud, "No!"

The next day a phone call came from Steve Bucher offering me a part-time job at the $5 rate. I couldn't believe myself, but I said yes, and 18 years later I'm happy to be still connected with Llewellyn.

I was asked to write a small booklet about Crystal Healing in the late 1980s. It was during the time when crystals were popular, and the book sold well, so I was asked to expand it to a paperback. I was scared. I didn't think I could do it. Then, the owner's wife, Sandra Weschcke, showed me the back orders. Ten thousand orders, and I had writer's block. Talk about pressure.

Many fascinating events have transpired at Llewellyn during these past 18 years. When I started, there were about a dozen employees. Now it has grown to nearly a hundred.

The first book I edited at Llewellyn was Keith Sherwood's The Art of Spiritual Healing. I had never talked to a real author, and one day he called from Germany to discuss his book. I was in awe. How cosmopolitan!

I had some past-life issues to deal with, and Llewellyn was an amazing place to trigger that. In my early career, I was a young, wimpy schoolteacher. I was excited with all the glamour of the New Age and fresh with New Age platitudes. Before coming to Llewellyn, I had piously and naively determined that I would only edit spiritual and wholesome New Age books. No magick or witchcraft for me. Boy, did I get over that in a hurry! The Universe/Powers That Be had different things in store for me. My next assignments were Ellen Cannon Reed's book, The Witch's Qabala, and Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft. Now I am honored to call Ray and many other Llewellyn authors "friend."

Working at Llewellyn allowed me to reconnect with many aspects of myself that had lain dormant in this lifetime. I relearned the importance and place of ritual in my life.

Another exciting experience occurred while I was editing the new edition of The Golden Dawn. While working alone in the old creaky warehouse where Llewellyn was located at the time, I became convinced that the spirit of Israel Regardie was standing behind me on several occasions. He was a crotchety curmudgeon. Maybe he didn't approve of what I was doing, or saw some errors that I missed. He appeared to be angry.

While reading and studying The Golden Dawn, I learned about the Middle Pillar Ritual and the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, two very powerful magical exercises for protecting one's aura and housecleaning of negative spirits. I have used them many times, with great success.

Working at Llewellyn and reading their books have allowed me to access many latent talents, abilities, and interests. With the help of guided meditation, I have accessed some past lives. I have been told that I have been both a good witch and a bad witch. I know that I am inextricably linked to the love and use of herbs and gemstones and loving and honoring nature. I also know that I feel an unspeakable horror of the torture of witches and cannot bear to watch or read anything related to it.

I have always been interested in alternative healing and spirituality. I think the U.S. has some of the best trauma care in the world. Personally, I like to think that if Princess Diana had her accident here instead of Paris, she might have had a better chance of survival. (Why did they keep her at the scene for nearly an hour, rather than rushing her to a hospital where all the facilities were available to help accident victims?)

However, we can do a lot to improve our own health and that of our loved ones with alternative healing techniques. Some sobering statistics tell us that hospitals can be dangerous to your health. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine estimated that 1,500 items were left inside surgery patients in 2001. One woman who suffered stomach pains after surgergy was x-rayed and found to have a 12-inch long surgical retractor still in her abdomen.

A government study stated that in 1901, one in 8,000 people had cancer. Over 100 years later, two out of five people have cancer or are projected to get cancer.

Hospital mistakes needlessly kill more than 98,000 patients per year.

With these statisics, it behooves us to take responsibility for our own continued health and maintain a state of well-being as best as can, armed with as much knowledge as possible. Half of all medical patients now receive some form of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) in addition to traditional medical treatment, and more insurance companies are accepting CAM claims.

As your new editor of The Llewellyn Journal, I look forward to sharing experiences with some of your favorite books from the Llewellyn archives. We value your input about what you would like to see here.