Rose Ariadne's Chitchcraft Blog

Dear Friends,

It is my sincere hope that you chose this path as your own to create powerful changes in your spiritual life, and not to just gain control over others. Not only is the latter motive not possible with witchcraft, I’ve seen the desire for power destroy what were once spiritually balanced people. Magick is powerful, but it’s to be used to transform yourself and not necessarily others. That’s why I thought that it was important today to focus on rituals and spellcraft that cut to the heart of what it is to be on this path and be a witch: your own personal spiritual growth.

Spiritual growth is something that can only be defined and understood on a personal level. There’s no way I could hold up a stick and “measure” your spiritual growth. A small step for one person may be a large step for someone else. The key to using magick for spiritual growth is to focus on the areas that you feel you need the most help with. For example, if you’ve been dealing with anger issues all your life, you might do a ritual or take up a practice that involves calming down your moods.

There are definitely specific rituals that are built for different types of growth. You should try to find one that fits your specific needs, if you have them, either in the archives of this blog or elsewhere o the Internet. Pick something that speaks to you and then work with it. Keep in mind that if it’s an issue in your life that has been particularly troubling in the past, you may need to work on it for some time in order for it to leave your life.

If you have some part of your spiritual life that you’d like to modify or transform, it it worth looking into self hypnosis. As I’m sure you know, self hypnosis is normally categorized as a “new age” therapy technique, but it has it’s place in Paganism as well. Self hypnosis is a natural extension of spellwork, and by using it in your practice you can help yourself gain control over areas of your life that you might not be able to do otherwise.

It’s a naturally occurring state of mind that puts your mind into a higher state of awareness. During hypnosis, you’re able to make suggestions to yourself that will help change your behavior or your approach to life. It’s a powerful technique, and I recommend that you try using it.

There is a three step method to self-hypnosis. This method will require some practice on your part, but in a matter of time you’ll find it very easy to do on command. The first step is done before you go to sleep while you are lying in bed. The relaxation that you experience while you lie in bed, coupled with the fact that you’re already used to be relaxed in that place, make self hypnosis very easy.

The first step is a pre-sleep technique that you’ll do for seen days before you start the actual hypnosis process. As you relax in bed, just before you are about to go to sleep, think the following statement:

“Every day in everyway, I get better and better”

While you are thinking the statement, visualize yourself doing better at what you do. Imagine peaceful relationships with people, working more efficiently, getting things done….etc. As you do this, press down a finger on your hand each time to complete this statement. This way you’ll keep track of how many times you’ve said it and will be able to stay awake through the whole series of statements.

The next step is to induce yourself into a state of hypnosis during waking hours. Twice a day, you’ll be hypnotising yourself for two to three minutes and then bringing yourself back out of it. Sit comfortably somewhere that you will be safe. Focus your attention on a spot on the wall opposite you, and slightly above your eye level.

Breathe deeply for three breaths and as you inhale your third breath, hold it for five full seconds. As you hold your breath, count backwards like this “five…..four…..three…..two….one.” Close your eyes and relax your body and mind. When you close your eyes, you’ll be sending yourself into a state of hypnosis. Stay there for two to three minutes. Mark your time by counting very slowly from twenty five down to one.

Once you’ve reached one, start counting upwards from one to five and then you’ll be ready to exit hypnosis. Try this part out for seven days, twice a day. At the end of the week, you’ll be able to use the third and final step, which I’ll share with you in the next post.

Brightest Blessings,

Rose Ariadne
Your Warm And Caring “Resident Witch In Charge”

Dear Friends,

Divination, as you learned in my last post, is a great way to give yourself a heads up about what is coming around the bend. Although it’s not specifically Pagan, a lot of people in Paganism are drawn to it. And for good reason! Using divination tools reminds you that you are connected with everything – the past, the present and the future.

Before you start using any of these divination methods, you need to go into it with the right attitude. When it comes to divination, attitude is everything. The only thing that matters is that you believe in what you are doing and take notice of the messages. Whether you’re divining for fun at a party or using it as a serious part of a complex ritual, the belief is all that matters. Belief helps you focus in on the messages you are receiving.

Think about it this way. You walk up to a friend and ask their advice, but preface it with “I don’t really care what you say, and I’m going to ignore your advice, but here’s my question.” After a while, your friend is going to start ignoring you right back. While I’m all for the playful use of divination (by using one of the more unusual methods described below), thinking of the divine as silly or non-essential isn’t going to get you anywhere. Remember to have respect for the divine and pose your questions with honesty and an open mind.

That being said, let’s get to some unusual and fun ways to divine the future. These methods work just as well as traditional methods like tarot cards, but can provide a way to break out of the seriousness of those methods. I find that when I use more unusual methods, I find connecting with spirit a lot easier. I don’t know if it’s something about stepping out of my usual methods or what, but the unusual methods allow me to relax and get more in tune.

The first method that I like to use requires no more than a television and a remote….seriously. To use the television method of divination, sit in front of the television while it’s turned off. Ask your question and turn the T.V. on. Then start flipping through the channels at a regular pace. Listen to the words and phrases that you are getting from the television.

As you flip through the channels you’ll hear fragments of sentences and words. These words and phrases are coming to you in a specific sequence. Listen to this sequence and try to divine some meaning. One time while doing this I asked the question: “What is the best course of action with my sister?” I was having an argument with her at the time, and wanted to know if it would be better to call her or let her call me.

“Listen…”
“Act now”
“No one is dead”

I called her right away. Your results may vary with this method. Sometimes I have to make a few complete rounds through the channels before I get a clear message.

Another fun method of divination is bibliomancy. As the name implies, bibliomancy is telling the future using books. Traditional bibliomancy books have been the Bible, the Aenid (by Virgil) and the I Ching, but you can use any book that you like.

The basic method is that you put the book on a table with it’s spine down flat down on the surface of the table. Ask your question and then let the book fall open by itself. Point to a paragraph at random on the lefthand side page. Then read the paragraph and draw meaning from it. You can select a book that deals with the theme of your question to get even more insight. For example if you have a relationship question, you could use a book like “Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus.”

Another variation of this method is to decide on a specific number before you “cast” the book. Then you can count out that number of sentences down the page when the book opens. This sentence is the answer to your question.

Finally, a quick and fun method for divining the answer to a yes and no question is to use a coin. It’s a very old method of divination that is still used to this day for coin tosses. But it can also be used for divination. As you might expect, a coin toss needs a yes or no question. Most commonly, yes is heads and no is tails. But you might want to “ask” your coin which direction it prefers. To do this, simply ask “Show me yes” and then flip the coin. You’ll get more accurate answers if you do it this way.

Once you’ve determine what side is which answer, it’s time to ask your questions. Ask them clearly and then confidently flip the coin and catch it in your hand. Unlike with standard coin flips, you’ll want to open your hand to see the coin that is facing upward. This is your true answer. If you drop the coin, try to find it and see what side it landed on. This will be your answer.

Television divination, bibliomancy and coin tosses are just three of the unusual ways that you can use the old art of divination to predict your life. Hopefully you will find use for them soon!

Brightest Blessings,

Rose Ariadne
Your Warm And Caring “Resident Witch In Charge”

Dear Friends,

In this post, I’m going to be rather ambitious and try to spell out exactly why and how divination works. Keep in mind that these are just my personal observations and understandings from the experiences that I have had in my life. You may, as always, form your own opinions. But hopefully this will help guide your experience and your understanding of divination.

Divination is a powerful tool in anyone’s life, whether they choose to be Pagan or not. It’s an ancient practice that takes many forms. It used to have a much more prominent role in society, but was replaced over time by the constructs of religion and science. These days, people are waking up to the subtle forces that guide the world and divination is again becoming something that people can rely on to help them guide their future.

If you at all doubt the power of divination, you need to only look through history for examples of it’s power. Battles have been stopped, cities have been formed and the lives of thousands of people have been changed just because of a divining tool.

Although many people associated tarot cards and crystal balls with divination, there are literally hundreds of methods to divination. You can divine from eggs whites broken in a bowl, a feather blowing in the wind, a glass of water, the smoke from incense….the list goes on and on. I once had a particularly insightful divination session by closing my eyes and point at a successive list of words in the newspaper. Insight can come from everywhere.

Divination works, in my opinion, because we are in tune with the many threads and paths that cross our lives. There is no book of fate written somewhere that says that anything I or anyone else interprets is the way things should be and will be. When you practice divination, you are tapping into the possibilities of what may be. You are looking across a great flat space and seeing all of the paths at once, then choosing the most likely at this point in time. Predicting the future, in my eyes, is predicting a future and not predicting the future….do you see the difference?

Hopefully this will help relieve you of any fear and trepidation related to the art of divination. If you see something in the cards, or the water or the plants that makes you nervous or represents something that you don’t want to happen, you can do something now to prevent it from happening, or at least brace yourself for it.

Think about it this way – you receive a message in the mail that you’re going to be hit with a bill in six weeks for $100. With this fair warning, you can plan to pay off the bill. You could save a little bit of money each week and then be ready to pay the bill. You could also contact the company who is sending you the bill and prove it’s an error, totally removing your need to pay it. Compare that to receiving the bill with no warning at all…just opening your mailbox and it being there.

This is the difference between living with divination and living without divination. When you use divination, in any form, you’re preparing yourself for the future and, in some cases, effecting it so that it will change.

Changing the future is a lot easier that in sounds. When you use a divination tool and discover something coming up that you’d like to avoid, you can take steps to prevent and change it. You can use the divination tool to further discover how to prevent the occurrence. Take this example from one of my recent tarot readings for a client of mine.

She was concerned about the next six months of her life. When I drew the cards, I saw a lot of money problems coming in her future. There were some cards that I associated with shortages in her short term forecast. I told her “It looks like there may be some money troubles coming up. Let’s take a look at what we can do to prevent this.” Notice my wording to her….I said there “may” be this coming up. I never say that this will be this way or it will be that way. It’s always in the realm of possibility.

The next step in our reading was to ask what the solution was to the problem. We asked yes or no questions of the cards with specific courses of action. After a few of these draws, the solution became clear. Last I heard, she was able to avoid most of her financial troubles and those upsets that did come her way were handled rather easily.

Divination is a helpful guide. Whether you’re interested in knowing the intricacies, or are just focused on getting some guidance for the future, it’s a good idea to make some sort of divination a part of your practice. In the next lesson, we’ll go over some of the less common forms of divination and how you can use them to guide your future.

Brightest Blessings,

Rose Ariadne
Your Warm And Caring “Resident Witch In Charge”

Dear Friends,

As I’ve said before, your own magickal practice may take a different form than mine. This path is as unique as all of the different people who walk it. While I encourage you to use these posts as a jumping off point for the way that you study the craft, please don’t take these words as gospel, as it were. You should evaluate this advice and see if it works into your scheme of how the universe works. The reason I bring this up is because this post is about choosing a tarot card deck. Not everyone will be into using tarot as part of his or her practice. But if you are drawn to it, I’d like to offer some advice on how you can choose the right deck for you.

There are hundreds of tarot decks available, and that number jumps into the thousands when you consider the artisan decks that are created as one of a kind projects. There is a tarot deck out there for everyone. While this wide variety of deck designs certainly makes shopping for a tarot deck fun, it can also make the task somewhat impossible. Picking a deck out of the myriad of choices can make your head swim!

If you’re lucky enough to have an occult shop or magick shop in your town, I highly suggest that you go there to find a tarot card deck. There’s something to holding a deck in your hand and seeing how you respond to it that makes finding a deck a lot easier. However, if you’re ordering one online don’t worry. This post will give you enough tips so that you can make a wise choice depending on your tastes and preferences.

There are few different basic types of tarot cards. The first is the beginner deck. This type of deck is normally based on the Rider-Waite deck, which is a popular tarot deck that was created in the early part of last century. This deck is probably one of the most popular styles available, and many tarot instruction books use it as the example deck. For this reason, it’s easy to find a lot of information on the Rider-Waite deck and it’s many variations. If you’ve never read tarot cards before, a Rider-Waite may be a good choice. It comes in many different artistic styles, all of which have the same symbology. It has very simple illustrations that have basic interpretations. Once you learn the basic meanings of the Rider-Waite deck, you’ll be prepared to learn to read other decks.

Although the Rider-Waite deck is popular for both beginners and more advanced tarot readers, you may find yourself drawn to another type of deck. Rider-Waite is very simple, when compared to other decks with layered meanings. With other types of decks, you’ll find that your interpretive skills can become heightened and enhanced.

The best way to choose your own deck is to look for the different decks available and go with your gut feeling. Choose something that speaks to you on an almost imperceptible level. Let your intuition guide you as you look through decks. If you’re doing this online, you may want to narrow your choices down by choosing a mythology or symbology that you find yourself drawn to. There are decks for cat lovers, decks for those interested in Greek mythology, decks that are more Judeo-Christian based, Goddess decks, horse decks, astrological decks…the options really are that wide.

You may also want to consider what you are going to be using the tarot deck for. If you want a deck to have around to do a quick daily reading for yourself, you’ll want to choose something that is more personal. If you’re planning on doing readings for friends, choose a deck that has a wide variety of interpretations.

You can also select a deck based on the art work. Since you’ll be spending a lot of time with the cards and studying them, you need to choose something that you find visually appealing. There are Art deco decks, decks inspired by Renaissance paintings and even some abstract art decks made with computers.

Keep in mind that you should avoid any decks that make you feel uncomfortable and frightened in any way. Many decks lean toward gothic or dark images, and so it’s important that you choose something that inspires you. If you find inspiration in the darker side of things, so be it. But don’t feel like you have to choose a deck like that to be authentic.

No matter what type of deck you choose, keep in mind that this doesn’t have to be your only deck purchase. You can easily create a collection of tarot decks based on your interests and your growing spiritual practice. I have decks that I use for certain things, and you can develop a similar collection as your practice grows.

Brightest Blessings,

Rose Ariadne
Your Warm And Caring “Resident Witch In Charge”