Cartomancy Quick Reference Guide

What to Do When Your Tarot Deck Hates You

These days, many readers like to share how their deck is mean or sarcastic to them. And while that makes most modern witches laugh, those of us born into the old path know that that is not the behavior of a deck that feels cherished and compelled to return the love.

Stop using it lightly.

Do not use your deck in a place where it is in danger of becoming filthy. You do not have to clean your whole house before a reading. But do clean a space big enough where your deck will feel safe. Wipe the dust off your reading table. Sweep the floor surrounding it, so when a card jumps out, it is not at risk of being soiled.

Stop using it when you are unkempt.

A tarot reading is an appointment with a power bigger than you, whether you believe that to be a god, the Universe or your higher self. Catholics dress up for church as a sign of respect to their own higher power. At the very least, make sure your hands are clean and your hair is out of the way before you lay out the cards.

Stop using it when you are unprepared.

Your deck is always ready to tell you divine truths. But if it feels you are not ready to receive them, your deck will withhold them until you are. Take deep breaths to quiet your mind. Dim the lights to relax your eyes. Play music to calm your soul. Drink some water to soothe your throat. Just as friends open up when they see you listening, so will your cards.

Stop using it for people who do not believe.

Beginners usually offer to do free readings for friends and family as practice. While that is a good idea, make sure you filter the people you do this for. Like humans, tarot likes being held in high regard. Most skeptics consciously ridicule tarot and subconsciously reject it completely. Your deck will not enjoy such hostility.

Stop assuming you are its owner by default.

Even if your deck is not a family heirloom or not bought second-hand, stores repackage returned items and sell them as brand new. These decks are likely to have felt hurt and rejected. So upon receiving any new deck, introduce yourself and welcome it into your life. Promise it that it will be cared for and protected from this moment.

Tarot is a wise and powerful entity. When it is not getting the respect it deserves, of course it behaves poorly. You require its advice. In exchange, it demands your appreciation. Surely, that is not too much of an imposition.

📃"May I tell you, you are looking at your problem instead of the wish fulfilled" Neville Goddard

Ignore senses, circumstances, outside world and think from desire. It is done. Feel it is already done. Know it is done. That state of mind will be reflected. Imagination is the real reality. Go within and fulfill your desire now.

There doesn’t have to be an end goal or purpose when interacting with a deity.

People often seek out gods with an end goal of receiving assistance or guidance.

But you can also just interact with them for their company. You can hail them, give blot, or even just be in their presence for no other reason then you can.

Shadow work - Chair technique 🪑

I thought about this yesterday, while I was having a conversation with @sonofreddoinverno and He reminded me the existence of this technique.

I thought this could be useful somehow...

Shadow work ain't something easy. Looking into ourselves isn't always nice, especially when we've been avoiding it for a while.

In psychology there's something called "projection", to sum up: is the act of projecting something we don't like about ourselves on another person. This will cause a negative feeling towards the person we project on, instead of ourselves. By doing this, our brain protects our self-esteem and our sense of internal coherence. (Keep this info in your mind a little, I'm about to get to the point)

Most of the people tend to solve this in an "abstract way" with meditation, for example. But since we're not all the same...this technique is something more physical, It require a lil bit of..."trusting the process".

Take a chair, place it in front of you.

Focus. Imagine a person sitting on that chair (Yourself or someone else).

You're going to have a dialogue, talk about events/things you need to work on/things you don't like about someone, or even yourself. Whatever you think your shadow work needs to be. Project everything you have on that person on the chair. Ask for explanations, say your needs at loud...

Now you're going to change your pov, sit on the other chair and reply to yourself.

End the practice when you feel like you've had enough.

Take it easy, cause you're going to be at ease only after a while, it may be really weird at the beginning.

After you get used to it you may start to perceive that chair in a different way (example: it might become hot/cold/far/near etc.). Try to pay attention to how you feel because that is going to be one of the hints to work on, find an explanation to your feelings.

It's not over yet...

After every time you practice this... you're going to feel in a certain way... sometimes relieved, sometimes not so good.

Write it down, read it, give yourself an interpretation and choose the next step to take

Good luck ✨

i hope you find someone that matches your capacity to love

into another world

Getting Started: The Seven Laws of Magic

Magic is an inherently mysterious thing but there is a strange logic to its nature. Describing said nature is a difficult thing. How does one describe something that can never truly be known?

The answer for most of history? poorly. Practitioners of the arcane arts are not known for straightforward explanations. I will do my best to explain the basic mechanics:

The Law of Contagion: Once together, always together. The part of the thing is the whole of the thing. By performing magic on a strand of your hair, one can effect your entire body. The more intimate the connection, the more powerful the effect. A cigarette butt you smoked will have almost no effect, but a phial of your blood will be extremely effective. Magic using this law is known as Thaumaturgy.

The Law of Sympathy: Like attracts like. The image is the thing. A drawing or representation of something can gain its properties. A photo or drawing of you will have a similar thaumaturgical connection to you. Combining sympathy and contagion is the basis for poppet magic.

The Law of Correspondence: As Above, So Below. The gods are like us and we are like them. When viewed closely, atoms resemble solar systems. The big effects the small. The idea that there is a sort of harmony between similar patterns no matter their size. This is the basis behind astrological magic.

The Law of Resistance: Some things are more magically conductive than other things. Everything exists on a spectrum of “magical“ to “mundane“ and the less magic something is, the harder it is to effect with magic. The same extends to people who, for whatever the reason, simply have a harder time being interacting with magic. 

The Law of Balance: Magic seeks equilibrium, and therefore, every magical action has a cost. No magical act takes place without some sort of power behind it. Energy will not move unless something is moving it, be it a practitioner or the natural energy of the moon. A body in motion will stay in motion, a body at rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force.

The Law of Reciprocity: If you don’t know where its pointed, its pointed at you. If it doesn’t have enough energy, it will get get energy from you. The process of getting hit with your own improperly constructed spell is known as Recoil. Safe practice often involves setting up wards to act as a barrier between you and any mistakes.

The Law of Reversal: That which is done by magic can be undone by magic. For every spell there is a counterspell, for every ritual a counterritual. Every ward can be hexed, every curse can be dispelled. This does not mean countermeasure will be easy or efficient.