#apprentice of bottles

[witchofbonesandkeys]

Sigil creation is a fantastic introduction into chaos magick, and a good way to begin your exploration of occult concepts. It’s also extremely easy to do, completely safe, and only requires a…

I’ve gotten into sigil work, recently. I know, that doesn’t have to do with tarot, but I did say that I might eventually start putting other witchy stuff on this blog, so here we go...

The above link is a really good resource for sigil beginners. One thing I particularly like is what they wrote toward the end of the page:

Buy The Ticket, Take The Ride. In the coming days, you’ll start to see little things that are eerily evocative of the sigil you activated. Don’t deny these. Don’t dismiss them, even if they seem minor. This is the process starting to work, bit by bit, to bring your intention into reality. The more open you are to these changes, the faster the magick will come into effect.

It’s important, however, to note that your decisions play a hugely important part in how effective the sigil will be. If your sigil is about meeting a new romantic partner, for instance, you might want to think about going out to a place where that could plausibly happen. Staying inside your home, with curtains drawn and lights out, not answering the door, is actively working against the thing you want. Don’t count on the sigil to do the work for you. You’ve already bought the ticket, now you have to take that next step and take the ride.

I feel this is incredibly important, and also can be related to the tarot, as well. With the tarot, the cards present you with possibilities and paths you might take, but they are not set in stone, and if you don’t make decisions that will help you unlock the possibilities of the cards, they will not happen on their own. The tarot doesn’t do the work for you. With sigils, it’s the same - sigils focus your intent and put it out into the universe, but, as they say above: you can’t count on the sigil to do the work for you.

[witchofbonesandkeys]

It's funny how you're drawn to different cards and suits (or they're drawn to you) at different times in your life. I used to pretty much only be drawn to the Suit of Cups, and in readings for myself I drew mainly Cups and Swords. (Which perfectly illustrated the constant struggle between my heart and head, and if you want to delve into the astrological aspect - my sun sign is an earth sign, but almost all my other signs are either water or air.) Pentacles have been more infrequent, but when they do come up they always seem to make perfect sense; they're dependable that way. Earthy.

I was rarely drawn to the Suit of Wands, in the past, and the cards from that suit rarely came up in my readings. That seems odd, because I’ve always been a creative, passionate person - in the past, even more so (or at least, more outwardly so). And maybe that’s why. Maybe I was already so fiery that I didn’t need more of that in my life, and that’s why I wasn’t drawn to that suit. But in the past couple years, I’ve drawn a lot more Wands (or Keys, if I’m using my Collective Tarot deck) in my own readings. And I’ve been drawn to them. I’ve said my signifier is the Apprentice of Bottles (Knight of Cups), but the Queen of Wands (Artist of Keys) is who I want to be. It’s as though, now that I am outwardly calmer and more settled, I am much more drawn to that fire.

[witchofbonesandkeys]

One thing I love about having a variety of different decks is that they all make me look at the cards in different ways, which keeps me from getting too locked into any one meaning.

[witchofbonesandkeys]

Hey all - I’m still active in tarot. I’ve been doing a lot of readings for clients (which are going really well!), and I’ve still been doing November’s 7oSDailyDraw for myself, but I’ve been too busy with other stuff to post about it here. I’ll probably post more later this month, once things calm down a bit.

[witchofbonesandkeys]

#7oSDailyDraw, Day 21 (October 21) - the divinatory tool I feel the most connection to

Why, it’s the tarot/other forms of cartomancy! As I wrote in my introductory post on this blog:

I’ve always been drawn to cartomancy. When I was a wee thing, I had a deck of ‘fortune-telling cards’ (not actual tarot cards, I think they were for novelty purposes only), and I dressed as a ‘fortune-telling witch’ for Halloween right around the same time. I first called myself a Witch in 1996, and I got my first deck of actual tarot cards in 1997. I’ve dabbled in other forms of divination/’fortune telling’ - runes (which I like but have never really connected with), palmistry (which I suck at), tessomancy (which I suck at even more - I’m like Ron Weasley in that Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban scene: Right, you’ve got a sort of wonky cross… That means you’re going to have ‘trials and suffering'—sorry about that—but there’s a thing that could be the sun … hang on … that means ‘great happiness’ … so you’re going to suffer but be very happy about it……) Tarot has long been the kind of divination I’m best at, and feel the most connected with. Something about the imagery involved, and the fact that the tarot unfolds like a story - as a writer/storyteller, and as someone who sees pretty much every damn thing as a sign/signal/symbol that is pertinent to my life, it speaks to me. There was a period of time, from around 2003-2008, when I was heavily into tarot and other witchy practices, but I gave them up (or at least got less active with them) for a while, and it has only been in the last few years that I’ve been getting heavily back into them.

[witchofbonesandkeys]

my tarot ethics

As I’m about to open myself up to read for other people, for monetary compensation, I feel that it’s important for me to make a brief statement about how I approach the tarot/my beliefs in regards to the tarot/my ethics regarding readings.

I am not psychic. I do believe that I am quite intuitive, and I have an intimate relationship with the cards as I have been reading and studying the tarot for 18 years, now. But I am not psychic. I can not tell you exactly what will happen in your future, or give you definitive answers on what you should do in any given situation. All I can do is interpret the cards for you. (Read this quote, it sums up what I mean pretty well.)

I am not a legal professional, a mental health professional, or a medical professional. If you have a serious problem that requires the advice or help of a professional, you can still look to the tarot for guidance, but please follow up by talking to someone who can truly help you.

I don't believe that tarot cards can predict the future in the traditional sense of that term. What they do is haul up imagery that can be related to your situation and its many factors: your mental state, outside forces, etc., and then can be interpreted as to what may be helping and hindering you.

I prefer not to answer yes/no questions. Those are more suited to other forms of divination, such as pendulum readings. When asking a question, try not to phrase it in terms of yes/no. For instance: instead of “Should I quit my job?,” try asking “What may happen if I quit my job?” or “What are the other paths open to me if I quit my job?” Instead of “Will I get together with [this person]?,” try asking “What is hindering me in developing a relationship with [this person]?” or “What are the upsides and downsides of this potential relationship?”

The more specific your question, the better I will be able to interpret the cards. I can do readings for general guidance, but if you want a question answered, the more specifics I know, the better.

I will not post any information about my clients or their readings on this blog or anywhere else online, unless they explicitly tell me they are okay with me doing so. The only situation in which I would publicly post details without a client’s permission would be if they mentioned anything about wanting to harm themselves or others.

I will not discriminate against any client based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or anything else.

I do not read for minors - which, since I live in the US, means anyone under 18. If you want to pay for a reading, you must be 18 or over.

If you have any further questions about my ethics or how I approach the tarot, please feel free to ask.

[witchofbonesandkeys]

#7oSDailyDraw, Day 14 (October 14) - share my signifier card/why is it my signifier?

I should say that I rarely use a signifier in my readings, except occasionally when I want general guidance, and then I find my signifier and see which cards are on either side of it. And I’ve only recently chosen the Apprentice of Bottles/Knight of Cups as my signifier - I did so because I found out about the Queer Tarot Project, and got to thinking about which card would best represent me/my story. I searched through more traditional tarot decks, and I kept coming back to the Knight of Cups. I mean, I knew I’d probably be one of the cups cards - I’ve always been most drawn to that suit, as it is the suit of emotions, relationships, feelings, and creativity - and I’m a god damn poet and extremely emotional and I fall in love easily. I thought about the Queen of Cups, but I see her as being a lot more calm in her emotions than I am, and I didn’t feel drawn to the Page or the King, but the Knight, yes.

The Knight of Cups is associated with romance, charm, and imagination. He is the charmer, and god damn it, I have been told I’m a charmer, too. I don’t mean this to sound like I’m bragging. I don’t understand it, either. I spent my early teen years feeling like I was a pariah and that no one would ever want to touch me, and then one day it was like everyone started to notice me, and it has been that way ever since. (I relate to Maureen from RENT, you know? Ever since puberty, everybody stares at me - boys, girls, I can’t help it, baby.) And as I said above, I fall in love easily, and I sort of live in my daydreams. The Knight of Cups follows his heart even if his head tells him something different, and I’m like that, too. I also like that the Knight of Cups is described as being the most feminine of the knights. I live in that liminal space known as genderfluidity (which I don’t mention often, because of reasons I don’t want to get into right now), but even when I’m a boy, I’m still a femme boy. Even when I’m a boy, I’m an emotional boy in lipstick and a dress. Or, to put it another way - to paraphrase Hettie Jones: I cry like a woman, but I drive like a man. (And that’s true of me, always, no matter what gender I feel like on any given day.)

When I looked at the Collective Tarot's equivalent of the Knight of Cups, the Apprentice of Bottles, I felt even more of a connection. Not only because their Apprentice is feminine-presenting, but also because of their description of the card. They can respond deeply to life; tending to be sensitive, melodramatic, or moody. Their ability to act from their strong emotions fuels their exciting, courageous, and risky endeavors, though they can be half lost in their overactive imagination. It is a card that encourages you to leap without looking, to be unrestrained and follow your ideals, dreams, visions, and love. On the other hand - I do tend toward an excess of all those things, so if I’m feeling too much, being too excessive, this card suggests I balance it out and check myself - look before I leap.

The reason I chose it as the title of this blog is because of all of that, but also because I like that it’s the ‘Apprentice.’ Though I have been reading and studying the tarot for 18 years, I am still an apprentice at it - and probably always will be, and I’m okay with that.

[witchofbonesandkeys]

I did not finish my deck for the DIY Tarot Challenge in September, as I was hella busy. However, I’m working on finishing it up now, and I will post it here. And then I’ll probably make a zine of it.