hogwartstarot

[hogwartstarot]

My Spiderweb Spread! I posted a hasty version on my old blog @thewrittenwitch but never got around to making a half decent graphic, so here you go! I use this when a card keeps popping up in readings and I can’t make sense of it.

[hogwartstarot]

Gratitude Practice #5: Legeremancy

In looking for things to appreciate and feeling gratitide for I have experienced moments where I am blocked from achieving those feelings. Sometimes it feels unnatural to be in gratefulness and other high-energy feelings. They feel like they are alien to me.

One morning I woke up and tried to get into looking for things to feel grateful for. The room was quiet. I laid there thinking hard, my husband sound asleep by my side.

"I am grateful for him being with me" I told myself silently, but it felt weak.

It wasn't that I am not grateful for him to be there with me. It's that the constant reminder of his illness poisons the feeling and makes me feel scared. Scared of losing him.

Still, I laid there quite quiet.

Maybe if I talked to God, the Universe, the Everything, and told him or her everything that worried me I would feel better. Maybe I needed to get things off my chest. So I began my feeble prayer: "God, listen, I want to speak to you..."

And suddenly I was cut down short by a strange feeling. That still voice within myself, that every now and again I get to hear, that is way more chill than me and makes me thinking that it always knows better, was at it again.

I really can't explain why these words occured to me, but in my mind (or soul?) I could understand them: "No. We have done that already. Now it's your turn to listen".

And I laid there, motionless, because it occured to me to just continue to be quiet. It was as if I was waiting for some sort of signal. All that could be heard were my husband's deep breaths and the machine to which he was connected to for his daily dyalisis treatment.

I was waiting for something to happen. What was suppossed to be that? I didn't know. Everything continued to be just as quiet, except my husband breathing, sound asleep, and the machine and suddenly I thought... I thought his breath was what I was supposed to listen to: it was a precious gift for me to wake up to, hear him breath, because it meant that he was still alive, he was still there with me.

It wasn't until I heared again the dyalisis machine that it occured to me that God was speaking through the noises of the machine. Not words. He was the machine to give him life, and he was the lungs of my husband, and his beating heart as well. My husband was blessed and I was as well.

All things were Him. He was the walls that kept us safe. He was also the ceiling that gave us shelter. He is the food in the fridge and he was the bed that kept us lovingly in place until we were well-rested.

He was the car that drove me to my job and brought me back home. He was the money and the bills, the music and the images. He was my husband and then He also was me when life wanted to show my husband that he was loved: I gave him the message every time I smiled at him and held him close to me. And my husband gave me that message when he did the same for me.

God or the Universe or whatever you want to call It, talks daily through everything that surrounds us. He is the chair and the stove, the fire and the gas, the electricity and the windows. He was the door as much as he was the key.

And I powerfully realized, my face stricken with joyful and painful tears, that I always had things to be grateful for and will always have them as long as I were alive, and even after. The powerful feeling that dawned on me at that moment came from catching a glimpse of this mind-shattering, ego-busting, beyond-rationality, neverending, ppwerful and magnificent love that is there, in plain sight and deep within everyday life. I smiled knowing that All-That-Is is always speaking to us, in different languages and sounds and even in silnece, but conveying still the same message time and time again:

I love you.

How to do Legeremancy:

Just realize that everything surrounding you is there to love you. Everything, big, small, mundane, magical, man-made, natural, mind stuff, the smile from others, a token from a friend and the good that comes from you to give, all that you are now and all that others are.

So, whenever you are practicing Gratitude and struggle to find things to feel grateful for, use Legeremancy and read and know the truth: All-That-Is loves you. It always does.

[hogwartstarot]

what a ride this has been

The Felix Felicis Factor Pt. 4

We are about to analyze Dr Wiseman's Fourth Luck Principle through the lenses of the Practice of Gratitude.

I have shared my insights thus far and I intend to wrap up this series of posts with this one. So, without further ado let us brew us some luck.

Dr Richard Wiseman's Fourth Luck Principle states that "Lucky people are able to transform their bad luck into good fortune."

My experiences with seeing the positive side of anything

If it didn't killed me then it was fortunate. That was for many years during my late teens a thought I had. Sure, I was still single and the boy I had a crush on did not loved me back, but I was still alive. If I was alive then I had more opportunities for good stuff later on.

That was my line of thinking.

Reading that as an adult, with my sets of paranoia, pessimism and anxiety for the future, I know that my worries from those years were simple, childish and look foolish now. Now I come to think that I have real-world adult problems, and my cynism is in an all time high, I feel weary and worried constantly. Does thinking that if this hasn't killed me yet then I am actively fortunate? Somedays I want a piano to drop over my head to put me out of my misery, why would I think I am fortunate?

For starters, positive expectations are everything as discussed previously. Second of all, the first step to ever accomplish anything on this material plane is being alive. So, yeah! I am fortunate, even though some days I can't see it. But with gratitude I get to see it as I did once when I was younger and maybe even wiser.

Which brings me to...

Lucky People:

The see the positive side of their bad luck. Dr Wiseman calls this "counter-factual thinking". Suprisingly, as Dr Wiseman shared with us, this can be illustrated with people that won silver medal vs those that won a bronze medal. Those that won the bronze medal are happier than those that won a silver medal. Why? Silver medal winners feel bad because they were close ontaining a gold medal and they failed, whereas those that won a bronze one are happy they didn't perform any worse or they couldn't have won anything at all! This type of thinking applies when you compare yourself to someone that is truly unlucky. By comparing yourself you see yourself as luckier and feel better because of it. This is seeing the good in every situation. Gratitude: This habit is all about well-placed gratitude, unabashed gratefulness in spite of everything, truly allowing life to fall where it may and coming up on top regardless every single time. This is amazing! Not many people can say they can do that. Many are proud to declare themselves as smarter because they do not give thought to any namby-pamby optimism at all. But at the end of the day, how are you being namby-pamby at all? You are not denying the bad, you are declaring your victory over it and in spite of it and that is why you feel grateful.

Convince themselves that any ill-fortune in their life will, in the long run, work out for the best. We all know what happens when we engage in the mental exercise of dreaming up scenarios about how our life could have turned out for the worst if we had not accepted that job, had turned left instead of right, spoke to the right person, arrived on time, arrived late, etc. Lucky people, according to Dr Wiseman, engage in this mental exercise for the better, thinking about how things, as bad as they may seem right now, could actually be necessary for them to ultimately suceed and win in the end. Same as when we discussed postive expectations last time, lucky people based their assumption on what happened to them once, feeling grateful and happy because the good stuff they have now was possible because of someone else, a decision they made before, a fortuitous accident that gave them what they love nowadays. Expecting goodness in the face of badness does not sound that farfetchd. Gratitude: mood affects memory, a good mood affects it in a good way, a grateful one clearly affects it in a grateful way. Indeed, this is a simple principle. Gratitude helps you recognizing the good in the past and expecting the good in the future.

Do not dwell on their ill fortune. Why would they? Everthing tends to work out in their favor every time. They quickly change the subject, look for the positive aspects of stuff, listen to their intuition and become happy. Sure, they are not positive all the time, but they are postive most of the time. We are talking about tendencies here. Also, please remember, that all Four Luck Principles work in harmony. They enhance one another. Gratitude: coming to feeling grateful time and time again becomes your new identity. You come to believe, as Pam Grout (author of bestselling book E-squared and Thank & Grow Rich) puts it, that the universe is an accomodating place. You just need to decide to look for evidence that it is. Surely, I understand you might fear that you become this delusional dingbat... but filling your head with anxiety and worries makes you miss opportunities and not develop important lucky skills and not tending to relationships and not enjoying your life. What are you willing to lose?

Take constructive steps to prevent more bad luck in the future. Fortunately, it turns out that Lucky people are not delusional. Dr Wiseman describes Lucky People as proactive in their good fortune. An optimistic can-do attitude is a must for them. You come to understand that noticing good things and noticing positive aspects in the bad stuff puts you in a place of actually doing stuff to prevent more bad things from happening to you and your loved ones. Gratitude: again, practicing gratefulness gives you the necessary optimistic can-do attitude needed to becomr proactive in your life, instead of dwelling on your anxieties and worries. And this is nice to know, because Gratitude does not make you a passive spectator of your day, it engages you as well, it gives self-confidence to live life to the hilt.

With that, we are finished with this theory. I did mutliple post on it because I know I had to introduce several concepts at once as oppossed to the theory about the vibrational universe from before.

Even if you suscribe to one theory or the other, I think both make compelling arguments and both benefit each other. They can indeed co-exists. Dr Wiseman makes you adopt new thught patterns, and the Universe responds to the new vibes generated by those new beliefs in turn.

Thank you for reading!

[hogwartstarot]

The Felix Felicis Factor Pt. 3

In this day's installment we are going to dive straight into Dr Richard Wiseman's Third Luck Principle from his famous book The Luck Factor.

Dr Wiseman's Third Luck Principle states that "Lucky people's expectations about the future help them fulfill their dreams and ambitions."

Right off the bat you can see sort of how Gratitude can foster someone to live by this luck principle. But we will dive deeply into this topic nevertheless. Again, I do not intend to be exhaustive here about Dr Wiseman's findings, I encourage anyone that is interested in the topic of what makes a person lucky read his book. It's that good and thought-provoking.

What I am doing here is merely comparing notes and share my thoughts and theories about how Gratitude fosters lucky habits.

The Power of Positive Expectations as lived by me

Obviously, it is far easier to expect good things when good things are happening. I am now in a place in my life where a lot of things are scary, sad and gloomy. Changing my perspective from such a place feels difficult. There you have it! Right now I am expecting hardship and difficulties. My Practiced Vibe, Practiced Thought-Pattern, Practiced Karma, Practiced What-Have-You is at play right now.

So I want to briefly turn my gaze into a time in my life when expecting good things came naturally. Even though I don't come from a rich family or have a high profile status (which was true then as it is true now while I am typing this) I was genuinely happy. Every day I jumped out of bed eager to find out how life was going to play out for me.

So, life played out beautifully. My perspective and willingness to enjoy life always won in the end and ensured I was happy 99.9999% of my days.

Having said that...

Lucky People:

Expect good luck to continue in the future. Hands down, Gratitude clearly applies here. A recognition of the good stuff, the nice stuff, the excellent stuff is indeed necessary to create positive expectations. But do notice this is not a passive habit, it is an active one. A lucky person expects the good to continue, they look forward to it. They acknowledge the good and keep tabs on the good stuff that continues to come. Dr Wiseman also found out that lucky people were into the habit of expecting that the unpredictable and uncontrollable to work out in their favor. How? By remembering and acknowledging when it did in the past. As Dr Wiseman puts it, most people tend to base their expectations about the future on what happened in the past. So then, Lucky people shrug off the bad as it was and will be short-lived. Gratitude: Needless to say, Gratitude is all about recognizing the good stuff, celebrating it and feeling daily happiness for it. Over time, a new thought-pattern is created and new expectations, positive expectations, are born. When bad stuff happens, you tend to not dwell on it (unless you actively do) and you become more resilient as a result (and happier!). As Dr Wiseman says, expectation changes the way we feel, think and act, even how fast we react to things, creating self-fulfilling prophecies that work in our favor. Gratitude gives you, for a change, good self-fulfilling prophecies that joyously come to pass.

Attempt to achieve their goals, even if their chances of success seem slim, and persevere in the face of failure. This takes optimism, which only happens if in your past things have worked out in your favor. Again, expectations play a big part here. Optimism it is therefore a learned impulse that results from things working out for you constantly or frequently enough. Gratitude: Constantly feeling grateful makes you come to expect the good, the gentle, the magic, the wonder of life and recognizing it wherever you are. It makes you more optimistic.

Expect interactions with others to be lucky and successful. Lucky people's body language is more open, they smile more, they establish eye contact more. They come across as genuine, agreeble, warm, happy, peaceful. They are a nice presence to have around. So, positive expectations in this sense elicit the best in others. I think we all can pinpoint glowing people as them and the way we feel good by helping them. Gratitude: In and of itself thanking others generates good-will, makes relationships grow healthy, strong, and ever-lasting. Recognizing actively the good in others makes us such a wonderful person to have around. Positive responses from others become a nice bonus and great side-effect. And the, Gratitude relaxes us enough to actually enjoy being there, to show tjat with our body language and reap the benefits from doing so.

We are almost finished with this analysis of Dr Wiseman's conclusions of his research project through the lenses of gratitude. I hope you are enjoying this ride.

Thank you for dropping by!

[hogwartstarot]

The Felix Felicis Factor Pt. 2

When we last left our examination of Dr. Richard Wiseman's fabulous book The Luck Factor, we talked about how Lucky Poeple have a knack for Maximising their Chance Opportunities.

Today we'll have a look into Dr. Wiseman's second luck principle which states that "Lucky People listen to their lucky hunches".

Do you remember when Harry took a sip of Felix Felicis and suddenly he knew, he just happened to know what to do, where to go, what to say, how to act, and such and such that he ended up achieving the mission Dumbledore gave him?

Well! Turns out that Rowling was right on the money, that I was not crazy and delusional, and that there might be something deeper inside what we call Intuition.

Dr. Wiseman explains Intuition

Apparently, what we call Intuition is just our brains picking out stuff and patterns we are familiar with. Things that remind us of something else calls us, we feel pushed to them, we picked them up unconsciously. So pur brain keeps making connections until it offers us clues. This is but an interpretation of it. It doesn't explain how sometimes you just know something happened that occured far away, for example. But it does explain why you feel a pull towards an option that tend to be the correct answer or choice: your brain caught whiff of the subtle hints and you feel the pull towards what's right.

Again, I think Gratitude helps you enhance your Intuition. It did for me once!

Lucky People:

They listen to their gut feeling and hunches. Dr Wiseman present cases of people that suffer "chronic bad luck". Every single time, said person would confess that they had a hunch about something, but decided to ignore it every time and ended up in terrible situations. Dr Wiseman tells us that "Without realising it, we all prefer things that we have seen before". This is the basis of our hunches, we all have them, but Lucky people follow them and act upon them with conviction every time. Gratitude: I think gratitude relaxes you enough to listen to your truest hunches. After the magic I experienced during my late teens went out with a whimper, I tried unsuccessfuly following my intuition. That led me into bad decisions until I just stopped trusting my intuition altogether. But now I think that gratitude helps with relaxing you, gives you confidence, writes a new script for your brain to follow like a hound dog no matter where your are to reach for all good stuff: things you brain now knowd tjey will bring you happiness and give you a reason to keep feeling grateful. This leads me to the second lucky habit that Dr Wiseman writes about...

They take steps to boost intuition. Dr Wiseman swears by meditation, which is a well-known good practice for anyone, regardless of their objectives. It is also not for every one. Nevertheless, what meditation ultimately does is reigning in your monkey brain, to sooth it and stop it from jumping all over the place. In time, your brain stops being filled to the brim with worries and useless thoughts and helps you notice opportunities and act on your hunches. Gratitude: I did not meditated during High School, I just walked from home to school and viceversa feeling Gratitude and appreciation all the time. I stand by what I said earlier: that gratitude calms you down enough, brakes the spell of anxiety that traps you inside your own mind and finally (sometimes literally) lets you smell the roses, take in the good stuff that is right in front of you, the good that happened and the good that is waiting for you at your destination. Once in your destination you just don't have time for petty problems, negative chatter, negative gossip, you are just there savoring the good that present to you all day. So when it comes down to listening to that helpful voice inside you, there is no interference and the connection is made.

Thanks for reading my stuff! There are still two more luck principles to discuss and I will get to them pretty soon.

Til next time!

[hogwartstarot]

The Felix Felicis Factor (Pt. 1)

I long for a generous dose of Felix Felicis.

That is what I couldn’t stop thinking one afternoon a couple of months ago.

As a practicing witchling I look into everything I could find on the subject: luck practices, luck spells, luck potions, lucky habits, etc. Part of me just sort of refused the idea of luck being something other than a fluke of probabilities for some, let alone something that could be improved.

But then I stumbled upon a curious book entitled The Luck Factor.

Could luck be improved? Is there a tangible reason some people are luckier than others? What does this have anything to do with Gratitude?

This series of posts are about that other theory about why Gratitude works at all. We discussed about how stuff responds to our Predominant Vibe, our Practiced Vibe, and how being vibrating Gratefulness attracts more things to be grateful for.

As stated before, I don’t see these two theories canceling each other. I think they enhance one another as you soon will see.

So, meet Dr. Richard Wiseman, a Psychologist that conducted a reasearch project to look into the matter and who claims that Lucky People engage in unconscious practices to enhance that which we call Luck.

Now, I don’t intend to be too detailed here. I do recommend the book, it is thought-provoking indeed and an amazing window into Lucky People’s habits, but I want to chew on the bottom line for a bit to show you why Gratitude makes enhances your Luck as well.

Dr Wiseman boils down all discoveries made into a series of practices that enhance Luck. He calls it Luck School. He presents to the reader people suffering “chronic bad luck” who, after practicing the exercies, found themselves luckier than they have ever been.

Now, as far as I know, Dr. Wiseman is not a proponent of the law of attraction, Gratitude practices and such, but I have spent many weeks pondering if Gratitude emulates the exercises and the intended effects he tries to achieve via the Luck School.

I think it does and I think that, barring the explanation of Quantum Physics, Universal Laws, Magic and Mystical Energies, his discoveries actually give us insight into why Gratitude is such a powerful practice.

I will share my theories and observations as I continue to put this information into practice.

Maximise your chance opportunities

Dr. Wiseman writes that “Lucky People create, notice and act upon the chance opportunities in their life.” This is the first principle of luck, which I will develope more in the following paragraphs.

He found out that Lucky People were Extroverts, had low Neuroticism and where more Open to new experiences. But the thing is that Extroversion was not a required factor to increase luck. Low Neuroticism and Openess were.

So I will give you an overview about the observations Dr. Wiseman wrote and give you an explanation on why I think Gratitude achieves the same.

Lucky People:

Build and maintain a strong network of luck. They were considered Social Magnets. What this means is that lucky people are nurturing in their relationships, they bond with others and do their hardest to develop their relationships. This makes it more likely that they build an ever-growing network of helpful and influential contacts that can help them achieve their goals. That’s it, really. Lucky People are all secretly Horace Slughorn, and it does make sense. It’s all about improving your odds at achieving your dreams. Gratitude: Obviously, when you are Grateful you appreciate your relationships, tend to them, let them know what they mean to you, you act nurturing toward them, and others take notice of this as well, and suddenly you have a glowing reputation for being caring. Bonding with others becomes second nature and you end up developing the Luck Network Dr. Wiseman talks about.

Have a Relaxed Attitude towards life. This works in a twofold way: Neurotic people tend to be so inside their heads with worries thay they just fail to notice the opportunities around them; also, when going out to achive their objectives (finding a soulmate, trying to make a person follow a specific agenda; etc.) they fixate on what they wish was there as opposed to showing up to what is actually there and noticing the opportunities to which they have access in that hot minute. Lucky People might want to find a significant other that very same night but they don’t mind making great new friends instead. Gratitude: Once again gratitude ⁸fits the bill to a T. Gratitude calms you down so your neuroticism goes down over time. Gratitude also enables you to enjoy what is there instead of ruminating of what you wish was there instead.

Are Open to new experiences in their lives (to introduce more chances). Luck has everything to do with going against routine and trying new things: talking to new people, going to new places, changing your usual routes, etc. Doing the same always nets you more of the same, you see. Mind blowing, right? Doing different things introduce more chance meetings and more variables, which makes it more likely something fortunate happens to you. It’s not magical happenstance, is the introduction of more chance variables that do the trick. Gratitude: Falling in love with life is a potent side-effect of Gratitude that I can attest to. When you are in love with life you just cannot get enough out of life and you engage with life in many new and different ways, which does net you new and different positive experiences on the whole. Gratitude is a fast track for falling in love with life.

I will touch upon this subject pretty soon again. Maybe Gratitude is the generous dose of Felix Felicis I was longing for.

What do you think?

[hogwartstarot]

My favorite one thus far!

Gratitude Practice #4: The Disarming Charm

This spell is to be used to negate anxiety for the future, disempower fears and, thusly, make room for Gratitude. 

As I explained extensively here on why True Allowing is one of the more important things we can do day to day, I have come up with a spell that puts the theory into practice and gives you the power to get out of your head, let things flow, make room for Gratefulness, Love and Appreciation, and give you dominion over your life. In short, it´s a spell that gives you the magic of True Allowing.

Remember, neither Devil´s Snare nor the Boggart hold any power over you if you don´t give it to them. You are free of witholding that power from them any time you like. You are the one running this show. You are the protagonist of your story. 

Practice: the Disarming Charm!

It´s easy, though it will require that you remember what you need to do and be as quick as you can to disarm your opponents. 

Imagine that inside your head a lot of nasty, deranged, dangerous and toxic Dark Wizards and Witches (even Death Eaters) hide within your mind. Those negative thoughts you have are, indeed, one of those villains suddenly jumping at you out of nowhere, brandishing a wand to attempt to jinx, hex or curse you and ruin your day, and ultimately, your life. 

What to do? Grab your wand and shot back, of course! 

You stop the thought in its tracks by thinking quickly “Expelliarmus!”, then you inhale deeply and, as you exhale, allow the anxiety and fear to just be, even embrace it, even go as far as to call it good and bless it. Remember Pam Grout´s words:

“Rather than take steps to flee or change it, you have to first allow it. You have to bless it. You have to go so far as to call it good. Freedom and power come in choosing to bless with gratitude every single thing that shows up. Anything you refuse to embrace and fully bless imprisons you. It puts up a fence between you and your highest good.”

You disarm those thoughts by being quicker than them, just like Harry taught Neville to do in their fifth year. Once you are at peace, those thoughts cannot hurt you for they no longer have power over you. And once you have dealt with them, then you can reclaim your mental peace, then you are free to fill your day with light, gratitude and actually have fun. 

[hogwartstarot]

Gratitude Practice #3: I solemnly swear

This one is adapted from Pam Grout´s brilliant book Thank & Grow Rich. According to Mrs. Grout, this is the only gratitude practice you really need. 

She poses the question: what if life actually works better when we stop trying to control everything? Quit thinking; start thanking, she says. 

She admits that she used to look down her nose at Gratitude, and that was because it seemed way too simplistic. Getting “happy” can´t be that easy. Right?

Then one day, she decided to actively look around at all her blessings. It dawned on her that everything is exactly perfect the way it is. I´m exactly perfect just the way I am, she thought. 

She calls it being in the frequency of joy and gratitude, turning in to the Dvine Buzz (her words). She then offers a very concrete practice for connecting to it. 

“It´s so simple that, if I know you, you will be tempted to discount it”, she wrote. “Please do not do that”. “D-Buzz is atually your natural state. It´s the frequency where miracles happen”. 

As I shared before, I know what Pam Grout refers to when she ponders on what happens when you focus on what could go right instead of the usual negative self-talk. When she did that (I did that once), she found out that problems had a way of fixing themselves. The less she did, the better her life worked. 

Her idea has two steps, which I am repurposing for Potter-esque fun: 

Practice: Summoning the Marauder´s Map

First thing in the morning, right after you woke up, proclaim: I solemnly swear that something Amazingly (or Wickedly) Awesome is hedead your way today. I would to so holding one of my wand replicas, even! You know, just for fun.

The second step asks for you to come to believe in blessings and miracles. You must then go about your day obssesively looking for the beauty of the world, to actively be on the lookout for blessings. 

She suggests that your write your your friends first thing in the morning thre blessings (without repeating them between days). Or write them down. And do so after your proclaimed that something Amazingly Awesome your way comes.

Eventually, this becomes you new way of looking at things. And if Gratitude really opens door, the the good stuff must follow. 

[hogwartstarot]

Gratitude Practice #2: The Pensieve

Another one of the Gratitude Practices I know of comes directly from Rhonda Byrne's book The Magic and it's called the Gratitude Rock.

The gist of it is that, right before turning in you need to take a moment to grab said rock from near youe bed and think about all the good things that happened to you during the day and decide which one is the best one.

The exercise is meant to lower your defenses, alter your Practiced Vibe, take notice of the nice things that indeed happened to you during the day, actually look for the one that makes you feel more grateful and then say thank you and feel gratitude for it before going off to sleep. This is a required practice to be done all nights.

I want to make it more magical for me.

Practice: Gratefulness Pensieve

I have placed a little journal and pen near my bed.

My intention is that each night I will grab that pen, place it upon my temple and think of the good things that happened to me each day. Upon remembering one I will write it down in my journal. After that, I will repeat the process until I have a list of as many items as I can think of.

After writing the list of good things I will then select the best one, write thank you, feel as grateful as I can and go to sleep. It's that simple.

[hogwartstarot]

Gratitude Practice #1: The Summoning Charm

The very first thing about Gratitude that everyone swears by is Counting your Blessings, either mentally or verbally EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

At first this reminded me of Nifflers. Those creatures go out of their way to search for everything shiny and pocket it. That is how I intend to practice Gratitude, like a Niffler on crack searching for everthing that shines and pocketing it.

The Wizarding World has such a spell for doing that: the Summoning Charm.

Practice Accio!

First, decide how you are going to register your Gratitude list. Will you write it out, type it out, say it out loud while taking a shower?

All are valid!

I'll do a combination of writing blessings down and saying them out loud whenever I can.

According to all of the books I consulted, it's never about thinking about gratitude, it's about feeling gratitude. That's what gets the magic up and running.

We all project a practiced vibe, which is the thing in charge of coloring your day and making you live certain experiences over and over again each day. Some people call it the law of attraction. Whatever it is, you have a practiced vibe. If it is nice and good and warm, then nice things are summoned to you. Otherwise, you better duck to avoid getting hit by negative experiences.

So when doing your List of Things you are Grateful for, you are going to be looking for an emotional shift. That is the most important step to remembee. Soo enough, Gratitude will become your new practiced vibe and everything will shift with you as well.

Each time to write or say something you feel grateful for, say (and feel!) thank you. The lift uo your wand and summon another thing your are gratdful for. Remember, you are a Niffler looking for treasure among the junk.

I lift my wand and say the magic words

Accio Blessing! I am thankful for the fact that there is food in the fridge

Accio Blessing! I am thankful for the fact that I have a job that pays enough

Accio Blessing! I am grateful for the fact that my husband is stable and still alive

Accio Blessing! I am grateful for the way my husband hugs me

Accio Blessing! I am grateful for the smartphone I have

Accio Blessing! I am grateful for my friends and their love

Accio Blessing! I am grateful we find moments to laugh everyday

Things to consider

This is not the first time I have tried making lists of things I feel grateful for. Each time I have started to practice this it feels forced, contrived, fake, etc. I almost feel guilt-tripped into doing so.

I know (because I have been told and have read) that our Practiced Vibes are intially strong and resistant to anything that contradicts them, and the new vibe will feel feeble by comparison. Initially.

But this is the very first spell I have to cast each morning and night, day in and day out. Eventually I have to accio more impressive feelings, right? I know in theory that I will not feel strong gratitude, but if I keep reaching for it, I will eventually feel it strongly.

[hogwartstarot]

FLUFFY DIVINATION SPREAD

So, any ideas? 

Facing three-headed dogs is not the norm for many. Not in the traditional sense at least! Facing three-headed dogs happens when a conundrum is so intricate and the possible actions are many and you don´t know still what to do. I mean, you could CONFRONT the problem head on, or you may DELAY YOUR ACTION, or maybe ACT INDIRECTLY. 

This magical spread will help out as much as it can to generate enough insight into the nature of your problem and a possible solution.

Start by shuffling the deck and concentrating about the problem and asking for a solution. Then lay three cards in front of you and interpret accordingly from left to right. Those cards represent your personal Fluffy!

1) Confrontation: Sure, you can be totally upfront about it and do something about your woes directly: get out and find the job, ask your crush on a date, lie or tell the truth, fight against someone head on. But is it the right action? The card here shall tell you what is more likely to happen if you choose this path. 

2) Delay Action: On the other head, you could stall. You can wait until something more happens, more information is revealed or the problem solves itself, and the card in this position will tell you about what would happen if you decide doing so.

3) Indirect Action: On the final head you can find Alternatives, thinking outside of the box, maybe removing something you didn´t even considered possible and this card offers insight into it. Maybe there is nothing for you on this path, but maybe there is!

After you´ve done that, is time to put Fluffy to sleep by playing the Flute. To Play the Flute spread the remaining cards of your deck (still face down) and pick a card using your intuition. Have a look at it! This will give you more insight into your possibilities but it will also do something more: if the card matches one of the three cards forming Fluffy (be it Major Arcana, Pentacles, Cups, Wands or Swords) then the cards are urging you to pay more attention to that head or those heads. Otherwise, it is just additional helpful advice to consider before making your decision. 

Note: Please, consider the cards to determine the real nature of your problem. Maybe the problem is not what you thing it is. Sure, maybe I am looking for love and I expect to see many Cups when I lay down the cards, but maybe I get a lot of Swords, indicating that maybe my problems are not my feelings but my ideas, maybe the ideas I have about myself. 

[hogwartstarot]

Did you know your "sorting hat spread" is flagged explicit?

Hi! I submitted it for a revision. This... I did not expected..I wonder what happened. Thanks for alerting me

[hogwartstarot]

The Mirror of Erised Draw

"The Mirror of Erised is an ancient, ornate mirror. It has clawed feet and a gold frame inscribed with the phrase "Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi." The mirror shows the most desperate desire of a person's heart, a vision that has been known to drive men mad."

The Mirror of Erised is a mirror that shows the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts. Though it is not advisable to waste one´s life gazing into the mirror, sometimes knowing our deepest desire can let us know ourselves more fully, which can give us intense insight to analyze and ponder for hours, maybe even days. On times when there is just a lot going on inside our minds, it can help using a magical method to determine the thing we value or desire the most. 

The Magic:

Take your freshly shuffled tarot/oracle deck and place yourself in front of any mirror. Your deck shall be in your left hand when you are about to gaze into the mirror. 

Set your intention to know the deepest, most desperate desire of your heart then gently lock eyes with yourself in the mirror for a few seconds. Draw a single card while locking eyes with yourself. 

This card represents your true desire. 

You can proceed in one of two ways:

Look at the card and interpret what it´s saying to you. Journal it. Keep it in mind. Meditate on it. This will help knowing yourself better. This is your truth.

Don´t look at the card just yet. Place it under your pillow and go to sleep to entice dreams about your desire. Interpret those dreams tomorrow. First thing in the morning, look at the card and interpret it.

Either way, don´t let it consume you, but treasure it and know that some desires can change over time.

[hogwartstarot]

Potion-Brewing Tarot Spread

Welcome to your first Potion Brewing lesson. No, we are not going to brew your tarot cards and drink the resulting liquid. We are here to talk about a tarot spread informed and inspired by Potion-Brewing Lore to answer questions and clue you in the type of action you need to take. 

We are going to need the following:

A Tarot (strictly tarot) deck. 

A large table because we are going to spread 12 cards. 

From your tarot we are going to Light a Fire (3 cards), Put up a cauldron (nine cards) by adding ingredients (from the rest of the deck). 

Terms you need to familiarize with: 

Deosil: Clockwise movement. Stirring in this direction will bring enhancements, enourage positive energy, and stimulate good fortune.

Widdershins: Counterclockwise movement. Stirring in this direction will bring diminishments, encourage negative energy, and prevent good fortune.

Please, keep in mind, that many potions need to be stirred in Deosil and Widdershins in a combined and sequential fashion, and not just one way or the other. But that will depend on your intentions and the end result you seek. 

This is a spread that will let you analyze course of actions, the kind of actions you need to take (labor, passion, thoughts, feelings, or letting destiny do it´s thing), or to help explain why you do certain things or why other do certain things.

Now, before you dare beginning adding ingredients (and I assure you, I know you want to), first we are going to... 

Light a Fire:

This is a crucial first step into this spread, for the flames´s characteristics are going to inform us about the potion we are to brew when we do this spread. To Light a Fire we are going to shuffle the deck while thinking about that which we want (answers, clues, actions to take to get something) and lay three cards down forming a line, face up. 

No, we are not going to interpret the cards like we usally do. We are going to take into account the suit of each of the three cards. At a glance, we are going to determine how many of those cards are Wands, Pentacles, Cups, Swords or Major Arcana cards. Why? Because we are looking for the Element of Fire, represented by the Suit of Wands. Like so:

No Wands: This potion, when interpreted, will not inspire or require passion on your part.

One: This potion, when interpreted, will inspire or require a little bit of passion on your part.

Two This potion, when interpreted, will inspire or require moderate passion on your part.

Three: This potion, when interpreted, will inspire or require a lot of passion on your part. 

Remember: the potions we are going to brew will answer a question, but this type of spread is much more useful when determining a plan of action regarding the acqusition of a desire. As you soon will realize, these intial cards are going to come into play later in the spread. For now, just take into account how many cards of the Suit of Wands are in the line. Leave them on the table. For now.

Put up a Cauldron:

Cut the deck and place one half above the central card forming the line of three cards from last step. This is the Cauldron Deck. Yes, we are putting the Cauldron over the flames.

Adding the Ingredients:

Search the other half of the deck for three ingredients (cards) that you think represent the energies needed to solve your problem or answer your question. For example, let us say you think you need to repent about something. Then maybe you find the Nine of Swords in the half of the deck you tossed aside and that is the ingredient you are going to put in the cauldron. Conversely, let us say you need to stop feeling guilty, so you take the Nine of Swords and you are going to place it inside the Cauldron reversed (to block the energy of guilt). 

Select three ingredients (cards) this way and take note of their names and if you are going to put them in the cauldron reversed or upward, because you are going to remember that information later on.

Re-introduce each ingredient separately anywhere in the Cauldron Deck on the table above the line of fire cards. Once you have done that, put aside the half of the deck from which you took the ingredients. We are not going to need it further.

Stir Deosil and/or Widdershins:

Here comes the tricky part. Once you re-intrdouce those three cards into the deck representing the cauldron, you are going to cut the Cauldron Deck in half. The bottom half of the “Cauldron Deck” will be in your left hand and the topmost half of the “Cauldron Deck” will be in your right hand. The topmost half of the “Cauldron Deck” in your right hand is the half you are going to stir either deosil or widdershins before sending it back to the bottom of the cards on your left hand. This process shall be repeated many times before the Potion is ready.

To drive the point home, basically this process is just cutting the deck and turning the topmost half around either deosil or widdershins so some upwards cards end up reversed and viceversa before reforming the Cauldron Deck by sending the topmost half under the bottom half. This is very important.

Stir deosil when your objective is something you want to empower, like love when doing a love reading, and stir widdershins when you want to decrease something or discourage something. Cut the deck while stiring the topmost half deosil and/or widdershins as many times you like. Take into account basic Numerology. 

Remember: Cut, Stir, Reform the Cauldron Deck. Then Cut, Stir, and Reform the Cauldron Deck again. Repeat until satisfied.

Serving the Potion:

Finish by riffling the cards once and search for the three ingredients. You are going to form a 3x3 box with the ingredients. Search the cards and take them out from the deck including the two cards flanking them. Place the 3x3 box above the line of three cards (the fire). The ingredient you selected will end up in the middle position of each horizontal line (positions 2, 5 and 8). At least it will be that way most of the time.

INTERPRETATION:

You are going to interpret this box as you would normally interpret a 3x3 box. But this time you are going to take into account two additional factors: the added line of the three cards underneath (aka the fire) and the Ingredients Cards. 

Fire Cards: Why are they important? Because each one of those cards will tell you which aspect of reality is referred too by the column above: Labor, Passion, Feelings, Thoughts, and Destiny. No, they are never going to be interpreted the usual way. Yo are just going to take into account the cards´ suit: Pentacles, Wands, Swords, Cups, or Major Arcana.

An example regarding the Fire Cards:

Let us say the first of the three cards in the Fire Line is a Wand (F1). That means all the cards that form a vertical line above it (1, 4 and 7) are where you need to put passion and emphasis on. Let us say that the central card in the Fire Line is a Cup Card (F2), that means all the cards that form a vertical line above it (2, 5 and 8) have to do with your feelings. And so on and so forth: Wands for Passion, Cups for feelings, Swords for thoughts, Pentacles for Labor, Major Arcana for Destiny´s Hand (letting destiny do it´s thing). 

Ingredients Cards: When you cut the deck and twirl the upper half deosil and/or widdershins, you are influencing the three ingredients you added to the cauldron to become upward and/or become reversed. This is significant in the end when you finally interpret the spread. Why? Because you added the ingredients you thought better represented the concepts and energies you think you need in order to succeed! And maybe you introduced a card reversed, but in the end it showed up upwards, which means that you were wrong, you don´t need to block that concept or energy, you need maybe embrace it. Conversely, if you introduced an upward cards and in the 3x3 box showed up reversed, maybe you should reconsider not giving that concept that much freedom. 

An example regarding the Ingredient Cards: 

Let us say you thought you needed to stop feeling guilty, so you placed inside the Cauldron Deck the Nine of Swords Cards reversed. And when you Served the Potion, it showed up Upwards. So maybe it means you need to embrace the feeling of guilt. Maybe you thought you were doing just that. But maybe now you realize you instead were running from it or putting the feeling in the background instead of dealing with it head on.

Usual Potion Problems:

If by any chance you cannot complete a 3x3 box, that is ok! Work with the cards you are dealt. Maybe one or more ingredients turned up side to side. Lay them out as you normally would (card + ingredient + ingredient + card, this last one being the one that starts forming the next horizontal line in the 3x3 box). 

Maybe the last card is the ingredient, in which case you are one card short of forming the 3x3 box. That´s ok! Lay down the cards and leave the empty space there. 

When a 3x3 box cannot be completed, it means things need more time for you to act and sieze victory! Take into account the cards that you did layed on the surface, and interpret normally. Later, maybe in a month, brew the potion anew and see what happens.

[hogwartstarot]

The Detention Spread

Come see me in my office, immediately!

Congratulations, now you´ve done it! You blew up a cauldron, snuck dungbombs inside the library, and dared to question my authority. Also, you don´t dress properly and you failed to turn in your homework all days this week... Don´t talk back to me! I don´t care if Jeremy Anderson looked at you funny the one time in the library, and I couldn´t care less if Peeves fell in love with you and now follows you around making your life a living hell! Yes, I know “it sucks”, you inarticulate ingrate. I don´t care! You are to report to Mr. Filch tonight at midnight for your punishment. I have never been more ashamed of a Hogwarts student in all my life. You are dismissed... I said you are dismissed!

THE PUNISHMENT READING:

Yes, ever felt stuck in a rut? It is almost like the thrill of life has stopped flowing, right? Maybe there is a magical blockage somwhere. Maybe you are in detention and are suffering some punishments. Yeah, we know that life does, indeed, “sucks”. Sometimes it just cannot be helped you have a godawful day. Nevertheless, I refuse to believe thing happen entirely by mere chance, and here is this spread to determine what is making it more likely to continue stuck and what you might do about it. 

Here is the idea: 

First, you are going to select a card to represent yourself. Once you do that, return the card to the deck. 

Second, Locomotor Shuffling! Shuffle the cards thoroughly. 

Third, locate your card and thake note of the two cards flanking it. Take out the three cards and put them over the table. These two cards will tell you about the nocive energies circulating you. The one on the left is the energy being blocked, and the one on the right is the manifestion of that blackage. Remember the tarot correspondences. 

Fourth, to look for a solution, please re-shuffle the deck and cut it in half. Place both halves on the table near the each flanking card. Yes, that´s right. Place one halve near the left flanking card, and the other halve near the right flanking card. 

Fifth, flip both halves to expose the bottomost card of each. Those two cards are the solution to resolve the damage. 

Sixth, re-shuffle the deck and randomly take one card from anywhere in the deck and place it above the card represeting you. Then, take another card from anywhere in the deck and place it under the card representing you. 

Seventh, the card above represents what you should be thinking primarily today to start getting out of the rut. The card below represents what you should be taking control of primarily today to start getting out of the rut. Once you take these suggested steps, new doors shall begin to open. One thing will lead to another and a way out of the rut shall be exposed. 

Just remember, there is always something to learn about life, even if said lesson is your least favorite at the moment.

*Artwork NOT mine. If you know who created the detention card at the top, please tell me to give them proper credit :)

[hogwartstarot]

A Heartfelt Update

Hello, dear and lovely people!

This is it. Things have gotten more stable as time goes by. I am nearing my graduation from my medical residency, which means that night shifts will be more under control to the point that I might get rid of them. 

So, what does it mean for my erratic ins and goings through Tumblr?

It means that this year I will start to become more active once again, and I am want to offer a glimpse of things to come for all my blogs. 

Keep reading

[hogwartstarot]

Sorry for the late response but, I got two cards because as I was placing the card down, the one that was supposed to be the next one slipped into the position with a card already (3). I tried to shuffle again and do it again and then I got the same card (the extra) for the position (3) and tried again and for the same position got the original. It was odd so I was wondering if a deck would be able to have two cards for a position or not

Why not? Call it a crazy experiment of Ollivander´s. 

Crazy and interesting. Never even considered the possibility of it happening, TBH. I would take in as the deck having those two energies, which I think is cool and extra special.