Bursting some tarot myths..

 Hello lovlies and merry meet :)

I hope you all have a great day in this holiday season and may you have a peaceful time with your family and friends.

As a tarot reader you hear a lot of myths about tarot from a lot people. I want to burst some of these myths - Some of these have I heard myself and others I came across on the internet.

1. Tarot can "see" the future?
-well, no.. you can't see the future. There is some people who are more intuitive than others and use their gift.

2. Tarot can reveal someones feelings 
- Only if this was true... you can not see someone feelings in the cards.

3. The cards is powerful?
- No, the cards do not have powers at all. Tarot is only 78 cards of paper which happend to have pretty art on them. The beholder of the power is YOU. You have the power to do the changes in your life, the cards can't do that for you.

On the other side you can have powerful tarot reading through the messages - because you get messages that you need to hear.

4. You can only use a tarot deck that has been given to you?

-No, no, no this is an old folklore that says you can't buy you own decks. In these days, you can buy you own decks, you can borrow decks, you can gift a deck if you like :)

I can understand why myths like this comes from because way back in the day Tarot was very expensive and it for those with money and power who could afford tarot decks. I don't remember who said it, but when Visconti family had their Tarot deck made due to the marriage between Maria Visconti and Franscisco Szorfa, the tarot was given as a party gift. Price of a Tarot in those days was equal to a Ipad is today

5. Tarot is witch craft/it is magickal/devil's work?

-And again no.. there is people who say this to scare people and unfortunaly some of you are easily scared. Some witches uses tarot cards (not every one who reads tarot are witches!), Tarot decks is not magickal before the owner says it is (see question #3), and the devil is not real (in my opinion).

There are people who want you to believe that the church banned the Tarot because it is "evil".  The church was against alot of card plays and dices an all that good stuff because it was seen as gambling. Anything like this you can win money off was seen as a bad thing.

6. You have be a psychic to be tarot reader?

- No, everyone can learn how to read cards. It is all about remember the cards meaning. You don't have to be a spiritual person either. There are people wo are psychic readers and who are very intuitive. I am not a psychic reader.

7. You are doomed on what the cards says?

- No, We human have something called free will and nothing is set in stones. And you are arein charge og your own destiny. On every actions/choices we make throughout the day always have a consequence.. good or bad. If you come across a reader which gives you a reader and he/she tells you the reading is set in stone... Lose their respect and walk away. 

8. You have to wrap the cards in silk?
- It is YOUR deck(s) so you want with them, if you want wrap them up with silk, go ahead.. you can even have them in bags out of cloth if you like, nylon, wooden box or the box they came in... or you can store them like they is on the shelf.

9. You shall not give yourself a reading?

-Why not? When your are a beginner, you have to start somewhere.. it is natrual to start with youself.. daily draw and such. I know it can be difficult and it is easy to lay a new spread if you are not agreeing with the cards. It is easy to reshuffle till you find those cards which tells you what you want to hear.

10. There are only one way to read the card?

-If this was true it would be so simple to learn the cards. Another thing would be that it would be extremly boring if there was only one way to read the cards. It is like if you have been to one reader then you have to all readers...

11. You are the only one who can touch the cards?

- No. this is false. However there are readers who prefer that the client don't touch the cards.. You may have readers who want to include the client in this reading... then you may have the clients who don't want to be included by touching the cards.

12. Death means that someone is going to die?
- Most often this is not true.. Death means change, transformation, one door closes and another door opens.. very very rarly it mean someone is going to die.That has happend to me once in all of the years of tarot reading.

14. You have to do a ritual before you do a reading?
-no, You do what feel natrual to you, If you want to light some tea ligt, burn some inscense, use a tablecloth that Great grandmother used the she had the family over for sunder dinners.. You do what represent you.

15. Tarot is always right?

-I wish this was so true sometimes because it would mean that I would have been millionaire by now ;)

16. The age of tarot?
-Tarot has been rumored to be as old as the pyramids and connected to Egypt but there is no solid fact for that. This rumor seems to have begun along with the first mention of Tarot as a mystical tool by Antoine Court de Gebelin. De Gebelin was a French occultist who linked Tarot to ancient Egypt in his book published in 1781. Many other major influences in Tarot also followed de Gebelin. This included names like Eliphas Levi, Arthur Edward Waite and even Aleister Crowley. There simply is no factual basis to this thought. There is evidence of cards being used for divination as early as 1540 in a book called The Oracles of Francesco Marcolino da Forli. And Casanova noted in his infamous diary that his Russian mistress often did divination with a deck of playing cards.
What we do know is that the first deck can be traced to Italy in the 15th century. Between 1410 and 1430 in Milan, Ferrera or Bologna. This first deck was when an artist added trump cards, "carte de trionfi" or "triumph cards" featuring faces of the Visconti and Sforza families as a wedding gift. This answer is taken from tarot myths by Arwen Lynch and you can find the post here.

17. Pregnant women shall NOT have a reading

-False, but I do understand that might be a stressful setting while you are pregnant and the tarot reader should be concerned and so calm and relaxed as possible so the mother to be is not stressed, is the mother stressed so will the child.


18. Every reversed cards are negative?
- No, negative cards isn't always negative or positive cards isn't always positive - up right or reversed

19. You can not trust anyone who read tarot

-why not?

20. The cards are dangerous, you can "lose you marbles"
- I have heard this few years ago, but no. I was talking to someone and he told me that his sister (or sister-in-law) was to a tarot reader and she wasn't the same afterwards and she needed serious help by the proffesionals... I am so tempted to let the bitch in me come out and say that she had lost her marbles long before she visited a tarot reader.






Blessed be and merry see,

Susann

Pagan challenge week 7 - How do you view sacred text/mythology

Hello little faeries and merry meet :)

How are you doing and I hopee you are doing great. I also hope you have the chance to calm down and breathe in this time of Christmas/Yule.

This week question is how do I view sacred text/mythology... 
I had a hard time to answer this question and I was so close to not do this blog post, but I will do my best.

I see sacred text as information and I looking at it and maybe I can use this in my practice as a pagan..
At the moment I do read the bible, but as a non-Christian I read it with a open mind and I read it as a story.

I do have plans to read the Torah and maybe even the Koran... if I can find a Norwegian copy, if not at least an English copy.

When it comes to mythology I see it the same way as holy books, as information, I read it with a open mind and as a story.

When it comes to me and my book of shadows, BoS artbook or any book I use in my practice is not sacred before I say it is.

Blessed be and merry see,

Susann

12 and 13/31 - 31 Days of Tarot Blog - What is your go to Tarot Spread right now? Extra points for sharing it. Do you create or modify tarot spread?

Hello snow drops and merry meet,

How are you doing in these Christmas time? I hope you all are doing well, 

Today's question is what is my current tarot spread that I am using.
The today's question and tomorrow is so similar so I decided I would anwer them in one post :) 

I am trying to modify the first half of the The Celctic Cross and I am not quite done with it.. some trying and errors still... like it should be :)

I don't know if there is a spread like this, but I got the idea from the tv-Show "Witches from East End" when I saw one of the character did this spread.I thought it looked interesting.

I don't know other tarot readers do this as well, but I have a tendency to collect tarot spreads. Oooohhh, that look interesting... and in my bok it goes:) If I see a tarot spread on YouTube, internet or pinterest

The second question is do I create or modify tarot spread?
Usually I modify tarot spreads, but I sometime create a tarot spread. So yes, I do both:)



Blessed be and merry see :)

Susann

11/31 - 31 Days of Tarot Blog - What card did you pull the most in 2016, why do you think this is the case?

Hello snow bunnies and merry meet,

How are you doing? I hope you aredoing great in these hectic prep times :)

So, today's question is what card I pulled up the most in 2016.

I haven't had a spesific card pulled when I had read for others, but when I have giving myself readings it has been 8 of cups.
What the card say it is that you have to give up something that you strongly believed in.
This card have at least two sides and that is you must give up on something/someone before you can go and achieve bigger and better things, I don't see it as someone's fault, it just is. It can be that the friendship/relationship has come to an end and it can be one part has invested more feelings/energy than the other part. It is about: " hey, it was fun while it lasted, but this doesn't work anymore".










Blessed be and merry see,

Susann

So we light three candles tonight

Hello little faeries

How are all? I hope you are doing well on this last month of 2016
I want to share the third verse of Inger Hagerup's poem about advent

So we light a candle tonight, we light it for happiness.
It stands and shines for themselves and us who are present. 
so we light a candle tonight, we light it for happiness
 
So we light two candles tonight, two candles of hope and joy. 
They stand and shine for themselves and us who are present.
So we light two candles tonight, two candles of hope and joy.
 
So we light three candles in the evening of longing, hope and joy.
They stand and shine for themselves and us who are present.
So we light three candles in the evening of longing, hope and joy ..


blessed be and merry see

Susann

10/31 - 31 Days of Tarot - What is the card that you don’t want to see pop up in a Tarot Reading? Why?

Hello sun kittens,

How are you all doing? I hope you are doing great.

Today's question is: What is the card that you don’t want to see pop up in a Tarot Reading? Why?
For this I used Sharman-Caselli tarot deck and I see this in two ways.. What I end up with depend of course the the other cards that are around.

8 of Wands
In this cards you might se it to ways. In one way you are fighting your battle and whatever you do and however you protect yourself, you get a lot of shit in return and you are attacked from a lot of places.


In the other way you can see this as you are battling your "war" and you are not sure where you are attacked from so you shoots, but you are not looking where to aim. You shoot out a lot of stuff and hope for the best it sticks to someone or somewhere.



9 of Wands
In one way may see this cards and you have a wall that you are trying to break through. It can mean someone who put that wall up for keeping you out. You are trying to do what you can do to overcome your obstacles without success.

In the other way you can put up a wall to keep everyone out and that can be because you don't to show anyone your dirty laundry or you don't know how to to tear down the wall, you don't want to because it feel safe and you don't know other way.




7 of wands
In this card it can be that you are battling in many aspect of your life and you may not know what issue to deal with first. You don't always see where next battlig coming from and it may feel that you stump on fire as they comes up.

On the other hand it can mean that you have to handle to many projects and you may have taken water over your head. You have a hard to time to say no and you want to please everybody, so till the end you burn out yourself.






5 of Pentacles
It can be that you feel you are left out in the cold and your money don't strech till everything you need them to.

In the other hand others is pointing out what they think you may can afford to use money on or not. It can be a judgement call and push you further down.






Blessed be and merry see,

Susann

9/31 - 31 Days of Tarot Blog - Tell me about the time you gave your first Tarot reading? (That you can remember)

Hello snow faeries and merry meet,

How are you doing and  I hope you are doing great

My first tarot reading I did for myself and this was 15-18 years ago and it was a complete crash and burn lesson.

Here I am as a beginner with the tarot and my tarot book looking at the tarot spread in the back of the book.. I had a hard time with the tarot deck, felt I couldn't read the cards... and I was forcing myself and forcing the cards to work together...

Being the Capricorn that I am and ambition is a Capricorn's middle name, I thought 6 months spread is a great start. I have seen the same spread other places called the gypsy spread.
It is 7x3 cards spread = 21 cards. Let me say to this, to do this as a starter spread was a failure from the gekko.

I wish I had kept a tarot journal from that time, but I didn't thought that would be so important to keep one.
I gave up after awhile and put the cards away *kicking my own butt*
Thankfully I took to my senses few years back and began my tarot journey all over again :) I never looked back ;)

Blessed be and merry see ,

Susann

8/31 -31 Days of Tarot Blog - What would you say is your favorite Tarot Card right now (cause these things change) and why? Is it the artwork, the meaning or both?

Hello

How are you guys? I hope you are doing great in these hectic Christmas time :)

Today's question is: What would you say is your favorite Tarot Card right now (cause these things change) and why? Is it the artwork, the meaning or both?
Right now I love the Hermit card,

I have picked three different Hermit cards



The Hermit from Book of Shadows: So below
In this card you see a woman who take some time off with a bath. Every once and a while we need to take a time off from the world. And there are times we must be told to take time off. We all need charge out batteries and prioritze ourself.. it is not selfish to do so becauseif we don't have alone time or datenight with yourself you may "crash and burn" and my experience of life: No one will thank you when you are down and hurt. We must get away from the "good girl" or "good boy" impression. It din't serve us in the long run.




The Hermit from the Paulina tarot
This card you see a woman on her way together with her creatures. She is a solitary and you can see a clock in one of the creatures mouth and to me it means you need to take your time to heal and don't rush. If you rush it you may have a set back and the time to come back may take longer because you have to add the time from the previous set back.









The Hermit from the Sharman-Caselli tarot
I love this Hermit and I have named him Gandalf and he is on his way to be alone and seek knowledge, he is also a solitary by choice or unwillingly (?) He also have lamp with him so he can see where he is going, if he take a wrong step he may end up in the water.










Blessed be and merry see,

Susann

7/31 - 31 Days of Tarot Blog - What were the first three Tarot Spreads that you learnt.

Hello and merry meet,

How are you doing? I hope you are doing great,

Today's question my first three spread that I learned

Three Card Spread

If you are a beginner to tarot this is a very good spread to begin with because you don't feel overwhelmed and you will learn to know the cards and the whole deck.
The cards can be a three months spread - This month, next month, and third month
This spread can also change into a moon phase spread - Waxing moon, full moon and waning moon. You can make your own spin on it.

The Celtic Cross

Majority of the tarot beginners learn the Celtic Cross as the first big spread. It is not a easy spread to learn, so you need to take you time and not rush to learn it.
I sometimes have a problem to see the big picture in this spread and when that happend I just pack up, reshuffle and lay down a spread.. Sometimes I change the deck.




the Horseshoe spread

My third spread was the horseshoe and this is also a great beginner spread. You can add cards and you can change the meaning/questions to suit what you want to have a answer on/ what you need.

What is so beautiful with tarot is that you can change what don't works for you till what actually works for you.. You can change the set tarot spread or make up your own spread.



Blessed be and merry see,

Susann

6/31 - 31 Days of Tarot Blog - How long have you been reading the Tarot for? Do you feel you will ever stop?

Hello winter babies and merry meet :)

How are you doing and I hope you are doing well

Today's question is: How long have you been reading the Tarot for? Do you feel you will ever stop?

I have read tarot on and off for almost 20 years. Like I have said earlier I lost several cards in my first deck and I did't buy another for close to 10 years.
Reason for it was I thought I couldn't learn because I had a hard time learning and it was confusing and I didn't connect with the deck at all. I came across Anne Stoke's Gothic tarot by a accident online.. I ordered it and I was hooked again.. I ususally read for myself and close friends.

Now looking back.. I had been kicking myself for not buying a new tarot deck because I feel like I have lost a lot of time.

I will never stop reading tarot because I learn so much from myself and I want to expand it to read for other, but one step by step.. baby steps :)




Blessed be and merry see,

Susann

5/31 - 31 Days of Tarot Blog - What Tarot Decks are you looking forward to getting to know better in 2017?

Hello snowflakes,

How are you all doing? I hope you are doing well and you can breath during this time of year.

Today's question is: What Tarot Decks are you looking forward to getting to know better in 2017?

I think I want to to split the answer in two for this question. My first answer is there a tarot deck that I already have I want to get to know better? Yes, I want to know my Paulina deck better and I want to know Book of shadows: As Above better. On the other hand I want to get to know all of my decks a little better.

My other half of the answer if there are decks I want to buy and to get to know better?
There are a few I want to get: Cosmic tarot, Mystical cats, Illuminati tarot, Thoth tarot, Tarot of the Vampires - Just to name a few.









Blessed be and merry see,

Susann

Pagan challenge week 6 - What are your cultural inluences

Good morning little elves :)

How are you and I hope you are doing well. Prepping for Yule/Christmas/Hanukkah/kwanzaa? I wish you have a peaceful time in your celebration.

This week I want to write about who or what are my cultural influences.
I am a Norwegian and I feel a strong connection with the North Mythology.

There is some faily members who is digging in our family history.. Apperently Harald Hårfagre is my 42nd or 47th Great grandfather. Harald Hårfagre (Harald Fairhair) lived about 850-931
He was the first king of Norway (872-931) and he was the one who gathered Norway to one Kingdom.
I don't know if this is true or not, but think about it - The vikings was not the most faithful people - It is been said that Harald fairhair had 20+ kids with a heap of baby mamas..... that being said... who isn't related to a viking?

I seen a lot of YouTube videos on this and a lot of people who listed parents, grand parents and great grand parents. I must say I am glad to see people who know their family history and I am a bit sad because I don't know my history... One reason is that my mom was from Hardanger and my dad was from Sunndal and they lived here in Kristiansund, So I am 1st generation in this town. I only met my mom side of the family only three weeks in the summers and I met my dad's side more often and have better contact them. So I  have no idea who I look like, where I have my personality from, where does my interests comes from and why is that? is there any pagans in my family?
That is why I "forced"my son on to my parents... I wanted him to have memories of them when they wasn't around anymore.

When it comes to my family I know the basics like who is/was married to whom and their family. I do know my aunts and uncles, but in the same time I don't know them at all if you know what I mean. I just know them on the surface and it is a bit sad. My family history is a bit complex (on my part) and I won't explain further than this.


Blessed be

Susann

4/31 - 31 Days of Tarot Blog - What would be your favorite tarot deck if you had to pick? Three favs for those of us who have a Tarot Deck addiction problem.

Hello moon puppies and merry meet,

How are you in these days and I hope you are doing great

Todays's question is: What would be your favorite tarot deck if you had to pick? Three favs for those of us who have a Tarot Deck addiction problem.


I have a hard time to choose a top deck and even top 3 because my favourites changes seasonly and even monthly, but these tarot decks are my favorite right now.

Cat's Eye Tarot by Debra M. Givin, DVM is a great tarot deck if you are a beginner or seasoned tarot reader. I am a cat lover as well so this was a natrual deck to get. It reads very well.
I can se our cat in these cards and how he behaves :)







 Book of shadows: So below by Barbara Moore is a favorite of mine
What she did here was put people in daily situation according to the cards in tarot. I loved it. The deck is modern and it read very well. I can recommend this to a beginner... I can recommend all of these to a beginner

You can not have tarot deck collection without having a DoreenVirtue deck in there, in my opinion. I have the Angels tarot deck she did with Radleigh Valentine. What I love about this deck it is more positive and it has a saying at the bottom of the card.






Blessed be and merry see,

Susann

So we light two candles tonight

Hello lollipops and merry meet:)
How are all? I hope you are doing well on this last month of 2016
I want to share the secong verse of Inger Hagerup's poem about advent

So we light a candle tonight, we light it for happiness.
It stands and shines for themselves and us who are present.
so we light a candle tonight, we light it for happiness

So we light two candles tonight, two candles of hope and joy.
They stand and shine for themselves and us who are present.
So we light two candles tonight, two candles of hope and joy.


Blessed be and merry see

Susann

3/31 - 31 Days of Tarot Blog - Are you a Tarot deck collector, hoarder or exclusive betty? How do you use these decks in your readings? Multiple decks in one reading or just one all the way? Does it aid your practice?

Hello little bloom faeries and merry meet😊

How are you guys? I hope you are doing well 😀

Today is the question:  Are you a Tarot deck collector, hoarder or exclusive betty? How do you use these decks in your readings? Multiple decks in one reading or just one all the way? Does it aid your practice? 

Am I tarot collector or a hoarder exclusive betty? well it depends who you are asking. I am collector, but I don't buy them in sake of buying them.. I buy tarot decks I know I will work and connect with.
My husband on the other hand will tell you that I am a hoarder of tarot decks...

Today I have 18 Tarot decks and 7 Oracle decks and counting 🙌I have a long tarot list I want to buy in 2017.

There are one teeny tiny store that sells tarot decks, but she sells just Doreen Virtue tarot/oracle decks... Nothing wrong with these decks, I have Doreen Virtue deck in my collection and I love them, but I want more decks to choose from. Therefor when I order decks online, it is not easy to know if I will connect with a deck or not.. I only had two decks so far that I don't connect with: Dark Grimoire tarot deck and Dog's tarot deck (this has only 30 cards so I concider this as a oracle deck)

When I use smaller spreads, like three cards spread, I use only one deck and if I use bigger spreads, 8+cards, I may use two or three decks and even oracle cards. The reason for using more decks is when I want to get a better picture of the situation and more clarity.
Yes, it aid me in my reading, You can get alot of answer from the tarot decks, you can reveal things you didn't know or didn't think of.


Blessed be and merry see,

Susann

2/31 - 31 Days of Tarot Blog - What was your first Tarot deck? Was it a gift or did you buy it for yourself? Do you still have it?

Hello Christmas faeries and merry meet,

How are you all doing and I hope you are doing well

Todays question is: What was your first Tarot deck? Was it a gift or did you buy it for yourself? Do you still have it?

- I bought my first deck when I was early in my twenties, I bought a tarot book by Jane Lyle and it came with a no brand tarot deck, but it was a classic RWS system.
I remember that I thought I can't learn tarot because I have a hard time to remember the meaning of the cards. The reason was that I didn't connect with the deck at all.

As the years went by I lost a card and a another and another...When I had lost about 8-10 cards I thought fuck it, so I started to use my tarot cards as bookmarks, I put them in my filofax and so on.



Blessed be and merry see,

Susann

1/31 - The 31 days of tarot blog - What was your first introduction to tarot that made an impact?

Hello tarot tribe and merry meet :)

How are you all doing ? I hope you are doing well.
I came across this challenge earlier today on Ethonys blog and I wanted to do this in December, You will find it here if you want to participate in this. I thought this can be a short ansd sweet break in these Christmas/Yule time.

So, the first question are: What was your first introduction to tarot that made an impact?

I have told this story before, but when I was a young girl a cousin of mine had a friend who had visited a tarot reader and I don't know the reading was, but I was told that the tarot reader said to this man at the end: you will not see your 25th birthday. 

This man died in a car crash on this 25th birthday. I remember that I thought: wow, how exciting... (I felt bad about the man who lost his life), can she see that from the cards? What else can she see? I want to learn to do that.



Blessed be and merry see,

Susann

New Moon spread for 29th of November 2016

Hello moon childs and merry meet,

How are you and I hope you are doing great while we entering the last month of 2016.
I want to give you a new moon tarot spreead for December and I use Tarot Lenormand and it is refers to Marie Anne Lenormand.
Like the other reading I have done so take what resonate with you and leave the rest :)

This is not the best time of your life right now, you may experience some sort of loss where you are blaming yourself. Can it be loss of a loved one, a friendship? You feel it is difficult to move on and you have put youself in a mental prison where you think that you don't deserve to move on to happiness.


You need to leave behind the thing you can not change and that gives you a great opportunity to work on what you can change. If you know the reason for thing working for you? Was it really your fault or do you think you could do things differently? There always two sides to every story. And a question can be do you want to try to fix it or are you better off to leave it alone? Don't worry because you will land on your feet, the fog that was confusing you will go away and will grow from and you will learn from it.

Your intensions you need set to grow is to prioritize your life and starts with baby steps + give it time. If you are rushing too fast you may have to go back, do changes and mabe not learning a important lessons.
You may not see the finish result in the beginning, but that is ok because for every baby steps you take the closer you are the main goal. The first step can be the hardest and it will go easier for every step you take. The most important for you to do now is to be moving, it may not be fast, but at least you are moving

You may feel discouraged, but it is the perfect time for you to go inwards because you are the one who knows what actions you need to take resolve the issues.Are you true to your feelings? You must start to help yourself and not every one else. You need to be a star in your one life. You need to ask youself if this is important to me? If not, you need to leave it behind.

This moon phase it is a good time to see achievements and feel good about them, material and emotional achievements. This is a good time to let go of jealousy and mood swings and unrealistic goals or expections. Take actions right away you see it, cut them in the bud and you are better off.


Blessed be and merry see :)

Susann

Pagan challenge week 5 - what does this time of year means to you

Hello my lovely ones and merry meet :)

This week question in the PaganChallenge is What does time of year mean to you - What does Yule means to you?

So, this time for me means that I can calm down.. go into a semi hibernation if you like :) Like nature goes into a hibernation state in the autumn and stays there till the spring.
it is time to relax and recharge your batteries for the new year and reflect on the year that is almost behind us and think about the year is upon us and slowly plan out the new year.
December is also a special month for me and it is because it is my Birthday month :)

Advent is a Christian time, but for me it is a peaceful, soulful, thoughtful and a wonderful time. If it snowing it is a bonus:) In the these weeks before Yule I meditate a lot, I see alot of movies, I drink homemade mulled wine (not a diabetic best friend - but still). I spend these weeks on friends & family, me-time.

Like I have talked about in a previous post this is my first sabbath and I am somewhere in between Yule and Christmas. Although I don't believe in God I do find alot beautiful things in the Bible and Christianity. My husband and I was talking about the ten commandments the other day and how they hasn't nothing to do the Christianity, but it has all to do with way of life.. Let me sum up the ten commandments in two words: common sense.

Ok, I went off topic for a while, I am going to do few changes this year, it still going to be a mash of pagan and christian stuff, but I will not go bananas this year like the previous years.

Yesterday, it was the 1st sunday of advent and usually it is when I go into my semi hibernation and I am going to try something new this year and that is to really relax and I got this idea from RhomayRealm on YouTube and she had said that she take a month off and she also said turn off all notifications, so you have to send her a text or give her call. I was thinking that is a great idea, I will try this for the month of December ;)



Blessed be and merry see

Susann

we light a candle tonight

Hello little elves and merry meet :)

How are you all doing and I hope you are doing well. I hope you all have a peaceful time before yule/Christmas/Hanukka/Kwanzaa

I want to share a poem of Inger Hagerupand she was a Norwegian author, playwright and poet. She is considered one of the greatest Norwegian poets of the 20th century.
 She wrote a poem about advent, but I think this poem is so beautiful. It is four verses I will share them on each sunday before Yule :)



So we light a candle tonight, we light it for happiness.
It stands and shines for themselves and us who are present.
so we light a candle tonight, we light it for happiness.

Blessed be and merry see

Susann

Pagan Challenge week 4 - Your take on wheel of the year

Hello and merry meet,
How are you and I hope you are doing fine as we are heading towards December and yule/Christmas

This week question is my take on the wheel of the year and my take on it.

I always noticed the change of the seasons and I have always celebrated the christian holidays - I still do that, but I changed the names back to the pagan names.

I am a Norwegian pagan and what I can gather we celebrated summer solstice that isn't a christian  holiday.

Yule is my first sabbath and I am a bit iffy... Let me explain, I am the only pagan in my family and yule is 20th to 23rd of December and rest of the family celebrate Christmas and it is from 23rd till 27th of Christmas... On the other hand I am like "woohoo - extra celebration days" *fist bump*

When I came out of broom closet to my husband I said he wouldn't notice a whole lot of difference, better food at the sabbaths, the house will be decorated seasonly and honouring to the sabbaths. When it comes to my blessings, meditations, rituals and all the good stuff he will not see that - a) He don't want to see that (he is a christian, but he is very ok with me being a pagan ;) ) b) I don't let him see my rituals because it is very personal to me unless he is genuin interesting to learn more about paganism that he already knows.

I think I leave it here so far and I will come back when I come to each sabbaths :)

Blessed be and merry see

Susann

Pagan challenge week 3 - Do you have an altar or sacred place

Hello lovely people and merry meet

How are you and I hope you are well.

I was debating with myself if I should do this week question or not because this is personal to me. So I decided to do it, but I won't be included any photos.
This week is about altars and sacred places. I have a main altar in my bedroom and I have shelf in the bookcase in my livingroom that is my altar,

What is an altar? I believe it depends who you are asking... a Christian would say an altar is any structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes, and by extension the 'Holy table' of post-reformation Anglican churches.<------ according to wikipedia.
If you ask a pagan majority may say they have an altar because they want to honour the God and Goddess, honouring the wheel of the year, the elements and all the good stuff :)

My altar contains all the things that is important to me like my Buddha, lights that represent the elements, angels, I also have a stuffed "teddy" that my husband bought me when we visited Prague in 2014. Since I grew up with this show when I was a kid, I thought it was so sweet of him :)

Every once and a while my budgies will give me their long wing/tail feathers. I save them at my altar.
I also use my Osho Tarot as card of the day, I burn scent sticks.

I always had an altar, from I was a little girl without knowing it was an altar. Let me ask you - What is an altar to you? What does it mean to to you? How would it look like? What would you put on it?
Like I said I am putting things that are important to me. The reason I ask is because my mom used to put out things that was important to her, it could be things she bought, birtday presents or it could be the mutant shaped clay ashtray we used to make in the 1st - 3rd grade at school. Would you concider that as an altar? I would say yes.

I will end this blog when my husband found my altar :)  
I was talking to my husband and he asked where I wanted this item (i don't remember what it was) and I replied just put it on my altar for now and he looked at me so surprised. Do you have an altar? Where? Since when? I had a giggle and I showed him. Is that an altar? How about that... My husband and I have been together for five years and he haven't noticed it. I explained it to him I always had a altar of some sort without knowing it was an altar. Then he says: hmmm, funny age :) When I try to explain to him my latest project and/or interest and he doesn't "care" about or don't understand. he goes: hmmm, funny age (not in a mean way:) )


Blessed be,

Susann

Review of the Fairy Tales by Lisa Hunt and Arwen Lynch

Hello lovely ones,

How is everone? I hope you are doing great this Thursday/Friday.

I got some happy mail this week and I got Fairy Tale Lenormand by Lisa Hunt and Arwen Lynch.
 

The Lenormand comes in a super cute tin box and it will be great if I bring the cards with me without be worring if the box will hold up. Tin boxes is always a big plus. At home I don't keep the Tarot decks in their boxes, but in pouches :)

It also comes with the little white book :) But this is way better than many little books out there. This booklet has 125-ish pages with information.
The foreword is written by Donnaleigh de LaRose who is a international tarot & Oracle teacher.
With each card you get keywords + where you find the card in the playing cards. And you get a little history with each cards. In the back you will you will have 4 example spreads.

The back of these cards are beautiful and the colours is a bit off because of the light and the camera. The cards is a bit thin, but not it is not too floppy. on the other side it is very bendable.
I would prefer it was slightly thicker, hey ...it is just me :)
The color of the borders are the same on both sides..thankfully. I must say the eye have been on the details.
If you prefer smaller cards, these cards are perferct

The art is paintings and it is so beautiful.These cards are so detailed, but yet it is not to busy. The message in this deck really come through.
It can be difficult not to go into the tarot trap. In Lenormand is the message short and precise while in tarot you can go on and on and on for minutes. Another plus is that these cards is not collaged by a computer like many cards out there.

 

 A wonderful surprise as that L.Hunt did was to put in two extra cards, an extra man an extra woman.
I have missing this for my other Lenormand cards because I have given questions if there are another man/woman in their relationship. I think this gives more accurate reading.







I haven't worked with yet, but I can't wait till I do. I am doing a weekly series soon so I will be working with these and other oracle cards.



Blessed be

Susann
 

Pagan challenge week 2 - Are you in or out of the broom closet

Hello pips

How are you doing today, I hope you are doing well. It is this time for a blogpost about pagan challenge again. This week's question is: Am I in or out of broom closet? Well, I am out now haha :)

This is a difficult question to answer because no matter where you are in the public realm you may end up explaining, defending, debating, justify or talk about my path of pagan. Everyone thinks they have the right to say something about this, but like I say: if you don't sleep in my bed, live in my house or paying my bills you don't have a saying in my life at all!
As a human being we wear a lot masks when are out in the public realm and we are not always aware of it, but we do and sometime there are not appropriate to flaunt your rocking pagan/wiccan attitude:) So we have to use our antennas regardless religious/human skills and all that good stuff :)

Let me do this short and sweet: I am a pagan and deal with it, enough said :)

Pagan Challenge week 1 - How did I find my path

hello,

Happy Samhain/All Hollows Eve/ Halloween everybody. We can soon say goodbye to October say hello to November.

I know I am very late to the party... again :) I want to participate in the Pagan Challenge, It is really an YouTube challenge, but I want to do my take on it through my blog :)
This YouTube challenge was started by Annika AKA The Sea Priestess on YouTube and you can find her vlog here

So week 1 is: How did you find your path?

I can't pinpoint something and say that this when I was find my path. From a young age I always had a feeling of not fitting in and I was always searching for something without knowing what I was searching for. I think it alwys have been a lifelong process.
I was brought up in a non religious household. We went to church only when it was a wedding, confirmation, baptism, funerals and such.. So we didn't go to church all that often ;)

When I think back I always had an altar without knowing it an altar. I had candles and things that was important to me. I used to bring back home things I found on my walks, like seashells, funny shaped rocks, I pressed flowers into my diaries, pine cones at fall. Picking snowdrop flowers soon as they popped up in the spring. One thing I noticed when I saw one of the Mandy See's videos and she was talking about that when you are young and blowing out the birthday candles while making a wish.. you are doing a fire spell - I thought that make sense. It is a lot of these small things we do that we connect to witchcraft.

I did have christianity lessons at school, but I never felt like it is right thing for me although there was/and still is elements that make sense to me. These elements are not enough for me that I say that I'm a Christian.
I am NOT bashing Christianity or any other religion because I pick and choose from all religions that I like and leave the things that doesn't work for me.

I have always find the subject witches, spells, blessing, altar and the elements and all in the between very interesting. As the time goes by this subjects hits the TV like Sabrina, charmed, Merlin, Witches of the East End just to name some few shows.

When the internet came along it became easier to find information, you could find other people that same views as you + you could learn from each other
In my case I don't know any other people in my town that are Pagan/wicca/witches.. I wish it were (I bet are some, but I don't know them and don't where to find them - We blend in so perfectly :) )

This was my answer for Pagan challenge week 1 and I wish you a wonderful All Hollows Eve

Blessed be,

Susann

Christian Cash Cow

Hello lovely souls :)

How are you doing tonight? I hope you are doing well. I felt I have to speak out about christianity cash cows.
This blog post may be all over the place, but I wanted to get this out of my chest.

First of all I want to give you a DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT BASHING CHRISTIANITY!!!!!! 
I am not bashing christianity as a faith/belief becuse I think that Christianity is a great faith (although it is not for me) but I question those people behind the scenes and make money out of christianity. 
I have seen few of these documetaries and all I write here is my opinions and my opinions alone, what I have seen and what I have been experienced.

Today I saw a documentary about Jan Hanvold and his work at Visjon-Norge (Vision-Norway) - What kind of work they do to make this work. I am not bashing Jan Hanvold as a person, but since he has been in the news for the last few days I am going to take him as a example.
I want to say that I haven't met Jan Hanvold and he seems a like a nice guy, but I am not agreeing with his point of views.

One of his quotes is: Money is a sign of success. God wants us to have success -
The statement right there goes against what religion stands for. For me the church represents themselves as greedy which happends to be one of the 7 deadly sins...isn't that ironic?
One of the reasons I am reacting to this is because they using religion as cash cow and your belief has a price tag. They are using fear to get money from you and they don't care about you because you are their cash cows.
I believe it is wrong to connect money with religion, I don't want any one say to me, give us money and you will be saved and come to heaven. But it is not only once, they always comes back for more money.

Every night they they are on tv and say need more volunteers to pay a fee that he calls a seed and when he/them shares spiritual truths with you are you according to the bible guilty to serve them the reasonable amount.
So here you are given them money because you need with a problem/situation and you have faith and waiting a miracle to happend. When nothing happends you get sad because you had high hopes and they turns to you, saying it is your own fault when it didn't happend and say that you didn't paid enough or you didn't had enough faith <----- This statement wasn't said in the show, but I have heard that in general debates, TVshows and discussions.

 There was also a statement in there I reacted on and that is a  woman who said some one had stand up and tell the truth.. She was ranting on about gay marriages, kids who wanted to change sex (I am NOT debating that because it is not place to do so), but the last thing she said was:It is said that Islam is regarded as the religion of peace, but anyone who pay attention knows that if you read a bit too much in the Koran and adopt those values will not be peaceful and end up as fundalmentalists. I took that if you read the Koran you will end up as exstremist. Some has done that and others will do that, BUT first we must sweap in front of our own door because we have few knucleheads in our own pile (I guess there is a rotten apple in every religion).

In this documentary there was a lady who one of the givers to the church (jan Hanvold called it partners) was telling us that she was one of the elderly in this country who felt lonely after her huband passed away after 58 years of marriage and Visjon-Norge saved her. Without them the life isn't worth living although she has her children.
They also interviewed  a lady who is a former "partner" and she was speaking about she started to feel sad after a while because she gave them money and was told to touch the tv screen and big things will happend and nothing. If she wanted to see other TV shows she felt bad because it was/is concidered to be a bad thing.

The way I see it they play it on your conscience and exploit your self esteem to get money from you is so wrong in so many levels, 
 I am going now because if I start to repeat myself it will get boring real quick


I want to end this blogpost with a video by Jessie J with Price tag

30 questions Halloween tag

Hello

I wanted to try something fun today and that is 30 questions Halloween tag that Kelly Bear started and you you can find her vlog here

1. Favourite horror or Halloween-themed song?
- That has to be Tim Curry's Sweet Transvestite from The Rocky Horror Picture Show

2. Name something you wouldn’t want to run into in a dark forest or in an abandoned building.
-Why Would I be in an abandoned building or a dark forrest in the first place

3. Have you ever played with a Ouija Board?
 - No, I haven't. Tempted though.

4. Favourite horror monster or villain?
 - I don't watch monster movies, not because I scared, but I dream about it at night - I like the Gremlins :) And as the villain is the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood

5. The creepiest thing that’s ever happened while you were alone?
- Lot of things happend when I was alone, but one time I was home alone (I was 15/16 and still living with my parents) and just gone to bed and I was reading a magazine when I suddenly heard footsteps on the second floor. It was those kind of footsteps with a senior would have with slippers on. Mom didn't believed me (but I think she did), but many years later I told my dad about this and asked me:" don't you know who it was"? I said no. Then he said:" that was your brothers father".

6. If you were dared to spend the night in a “haunted house”, would you do it?
- Sure, I am a sceptical so I would stay the the night so I could say: I told you so if nothing happend :)

7. Are you superstitious?
-No, I am not :)

8. Do you ever see figures in your peripheral vision?
-yes, I often see something in my peripheral vision but soon as I turn my head it is gone

9. Which urban legend scares you the most?
- no one really.

10. Do you prefer gore or thrillers?
-Thrillers, I don't like gore.

11. Do you believe in multiple dimensions or worlds?
- Yes I do. I don't think we are the only living creatures in these universe and I do belive in a life after this one.

12. Ever made a potion of any sort?
- no, but I planning to make some :)

13. Do you get scared easily?
- Depends, but mostly yes

14. Have you ever played Bloody Mary?
 - no, I haven't

15. Do you believe in demons/the devil?
- no, not in the tradtional sense

16. You’re home alone but you hear footsteps in your house, what do you do?
- I would take my sons baseball bat and hunt the sucker down :) + I have my personal body guard, Nico who would bark like hell :)


17. If you got trapped in one scary movie, which would you choose?
- The Rocky horror picture show

18. If you could only wear one halloween costume for the rest of your life, what would you be?
 - We don't celebrate Halloween in Norway even few kids try to do so. We don't have this tradition.

19. would you ever go to a graveyard at night?
 - I have done that, It wasn't at night, but it was dark.

20. In a zombie apocalypse what is your weapon of choice?
- Light saber from Star Wars
 
21. Would you rather go to a Halloween party or go trick or treating?
-Halloween Party

22. You’re in a horror movie. Are you the final girl, the first to die, the comic relief, the skeptic, the smart
one, or the killer?
-the sceptic with the sassy answers/Comments

23. Do you have to watch something happy after watching a horror movie so you can go to sleep?
- No, But I want my husband hold till I fall asleep :)

24. Whilst watching scary movies, are you the person who yells at the characters, the person with their eyes covered the whole time, or the person who falls asleep?
 - Depend on the movie

25. Are you the one who gets scared, or the one who does the scaring?
 - both

26. Favorite scary book?
 - Any book of Stephen King

27. How old were you when you saw your first horror movie?
 - Ghostbusters, First time I saw Michael Jackson's Thriller it freaked me out (I was 7 at the time)

28. What was your first Halloween costume?
 - Haven't had one yet

29. What are you going to be for Halloween this year?
 - not likely no one

30. If you could have a spooky halloween pet (black cat, owl, bat, rat, wolf), what would you pick?
- cats and wolf :)

This is my answers and have a great weekend,

Blessed be :)

Susann

Weekly Tarot Cards for 29th of August - 4th of September 2016

Hello lovlies, 

I hope you are well and ready for this week and we are heading into a new month on Wednesday + it is a full moon on Wednesday as well.

This is just a general reading and it might not apply for all of you, take what speaks to you and forget the rest.

I am using Nicoletta Ceccoli Tarot for the main reading and I am using Doreen Virtue Healing with the Faeries for the oracle card for this week.

 The main energy for this week is celebration of some sort, maybe you got some good news, end of troubled times, new job or you have taken few steps in the right direction on what makes you happy. This week is time to celebrate.

You are independed person and you like to do things your way. Organizing is you middle name and when you set a plan you do do pretty much anything to make it work. Planning and organizing is half of the work and it is important to do it right the first time. You got this to your finger tips :)

What might hinder you this week is that you are so busy with your different projects so you forget to relax and take a timeout.

Remember that that no one will thank you when you are down. Take care of yourself and don't aplogize for taking "me time"

This week main theme is "peace of mind" and it means that you must remember to take some time off and just breathe. What do you for relaxing? Yoga? Meditations? Sit down and watch your favorite movie/series and drink of your choice. Play in the park with your family/dogs. Put your feet up and block out the rest of the world. Spend time with family, pets, friends or just alone. Take a clean out of your mind every once and a while can be a good idea. Is this important to me? Do I need this in my life? Does it concern me at all? It can be hard to let things go, but try your best because it it takes so much unneccesary space that should be for good memories that you make together with those who are important to you.

 I wish you all a good week and I wish you joy and happiness.

Blessed be

Susann

BR to 10 Question a tarot reader "must" answer!

Hello beautiful people,

I hope you are doing well this mid-week :) We are close to go over to a next month and the autumn is here (spring in the southern hemisphere).
I saw a video by Ethony from youtube and she vloged about "10 questions a tarot reader must answer" and you can find her vlog here. I believe it was a blogpost by Left Hand Tarot and you can find it here. 


I find this interesting so I wanted to participate in this so here are my answers :)

1. Were you mentored, or were you self-taught?
- I am 100% self-taught; I bought my first deck early in my 20's. Before I had access to the internet, I had one book as reference - It was a plain no brand tarot deck and it were close to a Raider Waite deck. I didn't connect with it at all. Put it away and didn't touch a tarot for 10-15 years only because of one single reason: I thought that as long I didn’t learn much of this deck I couldn't learn tarot at all. I bought a new tarot deck November 2015 and it "exploded" - I went wow...From November 2015 to today, 24th August 2016, I have 15 tarot decks, 4 oracle decks and two homemade runes set :) Mama went a little bit nuts about tarot :) hahaha

I would love to have a mentor who can guide me. I sometime feel like I am a itsy bitsy lost, when I am getting close to something woo-woo I can't grab it ;)   

2. Are you a psychic or a Tarot reader?
- I am NOT a psychic like a medium, but I am someone who can read tarot with a strong gut feeling :)

3. Are your predictions accurate, and is accuracy important to you?
- My predictions are pretty accurate - some times they are spot on and other time they are way off. I believe that if they are not accurate right away, they can come through later.. Let’s say within a week, months of a year. Like I say to clients keep it mind that can happened. Like Ethony was talking about in the video, nobody is 100% accurate all the time in any profession..

4. Is there anything you can't predict in a reading?
Well, the cards can give a lot of answers, but there are few things I will not reveal for the client. If the spread is very, very dark and the outcome is not good, I will reshuffle and lay a new spread. The reason for that is I want to inspire people to take action in their lives.
Side note: The first time I heard the word tarot reader, I was a little girl - about 10-12 years old, my cousin lost one her friend in a car accident. This friend went to a tarot reader and he was told he will not see his 25th Birthday... and he died on his 25th Birthday. My first question that popped up in my head was why did tarot reader reveal this to the client? 

5. Do you use only Tarot, or are you multi-disciplinary?
- I use Runes, Lenormand, Oracle decks, pendulums, crystals or what the Mother Nature can give me. Next project is astrology, numerology, Reiki, My filosophy is that I want to know a little of everything instead of know everything of one topic.

6. Is the message in the cards, or in your head?
-  Both, the way I read cards I get an overlook over the cards and my intuition takes over.

7. Are you a priest or a fortune-teller?
- I have been on my Pagan/Wicca path for a little while, but I haven't taken the step 100% till now. Up till now I have been reading about it, some studying and watched TONS of YouTube videos and documentaries.

8. Are you a fixer or a looker?
-  I am a looker, I believe it is not my job to "fix" the client; the client is the star of their life so he/she must change whatever it is wrong in their life. All I can do is tell what the cards say and maybe tell those few options on what can be done and few options what will not happened if they don't change their life. We have free will and nothing is set in stone.

9. Do you read for free, or for fee?
- If I offer a reading it is for free (very close friends and family), but someone approach me for a reading I do it for a fee.

10. Is there anything you won't do in a reading?
- I believe this question is connected along the question 4. There a lot of thing I won't predict or do for a reading, I won't participate in hexing, vendettas, drama, I don't talk to the dead, answer the question when/how will I die, will I be rich and famous and so on and so on. I won't do reading for persons under the age of 18; I don't answer specific questions about health, finance or law because I am not a doctor, accountant or a lawyer.

New moon spread - 2nd of August 2016

  Hello lovlies, 

How are you guys, and I can't believe it is August already and the fall is almost here although we still have few sunny days before autumn storms comes :) All of the seasons has its charm, but my favorite is the fall. Nothing better to hear the storm outside with a good fire in the fireplace, candlelights and maybe you have a good cup of tea/coffe - or drink of your choice next to you.But hey let us enjoy late summer/early fall so far :)

I bring you the new moon reading today and the cards I use is the Book of shadows - So Below by Barbara Moore and the artwork is done by Sabrina Ariganello and Alessia Pastorello (copyrighted by Lo Scarabeo)

 

It is time to prioritze yourself! What do I want to do with my life? Where do I want to go? What is the right thing for me right now? You are not selfish if you think of yourself - Maybe it is time for you to start to think of yourself. Have you danced to other people's flute far too long? No one will thank you when you are gone anyway. Please remember that the most important person in your life is youself. Selfishness can also be a good thing! 

If you rather sink into the bath tub with candlelights, drink of your choice and a real good book than help friend of a friend that you haven't met because you are the only one that can  help? Don't feel bad if you would like to have quality time with yourself. Make yourself the star of your life.

 What you can do to get out of this funk? You have the tools and knowledge to do something about it - the question is: do you dare? I know it is more comfortable to stay in the situastion you are in because it is safe and this is what you know. You need to focus on what it is you want/need. It also might be fustrating on what to do first because it seems to be alot of work. Take the situation you are in and take it apart like an onion - layer by layer - ask yourself on each layer: do I want this in my life? Is this important to me? Does it serve me any good?

You might feel that there is few obsticles/clutter in the way. You have to let out some of the old that something new can come in. I can be you have found your dream job, but that means you have to leave your old job and move to another town/even another country... Are you willing to do these sacrifices? Are you in a realtionship with a person that gives you nothing - Are you in this relationship beacause you are afraid to hurt that other person, you are afraid to be on your own or you feel you owe the other person that? 

Like I said you need to be the star in your own life - you need and most defently deserve to be happy - for you to do so you need to stop to dancing after other people's flute.

If you have a friend that you feel it is a chore to to keep in touch and the friendship doesn't give you anything anymore - do the grown up way and say we have grown of apart and this friendship don't give us what we need anymore.. it is not your fault or my fault - it is what it is.

The advice for you is that you always have a choice and you have to do what makes you and your closest family happy. It is important to follow your heart.

you may have to take a decision about work - you have analyze pro's and cons, love matters - a new love or rebonding witha an old love, finances - please don't lose track even if you are head over heels in love, health issues - you will get the right person to help you wether it is the doctor, nurse or a healer or spirituality - you can benefit from working with the right person and please don't trust blindly on what is said and don't follow blindly.



Blesses

Susann

P.s
During this spread I have pointed out few situations, but I know that are more serious matters in this world than I have mentioned like domestic violence and such (Topics like these is way over my head). I haven't covered such topics because I don't know how I shall cover it 100 %.. All I can say is that my heart goes out for you, I hope you can manage to take the necessary steps to get out it and mostly that you succeed.