Windowbox Witchery's Tarot Journal

An Urban Witch's notebook on Tarot

[goodbyedearfriends-deactivated2]

Another nazi witch blog has popped up and on one of my posts yuck. They’re called “nazi-mystic” so block them as soon as you can. Gods what’s with all these Nazis popping up it’s gross.

Please reblog so more people know to block this person.

[witchy-woman]

blocked! thanks for the info!

[windowbox-tarot]

January 3, 2017

So, today I decided to go through my old Pokemon cards (I needed to put some new acquisitions away anyways) and put together a pokemon divination deck based on this one by @pomegranateandivy.

I managed to get the entire deck together exactly as she’s put it, save for a Scyther (which I SURPRISINGLY don’t own), and an Unknown A (I’ve used an Unknown E in it’s place). I used my oldest cards for this, as they’ve been with me the longest, and have gone through a lot with me.

So, let’s do a reading to see what the rest of this month will be like, yeah? I’ve got lots of questions and new opportunities that I’m curious about.

I did a three card spread for this, to get three main feelings or words that might give me insight into how this month is going to go.

Grimer- poison, gross things, novel

Zubat- repetition, wandering, and exhaustion

Onix- outwardly strong, opinionated, folds quickly against emotional arguments

Oh. Oh dear.

Well, on the good side, Grimer does represent novel things, even if they might be gross. On the bad side, it could represent some emotional poison that I could be giving or receiving.

Zubat could be representing the feelings about I have about my current job situation. I am tired of working at my boring, repetitive job, and I’m currently wandering trying to find my career instead of a day job that I hate.

I have no idea what Onix could be though. Maybe Onix represents a person in my life currently that I’m going to deal with or am already dealing with?

[windowbox-tarot]

July 27th, 2016

Today I decided to try @storm-witch‘s Lucifer Quick Spread!

Using my Morgan-Greer deck, I shuffled, then searched for The Devil, and the two cards next to it.

On the left is the reversed 8 of Cups, and on the right is the upright King of Pentacles.

According to the cards, my two deepest, darkest desires are:

8 of Cups: I want to expand my horizons, but I’m afraid of what that will entail. I’m afraid of the risks that come with it and what I might potentially miss out on, and maybe I need to chill the fuck out and just move forward already?

King of Pentacles: I desire security. Power. Stability. Abundance. I want to feel like I have enough and want for nothing. I want to be in a position where I feel safe and happy.

Whelp, I feel like my cards have taken me for a bit of a ride again, and have pointed to my move. To be fair, this is a huge step I’m taking in my life. I am worried about the things I will miss out on. I will miss things that I can only get here on the west coast.

But, I know if I want to step forward with my life in a positive direction, so I can get that power and security and stability, I’m going to have to bite the bullet and do what I must, and not worry about things that aren’t even going to happen anymore.

[windowbox-tarot]

July 25, 2016

Today I drew The Shield from the Clow.

The Shield’s primary symbolism is a huge ornate shield, held up by chains, much like its counterpart, The Sword.

According to The Clow Card Fortune book, The Shield is represented by the Jack of Diamonds, and its message is one of protection.

The Shield is reminding me that even if I’m in a crisis, I have many people defending me and who are willing to stand by me and help me. In return for love and harmony, I gain even greater power.

It warns me to not forget to be grateful for the gift of support, and to pay it forward should my friends ever need me.

I feel like this really relates to my current stressed state. I had a very bad mental health day yesterday, and my friends were there to help me through it. And even though I’m stressed out from my move, they are there to assure me that everything will be okay, and that I can, and will, achieve my goals and everything will turn out fine.

And when the time comes, it will be my duty, and pleasure, to return the favor.

[windowbox-tarot]

So, a while ago, I did a few single-card readings for a friend with my Dishonored Deck. Obviously, I’m not going to reveal all  of the details, because some things this friend asked about were rather personal, but I feel like some of this stuff is worth noting down for posterity.

I noticed a few things while reading:

Dishonored is a sassy fucking deck.

During my friend’s questions, the cards kept repeating themselves in message. The cards were different, but the message was always the same (“Look inside of yourself for the answer”). It got to the point where we were both in stitches (but still kind of exasperated because he asked several different questions and he even threatened to reach through the screen and slap it).

There was also one question where he got a rather literal answer that we found hilarious where he asked about his father, and got a card that was comparable to a Rider-Waite card that had literal dad symbology on it.

However, there was one question where I actually hesitated to answer it, and also got a card that confirmed that I was very right to not really want to answer it. The both of us were quite creeped out by the deck’s answer, but I still answered one more question before I called it a night.

All in all, for my first reading of someone else with the deck, I’m actually rather pleased with it. It gave pretty clear answers that the two of us were able to discuss, and I also learned to trust my gut when it came to readings as well.

I’m looking forward to doing readings with it in the future.

[windowbox-tarot]

Deck Discourse #1: The Clow

Today I want to do something a little different. Instead of drawing a card and talking about that specific card, I want to talk about a specific, non-traditional deck as a whole, rather than draw cards from it to look at that specific card.

I want to talk about the deck’s significance, its history, its symbolism, and it’s use in reference to modern day divination and readings. So, these posts will be REALLY long, because they will contain a lot of details and research. I want to be thorough.

I think this is something I would like to include in my journal only every so often, because it’s a lot of typing and researching and stuff, but it would also bolster my knowledge about tarot and card divination, so I still feel it’s useful to do every so often.

I’ve decided to call these spin-off posts Deck Discourse, and that’s what they’ll be tagged as if you want to whitelist/blacklist the tag! (I understand not everyone wants super long-winded posts on their dash.)

If you want to include something, you feel I missed something, or if I made a mistake, feel free to reblog and add your own thoughts! I love hearing what the rest of the community has to say about these things, and it would certainly be helpful to me in my studies!

So, let’s get started!

Today, for the first Deck Discourse, I want to talk about The Clow Cards from the anime Cardcaptor Sakura by CLAMP. This is a pop-culture deck that a lot of anime fan practitioners have learned to adapt to readings.

You can download your own, as well as a copy of the fortune book here! And if you want a physical copy of an actual deck and if you’d also like the Sakura Cards, you can find both decks here! There are also fancy boxes that look like The Clow Book, but they’re twice the cost per deck than just getting the decks together from what I’ve seen.

But before we can get to the actual divination stuff, I would like to provide some backstory and context. Spoilers for the show below the cut! Considering what we’re talking about, spoilers cannot be omitted!

Keep reading

[the-spoonie-witch-blog]

THIS GIVES ME LIFE!!! When I was little I saw maybe the 2 first episodes of the show and thought it was neat, but the cards, THE CARDS! I saw them in Blockbuster video (the kind that came in the fancy looking book) and HAD to have them. I BEGGED my Mom and promised to do all kinds of extra chores so she would buy them for me, I just had to have them and didn’t even know why! I’d take them out just to hold them, look at them like I was trying to connect with them, and started doing readings with them- before I even knew what tarot or anything like that was. It just felt right! I didn’t even get far enough in the show to know they were used that way, when I found out I was kind of shocked, actually. I actually just moved and was going through my stuff thought, man I don’t have those cards anymore, but I REALLY want to get another deck.. and I don’t know why.. NOW I know why! AH THIS IS SO COOL!!!

[stormwaterwitch]

Thank you so much for making this *^*

[witabif]

you know, I almost threw out the deck that I got back when I was a kid, but I kept thinking about this post and brought them back into my room. thinking about adding this to my repertoire.

[windowbox-tarot]

I’m so happy to hear that! I’m so happy to hear all of this!

I’m reading all these reblogs and y’all are making me so happy that you like my insights and that I’m inspiring other readers to pick up their decks and add stuff to their readings!

Honestly, it makes me a little jealous that I don’t have a Clow deck of my own (yet)!

[windowbox-tarot]

Deck Discourse #1: The Clow

Today I want to do something a little different. Instead of drawing a card and talking about that specific card, I want to talk about a specific, non-traditional deck as a whole, rather than draw cards from it to look at that specific card.

I want to talk about the deck’s significance, its history, its symbolism, and it’s use in reference to modern day divination and readings. So, these posts will be REALLY long, because they will contain a lot of details and research. I want to be thorough.

I think this is something I would like to include in my journal only every so often, because it’s a lot of typing and researching and stuff, but it would also bolster my knowledge about tarot and card divination, so I still feel it’s useful to do every so often.

I’ve decided to call these spin-off posts Deck Discourse, and that’s what they’ll be tagged as if you want to whitelist/blacklist the tag! (I understand not everyone wants super long-winded posts on their dash.)

If you want to include something, you feel I missed something, or if I made a mistake, feel free to reblog and add your own thoughts! I love hearing what the rest of the community has to say about these things, and it would certainly be helpful to me in my studies!

So, let’s get started!

Today, for the first Deck Discourse, I want to talk about The Clow Cards from the anime Cardcaptor Sakura by CLAMP. This is a pop-culture deck that a lot of anime fan practitioners have learned to adapt to readings.

You can download your own, as well as a copy of the fortune book here! And if you want a physical copy of an actual deck and if you’d also like the Sakura Cards, you can find both decks here! There are also fancy boxes that look like The Clow Book, but they’re twice the cost per deck than just getting the decks together from what I’ve seen.

But before we can get to the actual divination stuff, I would like to provide some backstory and context. Spoilers for the show below the cut! Considering what we’re talking about, spoilers cannot be omitted!

What is Cardcaptor Sakura?

Cardcaptor Sakura, for those of us who haven’t heard about it, is an anime from the 1990′s by the group known as CLAMP. CLAMP’s other works include Angelic Layer (which would get me into my other hobby of dolls and BJDs), Chobits, and X-1999 to name a few.

In the anime, a young school girl named Sakura Kinomoto finds an odd book in her father’s study and opens it, releasing cards known as The Clow into her world. Since she released them, it became her duty to re-capture and seal them once again, with the help of the card’s guardian.

She’s joined on her quest by Keroberos (Cerberus), or Kero for short, the sun guardian of the cards created from Western Magic, and her best friend Tomoyo Daidouji (who is also her second cousin), who likes to dress her up in fun outfits for her quests. And she competes with Syaoran Li, who is the descendant of the creator of the cards, Clow Reed, to become worthy of the title of Master of the Clow.

Now that we have the backstory out of the way, let’s get to the interesting bits.

What are the Clow Cards?

The Clow Cards are cards created by the sorcerer Clow Reed. They each posses a magical power, related to their name. Clow himself is of Chinese and English origin, so his magic combines both Eastern and Western traditions that he picked up from his English father and Chinese mother.

To protect their power once Clow died, he had the cards sealed away in the Clow Book until “The Chosen One” appeared. The Chosen One would be judged by Yue, the Clow’s moon guardian who was created from Eastern magic, once all the cards were collected.

Each of the cards has its own powers and personality, as they are sentient beings within their own right. Some of them are peaceful, some are violent, and each of their powers revolves around a specific element or a power that could help someone accomplish a task.

In order to become the owner of Clow Cards, you have to capture them and sign your name on them to bind them to you. Once the card becomes yours, you can use its powers freely, and the cards may even change imagery based upon their owner (more on that in the next section).

The Clow/Sakura cards were based off of the Major Arcana of more traditional tarot, which I’ll talk about more when I cover the Hierarchy of the Clow/Sakura Cards.

What are Sakura/Star Cards?

In the source material, many of the Clow Cards change when Sakura takes ownership of them. They change color and style, and even the symbology changes ever so slightly. Here’s a visual comparison between the Sakura Cards and the Clow Cards (large image, click to zoom in).

The Sakura Cards are the exact same as the Clow, with mostly visual differences such as color (Clow Cards have a red/gold color scheme with sun and moon motifs, and Sakura Cards have a pink/gold scheme with star motifs), the magic circle design on the back, and a few extra cards: The Nameless and The Hope.

Hierarchy of The Clow

The Clow Cards have their own hierarchy, which is as such:

The Master of the Clow (In the manga/anime, it was Clow Reed, and then later it became Sakura). This could represent the reader themselves when it comes to real-world divination.

The Sun Guardian Keroberos and The Moon Guardian Yue

The Four Elements

The Earthy

The Fiery

The Watery

The Windy

The Two Attributes

The Light

The Dark

And the rest of the 46 known cards are split into these categories, with the exception of three that only the Master has control of:

The Nameless

This card only exists as a Sakura Card, and it represents Sakura’s and Syaoran’s intense feelings for one another.

In Tsubasa Chronicles, another manga by CLAMP that is a combination of all their worlds, an older Syaoran is deeply in love with an older Sakura, but it’s implied in Cardcaptor that they are in love as children as well.

The Nothing

The Nothing is a card that contains the negative half of all the magic of the Clow. Clow Reed made this card to act as a balance to the other Cards.

As its name suggests, it will turn anyone or anything that touches it into nothing, effectively “unmaking” them.

The Hope

Another Sakura Card exclusive, this card is the result of a merger between The Nameless and The Nothing.

It’s powers are unknown, but are speculated to be simply giving people hope.

Despite drawing inspiration from tarot, The Clow/Sakura Cards have no Arcana to speak of, but instead rely on this hierarchy and class system.

The Fortune Book compares the Clow/Sakura Cards to playing cards in terms of divination rather than tarot, since playing cards were derived from the Minor Arcana of tarot and thus have no Major Arcana to speak of, though the Clow/Sakura Cards all mimic the style of the Major Arcana in terms of design.

Symbology

Obviously for any tarot, symbology is super important, as it gives a reader clues to the meaning of the card.

The Clow/Sakura Cards each have their own symbols, but the decks themselves also have their own color schemes and motifs, mostly just to visually differentiate between them.

As for the individual card symbols and representations, they stay relatively the same between the two decks.

There is also groups of symbols that reflect the card’s powers:

A feminine figure

As the central image

Holding something related to the card’s power, such as The Bubbles or The Arrow

An Animal related to the power

The Jump has a rabbit-like creature

An Object

The Sword

An old man holding something relating to the power

The Time

Within the source material, there is a lot of emphasis on the feminine form and many things about the show are feminine-coded. Sakura’s deck is pink, she wears frilly, elaborate dresses to go capture Clow, Kero’s everyday form is soft, round in nature, and cute.

I would argue that this is because Cardcaptor Sakura is a magical girl anime, and that’s a traditionally feminine market, and CLAMP themselves are all women, so they made it to appeal to women.

As such, there could also be discussions on the feminine principles of magic and how they relate to the symbology as well.

So, how can I use these for Divination in my own practice?

The Clow can be used in Cardcaptor’s canon to predict the future. Each card’s meaning is derived from each card’s individual power, and most of them are actually quite obvious.

For instance, according to The Fortune Book (which you can download here, with or without pictures), The Mirror would represent looking at and evaluating one’s self, as though you were examining your reflection in the mirror. Simple, right?

As previously mentioned, each card has their own meaning, so, like with any deck, it will require you, as a reader, to learn each card’s meaning individually.

When it comes to spreads, obviously any spread you can use for other tarot or divination decks you can use for The Clow, as far as I’m aware!

In Conclusion

The Clow/Sakura Cards are a very non-traditional form of card divination, and are actually quite blatant about their meanings. As such, it would be an easy deck to pick up for beginners who want to try something that isn’t Rider-Waite and/or doesn’t conform to the Major/Minor Arcana format.

It’s also a good deck for lovers of magical girl anime or just Cardcaptor, and I love the choice between the more androgynous Clow deck and the obviously more feminine-coded Sakura deck.

[windowbox-tarot]

July 15, 2016

Today I drew The Wheel of Fortune from the Lisa Frank Tarot.

Putting aside the glaring color of my childhood for a moment, the first thing my eyes are drawn to are the mice in the fishbowl. They’re there digging for treasure, though the purple mouse looks like they’re just there to swim (or play lifeguard).

The more traditional Raider-Waite symbology was of a literal wheel in the sky, surrounded by mythical creatures that represented the zodiac. In this case, the fishbowl could represent the wheel, and the mice (and cat in the window) could represent the creatures, though they lack any visual connection to the zodiac like the more traditional version.

The Wheel of Fortune reminds us that things tend to move in cycles. There are good times and bad times, and with beginnings, there are ends. The lesson of this card is that there are good times and bad, and that’s just the way things are in life.

However, this doesn’t mean you have to take it. The Wheel tells you that it’s not good to stand around, that you have to keep moving, and while there will always be the eternal cycle of good/bad, and a lot of it might be due to an external factor out of your control, some of it is of your own making.

I think this is the spirits’ way of telling me to get off my ass, because things aren’t going to get better if I fuck around.

[windowbox-tarot]

July 13, 2016

Today I drew The Hierophant from The Binding of Isaac Tarot.

The first thing I notice about this card is the angel hovering over Isaac, preparing to crown him with the hat of a bishop, this is also an item in the game, called Mitre. Mitre’s ability is to make it more likely that soul hearts will appear, but they take the place of a red heart drop.

This item can be found in item rooms, but is also considered to be part of the Angel Room item pool.

Upright, The Hierophant represents religion, tradition, beliefs, and conformity.

Reversed, it represents challenging the status quo.

This card really resonates with Isaac as a character, considering the whole game is about him defying his mother because she wants to sacrifice him to God.

As for my own life, I’m not quite sure what this could represent. I’ve been feeling very connected to my own spiritual pursuits lately, especially since I now have a better handle on my beliefs. They feel a lot more concrete to me, and I feel like I know, vaguely, where I belong now.

[windowbox-tarot]

July 12, 2016

Today I drew Death from the Gothic Lolita Tarot by Mihara Mitsukazu.

This Death card has no numbers or other identifiers, so it relies on symbolism in order to identify itself. 

The most interesting piece of symbolism though is the use of the parasol and the blood crecent moon to form a “scythe”, which is a traditional western symbol of the Grim Reaper and commonly found on the Rider-Waite tarot and other tarots that follow the Rider-Waite Major Arcana.

Unlike the traditional Rider-Waite deck, this Death isn’t being portrayed as a skeleton, but rather as a human-esque, feminine person. She isn’t wearing armor either, but yet somehow still portrays the air of being unconquerable, much like the original. 

The Death Card is symbolic of an end, though not necessarily of a life. It could mean the end of a major phase or aspect of life. Once something ends, something else can begin in its place. It represents the end of something (for better or worse), and the beginning of something new (for better or worse).

It also represents change. One must change to embrace a new beginning, and clear away the old that was previously there.

I can relate this to my life currently with, yet again, my move. I’m ending the phase of my life where I live with or near to family, and I’m going to be clearing out all the old habits I had (like walking on eggshells) to make room for a more comfortable lifestyle with people who understand me and my peculiarities.

[windowbox-tarot]

July 11, 2016

Goodness, it’s been awhile, hasn’t it? I suppose that’s what happens when life and mental illness gets in the way of magic. I have been keeping up with a more personal tarot journal via the Golden Thread Tarot app (which I reviewed here!) which has a log you can keep for daily readings, but I felt it was the right time to come back to this format, which is much more personal.

I decided that it would be awesome to start using some of the digital tarot decks that I’ve collected (I’ve got about four now), and pulled one from there today! Obviously, some of them are only the Major Arcana, and I can’t read reversals, but I think this will be alright. :D

Today I pulled the Wheel of Fortune card from the Pusheen digital Tarot Deck by hungrymelissa!

The first thing I notice on this card is Pusheen, dressed up like Santa Paws, handing out goodies from their bag. This gives me a feeling of generosity and goodwill.

The Wheel of Fortune represents good luck, life cycles, or destiny when upright, but can represent bad luck, negative external forces or a lack of control when reversed.

The Pusheen tarot doesn’t align with traditional symbology for the Wheel of Fortune card from the Rider-Waite tarot. 

The planet aligned with the Wheel of Fortune is Jupiter, the planet of opportunity, success, and expansion.

The Wheel of Fortune represents cycles, things coming and going, good times and bad. Even if things are difficult now, they will get better, and will eventually become more fun and accepting.

I can apply that to my real life right now, as I’m planning a move out of my family’s house, where I feel isolated and alone, to my new apartment with my new roommates, who are accepting of who I am and who understand me a lot better.

[windowbox-tarot]

April 26th 2016

Today I drew the Knight of Cups from the Morgan-Greer Tarot.

The Knight of Cups is the most feminine of the knights, being in touch with his emotions and intuition more than the others.

This card appearing could mean that an emotional benefit is soon to come my way, hopefully to alleviate my downswing with my depression.

The Knight could also mean that I need to start re-directing my ideas to meatspace, rather than headspace or digital space. I constantly have ideas swirling around in my head, but sometimes I just need to get them out, otherwise they’ll either be lost, or just annoy me to the point where I can no longer get them done.

[windowbox-tarot]

April 25th, 2016

Today I drew the reversed Eight of Pentacles from the Morgan-Greer Tarot.

According to Biddy Tarot, the Eight of Pentacles in reverse represents perfectionism or a lack of ambition or focus.

In relation to my personal life, could this mean that I’m not focusing hard enough on certain things that I should be? Am I focusing too hard? Am I lacking ambition?

I certainly feel adrift these days, not knowing what to do, and the days are all blending into one another. I think part of it is just my depression robbing me of my focus, but I also think part of it is just sheer damn frustration from not being able to find work, especially not work in the field I studied for.

[windowbox-tarot]

April 22, 2016

Today I drew the Nine of Rods from the Morgan-Greer Tarot, which is analogous to the Nine of Wands from the Rider Waite tarot.

The Nine of Wands represents determination and being stalwart in a last stand to defend freedom of creative expression. The erect rods behind the hero represent his virtuous ideals, and how they have stood strong and true. They can also symbolize support, and they indicate an integrity that will not be corrupted.

[windowbox-tarot]

April 12, 2016

Today I drew Athena from the Goddess Guidance Oracle Cards.

The card reads: “You know what to do. Trust your inner wisdom, and take appropriate action without delay.”

According to the guidebook, Athena is more than happy to help me with my problems, but she would like it if I first went out and gathered my own knowledge of the subject first. She wants me to stop procrastinating, trust my gut, and stop giving my power to others.

She feels as though my issue is already resolved and I have access to all the wisdom I need, I simply need to draw upon it by quieting my mind and focus on it.

I can ask her for a signal if I am correct, but I need to have faith that I have already heard the signal.

[windowbox-tarot]

April 9, 2016

Today I pulled the Three of Swords from the Morgan-Greer Tarot.

The Three of Swords represents separation, heartbreak, grief, or rejection.

It is a very simple illustration with a very simple message: the heart being hurt by the swords, representing logic and the power to harm the physical body and emotions. The storm clouds in the background represent a grim moment in time.

The Three of Swords serves as a reminder that if you start to see pain as being a learning experience, then you’ll find that it’ll start to hurt less.

[windowbox-tarot]

April 7, 2016

Taking today off due to lack of energy. I had a good day out with my datemate though, so don’t worry, we’ll be back on track tomorrow. :3