Judika Illes

Her background is Hungarian and she attributes a childhood spent in the culturally diverse Queens borough of New York City as a significant influence on her writing career. Her first Tarot deck was the Builders of the Adytum (BOTA) deck, which she described in a 2005 interview as "formidable and very esoteric," an unusual starter for a child of her age. During her teen years, Illes frequented New York bookstores such as Magickal Childe and Samuel Weiser's, known for their metaphysical and occult collections, as well as botanicas Her love for esoteric books led to her interest in astrology, which began with Zolar's ''It's All in the Stars''. from the American College of Healthcare Sciences (previously known as the Australasian College of Health Sciences) in 1999. ==Career==

Illes worked as a tarot reader and dream interpreter on psychic hotlines from 1991 to 1993. She went on to become a prolific author of metaphysical books and especially reference books. Her writing interests include folklore, folkways, mythology, astrology, spellcasting, spirit-working, herbalism and traditional healing. She also covers the subjects of the occult, magic, divination, spiritualism, fairies, witchcraft and the paranormal. A certified aromatherapy consultant, she has taught introductory courses on the subject at the Australasian College (2000–2002), and practices taromancy. Although she practices and teaches other forms of divination, she considers Tarot to be her "main practice" and has been reading Tarot cards professionally since the age of 26. She has also been featured as a guest on ''Ripley's Radio Oddcast'',{{cite web|url=http://www.ripleys.com/weird-news/everyday-magic-spells/ ==Name==

Her last name, Illes, is pronounced as you would with the "Ph" omitted from "Phyllis." Judith Illes was used as the byline for some of her Tour Egypt articles, rather than her Hungarian name, Judika. In an interview with ''The Witches' Almanac, Illes disclosed that she used "Judith Joyce" as her byline when she wrote The Weiser Field Guide to the Paranormal'' due to the short period between her other Weiser field guides. ==Bibliography==