Marrow Walker

[Constellation Legends] (pdf)

[Constellation Myths]

[The Constellations]

[The Constellations]

[The Constellations]

[Constellations and Mythology]

[Greek Constellations]

[Greek Mythology and the Constellations]

[The Mythology of the Constellations]

[Myths About Constellations]

[The Signs of the Greek Zodiac]

[Star Constellations and Myths]

Updated: March 30th 2016

GENERAL INFORMATION

[Collecting Storm Water] (an ask)

[Combining Storm Craft and Knot Craft] (an ask)

[Creating or Moving Weather] (an ask)

[Drawing Energy From Storms] (an ask)

[An Intro to Weather Magic]

[A Little Weather Witchery]

[Magic for a Snow Storm]

[Resources: Rain Water]

[Resources: Storm Water]

[Snow Magic]

[Storm Catching - Cyclone Stopper]

[Storm Craft Basics]

[Storm Crystals : Banded Amethyst | Chrysocolla in Quartz | Snowflake Obsidian]

[Storm Scrying]

[Storm Water]

[Storm Water vs Rain Water] (an ask)

[Stormcraft]

[Summoning Wind Without Whistling] (an ask)

[Tentative Steps: Beginning Storm Witchery]

[Tips for Starting Storm Craft]

[Tools of a Storm/Weather Witch] (an ask)

[Traditional Storm Raising Methods]

[Weather]

[Weather Magic] (tw: gif)

[Weather Magic for the Sailor]

[Weather Magic - Storm Casting]

[Weather Station Symbols for Sigils]

[Weather Symbols for Sigils]

[Whistling Up a Wind]

SPELLS AND SIGILS

(Note: spells that involve storm water are included)

[Air Lock Spell] (to help drive away bad weather)

[To Bring a Storm]

[Calm After the Storm Elixir]

[Charm to Seal Up a Storm]

[A Chant to Bring in a Storm and Strengthen Witches’ Power]

[Chant to Make It Windy] (tw: gif)

[“Clouds produce rain”] (tw: sigil)

[Cold Weather Box]

[A Colorful Sunny Day Spell]

[Cottage Crafts: Elemental Magic Storm Ward] (a home protection charm that draws its power from the energy of passing storm systems)

[Drought Spell] (to work with the element of air to bring a storm / fix a drought) (tw: sigil)

[Electric Charge Spell] (to increase one’s energy, motivation, and focus) (tw: gif)

[Forget Me Spell]

[Glamour Jar for Intimidating Looks]

[“Grey Cloud” Curse]

[Heavy Rain Spell]

[Holiday Ornament Snow Spell]

[Hurricane Curse]

[“I direct rain towards the places that need it”] (tw: sigil)

[“I influence the weather around me with ease”] (tw: sigil)

[To Lessen a Storm]

[Let It Snow]

[A let it snow sigil] (tw: sigil)

[Let’s Try a Spell: When It Rains] (for a better perspective)

[A Light in the Storm] (to aid in the healing of seasonal depression)

[Protection From Storm]

[“Protection from storms”] (tw: sigil)

[Protective Storm Ward]

[Rain-Banishing Spell]

[Rain-Calling Chant]

[Rain Spell / Storm Spell / Sigils for Rain / Sigils for Thunder / Sigils for Lightning] (tw: sigil)

[Rain Summoning Spell]

[Rainy Day Anxiety Spell]

[Rainy Day Spell to Clear Negative Energy]

[To Raise a Storm] (tw: gif)

[Sea Witch Rain Spell]

[Sigil for Bringing Clouds / Rain] (tw: sigil)

[Snow Spell] (tw: gif)

[Snow-Summoning Sigils] (tw: sigil)

[A Song of Storms]

[“Song of Storms” Enchantment] (for whistling up rain/storms) (tw: gif)

[Spell for Sunshine]

[Spell to Attract Rain]

[A Spell to Ward Off Rain] (tw: sigil)

[Spells for Weather]

[Spells to End a Storm]

[“Stop Rain” Sigil] (tw: sigil)

[Storm-Calling Spell]

[A Storm Chant]

[Storm of Tears and Nightmares Curse]

[Storm Spell] (to summon a storm)

[Storm Witch’s Transformation Spell]

[Summon a Storm]

[Summon a Storm Spell]

[Summoning rain and storms sigil] (tw: sigil)

[“Sun to cloud, cloud to rain, rain freezes and turns to snow”] (tw: sigil)

[Sunshine Spell]

[Teru Teru Bouzu] (a sunny day spell)

[Thunder Cake] (to help connect with the storm’s energy; to honor the storm; to ask for protection)

[Thunderstorm in a Jar]

[Untie the Wind] (to increase and decrease wind)

[Ward Water]

[Warm Weather Chant]

[The weather is cool and pleasant] (tw: sigil)

[“The weather is in favor of snow”] (tw: sigil)

[Wind Spell for Inspiration & Creativity]

[Winter (Snow) Spell for Anxiety]

STORM / WEATHER MAGIC BLOGS

[rainy-day-witchcraft]

[stormbornwitch]

[stormsorceress]

[stormwaterwitch]

A Disclaimer: I am one person and my opinions (which I have in abundance) may not reflect the opinions of other witches, in general, or other people who call themselves hearth witches. In fact, they probably won’t, because I’m an asshole. I have a bizarre sense of humor that doesn’t convey well in text and I rant about shit I don’t like. A lot. If you don’t think you can handle that, maybe don’t read anything I write. Ever.

Protecting the Home, Protecting the Family 

Let me preface this post by saying, I am exhausted, so probably nothing I write here is going to make sense to anyone but me. Also, that has just been my luck lately, but we’ll see how it goes anyway. 

If you read my blog, you’ll know that I do a lot of stuff to protect my railroad cottage. Not just because I live here, but because I literally use my house as a symbol of my household and family. So, in a witchcraft sense, protecting my home is protecting my family. And, because that’s the witchcraft I write about most on my blog, that’s what I get a lot of questions about (spirit work aside, because that’s what I get the most questions about). 

So, this post is going to be about various ways to protect your home and (hopefully) prevent nasties from creeping inside. 

Rule Number One: Keep a Clean House

I know that sounds really boring. I know you’re like, “Emma, that is not witchcraft. Those are chores and I hate you. Did my mom put you up to this?” But, actually, there are two good reasons that’s Rule No. 1: 

It’s not easy to cleanse a house that isn’t clean. Part of protecting your home is being prepared to go into battle for it. Now, witchcraft is known to make a house a little cluttered. If you’ve got ribbons falling out of your sewing box and stockpiles of tea on your counter. Don’t worry. You’re normal. But it’s possible for a house to be both cluttered and clean.

Cleaning a house regularly is a fantastic way to magically take ownership of the property—which I’ve discussed here. 

Obviously, I’m not saying you’re house has to look like something from Good Housekeeping. My own cottage has four rooms and is home to more than four people. It’ll never be as neat as we want it to be. But’s it’s clean. And that’s what matters. 

Rule Number Two: Good Fences Make Good Neighbors 

I’m not talking about real fences—but those too. I’m talking more about magical boundaries. Like a witch fence. This can be set up in or outside of ritual, using a real fence, other objects, or using visualization. 

So, let’s talk about putting up this fence, huh? The method I use  is, of course, the “Gross Method”—and, by gross, I mean no one wants to do it or talk to me they’ve found out I’ve done it. It uses a pre-existing fence to create the boundary, which means that what you’re actually doing with this method is enchanting or reinforcing your standing fence. It’s supa supa easy. Like really, children could do if you let them. Only probably don’t let them because it’s probably a health hazard. 

For this method, you will need 1) a fence, 2) something to mark your stake-points with, 3) some bodily fluids—i.e. menstrual blood, piss, spit, sexual fluids, etc., 4) your bad ol’ self

Step One: Walk around your property and decide where you want your stake-points to be. I refer to them as stake-points because what you’re actually doing is kind of like putting up a magical tent rather than a fence. These are the strength points of your enchanted fence. You’ll want at least one in every corner of the existing fence. Mark these places. You can do this by scratching or painting on the fence, tying something to the fence, or sticking something in the ground there. In my case, I used the support posts for my pre-existing fence as my stake points, so I didn’t have to mark them because I knew where they were. 

Step Two: Collect fluids. (Unless you’re using spit, which you have.) You can water any of these fluids down if you need to—except probably spit. 

Step Three: Using a paintbrush, herbs, your hands, a spray bottle, or whatever, apply the fluid to the INSIDE of your fence where your neighbors won’t be touching. As you do, visualize the stake-points linking together as they’re placed. I tend to visualize something like a barbed-wire fence going up between my stake-points, but white light works too if you’re into that. **If you’re going to forget, mark where you started.

Step Four: When you’ve completed the fence and connected your last stake-point to your starting point, visualize the tent going up. In my visualization this is something like a deer-skin version of a Circus tent, but I am a legit freak of nature, so your probably wont be. 

Now, you can be done here, or you can write something to say to tweak the spell to your style. If you have Property Spirits that you work with, you may also want to ask them to guard the fence at this point. 

Rule Number Three: Gardening = Ammo 

While we’re still outdoors, let’s talk about ‘defensive gardening’. One of my favorite things to do with my garden is to reinforce my boundaries by planting protective herbs. Not only does it add punch to your enchanted fence, but it provides ammunition should you need to banish something later. 

This can be done directly in the ground, in hanging planters at/on your stake-points, in windowboxes, in planters by the door, etc. 

Some good protective herbs to start are:

Aloe

Rosemary 

Roses (thorny for offensive magic, rosehips for defensive magic)

Mint

Lavender

You may also want to include banishing plants

Garlic 

Sage 

Sweeatgrass

Thyme

As well as flowers, trees, and shrubs to the same effect (like holly, cedar, etc). 

Rule Number Four: Wards/Wardings Aren’t As Hard As They Sound

Come with me to the porch and let’s talk about wards! *runs to the porch, points at wards* Wards are awesome! There are so many different kinds and they can range anywhere from decorative to practical to invisible! 

When you’re warding your doorway, like a lot of witchcraft, intent is super important. Really, it doesn’t matter what kind of ward you use as long as you have the intent. And, with the bucket load of types of warding, you should be able to find one to fit your needs.

My favorite way to ward a door or window is with a decorative ward, which was something we did in my family for years and then I finally saw it outside of our house in an Ellen Dugan book (which I bought JUST for that reason). This one isn’t mine, but it’s a good example of one:

These hang above doors and windows to ward off evil, ill will, etc. and can be made out of dried flowers and herbs (like above), fabric (such as a warding banner), carved into the wood above a door, or any other way you prefer. 

I usually go with the pictured method. Typically I

Start with a base. For year-round wards I like to use wheat and dried grass (which you can find at a craft store—but not Hobby Lobby, because they areevil). 

I face half of my base one way and half the opposite way—so that the cut ends are together and you have the awesome wheat/grass/evergreen ends facing out. Over lap the two halves a few inches and tie them together. (I usually use twine for that, but you can use whatever you like.

Next, go you your second layer, which is the actual warding part. For this, my favorite things to use are lavender (which grows wild in the neighborhood I work in), and rosemary. But there are plenty of other possibilities, too—sunflowers, rose, baby’s breath, holly, pine, mint, etc. These can be tucked into the tie you’ve already made, glued on, or tied on separately. 

To finish mine off, I usually add a bell, to symbolize a signal, which sort of makes the ward into an alarm. Sometimes, when trouble is around, I’ll hear a bell even though it’s not ringing. Sometimes it actually rings. 

The ward can go above your door, window, fireplace, or anywhere else you feel you want to hang it. 

Of course, there are a lot of other ways to ward your doors and windows. 

With energy and visualization. 

With water or oil (drawing protective symbols on them with the water/oil) 

Warding Wreaths

Other hangings (like photographs of deities or saints, Brigid’s crosses, horseshoes, strings or bells)

Salt lines and brickdust (I tend to mix these together)

Hanging herbs by or above the door (I typically dry my herbs next to the door so I never have a shortage of door-based protection)

Whatever

The most important thing is that you make your intent clear. Whether you want to ward off evil spirits or unwelcome mortal visitors, make your intent clear. If you need to do this by putting your warding into a big ritual, do so. If you need to activate your wards out loud, go ahead. 

Rule Number Five: Everything You Need to Strengthen Your Protection is On/In You

Spit

Urine

Menstrual Blood

Sexual Fluids 

Sweat 

and so on

These are all totally useful supplies for witchcraft in general and for protection in specific. A touch of one of these on a window, door, doorknob, etc is fantastic for strengthening a boundary and clearly marking your territory to anyone who might wander inside. Surface cleaning with remove germs, but not the intent or the warning.

Rule Number Six: Never Let an Outsider Make Your Forget Whose House This Is

Frivolous magic is basically magic one does for fun. It doesn’t hinge on life or death, or even make the difference of a bill getting paid. It’s solely for shits and giggles. 

For example:

Luck spells for going into game night with multiple magical participants.

Tranquility exercises to increase music enjoyment.

Glamour spells to jazz up your Halloween costume

Human repellent to get the best spot in the grocery line. 

Is

It is super poisonous

There is a reason we do not use it in make up any more

So a lot of people suggest when it comes to seeing about spells and their workings to do divinations. I am not a fan of this advice. The reason is because it creates the false illusion that divination is 100% accurate, 100% of the time. That divination isn’t up to subjectivity, that divination isn’t influenced by outside factors or inside factors as the case may be. 

I think the reason they suggest doing divination is because it’s an easier answer than “well you might have to think through it.” Plus it gives that immediate answer of “yes/no” or in some forms of divination, may provide information. Though, again, divination is not a 100% accurate, 100% true thing all of the time. And while some people might have a high rate of success with divination in terms of their readings, I still do not think divination is a good method for measuring spell success.

So what is a good method for measuring spell success, then?

Well, the first thing that you have to understand about my views on this is that spells don’t “do” extra things. Meaning when you cast a spell, it doesn’t suddenly change direction or course just because. So a random physical protection spell isn’t going to make you lucky at the gambling, for instance. They don’t just add on or pile on extra things in your casting. 

The second thing you have to understand about my views on this is that I don’t believe spells go the “extra mile.” Meaning, they take the path of least resistance when they can go about their business. So if you’re casting a general “give me some money” spell, that might mean you find 25 cents on the ground and that’s the end of the spell. And I mean that sincerely, not sarcastically. It’s not going to achieve some long drawn out thing that it never was cast to do. It only does what it was supposed to do.* End.

The third thing you have to understand about my views on spells is that EVEN if you achieve what you’re spell says later on, that doesn’t mean your spell worked. For instance, if you cast a spell with particular limits on the spell ie I need to get 50 dollars by next week, and you get 50 dollars the week after next, that means your spell didn’t work or it “went bad (see *).” 

So I don’t count those spells which do not “follow through” on it’s expected time. 

The fourth thing you have to understand is about experience that I’ve had with spells. So specifically, if you do not end a spell or you do not see a result, it doesn’t have necessarily an ending. So some spells are entirely not possible to achieve. Re: Turning myself into a Dragon. But I’ve had spells that I viewed as “failures” pop up years later giving me exactly what I casted. Sometimes they are still going and I find them yet AGAIN later on because they are continuously working. It doesn’t help that I did a large amount of experimentations with varieties of spell techniques so, needless to say, some things just got… kooky. 

So for me, measuring success is 

1) did the spell do /exactly/ what you cast. 

for example, if you did a protection spell. Are you hurt right now? Are you dying right now? Did you get into an accident after casting the spell? No? Good. It’s working/It’s worked. You may never know what the protection spell saves you from. But I’ve had instances where I’ve done protection spells, that have been so powerful that they /moved/ me out of harms way. And I’ve /discerned/ that after you know getting saved that the spell I did has been broken because that harm was so much that it took the entire spell to cover my ass for it. Discerning is more of a thought process. Like whoa I just walked away from that, probably cause of that spell though yep. let me just… cast that bugger one more again. that was a good tooting one. 

So this comes back to another thought, so for instance, if you cast a spell for physical protection but you MEANT to cast a spell for psychic protection, that spell doesn’t convert to a psychic protection spell. So I’ve had instances where I’ve gone back to the spell pissed because I got what I thought was a different result. Only to find the way I cast the spell and the way I wanted it to go, were two different things. So I got *exactly* what I casted for. 

So if you’re getting a bunch of results that don’t seem to line up with your expectations of things, maybe go back and review the play on the field. 

2) Did the goal or what you wanted the spell to do only do the the goal was.

So if you cast a specific peach cobblah spell and you expect to get 1 peach cobblah seven days later, and you don’t. But you get peach cobblah a month later… two months later… continuous months later. That to me, is not a sign of success. It is either a sign of happenstance, ie peaches were in hella season later on. Or it is a sign of some type of pass interference. 

And these are just things that you have to process through and think about when it comes to types of spells and their success. Okay? Likewise why they didn’t fail. So one reason could be they didn’t actually fail, your expectations were different - as I said. It could be that you cast a spell that had no way of completing in that time. You’re maybe in a different country that doesn’t even HAVE peaches in the country (though I must say I dunno how that is gonna be but whatever). Or you may be trying to turn yourself into a dragon. Which. You know. It just it’s likely not to happen but imma try though.

You have to process it and decide. Some people process spells by writing them down and tracking them. I don’t prefer to do that, because a) that gives written evidence to people who might have access to my things what I’m about, and b) that I may write something and mistakenly read it differently later on. I’m good about that. And track it as a success when it’s not. But I think if it’s easier for you to do so, please do so. There are some templates that went around tumblr a while back that had like mechanisms by which to track spell success so that might be something to look into?

Anyhoo, there’s another thing I wanna cover:

Some spells have physical components. I view that when those physical components start to break down OR you lose them OR something happens to them that is in a negative fashion, the spell “broke.” So for instance, I use a lot of jewelry for talisman making. Likewise I’ve stored spells in crystals before. I’ve had jewelry straight up crack in half while sitting on my body. I’ve had crystal chip off. 

I’ve seen other people who’ve had jar spells had the contents of the jar go “bad.” Whatever that means for that jar spell. I’ve had items fall off of me and go away forever. I’ve had things completely drop off the face of the earth, etc etc.

I’ve had silver that tarnished, etc etc. These are all signs for me that the spell is either breaking down or is broken. 

Of course why it gets “broken, bent, or destroyed” is entirely up to what the spell is supposed to do and what happens to the items. 

So I would say you would need to really go over the spells you’re casting if you’re not having a lot of success. It could be because of the technique you’re using or the paradigm you have. It could be that you are getting success but it’s not concrete like for instance getting a job would be. It could be just simple things here and there. Or it could be because you’re casting a spell that just won’t ever work, either because of what it is or because you put too strong a limitation on that spell. 

Does that make sense?

Hello!!! First off you should check out my resource tag, it’s got some decent stuff in it.

A while back I went online to gather the best—IMHO—free resources I could about tarot for use by them as wants to learn.  Below are the fruits of my labor. 

Quick Methods of Learning Tarot

Learn Tarot in 7 Easy Steps (PDF)

Learn the Tarot in Two Hours - Part One and Part Two, by Ben Lucas (YouTube)

The Symbolist: A Simplified Guide to Tarot Symbols and Terms, by Corrine Kenner

A quick and dirty chart to tarot cards and their common meanings

Minor Arcana Quick Reference Chart - thetarot.co.uk

Learning Tarot

What Every Newbie Tarot Reader Should Know by Mary K. Greer

Easy Tarot Lessons with Dusty White (YouTube) - Part One 

How to Read Tarot by Bonnie Cehovet - PDF from AclecticTarot.com

Tarot for Beginners, or Now That I Have a Deck, What Do I Do With It?  by Olympias (TarotByOlympias.com) - PDF from her website

Learning the tarot (PDF - 19 lessons) by Joan Bunning.  The complete course is also online for free here.

Tarot Worksheets for Download and Study (PDFs)

Trainee Tarot Course by The Four Queens (Youtube)

Tarot Oracle’s Complete Tarot Course by the Tarot Oracle.  Part One is here,  and there are 15 hours in total (YouTube)

the Aeclectic Tarot Forum’s Cards masterthread (multiple links to articles on all 78 cards)

The Socratic Method of Tarot Reading by Jeanne Fiorini (YouTube)

How to Shuffle Tarot Cards by Kate Madison (YouTube)

Learning Tarot - Reversals

The Complete Book of Tarot Reversals by Mary K. Greer, via MyTeaCup.com (PDF)

Reversals, and What to Do if All of the Cards Are Reversed, by Christiana Gaudet (YouTube)

Learning Tarot - Court Cards

Why You Can’t Read the Court Cards, by Marcus Katz. Unpublished material from Tarosophy: Tarot to Engage Life, Not Escape It by Marcus Katz.  PDF.

Understanding the Tarot Court by Mary K. Greer and Tom Little, via ChinaTarot.com (PDF)

Court Cards at a Glance - Site and Printable Chart via TarotCourtCards.com

Learning Tarot - the Thoth Deck

Tarot: Mirror of the Soul.  A Handbook for the Aleister Crowley Tarot by Gerd Ziegler (PDF)

TarotTown: Thoth for Beginners - a Worksheet that breaks down a few of the complicated aspects of the Thoth tarot deck. (PDF)

Doing Readings

the Aeclectic Tarot Forum’s All About Reading masterthread (formulating questions, reading techniques, and more) 

Gaining Confidence in Your Tarot Readings by Teresa Michelsen/TarotMoon Press

How to Read For Others - the Tarot Sybarite

Overcoming Reader’s Block from TarotMoon Press

When the Cards Just Make No Damn Sense - the Tarot Sybarite

To Rephrase or Not to Rephrase from TarotMoon Press

Working With Vague of Complex Questions from TarotMoon Press

Interpreting Large Readings from TarotMoon Press

Asking Questions (For Those Seeking Readings)

How to Phrase Tarot Questions - The Free Reading Network

How to Phrase a Question for a Tarot Reading - PlanetWaves.net

Seven Ways to Ask a Good Question in a Tarot Reading  - TarotCanHelp.com

Effective Tarot Questions - The Tarot Reader Blog

What NOT to Ask the Tarot- BiddyTarot

The 37 Best Tarot Questions - Alec Satin

Public Domain Tarot Books (PDFs) via EsotericOnline.net:

Pictorial Key to the Tarot, by A. E. Waite

A French Method of Cartomancy, by A. E. Waite

An Introduction to the Study of the Tarot, by Paul Foster Case

Oracle of the Tarot, by Paul Foster Case.  Keyed to the Knapp-Hall Tarot

The Wisdom of Tarot by Elizabeth Haich

What is the Tarot? by Ouspenpsky

Book T, by MacGregor Mathers  Intro the the Golden Dawn system of tarot interpretation.  Very dense reading, not keyed to the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, and not for beginners

Tarot of the Bohemians, by Papus.  References the Tarot de Marseilles and the Oswald-Wirth Tarot.

A History of the Tarot, by Dame Gabby

The Continental Tarots by Christine Payne-Towler

A Self-Guided Tour of the Tarot by Cameo Victor

The Continental Tarot, by Christine Payne-Towler

The Qabalistic Tarot by Robert Wang

Sex Magic, Tantra, and Tarot: The Way of the Secret Lover by Hyatt and DuQuette

Printable Tarot Decks (Public Domain Art)

Rider-Waite-Smith Deck (High-Resolution Images) viafantasycards,wordpress.com

Color-Your-Own Rider-Waite-Smith Deck via tarotinstitute.com.  Coloring your own deck is a simple and effective way to fix the image in your mind and internalize its many meanings.

Color-Your-Own Marseilles Deck via tarot-cards-reading.net

The Tarot de Marseilles is one of the oldest known tarot decks, and is the basis for the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. Click here to download a full-color Marseille Tarot Deck

VintagePrintable has a tarot deck from Venice circa the 1500s for print.

You can also print the Bodet cards from 1739 by clicking here.

DarkTarot.com has another printable traditional deck available for personal use. Please note the copyright.

Once you’ve decided which deck(s) you want to print, save the printable tarot cards to your computer. Avoid printing directly from the browser as you might end up with some weird and unwanted results (trust me on this).

Print out the tarot cards on your chosen paper. Make sure that you print them in the standard tarot deck size. If you’re not sure that the size is right, do a test print of one card so you don’t destroy the entire paper. If you printed the images on regular paper and want a good backing, then you need to use spray adhesive to glue the paper to the actual cards.

Carefully trim the edges of the cards - some people like rounded edges, so make sure you have enough place for the borders. 

Once the cards are printed, let them dry and then seal them with a varnish spray. After that, run them through a laminator. These days laminators are pretty affordable, and if you find yourself creating lots of tarot decks, you might want to invest in one.  You can also take the files to office supply stores (such as Office Depot in the USA) for printing and laminating.

Tarot Spreads:

Creating Tarot Spreads (PDF)

Divination Spreads (PDF)

Three Card Spreads (PDF)

Three Card Yes-Or-No Spread (PDF)

Popular Spreads with Interpretive Charts from MyTeaCup.com (PDF)

KMilliron’s Free Tarot Spreads eBook (PDF) - a poster over at AclecticTarot’s forums collected all of his spreads into a PDF for sharing via MediaFire

41 Quick Tarot Spreads For Reading Any Situation - JeanneMayell.com

Original Tarot Spreads - TarotMoon Press 

AeclecticTarot Forums’ Tarot Spread Index

gardenofthequeen’s tarot spread tag

hellboundwitch’s tarot spread tag

TarotSybarites tarot spread tag

Tarot Journaling

http://austinpagan.com/ebooks/Tarot%20Exercises.pdf

Creating Your Own Tarot and Oracle Card Journal by owlmoon (YouTube)

Tarot & Astrology

Tarot and Astrology by Hajo Banzhaf. 

Simple Astrology Spread (PDF)

Tarot & Numerology

Secrets of Tarot Numerology by Gary Meister: Lesson One, Lesson Two, Lesson Three, Lesson Four, Lesson Five, Lesson Six, Lesson Seven, Lesson Eight, Lesson Nine, Lesson Ten, Lesson Eleven, Lesson Twelve

Issues in Tarot

Ethics When Reading For Others by Dixie Vogel (YouTube)

Ethical Tarot Reading by BiddyTarot

Setting Boundaries and Developing a Code of Ethics from TarotMoon Press

What A Tarot Reading CANNOT Do For You by Mita Bhan

Third Party Readings by BiddyTarot

Why I Don’t Do Tarot Readings For Third Parties by tarotcanhelp.com

Your Tarot Reading Made the Client Mad!  What Now?! by Dixie Vogel (YouTube)

The Peril of Practice - Unhappy Clients from TarotMoon Press

Are There Any Clients That You Would Refuse to Do A Tarot Reading For? via TarotWisdomReadings.com

Going “Pro”

Becoming a “Professional”: How To Know When You’re Ready to Charge For Your Tarot Readings by Biddy Tarot.  See also her article How Much Are Your Tarot Readings Worth?

Becoming A Professional Tarot Reader - What You Need to Know by DailyTarotGirl

Suggestions for Becoming a Professional Tarot Reader by Mary K. Greer

Charging Fees for Readings by Madhavi Ghare

Why I Do Not—And Will Not—Do Free Readings by idanceitarotiart

Mary K. Greer: Tools for Recording Your Readings

Getting Experience: Join the Free Tarot Network where you perform free Tarot readings via email, with the support of a Tarot mentor.  See also biddytarot’s Seeking Feedback from Your Online Clients

The following is NOT free, and some of the information on the Internet is dated, but the bulk of information contained within is outstanding: Christine Jette’s book Professional Tarot.  Highly, highly recommended.

Organizations That Support/Promote Tarot

Tarosophy Tarot Association - “We teach methods of Tarot to divine your life, and make your way better through it – understanding more along the way.”  This organization runs TaroCon US, TarotCon Australia, and TarotCon UK.

American Tarot Association - “The American Tarot Association is a professional and social organization for Tarot enthusiasts, students, scholars, and readers. We promote the study and appreciation of Tarot by supporting a variety of educational programs.”

Tarot Association of the British Isles - “TABI is a not-for-profit association run by unpaid volunteers with a passion for Tarot and the esoteric. We were formed in 2001 to provide support, information and resources for Tarot enthusiasts of all levels.”

Tarot Guild of Australia - “The TGA represents a community of Tarot enthusiasts, readers and teachers from across Australia and worldwide.”

Tarot Publishers

Tarot Media Company - “…our goal [is] promoting the work of Tarot authors, artists, and scholars to make their creations available to the Tarot public and to support them in their goal of right livelihood.”

US Games Systems - Publisher of classic and contemporary tarot decks, Rider-Waite, Crowley Thoth, divination and oracle decks

Lo Scarabeo - Born in 1987 in Torino, Italy, Lo Scarabeo is now a leading international company in the mind, body and spiritual health publishing, with a main focus in Tarot publishing. Lo Scarabeo is one of the most important Tarot publishers in the world.

The Game Crafter - “the world’s first web-to-print game publishing company and offers a print on demand game publishing service…The Game Crafter gives designers an easy-to-use system to make a board game, card game, or custom playing cards. TGC offers templates, instructions, videos, and proofing tools to help designers create a quality product”.

Shopping For Decks

TarotGarden

ShopTarot

If you’re browsing decks on AeclecticTarot, you can usually click a link on the deck’s page and be taken to a web site to order.  Those affiliate links usually help the site, too.

Tarot Card Games

Wikipedia’s article on tarot card games

Simplified Rules for The Game of Tarot, via Mary K. Greer’s blog.  For a copy of the rules of French tarot, see here. 

Rules for Games Played with Tarot Cards via Pagat.com.  There are literally hundreds of rules variations out there, here’s a handful of them.

Emperors, the fortunetelling betting game played with Tarot cards by copperbadge

Theoricus Poker by Frater B.T. - a fun way to learn correspondences from astrology, etc., with the different tarot cards.

Arcanus Major - A Tarot Roleplaying Game

Tarot History

Take a look at this graphic for some quick facts about tarot

Thomas L. MacDonald’s detailed, excellent series on the history of tarot cards.  MacDonald is an editor over at Games magazine.

For a shorter overview of the history, you can look at tarot author Mary K. Greer’s blog post What Every Newbie Tarot Reader Should Know About the History and Myths of Tarot and the TarotL History and Information Sheet.

History of Women’s Tarot - Tarot as a keystone of the Women’s Spirituality movement branches off in a different direction from the mainstream in the mid-1970’s.

Make sure you do some reading about Pamela Colman Smith. Smith is the artist who designed the artwork for the Rider-Waite-Smith deck (the world’s most popular tarot deck, and the one most people think of when they hear the word “tarot”) in 1909.  

Smith based her RWS deck design on the Tarot de Marseille.

Smith’s creation of individual scenes on the cards of the minor arcana was a huge leap forward in tarot deck design, and contributed mightily to the enduring popularity of the RWS deck.

You can see examples of her non-tarot artwork here and here.  Don’t forget her book Susan and the Mermaid!

One thing to keep in mind about Pamela Colman Smith is that she made a deliberate decision to reduce or eliminate the Christian imagery found in the early tarot decks.  For example….

The Hanged Man image comes from the medieval Italian practice of hanging traitors upside down (Fun Fact: at the end of WWII, Mussolini was hanged upside down to mark him as a traitor; and please be warned that link is GRAPHIC and TOTALLY NSFW).  That practice was inspired by the death of Judas Iscariot in the Bible, where Iscariot is described as falling “headlong” (Acts 1:18). In the earliest tarocchi decks, the Hanged Man is depicted with bags of money, or with coins falling out of his pocket, a reference to the infamous thirty pieces of silver Iscariot was paid for betraying Jesus Christ.

The World card can be seen in many churches and ancient Christian manuscripts, usually showing Christ ascending into heaven surrounded by symbols of the Four Evangelists.

Smith’s High Priestess replaced La Papessa (the Papess, a female ‘Pope’ figure) in the deck.  Lots of folks assumed that this image was inspired by the legend of Pope Joan, but evidence suggests that the image is a female allegorical figure for the Roman Catholic Church (which claims the title ‘The Bride of Christ’)

General Cartomancy

Origins of Playing Card Divination - Mary K. Greer’s Tarot Blog. An illustrated presentation of theories and research on the origin of playing cards.

The New World Witchery Guide to Cartomancy by Corey Hutcheson (PDF)

Secondhand Souls: Cartomancy - Guide to learning cartomancy. Includes a brief history, discusses cards, and gives spreads.

Playing Card Meanings - Serena’s Guide to Divination

Sarena’s Tarot: Using Regular Playing Cards - A guide to using regular playing cards for divination.

A Manual of Cartomancy, Fortune-Telling, and Occult Divination by Grand Orient, published 1909 (PDF) via the Wayback Machine

A French Method of Fortune-Telling by Cards, by A.E. Waite, published 1912, via Hermetics.org

Fortune-Telling By Cards by Prof. P.R.S. Foli, first published 1915 . PDF via labirintoermetico.com

Cartomancy: History and Legend of a Prophetic Artvia associazioneletarot.it (PDF) 

Arcana Arcanorum: The Playing-Card Oracle - A personal system of playing card divination is presented with card meanings and layouts.

Other

A Glossary of Tarot Symbols from TarotMoon Press

the Difference between Oracle and Tarot Cards by hellboundwitch

World Tarot Day

World LeNormand Day

Tarotpedia, the Online Encyclopedia of Tarot

Tarot Reflections Archives - Back Issues of the newsletter of the American Tarot Association

Tips For Reading at Psychic Fairs by Teresa Michelsen

Reading at Charity Events by the Tarot Sybarite

Hello! I can certainly gather a few. :)

Get The Fuck Out Banishing Spell

Banish A Toxic Person

Cut It Out, Cut Them Off

Banish Person Spell

Another Banish Person Spell

Basic Binding Spell

Burning Bridges Spell

Removing Toxic Friends

Get Away From Me Banishing Spell Bottle

Rotten Apple Banishing Spell

Onion Banishing Spell

Toxic Person Removal Spells

*Oracle of Oddities - Update*