I’m an I Ching aficionado and also a tarot aficionado, wrote chonky books on both subjects, so naturally I’ve thought long and hard about how the two systems reconcile. This page is a download of a tarot and I Ching correspondence table for your easy go-to referencing.
Continue reading “Tarot and I Ching Correspondences (Reference)”
Cross-posted from my newly minted Substack
I see auras. And also, I pay no attention to them. For most of my life I presumed it was a defect with my eyesight or brain or both — which by the way, that’s most likely it.
That said, medical explanations don’t take away from the spiritual implications, at least not for me. Ocular migraines and severe astigmatism are both known to cause a person to see a halo-like glow around people. Chronic dry eyes and corneal irregularities compounding ocular migraines and astigmatism can then make the glow appear to bear color.
Synesthesia can also be another culprit for what we think of as seeing auras. Your senses get cross-wired, so you see color when you hear sounds, hear musical notes when you see colors, and feel notes and numbers on a musical scale in different bones; likewise, someone’s presence — which we can all sense, it’s the “vibes” you get off a person — can get color-coded, and that’s the aura color a synthesthete might see.
Having not just one or some but all of the aforementioned conditions is probably why, medically speaking, this is what I see when I look at people:
Continue reading “Seeing Auras; Ascribing Meaning: Sensory Experience vs. Moral Evaluation”
Note: I wrote this after two generous glasses of port on an empty stomach…
Every so often, someone calls my translation of the I Ching or my work-in-progress on the Tao Te Ching “New Age.” They’ll say it dismissively, as if they’ve discredited the authenticity of my work, and the legitimacy of my scholarship. Funnier yet, not one has been able to competently articulate how and why my work is more “New Age” than its counterparts. For some reason, my interpretation is automatically assumed to be wrong if it departs from what some old white guy from the 50s wrote about these Chinese texts, and we give the old white guy, taking a Christianized outsider perspective, miles and miles of grace.
When pressed, their explanation collapses onto itself in circular reasoning. “It just sounds New Agey.” Or “Well it’s because she’s an occultist so she can’t possibly be unbiased, neutral, objective, and scholarly.” They’ll say it doesn’t sound like “ancient Chinese wisdom.” And that expectation is problematic.
Continue reading “When People Call My Work “New Age,” What They Really Mean”
Frater Setnakh is one of the most incredible, detail-oriented artisans of ritual artifacts I’ve come across. I’ve previously reviewed the 72 Angels Talisman Coins and Cards he sent me, which I keep on display in my sitting room. Here I’ll be showcasing his latest offering, Tarot Coins, along with the Guardian Angel Coins, or Seven Archangels.
The detailing on these coins is incredible, so I’ll also be showing a zoomed-in view of several of the coins, photo essay style. You can click on any of the images and magnify the photo to see just how fine the craftsmanship is here and each coin’s delicate engraving.
Per the ritual artifact description, this is the “world’s very first collection of tarot coins inspired by the Rider-Waite deck.” And personally I have yet to see tarot coins crafted at this level of detail and intricacy. They’re simply exquisite.
Continue reading “Frater Setnakh’s Tarot Coins and Archangels Set”
Recently I came across this video essay by a fellow community content creator on YouTube who had some candid critiques of authors, influencers, and content creators from our mutual community. She shared frustrations about seeing a growing disconnect between those who create content and those who consume content, i.e., the audience that supports an author or content creator.
She had a lot of very legit criticism of the present day online creator ecosystem. Bots and AI-generated responses, monetizing parasocial relationships in a way that feels exploitative, the end of peer to peer communications and the rise of transactional relationships, alienating many socioeconomic classes with paywalls, and having assistants manage community spaces rather than the big-name content creator themselves engaging in those community spaces — I hear you. All valid points speaking truth to power. Also, her concerns speak to something deeper– the loneliness and disconnection many of us feel online these days. Where has that sense of fellowship gone?
Though as someone who also writes, publishes, and maintains an online presence, I have some strong feelings about these points, particularly around community engagement and the unrealistic expectations that get imposed on authors and content creators.
I’d like to unpack some of those critiques, not just from that one YouTuber or from that particular video essay, but because what she said reflects a majority view currently held against content creators when they’re not being responsive in their comments section. I want to offer my perspective. But this isn’t a response to that video, no. These are just my reflections on the realities of engagement, from a content creator’s perspective, inspired by the points she raised in that video.
Continue reading “Are Authors and Content Creators Obligated to Engage?”
The Mindscapes Tarot by Jon A. Rice reimagines the seventy-eight archetypes of the tarot as genii locorum, spirits of place. Each card becomes a landscape imbued with its own consciousness, where the environment itself embodies the message. Rather than relying on human figures, Rice lets terrain, light, atmosphere, and color palette serve as the language of the archetype. The result is a meditative exploration of how spirit expresses through land, with each card a window into an immersive world.
Like many tarot decks conceived in recent years, Mindscapes Tarot was birthed during the pandemic. It feels especially poignant that a deck devoted to landscapes and many worlds was born during a time when we were all sheltered-in-place. When travel was restricted and the physical world felt distant and uncertain, the artist turned inward, journeying through imagination rather than geography. The resulting images captures a longing for openness and connection.
This is Part II of what we started in Part I on the Lesser Mandala of Heaven. Part II covers the Greater Mandala of Heaven, and in doing so, provides an advanced introduction to Taoist alchemy.
We are continuing from Part I, so I’ll presume you’re already familiar with what we covered there. If you haven’t watched that video lecture “A Taoist Secret to Cultivating Personal Power: Inner Alchemy Basics,” please do before proceeding.
In this introduction, I want to explore the inner logic that underlies one of the world’s most sophisticated (in my opinion) systems of spiritual cultivation. I intend for this intro to be a deep-dive into the heart of Taoist alchemy by delineating the Greater Mandala of Heaven.
The ultimate goal of Taoist alchemy is to transform the finite into the infinite, matter into spirit, and limitation into transcendence. We cover this ground by first understanding the distinction made between inner alchemy and outer alchemy.
Philosophically, this is a system and tradition that presents a compelling perspective on how Change happens.
In addition to the two texts mentioned in Part I, these are some of the oft-cited sources of insight on the Greater Mandala of Heaven 大周天. The titles are hyperlinked to the full texts over at ctext.org (the Chinese Text Project). While CTP as a site has its limitations, it’s one of the best free, accessible, and online databases for primary sources of pre-modern Chinese texts, so it’s the most user-friendly for folks like you and me.
This is a walk-through of the 2026 Metaphysician’s Day Planner (MDP), highlighting new changes and edits from previous years’ MDPs and how I use my MDP. Just a reminder: If you’d like to order your 2026 MDP, go HERE.
But also, I’ve provided all the digital MS Word templates that I use to create the MDPs year to year so that you don’t even have to buy mine, but can build your own. You can download all the digital templates HERE.
My favorite part about the MDP offering is you choose your own cover art design. On THIS PAGE where you can find the template downloads, you’ll also find Dropbox links to download various cover art design options, or take the specs (you’ll find this in the MDP General Guide PDF) to design your own from scratch.
For my 2026 MDP, I’m going with this 15th century ink scroll Buddhist art of the Six Paramitas, which in Mahayana Buddhism often gets associated with the Six Bodhisattvas. This then inspired one of the journaling self-reflection page spreads that I added to this year’s MPD.
I would consider the very red cover design out of character for me. For the last three years I went with very blue choices, and heck, didn’t even get all that creative this year for my 2025 cover. I just thought, hey, this worked for 2024, I’m just going to re-use it for 2025.
Continue reading “About the 2026 Metaphysician’s Day Planner”
NOTE: we will be out of the country and without access to our email from November 22nd to December 10th. We will process any orders received during this time by December 12th. Thank you for your understanding and patience. Apologies for any inconvenience.
The Metaphysician’s Day Planner (MDP) is going to continue, at least for another year, though for 2026, as a “Lite” scaled back offering. It’s $17 for the personalized day planner customized with your natal chart and 2026 solar returns chart, e-delivered to your e-mail address as a digital file (PDF). We recommend using Lulu.com (not sponsored) a third-party print-on-demand site to print the physical spiral-bound copy of your MDP.
For a section by section, feature by feature walk-through of the 2026 MDP, CLICK HERE.
A few weeks ago I announced that we were retiring the annual Metaphysician’s Day Planner offering, after nine consecutive years of making them, each one custom-made to order with your birth chart and that year’s solar return chart. Plus the companion Metaphysician’s Guide that comes with the year ahead’s astrological forecasts, auspicious dates, inauspicious dates, and the dates to notable astrological or astronomical events.
Although we won’t be selling and making them anymore, we also didn’t want to leave you in a lurch, especially since we acknowledge that many of you have come to rely on it year after year. First, thank you so, so very much for your support over so many years. That’s amazing! Second, thank you for your understanding, patience, and sympathies that it’s just no longer feasible for us to be doing this, as our process is entirely manual and “old school” in this new world of everything getting generated instantly by digital automation.
I changed my mind and I am offering a “MDP Lite” version for 2026, which you can learn more about HERE. The layout design for many of the classic sections have been updated, and I will be updating some of the reference content as well.
You can still download the templates for the past day planner design and layout, however.
Continue reading “Create Your Own Metaphysician’s Day Planner: Downloadable Templates”
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