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.

[2] In an interview in 2016, Illes reported that she still had the BOTA deck, which her sister had purchased from the Samuel Weiser Bookstore in New York City.

[3] 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[4] Her love for esoteric books led to her interest in astrology, which began with Zolar's It's All in the Stars.

The manuscript about fertility was set aside, but in a 2011 interview by The Witches' Almanac, Illes mentioned that she may eventually publish it under the title, Frogs and Pomegranates.

A note of encouragement from the Non-Wiccan Witches Yahoo group persuaded her to accept the challenge, which led to The Element Encyclopedia of Witchcraft.