Spiritual traditions tend to follow a specific path: growth, stagnation, death. During the stagnation period, spiritual traditions lock down their beliefs, put them in stone, refuse to change (or are exceedingly slow to change), and attack anyone who dares to challenge the leaders' orthodoxy. We see this now in many spiritual traditions. Some major traditions even have supposedly separate organizations that attack those who dispute their power and position as head of the tradition. You can see this now in some Christian sects that cling to the past. One even has a separate "league" to protect their closed version of spirituality. The period of growth, on the other hand, is often one of

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

110 Years of Spiritual Development Part 1 of a 3-part Series It was 110 year ago that Llewellyn Publications was founded. So? What’s the big deal? Llewellyn, after all, is just a publishing company. Yes, I suppose that’s true. But let me draw a comparison. In January, 1776, Thomas Paine published a small booklet entitled Common Sense (original title: Plain Truth). In three months it had sold an astounding 100,000 copies to American colonists, a copy for 1 in every 20 people. It was the best selling work in 18th century America. (To do that today, a book would have to sell 15.5 million copies in three months in the U.S.) Ideas always precede actions. It is quite likely that without