All posts by MQS

Living at the intersection of occultism, fiction and philosophy, I travel the planes at a moderately quick pace. I read, I do magic, I cook for hubby. Confused by the number of things I talk about? Good, confusion is a nice thing ;)
Occultism and Esoterism

How To Know The Witch You Hired Isn’t Good

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I had a chat with a reader of this blog about her experience ordering a spell on Etsy and being disappointed by the results. She asked me what are some pointers to follow in choosing a witch and how to know if he or she is good or lying, etc. Here are some red flags:

Their Mouth Is Moving

This may sound harsh, but by and large, actual magical practitioners who accept commissions from others don’t waste their time on social media blabbering about their own prowess. Blabbering is a marketing strategy, and as we’ll see in the next point, magic cannot have a market in the same way that toilet paper or grilled cheese can.

Actual magical practitioners may very well choose to record their experiences online, and you may even find the occasional one who offers some kind of magical service, but you’ll not find them screeching at others on socials or competing with zeal in the attention economy.

The practice of occultism, whether it is folk occultism or “high” occultism (and I don’t believe in this distinction) changes people. If they are clearly worse than you would be if you were in their position, they haven’t changed, so they don’t practice magic.

Taking Orders Like A Pizza Place

Magic is a preindustrial, pre-assembly line thing. A magical work is a complex convergence of personal and cosmic aspects and it cannot be done over and over with no end in sight. Finding ads that say something to the effect of “Make him come back to you, last 5 spells available” is an immediate red flag. An actual practitioner cannot seriously follow more than a very small handful of operations at a given time.

Of all parts of occultism and magic, divination is probably the more marketable, because one can perform it more freely and continuously, but even divination has its limits: if the diviner is not feeling at peace or concentrated, or if their are feeling tired, it is perfectly futile to fan out the cards. If something goes wrong during the reading, it is best to postpone the session. This may inconvenience the modern customer who expects results, but it is what it is.

There’s No Good And Evil, Harry

This is an exceedingly fashionable belief, because it fulfills a wish, on many people’s part, to believe that it is possible to obtain the results of evil actions while remaining neutral and respectable.

There is no need to be an old-fashioned, moralistic curmudgeon in order to understand that good and evil very much exist. Good is what fosters life and growth, evil is what stands in their way. In astrology, Saturn is not evil because he is satanic in the 80s satanic panic sense, but because he stunts, corrupts, breaks down, makes suffer, stands between us and our will, and no amount of whitewashing it as “the planet of working out karma” can change this fact. Jupiter is not good because he is the astrological equivalent of Santa, but because he nourishes and protects.

Many in the magical community choose to believe that everything is what you make of it and it all depends on your intention. This is the inheritance of the excesses of Crowleyanism.

In reality, the difference between white and dark magic is quite obvious: dark magic is a magic of command. As such, it is almost always illusory, in that the recoil for it makes it always clear that no true command over the summoned force is possible. And there HAS to be a recoil (although it is possible to discharge it on someone else). But dark magic gives very quick results when worked properly.

White magic doesn’t work by command but by petition, which is an esoteric extension of prayer, it is slower, safer and less spectacular in its action, because it doesn’t subvert the order of things, but rather harmonizes the target with it so that the best that can be obtained by a situation is obtained. But the best that can be obtained is not always what the target wants. Sometimes all that can be obtained is peace of mind. And that’s not nothing.

Furthermore, white magic doesn’t bend another’s will. You can petition an angel or a God-name to get you back with your ex all you want, that force will not intervene, and if you do get back with your ex it’s because it was on your path already. Dark magic is always a perversion of the natural path, which is what originates the imbalance that causes the recoil. It is also what gets you the quick hit.

Light and Love

This has to be the most ironic part of it. You always see fake magical practitioners spewing platitudes about light, positive vibes, manifesting abundance and all that nonsense, when what they want is often to bend other people’s autonomy, either directly (“let him come back to me”) or indirectly (“let the product I’m selling explode on the market”, which means forcing other people to like it), and this is the opposite of light and love.

Magic is made of light and love. It is also made of shit and blood and broken bones. And it is also made of all the very mundane experiences that sit on the continuum between light and love on one end and shit and blood on the other. Talking about just one side of the experience is intellectually dishonest, especially since it is aimed at winning over customers.

Witchy Aesthetics

This is the last point I’m going to talk about, but it alone would be enough to bury 99% of magical practitioners found online. Actual magic is not pleasing to the eye. It doesn’t have the aesthetic kick that the average girlypop found on TikTok or Tumblr is looking for to fuel the fantasy of being not-like-other-girls. It is not a bunch of symbols thrown together with endless amounts of colored candles, pentagrams and store-bought incense. Broadly speaking, the more the pictures you find look like what you would expect magic to look based on movies, the more you can be sure it isn’t going to have any effect.

MQS

Card Reading, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Playing Cards, Reading Example

The End of Misfortune (Example Reading)

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This is a cool reading because it shows that the cards tend to describe a situation and take their time to do so, so that trying to immediately get a yes or no out of them can be problematic and cause mistakes (though making mistakes is part of the human condition, obviously). This is the reason why, talking about the Bolognese tarot, I tend to disregard the yes and no rule of the Death card. It is also the reason why I don’t believe in the yes and no value of playing card colors.  To me, that’s just a coin flip, and coin flips don’t work as reliably as actual divination, which is a language.

Here the question was if an unemployed man would get a job.

A career spread. Divination with playing cards.

The first thing I noticed is that the reading ends with a very positive combination of Queen of Diamonds, Eight of Clubs (work) and Six of Hearts (reconciliation/solution/adjustment). This bodes well, but the rest of the spread is more disastrous.

The first row shows that the subject is a thorn in the heart of the person (Two of Spades, Ace of Spades and the Six of Diamonds showing worry). Then we see that every step taken (Two of Clubs) to solve the issue has met with misfortune (Seven of Spades), meaning that the person has probably tried to find a job repeatedly but failed. This explains the very emotional cards in the first row, as well as the fact that the Happiness card (Ten of Hearts) is squeezed between Misfortune (Seven of Spades) and Tears (Eight of Spades). This is a whole unfortunate period unfolding in the person’s life.

There are some cards I am not quite sure about: the Two of Diamonds, Seven of Diamonds, Seven of Clubs. 2♦️ + 7♦️ can be a cheque or paper money, or projects about money. I asked the querent a couple of questions and it didn’t really help. I think a more general reading would be that, quite obviously, the lack of a job has impacted negatively (7♣️) his financial situation.

Then finally we have a woman who is either going to help him find a job or give him a job. If I had to bet I would say this is a female boss, since she shows up as a Diamond and not as a Heart. Either way, the period of misfortune is going to thankfully end.

MQS

Card Meanings, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Everyday Oracle, Fortune-telling, Occultism and Esoterism, Sibilla della Zingara, Vera Sibilla

Vera Sibilla Cards That Indicate Spirituality and Occultism

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Pretty much every card in the Vera Sibilla has some connection with spirituality and occultism, especially when that’s the topic of the question. However, some cards are more pronounced in the kind of indications they give. The unfortunate thing about this sort of topics is that people tend to use them as a substitute for real life. So, for instance, once someone wrote that the Queen of Clubs can indicate a psychic vampire, and then everyone started reading that card primarily as that for a while (becuase, of course, you are such a wonderful person that everyone wants to leech off of your energy). In reality, unless the question is about spiritual or occult topics, such interpretations are best kept rare, and even then, the surrounding cards need to be kept in mind.

Ace of Hearts – The Conversation (Conversazione)

This is not an especially esoteric or spiritual card, but I’ll talk about it to show how easy it can be to expand a card’s regular meaning to cover those topics. The Conversation card is about words and people meeting or living together. In a spiritual or esoteric reading it can therefore indicate prayers (communion with the divine), exorcisms or spells (the spiritual or esoteric use of words). It can also indicate a group of people operating a ritual or praying together.

Four of Hearts – Love (Amore)

Again, not an especially esoteric card, but it is one of the possible cards indicating the soul (winged, heart-related). It can also indicate that one has the otherworldly tendency to attract certain types of happenings into their life. This has nothing to do with the law of attraction, but merely a statement of the fact that certain people simply tend to end up in specific situations.

Seven of Hearts – The Scholar (Letterato)

The Scholar is connected with the constructive use of the mind. It can therefore indicate plans, including esoteric plans, mostly tending to be good ones. It can also show the divine plan, providence etc.

Eight of Hearts – Hope (Speranza)

The Hope card is the main significator of faith, though not necessarily religious faith. It is heavily indicative of our psychic connection with the divine. It is also involved in those situations where the person has prophetic dreams, psychic powers and all those abilities witches on WitchTok pretend to have but really don’t. Reversed, it can indicate atheism (lack of hope in the divine) or, with very evil cards, it can indicate negative faith systems, such as satanism (we’re talking O9A, not the coastal post-crowleyan, occult-flavored performance art that passes itself off as satansim).

Nine of Hearts – Faithfulness (Fedeltà)

The Faithfulness card is one of great protection and support, whether from worldly friends or from otherworldly ones. As such, it can indicate angels (the Messenger is another possible card for angels, but in a more neutral sense). More commonly, it can indicate devotion to a belief system.

King of Hearts – The Gentleman (Gran Signore)

Obviously, God is the esoteric and spiritual gentleman par excellence, and this is usually what this card can represent. It indicates great protection from the divine (the female counterpart would be the Maiden for the Virgin Mary, or the Girlfriend for a female saint or goddess).

Two of Clubs – The Peacock (Pavone)

The Peacock is one of the cards we look for in sequences about magic and spirituality. When upright, it represents the god-power which unfolds at its own pace, like the peacock’s tail, creating opportunity for marvel and salvation. Esoterically, it shows magic in a neutral to positive sense. It represents oaths and religious vows. Reversed, it is the card of the devil (the one who was doomed by his pride), demons and dark magic.

Three of Clubs Reversed – The Journey (Viaggio)

When reversed, the Journey has a specific connection with white magic in its ability to interrupt any negative trend, harmonizing us with our path in life.

Five of Clubs – Fortune (Fortuna)

In itself the Five of Clubs is the card of destiny, of one’s path through life, whether good or bad. It can represent protection, though not necessarily divine, from magical forces. It can be present when a magical attack is aimed at modifying a person’s natural destiny.

Four of Diamonds – Falsehood (Falsità)

The Falsehood card is the card of negativity in all contexts. Esoterically, it shows negativity in the person’s aura and/or the evil eye, but it usually doesn’t represent heavy black magic.

Six of Diamonds – Thought (Pensiero)

Our thought is where past, present and future coincide and gather in the form of memories, plans and inclinations. It can give us hint as to the person’s inner life, their religious beliefs, their inner and esoteric talent, etc. Reversed, in addition to indicating negative thoughts, it can have a connection with subonsciousness and the powers that are buried within it, or with thought-forms and spirits.

Three of Spades – The Widower (Vedovo)

The Widower is one of the primary culprits we look for when discussing rituals, whether religious or magical. This is especially true when the card is reversed. It is also the card of graveyards and graveyard magic, and it can indicate sects (mostly in a negative sense).

Five of Spades – Death (Morte)

The Death card is always very incisive. It can talk about the person’s aura being out of wack, and it is one of the possible cards representing the summoning of dark forces, especially when reversed.

Eight of Spades – Desperation and Jealousy (Disperato per Gelosia)

The Eight of Spades is strongly connected with magical attacks, whether upright or reversed. It is indicative of demonic presences or dealing with dark forces in a negative sence. Being the card of envy, it can indicate the ill will of the dark magician. Spiritually, it can herald a crisis of faith or beliefs, either leading to loss of faith or to conversion.

Nine of Spades – The Prison (Prigione)

On a positive note, it can indicate the taking of religious vows (which bind us). More commonly it indicates feelings of guilt or feeling limited. Magically it represents the creation of magical bonds.

Ten of Spades – The Soldier (Militare)

Another strongly esoteric card, the Soldier is the card of the night, and therefore of the occult (which means that which is hidden). Because it is the card of attacks, esoterically it can show the tackling of the problem, or more commonly the psychic attack.

King of Spades – The Priest (Sacerdote)

Just like the two Enemies, the Priest can represent a magician. However, it usually signifies the magus in a more neutral and high sense, unless the card is reversed. Spiritually it can indicate spiritual institutions and religions, but also divine justice.

MQS

Card Reading, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Reading Example, Tarot

Is He Gay? (Example Reading)

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A reading with the Bolognese Tarot. Like and subscribe to my YT channel to support my work

MQS

astrology, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Geomancy, I Ching / Yi Jing, Occultism and Esoterism, Philosophy, Playing Cards, Spirituality and Psychology, Tarot, Uncategorized, Vera Sibilla

Calling Other People’s Demons By Name

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In many supernatural movies about exorcism, the priest trying to free the victim needs to discover the demon’s name. This is actually founded in (part of) the real practice of exorcism and does have its roots in the magical belief of the power of names. For instance, there are certain practices in folk magic in Italy that require the magician to go to the christening of a child whose name translates to the effect he or she wants to achieve.

But belief in the power of names is not just found in Italy and it probably goes back to the most ancient and elemental relationship that humans established with the things around them in their attempt to dominate them. Traces of this fact are found in the doctrines of many Greek philosophers, sophists, poets and playwrights, and I have also found some similarities with Chinese Daoist literature. A wonderful fictionalized account of this belief is found in Ursula LeGuin’s Earthsea saga, which anyone interested in magic should read, in my humble opinion.

I am not one who seeks to psychologize occultism, although I believe that psychology is not at all a useless discovery and can be part of a modern magus’ training. I think that the attempt to reduce occultism to psychology is just as misguided as the attept to condemn anything that modernity has brought us as a deviation from an ancient splendor.

That being said, as someone who practices divination for others, there is also a certain sense in which naming works in a cathartic way. Most of the people that consult me are rather upfront about their problems, especially since I don’t ask for money and therefore feel no guilt in telling them to go sit on a cactus if they are trying to waste my time.

But people can be reticent about their issues for a variety of reasons, and malice is not always the motivation. Among the many possible reasons is the fact that people sometimes feel the need to have their demons driven out of them by someone outside of their regular field of experience.

Having someone discover our particular demon’s name without us feeding it to them can be a powerful and cathartic experience, because it smokes the demon out of the dark recesses of our subjective experience and into the light of objectivity, where it can be addressed as a definite and therefore limited issue, rather than being consumed by its overwhelming lack of contours.

Not every divination session calls forth such existential experiences, nor should we as diviners try to turn each session into a catharsis. We are not therapists and our duty is not to give people advice, although advice can certainly be given if required. Our role is to provide information, whatever that may mean in the context of each particular reading. For this reason, our language and that of our divination tool needs to be earthly, concrete and objective.

But sometimes informing the querent can mean gathering the diffuse knowledge that they already have festering inside of them and turning it into useable information by giving it its proper name.

MQS

Card Meanings, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Playing Cards, Tarot, Vera Sibilla

The Door Knockers – A Deep Dive into Italian Cartomancy

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In almost all cartomancy systems, Italian or otherwise, the Ace of Hearts/Cups is the house. Here the Sibilla is an exception, since it relegates the House to the Two of Hearts, although the Ace of Hearts still has connections to the idea of family and people living together. In the second most widespread Sibilla deck in Italy, which is the Sibilla Regionale, which uses the suits of the Neapolitan cards, the Ace of Cups is once again the house.

One thing I have so far never found in non-Italian systems, which on the contrary is very widespread in Italy, is the concept of the door knockers, also known as ‘close to home’. This is a meaning that is found in many regional Italian cartomancy systems, and keep in mind that almost everything in Italy is regional, since regions have a much older history as separate states than Italy itself, if we discount the Roman Empire.

When I was taught to read playing cards, my teacher told me that the Two of Hearts is “al martel di porta”, knocking at the door. This refers to the way old house doors are made in many European countries, including Italy, where door knockers were used back when you couldn’t ring at the door. At least in Italy door knockers are still very much en vogue, though mostly as a decorative element.

The idea of the Two of Hearts as “the door knockers” is a reference to the fact that door knockers usually come in twos and to the fact that the Two of Hearts comes right after the Ace, which is the house, so that the Two is quite literally close to the home.

This meaning is also found in many systems for reading Piacentine cards, where the Two of Cups takes on that meaning (in some other systems this meaning is given to the Two of Wands) as well as in the Bolognese Tarot, where it’s the Ace of Swords that depicts it, due to the odd shape of the picture.

In some systems I am aware of, there are two distinct cards: the door knockers and the roof of the house. This is true for some systems employing Piacentine cards, where the Two of Cups is the door knockers and the Four of Wands is the roof.

This distinction is also found in the Bolognese tarot, where the Ace of Swords depicts the door knockers and the Seven of Cups the roof of the house. In the oldest surviving system for reading the Bolognese tarot, which dates back to before the French revolution (I talk about it here), the Knight of Wands indicated the door knockers and the Ten of Cups the roof of the house. Clearly, therefore, this symbolism is deeply ingrained in Italian cartomancy.

According to the person who taught me the 45-card system of Bolognese tarot, the Ace of Swords, the door knockers, tends to show something close to home in a temporal sense (about to happen) whereas the Seven of Cups, the roof, is more connected to everyday life, to our close environment and to the protection of people surrounding us, as well as to the family in a more extended sense. Germana Tartari, who initiated me to the 50-card system, which she was taught by her grandmother and by some of her grandmother’s friends, uses the Nine of Cups as ‘the staircase to the house‘, again mostly in a temporal sense as something about to happen.

On the other hand, in the system for reading playing cards that I was taught, the Two of Hearts covers both possibilities: it indicates something about to knock at the door or it can show family situations, people who are close to us etc.

I have never found this symbolism in other non-Italian systems. If you did, feel free to drop me a line, as it would be very interesting. Manuel Arcuri, an American reader who was taught to read playing cards by his Italian grandmother, says somewhere that his grandmother called the Two of Hearts “l’attesa”, which means waiting or expectation, as of something about to happen. He doesn’t mention door knockers though.

Furthermore, many card reading systems I have read about assign the meaning of “within two weeks” to the Two of Hearts, which once again gives us the idea of something about to knock at the door. Interestingly, Regina Russell‘s playing card system uses the Two of Hearts to indicate excitement for something that is about to happen, expectation and even pregnancy (expecting a child).

MQS

Card Meanings, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Tarot

Tarot Encyclopedia – The Seven of Pentacles or Coins

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(Note: this is a collection of the meanings attributed to the cards by some occultists in the past centuries. It does not reflect my own study or opinion of the cards. It is only meant as a quick comparative reference as I develop my own take.)

The Seven of Pentacles from the Builders of the Adytum (BOTA) tarot deck

Paul Foster Case (and Ann Davies)

The time period is the third decanate of Taurus, under the rulership of Saturn, May 11 to 20. Meanings:
Well-Dignified: slight gains, but of small account; much labor for small returns.
Ill-Dignified: something promising turns out badly; loss in speculation and unprofitable employment; financial restriction; unrealized hopes and
wishes.
Keyword: Loss
(From the Oracle of Tarot course)

A. E. Waite

A young man, leaning on his staff, looks intently at seven pentacles attached to a clump of greenery on his right; one would say that these were his treasures and that his heart was there. Divinatory Meanings: These are exceedingly contradictory; in the main, it is a card of money, business, barter; but one reading gives altercation, quarrels–and another innocence, ingenuity, purgation. Reversed: Cause for anxiety regarding money which it may be proposed to lend.
(From The Pictorial Key to the Tarot)

The Seven of Pentacles from the Rider Waite Smith tarot

Aleister Crowley

The Seven of Disks is called Failure. This suit gives the extreme of passivity; there is no positive virtue in it below the Abyss. This card is ruled by Saturn. Compare it with the three other Sevens; there is no effort here; not even dream; the stake has been thrown down, and it is lost. That is all. Labour itself is abandoned; every thing is sunk in sloth.

[…]

The number Seven, Netzach, has its customary enfeebling effect, and this is made worse by the influence of Saturn in Taurus. The disks are arranged in the shape of the geomantic figure Rubeus, the most ugly and menacing of the Sixteen. (See Five of Cups.) The atmosphere of the card is that of Blight. On the background, which represents vegetation and cultivation, everything is spoiled. The four colours of Netzach appear, but they are blotched with angry indigo and reddish orange. The disks themselves are the leaden disks of Saturn. They suggest bad money.
(From The Book of Thoth)

The Seven of Disks from the Thoth Tarot

Golden Dawn’s Book T

A WHITE Radiating Angelic Hand issuing from a cloud, and holding a white rose branch. Seven Pentacles arranged like the geomantic figure Rubeus. There are only five buds, which overhang, but do not touch the five uppermost Pentacles. Above and below are the Decan symbols, Saturn and Taurus respectively.

Promises of success unfulfilled. (Shewn, as it were, by the fact that the rosebuds do not come to anything.) Loss of apparently promising fortune. Hopes deceived and crushed. Disappointment, misery, slavery, necessity and baseness. A cultivator of land, and yet a loser thereby. Sometimes it denotes slight and isolated gains with no fruits resulting therefrom, and of no further account, though seeming to promise well.

Netzach of HB:H (Unprofitable speculations and employments; little gain for much labour).
Therein HB:HRChAL and HB:MTzRAL are ruling Angels.

Etteilla

Money
Upright. This card, as far as the medicine of the spirit is concerned, means, in its natural position: Money, Wealth, Sum, Coin. – Silver. – Whiteness, Purity, Candor, Innocence, Naiveté, Moon. – Purgation, Purification.
Reversed. Restlessness, Torment of spirit, Impatience, Affliction, Remorse, Concern, Solicitude, Care, Attention, Diligence, Application. – Apprehension, Fear, Distrust, Misgiving, Suspicion.

MQS

Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Playing Cards, Uncategorized

Where the Court Cards Look

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I was asked by a visitor if I take into account the direction court cards look. The idea that the direction faced by court cards gives us important details is ingrained in several strands of card divination. In recent decades it has even been appropriated by certain scam artists (like Jodorowsky and his various imitators) when trying to sell the Tarot of Marseille as a deep metaphysical tool rather than for what it has always been–a cheap gaming deck, which, like all tarot decks, is as good for divination as it is for playing at the local inn.

But directionality does have its place in certain legitimate divination traditions. It just happens not to be part of mine. I do not take into account the way court cards face when reading playing cards, as I have never found it useful or revealing.

To me, each card is a place-holder for a cluster of certain ideas that are called to mind when the card appears: the Ace of Hearts is a place-holder of a cluster of ideas relating to the home or family, and similarly the Queen of Spades is a place-holder for a cluster of ideas relating to problematic women or issues traditionally associated with the negative side of womanhood. In this cluster of ideas there is nothing inherently left-looking or right-looking. That’s just the fantasy of whoever drew the picture.

What matters most to me is not so much where the card looks, but in what relationship it is with respect to the other cards. Suppose we have:

Q♣️ – 3♣️ – K♣️

Here we have a typical sequence of marriage. Even if the two court cards were swapped, it would change nothing. Now let’s take:

3♣️ – K♣️ – Q♣️

This positioning of the cards may or may not be the same as the previous one. In itself it is just another sequence of marriage. But if it makes sense within the context of the spread, it could indicate that he is the one who is more attached to the marriage, because he falls closer to the card that symbolizes union. However, let’s now look at this:

Q♦️ – 3♣️ – K♣️ – Q♣️

Here it is very important that the King of Clubs fell next to the union, because through it he is united to another woman. This sequence shows that the female querent is the lover (it would be even more clear if the 10♠️ fell between the two Club court cards, as it would show that the married man sees the female querent in secret).

In all this, where the court cards face is of no consequence, because what truly matters is their dynamic interplay. That being said, I know of playing card traditions where directionality is taken into account and I have nothing against it. It just happens not to be part of my toolkit.

MQS

Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Reading Example, Tarot, Uncategorized

What’s the Bird Thinking? (Example Reading)

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My two cockatiels couldn’t be more different from one another. Ciuffy, the white one, is a sweet cuddlebug who’ll do anything for a head scratch. He’s never nipped me, let alone bitten me. The only time he hurts me a little is when he tries to preen my ear.

“I’m the guy you want your daughter to bring home”

Zazu, the gray one, is a beaky, bossy, overbearing prick. He does have his sweet side, and considering I’ve had him for only a little over a month we’ve made huge progress, but when I have him on my shoulder I KNOW I’m going to get hurt at some point, and when he bites he really means it.

“I’m the guy your daughter brings home”

Now that I’ve set the scene and used the excuse to show you a couple of pics of my cutie pies, let’s get to the point. A couple of days ago, while Zazu was on my shoulder, he bit my earlobe incredibly hard out of nowhere (maybe he saw me move my head and didn’t like it).

I shooed him away with my hand, but he spooked and flew against a wall. Although he wasn’t hurt, he spent the day avoiding me and hissing (for those who don’t know, cockatiels can hiss, like cats).

I knew that the accident set some of that hard-won progress back, but I wanted to know Zazu’s perspective and how it would likely evolve. Here’s what the Bolognese Tarot had to say:

What’s the featherball thinking? Tarot reading

One thing that surprised me is the first row, where we have happiness (Ten of Cups) in the house (Ace of Cups) with me (King of Wands). I know I try to care for the two little balls of feathers as best I can, but Zazu is always grumpy and old-farty in his behavior, so I assumed he didn’t like me very much. Apparently that’s just his character.

The second row is interesting, since we have unexpected (Stranger) betrayal (Hanged Man) leading to negative emotions (Eight of Swords). Clearly his good vibes were somewhat disrupted by the incident.

The third has a path (Eight of Wands) toward Love with harmony or small satisfactions (Ten of Coins). So even though there was a setback, there is room for moving toward love. Obviously we should be very careful when projecting human sentimentalism onto animals, but then again, divination is a language understandable to humans, so the tarot is probably translating Zazu’s reality in terms that are understandable to me.

I have some doubts about the last line. The King of Swords might be Zazu himself (it could represent my husband, but my husband isn’t particularly involved). Technically, pets are represented by the Juggler, but then again, the King of Swords does have some characteristics of the Juggler, so it’s a possibility. At any rate, the King is next to the sickbed. There are no combinations talking explicitly about sickness, so I believe this just shows his being cranky or a bit uncertain, but the World card at the end of the row indicates that this uncertainty doesn’t cause breaks: the situation remains open and moving.

The Temperance card at the end simply shows that patience and time are needed. I expected no less.

For now, the reading seems to be accurate. The day after the little bastard had gone back to his old behavior, being just a little more shy than usual, and the day following that he was back to normal.

MQS