A Brief Introduction To Energy Work

A Brief Introduction to Energy Work

Energy work as most of us know it was heavily influenced by certain beliefs that the body's health depended on a healthy flow or balance of vital force, and that said force could be manipulated through certain practices. The whole concept of qi energy and qigong were pretty big influences here. Other influences included persistent European beliefs in vitalism, the concept of animal magnetism, and a rising awareness of electricity and radiation, which to many people seemed to provide justification for many old paranormal and metaphysical beliefs.

Now of course, we now know that vitalism just isn't a thing and that flickering lights in your house have more to do with bad wiring than ghosts, but energy work itself continues to persist. (Although these days, it's often justified with terrible misunderstandings of quantum physics.)

I also feel that I'd be irresponsible not to mention that there is no evidence that energy healing can be relied upon to heal serious medical issues, and that many people offering energy healing sessions for sale are basically just scammers. If you ever find yourself in a position where you have to choose between paying for an energy healing service and paying for evidence-based medicine, put your money on evidence-based medicine.

With that out of the way, I do believe that energy work can have benefits. Like in my own experience, energy work can't cure chronic depression, but it can sometimes lift some of those heavy feelings. It might not completely cure your flu, but it can most probably help you relax, which will help your immune system work better. And I really can't argue with the efficacy of energy shielding so far as warding goes.

So with all that out of the way, how does one practice energy work?

Energy work is often practiced by visualizing energy moving and converging wherever you need it, often using your hands, fingers, or something like a wand to focus it. Let's say for example that you feel a sense of tightness or heaviness in your sternum area. You might place your fingers over it and visualize a white light clearing away the tension.

Energy work can also include drawing symbols. My go-to for banishing that sense of heaviness is to trace my finger over my sternum in a sun shape (a regular old circle with rays, much like this one 🌞), visualizing the lines in a bright sunny yellow.

It can also include breathwork. Here's one possible personal shielding technique using this: Take a deep inhale while visualizing protective energy from the earth coming up into your body and filling your core. Then exhale while imagining this energy pushing out of your body and forming a protective shield.

Also, while many energy work techniques involve using energy from positive emotions, you don't have to limit yourself to them. You can put your shitty emotions to good use. For example, if you're warding your space by tracing protective symbols on your walls, you might channel aggressive feelings into them to give them some bite.

Now of course, these aren't all the things you can do with energy work, or all the ways you can practice energy work. This is just a quick intro. But if you combine even just this basic comprehension with a broader comprehension of color correspondences and symbology, you'll find that it's pretty versatile.

Happy witchin'!

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witchcraft energy work

Bedridden witch: Elements edition

Little ways to connect to the elements while you’re bedridden or stuck inside.

Earth:

Keep jars of dirt from special places.

Grow cacti or succulents.

Make a mini sand garden.

Hang macrame with crystals or stones.

Keep a bouquet of flowers.

Hang herbs from your walls/ceiling.

Get a little plant starter kit, keep seedlings by your window.

Keep some books on plants and geology around.

Watch nature documentaries.

Keep pebbles and crystals under your pillow.

Make a miniature garden/landscape using fake or real plants!

Reach down and feel the energy of the earth below you. Sometimes this is easier on the floor.

Burn candles that smell like the earth/forest/your favorite place.

Drink herbal tea.

Water:

Get a mini waterfall or fountain.

Keep plants that grow in water.

Get a water essential oil diffuser.

Make a spray from infused water.

Open windows when it rains.

Set up a bird fountain outside.

Fully savor your next glass of water.

Keep blues and sea green colors around.

Watch videos or documentaries on aquatic/marine life.

Watch the raindrops or condensation on your window.

Keep a bowl of water around.

Listen to water/rain ambiance.

Burn candles that smell like the ocean or the rain.

Use a washcloth to wipe down your face/body.

Keep jars of water from your favorite places.

Air:

Open your window.

Use room spray/mist.

Burn candles that smell like the wind.

Hang wind chimes.

Listen to air/wind ambiance.

Get a small fan for some air flow.

Burn incense and watch the smoke move through the air.

Use your breath.

Hang feathers in your room.

Hang scarves and cloths around your room, watch the breeze sway them around.

Get some air plants.

Use an app that lets you see the sky/night sky.

Watch the clouds from your window.

Meditate, allow your senses to explore the air around you.

Fire:

Burn candles/incense.

Hang red or orange curtains.

Get a Himalayan salt lamp.

Use a wax melter.

Get an electric candle.

Use a heating pad or electric blanket.

Listen to fire ambiance.

Use the heat of your body.

Watch gifs/videos of fire.

Keep a lighter nearby when you need a little flame.

Place a little tealight in a fireproof vessel near your bed.

Feel the warmth and strength of the sun.

Build up energy with your hands, imagine it’s fire.

Drink tea with warming spices (cinnamon, cloves, etc.)

Click here for my other posts in this series!

Thanks to @healing-water-witch for giving me the idea and contributing!

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spoonie witch

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endless-witching

2 weeks ago

A very basic tarot spread that overview many areas in ones life.

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tarot divination spreads

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endless-witching

3 weeks ago

monks with cats!

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endless-witching

3 weeks ago

hey chicken! any good tips on cursing someone?

I got a few for ya' in the old grab bag of henpeckery.

Listed in no particular order.

One is generally advised to not curse another magical practitioner, especially one who Knows What They're Doing. But if hands must be thrown, ensure you have more than a couple wards up to break malefica - and if this person is in your friend group, under no circumstances can you accept gifts or food from them (and destroy anything they have given you). Do, however, try to give them gifts and pre-cursed foods.

Giving someone a cursed object or cursed food is an excellent way to get the job done. There's something very fairy-like in the way magic can work: by accepting the gift, they accept the curse, and it circumvents many natural defenses.

Perhaps more than any other form of magic, it does to pre-divine on the matter to see what outcome will occur. I highly encourage this when the cursing is done as a form of self-defense, because sometimes some forms of malefic magic can be fuel on the fire of abusive situations. However, even a practitioner of slight power can cause serious harm with a curse - perhaps more damage than intended. It's really just best to measure twice, as it were.

As with many spells, create for yourself a little indicator that the spell has worked. For example, wear one of those brittle hematite rings. If it breaks, the spell has become manifest. This is especially lovely if the person to be cursed is outside of your social circle and you don't have access to see if your manifestation worked.

Cleverness is all well and good, as is poetic justice. A witch does well to keep in mind, however, that their natural strengths may neither be clever nor poetic, and sometimes you've got to just make due with the tools you have in your toolbox.

When casting spells on yourself or your household, targeting isn't much of an issue. You're right there, the magic is right there, and voila. However, when working on a third party - especially one that doesn't live with you - targeting becomes relevant. If gifting an object or food to your target won't work, consider doing what you can to bring your curse into their presence by whatever physical means are safe and possible. If you can't do this, see if you can obtain something of theirs to work over by use of a poppet or some other sympathetic magic. If none of this is possible, try to make a thoughtform or employ a spirit to deliver your spell (or attack them outright), but this will be hard unless you know where they live. In other words: your spell has to get to them somehow. Figuring out how to make it happen is half the job.

Depending on how the magic is worked, it is beneficent to cleanse both yourself and your casting area after the work is done. If a spell must be kept ongoing and close at hand, cover it with a black cloth (or t-shirt, or whatever) and keep it out of view to avoid having your own space polluted with unwanted energies.

If you need a specific outcome for your own wellbeing, consider employing as many spells as you require to obtain that outcome. E.g. one for binding a tongue, another for getting that person fired, another to calm gossip in the workplace, and so on.

Pay extremely little mind to people with moral admonitions, but keep their scoldings filed away. In a few months or years, in moments of reflection, ask yourself whether or not they were right.

If for no other spell, this time, write down precisely what you do. If for no other reason than to cackle maniacally as you see exactly how each little ingredient of your spell plays out in their lives.

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curses baneful magick hexes

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endless-witching

1 week ago

★彡 𝖌𝖗𝖊𝖊𝖓 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖈𝖍𝖈𝖗𝖆𝖋𝖙 ミ★

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endless-witching

2 weeks ago

How to Become an Occultist:

An easy (?) step-by-step guide.

SO YOU WANT TO BE A WIZARD?

There's no easy step-by-step guide to the occult; someday I'd like to write a course on it for my patreon, or maybe a book. But for now, I'll give the short version:

I’m just going to say upfront, research is the enduring and eternal step. You can’t become an occultist without doing research, and you’re never going to stop doing research. I have a list of pdfs of classic occult texts and grimoires here, and a recommended reading list here.

Step 1: Pick a tradition, practice, or subfield.

The first step is to know what you’re signing up for. Western esotericism is a large field with lots of different subsets. Here’s just a few of them:

Witchcraft: A broad umbrella term that covers everything from historical folk magic, to Wicca and its offshoots, to modern WitchTok folk magic, and beyond. “Witchcraft” has become something of a general term for pop-occultism in recent years, and it’s what people tend to see first. Witchcraft seems more folk-magic-focused than some of the other fields, but that’s not universally true. Modern witchcraft is almost the melting pot of the Western occult tradition, so, if you’re able to find good reading material, it’s a good place to start.

Wicca: Wicca is an neopagan religion founded in 1951 by Gerald Gardner. Wiccans worship a God and a Goddess, practice magic, and call themselves witches. The ritual structure of Wicca is largely inspired by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (see below), but it also takes inspiration from folk magic, witchlore, early anthropology, and a bunch of other things from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Wicca is probably the best-known occult religion, and it’s mostly responsible for the association between witchcraft and paganism in pop culture.

Ceremonial Magic: Ritual magic or “high magic,” mostly codified in the Renaissance era by grimoires like The Lesser Key of Solomon. This kind of magic is characterized by the evocation and binding (summoning) of spirits — angels, demons, “olympic spirits,” and so forth. One can theoretically command these spirits to do one’s bidding. Modern magicians who work with demons typically fall into two camps: traditional Solomonic magicians who believe that the demons need to be bound and controlled, and demonolators who worship and work with the demons the way witches might work with pagan deities. Also in this subfield is planetary magic, rituals that exploit the powers or influences of the planets by using the tools associated with each one and doing rituals at particular times on particular days, etc. Enochian magic, a system of communicating and working with angels developed by John Dee and Edward Kelley, also falls into this category.

Folk magic: Folk magic or “low magic” is a catch-all term for magic practiced by average people to solve everyday problems. This is your healing magic, love magic, apotropaic (protection) magic, luck charms, spells to find lost objects, curses, etc. etc. Almost every culture has their own local form of folk magic, but there are also some ideas and techniques that are consistent across most of them (e.g. “like attracts like”). There’s also considerable overlap between folk and ceremonial magic; sometimes the only real difference is the social class of the practitioner.

Hermeticism: A system of philosophy based on the Corpus Hermeticum, a set of ancient Greco-Egyptian philosophical dialogues about the nature of the universe. It’s a short but dense text, not the simplest introduction to occult philosophy, but still worth reading because of how influential it was. It’s the loose basis of a nineteeth-century occult society, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which is the great-grandfather of most modern occult societies (including Wicca). The HOGD was concerned with a lot more than classic Hermeticism; they also practiced ceremonial magic, astrology, alchemy, and mysticism. Golden Dawn liturgy is so common in modern occultism that you should probably look into it, whether you plan on practicing it or not.

Alchemy: A historical practice that is at once science, philosophy, art, and poetry, alchemy is a thing unto itself. The short version is that alchemy is early chemistry. Alchemists’ attempts at understanding how matter worked was understood to be a philosophical study of the nature of existence, on both a physical and spiritual level. That’s why the goal of alchemy is called the Philosopher’s Stone. The Philosopher’s Stone is allegedly a perfect substance, crystallized divinity, that is able to physically and spiritually perfect anything it comes in contact with. Alchemy is very complicated and hard to understand without diving deep into it, but some alchemical imagery and maxims (“as above, so below”, solve et coagula) have made their way into the general Western esoteric sphere.

Thelema: A religion developed by Aleister Crowley in the early twentieth century. It combines Golden Dawn material with a lot of Crowley’s own personal philosophy and general edginess. Its core tenant is “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law,” which means that one should always follow the guidance of what Thelemites call the “True Will,” the divine intention of one’s Higher Self. Its most important foundational text is a short, cryptic… poem, I guess?… written by Crowley, called The Book of the Law.

Chaos Magic: When Thelema meets postmodernism, you get Chaos Magic. Chaos Magic is more of a philosophical approach to the study of magic than a particular practice. It does away with the pomp and trappings of ceremonial magic and cuts right down to the basics, the magician’s relationship with their subconscious mind. That makes it very straightforward, but also difficult, because you can’t rely on any of those more complex tools. Chaos magicians (or “chaotes”) interpret belief as just another tool, so, they aim to pick up and put down different beliefs and traditions at will, based on whatever suits them in the current moment. The only specific practice associated with chaos magic is sigils, a symbol or other abstract representation of one’s desire that one uses to cast a spell. Chaotes tend to be deliberately haphazard — they have a “fuck the rules, do what you want” kind of attitude.

Satanism: The best-known of the spookier, edgier, “left-hand path” occult traditions. There’s two main varieties of Satanism, atheistic and theistic. The Church of Satan or LaVeyan Satanism (after its founder) is atheistic. It uses Satan kind of like a mascot for their beliefs of self-indulgence and free will. Although they don’t believe in any gods, they do practice magic; it’s mainly Golden Dawn material with an edgy “black mass”-style twist (like invoking demons, using a naked woman as the altar, etc.) The Satanic Temple is also atheistic, and it’s not really an occult society. It’s more a political activist group that fights for religious freedom in the United States. Theistic Satanists believe that Satan is an actual entity, and usually believe that he’s a positive being that represents free will and enlightenment. Some are demonolators, meaning they evoke and work with the demons of traditional ceremonial grimoires as though they’re gods (some believe that they literally are gods). The majority of Satanists are pretty chill. Very few believe that they worship literally evil entities.

That’s just scratching the surface, and keep in mind that this is all in the realm of Western esotericism. It’s a huge field. I recommend having an idea of what you want to study going in, because it’s a lot of material, and it’s easier to find good sources if you know what you want to focus on. Speaking from my own experience, I wish I knew what my options were going in.

Step 2: Learn a divination method.

Every occultist needs some kind of divination method. There are potentially thousands, but I’ll give you some of the big ones:

Cartomancy is card reading. There's lots of different kinds of cards: tarot cards, oracle cards, Lenormand cards, you can even use normal playing cards. It's a super common and super popular method. Tarot is definitely the most popular system. This method is easy to learn and very accessible.

Cleromancy is divination by lot, or casting objects onto the ground — dice, sticks, bones, stones, etc. — and reading the random pattern they make. There's lots of different types. This method is very old and very common. One of the more popular methods nowadays is casting runestones, which use Norse letters.

Scrying is gazing into a blank object until you see visions projected onto/into it. The object can be a crystal ball, a black mirror, a bowl of water, even a dark window or a blank wall (though that's not particularly mystical). Scrying is often used to see spirits in ritual magic. I can't scry worth a damn, so I can't tell you more than that. It's worth trying if you're a visual person, though.

A pendulum is a stone or other heavy object on a chain. You can use it to answer yes/no questions. Lots of crystal shops sell fancy pendulums, but you could just use a pendant. You say to the pendulum, "show me my yes" and "show me my no." Usually the "yes" is going around in a circle and "no" is going back and forth, or vice-versa. Pendulums are fun, but not super reliable because you can influence them easily. I wouldn't interpret any answer a pendulum gives you as final.

Oneiromancy is dream interpretation, and it’s another ancient method that’s used all over the world. I don't have significant dreams very often, though, despite my best efforts. With the abundance of other methods, I don't recommend relying solely on this one.

Automatic writing or “free-association writing” is my personal preferred method. It’s writing a question, and then writing whatever comes to mind as the answer, regardless of whether it makes sense. This technique is very, very effective for me, and has triggered full-on mystical experiences more than once.

Astrology is also a type of divination that involves interpreting the position of the stars and planets on the 2D plane of the sky to learn about the future and/or about specific people. It’s a much more complicated system than horoscope apps make it look. Practically a necessity for planetary magic, but in this century, you can be a wizard without being an astrologer. It’s good to have at least a foundational knowledge of it.

Different methods are useful for different things. Automatic writing and scrying are good for talking to spirits. Astrology is pretty useless for talking to gods, but is a good way of determining the outcome of your spells and the various influences upon your life at a given point. Cartomancy and cleromancy can be used for either, with some benefits and drawbacks. I recommend playing around with different methods to find one that works for you.

Step 3: Develop basic magical skills.

In addition to divination, you’re going to need some other basic skills. The most important one is meditation — if you don’t know how to meditate, learn. Meditation doesn’t have to mean sitting still. I definitely can’t sit still; I meditate by pacing back and forth. Anything you can do to lull yourself into a trance state can work, even singing in the shower.

You’ll also have to practice visualization, imagining your magic as though it were something tangible. For example, a lot of ritual formats will begin by asking you to imagine a white circle of light around yourself, or imagining taking each of the four elements into your body. Next is energy work — manipulating these imaginary forces and seeing how they affect your body, your emotions, other people, and the external environment.

You’ll also have to learn the basics of how to conduct a ritual, and gather your basic tools (which don’t have to be fancy or expensive). Rituals can feel awkward and silly at first, but that changes with practice. The basic point of a ritual (“supernatural” stuff aside) is to create the conditions to put yourself in a particular state of mind.

Finally, magic requires a lot of introspection and self-awareness. You have to really know what you want, not just what you think you want. And when your magic is successful, you have to have the humility to not have it go to your head (or else you’ll be afflicted with the dreaded “Magus-itis”). And that’s without going into the fact that ritual can drag up some intense stuff. Work through your shit, do your Shadow work. It’s hard, but it pays off in the long run.

Step 4: Practice a simple ritual.

Once you have some basic skills, it’s time to try your first ritual! You’re not going to want to try anything that’s labor-intensive or life-changing. Save the demon-summoning and stuff until later. The first ritual you do will probably be a banishing — a simple spell that’s intended to clear the space of any spiritual crap. Ideally, it should be used before and after every rite. Even if you don’t believe in evil spirits or “negative energy” or anything like that, a banishing is like the magical equivalent of turning it off and back on again. It’s a systems reboot. It wipes the slate clean. You’re gonna want to know how to do that, so you can 1. know what a space feels like when it’s free of influences, and 2. put down whatever you call up. It’s a good first thing to learn because it’s so essential, and also because it’s almost guaranteed to have no major repercussions.

The standard banishing ritual in the Western esoteric tradition is the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram (LBRP), which is from the Golden Dawn tradition. It consists of intoning or “vibrating” the names of God and invoking the angels of the four directions. If that’s too Abrahamic for you, there are plenty of other variants that use different divine names. The Wiccan “circle casting” is essentially the same thing, trimmed down a bit. If the LBRP doesn’t appeal to you, there’s plenty of other banishing rites out there.

The first full ritual I did was actually a simple variant of the Wiccan “Drawing Down the Moon” invocation. I remember really feeling something the first time I did it, and that was enough to convince me that I wanted to continue.

And there you have it, a step-by-step guide to becoming an occultist, as simple as I can make it. Keep it simple to start, take your time, do your research. Whether you want anything specific out of occultism, you want to satisfy your curiosity, or you just like the idea of being a wizard, it’s fun to study magic.

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witchcraft Advice

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endless-witching

2 weeks ago

Tutorials with Pokemancy: Making Your Own TCG Oracle Deck

One of my favorite ways to practice Pokemancy is by using Pokemon cards! In this tutorial, I am going to teach you how to create your OWN oracle deck using cards from the Pokemon Trading Card Game.

Before we get started, let’s go over some definitions and recommended reading:

Pokemancy: the practice of using Pokemon in ANY form to produce messages, advice, and possible divine future events.

Pokemon TCG Cartomancy: Probably the most widespread type of Pokemancy; it is the use of Pokemon TCG cards in order to divine messages. This is comparable to tarot, oracle and lenormand. Like a tarot reading, the person interprets the cards that are pulled for the reading in order to deliver the message to the querent (person receiving the reading). TCG Cartomancy decks can be put together using any of the thousands of Pokemon cards in circulation, the sky is the limit with what you put into your deck. Energy cards, trainer cards and stadium cards can also be used!

An argument for Pokemancy & why it makes sense in the modern occult community

Introduction

Divination is most effective when you are using a tool that is comfortable for you. This is why personalized tools are become more and more popular. I have seen a rising interest for personalized divination tools such as tarot decks, oracle decks, rune sets, bone throwing sets and many, many more.

With that in mind, Pokemon cards can create a HUGE amount of variety and customization for a deck of cards used for divination! As of May 2020, there are:

Over unique 9000 cards in the English release

Over 20 billion cards in circulation

86 card set

That’s a lotta cards!

But admin! Where do I start? How do I pick my cards?! Which Pokemon do I use? Can I use energy cards? What about the trainers? Which of the 168 Pikachu cards should I pick?!

Not to worry! We are going to cover all of this in this tutorial.

The purpose of this tutorial is to show you that there is no limitation to creating a divination tool that suits you. While I will be offering some basic guidelines and structures, this tutorial is not meant to place limits onto what you can make! Some people may not resonate with my suggestions, and that’s entirely okay.

Deck Theme & Purpose

Many people who read tarot and oracle are familiar with the following phrases:

“This deck is amazing to use for love readings!”

“I’m not sure about you guys, but the imagery on these cards just BEG for shadow work readings.”

“The thing I like about this deck is that it can be used for just about anything.”

Often times, when an artist is creating a tarot or oracle deck, they are designing it around a certain theme or purpose. For example, a deck full of dark, gloomy imagery was probably made for people who want to get readings about death, shadow work or heavier topics. A deck full of inspiring, softer art probably works great for self-empowerment readings and spiritual guidance. And a deck full of couples, cutesy pictures and love symbols will probably strike the right cords with people who want relationship readings. The same goes for TCG oracle decks.

Here are some very basic ideas for some of the most popular deck themes. Remember, you can use your own meanings too:

Relationships/Love

Fairy-type Pokemon

Water-type Pokemon

Pokemon that you consider to represent love

Pokemon that know the moves ‘Attract’ or ‘Covet’

Cards with pink, red or white colors

Business/Finances/Money

Grass-type Pokemon

Ground-type Pokemon

Meowth & Persian

Trainer/Support cards that ask you to draw more cards

Trainer/Support cards that may be associated with money or business in the games, anime and manga.

Spirituality/PokePaganism/Past Life Regression

Psychic-type Pokemon

Legendary Pokemon

Pokemon that are important to you

Energy cards to represent the elements

Stadium cards to represent locations that you may want to focus on during meditation

Healing

Chansey or Audino

Pokemon Center Cards

Pokemon/Support/Stadium cards that inspire you and make you feel good

Energy cards that you associate with healing

Shadow Work

Dark-type Pokemon

Psychic-type Pokemon

Trainer/Support cards associated with villains

Legendary Pokemon associated with the dark

The lists and ideas can go on for as long as you’d like! If you want a more general deck that you can use for every day, go ahead and add in a mix of everything! You can even use the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana of the tarot as inspiration.

Balancing Your Deck

My personal Pokemancy deck takes a few things into consideration, and these things may be important to you too:

Representation of the elements. I have one of each energy card in my deck, it gives me deck a sense of balance and allows me to use the deck in many different ways. The energy cards can help clarify readings, or really REALLY bring up the energy that is surrounding my life at the moment. This also plays into the type of Pokemon I choose; I make sure to have a few of each type in my deck.

Visual aesthetics. As a professional tarot reader, I take a card’s artwork into consideration any time I am reading. The art helps me connect with the card, and really get to know it. Often times, I find more and more meaning in cards with complex art. Some readers prefer a more minimalist approach so that they do not get distracted. But, with that being said, I pick cards that appeal to me!

Pokemon that are important to me. If I have a connection with a Pokemon already, it makes it easier for me to read it from a divinatory standpoint.

Pokemon that I want to understand better. On the flip side, sometimes I add in Pokemon that I would make to make a better connection with– Pokemon that are currently “challenging me” in terms of grasping their meanings.

A good balance of “common” Pokemon and legendary Pokemon. My personal practice puts legendary Pokemon in the same seat as gods and goddesses. Common Pokemon give off more of a standard spirit energy for me. So, I have a mix of both in my deck so that I can have a good idea of whether or not this reading involves a connection to the lower realms, the middle realms or the higher realms.

A variety of trainer cards and stadium cards. I’ve got a few trainer cards in my deck in order to represent archetypes, and I have stadium cards that relate to different realms, locations or places that may be relevant during readings. For example, if I pull the Guzma trainer card, it means that I need to be strong and relentless in the face of an adversary, but I should be careful not to let my power get to my head. However, if I pull the Sabrina trainer card, I need to stop and allow myself to look at things logically and calmly.

The size of the deck. I like an average size deck, so my current Pokemancy deck is 40 cards. You, however, can choose as many as you want! As long as you aren’t overwhelmed and you feel that you can make a connection with your cards, and provide readings that make sense, then have at it.

When you put your Pokemancy deck together, you are going to want to try a few practice readings. If you find that your readings aren’t making a whole lot of sense, or if every reading is exactly the same despite changing the question, you may want to add a few cards, remove a few cards, or consider mixing up the variety of your cards. (Maybe all of your cards are TOO positive, and aren’t allowing you to see potential conflicts. Or maybe your cards are TOO negative, and you aren’t able to see the good in your situation!)

Storing Your Deck

✨Deck storage is very important!✨

❤️ Please protect your cards! ❤️

Yes. PLEASE treat your Pokemon cards kindly, ESPECIALLY since you are now using them as a tool for divination! If you ask me, you should have already been protecting those cards already, but now it is even more important to do so. Now that you are using these cards for readings, they are going to get shuffled a lot more! If you were only holding these Pokemon cards in binders and boxes, and not using them to actually play the TCG, then you may not be familiar with how much the cards can wear out and be torn up.

There are plenty of things that can damage your cards:

Rain

Humidity

Heavy shuffling

Improper storage (can cause warping and bending

Unwashed hands (and I’m not just talking COVID-19, I’ve ruined cards with sticky hands before.)

Protecting your cards from damage not only increases the lifespan and quality of them, but it also makes the deck feel better all around. Tarot readers put their decks in pouches, leather deck holds, deck wraps and so many other lovely things. We as Pokemancers have our own storage methods as well.

I recommend getting a TCG deck box and card sleeves from one of these places:

Your local game shop

The Pokemon Center Website

Walmart, Target, Amazon, Ebay, etc.

You can also get some beautiful custom boxes from Etsy.

If you want, you can then put that deck box full of your cards into a tarot/oracle pouch, tuck it away in a wrap, or place it on your shelf.

Another way that you can protect your cards is by performing your readings on a reading mat or cloth. These mats and cloths can be found on Etsy, anywhere that you can purchase witchcraft materials, or you can make your own with some fabric!

Or, if you want to stick with the spirit of Pokemancy, buy yourself a Pokemon TCG playing card mat.

Bonding with your deck

So now you’ve got your deck, what’s next? Now, you want to take some time to get to know your deck. The more you know your deck, the better your readings will be. Think of your deck as a friend. The better the connection, the easier it will be to get along.

The most practical way to understanding your deck is by reading with it. For today’s tutorial, I threw a quick deck together in order to show you guys some examples on how to read with your new divination tool. Ignore the fact that the cards are naked, I ran out of card sleeves.

Let’s break down a simple reading together:

Tutorials With Pokemancy: Making Your Own TCG Oracle Deck

I asked this deck: what can I do to set myself up for success?

Next, I shuffled the deck and pulled five cards. The top three cards are a classic past, present and future layout, while the bottom two give me some advice for the present.

When reading individual cards, I use everything on the card. But, let’s start simple and only focus on the three main points: the flavor text, the attacks and the card art.

Past: Duskull

The flavor text of this card reads: It doggedly pursues its prey wherever it goes. However, the chase is abandoned at sunrise.

The Pokemon has two attacks: Dark Guidance and Spooky Shot

The card art has a picture of Duskull weaving through a room, possibly abandoned due to the graffiti on the walls.

What does all of this suggest? In the past, I worked myself way too hard, often through the night until the sun rose. My form of guidance was putting me in a dark space, and it was pushing me to a point where I was abandoning a lot of things that were important to me.

Present: Morelull

The flavor text of this card reads: It scatters spores that flicker and glow. Anyone seeing these lights falls into a deep slumber.

The Pokemon has one attack: Ram

The card art has a picture of Morelull standing in the woods, illuminating the dark.

What does all of this suggest? Right now, I am pretty worn out from working too hard, to the point where all I want to do is sleep. However, I’m starting to see what I did wrong with my routine in the past, illuminating some possibilities for improvement.

Future: Noctowl

The flavor text of this card reads: Its eyes are specially adapted. They concentrate even faint light and enable it to see in the dark.

The Pokemon has two attacks: Hypnoblast and Night Raid

The card art shows Noctowl perched on a tree branch against a clear sky, head tilting like it knows something.

What does all of this suggest? In the future, I will be able to focus on the light side of things, or the good parts of life, even when I am surrounded by a lot of darkness (stress, bad mental health, etc.) Even if I am in a tough place right now, my future is bright.

Advice Card #1: Timer Ball

Trainer cards do not have any attacks or basic flavor text, it only has the card’s description. This is also an item card, which limits my ability to find meaning in the card art. However, I can relate this card back to the Timer Ball’s use in the Pokemon games.

The Timer Ball’s catch rate increases the longer you are in battle with a wild Pokemon.

What does all of this suggest? The more I work on myself now, the better my outcome will be in the future. I should not rush for my final outcome.

Advice Card #2: Pokemon Fan Club

Again, this is a trainer card, with no attacks or flavor text. Unlike the Timer Ball though, the Pokemon Fan Club has some more depth.

The Pokemon Fan Club is an organization spread throughout the Pokémon world, with at least one club house in nearly every region. The club is considered a place for people to meet and chat about their favorite Pokémon and to show off their collections to each other.

What does all of this suggest? I should look to friends and groups of like-minded people (such as my classmates or people in my different communities) for support and drive right now.

Once you finish the reading, you can shuffle the cards back into the deck, thank it for its message, and then put it into storage.

And there you have it! See how simple that was? As you get to understand your cards more, you can use the numerology of the Pokemon’s height, weight and Pokedex number, the Pokemon’s typing, whether or not it is a basic Pokemon or stage 1 or 2 Pokemon, and so on. Don’t overwhelm yourself though! Start with a few factors of the card, and then add on more once you’re confident.

Just about every tarot spread can be adapted for your Pokemancy deck. Try out a few and see how your cards respond to them!

Conclusion

Making a Pokemon TCG oracle deck can be a lot of fun! It’s accessible for those who are still in the closet with their witchcraft/paganism (you can just tell people that you’re collecting Pokemon cards), it has a nostalgic factor, and it’s exciting when you learn about the depth of these cards. There are so many combinations that you can come up with, so go out there and make the deck of your dreams.

Please share this tutorial if you found it interesting!

Tags

divination THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT IVE BEEN LOOKING FOR im literally sorting thru my pokemon cards rn for pokemancy omg pokemancy

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