This period of change isn’t over and will not be for some time. That means that you, my fellow magician, are in a liminal space where the possibility for deliberate change — for magic — is greatly expanded. Read more
May 8, 2020
Shop Like A Warrior
May 8, 2020 By Tom Swiss
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But on my shopping trips over the past few weeks I’ve been struck by how distracted and unfocused many of my fellow shoppers are. So in this post I’d like to use four fundamental concepts from the Japanese martial arts to discuss strategies for safer and smoother shopping. And perhaps in the process give an example of how the study of the martial arts has much broader application to our lives than merely punching and kicking. Read more
April 5, 2020
A Tarot Reading For The (April) Fool
April 5, 2020 By Tom Swiss
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If we accept the Way of the Fool, we can keep perfect hope even at the edge of the cliff, even in the depths of perfect doubt. (Doubt and hope are a yin and yang pair: opposites, yes, but mutually supporting and constantly transforming into each other.) Read more
March 28, 2020
Papa Legba And The Internet
March 28, 2020 By Tom Swiss
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It is Papa Legba (not “the devil”) whom we meet at the crossroads. And what are the routers and hubs of the internet, where data packets are sent this way or that way, but crossroads? Read more
March 19, 2020
COVID-19: We’re All In This Together
March 19, 2020 By Tom Swiss
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A bit more than twenty years ago, after my 30th birthday, I went away for a long weekend by myself. I rented a cabin in the woods, and spent a few days alone (other than my dogs) thinking and writing, doing some divination and meditation and ritual. No radio, no TV, no computer — and this was the days before smartphones. I came away with some insights worthy of the effort, but the most important insight was one I discovered… Read more
March 8, 2020
Paganism and Countercultures
March 8, 2020 By Tom Swiss
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We might find each of these groups sympathetic. Artists, poets, nature lovers, advocates for alternative medicine, social reformers, naturalists, wanderers — these are our people! They pushed for egalitarianism, creativity, and liberty. But these are not the only countercultures out there. Read more
February 26, 2020
Grid And Growth (52 Make-Up, Part 4)
February 26, 2020 By Tom Swiss
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This image brings to mind the way in which the solid, rational, straight-line world supports — or is infiltrated by — the growing, curling natural world. The natural world declines to be bound by the grid. Instead it grows around it, curls and bends through it, puts the grid to its own uses. Read more
February 14, 2020
Frederick Douglass’s Root Magic
February 14, 2020 By Tom Swiss
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Given the significance of Douglass to the abolition movement, this fight with Covey might fairly be called a turning point in American history — and it was catalyzed by root magic. Read more
February 9, 2020
We All Get To Do Everything, Because We’re All Everyone
February 9, 2020 By Tom Swiss
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I seldom remember my dreams, but sometimes they are humdingers. From this one came a no-self revelation: given the transcendental truth that everyone I see is me, I’ll get to do all the things! There is no “fear of missing out” because I — ***I****, Big Cosmic I That Unifies All — will do everything! Read more
February 1, 2020
Lady Liberty, American Goddess
February 1, 2020 By Tom Swiss
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She is the totem of the United States, and if her attributes seem contradictory and confusing perhaps that’s best seen as a reflection of the animating contest of democracy. (Or maybe there’s a little bit of my lady Eris in her makeup.) Read more
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