Wild Magic

Last updated on: April 7, 2022 at 6:08 pm By John Beckett

Every time I start to narrow my practice down to something more manageable, I find myself presented with something new. Or in this case, with something very, very old.

Not in an “ooh, shiny!” sense, but in a sense of “this, too, is part of who you are.”

Not a distraction, but a reminder.

And an opportunity.

Operative magic is not the only magic

While I’m not a huge fan of Aleister Crowley, I lean heavily on his definition of magic: “the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.” Magic is something we do. Magic is a cause that generates an effect. I’ve written a fair amount on magic over the years. My course in Operative Magic is the most popular of all the Under the Ancient Oaks online classes.

When I do my monthly full moon workings – or when I have a need that can’t wait for the next full moon – I usually do some form of sigil magic, kitchen witchery, or Traditional Witchcraft. These are different techniques from different traditions, but they share a common formula: a target, a method, and an action, all leading toward a desired result.

I get annoyed when people romanticize magic: “magic isn’t something you do, it’s something you are.” No. That’s a desire to feel special without having to actually do anything. I get even more annoyed when people say something like “magic is the experience of being alive.” Again, no. That’s an attempt to feel magical while clinging to a materialist worldview. Wonder and awe is beautiful and powerful, but it’s not magic.

All this is true. But still, magic is more than spells written in iambic pentameter.

The dog and the wolf both howl at the moon

I think my first reminder of this was a recent blog post by Damh the Bard titled “The Green Grimoire – The Book of Nature 1.” It’s mainly an announcement of things to come, but it included a concern about “what happens to spiritual paths when they become overtly human-centric.” It reminded me that for all my love of the many Gods and my service to Them, my first and strongest calling to Paganism was in Nature.

And then last week I was doing a Tarot reading for a client. The details are of course confidential, but at a key point The Moon turned up.

In the Waite-Smith deck and in Robin Wood (which I was using at the time), The Moon shows a dog (representing civilization) and a wolf (representing the wild) both howling at the moon. A crayfish crawls out of the water onto the land, representing our even older and wilder connections.

There is a wild magic that has nothing to do with target statements and tables of correspondences. Like the dog howling at the moon, it’s not something to be learned from books.

It’s something to be remembered.

Remembering something very old

Wild magic is religious in the sense that it acknowledges the reality of Gods and spirits, but it is not devotional. It is magical in the sense that it taps into unseen energies, facilitates Nature rearranging our priorities, and (at least occasionally) enables the Spirits of Nature to intercede on our behalf.

Wild magic is magic our proto-human ancestors could have practiced 2 million years ago (and likely did) because it does not require language.

It requires placing yourself in wild places and remembering what’s been forgotten over 10,000 years of civilization, 300 years of industrial society, and 60 years of the information age.

It requires connection.

Practicing wild magic

Practicing wild magic begins with returning to the wild, if only for a short time. Truly wild, undeveloped places are best, but any place outdoors will work, including your back yard. Nighttime is best, but dusk and dawn are especially magical times, and magic works just fine in daylight even though we seem to notice it more easily at night.

If you simply cannot go outside, bring the outside inside. Keep houseplants, open a window, light a fire or a candle, and mainly, turn off the electronics.

Don’t let the desire for the perfect wild environment keep you from doing what you can. Doing something is better than doing nothing.

And then listen.

Listen to the birds and squirrels, to the wind and rain, and to the dogs (and perhaps, other canines) howling at the moon.

Look up at the sky, look down at the dirt, look out at the trees.

Take in the smells.

What do you hear, what do you see, what do you smell? Don’t try to identify and classify everything. Just take it in. Experience it.

Remember that you’re a part of it.

Sense the energy – hear the spirits

And then listen with your other senses. Feel the energy moving around you.

What else is in the wild?

Who else is in the wild?

What are they saying? Are any of them speaking to you?

Listen.

And take care. Do not assume everyone you encounter is there to help you. Do not assume everyone wants to be your friend. Most just want to do their own thing and be left alone. Some, however, may share your values, your goals, your priorities. They may be willing work with you, and you may be able to learn something in the process.

Just remember the laws of hospitality and reciprocity, and be impeccable with your word.

Remembering our connections

This is all fascinating, but at the end of the day I’m an engineer, not a scientist – I want to know what I can do with it.

Wild magic is less about generating results and more about remembering who you are, and what you are.

The biggest lie civilization ever told us is that we’re not animals. We’re special animals, to be sure. We have opposable thumbs and big brains and the capacity for language. That lets us do things other animals can’t, or can’t do as well. That’s both good (modern medicine, the internet) and bad (nuclear weapons, advertising).

Wild magic reminds us that we’re animals, neither better nor worse than the other animals. The natural world is our home – we’re connected to it.

Wild magic also reminds us that we’re spirits, neither better nor worse than the other spirits. The spirit world is our home too – we’re connected to it.

Anything is possible when you know who you truly are

This is the primary benefit from wild magic: it helps you strip away all the masks, costumes, and programming of the modern world and understand who – and what – you truly are.

When you know who you are, you know what you want. Not what you think you want or what you’ve been told you’re supposed to want, but what you really want.

And when you know what you really want, it’s easier to select a target for your magical workings. Or, you know, go get it with mundane effort. Or better yet, with both.

Because learning how to do sigil magic or candle magic or poppet magic is easy.

Figuring out what to do those things for is hard.

Remember you’re an animal. Remember you’re a spirit. Remember you’re connected to all the other animals and all the other spirits in this world, and in the Otherworld. It’s not enough to intellectually acknowledge that these things are true. You need to feel them in your bones. You need to feel them in your soul.

Wild magic has to be experienced.

Now, go howl at the moon.

An Atheist Hopes For Reincarnation

Last updated on: February 4, 2022 at 8:04 pm By John Beckett

In December, the bulk of the bloggers on the Patheos Nonreligious channel resigned. According to this report by Religion News Service, they were asked to tone down their criticism of religion – which, from my perspective as a religious person, sometimes crossed the line from critique into mockery. But also, many of the writers wanted their own specifically non-religious space.

In January the new site OnlySky launched, by and for the secular and nonreligious. It’s a lot more visually impressive than the Patheos Nonreligious channel, though it’s harder to navigate. As someone who supports religious freedom and diversity and who hopes everyone finds the path that’s best for them, I wish them well.

Atheists and Pagans are frequently on the same side when it comes to fighting for religious freedom and to prevent the dominant religion from using the power of government to promote its beliefs and to mandate its practices. We are competitors in the marketplace of religions, offering diametrically opposed alternatives to the dominant religion.

There is some overlap in the two movements – nontheistic Paganism is a valid path. I’m a polytheist, but if someone wants to pour an offering to Brighid, it would never occur to me to ask if they’re offering to the Goddess, to the saint, or to a metaphor for inspiration and healing.

And that brings us to the first post on OnlySky that grabbed my attention. Kristen Chase (who, best as I can tell, wasn’t part of Patheos Nonreligious) has a piece titled I’m nonreligious, and I kind of hope reincarnation is a real thing. It’s a short piece if you want to read it for yourself. Here’s a brief excerpt:

Do I really believe that I’ll see my kids after I die? No. And I certainly will not be handing out small booklets or knocking down anyone’s door to try to get them to believe right along with me.

But does it give me a little solace in these difficult times? Abso-freaking-lutely.

I appreciate Kristen Chase sharing her thinking on this, and I appreciate the OnlySky editors putting it on their front page (albeit near the bottom of the page).

Comments were mixed. Some were supportive and sympathetic while others were not, such as one that said “wishful thinking and no evidence of any of it.” That statement is blatantly false, and more importantly, it’s unhelpful to someone who is wrestling with a question that has challenged humanity for thousands of years.

The only thing we know is that we don’t know

The only thing we can say with certainty about what comes after death is that we don’t know. But the belief that consciousness survives death (whether through reincarnation, an afterlife, or something else) is intuitive and near-universal. Atheists like to say that children have to be indoctrinated into religion, but that’s not true. They have to be indoctrinated into specific religious traditions, but religion itself is organic – and that includes the belief that there’s something more than this world and this one life.

The evidence points me toward a belief in a time of rest and review in an Otherworld, followed by rebirth into this world. Unlike Kristen Chase, I really do believe that. But on a confidence scale, my belief in reincarnation is relatively low, far less than my belief in the reality of the Gods and the efficacy of magic.

Belief isn’t a binary thing. This is something our Christian-dominated culture doesn’t seem to understand. Growing up, I was taught there were some things I had to belief, and I had to believe them “with all my heart.” Doubt was a sin.

Doubt isn’t a sin. Doubt is the honest result when you examine inconclusive evidence. You come to what you think is the most likely conclusion, but you realize you might be wrong. You believe, but you hold that belief very loosely.

The fundamentalists I grew up with refused to consider that they might be wrong. So do the atheists telling Kristen Chase that her hope for reincarnation is “wishful thinking.”

Enjoy this life while you’re here

It’s natural to wonder about what comes after death. It’s not healthy to obsess over it. So many in our society do obsess over it, because the dominant religion tells us that it’s a high stakes matter. Pick the right belief and you’ll live forever in paradise. Pick the wrong belief and you’ll be tortured for all eternity.

The fact that the heaven-or-hell dichotomy has such high stakes with no clear and incontrovertible evidence was one of the first things that let me know what I was being taught by the Baptists wasn’t right. I may have been nine, but I was a clear-thinking nine-year-old.

I agree with the non-theists that we should never let our thoughts about the next life distract us from this life. There is work we must do here because it can only be done here.

Beyond that, as a Pagan I readily and unreservedly affirm that this life and this world are good. Nature is beautiful and terrible, live-giving and life taking, and it’s good. It’s not fair and it’s not nice – no world that includes war, famine, childhood cancer, and coronaviruses can be considered fair or nice. But it’s still good.

All those “bad” things remind us that the universe isn’t all about us. We’re one species on one planet that has existed for a fraction of the life of a universe that’s incredibly big and complex. And yet, here we are, contemplating it all.

And making it more fair and more nice for more persons is enough to keep us busy for more lifetimes than we can imagine.

The afterlife will take care of itself

The Morrigan holds my death. In Her usual cryptic manner, She’s told me very little about what comes after death and even less about when my death will be… if She knows… if She’s decided. Her message to me is to keep working to embody Her virtues and values in my life, and to spread them in this world.

I still think about what comes after death – a little, anyway. I’m human – how could I not think about it?

My thinking has led me to believe in reincarnation. But it’s a belief I hold loosely. I might be wrong – there might be only an afterlife. Or there might be nothing after death. I’m OK with that too. I would say I’d be disappointed if that’s the case, but if it is I won’t be around to know.

And I don’t want to get so caught up in the next life that I neglect to live this life as fully as I can.

What comes after death will take care of itself in its own time.

The 2000th Post on Under the Ancient Oaks

Last updated on: January 27, 2022 at 6:13 pm By John Beckett

The first post on Under the Ancient Oaks went up on June 29, 2008. Thirteen and a half years later, this is the 2000^th post.

I’ve done two major retrospectives recently. In 2018 I wrote 10 Years Under the Ancient Oaks, which tells the story of how this blog began and how it grew into what it is today. Last year I wrote 13 Year Blogiversary of Under the Ancient Oaks, which was more about the state of the blog and future plans. Those posts stand on their own and I don’t want to repeat them.

But 2000 posts is a significant number, and I feel the need to recognize it in one way or another.

I started to pull out posts with milestone numbers (#1, #100, #500, etc.) but too many of them were posts I’d rather not call attention to. Ray Bradbury was right: everyone’s first million words are crap. I had done some writing before I started blogging – I think I hit my million words in late 2011. That’s somewhere around #450. Most of the ones before that weren’t great.

As I was looking over the list of posts, it became clear that blogging is never done in a vacuum. My early posts were very UU-centric. Not only was I very involved in my local UU church at the time, most of the other bloggers I was reading were also UUs. My writing gradually became more Pagan-centric, especially after I moved to Patheos Pagan in early 2013. When the polytheist movement began to pick up steam around 2014, the emphasis of my blogging shifted again. Today I’m a polytheist first, but I still blog on topics of the day, whatever corner of the Big Tent they come from.

Blogging is best done in community. The more people blogging and blogging regularly, the better things are for all of us.

The other thing that became clear was that I really fill three separate roles on the blog. Sometimes I’m a reporter, telling people what’s going on. Sometimes I’m a columnist, offering my analysis and opinions on events and issues. And sometimes I’m a teacher, sharing my beliefs and practices for those who are interested in them.

My two most widely-read post of all time are analysis and opinion (“Adulting” Is an Indictment of Society, Not of Millennials from 2016 and Dude, It’s You from 2014), but all the other top posts are teaching posts.

And now I’m at 2000 posts. Rather than yet another variation on a Top 10 list, for the 2000^th post I’d like to pull out a few posts that in retrospect are more important than perhaps any of us realized at the time.

#9 – Experience, Belief, and Practice – August 2008

Not all those first million words are crap. In my 9^th post overall, I wrote 341 words that did a very good job of articulating the relationship between experience, belief, and practice. It’s a virtuous circle – you can enter at any point and move in either direction. But if you make your way to all three, you’ll have the beginnings of a meaningful and robust religion.

It’s important enough that I expanded on it in The Path of Paganism.

#153 – Martin Luther King Jr. on Mystery Religions and Christianity – September 2009

When Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was a seminary student in 1950, he wrote a paper titled “The Influence of the Mystery Religions on Christianity.” King wrote:

There can hardly be any gainsaying of the fact that Christianity was greatly influenced by the Mystery religions, both from a ritual and a doctrinal angle.

There’s nothing earth-shattering in the paper – just good religious history of the kind that Mainline Protestants acknowledge but mostly ignore and fundamentalists actively deny. My only disappointment is that King repeated a theme already quite old at the time: that the imperfect Pagan religions were only a preliminary step toward the “more perfect” Christian religion which replaced them.

The notes added by The Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford (where King’s papers are archived) say the paper got an A.

#391 – To Fly By Night – June 2011

My book reviews tend to not be well-read. I do them anyway because books are the primary way most people learn Paganism and witchcraft. I want to promote the good ones and warn people away from the bad ones.

This is one of the good ones.

It’s an anthology of hedgewitchery, a practice that has “less interest in the heavily scripted and ceremonial aspects of … modern Paganism and witchcraft” and that involves “the seeking of divine wisdom … interaction with the ancestors, the fae, and other spirits … and working in the Otherworld to manifest a material benefit in this world.”

In discussions around whether it’s proper to use the term “shaman” someone (I can’t remember who) suggested that the closest Western equivalent to “shaman” is “hedgewitch.” I tend to agree.

To Fly By Night is still in print. The Amazon link in the review no longer works, but this one does.

#487 – Common Ritual Errors and How to Avoid Them – January 2012

By 2012 I was starting to write more teaching posts – this is one of them. Doing public ritual isn’t just doing your private ritual for a few more people. It has its own set of concerns and issues, and I still see too many people ignoring them.

This isn’t complicated. It just takes paying attention and thinking things through.

#748 – A Call To Piracy – November 2013

If I rewrote this post today I would take a much harsher tone. While I’m still managing to navigate the mainstream world, just playing the game is getting harder and harder, and the rules keep changing to benefit the rich and powerful.

#1051 – Sore Quadriceps and the Reality of Pagan Priesthood – November 2015

This is one of my favorite posts of all time. For that 1-hour ritual you attended, there are people who were working 6 hours before you got there, and for another 6 hours after you left. Real leadership isn’t about power or glory, it’s about doing what must be done, even when it’s a ton of work.

When we did the Spiral Labyrinth again in 2019 I directed the setup, but I left placing the candles and picking them up to younger people.

#1276 – Why I Had To Make a Clean Break With Christianity – April 2017

Traditional witchcraft and classic occultism were gaining in popularity in 2017 – they’re still going strong. Much of what we have (especially with the grimoire tradition) has roots in Christianity. That’s a valid approach, and one that works for many people. But it doesn’t work for me. Because of the trauma I suffered growing up in a fundamentalist church, I had to make a clean break with Christianity.

#1446 – Paganism in the Dry Season – May 2018

This post turned out to be rather prescient – unfortunately. It’s about what you do when you want to keep moving but it’s hard and joyless, when the vision of a better world and a deeper practice is obscured by smoke and haze.

Kinda like where we’ve been for the past two years.

#1719 – I’m Better Than Vanessa Ives – I Hope To Be As Good As Vanessa Ives – March 2020

Throughout the pandemic, I’ve been watching Penny Dreadful pretty much on a loop. It’s beautiful, it’s fascinating, and in some ways it’s inspiring, even though I hated the ending.

I escaped the toxic religion of my childhood, and in that I’m better than Vanessa Ives. But some magic comes with a price – a price Vanessa willingly paid. Would I do the same? Would I do what must be done, no matter the cost?

When that time comes, I hope I’m as good as Vanessa Ives.

Divination for 2022

Last updated on: December 31, 2021 at 10:15 pm By John Beckett

The cards always tell the truth. It’s just that sometimes the reader has a hard time discerning what that truth is. Or as in the past two years, a hard time accepting the truth they see.

My Divination for 2020 had the cards to show what was coming, but I didn’t have the context to see it – I couldn’t imagine things would get as bad as they got.

I promised myself – and all of you – that I wouldn’t make the same mistake in 2021. When the Ten of Swords showed up I said “This is the third card that repeats from last year’s reading. I minimized it then – I won’t do that again.”

The main theme in last year’s reading was “much of 2020 will continue.” That certainly happened. The Wheel of Fortune and its randomness were in the central “heart of the matter” position, and the Ten of Swords and its pain were in “the final outcome.” That wasn’t a positive reading. I tried to put a positive spin on it, encouraging people to “take steps to change course and create a different future.”

Divination works best when it’s specific and focused. Readings for a wide community for a whole year are necessarily vague. But this was my reading, and I paid attention. I took a few different steps and I created a slightly better future: 2021 was a better year than 2020 – though still far from a good year. Could I have done better with more and different countermeasures? Perhaps. That’s something to keep in mind for 2022.

This is one of the reasons I advise everyone to keep records of your divinations. You can go back and see what you got right and what you missed, and learn to read better next time. But also, you can see what you did to strengthen or mitigate the future you saw coming. Divination shows what will be, not what must be.

So with 2021 in the rear view mirror, let’s take a look at 2022.

As always, my question for the cards was “what does the new year hold for me and mine?” The closer you are to me, the more this applies to you. If you do ritual with me in my back yard, it’s very relevant to you. If you follow a Pagan polytheist path like me, it applies a fair amount. If you’re a casual blog reader, less so. But the fact that you’re reading this post means there’s some connection between you and me, so I would not recommend dismissing it as irrelevant.

I’m reading with the Celtic Tarot, which seems to speak to me better than any other deck. I’m using the Celtic Cross spread, because it’s the best I’ve found for broad readings such as this.

The first thing that stands out is that there are two cards repeated from last year’s readings. And guess what – both of them were also in the 2020 reading.

The Six of Shields moved from “what is coming” in 2020 to “what is passing” in 2021 to “the heart of the matter” in 2022. This is a card of giving, and especially in this deck, a card of balanced giving. This is giving what you can, not giving till it hurts.

It’s supported by the Page of Shields, which is in the “in the far past” position, though I think its position in the Celtic Cross is of minimal importance here. What I see is the Page meditating on her shield, which forms a foundation for the person in the Six of Shields to aid those who need it.

The other card repeated in all three readings is the dreaded Ten of Swords. It went from “you as you see yourself” in 2020 (who among us didn’t feel like the Ten of Swords many times in 2020?) to “the final outcome” in 2021, which I called a painful ending that could be avoided with proper action. This year it’s in the “major influence” position.

I learned my lesson in 2020 – I’m not going to sugar coat this card. But as I read it here, it’s important to see the whole card. A bad situation, defeat, severe injury… but also the beginnings of a sunrise. There is hope in this card. Not “it’s going to be OK” hope but rather “you can get through this even though it hurts like hell” hope.

The Six of Cauldrons in the “what you seek” position is pretty clear. After everything we’ve been through in the past couple of years, we just want some nice pretty flowers. In his guidebook to the Celtic Tarot, Kristoffer Hughes calls this the nostalgia card. It’s a nice thought, but it’s not happening.

The core of this reading is in the Page of Shields, the Six of Shields, and the Ten of Swords. Deep spiritual practice, giving (especially the kind of giving that allows people to build their own security) in an environment that’s going to look and feel an awful lot like the past two years.

So, what do we do about it? The Knight of Swords in the “what is passing” position says it’s time to stop fighting foolhardy battles. The Eight of Cauldrons in the “what is coming” position says it’s time to move on. I call this card “I like it here – why do I have to leave?” We may not like where we are here at the beginning of 2022, but at least it’s familiar. At least it’s predictable. Something new could be worse.

Or it could be the rocky path to something deeper and more meaningful.

The Seven of Swords is in the “you as you see yourself” position. In 2019 I wrote a meditation on this card (I’ve got to quit titling blog posts “meditations” – no one reads them) where I said that while I cannot defend the ethics of espionage, it happens, and those who don’t do it are at a disadvantage to those who do.

Stop charging into battle like a knight on a dragon. Move on to something deeper, something more spiritual, something more magical. There is work that needs to be done that’s dirty, but necessary.

No one goes to the witch who lives deep in the forest if they have other options. Witches do what is necessary, even when it isn’t all pretty and clean and legal. What kind of witch do you want to be?

The final three cards are brighter… quite literally. The Three of Wands speaks of opportunity and the need for action. I’ll have more to say about opportunity in next Tuesday’s blog post. The Nine of Wands reflects the fear of further injury, but also the confidence that such injuries will not be fatal. And the final outcome is the Ace of Wands: the essence of inspiration and new beginnings. Great good can come from this year, but we have to make it through this year first.

You may have noticed that there are no major arcana in this reading. That’s unusual, though not extraordinary (the odds are 36 to 1). When I have a reading with no major arcana in it, that typically means that it deals with the small stuff and with ordinary effort.

What we accomplish in 2022 will not be done with flash and dramatics. There will be no grand revelations, no return to the past, no deus ex machina deliverance. It will be done with quiet spiritual practice, with a commitment to deeper things, and by doing the kind of things that require careful planning and stealth.

After the last two years, I’ll take it.

An October Viewing and Reading Challenge

Last updated on: November 18, 2021 at 6:59 pm By John Beckett

October is the best month and it’s not even close.

The days are shorter and the temperatures are cooler. All four major team sports are in action. Samhain and Halloween are this month, and the Winter Holidays (with their days off from work) are getting close. And the movies on TV get a lot better… most years, anyway.

I’ve done October movie posts before. In 2016 I wrote 31 Movies for Halloween, where I listed my favorite horror movies from what I consider the four major eras of supernatural filmmaking. In 2019 I wrote 13 Horror Movies I’m Watching This October, where I scanned the schedule of TCM (Turner Classic Movies) and pulled out the ones I really wanted to see. I think I actually watched them all, except for A Bucket of Blood.

I was going to do something similar this year. But when I looked at the schedules I was rather disappointed. None of the streaming services (that I have) have much I’m excited about. The basic cable channels seem geared toward kids. I like The Addams Family movies too, but that’s not what I’m looking for right now.

Even TCM’s schedule is disappointing. They have a very good lineup for Halloween weekend, but the rest of the month is rather sparse. I could only come up with nine movies to recommend, and I’ve already written about six of those.

And that brings us to the point of this post.

I’ve been binging comfort movies

I’ve been comfort-watching ever since the pandemic began. I’ve been watching the same movies over and over and over again.

As I write this, Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) is in my Blu-ray player. Before that, it was Van Helsing (2004), the Underworld movies (except Rise of the Lycans – I can’t handle the werewolf abuse even though I’m not a werewolf fan), and the two Mummy movies with Rachel Weisz and Brendan Fraser. Before it left Netflix, I was watching Penny Dreadful pretty much on a loop.

The psychological websites and articles I found say this is a common thing. The familiar is comfortable, particularly at a time when so much is unfamiliar and uncomfortable. We already know the stories, so they take less energy to watch. We know how they end, so we know we won’t be disappointed even if we don’t like the ending (like Penny Dreadful). And we watch them simply because we like them – while I like to experiment with food, I never get tired of a good pizza.

There’s nothing wrong with binging comfort movies. But I was expecting to binge old favorites all month, and there’s not much for me this year.

I’ve been avoiding new movies and shows

Enjoying your old favorites is fine. But at some point, you turn into the video equivalent of the people who only listen to the music that was popular when they were in high school. You miss out on a lot of good stuff.

I haven’t watched a new TV show since The Nevers in April. I watched the new The Suicide Squad movie in August, but I watched it on my computer where I could play games in the slow spots – and it was a sequel. I’ve been unwilling to risk any time on something new.

And while I’ve managed to work my to-be-read pile down in recent months, I haven’t read much fiction.

Solution: a viewing and reading challenge

Writing a classic horror movie post this year would just be more of the same. I need something different. I need something new.

I need an October viewing and reading challenge.

I really am busy. I’m teaching an on-line class, I’m blogging, and my local groups are trying to do more in-person stuff. My paying job just got busier, and likely will remain so for the rest of the year. I can’t commit to something huge.

But I don’t need something huge. I just need enough to break me out of this comfort movie routine.

So here’s the challenge. During the month of October I want to watch one new movie and one new series. I want to read one new book. And I want to watch one old movie that either I haven’t seen, or I haven’t seen in so long I don’t remember anything about it.

Here are my choices.

A new movie: A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night

This was the hardest choice to make, because I don’t like most contemporary horror movies. I don’t like gore and I don’t like jump scares – if I want realistic horror I’ll watch the news. I want supernatural fantasy – the more gothic (or just goth) the better. And nobody’s made a good Dracula movie since 1992.

Horror movie reviews are next to useless, whether professional or amateur. Everybody wants something different from a horror movie and too many reviewers are quick to bash anything that doesn’t satisfy their particular desires.

And then there’s the problem of a million streaming services, all wanting a separate monthly fee [insert rant here].

But after a bit of googling, watching some trailers, and reading enough reviews to find common themes, I settled on A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night. From IMDb:

In the Iranian ghost-town Bad City, a place that reeks of death and loneliness, the townspeople are unaware they are being stalked by a lonesome vampire.

It’s black and white, in Persian with English subtitles (although it was filmed in California). That’s a bit artsy for my tastes. But I’ve heard good things about it since it came out in 2014. And how can you argue with a movie billed as “the first Iranian vampire Western”? I’ve been waiting for it to show up on cable, but it’s available to rent on Amazon Prime for $3.99 – that’s not much of a risk.

Second choices: Bloodthirsty (a werewolf movie on Amazon) and Blood Red Sky (vampires vs. terrorists on Netflix). I’ll probably watch them both eventually.

A new series: Brand New Cherry Flavor

This was an easy choice. Actually, pushing myself to watch this series was one of the reasons behind this post. Here’s the IMDb blurb:

Lisa Nova, an aspiring film director in the sun-drenched but seamy world of 1990 Los Angeles, embarks on a mind-altering journey of supernatural revenge that gets nightmarishly out of control.

Every witch or otherwise magical friend who’s mentioned this show has had good things to say about it. I found this very positive Teen Vogue review by Lisa Stardust, who’s a magical practitioner herself.

But I’ve been unwilling to invest the time in something new, preferring to watch my comfort movies over and over again. Thus this challenge.

Brand New Cherry Flavor is available on Netflix. There are eight episodes that average 43 minutes each – that’s a weekend with plenty of time for something else.

Time to get watching.

Second choice: Motherland: Fort Salem. I’m hearing good things from witches about this one too, but the military context isn’t particularly appealing to me. And it’s really intended for a younger audience. I’m unlikely to watch it, but maybe.

A new book: The Historian

I asked my Facebook friends for recommendations and I got a ton. The post is public – you can read through them if you like. Many of them didn’t meet the specifications I listed (supernatural fiction, fairly new, etc.) but plenty did.

I think A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness got the most recommendations. It also got the most negative comments.

I picked The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. It’s a Dracula story that mixes the historical Vlad the Impaler with contemporary vampire lore, not entirely unlike what Bram Stoker did in 1897.

It’s a little older than what I wanted (published in 2005). But I bought it when it first came out based on reviews and recommendations – it’s been sitting on my shelves ever since. It’s not a short book: 642 pages. With everything else going on, it may be a real challenge to get it finished this month.

But following the principle of “read what you’ve got before you buy more” it’s the right choice.

Second choice: The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow. Of all the recommendations on Facebook, this is the one that most grabbed my interest. It’s not a short book either (528 pages) but if I get back into the habit of reading regularly I’ll pick it up before too long.

An old movie that’s new to me: Count Dracula

This 1977 BBC film with Louis Jourdan as the Count is generally considered the most faithful adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel ever made. I remember watching it on PBS as a teenager. I remember being vaguely disappointed, but I don’t remember why. I had read the book by then, so I knew the story would be different from the 1931 Lugosi film. It may have been the 1970s TV production quality. Or my expectations may have been so high nothing could have lived up to them.

In any case, it’s time to watch it again. And it’s available on Amazon Prime.

Second choice: Taste the Blood of Dracula. This 1970 Hammer Film was the fourth starring Christopher Lee as Dracula. I’m sure I’ve seen it, but the IMDb summary doesn’t ring a bell. TCM is showing it the afternoon of October 21, and Amazon has it to rent for $1.99.

Want to take the challenge?

I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s been watching my old favorites to the exclusion of new material. If your movies and books have gotten stale – if you’re missing out on new stuff – take the October Viewing and Reading Challenge.

Watch one new movie.
Watch one new TV series.
Read one new book.
And watch one old movie that you’ve forgotten.

Tell us about your choices – and how you liked them – in the comments.

After completing the challenge, I wrote How It Went: Four Reviews from the October Viewing and Reading Challenge.

How to Hack Your Worldview

Last updated on: July 21, 2021 at 6:34 pm By John Beckett

One of the things I consistently emphasize is the importance of worldview – our foundational assumptions about the world and the way it works. These are the things we assume are true in part because they seem self-evident, but mainly because they’re what we were taught as children and we never thought to question them.

It’s like the story I told in the very first Under the Ancient Oaks video. I was talking about Paganism to someone who knew very little about it, and at the end he said “what I really want to know is how Paganism says you get to heaven.” He assumed that the purpose of all religion was to make sure you end up in the good place after you die and not the bad place. That assumes there are only two possibilities for an afterlife, which in turn assumes that there even is an afterlife.

These unproven and mostly unprovable assumptions severely limit our thinking. If something is counter to our worldview, we will reflexively assume it’s not possible and so we won’t consider it.

Changing a worldview is hard. It took years of struggle and practice for me to change mine. Last year I taught an online class titled Building a New Myth, about how to build a new worldview. Based on the feedback, I think it did a good job of teaching the techniques necessary to build a good, robust, resilient worldview. It’s on-demand – it’s still there if you’d like to take it. But it requires that you already understand the need for new foundational assumptions.

What if you just can’t get past your current worldview? What if you know (or just suspect) your core beliefs are wrong but you can’t figure out how they’re wrong?

Then you need to hack your worldview.

I’m a bit reluctant to use the term “hack.” It was overused in the 2010s – it became a buzzword that all too often meant doing questionably ethical things to exploit the system in ways not available to most people. But the core definition of hacking – using a back-door method to reprogram a system to do what you want it to do – perfectly fits what we’re trying to do here.

Does something deep inside whisper that there’s more to life than what you’ve always been told? Are you dissatisfied with your spiritual path but you can’t imagine leaving it? Does your current religion insist that you believe things you know aren’t true, but you’re afraid to challenge its authority?

Then it’s time to hack your worldview.

Requirements for hacking

There is only one requirement for spiritual hacking, but it’s an absolute requirement: honesty. You must be completely and totally honest – mainly with yourself. You must value honest answers over easy answers, over comfortable answers, and over simple answers.

A piece of the truth may be simple, but the whole truth is always complex and multi-layered.

No question can be off limits. No question is too unorthodox, too heretical, too blasphemous. Every question deserves investigation, contemplation, and where possible, an answer.

And we must be honest with our answers. No question is unaskable, but some questions are unanswerable.

When it comes to religion and metaphysics, most questions can only be answered tentatively. We must not assume certainty where all we have is probability. We must also avoid the error of assuming that in the absence of conclusive proof, all ways are equally true. Some answers are more likely than others, and some answers are obviously wrong.

Honesty demands that we examine all the evidence, including the messy evidence, including the painful evidence, including the evidence of our own religious experiences. The idea that the only real evidence is tangible evidence is itself a foundational assumption – one that I’ve found to be decidedly unhelpful.

Will you be honest with yourself? Will you ask hard questions, and refuse to settle for easy answers? Will you go where the evidence leads?

Then let’s get hacking.

What do you believe?

The hardest part of examining a worldview is figuring out what to examine. Most foundational assumptions aren’t just unstated, they’re unrecognized. They’re just the way things are. But we have to start somewhere.

Start by asking yourself “what do I believe?”

That’s a very open-ended question. “I believe chocolate is better than vanilla” is a perfectly valid belief, but it’s not particularly helpful here. Try to limit your questions to matters of religion, philosophy, and metaphysics, especially the “big questions” centered around life, death and what comes afterwards, the nature of the Gods, good and evil, and such.

Write your answers down. You’re looking for a list of bullet points, not a creed. This is best done in a computer file (Word document, text file, etc.) where you can easily add, delete, and insert things where you need them.

You’ll need multiple sessions. Work on this for 20 or 30 minutes, then when you start to get stuck, set it down and go do something else. Come back in an hour or in a day. Don’t worry about getting a complete list – you can always add to it later (and you probably will).

When you feel like you’ve got most of your important beliefs catalogued, it’s time to move on to the next step.

Why do you believe that?

Now go line by line and ask yourself “why do I believe that?”

“Because it’s true” is not an acceptable answer. Even if that’s correct, it’s too easy an answer. What makes you think it’s true? What evidence convinces you? What logic persuades you? What experiences confirm your belief?

What you will likely find is that some beliefs are supported not by evidence but by traditions, myths, and other beliefs – things that may very well be valid reasons to believe something, but that are still contingent on something else.

Add these to your list of beliefs and ask yourself why you believe them. Continue the process as long as you keep uncovering more beliefs.

The goal is to come up with a list of core beliefs – your foundational assumptions about life and everything in it.

Why do you not believe something else?

Now the process gets harder. For each belief – about the Gods, about death, about values and ethics, about whatever beliefs are important to you – consider alternatives.

For example, if you believe in many Gods, why do you not believe in one God, or in no Gods? Other people believe these things – why are you convinced you’re right and they’re wrong?

This is where the real hacking begins. If you’ve worked through your beliefs diligently and honestly, you’ve got a short list of concepts, ideas, and values that make sense to you – and that are meaningful to you. But other people who are just as intelligent and reasonable as you – at least on average – believe different things. Why are you right and they’re wrong?

There are two dangers here. The first is to assume you’re smarter and better educated and that everyone else is simply wrong. That way lies religious intolerance, ethnocentrism, racism, and other cultural ills.

The other danger is to assume that since other people have good reasons for believing different things, any answer is a good answer and it doesn’t matter what we believe. While integrity demands that we hold our beliefs loosely and always be open to new evidence and new lines of thinking, the benefits of beliefs come when we take one answer and explore it as deeply as we can.

When you examine alternative beliefs honestly and fairly, the false certainty most of us have around our foundational assumptions starts to crumble.

Learned beliefs vs inherent beliefs

Most of our beliefs have an external source: our parents, the religion of our childhood, the mainstream culture, or a process of study and evaluation. But sometimes you keep asking “why?” and the only answer you can come up with is “I just do.”

In 2018 I explored the idea of Paganism as an Orientation. When I rejected fundamentalism, why did I never consider atheism? How have I always felt that Nature is sacred? Why did I always believe the Divine has a feminine side, even though I had “God the Father” pounded into my head over and over again?

Why do most children believe in magic, and only stop when it’s “educated” out of them?

There are very few truly inherent beliefs, and the vast majority of them are very high-level. Polytheism may be humanity’s default religious position, but “I should worship the Morrigan” is not.

Be careful of jumping to this conclusion too quickly. But while most beliefs are learned, a few are something we’re born with.

Learn your history

Most people are ignorant about their own religious history.

I grew up going to Sunday School every week without fail. But I didn’t learn basic Christian history until I did some reading on my own in my late 20s. I didn’t learn the history of some of the doctrines of evangelical fundamentalism until I was well on my Pagan path and was trying to deal with the religious baggage of my youth.

I’ve tried to do better with my Paganism and polytheism. This is one of the main reasons why I disagree with many who say “I’m a polytheist, not a Pagan.” While my religion differs significantly from the generic Paganism we see on Instagram, it came out of the modern Pagan movement. I need to acknowledge that lineage, for better and for worse.

The goal here is to learn the history of your beliefs. Where did these ideas come from? How did they develop over time? Were they a response to a particular set of circumstances? Did they develop organically, or were they imposed by those with power?

Beware the mythologized history that religions (and politicians) often promote. That means you need to read professional historians. Now, historians can be biased, and sometimes they get things wrong. Newer history is usually better.

The main benefit of reading history is that you learn that beliefs and concepts weren’t handed down by the Gods – they came out of a human process, and that same human process can change them if necessary.

What to do with a hacked worldview

If you’ve worked through this process diligently and honestly, any false certainty you may have had should be gone. That’s a good thing. But there’s a good chance that you discovered at least a few of your foundational assumptions are something you can no longer believe.

Now you have a vacuum – you need to fill it with something. Because if you don’t, sooner or later those old beliefs will creep back in.

I have a class for that, but the purpose of this post isn’t to sell classes.

I recommend starting with science and the findings of science. Science doesn’t have all the answers, and it can’t answer questions of meaning. But what it does, it does well.

Study Nature, and learn to see the personhood of all beings.

Explore the beliefs and practices of our ancestors, especially our Pagan and polytheist ancestors.

Approach one or more of the Many Gods. Learn Their stories, embody Their virtues, promote Their values.

And out of all that, decide what new foundational assumptions make sense to you and help you live a better life.

Most people don’t even recognize that they have a worldview. They believe what they were taught or what they picked up from the wider society. They think that’s “just the way things are.” But that approach can hold us back – it held me back for many years.

Examining your worldview is hard work. But it’s useful, helpful work – even if you have to hack it.

Who Put the Odal Rune on the CPAC Stage?

Last updated on: March 3, 2021 at 9:56 pm By John Beckett

Over the weekend pictures started flying around social media: the stage at CPAC was in the shape of the Odal rune. And while there is nothing nefarious about runes – they are sacred to Heathens and to many other people – as always, context matters.

And the context here screams “Nazis.”

CPAC is the Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual convention hosted by the American Conservative Union. It began in 1974 – Ronald Reagan gave the first keynote address. Whatever it may have been in its earlier years, it’s now an event where Republicans who want to run for President go to try to form an emotional attachment with the far right. This year’s speakers included Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Mike Pompeo, and Donald Trump, in his first speech since leaving the White House.

Themes included repetition of the lie that the election was stolen, attacking moderate Republicans like Mitt Romney and Liz Cheney, and wallowing in victimhood.

And it included a golden statue of Donald Trump.

This is what passes for a conservative movement these days. William F. Buckley is spinning in his grave.

But there are lines that even far right populists cannot cross, at least not if they want to get elected to national office. And openly embracing Naziism is one of those lines. For now, anyway.

The head of the American Conservative Union denied the connection, saying “stage design conspiracies are outrageous and slanderous.”

Still, the stage at CPAC is in the shape of a Nazi symbol. Who put it there, and why?

Norse runes do not belong to Nazis

Historically, runes began as a system of writing among Germanic peoples in the early centuries of the common era. Mythically, the runes were a gift from Odin, who hung himself on the World Tree for nine nights in order to gain their wisdom.

Runes in their historical context: Runenstein von Kingittorsuaq – National Museum of Denmark. Used under Creative Commons license.

The Nazis appropriated the runes in their attempt to build a strong national identity. They were used as insignias by the SS (the Schutzstaffel – literally “protection squad” – the Nazi-est of the Nazis) for several of their divisions.

At a high level, the Odal rune represents ancestors and kinship. In recent years it’s been appropriated by white supremacists, in part to support their claim of “European heritage” and in part because they can’t get away with using the swastika.

The swastika is a sacred symbol in several religions and cultures, but it is lost to us for at least another hundred years. It’s connection with Naziism and the Holocaust may mean it’s lost to us forever. Those who attempt to reclaim it (almost always in the context of “you can’t tell me what to do”) ignore the evil it represents and the harm it brings to Jews and many others.

Odal and the other runes are not yet so associated with Nazis and white supremacists that they are unusable in the mainstream world. Those of us in the Pagan movement – whether we are Heathen or not – have an obligation to put these sacred symbols in their proper context and to educate the general public on their historical origins and uses.

The CPAC version of the Odal rune is only found in Naziism

The picture below is from Denton CUUPS 2018 Gleichentag Circle. We made an Odal rune and placed it on our altar as a symbol of our connections to our ancestors. We also explained its misuse so our participants would understand why this is different from its misuse by white supremacists.

This is the historical shape of the Odal rune. The version on the CPAC stage includes serifs – “wings” or “feet.” The Odal rune was never written like that in a historical or mythical setting – it is only found in Nazi insignia.

So the stage isn’t a Norse rune or a Heathen rune or an ancient rune. It’s a Nazi rune.

The odds this was an accident are incredibly long

The Wild Hunt had a very good piece on this on Saturday, including more pictures – I encourage you to read it. Here are two key quotes:

The wings of the CPAC stage lead nowhere … The red triangle toward the rear of the stage similarly serves no apparent functional use. This means that the set was intentionally designed this way, not for its utility, but for its visual appeal – an image that looks, unquestionably, like the odal rune.

And also:

It beggars belief that the design went through approval and construction without anybody realizing what it looked like – and how it has been used, in the past and in the modern-day.

Jumping to conclusions is one way conspiracy theories get started, and I hate conspiracy theories. At the same time, I see no way this was an accident. Someone intentionally designed this stage in the shape of a Nazi symbol. Who was it?

I see three possibilities.

A resistance troll?

The people who built that stage did not design it. They had a plan, and that plan was drawn by someone, based on a design by someone else. It would be a fairly simple thing trace it back to its ultimate origin. I do not expect that will happen. I expect the connection will either continue to be denied, or it will be blamed on someone not part of CPAC.

There’s a whole industry built up around conventions and large events – it’s entirely possible that stage design was contracted out to a third party with no apparent political affiliations. And it’s also possible that the designer given this job said “let’s show the whole world that you people are Nazis and Nazi sympathizers.”

But while that’s possible, designers do not have final say on any design. Ultimately someone – likely many someones – at CPAC approved the stage layout. As The Wild Hunt said, it beggars belief that no one noticed this.

Plus, I find it difficult to believe that CPAC didn’t thoroughly vet their contractors for political purity. The events industry is suffering heavily from the Covid pandemic – CPAC had their pick of anyone.

So while this is possible, unless someone with receipts to back it up takes credit for it, I think it’s highly unlikely.

An anti-Semitic dog whistle?

The far right is not monolithic. Some speak of a “Judeo-Christian heritage” and think of Jews as allies in their war against Muslims and atheists (and Pagans, if there were enough of us to matter to them). The Evangelical right believes a strong Israel is a prerequisite for the second coming of Jesus. They support Jews (or at least, certain kinds of Jews) as they attempt to bring about the end of the world – after which they think all the “good Jews” will convert to Christianity and the rest will burn in Hell.

Others on the far right are openly anti-Semitic. Let’s not forget the “very fine people” in Charlottesville who were chanting “Jews will not replace us.” Let’s not forget the Capitol insurrectionists who wore shirts saying “Camp Auschwitz” and “6MWE” – 6 million wasn’t enough.

The head of CPAC may very well have been telling the truth when he said “CPAC proudly stands with our Jewish allies.” But not everybody in his movement shares his feelings.

It is entirely possible that an actual Nazi somewhere in the CPAC organization designed this stage to say “as soon as we take over, my side is coming for the Jews.”

If this is true we will never know it. The far right is purging itself of people who aren’t sufficiently loyal to Donald Trump, not people who support genocide.

MAGA magicians?

Historians disagree on the extent to which the Thule Gesellschaft practiced magic in support of Hitler’s regime. I suspect much of that disagreement has to do with the historians’ own thoughts on magic. Still, we know there were several serious magicians and occultists in high Nazi circles. Aleister Crowley claimed he fought them with magic. And Operation Cone of Power was almost certainly a historical event, to one degree or another.

The vast majority of Pagans, witches, and other magicians are politically liberal. A significant minority are conservative. Some are openly fascists and/or gleeful Trump supporters. There can be no doubt that some people are working magic to support the philosophies, policies, and personalities advocated at CPAC.

This was the first place my mind went when I saw the CPAC stage – this is a magical working.

Because it is elevated, the layout of the stage would not be obvious to those in attendance… and few in attendance would be likely to recognize the Odal rune in any case. It takes a different, literally higher perspective to see what’s there. But the speakers would be standing on it, a connection to the “glorious past” of white supremacy and the “interrupted vision” of Hitler and the Nazis. Pictures of the stage would carry this connection and its message far and wide… and they are.

That’s why Thorn Coyle and others put a red “no” circle over the image before sharing.

Is there a MAGA version of the Thule Gesellschaft? I’d be shocked if there weren’t a least a few groups styling themselves as such. I have a hard time thinking any of them are big enough and powerful enough to dictate the stage design to the American Conservative Union… though that may be wishful thinking on my part.

But it is entirely possible that one such individual is in a key position at CPAC. And given the facts as we know them at the moment, I think that’s most likely.

There are more important issues than the shape of the stage

It is unlikely we will ever know the truth of how the CPAC stage was built in the shape of a Nazi rune. And as concerned as I am with the possibility that people with some competency in magic have this kind of influence and access, I’m more concerned with the Trumpism being preached from the stage.

Numerous CPAC speakers insisted “we aren’t going anywhere.” We should believe them. 75 million people voted for Donald Trump even after seeing how he governed for four years – how many would vote for someone with similar ideas but a smoother delivery?

And while we’re at it, we need to hold our current less-worse President accountable. I’m willing to give him some time to deliver on his campaign promises, but bombing Middle Eastern countries is only going to make things worse.

Ultimately, we will defeat Trumpism only if we can show the largely unideological center that we have a better way.

Runenstein Blauzahn – Jelling, Denmark. Photo by Jürgen Howaldt. Used under Creative Commons license.

Runes are the gift of Odin to the people – they do not belong to Nazis, white supremacists, or Trump worshippers. This misuse, this appropriation, does not change that, no matter where it came from.

For good, academically-sound information on the runes, see Futhark – the International Journal of Runic Studies. And also The Rune Cast, a podcast about runes and the people who read and wrote them.

Update

On March 3, the design firm that created the CPAC stage said they “had no idea that the design resembled any symbol, nor was there any intention to create something that did.”

I take them at their word. It’s possible the designer had seen the Odal rune and forgotten about it, but the shape remained in their memory. As a writer, I know that happens with words all the time. It’s also possible the designer drew this randomly – convergent evolution does happen from time to time.

Still, the stage design is in the shape of the Odal rune, Tom Swiss’ very rational argument to the contrary notwithstanding. And in any case, the biggest problem at CPAC wasn’t the shape of the stage, it was the Trumpism being preached from the stage.

In Defense of the Celtic Cross

Last updated on: January 25, 2021 at 1:33 pm By John Beckett

As I often do when reading Tarot, my Divination For 2021 used the Celtic Cross layout. It’s a common spread frequently included in the “little white book” that comes with most decks. I don’t use it all the time, but I use it a lot, especially when I’m reading for other people.

Coincidentally – I think – some of my Tarot-reading friends expressed their dislike of the Celtic Cross. This Twitter thread includes comments from Thorn Mooney, Laura Tempest Zakroff, and Christopher Penczak. Those are three very skilled and experienced witches and readers – none of them like the Celtic Cross. I’ve seen other readers (who I won’t name) whose dislike degenerated into ridicule of people using it. (To be clear: Thorn, Tempest, and Penczak did no such thing – they simply said “I don’t like it” – and that’s a perfectly valid opinion.)

I’ve had good results from the Celtic Cross. And while I’m not an evangelist for it – or for any other spread, or divination method – I would hate to see people abandon it just because some don’t like it.

The Celtic Cross with the Waite-Smith deck. One downside to the Celtic Cross – it doesn’t lend itself to the low and wide pictures needed for blog illustrations.

The weaknesses of the Celtic Cross

In the Twitter thread, Thorn Mooney linked to her 2018 blog post titled The Celtic Cross is Kind of Terrible. I encourage you to read Thorn’s post. It’s a good and reasonable critique, not a hit piece. Here’s a key quote:

Whatever the Celtic Cross is, it is most surely neither ancient nor Celtic. But even if it were, it would still be a crappy spread for beginners.

Like Thorn, I tried learning Tarot on my own by reading the little white book. Also like Thorn, I had little success with it – the fact that I was trying to use a 10-card spread had a lot to do with that.

I’ve written previously about How I Learned To Read Tarot. I had to take an in-person class twice before it finally stuck. If I ever taught a Tarot class, I would spend about six weeks just studying the cards. Then we’d practice with 1-card draws, 3-card spreads, and 5-card spreads. Only after all that would we get into larger spreads – and the Celtic Cross is only one of many such layouts.

I grew up thinking “real” Tarot meant reading from the Waite-Smith deck using the Celtic Cross layout. That’s simply wrong.

But there’s still a place for the Celtic Cross in the toolbox of the Tarot reader.

Structure helps non-intuitive readers

I’m seeing more and more Tarot practitioners advising others to read intuitively. Don’t worry about “standard” meanings of the cards and don’t try to fit them into a formal layout. Just look at the cards and let the messages and meanings come to you.

I can do that now. I couldn’t do it when I started, or even after several years of practice.

Intuition is like any other talent – it’s not evenly distributed across the population (if you want to improve your intuition, read Mat Auryn’s excellent book Psychic Witch – and do the work he recommends). It’s not a stretch to say that many of the better Tarot readers are naturally intuitive. Unfortunately, many people who are naturally talented in a field tend to forget that what comes easily for them doesn’t come so easily for others.

For those of us who have to work at developing intuition, a structured layout helps narrow our focus in a reading. We’re not trying to intuit what a card means, we’re trying to intuit what it means in the context of the position where it falls. That narrows things down significantly, which improves accuracy and confidence.

Yes, you can do structured positions with a 3-card or 5-card spread, and that’s sufficient for most simple questions. But if you can’t get enough depth and clarity to answer your question and it’s not coming intuitively, you’re going to need more cards.

The Celtic Cross is too complicated for beginners and it’s not necessary for advanced readers. It’s very good for intermediate readers who are trying to become advanced readers, especially those who aren’t naturally intuitive.

The Celtic Cross with the Aleister Crowley’s Thoth deck. I love the artwork, but I can’t read with this deck at all.

The Celtic Cross facilitates storytelling

Specific questions need specific answers. But many times, people consult the Tarot or other divinatory tools for more general guidance. We don’t need a yes-or-no answer – we need to understand what’s going on. We need a story.

The ten positions of the Celtic Cross provide the framework for a story: what’s going on, how did we get here, where are we trying to go, what are the major influences, and where will we end up if we continue on this path?

I don’t do a lot of public readings, but when I do, at least half my querents have vague, high-level questions. I won’t read without a question, but I can’t force people to be as specific as I’d prefer. Many times they don’t know what they need – they just know something is “off” and they’re looking for guidance. The combination of the imagery in the cards and the context of the spread help create a story that gives the querent context for what they’re experiencing.

This is especially true when, in the words of Captain Barbossa, you see the positions as “more what you’d call guidelines than actual rules.” The positions provide structure, but patterns and combinations provide depth – as does intuitive reading, when you can do it.

The Celtic Cross as I read it

There are many variations on the Celtic Cross – this is the one I use. It’s my blending of multiple sources, from little white books to “real” books to what I’ve picked up from other readers and what I’ve learned on my own.

1. At the heart of the matter. The central issue of the question. Some readers select a “significator” in this position, while others do that and then draw for Position 1, giving an 11 card spread. I draw this as Card 1 of 10.

2. Crossing it for good or for ill. The major influence on the question. In a live reading I’ll place it over Card 1 (literally crossing it), but when I’m doing a photo shoot I’ll place it at the top, so you can see the first card clearly.

3. Your goal – what you seek. Not what you really want and not what you think you’re supposed to want, but what you’re going after right now.

4. In the far past. How did you get here? What happened in the past that brought you to this situation?

5. What is passing. What has been influential in recent times but is now going away, perhaps gradually or perhaps suddenly?

6. What is coming. What’s new that you should be looking out for.

7. You as you see yourself. How do you fit into this story? Is that an accurate assessment?

8. The environment in which we work. The wider context of the situation, especially things like politics, cultural trends, and natural phenomena. Many times this is the most informative card in the entire spread.

9. Your hopes and fears. What are you afraid of? What’s holding you back? What are you hoping will happen, and are those hopes realistic?

10. The final outcome. If you continue following the narrative as described by the first nine cards, this is where you’ll end up. Oftentimes this card doesn’t show a definitive place or condition so much as it tells you what things will look and feel like when you get there. As always, if you don’t like what the cards tell you, take action to change the story.

Patterns, combinations, and intuition

The cards in their positions are the beginning of the reading, not the end.

Going into depth on how I read Tarot would require far more than a blog post. And just because I read this way doesn’t mean it’s the best way for you to read. But once all ten cards are on the table, there are things I’m looking for.

How many Major Arcana cards are in the spread? How many of each suit? Are there multiples of a particular number? The more occurrences, the stronger that particular influence.

What cards seem to be related to each other, either to amplify their message or to moderate it?

Perhaps most importantly, what stands out in the cards themselves? Forget the “standard” meanings – what is this card trying to tell you right here right now? In my Divination For 2021, what stood out with The High Priestess was the cauldron. In that reading, the figure isn’t a priestess so much as she’s a witch – a magic user. In the Ten of Swords, it was the narrow band of sunlight in between the horizon and the dark clouds. Yes, things are going to be bad. But they won’t stay bad forever.

the High Priestess and the Ten of Swords from the Celtic Tarot

Sometimes one card just doesn’t fit with the rest of the cards, or with the narrative they create. When this happens, I will usually draw three more cards on top of it, to try to clarify the situation. Sometimes this provides clarity – other times I’m just as befuddled as I was to start with. Divination is an inexact science – it doesn’t always provide the answers we want.

Choose the right tool for the job

The Celtic Cross isn’t the “best” Tarot spread or the “most powerful” or “most ancient” or anything of the sort. It’s not for everyone.

It’s not a good spread for beginners. If you’re just starting out, concentrate on studying the cards and on answering simple questions with a few cards. Remember that you only get better with practice.

It’s often unnecessary for highly intuitive readers. If you don’t need it, don’t bother with it.

But for me, the Celtic Cross provided the structure I needed to get confident doing deeper readings, especially readings for other people. And it continues to provide good results in high level readings.

So I’m going to keep using it.