Today’s tarot card is the 2 of swords. Look at the imagery of this card. In this particular deck (The Sacred Circle), we see that there are two swords. One facing up and one facing down. There are sacred images in the background (a stone monolith) and green fields all around.
What might this mean to you? I am looking at this card and I get a “gut” feeling. What or who is opposing me? Are there conflicting thoughts? Am I having an internal conflict or having a hard time making a decision?
The whole “feeling” of this card is actually quite serene looking. In order to make the correct decisions, I need to be calm and serene. The number two is also a call for balance in one’s life. Have you achieved that? Do you need to find some balance in order to make the important decisions that you need to make. Remember-when you are emotional, it is hard to make an informed decision. It’s easy to let our emotions get away from us and slip up.  This may be a time of indecision, trouble may be ahead, in need of finding direction in your life.

This card is also a minor arcana card.  The Minor Arcana  indicates; that this is an issue that can be handled {Continue Reading}

Wine has been a dietary staple of mankind for millennia upon millennia. Since the creation of the first ritual vessel over 9,000 years ago it has been possible for men and women to create a wine like substance of fermented fruit. Fruits gathered as ancient hominid nomads first roamed the valleys and mountains of the world, exploring its marvels and magick for the first time. And stored in the hopes of keeping the delicate treat for a harsher season: and voila ~ wine was born!

From these earliest times up to the modern day, wine has held a special place among the drinks of men. Sometimes merely a staple beverage, sometimes taken purely for its intoxicating powers, but more often than not, the popularity of wine has been due to its ritual significance in culture after culture that discovered this remarkable indulgence.

The Origins of Wine

Wine, as we most commonly know it today in aisle 17 of the supermarket, is made from fermented grapes. As such, it first appeared approximately 7,000 years ago in the mountains of the Middle East, specifically at two known archaeological sites: Shulaveri, the late Neolithic typesite of the {Continue Reading}

Today I pulled the ten of swords card. The imagery is quite graphic. We see a man, face down, with swords stabbing him in his back. There is water in the background and the sky is pitch black.

I looked at this card to see what advice I can gleen from it. What has been going on in my life that really needs work on. Am I really seeing the whole picture or am I just focusing on my own issues.

The Ten of Swords is telling me to be aware of what is going on around me. Presently, I am dealing with some emotional issues that I need to work through. Is this card telling me that someone will hurt me, or am I just “playing the victim” role. Always remember-there are always to sides to every card of the tarot. I must admit, that this card really hit home to me today. It may be a lesson in ego for me.

Really look at this card. How come there are so many swords stabbing this person? Does it really take soo many swords to the damage, or can just one sword do the deed. The point here may be what I call “overkill”. Is your ego getting the best of you? Is it time to let things go? If this has to do with a person in your life-did someone hurt you? Be careful not to delve into that “Victim” role. Do you feel that someone, or that certain people may be “stabbing you in the back”?  What would this mean to you?

Remember-the Ten of Swords is a “Minor” Arcana card. This means that this is something that is most likely {Continue Reading}

Isaac came into my life approximately 2 years ago. I had always known about Isaac from reading his books and at one time, belonged to his Blackdirt group, when he lived in Warwick, NY. I wrote an email to him and asked about his services and the classes that he taught. I have a little, but very busy metaphysical store, here in Cornwall N.Y., and I really wanted him to teach here. Isaac and his lovely wife Phaedra live about an hour from me, so one day, Isaac and Phae decided to take a drive up to see my store and meet the community. We wound up going to dinner and having a most wonderful conversation about the pagan community and the experiences that both Isaac and Phae have had over the years. That was it for me! His humor got to me right away. A perfect fit with this community! Almost immediately, he started to do readings and teach his “Real Magic” course at my store.

Isaac facilitated ritual for us, at our Beltane festival and quickly became part of our family. He would come up just to chat with everyone. He became sort of a mentor for me. The information and lessons that both Isaac and Phaedra have given me; are priceless. Isaac also would help me as a friend. We would go and get sushi and talk {Continue Reading}

Mankind has always had a special relationship with the stars. In the modern world we explore them scientifically: searching for the answers to the Big Questions regarding the origins of life and the extent of the wider universe around us. We look up at the stars through veils of ambient electric lights and smog, wishing upon them still. We escape to the countryside to truly see the stars as best we may, watching them in place of the television sets which usually fill our nightly vision.

And in so doing we are continuing a bond man and womankind has had with the stars from the very beginning. For much of the time mankind has walked the earth, we did not know the stars as we know them to be today: huge balls of plasma energy strung out in space billions of light years away. Instead, we held them on high as something else, something magickal. In ancient societies, when the sun went down, there was the vast illuminated landscape of a starry sky lurking above them: mysterious and constant. It was a distinct part of their cultural worldview; its placement in the heavens and its occasional idiosyncrasies explained as part of ancient mythologies and religions. Imagine their wonder looking up at {Continue Reading}

Native American Landscapes at Lake Tahoe

In North American it is easy to forget how long mankind has been wandering around its sprawling landscape. History here seems to start post-conquest and often ignores the thousands upon thousands of years during which Native American groups initially crisscrossed the continent.

I myself was once guilty of this thinking. When I started my academic career I very pointedly steered myself towards classical Mediterranean subjects; explicitly ignoring the archaeology of my own American backyard. Older now, I recognize the error of my ways and the sublime interest and importance of all anthropological topics. I also recognize the primary reason why North American Indian topics are so easily overlooked by the education system and the media: lack of archaeological and anthropological evidence, and particularly lack of spectacular archaeological evidence. Alas, there will be no equivalent of Tut’s tomb in North America. But there is a rich and varied tapestry of ritual and mythology that belies this lack of archaeological evidence, perhaps making it all the more magickal for its mystery.

I recently had a chance to visit one of the most gorgeous {Continue Reading}

Each year on the seventh day of the seventh month, the stars Vega and Altair are allowed to cross the Milky Way and spend the night together: the original, and literal “star-crossed lovers.” It’s not astronomy however, its mythology. Of the oldest, most romantic, and well celebrated kind.

In Japan, it is commemorated with a festival called Tanabata (“Evening of the Seventh”). In Vietnam, it is Ngày mưa Ngâu, aka ‘Continual Rain Day.’ And in China, it is called the Qixi festival, (“The Night of Sevens”). And though the fetes do not share nomenclature and have varying forms of celebration in the modern world, they share the myth around which the festival is based, and potentially a common ancient origin therein.

At the heart of story, which has over 20 variations, there is a cowherd who falls in love with a weaver. In some versions they are faeries, in some they are gods, but more often than not they are humans who become entangled in the affairs of the divine. For their is love is tragically not to be. And they are kept apart by malevolent parental units (or local lords or gods) for political reasons or else to keep them productive because being together has caused both of them to {Continue Reading}

I have some thoughtful affirmations I’d like to share. They come from my heart and provide insight into my philosophy as a teacher of Wicca and as one who knows that my life touches many as the days and years pass. These are truths that I model in my interactions with students of Sacred Mists, my children and family, and those with whom I am fortunate enough to meet on my journey through life. My hope is that these affirmations will bring to those who need them peace, to those who crave them solace, to those who reject them awareness, and to those who live them harmony. Blessed be to one and all!

1. Never jump to conclusions.
2. Always give the benefit of the doubt.
3. Make constructive criticism the only criticism you will give.
4. Always give a second chance.
5. Find forgiveness in your heart, no matter the issue.
6. Recognize that everyone makes mistakes, even yourself.
7. Always treat others how you wish to be treated.
8. Never forget to place yourself in the other person’s shoes, even if just for a moment.
9. Recognize that we all carry baggage. Don’t make yours someone else’s.
10. Recognize that we have all come to Mother Earth to learn our life lessons. You can choose to help those who are learning, or reject them when their lessons {Continue Reading}

My personal favorite types of archaeological sites are those that have been built up over the ages: used, reused, redefined by new times and adapted by new generations. Those in my class will recognize this as a vague version of my archaeological byword the “palimpsest.” These layered sites and landscapes are all the more exciting and intriguing when they involve ritual sites, particularly ones which are still in use in the modern world. It speaks of a strong continuation of belief and power. And even when the original tenets of primordial worship and elements of esoteric ceremony have been long forgotten, the use of the site as a ritual focus lingers on: imbuing the landscape with the collective power of human faith.


Northern Mexico’s Tamtoc is one such site which has recently been propelled into the limelight by Archaeology magazine’s July/August 2010 article highlighting its recent finds and ongoing anthropological studies.

The earliest levels of Tamtoc are easily 2,500 years old and date to an early pre-Hispanic culture about which little is known. The people of this earliest layer of occupation, circa 400 BCE, lived in a tightly packed, small urban center; what {Continue Reading}

What is intuition? How can I develop my own intuition and how can it help me with reading the tarot?

I wanted to start this article on something that might surprise you! YOU can learn to read the tarot, both for yourself and for others! If you learn to open up your 3rd eye/Brow chakra and learn to trust your own intuition, then YOU will be a good tarot reader! It’s a matter of learning how to pay attention to your feelings and how to interpret the symbols that are in the cards!
 

Let’s take a look at this particular card.  It’s the Temperance card from the Rider-Waite Tarot deck. This might be the most known tarot deck that there is out there.  The imagery is clean and easy to interpret.  Here we see and Angel pouring water from one cup to the other.  Both the cups and water represent emotions.  Think of this, when we are emotional, we tend to cry, whether or not we are happy or sad.

Temperance is almost invariably depicted as a person pouring liquid from one receptacle into another. Historically, this was a standard symbol of the virtue {Continue Reading}