spirit guides

Morning Bonus Read – Connect With Your Spirit Guide(s)

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Teddy Bear Transformation Playing Cards - Spirit Guides Cartomancy Reading

Your deepest held belief about working with spirit guides.

Six of Spaces and Ace of Diamonds – That it’s something new you need to be dedicated to in order to learn. That it takes time and effort, and there’s a journey involved to improvement and building of skill.

How ready you are to start connecting with a spirit guide.

Six of Clubs – You’ve been doing it already for some time now. Not just doing it, but doing it well. This isn’t something you need to develop, but something you already have and are well and truly already connected to.

The spirit guide that’s most keen to work with you right now.

Three of Clubs – This spirit guide is all about helping you to move into your chosen direction.  You know where you want to go and what you want to do, and they’re the one that wants to help in getting me on that path and keeping me on task.

Have you worked together before?

Nine of Spades – Yes. During times of intense worry where breaking free of stagnation was needed, they have been there to help you in moving past these hurdles and momentary setbacks.

What is their main aim for working together?

Four of Hearts – To help you find your emotional center.  A big part of your journey of emotional growth and understanding is finding your balance in the constantly shifting sea of emotions that you’re allowing yourself to feel these days. Their main aim in working with you at this time is to help you learn to find your “sea legs” so that you can explore your emotions without feeling unsteady or losing your balance.

What are they trying to warn you about?

Seven of Hearts – They are trying to warn you that there are too many conflicting views caused by emotional imbalance. This can cause disrupted emotional harmony, which if allowed to go on for too long, could cause a more serious emotional response (such as depression and/or anxiety).

What are they trying to help you succeed with?

Nine of Hearts – Finding true happiness and satisfaction. For these things to be accomplished, it means opening up and allowing emotions to have a place in your life.

What action they want you to take to be successful?

Ace of Hearts – It’s important to remember that you’re at the beginning of your emotional journey and growth. They want you to make sure that you keep looking at things with fresh eyes.  Sometimes it can be difficult to not fall back on old habits, but it’s only through keeping open to the new experiences being offered that you can move forward.  There is no looking back.

Something you can do to strengthen the connection with your guide.

Jack of Hearts – Stay open to learning and exploring. Don’t lose your enthusiasm for discovering more and expanding your horizons in the area of your emotional growth.

DECK USED:  TEDDY BEAR TRANSFORMATION PLAYING CARDS

Communicating with Spirit(s)

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This week’s question from the Pagan Perspective YouTube channel is a two-in-one, both of which deal with spirit communication and sensing energies.

spirit

First, I think I need to set some parameters about what “spirit” means in this post, because in the metaphysical world there are two very different common definitions for this.

  1. Spirit can refer to what I define as “the elements and energies of creation, evolution, and balance”.  It is the ‘universe’ aspect.  It is the deity aspect.  It is the Fae aspect.  It is the aspect of the spirits within trees and nature.
  2. Spirit(s) can refer to communicating with ghosts and the deceased.

With that out of the way, the first question in this week’s topic is….

Shadow_sun:
“Does spirit communication play a role in your practice?”

As I have mentioned before, I have a sensitivity to energy in general.  I am not more specifically attuned to the spirits of the deceased than any other type of energy.  Is it possible I can sense them in the clairsentient type of way that I sense most energy?  Absolutely.  But I’m not attuned to it to the point where I would consider it as communication.

This is why, as well, that I say that I do not do mediumship in my tarot.  Could messages be coming through from the deceased on the other side?  Yes, they could be.   But I am not able to differentiate that energy out, let alone identify it as a specific person.

On the other hand, connecting to ‘spirit’ as mentioned in the first definition outlined above is something that I connect and communicate with daily as a part of my daily devotional.   I reach for and welcome elemental energies into my devotional, and into most of my spell crafting and spell casting.  I also connect with and communicate with energies of ‘creation, evolution, and balance’ at the same time and in the same ways.

At these times, I am not usually asking anything from these energies, but rather inviting them to join me in my work should they wish to participate, and expressing my gratitude for their participation in my life as a whole.

This is, in my opinion, different than when I am sensing energies and reacting to it, such as sensing danger and taking evasive measures regardless of the fact that there does not -appear- to be any danger present at the moment.   This, too, is a type of communication, but it is not initiated by me and is entirely receptive (or perceptive of some inner sense) in its nature.   Is it possible that on the receptive side of things I am mistaking what I sense and consider to be from one source (such as spirit definition #1 or my own instincts) as the other and vice versa?  Absolutely.

As I’ve mentioned before, I am also an auditory –> tactile/olfactory/gustatory synesthete.  This means that there are a lot of crossed wires in my brain where my hearing is concerned, and this sometimes can result in experiences can be confused with my energy perceptions as well.

The second part of today’s subject was more of a request for a topic, and that is….

Althaea Ratliff the Religion:
“General communication with spirits and feeling spiritual energy through body parts. (I feel through my right leg, my friend feels through their spine.)”

I feel like I’ve mentioned this somewhere before, but I couldn’t find it to link the post, so maybe not.  The process of my sensing energy is primarily physical in nature and is not always pleasant.

It usually starts in my solar plexus, travels along the insides my rib cage around to my back then up beneath my shoulder blades to eventually surface and span out under the skin over my shoulders and up my neck to my scalp.    How this sensation comes across, whether it hurts or not, whether it tingles or stings, whether it moves fast or slow, where along that path I feel it most succinctly… all of those factors and more determine how these sensations are then interpreted.

I think, for those that can sense spirit (or spirits), energies, etc, that this is pretty normal. Normal in that everyone is going to experience it differently, and it’s how well you tune into those experiences that speak on how well and how clearly they will speak to you.

The Witch’s Familiar

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This week’s question from the Pagan Perspective YouTube channel is a “Choose Your Adventure” practice, which means going back through the topics and picking one that you haven’t covered before.  As I’m new to this channel (and responding to it) this was very easy for me as there were many, many topics to choose from.

IMG_0060

My Chosen Topic for the Week of 8/12: “Do you have a familiar? What does that mean? How do you know if an animal companion is a familiar or is familiar material?” including “The roll of pets, if any, in your practice?”

The definition of a familiar is when a spirit possesses or takes the form of an animal in order to provide spiritual/magickal assistance and guidance. To me, I feel that the primary role of a familiar is to be a guide within the liminal space, astral plane, and spirit world.

Because I feel this way about the role of a familiar, I do not believe that a living being is suited for this task, and so I do not view pets as familiars. They are companions and a deep bond can be created between a person and their pet that transcends the “keeper/pet” dynamic. Pets can even be a part of one’s practice. But, I do not think that the primary role of what a familiar is can be filled by a living animal 99.9% of the time.

That said, I do think that spirits and energy can possess or embody a physical form. So, I suppose it could be possible.  I also, though, think it is extremely rare and that most who call their pets “familiars” are misusing the term.

I do have a cat.

Miss Luna has no interest in my spellcrafting, nor in the tarot. She also has no interest in my altar or hanging out in (or on) any of my sacred spaces. In fact, she is very careful to give me space and observe from a distance during any tarot time, spellcraft time, and ritual time I have.   She often sits right in front of the entrance to the room I am in during these times, and from there she will watch everything very closely.   Then, when I am done, she will return to be closer to me and following me around (which is her usual modus operandi).

Meanie, my previous cat, was much the same in this behavior.