Using Jung’s Archetypes in Tarot Readings Three daggers stab through a red beating heart like a child’s drawing—it’s almost comical— and a rainy storm looms in the background. The Three of Swords strikes most as a tarot card of doom. For those of us who consult the tarot regularly, it’s a dreaded card that we […]

Science, Magic, and Power: The Bruising of Qilwa and Contemporary Portrayals of Magic in Media In Naseem Jamnia’s 2022 fantasy novella, The Bruising of Qilwa, magic weaves through the narrative. In Jamnia’s world, magic has many disciplines and each specialization requires intense study with masters. Characters experiment with it in laboratories and write research texts […]

If you’re a writer, you know that speculative or fabulist fiction can sometimes get a bad rap. The assumption is that a magic-centered story is all plot and no substance, or all strange and no literary merit. It’s true that escapism and craft is a difficult balance to strike. As publishers of magical realism and […]

Magical literature is not only reserved for the genre of fiction; throughout history, it has been written from personal experience and retrieved from memory. Accounts of magical experiences are ubiquitous throughout history, but it is perhaps the memoirs of pious women in the Middle Ages that are best remembered for their “magical” experiences, which can […]

Have you ever felt a connection to something very deep, very old, and just beyond the grasp of the world you know? It’s like you can sense, feel, and taste an opportunity for adventure (or is it danger?) a mile away. There’s no doubt there’s folklore in your blood. The best way to ignite that […]

Despite its reputation as an ancient art like palm-reading or astrology, the Tarot is only a little older than Shakespeare’s plays. The illustrations of early Tarot decks used religious and literary archetypes to impart meaning, which made it enticing for spiritual guidance and cartomancy in addition to its originally intended use as a card game. […]

If you’re familiar with the term “dark academia” (think bookshelves, libraries, stormy nights, beveled windows, ivy-covered buildings, flickering candles), you know that loving books often comes with the vibe or aesthetic of practicing magic. Bibliophilia is practically a requirement to being an occultist. The smell of paper, the feel of pages flipping through fingers, and […]

Well, maybe that wasn’t the Association of Writers & Writing Program’s exact claim in their recent virtual panel discussion, but they did explore the connections between writing and divination (i.e. Tarot and other practices that seek to reveal the future. So…magic, essentially.) Magic and writing have a lot in common. They’re both acts of manifestation. […]

The cursor on the blank page blinks off and on, taunting the fingers sitting still against the keyboard. The phone beeps a cheery tone from across the room, reminding you, yet again, that your first draft is overdue by a week. To distract yourself from the words that just won’t come, you click into your […]

The work of Ursula K. Le Guin resonates across time and cultures. From the rich traditions of the Hainish universe to the vast islands of Earthsea, Le Guin’s novels are some of the most detailed and transformative in the history of the genre. In her lifetime, Le Guin published nearly 50 novels, novellas, children’s books, […]