trying new things « Seeking: first Pagan steps and tools

Tarot introduction

By jenett, on April 24th, 2011

Many books have been written on the topic of Tarot, so this is only a very general summary – essentially, enough to make some sense out of the questions “Why might I be interested?” and “When I read conversations about it, what are these terms people are using?”

What is Tarot?

The word ‘Tarot’ (generally pronounced either TA-row or ta-ROW, but not rhyming with carrot) is used to describe a particular configuration of a deck of 78 cards. These cards are something like a deck of playing cards with bonus additions – the bulk of the deck is divided into four suits (just like playing cards) though with different symbols.

The Tarot came into being through several sources, but the earliest decks similar to modern ones mostly date from Renaissance Europe, and the most widely used deck structure/symbology (the Rider-Waite, drawn by Pamela Coleman-Smith) comes from the turn of the 20th century.

A deck generally includes:

Two main divisions: the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana.
22 Major Arcana cards, sometimes called trumps, provide larger, more important, overarching ideas for the deck. These have a general order, but different decks sometimes change specific pieces of the order or symbology.
Four suits (of 14 cards each) make up the Minor Arcana. These are often designed as swords, wands, cups, and pentacles (each tied to a particular element), but some decks vary this too.
Each suit has the ace through ten cards you’d expect from a playing card deck.
But each suit also has four court cards – most commonly described as page, knight, queen, and king (but again, there are lots of variations.)

The Rider-Waite deck, the many decks using it as a base, and many other decks have pictures or scenes relevant to the card meaning on every card, but some decks do not (and only have pictures for the Major Arcana and court cards).

More loosely, the term Tarot can get used for any deck of 78 cards broken into Major and Minor Arcana. There are many other divination decks out there (commonly called oracle decks) that have different structures.

How do you use a Tarot deck?

One way to use a deck is for meditation or reflection – you select a card (either randomly, or with a particular goal in mind) and then meditate on it, reflect, or otherwise use it to focus your attention in some way. Some people draw a card every day, for example.

Perhaps a more common way is by doing a reading. In this, you:

May begin by framing a specific question (“What should I be aware of today?” “What should I know about this job interview?” “What might my next year hold?”)
Laying out a number of cards, often in a specific pattern (called a spread). Spreads may assign a particular meaning or area to each card, and by looking at which cards end up in which places, you can get a more precise reading.
You then interpret the cards in various ways, generally by looking at what’s there, how they interrelate, and also, in some cases, what isn’t there that you might have anticipated.

It’s often considered bad form (and not very useful) to do multiple readings on the exact same question over and over (many people find that the cards start producing nonsense after a while), but you can adjust your question, draw clarifying cards, etc. if a reading doesn’t initially make sense.

How you interpret the cards is often done by combining various information from the individual cards and the spread as a whole. Different readers will use a wide range of tools – some will use the same approaches every time, others will vary depending on what’s useful. (However, in general, a common goal is to get beyond needing to check the book about a deck’s meanings every reading…)

Some approaches include:

Traditional card meanings: each card has some traditional or common meanings. A reader can look at these in relationship to the other cards in the spread – for example, that the Ace of Pentacles might be the beginning of a new project or creation, especially something tied to money or prosperity or growth.

Intuitive reading relies more on the reader’s sense of each card, which may be quite different from the traditional meaning. This can be done with almost any deck, but it’s particularly popular with decks that have moved away from the Rider-Waite structure

Symbols are often used to convey the meanings of a card. A pomegranate on the High Priestess card calls to mind the descent and return of Persephone. A particular flower might be drawn on a card to remind the reader of trust or love. Particular colors might encourage someone to think of activity and engagement, or of rest and relaxation.

Numerology is a subset of symbology – some people pay particular attention to the way numbers interact in a spread (for example, fours are normally considered a number of stability, but not always in a way that makes growth or change easy.)

Suits can also indicate relationships within a reading. For example, a spread with many Cups in it might indicate that the issues are about emotions, intuition, relationships, etc. rather than, say, intellectual understanding, prosperity, or direct action.

Reversals happen when a card is upside down when it shows up in the spread. (from the normal position for that card.) Some people ignore these entirely, but others read them in various ways – depending on the person, they may be read as an opposite meaning to the card’s upright position, may indicate a block or limitation in that card’s energy or focus, or may have some other adaptation of the upright meaning.

There are some more advanced approaches, too. Elemental dignities look at how the elements of each card in the spread interact with each other. Some people assign an astrological sign to each card, and look at how those signs and their ruling plants interact. Some people look at the images on each card – for example, if a figure is pointing or gesturing, does that point at another card in the spread?

Predestination or advice?

One thing that can be confusing about divination what to do with the information. Most modern Tarot readers (and other users of divination tools) consider that what we learn in divination tells us about ourselves and our situation, and shows us the choices that are most likely right now. However, it doesn’t tell us what will happen – just what seems most likely at the moment we did the reading.

Of course, we can change our situation by making different choices – and often, the simple act of doing a reading and getting information or ideas to think about may change the situation in various ways

Myths about readings:

There are a lots of myths and superstitions out there about Tarot and doing readings – some people have very specific routines they do before doing a reading (laying out a cloth, shuffling in a specific way a specific number of times.) Some people find these very helpful for setting an intention, but there are lots of ways to do good readings.

One note is that some people are fine with people handling their cards, but many people prefer to be asked first. Some decks may be out of print or fragile. Other times, people want to be careful that the cards are only handled for a specific reading. Asking first is always polite.

Useful resources:

Books I’m particularly fond of include Barbara Moore’s Tarot for Beginners, Rachel Pollack’s Tarot Wisdom, and books about specific decks I’m using. (I started with the Robin Wood, which I still like, and am currently working a lot with the Shadowscapes Tarot. )
Aeclectic.net has a great FAQ and other information on their website (which is massive – everything from deck reviews to book reviews to articles, to extensive forums.)
Joan Bunning’s LearnTarot.com site also has some great information to get you started.

Am I ready?

By jenett, on April 10th, 2011

One question that comes up a lot is “How do I know when I’m ready to start doing X?” Here’s my answer.

It depends.

Specific paths and traditions and other groupings within those paths have their own limits. Sometimes these are practical: you can’t do certain rituals in my tradition, for example, until you’ve got the appropriate preparation *and* introductions to the relevant entities involved. And some are common practice, or good precautions to keep people getting in over their heads in ways that are hard to recover from – just like learning some basic food safety is important for people learning how to cook.

What’s your reason?

Does it have a purpose beyond “This is cool and I want to play with it?” Play can do a lot of good, but it’s also a really easy way to get in over your head without realising it. Having a very clear reason for doing something, and taking a lot of time to plan through it tends to help avoid that problem.

(Don’t just ask “what do I want to do?” but also “How am I going to make that happen” and “Why is this the right time for this thing”. In detail, step by step, and looking carefully at anything you couldn’t explain in simple words to a friendly person who had no idea what you were doing. Being able to explain it helps us understand stuff better.)

As you do more of it, the planning gets easier.

Do you have the right skills and tools?

I’m grouping them together because, like cooking, there’s a lot of mixing things up here. You can often substitute some skills for less ideal tools – or use better tools to prop up your skills.

(For example, I still haven’t mastered poaching an egg without using a little floating poaching cup. That’s ok: the tool substitutes for my lack of skill. There are times this doesn’t work, however: if you don’t know how to tell chicken is cooked safely, you’re going to be stuck if you cook it no matter how good your tools are.)

However, you still need to have enough of both to actually accomplish what you want. A ritual to welcome the new season is an entirely different sort of task than a complex ritual to address several specific needs with the help and assistance of other entities: there’s a lot more pieces involved in the latter.

(To go back to our cooking metaphor: the first one is like making a pleasant simple meal for yourself and the latter is like making a formal dinner for some people you want to impress who have very clear opinions about what they like and don’t like. You have a lot more choices and options for what ‘success’ looks like in the first one, usually, even though the second one may have a bunch of possible ways to go about it too.)

What skills do you need, anyway?

There are a number of ways to approach this, but here are some core skills that are widely applicable.

Care of yourself:
Can you start from and return to a healthy state for yourself, without unduly draining yourself of energy, will, or other useful things? Centering, grounding, and self-awareness are common skills here.

Definition of space:
In Wiccan-based practice, this is casting a circle, but that’s not the only possible means of defining a ritual space. This obviously has a bunch of smaller steps and it may take time to learn and practice the basics of each one before you can put them together. Again, like cooking a meal, you may need to learn how to chop things, cook them appropriately, season them, etc. before you combine them into one meal.

A good space (and method of stepping into ritual) will not only help you step into the ritual’s center – but it’ll help you step out and return to your daily life, too.

Whatever it is you want to do.
Candle magic is not precisely the same as knot magic is not the same as creating a magical artwork is not the same as using chanting or dancing or breath or meditation or whatever to focus your intention. Do you have appropriate skills, tools, and necessary knowledge and safety precautions for what you’re doing?

(The latter is especially important for anything you’re planning on eating, drinking, burning as incense, or applying to your skin. Check any substance you’re using these ways in multiple recent sources.)

A reasonable plan in case something goes wrong.
This is where reading and asking can help a lot. There are the practical things (a candle or glass getting knocked over, for example). There are the magical things (feeling jittery or drained after you’re done, for example, but there can be many more) There are some general things (figuring out how much time and preparation you need, finding a suitable space).

Some of these, you can plan ahead for, at least somewhat, based on reading and listening to others. Some will probably be things you learn about yourself as you go along.

(Good things to plan for include anything possible to get knocked over, for candles to blow in unpredictable directions and possibly go out.)

You might want to check out my page on safety for more ideas.

Can you get specific?

Specific makes for better and more effective ritual. So, for example, you say cleansing – do you want to cleanse yourself of a particular influence? The space you’re living in? Make good on something you’ve handled badly so you can move ahead?

All of those will have some similarities, but also some differences in how you approach them in spell and ritual work, and the more you’re clear about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, the easier it’ll be to come up with something effective but within your likely capabilities.

[last edited October 28, 2011]

‘right’ ways and ‘wrong’ ways

By jenett, on January 26th, 2011

One comment that I’ve seen a lot goes like this: “I know that there aren’t right or wrong ways to do ritual: it all depends on what works for me.”

My take on this is that it’s missing a dimension – and a very important dimension, at that.

The way that I look at ritual is that it’s a lot like cooking – and then eating – a meal. There are lots of parallels. Just like we have different kinds of meals in our life, we might have different kinds of ritual experiences.

Sometimes we’re filling an immediate practical need (we’re hungry)
Sometimes we want to create a space for people to gather (share with loved ones)
Sometimes we want to honor a particular event (celebration, birthday, whatever)
Sometimes we’re seeking comfort, or sensory pleasure.
Sometimes we enjoy cooking in and of itself: seeing how to do new things, or do them better, learning techniques, trying new combinations, etc.
And sometimes, it’s a habit – a thing we do because the habit carries us through times when we might not be thinking as clearly as we’d like (we’re tired, stressed, distracted by other events in our lives, etc.)

All of these can also apply to ritual – ritual can bring people together, give us a framework for something new or some new goal, clarify things in our own heads and experiences, get us through hard times because the habits sustain us and reassure us, and much much more.

The other way it’s like cooking:

Then there’s the other part. There are a whole bunch of ‘right’ ways to start with raw ingredients, cook, and turn it into something that will nourish and sustain you.

But there are also a bunch of wrong ways. There are the ways that just don’t make food you like – or food you really want to eat right now. But there are also ways that are actually dangerous: approaches that mean you risk food poisoning or eating dangerous mushrooms, or all sorts of other things like that.

What’s even trickier is that these methods aren’t all interchangeable. If you have your heart set on a roast chicken, knowing how to make a great loaf of bread isn’t going to help with that – they’re different cooking techniques, and while some stuff (turning on the oven, keeping an eye on the time) overlap, lots of them don’t. (Bread does not need precautions in handling raw meat, for one thing!)

And even when things are sort of similar, there can be important differences. There are only a few ingredients different between some cake recipes and some savory bread recipes – or between cake and brownies – but boy, do those few ingredients (and the techniques) make a big difference. If you really want cake, bread won’t satisfy – and if you only ate cake, you’d be missing some stuff in your diet.

So, part of what I teach about ritual is knowing what you want as your outcome. Sometimes, it’s a very open-ended thing (“I want to spend time with my Gods”.) Sometimes it’s magical work (in which case, the rest of your ritual and actions outside of ritual had better be supporting it). Sometimes it’s trying to figure out something, becoming more self-aware. But the ritual tools you use for each of these might be quite different. Or they might be different at different times in your life. Or when you’re doing stuff by yourself versus with other people. Or all sorts of other things.

My tradition (which is Wiccan-influenced, but not Wiccan, the way I use the term) gives me a lot of tools for making all kinds of ritual ‘meals’, and I choose and adapt based on other factors. (Including the fact that there are a few rituals in the tradition which need to be done in certain ways at certain times of year).

When I’m working on my own, I’m still influenced by all the things I learned with my tradition training – why toss good techniques out of my repertoire when I don’t need to. But when I’m doing trad stuff, doing it the ‘right way’ for the trad – using the recipe that everyone else uses, in other words – is important to me, too.

How techniques connect:

The final thing to think about is how different techniques connect. Individual techniques can be very meaningful but not fit very well together when they’re next to each other. Imagine a ritual where you had a very simple circle cast, followed by a completely intricate and ceremonial magical working, and then finished with something light and social with a totally different focus. That ritual would probably feel pretty disjointed.

(I have been in rituals that combined a variety of different tools and techniques successfully, but the places where it worked were always those that had an extremely clear focus – a wedding, in particular, sticks in my mind.)

So, when you’re looking at how you’re going to be doing things, you want to make sure the pieces fit with each other. Think of it like creating a playlist on your computer: you might put music from very different styles next to each other, but you’d want to have a good reason to do that. Or if you’re cooking a meal, you might cook a meal that had Indian and Mexican and Thai dishes with a side of macaroni and cheese – but you’d want a good reason for that (maybe your guest of honor’s favorite foods) or it would be a little weird.

If you’re not sure, it’s usually easier and smoother to keep things in more or less the same style and focus and level of complexity, and adjust the entire ritual rather than individual pieces. As you get more experience, you’ll have more of a sense of how to make the transitions work more smoothly.

This is also important for safety reasons. When you’re working within a particular strand of practice, different parts of that practice will help support the way that practice works. So, for example, the circle casting process might include steps that will support a particular kind of work especially well. Or make it easier to return from a ritual or trance state fully and safely. If you change one part of the practice without understanding the full picture, you might leave out important steps.

Feeling silly

By jenett, on January 1st, 2011

When you read books about Wicca or witchcraft, you see lots of them talk about doing some specific motions, or saying some words. Often, those things seem pretty silly.

And yet, lots of books talk about them. And so do lots of teachers, and lots of groups that have been doing this for a while. So there must be something in the robes and the tools and the standing there saying poetry, and chanting. What’s up with that?

My theory is that it has to do with four things:

Getting your brain out of everyday thoughts and actions.
Using multiple senses.
Engaging your subconscious and other parts of your mind.
And sometimes, the specific actions work for specific reasons.

Continue reading Feeling silly

Ways you learn

By jenett, on November 22nd, 2010

One concept in educational theory that’s gotten a lot of attention in the last decade or so is the idea of multiple intelligences – the idea that different people learn best in different ways.

The research is a little more complicated, but my own experience, and those of students (both in Pagan settings and in school settings) I’ve worked with suggests that even if it doesn’t make the learning quantitatively ‘better’, it definitely makes it more pleasant. And there are some places – like learning to work with energy, or meditation – where knowing your learning style preferences really helps.

Continue reading Ways you learn

Learning about a deity

By jenett, on November 17th, 2010

Just like being open to friendships, or a romantic relationship, we can choose to be open to the presence of a deity (or deities) in our lives.

Continue reading Learning about a deity

Critical reading and Pagan books

By jenett, on November 7th, 2010

[author's note: I wrote this essay in 2001, very early on in my serious exploration in the Pagan community. Since then, I've had far more group work, finished a Master's in Library and Information Science, and have had a lot of thoughts about how I might edit and expand the information in this essay. I haven't done so yet, but want current readers to know that while I still agree with what's in here, it's not what and how I'd write the essay today.]

Critical thinking and Pagan books

I’d like to talk about how to critically evaluate the books that you read, and why it is important to do this.

This is particularly complicated when we talk about Pagan books, because many people who write Pagan books and materials are writing about things they’ve experienced, and about a religion or practice in which there are traditionally accepted concepts and a strong oral tradition. Many authors don’t reference where they learned their ideas – or in many cases, they learned it from a teacher, who learned it from another teacher, who learned it from someone else.

That doesn’t mean that this kind of learning (or their experiences) are any less true or valid (or that it’s any less powerful when used in ritual) – but it does make it very difficult to determine what to question or where to find more information. As well, there are times when accuracy of information can be very important, such as in toxic effects of herbs, or other possible dangers.

Continue reading Critical reading and Pagan books

Some first steps

By jenett, on October 28th, 2010

Here’s a guide to how some of your initial learning and exploration might go, along with a few other tips. Basically, it’s all about taking your time, being gentle with yourself (and those around you), learning how you learn, and seeking out multiple sources.

Continue reading Some first steps