My Spellbook is a sorted collection of all of the spells and spell ideas that I have reblogged or posted here on Tumblr. The Spellbook is constantly under construction, with new categories being added, so please click here to see the updated version of this on my blog ^_^
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OR: HOW I STOPPED WORRYING AND LEARNED TO LOVE PRACTICING TAROT
This is a simple exercise I’ve done really to hone my intuition while divining. I like to pull a three card spread (past, present, future) but you can really use whichever spread you’d like.
Major Arcana:
Most trump cards can be self explanatory if you’re good at word association.
The Fool card starts a story that follows a journey through to the World, the end. Everything in between is character development.
Death does not mean death. Unlike most horror films, its appearance can actually signal a new beginning or change.
Minor Arcana: Know what each suit means or symbolizes in general.
Cups: Water, focuses on your emotional self, creativity and romance, following your heart over your head.
Pentacles: Earth, focuses on your physical self, material ideas like business or wealth, manifestation.
Swords: Air, focuses on your mental self, action and concentration, intelligence and conflict.
Wands: Fire, focuses on your spiritual self, intuition and inspiration, values and flaws.
All in All:
Use the context clues in the imagery of your cards to guide your intuition.
Don’t worry about misreading a card or getting anything wrong. This is really about trusting yourself and your gut instincts.
Don’t be afraid to take the surface value of the card during this exercise. It’s just an exercise.
I hope this helped you if you’re just starting out, want to try a different method to divining with tarot, or just want to generally work on trusting your gut.
So you just decided that you want to read tarot, and perhaps invest in your very first deck. Here are some tips that I found useful when I was just starting out with reading tarot cards!
Choosing a tarot deck for the first time can be somewhat overwhelming. There are thousands of decks out there, with varying art styles and card sizes.
I chose my first deck solely because it came with a guidebook and because the art style was similar to that of the traditional Rider-Waite (the art style wasn’t too gaudy, and the cards were clearly labeled).
I would suggest choosing a deck whose cards list the suit, number, and name on the card, just to make things easier for you.
Another thing to consider is size - there’s a “standard” size for tarot cards, but some authors stick to playing card size, and some make theirs quite large. I have small hands, so the larger sized cards would be uncomfortable for me to use and shuffle. Keep that in mind.
I would also suggest that if your first deck doesn’t come with its own guidebook to invest in one.
A lot of readers will choose the deck that calls out to them the most, or one that they click with. You can go that route, or simply choose the one you like the most based on aesthetics. It’s somewhat difficult to gauge the energy that the deck is putting out if you’re like me and prefer to order online, but if you can get to a bookstore or metaphysical shop to pick out your first deck, spend some time with them and pick the one that resonates with you.
Tips:
Cleanse your deck before you use it for the first time - this helps get rid of any lingering energy that may be left by anyone else who touched it before you obtained it. You may choose to cleanse your deck between readings, or whenever you feel as though your readings aren’t making sense, though these things are not mandatory.
Charge your deck - some readers do this and some do not, but I have personally found that actively charging my deck with an outside source of energy helps gives me an extra boost and reduces the amount of personal energy I have to put into doing readings. Selenite is both a cleansing and charging stone and can be set on top of your deck to do both of those things simultaneously.
Draw a card a day for personal readings, and record your findings in a tarot journal - this will not only help you learn the meanings of the cards, but also to bond with your new deck.
Not into journaling or writing? Create an Excel or Word document to record your personal experiences and findings. This can also be useful for jotting down card meanings (ctrl + f is a lot easier than digging through a book IMO).
Practice readings with your friends or significant other. This will help you decipher card meanings and learn to read intuitively. When we are personally looking for answers, we tend to come up with any reason why the cards are relevant to our own lives, but performing readings for others will really show how accurate the cards are.
Seek answers from the guidebook that your deck came with, if it came with one. There’s nothing wrong with looking up the meanings of cards, especially if you’re just starting out. If it didn’t come with a guidebook, I would suggest biddytarot online for learning card meanings, or even the Galaxy Tarot app for your phone, which also includes card meanings and is a great way to read tarot on the go.
Come up with personal associations for the cards that relate to your every day life. For example, the Death card popping up in a reading can be startling at first, but it doesn’t necessarily mean physical death: in most cases, it can relate to rebirth or transformation. The same applies for cards that signify fertility or birth - this may simply allude to new beginnings. Figure out how the cards relate to you, personally.
Don’t overwhelm yourself with lengthy spreads like the Celtic Cross - stick with short spreads that only involve a few cards and work your way up to bigger spreads.
Readings are not set in stone, they are meant to be used for guidance. That being said, you and you alone have the power to change the outcome of any reading you do. Tarot readings are not the “be all end all” for life events.
Once you have an idea of what the cards signify, you can use them for other things such as spirit and deity communication or spellwork!
Common Myths about Tarot:
You must receive your tarot deck as a gift
You must keep your tarot deck in a [black] silk bag
You have to be a witch to read tarot
You must be psychic to read tarot
You shouldn’t read tarot while you’re pregnant
Don’t let others touch or look at your tarot cards
Tarot cards are evil
Tarot cards are “the Devil’s work”
You can’t read tarot for yourself
The Death card means you or a loved one are going to die
I see a lot of witches drying rose petals for floral arrangements or even making rose water from them. Please keep in mind that roses grown for florists are over treated with pesticides and fertilizers. Anything made from these petals isn’t safe to ingest.
If you’re doing work that requires making a rose preparation for ingestion or topical application that will be absorbed into the skin, you’ll want to get rose petals from a shop that sells for these purposes.
Or grow your own organically. Old fashioned varieties rather than the hybrid teas you see in flower arrangements are usually grown for these purposes because they grown more easily without intense treatments.
As a witch who worked at a florist, whenever I ‘cleaned’ the roses for sale (taking off excess leaves, slicing off thorns, etc), I would immediately wash my hands afterward. The chemicals were so bad I would feel immediate irritation and would have skin issues if I didn’t scrub clean every 30 minutes or so (I aimed for 1 wash after every 12).
It’s especially worth noting that roses from florists are often (almost always) flown in from other countries where the laws about pesticides are a lot more lax. Originally we got ours from a grower in Colombia, which wasn’t too bad, but I believe we switched to Ecuador and holy moly I don’t know what the company we got it from used but it was strong. As in ‘The smell of the chemicals hit me like a wall as soon as I opened up the dozen, despite them having traveled all the way from Ecuador in a freezer’ strong.
It was so bad I legitimately had worries about how handling the roses would effect my long term health, and gods above and below I felt for the workers over there that had to deal with these pesticides regularly and up close.
Also, if you buy your own rose bush to use for ingestion purposes, DO NOT use the petals off of it for the first year UNLESS you got it from a organic nursery. Because most places do spray the roses with pesticides and fertilizers from seedling on up, and it will take a year for all that stuff to work it’s way out of the plant’s system.
If you need rose petals to ingest ASAP, I would strongly suggest checking out tea shops. Many local or online sellers have rose teas that are lovely, and either have rose hips (which might not be as fancy as petals and have a more citrus-y flavor, but are the fruit borne from a rose and thus symbolic as all hell) or rose petals mixed in with their teas. This are absolutely edible, and are easily accessible to boot.
I really hope people see this because it is very important. Roses from the floral section are not intended for consumption. I have found whole rose buds at herb stores, Asian grocery stores (in cooking sections), and tea stores. I would highly suggest going to those places for roses. They may also sell tea with a high quantity of rose petals which you can use in place of pure roses. Another note: jasmine tea is not tea with dried jasmine. Most jasmine varieties are not edible and you can’t use dried jasmine in tea unless it is a variety specifically marketed as being edible (jasmine sambac aka Pikake)
nyrwitch
Reblogging this immediately because my most popular post is ‘How to dry rose petals the lazy way’ and I completely forgot to mention this.
Steps: Add herbs to hot water and let them steep for a few minutes. Squeeze in lemon then let the wedge and skin soak for another 1 or 2 before drinking.
Sour Tummy Be Gone Potion
Chamomile Tea
Spearmint
Ginger Root
Spoonful of Honey
Steps: Brew tea then add herbs to it, let them steep for 5 minutes before stirring in your honey counter-clockwise to banish the cramps and sourness in your stomach.
Deep Slumber Potion
Chamomile Tea
Lavender
Dried Rose Petals/Buds
Lemon Balm
Steps: Brew tea then add in herbs to steep for 5 to 6 minutes, add sugar or honey to taste. Drink slowly before bed in a quiet place.
“Bring Me My Own Love” Self Love Potion
Rose Water or Rose Tea
Sugar
Milk or Milk substitute
Steps: Brew your tea or warm your rose water. Pour in milk and sugar to taste and stir it clockwise to welcome in your own love. Drink while doing something you enjoy.
Release from a Bad Day Potion
Green Tea
Catnip
Lemon Wedge
Steps: Brew and steep your tea and catnip, squeeze in your lemon and stir it counter clockwise to banish the negativity that the day has given you. Add sugar or honey to taste
Give My Heart Strength Potion
Black Tea
Orange Peel
Honey
Steps: Brew tea and let orange peel steep for 5 minutes, stir in your honey clockwise to bring yourself emotional strength.
Open My Mind Awareness Potion
Black Tea
Cinnamon
Milk or Milk substitute
(Optional) pinch of Mugwort (use with caution)
Steps: Brew tea and add ingredients. Sit in a quiet place and drink the tea slowly while centering yourself and if you can meditate.
Cleansing Potion
Moon Water
Rosemary
Thyme
Steps: Heat your moon water and let herbs steep for a minute or two before drinking. You may add sugar if you desire
Protect Me From Parasites Potion
(protects from psychic and energy parasites)
Moon Water
Rosemary
Mint
Steps: Heat moon water and steep your herbs for 5 minutes. Drink at the start of your day.
Coffee Potions
Strength For a Big Day
Coffee
Cinnamon
Sugar to Taste
Like a Storm Confidence Potion
Coffee
Hazelnut creamer
Cinnamon
Fresh Orange peel
Spark of Creativity Potion
Coffee
2 Drops Vanilla extract
Fresh Orange Peel
Spoonful of Caramel
Romancing Myself Potion for Self Acceptance
Coffee
Hot chocolate mix
Milk
Red rose petal
To Good Friends Friendship Potion
Coffee
Caramel
Sugar
A cherry
A good friend to share it with
Hot Chocolate Potions
Warm My Bones Happiness Potion
Hot chocolate
Marshmallow/Marshmallow fluff
1 drop vanilla extract
Cherry
To Get Through Hard Days Potion
Hot Chocolate
Cinnamon
Milk
Fresh Mint Leaf
For Enhanced Energy Potion
Hot Chocolate
Orange Peel
Gem Elixir Potions
Note! Unlike the others, these ones are NOT edible nor should they be ingested! These potions are for anointing or bath magic.
None of these potions are made with the crystals in the water! I ALWAYS put my crystals around a jar or cup of water to charge over night. SOME OF THESE CRYSTALS SHOULD NEVER GO IN WATER!!! So please just place them around your jar of water over night, not in it.