Rituals and Readings by Joyshine

A Bit About Ritual: What it is, to me.

joyshine — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:06:26 +0000

When we pagans use the term “ritual,” it often conjures up an image of a cast Circle, complete with called Quarters and specific tools. It’s important to remember, though, that a ritual can be something as simple as a daily cup of tea, a weekly walk in the park, or a monthly visit to the theater or ballet (one of my favorite rituals!). A ritual is an action, or series of actions, that holds special/particular significance for those participating, and may be repeated on a regular basis.

So, for example, making snickerdoodle cookies with my mother is a Christmas ritual that helps me feel connected to my mother, to my childhood, to my family and their traditions. It also gives my mother and me time to talk, to catch up and connect as women – something that we have less of now that I’m out on my own and living in another state. Likewise, coloring a mandala for healing is a ritual in which I get to connect with my inner child (who loves coloring! Especially with crayons!) and work with her to create an image-prayer of what I’m asking Deity for.

All this is to say that ritual is not only something we do with other people, on big holy-days, with great ceremony and planning. Ritual can also be intensely personal, found in the small, ordinary experiences of life. One person may see a task that I find tedious and boring – like doing dishes – as a ritual of cleansing and take that opportunity to reflect on the day, on hir commitment to a clean, usable space, or what sie needs to “clean” in hir own life. Likewise, a ritual I value immensely like going to the ballet and losing myself in music, movement, and story, may be boring and tedious for someone else.

Eventually, I want to talk more about what ritual can do for us, why group ritual can be very, very good for some purposes, and even more about why I love ritual, both group and personal…but this is the core of why I love it: ritual helps me take care of myself in a thousand small, precious, luxurious ways by helping me stop, reflect, and connect.

Taking Care of My Needs: When readers need readings.

joyshine — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:55:10 +0000

One of my mentors likes to remind me frequently that “Clergy need clergy.” To generalize this, folks who provide services often need the very services they provide from someone else. Doctors often need to see other doctors; massage therapists need massages; day-care workers need childcare…etc. And Tarot readers sometimes need readings from other people. Some folks I’ve known will say that you should never read for yourself because all you’ll see in the reading will be what you want to happen- or, alternately, what you fear will happen. This is very valid – we’re often too close to our own lives to regard them objectively, to see all the possibilities open to us.

That said, I do read for myself – usually in circumstances where exploring what I want/fear would be useful. So, I do yearly month-by-month readings on my birthday. When I was in school, I’d do a reading at the beginning of the semester, just to get a feel for what I could expect. However, when the matter at hand is less My Life in General, and more of a pressing issue – like relationships, career changes, and spiritual matters – I go to someone I trust. I know that I can’t see these things clearly – I need another pair of eyes, another view from someone who cares about me, but is far enough from the situation to see what the cards are really saying, not just what I want to impose on them.

So, even if you’re familiar with Tarot, even if you have your own deck (or decks!), even if you read for all your friends, don’t be surprised if you find that a reading by someone else is more effective for those issues that are the closest and most pressing in your life.

A bit about me and Tarot: The Beginning

joyshine — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 02:34:13 +0000

Like many other folks, I’m sure, my interest in Tarot started when one of my college friends asked me, “Would you like a Tarot reading?” We were at a Mardi Gras celebration, enjoying cozy conversation and hard cider. I knew of Tarot, vaguely, from my introduction to T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland during my freshman year of college. I agreed, and he began to shuffle the cards.

He was using the Thoth Tarot, which, if you’re unfamiliar with that deck, has very beautiful, very dense imagery. It is also, erm, just a bit sexually charged. I asked my question, and he gave me my reading. I don’t remember a lot, now, about the intricacies of the question and his commentary except that my significator turned out to be the Princess of Cups.

He explained: “Everything is within your reach – you have all these resources - but nothing’s truly yours.” That made so much sense. It was a time of potentialities, of possibilities budding – but no harvest, no fruit, not yet. I was enjoying my life and world immensely, but suffering from a nagging feeling that I should have more direction, more focus. That reading, especially that one kernel of wisdom, accompanied by the artwork on the card, did what I love most about Tarot: it helped me grasp the shape of my current situation. It didn’t tell me what to do, nor did it give me a crystal-clear picture of what the future would hold. It simply gave me a framework for understanding and working with my life, as it was at that moment. It helped me understand that it’s okay to have fun with possibilities, to try different things and see which are worth keeping.

It’s that ability to illuminate and re-frame circumstances which has kept me fascinated with Tarot, kept me coming back to and exploring it. I hope your own journey with Tarot is filled with similar experiences.