The Witching Hour

Spur of the moment webcam recording of some artistic witchery.
Not sure what I make of it myself, but meh. Here it is.

Song is Candles by Daughter.

Tarot Thursday

Sorry for my radio silence - work has been really hectic. But I'm here as always for tarot thursday. To share some wisdom from the other side with you.

Today, I did a variation of your typical three card spread.

The card in the middle is the first card you lay down, card number one. In this spread it asks the question; Who Am I?
Who are you?
It represents your current state, or maybe a core foundation to your life.

Card 2 which is the card laid to the left asks, Where do I come from? 
A bit more than just asking about the past, here you are asking for a specific factor of your past, that is going to affect the you now, and the you of the future.

The final card asks, Where Am I Heading?
What does the future hold?

For your first card I pulled; The Eight of Swords

You feel trapped. But you are trapped in your own imagination, by your own perceptions and thoughts. Remember your mind is your own worst enemy. Now is not the time to make decisions, your views are compromised. You need to take off that blindfold, and see things differently. Clear your mind, and focus on what is truth, and what is important. There is a clear path before you, if only you look to see it.

The second card, which is where you have come from, was; The Ace Of Swords

Aces symbolise new beginnings, fresh starts. You have a strong heart, and have had to make hard choices. You've found the strength to use your potential. You've had a significant 'aha' moment of clarity and breakthrough, that has helped shape your future.

And lastly, but by no means least - the future spot.
Where are you heading?
I was scared to pull this, in case I got a really negative, shadow card for you all. But I shouldn't have worried.
You all have wonderful things in front of you...all of you.

The Empress

Pure and wild creativity will run in your soul. You will be unlimited in creative potential! There is an element of nurture and motherly care, coming from you. Taking charge, being compassionate, and passionate.

I adore this card, and am lucky enough to pull it often for myself.

                                                                   --------------------------

This weekend I WILL have up my blog on how to pull your cards for a reading. It's all typed up, I just need to take the adjoining photos, to make it easier to explain.

Hope you've all had a wonderful week.

Jade
xoxo

Tarot Thursday

This weeks Tarot Thursday is bought to you courtesy of Brian Frouds Faerie Oracle...

And my cat.

She is my familiar after all, and full of her own type of magic, so I trusted her to do this for you lovely lot.

When I turned the card over, I couldn't help but smile.
Maybe Socks did a reading for herself, more than you guys!
But it's a good message that we all need to hear sometimes.

So, whilst I sat by with a cup of tea, measuring whisker to candle flames in my mind, Socks pulled;

O! That Gnome

A trickster - creative chaos - wild gifts.
Sometimes we need to break habits and patterns, reasonable risks will be rewarded in the near future...maybe even unreasonable ones. Look for the unexpected, and BE the unexpected.

Jade
xoxoxo

Overnight Oats

There are loads of these recipes online at the moment, a new craze in the vegan food movement;

Overnight Oats

Sounds simple?
Well it is!
So very simple, but makes for a wonderful, filling breakfast.

Feel free to peruse around the interweb for other variations of the recipe, but this is what I did, and it worked lovely for me.

You can use any topping or flavorings you choose! Experiment with it.


So, let's start with the ingredients.

~ 1 lrg ripe banana

~ 2 tbsps peanut butter

~ 1 cup of oats

~ 1 cup of almond milk

~ 2 tsps chia seeds

~ Cinnamon

~ Nutmeg

~ 1 tbsp argave nectar

Oh Chia seeds! My secret love!
I use them all the time.

On a daily basis...
These beauties find their way into my rice dishes, my curries, my desserts, puddings.

Chia seeds contain loads of protein, along with essential amino acids for your body, and antioxidants. It's a healthy and vegan way to get your dose of omega 3 fats and fibre. It's also got a fairly high calcium content.
It's a great energy boost, and if it's not already a part of your diet, you need to change that RIGHT AWAY!

Now - All you have to do is mash your banana, before adding all the ingredients to your bowl. Mix well...really well! Get that peanut butter spread out.

Add your spices to your taste preferances, I added a bucketload of nutmeg, and about a teaspoon of cinnamon.

                                                      Perfect for cold autumn mornings.

And then refrigerate it overnight. 

Yes, it's honestly that simple. A great alternative to your every morning porridge.

Take it out of the fridge in the morning, and top it however you choose.

I topped mine with sliced banana, and 'Hot Shot' pouring chocolate.

Yum.

------------------------------------------

After Tarot Thursday, I'm going to do a blog on how to pull your tarot cards, how to start up a reading.

See you soon lovelies.

Jade 

xoxox

Maybe We've Met Before...

In last weeks Parlour class with Veronica Varlow, we were talking about past lives, and connecting to the otherside.
It's not something I've thought of often...honestly hardly at all.
Mainly because to think about things like reincarnation - creates questions about the death of this lifetime...and I'm a bit of a wimp really.

 I do like the idea of reincarnation...the idea that we've all wandered this land for centuries, as french courtesans, maybe an inmate in bedlam, an egyptian queen, a farmer, a healer in Salem.
 It brings new guidance to the meaning of fate. True love, those friendships that you're unexplainably drawn to.
How romantic is the notion that you have walked this earth a number of times, and each time you are drawn towards this person/these people. You unknowingly travel in their direction, a connection of old souls that will last for eternity.
Maybe there was a life where you couldn't find each other?
Maybe it's this one.
And your ancient soul is wandering lost - seeking each other out. 

Does it not explain some of our irrational fears? Odd things that bring a shiver down our spine...those moments your heart beats a little faster in unknown fear.
Perhaps your fear of things wrapped around your neck, is because in a past life you were hung from the gallows.
Or by chance your fear of deep water, that thing inside you that you can't push passed to swim just a little bit further, maybe that is because you drowned in a past life...maybe not even you, maybe someone you were close to.

But you see, thinking about the concept of past lives opens up even more questions. Do our family lines stay the same? Is my mum in this life, also my mum when I was basking in the sweaty heat of ancient Egypt? Did I have siblings in a past life? Where are they now? Do our familiars return to us, life and life again? Or even family members on a different level of reincarnation in the form of the family cat?
It's a bit sad to imagine that we only get this family in this lifetime. 
Once. The connection a temporary and frail thing to be cherished.

Does the cycle end? Is there a time when we are done on this earth, and move to the Summerlands? Are ghosts those who are done with the transitions, preparing to move on?
Questions we can only fathom a guess at.

I have a strong call to vintage clothing, Marie-Antionette ball gowns, medieval gowns. Certain eras of fashion really draw me in.

I have always been drawn to Egypt, an odd infatuation since childhood. Somewhere I was lucky enough to visit recently. I was not struck with typical de ja vu, but when I was in certain areas, and I saw the atrocity of pollution in the Nile, or the demolition of dessert landscapes - an unexplainable sadness came over me. A sadness I had no right to feel, and all I kept thinking was 'this isn't right'.

At the tombs and the pyramids, as I discreetly trailed my fingertips along the stone, and the paintwork. Those thousand year old paintings of sacrifice and pharaohs - they spoke to me. My knowledge of heiroglyphs is fairly limited, and whilst I can manage basic sentences, I knew I shouldn't have been able to understand the depth and emotion on these walls...but I could. I felt it deep in my stomach.

When I stood under The Notre-Dame in France, in the cloak of midnight darkness, with a fire-breather lighting the night-sky, causing odd shadows to skitter across the church. The flames lapping at my skin, cutting off the bite of the wind. A simple thought and emotion came over me;
Home.
I'd never been there before, but I walked the cobbled streets with some mysterious knowledge for my guide. I never got lost, meandering down side-streets, a sense of contentment filling my heart.

We all have moments like this.
Don't we?
Unexplained.
That feeling that we've met before...

Well maybe we have.

(Past Lives Tarot Spread.)

Jade
xoxox

Tarot Thursday

Hello, my darlings.
Welcome to another Tarot Thursday.

Yesterday, around dusk, I headed through the woods, to a place that holds many memories for me. A spot on the riverbank, that has played witness to so many moments of my teenage years.

Love, sex, friendships, alcohol experimentation, photoshoots, escape, band get-together, crazy nature parties, and quite a bit of heart break. 

I didn't really head there on purpose, I just let me feet go where they felt they needed to, and I ended up in this beautiful spot. Memories flooded over me.
The wind was strong on the waters edge.
Herons and gulls stood in the clay-like mud, fishing just beneath me.
Soft bird lullabies mingled with the sound of the rushing River Severn.
And, it smelt like the sea.
That salt up your nostrils, fishy, wonderful scent of the sea.

Beautiful, lazy dragon-flies were my guide through the forest. As I stopped to take some photos of them, A few of them fluttered up into my hair, perching like delicate ornaments on my head.
Nature was definitely on my side today.

The woodland was ripe with wild blackberries...the temptation of which, I could not resist!
And with dyed fingers, and the sweet nectar of the berries still on my tongue, I asked what guidance I could pass on to you all.

Seven of Swords

This is the second time I've pulled this card for you lovely lot.

 ( Tarot Thursday 28.08.14)

I'm hugging you all right now. Times are getting complicated and challenging. 

Traditionally the seven of swords holds meanings of deception and betrayal. Now is a time to watch your back.
Also there is the possibility of ungrounded fears and confusion leading you to insecurities. Guilt or delusions might be causing you to judge yourself to harshly.
So watch your back, but also have your back. Take responsibility but don't torture yourself over silly fears and imaginary guilt.

It's strange pulling a shadow card, when you are in such a space of content peace. But the joy I felt in the woods, and at my faithful riverbank, were only temporary. Time's of reprieve are important, but they cannot shield us from the reality of human life.

Stay strong.
We are all in this together.

Jade
xoxoxo

Autumn Reads

A sure fire way to become one of my best friends.
Step One - Gift me with books (and tea!)
Step Two - Write in the book; a quote, a meaningful message, a funny anecdote. Nothing warms my heart in quite the same way, as opening an old book and finding these little mementos.

So I'm here to share with you, my autumnal book reads. There are five books I plan to get through specifically in the months of September and October.
They're books that have been carefully selected by myself, to most fit the season.

Autumn is my favourite time of year - and winter is my second, so this time of year, is the best!
Red crunchy leaves underfoot, warm knitted scarves, thick jumpers, chai tea, pumpkin lattes, candlelight, halloween, the onset of frost, crisp grass, and reading...lots of reading.

First,

LOST by Gregory Maguire

'Winifred Rudge, a bemused writer struggling to get beyond the runaway success of her mass-market astrology book, travels to London to jump-start her new novel about a woman who is being haunted by the ghost of Jack the Ripper. Upon her arrival, she finds that her stepcousin and old friend John Comestor has disappeared, and a ghostly presence seems to have taken over his apartment in the nineteenth-century rowhouse once owned by Winnie's great-great-grandfather. Is it the spirit of this ancestor, who, family legend claims, was Charles Dickens's childhood inspiration for Ebenezer Scrooge? Could it be the ghostly remains of Jack the Ripper? Or a phantasm derived from a more arcane and insidious origin?'

Victorian London? Ghosts? Jack The Ripper? This book has mixed reviews, but I'm excited to give it a go. It's been on my bookshelf for years now. The forgotten book by the author of the infamous 'Wicked'.
The cover's quite spooky looking, and I'm hoping it'll be perfect for this build up to halloween.

HERETIC by Sarah Singleton

'When Elizabeth finds a green-tinged creature in the woods, she is amazed to discover it is actually a girl of her own age. Isabella has spent the last 300 years hiding from persecutors who accused her of being the daughter of a witch. Elizabeth has her own persecutors to face and the net is closing in.'

Fae and Witches. Old abandoned buildings. Protestant and Catholic War. This book is much shorter than all the others I plan to read, but I'm excited for some good horror here. Finding out about the Shadowlands and Crow People who've been protecting Isabella for those 300 years. This book was recommended to me by a friend, along with Singletons other book 'Century'. Heretic found it's way home with me first, so this is where I shall start.

THE ASSASSINS BLADE by Sarah J Mass

'Celaena Sardothien is Adarlan's most feared assassin. As part of the Assassin's Guild, her allegiance is to her master, Arobynn Hamel, yet Celaena listens to no one and trusts only her fellow killer-for-hire, Sam. In these action-packed novellas - together in one edition for the first time - Celaena embarks on five daring missions. They take her from remote islands to hostile deserts, where she fights to liberate slaves and seeks to avenge the tyrannous. But she is acting against Arobynn's orders and could suffer an unimaginable punishment for such treachery. Will Celaena ever be truly free? Explore the dark underworld of this kick-ass heroine to find out.'

I've read the first two books in the assassin trilogy, and this is a book of prequel stories for the main character Celaena. I'm excited to finish the trilogy, but am also excited to learn even more backstory through this shorter stories collection. This isn't exactly spooky or autumn-esque. But I finally got my hands on it, and am desperate to curl up with it.

THE SECRET OF CRICKLEY HALL by James Herbert

'The Secret of Crickley Hall is a new take on the classic ghost story in the same way that his bestseller Once was a new take on the classic fairy tale. The Secret of Crickley Hall is set in a childrens home in a coastal town in England. Some of the children are persecuted by the people who run the home and have found places between the floors and walls of the home to avoid the adults. They can also spy, of course. One day there is a flash flood which sweeps through the town and the childrens home. All the children escape, except the kids in the walls and floors, who drown. They come back as ghosts and seek their revenge.'

This is a book I read every Autumn! It is the only horror book that has ever left me quaking under my duvet, scared to poke out my head. An amazing amazing, very atmospheric ghost story. Lots of twists and turns - written in a brilliantly descriptive manner by master of horror James Herbert. I cannot recommend this as a Halloween book read enough. If you haven't read it yet, do it! 

WARM BODIES by Isaac Marion

'R' is a zombie. He has no name, no memories and no pulse, but he has dreams. He is a little different from his fellow Dead.
Amongst the ruins of an abandoned city, R meets a girl. Her name is Julie and she is the opposite of everything he knows - warm and bright and very much alive, she is a blast of colour in a dreary grey landscape. For reasons he can't understand, R chooses to save Julie instead of eating her, and a tense yet strangely tender relationship begins.
This has never happened before. It breaks the rules and defies logic, but R is no longer content with life in the grave. He wants to breathe again, he wants to live, and Julie wants to help him. But their grim, rotting world won't be changed without a fight...'

I have seen the movie adaption of this book, so I know how it's going to end. But watching the film, made me more curious as to how it was going to translate onto the page. I don't read many zombie novels...in fact I think this might be only the third zombie apocolypse type book I'll have ever read. They just aren't my 'thing'. That said, I'm hoping to really enjoy this...it's another short one I can hopefully get through pretty fast to make room for more books :)

                                                              - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Have you got any halloween books you read every year?

Any books set in Autumn, that you can recommend?

Let me know I'm always looking for new reading material!

Happy reading beauts.

xoxo

The Life Spiral

Hi loves.

Sorry, there's a lot of tarot going on here on the blog at the moment.

But I just took another huge step in the eyes of tarot.

I made my own tarot spread!!

I'm sure there is something similar around, but I genuinely sat down and this came to me organically.

I've called it;

The Life Spiral Spread

I loved the idea of including spirals, the idea of this journey. 

I've always loved Fibonaccis number, and the idea of perfect facial features being based on it's Golden Spiral.

So, this felt very natural.

(You start at the central point, and follow around to the left, then up, and then simply spiral.)

Card One - Represents you.

Card Two - Shows obstacles in your path.

Card Three - What the past has taught you.

Card Four - Where do you want to go/ see yourself heading?

Card Five - Present Situation.

Card Six - Hopes or Fears.

Card Seven - The Future.

Card Eight - Overall outcome.

Here's a reading I did with this spanking new spread.

It was full of wonderful pulls - For example in the spot of card three, what has the past taught you - I actually pulled The Hierophant! The cards literally talking about a mentor, who has aided my life.

And yet again, in my future spot I pulled - The Magician - which keeps appearing here :)

-------------------------

I would love it if you'd give my little spread a try!
Let me know what you think, how it feels to you.
And I encourage you when you are ready to try creating your own spread...start thinking simply.

Reinvent a classic perhaps?

Sketch out a symbol you feel drawn to and make a spread in that shape?

I'm looking at the rune symbol Ehwar presently, and inventing a spread for travel.
Hopefully it'll be ready before my Scotland trip.

-------------------------
Up and coming on my blog, I have a few recipes to share, a vlog on autumnal/Halloween books, more tarot love, and I'm working on a video companion to my tea-leaf divination blog.

Love and Light to you all
xoxox

Tarot Thursday

Welcome back to Tarot Thursday my lovely followers.

This weeks one card pull comes to you from the patio in my back garden.

It's a good thing I'm OK being known as the weird witchy woman by all the neighbours.

Today I pulled for you;

The Queen of Swords

This was the first card I ever pulled for myself with this deck. And now I pull it for you.
And again we see the trend of Swords for all my followers.
Queens are caretakers, they nourish your dreams and life. The Queen of Swords seeks knowledge, she represents the all seeing, someone who tells it how it is.
This card says it is time for seperation. It maybe painful but it is time to break old bonds, and find new rivers to swim in. There will be joy passed the darkness and loss. The queen will take care of you. The truth must be spoken.

For me when I pulled this card, I know it was about certain friends in my life. Maybe it's the same for you, friendships, but it could be partners, it could even be family. It might be the change away from a job you love.
But whatever it is, this card promises you will get through the pain, you need to cut out those things that are not working for you to allow better things into your life.

Talking to the Fae

Remember I said, I had ordered Brian Frouds Faerie Oracle?

Well a few days ago, it came to land in my little paws.

And it is beautiful. 

The guide book is so far wonderful - I have been following it along, doing all of the 'activities' suggested and required. The books author, who is Jessica Macbeth, makes you read the cards yourself without using the descriptions given. This is the first set of activities, learning to use your own intuition.

 (Thanks to the mother in law for the beautiful new cushions aswell)

My tarot deck is still my true baby - but as Autumn is upon us, I knew I needed to bring a bit of whimsy into my life and my divination.

This deck is pure, light-hearted wonder.
I see oracle decks as the little sister to Tarot.
They are no less valuable to those who can read them properly - but there are big differences.

The tarot deck has a set 78 cards that contain major and minor arcana. The rules are laid out before you, and in true tarot the card meanings can't differ too much from the original in the Rider Waite deck.

Oracle decks however are completely down to artist interpretation. There can be as many or as few cards as they want to draw/paint/create. The Faerie Oracle deck has 65 by the way. The meanings can also be decided by the artist - there are no set rules or regulations.
Take a look online at oracle decks, and see how many are out there, and how they are all totally different.

(This is my favourite card from the deck. It really appeals to my eye, and my heart. The playful, mischievous face of The Green Woman calls to me - and her little leafy dog like friend.
Do you have this deck? If so, which is your favourite card?) 

This adorable deck will travel with me through red, crisp rivers of fallen leaves. It will more than likely be used in coffee shops sat alongside a steaming mug of soy pumpkin latte. They may be laid down on the hard earth with a fluffy scarf as their bed, so I can read on the go.

I was going to do Tarot Thursday with this deck - but that was a silly idea, I am no where near connected to them enough yet. So sorry if anyone was looking forward to that tomorrow. But we shall see what next weeks tarot thursday will bring.

And also next week I will be sharing a vegan bounty bar recipe with you lovely things.

Check back tomorrow for YOUR reading by me, with the WildWood Tarot deck.

xoxox