YouTube - Balthazar's Conjure: When the cards are just plain WRONG and the magic of the significator card

I've watched this video a few minutes ago now, and I'm still sitting here shaking my head, and experiencing a profound DUH! moment.



I've never been one to use personal significators within tarot because a) it takes that card out of play - you won't get the benefit of its influence/ meaning within the spread, and b) I never saw the point. And up until now, no one has ever presented me with a good enough reason to change my mind.

But if you add magick into the mix, and its power to attract the "right" cards - now I'm listening! This puts a whole new spin on things.

(So, yeah, yet another Balthazar video. I can't help it. I just click with his ideas. #sorrynotsorry )

I've been thinking, and having thunk...

(This relates back to my previous post, where I began to look at why I don't read with my cards more...)

... One thing that struck me is that I love my cards. Really love them. All of them.

I love to touch them, look at them, aimlessly shuffle them. I've arranged my personal space so that I am virtually surrounded by all of them. They make me feel happy and cosy and safe. Sacred space.

They all have individual voices, and one or another calls to me from time to time. And then I want to take it from its resting place and sit with it, talk to it, look into its "eyes". Do I want to do a reading with it? Not necessarily. Sometimes my hands will pull a few cards without my conscious direction. Other times I'll just commune with its essence for a while.

I'm trying make sense of this by relating it to relationships I might have with other inanimate objects. The only thing that's similar is my connection with crystals and stones.

Sometime I'll deliberately work with a specific crystal, applying its particular energies to a situation. But very often I'll just get the seemingly random urge to put one somewhere in my space or wear one or hold one in my hand for a while. They also sit near me, and are dotted here and there on the decks I have out, not to enhance or protect them, although I'm sure they do, but simply because they called to each other.

Maybe I don't read as much as I think I "should" because my connection with cards is less about divination and more about magick. My decks are sacred objects, talismans, spiritual companions.

And I think that's where I need to start...

What is witchcraft? Who is a witch?

Benebell Wen introduced a topic that got my cogs turning...



I was moved to make the following comment -
From my perspective, witchcraft is anything that uses intention to influence or change reality, be that religious prayer, channelling reiki, visualisation, burning a candle...
For the person making the intention, however, it’s only witchcraft if they identify as a witch.
By the same token, if someone identifies as a witch, they are a witch. I don’t care if they don’t display any of the characteristics I personally would associate with witchiness.
It’s a mindset, a way of being. By consciously adopting a particular way of connecting with reality, however you perceive it, you become part of that reality.

I noted that these were just my very quick thoughts on the subject and that they'll need refinement. For instance, I think I'd drop the "consciously" from that last statement. But hey, it's a start.
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I identify as a witch.

I was "witchy"as a child. But of course, I wasn't aware of it. I didn't even feel particularly different to other kids. It was just the way I interacted with my environment. It was only as I got older that I noticed that other people didn't always respond to things in quite the same way I did. And later still before I discovered labels to apply to my "responses".

As a young adult, looking for my place in society, I decided it would be best to steer my mysticism into something fairly mainstream so as not to be completely on my own. This was many years before the internet, with its easy access to more "fringe" communities.

I eventually settled on Liberal Quakerism, with its unprogrammed worship and emphasis on the Inner or Inward Light. And I was very happy there for quite a few years.

But over time, my focus shifted back to more solitary mystical practices. And now here I am today, practising witchcraft and calling myself a witch. And old enough to be quite comfortable with being "on my own".
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I'd love to hear your thoughts on this subject, so if this has gotten your cogs turning, please comment.

What a team

Tarot Balbi, using Eudes Picard's* meanings: A collaboration will give birth to a woman who earns her money in an unusual way.

Backstory:

1) Taliesin McKnight recently posted a video about Sigil Magick and encouraged viewers to give it a try. I thought "Why not?", so I scratched around for something to manifest and decided on "It is my will to make money reading cards." New decks don’t pay for themselves. 

2) During a guided meditation one of my spirit guides, Daisy, reappeared after a long absence.

3) I'm taking part in the #WithinWithoutAdvice Tarot challenge on Instagram and decided to pull three cards asking Daisy if she had anything she wanted to tell me.

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*Using only this deck for a few weeks has been very useful, as it’s drawn to my attention that Balbi (or whoever actually wrote the LWB) redefined a fair number of the cards while staying somewhat true to Picard’s images, which has led to some weird visual mismatches.

So having translated almost all the Spanish, I find I now have to translate all the French. But when I'm done I intend to share my findings here. So if you're at all interested in the Tarot Balbi, watch this space.

Side note: Yes, I do have a candle labelled "Spirit Team" - what of it? LOL! I burn it for a short time every morning to "check in". And the crystal is the one I've charged to aid me in connecting with them.