Re-enchantment.
Is the way forward there's a lot happening in the world and Um.
.
.
Humans doing some not very nice things to each other,
To our planet.
I know that everyone here shares a very similar Um,
Set of values we are for kindness,
We are for decency.
And so it can feel a little disenchanting to look around us at the moment.
Um,
And so the reading,
The offering is an invitation to re-enchantment.
And I invite you to find that this month,
Wherever you do,
To remember that there is meaning,
There is magic,
And to allow that to empower you.
One of the ways that I'm going to be re-enchanting in the next,
In the coming month,
The coming times,
Is I'm going to go and spend some time on the shores of Loch Ness.
I'm very,
Very excited about that.
I don't know Loch Ness well.
I've been there once when I was.
.
.
Knee-high to a grasshopper,
As they say.
So.
.
.
It's going to be a new exploration.
Of enchantment and I wanted to bring the energy of it in because it feels quite magical.
I wanted to bring that magical feeling into our reading and so our spread for today is based around that.
Now,
I don't know how easily you get excited about geology.
I find that it can be quite exciting.
And one of the things I discovered is that Loch Ness It runs in a line for those of you who don't know the map.
I considered drawing it on my whiteboard.
There are skills I have and skills I don't have,
And it wouldn't enlighten you anymore as to the shape of Loch Ness or of Scotland.
But it is.
It runs in a line.
So diagonally down.
Across Scotland.
And so I was looking into the geology and the history of it.
So this diagonal line,
You've got sort of Inverness at the sea and you've got Loch Ness coming down that goes all the way across to.
.
.
For William and.
.
.
The Highlands,
Ben Nevis is the highest peak in Britain,
And it goes all the way down there.
And what I discovered is that years and years ago,
Like eons ago,
The two sides of this line were actually different continents.
Um,
Years and years and years.
Eons,
I'm going to say eons,
Because years just doesn't even cut it.
Eons ago.
The continents were not where they are now so long ago that it's kind of beyond our comprehension.
And.
.
.
The continents are still moving and always have moved.
And so they they move together.
And this line down.
Scotland is one of the places where two continents that were not.
That we're separate.
Eventually,
Over eons and eons,
Came together and formed this landmass.
So really,
Really.
.
.
Geologically exciting.
In terms of the energy coming together.
Um,
And so our first two.
.
.
Positions for the spread for today,
For these coming weeks.
Are about what two things are coming together at the moment to form something new.
And then overarching that is this concept of eons,
Of something so big that we cannot observe it happening.
And we experience it happening without knowing that we're experiencing it happening.
So this third position is about,
You know,
Big thing is happening right now that's actually so big that we're not even really aware of it.
We might.
.
.
Be able to kind of trace it back once it's happened,
But it's happening right now.
So these are our first three positions.
And then have a position for Loch Ness itself.
Bodies of water are amazing.
Loch Ness is really deep.
I believe it's the deepest lake in Scotland.
It's mysterious.
It's this huge body of water.
And so it has,
You know,
We interact with it on the surface.
We try to see into the depths.
And it's a body of water,
So it's contained in the land around it.
You know,
Water's contained in.
In the shape of what's in it.
So kind of bringing all those ideas together.
And there's a lovely mindfulness meditation you can do,
The lake meditation where you consider yourself to be.
A lake.
There are other ones you can do mountain meditation,
But the lake one's really nice.
So kind of bringing these ideas together for this position and spread.
In this reading,
It's really about what What contains us?
At this time.
And what.
.
.
And containing us shapes us and what are we Um,
What are we containing as well?
All of those things.
Amen.
Another position here and.
She had to be in here and it's Nessie.
And I'm going to say Nessie and not the Loch Ness Monster because I don't believe that Nessie is a monster.
I do believe that Nessie is real.
And I don't pretend to be able to define that reality.
So I'm going to.
See her and refer to her at the moment as a spirit of place.
Um,
So the sort of spiritual aspect of the place,
The guardian of the place.
Um so This is our invitation,
Really,
To interact with spirits of place.
In these coming weeks to remember that all places are sacred.
And all places have a spirit.
And so.
.
.
The way that we are in a place.
Will change depending on how we interact with our spirit of place whether we acknowledge it or not whether we seek it,
Whether we honour it,
How we go about that.
So we have Nessie,
The spirit of place.
And then finally,
At the bottom of the reading,
We have the act of.
.
.
Of pilgrimage and of offering.
So.
.
.
Anytime I go to a special place like this,
I consider it a kind of pilgrimage.
And I will be taking offerings and what I usually offer.
When I make pilgrimage to a place is stories.
So some of you have heard me tell stories.
I have a.
.
.
Handful of stories that I'm really that I really love,
That I've done readings around before.
The Almond Blossom one from the Algaus,
One of them,
The Selkie Woman stories,
Another.
So the offerings I'll be taking will be stories.
And so this position in the spread is about how.
.
.
Um,
What magical acts can we do in the coming times?
That allow for that re-enchantment.
That allow for that that reconnection.
With magic that do honour and recognise the world that we live in as a sacred world.
So that is our spread for today.
And we'll go ahead and pull some cards.
So the deck I'm using today is not actually a tarot deck.
It's an oracle deck.
I usually read with tarot,
But this is an oracle deck I've had for a couple of years.
Um haven't read with for a while and it's the the oracle deck of bridges by janine worthington and it's a lovely little oracle deck it has some really um creative energies and images in and it just felt like the right one to to be with us today.
So I'm going to invite you to take a deep breath.
And just ask to receive what you need.
And you might invite in the spirit of enchantment,
Re-enchantment.
And you might even,
If you wish to connect,
Invite in the spirit of place wherever you are now.
Thank you.
So it might be a spirit of a wider place or the spirit of your home,
Wherever you are.
Just asking to receive what you need.
So our first two cards then are what two energies are coming together in the coming weeks to form something new.
And this is quite interesting.
So I shall hold these up.
One by one,
Actually,
And then together.
So we have order.
And this card shows.
.
.
It's a fireplace or a hearth.
The top top half of the card has the fireplace as a fire burning in it.
There are some sort of statues or votive decorations around it and then in the bottom half of the card There is a reflection,
So it's very symmetrical.
And there are a lot of straight lines in this card.
So we have order and we have grief.
And so we see a tombstone,
A candle,
A vase of flowers have been placed and the.
.
.
Um,
Around these objects is a kind of glowing light.
In the darkness.
So these are the two energies that are coming together in the next few weeks.
And I think it's really important.
You know,
I see grief has come up and grief is something that we don't always want to come up and we don't always want to approach.
It's a very difficult state.
I won't call it an emotion.
I would call it a state.
And.
.
.
It contains a whole set of emotions and some of those emotions can feel.
.
.
Wrong in themselves or uncomfortable in themselves.
But when grief does come up in a reading,
I think it's really,
Really important when we get cards like this.
The reason they're coming up is because they're acknowledging energies that are around us anyway.
It's not that,
You know,
Grief will be around because this card has come up,
But more that like there is already some grief around.
And.
And this card is acknowledging that.
And then we have order.
So,
You know,
Order can be about.
.
.
How we make sense of things.
Psychically I'm going to say,
So mentally,
In the heart,
In the soul.
And so this can be about sort of our societal order,
The way that things.
Work the way that systems work.
It can be about how we create order in our own world.
And the word that keeps popping into my head with this is actually ritual with this order and grief.
That actually maybe we need to.
Make sense of any grieving experience that we're going through at the moment with a little bit of ritual.
So,
You know,
Maybe lighting a candle,
Setting flowers,
Sitting around somewhere like,
I think it's really interesting that the image here is a hearth fire.
This is usually representative of the home,
Of a safe place.
So,
You know,
Where does your mind feel most in order?
Where do you feel most safe?
And perhaps spending some time there to help you to process any grief that's going on.
And I'd really like to.
.
.
Inviting the idea that we can We're going through a process of grief and we can be.
Experiencing magic and enchantment and re-enchantment.
At the same time,
This can be happening at the same time.
So we have order and grief coming together as our kind of themes,
Really,
For the coming week.
For the month.
I'm going to invite you to sit with how that works for you specifically.
And it may be that some of this is about how we process our collective grief as well.
You know,
There is a lot going on.
For humans at the moment and for our planet at the moment.
Perhaps we do need to make sense of that together in a way.
To be able to function,
Really.
I am heartened by the colours as well,
By the fire here,
By the hearth.
By the the flowers you know things that are meaningful and comforting even with that as well i also noticed so that the order card is very kind of pink and orange and red and the grief card is more kind of blues and yellows.
So we've got warm and cool.
Coming together.
And it may be for some of us that if we've had these kind of things going on separately in our lives and in whatever parts of our lives they are.
It's almost,
It may be as if we've been felt kind of torn between.
One or the other.
And with them coming together,
With this process of them coming together,
That might actually allow a little bit more freedom for something else too.
To come in and lie.
And what might that something else be?
So what is the.
.
.
The overarching process that's going on,
This thing that's so big at the moment that we perhaps can't even see it,
But that nonetheless.
.
.
Is happening and that we can that we are in the energy of the experience of.
And look at this.
This is a beautiful,
Very watery card release.
So here we see a great big ocean under a great big full moon with bright stars.
And a sort of mermaid figure with her back to us.
Heading into that water,
Heading into the depths of that ocean.
And I think that's a really lovely card for.
.
.
Giving meaning as well to these other or for kind of helping to make sense of this order.
And grief that actually um Release.
Requires us to um to have experienced that both of those other things.
And I love the freedom.
In this card,
You know,
This mermaid,
She's returning to her element.
So it may be for.
.
.
Those of us who have felt a little bit out of our element for a while.
Um,
That there is a.
.
.
There is an invitation there to just return to your element and return to the magic.
You know,
There's something about.
Going into the depths of the sea.
And I've talked about this,
Talking about Loch Ness,
About bodies of water,
You know,
We.
.
.
There is something unknowable underneath.
It's unknowable as in it's un.
.
.
Intangible,
Perhaps,
Or unquantifiable or difficult to express and articulate.
And yet we know it anyway,
We know the pull of it.
So this can be about what's going on unconsciously.
And this can be also about sort of what collective unconscious as well.
And if you look at this image,
It just feels right that she's going into the sea.
And maybe we don't know what's underneath.
But it's the right thing.
So I think there's a.
.
.
Certainly calling towards harmony,
Towards being.
.
.
In.
.
.
Right relationship towards being in debt.
In meaning and to kind of being in touch with that which is a little bit deeper.
Underneath.
So the next position then,
So it's the lock.
What is the.
.
.
What is the space that contains us and what do we expend?
Containing.
This is interesting.
It's a card that jumped out actually as I was shuffling there.
And came up,
And it's the throat chakra,
But it came up reversed,
Which I didn't even know there were any cards in this deck which were reversed,
But this one was.
So you'll see in terms of the color of this card,
You know,
It's very blue,
Which is the color of the throat chakra.
Um,
It also aligns with this release,
This overarching process of release.
In terms of the colors on these cards.
It aligns with the Greek.
In terms of the colours on these cards,
And it contrasts with that order.
And with the throat chakra,
That is often all about expression.
Speaking our truth.
Listening to others as well.
It's not just about our expression,
But about how we receive expression from others.
And so for this to come up reversed in this position of what contains us and what do we contain,
I find really fascinating because I think there's an invitation here with the reverse card.
Um,
Sometimes the invitation is to bring them upright to achieve a certain amount of balance.
And certainly with this being a chakra card,
When it's come out reverse,
What we have here is what I would say is an imbalance of some kind.
And the way to balance the throat chakra often is about expression.
So if you have something that you need to.
Say.
Then here is your invitation.
Um,
To express that.
And so it might be about expressing what you are containing.
Or it might be about expressing.
.
.
If you think of yourself as the body of water,
As the contained,
What is that experience like to be contained?
And it might feel.
.
.
Both safe and restrictive at the same time.
It could feel like one of those,
Depending on what you feel is containing you at the moment.
So I think the invitation here is to explore that expression now.
If this is a big thing for you,
And for some of it,
It is,
You know,
You don't have to Go shouting from the rooftops just yet.
It might be about expressing by writing in your journal.
Um,
It might be about um,
Just saying something aloud when you are alone that you've never said aloud before.
I know when people come to me for tarot readings,
One of the functions of the containing space of the tarot reading is to allow people to express.
On their minds,
What's with them at the moment and what they're working with at the moment.
And sometimes that can feel Um,
Just the act of kind of expressing and giving that container giving that space of the reading to um,
To the issue that they're dealing with can feel very cathartic.
And then,
Of course,
We go on to work.
On solutions.
So we have an invitation to expression.
Now,
More than this,
Because we've had grief come up,
If there is a grief that you are.
.
.
Holding or that you have been holding.
Then you may be.
.
.
There may be some expression there.
So if it is someone that you have lost,
Then,
You know,
One of my favorite ways to get in touch is to write them a letter.
Just write them a letter or talk to them.
But grief can be about lots of things.
It may not be about having lost.
A person,
It may be a part of yourself that has been lost,
Especially if you're having trouble.
With expression.
It may be.
.
.
A more general grief.
There could be lots of different kinds of grief.
So I appreciate that for everyone watching,
This is going to be slightly different.
But because it has come up,
Because we've had grief come up and because we've had the throat chakra come up,
I would say.
.
.
Express and be in touch with your with any grief that you have now.
And then I'm going to place this on the board upright.
So this is a little energetic magic trick that you can do in a reading when a when a card does come out.
Reversed if we don't want that energy to be reversed.
Um,
Then we can place it upright and sometimes just that intentional act can.
.
.
Have ripples in the universe.
The other thing with the throat chakra coming up in what is contained.
What are you containing and how are you contained?
Is that um It's about the whole idea of what's appropriate to speak,
Isn't it?
So,
You know.
We are taught from a very young age to be polite what you can and can't say.
What can and can't be said.
And so perhaps there's an invitation here as well to a re-examining of that,
Of what is appropriate.
If there's something you've been taught that.
.
.
You have to contain because you can't.
Send it out into the world.
Just checking in,
Is that still true?
And for some people,
It might be.
For some people,
It won't be.
But certainly examining those deeper beliefs,
Those kind of unconscious,
Internalized beliefs that might be there under the water is a good way to go.
Nessie then,
So the spirit of place or spirits of place.
And how might we in the next few weeks interact with Spirits of Place?
And this is a.
.
.
I think it's a real invitation for us.
To.
.
.
Begin,
Continue,
Or return to this practice of recognizing spirits of place.
I think this is why this position has suggested itself to me in this spread.
And we have mindfulness.
And this really looks like someone who is connecting with spirits of play.
So there's a young person in a forest,
But holding a pot plant.
And the pot plant is kind of lit by a beautiful.
.
.
Like a beam of light that's coming in and surrounding it.
And there's all that lovely sort of forest green light as well in the card as well.
And that's a really perfect card for how do we connect with spirits of place.
So it can be as simple as,
You know,
Whether you're in the forest.
Or whether you're in.
.
.
A terraced house in the middle of town.
Wherever you are,
You can connect with spirits of play.
And we can do this by cultivating those places,
Caring for them.
So this person may have potted that plant.
I've been repotting some plants this morning and,
You know,
I always have a bit of a conversation with them,
Give them a bit of Reiki,
You know,
A bit of nurture,
A bit of care,
Build a relationship with them.
And we can do that with the places that we are.
So in the places that we are,
This is our invitation to be mindful.
In how we show up so it can be enough to just be in somewhere and be mindful while we're there and you can practice this in lots of different places so I invite you to practice it in your home because that's a place where you spend a lot of your time and the other places that you spend a lot of your time but also find places around you that feel really nice really good to be in so there might be a local forest or a park or a river that you want to go and connect with.
And to go and spend some time there and just.
Do your mindfulness practice there,
You know,
Breathe for a few minutes.
It might be enough.
And if you want to,
You can.
.
.
Practice care for that place.
So one of the things I used to do a lot when I was out and about in the places that were sacred to me when I lived on the sacred mountain was I would I'd take my litter picker out with me so if I went out um walking on the mountain.
I'd always have my litter picker and a bag for rubbish so that,
You know,
I wasn't.
Cleaning the whole mountain,
But I was doing just a little bit of care for it.
And so that made the place more pleasant,
But also showed care towards the place.
And helped to.
.
.
To be with that place.
So that's a really simple way that we can work the spirits of place as well.
And then the final position.
So it's position of the act of pilgrimage and of offering.
If there's one magical act that we can do in the coming weeks,
In the coming months.
If there's one act of magic that we can do to.
.
.
To re-enshunt ourselves,
To re-enshunt the world.
That we live in.
And to be.
In right relationship.
What is that?
And we have an element to it.
Earth.
So this is a card.
It's got a lot of brown in it,
Some yellow and some pink,
Some symbols there.
And it's the element of earth.
I think some of those symbols are astrological that are associated with Earth as well.
So the one magical act that we can do.
.
.
In the coming weeks,
In the coming months,
To be in right relationship.
Is to encourage or build that relationship with Earth.
Now there are so many ways to do this.
It can be about that pot plant.
It can be about putting our bare feet or the palms of our hands or some parts of ourselves on the earth.
Whether that's on bare earth or just on the ground in the place where we are.
I would like to emphasize that these practices are accessible to everyone in some way and how they are accessible will look different for every person.
If you are someone who has lovely natural spaces available to you nearby,
Then you might want to spend some time with them.
It becomes an act of pilgrimage to go to them,
You might find time for that this month as well.
You might consciously and deliberately do that as a magical act.
You might.
.
.
Care for plants.
You might care for the place where you are.
We've got that invitation this month.
And you might care for your body the element of earth it's the element of the material plane so as well as being about places and the natural world.
It can also be about our own bodies and our own health.
Our relationships with our bodies.
So.
.
.
Say something nice to yourself about your body this week,
This month.
Treat your body with kindness and compassion in whatever way works for you.
You know,
Allow yourself to experience being in your body.
You know,
Allow your.
.
.
Not quite sure how to phrase this,
But allow yourself to place your hands on your body.
You know,
What does it feel like to.
To give yourself touch with compassion and that touch which doesn't.
.
.
It's not requiring anything.
You know,
It's just you're reminding yourself that you are here.
These are our magical apps.
And if you are,
I don't think I have a card for it,
But I have a sacred earth healing course.
And.
I would really recommend actually trying that course if you haven't done it already or even coming back to it if you have.
It is.
The sessions are quite long.
They're about half an hour long each,
But there is.
.
.
Session in that about you and earth about how we relate to the earth and how we relate to our own bodies and the Um,
How we can approach that intentionally and kindly and with compassion.
