2025 is poised to bring rapid technological advancements with artificial intelligence, an increasing need for global response to climate change, continued escalation of geopolitical conflicts, and deepening societal faultlines, with much of that all but written in the stars.
Let’s talk about general global forecasts for the year to come. We’ll cover the following:
It’s that time of the year again, for the Metaphysician’s Day Planner. You get the day planner customized with your birth chart, solar returns chart (note specific casting method), and what you’d like printed on the interior first page.
Quarterly planning page spread sample
For 2025, the optional add-on is a Past Life Astrology Course, which comes with a hefty Handbook.
The Baopuzi 抱樸子 (circa 300 – 343 AD) by the celebrated alchemist and polymath Ge Hong 葛洪 is a Taoist grimoire that I would posit to be the most if not one of the most influential and impactful texts on Taoist mysticism.
Scans of the text you see in this video are from here [四部備要], this copy of it archived between 1924 and 1931 as part of a national effort to preserve essential ancient Chinese texts. You can also access a digitized version of it via the Chinese Text Project, ctext.org here.
This write-up is the companion blog post to the video to provide some additional notes on the Liu Jia Secret Mantra and other fun (to me) tidbits from the Baopuzi.
I’m a huge Thorn Mooney fan. I’ve been following her work since, gosh, over a decade ago when people were still uploading grainy YouTube videos of late-night ramblings about the Craft. Witches Among Us: Understanding Contemporary Witchcraft and Wicca (Llewellyn Books, Oct. 2024) is her third book.
In writing Witches Among Us, Mooney wears dual hats: that of the religious studies scholar and that of a longtime practitioner with experience in multiple traditions. In reviewing Witches Among Us, I’m wearing the hat of someone who is witch-adjacent. I do believe I am within the target readership because I am not part of the in-group of contemporary witchcraft or Wicca, and therefore I am reading this book to learn more about that group.
I stumbled upon an online discussion criticizing Fabrizio Pregadio’s translation of gui 鬼 to “demon, devil” [in Encyclopedia of Taoism (2008)], calling this translation inaccurate and problematic. The commenters in that discussion thread preferred the translation of gui to “ghost,” emphatically declaring that gui as ghost is the right approach, and that equating gui to demon or devil is wrong.
The rationale was that demon and devil have a connotation of evil in the West, which the term gui does not have. The term “ghost” is a bit more neutral – they say – and so gui as ghost is the better translation.
This was something I found helpful from a leadership workshop I participated in, and so I would like to share it with you. I believe the original source or credit goes to Tony Schwartz in The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working (2011).
It’s a personal energy audit worksheet, and then based on your self-assessed scores, set goals and commit to practices that will raise your energy levels in these four fields: spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical.
We often talk about productivity and time management, when really perhaps the conversation should be focused on productivity and energy levels. If you don’t have sufficient energy to invest in your endeavors, then it’s harder to be productive. So you want to make sure you have sufficient energy, at all times.
This worksheet helps you to audit and assess your energy levels, and thus immediately implement changes as needed to raise your energy levels in the areas where they are low.
Also known as the: 三皇文 (sān huáng wén); 三皇經 (sān huáng jīng); 三皇内文 (sān huáng nèi wén); Version transmitted to Ge Hong: 小有三皇文 (xiao you sān huáng wén)
Is the Seal of the Nine Immortal Realms 九老仙部印圖 from the Secret Book of the Three Sovereigns 三皇內文遺秘, which is now canonized in the Daozang, or Taoist Canons, part of the lost, legendary grimoire, the Book of the Three Sovereigns 三皇文?
According to lore, during the Three Kingdoms Era (220 – 280 AD), the Taoist mystic and later an ascended master Bó Hé 帛和 finds this text buried inside a stone wall atop Mount Xīchéng 西城山. From Bó Hé’s teachings arose of the earliest traditions of Taoist magic: the School of Bó Taoism 帛家道 (bó jiā dào), or The Way of Bó. Popular among the upper class during the Jin (266 – 420 AD) and Wei (386 – 534 AD) dynasties in the northern central plains of China, the tradition focused on study of the Book of Three Emperors and formulated their own approach to talismanic magic, invocation of gods, and alchemy.
Then, around 300 AD, atop Mount Songshan 嵩山, the Taoist occultist Bao Liang 鲍靓 receives this text painted on silk, as transmitted to Bó Hé. Bao Liang was a renowned master of various occult practices, from astrology and alchemy to necromancy. He married his daughter Bao Gu to the alchemist Ge Hong.
Random photo inserted here because pretty. Don’t hate the player hate the game.
I’m looking forward to many and different voices adding to the discussion “Social Media Witchcraft: A Community Conversation About the Things That Divide Us” via the hashtag #OcculTea. The hosts are kickstarting the conversation off with these videos from Ella Harrison, Polish Folk Witch, and The Redheaded Witch.
“All members of the occult & witchcraft community – not just content creators or big names, but everybody” is invited to participate in this discussion, with the hope that the hosts might later facilitate a live community panel.
If you’re reading my blog in the year 2024, then you probably already know a thing or two about me. But in case you’re new here by way of the hashtag, hi! I’m the author of three books: I Ching, The Oracle; The Tao of Craft; and Holistic Tarot. You’ll often find me as a keynote at various tarot and witchy conferences.
By day I am a practicing attorney and my career obligations occupy most of my time. Writing and creating educational videos on topics I’m passionate about and reviewing books and decks to help promote artists and creatives are my hobbies.
I was born and raised in the cultural traditions of both Buddhism and Taoism. I trained in Buddhism, spent nearly every summer month from early childhood until young adulthood at monasteries sweeping floors, doing shaolin (badly), and meditating. There’s this joke among us Asians that you know an Asian kid grew up in Buddhism when they don’t know any of their masters’ names. Because they were all just shi fu to us. =)
also known as the Wen Shi Zhen Jing: Sutra of Magical Spells and Aphorisms for Attaining Primordial Truth
The more recognized naming convention for the sutra is the Guan Yinzi (闕尹子) or Wen Shi Zhen Jing (文始真經) attributed to the gatekeeper who Laozi encountered.
The Guan Yinzi (or Wen Shi Zhen Jing)
According to lore, the gatekeeper at the Western Pass, named Yinxi 尹喜, later given the name Wenshi (文始), transcribed the teachings of Laozi and that text became the Tao Te Ching (道德經). Alternate tellings have Laozi writing the teachings down into two books himself, which the gatekeeper then receives.
I previously showed the above in a #54321tarot tag. Whether you get the coins or cards, if you’re interested in the 72 angels correspondences, there’s a free download from me at the very end of this walk-through.
The download is so you can do a direct comparison between the 72 angels and tarot correspondences per Christine Payne-Towler’s Tarot of the Holy Light and the tarot correspondences per Frater Setnakh.
benebell wen 