Llewellyn Publications's Blog, page 59

The Ghosts of Lincoln

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Adam Selzer, author of Your Neighborhood Gives Me the Creeps, Ghosts of Chicago, and the new Ghosts of Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln stories are notoriously hard to verify; many of the famous stories about him weren’t told until years after his death, and even a lot of first-hand accounts are pretty shaky. The same is true of ghost stories in general, so trying to find sources that related to both Lincoln AND ghosts was quite a challenge. But looking for evidence to back up a story that Lincoln once rode a flying piano at a séance is a pretty nifty way to spend one’s working life.

The story goes like this: according to a book published years after Lincoln’s death, Mary Lincoln went to a séance at a home in Washington, and Abe came along on a whim. During the séance, a medium made the piano float, and Lincoln and two other men hopped on it and bounced to the music as the levitated. Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals repeats the story as fact, but only cites the book from years later as a source. And that book is known to be a bit unreliable. Indeed, though we know Mary was an enthusiastic séance-goer, no reliable source fro a disinterested party had ever been found to prove that Mr. Lincoln ever accompanied her, let alone rode on a flying piano.

However, in digging through Spiritualist newsletters fro the 1890s, when the book was first published, I found a small article in which the editor took exception to the refutations of the book, and specifically called out an interview General Dan Sickles had given to some paper called Miner’s Journal. It took some doing to find a library that had that on microfilm, but the case turned out to be solid: in an issue of that tiny paper, General Dan Sickles, who was not a Spiritualist himself, confirmed that he’d seen Lincoln attending a séance at the White House—and that there’d even been a bouncing piano involved.

It amazed me that there was still anything about Lincoln that hadn’t been examined in detail before, so I was amazed at what I found. New accounts of séance, earlier versions of some stories of Lincoln predicting his death than had previously been spoken of, and stories about Lincoln using hats as chamber pots that aren’t nearly famous enough. I’m happy to help!

Our thanks to Adam for his guest post! For more from Adam Selzer, his books, and his articles, visit his author page.

Creating Spreads

Creating spreads is fun. Even when you don’t have a particular question, but you feel like playing with your cards, you can create a spread inspired by the deck that you are using. This is an interesting way to get to know a deck and may reveal some wisdom that you didn’t know you were looking for.

This spread was inspired by the Tarot of the Secret Forest, which is a fascinating double-sided deck. It allows us to explore a wonderful world of hidden treasures and surprises. When Lucia Mattioli created this deck, she was thinking about a certain Japanese wisdom that that says insects are born from decomposing vegetation and are therefore the precise thing that should be there at that time.

In a similar way, our present moments are created by the alchemy of everything in our lives at that moment. But often we cannot see the good or rightness in a situation; we just see the bad. We feel lost in a forest but wish to be in a lovely garden. This deck poses the question: where does the forest end and hidden garden begin? This spread helps us understand that they are one. Only by slowing down and carefully examining things with our hearts as well as our eyes, can we see the truth.

 

1. Trees

This is what you fear or don’t like about your situation, what you think is hiding your garden.

2. Faerie

Something you should believe in and accept in your heart in order to see the beauty around you.

3. Gnome

Something you can do to feel more at home in your situation and even cultivate and nurture it.

4. Flower

Something of beauty or value that you either don’t recognize as such or that you are overlooking.

5. Bramble

Something that you are obsessed about or fixated on in a negative way that is hindering you.

6. Garden

The garden you will find when you open your eyes to the wonders that are already around you.

 

Exploring the Spread

Compare cards 1 and 5, looking for a common theme. See how cards 2 and 3 help change the focus of cards 1 and 5. Relate cards 1 – 5 to card 6 for a full picture of the situation. Because this is a double-sided deck, try also flipping over cards 4 and 5 to see a different view of them. If you feel you can’t see the thing of value in your situation (card 4), flip it over to see if that helps—it may further illuminate the interpretation or it may show you how you are viewing it negatively. When flipping card 5, see if it helps you see a positive side to something you consider negative.

 

Tarot Cards as Journal Prompts

Last month I was asked to write about how to use tarot cards as journaling prompts. Five years ago, I wrote an article with some journaling basics and you can find that HERE.

I have some other great and/or fun ideas for using your cards as journal prompts for you, too.

Write a short story

You can pull the cards randomly or select them specifically. Selecting them specifically is a good option if you have a card or cards that you specifically want to explore.

You can divide your deck into Courts, Majors, and Minors, or just pull off the top of the deck until you get to the appropriate card.

 Main character: select a Court Card
Theme: select a Major
Plot: select three Minors

Do a quick character sketch of your main character using the Court card as inspiration.

Brainstorm about the theme of the story drawing from the Major.

The three Minors form the plot and are the: beginning, middle, and end.

 

Compare and Contrast

Pull any two cards from your deck and compare and contrast them. You can do this with any two random cards. You will be surprised at what you learn doing this and how much it will help with the nuances of a card.

Learning the nuances is even more highlighted if you select cards that have similar themes, such as, say, Death, The Tower, and the 10 of Swords, which all, in some way, deal with endings. Or you can look at The Lovers, 2 of Cups, 10 of Cups, and 10 of Pentacles, to explore intimate relationships.

 

Compare and Contrast II

Use the same card from two different decks and explore their similarities and differences. The cards have such a range of meaning, it is unlikely that any one card in any deck is going to show the full range. This is a good thing to do if you have a deck that you normally use but have gotten a new one that you are not so familiar with. You can use your familiar deck as a baseline and then easily see how the new deck shows, possibly, a different aspect of the card.

 

Walking the Talk

This is a great way to explore your beliefs and bring them down to earth. Select a Major Arcana card that represents a belief that you hold. Write about it. Then select a Minor Arcana card to represent a situation. In your journal, explore how your belief would shape your response or actions in the situation represented by the Minor Arcana card. Do this several times to kind of test drive your belief and maybe refine it.

Those should keep you busy for a while! I’d love to hear some of your ideas!

 

If you need a new journal, Llewellyn has a nice collection HERE.

Pages in the Tarot

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Deborah Lipp, author of The Elements of Ritual, The Way of Four, The Way of Four Spellbook, Merry Meet Again, and the new Tarot Interactions.

People lose their minds over court cards in the tarot. They can stop the reader cold: Is this a person? If so, is it the querent (the person receiving the reader) or some third party? Is it a symbol, an abstract concept, or what?

Partially, this is answered by context, because all of the tarot court can be any or all of the above. I like to start from the idea that a court card is a person—often a third party—because I think too many readers resort to abstracts too often. I like my readings to be concrete.

Pages are often young people; any age from childhood to mid-twenties. They approach their suit with a childlike wonder—for example, the Page of Wands is new at wands. If the person is a student, or starting out at something—like a new career—then age doesn’t matter. If a forty-year-old goes back to school to study cooking, then that person could be a Page of Pentacles (a student of a pentacle-related subject).

Pages are airy, so the Page of Wands is Air of Fire, the Page of Cups is Air of Water, etc. This means that Pages tend to look at their tool in the abstract, as a concept. They think about love, or money, or work.

Finally, a page can represent a message. If the Page seems completely disconnected from the rest of the reading, consider that he or she may represent a message related to some of the more important cards.

Our thanks to Deborah for her guest post! For more from Deborah Liopp, read her article “Why You’re Not Good at Tarot.”

Does the Bible Outlaw Magick?

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.

The Western Mystery Tradition is quite steeped in Biblical literature and imagery. Gnosticism, Hermeticism, Rosicrucianism, Masonry, the Golden Dawn, and Thelema have extremely close ties to the Christian spiritual tradition. (This is not to be confused with the political co-opting of Christianity from about the second century CE onward.) Not to mention my beloved Solomonic grimoires, which are most certainly an expression of medieval Christian mysticism. Even indigenous forms of witchcraft and folk magick around the world now bear the stamp of Christian influence (though these are cases where Christianity was merely adopted into an existing worldview, rather than overwhelming and replacing it). We can see this especially in places like Africa and South America, where Catholic forms of witchcraft are quite common.

The question of magick among these traditions arises every so often. Usually, it is asked by newcomers who feel a calling to practice the arts of magick, but have been raised with the belief that it is directly proscribed by their religion. Their fear is very real—they worry if delving into the arts will result in the loss of their immortal soul. I remember worrying about that myself, from time to time, a long time ago. No matter what I thought intellectually, there was still a young child inside of me asking: “But what if we’re wrong? What if everything I’ve been taught is true and I’m going to have to explain to God someday why I became a witch before He sends me to suffer in Hell?” After all, I could only be a witch for a few decades at best, but I could burn in Hell for eternity!

Yes, I got over that—and yes, the intellectual learning helped a lot. (When you know the history of how Christianity actually got its strange ideas, they are easier to put into perspective.) However, this isn’t an issue that only affects insecure newbies who have yet to shake the programming of their upbringing. In fact, there is a literary component to this problem that is a bit harder to ignore. You see, that Bible that so many of us like to use as a magick book in its own right (and, never doubt for one second that it *is* a magick book) actually tells us that magick is evil and must never be practiced. Since you folks are most likely predominantly Pagan, you’ve probably had some of these passages quoted at you before:

Leviticus 19:31: Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God.

Exodus 22:18: You shall not permit a sorceress to live.

Deuteronomy 18:9-12: When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you.

Leviticus 20:27: A man or a woman who is a medium or a necromancer shall surely be put to death. They shall be stoned with stones; their blood shall be upon them.

Leviticus 20:6: If a person turns to mediums and necromancers, whoring after them, I will set my face against that person and will cut him off from among his people.

Micah 5:12: And I will cut off sorceries from your hand, and you shall have no more tellers of fortunes;

2 Kings 17:17: And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings and used divination and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.

Leviticus 19:26: You shall not interpret omens or tell fortunes.

Revelation 21:8: But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.

It looks like the Bible is exceedingly clear on this point, and believe me the above is only a scratch on the surface of Biblical admonitions against witchcraft, sorcery, divination, etc. Perhaps those of us with more experience under our belts have ceased to fear being cast into the “lake that burns with fire and sulfur” for the offense of making a talisman and holding a conversation with a disembodied spirit. However, it still leaves us with a pretty big issue: We use a book that clearly outlaws the use of magick for magickal purposes. We elevate the book to a position of occult authority—drawing on its passages (such as the Psalms) in our own workings. I’m not suggesting that occultists who draw upon the Bible are “Bible thumpers” who take the book as absolute fact, but we do accept its mythological authority within our traditions.

For example: the Bible depicts two angels sitting down with Abraham to break bread. Because of these passages, we know that angels will accept bread as offerings. We accept it as a spiritual truth because it is in The Book. Likewise, when calling upon angels to aid us in our daily lives, we often make reference to deeds they performed in the Bible (or the Apocrypha)—as if those events really happened and we therefore expect the angels to do the same for us.

Therefore, can we simply ignore the fact that the same book stresses, over and over again, that magick is an abomination to the same Divinity we invoke in the Psalms? Isn’t it highly likely that Divinity will be offended that we are calling it for something in which it has clearly stated it wants no part?

In order to answer that question, let us take another close look at the Bible itself. We certainly cannot dismiss the fact that the scribes and prophets who penned the Biblical literature were deeply concerned about people using magick, and were doing everything in their power to steer folks away from the practice. However, when the prophets weren’t writing about how evil their Pagan neighbors were, what exactly were they doing?

Exodus 7:10-12: And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the Lord had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments. For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.

Exodus 7:20: And Moses and Aaron did so, as the Lord commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.

Exodus 8:6: And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt.

Exodus 8:17: And they did so; for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man, and in beast; all the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt.

Exodus 9:10: And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast.

Exodus 9:23: And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt.

Exodus 10:13: And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts.

Exodus 10:22: And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days.

Exodus 14:21: And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.

Exodus 17:5-6″ And the Lord said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee … thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

Exodus 17:9-11: And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: to morrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand. So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.

Numbers 17:6-8: And Moses spake unto the children of Israel, and every one of their princes gave him a rod apiece, for each prince one, according to their fathers’ houses, even twelve rods: and the rod of Aaron was among their rods. And Moses laid up the rods before the Lord in the tabernacle of witness. And it came to pass, that on the morrow Moses went into the tabernacle of witness; and, behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds.

Numbers 21:9: And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

Joshua 6:20: So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.

1 Kings 17:21-22: And [Elijah] stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child’s soul come into him again. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.

2 Kings 6:5-6: But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water: and he cried, and said, Alas, master! for it was borrowed. And the man of God said, Where fell it? And he shewed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither; and the iron did swim.

Judges 6:36-38: And Gideon said unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said, Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said. And it was so: for he rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and wringed the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water.

So what do we see in these passages? Why, we see the prophets using magick—a lot. They command the elements of nature; break the laws of physics; and perform healing, divination, and much much more. If I said the previous list of Biblical proscriptions against magick was “merely scratching the surface,” then the above list of Biblical miracles is the very tip of a massive iceberg of examples of Biblical magick. And that list only covers a portion of the Old Testament, so I haven’t even touched the subjects of Jesus, the Apocrypha, nor the volumes upon volumes of Biblical legends (Hebrew: midrashim) in which every Biblical patriarch is depicted engaging in this kind of prophetical magick. (See, for example, Legends of the Bible by Louis Ginzberg.)

What we can gather from all of this is not really surprising. Throughout history, political types have been fanatically and proudly hypocritical. Just as we see today: when someone wants a right or freedom removed, they only want it removed from you, not from themselves. Anti-abortion activists rarely see any problem with quietly getting one for a young family member who has made a mistake. Anti-gay activists are—nearly universally—practicing homosexuals in private. Those who scream that welfare is destroying our country are the first to sign up for public assistance when they need it—all the while still proclaiming that it is wrong for anyone else to accept it. It’s not right for you, but hands off my personal freedoms!

The prophets who wrote the Bible were no different. They were political types, and their writings were politically motivated. At the time, there really was no separation between “Church and State”—and the writings we see in the Bible were more about political power than spirituality. A large part of their political power rested in their ability to perform the role of Shaman for the king and his people.

And they didn’t like competition.

Therefore, much space in the Bible is wasted on rants against the evils of sorcery, necromancy, and divination—even though the same authors were performing all of it themselves. It was ok for them to do, you see, but it was not ok for you—at least unless you joined their group and got their stamp of political approval. Then your magick became “miracle”— which we all know is entirely different than sorcery.

Right?

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

Respect Is a Necessity When Hunting Ghosts

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Richard Southall, author of How to Be a Ghost Hunter, Haunted Route 66, and the new Haunted Plantations of the South.

I have been writing about the paranormal for close to twenty years, and have been interested in the topic for much longer. Not only have I written How to Be a Ghost Hunter, Haunted Route 66, and the upcoming Haunted Plantations of the South, but I have been the guest of several radio shows and have been interviewed for newspapers and television shows. Needless to say, I know a few things about the topic.

This blog is not to brag about my knowledge of ghost hunting, but to point out that there is one common thread that all of my experiences have in common: respect. Now that ghost hunting has gone mainstream (in part to social media shows such as Ghost Hunters and Ghost Adventures), there are literally hundreds of paranormal groups in every state and throughout the world.

Whether you belong to an official organization, are part of a loosely-knit group of colleagues, or consider yourself a lone wolf, respect is crucial in literally every part of an investigation. In my opinion, investigators should show respect for any location visited, any person interviewed, and the deceased and loved ones or descendants of the epicenter of a haunting. Regardless of how an investigation is conducted, word spreads—and eventually a reputation can developed.

I know that it sounds like common sense, but that respect can separate us from simple vandals. A perfect example of what I’m writing about is the recent loss of the Lebeau Plantation House in Louisiana. A few years ago, a group of “ghost hunters” broke into the mansion and accidentally set it on fire. The subsequent blaze destroyed a historical landmark that was nearly two hundred years old. Needless to say, actions like this tend to give serious paranormal investigators a proverbial black eye.

Being respectful—or not— to any eyewitness or other interviewee can give you the reputation of either being very professional or sloppy in your investigative methods. Confidentiality and discretion are crucial to any investigation. Eyewitnesses who contacted you or agreed to an interview will still have to live in an area long after the investigation is over. Although we believe that a place may be haunted, other people in a community may not. As such, there may be unforeseen ramifications for the eyewitness.

Finally, the dead need to be respected. Once a spirit or ghost has been positively identified, it is likely necessary to visit the graveyard or former residence of the deceased. Going to such an area warrants a great deal of respect as we conduct the most exciting part of a ghost hunt. This means that an investigator leaves no trace after the investigation has concluded. If requested, offer to let loved ones listen to any EVPs or show them any other evidence that has been gathered in an investigation. Doing so may even help an investigator conduct a more thorough investigation.

Our thanks to Richard for his guest post! For more from Richard Southall, read his article “Haunted Plantations of the South.”

Llewellyn Titles Win 2015 COVR Awards

The annual COVR (Coalition of Visionary Retailers) awards were announced this weekend at INATS in Denver. Two Llewellyn titles won 2015 COVR Awards:

Journey Into Spirit: A Pagan’s Perspective on Death, Dying & Bereavement , by Kristoffer Hughes (WINNER, Reincarnation, Death and Dying Books)
Merlin Stone Remembered: Her Life and Works , by David B. Axelrod, Carol F. Thomas, and Lenny Schneir (WINNER, Autobiographical and Biographical Books)

Congratulations to our authors!

 

The Coalition of Visionary Resources (COVR) is an organization formed by a unique group of businesses that deal in “Visionary Resources,” and who work with and support each other as independent retailers, manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, and publishers of visionary books, music, and merchandise.

 

For the eighteenth consecutive year, COVR Awards were presented at the International New Age Trade Show (INATS) banquet. The Visionary Awards are judged by retailers and seasoned professionals, who evaluate each title based upon content, presentation, and their own knowledge of the industry.

Your Tarot Ethics

My friend Michael thought having me write about tarot ethics would be interesting. I think I might disappoint him because I don’t have a set of tarot ethics that I think all readers should abide by. And I don’t think, as some readers do, that unless you follow MY ethics you an ethical reader. I think that it is kind of arrogant to think that I have the corner on ethical judgment.

I do think, though, that any one who uses the cards should think about ethics. Many people think that tarot readers should write out a statement of their ethics or standards. Even though I am a writer and someone who loves structure, I’ve never done this. Probably because for me, things aren’t actually black and white and I can’t bring myself to create a set of rules that I may or may not ever follow.

For example, I believe in client confidentiality. I will not talk to other people about my client’s readings. Except sometimes, if something was really interesting or hard or miraculously wonderful, I will tell my wife about it. Also, I imagine that if I ever read for someone and it came out that they committed some heinous crime, I would probably toss client confidentiality out the window and do whatever needing doing, such as perhaps going to the police. But it would have to be some crime that I considered heinous (I don’t think all actual crimes are), so that’s completely arbitrary and I’ve not yet read for someone who fell into that category, so I can’t tell you what I would actually do. I don’t think we can know for sure what we’ll do in a hypothetical situation until we face it in real life.

I do advise my students to consider some general areas (and I know this is such an incomplete list, but a complete list would be paralyzing) and decide for themselves about their own ethics. Here are a few topics.

Predictions

Do you believe the future can be predicted and if so, should you do that for people?

Here’s a subset topic…if you don’t think that prediction is something that can be done and someone wants a predictive reading, is it ethical to try to talk them out of what they want and instead to reword their question to suit your ethical or philosophical beliefs? Or should you be upfront, tell them that you don’t do that kind of reading, and let them take their money and find another reader whose ideas are more aligned with their own? Or is part of your reading services to teach or evangelize your own ideas about what it “the truth”?

Type of Advice

Some readers will never give medical, legal, or financial advice because they are not doctors, lawyers, or financial advisors. Most readers, although not all, would agree that these are good boundaries. But beyond that, each reader must determine how far those boundaries go.

What if a querent has three different medical opinions (or investment strategies) from three different medical practitioners (or financial advisors) and wants to know which one is the best for them?

What if a single doctor gives the querent two very different solutions to a health problem and leaves it to the querent to decide which one. Would that be outside the ethical bounds of a reading?

Some readers will not read about a situation regarding someone else who is not present. For example, a querent wants to know if her spouse is cheating.

Less clear is if the querent wants to know what to do to help a friend or support her daughter or improve communication with her boyfriend. These are less directly about the other person, but still do touch on their lives.

Confidentiality

Many readers say that their readings are absolutely confidential. Before deciding that is your boundary, make sure you consider:

What if the querent is a danger to themselves (is asking about self-destructive behavior or suicide)?

What if the querent is inquiring about something illegal or has confessed to a crime?

What if the querent is a danger to others?

Third Parties

Some say reading for people who aren’t there and haven’t given permission is like being a psychic peeping Tom. It is important for you to know where you stand on this one because unlike some of the other ethical questions, you will almost certainly be asked at least once “is he coming back?” Or “is he sleeping with anyone else?” Or “how does he feel about me?”

Another third party question is about reading about celebrities (about them, not for them!). Reading “about” celebrities or really anything in the news is a great way to hone your predictive skills, if that is something you want to do. Because you do the reading, make your prediction, and then find out what happens.

Telling All

Where is your boundary in terms of telling a querent what you see? Do you tell them everything you see whatever it is? Are there some things you won’t tell no matter what?

Death is an extreme example, but let’s say you do think that the cards can predict death. If you see it, do you say it? What if you don’t usually think the cards can predict death, but you just know that’s what’s on the table in front of you?

What if someone asks about their children, and you see illness or some sort of accident?

What if someone asks about the 65 applications they’ve sent out while in their 12th month of unemployment and there is no positive outcome?

Minors

Will you read for people under a certain age? What age?

Will you read for people under a certain age if their parents give permission?

Will you read for people under a certain age if their parents are present? If so, are there things you wouldn’t reveal or say in order to protect the minor’s privacy?

Spiced Apple Cider for Lughnasadh

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Melanie Marquis, author of The Witch’s Bag of Tricks, A Witch’s World of Magick, Beltane, and the new Lughnasadh.

Nothing quite says Lughnasadh better than a warm cup of freshly made spiced apple cider! It’s easy to make and easy to customize to bring out the flavors and magickal properties that you find most appealing. The most important thing to know is that good cider starts with good apples. Many apple varieties come into season during this time, and you with a little poking around, you may be able to find a local grower who also produces their own apple cider. It takes a lot of apples and a lot of work to make cider, so you’ll probably want to purchase the cider ready-made; just get the highest quality you can, preferably organic and without any added ingredients. This will be your base.

What You’ll Need:

2 quarts apple cider

Plus any or all of the following add-ins:

1 orange, sliced into ¼ to ½ inch thick circular slices
1 vanilla bean, scored along the outer edge
1 tsp vanilla powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cinnamon stick
½ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp allspice
½ cup orange juice

Pour 2 quarts of the apple cider into a large pot or saucepan. If you’re adding orange juice, put that in now as well. Simmer on low to medium heat as you select your spices. Add any solid spices or fruit pieces first, and simmer about five minutes before adding any powdered spices. Let simmer an additional fifteen minutes on very low heat until the smell of spiced apple cider fills the air. Ladle into cups while warm and enjoy!

Our thanks to Melanie for her guest post! For more from Melanie Marquis, read her article “Traditional Lughnasadh with a Modern Twist.”

Who Are the “Other Magicians?”

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.

In the upcoming issue of Hermetic Tablet (Summer 2015), Jake Stratton-Kent has published an essay entitled, “The Other Magicians and the Goetia,” (adapted from an Internet post simply called, “The Other Magicians”), and I am about to spoil the hell out of it. It’s not that I want to steal Jake’s thunder, but I think this is a topic that needs discussion, and I’m not against shining my own spotlight upon it—especially since the subject matter has become rather important to my own path. But I don’t want to get ahead of myself, so let me begin with a bit of explanation.

When modern students look at the most popular texts of classical Western occultism—such as the Key of Solomon, Lemegeton, The Book of Abramelin, Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy, etc,—we often come away with the impression that they represent how magick was done at the time. However, we can easily forget a rather simple fact: the medieval/Renaissance European grimoires only reflect how one specific group of occultists did their work.

I talk about this at length in Secrets of the Magickal Grimoires, where I discuss the origin of the Solomonic tradition among a class of clerical exorcists. Without a doubt, the methods of spirit conjuration outlined in the Solomonic texts reflect this origin: the view of all chthonic and nature spirits as “evil,” the imperious and arrogant manner in which the spirits are addressed, and the harsh methods used to force the spirits’ compliance—all of this arises from a culture of people who spent their days casting out truly demonic entities of sickness and ill-fortune from their clients.

Yet, the grimoires themselves have given us clues that this was not the only method of working with spirits—perhaps not even the predominant one. These clues reside in the condemnations the grimoires often make about… well… other grimoires. It would seem that each Solomonic mystic was convinced he was the real deal, truly connected to God and doing holy work, while “everyone else” was just engaging in diabolical enchantments. Here are a few examples:

“All the books which treat of characters, extravagant figures, circles, convocations, conjurations, invocations, and other like matters, even although any one may see some effect thereby, should be rejected, being works full of diabolical inventions. …and which be truly the inventions of the devil and of wicked men.” [Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, Book II, Chapter 4: That the greater number of magical books are false and vain.]
“There be certain little terrestrial spirits that are simply detestable; sorcerers and necromantic magicians generally avail themselves of their services, for they operate only for evil, and in wicked and pernicious things, and they be of no use soever.” [Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, Book III: Essential remarks upon the foregoing symbols.]
“No man is ignorant that evil spirits, by evil and profane Arts may be raised up as Psellus saith Sorcerers are wont to do, whom most detestable and abominable filthiness did follow, and accompany, such as were in times past in the sacrifices of Priapus, and in the worship of the Idol which was called Panor, to whom they did sacrifice with their privy members uncovered. Neither to these is that unlike (if it be true, and not a fable) which is read concerning the detestable heresy of old Church-men, and like to these are manifest in Witches and mischievous women, which wickednesses the foolish dotage of women is subject to fall into. By these, and such as these evil spirits are raised.” [Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Book I, Chapter 39: That we may by some certain matters of the world stir up the Gods of the world, and their ministering spirits.]
“Berith is a great and terrible Duke, and hath three names. Of some he is called Beall; of the Jews Berith; of Necromancers Bolfry…” [The Goetia of Solomon, Spirit #28]
“There is extant amongst those Magicians (who do most use the ministry of evil spirits) a certain Rite of invocating spirits by a Book to be consecrated before to that purpose.” [The Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy, Liber Spirituum: a Book of Spirits]

As I stated above, these passages can make it appear as if each author was merely repudiating all of the other grimoires besides his own. However, as Jake points out in his article, the truth is a bit more complex. If we take all of the above quotes together (and these are only a few examples!), we can see a common thread running through them: there was a specific group of “other magicians” out there. They are commonly called “sorcerers,” “necromancers,” and “witches,” and they are accused of employing evil and diabolical spirits to achieve their ends.

Now, if you follow my work and/or that of Jake Stratton Kent, you already have an idea where this is headed. The word “goetia” is not merely the title of a late Solomonic text, but is in fact the name of a very ancient spiritual tradition. It originated with ancient Greek shamans (called goen) who became famous for their funeral services and magickal work with chthonic deities. Later, when the Olympian cult arose, the ancient magick was dismissed as an ignorant and primitive practice. As often happens when one cult supersedes another, the goen were demonized even as their practices were plundered for the newly urbanized religions. Thus were the “Western Mysteries” truly born—epitomized in such schools as the Eleusinian Mysteries.

By the time we reach the European grimoires, we find evidence of the ancient goetic tradition dispersed throughout the texts. The ancient religion of the goen was long gone, yet their magickal practices persisted and those who engaged in them were still being demonized, now with the terms “Necromancer,” “Sorcerer,” and “Witch.” (By the time the Goetia of Solomon was written, the word “goetia” had come to mean “witchcraft”—or working directly with spirits.)

Given the effort taken by some authors to warn us away from them, we must assume these “other magicians” still existed in medieval Europe and were still doing their thing. Abraham the Jew, in the Book of Abramelin, gives us several anecdotes wherein he meets with these necromancers. A few of the grimoires, too, make no apologies for their goetic content: such as the Key of Solomon the King, the Grand Grimoire, Grimoirum Verum, the Goetia of Solomon, etc. Of course, all of the grimoires have elements of goetia woven into them—making the “non-sorcerous” texts look a hell of a lot like sorcery and thereby compelling their authors to loudly proclaim they “aren’t those guys.” In the grimoires, the goetic tradition is not a separate cult from the dogmatic Christian tradition, but is in fact a tradition hidden within the latter. One book (like the Key of Solomon) will freely tell us how to conduct rituals of necromancy, while another book will assure us such practices will mean the loss of our souls.

So what were the necromancers and sorcerers doing that so offended the Catholic exorcists? Check out the passage from the Three Books… I quoted previously. Therein, Agrippa reveals the mystery: the sorcerers were engaging in the same kind of “detestable and abominable filthiness” as Pagans worshiping Gods like Priapus and the Idol of Panor. That’s right! What makes goetia “evil” is the simple fact that it utilizes ancient Pagan methods of honoring the spirits, rather than treating them like infernal garbage as would a Catholic Exorcist. It is really nothing more than yet another example of the religious intolerance that characterized much of the Roman Catholic empire. It was evil only because it was Pagan.

Rather than brow-beating the spirits and threatening them with torture and hellfire if they do not comply, goetia erects altars to them, feeds them with offerings, and enters into mutually-beneficial pacts with them. Where the later Solomonic magician approaches the spirits to conquer and rein over them, older methods called for establishing lifelong friendships with the forces of nature. And, of course, goetia does not conflate “chthonic” with “infernal”—and thereby does not classify all spirits of nature, Pagan deities, etc. as demonic.

Jake Stratton-Kent gives some great examples of this dichotomy in the grimoires themselves. For example, the Grimoire of Pope Honorius (Wellcome MS 4666) explains that the magician may conjure Leviathan after struggling with him—using the strongest of prayers, a firm will, fearless heart, and a well-constructed magick circle for protection. Yet, the very same passage goes on to say witches, who make a pact with him, ride Leviathan to their sabbats. It doesn’t sound as if they struggle with him, and they sure don’t seem to require a protective circle. Why not? Because the witches honor the forces of nature and bond with them. They ride upon the winds, rather than attempt to defeat them. (Jake goes on to give further examples in his article. Don’t pass it up!)

Not only does this give us further proof that goetic magick was still in use at the time, it also indicates that the sorcerers and witches were finding it much easier to invoke the very same spirits. In fact, some of the grimoires make a point of this, such as the Book of Abramelin, which tells us several times that the spirits will dislike being ordered around like slaves, but will “fly with haste” to serve those who employ the proscribed methods. We are told such methods will work, and very well, but that we must never avail ourselves of them. Why? Because we aren’t dirty Pagans!

In The Key of Solomon the King, the two traditions seem to blend entirely together. Part of the book relates a typical Catholic exorcism-style evocation method—complete with brandished swords and daggers, curses, and threats of torture for disobedient spirits. Yet, later in the book, we find descriptions of setting up offering tables (it never goes so far as to use the word “altar”), calling spirits from books, and no hint of weapons or threats. Even a magickal circle is stated to be unnecessary unless the magician has some particular reason to fear the spirits he would summon to the table. Plus, The Key… does not shrink from giving us instructions to work with the dead, the spirits of nature, etc. without once declaring these practices “evil” or “abominable.”

Jake suggests in his piece that these “kinder, gentler” methods are in fact the older methods, the ones that can be traced back to primordial sources like the goen, the Picatrix, and the Greek Magical Papyri (all Pagan). The blades and curses only came into the picture later, after medieval Roman Church dogma had taken its toll. These are the folks who re-classified the entire underworld as “Hell” and all spirits of nature to be “evil demons.” As I have stated many times in the past, the grimoires present a befuddled and broken cosmology—clearly an ancient Pagan worldview with a dogmatic Christian overlay upon it. They don’t match up very well, and that is because we are in fact looking at two traditions competing for space in the same books.

Slowly but surely, modern occultists are re-evaluating our assumptions about “goetia.” Just a decade ago, the word was merely the title of a particular grimoire—an evil book that good magicians leave well alone. Now, we know it is in fact the name of an ancient spiritual tradition that underlies much of our Western mysteries.

I believe we are currently witnessing a goetic revival—and I do not mean among so-called “left-hand path” and “demonolatry” types who are mainly interested in sounding dark and scary, and typically know little about the spirits they claim to invoke. I’m talking about the community of Old Magick practitioners who are coming to understand the true role of chthonic entities in the grimoires. And we know that this tradition continued to live on, in one form or another, until the time of the Solomonic grimoires and (now) even until today.

Besides this, we are also coming to understand that goetia does not focus entirely upon the chthonic realm. For example, I work primarily with angels—yet I erect altars to them, give them food offerings, make pacts with them, and generally conduct myself toward them in the manner of a dirty, dirty Pagan.

That’s goetia. And Abraham the Jew was correct—it does work better.

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