Most people now accept that the fact that the Tarot cards do not go back to ancient Egypt, Atlantis, or some other source from thousands of years ago. Most knowledgeable Tarot researchers also acknowledge that the Tarot didn't evolve out of the Kabalah. In fact, the associations of the Kabalistic Tree of Life came long after the Tarot began. They were popularized by Eliphas Levi during the nineteenth century's "French Occult Revival." But when it comes to the designs of the Minor Arcana cards—the ones that are most like a deck of playing cards—most people think they're all pictorial and dismiss any deck that doesn't have images on every card. In actuality, it was only about 100

For many years, calling the illusions presented by stage performers "magic" could get you in trouble for pretending to be supernatural, even if what you were doing was comedic tricks for kids. As a result, many performers, rather than calling themselves magicians, used other terms such as "conjuror," "juggler," or "prestidigitator." Aleister Crowley came up with a different solution for making a written differentiation. He used an archaic spelling, magick with a final "k," to indicate the real practice and used "magic" to represent the entertainment. [The "k" also had another meaning for Crowley, indicating a reference to sex magick, but that's a different issue.] In my Modern Magick and

In my previous blog post, I wrote about the concept of "Walking your Talk." The concept I presented there was that you might best present your spiritual beliefs to others by following those beliefs yourself. That is, virtually all spiritual systems have a set of ethics, and you best represent those ethics by living them. From a magickal perspective, it's also important to "Talk your Walk," too. This comes from two concepts: Magick isn't something you do. Magick is something you are. Magick takes place 24/7. What this means is that magick is always happening whether you realize it or not. In fact, I'd say that one of the major differences between a magician and a non-magician is that

Four decades ago, two men, Herman Slater and Ed Buczynski, started a small occult store in New York City called "The Warlock Shop." They were at the right place at the right time offering what people wanted. Eventually they outgrew their location and moved, renaming their shop "Magickal Childe." They put out a wonderfully strange and complete catalog, in tabloid format, offering everything from the strangest herbs to "Aleister Crowley's altar" (well, I think it was a night table from the last place he lived and that might have served as an altar). The owners eventually went in separate ways, and Slater kept the store. It was many years later that I finally met "Horrible Herman," and