Tarot Cards and Arcana in general.

[SkieFireYokana]

I have the same sort of system for psychoanalysis, except mine is on a subconscious level and operates more on "Can I see them doing this within my knowledge of them?". Interestingly, it makes for a moderately accurate gaydar. In text is when it's the best, because I normally can--after a year or two of talking via IM--understand the two or three or sometimes only one possible line that they'll respond with. Longer responses escape me, but I know what word they'll use--"Yeah", "Eh.", "Sure.", et cetera--so what others might attribute to psychic activity I attribute to knowledge of the person. My mind puts all the information I have of someone into a sort of "aura" around them, which FEELS like something nonphysical that is there, but I don't know it is for certain. The evidence is actually towards the "magickal" realm--I prefer "ethereal" or "psionic"--existing, but I have no way to conclude once and for all which it is. I just sort of treat both as plausible, and to tell the truth I sort of believe both.
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Happy Fourth of July everybody! The funniest thing about this signature is that I wrote it on the fourth of July, 2010, and it's probably going to be here for several months.

[kimodragon]

I use majick as I do a teaspoon. Or a gun. Or a book. Or my hand. Or this computer. Or you!

All of these things exist outside of my self.

And in order to have any influence of any of these things I must understand the purpose for their existence first.

And then I must accept that I am about to change their existence.

I use tarot, candles, crystals, water, spirit to explain, test and accept the existence of the things and creatures around me.

Different ways to look at the many facets of life. To bring an understanding about existence that I can accept. Or in the case of another coming to me for communication, an understanding that they can accept.

Tarot cards are as useful as the book. They can give instructions on how to accomplish a task. Or they can tell a story for the purpose of enlightenment of the seeker. It is not my will that enhances the reading. But my reading and instruction that influences the will of the seeker. The only source of mystisism is that of the spirits of myself and the seeker coming into contact with one another.

The candles I use as I do the gun. To direct the light as I would the bullet. Or to help interupt and redirect the will of a person. Many, many people believe in candle majick even though they deny the existence of majick. Happy birthday to you! Now make a wish and blow out your candles. If you can blow out the light of the candles with one breath your wish will come true.

The teaspoon and the crystals serve the purpose of meditation.

I could pour the sugar from the bowl and swirl the cup to mix the sugar into my tea. But to pick up the spoon is to acknowledge the spoons purpose. And as I scoop from the sugar bowl I concentrate on the correct amount of surgar for the enjoyment of my tea. As I use the teaspoon to stir the tea I enjoy the chimes of the spoon striking the sides of my cup. It is relaxing and the swirls of the tea created by the teaspoon help me to meditate and anticipate the taste of the tea. And to help to bring me into the realization of tea time.

Water and majick both exist in similar fashions. As a vast ocean that was once thought to be forever and unexplainable. Now we use it travel, and food, and recreation. And we still do not know every thing about it.
As with a river you can stretch out your hand and take a drink of majick or you can jump into it and let it carry you where it will.
Without the existence of water life can be miserable. But if you are the one that has control of the water you can influence the will of life around you. But if you are the one without the water, then he who has it has influence in your life. And you will listen!
Water can fit into any container that you may find. Water follows the riverbed or it overflows its boudaries and flows where it wills.
Water can drowned you or it can save your life.
The flow of water can be stopped by placing barriers in its path. And yet if you can influence its speed and concentrate its flow enough. You can cut steel!


Both water and majick are very important to life.

I am using my hands to type on this here computer in order to communicate to you of majick.
So that we may share a common spirituality.

Thanks for listening.
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From you I receive to you I give
Together we share
For this we live

[MythRat]

You aura is an outer reflection of your inner energies, nothing more, nothing less. Not all people are blue, in fact, most people have more than one colour. There should be one main colour (a reflection of a person's general energies/mood), and there'll probably be a handful of other colours. These should be in layers, any spikes of other colours are indications of inner problems, not outer ones. Someone with a mostly blue aura with a little green and yellow is most likely going to be someone kind and clear-headed with a talent for healing (if you look at the auras of good doctors and nurses, their auras are mostly green because green has to do with healing). Now if someone's aura has, say, a dark red or black spike in the vicinity the person's back, it's probably an indication of back pain (generally spikes relate to the location they're in but not always), sometimes spikes are related to the chakra they're closest to, it takes experience to get a feel for the different tone. I'm not that good at reading aura's but my mom is so I asked her, hehe.

Tarot cards are not governed by spirits unless you purposely use them that way and that method is very dangerous because, as was said, you never know what sort of spirit you're attracting unless you have protective wards set up to keep the ill-tempered sort out.
Tarot cards allow YOU to basically link with the universe and draw insight from it through the cards. Using that method, the only spirit involved is yours. Much safer and generally more accurate as well.
Doing a reading on yourself is not so much bad luck as that the reading generally tends to come out as gibberish or if it does make sense there's the possibility of you misinterpreting the reading because of your obviously biased position in it. Tarot card meanings are somewhat vague and always circumstantial so if you really wanted to, even on a subconscious level, you could interpret them as something they're not just because that's how you really want to see it. It takes a lot of practice and study to be able to do accurate readings on yourself. It's sort of like a doctor trying to diagnose themselves, it's not recommended because there's too much possibility for error unless you've been a doctor for a decade or so and have enough experience to draw from.
I've been working with tarot cards for a little over nine years and actively studying them for close to five of those nine years, I have no problems doing readings on myself anymore.

Crystal have to do with energy. SkieFireYokana, yeah, quartz is incredibly common and really it's not that special. Quartz is a purifier and amplifier basically, which is why it's a common centerpiece for most altars: putting a distilling amplifier on your magickal focal point means better and more effective works.
Different kinds of quartz are good for different purposes. Clear and white quartz are good general stones, you can use them effectively with just about any kind of magick. Rose quartz is good for works concerning relationships (mostly the romantic sort but relationships of any kind, really). Smoky quartz is good for divination and astral magick. Amethyst tends to work best with inner works, it helps to mediate emotional paths and reactions (I have pretty severe ADHD, I haven't needed medication in 12 years because of working with amethyst towards controlling it).
Other stones are good for other things, generally the colour and kind of stone tends to indicate function (think about it, colour is an effect of light absorption and reflection, light is energy, stones and crystals work with energy). It's been a long time since I did any serious work with stones but I'll tell you what I can remember.
White/Clear is focus and meditation; Gray/Black focus and grounding, some can be used for divination and astral work; Dark Blue is good for concentration, blue/water has to do with consciousness; Purple deals with inner calm and emotional mediation; Green deals with healing. Jasper for example, green jasper is good for general healing while red jasper focuses more on healing that has to do with the blood: white cell count, anemia, etc.; Red/Pink deal with emotions and relationships concerning others; Yellow and orange deal with fortune and creativity, Tiger's Eye, for example, is a very good stone for maintaining creative inspiration.

Metals are also used with energy. Iron is mostly passive, it can conduct when puposely put to use but otherwise it's pretty dead. Steel (being mostly iron) is also generally ineffective unless purposed (like an athame) and bronze is kind of ok. Brass is fairly good but it takes work and it generally works best with magicks designed for it.
Silver is great, it is one of the best conductors of magickal energies out there. Gold is also wonderful but on the opposite end, gold is good for containing energy. Copper can be used for either but most people use it to direct energy.

And just because I can, here's a crash course on colours and elements. It's actually pretty simple.

Green
Direction/Altar placement: East (the beginning, the source of all things)
Element: Earth
Function/Association: healing, mothering
The sun and moon both rise in the east, the beginning of the day and night. Life begins with the earth and the mother, and the earth and mother are a person's first sources for health and healing, good advice and sensible thinking.
Partner with: Water
Opposed by: Air

Red
Direction/Altar placement: South
Element: Fire
Function/Association: Outer emotions
Fire is unpredictable and irrepressible. It nurtures with its warmth but also destroys with the same heat. Fire does not think, only reacts to immediate effects.
Partner with: Air
Opposed by: Water

Blue
Direction/Altar placement: West
Element: Water
Function/Association: Inner thoughts/consciousness
Water follows the path of least resistance, it gets into every crack and under every rock. Water grounds energy and pulls it along with the current.
Partner with: Earth
Opposed by: Fire

Yellow
Direction/Altar placement: North
Element: Air
Function/Association: Imagination/Creativity
Air follows no path but its own and float freely from one place to the other with only the tiniest of limits.
Partner with: Fire
Opposed by: Earth

White/Clear
Direction/Altar placement: Within/Center
Element: Spirit
Function/Association: Wholeness/Focus
Your spirit guides you and balances all other influences.
Partner with: All
Opposed by: None

Mind these things are presented here as they were taught to me by my mom (High Priestess recognized by the New Wiccan Church, Founder: Gnostic Trad, just in case anyone wanted credentials )
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"Humans are so interesting. Do you know, in a universe full of wonders, they've managed to invent boredom?" - Death

[QueenOfTheShadows]

( first of don't rag me on how I choose to spell "magic" the version using the "k" as wellas versions using "j"exists because there was not always a proper way of spelling things and are thus derived from texts 100 years old or older XD that and my spellcheck keep flagging "alternative" spellings )

I had for a while an interests in palm reading numerology, astrology with astronomy, and have found that yes such thins can help you perhaps find other insight into situations at hand as the mind does automatically try to apply such things to self, it gets really weird when you get multiple similar reading on the cards in a row. Ive only done a smattering or readings with the cards though, and I have met some who insist that no one but they can touch their cards because they "read badly if anybody else does" as well as those who insist that it works best the person who is being read shuffles and lays them out.

for more insight into the stones and their energy uses I would look into superstitions around the world, folk beliefs, reiki and folk traditions, perhaps even delving into study of the chakras, pressure points and medians, as some stones have associations with certain points and chakras as well, say supposedly being helpful of specific sorts of meditations and spells.

Beyond that I focused mainly on meditations, only within the last 4 years coughing up the money for a tarot deck that was found at a small shop carrying items and trinkets from around the world along with some Indian temple incense