i recently got gifted a beautiful new deck, and whenever i get a new deck, the first thing i do is bond with it! one of the ways i do that is holding a little interview session with it.
youâve probably seen hundreds of âdeck interviewâ spreads, and theyâre all really helpful! however, i find them a little limiting. i tend to use a different, more conversational method of interviewing my deck. i talk to my cards, pull cards when i feel an answer is ready, and just keep going and pulling cards as i go until iâm satisfied i know the deck well enough to proceed! here are some useful questions i tend to use for this.
who are you? (how do you see yourself?)
how do you see me?
what are your main goals?
how do you view life?
whatâs your main characteristic?
what can you teach?
what kind of questions do you struggle with?
how should i continue with you?
what can you offer me?
what will the outcome of our relationship be?
what do you think i need to know?
how can i achieve that?
what do you want from me?
do you want to be used for others?
do you want to be used for paid readings?
should i read reversals?
from these questions you can get a scope of how the deck answers questions, its nature, whether itâs optimistic/pessimistic/realistic, whether it sugar coats or gives it to you straight⌠honestly, interviewing new and even old decks is invaluable.
also, this way i manage to get a feel for how the deck likes to be handled. all my decks like to be shuffled, cut and stacked in different ways – handling them how they like for me tends to give more accurate and helpful readings!
Holy crap. This was an awesome thing to do with my cards. I learned a lot, but I also feel more emotionally attuned to my cards. I would highly recommend giving it a go!
TBH I feel like a lot of the crises of faith we all have so regularly about feeling disconnected from our craft and our gods have got more to do with social pressure and cultural expectations than they really have to do with us. If you spend a lot of time on witchblr and in other pagan spaces, youâll get the impression that most peopleâs lives are just one moment after another of constant religious ecstasy, and so clearly the rest of us are doing something wrong.
For one, thatâs just not the case. Nobodyâs life looks like a YA novel; the only reason so-and-so appears to be more beloved by their gods is just because thatâs what they primarily talk about; the disconnect is our perception, not their reality, and they put their bra on one boob at a time same as you.
And for two, even if youâve hit a rut and seriously lapsed in your craft, a passive relationship with divinity is just as valid as an active one. Like, as for me, every once in a while if Iâm struggling with something, Iâll look up at the sky and be like, âHey, boss: You remember that time I swore my life and soul over to you? Could I, like, get something out of that?â And no, the mighty Father Sky does not ride down on the storm-winds out of the Eternal Blue Heaven to fix all my problems for me, but it certainly does help.Â
All practice all the time isnât possible. And if it was, youâd burn out super quick.
Sometimes I wonât pick up a deck for weeks, forget to make offerings for months, etc. etc. It just happens, and itâs life.
I see all these posts on how to handle lapse in practice, and the number one thing I can ever say is just let it be. Forgive yourself, donât worry, and just hang out for a minute.Â
Your gods will still be there. Theyâre hanginâ out. They cool, bro. (Unless youâve sworn some kind of I WILL ALWAYS DO THE THING ALL THE TIME, which is a whole bag of tea in itself).
When salt wonât work and sage canât be burnedâŚ
Salt and Sage are two of the most popular, traditional and trustworthy ingredients a witch can use to cleanse their space, cast a circle or guard their altar.
Sage is native on all continents beside Antarctica and Australia, there are also up to 900 different varieties of it! So it is unsurprising that nearly every culture has its own use for it.
Getting your hands on sage is also ridiculously easy. Most well stocked supermarkets have more than enough of the stuff to smoke out a church.
Yet not everyone can or wants to burn it. (which is perfectly fine, donât let anyone tell you that you canât be a witch without sage!)
The smell is also rather similar to Weed (by that I mean it smells exactly the same, like seriously itâs insane) which can be a problem if you have strict parents or nosy neighbors. People have called the cops on an old acquaintance from coven-days long past more than once for that smell.
So what to use when sage is out of the question?
One answer to that would be Fir (Abies sp.). More often found in the norther hemisphere. There are 40 to 47 different kinds of fir trees. They are fond of heights. Either the sap/raisin, needles or wood can be used. Itâs something you will come across when you study the Good Neighbors. Itâs used to ward of fairys and spirits (and evil spirits). Itâs a popular raisin for making incense and also rather easy to come by. Often found in bath oil too! The first green tips of the plant are also used as medicine against colds or can be eaten!
Frankincense (Thus album in latin, plant Boswellia sp.) is also a good substitute incense, first used by the ancient Egyptians during rituals. A cleansing allrounder so to say.
Both of the options above are good substitutes for sage. (They also smell better in my opinion)
Now Salt is thego to tool of witchcraft. It cleanses, protects and is at least twice as popular as sage, if not even more so. Many witches have the notion that throwing salt at a problem will most likely fix it. And they arenât wrong! If the rock is big enoughâŚ
But sometimes even salt canât help you. The fey for one are at times unimpressed by it. Also if you (like me) grew up by the sea then you know that some Things arenât scared of a little salt water.
Plus as a secret witch clean up can be a bi*ch to handle. So what to use?
Chalk! Chalk is a great substitute for salt, it is easy to use and clean up and has about the same protective characteristics as salt. It wards of evil (the devil even) and it can be used to purify things.
A chalk circle is often just as effective as one made from salt.
Ash (from wood or herbs) is a powerful tool for cleansing or warding. The lighter the colour the better.
Milk, white wine or coconut water are great for cleansing and pepper can ward of the bad just as well as salt could. But a pinch of salt always helps both with taste and with protection.
So here are some substitutes for anyone that might be interested or needs them. Iâm always looking for more so feel free to share your thoughts and experiences!
may the bridges I burn light the way 