I have always been interested in fantasy as a genre, in magic, and stories of other worlds and lives. I enjoyed Tolkien and CS Lewis and a few others. But strangely, I was always put off by fairy tales, myths, and other old stories. They always seemed strangely dead to…

We should separate two parts to doing “magic” or any magical sort of practice. First there are methods, tools, and approaches. Second there is purpose, meaning, and spirituality. …

Why Alternative Spirituality Should Not Be Therapeutic — How much should religion be about personal happiness? This is a question traditional “world religions” grapple with; and so too must alternative spirituality centered on nature and magic — like Wicca, shamanism, paganism, deep ecology, witchcraft, and others. There’s a danger, first, in saccharine rainbows and gumdrops. There’s plenty of…

Why We Need Old Nature Wisdom — Not Strip-Mall “Shamanic Practitioners” — “Shamanic practitioners.” That’s the term. So…you know you’re dealing with over-educated liberal, self-important WASPs from the start. I’m talking about “core shamanism.” This was visited on modern America by Michael Harner and some other anthropologists — i.e. yuppies with PhDs who decided to run “workshops” and train a bevy of…

A short story — You walk up the trail. Stony, with thin grass and moss, high up. It snakes up the side of the mountain, but is still steep. Your boots crunch on the gravel. It’s become overcast: grey, and windy. There is a touch of dampness to the air. …

Why An Ancient Practice Is Just What The Modern World Needs — Change your thoughts and solve your problems… Most people will tell you that to fix your problems, you have to think more: more productively, more logically, more graciously. More, better, thoughts lead to better outcomes. What if this is incorrect? What if, instead, a radically different truth dictates our happiness? …

Most of us are not really that comfortable in the world. We don’t feel at home in it. Yes, we can settle onto the couch at night, and it’s relaxing. But then we turn on show, or check the social media feed. …

In our society, we are strongly taught that we are in control of our own lives — our own destinies. This is untrue in many ways, but it is most surprisingly untrue when we find we are not in control of our own selves. Experiences of non-control are viewed extremely…

We are all wizards. You may think I mean because of our technology. But that’s only half true: our technology is a manifestation of our actual magic. This magic is in the modes of thought we possess. You may scoff. Thinking isn’t magic; or shouldn’t be. But compare humans to…