So much to come…

When we step into the fire of our own power, we allow that energy not to burn us up, but harness it as fuel so we can fully develop and use all the gifts granted to us by Spirit and the Ancestors.

A couple of days ago I was just playing around with some tarot spreads and suddenly the idea came to me to combine my best CPTSD book and tarot. I decided to create a tarot spread based on Pete Walker’s 13 Steps to Managing an Emotional Flashback. The resulting spread ended up like this:

I will make another post of my own reading of this spread and link it here but the point of this post is that Spirit has really been calling – no, demanding – that I do more with my craft and gifts than serve myself. My immediate natural response was to begin to think of ways to offer free readings to others but Spirit said no – if I don’t value my time, I’m stealing from myself, my family, and also messing with the supply and demand curves of the field of tarot reading and other magickal offerings.

So I’m listening to Spirit. I’m admittedly very new to the witchy ways. Or at least, new to calling myself a witch. But I’m not getting any younger and at 47 years old, the only way I’ll be able to say I have decades of experience someday is if I start today. Actually now.

I’m stepping into all that witchy power and magick with the confidence we all tell ourselves we should have. I’m living the truth, to make it true. I’m not doing this for income, as I view this simply as a value service that others will request if they want it and feel called. I’m simply making my services available. This feels right, I won’t waste my time giving away free services to everyone as I have in the past with other businesses. I’ve learned that serious clients never result from “free” because the value is not there for them. It’s not their “jam”. I have spent almost a half century on this planet and have vast experience in lifelong and childhood trauma, handling unusual family dynamics, and learning to let go of toxic relationships – including friendships – to make room for so much better. What wisdom I’ve gained is now filtered through the lens of tarot and Witchcraft in hindsight, giving me plenty to offer to anyone who feels called to ask.

I’ve spent the last eight months learning and growing my practice including paid courses. I’ve listened to and taken courses with Tarot for the Wild Soul Podcast Host Lindsay Mack. And I even “got taken” by a certain online witch and tarot school who I will not name here, in the spirit of keeping this positive. My deepest gratitude goes to Lindsay Mack for being the real shit and for deepening my practice quicker than I ever could have imagined.

All of this is to say, I’ve invested so much time not only reading and practicing, but deeply studying tarot and witchcraft, searching for an approach that works best for me. And in that pursuit, I’ve discovered a combination approach that has had such empowering results for me, I feel compelled to share, share, share with anyone else who has experienced trauma and feels called to or curious about witchcraft and the tarot.

My approach is not to reproduce or repackage any of the ways of the practitioners I’ve mentioned here. I refer you to them to learn their ways (and rush to their sites for far more experience in their specific areas), for I will not teach or replicate their ways in my offerings, though I absolutely am inspired and influenced in my practice by their ways. The offerings I wish to share are more focused on how I’ve combined my intensive trauma reading, therapy (including EMDR therapy), and sacred space devotion with tarot, witchcraft, and magick. And these tools in my toolkit are expanding and changing by the day, so I’d be naive to think they won’t change – some falling to the wayside, some being developed more fully.

But the entire point is that I’ve started somewhere and created something that feels unique and powerful. I’ve never had so many powerful tools at my disposal to assist me in my trauma recovery. And as such, I feel compelled to share what I can with the general public and to offer services that help expand that toolkit when time and life constraints make it impossible to offer without a reasonable fee.

I’ve also been asked to offer magickal spell jars I created for a close friend in a very difficult situation. She has had a powerful reaction to them and they have become vital to her during this awful situation. I may offer these in the future, though I’m going to have to consider logistics first. For now, you can view the photos and create similar jars for yourself, using your intuition, but based upon what you see here…and yes, those are oracle cards spellbound with twine inside one of the jars! The exact recipes aren’t important – I put three hours of spell casting, meditation, and intention into creating these jars, while led by spirit. They have the power of the universe channeled in them, intentionally speaking, because that is the only power great enough to beat what she is facing.

I am also an agnostic, science-based witch. Which is different than most and perhaps a seeming contradiction, except it’s actually not and I am not alone. While my practice looks familiar, I have an entire construct of work I’ve developed pertaining to such questions and concerns I’ve struggled with or considered since remembering that I’m a witch. I now have a very long list of topics in a notebook that I’ll begin to cover here on the blog shortly. Here are some of the topics you will be able to find here soon:

The Tao of Witchcraft by @opheliawildwonder

• Atheism, Agnosticism, Science & Witchcraft • Appropriating Witchcraft? • Trauma & Witchcraft • How to Do Witchcraft as an Agnostic or Atheist • Tarot for the Atheist Witch • Glamour Magick as Self-Therapy • Sleep Magick & EMDR Dreams • Elemental Magick • Perspective Magick • Shadow Work Magick for Healing Trauma • Ancestral Trauma • Scientific Literature on Witchcraft • EMDR & Witchcraft • Much More!