Tarot Tuesday

Temperance and The Art: Alchemy of the Soul

Most people see Alchemy as crazy men in Renaissance Europe heating dangerous chemicals in the attempt to turn lead into gold. You would not be far wrong with that image but it does not cover all of it.

Thoth Tarot

Alchemy was a spiritual practice. Hidden symbols and goals to find the elusive Philosopher’s Stone, the Universal Medicine, the substance of dreams and immortality, are scattered throughout the art of the old alchemists. Spiritually alchemy was also about turning the soul into its purest self for only a pure soul could create the Philosopher’s Stone.  My husband has said it was a concern of turning the “lead of the soul into gold”.

I primarily work with the Thoth tarot, and rather than naming the card Temperance, Crowley named it The Art. In a way this card represents the ultimate completion of the Lovers from Atu VI.

Here the Black King and White Queen have performed the sacred marriage and become an androgynous figure of both sexes and yet neither. The figure holds fire and water and is able to mix them to create the substance it seeks. Here is Universal balance, perfection, to create what has been sought after for ages.

If you study most a Rider-Waite based deck then you are familiar with this card as Temperance.

Generally there is an angelic figure, one foot on land and another in water. There does not seem much here that gives a message.

I’ll admit, I never thought much of the Temperance card until I started to study high magic(k), and took another look at it from the perspective of the Thoth tarot.

Now, I’m not going to involve myself in the ‘War of the Decks’; nor am I going to get into how much Crowley hated the Rider-Waite deck…because my gods did he hate it. My opinion is this; I believe that the Thoth tarot is a more complete deck than the Rider-Waite system. The imagery conveys deeper meanings and has better symbolism. This is why it is my preferred deck over any other.

Disclaimer done, there is actually a lot to learn from Temperance.

This card conveys balance. Balance of the mundane and the spiritual, balance of the

Steampunk Tarot

elements. It can teach us a lesson of balance. One thing to look at is that nothing is static. The water ripples from the toes of the angelic figure, the balls convey a twining motion to maintain the balance.

Perfection is not set in stone. Even the Philosopher’s Stone isn’t really a stone; it was also called the Red Elixir. This infers that it was a liquid as well as a solid.

Perfection in motion and changing state.

The Art and Temperance are both associated with Sagittarius, the Archer. The Archer was usually shown to be Chiron, the wise centaur who taught many of the heroes of classical mythology. Sagittarius is associated with the 9^th House, the astrological house of Higher Learning and Philosophy.

Whichever of the two systems you prefer there is much to learn from the 14^th card in the Major Arcana.

Practical Study

Find an image of the 14^th card you prefer and either pull it from your deck or print it from the internet.

With the Sun in Sagittarius now, use that power to go into deep meditation and trance over the imagery found. Do some studying on Alchemy as both a physical science and spiritual practice.

These cards can help you find the balance you crave in your life. They also teach that perfection is never static but a changing and evolving state that flows from one crest of the wave to the trough and back again.

Deck Credits

Card One:: Thoth Tarot by Crowley and Harris

Card Two:: Steampunk Tarot by Moore and Fel

Thursday's Thoughts

Can I serve the Gods of my Ancestors?

Being a polytheist can be hard enough under the larger umbrella of the term Pagan without added dramatic bullshit. Most pagans now self identify as pantheist, New Age, or even atheist (seriously?) that for those who actually worship and are called into service of the Divine it gets pretty ridiculous.

Sacred Ibis in flight

Polytheists tend to get the cold shoulder and shunted towards the outside. Which is fine, I don’t much like playing on the swings with people I don’t like anyway.

Now don’t get me wrong, it isn’t like all polytheists are one big happy family either.  There is a great deal of infighting and who is doing what wrong.  There are in fact few polytheists that I admire, let alone like, outside of my local community.  In this I am very fortunate; most of the people where I am are polytheistic as well.  This makes it nice; to have real touchstones and flesh and blood people to talk to.

I took a stint away from the online pagan blog-o-sphere for a few years and got behind the latest ‘You can’t do it that way!’ trend.  Then for some ungodly reason I started reading The Wild Hunt again.  I made the same mistake I always do, I started reading the comments section.

Internet rule…DO NOT READ THE COMMENTS SECTION!!

It seems that the latest trend amongst them all, a few that enrage me, is that as an American I should not be worshiping any gods but the gods of this land.  Now, I’m white. I am a straight, white woman (you won’t hear me call myself Caucasian because my family didn’t come from the Caucasus Mountains). As far as we can prove there is not one drop of First Nation blood running through my veins.  There is rumor and conjecture but nothing more to make that a solid fact.  When you see me you would think I stepped off a boat from Germany or some other Northern European country. I am told I can’t worship the gods of this land because my family isn’t First Nation.

Honestly, I respect their traditions too much to even try.  I am not called by their Ancestors, spirits, and Gods. Read and educate myself, fuck yeah! I love to learn, but I won’t step into where I am not called.

Mother of Ravens by Leo Tomasic

I am called by the blood that is still tied to lands across the ocean.

In reality though, who the hell has the right to tell me what gods to follow when the gods themselves called me into their service.

See, I didn’t just flip open a book at random, throw a dart and decide that was the two Gods I was going to dedicate the rest of my life to. In point of fact I had very little say in the whole matter.  At least one of them has dragged me kicking and screaming the entire way.

Don’t believe me, if you could ask my friends and those in my coven you would know, I did not take this as a happy camper and still some days tug at the reigns that hold me.

Honestly, when it comes to it, no one has the right to tell me who and what I can do or can follow or what Gods I serve.  They are not the personal mouth piece of the gods; whom I have discovered can tell me what they want very clearly.

I read, I research, and I journey and divine. I have done what I can to prove that I am not totally crazy.  I honor, respect, and serve the Gods to the best of my abilities and then push harder.

My service is to Them and no one can take that away. Scoff, scorn, and disagree all that they desire, but in the end I have to do what is right and what I am called to do.

Tarot Tuesday:: The Moon

Follow the White Rabbit

Ever changing in the night sky, the Moon has inspired poets, magicians, priests, and man far back into the mists of recorded history.  It is there, a luminous body once counted as a planet.

Enlightenment Tarot

The Moon is Goddess and God, Brother, Sister, and Grandfather. The Moon houses a fantastic array of mythologies from rabbits to a man to ancient civilizations. It tugs at our hearts and inspires romance.

It also inspires nightmare and deception. The very fickle nature of the Moon is said to draw peoples’ emotions and driving them into lunacy, accidents, murder, and all kinds of general mayhem.

In Tarot the Moon is generally seen as a warning that not all is as it seems.

A veil has been drawn over the eyes of the questioner and when pulled aside they can be in for some harsh truths. This card, along with the Devil card, is calling for you to explore the Dark Teatime of the Soul. Walk the shadow roads and cross the threshold.

Moonlight softens the edges of everything that we see. As the light changes, wanes and waxes, so to do the shapes of what we observe.  Here we see the deception, but we enjoy the beauty of it that we do not desire to step across the boundaries. We do not struggle and so stay trapped in the web of lies and deceit.

The Moon card is associated with Qoph, which aligned with the back of the head. Here we have the connection to the subconscious.  Just as your waking mind is building, creating, and expanding, so too is your dreaming mind.  This is something we need to wrestle because all too often we let that part have free reign and then have no idea where the thought forms and egregores we have no intention of making come from.  We have unconsciously dreamed up our worst nightmares into being.

Thoth Tarot

The Moon can be an initiator into deeper mysteries.  First though, look to see what that soft and beguiling light is hiding.

Practical Study

Take stock of your mind and your mental state. Journal your emotions, your thoughts, and your fears to that they are laid bare on paper.  Examine them. Are these practical fears or simply limiting ‘what-ifs’? If they don’t serve a purpose banish them!  You do not need that kind of baggage hanging around your neck.

Tarot Tuesday-The Devil

It’s in the Details

Enlightnment Tarot

The Devil is one of those cards that make people shudder involuntarily on sight. The imagery is usually very bold, dark, and starts to stir uncomfortable feelings deep in the mind and heart.

There is the Christian over-culture aversion to anything associated with the source of their particular all consuming evil.  It is breed into our bones.

While this card is not particularly pleasant, it does not have to be a complete disaster like The Tower card either. I like to view this card as a message that there needs to be some mental spring cleaning done.

This card aligns with the Zodiac sign of Capricorn. Capricorn is a heavy sign, not given much towards frivolous entertainments as it is ruled by the dour Saturn. This is our darkest place, our Shadow.

If you aren’t familiar with your Shadow or even the concept of Shadow work I can give a brief idea of it.  To go in depth would take more time than this blog is currently dedicated towards.

Steampunk Tarot

Your Shadow, in a nutshell, is all the parts of you that you are ashamed of, fear, or feel anger towards, and shove it aside. Your guilt, rage, and all the plethora of negative human experiences make up your Shadow self.  Most people shove it into a nice little box and never look back.  This can cause a whole range of problem when someone who practices the Art. “Know Thyself,” is a saying many are familiar with but never actually get to the heart of.

The Devil is playing on those fears and shames. This card is teasing them out into the light and demanding that you acknowledge them. Face your fear, face your insecurities, face you Demons.  You created them and now is the time to wrangle them back into the whole of your being. The Devil paradoxically is tearing away your illusions even as sometimes it can weave new delusions over your eyes.

This card is Mars Exalted, the fiery forge of creation gone awry.  In a way it is a more destructive side of creation when held against the Empress. This is obsession, even addiction; this is being chained to your creation as it rears its head against the hand that built it.

Thoth Tarot

When the Devil appears take a look at the cards around it and they can shed some insight into the message that it is trying to show you. It enhances the cards around it to their more negative aspects. Work with what you have and trying to wrestle everything back onto the path that you want them to go. As hard as it can be, rip the cobwebby illusions from your eyes and see the reality for what it is.

Practical Study

Research more about your Shadow and start learning ways to incorporate it back into your whole self.

Enlightenment Tarot by Kashiopia

Steampunk Tarot by Moore and Fell

Thoth Tarot

Tarot Tuesday: The Tower

When it Comes Tumbling Down

Let us face reality for a moment and really take into account what happens in our lives. We desire to cultivate solidarity and security. We want to categorize, analyze, and label everything around us.

Nature and the Universe have something else in mind all together. It comes crashing down around our ears when we least expect it and most certainly least desire it.

The Tower is one of the harshest cards in the deck and one that no one wants to be see.

The Tower is the complete destruction of our false security. There is not much we can do when life flips on its head except hold on and see what survives the storm.

What is the benefit of such destruction?

To learn and grow requires constant changes and lessons. In order to become more knowledgeable, in order to be more adaptive we have to go through change. We need experiences that are not always pleasant to teach us wisdom and how to deal with problems in the future. If we never experience hardship or change then we grow stagnant and boring; locked in a mental and spiritual stasis that just exists instead of living.

When The Tower appears in our lives the best things to do is lock up and take shelter till the storm passes. When it has, take an assessment and see what survived in tact and what was destroyed. If something was destroyed, did it serve a purpose or was it in fact holding you back?

A time of change and upheaval brings a new way of looking at the world and has the ability to change how we perceive the world around us. This will bring a new time of growth and knowledge that clears out the old thought process that holds us back from our highest potential.

Practical Application

Find a version of The Tower card that speaks to you on several levels and study it. Write in your journal what feelings this card invokes in you when you see it appear in a reading and what it inspires as you study it by itself. What are you holding on to, what thoughts and actions to you keep around because they make you feel secure and you fear losing them? Reflect on your emotions and thoughts and study them to see if they serve or if they are holding you back.

Thursday's Toolbox: Too much stuff

There is no denying that magical practitioner tend to have a lot of different tools that serve many different functions.  We have our ritual wear, wands, knives, athames, staffs, cauldrons, chalices, peytons, jewelry, and many more. There always seems to be another magical item that we just have to add to our ever growing collection for this working or that ritual.

It can be overwhelming and honestly you begin to wonder do I really need all this.

Well, do you need it all?

Yes and no.  Ultimately it boils down to what you yourself need and what works for you.

Go through and look at each of your tools. Is there one that has not been used in awhile? Do you really see yourself using it in the next few months? If no is the answer it is time to gift it to someone else, a friend or a student.

I myself have a few tools that I use constant and others that I use very rarely to the point that I feel they are actually detracting from the rest. My favorite tools are my cauldron (I burn a lot of incense), my sword, my tarot cards, a mask, and some bones. There are a few others here and there that get used every couple of months or so, but the others that I collected when I first start gather dust.

I feel that sometimes we need to stream line our practice and getting out our tools and examining them from time to time is a good way to do that.  Your altar, if you work magic, should be a working space and not one that sits and collects random do-dads that serve no purpose.

Tarot Tuesday: The Chariot

Moving Forward

The Chariot is one of my favorite cards and I always get a little giddy when it is my person daily card. There is so much action and drive that it gets me pumped for the day

Thoth Tarot

ahead. My personal and deeply emotional response to this card is ‘Leaving the battle field in victory’. This card makes me feel thrilled, empowered, and that I can conquer any task before me that day.

Appropriate enough The Chariot is just that exactly, action, motion, and moving ahead with your plans.

The Chariot typically features a person doing exactly as the name suggests, riding in a chariot being pulled by two to four beasts.

It seems as if the vehicle is moving at very high speeds and moving dangerously towards a goal no one sees. Yet the charioteer is confident in their handle on the reigns.  They are the Will behind the motion; they control the direction and have harnessed the power and lessons of the cards that came before.

It is said that the Major Arcana is the Fool’s journey. Here the Fool has learned to harness opposing forces as shown in The Lovers card and now directs them to his purpose. He is confident and competent to direct these wildly diverse energies into a unified whole and get from point A to point B.

This card is associated with the Zodiac sign of Cancer especially the primordial ocean of Binah. One could say the charioteer has learned the secrets of the Great Mysteries and has learned to use them to steer his life on the course of his True Will. The ocean is a place of mysteries and we don’t even have to get deeply into the ocean to find alien worlds.

The lesson of the Chariot is confidence and mastery. To begin a journey takes effort and energy, but to change direction mid journey can require every bit of information and skill you have acquired before you even began.  If you need to change, do you have the confidence? If you undertake this journey with hesitation and aren’t prepared to face obstacles with intent and Will you will find the energies you have attempted to harness pulling in multiple directions and you could be thrown.

Practical Study

Gilded Tarot

Use The Chariot when you want to give yourself a boost in self confidence. Mediate on the lessons of the card when you are wondering which direction is best for you to go.  If The Chariot is paired with The Tower, beware and avoid that course of action!  Paired with the Ace of Wands could indicate that you are on the right course and so far you have everything under control.

Thursday's Toolbox: Solitary versus Group

There are many paths and ways to being a magical practitioner these days.  You can follow a path that is based on ancient Kemet (Egypt), Greece, and many more.  There are paths that are created for those that work more Ceremonial and Hermetic magic and everything in between.

One can practice either solitary or in a group. There are benefits and drawbacks for both and neither one is better than the other. In fact that seems to be the popular topic for the past couple of weeks in the world of blogs.

I asked a few solitary practitioners on why they are solitary and what they enjoyed about it.

The most common answer that I got was the freedom to express themselves without having someone peeking over their shoulder and judging their actions.  Being solitary gives fluidity to their practice and their view of things

Being solitary frees one from having to worry about bruising fragile egos of those around them. You do not have to worry that someone is going to grow so self important that they start to treat others in the group as extensions of themselves and almost as servants rather than partners and valued members of their group.

When you are the only one you never have to worry about if people are going to show up for something.  You don't have to worry if someone else is on the same page with the ritual you are preparing.

The drawback is that you can get stuck in a rut working only on your own.  You may not get exposed to ideas or energies that can help you expand your practice.  One runs the risk of becoming stagnated and stunted in their spiritual growth by not working with other people.

The extreme opposite end of the spectrum is working in a coven. Just as working solitary, there are many benefits and draw backs to working in a group.

A coven can offer motivation to work.  You know when there will be events or rituals and you have an invested interest to go.  They offer lessons and formalized classes where you can work with someone and if you get stuck a mentor can to help you navigate the lessons.

A coven can help raise energy that you may otherwise not be able to raise.  A coven allows you to build up a tradition that can be passed down.

The biggest drawback of a coven is getting a group of people on the same page.  We all know how difficult it can be to get a group of people to all agree on one thing. In- fighting and egos can sometimes get in the way and this can cause implosion.

A happy medium between the two is having is having a working circle. A circle gives someone the flexibility of working solitary but the group dynamic of working with other people when you want.  You can still have your way of doing things but when your needs coincide with others you can get together and raise even more energy.

There is no right or wrong way. Some people will spend their whole lives solitary and others will find a coven and stay.  Of course these scenarios might very well flip flop. I was solitary for years, and then I found a really dynamic group of people and built a circle that has all the beginnings of becoming a coven. Explore, mingle, make friends, go to events and build your contacts.  At the end of the day it is more about if you are doing your Great Work than worrying about being solitary or coven minded.

Tarot Tuesday: The Lovers

Love’s Lost Labor

Some days I fail to appreciate the ability to come up with a really good title for a post. This is one of those days and one of those topics. When I sit and think about this conundrum though it actually seems fairly pertinent to the topic at hand.

The winner of last week’s poll was The Lovers card. This is a card of many faces and multiple meanings but never seems to fail to lend a flutter to the heart of the person getting a reading.

Love speaks to a primal part of us; it is a driving force, be it love of another person or love of objects. We have all heard the cliché, ‘Love makes the world go round,”.  One is forced to ask though does this card always represent the love of your life that even the Angels will sing when it happens?

The Lovers can represent romantic love but it also represents a study in opposites coming together to form a more perfect whole. In alchemy you have the principle of Solve et coagula which represents the breaking down of a substance, examining it, and then reforming it in a more desirable form.  Every Lovers card I have ever come across pictures two people, and it is usually the first card in most decks to feature more than one person.

This card represents union as a more perfect whole. It represents making a decision that makes the heart sing and be joyful. This is not always the love of heart or even love at all.  It is making a decision that will build a better foundation for what is to come.

This card represents the Masculine combining with the Feminine to create Form and also Life. In the Thoth tarot you have the Orphic egg, symbolic of all creation as the King and Queen make the union that will form all else.  It is the combining of primal and basic elements that will give rise to complex amino acids and proteins and eventually lead to Life itself.

What we have is more than just the indication for a future partner in marriage; we have the potential for creating a bond that betters our self.

When this card comes up in a reading it is time to take stock of what is around you.  It is representing a decision that you are trying to make.  When everything is in alignment for a perfect melding being a job, a creative project, or a Lover, this is the time to listen to your heart.  If you feel a visceral pull to throw yourself into it, then Do IT! Now is the perfect time.  If you don’t, then this is probably not for you.

In the long run this card is about making the decisions that are right for you and you alone. The choices that face you when the Lovers come a calling are usually ones that can change your life in unexpected ways. Make sure that this is a decision that is in your best interest.

Practical Study

Find a Lovers card that speaks to you and pull it out or print it.  Settle yourself into a comfortable and light meditative state and study the card.  What are the feelings that are coming up? Is there a decision that needs to be made in your life that you know could be life changing? This could include a new job or a new relationship. Where is your heart leading you in this situation? 

If you are having a hard time understanding what or where you need to go, pull another card and see how it plays off The Lovers. 

5 or 10 of Swords could indicate that this is not the best course of action as there is potential for severe ruination or loss. 2 of Cups could indicate that this is the right choice and a firm foundation from which to build.

-Wizard's Tarot by Corrine Kenner

-Steampunk Tarot by Barbara Moore

- Thoth Tarot by Aleister Crowley

Thursday's Toolbox-Learning Tarot

            Getting to know your deck

            Tarot tends to be the go to tool in a witch’s toolbox. There are countless books, nearly limitless varieties, and just as many ways to read them. Most decks come with a cute little booklet that gives me a vague idea of what the cards mean and there are more advanced books that give in an in depth analysis of the symbolism and history of the cards.

            Ask three different readers how they learned their deck and you will get five different answers.  I’m not being sarcastic either I learned my decks using two different methods.

            Not everyone is going to read tarot. Sometimes it is just a skill set that you will never develop. I divine using tarot and pendulums, but don’t even ask me to try tea leaves.  It just looks like a clump of wet, sad vegetation at the bottom of a mug or saucer.  I have a friend of mine who reads them spectacularly and another who is developing that skill set very well. I think Runes are fascinating and they are a part of my heritage; I cannot read them for all the trying in the world!

            The moral is, don’t stress if you find yourself unable to decipher the meaning of the tarot, there are other forms of divination out there.

            Now for those of you who are interested and looking to improve your understanding of the system in general I am going to go over briefly one of the ways I learn a deck. If you are interested in learning tarot and want a deck, please get a real deck! Do not get an oracle deck; don’t get a deck with frilly kitties or unicorns.  Get a basic Rider-Waite deck and start with that. 

I will not lie, I’m a deck elitist. The deck that I use for private readings and for my coven mates is the Thoth Tarot. The daily card pulls on the Facebook page come from the Wizards tarot and I will use the Steampunk tarot for spell work.  One of these decks is heavy on alchemy, zodiac, and other various symbols and sigils; the other two are based on the Rider-Waite system and follow it fairly well.  All three decks are well researched and the artist and authors have a grasp of the symbolism that goes into each card. I will make a linked list of decks I recommend towards the end.

So you have your deck and you have the guide book.  Set the book down, place it in another room where you will not be tempted to pick it up and flip through it.

The first card of most decks is The Fool (0). Pick out this card and study it.  Really study this card from top to bottom.  What are the colors used? Is the figure male or female? Do they have a companion animal? What is going on in this card?

Now either in a notebook or with an opened word style document on your computer describes the card.  Write as if you are doing one of those description papers we all had to write in grade school. Start from the top or bottom; describe actions, colors, motion, symbols, everything you see.  Below is an example from my person tarot journal for when I was learning the Thoth Deck.

            He holds fire in his left hand and a diamond/chalice in his right.  A dove and a winged staff follow rainbow colored spirals around his body, making a large loop from his head to his feet.

The description goes on much longer than that, but I hope this helps give you a general idea of what I am trying to tell you.

Once you have the card described, now examine what all of these symbols mean to you. Explore the various emotions that these bring up. Below your description write out what you think this entire card means drawing from what you have learned through life and spiritual study.

            The red tiger is the world and fear trying to drag him down…

That is a sample of what I envisioned the red tiger hanging on the leg of the Fool meant. I was pleasantly pleased to learn that this IS what it means to several authors as well.

Set aside your journaling and walk away.  You may get more inspiration and write this down to be added later.  Only pick up the book that came with your deck after a day has past from doing the first couple of exercises. You want all of the information you are currently processing to come from yourself and your intuition.

The next day pick up your journal and book and read what it has to say. Are there similarities? Are their differences?  Does this information add something to what you wrote down yesterday?  Write in your journal about all of these questions that have been brought up. If you disagree with something, why do you?

Once you have completed these steps you can move on to another card.  I would usually do this for three cards a day but never more than five.  By card five my brain would start to feel fuzzy and I could no longer focus.

Just because you have written all of this down does not mean eventually you will not be inspired by more. There are some cards I pick up and I will see something in them that I never noticed before, and this is after owning my deck for nearly ten years now. Tarot is a journey. The cards are a story in and of themselves, as well as combined with each other.

Enjoy the learning process and have fun learning about yourself at the same time.

Recommended Decks

Thoth Tarot by Aleister Crowley and painted by Lady Frieda Harris
Wizard's Tarot by Corrine Kenner and painted by John J. Blumen
Steampunk Tarot by Barbara Moore and painted by Aly Fell
Gilded Tarot by Barbara Moore and painted by Marchetti Ciro
Radiant Rider-Waite

Tarot Tuesday: The Hanged Man

Tying Your Own Noose

Per special request, this week we are going to explore The Hanged Man.  Traditionally, this card depicts a male figure hanging upside down by one leg, hanging helplessly in negative space and unable to free himself.

Hanged Man

This card, in my experience has layers of meaning and can help or hinder the seeker when it comes up in a reading.  For me, it plays heavily on the cards that are surrounding it for whether it is having a negative impact or positive on the the person getting a reading.

The Hanged Man can create a sense of helplessness, frustration, and victimization.  You are bound and helpless to the situation at hand. You feel adrift, without anchor and have a tendency to let things happen to you rather than taking a stand and making what you want to happen.

This card can indicate that the person getting the reading is is being pulled in two different directions and can't see the way out.  It is warning that the recipient has a tendency to blindly follow routine and to resign themselves to their fate.

On the flip side this card can be a wake up call that the person needs to shift their perspective.

When we are faced with a problem and can not seem to break through and find a solution we need to turn our thinking upside down.  We need to explore unexpected avenues for a solution.  An outside perspective can help because many times we are too close to the problem to see the solution.

Safety can create stagnation.

The position the Hanged Man is in is hardly safe.  It is a precarious perch, that if he falls can create severe injury or even death.  We sometimes need that wake up call.  We need to be challenged, we need to make our thoughts uncomfortable or we risk rusting.

The rewards for this kind of thinking is to reach a kind of illumination that you would not normally achieve. One example of this would be Odin.  He sacrificed Himself to Himself for knowledge.  This was not altruistic sacrifice, but selfish; He acted to gain knowledge for Himself.  In so doing, He gained a greater insight into the world and how it worked as well as the Runes.

Shifting our perspective helps bring bright illumination to a problem; almost Eureka flashes of knowledge that help us see what we are being pulled between and which situation will lead to what we desire to happen.

In essence, this card is about freedom and slavery.  We can either be slaves of our own self- victimization or we can free our consciousness from tired old ways of thinking. If you are meditating on this card try and use it as an insipiraton to shake up your world view and be uncomfortable with your world.  Sometimes you have to be willing to make a sacrifice in order for things to get back on the right track.

Practical Pathworking

Pull the Hanged Man card from your deck or find an image on the internet that resonates with you. Set up a meditation like the one from the Strength. Put yourself into the card and feel yourself hanging upside down,

Hanged Man from the Thoth Tarot

helpless.  Surrender to the feeling of helplessness. Immerse yourself in it.  Let the feelings of anxiety go, relax into it.  Let your mind flow and float above your problems. We can either be slaves of our own self- victimization or we can free our consciousness from tired old ways of thinking. Look down and see the dynamic between them.  What do you need to sacrifice? What do you need to let go? Listen to the messages from the Universe and carry them with you as your return to a normal state of mind.

Thursday's Toolbox-Aconitum

A Baneful Ally

I have tried blogs before, but always kind of failed at it because I never had a clear direction I wanted to go. Being a font of information is no use when your brain runs like a Mobius strip.  Also doing everything at once can make yours truly overwhelmed and burned out.

Anyway, enough of my follies let me introduce a plant in my witchy toolbox, Aconitum.

Aconitum is a genus of over 250 plants native to the Northern Hemisphere. These plants prefer cold/cool wet climate which make them a particular bitch to grow where I live (thank you hot, dry, summers of the Southern USA).

Two particular plants in the genus have charming names that most people will immediately recognize wolfsbane (Aconitum vulparia) and monkshood (Aconitum napellus).

Monkshood is the one used mostly for Medieval flying ointments as wolfsbane is actually much more of a skin irritant than its sister plant.

Aconitum is associated with Saturn, a ponderous and dark associate of the Underworld and illness and destruction. A smart magician or witch knows how to take these associations and use them to both help, harm, and heal in their own life.

Wolfsbane

Sacred to Hekate, the flowers can be left as offerings to her at an appropriate crossroads along with garlic.  She created the plants from the saliva of Cerberus, guardian of the Underworld.

Working with the spirit of this plant can help one make Underworld journeys and connections with past Ancestors. Attempting to grow the plants is a great way to get to know the plant, its quirks and personality. But as I mentioned before, it is a real princess so do not be too disappointed if the seeds fail to germinate.

Aconitum is a highly poisonous plant. I caution working with it without doing research into how to handle the plant.  I believe it goes without saying, but Do Not Ingest at all.  It takes very small doses to kill an adult. If you decide that you want to grow one, wear gloves when handling it as the toxins are transmitted through the skin. 

Addendum 8-5-2014

It was brought to my attention that wolfsbane is a subspecies of A. Lycoctonum. Therefore the full scientific name is Aconitum lycoctonum vulparia; at least this seems to be the case for the yellow colored ones.

Tarot Tuesday:: The Empress

All Sides of the Empress

I will not lie to you; this article is perhaps the hardest one for me to write.  The research into it, the meditation, even reading the books that come with the decks was very tedious and slippery.

I have a confession. Of all the cards in a tarot deck the card I least identify with, the one that always gives me trouble is the Empress. I find it nearly impossible to scratch beneath her smile and find the beating heart of the card.

Wizard's Tarot: Healing Herbs all around

Something pinged for me Monday morning though when I was doing my own divination. I had the three Empress cards spread before me and pulled my own card for the day. 8 of Wands from the Thoth deck. Swiftness of thought and communication. I guess I do have what I need.

In every deck I have owned or seen, the Empress is always pregnant and usually seen in some kind of pastoral scene or surrounded by plants.  The obvious connection is life, nature, and motherhood.

The motherhood connection, there is the rub. We have, as a whole, a skewed view of the Mother. We have pulled Her teeth and Her fangs and made Her kind of weak and something to be relegated to one role only.

Scratch the surface of that gentle smile, the gentle flowers and pastures, and find the beating fiery heart of all Nature in its glory. Living, vital, joyous, dangerous, mesmerizing, and scary Nature that can heal or kill you probably using the same instrument.

The beautiful scenes of forests and plants and wide open fields the Empress is sometimes surrounded with did not happen easily or quickly. One need only look at the fossil record and computer renderings of what ancient Earth looked like to know that Nature is not always gentle or forgiving.  Volcanoes, earthquakes, wild weather and oceans, venomous animals and poisonous plants show the darker side of the Mother in Her glorious wrath.

The Mother is more than just giving birth.  It is fierce protector and also the end that we all great.  Life and Death.  Remember the Spartan mothers that told their sons, “With it or on it,”.  It is the cauldron of the Mother that the souls return to on death and leave at birth; only to return once again at death.  Ceridwen is a Mother figure, and yet She ate Gwion, later to give birth to him as Taliesin. Just because it has the face of the Mother does not mean it is always looking to coddle you. Sometimes for us to truly grow we need a harsh lesson in life to forge a stronger spirit.

Steampunk Tarot: Fires of passion and creation

The Empress is also associated with creativity and art. It can feel for an artist as if each piece, each stanza, is a child. It takes shape inside of the artist and sometimes the process of getting the project out is a lesson in pain and heartache till it is just perfect.  Creation can be a messy process that makes us look inside our core and painfully dredge up the emotion and imagination needed to get it done.

When you see the Empress you see a woman in her prime.  All the sensual power that is Female and the power of Venus, the planet this card is associated with.  She is soft curves and obviously has the attention of her suitor for the swell of her belly speaks of his ardor. She knows who she is and she has grasped her full potential and taken it.

Take some time to study this card and really see the imagery on it. What does it say to you? Does it spark something inside, a touch of the creative soul begging to be free? What is your relationship with Your mother like?

Personal Gnosis

As I mentioned earlier I have a hard time working with the concept of Mother. It does not come easily and the face of my Goddess I see more often is the one of battle and sorcery. I am comfortable with these, but She called me to task for it. Even if I will never be a mother there is still a vital lesson to be learned. I took it to work for a month trying to connect with that aspect of Her.

I had one vision in the month that I worked and it was one that made me re-evaluate the Mother.

Queen of the Heavens

I had and still do, slip into the pitfall most of us have of ignoring the power that is inherent in the Mother. I generally saw it as weak and with no power beyond birth. But, the power of birth is very strong, I mean brand new life generated inside of something else!

The vision She showed me was a verdant valley with a small hill overlooking it. On the hill was a woman who was very pregnant. Below her, a battle raged and was tearing up the ground and growth. It was death and chaos. Yet as the soldiers fell their bodies dissolved into the ground while the souls rose and spiraled into a double helix and entered the woman’s womb. When the dust settled from battle the valley was green and fertile from the bodies and blood entombed in the soil.

It was a powerful reminder of the cycles of life and death and struggle.  When we gaze out and see these soul lifting landscapes we tend to forget the struggle that went into creating these places. It took millions of years to form and countless lives were swallowed up to create space for new lives.  

Before you leave...

This blog is a recent addition to what I have been doing. Monday through Friday I have a daily tarot pull over on Facebook and Twitter and finally also on Instagram as tenkoag.  Feel free to browse and connect with the Insight's on social media.

Card One-Wizard's Tarot by Corrine Kenner

Card Two-Steampunk Tarot by Barbara Moore

Card Three- Thoth Tarot by Aleister Crowley