Throughout history, certain dogmatic men and women have done all they could to scrub the world clean of magic. They often had no qualms about exiling and, in some cases, burning at the stake these creative souls or outsiders for their paganism. Today, magic is still alive although it is not taken very seriously.

Anthony Alvarado loves magic and hopes that what he has written about it will be of particular interest to artists, musicians, writers, and all those who are chasing the muse. In this paperback, he offers some keys "to open doors to imagination, creativity, and yes, magic."

In 36 chapters, Alvarado covers a variety of portals which give us access to strange new possibilities, perspectives, and playfulness. Here are a few:

• Automatic Writing

• Establish a Creativity Ritual (John Cheever wrote in his underwear and Haruki Murakami goes for a three-to-four mile run every morning before writing.)

• Ornithomancy (Divination with birds. Let their patterns of flight inspire your thoughts.)

• Biblomancy ("Think of a question, pick up a book, flip to a random passage, and apply the first thing you read to answer your question."

• Surfing Waves of Synchronicity and The Interpretation of Random Events

• The Flaneur (Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, "All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.")

• Aleatory Writing (John Cage said, "I am trying to be unfamiliar with what I am doing.")

You get the idea, and if you are lucky, reading this book you will find yourself blessed with a surprise or a practice that lights up your day or your creative path!