Tarot Spreads for New Year's Eve

Tarot Spreads for the New Year

Guest Author - Leslie Fulger

Each New Year provides us the ability to start anew, set goals and with any luck have a better, happier and more prosperous year than the last. However, the previous year may have been filled with challenges, obstacles and changes that have taken the zest out of life leaving some filled with apprehension as to what to expect in the coming New Year.

One way of getting a glimpse into what the New Year has in store for us is through utilizing the Tarot. There are various spreads available specifically geared towards the New Year. One of the most common is called The Zodiac Spread which provides a couple different options to obtain a yearly based reading. The typical Zodiac Spread is similar to the Keltic Cross. This spread looks at different aspects and areas of your life.

To do this spread, pull 13 cards placing them in a circle with the final card being the overall outcome or summary. The cards in each position are as follows:

1. deals with self expression, identity and how you see yourself.
2. represents tangible assets, personal income and earning capacity.
3. governs intellect and communication, family and relatives.
4. rules your home, property and the environment you find yourself in.
5. associated with pleasurable pursuits, romance and fortunate speculative ventures.
6. pertains to your job, working conditions, relationship with co-workers and circumstances regarding your health.
7. refers to partnerships, agreements, business relationships and close personal relationships including marriage and divorce.
8. governs death, rebirth, legacies, inheritances and new beginnings.
9. governs spiritual guidance and self awareness, travel, and often times denotes the best course of action for you to take.
10. describes your goals, ambitions, achievements, desires and success.
11. associated with friendships and affiliations that help to advance your personal goals.
12. denotes anxiety and hidden influences that can cause limitations and unnecessary suffering.
13. final outcome.

Another method of The Zodiac Spread is the month-by-month spread in which you pull 13 cards one representing each month of a the year and the final card indicates the overall general atmosphere you are likely to experience over the coming year according to the influences and elements present at the time of the reading.

Months that have a Major Arcana card land in that position will signify an important month. Any Aces that appear indicate a chance for new beginnings or a fresh start so pay particular attention to those cards and influences.

These are only a few examples but they are quite effective and informative in providing valuable insight into the New Year. And remember this is only an glimpse of possibilities as nothing is set in stone. Should you encounter a card that doesn't really provide clear insight, feel free to use clarification cards to assist the process.

To Your Divinatory Success!

Leslie Fulger
Tarot Site Editor
BellaOnline.com

What Magick is

What Magick Is - what it does and what it should and should not be used for......

    This comes from a book by Isobel Bird - it is an excerpt from a part of the book regarding an beginning class about explaining Witchcraft.
    "Anya picked up a pot that had a small plant growing in it, 'This is a lavender plant,' she said. 'I grew it from seeds that started indoors about a month ago. When it's warm enough, I'm going to plant in my garden.'   Kate didn't under stand what Anya was getting at. Sure, a lavender would be pretty, but it was hardly magick.  'It took a lot for that little seed to become this plant,' Anya continued. 'The seed contained everything it needed to make the plant, but without the help of water and the light, it would have stayed dormant. And without more of it, the plant won't bloom and fill my garden with its fragrance. In a way magick is like the water and the light. We have the potential to make all kinds of things happen. But if we don't find ways to use that potential - to nourish it - then nothing happens.'
  'You mean the magick is already in us?' asked a woman in the back.  'That's right,' Anya said. 'Many people mistakenly think of magick as something mysterious or supernatural. It is, in a way, because it's something extraordinary. But true magick is simply finding ways to make the things happen that we already have the ability to make happen.'
   'Can you give us an example?' asked Lea.  Anya thought for moment, 'Suppose I need money,' she said. 'Maybe I need six hundred dollars to pay for repairs on my car. I might do a spell in which I ask for money to come my way. A few days later, I might get  raise at work, or someone who owes me money might pay me back. I might even get a tax refund I didn't know was coming.'
   'But that's not magick,' the first woman said. 'That's just luck.'
   'Is it?' asked Anya. 'What is magick? It's removing the obstacles that are preventing you from getting what you want or need. When I do a ritual or cast a spell, I'm really asking for help in finding ways around the obstacles that are in my way. If I need money, I look for ways that I can get that money. I don't expect it to just fall out of the sky.' 
    'But if you just want something?' Sasha asked. 'I mean, like what if you see a really great leather jacket, but you can't afford it. Shouldn't you be able to do magick and just get it?'  'Thast's a good question.,' Anya said. 'Do you think you should?'
   'Sure,' said Sasha... 'If I can do magick, I should be able to get what I want out of it.'  'What do the rest of you think?' Anya asked. 
   "I don't think you should use magick like a credit cad,' Annie said carefully, breaking the silence. 'If all you do is take, take, take, then what's the point?' 
   'The point is that you have what you want' Sasha said. 'Why should you have to work so hard for everything when there's magick?' "
   So the members in the class discussed various ways using spells could 'fix' or 'get' things you want or need in your life.  One of the statements made that I thought was something to keep in mind is 'magick should be used for removing obstacles, not for plowing through things like a bulldozer.'  Maybe this excerpt can give us a better insight into how magick is really suppose to be used and how it works.
Plant seeds during this winter days and meditate on how they grow - how they make things happen and make changes in our lives.

Energy of City Magick

Energy of City Magick

    Hopefully city magick opens the doors to a new urban magickal world. Magick is hiding everywhere, wanting to be found. Cities do have their problems. They have lots of problems. Wouldn't it be great to create a 'shining bright city, perfect and clean' as mentioned in an obscure song called "Mysteries of the Unexplained by pop singer Tanya Donelly. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X76UWdo3qUs)  We all have a collective archetype of an Utopian city in our minds and are constantly reminded of it by our artists, our true visionaries of what was, is and will be.
   There is a mythological ideal of the city that have not really achieved in this world. Did it exist on forgotten continents? If so, we have no evidence of it. We will never know how to create it if we do not honor the energy and spirits in the cities we have already built. Even modern science is coming to the conclusion that there is more to us than the merely physical. We have energy component. Not only people, but the entire world, has an energy aspect. Perhaps by honoring it and working with it, we can transform our urban dwellings from potential engines of destruction to bright and shining centers of learning and prosperity. We need to honor the spirit in all things to find out. We need to try and work with what we have. The world may not be changed with a wave of the magick wand, but if we work collectively toward something, our power to transform is great. It works in our mystical lives and in our daily living.
    Honoring starts at home. Start with yourself, your family, your home and your tools. All are sacred. If you have only been an armchair practitioner till this point - interested in magick, but never taking the leap because you weren't close enough to the natural forces - then get up off the sofa and open your eyes. You are a natural force - one with all the other forces around you. Open the door, walk down the street, and let the adventure begin.
[Parts of this post come from Christopher Penczak's book City Magick ]

Chorus to the City Witch Song

"I'm a witch in the cave of the city's tomb,
I weave my web on a high steel loom,
And a new power grows in this cold stone womb;
To heal the wounds of the masses lost,
We're the generation that carries the cost
Of averting humanity's doom....."

   From the song "City Witch Song" by
Raven Kaldera, 1994 - in the book Urban Primitive....

   *** Most Pagan rituals, spells, and symbols stem from an older agricultural era. The holidays follow the Wheel of the Year as seen by farmers dependent on it for their food; the rituals revolve around fertility and growing things. This is a difficult path for many city dwellers to follow, surrounded as they are by the energy of a different place and time.

   Seasons pass differently in the city; although climatic changes are the same, there are less natural cues, short of weather, to notice. Even Moon cycles are harder to follow in the city. There is more obscuring light pollution, and tall buildings may block the moon when she is hanging lower in the sky.

     Granted, it is important to know your roots, to connect with your ancestral patterns, and above all to understand where your food comes from. One thing that is artificial about living in a city is that the majority of food production necessarily happens far away and urban dwellers are quite dependent on their rural neighbors for almost everything they put in their mouths. This connection is vital and should be appreciated, and to that end we should to periodically take time away from the urban centers in order to connect with the spirit of the growing Earth. Seek out all resources of food production that is happening in urban area now a days. 
    There are many cities that large garden plots where produce is grown and that is sold in street markets. Support these endeavors, volunteer to help out.  Start a urban garden plot of your own.

     If you are just becoming interested in the Craft but live in an urban environment I hope what I post here will you follow a Craft path and develop your own witchy lifestyle.  I must confess I don 't live in an urban setting but I like reading about what is happening in urban areas regarding pagan inroads in
cities.  The witches of today live a very different lifestyle than their ancestors but the spirit of witches is still with us and we can adapt our witchy selves to living an urban setting.

Trying this out

A while back I was doing a blog based on Urban magick and witchcraft based on information from various urban magic books out there for urban Pagans. I came across this background and header this morning by Elegia's Backgrounds which was exactly what I was looking for that blog... now I that I have found what I perceive to be the perfect background I am going to try this type of blogt again. No, I don't live in an urban situation yet I know a lot of witches and pagans do so I am going to post information here that could be helpful (I hope) for those who do.... 

Sobeit