Witch

really easy: powdered dried orange peel & sunflower, mixed in salt and a drop of solar oil. sunstone placed on the surface and set it in a sunny window.

People love to be loud and wrong, so please make sure to also do your own unbiased research!

How did the cards appear? Because I shuffle for jumpers, it matters whether cards pop from the deck together. They form pairs (or groups) which have stronger connections to each other than other cards in the spread.

What types of cards are on the field? Majors? Minors? All numerical cards? Court cards? What suits? What numbers? This is where I consider the raw, memorized meaning of individual cards and the archetypes they represent.

Are there obvious patterns or cadences in the order? Think like poetry, ABAB or AABB, but with the types of cards. In a hand of five, it's interesting if the order is Major-Minor-Major-Minor-Major. Or maybe the cards are in a descending numerical order, Nine-Eight-Seven-Six-Five. Or, perhaps Nine-Eight-Six-Five-Four -- the jump in the pattern matters.

Are there repeating numbers or suits? Repetition strengthens the significance of a number's or suit's meaning.

Are there repeating motifs in the card art? Again, repetition strengthens the significance. This includes colors, background details, people, animals, and so forth.

Where are figures in the art looking? Are they looking at other cards? At each other? Away from each other? The direction of figures' attention directs where that card's focus might be.

Is there a cohesion or flow in the spread, or is it interrupted and disorganized? Some spreads flow smoothly left to right, while others show disruption and a lack of coherency. This question looks a the spread as a whole again after all other questions have been asked to consider all elements together.

Does it make sense? Do the cards answer the question being asked? How do they apply? Is there something missing? Is there a deeper meaning to delve into? Do I need clarifiers? Do I need to try again with new cards? Can I explain these cards to the querent and have them understand my meaning?

And then I write out my analysis! There's obviously more to it than this, with a ton of nuance at every step, and I could probably write a whole essay about any individual part of this... and I probably still will, honestly. (And I started to, then decided to just write up a little list instead, lmao.)

me for the last hours:

Sweep the floor with a whisk broom before every reading. It shows respect for the old gods who will be coming in.

Answer only three questions for a querent in one seating. Revealing too much sacred information will dilute its meaning.

Always use the Celtic Cross for a personal reading. “You cannot truly appreciate the weight of the advice you are giving if you don’t fully understand the way the querent is feeling.”

Make an offering to the querent’s higher self before proceeding. “The body may want a reading, but the soul may be unwilling.” A piece of chocolate or anything sweet should be appropriate.

Ensure the querent’s hands are clean. Prepare a hot towel or a water basin. It rids their body of negative energy and keeps your cards from getting dirty.

Dim the lights before you deal the cards. “The Fates live next to Hades. They are not used to harsh lighting.”

Play soft and quiet music. It calms the mind and encourages the querent to bravely tell you what they really seek.

You shuffle, they cut. Shuffling lets the cards connect you to the source. Cutting allows the cards to feel the querent’s life force.

Honesty is better than sympathy. Exaggerating hopes and softening harsh truths do more harm than good.

my adhd makes it a challenge to treat my home the way it deserves, so i’m hoping by including it into my spiritual practice, i can turn cleaning into mini rituals and spells, or lean on my home based allied spirits for some guidance.

I also struggle with finding time for my craft and with keeping my home in order and staying current with cleaning and maintenance. Fatigue, interruption, prioritization, and time constraints all make it more difficult than I feel like it should be, but such is life when your brain refuses to create Routines and everything runs on Manual.

What's helped me the most is building magic into the things I do every day, and assigning magical use or significance to the things on my To Do list. For instance -

I set up my household wards so that they set when I lock my front door. No need to make time for a daily gesture or ritual, it works with the deadbolt and key.

I use a LOT of food magic. In fact, it's become something of a creative exercise to find correspondences and magical symbolism in the meals I make. Even something as simple as a sandwich can be blessed and every cup of coffee or juice can be a potion, if you want it to be. It's all about putting the magic into the food as you make it.

Making a ritual or magical process out of cleaning is VERY high on my list of Multipurpose Activities. Cleaning can be daunting, but it's much more likely to get done if I'm doing it as a cleansing ritual. Dishes, vacuuming, tidying, gathering laundry, taking out the garbage, cleaning the bathrooms and litterboxes....all of these things remove clutter and mess (and biohazards), but in my practice, they also remove illness, bad luck, and intrusive/disruptive/unwelcome energy, and replaces it with my own energy and influence. Airing out the house also helps when things start to feel heavy or stagnant. Sometimes it just needs fresh air and sunlight.

Cleaning as cleansing can be applied to self care and personal hygiene too. Make a magical routine out of your daily ablutions, skincare, shower, and so forth. Draw sigils with your soap or moisturizer during application. Enchant favorite items of clothing and jewelry or favorite cosmetics and personal products for whatever purposes you need. (For example, I have a particular hat and eyeshadow imbued with a confidence glamour, for when I have speaking engagements.)

You can also do little bits of magic for good sleep and sweet dreams in your bedroom, for growth and abundance in your garden (even if it's just a bunch of pots), for luck and prosperity with your spare change jar, and so forth. Make a creative exercise out of it - it's a great way to grow your practice and incorporate new ideas.

Also - and this is VERY important - BE PATIENT WITH YOURSELF. Don't beat yourself up if you don't do anything particularly witchy for days or weeks or months at a time, or if you forget something or you're too tired to do anything on a particular auspicious day. This happens to all of us, because we are human, and because Life Happens. You're still a witch, and a good one, even if you can't maintain a routine or a perfectly-neat home or a social-media-worthy witchcraft practice.