Thank you so much! It’s an honor to reconnect with you five years after my first book came out, it’s been a witchy whirlwind and I’m immensely grateful for it all.

My latest project, which was released on 9/26, is the “Goddess of Love Tarot” which was collaged/ illustrated by Julia Popescu (also known as Snakes for Hair.) I was approached by my publisher to create a tarot deck (a dream come true), and I had the idea to make one as a devotional and divinatory tool in honor of the Goddess of Love.

I have been a devotee of the Goddess of Love for a near decade, and a student of the tarot for almost 17 years, and I was inspired to create something that could be used for readings around love, sex, relationships, patterns or shadows in relationship, all guided by the Goddess.

In my personal magickal practice, I use the tarot for divination but also so much more than that.

The tarot is a tool I use for meditation, sex magick, contemplation, talismanically for spells and rituals, as a tool of prayer and devotion, and as a focal point for exploring the Qabalistic Tree of Life.

I wanted to create a tarot deck that also doubled as a ritual object, that people could use as a path to meet the Goddess of Love and Sex, and as a tool for connection and devotion to Her, and a path to embodying and living as the Goddess of Love.

I conceptualized the deck to honor the underworld journey of the Goddess; the court cards are renamed as Maiden, Witch, Queen, and Crone, and each major arcana card features a different Goddess of Love. Some of the major arcana cards are also renamed to reflect the Goddess; The Fool becomes The Void (Shakti), The Emperor becomes The Sovereign (Vesta), and The Hierophant becomes The Hierodule (Tara.)

Beyond that, the wands are represented as roses, and the pentacles as the septagram. Each card in the deck includes a journal question and affirmation to work with to further embody the cards message and meaning, and each of the Major Arcana cards include a ritual to connect with the Goddess featured on it.

I also wanted the booklet to be more than just interpretations, so included is suggestions on how to work with the tarot for meditation, sex magick, and in spells and rituals, and I also include specific love, sex, and relationship tarot spreads.

This deck is guided by Venus, and both Julia and I are devoted to Venus, and it was an honor to create this deck!

You speak a lot of the “Divine Feminine.” Can you provide our readers what the Divine Feminine means to you and how one can harness its energy?

To me, the Divine Feminine or Goddess is both an energy and frequency we all have access to and a Deity we can honor, embody, and worship.

The Divine Feminine/ Goddess is the erotic energy that connects all of creation, that births the world. It is the vibration of intuition, creativity, sensuality, and magick. It is the body, flesh and bones, the erotic, and the artistic expression within each of our souls.

It is non-linear, connected to all living things, best represented through the heart, through love, through the earth.

There is no one definition of the Goddess, but She has been worshipped since the beginning of time, and Her ebbs and flows are felt in the cycles of moon and sun, heaven, earth and underworld.

To connect with the Goddess, slow down and listen to your heart. See what magick is there, what is being asked to make itself known and honored. Take stock of the way Goddess energy is already in your life- how you’re already honoring the ebbs and flows of yourself, how you find beauty and pleasure in your day-to-day life. Notice how you honor your artistic expression, how you listen to your intuition, how you connect to your sexuality. This is where the Goddess is- She is already there.

If you want to invite Her into your life, heart, and magickal practice, create an altar to Her. Place objects that bring you pleasure and that are beautiful to you; tarot cards, icons and statues of the Goddess, roses or flowers, crystals, candles, even sex toys and objects of inspiration can live here. Then spend time each day honoring this space, a focal point of your devotion, practice and heart. Spend a few minutes lighting a candle, saying affirmations, praying, breathing, pulling a card… whatever resonates with you!

Invite the Goddess into your heart and life, and then make an effort to see how She is moving through you and your life.

Sex Magick seems to be a hot topic for many practitioners nowadays. How do you incorporate sexuality and/or the act of sex in your spiritual practice and how can our readers do the same?

Sex Magick is a means of working with erotic energy for transformation. This can mean something as simple as masturbating as you focus on something you want to call in, or it can be a ritual where you connect to your erotic self, working with meditation, movement, masturbation, or self-seduction through glamour, adornment, and acts of self-love.

Sex magick can be worked with to heal, to embody your erotic essence, to manifest or banish, to honor the Goddess, yourself, and whatever else feels aligned with you in mind, body and heart, In my own practice, I work with my sexual energy through prayer and devotion to the Goddess of Love, through kink and bdsm, through power dynamics, through masturbation and sex, through self-adornment, through art and poetry, and through tarot.

Sex isn’t something I separate from my spirituality, and neither are my desires. My sexuality is an expression of the Divine and what I call the Divine Erotic, the living breathing life force of sexuality that creates and sustains the whole universe, which can also be thought of as “Shakti.”

Sexuality and your body, the way you feel when you connect with a lover or Goddess or yourself, the way pleasure feels in your body, and the ability of sex to lead you to altered states of self and mind are all so important. They are not opposed to the esoteric, to spirit, but another side of the same coin.

Is Tarot for everyone? If so, what are some practical tips you have for those just starting out? Also, where can we purchase the Goddess of Love Tarot deck?

Tarot is for anyone who feels a draw to it!

My tip for those starting out are to begin connecting to the deck by looking through each card, taking note of the ones that resonate with you. From there, you may wish to begin pulling a tarot card each morning to guide you through your day. Then you can journal or reflect in the evening how this card showed up for you through your day.

I also love meditating with the tarot- you can project yourself into the card like it’s a scene from a movie, looking around to see what’s going on.

Or you can visualize bringing the card into your heart to embody its energy. This is an especially potent practice to do if you want to intentionally choose a card to work with, instead of just pulling one to see what energy is present. So if you want to embody the Queen of Cups energy, you can meditate on that as a way to connect to it.

You can also create an altar to a tarot card you want to honor and work with.

One card readings and three card readings are another good way to begin establishing a relationship with the cards, as is keeping a tarot journal for reflections and interpretations.

The Goddess of Love Tarot is available everywhere you buy your tarot decks.

Photography Credit: @alexyael

It’s much easier for us to realize the changes needed to be there.

But it’s so confusing how to understand why there needs to be a difference.

All too often Changes find themselves moving around faster than a river and harder than a rock.

But our minds are flexible and malleable like rubber and sinew to be able to handle the old and new.

The worlds stop turns “turning” and we want things to last,

But the minute the clock starts we’re looking to the past.

It’s taken some time and still it calls for more.

We crave to scream out windows,

And look for the next door.

Do you ever stop and listen to the sound of rain?

The difference in weight from the leaves and the panes?

I thought I was dying and I struggled to breathe, but not once did I think of the struggles I’d leave.

If I had a wish it’s that I’d hope you’d feel more, not from your mind, but from your

Heart

And Your

Mind

And Your

Core.

We might not all be a River, but the ones that find themselves as stones will eventually be shaped smooth and move the river itself. In time.

Welcome to Cancer Season, Hang in there. Ride the wave.

Author: Alex aka @just_one_more_question on Instagram

High magick (also referred to by several other names) is an umbrella term that is used to encompass numerous methods of ceremonial and ritual magick found in the worlds of Hermeticism/Western Esotericism.  It entails the magicks of the medieval grimoires of which there are too many to list, the works of Eliphas Levi, Agrippa (his Three Books of Occult Philosophy are likely responsible for the engendering of nearly all contemporary high magick formats), Francis Barrett, Samuel Mathers, Aleister Crowley, and several more.  Again, it is impossible to entirely encapsulate a term as broad as high magick, and there are therefore several details which are inevitably neglected within this article.

Though high magick is the subject of this writing, the term predicates the need to mention its fraternal twin.  Low magick, or natural magick, encompasses those practices such as witchcraft, hoodoo, etc. Of course, no matter how we decide to discriminate between them, each practitioner will come to identify them by different criteria.  Regardless, there are a number of idiosyncrasies that must be acknowledged. In the Tree of Life (the Hebrew name for it is The Sephiroth), a glyph that diagrammatically displays any number of things that one might attribute to it—consciousness of man, atlas of the universe, the pathway of ascension, a magickal engine, genesis and exodus, the schematic of the tarot, a Jungian blueprint, etc.—there are contained four worlds of existence.  Though the implications within this diagram are endless, we will avoid any convoluted explanations that may confuse readers that are being introduced to the Sephiroth for the first time.  The highest plane of existence upon the tree is called Atziluth.  The next one down is Briah.  From Briah, we enter Yetzirah.  From Yetzirah, we arrive at Assiah.  Again, at this time, elaborations upon the tree are best left alone (as far as this article goes—feel free to explore the tree on your own).  We will inevitably expound upon the Sephiroth at length in future articles, for it will become the foundation of the practice for those that decide to climb its branches.  Returning to our topic, the four worlds go from the most divine (Atziluth) to the densest, gross material plane of manifestation (Assiah).  And this is where we find the relevance of this anfractuous explanation: low magick operates on the plane of Assiah—it aims to manifest resources for survival, etc. High magick involves an entirely different agenda, one of ascension upon the tree of life, development of the light body, and unity with Kether—we call this agenda The Great Work.  For the sake of being concise, high magick operates on the “higher” planes.  Low magick works upon the lower. Please understand that the labels do not imply superiority or inferiority—low is not a derogatory term and high is not an exalted term.  These adjectives are merely for operational convenience.

Having read this far, we will assume you, the reader, have some interest in High ceremonial magick and are interested in some of the practical applications therein.  With this in mind, it is our intention to equip you with a tool that you can begin to utilize immediately.

In our physical lives, there are some requirements that must be met for sustaining a considerable existence of comfort; the same is true for our metaphysical work. Sanitation/hygiene, as it is in our everyday existence, must be prioritized when we begin working with energies that are seemingly altogether alien for the sake of preserving our overall health.  Our astringent of choice, the one that is traditionally offered to the initiate of any Hermetic tradition, is the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram.  Before we dive into the underlying symbology, let’s begin with learning the motions of the ritual, for—despite it’s simple appearance—it is rather complex in that it involves choreography, visualization, vibrating holy names, and invocation.

The basic format of the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram is as follows:

      The ritual begins with the Qabalistic Cross

1).  With a steel dagger in the right hand, face East. Take a moment to practice mindful breathing, inhaling for four counts, retaining the inhalation for another four counts, and then releasing the breath for four counts. Something that isn’t often suggested, but I personally find to be helpful, is being certain that the tip of the tongue is connected to the front of the roof of the mouth—this is beneficial to the circulation of energy.  While practicing this rhythmic breathing, visualize yourself existing at an infinite size, the center of the universe, with the earth below your feet. A white sphere, radiating light, is resting just inches above your head.

2).  Still facing East, lift the dagger above your head, and visualize it penetrating the sphere of white. Bring the tip of the dagger to your forehead and visualize the dagger pulling a thread of white light down with it.  With the dagger tip at the forehead, vibrate the word “Ateh” (Ah-Tay) which means Thou Art.

3).  Bring the dagger to the chest visualizing still the white thread from the tip (some insist on the bringing it to the pelvic region and that is perfectly acceptable), and vibrate “Malkuth.”  This is pronounced with a hard T at the end. Malkuth means The Kingdom.

4).  Next, bring the dagger to the right shoulder, the white thread still drawn from the tip of the blade. Vibrate “Ve-Geburah.” This means And the Power.

5).  Bring the blade to the left shoulder and vibrate, “Ve-Gedulah.” This means And the Glory.

6).   Then clasp the hands at your chest (prayer position is appropriate), and vibrate, “Le-Olam.” It means Forever. Then, with the dagger between the fingers, point upward and say, “Amen.”

Through the motions performed within the Qabalistic Cross, a cross of white is drawn over these points of the body. The next section of the ritual involves the drawing of the banishing (Earth) pentagram. When drawing them, it may be the least awkward approach to begin the base of the pentagram at about hip height, and allow the apex of the pentagram to end at the height of your forehead. Visualize each line of each pentagram being formed of flaming blue light (others may insist on visualizing them as natural flame, and that is fine).  Try to feel their heat, the sound of the licking flames, etc. These practices will enrich the ritual for you. Please refer to the illustration below to familiarize yourself with how to draw the appropriate banishing pentagram.

1. Facing East, draw the first banishing pentagram with the dagger. Bringing the point of the dagger to the center of the pentagram, vibrate the God Name, “Yod-Heh-Vau-Heh.” Imagine the voice penetrating the farthest reaches of the East.

2. From the center of the first pentagram, draw a flaming white thread to the South. Here, draw a banishing pentagram in the same fashion, and vibrate the God Name, “Adonai.”

3. Again, take the thread to the West, draw the banishing pentagram, and vibrate the God Name, “Ehehieh.”

4. Finally, take the thread to the North, and vibrate the God Name, “Ateh-Gibor-Le-Olam-Adonai.”

5. Return to the East. Hold your arms out to the sides to form a cross with the body.

(a) Say, “Before me, Raphael.”
(b) “Behind me, Gabriel.”
(c) “My right hand, Michael.”
(d) “My left hand, Uriel.”

6. Visualize the pentagrams surrounding you, making flaming revolutions about your body. Visualize yourself standing in a hexagonal column. Say, “For about me flames the pentagram. Within me, the column, shines the six-rayed star.”

To complete the ritual, repeat the Qabalistic Cross section.

In Israel Regardie’s comprehensive work, The Golden Dawn, he lists practical uses for the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. Some of which include the banishing of disturbing or obsessive thoughts, the consecration of oneself or a space, the removal of harmful energies, meditation, and several others. As stated earlier, we will not yet endeavor to enrich the ritual further with examining the functions of the angels, their origins, the importance of the directions, the symbolism of the dagger or the white sphere, the significance of the God Names, etc. All in good time.
Please leave comments or questions if you feel inspired to.

The format delineated in this article is that of the Holy Order of the Golden Dawn (as inculcated by Israel Regardie). Other formats, such as that practiced in Thelemic traditions and others, will be discussed as well.

Source References: The Golden Dawn, 7th Edition- Israel Regardie; Llewellyn Publications. Woodbury, Minnesota

AURA EXERCISE

For those of you curious to attempt to increase your ability to view the aura (more specifically, those of you that have never before seen one), I recommend trying the following:

1. Sit before a large mirror (one in which you can properly see your head and shoulders at least).

2. Concentrate on your breathing for a few minutes. Alternate nostril breathing is highly recommended.

3. Raise your right hand, palm facing forward. Then move the hand backwards until it is a few inches behind your head. Then move it to the right of your head another 4 inches or so.

4. Allow your gaze to soften as your eyes rest on your palm in the reflection and also the space between your palm and your head (using your peripheral vision).

5. Soon, the first layer of the aura will appear, a distinct white outline around the frame of the head and shoulders. See how long you can maintain this visually before it fades. Do not be afraid to blink.

With practice, the hand will no longer be needed to achieve this result. In time, the eyes will begin to perceive the aura more deeply and elaborately.

Meditation has been practiced since antiquity, and its many manifestations vary depending on any particular technique’s origin. We won’t dare hope to succinctly encapsulate a history or overview of meditation generally, much less discuss every methodology therein, but one such technique will be addressed.

As frequently propounded by Israel Regardie, meditation will do little good if we are, from the get go, largely unaware of our own internal processes. Becoming intimate with the goings on within ourselves will dramatically increase our ability to heighten our focus as well as manipulate those happenings at will. It could be assumed that this is elementary, simple, and possibly underwhelming—that’s exactly the point. We must learn to crawl before we can walk. Meditation, upon a practitioner embarking on their first foray with it, is often daunting and memorably unsuccessful for the simple fact that a bite (much too large) has been taken—complex visualizations, breathing techniques, strenuous postures, unfamiliar mantras; all contribute to a scattered effort if a strong foundation has not already been forged. And that foundation as it were lies within ourselves in a wonderful world of simplicity.

Awareness Exercise:

Lie back in a comfortable position. There is no correct posture; simply let yourself relax. The floor is typically a perfect surface. For those of you that practice yoga, corpse pose is ideal, but integrity to its form is not required.

Make no attempt to alter the breathing or engage in any visual exercises. Simply practice awareness of all the sensations undulating throughout the body. This is often the most challenging behavior involved in this meditation—the complete acquiescence of effort which, in turn, becomes a massive effort in itself.

When thoughts do enter the mind, make no attempt to remove them. Simply allow them to drift, like branches in a river, off and out of the mind. Then return the focus to the sensations of your physical form. Where do these sensations seem to gather? Where is the largest concentration?

Limit this meditation, initially, to ten minutes. Gradually increase the time relative to your mental endurance. Once some facility has been gained with this technique, more complex practices can be attempted.

The Tarot itself is of an origin mostly unknown, sometimes claiming Egyptian roots ostensibly but more empirically evidenced as having come into being as recently as the 14th or 15th century. The Sola Busca tarot, specifically, is the earliest known deck featuring the 78 card format, hailing from the late 1400’s, the most likely progenitor of the format used in modern times. Regardless, as posited by Aleister Crowley in The Book of Thoth, “The origin of the Tarot is quite irrelevant, even if it were certain, it must stand or fall as a system on its own merits.”

If it is not in the date of its conception in which the value is to be had, we must begin with its name: T.A.R.OT. When the letters are rearranged, we arrive at the curious word “Rota”, which is Latin for “Wheel.” This word is implicative of several profound connections with which the reader should be at least briefly acquainted: Samsara, the Wheel of The Universe, the Ecliptic, the Wheel of Fortune, the face of a clock, a sun dial, and even the revolutionary journeys within a whirlpool—all hold allegorical relevance to this word. To elaborate on this further would relegate the intentions of this article to the peripheral and will be presently quitted. What is of most value from the propounded content, thus far, is that the “wheel of the Tarot” is a journey in and of itself. It must also be understood that the Tarot is a pictorial representation of the Universe. When both perspectives are paralleled, it becomes apparent that through each trump card, an archetype of existence is experienced and our relationship with the universe and ourselves is delineated through the striking images which, through colors and shapes and symbols, impress the subconscious mind.

If we are to follow The Fool through their journey, experiencing the forces of nature (variegated as they are) through the endless expressions of The Universe, we must acquiesce to those archetypes portrayed in the 22 Trumps of the 78 card deck. And it is by the process of attuning ourselves to the imagery therein that we may elevate ourselves. Each trump contains absolutely precise imagery, every detail designed to impress the subconscious with a unique suggestion, resulting in the evolution of personal reality.

The material presented may be problematic for some number of practitioners due to the artists of contemporary Tarot packs largely deviating from those colors and symbols originally delineated in the Hermetic traditions. Without fidelity to the required symbols, shapes, colors, etc., the practitioner will have little success in effecting the results so far implied. The Rider Waite Tarot is an excellent resource as well the Tarot put forth by Paul Foster Case (as seen in the Book of Tokens). When an appropriate deck has been selected, proceed with the following exercise:

T.A.R.O.T. Assimilation

As put forth by the Builders of The Adytum

• Day 1
  • Begin with the first Trump, The Fool.
  • Hold the card before your eyes, and don’t make any effort to analyze the imagery. Simply let your eyes absorb the image for no more and no less than 5 minutes.
  • When you have finished, write your impressions in a journal. Record any thoughts that came to you throughout the assimilation.
• Day 2
  • Read about the intellectual values inherent to the Trump (many books are available on this very subject and will offer insights into decks such as The Rider Waite specifically). For a        quick reference, use A Light On Tarot by Paul Foster Case.
  • Again, rest the Trump card before your eyes for 5 minutes, this time allowing yourself to intellectually analyze every detail.
  • Finally, write your impressions in the journal.
• Day 3
  • Continue as you have been, allowing the 5 minutes of assimilation to occur, analyzing and allocation the intellectual meanings as you will.
  • Record your impressions.

Repeat this three-day process for each Tarot Trump. Your understanding, in ways indescribable, will deepen tremendously, and other effects will surely reveal themselves in time. During this assimilation process, it is important that all dreams are recorded, for the brain will be stimulated in new ways from the suggested rates of exposure. It is very probable that inspired revelations will become apparent upon reflection, and these should be considered with receptivity and reverence.