Pieces of Me

Build up a Buddha min and have some soul food

this is a list of magical associations for every tarot card, they can be added into spells to amplify your intentions and strengthen your manifestations

Wands are connected with the Fire element and is centered around movement, direction, energy, passion

Swords deal with thinking, communication, perception, and issues dealing with truth, connected to the air element

Cups are connected with water, and the full spectrum of emotions. every emotion imaginable is covered in the cup’s suit.

Pentacles are connected with Earth and are symbolic of manifestation, rewards,  material wealth and material abundance.

The Fool creates new beginnings and can be paired with other cards. ex: the fool + the lovers for new romance, the fool + pentacles for new opportunities, etc.

The Magician increases your power and capability on all levels, willpower, emotional security, balance within yourself, etc.

The High Priestess increases your psychic abilities, mediumship abilities, and intuition

The Empress will help you with creativity and creative endeavors

The Emperor establishes order, structure, and command

The Hierophant can be used in a lot of ways, my favorites are 1. Pairing it with the fool to attract a new mentor, 2. Using it to summon a spirit guide or ascended master

The Lovers help invoke and attract love, partnership, mutual relationships, and passion

The Chariot is amazing for success, and triumph. I always use this in success spells for exams, tests, and projects. The Chariot will help the best possible outcome for a situation to arise

Strength will help you master your emotions

The Hermit is good for rituals and meditations based going within and gaining a better understanding of your own self, and life purpose.

The Wheel of Fortune can be used for luck, change, and getting a desired situation moving

Justice is great for truth, legal matters, and justice

The Hanged Man buys you time for a situation you aren’t ready to face, delays events

The Death card works well for ending situations, closing doors, gaining closure, and new beginnings

Temperance will restore balance and serenity to any situation

The Devil can be used to help break addictions or bad habits

The Tower is best used for hexing and cursing, brings misfortune, unhappiness and chaos

The Star card is good for when you are casting spells focused on gaining something, The Star card is centered around healing, openness, and hope

The Moon helps develops intuitive abilities and can be used to send bad dreams

The Sun is used in spells for summoning happiness, success, and health

Judgement will help clear confusion and help you with understanding your life mission similar to the Hermit in that aspect

The World invokes wholeness and completion

Page of Wands: works with communication, messages, action, and passion

Page of Cups: boosts creativity, taps into your spiritual nature to bring out new creativity

Page of Swords: amplifies ingenuity and creativity, helps deliver messages from one person to another, can be used to attract someone’s attention to yourself

Page of Pentacles: good for grounding and centering spell work

Knight of Wands: speeds up any workings involving passion, love, and creativity

Knight of Cups: speeds up workings dealing with emotions, psychic development, inner strength

Knight of Swords: speeds up workings involving communication, balance, and thinking

Knight of Pentacles: speeds up workings dealing with manifesting abundance, material wealth, prosperity, and creativity

King of Wands: associated with leadership, command, can help you gain authority

King of Cups: associated with personal feelings, can help you resolve personal conflicts and inner turmoil

King of Swords: aids in strengthening your communication and speaking skills

King of Pentacles: invokes luxury, great card for business success

Queen of Wands: establishes a sense of self security and sufficiency

Queen of Cups: develops your psychic abilities, also helps with understanding/controlling your emotions

Queen of Swords: helps you develop stronger focus

Queen of Pentacles: abundance, creativity, fertility

Aces: used for new beginnings based on the energy represented in that suit

Two of Wands: positive progress in any situation whether it be romance, health, career, etc.

Three of Wands: business prosperity

Four of Wands: strengthens any type of relationship

Five of Wands: used in hexes and curses to invoke conflict, and arguments

Six of Wands: manifests recognition, success,

Seven of Wands: use this card when you’re in a tough situation, it will help you succeed and come out of it stronger

Eight of Wands: directs energy and intentions towards a specific goal or purpose, helps to speed up workings

Nine of Wands: use this card when you come face to face with a difficult task, this card will keep you brave and strong

Ten of Wands: can either be used to achieve something great, or it can be used in a hex or curse to manifest burdens

Two of Cups: union, strengthens romantic relationships

Three of Cups: strengthens a friendship

Four of Cups: dissatisfaction with surroundings

Five of Cups: causes despair and sadness

Six of Cups: lifts your mood when you’re feeling down

Seven of Cups: illusions and deceptions

Eight of Cups: used to help you move on from the past

Nine of Cups: make a wish and use this card’s power to grant your wish, invokes happiness

Ten of Cups: brings happiness to relationships of all kinds, friends, family, romantic, etc.

Two of Swords: used in curses and hexes to cause someone to have a limiting mindset

Three of Swords: heartbreak and emotional strife

Four of Swords: used in healing spells, sleeping aid

Five of Swords: manifests conflict, and failed success

Six of Swords: this card will aid you when you face a difficult change, helps you to move on and move forward

Seven of Swords: causes betrayal

Eight of Swords: powerful energy that causes isolation

Nine of Swords: sends nightmares and anxieties

Ten of Swords: defeat and betrayal

Two of Pentacles: brings balance

Three of Pentacles: strengthens business connections

Four of Pentacles: manifests financial stability

Five of Pentacles: financial problem

Six of Pentacles: prosperity

Seven of Pentacles: material abundance

Eight of Pentacles: if you’ve worked hard this card ensures you that your efforts will be rewarded

Nine of Pentacles: success, luxury, accomplishment

Ten of Pentacles: success, wealth

Negative aspects of the cards can be used for hexing and cursing

This is a list of magical associations for every tarot card.

When you feel trapped and you want nothing more than change, the sound of yet another door being slammed in your face can be deafening. The disillusionment and frustration that follow keep your vision locked on all the factors outside of yourself that are impeding your progress. Yet what may be pushing you further and further away from what you desire could be the tangle of ruminative thoughts and unrealistic expectations that you continually set for yourself.

If you are guilty of indulging in some of these negative and often mistaken thoughts, understanding how they are inhibiting you could help you challenge them.

1. Thinking things will always be the same

If things haven’t changed in a while, and you find yourself stuck in what seems to be a never-ending loop of disappointment, it’s natural to feel utterly deflated. This sense of defeat can cloud your vision, and make you believe that change is not even possible. Over time, you stop seeing the value in making the slightest effort to change your condition. Yet this thought alone can repel action and take the place of those motivating thoughts that will mobilize you.

You don’t need to be a positive-thinking powerhouse, but constantly telling yourself that the result you desire is possible can be enough to help you fight the obstacles standing between you and your goal.

2. Burdening your future self with action

We are all guilty of procrastinating, some of us more than others, and the cure is hardly around the corner. But recognizing how we subconsciously justify our procrastination to ourselves may just help us beat it.

What we are essentially doing when we put off doing a task is delegating it to our future selves. Why? Because we subconsciously perceive our future selves to be better prepared, more disciplined, and more in the “mood” to execute that task. Once we realize that our future self is only as good as our present one, and that the passage of time alone won’t equip us with a magical boost in energy and inspiration to do what needs to be done, we are able to tackle the work head on. Accepting responsibility for our own condition, and admitting that we are the only ones capable of inspiring ourselves, helps close the gap between who we see ourselves to be today and in the future.

3. Expecting too much too soon

If you have been stuck for a long time, you may feel the pressure and the hunger for change intensifying more and more each day. This can make you feel like your next step ought to be a big one. Yet this self-imposed pressure to perform–and in a grand way–is only helping to keep you stuck. Sometimes all you need to set off your journey is to take simple, yet determined steps toward your goal. Your slow–but steady–progress will help you reach your destination faster than stagnating for a long time and then sprinting to the finish line. You are also much more likely to develop stamina, and good habits, when you commit to doing a small amount of work each day.

No matter how long the journey is, it always starts with that first step–even if it’s a small, tentative one.

4. Judging your work

If you have a tendency to be overly critical and perfectionistic, it is likely you judge your work too harshly. If you are quick to label any idea that germinates in your mind as “not good enough”, you limit its potential to turn into a great one. Perfectionism of this kind does not support the easy flow of ideas that is at the heart of creativity.

Setting your expectations aside and withholding judgement as you begin to work toward your goal can help you move forward. You may need to train yourself to remain open, accepting any experience or perceived setback as an opportunity to learn and grow, rather than adopting an all or nothing approach that will, more often than not, leave you with nothing.

5. Comparing yourself to others

Just as you ought to refrain from judging your work, it is equally important to not judge yourself, and especially not by using other people’s progress as a benchmark.

When all you see is your own failures, it can seem to you like you are the only one not enjoying any success. Everywhere you look is an example of what you don’t have but so desperately covet. Yet what your biased mind is overlooking is its own tendency to overemphasize your limitations, and underemphasize those of other people.

It helps to remind yourself that the reality your brain construes is not always accurate. We are all on our individual life journeys, experiencing success and failure and everything in between at different stages of our lives. Comparing yourself to others even though we each face a completely different set of circumstances and opportunities, is not only unfair, but accomplishes nothing.

It is certainly okay and even healthy to look up to people who inspire you and lead the kind of life you desire to have. But it is only motivating when you do not use the example as a way to further emphasize your own shortcomings. Asking yourself “what are they doing that I have the capacity to do but am not currently doing” instead of saying “I will never manage to accomplish what they have” is a healthier way of approaching the comparison.

Appreciate the journey, not the result

No matter what you are after, if you are too focused on the end result, you may miss the rewarding journey that will ultimately get you there. Your achieved goal is the cumulative sum of the small decisions that you make along the way to steer you in the right direction and push you forward. So appreciate your progress, constantly refine your process, and embrace all the struggles that you encounter because overcoming them can endow you with the confidence you need to keep going.

All kinds of Self affirmations.

To understand each other, I think it is necessary that we should not be caught in words; because, a word like God, for example, may have a particular meaning for you, while for me it may represent a totally different formulation, or no formulation at all. So it is almost impossible to communicate with each other unless both of us have the intention of understanding and going beyond mere words. The word freedom generally implies being free from something, does it not? It ordinarily means being free from greed, from envy, from nationalism, from anger, from this or that. Whereas, freedom may have quite another meaning, which is a sense of being free; and I think it is very important to understand this meaning.

… After all, the mind is made up of words, amongst other things. Now, can the mind be free of the word “envy”? Experiment with this and you will see that words like God, truth, hate, envy, have a profound effect on the mind. And can the mind be both neurologically and psychologically free of these words? If it is not free of them, it is incapable of facing the fact of envy. When the mind can look directly at the fact which it calls “envy”, then the fact itself acts much more swiftly than the mind’s endeavor to do something about the fact. As long as the mind is thinking of getting rid of envy through the ideal of non-envy, and so on, it is distracted, it is not facing the fact; and the very word envy is a distraction from the fact. The process of recognition is through the word; and the moment I recognize the feeling through the word, I give continuity to that feeling.

Forgiveness.  “Forgiveness means giving up all hope for a better past.” ~ Lama Surya Das Sanity is a basic principle of the spiritual path and forgiveness is an essential aspect of sanity. As Lama Surya Das points out, forgiveness is what allows us to accept the past. It is only by accepting the past that we can allow ourselves to be present. When we are hooked on the past in the form of resentment or fear or anguish, we are constantly reliving and experiencing from a place that doesn’t actually exist now. Thus we aren’t able to be fully ourselves here and now. On the most basic level, forgiveness is for your own sanity so that Life can be Life.

Compassion. The party is always better when everyone is having a good time. That is the underlying recognition that gives form to compassion. We wish for others to be peaceful, happy, and free because this will make everything better for everyone, including ourselves. Compassion isn’t a talent, it’s a cultivated practice. It starts with intention and then manifests into activity. We work on compassion for ourselves, then compassion for our loved ones, then compassion for strangers, and finally compassion for enemies. Furthermore, compassion provides a way for us to touch the suffering of this world and offer relief. 

Mindfulness. Within each of us is a fathomless eternity. It is an unborn placeless place that is not our personality, not our bodies, not our minds. It is what gives us the feeling that we exist. It is what gives all living things the feeling that they exist. It has nothing to do with the world or the events happening within it. Feel your Self more strongly than you feel the world. That is mindfulness practice. This can be done anywhere, anytime. By practicing daily meditation, you will learn how to deepen your mindfulness. 

Reflection.  Noticing our patterns, challenging our assumptions, questioning our desires, examining our perspectives, these are all activities that paralyze the ego. The ego is made up of assertions. Therefore the ego is dismantled not via new or different assertions but by questioning. The power of an insightful question can be explosive to our sense of self. Learning to be less defensive and more willing to question ourselves without being insecure about it can lead to incredible growth. 

Peace. There is no way to peace, peace itself is the practice. We cannot afford to wait until circumstances align perfectly before allowing ourselves to feel peace. Otherwise we will just be changing the world to try to make ourselves feel better. Instead, we discover peace within the depths of our being. Then we can work with the world as needed, not trying to comfort ourselves but trying to be of genuine help. And because we have found some peace within, we actually have something to contribute and share. We aren’t trying to get something all the time, we can be abundant and give. 

Whatever religions, paths, or practices an individual may engage, these qualities are markers of authentic spiritual practice. They are qualities that can benefit any life. Nothing is stopping you from adopting them and triumphing. 

5 Karmic Benefits Of Helping Others

1. Abundance - we get what we give. When we help others in their time of need we are aligning with the abundance mindset because we are giving from our overflowing cup. This attracts more abundance to us in other areas of our lives.

2. Growth - meaningful interactions. Offering our aid to others opens up opportunities to create experiences that hold a greater meaning for us - a connection with another soul.

3. Positivity - like attracts like. We attract what we are, when we help others we attract others who will help us along our own journeys. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

4. Love - the force that connects us all. Extended love to others deepens our connection to the universe because love is all that there is. To tap into what I truly means to be alive we must express love.

5. Gratitude - appreciation for the little things. Helping those less fortunate than us gives us perspective on how lucky we are to have food on our plates, clothes on our backs and shelter over our heads.

You get what you give, give what you want to receive.

Peace & positive vibes.

7 Signs You’re Living Your Truth

1. Synchronicity - being at the right place at the right time. Living in alignment with our truth brings us in tune with our purpose and this results in meaningful interactions that feel like a coincidence. Everything happens for a reason - there are no accidents.

2. Love - the most powerful force. Loving life comes from loving what we do, when we’re living our truth we have every reason to be in love with our lives and look forward to each day.

3. Peace - not feeling conflicted. Acting in our own best interests and prioritising our needs results in peace of mind and not feeling conflicted when it’s time to make decisions.

4. PMA - present moment awareness. Noticing the world around us in moments of complete presence happens more frequently when we’re living in alignment with our truth because we are not seeking an escape from the present moment.

5. Gratitude - appreciating the little things. When we live our truth we have more reasons to express gratitude for food, the sun, people, animals, plants - because we understand how much they enrich our human experience.

6. Positivity - projecting our love onto others. Living a life free from internal conflict encourages us to radiate the love we feel within out onto others so that they may bathe in our overflowing fountain of abundance.

7. Authenticity - being true to ourselves. Being our most authentic selves and not compromising how we feel for the comfort of others is one of the telltale signs we’re embodying our highest truth.

Be yourself, everyone else is taken.

Peace & positive vibes.

Meditation can be exceedingly challenging for some of us. It’s incredibly hard to direct our thoughts in a way that helps us clear out minds. Being still is the opposite of calming. I know it comes naturally for some, but that ain’t me, and if you’re reading this, it’s probably not you.

SO LET’S REDEFINE MEDITATION. LET’S MAKE IT SOMETHING WE LOOK FORWARD TO AND REALLY FIND VALUE IN

Traditionally, meditation is done in a quiet room. The practitioner takes a comfortable seat, closes their eyes, and clears their mind. Mantras and chants can and often are a part of the equation. Dim lighting, no distractions, and comfortable clothing are paramount. Sometimes, it’s a guided meditation taking us on an internal journey.

You’ve tried all of it. And you’ve tried again. It’s not clicking and you wonder if you simply can’t meditate. You peek at others in the room seemingly enjoying their own experience and appearing to not struggle in the least. You feel like a failure and trend towards thinking meditation just isn’t for you. It’s so easy to buy into these thoughts, but they’re simply untrue.

LET’S THROW OUT TRADITION AND GET TO THE HEART OF WHAT MEDITATION OFFERS US:

peaceful feelings

clarity

mindfulness

self-awareness

compassion

the ability to be present

appreciation

simplification

kindness

stress reduction

relaxation

calm

groundedness

gratitude

For those of us whom more traditional meditation practices don’t quite land, let’s think way outside the box about what a meditative practice can be. What alternate types of meditation practices besides sitting in silence can offer all of these benefits?

1. Try a walking meditation

Take a walk. It can be in the woods, on the beach, or even just around your neighborhood. Focus on your breath and surroundings. Make a conscious effort to notice everything around you. The wind, cracks in the road, leaves on the trees, the song of the birds overhead. Drink it in and let yourself absorb your surroundings. Count your steps. Focus your drishti. Choose positive thoughts. Take deep, aware breaths.

2. Meditate in a crowded space

It could be a coffee shop, library, train station, or even your workplace. Find the least conducive to meditation environment you can. If you can find a calming energy and peaceful feeling even with eight-seven distracting things happening all around you, then you’re really onto something. The meditation here is all about blocking out the noise and finding focus amidst chaos. Even if you can find it for a moment, that’s really something. Use the tools at your disposal. Breath, Making the choice to not look up or all around everytime a new noise arrives at the scene. When you learn to block the noise, a truly incredible thing happens. You stop hearing it. It ceases having power over you. You can feel serenity anywhere.

3. Practice meditation via conversation

Have you ever noticed your listening abilities evaporating when you’re talking with someone and there’s a feeling of disconnect? You can change that by applying meditative properties to every conversation. Whether you’re talking with someone you really vibe with or someone you have trouble connecting to, the same meditation principles align. Practice self-study, svadhyaya, as a means of witnessing not just the other person with whom you are participating in dialogue, but yourself being present, open, compassionate, and more aware than you were moments before.

4. Create a daily mantra

This one is SO much fun! If you like to write, then write it down. If that’s not your jam, mentally create one and come back to it over and over throughout the day, revisiting your chosen meditation. Use a bracelet or crystal to help you remember to come back to it throughout the day. Today, I’m working with, “Cultivate listening by utilizing economy of words.” I talk a lot, so today, I choose to listen more, therefore talking less and fostering this as my meditation. Tomorrow I’ll choose something different to focus on, but this meditation will stay with me.

Once we broaden the scope of how we view meditation, everything starts to show up as a meditation opportunity. This in no way negates the incredible value of more traditional meditation practices. But if your resistance to that is strong, begin here and stay here as long as the value continues to surface for you. It might decrease your feelings of opposition, and if it doesn’t, that’s really okay. As long as we each find ways to cultivate awareness and a reduction in our stress levels, our meditation practice only needs to speak to us.

Meditation can be exceedingly challenging for some of us. It’s incredibly hard to direct our thoughts in a way that helps us clear out minds. Being still is the opposite of calming. I know it comes naturally for some, but that ain’t me, and if you’re reading this, it’s probably not you.

SO LET’S REDEFINE MEDITATION. LET’S MAKE IT SOMETHING WE LOOK FORWARD TO AND REALLY FIND VALUE IN

Traditionally, meditation is done in a quiet room. The practitioner takes a comfortable seat, closes their eyes, and clears their mind. Mantras and chants can and often are a part of the equation. Dim lighting, no distractions, and comfortable clothing are paramount. Sometimes, it’s a guided meditation taking us on an internal journey.

You’ve tried all of it. And you’ve tried again. It’s not clicking and you wonder if you simply can’t meditate. You peek at others in the room seemingly enjoying their own experience and appearing to not struggle in the least. You feel like a failure and trend towards thinking meditation just isn’t for you. It’s so easy to buy into these thoughts, but they’re simply untrue.

LET’S THROW OUT TRADITION AND GET TO THE HEART OF WHAT MEDITATION OFFERS US:

peaceful feelings

clarity

mindfulness

self-awareness

compassion

the ability to be present

appreciation

simplification

kindness

stress reduction

relaxation

calm

groundedness

gratitude

For those of us whom more traditional meditation practices don’t quite land, let’s think way outside the box about what a meditative practice can be. What alternate types of meditation practices besides sitting in silence can offer all of these benefits?

1. Try a walking meditation

Take a walk. It can be in the woods, on the beach, or even just around your neighborhood. Focus on your breath and surroundings. Make a conscious effort to notice everything around you. The wind, cracks in the road, leaves on the trees, the song of the birds overhead. Drink it in and let yourself absorb your surroundings. Count your steps. Focus your drishti. Choose positive thoughts. Take deep, aware breaths.

2. Meditate in a crowded space

It could be a coffee shop, library, train station, or even your workplace. Find the least conducive to meditation environment you can. If you can find a calming energy and peaceful feeling even with eight-seven distracting things happening all around you, then you’re really onto something. The meditation here is all about blocking out the noise and finding focus amidst chaos. Even if you can find it for a moment, that’s really something. Use the tools at your disposal. Breath, Making the choice to not look up or all around everytime a new noise arrives at the scene. When you learn to block the noise, a truly incredible thing happens. You stop hearing it. It ceases having power over you. You can feel serenity anywhere.

3. Practice meditation via conversation

Have you ever noticed your listening abilities evaporating when you’re talking with someone and there’s a feeling of disconnect? You can change that by applying meditative properties to every conversation. Whether you’re talking with someone you really vibe with or someone you have trouble connecting to, the same meditation principles align. Practice self-study, svadhyaya, as a means of witnessing not just the other person with whom you are participating in dialogue, but yourself being present, open, compassionate, and more aware than you were moments before.

4. Create a daily mantra

This one is SO much fun! If you like to write, then write it down. If that’s not your jam, mentally create one and come back to it over and over throughout the day, revisiting your chosen meditation. Use a bracelet or crystal to help you remember to come back to it throughout the day. Today, I’m working with, “Cultivate listening by utilizing economy of words.” I talk a lot, so today, I choose to listen more, therefore talking less and fostering this as my meditation. Tomorrow I’ll choose something different to focus on, but this meditation will stay with me.

Once we broaden the scope of how we view meditation, everything starts to show up as a meditation opportunity. This in no way negates the incredible value of more traditional meditation practices. But if your resistance to that is strong, begin here and stay here as long as the value continues to surface for you. It might decrease your feelings of opposition, and if it doesn’t, that’s really okay. As long as we each find ways to cultivate awareness and a reduction in our stress levels, our meditation practice only needs to speak to us.