Blessing a deck of Tarot

[DarkMoge]

I am surprised that I can't find this topic anywhere on the forum dedicated to Tarot. Maybe, because I am new to this forum and did not know where to look. But because it is not present, I have decided to bring it up.

Let me explain what is my belief on this topic is. First of all, I believe a deck of Tarot to be a tool of occult work. And second, I believe that if someone is serious about their occult work, they should bless their tools. I both feel like dropping a sudden unnecessary long lecture. But I also want to know, is there anyone actually interested in it? By blessing, I mean a one time ritual that lasts several days.
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--Edit--
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Since @Raggydoll, @ironwing said that they would be interested to hear what I have to share. I will put it inside my post to make it easier for anyone in the future to find.

Purpose of the blessing ritual is to give it energy and establish deeper connection with it. Blessing is performed once for a deck. For future reference, I will use words such as "must", "have to", etc. I am using those words to imply emphasis on how I believe each step is important. I do not mean to imply restrictions to what would one do. 

Step 0. Cleanse the deck. Should not be necessary for a fresh deck or if the deck was always yours. But you have to if someone else used the deck. 
Step 0.1. Cleanse yourself. The order can be changed, you can cleanse yourself and than the deck. If you do not know any cleansing ritual for yourself, just take a shower.
Step 0.2. Write a chant that you will use in step 3. And get everything in order. Arrange the deck with All major arcana on top in order from The Fool to The World than arrange all suits from Ace to Ten, than arrange all court cards. My suggest order for minor arcana is Pentacles, Swords, Cups, Wands. Suggested order for court cards is 4 Pages, 4 Knights, 4 Queens, 4 Kings.

Step 1. Get into the mood. For some people, getting into the mood happens in mere seconds, but for others it can require some effort. Things like wearing specific clothes that they only use for rituals, turning on atmospheric music and meditating before the ritual can help to get into the mood. Being in the mood helps to enter trance for ritual. I do not believe that one would have this things that I am about to list, I did not have those things either. A room where you perform rituals with an altar to place the deck on. Turn off the light the light and light candles instead. Repeat to yourself "I intend to perform a ritual to bless my deck of Tarot". Like I have said, the main purpose of those things is to help you get into the mood, which can be difficult to do at will, especially if one does not know what actually being in the mood implies.

Step 2. Cast a circle around you and deck. While it is not necessary. It is a fairly easy and short step. If you have a deity or some other spirit guide that you believe could help you, invite them to be present and ask for their assistance.

Step 3. Touch the deck and begin the chant you have prepared in step 0.2. I will suggest a few things that you can say between quotation marks "", I will comment on the meaning of each phrase, so that you can make one that is more personal to you. Chant is important to get your energies in order and also to establish some dedications. The chant establishes that the deck will never be used as playing cards or as decoration. It will be used for divination and magic. If you are someone who has several decks, you can establish different roles for them: you can bless one deck to be used for love reading, you can bless another to be business reading, another to be spiritual, another to be used for magic. If there is only one deck than one deck is to be blessed to do all of those things.

"I, <insert your name>, give you a purpose of a deck of Tarot" an opening phrase for the rest of the chant.
"become my tool of magic and divination" you can specify the purpose as mentioned earlier for different decks.
"make my vision clear,
help me discover knowledge that I seek,
assist me in my endeavors" this phrases are meant to be empowering to the ideas of divination and magic. You can write a very long list of such phrases as long as they make sense and resonate with you.
"be blessed to tell truth,
even if I am not ready to hear it" I believe that it is important to tell the deck that it should always be truthful. Sometimes, when doing readings, there are answers which one is not ready to hear. An example of such answer is if someone was to ask about how their love interest feels about them, the truth could be that they do not like them, but the hope would be that they love them back. The purpose is to bless the deck to tell the truth instead of hope. I suggest repeating that phrase several times.
"become my tool of magic and divination" yes, repeating it before closing the chant. Some people like to name their tools, if that is something you believe in, that is where you would also give it a name.
"I bless you in my own name and with my own power" this is a closing phrase for the chant. It should be blessed to you, its not meant to be dedicated to a deity, so, bless it in your own name and with your own energies.

Step 4. This is a step for why it can take several days to complete. On this step, you must energize the deck, first entire deck as a whole, after, every card individually and in the end, entire deck as a whole again. Energizing every card individually is a hard part, you might simply not have enough energy to do it in one go. So, you could do it all in one go, but you can also stretch it across several days. If you are stretching it across several day, begin each day from step 0.1. Do NOT cleanse the deck when stretching blessing across several day. Each day, remember to close the circle. Be diligent and do not neglect finishing the blessing. The way you can stretch is, day 1: bless deck as a whole, day 2: bless all major arcana, day 3: bless all Pentacles from Ace to Ten, day 4: bless all Swords from Ace to Ten, day 5: bless all Cups from Ace to Ten, day 6: bless all Wands from Ace to Ten, day 7: bless all court cards, day 8: bless the entire deck as whole again and finish the ritual. Depending on how much energy you have, you can just do it in one go. Because it is a repetition of 78 similar tasks, you might get into rhythm, but getting into rhythm is not good. Rhythm means that your brain is just repeating same actions without paying too much attention, you should be paying every individual attention to every card, so, break the rhythm if you feel yourself falling into one.

First, pick up a deck and place it between the palms of your hands, one palm touching top card, the other touching the bottom card. Close your eyes and imagine, starting from somewhere inside your belly, imagine 2 little spheres of light travelling up along your body. For those familiar with ideas of chakras, we are not quite taking energy from swadhisthana, but from the energy pool to which it is connected, though, it might mean the same thing for some people. One sphere with travel through your right arm and other through your left arm. Imagine both of them eventually entering the deck and spreading through the deck. You can repeat this multiple times.

Now, do similar procedure for each card individually. The deck should be arranged in order, so take the top card of the deck. Observe it for a little while, you might already know its meaning, you might not know it well yet, but right now is a good time to give it another observation. Than, place it between your palms and send spheres of light into it. After that, kiss the card. Return the card to the deck, by placing it on the bottom. Repeat until you are through the entire deck.

Repeat for the whole deck again, placing it between palms and sending energy spheres into it. And than, hug the deck, press it against your chest and hold it closely for a while. I suggest hugging deck for about 5 minutes, but it can be hard to tell how much time has passed and using some timers is a big no no. So, hug it until you feel like a while has passed.

And we are basically done.

Step *. Close the circle. If you are stretching it across multiple days, remember to close the circle every time you open it.
Step **. Clap your hands three times to get out from the mood.



 

Edited October 5, 2021 by DarkMoge

[Raggydoll]

To me, this  all comes down to spiritual beliefs, world view, culture, religion etc. 

 

I have a feeling that you and I are different in those regards 🙂 I don’t have an opinion of what is right and what others ‘should’ do. And the word ‘occult’ is quite foreign to me. I’m not an occultist, I am an hereditary Norse heathen who practice folk magic 😊. As for ‘blessings’: We have two words or expressions that are similar and could be translated as ‘blessing’, but I doubt it’s what you mean. So to me, this wouldn’t have much personal relevance. But it’s always interesting to hear about what others do and what they feel is essential to them. 

[ironwing]

I'd be interested in reading what you share here!

 

Like @Raggydoll, I do think we're coming from different places with regard to the use of the tarot. I don't use tarot as an occult tool, nor do I bless it. I don't have rituals either.

 

I may not be able to benefit as a tarot reader, but it would be nice to see how what you do enriches your own practice.

 

 

 

 

[gregory]

Nothing would induce me to bless a deck - especially not if it were to take several days. Given my collection, I'd be dead before I were done if I started now.  I never have in all the years since I got my first. Nor do I do any rituals before using them.

 

They don't seem to hate me or mis-perform, so I also cannot believe it's actually necessary. I use them with respect; that's all.

 

I do think - like Raggydoll - that these things are up to the individual. So if it works for you, of course - that's fine by me.

[katrinka]

1 hour ago, Raggydoll said:

To me, this  all comes down to spiritual beliefs, world view, culture, religion etc. 

 

This. If people want to use Tarot for "occult work", have at it. But for myself and many others here, we just read cards. It's about as "occult" as doing a crossword puzzle.
Also what gregory said. I don't even "cleanse" my cards. I certainly don't feel a need for a three day ritual to bless them. But you do you.

 

[stephanelli]

4 hours ago, DarkMoge said:

I am surprised that I can't find this topic anywhere on the forum dedicated to Tarot. Maybe, because I am new to this forum and did not know where to look. But because it is not present, I have decided to bring it up.

Let me explain what is my belief on this topic is. First of all, I believe a deck of Tarot to be a tool of occult work. And second, I believe that if someone is serious about their occult work, they should bless their tools. I both feel like dropping a sudden unnecessary long lecture. But I also want to know, is there anyone actually interested in it? By blessing, I mean a one time ritual that lasts several days.

I have a question that might help me understand where you're coming from...

What do you mean by "occult work"?

 

I have never blessed a deck of tarot or oracle cards. It never seemed necessary to me. I use the cards for guidance, creative inspiration and to help me explore situations/emotions.

 

It might also depend on your belief about how the cards work and house you use then.  If you believe they are moved by spirits/deities I could see why you might want bless them!

[Marina]

10 hours ago, DarkMoge said:

I am surprised that I can't find this topic anywhere on the forum dedicated to Tarot. Maybe, because I am new to this forum and did not know where to look. But because it is not present, I have decided to bring it up.

Let me explain what is my belief on this topic is. First of all, I believe a deck of Tarot to be a tool of occult work. And second, I believe that if someone is serious about their occult work, they should bless their tools. I both feel like dropping a sudden unnecessary long lecture. But I also want to know, is there anyone actually interested in it? By blessing, I mean a one time ritual that lasts several days.

 

I have never done "several days long" rituals to bless any deck. Then again, I never came across any that felt so "heavy" or so energetically weird that would require such a thing... and if I did, I'm not sure if I'd want to use it, lol!  

 

I have cleansed and sometimes done rituals for decks I bought used, but it was more about forming a new connection to them than anything else. For completely new decks, I don't see the need for complex rituals because they probably have not been handled before. I do like to breathe out on a deck and kiss it before using, as to infuse it with my own energy. 

 

Usually, I follow my feelings on this matter. If I feel a deck "needs" a cleansing or a ritual, I'll do it. If not, then I don't.

[Decan]

I never blessed a deck. What I could consider would be to cleanse energetically a second hand deck, but I bought one lately and didn't cleanse it (I closely looked at the condition of the cards though, but it's different).
But why not to bless a deck, or to cleanse and bless it; I don't think it's something for me but I can understand the initiative, depending on personal beliefs.

[DarkMoge]

12 hours ago, ironwing said:

I'd be interested in reading what you share here!

@ironwing, I have edited my original post with some information. Have a nice read and tell me if you find it useful.

[DarkMoge]

13 hours ago, Raggydoll said:

But it’s always interesting to hear about what others do and what they feel is essential to them. 

@Raggydoll, also, same message that I have edited original post.

12 hours ago, gregory said:

Given my collection, I'd be dead before I were done if I started now.

Yeah, you probably would be lol. Since its a pretty exhausting to bless, for a large collection, it would take a while.

[malvina]

I do cleanse my decks and set them under moonlight every full moon to “charge” them. I’ve never thought about blessing them, but I like the idea. I don’t think I would spend so much time and energy on this and make it a formal ceremony, but I was planning to bless and set intentions for all my altar tools anyway, so it might be a good opportunity to do the same with my decks. They’re my most frequently used tools, after all. I probably won’t cast a circle, but will use a blessing oil to anoint the boxes. Thanks for your ideas!

[katrinka]

1 hour ago, Decan said:

I never blessed a deck. What I could consider would be to cleanse energetically a second hand deck, but I bought one lately and didn't cleanse it (I closely looked at the condition of the cards though, but it's different).
But why not to bless a deck, or to cleanse and bless it; I don't think it's something for me but I can understand the initiative, depending on personal beliefs.

 

I don't know how common, or even factual this is, but I've been told that in Italy, some people will take a new Sibilla deck to seven churches to anoint it with holy water from each one. It does sound like something that some people would do there - their Catholicism can have some fascinating Strega echoes. But considering how mainstream the Vera Sibilla is there (Carrie Paris visited Italy and told me that you can pick up a deck at the supermarket checkouts there, much the way we can pick out a horoscope book or a tabloid magazine while waiting in line) I seriously doubt that most people do this. As for myself, if I want my Sibilla decks to work better the thing to do is invest more time in study and practice.

Study and practice is what make decks work. You can anoint them, do rituals over them, bury them and dig them up, pile herbs and crystals on them, dance around them naked under the full moon - that's your business, I don't care. (But please - STOP with the "smudging" https://www.themarysue.com/politics-of-white-sage/ ) You can dedicate them to Billiken. It's all OK. You can go full Crowley. You can allows yourself to be trolled by Crowley (who may still be snickering over that incident in one dimension or another. Uncle Al had a somewhat barbed sense of humor.)

You do you, Boo. I don't care.

But if you want your cards to work, learn them well.

 

[ironwing]

4 hours ago, DarkMoge said:

@ironwing, I have edited my original post with some information. Have a nice read and tell me if you find it useful.

Thank you. It was certainly an interesting read.

 

Not something I can apply to what I do now, but at least the information is up for anybody in the forum who's looking for something similar.

[DanielJUK]

I'm really conflicted on this subject because I've gone both ways on this. I know that some people really believe they are a special energetic object and when I was starting out I wrapped them in silk and new decks had a blessing under moon light at a altar, It was a ritual for me that made me feel better and protected. I remember I bought a deck on ebay that was 2nd hand and I was scared I would bring some bad energy into the house and blessed it. I've changed my view about decks now, I think they are just printed cardboard, the energy or whatever happens with divination comes from us, they are just the tool to help us with our intuition / subconscious. However maybe blessing them as a ritual helps us reading them, I cannot say 🙂

 

I don't really worry about energy and blessings with decks now but I do treat them respectfully as I value them as the hobby and interest in my life. I don't do a blessing now but I do set an intention. I get a new deck, shuffle it for a long time and ask that it connects with me and gives good readings when I use it. Something positive about how it will work for me. I think if I used a deck for magick or spell work or something in that area I would think about a protective blessing, something like that.

 

Thanks for sharing your blessing method @DarkMoge, do you do it as a protection intention or is it to make it read better for you or maybe for both reasons?

 

We all have different spiritualities and methods and so perhaps we do whatever makes a good reading and makes us feel happy and comfortable with the decks 😊

[DarkMoge]

12 minutes ago, DanielJUK said:

I'm really conflicted on this subject because I've gone both ways on this. I know that some people really believe they are a special energetic object and when I was starting out I wrapped them in silk and new decks had a blessing under moon light at a altar, It was a ritual for me that made me feel better and protected. I remember I bought a deck on ebay that was 2nd hand and I was scared I would bring some bad energy into the house and blessed it. I've changed my view about decks now, I think they are just printed cardboard, the energy or whatever happens with divination comes from us, they are just the tool to help us with our intuition / subconscious. However maybe blessing them as a ritual helps us reading them, I cannot say 🙂

 

I don't really worry about energy and blessings with decks now but I do treat them respectfully as I value them as the hobby and interest in my life. I don't do a blessing now but I do set an intention. I get a new deck, shuffle it for a long time and ask that it connects with me and gives good readings when I use it. Something positive about how it will work for me. I think if I used a deck for magick or spell work or something in that area I would think about a protective blessing, something like that.

 

Thanks for sharing your blessing method @DarkMoge, do you do it as a protection intention or is it to make it read better for you or maybe for both reasons?

 

We all have different spiritualities and methods and so perhaps we do whatever makes a good reading and makes us feel happy and comfortable with the decks 😊

@DanielJUK, well, first reason to do it is to separate it from just being a printed cardboard. I do agree with you that reading comes from us and the deck of card is a tool. All magic comes from the one who does it. Question is, how to make it better? Blessing a tool is like creating some sort of construction and tying it together with a physical object. I believe that one has a sort of like energy capacity that a person can hold at a time. Putting all that energy into a tool means that when you are going to use that tool, you reunite with the energy and can reach higher clarity. I believe that in an esoteric sense, you are making a tool. Words help to concentrate intention turning them into a construction.

I believe that making the spread itself is 90% of work if not more and interpretation is the remaining 10%. The process of becoming unconscious about in which order the cards are in the deck, shuffling it and while your physical body is shuffling the cards, your conscious and unconscious mind is drawing an image. In that sense, deck of Tarot is like a set of paints and a paint brush while you are an artist. The point of the blessing is to make those 90% of work more accurate and less energy taxing. I could do reading interpretation all day and night and not even feel tired, but actually drawing the image is tiring. You can still do that 90% of work fairly accurately, but the point is to make it better and easier.

I believe that always paying respect to your cards and doing things like kissing are sort of like charging methods, you can have success with that. The proper ceremony of blessing is to ensure that the energy takes the right form.

I hope that my explanation is not too messy, there are a lot of thoughts and opinions that I have on this topic. And let meow add a disclaimer in the end. This are my personal believes and I do not intend to cross someone else believes. If my thoughts and methods resonate with you, I hope that they have helped on your journey. Meow meow (^w^)/

[malvina]

31 minutes ago, DarkMoge said:

I believe that always paying respect to your cards and doing things like kissing are sort of like charging methods, you can have success with that.

I find this is true at least with my decks. I experimented with tapping or smacking them to “get rid of old energy,” but they responded with either days or weeks of nonsensical readings, as if they got a concussion. On the other hand, they seem to respond very well to gentle handling, politeness and gratitude. Even better if I tell them exactly what I need from them, what system or spread I’m using, etc. It might be the works of my own mind, but regardless of the cause, the result is always better if I don’t treat my cards as ordinary pieces of cardboard.

[euripides]

1 hour ago, malvina said:

 the result is always better if I don’t treat my cards as ordinary pieces of cardboard.

 

I tend to think the energy is in us rather than them - but the tools we use are part of us, in a way. I have a similar experience with music. Someone said to stop fighting the instrument - if you go into practice feeling like it's going to be a battle, it will be. So one day I got the cleaning kit out, provided some TLC, and then approached practice with respect and care and thinking, let's work on this together. The results were much better then, too.

 

[katrinka]

3 hours ago, DarkMoge said:

I believe that making the spread itself is 90% of work if not more and interpretation is the remaining 10%.

 

What?

[Sadewa]

I don't really bless my cards. Cards are important tools and I respect them, but I don't bless them, and they work just fine.

 

The original post, to which I honestly didn't know how to reply, speaks of blessing as a standard procedure for any serious occult work. I'd like to point out that some folks, myself included, don't really see card reading as occult work, since card reading in itself is more of a folk practice. It didn't really start with A.E Waite or the Golden Dawn. It isn't some grand rite commenced by legandary magus, it's scullery maids trying to see whether she would get paid for most of the time. 

 

I strongly disagree that in card readings making the spread takes up 90% or more of the work and the actual interpretation merely 10% or less. Even if I ever consult the cards on spiritual or *occult* matters, it would seem highly uneconomical if not pointless to me to make all that effort to make a fancy spread and then just get a sloppy interpretation. No, I'd rather know exactly the answer with complete What, Who, Where, When, Why and How.  And that kind of skill takes time and effort to cultivate, the process of which stays parallel if not irrelevant to theatrical rituals. One needs to know the core meanings of each card and the art of stringing the cards to weave a narrative in context. Simple as it may sound, I've seen many who struggle in this process (myself included), and candles and crystals most certainly didn't help.

 

It's absolutely your personal freedom to do whatever you want to pay respect to your cards according to your spiritual worldview. However, reading the cards means *reading* them, a skill that demands mastery of certain knowledge and techniques. 

 

 

 

 

[gregory]

10 hours ago, euripides said:

 

I tend to think the energy is in us rather than them - but the tools we use are part of us, in a way. I have a similar experience with music. Someone said to stop fighting the instrument - if you go into practice feeling like it's going to be a battle, it will be. So one day I got the cleaning kit out, provided some TLC, and then approached practice with respect and care and thinking, let's work on this together. The results were much better then, too.

 

Absolutely agree with this one.

 

7 hours ago, Sadewa said:

I don't really bless my cards. Cards are important tools and I respect them, but I don't bless them, and they work just fine.

 

The original post, to which I honestly didn't know how to reply, speaks of blessing as a standard procedure for any serious occult work. I'd like to point out that some folks, myself included, don't really see card reading as occult work, since card reading in itself is more of a folk practice. It didn't really start with A.E Waite or the Golden Dawn. It isn't some grand rite commenced by legendary magus, it's scullery maids trying to see whether she would get paid for most of the time. 

 

I strongly disagree that in card readings making the spread takes up 90% or more of the work and the actual interpretation merely 10% or less. Even if I ever consult the cards on spiritual or *occult* matters, it would seem highly uneconomical if not pointless to me to make all that effort to make a fancy spread and then just get a sloppy interpretation. No, I'd rather know exactly the answer with complete What, Who, Where, When, Why and How.  And that kind of skill takes time and effort to cultivate, the process of which stays parallel if not irrelevant to theatrical rituals. One needs to know the core meanings of each card and the art of stringing the cards to weave a narrative in context. Simple as it may sound, I've seen many who struggle in this process (myself included), and candles and crystals most certainly didn't help.

 

It's absolutely your personal freedom to do whatever you want to pay respect to your cards according to your spiritual worldview. However, reading the cards means *reading* them, a skill that demands mastery of certain knowledge and techniques. 

 

Also with this. Katrinka and Carrie are right about Italy - Sibillas are available in supermarkets - and tarot decks in France (I bought a really nice one in leclerc once, one I'd never seen before !)  I'm sure not all the people who buy them perform rituals over them; and I'm also sure many of them use them for divination. It doesn't have to be this huge occulty thing. I just - read my cards. Generally without a fancy spread, too, so that 90% is lost on me.

Edited October 6, 2021 by gregory

[stephanelli]

I just wanted to say thank you sharing your methods  @DarkMoge

It definitely isn't something I'll be doing, but it is interesting to see what other people do.

 

I think what each person feels is necessary when it comes to cards is your spirituality, whether you use them for magic or not and where you believe the energy comes from when you're reading.

 

For myself, I don't use my cards in any form of magic, they are purely for guidance, divination, creative inspiration and giving my brain a pictorial language at times when words won't work.  I don't deem any of these activities to be magic, so I don't bless my cards.

[Raggydoll]

Thanks for sharing your elaborate ritual! @DarkMoge

 

I use many ‘things’ to divine the future (and sometimes I don’t use anything at all - just my mind). I like to interpret patterns, omens and synchronicities. I’ll study birds and animals to notice signs. Does that make these animals my tools? That’s an abstract thought to me. I also don’t consider my cards to be mere tools. Like I said previously, I’m an animist. Cards are, like runes, made of wood. So I often feel like I’m both consulting wood-wisdom as well as connecting with ancestors (wood is special here in regards to ancestral work too). 

 

I don’t worry about my ‘tools’ not being able to tell the honest truth. I don’t view divination like that. It would be possible for me to be confused or unable to correctly interpret something but it’s not because of the method. I mean, it’s not like the ravens in the sky would want to spare me the truth of an upcoming storm. They are probably (and rightfully 😄) oblivious of me. 
 

I would also agree with the ones who think that the actual spread is not the most important thing. To me - Divination is interpretation. And unless it’s done right, it’s not divination. It’s speculation 😁 I do take the time to formulate a question and if needed, I’ll design a specific spread. But I can also just pull cards and lay out in a row.
 

A lot of the time, divination happens on the go. This is quite traditional and old school, I think. This makes me think of a past event where my family had lunch with my parents in law (they were also from the country side). During the lunch, my mom dropped her knife on the floor. My FIL immediately said “you know what that means, don’t you?” And mom said “Yes, we will have a male visitor”. I think that’s a very common and universal type of divination in the countryside. Some would call it superstition, but I’d say it’s very effective. (Yes we did have an unexpected male visitor later that day 😁). 
 

My granddad would just look within. He didn’t need tools. Not even for his magic, he used silent spells for that (he was a Blodstämmare = one who heals wounds through magical means). So the concept of altars and casting circles is quite foreign to me. To be honest, it sounds like so much work. And I don’t see why it would be needed in the first place. But I do realize that this is due to a difference in culture and spiritual beliefs, so I’m not saying that it’s wrong! 

 

[Marina]

@DarkMoge, thank you so much for sharing your ritual! I love learning about how other people do they magical/spiritual/occult work, and I enjoyed the description of your method! It's interesting you say that one should not "get into rhythm", because I have learnt that doing so is akin to get into a bit of a trance, and is actually beneficial to the ritual. Of course, it does not mean thinking about your grocery list while doing to ritual, but rather getting into a trance-like rhythm in which there's a slightly altered state of mind, but still connected to work being done. 

 

 

[euripides]

19 hours ago, Raggydoll said:

My granddad would just look within. He didn’t need tools. Not even for his magic, he used silent spells for that (he was a Blodstämmare = one who heals wounds through magical means). So the concept of altars and casting circles is quite foreign to me. To be honest, it sounds like so much work. And I don’t see why it would be needed in the first place. But I do realize that this is due to a difference in culture and spiritual beliefs, so I’m not saying that it’s wrong! 

 

 

I think it is very much cultural. There are quite a few traditions that involve a lot of ritual - as you know - and some of them are very specific and elaborate. I'm not really one for chanting, incantation and such myself, which rather puts me off joining any groups. But I know there have been times when I do rather envy the physicality of much pagan, Christian, and other rite and ritual; I remember watching someone coming into church, genuflecting and crossing themselves, and being really struck by how the movement of the body really brings them into the space and makes their attitude of observance very 'real'. 

 

I think when you've lost touch with old ways too, a written ritual can be helpful, so it's nice of DarkMoge to share this in detail. I'm sure those who are looking for an approach will find it a useful guide, even if they don't use all of it, it might be good for ideas. 

[Raggydoll]

32 minutes ago, euripides said:

 

I think when you've lost touch with old ways too, a written ritual can be helpful, so it's nice of DarkMoge to share this in detail. I'm sure those who are looking for an approach will find it a useful guide, even if they don't use all of it, it might be good for ideas. 

Very true!