Magic and Manifestation

  • Drawing Cards II: Storyboard Results

    This past week my wife and I decided to try the Tarot reading technique Slade described in his guest piece here, Drawing Cards: Storyboarding the Tarot. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, we’re going through some interesting times financially, and we felt like we needed some additional guidance on next steps. The storyboarding technique looked like it Continue reading

  • Drawing Cards – Storyboarding the Tarot

    Guest Author: Eric Slade Roberson of Shift Your Spirits A few months ago, Slade was kind enough to invite me onto his site as a guest author, where I took the opportunity to summarize the How to Choose a Religion series. (That summary has things in it that I still haven’t gotten around to here Continue reading

  • A Druid Imbolc Celebration

    Imbolc is traditionally the time when the lambs are born, and the sheep begin to give milk. (The etymology of “Imbolc” is uncertain, but is probably derived from Old Irish i mbolg, “in the belly”, referring to the pregnancy of the ewes, or to the nascent springtime.) In the British Isles, the daffodils are blooming, Continue reading

  • The Order of the White Oak

    I have been a member of the Ancient Order of Druids in America since this summer, but there are no other druids in that order anywhere nearby. For us, it has been very important to find other druids, because of the children. Continue reading

  • Samhain 2006

    Samhain, the old Celtic pagan holiday underlying Halloween, has recently passed. It’s the old New Year, and it’s a time of endings and beginnings. It’s also a time when the residents of the other world — gods, sidhe, and the dead — are more able to reach out of their realm into ours. For most Continue reading

  • The Eight-Circuit Tarot Deck II: Medium and Message

    The other day, I said to my anima, “Look — I need to talk to the guy who wants me to make this Tarot deck.” She nodded. “All right,” she said. “Sit down, and let’s get started.” I’ve been able to talk directly to my anima during meditations for about a month now — ever Continue reading

  • Alban Elued: Gaudeamus Hodie

    This past Monday we finally managed to get the family out in to the woods to celebrate the autumnal equinox — Alban Elued in the Druid Revival tradition. Two weeks previous, at the actual equinox, my wife was quite sick with a cold. One week ago it was raining cats and dogs. This weekend was Continue reading

  • Alban Elued Revival Druid Ritual

    For some notes on the origin and meaning of Alban Elued, see this previous post. Our family’s Alban Elued ritual is drawn directly from the pages of John Michael Greer’s Druidry Handbook. It is in no way supposed to be a reconstructed ritual, a reenactment of what ancient Druids performed 2000 years ago. Almost nothing Continue reading

  • The Eight-Circuit Tarot Deck I: Alchemy, Astrology, and Jung, Oh My!

    As I mentioned before, I’ve had some pretty strong indications that Someone wants me to create a Tarot deck. Since I’ve been burning a lot of calories thinking about astrology, Jungian archetypes, and the eight-circuit model, it only makes sense to see what kind of deck would emerge from drawing together these structures with the Continue reading

  • On Pluto

    As everyone knows by now, Pluto was recently demoted from “planet” to “dwarf planet”. (“Dwarf planet” is an unfortunate name; for a readable explanation of why, try this article by a linguist.) For some folks, this change is of huge importance; for others, it means nothing. It doesn’t matter to the astronomers themselves, for example Continue reading