New on YouTube. Qabalah for Wiccans released last week, which means I’m officially a published Pagan author now. That’s incredibly exciting, but it’s also weird in some ways I hadn’t anticipated. I share some thoughts about the Pagan community’s relationship with publishing and with authors, the way an author’s involvement in book publicity requires the […]
Read more "Video: Thoughts on Being a Pagan Author"To celebrate the release of Qabalah for Wiccans, I joined Patti Negri, the host of The Witching Hour with Patti Negri, to talk about Qabalah, witchcraft, and magic. You can listen to it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/qabalah-for-wiccans-with-jack-chanek/id1510679547?i=1000544790285
Read more "My Appearance on The Witching Hour"We’re only one week away from the release of my first book, Qabalah for Wiccans. This time next week, it will officially be out in the world, for anyone to read. Honestly, it doesn’t feel real. I’m excited, and nervous (so extraordinarily nervous), but not nearly as excited or nervous as I thought I would […]
Read more "Qabalah for Wiccans"This week, I had the privilege of joining Tess Whitehurst and Natasha Levinger on the Magic Monday podcast, to talk about Hermetic Qabalah, the Tree of Life, and how to make an often impenetrable subject accessible and relevant for magical practitioners outside of the Golden Dawn paradigm. (And, of course, to promote my book, which […]
Read more "My Appearance on the Magic Monday Podcast"There are plenty of ways to draw connections between the cards of the Major Arcana. You can do it through numerology, through astrology, through the septenaries or visual cues in their symbolism. One of the simplest ways to find the connections between the cards, though, is simply to fold the sequence of the Major Arcana […]
Read more "Pairing the Major Arcana, Forward and Backward"A few days ago, I announced the title and cover for my first book, “Qabalah for Wiccans,” which is coming out from Llewellyn in December of 2021. The title generated quite a lot of controversy, and many people voiced concerns about cultural appropriation, feeling that it was disrespectful and inappropriate for me, a non-Jewish white […]
Read more "Video: Qabalah, Wicca, and Appropriation"It’s longstanding wisdom in Western occultism that there are multiple planes of existence above the material. Thanks in large part to the influence of Mme Blavatsky and the Theosophical society, the number of planes that gets discussed most often is seven: One physical plane, and then “upper” and “lower” planes corresponding to the astral, mental, […]
Read more "The Astral is Enough"There are two quotes echoing in my head right now. The first is from the Gospel of Luke. I’m not Christian, but this post is going to go to some Christian places, so brace yourselves in advance. I promise, there’s a reason for it: Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for […]
Read more "The Strength Card and Radical Love"I’m coming at you with another YouTube video! In this video, I talk about the thematic relationship between Death, Temperance, and the Devil as they’re placed on the Qabalistic Tree of Life. I spend some time thinking about the Qabalistic theme that unites them, and then the individual way in which each card manifests that […]
Read more "Video: Death, Temperance, and the Devil on the Tree of Life"I decided to experiment with a different medium! Rather than a written post this time around, I made a video with some rambling thoughts about pathworking: What it is in the context of Tarot, a couple of different techniques, and some reasons that it might be worth doing. I’m not sure if I’ll do more […]
Read more "Ideas for Pathworking"
Jack Chanek 