Llewellyn Publications's Blog, page 57

Time for Reflection

This time of year, from Samhain to Yule, it is natural to turn inward. In quiet darkness there is enough space and solitude for reflection…at least this is true metaphorically. With our culture’s obsession with “the holidays,” it is easy to ignore the important soul work that is so natural to attend to during the short days and long nights of winter. This is, indeed, natural, and essential to the health of our souls.

May this card, from the lovely Green Witch Tarot by Ann Moura and Kiri Østergaard Leonard inspire you to make time for yourself during the upcoming weeks.

XIII — THE LORD OF SHADOWS

This is a card of change, moving from shadow into light. Some things that have hampered this change are put aside to make the transition possible. The God of Nature in his aspect of Lord of Shadows, ruler of underworld, pauses in the shadows of the forest to watch an elderly man with his grandson walk away from a well with a full bucket of water. In early times the well was a metaphor of life-force energy, the magical waters of life that sustained one’s creative spirit and joy of being. The man and child show the generations that flow from the water of life, the satisfaction of a life well lived under the bright light of the Sun.

The Lord of Shadows, his demeanor being one of patience and kindness, holds in his hand a twig of yew. His presence suggests a life in transition with the obstacles to transformation being cleared away. There needs to be clean sweep for the right changes to come into fruition, for only in this way is there progress and improvement. Sometimes this comes as a matter of course in one’s life. Refusal to accept a new outlook may engender a loss of hope, stagnation, or a lack of growth. It is from the cleansing that new optimism arises, removing negative influences and allowing positive ones to enter. Old situations give way to new ones, and the past is left behind as a person moves on, released from prior commitments.

As with Samhain, when the veil between the worlds is thinnest and all worlds are linked in hallows, there is a quiet knowing with this card, that cleansing is taking place in one’s life, and there is an opportunity to commune with the inner self. From this comes the insight needed to release negativity and take the steps to a positive change and new direction.

The yew tree, with its red berries, represents for underworld, change, rebirth, and renewal. A graceful luna moth, for transitions and moving toward the light, flies gracefully from the shadows to the sunlit countryside.

Meaning: Change, moving from shadow into light, finding new meaning in life, a

turning point in life, optimism, removal of obstructions, creating positive changes, new outlook and actions replace the outmoded,

Reverse: Stagnation, immobility, resistance to change, self-evaluation needed.

Prompt Words: Change, transformation, turning point for improvement.

Carl Llewellyn Weschcke: Publishing Pioneer, Visionary, The Father of New Age

Carl Llewellyn Weschcke

Publishing Pioneer, Visionary, The Father of New Age

It is with profound sadness we share the news of Carl Llewellyn Weschcke’s passing. He passed peacefully on Saturday, November 7 surrounded by family. He was 85.

Carl Llewellyn Weschcke was Chairman and the driving force behind Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd., the oldest and largest publishers of New Age, Metaphysical, Self-Help, and Spirituality books in the world.

Weschcke was a life-long student of a broad range of Metaphysical, Spiritual and Occult subjects which led him to the purchase of the Llewellyn publishing company in 1961. He relocated the company to his home on Summit Avenue in St. Paul. The mansion was said to be haunted and became the subject of many investigations and news stories through the 1960s and 1970s and remains well-known to this day.

Authors and booksellers referred to Weschcke as “the Father of the New Age” because of his early and aggressive public sponsorship of Astrology, Magic, Metaphysics, Paganism, Parapsychology, Tantra, Wicca and Yoga. Weschcke and Llewellyn contributed to the burgeoning New Age movement in the 1960s and 1970s, sponsoring Gnosticon Festivals, opening an occult school and bookstore, and publishing the occult newspaper Gnostica. He is a former Wiccan High Priest and played a leading role in the rise of Wicca and Paganism during the 1960s and 1970s. In the fall of 1973 Weschcke helped organize the Council of American Witches and became its chairperson.

He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Babson College, studied Law at LaSalle University, and advanced study toward a doctorate in Philosophy at the University of Minnesota. In 1959 he was elected president of the NAACP’s Minnesota branch and elected Vice President of the ACLU’s Minnesota branch. In addition to book publishing he has worked in the pharmaceutical industry, furniture manufacture, and real estate management. With Llewellyn, he has worked in all aspects of the business and has co-authored ten books with Dr. Joe Slate of Athens, Alabama.

Carl is survived by wife Sandra and son Gabe. Sandra is President and Treasurer of Llewellyn Worldwide and Gabe serves as Vice President. They plan to carry on Carl’s legacy championing of alternative approaches to mind, spirit and body.

Arrangements for a memorial will be forthcoming.

Mix in Metal for Some Modern-Day Alchemy

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Tisha Morris, author of Mind, Body, Home and the new Decorating with the Five Elements of Feng Shui.

In the book, The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho inspired us all to turn simple metals into gold. In our more modern culture, it can be thought of as turning lemons into lemonade. Alchemy, which is an ancient tradition, has survived due to the power and prestige of metals, such as swords, armor, and jewelry. It is no wonder that Metal is also one of the Five Elements in Feng Shui.

In Native American traditions, there are four elements—fire, water, earth, and air—that make up the Medicine Wheel, and thus Metal often gets overlooked. In Feng Shui, Chinese Medicine, and Taoist traditions, however, there are five elements—fire, water, earth, wood, and metal. The Five Elements are cyclical, with each one affecting the other. Autumn is the season that embodies the energy of the Metal element. After the heat and harvest of summer, the accumulated energy begins to minimize, organize, and alchemize before the eventual completion of the cycle in winter.

Whether you are aware of it or not, all Five Elements are in your home—from building materials to furniture to décor items. In fact, you just may be under-utilizing your own alchemical abilities. Like any of the Five Elements, it is important to not have too much or too little metal in your home. It is a delicate balance that starts with becoming conscious of what elements are in your home.

Metal elements add the energy of structure, order, and focus into your life. At the same time, too much metal can make you feel on edge, sharp-tongued, or too structured.

I find that Metal is one of those elements that people are either really drawn to, or not at all. Some easy ways to mix in metal to your home is adding items made of bronze, silver, stainless steel, copper, steel, or aluminum—such as lamp bases, appliances, metal art, singing bowl, or metal-legged tables. Other ways to incorporate the energy of metal is to add round items, such as round pillows, a round mirror, or circle-motif fabrics. Crystals and gemstones are also considered to be Metal elements.

Start turning ordinary opportunities into golden opportunities by adding the alchemical qualities of Metal to your home.

Our thanks to Tisha for her guest post! For more from Tisha Morris, read her article, “5 Ways to Embrace Your Home as an Archetype of the Divine Feminine.”

Temperance Spread

Temperance Spread

The spread for October 21, from Sasha Graham’s 365 Tarot Spreads, is based on the Temperance card because:

On this Day

Today in 1925, the US Treasury Department announced it had fined 29,620 people for alcohol violations during prohibition.

The spread is designed using one of my favorite techniques: pulling symbols from a card to create spread positions. This is a great way to further explore any card. I find it useful to do when I feel like a card is stalking me or if I am having a disproportionate emotional reaction to a card.

Use this spread to answer any question. Format your questions before casting the spread or simply let the cards answer the questions posed. Pull the Temperance card from your deck. Place it in the center of the spread and case your cards around it (as shown).

1. Wings: What is my true potential?

2. Lilies: What is my passion?

3. Crown: What do I know?

4. Path: What direction must I go in?

5. Mountain: What is my challenge?

6. Mixing Fluid: How do I go with the flow?

7. Foot in Water: Am I connected to my unconscious?

8. Foot on Land: How do I ground myself?

9. Glowing Crown: What is attainable.

To learn more and order, click HERE.

Ghosts Are More Than “Give Us a Sign of Your Presence”

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Alex Matsuo, author of the new Haunting of the Tenth Avenue Theater.

Imagine that you are sitting in your living room, quietly watching television or enjoying some reading. All of a sudden, three or four intruders burst in and demand that you communicate with them, yelling, questioning your humanity and even your manhood in order to provoke a response from you. Your reaction? Get out!

Ironic that this is one of the most commonly caught EVPs in ghost hunting history. And yet, we wonder where it comes from without considering what we might have said or done.

When it comes to spirit communication, it has become easy to perceive the dead as inhuman, or no longer needing to communicate as they once were as members of the living. The dramatic tones and questions come into play, and a clear divide is built between worlds that are merely divided by a thin veil.

I have often considered the idea that perhaps the dead are tired of communicating with the living. Week after week being inundated with the same questions by different people must get old eventually. Given that there is a recent trend of reportedly active haunted locations being at times met with silence, it makes me wonder if the ghosts are just tired of having to perform? I don’t think it is a purposeful lack of respect towards the dead, but thanks to paranormal entertainment in the forms of movies and reality television shows, it has become easier than ever to see ghosts as “the other” or some fictional character to be afraid of in real life.

If you were being asked to communicate or prove your existence on a regular basis, surely you will want to start spending your energies elsewhere in the afterlife. Modern-day ghost hunting practices are preventing the dead from truly resting in peace because we are being caught up in a whirlwind of getting scared and feeling that adrenaline rush and excitement in anticipation of communication with the dead.

So yes, it is time to start communicating with the dead as if they were still living human beings. Let us treat these treasured conversations as glimpses into our pasts. Do the historical research to learn more about the deceased. Call them by name. Ask them about their lives. Ask them who the president was while they were alive. We can learn about the stories of these people through extraordinary measures, and we can fill in the gaps of the missing pieces of history about which our textbooks didn’t tell us. Our time is limited in afterlife communication; let’s spend more of that time building rapport rather than asking ghosts to perform tricks for data collection that come in the form of blinking lights and blips on a radio.

Our thanks to Alex for her guest post! For more from Alex Matsuo read her article, “Why Are Theaters Haunted?.”

Yoga Therapy Goes Beyond Stress Management

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Robert Butera, PhD, Erin Byron, MA, and Staffan Elgelid, PhD, PT, co-authors of the new Yoga Therapy for Stress & Anxiety.

Robert Butera, PhD

We live in an era where most of our time—including so-called “leisure time”—rests in the shadow of ongoing demands. Pressure from bosses, family, and our own internal agendas creates a climate of continual stress within the body-mind complex. There has been a loud buzz about “stress management” for decades as experts teach us how to relate to our busy lives. Although the last thirty years of discussion has taught us to “manage” stress, reported stress levels continue to rise. Youth, adults, seniors and even children say that they often feel stressed. It is evident that this “stress management” approach is not moving us in the direction of health and well-being. If stress management worked, we would no longer need it.

Erin Byron, MA

Managing ever-increasing stress levels is not the answer. Society is ready for a permanent solution to its stress—a solution that is not currently offered in the “stress management” market. It is time to shift this approach and transform our entire relationship with stress. Yoga Therapy introduces you to a holistic understanding and experience of transforming stress.

Staffan Elgelid, PhD, PT

You may be familiar with the idea that looking at a situation in a new way alters the situation itself. The internal shift in perspective changes the feeling of external pressures. Yoga Therapy helps you examine your underlying beliefs and presents you with options to reshape old patterns by acknowledging who you are now. By changing old mental habits, we don’t just manage the stress life throws at us, we transform it to something else—something empowering and uplifting! Yoga Therapy’s transformational principles focus the mind, solidify priorities, and help us choose from a variety of perspectives and reactions.

In our new book, Yoga Therapy for Stress & Anxiety, we offer a plethora of ideas, techniques, and exercises anyone can follow to permanently transform stress. You are guided on a journey through your relationship with stress—including at work, in relationships, and in your own mind—offering you a strong, fresh perspective on your own role in creating relaxation, ease, and confidence. Introspective questions, practical exercises, and others’ personal stories engage you and inspire you to take simple actions that help you join the ranks who have already transformed their stress.

Society’s current “stress management” framework is flawed: professing that stress is an ongoing part of life that must be managed, rather than an internal perspective that can be transformed. Yoga Therapy empowers you to apply simple, practical, personalized techniques to get rid of stress for good.

Our thanks to Robert Butera, Erin Byron, and Staffan Elgelid for their guest post! For more from the authors, read their article, “5 Stress Management Tips for Relaxing Your Whole Being with Yoga.”

Magic of Flowers Oracle

Magic of Flowers Oracle

By Tess Whitehurst with are by Anne Wetheim

This oracle deck was inspired by Tess’s book The Magic of Flowers: A Guide to Their Metaphysical Uses & Properties.

When we were working with Tess on the concept, we tried to think about what would make a useful oracle deck. We knew that the meanings and remedies associated with the flowers where ideal for divination. But the card images had to be special. We didn’t want simply a picture of a flower. We wanted something in the image to convey the message in a more evocative way. Not everyone who sees a picture of a carnation would immediately think “rebirth,” which is the meaning of the card.

That’s what makes this deck stand out. It is designed much like tarot. It has includes and is based on standard meanings but the images are designed to evoke responses, to speak to the soul, and to form a bridge between the conscious and subconscious. The instructions in the book tell not only how to use the deck and what each card means (including magical properties), but also includes ways to express or draw the flowers’ medicine into your life.

Finally, we didn’t want to impose numbers on the cards, as they weren’t a natural part of Tess’s system, but we wanted people to be able to look up the flowers in the book easily and quickly. So they are arranged in alphabetical order. It was a simple solution, but the real point is that we tried hard to think everything through to make the best oracle possible. And I think Team Magic Flowers Oracle did a pretty good job.

Below are some more images, but here is Lilac and some of the text from the book:

Lilac

Trust your intuition

Magical Specialities: chakra balancing, magical power, passage between worlds, peace, psychic abilities, romance, summoning positive spirits.

Lilac’s mystical energy reminds us that we dwell on the border between the seen and unseen, known and unknown. From this place where the illusory veil of duality is thin, all healing and wisdom is available to you and only awaits your recognition. If, like the woman on the card, you take a moment to relax and tune in to your body and the energy center located in the middle of your forehead (known as your third eye), you will find that the answer that you seek is available to you now.

Click here to learn more or order:  http://www.llewellyn.com/product.php?ean=9780738741147

Necromancy Made Easy

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Tomás Prower, author of the new La Santa Muerte.

“How can I get in contact with the spirits of the dead?”

Seems like a simple enough question, right? I mean, communing with beings from spiritual realms has been a worldwide hallmark of magic throughout the ages. Even nowadays among Earth’s remaining isolated tribes of native peoples, shamans continue this age-old lineage of necromancy. So, in our modern and urbanized lifestyles today, where does one begin to learn how to gain the skills of a necromancer? Well, the secret to this skill (much like writing a good mystery novel) is to start with the ending and work your way backwards.

In the case of necromancy, the ending is death. Most of us don’t like to even think about death, much less our own, but this death denial and aversion to the inevitable prevents us from acquiring any true necromantic skills. After all, if you can’t even psychologically accept death, then how do you except to communicate with death? It’s almost like saying you can’t accept the existence of a god, but yet you want to pray to him/her. So, step number one is: Accept your mortality.

Now that you recognize yourself as a future corpse, you have created a fundamental connection: they were you, and you will be them. The next step is very simple: Start with whom you know. Oftentimes, people get swept-up into the transgressive thrill of necromancy with grandiose ideas of speaking with the movers and shakers of history in order to learn from them a sort of elusive elevated wisdom. But just because someone has shuffled off this mortal coil doesn’t mean that they are suddenly slaves to your beck and call like the djinn from the Arabian tales of “One Thousand and One Nights.” Sure, you know about these former-people, but you don’t actually know them, and when was the last time you had an insightful and spiritually profound interaction with a total stranger, out of the blue, whom you commanded to have a conversation with you? Exactly. So, start closer to home, and get in touch with the deceased of those whom you knew personally during their living years. And if you are fortunate enough to never (yet) have experienced the death of a close friend or family member, start with your ancestors. The fact that your DNA is their living essence surviving through you helps facilitate contact.

Lastly, be honest with why you want to perform necromancy. Yeah, it’s one of the most transgressive and punk rock aspects of magic, but you’ve got to have a sincere respect for those upon whom you call from the great beyond. Trust me, they know if you’re just doing it because “it’s cool” or because of its patronizing shock value, and those who do “play along” are usually not the kinds of spirits you’d want to contact.

So for all the aspiring necromantic ingénues here, just remember: start safe, start simple, and start with sincerity. With time and experience, you’ll be the next Witch of Endor before you know it!

Our thanks to Tomás for his guest post! For more from Tomás Prower, read his article, “The Patron Saint of LGBT Persons: 4 Ways La Santa Muerte Empowers the Tribe.”

Ritual Purity vs. Spiritual Coolness

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Aaron Leitch, author of several books, including Secrets of the Magickal Grimoires, The Angelical Language Volume I and Volume II, and Essential Enochian Grimoire.

When the master of the art shall wish to perform his operations, having previously arranged all things which it is necessary to observe and practice; from the first day of the experiment, it is absolutely necessary to ordain and to prescribe care and observation, to abstain from all things unlawful, and from every kind of impiety, impurity, wickedness, or immodesty, as well of body as of soul; as, for example, eating and drinking superabundantly, and all sorts of vain words, buffooneries, slanders, calumnies, and other useless discourse; but instead to do good deeds, speak honestly, keep a strict decency in all things, never lose sight of modesty in walking, in conversation, in eating and drinking, and in all things; the which should be principally done and observed for nine days, before the commencement of the operation.

[Key of Solomon the King, Book II, Chapter 4: "Concerning the Fasting and Care and Things to be Observed"]

The above quote from the Key of Solomon is a fairly typical example of the grimoires‘ instructions concerning ritual purity. Given the Judeo-Christian nature of the texts, it is not surprising to see typical Christian rhetoric about “impiety, impurity, wickedness, or immodesty” and the general concept of “sin.” Taking these texts at face value, it would seem the angels and spirits simply won’t bother to respond if you are a “sinful” and “unclean” person:

Accustom yourself as much as possible to purity of body and cleanliness of raiment, seeing that this is very necessary; for the spirits, both good and evil alike, love purity.

[The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, Book II, Chapter 20]

Most grimoires insist on this kind of spiritual cleanliness for, at the very least, the duration of the magical operation. Today, we are thankfully maturing past childish ideas such as “sin.” We no longer believe that a Big Voyeur in the Sky watches us all day waiting for us to break one of his silly little rules so he can torture us for eternity. We certainly don’t accept any Deities who would consider something like sex a “bad thing” (especially after creating it in the first place!). Therefore, it isn’t surprising to see many modern students attempting to work with the Old Magick, while just ignoring the fasting, seclusion, abstinence, and other aspects of ritual purification.

However, Christians and Jews did not invent ritual purity. Shamans and priests were making use of it to work with their spirits long before either of those religions existed. And it was (and still is) used in religions that do not declare human nature, sex, or fun “sinful.” I certainly make good use of it, as it does indeed increase the effectiveness of my magick. This suggests to me that the Judeo-Christian rhetoric about “sin vs purity” was a late-comer to the game—a fundamentalist veneer painted on top of something far older and much deeper. (In fact, the grimoires do that a lot.)

So why, if not because of Christian dogma, would spiritual entities demand such purity in the first place? It would help to answer that question if we first change some of our terms. The concept of “spiritual cleanness” vs “spiritual filthiness” is particularly Abrahamic, but other traditions (like the ATRs) refer to the exact same concept by the terms “spiritual heat” and “spiritual coolness.” Thus, rather than saying one must be clean in order to summon the spirits (thereby bringing all of the dogmatic and religious baggage along with it), we can instead say one must be spiritually cool in order to summon the spirits—and here we have a term that makes sense.

Anything to do with passion causes spiritual heat. Fun, love, parties, games and competition, sex, anger, arguments, hate, strife, worry, etc, etc.—from either the positive or negative end of the spectrum—all cause spiritual heat. (Or what we here in the modern West refer to as passion.) And that heat/passion can be very disruptive when you are trying to focus upon a specific spiritual force or entity.

Thus, the point of the ritual preparations (aka “purifications”) is to spiritually cool you down. Meditation; contemplation; prayer; seclusion; fasting; baths; cleaning the ritual tools and space; avoidance of sex, meat, and blood; etc. All of these result in a calm and cool body, mind, and atmosphere wherein the magick can take place.

Both the Buddhists and the ancient Gnostics referred to this as a state of “repose”—free from the storms of the passions and desires. It is a spiritual state one works a lifetime to achieve, and to succeed is to gain adepthood/enlightenment/etc. Without repose, you are being tossed about by your own feelings and desires, and are thus not in control. However, to work with the spirits, one must first and foremost be in control of the Self. Otherwise you are inviting the spirit to gain control of your relationship—and you! That is, if you are even able to communicate with the entity in the first place, due to your unbridled mind and emotions.

Therefore, the grimiores preserve this wisdom in their instructions for ritual preparation—though they couch it in a lot of needless Christian fundamentalism. The seclusion, fasting, abstinence, etc. should not be skipped as simply “too Christian,” because they didn’t come up with it in the first place. The spirits do indeed need you to be spiritually cool (as far as possible, in any case) in order to properly, safely, and efficiently communicate and interact with you. Yet, at the same time, you do not need to buy into the Abrahamic concepts of “sin” in order to purify and cool yourself.

As a final note, I should address the most common responses I get from students when I tell them about the importance of spiritual coolness: “What about the old adage to enflame thyself with prayer?” or “What about raising energy and the passions during a spell?” or “What about sex magick?” Those are good points, and they are also part of the process. The ritual preparations are intended to cool you down, to remove your body, mind, and spirit from the passions that inflict you on a day-to-day basis. Your anger at your boss, worries over money, arguments or passion with your lover, thrill-seeking of any kind, etc., etc., etc.—all the things that will distract you from the magickal goal. Then, once the ritual begins, you engage only those passions that are directly relevant to the magickal goal. Those passions are raised and built up—often over a long period of time—and finally released in a kind of spiritual orgasm that sends your energy and will into the universe ONLY in the direction you intend.

I hope that makes the process of ritual purification more clear. It is easier to understand when we don’t bog it down with silly Biblical concepts of what is “clean” or “unclean.”

Stay cool, brothers and sisters!

Our thanks to Aaron for his guest post! Visit Aaron Leitch’s author page for more information, including articles and his books.

The Green Witch Tarot

Learn more here: CLICK!

The Green Witch Tarot is the a deck that I’ve been waiting for ever since Ann Moura wrote Tarot for the Green Witch back in 2003. It is finally here and it is worth the wait. Charmingly illustrated by Kiri Østergaard Leonard, this is a deck full of stories, wisdom, and symbols. Interestingly, Leonard studied art at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, which is also where Pamela Coleman Smith studied for two years (the institute had only been open six years when she enrolled).

Moura tells us that:

“The Green Witchcraft approach to the tarot is based on a personal relationship with nature, earth magic, the elementals, and the power of the immanent Goddess and God in their many aspects, and to the faeries, spirits, and entities of the earth, otherworld, and underworld. The cards draw upon the season, sabbats, esbats, faerie lore, herbs, plants, animals, celestial energies, and the bounty of nature.”

I love how the cards are rich with story. Although it is not the most happy card, I can’t help but be drawn into the story of the Four of Chalices, pictured here:

Moura writes about the card:

“This is a card of dissatisfaction despite current success. Although one has sufficient emotional well-being, one is seeking something more. There is a sense of restlessness and of looking for greener pastures, perhaps due to satiation, too much of a good thing. One desires something new to feel revitalized. One may need to reassess one’s situation to be able to reach out to a prospect for greater fulfillment. Such an opportunity will not fall into one’s lap, so one must make the effort to seize it to accomplish what is desired. There may be a need to reevaluate a relationship or assess an unexpressed yearning that remains in remains in a faithful commitment. It is this self-exploration of what will bring greater emotional satisfaction that is tined with a latent longing to know if the right choices have been made and if what one has attained is genuine. Even with the external needs being well met, internal contentment is being questioned. This may signal a new direction in emotional expression so that a sense of balance, symbolized by the Three of Chalices in of the Four, returns.

“Dittany, an herb of desires, beginnings, and manifestation, grows in a flowerpot. A dragonfly, a symbol of guidance, activation, and inspiration, flies into the room.”