The recent Memorial Day weekend got me thinking about the pentagram. Why? Well, read on... For as long as I can remember, my teachers (and innumerable books) have claimed that the "upright" pentagram is a positive and spiritual image. It's upright. What could be more positive than upright? It's used as a symbol for Wicca, Witchcraft, and Paganism. It's used for protection as in the famous Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram as well as in other rituals. It is said that the five points of the pentagram represent the five elements: Fire at the lower right, Earth at the lower left, Water at the upper right, Air at the upper left, and Spirit at the top. What a great symbol this

One of the things that has always intrigued me about the Kabalah is the focus by many Kabalists on the Sephiroht of the famous symbolic image, the Tree of Life. The Sephiroht (the ten spheres shown in the image of the Tree below) are less than 1/3 of the 32 aspects of the Tree, the others being the paths between the Sephiroht. Why focus on only ten rather than on the other 22? (That's like some people who focus on the 10 Commandments of the Jewish bible and ignore the more than 600 others.) Many books on the Kabalah and the Tree of Life, such as Dion Fortune's famous Mystical Qabalah, spend almost their entire length covering the Sephiroht and ignoring or at least slighting the

I have the sad news to report that Isaac Bonewits—author, Druid, and a leader of the occult community for decades—is reportedly in the hospital and not doing well. My best wishes to him, all of his loved ones, those who care about him, and all who have learned from him. Please add him to your prayers and rituals.

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