I began this journey of Solomonic magic in 1963, born in the Bay Area, half Anglo with roots in the Pacific Northwest and half Mexican-American syncretized slightly Jewish person with a family tree full of Jewish names. My mother was mostly a passionate aficionado of horsemanship, and her family background in the Olympic peninsula informs my work with its old-timey religion of Presbyterian church, tricking, the Masons and the Order of the Eastern Star and their dark arts!, and the ambient energy world of the First Nations neighbors. My great-grandfather was a Civil Engineer who designed and oversaw the construction of many of the public works of Western Washington but sadly perished before the era of FDR with its inimitable STYLE. My father was an astrologer trained by the American Federation of Astrologers and a Spanish-speaking Co-Mason raised up a Master Mason. His father was a dabbler in ceremonial magic WITH COWS. I joined the Rainbow Girls at the age of twelve but quickly switched to the Mormon Church where I remained active for twenty years, graduating with honors from Brigham Young University in Provo with a Master’s degree in English, and studies in Latin, Anglo-Saxon, and theatre. I attend Zoom studies of all types and have taken classes in Hebrew and Judaism.

I am a member of the Builders of the Adytum (off and on since 1997) and have completed the entire Pronaos ritual scheme and officer rotation and use their deck meditatively, though still working on the lessons; hold the current— and, for me, terminal—rank of 4=7 in the Golden Dawn and have friends and affiliations; completed the Lucky Mojo’s Hoodoo Rootwork Correspondence Course and work in this lovely American folk magic daily; am a member of Vortex Oasis Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica; and befriend Heathens without swastikas.

Much of my work began as the solitary Cabalistic Golden Dawn work of John Michael Greer — an egregore hereinafter dubbed GENGHIS KHAN — in its form as the meditative work of the Tree of Life in Paths of Wisdom and the ritual magic of Circles of Power which I started in 1998. This blog’s commentary should be considered in part an unofficial commentary on MY ongoing 20+years of practice of this great occultist’s magick. I did not enter Druidry because I was not finished with Cabalistic Golden Dawn, and I never will be. My entire magical life is in many ways an exploration of this one manual and what this perfect gem of ritual magic was intended to do. However, JMG himself — whom I do not know — has gone into Druidry leaving me with this lousy t-shirt, and that is okay, because I belong at long last in the thick of it, whose ground WORK is a broader world of Hermetics and much friendship in Thelema. Its evolution into Solomonic magick has taken me in other directions that I hope to COW in an entertaining fashion in this blog, quite particularly the work of the tradition of St. Cyprian and a gorgeous world of the classics that invariably comes in with THE GREEK WORK. I do not disavow the importance of African spiritual technology or the meditative work of Buddhism, which work, but why not do as thou wilt? The whole situation of the new magick is a moving target and all kinds of things are always happening.

A year in Anglo-Saxon studies has involved me in Germanic studies and spirituality, and pinging about in my own interpretation of it, having generally syncretized a lot of my spiritual systems. Germanic mythology was how the European paganism went for me — for why did the Golden Dawn claim to be German and nobody is Germaning? I freely concede that the Norse power world has a strong wing of ethnocentric European magick and wish to support that by being part in and part out while writing all kinds of interesting blog posts about its glorious extant literature, not in the unfortunate hate crime of that tradition’s frequently more secular wings.

As the playwright Joann Farías, I have had a lovely time in black box, local and small theater, including the award of an NEA Grant in 2005 that enabled me to travel to Guatemala to study the language and culture of the highland Maya that informs much of my work as a Solomonic magician. I am now working on a novel as well as more plays.

I have practiced various types of ceremonial magic, principally The Lesser Key of Solomon. I do not use hallucinogenic substances but enjoy the benefits of a consciousness expanded by much meditation and western art magic(k). A former Mormon and graduate of Brigham Young University, I would be greatly remiss if I did not embrace my embarrassing geekiness, for the glory of God is intelligence not just STYLE AND SOPHISTICATION, and while it is nice to be important, it is more important to be nice. I attend religious services like a normal ex-Mormon, and like a lot of Pan-Jews, have an array of HOUSE intrigues, while poking my head in at the glorious cathedrals and other locales of spirituality in Seattle and always New York.

In my day job life, I am a CNA (nurse’s aide) working in Assisted Living, Memory Care, Home Care, Skilled Nursing, with Hospice through it all.