About Me...

OK!  So, in case you've gotten here by accident and you are just too intrigued by what you've read, so far, to just go away, or if you are here intentionally and just really never realized exactly who I am, what I do, what I believe in, etc., I will give you a short run-down (ok, so it's not so short...) of who I am, what I do...Oh, do I really have to say it all over again??

I was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, at around 11 pm on the 24th day of August, in the year 1970.  I guess that makes me a Virgo, but that's about the extent of my knowledge of astrology.  No.  Really!  Yeah, I know...that's kinda weird for one of us "magical types" not to know about astrology, but I really just never could get into that.

 I lived in Minnesota until I was 13.  Well, technically, I lived in Wisconsin for two of those years, but then my parents divorced and Mom, my sister and I moved back to Minnesota.  At 13, Mom and her soon-to-be second husband, Bob,  moved us to Lakeland, Florida.  Lakeland was a pretty cool place.  I would definitely consider that to be my home town.  Many of the best friends and adoptive family members that I have now, were met there.  Some are still there, in fact.

My oldest brother Mike followed us to Florida, shortly after we moved into our new house.  He came with the intent of making a new start.  In a short time, my brother became my best friend.  He taught me many things - he taught me the importance of honor, brotherhood and true friendship.  He also started me on road to what has been a very rewarding spiritual path.  I'm not sure any more what particular spark lit the flame that I've been tending for all these years, but I know that it started with our discussing meditation, martial arts, psychic phenomena, philosophy, religion...you name it, we discussed it - usually well into the wee dark hours of the morning.  And usually, we were sitting on the still sun-warm pavement of yet another unfinished housing development in the rapidly over-developing central Florida of the mid-eighties.

As you might be able to guess from that last paragraph, my home life was pretty unrestricted.  That's not to say that I didn't have any structure, nor is it saying that there were no restrictions at all, my mom just didn't feel the need to breath down my neck or question every little thing I did - especially when I was with my big bro'.  Consequently, I loved my mom immensely (still do), I understand that this is a bit of a rarity for a teenager, but what can I say, mom did something right.  I finished school, grew up, went to college, got a good job in computers and have a happy healthy family of my own now.  And, yeah, I try to parent a lot like Mom did.  Seems to be working so far.

My first foray's into what was then almost exclusively considered "occultism," stemmed from my intense curiosity and fascination with the concept of magic.  Everything about it fascinated me.  I can't even remember the first books I read on the subject.  I think it might have been a cheap paperback book that contained edited clips from a variety of medieval grimoires.  I still have the book, in fact.  It has all kinds of hokey stuff about creating a glory hand and summoning all the demons of the Judeo-Christian Hell.  So, I read that book (pretty much cover-to-cover) and then found everything I could in the school library, public library, Mike's books and, finally, when I had some money to spend, I bought some more books of my own.

Yeah, I really did start my magical studies when I was 13.  Is there some mystical significance to that?  No.  I was just being 13 - curious as hell and and living in a veryy unrestricted home environment (my mom is the best mom in the whole world!).  Mom rarely said anything about what I was reading or the funny smells coming from my bedroom (incense, folks!  C'mon!  Even I'm not that brazen!).

Then, one day, my brother found this add in the back of a Popular Science magazine.  It claimed that the writers could teach us all there is to know about witchcraft and magic.  Yep.  The Church and School of Wicca.  Good ol' Gavin and Yvonne Frost.  He started the mail order witch course and, of course, I was reading it all over his shoulder.  Unfortunately...or maybe fortunately, he didn't have enough money to complete the course.  But, I got enough of a taste to have a budding interest in Paganism.  Keep in mind, now, that while all of this was going on, I was still a member of the Lutheran Church.  I even worked my way through first communion and confirmation.  However, during the last year or so of the confirmation classes, I had begun to question the whole Christian view of the universe.  It just didn't jive with the other stuff I was studying - it didn't jive with the scientific view and it surely didn't jive with the magical one.  But, I didn't say anything to the minister and I surely didn't say anything to Mom.  I concede that I did it all for my mom.  She wanted me to go through the whole confirmation thing and I wasn't going to disappoint her.

As I moved into my high school years, I began to work and earn money.  Money meant more books...and more and more and more books.  I learned the Tarot; I learned the Runes; I learned more about magic in high school than most people learn about math and English.  And, I might add, I managed to keep my grades up - still not sure how I pulled that off.  I learned about magical practices and magical history.  I learned such names as A.E. Waite, Aliestair Crowley, S.L. MacGregor Mathers and Israel Regardie.  I learned about Helen Blavatsky and the Theosophist Society and I learned about Heinrich Cornelius Agripa and his "Magical Philosphie."  Then, one day, I picked up a book about magic by a man named Scott Cunningham.  It was excellently written and I found it very informative.  Some of the first actually successful works of magic were based on what I read in that book (even then, I knew that the best spells are the ones you make yourself).  With that name at the back of my mind, I journeyed into the bookstore once again and happened upon another book book by the same author.  It was about Wicca.  Now, of course I knew a little about that already.  I had the Frost materials that I had gotten from my brother and at least one other book.  I read that and realized that I was definitely NOT a Lutheran.  A Pagan was born. 

I studied more and more about Wicca.  I even wrote my high school senior thesis on "The Prevalence of Witchcraft in Modern Society."  Over time, however, I gradually came to the conclusion that, although I'm definitely a Pagan, I'm really not a Wiccan.

So I studied more and more, and I added Paganism to my magical studies, finding that having at least the basic tenets of a spiritual path added greatly to the success of my magical work.  Over the years I learned about the Kaballah, various pantheons of gods and goddesses, the magical significance of the Tarot and the Runes and even Chaos Magic theory.  I learned a lot.  I know some things that I'm not even sure, any more, where or when I learned them - I just know.

In the mean time, I turned 18, got married and about a year later, my wife gave birth to a boy.  15 months later, she had another boy and about a year after that...you guessed it!  I joined the Army.  Well, technically, I joined the Army Reserves.  And, she was pregnant for the third and last time.  I spent 4 months at Fort McClellan, Alabama, learning to be a military policeman.  About a month after I returned home, my daughter was born.

I spent the next three years being an MP once a month and a poorly paid computer guy for the rest of the time.  The only real success that I can claim within that time period is that I made sergeant (that's actually pretty quick to go from PFC to SGT in the "part-time" Army).  Then, at the advice of one of my very best friends, I applied for a job in Virginia.  I received a call on a Thursday, drove to VA on Friday and interviewed on Saturday morning.  The dude gave me the job, on the spot.  I drove home, turned in my resignation and, two weeks later, was living in Virginia.  Granted, I was sleeping on my buddy KK's couch (his name is really Ron, but we call him KK...but that's "a-whole-nother" story, as they say) for about a month, but I was here.  The original plan was for my wife and kids to stay in Florida just long enough for us to sell the house.  The house wasn't moving nearly fast enough, though, and the strain of living separately was getting to be too much both emotionally and financially, so we decided to let the house go back to the bank and be done with it.  So, that's what we did.  I guess you could say that we pretty much just uprooted ourselves and started over with a clean slate.  It's all good, though.  We wouldn't change a thing.

When I got to Virginia, I had to find a new reserve unit.  As it happens, the town where I was living with KK had a Virginia Army National Guard Unit.  It was an infantry unit...light infantry, to be exact.  Light infantry is about the worst oxymoron that the military could have come up with.  There is no part of infantry that is even remotely "light."  But, as my best bud had just recently enlisted to be a part of this unit, I made it my new home away from home.  So, I was officially a member of Company B, 3 of the 116th Infantry, 29th Division (Light) (they like to add that "Light" part in parentheses - kinda funny, like it was just something they thought of later).  It started out kind of rough, but eventually, being an infantryman became one of the defining points of my life.  Over the 8 years that I was with "Bravo Company", I made some lasting friendships, added to my ever-extending family and had some really great times.  I also found that there was a LOT to be discontented about in being in the Guard.  After being deployed to guard the airport for 6 months, follow 9/11, I discovered that my fun meter was pegged.  I rode out the rest of my enlistment and in July of 2003, I said good by to good ol' Bravo and the rest of the Army.  Fortunately, I have managed to keep all of my 'buds.'

So, here I am.  I work for the IT department of a county government in Northern Virginia and I make decent money.  Occasionally, I make a little extra cash by doing some computer work on the side.  I have recently started reading the Tarot and the Runes for money, as well (though I've been reading both for over 15 years now).  I have a beautiful wife and three brilliant children (all of which, occasionally make me crazy).  We have two dogs and several cats (the number of cats keeps going up and down...don't ask) and beautiful home that we purchased in '02. I have this sort of ever-expanding extended family and I love it!  My kids have uncles, aunts and cousins coming out of the woodwork all the time and considering how far-flung mine and Kymmie's families are, I think it's great that they have this kind of an environment to make up for it.

I have some students, to whom I teach magic.  All of them happened to have been Pagan for most of their lives, they just didn't realize it until I asked them what they believed.  I find that this is more and more often the case.  I frequently have people ask me about Paganism.  Before I tell them, I try to ask them what they believe.  More often than not, the answer falls along the lines of, "well, I think god is everywhere and in all things.  I don't think it matters what you call god or what religion you practice.  I don't think god is just male, I think it's both..." etc., etc.  In most cases, I find myself saying, "congratulations, you're pretty much a Pagan."

So life is good, being Tommy!  In the words of Joe Walsh, "I can't complain, but sometimes I still do."

And now, you'll have loads of questions.  But, that's what all these other pages are for...check 'em out.

Oh, yeah, by the way...as of spring '04, we added one more kid.  We call her our "bonus child".  My old unit, the 3/116 Infantry, went and got themselves deployed to Afghanistan.  One of the guys that I now consider my brothers is a single dad and his ex-wife was unable to care for their daughter.  So, we took her in until he comes back.  She's the same age as our daughter (well, within a month, anyway) and we love her as our own.  People say stuff like, "that such a nice thing to do."  Wouldn't anybody do that for their brother?  I honestly couldn't imagine refusing such a request.  That's just what we do - take care of each other, take care of each other's kids.  I love all of my brothers that way.  May they all be safe and may they all be home soon...