In Which I Consult The Oracle…

I bought Stacey DeMarco’s Halloween Oracle a couple of years ago, after falling in love with the artwork.

Gorgeous, isn’t it?

I’ve never actually read with it, but then I have a lot of decks I haven’t read with.  So sue me.

Anyway, the lovely Lyn Thurman posted a spread for 2017 here, and something made me hunt out the Halloween Oracle and DO THE SPREAD.  I'm normally a pull a card, read it, and keep pulling until I make some sense of it kinda gal, but hey, a bit of variety is good.

First spread of 2017, first reading in my new house, first time using this Oracle.  Three firsts.  It felt right.

And this is what I got:

CARD 1:  Goodbye 2016, this is the lesson I take from you because I’ll need it in 2017:

Barmbrack (sweetness and synergy)

A barmbrack is a sweet loaf, normally baked with things in like money, a piece of cloth, a pea, a stick and a ring.  A bit like a traditional English Christmas Pud.  If you got an object in your piece, that was your fate for the coming year.  So I think the lessons of 2016 must be viewed together as a complete learning experience.  Nothing viewed in its individuality.  The whole is greater than its parts.  I take from this that I must learn to embrace change, because I can survive it (even though I HATES IT.)  Organisation is key; being prepared and following a plan, but being able to roll with the punches and amend that plan at a moment’s notice is essential.  To enjoy the sweetness of success, hard work and a good foundation (ingredients) must precede the results. 

CARDS 2,3 & 4: Hello 2017, you and I are going to experience:

Ancestors (the love and legacy of our DNA)

Whatever happens, I’m the result of the love of thousands before me.  They deserve my reverence for (at the very least) my DNA.  More Ancestor work will present itself this year, whether on a mundane or spiritual level.

Ghost (regret)

Worries about what SHOULD have been done, or COULD have been will be a factor this year – but as usual, regrets are a waste of energy.  I cannot change the past, but I can change how I react to things that happen over the coming year. 

Trick or Treat (mischief and play)

 More playing is indicated for this year: last year was intense in my mundane world and I lacked the time or enthusiasm for the things that bring me enjoyment.  I will need to carve out time to do those things that nourish and heal my spirit this year.  Hey, more blog posts, right?

CARD 5: 2017, our biggest challenge together will be:

Vampire (emotional intelligence)

Oh, those pesky vampires, draining one’s life essence… yeah, there’s been a lot of that over the last few years.  So my challenge is to put up better boundaries.  Protection and shielding work, methinks.  Ooooh, learn to say no.  (There’s a challenge, indeed.)

CARD 6: But I have a secret weapon that’s going to help me leap over obstacles:

Owl (Wise seeing, wise action)

Wise counsel.  Too often I internalise problems, not asking advice through a sense of pride (or shame).  I do have a propensity to react in a knee-jerk fashion without consideration at times.  This year, I need to think and ask advice of those who I consider wise friends and mentors before I act. 

CARD 7: 2017, our greatest blessing together will be:

The Veil (the future)

Whilst the veil thins at certain times as the wheel of the year turns, there are places where the veil is always thin.  My connections to my land-base were weakened last year, as time did not permit me to visit my local places of power as often as I wanted.  But I can reach through the veil at any time, I just need to prepare myself and my place.  Time well spent.  So more time with the cards, the plants and the oracles. 

CARD 8: This is what I can bring into 2017 to make the world a better place:

Joy (rejoicing in the present)

Oh boy, that made me laugh.  Joy?  Dark-hearted, bone-obsessed, friend-of-Death me?  Bring joy?  Bwahahahaha!  And then… a boy I work with for weekly interventions at school brought me a bunch of daffodils with a tag thanking me for helping him.  He handed them to me, and told me that he loved doing maths work with me because it was so much fun!  I will grudgingly admit that I can bring joy to the kids I work with (and kids learn far better when they are having fun, y’know!)

CARD 9:  And this is what 2017 will give me in return for shining my light and living my purpose:

Skeleton (strength)

Bones.  Of course, bones.  Our skeleton gives us strength (or we’d be a sloppy bag of internal organs squishing all over the floor.) I really hope that I don’t spend all of 2017 muttering “Give me strength,” under my breath.  The booklet that accompanies this lovely deck says that “There is an incredible strength in showing vulnerability. It can often be the bravest course of action and the most frightening… a powerful catalyst for personal growth.”  Ouch.  Sounds bloody painful to me.  Much as I love bones (and I adore the image on this card), I’m feeling a tad gloomy over this bit.

CARD 10: Overall, 2017, the theme for our year together is:  

Scrying (intuition)

Don’t rely on the rational and practical for decisions.  It’s a balance; wisdom will come with a mix of logic, facts, leaps of faith and intuition.  More consulting the cards, then.  And keeping on top of the practical things – checking the bank balance, budgeting, work prep, that dreaded organisation stuff!

This isn’t the full transcript of the notes I took while I did the reading (hey, a witch has to have some secrets, ‘kay?) but I’m going to revisit this here at the end of 2017 and see what I think of this Three Firsts reading. 

I’m loathe to read for myself, as a rule.  I can normally see all sorts of possibilities, quite often contradictory in nature.  I’m generally too close to the situation at hand to see the wood for the trees, so to speak.  But this house is so new to me, and it feels such a fresh start for us all, that I haven’t got any expectations.  It feels full of promise.  Full of a better future.  

Yeah, get ME being all optimistic! 

Oh, and if any of you lovely tarot-y type people out there want to chime in with any insights you might have on the cards I've pulled (or anything else, of course!), do feel free.

In which I return triumphantly. With excuses.

Magic.

Woo-woo.

Witchwork.

Yeah, it went by the wayside this year. 

I have reasons… but frankly, they are just excuses.

As Witchlet Two is fond of saying, “Don’t give me excuses, GIVE ME RESULTS!”

(She’s going to be a complete diva, that one.)

I’ve been a witch for over 25 years, and this year was the first time I’ve let my woo-woo lapse.  No divination, no seasonal celebrations, and no serious Witch Work.  This was the year I let it all go.  Let it slide away.  The Witch gave way to The Frazzled Working Grown-Up.

No walking.

No growing green things.

No foraging.

No brewing.

No hooching.

Lots of working though.  Working within the school system.  Studying to be able to help those students with extreme literacy problems.  And then sliding headlong into to the wall labelled MANAGEMENT OF SCHOOL FUNDING which meant that although the funding was there to pay me (a pittance) to work additional hours, I didn’t get to spend the hours with the kids that would get the most of those hours.  Because of Ofsted, you know.

(As you can see, I’m more than a little hacked off about it.)

I didn’t throw witch-work at it.  I moaned, groaned, whinged – and got on with it.  No, it didn’t get better.

And in October, this happened.

See that?  It’s a house.  And guess what?

I own it. 

Yes, you heard me. OWN IT.  NAME. ON THE DEEDS. IT’S MINE (and The Hubster’s). 

And although the process of getting the house was incredibly stressful and expensive, now I’m sat here on my old tatty sofa in my new lounge, it was worth it. Financially, a warehouse operative and a teaching assistant in their forties can’t raise enough money via mortgage to buy a house – even in this relatively cheap area – and we were extraordinary lucky enough to get a loan from my parents. We are, and ever shall be, incredibly grateful.

So, it’s a new beginning.  Goodbye rented house, with a landlord that wasn’t willing to spend any money raised in his last re-mortgage of the property on the place.  Goodbye endless cleaning off black mould.  Goodbye back boiler that our lovely gas engineer nursed for ten years, warning us every year that this one could be its last.  Goodbye laminate floor laid directly on concrete.  Goodbye bent guttering, pissing water down the walls.

And yet… and yet… I leave behind a garden and plants that were my friends.  I leave behind bees in the chimney, bats in the attic, hedgehogs and mice under the shed and so many birds who visited every morning for toast crumbs, fat and seed balls, to hang off the thistle seed heads upside down gorging themselves.  My friends.

But here I am.  New house.  New start.  It’s time to dig out the woo-woo.  To rediscover the magic.  To find the witch I need to be in this new home.

Wish me luck.

Witch clipart found here: