However, if you’re interested in studying the I Ching through the lens of Taoist mysticism, my third book with North Atlantic Books, I Ching, The Oracle: A Practical Guide to the Book of Changes is forthcoming in the summer of 2023.
The text will be an updated translation of the Oracle, with a full roster of practicum that will introduce you to East Asian occultism and ritual magic.
Stay tuned!
* Extra if shipping internationally. All U.S. shipping is free, included in order.
Here’s what I’ve been working on for the last, oh, I don’t know… two weeks if not more. And still working on. Will continue to work on until the full moon in Scorpio!
Okay. Here’s the lowdown.
For $40 (and no more, if you’re in the U.S.; plus shipping charges if non-U.S.), you’re getting:
Only 36 50* (fifty sets) available. Once all 50 orders have been reserved, it’s gone.
* To those who somehow managed to get on my private VIP email list and thus received a heads up about this already, I had said I only have 36. Yeah, I can’t count. I wrote that up at the office and my memory thought 36. I was mistaking it for something else. I have 50 of these. Just so you know, I had sent you photos, so you can actually look at the photos I sent you and count the number of vials lined up on my workspace. There were 50 pictured in the photos when I told you 36. Sorry for the sham.
* Oops, sorry, before I could even manage to get this blog post up, there are only 5 (five) left. So this blog post is only about filling up those 5 remaining orders. That way I can start the preparations this weekend for each of the 50 individuals.
Okay, now let’s explain each of the three items you’re getting.
I’m going to walk you through an easy beginner’s methodology for I Ching and tarot divination. We’ll be doing a simple one card tarot draw plus casting I Ching hexagrams by the coin toss method. So in addition to the instructions here for the I Ching divination, I’m presuming you have a tarot deck and know how to operate one. If not, no worries. This doesn’t need to be I Ching and tarot. It can just be I Ching! 🙂
I use traditional coins for my personal practice, but we won’t be needing those today. Any three coins of the same value in your change purse will do. Go find three pennies, or three nickels, or three quarters–whatever pleases you. And give them a good wash.
Here I’m using disinfectant soap and water. Dry them thoroughly. You can use a towel. Anything. Just be practical.
Continue reading “An I Ching and Tarot Divination How-To– Give This a Try”
The 2020 Metaphysician’s Day Planner is Now Available
Click on the above image to visit the product description page.
I juggle a full-time day job in corporate law with writing and publishing books, doing interviews and talks for the book tours, part-time professional tarot reader and astrologer, blogger, avid home cook, and pro bono legal work on the side, all while being a metaphysician and keeping myself buried in metaphysical studies, so I do get asked a lot about how I organize my day. How do I make sure I am on top of my schedule of court appearances, hearings, and conferences for work, my client reading list for tarot and astrology, food prep for the week and menu planning, domestic chores, personal health and fitness, and everything in between?
With a day planner, of course. There is a set way I organize and format my personal day planner to cover everything I do. And now I’d like to share it with you. I’ve put together a 2017 day planner and organizer for the metaphysician.
It’s part day planner–annual, quarterly, monthly, and daily. And it’s part grimoire.Carrying around metaphysical correspondences and quick reference sheets helps immensely with memory retention. It’s my approach to broadening and deepening my esoteric knowledge.
Out on the market right now you’ll see a ton of beautiful, vibrant, inspiring, mind-body-spirit-based day planners and calendars rolling out for sale now.
Mine is none of that.
So if you’re looking for something with lots of pastel colors, inspirational quotes, affirmations, and space for you to jot down your secret desires, then this is not it.
Rather, this is a glimpse into how I organize my life and how I balance professional and personal accomplishment with esoteric studies. I don’t spend three hours filling in blank workbook prompts on what I love about myself. I don’t need “go get ’em, tiger” quotes in sans serif font printed in glittery hues across my planner cover. Instead, my planner is about optimizing the hours of my day and getting stuff done. I need a day organizer that helps me get stuff done. I don’t want color, because color ink is expensive. I want substance and I want economy.
That’s what my day planner is all about. And I’d like to show it to you. I made one up for my sister Cindy, so you’re going to see screenshots of hers for illustration.
Continue reading “The Metaphysician’s Day Planner – Order Today”
I’m often asked about my own journaling methodologies and how I document my personal work. At any given moment in time, I have the above-pictured four books/journals/what-have-you. Each one serves a different purpose for me.
If you want a more in-depth peek inside that big black one you see pictured above, check out this video I uploaded onto my YouTube channel:
Continue reading “Method Journals: Documenting Your Woo-Woo Experiences”
The first hour will be a talk on Taoist cosmology, the history of Fu talismans, the 13 principles of craft as derived from the Yellow Emperor’s Classics of the Esoteric Talisman, intersections of science and magic, and how practitioners use divination to know and then craft to change.
The second hour will be a hands-on workshop where you will use tarot divination to help you design and craft a Fu sigil, working with Chinese oracle bone script. Fu sigil paper consecrated on 11/11, cut and prepared at 11:11 am, and then consecrated at 11:11 pm will be provided for your use. You can take some home with you to craft the sigil. It is recommended that the final sigil be crafted on the day after the workshop, on the full moon.
I’ll bring my Jiao Bei divination moon blocks and set them out on the table top for anyone who seeks to use them for a personal divination. Free for your use at any time during the event. Please handle respectfully.
All attendees will also go home with a consecrated and blessed pocket gemstone, with the hopes that it helps you along in all your magical endeavors.
For more detailed metaphysical correspondences of the gemstones per my perspective, check out this previously uploaded PDF for a glossary of gemstone correspondences. Find the entry for the stone you picked (or the stone that picked you…) in the PDF if the one-two word correspondence on the yellow card wasn’t clear.
Glossary of Gemstone Correspondences (PDF)
Limited copies of Holistic Tarot and The Tao of Craft available for purchase for $20 each.
There will also be book signings if for some reason that interests you.
Check out the “book trailer” I made by clicking above. Or just read below. I put book trailer in quotes because it’s not really a book trailer in the standard sense, as you’ll see.
After Holistic Tarot, I went to work on a book about feng shui. One of the chapters covered feng shui cures, and a common feng shui cure used in East Asian households is the Fu talisman. Growing up in the Western world, I’ve always laughed a little at the Fu talisman. It’s treated like a panacea. Bad feng shui? No problem– Fu talisman. Need a promotion at work? Fu talisman. No luck in finding love? Fu talisman. Weight loss? Yep, Fu talisman. And, of course, there’s also the fantastical–exorcisms and conjurings. How do you summon a demon, repel a hungry ghost, or invoke a tree spirit? Well, the same way you find love or lose weight, silly– a Fu talisman.
Needless to say, I’ve come to realize that’s not quite the right characterization of the Fu. Those would be, yep you’ve guessed it, common mainstream misconceptions of esoteric Taoist practices. In fact, the more I delved into the Fu, the more these centuries-old texts satiated my inner nerd. Not only were the alchemists and ceremonial magicians that thrived thousands of years ago deliberate, precise, detail-oriented, and thorough, much of it resonates closer to modern science than one might presume, though the vocabulary has changed. In The Tao of Craft, many of the end notes cover these parallels. The deeper I went down the rabbit hole of historic research (and experiential practice), the prouder I felt about being who I was, descending from the lines I descend from, and feeling a genuine affinity for my heritage.
Here’s your chance to win a free copy of The Tao of Craft. One winner will be selected on September 16, 2016, weeks before the actual release date. The publisher will then contact you directly for mailing details.
Or father. I’ve been hearing a lot about parenting for pagans and wanted to add my own thoughts. However, I won’t be talking about it from the perspective of the parent. I want to talk about it from the perspective of the child.
Now, my parents are not pagan, mostly because that word is not in their vocabulary. They’re Taiwanese immigrants. However, my mother is a metaphysical practitioner, though she wouldn’t see it that way. What she thinks she does is as natural as cooking, praying, dreaming, meditating, and just using what you have within reach to manifest what you want.
I think that is an important point. Growing up, I never saw what she did as “occult,” though living in the Western society has made me realize that Westerners would define what she does as totally occult. Paying attention to equinoxes and solstices, knowing when the veil was thinnest, when to honor the dead, what to do when there was heightened spirit activity, calling upon the elements of nature and combining it with recitations to make things happen, understanding the phases of the moon– these weren’t seen as pagan.
“After their deaths, in my dreams I went down to the realm your late auntie and uncle were trapped in and it was so cold and dark. They told me they were hungry. So we burned offerings and chanted prayers for them and then many nights later I visited them again. I saw that they were now in a different, better realm, very happy and at peace.” (Mom, paraphrased)
I’ve come to understand that in the Western society, that is absolutely bonkers, but in Mom’s world, that was perfectly normal. And accepted at face value. After a death in the family, she’d relay her dreams and all the relatives would just nod. Yeah, that makes sense, they’d confirm. Okay, let’s burn offerings and chant prayers. And then they’d all wait for Mom’s post-dream-shamanic-travels to verify that the offerings and chanting worked. Mom always said that dead people liked to call to her from the post-mortem realms they were in, and so she’d go to them in her dream state to bring back messages for the living. God, growing up when that happened, I’d cover my ears and run out of the room and make it clear to all who’d listen that I thought all of this was batshit crazy.
Continue reading “Magical Parenting: The Metaphysician Mother”
I met the Venerable Sheng-Yen, a Buddhist monk, teacher, and scholar, when I was too young and too immature to have appreciated the encounter. For that I will always be regretful for not being more open and receptive when I had the chance. Here, though, the Internet is a wonderful thing. Apparently, many of Ven. Sheng-Yen’s lectures have been recorded and posted onto YouTube. The lectures are in Mandarin Chinese, but there’s English subtitles. The one of highest interest to those in tarot practice might be what the Shi Fu had to say about magic, the supernatural, and psychic workings.
I highly recommend watching the video in the entirety, but if you can’t I’ll summarize.
A question is presented to the Shi Fu (Shi Fu is the honorific we use to refer to any master teacher): What are his thoughts on supernatural powers (in other words, magical practice or working with spiritual energies) and does he think it really exists?
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