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One of the advantages of giving a workshop on the first day of Paganicon was the accrued feedback.

Over the course of the next two days, numerous folks approached me and thanked me for the workshop. In such situations, I always ask: “What stood out to you? What will you remember most, say, a year from now?”

Three of them said exactly the same thing in response: “The stories.”

Naturally, I followed up with: “Did you have a favorite?”

Gratifyingly, each of the three cited a different story. One woman repeated hers back to me virtually word-for-word: an impressive feat of memory, after only one hearing.

In the absence of writing, how do oral cultures pass on information?

Perhaps you have been overwhelmed recently by a series of unfortunate events – problems with work, finances, etc.–seemingly beyond your control. Do away with these burdens as quickly as possible. This spell requires paper, a black candle, a flat rock with a hollow in the center to set the candle into, a black ink pen, and a “cancellation” stamp, readily available at any stationary store. Anoint your candle with a drop of peppermint oil. Dress your altar with a peony blossom, the luckiest of the flower family. The consummate time to release bad luck is immediately after the full moon. Write what you wish to be freed from on a piece of parchment or stationary; this is your “release request.” Write this same request onto the candle as well. Ideally, this is scratched into the candle with the thorn of a rose you have grown yourself. Light the candle near an open window so the negative energy will leave your home. While the candle burns, intone:

Waxing moon, moist wise Cybele, from me this burden please dispel. Upon this night so clear and bright I release __ to the moon tonight.

You are designing a ritual to be enacted around a standing stone. The ritual includes three constituent parts:

• A round-dance around the standing stone.
• Crowning the standing stone with a circlet of flowers.
• Pouring a libation over the standing stone.

What does a witch like her want with the body of an executed criminal?

Don't ask me, I'm just the go-for guy. You want it, I'll get it for you: for the right price, anyway. Me, I don't know anything about magic, and—believe me—you don't want to, either.

Call it plausible deniability.

(I hear she cooks 'em down into a topnotch flying ointment, but maybe that's just a story.)

Anyway, her silver's as good as anybody's. Twenty years now I've been sourcing for her, and in all that time, she's never had one single complaint, and never once stiffed me. Good business, that.

Good money too, if you don't mind getting your hands dirty.

Well, son, time to learn the family trade. Beats honest work any day of the moon, ha ha.

Just leave the cart there, then come on over and help me move this stone, would you?

Oh, and bring the sack too, while you're at it.

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I first heard the wisdom of the visionary teacher and writer Louise Hay 25 years ago when my dear friend Duncan gifted me his well-worn cassette tape of her speaking about how to develop a mindset of abundance. I admittedly brought a bit of a scarcity mindset to California with me from West Virginia and was eager to learn new ways. I loved Louise Hay’s insights, which were wholly new to me. Duncan patiently explained to me his takeaways from Hay’s wisdom and how it had worked for him and changed his life for the better. When paying bills, instead of resenting the utility that had supplied water and electricity, write the check, seal the envelope, and say aloud “Thank you, Pacific Gas and Electric, for supplying me with power for my home and trusting me to pay you. Blessings to you, PG&E!” We even began a ritual of paying bills together and then walking to the mailbox and pronouncing our gratitude to all the recipients of our money. We even added the finishing touch of kissing the stamped envelopes and saying “Thank you!” before dropping them in for mailing. We got some looks of surprise at our mailbox rituals but we believed wholeheartedly in Louise Hay, and doing that had been working for Duncan. Soon, it began to work for me and I fully embraced the mindset. Most surprising of all, I stopped being filled with dread and worry when bills came in and started paying them the same day they came in, whenever possible. In addition to adopting an attitude of abundance, it helped my credit score!

In the early 1990’s, we had to go to the mailbox for our 5-minute gratitude ritual. Nowadays with all the instantaneous ways of sending money and electronic payments, it might be closer to a 5-second ritual. However, before you hit “send”, get into your Manifestor’s Mindset and express thanks before you click or tap. This attitude of abundance that stems from the mindset is like a muscle; the more you use it, the stronger it will be and you will see many manifestations.

The strange thing was, he felt no fear.

No fear whatsoever.

As a boy, my friend loved staying with grandma and grandpa on the farm.

He loved the tall, tall corn.

He loved the barn, with its animal smell.

He loved having his own room.

The first thing that he noticed when he woke that night was the smell.

It was the smell that you smell walking into the forest: bright ozone and sweet, dark decay.

He opened his eyes. The Leaf Man stood in the doorway, filling the doorway.

He felt no fear at all. Rather, he felt safe, protected.

The Leaf Man said nothing. He wanted him to, though.

He wanted him to come into the room, pick him up, and hold him in his arms.

He wanted to be his friend.

When he woke in the morning, the doorway, of course, was empty.

“What a strange dream,” he thought.

But when his grandma came to the door to wake him for breakfast, she looked puzzled.

“Where did all these leaves come from?” she asked. “Why is there dirt all over the floor?”