I decided I wanted to make another post about more tarot tips, mainly aimed towards people who are a little bit past the beginner stage, though beginners are always welcome here as well! If you want tips on various ways to learn to use tarot actively, I recommend looking at part 1, since that post goes into that topic. In this post, I wanted to talk a little bit about personalising your tarot reading habits by looking at cards as neutral, so if that's something you'd be interested in, here you go! And as always, if anyone has anything they wanna add or any advice they'd love to give, I'd love to hear it!
You can find part 1 here! + part 3 here!
If you're like me and your first introduction to tarot was through the internet, then it's very likely that you learned tarot reading through a dualistic lens; their upright meaning, and their reversed meaning. Reversed can be a bit misleading, since it implies that reversed cards are always the opposite of their upright meanings, but this isn't the only way to read reversals. Sometimes, it has the same meaning, but it alters the consequences, mood, tone, implications, etc.
As an example: The tower in its upright position is often associated with disaster, abrupt changes, destruction, upheaval of a solid foundation, and is often viewed as a very negative card because of it. Reversed, it can be read as averting disaster, or nearly avoiding it.
Exploring Cards as Neutral
Personally, I'm not and have never been an avid user of keywords, because while they're a great learning tool for people who memorise well with a flashcard-like method, for me personally, I need to build associations and conceptual understanding to get the most out of my tarot usage. Likewise, I've found that upright and reversals are somewhat pointless to me because of my reading style, but this doesn't meant that using reversals is pointless in general! Many people manage to make them work in a complex and nuanced way, but for me, they felt very limiting, forcing me to interpret them in a certain way. Upright and reversals can feel very binary, especially if you're like me and don't get much out of memorising keywords.
When I pull the tower, I want to be able to understand the full context behind that card. The card on its own is neutral to me. It's telling me that there is a structure that is falling apart, but it's not telling me why without additional context, which can be provided by other cards. Is it because there's an outside force disrupting the status quo? Or is it because the tower's foundation was never solid to begin with? Furthermore, does this imply if the outcome is good or bad? In the appropriate context, the tower can also be read as a revolution, and upheaval of an unjust system, a much needed change in the status quo or the uprooting of harmful traditions. I find that understanding the context surrounding the card is more important to indicate its role, rather that whether it's reversed or upright.
Alternate Way to use Reversals
If you want to use reversals while also approaching cards as more neutral, there are other ways you can incorporate it! I will often use directions and line of sight in my readings, particularly if I'm dealing with court cards. If you have king of wands staring straight at the tower card then... Well, maybe that can influence how you interpret the tower card. And what about what's behind the king of wands? What's the king of wands looking away from? Let's say it's the five of swords, indicating there might've been some foul play that the king is ignoring, and he's now watching the tower crumble before him because of it. Who does the king of wands represent? What's beneath the king of wands card, or beneath the surface? What's going over his head? The directions the cards are facing can tell you a lot about the story at play, and having some cards be reversed can alter which direction they're looking in. It can almost feel even more purposeful when the deck goes out of its way to reverse a card to make sure it's looking in a specific direction.
You can bring nuance to anything!
I don't want this post to imply that using reversals is a bad thing or somehow less nuanced than reading cards as neutral, because that's simply not true. A lot of tarot readers manage to bring intricate complexity to their readings, even if they use reversals in a very traditional way! But as a tarot reader who is not good at doing that, I wanted to offer an alternative way to read cards.
This post was a bit more rambly than the last, and I'm not sure if people enjoy rambly posts over more organised ones, but I hope someone out there got something out of it regardless! And as always, I'm more than happy to cover specific topics and questions people may have, provided it's a topic I have proper experience in/knowledge of!
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It’s alright, take a deep breath. Trust me, I understand. As someone with ADHD, I have a hard time with researching, and just reading in general is difficult for me. But I HAVE SOME TIPS.
Where do I start?
I’m gonna say something a bit controversial here, but start by finding some good quality YouTube channels. You will not be able to build a full-on practice from YouTube channels, but a lot of great witchcraft channels on there have resources, talk about things they wish they knew at the beginning, and there’s ongoing conversations about relevant, current topics within the community. If you look at witchcraft books, you’re much more likely to find old, outdated information, misinformation, appropriated practices, or just waste your money on books you might not find relevant.
Youtube is free. And you can quickly cross reference what multiple people are saying.
Is it perfect? No. There is still going to be bad information on YouTube, which is why I advise looking at several different kinds of channels.
Some channels I recommend for beginners - these folks won’t steer you wrong:
Witchofwonderlust (secular witchcraft)
Warriorwitchnike (folk magic/astrology)
Ocean Keltoi (Norse paganism)
Aliakai (Hellenism)
The Oak Witch (Tradition British folk magic)
The Green Witch (green witchcraft)
I believe every single one of these channels have book recommendations, tips for beginners videos, and many of them discuss more tips for researching.
Where I would recommend you avoid getting information when you’re just starting out (or just in general): Tiktok. I love tiktok, I’m on it too much. But I don’t recommend using it to learn about witchcraft. At all. Firstly, 60 seconds isn’t enough time to give any kind of information accurately or with the nuance and respect it requires. Secondly, it is so full in misinformation and people looking to build a following saying anything, even things that are harmful and untrue. There have been full-on cults springing up on TikTok in the Witchtok space, so I’d avoid it until you have your basics firmly. Witchtok can be fun for community, but it’s not a resource.
Low-cost resources:
Scribd - I did their free month trial back in September when I was on a sick leave and… it’s the best. Access to a large library of all sorts of books including a ton of witchcraft books. There are amazing books on there, BUT THERE’S ALSO A LOT OF SHIT so just careful :) I use text-to-speech to help me read as well, but there’s also a fair amount of audio books!
Podcasts - A free resource that’s really great for people like me with ADHD or who have a hard time with reading. It’s a good place for members in our community to discuss topics on a long-form format, meaning you can get more in-depth information and conversations there. Again, some are much better than others. Some I recommend are:
-BS-Free Witchcraft by @traegorn (also go follow them here, they’re hilarious and lovely and so smart)
-Magnolias and Magic - Hosted by WarriorwitchNike and Georgina Rose of Da’at Darling with Anthony Wolfe
-Test Tubes and Cauldrons - Astra, Fel, and Han discussing Magic’s place in a material world.
-The Witch Daily Show - a cute little monday-friday podcast discussing lots of different topics and headlines, hosted by Witch Way Magazine.
-New World Witchery - by Cory and Laine, they discuss practices of North America, great for people on this side of the pond who are more conscious of their local environment.
There are some other websites with free public-domain documents and books, but I honestly wouldn’t recommend them for new practitioners. They’re a little difficult to navigate sometimes and I think they’re a bit more advanced.
Topics I recommend getting a solid understanding of:
-History and origin of modern witchcraft/magic traditions (Wicca, neopaganism, new age)
-What is a correspondence and why do they work?
-Protection magic
-Types of magical paradigms (spirit model vs. Psych model)
-Cultural appropriation, common trespasses (I’m gonna give you one for free - stay away from white sage), what is a closed practice, and cultural appreciation
You can get a pretty good foundation of the lay of our community when starting with these topics and it’ll give you a head start on figuring out what you believe and how your practice will unfold. I think these topics are some of the most important ones to get right at the beginning. Everything else will come in time. You can look up how to cast a job spell, but if you don’t understand why it works, it’ll be less effective. It’ll also give you the ability to analyze a spell and make substitutions as necessary. It’ll also keep you safer from some of the more unsavoury parts of our community because there are people who want to hurt you or recruit you.
Lastly, I want to just address one thing: people will tell you that you shouldn’t do xyz for some amount of time when you start. You don’t have to listen to them. Usually people say this about spells or deities because those are considered to be “dangerous.” This isn’t necessarily true. You don’t actually have to listen to anyone. You can ignore everything I’ve said here and start your research with a book on astrology.
My main advice here is to use critical thinking skills with everything.
What is being said?
Who’s saying it?
Why are they saying it?
Who benefits from it?
Who is harmed by it?
When was this written?
What influenced it?
These are some basic questions to ask when researching any topic, but especially witchcraft and magic. There’s a lot more questions you can ask when using critical thinking, but that should be enough to get you started.
Have fun friends, and enjoy the journey. It takes a long time to get anywhere, but the work is well worth it.
One of the most common advice you'll see concerning witchcraft and learning is to read a lot, but this can be a very daunting task for beginners, especially when attempting to figure out what can be considered a good or a bad source. Because of my major, I deal with a lot of historical sources and modern interpretations and studies of those sources. I'm by no means an expert on the topic, but I wanted to raise some of the common issues one can encounter with sources, especially older ones, as they tend to be very glorified within the witchcraft community. My goal is not to paint a black and white image of what a good vs a bad source is, because, in a lot of cases when dealing with historical texts, it's a complicated mix between the two. Rather, I hope the main takeaway from this is that reading sources critically is a skill.
What is a source?
So what is a source? In witchcraft, we talk about sources as the thing we get our information from. Thing can sound a bit vague, but it doesn't have to be texts. Music, buildings, archaeological material, clothes, etc. can also be sources. This post will mainly talk about textual sources, however.
What is the problem with sources?
The biggest problem with sources, particularly texts, is that discerning how trustworthy it is can be very complicated, if not nigh impossible at times. It's important to note that just because something is written and it's old does not mean that it's always a good source. It depends on what you're looking for; if you're looking for how laws in 16th century France operated, then reading historical records of those laws is a good source. But do those laws necessarily indicate how people behaved? Not really. At most, it's a good way to figure out what was considered good or bad behaviour, and from there we can try to discern overarching themes and values. But just because something is deemed illegal in a text does not mean people didn't do those things, nor does it imply that it must've been a problem.
(For example, just because a law document states that sacrifices during rituals is illegal doesn't mean that people didn't do those things. But it also doesn't necessarily imply that people used to do those things before those laws were in place. For all we know, they might've seen other cultures perform ritual sacrifices and disapproved of it, and decided to write down a law forbidding it as a precaution.)
Point is that discerning how valid, reliable and overall good a source is can be very complicated, and it's one of those skills that I find to be most valuable in, not just witchcraft, but practically any field of interest that requires lots of reading and research. So to hopefully help anyone who's having trouble with judging a source, here's a list of things to keep in mind when reading to engage with a text critically!
Things to keep in mind when reading a source.
1. Historical Context
This is the basic principle you'll want to abide by. What is the context behind this text? What is society like when and where this text was written? What were the cultural norms of the time; does this text fit into those norms or diverge from them?
2. Who is it written by?
Who wrote the source? What is their agenda? What is their background? How can their age, culture, sex, religion, etc. impact this particular text? Is this the original text, or is this an interpretation by someone else?
3. Who is it written for?
Who was this source written for? Who had access to this material at the time? Who could even read this text at the time of its conception, both in terms of access and in terms of literacy?
4. Primary vs Secondary sources
Is this a firsthand account (primary), or is it a secondhand interpretation of an original source (secondary)? Keep in mind that these definitions are not static. For example; let's say I'm out on a walk and I trip, and you were there to witness it. If I told the story, I'd be the primary source, meanwhile you'd be considered a secondary source. However, if I were to die while you were still alive, you'd become the new primary source for that particular story. It's important to keep in mind that not all primary sources have always been primary sources, and may have been secondary sources that due to current circumstances have become primary sources. Likewise, a primary source is not inherently better than a secondary one, as this depends on what you're trying to get out of the source.
5. Facts vs Interpretations
Is the information presented factual and objective? Or is it an interpretation and subjective? Can I discern which parts are facts, and which parts are interpretations? Does the author intentionally blur the lines between the two?
6. Language & Translations
Is this a translation of an original text? When was it translated? Who translated it? How difficult is the original language to translate? How does it compare to other translations of the same text?
7. What are you looking for?
This is important to keep in mind when reading through sources. What are you actually looking for? Are you looking for the origins of something? Are you looking for a modernization of a certain practice? Are you looking for new perspectives? Your criteria for sourcing should adjust to whatever it is that you’re looking for!
8. Age =/= Trustworthy
My last and biggest advice: just because something is old, does not mean it's trustworthy. I know that we have a certain fondness for old, dusty books that have persevered through time and contain this sort of ancient yet timeless energy, because I’m one of those people, but depending on what you’re looking for, the age of the source can actually be to its detriment. Of course, if your goal is to find the origins or first mentions of something, age will naturally play an important part, but otherwise you may want to refrain from romanticizing old books too much, as most of them were certainly not held to any high academic standards of reliability. Generally, these things need to be judged on a case-by-case basis!
On a final note, I’d like to point out that just because a source is imperfect or even bad does not mean you shouldn’t read it. If I have to be perfectly honest, I don’t think there is such a thing as a perfect source, and if there is, I have yet to read one. Rather, most sources fall on a spectrum, somewhere between good and bad, and reliable and unreliable. My point is that you should always approach any and all sources with a critical mind regardless of its quality, so these are some things you should be looking out for!
‿︵‿︵‿︵୨˚̣̣̣͙୧ - - ୨˚̣̣̣͙୧‿︵‿︵‿︵
◛⑅·˚ ༘ ♡ I’m always open for asks and messages, so don’t be afraid to reach out! Just keep it respectful, please :>
I don't do this often, but sometimes, if I'm having a really hard time with my craft or aspects of it, I'll just cleanse. I'm not really a proponent of over cleansing, I cleanse very rarely which is just a personal choice thing. But if you've been feeling groggy and gross for a few days because you've been stressed and procrastinating and have a lot going on, and then take a shower, it feels really alleviating afterwards. That's sort of how I treat cleansing!
