Various Paganism, Tarot, Etc

Weekly Creativity Prompt – The Fool

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Prompt: “Pull the card from your deck that matches [The Fool from Tarot of the Hidden Realm]. Compare the imagery between the card provided and the card from your own deck(s). How would you read them differently and why?”

The Fool - Tarot of the Hidden RealmTarot of the Hidden Realm – The Fool in the Tarot of the Hidden Realm is filled with joy and light that casts a bright golden glow over everything.  The Fae here speaks with a butterfly and the mind can easily imagine him dancing off into the green to follow the butterfly’s flight with laughter on his lips.  The image is filled with carefree joy and a sort of gentle lightheartedness fostered by the flower he holds.  The message here is “Ignorance is Bliss” and the joy that comes from being able to let yourself be consumed by heart filled and innocent pleasures.

The Fool - DNAXCAT Tarot, Kitchen Tarot, Botanical Grace Tarot

DNAXCAT Tarot – Vibrant splashes of color make this card loud in the funnest sense of the word, like a child taken to the playground and set free to have their fun races from the car to their friends and playground games with eager abandon.  Here in this card’s imagery, especially in the colors used, it is all about joyful abandon.  Here we see the classic cliff represented which also gives a word of caution in the card’s meaning, as it is easy to get so carried away with that joyful abandon that we forget to look out for the dangers that may surround us.

Kitchen Tarot – The Colander was a bit of a confusing one as the fool when you first come upon it until you see the words around the colander’s rim. “The colander lets everything wash over it, and remains the same. This is the innocent one, who helps us all to purify.”  Sometimes it is the innocent that remains stubbornly filled with faith that can refresh us all when we encounter them.  We see the potential of a world through their eyes, and with that potential realized, we are cleansed of negativity and given a brighter perspective.

Botanical Grace Tarot – Here we have an illustration of Codonopsis pilosula (Dang Shen), which is often used to treat ailments associated with weakness, fatigue, poor appetite, and anemia.  In this way, this herb connects to the energy of the Fool through embodiment.  it is the light shining forward to uplift and revitalize, and the colorful splash of hues in the background help reinforce the presence of this clean and vibrant energy.

DECK USED: DNAXCAT TAROT, KITCHEN TAROT, BOTANICAL GRACE TAROT, TAROT OF THE HIDDEN REALMS

Morning Bonus Read – Monthly Key Spread

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Little Soul's Party Lenormand

Key to Your Heart: What will Guide you to make decisions that are aligned with your heart and your truths this month?

The House – When making decisions this week, make sure to keep in mind the safety, security, and above all else, stability, of home and how those decisions you make may affect and influence that stability.

Anchor: What will ground you in the face of anxiety, stress, overwhelm, and existential dread in general?

The Heart – Reach out to those closest to you for support when feelings of anxiety and stress come upon you.  They are there to give you that support, to love you and help you when you need it.  It is something they want to do, so reach out to them and let them.

Star Wand: What accelerates your magic, creativity, and manifestation powers?

The Fox  – A quick and clever mind will help accelerate your inner spark and those things that grow from it.  Your magic, creativity, and skills at manifestation are all a part of that spark, and that spark feeds off of your clever mind full of ideas, strategy, and cunning.

Blessings from the Stars: The Universe has got your back – how will you be supported this month?

The Key – Opportunities abound if you’re paying attention. This month the universe will be throwing opportunities at you that all have the potential to lead to success.  They key is paying attention and grabbing hold when they manifest in front of you. 

One Trick Up Your Sleeve: A life saving idea or inspiration for any unexpected challenge or difficult moments?

The Cavalier – You have the energy and enthusiasm to get things done and when things challenge you or stand in your way you’re more than capable of powering through to get things started.  Don’t allow unexpected challenges or moments of difficulty to stand in your way.

Emergence Pt 1: What is emerging within you / within your reality right now?

The Clouds – Watch out for self doubt encroaching in and confusion.  Sometimes, the ground shifts under your feet unexpectedly and you’re left trying to catch your balance. Keep in mind that if you follow your intuition and inner compass, even those moments in the fog of uncertainty will pass without any real damage done.

Emergence Pt 2: What are you expanding towards?

The Garden – The last factor of life to fall back into balance after the MDE is your social life.  This month you begin to expand in that direction, and in doing so, complete the healing journey out of the dark pit of your depression. 

DECK USED:  LITTLE SOUL’S PARTY LENORMAND

Morning Bonus Read – DeCluttering

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The prompt for this reading came from one of my Discord servers and is as follows:
“This week, see where you need to do some Spring cleaning in your mind.”

Sakura Playing CardsWhat is cluttering up my mind and using up my resources unnecessarily?
Three of Hearts atop Six of Hearts blocking Two of Spades

You’re spending too much time begin weighted down by thoughts on how your choices effect others in your life instead of focusing on how the choices will affect your own life.  You need to remember your priorities and their order, and make decisions accordingly instead of letting sentimentality and outside influences sway your thoughts and decision making processes.

What is an area in my life where I could spend more energy in the short term in order to make it take up less energy in the long term??
Five of Spades atop Ace of Spades

If you want to be able to delve into new ideas with abandon, you need to make sure you’re getting the strategy done early.  Write shit down, plan things out, make sure you have a winning plan in place.  Lists are your friend. Use them to your advantage.  They will help you in knowing what you can achieve and what ideas are disposable.

In what areas should I learn to be okay with the mental mess??
Six of Spades and King of Hearts

Sometimes when transitioning from one state of being to another, as you are doing with your emotional growth over the past year or so, the mental chaos can sometimes be pretty intense.  The thing is, though, you’re learning to allow your emotions to rise up instead of denying them that freedom, and that is going to make things a bit chaotic all on it’s own, but it’s healthier than the alternative you’ve been doing in your past.  Better to accept the chaos as a part of change, the change as necessary and what you want, and go with the flow.

DECK USED:  SAKURA PLAYING CARDS

What is Centering and Grounding?

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Although a lot of people look upon the terms “grounding” and “centering” as one in the same, in truth they are two very different things that are often used in conjunction together.

Centering, which is usually done first (although not always), is about drawing in your chaotic energy. Imagine your energy as a sphere that surrounds you. When you are feeling chaotic, distracted, scattered, etc, the particles of energy in this sphere are agitated and disorganized.

In centering, you are taking these particles of your energy and drawing them from the sphere and in closer to yourself, even into yourself. Drawing these energies in, they condense and calm, ceasing their agitation and disorganized behavior. This is called Centering. It is bringing your energy “to center” in order to “piece yourself together” and calm your energy into a state of solid stability.

Grounding is usually done after centering, although some people do them simultaneously (or only do one or another depending on what works for them). Grounding is taking that stability within you and connecting it to “an anchor”. There are lots of things you can use as an anchor, but in my case it is always very literally… the ground.

Grounding helps preserve the centering that has been done, giving the stability found in the centering a more solid and long-lasting quality. It can also be used to help release excess energy that can build up when one is dealing with things like nervousness or anxiety, or otherwise balance out one’s energies.

My go-to way of grounding is through rooting. This is when you allow yourself to connect through your feet (or other part of your body touching the ground) and imagine your energy creating roots that dig down into the earth and spread beneath you. These energy roots create an anchor that helps cement stability in place, and allows a give-and-take of energy with the earth to level out any excess or depletion taking place.

I center and ground many, many times a day. It is a habit that takes a few second at a time, or can take a few minutes if done consciously and with intention for a stronger effect.

In spellcraft, these techniques are especially important as they are used to help condense and prepare your energy for use and direction. Casting a spell without centering and grounding would be like shooting an arrow out of a bow with the feathers loose. The energy (arrow) may get where its going, but it sheds a good deal of energy along the way (the feathers) making the spell less effective,

By centering and grounding first, you are essentially securing those feathers to the arrow (creating fletching) so that when the arrow flies, there is no loss of energy along the way and the arrow’s accuracy is greatly increased. Thus, your intention and energy in the spell is not wasted and flies true as well.

This is why you will find in the large majority of witchcrafting communities, when people ask why a spell didn’t work or why it went awry, the first question usually posed by those with experience is “Did you center and ground first?”

Transitioning from March to April

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Denizens of Earth Tarot and Inspiration Cards by Autumn Sky Art

I haven’t had a chance to write out a full interpretations of the cards yet (which is pretty sad since it’s now April 18th, but I need to hold onto the reading to reference back on so I’m posting this one without interpretation.  I may come back later on and fill in the interpretations later on if I don’t forget.

Individuality – Four of Water and Transformation –

Dependence – Three of Air and Compassion –

Creativity – The Tower atop Strength, Fertility–

Limitation – Child of Fire and Magic –

Change – Six of Earth and Guidance –

Sympathy – Father of Water and Integration –

Luck – Eight of Earth and Purity –

Power – One of Fire and Contemplation –

Responsibility – The Moon and Wonder –

Message from Spirit World –

Message from Mind’s World –

Message from Known World –

Take Away –

DECKS USED:  DENIZENS OF EARTH TAROT AND INSPIRATION CARDS BY AUTUMN SKY ART

Year Ahead Spread 2021 – April thru June

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This spread is a predictive spread that is very commonly used as a bit of a preview of the year ahead. The question asked for each of these positions is…
Tarot Card: The theme of the month in question,
Oracle Card: What to focus on for the month in question, and
Affirmation Card: A ray of hope to hold onto for the month in question.

Year Ahead Spread for Divination

This reading is simply a brief exploration of the current trajectory of my path and energy for the year ahead. Like all predictive readings, nothing here is written in stone, it’s more of a look ahead just to have an idea of what to anticipate and what to work at avoiding.

As an experiment, I have decided to do my year ahead reading a little differently this year. In January I pulled cards for the first six months of the year and interpreted the cards for January thru March. I am then interpreting the second three months today.  I will then revisit the spread at the end of June to do the following six months. I feel that this might help in ensuring a more accurate reading for the second half of the year.

Six Month Ahead Spread for Divination - Part 1 - January through June

2021’s Theme – Justice – This card is calculated through mathematics, and is not drawn randomly.  My card for 2021 is the Justice card, with the theme of having to acknowledge that what you put out into the world and what you do in your life reflects back to you in turn.  Good begets good, bad begets bad.  Following that inner moral compass will be especially important this year and possible a bit of a challenge.

Six Month Ahead Spread - Brady Tarot, Tree Whisper Oracle, Magickal Herb Oracle

April’s Theme – Strength – Like spring slowly builds into summer, as you head through April your own strengths will slowly continue to build.

April’s Focus / Advice – Healing –  During this time, make sure that you are focusing on the last vestiges of your recovery. Allow your strength to build instead of trying to tap into it and utilize it before it’s leveled off.

April’s Ray of Hope – Bilberry (Clarity) – The more and more you approach full recovery, the brighter your thoughts will be and the clearer your mind will become. The fog lifts a little at a time, and each day you can see a little clearer than the day before.

May’s Theme – Father of Horns (Cups) – Finding your footing is the theme of this month.  After the slippery slide down into the pit of depression and the long, slow climb back out, you’re finally at a place where you will feel as if you’ve found your footing emotionally and are on solid ground.

May’s Focus / Advice – Beyond – Now is a good time to look forward and start putting plans into action to build what you want to come into fruition in the future. You’ve held off long enough to allow yourself time to recover, and with solid ground once more under your feet, you are able to now begin striding forward in these matters.  Step out of the planning stages.

May’s Ray of Hope – Echinacea (Protection) – You are looked after and protected. Put a little more trust into the universe and your guides.  Allow Gideon to worry over you and your loved ones to take care of you in their own unique and preferred ways.  This blessing is here to lift you up, keep you protected, and give you the help you need to keep you safe as you begin to move forward into new frontiers this month.

June’s Theme – The Sun – With summer upon us it will be time to have a little fun this month. Don’t hibernate or hide indoors.  The temperatures are comfortable enough to enjoy some time outside, so take advantage of that to its fullest.

June’s Focus / Advice – Innocence – The seeds begun in May will have the chance to grow and flourish, and without putting in so much work that you have to feel “put upon” or “stuck” in the process. Don’t make this growth a chore.  Instead, have some fun and let more serious matters and endeavors develop at their own pace.

June’s Ray of Hope – Yerba mate (Activation) – You set the ball rolling on the projects and goals you wanted to get started.  Let the ball roll.  It’s going to carry itself for the most part this month.  You don’t have to babysit it every step and millimeter of the way.

DECKS USED:  THE BRADY TAROT 2ND EDITION, TREE WHISPER ORACLE, MAGICKAL HERB ORACLE