Parting the Mists

Alright, don’t freak out – the death card is not literal. We can honor death at this time of year, but this card generally refers to something that is going to (or needs to) leave your life or perhaps a new beginning. Have a wonderful Friday!

DEATH – The eternal cycle begins here

’Tis not the end
though I may pass in the night
I get to do my time over
Although you may get a fright!

Many Pagans believed that death was the beginning of the cycle of life. When you think about it, most people consider the act of “birth” to be the beginning of the life cycle – we are born, we live, and we die and, depending on your beliefs, you may get to go round again. Instead, Pagan cultures see death as the beginning of a whole new adventure – the place where your soul gets to choose where it incarnates, why and what it wants to experience. Then and only then, does it get born into a body that lives and eventually dies, before returning to ride a new cycle.

Halloween is a celebration of death as a part of life. As humans are conscious beings, we know about death and many are afraid and uncomfortable about it. Halloween illuminates the universal truth that all of us will die, just as all of us were born, so to be fearful of that end process is fairly pointless. Halloween asks us instead to make friends with death (just as we seem friendly with birth) and to not allow our fears and grief to bring us unnecessary pain.

Do not be afraid if you pull the Death card as it simply means that something is falling away, or will do so, so you can begin strongly afresh. There is a great power in this clearing. If you pull this card at Halloween particularly, the message is stronger still and you should actively celebrate this new beginning.

The Halloween Oracle by author Stacey Demarco and artist Jimmy Manton

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Tis a rainy, dreary Day 2 here in Southeast Kansas, but I’m actually excited. I work for the local library, and today I get to help deliver on the Bookmobile, including our Books and Treats bag for adult patrons. I’ve wanted to help on the Bookmobile since it was bought in February of 2020, so this will be a fun day for me, rain or shine!

OK, so on to business.

Despite what popular culture would lead us to believe, the Cauldron was not originally a magical implement but a nourishing, healing one – it was the tool with which families cooked, made healing tonics, and more. It would have been on the hearth or hanging above the hearth fire, one of the hearts of the traditional home of old. Take some time to brew some healing energy for yourself and loved ones today.

Blessings!

CAULDRON – Synergy and healing

Where all things come together
Under pressure, flowful synergy
A new thing is created
A crucible of infinity.

A typical depiction of a witch sees her standing over a boiling cauldron slowly stirring the bubbling and mysterious contents. As she stirs the enormous metal over the raw flames, she cackles and incants commands to all the elements, transforming the contents into something magical.

Cauldrons were commonly used in ancient and medieval times for everything from the nightly meal to the making of medicines. This “family crucible” was usually placed within the hearth of the home, making it an essential part of the gathering of family. Much healing and nourishment came from the cauldron.

Should you receive the Cauldron card, it indicates the importance of combining a variety of techniques or elements to get the best result. Do not pull all your eggs in one basket. Refuse to choose just a single rigid pathway when a variety of ways are there to be enjoyed and experienced. You can find your own ways to create something new. The cauldron is a deeply transformational tool – things change once they are put under pressure. Resilience is being cultivated over time and this means that you will be able to withstand any negative pressure much more healthily from the inside out.

The Halloween Oracle by author Stacey Demarco and artist Jimmy Manton

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I love this card. The Hearth, whether you have a literal fireplace hearth or your kitchen stove, is such an important part of the home. Brigid is another good goddess of the hearth, for those of us with a more Celtic flavor to our tradition. So today, let’s focus on what home means to you and how to make yours align more closely to your ideal.

Blessings!

Hearth

The heart of every home
The fire that unites
Winter’s warmth centres
Stories, love, and delight.

The ancient Romans believed that every home had a heart and it was the hearth. Where the fire burned, the family gathered for sustenance, communication, and protection. This concept was so important to the culture that there was a huge city hearth – the Vestal temple – where the fire of the home goddess, Vesta, burned forever without ever going out. This sacred flame was protected by the soldiers with their very lives should there be an invasion.

The place where the Goddess Vesta was honored within every ordinary home was also the hearth, and it is where women prepared food and cooked. Some of the food was always offered back into the fire as an offering to Vesta for her blessing and protection. Often husbands were sent away on military duty for years on end and their wives at home were not just expected to keep the home and and often the business running, but to wait for their husbands faithfully until their return. They prayed to Vesta to ensure their family members’ safe return and to keep the fires of love stoked. The saying “Keep the home fires burning” was inspired by this practice.

Should the Hearth card appear in your divination, you are being asked to look to your idea of what home and family is for you. Take the time to build up your “love” fire and have it burning brightly. Make your relationships a priority. If there is conflict within your home and family, it is time to take concrete steps to address the issue for good. If you or a member of your family is away from home due to travel and work, know that protection is being given.

The Halloween Tarot by author Stacey Demarco and artist Jimmy Manton

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This a beautiful card – and probably made so we don’t look away from it in a hurry. Anger can be a powerful tool for change, unless we let it fester and become a toxicity we ourselves spew even when we think we are doing what’s right. We must forgive ourselves for past mistakes and missteps and forgive others for past transgressions (which is not to say we have to let them back in our lives). This is difficult stuff, but doable.

Have a wonderful weekend!

FORGIVENESS – Reducing burden

A wrong is done
Consequences you cannot deny
But to hold a grudge is to drink poison
and think that the other person will die.

Being a cold-season festival, Halloween is the perfect time to pause and think about how things actually are in our lives and what heavy burdens we do not wish to carry through these harder, leaner times. Some of this heavy-heartedness may relate to old relationships or grievances. Some may relate to negative feelings we hold onto tightly about others and even a lack of compassion for the “mistakes” we have ourselves made.

It is said that it takes a “big person to apologize” but in many ways it takes an even bigger person to forgive. When we hold grudges, the negative energy is incredibly toxic. It is like drinking a poison and expecting the “other” unforgiven person to die! Whilst we may even harbor feelings of revenge (and to be honest, that does feel good for a while), it is important that we move those feelings along to forgiveness and release as soon as possible for our own health and wellbeing.

If you have chosen this card, think about who it is that you could be forgiving – and that includes yourself.

The Halloween Oracle by Stacey Demarco, art by Jimmy Manton

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Today’s card is a sign that we are using our brain when we ought to be conferring with our gut feeling – another word for intuition – more. Wisdom is not one or the other but both in balance.

Have a good day!

SCRYING – Intuition

Scrying is the divination technique of seeing unconscious images (or images from the divine or supernatural) appear upon or within a surface. People scry into a crystal ball, a black mirror, water, even the surface of ice. It is a very ancient technique and one traditionally enacted on Samhain (Halloween).

The keys to effective scrying are being as relaxed as possible, minimizing possible distractions, softening your gaze and allowing. The enemy of effective scrying is distraction, both from inside and out. Turn off the phone, electric lights anywhere you can see them, any music, and if you are scrying outdoors, take the time to set into the environment and listen to all the noises so that your mind will not need to break your focus later. It is also vitally important to settle the mind as much as you can.

If you regularly meditate, you may wish to use those techniques or otherwise you can simply shut your eyes and focus on slowing your breath – this is usually very effective. If you have a specific question for the scrying medium, state it up front. Then, when you feel relaxed, turn your focus inward. Imagine pulling your energy within you and then you focus on the third eye point (the chakra point on the center of the forehead, just above the eyebrows) and imagine opening it. Then gaze in a soft unfocused way at your scrying surface and simply allow images to form and observe what present itself to you. Do not engage your rational mind – this is about receiving and not thinking!

Should you pull the Scrying card, I suggest you try it for starters. It also indicates that you may wish to develop your intuition further and not rely solely on the logical part of your mind for all the answers. It takes a balance of logic and imagination and intuition for true wisdom.

The Halloween Oracle by author Stacey Demarco and artist Jimmy Manton

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We often wonder what lies ahead. Will a new venture be successful? Is a new love interest a worthy investment of your time? This card signifies that things will go well when kept in balance.

Have a great Monday!

BARMBRACK – Sweetness and synergy

A pea, a cloth, a coin, a ring, and stick
Within a loaf of speckled sweetness
Slice it and eat it
A glimpse of my fate’s completeness

Not quite a cake and not quite a bread, barmbrack is a sweet loaf, larger than a typical bread loaf, baked with flour, sugar, salt, and dried fruits such as raisins. The making of barmbrack is an Irish tradition that still stands around Samhain. The person baking the loaf would be sure to set the intention for love, truth, and synergy while preparing. Inside the dough, a number of special objects are hidden and baked into the loath.

The objects are used as a kind or random oracle – each one has a particular meaning which represents the fate of the person who found it in their slice! The traditional objects include a coin, a pea, a stick, a ring, and a small piece of cloth like muslin. Some other additions, made in more modern times, were religious medals.

Should your slice of brack contain a coin, this would indicate prosperity and good luck. The pea unfortunately meant that no marriage would occur for you that year, yet finding the ring meant a marriage was certain. The stick – to be avoided at all costs – indicated disputes and unhappiness and finding the cloth meant bad luck and little money ahead.

When you pull the Barmbrack card, it indicates a curiosity to know what is ahead but it’s important to balance that with the now – after all, we have the tools to change our future should we choose. The sweet synergy of barmbrack – all the ingredients including the objects are more complete and powerful together, than they are individually, should encourage you to seek your own “sweet spot.”

The Halloween Oracle by Stacey Demarco, art by Jimmy Manton

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Yet another card that touches on transformation and change – something is definitely in the air!

MUMMY – Change

The sand in his mouth
The bandage wound
Jealous of the living
Eternal life bound

The ancient Egyptians took death very seriously. Death was not seen as many of us see it – a finality to be dreaded – but as just the beginning of a new life and often eternal life, in a better place, the “afterlife.”

The practice of honoring and preserving the body through a complex process of mummification was central to ancient Egyptian culture. This was not just a physical embalming process but a carefully enacted ritual process that ensured preservation in the next world. Many other cultures also mummified their dead including the Incas, the Argentineans, the Maori, and many cultures of the Torres Straight Islands.

In our modern horror genres, the mummy has become an icon. From early horror writing at the turn of the century to the very popular films The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, the plot normally revolves around the mummy returning to life and cursing and hunting down the living. The discovery of King Tutankhamen’s tombs and other long-hidden Egyptian treasures in the 1920s in particular sparked an explosion in mummy-related films and literature.

Should you pull the moaning Mummy card from the deck, know that change is inevitable and that no matter how hard you try, things will not be preserved exactly the same way. The card also indicates that this change will be for the better. The endings, the closed doors, the barriers? This is just a healthy pause and and an indication that a change of tactics is needed. You are not cursed – you have just developed a pattern. You can take control and change it.

The Halloween Oracle by author Stacey Demarco and artist Jimmy Manton

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