According to Thelemites, followers of the beliefs of Aleister Crowley, we entered the new age (or more accurately, New Aeon), in 1904. According to astrologers, we are either at the cusp or beginning of the new Age of Aquarius. Some say that this new age is an era of invention and universal brotherhood. Others say it is an age of advanced spirituality where love will be part of all levels of life. Soon we'll all live together in peace with our human brothers and sisters, our animal brothers and sisters, and extraterrestrial brothers and sisters. Life is on the way to becoming beautiful and we're all going to live in an impressive Garden of Eden that is both natural and futuristic. I

Last Saturday morning my wife Holly and I drove from Los Angeles to Las Vegas to attend the Pagan Pride day celebration. It was small, but diverse, and there were some great workshops. The area was covered for shade, but still hot and very dry. I hope next year the attendance will be even better. After the event my wife and I went to a party being held by some friends we hadn't seen in years. Sunday morning we got up early and took the drive home. As I wrote, the weather was incredibly hot and dry, and with stops (such as in the city of Baker where one shop is decorated in an alien—from outer space, not terrestrials from outside the U.S. borders—motif and they sell a wide variety of

On Monday, September 10, 2012, the Dalai Lama wrote the following to his friends on Facebook(!): All the world's major religions, with their emphasis on love, compassion, patience, tolerance, and forgiveness can and do promote inner values. But the reality of the world today is that grounding ethics in religion is no longer adequate. This is why I am increasingly convinced that the time has come to find a way of thinking about spirituality and ethics beyond religion altogether. Wow! The 14th Dalai Lama Many, if not most of you reading this were brought up in a religion. Most of you were brought up within some sect of Christianity. A few of you were brought up Jewish. And since

One of the things I rarely see discussed is the fact that books—fiction and non-fiction—are products of the times in which they were written. Well, that's not completely true. Literary criticism often discusses the milieu in which a book was written if the book is fairly recent. This is true even for books a few hundred years old. Perhaps the reason for this is that we know more about the environment of recent times than we do of ancient times. 'Twas the Night Before Poverty… In a few months, many of us will either be reading Dickens' A Christmas Carol or watching one of its numerous versions being replayed on TV. The focus of the story is rightfully on the rebirth and redemption of