Page 33 – Musing Mystical

The Magic of the Orphic Hymns, by Tamra Lucid and Ronnie Pontiac

The Magic of the Orphic Hymns: A New Translation for the Modern Mystic, by Tamra Lucid and Ronnie Pontiac
Inner Traditions, 1644117207, 288 pages, August 2023

The mythical musician Orpheus charmed fish, sirens, and weary heroes with his songs while sailing with Jason and the Argonauts in pursuit of the Golden Fleece, but he is best known for his doomed love affair with Eurydice, who died after she was bitten by a snake while fleeing a rapist on their wedding day. Orpheus was so distraught that he descended into the Underworld and convinced Persephone, the Queen of the Dead, to resurrect his wife, on the condition that he not look back while leading her out of Hades.

However, in his eagerness to reunite with her, he couldn’t resist the urge to turn around, and she slipped away from him once again. Upon returning to the surface without his beloved wife, he founded the mystery religion that bears his name and the maenads tore him apart, mirroring the dismemberment of Dionysus by the Titans. A collection of 87 religious poems, known as the Orphic Hymns, were attributed to this cult hero, though the true origin and authorship of them is shrouded in mystery.

In The Magic of the Orphic Hymns: A New Translation for the Modern Mystic, co-authors Tamra Lucid and Ronnie Pontiac revitalize the traditional hymns with fresh new poetic renderings in contemporary English. Like Orpheus, the husband and wife duo are mystical musicians themselves, who founded the experimental rock band Lucid Nation. Both were initiated into the underground music and occult scene of Los Angeles, and Pontiac apprenticed under the metaphysical scholar Manly Palmer Hall. Lucid wrote about their experiences in Making the Ordinary Extraordinary: My Seven Years in Occult Los Angeles with Manly Palmer Hall (2021).

The authors first began working with the hymns in the 1980s, when Pontiac assisted members of Hall’s Philosophical Research Society with a republication of Thomas Taylor’s eighteenth-century translation titled The Mystical Hymns of Orpheus. Pontiac, who was studying ancient Greek in college at the time, was inspired to write his own translation, and Lucid researched the ritual correspondences. Together, they produced the poetic renditions of the traditional hymns contained within this book.

My go-to translation for the past decade has been The Orphic Hymns by Apostolos N. Athanassakis (2013), which is an excellent scholarly resource with extensive footnotes. I was drawn to Lucid and Pontiac’s more flexible poetic interpretations because I’m always looking for beautiful prayers to incorporate into my personal rituals and I thought this book might move me to craft my own hymns as well. However, The Magic of the Orphic Hymns is more than just a divinely inspired poetry collection, and I was impressed by the comprehensive historical background information the authors provide.

In the first half of the book, Lucid and Pontiac explore the origins of Orphism from a well-researched, scholarly perspective, and the influence of Orpheus, “the first rock star,”¹ on great minds throughout history. Through their engaging narrative voices, they have a knack for making what might otherwise be dry history entertaining, and this work is peppered with fascinating anecdotes about philosophers and Roman emperors. The far-reaching spiritual influence of Orphism interested me the most, and I was intrigued to learn that the early Christians saw Orpheus’s underworld journey to rescue his beloved wife as mirroring Christ’s harrowing of hell and the liberation of the virtuous souls trapped there.²

Defining the religion of Orphism is tricky, and scholars have debated if it even existed at all.

“Orphic may have been a catch-all phrase in ancient Greece for anything neither Homeric nor Olympian,” writes Lucid and Pontiac. “The phrase could be a generic category for a cluster of related interests, like New Age in our own culture.”³

According to the Neoplatonist philosopher Olympiodorus, Orphics believed that human beings were created when Zeus struck the Titans by lightning after they cannibalized Dionysus. Humanity is therefore like an electrified Frankenstein monster composed of heavenly Dionysian spirit and corrupt Titanic flesh. Through the cycle of reincarnation, the Orphics supposedly taught that humans could purge themselves of their Titanic impurities over the course of multiple lifetimes and liberate their Dionysian divinity.

Followers of the Orphic mysteries led austere lives and restricted their diets by abstaining from meat and beans. However, authors Lucid and Pontiac state that Olympiodorus is the only source for the Titanic origin myth of humanity being Orphic and the Italian scholar Domenico Comparetti concluded that the Orphics believed in reincarnation based on his writings, so this is an educated guess supported by scant evidence. ⁴

Lucid and Pontiac’s exploration of Orpheus’s wife in a chapter titled, “The Evolution of Eurydice” was especially compelling to me. In the earliest sources, Eurydice is nameless, faceless, and voiceless. She is a shadow projection of Orpheus’s mourning and yearning to possess the woman who was stolen from him by death. She is an ancient victim of the male gaze, doomed to serve as muse for a famous musician while having no true identity of her own.

Her elusive character acquired more substance in retellings. I was fascinated to learn that a name for Eurydice in some early versions of the myth was Agriope, which means “Wild-Eyed.”⁵ This caught my attention because Agriope is also an epithet for Hekate, the goddess of ghosts and witchcraft, in her capacity as leader of the restless dead. Under the name Agriope, Orpheus’s wife appears to be a hungry ghost sent by the Queen of the Underworld to haunt him.

The authors suggest that Eurydice, whose name means “Wide Justice,”⁶ sounds more like an epithet for the goddess Persephone in her role as judge of souls than the name of a mortal wife. I’m inclined to agree, because I find the parallels between Persephone and Eurydice to be striking. Eurydice died of a snake bite after a shepherd or satyr attempted to rape her on the day of her wedding to Orpheus, and according to the Orphic Hymn to Persephone, Zeus raped Persephone in the form of a serpent. The fruit of that unspeakable union was Dionysus. Through her untimely death, Eurydice was, in a sense, abducted by Hades, and through Orpheus’s descent into the Underworld, he was reborn as a Dionysian mystic.

Persephone herself is a key figure in the myth for taking pity upon Orpheus and permitting Eurydice’s return to the land of the living, on the condition that he not look back, lest he lose her forever. Yet, despite this warning, he could not resist the urge to do so. In medieval times, Orpheus’s backward glance “was a symbol of human weakness, illustrating the way even the most dedicated among us, the holiest, cannot escape those moments of desire for material pleasures.”⁷

Carl Jung interpreted Orpheus’s “backward glance” as “a symbol of individuation and the achievement of autonomy.”⁸ Orpheus was fated to lose the love of his life so he would become the renowned mystic and musician he was destined to be. Sometimes the obligations of a relationship can limit one’s ability to pursue the soul’s true calling, and so Orpheus’s romantic hindrance was removed by the force of death, while simultaneously being used as a guiding light to propel him forward.

This poignant insight resonated deeply with me because I have observed in my own life that love lost or unrequited can be a powerful catalyst for personal growth and transformation. Limerence, or romantic obsession for someone unattainable, can serve a higher purpose when it is sublimated into artistic and spiritual pursuits. When I think back on it, it seems that heartbreak was the catalyst for every major breakthrough and turning point in my life, as if the Universe was redirecting me towards something greater, even though I felt devastated at the time.

The second half of this book contains the “Orphic Charms and the Sacred Songs of Orpheus.” The authors have taken creative liberties with their loose translations of the Orphic Hymns, creating “a poetic work, not a scholarly translation.”⁹

The charms consist of the cryptic messages that were inscribed on the Orphic golden leaves, which were buried with the deceased as “passwords for the dead, messages to avert forgetfulness.”¹⁰ My favorite charm tells the departed initiate what words they must speak to the guardians of the lake of memory in order to drink from it:

“I am a child of earth/and of starry heaven,/but my race is of heaven./This you know./I am parched/and perishing./Give me cold water/from the lake of memory.”¹¹

One of my favorite hymns is addressed to Hermes, who is cleverly described with homophones as the “lover of prophets/and profits”.¹² I also adore the hymn to Persephone, in which she is honored as “the star/at the core of the apple.”¹³ The beautiful aquatic imagery of “The Nereids” reminds me of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Little Mermaid”: “Daughters of Nereus,/you live in the golden castle/at the bottom of the sea./Your steeds are Tritons,/the mermen with wings./You delight in the creatures/of the billowing brine.”¹⁴

The Magic of the Orphic Hymns is a poetic odyssey through the history and mystery of Orphism that makes the traditional hymns more accessible to contemporary mystics by rendering them in vivid modern English. Anyone who is curious about the Orphic tradition or interested in revitalizing the hymns in their personal practice will benefit from reading this book. These pages want to be perfumed in incense and awakened with whispered incantations.

The Beloved Dead, by Carrie Paris and Tina Hardt

The Beloved Dead: An Oracle for Divining Ancient Wisdom, by Carrie Paris and Tina Hardt
Weiser Books, 9781578638109, 82 cards, 144 pages, September 2023

After following Carrie Paris for several years and buying a few of her decks, I was excited about getting my hands on The Beloved Dead: An Oracle for Diving Ancient Wisdom.

The beautiful cards are edged in gold and feature old photographs with artful collage treatments. Each card tells a story and connects the reader to guidance from friends or loved ones in spirit. The cards include a Spirit Throne card, which allows you to invite a friend or loved one in spirit to join you for the reading, ten Acts of Love cards, which contain messages and instructions, and 71 Beloved Dead cards, representing “our esteemed family of radiant souls.”⁷

Carrie Paris has a master’s degree in the Cultural Study of Cosmology and Divination from the University of Kent, UK. She has created four Lenormand decks, as well as three versions of the Magpie Oracle, which includes charms used for divination. Paris has also created the Relative Tarot. She and her husband divide their time between California and Italy.

Tina Hardt considers herself a cartomancer, charm caster, and Spiritualist. She is also a creator of several tarot and oracle decks. She was introduced to the world of reading cards in her grandmother’s parlor by her grandmother, an aunt, and two cousins. Hardt lives in Ontario, Canada.

The first day I opened this deck, I posed a question about how best to capitalize on the energy of Mars moving into Scorpio. I utilized the “General Three-Card Spread,” which spoke to the 1) Main Idea, 2) Heart of the matter, and 3) Outcome or Advice.⁸

The cards I drew included Personality, Perfection, and Backstory. For Personality, the guidebook shared that “your soul has the blueprint for your best self, the brightest and most authentic expression of this gift of life.”¹⁵ From this wisdom, I felt the nudge to go for it! To do ME! I also felt that this is no time to shrink back or refuse to shine!

When I read the guidance from Perfection, I learned that it is time to stop being so hard on myself and stop TRYING to be perfect. This message confirmed what I learned from the first card. For the third card, Backstory, the card shared this message:

“The Beloved Dead of Backstory is helping you rewrite inherited scripts. Red pencil out any stale and limiting storylines so that you can make better free-will choices. This card acknowledges that you’re on a journey of self-realization, healing and happiness.”¹⁶

The wisdom of these three cards combined to give me this overall guidance: When I “go for it” in my own imperfect way, I write my own story and enjoy healing and happiness.

Next, I asked a client of mine to allow me to do an Evidential Spread reading for her, which opens the opportunity for spirit communication. This spread is also a three-card reading and features the following keywords for each card:

1) Who (this can also describe an event or incident)
2) Validation
3) Message

My client, who I’ll call KT, asked this question: “Who will step forward to support me in my coaching practice?” I placed the special Spirit Throne card in front of me and shuffled the cards.

The following cards were dealt: Hospitality, Home and Prophecy. When KT saw the first card, Hospitality, which featured a man with a nice smile serving drinks, she immediately said, “That’s my Aunt Lydia! She was a nurse and a doctor’s wife, and they had lots of parties and always entertained lots of people.”

She went on to share that her aunt struggled with an immune-deficiency condition late in life. The wisdom from this card suggested taking better care of oneself and warned of the dangers of over-giving. KT understood perfectly that she often gives 110% to clients and fails to get enough rest or take time to eat nutritious foods.

The second card, Home, was a great validation of the message from KT’s aunt, as she loved to visit her aunt’s home when she was a child. Her aunt’s home had a cozy, welcoming vibe and KT realized that she needed to clear some clutter and make some changes to her own home.

Finally, with the third card, Prophecy, KT’s aunt shared with me that she also “dabbled in cards.” When I related this to KT, she was not surprised. She said that she noticed crystals and an Ouija board in her aunt’s house. Her aunt also shared that she was available to talk with KT anytime in the future.

These three cards joined together to provide this guidance: Take good care of your personal energy, clear clutter, and enjoy your cozy home, so you can shine and better support your clients!

KT loved the wisdom I shared and the reminder to call on her ancestors for support.

I love that these cards can be used for simple readings and basic spirit communication, as well as more layered readings for insight into your personal journey. The Beloved Dead Spread features 12 cards that can “reveal key information about your upbringing and allow you to discover the parallels that exist between your past and present that may still be influencing your future, whether for good or for bad.”¹⁷

Another 12-card spread, The Pillar of Personal Power Spread, can “provide you with a model and blueprint for self-actualization or soul level realignment.”¹⁸

The cards are printed in sepia tones with sky blue or aqua backgrounds. Many of the people in the images sport wings. It’s a really fun deck, yet it also has very serious undertones. The imagery works on many different levels and each reading is informed by the reader’s personal interaction with the graphics. The card stock is a nice weight, and the cards are easy to shuffle. The kit comes in a beautiful box with a magnetic clasp and an indention that easily holds the cards. The box includes a ribbon for pulling out the cards and has ample space for the guidebook.

The Beloved Dead works as a portal into the unconscious. Each of the elements on the cards speak to individuals in very personal ways. I loved focusing on the images and making my own notes and then turning to the guidebook for further wisdom. This deck is not one for doing a quick reading, as it asks you to really sit with the cards and allow the messages to come through in a timely manner. This deck would be best for someone with experience reading cards, and if the person also has experience in mediumship, this would be helpful.

I’m looking forward to using this deck to speak to my ancestors and also offer readings to clients when wisdom from friends and loved ones on the other side might bring a new perspective to life’s many challenges.

Lunar Tarot, by Jayne Wallace

Lunar Tarot: Manifest your dreams with the energy of the moon and wisdom of the tarot, by Jayne Wallace
CICO books, 1800652658, 64 pages, 78 cards, October 2023

The gentle energy of the moon always soothes and calms me, especially when I’m feeling unsettled or anxious, as it reminds me of the cyclical nature of life. Often while stargazing, I find myself wishing I could bottle up the sense of peace and tranquility of the moon’s lights. While I’ve yet to capture the moon’s rays in a jar, Lunar Tarot by Jayne Wallace has done quite a wonderful job channeling the energy of the moon for me to draw upon for guidance and advice when in need.

Wallace is a naturally-gifted clairvoyant who specializes in intuitive counseling, angel cards, psychometry, and tarot cards. She’s previously published tarot decks, including The Angel Tarot, The Moon & Stars Tarot, The Mythic Goddess Tarot, and The Magical Nordic Tarot.

This deck is similar in design to her others with the name of the card at the top and a keyword or two at the bottom. But the images are unique and fitting for the theme of lunar energy. Wallace writes in the guidebook, “I teach you how to tap into your lunar intuition and capture the power of the Moon when you read the cards.”¹⁹

In the colorful guidebook, Wallace offers three spreads: Moon Cycle, Crescent Moon, and The Lunar Clock. Each spread draws upon the divine wisdom of the moon, and Wallace shares the best time in the moon cycle to do the reading. My favorite part of her offered spreads is that she provides a short incarnation for each one to begin the reading.

Wallace provides keywords, meaning, insight into the imagery, a lunar message, and moon mantra for every major arcana card. She provides lots of information about the moon phase featured in the card, often going into the astrological correspondence of the card too. The cards all have the traditional tarot meaning, but Wallace frames her interpretation of the card’s meaning with a gentle, self-reflective energy, prompting readers to question deeper or take necessary action.

For the minor arcana, Wallace goes into detail about the suits and moon phases, describing the relationship between each one. Wands have New Moon energy; Swords have First Quarter Moon energy; Cups have Full Moon Energy, and Pentacles have Third Quarter Moon Energy. Though I am a seasoned tarot reader, seeing the cards through this lens provided new understanding and an opportunity to expand my perception of the cards. Wallace also provides a reference table for the theme of card numbers, regardless of suit, and a helpful paragraph on the significance of court cards.

While the minor arcana cards only have keywords, meaning, and a paragraph-long description of the card’s meaning, with the extra layers of the moon phase and numerology to reflect on too, there’s more than enough to draw upon for insight.

The major arcana cards all have a color palette of blue, greys, and whites, making them feel mysterious like the Moon. Meanwhile, the minor arcana cards are color-coded by suit and simply have the number of symbols representing the suit (i.e. five cups for the Five of Cups). The court cards feature characters with a mixture of skin tones and facial features, making this deck feel very inclusive to all people.

My favorite major arcana card is the Empress. The Empress has a crown of stars above her head, while her stomach is the ripe full moon, which she cradles protectively. The keyword on the card is “Rebirth” and the guidebook reads:

“Look and you will see the evidence and benefits of your recent efforts. New life, beauty, and abundance should abound. You will also want to nurture yourself to try to reclaim your equilibrium.”²⁰

Meanwhile, my favorite minor arcana imagery is Pentacles. The pentacles look like big gold saucers with a star in the middle and jewels around the edges. A big, bright full moon shines in the background of these eye-catching yellow cards.

One thing I really like about this deck is the balance of masculine and feminine energy. The Moon is typically associated with feminine energy, but Wallace does a wonderful job of bringing a soft energy to the traditional masculine cards, such as the Emperor, Hanged Man, and Hermit, which makes them more approachable. For those who have found these energies a bit foreboding, this deck offers a chance to discover a more relatable bond with these cards.

Overall, this beautiful and mesmerizing deck yields readings that feel open-hearted and intuitive. I highly recommend Lunar Tarot for my fellow selenophiles that want to further connect with the spiritual wisdom of the moon. This deck is a good way for those who enjoy tarot to get better acquainted with the moon cycles and tune into guidance that each phase holds. Wallace helps readers to find balance in the ever-changing flow of life, creating opportunities to discover the magic through it all.

Tree Wisdom, by Alice Peck

Tree Wisdom: A Journey of Wisdom, Symbols, Healing, and Renewal, by Alice Peck with illustrations by Melissa Launay
CICO Books, 1800652631, 144 pages, September 2023

Full transparency, I’m a tree hugger. I live on a property that is home to many trees, mostly pine. I hug them, I talk to them constantly. I share my life with them, I ask for their advice. They’ve seen my children grow up, move away, and return with their own children. And today, as I write, the old tree that is in the front of the property, is being cut down. I avoided it for so long, but the majority of the tree is dead and is dropping limbs onto the road that could harm a pedestrian or someone in a car. I made my peace with the tree and thanked it, but I have to admit the grinding of the wood chipper is unnerving. The irony of the fact that it’s being cut down as I write about Tree Wisdom: A Journey of Wisdom, Symbols, Healing, and Renewal, by Alice Peck is not lost on me.

Peck shares a similar love and appreciation of trees. The kernel of the book started with a relationship that she had with a maple tree, one that was a part of her life and amazingly survived Hurricane Sandy. Peck understands the wisdom that trees impart, if we are willing to listen, to engage with and to, as she encourages, be more tree. As she observes, we all have access to trees, no matter where we live. She shares how trees move and steady her.

The book is divided into four “useful but arbitrary”²¹ sections: “Roots”, “Branches”, “Leaves”, and “Seeds”. Each section profiles a type of tree accompanied by Melissa Launay’s colorful illustrations. There are also quotes for each profiled tree from a myriad of individuals from Marcus Tullius Cicero, a Roman philosopher, to poets such as George Marion McClellan and Walt Whitman, and to authors such as Virginia Woolf. Also, for each tree, Peck includes either a suggestion. These suggestions range from how to tree bathe to how to dine on fruits of trees.

The section “Roots” revolves around wisdom, lore, understanding, and, of course, on foundation – our foundations, be they family and/or cultural. She encourages the reader to “consider how we are rooted in time.”²² The interconnectedness of tree systems, whether roots are shallow or run deep, the tenacity of trees to survive. In this section, I particularly liked the profile of Cinnamon and its importance in trade.

The trees in the “Branches” section are associated with symbols, myths, and rituals. Peck shares that for her all trees have meaning, in a general sense and in a very personal way. Many will develop a relationship with a certain tree or grove of trees that are in their lives; the tree you pass every day, the trees you visit every year on a vacation – all personal.

Healing, science, and practical applications are the focus of the “Leaves” section. Leaves are the most obvious way that most of us use to identify trees. “Just as every tree has a specific leaf identity, many trees heal in a specific way.”²³

The “Seeds” section is all about awareness, transformation, and spirituality. “Trees are a lesson in transformation – from a pip and a promise to towering and enduring.” (102) Peck meditates on whether the trees that she sees were planted on purpose or “just the miracle of the wind and weather?”²⁴ She focuses on how trees teach us about hope, transformation, tending to, quiet, solitude and community, healing, and endurance.

“They’re also the way that humans can touch the future. A seed is a promise, a hope, and it’s not just the promise that trees make to us, but the promise that we make to trees – for what’s a tree without the planting, tending, and the protection?”²⁵

The book ends with the profile of the Sequoia, some of which are over 2,000 years old, which was just one of many facts I learned while reading. For instance, I’ll admit to not having known that Frankincense is a tree until I read this book. Its resin is prized and in the New Testament its resin was offered as one of the gifts from the Magi to the baby Jesus. Ayurvedic medicine uses it for healing.

I found myself feeling very zen while flipping through the pages. Launay’s illustrations are bright and colorful, but also convey a sense of calm and stability, just like the towering presence of trees. While Peck shares insights about each tree, Launay captures the tree’s spirit, bringing them to life.

I recommend Tree Wisdom without reservation, and I suggest that you read at least part of it in the company of a tree. The multiple angels Peck approaches our loving tree friends will surely bring inspiration and refreshment to your spirit. Now, I will go to the nursery and select a sapling to plant at the site where my old tree was just felled!

Essential Oils Oracle Cards, by Dennis Mock

Essential Oils Oracle Cards: Wisdom and Guidance from 40 Healing Plants, by Dennis Moeck with illustrations by Ulrike Annyma Kern
Inner Traditions, 9781644118795, 40 cards, 15 pages, September 2023

As someone who has been utilizing essential oils in my life for more than fifteen years, I am excited to see an oracle deck devoted to this subject. Essential Oils Oracle Cards: Wisdom and Guidance from 40 Healing Plants by Dennis Moeck with illustrations by Ulrike Annyma Kern is both beautiful and educational. The wisdom Moeck shares about the plants is equally matched by the guidance he imparts for each card.

Moeck has studied aromatherapy, crystals, psychology, shamanism, ayurveda, and trauma therapy. His coaching practice focuses on consciousness and inner journeys through online courses, workshops, and retreats. Moeck has worked with essential oils for decades. He lives in Germany.

Kern is not only an artist, she is also an author and spiritual teacher. She has created an oracle deck based on archangels and written several books, one of which has been translated into English and features the chakra system. She also lives in Germany.

These cards are very easy to use, and I decided to do a card pull right away. I asked the question: “What do I need to know in order to utilize the power of the Solar Eclipse?”

After shuffling the cards and fanning them out, I drew the card for Lemon.

“The time for cleansing and clarity has come.Refreshed and reinvigorated, you can rediscover your original inner light, a light that will guide you to the truth in this light. … the spirit of women is eager to guide you through the realm of shadows where it will kindle light in the rooms of your mind.”²⁵

What a great message for me, for eclipse season! On the flip side of the card, I read additional guidance that says that lemon will help me to focus on what is essential, fresh, and pure. It also says that lemon aids the solar plexus chakra and that its scent can help me to celebrate life.

The affirmation reads:

“I am ready to open myself to life unconditionally and to welcome what I am.”²⁶

The guidebook suggested that I “connect with the soul of the plant and tell it what is currently on your mind . . . . Imagine that you are integrating with the energy of the healing plant soul and look back on yourself. . . . What advice do you give yourself?”²⁷

Moeck advises the card reader to work with the energy of the card for 21 days, as well as suggesting they diffuse the essential oil or place the oil on pulse points or the heart space. I had some lemon essential oil on hand, so I added it to my diffuser. With the guidance, the image of the lemon plant, and the essential oil wafting through my space, I feel that I was able to integrate the wisdom more easily from the card.

Next, I wanted to reach out to clients and friends and pulled cards for 18 people. The feedback I received is overwhelmingly positive for each of the essential oils and messages shared. Here is what one friend has to say about her card, which was Patchouli:

“PJ drew the Patchouli card for me. From the very first line, I knew this was spot on and PJ had connected with my spirit. This was a week of worldwide turmoil with a personal connection, a relationship dilemma within my family, and a deeper, more personal emotional process that did indeed leave a “crack in my soul.” All areas of my life are in need of soul recognition and healing. Interestingly, Patchouli’s scent is highly obnoxious to me and this really surprised me. The plant, however, challenges me to view it, as well as the events in my life, with a new perspective and allow for the body/soul connection to do its necessary work.” -BB in Dallas

A client who is currently struggling with where she is in life right now has this to say about her card, which was Frankincense:

“Thanks, PJ! The first paragraph of the second side mentioned something about recognizing My Divine Being. I needed the reminder.” – ST in Austin

Finally, a client with the card Cedarwood, shared that she LIVES on Cedarwood Drive! She also added this feedback regarding her guidance:

“I love the message of going forward playfully and trusting the divine timing of things. Less serious. Play, Relax and Trust the process Thank you so much. This resonates so much.” -HC in Boston

These cards are so very easy to use and share with clients. The size of the cards and quality of the card stock work well and will last through many readings. The beautiful illustrations add to the message, without being overbearing or cryptic. I really like this aspect.

In addition to the basic message about the history of the use of the plant and essential oil on Side A, the additional information on Side B adds even more guidance. Moeck shares an affirmation, additional wisdom, a “Top Tip”, key words, and the chakra for which the oil might best be used.

The short guidebook is also very informative and helpful. It shares an introduction, various ways to use the cards, how to phrase your question, and ways to read the cards. Moeck also shares ways to work with essential oils, including important safety notes. He also offers a way to close a card reading:

“Return to your own self, breathe deeply, absorb the advice, and then take a couple of minutes to reflect on it. Are there any other issues where the soul of the plant can deliver support? In this way, by changing roles and switching places with a plant, however many times it takes, you can make a connection and seek the plant’s advice.”²⁸

Essential Oils Oracle Cards is good for readers of all skill levels. It is easy to use and shares information and guidance that applies on many levels. People who love working with essential oils will benefit greatly from the information in this deck. For those new to essential oils, this deck will be a great introduction to essential oils and their uses. I plan to use the deck to close out client readings when I feel led to refer to essential oils.

Pagan Portals – The Norns, by Irisanya Moon

Pagan Portals – The Norns: Weavers of Fate and Magick, by Irisanya Moon
Moon Books, 1789049105, 112 pages, August 2023

From the Weird Sisters in Shakespeare’s Macbeth to the three witches in Disney’s 1993 cult classic Halloween film Hocus Pocus, the Triple Goddess of Fate haunts pop culture, bewitching the masses in the form of three meddlesome hags. Fate’s commercial success in such unflattering incarnations betrays how terrifying the concept of predestination is to contemporary Westerners who tenaciously cling to the secular cult of Free Will, despite the audacious philosophers and neuroscientists like Sam Harris who have declared that free will is an illusion. According to Harris, the conscious mind may believe it’s in control, but it only acts out decisions that have already been made by the subconscious mind. ²⁶ Some people may even become enraged by the idea that there is no such thing as free will, because our culture places such high value on accepting personal responsibility for our successes and failures in life. There is a deep collective fear of not having control over our destinies.

In Pagan Portals – The Norns: Weavers of Fate and Magic, author, witch, and priestess Irisanya Moon reveals that the ancient Norse had a more holistic view, and saw Fate, or Wyrd, as an intricate web that both includes and transcends us. The Norns, the trio of mysterious goddesses who personify Fate in Norse mythology, are ubiquitous spirits, unseen yet all-pervasive, ever weaving the fabric of space and time. They occupy the liminal spaces, moving through us and around us, forever spinning the wheel of the Cosmos, and their spindle of Fate pricks the thumbs of both gods and mortals alike.

Because of their ubiquity, the Norns can be difficult to define. There are the primary three, named Urd, the Norn of What Was, who is associated with the past and creates the thread of life; Verdandi, the Norn of Becoming, or the present moment, who measures the thread of life; and Skuld, the Norn of What Shall Be, who cuts the thread at the end of life. The Norns also include a collective of female ancestral spirits called the dísir, who watch over humanity. Additionally, Moon points out that “a common meaning for norn in modern Icelandic is ‘witch’ or ‘hag’.”²⁷

Instead of rehashing Norse myths that can be found in other books, Moon guides readers to discover who the Norns are by fostering intimate relationships with them. She encourages personal gnosis of these divine beings through a variety of exercises, such as “Stepping into the Worlds of the Norns”²⁸ through trance.

As Moon invited me to travel in spirit to the World Tree and visit the Wyrd Sisters, I was flooded with vivid imagery. In an eldritch forest, I saw the World Tree Yggdrasil towering above the other trees, its evergreen boughs silvered by moonlight, dripping lunar dew over the Well of Fate, pooling in an earthen basin formed by the vast network of knotted roots. Three shadowy maidens rose from the depths of the lake, shifting shape. They coalesced into a trinity of spiders, weaving the elastic web of the Multiverse in the boughs of the World Tree. Infinite worlds were reflected in the dewdrops of their infinite eyes. I began to think of Yggdrasil as a human body, my body. My spine became the tree’s trunk, a ladder of bone that could take me up to Asgard, the realm of the gods, or down into the depths of Hel, the Norse Underworld. I realized that all the trees in the forest around me were other people’s World Trees. We live in a Multiverse where everyone is their own Yggdrasil.

“Everyone has a part of the wyrd, like a web, like a large woven tapestry,” Moon says. “My wyrd intersects with yours, perhaps. Yours intersects and pulls on mine. And all of this is what creates fate and destiny.”²⁹

Together, we all shape Fate as a collective.

I was drawn to this book because I’m a fatalist. I believe that free will is an illusion, but I think that we should behave as though we have free will, and make responsible choices to the best of our abilities, even if our subconscious mind has already made them for us. It appears to me that there are too many external factors limiting any supposed free will that we mortals may have, from mental programming imprinted upon us as children by our parents and the culture in which we were raised, to societal limitations that limit our mobility as adults. I think that when we act out what we believe is our free will and pursue our dreams, we are in fact acting out our soul’s true purpose and what we are destined to do. We are coming into alignment with our True Will, which is the will of Fate.

I believe the excessive praise of individualism in Western civilization is harmful to the collective. The emphasis on individual free will and pulling oneself up by the bootstraps blinds us to systemic abuse and allows the continued oppression of large swathes of people. Everyone’s fate is connected. The focus on individualism creates the illusion that individuals are struggling alone. In truth, their struggles are shared with other people in similar circumstances, but in isolation, they are tricked into believing they should shoulder the burden of circumstances beyond their control all on their own.

I appreciate how Moon compassionately addresses the ways that Fate encompasses circumstances beyond one’s control.

“Dismantling the structures of oppression requires the commitment to uncovering and understanding that people do not all have the same opportunities,” Moon says. “Many are born into places that limit and seek to continue to hold them back.”³⁰

This thought-provoking book had me pondering the shared Fate of the collective, the interconnectedness of people’s individual threads, and how great an impact any word or action, however small it may seem at the time, can have on so many people. I can recall times when the actions of others have inadvertently shifted my path, and I am sure I have had the same effect on other people as well, in ways which I am not aware. Just as Moon says, “I can choose to meet my fate in a way that is honorable and respectful of the collective versus just being out for myself.”³¹

My sole criticism of this work is that the author’s well-meaning efforts to be all-inclusive were superfluous to the point of distraction. For example, Moon spells the word “gods” with double ds (“godds”), to make it more gender inclusive, which I don’t feel is necessary, because I read the word “gods” as gender neutral without a second thought, and my inner editor kept flagging it as a spelling error.³²

Moon also suggests that the gender of the dísir, who are traditionally female ancestors, may make some people uncomfortable, and “it might be more inclusive to expand this to those who birth or those who mother without being attached to gender.”³³ I don’t understand why seeing the dísir as female matrons would be offensive, and I feel that we can learn more about their true essence by examining the traditional perceptions of these ancient spirits instead of projecting modern gender politics upon them. It would be far more interesting to explore why the dísir were perceived as female instead of dismissing their femininity and assigning them whatever gender feels more comfortable. I personally think the focus on female ancestors is beautiful because it emphasizes matrilineal descent, as opposed to our patriarchal society, which frets over paternity and erases the maternal line by only giving children the surname of the father. I feel that dismissing the female gender of the dísir only reinforces these patriarchal views.

It’s no accident that the maternal line is also known as the distaff line. ³⁴ The word distaff is derived from the Old English, dis, meaning “bundle of flax” and stæf, meaning “staff,” so the distaff is a staff on the spinning wheel that was wound with flax in preparation for spinning. Meanwhile, the strikingly similar Old Norse word dís means “goddess,” and the plural form of dísir means “goddesses.”³⁵ Spinning was traditionally women’s work, and the dísir are the spinning goddesses, the collective ancestral mothers. They are inherently feminine, and I think it would be disrespectful to change that just because their gender might make some people feel uncomfortable.

I see the Thread of Fate as the umbilical cord, which nourishes the fetus in the womb and connects the unborn child to the well of ancestral memory (the well of Urd). When the baby is born, the umbilical cord stretches out and is measured by Verdandi, in that precious and fleeting moment when mother and child are still connected. When the cord is cut by the midwife Skuld, the neonate takes their first breath of spirit, and accepts the destiny that has been gifted to them by the Norns.

I gained some wonderful insights into my personal perception of the Wyrd Sisters by experimenting with Moon’s exercises. While I prefer a more traditional view of the Norns, I feel that my disagreement with some of Moon’s progressive views produced creative tension that helped me further clarify my own relationship with these potent spirits.

Pagan Portals – The Norns: Weavers of Fate and Magick is a book that shifts one’s perspective from fearing Fate to embracing the mystery of how our individual fates intertwine with the world’s collective Fate and the greater destiny of the Multiverse. The exercises contained within encourage developing a personal connection with these transcendent powers through journaling, self-exploration, and trance work. For those who love journal prompts and guided meditations, this book can facilitate a deeper relationship with the mysterious spirits of Fate who watch over us all and guide us towards our destinies.

Persephone’s Oracle, by Jennifer Heather

Persephone’s Oracle, by Jennifer Heather
Independently Published, 22 cards, 29 pages, January 2023

Persephone is my goddess archetype, and during the fall, I honor her annual descent into the Underworld to sit on the Iron Throne as Queen of Shadows. As the Sun enters the Venus-ruled sign of Libra, where Saturn is exalted, it is a time for evaluating our relationships and honoring our commitments. I see Persephone as the Virgo Harvest Maiden, led by her psychopomp Mercury into the cavernous Great Below with the Golden Scales of Libra in hand, ready to renew her infernal vows with Hades and share in his judgment of the dead, balancing his Saturnine sternness with her Venusian grace and compassion.

This year, I was thrilled when my Hadean partner surprised me with Persephone’s Oracle as an Autumn Equinox gift. The creator of this deck, Jennifer Heather, is based in the UK and sells this oracle in her ObsidianSirenShop on Etsy. I love supporting Etsy creators, and this deck, as well as her Aphrodite’s Oracle and Hekate’s Oracle, have been on my wish list for a while.

Persephone’s Oracle is a shadow work deck consisting of 22 cards and a slim guidebook devoting a full page to interpreting each one. The entries also include journal prompts to facilitate shadow work and deepen self-knowledge.

In the introduction chapter of the guidebook, creator Jennifer Heather says, “Persephone’s Oracle is symbolic of the journey towards wisdom as experienced by the archetypal maiden descending into the Underworld to face the unknown terror of darkness,”¹ and the cards “depict the transition of the maiden to maturity and the lessons obtained along the way.”² If the cards are read in order, they begin with card 1, titled “Innocence,” relating to Persephone’s beginning as Kore, the innocent Flower Maiden.

The first five cards in the series contain uplifting messages about connecting with your inner child, letting your light shine, and spending more time in nature. The tone shifts with card 6, titled “Surrender,” which speaks of the trauma of Persephone being abducted by Hades in the meadow and carried down into the Underworld, a terrifying ordeal which she had no other choice but to accept. The series continues through various aspects of Persephone’s process of individuation as she is transformed by her journey through the Underworld, and returns to the surface in card 22, titled “Ascension.”

One of my favorite things about Persephone’s Oracle is that the cards are graced with the masterpieces of a variety of famous artists, and the name of the painting, the artist, and the date it was produced is given in the guidebook, so each card is like a mini art history lesson. For example, six cards feature the Art Nouveau paintings of Alfons Mucha, and French Symbolist Odilon Redon’s work appears on four cards. My personal favorite is Proserpine by the Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rosetti (1874).

I immediately connected with this oracle, and as I shuffled, I asked for a message from Persephone. I felt her gentle, loving energy radiating from the cards. “Cycles” jumped out of the deck, which advised me to “harmonize and flow with life’s rhythm.”³⁶ The painting on this card is Autumn by Alfons Mucha (1896). Autumn is depicted as a nymph with long, flowing auburn hair and a crown of chrysanthemums upon her head. She floats in a vineyard, harvesting grapes. The grape vine is sacred to Dionysos and I see Autumn as one of his female followers, the maenads. I imagine her pressing grapes beneath her bare feet to make wine, the blood of Dionysos. Her flower wreath is significant because the ancient Greeks wore chaplets of chrysanthemums to ward off evil spirits.³⁷

According to Scott Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs, mums are protective solar flowers associated with the element of fire. He claims that imbibing an infusion of chrysanthemums is a cure for drunkenness. When worn, he says the flowers protect one from divine wrath, and growing mums in the garden repels evil spirits.

I decided to explore the journal prompts in the guidebook by pulling a tarot card for additional guidance. I chose the journal prompt: “In which areas of my life do I resist change?”³⁸ I pulled the Nine of Knives (Nine of Swords) from The Tarot of Vampyres, my current go-to shadow work deck.

The Nine of Knives depicts a moonlit vampire in a torture chamber, holding a dagger and licking blood off her fingers. There are meat hooks hanging on the wall behind her, reminding me of the Sumerian tale of the descent of the goddess Inanna into the Underworld, where she was killed by the Queen of the Great Below, her shadow twin Ereshkigal, and her corpse was hung on a meat hook. The Nine of Knives brings “change through torment” and indicates that “an enemy is projecting their phantoms onto us.”³⁹

Like Persephone, I resist change when an attacker is attempting to force it upon me. I think this is true for most people, because no one wants to be forced to change against their will, but sometimes we can be our own worst enemies. While some cycles, like the changing of the seasons, are a natural part of life, others, like addictions, negative behavioral patterns, and cycles of abuse are meant to be broken, and hitting rock bottom can be a catalyst for positive transformation. Like the Underworld journeys of Inanna and Persephone, a painful change that is forced upon us can liberate us by destroying a false sense of self and initiate our metamorphosis into a new, more empowered and authentic identity.

The chrysanthemums on the “Cycles” card represent protection from evil spirits, the shadowy phantoms that others project upon us. Flower medicine is one of the gifts of Persephone. Pulling these cards prompted me to get a pot of vibrant orange mums for my front porch, and to press a few flowers in my grimoire for future protection spells.

Persephone’s Oracle is an insightful tool for shadow work and self-discovery, and a great complement to tarot. The paintings stimulate the imagination, lending themselves to additional interpretation. Just as Persephone found her latent powers and the hidden aspects of her personality during her dormancy in the darkness, and bloomed with the renewal of spring, we can do the same by embracing the cyclical rhythms of our lives, and the archetypal journey from darkness to light.

The Rosebud Tarot, by Diana Rose Harper

The Rosebud Tarot: An Archetypal Dreamscape, by Diana Rose Harper and illustrated by Amanda Lee Stilwell
Red Wheel Weiser, 978578638093, 78 cards, 96 pages, June 2023

In The Rosebud Tarot, Diana Rose Harper and Amanda Lee Stilwell have created a beautiful deck of cards that captures a new way to look at Rider-Waite-Smith symbology.. In their own words it is “an archetypal dreamscape.”³⁸

Victorian, Jane Austen, pastoral, and other similar words come to mind when one first flips through the cards. But then, there is a jarring reference to an African queen or the man on the moon. The symbology takes many, many turns – each one more interesting than the last. Pop culture, movie references, and geographic points also play roles in the deck.

Diana Rose Harper is a tarot reader, astrologer, energy worker, writer, and mentor. She considers herself a diviner who is “deeply immersed in the symbolic languages of myth and poetry.”⁴⁰ She lives in Southern California. Harper’s website is: https://ddamascenaa.com/

Amanda Lee Stilwell is an artist and witch who practices various types of magic. Her art is a combination of digital collage elements and includes graphics from pop culture, vintage imagery, and ritual altar spaces. She currently lives in Chicago. Learn more about Stilwell at: https://amanda-lee-stilwell.tumblr.com/

Harper begins the guidebook with a brief tarot history and structure of a typical deck before how the suits in this deck differ from the traditional Rider-Waite-Smith deck. She discusses a bit about the elements of the suits and then dive into the Major Arcana. She also shares beautiful poetry inside the stories woven for each of the Major Arcana Cards.

The deck is a nice size and easy to shuffle with small hands. The card stock is a nice weight and will hold up well to repeated use. I love the matte finish, which complements the vintage look. The color palette is subdued overall, with tiny pops of bright colors on selected cards. The cards have borders, with a large bottom border that holds the name of each card.

Harper and Stillwell have chosen to use unusual symbols for the standard swords, cups, wands, and pentacles of the Minor Arcana:

Air: Swords = Shears
Water: Cups = Watering Can
Fire: Wands = Staff
Earth: Pentacles = Pots

The court cards also utilize unusual monikers:

Page = Curiosity
Knight = Velocity
Queen = Generosity
King = Sovereignty

This note helps the reader with the court cards:

“We highly encourage you to uncouple mainstream gender from your tarot practice as much as you can, is it will greatly enhance and improve your interpretations!”⁴¹

I love the way that the full color guidebook is arranged. Each Major is displayed on a double page spread in the front of the book. Near the back, the pip cards are grouped together by number on a double page spread. All of the 2’s (water, fire, air and earth) are shown on two pages and so on. The court cards are similarly grouped at the very back of the book. This style makes navigation easy and effortless.

I dove into the allure of The Rosebud Tarot and did my favorite Mind-Body-Spirit spread with the deck. My question was simply: What do I need to know for today?

I drew 2 of Fire, Generosity of Earth (Queen), and 10 of Earth. From these cards, I divined that I was armed with guidance to light my way, fortified with love and strength in family and a “gleeful legacy.” In fact, the 10 of Earth was my favorite card in that spread and the creators had this to say:

“Incarnational delights create a gleeful legacy, the joy of being shared across both time and space.”⁴²

The cards are playful and yet pack a punch! I enjoyed the guidebook messages so very much, yet I also got lost in the imagery and allowed myself to welcome my own intuitive hits. Harper includes a spread called The Rosebud Blooms, which features eight cards in a design that looks like a rose. It can work as eight cards, or you can use it simply as a three-card spread. I chose the three-card option for one friend who asked about the upcoming Aries Full Moon.

The three card spread features:

1. Sweetness at the center: the very heart of the matter
2. Stem: the structure holding things up
3. Root: an important underlying factor

For my friend, I drew the Tower, Hang-up (their version of Hanged Man), and 8 of Fire. From these cards, I learned that although the current chaos my friend is going through is rocking her world, she can stay present and go within to get a new perspective. Finally, she focuses on consistent movement that feels right in her heart. This is the affirmation I created for her:

“My life magically rearranges itself when I am present and open my heart to a new view, honor my desires and go forward.”

She wrote to thank me for the reading and shared that she is currently considering moving ahead with taking new coursework and adding to her work as a yoga teacher.

This deck would be good for an intermediate reader or seasoned tarot reader. I feel that it might be too challenging for a new reader who does not have a good grasp on the names of the pip cards or court cards. Anyone who has worked with Rider-Waite-Smith symbols would enjoy this deck and the fun graphics and rich poetry and prose of the guidebook.

I really enjoyed working with The Rosebud Tarot. I liked learning new symbols for the pip cards and court cards and feel that this new information adds to my knowledge base and divining skills. I can see myself using this deck for client readings.

Undreaming Wetiko, by Paul Levy

Undreaming Wetiko: Breaking the Spell of the Nightmare Mind-Virus, by Paul Levy
Inner Traditions, 1644115662, 416 pages, May 2023

In the modern (mis)Information Age, a collective madness has possessed the mob through mainstream media. “Fake news,” conspiracy theories, and pernicious lies spread like wildfire across the internet, confusing the masses. Identity politics and outrage culture further divides people and eats them alive. Author Paul Levy calls this psychic disease that has infected humanity wetiko (pronounced “wet-tee-ko”), named after an evil cannibalistic spirit in Native American mythology.⁴³

Levy’s vision of wetiko is informed by the integration of Buddhism, Jungian psychology, Gnosticism, western politics, and his personal traumatic experiences with “archetypal evil,” which manifested in his abusive father. By creatively appropriating the name wetiko, Levy found a potent way to personify the cross-cultural phenomenon of psychic blindness wreaking havoc on humanity.

In 1981, Levy had a shamanic initiation and spiritual awakening that was catalyzed by the trauma of abuse, during which he was hospitalized multiple times and misdiagnosed with manic depression (now known as bipolar disorder). Being institutionalized only traumatized him further, and these experiences made him conscious of the dreamlike nature of reality, opening his eyes to the psychospiritual illness of wetiko through firsthand experience. Levy broke free of the abusive psychiatric establishment and became an art teacher and wounded healer, assisting others in spiritual awakening as the founder of the Awaken in the Dream community, based in Portland, Oregon.

Levy has been writing about wetiko for more than twenty years, and has created his own acronyms for describing this elusive phenomenon. In his first book on the subject, titled The Madness of George W. Bush: A Reflection of Our Collective Psychosis (2006), he referred to what he would later call wetiko as “malignant egophrenia, or ME disease,” because it clouds one’s self-perception, or identity.⁴⁴ Levy expanded upon these insights and adopted the name wetiko in Dispelling Wetiko: Breaking the Curse of Evil (2013) and Wetiko: Healing the Mind-Virus that Plagues our World (2021). He also detailed his personal traumatic experiences in Awakened by Darkness: When Evil Becomes Your Father (2015).

In his sixth and latest book, Undreaming Wetiko: Breaking the Spell of the Nightmare Mind-Virus, Levy says that “finding the name for what is afflicting us is like a deliverance from a nightmare,”⁴⁵ and “the cure for wetiko is to see it.”⁴⁶ Naming this phenomenon objectifies it, calling it out into the open so that it can no longer hide in the shadows.

Levy asserts that wetiko is highly adaptive and has thrived on the internet as a “techno-virus.” ⁴⁷ I was instantly hooked on this book because it gives a name for a psychic contagion I have observed online. I unplugged from the matrix of social media about a year ago and one of the main reasons I deleted all of my accounts was to protect my mind from the sensory overload of advertisements and other people’s opinions. I felt like I was being psychically drained every time I logged in, so learning about the “mind-virus” spread by the wetiko spirit objectified the overall bad vibes I was sensing when I was on socials.

Levy believes the best cure for this collective mental illness is to remove the mask of forged identity and get in touch with our true selves. Creative self-expression helps us connect with our authenticity. Like a stagnant pool of water mirroring a cloud of blood-sucking mosquitoes, the rise of social media and online influencers has given wetiko an internet breeding ground to further brainwash, confuse, and distort the perceptions of the masses, encouraging escapism through social media addiction and comparison to others instead of turning us within to seek the truth of who we are as individuals. Social media encourages identification with a false, filtered public persona, which is reinforced by how many likes people receive on their vacation pictures and selfies. Social media touches people’s deepest insecurities and exploits them.

We can’t connect with our authenticity if we hide behind filters and deny the flaws, secret pain, and traumas of our shadow selves. I believe the New Age Movement has also been hijacked by wetiko, because there is a toxic denial of negativity in this popular spiritual community in favor of love, light, and positive vibes only! which encourages complete denial and repression of the shadow aspect of the psyche. This kind of delusional spiritual bypassing and willful blindness gives wetiko a safe space to flourish and spread like cancer.

Wetiko is nourished by darkness, and thrives in our unconscious blind spots. Willful ignorance and denial makes us complicit in its devious workings. When we do so, Levy claims we are conspiring in the murder of Christ, crucifying the living light within. Embodying the salvific light of truth is the only thing that can restore our sight and liberate us.⁴⁸

In Undreaming Wetiko, Levy reveals that this mind-virus originates and proliferates through abuse. Unresolved ancestral trauma, family curses, and child abuse are the gnarled poisonous roots of wetiko that burrow deep within our subconscious minds. When we incarnate into our family line, we inherit and unconsciously channel the collective ancestral trauma, giving it an opportunity for liberation through physical manifestation.

“Like a toxic entity,” Levy says, “this unprocessed trauma becomes an ancestral spirit that penetrates and insinuates itself into the core of the child’s being.” ⁴⁹

This passage struck me as particularly illuminating, as it implies that part of our life purpose is to heal the unresolved ancestral trauma that was imprinted upon us at birth. This means it may manifest in our lives in such a way that we are forced to recognize and consciously work through it in order to fully process and resolve it. However, if we are unconscious and sleepwalking through life, we may become possessed by this spirit of ancestral trauma and recreate the abuse, thus perpetuating the cycle.

I resonated deeply with this section because I feel like I am alchemizing at least three generations of trauma through my maternal bloodline: the ancestral trauma my mother experienced and passed down to me, my personal trauma, and what I unconsciously projected onto my own children because of my unhealed wounds and life challenges.

“When parents repress their unconscious and do not responsibly do their inner work,” Levy says, “it radiates out into the family environment and infects the children, who will be compelled to live out the repressed, unconscious, unlived lives of the parents.”⁵⁰

This psychic projection of unresolved trauma and emotional issues is what causes multigenerational family curses.

It’s easy to place blame on an abusive or neglectful parent, but I feel it’s important to recognize that they may have been overwhelmed by the radioactive psychic material they were attempting to transmute, and passed some of it down because it was simply too much for one person to handle. I believe that was the case with my own mother, who confided in me about her intense trauma, and believed she had broken the family curse over me in the name of Jesus. However, when she placed her palm upon the crown of my head and spoke in tongues, I felt the weight of that curse, and I believe my mother inadvertently transferred the burden of whatever she had repressed and denied onto me.

There is, however, hope. According to Levy, as we heal ourselves, we heal our entire family line. This is very reassuring to me, because I fear it’s too late to mend any damage I may have caused my own children while my wounded self was raising them, but this indicates that any private healing work I do now will benefit everyone in my family line, both past and future. Time is nonlinear, and as multidimensional spiritual beings, our healing work radiates throughout time and space, benefiting not only our direct lineages, but also the entirety of the human race.
Wetiko works through our blind spots. To see them, we have to be honest with ourselves about whether or not we are acting out or condoning the abusive behavior we are trying to heal within ourselves. This is what makes healing work so difficult. By being touched by abuse, we have absorbed and internalized it, and it can unconsciously seek expression through us.

So we have to be truthful with ourselves about how the abuse we have experienced is manipulating our own behavior and worldview. This can be really challenging because no one wants to identify with something that harmed them, and no one likes to admit they have the potential to cause the same harm to others. In fact, according to Levy, it’s important to not identify with it, which can cause feelings of despair and thwart the healing process. A delicate balance must be struck between owning our shadow impulses and not being defined by them.

Truth-tellers are one of the greatest threats to wetiko. When we share our emotionally-charged survival stories, and other people become angry and attack us, they are speaking for wetiko by reenacting the very abuse we are shedding light upon. Wetiko wants to silence us, and becomes embodied through our unhealed attackers, who attempt to shut us down and bully us when we speak our truth.

This can be re-traumatizing for us, but it can also be an opportunity to recognize that our words have deeply touched their own unintegrated and unconscious wounds, and we should not take their projections personally. Knowing that their perceptions of us are being clouded by their own unconscious wounding, which has been triggered, or re-activated, by our stories, we can deflect their projections and be more firmly grounded in our own truth.

Undreaming Wetiko is an essential text for those who are deep-diving into shadow work and healing ancestral trauma. I feel it validated a lot of my intuitive realizations about family curses and intensified my personal healing work by compelling me to journal more about my traumatic experiences. Levy’s insights have also helped me to identify the shadow projections I have absorbed from my parents that are not a part of my authentic self. I will likely reread this book in the future because there is a lot of excellent information that may require additional readings to fully metabolize. For those who are open and receptive to its teachings, Undreaming Wetiko is a phenomenal book that will assist in transformative healing breakthroughs and awaken the divine light within.

Real Sorcery, by Jason Miller

Real Sorcery: Strategies for Powerful Magick, by Jason Miller
Weiser Books, 1578638003, 256 pages, July 2023

Sorcery, the wielding mystical powers and tapping into otherworldly energies has captivated human imagination since the dawn of time. It is no wonder that sorcery has been a popular subject in literature, movies, and even video games. But what exactly is sorcery? How does it work? And can it really be practiced in the real world? These answers and more can be found in Real Sorcery: Strategies for Powerful Magick by Jason Miller, who assures readers that magic is real and with consistency and dedication everyone has the ability to become a sorcerer.

I was drawn to Real Sorcery because I knew that Jason Miller had lived in southern New Jersey, where I currently live, and connected with the “spirit of place”; he’s well known in the magical communities around here. I’ve always enjoyed his “keep it real” style of writing and the frank way he shares his magical insight. While I’ve been on his email list for quite some time now, which I highly recommend as an introduction to Miller’s work since he leads group spellwork and offers live classes throughout the year, the only book of his I have read previously is Financial Sorcery. Given that Financial Sorcery absolutely shifted my mindset in regard to wealth, aiding me in finding more lucrative jobs and creating a better financial situation overall, you would think I’d have picked up his other titles, such as Protection & Reversal Magick and Consorting with Spirits.

Luckily, like the titles just mentioned, Real Sorcery was recently republished with new commentary on Miller’s original text; in this case, Real Sorcery is the updated version of The Sorcerer’s Secrets: Strategies in Practical Magick (2009). The additional text from Miller adds a new layer of depth to the previous work, inviting readers old and new to see how his thoughts have changed (or not) over the past decade.

The content itself is rich as ever, filled to the brim with practical advice for readers wishing to learn more about how to take their magic practice to the next level. What I like most about Miller as a teacher is that he expects something from his students. He writes:

“If magick is a fantasy for you, then of course you want it all to just jump to life because of how magickal you are, but if we accept that Sorcery is real, with everything that implies, then that expectation should dissipate like fairy dust, revealing the truth that it takes work to get good at things, and that discipline and persistence will outperform natural talent at every turn.”⁴⁹

Miller reminds the readers that magic is real, but so are certain conditions of our reality. Therefore, instead of relying on magic alone, his strategy is to work with the conditions in play rather than against them. And it goes without saying, this often takes a heap of self-awareness, willingness to learn from one’s mistakes, and resilience in the face of disappointments. For some, this might feel like a stripping of enchantment from their practice, but for many it’s a reassurance that with time and practice, one can improve their sorcery.

“Part One: Basic Training” is dedicated to teaching readers the basic magical foundation he operates from as a sorcerer, and it’s certainly eclectic! What stands out about Miller’s imparted wisdom is that he isn’t afraid to learn and work with various magical systems, as he recognizes the universal similarities that underlie different traditional systems. I want to frame it as a distillation of many great truths into a workable system for readers, but I say this without implying it’s reductive in any sense. In fact, I find his approach extremely liberating, and it helped me to see how the magical working of different paths and traditions are all working with the same planes and principles.

“Part Two: Strategic Sorcery” has chapters focused on various types of magical workings: divination, influence/persuasion, finance, protection, love/lust, and more! All the sections have information that is both magic and mundane, making it easy for readers to employ Miller’s wisdom in their practice at their current skill level. While sharing spells, chants, and other general “how-to” guidance, such as gesture and vocal commands and creating altars, Miller imparts so much first-hand knowledge of his own experience. I find this invaluable as a reader; I want to hear the stories of magical workings gone right and wrong to have a more well-rounded idea of what the heck I’m doing and the myriad of potential consequences.

While there’s plenty I’ve learned from this book, the current takeaways that are still churning in my mind are the reminder that I can determine my own magical ethics – Miller absolutely works in the gray area, leaving room for readers to decide what workings they’re comfortable with – and the concept that I don’t have to obsessively protect myself. For all I’ve learned about protection magic, Miller was the first person to acknowledge that too much protection and defense can actually hinder other types of magical working, such as spirit communication. These two insights overall seem to be pointing to a rebalancing of my current workings, giving me the confidence to venture into a new magical landscape.

For those of you ready to delve into the secrets of sorcery and explore the fascinating world of magic, Real Sorcery is a wonderful place to begin. Miller provides a wonderful foundation to begin your sorcery path or enhance your current level of skill. From the different types of spells and rituals to the potential benefits and risks of practicing magic, Miller cuts through the fluff to provide clear guidance. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is serious about starting or furthering their magical practice.