Articles — 2016

Where do you keep your Tarot or Oracle deck?  Deciding how to store your cards is one of the first decisions you'll make as the owner of a new deck.  It depends on your personal preferences and your individual reading habits--whether you travel with the deck, for example.  In this article, we'll consider the most common methods of deck storage, and some advantages and disadvantages for each. The original box. Some people--perhaps most--prefer to keep their cards in the original packaging.  The publisher's box is usually perfectly sized and matches the cards and booklet.  For owners of multiple decks, it's...

Once upon a time, there were only three kinds of smudge sticks in most witchy shops: Small, medium, and large.  These days, you can choose from a vast array of smudging herbs, each with a different energy, aroma, and cultural history. In this article, I’ll walk you through the plants that are most commonly used for smudging. (We’ll limit it to smudges that are derived from woods and leaves. Resin incenses are divine—but that’s a topic for another article.) The variety of smudging herbs is incredible. But you’ll also notice some similarities. First, most of them come from the leaf...

As we wrap up a four-part series on elemental correspondences, it's time to consider the herbs of Earth. You may notice that not as many plants are attributed to Earth as to Air, Fire, and Water. This is because herbal magick as a whole is ruled by Earth.  In a sense, all herbs are Earth herbs. However, there are times when your magick calls for the specific qualities of Earth: Darkness, solidity, quietness, rest and incubation.  Earth herbs, in general, are good for evoking gratitude and for healing grievances. Earth is also the element of manifestation--using Earth herbs is one...