Welcome to another blog post! It’s been a while, but from here onwards I’ll try and publish content once a week to keep it constant. This post is going to be another beginning of a new series. Where I’ll share a book with you all and read a chapter or two ✌️. I do not own or claim any copyrights from the content in this book I’m sharing and the artwork used.
To kick this series off, the book we are going to read is called Magickal Tarot by Robyn Valentine. Which talks about tarot spreads, spell work and rituals to help you create the life you want! If you own a copy and or have read the book yourself. Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions about this book either down below or in my DMs.
(first of we’ll be reading pages 6 to 9)
INTRODUCTION: TAROT AS A MAGICKAL TOOL
You may know the tarot as a tool for divination, but divination is only the beginning of its usefulness. All magickal tools are based on symbolism and are associated with historic knowledge about why we use them. Understanding the why is vital for all magickal applications, and tarot is no different.
The tarot is chock full of symbolism. With knowledge of this symbolism, you will find that it becomes easily accessible with the cards of the traditional Rider-Waite-Smith deck.
We must give credit to Pamela Coleman Smith for the imagery we see in the Rider-Waite-Smith deck because her name has mostly been forgotten due to her odd (for those times) lifestyle and role in society. Although Waite is credited for the creation of the deck, Smith was the artist behind the imagery we most commonly associate with tarot. During the turn of the last century, it was nearly unheard of to credit a woman of (theorized) mixed-race background, one who may have been LGBTQIA+, for her contributions. For this reason, it is not only important but necessary that we include her today.
Once you have a firm understanding of each card’s symbolism, the doors to a countless array of magical possibilities will open for you!
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE MAJOR ARCANA
The Major Arcana is the set of the first twenty-two cards of any tarot deck that follows the Rider-Waite-Smith formatting. They are the biggest and most impactful cards of a deck. These twenty-two cards represent situations we all face in the grand scheme of life, with each carrying specific messages of perspective and guidance. They follow the Fool’s journey through social, personal and emotional issues.
As we will see throughout this book, we can also use the Major Arcana as a ritual tool, as the cards are full of symbolism and specific energies. Before the seventeenth century, the Major Arcana card deck was simply a variation of a gaming deck. Although the cards may have held cultural significance, they held little occult or spiritual weight.
The symbolism of the cards we discuss throughout this book, the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, was brought to life in the early twentieth century (although it has been reimagined time and time again).
WHY LEARNING SYMBOLISM IS IMPORTANT
once we learn why specific energies are associated with the Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS, short) cards we can take that information and apply it to further learning and application, including to other decks. Although imagery can vary from deck to deck, it is generally acknowledged that the energies and symbolism of the RWS deck hold. So, although a deck you have in your house may not mirror the traditional RWS imagery exactly – the symbolism is what is important.
Once we have a solid understanding of why each card holds its traditional energies, we can apply those energies to areas outside of divination, such as manifestation. The cards are loaded with symbolism that can be reflected in other areas of one’s spiritual practice, even on a mundane level of manifesting the energy of that card for your daily life.
WHAT IS MANIFESTATION?
In this book, we will explore the basic energies associated with each of the Major Arcana cards so that they can be applied to your manifestation rituals, as well as to your practical rituals, charms and spell work. What is manifestation? At the most basic, it is something’s form or the form that it takes. It is a tool I have used to bring forth the energies or events I want in my life, through witchcraft and magick.
Although there are other ways to manifest – not all people who use manifestation would consider themselves witches – this book uses total and spell casting as tools for manifestation. The tools used for manifestation ritual work can vary from practitioner to practitioner, but they often include the Major Arcana due to its heavy use of symbolism.
That symbolism is an easily accessible tool for manifestation work. Why not use it for the energies or events you want to call forth in your life. I hope that this book pushes you to think outside the box in magick and witchcraft. Not everyone can poor money into their craft when they are first getting started but luckily, we all have access to the imagery of the RWS tarot, even if simply in a printed image. Thinking creatively can push us magickal practitioners, now and in the future.
✨💕 CLOSING NOTE 💕✨
I hope you all learnt a thing or two from this chapter I’ve shared with you all! If this is something you enjoyed and would like to read more about this book. Feel free to let me know so I know if I should consider continuing this series.
Thank you all for your time and dedication to my content. Hope you all have a good morning/day/afternoon/evening/night.
Oddly Occultic 