the-hermit-witch

[the-hermit-witch]

I have not forgotten about my tarot card posts project i just have not had time to sit down and work on them. I also like the idea of it being a slow project that lets me focus on the meaning of each card i write about. In the meantime i try to do reading for myself whenever i look at my tarot deck and have enough time and energies to indulge in some self reflection.

[the-hermit-witch]

Four of cups

The main element regarding the four of cups upright is regarding offers and opportunities. As the figure on the card is not accepting of the cups offered to them you might be in a position where you are being offered things that you don't want to accept at the moment. This might end there, or it simply might not be the right time. The figure is not pushing the cups away, so it could very much be a wrong moment kind of situation. This could also indicate a moment in which you might be refusing opportunities, and shutting yourself off entirely. In this case the goal would be to reflect on the reasons you might be in this postion. Since the suit of cups is linked to the element of water, which is strongly bonded to emotions, feelings might be involved. Another potential meaning for this card is a moment of life in which you mught feel dissatisfied, one again you should reflect on your emotions and on the reasons you might be feeling like this.

As for the potential meaning of the four of cups reversed, the main thing is a situation of introspection. It probably is a period in which you tend to shut out what is external, and that might be precisely what you need. Reflecting on yourself, life and its opportunities is always good, and you need moments for yourself. Those feelings of dissatisfaction of the card upright, could stand here in a sort of internal dissatisfaction. You might feel like something is missing, disappointed or even apathetic, the goal as you can guess is once again reflect on what might have brought these feelings.

[the-hermit-witch]

Three of Cups

Once again I read the suit of cups as strongly linked to emotions, and upright cards as mostly having to do with the relationship to the outer world, and not the inner world as that is for me linked to a reversed card. The three of cups upright is for me a card that celebrates frienship, family and other strong bonds a person might have with people close to them. I am referring to those people with whom one shares both the best and worst times. Overall this upright card can come up during a particularly sociable time in one's life, there might be a desire to spend time with people of this kind, or it might be that life is pushing towards that. This could also be linked to a productive collaboration with someone, especially on a creative level (since the water element is both linked to feelings as well as creativity).

The meaning of the three of cups reversed is quite simple for me to remember as it is mainly the opposite of what we have just been saying. Instead of being sociable there might be a profound need to have some alone time. This might be because of low social energies or a generally stressfull period of life. On a slightly different note it could indicate a feeling inside of the person regarding something wrong with a close connection. It could be a work collaborator or a friend. This card could be a sign to reflect on weird feelings regarding a relationship. Maybe because the relationship is feeling suffocating, or on the contrary it might be a relationship that makes the person feel somewhat isolated or disconnected. For personal experience I know that this sort of thing usually hits as a feeling before actually turining into a logical thought you can reflect on. So getting this card could be a wake up call to acknowledge feelings like this, to better understand what is going on in one's life, why one might feel like this and what they can do about it. It might also be regaring feelings of jealousy regarding a relationship (romantic or not) that has changed the dynamic, or the fear that a change in dynamic might happen. Overall o this second meaning I would say that the card indicated a feeling that calls out something that feels wrong in a relationship. In this case as I was saying the card calls for reflection both on the general situation, and most importantly on the emotions the person is feeling. When it comes to tarot I strongly believe they are a good tool one can use to reflect on stuff, so my advice is to always take the various meanings as prompts to focus on something that you are going through and reflect on that.

[the-hermit-witch]

Got this Egypt inspired vingage tarot deck from my grandparents. The minor arcana are just made up of aces, seven, eights, nines, queen and king. I have no idea why. I truly need to look into them.

[the-hermit-witch]

Two of Cups

The suit of cups is linked to the element of water so once again I tend to read this card keeping in mind the symbologies of water. Mainly the fact that it's an element strongly connected to feelings and emotions.

As I have mentioned the upright card for me signifies a focus on the outer world, so relationships between the person and everything that is external to them. In particular the two of cups upright is strongly connected to a relationship made of two people. It is not necessarily a romantic partnership, it might be a friendship, or any other strong connection with a person. This might be a new bond that is growing strong, or a renewd relationship that is feeling stronger than ever. Feelings flow naturally and without any sort of blocks, helping the connection feel intense. Overall I would say it means that the bond in question is to a point of mutual trust, where the two people can truly count on one another. Whether it is a friendship of a romantic partnership, the emotions are flowing mutually.

Instead I approach the reversed card as something focused on the innerworld of the person. In this case the two of cups reversed is similarly to the ace of cups connected to self love, or concentrating those feelings and positve emotions towards yourself. Defferently from the ace of cups the real goal of this card is to get you to a point where you are in a position of inner peace and confidence that can get you to then approach the outer world. Once you are at peace with your own self you can then create connections like the ones described in the upright card meaning. The other side of this card reversed is that the person might be questioning a relationship or bond with soumeone. There might be something that feels wrong in a relationship so the goal is to connect with your emotions to understand where the falling out might be coming from and why these feelings are there, in order to take action in the most respectful way possible to both yourself and the other person. Finally, a sort of in-bweteen of the two previous potential readings, is that fact that not having yet reached that sort of inner peace with your feelings might create attachments that are not super healty. The person might be too dependant on someone, or is failing to create the deep connection they are seeking. Once again reflecting and working on the inner-self can be a first step to deal with this situation.

[the-hermit-witch]

Ace of Cups

The suit of cups is connected with the element of water, which is often linked to emotions, as well as creativity. I tend to often focus on emotions and feelings when reading cards of this suit.

The upright reading of a card is for me always linked with the external world of a person. The various interpretations the Ace of Cups upright for me are linked to a sort of openness. As the cup in the picture is overflowing and open the person reciving this card is in a period of their life in which they are experiencing or drawn to a sort of openness and (often emotional) abundance. This can be being drawn to new relationship, desiring and feeling ready about letting new people in your life. In a sort of way I feel like the ace of cup can signify being ready to give love to others. And when I talk about love I don't just mean romantic love, I never do. I mean a deep and joyous emotion that connects people together. It could also just mean being in a very comfortable place with one-self and feeling ready to handle emotions to the fullest. Getting this card might mean you are no longer afraid of feelings, and are finally accepting them and loving them for what they bring you whether they are positive or negative, because one of the fundamental parts of being human is to feel emotions. I would take it as a sign to let emotions run through you as naturally as they can, showing them with no fear with what you say and what you do.

If the upright meaning is for me focused on the realationship between the person and the external world, the reversed card is instead the person's relationship to themselves and their inner world. So the Ace of Cups Reversed is linked with being in connection with one self's intuition and feelings. Showing yourself that love I was talking about in the upright reading. Instead of giving it outwards, it's focusing that love on your own person. The other side of the reading is that you might not have reached that openness and comfort with your feelings. So the other interpretation of this card when reversed might mean that you need to work on letting yourself feel emotions. The card might be a warning sign on how repressing emotions is not good, so to instead work on this problem with the goal of reaching that comfort with emotions.

[the-hermit-witch]

Tarot reading

In order to slowly reconnect with my craft I decided to write a series of posts in which I talk a bit about each tarot card and how I personally tend to read it. I will slowly compile the links to the posts of each card on this very post, so that it can be easier to find them.

I want to preface with a couple things. Everyone reads tarot differently, which is something I personally love because when I am getting my tarot read by someone else it's exciting to see how they peronally approach this craft and what their connection to their deck looks like. These are my personal interpretations and this is my personal way of reading tarot, it's not the right one and definitely not the only one. I am not here to teach anything to anyone, I am here to share my craft. I read following my instinct and my intuition and that will definitely look like something different to everyone. I just don't want anyone to feel like I am invalidating their way of working with tarot, or to feel like I am claming that my interpretations are the correct ones. Every one has their vibe, and in communty with their deck things can differ a lot. I have a friend whose approach to tarot is totally different from mine and I love when she does readings for me! With this being said let's get into it!

I personally use the Rider Waite deck, I have had it for over 6 years, and it's the deck with which I learned how to read tarot. I feel very connected to it, and it's always on my nightstand even if I have long periods in which I don't read.

In my readings I include reversed card, and I have a very simple approach to my interpretation whether the card is upright or reversed. When a cart is upright I tend to interpret it as something in connection with the external world, whereas when a card is reversed I interpret its meaning as something that has to do with someone's inner world. So for me upright means realationship between the peroson and the rest of the world, and reversed means relationship with the person and themselves. This is more or less the way the position of the card influences my reading.

As for the way I pull cards, I have done it in many ways over the years, but my favourite is the simplest, I focus on whatever the reading is about and mix the deck until some cards fall. If multiple cards fall together I tend to look for connection between the meanings of the cards. If like 20 cards fall together I don't read them all I just read the ones that stick out some way. If when moving the deck around I fuck up and place it so that a card is shown without if falling I tend to consider it in the reading. Overall I just read all the cards that my instinct tells me want to be read, if that makes any sense.

Under the cut I will compile all the links to individual posts!

Suit of Cups:

Ace of cups

Two of cups

Three of cups

Four of cups

Suit of Swords:

Suit of Pentacles:

Suit of Wands:

Major Arcana:

[the-hermit-witch]

I know every year or so I make a post saying I will try to be more present and reconnect with my craft and then I don't but that won't stop me from doing it once again lmao. I am thinking about doing small posts on tarot since that is a fun way to get back into reading. I have attempted a few times to make physical journals in which I would write down my personal interpretations of the cards, but I have always brutally failed.

So the logical thing to do is to take two failures and hopefully not fail once again. I have simply been horribly inconsistent, but maybe this fun project will help.

I personally really like to read of people whose craft differs from mine, seeing other points of views and interpretations of divination, so maybe out there there will be people like me who might be interested in reading about how I read tarot. If not I am writing in the void and it's fine, this is mostly for myself, since writing is something that helps me a lot when trying to connect with things, as well as learning and memorizing.

[the-hermit-witch]

i have decided to journal a bit about my journey in trying to reconnect with practicing and all, and I think I figured out a way that might be good to start reconstructing my practices. I will write down in this journal reflections, thoughts and feelings, but most importantly I will collect there all bits and pieces of things that used to bring me joy in my past pratices as well as new things that might be nice to try out. It's going to be a chaotic journal to figure myself out basically, so hopefully that will work out.

[the-hermit-witch]

i know this blog has been mostly dead for a while but i really want to get back to practice more. the thing is when i started practicing it felt like truly finding myself, i had gone through a major change, and i genuinely felt like i was reborn as a person, and while that was going on i really built my practice and rituals and they felt like a celebration of my new-found peace. then as time went on and this things became more and more important for me i also started sharing it with someone, which made my practice even more joyous. the real problem is that as life became busier my practice became something i mainly found time for when i was with this person, which at the time felt great, but life happens and this person and i are no longer speaking. and ever since that connection started to fall apart so did my own relationship with my own practice. ever since then i have felt the absence of the comfort practicing even in small ways but i have not been able to reconnect. i have also changed a lot as a person, but compared to when i first started to practice seriously i feel like an half-formed thing at the moment. I am changed and i know much better some aspects of myself but at the same time i am very much a blob of unidentified chaos. i am learning how to appreaciate my new unidentified self, not being fix, not being fully understandable even too myself, but what it entails is that if i were to pick up practicing i would have to start from scratch, and for some reason that scares me. that's mainly because i have been lacking focus and time in the past few years, or at least that's what i told myself, so figuring out a new way of practicing right now seems like a lot of work. but i also feel like that could help. idk if it's just the fact that we are very close to samhain and despite losing habits i still write down celebration dates in my agenda, but i feel like i should find a way to slowly start this journey again.

[the-hermit-witch]

of course i do a tarot reading for myself and get brutally roasted by my deck what was i expecting

[the-hermit-witch]

Strict Tarot Rules My Grandma Taught Me

Sweep the floor with a whisk broom before every reading. It shows respect for the old gods who will be coming in.

Answer only three questions for a querent in one seating. Revealing too much sacred information will dilute its meaning.

Always use the Celtic Cross for a personal reading. “You cannot truly appreciate the weight of the advice you are giving if you don’t fully understand the way the querent is feeling.”

Make an offering to the querent’s higher self before proceeding. “The body may want a reading, but the soul may be unwilling.” A piece of chocolate or anything sweet should be appropriate.

Ensure the querent’s hands are clean. Prepare a hot towel or a water basin. It rids their body of negative energy and keeps your cards from getting dirty.

Dim the lights before you deal the cards. “The Fates live next to Hades. They are not used to harsh lighting.”

Play soft and quiet music. It calms the mind and encourages the querent to bravely tell you what they really seek.

You shuffle, they cut. Shuffling lets the cards connect you to the source. Cutting allows the cards to feel the querent’s life force.

Honesty is better than sympathy. Exaggerating hopes and softening harsh truths do more harm than good.

Never forget to thank your cards afterwards. “The messages come from the goddesses, yes. But your cards make the effort to speak them in the way you can understand best.”

[the-hermit-witch]

I am so excited for Ostara! ~ By Anastasia Catris ♡

[the-hermit-witch]

getting a tarot reading done by the girl i am kinds crushing on >>>>>

[the-hermit-witch]

I have never felt as connected to my tarot deck. I am making an effort to do at least a reading each week, since it's beena very useful tool for self reflection, and things are going surprisingly well.

[the-hermit-witch]

Late afternoon Imbolc reading