Cauldron and Candle

Take your Besom outside.

Cast a circle.

Take a bowl of water and wet the brissles of the besom.

Spin the besom in the direction of the wind you are calling to 3 times.

Do so in all 4 directions.

Stop memorizing your Tarot cards. Burn the little white book. Learn to read images.

I beat this drum incessantly in the Tarot community. In the past I’ve emphasized the ease of this approach, and it is, actually, much easier and much less tedious than memorizing descriptions. If you sit with a card and allow your mind to wander freely, you will come up with dozens of associations for each card that are just as valid as anything Waite or Crowley came up with. Probably more valid. Nothing I’ve read by any occultist has helped me heal a broken heart, but sitting with the emotions that bubble up when I’m hurting and looking at the 3 of Swords certainly has.

The hardest part of learning to read images is unshackling yourself from the tyranny of words. There are schools of thought that teach a thought doesn’t exist until it’s formed itself into words, but art proves the lie of that, dripping through the spaces between the letters, reaching the places words can’t reach. Who was the ballerina who said, “If I could tell you what the dance was saying, I wouldn’t have had to dance it?”

Tarot is art. You can’t just call the High Priestess “introversion” and call it a day. That’s like trying to reduce Hamlet to the word “indecisive.”

Tarot cards aren’t words. They aren’t even sentences. They are libraries.

And your mind already knows how to read them.

Choose a card. Any card. Sit with it for five minutes and watch where your mind goes.

That’s all you have to do.

Aries: An exile. As close to a leader as anything. Decades of experiments. Inhuman flesh. A blank porcelain mask, inscribed with a single symbol. The only thing left untouched is her hair.

Taurus: The Knights Captain, daughter of the high priestess. A martyr. A township saved, burning like a star in the dry autumn heat. Blazing wings. 

Gemini: The King Under The Ice. A stolen childhood. Small shoulders for an impossible burden. A desperate bargain to contain an ancient evil. 

Cancer: The first queen. A woman more scars than flesh. Respect commanded by tooth and claw. Legend says even the beasts bowed their heads when she spoke.

Leo: The High Priestess, come to make good on an old covenant. Thunder on the mount. Eyes burned by sights from the land of the dead. A flash of thunder revealing the legions of ancestral dead, come to heed her call to arms.

Virgo: A young princess, currently being carried to safety in a backpack. She wraps her tiny hands around the shoulders of her bodyguard and tries to sleep.

Libra: A empress by title, an alchemist by desire. Long trips to the countryside spent foraging in swamps and mountain caves. Jars of exotic insects displayed proudly to less than excited diplomats.

Scorpio: A general. Born with an ancient and rare gift. A man who could speak to beasts. Said to be the first to harness the great wild things and drive them for war. Legends of an army of half-men, half-beasts.

Ophiuchus: A prince fallen prey to an old and terrible sickness. An inexplicable whistling cry that only he can hear, calling him to the mountains. There he sits, preserved in the abandoned aeries, decked in scales.

Sagittarius: The renegade prince. Palace finery and lavish parties forsaken for nights of adventure and intrigue in the city streets. Scandalous tales of cross-dressing and romance and baffled police.

Capricorn: A king of blood and stone. A menace to some, a savior to others. To carve out a space for his people against impossible odds and overwhelming enemies. Rites finally conducted in service of a god that was long thought to have abandoned their worshipers.

Aquarius: A queen burdened by loss. A pilgrimage to the ancestral mesa. She sits under the night sky. A low, droning tune on a horn carved from an old tree. The stars mourn with her.

STOP.

Being a witch is not a secret superpower that has to be unearthed. It is not an inherited genetic marker that magically manifests at a certain point in a person's life.

Being a witch is a choice that a person must make for themselves. They cannot be INFORMED that they are a witch if they have not previously made this choice of their own volition. You don't get to TELL people that they're witches. That is their decision to make.

It's not something you can read in a palm. It's not something you can see in cards or tea leaves or a psychic vision. It's not something you can TEST for arbitrarily.

You don't get to tell someone they're a car mechanic if they aren't. You don't get to tell someone they're in a coven if they haven't taken vows. You don't get to decide for someone whether or not they're a witch.

(Apparently, this is a new "thing" among novices, particularly those of school age, this idea of doing a reading for someone and "determining" that the client is a witch, without the person having ever made that choice for themselves. Sure, it might spark interest and bring them to the community looking for more information, but the idea of being able to designate or "tell" other people that they're witches, independent of their own choices, needs to be squashed.)

Even if you have reason to believe that someone is secretly a witch, it is Very Poor Form to inquire directly, if they haven't chosen to share. Plenty of practitioners have Very Good Reasons for keeping their practice under wraps. If you want to make a private inquiry, that's fine. Just be prepared that you might receive a denial, no matter how sure you are. If the answer is no, that's it. Don't invade people's privacy, especially if you live in an area where being publicly labeled as a witch might be unsafe.

I know we like to say that witchcraft doesn't have universal rules, but there ARE overarching codes of conduct. And one of them is that you do NOT out someone as a witch without their permission. Ever. Because you do not know what the repercussions might be for that person and you may be placing them in danger without knowing it.

If someone decides to be a witch or to live openly as such, that is their decision to make and theirs alone. And if they choose not to be, this must likewise be respected. You don't get to make that decision for them, just as you wouldn't want anyone else making that decision for you.

Sincerely,

Make sure you understand the basics of magick : Most of us, sharing our spells and rituals on Tumblr, do not include the basics of magick in every single post. 

Do your own research outside of Tumblr : If you find a “witch tip” and it doesn’t give much explanation on why you’re suppose to use a certain herb, crystal, moon phase, tool etc., then do your own research and find out why. A lot of times witches share spells and they don’t give a detailed description of everything you need because they assume you already know why you need these things or why they’re being used in a particular spell or ritual.

Don’t assume magick is the only thing they’re doing : When you see a spell to help someone find employment, don’t assume that a spell is all the witch is doing and don’t assume this spell is all you have to do. Most witches understand that magick works with the mundane. Much like if you see an anti depression spell (or tea or something along those lines) don’t assume they are advocating for replacing medicine with magick. You’ll usually find that they’re suggesting using magick in conjunction with medicine. 

Ask for clarification if you need it : Most witches on Tumblr are kind and helpful. If you have a question about a spell, ritual, recipe or whatever don’t be shy about asking the witch who shared it for clarification. I’ve found that witches on Tumblr are eager to help and don’t mind answering politely asked questions.

Take everything with a grain of salt : Sometimes things come of as preachy, gate keeping, authoritarian etc. If someone is “preaching” to you or you feel like what they’re saying isn’t sitting well with your beliefs, that’s okay. Don’t take everything as absolute and don’t let people bully you into thinking or believing a certain way. As nice as most of us witches on Tumblr are, there’s always a few rotten fruit laying around. 

Don’t be afraid to explore the community : Talk to different people. Ask 5 different witches the same question and if how much their answers vary. To truly get an understanding of just how unique every witches path is. 

❇ For grounding magic, pour your focus into your chest. Your lungs and veins look like trees for a reason, breath is the root of your life and roots you to your situation. Imagine the ventricles creaping into every part of your body, holding you firm and keeping you grounded.

❇ For warding and protection magic, focus on your elbows and knees. Your arms are the first thing that will curl up to protect your head, your knees curl up to protect your organs. The joins and muscles here will throw power into the spells that keep you safest.

❇ For divination and meditation, focus on your back. Your spine carries information from every point of your body; it connects every piece of you. To absorb and remember all the information of looking to things not usually seen, it is your spine that will carry it.

❇ For glamour magic focus on your shoulders and hips. Your shoulders and hips are solid, steady joints that connect appendages to the torso. As you try and bring glamour to yourself or others, focus on these strong, sensual points. They will carry your strength the softest.

❇ For binding magic, focus on your ribs. Your ribs are a solid structural cage that contains and conceals the most precious things to you. They are hard, durable, and connected. These ridges of bone will give you the unwavering strength to hold things.

❇ For concealment magic, focus on your hands. Your hands move so much throughout the day, doing every imaginable task that it is hard to pin them down and stay focused on them. While the rest of your body can be still and silent, your hands are almost always in use, they will allow you to slide focus away from whatever you want to conceal.

❇❇Your body had magic all throughout it; these are just suggestions.❇❇❇❇

it’s a day like any other day when they tell you the truth

that the power is passed on to you by your mother 

that you will never be defenseless, you will never be unarmed

Hi! I do this regularly, not necessarily everyday or whatever but maybe once a week because we love self growth!

Just uh imagine there’s a “?” on #2 thanks!

postcard c1910

Custom Reading (5 Cards) for @witches-with-weapons

‘I don’t cry because we’ve been separated by distance, and for a matter of years. Why? Because for as long as we share the same sky and breathe the same air, we’re still together.’

                  Walk within the poppy fields of Scarlet Prophecies

Five of Swords — Horus isn’t taking the separation too well and is acting out. In a way, he’s making a statement of his current emotional state however, not through your dreams. Your dreams are more a reflection of your personal turmoil and expressing itself through your subconscious, not to be taken too literally. You and Horus have unfinished business and he’s unhappy with the decision that comes off as a form of betrayal. He doesn’t understand despite it being the best point of action for you both in the long run. What Horus is doing is sheer stubbornness regardless of how it’ll affect others much less himself. This line in the sand is an ultimatum to force your hand and get what he wants. And what he wants isn’t exactly clear. It’s difficult for him to accept the situation since he’s in a very emotional state. Ultimately, it’s a battle of wills and he’s trying to outlast you even if it’s at the detriment of yourself. Horus is smart however his mental state isn’t on the same level as yourself. His wants are going to be very selfish and his emotional needs is going to require easing him into this new change until he becomes used to the change. The suddenness of it all is distressing however it’s not something he can change.

We lost our spark like empty lighters drained of fueled broken promises and half thought out lies.

I do not know what is worst: You coming back or me never leaving.

Triage Spread

For when I have so many interconnecting problems, I don’t know where to start!

1 - Where am I hemorrhaging?

This is the nature of your most immediate problem, or the one which will make the most difference when you’re trying to overcome your obstacles. If you are certain what area the problem affects, go ahead and replace this card with the Ace of the relevant suit.

2 - Diagnosis

This is the more specific issue. A positive card here often means you are lacking it’s energy.

3 - Treatment

This is the advice to resolve your issue

After the little preview I posted the other day, it is time now to delve deeply into the wonders of The Tarot Restless (second edition). Created by Winslow Dumaine, this is “a new interpretation of the classic Rider-Waite tarot deck set in a bizarre fantasy universe”. This is a dark tarot with some nsfw imagery and a thoughtful re-understanding of shadow work through tarot.

I need to start explaining this deck from its surrounding background, the fantasy universe immersed in the midst of a cosmic infertility apocalypse. You may wonder, how does this relate to me? Well, beyond the fiction, the idea of infertility can be present in different aspects of our lives. Winslow explains the following: “I believe people should explore their suffering. Understanding the causes of pain is key to growth – if you suffer, and do not learn, you will have suffered for nothing. In creating this deck, I took my experiences with heartbreak, abuse, and betrayal, and retold them on a cosmological scale”. This is where the “darkness” comes from. This deck is a tool to work with hard and painful situations and learn from them. Just like I mentioned in my post about the Death card, resilience sparks from struggle.

The artwork on the cards is heavily based on stark black and white contrast with some splashes of colour to emphasize certain details. You can find some of my favourites in the pics, and the whole deck here. Humans, creatures, buildings and landscapes (earthly and cosmic) meet in a medley of situations. Each card tells its own story, and a bit of the bigger picture at the same time. A whole mythology has been created for these cards, so there are layers upon layers of detail and meaning to be dissected each time. Many of the majors change names from the classical traditions, as does the pentacles suit which is the Star suit here. The meanings on the cards are also quite personal and often radically different from the usual ones, as they are framed within a very particular universe.

The companion book, titled Restless Meditations, is 100+ pages long. One thing I really wanted to highlight is the fantastic approach to the court cards: The Thrall (Page) lacks and seeks the aspect associated with its suit, The Knight has obtained it, The Queen protects and perfects it and the King demonstrates its significance. In the book, each card features an epithet, upright and reversed keywords, and a few paragraphs for its story and meaning. The deck is silver gilded (mirrory!), and both the book and the deck come in a sturdy box where the deck is divided into two halves for storage.