Higher Transmissions - Tarot Reading Review

A few weeks ago I had a reading from Alastair from Higher Transmissions. @highertransmissions

As an intuitive person and witch, I don’t invest in tarot readings from others very often; but sometimes you need to seek the objective guidance and insight of someone who is not you!

I knew straight away that Alastair should be that person, and I feel really honoured that he read for me. As in all things, I went into the reading open minded; but as I expected (and from what I knew of his work) I wasn’t disappointed. Blown away, more like.

Alastair will help you get straight to the heart of the matter; providing gentle, truthful and supportive advice that will help you move forwards. He will help you recognise and ask the pertinent questions, and help you reflect on (and extract) the answers to these questions, which are so often found deep within ourselves; astounding you with his deeply spiritual connection to the universe, which aids him in his work.

If you are looking for an experienced, insightful, intuitive, attentive, inspirational, kind ~ and most importantly, patient ~ tarot reader who has an incredible outlook on life, look no further.

I recommend Alastair to everyone, but most specifically to those who work or play in the Witchcraft or spiritual world. He is the mystic, witch, and tarot reader’s tarot reader.

Alastair offers all sorts of services as a spiritual advisor: courses, workshops, EFT tapping, intuitive card readings and more. Please check out his page! @highertransmissions 

Thank you, Al.

Three Card Tarot

Here are some simple 3-card tarot suggestions:

Past / Present / Future

Current situation / Obstacle / Advice  

You / The other person / The relationship

You / Your current path / The outcome 

Your strength / Your weakness / Your superpower

Do you use any 3-card spreads? Feel free to share!

YouTube Viewing: The Cemetery Witch

I hope you’re all having a beautiful week so far.

I’m taking a little break to update my apps and devices. I’ll be back shortly, but in the meantime let me tell you about my YouTube channel: The Cemetery Witch

I started it some years ago but never did much with it. It was a huge step out of my comfort zone, and still is! (I’m so nervous even just publishing this post). Well, I’ve started uploading to it again.

I’m hoping that as well as sharing my thoughts and feelings with you, it’s going to be good exercise for my brain, as I really struggle with my my cognitive function, especially my memory and word finding. It’s quite different to writing static posts, where I have time to think. This is quite a big challenge for me and my brain, so please be gentle!

At the very minimum, I’m hoping to get an episode of The Witching Week out every Friday, where I take a look at what's been happening over the past week, and pull some tarot cards for the days ahead. I’ve also got loads of Witchcraft related topics I’d like to talk about.

Let me know in the comments if there is a specific topic you’d like me to cover. At some point I’m going to do an “Ask Me Anything” which should be fun!

I’d really love it if you’d join me on this new adventure. Any subscribes, likes, shares and comments will be much appreciated, as they are here.

Enjoy your week everyone!

Simple Magick: Storing Tarot Decks

I have accrued so many tarot decks over the years that I no longer have room (or the inclination!) to keep them boxed and shelved. I know that traditionally they are wrapped in silk, but when you have 20+ decks that becomes somewhat unsustainable.

Of course, if you prefer to wrap yours in silk that’s ok, too! As with all aspects of the Craft it’s really important to do what’s right for you.

My go to method is the drawstring bag. They’re quick and easy to make - or cheap to buy - and stored in this method they’re kept clean and safe. I find that I can recognise each deck by the material of the bag, and their position in the basket that I keep them in. The drawstring bag method is also brilliant if you like to travel with your decks. I have put one in my handbag many times.

How do you store your tarot decks? Did you have a preferred method that you had to abandon once you accrued a certain amount? Where do you keep all the boxes? What is your favourite tarot deck? 

NEXT - Simple Magick: Candle Replacements 

NEXT - Tarot Method: Wren's Year Ahead Spread 
NEXT - Simple Magick: The Threefold Law

Tarot Books: Sunday Witchstack

It’s Divination Month over at @witch.with.me #witchwithme and this week’s topic is Divination Books. Yesterday I tagged this for @witch.with.books because, Sunday Witchstack! #witchwithbooks

These three books are my current go-tos for Tarot; they are:

Everyday Tarot by Brigit Esselmont @biddytarot

The Only Tarot Book You’ll Ever Need by Skye Alexander

Tarot Made Easy by Nancy Garen

Tonight you’ll find me sitting in my little corner, my “Divination Station”, catching up on these.

Can you recommend a good book on divination, and one on the Tarot? I’d like to invest in some more. 

NEXT - Tarot: Take A Look At My Favourite Deck
NEXT - Review: Queering The Tarot by Cassandra Snow
NEXT - Tarot Method: Chase The Ace 

Tarot: Take A Look At My Favourite Deck

It’s Week Three of Divination Month over at Witch With Me and today’s Mini Challenge prompt is “My Favourite Tarot/Oracle Deck”.

My favourite deck of all time is The DruidCraft Tarot by Philip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm. I’ve collected lots of decks over the years but this is my absolute favourite, and the only deck I really love to read with after the Rider Waite Smith. It is described as conveying “the teachings of Druidry and Wicca through the images painted by Will Worthington”. The cards are natural, colourful and relatable. They’re quite large, but I like that about them. The artist painted them using tempera – a method favoured by the Renaissance artists, using ground minerals and egg yolk.

This deck was originally released in 2004, some 17 years ago! Which makes me feel rather old!

What’s your favourite deck? Is it the first deck you made friends with? Do you have a preferred deck for reading? Is it different to your favourite deck? Tell me all about your Tarot preferences. 

NEXT - Tarot: The Divination Station
NEXT - Simple Magick: Storing Tarot Decks
NEXT - Simple Magick: 30 Low-Energy Magickal Activities

Tarot: The Divination Station

It’s Week Three of Divination Month over at @witch.with.me and yesterday was the first day of a Mini Challenge. Yesterday’s prompt was “My Divination Space/Altar” so I’m sharing the little corner of my home where I like to read my cards, and where I do some of my best thinking.

I jokingly call it The Divination Station, and it is actually in one of the coldest parts of the house. I have to light lots of candles for a little bit of heat, and put a blanket on my lap, but that adds to the ambience and the experience. I love this spot because it’s next to a window, so I can look out across the cemetery, and as it’s in a corner it feels protective and safe, leaving me free to wander into my work.

Do you have a special spot for divination? 

NEXT - Tarot Method: Chase The Ace
NEXT - Tarot Method: Storing Tarot In Drawstring Bags 
NEXT - Simple Magick: How To Use A Crystal Ball

Tarot Method: Chase The Ace

I’m sharing a Tarot method called ‘Chase the Ace’. You can use this with any of the four Tarot suits to represent something in your life. This method of divination shows you where blockages or issues lie, and to how to move forwards.

For example, use the Ace of Pentacles to represent money matters, in particular cash flow. The card below the Ace is what is stopping the cash flowing in, and the card above the Ace is how to get it moving again.

You could use the Ace of Swords to represent what is causing conflict in life. The card below the Ace is what’s causing the issue, the card above the Ace is how to move forwards.

Here are the four Tarot suits and some ideas of what they could represent:

SWORDS - action, movement, mental matters, spiritual matters, communication, issues, conflict, clarity, struggle.

PENTACLES - money matters, the material or external world, career or work concerns, health, physical matters, manifestation, proof, prosperity.

WANDS - ideas, growth, ambition, expansion, passion.

CUPS - emotions, family matters, creativity, love, connections, intuition, healing, desires, experience, Spirit.

You could go a step further and use each suit as a Season; using the card below the Ace to represent things to watch out for, and the card above the Ace as positive things that will happen within that period. 

NEXT - Tarot Method: Wren's Year Ahead Spread
NEXT - Review: Moonology Diary (2021) by Yasmin Boland
NEXT - Simple Magick: Casting A Circle

Tarot Method: Wren's Year Ahead Spread

Usually at the start of the year I take a bit of a break, read the slips of paper from my Gratitude Jar, and do a simple tarot spread for the year ahead. Thanks to a reminder from @thewitchesstone this week, I’ve done it. Even if I am a little late.

I lit a green candle for good luck, success and prosperity, and let it burn while I shuffled and picked the cards; blowing it out before doing the big reveal.

I used @the_embroidered_forest tarot, which I absolutely love and was so over the moon to win just before Christmas - thanks Alicia! If you’re wondering about this deck it’s absolutely incredible. The images are enchantingly beautiful, and one of the best things about it is the fabulous quality cardstock and snazzy silver edges.

I had a pendulum by @wiccawolfie on standby just in case I needed further clarification.

While I was shuffling the cards a famous quote by Abraham Lincoln sprang to mind: “The best way to predict your future is to create it”, and so I made the intention in that  moment to keep pushing myself this year.

As many of you know, I have been floating ideas for a shop and creating a Patreon, but I have been doing this very slowly due to chronic illness. As part of my manifestation process, and the long term spell work I have been doing to aid these plans, the moment must be absolutely right.

Do you carry out some sort of New Year’s divination? If so what type? What are your plans for this year? What would you like to manifest? 

NEXT - Tarot Method: Unblocking with Chase The Ace
NEXT - Tarot Method: Storing Tarot in Drawstring Bags
NEXT - Natural Remedies: Meadowsweet Foot Soak

Review: Queering the Tarot by Cassandra Snow

This absolutely beautiful book, which will not only deepen your tarot practice, but more importantly, will make tarot readings much more accessible for your LGBTQIAP+ friends and clients.

About the Author
Cassandra Snow is a professional tarot card reader and teaches classes on Queering the Tarot and Tarot for Beginners, and coaches new and intermediate readers. She runs Gadfly Theatre Productions, a queer and feminist theatre company. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Visit her at www.cassandra-snow.com.

About Queering the Tarot
I’ll be totally honest. Even as a keen tarot reader and falling under the LGBTQIAP+ banner, I felt both excited and intimidated by this book, and met it with some trepidation. That is, until I picked it up and discovered that I had nothing to fear - an encounter I shall liken to many peoples’ experience of getting to know those of us in the LGBTQIAP+ community.
Queering the Tarot tackles the unique challenges that people in the LGBTQIAP+ community face, and cleverly finds a home for those issues within each of the cards, so that guidance and deeper meanings may be found by LGBTQIAP+ seekers. For example, The Fool card looks at denial of the self and coming ‘out of the closet,’ and Justice demonstrates that, sadly, Justice may not be on the querent’s side at all, as is often the case for marginalised people.
Queering the Tarot is much like the guidebook you receive with a tarot deck, and after a brilliant foreword by Beth Maiden, followed by an introduction to what ‘queering’ the tarot actually means, Snow jumps straight into it. An in-depth, logical, considered, and thoughtful meaning is sensitively offered for each tarot card. Snow not only lays out explanations for those with elements of fluidity in their gender or sexual identity, for transgender querents, for those firm in their identity, and for those struggling to come out; she also explains when a card does not need to be ‘queered,’ and provides insight for ‘non-queer’ seekers. Each card description touches on the traditional Rider Waite Smith meaning, which I found to be extremely clever. Arguably, you could pick up this book as a complete beginner and learn not only the deeper, ‘queered’ versions of the cards, but the basic foundation of tarot, too.

The Book’s ‘Strong Suit’...
The most illuminating section in the book, which I absolutely adored, was the chapter on the Court Cards, which are inherently problematic for LGBTQIAP+ and feminist perspectives, and are generally quite difficult to learn. Snow encourages us to drop our binary way of thinking and approach the Courts as energies, as genderless personalities, and to feel our way through them. This approach is a particular strength of this book, and I believe this method encourages a better connection with the Court Cards, an area of the Tarot with which many people struggle. 
In fact, this book has many strengths. Snow has managed to tackle two complex and evocative subjects – the Tarot and the differing perspectives of, and plethora of challenges faced by, the LGBTQIAP+ community - and blend them beautifully, much like the alchemical blending of the androgynous character in the Temperance card. She pragmatically explains that Tarot is a highly personal thing, and should not be held as a ‘monolith,’ reassuring us that there are common enough points for us all to explore. She manages to ‘queer’ the cards whilst sensitively challenging binary thinking and heteronormativity in relation to the Tarot, and the wider world, without bashing anyone. After all, Snow recognises that Tarot is a tool for growth, healing, and empowerment, and should be inclusive, not exclusive.

What You Can Learn...
Snow takes us on a new Tarot journey, contributing yet another layer of depth and dimension and adding a freshness to it. You might anticipate this book to be tough going, but it isn’t. It was thought-provoking, educational, highly engaging, and a joy from start to finish. As someone with a fairly short attention span, I loved that I could start anywhere after the introduction. If you have an interest in Tarot and want to further your practice, or you’d like to make readings for your LGBTQIAP+ clients more accessible, I highly recommend this book. It’s a must-have for every Tarot reader’s bookshelf.

Head over to the Witch With Me blog (www.witchwithme.com) to read my review of Cassandra Snow’s Queering the Tarot and the other fabulous reviews on a selection of Witchcraft books.

NEXT - Review: Traditional Jams & Preserves by Eve Parker 

Tarot Method: Unblocking with Chase The Ace

Today I’m sharing my ‘Chase the Ace’ method. You can use this with any of the four suits to represent something in your life; to see where blockages or issues lie, and to see how to move forwards.

For example, I use the Ace of Swords to represent what may be causing me conflict in life. The card below the Ace is what’s causing the issue, the card above the Ace is how to move forwards.

The Ace of Swords could also represent communication - the card below the Ace to represent what’s impeding communication, and the card above the Ace to represent how one could communicate better. Or clarity; what’s obscuring one’s vision, and how to see more clearly. And so on.

Swords:
Action, movement, mental matters, spiritual matters, communication, issues, conflict, clarity, struggle.

Pentacles:
Money matters, the material or external world, career or work concerns, health, physical matters, manifestation, proof, prosperity.

Wands:
Ideas, growth, ambition, expansion, passion.

Cups:
Emotions, family matters, creativity, love, connections, intuition, healing, desires, experience, Spirit.

You could go a step further and use each suit as a Season; using the card below the Ace to represent things to watch out for, and the card above the Ace as positive things that will happen within that period.

Please have a go! And let me know below what Ace you used, and how it went. 

NEXT - Simple Magick: Storing Tarot Decks
NEXT - Simple Magick: The Pendulum
NEXT - Simple Magick: 10 Easy Witchy Self-Care Tips  NEXT - Word Magick: Defining The Words Witch & Witchcraft

Tarot Method: Storing Tarot Decks in Drawstring Bags

“The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul” ~ Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Though Craft Week at @witch.with.me is coming to a close, I wanted to share these bags I made for my Tarot cards.

A lot of Tarot decks come in really big boxes and I was running out of space. Now my cards take up less space and they’re portable - they’re handbag ready.

I’ve tried many crafts over the years and they all have one thing in common: their therapeutic effect. I love the meditative process of crafting.

NEXT - Tarot Books: Sunday Witchstack
NEXT - Simple Magick: Offerings - What Are They? 
NEXT - Simple Magick: Disposing Spell Remains

Media Appearance: Chris Down Art

These are just some of the incredible artworks by Chris Down. @chrisdownart

I’m in two paintings in this picture, can you spot me?

I first met Chris in 2010. Another artist I worked for (see my post on the 12th February) recommended me to Chris, and we started corresponding. We’ve been on several adventures together over the years - some for fun and some in the pursuit of art - and I’m honoured to call Chris a friend, although geography means we don’t get to catch up as much as I’d like.

Chris has been an artist and illustrator for more than 20 years, and has illustrated in excess of 50 books. Check your witchy books - Chris will have illustrated some of them.

Chris illustrated the Celtic Tarot by Kristoffer Hughes and released his new book, Otherworld, last week, which I’m honoured to be on the front cover of.