The golden path waits quietly beneath the watch of the moon. Somewhere between shadow and light, a card finds its way to you. Its meaning rests in symbols older than words, carried in the language that remembers.
#tarot #learntarot
The image above is an X-ray of a sealed 17th century witch bottle discovered beneath the doorway of a pub in Swardeston, England. Inside the bottle are brass pins, iron, and other concealed materials intended to trap or repel harmful intent before it could enter the household. Hidden beneath thresholds, walls, and hearths, witch bottles formed part of a wider tradition of protective folk magic shaped by fear, uncertainty, envy, illness, and the belief that misfortune could move invisibly through a community.
Historically, witch bottles acted as symbolic boundaries: containers for anxiety, hostility, and unseen danger. In many ways, they feel surprisingly modern; creative people can still absorb criticism, comparison, exclusion, and shame until imagination itself begins to feel unsafe.
My latest Substack explores witch bottles, Biddy Early’s blue bottle, and the idea of creative recovery as a form of protection: creating enough psychological safety for imagination to return.
Link in bio.
Image source: the Bellarmine Museum, Swaffham, England.
#Folklore #IrishFolklore #WitchBottle #folkmagic
The third of my Astrology and the Major Arcana posts, “From Strength to Justice: what cannot be controlled: Tarot archetypes and the psychology of change” is now live on Substack, link in bio.
This sequence of the Major Arcana moves through Strength, The Hermit, Wheel of Fortune and Justice: cards concerned with emotional regulation, solitude, change, consequence, and the limits of personal control. Astrologically, the progression moves from Leo through Virgo and Jupiter before arriving at Libra’s demand for balance and accountability.
These cards explore the difficult balance between surrender and responsibility, and the challenge of navigating uncertainty without collapsing into fear, passivity, or cynicism. Beneath these cards sits a deeper question: how do you move through instability without losing your sense of self?
#Tarot #Astrology #MajorArcana #TarotCommunity #SpiritualWisdom CarlJung TarotReader Occult Mysticism
The second of my Astrology and the Major Arcana posts, “From the Emperor to the Chariot: The Astrology of the Major Arcana’s Middle Way” is now live on Substack, link in bio. This Major Arcana’s sequence is ultimately about learning how to move through the world without abandoning yourself to it. Authority, belief, love and ambition all shape us, but the question at the centre of these cards is how you navigate the world without losing yourself within it.
#Tarot #Astrology #SpiritualWisdom #TarotCommunity
Sometimes repair is the most creative thing you can do; an important phase of a piece of work.
"Mending the Nets: The work that allows the craft to continue" is now live on 'The Charm and the Cure' substack, link in my bio.
#irishfolklore #creativerecovery #slowwork #folkbeliefs
In the myth of Hy-Brasil, the way is held.
The Moon may let you see it; however the crossing comes later.
"At the Edge of Hy-Brasil: The Moon and the Unfinished Crossing" is now live on my Tarot Substack.
#TarotReading, #IrishFolklore, #SpiritualWisdom, #CreativeWriting, #TarotCommunity #hybrasil #themoontarotcard #tarot
In Ireland at Bealtaine, rowan twigs tied with red thread were used as a quiet kind of protection.
Placed at thresholds, they marked a boundary between what was welcome, and what was not.
#Bealtaine #IrishFolklore
Sometimes you spend years circling an idea, only to watch it arrive in the world through someone else’s hands. The myth of the Salmon of Knowledge reminds us that effort doesn’t always decide who receives the insight. But what matters is what remains; what you learned, what still lives, what you make next. My latest Substack about the Salmon of Knowledge, creative work, timing, and continuing anyway, link in bio.
#irishmythology #creativerecovery #fionnmaccumhaill #salmonofknowledge
The tarot begins with The Fool: a figure associated with openness, uncertainty, and the act of beginning without a fixed outcome. In astrological terms, the card is often linked to Uranus, which governs disruption, change, and new directions. That association feels particularly relevant now, as Uranus moves into Gemini; a shift that emphasises communication, ideas, and mental reorientation. In a new post, I look at the first four Major Arcana through an astrological framework, and how these archetypes can be reflected upon in practical ways.
link in bio
A photo of Breastagh Ogham Stone, County Mayo.
In early accounts of Irish mythology, Ogma is depicted as both a warrior and a master of language, whose words could compel as powerfully as force. Credited with creating Ogham, his legacy reflects a view of language as something that shapes, rather than simply describes, reality. Modern perspectives in creative recovery echo this idea, suggesting that repeated internal narratives can solidify into identity over time. Change, however, often begins with precision rather than positivity or optimism; shifting language from fixed, identity-based statements to more conditional descriptions. This small adjustment creates distance between self and story, opening space for new interpretations and the possibility of change.
"The Binding & Unbinding: What Ogma teaches us about the language that holds us" is now live on 'The Charm and the Cure' Substack, link in bio.
Whimsy-maxxing via fairies + tarot to cope with the horrors in the news, as one does.
Bonus post "An Creideamh Sí (The Fairy Faith) and the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot: Reading the Cups as Offerings from the Otherworld" on Substack now, link in bio.
(Central illustration above: Lady Beatrice Glenavy's "Fairy Hill" printed by Cuala Press)
#ancreideamhsí #fairyfaith #tarot #fourofcups #sixofcups #sevenofcups #nineofcups
