Sasha Graham's Blog, page 5

Star Wars Tarot Spread




How will we ever make it to December 18th?

I get goosebumps just thinking about sitting with in the darkness and hearing the first few chords of John Williams. And a kick ass female lead character? Pinch me, am I dreaming?

The commercials are such a tease! This international trailer is my favorite so far:

In celebration and anticipation of the new Star Wars (which I know will be wonderful), I’d like to share the Star Wars tarot spread from my book, 365 Tarot Spreads:

Star Wars Spread

Summation of Spread

This epic film uses the Force, described by Obi-Wan Kenobi as the energy field surrounding and enveloping all living things. Like magic, the Force binds all organic beings and the galaxy together. The Star Wars Spread uses the concept of the Force to inquire about the electric magical energy coursing through your life.

Cast Your Cards

Cast your cards in the shape of an X-wing fighter, chosen space vehicle of the rebellion:

1.                           7.

        2.            6.

                 3.                                   8.

5.                            4.

Questions

1. What is the Force?

2. What energy courses through me?

3. How can I train myself to be more sensitive to my power?

4. What creates a disturbance in my force?

5. Am I tempted by the Dark Side?

6. How do I filter emotions like fear?

7. Can I use my Force for compassion?

8. What is the destiny I must fulfill?

Interesting Fact

George Lucas used archetypal mythological constructs creating Star Wars. The film has been compared to the practices and beliefs of many major religions including Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity.

Tarot Connection

Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda each relate to the archetype of the Hermit card. Living alone, sequestered in isolation until Luke discovers them. Each contain powerful knowledge, unleashed when Luke shows he is ready to learn. The light in the Hermit’s lamp is indicative of all the knowledge he would share with those who are ready. A reminder of the age old concept, when the student is ready, the teacher appears.

Find this spread and 364 others in 365 Tarot Spreads.

Happy casting!

Who doesn’t want to indulge a little magic when they wake up in the morning? Let the cozy scent of apples and cinnamon coax your loved ones out of bed.

This Love and Warm Feelings Warm Apple Spell from my new book 365 Tarot Spells is easy, delicious and effective.

Recipe Hack

For a super fast version of this recipe, throw all ingredients into the microwave for a few minutes till the apples are nice and warm.

Serve of Oatmeal, Waffles, Pancakes, Ice Cream or anything your heart desires.

Love and Good Feelings Warm Apple Spell

The Two of Cups represents the reflection of love in another, meeting a soul mate and an exchange of heartfelt emotion.

Ingredients

Two of Cups

Two apples, peeled, cored and chopped

Pat of butter

Splash of liquid (apple juice, cider or water)

Sprinkle brown sugar

Sprinkle cardamon

1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

Method, Visualization and Meditation

Apples are in season, sweet, and crisp in the Fall. Simmering apples and spices warm the home and heart.

The Two of Cups represents love, sweet feelings and affection. Cinnamon, sometime called Sweet Wood, carries attracting energy and is used in love and money spells. Cardamon is utilized for fidelity.

This is a luscious, intuitive recipe. Add or subtract ingredients as you see fit. Serve over oatmeal, waffles or pancakes in the morning or in the evening as dessert, alone or beside ice cream or cake.

Place the Two of Cups in your kitchen. Enter the card. Become on of the figures. See the object of love in your mind’s eye (it may be more than one person). Extend a cup of love toward them. Accept their gift back to you.

Make the recipe. As you prepare the apples, focus on qualities of love and devotion.

Place all ingredients in a heavy bottomed pot on the stove and simmer until soft while repeating the incantation.

Incantation while sprinkling and stirring:

I love you,

you love me,

Happy feelings

meant to be.

http://www.amazon.com/365-Tarot-Spells-Creating-Magic/dp/073874624X

Happy Halloween week!

The most spooky, gothic, sexy and supernatural week of the year. The season of the witch, of tarot reading, fortune telling and soothsaying.

As Halloween draws close, cast the Dracula Spread from my book 365 Tarot Spreads. The spread is informed by Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula.

Dracula Spread

Summation of Spread

Feeling a touch of blood lust? Dracula is the bloody tale of Count Dracula’s attempt to relocate from Transylvania to England and the ensuing battle between perceived forces of good vs. evil. Invoking themes of Victorian female sexuality, immigration and post colonialism. The Dracula Spread uses themes from the iconic novel to inform its questions.

Cast Your Cards

Cast the Dracula Spread’s cards in the form of two wooden stakes. Hold tight, they may save your life.

 

                        5.
                                    6.
                                                7.
                                                            8.

 

Questions

Traveler – Where am I going?
Intruder – How do I feel like an outsider?
Prisoner – What holds me captive?
Disguise – What do I pretend to be?
Fear – What do I fear and desire?
Isolation – Do I feel alone?
Sexuality – Can I express my sensual needs?
Blood Lust – What do I crave more than anything?

Interesting Fact

Bran Stoker and Pamela Coleman Smith, illustrator of the RWS deck, were dear friends and worked together at the Lyceum Theater in London.

Tarot Connection

Artist and author Robert Place created the Vampire Tarot, based upon the novel Dracula. He posits the vampire’s thirst for blood is a metaphor for search of the Holy Grail, the life-giving substance and fountain of youth for which all philosophers and alchemists strive.

Amazing Vampire Decks

Robert Place’s Vampire Tarot

The Tarot of the Vampyres

The Vampire Tarots of the Eternal Night

The Vampire Tarot

Pre-order is now available for 365 Tarot Spells!

365 Tarot Spells

Pre-order Now on Amazon

Each daily spell is based on a magical occurrence or holiday that happened on that day. There are also specific spells for each of the 78 cards in a tarot deck. Each spell uses five or fewer cards for ease of formatting.

Each day’s page includes:

Spell title
Date
Ingredients
Method, Visualization, and Meditation
Affirmation
Layout of Cards

Check out this spell from the book.

Mexican Chocolate Love Truffles harness the essence if Fire in the Ace of Wands Tarot card ~ the suit of passion and desire.

Chocolate is the world’s most famous aphrodisiac.

Vanilla can be used for sex magic.

Cayenne pepper connects to the suit of Wands and the element of Fire.

Mexican Chocolate Love Truffles

Assemble your ingredients.

Ingredients

Ace of Wands

8 ounces semi-sweet organic chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon fresh cayenne pepper

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Dried cocoa

Method, Visualization and Meditation

Sprinkle spice and incantations of love over truffles to bring passion to your bedside. Prepare and feed or gift these delicacies to the person you desire to become intimate with.

Chocolate is an aphrodisiac known the world over. The Ace of Wands is the spark of desire. Cayenne peppers inspire passion. Cinnamon enhances the masculine libido and attracts love. Vanilla is used for sex magic. The cacao tree was revered by the Aztecs who mixed Cacao seeds into their ceremonial beverages.

Gather your ingredients upon the kitchen counter. Place the Ace of Wands. Enter the card. Stoke the passion of the wand by making the flame grow bigger.

Place chopped chocolate in a heat proof bowl. Heat heavy cream on your stovetop right before it boils. Pour the cream over the chocolate and mix until smooth and the chocolate is melted. Whisk in vanilla, cinnamon, cayenne, and salt.

Refrigerate until the mixture becomes thick. Scoop small tablespoon mounds onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and place back in the fridge to firm up, about 1/2 an hour.

Form each mound into a ball. Roll in the cocoa powder while whispering the incantation.

Truffles keep in fridge for up to one month but feed them continually to your love to keep things spicy.

Incantation

Greedy lover

like a nectar to bee,

Caress my body,

love on me.

Bring me pleasure,

my bed come,

Kiss me, lick me,

I’m your plum.

Mexican Chocolate Love Truffles

It’s snowing. There’s no going outside. Like C.S. Lewis’s home bound children, I spent the morning looking for a magic wardrobe.

People or books tend to be my magical doorways and today I walked into a book. Perusing The Watkins Dictionary of Symbols, I came across a excellent discovery and new word.

The Tetramorph.

Ever wonder about those four creatures in the corners of the World card?

See the similarity between the images?

Christ In Glory, circa 1200,  British Museum

I’m not talking about the figures in the middle. Although it is worth noting that within Tarot, it is YOU, who becomes the Divine. Which, of course, you are!

Check out the four corners. Those figures are a Tetramorphs.

The Watkins Dictionary says, “In some cultures, the four-headed guardians of the four directions on space – symbolizing in many traditions the universality of divine dominion and guarantee against the return of primal chaos. The four biblical tetramorphs described in the first chapter of Ezekiel have the heads of a man, lion, ox and eagle.”

Christianity goes on to link this with the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

With Christ’s incarnation, resurrection, sacrifice and ascension.

Above, Christ with Four Evangelists, Bode Museum.

Tarotist link the corners with the four directions and the four suits of tarot.

Astrologers with Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius which of course connect to the vernal equinox, summer solstice, autumnal equinox and winter solstice.

We have the complete cycle of the year and the FINAL card in Tarot, the World card.

We all know Smith and Waite took loads of inspiration from Christian symbolism but it is still super fun to see them all together.

Above, we see 13th Century Ivory Carving “Christ in Majesty.”

The Tetramorph was not unique to Christianity. Like all religion, Christianity was built on the shoulders of those who worshiped and prayed before. The Tetramorph was first seen in in ancient Mesopotamia. Note below, how the Palace Guardian below combines the elements of human (face), eagle (wings), lion (body).

Palace Guardian, c. 965 BCE, British Museum

You will find the Tetramorph in the four corners of the Wheel of Fortune card too.

Does any of this help us divine the future?

Nope.

But Tarot symbolism helps us unlock the past. Especially when we examine Tarot imagery as a repository of the human spirit. We see how early man understood the nature of the world.

And those of us who listen to secrets whispered from the past (and tarot speaks to you all the time) are bound to unlock unexpected gateways to the future .

Happy snow day and happy hunting.

Hope you discover your own magical doorway today!

Xo

This is why I love working with Tarot…

New York City was frigidly cold yesterday morning. But the earth angles have shifted since Winter Solstice and the sunlight contains the lemon yellow of summer not the blinding white of winter. You can see spring in the light even if you can’t feel it on your cheeks, even if our bundled sweaters and wool gloves tell us otherwise.

My daughter and I walked westward toward her school with the sun behind us. It was at such an angle that our shadows stretched long and narrow before us, like Slenderman stick figures. A least a quarter of the block long. We marveled at our specters and wondered if they were us walking to school in a dream scape. We watched our shadows appear on passing taxis  as we waited for the streetlights to flick from red to green.

I dropped her to school and retraced my steps. Now walking East, toward the sunlight, I saw a million photographical moments. It was like strolling through a hard cover, coffee table, photo art book. Yellow light spilled around the Empire State Building, bounced off the top of Madison Square Garden and poured over the morning rush below. Each commuter looked like a fire breathing dragon. Their heads buried into their scarves, plunging ahead to their offices and shops while their normally invisible breath curled up and around them dissolving into the air like Medusa snakes yearning to break free.

2 blocks from my apartment, I found myself on a mysteriously desolate block. A wine and chocolate bar with heated outdoor seating, pumped a Motown song into the street. Marvin Gaye’s voice echoed between the empty concrete canyons and all around me. The song sounded … hollow … like the music they played in The Shining’s flashback sequences …. like a forgotten memory.

The sideway glistened and I swear, it felt as if I had stepped inside a vampire film. I sensed (imagined?) figures, not of this world surrounding me, just out of sight, behind the parking garage wall, peering from the roof, in the apartment building above me, under the sidewalk grates looking up.

I began to take it to a dark place, thinking these things were waiting to pounce. Then I remembered human nature brings conflict and danger into every story. We also tend to fear what we don’t understand. So, I waited for a moment, listened and felt the experience with my body.

It wasn’t dangerous, just different. Not of this world.

It occurred to me, perhaps they were angels. And I heard the flutter of a thousand feathers beating and their wings disturbing the air. But their eyes. That was what I felt most of all. And it wasn’t one or two which is how I normally experience my guides. It was dozens.

I slowly moved towards home. The song ended, dying down to absolute quiet. No new song came on. Silence.

A million goosebumps erupted and I shivered down my spine!!!!!

I came home and pulled a tarot card to discover what it all meant, if I was correct in my interpretation of the strangeness. I pulled:

The Temperance Card.

The Angel.

I love tarot.

Because sometimes, when you aren’t sure you know what’s going on, or if magic is real, Tarot reminds you and confirms that it is. :)

Does post-Halloween depression descend on you as quick as icy November wind?

Halloween roadkill breaks my heart. You’ve seen it. Discounted bat and skull decorations, neglected costumes, stale candy shoved onto back store shelves, making room for the green and red explosion of tinsel, elves, and Santas.

Doesn’t it seem like Halloween is cruelly ripped away? As if Halloween were a passing fancy, picked up, used and thrown aside like the crunchy leaves your dad used to rake into black garbage bags when you were done jumping in them.

But, I’m cheered by the fact that winter solstice and the longest nights of the year loom ahead. That the chilly nights of November and December are ripe for magic, meditation and reflection. That Charles Dickens’s best ghost stories are about Christmas.

Plus, it’s almost time to bring a live, living tree into the house. And what could be spookier than an evening visit from a mysterious man bearing gifts?

So, I ignore the crass commercialization and monetization of the season as the year winds down. I recall what ensuing holidays are really, truly and cross-culturally about. Darkness and rebirth.

And I reach for my cards … because the joy of reading tarot is that we peer behind the veil every time we flip a card. No matter the calendar date.

1. Trick or Treat with Your Cards

~Shuffle your deck randomly and select any number of cards you like, face down.

~Imagine these are doors you will knock on.

~Say, “Trick or treat!” and flip the card as if the door were opening.

~Let the card answer you with a message.

~The message is your treat!

2. Perform Victorian Parlor Tricks with a Card

~ An old Victorian divinatory game instructs a woman to walk upstairs, backwards, eating a boiled egg, without salt,and peer into a looking glass. There, she shall see the face of her true love.

~Do this very same thing but use a random tarot card instead of or in addition to a mirror.

3. Perform a Reading for a Dead Historical Figure

~ Have you ever given a reading to a ghost? You might try it. Perhaps you’d like to read cards for Washington Irving, Ed Wood or Bram Stoker.

~ Communicate with them through your cards.

4. Dress as a Card

~ You don’t have to wear an all out costume.

~ Wear a moon hair clip to connect to the High Priestess, a scythe necklace to connect with Death. A faux snakeskin belt to connect with the Magician.

~ Do so mindfully. Wear the symbol of the card, you also invoke the energy of the archetype.

5. Use a Tarot Card in a Magic Spell

~ Tarot cards are powerful visual tools. Archetypes contain energetic reserves. Use both in spell work.

~ And if you’ve never cast a spell, perhaps it is high time you try…

I write books about tarot (here’s a pic of my newest baby) which means loads of tarot facts are thumping around between my ears. If you are reading these words, it means you love to study the cards as much as I do.

 

Tarot students are often nervous to “get it wrong”  if they don’t know what a card means. What most new cartomancers don’t realize is that their so-called ignorance of the cards is really their strongest asset. The key is waiting for the information to come to you.

“Book knowledge” and vast arrays of esoteric theory are not necessarily helpful when it comes down to reading for ourselves. After all, we dive into the cards and visit psychics/intuitives for information we don’t know. If we knew it, we wouldn’t be asking in the first place.

When reading for ourselves how can we break out of the rut of what we know? How do we keep our personal readings fresh and insightful?

Simple.

Ask the cards what you don’t know.

~~~~~~~~

1). Clear your mind.

2). Sit with shuffled deck in front of you.

3). State out loud, “What I don’t know about the _____ card is that ________________.”

4). Fill in the blanks by selecting a card and finishing the sentence. Don’t try too hard. Let some aspect off card strike you and state it clearly and articulate it out loud or write it down.

Once you figure out why this particular answer came to you, discover why it is relevant to your situation.

You will know your information is good if:

1). The information surprises you or makes no sense.

2). Upon reflection, the information holds particular resonance for you.

~~~~~~~~

 

Personal Example:

Yesterday morning, I grabbed my tarot deck, thick with the humidity of summer. I said, “What I don’t know about ((randomly selected)) the Moon card is that…” I waited for it to come to me “… the brown dog on the left belongs to Gertrude Stein.”

Hmmmmm, ok, that’s a weird piece of information.

But Gertrude Stein holds a certain amount of personal resonance for me. I googled “Gertrude Stein’s dog” to discover if she was indeed a dog owner/lover. She was. Even renowned photographer Man Ray photographed her beloved pooch. Here’s Ms. Stein is with her dog Basket and Alice B. Tolkas (pictured on the right):

I understood why I received this random message and it was two-fold. First, it was a joy to discover that some random part of my consciousness picked up on a true fact. Two, and more importantly, I’ve been revising my first novel this summer and it has been a monster struggle.

Gertrude Stein was a mentor and guru to many of the 20th Century’s greatest modernist writers and artists. I went further in interpreting the message: “It is important to plod forward, just like the Moon’s crawfish crawling out of the water. Move forward, one word at a time. And passing the towers, braving the beasts and basking in mysterious moonlight confusion, the ghosts of artists past, present and future travel with you. While the road marked is your own, you are far from the first to travel on it.“

Now how’s that for a message first thing in the morning?

~~~~~~~

I hope you try this way of questioning the cards and I hope you find it fun and useful. It makes a great addition to your card-a-day practice.

Drop me a line or a comment if you want to share any cool messages that you receive by using this method.

Speaking of the Moon tarot card, enjoy tomorrow night’s Full Moon!!!

And check out this awesome recent review of 365 Tarot Spreads on Spirituality Today!

Today, May 22nd, is World Goth Day!

It inspired a spread from my newest book, 365 Tarot Spreads. 

 

Gothic Torture Spread

Explore transcendent themes of darkness as expressed by gothic culture. Curl up in a castle, befriend the shadows, bask in the moonlight and embrace the gloaming of your soul with a sublime tarot spread:

 

1. Grotesque: What truth have I distorted?

2. Horror: What scares me?

3. Romance: What excites me?

4. Curse: What plagues me?

5. Ghostly: What haunts me?

6. Mysterious: What mystery must be unraveled?

7. Desolate: What makes me feel bleak and empty?

8. Death: What has been lost?

9. Angst: What hope fills me with the sense of overcoming the uselessness of this situation?

10. Creativity: What makes my darkness so beautiful?

 

Cast your cards in the shape of an ankh, an ancient symbol of life:

 4.

3.             5.

2.             6.

  7.

    1.                      8.

    9.

     1o.

Find this spread and 364 more in my new book:

365 Tarot Spreads

The image of the Lovers comes from Ian Daniels‘ The Tarot of Vampyres.

 

 

 

 

I was thrilled when Llewellyn asked me to contribute to their tarot blog. This article is a repost. Please find the original posting here: Llewellyn Tarot Blog.

Happy Spring!

“I want to do to you what spring does with the cherry trees.”

Pablo Neruda

Neruda’s erotically charged words perfectly describe what happens within the Ace of Wands, don’t they? Especially the RWS Ace of Wands. The ace is literally shuddering, shedding its leaves in excitement. The wand throbs with fire and passion, blooming like a woman in the throws of lust and abandon, pushed to her limits, filled by her lover.

This is the absolute essence the entire suit of Wands.

Spring wakes everything up, it pokes and nudges us. We feel it it the very recess of our bones as we find the sun, shed heavy winter clothing and bask in lingering twilight evenings. We notice the purple shock of a blooming flower, warm breezes tickle our skin, farmer’s markets buzz with excitement as early asparagus and sweet peas appear. Can we align our decks and our souls with the tremblings of Spring? Can we milk fire’s magic out of a tarot deck? Out of ourselves? I think we can.

The shift of seasons are important, they keep us in touch with nature’s rhythms and remind us we are part of nature, not separate from it. Various schools assign different tarot suits to the seasons. But Wands and the element of fire are the power that germinates a seed to sprout. Wands are the voltage of true magic, the currents dividing the pentacle-like cells in within your body.  Wands, like spring, wake us up. But more importantly, they move us to action. Wands gets things accomplished.

It is important to differentiate between the desire reverberating inside Wands and the fluid emotion spilling out of Cups. They should not be confused. Desire and love intertwine like vines of woven wisteria and honeysuckle. But they are two distinctly different things. Desire requires action while love requires feeling. Love moves mountains but it can also be a passive experience. Desire and the suit of Wands always carry a physical, visible side effect. The spark of flirtation that brings people together. A flash of passion moving a person or crowd to action. The fire ignited when injustice is witnessed or experienced. And the element of longing, that sweet ache, painful deliciousness, toe curling, never satisfying, deep in your bones longing comes straight from Wands.

Become a consort to spring as it surrenders itself. Feel yourself melting and sliding into summer. Grasp the Wands of desire in your hands. Find what makes you quiver and embrace it every day. Give readings to lovers, then embrace your own infatuations. Toss imaginary tarot cards at everyone you pass. Cook a meal like it’s the last one you’ll ever eat. Dig up the garden just to smell the dirt on your skin. Find an old tarot deck and bury your favorite card to see what blossoms. Cast cards in the moonlight and charge your deck by day in the sun. Call forth the fireflies and take destiny into your own hands. Feel fortune rolling in your palm, throw it toward the stars. Let them shower back over you reflecting your own brilliance.

Spring clean with your deck, pull a card for each room. Dust off your Magician wand, polish the Hermit’s lantern and light a candle inside, fasten baskets of flowers to your porch like the Hanged Man, dip into Temperance’s pond, drive to work like the Chariot, be as brazen as Death and cavort with the Devil.

The torchlight of Wands helps me to see perfectly inside of you. I’m looking right now. You are beautiful. I see infinite winding roads, dark caverns waiting to be filled, and pages of life ready to be written. Just like spring, you’ve only just begun. And no one, not even I, know what you have in store.

So, on languid spring nights, when no one is watching and you sit alone, shuffle your cards. Let the Wands of tarot light a fire inside of you. Most importantly, let them spark you towards those untraveled places inside yourself.

Let Wands illuminate and warm you from within so as summer arrives, you’ll drip with magic, weave effortless enchantment and conjure your heart and bodily desire.

Cast your cards wisely…