Author: benebell

History of Taoist and Buddhist Mysticism in China

On By benebellIn Tao of Craft (book), Taoism7 Comments

This is the continuation of a six-part video series I’m doing on Taoist and Buddhist Mysticism as it has been practiced historically and culturally among the Han. Video 1 released earlier was the Introduction to Buddhist-Taoist Esotericism. We are now on to Video 2.

2. History of Taoist and Buddhist Mysticism in China

In this video lecture, we are going to cover over 4,000 years of history, going through the dynasties, beginning with the Xia, Shang, and Zhou, until we reach modern China. Our coverage will span beyond 4,000 years, preceding the Xia, to talk about shamanism in the Neolithic Era.

Works cited for everything covered in this lecture are in the end notes of The Tao of Craft (North Atlantic Books, 2016).

Next Lecture: Taoist Sorcery and Its Cultural Practice

All videos in this series are closed-captioned for the deaf, hard of hearing, or those whose native tongue isn’t English. I’ve also made my best attempt at accommodating for the blind. If there is room for improvement in these regards, I’m open to friendly critique. Thank you!

For the full playlist, go here:

tinyurl.com/chineseoccultism

Continue reading “History of Taoist and Buddhist Mysticism in China” →

Introduction to Buddhist-Taoist Esotericism

On By benebellIn Tao of Craft (book), Taoism10 Comments

Taoism is a nature-based religion, philosophy, and a 2,000 year old tradition of sorcery native to China since the Zhou Dynasty. In that same time, Buddhism enters China and a modality of it–esoteric Buddhism–is blended in with Taoist magic. Yet the roots of Taoist magic trace back even further than the dynasties of antiquity, back to Neolithic shamanism.

This introductory six-video lecture series will cover the ontology, theory, history, and cultural practice of sorcery at the intersection of esoteric Buddhism and Taoism. You’re on Video #1: Introduction to Buddhist-Taoist Esotericism.

1: Introduction to Buddhist-Taoist Esotericism

2: History of Taoist and Buddhist Mysticism in China

3: Taoist Sorcery and Its Cultural Practice

4: Taoist Metaphysics

5: Chinese Occultism as a Syncretic Practice

6: Taoist Magic in Contemporary Times

I’m creating this lecture series as an invitation to you to learn more about the occult traditions I practice. I hope you find within these offerings bits of insight, knowledge, and methods that you can integrate, syncretize, adopt into your own Path.

For the full playlist, go here:

tinyurl.com/chineseoccultism

Continue reading “Introduction to Buddhist-Taoist Esotericism” →

Top 5 Oracle Decks of 2018

On By benebellIn deck review, oracle deck, tarot community1 Comment

Continuing with the 31 Days of Tarot community challenge by Ethony, let’s talk about my top five oracle decks for 2018.

These are my top five oracle decks from the previous year, meaning (1) acquired the deck in the year 2018, and (2) actually worked with the deck in 2018, but most of these were published well before 2018.

The Celtic Shaman’s Pack by John Matthews and Chesea Potter is a deck I plan on reviewing in-depth at some future point. It’s an older deck that was then re-released  (and given a redesign) in 2017, but one I didn’t acquire myself until 2018. And I love it. Wow, I can’t even.

The guidebook that comes with the cards is everything you want to get you oriented in working with Celtic shamanism for yourself. I cannot shower this oracle deck with enough high praise, except to say you’ve got to try it to believe it. You can look forward to me posting a deck review of it this year, in 2019.

Continue reading “Top 5 Oracle Decks of 2018” →

Top 5 Tarot Decks of 2018

On By benebellIn deck review, tarot, tarot communityLeave a comment

In 2018 we saw so many incredibly innovative and ground-breaking decks to name that I could not reduce it down to just five. This was a difficult list to make and I wish I could name more. I even thought about doing a special mentions section, but then even that would get unduly long!

These are my top five tarot decks from 2018, though two of these decks were published in 2017. Also, my own deck, Spirit Keeper’s Tarot, was disqualified, since come on. I can’t pick my own deck.

Continue reading “Top 5 Tarot Decks of 2018” →

31 Days of Tarot 2019: Day 1

On By benebellIn tarot community5 Comments

How many years before something becomes a tradition? I don’t know. In any event, you may have heard of Ethony Dawn’s yearly “31 Days of Tarot” community challenge that she hosts every year.

You can watch Ethony’s YouTube video here introducing the 2019 prompts and get the full listing here on her website. Be sure to also connect in to the tarot YouTube community or find the community on Instagram via the hashtag #31daysoftarot19 to catch up on what everybody else is saying in response to each of the daily prompts.

I’ll be participating via Instagram and by blog posts (though after the first few prompts, I’ll be aggregating the daily prompts into end-of-the-week blog post recaps).

Reading, Energy, Major Lesson for 2019

I’m using a prototype test deck for Spirit Keeper’s Tarot where I’m test printing different shadings of sepia and different styles of the parchment background to get the aesthetics as close to what I want as possible. In the SKT deck, you’re given 3 versions of Key 0 to choose from for a significator card. For this reading prompt, I’m using The Seeker card as my Key 0 significator.

Continue reading “31 Days of Tarot 2019: Day 1” →

Introduction to Chinese Esotericism

On By benebellIn Tao of Craft (book), Taoism14 Comments

Taoism is a nature-based religion, philosophy, and a 2,000 year old tradition of sorcery native to China since the Zhou Dynasty. In that same time, Buddhism enters China and a modality of it–esoteric Buddhism–is blended in with Taoist magic. Yet the roots of Taoist magic trace back even further than the dynasties of antiquity, back to Neolithic shamanism. This introductory six-video lecture series will delve in to Chinese occult practices that syncretize Buddhism and Taoism.

Video 1 is an introduction to the course and the distinction between exoteric and esoteric Taoist/Buddhist practices. Video 2 covers the history of Taoist and Buddhist mysticism in China. Video 3 gets into the cultural practice of Taoist sorcery while Video 4 gives you a crash course into Eastern metaphysics. Finally, Videos 5 and 6 will give a primer on practicing or integrating Taoist magic and esoteric Buddhism into your path.

1: Introduction to Buddhist-Taoist Esotericism

2: History of Taoist and Buddhist Mysticism in China

3: Taoist Sorcery and Its Cultural Practice

4: Taoist Metaphysics

5: A Thought Tour of the Chinese Occult

6: Taoist Magic in Contemporary Times

I’m creating this lecture series as an invitation to you to learn more about the occult traditions I practice. I hope you find within these offerings bits of insight, knowledge, and methods that you can integrate, syncretize, or adapt for yourself.

For the full playlist, go here:

tinyurl.com/chineseoccultism

Continue reading “Introduction to Chinese Esotericism” →

Redesigning Cards in SKT for the New Edition

On By benebellIn create your own deck, Spirit Keeper's Tarot12 Comments
Scan of the pen and ink line drawings that will become the new card back design

It’s been back to the drawing board for me on account of a few cards from Spirit Keeper’s Tarot. As a rare books and art collector myself, I have some sense of considerations for what retains value of limited edition decks, and I wanted to honor those who supported me in the first edition black and white run by doing everything in my control to assure that your acquisition of the SKT first edition deck was a worthwhile investment. =)

Rejected drafts of card back designs.

I see SKT #2 as a sibling of SKT #1. It’s the same deck the same way siblings share the same DNA, but there are distinct physical and personality differences between #1 and #2. At least that is my hope for what you’ll be able to perceive between the two editions.

First, let’s just talk about the drawings. I’ll share with you which cards I’ve scrapped entirely, went back to a blank drawing board, and did an entirely new illustration.

Continue reading “Redesigning Cards in SKT for the New Edition” →

My 2018 Year in Review

On By benebellIn personal, personal spirituality16 Comments

I used to do this by newsletter, but I accidentally deleted my regular newsletter mailing list in Mailchimp and then couldn’t figure out how to get it back. Oops.

To write up this year in review, I took out my 2018 Metaphysician’s Day Planner and went through the pages, the months at a glance, weeks at a glance, the divinatory forecasts, reflection notes, and everything I documented this past year. I’m gearing up to write in all my goals, resolutions, and plans for 2019 soon.

If you’d like to order a Metaphysician’s Day Planner for 2019, you can read more about it here before you buy.

Order Your 2019 Metaphysician’s Day Planner

Comes with a free 2019 Metaphysician’s Guidebook

If you’re into that whole tarot year thing (where you add up the digits for your month of birth, day of birth, and then this current year, 2018, then reduce it down to a number 1 through 22), then 2018 was a Strength/Justice year for me (depending on how you ascribe Key 8 in the Majors). I’m gonna guess my life path has programmed itself to the RWS system because it was definitely more of a Strength-y year than Justice-y.

Continue reading “My 2018 Year in Review” →

Is there a pagan community? PantheaCon’s current issues 2018 and my concerns.

On By benebellIn conferences, opinion, personal, personal spirituality, tarot community23 Comments

This month, PantheaCon has been under scrutiny. A firestorm has erupted, dividing the community and showing us where the rifts are, perhaps rifts that have been here for a very long time. The Wild Hunt summarized the issue succinctly in this December 3 post (first three paragraphs).

Presenters were announced for the 2019 PantheaCon scheduled programming and segments of the community weren’t happy about two of those presenters. The trans community reported concerns with Max Dashu’s alleged stance against trans women participating in events intended to celebrate biologically-born women.[*] Pagans of color reported concerns with Witchdoctor Utu’s alleged cultural appropriation. In both instances, I want to emphasize “alleged” not just for legal reasons, but because there really are disputes about whether these allegations are even true or have, at least in part, been misrepresented and factually distorted.

[*] – Psst… please see updated notes at the end of this post.

In response, the organizers at PantheaCon then un-invited the two controversial presenters. Yes– their presentations were accepted, announced to the public, and then in response to the reported concerns, un-invited publicly and neither will now be presenting at PantheaCon 2019.

PantheaCon has also issued a public statement here (undated) noting that it was “a mistake to include Max Dashu in the program” because having Dashu at the event could pose a safety issue for the trans community. Furthermore, “all trans-exclusionary advocates and those in close association with them will not be presenting at PantheaCon for the foreseeable future.”

A late November issue of pagan community notes from The Wild Hunt, here, reports that allegedly Witchdoctor Utu was un-invited from presenting at PantheaCon 2019 because of his “veneration of certain black ancestors and the Underground Railroad” that were construed as cultural appropriation (Witchdoctor Utu is not black). Yet let’s not overlook the public support Witchdoctor Utu has received from native practitioners of the tradition he practices, so really, the only conclusion anyone can take away from this is the community is divided. For another perspective, Irene McCalphin of Mammy Is Dead shared a beautiful, powerful, and poetic piece here, “Social Gaslighting and the Make Witches Great Again (MWGA): Love Letter to QTPOC Witches here inspired by what went down with the PantheaCon and Witchdoctor Utu controversy.

Further note that members from all camps on all sides have reported receiving death threats, hateful and demeaning even defamatory remarks, trolling, and doxxing. Several members of the pagan community who dared to take a public stand along one of those noted position lines then had to subsequently disable all their social media accounts because they began receiving death threats, hate, and harassment. I believe every one of those members who say they’ve received death threats and harassment because I get those too for the most asinine reasons– like, “I hate what you said about reiki/starseeds/hexes/the tarot and you’re a total ignorant stupid bitch I hope you die a miserable lonely death and watch out my coven is going to curse you fuck you bitch die die die.” Not kidding. So I’m not one bit surprised people are sending death threats over serious controversial issues like the ones presented here.

Continue reading “Is there a pagan community? PantheaCon’s current issues 2018 and my concerns.” →

Healers of the Earth Oracle by Mandy Peterson: A Review

On By benebellIn deck review, oracle deck3 Comments

The winter holidays are upon us and if you’re still shopping for your favorite spiritual friend, I’m really digging the Healers of the Earth Oracle by Mandy Peterson. It’s a complete divination kit all on its own, so no prior knowledge of cartomancy is needed. And if you do happen to be a seasoned cartomancy pro, this is a really fun deck to add to your collection. It’s extraordinarily functional in both the capacity as stand alone oracle card readings and as supplemental readings (where you pull a card or two from an oracle deck after a tarot reading).

The deck comes beautifully presented in a brown paper package tied up with string that is going to wow whoever you gift this to. It was designed specifically for empaths and earth sensitives intended to help you better clarify your own intuition.

Earth sensitives (also known as earth empaths), according to Peterson, are individuals who are hypersensitive to environmental changes, and therefore find that their own emotions are tied to natural disasters, war, social conflicts, and cyclic changes around them. Healers of the Earth Oracle is intended to help earth sensitives gain greater control over their empathic abilities.

Peterson had set out to create a healing divination tool and that she did. There are also strong tones of social justice, community service, and contributing to the world around you that run throughout the messages in this deck. The artist herself is a professional psychic, New Age spirituality author, and artist.

The deck set is packaged in a sturdy matte finish white sleeve box with a clean, immaculate aesthetic. The artwork for the deck is rendered through digital collage, using stock images that are then enhanced by Peterson.

The color palette is soft, muted, and beautiful. There are 73 cards in total, numbered up to 72, with a Card 0: The Intangible. The Intangible will indicate that at this time, future cannot yet be knowable and more flow is required before a matter can be ascertained. Card 71 is an omen for healing, in particular faith healing or the laying on of hands. The highest numbered card in the deck is 72: Divine Feminine, and that truly encapsulates the point of view for Healers of the Earth. There’s a strong lean toward expressions of the Divine Feminine.

Continue reading “Healers of the Earth Oracle by Mandy Peterson: A Review” →