Transitioning from October to November

This is a spread that I do at the end of each month to close out the month.

Month End Tarot Check In - Skele-Tarot and Nicoletta Ciccoli Tarot

Individuality King of Swords and Nascondino – Hiding from responsibilities and allowing a fog to swirl in and create confusion and panic where clarity is needed.  Fear follows and creates tension as you fear what you can’t see and what might pass you buy entirely without seeing you in turn.

Dependence Hanged Man atop The Empress, Dolceamara atop Rose Red – In the grasp of the above mentioned situation, you have lost sight of your need for self care and your walls are trying to come up and close you off from others. This habit is not healthy for you, or for others either.  Don’t allow your walls to get so high that you can no longer see beyond them.

Creativity Ten of Wands Rx, Mary Go Round, Hide and Seek – Less burden and a bit more fun.  A different path than the one you are used to walking upon. You’re trying to change.  Remember that this isn’t about changing who you are or the person others see, but about changing the habits that are unhealthy for you and exchanging them for something better.

Limitation Three of Cups and [Unknown Title] – Your self flagellation for having a good time and taking care of your needs (social and otherwise). That negative inner dialogue has begun to spread out from your inner voice and influence your actions and emotions.  There is no need to punish yourself.  It will only set you back.

Change King of Pentacles and Agata – Your guides and the cards are working together to comfort you over your financial uncertainties.  You should listen and lean into that comforting rather than stubbornly clinging to the worries you’ve been struggling with. Allowing that comforting to do its job and listening to the nurturing voice that’s trying to help you will allow for you to find solid footing concerning how you feel about your finances and resources.

Sympathy Justice and Luck – Times in the past when you have been treated unjustly have been swirling around the outer edges of your awareness recently and causing a dimming of your inner “shine”.  This is a shadow that wants to rise up and needs to be soothed back into place with reminders that that time of powerlessness is in the past now.

Luck Five of Cups and The Ice Princess – Remember when you were learning how to serve and your grip on the tray wobbled, all of the glasses on the tray sliding off to the floor except one? Even though they fell, none of them broke, and the one still on the tray didn’t even spill a little bit.  It was a triumph… even in the face of failure.  Sometimes we can wall ourselves off to those small triumphs, and you’re at risk of doing that now.  Make sure you don’t forget to celebrate the little things.

Power Seven of Wands, Cuddle, Last Days – Feeling ganged up on and vulnerable does not mean it’s time to build up your walls and seclude yourself away from the rest of the world.

Responsibility Two of Wands, Cowgirl, [Unknown Title] atop Blue Bird and The Fox – Grab a direction and run with it.  This message is an echo of a previous reading you did that said the same thing.  Essentially, put on your big boy pants and GO already.  Stagnation is not your friend.  I pulled clarification cards on this position, which then indicate a need for diligence and paying attention to your surroundings.

Message from Spirit World – Overcome your feelings of vulnerability not by closing yourself off, but rather by accepting comfort and allowing it to both ground and energize you.  Keep an eye out for predators.

Message from Mind’s World – Don’t poison yourself with old habits that you know aren’t good for you. It will close you off from being able to see “the full picture” and leave you forsaking positive activities for less healthy ones.

Message from Known World – All actions have consequences and repercussions.  Make sure that you are paying attention to what you do staying true to path and kind to yourself.

DECKS USED:  SKELE-TAROT AND NICOLETTA CICCOLI TAROT (MODIFIED)

Morning Bonus Read – Thinning Veil Spread

Because I am trying to show a bit more of my decks this month, as I have a whole LOT of October/Halloween/Samhain decks, I’m doing a few extra bonus reads over the month.  This is one of those extra readings.

Thinning Veil Tarot Spread - SkeleTarot

Your Higher Purpose
Page of Pentacles

Learning how to connect to the earth and to develop my manifestation abilities no matter what life throws at me along the way.  It’s about adaptability and staying grounded while still moving forward.  There is also an indication here about the speed of that movement.  This is not fast movement, but rather slow and steady with the focus more on what you learn along the way than where you are going to end up.

Advice From Beyond the Veil
The Lovers

So many of my readings that have included this question end up throwing this same answer to me again and again.  Make good choices.  This isn’t about making choices that advance some agenda but rather about listening to my moral compass and allowing deeper needs and motivations to lead rather than surface wants and desires.

A Lesson From This Side of the Veil
Strength

The events of my life thus far have been about survival. It’s about taking your licks and keeping moving, no matter how much it hurts or how debilitating the experience should be. This is a lesson in inner strength.  Most of my “misfortunes” along the way were not about making good or bad choices, but about the strength gained along the way as I move through and beyond the ramifications of what has happened, continually adapting as I go.

Your Shadow’s Influence
Ace of Wands

As the shadows within work to whisper in your ear, it can be hard to keep your inspiration and enthusiasm going.  The influence of my Shadow upon this lifetime is to teach me how to sustain that enthusiasm, even as those whispers try to distract me and drag me into backslide after backslide.

DECK USED:  SKELE-TAROT

Countdown to Samhain – Part 1

I discovered this little challenge on Instagram and thought I’d give it a go.  Since it’s not demanding a card pull each day, I thought it might be fun to use it for a couple of my Pagan’s Perspective posts instead of adding it to my daily rotations.

Countdown to Samhain #samhaincountdown Okay so this one might be just a lil’ weird since this is my blog and all.  But… Hi, I’m Twist. I’m in my early 30s and live in the Pacific NW.  I have a twin sister and a beautiful tortie cat named Luna.  I am a farm hand, a jewelry designer, a gardener, a nature photographer, a fortune teller, a teacher and a student, a non-theist pagan, a survivor (of cancer among other things), and I am in a life-long battle with the inky black pit of clinical depression. I have an education in botany and horticulture, and a deep affinity for the earth and those things that grow from it.

My favorite thing about Samhain is the crisp feeling in the air. I love that the weather has changed and the scent in the air at this time of year is more than just that of a season’s change, but speaks to me of so many elements from the thinning of the veil to the wet and decay that autumn brings.

My favorite divination tools are cards.  Sometimes tarot, sometimes playing cards, sometimes image only cards.  But it’s cards.  Always cards.  It’s not the only divination tools that I use, but absolutely is my favorite.

Samhain is about religion, Halloween is about aesthetic.  Samhain is about ancestors, Halloween is about spooky stuff.  Samhain includes a dumb supper, Halloween includes trick or treating.

SkeleTarot - Knight of Cups The page of cups is all about going after your heart’s desire.  It’s about taking that pursuit seriously and using your creativity combined with action to not just claim what your heart wants, but express your emotions clearly and openly… essentially wearing your heart upon your sleeve.  The Knight of Cups as the focus for this month is an indication that if I want things to go a certain way? It’s time to act upon those needs and heart’s desires to make sure that I am able to achieve what I want.  I feel this is a direct play off the COTD I had the other day which indicated you must “start as you want to go forward”.  In other words, don’t procrastinate in finding that grounding and balance with my life, responsibilities, and emotional growth.  Do it.

Turkey.  I mean, we’re talking seasonal food so, yeah.  Oven roasted turkey.

Okay, so I’ve done this before on this blog and you can see my altar setup in that past post. Nothing really has changed concerning it’s set up other than the fact that the hand mirror in the photos for that post has been removed and replaced with my great-great-grandmother’s divination cards.

To be honest?  I don’t really have a tarot card that I associate specifically with Samhain, or with any of the Sabbats for that matter.  I tried to think about it and pick one out, but I guess that I do not see the Sabbats in that way… or see the cards in that way?   It seems like an odd correlation to me.  Now, I have a crapload of decks that are Samhain/Halloween based.  But not a specific card.

I have created two of them for this month that are focused upon Samhain and the season.  One is focused on the animal and plant correspondences of the season… and the second is focused on the plant and stone correspondences of the season.

SkeleTarot - The Devil and Eight of Pentacles10  The Ghost of Samhain Past is represented by the Devil and the Eight of Pentacles.  These cards mark the path that I have taken in the past during this time of year.

The temptation to work myself to the bone and forsake sleep or any kind of self care in order to gear up for the holiday rush and be full prepared for what is to come.  It indicates that that temptation is something that has become a bit of an addiction, and a habit that I am working to now break.

SkeleTarot - Nine of Swords11  The Ghost of Samhain Present this year is represented by the Ten of Swords.  This card speaks of coming to the end of a journey.  Not just the end of any journey, but the end of a painful journey that has not been kind to me along the way.  That journey is the habits of my past that are indicated in the cards pulled for the Ghost of Samhain Past.   I am, in essence, working to kill those bad tendencies and the addictive pull to push myself too hard and treat myself too harshly.  The Ghost of Samhain Present says that I have reached a point where I can put that behind me and start anew on a new path… but only if I am willing to pick myself up from the ashes and keep moving forward… not looking back.

SkeleTarot - Six of Pentacles12 The Ghost of Samhain Future is represented by the Six of Pentacles. As a card of generosity and economic balance, it’s appearance as the card of the Ghost of Samhain Future indicates that in riding out this change and using this time to find my grounding and my path, my balance and a better way forward, that the future ahead looks bright.  Allowing for balance to take hold and the ability to sustain and flourish with this new way of doing things not just possible but absolutely probable.  This card indicates that there is no need to worry about if I’m going to find a new balance that is healthier and more sustainable.  It’s not just possible… but the most probable outcome looking at the trajectory forward.

13  A number of them, actually.   My sister spend the time between Beltane and Samhain planning our Samhain ritual.  The time between Mabon and Samhain is our favorite time of year and we participate in a number of spellcasting and rituals together during this time of year, culminating in our largest ritual of the year on Samhain.  Included in this ritual is a dumb supper and respectful offering to our ancestors, as well as spellcraft that involves the releasing of stagnant energy and habits that are no longer useful us.

14 Green is slowly turning to oranges and browns.  There’s a great deal of evergreen plants in my area of the world, but the deciduous trees and seasonal plants begin to lose their leaves, which causes the forest’s greenery to take on a darker shade as there are more trunks and branches and more old growth evergreens rather than the brighter green of the plants that do not keep leaves year round.   Leaves start to leave their imprints upon pavement, stamping the pavement with the echos of their shapes as rain washes away the debris.  By the end of the month, most trees that are going to lose their leaves will have lost them all, and the gray skies will be back in full force making each day “sweater weather” damp and comfy.

15  Yes.   As I mentioned above, my sister and I will present offerings to our ancestors during Samhain, and invite them to join us in our dumb supper, setting places for them at the table and significant items for those we remember in the center of the table to make sure they know they are being remembered.

Empathic Ability… or Something Else

Today’s meditation was… well, I’m not entirely how long it was, because I fell asleep.  It was relaxing, though. I think that just a lack of sleep combined with the taxing part of having both the helper and the housekeeper coming by today just took it out of me.  I laid down and became still, and off to sleep I went.

Today’s draw is Queen of Bats (Swords), which is a representation of a receptive alpha energy in the area of intellect, thought, logic, communication, and instinct.  This involves themes that include independent thought, reflection on new ideas without the need for conformity (ie: clear boundaries), a lack of bias, and direct communication.

When I look at today’s card, what I see is strength reflected through the posture of the queen and her sword, and an openness to hear out others while staying firm in one’s own foundations that is demonstrated in her welcoming of the flying bat combined with the death moth that is both at the base of her throne as well as within her crown. The moon smiling down feels like a blessing and approval, displaying an indication that this path is the right one for this moment in time.

I think this is a really interesting card to draw today, because I find myself reflecting on the definition of what an empath is, and if it really applies to me as I thought it did.  The thing is, I do not feel other people’s emotions in the way that I understand empathic abilities to work.  Instead, I sense and react to energy.  From that energy, my body can then interpret and even empathize with emotions from others… but it is not the direct connection and mimicry of emotion that others seem to define the ability as having.

Clearly, this feels like a separation between what I’m experiencing, and what is generally defined as empathic ability.  I wonder, then, if in fact this isn’t empathic ability at all, but something else that I haven’t yet found a name and/or definition for yet.

This, to me, fits in with the Queen of Bats because it runs along the line of intellectual examination, independent thought, and non-conformity.

Deck Used: Halloween Tarot

Bonus Reading

I did the #TarotForGrowthOctober prompt today from Instagram.

Question: How can I recognize my own power to manifest growth?  I specifically focused on growth concerning my business in this inquiry.

IMG_5806

Reading Summary:  If you would just give yourself a chance to be nicer to yourself and embrace the emotional gifts others are offering,  the world would be at your feet.  Stop and examine where you feel scarcity.

Take Away:  I need to sit with my emotions, look at and delve into a better understanding of them, and allow others to contribute to my life with their own emotions as well.   This is the aspect of my life where I am at my weakest, as I often have a hard time connecting with others in this manner, or experiencing the world through that lens. I need to take a breath and ease my strangle hold of stress concerning finances and the business or it will smother under my grip.

Deck Used: Skele-Tarot