Imagine Keziah Mason, a Salem witch in the 17th century per Lovecraftian imagination, and the tarot deck she would have used for divination. The 2016 self-published Book of Azathoth Tarot is one imagining of what that deck might have looked like. Azathoth is a deity from the Cthulhu pantheon invented by H. P. Lovecraft in his fiction works.
Although largely unknown and unrecognized during his lifetime, H. P. Lovecraft was a prolific writer of horror, fantasy, and science fiction. A driving theme through many of his works was the theme of esoteric knowledge, hidden, dark truths that only the few and the audacious can uncover. And so his fictional world is a perfect setting for the imagination of a tarot deck.
The Book of Azathoth Tarot is the work of an incredible artist who goes by the name Nemo. You can order your copy of the Third Edition here.
Click on image for direct link to unlisted YouTube video.
A Free Online Course Presentation
Is there any value to making a distinction between fortune telling and divination? How might Chinese perspectives compare to or inform Western perspectives? This free video (or audio) lecture will examine the etymological origins of the words for “fortune telling” and “divination” in the Chinese language, apply medieval esoteric Taoist texts to tarot reading, and propose a theoretical framework through which to read tarot, as either a fortune teller or a diviner, though the two are not mutually exclusive. We will then run a comparative analysis of that with Western perspectives and examine Western esoteric texts on the subject.
The video lecture is about 34 minutes in length. Click on the below to begin watching. Although it is in video form, you can also listen to it as an audio.
2025 June 15: Please note that the following course content was produced nearly a decade ago and may reflect the production standards and media quality that were even low for that time, so may foreseeably prove to be challenging for the present day user. We appreciate your understanding and grace as you engage with these materials.
Video Lecture Screenshot
Tarot as a Tool for Craft is a FREE DOWNLOADABLE guided workbook course that teaches practitioners how to elevate tarot from a system of divination into a powerful tool for spellcraft, ritual, and magical workings. Rooted in Western esotericism and enriched by practical hands-on exercises, the course blends tarot theory, ceremonial ritual, sigil work, talismanic crafting, and energy channeling to help the student activate the cards as magical instruments. Through progressive lessons and experiential assignments, learners will explore how to work with tarot archetypes, construct effective magical workings, and cultivate a deeply personal practice integrating both high and low magic traditions.
An expansion on the talk I presented in 2016 at the Theosophical Society of the East Bay, this course covers how a practitioner of craft might use tarot, from triggering intuitive creativity for self-empowerment, divination, and amplifying psychic ability to communion with celestial contacts, mediumship, and summonings. This is an intermediate course that presumes proficiency with tarot. Subject matter also runs into esoteric and mystical applications of the tarot, so the tone of the course might not be right for everyone.
Workbook Page Spread Preview
Course Objectives
After completing this workbook course, you will:
Understand how to transform tarot cards from passive symbols into active magical tools.
Learn how to design and execute ritual spells using the tarot as both focus and channel.
Practice creating and charging talismans using tarot correspondences, sigils, and planetary hours.
Develop a personalized system of magical correspondences rooted in tarot structure.
Cultivate the mindset and discipline of a ceremonial magician working through a tarot framework.
Strengthen intuitive and psychic faculties through ritualized work with tarot archetypes and energies
Click image file to download the Workbook pdf
What my 2015 book Holistic Tarot taught was the first of the five pillars that are discussed in this course. This course deconstructs the form and mechanics of using tarot for:
Intuitive Creativity to achieve self-empowerment;
Divination to connect to what Paul Foster Case called the Cause of Causes—the Universal Intelligent Life Energy;
Psychic Readings both to amplify your innate psychic ability and to use tarot as a training tool for strengthening your psychic ability;
Celestial Contacts to connect with deities, angels, ascended masters, devas, or the metaphysical force affecting physical conditions; and
Netherworld Contacts and using tarot for mediumship, ancestral connections, or connecting to entities of nether-worlds and other-worlds.
Workbook Page Spread Preview
A workbook with exercises to help you learn and master the mechanics of such tarot operations will also be provided to supplement the video lecture.
Video Lecture Screenshot
Also, this is not a video lecture that you watch just one time. I propose that the video lecture and the workbook should be revisited routinely. Print out the workbook multiple times and routinely work through the exercises prompted in the workbook to help you advance and further develop the skills taught in the video lecture.
As it tends to be when you’re working with me, the workbook is the most important part of this course. The 49-page workbook is intended for use and re-use. Print it out many times throughout your development to work through the training exercises.
As it tends to be when you’re working with me, the workbook is the most important part of this course. The 49-page workbook is intended for use and re-use. Print it out many times throughout your development to work through the training exercises.
Workbook Page Spread Preview
The training exercises begin basic and analytical, compelling you to work with numerology, astrology, Kabbalistic references, and other forms of symbolism and system correspondences to broaden your working and experiential knowledge of the tarot.
Then the course deep-dives into training exercises for mediumship, using tarot for celestial contacts, using tarot in shamanic journeying, using tarot as talismans, and so much more. I hope you will be as thrilled and enthusiastic about this workbook as I felt when I went through the exercises for myself.
Workbook Page Spread Preview
I hope this workbook will be a game changer for you in terms of your relationship with tarot as your divinatory tool, especially if you’re looking to hone your psychic abilities, intuition, and experience various forms of mystical training. As I tend to do, I fuse together eastern and western esoteric principles.
Although this course presumes intermediate proficiency with the tarot prior to commencing, it is a beginner-level introduction to using the cards as living, breathing instruments of ritual magic and mysticism.
Your Course Instructor
Hi! I’m Benebell Wen, the author of Holistic Tarot (North Atlantic Books, 2015) and The Tao of Craft: Fu Sigils and Casting Talismans in the Eastern Esoteric Traditions (NAB, 2016). My background is in both law and classical studies, and so I strive to bring a synthesis of analytics-based scholarship, a practical teaching style, and yet also a deep initiatic understanding of occult systems.
WESTERN WITCHCRAFT I: This course is a 13-module immersive study of the first 12 chapters in Eliphas Levi’s Doctrine, Part I, of the greater collected work Transcendental Magic. There are 18 video lectures with a total run time of 9 hours along with a 363-page textbook/workbook. In addition, you’ll be getting a set of guided focused meditation for the magus videos. My recommendation is to work through the materials over a 13-week period. Both theory and practicum are covered. This course is structured after a one semester 400-level university elective.
This class is structured after a graduate-level course with a series of lectures plus guided tarot readings ritualized and crafted to show rather than tell you about tarot in witchcraft.
The lecture portion covers a comparative analysis of exoteric, psychology-based tarot reading vs. an esoteric, psychic-based tarot reading, and also tarot as a witch’s tool. We’ll cover the history and legacy of tarot in Western occultism, focusing in on applying Hermetic principles to the tarot. Then we’ll consider the role of tarot and witchcraft in the modern era.
Note: “Tarot, Occultism, and Modern Witchcraft” was first offered during Tarot Summer School 2018 at the Tarot Readers Academy.
The Awakened Soul oracle cards by tarotist Ethony and artist Danielle Mulligan are a treat to behold. It is the divination deck for the modern witch. It is evident to me that these deck creators have called upon the spirit and consciousness of 21st century Gaia and channeled Her messages to us. So much of Ethony’s energy and blessings have been infused into this deck that it’s quite the honor to work with these cards.
Let’s start superficial, of course, with the box. Oh gawd I love the box. I love the matte finish, the sturdiness, the interior bee design, an incredible symbol for how Mother Earth nourishes life by calling upon the services of Her children and a call to each one of us to channel the spirit of the bee in our own endeavors and in how we nourish our society.
Not only have I been using the oracle deck for daily ritual and rumination, but many of the clients I read for have, too. It was quite surprising to me the number of clients I work with who also had this deck, so it was great that they could follow along with their deck when I provided oracle readings with the Awakened Soul.
That’s right. I’ve done professional readings with the Awakened Soul oracle deck. I broke my own rule. As some of you may know, generally I do kind of get elitist and poo-poo use of oracle decks in professional reading sessions. I stick with tarot and as a client, would prefer to go to readers who stick to tarot. Lenormand decks are okay too, but I had avoided the oracle-oracle decks. Yet something about Ethony’s deck called to me, and I really, really wanted to share its energy and power with those I was working with.
Click on the above image to visit the product description page.
$25
The Metaphysician’s Day Planner
I juggle a full-time day job in corporate law with writing and publishing books, doing interviews and talks for the book tours, part-time professional tarot reader and astrologer, blogger, avid home cook, and pro bono legal work on the side, all while being a metaphysician and keeping myself buried in metaphysical studies, so I do get asked a lot about how I organize my day. How do I make sure I am on top of my schedule of court appearances, hearings, and conferences for work, my client reading list for tarot and astrology, food prep for the week and menu planning, domestic chores, personal health and fitness, and everything in between?
With a day planner, of course. There is a set way I organize and format my personal day planner to cover everything I do. And now I’d like to share it with you. I’ve put together a 2017 day planner and organizer for the metaphysician.
It’s part day planner–annual, quarterly, monthly, and daily. And it’s part grimoire.Carrying around metaphysical correspondences and quick reference sheets helps immensely with memory retention. It’s my approach to broadening and deepening my esoteric knowledge.
Out on the market right now you’ll see a ton of beautiful, vibrant, inspiring, mind-body-spirit-based day planners and calendars rolling out for sale now.
Mine is none of that.
So if you’re looking for something with lots of pastel colors, inspirational quotes, affirmations, and space for you to jot down your secret desires, then this is not it.
Rather, this is a glimpse into how I organize my life and how I balance professional and personal accomplishment with esoteric studies. I don’t spend three hours filling in blank workbook prompts on what I love about myself. I don’t need “go get ’em, tiger” quotes in sans serif font printed in glittery hues across my planner cover. Instead, my planner is about optimizing the hours of my day and getting stuff done. I need a day organizer that helps me get stuff done. I don’t want color, because color ink is expensive. I want substance and I want economy.
That’s what my day planner is all about. And I’d like to show it to you. I made one up for my sister Cindy, so you’re going to see screenshots of hers for illustration.
The Amor Oscuro Lenormand by Modern Witchy Woman Diana Chin is an independently published deck that is a glimpse inside an artist’s sketchbook, sketches that narrate what Chin describes as “the story of an interracial couple through 36 symbolic messages.” The Amor Oscuro pays homage to diversity in divination through the lens of a multiracial woman.
You can order your copy of the Amor Oscuro just in time for the holidays, here, via GameCrafter. I’ve been getting back into Lenormand as of late and have loved doing so with Chin’s Amor Oscuro. If you’re a Lenormand deck collector, then you’re going to want to get this one.
I often get asked how I would teach tarot to a beginner, what Lesson 1 would be, and also how to learn tarot if you are a beginner with no past exposure to tarot.
Recently I had an encounter where I gave my version of Lesson 1 of beginner tarot and I’ve been granted permission to share a transcript of it. Of course, this is paraphrased, but my memory for details is pretty good. I dare say this is a pretty accurate representation of the conversation and discourse that took place. I taught by the Socratic Method, though I wonder if she realized that.
The cards drawn and as identified are the actual cards from the Lesson 1 reading experience. For those who are more familiar with tarot techniques, basically what I did was first have her select her significator card, perform the Opening of the Four Worlds from the First Operation of the Opening of the Key, and then from the card pile she found her significator, draw three cards at random and perform a three-card past, present, and future reading.
If you’re at all curious how I might teach Lesson 1 of Beginner Tarot, here it is, as a downloadable PDF.
Lately my go-to reading deck has been the Golden Thread Tarot by Tina Gong, published by the Labryinthos Academy. Although as of this writing the deck has been sold out (giving you a sense of how in demand it has been!), if I were you, I’d write to the deck creator directly and see if you can get on a pre-order list for the second print run.
In Taoist cosmology, the Huang Tao (黃道), or Golden Path (has also been translated as Yellow Path), designates the path of the sun, representing the solar calendar. For harmony and prosperity, one should time significant life events (such as weddings, business grand openings, funerals, etc.) to the Golden Path. The Golden Path also represents the space-time continuum. Whether Gong was cognizant of it or not, the Golden Thread Tarot pays homage to the Golden Path, which is particularly poignant, given that the tarot deck as Gong has created it is purposed for divination and insight into one’s Golden Path. As modern and fresh as the Golden Thread Tarot is, it connects to a very ancient, very traditional cosmological and metaphysical principle.
Gong began the deck as an illustration project, though it evolved into both the physical deck you see pictured here and a companion mobile app. You can learn more about the app here on her website. I often say that I use tarot like a lantern, holding it up to shine through the darkness and gain you greater visibility for what is around you, so you have a clearer sense of your own path. The Golden Thread Tarot turns out to be a perfect manifestation of that concept. The opaque black background the images are set against represent the proverbial darkness and the gold line drawings illustrating the key symbols of the Rider-Waite-Smith inspired tarot imagery represent that light shining through our darkness, giving us Sight.
I also love how Gong describes the concept as inspired by the night sky and “the archetype of a single string that connected all things within the universe, threading images in a murky unknown.” Each card feels like a Jungian archetype from the collective unconscious.
I’ve put together a self-guided workbook that takes you through one session of shadow working with a tarot or oracle deck. I used an oracle deck I created for myself, which I share for free here (scroll down). Go there and you can download all digital files for it to print out and produce your own copy of the deck.
The amazing and illustrious Tori Hartman, author of the Chakra Wisdom Oracle Cards has organized an incredible event–an online cartomancy summit. For access, you’ll need to register. Click on the banner above and register to partake in the summit. Registration is free right now! How cool is that! And just check out the lineup of speakers.
No matter where you are in your card reading journey, there is always more to learn about this art that none of us can ever truly perfect. So Tori Hartman has put together a free virtual intuitive festival. By registering, you’ll get the benefit of rarely-heard insights in conversations with well-known groundbreakers and up-and-coming experts.
Card Reading Magic is an online event that features 18 speakers. It will take place between September 14 and 18. For more details, you’ll have to sign up.
During this virtual intuitive festival, you’ll discover:
– How to gain more specific, in depth information from your readings
– The five essentials of card reading
– How you can use your intuition more effectively and naturally
– Mistakes that keep you from accurate readings
– How you can shift into the zone of being a card reader quickly and easily
– Simple techniques to move away from the guidebook
– How to put the story together for your clients by linking cards
– The insider secrets of self-publishing decks from experts who have done it
September 14 through 18, 2016.
Mark it in your calendar, folks.
A Free Gift?
Oh yes. By the way, every speaker will be giving away a free gift. Let me just tell you, I couldn’t quite figure out the instructions for what I was supposed to do exactly in terms of the logistics for giving away said gift. I know it’s related to getting you to register for the event through my link. So this is going to be my best guess for what I was supposed to do about the affiliate link, free gift, and such. So first, here’s my link:
Click on my referral link to register and, well, register. Free gift or not, it’s going to be an awesome summit, so register regardless.
Then e-mail me at benebellwen@gmail.com to let me know you’ve registered. Then I’ll email you the free gift!
What’s the free gift? It’s a 30-page[edit: added new sections, so now it’s] 35-page workbook, “Independent Shadow Work Cartomancy Session.” You’ll get it as either a DOCX or PDF file. In your email to me, let me know your preference.
09/01/16 Update: Okay, sorry but the “email me and I’ll send as attachment” routine was a bad idea. This post went up, I went to bed, I woke up, checked email, and it was bombarded with boldfaced emails for as far as the finger could scroll. Eeps. So we’re not doing that anymore. Instead, the honor system. Please register using my affiliate link and as my thank you gift to you, download the “Independent Shadow Work Cartomancy Session” workbook below. Choose between PDF or DOCX, or heck, download both if you really want.
So register, mark September 14 through 18 in your calendar, and email me to[edit: see above links for direct download] get your free “Independent Shadow Work Cartomancy Session” workbook. It’s a 30-page 35-page, 1-2 hour guided tarot or oracle card reading and shadow work session you do for yourself, the results of which, I have to imagine, are going to be provocative.
benebell wen 