Sacred Space, Tarot and your Magical Practice
Sasha's Llewellyn Journal Archives
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Do you recall the first time you cast a solitary spell? A real spell. Do you remember the moment when you took power into your own hands, lit flickering candles, burned tendrils of incense, called to the corners, created sacred space, and invoked your intention to manifest in the universe? It was memorable, wasn't it? Like a teenager fumbling through the loss of virginity, there was likely an awkward reference back to the grimoire you were using, a bumbling pause to find right words, the correct order, or the proper invocation.
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Your magical results were likely surprising and unexpected, as the best things in life should be. Our desires often lead us to places where unanticipated wonders await. Unforeseen pleasures are akin to synchronicity, the universe's way of wrapping its arm around us, learning in and whispering into our ear, "Oh yes. You are on the right path." And a good message is ripe for sending goose bumps rippling across our skin like a lover's stolen kiss. These unexpected pleasures confirm. They let us know that we chose well.
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Sacred space occupies the place between the mechanical aspects of spell crafting and the spell's manifested results. As an author, I'll often misspell the word "sacred" on my keyboard. Spell-check usually corrects it to the word "scary." This correction makes for an interesting contemplation. Sacred space can be scary because it is powerful. Invoking power, transforming and manipulating the space around you (especially if we aren't used to it) can be fascinating and frightening. It is easy to fear what we do not understand. Exploring and expanding knowledge of the unfamiliar yields marvelous discoveries, especially in magical or spiritual realms. And sacred space is remarkably different than ordinary space.
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Sacred space is the pliable and expansive place where creative possibility exists. Sacred space, like a crossroads, becomes a threshold where multiple possibilities converge. The place where forest meets field. Where cultivated vegetable gardens meets wild thorn bushes. Where lips conceal unspoken words. Where inside meets outside. Where the known and unknown collide. It is the membrane, the very skin of our psychic reality. The sphere of birth and/or departure. A Halloween-like space where ghosts pass easily between worlds. The space in which we create something or where we leave it behind. This is the space where we readily meet our guides, goddesses, muses, angel, and totems. It is the space where prayers are offered. This is where we go in magic to envision ourselves gaining our heart's desire. It is where we pass into the interior of a tarot card to interface directly with the Arcana.
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To use the cards as a gateway, simply center the mind and enter the card using your consciousness to explore, as you like. Guided meditations are extremely helpful for this purpose. Tarot cards may be used at a gateway but, then again, anything can. It is important to remember you can enter an herb, plant, rock, tree, or any object just as you would a tarot card. You can even communicate with a piece of food for inspiration on how to prepare it. Have you ever "talked" with your morning egg before frying it up? If not, I suggest you try.
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Our creative imagination is enveloped, supported, and cocooned by sacred space. It fosters a safe place for our creative imagination to merges with what is "out there." When we find ourselves deep inside of a guided meditation and we "know" something is happening, how do we know it? When we are flipping cards and conversing with a loved one who has crossed to the other side, how do we know it is really a communication from them or our imagination? Is that true? Is it real? Did I simply imagine it? When do we realize the sleeping dream is a dream? Because up until that point, we believe it is really happening.
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Sacred space is the place where those questions fall away and instinct becomes paramount. Intuition becomes our torchlight and our trusted guide. If there is a line between our personal imagination and reality, it must be fluid one. Perhaps, it moves like the ebbing sands the ocean threshold? We stretch ourselves naked, always the hungry shore, as the salty ocean repeatedly pounds upon us with thundering waves of the possible yet never quenching our thirst. Or is the line gauzy and thin like the earth's delicate atmospheric membrane where we become the fecund earth and the sustaining oxygen bubble becomes the boundary between us and the possibility of an ever-expanding universe?
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Is the sacred space made manifest by casting a spell always at our fingertips, unbeknownst to us? Is it not the sacred space that opens between lovers, bodies entwined, skin caressing skin, souls lit with passion fire? Isn't this exactly the space that occurs for the painter and between himself and his subject? Between a writer and her journal? Doesn't a walk in the woods reveal sacred space at every turn? The discovery of a waterfall, an explosion of roses, a craggy old fruit orchard reverberates with the magic of gateways, story and possibility?
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When we transform space, are actually transforming the space itself, are we transforming ourselves, or is it a little of both?
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If we discern the subtle difference of sacred space and creative imagination we realize how powerful we are. We recognize that our singular point of consciousness, own own point of view, is the filter of that which passes before us. We easily see that what we focus on becomes a reality. Each and every one of us is flush with the natural power that we already possess. Simply choosing to focus on a "thing" gives that thing power. We are a power source that brings other things to life and raises things to the light of the collective conscious.
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Magical practice gives us an opportunity to experiment with the nature of how the universe is actually constructed. Science tells us that inside our atomic matter there is more "space" than actual "stuff." And we don't just spring from nature. We are nature. Our very bodies the residue of ancient stardust. All that space found inside of our cells and atoms the scientists speak of? My instinct tells me it is sacred. We don't just create sacred space. We are made of sacred space. We are imbued with it. And creative pursuits and a magical practice help bring it out of us. So when we invoke magic, we really invoke ourselves. Ourselves as we have always been intended to be. Sensitive. Brilliant. Inventive. Authentic. Unique. Powerful. Knowing this, it is possible to weave sacred space beyond mere spell casting and into every aspect of our daily life.
Five Amazing Reasons to Create Your Own Tarot Spreads
Wondering if you should create your own tarot spreads is rather like asking yourself if you should cook your own meals. Isn't it easier to eat out at yummy restaurants, depend on friends, or heat up frozen dinners? No! Eating out is expensive, your friends will get annoyed with you, and frozen food is … eesh, unexciting. Cooking teaches you more about food than you could ever learn by just eating alone. Cooking reveals texture, taste, combination, timing, planning, and, most importantly, how and what you like. Cooking makes you a better eater. The same truth applies to tarot: creating spreads will make you a better reader. You could find a spread in a book that might suit your needs perfectly, but isn't it better to tailor-make one?
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Any tarot lover and student should begin crafting spreads immediately. They should set about the task as eagerly as they study card meanings. Tarot knowledge is like life knowledge: it isn't what you know, it's what you do with that knowledge that really counts. Even if you are still using books to aid in card interpretations, you can and should create spreads. Why? Because of what happens beneath your fingertips as you flip, shuffle, and work your cards. The tarot journey that begins as a study in symbol, magic, and metaphysics soon blossoms into an inadvertent cultivation of innate problem solving skills, delicate intuition building, and a fascinating study of the self. Just like cooking, once you become adept at creating spreads for yourself, you'll be able to do it for loved ones, strangers, and or even clients. Some professional readers utilize personal spread creation as part of their reading package. The creation of an original spread is part of the reading process as the client articulates their questions. The advantages are many. Let's take a look at why you should do it.
You'll Get to the Point with Specificity and Articulation: Invention of Spread
Specificity is of supreme importance in life; it gets us where we need to go. The same thing goes for a tarot spread. We multitask like mad in modern life, yet our attention can only be held by one thing at a time.
The first step of creating a spread is deciding what your spread is about, the general question or topic. Grab a pen and paper, and begin jotting down your thoughts, questions, and the overall goal of the spread. Often, when pondering the question/issue/problem that our spread will be about, we must work through the myriad of attachments to get to the heart of our desires. Our emotions (Cups) are often hampering, blurring, coloring, and filtering our basic truth. Articulating your questions and writing them down help you to streamline your thought process through any emotion. This process gets you out of your head and moving toward where you want to be going. It forces you to articulate the most important thing: What do you want?
Articulating your needs will inevitably involve a number of other questions. These questions become the meat of the spread, which brings us to our next point …
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Bird's Eye View Sees All: Question Creation
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"Functional fixedness" is a term psychologists use for when a person seeing things only in the manner to which they are accustomed. Everyone falls into ruts of thinking and habitual ways of understanding and interpreting our life. But this prevents anyone from stepping back to observe their situation from a larger view. A big view offers new alternatives and options that we may not have thought of otherwise.
Creating a spread forces you to examine your issue/topic/situation from every possible angle. Why? Because you must come up with the questions to populate the spread. These questions are the bones of the spread. Different angles are examined and your issue or concern is now out of your mind and spread on the table before you. Simply getting it out of your head is worth the price of admission. You can play with them, examine them from new angles and even build upon them, creating new and better questions, which in turn provide excellent answers and insight.
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Here are some starter questions to consider:
What do you want?
Why do you want it?
What is standing in your way?
What is aiding you?
What will happen if you receive it?
What don't you see?
(And don't to forget to acknowledge the role you play in your future.)
Creativity Unleashes New Possibilities: Spread Pattern
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Creativity is defined as the ability to transcend traditional ideas and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, and interpretations. Because tarot spreads are essentially created to solve problems and offer guidance (we rarely ask about things we already know), a meaningful new idea is exactly what you'll seek in a tarot reading.
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Getting creative about your in the design of your spread paves the way for innovative solutions and helps your synapses fire in unexpected ways. Here are some creative jumpstarts to get you going as you plan the shape of your spread.
Magical Shapes
Use the shape of the spread to set a magical intention: The pattern you form with your cards can also act as a sigil or a symbolic representation of your desired outcome.
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Staircases Moving Up or Down: Spreads concerning where you want to go.
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Downward Pointing Pyramid: Spreads regarding the subconscious, hidden motives, base desires, and driving forces.
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Upward Pointing Pyramid: Spreads regarding the higher self, spiritual matters, and enlightenment.
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Heart: Spreads concerning love, passion, and matters of the heart.
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Circle: Spreads concerning cohesiveness, well being, continuity, integration, and wellness.
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Square: Spreads concerning stability, security, structure, and strength.
- Answer a question before you ask it. Pull a card. Based on the card, give an answer, then figure out what the question is.
- Invoke a Major Arcana Card
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Correlate the number of cards in your spread to match with the number of the Major Arcana card whose power you want to invoke in the reading. For instance, to invoke the Emperor's stability, cast four cards. To invoke the electric attraction of the Lovers, cast 6 cards. And so on …
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Create a signature spread that embodies all of the elements you think are important in life.
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You might try writing each question on a small index card. Arrange them and flip the tarot card right over it when performing the reading. This way, the question is in front of you rather than on a side piece of paper.
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​Spread Creation Ignites Your Sacred Space
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Some readers consciously clear the space around them before a reading. They'll use incense, music, candles, crystals, or sumptuous accessories or techniques to set the mood and clear the way for excellent answers. Some readers just start pulling cards. Everyone is built differently, and there is no right or wrong way to perform a spread or use a tarot deck. Discovering what works for you is the most important thing. But regardless of how you prepare for a reading, if you take the time to create the spread, you will experience a huge shift in awareness when you begin to actually read the cards.
Think back to the cooking metaphor and recall how much closer you pay attention to the food you eat when you have spent an hour preparing it; you pay attention in a completely different way. This is a subtle but important shift of awareness. Creating the spread has set you up mentally for the actual spread. The time involved in creation sets the stage. Now, you'll find yourself free and focused on the cards and the messages they have, because you have cleared out the buzzing of your mind.
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Excellent Answers and a Chance to Play
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You have written everything down, and cemented your needs, wants, and desires. You've (hopefully) acknowledged the role you play in your future and you are ready to flipping cards and gather your answer(s). Now to the juicy, delicious, fun part: reading the cards, finding your answers. Hopefully, you can be as concise in your answers as you were in writing your questions. Look for repeating patterns appearing in the cards. Repeating numbers and suits will give you big themes and major information to contemplate in your answers.
You don't have to stop working with the cards just because you have answered your questions or finished your reading. The best part of creating a spread is that it offers an opportunity to play. When children play, they are rehearsing for adulthood, testing social and cognitive skills. Playing with your cards is the quickest way to feel a sense of mastery with them and open the floodgates to tarot. There are so many wonderful ways to play with your cards. Draw them, journal on them, meditate into them, create your own. They are meant to be interactive. Each card is a doorway. Every combination an available possibility. Every image a reflection of something inside of you.
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Ultimately, when you create your own spreads, you will walk away from the reading much more about your subject than you even expected. Believe it or not, you will have already gotten closer to the answer and outcome.
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365 Tarot Spreads
While we're on the subject of spreads, I'm delighted to announce the completion of my gorgeous new book, 365 Tarot Spreads: Revealing the Magic in Each Day. The volume contains a different spread for each day of the year. Every spread is based on a holiday, magical occurrence, or significant historical fact for that particular day. Rich tarot connections and card facts go along with each spread to inform your tarot knowledge. You'll find a spread for every imaginable circumstance and situation.
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You might pause to wonder why I'd suggest, even implore, that you create your own personalized tarot spreads, especially after I have just created a giant volume of spreads. 365 may seem like a ton of spreads, but really it is just the tip of the iceberg. The questions and complexities of you are endless.
365 Tarot Spreads is a jumping-off point, and will hopefully serve as inspiration to your life long practice of good questioning and provocative tarot reading.
Tarot Diva's Guide to the Ultimate Girls Sleepover
My book Tarot Diva teaches you to ignite your intuition, glamorize your life, and unleash your fabulosity using the tarot. Nothing helps a girl glow with happiness and contentment more than a deep connection with her soul sisters and female friends.
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In Tarot Diva I help you embody the ecstasy of the Three of Cups tarot card by explaining how to create a secret society with your closest girlfriends. Secret societies, while subversively fun and super powerful, require long-term commitment. For a quick jolt of gal power, return to the glory of your younger days with a sleepover.
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Nothing beats the good fun of a pajama party. Remember how great they were? Donning your coziest jammies with a night of fun stretching ahead of you? Staying up until all hours giggling with girlfriends? The euphoria and excitement of whispering and sharing your deepest secrets with your best pals? The gentle midnight knocking on the window when the neighborhood boys caught wind of your sleepover...
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Who says you can’t relive the old days? Just because you have a family, full time job, or other very grown-up responsibilities doesn’t mean you couldn’t or shouldn’t relive the good times. Treat yourself to a girlicious evening and empower yourself and your friends with a night you’ll never forget.
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Remember, the power of a great sleepover stems from gathering a group and collectively focusing your energy on a desired goal. Your goal may be to have a rockin' good time. You and your ladies might like to achieve some magical goals for yourselves. Whatever your ultimate vision, my Tarot Diva’s Guide to the Ultimate Girl’s Sleepover will send you heading in the right direction. Adjust my suggestions to meet your specific needs.
~ Send non-invitees packing. Plan your sleepover on a night where you can send the husbands, boyfriends, and significant others away and the kids packing. The fewer interruptions for you and your gals the better.
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~ ​Sleeping Beauty’s Chamber. Where will everyone sleep? Extra guest rooms are great for the in-laws, but it's more fun for the girls when everyone crashes together. Do you have a groovy finished basement? Throw a couple of mattresses on the floor and cover with sleeping bags. String up some fairy lights, put out some glossy fashion and gossip magazines, and be sure to have plenty of candles on hand.
​~ Fabulous Foodstuffs. Plan your menu out ahead of time. You want to join in the fun, not be stuck in the kitchen. Ask each guest to contribute their favorite dish. Feel free to theme the dishes and ask guests to provide copies of the recipes for everyone to take home. Maybe you have an appetizer-only meal. Perhaps you just order pizza and while everyone ogles the delivery boy.
~ Whatever you choose to dine on, be extra indulgent with at least one course. This may mean extravagant cheeses or devious dark chocolate desserts.
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To create fabulous favors à la a candy shop, request each guest to bring a bag of their favorite of candy. Set the candy out in cute bowls and provide colored Chinese take-out containers. Each friend can create a custom take home candy box. Sweet!
​~ Drinks. Have plenty of tasty beverages on hand. Top off your evening with a signature theme drink.
~ Offer your guests a Pomegranate Mango Goddess Cocktail. Pomegranates are sacred to the goddess Aphrodite and the High Priestess of Tarot. Mango leaves denote a vibrant life and are used in Hindu divine blessing rituals. Mix one part pomegranate juice to 3 parts mango nectar.
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Caution. Be sure to hold off on consuming booze and alcohol until any magical, divinatory, or ritual work is finished.
Evening Activities. There are any number of fun and exciting activities you can plan for your sleepover. . .
~ ​Get Crafty. Spend the evening crafting vision boards. Your vision board may contain a specific lifestyle. It may represent your dreams and goals. Your vision board may refer specifically to love and romance. To freshen up your wardrobe, create a fashionista style vision board.
~ Ask each guest to bring old magazines, a pair of scissors, a poster board, and glue stick. Spread the materials out and begin selecting images. Choose images with qualities of what you’d like to attract into your life. Secure these images to your vision board. Don’t reject the abstract. You may also choose appealing words, colors, or textures. Remember your subconscious always follows the dominant suggestion.
~ Get Cinematic. Kick-start your evening with a screening of your favorite film. Watch a law of attraction movie like What The Bleep Do We Know or The Secret. Host a discussion afterward about how these attraction and manifestation themes have applied to your life. How does it work for you? How does it challenge you?
~ Watch an old school witchy fave like The Craft or Practical Magic. Maybe you find a documentary based on the life of your favorite occult figure, such as Aleister Crowley or Harry Houdini. Become scream queens by opting for your favorite cheesy, scary flick with the lights out. Be sure to have plenty of popcorn on hand!
~ Get Divinely Witchy. Ask guests to bring along their favorite deck of angel or tarot cards. Pair off and offer readings for each other. Read each other’s palms. Cast some runes for a friend. Try your hand at tealeaf reading. This is a great time to experiment. Don’t feel you must be an expert in any one form of divination. Use whatever tools you have at hand. Let love and your intuition be your guide. Be sure to offer only uplifting and helpful advice.
~ Get Your Game On. Dust off that Oujia® board to discover if any passing spirits have a message for you. Rekindle your inner twelve-year-old with the classic game Light as A Feather. Historians find reference to the game of Light as a Feather as far back as the Seventeenth Century.
~To play Light as a Feather, you must have at least five people present. One person lies down with their back on the floor. Two people sit on each side. The four "lifters" place their index and middle fingers underneath the back of the person lying down. Everyone closes their eyes and begin to whisper "Light as a feather, stiff as a board," together. Repeat and repeat, louder and louder as you slowly raise your friend up and of the floor.
~ Get Victorian—Hold a Séance. Select one guest to act as head medium. Spread fabric over a table with guests seated round and have everyone join hands. Raise the energy and invite spirits to join you. Ask aloud if there are messages for anyone. Listen for raps and knocks. Feel for rushes of cold air. Allow any guest at the table to pass a message along from the departed.
~ Attempt table tipping. To table tip, sit the group around a lightweight wooden table. Dim the lights or plunge the entire room into darkness. Have each guest place their hands on the top of the table. At once and together have the entire group attempt to raise the table with the power of their thoughts and intention. Be aware of raps or knocks.
~ Get Beautified. Indulge everyone in mashed avocado face masks. Avocado is a food sacred to Venus and its rich oils are used in hundreds of beauty products.
~ Magical manicures and pedicures match the polish color to your guest’s desired intention. Red polish for passion, sensuality, and excitement. Pink for healing and peace. Black for protection and shapeshifting. Blue for good fortune and wisdom. Silver fortelepathy, clairvoyance, and intuition. Purple for psychic ability and hidden knowledge. White for spirituality, peace, and purity.
~Delicious Daytime Outing/Activities. In addition to your sleepover, plan a daytime outing and make it a weekend to remember. Your activity may take place the day of the sleepover or the morning after. Adventures tend to be the most rewarding experiences. Find a local haunted house, abandoned castle, or beautiful graveyard, or plan a hike to a breathtaking vista. Be sure to receive any required permission before venturing onto private property.
~ Give your adventure a magical metaphor. Select your magical metaphor by deciding collectively what the metaphor of your trip is. By doing this you shower your adventure with magical intention. If you are exploring a haunted castle, is this act a metaphor for venturing into the deeper parts of your subconscious? If you are hiking up a mountain, does it represent the elevation of your consciousness? Ascending to new spiritual heights or simply moving onward and upwards in your life?
~ As you begin your adventure, offer a gift to the spirits of the property or the guardians of the mountain. Ask for permission to enter and assistance for your journey. Offer sweet cookies or nuts as a gift to said spirits.
~ Upon arrival to your destination, pull a few tarot cards, cast some runes, or open sacred space and hold a group meditation or ritual. Punctuate your adventure with your choice of magical activity to make it that much more special.
~ When you leave, offer another tasty gift of thanks to the spirits of the place you have visited.
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Good luck and have a fabulous time!