Couple hours ago I got on the mike with my friend and fellow podcast host Ryan Peverly of the Occulture podcast. We did a whacky little scene - complete fiction - in which I got to do a very Scorpionic card reading for Ryan. It was a kind of opening act for Ryan’s fantastic interview with Dr. Al Cummins, one of my favorite metaphysicians to listen and learn from out there in the unreal world. Diviner, magician, and scholar of grimoires, Dr. Cummins puts the practice in practitioner!

Friends, many of us are finding the news cycle harder and harder to take. It seems like voices of reason are being drowned out. It seems like voice of victims are being ignored. It seems like our worst nightmares keep coming to life. Perhaps worst of all is the despair - not knowing what you can do about it.

A few weeks ago I had the chance to interview my friend and fellow Llewellyn author, Andrew McGregor, about his new deck, The Orisha Tarot. Before receiving the deck, I knew little to nothing about Lucumí, Orisha tradition, or the wider world of ATR (African traditional religion.) But from my first Orisha Tarot card of the day pull - the Ace of Disks - I was drawn into the complex web of a faith where divination, magic, belief, deity, and community commingle in ways I had never before experienced.

Be afraid, be very afraid!  We have arrived at the Lord of Cruelty (or if you like your fear extra crunchy, the 'Lord of Cruelty and Despair'), the 9 of Swords.  In this sharpest of swords cards, Mars governs the middle decan of Gemini.  The portentous moment we faced in the 8 has reached critical mass, and something must be cut away. One twin dies that the other may live, but oh how cruel the choice.