Reflecting Pool

[winterbornwitches-blog]

Happy Sunday loves!!

This spread is slightly longer but for good reason!! I made us all a self love spread because I know sometimes it is so easy to get caught up in wanting to be a certain way that we often forget we are actually wonderful JUST the way we are!

All my love, Kyla <3

[urban--bitchcraft]

Spirit Communication Tarot Spread 🌸🌷💀🌼🌙

Last week while picnicking, some witchy friends and I stumbled upon an almost complete skeleton of a whitetail faun. We gathered the bones, and I took home the skull and a few other pieces. I scoured the internet but couldn’t find any tarot spreads on (respectful & consensual) communication with animal remains, so I took the liberty of creating one myself and sharing it with all of you! Forgive my awful spread sketch, it’s nearly 4am and I’m more than a little sleepy!

🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿

I started off with a quick pendulum reading, just asking the spirit if they were willing to talk with me and making sure they were ready to discuss their passing with me.

•Cards 1-4: Basically a little “Tell me about yourself” exercise. Each card tells you something about the spirit, card #4 being the most important. •Cards 5-9: “How can I honor you?” These cards represent a way that you can honor the spirit of the animal you’re connecting with and how you can best make them feel respected and appreciated, card #9 being the most important. •Cards 10-12: How the animal passed of from the physical plane of existence. It’s important to note, that not all spirits are ready or comfortable talking about their passing, so please be respectful and kind. •Cards 13-16: Anything else the spirit wants you to know about themself. This can be anything from how they feel regarding their passing, to places they frequented as a living creature.

🌿🌿🌿 Let me know if you use this spread; I’d love to hear about other people’s experiences communicating with animal spirits and how they use their cards to connect with other beings!

[morrigan-crow-of-war]

The Morrigan: Associations

Names - Morrigan, Mórrígan, Morrigu, Na Morrigna (meanings may be: Great Queen, Phantom Queen, Death Queen, Nightmare Queen)

Attributes - War, death, blood, sovereignty, land, life, battle, prophecy, power, lust, magic, change, fate, courage, revenge, cattle-stealing, violence, fury, witchcraft, glory, strategy, victory

Places - Battlefields, rivers, forests

Moon - Waning moon, new moon

Planet - Pluto

Seasons - Winter, fall

Celebrations - Samhain, Mabon

Elements - Fire, water

Weapons - Spear, sword, magic, shapeshifting

Animals - Crow, raven, wolf, cow, eel, horse, crane, fish, snake

Herbs - Hawthorn, mugworth, belladonna, sage, cinnamon, violets, blackthorn, asafoetida, reed, honeysuckle

Trees - Juniper, aspen, cherry, oak, willow

Crystals - Bloodstone, obsidian, onyx, agate, ruby, amethyst, clear quartz, tiger eye

Colours - Black, red, purple, blue, white

Tarot cards - Death, the hermit, force, the moon

Incenses - Dragon blood, orange, cinnamon

Other things - Skulls, bones, blood, black candles, feathers, hag stones, knives, leather

Offerings - Red wine, meat, black coffee, dark chocolate, cherries, oranges, pomegranates

[vvinterborne]

Stephen Hawking ( 8 January 1942 – 14 March 2018) was an inspiration to me even as a young child obsessed with learning what lay beyond the solar system we learned in school. I have books upon books of astronomy and cosmology encyclopedias, all of which I hold dear to me. Hawking’s passing left me heartbroken, but determined to keep that passion for space alive. He shot for the moon, and landed among the stars.

This tarot spread is inspired by a quote from Hawking with the purpose of having a goal you already want to reach, but not knowing where to start. 

Your roots: Where do you stand now? Step back and observe this point in your life.

Find your footing: Where do you need to look to find the start to achieving your goal?

First step: How and/or when should you start this journey?

You challenge: What will block your path?

Lesson to learn: What experience will you gain from this obstacle?

What to hold onto: This will help you reach your final goal. Don’t let go of it.

What to let go: This is only holding you back, and it’s time to move past it. Don’t look back.

Leap of faith: What risk, sacrifice, or choice will you need to make to reach your goal?

Where you land: Who will you become when you finally reach your goal? 

[cripplywobblytimeywimey]

Seasonal Herbs/Ingredients/Flowers For The Pagan Sabbats

Imbolc:

Lemon, Thyme, Rosemary, Dill, Fennel, Liquorice, Snowdrop, Dandelion, Mint.

Ostara:

Primrose, Rosemary, Daisy, Orange Peel, Basil, Garlic, Lavender, Mint.

Beltane:

Yellow/Orange Roses, Buttercup, Onion Salt, Bay Leaf, Oregano, Black Pepper.

Litha:

Pink /White Roses, Red Clover, Chili Powder, Chamomile, Cumin.

Lughnasadh:

Sunflower, Anise Seed, Cloves, Ginger, Mustard Seed, Turmeric, Blackberries, Sage.

Mabon:

Lavender, Maple Leaves, Pine Cones, Chamomile, Black Pepper, Cinnamon, Cloves, Nutmeg, Paprika, Sage.

Samhain:

Pine Needles, Blackberry Leaves, Fennel, Allspice, Red Roses, Jasmine, Nutmeg, Cloves.

Yule:

Mistletoe, Snowdrop, Lemongrass, Chive, Cinnamon, Sage, Rosemary, Ginger, Garlic, Orange Peel, Dill, Basil, Black Pepper, Bay Leaf.

[hellboundwitch]

So, last night I made myself a new spread, inspired by the Enchanted Map Oracle.

Tomorrow or something I will post the reading I did with it, because I think it helps to see spreads in action, but for now…

This spread is for taking a look at the landscape of where you’re at right now, and where you’re trying to get to, and where you SHOULD be.

Card 01 - North:  What you always come back to. Your focus, your goal. Where you’re rooted. The stable things.

Card 02 - South:  What moves you to action. Your passion, your spark.

Card 03 - East:  How you present yourself in public. How you interact with others. What you’re fascinated by.

Card 04 - West:  Your inner, more secret self. What you’re working on emotionally. What nourishes and nurtures you.

Card 05 - Center:  Where you’re at right now.

Optional Cards

Card 06 - Northeast:  Bridges North + East

Card 07 - Southeast:  Bridges East + South

Card 08 - Southwest:  Bridges South + West

Card 09 - Northwest:  Bridges West + North

#

So, the last four cards are optional. You don’t have to include them if you’re not interested in trying to integrate these different areas. I like using them to help me relate the different cards to one another though.

The Center card also acts as a bridging card to all of the directions – North to South, East to West.

While I read the cards in the order I numbered them, it’s also useful to take it as a whole, perhaps starting from the top and going in a clockwise circle, or maybe starting from the center and moving out in a spiral from whatever card calls to you!

[coyote-696]

A Solomonic Talisman Tutorial

(Part three of the Talismans, Pentacles, and Sigils series)

In the last post I gave general instructions on making planetary talismans. Here’s what making a specific talisman looks like. Please note that while you should feel free to adapt this methodology to suit your practice, you should operate within the Abrahamic paradigm for the duration of the construction. Swapping out Abrahamic godnames and symbols for pagan ones likely will cause malfunctioning (if it functions at all) as Abrahamic entities rarely play nice with entities from other paradigms. If you’d like to make a pagan or atheistic version, I recommend you design your pentacle from the ground up.

1. Pick a pentacle that matches your goal. My husband has been quite sick lately so for this post we will be making a healing talisman using the 2nd pentacle of Mars from the Greater Key of Solomon.

Figure 26. The Second Pentacle of Mars. – This Pentacle serveth with great success against all kinds of diseases, if it be applied unto the afflicted part. Editor’s Note.– The letter Hé, in the angles of the Hexagram. Within the same the Names IHVH, IHShVH Yeheshuah (the mystic Hebrew Name for Joshua or Jesus, formed of the ordinary IHVH with the letter Sh placed therein as emblematical of the Spirit), and Elohim. Around it is the sentence, John i. 4:– “In Him was life, and the life was the light of man.” This may be adduced as an argument of the greater antiquity of the first few mystical verses of the Gospel of St. John.

Those of you familiar with planetary magick are probably scratching your head over using Mars for healing as it’s a pretty unusual choice. It threw me for a loop too until @kab-niel pointed out that the Mars talismans deal with protecting the magician from harm and illness can be viewed as a type of harm. Fair enough - still seems a bit weird to me but let’s roll with it. 

2. Timing. I’m going to admit straight up I fudged this a bit.  Ideally planetary talismans should be constructed on the day ruled by their planet (ie. Mars talismans should be made on Tuesdays) but since my husband was pretty sick, I opted to do it sooner rather than later. There is some lenience on the day but you should be sure to begin construction in the correct planetary hour. As you can see here, we are beginning in the hour of Mars:

3. Pentacle construction. This step is pretty easy but a bit tedious. Note that it can be difficult to find a clean, legible version of your pentacle so just do the best you can with what you can find. As should be obvious from my terrible Hebrew, it doesn’t have to be perfect. Be sure to use a fresh (”virgin”) sheet of paper and to give yourself some space away from the edges because we will be tearing them off.

4. Sigilize your desire. I went kind of a weird route with this one and you absolutely do not need to do the sigil step this way. A more standard version of this step would be sigilizing “[NAME] is healthy” but I wanted to start developing an idea I’ve had rolling around in my head.

My train of thought was that since Psalms have a long history of use in Abrahamic magick, using a healing psalm would make a nice addition to the talisman particularly because I plan on saving this one for general healing in the future. Since Psalms are something I use fairly often in magick, I want to start developing a Biblical alphabet of desire using common phrases that can be combined into unique phrases. Below is my first attempt. I tried to keep the symbols more representational than I typically would use in sigil magick (monad symbol for God, Ouranus for the magician etc) to assist in remembering the alphabet well enough to use it regularly. 

5. Putting it together. Draw your sigils and any other symbols you’re using in a pleasing manner around your pentacle and ink everything in the color associated with your planet (in this case red for Mars). Here I’ve added the name EL SHADDAI (a name of God associated with nourishment and blessings) and the symbol of Mars. Tear (not cut) off the edges - only cut if the pentacle is being used against an enemy. I chose to tear it five times because five the number of Mars.

6. If you’re using powdered herbs, add them now. For this one I’m using ginger, tumeric, and St. John’s Wort as they’re all healing herbs and used to drive away “evil spirits”. My husband and I both crave curry when we’re sick and as a result I tend to associate curry spices with healing from illness so tumeric and ginger are kind of playing double duty here. You may have correctly noted that St. John’s is a solar herb rather than a Martial one however Mars and the Sun play very nicely together, the Sun has some pleasant healing aspects, and St. John’s is good for minor joint pain which unfortunately my husband was experiencing.  Use whatever makes sense to you and if you have to wander a bit outside your planet that’s fine as long as you avoid conflicts (don’t combine Jupiter and Saturn etc.)

Fold the paper around the herbs, folding towards you to draw, folding away to remove, and bind with an appropriately colored thread. I didn’t take a photo of this step but I bound it with five knots.

7. Activation. This generally involves launching your sigil, reading the Bible verse associated with the pentacle, and a consecration. If you have a process for consecrating tools, do it now but I recommend avoiding calling on deities other than the Abrahamic god. The one exception to this is using the Orphic hymns of the planets as rather than deities, the planets can be viewed as emanations from the Godhead. Traditions that have syncretized with Abrahamic religions obviously are the other big exception.

 If you do not have a process, follow this procedure:

Place your talisman on your altar/working space, light a candle, incense, and pour a shot of whiskey. 

Recite the following prayer or the Orphic Hymn to the planet being utilized:

O ADONAI most powerful, EL most strong, AGLA most holy, ON most righteous, the ALPHA and the OMEGA, the Beginning and the End; thou who hast established all things in thy Wisdom; thou who has chosen Abraham thy faithful servant, and hast promised that in his seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed, which seed thou hast multiplied as the stars of Heaven; thou who hast appeared unto thy servant Moses in flame in the midst of the Burning Bush, and hast made him walk with dry feet through the Red Sea; thou who gavest the Law to him upon Mount Sinai; thou who hast granted unto Solomon thy Servant these pentacles by thy great Mercy, for the preservation of Soul and of Body; we most humbly implore and supplicate thy Holy Majesty, that these pentacles may be consecrated by thy power, and prepared in such manner that they may obtain virtue and strength against all spirits, through thee, O Most Holy ADONAI, whose Kingdom, Empire, and principality, remaineth and endureth without end. 

Read the Bible verse associated with your pentacle over it. In this case we are using John 1:4:

In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 

Feed your talisman a few drops of whiskey, then leave it on your altar until the candles burn out.

That’s about all there is to it. This one served it’s purpose in 48 hours so I am definitely keeping it around for future use. If your talisman is to be used repeatedly, periodic feeding is necessary in addition to reciting the pentacle’s verse

[trollkatt]

Beautiful! I have never studied Solomonic magic, but have several books on it - don’t we all! - that I leaf through occasionally, and I certainly recognise that pentacle.

But, I never really realised the amount of detail that goes into making the actual talismans using the pentacles. The stress on minute timing, for instance. I’m used to the “simple” Scandinavian timing system - waxing/waning/full/new, sunset/midnight/sunrise, Thurs-/Sunday - and that’s about it. Certainly a different paradigm!

Interesting also to note that you too use both the tearing vs cutting and the folding inwards vs folding outwards - I thought these practices were found in folk magic only.

And, your lucky husband…! That it served its purpose within two days just goes to show you know your stuff.

(BTW, are the Orphic Hymns Abrahamic?! Not being familiar with them beyond the name, I always sort of assumed they were pagan and Hellenic!Orphic = of Orpheus, or something. Gods, I don’t know.)

[coyote-696]

So this method is a merging of folk and Solomonic tech - This is definitely not a traditional or grimoire purist method of talisman making. I thought I’d mentioned that in this post but apparently not, oops. The tearing vs cutting is definitely one of the folk aspects rather than an intrinsic part of Solomonic magick. 

You are correct, the Orphic Hymns are Hellenic which is a bit contradictory to what I said earlier about not mixing pantheons. I include them as an option largely for practical reasons. As far as I am aware, there are not any invocations or calls to the Planets that do not refer in some way back to the the deity the planet was named after. Even the associations of each planet link back to their Hellenic sources and just about any reference to a planet in magick could reasonably be assumed to also refer to the deity in question. Given this and the massive influence of Hellenic magick on the Solomonic tradition, I personally don’t find it super contradictory but a grimoire purist would probably shit a brick. 

If that sounds like total horse shit, that’s fine (because it sort of is) just leave that bit out or replace it with something else. On the other hand a number of us who make these types of talismans have found that for the Orphic hymns don’t tend to short them out like replacing the godnames with pagan godnames does so 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[trollkatt]

Thank you so much! So it is partly from folk magic - I can quit scratching my head!

“Grimoire purists” shitting bricks, eh? I think that might explain a thing or two, and I might approach those books with less reluctance now, thanks to you, knowing it doesn’t have to be like that.

I must also admit to you that it hadn’t occurred to me before you pointed it out now, that the planets and their names and the whole planetary shebang in Solomonic magic hail back to pagan Greece! Dang - *lol*.

(First now I see you actually did mention Orphic hymns as an option - not that the hymn you share here is one! My bad!)

Thanks again!

[intothemoors]

What better blessing for my pagan ritual tools than a black cat!

[mondinfinite-deactivated2019010]

Dream Interpretation - Tarot Spread

This Tarot spread has been thought up to interpret thedreams. After having mixed the cards, we choose six of them.

Card 1: the dreamer and his emotional state in the dream. This card might indicate how the dream appears to the dreamer.

Cards 2 6 3: these cards indicate what happens in the dream.

- Card 2: indicates the theme

- Card 3: the type of dream 

- Card 6: It is the bridge between car 2 and 3

Cards 1 4 5: Meaning and message of the dream.

Keep reading

[kall-frukt]

I had a dream last night that stayed with me throughout the whole day, and that inspired me to make this spread. Works really well if you ask me! Making spreads is so much fun! I’ve never really made or seen any other spreads with optional cards, but why not? 

(If you want to reblog, please don’t remove this caption)

[intothemoors]

The Butterfly Effect Spread

Ta da!! I finally made a pretty little graphic for the tarot spread I made the other night! Much better and organized =)  This spread is for when you’re stuck at a crossroads, between two decisions, two choices that are both equally compelling. Take a peek at what each path has in store, and make your decision from the information gleaned here. 

I know it’s a little complicated, but for me at least, it was exceptionally helpful. I hope you all can get some good use out of it too! 

[kikiscauldron]

Unlock yourself tarot spread: the keys to self discovery.

[hellboundwitch]

Do you ever feel like you’re missing something? That you want something, but you’re not sure what? You think that you could be happy, if only you could just figure out what would help. WELL I DO, OKAY? And so I made this — the Smiling Moon Spread.

Card One is your unconscious desire.

Card Two is what has kept you from realizing this desire. Note that this may be something that has kept you from knowing what you want AND/OR from getting what you want — and they’re often two sides of the same coin.

Card Three is why you want that thing. Is there something missing that you think it will fill? What impact would it have on your life that would cause you to feel that Card One will bring a positive change to your situation?

Card Four is where you can start to bring your desire into your life. This may be an action you can take to make room for it or a way to knock down the block that Card Two creates, or even just a place to look to find the thing. You can decide ahead of time which aspect you’re looking for or use your context clues once you’ve drawn the cards.

This is a shorter spread, somewhat inspired by The Moon of the Victorian Fairy Tarot. (I haven’t yet decided where it falls in my spread project!) A spread for a subject like this could easily take up many more cards, but I like to keep it simple both as a general preference for my spreads, and because I’m not looking to overwhelm myself with information on something I didn’t even know about before. A general idea of what’s happening, a first step to take…that’s all I want for the moment. But if you wanted to add information, the spread easily accommodates into a wider arc!

Lastly, you may notice this is a bit fancier of an image than my spreads normally are normally given. I’m gonna be trying out a lot of different borders and fonts and such to see what I like for my spread book! I’ve already decided against these particular borders for the book, but I thought they were cute enough to stay in the spread image. If you’re interested, I grabbed them from here!

[skewedcard-blog]

this is my favourite spread to use when i’m reading for myself, it’s always very insightful.

[astroalive]

Elemental Energy Spread: How can I work with the energies within?

This spread was created in response to many questions about elemental balances within the natal chart. This is a simple spread that I might add more to later, or create a more in-depth version of. If you’re curious to learn about the elements in astrology, click here.

This chart is based around the compass, and each element rests on the corresponding direction, circling the individual much like the heavens that inspired the spread.

1. Where am I now? Who am I?

2. How does Fire influence me? How can I work with it?

3. How does Earth influence me? How can I work with it?

4. How does Air influence me? How can I work with it?

5. How does Water influence me? How can I work with it?

Fire // Earth // Air // Water

[the-journey-of-the-fool]

Have you ever thought about who you were and what happened in your one of your past lives? This spread will tell you! 

Your gender.

The environment you grew up in.

Your childhood.

Your education and how you faired.

Your accomplishments, whether you achieved your goals or not.

The occupation you held for the longest.

Your relationships.

Your family life.

The nature of how you died.

A lesson you learnt in this past life.

Another lesson you learnt.

How this past life could help you live the life you are living now.

Another way this past life could help you live the life you are living now.

[thebelfry]

There are some misleading headlines/tweets/general phrasings going around right now about the Republican healthcare bill. It passed the house of representatives, but it is not law. Currently Obamacare is still the law of the land. There are several more hurdles this bill would have to clear in order to be signed into law, many of which are looking unlikely. The Senate has already made a statement that they will not be voting on the House bill. That doesn’t mean we can rest easy, but it does mean that your healthcare is still safe for right now if you have Obamacare. I’m really glad everyone is staying informed and reading the news, but some of these headlines are scaring people and making them think that PP is now defunded and Obamacare is gone. The House voting to defund is different from defunding passing and becoming law.

I hope this helps someone. Stay strong everyone.