EXCITING NEWS! TAROT PROJECT UNDERWAY!

We are very excited to announce that Pino and the artist Torey (Torey is an administrator of the Magicka Forum and creator of MagickaSpace) have now begun a Tarot design project. If you would like to follow the latest developments please join Pino Longchild's Facebook page or watch out for news on MagickaSpace.

As anyone familiar with the Tarot will realise, this is a huge and ambitious undertaking that is scheduled to take around 4 years to complete.

The Major Arcana cards will be the first to be designed, starting with the Fool, the Hanged Man and Judgement (to find out why visit Pino Longchild on Facebook).

UPDATE! Phase 1: The Fool
The first phase of the project is now underway! Pino has now completed his vision of the first card in the project, The Fool.

Notes on The Fool by Pino Longchild - September 20, 2009
“The whole picture is a glyph of the creative light” Aleister Crowley, Book of Thoth, p.69.

I have deliberately tried to keep the symbolism of The Fool uncomplicated. This is because the essence of The Fool is innocence and simplicity.

The task of representing The Fool is a bit like explaining a Zen koan…The koan is simple and perfect, with a meaning that can be understood by those who are intuitive, yet, when trying to explain it rationally, the original meaning is lost in a blizzard of words…

I have done my best to write a light snow shower…and when [Torey] depict(s) the card it might be best if [he] tries to do the same…

A Number of Important Things
Perhaps the most important thing about The Fool is that the card represents zero. This is the zero from where come all things; the Kabbalistic zero above the Tree of Life.

Because it represents zero it is also in a sense the beginning and end. It is where all things start and ultimately what all things become.

As the Beginning the card should have an overwhelming sense of freshness, and yet, as it is also the End, there should be a hint of finality (this is difficult to put into words…it’s not exactly a sense of death, more an air of unknowable nothingness, beyond existence…

(Read more here and see the first sketch!.....................)

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...Interview with Arch Priestess, author and tarotist Mary K Greer...Marcus Katz continues his articles on living Witchcraft...and Frances Billinghurst writes about the Wytches' God!

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A Turning to Fire by Kim Potter
A Turning to Fire
For Pagans who follow the Wheel of the Year, Imbolc marks the ebbing of winter and beginning of spring. Originating in Ireland, the word itself means “in the belly”, and referred to lactating ewes, Though to us this may have connotations of the pregnant period before birth, to our ancestors this must have been a tangible sign of relief from the harshness of winter and the scarcity of food.
It is at this time the snowdrops appear, pushing their way up through the frozen ground, their delicate petals reminding us of beauty and life, a welcome sight, especially for those of us in the UK who have been surprised by a freezing cold January. Crocuses provide a fresh blaze of colour in the still barren ground, and a sharp eye may just glimpse the new buds beginning to form on the trees.
The light we welcomed back at Yule is now growing stronger as the wheel turns. The days are noticeably longer, the light in evidence in its return, signalling an end to the contemplative part of the year and a return to activity. This is a time for new ventures, and for realising the plans quietly formed in the darker part of the year.
Imbolc is traditionally the time to honour Brigid, the Celtic Fire Goddess, so called because she is allegedly Goddess of the Forge, Goddess of the Hearth and Goddess of Inspiration. It is said that nineteen priestesses tended her sacred fire, to keep the flames alive, while on the twentieth day Brigid herself tended the sacred flames.
What does Imbolc mean to you? I always mark this festival with a special reverence, for it was just before Imbolc some 5 years ago that I decided to dedicate myself to learning about Paganism, and particularly witchcraft. I didn’t know then I’d chosen the traditional time for initiation ceremonies in the Craft. A year ago, just before Imbolc, my newborn infant laid cuddled warm in my lap while I listened to his faint snuffling sounds. What better symbol of new beginnings and of spring than a child? So for me it is a time of renewal, of hope and optimism for the year to come.
On a deeper level, as the active time of the year comes again, how will you make your ideas manifest? What old habits and old thinking still needs clearing out for new plans to materialise? How will you use the transformative power of this fire festival to kindle ideas in your hearts and minds? What will you take with you, into the freshness of spring and what will you leave behind in the darker part of the year? Whatever you choose and however you like to celebrate, I wish all of you at Magicka a beautiful Imbolc."

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