Who's Your Principal God/Goddess/Entity? The One You Work With The Most.

Troubleshooting Your Tarot Deck

I read a bunch of people for unnecessarily cleansing their decks but didn’t actually provide any alternatives! So I wanted to describe some of the ways I troubleshoot my tarot decks. Please, please, please feel free to add on.

Sleep on it. Literally. My favorite way of working through some wonky readings is to sleep with my deck under my pillow. I like to do it for 3 nights but you can really go as long as you want. You may have some pretty crazy dreams, but I like to think that means it’s working.

Change things up. If you’re dealing with repetitive answers, change how you approach it. Whether that means changing your spread, your question, your shuffling technique or a secret fourth thing.

Put the bitch down. I have found that doing readings too often can muddle them together (well, I’ve had trouble with reading for myself too frequently. Multiple people in a day is fine, but draining). Taking a break of even just a couple days can make all the difference.

Make an offering. Your tarot deck has a spirit too! Appreciate what it does for you and give it a gift. It could be a symbolic offering, like food, alcohol or some incense, or a new case to live in.

Give it a recharge. It might be acting funky because it’s tapped out. Use whichever is your preferred charging method. I like moonlight and sunlight (ironically, they are also cleansing methods, but it’s all about intention at that point).

Ask it what’s up. If you ask your deck why it’s acting out, it may just tell you what’s going on. Maybe it wants one of the other solutions, maybe it wants something else.

If none of those things work, then I’ll cleanse my deck. Sometimes it’s as simple as a smoke cleansing, sometimes it is reorder the deck and let it sit in salt for a week, it just depends on the situation.

How to Do the Major Arcana Grand Tableau

This spread uses all the Major Arcana to give you an overview of your whole year ahead. It is best performed on your birthday or on New Year’s Eve.

STEP 1: Lay out the Major Arcana in order.

Line 1: The Fool to The Lovers Line 2: The Chariot to The Hanged Man Line 3: Death to The Star Line 4: The Moon to The World

STEP 2: Shuffle the Minor Arcana.

As you do this, ask your higher power to show you a glimpse of your destiny for the upcoming year.

STEP 3: Draw a Minor for each Major.

One by one, take 21 cards from the top of the deck and place them over the Major Arcana, starting with The Fool. Then take the card at the bottom of the deck, and place it over The World.

STEP 4: Read the Minor against the Major.

The Major Arcana represent the important aspects of your life. The Minor Arcana reveal what will take place within these aspects.

The Fool – What will begin in your life?

The Magician – What dream will manifest?

The High Priestess – What secret will be uncovered?

The Empress – What will you harvest?

The Emperor – What will you have control over?

The Hierophant – What will remain unchanged?

The Lovers – How will your love life be?

The Chariot – What will make you victorious?

Strength – Where will you find strength?

The Hermit – What will you need to reflect on?

Wheel of Fortune – Where will you find luck?

Justice – Who will avenge you?

The Hanged Man – What will you have to sacrifice?

Death – What will be reborn?

Temperance – What will bring balance into your life?

The Devil – What will you be most passionate about?

The Tower – What will trigger a profound change?

The Star – Where will you find hope?

The Moon – What will stay clouded?

The Sun – What will bring you joy?

Judgement – Which of your oppressors will be punished?

The World – What will give you a sense of accomplishment?

Sample Interpretation:

The Four of Pentacles on The Lovers – “Your romantic partner will be very protective of you, maybe even to the point of being possessive.”

The Ace of Wands on The Hanged Man – “You will need to sacrifice a part of your career or pause a project you are passionate about.”

The Ten of Cups on The Devil – “You will be focusing all your attention and energy on starting or expanding your family.”

If we tie it all together, we arrive at: “You will get pregnant this year, prompting you to leave your stressful though fulfilling job, so you could focus instead on ensuring you have optimal health to carry the baby to term. During your pregnancy, your spouse will be taking care of you even more than before.”

STEP 5: Identify the court cards.

The Kings, Queens and Knights are the people who will play a vital role in your life, positively or otherwise.

King of Wands – Leo (Fixed Fire)

Queen of Wands – Aries (Cardinal Fire)

Knight of Wands – Sagittarius (Mutable Fire)

King of Cups – Scorpio (Fixed Water)

Queen of Cups – Cancer (Cardinal Water)

Knight of Cups – Pisces (Mutable Water)

King of Swords – Aquarius (Fixed Air)

Queen of Swords – Libra (Cardinal Air)

Knight of Swords – Gemini (Mutable Air)

King of Pentacles – Taurus (Fixed Earth)

Queen of Pentacles – Capricorn (Cardinal Earth)

Knight of Pentacles – Virgo (Mutable Earth)

Sample Interpretation:

There are two couples here — the King and Queen of Wands and the King and Queen of Pentacles: “You and your other half will be highly supportive of each other. You could be a Taurus and they could be an Aries, or vice versa. Either way, you will strongly feel the love and passion in your relationship.”

STEP 6: Notice the dominant suit.

Wands – Passion will overflow.

Cups – Emotions run the show.

Swords – The battle is in your mind.

Pentacles – Finances will be bright.

Sample Interpretation:

There are nine Wands and nine Pentacles each: “Your year will definitely not be lacking in passion and stability — materially and emotionally.”

STEP 7: Note the numbers that appear at least thrice.

Aces – A year of beginnings

Twos – A year of dilemmas

Threes – A year of affairs

Fours – A year of stability

Fives – A year of changes

Sixes – A year of harmony

Sevens – A year of challenges

Eights – A year of labor

Nines – A year of completion

Tens – A year of harvest

Sample Interpretation:

No number appeared more than twice. There is no discernible theme, numerology-wise.

STEP 8: Observe the ruling colors.

Black – Loneliness, regret, obstacles, purging

Red, Yellow, Orange – Passion, love, happiness, power

Blue, White, Green – Spirituality, logic, innocence, intuition

Sample Interpretation:

Red, yellow and orange are the ruling colors: “Your year will be filled with a passionate love that will bring you joy and a strong sense of control over your life.”

STEP 9: Record your grand tableau.

Take a photograph of your spread, and write down your interpretations of it.

STEP 10: Review your grand tableau.

At the end of each quarter, note which predictions have come true. By the end of the year, compare your interpretations to how the spread manifested. Doing so allows you to reflect on your past year, and improves your divination skills.

In Greek mythology, Zeus got played by Prometheus so the gods got the bones of animals as offerings while humans got the meat. Sharing your meal with the gods is such a wholesome offering and one the gods appreciate very much

“Don’t give Gods leftovers this is disrespectful” since when is leftover food, the food you would eat yourself, bad?

It’s not rotten, it hasn’t gone bad, it’s not from a trashcan, it’s not food for animals. Like… this argument that all offerings have to be brand new and freshly bought has always bothered and worried me. How privileged and rich do you need to be to impose this on people?

Gods don’t care if your food is freshly bought/made/harvested or not. We have records of Romans and Greeks sharing their home meals with Deities as well as cooking for Deities. Rustic worship existed, which sort of implies that Gods were accessible to people regardless of their income. It has never, ever been stated anywhere, unless you somehow magically provide a reliable source against it, that leftovers are bad as an offering.

You are gifting something you could have eaten yourself. You are sharing food. I don’t know what world this is disrespectful in.

Get a reading from @planetbabysitter if you want her cards to gently grab your soul by the scruff of the neck like a kitten and reveal your innermost thoughts and feelings that you've been ignoring

I trust @shuffling-cards on reading mine otherwise i get scared.

🌌🔮✨

Get your reading with her.

Putting ideas into words is hard and idek if this makes sense but here is something I have been thinking about lately:

Stop researching for your craft. There is no one truth to witchcraft and I think that researching has been hindering us from truly connecting with the spiritual world. Go outside and collect some grass or flowers or stones. Listen to them, they will tell you what they are and you can use them as you see fit. Rosemary doesn't have to stand for wisdom, pine doesn't have to attract money, plain sweet grass can cleanse and banish and ward if thats what it does for you.

The earth will tell you what it can do, its just up to you to listen.

(obviously though this does not apply in a medicinal sense. don't eat things that you don't know)

An easy tip for my fellow spirit workers or others who use candles in their magic (especially "light it and leave it" style casters):

Put stickers on your lighter(s). Have a different colored lighter for various moods or purposes. Put stickers on those shits. My favorite spirit work lighter is hot pink (because it's what I had) and is covered in relevant stickers. A little holographic ghost, a candle, purple and yellow hearts, a butterfly, a white lily, the word "remember."

It's literally that easy. Enchant your lighters. With the power of STICKERS.

See also: Drawing on your lighters with sharpie

In order to have you do a reading for me do I need to pay (sorry if it’s a dumb question)

No dumb questions here!

I do pay-what-you-want readings, using Kofi (linked in my bio as "Buy me a coffee") as a virtual tip jar. Basically, you tip any amount and get a full reading regardless of how much you paid. So you can get one for like 1€.

tarot card reading except i just make "ooo" "ah" and "wow" sounds the whole time instead of telling you what the cards mean

🔮 Absolutely random, assorted facts from my experience with Tarot:

You can set rules with your deck. Don’t like reversed cards? Don’t pull them. Don’t interpret them. Request not to get them. Don’t care about the position of the card and want only its meaning? Ask for it.

You can pull confirmation cards. If you are working with a companion, you can set up their personal confirmation card. If you’re working with the deck and the general universe, you can pick a feel-good card (or a rare card if you want) and request it whenever you want to get a vibecheck.

You can repull. If it feels weird, it probably is weird. If you keep pulling the same card all over again, it’s probably correct. But if you pulled one weird one that just doesn’t seem like it belongs, repull. Your deck - your rules.

You don’t need to sweat too much over “official meanings”. So what if the Tower means “something bad”? If it means something positive for you, go with your feelings first. Each practitioner will have their own associations with the cards. I for one quite like the Tower, but I genuinely hate getting the High Priestess. It’s individual.

You don’t need to work with a specific Deity, spirit, or daemon. The cards are powerful tools without any additional presence.

You can assign a deck to a particular entity. I have four decks, out of which three belong to (a) companion(s) of mine. This is completely individual and fully relies on who you want to touch your cards.

You can confuse the cards. When the reading starts to feel like it just reiterates your feelings, it probably is. Or you worded your question badly and the cards don’t know what to tell you. Or you already know the answer. Or maybe something else.

You might be turning your spread into multiple spreads. If your session with tarot can be broken into a number of smaller sessions, you are probably overworking yourself. It helps to step back and think whether or not your multi-card spread turned into a multitude of smaller spreads. Is that why nothing is making sense?

You might be told to read cards some other time. Bias, moods, instability, or the cards just being not in the good state - all of these can affect whether they agree to work with you in the first place. I’ve had decks that stayed “silent” for months on and decks that were willing to work with me every day. It depends.

P. S. One more time: this is just my experience. It is not universal.

The cemetery as a place of power in my practice

Magic is often centered around location, especially places of power. Finding them, or making them. We do it when we follow the directions in old grimoires to go to crypts or wild places. As well as when we construct circles and sacred spaces in our homes or ritual spaces. We are setting aside a hallowed area for our work, a place to build force. A place of power. Some people find this place out in the forest, on the beach, in a church, their own personal temple, or other various locations. I found my place in a cemetery.

A few years into college I began getting more into ceremonial style magic, and the construction of a ritual space became a prominent part of that. I tried out various styles of circle casting, from calling the corners to demonic conjurations for the directions. As I was learning to cast a circle I often found myself without enough space to operate in my dorm. At home in my bedroom I could do a make-shift set up, but here at school and after when I had roommates space was VERY tight. So I began working almost entirely outside. I'd go to wooded places, beaches, parks at night and various other spots near my school to practice. 

After college I moved in with an old partner and happened to have an unmonitored cemetery near by. So this became my go to spot for practicing my witchcraft and any ritual work I had planned. Unknowingly I had created a habit of casting my circle in the same spot in the same way over weeks for various magical needs that arose. This connection with the land built up to the point where I felt a call and response in my environment. The spirits of the cemetery started to take notice of me and the work I was doing in their space, and eventually took active interest. It was at this moment that the way I saw the cemetery changed, it had become a place of power for me. I felt safe there at night now and didn't even pay attention when that switch in my brain happened. 

My draw to this cemetery was purely circumstantial, and it being a good available working place for my craft. My practice has blossomed here, as most of my spirit court has come out of my work done on those grounds. As I reflect, you'd think based on my craft now that I had some kinda obsession with the dead, but that was never really the initial drive. I'd say that affinity has grown from this relationship with this location. Which I think in turn lends itself back to the cemetery becoming a focal point of me consistently.

I've done some much circle casting and ritual work in that space that I no longer feel it's necessary there when I'm working at night. The space is liminal and separate enough without the pomp and circumstance of ritual that I can just begin the work that needs doing and get on my way. Keeping me from having to be out longer than I have too, avoiding any unwanted eyes. 

Many things lend themself to doing magic in a cemetery. There's it's obvious connection with the underworld and the dead being a place we bury our deceased, but I also see my local cemetery as a place of living since many animals and plants call it home. It's large enough that I've seen coyotes, eagles, fireflys, and other little critters there, as well as variety of plant life. There are also the mourners and the workers in this graveyard who are characters of this space too. So I use this cemetery as an access point/nexus, through which i can connect with the land and it's spirits. I use the graveyard as as a point of communion, with the spirit of my city and other realms. 

Another facet that gives power to my work is the emotional energy that pools in graveyards. Grief is a powerful experience that brings forth many emotions, and this cemetery holds children, veterans, and founding members of my town. So the psychic weight in this place can be heavy, loaded, and complicated. Which is something a skilled practitioner can draw on. I've also found that spirits from this graveyard love to feed on grand displays of emotion, joyous or sorrowful. So often I'll capitalize on that and use this was an emotional outlet that nourishes my spirits. Plus no one thinks twice of someone having a good cry in a cemetery.

Through my time in this space I've built in a intimate connection with it as an access point for Spirit. Making it more than just a place of power for simply being a cemetery, it is truly a holy place set aside from others in my practice.