My favorite 2012 Tarot Blog Hop post

The start of me drawing lots of monkeys.

As my regular readers know, last year I started to take part in the Tarot Blog Hop. (Basically, a blog hop is a group of bloggers that create a circle of blog posts on a subject, and their readers can go from blog to blog reading various bloggers ideas about a certain subject--more or less). What they might not know is that I am going to be the wrangler for the upcoming Ostaru Tarot Blog Hop.

Exactly what does the wrangler of a blog hop do? Well, they come up with the initial idea for the blog hop and try to get everyone moving in the same direction. They also spend a part of the day of the blog hop making sure that all the links of the blog hop actually work.

As I prepare to deal with the upcoming blog hop, I got to thinking about last year's cycle of blog hops. In hindsight, I must admit that the post that I did that sticks out the most for me is Mooning the Sun.

At the time, I did not realize how significant this post would turn out to be for me. I was talking about how my religion affected my view of the Tarot cards. And for copyright reasons, I chose to create a new version of the Sun card.

Originally, I meant for there to be two cats sitting on the wall; but by the time I was done, they turned into monkeys. Since then I have done several more cards of the "Monkey Tarot," though I must admit that it is a far way from being finished.

But the most important part about the monkey version of the Sun card was the fact that I was later tapped to draw the illustrations of a Wiccan friendly children book series which has lots of monkeys in it (Turtle Monkey). Yes, that is right--a children book author decided that I was the perfect artist to illustrate their series--scary, isn't it?!

Because of that, for me the best (or at least, most memorable) post I did for last year's Tarot Blog Hop was Mooning the Sun.

[Update: July 2013: Due to differences in sales expectations and business philosophy, in early July 2013, I ceased to be involved in the Turtle Monkey project.]

Coincidence or road sign?

Is that a skunk on Big Ape's head?!

One of the quirks that many occultists seem to pick up is the reading of coincidences as road signs. Or maybe it is just me that has picked up this particular habit. Now, I am not as bad as some of the people who have taken the Oath of the Abyss--but I do have my moments.

My latest example of "Is it just a coincidence? Or is it a road sign?" is a skunk on the head.

As many of my friends know, my wife points out that my hair is thinning. My response tends to be that I am going to buy myself a Shatner. My wife is not sure if I am being serious or not...we will just have to see, won't we?

Nevertheless, the joke carries further out than that. Recently, I have been engaged in drawing some ape and monkey pictures for a pagan/Wiccan friendly children book series.

(Yes, I am confused about how I qualified for this one exactly--I think that it is because I seemed to have a little spare time and some colored pencils...or at least, that is the theory today.)

Now, I decided that Big Ape, the father of Little Ape (the school bully), was going to be suffering from Ape Pattern Baldness and be covering it up with a skunk. I did not inform my co-creator of this decision--it is a surprise...like most of my ideas for the artwork.

So where does the coincidence kick in?

Well, I started to read a book that I plan on reviewing, God Attacks by J. R. Kiefer. In one of the opening pages of the book, he mentions a picture where one of the subjects appears to have a skunk on his head.

Yes, it is probably a coincidence and nothing more serious than that. At least, it was not as shocking as the time, I wrote about a character speaking with the voice of a cricket, and then read a translation of Homer's Iliad only to discover that the old men talk with the voices of crickets.

[Update: July 2013: Due to differences in sales expectations and business philosophy, in early July 2013, I ceased to be involved in the Turtle Monkey project.]

All materialistic magic is black magic

A spell involving a Jupiter Lightning Glyph and two monkeys.

Happy New Year!

And given that it is the first day of the New Year (2013), it is now time to make certain of my critics happy and issue yet another bloody annual disclosure statement.

This year's complaint--I do materialistic mundane magic.

Now why does this need a disclosure statement?! Well, according to some extreme opinions of some experts, you cannot do magic to affect the physical mundane world while also working on spiritual development. In fact, some of these experts believe that all mundane related magic is black magic...in other words, only spiritual development is white magic.

It won't be so bad, except that some of these so-called experts state that once you do mundane magic, you can never complete the Great Work. Ever. No matter how much time, energy, or lifetimes you spend doing the Work.

Therefore, because I do materialistic magic, and I started off doing material magic, I can never complete the Great Work...therefore, why are you reading this blog?

Now, personally, I believe that not only is this idea extreme, it is also wrong. Yes, I said--wrong. It is based on the idea that the material world is evil, and that the spiritual (heaven) is good. It is an idea that affects our entire culture, thanks to the ideas of Judaism, Christianity and Islam (all of whom inherited it from Zoroastrianism). Therefore, it is understandable hearing this from occultists who come from esoteric groups that require or emphasize one of these religions, such as most Golden Dawn groups.

The really sad part is that I hear this from pagans and Wiccans who are drawing inspiration from other religions that do not have this fatal duality.

And the really annoying part is that Golden Dawn enshrined this idea right into its Outer and Inner Order Oaths. Yes, you can be expelled from GD just for doing a simple money spell. It is better to live under a bridge homeless than do a spell to gather a little rent money in an emergency.

(Please note that in two of the Inner Order courses that I suffered though, I was required to do mundane magic--I am guessing that by the strict classic version, they would not be considered really Golden Dawn.)

Here is a hint for the Wiccans who believe in this duality--read the Charge of the Goddess which states off with: "Whenever you have need of anything, once in the month and better it be when the moon is full, then shall you assemble in some secret place and adore the spirit of me, who am Queen of all witches." How can you start an invocation like that, have no concept of heaven, and still end up with a severe duality that says the material world can never be spiritual?!

And for those of you who are curious, the BIORC does not view all materialistic magic as black magic (it is complicated determining what black magic is...but just because it is aimed at the material world does not automatically make it black magic), and spiritual development is tied to developing the mundane side of one's life at the same time. It is little things like that which will ensure that the BIORC is not considered Golden Dawn by everyone within ten years (if we are not already beyond the point of no return).

Of course, if you are really concerned about my behavior, you better tell Jason Miller that I am misusing one of his Jupiter lightning glyphs to try to promote evil monkeys. (I am quite sure that he has something to say about this subject.) And for the so-called experts, well, they are always right and I am always wrong as far as they are concerned, which is why you are supposed to be reading their blog and forum posts and not mine. Listen to their superior wisdom because I am busy making things up as I go along, and they have the experience of excellent teachers that I didn't have.

Happy New Year!

[Update: July 2013: Due to differences in sales expectations and business philosophy, in early July 2013, I ceased to be involved in the Turtle Monkey project.]

Last month was my busiest month ever

Last month was my most read month ever on this blog.

And what can we learn from this?

Cat pictures sell.

Of course, some of my readers may wonder why I was doing a round of cat pictures again this year. Last year, I defaulted to posting Halloween Kitties because I was working on passing my capstone course for my bachelors in literary studies (aka literature).

(And yes, I did pass it, as well as the capstone in history in the spring--which is why I now own two bachelor degrees...that I will probably never use...well, not if the writing turns out better than the job hunt.)

This year, the cat pictures were about the fact that this month I am doing the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), and next month I am working on Turtle Monkey (I am illustrating a pagan/wiccan friendly set of children books)--so I wanted to rest up for those two projects.

And let's be honest--I really, really like humorous cat pictures.

The most important post to be buried under the cat hair--my drawing of the Devil card for the Monkey Tarot.

[Update: July 2013: Due to differences in sales expectations and business philosophy, in early July 2013, I ceased to be involved in the Turtle Monkey project.]

The aftermath of Halloween was that the cat ate all the tuna in the house.

2nd Annual 31 Days of Halloween Kitties Day 2

Exactly what is Halloween Holidae Spirit?

There are a lot of 31 style posts going on this month.

There is the NaBloMo going on (I am not sure if I got the initials right on that one or not)--which is basically a bunch of people doing 31 blog posts in 31 days...personally, I do not need to do that (because I have done it occasionally without the use of funny Halloween cat pictures).

There are several Halloween 31 posts things going occuring on several blogs that I follow (follow witches, get 31 posts in October--it is a natural).

On my own end, besides the 31 Days of Halloween Kitties on this blog, I was also involved in helping generate some of the photos that are going to be used on the Turtle Monkey Facebook fanpage. (Turtle Monkey is a "wiccan and pagan friendly" set of children stories by J. M. Monkie...which are going to be illustrated by me--as soon as I get my rear in gear.)

[Update: July 2013: Due to differences in sales expectations and business philosophy, in early July 2013, I ceased to be involved in the Turtle Monkey project.]