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There's this ugly little thought in the pagan community. It's an insidious thing--this thought. It says that if you can't still your mind, you can't work magic. It has a bit of shame connected to it. Like pieces of tissue with bits of the brown stuff stuck to your shoe, it flutters about just waiting for someone more knowing, more "silent of mind" to notice.

As you may have guessed I have really struggled with meditation. My walk on the path of the Craft began in the early 80's. My teacher did guided meditations. My mind did what I like to think of as solo explorations of the story possibilities of those guided meditations.

They tell us that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I have to wonder if they didn’t really mean coffee. Still, I do know that it’s been proven we are mentally sharper with some food in our belly. So we should all be making yummy morning meals before starting our days.

Like we have all the time in the world, oh arbitrators of what we should eat in the morning. Like we have all the time in the world.

First my apologies for my disappearance. No excuses. I just didn't schedule blogging time into my day. I've missed y'all!

In 2008, I created a spread I called Gratitude As A Spiritual Practice. I based this on something Joanna Powell Colbert said about how she viewed Gratitude as a spiritual practice. Normally when I create spreads, I go for smaller patterns with seven or less cards. I find those work better for me. But this one seemed to really need more. So it ended up being a total of thirteen cards.

I wanted to share this here because I think I've been missing a serious practice of giving thanks. I seek joy daily, yes. However, there seems to be a nuance, a flavor, a texture that isn't quite right. It's my belief that it is gratitude. Not just a weekly gratitude list, but a pause in my day where I take stock of things. Where I acknowledge the joys and give thanks for what's going right in my life.

There is this magical, mystical circle that happens every six weeks. We call it the Tarot Blog Hop. As my Yule gift to you, I'd like to invite you to hop on board to see where it takes you. The Tarot Blog Hop was begun by me.

I had this idea that a bunch of Tarot folks could all blog on the same topic on the same day. All the posts would go live at the same time creating a pop-up community. In my head, it was like Brigadoon--that magical place that appears once every hundred years. Little did I know that there was a reason it was only every hundred years.

I've been doing a monthly podcast for over seven years now. It's the same thing over and over. GRIN! Well maybe it changes a bit. I pull a card for each sign of the Zodiac to offer my interpretation of the upcoming month. Recently I've added a card of the month as well.

Tarot and magic is an interesting subject. It's also a fairly old one or so I am led to believe. I wanted to share another super simple spell that can be done at the new moon. September's new moon is on the 24th (or 23rd depending on your time zone).

In my practice, I was taught that the New Moon esbats were a time for doing healing work. Sometimes we had a bowl for names of those we were doing work for. Other times we simply spoke their name into the Circle. New Moons were one of my favorite esbats with my training coven because they were a quieter working.

Using Tarot in a New Moon esbat for healing is not a precise science. There are 78 choices after all. And let's not get started on the number of combinations.

I've been doing a series this week on the Wooden Tarot, a self-published deck by A.L. Swartz. You can see the full series here.
What a fabulous card we have for our last day of the Wooden Tarot week. Don't despair. I am sure I will turn to this deck again. It has hooked me despite the few small quibbles I have.