I was raised by my Irish mother in the Celtic tradition. Each year we celebrated and honored the eight quarter days of the year. At the age of 14 my mother and I joined an occult lodge, where we learned to read auras, astral project, Tarot, Kabbalah, and perform ritual in the western mystical tradition. On Sundays we went to hear Manly Palmer Hall give his weekly lecture in Los Angeles at the Philisophical Research Society.