Fascinated by Tarot? How to Make the Tarot Personalized to Your Life

The tarot is indeed a fascinating study that can be used in a variety of magical ways. Tarot spreads can be thrown for divination purposes to address just about any situation or question you have. You can also pick a card each day as a daily ritual to learn tarot card meanings, "wear" the card for the day to take on the characteristics it represents or as a way of getting messages from the Universe by studying the tarot card meanings you select daily. Tarot can also be used in creating Tarot spells to bring about changes and co-creations in your life.

Personalized Divination
Using the Tarot for divination gives you a direct method of obtaining information not available to the physical five senses by psychic or magical means. Magical divination is mainly used to direct our fates. By throwing tarot spreads for various situations in your life and interpreting tarot card meanings, you can discover the influences, energies and probability lines active in your life that pertain to the specific situation the tarot spreads are about. Having this information allows you to see what influences are affecting your situation and know where you can make changes to affect the outcomes in your future lines if you so desire. This is why the Tarot is such a valuable tool. Since the future is not pre-destined, you can change the future any time before it happens and using tarot spreads gives you the information you need to decide if and what you want to change.

Personalized Signifier
Many people using the Tarot today do not use signifiers. In our classes, we teach throwing Tarot spreads using a signifier. We feel this makes the reading more precise as well as more personalized to a particular person. The signifier card is a card selected to represent a person or a specific issue, question or situation. Signifiers are keyed to the person the tarot spread reading is for or to the situation or issue. This serves to make it even more personalized in addition to picking a signifier card for people based on chronological age and sun sign. Below are some guidelines for picking a signifier for a person, but you can't always pick a signifier based on the chronological age of the person. Also take into consideration how they act or behave. If you are doing a tarot reading for a child for instance who is particularly mature for his or her age, then you might want to use the knight instead of the page. We use the Waite Rider deck in our classes, but for those who use a Crowley deck, instead of using the page card, you can break it down further into sex by using the prince or princess. That deck also uses the knight as the adult male because according to Crowley there are no adult males as males never reach maturity.

Sun Sign Signifier Selection Guidelines:
Air (Wands):
Gemini
Libra
Aquarius

Fire (Swords):
Aries
Leo
Saggitarius

Water (Cups):
Cancer
Scorpio
Pisces

Earth (Discs):
Taurus
Virgo
Capricorn

Age Signifier Selection Guidelines:
Page – Conception to teenager
Knight – Teenager
Queen – Adult female
King – Adult male

So for example, if you are a Taurus who is an adult female, you're signifier might be the Queen of Discs and if you are a teenager whose sun sign is Leo then the Knight of Swords might be a good signifier for you.

Personalizing Your Tarot Deck
Another thing that makes the Tarot personalized to you and your life is taking the time to key each of the cards and the other magical tools you use to key the cards and in doing tarot spreads. Keying your own Tarot deck attunes it to your own personal energies. To key the cards in your deck you need a keyed Plate and to key the plate you need a keyed Chalice. That's a lot of keying admittedly, but taking the extra time to do these magical steps will make your Tarot experiences much more personal and create a connection between you and the cards. Using a keyed plate to key the cards sets up a magical shield for each one to protect tarot spreads from any outside interference including any doubt or negative factors you might have about a particular reading.

If you find you are fascinated with the Tarot and its many uses, you can learn more about it in our Tarot homestudy course or as a part of our Basic Magic class. Divination can empower you to take control of the direction your life is taking and give you the information you need to make decisions about where you want your life path to lead and what you want to attract to your life. And after all isn't that one of the many great reasons we choose to have magic in our lives?

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Want to Learn Tarot? "Wear" The Cards to Gain Personal Knowledge

Tarot is a fascinating magic study that can give you a powerful tool to gather information and use for divination. When you first begin to learn tarot, you must of course understand the meaning of each of the cards. A good way to do this is to become personally involved with them instead of just memorizing descriptions. The meaning of the card can vary according to the reading you are doing, so developing a personal relationship and understanding of the cards can help them come alive for you in readings thus giving you the meaning in that reading in that situation. Before you can become personally involved with the cards however, you first need to key your deck. This ties the deck into your own energies and the energies from the Universe itself.

Natural Order
The first step to keying the Tarot deck is putting the deck in natural order. Following is the order the cards need to be put in for natural order. These should be placed with the first card listed face down on the top of the deck.
2-10, Page, Knight, Queen, King, Ace of Wands
2-10, Page, Knight, Queen, King, Ace of Swords
2-10, Page, Knight, Queen, King, Ace of Cups
2-10, Page, Knight, Queen, King, Ace of Discs
1-21 of the Major Arcana with the Fool being the last card

Keying The Deck
Sit in the South facing North with your keyed Plate (Earth tool) and Tarot deck arranged in natural order in front of you.

Put two candles that are either Sun Yellow, White, or Sky Blue on either side of the Plate. The candle on the right is the Wisdom candle and the one on the left is the Protection candle. Light the Wisdom candle with a wooden match, then keeping the match lit, sweep it down in an arc over the Plate to the Protection candle and light it. Finish up by moving the lit match in a sweeping arc back over the Plate to touch the flame of the Wisdom candle that is already lit. This process creates a connection between the two candles.

Now take your Tarot deck and put the first card on top of the deck, which should be the 2 of Wands, face up on your Plate.

Look at the card noticing the color, flatness, dimensions of it without focusing on any particular detail. Continue looking at the card, not with a hard stare but rather a soft gaze and start asking questions such as "What time of day is it?" or "Is that a town in the background?" or "Is that an ocean or a lake?" You aren't looking for answers to these questions; they are simply to create curiosity about the card. Continue asking questions until the card "windows". When the card "windows" it will become clearer, more alive, three dimensional, more colorful or brighter. It will feel like you are looking through a window at the scene on the card.

The card is now keyed and you can take it off the Plate and put it face down to start a pile next to the Plate. Then do the process with the next card.

Since this process takes a while, you don't have to do it all at once. You can do a few at a time. If you have a card that you can't get to "window", just put it to the side and try again later. This can happen if you have some type of issue about that card.

Wearing Tarot Cards 
After keying all your Tarot cards you are ready to learn Tarot card meanings. Wearing a different card each day will help you gain personal knowledge about the cards. You will experience how the card feels and get messages from the Universe about the card that you put on for the day. Here's how you "wear" a Tarot card:

Pick one of the Tarot cards from the deck and spend several minutes just really looking at it. Look at the symbols on the card, the pictures on it and the number of each. Think about what you know about the 4 elements in relation to the symbols. For example, if the card has cups in it then you know it is associated with the Water element since the magical tool for this element is the Chalice. The Water element deals with emotions and feelings so you'll also know that the card deals with these areas. Focus all your intention on the card and listen for it to "speak" to you. This might happen by you seeing or feeling it come alive by seeing movement in it, hearing words in your mind associated with it or that you notice changes in the brightness of the colors. Absorb the energies you feel from the card and take this energy with you the rest of the day. At the end of the day make notes about what you observed and how your thoughts, feelings, behaviors and interactions were affected that day.

Really getting to know the cards and creating a personal experience with them and what they mean will help you develop a deeper understanding of them. That way when you do readings you don't just have a memorized definition that you have to try to fit into the reading, you'll have a whole new perspective on the card meaning and the relationship with it to understand what it is saying in any particular Tarot reading you do. If you're ready to move on and develop a deeper understanding of the Tarot and how to work with it, check out our online Tarot Course.

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The Magical World of Ostriches

We've all heard about ostriches, those silly creatures that stick their heads in the sand and believe that if they can't see a predator, the predator can't see them. We giggle at them and make fun of them. Actually, ostriches don't put their heads in the sand, but if they did, it would make a lot of sense magically.

Why? Why does ignoring something that's clearly "there" make sense magically? Because a large part of magic is about the Art of Ignorance. There are a lot of definitions for magic, and one of the clearest definitions of magic is "The art of selective perception." In other words, focusing on only what we want to create with a spell or magical technique, and ignoring the rest. Magicians know that humans are energy beings, or to be more precise, energy vortexes. We constantly go around sucking people and events in our live with our focus and attention. What we focus on comes to us. It's the Law of Attraction.

In magic, when you're working on a spell, you start out with a really large focus and then you narrow it down. First you look at what you want to achieve and assess all the factors that might help or hinder that by doing tarot readings (wide focus). Tarot readings narrow the list down to a few key factors. Next, you design your spell, using candles, invocations, chants, litanies, simulacra or anything else that's pertinent. What you're doing with your spell is formalizing your intention (narrowing your focus) and calling on powers and beings to assist you. Finally, you launch your spell. So what happens when you launch your spell? Your spell goes out into the world as an energy matrix, powered by your intention and the help of the powers and beings you've called in to assist you. The first thing it does is hit resistance because of those factors that you discovered in the tarot reading. Now here's the key. If you were a novice magician and you looked at the situation when your spell hit resistance, you'd panic, right? You'd think to yourself, "The spell isn't working! I've got to do something!" Wrong. A seasoned magician is already prepared for the spell to hit resistance-after all, the tarot reading told you it would. If the spell didn't hit any resistance, you wouldn't need a spell. The experienced magician has designed the spell specifically to handle all the negative factors (resistance) that came up in the tarot reading.

So what does the seasoned magician do at this point? Practice the Art of Ignoring. She sticks her head in the sand and waits until it's all over. She allows the spell to work its miracles by not interfering, and not putting her attention on all the things that could go wrong or thinking negative thoughts about her spell.

All of this, of course, is a long-winded explanation about why ostriches are magically intelligent beings. They have learned the Art of Ignoring. So if you want something in your life to "miraculously" manifest, tell the Universe what you want (you can use plain English) then make like an ostrich and ignore everything until the miracle happens. Miracles are really just processes beyond our understanding. Magicians understand how miracles work (it doesn't mean they aren't impressed anyway) and intentionally create them in their lives. So ostriches aren't so dumb after all; maybe they were human magicians in another lifetime!

You can be a human magician in this lifetime by studying a variety of magical topics through our ebooks. Check them out and see which topics call to you.

Image courtesy of  anankkml  / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Are You Gellin'? How Magic Can Help You Start Gellin'

We always crack up when we see those Dr. Scholl's commercials on TV because those people are so mellow and happy - they seem to have everything that we strive to achieve in magic with the help of a little gel insole! If only it were that simple. We get so many emails everyday from people who tell us that they are definitely NOT gellin' and ask us for magical help. So what can you do if you're not gellin'?

Here's what's really happening when we're not gellin' - we're coming under what's called "The Law of Accident." The Law of Accident specifies that unless we specifically create our experience with intention and intentional acts, we're basically little balls bouncing around the giant pinball machine of life at random. That often means we get into fender-benders or arguments, or suddenly face unexpected events and expenses.

One of our clients, Joanna, asked us for some general help because she seemed to be experiencing a lot of "static" in her life. She couldn't really put her finger on anything specific, things just didn't seem to gel. She seemed to have a number of run-ins with her coworkers, her car insurance took an unexpected climb so she couldn't meet all of her bills one month, the lock on her back door broke, several lunch appointments cancelled on her ... a bunch of little events that went wrong with no specific cause. And no amount of magical fixing on her part seemed to work.

We did several Tarot readings on Joanna and discovered that she was suffering from an accumulation of psychic lines from various sources - we didn't exactly know why and didn't feel the need to dig any deeper since we could easily clear it up. We did a long distance clearing and cut all the messy, sticky psychic lines that were attached to her. These lines didn't have anything to do with the many healthy relationships in Joanna's life - just to events and relationships that weren't working. We also had her do some four element cleansing of herself and her personal space. Finally, we had her program and wear a psychic shield of the seven-pointed faery star to keep herself free from any future psychic lines.

The results? We heard from Joanna several months later and she reported feeling "free and light." No more static and she was back to gellin' in life. She describes the change as a change in the "tone" of her life - life as viewed through a sunny kaleidoscope rather than a cloudy one. Everything just works better.

And that's really how it works. We are bombarded by psychic impressions and lines everywhere we go. When someone has an argument in your house, your walls absorb that discordant psychic energy. If you then bump into that wall, you also absorb that energy. That's why it's so important, especially to shamans and magicians, to keep clear sacred space around you. Whether you clear your space with a pendulum, firebowl, meditation, or other ritual, just do it! It will keep you free and clear to attract the things you really want in your life.

Ready to put magic to work in your life so you too can be gellin'? A great place to start is with our Kindle Witchcraft Spell Books series.

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Spellwork Troubleshooting

So you've launched your spell. You've done everything you can think of. You've done checkup Tarot readings on your Directors and Limiters (what you want your spell to do and not do) as well as on your verses. You have cleansed the area and launched your spell.

Then... nothing. You do a checkup Tarot reading on your spell and you see that it is stalled out. What could have gone wrong? Unfortunately, in the world of spellwork, unless you are using a spell that has already been proven to work under multiple circumstances, a lot of things can go wrong. So we've written a short little troubleshooting guide that might help you out. Check your spellwork against the list and see if any of the items apply to you. If so, don't fret. Many times you just need to relaunch your spell under the right conditions and all will go according to plan!

Spellwork Issue #1: The Moon
As you may know, many spells are tied into the timing of the lunar calendar. The moon is an important part of many types of spellwork, so timing the launching of your spell according to the waxing and waning of the moon is important. Just as the moon affects the tides all around the globe, the moon is often the moving factor behind a spell. The key to working with the moon is simple:

1. If you want your spell to build and grow and become larger, time your spell launch for when the moon is waxing.
2. If you want your spell to diminish a problem or cause an issue to shrink until it disappears, then launch your spell when the moon is waning.

If you plan to launch your spell several times (which is sometimes appropriate), then always relaunch your spell according to the previously given rules.

Spellwork Issue #2: Using the Appropriate Magickal Elements
Depending on whether your spell is meant to work on the level of thoughts and communication, action, emotion, or manifestation, the appropriate use of the four magickal elements is very important. The following list should give you a quick idea of which elements should be included in your spell, from the color of candles you might choose to the sound used in your spell verses. Candle carvings representing the appropriate elements may also come into play, as may the spiritual beings you call upon as you cast your spell:

• Air: thoughts, communication, planning, speaking, logic, expression, writing

• Fire: action, movement, kinetic (as opposed to potential) energy, anger, heat, neural energy, blood energy

• Water: emotions, the language of Spirit, buried traumatic issues from past lifetimes

• Earth: manifestation, practical ideas, construction, putting physical things together in a way that works

Now that you know which elements are associated with which parts of spellwork, you can review your spell to see whether you included the appropriate focus on elements. This is simply a quick peek at the elements. There is an entire deep art associated with the icons, colors, Tarot cards, sounds (for litanies and chants), and other factors for each element. If you are interested in this type of deep learning, consider our Basic Magic Level 1 course or element short courses and be sure to check out our special course offer at the end of this article.

Spellwork Issue #3: Using the Right Type of Spell
Just as you would not use a garden spade to dig a space for the foundation of a building, you would not use a backhoe to dig a hole in which to plant a small garden flower. Spellwork has the same kind of "scale" issues. If you want to tackle a truly large problem, such as a Bill that is to appear before the U.S. Senate, you will need a backhoe-sized spell to influence such a large issue. This type of spell would most likely be a room-sized Tarot spell cast by an entire group of people. On the other hand, if you want to cast a spell to get a better job, you will need a spell slightly larger than a garden spade, more of a full shovel. This might fall into the category of a Sun Candle spell or a "come along" spell with a keyed plate and magnet. If your spell isn't working, consider whether the spell you cast is of an appropriate scale for the issue you want to tackle.

Special Offer to Help You Start Your Magickal Journey
Hold onto your hats as we're about to blow you away with an offer you can't beat with a stick (or a wand)! We invite you to help spread magick across the globe and start on your own journey into magickal learning for FREE! How does this work? Just email us at info@shamanschool.com and tell us you want to take the course on the Magickal Element Air (which is the first 3 classes of our Basic Magic course). We will email you back a coupon code to use to gain access to this course for free. The course will give you access to online audio files, text book, videos, and class exercises. What's the catch? At the end of these 3 classes, we will ask that you help spread the magick to others by writing a testimonial, leaving a blog comment, commenting on our Facebook page, leaving a review on Amazon for one of our Kindle books, or something that will help encourage others to consider bringing magick to their lives. In return, we will then give you access to the next few classes in Basic Magic, the Fire Element, for free. We are prepared to continue this all the way through at least 10 classes; all at no cost to you other than to help spread the word to others. Why would we do this? We want to give you the chance to see if the type of teaching we offer resonates with you and how better to do that than actually experiencing classes for yourself. We are looking to connect with serious students of magick and feel this process will bring us together with those seeking the type of knowledge we have to offer. The more of us doing magickal acts, the higher the level of consciousness that exists and the more our planet can benefit. It's that simple. 

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Want a Tarot Reading But Don't Want to Learn the Tarot?

You can certainly learn tarot and do your own tarot spreads anytime you want. We have an online course that walks you through how to learn Tarot and there are a lot of advantages to being able to do your own readings whenever you want. But if you don't want to take the time and effort to learn Tarot yourself, but have a particular issue a reading could help with, we have a trained Tarot reader available to help you with that. With this option you can get one or more readings done on the topic of your choice and just pay per reading. Readings also include any progression or regression readings needed to get to the root of the issue and you can also follow-up with questions by email if you come up needing more clarification on any point later.

What Tarot Can Do For You
Doing Tarot readings gives you a look at possible futures for any situation you can find yourself in. Relationships, where to live, career choices, health issues, travel plans, just about anything you can think of can be guided by a tarot spread. Since the future is not pre-destined, the Tarot shows you various flow lines going from past to present to future possibilities of what can happen if you continue on the same path. To change those future possibilities all you have to do is make a small change in the present to what you are currently doing and you can change the outcome. You can see how useful a magical tool this is in avoiding pitfalls and catastrophe in a variety of situations. The Tarot can point out influences affecting your situation, energies and probability lines that are active in your life and help you make important decisions from seeing the future probable outcomes. With all this you can direct your own fate and leave nothing to chance. 

So the next time you need help determining which path to take, finding out what the future may hold for you, or in making a big decision think Tarot. Learn it yourself or hire one of our Tarot reader experts to help you out. Since cost for individual readings are based on the number of readings needed for a specific situation, email info@shamanschool.com for an estimate. Either way, the Tarot is a tool that can use real magic in a real way in your life. 

Image courtesy of  Stuart Miles  / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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3 Things You Probably Didn't Know About the Tarot

If you are familiar at all with Tarot, then you probably know it offers you a form of divination to foresee future obstacles if you continue on your present path in a situation. By making a change however in your present, you can change the future outcome. It gives you a direct method of obtaining information not available to the physical five senses. But here are three things you may be surprised to find out about the Tarot. 

1. A properly keyed tarot deck is an actual model and reflection of the Universe. Taking the time to key each of the cards attunes it to your own personal energies which will make your Tarot spreads personal and create a connection between you and the cards. During 12-card readings your tarot spread will show you the past and present for any situation you are reading that you will recognize from your own past conditions and where you are at presently. Then flow lines will show you what future conditions you can expect if you continue in the same manner or what changes can occur if you make changes in the present. The success of these type readings depends on picking signifiers for the person and situation being read.

2. Since your deck is keyed to represent a model of the Universe you can change the universe by changing a tarot reading using a tarot spell. Once you have the tarot spread laid out that you have decided needs a change in the present to change the future, you can set up a spell matrix using candles and spell verses around the spread. Making the card changes in the tarot spread within a spell matrix creates that change in real life.

3. The proper interpretation of the cards has to be done through keying and studying the cards of certain decks, such as the Thoth deck and Waite-Ryder (other decks have their purpose, but truly useful tarot decks reflect their true meanings with their images and thus lead to proper interpretation). Just memorizing meanings of cards or going by standard book definitions is really restricting. By keying the cards and "wearing" them around to get the feel of each, you become personally connected and are able to see enhanced meanings of them.

Find any surprises there? If you are interested in becoming adept at using the Tarot and learning to do tarot spreads and readings, our online Tarot Couse is for you. It will take you through how to key your deck, how to pick appropriate signifiers for people and situations and how to do Celtic Cross and 12-card readings. Make the Tarot come alive for you and help you use magic to get the results you want in your life.

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Ready for Tarot, Spellwork, and Simulacra Magic?

If you've taken our online Basic Magic Courses 1 and 2, and are ready for the really serious (and super fun) magical knowledge of the Tarot, Spellwork, and Simulacra, then you are primed for Basic Magic 3. This course covers these topics and more in great detail. Not only will you learn to throw a wide variety of Tarot readings, but you will learn to build on those readings to develop spells. This course also offers much more bonus knowledge just for the fun of it!

To give you an idea of what this course has to offer, here is some of the information in the class that covers Celtic Cross readings.

The Celtic Cross
This type of tarot reading is also called the Gnostic Cross and is best used to get a quick personality profile or character sketch of an animate being like a person or animal, but is not useful for situations or specific questions. For those more specific situational readings a 12 Card reading is needed. There is plenty of good information you can get though by doing a Celtic Cross reading. For example, if all the base cards in the reading show up reversed, it could mean this is not a good time to do a reading on this person because they are at a place in life where all the probabilities for them are equal and until a change happens in their life the reading wouldn't be meaningful.

Similar to 12 card readings, the cards in a Celtic Cross reading are thrown with a base card and a second card over it. The base card represents the general situation and the second card represents more specific details of the situation. The signifier card is the card that represents the person or animate being the reading is for. The Cover and Cross on the signifier give you an overview or summary of the whole reading. An upright Cover card means it represents the positive summary of the reading, making the Cross card the negative summation. If the Cover card is reversed, it represents the negative summary and the Cross card represents the positive. Just by looking at the Cross and Cover cards you get a very quick summary of what the whole reading will show you.

By doing a Celtic Cross reading you can quickly get information in these positions in the reading:
Cover and Cross on Signifier are in the middle of the reading surrounded by:

Above – This position represents unrecognized potential that may or may not come to fruition. Comparing these cards to the cards in the Outcome position can give you information about if this potential is likely to manifest by the cards in these two positions being similar.

Behind – This position show what the person has left behind or wants to be rid of or something that happened in the past that pertains to the reading.

Below – This is a foundation position and the take-off point for the reading that gives you the bedrock of this person's life.

Ahead – This position indicates the future according to the perception of the subject of the reading. It doesn't mean it is necessarily true, just how they are looking at the future and their belief or thoughts of what will happen.

To the right of this cross pattern of cards is a straight vertical line of cards that represent a Time Column. Positions in this column include:

Outcome or Far Future – The cards in this position give you a short basic look at the outcome of the reading if nothing changes. Since one of the reasons for doing a reading is to make a change of whatever you don't like, this outcome is definitely not set in stone. It merely shows the probability of what will happen if no changes are made.

Hopes/Fears or Near future – A reversed base card in this position is showing you this person's fears and that they live more in fear than hope. An upright base card here tells you their hopes and that they have an optimistic outlook.

Environment or Near Past – This position covers the time from the near past to the present and shows how the subject's environment has affected them in a positive or negative way. It also gives information on if factors in the environment are helping that person or hindering them.

Self Image or Far Past – This position gives you an idea of the subject's self-image derived from their history. If it is reversed then the subject's view of him or herself is wrong and the opposite is actually the truth.

As you can tell there is lots of information you can get that can magically change yourself or others by doing a Celtic Cross reading. Basic Magic 3 not only teaches you how to do these readings, interpret the cards and prepare your tarot deck, it also teaches you to do the more detailed 12 card readings and then how to use the tarot for spellwork. This is a fascinating form of divination that can truly help you find answers and solutions to those questions and problems that arise in your life. If this sounds good to you, then take a look at our Basic Magic Courses and start your magical journey today.

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What Will Your New Year Bring?

Do you know what the new year will bring for you? Not sure? Itching to know? Then a Tarot reading might be just the thing. The Tarot, as practiced at the Esoteric School, connects the entire Universe to the Tarot deck, in essence shrinking the pertinent factors of the Universe's effect on your life to a manageable size--a reading. Don't know how to throw a Tarot reading? Then give yourself the gift of our Tarot Course this holiday. It's simple, fun, effective, and, best of all, will give you a heads up on what to expect in the coming year.

How Tarot Works
The Tarot is a method of divination that gives you a direct way of obtaining information by psychic or magical means that are not available to the physical five senses. Magical divination can be used to direct our fates. By throwing tarot spreads for various situations in your life and interpreting tarot card meanings, you can discover the influences, energies and probability lines active in your life that pertain to the specific situation. With this information you can see what influences are affecting your situation and know where to make changes to affect the outcomes in your future lines if you want to. This is why the Tarot is such a valuable tool. Since the future is not pre-destined, you can change the future any time before it happens and using tarot spreads gives you the information you need to decide if and what you want to change.

Making the Tarot Personalized
One of the ways we make Tarot readings more precise and more personalized to a particular person is to use a signifier card that represents and is keyed to a specific person or a specific issue, question or situation. Some of the information we use to select a signifier for a person are the Sun sign and the age of the person. There are exceptions to this method of selection, but it is a place to start. Here are the signs that correspond to the suit of card and age that relates to cards.

Sun Sign Signifier Selection Guidelines:
Air (Wands):
Gemini
Libra
Aquarius

Fire (Swords):
Aries
Leo
Saggitarius

Water (Cups):
Cancer
Scorpio
Pisces

Earth (Discs):
Taurus
Virgo
Capricorn

Age Signifier Selection Guidelines:
Page – Conception to teenager
Knight – Teenager
Queen – Adult female
King – Adult male

Situational Signifiers
Signifier cards can also be selected for situations and conditions. Some examples of signifiers for situations include:

Ace of Discs – money, the economy, body health
Ace of Swords – spirit vitality
Ace of Wands – mental health
Sun – general health (spiritual, mental, emotional and physical)
Justice – legal matters, lawsuits, legislation
Devil – large or long term material contracts, birth vision, spiritual contracts
8 Discs – job, work, business
10 Cups – marriage – emotional, family
4 Wands – marriage – mental
2 Cups – lovers, relationships, intimate emotional or passionate couple relationships
8 Wands – travel by air
3 Discs – career plans
3 Cups – friendships, emotional sharing among friends

As you can tell there is a lot involved in learning the Tarot, but it is a fascinating and fun magical study that can really pay off in giving you a way to take control of your future and your life. What a great gift to give yourself! Make it your New Year's resolution to learn the Tarot this year. It's easy to work into your own time and at your own pace with our online course.

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Magic 2013: Magic 2012 is Over... What Now?

In the past year we have discussed a great deal about magic 2012--in other words, the transition into the Age of Aquarius, the renewal of the Mayan calendar, the interval represented by the year 2012.

You have probably noticed that 2012 is over... so what now? Simple, we move on to magic 2013. Magic 2013 is all about a different kind of magic, and very different from magic 2012. Before we dive in, though, let's take a quick look at the past year.

Magic 2012: A Recap
Magic 2012 is probably best described, in magical terms, as an interval. For those of you who are familiar with music or the piano keyboard, an interval is very much like the half-step between two white keys. For those not familiar with the piano keyboard, don't worry. We will explain.

Magically, an interval is a pause in the octave of time. Within this pause, much happens magically. First, it is a time of massive change (and the chaos that can often accompany such a large change). In the Tarot, this is represented by the Tower card. In terms of world change, 2012 represented the first world change in which the planet itself did not bear the effects of the change. In previous world changes, the planet suffered from Wind, Fire, Water and other massive elemental pressures. Entire species were wiped out during such changes, and poles often shifted, with North and South poles changing places. You can imagine the chaos.

The year 2012 was the first world change in which humans were the ones to bear the effects of the world change that is the inevitable result of one age ending and another beginning. Humans elected, a long time ago, to shoulder the burden as a race. In effect, we humans agreed to become a Universal "experiment" to see whether we could use this world change to evolve as a species and avoid being wiped out (as were so many species in past world changes).

Many beings from other planetary systems in the Universe were curious about the results of this experiment and came to bear witness. Some have been walking among us for a few years or a few decades. Others chose not to incarnate and are simply watching from afar.

Magic 2012: What About You?
So that is the historical perspective of magic 2012. But what about you personally? How did you handle the magic of 2012, and how did you use it?

On a personal level, magic 2012 was about seeing, exploring, and moving through our blind spots. The interval presented the perfect opportunity to make big changes in our lives. The process would have been chaotic, fraught with high emotions, and more than a little scary. But if you DID choose to make major life changes in 2012, you will find 2013 to be a major breeze!

The funny aspect of making changes in 2012 is that while it would have had major benefits for you in the coming years (2013 included), it probably looked to outsiders that you were having the worst year ever. The people we witnessed making the biggest changes and advances in their Spirit paths suffered calamities on all levels: physical, financial, emotional, and mental.

But--and this is huge--these same people also found that the calamities caused them to ask for help from all kinds of sources. The result? These people were literally buried by an avalanche of help. Angels, Spirit guides, helpful people from unexpected quarters, totems, and even some of those observers from other planetary systems all stepped up and gave help, assistance, guidance, information, clarity, and so much more. The affected people were surprised, overwhelmed, grateful, and amazed. And they built some very crucial relationships with allies on many levels.

If you were one of the people who elected to make major life changes in 2012, then you know exactly what we mean. Now, let's move on to magic 2013.

Magic 2013... What Now?
So 2013 is definitely upon us and moving at the speed of light. In case you have not noticed, time has sped up since the change in 2012. Everything is faster in this new age. You ask, and the Universe delivers--right now! So be careful how you think and for what you ask. Karma is also the other factor that has sped up. Remember that Beatles' song about "Instant Karma"? We are now living in the age of instant karma. So do try to keep your side of the street clean! You will definitely know if you have failed to do so!

What is happening to those who made major changes in 2012? We said above that life is a breeze for those people... and it is, compared to the rest of the world, that is. Those efforts made at life changes will definitely bring major benefits. However, life will continue to be inconvenient and "stuff" will still happen. The difference is that there is plenty of Universal help and support out there--you just have to ask. In addition, any magic done in 2013 will be greatly amplified and powerful. If life presents you with situations that seems crazy and impossible, look to allies and magic this year as powerful forms of recourse and adjustment.

What is happening to those who chose NOT to take advantage of the 2012 interval? It varies. For those who just want to live mechanical life as always, nothing much will change. Life may get a little more inconvenient, but since they are not really participating in the great experiment of humanity, nothing much changes for them. For those who are conscious and cultivating, change is still possible in 2013... it will just be more difficult and more painful. Part of the reason is that time has sped up in 2013, so the Universe is less forgiving, in a way, of errors in judgment. In actuality, it just means that karma comes around faster than before (not that the Universe is punishing anyone!).

If you have chosen to be spiritually conscious and find yourself coming up against some major barriers in your life, should you still attempt to make major changes in yourself and your life in 2013? Absolutely. Time is only going to keep speeding up and karma is going to keep coming around faster and faster. As inconvenient and painful as changing in 2013 may be (as compared to 2012) the benefits will still be useful.

Our advice? Ask for Universal help (angels, totems, Spirit guides) as much as possible. Look for signs of positive change and guidance everywhere (where you least expect). Do as much magic on a daily basis as possible, since we are moving out of the material world and into a much more energy-based magical world. And when life gets inconvenient and painful, practice acceptance as much as possible, realizing that this is simply the price to pay into change. The results will be definitely worth it -- hundreds of times over!



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The Tower Card in Tarot Readings - What It Means

Recently I did a Tarot reading for a client who has been having a lot of trouble with accidents, like fender benders and such. This client was so banged-up and bruised from all of his recent misfortunes that he asked for a reading to find out what was going on.

Not surprisingly, in both the present-time and progressed Tarot readings for this client, the Tower card showed up, both times upright. A lot of practitioners of magic shudder when they see the Tower card because they think it automatically means chaos. It does, sort of, but it means something more specific than that.

The Tower card talks about complete material disorganization or chaos, caused by spiritual forces beyond one's control. The world is obviously experiencing a lot of chaos and change right now, as we approach the end of a cycle on the Mayan calendar and prepare to enter the next. The Tower card talks about chaos coming into people's life from the outer world. As you can see on the card itself, the lightning comes into the picture from the outside world.

The Tower Card Upright in a Tarot Reading
These days, when the Tower card appears upright in a reading, it means that a big change is coming that you should be prepared for. Sometimes this means a natural disaster, and sometimes death, but in most cases it is just a warning to be prepared for a major change in your environment.

In the case of my client for whom I was doing the Tarot reading, the Tower card indicated that he wasn't being aware of his surroundings. He needs to be more conscious of the Law of Accident at work around him. The Law of Accident says that if we don't have a strong intention and focus, then we fall prey to "accidental and coincidental" occurrences, like fender-benders. The Law of Accident is more at work during these times of extreme change than at other times. Luckily, nothing serious had happened to him, and he is going use some daily rituals to focus his intent and be more aware of his surroundings.

The Tower Card Reversed in a Tarot Reading
If the Tower appears as a reversed card in a Tarot reading, then the implications are different. If it's reversed, then you need to start looking at whether you have broken any Rules of the Road (the laws that govern magical practice) or whether there is something karmic going on. Maybe you've gotten crosswise with a deity.

If you see a reversed Tower card, do some exploration, through divination or possibly a blow-up Tarot reading, to find out what the situation is about. During this time of world upheaval, it's important to correct situations like this as quickly as possible. Luckily, the world is also much more plastic or flexible right now, so correcting situations may be easier than you think.

A Few Additional Notes About the Tower Card
The severity of the change or chaos indicated by the Tower isn't necessarily related to whether the Tower card is upright or reversed. Whether the card is upright or reversed merely tells you what kind of change you are dealing with. Remember that that Tower card represents changes appearing in the outer world, and often reflects deity-level changes. This card has shown up a lot in recent years, tying in with world and galactic changes. Changes indicated by the Tower card can be violent or drastic, and are simply a warning for us to be prepared. The Tower card isn't bad, it's just a warning to be aware.

Want to Learn More About the Tarot?
The Tarot is an infinitely deep study of magic. The Tarot can be used for divination, spells, spell take-downs, and many other forms of magic. If you would like to learn more about how to use the Tarot, consider joining our upcoming Basic Magic class or learning with our home-study Tarot Course.

Basic Magic
Home Study Tarot Course
Recommended Tarot Decks

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How to Figure Out If Your Magic Spell Will Work

This may seem like a "Well, duh!" title but you would be surprised at the number of people who write and launch magic spells without first figuring out whether the spell will work. My question to those folks? Why go to all the trouble to do a spell when you don't even know if it will work? It seems like a waste of time and energy.

The good news is that a little divination is all you need to figure out whether your magic spell will be effective. The type of divination you use should depend on the size and complexity of the spell you want to launch. Here are three types of divination that you can use to predict the effectiveness of your spell, listed from simplest to most complex:

1. Pendulum
2. Question Circle
3. Tarot Reading

Pendulum
For simple magic spells, you can use your pendulum to do simple "Yes/No" testing on whether your spell will be effective. You can also use your pendulum with a 1-10 scale and ask it to tell you the level of effectiveness of your spell for solving your problem. To do this, you will need to swing your pendulum over a sheet of paper with 1-10 arranged in a circle. Be sure to be clear whether 10 means least effective or most effective. Ask your pendulum to rate the effectiveness of the spell and then decide whether the spell is worth your effort.

Question Circle
With a question circle you can ask the Winds of the four directions about the effectiveness of your spell. There are a lot of ways to do question circle, but here are the basic steps:

1. Cleanse the area by smudging or using some other method
2. Formulate the question you will ask each direction, such as, "How effective will this spell be and what can I do to make it more effective?"
3. Starting in the east, go to that direction and sit facing the direction. Ask the question out loud and have pen and paper ready to record the results.

Each direction will give you a different kind of answer. The east will give you thoughts, ideas, and ways to improve the lines of communication in your spell. The south will give you action steps and ways to increase the power of your spell. The west will tell you about feelings, emotions, and spiritual insight. The north will offer answers regarding the strength and perseverance of your magic spell. Using these answers you can improve your spell before launching it.

Tarot Reading
For the most complex spells a series of tarot readings always helps you determine the exact effect of your magic spell. Tarot readings, especially 12-card types, will show cause-effect flow lines. You will be able to determine exactly how the spell will work (i.e., which part of your situation will be most affected and how) and how effective it will be. If a cause-effect flow line in the reading shows very little change or a lot of resistance that cannot be overcome, you will need to change your spell to address these issues. Tarot readings are best for single and multiple candle spells that handle many complex issues. I also recommend that you do tarot readings on any symbols, chants, or litanies you are going to use in your spell.

For most spells simple divination will do the trick. A little extra planning and guidance before you launch your spell can save you the hassle of having to take down a good spell that has gone bad and prevent you from wasting your time on a spell that won't work. Good luck!