New book by Frater U.’.D.’. and a question about workshops

Where Do Demons Live?: Everything You Want to Know About Magic is a recent book by Frater U.’. D.’. released by Llewellyn Worldwide this time last year.

It’s written in a Q&A agony aunt style, in some ways reminiscent of Aleister Crowley’s Magick Without Tears, resulting in a collection of brief essays on a wide variety of topics.

I’m in the midst of reading it for review for SpiralNature.com, and and one of the questions concerns workshops, and one of the points of advice given reads as follows:

4. Pay close attention to the terms of cancellation; this is often the snag to such seminars. Although it is understandable that the event organizers should want to ensure a certain degree of commitment from the participants, it is nonetheless possible that a person might become sick or have another valid reason for cancellation. Only pay the full amount in advance as an exception and not as the rule; generally no more than half in advance is appropriate.

This surprised me, and I’m not sure if it’s a regional thing (Frater U.’. D.’. hails from Belgium), or something that’s more widespread?

In all the workshops I’ve attended and given myself, I always either paid or requested the payment up front.

Perhaps this is a strange thing to be hung up on, but it struck me as the first bit of odd advice in an otherwise excellent book. What’s your experience with this, do people not pay up front anymore?

Psyche is the editor of ahrfoundation.org and the curator for the occult resource SpiralNature.com, Psyche also operates a tarot consultation business, Psyche Tarot. She has been published in The Cauldron, Konton, Tarot World Magazine, among other magazines, and her essay “Strategic Magick” appeared in Manifesting Prosperity (Megalithica, 2008).

Psyche's website is http://www.ahrfoundation.org.