divination on Pinterest Long ago, before the Internet, if you wanted to know about a certain subject, you went to the library. Perhaps you started out with an Encyclopedia – Encyclopedia America or Encyclopedia Britannica, generally – also as we got older, we were taught how to use the card catalog and how to research our subject in a more adult manner. Of course, people still use the library and they still use the catalog for research, although it’s now computerized – the card catalog is generally a thing of the past. But nowadays, when people want to research a subject, they go to the Internet first, and generally they…

divination during a neptune retrograde If you spend any kind of time on Facebook or Twitter, you will no doubt have seen all the minacious memes preceding a Mercury Retrograde – back up your files! Cross your T’s and dot your I’s! Beware of long-distance travel! – and so on. While fear-mongerers exist in every community, including the Pagan ones, I find it amusing that even the reasonable memes concerning Mercury Retrograde – such as the “5 R’s” – Redact, Renew, Reflect, Reevaluate & Reconcile – seem to forget one very important fact: there are six other planets that have the ability to move in a retrograde fashion throughout the…

Skillet Pork Chops with Rice and Tomatoes There is nothing like an heirloom recipe. I cherish the ones I have from both of my grandmothers and my mother. To me, it’s a way of preserving the magic that they instilled in me from an early age – that of kitchen witchery. I doubt that they would have looked at it in that way – I know my mother wouldn’t! – but magic in the kitchen is magic in the kitchen, no matter how you term it. This is an old recipe of my Gramma Mac’s. Like so many recipes of that era, it doesn’t give very good directions and in…

The Enochian Tarot Sometimes you are attracted to a divinatory system as if you were mandated by some celestial being. You know – as soon as you see that deck of cards or that pendulum or those beautifully polished runes – that those are meant for you. Sometimes it’s more a matter of fate – you pick up some divination method accidentally and come to use it on a daily basis. There are also the divination tools that you only use for special occasions – a crystal ball for Samhain, for example – or a special set of Tarot cards for a Full Moon ritual. Generally, you only have divination…

Baked Whole Rainbow Trout The best food is the freshest food. There is nothing better than food out of your own garden or bought from a local farmer’s market. Some of us are hunters, spending long hours in the woods and field, in order to return home with the bounty of Artemis. Other of us prefer to fish the creeks and ponds and lakes. Yesterday morning, I had the opportunity to go trout fishing. It was a perfectly cold spring day. There was frost on the grass and we could see our breath. But the fish were jumping! I must confess that I did not catch any fish at all.…

Cosmic Crabmeat Stir-fry   This is an easy and simple meal that can be put together in under thirty minutes. It’s a recipe I got from the father of my son – it’s the only thing I think he knew how to make! You only need a few ingredients: 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 small green pepper, chopped ¼ red onion, chopped 4 ounces (half a package) moonlight mushrooms, sliced 1 package imitation crab meat, broken up a bit 1 28-oz can of whole tomatoes Dried parsley, oregano & basil to taste, as well as salt & pepper Heat the olive oil in a heavy pan. Sauté the green peppers,…

When You Are Unable to See the Signs I don’t know about you, but I know this has happened to me and more than once – lay out a spread of Tarot cards or playing cards or some other divinatory devise – and nothing. Either the meanings elude you or the cards have no relation to one another or to the positions on which they landed or to the entire situation at hand. If this is just for me, I can just put it all away and wait for another day – when maybe I’ll be “seeing” a little more clearly – but if I am with a client, then…

Magical Molasses Crinkles If you want a cookie that stays moist and chewy for days – even a week! – this is the cookie for you. Rich and spicy, they are perfect for cold rainy days or cool summer nights and they pair perfectly with grapes and cheeses and an orange-spice herbal tea or that favorite dry white wine you only pull out for special occasions. This cookie is known as Molasses Crinkles and it is indeed magical. This is a cookie my mother used to make all the time and still does. It is from the original (first edition, published in 1950) Betty Crocker Cookbook – I do not…

The Tarot Illuminati I first saw images from the Tarot Illuminati back in 2012 or so on Deviart.com – the Empress card was one of the very first pins on my Pinterest page and I wrote that “these cards aren’t published yet – I can hardly wait to get a set!” Beautifully rendered by Erik Dunne (http://elric2012.deviantart.com/), the entire deck was not ready for publication before May, 2013. I personally did not get my own set until this past Yule. You can see Erik’s new Tarot deck, Tarot Akropolis, at the above link – only a few cards have been posted but they are very much alike the Tarot Illuminati…

The Magic of Applesauce Applesauce is so easy to make I honestly don’t understand why anyone ever buys the stuff they sell in the supermarket. The last time I ate any of that – um – substance was several years ago, and it was in a bag of food I got from a food pantry. It was so bland and watery that I couldn’t even tell that it was made out of apples. I refrigerated it and eventually used it in a cake. I always have apples in my house. An apple is the perfect snack. And apples work so well in pies, kuchens, coffee-cakes and other baked goods. It’s…