#beginner guide

Tarot in itself is an experience. Known for its ability to predict events and read energy, it is a spiritual tool which many find intriguing. Often, these cards are related to witchcraft with a variety of cultures, practices and religious beliefs that of which are heavily associated with. Many view these tools as “Spiritual” and “Magic” while others view it as a “fortune teller”. However, what many fail to realize the structure behind Tarot and how is it almost always accurate? Why do we resonate? Or perhaps if you’re a beginner tarot reader; how can I let it resonate?

A Beginner’s Mistake 初学者的错误

One biggest mistake a beginner commits when they first get into learning tarot—which we are all guilty of—Is heavily relying on a guidebook. Tarot works by intuition. Its meanings will change depending on the query. A guidebook won’t be able to help you when a querent asks an ambiguous question which no tarot card holds the exact meaning or message for. When you are reliant on a card’s meanings or keywords or perhaps a guidebook, you risk yourself of weakening your intuition and shutting out your ability to connect with your deck.

In order to understand your cards better, you must first connect with it. It’s not alive–yet until you connect with it. When you do connect with it, the spiritual essence you give it with each reading you perform you give life to it.

“How do I spiritually connect with my decks?” First and foremost, shadow work of course. This is the basis of spiritual growth and healing. But for the basics, shuffling it from time to time and pulling one card. Another key aspect is to lessen the need for looking up each card’s meanings, instead, interpret the image that stands out to you.

For example,

I pulled out; Auspicious

Deck: Lóng Tarot 龙吟塔罗牌

First, what do you see? A dragon, right? Looking at this card alone you won’t have much to say of it. However, the key details are all around it. I want you to observe what else do you notice in this card. There are fireworks, clouds, and the background gradient’s ranging from dark to a bright.

Next, you assign the meaning you associate with the visuals. For example, I interpret this as; “A dragon looking forward for what’s to come next in the future” You might be wondering “How tf did you get to that conclusion?” The answer is simple. Notice how the Dragon is looking up at the sky? We don’t know what they’re looking at but we do know from their eyes they’re looking forward to something (or how I interpret it at least.). Another interpretation I’d like to add, especially with the visual elements of which I mentioned earlier; “A dragon has finally reached the sky, lifting itself up from darkness. Fireworks call to celebrate its arrival, however, the dragon’s focused on what’s to come in his future.” Ultimately with the imagery alone, it can also be interpreted as someone coming out of a dark place and wanting better for themselves or it could even mean someone who wants to know what’s going on with all the ruckus (especially if you interpret the dragon’s expression as confused or curious).

Notice how flexible tarot cards are? Its meaning changes each time and you must trust your intuition and your ability to analyze the imagery and the “feeling” it provides. If these cards’ meanings are flexible, you must also be flexible. This is the first step to connecting with your deck in a spiritual level.

Though of course, there is no fixed way of interpreting and identifying tarot cards. When you feel stuck and do not understand how to interpret a card, you can look up what it exactly means—Or better yet, what the elements you notice in the card could mean.

For example,

“What do dragons symbolize?” “Spiritual meaning of fireworks” “Cloud meanings” etc..

Remember, flexibility is key.

Applying Psychology 应用心理学

Tarot is not fully spiritual, it also psychological. It bends to the mind of its reader and it reveals one’s behavior. It relies on the reader’s experiences and wisdom gained through their own experiences. This is why a lot of people resonate with readings. It is because the readers themselves have already experienced a similar situation or knew of someone who was in this situation.

Another reason why it is advisable to stay away from tarot when you are in a state of anxiety, fear, depression, etc. Your cards will pick up your energy and will continue to send you towards a downward spiral. Though it is unintentional, this is why you must always be mindful and trust your discernment. As a reader, it is easier for your cards to absorb your energy than the querent’s. Hence why it is always necessary to cleanse your cards bimonthly (depends on how often you want) especially if you also read for others. Tarot is not portal, but a communication channel with one of its key aspects to communicate is revealing the psychological state of one’s being.

You do not need to have a background in psychology, just beginner friendly level knowledge or at least a basic understanding on human behavior—especially if you frequent love readings (or spy on people). And no, I do not mean pop psychology.

Growing up, I had always been intrigued and fascinated about psychology. Particularly, studying human behavior. Alongside my studies, I was also getting into tarot reading (I was just a child in elementary school during all of this, I’m turning 21 soon). And with this knowledge, It was easy to connect my psychological learnings onto my cards and my “person of interest” alone.

For example,

A querent asked me “Has my ex partner moved on?”

I pulled out; Knight of wands

Deck: Lóng Tarot 龙吟塔罗牌

An Amateur would scoff and say “Yes they have and are pursuing or chasing after xyz”. Especially with the characteristics of the Knight of Wands (and mostly those represented by the wands court cards). Court cards from the suit of wands, especially the Knight of wands, are considered to be very passionate individuals driven by the thrill and the chase. They are mostly shallow, seeking attention either sexually or perhaps validation.

Now this is where Psychology will come to play. My answer to their question is “No, they have not moved on. If anything, they’re too proud to admit it and could even be exploring their options head on (referring to the plenty of fish in the sea quote because of the numerous fish in the card).”. Especially if their ego took a hit from the break up, it is natural for someone to immediately feel the need to run and chase after thrills to fill the void and suit their ego. Mind you, the querent revealed their ex made a dating profile shortly after their break up.

We all know that Fire means passion but it is also dangerous. It burns the strongest and the most powerful flames, and it can either consume and destroy you or die out and leave you in the cold. This is why I may associate people represented by court wands as either egotistical, passionate, sexual, or perhaps avoidant.

Avoidant, how exactly? Well, they refuse to sit with their emotions and heal hence why they run off to seek short-term pleasures to distract themselves from feeling something. They view cheap thrills and infatuation as healing while also destroying others in the process. That is how fire works. The more you feed it, it consumes. And when it consumes, it becomes powerful. And when it becomes powerful, it destroys everything around it.

Conclusion 结论

In order to understand and master tarot, you must first get in touch with your spirituality by learning to become flexible in your interpretations. Other than that, you must also understand psychology of human behavior most especially if your readings are often based on love, romance, drama, etc. A card’s visuals alone is enough to explain the how and why behind a person’s behavior and feelings.

When you combine both spirituality and psychology, your approach to tarot will become insightful and “relatable”. Your accuracy as a reader will gradually improve when you understand the “How” of spirituality and “Why” behind the psychology revealed to you by tarot.

Thank you for taking your time to read, I hope my writing was helpful and opened your mind up to learning tarot and I hope I was able to help teach you a thing or two for your tarot reading journey!

Turning your herbs into a blend of loose incense is a wonderful way to connect with the energies in your plants. It not only can be used to make your home or living space smell nice, but can also be used for a variety of practices. Whether it's for smoke divination, cleansing, or spells there's a blend for every intention.

Gathering Ingredients

There are 3 types of ingredients used for loose incense; herbs, resins, and wood shavings. Herbs are the most versatile of the bunch. There are a plethora of different herbs each with their own correspondences. Some notable basic herbs that every witch should have laying around somewhere include basil, bay leaves, chives, cilantro, dill, oregano, mint, parsley, rosemary, and thyme. Resins are your tree saps, these include frankincense, myrrh, pine sap, and dragon's blood. Wood shavings are self explanatory, they're pieces of bark and wood from trees. Make sure before proceeding that you know the herbs, resins, and wood shavings are safe to burn. Some herbs, resins, and wood shavings can be toxic to humans and pets.

Preparation & Blending

To prepare your herbs to be blended into your loose incense you want to make sure they're 100% dried to ensure they don't grow mold and they burn well. You can dry your fresh herbs by hanging them upside down in a well ventilated room. Once the herbs are dried, use a mortar and pestle to grind dried herbs and resins into either a fine powder or coarse blend, depending on your preference. As you grind these herbs focus on what they do and how they contribute to your intention and blend them together. You may need to adjust the ratios depending on the strength of each ingredient, but you'll figure that out as you learn more.

Binding & Burning

Binding is an optional step when making loose incense, however, adding a small amount of powdered charcoal or gum arabic can help make your blend burn more evenly. When you're not actively burning your loose incense make sure to store it in an airtight container so it doesn't loose it's potency. There are multiple methods to burn loose incense, however, I like to create sigil shaped incense trails. There are multiple ways to make incense trails. One of such ways is to spoon the powder into a mold placed on a bed of ash, this method originates from China. The method I use includes pouring it out in the general shape of the sigil, then I pat it down with my fingers and fix any errors I may have made when compacting it. Once you've made your trail you simply light one end and let it burn.

Simple Blends by Intention

Protection Blend - Used for cleansing your space and creating a protective barrier against negativity

Rosemary (Protection, Purification) - Potent protector, often used to clear negative energy and set boundaries.

Bay Leaves (Protection, Strength) - Used in this blend to amplify the shielding energy.

Cedar (Grounding, Protection) - Provides grounding and strengthens the protection created by the rosemary and bay leaves.

Frankincense Resin (Spiritual Protection, Purification) - Used for protection and connection with your higher self.

Abundance and Prosperity Blend - Used to attract wealth and prosperity

Basil (Wealth, Abundance) - Used to draw wealth and secure success.

Cinnamon (Success, Prosperity) - Typically considered fast acting and bringing rapid results.

Mint (Financial Gain, Luck) - Commonly used to bring luck in financial matters.

Clove (Attraction, Manifestation) - Used to strengthen manifestation, helping to focus your intent on drawing in wealth and success.

Peace and Relaxation Blend - Used for meditation, relaxation, or healing after emotional stress

Chamomile (Calm, Relaxation, Healing) - Used to bring gentle healing, diffusing tension, and creating a peaceful atmosphere.

Lavender (Peace, Calming Energy) - Promotes peace, calm, and sleep.

Lemon Balm (Emotional Healing, Calm) - Aids in emotional healing and brings a gentle clarity to situations.

Mugwort (Dreamwork, Relaxation) - Used for enhancing intuition and calming the mind.

Spiritual Growth and Intuition Incense - Used for rituals focusing on spiritual growth, meditation, or divination

Sage (Cleansing, Spiritual Clarity) - Powerful cleansing herb that helps clear the mind and create a space for spiritual work. Please use common sage and not white sage.

Mugwort (Intuition, Psychic Development) - Enhances psychic abilities and helps to deepen your intuition.

Frankincense Resin (Spiritual Connection, Purification) - Aids in connecting with your higher self.

Cedar (Grounding, Spiritual Protection) - Provides grounding energy, ensuring that you will stay rooted and protected during rituals.

Ahh there's so much stuff to talk about. Layers - Literally layers - it's good to familiarise with how they work, it's literally cake layers. Stuff on the bottom appears underneath and you build stuff gradually on top. - Blend modes are settings for layers that change how they interact with stuff below. Anti aliasing - adds transparent pixels around the edges of sharp parts - this makes things look smooth when you zoom out, but if you try to select around lineart that was drawn with it on (or a texture brush) you'll find it won't select it neatly. - You can use the lasso to get around this, lassoing is very versatile, but needs some practice to use. Stabilisation - working digitally you get a certain amount of jitter, it'll look like you can't draw a straight line. Smooth lines can be made with turning up pen stabilisation. The more you add the more visual lag between your hand moving and something appearing on screen there is. Which can be distracting. You might also like

What is Warframe?

Warframe is a sci-fi fantasy 3rd person co-operative shooter game. It is free to play with zero paywalls and no pay-to-play aspects. It has dozens of hours of amazing animated story quests, cutscenes, and dozens of NPCs for you to meet and interact with.

This game is +10 years old with that much content. +10 years of content. If it feels like too much, just take a breather and step back. You don't need to know all of this, just take a look when you're confused or frustrated. Its an amazingly fun game but you can't start a hobby/game by diving into the deep end on late game mechanics and story (So push aside all the stuff you've seen for Warframe 1999 it will make sense in time)

And yes, there is both cross-save and cross platform play.

And for the love of stars above, play your first handful of missions on solo until you are comfortable playing with people who will speed blitz through the levels. Many high level players will knock out earlier missions for one reason or another and entering a stage and realizing extraction is ready before the lotus is done yapping isn't always a great feeling, so take it slow.

How do I play?

In general, its a 3rd person shooter. You have a primary weapon, a secondary weapon, a melee weapon, a companion (you don't start with one), and your Warframe. Each Warframe you play as has 4 different activated abilities and a passive ability, meaning they all play very differently. You go from node to node on the star-map battling enemies and trying to gather resources and defeat the enemy factions of the game. For now, just worry about doing that.

The movement is difficult

It can be, but it takes time to learn. Its a new game, and the unique movement keeps it fluid regardless of what you're playing. Take some time and experiment If you need a stress free environment to practice, try bullet jumping and rolling around an open world lobby like Cetus or Fortuna to practice.

Why am I not doing enough damage?

Mods. No, not game Mods. In Warframe you will pick up mods that allow you to change your weapon to deal additional damage types, enhance the critical chance or damage, modify fire rate, and many more. This is the main progression mechanic. Almost anything in Warframe is viable as long as you mod it, so there is a lot to cover.

How do I use Mods?

In your arsenal, which you unlock during the tutorial quest "Vor's Prize" you have the ability to modify/upgrade your equipment with Mods. Each mod has a lot on their display but your main focus should be the cost of the mod (top right) and the description of what it does (bottom).

What does the cost mean?

Each piece of equipment can be leveled up from levels 0 to 30. At level 0 they have 15 mod capacity, and for every 2 levels the equipment gains the mod capacity increases by 1 (So 30 mod capacity at level 30) Remember this cost is only for that piece of equipment, you can mod every part of your build including Warframes, all weapons, and your companions

I'm at max capacity and still not doing enough to get through my missions Upgrade your mods. I will explain why this is way more important that you may think Weapon-A is rank 0 (15 mod capacity) has a base damage of 100 and you have a fire elemental mod (Hellfire) and a cold elemental mod (Cryo Rounds), both with a base total of 6 mod cost each and giving +15% damage. With a total of 12 mod capacity you can make your weapon deal 100+30% elemental damage. Or Weapon-A still being rank 0 with 15 mod capacity and 100 damage has a single elemental mod installed on to it, max level Cryo Rounds (11 cost for +90% cold damage). So now that mod, with 1 more capacity for other mods to wriggle in, deals 100+90% elemental damage. Upgrading your mods can make you soar

How do I get new weapons/Warframes?

Firstly, you can use in game currency to purchase blueprints from Weapons normally only need specific resources and then can be crafted, so the hunt for that isn't bad. Warframes needs parts blueprints to be acquired and the built, usually a systems, chassis, and neuroptics. These can be obtained from defeating bosses in Assassination missions (Except for Vor on Mercury, he gives 2 weapons).

What the hell is mastery rank and why are weapons locked behind it?

Mastery rank is a lot of things, but all you need to focus on is this:

Mastery Rank is based on how many unique weapons and Warframes you have leveled up

As Mastery Rank increases, so does your base mod capacity (If MR > Weapon level, then it uses the mod capacity of your MR rather than the weapon level)

It is a way to slowly introduce weapons and funky unique mechanics with said weapons to players instead of bombarding them

It limits how much progress you can make with any given faction in a real world day, so if you want to level up your standing with a faction you should also focus on leveling up your mastery rank

What are Relics? (Lith, Meso, Axi, etc)

Your one-stop-shop for "prime" materials. Primed weapons and Warframes are special versions that have increased base stats to make your modding have that little bit of extra oomph You take the relic into a relic mission and kill the golden glowing enemies. They have a chance to drop reactant, a resource you need 10 of before you complete your objective. if you get the 10 reactant, you will get one of the 6 rewards from your relic. If you play with other people, you will have the choice between all of the opened relics once you complete your objective meaning that if you got something you already have and your buddy gets something super rare, everyone can just choose to get the super rare thing.

This game seems like it is very grindy/has a lot of grinding.

The one downfall to Warframe F2P is time. Crafting times, time spent in the open worlds gathering resources, time spent popping open relics, its the only thing premium currency can help you with. If it helps, don't spend your time actively trying to do the thing to get the thing to do the thing to get the thing to- Just relax and have fun. I've spent god knows how long mining and fishing in the open worlds because I thought it was super fun and neat, and when I started trying to progress through those areas stories and factions I had tons of resources to do exactly that. Don't rush. Take time to enjoy the game, Warframe isn't going anywhere for a long time.

However I heard they are working on a system to allow players to get un-tradeable premium currency by doing certain quests/missions a few updates for now, so whatever that may be if we get it could help.

How does Warframe/Digital Extremes stay afloat?

They Listen To The Playerbase And Maximize Potential Fun Rather Than Profits.

DE rarely nerfs things and instead likes us to have a power fantasy of a game where we can kill hundreds of enemies in a few blows and light up rooms like a firework show gone wrong. They make their game so fun to play and stay responsive with the player base so people feel inclined to spend money because "I love this game and hope they keep making more" I've probably sunk ~$200 into Warframe and I will keep giving them my money because I love the game. I don't feel pressured to do this, I don't even really feel stressed or worried about FOMO because Warframe always comes through with the ability to nab things from old events and even bringing some back around for a 2nd time.