Finding The Pattern: The Major Arcana & the Tarot Court

The tarot is a fascinating tool of communication and clarity, where we build trust in our own stories through the mythic archetypes presented to and invented by us in the cards.

When I held my first tarot deck and saw all the patterns spread out before me in the images of the cards, I was completely enchanted and continue to be enchanted by the cards all these decades later. While there is plenty of esoteric mystery to explore with the cards, the tarot, at its roots, is simply pointing out patterns of common experiences. From the pain of a broken heart, the pride of a skill well-developed, the boredom we all experience from time to time, the way grief changes us, and how we feel open and brave we can feel when we are able to be who we really are in the world - all these stories and so many more are told in the tarot. Storytelling is one of the ways we develop empathy and curiosity about ourselves and others, and the tarot is a storytelling tool.

One of the structures of story found in the tarot is the delineation between the Major Arcana, which are cards signifying major life events and patterns, and the Minor Arcana or cards that represent day-to-day experiences. Within the Minor Arcana is the tarot Court which are a set of sixteen characters that have an interesting relationship to the Major Arcana, helping us to find big patterns in small moments.

Knowing that the tarot court cards are ones that readers struggling with again and again (myself included!), from their hierarchical structure to sparse traditional meanings and more, I wanted to share the ways that I have come to understand the tarot court in a way that brings meaning to my own, and hopefully your, healing practice. I started earlier this year by exploring the often difficult to decipher tarot Court through the lens of healing ritual (check out part one and part two).

Now, I want to explore the tarot court in a way that's a bit more experimental and intuitive.

One of the fascinating aspects of the tarot Court cards are the way that they act like a more subtle expression of the energy and archetypes of the Major Arcana cards. Major Arcana cards often represent big energy and patterns in our life that are showing up over an extended period of time, whereas the Minor Arcana, including the Court, represent smaller energetic patterns and day-to-day insights. Yet, the deep patterns of the Major Arcana are reflected in the everyday experiences of the Minor Arcana, especially in the Court.

The Neutral Vibes Tarot

When I see the Page of Swords show up in a reading, for example, I am reminded of the energy of the Magician. While the Page of Swords has achieved some level of skill and self-control, they are are still developing their confidence and knowledge. Their body, however, has already begun to mimic that of he Magician, directing them to the wisdom of “As Above, So Below.” For me, the Page of Swords hints at the energy of the Magician, but in a more subdued and developing way. We are not meant to be gazing at the mysteries with intensity everyday (the Magician), but we are still living in a world of those mysteries (Page of Swords). In other words, the mysteries as profound are represented by the Magician while the mysteries as profane are represented by the Page of Swords.

While not every day is a profoundly meaningful sort of Major Arcana day, the energy of the Major Arcana and profundity is always at play. Through the Court cards we are a way to spot some of those deep currents of mystery represented by the Major Arcana. One of the ways these correspondences work in readings is by helping us understand our relationships with other folks in the grander scheme of our personal Major Arcana journey.

Let’s say that you pull the Page of Pentacles for a card representing a new significant other in your life. I connect the gentle energy of the Page of Pentacles with the Strength card, which would tell me that this new significant other in your life may illuminate the dynamic of Strength in your life, whether by testing it, affirming it or in some other way connect with how you embody and connect to Strength in your life. The Court cards are not meant to identify a deep valley or high peak of a pattern of energy - that’s the work of the Major Arcana - but help us to notice where that pattern is occurring in a more diffused way in our everyday life.

The Natural Ink Tarot

If you're intrigued by this idea of the Major Arcana’s connection with the Court, I’ve gone ahead and listed my very loose correspondences between the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana. For my personal correspondences, there are a few Major Arcana cards that don’t have direct links to the Court: the Fool, the Lovers, the Wheel of Fortune, the Star, the Moon, and the Sun. The lack of correspondence for these Major Arcana cards are for the following reasons: 

• The Fool always represents who is being read for so doesn’t need a corresponding Court card

• With The Lovers, no Court card seemed to represent that particular energy to me but instead any Court card could represent oneself or others in a Lovers relationship (which is a traditional meaning for the Court card, the current, past or prospective romantic partner).

• The Wheel of Fortune is an abstracted, impersonal energy and does not easily correspond to any of the inherently personal Court cards.

• The celestial cards (The Star, The Moon, and The Sun) are similar to the current of the Fool, being deeply personal to those being read for. 

I created my Major Arcana and Court card correspondences when working with my Smith Waite Tarot and the imagery of this particular deck of cards definitely contributed to my correspondence choices. Keep that in mind if you’re interested in creating your own correspondences for your favorite deck (which I hope you do!). There are more traditional ways of connecting one card to another, mostly through astrological correspondences, but that was not my focus for my own list. I hope you feel inspired by tradition but not burdened or beholden to it whenever you read the cards, create correspondences, and use tarot as a tool of healing.

The Weiser Tarot

The Major Arcana & Court Card Correspondences

• 0. The Fool: See Note Above

• I. The Magician: Page of Swords

• II. The High Priestess: Page of Cups

• III. The Empress: Queen of Wands

• IV. The Emperor: King of Wands

• V. The Hierophant: King of Cups

• VI. The Lovers: See Note Above

• VII. The Chariot: Knight of Pentacles

• VIII. Strength: Page of Pentacles

• IX. The Hermit: Queen of Pentacles

• X. Wheel of Fortune: See Note Above

• XI. Justice: King of Swords

• XII. The Hanged Man: Knight of Cups

• XIII. Death: Page of Wands

• XIV. Temperance: Queen of Cups

• XV. The Devil: King of Pentacles

• XVI. The Tower: Knight of Wands

• XVII. The Star: See Note Above

• XVIII. The Moon: See Note Above

• XIX. The Sun: See Note Above

• XX. Judgement: Knight of Swords

• XXI. The World: Queen of Swords

Finding the Pattern Tarot Spread

If you are trying to better understand how the pattern of a Major Arcana card is playing out in your personal relationships and development of your own identity in these relationships, the following spread is meant to help.

Begin by choosing the Major Arcana card whose energy you want to explore, setting that at the top of your spread. Next, separate out the Court cards from your deck - you'll be pulling only from the Court cards for this spread.

Card 1. How I am Manifesting the Pattern

This card represents how you currently understand and are manifesting the energy of the pattern of the Major Arcana card you are exploring. For our example, let's say you are exploring the energetic patterns of the Hierophant in your life and you pull the King of Cups to represent you. The King of Cups shows that you are deeply engaged in the work of examining the hierarchical structures, restrictions, and allegiance to authority in your life, that this is a front and center focus for you. If you are seeking more clarity, you can pull two more cards from the Minor Arcana to represent how you can ease the strain of this pattern in your life (i.e. the Hierophant energy can be very serious, here are some ways to lighten up) as well as support your explorations (i.e. talk about what you're exploring with friends instead of trying to untangle it all on your own).

Card 2. The Person Helping My Understanding of the Pattern

This card, as the position title suggests, helps you identify a person in your life who is beneficially assisting your ability to explore and understand the energy of the Major Arcana card you are working with. Everything from personal and familial relationships, social and work relationships, as well as para-social relationships can show up here. For our example let's say that you pull the Queen of Pentacles who represents the energy of your high school English teacher who encouraged all of their students to read banned books, helping you to understand how the energy of the Hierophant often seeks to restrict the flow of information. 

Card 3. The Person Hindering My Understanding of the Pattern

This card helps you to identify a person in your life who is challenging your ability to understand the energy of the Major Arcana card you're exploring. For our example, you might pull the Knight of Swords, who represents an online video essayist on popular culture who you used to love for their what you thought was incisive commentary, but are coming to realize are shallow in their opinions and driven more by gossip than insight. 

Card 4. The Person to Connect With

This card represents someone who may or may not be currently connected with in your life (whether they are someone you haven't connected with recently, to someone you haven't met yet) that you would benefit from knowing as you explore the energy of the Major Arcana card you've chosen. Let's say you pull the Queen of Wands - this card might represent someone who brings a fiery, creative energy to your explorations of the often cold and reserved Hierophant, helping you find playfulness and bravery on your journey.

⭐️

Explore the rest of my tarot Court series with a look at the Pages and the Knights (including an overview of the Court structure and non-hierarchical alternatives to the royalty theme) followed by the Queens and Kings. If you’re looking for more tarot spreads, I have a whole collection to inspire your practice, too. For those ready for deepening your knowledge of how herbalism intersects with tarot, come this way.

Whether or not you work with tarot, I hope that this post has inspired you to take a look at the big patterns showing up in little ways (especially in your relationships) in your life. May you be freed from those relationships that seek to keep you stuck and small. May you be drawn towards the people and places where you feel seen, where you are able to connect through collaboration and compassion. May we find each other again and again through our healing work.

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

᠅

Tarot Decks Shown

The Neutral Vibes Tarot
The Weiser Tarot
The Natural Ink Tarot

Opening Up To Ourselves: Agrimony Plant Profile

It can be hard to ask for help when we need it, especially when we use chronic cheerfulness as a way to hide our own suffering in stressful situations. Most of us know (or maybe are) a person who keeps saying “I’m fine! Everything’s great!” when they have every reason to not be ok. Agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria) is the plant ally that they’ll probably never reach for by themselves (“Really, I’m fine!”) but the sort of plant friend they need and deserve.

Agrimony is a plant that has been in the traditional western materia medica for thousands of years, helping to alleviate many forms of suffering, which is why I’m excited to be exploring this plant more in-depth with all of you.

And maybe, for those of you who have stumbled across this post, after a long day of Agrimony smiling (learn what an “Agrimony smile” is below), you may feel called to get the loving care and connection you deserve.

image source

Agrimony
(Agrimonia eupatoria)

Common + Folk Names : Common Agrimony, burr marigold, liverwort, church steeples, cocklebur, garclive, philantropos, sticklewort, stickwort, red-tail, goosechite, fairy's wand, aaron's rod, grooveburr

Element : Air, Water

Zodiac Signs : Cancer (Remedy Herb), Virgo (Guardian Herb)

Planets : Moon, Mercury, Venus

Moon Phase : New Moon

Tarot Cards :  The Hermit, Justice, The Tower (learn more about the connections between the tarot and herbs)

Parts used : Aerial parts

Habitat : Native to Eurasia. 

Growing conditions : Wildflower conditions. Sunny, sandy hillsides, and poor soil.

Collection : Harvest when flowering through summer.

Flavor : Bitter

Temperature : Dry

Moisture : Cool

Tissue State : Tense/Constriction, Heat/Excitation

Constituents : Polysaccharides, tannins, triterpene acids, glycosidal bitters, agrimonin, furanocoumarins, volatile oils, flavonoids, coumarins, vitamin B, vitamin K, iron, silicon, phenolic acids.

Actions : Analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antiparasitic, antiviral, astringent, digestive, diuretic, emmenagogue, febrifuge, hemostatic, hepatic, vulnerary.

Main Uses : I first met Agrimony through my flower essence studies - it is one of Dr. Edward Bach's 38 original remedies. The essence was described to me as being best for folks who tend to "grin and bear it" or to smile through their suffering. The origin of their smile and its purpose can be manifold for a person. Sometimes folks, especially those socialized as and/or perceived to be women, experience undue expectations to perform cheerfulness for everyone who interacts with them. Sometimes the smile is meant to deflect the curiosity of others, so that the suffering or disharmony beneath the surface goes undetected. The smile might be a shield against confrontation or a way to prove your strength and good-naturedness or to generally appease another person. The smile can be a shield used so often in unsafe situations where a more powerful party must be placated, especially in early childhood, that it becomes a permanent fixture of a person's interaction with nearly everyone in their life.  Learning to spot a smile like this in the consultation room can be a useful skill in helping to figure out what questions to ask to draw a person out and begin to get them help they deserve  but might be afraid to outright ask for not only within an herbal care context but broader health services.

Later on in my practice when I learned about the medicinal gifts that Agrimony offers, I was reminded of the resonance that is often found between the flower essence energetics and the herbal properties of a plant. As an herb, Agrimony helps to alleviate the (often invisible) suffering hidden behind the "Agrimony smile" including peptic ulcers and indigestion. Indications for Agrimony include indigestion that is aggravated by stress and tension caused by "swallowing" your feelings to keep the peace, poor absorption of nutrients, and not enough secretion of digestive bile from the liver and gall-bladder. Greek herbalist Galen classified Agrimony as hot and dry in the first degree making it a useful herb for thinning out build-up in organ systems and re-opening clogged passages.¹ Agrimony has been used since antiquity for ulcers as well as all types of liver and gallbladder diseases and herbalists today still use Agrimony for conditions such as gallstones, cirrhosis of the liver, jaundice, and portal hypertension. Other uses for Agrimony as a drying and opening herb include clearing the respiratory system of excess mucus as well as opening the airways to alleviate the symptoms of asthma. 

Through a traditional western energetic lens, those who would benefit from Agrimony are often experiencing an excess of Earth manifesting as build-up and tension in the body because there is so much Air (self-expression, mental health support, decisiveness) and Water (feeling and emotional need) that needs a structure or container to find a home in that they are not experiencing in their life and relationships. These emotional experiences of Agrimony folk and their use of the "Agrimony smile" to cope are not the cause of their suffering, but are often a result of a life that has been defined by lack - lack of resources to good food and clean water, shelter and quality education, and/or a lack in their personal relationships. It is important to be wary of any belief you hold about how someone may have "deserved" or "manifested" their disease because of circumstances beyond their control and we should honor their stories while making sure they access the support they need to thrive. Agrimony types are already taking on so much all while struggling to maintain a sense of agency - be mindful of how you might be contributing to the pressure of having to suppress their discomfort in order to appease you or anyone else on their healing team. Here, too, is a gift of Agrimony to the practitioner - helping us to sit with our own discomfort and biases and come out the other side more compassionate and curious.

The other primary use for Agrimony, from the ancient world to the modern one, is as a vulnerary (i.e. an herb for wound care). Agrimony is an excellent plant ally, both externally and internally, for wounds of all kinds including bruises, strains, cuts, swellings, and general joint pain. You can use the herb as an astringent compress and as a tea when healing a wound, as well as an ingredient in drawing and blood stopping powders. Agrimony has antiviral and antioxidant qualities, adding to its gifts as a healer of wounds. The herb can also be used in the case of infection as well as clearing out heat present in conditions like fever and inflammatory conditions (from inflamed joints to inflamed gut). As an astringent plant with an affinity for the fluids of the body, Agrimony can be a useful ally in cases of menorrhagia, lessening heavy periods as well as providing mild pain relief - look for signs of excess heat during menstruation. Agrimony can be used in mouthwashes and gargles for mouth ulcers, sore throats, laryngitis, and inflammation of the gums. Use in footbaths to relieve soreness.

image via @wyxina

Magickal Uses : Agrimony has an long association with sleep magick and herbalist Maude Grieve shares an old English rhyme speaking to Agrimony's ability to bring about a restful and undisturbed sleep:

If it be leyd under mann's heed,
He shal sleepyn as he were deed;
He shal never drede ne wakyn
Till fro under his heed it be takyn.²

Include Agrimony in charms against nightmares as well as in blends to bring about trance states. An herb regarded as a panacea by ancient Greek and Roman herbalists, Agrimony can be included in all forms of healing magick to enhance the outcome of the spell. Scott Cunningham notes that Agrimony is an excellent protective herb, one that can be used to return unwanted energy to the sender, as well as banishing negative energy (as well as goblins, apparently).³ Use to help you find community of a healing nature.

The Agrimony Personality : The smile of Agrimony folk hides so much - their fear of conflict, their fear of rejection, of being denied their humanity. Agrimony folk can suffer from a build up of emotions that leads to emotional clogging, stagnation, and an inner tension that feels unbearable. This pattern of hiding their pain while appeasing the emotional needs of others (whether or not their is an expectation of appeasement by the other person), is a defense mechanism that has kept Agrimony folk feeling safe enough in their life, but the price of that "safe enough" feeling has been a high one to pay. While Agrimony folks have been so busy projecting an appearance of cheerful enthusiasm and peace with their situation, this often leads them to believing their own performance, making it that much more challenging for them to admit that they are in any sort of pain.

Vulnerability is terrifying to many Agrimony folk and the honest expression of how they are feeling to people who deserve to hear their story is one of the most challenging experiences Agrimony folk can go through and they have often already been through a lot. Agrimony folk can be adept at hiding their pain because they have overdeveloped skills for "grinning and bearing it" and invest incredible amounts of energy into passing as being more than ok. Sometimes they use tools such as drugs and alcohol, deceitfulness, toxic masculinity, committed superficiality or spiritual bypassing to maintain appearances, but it cannot hold. With bravery, vulnerability, and therapeutic support, working with Agrimony can help these folks to open up emotionally so that they can experience the inner peace they are trying so hard to convince other people they have. Connecting with their inner peace helps Agrimony folks to clear out fear and welcome in the type of transformative relationships with themselves and others they've been seeking for so long.

Contraindications : Avoid in pregnancy and breastfeeding. 

Drug interactions : Caution with anticoagulant medication, insulin, and hypoglycemic medication. Discontinue seven days before surgery.

Dosage : Standard dosage.

᠅

Do you know someone who has an Agrimony smile? Are you that person? I find the emotional indicators for plants so interesting. I hope you had fun learning more about Agrimony and the ways it helps us to tend to our emotional wellbeing alongside our physical healing needs. If you’re looking for more plant profiles, come this way, and you can find a printable copy of the Agrimony profile in The Plant Ally Library.

Agrimony works well with other plants like Milky Oat (Avena sativa) and Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora), so if you feel a resonance with what you’ve read so far be sure to check out those plant allies, too.

May your journey of healing lead you back into ever-deepening connection with your community.

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

📚

Footnotes

1. Graeme Tobyn, Alison Dunham, Margaret Whitelegg, The Western Herbal Tradition: 2000 Years of Medicinal Plant Knowledge (Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone Elsevier, 2011), 47.

2. Maude Grieve, A Modern Herbal: Volume I (New York: Dover Publications, 1971), 13.

3. Scott Cunningham, Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs (St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn, 2001), 27.

Plant Allies for Ancestral Healing

I remember sitting alone as a kid, with my well-loved books on working with herbs open in front of me, and feeling like I was being gathered up not just by the stories of the plants themselves, but by something else alongside the green wisdom I was so eager for. I couldn't tell you what half the ingredients were in the botanical skincare book I was reading or yet identify a Peppermint (Mentha piperita) plant from a Sage (Salvia officinalis) from my gardening book, but I could tell that this feeling of being held was a good thing, a needed thing, a healing thing. I now reflect on these moments, where I experienced respite from the loneliness that can haunt strange kids, and recognize my ancestors drawing near and sheltering my curiosity of my plant kin so that it might grow into the life I live now. The books I was reading weren't full of ancestral magick (except for the occasional mention of "ancient people believed this plant to protect against lightning"), but reciting the names of plants worked like a spell, calling forth my ancient people, who understand the power of knowing a plant's name.

While I feel fortunate to have been introduced to working with ancestors as a path of healing early on in my life, I am fascinated and filled with hope by the ways that modern therapeutic practice is embracing the need to heal our ancestral lines, whether we call it epigenetics, inherited trauma or that story our great grandma used to tell. Of course, healing the ancestral line is not a new practice - this is an old path of healing, that some of us have been lucky enough to be raised in and others of us are getting to experience through renewed traditions. It makes my work as an herbalist easier, too, when folks come to me with some familiarity to the idea that the fears and anxieties their ancestors felt, especially from big traumatic experiences, have shaped all of us in all sorts of ways.

Before I was ever introduced to the concept of inherited trauma and epigenetics, however, I understood that some of the plants I was using today had been used by some of my ancestors for hundreds of years, and while I couldn't, as a child, give you a complex explanation of what that meant, I knew it was meaningful. While there is healing that takes place on a physical level through mediums like surgical interventions, appropriate medication, the tending of wounds, the healing that takes place on an emotional and mental level needs, amongst other things, meaning. It is meaningful, even if we don't know our ancestors' names, speak their language or have been offered any of their stories, to work with plants that our ancestors would recognize and feel at home with.

image via @appolinary_kalashnikova

Working with plants has always felt like ancestral practice because I started working with herbs as a way to reclaim and reconnect with the ways my ancestors. When I began practicing as an herbalist, and especially when I started working with other people of the global majority, especially mixed folks like myself, ancestral work and healing became increasingly centered in my work. For me, ancestral plant work starts with honoring plants as our ancestors - plants having watched our species evolve - so that every cup of tea can be a way of acknowledging the presence of and welcoming our ancestors in. One of the simplest ways to start an ancestral healing practice is to set out a cup of tea for your ancestors, inviting them in to enjoy it with you, every time you make a cup for yourself. 

If you are interested in developing an ancestral healing practice with plants as your allies, the following suggestions come from the plants themselves, my own experiences, and from plant folk who've shared them with me. I share them with you now in hopes of inspiring your own ancestral healing practice, as well as supporting the ancestral healing work of the communities you serve.

image via @andrewshelley

Work with ancient plants as your ancestors

If you feel called to honor plants as ancestral spirits, you can work with ancient plants. A few years ago I was in a particularly hard stretch of examining, trying to name, as well as make sense of some of my family’s inherited trauma. I held a complex pain as I sat with these stories of knowing they were incomplete, that I didn’t know many of my ancestor’s names or where even where they came from. I had started working with Rose (Rosa spp.) daily around this time and at one point felt a very clear sense of Rose as ancestor, helping to fill in those gaps of knowledge with their gentle wisdom. I later learned that Rose is an ancient plant species, having been around for millions of years before our modern human species. This experience with Rose changed my relationship with plants within ancestral healing as not just herbs that our ancestors used, but as ancestors themselves, having evolved before and with us as a species.

I consider ancient plants to be species that we know have been with us for millions of years or plants that are particularly long-lived. Ancient plants include Rose (Rosa spp.) and Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) both of which you can work with as ancestor spirits to help you connect with your own ancestral line. There is something powerful about sitting in deep reverence with a plant like Rose who has watched us grow and evolve as a species. You're essentially connecting with Rose as the Mighty Dead in order to seek out your known and unknown Beloved Dead. Long-lived trees like Oak (Quercus spp.), Yew (Taxus spp.), and Redwoods (Sequoia spp.) are also good options as well as the ancient plants of folklore such as Mugwort (Artemisia spp.) which is known as the oldest of herbs in Anglo-Saxon lore. 

Working with ancient plants can include using them internally (i.e. teas, tinctures, food, and so on) and externally (i.e. baths, incense, herbal oils, and so on), creating altars, charms, and talismans featuring your ancient plant ally, writing poetry, creating art, journaling with them, dancing and singing with them, and whatever else you're called to do. As I mentioned in the introduction, you can leave out a cup of tea for your ancestors whenever you make one for yourself as a way to invite your ancestors into your home, your practice, and to offer them to participate in healing your ancestral lines (or just have a bit of a chat). You can make this into a deeper practice, by choosing to do this everyday, combined with some sort of meditative activity, for a few days to a full cycle of the Moon.

What I love about working with plants as ancestors is that it helps those of us who do not have direct connection with our ancestral lines or complicated ancestors who we are struggling to connect with, to still work with ancestral healing. Working with ancient plants is a wonderful community practice, especially when working with a group of folks from a mix of ethnicities.

Work with plants within your heritage

Another way to approach ancestral healing work is to work with plants that you either know for certain or can make an informed guess that your (cultural, ethnic, and/or spiritual) ancestors used. This idea is part of many modern Pagan traditions which encourage practitioners to connect with their ancestors through plants, places, food, songs, and anything that would be familiar to their ancient people. Where this idea of ancestral plants for present-day healing really became centered for me was when I was during my training as a doula (birth labor assistant) and my teacher spoke to the healing that can happen when you use foods and herbs with your pregnant client that would be familiar to their genetic line. She spoke of it as a way to help a birthing person connect with the lineage and strength of birthing people before them through inviting ancestors in through the food and herbs they eat during pregnancy. It is a view of healing I've carried with me throughout my herbal practice.

Besides explicit exploration of your own or a client's ancestral and plant medicine heritage, if I have a few similar plants that I am considering offering to a client, sometimes I end up choosing one that is an ancestral plant for them. I've seen a lot of magick happen between plant and person when the story of how this plant has been working with their family and cultural line for generations is finally able to be told and heard. Reintroducing Turmeric (Curcuma longa) to someone as not just a plant they saw their dad cooking with as a child, but a plant with deep-rooted ancestral meaning can be powerful stuff. Working with plants that your ancestors would've known can be one of the ways of addressing epigenetic trauma as you're partaking in a medicine that is familiar to your body and the bodies of (at least some of) your ancestors on a genetic level. 

image via @jplenio

Work with trance plants

You can also work with plants that help to induce transcendent states to help you connect with your ancestors more directly. I'm not speaking about entheogenic plants, but herbs that are often classified as dream plants in traditional western herbal and magickal tradition. Plants like Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) and Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) are good options. For example, I use Mugwort to help bring about dreams where I connect with my ancestors or to deepen my meditation, divination, and/or trancework practice where connecting to my ancestors is the goal. I do think that these herbs work best when you already have a meditation and/or trancework practice already in place and if you're looking to develop either or those, breathwork is a good place to start.

᠅

I hope you've found some inspiration for your ancestral healing practice. To be perfectly honest, it doesn't matter what plants you are working with - I think the most powerful way of working with plants in ancestral work is to view them as partners in calling in and making space for your ancestors.

If you're looking for more inspiration for developing a herbal healing practice, come this way. You can also peruse my collection of plant profiles to see if one speaks to your ancestral line. If you want to not only connect with your ancestors but your ancient self, I have a tarot spread for that. And if you want a classic, Samhain-inspired ancestor reading, I have a tarot spread for that, too. If you’re looking for a collection of Moon-centered rituals to support your ancestral practice, check out The Moonfolk Book of Shadows.

May your explorations of ancestral healing bear fruit while healing your roots.

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

Familiars: A Tarot Spread to Connect with Your Intuitive Allies

We are heading towards the deep valley of Samhain and I come to you again with what is becoming an annual tradition of a new tarot spread for the season. Whether studying the celestial energy of the season, connecting with ancestors or exploring the themes of reconciliation, transformation, and shadow work, Samhain is a rich time for practicing divination, in part, because the veil between the worlds is thin and the opportunity to connect with ancestors, descendants, and spirits alike are many.

For this year's Samhain celebrations I wanted to offer a tarot spread that helps us connect with the tradition of the witch's familiar. The following tarot spread helps those of you who want to connect with the magickal current of familiar relationships to do just that. If you have an established familiar relationship, this tarot spread can be one way of communicating with your familiar. If you are calling a familiar to you, the spread can be a casting of a spell, helping you call a familiar to you. For those who are not called to the familiar tradition, the tarot spread easily adapts to being one that helps you connect with your hidden but guiding intuitive and instinctive nature.

If you want, you can make a ritual of casting cards to connect with your familiar and/or intuitive-instinctive self. Light two candles from a common flame, make an offering of water, food, and sacred scent and/or song. Find four stones and hold them in your hands while whispering a spell that only your familiar (or intuitive self) will know, placing them in the four corners of your home helping to make steady the path by which your familiar (or intuitive self) can come home to you. Then cast your cards…

Familiars
A Tarot Spread to Connect with Your Intuitive Allies

Card 1. I Am Called…

Some of the most powerful works of magick are acts of naming. While this card might not offer a distinct name (but, it just might), it helps you understand the name your familiar wishes to be called. For an intuitive-instinctive spread, this is an interesting practice of naming a part of yourself yearning to be named. 

Card 2. By This Sign I Am Known…

This card acts as a descriptor for your familiar and may also indicate the signs they show you to indicate that they are about. For an intuitive-instinctive spread, the sign(s) or descriptive elements of the card indicate when you need to stop and pay attention.

Card 3. Welcome Me With…

This card helps you understand the ways that your familiar wishes to be taken care of. In other words, the feeding of your familiar on a magickal, energetic, practice-based level. The feeding of a familiar can take many forms through offerings of all kinds, breathwork, song, and more. For an intuitive-instinctive spread, this card is about the feeding or nurturing of your intuition.

Card 4. I Call You…

With this card we learn about what your familiar calls you, for it is not only an act of magick to name something, but to be named in turn. Often this card highlights an aspect of your magickal nature that calls your familiar to you. For an intuitive-instinctive spread this card names something important, interesting, inspiring about your intuitive gifts that is important to recognize about yourself.

Card 5. About You, I Know…

Following I Call You, this card further expands on what your familiar knows about you and a certain need you have that calls them to you. In a way, a familiar is an answer to a witch's question, and this card highlights what that answer (or another useful question) might be. For an intuitive-instinctive spread, this card represents something that you are hoping to discover through connecting more deeply with your intuitive-instinctive self.

Card 6. Together We Can…

This final card highlights what may be accomplished, developed or understood through working with your familiar. For an intuitive-instinctive spread, the card represents the same thing, except with your relationship to trusting your intuition.

᠅

If you're looking for more inspiration for your Samhain celebrations, check out my might-do list for the season or my post on the herbs and astrology of Samhain (including Lunar Samhain!). If you're feeling haunted, there are some plant allies you might consider working with.

May your work with the part of you that knows before you know, be it familiar form, intuitive nature or a bit of both, be revelatory and healing.

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

A Might-Do List for the Full Moon

Having written a might-do series for the sabbats, I thought it time to make one for the esbats. A "might-do list" is a no-pressure, full of inspiration guide to magickal practice where you are encouraged to do or not do whatever speaks to you for a particular celebration. An esbat is a (typically, though not exclusively) lunar-focused celebration practiced by some magickal folk in some contemporary traditions of Paganism (most notably Wicca) and witchcraft. Sometimes esbat refers to all celebrations of a coven or an individual outside of sabbat rituals. The term "esbat" was adopted into Wicca by the spiritual magpie Gerald Gardner via the work of Margaret Murray who described the esbat as a time for celebration, rites to aid coven members, and times of music, dancing, and "sheer enjoyment."¹ While modern Pagan traditions like Wicca have their own formalized and beautiful rituals and practices for the esbats, I'll be making suggestions for Full Moon celebrations that aren't tied to any specific tradition. 

The Full Moon is a time of gathered energy, ripe and ready for magick. During the Full Moon there can be a feeling of abundance and openness in the air, of expansion and possibility. Under the light of the Full Moon we can feel untethered from what is "normal" and expected as the night becomes brightly illuminated - not quite day, but not quite the feeling of night either, marking a space between the known and unknown.

How we mark time - by fixed calendar, lunar calendar, seasonal changes, personal rhythms, and so on - can create or contract space for the type of healing work and magickal practice we hope to experience, which is why time is such an interesting thing to explore in our lives. When I talk about magickal practice to my students, I always encourage them to begin observing lunar cycles as a way to not only connect back to ancestral rhythms of measuring time, but to begin to connect with time in a way that feels supportive of magickal practice - something cyclical, open to change, and able to hold space for all of our complexities.

So if you're curious about developing a Full Moon practice, here's a list of nine things you might-do for your esbat celebrations.

image via @whileimout

Reorient Your Compass

The Full Moon creates an opportunity for us to pause and reorient. Our lives are busy and filled with all sorts of decisions that need to be made, things that need to be done, and tasks to be tackled. It is easy to forget where we are and where we want to be living our life from. With Her bright light illuminating hidden spaces, the Full Moon is a wonderful time to reconnect to our inner compass of values and visions, of healing and lineage, of purpose and dreaming, so we can feel more connected to our centered self as another lunar cycle unfolds before us. This can be done in all sorts of ways through ritual and actions of care, but one simple ritual is to write down your values and guiding principles in a way that feels simple enough to recite and empowering to say. An example might be:

I am, {Name},
I call in beauty and mirth,
compassion and patience,
kindness and wonder,
that I may be in right relationship
with my beloved community
the land I live with
and the vision of a vibrant, joyful planet

I also think singing simple chants are a beautiful way to realign energy and help us to center ourselves in our values. Let's say you're a peace activist and abolitionist - maybe you sing the Circle Chant by Linda Hirschhorn, which was originally written in support of the 1982 janitor's strike of UA movie theaters, and sings of circling for freedom and peace.² A song like the Circle Chant, or anything from the song collective Beautiful Chorus, or the vast archive of old and modern Pagan chants, can be an easy, joyful way to feel strengthened in our purpose and calling.

Gather Energy

Under the Full Moon, energy is pulled up from deep in the earth, gathering in swirling pools and rushing lines across the land. It is a time when we can walk the land and call that energy into ourselves or summon the light of the Moon wherever we might be on a Full Moon night. It is also traditional to leave items that we want to be charged up under the light of the Full Moon, including tools of divination, stones, and jewelry, being sure to bring them back inside before the Sun rises. 

Connect With the Cosmic Coven

While I'm using the word "coven" I am really referring to the form of community that you are most called to connect with. As a young witch who had limited access to the greater Pagan community, the idea that at every Full Moon there were other witch folk and Pagans creating magick under Her light was completely enchanting and filled me with a sense of belonging as I sat at my bedroom altar. Working with the cycles of the Moon is not just a personal preference for me and an act of liberation from static solar, patriarchal measurements of time, but a way to connect to ancestral traditions, living communities of the present, and helping to make a path of Moon magick for generations to come. If you have a working magickal group, but are practicing solo for the Full Moon, it can be lovely to coordinate rituals or keep an item on an altar that connects you to the rest of your circle. But if you're still seeking a group or don't have an interest in group practice but want to feel connected to the wider magickal community, you might take a moment to visualize and breathe into the web of community that runs through us all. If you're looking for further inspiration, a few years ago I wrote about how every Full Moon you have a coven.

You may have noticed that I've been emphasizing connecting with people, as opposed to land or spirits or divinities, because I think that making time to call in and be called to community that feels good and nourishing to you is an important regular practice. We live in times where the spell of fracturedness is run amok and we feel more separated and lonely than ever. Creating a monthly practice focused on cultivating community with other people is one that I think we need more than ever and calling in community under the light of the Full Moon is an especially magickal way of helping to do that.

image via @joannakosinska

Develop Your Psychic Gifts

With the energy stirred up under the Full Moon, why not channel that into the development of your psychic gifts? I think a playful approach to getting in touch with our intuition is particularly appropriate for Full Moon celebrations and even better with friends. There are all sorts of ways to develop your psychic gifts, but I wrote about how you can use a tarot deck to help you out. You can also work with plant allies like Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca), Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis), and Sage (Salvia officinalis) to help support your psychic energy.

Dream Magick

Speaking of developing psychic gifts, performing dream magick at the time of the Full Moon is particularly auspicious. Here is where you can have fun seeking out traditional and modern dream rituals and spellwork, but a very simple ritual is to call in a dream for a situation you're seeking insight on. Using a stone or plant bundle as a point to anchor your magick, hold it under the Full Moon light while chanting:

Full Moon, O Full Moon
Send me a dream
Illuminate for me 
What remains unseen

Visualize the situation you are seeking insight on as you draw the light of the Full Moon down into your magickal item. Keep your item beside or under your bed to help pull the dream towards you sometime over the next few nights. While you might not remember the dream, you may wake up with a sudden knowing or experience a flash of insight over the next few days to help you with your quandary.

A general tip for all kinds of dreamwork: while there are culturally specific traditions for calling in dreams, I find that performing a dream spell in a dreamlike way can be helpful. So wear that piece of dreamy clothing while dancing around a circle of chalk marked onto the earth, your stone held aloft in the Full Moon light, candles burning, familiars purring…

Connect with the Elements

Within western esoteric tradition, each Full Moon is charged by the energy of one of the four elements of earth, air, fire or water. If you do any sort of elemental-based work in your practice, the Full Moon can be a time to immerse yourself in the elemental energy. A Water Full Moon might be a time to do a lunar bath, dream work, and water-based remedies for the cycle ahead while a Fire Full Moon might be spent before an altar full of candles, working fire magick, and dancing up energy. The element of each Full Moon is determined by the sign it is in:

• Earth Moons happen when the Moon is in Taurus, Virgo, or Capricorn.

• Air Moons happen when the Moon is in Gemini, Libra, or Aquarius.

• Fire Moons happen when the Moon is in Aries, Leo, or Sagittarius.

• Water Moons happen when the Moon is in Cancer, Scorpio, or Pisces.

The four elements are central to the traditional western herbalism philosophy of healing and if you're curious you can learn more about that here.

image via @joeehu

Make Moon Water

I've found that making Moon water is an activity that many a new-to-magick practitioner performs early on in their practice - which makes a lot of sense! It's an accessible, inexpensive, and powerfully simple way of connecting with lunar energy that leaves you with a tangible object that you can use after a night of Full Moon festivities. Setting out a bowl of water under the Full Moon light, maybe with herbs and stones added or a silver coin, feels like an old sort of magick. Moon water is versatile - you can use it in lunar baths and in spellwork, for watering plants, cleaning and blessing your home, and on and on. Some witchfolk even make their flower essences under the light of the Full Moon, carrying the magick of Moon and herb with them in tiny bottles of enchantment to use whenever they need extra emotional support.

Learn or Create Your Own Full Moon Chant

One aspect of modern Pagan culture that I love is the preservation and sharing of knowledge through simple chants, sung or spoken. There are circle-casting chants, chants for healing, chants to raise and banish energy, chants to celebrate rites of passage, and chants to pass on wisdom teachings. There are plenty of Full Moon chants and songs out there - Libana's Full Moonlight Dance is a classic, sung by Full Moon circles around the world, but there are plenty more. You can also draw from your own cultural traditions for lunar chants or create your own. When sung or spoken under a Full Moon month after month, a chant has the power to help us move into a state of reverence and flow, of creativity and magick, with little effort. 

Zone Out

While this post is about things you might-do to celebrate a Full Moon esbat, you also don't need to do anything. It is an act of rebellious magick within the overculture of over-productivity and burnout to choose a nonproductive state of being and to bathe in the waters of un-busyness. If you are able to lie down under the light of the Full Moon with no plan in place, just presence in mind, that is a ritual of zoning out of the normal modes of consciousness and tuning into something else. What that something else is is for you to discover. 

🌕

If you're looking for more inspiration, how about a Full Moon tarot spread and healing ritual for your esbat celebrating? You can also find the rest of my might-do lists for the lunar esbats below:

• A Might-do List for the Dark Moon

• A Might-do List for the New Moon

• A Might-do List for the Quarter Moons

I also have a collection of over 120 lunar-centered rituals and recipes - The Moonfolk Book of Shadows - that you can access for free as a member of my newsletter community. 

Friends, I hope that wherever and however you gather 'neath the Full Moon's light that you are held by the dreams of a thousand generations of magick-makers holding fast the circle of love and possibility.

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

📚

Footnotes

1. Margaret Murray, Witch Cult in Western Europe: A Study in Anthropology (Oxford: Oxford Press 1921), 113.

2. Organizations like Rise Up & Sing are excellent resources for finding inspirational chants and songs.